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  • SIR: Glaring oddities in Maharashtra’s deletion patterns

    Why in the News

    The draft roll published on 31 August under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has dropped 2.07 crore electors from Maharashtra’s 288 Assembly Constituencies (ACs), which is 21.14 per cent of the 9.79 crore electors carried on the rolls before the revision. That single State figure is larger than the entire electorate of Chhattisgarh, and larger than the 2.04 crore deletions recorded during the same revision in Uttar Pradesh, a State with 13.4 crore electors. The Election Commission of India (EC) has not released the Elector to Population (EP) ratio for any State during the revision, though its own Manual on Electoral Rolls requires that disclosure during and after every revision. The contest is therefore not over whether a roll needed cleaning but over whether a deletion of one in five electors, justified largely by two blanket reasons, can be checked at all while the one ratio designed to check it is withheld.

    What is the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls?

    1. Rebuilding the roll by fresh enumeration: An intensive revision rebuilds the electoral roll through a fresh house to house enumeration rather than adding and removing names against the existing roll, so every elector has to be re accounted for.
    2. The enumeration phase and the draft roll: The enumeration phase collects forms from electors, and the draft roll published at the end of it shows who survived enumeration and who was deleted, with a reason recorded against each deletion.

    What is the Elector to Population ratio?

    1. What the ratio measures: The Elector to Population ratio expresses enrolled electors as a share of the population old enough to vote in the same area, so it converts a raw roll count into a figure that can be compared across constituencies of different sizes.
    2. The benchmark it is read against: Official projections for the 18 plus age group give an expected number of electors for an area, which supplies a comparison derived independently of the roll being tested.
    3. What a low ratio signals: A roll sitting far below the ratio implied by those projections is evidence of under enrolment rather than of a cleaner roll, since removing duplicate and deceased entries does not pull the total below the eligible population.
    4. The disclosure obligation attached to it: The Election Commission’s Manual on Electoral Rolls requires the ratio to be disclosed during and after every revision, which makes it the audit built into the revision rather than an external check on it.

    How large is the deletion, measured against the roll itself?

    1. Names deleted and names retained: 2,06,88,487 names were deleted from a pre revision roll of 9,78,54,049, leaving 7,71,65,562 electors in the draft roll.
    2. Comparison with Uttar Pradesh: The deletion exceeds Uttar Pradesh’s, and the draft rolls of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Delhi combined hold fewer electors than Uttar Pradesh alone.
    3. The gap against projected population: Set against a projected voter population of 9,65,00,000, the draft roll is short by 1,93,34,438 electors, about 20 per cent.
    4. The Technical Group on Population Projections: That population estimate is the 18 plus age group projection from the Government of India’s Technical Group on Population Projections, not an independent construction.
    5. Deletion size against shortfall size: The shortfall against projected population is roughly the same size as the deletion, so the revision has removed almost exactly the number of electors that a demographic estimate says the roll should have retained.

    Where are the deletions concentrated?

    1. Urban concentration of the deletions: About 75 per cent of all deletions occurred in the 147 constituencies classified as highly or moderately urban.
    2. The clustering by district: Almost all of the heaviest deleting constituencies lie in and around Mumbai, Pune, Thane and Nashik.
    3. Constituencies at the extremes: 58 ACs lost at least a third of their names and 25 ACs lost 40 per cent or more, with Bhiwandi East in Thane the highest at 49.1 per cent.
    4. Night time light classification of constituencies: Constituencies were sorted into urban and rural using night time light intensity from the Socio economic High resolution Rural Urban Geographic Platform for India (SHRUG), a public geographic database maintained by the Development Data Lab, read off 2023 satellite data.
    5. Akole, the lowest deleting constituency: Akole in Ahmednagar recorded the lowest share of deletions against its pre revision roll.

    What do the recorded reasons for deletion show?

    1. Permanently Shifted and Untraceable or Absent: Permanently Shifted and Untraceable or Absent were applied as blanket categories across large numbers of names.
    2. Kalyan Rural in Thane: Kalyan Rural in Thane lost 2,52,247 names, 46 per cent of its roll, of which 2.39 lakh, or 96.5 per cent, were marked shifted or absent, against only 4,882 marked Deceased.
    3. The 85 constituency cluster: In 85 ACs shifted and absent accounted for between 75 per cent and 96.5 per cent of all deletions. Those 85 constituencies held 3.21 crore electors before the revision and lost 1.17 crore, of which 97.9 lakh were marked shifted or absent.
    4. The Manual’s bar on deleting an absentee: The EC’s own manual states that an absentee voter cannot be deleted, because that elector continues to be an ordinary resident of the place where enrolled.
    5. The Chief Electoral Officer’s definition of Absent: An explanatory note issued by the Chief Electoral Officer of Maharashtra defines Absent as meaning that the elector was unavailable, which is a condition of the enumerator’s visit rather than a finding about residence.

    Why does the variation between similar constituencies matter?

    1. Pune’s 21 constituencies: In Pune’s 21 ACs, the share of deletions marked Absent ranged from 0.4 per cent to 88.3 per cent.
    2. Nashik, Palghar, Aurangabad and Nagpur: Nashik’s 15 ACs ranged from 8.1 per cent to 86.5 per cent, Palghar’s six from 3.3 per cent to 85.5 per cent, Aurangabad’s nine from 7.3 per cent to 67.3 per cent and Nagpur’s 12 from 4.4 per cent to 59.7 per cent.
    3. Maval and Hadapsar: Maval marked just 322 names, 0.4 per cent, as Absent while marking over 77,000 as shifted, and Hadapsar marked 86 per cent of its 2.98 lakh deleted voters as absent.
    4. The Deceased and Duplicate shares: Across a sample of constituencies the share of deletions recorded as Deceased runs from 1.9 per cent to nearly 45 per cent, and the share recorded as Duplicate from 1.3 per cent to about 25 per cent.
    5. Enumerator practice as the source of the spread: Constituencies of similar urban or rural character, inside one district, were processed under reasons applied arbitrarily and interchangeably, which points to the enumerator’s practice rather than to any underlying difference in the electors.

    Challenges to the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls

    1. Deletion is the default outcome of a re enumeration: Rebuilding a roll from scratch places the burden of proof on the elector, so anyone missed at the door is removed rather than retained. Eg. In 85 Maharashtra constituencies, shifted and absent together accounted for up to 96.5 per cent of all deletions.
      The Fix: Require a second visit and a recorded notice to the elector’s address before any name is deleted for absence, so a missed visit cannot by itself end an enrolment.
    2. The categories used are not verifiable after the fact: Shifted and Untraceable record what the enumerator could not find, not a fact about the elector, so a wrongly recorded deletion leaves no trace to audit. Eg. The Chief Electoral Officer’s own note defines Absent as the elector being unavailable.
      The Fix: Publish the booth level list of deletions with the reason and the date of the enumerator’s visit, so a deletion can be contested against a record rather than against a category.
    3. Withholding the mandated ratio removes the only aggregate check: The Elector to Population ratio is what tells a reader whether a revision corrected the roll or thinned it, and no substitute measure exists. Eg. The estimated ratio for Maharashtra shows the draft roll short by 1.92 crore electors.
      The Fix: Release the ratio constituency by constituency at draft publication, as the Manual on Electoral Rolls already requires, rather than after the claims and objections period closes.
    4. Urban electors are structurally easier to delete: Rented accommodation, migrant work and multi storey buildings make an occupant harder to locate on a single visit than a settled rural household. Eg. About 75 per cent of Maharashtra’s deletions fell in the 147 highly or moderately urban constituencies.
      The Fix: Allow urban electors to complete enumeration through a self service digital submission verified against an existing identity record, so presence at the door is not the only route to staying on the roll.
    5. The claims and objections window assumes the deleted elector knows: A person removed from the roll usually discovers it at the polling station, by which time the remedy has expired. Eg. Deletions in Maharashtra ran to 2.07 crore names, which no individual notice system currently covers.
      The Fix: Send a mandatory individual intimation by post and message to every deleted elector at the address on record, with the reason and the deadline for restoration stated.
    6. Roll revision decides delimitation and reservation downstream: Electoral rolls feed constituency sizes, reserved seat calculations and future revision baselines, so an error does not stay inside one election. Eg. The Maharashtra draft roll now sits 20 per cent below the projected 18 plus population used by official population projections.
      The Fix: Freeze the revised roll as a baseline only after an independent statistical audit against the Technical Group’s population projections has been published.

    Conclusion

    The revision has produced a roll that is smaller than the population estimate by almost exactly the number of names it removed, and the reasons recorded for those removals swing from near zero to near universal between constituencies that are otherwise alike. What settles the dispute is not another analysis of the draft but a single disclosure the revising authority is already obliged to make. The marker to watch is whether the Elector to Population ratio is published constituency by constituency before the claims and objections period closes, since restoration after the final roll is published is a different and far harder remedy.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2026, GS2, 10 marks] Is the right to vote a fundamental right? Discuss the position of the Election Commission of India while undertaking the revision of electoral rolls. Can it also examine the question of citizenship of voters?”

  • Uniform Civil Code in all 21 NDA states before 2029: Shah

    Why in the News

    The Union Home Minister has stated that the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) will be implemented across all 21 NDA ruled states before the 2029 Lok Sabha elections. The announcement completes a shift the Sangh Parivar first expressed in 2022-23, away from a single national code enacted by Parliament and towards state by state legislation, with Uttarakhand’s code as the template. Gujarat and Assam have already followed with similar laws and Madhya Pradesh’s Bill awaits assent. The tension is that a code whose entire claim is uniformity is being built through separate state statutes that already differ from each other, and all of which exclude Scheduled Tribes.

    What is a Uniform Civil Code?

    1. The scope of a uniform civil code: A UCC is a single set of civil laws on marriage, divorce, maintenance, succession and adoption applying to all citizens, in place of the separate personal laws that currently apply by religious community.
    2. Where the Constitution places it: Article 44, a Directive Principle of State Policy, directs the State to endeavour to secure a uniform civil code for citizens throughout the territory of India. A Directive Principle is not enforceable by any court.
    3. Why a state can enact one: Marriage, divorce, succession and related civil matters fall under Entry 5 of the Concurrent List, so a state legislature is competent to legislate on them.

    What does the state led approach change?

    1. The route has changed, not the objective: The stated resolve is to enforce the UCC in all 21 alliance ruled states before the 2029 Lok Sabha polls, rather than to enact one national statute.
    2. The Sangh Parivar position of 2022-23: The shift from a national push to a state led approach is a position the Sangh Parivar expressed in 2022-23.
    3. The template already exists: Uttarakhand’s code has been in force since last year and is the model the other states have worked from.
    4. Three states have followed: Gujarat, Assam and Madhya Pradesh have brought similar legislation, and Madhya Pradesh’s Bill is awaiting assent.

    What do the four state codes have in common?

    1. Polygamy is prohibited: All four state laws ban polygamy.
    2. Marriage must be registered: All four require registration of marriage.
    3. Divorce and inheritance are standardised: The laws apply common rules for divorce and for inheritance across communities.
    4. Women get equal inheritance rights: All four grant women equal inheritance rights.
    5. Live in relationships must be registered: All four mandate registration of live in relationships.

    Where do the state codes diverge?

    1. Uttarakhand builds in an exit and a protection: Its code allows deregistration of a live in relationship and recognises children born from such a relationship.
    2. Assam attaches a penalty instead: Its code penalises non registration of a live in relationship.
    3. The consequence of divergent state codes: Two codes drawn from the same template already treat the same relationship differently, which is the outcome a national statute was meant to prevent.

    Why are Scheduled Tribes excluded?

    1. The exclusion is common to all four: All four state laws exclude Scheduled Tribes from their application.
    2. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh concerns behind the exclusion: The exclusion was written in response to concerns raised by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
    3. Two states go further: Uttarakhand and Assam add explicit protections for specific tribal customs.

    What else was placed on record as the government’s reform list?

    1. Personal law: The abolition of Triple Talaq is cited as having given equal rights to Muslim women.
    2. Constitutional change: The reading down of Article 370 is cited as having been done without violence.
    3. Criminal law: The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) has been enforced, with a conviction rate of 30 per cent recorded in one year.
    4. Citizenship registration: The government is in discussion with alliance partners and various groups on implementing the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Manipur.
    5. Enforcement drives: A drive to identify and deport illegal immigrants was reiterated, alongside a zero tolerance position on Naxalism and terrorism.

    Challenges to a state led Uniform Civil Code

    1. State by state enactment produces the opposite of uniformity: Each legislature settles its own definitions and penalties, so a citizen’s civil status changes at a state border. Eg. Uttarakhand permits deregistration of a live in relationship while Assam penalises failure to register one.
      The Fix: Enact a central model code under Entry 5 of the Concurrent List that states adopt with limited variation, so Article 254 resolves conflicts instead of leaving them to accumulate.
    2. A code that exempts a category is not uniform: Excluding Scheduled Tribes preserves exactly the community specific personal law regime the code was framed to end. Eg. All four enacted or pending state codes exclude Scheduled Tribes.
      The Fix: Convert the blanket exclusion into an opt in mechanism exercisable by an Autonomous District Council under the Sixth Schedule, so the exemption is a community’s decision rather than a permanent carve out.
    3. Compulsory registration of live in relationships raises a privacy question: Registration converts a private arrangement into a state record with penal consequences for failure to file. Eg. Justice K S Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2017), a nine judge Bench, held informational privacy and decisional autonomy to be part of the right to life under Article 21.
      The Fix: Make registration voluntary and tie the statutory benefits of maintenance and legitimacy of children to it, so the incentive to register replaces the penalty for not registering.
    4. Freedom of religion sits against the directive: Article 25 guarantees the freedom to profess, practise and propagate religion, and every personal law reform is contested on that ground. Eg. The Supreme Court in Shayara Bano v. Union of India (2017) set aside instant triple talaq by a majority, and the decision was argued through the religious practice test rather than through Article 44.
      The Fix: Legislate reform head by head, on succession, on registration, on the grounds of divorce, so each provision is defended on its own constitutional footing rather than as a single omnibus code.
    5. Enforcement capacity is assumed rather than built: Universal marriage and relationship registration requires a functioning registry down to the block level, and civil registration coverage is already uneven. Eg. Registration of marriage was made a general requirement only after Seema v. Ashwani Kumar (2006), and compliance still varies widely across states.
      The Fix: Fund a digital civil registry linked to the existing birth and death registration system before a registration mandate takes effect, so the obligation lands on a system that can receive it.

    Conclusion

    The position now on record converts a manifesto commitment into a dated legislative programme with a stated count of states and a stated deadline. Four codes exist or are pending, and their differences on live in relationships are already visible, so what is being built is a family of codes rather than one. The marker to watch is Madhya Pradesh’s Bill and the assent it awaits, followed by whether the remaining alliance ruled states legislate on the Uttarakhand template or draft their own variations.

    Back2Basics: Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023

    1. Indian Penal Code, 1860: The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 replaced the Indian Penal Code, 1860 as India’s substantive criminal law.
    2. When it took effect: It came into force on 1 July 2024.
    3. The three companion criminal statutes: It was enacted alongside the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, which replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, which replaced the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.
    4. New provisions added: It added community service as a form of punishment for specified minor offences and grouped offences against women and children into a dedicated chapter.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2015, GS2, 12 marks] Discuss the possible factors that inhibit India from enacting for its citizens a uniform civil code as provided for in the Directive Principles of State Policy.”

  • Limits to supply, rising demand: Behind Keralam’s electricity crisis

    Why in the News

    The Keralam State Electricity Board (KSEB) has instituted power cuts lasting between 30 minutes and an hour to manage peak hour demand, including cuts at night. Average daily demand in September 2026 reached about 5,000 MW against 3,794 MW in September 2025, and only 4,200 MW has been met. The shortfall arrives at the hour when the state’s largest renewable asset stops producing, because rooftop solar output ends at dusk and the state has no storage in service. The tension is that a state that leads the country in rooftop solar cannot use any of it against the demand peak that is actually breaking its system.

    How does a State draw power from the Central pool?

    1. What a Central Generating Station is: Central Generating Stations (CGS) are large power generating stations owned centrally rather than by a state utility.
    2. How allocation works: The Union Ministry of Power periodically allocates generation capacity to states from its pool of unallocated quota in those stations.
    3. Who has jurisdiction over electricity: Electricity is a subject on the Concurrent List of the Constitution, so both the Centre and the states have jurisdiction over it.

    How large is the shortfall?

    1. Demand has risen sharply in a year: Average daily demand in September 2026 was about 5,000 MW, against 3,794 MW in September 2025.
    2. Supply has not kept pace: The state has met only 4,200 MW, leaving a daily shortage.
    3. Own generation and the Central pool draw: Keralam produces only 1,650 MW and draws 1,500 MW from the Central pool.
    4. The structural position: The state generates only 25 per cent of its actual requirement from all sources including hydel, solar and wind, against 86 per cent for Andhra Pradesh and 50 per cent for Tamil Nadu.

    Why has hydropower been throttled?

    1. The monsoon failed: The southwest monsoon was weak through the June to September period, with Keralam recording a 26 per cent deficit in seasonal rainfall till 11 September.
    2. The El Nino effect: The El Nino effect, meaning the abnormal warming of surface waters in the equatorial Pacific Ocean that can suppress the Indian monsoon, has been witnessed this year.
    3. Reservoir water storage: Water storage across all KSEB reservoirs stood at only 63.75 per cent of the maximum storage level as of 10 September.
    4. The Board is rationing water, not power alone: KSEB has throttled down hydropower generation deliberately, holding storage against the withdrawal of the monsoon and higher temperatures in the weeks ahead.

    Why does rooftop solar not close the night gap?

    1. The state leads on rooftop capacity: Keralam’s solar production hit 2,508 MW by the end of May, with the vast majority of it rooftop panels.
    2. The scheme behind the build: Under PM Surya Ghar, Keralam has 2.96 lakh installations covering 3,03,531 households.
    3. The output arrives at the wrong hour: Solar power does not help meet the nighttime demand, because the state has no options to store it.
    4. The storage is contracted but not running: KSEB has lined up a slew of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) that are yet to become operational.

    What is a Battery Energy Storage System?

    1. The battery and its grid electronics: A bank of rechargeable cells with power electronics attached to the grid. It charges when generation exceeds demand and discharges when demand exceeds generation, so energy produced in one hour is delivered in another.
    2. Time shifting of solar output: Solar output peaks near midday and ends at dusk, while the demand peak sits in the evening. A battery moves the midday surplus into the evening block, which is the only route by which a daytime resource serves a night peak.
    3. Ramping, not only energy: A battery responds within seconds, so it also covers the sunset ramp, the period when solar falls away faster than thermal or hydro plants can raise their output.
    4. The limits of stored duration: A battery holds a fixed quantity of energy and delivers it for a defined duration, commonly a few hours. It shifts a peak rather than adding generating capacity, and it supplies nothing that was not generated and stored first.

    Why is night demand rising?

    1. The consumer mix loads the evening: Domestic consumers make up 75 per cent of the state’s power connections, so demand rises at night rather than during working hours.
    2. Temperatures are abnormally high: The state disaster management authority has put Keralam on alert for an unusual rise in temperature, with a departure of up to 4 degrees Celsius from normal.
    3. Cooling load runs longer: Rising night temperatures are driving long duration air conditioner usage.
    4. Electric vehicle charging: KSEB has found that nighttime demand is also rising owing to the charging of electric vehicles.

    Challenges to Keralam’s power supply security

    1. Buying from the exchange fails when the scarcity is national: A deficit state can outbid others only when surplus exists somewhere, and this September the shortage is countrywide. Eg. India is witnessing an unusual surge in electricity demand this September, with peak power demand nearing the level recorded during peak summer, driven by a poor monsoon and low coal stock at power plants.
      The Fix: Contract firm capacity ahead of the season under medium term agreements, so the state is not bidding into a national spot market at the moment of scarcity.
    2. The coal fleet has no headroom to absorb the gap: Thermal plants are the swing capacity a deficit state usually leans on, and they are already running close to their limits. Eg. The plant load factor of most imported coal based plants is around 70 per cent or above, leaving no thermal plant that can be asked to raise generation.
      The Fix: Shift a defined share of the evening block onto demand response contracts with large consumers, so the peak is reduced rather than sourced.
    3. Nothing firm replaces solar at the evening ramp: The system loses its entire solar output within an hour of sunset, which is also the hour demand rises, and only fast ramping capacity can bridge that. Eg. Nationally, generation from gas based plants rose 80.3 per cent during 1 to 9 September over the same period last year, with the Centre relying on 4.5 to 5.5 GW of gas based capacity to meet the evening shortfall.
      The Fix: Bring the Board’s contracted battery systems into service against a dated commissioning schedule, since they are the only asset that can move midday solar into the evening block.
    4. Distributed solar weakens the utility that must still serve the peak: A rooftop consumer exports at midday and draws at night, so the utility recovers less revenue while carrying the same obligation to supply at the peak. Eg. Keralam’s rooftop capacity is concentrated in domestic connections, which are the same consumers driving the night peak.
      The Fix: Move rooftop settlement from net metering to net billing with a time of day price, so midday export and evening drawal are valued at what each is actually worth to the system.

    Conclusion

    The immediate crisis will ease when the monsoon withdrawal passes and temperatures fall, and the Board’s rationing is calibrated to hold storage until then. What will not change on its own is the structural position, because a state generating a quarter of its own requirement is buying the rest in a market that tightens in exactly the months it needs power most. The measurable marker is the commissioning of the contracted battery systems, since until they run, every additional megawatt of rooftop solar adds to the state’s daytime surplus and nothing to its evening deficit.

    Back2Basics: PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana

    1. PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana: A central scheme under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy to install rooftop solar systems on residential buildings.
    2. Coverage target: One crore households, with free electricity of up to 300 units a month for the households that install under it.
    3. Household financing route: Central financial assistance is credited directly to the beneficiary’s bank account, alongside access to collateral free low interest loans for the balance cost.
    4. Capacity building component: The scheme carries a capacity building component covering training in installation, operation, maintenance and repair of rooftop systems at the local level.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2025] Consider the following statements about ‘PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana’: I. It targets installation of one crore solar rooftop panels in the residential sector. II. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy aims to impart training on installation, operation, maintenance and repairs of solar rooftop systems at grassroot levels. III. It aims to create more than three lakhs skilled manpower through fresh skilling and up-skilling, under scheme component of capacity building. Which of the statements given above are correct? (a) I and II only (b) I and III only (c) II and III only (d) I, II and III ANSWER: (d)”

  • A blueprint to create productive jobs, a lesson from Tiruppur

    Why in the News

    The Prime Minister’s Independence Day address placed manufacturing power first among the seven Saptadhara streams meant to carry India towards a Viksit Bharat, and tied that effort to harnessing the potential of India’s youth. Research at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) answers the question that follows, which is which manufacturing sector can actually deliver jobs at the scale India needs, and its answer is textiles and apparel. The evidence offered is the Tiruppur knitwear cluster, an organically grown ecosystem that supports over a million livelihoods, set against the PM MITRA parks announced in 2021 to replicate it, of which only one appears operational. The tension is that India has closed its tariff gaps with competitors and still cannot convert that access into exports, because the binding constraint is not market access but the absence of the cluster ecosystem around the factory.

    Why is India’s job problem one of composition and of job quality?

    1. The size of the workforce: India had 61.6 crore employed persons aged more than 15 years in 2025.
    2. Agriculture’s share of employment: Agriculture still accounted for 43 per cent of employment against 12.1 per cent in manufacturing, per PLFS 2025.
    3. The arithmetic of any shift: Even a 1 percentage point shift in employment from agriculture to manufacturing would involve moving a large number of workers.
    4. The stated target has not been met: The governing alliance had promised to create 2 crore jobs every year, and the outcome is nowhere near that.
    5. Youth unemployment: Unemployment among those aged 15 to 29 was 9.9 per cent, rising to 13.6 per cent in urban areas, per PLFS 2025.
    6. Youth outside employment, education and training: 25 per cent of that age group were neither in employment nor in education or training.
    7. The gender gap in participation: Female labour force participation was 40 per cent, against 79.1 per cent for men.
    8. Student agitations over paper leaks: The recent student agitations over paper leaks reflected the underlying position that respectable formal sector jobs remain scarce even after a basic education.
    9. The PLFS usual status measure: The PLFS usual status measure counts people who worked for a long part of the year and also those who undertook economic activity for at least 30 days during the year.
    10. The limit of the employment count: Being counted as employed does not mean holding a regular or formal job.
    11. Regular formal employment with social security: Economic security requires regular formal employment carrying social security benefits such as the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) and Employees’ State Insurance (ESI).

    Why does apparel fit the gap better than the frontier sectors?

    1. Labour absorption in apparel: The apparel sector is labour intensive and employs women in large numbers.
    2. Training time for production roles: Workers can be trained in short periods, about 60 days for specific production roles, which is what allows a cluster to scale its workforce quickly.
    3. Fit with India’s skill distribution: Chip making, artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies serve a highly skilled workforce, while the majority of India’s labour force is at the bottom end of the skill distribution.
    4. The cost of a job is lower: Textiles and apparel offer higher employment intensity at relatively low cost, which is the path China, Bangladesh and Vietnam followed.

    Is the $100 billion export target achievable, and what do the international comparisons show about market access?

    1. The headline target: India has set a target of $100 billion in textiles and apparel exports by 2030, from $36 billion today.
    2. The apparel share of the target: $40 billion of that is for apparel exports specifically, from $15.7 billion today.
    3. Exporters do not accept the date: Interactions with exporters suggest the targets are not grounded in current realities and are more likely to be achieved by 2035, not 2030.
    4. The capacity gap behind the target: Closing it means building capacity of a scale that does not exist, not raising utilisation at existing units.
    5. The tariff gap has already closed: India has recently closed the tariff gaps with competitors such as Bangladesh and Vietnam in major markets including the EU and the UK.
    6. The India Japan agreement of 2011: Under the India Japan agreement of 2011, India’s apparel exports to Japan fell from $229 million in 2013 to $203 million in 2024.
    7. Market access without capacity: Market access alone does not ensure exports, and India needs the scale and capacity to tap free trade agreements before a concession converts into shipments.

    What made Tiruppur work, and what did its environmental crisis show about collective capacity?

    1. Tiruppur’s knitwear exports: Tiruppur’s knitwear exports rose from $3.3 billion in 2020-21 to $5.3 billion in 2024-25, per the Tiruppur Exporters Association in 2026.
    2. Share of India’s knitwear exports: The cluster accounts for about 68 per cent of India’s knitwear exports.
    3. The cluster’s employment base: It supports the livelihoods of more than a million workers, around 70 per cent of them women.
    4. The whole chain sits in one place: Within roughly 20 km, yarn, knitting, dyeing, printing, stitching, finishing, packaging and dispatch are woven into one production ecosystem, with nearly 20,000 units operating across the different stages.
    5. The ecosystem effect of density: Firms specialise, workers specialise, and thousands of jobs are created around a common market, which is the ecosystem effect the argument rests on.
    6. Institutions and common infrastructure built over decades: Entrepreneurs, industry associations and government built the institutions and common infrastructure over decades. The Tiruppur Exporters Association and the South India Hosiery Manufacturers Association built collective capabilities, and infrastructure such as the Netaji Apparel Park supported expansion.
    7. The Madras High Court’s 2011 zero liquid discharge order: The Madras High Court’s 2011 order applied to units failing to meet zero liquid discharge (ZLD) norms, meaning norms requiring that no effluent leave the unit as liquid waste.
    8. The response was collective, not firm by firm: The cluster invested more than Rs 850 crore in common effluent treatment infrastructure.
    9. Collective financing of the effluent plant: A single firm could not have financed that plant, which is the clearest demonstration that the cluster’s value lies in what its firms can do jointly.

    What is a cluster ecosystem?

    1. The cluster ecosystem: A concentration of firms in one trade inside a small geography, together with the suppliers, contractors, traders and service providers each of them draws on. A single factory then operates inside a supply chain it does not have to own.
    2. Why proximity lowers cost: Each stage of production is bought from a neighbouring specialist rather than built in house, so a firm carries only the stage it is good at. The cost and the time of moving material between stages fall close to nil.
    3. The shared labour pool: A workforce trained in that trade accumulates in one place, so a unit can add or shed capacity without training workers from scratch, and a worker can change employer without changing town.
    4. Collective capability: Facilities no single firm could finance become viable once the cost is spread across thousands of units. Eg. Tiruppur’s common effluent treatment infrastructure, built by the cluster after a court order.

    What still constrains Tiruppur?

    1. Dependence on migrant labour: The cluster depends heavily on migrant workers from Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar and elsewhere.
    2. Housing is the retention problem: Worker housing and retention are named as the important challenges in taking the cluster to its next million jobs.
    3. The cluster’s planned upgrade path: The cluster plans to move into man made fibres, technical textiles and high value sustainable manufacturing to expand both exports and employment.

    Why has the national attempt to replicate it stalled?

    1. The seven PM MITRA parks announced in 2021: The government announced seven PM MITRA parks in 2021 as the instrument for creating more such clusters.
    2. Operational status of the parks: Only one park appears operational, at Warangal, and the others are still in the planning stages.
    3. The execution pace against the export target: Such a pace in the execution of even good ideas does not inspire confidence that the $100 billion export target can be reached, and it limits the speed at which jobs can be created.
    4. One cluster cannot carry a national target: Tiruppur alone cannot deliver the target, and India needs many more clusters of the same kind.

    Challenges to the PM MITRA parks model

    1. A greenfield park has to create the ecosystem a cluster inherits: Tiruppur’s advantage is the density of specialised units around a common market, and a new park begins with land and utilities alone. Eg. Nearly 20,000 specialised units in one cluster took decades to assemble.
      The Fix: Anchor each park on an existing textile concentration so tenants arrive with supplier relationships already in place, rather than siting parks to distribute them across states.
    2. Land and clearances drive the timeline more than the incentive does: The scheme’s outlay is committed at announcement while state level land transfer, environmental clearance and utility connection decide the commissioning date. Eg. Roughly 70 per cent of infrastructure project delays in India stem from complex land acquisition processes.
      The Fix: Make the release of central assistance conditional on dated state milestones for land handover and clearances, so delay has a financial consequence.
    3. Common effluent capacity is the binding utility for textiles: Dyeing and processing are the stages that cannot start without treatment capacity, and they are also the stages that create the most jobs per unit of investment. Eg. Tiruppur had to build more than Rs 850 crore of common effluent treatment infrastructure after a court order, long after the cluster had grown.
      The Fix: Commission the zero liquid discharge plant before tenant allotment rather than after, so processing units can begin operating from the first year.
    4. Worker housing is treated as outside the park: A labour intensive park draws migrant workers who need housing at the same moment the units need staff, and housing is rarely part of the industrial park’s own scope. Eg. Worker housing and retention are the named constraints on Tiruppur’s next million jobs.
      The Fix: Include rental worker housing within the park’s own master plan and viability gap funding, treating it as production infrastructure rather than welfare.

    Conclusion

    The evidence assembled here says the binding constraint on labour absorbing manufacturing is executional rather than strategic. India already has a demonstrated model, a closed tariff gap with its competitors and a stated national target, and the one instrument built to convert all three into jobs has produced a single operating park in five years. Whether the remaining six parks reach commissioning, and on what dated schedule, is the marker that will decide whether the $100 billion target slips to the exporters’ 2035 or fails altogether.

    Manufacturing Sector in India

    1. Share of GDP: Manufacturing contributes around 17 per cent of GDP, against a policy target of 25 per cent.
    2. Share of global manufacturing output: India holds about 2.8 per cent of global manufacturing output, compared with China’s roughly 29 per cent.
    3. The size of output: Manufacturing output is projected to reach approximately $1 trillion in FY 2025-26.
    4. What incentives have drawn: The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme had drawn over Rs 1.76 lakh crore across 14 sectors as of March 2025.

    Government Initiatives for Manufacturing

    1. Make in India (2014): Seeks to raise manufacturing’s share of GDP from around 17 per cent toward 25 per cent through ease of doing business reforms.
    2. Atmanirbhar Bharat (2020): Promotes self sufficiency, local industry and reduced import dependence without closing the economy off to the world.
    3. Production Linked Incentive Scheme (2020): Covers 14 sunrise and strategic sectors, including textiles, with outcome linked financial incentives paid on incremental production.
    4. National Manufacturing Mission: A Budget mission targeting a 25 per cent GDP share and 143 million jobs by 2035, unifying policy across clean and sustainable manufacturing.
    5. National Logistics Policy: Aims to cut logistics costs and improve supply chain efficiency, which is a direct input into export competitiveness.
    6. Industrial corridors: Eleven approved corridors bundle infrastructure to support clustered industrial development, with 12 new industrial nodes approved in 2024.

    Back2Basics: PM MITRA Parks

    1. What the name stands for: Pradhan Mantri Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel parks, administered by the Ministry of Textiles.
    2. The design idea: Each park brings spinning, weaving, processing, dyeing, printing and garmenting onto a single site, so a garment can be produced end to end within one location.
    3. The vision it implements: The 5F vision, meaning Farm to Fibre to Factory to Fashion to Foreign, which treats the textile value chain as a single continuum from cotton to export.
    4. How they are built: Each park is developed by a Special Purpose Vehicle owned jointly by the central and the concerned state government, with central support for development capital and for the first units to begin production.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2025, GS3, 15 marks] Discuss the rationale of the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme. What are its achievements? In what way can the functioning and outcomes of the scheme be improved?”

  • MoSPI Secy: Nominal GDP revised down as informal sector data has improved

    Why in the News

    The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has stated that the downward revision of nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) under the new base year series follows a change in how the informal sector is measured, not a correction of an earlier overstatement. The revision runs across every overlapping year of the two series and was driven by the replacement of proxy based estimates with direct annual surveys. The new series moves the base year to 2022-23 from 2011-12 and was released in February. Two separate criticisms have been put to the Ministry, one that the informal economy is still being read off the performance of listed companies, and the other that the price data used for deflation is the wrong kind. The contest is therefore not about the growth rate but about whether the measurement itself can be trusted.

    What changed in the new base year GDP series?

    1. The base moved: The series shifts its base year from 2011-12 to 2022-23, and was released in February.
    2. The estimation method changed with it: The informal sector is now estimated from direct, empirical annual surveys rather than from proxies carried forward from a base year.
    3. The revision is systematic, not a one year correction: Nominal GDP has been revised lower across all overlapping years, meaning 2022-23 to 2024-25 and the subsequent quarters.

    Why did nominal GDP fall in the revised series?

    1. The old series had no regular unorganised sector survey: MoSPI calculated Gross Value Added (GVA), meaning output net of the cost of inputs used up in producing it, for the unorganised sector by multiplying estimated workforce counts by the Value Added per Worker derived from decadal surveys.
    2. Forward projection of the base year figure: The projection used proxies such as formal corporate growth rates, inter survey growth rates and historical tax collections, because no regular data was available.
    3. Survey evidence changed the picture: Annual survey evidence made it possible to capture the distinct growth patterns of the informal sector, which had been running on the formal sector’s growth rate by assumption.
    4. Informal services, the largest single driver: The single largest driver of the revision is the improved measurement of India’s informal services sector.

    How do the new surveys change the measurement?

    1. Two surveys replaced the proxies: The Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE), which enumerates unincorporated non agricultural businesses, and the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), which measures employment and workforce size, now supply the inputs directly.
    2. Survey frequency: ASUSE is now available on a quarterly basis and PLFS on a monthly basis, so quarterly GDP no longer waits on a survey that ran once every five years.
    3. What is now measured directly: Unorganised sector productivity and workforce size are measured rather than inferred from corporate results.

    What is the Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises?

    1. What an unincorporated enterprise is: A business run as a proprietorship or a partnership rather than as a registered company. Its accounts are never filed with a corporate registry, so its output cannot be read off company results and has to be counted directly.
    2. What ASUSE enumerates: Non agricultural businesses in manufacturing, trade and other services. It covers both establishments that hire workers and own account enterprises run by the proprietor without hired labour.
    3. How the units are reached: The survey draws a sample against an area based frame rather than against a registration list, which is what allows it to reach units that appear on no register.
    4. Why the frequency changes the estimate: Its predecessor ran roughly once in five years, so every intervening year was filled in by projection. A survey running annually and now quarterly supplies measured values for the same periods the national accounts are compiled for.

    Where does the contest over the new series lie?

    1. The listed company charge: A former Chief Economic Adviser has argued that the GDP data does not capture the informal economy properly and extrapolates the performance of listed companies. The Ministry’s stated position is that ASUSE is being used for quarterly GDP and proxies are not.
    2. The proxies were always bounded: Even in the earlier series proxies were used only between the quinquennial surveys, carried forward from previous base years, which is how the overhang continued.
    3. Overestimation is rejected as a framing: The Ministry holds that GDP is an estimation built on the best data available at the time, and that calling the old series an overestimate implies a systematic bias that was not there.
    4. The price data objection: A separate criticism concerns the use of producer price data. The Ministry’s answer is that the method of calculation was shifted to producers in the 2011-12 series of the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) itself, and that data for the past 10 years has been collected from industry.
    5. What separates the two indices: The WPI excludes exports and imports and includes taxes and trade margins to some extent, while a Producer Price Index (PPI) does not, and the Ministry states those corrections have since been made.
    6. The growth is not felt on the ground: The Ministry treats this as a larger question shaped by other factors, uncertainties and the global situation, comparable to how an individual’s experience of prices differs from an inflation rate aggregated across the country.

    What is a Producer Price Index?

    1. Prices received at the factory gate: A Producer Price Index tracks the change in prices received by domestic producers for their own output at the factory gate. It reads the price at the point of production rather than the price at any later point in the chain.
    2. Why the deflator has to match the output: Real output is nominal output divided by a price index, so the index must track the prices of the goods and services being deflated. A mismatch between the output being measured and the prices used to deflate it moves the real growth rate without anything happening in the economy.
    3. The services gap: A wholesale price index is built on goods traded in bulk and carries no services. An economy whose output is majority services therefore has no matching price series for its largest component, which is why the deflator is the contested instrument.

    Challenges to a base year revision of the national accounts

    1. A long gap between base years builds in drift: Holding a base year for more than a decade lets the structure of the economy move away from the weights the series is built on. Eg. The 2011-12 base was carried forward for over a decade on proxies before the present revision replaced it.
      The Fix: Fix a statutory base year revision cycle with a published date, so the revision is a scheduled operation rather than an event that invites suspicion.
    2. A revision breaks the comparable series users rely on: Analysts, ratings and fiscal ratios are all computed on a level that has now moved, and back series construction is where most disputes about Indian GDP have historically landed. Eg. The dispute over the back series of the 2011-12 base ran for years after that series was introduced.
      The Fix: Release a fully documented back series alongside the new base, with the method for each sector stated, rather than issuing the levels first and the method later.
    3. Deflation remains the weakest link: Converting nominal values to real ones requires price indices that match the output being deflated, and India has no full producer price index for services. Eg. Services form the largest share of output and are deflated using indices built for goods.
      The Fix: Complete and publish a services producer price index so that the largest part of output is deflated on prices collected from services producers.
    4. Survey coverage of the informal sector is thin at the edges: An enterprise survey reaches businesses with a recognisable place of operation more easily than it reaches itinerant and home based work. Eg. Home based and own account work is concentrated among women, which is also where labour force measurement is weakest.
      The Fix: Link the enterprise survey to the labour force survey at the household level, so an activity missed as an enterprise is still captured through the worker reporting it.

    Conclusion

    The disagreement now on record is about method rather than about the growth rate, and the Ministry has taken the position that the new series is the best available and that no obvious correction has been put to it for the next one. That claim is testable, since a statistical system is judged on whether its next revision moves the numbers again in the same direction. The marker to watch is the deflator, because the informal sector question has now been answered with direct surveys while the price side has not been given an equivalent instrument.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2021, GS3, 10 marks] Explain the difference between computing methodology of India’s Gross Domestic Product(GDP) before the year 2015 and after the year 2015.”

  • India gets 1.64 mt EU steel quota, imports of EU cars may rise 6-fold

    Why in the News

    The draft text of the India European Union (EU) Free Trade Agreement (FTA) gives India a country specific steel export quota of 1.64 million tonnes (mt) across 16 categories, including specialised items such as metallic coated sheets and stainless hot rolled quarto plates. The quota answers the tightening of EU steel entry through the Steel Overcapacity Regulation, which came into force on 1 July this year, and through the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), a levy that prices the carbon embedded in an imported good so that it carries the same carbon cost as an EU produced one. In exchange the EU has won a first year quota of 1,00,000 completely built up cars, close to six times what it currently ships to India. Only a part of India’s steel quota is actually reserved for India, while the automotive concession is the first of its kind India has given to a major economy after the United Kingdom.

    What is a Tariff Rate Quota?

    1. The instrument: A Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) limits the quantity of a particular item that is eligible for a lower duty, so volume inside the quota enters cheap and volume beyond it pays the full tariff.
    2. Two components in India’s steel quota: The FTA component of 0.69 mt is reserved for India. The most favoured nation component of 0.95 mt is open to all partner countries.
    3. The assured component against the open component: Only the FTA component is assured, and India’s products must compete with other exporting countries for the remaining categories.

    How much steel market access has India actually secured?

    1. Breadth of the quota: The 1.64 mt covers 16 categories of steel, including specialised products such as metallic coated sheets and stainless hot rolled quarto plates.
    2. Value added lines are inside it: India has received quotas on several value added categories, which are the lines that carry a higher realisation per tonne.
    3. The assured share is small: The reserved FTA component is under half the headline quota, so the larger part of India’s access depends on outcompeting other suppliers for the same tonnage.
    4. The framing regulation: The TRQs follow the EU’s Steel Overcapacity Regulation, whose stated aim is to protect the EU steel industry against the effects of global overcapacity.

    What does the EU gain in India’s car market?

    1. A first year quota six times current trade: The EU has won a first year TRQ of 1,00,000 completely built up internal combustion and non plug in hybrid cars, against the 17,191 cars India imported from the EU in 2025.
    2. The ten year volume ramp: The quota rises to 1,60,000 cars by the 10th year of the agreement.
    3. A price floor protects the mass market: The concession applies only to cars priced above €15,000, and India has given no concession at all to cars below that price to protect Indian car manufacturers.
    4. The duty schedule for the mid segment: For cars priced between €15,000 and €35,000, the in quota duty falls from 110% to 35% in the first year and to 10% by the fifth year of the deal coming into effect.
    5. The duty schedule for the luxury segment: For cars priced above €35,000, tariffs decline from 66% to 30% in the first year and to 10% over the same period.
    6. A reserved luxury band: The quota is divided across three price bands, with 43,000 units reserved for cars priced above €50,000 from Year 5 onward.

    What does the separate electric vehicle schedule protect?

    1. Concessions begin later: Concessions on battery electric vehicles, plug in hybrids and cars using other technologies begin only in the fifth year of the agreement.
    2. A higher price floor applies: They apply only to vehicles priced at €20,000 or more, and electric and other eligible cars below that price get no concession.
    3. The volume ramp is slow: The completely built unit quota starts at 20,000 cars in the fifth year, rises to 50,000 in the tenth year and reaches 90,000 from the fourteenth year onwards.

    What must India do to use the steel quota?

    1. Move up the product ladder: Shifting toward higher value added steel products reduces the applicable CBAM tax burden and improves India’s competitive position in the EU market, per an Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) note.
    2. Pair the shift with industrial policy: The ICRIER note holds that this structural transition must be supported by industrial policies that integrate Production Linked Incentives with dedicated research and development funding.
    3. Carry the smallest firms through compliance: Targeted financial and technical assistance, including concessional financing, access to clean technology and investment guarantees, is treated as essential to ease the disproportionate compliance burden on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

    What is the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism?

    1. The charge on embedded carbon: An importer of a covered good declares the greenhouse gas emissions released in producing it and surrenders certificates priced against the European Union’s own carbon market. The imported tonne therefore carries the same carbon cost as a tonne produced inside the EU.
    2. Covered goods: CBAM applies to emissions intensive goods traded in bulk, including iron and steel, aluminium, cement, fertilisers, electricity and hydrogen, which are the sectors where production is most easily relocated to a jurisdiction with no carbon price.
    3. Default values where data is absent: An exporter that cannot supply verified plant level emissions data is charged on a default value rather than on its actual emissions. Eg. A low emission Indian plant that does not document its emissions is charged as though it used the high emission route.
    4. Phasing: A transitional stage requires importers only to report embedded emissions, and the financial obligation attaches at the definitive stage, so the reporting burden arrives before the cost does.

    Challenges to the India EU Free Trade Agreement steel and auto package

    1. The quota covers well under half of existing trade: Most of what India already ships to the EU falls outside the country specific quota and meets the full tariff. Eg. India’s steel exports to the EU currently stand at 4 mt.
      The Fix: Concentrate the residual volume in categories where the per tonne realisation absorbs the out of quota duty, rather than treating the quota as the whole of the market.
    2. The out of quota wall is punitive: The Steel Overcapacity Regulation sets free of duty quotas at 18.3 mt overall with a 50% duty on out of quota imports, so exceeding the quota is close to a trade stop. Eg. The same regulation introduced a melt and pour regime that traces where steel was first cast, which narrows the scope for rerouting through third countries.
      The Fix: Seek an annual review clause that indexes the country specific quota to India’s realised shipments rather than fixing it at the level negotiated once.
    3. The carbon charge sits outside the quota: A tonne of steel that enters inside the quota still carries its CBAM liability, so tariff relief and carbon cost are two separate gates. Eg. CBAM prices embedded emissions per tonne, which penalises India’s coal based blast furnace and induction furnace routes regardless of quota access.
      The Fix: Build verified plant level emissions accounting into Indian steel exports so that lower carbon Indian output is recognised at the EU border instead of being charged on a default value.
    4. The automotive concession sets a precedent for other partners: The EU becomes the second major trade partner after the United Kingdom to secure automotive tariff concessions from India under an FTA. Eg. The Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) holds that these precedents could prompt other key trade partners such as Japan and South Korea to seek similar preferential market access and TRQs.
      The Fix: Fix a common automotive concession template across agreements, so each new negotiation starts from a stated ceiling rather than from the last deal signed.

    Conclusion

    The draft text is published rather than ratified, so the numbers in it are a negotiating position and not yet a schedule in force. What the package does settle is the shape of the bargain: India trades a widening opening of its passenger vehicle market for steel access that is only partly reserved and wholly separate from its carbon liability. The marker to watch is whether the reserved FTA component of the steel quota is enlarged in the final text, and whether India’s shipments move into the value added categories the quota already covers.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2025, GS3, 10 marks] What are the challenges before the Indian economy when the world is moving away from free trade and multilateralism to protectionism and bilateralism? How can these challenges be met?”

  • [12th September 2026] The Hindu OpED: A bigger BRICS, shaped by India’s vision

    [12th September 2026] The Hindu OpED: A bigger BRICS, shaped by India’s vision

    Question (2023, GS2): “‘Virus of Conflict is affecting the functioning of the SCO’. In the light of the above statement point out the role of India in mitigating problems.
    Linkage: This question directly mirrors the central tension of the New Delhi BRICS summit: holding a common line and delivering technical outputs when key member states are at war or experiencing severe conflict. It highlights India’s strategic role as a mediator and consensus-builder in multilateral forums

    Mentor Comment

    India has used its chairship of BRICS to convert the grouping’s agenda into a set of named functional outputs, and the New Delhi summit on 12 and 13 September 2026 is where those outputs are placed before the leaders. The chairship ran around 350 meetings across Indian cities, 22 of them at ministerial level, following the template India used for the G-20 Summit it hosted in New Delhi in 2023. India reframed the acronym around “building resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability”, and the deliverables track that framing: centres of excellence, a logistics framework, an enterprise portal and a set of research repositories. The grouping now carries 11 members and about 10 partner countries, and its collective output measured at purchasing power parity, meaning output adjusted for differences in domestic price levels, exceeds that of the G-7. The tension in the summit lies between the two things it is being asked to do at once, settle a set of technical cooperation outputs, and hold a common line among members several of whom are at war.

    Pillars of BRICS cooperation

    1. Political and security: The first pillar covers the grouping’s positions on conflicts, security cooperation and global governance questions.
    2. Finance and the economy: The second pillar covers trade, payments, development finance and economic cooperation among members.
    3. Culture and people-to-people exchanges: The third pillar covers education, health, skilling and social cooperation between member societies.
    4. Where India’s chairship agenda sits: The agenda India pursued relates more to the second and third pillars than to the first, since the leaders themselves settle the large geopolitical questions.

    Why is the Delhi summit a landmark?

    1. The backdrop: It takes place against geopolitical turbulence produced by a combination of forces, ongoing wars and conflicts, a breakdown in global governance, and the changing nature of global alliances.
    2. The grouping’s weight: BRICS now has 11 prominent members and about 10 partner countries, and its collective economic output in purchasing power parity terms outstrips that of the G-7, making it one of the largest and most important transcontinental groupings outside the West.
    3. The technology contest: Technological forces such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing are being weaponised, with both great powers trying to win the battle for tech supremacy.

    How did India prepare for the chairship?

    1. The template: India followed the approach it had used for the 2023 G-20 Summit in New Delhi.
    2. The scale of the process: Around 350 meetings were conducted in cities across the country, with 22 held at the ministerial level.
    3. The stated focus: India announced that it would focus on “building resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability”, giving a new expansion to the BRICS acronym.
    4. The intent behind the framing: The reframing was used to refocus and recalibrate the BRICS agenda rather than to inherit the previous year’s priorities unchanged.

    What has the chairship delivered on resilience?

    1. A digital centre for grids and storage: The BRICS Digital Centre of Excellence for Smart Grids and Energy Storage was launched under India’s stewardship.
    2. A logistics framework: The BRICS Logistics Supply Chain Cooperation Framework was adopted.
    3. Centres on farming systems: Centres of Excellence on Agro-Ecology and Regenerative Agriculture were established.
    4. What they are expected to do: Once operationalised, these initiatives are intended to provide the ballast that would make member economies genuinely resilient.

    What is on the innovation agenda?

    1. Capital for new firms: A start-up innovation fund and an incubator network were proposed.
    2. A digital public infrastructure repository: Members would pool digital public infrastructure, meaning the shared digital systems for identity, payments and data exchange that public services run on.
    3. A science and research repository: A common repository for scientific and research material was proposed alongside it.
    4. A plan for large research facilities: The action plan of the BRICS Working Group on research infrastructures and mega science projects sits within this pillar.
    5. Why pooling matters here: Members are not all at the same level of development in scientific research, so shared facilities and repositories are worth more to some members than to others.

    What does the cooperation pillar carry?

    1. Trade rules: Leaders are expected to endorse recommendations on revitalising the multilateral trading system.
    2. Health: A network of centres of excellence on mental wellness is to be welcomed by the leaders.
    3. Cities: A BRICS urbanisation forum is to be established.
    4. Women and digital access: Enhancing the digital capacity of women forms part of the recommendations.
    5. Skills and small enterprise: Cooperation is to be intensified in education and youth skilling, and through the BRICS Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Cooperation Portal.

    What does the sustainability agenda add?

    1. It continues the previous chair’s priority: Sustainability was the centrepiece of Brazil’s agenda in the preceding year, and India built on that base rather than replacing it.
    2. Land and forests: Combating desertification, and guidelines for disaster management and forest-fire preparedness, are specific areas of cooperation under this head.
    3. Aviation fuel: A BRICS forum on sustainable aviation fuels forms part of the agenda.
    4. Adaptation rather than mitigation: Advancing climate resilience through people-centric and community-based adaptation is included, which matters because international fora tend to focus almost exclusively on mitigation.

    Can a functional agenda hold when summit level geopolitics pulls the other way?

    1. The two tracks belong to different pillars: The chairship’s outputs sit in the economic and people-to-people pillars, and the large geopolitical questions are settled by the leaders under the first.
    2. The functional track is the more predictable of the two: Substantive outcomes appear assured on the strength of the ministerial and working group meetings already chaired, independent of what the leaders’ session produces.
    3. The caveat on the grouping: BRICS has to avoid being caught in geopolitical currents that are not of its own making and carry no strategic value for its members.
    4. Why it survives the contradiction: The grouping is now too large to be either ignored or allowed to fail, which gives members an interest in a working agenda even where they diverge politically.
    5. What it is ultimately for: The grouping helps members enhance their strategic options and push geopolitics towards a multipolar order, both of which are organising principles of India’s foreign policy.

    Challenges to India’s BRICS chairship agenda

    1. The deliverables are institutions without budgets: A centre of excellence, a framework and a portal each need a host, staff and recurring funding, none of which a one year chairship can commit on the group’s behalf. Eg. The BRICS Vaccine Research and Development Centre, announced in 2020, functions as a virtual network of national institutions rather than a staffed facility.
      The Fix: Attach each new centre to a named host institution with a member funded budget line recorded in the summit declaration.
    2. Repositories hold only what members choose to deposit: A digital public infrastructure repository and a science repository depend on voluntary contribution, and members operate under differing national data and procurement rules. Eg. Members’ identity and payment systems sit under separate data laws, so specifications and code are not equally shareable.
      The Fix: Settle a common licence and a deposit obligation for contributed material before the repositories open.
    3. A declaration carries no review of the last one: Outcomes are recorded as commitments in a communique, and no member reports against them the following year. Eg. The Rio declaration of July 2025 ran to 126 points with no implementation review attached to it.
      The Fix: Require the incoming chair to publish an implementation report against the previous declaration alongside the new one.
    4. The enterprise agenda needs a payments channel that is not yet working: An MSME portal and a start-up fund assume a listed supplier in one member country can be paid from another without routing through third currency correspondent banking. Eg. The grouping’s own cross border payment initiative remains at pilot stage.
      The Fix: Sequence the portal behind a working local currency settlement arrangement for the member pairs that already trade at scale.

    Conclusion

    The chairship’s output is a set of centres, frameworks, repositories and portals, and their value is decided after the summit closes rather than in its declaration. What converts an announced centre into a working institution is a host, a staff and a recurring budget, and none of those is a summit level decision. The grouping’s own design works against this, since priorities reset annually with the rotating chair and nothing obliges the next one to carry a predecessor’s working groups forward. What to watch is whether the declaration names a host institution and a funding source for the new centres, and whether the chair that follows India adopts the research infrastructure action plan rather than substituting its own themes.

    About BRICS

    1. What it started as: The acronym was coined in 2001 by a Goldman Sachs economist to identify a set of high growth emerging economies, and it was an investment category before it was a forum.
    2. How it became a grouping: The first meeting of Foreign Ministers took place on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in 2006, and the first formal Leaders’ Summit was held at Yekaterinburg in Russia in 2009.
    3. How it expanded: South Africa joined in 2011. The 2023 Johannesburg Summit opened membership further, with Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates joining in 2024 and Indonesia in 2025.
    4. The partner tier: A Partner Country category was introduced in 2024 to engage states such as Malaysia, Thailand and Nigeria without conferring full membership.

    Institutions and Initiatives of BRICS

    1. New Development Bank: Headquartered in Shanghai, it lends for infrastructure and sustainable development, and has approved over $35 billion in loans.
    2. Contingent Reserve Arrangement: A $100 billion pool of member foreign exchange reserves providing short term liquidity support to a member under balance of payments pressure.
    3. BRICS Pay: A cross border payment initiative intended to settle trade among members in local currencies rather than through existing dollar based messaging channels.
    4. Remote Sensing Satellite Constellation: Six satellites contributed by member states, sharing earth observation data for disaster management and resource monitoring.

    Key Facts about BRICS

    1. Population weight: The grouping represents over 45 per cent of the world’s population, about 3.6 billion people.
    2. Energy weight: Members account for roughly 42 per cent of global oil production and exports, which is what the inclusion of Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates added to the bloc.

    Challenges in BRICS

    1. Consensus across 11 members with different political systems: A joint declaration needs every member’s assent, so the text settles at the level the most reluctant member accepts. Eg. Declarations avoid language on human rights and democratic norms, since the membership spans elected governments and authoritarian ones.
      The Fix: Adopt a variable geometry, letting a subset of willing members carry an initiative under the BRICS name without requiring unanimity.
    2. One member’s economic weight shapes the agenda: China’s size gives it disproportionate influence over what the grouping prioritises and whom it admits. Eg. It has pushed for the inclusion of states carrying heavy Chinese debt exposure, which would tilt the bloc towards a China centred platform.
      The Fix: Publish membership criteria weighted to economic complementarity and regional balance rather than to any single member’s sponsorship.
    3. Reducing dollar dependence moves slower than the rhetoric: Settlement habits, contract law and reserve holdings all favour the incumbent currency. Eg. The US dollar still settles over 80 per cent of global trade.
      The Fix: Target local currency invoicing on the bilateral pairs that already have settlement arrangements, rather than pursuing a common currency.
    4. There is no permanent secretariat or charter: Each chair runs the calendar from its own foreign ministry, so institutional memory travels out with the chair. Eg. Working group records and unfinished action plans are held by the outgoing chair rather than by the grouping.
      The Fix: Create a small standing secretariat funded by member contributions to hold working group records and track commitments between summits.
    5. Trade within the bloc remains thin: Members trade more with the industrialised economies than with each other, which limits what economic cooperation can deliver. Eg. Most members still rely on G7 markets for high technology imports and for services exports.
      The Fix: Negotiate a tariff preference schedule among members on a limited list of manufactured goods, which is achievable without a full trade agreement.
  • Fueling the Blue Economy: six years of the fisheries flagship scheme

    Fueling the Blue Economy: six years of the fisheries flagship scheme

    Why in News

    The Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) completed six years. PMMSY is the flagship scheme for the fisheries sector.

    Core facts

    1. Budget: A record ₹2,500 crore was allocated in the 2026 to 2027 Budget Estimate. Total outlay since the 2020 to 2021 year is ₹20,750 crore.
    2. Fish production: It rose from 141.64 lakh tonnes to 197.75 lakh tonnes. The base year is 2019 to 2020. The latest figure is for 2024 to 2025.
    3. Exports: Fisheries exports rose from ₹46,663 crore to ₹73,890 crore over the same span.
    4. Employment: The scheme supported employment for 58 lakh persons. It backed 2,195 Fish Farmers Producer Organizations.
    5. Structure: PMMSY runs a Central Sector component and a Centrally Sponsored Scheme component.
    6. Sub scheme: The Pradhan Mantri Matsya Kisan Samridhi Sah Yojana (PM MKSSY) has an estimated ₹6,000 crore outlay for 2023 to 2024 up to 2026 to 2027. It formalises the sector through digital identities.
    7. Digital platform: The National Fisheries Digital Platform (NFDP) launched in September 2024. It recorded over 37.23 lakh registrations as of 8 September 2026.
    8. Coastal villages: 100 coastal villages are identified as Climate Resilient Coastal Fishermen Villages. Each carries a ₹200 lakh unit cost, fully government funded.
    9. Livelihoods: The fisheries sector sustains nearly three crore livelihoods.

    Static Context

    1. PMMSY launched in 2020. The Department of Fisheries under the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying runs it.
    2. Blue Economy is the sustainable use of ocean resources for growth, livelihoods and ocean health. PMMSY aligns with Sustainable Development Goal 14, Life Below Water.
    3. A Recirculatory Aquaculture System (RAS) filters and reuses water. It allows intensive fish farming on minimal land and water.
    4. Biofloc technology recycles nutrients using beneficial microbes with minimal water exchange.

    Prelims angle

    PMMSY launch in 2020 under the Department of Fisheries; PM MKSSY as a Central Sector sub scheme; NFDP launch in 2024; the working principle of Recirculatory Aquaculture System biofilters that convert ammonia to nitrate; PMMSY link to Sustainable Development Goal 14.

    Mains angle

    GS Paper 3, economics of animal rearing and allied sectors. The Blue Economy frame fits a question on fisheries as a driver of coastal livelihoods and sustainable growth.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2023] With reference to the role of biofilters in Recirculating Aquaculture System, consider the following statements:
    1. Biofilters provide waste treatment by removing uneaten fish feed.
    2. Biofilters convert ammonia present in fish waste to nitrate.
    3. Biofilters increase phosphorus as nutrient for fish in water.
    How many of the statements given above are correct?
    (a) Only one
    (b) Only two
    (c) All three
    (d) None

  • BRICS: evolution, cooperation and India’s leadership ahead of the 18th Summit

    BRICS: evolution, cooperation and India’s leadership ahead of the 18th Summit

    Why in News

    India hosts the 18th BRICS Summit on 12 to 13 September 2026 at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi. BRICS is a grouping of major emerging economies.

    Current stage and next milestone

    India chairs BRICS for the fourth time in 2026. The leaders’ sessions run on 12 to 13 September 2026. The chairship has already run over 350 ministerial meetings across 25 cities.

    Core facts

    1. Origin: The acronym BRIC was coined in 2001 by Goldman Sachs. It projected Brazil, Russia, India and China as future major economies.
    2. Formation: South Africa joined in 2010, forming BRICS.
    3. Membership now: The grouping has 11 full members: Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates. A Partner Country framework adds ten more nations.
    4. Weight: Members hold 49.5% of global population, 40% of global Gross Domestic Product and 26% of global trade.
    5. India’s chairships: They occurred in 2012, 2016, 2021 and 2026.
    6. Theme 2026: Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.
    7. Three pillars: Political and security cooperation, economic and financial cooperation, and cultural exchanges.
    8. 2026 agenda: Agriculture, health, urban infrastructure, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, supply chains and climate resilience.

    Static Context

    1. The New Development Bank (NDB) is the BRICS development bank. It was set up at the 6th Summit via the Fortaleza Declaration of 2014. Its headquarters is in Shanghai.
    2. The Contingent Reserve Arrangement is the BRICS currency swap framework for balance of payments support.
    3. The 16th Summit was held at Kazan, Russia, in 2024. The latest expansion admitted Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

    Prelims angle

    NDB headquarters at Shanghai and its Fortaleza Declaration origin; BRICS membership list and the 11 member count; India’s chairship years; the NDB is a BRICS body, not an Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation body.

    Mains angle

    GS Paper 2, global groupings affecting India’s interests. BRICS suits a question on its role as a counterweight in global governance and a platform for the Global South.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2025] Consider the following statements with regard to BRICS:
    I. The 16th BRICS Summit was held under the Chairship of Russia in Kazan.
    II. Indonesia has become a full member of BRICS.
    III. The theme of the 16th BRICS Summit was Strengthening Multiculturalism for Just Global Development and Security.
    Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
    (a) I and II
    (b) II and III
    (c) I and III
    (d) I only
    Answer: (a)”

    “[2026, GS2, 10 marks] “BRICS acts as a powerful counterweight in global governance, actively amplifying the voice and influence of the Global South.” Explain the role of BRICS in projecting itself as an alternative to other groupings.”

  • Seventh Gender Samvaad centres women’s leadership in rural livelihoods

    Why in News

    The Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY NRLM) held the seventh Gender Samvaad on women’s agency in livelihoods.

    Core facts

    1. Theme: The edition focused on moving women from participation to leadership in livelihoods.
    2. Scale: Over 6 lakh stakeholders joined. Participation rose from 1,400 in April 2021 to near 6 lakh by September 2025.
    3. SHG base: The Self Help Group (SHG) movement represents over 100 million women.
    4. Lakhpati Didi: 346 million Lakhpati Didis earn over ₹1,00,000 a year. A Lakhpati Didi is an SHG woman with annual household income at or above ₹1 lakh.
    5. State models cited: Maharashtra’s Women Farmers’ Empowerment Bill recognises women without formal land titles. Odisha’s Bhubaneswar Declaration advances women’s land rights. Andhra Pradesh’s natural farming is led by women’s SHGs.
    6. Institution building: The focus is on strengthening Cluster Level Federations, Producer Groups and Farmer Producer Organisations (FPO). Governance, financial record keeping and credit readiness are flagged for the United Nations International Year of Women Farmers 2026.
    7. Entrepreneurship drive: The National Campaign on Entrepreneurship II runs from 21 August to 21 November 2026. It promotes enterprise development, value chains and market access for SHG women.

    Static Context

    1. DAY NRLM launched in 2011 as Aajeevika. It mobilises rural poor women into SHGs and their federations. The Ministry of Rural Development runs it.
    2. Gender Samvaad launched in April 2021. It is a joint platform of DAY NRLM and the Institute for What Works to Advance Gender Equality (IWWAGE). It shares gender practice across State Rural Livelihoods Missions.
    3. An SHG is a small voluntary savings and credit group, usually of 10 to 20 members. The SHG Bank Linkage Programme connects these groups to formal bank credit.

    Prelims angle

    DAY NRLM launch as Aajeevika in 2011 under the Ministry of Rural Development; Lakhpati Didi income threshold of ₹1 lakh; the SHG Bank Linkage Programme; distinction between Self Help Groups and Farmer Producer Organisations.

    Mains angle

    GS Paper 2, development processes and the role of SHGs. The theme fits a question on SHGs as vehicles of women’s economic empowerment and poverty reduction.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2012] How does the National Rural Livelihood Mission seek to improve livelihood options of rural poor?
    1. By setting up a large number of new manufacturing industries and agri-business centres in rural areas
    2. By strengthening ‘Self-Help Groups’ and providing skill development
    3. By supplying seeds, fertilizers, diesel pumpsets, and micro-irrigation equipment free of cost to farmers
    (a) 1 and 2 only
    (b) 2 only
    (c) 1 and 3 only
    (d) 1, 2 and 3
    Answer: (b)”

    “[2020, GS2, 15 marks] “Micro-Finance as an anti-poverty vaccine, is aimed at asset creation and income security of the rural poor in India”. Evaluate the role of Self Help Groups in achieving the twin objectives along with empowering women in rural India.”