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Type: Explained

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

  • Centre’s rationale for not using OBC lists for caste enumeration is flawed, say associations

    Centre’s rationale for not using OBC lists for caste enumeration is flawed, say associations

    Why in the News

    Associations representing Other Backward Classes (OBC) have rejected the Union government’s stated reason for not using the Central and State OBC lists in the caste enumeration component of the 2027 Census. The government’s position is that those lists record classes rather than castes, so caste names cannot be drawn and codified from them. Castes other than the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes will instead be recorded through an open column, in which the enumerator writes down what the respondent states. The associations argue that a government which recognises these communities as OBCs for reservation cannot disregard their caste identities when it collects population data. What is contested is whether an enumeration run without a pre-coded caste frame can produce a usable OBC population figure at all.

    How would the two methods of enumeration differ?

    1. The open column method: Castes other than the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes are recorded as stated by the respondent, without a pre-coded list of caste names for the enumerator to select from.
    2. The list based alternative: Caste names would have been drawn from the Central and State OBC lists and codified in advance, so responses map onto a fixed set of entries.
    3. Where the lists already exist: The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes are enumerated against notified lists, which is the precedent the associations point to.

    What is the government’s reason, and how do the associations answer it?

    1. The stated rationale: The OBC lists identify backward classes rather than castes, so caste names cannot be lifted from them for enumeration.
    2. The associations’ core objection: The All India OBC Students’ Association (AIOBCSA) calls the class and caste distinction artificial, arguing that a government recognising these communities as OBCs for reservation and other affirmative action cannot then disregard their caste identities when collecting population data.
    3. Fix the lists rather than drop them: The associations say that if the existing lists are inadequate or carry inconsistencies for enumeration, the government should use experts to draw and rationalise the caste names from them, not “drop them altogether”.
    4. Administrative records already do both: The AIOBCSA points out that certificates and official records routinely identify communities by their specific social and caste identities, and that even Economically Weaker Section certificates identify the beneficiary through prescribed social or category criteria. Administrative classification and social identity therefore coexist in practice.
    5. A charge of bad faith: The OBC Public Representatives Forum said the justification adds to the perception that the government agreed to enumerate castes with no real intention of doing it properly.

    Why do the associations link this to the EWS estimate?

    1. The estimate behind EWS: When the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) quota was introduced, the government worked with an estimate that the population outside the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs was about 35 to 40 percent.
    2. What a rigorous count would do to it: The Backwards Classes Intellectual Forum argues that a scientific enumeration of OBC populations would show that estimate to be an overestimation.
    3. The alleged motive: The same body argues that the refusal to codify existing caste names and count caste group populations, as is done for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, is intended to cover up the basis on which EWS reservation was justified.

    Why has the OBC count been the core of the caste Census demand?

    1. The figure has never been counted: The OBC population across the country has only ever been estimated in India, based on the caste Census data of 1931.
    2. The demand was built on that gap: Enumerating the OBC population has historically been the principal argument driving the demand for a caste Census.
    3. The method is what is now questioned: Senior Opposition leaders have questioned the utility of the open column methodology for enumerating every caste other than the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.

    Challenges to caste enumeration through an open column

    1. Free text responses multiply into unusable entries: A column with no pre-coded frame collects spellings, surnames, sub castes and clan names as separate answers, and classifying them afterwards becomes a second exercise larger than the count. Eg. The Socio Economic and Caste Census, 2011 returned roughly 46 lakh distinct caste and related entries, and its caste data was never released.
      The Fix: Publish a codified caste directory built from the Central and State lists and State commission reports before enumeration, and let the open column carry only the entries that directory does not hold.
    2. No single classification governs across States: Central and State OBC lists differ, so the same caste name can carry backward class status in one State and not in another or at the Centre. Eg. Jats were added to the Central OBC list in 2014 and the inclusion was set aside by the Supreme Court in Ram Singh versus Union of India (2015), while several States continue to list them.
      The Fix: Record the State of enumeration against each caste entry, so the count can be read against the list actually applicable to that respondent.
    3. Data collected without a publication commitment invites contest: A count whose tables and methodology are not released cannot settle any claim, and every group then disputes its own number. Eg. Bihar’s caste survey of 2023 was challenged in court, and several communities publicly disputed the figures recorded for them.
      The Fix: Fix a statutory deadline for publishing the caste tables together with the methodology note.
    4. Self declaration can be strategic: Where recognition carries reservation benefits, the answer given to an enumerator responds to the benefit rather than to the record. Eg. Sections of the Maratha community in Maharashtra have pressed for recognition as Kunbi in official records in order to access OBC reservation.
      The Fix: Cross check declared entries against existing caste certificate records at the tabulation stage rather than at the point of enumeration.

    Conclusion

    The same administration recognises these communities by caste for the purpose of reservation and declines to name them by caste for the purpose of counting. That is the contradiction the associations have put on the record, and no procedural reason offered so far reconciles the two positions. The decision also determines whether the coming enumeration produces a number that can be used in policy or one that has to be reclassified before anyone can read it. What to watch is whether a codified caste directory is issued to enumerators before fieldwork begins.

    Back2Basics: Economically Weaker Section reservation

    1. What it is: A 10 percent reservation in government jobs and educational institutions for economically weaker sections outside the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes.
    2. Its constitutional basis: It was introduced by the Constitution (One Hundred and Third Amendment) Act, 2019, inserting Articles 15(6) and 16(6).
    3. How eligibility is set: Eligibility rests on income and asset criteria notified by the government, not on social or educational backwardness.
    4. Its judicial status: The Supreme Court upheld the amendment in Janhit Abhiyan versus Union of India (2022) by a majority of three to two.

    [2022, GS2, 10 marks] Discuss the role of the National Commission for Backward Classes in the wake of its transformation from a statutory body to a constitutional body.

  • Govt has deferred Census in Manipur amid calls for NRC to be carried out

    Govt has deferred Census in Manipur amid calls for NRC to be carried out

    Why in the News

    The Union government has decided to defer the 2027 Census in Manipur. The decision followed a meeting of the Union Home Minister with the Governor and the Chief Minister of Manipur, and the State government said it came out of discussions on the demand that the Census be held only after a National Register of Citizens (NRC), a register of persons verified as Indian citizens, is implemented in the State. Meitei and Naga organisations want citizenship settled before any population figure is recorded. Kuki-Zo organisations want the reverse order, arguing that the Census is the credible data source against which citizenship allegations should be tested. The count is contested because the same figures will eventually decide how Assembly seats are shared between the valley and the hills.

    Why is the Census being opposed?

    1. Citizenship and demographic change: Meitei civil society groups in the valley and Naga communities in the hill districts allege that migration from Myanmar and elsewhere has altered Manipur’s demographic composition. They want an exercise distinguishing Indian citizens from illegal immigrants before population figures are recorded.
    2. Displacement from the ethnic conflict: Thousands remain displaced more than three years after the violence that began in May 2023. Meitei groups say a count taken while people live away from their homes would record the consequences of displacement rather than the underlying population pattern.
    3. Political representation: Census figures will eventually govern delimitation, and Manipur has had no fresh delimitation implemented since the 1970s.

    How old is the NRC demand?

    1. It predates the current conflict: The demand existed before the May 2023 violence, and the influx from Myanmar and the conflict later gave it a sharper political and security dimension.
    2. A joint memorandum in 2022: In June 2022 the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), representing Meitei civil society, and the United Naga Council (UNC) jointly demanded an NRC and a State Population Commission.
    3. The Assembly endorsed it twice: The Manipur Assembly adopted a resolution seeking both on 5 August 2022, and reaffirmed it on 1 March 2024.
    4. The growth figures the resolution cited: The resolution recorded population growth of 153.3 percent between 1971 and 2001 and 250.9 percent between 2001 and 2011 in the hill districts, against 94.8 percent and 125.4 percent respectively in the valley. Those figures do not by themselves establish illegal immigration.
    5. An institution was created: The State government constituted the Manipur State Population Commission in February 2023.

    What did the Myanmar crisis add?

    1. Displacement across the border: Fighting in Myanmar’s Chin State and adjoining areas after the 2021 military coup drove thousands across the border into India.
    2. Ethnic links on both sides of the border: Many of those arriving belonged to Chin and related communities with ethnic and familial ties to the Kuki-Zomi population in Manipur.
    3. The State government’s framing: The Manipur government linked the influx to new settlements, poppy cultivation, encroachment and demographic change.
    4. The counter position: Kuki organisations disputed that framing, arguing that legitimate Indian citizens were being conflated with recent arrivals from Myanmar.
    5. A border policy change: The Centre scrapped the Free Movement Regime with Myanmar in February 2024, citing security and demographic concerns.

    What are the Meitei and Naga groups demanding now?

    1. A fixed sequence: The UNC stated on 18 August, “NRC first: No Census, No Delimitation Before Implementation of NRC in Manipur.”
    2. An old base year: It demanded an NRC with 1951 as the base year, followed by the Census and then delimitation.
    3. The demand cuts across party lines: The State Congress president, himself a former Chief Minister, supported the demand for an NRC before the Census on 19 and 20 August, placing the two main parties broadly on the same side.

    Why do the Kuki-Zo groups oppose it?

    1. A national exercise, not a State one: The Kuki-Zo Council called an NRC before the Census “premature and unjustified”, stating on 23 August that there is no provision for a community or a State government to unilaterally initiate a separate NRC in one State.
    2. Allegations should be tested against data: It argued that the demand rests on unsubstantiated allegations about the Kuki-Zo community, and that such claims should be tested against credible demographic data. The Census is the appropriate source of that data.
    3. It supports delimitation on verified data: The Council has backed delimitation once verified demographic figures exist.
    4. The documentary cut off is the underlying fear: Kuki, Zomi and Chin communities straddle the India-Myanmar border, so a register built on an old documentary cut off could raise doubts about people who have lived in Manipur for generations.

    Why does delimitation matter so much here?

    1. The present seat split: Manipur has 60 Assembly seats, 40 in the valley and 20 in the hills.
    2. The demographic map behind it: The State’s 16 districts divide broadly into hills, where Nagas and Kuki-Zomis predominate, and the valley, where Meiteis are in the majority.
    3. The map is more than fifty years old: The present political map goes back to the 1973 delimitation, which was based on the 1971 Census.
    4. Manipur was left out of the last exercise: A national delimitation based on the 2001 Census ran between 2002 and 2008, and Manipur, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland were excluded after the Centre deferred it in 2008, citing security concerns and challenges to the credibility of the 2001 Census data in the region.
    5. The disputed 2001 figures: In nine hill subdivisions the increase between 1991 and 2001 was over 40 percent, and in four it exceeded 100 percent.
    6. What the valley’s political class fears: A new Census followed by delimitation could move the 40:20 distribution to something closer to 35:25 or 30:30.

    Can an NRC be held only in Manipur, and what else is the Centre weighing?

    1. The usual national sequence is stalled: A nationwide NRC is supposed to follow an update of the National Population Register (NPR), a register of usual residents, and the government has not notified the NPR to be taken up with the 2027 Census.
    2. No legal bar on a State specific exercise: Section 14A of the Citizenship Act, 1955 vests the power to compulsorily register citizens and maintain the National Register of Indian Citizens in the Centre. No statutory requirement makes simultaneous nationwide deployment necessary.
    3. The decision is political rather than legal: The Centre could in principle notify the exercise for a particular State or border region, and the recorded position is that this is a political call.
    4. An alternative route already exists: A High-Level Committee on Demographic Change, announced in May this year, is examining demographic change arising from illegal immigration and other abnormal causes, and will recommend policy, legislative and administrative measures. Its findings could form the basis of a policy specific to Manipur.

    Challenges to holding the Census in Manipur

    1. Displacement distorts where people are counted: An enumeration records a person where they are living on the reference date, so a district hosting relief camps absorbs the population of the district people fled. Eg. Displaced Kashmiri Pandit families have been counted in Jammu and Delhi rather than in their home districts across successive Censuses.
      The Fix: Record a home district field for persons enumerated in relief camps, so displacement is visible in the data instead of silently altering district totals.
    2. A register built on an old base year excludes documented residents: Citizenship registration turns on producing legacy documents, which the poorest and the most mobile are least able to hold. Eg. Assam’s updated register, worked against a 1971 cut off, left 19,06,657 persons out of the final list published in August 2019, and the appeals process has still not concluded.
      The Fix: Publish the documentary standard and a binding appeal timeline before enumeration begins, so exclusion is contestable within a fixed period.
    3. A deferred count leaves the State on stale data: Allocations for welfare programmes are pegged to Census population, so a State that is skipped keeps running on figures more than a decade old. Eg. Coverage under the National Food Security Act, 2013 is still fixed against the 2011 Census population.
      The Fix: Notify an alternative statutory data source, such as updated ration and electoral rolls, for allocations in the deferred State until enumeration is held.
    4. The credibility of the count is itself contested in the region: A count that any side believes is inflated cannot settle the question it is being deferred to answer. Eg. Nagaland recorded decadal growth of about 64 percent in the 2001 Census and a fall of about 0.6 percent in 2011, and the earlier count was widely described within the State as inflated.
      The Fix: Publish subdivision level growth anomalies alongside post enumeration survey results, so a disputed count is audited rather than defended.

    Conclusion

    Deferring the count postpones the dispute without resolving either question behind it. The two demands cannot be met on the same timetable, since one side wants citizenship settled before people are counted and the other wants the count to test the citizenship allegations. A deferral also leaves the State without the current population data that its own programmes and its own representation ultimately rest on. What to watch is whether the Centre fixes a date for enumeration in the State or lets the deferral run open ended.

    Back2Basics: National Register of Indian Citizens

    1. What it is: A register of persons verified as citizens of India, maintained by the Centre.
    2. Its statutory basis: Section 14A of the Citizenship Act, 1955 empowers the Centre to compulsorily register every citizen and to issue national identity cards.
    3. How it is meant to be built: The rules contemplate verification of the particulars collected in the National Population Register to sort residents into citizens and doubtful cases.
    4. Where it has been done: The only State level exercise so far was in Assam, carried out under Supreme Court supervision, with the final list published in 2019.

    “[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

  • CJP cases scrapped: Supreme Court’s much-debated powers under Article 142

    Why in the News

    The Supreme Court has used Article 142 of the Constitution to quash first information reports filed across several States against participants in the nationwide examination protests led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP). The order gives legal force to an assurance the Union government had already given to CJP members. A negotiated settlement between the Centre and a protest group therefore takes effect as a judicial decree. Article 142 allows the Court to pass any decree or order necessary for doing “complete justice” in a matter pending before it, and it neither defines that phrase nor states when the power may be used. The Court has itself held that this power may fill a gap in a statute but may not override a statutory scheme. What is contested is whether quashing thousands of pending cases in a single order, without examining any of them on its own facts, fills such a gap or replaces one.

    What is Article 142?

    1. The text of the power: Article 142 lets the Supreme Court pass such decree or order as is necessary for doing complete justice in any cause or matter pending before it.
    2. What the provision leaves open: It does not define “complete justice” and it does not specify the circumstances in which the power may be used.
    3. Its statutory ancestor: The provision traces to Section 210 of the Government of India Act, 1935, and behind that to the colonial practice of deciding disputes on “justice, equity and good conscience” where the written law was silent.

    How did a power this wide enter the Constitution without debate?

    1. Adopted as Draft Article 118: The provision appeared in the Draft Constitution as Article 118 and was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 27 May 1949 without a debate.
    2. Two amendments were dropped: Two amendments to it were moved and then withdrawn.
    3. The nearest the Assembly came to discussing it: During an earlier debate on a related Article granting the court special leave to hear appeals, the member Krishna Chandra Sharma compared the proposed powers to the Privy Council’s own power to step in wherever justice demanded, appeal or no appeal.
    4. The scope was left to the Court: The content of the Court’s widest power was worked out case by case over the following seven decades rather than settled at the drafting stage.

    How has the Court used this power?

    1. The Bhopal gas tragedy settlement: Article 142 was used to secure a payout of 470 million dollars from Union Carbide and to quash the criminal cases against the company.
    2. The Ayodhya title dispute: The power was used to settle the dispute on a “preponderance of probability” and to direct that five acres of land be given to the Muslim side.
    3. A convict’s release: The Court ordered the release of A G Perarivalan, a convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
    4. Routine civil use: The provision is also used to grant divorce where a marriage has irretrievably broken down, and in public interest litigation.
    5. The measured scale of its use: An empirical study by researchers at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad examined every case between 1950 and 2023 citing “Article 142” or “complete justice”, and found 1,579 references and 791 direct invocations, mostly in civil matters.

    Has the Court fenced its own power?

    1. Consistency with law and rights: In Prem Chand Garg versus State of Uttar Pradesh (1962) the Court held that orders under Article 142 must still be consistent with fundamental rights and with the law.
    2. Supplement, not supplant: In Supreme Court Bar Association versus Union of India (1998) the Court held that Article 142 can supplement a statute by filling a gap the law leaves open. The same ruling held that it cannot supplant a statute or override an existing statutory scheme.
    3. The limits are not self enforcing: The Court has often disregarded its own caution, and no institution outside the Court can hold it to these two rulings.
    4. Discretion multiplies across benches: The effect of an undefined discretion is magnified in a court of 38 judges sitting mostly in benches of two.

    How does the CJP order test that limit?

    1. The ordinary statutory route: A first information report is examined on its own facts before being quashed under Section 528 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, with the court asking whether an offence is made out or whether the case is plainly malicious.
    2. What the order did instead: Thousands of first information reports across several States were clubbed together and quashed without that scrutiny, as part of a negotiated settlement.
    3. The statutory scheme is displaced, not supplemented: The order substitutes the Court’s view of how the law ought to operate for the procedure the statute lays down for quashing.
    4. The Court also decides who is excluded: The same discretion under Article 142 determines which protesters are left out of the relief.
    5. The scholarly objection: Legal scholar Gautam Bhatia argues that criminal law provisions cannot be overridden through a blanket judicial decree.

    Why had Article 142 already drawn criticism?

    1. The Tamil Nadu Bills order: The Court used the same provision last year to deem long withheld Bills of the Tamil Nadu legislature as assented to.
    2. The response from the Vice President: The Vice President described that use of the power as a “nuclear missile” against democratic institutions.
    3. A former law officer’s warning: A former Attorney General of India wrote in 2017 that the provision had done “tremendous good” for deprived sections of society, and that it was time to build in checks and balances.
    4. A proposal to restrict who may invoke it: After the Sabarimala judgment the same former Attorney General described Article 142 as a “Kamdhenu from which unlimited powers flowed”, and proposed that only Constitution Benches of five judges be allowed to invoke it, so that its use does not turn on the reading of a single smaller Bench.

    Challenges to Article 142

    1. No stated standard for “complete justice”: The Constitution attaches no test to the power, so its width is settled afresh in each case by the Bench exercising it. Eg. In Delhi Development Authority versus Skipper Construction Company (1996) the power was used to reach the personal assets of persons who were not parties to the proceeding before the Court.
      The Fix: Require every order made under the provision to record on the face of the order the specific statutory gap it is filling and the limits of the relief granted.
    2. Bench strength does not scale with the consequence: No minimum Bench is prescribed, so an order altering an outcome for an entire class can issue from a small Bench. Eg. A three judge Bench in 2024 set aside the declared result of the Chandigarh mayoral election and declared the defeated candidate elected.
      The Fix: Maintain a published, reasoned compilation of orders made under the provision, so a body of standards accumulates instead of scattered discretion.
    3. The relief creates no right for the next litigant: An order for complete justice is granted on the facts of one case, so a similarly placed person cannot claim the same relief from a lower court. Eg. Divorce on the ground of irretrievable breakdown, allowed in Shilpa Sailesh versus Varun Sreenivasan (2023), is available only from the Supreme Court, since that ground does not exist in the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.
      The Fix: Where the power is repeatedly used to fill the same statutory gap, refer that gap to the Union government with a reasoned recommendation to amend the statute.
    4. Only the same court can correct such an order: An order issues from the highest court, so the sole remedy is a review or a curative petition before that court. Eg. The curative petition route created in Rupa Ashok Hurra versus Ashok Hurra (2002) is itself a judge made remedy and succeeds in very few cases.
      The Fix: List every order that departs from a statutory scheme for a compliance hearing before the same Bench, so an order that misfires is corrected on the record.

    Conclusion

    The Court’s limits on its own widest power are self imposed, and nothing outside the Court enforces them. The unresolved question is whether a power designed to fill silences in the law may be used to set aside a procedure the law expressly provides, on terms agreed between a litigant and the government. What to watch is whether the Court itself frames a standard for when the power may be exercised, because no other institution can.

    Back2Basics: Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023

    1. What it is: The statute governing criminal procedure in India, covering investigation, arrest, trial and the powers of criminal courts.
    2. What it replaced: It came into force on 1 July 2024 in place of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
    3. Its companion statutes: It was enacted alongside the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023.
    4. The quashing power it carries: Section 528 preserves the inherent powers of a High Court, which include quashing proceedings to prevent abuse of the process of a court.

    [2019, GS2, 10 marks] Do you think that constitution of India does not accept principle of strict separation of powers rather it is based on the principle of ‘checks and balance’? Explain.”

  • Courtroom dramas, clipped and shared

    Why in the News

    The Supreme Court has barred the use and circulation of audio and video clips of judicial proceedings on social media and other digital platforms without prior permission from court registrars.

    What does the interim order leave unsettled?

    1. The stated reason: A Bench led by the Chief Justice of India said “isolated excerpts” risked “trivialising” the administration of justice.
    2. The carve out: The Court later clarified that “recognised news outlets” may continue reporting on proceedings, but may not “utilise” audio or video clips.
    3. The undefined term: The Court did not define “recognised news outlets”, which leaves independent journalists unable to tell whether they are covered.
    4. Who has been added to the case: High Courts and social media intermediaries, including Meta, LinkedIn and X Corp, have been brought into the proceedings while the Court considers a broader protocol.

    How was live streaming established as a right?

    1. The barrier that prompted the petition: Interns were allowed inside Supreme Court courtrooms only on certain days to prevent overcrowding, and litigants travelling from remote parts of the country often could not enter the courtroom hearing their own case.
    2. The ruling: In September 2018 the petition in Swapnil Tripathi v. Supreme Court of India culminated in a ruling recognising live streaming as part of the right to access justice under Article 21 of the Constitution.
    3. The reasoning: The public’s right to know how justice is administered is integral to a functioning democracy, on the principle that sunlight is the best disinfectant.
    4. The direction to High Courts: The Court urged High Courts to introduce live streaming gradually while framing rules to govern its use.
    5. The safeguards built in from the start: Matrimonial cases, sexual assault cases and proceedings involving children and juveniles were excluded from live streaming.

    How far has live streaming actually spread?

    1. The Supreme Court’s start: The Court began live streaming proceedings before its Constitution Benches in 2022. These Benches comprise five or more judges deciding substantial questions concerning the interpretation of the Constitution.
    2. The limit on coverage: The Court has 17 functioning courtrooms and largely streams only Constitution Bench hearings, which sit intermittently.
    3. The audience: The Court’s official YouTube channel has amassed over 2.67 lakh subscribers.
    4. A rare exception: A video of the suo motu hearing in the R.G. Kar rape and murder case, uploaded in September 2024, has been viewed nearly 48,000 times, and is one of the few instances of a rape case streamed on the channel.
    5. The High Courts: Live streaming was operational in 11 High Courts as of March 2026, per a statement to the Lok Sabha. Gujarat, Karnataka and Calcutta stream daily from a majority of their courtrooms.
    6. The first mover: The Gujarat High Court became the first to formally go live on YouTube in July 2021, and its channel now has nearly 1.97 lakh subscribers.

    Where does unauthorised courtroom footage actually come from?

    1. Virtual hearing access: The Supreme Court and the High Courts allow lawyers and litigants to join hearings virtually through platforms such as Cisco Webex, with links often published in the daily cause lists.
    2. How the links spread: Links are shared indiscriminately beyond litigants and lawyers, so anyone logged in can record the proceeding.
    3. Why the exclusion list does not hold: A High Court can pause streaming for a sensitive case while the virtual hearing continues, so footage from sexual offence, matrimonial and child custody matters has reached social media.
    4. The rule that already covers this: The Supreme Court e-Committee’s Model Rules of 2021 prohibit unauthorised dissemination of courtroom footage and its use for commercial, promotional or advertising purposes.

    Why is a permission regime contested?

    1. The shift it marks: Requiring an ordinary citizen to seek a registrar’s permission to share a proceeding that is already being live streamed converts open access into a permission regime.
    2. The procedural gap: There is no stated method for seeking permission, no ground on which it is to be granted or refused, and no recourse where it is refused.
    3. Who the exemption favours: An exemption confined to “recognised news outlets” advantages established media organisations over citizen journalists and smaller newsrooms.
    4. The inconsistency: A written account of a courtroom exchange remains permitted while a video clip faithfully reproducing the same exchange does not.
    5. The alternative safeguard proposed: Expanding live streaming and archiving on authorised platforms would let a complete official record expose a manipulated clip, which a circulation ban does not.
    6. Where a line is accepted: Artificially generated or doctored video should be prohibited, and faithful reporting permitted whatever the medium.

    What does the case for reporting oral remarks rest on?

    1. What an oral remark is: Judges use oral observations to test arguments, and a prima facie view expressed at the outset can change as arguments unfold. Such remarks do not necessarily reflect the reasoning recorded in the final order.
    2. Why they are still reported: Oral observations offer insight into judicial thinking and hold a mirror to the institution, which is the ground on which they are treated as reportable despite carrying no binding value.
    3. The precedent: Chief Election Commissioner vs M.R. Vijayabhaskar (2021) protected the reporting of oral remarks. The Supreme Court there stressed the role of public scrutiny in ensuring institutional accountability.
    4. The cost feared on the Bench: The prospect of being quoted out of context could make judges more circumspect and less willing to engage freely with counsel, and the litigant bears the consequence.
    5. The risk predates the medium: Oral remarks were misquoted in print long before social media, which locates the problem in reporting quality rather than in the format.
    6. What that implies for reporting: Court proceedings are technical, so an accurate account depends on journalists trained to follow what is happening.

    What has clipping already exposed about judicial conduct?

    1. The Karnataka episode: In September 2024 videos of a Karnataka High Court judge circulated online. He was seen referring to a Muslim dominated locality in west Bengaluru as “Pakistan” in one video, and making a sexist remark to a woman lawyer in another.
    2. The response to it: A Supreme Court Bench took suo motu cognisance within days and cautioned judges against “casual observations” reflecting communal bias or misogyny. The judge apologised and the proceedings were closed.
    3. A more recent instance: A reported reference to “cockroaches” by the Chief Justice of India during a hearing on fake law degrees drew widespread criticism and gave rise to the Cockroach Janta Party, which went on to lead protests against examination paper leaks. The remark was later said to have been misquoted.
    4. What draws an audience: Matrimonial and custody cases attract the most attention, with controversial matters drawing over one lakh views.
    5. The effect on the Bar: Lawyers use a judge’s remark to build a social media following, and a client who can watch the hearing is less willing to accept an unnecessary adjournment.

    How have the Bar and legal media responded?

    1. The Bar Council circular: In July 2026 the Bar Council of India prohibited reels and promotional content from court premises.
    2. The enforcement machinery it created: State Bar Councils were directed to designate social media ethics nodal officers to handle complaints. Lawyers were directed to submit a signed undertaking on professional social media conduct at the time of enrolment.
    3. The change in legal media: A legal news portal has largely shifted to explanatory videos without courtroom footage since the interim order, having earlier limited its edits to trimming pauses and removing litigants’ personal details.
    4. The editorial line already being drawn: Heated exchanges between the Bench and the Bar were withheld where, viewed in isolation, they could misrepresent what actually happened in court.

    What should a permanent protocol take into account?

    1. How news is consumed: People aged 18 to 24 citing social media as their main source of news rose from 21 per cent in 2015 to 39 per cent in 2025, overtaking news websites and apps, per a March 2026 Reuters Institute report.
    2. The nature of that consumption: Young audiences are increasingly “social first”, with much of their news reaching them incidentally rather than through a deliberate search.
    3. What that means for a video bar: Permitting an oral exchange to be reported in print while restricting its circulation as video sits at odds with how that audience actually receives news.
    4. The process objection: An institutional reform of this kind should involve all High Courts and other stakeholders rather than proceed as a unilateral decision.

    Challenges to regulating the circulation of courtroom footage

    1. A registrar is not a speech regulator: Prior permission to publish places a restriction on speech in the hands of an administrative officer, while Article 19(2) permits restriction only on stated grounds and by a law that is clear. Eg. In Shreya Singhal v. Union of India (2015) the Supreme Court struck down Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 for vagueness about what speech it punished.
      The Fix: Specify the classes of proceeding from which clips may not be circulated at all, so the restriction operates by defined category rather than by case by case permission.
    2. Enforcement begins only after publication: A clip that has circulated cannot be recalled, and removal depends on intermediaries acting on a notice. Eg. Blocking and takedown under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Information Technology Rules, 2021 operate after the content is already public.
      The Fix: Route the registry’s removal requests through the intermediary grievance officer channel with a fixed response time, and record each outcome on the case file.
    3. There is no authoritative record to check a disputed clip against: Most hearings are neither streamed nor archived, so a viewer cannot compare an excerpt with the full proceeding it came from. Eg. Transcripts of Supreme Court hearings were introduced only as a pilot for Constitution Bench matters in 2023.
      The Fix: Publish an official transcript and full recording for every streamed hearing, and treat that record as the reference against which a disputed clip is judged.
    4. Contempt is an uncertain remedy: Action against a distorted clip would rest on criminal contempt, which is discretionary and slow, and using it against reportage carries its own cost to free speech. Eg. The Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 makes fair and accurate reporting of proceedings a defence, so a distortion case turns entirely on interpretation.
      The Fix: Handle distortion through a fast correction and right of reply mechanism at the registry, and reserve contempt for deliberate fabrication.
    5. An exclusion list does not protect identity: A case outside the excluded categories can still identify a vulnerable party, since names, addresses and medical details are read out in open court. Eg. Bail and quashing matters routinely disclose a complainant’s identity in offences whose reporting is otherwise restricted by law.
      The Fix: Mask party identifiers in the streamed audio and in the published record, as judgments in sexual offence cases already do.

    Conclusion

    The order changes the default rather than the rules on any single case. The Court has not yet drawn the line between publishers who may use footage and those who may not, and the reach of the restriction turns entirely on where that line falls. The case returns to the Bench on 18 September, with the High Courts and the platforms now on record. The test of whatever protocol emerges is whether it separates a distorted clip from a faithful one, or merely separates one publisher from another.

    Back2Basics: The Supreme Court e-Committee

    1. What it is: A body of the Supreme Court that oversees the computerisation of the Indian judiciary.
    2. When it was set up: It was constituted in 2004 to advise on a national policy for information and communication technology in the courts.
    3. What it runs: It steers the eCourts Mission Mode Project, covering case information systems, electronic filing and virtual hearing infrastructure across district courts and High Courts.
    4. What it issues: It frames model rules on court technology for adoption by individual High Courts, which are free to modify them.

    [2014, GS2, 12 marks] What do you understand by the concept “freedom of speech and expression”? Does it cover hate speech also? Why do the films in India stand on a slightly different plane from other forms of expression? Discuss.

  • A BIT of a reset, with a wider debate

    Why in the News

    India is revising its model bilateral investment treaty (BIT), and the revised text will soon be placed before the Union Cabinet. The Finance Minister signalled the intention to revamp the 2015 Model BIT in the Union Budget speech of 2025. The 2015 model was itself the product of an appraisal launched after several foreign investors sued India for treaty breaches. That appraisal produced two outcomes: unilateral termination of existing treaties, and a new model text as the basis for fresh negotiations. Debate on the current revision has concentrated almost entirely on what the treaty should say. The process by which the text is written has attracted almost no attention, and that is where the democratic deficit sits.

    What is the 2015 Model Bilateral Investment Treaty?

    1. What a model treaty is: A model bilateral investment treaty is the template text a country negotiates from when it concludes investment protection agreements with other countries.
    2. What such a treaty does: It grants legal protections to investors of one country investing in the other. It also gives those investors a route to bring a claim directly against the host state before an international arbitral tribunal.
    3. The two objectives it must balance: Investment treaties sit between investment protection at one end of the spectrum and the state’s right to regulate at the other.
    4. When India adopted it: India circulated a draft in 2015 and adopted the revised version in December 2015.

    Why has the 2015 model produced so few treaties?

    1. The record: India has concluded only a handful of treaties on the basis of the 2015 model in the last decade or so.
    2. The imbalance in the text: The model tilts heavily towards the state’s right to regulate and away from the protection of the investment.
    3. What capital exporting countries read into it: Countries that export capital to India doubt the legal protection available to their investments under such a text.
    4. What compounds the doubt: High regulatory risk, governance models that are not well developed, and a slow judicial system add to that concern.

    What legal changes are being proposed, and what is being left out?

    1. Easier access to arbitration: Experts have argued for making it easier for a foreign investor to take a treaty claim to international arbitration.
    2. Stronger substantive protections: The protections given to foreign investment in the text would be enhanced.
    3. Investment facilitation: The revised model would carry more measures aimed at facilitating investment rather than only protecting it.
    4. The half of the review that is missing: A treaty review has two components, the substantive and procedural changes to the law, and the process followed to make the outcome robust. Only the first has been deliberated.

    What is the democratic deficit in treaty making?

    1. The all-affected principle: International economic treaties have a conspicuous impact on citizens, which raises the question whether those affected should have a right to participate in the decision.
    2. What the term means: Democratic deficit refers to insufficient oversight of the technocrats, bureaucracies and political executive who negotiate treaty frameworks behind closed doors.
    3. Where it originated: The term originated in European debates on the accountability of decision making removed from elected legislatures.
    4. The first form the gap takes: Parliamentary supervision of the treaty making process is absent or inadequate.
    5. The second form: There is no external consultative process with other stakeholders, including subject matter experts and civil society organisations.

    What do other countries do before adopting an investment treaty text?

    1. United Kingdom and Australia: Both mandatorily place the text of a negotiated treaty on the floor of Parliament before ratification, so the legislature can express its views on it.
    2. Norway: Two rounds of public consultation were held on an updated draft model BIT, in 2008 and in 2015.
    3. Colombia: The country released its model BIT for public consultation.
    4. What the set demonstrates collectively: Consultation is applied to the model text itself and not only to a concluded treaty, which means the template a country negotiates from is treated as a public policy document rather than an internal instruction.

    What did India’s own 2015 consultation produce?

    1. The public comment stage: India circulated its draft 2015 model BIT for public comment in March 2015.
    2. The expert study it enabled: That opening allowed the Law Commission of India to assemble a team of experts to study the draft text.
    3. The report: The Law Commission’s 260th report made recommendations on how to improve the draft model treaty.
    4. What was carried through: Not all of the recommended changes were reflected in the version India finally adopted.

    What consultative process is proposed for the revision?

    1. What has presumably already happened: Intra-governmental deliberation on the model text has been undertaken inside government.
    2. A core team of external experts: Form a team outside government of international lawyers and economists drawn from universities, research institutions and think tanks, to act as a sounding board.
    3. Wider stakeholder engagement: Invite industry bodies, arbitrators, law firms and other civil society organisations to offer their views on the model text.
    4. A public draft: Prepare a draft and place it in the public domain, inviting comments from the public at large.
    5. Parliamentary scrutiny: Place the draft model treaty on the floor of Parliament for discussion, and rope in the relevant department related parliamentary committees.
    6. The standard the exercise must meet: The process must engage with dissenting views rather than run as a box ticking formality.

    Challenges to revising the Model Bilateral Investment Treaty

    1. A model text does not bind the counterparty: A model is a negotiating template, so a partner with stronger bargaining power will press its own text and the model’s provisions will be traded away one by one. Eg. Investment provisions have been among the unresolved items in India’s long running negotiations with the European Union.
      The Fix: Publish the provisions treated as non-negotiable separately from those open to trade-off, so a concluded treaty can be judged against a stated position rather than against the template.
    2. The local remedies requirement is long relative to the delay it addresses: The 2015 model requires an investor to pursue domestic remedies for five years before starting international arbitration, in a system whose delay is itself the investor’s complaint. Eg. White Industries Australia v Republic of India (2011), the first adverse award against India, arose from delay in Indian courts enforcing a commercial arbitration award.
      The Fix: Tie the domestic remedies condition to a defined procedural stage being reached rather than to a fixed number of years.
    3. Termination does not end exposure: A terminated treaty carries a survival clause that keeps protections alive for investments made before termination, so liability continues for years after the instrument goes. Eg. The 2020 Vodafone award was rendered under the India-Netherlands treaty after India had begun issuing termination notices in 2016.
      The Fix: Negotiate replacement treaties with express provisions displacing the survival clauses of the instruments they replace.
    4. Taxation is carved out of the model’s scope: The 2015 model excludes taxation measures from treaty protection, which removes the very category of dispute that produced India’s largest awards. Eg. The 2020 Cairn Energy award, made under the India-United Kingdom treaty, concerned a retrospective tax demand.
      The Fix: Bring expropriatory tax measures within the treaty’s scope while keeping bona fide tax policy outside it.
    5. Consultation without a legal basis is discretionary: No Indian law requires the executive to lay a treaty text before Parliament, so every consultation depends on the willingness of the government of the day. Eg. Treaties are concluded under executive power and reach Parliament only where implementing them requires a change in domestic law.
      The Fix: Enact a treaty scrutiny statute setting out which categories of treaty must be laid before Parliament and for how long before ratification.

    Conclusion

    The revision is being handled as a drafting exercise. The gap it does not close is that India has no settled procedure for producing a treaty text at all, so the quality of the next model rests on the discretion of whoever drafts it. A text written without external scrutiny will attract the same legitimacy objection whichever direction it moves the balance in. What to watch is whether the draft reaches the public domain and the floor of Parliament before the Union Cabinet clears it, or only after.

    Bilateral Investment Treaties in India

    1. What they are: A bilateral investment treaty is an agreement between two countries setting the terms on which each protects investors from the other in its own territory.
    2. How disputes under them are settled: Most such treaties allow an investor to bring a claim directly against the host state before an international arbitral tribunal, without routing it through its own government.
    3. India’s treaty stock: India signed its first such treaty with the United Kingdom in 1994 and went on to sign more than 80. From 2016 it began terminating them and moved to renegotiate on the 2015 model.
    4. What has been concluded since: Treaties concluded on the newer template include those signed with the United Arab Emirates and with Uzbekistan in 2024.

    Constitutional Framework Governing Treaty Making

    1. Article 246 with Entry 14 of the Union List: Places entering into treaties and agreements with foreign countries, and implementing them, within Parliament’s exclusive legislative field.
    2. Entry 13 of the Union List: Covers participation in international conferences and associations, and the implementing of decisions taken at them.
    3. Article 253: Empowers Parliament to make law for the whole or any part of India to implement any treaty, agreement or convention with another country.
    4. Article 73: Extends the Union executive’s power to every matter on which Parliament may legislate, which is the basis on which the executive concludes a treaty without prior legislative approval.

    Back2Basics: Law Commission of India

    1. What it is: A non-statutory executive body constituted by the Government of India to advise on law reform.
    2. How it is constituted: It is set up for a fixed term by an order of the Ministry of Law and Justice, and is chaired by a retired judge.
    3. What it does: It examines existing laws and specific references made by the government, and submits reports carrying recommendations.
    4. The weight its reports carry: Its recommendations are not binding, and a change in law follows only where the government accepts them.

    [2010] A great deal of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to India comes from Mauritius than from many major and mature economies like UK and France. Why?

    (a) India has preference, for certain countries as regards receiving FDI

    (b) India has double taxation avoidance agreement with Mauritius

    (c) Most citizens of Mauritius have ethnic identity with India and so they feel secure to invest in India

    (d) Impending dangers of global climate change prompt Mauritius to make huge investments in India

  • Taking heart from the GDP story, behind the headline number

    Why in the News

    The Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister and the Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation have defended the 7.8 per cent real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth estimate for the first quarter of 2026-27. They argue that the estimate is corroborated by high frequency indicators across investment, consumption, credit and goods movement. The defence answers academic scepticism about the reliability of India’s national accounts methodology, raised after the first quarter release. The specific charge concerns the GDP deflator, the price index used to convert output measured at current prices into output measured at constant prices. Manufacturing recorded a negative implicit deflator for Gross Value Added (GVA), meaning the accounts imply falling prices in a sector at a time when consumer prices are rising. The dispute is therefore not about the growth rate. It is about whether the price correction behind that rate can be read at all.

    How does double deflation work?

    1. Single deflation, the discontinued method: Nominal Gross Value Added was divided by a single output price index to arrive at real Gross Value Added.
    2. Double deflation, the current method: Output and intermediate consumption are deflated separately, each by its own price index.
    3. The residual: Real Gross Value Added is then taken as the difference between real output and real intermediate consumption.
    4. Why it is the accepted practice: Input prices and output prices move differently, so deflating each by its own prices is the global standard in national accounting.

    What do the high frequency indicators show about the first quarter expansion?

    1. Freight and business demand: Commercial vehicle sales grew 18.3 per cent, as firms expanded fleets in anticipation of higher demand.
    2. The investment cycle: Capital goods production grew 15.2 per cent. Machinery and equipment imports grew 51.5 per cent.
    3. Construction inputs: Cement production, finished steel consumption and infrastructure and construction goods all expanded strongly in the quarter.
    4. Goods movement and tax collection: Electronic way bill generation stayed in double digit growth. Gross Goods and Services Tax collections rose 8.4 per cent despite substantial rate rationalisation.
    5. Consumption: Household vehicle registrations and three wheeler registrations point to firming discretionary demand.
    6. Credit: Non-food bank credit grew 18.3 per cent year on year at end June, up from 15.9 per cent in March, with growth across agriculture, industry and services.

    Why did the GDP deflator become hard to read?

    1. The price database changed: The revised National Accounts moved from the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) to the new Output Producer Price Index (PPI), which measures prices received by producers at the factory gate rather than prices struck in wholesale markets.
    2. The deflation method changed: The February 2026 revision discontinued single deflation. It adopted double deflation wherever feasible and volume based extrapolation otherwise.
    3. The two changes landed together: Simultaneous change in method and in price database made recent movements in the deflator less readily interpretable.
    4. The index switch itself was minor: Revisions arising from the move from WPI to PPI were relatively small, which supports the position that WPI had introduced no material anomaly. The two indices are conceptually close.
    5. The deflator is not a single index: Constant price GVA is built using over 300 producer prices and price indices across a disaggregated set of inputs and outputs, not from a headline price index.

    Why can a negative implicit manufacturing GVA deflator be statistically sound?

    1. The arithmetic: Nominal GVA growth falls below real GVA growth when input prices rise faster than output prices. The implicit deflator then turns negative even though input and output prices are both rising.
    2. What happened in the quarter: Higher raw material inflation relative to output inflation lowered the GVA deflator. Weak price growth in some services widened the gap from headline consumer and wholesale inflation.
    3. The leverage inside manufacturing: Intermediate consumption is roughly 81 per cent of manufacturing output, leaving 19 per cent as GVA. A small divergence between input and output prices therefore produces a disproportionate movement in real GVA.
    4. The domestic precedent: 2024-25 recorded the same outcome, with input price inflation exceeding output price inflation.
    5. Not unique to India: Advanced economies using double deflation have encountered similar outcomes.

    What is the appropriate comparison for manufacturing activity?

    1. The mismatch in the criticism: Commentaries have set manufacturing Index of Industrial Production (IIP) growth, a volume index of factory output, against real manufacturing GVA growth.
    2. The correct counterpart: A volume index should be compared with manufacturing Gross Value of Output at constant prices, which is also a measure of output rather than of value added.
    3. What the correct comparison shows: Real Gross Value of Output averaged 6.7 per cent growth over 2023-24 and 2024-25, against 6.6 per cent for IIP.
    4. When the loose comparison still holds: Comparing manufacturing IIP with manufacturing GVA yields defensible short term results only where input and output prices move together.
    5. A separate reading of the same ratio: The ratio of intermediate consumption to Gross Value of Output at constant prices has been declining gradually, which indicates improving efficiency in the use of inputs.

    What is contested about the synthetic comparison country study?

    1. The method: A recent study builds a comparison country by combining economies whose performance moved closely with India’s before 2014. It uses that historical co-movement to estimate how India’s per capita GDP might have evolved after 2014.
    2. The objection: The study treats its estimated performance gap as a lower bound on the assumption that Indian growth is overstated, without demonstrating the methodological flaw it assumes.
    3. The stated position on scrutiny: Specific, focused and actionable scrutiny of the GDP methodology is welcomed. Inferences drawn by quoting aggregate and disparate numbers together are rejected.

    Challenges to the revised GDP deflation framework

    1. The deflators cannot be independently reproduced: The disaggregated producer price series that enter the constant price estimates are not published for outside users, so an external researcher cannot rebuild the sectoral deflators. Eg. Delays in the national accounts Sources and Methods publication have repeatedly held up independent verification of official estimates.
      The Fix: Release the sectoral deflators used, along with the underlying producer price series, alongside each quarterly estimate.
    2. Services deflation remains the weakest link: India has no producer price index covering the range of services, so services output is deflated using consumer price components and dedicated indices. Eg. Financial, real estate and professional services drove roughly 45 per cent of services value added growth in 2024-25, and their prices are proxied rather than directly observed.
      The Fix: Extend the producer price framework to services, starting with the sub-sectors that contribute most to value added.
    3. The unincorporated sector is estimated rather than observed within the quarter: Quarterly manufacturing estimates for small unregistered enterprises rest on survey benchmarks carried forward by indicators. Eg. The Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises replaced proxy indicators for this segment only with the 2022-23 base year series.
      The Fix: Publish the unincorporated enterprises survey on a fixed calendar and use it to benchmark each year’s quarterly manufacturing estimates.
    4. A base revision breaks comparability across the join: The series was rebased from 2011-12 to 2022-23, so growth rates on either side of the break are not directly comparable. Eg. Construction of a back series after the previous rebasing became a prolonged dispute over pre-2011 growth rates.
      The Fix: Publish a fully reconciled back series at the same sectoral detail as the new series with every base revision.
    5. Confidence rests on the standing of the producing body: A statistical estimate is accepted on the credibility of the institution that releases it, and that credibility has been contested. Eg. Two members resigned from the National Statistical Commission in 2019 over the withholding of survey results.
      The Fix: Give the National Statistical Commission a statutory basis, as an independent statistical commission was recommended in 2001.

    Conclusion

    The argument between the statistical system and its critics is not about whether the economy grew. It is about whether an outside user can see inside the price correction that turns nominal output into real output. A revision that changed the price database and the deflation method in the same round has raised the burden of explanation on the agency, not lowered it. The marker to watch is whether the producer price series used inside the estimates are released as a public series, and whether the methodology volume for the revised base year appears alongside the next annual release rather than after it.

    What is national income accounting?

    1. About: National income accounting is the set of methods used to measure economic activity for an economy as a whole, yielding aggregates such as GDP, Gross National Product and National Income.
    2. Rationale: It supplies the aggregates that fiscal and monetary policy design, welfare planning, sectoral resource allocation and cross country comparison all rest on.
    3. The three methods it rests on:
    4. Income method: sums factor incomes, meaning rent, wages, interest, profit, mixed income and net income from abroad.
    5. Expenditure method: totals final spending on consumption, investment, government spending and net exports.
    6. Production method: sums value added at each stage across agriculture, industry and services.
    7. Why the production method matters here: India’s quarterly estimates are built up as sectoral value added, so every sector needs a price deflator of its own.

    Key Concerns Regarding National Income Accounting

    1. Separating final from intermediate goods: Value added can be double counted where the same good is both an input and a final product. Eg. Flour bought by a bakery is an input, while flour bought by a household is a final good.
    2. Undisclosed income: Parallel transactions kept off records are not captured, which understates measured output.
    3. Environmental blind spot: Resource extraction is counted as income while the depletion of natural capital is not deducted.
    4. Non-monetised and non-market activity: Subsistence farming, barter, volunteer work and the care economy go uncounted, understating true output.

    Key Facts about National Income Accounting

    1. New base year: The GDP base was revised from 2011-12 to 2022-23, with the new series released on 27 February 2026.
    2. Companion rebasing: The Consumer Price Index base was updated to 2024 and the Index of Industrial Production base to 2022-23 alongside the GDP revision.
    3. New data sources: Goods and Services Tax returns, the Public Financial Management System, e-Vahan vehicle registration data and the unincorporated enterprise and labour force surveys replaced earlier proxy indicators.
    4. International alignment: The series follows the System of National Accounts 2008, with transition to the 2025 standard planned by 2029-30.

    [2019, GS3, 10 marks] Do you agree with the view that steady GDP growth and low inflation have left the Indian economy in good shape? Give reasons in support of your arguments.

  • Beyond GDP, brace for turbulence ahead

    Why in the News

    Long term government bond yields in the advanced economies have risen sharply, raising the risk free return foreign capital can earn without entering India. Official growth estimates for April to June, together with car, two wheeler and tractor sales and Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections, show the economy absorbing the energy supply shock caused by the West Asia war. Strong output data does not settle the financing question, since capital compares India’s expected return against an assured dollar return. The dollars India did attract came through Foreign Currency Non-Resident (Bank), or FCNR(B), deposits, priced at rates Indian banks could offer only because the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) carried the hedging cost.

    How does the FCNR(B) deposit and swap arrangement work?

    1. The deposit: An FCNR(B) deposit is a term deposit placed with an Indian bank by a non-resident Indian, held and repayable in foreign currency.
    2. The bank’s exposure: The bank owes repayment in that foreign currency, so a fall in the rupee raises what the deposit costs it in rupee terms.
    3. The swap facility: The RBI bore the hedging cost against currency fluctuation through a special dollar rupee swap facility.
    4. Where the risk now sits: The banks transferred the risk of rupee depreciation to the central bank, which is what allowed them to pay a high rate in foreign currency.

    What do bond yields in Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom demonstrate about the cost of capital?

    1. Japan: The ten year government bond yield crossed 3 per cent for the first time since 1996, and the thirty year yield stands at 4.1 per cent.
    2. The United States: The ten year Treasury yield is at 4.8 per cent and the thirty year at 5.3 per cent.
    3. The United Kingdom: The ten year yield is at 5.2 per cent and the thirty year at 5.9 per cent.
    4. Why these set the benchmark: These instruments are virtually risk free, issued by governments that have never defaulted on their debts, so an assured 4.8 per cent dollar return is the floor any Indian asset has to beat.

    What did India have to pay to bring in dollars?

    1. The deposit rate: Indian banks offered 6 to 6.5 per cent interest on FCNR(B) deposits.
    2. The volume raised: The window mobilised $127.2 billion.
    3. The direction of travel: Foreign money no longer comes cheap, and the path of global bond yields points to it turning more expensive.

    Why does a strong growth number not settle the external financing question?

    1. The two measures test different things: Output and consumption data measure domestic demand. The financing question is whether a foreign investor’s expected return here beats a risk free alternative abroad.
    2. Equity returns are the transmission channel: Long term foreign capital enters on growth prospects that translate into equity market returns, and those prospects must be compelling against elevated yields.
    3. A window is not a policy: A special forex swap window is a one time reprieve for the external sector and cannot substitute for durable intervention.

    What would durable resilience require?

    1. Fiscal consolidation: In a rising interest rate environment a government cannot run high fiscal deficits, which crowd out private sector and other productive borrowing.
    2. Keeping the external account financeable: Those deficits must not spill into current account deficits, which are difficult to finance when global capital flows turn volatile.
    3. Export promotion: Exports are to be raised through increased access to global markets.
    4. Cheaper inputs for exporters: Duties on imported raw materials and components are to be eliminated.
    5. Predictability: Policy stability for foreign investors is the fourth durable intervention, alongside consolidation, exports and input duty removal.

    Challenges to relying on the FCNR(B) swap route

    1. The liability matures: A term deposit has to be repaid or rolled over on a fixed date, so an inflow raised in months becomes an outflow risk on a known one. Eg. The 2013 FCNR(B) swap window raised about $26 billion, and its redemption was concentrated in late 2016.
      The Fix: Stagger maturities across the deposit book and pre-announce the redemption profile, so repayment does not bunch into a single quarter.
    2. The central bank absorbs the currency loss: A hedging cost carried by the RBI becomes a loss on its own books if the rupee falls further than the swap rate assumed. Eg. The rupee’s record low against the dollar has been reset repeatedly since 2022.
      The Fix: Disclose the swap facility’s cost to the central bank’s balance sheet, so the public subsidy inside the scheme is visible.
    3. Debt creating inflows substitute for equity: A deposit is a repayable liability while direct investment is not, so the same headline inflow leaves a different obligation behind. Eg. Non-resident Indian deposits are counted within India’s external debt, and foreign direct investment is not.
      The Fix: Cap the share of external financing met through deposit schemes, so a reserve build is not increasingly borrowed.
    4. The inflow is rate sensitive and reversible: Money that arrives for an interest differential leaves when that differential narrows. Eg. Foreign investors withdrew from Indian debt in 2013 once United States yields rose after the taper announcement.
      The Fix: Build the buffer through current account improvement and equity inflows, so the stock of reserves does not depend on a rate spread.
    5. A headline reserves figure hides its composition: Reserves assembled through a swap window signal less resilience than the same figure built from a trade surplus. Eg. India’s reserves crossed $700 billion while the current account remained in deficit.
      The Fix: Report the hedged and unhedged components of reserves separately in the weekly statistical supplement.

    Conclusion

    India’s external position looks strongest at the moment it is most borrowed. A large stock of foreign currency has been assembled by paying for it, and part of that bill sits on the central bank’s own books rather than on the banking system’s. The tension left unresolved is one of timing: the measures that would make foreign capital cheap again work over years, and the rate environment that made it expensive changed in months. What to watch is whether a second window is opened when the first one matures.

    “[2013] Which one of the following groups of items is included in India’s foreign-exchange reserves?

    (a) Foreign-currency assets, Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) and loans from foreign countries

    (b) Foreign-currency assets, gold holdings of the RBI and SDRs

    (c) Foreign-currency assets, loans from the World Bank and SDRs

    (d) Foreign-currency assets, gold holdings of the RBI and loans from the World Bank

  • Inside Jharkhand & Bihar’s 25-year Sone river dispute

    Inside Jharkhand & Bihar’s 25-year Sone river dispute

    Why in the News

    Bihar and Jharkhand have signed an inter State memorandum of understanding dividing Sone river water, with 5.75 million acre feet (MAF, the volume that would cover a million acres to a depth of one foot) going to Bihar and 2 MAF to Jharkhand.

    Why did a 1973 allocation stop working after 2000?

    1. The river’s course: The Sone flows generally northward from its upper catchments in Madhya Pradesh, passes through Uttar Pradesh, runs along the Jharkhand Bihar boundary and joins the Ganga in Bihar.
    2. The original entitlement: The Bansagar Agreement of 1973, a tripartite agreement involving Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, allocated 7.75 MAF of Sone water to undivided Bihar out of the total basin yield.
    3. Bifurcation split the basin unevenly: Jharkhand inherited the major upper catchment areas and the tributaries, and the lower riparian agricultural hubs stayed with Bihar.
    4. No formula followed the division: After the State was divided, no binding formula existed to apportion that allocation between the two successor States.
    5. Two decades of stalled mediation: Committees attempted mediation over the last two decades, and talks repeatedly broke down over reservoir height, land submergence and volumetric splits.

    What does the new agreement actually settle?

    1. Jharkhand’s concession: Jharkhand agreed to specified reservoir water levels to minimise land submergence, backed by clear rehabilitation provisions.
    2. Bihar’s gain: Bihar receives additional water from the Indrapuri Barrage to irrigate farmland in its existing command.
    3. Jharkhand’s return: The pact enables new canal networks in the drought prone Palamu and Garhwa districts.
    4. What it unblocks: Long delayed irrigation, reservoir and river linking projects in the drought prone regions of both States are expected to move forward.

    What does the pact unlock on the ground?

    1. The diversion structure: The Indrapuri Barrage across the Sone in Rohtas district, built in the late 1960s, is the primary structure diverting water into the canal system.
    2. The canal command: The Sone canal network irrigates the Shahabad agricultural belt of Rohtas, Bhojpur, Buxar and Kaimur districts.
    3. The southern belt: The agreement guarantees critical irrigation supplies to the Magadh belt of south Bihar, including Aurangabad.
    4. The constraint was legal, not physical: The barrage and its canals already existed, so what was holding back their full use was the missing share rather than any limit of the structure.

    Why did the dispute stay politically live?

    1. No formal confrontation: The two States never reached a major State level confrontation over the water.
    2. An election season issue in Bihar: Leaders across party lines in the Shahabad and Magadh belts targeted the State government over water shortages in the Sone canal system during the summer sowing season.
    3. A displacement issue in Jharkhand: Leaders from Palamu and Garhwa raised the fear that raising the Indrapuri Dam’s height would submerge agricultural land and displace thousands without fair compensation.

    Challenges to the Sone water sharing arrangement

    1. A memorandum is not an award: The States have signed an administrative understanding rather than obtained a tribunal award under the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956, so no adjudicated instrument stands behind it. Eg. The Punjab Termination of Agreements Act, 2004 showed that a State legislature can move to repudiate water sharing agreements it had signed.
      The Fix: Constitute a joint control board with gauged and publicly reported releases at the barrage, so compliance is a matter of record rather than of assertion.
    2. A fixed volumetric split against a variable yield: The shares are stated in absolute volume even though the Sone is rain fed and its annual yield swings with the monsoon. Eg. The parent entitlement was itself fixed on basin yield estimates made in the early 1970s.
      The Fix: Convert the split into proportional shares of the actual annual yield, with a stated rule for how a deficit year is shared.
    3. Canal efficiency decides who receives water: An allocation at the barrage does not survive conveyance losses, so tail end farmers get less than the head reach whatever the agreement says. Eg. The Sone canal system dates from the 1870s and still delivers through long unlined earthen channels.
      The Fix: Line and modernise the main and distributary canals and meter deliveries at outlet level before the new water is credited to the command area.
    4. Rehabilitation commitments outrun delivery: Submergence limits rest on rehabilitation provisions whose record in Indian reservoir projects is poor. Eg. Families displaced by the Sardar Sarovar project on the Narmada were still contesting resettlement decades after the dam was cleared.
      The Fix: Publish a dated rehabilitation schedule with land for land entitlements settled before reservoir levels are raised.
    5. Groundwater has filled the gap: Farmers in the command have substituted diesel pumped groundwater for unreliable canal supply, and the pact says nothing about that substitution. Eg. Water tables across south Bihar fall sharply in the summer months when canal supply is weakest.
      The Fix: Sequence canal restoration with conjunctive use planning so surface deliveries replace pumping instead of adding to it.

    Conclusion

    An administrative understanding has closed a gap that two decades of mediation could not, and it has done so without creating any body able to enforce it. Compliance now rests on the continued willingness of two State governments, which is the same condition under which the previous arrangement failed. The marker to watch is whether releases are gauged and published, since an unmeasured share is what allows a settled formula to unravel quietly.

    Back2Basics: Sone river

    1. Source and course: The Sone rises on the Amarkantak plateau in Madhya Pradesh, close to the source of the Narmada, and flows north east to meet the Ganga.
    2. Its rank: It is the second largest of the Ganga’s southern tributaries after the Yamuna.
    3. Its regime: The river is rain fed, so it carries heavy monsoon flow and shrinks sharply through the dry season.
    4. Its tributaries: The North Koel, the Rihand and the Kanhar are among its principal tributaries.

    [2024, GS3, 15 marks] What are the major challenges faced by Indian irrigation system in recent times? State the measures taken by the government for efficient irrigation management.

  • New Delhi to quantify ocean wealth, climate risks in new accounting push

    New Delhi to quantify ocean wealth, climate risks in new accounting push

    Why in the News

    The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has issued a concept paper proposing to put a monetary value on India’s marine fish stocks and record them as a national asset.

    What is the System of Environmental Economic Accounting?

    1. About: SEEA is a United Nations statistical framework that records a country’s natural resources inside the same accounting structure used for its economy.
    2. The core idea: A natural resource is treated as a capital asset, and what is taken from it in a year is treated as a flow of economic benefit from that asset.
    3. Coverage in India: India has compiled environmental accounts since 2018 through the EnviStats India programme, covering assets such as land, water, forests, minerals and pollination.

    What do India’s current fisheries figures capture?

    1. Global standing: India is the world’s second largest fish producing country and accounts for 8 percent of global production.
    2. The inland and marine split: Total fish production in FY25 was 19.77 million metric tonnes, 77 percent of it from inland sources and 23 percent from the marine sector.
    3. Marine output has expanded: Marine fish production reached 46.15 lakh tonnes in 2024-25, against 34.43 lakh tonnes in 2013-14.
    4. Contribution to the economy: The sector contributed an estimated Rs 1.76 lakh crore in 2023-24, or 1.09 percent of national gross value added.
    5. Export volume and value: Marine product exports in FY25 were 1.7 million metric tonnes valued at Rs 62,408.45 crore, growing 3.11 percent a year in volume.
    6. Reach of the export basket: More than 350 varieties, including frozen fish, squid, cuttlefish and dried items, reach 130 international markets.

    Why do those figures not answer the sustainability question?

    1. Output says nothing about the stock: Aggregate production records how much was landed, not whether commercially important stocks can sustain similar production in future.
    2. Species and regions vanish into the total: A national tonnage figure hides the changing value of individual species and the condition of regional fish stocks.
    3. Fishing pressure leaves no trace: The long term effect of fishing pressure and environmental change does not register in an annual catch series.
    4. No blue economy series exists: India has no regular, comprehensive blue economy GDP series comparable with the series available for agriculture or manufacturing.
    5. Known potential carries a known risk: NITI Aayog puts the exclusive economic zone’s resource potential at about 7.16 million metric tonnes and warns that some deep sea resources are vulnerable to overexploitation.

    How far has this been attempted elsewhere?

    1. Only a handful of countries: The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) notes that only a handful of countries currently compile monetary asset accounts for aquatic resources.
    2. The group India would join: Australia, the Netherlands, Norway, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, the United States and New Zealand are attempting to bring blue natural capital into national accounts.
    3. The contrast with land based assets: Valuation methods for forests and minerals are mature, and the aquatic equivalent remains at an experimental and pilot stage.
    4. The international guidance is dated: The SEEA-Fisheries conceptual guidance is outdated, so India is building on an incomplete standard rather than a settled one.

    How would a marine fish asset account be built?

    1. Define the accounting units: The first step selects the commercially, economically or ecologically important marine species the account will cover.
    2. Classify each stock: Species wise landing data for the preceding ten years serves as the initial proxy, and current landings are compared with historical peaks to mark a stock as regenerating, stable or depleting.
    3. Estimate the asset life: Each resource is assigned an asset life, which is the bridge between the fisheries science on the stock and its economic treatment.
    4. Calculate the resource rent: Resource rent is the income attributable to the natural resource after deducting labour, operating expenses, depreciation and a normal return on fishing vessels and other capital.
    5. Discount the future rents: Expected future resource rents are projected over the estimated asset life and discounted at a proposed 2 percent real rate to give a present value.
    6. The output: The result is a marine fish asset account, a statistical record carrying both the physical condition of a stock and its estimated economic value.

    What is riding on the outcome?

    1. Livelihoods: Fishing supports nearly 30 million livelihoods and is a cornerstone of the blue economy.
    2. Geography: India’s coastline runs about 11,100 km and carries rich marine biodiversity.
    3. The stated target: Available numbers put the blue economy at about 4 percent of GDP against a target of a $100 billion blue economy by 2030.
    4. Budget support: The latest Union Budget earmarked a record Rs 2,761.8 crore in total annual support, with the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) carrying Rs 2,500 crore in 2026-27.
    5. Competing claims on sea space: Fisheries compete with ports, tourism, offshore energy and coastal development for marine space. Integrated accounts give those trade offs one economic and environmental database.
    6. Investment decisions: A valuation would indicate whether to put money into additional fishing capacity, stock restoration or deep sea fisheries. It would also allow the economic cost of climate induced changes in marine resources to be estimated.

    Challenges to valuing marine fish stocks

    1. The asset is living and mobile: A fish stock changes in size and location continuously, which makes it harder to value at a point in time than a forest or a mineral deposit. Eg. Oil sardine landings along the Kerala coast collapsed through the 2010s and then partially recovered, moving the stock’s value within a single decade.
      The Fix: Anchor the account to periodic scientific biomass surveys by the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute rather than to landing data alone.
    2. Landings measure effort as much as abundance: What boats bring ashore reflects fleet capacity, fuel prices and market demand alongside the size of the stock. Eg. Landings can rise as vessels mechanise and trips lengthen even as the underlying stock thins.
      The Fix: Report effort adjusted catch per unit effort alongside raw landings, so a rise in output is separated from a rise in fishing pressure.
    3. The discount rate decides the answer: A present value calculation is highly sensitive to the rate chosen, so the 2 percent assumption fixes how much weight future stocks carry. Eg. A higher rate values a stock mainly by what it yields in the next few years and makes long term depletion look cheap.
      The Fix: Publish the account across a range of discount rates so the valuation’s dependence on that single assumption is visible to the user.
    4. An account does not restrain a catch: Recording depletion changes no rule about who may fish, since marine fishing within territorial waters is regulated by coastal States under their own legislation. Eg. Monsoon fishing bans and mesh size rules are notified State by State along the coastline.
      The Fix: Require stock classifications from the account to feed directly into the fisheries management plans and catch limits of coastal States.

    Conclusion

    Valuing a fish stock changes what the national accounts can show, not what the fishing fleet is allowed to take. The account will report depletion only as accurately as the biological data underneath it, and that data is the weakest part of the exercise. The test is whether the numbers reach harvesting rules and coastal livelihood decisions rather than stopping at a statistical publication.

    Back2Basics: Exclusive Economic Zone

    1. Legal basis: The exclusive economic zone is established by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982.
    2. Extent: It reaches up to 200 nautical miles from the baseline from which the territorial sea is measured.
    3. Rights it confers: The coastal State holds sovereign rights to explore, exploit, conserve and manage the living and non living resources of the zone.
    4. India’s zone: India’s exclusive economic zone covers over 2 million square km, which is larger than its land area.

    [2026] At the United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC) held in June, 2025 in France, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations demonstrated its leading voice on marine and ocean issues, especially on sustainable fisheries and aquaculture for resilient livelihood and ‘Blue Transformation’. Which of the following combinations about the ‘Four Betters’ proposed by FAO for ‘Blue Transformation’ is correct?

    (a) Better production, better nutrition, better environment and better ocean

    (b) Better production, better nutrition, better environment and better life

    (c) Better coral reefs, better nutrition, better environment and better life

    (d) Better estuaries, better nutrition, better environment and better mangrove vegetation

  • Air quality panel holding talks with Punjab govt. and ISRO over tracking of stubble fires

    Air quality panel holding talks with Punjab govt. and ISRO over tracking of stubble fires

    Why in the News

    The Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM), the statutory body that directs anti-pollution action across Delhi and the States around it, has said it is in talks with Punjab, Haryana and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to improve how stubble fires are measured.

    How does satellite fire counting work?

    1. Detection by heat signature: Two satellites passing over India during the day register the thermal signature of an active fire and log it as a fire count.
    2. A fixed overpass window: A polar orbiting satellite crosses a given location at roughly the same local time each day, so it sees only the fires burning at that moment.
    3. A count is not a quantity: The record shows that a field was alight. It does not show how much particulate matter the burning released.

    Why has the reported decline in farm fires come under doubt?

    1. The peak moved by three and a half hours: The Space Applications Centre recorded peak fire activity at about 1.30 p.m. in 2020 and at about 5 p.m. in 2024.
    2. The shift tracks the enforcement window: Farmers face fines for being caught setting fire to their fields, and burning after the daytime satellite passes leaves no entry in the record.
    3. Evidence has accumulated since 2024: Doubt over the Punjab government’s claim of a 90 percent reduction in farm fires since 2021 has been mounting since 2024.
    4. A decline that may be an artefact: A fall produced by unrecorded burning leaves the actual acreage burnt unknown, so the reported improvement cannot be checked.

    Why does the measurement matter for the capital’s winter air?

    1. Farm fires are a spike, not the base load: Over a whole winter farm fires contribute no more than 15 percent of particulate matter pollution. In certain weeks that share rises to almost 44 percent.
    2. The weather closes the escape route: Stalled monsoon withdrawal weakens the westerly winds that flush particulate matter out of the region through October and November.
    3. Several sources load the same air: Vehicles, industry, road dust, agricultural waste and Deepavali crackers add to the load in the same weeks.
    4. Paddy residue has a disposal logic: Stubble left after the paddy harvest is burnt to clear the field for wheat sowing, since burning is the quickest and cheapest method available.
    5. The response is calibrated to the number: The winter air quality response for the Delhi National Capital Region is built on this dataset, so a wrong count misdirects the measures taken.

    Why is a replacement protocol difficult to define?

    1. Burnt area measures land, not emissions: Mapping singed acreage gives a better estimate of how much land was burnt. The CAQM Chairman noted it is still not an accurate measure of the particulate matter emitted.
    2. Ground truthing needs the States: Verification on the ground requires Punjab and Haryana to run field checks against the satellite record, which is what the Commission is negotiating with both.
    3. A first protocol has been sought this year: ISRO has been asked to supply a basic protocol this year so that the estimate improves on fire counts.

    Challenges to stubble fire measurement

    1. A single daytime overpass: One pass at a fixed hour cannot capture a fire lit after it. Eg. The Terra and Aqua satellites carrying the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) cross northwest India around the middle of the day.
      The Fix: Pair the polar orbiting record with geostationary imaging from INSAT-3D and INSAT-3DR, which observe the same area every fifteen minutes, and with night time detections from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite.
    2. Cloud and haze block an optical sensor: Smoke and cloud hide active fires at exactly the point in the season when burning peaks. Eg. Detection weakens during the late October haze episodes that trigger emergency curbs in the capital.
      The Fix: Add radar based burnt area mapping from Sentinel-1, which images through cloud, as an independent cross check on the count.
    3. Penalties fall on the cultivator, not on the residue: Environmental compensation and red entries in land records punish the act of burning without funding an alternative to it. Eg. Punjab has recovered environmental compensation from farmers recorded as burning paddy stubble.
      The Fix: Pay a verified per acre amount for residue actually managed, so the incentive attaches to disposal rather than to concealment.
    4. The window between two crops is too short: Roughly two to three weeks separate the paddy harvest from wheat sowing, which makes burning the only method that fits. Eg. The Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act, 2009 pushes paddy transplanting into late June and shortens the gap at the other end.
      The Fix: Expand shorter duration paddy varieties such as PR-126 and guarantee machinery through custom hiring centres so the window becomes workable.
    5. The airshed is governed in pieces: Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi each report and act separately on pollution that is common to one airshed. Eg. The Graded Response Action Plan is triggered by the air quality index recorded in Delhi.
      The Fix: Build one airshed level emission inventory on a common reporting standard, so source shares are settled by an agreed method rather than disputed each winter.

    Conclusion

    The argument here is not about whether stubble is burnt but about whether the instrument that counts it still works. A performance claim measured by a tool that a farmer can time his way around cannot settle how much of the capital’s winter air the fields are answerable for. The marker to watch is whether a verification protocol is in place before the burning window opens rather than after it closes.

    Back2Basics: Commission for Air Quality Management

    1. Statutory basis: The Commission was established under the Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Act, 2021.
    2. Jurisdiction: It covers Delhi and the adjoining areas of Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh that affect the capital’s air quality.
    3. Powers: It issues directions binding on State governments and State pollution control boards, and its directions prevail where they conflict with a State board’s.
    4. Enforcement: Non-compliance with its directions is punishable with imprisonment of up to five years or a fine of up to one crore rupees.

    [2020, GS3, 15 marks] What are the key features of the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) initiated by the Government of India?