💥Mains Ready By December. Smash Mains & Smash PYQ Admissions Open
Talk to Mentor

Civilsdaily

Login

Search results for: “”

  • Women and Transgender Changemakers of Swachhata

    Women and Transgender Changemakers of Swachhata

    Why in the News?

    • Swachhata Hi Seva 2026 was launched on 17 September 2026 with the theme “Swachhata Mein Sahbhag; Swachh Bharat, Viksit Bharat”.
    • It highlights women’s participation, livelihood creation and inclusion of transgender persons in sanitation and waste-management activities.

    Key Highlights

    • Promotes a Whole-of-Government and Whole-of-Society approach to Swachhata.
    • Women are involved in:
      • Waste-to-livelihood enterprises
      • Material Recovery Facilities
      • Community cleanliness campaigns
      • Composting and waste reduction
    • Transgender persons are being integrated into urban sanitation services through Self-Help Groups (SHGs).

    Women-led Waste-to-Livelihood

    • Loni, Uttar Pradesh: Women use cow dung to produce incense sticks and Loban cups.
    • Initiative began with 8-10 women and employs around 40-50 women during peak summer production.
    • Products use around 30-35% dry cow dung powder, reducing the requirement for wood sawdust.
    • Loni Nagar Palika Parishad can earn up to 25% revenue from product sales.
    • Products supplied to Delhi, Mumbai, Punjab, Gujarat and Hyderabad, with some orders reaching Mauritius and South Africa.
    • Future possibilities include cow-dung fuel and biodegradable flower pots.

    Pink Material Recovery Facility

    • Patna, Bihar: Pink Material Recovery Facility (MRF) is operated primarily by women.
    • Capacity:
      • 2 tonnes/day dry waste
      • 1.5 tonnes/day wet waste
    • Cash for Waste: Citizens receive payment for bringing dry waste at prescribed rates.
    • Patna also converted old unusable vehicles into mobile Pink Toilets.
    • Reflects the 3Rs: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

    Community-led Swachhata

    • Bhopal: 250 women brand ambassadors work on cleanliness and waste management.
    • Bartan Banks: Established across 25 wards to reduce single-use plastic through reusable utensils.
    • Swachhata Kitty Group: 60 women, each contributing ₹100 per month, fund community cleanliness activities.
    • Uttarakhand:Bainni Sena (“Army of Sisters”) comprises 57 groups and 570 women.
      • Monitor cleanliness
      • Conduct awareness programmes
      • Communicate complaints
      • Coordinate with municipal authorities and sanitation workers.
    • Shillong: Iynnehskhem Self-Help Group converts household wet waste into compost.

    Inclusion of Transgender Persons

    • Cuttack, Odisha: Municipal Corporation organised transgender persons into a Self-Help Group and trained them to operate and maintain a Septage Treatment Plant.
    • Model expanded to other Odisha Urban Local Bodies through Self-Help Groups.
    • Areas include:
      • Faecal Sludge and Septage Management (FSSM)
      • Solid waste management
    • Bhubaneswar: Swikruti SHG operates a 75-KLD Faecal Sludge Treatment Plant (FSTP) at Basuaghai.
    • Transgender groups are also involved in operation and maintenance of seven cesspool vehicles.
    • Training includes health, hygiene, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and desludging protocols.

    Prelims Quick Revision

    • Swachhata Hi Seva 2026: Launched 17 September 2026.
    • Theme: “Swachhata Mein Sahbhag; Swachh Bharat, Viksit Bharat”.
    • Loni: 30-35% dry cow dung powder used in incense products.
    • Pink MRF, Patna: 2 tonnes/day dry + 1.5 tonnes/day wet waste.
    • Bhopal: 250 women brand ambassadors and Bartan Banks across 25 wards.
    • Uttarakhand: Bainni Sena = 57 groups, 570 women.
    • Bhubaneswar: 75-KLD FSTP operated by Swikruti SHG.
    • Patna’s mobile Pink Toilets demonstrate the 3Rs: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

    UPSC Prelims Trap

    • MRF is associated with material recovery and waste processing, while FSTP deals with faecal sludge treatment.
    • Bainni Sena is associated with Uttarakhand, not Odisha or Bihar.
    • Swikruti SHG operates a 75-KLD FSTP in Bhubaneswar.
    • The Pink MRF is located in Patna, while the cow-dung livelihood initiative described is from Loni, Uttar Pradesh.
  • Bankers’ Books Evidence Act, 2026

    Bankers’ Books Evidence Act, 2026

    Why in the News?

    • The Bankers’ Books Evidence Act, 2026 comes into force on 1 October 2026, replacing the Bankers’ Books Evidence Act, 1891.
    • It modernises the evidentiary framework for banking records by recognising physical, electronic and digital records.

    Key Highlights

    • Applies to court cases, arbitrations, investigations and inquiries where banking records are required as evidence.
    • Covers banking records stored in physical or digital forms.
    • Introduces standardised authentication and certification of bankers’ books.
    • Certified copies can generally be used instead of producing the original banker’s book.
    • Bank officials are protected from routine appearance solely to prove bank records when the bank is not a party.
    • Government can extend the Act to specified financial sector entities by notification.
    • Provides safeguards against unauthorised changes, tampering and loss of data integrity.

    Bankers’ Books

    • Include:
      • Ledgers
      • Day-books
      • Cash-books
      • Account books
      • Other records maintained in the ordinary course of banking business.
    • Records may be maintained in written/physical form or any data-storage mechanism.
    • The definition of bank/banker also covers specified financial-sector entities to which the Act is extended, besides banks and certain post office offices.

    Electronic and Digital Records

    • Electronic/digital records are admissible subject to conditions including:
      • Copy must be a true and accurate representation of the original record.
      • Unauthorised changes must not be detected.
      • No tampering or event affecting integrity and accuracy of the system should be detected.
    • Authentication may use manual, digital or electronic signatures.

    Production of Bankers’ Books

    • A certified copy can ordinarily prove the contents of a banker’s book.
    • Bank officers ordinarily cannot be compelled to produce the original records or appear as witnesses merely to prove them.
    • A court may require production or appearance through a written order recording special cause.

    Special Cause

    A court may require production/appearance where:

    • Accuracy or authenticity of an entry is uncertain.
    • Regular record-keeping was interrupted by an event.
    • The bank failed to comply with a previous court order concerning inspection or production of certified copies.

    Prelims Quick Revision

    • 2026 Act replaces: Bankers’ Books Evidence Act, 1891.
    • Effective from: 1 October 2026.
    • Covers physical + electronic + digital banking records.
    • Certified copies can ordinarily establish the contents of bankers’ books.
    • Bank officer appearance requires a court order recording special cause.
    • Government can extend the Act to specified financial-sector entities by notification.
    • Electronic records require safeguards relating to authenticity, unauthorised changes and data integrity.
    • The Act applies to proceedings including arbitration, investigation and inquiry.

    UPSC Prelims Trap

    • The 2026 Act does not discard the certified-copy framework of the 1891 law; it retains and modernises it.
    • Electronic/digital records are not automatically admissible; prescribed authenticity and integrity conditions apply.
    • A bank officer is not routinely required to appear to prove records, but a court can order appearance for special cause.
    • The Government can extend the Act to other financial-sector entities by notification; such extension is not automatic.
  • Green Energy Corridor Phase-III (GEC-III)

    Green Energy Corridor Phase-III (GEC-III)

    Why in the News?

    • The Union Cabinet approved Green Energy Corridor Phase-III (GEC-III) on 30 September 2026 to strengthen the Intra-State Transmission System (InSTS) for renewable energy integration. pasted

    Key Highlights

    • Target: Evacuation of up to 135 GW of renewable energy across States/UTs.
    • Target completion: FY 2032-33.
    • Total project outlay:₹1,86,405 crore.
      • Intra-State Transmission Systems: ₹1,36,378 crore
      • Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS): ₹50,000 crore
    • Central Financial Support (CFS): ₹54,082 crore.
    • BESS deployment: 50 GWh.
    • Aims to support India’s target of 900 GW installed Non-Fossil capacity by 2035.

    Intra-State Transmission System (InSTS)

    • Focuses on grid integration and power evacuation within States/UTs.
    • Greenfield projects: Implemented through Tariff Based Competitive Bidding (TBCB).
    • Brownfield upgradation/network strengthening: Implemented on Cost Plus Basis (CPB).
    • State Transmission Utilities (STUs): Overall implementing agencies.
    • Transmission Service Providers (TSPs): Participate under TBCB through Build-Own-Operate-Maintain (BOOM) model.

    Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS)

    • 50 GWh BESS will be deployed.
    • Can be located at:
      • Renewable Energy developer/generator end, or
      • Other locations important for grid flexibility.
    • Addresses:
      • Renewable energy intermittency
      • Grid congestion
      • Peak-hour curtailment
      • Demand during non-solar hours
    • BESS deployment will support the development of the domestic energy storage industry.

    Prelims Quick Revision

    • GEC-III: Approved by Union Cabinet in September 2026.
    • Renewable energy evacuation capacity: 135 GW.
    • BESS deployment: 50 GWh.
    • Total outlay: ₹1,86,405 crore.
    • Central Financial Support: ₹54,082 crore.
    • Target completion: FY 2032-33.
    • Supports 900 GW installed Non-Fossil capacity by 2035.
    • Greenfield = TBCB; Brownfield = CPB.

    UPSC Prelims Trap

    • GEC-III is focused on Intra-State transmission, not solely inter-state transmission.
    • 50 GWh refers to BESS deployment, while 135 GW refers to renewable energy evacuation capacity.
    • TBCB applies to greenfield InSTS projects, whereas CPB applies to brownfield upgradation and network strengthening.
    • STUs are the overall implementing agencies; TSPs participate under the TBCB model.

  • A library without a home speaks of a larger absence

    Why in the News

    The Central Secretariat Library (CSL) is yet to find a new home as Shastri Bhawan, its base since 1969, makes way for the Central Vista redevelopment. The delay raises the question of whether a project rebuilding the seat of government has planned for the institutions that hold its memory.

    What is the Central Secretariat Library, and why does it matter?

    1. Colonial origin: The CSL was established in 1891 as the Imperial Secretariat Library in Calcutta. It moved with the capital to Delhi and was renamed after Independence.
    2. Collection: It holds over 8.5 lakh books and documents, including material dating back to 1702.
    3. Institutional memory: The CSL serves as a working archive of the Indian state, keeping its institutional memory, the record of past government work and decisions. It is like the government’s own record room.
    4. The takeaway: Leaving an institution of archival importance without a secure home is a troubling statement of priorities for a project of such scale and ambition.

    Why was the displacement foreseeable?

    1. Known relocation: Central Vista is a long-term project involving some of the country’s most storied buildings, so relocation was not an unforeseen complication.
    2. Early request: As early as 2023, the Ministry of Culture sought matching space in the new Common Central Secretariat, the heart of the redevelopment.
    3. Statement of priorities: By deciding which institutions get space in a new administrative centre, the government signals what belongs at the centre of public life.

    What do other heritage relocations in the project show?

    1. Earlier controversies: The demolition of the National Archives Annexe and the relocation of the National Museum‘s collections drew public debate and expert opinion.
    2. New museum: The National Museum’s collections are moving to the Yuge Yugeen Bharat Museum, coming up in the North and South Block buildings.
    3. Preservation needs: Those debates showed the need for proper inventories and cataloguing, conservation facilities, climate-controlled storage for fragile and rare material, digitisation, trained staff and public access.
    4. Planning lapse: Such provisions should have been integral to the project from the outset.

    Why can a temporary move become permanent?

    1. Tulsi Sadan precedent: The CSL’s regional languages section, the Tulsi Sadan Library, was temporarily shut in 2011 for construction of the Mandi House Metro station.
    2. Stored, not served: Its contents were housed in the National School of Drama premises, and the library remains shut to this day.
    3. Displacement lesson: When institutions are displaced without a durable plan, temporary arrangements can become permanent absences.

    Challenges

    1. No fixed destination: Moving lakhs of rare documents into interim storage without a final site raises the risk of damage and loss.
    2. Interrupted access: Officials and researchers lose access to records while a collection sits in storage.
    3. Split responsibility: The library’s ministry seeks the space, but another ministry redevelops the buildings, so no single agency owns the relocation.
    4. Irreversible damage: Without digitised copies, any harm to fragile originals during a move cannot be undone.

    Way Forward

    1. Permanent allotment: The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs should allot the CSL space before Shastri Bhawan is vacated.
    2. Collections protocol: Make cataloguing and climate-controlled storage a precondition for vacating any building that houses archives.
    3. Digitise first: Digitise rare and fragile material before any move.
    4. Reopen Tulsi Sadan: Set a dated plan to reopen the Tulsi Sadan Library.

    Conclusion

    The CSL’s displacement shows a redevelopment that planned new buildings ahead of the institutions meant to fill them. Whether the library gets a permanent address before Shastri Bhawan is vacated will show if Central Vista avoids repeating its own past mistakes.

    Back2Basics: Central Vista Redevelopment Project

    1. What it is: A project to rebuild India’s central administrative area in New Delhi, along the stretch between Rashtrapati Bhavan and India Gate.
    2. Nodal ministry: It is executed under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
    3. Key components: They include a new Parliament building, inaugurated in 2023, and the redeveloped Kartavya Path, formerly Rajpath.
    4. Launch: The project was announced in 2019.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2018, GS1, 10 marks] Safeguarding the Indian art heritage is the need of the moment. Discuss.”

  • Bitter pills

    Why in the News

    The gap between a drug’s price to retailer (PTR) and its maximum retail price (MRP) has reached 1,000% in some cases, because price control caps the final price but not the markup hospitals keep. The Supreme Court has criticised these disparities, including on cancer drugs, and suggested a fixed percentage markup across all drugs.

    How does the gap between PTR and MRP work?

    1. Two prices: The PTR is what a manufacturer charges the seller, often a hospital; the MRP is the most a patient can be charged.
    2. Hospital as chooser: These drugs are not sold over the counter, so hospitals often decide which brand a patient uses. Drug companies therefore compete for the hospital’s business, not the patient’s.
    3. Margin as bait: Companies print inflated MRPs and offer hospitals low PTRs, so the hospital pockets the difference. It works like a commission paid to the person choosing on the patient’s behalf.
    4. Hidden kickback: The practice is not technically a kickback but is one economically, since the manufacturer embeds a financial reward for picking its product.
    5. The takeaway: Hospitals push the brands with the largest margins, so patients pay more than the supply price.

    Why does the price control order leave this gap open?

    1. What the order caps: The Drug (Prices Control) Order (DPCO), 2013 caps the final maximum price of scheduled drugs (essential medicines under price control), but not the markup on hospitals’ transactions.
    2. Ceiling arithmetic: Suppose the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) calculates a drug’s market-derived average price at ₹100. The ceiling then becomes ₹116.
    3. Margin within the ceiling: A hospital that negotiates a PTR of ₹50 can still charge the full ceiling, or bill the government for a state-financed drug, and keep ₹66 without breaching the cap.

    Who bears the cost of the hidden margin?

    1. Captive patients: Competition Commission of India (CCI) investigations have established that private hospitals force patients to buy drugs from on-premise pharmacies, so patients cannot shop around.
    2. Cheaper drugs sidelined: More affordable equivalent drugs lose out because they earn hospitals less revenue, which undermines normal price competition.
    3. Financial strain: Patients face severe financial strain, a concern also flagged by drug regulators in Karnataka and Maharashtra.
    4. Treatment dropouts: Patients with cancers and chronic conditions could reduce their adherence, meaning they stop following long treatment regimens as prescribed.

    Does capping trade margins work?

    1. Margin cap pilot: In a proof-of-concept exercise in 2019, the NPPA capped the trade margins of non-scheduled anti-cancer drugs, meaning the markup allowed between manufacturer and patient.
    2. Scale of the pilot: The cap covered 42 drugs and limited their trade margin to 30%.
    3. Price fall: The Department of Pharmaceuticals later said prices of 526 brands dropped by up to 91%, showing that cancer drug MRPs carried compressible margins.

    Fixed markup or regressive margin?

    1. Regressive margin: A fixed markup should come with a regressive margin, a smaller percentage as drug prices rise, to remove sellers’ incentive to favour costlier products.
    2. Earlier refusal: The Court had refused to intervene in Siddharth Dalmia (2025).
    3. Policy vacuum: Hospitals, not patients, choose the drug, so market competition does not pull prices down. The Union and the States have not filled that gap by regulation.

    Challenges

    1. Brand-name prescribing: Prescriptions written by brand let hospitals steer patients to high-margin products.
    2. Hospital billing blind spot: Price regulators track printed MRPs, not the margin a hospital earns on each bill.
    3. State capacity: Price enforcement depends on State drug controllers, whose capacity varies widely across States.

    Way Forward

    1. Wider margin caps: The NPPA should extend trade margin caps beyond anti-cancer drugs to other high-cost hospital drugs.
    2. PTR disclosure: Require manufacturers to publish the PTR alongside the MRP so patients can see the margin.
    3. Free choice of pharmacy: Bar hospitals from forcing patients to buy from on-premise pharmacies.
    4. Generic prescribing: Enforce prescription by generic name in hospitals.

    Conclusion

    Hidden hospital margins persist because price control targets the final price, not who captures the gap below it. Whether the Supreme Court’s suggestion becomes an NPPA rule, and whether that rule is regressive, will decide if patients see lower bills.

    Back2Basics: National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA)

    1. Set up: The NPPA was constituted in 1997 as an independent regulator for drug prices.
    2. Parent department: It works under the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers.
    3. Mandate: It fixes and revises the ceiling prices of essential medicines and enforces the DPCO.
    4. Non-scheduled drugs: It monitors their prices, which may rise by at most 10% a year.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2024, GS2, 15 marks] In a crucial domain like the public healthcare system, the Indian State should play a vital role to contain the adverse impact of marketisation of the system. Suggest some measures through which the State can enhance the reach of public healthcare at the grassroots level.”

  • How to finance rural prosperity

    Why in the News

    India’s farm credit system, built to finance crop production, must now finance the whole agricultural value chain if rural India is to capture the value created after harvest. A former Secretary of the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare proposes a value chain financing framework as a reform for Viksit Bharat 2047.

    What is agricultural value chain financing, and why now?

    1. First transformation: Policy, science, irrigation and institutional credit made India a leading producer of cereals, milk, fruits, vegetables and fish, delivering food security.
    2. Value chain: Every commodity moves from production to aggregation, storage, logistics, processing, branding and markets, and enterprises and jobs emerge along it.
    3. Value chain financing: It lends to every viable activity between farm and consumer, not only to the grower. It is like funding the whole assembly line, not just the raw material.
    4. The takeaway: The next transformation must deliver rural prosperity, which depends on financing what happens after harvest.

    Why do seasonal commodities struggle for working capital?

    1. Continuous sectors: Dairy, poultry and fisheries buy and sell year-round, so they earn predictable cash flows and carry lower inventory risk.
    2. Harvest-window squeeze: Seasonal processors must buy most of a year’s raw material in a short harvest window, then finance that stock for months.
    3. Inventory burden: A firm investing ₹500 crore in a processing plant may need ₹700-800 crore just to procure, store and carry stock.
    4. Sugar’s lesson: The seasonal sugar sector grew through inventory finance and warehouse-backed lending, so the difference lies in how the chain is financed, not production potential.

    Why is production credit no longer enough?

    1. Production credit build-up: For five decades, bank nationalisation, regional rural banks, cooperatives and the Kisan Credit Card expanded crop credit, when food security was the priority.
    2. Emerging products: Banks now offer warehouse receipt financing (loans against stored produce), receivables financing (loans against payments buyers still owe) and food processing loans.
    3. NBFC models: Agri-focused non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) have pioneered value-chain lending.
    4. Missing architecture: These remain isolated initiatives, not parts of one financing system.

    How large is the financing opportunity?

    1. Output and credit gap: Farm sector Gross Value Added (GVA), output minus inputs, was ₹48.8 lakh crore, against institutional credit of ₹20 lakh crore.
    2. Opportunity size: For 2023-24, indicative estimates put the value chain financing opportunity above ₹14 lakh crore.
    3. Processing gap: India processes only 10-12% of farm produce, against 35-45% in East, South and Southeast Asia.
    4. Developed economies: The share often exceeds 60% there, where finance follows commodity-specific value chains, not production alone.

    What should the new financing framework contain?

    1. Instrument mix: The framework would combine product finance, receivables finance and warehouse receipt finance. Risk mitigation and credit enhancement tools would cut the lender’s risk of loss.
    2. Warehouse receipt finance: Loans against stored produce, where the receipt a warehouse issues for the stored crop serves as the lender’s security, so the produce backs the loan.
    3. Cash-flow lending: Lenders would judge each commodity chain’s cash flows, not conventional collateral alone.
    4. Wider reach: Credit would reach farmers, input suppliers, aggregators, warehouses, processors, transporters, exporters and retailers, spurring private investment, rural jobs and rural industrialisation.

    Challenges

    1. Collateral habit: Banks still lend mainly against land and fixed assets, so cash-flow appraisal of processors remains underdeveloped.
    2. Price risk on stored stock: A price fall during storage cuts the value of pledged inventory.
    3. Costly NBFC funding: Agri NBFCs borrow at a higher cost than banks, which limits how far their models scale.

    Way Forward

    1. Cash-flow appraisal: Banks should build commodity-specific credit appraisal using procurement and sales data.
    2. Inventory loan guarantees: A guarantee facility should cover seasonal inventory loans to processors.
    3. Electronic warehouse receipts: Scale up the electronic Negotiable Warehouse Receipt (e-NWR) system for pledging stored produce.

    Conclusion

    India’s credit institutions were built to help farmers grow food, not to finance the storage and processing that turn harvests into incomes. Whether lenders move from isolated products to one architecture that lends on cash flows will decide if this becomes a reform or stays a niche.

    Government Initiatives for Agricultural Credit

    1. Kisan Credit Card limit: The KCC loan limit under the Modified Interest Subvention Scheme (MISS) was raised from ₹3 lakh to ₹5 lakh.
    2. Interest subvention: MISS offers short-term crop loans at 7%, falling to 4% on prompt repayment.
    3. Priority Sector Lending: Banks must lend 18% of net bank credit to agriculture.
    4. Special Food Processing Fund: A ₹2,000 crore fund with the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) gives affordable credit to food-park units.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2019] The economic cost of food grains to the Food Corporation of India is Minimum Support Price and bonus (if any) paid to the farmers plus (a) transportation cost only (b) interest cost only (c) procurement incidentals and distribution cost (d) procurement incidentals and charges for godowns Answer: (c)”

  • Rising sea level threat to India’s eroding coastline

    Why in the News

    India’s coastal no-build strip is still measured from today’s high-tide line, even as the shoreline retreats and the sea rises faster. The UN General Assembly (UNGA) has adopted its first ever declaration on rising sea levels, asking nations to build sea-level rise projections into coastal infrastructure planning.

    What does the UN declaration settle about statehood?

    1. Montevideo test: The 1933 Montevideo Convention defines a State by a permanent population, defined territory, government and capacity to enter into relations with other states. A sinking country risks failing the territory test.
    2. Continued statehood: The declaration’s “presumption in favour of continued statehood” lets a sinking country keep its sovereignty, UN seat and nautical boundaries. It works like a title deed that survives the flood.
    3. Displaced people: Countries must protect the human rights of those who lose homes. Eg. Over a third of Tuvalu‘s 11,000 people have sought Australian climate visas.
    4. The takeaway: Sinking island nations such as Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Maldives keep their legal existence.

    What does India gain from a pledge meant for small islands?

    1. India’s stand: India backed stable maritime zones and reaffirmed “common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities”: those who caused more warming and can pay more should do more.
    2. Island count: A 2023-24 remeasurement counts 1,298 offshore islands and islets.
    3. Island boundaries: Lakshadweep and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands push India’s sea boundaries into the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal, so fixed boundaries protect India too.

    Is India’s coastal law ready for a retreating shore?

    1. Eroding shoreline: The National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR) found about a third of the mainland shoreline eroding.
    2. CRZ no-build strip: The Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification, 2019 bars new building within 50 metres of the high-tide line in dense rural areas and 200 metres elsewhere.
    3. Moving baseline: The high-tide line marks today’s highest spring tide, so on the fastest-eroding stretches a house at the 50-metre edge reaches the water in about ten years.
    4. Unused hazard line: The Survey of India‘s hazard line factors in sea level rise, but the 2019 rules use it only for disaster management and land-use planning.

    Where does India fall short on people already displaced?

    1. Vanishing islands: In the Sundarbans, Ghoramara island has lost about half its area in five decades.
    2. Repeat displacement: Families who moved to Ghoramara from the vanished Lohachara island were displaced again within a decade, without secure tenure or livelihoods.
    3. No legal category: Indian law does not recognise people who lose land gradually to erosion, so each relocation is decided case by case.
    4. People at risk: A Frontiers in Marine Science review puts 45 million Indians at risk by 2050.
    5. Fiji’s model: Fiji wrote relocation into its Climate Change Act in 2021, backed by a trust fund.

    Challenges

    1. Locked-in rise: A UN brief finds seas will keep rising for centuries to millennia even at net zero.
    2. Adaptation finance gap: Developing countries’ adaptation needs far exceed the international public finance available.
    3. Distant finance goal: At the Baku summit, India called the new goal of $300 billion a year by 2035 “too little and too distant”.

    Way Forward

    1. Hazard-line baseline: Measure the no-build strip from the hazard line, or widen it by local erosion rates before the UN review due by September 2030.
    2. Erosion displacement law: Give families displaced by erosion land title and livelihood support by law.
    3. Finance diplomacy: Press for “timely and predictable disbursement” of adaptation finance at COP31 in Antalya in November.

    Conclusion

    The UN has secured sinking States’ legal future, but India’s coastal rules still plan against a shoreline moving inland. Whether the no-build strip moves to the hazard line before the next UN review will test India’s readiness.

    Key numbers

    1. Sea-level rise rate (World Meteorological Organization): 2.1 mm a year in 1993-2002, 4.7 mm in 2015-2024; a record 6 mm in 2024 alone.
    2. Rise by 2100 (‘Surging Seas in a Warming World’, 2024): about 38 cm at lowest emissions, about 77 cm if emissions keep climbing.
    3. Erosion (NCCR, 1990-2016): 234 sq km lost, 231 sq km gained; nearly 400 km retreating over 5 metres a year and 225 km by 3 to 5 metres; over 170 km of West Bengal in the fastest category.
    4. Adaptation finance (UN Environment Programme): needs over $310 billion a year by 2035; $26 billion of international public finance in 2023.
    5. India’s coastline (2023-24 remeasurement): 11,098 km.
    6. Ghoramara island area (Sundarbans): about 7.2 sq km shrinking to 3.6 sq km.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2020] Which one of the following statements best describes the term ‘Social Cost of Carbon’? It is a measure, in monetary value, of the (a) long-term damage done by a tonne of CO2, emissions in a given year. (b) requirement of fossil fuels for a country to provide goods and services to its citizens, (c) efforts put in by a climate refugee to adapt to live in a new place. (d) contribution of an individual person to the carbon footprint on the planet Earth. Answer: (a)”

  • New efficiency norms: What will change for OEMs, small cars & SUVs

    Why in the News

    India’s car efficiency rules have moved from a proposed extra 3 g/km allowance for petrol cars weighing up to 909 kg to a single fleet-wide formula in which vehicle weight sets every carmaker’s target. The final Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE)-III framework, notified on 29 September, also gives electric vehicles the biggest compliance benefit.

    What are the CAFE-III norms?

    1. What they are: CAFE norms cap the average fuel consumption across all cars a company sells, not each model, like a class average rather than each student’s score.
    2. Coverage: They apply to M1 category passenger vehicles, cars seating up to eight passengers besides the driver, manufactured or imported for sale in India.
    3. Period: The norms run for five financial years, from April 2027 to March 2032.
    4. Weight-based target: A maker’s permitted fuel consumption depends on the weighted average unladen weight (sales-weighted empty weight) of its vehicles. A heavier, SUV-led fleet gets a higher limit than a small-car fleet.
    5. The takeaway: Carmakers must now manage the efficiency of their entire portfolio rather than individual models.

    Why did the small-car concession go?

    1. Contested carve-out: Small cars became one of the most contentious points in drafting, since India’s market depends on compact, light petrol cars. A September 2025 draft proposed the extra allowance.
    2. Market concentration: Maruti Suzuki has an outsized presence in small cars. Rival carmakers argued the carve-out would disproportionately benefit a segment dominated by the largest carmaker.
    3. Changed weight formula: The reference weight, the baseline from which each fleet’s target is adjusted, rose from 1,170 kg in earlier versions to 1,229 kg. The weight adjustment is also flatter.
    4. No separate category: The final framework creates no separate category for the lightest cars. Their weight advantage is built into the broader fleet formula instead.

    What routes to compliance do carmakers get, and how has industry responded?

    1. Electric vehicle credit: Battery-electric and range-extended electric vehicles get a volume derogation factor of 3, so each counts as three vehicles when fleet performance is calculated.
    2. Carbon Neutrality Factor: This credit rewards makers for ethanol-blended petrol, biofuels and compressed biogas (CBG). It gives a route to compliance beyond efficiency gains and electrification.
    3. Industry welcome: Maruti Suzuki called it a comprehensive regulation built on scientific data and inter-ministerial consultation, recognising multiple powertrains and fuels.
    4. Predictable roadmap: Hyundai Motor India said the 3+2 year compliance block structure allows long-term product and technology planning.

    Challenges

    1. Diluted real gains: Counting each electric vehicle three times lets a maker sell more fuel-hungry cars and still meet its average.
    2. Fuel credit verification: Credits for ethanol and CBG assume cleaner fuel is actually used, which carmakers do not control.
    3. Lab versus road gap: Fuel consumption is certified on test cycles, which often understate real-world use.
    4. Softer SUV targets: A weight-based formula gives heavier fleets a higher allowance, so a shift to SUVs eases the target.

    Way Forward

    1. Taper the multiplier: The Ministry of Power should lower the derogation factor as electric vehicle sales rise.
    2. On-road checks: Testing agencies should add real-world fuel checks to certification.
    3. Public compliance data: The Ministry of Power should publish each carmaker’s fleet performance every year.
    4. Audited fuel credits: Carbon Neutrality Factor credits should be tied to verified fuel supply data from oil marketing companies.

    Conclusion

    CAFE-III ties every carmaker’s target to the weight of what it sells, which removed the case for a separate small-car carve-out. The first compliance block will show whether electric vehicle and clean fuel credits cut real fuel use or only soften the average.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2020] Which one of the following statements best describes the term ‘Social Cost of Carbon’? It is a measure, in monetary value, of the (a) long-term damage done by a tonne of CO2, emissions in a given year. (b) requirement of fossil fuels for a country to provide goods and services to its citizens, (c) efforts put in by a climate refugee to adapt to live in a new place. (d) contribution of an individual person to the carbon footprint on the planet Earth. Answer: (a)”

  • SC rules out total ban on firecrackers for Deepavali

    Why in the News

    Firecracker policy for Deepavali has moved from the prospect of a total nationwide ban to a “limited and conditional relaxation” that permits next-generation joined green crackers. A Supreme Court Bench headed by Justice M.M. Sundresh ruled out the total ban, accepting suggestions from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI).

    What are next-generation joined green crackers?

    1. What they are: Joined crackers are a string of crackers linked to burst one after another. Green crackers are reformulated to pollute less, like a low-emission version of a regular product.
    2. Barium-free design: The green series is made without barium, a toxic chemical used for colour. Its shell or tube size, formulation, bursting duration and frequency also differ.
    3. Lower emissions: Tests show a 30% reduction in emissions compared with conventional joined crackers, with lower noise and fewer particulate emissions, the fine dust that enters the lungs.
    4. Less waste, longer bursts: Smaller shells cut solid waste generation by 4% up to 32%. The bursting time has increased five times.
    5. The takeaway: Cleaner chemistry lets the court allow festive crackers without accepting the full pollution load of conventional ones.

    What conditions has the court accepted?

    1. Compliance first: The court backed manufacture of these crackers only in compliance with applicable noise, emission and safety requirements.
    2. Approved formulations: As the Centre proposed, the crackers must conform to formulations tested and approved by the competent authority.
    3. Licensed makers only: The crackers must be made exclusively by duly licensed manufacturers.
    4. Noise and emission limits: They must stay within permissible emission levels and a noise limit of 125 dB(AI) or 145 dB(C) peak. These are decibel measures of sudden and peak loudness.
    5. Fixed design, no banned chemicals: CSIR-NEERI has prescribed the shell size, shell number and bursting duration. The crackers must be free of banned chemical ingredients.

    How will the court balance festive sentiment and clean air?

    1. Balanced view: The court said it would take a balanced view, given fears of air pollution with the onset of winter and the festive season.
    2. No total ban: The Bench remarked orally that a total ban “will hurt certain sentiments“.
    3. No round-the-clock bursting: It will not allow 24-hour bursting anywhere, as this affects the sick, the elderly and children. It will look into directing specific time windows for bursting.
    4. Further tests: The court gave the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the Union government more time for further barium and joined cracker decibel tests.

    Challenges

    1. Fake green labels: Conventional crackers sold as green are hard to tell apart at retail, so enforcement depends on market checks.
    2. Policing time windows: Bursting hours are hard to enforce across dense neighbourhoods on a single festival night.
    3. Seasonal pollution load: Crackers add to a season when stubble burning and still winter air already trap pollutants over north India.
    4. Livelihood pressure: Cracker production clustered around Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu employs many workers, so strict curbs hit jobs.
    5. Incomplete evidence: The relaxation comes before the pending barium and decibel tests are complete.

    Way Forward

    1. Verifiable packs: Approved crackers should carry QR codes that buyers and police can check against the CSIR-NEERI list.
    2. Uniform hours: The court should fix uniform bursting hours, enforced by local police.
    3. Live monitoring: The CPCB should publish noise and air quality readings through the festival.
    4. Industry transition: States should help cracker units shift to approved formulations through training and credit.

    Conclusion

    The Supreme Court has chosen regulated celebration over prohibition, resting that choice on cleaner cracker chemistry. Watch for its directions on bursting time windows and the results of the pending tests before Deepavali.

    Back2Basics: CSIR-NEERI

    1. Parent body: A laboratory of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India’s largest public research network, under the Ministry of Science and Technology.
    2. Location: Headquartered in Nagpur, Maharashtra.
    3. Mandate: Research in environmental science and engineering, including air and water pollution control.
    4. Green crackers: It developed India’s first green cracker formulations after the Supreme Court’s 2018 order allowing only less-polluting crackers.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2025, GS3, 10 marks] What is Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS)? What is the potential role of CCUS in tackling climate change?”

  • In aftermath of BRICS, going back to Bandung

    Why in the News

    The 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi earlier this month produced a 140-point declaration that, in places, echoes the anti-colonial Bandung agenda. The debate is whether BRICS can inherit the mission of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), and whether India, leaning towards Washington, can lead the Global South.

    What did Bandung and NAM stand for?

    1. Bandung Conference: In April 1955, leaders of 29 newly independent Asian and African countries met at Bandung, Indonesia. They agreed on ten principles, chiefly:
      • sovereignty and non-interference;
      • refusal to join great-power military blocs;
      • support for peoples under colonial rule.
    2. Non-Aligned Movement: Six years later, at Belgrade, this became NAM, a platform for decolonisation. It backed Algeria, Vietnam, the anti-apartheid struggle and the Palestinians.
    3. New International Economic Order (NIEO): In the 1970s, NAM took to the United Nations (UN) a demand for fair commodity prices, technology access and a voice in global institutions.
    4. Loss of direction: India was NAM’s founder and moral centre. After the Soviet Union collapsed, many members, India included, drifted towards the United States (US).
    5. The takeaway: NAM survives only in name, so BRICS is judged as its possible heir.

    What did the New Delhi declaration say, and leave unsaid?

    1. BRICS reach: Formed in 2009, BRICS now represents more than half of humanity.
    2. Bandung echoes: The declaration seeks reform of the UN Security Council, International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and World Trade Organization (WTO). It also backs:
      • an end to the blockade of Cuba;
      • a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as capital;
      • climate finance for countries that did not cause the crisis.
    3. Not NAM’s heir: BRICS members have different systems and interests, and several are close US partners.
    4. Silences of consensus: The declaration condemns “unilateral coercive measures” and urges “maximum restraint” in West Asia. It names neither who imposes them nor the aggressor.

    Why does BRICS’s limited project still matter?

    1. Reform, not rupture: BRICS seeks more than one centre of power, not an end to domination. It would reform the US dollar’s dominance but is silent on poor nations’ debt.
    2. Shield against coercion: When tariffs become weapons and sanctions on one country disrupt many, alternatives give governments room:
      • trade in national currencies;
      • development finance without strings;
      • a reserve arrangement, a pooled emergency fund, outside the IMF.
    3. Strength in numbers: A larger, stronger BRICS makes it harder for one power to dictate terms.

    Can India lead the Global South while leaning towards Washington?

    1. Junior partner charge: The critique holds that India acts as a “junior partner” of the US, deepening military and trade arrangements aimed at containing China.
    2. West Asia contradiction: India embraces Israel strategically yet signed the Palestinian statehood text. Surveys across West Asia rank Israel and the US as the region’s greatest threats.
    3. Selective silence: India has been silent on US actions against Iran, Venezuela and Cuba, and has not clearly condemned the destruction of Gaza.
    4. Hidden poverty: Before the summit, the capital’s slums were screened from view.
    5. Return to Bandung: The critique urges a return to Bandung’s idea of peoples’ right to decide their own destinies:
      • freedom from US pressure;
      • solidarity with Palestine and opposition to sanctions;
      • payment of climate debt to poorer nations;
      • a BRICS that is more than a lobby.

    Challenges

    1. India-China rivalry: Border friction between India and China limits BRICS’s strategic cohesion.
    2. Expansion without criteria: A larger BRICS risks becoming a talk shop, as NAM did.
    3. Dollar dependence: The US dollar still settles over 80% of global trade, so de-dollarisation is slow.

    Way Forward

    1. Membership criteria: BRICS should set formal criteria for full and partner membership.
    2. Stronger bank: Members should raise the capital of the New Development Bank (NDB) and widen its Global South lending.
    3. Debt agenda: BRICS should take up sovereign debt relief.
    4. Consistent positions: India should judge unilateral actions by one standard, whoever acts.

    Conclusion

    BRICS offers the Global South a hedge against coercion, not the anti-colonial programme Bandung and NAM carried. Whether India uses BRICS to speak for that programme, or as one more seat at the table, remains unresolved.

    About BRICS

    1. Origin: A Goldman Sachs economist coined “BRIC” in 2001. The first leaders’ summit met at Yekaterinburg, Russia.
    2. Expansion: South Africa joined in 2011. Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) joined in 2024, and Indonesia a year later.
    3. NDB: Headquartered in Shanghai, the BRICS bank has approved over $35 billion in infrastructure loans.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2026] Which of the following countries are members of the European Union? 1. Belarus 2. Poland 3. Germany 4. Switzerland (a) 1, 2 and 4 (b) 1 and 4 only (c) 2 and 3 (d) 2 and 4 only Answer: C”

More posts