The Supreme Court has held that a man cannot claim a share in his grandfather's property while his father is alive, if the father received it by succession under Section 8 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956. Inheritance in such a case is not a birthright.

• Hindu Code Bills (1955–56): the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, Hindu Succession Act, 1956, Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956 and Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956 codified Hindu personal law.
• Section 6 (pre-2005): a coparcener's interest passed by survivorship to the other coparceners, except where a female Class I heir survived — then it went by succession.
• Section 8: when a Hindu male dies intestate (without a will), property goes first to Class I heirs listed in the Schedule — son, daughter, widow, mother, and the son of a predeceased son, among others.
• Section 19: two or more heirs take as tenants-in-common — each holds a separate, identifiable share — not as joint tenants.
• State amendments: Andhra Pradesh (1986), Tamil Nadu (1989), Karnataka and Maharashtra (1994) made daughters coparceners through provisions such as Section 29A.
• 2005 Amendment: made daughters coparceners by birth nationwide; Vineeta Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma (2020) held the right does not depend on the father being alive on 9 September 2005.
• Precedent: in CWT v. Chander Sen (1986), the Court held that property a son inherits from his father under Section 8 is his individual property, not joint family property.

• Right opens on death: a grandson's right in his grandfather's property arises only on his father's death when the father inherited under Section 8.
• Not a Class I heir: a son's son is excluded from Class I while his father is alive; the legislature did not save the old Mitakshara rule here.
• Partition ends jointness: after the heirs partitioned the estate, each became exclusive owner of the allotted share as a tenant-in-common.
• Section 29A argument rejected: the State provision on daughters' coparcenary rights did not revive the coparcenary character of property already partitioned.
• Timing: succession opened at the grandfather's death, long before the grandson was born, so he was not a surviving coparcener.

• Clarity for property markets: it protects buyers who purchase from an owner who inherited under Section 8 and partitioned.
• Consistency: it reaffirms the Chander Sen line and limits the reach of the traditional Mitakshara birthright.
• Records gap: many families still do not know whether a holding is ancestral or self-acquired, which drives long litigation.
• Wider debate: such complexity is part of the case for codified, simpler succession rules, which feeds the discussion on Article 44 (Uniform Civil Code).

The Bal Vivah Mukt Bharat (BVMB) campaign of the Ministry of Women and Child Development aims to cut the prevalence of child marriage by 10% by 2026 and to make India child-marriage-free by 2030, in line with SDG 5.3.

• 19th century: reformers such as Raja Rammohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and Jyotirao Phule campaigned against the practice; the Age of Consent Act, 1891 followed.
• Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929 (Sarda Act): minimum age of 14 for girls and 18 for boys; amended in 1949 (15 for girls) and 1978 (18 and 21).
• Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA), 2006: moved from restraint to prohibition, with relief for victims.
• Independent Thought v. Union of India (2017): sex with a wife below 18 is rape; the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 retains this, and POCSO, 2012 treats it as aggravated penetrative sexual assault.
• Raising the age for women to 21: the Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021 lapsed with the dissolution of the 17th Lok Sabha in 2024.

Figure 2 — Salient features of the PCMA, 2006 (official infographic)

The Act treats child marriage as voidable (void in cases of force, trafficking or deceit), makes offences cognizable and non-bailable, and gives the girl rights to maintenance and residence. Image courtesy Press Information Bureau; reproduced with credit for educational use.

• Launched: 27 November 2024; a 100-day intensive drive ran from 4 December 2025 to March 2026.
• Supreme Court framework: in Society for Enlightenment and Voluntary Action v. Union of India (18 October 2024), the Court directed full-time CMPOs, Special Child Marriage Prohibition Units, training and at-risk databases, and urged a ban on child betrothals.
• Technology: the BVMB portal lists CMPOs and enables online reporting and tracking of awareness actions.
• Incentives: a Child Marriage-Free Village Certificate and a BVMB Yodha Award for the top 10 districts.
• Ground examples: Balod (Chhattisgarh) was declared India's first child-marriage-free district in 2025; Surajpur declared 75 panchayats free of child marriage.

• Under-reporting: "zero reported cases" is not the same as zero cases; independent verification is needed before certification.
• Low conviction: prosecutions under PCMA remain few relative to prevalence; families and communities rarely testify.
• Root causes: poverty, dowry, safety concerns and dropping out of school drive early marriage — enforcement alone cannot fix them.
• What works: keeping girls in secondary school, conditional cash transfers, and skilling show stronger evidence than punitive action.

Germany's Ambassador to India has described the recently concluded India–EU Free Trade Agreement as a potential "game changer", pointing to supply-chain integration in automobiles, joint clean-energy manufacturing, the Project 75(I) submarine programme and rising skilled migration.

• India–EU: Strategic Partnership since 2004; FTA talks (as the Broad-based Trade and Investment Agreement) began in 2007, stalled in 2013, relaunched in June 2022, and concluded in 2026.
• India–Germany: Strategic Partnership since 2000; Intergovernmental Consultations at Head-of-Government level since 2011.
• Indo-German Energy Partnership: marks 20 years in 2026.
• Green and Sustainable Development Partnership (GSDP), 2022: Germany offers technical support and loans of over €1 billion a year to India.
• Migration and Mobility Partnership Agreement (2022): framework for skilled workers, students and researchers.

• Investment for re-export: German firms producing in India can supply the wider European market; sectors span machinery, automotive, pharma, medical equipment, semiconductors and defence.
• Auto supply chains: two-way sourcing of parts could make both industries more competitive.
• Clean-energy manufacturing: India should make solar panels and battery storage at home rather than replace one import dependency with another.
• Tamil Nadu as a hub: German investment spans the Chennai–Oragadam belt, Coimbatore (automotive, wind energy) and Hosur (two-wheelers).
• Skilled mobility: Indian students in Germany rose from about 17,000 to 70,000 in nine years; about 60,000 long-term visas are issued each year.

• Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM): the EU levy on carbon-intensive imports (steel, aluminium, cement, fertilisers) applies outside the FTA and could offset tariff gains.
• Sensitive sectors: autos, wines and dairy, and EU demands on IPR and data rules, require careful phasing for Indian producers.
• Technology transfer: India's experience in earlier programmes shows that "transfer" often means licensed production; real design depth must be built.
• Mobility: recognition of qualifications and language barriers still limit how many skilled Indians can use the openings.

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has begun an effort to indigenise about 100 critical intermediates and capital goods. The trigger is China's proposed export-licensing regime for capital goods such as solar manufacturing equipment and tunnel boring machines.

• DPIIT: renamed from the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) in 2019; it is under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
• National Capital Goods Policy, 2016: aimed to raise capital-goods production and reduce import dependence.
• Atmanirbhar Bharat (2020) and the PLI schemes, including one for high-efficiency solar PV modules, form the wider policy backdrop.
• Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM): a MNRE list that government-supported solar projects must source from; extended from modules to solar cells.
• Trade remedies: anti-dumping duty is imposed under the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 on the recommendation of the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR).

Solar manufacturing runs in five steps: polysilicon is cast into ingots, sliced into wafers, processed into cells, and assembled into modules. India is strong at the last, assembly step and weak upstream.

• Polymers: PVC, polyethylene (LDPE, LLDPE), polypropylene, polystyrene and ABS — the base of packaging, pipes and consumer goods.
• Chemicals: phosphoric acid and ammonia (fertilisers), acetic acid and toluene (industry, pharma).
• Resins: polycarbonates and propylene copolymers for auto parts and medical devices.
• Trade measure: a Minimum Import Price of $0.766 per kg on suspension-grade PVC was imposed in August.
• Capital goods: a tunnel boring machine plant has been set up in Tamil Nadu; China plans to license TBM exports from 18 November.

• Cost vs security: domestic production of commodity chemicals and equipment may be costlier for years; the trade-off must be explicit.
• Scale economics: petrochemicals and polysilicon are capital-heavy and need cheap power and feedstock; selective bets beat a long wish list.
• Protection risk: MIPs and duties raise input costs for downstream MSMEs and exporters.
• Diversify, not only indigenise: trusted suppliers (Japan, EU, Korea) and partnerships such as the Supply Chain Resilience Initiative can complement domestic capacity.

On 5 November, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) declared a former Videocon promoter bankrupt as personal guarantor for about ₹12,668 crore of SBI loans to group companies. It is one of very few loan-default cases in India to reach the bankruptcy stage.

• Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), 2016: based on the Bankruptcy Law Reforms Committee (2015); consolidated laws such as SICA, 1985 and the old provincial insolvency Acts.
• Adjudicating authorities: NCLT for companies and personal guarantors to companies; Debts Recovery Tribunal for other individuals. Appeals lie to the NCLAT, then the Supreme Court.
• Regulator: the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI).
• Timeline: CIRP is to finish in 180 days, extendable by 90, with an outer limit of 330 days including litigation.
• Personal guarantors: provisions notified with effect from 1 December 2019; upheld in Lalit Kumar Jain v. Union of India (2021) and Dilip B. Jiwrajka v. Union of India (2023).
• Section 12A: allows withdrawal of a case with approval of 90% of the Committee of Creditors.

• Hidden wealth: tracing an individual's true net worth is harder than valuing a company's plant and land.
• Asset structuring: assets held through relatives, trusts or overseas entities are difficult to reach.
• Legal exemptions: limits on what can be taken from a residence and personal effects reduce the pool.
• Time: delays at each stage erode asset values; NCLT capacity remains a bottleneck.

• Deterrence: it signals that promoters' guarantees are enforceable, restoring discipline in the credit culture.
• Untested law: it will test the IBC's individual bankruptcy provisions, which have been used rarely.
• Reform agenda: more NCLT benches, a stronger information utility for asset records, and pre-packaged insolvency (available for MSMEs since 2021) can raise recoveries.

The NITI Aayog–IIM Ahmedabad impact assessment shows that cumulative incentive disbursals under the 14 PLI schemes stood at 18.51% of the total outlay of about ₹1.91 lakh crore till March 2026. Disbursals were below 10% in nine schemes.

• From supply-push to demand-pull: the next generation of schemes should pair production incentives with demand-side support.
• Sector-specific design: differences in technology adoption, gestation periods, competition and capital needs call for tailored targets rather than a uniform template.
• Value addition: growth in mobile phone manufacturing has been accompanied by a rise in imports, largely because it is assembly-based.
• Data: revenue and employment reporting across Ministries needs urgent standardisation.
• From launch to long-term effect: the focus should shift from measuring initial success to long-term effectiveness.

An IIT Madras study of high-touch surfaces in the Chennai Metro has mapped a city-specific microbial community and found low but widespread antimicrobial-resistance (AMR) genes. The researchers say there is no cause for alarm, but argue for routine surveillance.

• Global burden: the GRAM study (The Lancet, 2024) estimated 1.14 million deaths directly attributable to bacterial AMR in 2021, and projected 39 million such deaths between 2025 and 2050.
• UN commitment: the UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting (2024) set a target to cut AMR deaths by 10% by 2030.
• India's framework: the Chennai Declaration (2012), the Red Line campaign (2016) on prescription-only antibiotics, and the National Action Plan on AMR (2017) based on One Health.
• Surveillance networks: ICMR's AMR Surveillance Network and the WHO GLASS system (launched 2015).
• Drugs in the news: rifamycins (e.g. rifampicin) are central to TB treatment; carbapenems are "last-line" antibiotics for multi-drug-resistant infections.

• PathoMap (2013): sampled 468 New York subway stations; nearly 48% of the DNA matched no known organism.
• MetaSUB Consortium (2015): its first Global City Sampling Day (21 June 2016) covered 54 cities in 32 countries.
• Global atlas (Cell, 2021): 4,728 samples from 60 cities; 4,246 known species, and 31 species found in 97% of samples.
• Other studies: Beijing's subway showed possible spread of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae; Hong Kong's studied palm microbiomes after handrail contact.

• Baseline data: a city "microbial fingerprint" allows future changes — a new resistant strain, an outbreak — to be detected early.
• Complements wastewater surveillance: both track community-level health signals without testing individuals.
• Urban design: data can guide cleaning protocols, surface materials and ventilation in crowded transit.
• Limitation: sampling during COVID-era sanitisation caused many samples to fail quality control; repeat sampling in normal conditions is needed.

The Global Carbon Budget projects that global fossil CO₂ emissions will fall by 0.4% in 2026. India is expected to be the only major emitter to record an increase, at 4.4% — above its average of 3.5% a year over the past decade.

• Weather: a wet pre-monsoon in 2025 held down cooling demand and emissions; a drier monsoon and higher temperatures under El Niño conditions in 2026 pushed electricity demand up.
• Coal power: coal-based generation rose about 13.2% to about 8.46 lakh million units between April and 10 November, drawing down coal stocks.
• Transport fuels: petrol consumption rose 6.61% (34.85 → 37.15 million tonnes) and diesel 5.76% (76.46 → 80.86 million tonnes), even as overall petroleum consumption fell 2.24%.
• Industry: CREA analysis found India's CO₂ emissions in the first half of 2026 up 3.7%, led by steel and cement.
• The global decline: attributed to solar and wind expansion and the energy shock from the West Asia conflict; the study cautions this may be a one-year dip, not a structural shift.

According to CREA, power-sector CO₂ stayed flat for two years till June 2026, as clean energy met all of the growth in electricity demand. The challenge has shifted to industry, where coal dominates and electricity is a smaller share of energy use than in most G20 economies.

• Development need: rising emissions partly reflect growth in a country with low per capita energy use; CBDR-RC recognises this space.
• Risk of lock-in: new coal plants and carbon-intensive industrial capacity built now will operate for decades.
• The lever: industrial electrification, green hydrogen for steel and fertilisers, and storage to make renewable power available round the clock.
• Transport: growth in petrol and diesel use shows that EV adoption and public transport have not yet bent the curve.

The proposed Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP) in Arunachal Pradesh faces protests by the Adi community, who say at least 40 villages would be affected and 27 submerged. The State government presents it as a strategic counter-storage to China's planned Medog dam upstream.

• Environmental clearance: under the EIA Notification, 2006, appraised by the Expert Appraisal Committee of the MoEFCC, with public hearings.
• Forest clearance: under the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980 (the renamed Forest Conservation Act).
• Community consent: the Forest Rights Act, 2006 requires Gram Sabha consent, as affirmed in the Niyamgiri case (2013).
• Technical safety: a full impact study with one year of baseline data, a dam-break analysis and a disaster management plan; oversight under the Dam Safety Act, 2021.

• For — strategic storage: a large reservoir could regulate flows, buffer sudden releases from Medog, and moderate floods in Assam.
• For — development: clean power, local jobs and infrastructure in a remote border region.
• Against — displacement and identity: submergence of ancestral land, forests and sacred sites of the Adi.
• Against — risk: a very tall dam in Zone V, with landslide and glacial lake outburst hazards, raises questions of safety for downstream populations.
• Against — fairness: villagers ask why they should bear the cost of the absence of a water treaty with China.

The Kurumbas of Attappady in Keralam's Palakkad district — a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) of about 2,719 people — speak Kurumba, an oral language without a script. Under the Census rule that groups mother tongues with fewer than 10,000 speakers under "others", it is unlikely to be counted separately.

• Census language method: raw mother tongues are rationalised and grouped; in Census 2011, those with 10,000+ speakers yielded 121 languages — 22 scheduled and 99 non-scheduled.
• People's Linguistic Survey of India (2010): by the Bhasha Research and Publication Centre; identified about 780–800 languages.
• SPPEL (2013): the Scheme for Protection and Preservation of Endangered Languages, run through the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysuru, for languages with fewer than 10,000 speakers.
• Constitution: Article 29 protects a distinct language, script or culture; Article 350A calls for primary education in the mother tongue; the Eighth Schedule lists 22 languages.
• NEP 2020: mother tongue or home language as the medium of instruction at least till Grade 5, wherever possible.
• Global frame: the UN's International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022–2032).

• Statistical invisibility: a language not counted separately tends to disappear from policy, funding and school planning.
• Identity: for Adivasi communities, language is tied to rituals, ecological knowledge and kinship; losing one weakens the other.
• Structural pressure: lack of schooling beyond the primary level in Kurumba areas pushes children into Malayalam-medium institutions.

• Publish raw mother-tongue data alongside grouped figures so small languages remain visible.
• Document oral languages through audio-visual archives with community elders.
• Use multilingual education models — tribal-language primers and local teachers — in early grades.

A 15-year-old Siddi judoka from Gujarat won silver in the girls' 63 kg category at the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Senegal — only the second Indian Youth Olympics medal in judo. It has turned attention to the Siddis, a community of East African descent.

• Arrival: accounts vary — through Arab and Persian trade networks, as enslaved people brought by the Portuguese, or as soldiers and guards for Indian rulers. There is no definitive record.
• Habshis in Indian history: Africans rose to power in medieval India — Malik Ambar led the Ahmadnagar Sultanate; the Siddis of Janjira held the island fort off the Konkan coast.
• Architecture: the Sidi Saiyyed Mosque (1573) in Ahmedabad, famous for its stone jali lattice, was built by an Abyssinian noble.
• Faith: mostly Sufi-influenced Muslims, venerating Baba Gor, whose principal dargah is at Ratanpur (Bharuch); local Hindu rituals also form part of practice.
• Dance: Dhamal (also called Goma), with African-origin rhythms, is performed by men and dedicated to Baba Gor.

• Area restriction: members of the same community receive different benefits depending on where they live — a recurring debate in tribal policy.
• Education: more young people are entering higher education and professional courses, but numbers remain small.
• Sport as a pathway: Siddi athletes have done well in judo and athletics; sustaining them needs scholarships and support to stay in training camps.
• Stereotyping: describing communities by "natural athleticism" or temperament risks stereotypes; outcomes depend on access, coaching and opportunity.