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  • Beyond Kudankulam’s fence, a cybersecurity challenge

    Beyond Kudankulam’s fence, a cybersecurity challenge

    Why in the News

    A breach of Kudankulam nuclear power project files in Tamil Nadu shows that cyber risk to critical infrastructure now lies with contractors and data centres beyond the plant’s perimeter. India’s rules bind only the operator, so data shared across the supply chain falls into an accountability gap.

    What happened in the Kudankulam breach?

    1. The leak: In mid-July, the group World Leaks posted parts of nearly 19,000 allegedly leaked Kudankulam files, including engineering drawings and supplier information, on its dark web portal.
    2. Contractor’s server: Reliance Infrastructure, the construction contractor for Units 3 and 4, confirmed the breach. The data sat on a server at its third-party data centre, Yotta.
    3. Ransomware attack: Yotta confirmed ransomware (malicious software that locks or steals data to extort payment) activity on May 29. By June the attackers were demanding a ransom.
    4. Operator’s position: The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) said the files concerned only non-nuclear infrastructure. Nothing public shows the Internet-isolated reactors or safety systems were accessed.
    5. The takeaway: The reactors were not reached, so the real issue is how much operationally useful information about sensitive facilities sits outside them.

    Why is this a repeat of 2019?

    1. Dtrack malware: In 2019, malware that researchers link to North Korea’s Lazarus Group was found on a computer on the plant’s Internet-facing administrative network.
    2. NPCIL’s response then: It dismissed the reports, then confirmed the infection, stressing that the critical internal network stayed isolated.
    3. Common pattern: In both cases the core held and the exposure came at the periphery. The 2019 lesson was never applied systematically to contractors and suppliers.

    Why does the supply chain create a cyber blind spot?

    1. Many hands on sensitive data: A nuclear plant or power grid involves builders, suppliers, cloud providers, insurers, certifiers and subcontractors, many of them foreign partners.
    2. Safeguards stop at the gate: Data held by these firms lacks the plant’s network segmentation (walling network parts off), air-gapped control systems (cut off from outside networks) and physical security.
    3. Attacker’s roadmap: Such documents help an attacker pick phishing targets (staff to trick with fake messages) and the weakest subcontractor. They can also reveal how systems are accessed.
    4. Expanding exposure: Private access is widening as Kudankulam expands to 6,000 MW, smart grids spread, Atmanirbhar Bharat opens defence and space to private firms, and government data moves to commercial clouds.

    Where does India’s cyber governance fall short?

    1. Existing institutions: The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), the national incident response agency, made prompt incident reporting mandatory in 2022. The National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) protects critical systems.
    2. Operator-only obligations: NCIIPC works under Section 70A of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Its “protected system” status places duties on the operator alone, so data passed to a contractor is protected only by contracts.
    3. Data law gap: The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 does not generally cover engineering drawings and technical data that carry no personal data.
    4. Accountability gap: The operator says its systems held, the contractor blames its host, and the host blames the malware, yet documents still reach the dark web.

    Challenges

    1. Supply chain attacks: Attackers exploit trusted vendors to enter many organisations at once. Eg. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) OnMark portal.
    2. State-sponsored threats: Foreign state-linked groups target critical sectors. Eg. APT41, a China-linked group, targeted Indian telecom and power grids.
    3. Ransomware extortion: Criminal groups steal or lock data and demand payment, often inflating what they hold.

    Way Forward

    1. Obligations follow the data: Bind every contractor and cloud provider handling critical infrastructure data to defined standards, with liability and audit terms in procurement contracts.
    2. Data classification: Let a contractor hold only the data it needs, and only for as long as needed.
    3. Third-party risk assessment: Replace annual compliance certificates with vendor assessments, including red-team exercises (simulated attacks).
    4. Zero-trust architecture: Treat no network as safe and verify every access point on projects of national importance.
    5. Single national framework: CERT-In, NCIIPC, sectoral regulators and operators should agree one supply chain security framework that fixes responsibility before a breach.

    Conclusion

    Critical infrastructure now has many access points outside the operator’s control, yet India’s rules still guard only the operator. The test is whether every organisation holding a facility’s secrets is held to the standard those secrets deserve.

    Government Initiatives for Cyber Security

    1. National Cyber Security Coordinator: Coordinates cyber agencies and advises the Prime Minister’s Office on cyber strategy.
    2. Cyber Swachhta Kendra: Cleans botnets (networks of infected devices) and offers free malware removal tools.

    Matching Previous Year Question

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

  • Fewer athletes, more medals: India’s best Para games yet

    Why in the News

    Indian para sport has moved from growing by sending bigger squads to growing by winning more medals with fewer athletes. At the 2026 Asian Para Games in Aichi-Nagoya, India won a record 114 medals and finished fourth, its best ever, with a squad barely half the size of the one it sent to Hangzhou in 2022.

    What is new about India’s Aichi-Nagoya performance?

    1. What it is: The Asian Para Games are Asia’s four-yearly multi-sport event for athletes with disabilities, like the Asian Games for para athletes. The Asian Paralympic Committee sets athlete quotas across sports.
    2. Record result: The haul beat India’s previous best of 108 medals at Hangzhou. That total was revised down from 111 after medals were withdrawn over doping violations.
    3. Fewer athletes: India fielded 168 athletes, barely half of the 309 it sent to Hangzhou.
    4. Medals per athlete: India won 68 medals for every hundred athletes it sent, nearly double its rate at earlier editions.
    5. The takeaway: Indian para sport is now growing by winning more with the athletes it sends, not by sending more athletes.

    Why was the squad smaller this time?

    1. Fewer sports: India competed in 11 sports, down from 17 at Hangzhou.
    2. Quotas and programme changes: The Asian Paralympic Committee offered limited athlete quotas. Chess and canoeing were removed from the programme, and India chose not to field teams in taekwondo and rowing.
    3. Para athletics contingent: India’s biggest source of medals sent 62 athletes, down from 123 at Hangzhou.
    4. Low expectations: With fewer athletes and fewer events, even 100 medals looked uncertain before the Games.

    How has India’s record grown, and is the gain real?

    1. Rising tally: India’s medal count has risen at every edition since its debut at Guangzhou in 2010, an eightfold increase.
    2. Gold trajectory: Gold medals followed the same path, rising from a single gold at the debut to 30 this time.
    3. Medal table rank: India has climbed the medal table from 15th at its debut to fourth now.
    4. Like for like comparison: Excluding Hangzhou’s 14 medals in chess, canoeing, rowing and taekwondo, sports India did not contest this time, gives a comparable tally of 95. This haul beats it by about a fifth.

    Where did the medals come from?

    1. Para athletics: Para athletics remains the engine. Its contingent won 65 medals, 22 of them gold, which is more medals than athletes.
    2. Rising sports: Several smaller sports grew sharply:
      • swimming rose from one medal to 11;
      • table tennis rose from two medals to seven;
      • archery and shooting, with no medals in 2014, won five golds between them.
    3. Badminton dip: Badminton slipped from 21 medals to 16.
    4. Women’s medals: Women won 36 medals, 10 of them gold.
    5. Gender gap nearly closed: Women won 64 medals per hundred athletes, against 66 for men.

    Challenges

    1. Programme dependence: Medal tables reflect the programme as much as the athletes, since quotas, events and rivals change from one edition to the next.
    2. China’s lead: China remains far ahead of every other country in the medal table.
    3. Less exposure: A smaller squad means fewer athletes gain international competition experience.
    4. Narrow base: Para athletics alone delivered more than half of India’s medals, so a dip in one sport would pull down the whole tally.

    Way Forward

    1. Broader base: Sports federations should build depth in swimming, table tennis, archery and shooting, where medals are already rising.
    2. Exposure for those left out: Federations should send athletes squeezed out by quotas to other international events for experience.
    3. Paralympic preparation: The Union Sports Ministry should target support at medal winning para athletes, with the Los Angeles Paralympics two years away.
    4. Women’s participation: Federations should raise women’s share of the squad, since their medal rate now nearly matches the men’s.

    Conclusion

    India’s para sport is now measured by how much its athletes win, not by how many it sends. The Los Angeles Paralympics will test whether that efficiency holds against a stronger global field.

    Key numbers

    1. Silver and bronze, 2026: 35 silver and 49 bronze medals.
    2. Earlier editions: tally of 14 (2010), 33 (2014) and 72 (2018); intermediate medal table ranks of ninth and fifth.
    3. Gold per 100 athletes: rose from 8.7 to 18.
    4. Women in the squad: 15% (2010), a quarter (2018), 37% (Hangzhou 2022), a third, 56 women (2026).

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2026] Which of the following statements with regard to the persons with disabilities in India is/are correct? 1. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, an Act passed by the Parliament of India in 2018, mandates reservation in education and employment, places a legal duty on Governments to ensure accessibility and non-discrimination. 2. The Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan focuses on achieving universal accessibility for Persons with Disabilities across three key domains — built infrastructure, transport systems and information and communication technology. 3. The National Divyangjan Finance and Development Corporation (NDFDC) is a public sector organisation set up by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs as a not-for-profit company to promote entrepreneurship among Persons with Disabilities (PwDs). Select the answer using the code given below: (a) 1 and 2 (b) 2 only (c) 1 and 3 (d) 1 only ANSWER: B”

  • Several IITs have far fewer counsellors than recommended by UGC: RTI data

    Why in the News

    The University Grants Commission (UGC) asks higher education institutions to keep one mental health professional for every 500 students, but most Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) examined fall several times short. Replies under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI) reveal the gap as protests grow over a Dalit student’s suicide at IIT-Bombay, and also show faculty reservation shortfalls.

    What does the UGC counsellor norm require?

    1. What it is: The UGC’s mental health and wellbeing guidelines for higher education institutions set a fixed ratio of counsellors or psychologists to students. It works like a minimum staffing norm for student care.
    2. Why it exists: A counsellor is often the first point of support for a student in distress, so the ratio decides whether help can be reached in time.
    3. How the gap surfaced: A former IIT-Bombay student filed detailed RTI queries. The replies disclosed counsellor numbers and suicide records for seven IITs.
    4. The takeaway: Most IITs studied fall well short of a norm meant to keep help within reach, just as student suicides have drawn public protest.

    How far short do the IITs fall?

    1. Worst ratio: IIT (BHU) Varanasi has one counsellor for every 4,750 students, nearly ten times the UGC ratio.
    2. Kharagpur and Roorkee: IIT-Kharagpur has one counsellor per 1,136 students and IIT-Roorkee one per 1,317.
    3. Only one compliant: Only IIT-Ropar reported enough counsellors under the UGC recommendation.
    4. IIT-Bombay: The website of its Student Wellness Centre is currently inaccessible, so its counselling capacity cannot be checked.

    Why has the shortfall become urgent?

    1. Suicide record: IIT-Kharagpur recorded 10 student suicides in the last five years. IIT-Roorkee and IIT (BHU) reported three each over the same period.
    2. IIT-Bombay protests: Protests are mounting in Mumbai for institutional accountability over the death by suicide of Sahil Wakode, a Dalit student at IIT-Bombay. His parents have gone on hunger strike.
    3. Overlapping gaps: Kharagpur, Roorkee and BHU, the three institutes reporting suicides, also have some of the weakest counsellor ratios.

    Do the IITs meet faculty reservation mandates?

    1. SC and ST quotas: The reservation policy reserves 15% of faculty hiring for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and 7.5% for Scheduled Tribes (STs).
    2. OBC quota: A further 27% of hiring is reserved for Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
    3. Near total non-compliance: Almost none of the seven IITs meets the faculty mandate. Only IIT-Ropar reported SC and ST shares at or above the quota, at 15% and 8.6%.
    4. Steepest gap for STs: ST representation among faculty in these institutes ranges from just 0.2% to 2.1%.

    Challenges

    1. Advisory norm: The UGC ratio is a guideline recommendation, so an institute that falls short faces no penalty.
    2. Opaque reporting: Counsellor numbers are not readily public, so students cannot easily learn what support exists.
    3. Few mentors from their communities: Thin SC and ST faculty presence leaves students from these groups with few teachers from similar backgrounds.
    4. Accountability after a death: The IIT-Bombay protests show families see no clear institutional accountability after a student’s suicide.

    Way Forward

    1. Meet the ratio: Each IIT should recruit counsellors until it meets the UGC staffing recommendation.
    2. Public disclosure: IITs should publish counsellor strength and wellness data on their websites without waiting for RTI requests.
    3. Reserved post drives: The Ministry of Education should require IITs to run time bound recruitment for vacant reserved faculty posts.
    4. Independent review: Each institute should commission an independent review after every student suicide and act on its findings.

    Conclusion

    The IITs are falling short on both student care and faculty diversity. The marker to watch is whether the IIT-Bombay protests lead to enforceable staffing and disclosure standards across the IITs.

    Key numbers

    1. IIT-Jodhpur and IIT-Patna: six counsellors and psychiatrists at Jodhpur and two counsellors at Patna, each for about 4,000 students.
    2. IIT-Tirupati: three counsellors and psychologists for about 1,700 students.
    3. IIT-Delhi: 12 counsellors for around 12,000 students.
    4. SC and OBC faculty shares: SCs 2.8% to 10.9%; OBCs 1.5% to 17.5% across the seven IITs.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2015, GS2, 12 marks] The quality of higher education in India requires major improvements to make it internationally competitive. Do you think that the entry of foreign educational institutions would help improve the quality of higher and technical education in the country? Discuss.”

  • Why inclusion is key to the RTE Act

    Why in the News

    Section 12(1)(c) of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act) has opened private school seats to disadvantaged children, but entry has not brought them social integration. A study of nine Delhi private schools finds that inclusion works only where a school treats it as a core value, and India has no way to measure it.

    What is the RTE quota, and what has it failed to deliver?

    1. What it is: Section 12(1)(c) makes private schools keep a mandatory 25% classroom quota of free seats for disadvantaged children. It works like a reserved lane into schools these families could not otherwise afford.
    2. Why it was introduced: The quota was meant to drive social cohesion, by placing children of different classes in the same classroom.
    3. Reach: The provision gives about 50 lakh disadvantaged students access to private schools nationwide.
    4. What went wrong: A seat does not bring acceptance. Many RTE students face low grades and class-based alienation inside the school.
    5. The takeaway: The law guarantees access, not inclusion, so the quota’s social purpose depends on what happens after the child walks in.

    How do RTE students experience the classroom?

    1. Drift to the periphery: RTE students often end up at the class’s edges and join few group tasks. The cause is organic social segregation, meaning children group themselves by class unprompted.
    2. ‘Deficit lens’: Burdened, undertrained teachers often see RTE students through a ‘deficit lens’, as children who need ‘more effort’ rather than as equal learners. They overlook the children’s emotional distress.
    3. Contrasting quota students: One girl slips into a back-row seat and is labelled ‘struggling to meet grade expectations’. A labourer’s son in another school thrives because teachers and peers draw him in.

    What makes inclusion work in some schools?

    1. Study finding: A study of nine mid to high cost Delhi private schools found that inclusion is rarely all or nothing. It succeeded consistently where the school treats inclusion as a core institutional value.
    2. No blueprint: Private schools have no institutional blueprint for diverse classrooms, so each school must design its own practices.
    3. ‘Invisible inclusion’: Successful schools build mixing into daily routine so no child is singled out: an empathy driven learning circle, assigned mixed seating and a ‘zero period’ for peer homework.
    4. Lived experience: Lessons use student led discussion that draws on every child’s life. Eg. A maths teacher asked an RTE student about his family’s paddy fields.
    5. Teachers and parents: Teachers co-plan support strategies. Monthly open houses let parents exchange insights.

    Why does inclusion stay undervalued?

    1. Practice, not money: Authentic inclusion needs no large material or financial resources. It depends on steady practices: equal participation, respect for each child’s background, and links among students, teachers and families.
    2. Burden on schools alone: The law leaves the job of building an inclusive classroom entirely to schools and teachers. It then depends on personal motivation, so it becomes an afterthought.
    3. No metric: Schools value what they measure, but India has no metric to track inclusion. So it never appears on a report card, though it shapes a student’s whole school life.

    Challenges

    1. Undertrained teachers: Overburdened teachers get little preparation for mixed classrooms, which keeps the ‘deficit lens’ in place.
    2. No accountability tool: Without an inclusion benchmark, neither States nor parents can hold a school to account for exclusion.
    3. Reimbursement dependence: Schools rely on State reimbursement for quota seats, so weak payment reduces their incentive to invest in RTE students.

    Way Forward

    1. Inclusion benchmarks: State governments and parent networks should jointly set and monitor inclusion benchmarks for every school.
    2. School routines: Schools should institutionalise collaborative learning, rotated leadership and dignified, equitable participation of RTE students.
    3. Teacher resources: Schools should give teachers specialised resources to support quota students.
    4. Government enablers: Governments should pay reimbursements, publicly recognise inclusive schools and build cross-state feedback loops so States learn from each other.

    Conclusion

    The RTE quota has settled the question of entry but left belonging to the goodwill of individual schools. Inclusion will improve only when it is tracked with the same rigour and daily practice as academic results.

    What is the Right to Education?

    1. Fundamental Right: Article 21A, inserted by the 86th Constitutional Amendment, makes free and compulsory education a Fundamental Right for children aged 6 to 14.
    2. Implementing law: The RTE Act, 2009 gives effect to Article 21A.
    3. Parental duty: Article 51A(k), a Fundamental Duty, requires parents or guardians to provide educational opportunities to children aged 6 to 14.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2022, GS2, 15 marks] The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 remains inadequate in promoting incentive-based system for children’s education without generating awareness about the importance of schooling. Analyse.”

  • A ready solution to tackle anaemia

    Why in the News

    Anaemia affects over half of Indian women and almost three-fourths of children, yet Double Fortified Salt (DFS), a proven preventive tool, remains underused. Its inclusion in the Public Distribution System (PDS), India’s largest food safety net, is uneven because it is left to State governments. The recently revised 7X7X7 Anaemia Mukt Bharat (AMB) strategy seeks a comprehensive response.

    What is Double Fortified Salt, and what problem does it solve?

    1. Iron-deficiency anaemia: Anaemia, driven largely by a lack of iron, causes harm across a lifetime:
      • maternal deaths;
      • malnutrition passed from one generation to the next;
      • impaired cognitive development and lost productivity.
    2. What it is: DFS is salt fortified with both iodine and iron. It is like the iodised salt households already buy, with iron added.
    3. Why salt works: Virtually every household eats salt daily in predictable amounts, whatever its income or location. So DFS solves sustained compliance, people getting iron regularly, because no one changes a habit.
    4. Ready platform: Universal Salt Iodisation, which adds iodine to edible salt, reaches around 95% of households, so the delivery chain already exists.
    5. The takeaway: India can deliver iron through a food everyone already eats, unlike supplements and diet changes that depend on regular adherence.

    What does the evidence show?

    1. Proven impact: A global review found DFS can reduce anaemia by up to 21%.
    2. Indian trials: Randomised controlled trials in Bengaluru, Darjeeling and Punjab, and large-scale use in Uttar Pradesh, showed better iron status. Consumers accepted the salt, and it proved highly cost-effective.
    3. Low cost: DFS costs about ₹14 to ₹20 per person a year.
    4. High return: Its benefit-cost ratio is 4.2:1, meaning each rupee spent returns about four rupees in better health and productivity.
    5. Manufacturing base: India has established fortification technology, centralised salt production and laboratory infrastructure, which make quality checks simpler than for many other fortified foods.

    Why has DFS not scaled nationally?

    1. AMB’s broad design: The AMB strategy covers prevention, screening, treatment, dietary diversification and behaviour change, yet leaves DFS underused within it.
    2. State-by-state reach: DFS reaches an estimated 76 million people in only four States through safety-net programmes.
    3. Partial mandates: The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has issued a DFS standard. The Centre mandates DFS in PM POSHAN, the school meal scheme, and Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), the child nutrition scheme.
    4. PDS reach: The PDS reaches around 800 million beneficiaries, which makes it the decisive channel for any national rollout.
    5. Fixable barriers: The obstacles to wider adoption lie in policy and funding decisions, not technology, and are within India’s capacity to fix.

    Challenges

    1. Quality risk: DFS delivers its benefits only when made to validated specifications, so weak quality control undermines it.
    2. Limited market reach: Commercial availability and consumer awareness of DFS remain too low for nationwide uptake.
    3. Blood disorders: Iron fortification must go with screening for haemoglobinopathies, inherited blood disorders such as thalassaemia and sickle cell disease.
    4. Salt reduction goals: Promoting salt as an iron carrier has to stay aligned with India’s sodium reduction goals.

    Way Forward

    1. Central flagship scheme: The Centre should take DFS to all States, especially through the PDS, under a central flagship scheme.
    2. Dedicated financing: Back the scale-up with dedicated funds and a firm policy commitment.
    3. Regulated rollout: Run DFS within a robust regulatory framework that complements AMB, borrowing monitoring systems from the rice fortification programme.

    Conclusion

    India’s anaemia response has a preventive tool ready but no national channel to deliver it at scale. Whether the Centre builds that channel through the PDS, instead of leaving uptake to each State, will decide whether DFS becomes a model for other low- and middle-income countries.

    Government Initiatives on Hunger and Malnutrition

    1. POSHAN Abhiyaan 2.0: A mission-mode approach to improve nutritional outcomes for children and mothers.
    2. Fortified rice: Rice fortified with iron, folic acid and vitamin B12 has been rolled out across all districts covered by the National Food Security Act, 2013, to combat anaemia.
    3. Food Fortification Resource Centre (FFRC): Supports scaling up fortification in staple foods.
    4. Eat Right India: An FSSAI initiative promoting safe, healthy and sustainable food.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2023] Consider the following statements in the context of interventions being undertaken under Anaemia Mukt Bharat Strategy: 1. It provides prophylactic calcium supplementation for pre-school children, adolescents and pregnant women. 2. It runs a compaign for delayed cord clamping at the time of child-birth. 3. It provides for periodic deworming to children and adolescents. 4. It addresses non-nutritional causes of anaemia in endemic pockets with special focus on malaria, hemoglobinopathies and fluorosis. How many of the statements given above are correct? (a) Only one (b) Only two (c) Only three (d) All four ANSWER: (c)”

  • Brought in to help repopulate Buxa, T-138 is now in Assam

    Why in the News

    West Bengal’s Buxa Tiger Reserve, without a stable tiger population for decades, was meant to begin a phased recovery with its first reintroduced tigress, but she has left the reserve. Tigress T-138, airlifted from Bihar’s Valmiki Tiger Reserve, has travelled 35 km into Assam’s Raimona National Park.

    What is the Buxa reintroduction plan?

    1. What it is: Reintroduction means releasing animals into a habitat that has lost them, so that a population can rebuild. Buxa covers about 760 sq km in Alipurduar district, historically an important tiger landscape in North Bengal.
    2. Why tigers vanished: The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) cited habitat degradation, changes in land use and a decline in prey availability.
    3. A national first: T-138, a three-year-old tigress, was the first tiger successfully airlifted between States in India for such an initiative.
    4. The airlift: The tranquilised tigress was flown on a military aircraft to Hasimara Air Force Station. She was then taken to the Rajabhatkhawa forest area of Buxa.
    5. The takeaway: Her release was meant to mark the start of a phased recovery, so her departure tests the plan at its very first step.

    Where has T-138 gone, and how are authorities responding?

    1. Route to Assam: After roaming parts of Buxa, she headed towards the Sankosh river and entered Raimona, in Assam’s Kokrajhar district near the Indo-Bhutan border.
    2. Tracking: A West Bengal team is tracking the GPS-tagged tigress in Raimona, where an alert has been sounded.
    3. Wait and watch: The West Bengal Forest Minister said the tigress is being left undisturbed to explore, and will be tranquilised and brought back if required.

    Has a tiger strayed across States before?

    1. Zeenat’s journey: In December 2024, tigress Zeenat travelled 300 km from Odisha’s Similipal to the forests of Bengal.
    2. Joint capture: She was captured after 21 days on the move, in an operation run by the Odisha and West Bengal forest departments together.

    Challenges

    1. Wide roaming range: Tigers commonly cover 70 to 80 km while exploring an area, well beyond a single reserve’s edge.
    2. Conflict with residents: The tigress reportedly killed a domestic pig, and residents near Raimona, which has its own tigers, want her tranquilised and relocated.
    3. Unrestored home range: Habitat degradation and declining prey emptied Buxa, so reversing them decides whether it can hold released tigers.

    Way Forward

    1. Inter-State tracking protocol: West Bengal and Assam forest departments should run a joint tracking operation, as Odisha and West Bengal did for Zeenat.
    2. Inform residents: Assam’s forest department should keep residents near Raimona informed of the tigress’s movements while she is tracked.
    3. Habitat before releases: Restore Buxa’s habitat and prey base before the next tigers are released.

    Conclusion

    Buxa’s reintroduction has cleared its logistical first step but not yet its ecological one, a tiger that stays. Whether T-138 settles or is brought back, and whether Buxa can hold the next release, is what to watch.

    Back2Basics: Buxa Tiger Reserve

    1. Transboundary corridor: Buxa is part of an international wildlife corridor, contiguous with Phibsoo in Bhutan to the north and Manas in Assam to the east.
    2. Human pressure: It is dotted with settlements and ringed by revenue villages and tea estates, and commercial traffic on the Bhutan to West Bengal road runs through it.
    3. Empty by 2018: The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) found no tigers in Buxa by 2018.
    4. Plan scale: The programme plans to relocate seven tigers to Buxa over two years.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2017] The term ‘M-STrIPES’ is sometimes seen in the news in the context of (a) Captive breeding of Wild Fauna (b) Maintenance of Tiger Reserves (c) Indigenous Satellite Navigation System (d) Security of National Highways ANSWER: (b)”

  • From climate targets to energy justice

    Why in the News

    A former United Nations (UN) diplomat argues that India should reframe climate change as national crises arising from unequal energy use, not as a global temperature goal driven by emissions. Global policy, he argues, must shift from production to consumption.

    What does reframing climate change around energy justice mean?

    1. Symptom and cause: Global carbon dioxide emissions are the symptom and national energy use the root cause, much as a fever is a symptom of an infection.
    2. Electricity and well-being: Countries will electrify differently, so debate should judge electricity’s role in national well-being by national actions, not global models.
    3. Agenda setting: The G7, a club of seven rich economies, should not set the agenda the way the Paris Agreement did 10 years ago.
    4. The takeaway: Climate action would be judged by how each country uses energy for well-being, not by its share of one global emissions target.

    Why have 35 years of consensus diplomacy failed the Global South?

    1. Western expert networks: Western academics, as epistemic communities (expert groups shaping policy), built climate policy on universal ‘global values’, models and rules set by science and diplomacy.
    2. UN as legitimiser: UN technical reports lent these policies legitimacy, and international law then enforced the ‘consensus’ within countries.
    3. Unequal bargain: Pressure, not agreement, settled the clash between ecological limits and urbanising countries’ energy needs. No one committed to transfer finance as ‘means of implementation’.
    4. Empty resolutions: The vaguely worded treaty produced workshops, and the developing Global South gained only empty resolutions. Technology transfer was treated as a ‘scientific’ issue, not an ‘implementation’ issue.

    What has shifted in global climate politics?

    1. United States reversal: The US now echoes Global South reservations, through its January 2025 Executive Order “Putting America First in International Environmental Agreements”.
    2. Carbonising before decarbonising: As Global South energy use grows, emissions will rise before they fall. The UN’s new call for stabilisation, rather than reduction, of emissions only partly recognises this.
    3. Energy for well-being: Negotiations have never discussed how much energy well-being needs. China, the second-largest economy, matches Western well-being with much lower energy use.
    4. China’s missed path: UN reports have missed China’s nationally driven path to stabilisation, even as US emissions rose by 133 megatons in 2025.
    5. Consumption limits: China and India limit consumption as a share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), replace the internal combustion engine (ICE), and meet new demand with solar, wind and hydropower.

    What do China’s transition and global trends show?

    1. Cheap power is not enough: Cheaper solar and wind will not drive the transition alone. Their power is decentralised, intermittent and costs nothing per extra unit (zero marginal cost), so it needs state planning.
    2. China’s scale: China installed more wind and solar capacity in 2025 than all other nations combined, about ten times the US addition.
    3. Non-fossil share: Half of China’s electricity generation could be non-fossil by 2030.
    4. Electric vehicles: About 5.62 million new energy vehicles, China’s term for electric and other alternative-fuel cars, were registered in China in the first half of 2025.
    5. Trends models miss: UN emissions models miss that emerging countries use far less energy for urban well-being than the West once did, and are ageing.

    Challenges

    1. Uninsured climate risk: Extreme events are growing more intense and frequent in the Global South, where insurance coverage is limited.
    2. Western overuse: The West, about one-fifth of the world’s population, still uses a disproportionate share of energy, so the crisis is a few national crises, not one global one.
    3. Coalition gap: India has yet to build international support for a new agenda centred on climate justice.

    Way Forward

    1. Climate finance review: Review the token climate finance developed countries now provide.
    2. Global early warning: Build a global early warning system for extreme weather.
    3. Regional disaster cooperation: Expand regional technical cooperation in disaster relief.

    Conclusion

    Climate diplomacy is drifting from one global emissions target towards differentiated national energy paths, and India’s case rests on well-being per unit of energy. The test is whether India can build a climate justice coalition around it.

    Back2Basics: Paris Agreement

    1. Temperature goal: The Agreement aims to limit warming to below 2°C, preferably to 1.5°C.
    2. Negotiating forum: Countries negotiate under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), whose Conference of the Parties (COP) is the supreme decision-making body.
    3. Target cycle: COP30 began the third cycle of nationally determined contributions (NDCs), national climate pledges, with targets for 2035.
    4. Carbon markets: COP30 terminated the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), making Article 6.4 the sole UN carbon-crediting mechanism.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2025] Consider the following statements: Statement I: Article 6 of the Paris Agreement on climate change is frequently discussed in global discussions on sustainable development and climate change. Statement II: Article 6 of the Paris Agreement on climate change sets out the principles of carbon markets. Statement III: Article 6 of the Paris Agreement on climate change intends to promote inter-country non-market strategies to reach their climate targets. Which one of the following is correct in respect of the above statements? (a) Both Statement II and Statement III are correct and both of them explain Statement I (b) Both Statement II and Statement III are correct but only one of them explains Statement I (c) Only one of the Statements II and III is correct and that explains Statement I (d) Neither Statement II nor Statement III is correct ANSWER: (a)”

  • Census duty: govt’s powers and private citizens’ rights

    Why in the News

    The Census Rules, 1990 now expressly name private school teachers and staff of banks, companies, societies and trusts as possible census enumerators, where the old rule said only “Teachers, Clerks or any official or any person”. The Centre amended the Rules this month, eight days after the Punjab and Haryana High Court stayed Haryana’s requests for private teachers’ details. The open question is whether a rule can compel private citizens when the Census Act, 1948 may not.

    What does the amendment change, and why now?

    1. What an enumerator does: An enumerator goes from house to house counting people for the Census. The State assigns the job, much like polling staff are drafted for an election.
    2. New categories named: Teachers of government, local authority, aided and unaided private institutions, and officials of banks, companies, institutions, societies and trusts, may now be appointed.
    3. “Any person” retained: The rules still cover “any person” a State or Union Territory administration finds suitable, so the change is largely one of wording.
    4. Stated purpose: The Ministry of Home Affairs says the change removes ambiguity, so a Census needing around 31 lakh enumerators and supervisors runs smoothly. Most are teachers and government staff.
    5. The takeaway: Rewording answers the court setbacks on paper, but rules cannot widen what the parent Act permits.

    What did the High Courts hold?

    1. Bombay High Court, interim protection: In May, it shielded staff of more than 500 private unaided and minority schools in Maharashtra from compulsory Census duty.
    2. Local authorities only: The Court read Section 4A as obliging only local authorities to lend staff when the Centre directs. At first sight, Sections 6 and 7 give no power to draft private school staff.
    3. “Any person” read narrowly: An unlimited reading could reach doctors, advocates and chartered accountants, so the Court rejected it at the interim stage.
    4. Limit on delegated rules: Subordinate legislation (rules the executive makes under an Act) cannot travel beyond its parent statute.

    What does the Census Act actually allow?

    1. Section 4(2), the strongest basis: The State government may appoint “persons” as census officers, and those appointed “shall be bound to serve accordingly”. The word is not limited to officials.
    2. Section 7, limited to the premises: The District Magistrate can call on an establishment’s staff to count persons on its premises, not to deploy them as door to door enumerators.
    3. Insurer staff cases: High Courts in Punjab and Haryana (2010) and Gujarat (2019) barred requisitioning Life Insurance Corporation staff under Section 7. The Gujarat ruling is before the Supreme Court.
    4. Earlier compromise: For Census 2011, the Bombay High Court let private school teachers be deployed, normally outside school hours and exempting teachers of board examination classes.

    Does the Constitution allow compulsory public service?

    1. Article 23: It prohibits begar (forced unpaid labour) but lets the State impose “compulsory service for public purposes” without discrimination on specified grounds.
    2. Special police officers: The Police Act, 1861 lets residents be made special police officers. The Calcutta High Court in Dulal Samanta v. District Magistrate, Howrah (1958) treated this as protected public service.
    3. National Service Act, 1972: Parliament built a full regime to call up doctors and engineers. It covers liability, notice, postponement for hardship, pay, and employers’ duty to release and reinstate them.
    4. Missing safeguards: The Census Act has no such regime, so constitutional permission alone gives Census authorities no power to compel.

    Challenges

    1. Rules outrunning the Act: An amended rule cannot supply a power the parent Act may lack, inviting fresh litigation.
    2. Unsettled precedent: Requisition powers stay uncertain until the Supreme Court rules on Section 7.
    3. Lost teaching time: Deploying teachers during school hours disrupts academic work.

    Way Forward

    1. Amend the Census Act: Parliament should define who is liable for Census duty, with notice, postponement and pay.
    2. Duty outside school hours: States should deploy private teachers outside school hours, as in 2011.
    3. Settle the appeal: The Supreme Court should decide the Section 7 appeal, giving States one clear rule.

    Conclusion

    The amendment rewords the Census Rules but leaves open whether the Census Act lets the State draft private citizens at all. Whether Parliament writes safeguards into the Act, or courts strike the rules down, will decide how the coming Census is staffed.

    Back2Basics: Census of India

    1. Census 2027: It will be the 16th Census of India and the 8th since Independence.
    2. First digital Census: Enumeration will use a mobile app, and citizens can count themselves through a Census portal for the first time.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “No direct PYQ traced in the provided files. Thematic PYQ: [2009] Consider the following statements : 1. Between Census 1951 and Census 2001, the density of the population of India has increased more than three times. 2. Between Census 1951 and Census 2001, the annual growth rate (exponential) of the population of India has doubled. Which of the statements given abova is/are correct ? (a) 1 only (b) 2 only (c) Both 1 and 2 (d) Neither 1 nor 2 ANSWER: (d)”

  • Dubious retreat

    Why in the News

    Faculty members and administrators of undergraduate medical colleges no longer face personal fines of up to ₹5 lakh for submitting false information; only institutions can now be fined. The National Medical Commission (NMC) has denotified its 2023 Maintenance of Standards of Medical Education Regulations (MSMER), saying they duplicated the Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB). Unless the NMC shows the MARB is using its powers, the move looks like regulatory relaxation.

    What was the MSMER, and why did it matter?

    1. What it is: The MSMER set penalties for medical colleges that fell short on educational standards or infrastructure. It worked like a traffic fine on the driver, not only on the vehicle’s owner.
    2. Why it was introduced: It targeted deep-seated corruption in medical colleges, especially “ghost faculty” and “ghost patients”, teachers and patients shown on paper but not actually present.
    3. Individual liability: It made faculty members and administrators personally answerable for false information, not only the college.
    4. Appeal timelines: It also specified clear timelines for appealing penalties.
    5. The takeaway: Withdrawing it removes the rule that made the person who falsifies records pay for it.

    Why did the NMC withdraw it, and does the reason hold?

    1. NMC’s justification: The MSMER created a parallel mechanism letting the undergraduate and postgraduate boards evaluate institutions, overlapping the MARB’s role.
    2. MARB’s remaining power: The MARB can still fine errant institutions up to ₹1 crore under the 2023 Establishment of Medical Institutions, Assessment and Rating Regulations.
    3. Postgraduate exception: The 2023 Postgraduate Medical Education Regulations remain in force and allow fines on individual faculty at postgraduate colleges.
    4. Wholesale repeal: Why the NMC scrapped the entire MSMER, rather than only the overlapping evaluation mechanism, is unclear.

    Why does fining only institutions weaken enforcement?

    1. Harder to penalise: Penalising an institution is harder than fining an individual, so regulators face a perverse incentive to accommodate rather than punish.
    2. Loss of deterrence: Without personal fines, administrators lose the fear of penalty that keeps them honest.
    3. Unchecked non-compliance: Non-compliance among medical colleges is common and seldom stopped early, even as medical seats multiply without greater transparency.

    Is the MARB actually using its powers?

    1. Appeal deadline conflict: The MARB regulations allow 15 days to appeal, which could conflict with the 60-day period under the National Medical Commission Act, 2019. Legal disputes could then delay penal action.
    2. RTI disclosure: A Central Information Commission (CIC) hearing, the appeal stage under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, revealed an NMC statement from 2024. It said the MARB had neither formally assessed nor rated colleges.
    3. Missing reports: The NMC had also said the MARB’s standard forms need not be public. In a revised reply in October 2025, the NMC said its records held none of the matching assessment reports.
    4. Publication duty: The 2023 MARB regulations require the Board to publish its latest annual assessment results.

    Challenges

    1. Enforcement gap: Those who falsify records at undergraduate colleges now face little personal risk.
    2. Opaque assessment: The public cannot verify whether MARB assessments are happening or what they find.
    3. Weak regulator image: A regulator seen as lax on standards loses credibility with students, colleges and patients.

    Way Forward

    1. Targeted repeal: The NMC should restore individual fines for false information and drop only the overlapping evaluation mechanism.
    2. Harmonised appeal periods: The NMC should align the MARB’s appeal deadline with the period set by its parent Act.
    3. Published assessments: The MARB should publish its annual assessment results, as its own regulations require.

    Conclusion

    Medical college oversight now rests on a Board whose record of assessing colleges is unverified. Whether the MARB publishes its results and penalises errant institutions will show if the NMC is simplifying regulation or relaxing it.

    Back2Basics: National Medical Commission

    1. Origin: The NMC replaced the Medical Council of India (MCI), which was elected by doctors themselves, to separate regulation from vested interests.
    2. Mandate: It regulates medical education, licensing and standards of medical practice.
    3. Four boards: The Under Graduate, Post Graduate, Medical Assessment and Rating, and Ethics and Medical Registration boards divide functions once concentrated in one body.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “No direct PYQ traced in the provided files. Thematic PYQ: [2015, GS2, 12 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.”

  • EC papers over objections within, presents united front in SC affidavit on SIR

    Why in the News

    Two of the three Election Commissioners objected in fourteen notes to steps taken in the Commission’s name, but those notes are now described as part of a consultative process, not dissent. In an affidavit approved by all three members, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has told the Supreme Court that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), a house-to-house re-verification of electoral rolls, is legal. It does not explain why two members learnt of decisions only afterwards.

    What is the dispute inside the Election Commission?

    1. What it is: The ECI is a multi-member body of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and two Election Commissioners. It works like a three-member board, where each member should know what is done in its name.
    2. The notes: Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi wrote most notes after the fact, recording that they had not been told of decisions, systems, orders or cases.
    3. The affidavit’s answer: Replying to a social activist’s petition, the ECI says individual commissioners’ suggestions and queries are not decisions of the Commission, and calls the allegations “misconceived”.
    4. The takeaway: The Commission has explained how its decisions are formally taken, not whether two members were actually consulted.

    How does the affidavit say the Commission decides?

    1. File movement: Files go first to one Election Commissioner, then the other, and finally to the CEC. Approved decisions carry all three signatures, and the ECI Secretariat implements them.
    2. Unanimity and majority: The statute recognises that decisions should preferably be unanimous, though some may be taken by majority.
    3. SIR orders: The three orders scheduling the SIR, starting with that of 24 June 2025, were issued on unanimous decisions.
    4. Work allocation order: The two Commissioners wrote to the Cabinet Secretary about a work allocation order issued by a senior Deputy Election Commissioner. The ECI says it was never implemented.

    What does the affidavit say about Form 6 and “mapping”?

    1. Form 6: Form 6 is the statutory form for inclusion in the electoral roll. Under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, only the Central Government can amend it.
    2. The declaration: The ECI calls the claim of a Form 6 amendment “misleading”. Only the Additional Declaration annexed to it under the SIR orders was changed.
    3. “Mapping”: The declaration asks applicants for their own, parents’ or grandparents’ entries in the 2002/2003 SIR rolls. Those who supply them need not file further documents.
    4. Online display: The ECI concedes the online display “could be construed” as amending Form 6. Its Electoral Rolls (ER) Division decided on 21 October to separate the two.
    5. Members’ objections: In May, Joshi recorded that Form 6 could not change without amending the Rules, and Sandhu concurred. Sandhu later called the July online change “unauthorised/ illegal”.

    Who controls the electoral roll on ECINet?

    1. ECINet: ECINet is the Commission’s IT platform for electoral roll work. No entry changes except by order of the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO), the official legally responsible for the roll.
    2. IT team’s duty: The ECINet team must let EROs work without hitches.
    3. Review committee: Experts from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mumbai and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru will review the platform’s legal compliance and vet new modules.
    4. Earlier proposal: Joshi proposed such a committee on 29 May, warning of “the gradual centralisation of the electoral roll database”. The affidavit does not mention this.

    Challenges

    1. Unexplained approval: The affidavit does not say who approved the July online change, made after two of three members objected in writing.
    2. Software overriding EROs: In February the software did not let Goa’s EROs reverse deletions, despite eight requests in seven days.
    3. Appeals filed unseen: West Bengal election officers filed appeals against voter restorations without bringing them to the Commission.

    Way Forward

    1. Recorded approvals: The Commission should record who approves each SIR step and IT change.
    2. Prior sign-off on IT modules: New ECINet modules should reach all three members before deployment.
    3. Written delegation: The Commission should define which actions officers may take in its name without referring to members.

    Conclusion

    The Commission now speaks with one voice before the Supreme Court, but its account settles the formal process, not the record of members bypassed in practice. Whether its corrective steps answer the specific questions in the two Commissioners’ notes is what the Court must now weigh.

    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?”

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