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  • Necessary corrective

    Why in the News

    Electoral roll revision is moving from the Special Intensive Revision (SIR)‘s mapping and “logical discrepancy” checks back to enrolment on the original Form 6, the voter application form, without the ancestry declaration. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced a special summary revision (SSR) in 17 States and Union Territories, with a drive to re-enrol those “left out”, an implicit admission of the SIR’s flaws.

    What is a summary revision, and how does the special drive differ from the SIR?

    1. What it is: A summary revision is the routine annual update of electoral rolls, adding new electors and removing dead or shifted ones. It is like refreshing a club’s membership list rather than rebuilding it.
    2. Legal basis: Section 21 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 provides for the revision of rolls.
    3. Stalled by the SIR: The exercise was halted last year during the SIR, a document based rebuild of the rolls. It resumes with January 1, 2027 as the qualifying date, by which applicants must turn eighteen.
    4. Checks dropped: The drive drops mapping, which linked each voter to an older roll, and the discrepancy checks. The ECI thereby concedes that the SIR did not need them.
    5. The takeaway: By returning to routine methods, the ECI is undoing the very hurdles that removed voters during the SIR.

    What do the new measures concede about the SIR?

    1. Cap on objections: The ECI has capped Form 7 objections, used to seek deletion of a name, after reports of bulk filings in several States.
    2. Searchable rolls: Parties and candidates will get rolls as searchable text PDFs, so wrongful deletions are easier to trace.
    3. Repair before polls: Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand, voting early next year, can repair truncated rolls, re-enrolling wrongly deleted voters and adding new ones without quasi-citizenship tests that asked voters to prove their eligibility.

    What remains unresolved where States have already voted on SIR rolls?

    1. West Bengal backlog: Appellate tribunals have disposed of barely 3% of 38 lakh appeals against deletion.
    2. High restoration rate: Deleted electors filed 22 lakh of these appeals, and tribunals restored electors in 93% of cases decided.
    3. Unclear route for appellants: The ECI has not said whether they can use the new drive, or what becomes of the tribunals.
    4. Bihar’s missing women: Bihar’s roll gender ratio, women electors per thousand men, fell from 907 in the last Lok Sabha rolls to 892 after the SIR. Young married women struck off must be allowed to re-enrol.
    5. Supreme Court’s role: The Supreme Court upheld the SIR in May and is now hearing petitions on West Bengal, Delhi and the Commission’s conduct. It should ensure genuine voters are reinstated.

    Are correctives enough without accountability?

    1. Burden on the elector: The ECI’s own 2002-03 guidelines did not shift the burden of proving eligibility onto the elector, and future intensive revisions should return to them.
    2. Role of protest: The corrective steps owe much to sustained protests against the SIR.
    3. Dissent within the ECI: The two Election Commissioners objected on record to decisions of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), and their questions remain unanswered.
    4. Appointment dispute: Anoop Baranwal v. Union of India (2023) set a selection panel for election commissioners that included the Chief Justice of India. Parliament replaced it by law, and a two judge Bench split on that law last month.
    5. Call for resignation: The CEC who presided over the flawed process, Gyanesh Kumar, should resign.

    Challenges

    1. Time before polls: The SSR runs only months before elections in three States, leaving little time to find deleted voters.
    2. Awareness among the deleted: Many struck off voters, especially migrants and married women who moved, do not know they were removed.
    3. Field staff load: Booth level officers (BLOs), who make the house visits, are stretched after back to back revisions.

    Way Forward

    1. Separate reporting: The ECI should report re-enrolments after deletion separately from fresh enrolments.
    2. Visits, not forms: The drive’s house-to-house visits should do the work, so the burden does not fall on electors again.
    3. Clear route for appeals: The ECI should say whether West Bengal’s appellants can use the drive and what happens to the tribunals.

    Conclusion

    The ECI’s correctives can repair the rolls from here on, but they do not account for voters already struck off or for the decisions that struck them off. Whether the Supreme Court restores deleted voters in States that have voted, and how the dispute over appointing election commissioners is settled, is what to watch.

    Matching Previous Year Question

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

  • Export surge paves way for reform push

    Export surge paves way for reform push

    Why in the News

    India’s merchandise exports rose 23% to $44.4 billion in September, extending a run of strong months after several sluggish years. The surge is led by engineering and electronics goods and helped by a weaker rupee, even as the trade deficit with China keeps widening.

    What are merchandise exports, and why does this surge stand out?

    1. What it is: Merchandise exports are physical goods a country sells abroad, as distinct from services such as software. Like a shop’s sales counter, they show how much the world buys from Indian factories and farms.
    2. Why it is tracked: Export earnings pay for imports. When imports exceed exports, the gap is the trade deficit, which India must finance with money from abroad.
    3. Sluggish record: After a jump in the Covid period, exports barely grew, rising less than 5% in the four years to March 2026.
    4. The takeaway: Exports are growing fast for the first time in years, so India earns more of the foreign currency it needs to pay for imports.

    What is driving the surge?

    1. Engineering and electronics: Exports of these two segments have crossed $100 billion in the financial year so far, up 26% on the same period last year.
    2. Share of non-oil exports: The two sectors now make up almost half of all non-oil exports, meaning exports other than petroleum products.
    3. United States market: The US remains India’s largest export market. Exports to it rose 48% in September, though the tariff terms Washington will apply are still unclear.
    4. China market: Exports to China are up 36% in the year so far.
    5. Gulf weakness: Shipments to the Middle East, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, remain depressed.

    Why does the import side still worry?

    1. China trade deficit: China holds the largest share of India’s imports. India’s trade deficit with China widened to $68.9 billion in April to September, from $54.4 billion a year earlier.
    2. Current account deficit: The current account deficit (CAD) is the amount by which India’s payments abroad for goods, services and income exceed its receipts.
    3. ICRA forecast: Rating agency ICRA expects the CAD to rise to $13 to 15 billion in the July to September quarter.
    4. Causes of the wider CAD: ICRA expects a modest rise in the merchandise trade deficit. It also expects lower invisible earnings, the receipts from services, remittances and investment income.

    Should the RBI let a weaker rupee help exporters?

    1. Rupee and competitiveness: A weaker rupee makes Indian goods cheaper abroad, so the currency’s decline has helped exporters compete.
    2. RBI intervention: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced several measures and intervened in the foreign exchange market to slow the rupee’s fall.
    3. Stated policy: The RBI says it intervenes only to contain excess volatility, meaning sharp swings in the exchange rate, not to hold a set rate.
    4. No rupee target: Holding the rupee at a fixed rupee-dollar level would cancel the price advantage exporters now enjoy, so the RBI should avoid targeting one.

    Challenges

    1. Tariff exposure in the US: India’s largest market is also its most uncertain, so a tariff change can quickly reverse gains. Eg. US tariffs of up to 50% on Indian goods (2025).
    2. Import-heavy electronics: Electronics exports rely on imported components, many of them from China, so higher exports also raise imports.
    3. Currency-led gains: Competitiveness that comes from a falling rupee fades once the rupee recovers, and a weak rupee raises the cost of imported oil.

    Way Forward

    1. Contentious trade deals: The Ministry of Commerce and Industry should move ahead on the more contentious free trade agreements (FTAs), beyond the several already signed.
    2. Manufacturing and investment: The government should boost manufacturing and attract more foreign investment to widen the export base.
    3. Component manufacturing: Expand domestic electronics component production under the Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme to cut reliance on Chinese inputs.
    4. Gulf markets: Use the India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (2022) to revive shipments to West Asia.

    Conclusion

    India’s exports are growing again on two strong sectors and a weaker rupee, but the widening deficit with China shows the gains rest partly on imported inputs. Whether exports hold up once the rupee steadies and US tariff terms settle will show if the surge is lasting.

    Key numbers

    1. Exports, April to September: $259 billion in the first half of this financial year.
    2. Annual exports: $422 billion (2021-22) to $441 billion (2025-26).

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2020] With reference to the international trade of India at present, which of the following statements is/are correct? 1. India’s merchandise exports are less than its merchandise imports. 2. India’s imports of iron and steel, chemicals, fertilisers and machinery have decreased in recent years. 3. India’s exports of services are more than its imports of services. 4. India suffers from an overall trade/current account deficit. Select the correct answer using the code given below: (a) 1 and 2 only (b) 2 and 4 only (c) 3 only (d) 1, 3 and 4 only ANSWER: (d)”

  • A contested UNSC seat poses a test for India

    A contested UNSC seat poses a test for India

    Why in the News

    India has launched its bid for a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for 2028-29, with the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) voting in June 2027. Unlike India’s past wins, the seat is contested: Tajikistan, which has never served, was already the Asia-Pacific group’s agreed candidate. India lost both its earlier contests, to Pakistan in 1975 and Japan in 1996.

    How is a non-permanent UNSC seat won?

    1. What it is: Besides its permanent members, the UNSC has ten elected seats, filled by UNGA vote for two year terms. Like a club rotating posts, each region usually agrees its candidate in advance.
    2. Two thirds rule: A winner needs two thirds of the Assembly, so India needs at least 129 votes of 193.
    3. Regional groups: Seats rotate among the Asia-Pacific, African, Latin American and Caribbean (GRULAC), Western European and Others (WEOG) and Eastern European groups.
    4. Consensus or contest: Groups sometimes settle candidates decades in advance. When consensus breaks, the race moves to the full UNGA.
    5. The takeaway: A seat India once won by turn must now be won by votes.

    Why does India want a ninth term now?

    1. Past record: India has served eight terms as the 55 member Asia-Pacific group’s consensus choice. Even Pakistan votes for India in these elections, and India returns the favour.
    2. Unfinished agenda: COVID-19 disrupted India’s last term. The government wants resolutions on terrorism and UN reform before its own term ends in 2029.
    3. Permanent seat elusive: With permanent membership out of reach, frequent elected terms keep India inside the Council’s decision making.

    What works against India in a contest?

    1. First timers favoured: India’s size, economy and Council record do not win seats by themselves. Many members favour small countries that have never served.
    2. Tajikistan’s pitch: Tajikistan presents itself as a small country that will “listen to all voices, large and small”, which appeals to an under represented Global South.
    3. Bloc arithmetic: Tajikistan is endorsed by Central Asia and the 57 member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
    4. The battleground: India expects the Global North, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and Pacific island votes. The decisive votes lie in Africa, South America and South Asia.

    What do this year’s UN votes signal?

    1. Anti big power mood: Global South votes have run against the US, Russia and Israel, with at least 13 resolutions criticising Israel in the 80th session.
    2. Upsets: First timer Kyrgyzstan beat the western backed Philippines, and Germany lost to Portugal and Austria, a loss attributed to its support for Israel.
    3. UNGA presidency: Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman beat a western backed candidate from Cyprus.
    4. India’s exposure: Strategic autonomy, India’s refusal to join any bloc, may help it, but its Israel ties may draw questions after the Prime Minister’s visit in February 2026.

    What are India’s options?

    1. Persuade Tajikistan to withdraw: Kazakhstan stepped aside in 2010 and Afghanistan in 2013. Leaders met at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Bishkek without any withdrawal.
    2. Cost of a Tajik exit: Global South states may see India as putting its second turn in a decade above a small country’s first.
    3. Step aside: India could return a year or two later with full group backing, honouring Tajikistan’s hosting of an Indian Air Force base at Ayni and a medical base at Farkhor.
    4. Split term: Dividing the term has worked only between evenly matched candidates.

    Challenges

    1. Incumbency fatigue: Frequent terms weaken India against a first time candidate.
    2. Israel ties: Close ties with Israel may cost votes in an Assembly that punished western backed candidates this year.
    3. Partner at stake: Defeating a partner that hosted Indian military facilities could strain ties in Central Asia.

    Way Forward

    1. Sequenced terms: Agree with Tajikistan that one candidate yields now for assured group backing next time.
    2. Global South outreach: Court African, Latin American and South Asian votes through development partnerships.
    3. Early decision: Decide whether to contest or step aside well before the vote.

    Conclusion

    In this contest India’s size counts for less than a small country’s claim to a first turn. Whether New Delhi fights, negotiates or steps aside will show whether it ranks Global South leadership above one more elected term.

    Key numbers

    1. India’s UNSC terms: 1950-51, 1967-68, 1972-73, 1977-78, 1984-85, 1991-92, 2011-12, 2021-22.
    2. Record margins: 187 of 191 votes (2010); 184 of 192 (2020).
    3. Japan: 12 UNSC terms; bid announced in 2024 for the 2043 election.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2015, GS2, 12 marks] Discuss the impediments India is facing in its pursuit of a permanent seat in UN Security Council.”

  • India’s problem of overtreatment, overmedication

    India’s problem of overtreatment, overmedication

    Why in the News

    Modern medicine’s growing power to test and treat is increasingly turning into overtreatment and overmedication: tests, medicines and procedures a patient does not need. In India this sits alongside undertreatment, since many still lack essential primary care, affordable medicines and timely treatment.

    What is overtreatment, and how does it begin?

    1. What it is: Overtreatment is a cascade: a test spots a chance abnormality, which leads to more tests, a diagnosis and a possibly permanent prescription. It is like a car service that keeps finding parts to replace.
    2. Prevention turned treatment: A check up meant to prevent illness can end in long term medication or surgery.
    3. The takeaway: The harm comes from a chain no one stops, so patients carry medicines and procedures they never needed.

    What drives overtreatment?

    1. Unnecessary testing: A 2016 review found routine health check packages often include unwarranted tests. These cause false positives, anxiety and overdiagnosis, meaning labelling conditions that would never have caused harm.
    2. Fragmented, specialist led care: Patients with common problems go straight to specialists, and chronic patients see several, each optimising one part of care, so the patient is treated in parts.
    3. Healthcare as a marketplace: Tests, supplements and devices are sold as products, and payment rewards activity:
      • the fee for service model pays per test and procedure, and many patients think a visit incomplete without a prescription;
      • insurance creates moral hazard, behaviour that changes because someone else pays: people skip preventive care (ex ante), and hospitals and patients choose costlier care after illness (ex post).
    4. Patient expectations: Worried patients want something tangible, so reassurance looks like inaction. Busy doctors often comply.
    5. Defensive medicine: Clinicians fearing a missed rare diagnosis order another test as the safer option, yet every test can uncover abnormalities that would never cause harm.

    Why are older adults most at risk?

    1. Polypharmacy: Polypharmacy, taking several medicines at once, affects about 49% of older adults in India, by a 2021 review of Indian studies.
    2. Five or more medicines: A 2025 study found roughly one in three older adults take five or more prescribed medicines.
    3. Inappropriate medicines: The same study found potentially inappropriate medicines in 28.8% of cases.
    4. Medication reviews: Not everyone on several medicines is overtreated, but the figures show why medication reviews and deprescribing, stopping medicines no longer needed, must become routine.

    What does the global Choosing Wisely movement show?

    1. Middle income spread: Overtreatment was first recognised in high income countries and is now visible across many middle income nations.
    2. Choosing Wisely: This global movement asks doctors and patients to choose interventions more carefully, with specialty societies listing tests and treatments to question (2012 to 2023).
    3. Scale of the lists: Nearly 80 specialty societies published close to 700 recommendations on low value care, care that adds cost or risk without benefit.

    Challenges

    1. Weak primary care: About 40% of public health funds reach primary care, against the two thirds target in the National Health Policy, 2017.
    2. Antibiotic overuse: Over prescription of antibiotics has made India a global hotspot for antimicrobial resistance (AMR), where drugs stop working against infections.
    3. Patients pay directly: Households pay about two fifths of all health spending out of pocket (2021-22), so needless tests drain family budgets.

    Way Forward

    1. Primary care first: Restore the family physician as first contact for non emergency needs, referring patients onward and reconciling prescriptions.
    2. Review and stop dates: Give every prescription a review date and, where suitable, a stop date, and hold structured medication reviews for people on five or more medicines.
    3. Indian lists: Professional societies and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) should list low value tests and treatments, and hospitals should measure unnecessary care avoided.
    4. Four patient questions: Before any test or treatment, patients should ask why it is needed, what happens if they wait, its benefits and risks, and the alternatives.
    5. Pay for outcomes: Payment systems and insurers should reward outcomes and continuity of care, not volume.

    Conclusion

    India must fix too little care and too much care at once, and both trace back to a weak first point of contact. Whether insurers and professional bodies begin to reward restraint will show if Indian medicine can learn when not to act.

    Government Initiatives for Primary Healthcare

    1. Ayushman Arogya Mandirs (AAMs): Over 1.85 lakh centres, formerly Health and Wellness Centres, provide primary care including screening for non communicable diseases.
    2. Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP): Jan Aushadhi Kendras sell generic medicines at 50% to 90% lower prices.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2014, GS3, 12 marks] Can overuse and the availability of antibiotics without doctor’s prescription, the contributors to the emergence of drug-resistant diseases in India? What are the available mechanisms for monitoring and control? Critically discuss the various issues involved.”

  • India’s water plants are failing to catch elusive ‘forever chemicals’

    India’s water plants are failing to catch elusive ‘forever chemicals’

    Why in the News

    India’s drinking water standard, IS 10500:2012, sets no limit for per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and at one Chennai plant treated water carried more of them than raw water. An Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-Madras) study found all eight target PFAS 5% to 103% higher after treatment, and systems that can remove these “forever chemicals” are not yet commercially available.

    What are PFAS, and why are they called forever chemicals?

    1. What it is: PFAS are synthetic chemicals built on several carbon-fluorine bonds, among the strongest in chemistry, so they barely break down. Like plastic litter, they stay in soil and water long after release.
    2. Industrial uses: Industry has used PFAS for about 60 years in coatings, textiles and other industrial products.
    3. Precursors: Some fluorinated compounds are precursors, less stable chemicals that later turn into stable PFAS. A test that looks only for a fixed list of PFAS misses them.
    4. The takeaway: A chemical that does not degrade and slips past standard tests can build up in drinking water unseen, which is why the missing limit matters.

    What have Indian studies found?

    1. IIT-Madras study (2024): The team analysed 14 samples from groundwater, surface water and successive stages of a Chennai treatment plant. Residential wells near garbage dumps carried the highest PFAS levels.
    2. Precursor conversion in treatment: The likely cause of the rise is unidentified precursors turning into stable PFAS inside the plant. The study did not measure them.
    3. Visakhapatnam coast: A GITAM (Deemed to be) University study tested seawater and sewage for 77 PFAS and found 38.
    4. Sewage as a source: A model estimated sewage supplies about 41% of the median coastal PFAS level. Separating household from factory inputs needs systematic sampling where they mix.

    Why is the true scale of contamination unclear?

    1. No common method: A 2025 review of studies from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal called PFAS a real concern of unclear extent. Research groups test PFAS differently, so results cannot be compared.
    2. Fixed lists miss compounds: The eight target PFAS are a fraction of the fluorinated compounds likely present, so testing should go beyond a fixed list.
    3. Better tools, new errors: High resolution mass spectrometry, a lab screening method, can find PFAS beyond a fixed list. Samples can also pick up stray PFAS during collection.

    How harmful are PFAS?

    1. Risk depends on exposure: Detecting PFAS does not by itself show a health risk, which depends on the type, dose, duration and route of exposure.
    2. Cancer classification: The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a World Health Organization body, issued a 2025 monograph. It classed perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) as “carcinogenic to humans” and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) as “possibly carcinogenic to humans”.
    3. Animal evidence: A study published this February found a mix of 24 PFAS delayed zebrafish hatching, slowed growth, built up in blood and lowered heart rates.

    How is India regulating PFAS?

    1. No manufacturing ban: The Union Environment Ministry says no specific regulation bans PFAS manufacturing.
    2. Standard under revision: A Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Working Group on Emerging Contaminants and Forever Chemicals is examining limits. How many PFAS to cover, and how to test them, is not yet final.
    3. Baseline data: The CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research (CSIR-IITR), Lucknow, is in a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) funded National Implementation Plan to build baseline exposure data. The institute can detect 50 PFAS molecules.

    Challenges

    1. Treatment cannot remove PFAS: Conventional biological wastewater treatment cannot remove PFAS, and low cost adsorption materials that bind them are still undeveloped.
    2. No penalty pathway: No clear regulatory pathway exists to penalise a source responsible for PFAS contamination.
    3. Named chemical gaps: Regulating only a named list of chemicals leaves precursors and transformation products outside the law.
    4. Data gaps as delay: Waiting for complete exposure data can hold up controls even on PFAS whose hazards are well established.

    Way Forward

    1. Precautionary interim limits: BIS should set interim limits for well studied PFAS in the revised standard now.
    2. Chemical inventory: Establish which PFAS are manufactured, imported and used in India, alongside baseline monitoring and toxicology studies.
    3. Harmonised monitoring: Adopt one national testing method that also screens for precursors and other fluorinated compounds.

    Conclusion

    India has evidence of PFAS in its water but a standard that does not yet measure them. Whether BIS adopts interim limits that also reach precursors, or waits for full exposure data, will decide how soon treated water is safe.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2024] With reference to perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that are used in making many consumer products, consider the following statements: 1. PFAS are found to be widespread in drinking water, food, and food packaging materials. 2. PFAS are not easily degraded in the environment. 3. Persistent exposure to PFAS can lead to bioaccumulation in animal bodies. Which of the statements given above are correct? (a) 1 and 2 only (b) 2 and 3 only (c) 1 and 3 only (d) 1,2 and 3* ANSWER: (d)”

  • Sound and fiery

    Why in the News

    Green crackers, the Supreme Court’s answer to Deepavali smog since 2018, promise cleaner fireworks but do little in practice to curb air and noise pollution. The Court’s latest order permits specified next generation joined green crackers and declines a total ban on fireworks, invoking public sentiment, as Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) head into another winter.

    What are green crackers, and why did the Court turn to them?

    1. What it is: A green cracker is a firework with a modified chemical mix that releases less smoke and dust per cracker. Like a “lite” product, it means less harm per unit, not none.
    2. CSIR-NEERI: The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI) promoted green crackers. It says the newer generation cuts PM10, the coarser inhalable dust, by 45% to 60%.
    3. Arjun Gopal judgment (2018): In Arjun Gopal and Others vs Union of India, the Supreme Court stopped short of a ban. It allowed only reduced emission and green crackers.
    4. Laris and time window: The same judgment banned joined crackers (laris), strings that burst in a chain, and set a two hour window for bursting.
    5. The takeaway: Green crackers let the Court avoid a total ban and still promise cleaner air, so the whole policy rests on whether they really pollute less.

    How has the Court’s stance on fireworks swung since 2016?

    1. Tighten and loosen cycle: The Court has alternately tightened and loosened its curbs on fireworks in the NCR, so the rules change from winter to winter.
    2. 2016 suspension: After Deepavali pushed fine particle pollution (PM2.5, particles small enough to reach deep into the lungs) to extreme levels, the Court suspended licences for selling fireworks in the NCR.
    3. 2017 relaxation and reversal: In September 2017 the Court relaxed the suspension, partly to protect existing licence holders and livelihoods. It restored the suspension for Deepavali that October.

    How much do crackers add to Delhi’s winter pollution?

    1. Not the main source: Construction dust, vehicles, stubble burning and stagnant, cold air drive Delhi’s winter pollution, not crackers.
    2. Acute spikes: When those sources push the air towards “severe” levels, crackers add a sharp, short spike on top.
    3. Spike under green crackers: In 2025, the first Deepavali after the Court permitted limited green crackers, Delhi recorded its worst post Deepavali fine particle average since 2021.

    Why do green crackers fall short?

    1. Lab claims versus real use: CSIR-NEERI’s promised cut in particulate emissions does not hold under real world conditions.
    2. More crackers, same smoke: When “cleaner” crackers are burst in greater numbers, the savings in particulate pollution disappear, so a lower emission per cracker yields no lower total.
    3. Noise left out: The claimed gains count only particulate matter and do not account for noise pollution at all.
    4. Sentiment versus health: By invoking public sentiment to refuse a total ban, the Court has set cultural demand against a health harm its own earlier orders acknowledged.

    Challenges

    1. Counterfeit certification: The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), the NCR’s statutory air quality body, found registered makers selling green cracker QR codes to unregistered ones. Unauthorised crackers then passed as certified.
    2. No local testing: The explosives regulator, the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO), had no testing facility in Delhi, so crackers sold there could not be checked.
    3. Police cannot tell: In 2018 and 2019 the police could not distinguish green crackers from conventional ones, so curbs could not be enforced on the street.
    4. Informal industry: Much fireworks manufacturing runs outside the formal sector, beyond licensing and inspection. Eg. Small units around Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu.

    Way Forward

    1. Formal manufacturing: Bring fireworks units into the formal sector, with licensing and inspection, so regulations are followed in practice.
    2. Traceable QR codes: Certifying bodies should issue codes only against verified registrations and audit who sells them.
    3. Testing in the NCR: PESO should set up a testing facility in Delhi.
    4. Public health awareness: Spread awareness of the health toll among those who love crackers, so demand falls alongside supply.

    Conclusion

    Green crackers let the Court avoid choosing between festival sentiment and clean air, but they deliver neither a real pollution cut nor enforceable rules. Until manufacturing is formal and certification can be checked on the street, each new order will change which crackers are legal more than how much pollution they cause.

    Key numbers

    1. PM2.5 behind the 2016 suspension: above 700 µg/m3 in the NCR after Deepavali (November 2016).
    2. Delhi post Deepavali PM2.5, 2025: 488 µg/m3 average; hourly peak of 675 µg/m3.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2015, GS1, 12 marks] Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata are the three mega cities of the country but the air pollution is much more serious problem in Delhi as compared to the other two. Why is this so?”

  • In Manipur, the work of peace is still to be done

    Why in the News

    At least nine people were killed in a single night across Manipur‘s hill districts of Kamjong, Kangpokpi and Ukhrul, in ambushes and gunfights between armed Kuki and Naga groups. After three and a half years of ethnic violence, the State has only a fragile calm. The killings show the State government cannot heal or contain its divides.

    What has the Manipur conflict become?

    1. What it is: Manipur’s conflict is a chain of ethnic clashes over land and identity, begun in May 2023 between the valley’s Meiteis and the hill based Kuki-Zo. Like a fire opening new fronts, it now involves the Nagas.
    2. Kuki-Naga fault line: The old Kuki-Naga rivalry that fuelled bloodshed in the 1990s has reopened. Since February, dozens from both communities have been killed and houses torched.
    3. Overlapping conflicts: Meiteis, Kukis and Nagas are now caught in overlapping conflicts, so a settlement between any two groups no longer ends the violence.
    4. Blockades: Civilians bear the violence and also blockades across the hill districts that cut their access to essential supplies.
    5. The takeaway: A two sided conflict has become three cornered, so restoring order now needs the State to act across every hill district at once.

    Why have President’s Rule and an elected government not restored peace?

    1. President’s Rule: After the N Biren Singh government was dissolved in February 2025, central rule was expected to bring an administration seen as less partisan.
    2. Partial calm: Large scale clashes declined under President’s Rule, but normalcy stayed elusive and the deep divides between communities persisted.
    3. Elected government: As calls for an elected government grew, Yumnam Khemchand Singh, a Meitei like his predecessor, became Chief Minister, with a Kuki and a Naga Deputy Chief Minister.
    4. Representation without settlement: Power sharing raised hope that political representation would lead to a lasting settlement, but Kuki-Naga violence has grown since.
    5. Central support: The Prime Minister met the Chief Minister last Saturday and promised all possible assistance to the State government.

    Why have weapons surrender appeals failed?

    1. Looted armouries: Thousands of firearms have been looted from State armouries since the conflict began, and armed groups still hold them.
    2. Governor’s appeal: Soon after President’s Rule was imposed, the Governor called for the surrender of weapons.
    3. Chief Minister’s ultimatum: In August the Chief Minister set a 15 day ultimatum for the voluntary surrender of illegal firearms.
    4. Continued gun violence: Shootings have gone on after both appeals, which shows that voluntary surrender has not worked.

    Challenges

    1. Physical separation: The communities remain split by security manned buffer zones, which block movement, trade and contact.
    2. Displacement: Thousands cannot return home. Eg. Around 60,000 people displaced since 2023 (government figures).
    3. Rival political demands: Kuki-Zo organisations demand a separate administration, which remains the central unresolved issue.
    4. Porous Myanmar border: Cross border drug and arms trafficking funds armed groups. Eg. The Moreh drug corridor in Manipur.

    Way Forward

    1. Demilitarise society: Recover looted and illegal firearms and re-establish the State’s authority across the hill districts.
    2. Disarm and prosecute: Disarm the armed groups and prosecute those responsible for the killings as an immediate priority.
    3. Freedom of movement: Reopen roads and end blockades so people can move freely and live safely alongside one another.
    4. Sustained dialogue: Create conditions for continuing dialogue among Meitei, Kuki and Naga representatives as the start of a long reconciliation.

    Conclusion

    Manipur has moved from central rule to a power sharing elected government, but neither has disarmed the groups driving the violence. Recovery of looted weapons and safe movement across the hills will show whether the State has begun to restore its authority.

    Back2Basics: President’s Rule (Article 356)

    1. Constitutional basis: Article 356 lets the President take over a State’s government when its constitutional machinery fails, usually on the Governor’s report.
    2. Effect: The State’s Council of Ministers is dismissed and Parliament exercises the State legislature’s powers. The Assembly may be suspended or dissolved.
    3. Judicial review: S.R. Bommai v. Union of India (1994) made a proclamation under Article 356 open to judicial review.
    4. Manipur’s spell: The Assembly was kept in suspended animation rather than dissolved, and President’s Rule was revoked in February 2026.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2025, GS3, 15 marks] What are the major challenges to internal security and peace process in the North-Eastern States? Map the various peace accords and agreements initiated by the government in the past decade.”

  • BIMSTEC adopts ‘Delhi Declaration’ on terrorism

    BIMSTEC adopts ‘Delhi Declaration’ on terrorism

    Why in the News

    For the first time, the Home Ministers of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) have met as a group and adopted a common counter terrorism text, the Delhi Declaration. India hosted the meeting, which also covered drugs, cybercrime and fugitive criminals.

    What does the Delhi Declaration commit members to?

    1. What it is: The Delhi Declaration is a shared pledge on terrorism by all seven members, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand, like neighbours agreeing to guard one street.
    2. Four commitments: Members will:
      • counter radicalisation and violent extremism conducive to terrorism;
      • prevent misuse of new and emerging technologies for terrorist purposes;
      • tackle terrorist recruitment;
      • curb terror financing through internationally agreed counter terror financing and anti money laundering standards.
    3. Condemnation: Members “strongly condemn terrorism” in all its forms, “including cross-border terrorism, wherever, by whomsoever”, and want perpetrators brought to justice under domestic and international law.
    4. UN sanctions: The declaration seeks full use of United Nations (UN) Security Council sanctions. These include the 1267 Sanctions Committee list, which freezes assets of ISIL and Al-Qaida linked people and bans their travel.
    5. The takeaway: A region that lacked any common text on terrorism now has one that names cross border terrorism, which India has long sought in regional forums.

    What cooperation did India seek?

    1. Five areas: The Union Home Minister named drug control; counter terrorism and legal cooperation; repatriation of fugitive criminals; cybersecurity and cybercrime investigation; and institutional cooperation and capacity building.
    2. Changing terrorist tactics: Terror groups now recruit through encrypted communication and social media. They also use drones, cryptocurrency and the dark web, the hidden part of the internet, to spread illegal activity.
    3. Real time intelligence: The Home Minister called for real time sharing of actionable intelligence and closer work among police, intelligence and border management agencies.
    4. No safe haven: No member should shelter fugitive criminals, and members should cooperate in their extradition.
    5. Illicit finance: India sought a coordinated regional approach to illicit financial transactions and terror financing.

    Why does a regional approach matter?

    1. Crime across borders: Criminal networks operate beyond national borders and exploit regional lacunae, gaps no single country’s law can reach, so regional cooperation is needed.
    2. India’s framing: India says it believes in sovereignty and peaceful resolution of disputes, and seeks joint action against international terrorism, organised crime and narco trade.
    3. “Cyber slavery”: The Home Minister flagged human trafficking and cyber slavery, meaning trafficking people into online scam centres and forcing them to defraud others, as grave concerns.
    4. Bangladesh’s representation: Bangladesh, the current BIMSTEC chair, sent a Senior Secretary of its Home Ministry rather than its Home Minister.

    Challenges

    1. Bilateral frictions: Disputes between members weaken joint action. Eg. The Rohingya refugee crisis between Bangladesh and Myanmar.
    2. Drug routes through Myanmar: Instability in Myanmar keeps trafficking routes into India’s Northeast open. Eg. Heroin and methamphetamine from the Golden Triangle.
    3. Weak secretariat: BIMSTEC’s secretariat has little executive authority and limited funds, so follow up depends on each member.
    4. Shifting political priorities: Changes of government alter regional commitments. Eg. The political transition in Bangladesh since 2024.

    Way Forward

    1. Binding legal instruments: Convert the declaration into ratified agreements on mutual legal assistance and extradition among all seven members.
    2. Linked financial intelligence: Connect members’ Financial Intelligence Units, the agencies that track suspicious money, to trace terror funds, including cryptocurrency flows.
    3. Joint action on scam centres: Run coordinated rescues and prosecutions against cyber slavery compounds and the networks that recruit victims.
    4. Regular ministerial review: Make the Home Ministers’ meeting a standing annual forum that reviews progress on the declaration.

    Conclusion

    BIMSTEC now has a shared text on terrorism, but its value depends on members acting on it inside their own borders. Whether the Home Ministers meet again and turn India’s areas of cooperation into working legal and intelligence arrangements is what to watch.

    Back2Basics: BIMSTEC

    1. Origin: Formed by the Bangkok Declaration of June 1997 as BIST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand). Myanmar joined that year, and Nepal and Bhutan in 2004.
    2. Institutions: Its permanent secretariat has been in Dhaka since 2014. The BIMSTEC Charter, adopted at the fifth summit in 2022, gives the grouping legal status.
    3. Role for India: It links India’s Neighbourhood First and Act East policies and offers a working alternative to a dormant South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
    4. Bangkok Vision 2030: Adopted at the sixth summit in April 2025 as a roadmap for a prosperous, resilient and open region.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2026] Match List I (BIMSTEC Centre) with List II (Location): A. BIMSTEC Cultural Industries Observatory B. BIMSTEC Energy Centre C. BIMSTEC Centre for Weather and Climate D. BIMSTEC Technology Transfer Facility 1. NOIDA 2. Bengaluru 3. Colombo 4. Thimphu (a) A-3, B-2, C-1, D-4 (b) A-3, B-1, C-2, D-4 (c) A-4, B-2, C-1, D-3 (d) A-4, B-1, C-2, D-3 ANSWER: C”

  • China says ‘never recognised’ U.T. of Ladakh; India hits back

    Why in the News

    China has moved from restored diplomatic and travel links with India to openly disowning Indian rule in Ladakh, saying it has “never recognised” the Union Territory (UT) of Ladakh. It is Beijing’s first such statement since the Prime Minister’s 2024 meeting with the Chinese President began the thaw. The trigger is India’s official naming of features in Ladakh.

    What has India named, and why?

    1. What it is: India has fixed official names for 28 features in Ladakh on maps of the Survey of India, the national mapping agency, much like a city putting up name boards on its own streets.
    2. Features named: The list falls into three groups:
      • heights: 11 peaks and five mountains;
      • land and ice: six land areas and two glaciers;
      • routes and water: two passes, a valley, a river, a lake and another waterbody.
    3. Location: Some lie along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), where the Indian Army and China’s People’s Liberation Army skirmished during a four year standoff.
    4. India’s stated purpose: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) says marking the places on the official map aids their accurate recognition and better awareness among the public.
    5. The takeaway: Naming a feature on an official map asserts that the state administers it, so a mapping exercise has become a sovereignty dispute.

    Why does China reject the names, and how has India replied?

    1. China’s position: China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson called the names “illegal and void” and said the western sector of the China-India boundary belongs to China.
    2. Root of the objection: China disputes India’s August 2019 decision to split Jammu and Kashmir into UTs and dilute Article 370, which had given the former State special status.
    3. Earlier protest: In 2019 Beijing accused India of undermining China’s territorial sovereignty by unilaterally changing its domestic law.
    4. Precedent on roads: In September 2020, China made a similar claim against an Indian project to build high altitude roads in eastern Ladakh.
    5. India’s reply: The MEA spokesperson called the UT “an integral and inalienable part of India” and said no amount of Chinese denial can change this established fact.

    Why do these features matter?

    1. Friction point: The named features abut Patrolling Point 15, which saw heavy troop mobilisation after the deadly Galwan clashes of June 2020.
    2. Disengagement: The two armies agreed to stand down from that point in September 2022, as part of a series of disengagement negotiations.
    3. Rival cartographic claims: For many years both sides have reinforced claims in the Western and Eastern sectors by naming features on official maps and creating administrative jurisdictions.

    Challenges

    1. Renaming as a claim: China uses names to press claims across the LAC. Eg. Its “standardised” names for places in Arunachal Pradesh since 2017.
    2. New administrative units: China creates jurisdictions over territory India claims. Eg. Two counties in Hotan covering parts of Aksai Chin (December 2024).
    3. Undemarcated boundary: The LAC has never been jointly marked on the ground, so rival maps can claim the same ridges and valleys.
    4. Fragile thaw: Public sparring over sovereignty can stall the trade, travel and talks restored since the 2024 meeting.

    Way Forward

    1. Boundary Expert Group: Use the Expert Group on delimitation and demarcation, set up in 2025, to narrow differences sector by sector.
    2. Early harvest: Seek an “early harvest”, a first partial deal, on the boundary in the largely undisputed Middle Sector to build trust.
    3. Measured rebuttals: Keep India’s responses factual and routed through the MEA, so naming spats do not derail restored dialogue.
    4. Presence on the ground: Continue roads and habitation in eastern Ladakh, so administration on the ground matches the official map.

    Conclusion

    India and China have kept their thaw intact, but each now uses the map to restate claims the other will not concede. Whether the revived boundary mechanisms can move from managing incidents to settling the western sector is the test to watch.

    Back2Basics: Line of Actual Control (LAC)

    1. What it is: The 3,488 km de facto line separating Indian and Chinese held territory, which has never been jointly demarcated.
    2. Western Sector (Ladakh): India relies on the Johnson Line (1865), and China claims the Macartney-MacDonald Line (1899).
    3. Aksai Chin: China occupies about 38,000 sq km of Aksai Chin, which India counts as part of Ladakh.
    4. Middle and Eastern Sectors: The Middle Sector (Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand) is largely undisputed. In the Eastern Sector the LAC follows the McMahon Line of the Simla Convention (1914).

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2026, GS3, 10 marks] Ladakh is strategically located between China and Pakistan. As a measure to win hearts and minds of locals, discuss the Border Area Development Programmes (BADP) by the Central Government and civic actions by the Army. Also discuss demand of promulgation of provision of the Sixth Schedule of constitution for Ladakh.”

  • The only path to lasting peace is one state of Israel-Palestine

    Why in the News

    The Green Party of England and Wales has become the first mainstream Western party to call for “a single democratic state throughout historic Palestine”, a one state solution. It revives the case that the two state solution, the basis of diplomacy including India’s, is dead, and that only one shared state can bring lasting peace.

    What is the two state solution, and what is proposed instead?

    1. Two state solution: A Palestinian state would sit beside Israel on the borders before the 1967 Six-Day War, like splitting a disputed house into two flats. The Oslo Accords (1993) made it the basis of talks.
    2. One state solution: A single secular, democratic state across historic Palestine, with Israelis and Palestinians as equal citizens.
    3. Green Party resolution: The party, with only five MPs, also declared Zionism, the movement for a Jewish homeland, a form of racism. Jewish groups called it antisemitic.
    4. Israel’s response: Israel said the party legitimises terrorism and barred its Jewish leader from entry.
    5. The takeaway: One state has entered mainstream Western politics just as support for two states is collapsing.

    Why is the two state solution called dead?

    1. Israeli leadership: Israel’s Prime Minister says Israeli security leaves no room for Palestinian sovereignty. This states openly the outcome 30 years of policy produced.
    2. No opposition mandate: With elections imminent, Israel’s opposition offers no clear mandate for Palestinian statehood.
    3. Collapsing public support: Israeli backing for two states has fallen to 17% in recent Pew surveys, after the October 7 Hamas attack and Israel’s retaliation on Gaza.
    4. Fragmented West Bank: Thirty years of hilltop settlements, military outposts and fences have broken the West Bank into a patchwork that cannot hold a state with a sustainable economy.
    5. Settlers cannot be moved: Moving about 750,000 Israeli settlers back within Israel’s legal borders is close to impossible.

    Can Israelis and Palestinians share one state?

    1. Cost of occupation: Israel cannot occupy Gaza indefinitely, and occupation makes it a global pariah. Weakening Hamas militarily does not end the humiliation and despair that feed militancy.
    2. Sceptics’ objection: Decades of trauma divide the two peoples too deeply to share one country.
    3. Choice for both peoples: Israelis face an armed, hostile neighbour or integration with 5.5 million Palestinians. Palestinians face a hope of their own country or equal rights in a prosperous state.
    4. Arab citizens of Israel: About 2 million Arab citizens already live in Israel fairly peacefully, but as second class citizens.
    5. Zionism’s founders: Theodor Herzl, founder of political Zionism, imagined in his 1902 novel Altneuland (“Old New Land”) a secular state where Arab citizens voted and sat in parliament.

    What do other divided societies show?

    1. Belgium: A constitutional framework guaranteeing protections for each group holds its linguistic and cultural divisions together.
    2. Northern Ireland: After decades of sectarian violence, former enemies share power in a system overseen by Britain and the Republic of Ireland.
    3. South Africa, Bosnia and Lebanon: These arrangements are imperfect, and fragile in Lebanon. They still show shared governance works better than endless war.

    Challenges

    1. Demographic fear: Israeli Jews fear being outnumbered, so few Israeli parties will campaign for one state.
    2. Law that privileges one people: Israeli law defines the state by Jewish identity. Eg. The Basic Law on the Nation State (2018).
    3. Fragile power sharing: Shared rule can freeze divisions. Eg. Lebanon’s confessional system repeatedly paralyses government.

    Way Forward

    1. Guaranteed group safeguards: Write protections for each community, underwritten by foreign powers both sides accept.
    2. Green resolution as catalyst: Use it to build consensus on one state offering peace, dignity and equal rights.
    3. India’s lead: India’s historic support for Palestinian rights outlasts its recent tilt towards Israel. It can lead on one state and regain a central place in multilateral diplomacy.

    Conclusion

    The two state framework has lost its political base in Israel and its territorial base on the ground, yet no government backs one shared state. Whether a government, India included, adopts the idea beyond a minor party’s resolution will decide if it enters diplomacy.

    India and the Israel-Palestine Question

    1. Early recognition: India was the first non Arab country to recognise Palestine, in 1988, and treated the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as its people’s sole legitimate representative.
    2. De-hyphenation: India opened full diplomatic relations with Israel in 1992 and keeps independent ties with both sides.
    3. Stated position: India backs “a sovereign, independent Palestine coexisting with Israel” and funds West Bank schools and IT centres under the India-Palestine Development Partnership.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2018] The term “two-state solution” is sometimes mentioned in the news in the context of the affairs of (a) China (b) Israel (c) Iraq (d) Yemen ANSWER: (b)”

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