These Newscards correspond to the explained section of various newspapers. They become immensely important for both prelims and mains and special attention needs to be paid to them
Retail inflation rose to 4.45% in July 2026, its highest reading in 19 months. The number stayed above the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) target of 4% for a second straight month, even as the central bank held its policy rate.
What is the Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation target framework?
Flexible inflation targeting: The RBI is mandated to keep CPI inflation at 4%, within a tolerance band of 2% to 6%.
Monetary Policy Committee (MPC): A six-member committee sets the repo rate to steer inflation toward that target.
Mandate basis: The framework flows from the amended Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, and a 2016 agreement between the government and the RBI.
What is driving the price rise?
Food inflation: Vegetables led the increase, with sharp jumps in onion, garlic and ginger prices.
Fuel and transport:Higher energy costs fed into the headline number.
Rural stress:Rural food inflation ran ahead of the national average.
Imported pressure: A depreciating rupee and disrupted West Asian crude supply raised input costs.
Why does core inflation tell a calmer story?
Core below 3%: Inflation excluding food and fuel stayed under 3%, showing weak underlying demand pressure.
Divergence: The gap between headline and core inflation points to a supply-side food shock rather than broad overheating.
Why did the RBI hold the repo rate?
Rate on hold: The MPC kept the repo rate at 5.25% for a fourth straight meeting.
Balancing act: A food-driven spike is not easily controlled by interest rates, so the RBI avoided tightening into a supply shock.
Conclusion
Headline inflation is being pushed by food and fuel, not by demand. The RBI has chosen to hold rates, and the trajectory depends on whether the monsoon eases vegetable prices in the coming months.
Back2Basics
What is Fiscal versus Monetary control of inflation?
Monetary tools: Repo rate, cash reserve ratio, and open market operations, used by the RBI to manage demand-side inflation.
Fiscal and supply tools: Buffer stocks, import duty cuts, and export curbs, used by the government to tackle food-supply shocks.
Types of Inflation
Headline Inflation: Overall CPI inflation, including food and fuel.
Core Inflation: Inflation excluding volatile food and fuel prices.
Food Inflation: Rise in prices of food items such as cereals, vegetables, pulses and edible oils.
Demand-Pull Inflation: Caused by aggregate demand growing faster than supply.
Cost-Push Inflation: Results from rising input costs such as fuel, wages and raw materials.
Imported Inflation: Domestic prices rise due to higher global commodity prices or currency depreciation.
Built-in Inflation: Persistent inflation arising from wage-price expectations and indexation.
Why Food Inflation Matters in India
Policy Challenge: Food inflation is largely supply-driven, limiting the effectiveness of monetary policy alone.
High CPI Weight: Food has a large weight in the CPI basket, making food-price changes strongly influence headline inflation.
Household Impact: Food inflation directly erodes purchasing power, especially for low-income households.
Rural Vulnerability: Rural households spend a larger share of income on food, making them more exposed to food-price shocks.
Inflation Expectations: Persistent food inflation can raise wage and price expectations, creating second-round effects. (Secod Round Effect: Persistent food inflation can spill over into wages, input costs and inflation expectations, turning a temporary supply shock into broader inflation.)
PYQ Relevance
[UPSC 2024] What are the causes of persistent high food inflation in India? Comment on the effectiveness of the monetary policy of the RBI to control this type of inflation.
Linkage: The PYQ talks about food inflation and limits of RBI monetary policy. Current inflation shows how supply-side food shocks can persist despite subdued core inflation.
Families of patients with psychiatric illness increasingly ask whether the condition is in their blood and whether a genetic test can settle their child’s future. There is a tension between the real progress of psychiatric genetics and its limited power to predict individual outcomes, especially for Indian populations underrepresented in genomic databases. The central point is that genes load the dice but do not determine destiny.
What is a genome-wide association study (GWAS)?
About: A GWAS compares millions of common genetic variants across very large groups of people with and without a condition, to find variants that appear more often in one group. . It compares DNA markers, most often single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs, between individuals with a condition and healthy control groups.
What it yields: It behaves like a satellite map highlighting genomic areas of interest, showing where to look for biological mechanisms rather than pinpointing a cause.
What does polygenic risk mean?
About: In common psychiatric disorders no single gene variant has a large effect, unlike single-gene diseases such as Tay-Sachs disease or Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Mechanism: Risk is polygenic, emerging from the combined influence of thousands of variants together with rare genetic changes, development, environment, and chance.
What is a polygenic risk score?
About: A polygenic risk score (PRS) compresses many small genetic effects into a single number meant to estimate a person’s inherited susceptibility.
Limits: It cannot say whether a person will become ill, at what age, how severe it will be, or which medicine will work, because it captures only part of genetic liability.
How Polygenic Risk Works
Many small changes: Instead of one major gene causing an illness (like in cystic fibrosis), polygenic conditions involve hundreds or thousands of tiny DNA changes called single nucleotide polymorphisms
Adding it up: Each individual variant adds or subtracts a tiny amount of risk; a PRS totals these up to estimate your overall genetic predisposition.
Common conditions: It applies to complex diseases like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, schizophrenia, and certain common cancers
What have the major GWAS findings shown?
Schizophrenia: A 2022 landmark study identified associations at 287 genomic regions and pointed to genes active in neurons and synapses.
Bipolar disorder: A large 2021 study identified 64 associated regions.
Regulatory signals: Many signals lie in DNA that regulates when and where genes switch on, not in stretches that directly encode a protein.
Shared risk: A December 2025 study in Nature reported that some inherited risk is shared across schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Why is prediction unreliable, especially in India?
Score does not contain life: A person with a higher score may remain well while a person with a lower score may fall ill, because the score does not contain childhood adversity, sleep disruption, substance use, medical illness, or access to care.
Expert caution: The International Society of Psychiatric Genetics has cautioned that current scores for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression are not accurate enough for routine clinical prediction.
Ancestry bias: Genomic databases have drawn disproportionately from people of European ancestry, so scores are often less accurate in other populations.
Indian diversity: The GenomeIndia project generated whole-genome data from 10,000 healthy, unrelated Indians across 83 population groups and documented extraordinary genetic diversity, so a score developed elsewhere cannot simply be imported.
What can genetics usefully change in the clinic today?
Reduces blame: A mother did not cause schizophrenia by being too strict and a father did not transmit bipolar disorder through a moral failing, and biology matters.
Avoids fatalism: Genetic vulnerability should not be converted into a verdict, and no test can declare a person safe or doomed.
Focus on modifiable risk: The useful approach is to track early warning signs, avoid intoxicants, sleep well, seek help promptly, and focus on recovery.
Visible risks: Many risks are visible without sequencing, such as lost sleep before a manic episode, escalating cannabis use, treatment stopped due to stigma, and distance from specialist care.
Conclusion
The central idea is that psychiatric genetics will not identify people before they fall ill, but it can replace superstition and blame with a more accurate account of vulnerability. Prediction will remain probabilistic even as datasets grow larger and more representative. The task is to keep probabilities from being misunderstood, stigmatised, or commercialised, and to involve diverse populations while protecting privacy.
Back2Basics:
GenomeIndia Project
Convening body: Funded by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India.
Aim: To build a catalogue of the genetic diversity of the Indian population.
Scale: Generated whole-genome data from 10,000 healthy, unrelated Indians across 83 population groups.
Significance: Provides an India-specific reference against which imported genetic risk scores can be tested rather than assumed to apply.
Genomics in India: About
Definition: Genomics studies the complete set of an organism’s DNA, including how variants relate to disease.
Diversity: India’s population carries extraordinary genetic diversity across many groups, making a single national reference essential.
Clinical caution: Risk scores derived from European-ancestry datasets can mislead when applied to Indian populations.
Challenges in Psychiatric Genetics
Weak prediction: Scores cannot forecast onset, severity, or treatment response for an individual.
Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan have signed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, a trilateral mutual defence pact that borrows the collective security logic of Article 5 of the NATO charter. The signing exposes a central question for New Delhi: whether the pact gives Pakistan a shield to escalate against India, or whether it is a loose instrument of strategic hedging without the integration of a real military alliance. India’s foreign ministry says it is tracking the situation carefully.
What is the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement?
About: A mutual defence pact among Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan, signed in 2026, that treats an armed attack on any one member as an attack on all.
Design borrowing: It borrows elements of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) charter, including its collective security clause, marking a shift away from the US security umbrella toward regional self-reliance.
What is Article 5 of the NATO charter?
Collective defence clause: It commits every member to treat an armed attack against one member as an attack against all, and to assist in response.
Why it matters here: The Mecca pact replicates this trigger among three states, which raises the question of how Turkey reconciles it with its existing NATO obligations.
What is Operation Sindoor?
About: An Indian military operation against terror infrastructure that serves as the reference case for how the three signatories behaved during an India-Pakistan confrontation.
Behaviour observed: Turkey provided Pakistan diplomatic and rhetorical support and sold drones, but stopped short of tangible military assistance, and Saudi Arabia stayed silent.
What are the three power centres the pact combines?
Pakistan: A declared South Asian nuclear power contributing a powerful conventional military and a functional nuclear arsenal, though it is unclear whether Islamabad has offered a nuclear umbrella.
Saudi Arabia: Provides political and financial clout as leader of the Sunni world and controller of one of the world’s largest oil reserves.
Turkey: The successor of the Ottoman Empire, contributing a powerful military, NATO operational experience, and a highly capable defence industry.
Stated adversaries: The unstated targets are Iran, leader of the Shia world with proxies including Hezbollah and Hamas across Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, and Israel, an intelligence powerhouse and undeclared nuclear power.
What is the pattern of prior cooperation among the three?
Bilateral base: Pakistan has provided military training and technical assistance to Saudi Arabian forces for decades.
September 2025 pact: Riyadh and Islamabad signed a bilateral Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement, which evolved into the trilateral Mecca Agreement with Ankara’s participation.
Force deployment: Pakistan deployed some 8,000 troops, a squadron of JF-17 fighter aircraft, drones, and HQ-9 air defence systems to Saudi Arabia.
Financial and naval ties: Riyadh has repeatedly provided financial bailouts to Islamabad, and Turkey and Pakistan have exchanged warships and training aircraft.
Why does the pact worry India directly?
Cold War precedent: Pakistan has a long record of hitching its wagon to pacts to oblige Western powers and gain geopolitical advantage against India, joining the Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO) in 1954 to secure advanced weaponry for its struggle over Jammu and Kashmir.
Global South rivalry: Saudi Arabia and Turkey are seen as piggybacking on Pakistan to seek a bigger strategic role in Asia and to challenge India’s ambition to lead the Global South.
Forum coordination: The bloc can coordinate positions in international forums such as the United Nations (UN) and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on issues including Kashmir and maritime security.
Technology integration: Turkish defence industry output, funded by Saudi capital and deployed in Pakistan, can enhance Rawalpindi’s capabilities in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), electronic warfare, and naval platforms.
Is this an “Islamic NATO” or strategic hedging? (the central tension)
Case against alarm: Calling it an Islamic NATO is premature because NATO’s efficacy relies on a unified command, pre-assigned forces, and deep interoperability, while the Mecca pact lacks an integrated military headquarters, joint command mechanisms, and institutionalised doctrine.
Divergent priorities: Saudi Arabia is focused on hedging against Iran and Houthi threats, Turkey on defence exports and Islamic-world leadership, and Pakistan on economic bailouts and leverage against India.
Legal limit on the trigger: Mutual defence treaties apply strictly to unprovoked external aggression, so Indian counter-terrorism strikes against Pakistani terror infrastructure do not constitute a treaty trigger.
Saudi restraint: Riyadh’s relationship with New Delhi has evolved into a multi-billion-dollar strategic partnership spanning energy, trade, and intelligence, and the Saudi Crown Prince has no interest in being dragged into a South Asian military conflict.
How could the interlocking alliances backfire?
World War I analogy: A matrix of interlocking military alliances of exactly this kind triggered World War I, and repeating that blunder would be a serious risk.
Unreconciled obligations: If Israel strikes a Saudi facility and Turkey responds under the Mecca pact, it is unclear whether the 32 NATO countries would be treaty-bound to support Turkey.
Operational hedging: Saudi Arabia’s passivity when Pakistan clashed with Afghanistan, and Pakistan’s non-involvement when Saudi Arabia faced Iranian and Houthi strikes, show these pacts often pair political rhetoric with operational hedging.
How has the military balance on India’s borders shifted?
Strike corps repurposed: The Indian Army converted a 60,000-strong strike corps configured for the India-Pakistan border into a mountain strike corps for the China border.
Divisions reassigned: Two mountain divisions raised over the last two decades were assigned entirely to the China border.
Earmarking change: Where 70 per cent of the Indian Army was once earmarked for the Pakistan border, only about 55 per cent is today.
What should India’s calibrated response be?
Discreet engagement: Engage Saudi Arabia candidly through high-level channels to secure assurances that the pact’s defensive clauses apply only to the West Asian theatre and cannot be weaponised by Pakistan.
Firm deterrence: Maintain a firm deterrence doctrine so that Indian responses to state-sponsored terrorism remain resolute and unaffected by third-party arrangements.
Gulf partnerships: Double down on bilateral economic, trade, and strategic partnerships with Saudi Arabia and the broader Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
Technology watch: Monitor Turkey-Pakistan military-industrial co-development and prioritise indigenous research to neutralise advanced drones, electronic warfare, and naval platforms.
Procurement reform: Fast-track defence procurement, which has been slowed by bureaucratic caution since the Bofors scandal.
Conclusion
The Mecca Agreement is best understood less as a binding warfighting alliance and more as an instrument of strategic hedging for a volatile region, fusing Saudi capital, Turkish technology, and Pakistani manpower into a collective deterrence shield. The central idea is that its danger to India lies not in an immediate collective-defence trigger but in the technology integration and diplomatic bloc it creates. A pragmatic Indian strategy combines firm counter-terrorism deterrence, deep economic engagement in the Gulf, and targeted defence innovation at home.
West Asian Security Architecture: About
US umbrella in retreat: The United States has signalled limits on its security guarantees to West Asian allies, prompting states to seek self-reliance.
Israeli posture: Israel has demonstrated through its bombing of Iran-linked targets that it will accept no restraints on its perceived security interests.
Realignment: Riyadh, Ankara, and Islamabad have come together in response, marking a shift away from dependence on Washington.
Back2Basics: Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)
Convening body: An intergovernmental organisation of Muslim-majority states that coordinates political and economic positions.
Relevance: The Mecca bloc can use the OIC to coordinate positions on issues including Kashmir.
India’s stance: India is not a member and has consistently rejected OIC pronouncements on Kashmir as interference in internal affairs.
Challenges for India from the pact
Diplomatic bloc formation: A formal political grouping can coordinate against Indian interests at the UN and OIC.
Capability transfer: Turkish drone, electronic warfare, and naval technology reaching Pakistan raises the conventional threat.
Two-front pressure: Deeper Pakistan alignments complicate India’s management of simultaneous China and Pakistan borders.
Gulf balancing: India must protect its expanding Saudi and Gulf partnerships without endorsing the pact.
Escalation ambiguity: Uncertainty over how the collective clause would be read in a crisis raises the risk of miscalculation.
Way Forward
Bilateral reassurance: Secure written or channelled Saudi and Emirati assurances that the pact excludes India-Pakistan sub-conventional conflict.
Deterrence signalling: Communicate that counter-terror responses will remain resolute and unlinked to third-party pacts.
Indigenous capability: Accelerate counter-drone, electronic warfare, and naval research, seeking foreign partners ahead in these fields.
Economic anchoring: Deepen Gulf trade and energy ties to make India indispensable to Riyadh’s long-term economic vision.
Procurement speed: Streamline defence acquisition to close capability gaps quickly.
“[2023 GS2 15m] ‘The expansion and strengthening of NATO and a stronger US-Europe strategic partnership works well in India.’ What is your opinion about this statement? Give reasons and examples to support your answer.”
Members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs have asked the government whether it will push a de-dollarisation agenda at the 18th BRICS Summit, which New Delhi hosts in September 2026. The question exposes a tension between the pursuit of greater financial sovereignty and the risk of provoking US retaliation. India holds the rotating chairship of BRICS through 2026, which makes the host nation’s posture on the dollar a live diplomatic choice rather than an abstract one.
What is de-dollarisation?
About: De-dollarisation is a deliberate reduction in the use of the US dollar for international trade invoicing, cross-border settlement, and foreign exchange reserves.
Mechanism: Countries settle bilateral trade in their own national currencies or through a shared settlement arrangement, bypassing dollar clearing and dollar-denominated payment channels.
What is BRICS?
About: BRICS is an intergovernmental grouping originally of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, later expanded to admit new members, that coordinates positions on trade, finance, and reform of global governance.
Chairship: The chairship rotates annually among members, and India assumed it on 1 January 2026 and leads the bloc until the end of the year.
What is a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)?
About: A CBDC is a digital form of a country’s sovereign currency issued and backed by its central bank, distinct from private cryptocurrencies.
Relevance here: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has repeatedly advocated linking the official digital currencies of BRICS countries to facilitate cross-border trade and tourism payments.
Why is the parliamentary panel pressing the government?
Direct question posed: The panel asked whether the government plans to push a de-dollarisation agenda at the summit New Delhi hosts in September.
Financial sovereignty framing: Members questioned why the government was not pursuing greater financial sovereignty that could help countries bypass US sanctions.
Host-nation leverage: They sought to know whether India, as the host nation, would push a BRICS-led de-dollarisation agenda.
Stalled precedent cited: Members noted that India’s effort to establish a local currency trade mechanism with Russia had not taken off.
What is the case for reducing dollar reliance?
RBI framework: The central bank has argued that linking BRICS digital currencies could reduce reliance on the US dollar amid rising geopolitical tensions.
Sanctions insulation: A shared settlement mechanism would let member economies transact even when cut off from dollar clearing systems.
Payment efficiency: Direct local currency settlement lowers conversion costs in cross-border trade and tourism payments.
Why does a de-dollarisation push carry risks?
US retaliation threat: The US President has repeatedly warned BRICS countries against creating an alternative currency or challenging the dollar’s dominance, threatening punitive tariffs.
Weak internal record: India’s own local currency trade mechanism with Russia has not taken off, exposing the practical difficulty of moving away from the dollar.
Host-nation exposure: As chair and host, a visible Indian push would identify New Delhi with the agenda and concentrate any retaliatory response on it.
Conclusion
The panel has flagged the gap between the RBI’s advocacy for a BRICS payments architecture and the government’s caution on committing to de-dollarisation. The immediate status is that the government has not confirmed whether it will table the agenda. The next milestone is the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi in September 2026, where India’s posture as chair will become clear.
About BRICS
Origin: The term BRIC was coined in 2001, the first leaders’ summit was held in 2009, and South Africa joined in 2010 to make it BRICS.
Expansion: The bloc admitted new members from 2024 onward, widening its economic and geographic weight.
Institutions: BRICS created the New Development Bank (NDB), headquartered in Shanghai, and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) to provide financing and liquidity support.
Weight: The grouping represents a large share of the world’s population and a substantial share of global output, giving it standing in debates over multilateral reform.
Back2Basics: New Development Bank (NDB)
Convening body: Established by BRICS members to fund infrastructure and sustainable development projects.
Headquarters: Shanghai, China.
Function: Lends to member and partner economies, part of the bloc’s push to build financial institutions parallel to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“[2025] Consider the following statements with regard to BRICS:
I. The 16th BRICS Summit was held under the Chairship of Russia in Kazan.
II. Indonesia has become a full member of BRICS.
III. The theme of the 16th BRICS Summit was Strengthening Multilateralism for Just Global Development and Security.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
The Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee urged the Election Commission to re verify the 73 lakh voters proposed for deletion under the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the State. The controversy has exposed a tension between an inclusion driven history of the franchise and a revision that critics say works on a presumption of exclusion. The draft voters’ list is due on 17 August.
What is the Special Intensive Revision (SIR)?
Definition: The Special Intensive Revision is an exercise by the Election Commission to intensively update and verify electoral rolls, involving field verification of existing electors.
Deletion mechanism: Electors flagged as ineligible or unverified are proposed for deletion and published in a draft roll for objection.
Onus on the elector: The revision requires electors to establish continued eligibility, which critics read as a presumption of exclusion.
What is the Election Commission of India?
Constitutional authority: The Election Commission of India is the constitutional body under Article 324 responsible for superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of electoral rolls and the conduct of elections.
Composition: It presently functions as a multi member body of the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners.
Roll preparation: It prepares and periodically revises the electoral rolls on which the franchise depends.
What is the current status of the franchise and roll revision in India?
Universal adult franchise: Every citizen aged 18 and above is entitled to be registered as a voter, an entitlement extended from age 21 originally.
Historical inclusion drive: In the first election of 1952 the Commission worked to register 80 million eligible women, though 2.8 million were struck off for refusing to be recorded by name rather than as the wife or daughter of a man.
Gender gap closed: The gender gap in voting closed by 2019, marking the maturation of electoral equality into lived equality.
Draft roll timeline: In Telangana the draft roll is scheduled for 17 August, with 73 lakh electors proposed for deletion under the SIR.
Constitutional provisions related to elections and the electoral roll:
Article 324: Vests superintendence, direction and control of elections and roll preparation in the Election Commission.
Article 325: Bars exclusion from the electoral roll on grounds of religion, race, caste or sex, and provides one general roll for every constituency.
Article 326: Establishes elections to the House of the People and State Assemblies on the basis of adult suffrage.
Article 327: Empowers Parliament to make provision on all matters relating to elections, including preparation of electoral rolls.
What are the concerns raised in Telangana?
Scale of proposed deletion: The Telangana Congress flagged 73 lakh voters proposed for deletion and sought detailed re verification before any removal.
Genuine electors at risk: It maintained that genuine electors should not be removed without thorough scrutiny.
Opportunity to establish eligibility: It demanded that every genuine voter be given a chance to establish eligibility before deletion.
Draft roll deadline pressure: With the draft list due on 17 August, the window to correct wrongful deletions is compressed.
Why does the revision reopen the inclusion versus exclusion tension?
Presumption of exclusion: The current SIR appears to work on the presumption of exclusion, in contrast to the 1952 drive that worked to include the eligible.
Own name weaponised: Ownership of one’s own name, which historically announced gender electoral equality, has been turned against women in online attacks on female protesters.
Gendered doxxing: Women who joined recent protests were doxxed, with names, numbers and addresses uploaded and abuse directed at them.
Paternalistic framing: Public remarks singling out the conduct of women protesters divided the participants along gendered lines while ignoring identical conduct by men.
Erosion of an old promise: The revision and the online abuse together strain the founding promise of equality regardless of gender.
What are the major debates surrounding electoral roll revision?
Purity versus inclusion: A roll must exclude ineligible entries while not disenfranchising genuine electors, and the SIR is contested on which side it errs.
Burden of proof: Placing the onus on the elector to prove eligibility risks excluding the poor, the mobile and the marginalised.
Timeline adequacy: A compressed objection window after a large proposed deletion raises due process concerns.
Federal and political friction: State units allege that mass deletions fall unevenly, injecting the revision into electoral competition.
Conclusion: The SIR in Telangana has proposed 73 lakh voters for deletion, and the State Congress has demanded re verification before any removal. The dispute turns on whether the revision presumes inclusion or exclusion of the eligible voter. The draft rolls are due on 17 August, after which the objection and correction process will determine the final deletions.
Back2Basics: Election Commission of India
Constitutional basis: Article 324, with the Commission established on 25 January 1950.
Composition: Chief Election Commissioner and such number of Election Commissioners as the President fixes, currently a multi member body.
Tenure and removal: The Chief Election Commissioner is removable only by the process applicable to a Supreme Court judge, securing independence.
Functions: Superintends roll preparation, conducts elections to Parliament, State legislatures and the offices of President and Vice President, and resolves disputes on splits and mergers of recognised parties.
Statutory backing: The Representation of the People Acts of 1950 and 1951 govern roll preparation and the conduct of elections.
Way Forward:
Verification before deletion: Require field verification and notice to the elector before any name is struck off.
Accessible appeal: Provide accessible objection and appeal mechanisms with adequate time after the draft roll.
Protect vulnerable electors: Design safeguards so that the poor, migrants and women identified by their own names are not wrongly excluded.
Transparency of criteria: Publish the deletion criteria and category wise data to allow public scrutiny.
Grievance redress: Establish a time bound grievance channel for wrongful deletions before the final roll.
“[2017] Consider the following statements:
1. The Election Commission of India is a five-member body.
2. Union Ministry of Home Affairs decides the election schedule for the conduct of both general elections and bye-elections.
3. Election Commission resolves the disputes relating to splits/mergers of recognized political parties.
The Supreme Court held in The State of Andhra Pradesh vs Suda Suresh Veera Venkata Naga Raju that Section 187(2) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 enlarges the window during which police custody may be sought. The ruling has exposed the difference between the new code and the old regime, under which police custody was confined to the first 15 days of remand alone. Police custody is now available in parts, though in aggregate not exceeding 15 days, during the first 40 or 60 days of detention.
What is Section 187(2) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023?
Governing provision: Section 187 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), the criminal procedure code that replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, governs the detention of an accused when investigation cannot be completed in 24 hours.
Enlarged window: Under Section 187(2), a magistrate may authorise detention not exceeding 15 days in the whole, or in parts, at any time during the initial 40 days or 60 days of a total detention period of 60 or 90 days.
What is default bail?
Definition: Where investigation is not completed within the stipulated period, the accused becomes entitled to release, widely known as default bail.
Time limits under Section 187(3): Judicial detention may extend up to 90 days for offences punishable with death, life imprisonment or imprisonment of 10 years or more, and up to 60 days for any other offence.
What is the current status of pre-trial custody rights in India?
Twenty four hour rule:Section 58 of the BNSS provides that a person arrested without warrant cannot be detained beyond 24 hours without a magistrate’s authorisation under Section 187.
Fifteen day cap on police custody: Police custody remains capped at 15 days in aggregate, but may now be spread across the early investigation period rather than the first 15 days alone.
Right to counsel:Section 38 of the BNSS entitles an arrested person to meet an advocate of choice during interrogation, though not throughout interrogation.
Recording safeguard: Audio visual recording of the actual interrogation and of any discovery or recovery satisfies the transparency requirement.
Constitutional provisions related to arrest and detention:
Article 22(1): Guarantees the right to be informed of grounds of arrest and to consult a legal practitioner of choice.
Article 22(2): Requires production before the nearest magistrate within 24 hours of arrest.
Article 21: Protects life and personal liberty, permitting deprivation only by a just, fair and reasonable procedure established by law.
Article 20(3): Protects against self incrimination, relevant to the presence of counsel during interrogation.
What did the Supreme Court hold?
No absolute outer limit: A magistrate cannot place an absolute and non extendable outer limit on custody, since such a limit forecloses recourse to Section 187(2) of the BNSS.
Purpose of the change: The enlarged window is intended to meet situations where fresh facts, discoveries or leads emerge during the course of investigation.
Additional custody granted: The Court permitted 7 days of additional police custody so that the total police remand would not exceed 15 days.
Facts of the case: In a custodial death case the victim’s body remained untraced, the original CCTV hard disks were yet to be discovered, and recoveries under the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam were imminent.
How does the new remand window differ from the old code?
Old Section 167 CrPC: Detention in police custody could not be granted beyond the initial 15 days in the whole under Section 167 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
Alteration within the window: Even under the old code, during the first 15 days a magistrate could alter custody from judicial to police and back.
New flexibility: Under the BNSS police custody may be sought in parts across the first 40 or 60 days, keeping the aggregate at 15 days.
What did the Court hold on the presence of an advocate?
Not continuous: Section 38 does not contemplate the continuous, ongoing physical presence of an advocate for the entirety of each interrogation session.
Line of sight: The advocate may remain present within the site of interrogation from where he can see the accused, but not throughout the questioning.
Recording over escort videography: Instead of uninterrupted videography of the accused in transit, audio visual recording of the interrogation and of any recovery meets the requirement.
What are the major debates surrounding the enlarged custody window?
Liberty versus investigation: Spreading police custody across 40 or 60 days risks repeated custodial spells, weighed against the need to pursue late emerging leads.
Magistrate’s discretion: The ruling limits a magistrate’s power to foreclose future custody, raising the question of how liberty is protected during the extended window.
Counsel access: The line of sight standard for the advocate leaves open how effectively the right against coercion is protected during interrogation.
Way Forward:
Reasoned remand orders: Require magistrates to record specific reasons linking each spell of police custody to investigative need.
Guard against repeat custody: Frame guidelines to prevent the enlarged window becoming a route to successive custodial spells.
Effective counsel access: Clarify practical standards for an advocate’s presence to protect against coercion.
Mandatory recording compliance: Ensure audio visual recording of interrogation and recovery is uniformly implemented and preserved.
Judicial training: Orient magistrates on the new remand architecture to balance liberty with investigation.
Conclusion:
The Court has clarified that police custody under the BNSS is capped at 15 days in aggregate but may be sought in parts through the first 40 or 60 days of investigation, not the first 15 days alone. The ruling reflects the legislative intent to accommodate fresh discoveries during a probe. The interpretation now governs how magistrates authorise and structure police remand under the new code.
Back2Basics:
BNSS, BNS and BSA
Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023: Replaced the Indian Penal Code, 1860 as the substantive criminal law.
Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023: Replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 governing procedure, arrest, investigation and trial.
Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023: Replaced the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 governing admissibility of evidence.
Effective date: The three codes came into force on 1 July 2024.
Zero FIR and e-FIR: The BNSS recognises registration of a First Information Report irrespective of jurisdiction and enables electronic reporting.
PYQ Relevance
[UPSC 2026] Which of the following statements about a Zero First Information Report (Zero FIR) under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023 is/are correct?
1. A Zero FIR can be lodged at a police station, even though the place of commission of a cognizable/non-cognizable offence is outside the territorial jurisdiction of that police station. 2. The Officer-in-Charge of the police station where a Zero FIR has been lodged may, with the permission of the competent authority, initiate a preliminary enquiry. 3. Under Zero FIR, it is obligatory for the informant to furnish information electronically.
The Lok Sabha adopted a motion referring the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026, to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) after sustained Opposition protest and coordinated appeals from Christian organisations. The referral has exposed a tension between the state’s claim to regulate foreign funded civil society and the property and hearing rights of the organisations that funding built. Minority run schools, colleges and hospitals sustained by money from abroad stand most exposed to the Bill’s asset takeover provisions.
What is the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010?
Governing statute: The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 regulates the acceptance and use of foreign contributions and foreign hospitality by individuals and associations. It replaced the earlier Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 1976.
Registration mechanism: An organisation receiving foreign funds must register with the Ministry of Home Affairs and renew that registration every five years. Funds may be used only for the declared cultural, economic, educational, religious or social programme.
What is a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC)?
Ad hoc committee: A JPC is a temporary committee of members drawn from both Houses to examine a specific bill or matter in detail and report back. This one has 21 Lok Sabha members nominated by the Speaker and 10 Rajya Sabha members nominated by the Chairman, a total of 31 members.
Reporting deadline: The committee must submit its report to the Lok Sabha by the last day of the first week of the coming Winter Session.
What is the current status of the right to receive foreign contributions in India?
Not a fundamental right: The Central government contends that the right to receive foreign contributions is not a fundamental right, and that access to foreign funds is a privilege the state may condition or withdraw.
Renewal regime: About every registered body operates on a five year certificate, renewable on application, with the Ministry of Home Affairs holding discretion to refuse renewal on security grounds.
Prior tightening: The 2020 amendments barred a registered body from transferring foreign funds to any other body, even one registered under the same Act, and cut the share of foreign funds usable for administrative expenses from one half to one fifth.
Judicial check: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday set aside the Centre’s refusal to renew certificates of two NGOs, Save A Family Plan and Kerala Social Service Forum, holding that reasons must be specified in every order and that peaceful protest funding is not a national security threat.
Constitutional provisions related to foreign funding regulation:
Article 19(1)(c): Guarantees the right to form associations, which the regulation of their funding directly affects.
Article 19(1)(a): Protects freedom of speech and expression, engaged where funding refusal follows an organisation’s support for protest.
Article 14: Requires that any classification and any exercise of discretion in refusing renewal be non arbitrary and reasoned.
Article 300A: Provides that no person shall be deprived of property save by authority of law, engaged by the automatic vesting of NGO assets in a designated authority.
Entry 10, Union List: Places foreign affairs and matters bringing the Union into relation with foreign countries within Parliament’s exclusive competence, the basis for central regulation of foreign funds.
What does the 2026 Bill change?
Designated authority: The Bill creates a government designated authority to take over, manage or dispose of assets built from foreign funds when an organisation’s FCRA registration is suspended, cancelled or not renewed.
Trigger on lapse: Registration can be lost not only by cancellation, but when renewal is refused, not applied for, or not granted before the old certificate expires.
Automatic vesting: On that event the organisation’s foreign funds and everything built with them pass to the authority automatically, returning only if the body re registers within a period the government has yet to specify.
Full takeover of part funded property: A building put up only partly with foreign money is taken over in full, and the organisation must separately apply to recover the share not paid for with foreign money.
Limited appeal: An appeal to a district judge lies only against what the authority later does with the property, not against the refusal to renew, and the organisation has no right to be heard before that refusal.
Why are minority religious institutions most alarmed?
Scale of dependence: Christian organisations run thousands of schools, colleges and hospitals built and sustained with money from churches and congregations abroad, which the takeover provisions place at risk.
Retrospective reach: A hospital built decades ago can be taken over today merely because a certificate has been allowed to lapse, contradicting the Home Minister’s assurance that the Bill will not apply retrospectively.
Geographic spread of protest: Hundreds marched in Aizawl under a newly formed council of churches, organisations in Kerala objected, the Nagaland Chief Minister sought a parliamentary review, and the Tamil Nadu Assembly unanimously resolved for withdrawal.
External pressure: A United States Congressman described the Bill as an attack on Christians and warned it could strain India United States relations, one trigger for the government’s rethink.
Institutional welcome for referral: The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India and the National Council of Churches in India welcomed the referral while asking that major and minor offences be distinguished before assets are taken.
What are the major debates surrounding foreign funding regulation?
Regulation versus autonomy: Church bodies concede that regulation of foreign funds is necessary and that action must follow against anti national activity, while resisting a design that punishes lapse of a certificate as harshly as proven wrongdoing.
Discretion without reasons: Because the authority acts on the Centre’s instructions, the Centre can use opaque reasons to withdraw a licence, take over property, and then direct the body now holding it.
Hearing and appeal gap: The absence of a pre decisional hearing and of any appeal against refusal to renew is the core fairness objection the JPC is asked to cure.
Property proportionality: Full takeover of a building only partly financed by foreign money raises a proportionality question under the protection of property.
Challenges to fair FCRA regulation:
Reasoned order deficit: Refusals often rest on undisclosed intelligence inputs, leaving organisations unable to contest the specific ground, as the Kerala High Court flagged.
Chilling effect on civil society: Uncertainty over renewal deters legitimate service delivery in health and education that depends on predictable foreign inflows.
Asset valuation disputes: Separating the foreign funded share of a mixed asset invites prolonged litigation over apportionment and valuation.
Federal friction: State Assemblies have resolved against the Bill, exposing a centre state fault line over regulation of institutions operating within States.
Compliance burden on small NGOs: Frequent re registration and strict expense caps fall hardest on small organisations lacking dedicated legal and accounting capacity.
Selective enforcement risk: Broad discretion creates room for targeting organisations by community or by their political positions rather than by conduct.
Conclusion: The Bill’s central defect is that it lets the Centre seize the assets of a civil society body on the mere lapse of a certificate, without a hearing before refusal and without an appeal against it. The referral to a 31 member JPC defers passage rather than resolving the dispute. The committee must redraft the Bill to give organisations a hearing before renewal is refused and a right to appeal that refusal, with the report due by the first week of the Winter Session.
Statutory Framework Governing Foreign Funding of NGOs:
Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010: The principal Act requiring registration and prior permission for receipt of foreign contributions.
Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Act, 2020: Barred sub granting of foreign funds, cut the administrative expense cap to one fifth, and mandated a designated FCRA account at a specified State Bank of India branch.
Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Rules, 2011: Prescribe the procedure for registration, renewal, reporting and use of foreign contributions.
Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026: The pending Bill introducing the designated authority and automatic vesting of assets, now before the JPC.
Back2Basics: FCRA registration
Administering ministry: Ministry of Home Affairs, Foreigners Division.
Eligibility: Associations with a definite cultural, economic, educational, religious or social programme, normally in existence for at least three years.
Prohibited recipients: Election candidates, judges, government servants, members of legislatures, political parties and media organisations are barred from accepting foreign contributions.
Validity and renewal: Registration is valid for five years and must be renewed through a fresh application before expiry.
Way Forward:
Pre decisional hearing: Mandate notice and an opportunity to be heard before any refusal to renew or cancellation.
Appeal against refusal: Provide a statutory appeal against the refusal itself, not only against later dealing with the property.
Proportionate asset treatment: Restrict any takeover to the demonstrably foreign funded share of an asset, with independent valuation.
Reasoned orders: Require every refusal to state specific, disclosable reasons, subject to security redaction reviewed by the appellate authority.
Distinguish offences: Separate technical lapses, such as delayed renewal, from substantive violations before invoking asset consequences.
“[2015 GS2 12.5m] Examine critically the recent changes in the rules governing foreign funding of NGOs under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA), 1976.”
A Parliamentary Standing Committee has recommended a review and rationalisation of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) limits governing the operation and acquisition of existing private hospitals, warning that aggressive corporatisation and an influx of foreign capital could push up healthcare costs. The recommendation exposes a tension between attracting capital to expand hospital capacity and protecting the affordability of medical care from a shift of healthcare from a public service into a purely capitalistic enterprise.
What is Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in hospitals?
Definition: FDI is a non-debt-creating capital flow in which a foreign entity takes a lasting stake in an Indian enterprise, here in the ownership, operation or acquisition of hospitals.
Current position: Hospitals in India permit 100% FDI under the automatic route, which the Committee flags for the acquisition and operation of existing facilities.
Who examined the issue and in which report?
Committee: The Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare.
Report: Its 176th report on the Affordability and Accessibility of Healthcare Facilities in the Public and Private Sector.
Why does the Committee want FDI limits reviewed?
Consolidation risk: Foreign capital is facilitating the acquisition of cost-effective, mid-sized hospitals by larger corporate entities.
Corporatisation: Such aggressive corporatisation is transforming healthcare from a public service into a purely capitalistic enterprise.
Cost inflation: This has the potential to inflate the cost of medical procedures and trigger price increases across the healthcare ecosystem.
Selective openness: Foreign capital should be encouraged in medical devices, consumables and specialised medicines for rare diseases, while its use in direct operation and acquisition of hospitals needs greater scrutiny.
What is the evidence of a public-private cost gap?
Cost divergence: Citing the 80th round of the National Sample Survey, the panel put the average cost of hospitalisation at Rs 50,508 in private hospitals against Rs 6,631 in government hospitals.
Regulator role: A strong public healthcare system could act as a market regulator by offering an affordable alternative and exerting competitive pressure on private providers.
Price standardisation: It called for mechanisms to standardise and cap the cost of essential treatments, diagnostics and routine procedures in private hospitals.
What structural measures did the Committee recommend?
Public multispeciality hospitals: Autonomous, efficiently managed public multispeciality hospitals in every revenue division to cut dependence on major cities for tertiary care.
Redirected capital: Incentives to steer foreign investment toward local manufacturing of medical technologies and pharmaceuticals.
Tier-2 and tier-3 push: Tax holidays and other incentives to attract private multispeciality hospitals in smaller cities and rural areas, with public-private partnerships for underserved regions.
Cross-subsidisation: Private hospitals receiving government support to use revenue from higher-paying patients to help poorer patients.
Reserved beds: Raising mandatory bed reservation for Below Poverty Line, Economically Weaker Section and AB-PMJAY beneficiaries from 10% to 20%.
Fee scrutiny: Hospital-level ethics committees to examine professional fees.
Why is aggressive corporatisation a two-sided problem?
The capital case: Foreign investment can expand hospital capacity, technology and specialised care that public systems struggle to fund.
The affordability case: Consolidation of mid-sized hospitals by large corporates can raise prices and weaken affordable options.
The unresolved gap: Without a strong public alternative and price caps, foreign capital risks entrenching a high-cost private tier.
Challenges to affordable healthcare in India
Out-of-pocket burden: A large share of health spending is paid directly by households, pushing many into distress.
Public-private divide: A wide cost gap between government and private care.
Regional maldistribution: Concentration of tertiary hospitals in metros and large cities.
Regulatory weakness: Limited standardisation and capping of procedure costs.
Human resource shortage: Deficits of doctors, nurses and specialists in rural areas.
Low public spending: Government health expenditure remains a small share of GDP.
Conclusion
The Committee has urged the government to review and rationalise FDI in the operation and acquisition of existing private hospitals while redirecting foreign capital toward medical manufacturing. The current status is a tabled recommendation; the next milestone is the government’s response on FDI norms, price standardisation and expanded public hospital capacity.
Healthcare Financing in India (Foundational Context)
About: Healthcare in India is delivered through a mix of public facilities, private hospitals and insurance-funded care.
Scale: Private hospitals dominate tertiary care, with hospitalisation costs several times higher than in government facilities.
Structural fact: High out-of-pocket expenditure remains a defining feature of Indian health financing.
Government Initiatives for Healthcare
Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY: Health cover of up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year for eligible beneficiaries.
Ayushman Arogya Mandirs: Primary health and wellness centres for screening and preventive care.
National Health Mission: Support for public health infrastructure and human resources.
Production Linked Incentive for pharma and medical devices: Boosts domestic manufacturing of medicines and equipment.
Challenges in Health Financing
High out-of-pocket spending, pushing households into poverty.
The Lok Sabha passed the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026 without debate, barring State governments from imposing additional taxes, cesses or levies on mineral rights and giving the Centre greater control over regulating mineral-laden lands. The move exposes a fiscal federalism clash, since it curtails a State taxation power the Supreme Court had upheld in 2024 and shifts fiscal authority over a Concurrent-domain resource toward the Union.
What does the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026 do?
Bars State levies: It prevents State governments from imposing additional taxes, cesses or levies on mineral rights.
Central control: It gives the Centre greater control over regulating mineral-laden lands.
Stated rationale: The Coal and Mines Minister argued that divergent fiscal levies by States had created uncertainty in the mineral sector.
Feared effects cited: The government said such divergence could raise costs, encourage imports and undermine domestic supply chains.
What is the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957?
Purpose: The MMDR Act, 1957 is the principal law regulating the mining sector, governing the grant of mineral concessions, leases and the development and regulation of mines.
Federal scheme: It empowers the Centre to frame rules for major minerals, while States frame rules for minor minerals and grant concessions for minerals in their territory.
Current Status of State taxation power over minerals in India
State entitlement: States levy royalty on extracted minerals and, since a 2024 Supreme Court ruling, hold constitutional competence to tax mineral rights and mineral-bearing lands.
The 2024 judgment: A nine-judge Bench held that royalty is not a tax and that States have legislative power to tax mineral rights, a power the present Bill now seeks to restrict.
Revenue stakes: Mineral-rich States such as Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh rely on mining royalties and cesses as a significant own-revenue source.
Constitutional Provisions related to mineral regulation and fiscal federalism
Entry 54, Union List: Regulation of mines and mineral development to the extent Parliament declares expedient in the public interest.
Entry 23, State List: Regulation of mines and mineral development subject to the Union List entry.
Entry 50, State List: Taxes on mineral rights subject to any limitations imposed by Parliament relating to mineral development.
Entry 49, State List: Taxes on lands and buildings, the basis on which States tax mineral-bearing land.
Article 246 and Seventh Schedule: Distribute legislative competence between the Union and the States across the three Lists.
Article 265: No tax shall be levied or collected except by authority of law.
Why does the Centre want to bar State levies?
Uniformity: A single fiscal regime is intended to remove the uncertainty created by State-by-State levies.
Cost competitiveness: The government links divergent levies to higher input costs for downstream industry and greater import dependence.
Supply chain security: Uniform charges are framed as protection for domestic mineral supply chains, including critical minerals.
Why do States and the Opposition see this as an assault on federalism?
Overriding the Court: The Bill legislatively narrows a taxation power the Supreme Court affirmed for States in 2024.
Erosion of own-revenue: Barring cesses and levies removes a fiscal lever that mineral-rich States use to fund local development.
Centralising trend: Critics place it within a wider pattern of the Union tightening control over resources located in State territories.
Process objection: The Bill was passed without debate amid protests, which the Opposition cited as a denial of scrutiny on a federalism-sensitive measure.
Major debates surrounding mineral taxation federalism
Royalty versus tax: Whether royalty is a tax and where the line lies between Union regulation of mineral development and State taxation of mineral rights.
Parliamentary limitation: How far Parliament’s power under Entry 50 to limit State mineral taxation can extend before it hollows out the State entry.
Distributive justice: Whether mineral-bearing States should retain fiscal upside from resources extracted within their borders.
Investment climate: Whether uniform central levies genuinely lower costs or merely redistribute fiscal space from States to industry.
Challenges to a centralised mineral fiscal regime
Vertical fiscal imbalance: Reduced own-revenue deepens State dependence on central transfers.
Litigation risk: A statutory override of a constitutional ruling invites fresh challenges before the Supreme Court.
Regional equity: Resource-rich but income-poor States lose a development financing tool.
Cooperative federalism strain: Bypassing State consent on a shared-domain subject weakens negotiated federalism.
Compliance uncertainty: Transition from varied State levies to a single regime creates short-term ambiguity for operators.
Conclusion
The Lok Sabha has cleared a Bill that removes the States’ power to levy additional taxes on mineral rights and centralises regulatory control over mineral lands. The current status is passage in the Lower House amid Opposition protest; the next milestone is its consideration in the Rajya Sabha and likely constitutional scrutiny given its tension with the 2024 Supreme Court ruling on State taxation of minerals.
What is Fiscal Federalism? (Foundational Context)
About: Fiscal federalism is the division of taxation powers, expenditure responsibilities and transfers between the Union and the States.
Rationale: It exists to match revenue-raising capacity with spending needs across tiers of government.
Named typology: It addresses vertical imbalance between the Union and States, horizontal imbalance across States, and weak third-tier finances at the local level.
Key Concerns Regarding Fiscal Federalism
Shrinking divisible pool: Rising cesses and surcharges reduce the shareable tax pool with States.
Eroded State autonomy: GST and central levies have narrowed independent State taxation.
Resource control: Central assertion over minerals and land in State territories limits State fiscal levers.
Weak local finances: Third-tier bodies remain underfunded and dependent.
Constitutional Framework Governing Mineral Regulation
Entry 54 (List I): Union regulation of mines and mineral development in the public interest.
Entry 23 (List II): State regulation of mines subject to the Union entry.
Entry 50 (List II): State taxes on mineral rights subject to parliamentary limitation.
Article 246: Allocation of legislative competence across the three Lists.
Article 265: Taxation only by authority of law.
Way Forward
Consultative design: Frame mineral fiscal policy through the GST Council model of negotiated federalism.
Revenue neutrality: Compensate mineral-rich States for lost cesses through predictable transfers.
Legal clarity: Reconcile the amendment with the 2024 ruling to avoid protracted litigation.
District mineral funds: Strengthen use of mining revenues for affected local communities.
“[2025] Consider the following statements:
Statement I: In India, State Governments have no power for making rules for grant of concessions in respect of extraction of minor minerals even though such minerals are located in their territories.
Statement II: In India, the Central Government has the power to notify minor minerals under the relevant law.
Which one of the following is correct in respect of the above statements?
(a) Both Statement I and Statement II are correct and Statement II explains Statement I
(b) Both Statement I and Statement II are correct but Statement II does not explain Statement I
(c) Statement I is correct but Statement II is incorrect
(d) Statement I is incorrect but Statement II is correct
The government told Parliament that the current Unified Payments Interface (UPI) model is financially unsustainable, and that it is examining two routes to make the platform self-supporting without inflating the Budget. The trigger exposes a core tension: the zero-charge design that drove mass adoption now starves the ecosystem of the revenue needed for cybersecurity, fraud prevention and network upkeep.
What is Unified Payments Interface (UPI)?
Definition: UPI is a real-time payment system built by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and the Indian Banks’ Association that lets money move instantly between two bank accounts through a mobile app. It was launched as a pilot in April 2016 and became fully operational in August 2016.
Scale: More than 55 crore people use UPI and 703 entities, from banks to payment service providers, facilitate its transactions. Of the 28,174 crore digital transactions recorded in 2025-26, 86% ran on UPI.
What is the Merchant Discount Rate (MDR)?
Definition: MDR is the fee that banks, payment processors and gateways levy on a merchant for accepting a digital payment.
Current position:MDR is charged on most debit card and all credit card transactions. UPI and RuPay debit card transactions were exempted in 2020, making them zero-cost for merchants.
What Makes Up MDR?
Interchange fee: Money sent to the customer’s card-issuing bank.
Network fee: Charges paid to card networks like Visa or Mastercard.
Processor fee: Markup kept by the payment gateway or processor for handling the tech
Why is the current UPI model financially unsustainable?
Cost recovery gap: The subsidy scheme reimbursing processors is far short of actual cost. There is a mismatch between the roughly Rs 2,000 crore allocation and the industry’s estimated operational cost of about Rs 20,700 crore a year.
Coverage shortfall: The Standing Committee on Finance found the incentive covers merely 11% of the industry’s actual costs and 14% of potential MDR collections.
Investment risk: The gap threatens critical spending on cybersecurity, fraud prevention and network infrastructure as volumes scale toward a projected 150 billion transactions per month.
What options is the government exploring?
Selective MDR: Restoring MDR on certain high threshold transactions and high turnover merchants, leaving small merchant payments untouched.
Tiered incentives: A tiered incentive structure to phase out government support over the next few years.
Legal enabler: An amendment to the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 has already removed the bar on charging merchants a fee for receiving UPI payments.
Industry proposal: Payment firms seek an MDR of 0.3% to 0.6% on payments above Rs 2,000 to large merchants, about 4% of person to merchant transactions but 68% of value.
Conclusion
The government has confirmed that UPI cannot indefinitely run on subsidies and is examining selective MDR and a tapering incentive structure to make it self-sustaining. The next milestone is a framework that funds the ecosystem through charges on large merchants while shielding small merchants.
[UPSC 2026] Which one of the following statements about Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Central Bank Digital Currency (Digital Rupee) is NOT correct?
(a) UPI is a real-time payment system but Digital Rupee is akin to sovereign paper currency
(b) In case of UPI, settlement for end users happens instantly; in case of Digital Rupee, wallet balance gets transferred to another wallet
(c) UPI transactions are recorded by banks and reflected in bank statements; in case of Digital Rupee, no data is captured in bank statements
(d) In both the cases, the liability lies with the users and their respective banks.
