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  • Western Sahara refugees still yearn for home as UN peacekeepers leave

    Western Sahara refugees still yearn for home as UN peacekeepers leave

    Why in the News

    Western Sahara, often described as Africa’s longest-running territorial dispute, has gone from a UN-monitored ceasefire to having no UN peacekeeping mission at all. The change followed a spat at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) over a United States (U.S.) drafted resolution.

    What is the Western Sahara dispute?

    1. Rival claims: Morocco considers Western Sahara its own territory. The Algeria-backed Polisario Front, a political and military organisation, seeks a separate state there.
    2. Colonial origin: The Polisario has pursued that state since Spain, the former colonial power, left the territory in 1976.
    3. Ceasefire and peacekeepers: In 1991 the UN brokered a ceasefire that ended years of guerrilla warfare between the two sides. Peacekeepers had watched over the territory ever since.
    4. Tindouf camps: Thousands of Sahrawis, the territory’s people, fled the fighting to the Tindouf area of southwestern Algeria. The Polisario administers five refugee camps there.
    5. The takeaway: The UN has withdrawn from a territory whose two claimants never settled their dispute.

    How did the UN mission end?

    1. Autonomy plan: Last year the UNSC backed Rabat’s plan to give the region autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty. It called this the “most feasible” way to resolve the conflict.
    2. Russia’s veto: Russia had abstained on that vote last year. This year it vetoed (blocked, as a permanent member) a U.S. drafted resolution reaffirming that position.
    3. Rival draft defeated: A competing Russian resolution was then defeated. With neither text adopted, the mission was left without a renewal of its mandate, so it ended.

    Why are the refugee camps at the centre of the contest?

    1. Algeria’s case: Algeria’s UN envoy defended the Polisario’s stance, citing a decline in aid and the refugees’ suffering.
    2. Morocco’s case: Morocco’s envoy blamed Algeria, a longtime Russian ally, for the harsh conditions. He accused it of denying the refugees their right to return home.
    3. Registration demand: Morocco urged Algiers to let the UN register the refugees, saying other nationalities were present in the camps.
    4. Disputed headcount: Algeria and the Polisario say over 160,000 people live in the camps. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) assists an estimated 90,000 of the “most vulnerable“.
    5. Census dispute: Morocco rejects both figures, citing the lack of a UN census, and accuses Algeria and the Polisario of using Sahrawis as “political pawns“. Algiers denies this.

    What do refugees in the camps face?

    1. Daily hardship: Families struggle with access to water and a harsh climate.
    2. Food dependence: The World Food Programme (WFP) said earlier this year that more than 80% of camp residents rely on humanitarian assistance for basic food needs.
    3. Lifelong exile: One refugee, aged 51, is as old as the conflict. Her adult daughters have never seen the region she came from.
    4. Younger generation: Another daughter, a Polisario fighter aged 24, says the young do not want to live through the “displacement and deprivation” their grandparents did.

    Challenges

    1. No monitoring presence: With the mandate lapsed, no UN force watches over a territory peacekeepers had overseen since the ceasefire.
    2. Council deadlock: The split vote leaves the Council with no agreed position to build on.
    3. Contested numbers: Without a census, each side cites its own refugee count, so humanitarian need becomes a political argument.

    Way Forward

    1. Successor mandate: Council members should negotiate a text restoring a UN presence, kept separate from the dispute over who owns the territory.
    2. Agreed registration: Algeria and the UN should agree on registering camp residents, so aid is planned on accepted numbers.
    3. Resumed talks: Morocco and the Polisario Front should return to UN facilitated talks on a settlement both can accept.

    Conclusion

    Western Sahara has lost its UN peacekeepers with neither side closer to a settlement, and refugees who have spent their lives in camps bear the cost. Whether the Council can agree on any successor text is the next test.

    Back2Basics: United Nations Security Council (UNSC)

    1. Formation: Set up in 1945, with its headquarters in New York City.
    2. Permanent members: The U.S., the United Kingdom, France, Russia and China (the P5) each hold a veto, so any one of them can block a resolution.
    3. Elected members: Ten non permanent members are elected for two year terms.
    4. Powers: It holds primary responsibility for international peace and security, and can authorise peacekeeping and sanctions.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2026] Match List I (UN Peacekeeping Operation) with List II (Period of Operation): A. UNMIL 1. 2007-2010 B. MINURCAT 2. 2002-2005 C. MINUSTAH 3. 2003-2018 D. UNMISET 4. 2004-2017 (a) A-3, B-4, C-1, D-2 (b) A-3, B-1, C-4, D-2 (c) A-2, B-1, C-4, D-3 (d) A-2, B-4, C-1, D-3 ANSWER: B”

  • Cascading effect

    Cascading effect

    Why in the News

    India’s push for the 11.2 gigawatt (GW) Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP) in Arunachal Pradesh is driven by fears over China’s 60 GW mega dam upstream in Tibet. Its top down execution, with security forces guarding surveyors and a State anti unlawful activities law used against activists, is turning a strategic buffer into a dispute over local land rights.

    What is SUMP, and why does India want it?

    1. What it is: SUMP is a large dam and reservoir planned on the river entering India from Tibet. It would work like a shock absorber against sudden upstream surges.
    2. Why it is wanted: The impetus comes from China’s aggressive development of its mega dam in Tibet, which has stoked anxieties over “weaponised” transboundary waters.
    3. Two fears: Beijing could divert flows in the Yarlung Tsangpo, which becomes the Brahmaputra in India, to cause drought, or release water en masse to flood Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.
    4. The takeaway: New Delhi imagines SUMP as a strategic buffer, so the project’s case rests on security as much as on power.

    How far can China control the river?

    1. Cascade design: The Tibetan dam will have five cascading power stations, a chain of plants each using water released by the one above.
    2. Steep drop: The chain runs along a stretch where the river falls roughly 2,000 metres across 50 km.
    3. Limited control of total flow: Assam and Bangladesh get most of the basin’s water from monsoon rain and downstream tributaries, so China cannot simply control total flow.
    4. Risk nearest the border: Chinese interventions would have greater consequences closer to the border, which is where SUMP will operate.
    5. Engineering details withheld: Beijing says the dam will not harm downstream countries. It has declined to share crucial engineering details.

    Can SUMP be run without China’s information?

    1. Two data needs: SUMP must know both how the mega dam is operated and what flows arrive downstream. Beijing refuses to share the first.
    2. Limited diplomatic headway: India has repeatedly raised the issue with China at the highest levels. Beijing has agreed only to share hydrological data on humanitarian grounds during emergencies.
    3. Reservoir held part full: Planners have contemplated keeping the SUMP reservoir at 70% of capacity to absorb unexpected surges.
    4. Protection unclear: Without advance warning from China, it is unclear how much this spare space protects, so diplomacy becomes essential to running SUMP.

    Strategic buffer or land grab: why is local resistance growing?

    1. Top down approach: The state has deployed security forces to guard survey teams and imposed the State Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act against activists.
    2. Fear of land grab: These steps confirm local fears that the state will take their land. Adi community members and civil rights groups are resisting.
    3. Wider hydropower protests: Sustained protests against the Subansiri Upper Hydroelectric Project turn the criticism on Arunachal Pradesh’s whole hydropower model.
    4. Law still binds: Even a needed project must follow all relevant laws and protections. The state cannot protect the nation’s needs by antagonising its own people.

    Challenges

    1. Fragile terrain: The eastern Himalayas are among the world’s most tectonically active and erosion prone landscapes, so large dams there carry high geological risk.
    2. Loss of local trust: Coercive surveys turn residents against a project meant to protect them.
    3. Contested territory: Beijing’s disputed claims on Arunachal Pradesh make any India China understanding on the river politically harder.

    Way Forward

    1. Consent before surveys: The State and Union governments should consult Adi community members and settle land rights before survey work continues.
    2. Full legal safeguards: The project should complete every land and rehabilitation protection the law requires before construction.
    3. Wider data sharing: India should press China for routine sharing of dam operation data, not only emergency hydrological data.

    Conclusion

    SUMP’s value as a strategic buffer now depends as much on local support as on engineering. The test ahead is whether the state can secure local consent and Chinese data together, rather than trading one for the other.

    Back2Basics: Medog Dam (Yarlung Zangbo Lower Reaches Hydropower Project)

    1. Location: The project sits at the Great Bend of the Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet, just upstream of where the river turns towards Arunachal Pradesh. China broke ground in July 2025.
    2. Operator and design: The new State owned China Yajiang Group runs it, and it includes a roughly 40 km diversion tunnel.
    3. Seismic exposure: It sits very close to the Paizhen Fault, a major fracture in the Earth’s crust, so a major earthquake could send floodwater and debris into India’s Northeast.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “No direct PYQ traced in the provided files. Thematic PYQ: [2017, GS2, 10 marks] ‘China is using its economic relations and positive trade surplus as tools to develop potential military power status in Asia’, In the light of this statement, discuss its impact on India as her neighbor.”

  • Homebuyers pen letter to PM: After 10 yrs, objectives of RERA ‘far from being achieved’

    Homebuyers pen letter to PM: After 10 yrs, objectives of RERA ‘far from being achieved’

    Why in the News

    Ten years of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (RERA) have brought a growing number of housing projects under registration, but its goal of protecting homebuyers remains “far from being achieved”. The Forum for People’s Collective Efforts (FPCE), one of the campaigners behind the law, has written to the Prime Minister seeking a split in the regulator’s mandate.

    What is RERA, and what was it meant to fix?

    1. What it is: RERA set up the Real Estate Regulatory Authority in 2016 to oversee housing projects and their builders, called promoters. It works like a referee between homebuyer and builder.
    2. Why it was introduced: It was meant to end malpractices such as the misuse of homebuyers’ money, one sided buyer seller agreements and project delays.
    3. What it achieved: The law has brought a large number of projects under registration and made builders meet important disclosure requirements.
    4. What went wrong: The forum says the malpractices continue, and homebuyers still struggle to obtain effective remedies.
    5. The takeaway: A family that has put its lifetime savings into a flat needs a completed home and enforceable rights, not merely a project registration number.

    Why does the forum blame RERA’s design?

    1. Conflicting mandate: The forum names the primary cause as the Authority’s two conflicting jobs, promoting the sector and protecting homebuyers.
    2. Why the conflict matters: A body charged with helping the sector grow has less reason to act hard against builders, so protection of buyers becomes the weaker task.
    3. Weak scrutiny at registration: The forum repeatedly told ministry officials at Central Advisory Council (CAC) meetings that projects were registered without proper checks of documents, promoter declarations or agreements for sale.
    4. Wrong measure of success: The FPCE president wrote that counting registrations and disclosures cannot prove success when builders keep violating the law.

    What overhaul does the forum propose?

    1. Promotion with the Housing Ministry: The Housing Ministry would continue to look after the promotion of the real estate sector.
    2. Protection with Consumer Affairs: The Department of Consumer Affairs would take sole responsibility for protecting homebuyers’ interests.
    3. One job per authority: Each department would then answer for one goal only, removing the clash the forum sees inside a single regulator.

    Challenges

    1. Registration without checks: Registering projects without verifying documents lets a flawed project carry an official registration number.
    2. Remedies out of reach: Buyers facing delays or misuse of money still struggle to obtain effective remedies, so the law’s protection is hard to enforce.
    3. Overlapping authorities: Splitting promotion and protection across two departments could leave builders answering to two bodies with overlapping demands.

    Way Forward

    1. Scrutiny before registration: Regulators should verify documents, promoter declarations and agreements for sale before registering a project.
    2. Examine the mandate split: The Union government should examine the proposal to give the Department of Consumer Affairs sole charge of homebuyer protection.
    3. Outcome based review: RERA’s record should be judged by homes delivered on time and complaints resolved, not by projects registered.

    Conclusion

    RERA has worked as a registration system but not yet as a protection system, because one regulator is asked both to promote and to police the sector. Whether the Centre acts on the call to separate those roles will decide if the law’s second decade delivers homes rather than registration numbers.

    Back2Basics: Real Estate Regulatory Authorities

    1. State regulators: Each State notifies its own Real Estate Regulatory Authority under the Act. There is no single national regulator.
    2. Scope: The Authorities regulate ongoing and new projects. In most States the law does not apply retrospectively to fully completed projects.
    3. Dispute route: Complaints go to the State Authority and its Adjudicating Officer, with appeals to the State level Real Estate Appellate Tribunal.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “No direct PYQ traced in the provided files. Thematic PYQ: [2015, GS2, 12.5 marks] For achieving the desired objectives, it is necessary to ensure that the regulatory institutions remain independent and autonomous. Discuss in the light of the experiences in recent past.”

  • Grievance redress rules for job scheme drop key provisions

    Grievance redress rules for job scheme drop key provisions

    Why in the News

    The rural job scheme’s final grievance rules no longer require a first information report (FIR), the police record that opens a criminal case, on prima facie evidence of financial irregularities, a safeguard in both the May draft and the earlier law’s rules. The Union Ministry of Rural Development notified the Grievance Redressal Rules under the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G), which replaced the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) earlier this year.

    How does the new grievance system work?

    1. Grievance redress: A complaint can be filed on any matter related to the scheme’s implementation, and it must be resolved within 15 days. It works like a complaint counter with a deadline attached.
    2. Filing routes: A complaint can be made in person before the Grievance Redressal Officer, by Speed Post, on a Centre-notified digital platform, or through telephone helplines and other modes the States specify.
    3. No refusal on form: No grievance can be refused registration because of its format, language, manner of submission or procedural deficiencies.
    4. The takeaway: The rules make complaints easier to file and faster to settle, but weaker at pushing fraud towards criminal action.

    How must a complaint be handled?

    1. Digital entry: Complaints received on paper at the Gram Panchayat, Block or District level must be entered on the designated digital platform the same day or by the next working day.
    2. Acknowledgement: Each complainant receives an acknowledgement with a registration number, the date of receipt and details of the receiving authority.
    3. Inquiry: Grievance officers must examine every complaint, seek records and information, and may hear complainants. Inquiries must be completed within seven days of receiving the complaint.
    4. Escalation: Findings and action taken are recorded and communicated to complainants. Grievances unresolved after 15 days are escalated and tracked until disposal.
    5. Appeals: A complainant not satisfied can appeal under the scheme’s own law, the VB-G RAM G Act, 2025.

    What did the final rules drop?

    1. Action-taken reports: Reports on what was done about complaints no longer have to be placed before local body meetings for review and monitoring.
    2. MGNREGA origin: Both this requirement and the FIR provision were part of the Grievance Redressal Rules under MGNREGA.
    3. Designated day: The Ministry also dropped a proposed weekly “designated day” for grievance officials to receive complaints.

    Challenges

    1. Weaker fraud deterrence: Without mandatory FIR registration, prima facie financial irregularities need not reach the police.
    2. Less local oversight: Local bodies no longer review action-taken reports, so elected bodies lose a check on how grievances are handled.
    3. No fixed meeting day: Without a weekly designated day, complainants have no assured time to meet grievance officials.

    Way Forward

    1. Police referral for fraud: Require an FIR wherever an inquiry finds prima facie evidence of financial irregularities.
    2. Local body review: Place action-taken reports before Gram Panchayat and other local body meetings.
    3. Weekly grievance day: Fix one day a week on which grievance officials must receive complainants.

    Conclusion

    The Grievance Redressal Rules are now notified, with a faster, digital complaint process but without the oversight provisions of the draft. No further step has been announced, so the test is whether escalation and appeals can check financial irregularities that no longer require police registration.

    Back2Basics: VB-G RAM G

    1. What it guarantees: It is a statutory guarantee of rural wage employment for 125 days a year.
    2. Who benefits: Adult members of rural households who volunteer for unskilled manual work.
    3. Four thematic domains: Work falls under water security, rural infrastructure, livelihood infrastructure and mitigation of extreme weather events.
    4. Wage payment: Wages are paid through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT).

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2021, GS4, 10 marks] An independent and empowered social audit mechanism is an absolute must in every sphere of public service, including the judiciary, to ensure performance, accountability and ethical conduct. Elaborate. (150 words)”

  • How AI training models could compromise privacy

    How AI training models could compromise privacy

    Why in the News

    India’s Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023 does not deal with the use of personal data to train Artificial Intelligence (AI) models. Meta, Amazon and Google already train their AI models on users’ data, so the gap weakens the constitutional right to privacy that the Supreme Court upheld in 2017.

    What does the DPDP Act cover, and what does it leave out?

    1. DPDP Act: It is now the general purpose law regulating how citizens’ data is used, like a rulebook for anyone who collects personal information.
    2. Phased start: The DPDP Rules were notified in November 2025. Some provisions on consent and safety take effect only in 2027.
    3. Public and inferred data excluded: The Act does not apply to publicly available data or to inferred data. Inferred data is what can be drawn from a person’s location, affiliations or images, such as emotions, movements or behaviour.
    4. The takeaway: The data AI can most easily scrape and analyse sits outside India’s main privacy law.

    How did the earlier law treat sensitive data?

    1. IT Act regime: The Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 and its 2011 Rules regulated sending “sensitive personal data” abroad. The recipient had to protect it to Indian standards, and transfer needed a lawful contract or consent.
    2. Criminal penalty: Unauthorised disclosure of listed sensitive data, such as financial, health, sexual orientation or biometric data, carried up to three years’ imprisonment or a ₹5 lakh fine.
    3. Gaps in the old Rules: They did not cover names, addresses, phone numbers, caste, religion, political affiliations or browsing history, nor data scraped from social media.
    4. No sensitive category now: The DPDP Act puts all personal data in one bucket, so passwords and health conditions get the same protection as a name, a step back from the earlier law.

    How does AI training put privacy at risk?

    1. Regurgitation: AI models can repeat personal data they memorised during training. Querying a model with “anonymised” data, stripped of names, can pull out those details, identify individuals and build their profiles.
    2. Profiling from public data: AI methods can extract sensitive information about a person from generic, publicly available information.
    3. Scale in India: India is the world’s largest market for Facebook and Instagram, so these risks reach more Indian users than users anywhere else.

    Why not simply ban AI training on Indian data?

    1. Innovation cost: AI can boost productivity, and indiscriminate regulation can slow innovation and growth.
    2. Bans backfire: Stopping data export, or keeping personal data out of AI training, can leave the AI that serves Indians less inclusive, less efficient and more biased.
    3. Use-case hub: India is set to become the world’s main hub for putting AI to practical use, with corporate giants, small businesses and non-profits deploying it.
    4. Development versus privacy: Faster development and stronger privacy pull in different directions, so India has to choose a balance between them.

    Challenges

    1. No right to object: Even after the substantive provisions take full effect in May 2027, Indian users cannot object to AI training on their public data.
    2. EU contrast: Meta gives users in the European Union (EU) an opt-out from AI training that Indian users do not have.
    3. Narrow right to be forgotten: The right to have one’s data erased covers only data a user consented to give, and its reach over inferred information is unclear.
    4. Research exemption: The Union government has not yet prescribed its conditions, so AI training framed as research can escape the Act.

    Way Forward

    1. Cover AI training: Apply the DPDP Act to AI training data, with a right to object and protection for scraped and inferred data.
    2. Stronger right to erasure: Make companies tell users of every entity that holds their data.
    3. Clear research exemption: Clarify whether AI training falls under the research exemption by default.
    4. Sensitive data category: Create a sensitive data category with stricter rules on use and processing.

    Conclusion

    India’s privacy law governs how organisations collect personal data but not how AI models learn from it. How quickly amendments, Rules or judgments close that gap will decide how strong the constitutional right to privacy remains.

    What is the Right to Privacy?

    1. Recognition: In K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India, the Supreme Court held privacy to be a Fundamental Right under Article 21, intrinsic to dignity, liberty and autonomy.
    2. Informational privacy: It protects personal data, medical records and online footprints.
    3. Proportionality test: A restriction on privacy must be sanctioned by law, serve a legitimate aim and be proportionate to that aim.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2024, GS3, 10 marks] Describe the context and salient features of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023”

  • Smaller cities can lead the way on climate resilience

    Smaller cities can lead the way on climate resilience

    Why in the News

    Heat and flooding strike Indian cities every season, yet cities handle them separately. The same decisions on land, buildings and infrastructure shape both. Smaller cities, where much of the housing India will need is still unbuilt, can plan for both from the start and avoid the costly retrofits large cities face.

    What is climate-resilient development?

    1. What it is: Climate-resilient development is a framework of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It plans adaptation to climate impacts, emissions reduction and sustainable development together, rather than one at a time.
    2. Why it is needed: Cities usually treat heat and flooding as separate problems. Both are shaped by the same decisions about land, buildings and infrastructure.
    3. Single design for two hazards: It is like designing a house for both summer and monsoon before building it, not patching it each season.
    4. The takeaway: The task is not to respond to each climate stress in turn but to rethink how cities grow.

    What frameworks and programmes already exist?

    1. Long-term strategy: India’s Long-Term Low Emissions Development Strategy, submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), gives a frame for building climate concerns into urban development.
    2. Habitat mission: The National Mission on Sustainable Habitat serves the same purpose.
    3. Flood programme: The Urban Flood Risk Management Programme now covers 18 cities.
    4. Heat as a notified disaster: Heat is now recognised as a notified disaster, which allows disaster funds to be used for heat resilience.

    Why do smaller cities hold the advantage?

    1. Where urban India lives: More than half of India’s urban population lives in cities of fewer than one million residents.
    2. Housing still to come: Much of the housing India will need is yet to be built.
    3. Retrofit cost: Retrofitting large cities is costly and complex. Smaller cities can still shape how they expand.
    4. Lock-in risk: Today’s choices on roads, drainage, buildings and public spaces can lock cities into high energy use and climate vulnerability, or create resilient neighbourhoods.

    How does city form shape cooling demand?

    1. Heat and power: Rising temperatures push up cooling needs and electricity demand.
    2. Urban form: A study of 88 Indian cities found that land use, building density, urban expansion and green cover all influence cooling demand.
    3. Cooling Action Plan: The India Cooling Action Plan estimates that building design, energy efficiency and thermal comfort practices could cut cooling demand by 20%.
    4. Role of regulation: Urban planning and building regulations can therefore reduce heat exposure and limit energy demand.

    Challenges

    1. Fragmented decisions: Development authorities draw master plans, public works departments design roads, utilities run services and municipalities regulate buildings, each separately.
    2. Climate outside routine appraisal: Climate risk is not yet part of routine planning, project appraisal or investment decisions.
    3. Data without local knowledge: Spatial data and risk models lose value when they ignore how residents actually live and move.

    Way Forward

    1. Climate in every appraisal: Make climate considerations part of routine planning, project appraisal and investment.
    2. Departmental coordination: Coordinate planning, works, utility and municipal departments so their investments align.
    3. Redesigned existing funds: Allocate municipal revenues, government transfers and scheme-based grants with climate goals, without waiting for a separate fund.
    4. Pilots through private finance: Use corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds, impact investment and development finance for pilots that generate evidence to scale.
    5. Risk mapping with residents: Combine spatial data, risk assessments and scenario modelling with how residents walk, commute and use public spaces, instead of copying big-city models.

    Conclusion

    India has national frameworks for urban climate risk, but they do not yet shape the everyday decisions on how cities grow. The test is whether smaller cities build climate appraisal into master plans and budgets before their housing is built.

    Key numbers

    1. Unbuilt housing: more than 50% of the housing India needs by 2070.
    2. India Cooling Action Plan horizon: 2037-38, the year by which the cooling demand cut is estimated.

    Schemes and Initiatives for Urban Disaster Resilience

    1. Urban Disaster Management Authorities: The Disaster Management (Amendment) Act, 2025 lets States create city disaster authorities. Only Karnataka has set one up, for Bengaluru.
    2. Heat Action Plans: Around 300 cities and districts across 23 heatwave prone States hold Heat Action Plans.
    3. National Disaster Management Plan: Issued in 2016 and revised in 2019, it is India’s first all hazard plan aligned to the Sendai Framework for disaster risk reduction.
    4. Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI): Launched by India in 2019, it brings together over 50 countries on disaster proofing critical infrastructure.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2026, GS3, 10 marks] Discuss how the contradiction between ‘rapid infrastructure development’ and ‘disaster-risk reduction’ in ecologically-sensitive areas of India can be managed, with suitable examples.”

  • Two days of green crackers in Delhi-NCR: SC

    Why in the News

    Deepavali firecracker rules in the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) have moved from a complete ban to a regulated two day window for certified green crackers. A two judge Supreme Court Bench called bursting crackers a “religious practice“, but held it subject to public health and the right to a clean environment.

    What has the court allowed?

    1. Permitted crackers and days: Only certified green crackers, made with a modified chemical mix that releases less smoke and dust, may be burst, and only on 7 and 8 November.
    2. Permitted hours: Bursting is allowed only for one hour in the morning and two hours at night on those days.
    3. No-cracker zones: Bursting is barred within 300 metres of hospitals, nursing homes, health centres, old age homes, silence zones and educational institutions. These will be marked and published.
    4. The takeaway: The court has replaced prohibition with rules on which crackers, when and where.

    How does the court weigh religion against clean air?

    1. Religious practice: The court accepted bursting crackers as a religious practice for Deepavali, now a national, even international, festival across caste, community and religion.
    2. Article 25(1): The freedom to practise, profess and propagate religion is “certainly subject to public order, morality, health“. A practice with a religious colour is only a qualified right.
    3. Article 21: The right to life includes the right to a healthy, safe and pollution-free environment.
    4. Festival’s purpose defeated: Severe air and noise pollution hurts children, the disabled and the elderly most, which “defeats the very purpose of the festivities”.
    5. Scriptural ritual: The Skandapurana and the Padmapurana refer only to lamps as the Deepavali ritual. Bursting crackers began after gunpowder reached India a few centuries ago.

    Why did the court move away from a complete ban?

    1. Health damage: Unregulated bursting has chronically spiked the Air Quality Index (AQI), a single pollution score. Microscopic particulate matter enters the body and causes “substantial damage“.
    2. Enforcement failure: The State had “utterly failed” since 2015 to enforce the court’s orders restricting fireworks.
    3. Ban without results: Air quality did not improve after the complete ban resumed, and the AQI spiked on Dasara and the day after.
    4. Illegal sale: The complete ban fed the illegal sale of crackers and stopped people from buying legitimate green crackers.

    What curbs govern manufacture and sale?

    1. Certified makers: Only makers certified by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI) and the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO) may produce green crackers.
    2. Sealed boxes: Cracker boxes must be sealed and never mixed with unauthorised or conventional crackers.
    3. Banned types: Crackers joined in series (“ladis“) and garlands may not be made or sold.
    4. QR codes: Only crackers carrying product-specific QR codes may be sold.
    5. Licences and security: Cancelled trader licences are restored from 4 to 6 November. Makers and traders must deposit a “handsome” monetary security fixed by the authorities.

    Challenges

    1. Weak enforcement record: The State failed to enforce cracker curbs from 2015, yet the same machinery must now police hours and zones.
    2. Fake certification: The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) has earlier found registered makers selling green cracker QR codes to unregistered ones.
    3. Hard to tell apart: In 2018 and 2019 the police could not distinguish green crackers from conventional ones on the street.

    Way Forward

    1. Mapped zones: Publish the no-cracker zones before the festival, so residents know where bursting is barred.
    2. QR checks at sale: Verify QR codes at shops against the certified makers’ lists.
    3. Festival air monitoring: Pollution control boards should publish AQI readings on both festival days to test the window.

    Conclusion

    The court has swapped an unenforced ban for a regulated window, treating Deepavali crackers as a qualified religious right. Air quality after the two permitted days will show whether regulation works where prohibition failed.

    Key numbers

    1. Permitted bursting hours: 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. on each permitted day.
    2. Green cracker production window: 2 to 6 November, for certified makers only.

    Back2Basics: Green crackers

    1. Barium-free chemistry: The green series is made without barium, a toxic chemical used for colour.
    2. CSIR-NEERI’s role: CSIR-NEERI, a laboratory of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in Nagpur, developed India’s first green cracker formulations.
    3. Arjun Gopal judgment: In Arjun Gopal and Others vs Union of India (2018), the Supreme Court allowed only reduced emission and green crackers.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2016] In the cities of our country, which among the following atmospheric gases are normally considered in calculating the value of Air Quality Index? 1. Carbon dioxide 2. Carbon monoxide 3. Nitrogen dioxide 4. Sulfur dioxide 5. Methane Select the correct answer using the code given below. (a) 1, 2 and 3 only (b) 2, 3 and 4 only (c) 1, 4 and 5 only (d) 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 ANSWER: (b)”

  • Many U.K. social care migrant workers to get PR in five years

    Why in the News

    Foreign social and home care workers who reached the United Kingdom (UK) before May 2025 can now settle permanently after five years, instead of the 15 years first proposed. The UK Home Secretary has announced the finalised ‘earned settlement’ rules, which matter for Indian care workers, many from Kerala.

    What is settlement, and what did the draft propose?

    1. What it is: Settlement means indefinite leave to remain (ILR), the right to live and work in the UK permanently and potentially apply for benefits. It is similar to permanent residence.
    2. The draft scheme: The November 2025 draft of the ‘earned settlement’ scheme proposed a 15 year wait before care workers and other low income workers could settle.
    3. Migration pressure: Net migration (arrivals minus departures) peaked in the year ending March 2023. Curbs begun by the Rishi Sunak government and kept by Keir Starmer’s Labour government have cut it sharply.
    4. The takeaway: The final rules cut the wait for care workers by two thirds, easing a tightening drive for the group most exposed to it.

    What do the final rules change?

    1. Care workers: The five year route for care workers also requires a salary of at least £25,000 a year.
    2. Higher earners and key professions: Doctors, nurses and teachers can settle in five years, as can anyone earning more than £50,271 a year.
    3. Top earners: Those earning more than £1,25,140 a year can settle in three years, unchanged from the draft.
    4. Other low income workers: They can now obtain ILR in 10 years rather than 15.
    5. Second chance: Workers who fell foul of their initial visa conditions get “a second chance”, with a fresh five year qualifying period.

    Why did the government soften its stance?

    1. Political pressure: The softening responded to pressure from the left flank of the Labour Party and health unions.
    2. Public consultation: A consultation on the draft drew over 2,02,000 responses, most of them (73%) from visa holders.
    3. Cost criticism: In the House of Commons, the Shadow Home Secretary called the change a U turn costing 10 billion pounds. The figure is the Home Secretary’s own estimate.

    What does it mean for Indian care workers?

    1. Indians on the visa: Thousands of Indians came on the Health and Care Worker visa, which began in October 2020 and ran until July 2025.
    2. Record of abuse: Indian care workers on this visa have reported employers withholding wages, charging illegal recruitment fees, making threats and otherwise exploiting them.
    3. Employer crackdown: The UK government says it has already stripped around 1,800 exploitative employers of their licences.

    Challenges

    1. Cut off date: Only care workers who arrived before May 2025 qualify, so the faster route is closed to anyone who came later.
    2. Salary floor: Care workers paid below the eligibility threshold stay outside the five year route.
    3. Exposure until settlement: Reports of unpaid wages and recruitment fees show workers remain exposed to abusive employers until they settle.
    4. Shifting rules: Settlement terms changed between draft and final versions under political pressure, which makes long term planning hard for migrants.

    Way Forward

    1. Vetted recruitment: Indian and Kerala authorities should verify UK recruiters and employers before workers leave, to curb illegal recruitment fees.
    2. Briefing workers: Indian missions in the UK should explain the new eligibility rules and the second chance route to care workers.
    3. Safe reporting: UK authorities should keep removing licences of exploitative employers and give workers a safe channel to report abuse.

    Conclusion

    Britain has kept its tighter settlement regime in general but carved out a faster route for the care workers it recruited from abroad. For Indian families, especially in Kerala, the gain now depends on whether the UK also ends the abuse that marked this visa route.

    Key numbers

    1. Net migration peak: 9,44,000 in the year ending March 2023.
    2. Net migration now: 1,71,000 as of December 2025.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2026, GS2, 15 marks] “India’s global diaspora acts as a living bridge, as a critical economic factor and knowledge network in transforming cultural heritage into geopolitical influence and strategic leverage worldwide.” Critically examine this statement.”

  • Govt. can intervene in airfares in ‘extraordinary situations’

    Why in the News

    Government action on airfares has moved from ad hoc fare bands and informal appeals to a written power to direct airlines during “extraordinary situations”, a term the new rules leave undefined. The Union government has notified rules under the Bharatiya Vayuyan Adhiniyam, 2024 that also make airlines file and publish their tariffs, but impose no fare caps.

    What do the new airfare rules provide?

    1. What it is: The rules let the Union government issue written directions to airlines on airfares in the public interest during “extraordinary situations”. It works like an emergency brake on fares.
    2. Legal basis: The rules are framed under the Bharatiya Vayuyan Adhiniyam, 2024, and were notified on October 31.
    3. Undefined trigger: The rules do not define “extraordinary situations”, so the government decides case by case when the power applies.
    4. Why it was introduced: Earlier fare interventions rested on no written framework. The rules now give such interventions a regulatory framework.
    5. The takeaway: The government now holds a legal power to step into airfares in a crisis without ending market pricing in normal times.

    How has the government intervened before?

    1. Fare bands: The Centre imposed fare bands, a fixed range for ticket prices, during the COVID-19 pandemic. It did so again after IndiGo’s operational meltdown last December cancelled nearly 5,000 flights.
    2. Informal appeals: It informally urged airlines to restrain fares during the Kumbh Mela, after the Pahalgam attacks and during disasters such as the Kerala floods, following complaints of price gouging.
    3. Public interest litigation: Social activist S. Laxminarayan’s public interest litigation (PIL) seeks binding norms against arbitrary fares and ancillary charges (add on fees beyond the base fare) at festivals, holidays and emergencies.

    What must airlines now disclose?

    1. Tariff filing: Airlines must submit their tariffs to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in the form, manner and intervals it specifies.
    2. Public display: Airlines must publish tariffs on their websites or other DGCA specified digital platforms, to improve public awareness and transparency.
    3. Total price shown: Fares on booking websites and tickets must show the total amount payable. The breakdown covers base fare, taxes, fees, cancellation charges, refund conditions and other costs.
    4. Older circular absorbed: The fare filing requirements of Air Transport Circular 2 of 2010 are now part of the rules. The rules also provide for closer fare monitoring.

    Why are there still no fare caps?

    1. Market driven fares: Airfares have not been directly regulated since March 1994, when the Air Corporations Act was repealed, so airlines set their own prices.
    2. Dynamic pricing: The government holds that ticket prices move up and down with demand and supply, seat occupancy, fuel costs, aircraft capacity and seasonal trends.
    3. Monitor, do not cap: The government watches prices in normal times but sets no cap. Airlines keep setting fares, and the government steps in only in exceptional situations.

    Challenges

    1. Unpredictable trigger: With “extraordinary situations” undefined, airlines cannot foresee when directions will come, and passengers cannot claim relief as a right.
    2. Disclosure without limits: A full fare breakdown tells passengers what they pay, but nothing in the rules limits festive season fares or ancillary charges.
    3. Monitoring burden: Closer fare monitoring requires the DGCA to track filed tariffs across every airline and platform continuously.

    Way Forward

    1. Define the trigger: The Union government should list the kinds of events, such as disasters or mass cancellations, that count as extraordinary situations.
    2. Time bound directions: Each direction should state its duration and the routes it covers, so airlines and passengers know when it ends.
    3. Publish fare trends: The DGCA should publish periodic reports on fares on busy routes during festivals and holidays.

    Conclusion

    The rules turn the government’s crisis role in airfares from informal pressure into a written power, and leave normal pricing to the market. How the undefined clause is used in the next festival rush or mass disruption will show whether it protects passengers or stays a reserve power.

    Back2Basics: Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)

    1. Role: The DGCA is India’s technical regulator for civil aviation, responsible for safety and airworthiness.
    2. No tariff setting power: The DGCA does not fix fares. The Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) regulates aeronautical tariffs, and only at notified major airports.
    3. Passenger grievances: Complaints go to the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s AirSewa portal. Compensation disputes go to Consumer Commissions under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2023, GS2, 10 marks] Discuss the role of the Competition Commission of India in containing the abuse of dominant position by the Multi-National Corporations in India. Refer to the recent decisions.”

  • Firecrackers: Festivity or fallout?

    Why in the News

    Firecracker control in Delhi and the National Capital Region (Delhi-NCR) is moving from a choice between a blanket ban and unrestricted use to the question of proportionate regulation. At its suo motu hearing on air pollution, the Supreme Court cautioned against a blanket ban and stressed public awareness, voluntary restraint and less-polluting alternatives. The case tests how environmental protection can be reconciled with religious freedom without compromising public health or lawful cultural practice.

    What does the Constitution say about clean air?

    1. Right to a healthy life: Article 21 protects life and personal liberty, except according to procedure established by law. The Supreme Court reads the right to life as including the right to a healthy life.
    2. Article 48A: This Directive Principle of State Policy directs the State to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard forests and wildlife.
    3. Article 51A(g): This Fundamental Duty makes environmental protection a duty of every citizen.
    4. The takeaway: Clean air rests on a right, a direction to the State and a duty on citizens, so firecracker use is a constitutional question and not only a festive one.

    Does religious freedom protect firecracker use?

    1. Article 25: This Fundamental Right guarantees every person freedom of conscience and the right to profess, practise and propagate religion. The right is subject to public order, morality and health, among other limits.
    2. No automatic licence: Religious freedom and the freedom to celebrate do not permit exposing others to unreasonable risks to their health.
    3. Balancing, not opposing: The task is not to set celebration against clean air. It is to ensure that one person’s freedom does not reduce another’s ability to live in a healthy environment.
    4. Global recognition: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) also recognise religious freedom.

    What do other countries show about regulating rather than banning?

    1. Singapore: It bans private firecracker use and permits only licensed professional fireworks displays.
    2. Ireland and the United Kingdom: Both prohibit the sale of traditional firecrackers to the general public.
    3. Sweden: It prohibits firecracker use except by trained individuals holding special permits.
    4. Germany: Its explosives regulations restrict certain powerful firecrackers to authorised permit holders.

    Challenges

    1. Ban enforcement: The Supreme Court cited the difficulty of enforcing a blanket ban, which is why it cautioned against one.
    2. Unaddressed medical risks: The amicus curiae, a senior advocate assisting the Court, urged that the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), Delhi-NCR’s statutory air quality body, address air pollution’s medical risks.
    3. Reliance on voluntary restraint: The Court’s stress on awareness and restraint leaves pollution control during festivals largely to individual choice.

    Way Forward

    1. Certified green crackers: Scientifically assess alternatives and allow only certified green crackers, applying the precautionary principle (early action against serious environmental risk even without full scientific certainty).
    2. Emission and safety standards: Enforce emission and safety standards on every firecracker sold.
    3. Supply chain accountability: Hold manufacturers and sellers accountable for violations, applying the polluter-pays principle (the polluter bears the cost of pollution, Rio Declaration, 1992).
    4. Proportionate restrictions: Keep restrictions proportionate and implement them effectively, with citizens exercising their freedoms with due regard for public health.

    Conclusion

    Firecracker regulation now turns on proportionality rather than on a choice between prohibition and free use. The unresolved test is whether certified alternatives and enforced standards can protect public health in Delhi-NCR without a ban.

    Government Initiatives to Control Air Pollution

    1. National Clean Air Programme (NCAP): It funds city-specific clean air plans across 130 cities, with funding linked to performance.
    2. Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP): This emergency protocol triggers curbs on construction, traffic and industry in Delhi-NCR as the Air Quality Index (AQI) worsens.
    3. Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan: It ranks the 130 NCAP cities on air quality every year.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2015, GS2, 12 marks] Does the right to clean environment entail legal regulations on burning crackers during Diwali? Discuss in the light of Article 21 of the Indian Constitution and Judgement(s) of the Apex Court in this regard.”

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