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  • Odisha start-up flight-tests an autonomous in-space pharmaceutical manufacturing payload

    Why in the News

    A Bhubaneswar-based start-up, Serendipity Space, has flight-tested a prototype satellite carrying Alchemy, an autonomous pharmaceutical manufacturing payload, using a high-altitude balloon at the TIFR facility in Hyderabad. The technology aims to manufacture pharmaceutical products in microgravity without human supervision.

    How does it work?

    1. Microgravity: Near-weightlessness reduces sedimentation, buoyancy and convection.
    2. Crystal growth: Crystals can form differently and potentially with greater uniformity than on Earth.
    3. Autonomous processing: The satellite carries reagents and hardware and executes the manufacturing sequence independently.
    4. Recovery: Processed material is returned to Earth using a re-entry system and heatshield.

    What is LEO?

    • Low Earth Orbit (LEO) extends roughly up to 2,000 km above Earth.
    • The proposed system is intended for an altitude of about 400 to 500 km.

    What did the balloon test demonstrate?

    • Tested the satellite prototype under near-space conditions.
    • Validated avionics, heatshield and Alchemy payload.
    • Demonstrated autonomous operation.
    • Tested controlled return to Earth.
    • Serves as a relatively low-cost step before orbital deployment.

    How is it different from earlier space-based drug research?

    • Earlier experiments on platforms such as the ISS generally required crew involvement. The distinguishing feature here is a dedicated free-flying satellite designed for autonomous pharmaceutical manufacturing.
    • International examples include Varda Space Industries, Redwire and experiments aboard China’s Tiangong station.

    Why is it important for India?

    • Promotes private-sector space innovation.
    • Expands India’s space ecosystem beyond Bengaluru to cities such as Bhubaneswar, Pune and Ahmedabad.
    • Creates opportunities in pharma, biotechnology, space engineering and advanced manufacturing.
    • Demonstrates potential convergence of space technology + biotechnology + pharmaceuticals.

    Laws, Treaties and Rules Governing Space Activities

    1. Outer Space Treaty, 1967: Bars national appropriation of outer space and makes States internationally responsible for national activities, including those of private entities.
    2. Liability Convention, 1972: Makes the launching State absolutely liable for damage caused on the surface of the Earth or to aircraft in flight.
    3. Registration Convention, 1975: Requires launching States to maintain a registry of objects launched into outer space and to furnish details to the United Nations.
    4. Rescue Agreement, 1968: Obliges States to assist astronauts in distress and to return space objects to the launching State.
    5. Indian Space Policy, 2023: Defines the roles of ISRO, IN-SPACe and NSIL and permits private entities across the full value chain from launch to satellite operations.
    6. Space Activities Bill, 2017: Proposed a licensing and liability framework for private Indian space activity but lapsed without enactment.
    7. Norms, Guidelines and Procedures issued by IN-SPACe: Prescribe the authorisation route, safety requirements and liability sharing for non governmental entities operating from India.
    8. Telecommunications Act, 2023 and allied spectrum rules: Govern satellite spectrum assignment and the licensing of satellite based communication services.

    Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre

    1. What it is: IN-SPACe is the single window autonomous agency that authorises, promotes and supervises space activities by non governmental entities in India.
    2. Year established: Announced in 2020 as part of the space sector reforms and made operational in 2022.
    3. Parent department: It functions as an autonomous body under the Department of Space.
    4. Headquarters: Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
    5. Jurisdiction: It authorises private launches, satellite establishment and operation, ground station creation and the dissemination of space based data.
    6. Enabling role: It permits private entities to use ISRO facilities and to access ISRO technologies through transfer agreements.
    7. Distinction from NSIL: IN-SPACe regulates and promotes, while NewSpace India Limited is the commercial arm that contracts launches and technology transfers.

    “[2026] Consider the following statements about involvement of private entities in India’s space programme:
    1. IN-SPACe is an autonomous agency formed to facilitate participation of private entities.
    2. Agnikul Cosmos launched the world’s first flight using 3D-printed rocket engine.
    3. Skyroot Aerospace has developed liquid fuel for GSLV.
    (a) 1 only
    (b) 2 and 3 only
    (c) 1 and 2 only
    (d) 1, 2 and 3

  • Punjab’s groundwater collapse demands the diversification its farm politics keeps deferring

    Why in the News

    The acreage under water intensive paddy in Punjab touched a record high this year, even as the water table continues to fall and experts warn of impending desertification. The State that built its agrarian success on assured irrigation is now consuming the resource that made it possible, while governments across party lines keep supplying free water and power rather than executing the diversification plans already drafted.

    What is crop diversification?

    1. About: Crop diversification is the shift of cropped area away from one or two dominant crops toward a wider mix of crops within the same season or rotation.
    2. How it works: A cultivator replaces part of the area under a water intensive or soil depleting crop with pulses, oilseeds, maize, cotton or horticulture.
    3. Rationale: It reduces the drawdown on a single natural resource and spreads market and weather risk across several crops.
    4. The precondition: It requires an assured market or procurement for the replacement crop, since the displaced crop already has one.

    Who was Ajit Singh?

    1. About: Ajit Singh was a peasant leader of colonial Punjab and the uncle of Bhagat Singh, and one of the main architects of the Pagdi Sambhal Jatta agitation against British agricultural laws.
    2. Exile and return: Hounded by the British, he spent nearly four decades abroad, engaging with revolutionaries including Lala Har Dayal and Subhas Chandra Bose, and was imprisoned in Germany after the Second World War before Jawaharlal Nehru secured his release in early 1947.
    3. Death: He died at Dalhousie at about 3.30 am on 15 August 1947, aged 66, his last words recorded as “Jai Hind”.

    What were the canal colonies of western Punjab?

    1. About: The canal colonies, known locally as the Baar, were settlements created in western Punjab after the British built an extensive canal network in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
    2. Why they were created: Large parts of western Punjab had remained uncultivated for centuries for want of irrigation, and the canals made cultivation possible for the first time.

    What is a murabba?

    1. About: A murabba is a square land allotment of 25 acres, the standard unit granted to settlers in the canal colonies.
    2. Who received them: Cultivators from what is now Indian Punjab, including retired soldiers, were moved into the colonies and allotted murabbas.

    What is abiana?

    1. About: Abiana is the water charge levied on cultivators for the use of canal irrigation.
    2. Why it mattered: A hike in abiana was one of the three grievances that triggered the 1907 Pagdi Sambhal Jatta agitation.

    What was the Pagdi Sambhal Jatta movement?

    1. About: Pagdi Sambhal Jatta was a peasant agitation of 1907 in colonial Punjab against three British laws that threatened farmers’ rights over their land and raised the water charge.
    2. How it got its name: Lala Banke Dayal’s poem of that title was recited at a rally in Lyallpur in March 1907, giving the movement its name and its anthem.

    What is desertification?

    1. About: Desertification is the degradation of land in dry, semi dry and dry sub humid areas, driven by climatic variation and human activity, until it loses its biological productivity.
    2. How it applies to Punjab: Sustained groundwater extraction beyond the recharge rate turns irrigated land progressively unproductive, which is the process experts have warned of in Punjab.

    What is Vibhajan Vibhishika Smriti Diwas?

    1. About: Vibhajan Vibhishika Smriti Diwas, or Partition Horrors Remembrance Day, is observed on 14 August each year since 2021.
    2. Purpose: It commemorates the displacement and loss suffered during the Partition of 1947.

    How did canal irrigation create Punjab’s agrarian identity?

    1. Arid land before irrigation: Large parts of western Punjab stayed uncultivated for centuries for want of irrigation.
    2. The canal network was the first input: The British built an extensive canal system across the region in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
    3. Settlers were the second input: Water alone was not enough, so cultivators from what is now Indian Punjab, including retired soldiers, were moved into the new tracts.
    4. Land allotted as murabbas: Each settler household received a murabba of 25 acres in the colonies.
    5. Settlements numbered, not named: New colonies were given administrative numbers such as Chak 8, Chak 20 and Chak 503, often carrying the name of the migrants’ original village, as in Chak 503 Narangwal.
    6. Reclamation took years: The land was arid and took years of sustained work before it turned fertile, which is why its loss at Partition was felt as the loss of built capital.

    What does Punjab’s tradition of agrarian resistance consist of?

    1. The 1907 movement: Ajit Singh led the Pagdi Sambhal Jatta agitation alongside Lala Lajpat Rai against three British laws that threatened farmers’ rights and hiked the water charge or abiana.
    2. Scale of mobilisation: Ajit Singh addressed 19 of the 33 meetings recorded by British intelligence.
    3. The anthem: Lala Banke Dayal’s poem was recited at a rally in Lyallpur in March 1907 and gave the movement its name.
    4. The outcome: The British withdrew the farm laws, and both leaders were imprisoned in Mandalay, Burma.
    5. Recognition: Bal Gangadhar Tilak hailed Ajit Singh as the “king of Punjab peasantry” on his return.
    6. The tradition carried forward: The same slogan was raised during the 2020-21 farmers’ agitation against the since repealed central farm laws.

    Why has the adversary shifted from colonial law to resource depletion?

    1. The threat is now internal: The challenge today is not colonial rule but the depletion of the resource that made Punjab’s agrarian success possible.
    2. Warnings are long standing: Experts have warned of impending desertification in Punjab for years.
    3. The trend is worsening, not stabilising: Acreage under water intensive paddy cultivation touched a record high this year.
    4. The water table keeps falling: The aquifer continues to drop even as extraction expands with every additional paddy season.
    5. The cost is deferred, not avoided: Groundwater does not recharge at the rate at which it is being pumped, so each season transfers the shortfall to a later one.

    Why has a known diagnosis not produced action?

    1. The solutions are already documented: Economist S S Johl outlined diversification measures during the tenure of the previous Congress government in the State.
    2. Later plans exist as well: The current State government has also prepared plans on the water issue.
    3. Implementation is the gap: Execution of both sets of plans remains negligible.
    4. The problem is not knowledge: Punjab knows precisely what has to be done and consistently fails to do it, which makes this an execution failure rather than a policy vacuum.

    Why do free water and assured paddy procurement keep expanding the crop that is emptying the aquifer?

    1. The case for the free provision: Free water and free power for tubewells lower the cash cost of cultivation for a farm sector carrying heavy debt.
    2. The political arithmetic: State governments cutting across party lines have continued the free provision for political reasons, since withdrawing it carries an immediate electoral cost.
    3. Assured procurement completes the lock in: Paddy and wheat carry guaranteed purchase at a minimum support price, and no alternative crop offers comparable certainty.
    4. The other side of the ledger: Free power removes the price signal on extraction, so pumping continues well past the rate at which the aquifer can recharge.
    5. Two legitimate claims in conflict: Farm income security and aquifer survival both carry a genuine claim, and current policy settles the question entirely in favour of the first.
    6. The cost appears nowhere: The support shows up as a power subsidy line in the State budget, while the depletion appears in no account until wells begin to fail.

    Why have farmer unions’ priorities not tracked the water crisis?

    1. Attention directed at trade: Farmer unions have mobilised strongly against free trade agreements.
    2. The nearer threat is unaddressed: The same unions have overlooked aquifer depletion as a looming calamity of comparable scale.
    3. Individual adaptation is happening: Some individual farmers have adopted alternatives to paddy on their own initiative.
    4. Collective adaptation is not: Most cultivators remain caught within an unsustainable farming model that no organised body is challenging.

    What does the stated way forward require?

    1. Reduce paddy dependence: Cut the area under water intensive paddy cultivation.
    2. Guarantee markets for the substitutes: Ensure assured markets for diversified crops so that the switch is not a loss of income.
    3. Invest in micro irrigation: Move field irrigation from flood delivery to drip and sprinkler systems.
    4. Build food processing capacity: Create processing demand that gives non paddy crops a committed buyer.
    5. Align policy with ecology: Set agricultural policy against ecological limits rather than electoral compulsions.

    Challenges to crop diversification in Punjab

    1. Absence of assured procurement for alternative crops: Only paddy and wheat carry guaranteed purchase, so any switch transfers price risk to the farmer. e.g. maize in Punjab routinely selling below its minimum support price for want of a procurement agency.
    2. Free power removes the cost of extraction: Zero marginal cost pumping eliminates any incentive to economise on water. e.g. blocks in Sangrur, Barnala and Moga classified as over exploited by the Central Ground Water Board while tubewell use continues unchecked.
    3. Sunk investment in the paddy and wheat rotation: Farm assets are built around a single cycle and cannot be repurposed. e.g. combine harvesters, paddy transplanters and laser levelled fields configured for that rotation alone.
    4. Labour and machinery calendar locked to paddy: The seasonal labour supply arrives for a specific operation window. e.g. migrant labour arriving in June for transplanting, a cycle no substitute crop matches.
    5. Groundwater regulation limited to sowing dates: Existing law delays transplanting without reducing total irrigated area. e.g. the Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act, 2009, which shifted the transplanting date later but left acreage untouched.
    6. Weak processing and cold chain for horticulture: Perishable substitutes fail without storage and processing capacity nearby. e.g. kinnow growers in Abohar and Fazilka facing distress sales in glut years.
    7. Residue burning tied to the compressed paddy to wheat window: The delayed transplanting date leaves too little time between harvest and the next sowing. e.g. the October and November stubble fires across Sangrur, Bathinda and Patiala every year.

    Conclusion

    Punjab’s crisis is not the absence of a diversification plan but the presence of a policy structure that pays cultivators to keep growing paddy. Free water and power remove the cost of extraction while assured procurement removes the risk of continuing, so a record paddy acreage now coexists with a falling water table and warnings of desertification. Diversification will begin only when an alternative crop carries the same market certainty that paddy already has. Until then the tradition of agrarian resistance will keep facing outward while the aquifer empties.

    Groundwater Irrigation in India

    1. About: Groundwater irrigation is the extraction of water from aquifers through wells and tubewells for crop cultivation, as distinct from surface canal irrigation.
    2. India’s standing: India is the largest user of groundwater in the world, extracting more than the United States and China combined.
    3. Share of irrigation: Groundwater accounts for roughly 60 per cent of irrigated area and about 85 per cent of rural drinking water supply.
    4. The assessment system: The Central Ground Water Board and State agencies jointly assess blocks annually and classify them as safe, semi critical, critical or over exploited.
    5. Regional concentration of stress: Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, western Uttar Pradesh and parts of Tamil Nadu carry the highest proportion of over exploited units.
    6. The energy link: Subsidised or free electricity for agricultural pumping is the single largest driver of extraction, since it removes the marginal cost of drawing water.

    Constitutional Framework Governing Water in India

    1. Entry 17, State List, Seventh Schedule: Places water supply, irrigation, canals, drainage, embankments and water storage under State legislative competence.
    2. Entry 56, Union List, Seventh Schedule: Empowers Parliament to regulate inter State rivers and river valleys where it declares such regulation expedient in the public interest.
    3. Article 262: Allows Parliament to provide for adjudication of inter State river water disputes and to bar the jurisdiction of courts in such disputes.
    4. Article 21: Interpreted by the Supreme Court to include the right to clean and adequate water as part of the right to life.
    5. Article 48A: Directs the State to protect and improve the environment, which courts have read as covering groundwater conservation.
    6. Article 243G and the Eleventh Schedule: Assign minor irrigation, water management and watershed development to panchayats.

    Laws and Rules Governing Groundwater Use

    1. Indian Easements Act, 1882: Treats groundwater as attached to land ownership, which is the legal root of unrestricted extraction by landowners.
    2. Environment (Protection) Act, 1986: Provides the authority under which the Central Ground Water Authority was constituted to regulate and control groundwater development.
    3. Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974: Governs the quality dimension of water resources through the pollution control boards.
    4. Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act, 2009: Bars paddy nursery sowing and transplanting before notified dates, in order to shift the crop’s peak water demand closer to the monsoon.
    5. Model Bill for Conservation, Protection and Regulation of Groundwater, 2016: Circulated to States to establish groundwater as a public trust and to create local level groundwater security plans.
    6. Electricity Act, 2003: Governs agricultural power tariffs and the State subsidy mechanism that determines the cost of pumping.
    7. Guidelines for groundwater extraction, 2020: Prescribe the no objection certificate regime for industrial, infrastructure and mining users of groundwater.

    Back2Basics: Central Ground Water Board

    1. What it is: The Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) is the national apex agency for groundwater assessment, exploration, monitoring and management.
    2. Year established: Constituted in 1970, on the reorganisation of the Exploratory Tubewells Organisation.
    3. Parent ministry: It functions under the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Ministry of Jal Shakti.
    4. Headquarters: Faridabad, Haryana, with regional offices across the country.
    5. Mandate: It develops and disseminates technologies and monitors and implements national policies for the scientific and sustainable development of groundwater.
    6. Key outputs: It publishes the annual Dynamic Ground Water Resource Assessment and the groundwater year book, and it categorises assessment units by stage of extraction.
    7. Regulatory arm: The Central Ground Water Authority, constituted under Section 3(3) of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, exercises the regulatory powers over extraction.

    Government Initiatives for Groundwater and Crop Diversification

    1. Atal Bhujal Yojana: A community led groundwater management scheme in water stressed blocks across seven States, with incentives linked to measured improvement in the water table.
    2. Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana, Per Drop More Crop: Funds drip and sprinkler micro irrigation to raise water use efficiency at the farm level.
    3. Crop Diversification Programme: Operates in the original Green Revolution States of Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh to shift area from paddy to alternative crops.
    4. Pani Bachao Paisa Kamao: A Punjab scheme paying farmers for electricity saved against a benchmark, converting free power into a metered incentive to pump less.
    5. Direct Seeded Rice incentive: A per acre payment in Punjab for sowing paddy directly rather than transplanting into puddled fields, cutting water use substantially.
    6. Jal Shakti Abhiyan, Catch the Rain: A national campaign for rainwater harvesting and recharge structure creation in water stressed districts.
    7. National Food Security Mission and the National Mission on Edible Oils: Support pulses and oilseeds as area substitutes for paddy through seed, input and market interventions.

    Key Facts about Groundwater and Punjab Agriculture

    1. Extraction stage: Punjab has the highest stage of groundwater extraction among Indian States, exceeding the annual recharge by a wide margin.
    2. Over exploited units: A large majority of Punjab’s assessment blocks are classified as over exploited by the Central Ground Water Board.
    3. Tubewell density: Punjab operates well over a million agricultural tubewells, nearly all running on subsidised or free power.
    4. Paddy water requirement: Transplanted paddy consumes several thousand litres of water per kilogram of grain, the highest among Punjab’s field crops.
    5. Procurement share: Punjab and Haryana together account for a dominant share of central wheat procurement and a large share of rice procurement.
    6. Green Revolution origin: Punjab was the first State where high yielding wheat varieties were introduced in the mid 1960s, establishing the wheat and paddy rotation.
    7. The 2009 legal shift: The Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act, 2009 pushed paddy transplanting to mid June to align it with the monsoon onset.

    Challenges in Groundwater Management in India

    1. Legal treatment of groundwater as private property: Ownership attached to land under the Indian Easements Act, 1882 makes extraction limits hard to enforce. e.g. the absence of any cap on the number of tubewells a landowner may sink in most States.
    2. Free or heavily subsidised farm power: Zero marginal cost pumping removes the economic brake on extraction. e.g. Punjab, Haryana and Tamil Nadu supplying agricultural power free or at a nominal flat rate.
    3. Minimum support price incentives skewed to water intensive crops: Assured procurement concentrates in paddy and wheat and pulls area toward them. e.g. paddy area in Punjab reaching a record high in 2026 despite falling water tables.
    4. Weak metering and monitoring of extraction: Without volumetric measurement, regulation cannot be calibrated. e.g. the very small share of agricultural connections in the northern States that carry functioning energy meters.
    5. Aquifer contamination alongside depletion: Falling water tables concentrate geogenic contaminants and draw in poor quality water. e.g. arsenic in the Gangetic plains and fluoride in parts of Rajasthan and Telangana.
    6. Fragmented institutional responsibility: Water is a State subject while the regulatory authority is central, producing overlapping mandates. e.g. Central Ground Water Authority notifications applying to industry while agricultural extraction stays outside their reach.
    7. Poor uptake of micro irrigation: Capital cost and small holding size limit the spread of drip and sprinkler systems. e.g. micro irrigation covering only a small fraction of Punjab’s net sown area despite years of subsidy.

    Way Forward

    1. Extend assured procurement to substitute crops: Guarantee purchase of maize, pulses and oilseeds in Punjab at announced prices so the switch out of paddy carries no income penalty.
    2. Convert free power into a measured entitlement: Scale the Pani Bachao Paisa Kamao model, paying farmers for unused power rather than withdrawing the subsidy outright.
    3. Meter agricultural extraction: Install energy or volumetric meters on tubewells to make regulation and incentive design possible.
    4. Fund micro irrigation at scale: Raise the subsidy and credit support for drip and sprinkler systems to cover small holdings.
    5. Build processing and cold chain capacity: Locate processing units for maize, kinnow, potato and dairy in Punjab to create local demand for diversified output.
    6. Enact a groundwater law based on public trust: Adopt the Model Bill for Conservation, Protection and Regulation of Groundwater so extraction rights derive from a shared resource rather than land title.
    7. Link central assistance to measured water table outcomes: Extend the Atal Bhujal Yojana incentive design, so State transfers respond to verified improvement in the aquifer.

    “[2021, GS3, 15 marks] What are the present challenges before crop diversification? How do emerging technologies provide an opportunity for crop diversification?”

  • Strikes on Black Sea and Sea of Azov grain terminals open a second food-price chokepoint

    Why in the News?

    A Ukrainian drone strike on 11 August destroyed two major grain export terminals at Russia’s Novorossiysk port, removing 15.6 million tonnes (mt) of annual export capacity. This opens a second global trade chokepoint alongside the Strait of Hormuz, shifting the food security crisis from a production problem to a shipping/transit blockade.

    Key Geography & Infrastructure

    • Black Sea & Sea of Azov Grain Corridor: Primary maritime route for Russian and Ukrainian agricultural exports via the Kerch Strait and Turkish Straits.
    • Novorossiysk: Major Russian Black Sea port handling bulk grain shipments.
    • Kerch Strait: The sole, narrow maritime outlet connecting the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea (a classic single point of failure).
    • Greater Odesa Port Complex: Ukraine’s main shipping hub (Odesa, Chornomorsk, Pivdennyi), handling ~90% of its agricultural exports.
    • Izmail: Ukraine’s primary Danube River port, serving as an alternative inland waterway route.

    Regional Dependence & Export Weight

    • Russian Routing: Over 80% of Russian grain exports move through Sea of Azov and Black Sea ports.
    • Ukrainian Routing: The Greater Odesa complex handles about 90% of Ukraine’s agricultural exports.
    • Global Wheat Share: Russia and Ukraine combined account for 27.4% of global wheat exports.
    • Global Sunflower Oil Share: Russia and Ukraine combined supply 61.5% of global sunflower oil shipments, the highest concentration of any commodity.
    • Other Staples: Together they control 15.8% of global barley and 12.5% of global corn shipments.

    Causes of the Global Price Shock

    1. Shipping Bottleneck, Not Output Deficit: Granaries are full in Russia and Ukraine, but cross-border strikes have created severe risk, stopping safe physical transport.
    2. Soaring Insurance Premiums: War risk cover on hulls and cargo acts as a hidden tariff, driving up freight costs and pricing out smaller buyers.
    3. Compounding EU Crop Yield Reductions (USDA Data):
      • Wheat: Projected to drop 7.5% (down to 134.2 mt).
      • Corn: Expected to drop to 50.2 mt (a nearly two-decade low).
      • Cause: Record summer heatwaves and prolonged drought cut yields across Europe.
    4. Global Repricing: CBOT wheat and corn futures rose 4–5% following the strikes. Major alternative exporters (US, Canada, Australia) saw prices surge simultaneously.

    Impact on India & Domestic Policy Measures

    Key Exposures

    • Edible Oil Risk: India is the world’s largest vegetable oil importer and heavily relies on Black Sea sunflower oil.
    • Dual Chokepoint Strain: Simultaneous disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz (energy/fertilizers) and Black Sea/Kerch Strait (food/edible oils).

    Statutory & Policy Framework

    • Essential Commodities Act, 1955: Regulates production, stock limits, and distribution of foodstuffs and edible oils.
    • National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013: Guarantees subsidized foodgrains to ~two-thirds of India’s population.
    • Foreign Trade (D&R) Act, 1992: Legal framework for export bans, quotas, and Minimum Export Prices (MEP).
    • Customs Tariff Act, 1975: Regulates import duty structures on crude and refined edible oils.
    • Key Interventions: Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS), Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF), Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY), and the National Mission on Edible Oils – Oil Palm (NMEO-OP).

    Key Institutional Concepts

    • FAO Food Price Index: A monthly index tracking international market prices of five commodity groups (Cereals, Vegetable Oils, Dairy, Meat, Sugar), weighted by export shares. Hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization (HQ: Rome, established 1945).
    • Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT): Premier futures exchange establishing global benchmark prices for wheat, corn, and soybeans.
    • USDA WASDE Report: World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates; the primary global benchmark for crop yields and trade shares.
    • Maritime Chokepoint: A narrow, strategic passage (e.g., Turkish Straits, Kerch Strait, Strait of Hormuz, Bab el-Mandeb) where high volumes of global trade pass, creating high geographical vulnerability.

    “[2024, GS3, 15 marks] Elucidate the importance of buffer stocks for stabilizing agricultural prices in India. What are the challenges associated with the storage of buffer stock? Discuss.”

    [2014] Turkey is located between

    [A] Black Sea and Caspian Sea

    [B] Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea

    [C] Gulf of Suez and Mediterranean Sea

    [D] Gulf of Aqaba and Dead Sea

  • India contracts 17 lakh tonnes of urea at $390 a tonne, a fraction of the April tender price

    Why in the News?

    India has contracted 17 lakh tonnes (1.7 mt) of imported urea at landed prices of $390.25 to $393.65 per tonne, marking a ~58% drop from the peak rates of $935 to $959 per tonne seen in the April 2026 tender. This sharp collapse highlights how heavily India’s fertiliser subsidy bill depends on external factors, ranging from West Asian energy disruptions to Chinese inventory accumulation.

    Global Urea Import Tender Mechanism

    • Nominated State Agencies: Import tenders are invited by designated state-owned canalising agencies like Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers (RCF) and Indian Potash Limited (IPL).
    • Landed Price (CFR): Offers are quoted on a landed basis—covering both material cost and ocean freight to destination ports. This shifts shipping risk to the supplier.
    • Geographical Distribution: Tenders split required tonnages between the East Coast and West Coast to optimize port discharge and domestic logistics.
    • Market Signals: Bids from multiple global traders (e.g., Ameropa Group) establish the benchmark. High oversubscription indicates a loose global supply market.

    Price Trajectory & Global Supply Dynamics

    1. April Peak ($935–$959/tonne): Driven by peak war risk premiums, high global fuel prices, and Strait of Hormuz shipping anxieties.
    2. May Moderation ($444.9–$449.3/tonne): Easing immediate supply shocks.
    3. July/August Drop ($390.25–$393.65/tonne): Triggered by:
      • China’s Surplus Inventory: Domestic in-plant inventories in China surged 76% year-on-year, turning it into a major swing supplier.
      • Re-routed Supplies: Iranian material reaching markets through China.
      • Alternative Sourcing: Diversification of LNG feedstock by agencies like GAIL and IOC away from Hormuz transit routes toward the US, Oman, Norway, Angola, Congo, Indonesia, and Trinidad.

    Current Supply & Demand Position

    • Adequate Reserves: Imports reached 25.08 lakh tonnes in Q1 (April–June 2026) compared to 8.38 lakh tonnes in the previous year.
    • Domestic Production: Expanded to 71.53 lakh tonnes in Q1 2026.
    • Cropping Seasons Covered: Sufficient availability reported across both the ongoing Kharif (monsoon) season and upcoming Rabi (winter/spring) sowing.

    Challenges in India’s Fertiliser Policy

    • Subsidy Exposure: Urea sells at a statutorily controlled Maximum Retail Price (MRP), meaning any surge in landed cost directly increases the exchequer’s subsidy burden.
    • Nutrient Imbalance: Controlled urea pricing versus decontrolled phosphatic and potassic nutrients encourages over-application of nitrogen (N), skewing the ideal 4:2:1 (N:P:K) ratio.
    • Phosphate Vulnerability: While urea and LNG supply sources have been widened, Di-ammonium Phosphate (DAP) and raw intermediates (phosphoric acid, ammonia, sulphur) remain vulnerable to concentrated import sources and price spikes.
    • Feedstock Dependence: Domestic plants remain tied to imported LNG, linking production costs directly to international gas trends.

    Statutory & Regulatory Framework

    • Essential Commodities Act, 1955: Empowers the Union Government to regulate production, stock limits, supply, and pricing of fertilisers.
    • Fertiliser (Control) Order, 1985 & Movement Control Order, 1973: Governs quality standards, dealer registrations, and inter-state distribution.
    • New Urea Policy, 2015: Promotes energy efficiency in production units and mandates 100% Neem Coating of domestic urea to prevent industrial diversion.
    • Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) Scheme, 2010: Provides a fixed annual per-kg subsidy on N, P, K, and S for decontrolled fertilisers (DAP, MOP, Complex).
    • Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT): Releases subsidies to manufacturers only after Aadhaar-authenticated point-of-sale (PoS) transactions at retail outlets.

    Key Government Initiatives

    • PM PRANAM: Encourages States to reduce chemical fertiliser usage by sharing the resulting subsidy savings.
    • One Nation One Fertiliser: Standardises all subsidised crop nutrients under the single Bharat brand.
    • Nano Urea: Liquid alternative developed by IFFCO to lower overall bulk tonnage requirements.
    • Plant Revivals: Reactivation of closed units (Ramagundam, Gorakhpur, Sindri, Barauni, Talcher) to boost domestic capacity.
    • Coal Gasification: Talcher plant designed to produce urea using coal gasification rather than natural gas, cutting gas import reliance.

    Key Concepts

    • Urea: Solid nitrogenous fertiliser (carbamide) carrying 46% Nitrogen—the highest among solid fertilisers.
    • Di-ammonium Phosphate (DAP): Phosphatic fertiliser containing 18% Nitrogen and 46% Phosphorus.
    • Fertiliser Association of India (FAI): Industry body (est. 1955) providing production, import, and consumption stats for supply planning.
    • Muriate of Potash (MOP): Fully import-dependent nutrient; India has no commercial potash reserves.

    [2020] With reference to chemical fertilizers in India, consider the following statements:
    1. At present, the retail price of chemical fertilizers is market-driven and not administered by the Government.
    2. Ammonia, which is an input of urea, is produced from natural gas.
    3. Sulphur, which is a raw material for Phosphoric acid fertilizer, is a by-product of oil refineries.
    Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
    (a) 1 only
    (b) 2 and 3 only
    (c) 2 only
    (d) 1, 2 and 3
    Answer: (b)”

  • US Gives Private Firms Power to Hack Criminal Networks

    Why in the News

    A US presidential memorandum allows vetted private companies to participate in government-authorised offensive cyber operations against overseas transnational criminal organisations (TCOs).

    Note: Vetted private firms are privately owned companies that have passed thorough background checks by a client, usually a government agency, to prove they are safe, reliable, and qualified to do sensitive work

    What does the memorandum allow?

    1. Private participation: Selected firms can conduct hacking operations under government supervision.
    2. Permitted actions: Operations may include entering, disabling or destroying criminal networks’ systems.
    3. Oversight: Firms require government contracts, security vetting and supervision.
    4. Targets: Criminal organisations attacking US persons or interests, excluding entities formally controlled by foreign governments.

    Key Concepts

    • TCO: Criminal network operating across national borders.
    • Offensive cyber operation: Entering, disrupting or destroying another computer system.
    • Attribution: Identifying the actor responsible for a cyberattack.
    • Hacktivist: Non-state actor conducting cyber operations for political or ideological purposes.

    Why is it controversial?

    • Misattribution: Attacks may hit innocent third-party systems.
    • Collateral damage: Destructive operations can affect infrastructure in other countries.
    • Escalation: Private hacking can trigger cross-border conflicts.
    • Accountability: Commercial actors may have weaker accountability than state agencies.
    • Proxy problem: It resembles the private or proxy cyber models the US has criticised in China and Russia.

    Implications for India

    • India has no publicly declared offensive cyber doctrine.
    • Sections 43 and 66 of the IT Act, 2000 criminalise unauthorised access and damage.
    • Compromised Indian servers could become staging infrastructure for foreign cyber operations.
    • India continues to advocate state responsibility and opposition to cyber proxies at the UN.

    Prelims Pointers

    • CERT-In: National agency for cyber incident response.
    • NCIIPC: Protects Critical Information Infrastructure.
    • I4C: Coordinates India’s response to cybercrime.
    • Defence Cyber Agency: Handles cyber operations for the armed forces.
    • Section 70B, IT Act: Provides the statutory basis for CERT-In.

    [2022, GS3, 10 marks] What are the different elements of cyber security? Keeping in view the challenges in cyber security, examine the extent to which India has successfully developed a comprehensive National Cyber Security Strategy.”

    [2017] In India, it is legally mandatory for which of the following to report on cyber security incidents?
    1.Service providers
    2.Intermediaries
    3.Corporate bodies
    Select the correct answer using the code given below:

    [A] .1 and 2 only

    [B] .2 and 3 only

    [C] 1 and 3 only

    [D] 1, 2 and 3 only

  • Kondapalli in Bastar shows what state presence looks like after the Maoist withdrawal

    Why in the News

    Kondapalli, a village of 600 people in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district that served as the base of the most dreaded Maoist battalion, now has a road, a bus, grid electricity, a cellphone tower and a new school. The change moves the test of the insurgency’s end from the absence of armed cadre to the delivery of ordinary services, since a surrendered commander now demands from the State the borewell, pond, land rights and visiting doctor he once took up arms against it over.

    How does the forward base model work in the Red Corridor?

    1. Step one, the camp: A central armed police force announces a forward operating base inside a village previously controlled by the Maoists.
    2. Step two, clearing operations: A series of encounters follows, which pushes the armed cadre out of the area.
    3. Step three, the road: An engineering agency opens a motorable road to the camp, which ends the physical isolation the insurgency depended on.
    4. Step four, civil administration: Grid electricity, telecom towers, schools, anganwadis, ration shops, Aadhaar enrolment and bank accounts follow the road.
    5. Step five, the political process: Elections resume and elected panchayat bodies begin to function.
    6. Application in Kondapalli: The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) announced its forward base in the village in November 2024, and this sequence has run there since.

    What is the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA)?

    1. About: The PLGA is the armed wing of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), organised into platoons, companies and battalions.
    2. Its role here: Kondapalli served as the base of Battalion No. 1, the most dreaded unit of the PLGA.

    What was Battalion No. 1?

    1. About: Battalion No. 1 was the main armed formation of the Maoists in south Bastar, camped in the jungle outside Kondapalli.
    2. Present position: The battalion is gone from the area and security forces now camp in the same space.

    What is a Revolutionary People’s Committee?

    1. About: It is a grassroots governing body of the Maoists that ran village level administration, land distribution and dispute settlement in areas under their control.
    2. Its role here: A former commander of one such committee surrendered in Kondapalli in March 2025.

    What is the Bal Sangam?

    1. About: The Bal Sangam is the children’s wing of the Maoists, used to recruit and indoctrinate minors in areas under their control.

    What is the Chetna Natya Manch?

    1. About: The Chetna Natya Manch is the Maoists’ cultural troupe, which used song and theatre on themes such as jal, jungle and zameen to mobilise villagers.

    What was the Salwa Judum?

    1. About: The Salwa Judum was a civilian counter insurgency force set up in Chhattisgarh in 2005, which armed villagers against the Maoists.
    2. Legal status: The Supreme Court declared it illegal in 2011 and ordered the disarming of the appointed special police officers.

    What is the Red Corridor?

    1. About: The Red Corridor is the belt of forested, mineral rich and largely tribal districts across central and eastern India where Maoist influence was concentrated.
    2. Scale in Chhattisgarh: Kondapalli was one of nearly 400 villages in the State’s Red Corridor where the state had little say or presence.

    What is the Border Roads Organisation (BRO)?

    1. About: The BRO is a road construction agency under the Ministry of Defence that builds and maintains roads in border and strategically sensitive areas.
    2. Its role here: It began work on the Tarrem to Kondapalli road soon after security forces pushed the Maoists back in November 2024.

    What is a Bailey bridge?

    1. About: A Bailey bridge is a portable, prefabricated steel truss bridge assembled on site without heavy equipment, used where permanent bridges cannot be built quickly.
    2. Its use here: The BRO installed nine Bailey bridges over river streams on the stretch past Kondapalli.

    What is the Mahtari Vandan Yojana?

    1. About: It is a Chhattisgarh government scheme that transfers Rs 1,000 a month to eligible married women through direct benefit transfer.
    2. Its role here: One villager’s mother opened a bank account last year and now receives this transfer.

    How did the Maoists govern Kondapalli?

    1. Territorial claim: Kondapalli lay in the Maoists’ South Bastar division, part of what they called the Liberated Zone.
    2. Strength of the formation: The division was one of the strongest Maoist formations and among the last to fall, and could gather the support of 400 to 500 people at short notice.
    3. Economic function of the village: Kondapalli mattered to the Maoists because their supplies came from its local market.
    4. Commemorative gatherings: Hundreds of villagers were assembled every year at a 64 foot tall memorial in Komatpalli, part of the Kondapalli gram panchayat, for Martyrs’ Week.
    5. Land and housing: The Maoists redistributed land and helped villagers build their houses, which is how they gained trust.
    6. Local public works: They built small roads and a pond, and asked villagers to donate money for the treatment of anyone who fell sick.
    7. Forest rule: Cutting trees was punishable under their order.
    8. What was withheld: Residents describe the arrangement as delivering a sense of security and of being seen, with little development alongside it.

    How was that order enforced?

    1. Conscription pressure: At least one person from every village had to join, which put pressure on families to give up their sons or daughters.
    2. Recruitment through front organisations: A boy recruited as a teenager passed through the Bal Sangam and then the Chetna Natya Manch, singing about saving jal, jungle and zameen.
    3. Fear of dispossession: Recruits were told the government would steal their land and that they would eventually have to leave the village.
    4. Control of movement: Villagers leaving the Kondapalli gram panchayat were questioned on their return.
    5. Public punishment: Wrongdoers were beaten publicly under a tree.
    6. Killing of suspected informers: Those suspected of informing to the police were killed, and others left the village.
    7. Destruction of state assets: The Maoists burnt down the only school and the adjoining hostel in the 2000s to stop security forces sheltering there, and destroyed the electric poles the administration brought.
    8. Withdrawal of officials: Forest officials and the patwari, the village records keeper, stopped coming to Kondapalli.
    9. Control of communication: Phones were seized and villagers were told not to use them.
    10. Cost on the other side: Villagers were caught in the middle, and one resident’s uncle was killed by security forces on the suspicion that he was a Maoist.

    What ended the Maoist hold on Kondapalli?

    1. The forward base: The CRPF announced in November 2024 that it was establishing a forward base in Kondapalli.
    2. Encounters: A series of encounters followed, after which the Maoists were pushed into Telangana.
    3. Surrender of the formation: The cadre pushed into Telangana laid down arms in March 2026.
    4. Village level surrender: A former commander of the Revolutionary People’s Committee surrendered in March 2025 along with 12 other villagers.
    5. Rehabilitation in practice: He opened a kirana store with the money received under the State’s rehabilitation policy.
    6. Losses in the campaign: A villager’s 18 year old daughter, who left home in December 2022 to join the Maoists, was among about 30 Maoists killed in a security operation in Telangana’s Karregutta hills last year.
    7. Scale of the insurgency: The decades long insurgency claimed at least 4,741 lives in the Bastar region alone since 2000.
    8. National declaration: The Union Home Minister has declared the country Maoist free, 80 years after Independence.

    Which markers of state presence have appeared in the village?

    1. Grid electricity: Kondapalli received electricity from the grid last July, after years of solar lamps and then of darkness once those failed.
    2. Telecom: A cellphone tower was erected on the edge of the village in December last year, rising above the mud houses and small shops.
    3. School building: A new government school building came up in the summer of 2025, painted bright blue and standing by the main road.
    4. School capacity: The school runs classes 1 to 8 with 158 students and seven teaching staff, all male, and has blackboards and benches.
    5. What preceded it: After the school was burnt down children studied in a shanty in the same compound, and an asbestos shade was put up there in 2020.
    6. Anganwadi and residential school: An anganwadi and a residential school are under construction in the village.
    7. Panchayat and ration infrastructure: Panchayat bhawans have been built and the new ration shop is painted in the colours of the Tricolour.
    8. Identity and banking: Villagers were called to the police camp where they were enrolled under Aadhaar and given birth certificates and bank accounts.
    9. Cash transfer: A household bank account opened last year now receives Rs 1,000 from the State under the Mahtari Vandan Yojana for women.
    10. Return of the vote: The village voted for the first time last year, in the local body polls, having been told under the Maoists to make no demands of the government.
    11. Political visit: The Chhattisgarh Chief Minister visited Kondapalli on 2 June, a first for the village.
    12. Announced pipeline: The Bijapur District Collector stated that over the next two years the village will get a cricket ground, a health centre, a cement road and government scheme benefits.
    13. Security presence: Security forces now camp in the jungle outside the village where Battalion No. 1 used to camp.
    14. Private consumption: A villager bought a Redmi phone for Rs 10,000 after the Maoists left, and uses it to watch films, news and skill tutorials.

    How has connectivity changed?

    1. Bus service: A blue bus from Cherla in Telangana has run since March 2025 under the State’s rural bus scheme, making two trips a day.
    2. What it connects: The bus carries villagers to Bijapur, 79 km to the north, and to Cherla in Telangana, where many young men work as daily wage labourers.
    3. The road agency: The Border Roads Organisation began work on the Tarrem to Kondapalli road soon after November 2024.
    4. Engineering on the road: On the stretch running past Kondapalli into Telangana, the BRO installed nine Bailey bridges over river streams and 43 precast culverts to keep the road usable during the rains.
    5. Present condition: The road is still a work in progress, carrying the occasional motorcycle or truck with construction material.
    6. Travel before the road: A circuitous journey of 209 km taking five hours through Cherla was the only way to travel from Bijapur to Kondapalli.
    7. Travel now: A 90 minute car ride from Bijapur reaches the village without crossing into Telangana, passing the junctions of Awapalli and Basaguda and reaching Tarrem on the Sukma and Bijapur border.
    8. Map lag: For the 18 km beyond Tarrem, Google Maps still recommends the older and longer route through Telangana.
    9. What the road replaced: Villagers earlier walked two days to Telangana carrying 30 kg of rice, stayed 45 days and worked plucking chillies on farms.
    10. A generation without a bus: The bus stopped after the Maoists came from Telangana in 1985, and an entire generation grew up without ever seeing one.
    11. Border geography: Kondapalli sits on the Telangana border and is closer to Cherla at 46 km than to its own district headquarters at Bijapur, 79 km away.

    What distances still separate the village from basic services?

    1. Health care: The nearest doctor requires a journey of over 30 km to Basaguda.
    2. Schooling beyond class 8: Students travel 33 km to Basaguda or 23 km to Pamed to continue past class 8.
    3. Higher education: The village’s first graduate could finish his education only by leaving during the Salwa Judum years for a hostel in Basaguda and then a college in Dantewada.
    4. A second case of leaving to study: A CRPF recruit from the village completed school while staying in a hostel in Usoor in Bijapur.
    5. Schooling in the earlier generation: The village head travelled 27 km by bus to school in Awapalli in the 1980s.
    6. Food supply: Villagers earlier travelled to Awapalli even to buy rice, which took a full day.
    7. Maternal health: Women died in labour or on the way to hospital because there was no medical facility nearby and no road, and were carried on cots.

    Why does the arrival of the state not settle the question of legitimacy?

    1. The camp changed hands rather than disappeared: Security forces occupy the same jungle space the Maoist battalion used, so the village still lives beside an armed presence.
    2. The demands are the same goods: A surrendered commander now asks the State for a borewell for irrigation, a pond, land rights, small roads and a visiting doctor, which are the goods the Maoists claimed to supply.
    3. Memory of redistribution: Residents attribute the Maoists’ trust to land redistribution and help in building houses, which the State’s works now have to match.
    4. Memory of being caught in between: Families were punished by both sides, with suspected informers killed by the Maoists and a relative killed by security forces on suspicion.
    5. The Salwa Judum legacy: A villager still recalls her father being beaten for hours in 2006 during the Salwa Judum years, and the Supreme Court declared that force illegal in 2011.
    6. Delivery remains promised: The health centre, cement road and cricket ground sit on a two year timetable, and the anganwadi and residential school are still under construction.
    7. What residents ask for next: Villagers name a health facility, a school for higher studies and a self help group for poultry, farming and other livelihoods as the unmet needs.

    Challenges to consolidating state presence in Bastar

    1. Reversibility of security gains: Cadre pushed across a State border can regroup and return if camps thin out. e.g. the cadre pushed out of Kondapalli in November 2024 moved into Telangana and laid down arms only in March 2026.
    2. Roads reach before services do: Physical connectivity arrives years ahead of health and higher education facilities, so the mortality and dropout risks persist. e.g. Kondapalli residents still travel more than 30 km to Basaguda to see a doctor.
    3. Education discontinuity beyond the primary stage: Village schools stop at class 8, so children must migrate to hostels to continue studying. e.g. Kondapalli students travel 33 km to Basaguda or 23 km to Pamed after class 8.
    4. Unsettled forest and land rights: Slow recognition of individual and community forest rights leaves the state contested on the very issue the Maoists mobilised on. e.g. community forest rights claims under the Forest Rights Act, 2006 have seen high rejection rates in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar districts.
    5. Distrust from past counter insurgency: Civilian militias and killings on suspicion leave a memory that slows cooperation with the administration. e.g. the Supreme Court struck down the Salwa Judum in Nandini Sundar versus State of Chhattisgarh (2011).
    6. Livelihood dependence on distant labour markets: Without local employment, better connectivity mainly makes it easier to migrate out. e.g. young men from Kondapalli take the daily bus to Cherla in Telangana for daily wage work.
    7. Administrative vacancy in interior blocks: Staffing in remote blocks remains thin even after the security situation improves. e.g. forest officials and the patwari stopped visiting Kondapalli entirely during the Maoist years, and the new school runs with seven teachers for classes 1 to 8.
    8. Displacement risk from mining and infrastructure: Newly accessible mineral belts raise the prospect of acquisition in Scheduled Areas without full consent. e.g. protests over iron ore mining in the Bailadila range in Dantewada in 2019.

    Conclusion

    Kondapalli shows that the end of an insurgency is measured by the return of ordinary state functions, not by the absence of armed cadre. Within two years of the CRPF forward base, the village has a road with nine Bailey bridges, a daily bus, grid electricity, a tower, a school with 158 students, Aadhaar numbers and bank accounts, and it has voted for the first time. The health centre, the cement road and the school for higher studies remain on a two year promise, and the villagers’ claims on the State now decide whether the change holds.

    Left Wing Extremism in India

    1. About: Left Wing Extremism is an armed movement that seeks to capture state power through a protracted people’s war, drawing on grievances over land, forest rights, displacement and the absence of the administration in tribal districts.
    2. Origin: It began with the peasant uprising at Naxalbari in West Bengal in 1967, which gave the movement its popular name.
    3. Principal organisation: The Communist Party of India (Maoist) was formed in 2004 by the merger of the People’s War Group and the Maoist Communist Centre of India, and is banned as a terrorist organisation.
    4. Armed wing: The People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army is its military formation, organised into platoons, companies and battalions.
    5. Geography: Influence was concentrated in the Dandakaranya belt across Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Maharashtra, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
    6. Parallel governance: Janatana Sarkars, also called Revolutionary People’s Committees, ran village administration, land distribution and dispute settlement in areas under Maoist control.
    7. Scale of decline: The number of districts affected by Left Wing Extremism fell from 126 in 2018 to 38 in April 2024, with the worst affected districts concentrated in the Bastar division.
    8. Policy frame: The National Policy and Action Plan of 2015 combines security measures, development, entitlements for tribal groups and perception management.
    9. Constitutional position: Police and public order are State subjects, so the Centre acts through central armed police forces, funding and intelligence sharing.

    Constitutional Framework Governing Scheduled Areas and Internal Security

    1. Article 244 and the Fifth Schedule: Provide for the administration of Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes, including the Governor’s power to modify the application of laws and the Tribes Advisory Council.
    2. Article 275(1): Provides grants in aid to States for tribal welfare and for raising the administration of Scheduled Areas to the level of the rest of the State.
    3. Article 338A: Establishes the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes to investigate and monitor safeguards for Scheduled Tribes.
    4. Article 355: Places on the Union the duty to protect every State against external aggression and internal disturbance.
    5. Article 356: Allows a proclamation where the government of a State cannot be carried on in accordance with the Constitution.
    6. Entry 1 of the State List: Places public order within the legislative competence of the States.
    7. Entry 2 of the State List: Places police within the legislative competence of the States.
    8. Entry 2A of the Union List: Covers the deployment of any armed force of the Union in a State in aid of the civil power.

    Laws and Rules Governing the Response to Left Wing Extremism

    1. Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967: Provides for banning unlawful associations and terrorist organisations and for offences of membership and support.
    2. Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2019: Allows the Centre to designate individuals, and not only organisations, as terrorists.
    3. Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act, 2005: Criminalises membership of and support to organisations declared unlawful within the State.
    4. National Investigation Agency Act, 2008: Creates a central agency to investigate scheduled offences including terrorism, with jurisdiction across States.
    5. Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996: Extends panchayat provisions to Fifth Schedule areas and vests the gram sabha with control over minor forest produce and consultation before land acquisition.
    6. Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006: Recognises individual and community forest rights of forest dwelling tribal groups.
    7. Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013: Requires consent, social impact assessment and rehabilitation, with additional safeguards in Scheduled Areas.
    8. Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023: Section 152 penalises acts endangering the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India.

    Back2Basics: Bastar Region

    1. Designation: Bastar is an administrative division of southern Chhattisgarh and the core of the Dandakaranya region.
    2. Districts: The division covers Bastar, Kondagaon, Narayanpur, Dantewada, Sukma, Bijapur and Kanker.
    3. Rivers: The Indravati and the Sabari are the principal rivers of the region.
    4. Protected areas: Kanger Valley National Park and the Indravati National Park and Tiger Reserve lie in the division.
    5. Landform features: The Chitrakote falls on the Indravati are the widest waterfall in India, and the Abujhmarh hills remain largely unsurveyed.
    6. Tribal groups: The Gond, Muria, Madia, Dorla, Halba and Bhatra communities live in the region.
    7. Cultural institutions: Bastar Dussehra runs for about 75 days and is among the longest festivals in the country, and the Ghotul is the traditional youth dormitory of the Muria.
    8. Mineral base: The Bailadila range in Dantewada holds some of India’s richest iron ore deposits.

    Government Initiatives for Left Wing Extremism Affected Areas

    1. SAMADHAN doctrine: The Centre’s operational framework combining smart leadership, aggressive strategy, motivation and training, actionable intelligence, dashboards, harnessing technology, action plans for each theatre and denial of financing.
    2. Security Related Expenditure Scheme: Reimburses States for the costs of security operations, training, community policing and rehabilitation of surrendered cadre.
    3. Special Infrastructure Scheme: Funds fortified police stations, secure camps and district police infrastructure in affected districts.
    4. Special Central Assistance: Provides funds for public infrastructure and services in the most affected districts.
    5. Road Connectivity Project for Left Wing Extremism Affected Areas: Builds all weather roads and bridges in affected districts, alongside the earlier Road Requirement Plan.
    6. LWE Mobile Tower Project: Installs mobile towers in affected districts to close the telecom gap.
    7. Civic Action Programme: Funds central armed police forces to run health camps, sports events and welfare activity to build local trust.
    8. ROSHNI and Eklavya Model Residential Schools: Provide skill training for youth and residential schooling for tribal children in affected districts.
    9. Aspirational Districts Programme: Targets health, nutrition, education and infrastructure indicators in the districts with the weakest outcomes, many of them in the Red Corridor.
    10. Niyad Nellanar scheme: A Chhattisgarh programme that saturates villages within a radius of new security camps with central and State scheme benefits.

    Key Facts about Left Wing Extremism

    1. Naxalbari: The movement takes its name from the 1967 uprising at Naxalbari in Darjeeling district of West Bengal.
    2. Formation of the CPI (Maoist): The party was formed on 21 September 2004 and is listed as a terrorist organisation under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
    3. Decline in affected districts: Affected districts fell from 126 in 2018 to 38 in April 2024.
    4. Salwa Judum: Formed in 2005 and declared illegal by the Supreme Court in 2011 in Nandini Sundar versus State of Chhattisgarh.
    5. Specialised forces: The Greyhounds in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and the District Reserve Guard and Bastar Fighters in Chhattisgarh, are the principal anti Maoist units.
    6. Stated deadline: The Union government set a target of ending Left Wing Extremism by 31 March 2026.
    7. Bastar toll: The insurgency claimed at least 4,741 lives in the Bastar region alone since 2000.
    8. Karregutta hills: The hills on the Chhattisgarh and Telangana border were the site of a major operation against Maoist formations.

    Challenges in Left Wing Extremism Affected Areas

    1. Development deficit that created the grievance: Absence of roads, schools, health centres and electricity is the condition the movement recruited on. e.g. Kondapalli got grid electricity only last July and a cellphone tower only in December.
    2. Weak implementation of tribal rights law: PESA and the Forest Rights Act remain unevenly implemented, so consent and forest produce rights stay contested. e.g. community forest rights claims across the Bastar districts have been rejected in large numbers.
    3. Displacement from mining and infrastructure: Acquisition in mineral rich Scheduled Areas turns development projects into recruitment arguments. e.g. protests over iron ore mining at Bailadila in Dantewada in 2019.
    4. Human rights costs of the security response: Killings on suspicion and civilian militias damage the state’s legitimacy for a generation. e.g. the Supreme Court’s 2011 order disbanding the Salwa Judum and disarming special police officers.
    5. Financing of the insurgency: Extortion from contractors, tendu leaf traders and transporters sustains cadre even after territorial losses. e.g. levy collection on road contractors has repeatedly been cited in National Investigation Agency chargesheets.
    6. Coordination across State borders: Cadre exploit inter State boundaries where police jurisdiction ends. e.g. the Kondapalli cadre moved into Telangana after the November 2024 encounters.
    7. Rehabilitation follow through: Surrender packages fail where no livelihood follows the cash grant. e.g. surrendered cadre in Bijapur depend on small kirana shops set up with one time rehabilitation money.
    8. Sustaining services after the camp: Teachers, doctors and revenue officials remain reluctant to serve in interior blocks. e.g. the new Kondapalli school has seven teachers for classes 1 to 8 and no facility beyond that.

    Way Forward

    1. Saturate cleared villages with entitlements: Extend the saturation model so every village within reach of a new camp receives Aadhaar, bank accounts, ration cards, pensions and scheme benefits within a fixed timeframe.
    2. Complete the road and telecom grid: Finish the Tarrem to Kondapalli type links and the mobile tower programme so connectivity does not stop at the camp.
    3. Settle forest and land rights first: Clear pending individual and community claims under the Forest Rights Act, 2006 and enforce gram sabha consent under PESA before any acquisition.
    4. Extend schooling beyond class 8 locally: Upgrade village schools and expand residential schools so children are not forced to migrate 20 to 35 km to continue.
    5. Place health infrastructure with the road: Staff sub centres and mobile medical units at the same time as road completion, rather than years later.
    6. Build local livelihoods: Fund self help groups, minor forest produce processing and poultry and farming enterprises so connectivity does not only enable outmigration.
    7. Make rehabilitation a multi year programme: Follow the surrender grant with skill training, credit and market linkage, and monitor outcomes for surrendered cadre.
    8. Institutionalise inter State coordination: Sustain joint operations, shared intelligence and unified surrender policies across Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Odisha, Maharashtra and Jharkhand.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2025, GS3, 10 marks] The Government of India recently stated that Left Wing Extremism (LWE) will be eliminated by 2026. What do you understand by LWE and how are the people affected by it? What measures have been taken by the government to eliminate LWE?”

  • Strait of Hormuz transit collapses to two vessels a day as the naval blockade hardens

    Why in the News

    Transit through the Strait of Hormuz fell to two vessels on Friday after two more ships were attacked in the waterway, against more than 130 crossings a day before the war began in February. The near standstill has turned Iran’s ability to close the strait into the decisive bargaining instrument of the war, and has pushed the United States to place cheaper fuel above nuclear denial as its first stated war aim.

    What is the Strait of Hormuz?

    1. Location: The strait connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, with Iran on the northern shore and Oman’s Musandam peninsula and the United Arab Emirates on the southern shore.
    2. Dimensions: It narrows to about 21 nautical miles, with inbound and outbound traffic separated into lanes about two nautical miles wide each.
    3. Volume carried: About a fifth of global petroleum liquids consumption passes through it, along with a large share of the world’s seaborne liquefied natural gas.
    4. Why it cannot be bypassed: Gulf producers hold limited pipeline capacity that avoids the strait, so most Gulf crude has no alternative route to the open ocean.
    5. Legal position of the lanes: The shipping lanes lie inside the territorial seas of Iran and Oman, so passage rests on the transit passage regime rather than on high seas freedom of navigation.

    What is a maritime chokepoint?

    1. About: A chokepoint is a narrow channel on a high volume shipping route where traffic must converge and cannot be economically rerouted.
    2. Why it matters: Closure at a chokepoint raises freight and insurance costs across an entire trade, because the alternative is a far longer voyage or no voyage at all.

    What is a naval blockade?

    1. About: A naval blockade is the use of warships to prevent vessels from entering or leaving an adversary’s ports or coastline.
    2. Its object here: The United States blockade is aimed at stopping Iran from selling oil and at inflicting economic damage rather than at seizing territory.

    Who is the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC)?

    1. About: ADNOC is the state owned oil and gas company of the United Arab Emirates and one of the largest producers in the Gulf.
    2. Its role in the news: Two vessels affiliated to ADNOC were attacked while transiting the strait, and the UAE government blamed Iran for the attack.

    What is going dark on the Automatic Identification System?

    1. About: Merchant ships broadcast their identity and position through a transponder, and switching it off removes them from public tracking.
    2. Effect on the count: Vessel counts drawn from tracking data understate real traffic, because ships moving with transponders off are not recorded.

    How far has traffic through the strait actually fallen?

    1. Friday count: Two vessels passed through the waterway, a grain ship entering Iranian waters and an empty dry bulk ship moving in the opposite direction.
    2. A third movement: A separate empty liquefied petroleum products tanker was sailing into the Gulf through the strait on the same day.
    3. No crude at all: No crude oil shipments were visible on Friday.
    4. Preceding days: Nine vessels passed through on Thursday, up from five on Wednesday.
    5. Benchmark for the month: The August average stands at 12 vessels a day.
    6. Pre war benchmark: More than 130 ships traversed the strait daily before the war launched by the United States and Israel on Iran in February.
    7. Measurement caveat: Some ships may pass undetected with their transponders switched off, so the recorded figures are a floor rather than a full count.

    Why is control of the strait Iran’s main leverage?

    1. Analyst assessment: The principal Middle East analyst at a risk intelligence firm assessed that Iran’s ability to restrict shipping through the strait is its main source of leverage in negotiations, alongside the threat to regional energy infrastructure.
    2. A permission regime at sea: Iran has resumed attacks on ships it accuses of trying to transit the strait without its permission.
    3. Talks stalled: A senior Iranian source stated on Wednesday that there had been no progress in talks to build on the June agreement to end the war.
    4. Collapse of the ceasefire: The ceasefire renewed under the June deal has broken down, which preceded the resumption of attacks on shipping.
    5. Conditions for reopening: Iran has said it will not allow the waterway to reopen until economic sanctions are removed and frozen Iranian assets are released.
    6. Legislative backing: An Iranian parliamentary committee approved a plan for the strait on Thursday that bans the transit of United States, Israeli and other hostile countries’ assets and equipment.
    7. Attack on Emirati vessels: ADNOC said two of its vessels were attacked while transiting the strait on Thursday evening, and Iran made no immediate comment on the Emirati accusation.

    How has the closure reordered United States war aims?

    1. Stated reversal of priorities: The Vice President stated that goal number one is to keep oil and gas cheap for Americans and that goal number two is to ensure Iran never gets a nuclear weapon.
    2. The original justification: Preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon had been the consistently stated main reason for the war.
    3. Domestic pressure: The war is unpopular, the President’s approval rating is falling and midterm elections are due in November.
    4. Party calculation: Republicans fear that the war and the gasoline prices it has driven up will cost them control of Congress.
    5. Military constraint: The United States military burned through stockpiles of costly high technology missiles and is running low, which limits the option of resuming large scale attacks.
    6. Blockade endurance: The Defence Secretary stated that the navy can maintain the blockade indefinitely by rotating ships in and out of the region.
    7. Negotiating posture: The President described the approach as low keying it and only semi negotiating, days after saying an agreement to reopen the strait was imminent.
    8. Economic track: The Treasury Secretary announced measures of economic isolation without precedent, with further announcements expected next week.

    What do the positions of the other parties show about the cost of the closure?

    1. United Arab Emirates: Its state oil company had two vessels attacked in the strait and the government publicly blamed Iran, which shows that Gulf producers outside the war are absorbing its shipping costs.
    2. Iran: Its parliamentary committee converted the closure into a formal transit ban on the assets and equipment of hostile states, which shows the closure is now settled policy rather than episodic reprisal.
    3. United States: It has moved from strikes to a naval blockade of Iranian ports and a bar on Iranian oil sales, which shows the war has become an economic siege rather than a military campaign.
    4. Israel: It launched the war jointly with the United States in February and is named in Iran’s transit ban, which shows the strait is being used to impose costs directly on the belligerents.
    5. Limits of the evidence: These are the only national positions the reporting supplies, so the effect on Asian importers is documented through prices rather than through stated country positions.

    How exposed is India to a prolonged closure of the strait?

    1. Crude dependence: India imports over 85 percent of the crude oil it consumes and is the third largest crude importer in the world.
    2. Route concentration: Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait are among India’s largest suppliers, and cargoes from all four leave the Gulf through Hormuz.
    3. Gas contracts: Qatar supplies close to half of India’s liquefied natural gas under long term contracts, and every one of those cargoes transits the strait.
    4. Fertiliser inputs: Urea, ammonia and phosphatic raw material contracted from Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar move on the same route, which links the strait directly to the fertiliser subsidy bill.
    5. Seafarers: Indians form a large share of the global seafaring workforce and crew a substantial part of Gulf trade, so attacks on merchant shipping place Indian crews directly at risk.
    6. Price transmission: A sustained rise in crude prices widens the current account deficit, raises the oil import bill and feeds into domestic fuel and freight costs.
    7. Insurance and freight: War risk premiums on Gulf voyages rise sharply during a closure, which adds a cost to every cargo that does move.
    8. Remittances and diaspora: About nine million Indians live and work in the Gulf, so a prolonged war in the region carries an employment and remittance risk alongside the energy risk.

    Challenges to keeping the Strait of Hormuz open

    1. Narrow lanes inside territorial waters: The shipping lanes run through Iranian and Omani territorial seas, which lets a littoral state interfere with passage at short notice. e.g. Iranian forces seized the container ship MSC Aries near the strait in April 2024.
    2. Mines and fast attack craft: Sea mines and small armed boats can close a channel at very low cost against far more expensive warships. e.g. the mining of the frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts in 1988 triggered Operation Praying Mantis.
    3. Limited bypass pipeline capacity: Existing pipelines that avoid the strait can carry only a fraction of Gulf export volumes. e.g. Saudi Arabia’s East West pipeline to Yanbu and the Emirati line to Fujairah together fall well short of normal Hormuz throughput.
    4. Insurance and crew availability: War risk premiums and crew refusal can halt trade even where warships keep a route physically open. e.g. attacks on shipping in the Red Sea from late 2023 pushed premiums up several fold and diverted traffic around the Cape of Good Hope.
    5. Attribution difficulties in attacks at sea: Limpet mines and drones leave little evidence, which delays any collective response. e.g. the 2019 attacks on tankers near Fujairah were denied by Iran and never conclusively attributed.
    6. Escalation risk from convoy operations: Naval escorting draws external navies into direct contact with a littoral state’s forces. e.g. the reflagging of Kuwaiti tankers under Operation Earnest Will in 1987 led to repeated armed clashes.
    7. Thin strategic buffers for importers: Importing countries hold limited emergency stocks, so a closure of a few weeks becomes a fiscal event. e.g. India’s strategic petroleum reserves hold about 5.33 million tonnes, close to nine to ten days of imports.

    Conclusion

    Control of the Strait of Hormuz, and not the nuclear programme, now sets the terms of the war. Iran has converted a waterway into a bargaining instrument, and the United States has answered with a blockade it says it can sustain indefinitely and sanctions it says will be without precedent. Transit stands at two vessels a day against more than 130 before February, and reopening rests on sanctions relief and the release of frozen assets that neither side has conceded.

    Maritime Chokepoints and Global Energy Security

    1. About: A small number of narrow sea passages carry most of the world’s traded oil and gas, which makes energy security a function of a few points on the map.
    2. Strait of Hormuz: It carries roughly 20 million barrels of oil a day and the bulk of Qatari liquefied natural gas, and it has no adequate bypass.
    3. Strait of Malacca: It links the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea and carries a comparable volume of oil, mostly bound for China, Japan and South Korea.
    4. Bab el Mandeb: It connects the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea and is the approach to the Suez Canal for Asia to Europe trade.
    5. Suez Canal and the SUMED pipeline: Together they move Gulf and Red Sea crude to the Mediterranean without the Cape route.
    6. Turkish Straits: The Bosphorus and the Dardanelles carry Russian and Caspian crude out of the Black Sea.
    7. Cape of Good Hope: It is the fallback route when Suez or Bab el Mandeb is unusable, adding roughly two weeks to an Asia to Europe voyage.
    8. India’s position: India is the third largest oil consumer and importer in the world, and its imports pass through Hormuz on the western side and Malacca on the eastern side.

    Legal Framework Governing Transit Through International Straits

    1. Article 3 of UNCLOS, 1982: Allows a coastal state a territorial sea of up to 12 nautical miles, which is why the Hormuz lanes fall within national waters.
    2. Article 37 of UNCLOS, 1982: Applies the transit passage regime to straits used for international navigation between one part of the high seas or an exclusive economic zone and another.
    3. Article 38 of UNCLOS, 1982: Grants all ships and aircraft the right of transit passage, which shall not be impeded.
    4. Article 39 of UNCLOS, 1982: Requires ships in transit passage to proceed without delay and to refrain from any threat or use of force against the bordering state.
    5. Article 44 of UNCLOS, 1982: Bars states bordering straits from hampering transit passage and from suspending it.
    6. Article 45 of UNCLOS, 1982: Applies non suspendable innocent passage to straits excluded from the transit passage regime.
    7. SUA Convention, 1988: Criminalises seizure of and violence against ships and obliges parties to prosecute or extradite offenders.
    8. Article 51 of the United Nations Charter: Preserves the right of individual and collective self defence against an armed attack, which is the ground invoked for naval action.

    Back2Basics: Strait of Hormuz

    1. Type: It is a maritime chokepoint and the only sea route from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean.
    2. Connects: It joins the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and further with the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean.
    3. Littoral states: Iran lies to the north, and Oman and the United Arab Emirates lie to the south.
    4. Width: Its narrowest point is about 21 nautical miles, roughly 39 kilometres.
    5. Key islands: Qeshm, Hormuz and Larak are Iranian, and Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs are held by Iran and claimed by the United Arab Emirates.
    6. Peninsula on the southern shore: The Musandam peninsula belongs to Oman and is separated from the rest of the country by Emirati territory.
    7. Users: Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Iran export their oil and gas through it.
    8. Volume: It handles roughly a fifth of the world’s petroleum liquids consumption and about a fifth of global liquefied natural gas trade.

    Government Initiatives for India’s Energy Security

    1. Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves: Underground caverns at Visakhapatnam, Mangaluru and Padur hold about 5.33 million tonnes of crude for emergency use, with a second phase planned at Chandikhol and Padur.
    2. Diversification of crude sources: Refiners have expanded purchases from Russia, West Africa, the United States and Latin America to reduce dependence on Gulf cargoes.
    3. Chabahar port and the International North South Transport Corridor: These provide a route to Central Asia and Russia that avoids the Suez and Hormuz corridors.
    4. India Middle East Europe Economic Corridor: A rail and shipping corridor announced in 2023 to link India to the Gulf and Europe with reduced maritime dependence.
    5. National Green Hydrogen Mission: Targets 5 million tonnes of annual green hydrogen production by 2030 to displace imported fossil fuel in industry and transport.
    6. Ethanol Blended Petrol Programme: Raises the ethanol share in petrol to cut crude import volumes and the import bill.
    7. Open Acreage Licensing Policy and the Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy: Expand domestic exploration acreage to raise indigenous production.
    8. Maritime India Vision 2030 and Sagarmala: Expand port capacity, coastal shipping and shipbuilding to strengthen India’s own maritime logistics.

    Key Facts about World Maritime Chokepoints

    1. Hormuz volume: Roughly 20 million barrels of oil a day pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
    2. Malacca volume: The Strait of Malacca carries a comparable oil volume and is the shortest route between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific.
    3. Suez Canal: Opened in 1869 and nationalised in 1956, it links the Red Sea to the Mediterranean.
    4. Panama Canal: Opened in 1914, it links the Atlantic and the Pacific and is constrained by fresh water availability at Gatun Lake.
    5. Bab el Mandeb: Its name means the Gate of Tears, and it separates Yemen from Djibouti and Eritrea.
    6. Turkish Straits regime: Transit is governed by the Montreux Convention of 1936, which regulates warship passage into the Black Sea.
    7. India’s maritime footprint: About 95 percent of India’s trade by volume and 70 percent by value moves by sea.
    8. Observance: World Maritime Day is observed by the International Maritime Organization in the last week of September.

    Challenges in India’s Energy Security

    1. Import dependence in crude: More than four fifths of consumption is met by imports, so any supply shock transmits straight to the fiscal position. e.g. the oil import bill crossed 130 billion dollars in a single year when Brent averaged above 100 dollars a barrel in 2022 and 2023.
    2. Concentration of gas supply: A single supplier accounts for close to half of contracted liquefied natural gas imports. e.g. the long term Qatari contracts renewed in 2024 run to 2048 and all of that volume transits Hormuz.
    3. Thin emergency stocks: Strategic reserves cover only a few days of consumption against the 90 day norm followed by International Energy Agency members. e.g. India’s reserves at Visakhapatnam, Mangaluru and Padur total about 5.33 million tonnes.
    4. Payment and sanctions exposure: Sanctions on suppliers disrupt settlement channels and shipping insurance for Indian refiners. e.g. tightened sanctions on Russian crude in 2025 forced refiners to switch cargoes and payment routes at short notice.
    5. Fertiliser and petrochemical linkage: Gas priced off oil raises the urea subsidy and petrochemical feedstock costs at the same time. e.g. imported urea contracted at 390 dollars a tonne this year illustrates how a Gulf disruption reaches farm input prices.
    6. Domestic production stagnation: Crude and gas output from ageing fields has not risen with demand. e.g. Mumbai High and the Krishna Godavari basin have seen declining production profiles despite repeated bid rounds.
    7. Renewable intermittency and storage gap: Solar and wind capacity growth is not matched by storage, which keeps thermal and imported fuel in the base load. e.g. peak evening demand in northern States is still met largely by coal and imported gas.

    Way Forward

    1. Expand strategic petroleum reserves: Complete the Chandikhol and Padur phase two caverns and move coverage towards the 90 day international norm.
    2. Diversify supply and routes: Extend term contracts to non Gulf suppliers and build storage and refuelling arrangements outside the Hormuz corridor.
    3. Invest in bypass connectivity: Operationalise Chabahar, the International North South Transport Corridor and the India Middle East Europe Economic Corridor so a single chokepoint does not carry all trade.
    4. Strengthen naval escort and maritime domain awareness: Sustain deployments and the Information Fusion Centre for the Indian Ocean Region to protect Indian flagged and Indian crewed shipping.
    5. Support seafarers and shipping insurance: Extend war risk cover arrangements and evacuation protocols for Indian crews on Gulf routes.
    6. Accelerate demand substitution: Raise ethanol blending, electric mobility and green hydrogen use to cut the volume of crude that must be imported at all.
    7. Build a price shock buffer in the Budget: Maintain an explicit fiscal cushion for the fuel and fertiliser subsidy so a chokepoint closure does not force mid year expenditure cuts.

    “[2026] Ships from which of the following countries have to cross the Strait of Hormuz to reach out to the Indian Ocean?

    1. Bahrain

    2. Syria

    3. Qatar

    4. Egypt

    (a) 1 and 2

    (b) 1 and 3

    (c) 2 and 3

    (d) 3 and 4

  • Registrar General notifies 40-question Census schedule with caste enumerated beyond SC and ST

    Why in the News

    The Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India has notified the 40 question schedule for the population enumeration phase of Census 2027, with caste recorded as an open declaration for the first time in independent India outside the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The notification exposes two tensions. An open caste column stands against the State wise lists prepared in advance for recent State caste surveys, and eight identity fields drawn from the 2020 National Population Register schedule now sit inside an exercise conducted under the Census Act, 1948.

    What is the population enumeration schedule of Census 2027?

    1. About: The schedule is the questionnaire that census officers are legally authorised to put to every person residing in their assigned area.
    2. Issuing authority: It was notified by the Ministry of Home Affairs under the Census Act, 1948, on the authority of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India.
    3. Instrument of collection: Information is gathered through the household schedule, which records the particulars of every person residing in a household.
    4. Size: Census 2027 carries 40 questions against the 29 questions of the Census 2011 questionnaire.
    5. Placement in the exercise: The Census runs in two phases, Housing and House Listing Operations followed by Population Enumeration, and this schedule governs the second phase.
    6. The caste field: Question number 10 reads Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), Caste, and the enumerator records the caste as declared by the respondent.

    What is the National Population Register (NPR)?

    1. About: The NPR is the register of usual residents of the country, which is distinct from a register of citizens.
    2. Legal basis: It is prepared under the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003, framed under the Citizenship Act, 1955.

    What is the National Register of Indian Citizens?

    1. About: It is a register of citizens prepared by verifying the entries already recorded in the Population Register.
    2. Local tier: The Local Register of Indian Citizens holds the verified particulars of persons within the jurisdiction of a Local Registrar.

    What is the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011?

    1. About: The SECC was a household survey of socio economic status and caste conducted alongside Census 2011.
    2. Statutory position: It was run as a survey outside the purview of the Census Act, 1948, carried no statutory backing, and its caste data were never released by the government.

    What are Housing and House Listing Operations?

    1. About: This is the first phase of the Census, which lists every building and household and records housing conditions and household assets.
    2. Current status: The phase is due to end on 30 September and has been completed in most States except West Bengal, Assam and Manipur.

    What is a reference date in a Census?

    1. About: The reference date is the fixed instant to which every entry relates, so a person is counted by their situation at that moment rather than on the day the enumerator visits.
    2. Dates notified: It is 12 a.m. on 1 October for the areas enumerated early and 12 a.m. on 1 March 2027 for the rest of the country.

    What is self enumeration in the Census?

    1. About: Self enumeration allows a household to fill its own schedule through a digital application before any enumerator visit.
    2. Window notified: The option is available from 17 to 31 August, before house to house population enumeration begins.

    Who is the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India (RG&CCI)?

    1. About: The RG&CCI is the authority under the Ministry of Home Affairs that conducts the Census and notifies the questions census officers are authorised to ask.
    2. Other charge: The same office runs the Civil Registration System and the Sample Registration System.

    What are the new or modified questions in the Census 2027 schedule?

    1. Spouse name: The name of the respondent’s spouse is recorded for the first time.
    2. Nationality as declared: Nationality is recorded as stated by the respondent.
    3. Father’s particulars: Details of the respondent’s father are recorded.
    4. Mother’s particulars: Details of the respondent’s mother are recorded.
    5. Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Caste: The existing SC and ST question is modified to add an open caste field.
    6. Literacy and digital literacy: Digital literacy is added to the existing literacy question.
    7. Highest educational level attained and stream or discipline: The stream or discipline of study is recorded along with the level attained.
    8. Place of COVID 19 vaccination: The place where the person received a COVID 19 vaccine is recorded.
    9. Total number of bank accounts: The count of bank accounts held is recorded.
    10. Mobile number: The mobile telephone number is recorded where available.
    11. Aadhaar number: The Aadhaar number is recorded where available.
    12. Voter ID number: The voter identity card number is recorded where available.
    13. Passport number: The passport number is recorded for Indian passport holders.
    14. Availability of driving licence: Whether the person holds a driving licence is recorded.
    15. Permanent residential address: The permanent residential address is also listed among the fields added for the first time.
    16. Scale of the change: Thirteen questions or data fields are entirely new against the 29 question Census 2011 schedule, and 14 questions are new or modified when the caste field is counted as a modification.

    Which of these questions were also part of the 2020 NPR schedule?

    1. Nationality as declared: Declared nationality was sought in the NPR schedule notified in 2020.
    2. Father’s particulars: Particulars of the father were part of the same NPR schedule.
    3. Mother’s particulars: Particulars of the mother were part of the same NPR schedule.
    4. Mobile number: The mobile number was collected under the NPR schedule.
    5. Aadhaar number: The Aadhaar number was collected under the NPR schedule.
    6. Voter ID number: The voter identity card number was collected under the NPR schedule.
    7. Passport number: The passport number was collected under the NPR schedule.
    8. Driving licence: Availability of a driving licence was collected under the NPR schedule.

    Why does an open caste column divide opinion against a list prepared in advance?

    1. The method notified: The enumerator records the caste as declared by the respondent, because the field is an open column with no fixed set of options.
    2. Evidence from the pre test: The pre test for population enumeration ran from 1 to 20 July in 16 States and Union Territories, where respondents outside the reserved categories recorded caste in an open column.
    3. The alternative sought: The Congress general secretary stated that the caste question was widely expected to carry a State wise list prepared in advance, as in the Bihar and Telangana caste surveys, with the response merely ticked.
    4. Charge on intent: The absence of such a list has been described as raising serious doubts on intent.
    5. Record of the open column: The same method in the 2011 SECC returned over 46 lakh different caste names, largely owing to differences in what people understand by caste.
    6. Historical benchmark: The 1931 Census, the last to enumerate caste, recorded 4,147 castes.
    7. Government position: The 2011 SECC caste data have been held over the last decade to be unreliable because of errors in data collection.

    How does the overlap with the NPR schedule reopen the citizenship question?

    1. Statutory link: The Citizenship Rules, 2003 provide for preparation of a Population Register and envisage its verification for preparation of the National Register of Indian Citizens.
    2. Doubtful entries: Rule 4 provides for marking the particulars of individuals whose citizenship is considered doubtful during verification, for further inquiry.
    3. Parental birth details: The 2020 NPR schedule sought the date and place of birth of a person’s father and mother, including district and State, and the country of birth where they were born outside India.
    4. The earlier controversy: Opposition parties and civil society groups argued in 2019 and 2020 that the NPR was a precursor to a nationwide NRC and that parental birth details could later be used to determine citizenship.
    5. State resistance: Several Opposition ruled States passed resolutions opposing the NPR exercise.
    6. Political amplification: The Union Home Minister had repeatedly spoken of a nationwide NRC and sought to link it with the Citizenship Amendment Act through a stated chronology.
    7. Assurance on record: The Prime Minister said in December 2019 that the government had not taken any decision to conduct the NRC, and the Home Ministry reiterated that position on several occasions.
    8. Present position: The Census questions return without any notification for an NPR and without any announced decision to undertake a nationwide NRC.

    What is the current status of the NPR exercise?

    1. First collection: NPR data were first collected in 2010, along with the houselisting phase of the 2011 Census.
    2. Update: The register was updated through a door to door exercise in 2015.
    3. Revival: The Registrar General revived the NPR through a notification in August 2019, to be carried out with the houselisting phase of the 2021 Census.
    4. Postponement: That exercise was postponed because of the COVID 19 pandemic.
    5. Budget provision: The Union Budget 2026 to 2027 allocated Rs 6,000 crore under the head Census, Survey and Statistics and Registrar General of India, for Census 2027 and the NPR.
    6. No fresh notification: The houselisting phase was notified for 1 April to 30 September and made no mention of the NPR, and no fresh NPR exercise has been notified.
    7. Official explanation: A Home Ministry official stated that the allocation followed provisions made in previous budgets since 2020, to keep funds available if and when the government decides to conduct the NPR.

    How is Census 2027 being sequenced across the country?

    1. Early start: Population enumeration begins on Monday in Ladakh and the snow bound areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.
    2. Rest of the country: Enumeration in the remaining States and Union Territories will take place in February 2027.
    3. Self enumeration window: The self enumeration option runs from 17 to 31 August, before house to house enumeration starts.
    4. Reference dates: The count relates to 12 a.m. on 1 October for the early areas and to 12 a.m. on 1 March 2027 for the rest of the country.
    5. First phase status: Housing and House Listing Operations end on 30 September and are complete in most States except West Bengal, Assam and Manipur.
    6. Historical marker: This is the first Census since 1931 to enumerate caste and the first in independent India to record caste beyond the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

    Challenges to caste enumeration in Census 2027

    1. Uncontrolled caste nomenclature: An open column accepts whatever name a respondent offers, so sub castes, gotras, sect names and surnames enter the record as separate castes. e.g. the 2011 SECC returned over 46 lakh caste names against the 4,147 castes recorded in the 1931 Census.
    2. No mapping to State lists: Names collected without a State list cannot be matched to State Other Backward Classes schedules that decide reservation benefits. e.g. Bihar’s 2023 caste survey worked from a fixed list of 214 castes, which allowed direct tabulation of shares.
    3. Enumerator discretion in the field: Recording is left to a field enumerator, usually a school teacher, with limited training in caste classification. e.g. the 2011 SECC required years of post survey classification by an Expert Group and still yielded data the government declined to release.
    4. Privacy exposure of identity numbers: Aadhaar, voter identity, passport and mobile numbers create a single linked identity record collected by a field officer. e.g. the Supreme Court in K.S. Puttaswamy versus Union of India (2017) required legality, legitimate aim and proportionality for any state collection of personal data.
    5. Association with citizenship verification: Eight fields repeat the NPR schedule that triggered protests in 2019 and 2020, which raises the risk of non response in minority and migrant households. e.g. several Opposition ruled State assemblies passed resolutions against the NPR in 2020.
    6. Operational strain of a longer schedule: Forty questions against 29 lengthens every household visit and raises enumerator fatigue and transcription error. e.g. the first phase is still incomplete in West Bengal, Assam and Manipur with six weeks left on the notified deadline.
    7. Contestation of the published count: Caste totals feed directly into claims on reservation, so each figure becomes a subject of political dispute. e.g. Bihar’s survey finding that Extremely Backward and Backward Classes form about 63 percent of the State’s population immediately produced demands to breach the 50 percent ceiling.

    Conclusion

    The notification settles the method of the caste count and leaves its reliability open. An open column repeats the design that produced 46 lakh caste names in 2011, and eight identity fields carry the NPR schedule into a statutory Census that no NPR notification accompanies. Population enumeration begins on Monday in the snow bound areas, with the rest of the country following in February 2027.

    Population Data Systems in India

    1. About: India measures its population through one complete decennial count, one continuous registration system, and a set of large sample surveys that fill the years between counts.
    2. Census: The Census is a complete headcount conducted since 1872 and synchronously since 1881, and it has run every ten years without interruption until the 2021 round was postponed.
    3. Civil Registration System: The system continuously records births and deaths under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, through State registrars.
    4. Sample Registration System: This large scale sample survey supplies annual estimates of birth rate, death rate and infant mortality rate between two Censuses.
    5. National Population Register: The NPR is a register of usual residents maintained under the Citizenship Rules, 2003, and is not a statistical product.
    6. Sample surveys: The National Sample Survey and the National Family Health Survey supply consumption, employment and health estimates that draw their sampling frames from the Census.
    7. Digital shift: Census 2027 is the first Census to be conducted digitally, using a mobile application for enumerators and a self enumeration portal for households.

    Statutory and Constitutional Framework Governing the Census and Population Registers

    1. Article 246: Distributes legislative power between the Union and the States through the three lists of the Seventh Schedule.
    2. Entry 69 of the Union List: Places Census exclusively within the legislative competence of Parliament.
    3. Census Act, 1948: Provides the legal basis for conducting the Census and for the appointment, powers and duties of census officers.
    4. Section 3 of the Census Act, 1948: Empowers the Central Government to take a census whenever it considers necessary and to notify its intention.
    5. Section 8 of the Census Act, 1948: Obliges every occupier and every person to answer the questions put by a census officer.
    6. Section 15 of the Census Act, 1948: Makes census records confidential, keeps them out of public inspection and bars their use as evidence.
    7. Section 14A of the Citizenship Act, 1955: Empowers the Centre to compulsorily register every citizen, issue national identity cards and maintain a National Register of Indian Citizens.
    8. Rule 3(4) of the Citizenship Rules, 2003: Allows the Centre to fix a date by which the Population Register is to be prepared, by collecting information on all persons usually residing within a Local Registrar’s jurisdiction.
    9. Rule 3(5) of the Citizenship Rules, 2003: Provides that the Local Register of Indian Citizens will contain the details of persons after verification from the Population Register.
    10. Rule 4 of the Citizenship Rules, 2003: Provides for marking the particulars of individuals whose citizenship is considered doubtful during verification, for further inquiry.

    Laws and Rules Governing Census and Population Data

    1. Census Act, 1948: Governs the conduct of the Census, the powers of census officers and the confidentiality of individual returns.
    2. Census Rules, 1990: Provide the operational detail for appointment of census officers, forms, schedules and the handling of census records.
    3. Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969: Makes registration of births and deaths compulsory and establishes the Civil Registration System.
    4. Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Act, 2023: Makes the birth certificate a single document for admission, employment and voter registration, and provides for national databases of registered births and deaths.
    5. Citizenship Act, 1955: Governs acquisition and determination of citizenship, and carries the registration mandate in Section 14A.
    6. Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003: Provide for the Population Register, the Local, Sub District, District, State and National Registers of Indian Citizens, and the marking of doubtful citizenship.
    7. Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016: Governs the collection and use of Aadhaar numbers and restricts their use to notified purposes.
    8. Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023: Governs the processing of digital personal data and allows the Centre to exempt State instrumentalities from specified obligations.
    9. Collection of Statistics Act, 2008: Governs the collection of statistics on economic, demographic and social matters by the Centre, States and local bodies.

    Back2Basics: Census of India

    1. First census: The first census was taken in 1872 in a non synchronous manner during the tenure of Viceroy Lord Mayo.
    2. First synchronous census: The first synchronous census was held in 1881 under Viceroy Lord Ripon.
    3. Frequency: The Census has been conducted every ten years without a break since 1881, and Census 2011 was the fifteenth national census and the seventh since Independence.
    4. Administering office: The Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India was created in 1949 and functions under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
    5. Legal basis: The exercise is conducted under the Census Act, 1948, and Census is Entry 69 of the Union List.
    6. Last caste count: The 1931 Census was the last to enumerate caste in full, recording 4,147 castes.
    7. Census 2011 headline figures: Population stood at 121.09 crore, decadal growth at 17.7 percent, density at 382 persons per square kilometre, sex ratio at 943 and literacy at 74.04 percent.
    8. Census 2027 markers: It is the first digital Census, the first to enumerate caste since 1931, and it carries two reference dates, 1 October 2026 for snow bound areas and 1 March 2027 for the rest of the country.

    Government Initiatives Related to Population Data

    1. Census 2027 digital application: Enumerators record household and personal particulars on a mobile application instead of paper schedules.
    2. Self enumeration portal: Households can complete their own schedule online ahead of the enumerator’s visit.
    3. Civil Registration System portal: Births and deaths are registered online through a centralised portal, with certificates issued digitally.
    4. Sample Registration System: Provides annual vital rate estimates for States and districts between Censuses.
    5. National Population Register: Maintains a register of usual residents under the Citizenship Rules, 2003.
    6. Aadhaar: Provides a unique identity number used to authenticate beneficiaries of subsidies and services.
    7. National Data and Analytics Platform: A NITI Aayog platform that puts government datasets in a standardised, machine readable form for public use.

    Key Facts about the Census of India

    1. First post Independence census: The first census of independent India was conducted in 1951.
    2. Phases of Census 2011: House Listing Operations ran from April to September 2010 and Population Enumeration from 9 to 28 February 2011.
    3. Population recorded in 2011: The count stood at 121,08,54,977 persons.
    4. State extremes in 2011: Uttar Pradesh was the most populous State, Sikkim the least populous, Kerala recorded the highest literacy and Bihar the lowest.
    5. Density extremes in 2011: Bihar recorded the highest density among States at 1,106 persons per square kilometre and Arunachal Pradesh the lowest at 17.
    6. Frozen delimitation: Lok Sabha seat allocation remains fixed on the 1971 Census until the first census taken after 2026.
    7. Observance: World Population Day is observed on 11 July every year.

    Challenges in India’s Population Data System

    1. Delay in the decennial count: A postponed Census leaves the country without a fresh headcount for far longer than the ten year cycle allows. e.g. the 2021 Census was deferred and the next reference date is 1 March 2027, a gap of sixteen years.
    2. Outdated policy denominators: Welfare entitlements are calculated on population shares that are more than a decade old. e.g. National Food Security Act, 2013 coverage still rests on 2011 population, and estimates placed before the Supreme Court in 2021 put the excluded number at about 10 crore people.
    3. Under registration of births and deaths: Incomplete civil registration prevents the Census from being cross checked against a continuous record. e.g. excess mortality during the COVID 19 pandemic could not be settled because registration completeness varied sharply across States.
    4. Weak measurement of migration: The Census captures migration by last residence and misses seasonal and circular movement. e.g. the 2011 Census counted about 45.6 crore internal migrants, yet in 2020 no State held a usable register of returning migrant workers.
    5. Caste data gap: The absence of a modern caste count forces policy to rely on pre Independence figures. e.g. the Mandal Commission derived its estimate of Other Backward Classes at about 52 percent from the 1931 Census.
    6. Data privacy architecture: Collection of identity numbers by a field officer proceeds without an independent oversight body in place. e.g. the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 permits the Centre to exempt State instrumentalities from key obligations by notification.
    7. Delayed release and access: Long gaps between collection and release reduce the value of the data for planning. e.g. SECC 2011 caste data were never released at all.

    Way Forward

    1. Publish a State wise caste directory: Prepare and release a standardised caste list for each State before tabulation, so open column returns can be mapped consistently.
    2. Legislate a fixed census calendar: Amend the Census Act, 1948 to bind the Centre to a stated reference date and a stated release schedule for each decennial round.
    3. Separate the statistical count from citizenship registers: Notify expressly that data collected under the Census Act, 1948 will not be used to prepare or verify any register under the Citizenship Rules, 2003.
    4. Strengthen the Civil Registration System: Raise registration completeness to near universal levels so annual vital statistics reduce dependence on a ten year count.
    5. Constitute an independent data audit: Route quality assurance of the caste and identity fields through the National Statistical Commission before publication.
    6. Release anonymised unit level data: Publish anonymised microdata on a fixed timetable so researchers can test tabulations rather than accept them.
    7. Train enumerators on caste recording: Run a dedicated module for enumerators on recording caste responses and on handling refusals, before the February 2027 round.

    “[2009] Consider the following statements :

    1. Between Census 1951 and Census 2001, the density of the population of India has increased more than three times.

    2. Between Census 1951 and Census 2001, the annual growth rate (exponential) of the population of India has doubled.

    Which of the statements given abova is/are correct ?

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) Both 1 and 2

    (d) Neither 1 nor 2

  • Kashmir’s willow bat industry strains under cleft shortage, smuggling and wetland loss despite the 2025 GI tag

    Why in the News

    Kashmir’s ₹700 crore cricket bat industry supports around 50,000 livelihoods, but faces a shortage of quality willow. English willow prices have risen from ₹300 to ₹4,250 per foot since 2021.

    Key Facts

    1. Raw material: Mainly Salix alba (English willow).
    2. Industry: 195 registered manufacturers and around 150 cleft dealers.
    3. Production: Around 30 lakh bats annually.
    4. Trees: Nearly 1.2 lakh mature trees are felled annually.
    5. Maturity: Willow requires about 12 to 15 years to reach harvest maturity.
    6. Smuggling: Over 25 lakh clefts are reportedly smuggled out annually.
    7. GI Tag: Kashmir willow bats received a GI tag in 2025.

    Why is the industry facing a crisis?

    • Scarcity of quality willow
    • Wetland and spring degradation
    • Smuggling of clefts
    • Long 12 to 15 year plantation cycle
    • Inconsistent timber quality

    What does the GI Tag do?

    • Protects the Kashmir willow name from misuse.
    • Enhances product reputation and market value.
    • Provides legal protection to registered producers.
    • Does not increase willow supply or shorten the growth cycle.

    Government Response

    • Plantation of 2.2 lakh willow trees across 200 hectares.
    • Introduction of improved willow clones.
    • Identification of new plantation sites.
    • Greater farmer participation and scientific plantation management.

    Prelims Pointers

    • GI Act: Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999.
    • First Indian GI: Darjeeling Tea, 2004.
    • GI validity: 10 years, renewable indefinitely.
    • GI ownership: Collective, not individually transferable.
    • Kashmir willow species: Salix alba.

    [2018] India enacted The Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 in order to comply with the obligations to
    (a) ILO
    (b) IMF
    (c) UNCTAD
    (d) WTO

  • Monsoon session passes Bills with minimal deliberation as legislative scrutiny weakens

    Why in the news?

    The monsoon session that began on 20 July passed nine of its eleven Bills with only the minister in charge speaking, and recorded a productivity rate of 15 per cent. Legislation that redraws Centre State powers over minerals therefore cleared Parliament without the examination the House exists to provide. Two further proposals, on delimitation and on foreign contributions, were stalled rather than scrutinised, and both remain alive.

    What is the Pre-Legislative Consultation Policy, 2014?

    1. About: It is a policy of the Department of Legal Affairs requiring every department to place a draft Bill in the public domain before it is introduced in Parliament.
    2. What must be disclosed: The draft, an explanatory note in simple language, the financial implications, and an estimate of the impact on the environment, fundamental rights and livelihoods.
    3. Consultation period: A minimum of thirty days is to be given for public feedback, and a summary of the responses received is to be published.
    4. Link to the House: The summary of feedback is to be placed before the departmentally related standing committee that examines the Bill.
    5. Status: The policy is executive and not statutory, so it carries no enforcement mechanism and departments comply selectively.

    What is a Joint Parliamentary Committee?

    1. About: It is an ad hoc committee constituted by a motion adopted in one House and concurred in by the other, carrying members from both Houses.
    2. Function: It examines a specific Bill or subject, takes evidence from officials, experts and the public, and reports its recommendations to Parliament.
    3. Composition: Membership is proportional to party strength, which gives the ruling party a majority within the committee.
    4. Binding force: Its recommendations are advisory, and the government may accept or reject them when the Bill returns to the House.

    What is delimitation?

    1. About: It is the redrawing of the boundaries and the allocation of parliamentary and Assembly constituencies to reflect population change.
    2. Machinery: A Delimitation Commission constituted under a law made by Parliament carries it out, and its orders cannot be called in question in any court.
    3. The freeze: The 42nd Amendment froze seat allocation on the 1971 Census, and the 84th Amendment, 2001 extended that freeze until the first Census taken after 2026.
    4. Why it is contested: States that reduced fertility fastest stand to lose relative weight in the Lok Sabha once the freeze lapses, which makes the design of the exercise a federal question.

    What is the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010?

    1. About: It regulates the acceptance and use of foreign contributions and foreign hospitality by persons, associations and companies in India.
    2. Mechanism: It requires registration or prior permission from the Ministry of Home Affairs, and after the 2020 amendment every contribution must first be received in a designated State Bank of India, New Delhi account.
    3. Restrictions: The 2020 amendment barred the transfer of foreign contributions to any other person and capped administrative expenses at 20 per cent.
    4. Why it recurs: Cancellations and refusals of renewal have repeatedly been challenged as a control on civil society rather than a check on funding.

    How is parliamentary productivity measured?

    1. About: It is the ratio of the time a House actually transacts its listed business to the time for which it was scheduled to sit.
    2. What lowers it: Adjournments caused by disruption, sittings cut short, and business dropped without being taken up.
    3. What it does not capture: A Bill passed in minutes without discussion raises legislative output while reducing scrutiny, so productivity and deliberation can move in opposite directions.

    What did the monsoon session pass and what did it leave pending?

    1. Session dates: The session began on 20 July.
    2. Volume and debate: Nine of the eleven Bills passed had only the minister concerned speaking on them.
    3. Productivity: The session recorded a productivity rate of 15 per cent.
    4. National song Bill: A Bill was passed facilitating the operation of a February guideline of the Ministry of Home Affairs on mandatory singing of the full version of Vande Mataram, the national song, at state functions.
    5. Mines and minerals: The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill was passed amid Opposition protests.
    6. Examinations: The session legislated stronger measures against malpractices in examinations, in an effort to address student anger.
    7. Delimitation: An attempt to rush through a new architecture for the delimitation process did not entirely materialise.
    8. Foreign contributions: The Bill to amend the law on foreign contributions was not passed and stands referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee.
    9. Both alive: Neither the delimitation proposal nor the foreign contribution amendments have lapsed, and both can be brought back.

    Why did the session’s political context override its legislative function?

    1. The trigger: The student protest demanding the resignation of the Union Education Minister gathered momentum just as the session began.
    2. The governing party’s expectation: The ruling party entered the session with the context and the confidence to make it a theatre of triumph, powered by its victory in the West Bengal Assembly election.
    3. What reversed it: Public reaction to the crackdown on the protesting students by the Delhi Police, with police personnel filmed assaulting and attempting to sexually abuse young people.
    4. Accountability gap: No accountability has yet been fixed for those blatant violations of the law by police personnel.
    5. Absent leadership: The Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister barely attended the proceedings.
    6. The one resolution: The Union Education Minister eventually resigned during the session.

    What does hurried lawmaking do to federalism?

    1. The specific Bill: The mineral law amendment was passed without addressing its potential to undermine federalism.
    2. Whose rights were skipped: The concerns of those living on resource rich land were not examined during its passage.
    3. The pattern: Hurried lawmaking has accompanied a continuing expansion of the powers of the central government at the cost of States and local communities.
    4. Why deliberation matters here: A Bill that redistributes power between the Union and the States requires the States to be heard, which only committee examination provides.
    5. The missing step: No all party meeting and no consultation with State Chief Ministers preceded either this Bill or the delimitation proposal.

    Why does a single minister speaking on a Bill amount to a scrutiny failure?

    1. What passage then means: The House records its assent without testing the Bill against any competing view or amendment.
    2. Whose loss it is: The electorate is deprived of its representatives’ scrutiny, which is the service a legislature exists to deliver.
    3. Disruption as an alibi: Disruption is routinely blamed, but a 15 per cent productivity rate points to a structural failure rather than an episodic one.
    4. Committee substitution: Referral to a committee is the standard remedy for a truncated floor debate, and it was used for only one of these Bills.
    5. Consequence for the statute: A Bill passed without debate leaves no legislative record from which courts can read its purpose when it is later challenged.

    Is a stalled Bill a win for parliamentary scrutiny?

    1. The case for the Opposition: It prevented passage of the delimitation architecture and the foreign contribution amendments without examination.
    2. The case against triumph: Blocking a Bill is not the same as examining it, and both proposals remain alive for reintroduction on the same terms.
    3. The committee risk: The Joint Parliamentary Committee on the foreign contribution Bill can be reduced to a mere numbers game in which the majority records its own view.
    4. The reversibility point: Political circumstances turn rapidly, as the governing party discovered within this very session.
    5. What is actually needed: An all party meeting, circulation of draft legislation and consultation with State Chief Ministers, none of which a stalling tactic delivers.
    6. The framing error: Treating the House as a gladiatorial arena where one side vanquishes the other removes the possibility of a collective solution.

    What would genuine consultation on these two proposals look like?

    1. All party meeting: The Centre convening a meeting of all parties before introducing the delimitation architecture.
    2. Draft in the public domain: Circulation of the draft legislation so that affected parties can respond before introduction rather than after passage.
    3. Consulting the States: Consultation with State Chief Ministers, since delimitation redistributes representation between States.
    4. Substance in committee: The Joint Parliamentary Committee on the foreign contribution Bill taking evidence from affected organisations rather than voting on party lines.
    5. Transparency of feedback: Publication of the responses received and the reasons for accepting or rejecting each substantive objection.

    Challenges to Parliamentary Scrutiny of Legislation

    1. Falling committee referrals: The share of Bills sent to departmentally related standing committees has collapsed, e.g. about 16 per cent of Bills were referred in the 16th Lok Sabha against 71 per cent in the 15th.
    2. Passage without debate: Bills clear the House in minutes when it is in disorder, e.g. nine of the eleven Bills of this monsoon session were passed with only the minister in charge speaking.
    3. The Money Bill route: Certifying a Bill as a Money Bill removes the Rajya Sabha’s power to amend it, e.g. the Aadhaar Act, 2016, whose certification was referred to a larger Bench in Rojer Mathew v. South Indian Bank (2019).
    4. Ordinance dependence: The executive legislates between sessions and seeks ratification later, e.g. the Supreme Court in Krishna Kumar Singh v. State of Bihar (2017) held that repeated re promulgation of ordinances is a fraud on the Constitution.
    5. Shrinking sitting days: The House now sits far fewer days than in its early decades, e.g. average annual sittings have fallen from over 120 days in the 1950s to around 60 days in recent years.
    6. Anti defection chill: The Tenth Schedule ties a member’s vote to the party whip, which removes the incentive to argue a case on the floor, e.g. a member voting against a party direction on a Bill faces disqualification.
    7. No review after enactment: No standing mechanism examines whether an enacted law achieved its stated purpose, e.g. the Pre-Legislative Consultation Policy, 2014 carries no compliance audit and is bypassed routinely.

    Conclusion

    A session that passed nine of eleven Bills with a single speaker each and closed at 15 per cent productivity did not fail merely because of disruption; it failed because passage was decoupled from examination. Blocking two proposals gave the Opposition a tactical result without restoring scrutiny, since both remain available for reintroduction unchanged. What must change is procedure rather than temper: mandatory committee referral, circulation of draft legislation, and consultation with the States before any Bill that alters their powers is introduced.

    What is Executive Accountability to the Legislature?

    1. About: It is the principle that the council of ministers holds office only while it retains the confidence of the popularly elected House and must answer to it for every executive act.
    2. Rationale: In a parliamentary system the executive is drawn from the legislature, so scrutiny by the House is the only continuous check between two elections.
    3. Collective responsibility: Article 75(3) makes the council of ministers collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha, which is the constitutional root of the principle.
    4. Question Hour and Zero Hour: Members question ministers on administrative action, and raise urgent matters without prior notice.
    5. Motions: Adjournment motions, calling attention notices, censure motions and the no confidence motion allow the House to force a discussion or remove the government.
    6. Financial control: Cut motions, the demands for grants, and the Comptroller and Auditor General’s reports examined by the Public Accounts Committee control the executive’s use of money.
    7. Committee scrutiny: Departmentally related standing committees, joint committees and select committees examine Bills, budgets and departmental performance away from the floor.

    Key Concerns Regarding Legislative Oversight

    1. Guillotine on budget scrutiny: Most demands for grants are voted without discussion when the guillotine is applied at the end of the budget session.
    2. Truncated Question Hour: Question Hour is frequently lost to disruption or curtailed by the presiding officer, which removes the routine accountability mechanism.
    3. Committee reports without follow up: Recommendations are advisory, and no mechanism tracks whether the government acted on them.
    4. Weak research support: Individual members lack dedicated legislative research staff to interrogate a technical Bill.
    5. Party control over speech: The whip system converts a member’s vote into a party decision, which removes the incentive to examine a Bill independently.
    6. Declining sittings: Fewer sitting days compress every function of oversight into a shorter window each year.

    Constitutional Framework Governing Parliamentary Lawmaking and Oversight

    1. Article 75(3): Makes the council of ministers collectively responsible to the House of the People.
    2. Article 79: Constitutes Parliament as the President, the Council of States and the House of the People.
    3. Article 85: Requires that six months not elapse between two sittings, and governs prorogation and dissolution.
    4. Article 93: Provides for the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of the People.
    5. Article 100: Governs voting, the quorum of one tenth of the total membership, and the effect of vacancies.
    6. Article 105: Confers freedom of speech in Parliament and the privileges of the Houses and their members.
    7. Article 107: Governs the introduction and passing of Bills in both Houses.
    8. Article 108: Provides for a joint sitting of both Houses to resolve a deadlock over a Bill.
    9. Articles 109 and 110: Define a Money Bill and confine the Rajya Sabha to recommendations on it.
    10. Article 111: Governs assent, withholding of assent and the return of a Bill by the President.
    11. Article 117: Requires the President’s recommendation for financial Bills.
    12. Article 118: Empowers each House to make rules of procedure for the conduct of its business.
    13. Article 122: Bars courts from inquiring into proceedings of Parliament on the ground of irregularity of procedure.
    14. Article 82: Requires readjustment of seats and constituencies after every Census, which is the basis of delimitation.
    15. Article 148: Establishes the Comptroller and Auditor General, whose reports anchor financial oversight.
    16. Tenth Schedule: Provides for disqualification on the ground of defection, which binds a member to the party whip.

    Back2Basics: Parliamentary Committees in India

    1. Constitutional basis: Article 105 and Article 118 supply the privileges and the rule making power under which committees function.
    2. Two broad types: Standing committees, which are permanent and reconstituted every year, and ad hoc committees, which cease to exist once they report.
    3. Financial committees: The Public Accounts Committee, the Estimates Committee and the Committee on Public Undertakings.
    4. Public Accounts Committee: Constituted in 1921, it has 22 members and is chaired by convention by a member of the Opposition.
    5. Departmentally related standing committees: Introduced in 1993, now 24 in number, each with 31 members drawn from both Houses.
    6. Ad hoc committees: Select committees of one House and joint committees of both Houses, constituted to examine a particular Bill or subject.
    7. Nature of reports: Committee recommendations are recommendatory and do not bind the government.
    8. Value of the forum: Committees work outside the glare of the House, which allows cross party agreement that floor debate rarely produces.

    Government Initiatives for Legislative Process and Transparency

    1. Pre-Legislative Consultation Policy, 2014: Requires publication of draft Bills with an explanatory note and a minimum thirty day window for public feedback.
    2. National e-Vidhan Application (NeVA): Makes legislatures paperless by digitising notices, questions, bulletins and Bills for members.
    3. One Nation One Application initiative: Brings all State legislatures and Parliament onto a common digital platform for legislative business.
    4. Digital Sansad: Provides public access to debates, member profiles, questions and legislative documents in searchable form.
    5. Parliamentary Research and Information Support to Members (PRISM): Supplies research responses to members on subjects of their choice through the Parliament Library.
    6. Parliamentary Research and Training Institute for Democracies (PRIDE): Trains members and legislature staff in parliamentary procedure and legislative drafting.

    Key Facts about the Parliament of India

    1. Composition: The President, the Rajya Sabha with a maximum of 250 members and the Lok Sabha with a maximum of 550 members drawn from States and Union Territories.
    2. Sessions: Three sessions each year by convention, namely budget, monsoon and winter, with the six month rule set by Article 85.
    3. Quorum: One tenth of the total membership of the House, under Article 100.
    4. Joint sitting: Provided by Article 108 and used three times, for the Dowry Prohibition Bill in 1961, the Banking Service Commission Repeal Bill in 1978 and the Prevention of Terrorism Bill in 2002.
    5. Departmentally related standing committees: Introduced in 1993 and now numbering 24.
    6. Anti defection law: Introduced by the 52nd Amendment, 1985 through the Tenth Schedule, and amended in 2003 to remove the split exemption.
    7. New building: Parliament shifted to the new building in September 2023, with the Lok Sabha chamber seating 888 members.

    Challenges in Ensuring Legislative Scrutiny in India

    1. Disruption as a strategy: Both sides use disorder to avoid a debate they expect to lose, e.g. the monsoon session of 2026 closed at 15 per cent productivity with the presiding officers unable to restore order.
    2. Budget passed without discussion: The guillotine forces demands for grants through in a single vote, e.g. most ministry demands are guillotined every year with only a handful discussed on the floor.
    3. Weak private member legislation: Private member Bills are rarely taken up and almost never passed, e.g. only fourteen private member Bills have become law since 1952.
    4. Vacancy in the Deputy Speaker’s office: Article 93 requires the post to be filled, and prolonged vacancies weaken the presiding structure, e.g. the office remained vacant through the entire 17th Lok Sabha.
    5. Thin State legislature calendars: Many State Assemblies sit for a fraction of the days Parliament sits, e.g. several State Assemblies have recorded fewer than twenty sitting days in a year.
    6. Limited member capacity: Members lack dedicated legislative staff to examine technical Bills, e.g. a data protection or nuclear liability Bill reaches the floor with no independent member analysis available.
    7. Delayed committee constitution: Committees are reconstituted late in the parliamentary year, which shortens the time available to examine Bills referred to them.

    Way Forward

    1. Mandatory referral rule: Amend the rules of procedure so that every Bill stands referred to a committee unless the House expressly resolves otherwise, with reasons recorded.
    2. Statutory pre legislative consultation: Convert the 2014 policy into a binding requirement, with introduction barred until the consultation summary is tabled.
    3. Fixed legislative calendar: Adopt a minimum number of sitting days each year, fixed in advance, so that the executive cannot compress the session.
    4. Independent scheduling authority: Vest the power to convene sittings in a business advisory committee rather than in the executive alone.
    5. Automatic budget scrutiny: Require at least a fixed number of ministries’ demands to be discussed before the guillotine can be applied.
    6. Action taken discipline: Require the government to table a reasoned response to every committee recommendation within a fixed period.
    7. Strengthen member research: Fund dedicated legislative research staff for members and expand the Parliament Library’s analytical output on pending Bills.
    8. Federal consultation before federal Bills: Institutionalise consultation with State Chief Ministers through the Inter State Council before any Bill that alters State powers is introduced.

    “[2021, GS2, 10 marks] To what extent, in your view, the Parliament is able to ensure accountability of the executive in India?”

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