The Hindu Intelligence Dossier

“Diplomacy will become durable only when navigation, nuclear verification and calibrated relief move together.”

What happened?

U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the United States would, for the moment, refrain from launching fresh military strikes against Iran. He claimed that West Asian mediators had developed the broad parameters of a possible agreement to end the five-month-old conflict and that Israel had also accepted military restraint.

Under the proposed framework, the Strait of Hormuz would be reopened immediately and fully to commercial shipping, security concerns relating to Iran’s nuclear programme would be discussed, and U.S.–Iran negotiations would resume. In return, the United States could end the naval blockade imposed on Iran. This is not yet a signed agreement. A regional official also stated that mediation remained under way, while Iran rejected Trump’s claim that Tehran had pleaded with Washington to stop attacks.

The central question

Any attempt to stop military escalation must address three disputes simultaneously: Iran’s nuclear programme, navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, and U.S. economic-military pressure. It will be difficult to build a sustainable ceasefire by isolating any one of these issues from the others.

For UPSC, the topic is relevant to GS Paper II under West Asia, nuclear diplomacy, mediation and maritime security.

Context and background

Tension between Iran and the United States did not begin with the latest strikes. Washington has long viewed Iran’s uranium-enrichment capacity as a potential nuclear-weapons risk, while Tehran presents its programme as intended for peaceful civilian use.

The Strait of Hormuz connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and, further, the Arabian Sea. A large share of the oil exports of major Gulf producers reaches world markets through this narrow maritime route. A blockade, tanker attacks or navigation restrictions therefore affect crude prices, shipping insurance and global inflation, not merely regional politics.

Why the proposed framework is difficult

Trump’s formula is broadly based on restraint in return for restraint. Iran would reopen the shipping route and offer nuclear concessions; the United States would suspend strikes and remove the naval blockade.

The hardest issue is verification. What would ending the nuclear threat mean in operational terms? Would it require limits on enrichment, reduction of stockpiles and acceptance of international inspections? Similarly, would reopening Hormuz merely restore vessel movement, or would it also be accompanied by relief from Iran-related economic sanctions?

Without such details, the announcement is a political signal rather than an operational peace agreement. Trump has previously announced pauses in strikes that were followed by renewed fighting. Credibility will depend on whether commitments become written, phased and independently verifiable.

Core takeaway

This is not a ceasefire treaty; it is the reopening of diplomacy. A durable settlement will require freedom of navigation through Hormuz, verifiable limits on Iran’s nuclear programme and calibrated relief from U.S. pressure to be placed within a single enforceable framework.

“A health budget is not an outcome; it becomes one only when money reaches the right service, at the right time, through a capable institution.”

Does health require only a larger budget, or is better use of available money equally important?

Whenever public health is discussed, the first question is often how much the government spends on the health sector. This is justified because doctors, nurses, medicines, hospitals and diagnostic facilities cannot function without adequate funding.

The analysis takes the argument further. Developing countries face a double challenge: public spending on health is already below need, while foreign health assistance is declining and rising public debt is reducing the room for additional resources.

It is therefore no longer enough to ask how much the health budget increased. Three additional questions matter: Was the allocated money fully spent? Was it spent on the correct priorities? Did governance convert spending into real health outcomes?

For UPSC, this theme is relevant to GS Paper II under public health, Universal Health Coverage and governance; GS Paper III under public finance and human capital; and Essay themes such as more money versus better governance.

Understanding Universal Health Coverage correctly

Universal Health Coverage—UHC—means that all people can access the full range of quality health services they need, at the right time and place, without suffering financial hardship. It is not confined to hospital treatment or insurance. It includes health promotion, prevention, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care across the continuum of care.

If a poor family receives cancer treatment in a government hospital but falls into debt because of medicines and travel, service access occurred but financial protection did not. UHC therefore rests on access to necessary quality services and protection from impoverishment or debt caused by treatment.

This raises the financing question because UHC requires functioning primary-care centres, trained workers, medicines, laboratories and referral hospitals.

How large is the spending gap?

In low- and middle-income countries—LMICs—public spending per person on UHC is only about half of the minimum benchmark. As a share of GDP, the health-spending gap between rich and developing countries narrowed from 2.05 percentage points in 2000 to 1.68 in 2023. This apparent convergence is incomplete.

When actual per capita spending is examined, the monetary gap more than tripled. Three per cent of a small economy cannot finance the same doctors, medicines and infrastructure as three per cent of a rich economy. Percentage convergence can coexist with widening inequality in service capacity.

Development Assistance for Health and declining donor support

Development Assistance for Health—DAH—includes financial and in-kind resources transferred through international agencies, foundations and multilateral institutions to improve health in LMICs. It can include grants, vaccines, equipment, technical support and programmes.

DAH supported vaccination, HIV, tuberculosis and malaria control, maternal health, laboratories, medicines and surveillance. It peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, then declined. The analysis refers to announced foreign-assistance cuts of 67% by the United States, 39% by the United Kingdom, 35% by France and 12% by Germany, while the OECD warned that health funding could fall by as much as 60% from its 2022 peak.

Countries that built donor-supported services must therefore maintain them with less external help.

How public debt constrains health spending

Global public debt reached 102 trillion dollars in 2024, of which developing countries accounted for 31 trillion dollars. These countries spent about 921 billion dollars in net interest payments.

Fiscal space is the sustainable room in a public budget to provide additional resources without undermining financial stability. High debt interest, weak tax collection and slow growth can make larger health budgets fiscally difficult even when politically desirable.

If very large new resources are unlikely in the near term, existing public money must be made more effective. The analysis identifies three routes.

Route one: spend the money already allocated

A declaration of ₹10,000 crore is not the same as delivery of ₹10,000 crore worth of health services. Budget execution converts an approved budget into actual expenditure and services. If ₹100 is allocated but only ₹70 is spent, the execution rate is about 70%.

Public Financial Management—PFM—systems determine how budgets are formulated, funds disbursed and expenditure accounted for. Higher allocation helps only when fund flow and execution are timely.

Health-budget execution in LMICs is generally 85% to 90%, below execution in overall government budgets and education. In India in 2024–25, about two-thirds of a flagship health-infrastructure allocation was spent, while only 26% of funds earmarked within the National Health Mission for communicable and non-communicable disease programmes was utilised.

Unspent funds can result from late releases, delay in the State share, pending approvals, staff vacancies, slow tendering and procurement, delayed district plans and pending utilisation certificates. This is an absorption-capacity problem: the system cannot convert available money into timely infrastructure, staff, medicines and services.

Even full spending does not guarantee success. The next question is where the money went.

Route two: spend on the right priorities

Salaries and wages are easy to spend because they are recurring. Underspending is common in medicines, diagnostic kits, equipment, repair and maintenance. A centre may have a doctor but no medicine, a laboratory but no reagent, or an ambulance without a maintenance budget.

Primary health care and the tiers of the system

Primary Health Care—PHC—is a whole-of-society approach combining integrated services, action on determinants such as sanitation, nutrition, housing and environment, and community empowerment. Primary care is narrower and refers to first-contact clinical services such as fever treatment, antenatal checks or blood-pressure screening.

Secondary care is associated with district hospitals and specialists, while tertiary care includes medical colleges, super-speciality hospitals and complex procedures. All are necessary, but excessive concentration on tertiary curative treatment while prevention, vaccination, screening and local primary facilities remain weak makes the system treat illness after it becomes severe.

India spends less than one-fourth of public-health expenditure on preventive care. This does not imply depriving hospitals; it means prevention and early diagnosis should not be neglected.

Public goods and market failure

Sanitation, epidemic surveillance and infectious-disease control benefit entire communities. Vaccination can protect an individual and reduce transmission. Private markets underinvest because the full social benefit cannot be recovered through a price. This market failure explains the importance of public spending.

Ageing and rising diabetes, hypertension, cancer and cardiovascular disease also require risk reduction, screening, early diagnosis and long-term management. Strategic allocation means balancing disease burdens and levels of care.

Route three: improve governance and Public Financial Management

The same amount can produce different outcomes in different States. PFM consists of rules and institutions through which budgets are prepared, released, spent, recorded and audited.

• Realistic budget formulation
• Timely cash release
• Transparent procurement
• Expenditure monitoring
• Accounting and reporting
• Audit
• Accountability

If a district hospital receives its equipment budget in the last week of March, the allocation exists on paper but procurement cannot be completed. This is a budget-credibility problem: a gap between budget promise and actual fund availability.

Rigid line-item budgeting can also obstruct urgent action. Health budgets need accountable flexibility for epidemics, drug shortages or emergency staffing, supported by transparency, audit trails and outcome monitoring.

Governance is not confined to national or State capitals

Policy may be framed in a ministry, but patients experience it in sub-centres, primary-health centres, municipal clinics and district hospitals. State, district and facility capacity must therefore be strengthened. Doctors, nurses and district managers should participate in budgeting because they know whether the real shortage is staff, medicine, equipment, buildings or transport.

Does better spending weaken the case for a larger budget?

No. UHC requires stable public revenue and equitable systems. No country has achieved substantial UHC by relying only on private out-of-pocket spending. LMICs remain below minimum spending benchmarks, so higher public finance remains necessary.

Additional allocation must be fully spent, directed to correct priorities and converted by governance into measurable outcomes.

These are complements, not substitutes. More money with weak execution leads to lapsed funds. Good execution with wrong priorities can create buildings while prevention remains weak. Correct priorities with rigid or corrupt governance still fail to reach patients.

Balanced conclusion

Health for All cannot be achieved through beds, insurance cards or annual budget announcements alone. Developing countries need more domestic public resources, and abrupt aid withdrawal should be avoided where essential programmes remain externally supported.

Governments must also reduce unspent balances, release funds on time, prioritise primary and preventive care, improve procurement and strengthen district capacity.

Core takeaway: the question is not only how much the government spends, but how much money was available, when it arrived, where it was used and how far it improved health outcomes.

“Scientific infrastructure is built as much from trust and autonomy as from laboratories and machines.”

Why does the issue matter?

Recent reports stated that about 120 scientists had resigned from ISRO. This is not merely an employee-turnover issue because ISRO, CSIR laboratories and other public research institutions form the backbone of India’s strategic scientific capacity.

The central question is why scientists who once aspired to enter prestigious public institutions may choose to leave after a few years.

Attrition cannot be explained by salary alone. Higher private-sector pay may matter, but experienced researchers also seek research autonomy, professional dignity, intellectual freedom and the ability to pursue questions within their field.

Science, hierarchy and bureaucratic capture

Science advances through questioning. A junior researcher must be able to challenge a senior scientist’s hypothesis so that better evidence and new discovery can emerge. Where designation becomes more powerful than scholarship, academic hierarchy may gradually turn into bureaucratic capture.

Researchers may then begin to ask whether proposing a bold question or disagreeing with authority will create career risk.

Psychological safety

Psychological safety is a workplace condition in which researchers can express disagreement, report failure and question authority without fear of retaliation. If today’s reviewer may sit on tomorrow’s promotion committee, and the institute director can influence funding, raising a grievance becomes difficult.

Knowledge-capital erosion

When senior scientists leave, laboratories lose institutional memory, mentorship and tacit knowledge. Scientific equipment can be purchased, but experimental judgement and research culture developed over decades cannot be instantly replaced. This is knowledge-capital erosion.

Institutional migration, not only brain drain

Private deep-tech companies, overseas universities and international collaborations may offer flexible funding, interdisciplinary teams and greater autonomy. The broader innovation ecosystem can gain from such movement, but national laboratories may weaken.

This is not only classical brain drain; it is also institutional migration of talent from public research organisations to other parts of the innovation system.

What should be done?

Reform should go beyond salary revision. Promotion, research-grant and leadership-appointment processes need transparency. Independent grievance-redress bodies are necessary so that complaints of harassment or retaliation are not trapped within the same hierarchy against which the complaint is made.

Institute directors should be trained in mentoring-based leadership rather than command-based administration. Lateral mobility between laboratories, universities and industry can be expanded. Researchers can receive greater investigator autonomy in selected grants, and academic dissent should not be treated as insubordination.

Core takeaway

India’s difficulty is not producing brilliant scientists; it is creating an institutional ecosystem in which merit, curiosity and evidence remain more powerful than hierarchy. Scientific infrastructure consists not only of laboratories and machines but also autonomy, trust, psychological safety and meritocratic governance.

“Administrative efficiency is not neutral when the distance saved by the State becomes the distance walked by a child.”

What happened and what is the context?

A recent NITI Aayog report stated that nearly 94,000 government schools had closed in India over the previous ten years—an average of about 25 schools each day. During the same period, enrolment in government schools declined by about 2.26 crore, and their share of total school enrolment fell from 71% in 2005 to 49.24% in 2024–25.

These schools were generally closed or merged under rationalisation. Rationalisation means merging a low-enrolment school with a nearby larger school so that teachers, buildings and financial resources can be used more efficiently. The National Education Policy 2020 also refers to rationalisation, but cautions that the neighbourhood-school principle should not be weakened.

The key question is not whether an empty or very low-enrolment school may ever be merged. It is whether poor and rural children are being made to pay for administrative efficiency through reduced educational access.

Syllabus mapping

• GS Paper II: Education, Right to Education, welfare governance and Centre–State responsibility
• GS Paper I: Poverty, caste, gender and rural inequality
• GS Paper IV: Equity, inclusion and ethics of public policy
• Essay: Efficiency versus access; education as social justice

Where is the situation most serious?

The article identifies Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir among the most affected areas.

UDISE+ data show that the number of government schools declined from 11.07 lakh in 2014–15 to 10.17 lakh in 2023–24. During the same period, private schools increased from 2.88 lakh to 3.31 lakh.

In Madhya Pradesh, the number of government schools fell from 1.22 lakh in 2018–19 to 99,411 in only one year. In Uttar Pradesh it fell from 1.63 lakh to 1.38 lakh in the same period.

Madhya Pradesh’s School Education Department found in December 2025 that 7.37 lakh children had no school record. Another 11.38 lakh were in the Drop Box category, indicating immediate risk of leaving school; 1.23 lakh were already dropouts, and 1.55 lakh had discontinued education due to migration or displacement.

These numbers suggest that closure cannot be explained only through falling birth rates, migration or demographic change. The impact is greatest on families without access to private school, transport or digital learning.

What does rationalisation look like on the ground?

A merger may appear efficient in a policy document. On the ground, it may require a child to walk four to six kilometres each day. Such journeys were reported in Jammu and Kashmir even though the Right to Education framework emphasises access to a neighbourhood school.

Longer distance does not affect every child equally. Poor families may be unable to pay for transport. Travel can be unsafe for young children. Girls may be withdrawn first because parents may be more concerned about daily travel to a distant school.

School closure therefore becomes more than an administrative event; it becomes an access barrier.

Consolidation does not always produce better teaching. In some places, one teacher may be required to teach five classes simultaneously. Individual attention to learning level and difficulty then becomes impossible. Such conditions may also violate staffing and quality norms under the RTE Act.

Who bears the largest burden?

Government schools disproportionately serve poor, rural, Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and backward-class families. An analysis of the 2019 National Sample Survey cited in the article stated that decline in nearby access to free education affected Muslim, SC and ST households more severely.

This is distributive inequality: a policy that appears uniform imposes a disproportionate burden on weaker sections. Closing a school may reduce State expenditure, but it increases household travel cost, safety risk and dropout probability. The State’s cost is transferred to the family.

Is responsibility with the Centre or the States?

The Union Government stated in the Lok Sabha that education is in the Concurrent List and rationalisation is the responsibility of States. The article considers this incomplete. The Right to Education Act is a Central law, the Centre has a role in neighbourhood-school mandates, and it links school funding to implementation of national policy. It cannot place the entire responsibility on States.

The RTE Act guarantees free and compulsory education to children aged six to fourteen. Yet children cannot themselves enforce entitlements, while poor and rural parents often lack the capacity for litigation or sustained administrative pressure.

School Management Committees were intended to give parents and communities a voice, but many do not meet regularly. The entitlement exists in law while the accountability mechanism remains weak on the ground.

Core takeaway

Efficiency cannot be measured only by school numbers and enrolment ratios. It must include travel distance, dropout, gender impact, social exclusion and teaching quality.

Closing a government school is not merely closing a building. For many poor children, it closes the nearest route to State-supported education. Rationalisation is just only when neighbourhood access is protected, transport is available, adequate teachers are posted and affected communities participate meaningfully.

“A school merger is just only when the child’s right to access remains stronger than the State’s accounting convenience.”

What happened and what is the context?

A recent NITI Aayog report stated that nearly 94,000 government schools had closed in India over the previous ten years—an average of about 25 schools each day. During the same period, enrolment in government schools declined by about 2.26 crore, and their share of total school enrolment fell from 71% in 2005 to 49.24% in 2024–25.

These schools were generally closed or merged under rationalisation. Rationalisation means merging a low-enrolment school with a nearby larger school so that teachers, buildings and financial resources can be used more efficiently. The National Education Policy 2020 also refers to rationalisation, but cautions that the neighbourhood-school principle should not be weakened.

The key question is not whether an empty or very low-enrolment school may ever be merged. It is whether poor and rural children are being made to pay for administrative efficiency through reduced educational access.

Syllabus mapping

• GS Paper II: Education, Right to Education, welfare governance and Centre–State responsibility
• GS Paper I: Poverty, caste, gender and rural inequality
• GS Paper IV: Equity, inclusion and ethics of public policy
• Essay: Efficiency versus access; education as social justice

Where is the situation most serious?

The article identifies Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir among the most affected areas.

UDISE+ data show that the number of government schools declined from 11.07 lakh in 2014–15 to 10.17 lakh in 2023–24. During the same period, private schools increased from 2.88 lakh to 3.31 lakh.

In Madhya Pradesh, the number of government schools fell from 1.22 lakh in 2018–19 to 99,411 in only one year. In Uttar Pradesh it fell from 1.63 lakh to 1.38 lakh in the same period.

Madhya Pradesh’s School Education Department found in December 2025 that 7.37 lakh children had no school record. Another 11.38 lakh were in the Drop Box category, indicating immediate risk of leaving school; 1.23 lakh were already dropouts, and 1.55 lakh had discontinued education due to migration or displacement.

These numbers suggest that closure cannot be explained only through falling birth rates, migration or demographic change. The impact is greatest on families without access to private school, transport or digital learning.

What does rationalisation look like on the ground?

A merger may appear efficient in a policy document. On the ground, it may require a child to walk four to six kilometres each day. Such journeys were reported in Jammu and Kashmir even though the Right to Education framework emphasises access to a neighbourhood school.

Longer distance does not affect every child equally. Poor families may be unable to pay for transport. Travel can be unsafe for young children. Girls may be withdrawn first because parents may be more concerned about daily travel to a distant school.

School closure therefore becomes more than an administrative event; it becomes an access barrier.

Consolidation does not always produce better teaching. In some places, one teacher may be required to teach five classes simultaneously. Individual attention to learning level and difficulty then becomes impossible. Such conditions may also violate staffing and quality norms under the RTE Act.

Who bears the largest burden?

Government schools disproportionately serve poor, rural, Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and backward-class families. An analysis of the 2019 National Sample Survey cited in the article stated that decline in nearby access to free education affected Muslim, SC and ST households more severely.

This is distributive inequality: a policy that appears uniform imposes a disproportionate burden on weaker sections. Closing a school may reduce State expenditure, but it increases household travel cost, safety risk and dropout probability. The State’s cost is transferred to the family.

Is responsibility with the Centre or the States?

The Union Government stated in the Lok Sabha that education is in the Concurrent List and rationalisation is the responsibility of States. The article considers this incomplete. The Right to Education Act is a Central law, the Centre has a role in neighbourhood-school mandates, and it links school funding to implementation of national policy. It cannot place the entire responsibility on States.

The RTE Act guarantees free and compulsory education to children aged six to fourteen. Yet children cannot themselves enforce entitlements, while poor and rural parents often lack the capacity for litigation or sustained administrative pressure.

School Management Committees were intended to give parents and communities a voice, but many do not meet regularly. The entitlement exists in law while the accountability mechanism remains weak on the ground.

Core takeaway

Efficiency cannot be measured only by school numbers and enrolment ratios. It must include travel distance, dropout, gender impact, social exclusion and teaching quality.

Closing a government school is not merely closing a building. For many poor children, it closes the nearest route to State-supported education. Rationalisation is just only when neighbourhood access is protected, transport is available, adequate teachers are posted and affected communities participate meaningfully.

“Digital openness becomes ecologically irresponsible when precise location data turns a fragile habitat into an unmanaged destination.”

What happened and why is it in the news?

The Kerala Forest Department began identifying locations inside State forests that had been geo-tagged on online mapping platforms without permission. Its IT wing is preparing a list. The Forest Management Wing will then ask the relevant platforms to remove sensitive locations, and legal action may be considered where uploaders can be identified.

Concern increased after internal trekking trails used by forest staff in protected patches of Silent Valley appeared on public maps. Officials said such listings had encouraged unauthorised entry into reserve forests. Some locations may have been uploaded by volunteers who assisted the Forest Department during wildlife censuses. The Kozhikode Forest Division had earlier also sought removal of map listings inside reserve forests.

When does geo-tagging become a problem?

Geo-tagging means attaching exact geographic coordinates to a photograph, trail or place. It is useful for navigation, tourism and disaster response in ordinary settings. Forests, however, are not ordinary public spaces.

If the exact location of a remote water source, nesting site, wildlife corridor or staff-only trail becomes publicly visible, users may follow the digital map into an area without an authorised route or rescue infrastructure. This can increase illegal trekking, wildlife disturbance, human–animal encounters, forest fire and poaching risk. The policy conflict is therefore between digital openness and ecological sensitivity.

Reserved Forest and Protected Forest

The Indian Forest Act, 1927 deals with Reserved Forests, Village Forests and Protected Forests. Reserved Forests generally have stricter limits on rights and activities. In a Protected Forest, some existing community rights may continue, while the State Government may regulate trees, grazing, forest produce and entry through notifications and rules.

A crucial distinction is that Reserved Forest and Protected Forest are forest-law classifications, whereas National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary are wildlife-protection classifications under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972. The same geographical area may carry more than one legal label, but the legal sources are different.

Where does the forest-conservation law fit?

The former Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 is now titled the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980. Its principal concern is to place dereservation of forest land and diversion for non-forest purposes within a Central approval framework. Merely placing a pin on a map does not automatically become a case under that statute. Actual legal action would depend on entry restrictions, trespass, wildlife disturbance and applicable State rules.

Constitutional and community dimensions

Forests and protection of wild animals and birds are in the Concurrent List, allowing both Parliament and State Legislatures to make laws. Article 48A directs the State to protect the environment and wildlife, while Article 51A(g) places a Fundamental Duty on citizens to protect the natural environment.

Conservation does not automatically justify excluding forest communities. The Forest Rights Act, 2006 recognises individual and community rights of forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers. It also assigns Gram Sabhas and rights holders a role in protecting wildlife, biodiversity, forests, water sources and ecologically sensitive areas. Controlled access should therefore target unauthorised recreational entry, not extinguish legitimate community rights.

“Fiscal federalism works best when transfers are predictable enough for States to plan, yet flexible enough for them to govern according to local needs.”

What happened and what is the context?

Andhra Pradesh received ₹4,597 crore from the Union Government in addition to its regular share of taxes. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said the timely release would support ongoing infrastructure projects, welfare programmes and development initiatives. The report stated that the regular share of States is normally released around the tenth day of the month.

The news reflects a larger constitutional issue. The Union collects a substantial share of taxes, while States bear major responsibilities in health, agriculture, police, roads and local development. Fiscal federalism seeks to manage this revenue–expenditure mismatch.

What is tax devolution?

Under Article 270, a share of the net proceeds of shareable Union taxes is distributed to the States. This is tax devolution. The shareable set of taxes is broadly called the divisible pool. Cesses and surcharges generally do not form part of this pool, which is why States often express concern about their expanding use.

Role of the Finance Commission

The Finance Commission, constituted under Article 280, recommends distribution at two levels. Vertical devolution decides the share between the Union and all States together. Horizontal devolution divides the States’ collective share among individual States using criteria such as population, income distance, area, forest cover and demographic performance.

Vertical fiscal imbalance describes the situation in which the Union possesses relatively stronger taxation powers while States carry substantial expenditure responsibilities.

Tax devolution, grants and loans

Tax devolution is generally untied. A State may use it according to its own priorities, including roads, irrigation, salaries, healthcare or welfare. Grants-in-aid may be tied to a purpose or performance condition. Centrally Sponsored Schemes may prescribe the spending pattern and require a State contribution. A loan is different because it must be repaid with interest.

Untied funds strengthen State fiscal autonomy. Andhra Pradesh does not have to fit every rupee into a centrally prescribed scheme structure. However, an additional instalment is not a permanent fiscal solution. States need predictable, rule-based transfers because infrastructure planning, contractor payments and welfare delivery depend on reliable cash flow.

“A credible drug policy must punish trafficking networks without treating every dependent user as merely a criminal.”

What happened and what is the context?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the “Nasha Mukt Yuva for Viksit Bharat Sankalp Abhiyan”. The report stated that more than 125 spiritual and public organisations, educational institutions and industrial associations supported the campaign. Activities were held at more than 28,000 locations, and over one crore young people took a drug-free India pledge.

The campaign is intended to run for 100 weeks. Art, sports, meditation, culture and community-service activities are to be organised every Sunday. The Prime Minister also urged families not to hide or stigmatise young people struggling with addiction, but to obtain professional treatment and rehabilitation for them.

Is addiction a crime issue, a health issue, or both?

Substance-use disorder is a condition in which control over alcohol or drug use may weaken, consumption may continue despite harmful consequences, and physical or psychological dependence may develop. It is therefore inaccurate to describe addiction only as a moral weakness. Recognising the health dimension, however, does not justify ignoring trafficking networks.

Two pillars of drug policy

Supply reduction targets production, smuggling, organised networks, illegal sale and money laundering. The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 is the central legal framework. The Narcotics Control Bureau and other agencies act against inter-State and international trafficking networks.

Demand reduction seeks to prevent initiation and to provide treatment for dependence. It includes awareness, counselling, de-addiction, mental-health support, skill training and family reintegration.

Harm reduction lies between these pillars. It does not approve drug use; it seeks to reduce death, infection and social damage among people who cannot immediately achieve abstinence.

Constitutional connection

Article 47, a Directive Principle of State Policy, directs the State to improve public health and endeavour to prohibit consumption of intoxicating substances injurious to health, except for medicinal purposes. Drug policy is therefore a constitutional public-health responsibility as well as an enforcement issue.

Enforcement and rehabilitation should not be treated as opposites. An arrest-only model can drive users underground, while counselling alone cannot dismantle organised criminal markets. Community participation can identify early warning signs, but awareness events require accessible treatment centres, trained counsellors and post-rehabilitation employment to succeed.

“A species cannot be conserved intelligently until it has first been identified, named and located.”

What happened and what is the context?

Scientists of the Zoological Survey of India prepared a comprehensive catalogue of butterflies and moths found in India. After about twelve years of field exploration, museum curation and verification of scientific literature, the catalogue recorded 13,703 Lepidoptera species.

The total includes 1,417 butterflies and 12,286 moths, classified into 3,705 genera, 240 subfamilies, 102 families and 31 superfamilies. This is about 8.25% of known global Lepidoptera diversity. Scientists also catalogued 2,205 species of the Geometroidea superfamily, including many nocturnal pollinators.

What are Lepidoptera and taxonomy?

Butterflies and moths belong to the order Lepidoptera, a name that broadly refers to scale-covered wings. Taxonomy is the science of identifying, naming and organising organisms into related groups. The hierarchy may be remembered as Order → Superfamily → Family → Subfamily → Genus → Species.

If a species is not identified correctly, its distribution, population decline, habitat and conservation status cannot be assessed reliably. The gap created by incomplete identification, distribution and classification is called the taxonomic deficit.

Why is a baseline inventory necessary?

A catalogue creates a baseline biodiversity inventory: a starting reference against which future change can be measured. If two hundred moth species are documented in a landscape today and only one hundred and thirty are found a decade later, researchers can investigate habitat degradation, pesticide exposure or climate change.

Butterflies and moths provide ecosystem services. They may act as pollinators; caterpillars are herbivores; some species process decomposing material; and they are food for birds, bats and other insectivores. Many can act as bio-indicators because their presence, absence or abundance signals environmental conditions. Moths are particularly important for night-time pollination.

Catalogue versus legal protection

An authoritative catalogue supplies scientific identity and a permanent record. It supports wildlife law, environmental-impact assessment and conservation planning. Entry in a catalogue does not, by itself, confer statutory protection or threatened status. Those require separate scientific assessment and legal notification. The catalogue is therefore knowledge infrastructure for conservation, not the final conservation decision.

“One month of foreign buying can improve sentiment, but it cannot turn mobile portfolio capital into permanent economic confidence.”

What happened and what is the context?

After selling Indian equities for four consecutive months, Foreign Portfolio Investors became net buyers in July, with net investment of about ₹20,200 crore.

The preceding net selling was about ₹1.17 lakh crore in March, ₹60,847 crore in April, ₹32,963 crore in May and ₹49,340 crore in June. The report linked the July return to attractive valuations, improving corporate earnings and easing global headwinds. The data came from Central Depository Services India Limited.

What is FPI?

Foreign Portfolio Investment involves foreign investors purchasing shares, bonds and other financial securities, generally for financial returns rather than managerial control. Foreign Direct Investment, in contrast, establishes a comparatively long-term stake and influence through productive facilities, subsidiaries or business assets.

A useful distinction is that FDI is associated with productive establishment and longer-term control, whereas FPI is associated with market securities and financial returns. Both are foreign capital, but they do not carry the same stability.

Why did FPIs return?

One factor was valuation. After a market correction, share prices may become more attractive relative to earnings. A second factor was improvement in corporate earnings. A third was the global risk environment. When geopolitical tension, uncertainty over U.S. interest rates or dollar strength eases, investors may return to emerging markets. This is risk-on sentiment.

During global stress, investors often move toward the dollar and U.S. government bonds. This is risk-off movement.

How does FPI affect the economy?

Foreign investors normally convert dollars into rupees to purchase Indian securities. Inflows can increase market liquidity, support share prices, put appreciation pressure on the rupee and ease equity financing for companies.

The same flows may reverse quickly in response to interest rates, currency expectations or geopolitical developments. FPI is therefore sometimes described as hot money.

Net investment means gross purchases minus gross sales. Investors may have bought and sold much larger volumes, with the final balance remaining ₹20,200 crore positive. One month of buying is not a structural verdict; flows may reverse again if U.S. rates, crude prices or geopolitical risk change.

“Rain can reduce immediate drought and still prepare the fuel for a later fire season.”

What happened and what is the context?

Severe wildfires broke older records in France, Spain and other parts of Europe. By 29 July, about 91,209 hectares had burned in France, exceeding annual totals recorded since at least 1980. A fire in the Bordeaux region affected about 42,000 hectares of pine forest, destroyed homes and carried smoke for hundreds of kilometres.

Spain reported about 1.9 lakh hectares burned since June. Wildfire-related displacement and carbon emissions also increased sharply. Yet several affected areas had received above-normal winter rainfall. The key question was how extreme fires followed a wet winter.

What is the wet-winter paradox?

Good winter rainfall encourages vegetation growth. Grasses, shrubs and pine undergrowth spread. If an unusually hot and dry summer follows, this additional vegetation loses moisture and becomes dry fuel.

Rainfall may reduce short-term drought while increasing combustible biomass for the following summer.

How does fire spread?

The basic fire triangle consists of heat, fuel and oxygen. Climate change does not supply oxygen and does not ignite every fire. Ignition may come from lightning, power lines, machinery or human negligence. Extreme heat and drought, however, make the landscape sufficiently dry for a small ignition to become an uncontrolled wildfire.

Fuel load is the amount of burnable material such as dry grass, shrubs, fallen branches and dead trees. Soil-moisture deficit means soil contains less water than normal. Fire weather is the dangerous combination of high temperature, low humidity, dry vegetation and strong winds.

Why does settlement pattern increase risk?

The contact zone between vegetation and human settlement is the wildland–urban interface, or WUI. In this zone, fire threatens houses, transport, power lines and lives directly, making evacuation difficult and firefighting expensive.

Europe has become the fastest-warming continent outside the Arctic. This does not mean every individual fire was caused only by climate change. Climate attribution estimates how much warming altered the probability or intensity of the extreme heat and fire-conducive conditions.

What should policy do?

Wildfire policy cannot be limited to suppressing flames. It should include fuel-load management, fire breaks, prescribed burning where ecologically suitable, early-warning systems, WUI building codes, evacuation planning, forest restoration and climate mitigation.

Adaptive forest management means adjusting management to local ecology, drought risk and a changing climate rather than applying a uniform method everywhere.

“An investment announcement becomes economic capacity only after finance, construction and commercial production are completed.”

What happened and what is the context?

Indian companies announced large investment plans in infrastructure, manufacturing, automobiles, renewable energy, data centres, food processing and logistics. RBI data showed bank credit to industry rising 17.5% year-on-year in May 2026, compared with 5.3% a year earlier.

ICICI Securities estimated that listed companies undertook about ₹12.6 lakh crore of capital expenditure in FY26. The capex-to-depreciation ratio reached about 1.9, while a record 168 companies invested more than ₹1,000 crore annually. Combined capital expenditure by listed companies, the Union and States was estimated at about ₹32 lakh crore.

These indicators suggest that the private-investment cycle may be reactivating. Yet announcements and productive capacity are separated by several stages.

What is capex?

Capital expenditure creates a long-lived productive asset, such as a factory, machine, power plant, warehouse or data centre. Salaries, electricity bills and routine repairs are operating expenditure.

Assets wear out and lose accounting value over time; this is depreciation. A capex-to-depreciation ratio close to one may indicate replacement of old assets. A ratio substantially above one suggests expansion beyond replacement. A ratio near 1.9 therefore points toward additional capacity.

How is this cycle different from the previous boom?

The report stated that many large firms are expanding with lower debt, stronger cash flows and improved credit profiles. Deleveraging means reducing debt. During the previous investment cycle, excessive borrowing, delayed projects and stressed balance sheets contributed to bank non-performing assets.

The cash flow from operations-to-capex ratio was about 1.5, suggesting that cash generated by existing business could substantially support expansion. Banks also appeared more willing to finance long-gestation infrastructure and manufacturing projects.

Greenfield and brownfield projects

A greenfield project is built from the ground up at a new location, requiring land, approvals, roads, utilities and a complete facility. Brownfield investment expands or modernises an existing facility and may become operational faster. Greenfield announcements point to larger new capacity but involve greater execution risk.

When public roads, power networks and logistics corridors lower the cost of a private project, public capital expenditure crowds in private investment.

Why announcements and actual investment differ

Financial closure is the stage at which debt and equity arrangements are finalised. A press release does not guarantee that a plant will be completed. Land acquisition, approvals, cost escalation, demand and global conditions can still alter the project.

The investment surge will generate broad benefits only if the new capacity is competitive, strengthens supply chains and creates employment. Highly automated sectors may involve large investment with a limited direct employment effect.

“Currency weakness cannot substitute for productivity when exports themselves depend heavily on imported inputs.”

What happened and what is the context?

The rupee moved from about ₹87.5 per U.S. dollar at the end of July 2025 to about ₹95.4 at the end of July 2026, a depreciation of nearly 9%. The report associated this pressure with the West Asia conflict, higher crude prices, U.S. tariffs, foreign portfolio outflows and safe-haven demand for dollars.

Weakness was not confined to the bilateral dollar rate. The rupee’s Real Effective Exchange Rate also declined sharply in March, April and May. Even so, India’s merchandise trade deficit increased to $333.6 billion in FY2025–26 and $86.9 billion in the first quarter of FY27. This challenges the familiar assumption that a weaker currency automatically makes exports competitive.

Rupee depreciation, NEER and REER

The rupee depreciates when more rupees are required to purchase one dollar. A bilateral dollar rate is not the complete picture because India trades with many countries. The Nominal Effective Exchange Rate compares the rupee with a weighted basket of trading-partner currencies.

After adjusting for inflation differences, economists obtain the Real Effective Exchange Rate. REER broadly indicates relative price competitiveness after domestic and partner-country prices are considered. A decline in REER can theoretically make exports cheaper and imports dearer, but the result is not automatic.

Why a weak rupee may not increase exports

About 36% of India’s exports depend on imported inputs. An electronics exporter may import chips, machinery and specialised chemicals. Depreciation can lower the dollar price of the final export while simultaneously raising the rupee cost of imported components. Import intensity therefore reduces the exchange-rate advantage.

Costlier crude oil, metals, chemicals and capital goods raise production costs. Transmission of the higher imported cost into domestic prices is exchange-rate pass-through. The resulting price rise is imported inflation.

Why did the trade deficit widen?

A merchandise trade deficit arises when goods imports exceed goods exports. The report stated that export growth remained marginal while imports rose more rapidly. Petroleum, electronics and engineering exports increased in the first quarter of FY27, but imports rose by nearly 20%, widening the deficit.

A weaker currency is more likely to support exports when foreign demand exists, firms have spare capacity, imported-input dependence is limited, logistics are competitive and tariff barriers are low. When global demand is weak and imported inputs are important, depreciation may enlarge the import bill more than it improves competitiveness.

The Current Account Deficit is broader than the merchandise trade deficit. It includes goods, services, investment income and transfers. India’s services surplus and remittances may offset part of the goods deficit.

Role of the RBI

India broadly follows a market-determined exchange-rate system. The RBI may manage excessive volatility rather than defend a permanently fixed level. Sharp depreciation can increase inflation and foreign-currency debt risk. An artificially strong rupee can hurt exports and consume foreign-exchange reserves. The policy challenge is orderly adjustment and structural competitiveness, not a magical exchange rate.

Core takeaway

A weak rupee can resemble an export subsidy only where the production chain is largely domestic and competitive. High import dependence can instead produce imported inflation, higher input costs and a wider trade deficit. Sustainable export competitiveness comes from productivity, technology, logistics and domestic supply chains.

“Low-carbon power is not climate-proof when its cooling system still depends on a river altered by heat and drought.”

What happened and what is the context?

Prolonged heat and drought pushed the Danube River to a record-low level. Hungary’s approximately 2-gigawatt Paks nuclear power plant, which depends on the Danube for cooling, was operating at only about 10% of total capacity and approaching a complete shutdown.

Paks is Hungary’s only nuclear power plant and has four Russian-built reactors. The government warned that losing nuclear generation during days near 40°C could place severe pressure on the electricity grid. Low river levels also affected shipping, tourism and water supply, and more than one hundred cities and villages reportedly faced water-use restrictions.

The event demonstrates that low-carbon nuclear power is not immune to the physical effects of climate change.

Why does a nuclear plant need river water?

Nuclear fission produces heat. The heat creates steam that drives a turbine to generate electricity. After passing through the turbine, steam must be condensed back into water, and excess heat must be removed from reactor systems. This requires a large cooling-water supply.

If the river level falls, the plant may not receive enough water. If the river is already unusually warm, cooling efficiency falls further. Drought and heatwave can therefore affect nuclear output together.

What is thermal pollution?

Cooling water may return to the river at a higher temperature. Under normal flow, heat can disperse. In a low-flow river, warm discharge may raise ecosystem temperature more sharply. This is thermal pollution. Warmer water holds less dissolved oxygen and may harm fish and other aquatic organisms. Nuclear safety therefore includes compliance with environmental discharge limits, not only reactor temperature.

Baseload and peak-load pressure

Nuclear plants normally provide continuous large-scale generation and are considered baseload sources. Baseload is the relatively stable minimum level of electricity demand that persists through day and night.

If a major plant such as Paks shuts suddenly, Hungary may rely on imports, thermal plants or stored energy. The problem becomes acute during a heatwave because air-conditioning demand rises. The highest-demand periods are peak load.

The government asked households and institutions to reduce or shift evening consumption. This is demand-side management or demand response: reducing grid stress by changing the timing or volume of consumption instead of immediately adding generation.

How can the system be climate-proofed?

Options include alternative cooling systems, recycled water, dry or hybrid cooling, renewable diversification, storage, stronger interconnections and climate-risk-based plant planning. Dry cooling is not costless; it may be expensive and lose efficiency during very hot weather. Energy planning must therefore use future heat and drought scenarios rather than only historical river-flow data.

“An exchange rate can adjust prices, but it cannot repair weak logistics, imported-input dependence or low productivity.”

What happened and what is the context?

The rupee moved from about ₹87.5 per U.S. dollar at the end of July 2025 to about ₹95.4 at the end of July 2026, a depreciation of nearly 9%. The report associated this pressure with the West Asia conflict, higher crude prices, U.S. tariffs, foreign portfolio outflows and safe-haven demand for dollars.

Weakness was not confined to the bilateral dollar rate. The rupee’s Real Effective Exchange Rate also declined sharply in March, April and May. Even so, India’s merchandise trade deficit increased to $333.6 billion in FY2025–26 and $86.9 billion in the first quarter of FY27. This challenges the familiar assumption that a weaker currency automatically makes exports competitive.

Rupee depreciation, NEER and REER

The rupee depreciates when more rupees are required to purchase one dollar. A bilateral dollar rate is not the complete picture because India trades with many countries. The Nominal Effective Exchange Rate compares the rupee with a weighted basket of trading-partner currencies.

After adjusting for inflation differences, economists obtain the Real Effective Exchange Rate. REER broadly indicates relative price competitiveness after domestic and partner-country prices are considered. A decline in REER can theoretically make exports cheaper and imports dearer, but the result is not automatic.

Why a weak rupee may not increase exports

About 36% of India’s exports depend on imported inputs. An electronics exporter may import chips, machinery and specialised chemicals. Depreciation can lower the dollar price of the final export while simultaneously raising the rupee cost of imported components. Import intensity therefore reduces the exchange-rate advantage.

Costlier crude oil, metals, chemicals and capital goods raise production costs. Transmission of the higher imported cost into domestic prices is exchange-rate pass-through. The resulting price rise is imported inflation.

Why did the trade deficit widen?

A merchandise trade deficit arises when goods imports exceed goods exports. The report stated that export growth remained marginal while imports rose more rapidly. Petroleum, electronics and engineering exports increased in the first quarter of FY27, but imports rose by nearly 20%, widening the deficit.

A weaker currency is more likely to support exports when foreign demand exists, firms have spare capacity, imported-input dependence is limited, logistics are competitive and tariff barriers are low. When global demand is weak and imported inputs are important, depreciation may enlarge the import bill more than it improves competitiveness.

The Current Account Deficit is broader than the merchandise trade deficit. It includes goods, services, investment income and transfers. India’s services surplus and remittances may offset part of the goods deficit.

Role of the RBI

India broadly follows a market-determined exchange-rate system. The RBI may manage excessive volatility rather than defend a permanently fixed level. Sharp depreciation can increase inflation and foreign-currency debt risk. An artificially strong rupee can hurt exports and consume foreign-exchange reserves. The policy challenge is orderly adjustment and structural competitiveness, not a magical exchange rate.

Core takeaway

A weak rupee can resemble an export subsidy only where the production chain is largely domestic and competitive. High import dependence can instead produce imported inflation, higher input costs and a wider trade deficit. Sustainable export competitiveness comes from productivity, technology, logistics and domestic supply chains.

A passenger ferry caught fire near Indonesia’s Madura Island while travelling from Surabaya to Makassar. Surabaya is a major port city in East Java, while Makassar is the capital of South Sulawesi. Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency is known as Basarnas. The report stated that 225 passengers were rescued, five died and 41 were missing.

Understanding Indonesia on the map

Indonesia is the world’s largest archipelagic country and lies between the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Its five main islands are Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Papua. Bali, Nusa Tenggara and the Maluku Islands are also important.

• Java is Indonesia’s most populous island.
• Kalimantan is the Indonesian part of Borneo; Borneo is shared by Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.
• Papua is the western Indonesian part of New Guinea; the eastern part is Papua New Guinea.

Which Indonesian island is nearest to India?

Indira Point, the southernmost point of Great Nicobar Island, lies about 140 kilometres from Sumatra. Sumatra is therefore the major Indonesian island closest to India.

Madura lies near the north-eastern coast of Java, separated from it by the Madura Strait. The Makassar Strait lies between Kalimantan and Sulawesi.

Bhiwani in Haryana is called India’s “Mini Cuba” because of its boxing tradition. Vijender Singh won a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, becoming the first Indian boxer to win an Olympic boxing medal.

The report stated that India won ten boxing medals at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games—seven gold and three silver. Gold medallists connected with Bhiwani included Sakshi Chaudhary, Preeti Pawar, Jaismine Lamboria, Priya Ghanghas and Sachin Siwach.

Why the comparison with Cuba?

Cuba is not a large country by population or economic size, but it has a powerful Olympic boxing tradition. Calling a region “Mini Cuba” highlights its boxing ecosystem, academies and record of producing champions.

BFI and SAI

The Boxing Federation of India is the National Sports Federation for boxing and handles tournaments, selection and sport-specific administration. The Sports Authority of India functions under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and supports training centres, coaches, infrastructure and athlete development. SAI was established in 1984, drawing on the infrastructure legacy of the 1982 Asian Games.

Minimum Support Price is the price announced by the government before the sowing season for selected agricultural crops. Its purpose is to provide farmers minimum protection against a severe fall in market prices.

The Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices recommends MSP, while the final decision is taken by the Union Government’s Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.

Crops covered

The government fixes MSP for 22 mandated agricultural crops: 14 kharif crops, six rabi crops and two commercial crops—jute and copra. Sugarcane is covered not by MSP but by the Fair and Remunerative Price.

MSP versus procurement

Announcement of MSP does not guarantee that the government will purchase the entire produce of every farmer at that price. Procurement of paddy and wheat is relatively extensive through the Food Corporation of India and State agencies. Procurement of pulses, oilseeds and copra depends on scale, agency, quality specifications and market conditions.

MSP is a price announcement; procurement is the actual purchase operation.

Is CACP a statutory body?

CACP is an expert body associated with the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. Its recommendations are advisory; the government is not legally bound by them.

Important cost concepts

• A2: Actual paid-out expenditure by the farmer.
• A2+FL: Paid-out expenditure plus the imputed value of family labour.
• C2: Includes imputed cost of owned land and fixed capital in addition to A2+FL.

Ujjaini Mahakali Bonalu, also known as Lashkar Bonalu, is celebrated in Secunderabad. It is a Telangana festival dedicated to Goddess Mahakali.

What is a Bonam?

“Bonam” is a Telugu word broadly meaning a meal or food offering. Women place food prepared from rice, milk and jaggery in a new earthen or brass pot. The pot is decorated with turmeric, vermilion and neem leaves and offered to the Goddess.

Major centres

Bonalu is celebrated on different dates at temples across the Hyderabad–Secunderabad region. Important centres include Golconda, the Ujjaini Mahakali Temple in Secunderabad and the Lal Darwaza Mahakali Temple. “Lashkar” is connected to Secunderabad’s historical cantonment identity.

Associated cultural elements

• Pothuraju: regarded as the symbolic brother of the Goddess and the energetic leader of the procession.
• Ghatam: a decorated vessel regarded as a representation of the Goddess.
• Rangam: an oracle-like ritual involving prophecy.

Bonalu and Bathukamma

Bonalu is associated with Mahakali and a food offering. Bathukamma is a floral festival associated with seasonal ecology and feminine celebration.

The National Security Act, 1980 was invoked against Assam activist Pranab Doley, who was associated with opposition to a proposed five-star resort near Kaziranga National Park in the Golaghat region. The report stated that the NSA was invoked after he had obtained bail in a criminal case.

What is preventive detention?

The NSA is a preventive-detention law. Its declared purpose is not punishment for a proven past offence, but prevention of apprehended future prejudicial activity. Punitive detention, in contrast, follows trial and conviction as punishment.

Constitutional framework

Article 22 contains safeguards concerning arrest and preventive detention. Ordinary arrest safeguards do not apply in exactly the same form, but a detainee must be informed of the grounds of detention and given an opportunity to make a representation. Under the NSA, the detention order is referred to an Advisory Board. Maximum detention may generally extend to twelve months, although the order can be revoked earlier.

Keep three expressions separate

• Law and order: a local disturbance.
• Public order: wider effect on community life or public tranquillity.
• Security of the State: sovereignty, integrity or major security interests.

Every law-and-order issue is not a public-order issue, and every public-order issue is not a national-security issue.

Kaziranga value addition

Kaziranga National Park lies in Assam’s Brahmaputra floodplain. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is famous for the one-horned rhinoceros.

A political announcement by a government does not automatically terminate a registered FIR. An FIR begins the criminal-law process; the legal route for ending the matter depends on the procedural stage.

What happens after an FIR?

Police investigate. If sufficient evidence is found, a charge sheet may be filed. If evidence is insufficient, police may submit a closure report to the court. The court may accept the report, reject it or direct further investigation.

Withdrawal from prosecution

If prosecution is pending before a court, the Public Prosecutor may apply for withdrawal. The prosecutor is not merely a spokesperson for the government; public justice and the evidence must be considered. Court consent is generally required.

Quashing

The High Court may quash an FIR or criminal proceeding in appropriate circumstances, including clear abuse of process, absence of a legal offence or suitable settlement-based cases.

Compounding

Certain specified offences may be settled by the victim and accused. This is compounding. Every offence is not compoundable.

Do not treat these expressions as identical

• FIR withdrawn
• Prosecution withdrawn
• Proceedings quashed

A suo motu FIR is registered by police on the basis of information available to them. SOP stands for Standard Operating Procedure.

The report stated that Assam floods affected 11.45 lakh people across 25 districts and caused 82 deaths. Sixty-three deaths were reported from Sivasagar and Charaideo districts.

Nagaland’s Mon district was also relevant. Mon has a large Konyak Naga population, and the Konyak Union was described as the community’s apex organisation.

Assam–Nagaland geographical connection

Runoff from the hills of Nagaland can enter the plains of Assam. Short-duration extreme rainfall in hill catchments may rapidly increase water and sediment flows in downstream valleys and floodplains. Sivasagar and Charaideo are in Upper Assam and are connected to the Brahmaputra and tributary floodplain system.

Possible causes

• Rainfall 435% to 490% above normal
• Hill-catchment runoff
• Heavy silt movement
• Landscape disturbance
• Mining-related allegations
• Dam-release allegations

The report did not conclusively identify any single factor as the final cause.

Hazard versus disaster

Extreme rainfall is a hazard. It becomes a disaster when settlements are exposed in flood-prone areas, drainage is weak, embankments fail, and warning or evacuation is inadequate. These conditions represent exposure and vulnerability.

Konyak community

The Konyaks are one of the major Naga tribes and live mainly in Mon district of Nagaland. Their traditional institutions, festivals and community councils are relevant for examinations.

The Zoological Survey of India catalogued 13,703 Lepidoptera species in India: 1,417 butterflies and 12,286 moths. The catalogue covered 3,705 genera, 240 subfamilies, 102 families and 31 superfamilies. India accounts for about 8.25% of global Lepidoptera diversity. The Geometroidea superfamily alone included 2,205 species.

The scientists were Navneet Singh and Rahul Joshi, and the work was published in the journal Zootaxa.

Meaning and hierarchy

Lepidoptera comes from Greek roots: lepido, meaning scale, and ptera, meaning wings. Butterfly and moth wings are covered with microscopic scales.

Taxonomy is the science of identifying, naming and classifying organisms.

Ecological roles

• Pollination
• Food for birds, bats and other insectivores
• Herbivory during the caterpillar stage
• Processing of decomposing material by some species
• Bio-indication of environmental change
• Night-time pollination by moths

Catalogue versus conservation status

A catalogue establishes identity and distribution. It does not automatically create legal protection. Statutory protection may arise from wildlife law or notification, while threatened status may arise through a separate IUCN assessment.

Chaturmasya is a religious observance lasting approximately four months during the monsoon. The newspaper described its span using the Tamil calendar, from the Ekadashi of the bright fortnight of Aadi to the Ekadashi of the bright fortnight of Karthigai.

In many Vaishnava traditions, it broadly extends from Devshayani Ekadashi to Prabodhini Ekadashi.

Shayana Ekadashi

The opening Ekadashi is called Shayana Ekadashi, Sayana Ekadashi or Devshayani Ekadashi. In religious symbolism, Lord Vishnu enters yogic sleep. The concluding Ekadashi, associated with Vishnu’s awakening, is called Prabodhini or Devutthana Ekadashi.

Why do sanyasis remain in one place?

Traditional practice discourages continuous travel during the monsoon. An ecological explanation is that small creatures and insects become more active and vegetation grows rapidly, increasing the possibility of harm during travel.

Divya Desam

Divya Desams are the traditional list of 108 sacred Vaishnava shrines praised in the hymns of Tamil Alvar saints. Ennai Kappu refers to an oil-based coating or adornment ritual applied to the deity.

Glass-like beads found in the beach sands of Hiroshima Bay are called hiroshimaites. Scientists found a micrometre-sized metallic alloy grain inside these beads. The grain contained iron, chromium, nickel, manganese, molybdenum, silicon and aluminium.

How did hiroshimaites form?

During the 1945 atomic explosion over Hiroshima, the fireball temperature exceeded 7,000°C. Components of buildings, soil, glass and metals melted or vaporised. As the fireball expanded and cooled rapidly, vaporised material solidified into droplets and beads.

Ultrafast quenching

Extremely rapid cooling is ultrafast quenching. During slow cooling, atoms have time to form an orderly crystal structure. Rapid cooling can freeze atoms into unusual or metastable arrangements.

Alloy and quasicrystal

An alloy is a metallic mixture of two or more elements, at least one of which is a metal. High-entropy alloys may contain several principal metallic elements in comparable proportions. A quasicrystal has an ordered atomic arrangement but lacks the conventional repeating periodic pattern of a crystal.

The study was published in Science Advances.

Aadi Perukku is a Tamil Nadu festival connected with the Cauvery River and water abundance. It is celebrated on the eighteenth day of the Tamil month Aadi. “Perukku” is associated with swelling or rising water. The festival symbolises agricultural prosperity, river flow and monsoon renewal.

Cauvery on the map

The Cauvery rises at Talakaveri in Kodagu district of Karnataka and flows broadly from Karnataka through Tamil Nadu to the Bay of Bengal.

• Kabini—tributary of the Cauvery
• Krishnaraja Sagar Dam—Karnataka
• Biligundulu—gauging point near the Karnataka–Tamil Nadu border
• Mettur Dam—Tamil Nadu
• Cauvery delta—Thanjavur and adjoining districts

Cusec and TMC ft

Cusec means cubic foot per second and measures flow rate. TMC ft means thousand million cubic feet and measures volume. Reservoir level may be stated in feet, storage in TMC ft and release in cusecs. These are different measurements.

Associated institutions

• Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal
• Cauvery Water Management Authority
• Cauvery Water Regulation Committee

The Tribunal established a legal allocation framework, while the management and regulation bodies are associated with implementation and monitoring of releases.

The Indian Association was founded in Calcutta on 26 July 1876 by Surendranath Banerjea and Ananda Mohan Bose. It opposed the reduction of the maximum age for the Indian Civil Service examination from 21 to 19.

Why did age reduction become a major issue?

The ICS examination was held in England. Indian candidates had to travel abroad at a younger age, bear expensive travel and education costs, and compete under social conditions favouring British candidates. The reduction was viewed as racial and administrative discrimination.

Importance of the Indian Association

• Mobilised the educated middle class
• Carried political campaigning beyond provincial boundaries
• Raised civil-service reform and representative-government issues
• Created organisational groundwork for the later national movement

Surendranath Banerjea was sometimes called the “Indian Burke” and was associated with the newspaper The Bengalee.

Indian Association and Indian National Congress

The Indian Association was founded in 1876; the Indian National Congress was founded in 1885. They were distinct organisations, though connected through the broader continuity of early nationalism.

The Soweto Uprising began on 16 June 1976 in South Africa. Schoolchildren protested against the apartheid government’s decision to make Afrikaans a compulsory medium of instruction.

Where is Soweto?

The name Soweto is derived broadly from South Western Townships. It is a historically Black township area connected with metropolitan Johannesburg.

Why did students oppose Afrikaans?

Afrikaans was regarded as the language of the apartheid regime and white-minority domination. Black students demanded education in their own languages or in English. Police used live ammunition against protesters. A photograph showing the death of student Hector Pieterson became an international symbol of the uprising.

Apartheid

Apartheid was South Africa’s institutionalised system of racial segregation. It classified people by race and controlled residence, education, movement, employment and political rights.

Soweto versus Sharpeville

• Sharpeville Massacre—1960—protest against pass laws.
• Soweto Uprising—1976—protest against Afrikaans-medium and discriminatory education.

South Africa observes 16 June as Youth Day.

MISA stood for the Maintenance of Internal Security Act. It was enacted in 1971 and used for preventive detention. During the Emergency of 1975–77, opposition leaders, activists, journalists and students were detained under it.

Preventive and punitive detention

• Preventive detention: custody intended to prevent anticipated future conduct.
• Punitive detention: punishment following trial and conviction.

National Emergency context

The Emergency of 1975 was proclaimed under Article 352 on the ground of “internal disturbance”. The Forty-fourth Constitutional Amendment later replaced that expression with the more specific ground “armed rebellion”.

What happened to MISA?

MISA was repealed after the Emergency and is not a current operative law.

MISA and NSA

• MISA—1971—strongly associated with Emergency-era detention.
• NSA—1980—present preventive-detention statute.

NCISM stands for the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine. It is a statutory body regulating medical education and professional standards in Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Sowa-Rigpa. It functions within the broader administrative framework of the Ministry of AYUSH.

NCISM and NMC

• NCISM—Indian systems of medicine.
• National Medical Commission—modern-medicine education and professional regulation.

Homoeopathy has a separate regulatory framework and commission. NCISM does not regulate every AYUSH system.

AYUSH

• Ayurveda
• Yoga and Naturopathy
• Unani
• Siddha
• Homoeopathy

Sowa-Rigpa is a traditional Himalayan medical system associated with Ladakh and other Himalayan regions.

Issue in the news

A Letter to the Editor criticised comparisons between traditional medical concepts and quantum mechanics, as well as an elective on medical astrology. The source type is important: a Letter to the Editor is an opinion, not an official government finding.

Evidence-based medicine

An evidence-based approach combines clinical expertise, scientific research and patient values. Inclusion of a topic in a course does not by itself establish scientific validity.

K. Jamuna Rani was a multilingual playback singer. The newspaper stated that she sang more than 6,000 songs in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Sinhalese.

What is playback singing?

A playback singer records a song in a studio, while an actor appears to perform it on screen in the film. The playback system enabled singers to work across several film industries and languages.

Where is Sinhalese spoken?

Sinhala, or Sinhalese, is one of Sri Lanka’s principal official languages. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka. Jamuna Rani’s career therefore extended into the Sri Lankan linguistic-cultural sphere.

India–Sri Lanka cultural connection

South Indian cinema, Carnatic musical traditions and Sri Lankan Tamil and Sinhala broadcasting have long interacted through regional cultural exchange.

The report stated that 91,209 hectares burned in France, exceeding the annual record of 75,566 hectares set in 1989. The Bordeaux-region fire affected about 42,000 hectares of pine forest and 240 homes. Spain reported about 1.9 lakh hectares burned.

The wet-winter paradox

Good winter rainfall can encourage grass and shrub growth. A later heatwave can turn that vegetation into combustible material.

Important terms

• Fuel load: dry burnable material available in a landscape.
• Fire weather: combination of heat, low humidity, drought and strong winds.
• Soil-moisture deficit: soil water below normal.
• Wildland–urban interface: contact zone between settlements and forest vegetation.
• Fire break: low-fuel strip slowing fire spread.
• Prescribed burning: planned fire under controlled conditions.

Relevant institutions

• Joint Research Centre of the European Commission
• European Forest Fire Information System
• World Weather Attribution
• Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre

Climate attribution examines how climate change affected the probability or intensity of an extreme event. It is not the same as identifying the direct ignition source of every fire.

An archival reference from 1926 mentioned a branch meeting of the Anglo-Indian and Domiciled European Association in Quetta. The meeting took place at the Baluchi Club. Lawrence P. Atkinson was the travelling secretary, Reverend J. Cummings presided, and a higher-education fund associated with Colonel Gidney was mentioned.

Quetta on the map

Quetta is now the capital of Pakistan’s Balochistan province. It lies in a highland valley near the Afghanistan border region. During colonial rule, Quetta was an important strategic military cantonment and frontier-administration centre.

Constitutional definition of Anglo-Indian

Article 366 contained a constitutional definition of the Anglo-Indian community. Historically, the category was connected with paternal European ancestry and Indian domicile.

Political representation

The Constitution had provided nominated representation for Anglo-Indians in the Lok Sabha and some State Assemblies. The One Hundred and Fourth Constitutional Amendment ended this nomination. Legislative reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes was extended, but Anglo-Indian nomination was not continued.

Domiciled Europeans

In colonial terminology, Europeans or European-descended persons permanently settled in India were described as domiciled Europeans.

Leptospirosis is a zoonotic bacterial disease caused by pathogenic Leptospira bacteria. Reporting in Kerala dates from 1989, and the newspaper stated that 50 deaths had occurred in July.

Transmission

Infected animals, especially rodents, may release the bacteria through urine. Infection can follow contact with contaminated soil, floodwater, lakes, canals or wet agricultural fields. Bacteria may enter through broken skin, abrasions, or the mucous membranes of the eyes, nose and mouth.

High-risk groups

• Farmers
• Dairy workers
• Sanitation workers
• Canal cleaners
• Construction workers
• Migrant labourers
• Paddy and pineapple plantation workers

Symptoms and complications

• Fever
• Severe myalgia
• Headache
• Gastrointestinal symptoms
• Conjunctival suffusion—red eyes without typical purulent discharge

Severe disease may cause pulmonary haemorrhage, liver and kidney dysfunction, multi-organ failure and cytokine storm. The severe icteric form may be called Weil’s disease.

ELISA and PCR

ELISA detects antibodies and may be falsely negative early in disease before sufficient antibodies develop. PCR detects bacterial genetic material and may assist earlier diagnosis.

COMEX is a major international commodities futures market associated with the CME Group ecosystem. Futures in gold, silver, copper and other metals are traded there. MCX, the Multi Commodity Exchange of India, is India’s commodity derivatives exchange.

Spot and futures

• Spot price: price for immediate delivery or the current market.
• Futures contract: standardised agreement to buy or sell a commodity on a future date at predetermined terms.

Why are futures markets useful?

Hedgers use futures to reduce price risk—for example, a jeweller seeking protection from a future rise in gold prices. Speculators seek profit from price movement.

Why do COMEX and MCX prices look different?

COMEX gold is generally quoted in U.S. dollars per troy ounce. MCX gold may be quoted in rupees per 10 grams. The rupee–dollar exchange rate, import duties, domestic taxes, transport, premiums and contract specifications all affect the difference.

Troy ounce

Precious metals commonly use the troy ounce. One troy ounce is approximately 31.1 grams.

FDRE stands for Firm and Despatchable Renewable Energy. Solar and wind are renewable, but generation depends on weather and time. Solar produces no power at night, and wind is not constant. This is intermittency or variability.

Meaning of firm and despatchable

• Firm: supply is sufficiently dependable and contractually assured.
• Despatchable: power can be delivered according to a schedule or grid requirement.

How can FDRE be created?

• Solar + wind hybridisation
• Battery energy storage
• Pumped-storage hydropower
• Geographical diversification
• Forecasting and scheduling
• Contractual supply obligations

Difference from ordinary renewable power

An ordinary solar project generates when sunlight is available. An FDRE project must provide assured power in specified time blocks or according to a schedule.

Battery and pumped storage

A battery stores electricity chemically. Pumped storage uses excess electricity to pump water to an upper reservoir and later releases it to generate hydropower when demand rises.

Ceuta is a Spanish autonomous city and enclave on the North African coast. Its land boundary is with Morocco. Geographically it is in Africa, but politically it is part of Spain and the European Union.

Ceuta on the map

Ceuta lies near the Mediterranean entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, opposite the Iberian Peninsula. Spain has two prominent North African enclaves on the Moroccan coast: Ceuta and Melilla.

Strait of Gibraltar

The Strait of Gibraltar connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean. Spain and Gibraltar lie to the north; Morocco lies to the south.

Enclave and exclave

An enclave is territory surrounded by another State. An exclave is territory geographically separated from its parent State. Ceuta is separated from mainland Spain and land-connected to Morocco; it can therefore be described as a Spanish exclave and, in relation to its surroundings, an enclave.

Migration significance

Ceuta is one of the routes through which migrants attempt to enter European Union territory from Africa. Border fences, asylum claims, irregular migration and Spain–Morocco cooperation are therefore important issues.

A suicide bombing occurred in Kabal town in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. Swat lies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The suspected group was Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP.

Swat on the map

Swat Valley is a mountainous valley in northern Pakistan. The Swat River flows through the region and joins the Kabul River system; the Kabul River later joins the Indus. The region lies near the Hindu Kush mountain environment.

What is TTP?

TTP is an umbrella network of Pakistani militant organisations whose main focus has been insurgency against the Pakistani State and security institutions.

TTP and Afghan Taliban

The two may possess ideological and historical connections, but they are not identical organisations. The Afghan Taliban is primarily a political-military movement centred on Afghanistan. TTP is primarily a militant network directed against the Pakistani State.

Historical context of Swat

Swat has long been known for tourism, Buddhist heritage and scenic landscapes, but militant control and military operations also made it a security hotspot. The area formed part of the ancient Gandhara cultural zone and contains Buddhist remains.

The Nazca Lines are enormous ancient geoglyphs in the southern coastal desert of Peru. The newspaper referred to an aircraft crash during a sightseeing flight over the lines, in which 13 deaths were reported.

What is a geoglyph?

A geoglyph is a large design made on the ground surface. The Nazca people removed darker stones from the surface to expose lighter soil beneath, creating lines and figures.

What do the Nazca Lines show?

• Straight lines
• Geometric shapes
• Hummingbird
• Spider
• Monkey
• Other plants and animals

The full forms are more clearly visible from an elevated or aerial viewpoint than from ground level.

Associated civilisation and preservation

The lines are primarily associated with the ancient Nazca culture and were created over several centuries in the pre-Columbian period. Peru’s coastal desert is extremely dry. Limited rainfall and low wind erosion helped preserve the markings.

UNESCO status

The Lines and Geoglyphs of Nazca and Palpa are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The United Kingdom does have a constitution. The more accurate description is an uncodified Constitution, meaning that constitutional rules are not consolidated in a single authoritative document.

Sources of the U.K. Constitution

• Statutes
• Common-law judgments
• Constitutional conventions
• Treaties
• Royal prerogative
• Authoritative works

Important constitutional documents

• Magna Carta, 1215
• Bill of Rights, 1689
• Parliament Acts
• Human Rights Act, 1998
• Constitutional Reform Act, 2005

No single one of these is the complete Constitution.

Parliamentary sovereignty

A central principle of the U.K. tradition is parliamentary sovereignty. Parliament can generally enact or repeal any law, and ordinary courts do not invalidate primary legislation in the manner of constitutional judicial review.

India follows constitutional supremacy. Parliament legislates within constitutional limits, and courts may exercise judicial review.

Written and rigid are not the same

A written Constitution need not always be rigid. An uncodified Constitution does not mean an absence of binding law.

Convention

A constitutional convention is a politically accepted practice that is generally not enforced by courts as law. An example is the Monarch acting on the advice of the Prime Minister.

The report stated that the Democratic Republic of the Congo recorded 3,605 Ebola cases and 1,587 deaths. The current strain was identified as Bundibugyo ebolavirus, or BDBV, and the epicentre was Bunia in Ituri Province.

What type of pathogen causes Ebola?

Ebola viruses belong to the family Filoviridae and are enveloped RNA viruses. Ebola is not a bacterial disease.

Transmission

• Infected blood
• Bodily fluids
• Contaminated surfaces and medical equipment
• Infected animals
• Unsafe handling of infected bodies

Ebola is not regarded as an airborne disease under ordinary circumstances.

Incubation and symptoms

The incubation period can be 2 to 21 days. A person is generally contagious after symptoms begin. Symptoms include fever, fatigue, vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain and rash; severe cases may involve bleeding and organ failure.

Bundibugyo strain trap

Approved Ebola vaccines have primarily been developed for particular species, especially Zaire ebolavirus. A vaccine effective against one species should not automatically be assumed to protect against every Ebola species. An Oxford candidate, ChAdOx1 BDBV, was reported in human trials for the Bundibugyo strain.

Relevant institutions

• World Health Organization
• Africa CDC
• U.S. CDC
• International Health Regulations, 2005

PHEIC stands for Public Health Emergency of International Concern, a formal international-health declaration under the IHR.

The name Congo refers to two separate sovereign countries.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

• Capital: Kinshasa
• Former colonial power: Belgium
• One of Central Africa’s largest countries
• Eastern neighbours include Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi

Republic of the Congo

• Capital: Brazzaville
• Former colonial power: France
• Smaller than the DRC
• Has an Atlantic coast

Unique capital fact

Kinshasa and Brazzaville lie on opposite banks of the Congo River and are among the world’s closest national-capital pairs.

Congo River

The Congo River is one of the world’s largest rivers by discharge and is generally described as second only to the Amazon. It crosses the Equator more than once.

Name trap

• DRC may be called Congo-Kinshasa.
• Republic of the Congo may be called Congo-Brazzaville.
• The Ebola outbreak in the news concerned the DRC, not the Republic of the Congo.

The report stated that five of Cuba’s fifteen provinces were affected by the latest partial power-grid collapse. Cuba’s electricity company is called UNE. Several nationwide blackouts were reported in 2026, following repeated outages from late 2024. Seven ageing thermal power plants formed the backbone of the grid, many more than forty years old.

Cuba on the map

Cuba is a major Caribbean island country with Havana as its capital. It lies south of Florida, east of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula and west of Hispaniola.

What is a grid collapse?

Electricity generation and demand must remain continuously balanced. A major plant trip, transmission failure or fuel shortage can disrupt frequency and produce a cascading shutdown.

Blackout and brownout

• Blackout: complete loss of electricity supply.
• Brownout: reduced voltage or partial deterioration of supply.

Centralised and distributed grids

A centralised grid depends heavily on a small number of large plants, so failure of one major plant can affect a wide area. Distributed generation uses smaller local sources. A microgrid is a limited local network that can sometimes operate even when disconnected from the main grid. Battery storage can assist short-term balancing.

Cuba’s energy vulnerability

Ageing thermal plants, fuel-import dependence, maintenance constraints and limited spare capacity weaken resilience.

The report stated that India won 13 gold, 17 silver and nine bronze medals in a Commonwealth Games edition that included only ten sports.

Athletics

Gulveer Singh won silver in the 10,000 metres and bronze in the 5,000 metres. He was described as the first Indian to win two athletics medals in one Commonwealth Games edition. The article body gave his 5,000-metre time as 13:24.95. A summary line printed 3:24.95, which was a typographical error and should not be memorised.

Other sports

• Boxing: seven gold and three silver
• Weightlifting: one gold, six silver and one bronze
• Mirabai Chanu: third consecutive Commonwealth Games gold
• Judo: Asmita Dey—gold; Harsh Singh—gold
• Para-sport: record seven medals for India

Background

The first Commonwealth Games were held in 1930 at Hamilton, Canada. They were originally known as the British Empire Games. The Commonwealth Games Federation is the governing body, and participation is primarily based on membership of the Commonwealth of Nations and associated territories.

According to the 2011 Census, Scheduled Castes constitute about 32% of Punjab’s population, the highest proportion among Indian States. Highest proportion does not necessarily mean the highest absolute number.

Punjab’s three cultural regions

Doaba lies between the Beas and Sutlej rivers. Important districts include Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar. Dalit concentration and overseas migration are comparatively high in Doaba.

Majha lies broadly between the Ravi and Beas rivers and includes areas such as Amritsar and Gurdaspur.

Malwa lies south of the Sutlej and is Punjab’s largest cultural region geographically and politically.

Agrarian structure

Jat Sikhs have historically been associated with substantial agricultural landownership, while many Scheduled Caste communities have been associated with agricultural labour and non-landholding occupations. A high population share therefore does not automatically produce equality in landownership or political representation.

Constitutional link

Scheduled Castes are specified through State-specific Presidential notification under Article 341. A community may be listed as Scheduled Caste in one State and not in another.

Guru Ravidass was a fifteenth-century Bhakti saint-poet whose birthplace is traditionally associated with the area near Varanasi. He was associated with the Chamar leather-working community. His teachings emphasised equality, devotion, dignity and rejection of caste hierarchy.

Place in the Bhakti tradition

Guru Ravidass is associated with the nirguna Bhakti tradition. His compositions are included in the Guru Granth Sahib. His celebrated utopian idea of Begumpura imagines a society without sorrow, tax, caste oppression or fear.

Where is Chak Hakim?

Chak Hakim village lies near Phagwara in Kapurthala district, close to the Grand Trunk Road. It contains the Shiromani Shri Guru Ravidass Mandir, called Guru Ghar by followers.

The report described facilities including a school, charitable dispensary, community kitchen, travellers’ accommodation and a sarovar.

Diaspora connection

Migration from the Doaba region to the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States and Gulf countries has been substantial. Overseas devotees and NRIs have supported religious and social institutions through funding.

The Ad Dharm movement emerged in the 1920s in Punjab’s Doaba region. Its principal leader was Mangoo Ram Mugowalia. The movement sought dignity, an independent identity and political mobilisation for communities formerly labelled “untouchable”.

Mangoo Ram’s background

Mangoo Ram Mugowalia had also been associated with the Ghadar movement. After returning to Punjab from abroad, he focused on social organisation among oppressed communities.

Meaning of Ad Dharm

“Ad” means original or primordial, while “Dharm” refers to faith or a social-religious order. The movement argued that oppressed castes were not inferior groups within the Hindu caste hierarchy but a distinct original community.

Census connection

The movement campaigned for recognition of a separate Ad Dharmi identity in the colonial census. This identity became politically significant in the context of the 1931 Census.

Why Doaba mattered

• High Dalit population concentration
• Established overseas migration
• Remittances and education supporting mobility
• Growth of religious deras and community institutions

Distinction from other movements

Ad Dharm should not be treated as identical to the Arya Samaj, Singh Sabha or Akali movements. Its distinctive social base lay among oppressed castes and its project of independent identity.

India has two important seasonal rainfall systems: the Southwest Monsoon and the Northeast, or Retreating, Monsoon.

Southwest Monsoon

Its main period is June to September, and it supplies the principal rainy season to most of India. Its two major branches are the Arabian Sea branch and the Bay of Bengal branch.

The Tamil Nadu coast receives comparatively less rain during the Southwest Monsoon because of wind orientation and the rain-shadow effect of the Western Ghats.

Northeast Monsoon

Its main period is October to December. It is important for Tamil Nadu, coastal Andhra Pradesh, Puducherry and adjoining parts of the south-eastern peninsula. Winds broadly reverse from land toward sea, but can acquire moisture over the Bay of Bengal and produce rain on the Tamil Nadu coast.

El Niño

El Niño is the warm phase of ENSO, associated with abnormal warming in the central and eastern tropical Pacific. It can weaken the Indian Southwest Monsoon, though the effect is not identical in every year or region.

Indian Ocean Dipole

The IOD concerns the sea-surface-temperature difference between the western and eastern Indian Ocean. In a positive IOD, the western Indian Ocean is comparatively warmer. It may support the Indian monsoon in some circumstances, but does not always cancel the effect of El Niño.

Tamil Nadu and El Niño

El Niño may influence Tamil Nadu’s Northeast Monsoon differently from the Southwest Monsoon. Some El Niño years have brought good Northeast Monsoon rainfall to Tamil Nadu, but the relationship is not deterministic.

Role of cyclones

Depressions and cyclonic storms in the Bay of Bengal may contribute substantially to Northeast Monsoon rainfall, while extreme rainfall can also cause urban flooding.