Context

The Supreme Court has held that laws penalising individuals who have more than two children — such as disqualification from holding panchayat office — have lost their relevance due to India's falling fertility rate, ruling on a petition filed by Mangala Bhimrao Ingle, whose election as sarpanch of the Kakoda gram panchayat in Maharashtra was set aside on the ground that she had more than two children.

Background & Key Facts

• A Bench led by Justice P.S. Narasimha, also comprising Justice Alok Aradhe, observed that India's Total Fertility Rate (TFR) has fallen from 3.02 to 1.9, now below the replacement rate of 2.1 (the rate at which one generation can completely replace itself), and permitted the appellant to continue in her elected position while setting aside the earlier disqualification.
• The Court held that the 2003 judgment in Javed v. State of Haryana, which had upheld two-child-norm disqualification laws for panchayat office on the basis of concerns about overpopulation, needed to be revisited by a larger Bench given the significant demographic changes that have occurred since.
• Justice Narasimha observed that "allowing such laws to stand excludes an entire class of citizens from political representation on grounds bearing little rational connection to their capacity to hold public office," and that such laws compel an "unconscionable choice" between bearing children and democratic participation, impinging on the right to reproductive autonomy under Article 21.
• The judgment noted that India's falling fertility rate would necessarily mean a smaller proportion of younger persons in the future population, referencing demographic transitions in countries such as China, where the share of the population aged 60 and above rose from about 8.3% in 2014 to 9.7% in 2024, with projections placing that share at nearly 15% by 2036.
• The Court emphasised that "the failure to take notice of demographic changes would lead to only serious consequences. Failure to adapt not only produced injustice, but was also an abuse of power," framing the ruling as an instance of constitutional adjudication responding to evolving empirical social conditions rather than static historical assumptions.

Context

An editorial by a practising physician examines India's persistent anaemia burden — the fifth National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) found more than half of young women and about two-thirds of young children anaemic — and critiques the proposed transformative solution of universal double-fortified salt (DFS, fortified with both iodine and iron), arguing that convenience is being mistaken for efficacy in a policy space that requires a far more multi-causal approach.

Background & Key Facts

• Anaemia is not the same as iron deficiency: globally, roughly half of anaemia cases are attributed to iron deficiency, while the rest stem from folate and vitamin B12 deficiency, chronic inflammation and recurrent infections (hookworm, malaria), haemoglobinopathies, and overall undernutrition — meaning a single-nutrient (iron) fix applied to a multi-causal condition will under-deliver.
• Iron-folic acid tablets are already distributed through multiple government platforms — the Public Distribution System (PDS), the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN) scheme, and the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme — meaning a child or adolescent may already receive iron through three or four overlapping government programmes, with no published analysis of cumulative iron intake across these schemes.
• Iron absorption from food is often blunted in people with infection or inflammation because the hormone hepcidin blocks iron uptake, and absorption is also weakest where infection burdens are highest — meaning double-fortified salt is likely to be least effective precisely in the populations with the greatest anaemia burden.
• Haemoglobinopathies — including beta-thalassaemia and sickle cell disease, concentrated in tribal belts — represent a further concern, since people with thalassaemia, especially those who receive blood transfusions, are prone to iron overload, meaning indiscriminate iron fortification could cause harm in this population.
• Peru reduced child anaemia by double digits in the early 2010s by making anaemia a political priority, tracking children by name through health contacts, combining iron supplements and micronutrient powders with cash transfers, and holding regions accountable — progress that reversed when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted service delivery, underscoring that outcomes depend on sustained service delivery rather than a single product.

Context

Following the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi on September 12, where the New Delhi Declaration confirmed members' intent to implement the Memorandum of Understanding on the BRICS Carbon Markets Partnership, an analysis examines what would actually be needed to operationalise this modest commitment — centred so far on capacity-building and experience-sharing, with no trading framework, targets or timeline — into a functioning common rulebook.

Background & Key Facts

• Eight BRICS members reportedly operate voluntary carbon markets, while Brazil, China, India and Indonesia host over a third of carbon-credit projects registered worldwide, though national compliance systems diverge significantly: China's national Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) added steel, cement and aluminium to its 2024-25 allocation plan; India's Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS) has notified emission-intensity targets for 490 entities across nine sectors and opened an offset mechanism; and Brazil's 2024 law establishes the Brazilian Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading System (SBCE), a cap-and-trade system.
• China and India allocate carbon obligations based on output-based emissions-intensity benchmarks, while Brazil is establishing an absolute emissions cap — a fundamental divergence in market design that complicates any effort to directly link these national compliance markets.
• External pressure for coordination comes from the European Union's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which entered its definitive phase in January 2026 and charges for carbon embedded in imports of steel, aluminium, cement, fertilizer and hydrogen, crediting a carbon price paid at origin only when supported by verified evidence; the United Kingdom will follow with its own CBAM from January 2027.
• The U.K.'s recognition of India's CCTS in August 2026 illustrates how linkage currently works bilaterally and unilaterally — relief depends on a form completed by an ISO 14065-accredited verifier, with each exporting country negotiating alone and exporters without verified data facing punitive default values.
• A functional BRICS rulebook would require three things: common monitoring rules consistent with ISO 14064 for sectors exposed to border adjustment; mutually recognised verifiers accredited by members' national accreditation bodies as BRICS customs authorities pursue authorised economic-operator status; and harmonised registry data fields, giving members a collective reference point in dealing with foreign regulators even though exporters would still benefit from a single compliance pathway.

Context

An opinion piece traces the historical lineage connecting colonial-era popular mobilisations — the 1919-20 mill workers' general strikes, the 1930 Gandhian civil disobedience movement, and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's 1938 khoti-system rally in Bombay — to contemporary concerns, arguing that recent restrictions on protesters at Jantar Mantar and other public spaces undermine a historical relationship between civic arenas and democratic citizenship that dates back to India's anti-colonial struggle.

Background & Key Facts

• Colonial-era popular mobilisations transformed urban civic arenas — parks, maidans, seashores, iconic colonial buildings and public squares that had symbolically represented colonial power — into sites of protest and anti-colonial performance, fundamentally re-territorialising India's urban topography of dissent.
• Bombay's Esplanade Maidan (now Azad Maidan) became a nerve centre of dramatic confrontation with the colonial state: in February 1930, 5,000 railwaymen gathered there to demand a wage increase and an eight-hour working day, and months later, the Satyagraha committee renamed it "Azad Maidan," calling on citizens to use the space for congregation against "any orders or ordinances which were meant to throttle all expressions of freedom."
• Post-independence, civic arenas remained vital anchors of Indian democracy: the Samyukta Maharashtra Movement of the 1950s used Bombay's streets for mass mobilisation demanding a separate linguistic state for Marathi-speaking people, while the Gandhi Maidan in Patna hosted Jayaprakash Narayan's 1974 call for "Sampoorna Kranti" (total revolution).
• More recent examples include the anti-Emergency mobilisation of the 1970s and the Shaheen Bagh protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, which transformed a road in Delhi into a sustained site of democratic resistance — demonstrating how civic spaces continue to function as battlegrounds against perceived authoritarian overreach.
• The piece connects this historical lineage directly to recent restrictions on protesters at Jantar Mantar and other public spaces, arguing that the struggle over public space is not merely about civic access but about citizens' constitutional right to dissent and their ability to reclaim and reimagine social spaces as citizens.

Context

An Economic Notes analysis of the World Bank's latest Poverty and Equity brief finds that while India has recorded one of the fastest extreme-poverty declines in the world — an estimated 496 million people moved out of poverty between 2011 and 2023 — its high "prosperity gap" score of 4.9 reveals that millions remain far from a comfortable standard of living, with informal work, stagnant real wages and limited quality employment opportunities continuing to constrain upward mobility.

Background & Key Facts

• Between 2011 and 2023, extreme income-poverty ($3/day, 2021 PPP) in India declined to 2.6%, while the share of the population living below the lower middle-income country poverty line ($4.20/day) fell from 57.7% to 16.1%; non-monetary indicators from OPHI's Multidimensional Poverty Index also recorded a sharp reduction, from 53.8% in 2005-06 to 16.4% in 2019-21.
• The "prosperity gap," a World Bank indicator introduced to shift focus beyond average per capita income toward distributional sensitivity, measures how far a society is from a baseline standard of prosperity, defined as $28 per person per day (2021 PPP terms); India's score of 4.9 means the average consumption level across India's population would need to increase by a factor of 4.9 to reach this desired standard.
• Using the upper middle-income country (UMIC) poverty line of $8.30 per person per day — where India aspires to be positioned as it becomes more "Viksit" (developed) — 80% of India's population currently falls below this threshold; the $4.20-$8.30 income band alone accounts for 63.9% of India's population and contributes the largest share (about 2.2 to 4.3) to the overall prosperity-gap score of 4.9.
• The ILO India Employment Report 2024 found approximately 90% of India's workforce informally employed, with self-employment accounting for 55.8% of employment in 2022; real wages for regular, salaried workers have remained stagnant or even declined between 2012 and 2022, according to the same report, even as overall employment has expanded.
• The India Employment Report 2024 further found that educated young people accounted for approximately 65.7% of India's total unemployed youth in 2022, highlighting a mismatch between the qualifications young people are acquiring and the employment opportunities actually available to them — even as NCAER's analysis of Time Use Survey data found only 46.7% of 20-29-year-olds were employed.

Context

A seven-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, held that an additional tax levied by a State legislature on the sale or purchase of goods does not fall outside the State's legislative competence, confirming a 1975 judgment in S. Kodar v. State of Kerala and resolving a long-pending question dating back to petitions filed as far back as 1994.

Background & Key Facts

• The lead opinion, authored by Chief Justice Surya Kant, held that an additional tax or surcharge computed as a percentage of the sales tax payable is an "enhancement of the rate of sales tax and a tax on the sale or purchase of goods" within Entry 54 of List II (the State List) of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution, meaning it remains squarely within State legislative competence.
• In a concurring but separate opinion, Justice K.V. Viswanathan agreed that the judicial reasoning in the 1975 S. Kodar verdict held good, squarely holding that an additional tax or surcharge computed as a percentage of the sales tax payable is to be judged in the same way as the principal tax, rather than treated as a separate, potentially ultra vires levy.
• The assessees in the case had argued that such an extra tax could be construed as a "tax on a tax" and urged that a levy measured by the quantum of sales tax already payable does not fall upon the "sale" or "purchase" of goods, which alone is the subject matter of Entry 54 of the State List — a position the Court rejected.
• The Court noted that Entry 54 covers taxes levied by States on the sale or purchase of goods other than newspapers, and that the States had maintained that such a surcharge was nothing more than an enhancement of the rate of sales tax, a position the Constitution Bench's judgment on Wednesday upheld.
• The judgment resolves petitions dating as far back as 1994, raising the question of legislative competence of a State Legislature to levy a tax on the sale or purchase of goods under Entry 54 of List II of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution — illustrating how long-pending constitutional questions on fiscal federalism can take decades to reach final resolution.

Context

The Supreme Court has sought a response from the Union government on petitions challenging the constitutionality of a specific provision in the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023, which bars any court from entertaining or continuing civil or criminal proceedings against a person who is or was a Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) or Election Commissioner for any act done, purportedly done, or omitted in the discharge of official duty or function.

Background & Key Facts

• A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission on petitions filed by RJD MP Manoj Jha, represented by advocate Tanya Srivastava, and advocate Arun Kumar Agrawal, represented by advocate Neha Rathi, challenging Section 16 of the Act for granting blanket, lifelong immunity to the CEC and Election Commissioners from any legal action or criminal prosecution not only during but even after their official tenure.
• Petitioners argued that Section 16 of the Act bars jurisdiction of Constitutional courts and interferes with the power of judicial review, held to be a part of the Basic Structure of the Constitution, submitting that the provision was unconstitutional because it went beyond the ambit of powers given to the Commission and, significantly, violated the Basic Structure doctrine.
• Advocate Neha Rathi submitted that a plain reading of the provision showed a bar on any court to entertain or continue any civil proceedings against "any person who is or was a Chief Election Commissioner or an Election Commissioner for any act, thing or word, committed, done or spoken by him when, or in the course of acting or purporting to act in the discharge of his official duty or function."
• The petitions are separate from, but conceptually related to, other ongoing challenges concerning the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and broader questions of Election Commission accountability currently before the Supreme Court, reflecting a wider pattern of litigation over the institutional accountability of India's electoral machinery.
• The Court listed the petitions for further hearing on December 18, setting up a significant forthcoming examination of the constitutional limits on legislative immunity provisions for high constitutional functionaries.

Context

The Union Cabinet has approved an additional two-year engagement period for a section of Agniveers, creating a pathway for all cadets under the Agnipath scheme to eventually join the armed forces as regular soldiers, subject to their willingness and fulfilment of selection criteria — a significant revision of the original framework, which initially offered retention in the regular cadre to only 25% of each cohort after four years.

Background & Key Facts

• Under the revised arrangement, 25% of Agniveers will continue to be offered regular employment while the remaining 75% will be given an opportunity to serve for another two years, following which they would be eligible for consideration for enrolment as regular soldiers, Chief of Defence Staff General N.S. Raja Subramani told mediapersons on Wednesday.
• The additional engagement period was approved based on the recommendations of the three services following an elaborate evaluation and feedback process, with the decision following an assessment of the performance of Agniveers in terms of organisational requirements and operational efficiency; the evaluation found that Agniveers had demonstrated outstanding performance in skills, motivation, physical fitness and technological prowess.
• The second engagement period will come with higher remuneration, an enhanced Seva Nidhi package, and seniority benefits, with the revised framework following a review of the Agnipath scheme announced by the National Democratic Alliance government after the 2024 Lok Sabha election, in which the BJP lost its parliamentary majority and suffered losses in States where armed-forces recruitment is considered important.
• A News Analysis piece notes that the review followed ground-level resentment among youngsters aspiring to join the armed forces, with widespread protests having taken place in western Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and parts of Rajasthan when the scheme was announced in 2022, and that several NDA allies — including the Janata Dal (United), the Telugu Desam Party and the Lok Janshakti Party — had reviewed the four-year Agnipath scheme.
• The changes come ahead of key Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, States where armed-forces recruitment is considered an important electoral issue, helping the BJP defuse what could have turned out to be a volatile issue for the party with regard to youth employment, particularly amid broader Gen-Z protests against the NEET-papers leak and discontent over University Grants Commission (UGC) social-equity regulations.

Context

The Union Cabinet has approved a ₹14,500-crore Viability Gap Funding (VGF) scheme for the development of grid-scale energy storage systems for the period 2026-27 to 2030-31, aimed at supporting development of 92 GWh of fresh, yet-to-be-commissioned, energy storage capacity and helping meet the government's required grid-scale Energy Storage System (ESS) capacity of 411 GWh by 2031-32.

Background & Key Facts

• The scheme is designed to provide for the development of capacities equivalent to 170% of the present-day grid-scale energy storage system capacity in the country, supporting 60 GWh of hydro pumped storage plant (PSP) capacity, 30 GWh of battery energy storage system (BESS) capacity and 2 GWh of capacity through alternative energy storage technologies, with a total estimated investment of ₹97,600 crore.
• The VGF support — ₹14,500 crore of government funding — is intended to improve the financial viability of these storage projects and accelerate the deployment of large-scale energy storage infrastructure, addressing the inherent intermittency challenges of India's rapidly expanding solar and wind generation capacity.
• Energy storage capacity allocated through the scheme will be allocated through a tariff-based competitive bidding process, with both public and private sector electricity discoms eligible for VGF support for BESS and hydro PSP projects, reflecting an attempt to mobilise private capital alongside public funding.
• The government's stated target of 411 GWh of grid-scale ESS capacity by 2031-32 underscores the scale of storage infrastructure required to support India's renewable-energy transition, given the variable, non-dispatchable nature of solar and wind power generation relative to steady baseload demand.
• This scheme complements other recent government announcements on energy infrastructure, including a separate ₹2,814-crore scheme for domestic lithium and nickel processing capacity, reflecting a coordinated policy push across the critical-minerals and energy-storage value chain needed to support India's clean-energy transition.

Context

The Union Cabinet has approved a ₹2,814-crore capital expenditure support scheme to establish domestic processing facilities for lithium and nickel, seeking to strengthen India's critical-mineral ecosystem and reduce import dependence, with Union Minister for Coal and Mines G. Kishan Reddy stating the scheme would strengthen domestic capabilities, boost manufacturing and reduce dependence on imports.

Background & Key Facts

• The ₹2,814-crore scheme will remain in force for five years and is specifically targeted at establishing domestic processing facilities for lithium and nickel — two critical minerals essential for battery manufacturing, electric vehicles, and grid-scale energy storage systems.
• India currently depends heavily on imports for processed critical minerals, including lithium and nickel, since domestic reserves of these minerals are limited and existing domestic processing capacity is minimal, creating strategic vulnerability in supply chains central to the clean-energy and electric-mobility transition.
• The scheme forms part of a broader government strategy to build India's critical-minerals ecosystem, complementing other recent policy initiatives including the National Critical Mineral Mission and overseas mineral-acquisition efforts through entities such as Khanij Bidesh India Ltd (KABIL).
• The timing of the scheme's announcement, alongside the ₹14,500-crore VGF scheme for grid-scale energy storage, reflects a coordinated industrial-policy approach spanning the full critical-minerals-to-storage value chain, recognising that battery-storage deployment targets require parallel investment in securing processed mineral inputs.
• Critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt and nickel are increasingly subject to global supply-chain concentration risk, with processing capacity for many of these minerals currently concentrated in a small number of countries, making domestic processing capability a matter of both economic competitiveness and strategic supply-chain resilience for India.

Context

A two-day conference of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairpersons from Parliament and 25 State legislatures, held in Thiruvananthapuram, has called for closer scrutiny of public spending, quicker action on audit findings, and wider use of forensic tools to identify areas of governance requiring immediate legislative oversight, adopting a resolution to ensure that CAG report follow-up happens in a time-bound manner.

Background & Key Facts

• K.C. Venugopal, chairman of Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC), said there should be a robust mechanism to ensure CAG findings are acted upon in a time-bound manner, flagging that "audit, accountability and good governance: the evolving role of PAC" concluded with a widely shared frustration among PAC chairpersons that replies from Ministries and Departments to the PAC often come late, are incomplete, or do not come at all.
• The conference's eight-point resolution committed PACs to ensuring that public funds are spent only for the purposes for which they were sanctioned and to safeguarding the public exchequer through rigorous monitoring, among other recommendations aimed at strengthening the PAC's constitutional oversight function.
• Participants called for the adoption of digital oversight systems on the lines of Parliament's Audit Para Monitoring System (APMS) in all State and Union Territory legislatures, to improve monitoring of audit findings, facilitate continuous peer learning, sharing of best practices, and procedural innovations among PACs across the country.
• The conference also resolved to work towards establishing timelines for governments to submit Action Taken Notes on audit observations and PAC recommendations, and urged closer collaboration with the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), including the use of advanced forensic tools to identify high-risk areas requiring legislative oversight.
• Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, who listened to the deliberations, said the recommendations from the conference would provide a clear pathway to improve the functioning of PACs and ensure that public money is used for the right purpose.

Context

The Union Cabinet has approved a five-year extension of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) for fast-track special courts (FTSCs), including exclusive POCSO courts, from April 1, 2026, to March 31, 2031, with the Centre planning to operationalise 850 fast-track courts, including exclusive POCSO courts, across participating States and Union Territories to expedite disposal of cases related to rape and offences under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

Background & Key Facts

• The fast-track special courts scheme, operational since October 10, 2019, has undergone successive extensions to ensure expeditious disposal of cases related to rape and offences under the POCSO Act; there are currently 779 functional FTSCs across the country, including 399 exclusive POCSO courts, which have together disposed of 4,02,457 cases since the scheme's inception.
• The scheme has a total financial outlay of ₹3,788.04 crore for the extended period, comprising a Central share of ₹2,353.15 crore and a State/Union Territory share of ₹1,434.89 crore, with the Centre's allocation to be met from the Nirbhaya Fund, established following the 2012 Delhi gang-rape case to support initiatives for women's safety.
• Under the extended scheme, there is also a provision for a dedicated Judicial Officer, a Special Public Prosecutor and six support staff for each fast-track special court, to expedite facilitate completion of pending cases relating to rape and offences under the POCSO Act, 2012.
• The expansion to 850 fast-track courts shall be based on case-pendency data across all States and Union Territories, with the continuation of the scheme expected to expedite trials, reduce the backlog of rape and POCSO cases, and encourage the establishment of Vulnerable Witness Deposition Centres and child-friendly court spaces to facilitate victim testimonies without causing further distress.
• The scheme is designed to prioritise cases involving vulnerable groups, particularly women and children, reflecting a continuing government policy focus on expediting justice delivery for sexual-offence victims following the broader legal and institutional reforms enacted after the 2012 Delhi gang-rape case.

Context

Following the Democratic Party's sweeping gains in the U.S. midterm elections, which secured control of both the Senate and House of Representatives, a news analysis examines how the results could hasten talks between India and the U.S. on a trade deal, even as experts warn President Trump could also resort to higher tariffs on India until a deal is closed, given his desire to show domestic strength ahead of the 2028 presidential race.

Background & Key Facts

• According to Ajay Srivastava of trade think-tank Global Trade Research Initiative, with Trump's executive powers to pressure India for a quick deal securing market access for U.S. agricultural and industrial goods, alongside other concessions for U.S. companies, likely to intensify, the loss of Congress will push President Trump to increase his exercise of executive power to pressure India into accepting a deal.
• The U.S. has already implemented several tariffs on India and other nations, including a Section 301 tariff of 10% on India based on an investigation into whether U.S. trade partners are doing enough to prevent the import of goods made using forced labour, on top of a 50% tariff imposed last year under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 on the import of steel and aluminium, including from India.
• The Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, which envisages tariffs of up to 100% on countries such as India that import large quantities of Russian oil and gas, was first co-proposed by a Republican and Democrat senator and received significant bipartisan support during its passage in both the Senate and the House, but Mr. Trump has kept the Act's provisions in abeyance for now in national interest, even if he were to decide to implement the tariffs, he will not receive resistance from the Democrat-controlled Congress due to the bipartisan support the Act received.
• The U.S. is also currently investigating India and other countries under Section 301 of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974 into whether they are using strategic ore-cess manufacturing capacity to hurt the U.S. economy, and Mr. Trump can authorise additional tariffs on the basis of the findings of this investigation without the need for Congress approval.
• Since the U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran began, India's decision on October 16, 2026, to waive all tariffs on countries importing Russian oil under the Lindsey Graham sanctions Act (SRIA) has given India a temporary reprieve, though the SRIA has had a choking effect on India's energy and fertilizer imports and goods trade, and any cessation of hostilities would come not a day too soon for India.

Context

An editorial examines the aftermath of back-to-back cyclones Arnab and Murasu, which hit Andhra Pradesh's coast in quick succession, estimating damage from Cyclone Arnab (landfall October 28) at roughly ₹4,526 crore and from Cyclone Murasu (crossed the coast November 3) at about 52,500 hectares of standing crops affected, arguing that long-term preparedness and a swift, cooperative Centre-State response are essential to minimise casualties and rebuild damaged public infrastructure.

Background & Key Facts

• Odisha also reported seven deaths from the two cyclones, with nearly 90,000 hectares of standing crops damaged in parts of Odisha; after preliminary on-the-spot assessment of flood-hit areas, the Union government is expected to soon release the first instalment of funds to the affected States, with personnel from Karnataka, Telangana and Tamil Nadu having gone to assist in Andhra Pradesh's rescue efforts.
• The deployment of the Real Time Governance System (RTGS) and other technologies has significantly reduced casualties and property damage during the cyclones; as natural disasters become more frequent in India, the editorial argues that greater collaboration is needed between higher learning institutions, especially in science and technology, and Central and State government agencies.
• The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, a crop-insurance scheme launched by the Union government over a decade ago, has not provided many farmers with comprehensive safety cover, as they suffer due to the vagaries of nature — the editorial argues the Union government should improve the scheme so that all farmers are encouraged to bring their crops under the scheme, while State governments should raise awareness about the insurance scheme and support agriculturists by topping up benefits that are under the insurance cover.
• The Centre should also focus on financial assistance for permanent restoration projects, the editorial argues, noting that the initial stand of the Union government was that the National and State Disaster Response Funds were meant for response and relief only, not recovery or reconstruction — but following the 15th Finance Commission's nudge, recovery and reconstruction were added as a component of the two funds two years ago.
• However, the editorial notes that when public infrastructure suffers extensive damage, the Centre should provide additional assistance to ease the burden on affected States, drawing a comparison to Cyclone Hudhud in October 2014, when Andhra Pradesh reported 63 deaths and damage assessed at nearly ₹22,000 crore — illustrating the scale of cumulative cyclone-related damage the region has historically faced.

Context

An opinion piece by the Chairman of the Review Committee for NEP 2020 examines the growing attention paid to India's presence in the "top 2% scientists" database, cautioning against treating inclusion in or exclusion from such rankings as conclusive evidence of research excellence, given well-documented methodological limitations in how the database's underlying metrics are calculated.

Background & Key Facts

• The "top 2% scientists' database," created by John Ioannidis and collaborators, relies on publication and citation records from Scopus without checking for their originality, meaning the database's accuracy depends significantly on the reliability of author-profile classification and discipline categorisation, both of which affect ranking results.
• A 2023 analysis by John Philip, shared online, examined the list based on scientists' work up to 2022 and reported that 12 of 71 physics Nobel laureates and two of 66 chemistry laureates from 1998-2022 were missing from the database, illustrating the database's significant limitations even for identifying globally recognised research excellence.
• The database relies on composite impact scores calculated from publication and citation records, but does not consider research contributions published in regional languages, and does not by itself distinguish original research from science journalism or science communication — the same database was found to include an author with 217 retracted papers on the list, further illustrating quality-control limitations.
• Applicants to the Swiss National Science Foundation are now asked not to include citation counts, journal and institutional rankings in their CVs, reflecting an evolving international shift in how research assessment initiatives evaluate scientific contributions based on the quality of contributions rather than parameters like citation counts and journal rankings.
• The piece cites examples of significant Indian scientific contributions — Chandrayaan-3's landing on the Moon's south polar region, IIT Madras's SHAKTI microprocessors, NexCAR19 cancer therapy developed by IIT Bombay and Tata Memorial Centre, and Serum Institute's indigenous 4G technology stack and CERVAVAC vaccine — noting that the scientists involved may or may not be part of the "top 2% scientists' database," but their work has clearly advanced knowledge and improved people's lives.

Context

The Delhi High Court has sought responses from the Centre and other authorities on a public interest litigation seeking permission for students with disabilities, other than those diagnosed with Dyscalculia, to use basic calculators in Class 12 board examinations in mathematics and accountancy, with a Bench of Acting Chief Justice Nitin Wasudeo Sambre and Justice Sanjay Sharma issuing notices to the Centre, CBSE, NCERT and PARAKH.

Background & Key Facts

• The PIL, filed by Vishal Dua and several parents, seeks to extend the existing facility of using calculators — currently available only to students with Dyscalculia — to students with other disabilities as well, arguing that the restriction unfairly disadvantages students with disabilities beyond Dyscalculia who also face genuine difficulty with numerical computation under examination conditions.
• During the hearing, CBSE's counsel told the court that the issue was already under consideration by the board and sought time to obtain instructions, indicating the examining body is actively deliberating on a possible policy change rather than opposing the relief sought outright.
• The PIL implicates the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), and PARAKH (National Assessment Centre), reflecting the layered institutional architecture governing school-examination policy and assessment standards in India.
• The case raises questions under India's disability-rights legal framework, including the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016, which mandates reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities in educational settings, including examinations, to ensure equitable access to assessment opportunities.
• The matter adds to a broader, ongoing public discourse on inclusive examination practices for students with disabilities in India, following earlier reforms that extended accommodations such as scribes, extra time and alternative question formats to various categories of disability in board and competitive examinations.