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Type: Op-ed

  • What an infrastructure of innovation depends on: a responsive legal system

    What an infrastructure of innovation depends on: a responsive legal system

    Why in the News

    The Delhi High Court’s model for intellectual property (IP) disputes has been held up as a framework for courts serving India’s other innovation and commercial hubs. Other courts can copy it only with equal investment in their infrastructure, because investors in innovation need courts that settle disputes fast.

    What changed in India’s patent regime after 2005?

    1. What a product patent is: A product patent protects the chemical itself, not just one way of making it. It is like owning the recipe, not one kitchen method.
    2. The 2005 amendment: The last major amendment to the Patents Act, 1970 restored product patents for chemicals, affecting pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and agro-chemicals.
    3. Why it came: World Trade Organization (WTO) membership bound India to the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement’s common minimum IP rules, which leave room to protect public health.
    4. Public interest guardrails: India kept safeguards so patents do not hurt the public:
      • compulsory licences, letting others make a patented product in the public interest;
      • checks on evergreening, extending a patent through minor changes;
      • a local working rule, requiring the invention to be commercially used in India;
      • competition law curbs on abuse of IP monopolies.
    5. The takeaway: Stronger rights multiplied IP, from trademarks and copyrights to geographical indications, industrial designs, semiconductor layouts and plant varieties, so disputes multiplied too.

    Why did disputes rise, and how did the legal system respond?

    1. Complex commerce: After liberalisation, Indian firms competed globally under WTO rules, so IP and commercial disputes rose sharply. Foreign investors, then Indian firms, demanded faster, skilled courts.
    2. Ranking pressure: Speed and quality of dispute resolution became a metric in global ease of doing business rankings.
    3. Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR): The first response promoted arbitration and mediation, private settlement outside court.
    4. Commercial Courts Act, 2015: The second response let State governments set up dedicated commercial courts in consultation with their High Courts. It amended the Code of Civil Procedure to speed commercial cases.

    What is alternative dispute resolution?

    1. Meaning: ADR settles a dispute privately, outside the court system, with minimal court interference.
    2. Forms: It takes the form of arbitration or mediation.
    3. Purpose: It decongests civil courts and disposes of time-sensitive disputes quickly.

    What makes the Delhi High Court a model?

    1. Original side: The Delhi High Court is the court of first instance for civil suits above a set value, so high-stakes cases skip lower courts.
    2. Landmark rulings: Its rulings on pharmaceuticals, Standard Essential Patents (patents a telecom standard cannot work without), copyrights and IP versus fundamental rights are a benchmark for the Global South and North.
    3. Intellectual Property Division: Building on the 2015 Act, it created a division hearing only IP disputes. It framed IP Division Rules in 2022, welcomed by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
    4. Paperless court: E-filing since the 2020 lockdown made it largely paperless, helping litigants seeking urgent relief and building stakeholder confidence.

    Can the model work beyond Delhi?

    1. Viksit Bharat link: Becoming a developed nation, Viksit Bharat, by 2047 needs a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship. A legal system that enforces rights is part of that ecosystem.
    2. Unfinished ADR: ADR has broad acceptance, yet calls for world-class ADR infrastructure show gaps remain.

    Challenges

    1. Limited original side: Only a few High Courts, such as Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta and Madras, hear civil suits at first instance.
    2. Tribunal abolition: Abolishing the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) moved its appeals to already burdened High Courts.
    3. Patent office backlog: Slow examination and too few examiners delay patents before any dispute arises.
    4. Uneven digital capacity: Many courts lack reliable e-filing and staff trained in technical IP evidence.

    Way Forward

    1. IP Divisions elsewhere: High Courts serving major commercial hubs should set up IP Divisions with their own rules.
    2. Dedicated funding: The Union and States should fund judges, technical experts and e-courts.
    3. Examination timelines: The patent office should fix examination deadlines and hire more examiners.
    4. Institutional arbitration: Credible arbitration centres would keep more disputes out of court.

    Conclusion

    Strong IP law protects innovation only when courts can enforce it quickly, and outside Delhi that capacity is thin. Whether other High Courts create funded IP Divisions will show if one court’s success becomes a national standard.

    Government Initiatives for India’s IPR Ecosystem

    1. National IPR Policy, 2016: Aims to build a robust intellectual property rights (IPR) ecosystem that promotes innovation and entrepreneurship.
    2. Patent Facilitation Centres: Guide inventors, especially small enterprises and startups, through filing and protection.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2024, GS3, 10 marks] What is the present world scenario of intellectual property rights with respect to life materials? Although, India is second in the world to file patents, still only a few have been commercialized. Explain the reasons behind this less commercialization.”

  • [30th September 2026] The Hindu OpED: The United Nations’ long road to restoring trust

    [30th September 2026] The Hindu OpED: The United Nations’ long road to restoring trust

    Question (2025, GS2 – 15 Marks): “The reform process in the United Nations remains unresolved, because of the delicate imbalance of East and West and entanglement of the USA vs. Russo-Chinese alliance.” Examine and critically evaluate the East-West policy confrontations in this regard.
    Linkage: Directly addresses why comprehensive UN structural reform remains stalled—attributing the paralysis to major-power rivalry, veto misuse, and the unwillingness of the P5 to concede influence.

    [2026] Which of the following international conventions have NOT been ratified by India?
    1. Employment Policy Convention
    2. Abolition of Forced Labour Convention
    3. International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families
    4. Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War
    5. Convention on Reduction of Statelessness
    (a) 2 and 4 (b) 1 and 2 (c) 3 and 4 only (d) 3, 4 and 5

    Mentor’s Comment

    The UN was built to create trust between states, and it now has to earn trust from the people it serves. Delivery is not the problem, since 98 million people were reached. The problem is that funding power, opaque oversight and skewed leadership make delivery look partisan. Each reform the article implies shifts power away from those who hold it. Donors would lose influence over recruitment and programmes. Permanent members would lose freedom on the veto. Headquarters cities would lose posts. Restoring trust therefore depends on the actors who benefit from the current arrangement agreeing to constrain themselves.

    Why in the News

    The 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) held its high-level week under the theme “Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation: a UN that delivers for all”. The word “restoring” concedes that trust in the UN has collapsed, and global surveys confirm the fall.

    Why does trust matter to the UN, and how far has it fallen?

    1. Why the UN exists: Set up after the Second World War, the UN makes states’ conduct more predictable through dialogue and international law, like agreed rules in a game rivals play.
    2. What went wrong: Over three decades, the UN went from building trust between parties in peacebuilding to needing to restore trust in itself.
    3. Falling confidence: Edelman Trust and Pew surveys found declining trust. In a UN Foundation poll, 52 per cent want deep structural reform, saying the UN struggles to deliver.
    4. Doubts on leadership: Only 58 per cent think the UN can lead on global problems (Rockefeller Foundation and Focaldata poll), possibly a historic low.
    5. The takeaway: The UN’s authority rests on states and publics trusting it, so falling trust weakens its ability to broker peace.

    What are the four reasons for the loss of trust?

    1. Security Council deadlock: UN Security Council (UNSC) paralysis eroded the Assembly’s trust, so it passed resolution A/76/262 requiring permanent members to explain each veto.
    2. Integrity and oversight gaps: Scandals were blamed on individuals, and systemic accountability was seldom addressed:
      • a procurement scandal in Afghanistan (2013);
      • sexual exploitation and abuse cases involving peacekeepers (2017);
      • contracts for non-existent housing projects in Ghana and India (2021).
    3. Donor capture: A few countries give extra-budgetary grants, voluntary money outside the regular budget, and use them to place their nationals and back cherry-picked programmes:
      • the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), the UN’s top financial watchdog, found one government sponsoring eight of nine experts in one agency;
      • spending data reach donor governments, not beneficiary publics;
      • fear of upsetting donors has made staff risk-averse on conflict prevention.
    4. Global South under-representation: Most programmes run in the Global South, where trust is higher, but power sits elsewhere:
      • developing nations hold 84 per cent of the world’s population but 44 per cent of UN civil service leadership posts;
      • only a third of UN leaders in Africa are African, and two-fifths of UN headquarters cities are in the Global South;
      • posts moved out of New York and Geneva in 2025 to cut costs largely bypassed Global South cities.

    Where does the UN still deliver, and where does it fall short?

    1. Humanitarian reach: The UN aided and protected 98 million people in 2025-26. Aid quality and funds reaching local actors remain weak.
    2. Tactical wins: In the wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Iran, the UN kept Black Sea grain exports flowing and prevented a Red Sea oil spill.
    3. Peacemaking gap: It could not turn that goodwill into mechanisms for belligerents to talk, because peacemaking initiative is centralised at the top of the bureaucracy.

    Challenges

    1. Costless vetoes: Explaining a veto carries no penalty, so permanent members keep blocking action. Eg. Ukraine and Gaza.
    2. Liquidity crisis: Unpaid assessed contributions, members’ compulsory dues, deepen dependence on earmarked donor funds.
    3. Weak accountability: No independent system holds senior managers answerable for systemic failures.
    4. Minilateralism: States bypass the UN for smaller groupings. Eg. the Quad, BRICS.

    Way Forward

    1. Public transparency: UN entities should publish programme spending to beneficiary publics, not only to donors.
    2. People-centred ties: The UN should rebuild ties with people, not only governments.
    3. Equitable staffing: The Secretariat should set Global South leadership targets and relocate posts to Global South hubs.
    4. Decentralised peacemaking: The Secretary-General should let field envoys open talks without waiting for headquarters.

    Conclusion

    The UN’s crisis of trust stems less from failed delivery than from how it is governed: who decides, who pays and who answers for failure. Whether the promised “transformation” opens UN leadership and finances to the Global South will decide if trust returns.

    About UN Security Council reform

    1. G4 bid: India, Brazil, Japan and Germany seek expansion of both permanent and non-permanent seats.
    2. Amendment hurdle (Article 108): An amendment needs two-thirds of the Assembly and ratification by two-thirds of members, including all five permanent members.
    3. Rival blocs: The Uniting for Consensus group, including Pakistan, Italy and Mexico, wants only non-permanent seats added. Africa’s Ezulwini Consensus seeks at least two permanent seats with veto.
    4. Stalled talks: The 2026 session of the Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN) ended without consensus on a framework for expansion.

  • We need to manage public spaces, not women

    Why in the News

    In Delhi’s Aastha Kunj Park, three men posing as police officers gang-raped a 17-year-old, and young couples in Bihar’s Jamui and Samastipur were assaulted or harassed. Each victim was doing something ordinary in public, which shows the state still manages women instead of making public spaces safe.

    What does it mean to manage women instead of public spaces?

    1. Conditional access: In “Why Loiter?”, Shilpa Phadke, Sameera Khan and Shilpa Ranade argue that women gain access to public space only on proof of “respectability and purpose”.
    2. Paternalistic approach: This view manages risk by restricting women, not the space. It is like keeping people indoors instead of fixing a broken streetlight.
    3. Vocabulary of suspicion: Anti-Romeo squads in Uttar Pradesh, police overstepping their mandate and self-appointed moral guardians fixing curfews treat ordinary meetings between men and women as suspect.
    4. Cover for crime: Because a friendship or a walk home can easily be branded wrongdoing, offenders find it easy to pose as police, as in the Delhi park case.
    5. The takeaway: Policing women’s presence keeps them out of public life and hands abusers a ready disguise.

    What have reforms since 2012 changed, and what did the Verma Committee ask for?

    1. Legal reforms: After the 2012 Delhi gang rape and the 2024 rape and murder of a doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College, India added fast-track special courts and harsher sentences.
    2. Women at work: The female workforce has grown rapidly, with millions more women professionals, but public infrastructure has not kept pace.
    3. Verma diagnosis: The Justice J.S. Verma Committee traced the 2012 crime to deep-seated patriarchy and the state’s failure to keep women safe. The Supreme Court reiterated that failure this week.
    4. Verma recommendations: The Committee treated sexual violence as an expression of power, not desire. It recommended gender-sensitisation training for police, better public amenities for women and wider conversations on masculinity.

    What does South Africa show about legal and lived equality?

    1. Sandton killings: A women’s running club in Sandton, Johannesburg, lost a member on an evening jog. The bodies of 10 women have been found with signs of sexual assault.
    2. National disaster: South Africa’s femicide rate is over six times the global average. Last year it declared gender-based violence and femicide a national disaster.
    3. Progressive constitution: South Africa’s 1996 constitution protects women even from private discrimination. Three decades on, women still improvise safety, running in groups and tracking each other by phone.
    4. Arrests in India: Unlike in South Africa, the alleged perpetrators of the Indian cases have been arrested.
    5. Legal versus lived equality: Both societies mistake legal equality for lived equality, so rights on paper do not make streets safe.

    Why must infrastructure come before generational change?

    1. Slow social change: Dismantling male entitlement and raising boys who need no policing is generational work. Women’s mobility cannot wait for it.
    2. Faster fixes: Regular patrols change the odds inside a park. Streetlights and better connectivity change what a walk home risks.
    3. Infrastructure as choice: Safe infrastructure gives women alternatives and agency, and makes their presence in public unremarkable.
    4. Less room for harm: Together with sensitisation, these measures cut the chances for toxic masculinity to cause harm.

    Challenges

    1. Moral policing by the state: Squads that watch couples divert police time from protecting women.
    2. Dark public spaces: Unlit parks, lanes and bus stops remain common in Indian cities.
    3. Slow trials: Judge vacancies and backlogs in special courts blunt the deterrence of harsher laws.

    Way Forward

    1. Space audits: Municipal bodies should map unsafe parks, lanes and stops and publish repair timelines.
    2. Evening beat patrols: State police should patrol parks and transit hubs every evening.
    3. End moral policing: State governments should disband squads that target consenting adults.

    Conclusion

    India has strengthened laws against sexual violence but still manages women’s behaviour rather than the spaces they use. The test is whether city budgets treat safe public space as core infrastructure rather than a response to the next crime.

    Government Initiatives for Women’s Safety

    1. Mission Shakti, ‘Sambal’: Runs One Stop Centres, the Women Helpline and Nari Adalats for legal, medical and counselling support.
    2. Safe City Projects: In eight major cities, artificial intelligence (AI) enabled closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras and panic buttons cover public spaces.
    3. Nirbhaya Fund: Funds Women Help Desks in police stations to make them survivor friendly.
    4. Zero FIR: Section 173 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 lets a woman file a First Information Report (FIR) at any police station.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2025, GS2, 10 marks] Women’s social capital complements in advancing empowerment and gender equity. Explain.”

  • Indian academia’s drift from reason to ritual

    Why in the News

    At the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi convocation in August 2026, students were reportedly told how far to bow while receiving medals from the Prime Minister and asked to stand during Vedic chants. The episode has revived a debate on whether ritual and deference are eroding academic freedom in a secular, democratic republic.

    Why do convocation rituals clash with the purpose of a university?

    1. Purpose of a university: A university seeks truth through observation, experimentation and peer review. The scientific method rests on falsifiability, meaning every claim must be open to disproof.
    2. Knowledge by challenge: Science advances by challenging the past, not revering it. Eg. Galileo, Darwin and Einstein each overturned once-sacred truths.
    3. Message of obedience: Bowing to a political figure teaches students to obey authority, not question it. A prayer at a science convocation suggests the supernatural belongs in empirical inquiry.
    4. Courtly hierarchy: The bowing protocol revives a pre-modern feudal hierarchy in which graduates submit instead of thinking independently. The Constitution’s spirit favours democratic equality over submission.
    5. The takeaway: Universities must stay spaces of scepticism, dissent and fearless inquiry, or they lose the purpose that justifies them.

    Is ritual a cultural tribute or enforced deference?

    1. Defenders’ view: Supporters call these practices “cultural flourishes”, harmless tributes to India’s ancient past that teach respect.
    2. Guru-shishya objection: The guru-shishya (teacher and disciple) model demanded unquestioning obedience. Modern teaching rests on Socratic dialectic, meaning learning through open argument and respectful dissent.
    3. Mixed message: The Prime Minister used the same address to urge students to question conventional wisdom, contradicting the ritual of reverence.
    4. Culture as shield: Wrapping practices in ancient culture deflects scrutiny. Critics get branded “westernised”, “anti-national” or “Dimagi Naxal” (intellectual extremist).
    5. Tagorean ideal: Rabindranath Tagore‘s poem “Where the Mind is Without Fear”, written under British rule, calls for courageous thought and is a tradition worth defending.

    What does the ‘Free to Think 2026’ report find?

    1. The report: Scholars at Risk (SAR), an international network that monitors education communities, published “Free to Think 2026”, covering the year to June 2026.
    2. Severely restricted: It rates academic freedom in India “severely restricted”. India’s Academic Freedom Index, where a higher score means more freedom, fell to 0.14 in 2025.
    3. Earlier score: The index stood at 0.38 in 2022, so the latest score is less than half of it.
    4. Causes cited: The report blames government interference in university governance, suppression of dissent and a pervasive climate of fear.
    5. Self-censorship: Academics and students self-censor for fear of being branded traitors, and most researchers avoid questioning government overreach.

    How has regulation narrowed university autonomy?

    1. UGC as lever: The report says the central government has expanded control over higher education through the University Grants Commission (UGC), which funds universities and sets their standards.
    2. Vice-Chancellor norms: The UGC relaxed academic qualification criteria for Vice-Chancellors, the executive heads of universities.
    3. Contract faculty: It removed the 10 per cent cap on contract faculty set by the 2018 regulations. This speeds up casualisation, meaning insecure contract jobs replace permanent posts.
    4. Interference and repression: Influence over administration, curricula and management undermines institutional autonomy. The report also cites police violence against student protests.

    Challenges

    1. Politicised research: Research agendas risk being steered by political piety rather than public need.
    2. Ideological funding: Grants risk flowing by ideological alignment, rewarding sycophants over scientific merit.
    3. Insecure faculty: Contract teachers without job security are less able to dissent or pursue long-term research.
    4. Chancellor disputes: Vice-Chancellor appointments have become contests between State governments and Governors. Eg. Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

    Way Forward

    1. Secular ceremony code: Institute governing boards should adopt convocation protocols free of religious ritual and bowing.
    2. Merit-based selection: Search committees should apply published criteria when selecting Vice-Chancellors.
    3. Contract faculty ceiling: The UGC should restore a cap on contract faculty and fill sanctioned permanent posts.
    4. Academic freedom statutes: Universities should protect faculty and student speech from disciplinary action in their statutes.

    Conclusion

    Rituals of deference at a scientific institution signal a wider loss of university autonomy in India. Whether regulators restore faculty security and merit-based leadership will show if campuses can remain places of dissent.

    Higher Education in India

    1. Scale: With over 4.6 crore students, India runs the world’s second-largest higher education system.
    2. Other regulators: The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) regulates technical education, and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) regulates teacher training.
    3. Faculty shortage: Chronic vacancies in permanent faculty at State and central universities hamper teaching and research.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2026, GS2, 15 marks] Should education be treated primarily as a welfare obligation of the state or as a strategic investment for building a globally competitive, knowledge-driven nation? Critically evaluate.”

  • To save tigers, follow crime beyond the reserve

    Why in the News

    An assessment by TRAFFIC, a global non-profit that monitors trade in wild animals and plants, documents 2,551 seizures involving at least 3,808 tigers over 25 years to June 2025. Conservation has moved from isolated reserves to connected landscapes, but wildlife crime management has not made the same transition.

    Why is the tiger reserve no longer the frontline of protection?

    1. Two landscapes: A tiger’s ecological landscape runs from the protected area (PA) through buffers and corridors to human settlements. Traffickers work in an overlapping crime landscape, from poacher to collector, transit, market and consumer.
    2. Tigers on the move: Tigers cross buffers, corridors, plantations, farms, riverine strips and town edges, which leads to human-tiger conflict.
    3. Source, not boundary: The reserve remains the biological source, like a nursery. A tiger safe inside it becomes vulnerable in poorly monitored corridors.
    4. Information for criminals: Tigers moving repeatedly through poorly watched areas show poachers where to find them, so PA boundaries cannot remain the only line of protection.
    5. The takeaway: Tigers now live and die across a landscape that the reserve system was never designed to guard.

    How has tiger trafficking changed?

    1. Old geography of crime: Crime once meant poachers breaching a reserve and traders waiting outside, so protection meant patrolling, intelligence and intrusion detection. These remain indispensable.
    2. New products: Trafficking has moved from skin and bone to whole animals, dead and alive, and a wider range of derivatives.
    3. Linked networks: Tiger traffickers often share networks with the trade in leopard, bear and pangolin parts.
    4. New channels: Criminals use digital platforms, transport systems, financial channels and intermediaries far beyond traditional wildlife traders.

    What is a Tiger Crime Opportunity Surface, and who should act on it?

    1. Layered map: A “Tiger Crime Opportunity Surface” overlays young tigers’ dispersal routes, farm crossings, conflict villages, past offences and transport nodes. It shows where vulnerability and criminal opportunity meet.
    2. Act before mortality: The aim is to act before a tiger dies rather than investigate afterwards.
    3. Graded response: The same camera trap alert would trigger different action by zone: routine monitoring inside a PA, community preparedness in a conflict area, or extra patrols and intelligence gathering.
    4. Protection by zone: Inside the reserve, protection stays intensive and tiger specific. Beyond it, forest guards cannot carry the load alone.
    5. Inclusive enforcement: Protection should be intelligence-led, involving territorial forest staff, local communities, police, enforcement agencies and cyber or financial crime experts.

    Why do arrests not end tiger trafficking?

    1. Seizures without disruption: Isolated seizures and arrests rarely dismantle the systems that produce the crime.
    2. Missing kingpins: Cases usually target low and mid-level actors. Organisers and financiers are rarely booked.
    3. Follow the money: Cases must continue beyond arrest into financial investigation and network disruption.

    Challenges

    1. Thin territorial staff: Territorial forest divisions, where dispersing tigers roam, have fewer trained wildlife staff than reserves.
    2. Online trade: Wildlife products are sold through social media and messaging apps, beyond a forest guard’s reach.
    3. Weak financial probes: Wildlife cases rarely involve money-laundering investigators, so financiers escape.
    4. Community distrust: Villages losing crops and cattle to tigers may withhold information from forest staff.

    Way Forward

    1. Landscape crime maps: The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) should require every tiger landscape to build and update an opportunity surface.
    2. Joint task forces: States should form forest, police and cyber units for corridors and transport hubs.
    3. Financial tracing: The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) should work with financial intelligence agencies to trace traffickers’ money.
    4. Prompt compensation: States should pay quickly for tiger damage to keep communities on the side of protection.

    Conclusion

    Tiger conservation now plans for connected landscapes, but crime control is still organised around reserve boundaries and low-level arrests. The test is whether forest, police and financial agencies begin to share one intelligence system across each tiger landscape.

    Government Initiatives for Tiger Conservation

    1. Project Tiger (1973): Manages tiger reserves on a core-buffer model to reduce habitat pressure and human-tiger contact.
    2. Tigers Outside Tiger Reserves (TOTR): Uses artificial intelligence, GPS and camera surveillance to manage conflict involving about 30 per cent of tigers that live outside reserves.
    3. Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Act, 2006: Created the NTCA and the WCCB, and requires tiger conservation plans to protect corridors linking reserves.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2024] Consider the following statements: Statement-I: The Indian Flying Fox is placed under the “vermin” category in the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972. Statement-II: The Indian Flying Fox feeds on the blood of other animals. Which one of the following is correct in respect of the above statements? (a) Both statement I and Statement II are correct and statement II explains statement I (b) Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct, but Statement-II does not explain Statement-I (c) Staement- I is correct , but Statement II is incorrect* (d) Statement-I is incorrect, but Statement-II is correct”

  • Ghosts of 1945 are being recruited in US-China contest over Asia

    Why in the News

    At their Washington meeting, the US President and the Chinese President affirmed that the United States and China were victorious allies in World War II. The claim shows the memory of 1945 being used to reshape Asia’s great-power order, a debate India’s strategic community has largely ignored.

    How are the great powers using the memory of 1945?

    1. History as politics: The past is reinterpreted to serve present politics, so references to the war are “rarely innocent”.
    2. Washington’s use: The US President invokes wartime cooperation with Russia and China. Critics see this as cover for his direct outreach to their leaders, which unsettles US allies.
    3. Moscow’s use: Victory supports Russia’s claim to a leading role in European security and a return to the “Yalta System”, the US-Soviet order of post-war Europe.
    4. Beijing’s use: Posing as a victor of 1945 helps China undermine the “San Francisco System” of US alliances that defined the post-war Asian order.
    5. The takeaway: Wartime memory is now a tool for claiming a say in today’s order.

    Why does the claim unsettle Taiwan and Japan?

    1. Which China: Washington’s wartime ally was the Republic of China (RoC) under Chiang Kai-shek, which now endures in Taiwan. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) emerged only in 1949.
    2. Taipei’s charge: Taiwan accuses Beijing of “narrative diplomacy”, using history to erase its separate identity.
    3. Tokyo’s unease: Imperial Japan, the common enemy, is now Washington’s principal Asian ally, and its Prime Minister sought reassurance.
    4. Militarism charge: Japan is raising defence spending in response to China’s military edge. Casting Japan as the defeated aggressor lets Beijing brand this as militarism.
    5. Enemy state clauses: China opposes Japan’s call to remove the UN Charter’s obsolete “enemy state” clauses against Japan, Germany and Italy. The UN had earlier agreed to drop them.

    What does China gain by recasting the war?

    1. Targeting the alliance: The San Francisco System, built on the 1951 peace settlement with Japan, centres US strategy on Japan. Beijing wants to weaken it and nudge the US towards a “China-First” Asia policy.
    2. Victim narrative: Under Mao the war was awkward, because Chiang’s Nationalist armies did most of the conventional fighting. From the 1980s it anchored a victim story of China’s “century of humiliation”.
    3. Victor narrative: Today commemorations, parades and textbooks stress China’s place among the powers that defeated Japan and founded the United Nations.
    4. Claim to authority: Historian Rana Mitter shows this memory supports China’s claim to the apex of the global hierarchy, since victory claims a right to shape the order.

    Why is India missing from the debate over 1945?

    1. Wartime mobilisation: 2.3 million Indians served under arms, from North Africa and Italy to Burma, and 14 million worked in war production.
    2. Denied recognition: At a Russia-India-China (RIC) foreign ministers’ meeting, India’s External Affairs Minister called India’s neglect in the post-war order an uncorrected “historical injustice”.
    3. Divided movement: The Congress opposed the war and launched Quit India. The Communists backed the war after Germany invaded the Soviet Union, and Subhas Chandra Bose sought Axis help.
    4. Elite neglect: Indian elites ignore how the war shaped Partition and India’s post-war marginalisation, so strategic debate leans on abstract concepts instead of this history.

    Challenges

    1. Narrative as leverage: China’s victor story gives it grounds to question Japan’s defence build-up and US alliances in Asia.
    2. Alliance uncertainty: US outreach to Beijing leaves Indo-Pacific partners, including India, unsure of Washington’s priorities.
    3. India’s missing claim: Without an agreed account of its war role, India cannot use 1945 to back its case for a larger global role.

    Way Forward

    1. Official war histories: The Ministry of Defence should publish accessible histories of Indian campaigns abroad.
    2. Commemorative diplomacy: India should mark Burma campaign anniversaries jointly with Southeast Asian partners.
    3. Link to UN reform: India should cite its wartime contribution in its case for a permanent UN Security Council seat.

    Conclusion

    The contest over who won the Second World War is a contest over who shapes Asia’s order now. India’s wartime sacrifice will count only when an agreed account of it backs India’s claim to a larger global role.

    About the post-1945 world order

    1. Yalta Conference (February 1945): Allied leaders planned Germany’s final defeat and the shape of the post-war order.
    2. Founding of the UN: India was an original signatory of the UN Charter in 1945, before independence.
    3. Hub-and-spoke alliances: The US signed separate treaties with Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, and Australia and New Zealand, not one NATO-style Asian bloc.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2025, GS2, 10 marks] With the waning of globalization, post-Cold War world is becoming a site of sovereign nationalism. Elucidate.”

  • Towards a gender-just Uniform Civil Code

    Why in the News

    The Union Home Minister has said a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) will be implemented in all 21 States ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) before the 2029 Lok Sabha elections. The UCC is justified as serving equality and gender justice, but the Uttarakhand code “confuses uniformity with equality” and “conflates regulation with protection”.

    Where does the UCC push stand?

    1. What it is: A UCC replaces religion-based personal laws on marriage, divorce, maintenance and inheritance with one civil law for all citizens. It is like one rulebook replacing community rulebooks.
    2. Origin of the push: The UCC became an important BJP goal after the Shah Bano judgment (1985), but no draft existed to debate.
    3. Enacted and pending: Uttarakhand’s UCC applies from January 2025. Gujarat, Assam and Madhya Pradesh await Presidential assent, needed where a State law on a Concurrent List subject clashes with Union law.
    4. Drafting and dissent: Maharashtra, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh have drafting committees. Justice R.C. Chavan quit Maharashtra’s committee, headed by Justice Ranjana Desai, over its consultative process.
    5. The takeaway: States are drafting codes on the Uttarakhand model, so its flaws will spread unless corrected.

    Why does the Uttarakhand code confuse uniformity with equality?

    1. Live-in registration: Compulsory registration of live-in relationships, with notice to police and parents, is “surveillance masquerading as protection”.
    2. Criminal penalties in civil law: Ending a marriage outside court carries three years’ punishment and a fine. Unregistered marriages, divorces or live-in relationships risk fines or jail, hurting the poor and marginalised most.
    3. Court-only divorce: Sending every divorce to a civil court will clog family courts already holding lakhs of pending cases. Customary divorces are quicker and cheaper for weaker sections.
    4. Silence on HUF: The code ignores tax benefits available only to Hindus through the Hindu Undivided Family (HUF), a joint family taxed as a separate unit.
    5. Copy of the Hindu Code Bill: It reads like a “copy-paste” of the Hindu Code Bill, ignoring progressive reforms in personal laws and family codes worldwide.

    What should a gender-just UCC guarantee women?

    1. Support for deserted women: Desertion leaves women and children highly vulnerable. A UCC should provide automatic maintenance orders and bar disposal of assets.
    2. Gender-specific maintenance: Only women can claim maintenance under the Special Marriage Act, 1954 and other personal laws, unlike the gender-neutral Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. A UCC should keep this, given unequal power in marriage.
    3. Non-willable share: The Hindu Code Bill let Hindu men will away all property, causing the silent disinheritance of women. Like Muslim law’s protected share, a UCC should reserve wives and children a minimum share.
    4. Marital property: Women should get an equitable share of assets built during marriage, recognising unpaid care and domestic work.
    5. Second wives: Courts grant maintenance to women deceived into a void second marriage, and a UCC should codify this.

    Challenges

    1. Patchwork of State codes: Each State enacting its own code produces different rules, which defeats uniformity itself.
    2. Minority apprehension: Communities fear a code modelled on Hindu law imposes majority practice. Eg. Meghalaya and Mizoram district councils opposing it.
    3. Religious freedom claims: Reform faces challenges under Article 25 (freedom of religion).
    4. Thin consultation: Hurried drafting loses legitimacy with affected groups.

    Way Forward

    1. Optional registration: Make registration optional and confidential, with tangible benefits such as maintenance, legitimacy of children and inheritance rights.
    2. Administrative divorce: Create an administrative mechanism for mutual-consent divorces, reserving courts for contested or complex cases.
    3. Inclusive consultation: Consult groups working for women, Adivasis, queer and transgender people and persons with disabilities.
    4. Civil, not criminal, compliance: Replace penalties with awareness drives and user-friendly procedures.

    Conclusion

    The UCC is moving from slogan to statute State by State, but the first enacted model regulates relationships more than it secures women’s economic rights. Whether pending State bills are revised toward maintenance and marital property rights before assent will show if uniformity serves gender justice.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2021] Under the Indian Constitution, concentration of wealth violates (a) the Right to Equality (b) the Directive Principles of State Policy (c) the Right to Freedom (d) the Concept of Welfare Answer: (b)”

  • Problem is weak drug regulation, CCTV is no cure

    Why in the News

    Buying prescription drugs could move from an ordinary pharmacy counter to one under closed-circuit television (CCTV) surveillance across the country by early 2027. The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has begun the process, and the camera promises an audit trail against misuse but records sensitive health choices without fixing weak enforcement of existing rules.

    What is the CCTV proposal meant to achieve?

    1. What it is: Every pharmacy sale of a prescription drug would be filmed. It works like an aircraft’s black box, keeping a record that can be checked later.
    2. What the camera shows: Footage can establish whether a prescription was presented, whether a medicine was handed over and when the sale took place.
    3. Help for inspectors: Drug inspectors could use it to probe pharmacies that repeatedly sell prescription medicines without a prescription.
    4. Audit trail for risky drugs: For Schedule H1 and Schedule X medicines (tightly controlled drugs such as newer antibiotics and narcotics), a stronger record could prevent diversion to illegal use.
    5. The takeaway: A simple technology is meant to make enforcement transparent and accountable, but it records every buyer to catch a few sellers.

    What are Schedules H, H1 and X?

    1. Schedule H: Lists drugs that may be sold only against a registered medical practitioner’s prescription.
    2. Schedule H1: Places tighter controls on the sale of certain antibiotics.
    3. Schedule X: Covers narcotic and psychotropic drugs, with stricter record keeping on every sale.

    Why is a camera a weak regulatory tool?

    1. Cannot verify prescriptions: A camera shows a piece of paper crossing the counter. It cannot tell whether the prescription is genuine.
    2. Blanket coverage: Buyers of an antibiotic, an antihypertensive (blood pressure drug) or an anti-diabetic medicine are not high-risk merely because a prescription is required.
    3. Mismatch with the aim: Filming every prescription sale overshoots the high-risk target, documenting transactions without solving the regulatory problem.

    What privacy risks does it create?

    1. Sensitive purchases on record: A camera can capture someone buying an antidepressant, an HIV medicine, a fertility drug, an abortion pill, cancer treatment or psychiatric drugs.
    2. Health profile from footage: A face, a pharmacy, a time and a medicine together reveal a person’s private life. Linked to other databases or facial recognition, three months of footage maps health behaviour.
    3. Unanswered access questions: It is unclear whether inspectors, police or other departments can obtain footage or reuse it. Citizens cannot learn whether their footage was accessed.

    What must the government prove first?

    1. Constitutional test: The Supreme Court’s privacy rulings require any restriction of a fundamental right to meet legality, necessity and proportionality.
    2. Least intrusive means: The government must show that blanket surveillance is necessary and that a less intrusive method would not work equally well.
    3. Existing regime: India already has prescription rules, registers, licensing conditions, inspections and controls on Schedules H, H1 and X. The first question is whether regulators use them against violators.
    4. Data is not regulation: Collecting more footage does not improve enforcement. It also leaves unanswered who oversees the people holding the footage.

    Challenges

    1. Thin inspection capacity: State drug regulators lack enough inspectors, so existing rules go unenforced. Eg. antibiotics sold over the counter.
    2. No access or retention limits: The proposal states no rules on who may view footage or how long it is kept.
    3. Cost for small chemists: Rural and small pharmacies must bear camera and storage costs.
    4. Function creep: Footage gathered for drug control can be reused for policing or profiling.

    Way Forward

    1. Targeted monitoring: The Health Ministry should limit recording to Schedule H1 and X sales instead of every prescription.
    2. Fill inspector posts: States should recruit drug inspectors and act against repeat violators.
    3. Access rules first: The Ministry should notify who may access footage, for what purpose and for how long, before rollout.
    4. Verifiable prescriptions: Digital prescriptions can confirm genuineness.

    Conclusion

    The proposal treats a gap in enforcement as a gap in data. Whether the Health Ministry sets out access limits and a proportionality case before rollout will decide if the plan survives privacy scrutiny.

    Drug Regulation in India

    1. Parent law: The Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 governs the import, manufacture, distribution and sale of drugs. The Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945 set drug classification, storage and labelling.
    2. Central regulator: The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), headed by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), approves new drugs and regulates clinical trials.
    3. State regulators: State Drug Regulatory Authorities license manufacture and sale, inspect premises and act against spurious drugs.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2026] X’ was addressing a seminar on the meaning of the term ‘law’ as provided under Article 13, Part III of the Constitution of India. ‘X’ explained that the meaning of the term ‘law’ in the Constitution of India was very comprehensive. It included ordinances, orders and even rules and regulations. ‘Y’ pointed out that the term ‘law’ in Article 13 also included custom or usage having in the territory of India the force of law, to which ‘X’ was not convinced. Based on the above, select the correct conclusion from the options given below: (a) X is correct in the interpretation of law, including the view on non-inclusion of custom (b) The view of Y that ‘law’ included custom is not correct (c) The views of both X and Y are correct (d) The view of only Y is correct Answer: D”

  • Surveillance is not the only privacy issue

    Why in the News

    Three recent developments together show surveillance spreading across the state, private firms and online networks:

    1. The Supreme Court (SC) has disposed of a public interest litigation (PIL) on doxxing (publishing a person’s private details online) and deepfakes, asking Union Ministries to take remedial measures.
    2. Rajya Sabha member A.A. Rahim has petitioned the SC against the Delhi Police’s use of facial recognition and biometric surveillance during the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protests.
    3. The SC has upheld the Election Commission’s (EC) Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, which critics warned could exclude eligible voters.

    What is diffuse surveillance?

    1. What it is: Diffuse surveillance is watching shared among states, private companies and foreign vendors, not one identifiable actor. It is like cameras run by many owners, with nobody answerable for the whole.
    2. An old impulse: State interest in identifying people predates Aadhaar by over 150 years. In 1858, British magistrate William Herschel took handprints on contracts, later developed into Bengal’s fingerprint classification system.
    3. What is new: The scale and speed differ, visible in Aadhaar, Delhi’s cameras and the SIR.
    4. The takeaway: A privacy law that checks one actor at a time cannot protect data passing through many hands.

    What are the three kinds of watching?

    1. Facial recognition by the state: Rahim’s petition alleges police used facial recognition, AI-enabled smart glasses, drones and a mobile command vehicle at Jantar Mantar. Two private firms hosted the data.
    2. Doxxing by online networks: Women at the CJP protests later had their personal details published, with reported rape and death threats.
    3. Public shaming precedent: In March 2020, Uttar Pradesh put photos and addresses of Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 protesters on Lucknow hoardings. The Allahabad High Court ordered removal as an “unwarranted interference in privacy”.
    4. Identity checks on the rolls: Under the SIR, identity checks decide who stays on the electoral roll. The SC held the EC may examine citizenship only for this purpose, not decide it.
    5. Scale of the SIR: Bihar’s roll fell from about 7.89 crore to 7.42 crore electors.

    What is doxxing?

    1. Meaning: Doxxing is publishing a person’s private details, such as a home address, online so that others can find and target them.
    2. Speed of exposure: A photo can be uploaded, identified, amplified and linked to an address within hours.
    3. Remedy so far: Disposing of the PIL, the SC left remedial measures to Union Ministries.

    Why do India’s privacy safeguards fall short?

    1. State-centred right: A nine-judge Bench in K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2017) held privacy a constitutionally protected right. The case was against the state, so its test targets state action.
    2. Wide exemptions: The Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023 lets the Union exempt any state instrumentality by notification, on grounds including security of the state and public order.
    3. Pegasus episode: In 2022, a court-appointed expert committee found malware in some phones but could not confirm it was Pegasus, Israeli spyware. It noted the Union had not cooperated.
    4. Secrecy of findings: In 2025, the SC indicated parts of the committee’s report would stay confidential.
    5. Broken chain of protection: The constitutional test guards only the state’s step, so no one answers when a protester is filmed, doxxed and threatened at home.

    Challenges

    1. Private hosts outside safeguards: Police data held by private firms sits beyond clear constitutional or statutory duties.
    2. Self-exemption by government: The Union writes data rules and can exempt its own agencies, so no independent check applies.
    3. No law on facial recognition: Police use of facial recognition rests on executive practice, with no statute setting its limits.

    Way Forward

    1. Surveillance statute: Parliament should legislate limits on police facial recognition, including warrants and retention limits.
    2. Duties that follow data: Privacy obligations should bind private hosts and foreign vendors under rules made under the DPDP Act.
    3. Reviewed exemptions: The Union should record reasons for each exemption and allow independent review.

    Conclusion

    Privacy protection in India still assumes one watcher and one watched. The pending petition on protest surveillance will test whether courts extend the privacy right beyond direct state action.

    What is the Right to Privacy?

    1. Constitutional basis: Privacy is part of Article 21, the right to life and personal liberty.
    2. Related guarantees: It is read with Articles 14 and 19.
    3. Scope: It covers informational privacy (personal data), decisional autonomy (intimate choices) and bodily integrity.
    4. Limits on restriction: A restriction must pass legality, legitimate aim and proportionality. Eg. PUCL v. Union of India (1997) allowed phone tapping only under strict safeguards.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2026] X’ was addressing a seminar on the meaning of the term ‘law’ as provided under Article 13, Part III of the Constitution of India. ‘X’ explained that the meaning of the term ‘law’ in the Constitution of India was very comprehensive. It included ordinances, orders and even rules and regulations. ‘Y’ pointed out that the term ‘law’ in Article 13 also included custom or usage having in the territory of India the force of law, to which ‘X’ was not convinced. Based on the above, select the correct conclusion from the options given below: (a) X is correct in the interpretation of law, including the view on non-inclusion of custom (b) The view of Y that ‘law’ included custom is not correct (c) The views of both X and Y are correct (d) The view of only Y is correct Answer: D”

  • [29th September 2026] The Hindu OpED: Tackling food loss and waste: India’s opportunity

    [29th September 2026] The Hindu OpED: Tackling food loss and waste: India’s opportunity

    Question (2025, GS3 – 10 Marks): Elaborate the scope and significance of supply chain management of agricultural commodities in India.
    Linkage: This is the most direct conceptual match. It requires candidates to analyze the entire farm-to-fork value chain, identifying where losses occur, why cooling/storage alone is insufficient, and how integrated supply chain management can prevent loss across both rural and urban nodes.
    [2011] With what purpose is the Government of India promoting the concept of “Mega Food Parks”?
    1. To provide good infrastructure facilities for the food processing industry.
    2. To increase the processing of perishable items and reduce wastage.
    3. To provide emerging and eco-friendly food processing technologies to entrepreneurs.
    Select the correct answer using the code given below:
    (a) 1 only (b) 1 and 2 only (c) 2 and 3 only (d) 1, 2 and 3

    Mentor Comment

    India has measured farm-to-retail loss more rigorously than any other country, yet the measurement stops where waste begins. Retail, restaurant and household waste is unmeasured, so no target or accountability can be set for it. The ambition is a triple win on food security, emissions and incomes. The missing precondition is a connected national framework that pairs downstream data with financing. Surat’s 50-tonne-a-day plant shows the model works. Its five-year run without national replication shows that models exist and execution is the constraint. Loss reduction also shifts the problem rather than solves it. Better storage and cooling cut farm-gate loss, but the surplus reaches cities where segregation, collection and treatment capacity are weak. Unless municipalities build markets for compost and biogas, recovered value stays unrealised.

    Why in the News

    The International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste (29 September) has renewed a call for India to move from individual interventions to a connected national approach with financing at its core.

    What are food loss and food waste, and why do they matter?

    1. What they are: Food loss is produce spoiled between farm and shop through poor storage, drying or transport. Food waste is food thrown away by shops, restaurants and households.
    2. Hidden cost: Wasted food is like a leaking tank: the land, water and energy used to grow it are lost too.
    3. Triple win: Cutting both strengthens food security, eases pressure on natural resources and emissions, and raises incomes and productivity.
    4. The takeaway: India grows enough to feed its people, so every tonne saved is food gained without extra land or water.

    What evidence does India have, and what is missing?

    1. A global first: India alone has run three national post-harvest loss surveys, tracking losses from farm to retail. The Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) runs them, and a fourth round is under way.
    2. Global reporting: The surveys feed India’s Food Loss Index reporting under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which tracks losses before food reaches retail.
    3. The blind spot: Waste data for retail, hotels and restaurants, and households remain far less developed, so policy cannot target them.

    Why are wholesale markets an overlooked opportunity?

    1. Waste at the mandi: The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the National Council of Agriculture Marketing Boards (COSAMB) found a major wholesale market can generate up to 100 tonnes of organic waste daily.
    2. Landfill burden: In some cities, a fifth of urban organic waste reaches landfills, where rotting food releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
    3. A resource base: Nationally, this waste totals about 3.5 million tonnes a year. Treated, it could offset about 3.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (a common greenhouse gas measure).
    4. Surat model: A 50-tonne-a-day bio-CNG plant (compressed biogas for vehicles) in Surat has run through a private-sector partnership for over five years. Municipalities and market committees can adapt it.

    What should a connected national approach include?

    1. Mainstreaming: Loss and waste belong in agricultural planning, food-processing strategy, climate action and investment decisions.
    2. Targeted finance: Affordable money should reach storage, drying, cooling and processing for farmers, producer organisations and small firms, with traceability systems tracking produce.
    3. Circular approach: Surplus food can be redistributed and residues turned into compost, biogas or energy.
    4. Hotspot finance: The FAO and the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) are matching food-loss hotspots, where most produce is lost, with climate-resilient technologies. SIDBI finances small firms to adopt them.
    5. Package of Practices: The FAO is preparing a “Package of Practices” helping cities measure, prevent, reduce, redistribute and valorise (extract value from) waste.

    Challenges

    1. Split responsibility: Loss and waste cut across farm, food processing, urban and climate policy, so no single agency owns the problem.
    2. Isolated pilots: The Surat plant and similar models remain one-offs without a national framework.
    3. Costly technology: Cooling, drying and storage equipment is expensive for small farmers and enterprises.
    4. Poor segregation: Mixed market and city waste cannot be composted or converted to biogas, so it is landfilled.

    Way Forward

    1. Consumer-end surveys: MoFPI should extend loss surveys to retail, hotels, restaurants and households.
    2. Hotspot-linked credit: SIDBI and banks should scale credit for small firms at identified loss hotspots.
    3. Market waste plants: Market committees should set up segregation and bio-CNG units at major markets.

    Conclusion

    India has the technology and working models to cut food loss, but they remain pilots without finance at scale. Whether the next survey round extends to the consumer end will show if loss reduction enters urban and climate policy.

    Key numbers

    1. Loss surveys (MoFPI): 45 commodities (2005-07), 45 (2012-14), 54 (2020-22).
    2. Carbon value of market waste: close to $30 million in credits a year.
    3. Surat plant: cuts methane-related emissions by about 7,500 tonnes a year.

    Schemes and Initiatives for Food Loss Reduction

    1. Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMPADA Yojana (PMKSY): MoFPI’s scheme funds cold chains, Mega Food Parks and processing units.
    2. Operation Greens: Extended from tomato, onion and potato to 22 perishable crops to curb price swings and losses.
    3. Agriculture Infrastructure Fund: A Rs 1 lakh crore facility for post-harvest and market infrastructure.
    4. World’s Largest Grain Storage Plan: Launched in 2023, it builds godowns at Primary Agricultural Credit Society (PACS) level.