Context

Twenty-five years after the September 11, 2001 attacks, Stanly Johny argues that America's war on terror altered its strategic position worldwide — and that the paradox of the post-9/11 era is that a country which emerged from the Cold War as the unrivalled power gradually eroded, through military intervention, the very strategic freedom that unipolarity had given it.

The Starting Point

• The moment of primacy: When the 9/11 attacks took place, the U.S. was at the pinnacle of its power. A decade earlier its Cold War rival, the Soviet Union, had disintegrated. Russia was still struggling to emerge from post-Soviet chaos; China remained a close economic partner. In eastern Europe, Washington had undertaken successful military interventions while NATO had completed its first round of expansion into Russia's neighbourhood. The U.S. also maintained a formidable military presence in West Asia.
• The response: The U.S. launched "a global war on terrorism", with Taliban-run Afghanistan — which had hosted al-Qaeda — as its first target. "But the war that then U.S. President George W. Bush launched went far beyond the remit of a fight against terrorism."
• The doctrine: Mr. Bush and his neoconservative allies believed that a "deficit of democracy" bred terrorism, and hence the spread of democracy became a theoretical imperative of the war on terror. In Afghanistan, U.S. forces toppled the Taliban regime and established a new state — the Islamic Republic. The war forced al-Qaeda to disperse into autonomous cells and retreat, "but it did not defeat the organisation".

Three Lasting Consequences of the Iraq War

Libya: The regime-change wars did not end with Iraq. In 2011, amid the Arab Spring, NATO launched an extensive bombing campaign in Libya aimed at "protecting the Libyan people" from Muammar Qaddafi's forces. The war, which then President Barack Obama later said he had "led from behind", brought down the Qaddafi regime but effectively destabilised Libya, once one of the most stable states in Africa. The collapse of the Libyan state "opened the floodgates to terrorism across Africa, as weapons were smuggled across borders and fell into the hands of various militias and terrorist groups". Over the past 15 years jihadist groups have spread across the Sahel, while western influence has continued to diminish on the continent.

Cutting Losses and the Chain Effects

• War weariness: By the time Mr. Obama left office, war weariness had set in. Iraq remained unstable with growing Iranian influence; in Afghanistan the Taliban were gaining strength; Libya was divided between rival governments and militias; in Syria a Russian military intervention had turned the tide, briefly, for the Assad regime. Meanwhile China, America's key systemic rival, continued to rise economically and militarily.
• The Afghan exit: The first move was to accept that the U.S. had lost the war in Afghanistan. Donald Trump's first administration began direct talks with the Taliban, and in February 2020 signed an agreement committing to withdraw American troops. On 15 August 2021, two weeks ahead of the deadline, the Taliban entered Kabul.
• The strategic logic: The U.S. saw the withdrawal as "the swallowing of an inevitable bitter pill" — Washington needed to trim its strategic overreach and prepare for the looming contest with China. But two developments obstructed that repositioning.
• First chain effect: The pullback was interpreted as a sign of weakness by rivals, particularly Russia, which had long sought to alter the post-Soviet security architecture in its rimland. "Call it a geopolitical butterfly effect: in February 2022, less than a year after America's withdrawal from Afghanistan, Russia invaded Ukraine, testing the U.S. commitment to Europe."
• Second chain effect: The 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel shook West Asia. Israel announced its own "war on terror", launching a full-scale attack on Palestinians in Gaza and extending it into a mini-regional war — "setting off a chain of developments that led to the February 2026 U.S.-Israeli bombing of Iran".
• The verdict: "America's failure to learn the lessons of its failed regime-change wars, its inability to strategically decouple itself from Israel, and its hubris, coupled with a refusal to accept the reality that the world has changed, have all contributed to this folly. The American-Israel axis sought to topple the Islamic Republic and reshape the region. But the war has trapped the U.S. in another quicksand in West Asia."
• The changed order: Terrorist groups "have not only survived the war on terror but have also evolved into localised tentacles of a transnational jihadist project spanning multiple geographies". Despite NATO, there is a widening chasm in the transatlantic alliance as traditional allies grow frustrated with Washington's "newfound transactionalism", while Israel drags Washington deeper into a regional vortex. China has risen as the second pole of an increasingly fluid multipolar order and Russia is violently challenging the U.S.-led security architecture in Europe. "The U.S. … continues to act like a unilateral hegemon. But its unilateralism is increasingly at odds with the emerging realities of the post-unipolar world."

Static Background

The Bush Doctrine after 9/11 asserted a right of pre-emptive (more accurately, preventive) military action, coupled with democracy promotion. NATO invoked Article 5 — its collective defence clause — for the first and only time in its history after 9/11, leading to the ISAF mission in Afghanistan. The UN Security Council passed Resolution 1373 establishing binding counter-terrorism obligations and the Counter-Terrorism Committee. Conceptual terms to know: unipolarity (one dominant pole), multipolarity, imperial overstretch (Paul Kennedy's thesis that military commitments outrun the economic base), blowback, and the security dilemma. For India, the period saw the transformation of India-U.S. ties through the 2005 civil nuclear deal, designation-based counter-terrorism cooperation, and India's consistent demand at the UN for a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism, still stalled over the definition of terrorism.

Context

Shashank Ranjan, an Indian Army veteran teaching at O.P. Jindal Global University, argues that the United States-led global war on terror inadvertently emboldened Iran, elevating it to a regional power now capable of confronting the U.S. in the ongoing conflict.

The Strategic Windfall

• Before 2001: Iran faced strategic containment from two hostile regimes — the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein's Iraq. U.S. invasions toppled both, "eliminating Iran's most dangerous neighbours". The new governments in both countries proved friendlier to Tehran.
• In Iraq: The fall of the Sunni regime led to a Shia-led government with deep ties to Iran, "transforming an enemy into a strategic partner". According to analysts, Iran had surpassed the U.S. as the most influential power in Iraq.
• Sectarianism as fuel: The invasions created a chaotic environment that fuelled sectarian conflicts centred on the Shia-Sunni divide, providing fertile ground for groups such as al-Qaeda in Iraq, which later evolved into ISIS. Regional powers took sides — Iran bolstered Shia militias in Iraq, while Saudi Arabia supported Sunni extremists. "This sub-conventional proxy warfare entrenched Iran as a regional power broker, contrary to the overarching U.S. objective of isolating Iran."
• The ISIS paradox: ISIS, being ideologically anti-Shia, posed an unprecedented threat to Iran — which pushed Iran to become a central actor in the anti-ISIS coalition, deploying military advisers and mobilising allies. "The rise of ISIS paradoxically benefited Iran, which became one of the first and most critical military supporters of the Iraqi government." Iran deployed its elite Quds Force to coordinate Baghdad's defence, cementing its influence over Iraq's security apparatus. In Syria, defending the Assad regime protected Iran's only major state ally and consolidated its supply routes to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
• The diplomatic window that closed: Though the emergence of a shared enemy opened a narrow window for dialogue with the U.S., no synchronisation materialised, as President Bush had labelled Iran part of the 'Axis of Evil' in his 2002 State of the Union address, alongside Iraq and North Korea.

The 'Axis of Resistance'

• What it is: A political, military and social network linking Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine, designed as a "ring of fire" around Israel, serving as a form of forward defence for Iran.
• Buffer zones: Iran gained buffer zones in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen through key Axis members such as Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis and Shia militias in Iraq.
• The Shia Crescent: The Axis contributed to the emergence of an arc of Iranian influence extending through Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
• Legitimacy and hardening: Iran gained international legitimacy for its military activities in Iraq and Syria. Groups such as Hezbollah became battle-hardened and politically entrenched; the Houthis in Yemen graduated from a local insurgent movement into a political insurgent group.
• The military doctrine: Iran's primary focus was the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which controls strategic assets and specialises in sub-conventional warfare including control of proxies. By comparison, Iran's conventional military received far less attention — Tehran invested in the Axis to gain an asymmetric advantage, since matching the U.S. and Israel on conventional metrics was difficult.
• The vacuum of 2011: The U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and the Arab Spring created vacuums that Iran was uniquely positioned to fill.
• The transformation: "The global war on terror fundamentally transformed Iran from a contained state into a dominant regional power. By removing hostile regimes, creating power vacuums, and unintentionally strengthening Iran's alliance network, U.S. actions produced outcomes diametrically opposed to their stated objectives." Iran's current resilience against the U.S.-Israeli offensive "could be viewed as a manifestation of the strategic advantages flowing from the global war on terror". Notably, Iran has rallied domestic support around nationalism rather than religion.

Static Background

Iran is a Shia-majority Islamic Republic with a dual structure: an elected President and Majlis alongside the Supreme Leader, the Guardian Council and the IRGC, which controls the Quds Force for extraterritorial operations and large sectors of the economy. Its nuclear programme was the subject of the JCPOA (2015), from which the U.S. withdrew in 2018. Key geography: the Strait of Hormuz, Kharg Island, the Gulf of Oman and the Chabahar port, in which India has invested as its access route to Afghanistan and Central Asia bypassing Pakistan. India's interests in Iran include energy (curtailed by sanctions), Chabahar and the International North-South Transport Corridor, alongside India's parallel strategic partnerships with Israel and the Gulf monarchies — a balance that becomes harder to sustain as the region polarises.

Context

The Hindu's editorial argues that the U.S.-Canada trade dispute holds sharp lessons for India, even as Canadian High Commissioner Christopher Cooter tells The Hindu that an India-Canada trade deal will be ready by the end of the year.

The Canadian Case

• Deep integration: The two economies have been deeply integrated since at least 1965, when they established free trade in automobiles and parts. This widened into a full-fledged free trade agreement in 1989, expanded into NAFTA about five years later.
• The Canadian strategy: The target for the much smaller Canadian economy was to achieve economies of scale by producing vast amounts of a few products. Per Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, Canada accounts for 70% of the oil refined in the American Midwest, supplies 60% of the nation's aluminium, and nearly all the types of lumber used in U.S. residential construction.
• The collapse: Despite this long partnership, the relationship "has fallen to a new low". Canada pulled out of negotiations over a new tariff deal citing last-minute insertions by the U.S.; the U.S. has made a similar allegation against Canada. Canada levied reciprocal tariffs of up to 50% in response to 50% U.S. tariffs on Canadian imports. From 29 September, the U.S. will outright ban certain Canadian alcoholic spirits, some dairy goods and motorcycles.

The Three Lessons for India

• Lesson one: "If this is how the U.S. treats a next-door neighbour, alliance member, and long-standing trade partner, India should not take for granted any favourable treatment that it might receive from the U.S."
• Lesson two: "Barrelling ahead with trade deals might not always be the best plan." Before Canada, Malaysia also backed out of a deal it had signed with the U.S., arguing that once the U.S.'s reciprocal tariff system was deemed illegal, the benefit from a trade deal no longer outweighed the costs of opening up.
• Lesson three: A deal "might not be the end of the tariff pressure". Despite the February 2026 agreement of 18% tariffs on imports from India, the U.S. has forged ahead with forced labour and excess capacity investigations that could see tariff levels exceed that limit. "India has done well to insist that a deal will not be struck until its advantage over its competitors is clear. The third lesson is that this advantage can vanish even after a deal is struck."

The India-Canada Track

• The timeline: High Commissioner Christopher Cooter, speaking at The Hindu Mind in New Delhi, said the India-Canada trade deal will be ready by the end of the year, with engagement culminating in a visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Canada in December.
• The pace: "Previously, we discussed for 12 years, and we got no trade agreement. This time, we started in March 2026. We have probably done more in these six months than we did in those 12 years... I am pretty confident the trade deal will be agreed to by the end of the year."
• Investment potential: The two countries have ample opportunities for bilateral investment which could scale up to $1 trillion. Mr. Cooter acknowledged that while trade between India and Canada is currently small, the investment relationship is a strong one, and said India could ease some tax and regulatory hurdles to spur further investment — something Canada has been engaging with the Union Finance Ministry on.

Static Background

The India-Canada trade negotiation has run as the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with an interim Early Progress Trade Agreement track, suspended in 2023 amid a diplomatic rupture and revived subsequently. Canadian pension funds — CPPIB, CDPQ, OTPP — are among the largest foreign institutional investors in Indian infrastructure and real estate, which is why the investment relationship outweighs merchandise trade. On the U.S. side, key instruments include Section 232 national security tariffs, Section 301 unfair trade practice actions, and forced-labour import bans under customs law. The WTO's Appellate Body has been non-functional since 2019 because of U.S. blocking of appointments, which is why "reciprocal tariffs deemed illegal" produces no enforceable remedy. India's recent trade agreements include those with the UAE, Australia, EFTA and the U.K., with the EU negotiation under way.

Context

The Hindu's second editorial examines FADA data showing total vehicle registrations up 17.5% year on year in August — the all-time highest volume for the month — with alternative powertrains leading passenger vehicle sales for the first time, while cautioning that several confounding factors warrant care in reading the figures.

The Six Caveats

• 1. Base and monsoon effect: July 2026 was itself a strong month, with August numbers 6.4% lower than July, possibly due to the monsoon.
• 2. Rural outperformance: Vehicles retailed in rural areas grew 19.7% year on year against 15.1% in urban areas; passenger vehicle sales increased 24.9% in rural areas versus 10.9% in urban. This could reflect rising disposable incomes and consistent State capital expenditure on semi-urban infrastructure. But tractor sales, a traditional indicator of monsoon-related rural stress, were virtually unchanged year on year and declined 25% month on month. Together with strong two-wheeler and passenger vehicle sales, "the trend suggests that non-farm rural incomes and mobility could be strengthening more than capital spending linked to agriculture".
• 3. GST base effect: Last year the GST Council reduced taxes on small cars, motorcycles up to 350 cc, three-wheelers, buses and goods vehicles, so August 2025 sales growth dropped as buyers waited for new rates from September — inflating this year's comparison.
• 4. 'Alternative' is not 'non-fossil': While CNG, hybrid and electric powertrains beat petrol/ethanol vehicle sales by 1.1 percentage points, most hybrid vehicles still burn petrol while CNG itself is a fossil fuel. "So the lead taken by alternative powertrains is not synonymous with a lead of non-fossil-fuel vehicles."
• 5. The composition of the shift: Between August 2024 and August 2026, CNG and electric powertrains contributed most of the surge, implying that Indians are switching to alternatives that are cheaper to run, in light of the West Asia conflict and, to a lesser degree, concerns over ethanol blending. The move away from petrol is uneven: three-wheelers are predominantly electric while two-wheelers catch up, and passenger cars' powertrains continue to diversify. Electrification "reflects rising consumer demand as much as industrial policy".
• 6. The inventory warning: Despite record sales, dealers are holding 38-40 days of inventory against the recommended 21.
• The verdict: "So while the petrol era is far from over, the Indian automotive industry has commenced the mass-market integration of alternative powertrains. But that said, only if September-November preserves the gains in alternative powertrains after the base effect disappears, and dealer inventories return to normal levels, can August 2026 be considered a historic moment."

Static Background

FADA reports retail registrations from the VAHAN portal — actual sales to consumers — unlike SIAM's wholesale dispatches from manufacturers to dealers; the gap between the two is what accumulates as dealer inventory, which is why inventory days are a leading indicator of channel stress. Policy instruments include the E20 ethanol blending programme, the PM E-DRIVE scheme (successor to FAME-II), PLI schemes for automobiles and advanced chemistry cell batteries, and City Gas Distribution network expansion licensed by the PNGRB. CNG is a fossil fuel — cleaner burning on particulates than petrol or diesel but not renewable; its renewable analogue is Compressed Biogas (CBG), promoted under the SATAT initiative. Transport is a major contributor to India's oil import bill and to urban air pollution, giving the fuel mix both energy security and public health significance.

Context

The Supreme Court has asked the Union government to reconsider its decision not to reduce the cut-off percentile for NEET-Super Specialty seats in the current year, while expressing concern about a large number of super-specialty medical seats going unfilled annually.

Background & Key Facts

• The Bench: Justices P.S. Narasimha and Alok Aradhe, hearing a petition filed by the Tamil Nadu Medical Officers Association, represented by senior advocate P. Wilson.
• The Centre's position: Additional Solicitor-General Aishwarya Bhati said the government was willing to conduct a "stray round" for the vacant NEET-SS seats but had decided not to lower the qualifying percentile. She said the vacant seats would revert to States such as Tamil Nadu.
• The petition: Tamil Nadu had 40 vacant seats which should be returned to the State. The association had challenged the "premature diversion" of 152 vacant super-specialty seats earmarked for in-service government doctors in Tamil Nadu to the all-India quota, and sought protection of the State's in-service reservation policy pending a final decision on reduction of the NEET-SS qualifying percentile.
• The equity argument: Mr. Wilson stressed that many eligible candidates — mostly in-service government doctors serving in rural parts of the State — were awaiting a reduction in the qualifying percentile, and that NEET-SS seats were "precious" and could not remain vacant.
• Tamil Nadu's position: Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the State wanted the vacant seats to completely revert to it, and urged the court to lower the cut-off percentile.
• The court's view: The fact that many seats remain unfilled makes the case for reduction of the qualifying percentile "rather compelling". Justice Narasimha advised the ASG to "reflect a little more" about bringing down the percentile, and even to consult other members of the Bar.
• The Centre's shift: Ms. Bhati then urged the court to "add a line" in its order "directing us to reconsider this… to consider reduction to the extent possible", revealing that even some experts had "varying views" on lowering the qualifying percentile, and noting that "for last years, we had even reduced it to 0%".
• Next date: The case is listed for further hearing and directions on 17 September.

Static Background

NEET-SS is the single entrance examination for DM and MCh super-specialty courses, conducted by the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences, mandated by the National Medical Commission Act, 2019 which created the NMC in place of the Medical Council of India. The qualifying percentile is a relative standard — a candidate must score above a specified percentile of all candidates — so lowering it expands the eligible pool without lowering an absolute knowledge threshold in the way a raw marks cut-off would. Seat allocation runs through all-India quota and State quota counselling rounds conducted by the Medical Counselling Committee, followed by mop-up and stray vacancy rounds. Several States, including Tamil Nadu, operate in-service reservation for government doctors in postgraduate and super-specialty seats as an incentive for rural and public-sector service — a policy upheld in principle by the Supreme Court in the context of State quota seats.

Context

Three related developments before the Supreme Court concern the aftermath of the NEET-UG paper leak protests — a 14-year-old student threatened for her role in the agitation, the suspension of an Executive Magistrate who issued a show-cause notice in defiance of a court order, and a challenge to the closure of 17 Delhi Metro stations during the protests.

The Threatened Minor

• The direction: The Supreme Court asked Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta to ensure "immediate action" on a complaint filed by a 14-year-old student who alleged open threats and harassment from miscreants for her role in the protests against the NEET-UG question paper leaks.
• The CJI's observation: "These are anti-social elements. They commit violence against a child, and they roam free. Now, they are again trying to browbeat and intimidate the child and her family, so that they do not proceed with any legal action. This is a very serious issue. Her cause is absolutely justified," Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, heading a three-judge Bench, observed.
• Counsel's submission: A "vigilante" had "bragged" on social media about the hurt caused to her and her family. "She is a bona fide victim. She is also a vulnerable victim. No irreversible harm should befall the child or her family."
• The direction on protection: Justice Joymalya Bagchi, with Justice V. Mohana, said the Uttar Pradesh Police should take responsibility for the safety of the student and her family. Referring to the FIR at the Parliament Street police station relating to allegations of miscreants threatening, harassing, intimidating and indulging in acts of violence against her: "If they are true, we would like you to take immediate action on the FIR, and file a report here. Police protection must be given to the victim and family by the police in Uttar Pradesh where she is presently claiming to reside."
• Related arrest: The Delhi Police recently arrested influencer Swatantra Bhardwaj in connection with the alleged assault on the father of a student during the NEET protests.

The Suspended Magistrate

• Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta informed the Supreme Court about the suspension of an Executive Magistrate of the Greater Noida Commissionerate who had issued a show-cause notice to a student in connection with the Jantar Mantar protests.
• The Magistrate had issued the notice despite a Supreme Court order prohibiting coercive measures against students who were part of the agitation.

The Metro Station Closures

• The petition: Filed by Sparsh Kant Nayak, a resident of the national capital, questioning the closure of 17 Delhi Metro stations during the Cockroach Janta Party protests held in central Delhi over the NEET-UG 2026 question paper leaks.
• The court's caution: A three-judge Bench headed by CJI Surya Kant issued notice to the respondents — the Union and Delhi governments, the Delhi Police and the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation — but initially pointed out that the role of judicial review in the subject matter was limited, as maintaining law and order came within the domain of the Executive.
• The question framed: The court agreed to hear the respondents on whether the exercise of powers was within reasonable limits and in public interest.
• The context: The agitation had ultimately led to the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan as Education Minister.

Static Background

Context

The Karnataka government has issued an order stating that only the first two stanzas of the national song Vande Mataram are to be sung at State functions, a stand in line with that of the Congress at the national level — drawing sharp criticism from the BJP, while in Jammu and Kashmir the Chief Minister said his government would "follow the law".

The Karnataka Order

• The order: Issued by the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, following a decision of the Karnataka Cabinet.
• The exception: The entire six stanzas will be played or sung in functions involving the President, the Vice-President, the Prime Minister, or the Governor.
• The reasoning: The order acknowledged that Vande Mataram played an important role in instilling nationalism, unity and patriotism during the freedom movement, and referred to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs' guidelines prescribing the singing of the official version of the song.
• The political reaction: BJP leaders at a party rally in Ballari called the decision an "extension of the appeasement politics of the Congress". State president B.Y. Vijayendra and Union Minister Pralhad Joshi said the people of Karnataka would "cut Congress out of the political landscape in 2028" over the move.

The Jammu and Kashmir Position

• The Chief Minister: Omar Abdullah defended his government's decision to stand for all stanzas during the song's rendition at the International Film Festival Jammu & Kashmir on 7 September, saying "we will follow the law".
• His argument: "The Congress should have stopped it (controversial stanzas) in Parliament. Even in Congress-ruled States, the national song is played at official functions. All stanzas of the National Song are mandatory now. Those who do not stand will face legal action. What does the Congress want? That people go to jail in Kashmir over this?" He said he wished the Congress would come to power at the Centre and "change the National Song in Parliament" — "As a party, we never adopted Vande Mataram. However, we will abide by legal and statutory obligation."
• The Opposition view: PDP leader and former Minister Naeem Akhtar termed the National Conference stand "unfortunate", alleging "an obvious communal agenda in it" and saying it was "the Congress and Rahul Gandhi who are raising the right issues in the country".

Static Background — The National Song

Vande Mataram was composed by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in Sanskritised Bengali, first published in 1882 as part of the novel Anandamath, and was sung at the 1896 session of the Indian National Congress in Calcutta by Rabindranath Tagore. It became a rallying cry during the Swadeshi movement following the partition of Bengal in 1905.

On 24 January 1950, the Constituent Assembly adopted Jana Gana Mana as the National Anthem, and President Rajendra Prasad made a statement — not a constitutional provision — that Vande Mataram "shall be honoured equally with Jana Gana Mana and shall have equal status with it". The first two stanzas were adopted as the national song because later stanzas contain imagery identifying the motherland with the goddess Durga, which sections of the Muslim community had objected to; the Congress Working Committee in 1937, on the advice of a committee including Tagore and Nehru, had similarly resolved that only the first two stanzas be sung at national gatherings.

Context

After New York City announced a one-year moratorium on most generative AI tools for public school students until Class 8 for the 2026-27 academic year, The Hindu's Parley brings together Lavina Jaswani, founder of Sprouts International School, Jaipur, and Deepa Jacob, a Class 5 teacher at the American International School, Chennai, moderated by Priscilla Jebaraj. India's policies on the issue are still evolving.

How AI Is Being Used

• Jaswani: AI-enabled tools are used to explain concepts, offer personalised learning, and help teachers create resources — stories, worksheets, assessments and quizzes — with apps such as Kahoot! and Quizlet offering "a gamified, interactive, and sensorial learning experience" rather than rote learning. But the teacher must still ask: "what is my learning objective? What does a child need to understand? Where can the technology add value and is it truly beneficial and essential for the child?"
• Jacob: Every child from kindergarten has access to an iPad kept at school. Apps such as Seesaw serve as a journal of learning — published writing, videos of science experiments, reflections. Seesaw's AI component transcribes and scores reading fluency: children do a cold read of a grade-level passage on day one, reread through the week, and record again on day five to measure improvement. "Rather than the teacher having to listen to every child read, if an app can score your reading and tell you which words you are reading incorrectly, then you can practise those words alone."
• The flaw in practice: "One of my students was reading a word with an Indian accent, and the app marked it wrong. The same thing happened to students using several other Asian accents. So, that's where I feel the human component is important."

The Case for Restriction

• The liminal space: Ms. Jacob does not allow generative AI in her classroom, and never asks children to Google an answer, "because the easiest way to kill a love for learning is to find a ready-made answer". She invokes the educational concept of the liminal space — "that space where you struggle with a concept, that threshold between not knowing something and struggling with something and then finally learning it… We need this time and space to reconfigure ourselves; time for ideas to incubate and grow. Relying on technology in that phase would be terrible."
• The over-reliance analogy: "If you've been driving a manual car and then you shift to an automatic car, you're going to find it really hard to go back to driving manual… you can become over-reliant on someone else doing the thinking for you or even synthesising ideas by just feeding them into an AI tool." She invokes the neuroplasticity of the brain: "It would be a shame if we let it die. Especially in the primary and elementary years, where so much of growth is happening."
• Jaswani's classroom rule: "First, the child needs to think it, then write it and then lastly, ask the AI to verify the answer. They must try to solve it themselves, but if they can't, just as they may ask their parents or their teacher for help, they can ask AI too."

The Case Against a Ban

• Jaswani: "Children are much more tech savvy and even AI-savvy than they were a few years ago. So I don't think bans and restrictions are the solution. It is better to understand AI and make our children aware of the pros and cons."
• Jacob: "I don't think a complete ban is the answer and a one-year moratorium may not be enough to think through, to plan, and to set up some guardrails around how AI should be used in education." Since AI is now integral to search, email and games, students use it at home anyway; "the one place where we can still teach critical thinking skills is in the classroom. I think we have to preserve that as far as we can." She adds that children "are really good at spotting something that's AI-generated versus the real thing, and for many of them it is not cool anymore. I feel like we, the older generation, are more easily fooled when it comes to AI."

Can AI Replace Teachers?

• Jaswani: "AI should not replace a teacher; it should extend the teacher. Especially in primary education, where children learn best through stories, activities, and conversations — moments that are very important to human relationships. That bond with the teacher is very important… I see AI as a learning assistant." She gives an example: if one child grasps fractions immediately and another does not, "an AI tool can guide the teacher to teach fractions in a more visual and fun way by using a chocolate and dividing it up".
• Jacob: Her first job was in a village school where she wished for more resources and translation tools. "But… you cannot completely do away with teachers just because knowledge can be found anywhere. But if you think of schools as not just knowledge centres, but wisdom centres where you learn from other human beings about how to become a good human, then you need teachers to be present, curating resources for the child."
• On teacher preparation: Jacob: "Prep time is very limited so AI tools really help. If I input what I need to teach into Gemini, it helps me create slide decks… but again, we need to be careful because we have learnt through experience that AI can hallucinate and put out wrong information, so teachers do need to double check."

Static Background

NEP 2020 establishes the National Educational Technology Forum (NETF) to advise on technology use in education, and promotes digital initiatives including DIKSHA, SWAYAM, PM e-VIDYA and the proposed National Digital Education Architecture (NDEAR). India's first AI teacher robot, 'Iris', was introduced at a school in Attingal, Thiruvananthapuram, in 2024. On regulation, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 defines a child as under 18, requires verifiable parental consent, and prohibits tracking, behavioural monitoring and targeted advertising directed at children. Globally, UNESCO's Guidance for Generative AI in Education and Research (2023) recommends an age limit for independent use of Gen AI tools and emphasises human agency, and several jurisdictions have introduced school phone bans or Gen AI restrictions. The pedagogical concept of the liminal space draws on threshold-concept theory in education; hallucination refers to fluent but factually incorrect model output.

Context

Wars and global crises are likely to top the agenda of the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi on 12-13 September, with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres among the leaders attending — and Mr. Xi making his first visit to India in almost seven years.

The Attendance

• Putin: Expected to arrive on Friday morning and likely to hold a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi hours after arrival, where the two sides are expected to discuss defence and other related matters.
• Confirmed leaders: Apart from Mr. Putin — Chinese President Xi Jinping, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa, and Brazil represented by Mauro Vieira.
• Iran: President Masoud Pezeshkian is scheduled to attend — his first visit to India since taking charge after the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in 2024. He met Mr. Modi on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Bishkek on 31 August, their first meeting since the war began.
• The Gulf: The UAE will be represented by Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The Gulf Cooperation Council, in focus because of hostilities in the Persian Gulf, will be represented by Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, Foreign Minister of Bahrain.
• Multilateral: Several heads of multilateral organisations, including UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, are scheduled to attend.

The Agenda and the Xi Visit

• The backdrop: The summit is being held "against the backdrop of a global crisis in the supply chains of energy and agriculture because of wars in West Asia and Ukraine".
• The likely top topic: The conflict in West Asia that started in February, when Israel and the U.S. launched a joint attack on Iran — "especially as Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian is scheduled to be here". Differences between Iran and the UAE will be keenly watched as the two sides have been exchanging tough messages because of the ongoing hostilities.
• Xi's return: China announced that President Xi will attend the summit, "on what will be his first visit to India in almost seven years". Mr. Xi last visited in October 2019 for an informal summit with Mr. Modi at Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu. The two leaders are expected to meet for bilateral talks on the sidelines.
• The delegation: Mr. Xi will be accompanied by a large delegation including Politburo member and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and Commerce Minister Wang Wentao, likely to hold talks with Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal. The talks will let both sides take stock of "a growing but challenging trade relationship", with India seeking an easing of export controls and China wanting further relaxation of investment restrictions.
• The signalling: "Especially on the Chinese side, a visit by Mr. Xi to India, after a seven-year gap, is seen as important signalling to the Chinese system on where relations are headed after a difficult period."

Static Background

BRICS's first standalone summit was held at Yekaterinburg in 2009, with South Africa joining in 2010 and a further expansion admitting Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the UAE and Indonesia. Institutional outcomes include the New Development Bank (Fortaleza, 2014; headquartered in Shanghai) and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement. The grouping operates by consensus with an annual rotating chairship; India hosted in 2012, 2016 (Goa), 2021 (virtual) and now 2026. On India-China, the relationship deteriorated sharply after the June 2020 Galwan Valley clash; normalisation steps since have included disengagement at friction points, resumption of direct flights, reopening of border trade, and the Special Representatives and WMCC mechanisms on the boundary question. Trade remains heavily skewed, with India running a very large deficit, and India's concerns centre on export controls affecting rare earths, fertilisers and tunnel-boring and other capital equipment.

Context

The spokesperson of a Kuki-Zo insurgent group in peace talks with the government said the ongoing unrest in Manipur was not a "Naga-Kuki conflict", alleging instead that certain elements linked to the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) were attempting to manufacture such a narrative to serve their own interests.

Background & Key Facts

• The conflict's evolution: The ethnic violence in Manipur began as clashes between the Meitei and Kuki communities on 3 May 2023, and has since 7 February 2026 expanded to include violence between sections of the Naga and Kuki communities.
• The allegation: Seilen Haokip of the Kuki National Organisation (KNO) — one of the two Kuki insurgent groupings in a Suspension of Operations (SoO) pact with the Union Home Ministry and the Manipur government — said there was a "deliberate effort to draw the Naga and Kuki communities into a broader confrontation". The violence "was not spontaneous", and the objective was to divert attention from internal challenges within the NSCN-IM and revive support for the outfit by creating fresh fault lines in the hill districts.
• NSCN-IM's status: The largest Naga insurgent group signed a ceasefire agreement with the Government of India in 1997 and, in 2015, a framework agreement to find a political solution to its demands.
• The SoO extension: On 2 September 2025, the MHA and the Manipur government extended the 2008 SoO agreement with the KNO and the United People's Front (UPF) on "renegotiated terms and conditions or ground rules". The revised ground rules reiterated the territorial integrity of Manipur and relocation of camps run by the insurgent groups away from Meitei-dominated areas in the valley districts.
• UPF's criticism: Spokesperson Aron Kipgen criticised recent security operations by central forces, contending that such actions violated established ground rules requiring coordination with local police and adherence to the SoO agreement. He accused the Manipur government of adopting a discriminatory approach towards Kuki-Zo communities and reiterated their demand for a separate administrative arrangement.

Static Background

Context

The Supreme Court questioned the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India on how it proposed to determine whether packaged foods were "high" in sugar, salt or fat as part of its proposed front-of-pack warning labels, while underlining that food safety was a cause of "national interest".

Background & Key Facts

• The proposal: The FSSAI had last month proposed prominent red warning labels on packaged foods high in added fat, added sugar or salt — "a regulatory pivot after the top court questioned its reluctance to introduce such warnings".
• The design: In an affidavit, the food regulator said the labels would take the form of a red hexagonal warning on the front of packages where a product was found to be high in two or more specified nutrients of concern — fat, sugar or salt.
• The thresholds: These would be based on those prescribed under the Dietary Guidelines for Indians, 2024, issued by the ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition (NIN).
• The court's question: A Bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and K. Vinod Chandran asked how the regulator would determine the threshold beyond which a packaged food would be classified as high. "If you ask them to put a label, say high in salt, high in sugar, high in sodium, high in potassium, how will you determine it? Have you laid down any guidelines?"
• The government's response: Additional Solicitor-General Brijender Chahar, for the Centre and the FSSAI, said the regulator was adhering to the guidelines issued by the ICMR-NIN.
• The proceedings: The Bench was hearing a public interest litigation filed by non-profit organisations seeking warning labels on packaged foods to indicate high levels of salt, sugar and saturated fats. It indicated it would soon pass a detailed order seeking further information from the stakeholders: "We have done some homework and undertaken some study. We propose to pass an order calling for some further information from you. Study the order and come back with an appropriate further report," Justice Pardiwala told Mr. Chahar.
• The court's emphasis: It asked the regulator to take its directions "seriously", stressing concern over the impact of food safety standards on public health. "We are concerned with the health of people, more particularly growing children... We have taken it up very seriously... We expect one and all to extend cooperation in a cause which is in national interest," Justice Pardiwala said.

Static Background

The Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 established the FSSAI, which regulates food standards, labelling and claims. Draft front-of-pack labelling regulations have previously proposed an Indian Nutrition Rating (INR) star system, which public health advocates criticised in favour of mandatory warning labels of the kind used in Chile, Mexico, Peru and Israel — where evaluations have found measurable reductions in purchases of labelled products. The ICMR-NIN Dietary Guidelines for Indians, 2024 set recommended limits on added sugar, salt and fat intake and flag the risks of ultra-processed foods. HFSS — high in fat, salt and sugar — is the operative regulatory category. The WHO's 'best buys' for non-communicable disease control include front-of-pack labelling, taxation of sugar-sweetened beverages and restrictions on marketing to children. India's precedent for successful reformulation-driven regulation is the FSSAI's cap on industrial trans fatty acids at 2% by weight in oils and fats.

Context

Ladakh Chief Secretary Ashish Kundra said that neither Statehood nor a Union Territory with a legislature is being offered to Ladakh; instead it will be a "sui generis" model — a unique body under the Constitution with legislative, executive and financial powers. Leaders of the Leh Apex Body and the Kargil Democratic Alliance called the meeting a "waste of time and money".

The Government's Position

• On nomenclature: Responding to a question from The Hindu on whether the head of the elected body will be called a Chief Minister and whether the assurance was akin to restoring Statehood, Mr. Kundra said: "Ladakh was never a State. It was part of J&K, and later it became a UT. Aspiration of the people is to have legislative, executive, and financial powers. An agreement has been reached with the leadership here, a sui generis model, which does not exist anywhere in the country, will be crafted for Ladakh, where a legislative body will be created. It is not going to be Statehood for sure or a UT with legislature, but it is some other body which will have these powers, the nomenclature is yet to be finalised, that is why discussions are on."
• The meeting: At a meeting with the Leh Apex Body (LAB) and the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) on 9 September, the proposed structure of the UT-level body under Article 371 was discussed, and members expressed consensus on having a "direct election through constituencies" for the UT-level body.
• The questions posed: Members have been given a list of eight to nine questions to examine the structural relationship and distribution of powers between the existing hill councils and the proposed UT-level body as per their requirements. The next round of discussions is expected in October.
• On process: Emphasising that constitutional safeguards require a detailed and established legal and parliamentary process, Mr. Kundra said any constitutional amendment needs broad political consensus, consultation, and parliamentary consideration, and that the process would move forward through dialogue and consensus, with no framework imposed on Ladakh without due consultation.

The Ladakhi Response

• Disappointment: Members of the LAB and KDA said they were "disappointed" with the talks, stating that the UT administration under L-G Vinai Saxena and the Union Home Ministry were not on the same page.
• On process: Cherring Dorjay Lakruk of the LAB said that if government officials wanted them to answer questions, they should have shared the agenda beforehand. "They are asking us what will be the name of the elected body, what will be the CM called? They should have sent the agenda in advance. We cannot answer these questions instantly, they involve legal questions."
• Sonam Wangchuk: The climate activist, part of the delegation, said "no concrete progress" had been made on their key demands and cautioned that protests would resume if assurances were not provided within a week. He called the meeting a "waste of time and money": "We spend our own money and come to Delhi, then we go back without a concrete outcome. Money and time is wasted. In 2020, when they needed us before the hill council elections there, the government sent a chartered aircraft for our leaders and asked (for) their help to not boycott the elections and help them win. They have made all efforts to drive wedges between the communities and regions and want to tire out the leaders, we are not giving up."

Static Background

Article 371 and its variants sit in Part XXI of the Constitution — "Temporary, Transitional and Special Provisions" — with chapters running from A to J, applying to 12 States: Nagaland (371A), Assam (371B), Manipur (371C), Andhra Pradesh and Telangana (371D and 371E), Sikkim (371F), Mizoram (371G), Arunachal Pradesh (371H), Goa (371I) and Karnataka (371J), alongside Article 371 for Maharashtra and Gujarat. Article 240 empowers the President to make regulations for the peace, progress and good government of specified Union Territories including Ladakh. Ladakh's other principal demand rests on the Sixth Schedule, which provides Autonomous District Councils with legislative, judicial, executive and revenue powers, currently applying to tribal areas in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram; the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes has previously recommended Sixth Schedule inclusion for Ladakh. Ladakh already has two Autonomous Hill Development Councils, at Leh and Kargil. The region became a Union Territory without a legislature under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.

Context

The Congress has accused the government of supporting "ecocide" by pushing ahead with the auction of the Tara coal block in the Hasdeo-Aranya region of Chhattisgarh, despite repeated demands from local communities to protect the region's dense forests.

Background & Key Facts

• The scale: Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh said the Tara coal block covers an area of about 5,000 acres, of which over 4,000 acres is dense forest. Mining would entail "the destruction of more than 4,000 acres of dense forest and the clear-felling of more than 10 lakh trees".
• The charge: "No amount of compensatory afforestation, a bogus idea to begin with, can ever make up for the wanton destruction of such a huge natural forest area." Mining in the Tara block — "now renamed Tara (Revised), which makes no significant difference — is yet another example of an ecocide being executed with the full support of the Prime Minister himself".
• The policy reversal: The former Environment Minister said the auction was particularly contentious because the Chhattisgarh Assembly had unanimously resolved in July 2022 that no further coal blocks should be allocated or auctioned in Hasdeo-Aranya. The State government subsequently told the Supreme Court in an affidavit in July 2023 that there was no need to allocate or develop any new mines in the region. "The Union Coal Ministry had also denotified 40 coal blocks, including Tara, from the auction process, in October 2023." He shared a June 2023 letter from the Chhattisgarh government to the Union Coal Ministry seeking exclusion of nine coal blocks, including Tara, from the auction.
• The 'Adani connect': The winning bidder for the Tara block, according to Mr. Ramesh, is CG Syn-Gas and Chemicals Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mundra Synenergy Limited, which is in turn wholly owned by Adani Enterprises Limited.
• The resistance: For nearly 15 years, Adivasis and other local communities have opposed mining in Hasdeo-Aranya through gram sabha resolutions, public campaigns, sit-ins and protest marches, including protests in Raipur.
• The wildlife dimension: The Congress warned of the impact of mining on the Lemru Elephant Reserve, saying mining around it would severely disrupt the movement corridor of elephants while putting other species, including critically endangered ones, at further risk.

Static Background

Hasdeo-Aranya is one of central India's largest contiguous dense forest areas, spread across Korba, Surguja and Surajpur districts of Chhattisgarh, forming the catchment of the Hasdeo river — a tributary of the Mahanadi that feeds the Hasdeo Bango dam irrigating a large command area. It is a critical elephant habitat and was identified in a 2010 Wildlife Institute of India study as a "no-go" area for mining. The Lemru Elephant Reserve was notified to address escalating human-elephant conflict in Chhattisgarh.

Context

Former IAS officer Rangarajan R. explains the regulation of Registered Unrecognised Political Parties after an investigation revealed that six Gujarat-based RUPPs received donations of around ₹1,700 crore in 2023-24 — higher than the total received by five nationally recognised political parties other than the BJP, which stood at ₹1,480 crore.

What RUPPs Are

• Registration: Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 lays down the requirements for registration of a political party with the Election Commission. After satisfactory scrutiny of documents, the EC registers a political party as a RUPP.
• The three benefits: (a) tax exemption for donations received under Section 12 of the Income Tax Act, 2025; (b) a common symbol for contesting general elections to the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies; and (c) 20 'star campaigners' during the election campaign.
• The obligations: RUPPs must maintain details of individual donors above ₹20,000 in a financial year and submit them to the poll body every year. Per Section 29C of the RP Act, failure to furnish these details results in losing income tax exemption. Under the Income Tax Act, 2025, RUPPs must accept donations in excess of ₹2,000 only through cheque or bank transfer.

The Issues

• The numbers: India had more than 2,800 RUPPs as of July, but only around 750 contested the 2024 general elections — earning the rest the moniker 'letter pad parties'.
• The de-registration gap: The RP Act does not confer explicit powers on the EC to de-register a political party if it fails to contest elections, conduct inner-party elections, or lodge requisite returns. In Indian National Congress vs Institute of Social Welfare & Ors (2002), the Supreme Court held that the EC does not have the power to de-register any political party under the RP Act, and may do so only in exceptional circumstances — registration obtained by fraud, the party ceasing to have allegiance to the Constitution, or being declared unlawful by the government. The EC periodically publishes lists of de-listed RUPPs; the October 2025 notification contains over 800 such parties.
• How the six survived: The six RUPPs — Aam Janmat Party, Bharatiya National Janata Dal, Garib Kalyan Party, New India United Party, Satyawadi Rakshak Party and the Swatantrata Abhivyakti Party — remain on the list of active RUPPs because they fielded a total of 15 candidates during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
• Compliance failure: The Association for Democratic Reforms publishes reports on submission of annual reports by RUPPs. Its July 2025 report, analysing the annual reports of 2022-23, states that reports of only 26% of RUPPs are available in the public domain. "Poor compliance with statutory requirements, coupled with a lack of transparency, results in these 'letter pad' parties being used as an opaque channel for tax evasion and money laundering."

What Needs to Be Done

• Law Commission, 255th report: Recommended amendments for de-registration of a political party if it fails to contest elections for ten consecutive years.
• EC's memorandum for electoral reforms (2016): Suggested an amendment to the RP Act that would empower it to de-register a party. "These are long-pending reforms that need to be carried out to empower the EC to act against non-serious parties, some of which are merely a façade for illegal financial transactions."
• The enforcement route: "However, if parties contest elections merely to fulfil a statutory requirement, they could continue to misuse their tax exemptions and be used for money laundering and other nefarious activities. In the present digital world, it is not difficult for the Income Tax Department and other enforcement agencies to monitor the transactions of such parties and take strict action against any wrongdoing. This would act as a deterrent."
• The vote threshold proposal: The EC had suggested that tax exemptions be provided only for parties that win seats in Lok Sabha or Legislative Assembly elections. The author considers this "undemocratic and extreme, as there are parties that consistently contest elections without electoral success". Instead, similar to the 1% vote threshold for allotting common symbols to RUPPs, "a suitable vote percentage threshold may be stipulated by law for RUPPs to avail of tax exemptions on donations received".

Static Background

Political parties in India are classified as National, State or registered unrecognised, with recognition under the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968 depending on vote share and seats won. Recognition brings a reserved symbol, broadcast time, and a larger star campaigner allowance (40 for recognised parties against 20 for others, whose expenditure is not counted against candidates' limits). Political finance provisions include Section 13A of the Income Tax law exempting party income subject to audited accounts and contribution reports, and deductions for donors. The electoral bonds scheme was struck down by the Supreme Court in February 2024 as violating the right to information under Article 19(1)(a). Related mechanisms include round-tripping, in which unaccounted cash is donated to a shell entity, a deduction is claimed, and the money returns in cash less a commission.

Context

Kalaiyarasan A. of the Madras Institute of Development Studies argues that India risks a middle-income, low-productivity trap as weak job creation, stagnant wages and sluggish investment reinforce one another — and that escaping it requires better vocational education, wider diffusion of useful knowledge, and greater social value for skilled work.

The Diagnosis

• The trap defined: The middle-income trap is where countries "exhaust their gains from cheap labour and rapid catch-up and fail to transition to an innovation-driven, productivity-based economy". Weak job creation, stagnant wages, sluggish private investment and low productivity are reinforcing one another.
• The symptoms: Youth protests across the country; sluggish private investment; stagnant wage growth; weak household consumption. Manufacturing has failed to generate enough jobs, while post-pandemic recovery has favoured large corporations and the digital economy, leaving the informal sector barely touched.
• Jobless growth explained: It "emerges because productivity gains stay concentrated in narrow, capital- and skill-intensive enclaves that create little employment. This simultaneous rise of rising inequality and low productivity is a dangerous trap."
• Beyond the usual explanations: India's structural crisis "is unique and more serious than not just a consequence of wars in West Asia disturbing its supply chain or premature automation from AI".

Why Both Standard Prescriptions Miss

• The pro-market argument: India needs another set of market reforms — labour flexibility, agricultural reform, deregulation and infrastructure investment.
• The Keynesian argument: The economy suffers from weak aggregate demand and needs more public spending, redistribution and social protection.
• The author's point: "Both arguments hold a kernel of truth, but miss the larger point: India's current situation stems not only from supply and demand constraints but from institutions shaped by social norms, which decide both how markets set incentives and prices, and how the State allocates resources and provides public goods."
• The failure of private capital: "Private capital, more freer from regulation than ever, does not do well on productivity and innovation. Its competitiveness comes from cutting costs rather than innovating. It couldn't even absorb knowledge that comes with FDI." R&D spending stands at a "paltry 0.65% of GDP", while technology adoption remains weak. Capital is "heavily subsidised, lowering its relative price vis-à-vis labour in a labour-surplus economy".
• The failure of the State: Despite the government's growing size, India's capacity to intervene — "even to provide basic services like health centres or schooling — remains among the lowest anywhere." India "has historically underfunded mass education while subsidising higher education for elites, tilting spending toward the privileged. That same elite bias later drove the service-sector-heavy growth of post-reform India, letting upper castes monopolise better occupations while relegating low-productivity work to others."

Undervaluing Useful Skills

• The vocational deficit: Fewer than 3% of the workforce has any formal vocational education. Of roughly 14,000 ITIs offering about 25 lakh seats, actual intake is only about 48%, and even among graduates the employment rate is just 63% — "far below the 90%-plus seen in many other countries".
• The caste root: "India has historically privileged abstract education over vocational and technical knowledge. University degrees command prestige while technical courses training electricians, welders, machinists and carpenters do not. This hierarchy is not accidental. It reflects centuries of caste-based occupational stratification, where manual and artisanal work has been systematically undervalued despite its indispensable role in industrial development."
• The paradox: "A chronic shortage of skilled manufacturing workers even as millions of educated young Indians struggle to find decent jobs." The article notes, ironically, that India's Chief Economic Adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran recently urged the youth to pursue trades such as welding and plumbing instead of chasing software jobs or MBAs.
• Social valuation shapes choices: "Take the marriage market: some skills and occupations carry a premium over others. These social valuations shape educational choices, occupational aspirations and ultimately the allocation of labour."
• The technology trend: Data show "a persistent and steady decline in the labour intensity of production technology across sectors. Even in traditionally labour-intensive sectors, the trend is likely to accelerate with the advent of AI." India therefore "needs to recalibrate not just production and distribution, but also their valuation".

Useful Knowledge and 'Productivism'

• Mokyr's framework: As Nobel Prize winner Joel Mokyr has argued, modern growth depends on the accumulation and diffusion of "useful knowledge" — the practical skills that enable societies to innovate, adapt and raise productivity. Sustained growth rests on the coevolution of science, technology and the spread of useful knowledge, "something that failed to take strong root in India".
• The comparative record: Countries that escaped the middle-income trap — "from South Korea to China — did not simply build factories but built institutions capable of creating and diffusing useful knowledge across domains. China's interventions in education and health laid the foundation for its later productive capacity. Its early state-led industrialisation was accompanied by massive investments in technical education, local manufacturing capability and technological learning." By contrast, Brazil, Argentina, Thailand and the Philippines, which failed to build or sustain such institutions, "became stuck in the middle-income trap", with large sections of their populations dependent on public transfers and handouts.
• Rodrik's 'productivism': Harvard economist Dani Rodrik has proposed an approach that "shifts attention from ex-post redistribution to creating productive employment". It calls for the dissemination of economic opportunity, gives the government an important role over markets in shaping economic opportunities, and "emphasises the real economy over finance, jobs over redistribution and production over consumption". A truly inclusive economy "gives people dignity and social recognition as productive members of society".
• The prescription for India: "Combining industrial policy with investments in vocational education. It also means restoring dignity to skilled manual work and creating institutions that spread technology beyond a handful of elite enclaves. Without transforming how the country values skills, builds productive capabilities, and expands access to good jobs, India risks being locked into a low-productivity economy."

Static Background

India's Gross Expenditure on R&D has remained well below 1% of GDP, with the government accounting for the dominant share — the reverse of the pattern in advanced economies, where business enterprise contributes the majority. Skilling architecture includes the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, the National Skill Development Corporation, Industrial Training Institutes, the National Skills Qualification Framework, PMKVY and the Skill India Digital platform; NEP 2020 mandates integration of vocational education into mainstream schooling with an exposure target from Class 6. Research funding reform has come through the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF Act, 2023). Relevant concepts: the Lewis turning point (exhaustion of surplus rural labour), premature deindustrialisation (manufacturing's share peaking at lower income levels than in earlier industrialisers), total factor productivity, and the demographic dividend, which is conditional on education, health and employment.

Context

German carmaker Volkswagen and the Tata-owned British marquee Jaguar Land Rover are shedding jobs — the former deciding to axe 50,000 positions and JLR 4,000 — as European carmakers fall behind Chinese manufacturers in the race to transition to electric vehicles.

The Scale and the Settlement

• Volkswagen: The latest cut will reduce employee count by a lakh by the end of the decade, as the company had already reached agreements since the end of 2024 to cut 50,000 jobs. In July, BMW revealed a decision to cut its workforce by 8,000.
• Union power: Volkswagen had to contend with its powerful union for approval of "the most eventful restructuring in its 89-year history". Workers hold 10 seats on the decision-making supervisory Board, and shareholders, including the State of Lower Saxony, another 10. As top union representative Daniela Cavallo put it: "Volkswagen is simply not a corporation that operates solely according to capitalist rules. Because of its history, Volkswagen also belongs to us, the employees." Much of the money spent on building the plant at its Wolfsburg headquarters in the 1930s came from earnings of the company's workers seized during the Nazi period, "and that gives a sense of ownership even to the present-day workforce".
• What the agreement avoided: It stopped short of announcing closure of four factories at Emden, Hanover, Zwickau and Neckarsulm in Germany, deemed to have no future after 2030, when electrification is expected to end production of internal combustion engine cars in Europe. The company has reset targeted production to nine million vehicles a year, from 12 million before the pandemic and 10 million recently.
• JLR: The "cash cow" of Tata Motors is targeting £1.7 billion (around ₹28,000 crore) in savings through the job cuts, largely targeting the white-collar workforce, with direct manufacturing jobs protected. It will scale down its breakeven point to 3 lakh vehicles from 3.5 lakh, reducing annual sales by 14% to cover its cost base — to make it "fitter in a rapidly evolving global market due to rapid technological change, intense competition, and geopolitical uncertainty", JLR chief executive P.B. Balaji said.

Why They Are on the Skids

• Volkswagen and China: It "ruled Chinese roads for four decades till its growth engines started sputtering". The world's largest carmaker after Toyota "was late to the EV race with fleet-footed Chinese carmakers, after dominating the market through a string of joint ventures". In China, its sales skidded by one-third of the 2019 figures. Even in Latin America and Africa, dominant markets for the German giant, Chinese carmakers are competing hard. "There is no model blitz in taking on Chinese rivals pumped up by cheaper state-backed loans. The company lost out to manufacturers such as BYD and Geely owing to a perceived reluctance to take the wheel in the EV race."
• JLR and tariffs: With the U.S. as its largest market but no American production base, Donald Trump's tariffs "have created potholes on the road to profits". Tariffs on exports to the U.S. from the U.K. range from 10% to 15% for its models. "It was China where its sales plummeted the most despite its electric-only reinvention."

The India Angle

• Volkswagen: Which underwent "a renaissance in India in recent years as Skoda Auto Volkswagen India Private Ltd., with models made for India", is looking for an active partner and expects to sign a deal with a local partner this year, Skoda chief executive Klaus Zellmer said, "as the German group struggles to build scale in the world's third-largest car market". Skoda is in charge of the group's India strategy, where Volkswagen is in talks on a joint venture with the JSW group, which has indicated it wants a majority stake.
• JLR: A wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Motors, which acquired the British luxury automaker in 2008. It clocked its best first-quarter retail sales for 2026-27 at 1,665 vehicles in India, an 11% year-on-year increase. The India-U.K. free trade agreement is benefiting the company. JLR and Tata Motors opened a plant in Ranipet, Tamil Nadu, in February 2026.

Static Background

Germany's codetermination (Mitbestimmung) system gives employees equal representation on the supervisory boards of large companies — the structural reason Volkswagen must negotiate rather than announce restructuring. China's EV dominance rests on early and sustained industrial policy, control of battery supply chains including lithium refining and cathode manufacture, and companies such as BYD, which is vertically integrated from batteries to vehicles. The EU has set 2035 as the target date for ending sales of new internal combustion engine cars and has imposed countervailing duties on Chinese EVs. For India, the episode matters because Tata Motors' consolidated performance depends heavily on JLR, and because global carmakers seeking scale in India — through joint ventures such as the Volkswagen-JSW discussion — could reshape a market currently dominated by a few players. The India-U.K. FTA provides phased tariff reduction on automobiles within quota limits.

Context

Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the proposed Seeds Bill would not be detrimental to the rights of farmers, after meeting about 20 farmers' organisations over the draft Seeds Bill and the Pesticides Management Bill, and assured them that the Centre would finalise every policy on the basis of consensus after discussions with farmers.

Background & Key Facts

• The rationale for a new law: Mr. Chouhan said the Seeds Bill passed in 1966 was "no longer in tune with the contemporary farming practices".
• The coverage gap: He said 70% of seeds used by Indian farmers were outside the purview of the existing Act, and that it was necessary to crack down on "fake" seeds.
• The assurances: The government was committed to protecting farmers' rights and that traditional seeds would be conserved. "A traceability system will make it easier for farmers to identify the right seed," he said.
• The Pesticides Bill: Mr. Chouhan said there was a need for a new Pesticide Management Act to identify substandard pesticides.
• The participants: Union Agriculture Secretary Atish Chandra and other senior officials attended. Organisations presenting views included the Sangh Parivar's Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, various factions of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, the All India Kisan Coordination Committee (AIKCC), Kisan Mahapanchayat and several others.

Static Background

Context

Net inflows into equity mutual funds rose 18% to a four-month high in August even as SIP contributions plateaued for the third consecutive month; the rupee slumped 44 paise as Brent breached $102; and OPEC projected India's oil demand to rise and then accelerate in 2027.

Mutual Funds and the Rotation

• The headline: Net inflows into equity mutual funds rose 18% to a four-month high of ₹29,328 crore in August 2026, even as investor contributions through systematic investment plans (SIPs) plateaued for the third consecutive month, per CMIE data.
• The base effect: Investors poured ₹24,697.3 crore in July 2026, which was 15% lower than June's ₹28,973 crore. "As a result, the August figures appear higher largely because they are being compared with the relatively low base recorded in July 2026."
• SIP plateau: SIP contributions stood at ₹32,297 crore during the reporting month, up just 1.5% over July — "the third consecutive month in which the pace of SIP growth has plateaued, indicating a slowdown in incremental investor contributions through the route".
• The rotation: "Overall, the aggregate collection number does not tell the complete story. Beneath the headline flows, there appears to be a meaningful rotation of investor capital away from large-cap and some diversified strategies towards mid-cap, small-cap and select hybrid categories," said Viraj Gandhi, CEO, SAMCO Mutual Fund. "The key question going forward is whether this represents a sustained structural shift in asset allocation or simply a continuation of performance-led flows into segments that have outperformed over the recent past."
• Foreign flows: Market conditions remained challenging with elevated crude prices and persistent geopolitical tensions, but foreign institutional investors continued to purchase Indian equities during July. "Escalating geopolitical tensions are keeping crude prices in the range of $90-$100 a barrel, and we continue to see geopolitical tensions persist this month. Despite this, we have seen FIIs continue their equity purchases," said Venkat Chalasani, who heads AMFI.

The Rupee and Oil

• The currency: The rupee depreciated 44 paise to close at 95.52 against the U.S. dollar, as Brent crude breached the $102 threshold, "mounting concerns over the country's import cost trajectory".
• The opposing forces: Forex traders said downside pressure is driven by a resumption of foreign portfolio outflows, following positive flows in July and August, and crude trading above $102 per barrel.
• OPEC on India: India's oil demand is likely to rise by about 0.06 million barrels per day (mb/d) in 2026 and accelerate further by 0.4 mb/d in 2027 on resilient economic growth and sustained demand for hydrocarbon fuels. OPEC expects India's oil use to average 5.7 mb/d in 2026, up from the previous year, with gasoline and diesel demand staying elevated on increased road mobility and higher vehicle sales. India's local growth momentum was resilient, supported by "robust domestic demand and strong services", despite global trade uncertainties and geopolitical headwinds.

Static Background

A Systematic Investment Plan is a disciplined, periodic investment route into mutual funds, valued by regulators and the industry because it produces stable domestic flows that cushion markets against foreign portfolio volatility — which is why a plateau in SIP growth, rather than the headline inflow number, is the meaningful indicator. AMFI is the industry body; mutual funds are regulated by SEBI. On the currency, the rupee follows a managed float, with the RBI intervening to contain volatility rather than to target a level; the principal drivers are the crude import bill, portfolio flows, the dollar index and interest rate differentials. A rising crude price widens the current account deficit, weakens the rupee, and feeds imported inflation — which then constrains monetary policy. OPEC, founded in 1960 and headquartered in Vienna, publishes a Monthly Oil Market Report; India is the world's third-largest oil importer and consumer, making it central to global demand projections.

Context

Ramya Kannan reports on a White Paper by the Physicians Association for Nutrition, India, issued during National Nutrition Week, arguing that India is asking the wrong question about protein — as the online space becomes "a hyperactive protein-pushing zone" from protein shakes to a 'Profee' (protein and coffee).

The White Paper's Argument

• The misframing: "Protein has become one of the most talked-about and most misunderstood topics in nutrition. Conversations are dominated by grams, 'complete vs incomplete' labels, and high-protein product marketing. These measures are useful, but none of them alone tells you whether someone's diet is actually healthy or adequate."
• Contesting a basic principle: The conventional idea that animal protein is "complete" and plant protein "incomplete" is an oversimplification. "Plant foods too contain all the essential amino acids the body needs; the amounts of each just vary by food. Within a varied diet with enough calories, the body gets what it needs across the day; you do not need to combine specific foods at every single meal."
• The recommendation: "In a varied diet with adequate calories, people generally do not need to combine specific proteins at every meal. Traditional combinations such as rice and dal, roti and chana, or idli and sambar are useful, but the more important issue is eating sufficient quantities of protein-rich foods." The paper recommends prioritising pulses, beans, lentils, soy foods, nuts, seeds and whole grains, which provide protein along with fibre, unsaturated fats, vitamins, minerals and beneficial plant compounds.
• The requirement: Per ICMR-NIN recommendations, a healthy Indian adult needs approximately 0.83 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight daily — about 50 grams for a 60-kg adult. However, children in their growth phase, breastfeeding women, sportspersons and older adults may require more, going up to 2 grams per kg per day.

Why the Fad Took Hold

• The social media dynamic: Meenakshi Bajaj, dietician at the Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Speciality Hospital: "Unfortunately, social media content is available anytime and everywhere, just a swipe away. As a result, it often appears to have more influence than qualified professionals or evidence-based medicine… Content shared by influencers, gym trainers, people with large followings, and unqualified health enthusiasts are being followed without checking the source, credentials, or scientific basis."
• A clinical example: "Just yesterday, I met a qualified professional undergoing dialysis who had read on social media that people on dialysis require high protein. While that is correct, the post did not explain appropriate protein sources. He was consuming three to four whole eggs daily, along with 17 to 20 almonds and walnuts, which contributed to very high potassium and phosphorus levels that could be life-threatening. Had he consulted a qualified dietitian, she would have explained suitable food sources and cooking methods."
• The GLP-1 driver: Another reason protein has occupied centre stage is the growing use of GLP-1 antagonists for weight loss. Those on these drugs are advised to watch muscle loss, a side effect of rapid weight loss; protein is also said to assist with satiety. During rapid weight loss, protein may be burned for energy instead of serving its function of tissue maintenance and repair.
• The Indian plate problem: Fitness coach Priyadarshini Raju: "I wouldn't call consuming protein itself a fad, but yes, there is a great deal of hype around protein right now… for our population, a meal is extremely carbohydrate dominant. Just rice, chapati, idlis, dosas." Her advice is to add a small amount of protein to each meal along with fibre — "Breakfast can be as simple as besan or oats, or if you're having dosa, just add a little paneer or tofu… The meal doesn't have to be protein dominant but yes, there should be a little protein along with your carbs and fibre; fats, anyway, we get enough of in our traditional diets."
• On supplements: The paper argues supplements are not routinely necessary for healthy adults but may have a role for athletes, older people with poor appetite, individuals on GLP-1 medications, or those recovering from illness. Ms. Raju agrees: "I might recommend them to people who are reluctant to bring any protein in their diet, especially vegetarians who have just a carb-loaded diet. Otherwise… as long as you're able to fit in whole foods into your diet, you will be good."

The Clinical Frame

• Dr. Bajaj's prescription: "A diversified, wholesome diet especially one with a high dietary diversity score, age-appropriate portion sizes, and foods that are local, traditional, and seasonal rather than packaged or processed would be considered as an ideal prescription for good health."
• The core principles: "Adequacy, individualisation, and avoiding excess." A therapeutic nutrition plan should be guided by ABCDE — anthropometric measures, biochemical parameters, clinical signs and symptoms, dietary assessment, and exercise type, frequency and intensity — accounting for age, gender, medical and surgical history, drug-nutrient interactions, food allergies or intolerances, and economic status.
• The conclusion: "Protein should not be viewed only as a number on a food label. It is an essential macronutrient that supports growth, development, digestion, immunity, healing, and muscle protein synthesis, especially when combined with resistance training." Food, the article concludes, "is a complex business, best not left in the hands of social media influence".

Static Background

Proteins are chains of amino acids, of which nine are essential — they cannot be synthesised by the body and must come from diet. The Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score (PDCAAS) and the newer DIAAS measure protein quality; plant proteins typically score lower on limiting amino acids (lysine in cereals, methionine in pulses), which is the basis of complementary combinations like rice-dal. Protein-energy malnutrition and its clinical forms remain a concern alongside rising overweight and obesity — India's double burden of malnutrition. Policy instruments include POSHAN Abhiyaan, the Integrated Child Development Services, PM POSHAN mid-day meals, and take-home rations. The ICMR-NIN Dietary Guidelines for Indians, 2024 caution against ultra-processed foods and high protein supplement use. GLP-1 receptor agonists are a class of diabetes and weight-management drugs whose rapid adoption has raised nutrition and muscle-mass concerns worldwide.

Context

Athira Elssa Johnson reports that for some people, particularly youngsters, an AI chatbot is becoming the first place they turn to when distressed — available at any hour, apparently non-judgmental and instantly responsive — and examines what psychiatrists say happens when those conversations involve thoughts of suicide.

The Evidence Base

• Prevalence: A U.S. survey of 1,009 people aged 12 to 21, published in JAMA Pediatrics, found that 19.2% had used AI chatbots for mental health advice in 2025. Nearly 43% of these users did so at least monthly, while 5.8% used them daily or almost daily. Nearly two-thirds had not told anyone about this.
• Scale of conversations: An analysis of more than 6,20,000 publicly available ChatGPT conversations found that 4.9% could be classified broadly as involving mental health, although only 0.21% met a stricter definition involving an identifiable person explicitly seeking mental health help.
• The detection gap: Studies have found that chatbots are generally better at recognising very low- and very high-risk scenarios, but struggle to distinguish between intermediate levels of suicide risk. "This is particularly concerning for psychiatrists, as suicidal distress is rarely expressed in a single, explicit statement and often emerges through a combination of subtle or changing cues."

What Clinicians Say

• Context over keywords: "Suicidal distress is not always direct; people may hint, use humour or gradually disclose their thoughts," said Mithun Prasad, consultant psychiatrist at SIMS Hospital, Chennai. Keyword recognition alone is inadequate; the context and consistency of a conversation matter.
• The internal loop: Sabaresh Pandiyan of Rela Hospital, Chennai, pointed to an 'internal loop', particularly among younger users, "who may derive comfort from the empathetic part of an AI response, while ignoring advice to seek professional help. Repeated reassurance can also make suicidal thinking seem less urgent. Talking about suicide or venting about suicide is not the problem, reinforcing hopelessness is."
• Amplification risk: Nithya M., consultant psychiatrist at Apollo Speciality Hospitals, Vanagaram, emphasised that AI could amplify existing distress, prolong rumination or substitute validation for intervention.
• Warning signs: Dr. Nithya said these can include patients quoting AI responses verbatim, withdrawing from human confidants, resisting professional help, or developing a rigid view of themselves or their relationships based on chatbot responses.
• Clinical prevalence: Dr. Pandiyan said around 60-70% of patients in his setting discuss such matters with AI first. "For some, this may help them recognise a problem and seek care earlier. Others may spend months trying to manage difficulties themselves before consulting a professional."

Not a Substitute for Care

• Limited legitimate uses: Dr. Prasad said some patients use chatbots between appointments to record medication effects or organise their thoughts, later bringing a summary to their psychiatrist — providing the clinician with information about what happened between consultations.
• Why it is not equivalent: "A chatbot does not have access to a person's psychiatric history, personality, psychological defences, adverse life experiences, protective factors or current mental state. It may validate an emotion without recognising when urgent assessment is needed. This is particularly concerning when a person has psychosis, mania or distorted beliefs."
• The regulatory ask: Psychiatrists call for mandatory safety audits, independent clinical assessments and clearer liability frameworks. Companies "should be required to investigate and report serious safety incidents". Public education should also explain where AI is and is not appropriate.
• The stigma dimension: Experts add that any response must also address the stigma that prevents people from seeking mental healthcare. "Families and communities need to create safer spaces for people to talk about distress and seek help."
• The bottom line: "When a person is in a mental health crisis, experts said, the priority should remain timely human assessment and support. AI cannot take the place of that care."

Static Background

India's framework includes the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017, which recognises a right to access mental healthcare, provides for advance directives and nominated representatives, establishes Mental Health Review Boards, and — critically — decriminalised attempted suicide by presuming severe stress and barring prosecution, with a duty on the government to provide care and rehabilitation. Section 226 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita retains an offence of attempt to commit suicide to compel a public servant, but the general decriminalisation stands. Service delivery runs through the National Mental Health Programme and District Mental Health Programme, the Tele-MANAS helpline (14416), and NIMHANS. The National Suicide Prevention Strategy, 2022 is India's first, targeting a 10% reduction in suicide mortality by 2030 and emphasising means restriction, responsible media reporting and mental health integration in schools. India's psychiatrist-to-population ratio remains far below WHO norms, which is the underlying reason people turn to alternatives. Safe messaging guidelines discourage detailed description of method and encourage signposting to helplines.

If you or someone you know is in distress, help is available. You can reach Tele-MANAS at 14416 or iCALL at 9152987821.

Context

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing the second day of the International Space Summit in Paris by video conference, emphasised the need for countries to explore, innovate and protect space together, and invited France and the world to be co-travellers in India's next space frontier.

Background & Key Facts

• The message: "Let the space summit in Paris send a clear message: we will explore together, innovate together, and protect space together, for all humanity, and for generations to come."
• The framing: While orbits have become more crowded, technologies more powerful, and with more actors in the space domain, "the focus should be on cooperation over confrontation, sustainability over short-term gain, and inclusion over exclusion". He added: "We support a safe, secure, peaceful, and sustainable space domain anchored in international law, dialogue, and multilateral cooperation."
• Cost-effectiveness and service: He highlighted the cost-effective missions of ISRO and its capabilities to serve farmers and fishermen, weather forecasting, disaster management, and navigation.
• The international record: "More than 430 satellites from 34 countries have travelled to space aboard Indian rockets. ISRO's technologies and partnerships serve not only India, but the wider world." He cited the Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya-L1 missions, and the visit of an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station in 2025.
• The goals: "Looking ahead, we aim to establish an Indian space station by 2035, and send an Indian to the moon by 2040. In all these efforts, our guiding principle has been clear: the benefits must reach all humanity. Alongside ISRO, India's private space sector is also surging in a big way."
• Commercial outcomes: During the summit, French companies including RIDE!, Safran Space and U-Space signed contracts with Indian companies TakeMeToSpace, Dhruva Space and AXISCADES respectively.

Static Background

Context

The Election Commission has invited the two factions of the Trinamool Congress to meetings regarding their competing claims over control of the party, its name, assets and election symbol, ahead of Assembly bypolls in Nandigram and Rejinagar.

Background & Key Facts

• The invitation: In letters dated 9 September to Ritabrata Banerjee, Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, and former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the poll body asked them to come for meetings at 11 a.m. and noon respectively at the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management, Dwarka. Delegations are limited to five members with names intimated in advance.
• The timing: The meetings come ahead of the 6 October Assembly bypolls in Nandigram and Rejinagar, for which the nomination process began on Wednesday and closes on 16 September. Both factions have said they would field candidates and have claimed the 'Joda Ghash Phool' symbol.
• The likely outcome: Going by the precedent in the Shiv Sena case, sources said the poll body was likely to freeze the party symbol temporarily. In October 2022, ahead of the Andheri East bypoll, the Commission passed an interim order saying that neither the Eknath Shinde faction nor the Uddhav Thackeray group could use the name "Shiv Sena" or the symbol "bow-and-arrow". Both groups had to choose their own names, including a link to the parent party name if they wished, and pick alternative symbols from the Commission's list of free symbols. That freeze was meant only for the bypoll.
• The split: Mr. Ritabrata leads a group of around 60 of the 80 elected Trinamool Congress MLAs who broke ranks with Ms. Mamata following the party's defeat to the BJP in the Assembly elections earlier this year.
• The claim: Mr. Ritabrata's faction had earlier approached the poll body staking a claim to the party's name, financial assets and electoral symbol. It said it would contest the upcoming bypolls using the Trinamool name and symbol, while remaining prepared to fight as independents if the poll body did not recognise its claim before the nomination process ended.
• The open question: "Interestingly, it remains to be seen whether Ms. Banerjee enters the poll fray from either Nandigram or Rejinagar constituencies."

The NCPI RTI Complaint

• The Trinamool Congress alleged that the Election Commission had not responded to a Right to Information application seeking information on the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) though 84 days had passed since the application was made.
• The context: Shortly after the Trinamool was defeated in the West Bengal Assembly elections in May, 20 of 28 Lok Sabha MPs elected on the party's ticket shifted loyalties to the NCPI, "a registered unrecognised political party (RUPP) little known until then".
• The request: Former Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale said the application, filed on 16 June, sought records related to the NCPI's registration, constitution, office-bearers, audited accounts, election expenditure and participation in elections, along with copies of contribution reports filed under Section 29C of the RP Act, records of donations received and details of any inspection or inquiry conducted by the EC.
• The question raised: Referring to a report on RUPPs receiving disproportionate donations, he asked whether no action was taken against them due to their ties with the BJP.

Static Background

Disputes between rival factions of a recognised political party are decided by the Election Commission under Paragraph 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, which empowers it to determine which group is "that party" for the purposes of symbol allotment. The Supreme Court upheld this jurisdiction in Sadiq Ali v. Election Commission of India (1971), arising from the Congress split, laying down a test based on the aims and objects of the party, its constitution, and the majority test applied to both the organisational and legislative wings. Where the position is unclear or time is short, the Commission has used interim freezing of the symbol, as in the Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party disputes. The Tenth Schedule (anti-defection law, 52nd Amendment, 1985) is a separate question — a split as a defence was removed by the 91st Amendment in 2003, leaving only merger under Paragraph 4 as an exception, so the symbol dispute and disqualification proceedings run on parallel tracks. Under the RTI Act, 2005, information must ordinarily be furnished within 30 days.

Context

Yemen's Houthis seized control of the strategic Red Sea port city of Mokha and Zuqar Island, and are advancing towards the Bab el-Mandeb strait, as the group reported new strikes by Saudi forces in a conflict that has reignited during the war on Iran.

Background & Key Facts

• The seizure: A Yemeni military source said the Houthis, who control large parts of northwest Yemen, took Mokha, and also seized Zuqar Island in the southern Red Sea "after rocket attacks and a ground assault carried out using boats transporting fighters". Witnesses saw Houthi forces entering Mokha chanting "death to America, death to Israel".
• The advance: The military source said they were advancing towards the strategic Bab el-Mandeb strait "after having taken control of Mokha".
• Why the waterway matters: Bab el-Mandeb "links Asia to Europe via the Red Sea and Suez Canal" and "has gained importance as a transit route since the start of the wider war, which saw Iran blockade the Strait of Hormuz".
• The offensive: The Iran-backed Houthis launched a large-scale offensive last week against Yemeni government forces backed by Saudi Arabia, and also launched attacks on Saudi territory that left dozens wounded — "in a conflict that has reignited during the war on Iran that began with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Tehran in late February".
• Saudi retaliation: The Houthis reported that "the Saudi enemy's air force conducted around 40 strikes in recent hours in the governorates of Taiz, Hodeida, Al-Jawf and Marib", per the rebels' Saba news agency. On Wednesday the Saudi-led coalition said the Houthis had fired ballistic missiles and drones at several cities in southern Saudi Arabia.
• The human cost: Yemen relapsed into war in July after years of relative calm punctured by sporadic violence and deepening poverty. Since last week the fighting has left more than 500 dead, mostly combatants, and forced nearly 20,000 people to flee their homes, the International Organization for Migration said.
• The trigger: "The Houthis triggered the return to hostilities in July when they let an Iranian plane land in defiance of Saudi control of Yemeni airspace."

Static Background

Bab el-Mandeb — the "Gate of Tears" — connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and is the southern gateway to the Suez Canal, carrying a very large share of Europe-Asia container traffic and a significant share of seaborne crude. It is divided by Perim Island into two channels; the Hanish Islands and Zuqar lie in the southern Red Sea and were the subject of an arbitration between Yemen and Eritrea. Mokha (Mocha) is the historic coffee port on Yemen's Red Sea coast; Hodeida is the principal Houthi-controlled port. Yemen's conflict, running since 2014-15, pits the Houthi movement, aligned with Iran, against the internationally recognised government backed by a Saudi-led coalition; a UN-brokered truce in 2022 produced a period of relative calm. India's interests are direct: a large share of its Europe-bound trade transits the Suez route, disruption forces the Cape of Good Hope detour with substantial cost and time penalties, and India has deployed naval assets in the Gulf of Aden for anti-piracy since 2008 and for escort and interdiction more recently. The Information Fusion Centre – Indian Ocean Region at Gurugram coordinates maritime domain awareness.

Context

A consolidated round-up of the remaining reports in today's Bengaluru City Edition carrying direct prelims value — judiciary, security, world affairs, economy and culture.

Judiciary & Law

• PMLA charges against Lalu Prasad: A Delhi court ordered framing of charges under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act against RJD chief Lalu Prasad, his wife and former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi, their son and RJD MLA Tejashwi Yadav and others, over alleged irregularities in the leasing of two IRCTC hotels. Special Judge Vishal Gogne of the Rouse Avenue Courts observed there was a "strong suspicion of abuse of office by former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad". The CBI alleges that between 2004 and 2009 he entered into a criminal conspiracy with owners of hotels in Patna and Puri, receiving high-value land and shares as illegal consideration. Charges were also framed against Sarla Gupta, Prem Chand Gupta, Sujata Hotels, Vinay Kochhar and Vijay Kochar; son-in-law Rahul Yadav was discharged. The family has denied the allegations and called the case politically motivated.
• Abu Salem's plea rejected: The Supreme Court dismissed a plea by 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Abu Salem seeking release on the ground that he had completed the required 25-year term. He was extradited from Portugal in 2005 after a sovereign assurance that he would neither be sentenced to death nor imprisoned for more than 25 years. A Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta found "no infirmity" in the Bombay High Court's 15 April ruling, holding that the sovereign assurance could not be used to claim an "artificial or accelerated" computation of his period of incarceration, and that the claim could not be divorced from the "gravity" of the crimes.
• Judicial officer's 'outburst': The Supreme Court said a judicial officer raising his voice at judges in court amounted to "gross indiscipline", while declining to stay criminal contempt proceedings against Dilip S. Ghumare, Secretary and Senior Legal Adviser in Maharashtra's Department of Law and Judiciary. "A judicial officer cannot shout against the judges in a court... Even a senior bureaucrat does not dare to raise his voice in the court." The Bombay High Court had said his "unwarranted outburst" and "aggressive demeanour" amounted to contempt ex facie under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971. The Supreme Court restrained the High Court from passing a final order and listed the matter for 28 September, advising him to seek an unconditional apology.
• Phogat's plea rejected: The Delhi High Court refused to allow wrestler Vinesh Phogat to participate in the women's selection trials for the 2026 Senior World Championships. Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma held that criteria prescribed under a 7 September circular apply uniformly to all athletes, and that an athlete who has not participated in the prescribed competitions, for whatever reason, would not fall within the eligibility categories specified by the Wrestling Federation of India. The court said her circumstances relating to pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum recovery would require consideration while examining the validity of the policy, but did not at the interim stage entitle her to participate contrary to the eligibility criteria.
• Abhishek Banerjee's aide arrested: The West Bengal Crime Investigation Department arrested Sumit Roy, personal assistant to Trinamool general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, in a land grab case relating to accusations that government land in Salboni, Paschim Medinipur, was sold illegally with proceeds transferred to Trinamool accounts. The Supreme Court had earlier denied him anticipatory bail. Trinamool said there are at least 16 FIRs against Mr. Banerjee, all filed after the party's Assembly election loss.

Security, Governance & Health

• Yudh Abhyas 2026: The Indian and U.S. armies began the 22nd edition of their annual bilateral exercise, held from 9 to 28 September, focusing on high-altitude warfare, long-range precision fires, counter-drone capabilities and operational interoperability. It saw deployment of Arctic-trained U.S. Army soldiers based in Alaska for high-altitude training in India, and participation of the U.S. Army's 3rd Multi-Domain Task Force.
• NCSC on a Dalit man's death: The National Commission for Scheduled Castes sought a detailed report on the death of Gulzar Singh, a Punjab daily wager who allegedly died by suicide after being "threatened". NCSC Chairman Kishor Makwana met the family; the Commission asked the Chief Secretary and DGP to submit a report within five days. The Opposition has alleged he was under pressure to apologise for questioning Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema over the drug menace. (Those in distress can call the Tele-MANAS helpline 14416.)
• Kharge on Madhya Pradesh: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge accused the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh of evading accountability for deaths allegedly caused by spurious liquor, toxic cough syrup and contaminated water. Referring to the deaths of 31 people in Sagar after consuming poisonous liquor, he said 11 persons were still battling for their lives.
• Bihar bridge collapse: Seven people were injured after a portion of an under-construction bridge collapsed in Vaishali district, part of the Bharatmala Pariyojana, during four-lane construction work.
• Rahul Gandhi's outreach: Ahead of the fifth edition of Chhatron Ki Goonj in Indore on 19 September, the Leader of the Opposition sought students' views on problems in the education system, having held similar interactions in Kota, Dehradun, Prayagraj and Pune.

World

• Sri Lanka court revokes a pardon: In "a significant case of the judiciary reversing an executive decision", Sri Lanka's Supreme Court overturned a presidential pardon granted in May 2019 by then-President Maithripala Sirisena to hardline Buddhist monk Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero, leader of the Bodu Bala Sena, who was serving a prison term following conviction for contempt of court and criminal intimidation. The Centre for Policy Alternatives and Sandya Eknaligoda, wife of cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda — forcibly disappeared since 2010 — had challenged the pardon; the court ruled the action "arbitrary" and declared it "null and void".
• Trump's midterm promise: U.S. President Donald Trump promised $5,000 to every American adult if Republicans retain control of Congress in November, calling it "the Trump dividend", without disclosing the source of funds — with the theoretical bill likely topping $1 trillion. Decision Desk HQ projects Democrats to win the House 230-205 and the Senate to finish 51-49 in their favour.
• Iran strikes damaged U.S. aircraft: Iranian strikes damaged multiple American military aircraft on the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan. Per a May report of the Congressional Research Service, 42 U.S. military aircraft had already been lost or damaged in the conflict; a U.S. official said Iran's attack hit one A-10 Thunderbolt II, leaving it with a missing wing, while roughly eight F-15s sustained light damage. Since February, 18 U.S. service members have been killed and over 800 injured.
• WHO regional director resigns: Saima Wazed, daughter of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, resigned as the World Health Organization's regional director for Southeast Asia, effective immediately, after member states recommended termination of her appointment. She assumed office on 1 February 2024; her tenure was marked by fraud-related investigations by both the WHO and Bangladeshi authorities. The Southeast Asia Region comprises 10 member states, including India and Bangladesh; nominations for a successor are expected in October.
• Other world briefs: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended strikes on suspected drug-trafficking boats during a visit to Ecuador, arguing Latin American cartels would "eat these countries alive" — "like a cancer". NATO chief Mark Rutte said the alliance would remain "strong" whoever wins next year's French presidential election. A Russian strike on a shopping centre in Pavlograd, Ukraine, killed at least four and wounded 60; a Ukrainian drone strike on Novy Oskol in Russia's Belgorod region killed one. At least 20 died and five went missing after a cargo ship, the Ocean Melody, caught fire while under repair at the port of Qingdao, China.

Economy, Science & Miscellany

• PepsiCo in Assam: The food and beverage manufacturer opened its first foods factory in the Northeast — its fifth foods plant in India — spread across 44.2 acres in Danguapara, Nalbari district. CEO of PepsiCo India and South Asia Jagrut Kotecha said the unit was part of the firm's investment commitment through 2030: "With our Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu operations, we hope to place India among our top 10 markets." Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said it underscored confidence in Assam's policies and infrastructure; over 75% of its 700 direct staff are to be women. PepsiCo plans to cover 80,000 smallholder farmers by nurturing 2,200 agri-entrepreneurs across Assam and West Bengal, driving demand for cold storage and boosting the potato value chain.
• HDFC Bank and Credit Suisse bonds: HDFC Bank said it secured favourable orders from the High Civil Court, Bahrain in proceedings initiated by Credit Suisse Additional Tier 1 (CS AT1) bond investors. Seven investors alleged gross negligence, intentional misrepresentation, incorrect customer classification, non-disclosure of product features, misuse of financial leverage and violation of product suitability principles. The court rejected the claims "after finding the investors failed to produce sufficient admissible evidence", and also rejected five other similar matters. The orders follow dismissal by the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in March, which affirmed the bank was "only a facilitator". "The bank is not in the business of underwriting investments made by customers out of own judgment."
• Corporate and policy briefs: Canara Bank will raise up to ₹4,500 crore through Basel III-compliant Additional Tier 1 bonds — perpetual debt instruments with a five-year call option — as part of a proposal also covering ₹4,000 crore of Tier 2 bonds. Ultraviolette will set up a 'BIGGA' (Big Global Ambition) factory in Hosur, Tamil Nadu, to manufacture Tesseract e-scooters. The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons extended the deadline for deepwater and ultra-deepwater block bids under the 10th and 11th OALP rounds to 15 November.
• News in numbers: Kenya is expected to receive about $400 million in emergency World Bank financing within six weeks to address risks including an Ebola outbreak and El Niño-related disruptions. Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini transferred ₹1,890.16 crore directly to more than 50 lakh beneficiaries under 26 schemes through Direct Benefit Transfer. More than 43 lakh people have been affected by floods in 14 districts of Bihar, with several rivers flowing above the danger mark.
• Culture and archives: A Notebook column reflects on a journalist's access to Chinna Thambi, the wild elephant captured in 2019 and tamed at the Anamalai Tiger Reserve, and on the discomfort that access can bring. Picture of the Week shows salt being loaded near Beeramgunta, Ongole — work on salt pans usually ends with the June rains, but with almost no rainfall due to El Niño, harvesting continues, and prices have fallen from ₹400-₹500 per tonne last year to ₹100-₹120 this year. From the Archives: fifty years ago (11 September 1976), Union Health Minister Karan Singh said public health programmes should be given weightage equal to family planning, and that India should attain zero level in smallpox by the next Independence Day. The Faith column explains the Saiva Siddhanta's four paths to God — Chariya, Kriya, Yoga and Jnana — associated respectively with Appar, Sambandar, Sundarar and Manikkavasakar, whose Thiruvasagam expresses the soul's longing for Shiva.