Context

The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to use its exceptional power under Article 142 of the Constitution to quash first information reports (FIRs) registered against students who joined the nationwide protests against NEET-UG paper leaks — protests that led to the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan as Union Education Minister and compelled the government to introspect.

Background & Key Facts

• Bench: A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant.
• CJI's position: The Court will quash FIRs naming only students by invoking Article 142; FIRs involving elements with serious criminal antecedents will be decided subject to discussion in court.
• Disclosure gap: Advocate Vrinda Grover, defending students' right to protest, pointed out that the Delhi Police have not disclosed details regarding any of the FIRs — nor even the FIR numbers, despite promising no action against peaceful protesters.
• Government's position: Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta said police would confine investigation to 2,873 persons with a "serious criminal background" identified at the protest site, including history-sheeters facing charges of murder, rape and child sexual abuse.
• Judicial insistence on specificity: Justice Joymalya Bagchi said the state cannot refer to "undesirable elements" in generic terms — "You have to at least identify them." Mr. Mehta responded that 2,873 had been identified and "the rest are students."
• Police crackdown: Protests in Delhi, which triggered agitations across the country, led to a police crackdown on July 20 in which pellet guns and tear gas were allegedly used.
• Objection raised: Advocate Rizwan Ahmed, appearing for retired Air Force officer Manish Kumar Solanki, objected to quashing FIRs, blaming the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) for the July 20 violence and asking whether this would be a "one-off" or a precedent; he said students had not expressed "a shred of remorse or regret."
• CJI's assurance: The Court would protect students "so long as they did not intend to violate the law, so long as they wanted to hold a protest in a peaceful and lawful manner and raise their voice with respect to certain demands."
• High-powered panel: The Bench will form a high-powered panel to examine the issues over the NEET-UG protests, and invited suggestions from advocates on framing issues. Allegations of police officers sexually harassing women protesters will be looked into urgently by the panel for legal action.

Article 142 — Constitutional Basis

Article 142(1) empowers the Supreme Court to pass any decree or order necessary for doing "complete justice" in any cause or matter pending before it. Article 142(2) makes such orders enforceable throughout India in the manner prescribed by Parliament, and until such provision, as the President may by order prescribe. Here it is invoked not to adjudicate guilt but to prevent mass criminalisation of peaceful protesters, balancing Article 19(1)(a) and 19(1)(b) rights against public order.

Context

After a Delhi Police affidavit admitted using a Facial Recognition System (FRS) during the NEET-UG paper-leak protests citing "legitimate state interest," the Supreme Court said it will examine the "proportionality" of the system's usage.

Background & Key Facts

• Police justification: Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the technology was deployed to identify "hardened criminals and not ordinary people."
• Petitioners' objections: Senior advocate N. Hariharan countered that FRS cannot be used at all, noting data of others is also retained. Senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy, for Rajya Sabha MP A.A. Rahim, submitted that the data were stored with private entities.
• Court's framing: Justice Joymalya Bagchi said the Bench will examine the question of proportionality and not Article 21 directly; the primary objective of the hearing is whether excessive force was used by police, after which the FRS aspect will be considered.
• Scale: FRS found 2,873 persons with serious criminal antecedents, of whom 92 were involved in over 10 cases each; 47 of these 92 were history-sheeters, with crimes ranging from murder, rape, kidnapping and child sexual abuse to narcotic offences.
• Police claim on profiling: The affidavit stated FRS does not automatically capture, create, generate or maintain profiles of every individual present at the protest site, nor is it deployed for indiscriminate surveillance or collection of personal information of peaceful protesters unless they have a previous criminal record; records are kept for accused in serious offences, not petty cases like traffic challans.
• Rebuttal of "false narrative": Delhi Police said claims that biometrics of everyone are obtained, that people are called with Aadhaar cards, and that data is sold to private entities are false and driven by ulterior motives.
• Plainclothes "spotters": Police defended deploying plainclothes personnel as "spotters" as a globally recognised arrangement to keep vigil on anti-social elements or criminal activities; these officers merged with protesters to avoid identification and to provide immediate assistance to anyone being harassed.
• Use of force: Tear smoke shells were used only as a last resort; the lathi charge was "limited and controlled"; lathis were described as acceptable "helping gear" in a mob-like situation; the affidavit denied the use of "nail lathis" and denied manhandling of women protesters.
• Police caution to court: Operational decisions taken by officers in a rapidly evolving and violent law-and-order situation involve instantaneous assessment of security risks and cannot be misjudged in hindsight by selectively relying on isolated video clips or media reports.

Context

While President Droupadi Murmu made a reference to the Supreme Court for an inquiry against Shivashankarappa S. Sahukar, chairperson of the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC), on allegations of misbehaviour, the Karnataka High Court set aside the Governor's order suspending him and ordered his reinstatement.

Background & Key Facts

• HC reasoning: Justice Suraj Govindaraj held the Governor's suspension order illegal as the Governor had "acted in the absence of aid and advice of the Council of Ministers prior to issuing the order of suspension."
• Presidential reference: Acting on the Governor's recommendation, the President on August 14 referred the matter to the apex court to hold an inquiry into the allegations.
• Court's distinction: When the advocate-on-record for the Governor brought the reference to the court's notice, the court said the issue raised in Mr. Sahukar's case was on a different legal point.
• Reinstatement terms: Reinstatement ordered within seven days from receipt of a copy of the verdict, but Mr. Sahukar is barred from taking part in any decisions and actions of the KPSC in relation to the selection of his two daughters.

Constitutional Framework — Removal of PSC Members

Under Article 317, a member of a State Public Service Commission may be removed only by the President on grounds of misbehaviour, and only after the Supreme Court, on a Presidential reference, holds an inquiry and reports that the member ought to be removed. Pending such reference and report, the Governor may suspend the member — but suspension is not a discretionary power and must follow ministerial aid and advice under Article 163.

Context

A day after the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission-Combined Graduate Level (JSSC-CGL) examination and other recruitment tests were cancelled following a weeks-long agitation in Ranchi, candidates who had already cleared the exams and joined government service protested outside the Cabinet Secretariat. Separately, the National Testing Agency (NTA) announced a major revamp after repeated examination failures.

Jharkhand — Key Facts

• Scale of impact: The cancellation has affected 1,975 employees, many of whom were stopped by police from entering their workplaces at the Secretariat; over 2,000 government jobs are at risk overall.
• Scope of cancellation: Jharkhand cancelled not only the JSSC-CGL exam but all other exams conducted by the tainted agency, TSR Data Processing Private Limited (TDPL), since 2014.
• Numbers involved: 502 posts were to be filled through ten examinations conducted by TDPL; 1,932 candidates had secured employment through the JSSC-CGL exam conducted in 2023, with appointments finalised in 2025.
• Employee grievance: Employees said they received no notice from the government barring them from offices or regarding termination, became "virtually jobless overnight," and alleged cancellation without a hearing; many threatened legal action. One employee said he gave up jobs in other departments, including under the Union government, to work in his home State.
• Origin of the agitation: Hundreds of students gathered at the Jaipal Singh Munda Stadium in Ranchi for 24 days alleging irregularities, demanding cancellation and a CBI inquiry. JPSC-JSSC Reform Manch leader Ravindra Paswan said the protest continues and the demand for a CBI inquiry is still pending.

NTA Revamp — Key Facts

• Personnel overhaul: 600 experts from NTA's examination team have been removed and new experts onboarded; 20 to 25 new officials will be inducted over the next two to three weeks.
• Four-tier checking: A four-tier question paper checking system will be put in place to strengthen scrutiny of examination papers.
• Ministerial direction: Union Education Minister Pralhad Joshi, in an August 17 meeting, directed that all necessary security and related infrastructural facilities be put in place; the Ministry has directed NTA to conduct a thorough audit of all exam processes and submit a report on corrective action.
• Security upgrade: NTA offices will shift to new premises with security reinforced by Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) teams.
• CONOPS overhaul: A complete overhaul of the Confidential Operations (CONOPS) architecture was discussed — secluded rooms, air-gapped systems, and device-deposit protocols for people handling question-paper information.
• Trigger: The revamp follows NTA's announcement of a re-exam for UGC-NET in Sociology, Commerce and English after errors in question papers — its second major lapse this year after the paper leak that forced cancellation of NEET-UG.

Related — Kharge on Social Media Blocking Orders

• Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge alleged the Union government issued 1.95 lakh blocking orders to social media platforms in five months (March–July) — roughly one every 68 seconds — describing this as "only the tip of the iceberg."
• He said most orders targeted content posted by students protesting alleged examination irregularities, and alleged journalists and ordinary citizens faced takedown notices, FIR threats and intimidation.
• He alleged takedown time was slashed to three hours with censorship "so automated that no human even reads the order before a voice is silenced."

Context

An editorial by Jean Drèze and Mohammad Zameer documents an unprecedented crash in rural employment generation under the Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin), or VB-G RAM G, the Union Government's successor to MGNREGA.

Background & Key Facts

• Headline decline: A widely-noted 50% decline in July 2026 versus MGNREGA in July 2025 was based on a premature figure of 7.7 crore person-days; the latest figure is 8.3 crore and the final figure is likely around 9 crore per the Ministry of Rural Development. Even accepting 9 crore, the decline versus July 2025 is above 40%.
• Ministry's excuse rebutted: The Ministry attributed the setback to a few States suspending VB-G RAM G in parts of July 2026 under Section 6 of the Act; the authors call this "the mother of all red herrings" since those States account for a small share of total employment and the decline looks similar in proportionate terms even excluding them.
• Legislative timeline: The replacement Bill was rushed through Parliament in December 2025, with the transition announced for April 1, 2026. Nothing happened on April 1 — the Rules had not been framed, and MGNREGA continued by default.
• Rules sequence: Draft VB-G RAM G Rules were released for public consultation on May 22, 2026 (mainly a rehash of MGNREGA rules and orders); release of final Rules began at the end of June, just in time for the official replacement on July 1, 2026.
• Wage rates: Notified on June 30 with a minimum norm of ₹300 per day — much the same as the earlier MGNREGA norm of ₹100 per day at 2009-10 prices.
• Ground reality (April–June): Confusion prevailed; in some districts MGNREGA functionaries refused to open new works, and in many areas there was no MGNREGA work at all — a serious lapse since MGNREGA normally peaks in these summer months, a slack agricultural season across large parts of India.
• Scale of the crash: In 2024-25 and 2025-26, April–July accounted for nearly 50% of annual employment generation — 128 crore and 119 crore person-days respectively. In 2026-27, MGNREGA and VB-G RAM G together generated only 70 crore person-days — a 43% decline from the two-year average.
• State-wise variation: The decline was relatively small in Andhra Pradesh, Assam and Telangana, but larger than 40% in most States. In 10 out of 19 major States the decline ranged between 60% and 85%. Employment generation came to a virtual standstill in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand — among India's largest and poorest States.
• Budget paradox: The VB-G RAM G allocation in the 2026-27 Union Budget is ₹95,692 crore — a little more than actual MGNREGA expenditure in 2025-26. Including State contributions (40% of the total for most States), the total was due to reach about ₹1.5 lakh crore — an increase of about 70% over 2025-26 MGNREGA expenditure. With wages broadly unchanged in real terms, this should have triggered a big employment increase; instead the first four months saw an unprecedented crash.
• Road ahead: The authors call the launch "a damp squib," note it is hard to see the ₹1.5 lakh crore expenditure materialising, and warn that wage payments may face serious problems with the imposition of facial recognition at the worksite and Centre-State cost-sharing.

Context

The questionnaire (schedule) for the population enumeration phase of Census 2027 — already live in Ladakh and snow-bound areas of three other States ahead of the rest of the country — seeks information on religion, date of birth and place of birth up to the village level of both the father and the mother.

Background & Key Facts

• Family Particulars head: The questionnaire has an option to record the place of birth of the father and mother if they were born outside India.
• Religion field: Besides six religious categories — Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Muslim and Jain — respondents can record "other religion" in a separate column.
• Caste methodology: SC and ST respondents choose their caste from a predetermined drop-down menu; all others must type the caste name in an open field. This is Independent India's first caste enumeration.
• Question 10(C): "If not SC/ST in this State/UT — Enter Caste name." Two other options exist besides the caste field: "Does not want to declare Caste" and "No Caste." The data fields are marked "mandatory."
• Notification: The Registrar-General and Census Commissioner of India on August 14 notified a set of 40 questions for the population enumeration phase (second phase), adding 13 new questions or data fields not part of the Census 2011 questionnaire, which had 29 questions.
• NPR overlap: Additional questions on particulars of mother and father, Aadhaar, mobile, voter ID and driving licence details mirror those in the 2019 NPR rehearsal form. The NPR, initially proposed to be updated with the first phase of the Census, has been put on the back burner amid opposition from political parties and civil society over concerns the data could be used to create a countrywide National Register of Citizens (NRC).
• Schedule for Ladakh: Made available on August 17 through a self-enumeration portal to respondents in Ladakh, parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, further expanding the data fields notified in the Gazette of India.
• COVID-19 field: The question on place of COVID-19 vaccination gives two options — within India or outside India.
• Congress objection: Jairam Ramesh accused the government of sabotaging the caste census, saying the PM made "a complete U-turn on April 30, 2025" announcing a caste census after earlier attacking it as an "urban naxal" idea, and has "now done another U-turn on his earlier U-turn," calling him a "U-turn ustad."
• Precedent: The open-field method in the 2011 Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) returned over 46 lakh different "caste names"; the government has consistently maintained over the last decade that this data was unreliable due to "errors" in data collection.

Context

The ruling Congress party has sounded the alarm over Telangana's ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, fearing a structural voter purge similar to what it describes as the "West Bengal and Assam model," where large-scale deletions allegedly altered electoral outcomes.

Background & Key Facts

• CM's warning: Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, in a Zoom meeting with senior leaders, expressed strong displeasure at the party's handling of SIR and alerted Cabinet colleagues that a potential reduction of 21% in voter numbers could have serious consequences.
• Organisational criticism: He criticised the party organisation's "lackadaisical approach" during field verification; while Opposition parties closely monitored voter data and enrolment patterns, the Congress failed to deploy adequate Booth Level Agents (BLAs) to safeguard its voter base, allowing lapses to go unchecked.
• Digitisation status: Per the Telangana Chief Electoral Officer's office, of the total electorate of 3,38,26,448, a total of 2,64,86,214 enumeration forms have been digitised — a completion rate of 78.3%. The remaining 21.7% are classified as "uncollectable."
• Additional flags: Nearly 20 lakh entries have reportedly been identified as technically inconsistent or unmapped. Together, these categories account for nearly 94 lakh electors who may face scrutiny.

Break-up of "Uncollectable" Forms

Why Congress Is Worried

• Support base vulnerability: The party's electoral base includes minorities, low-income households and socio-economically weaker groups, seen as disproportionately exposed to deletion.
• CM's framing: "Losing a vote does not merely disenfranchise a citizen; it can also affect access to welfare-linked identity systems and government benefits."
• Verification lapses: Overburdened Booth Level Officers allegedly skipped mandatory door-to-door verification in several areas and operated from centralised collection points; persons who could not visit these centres were marked unavailable.
• Geographic concentration: A preliminary assessment suggests the issue is concentrated in districts surrounding Hyderabad. Erstwhile districts such as Ranga Reddy, Medak, Mahabubnagar and Nalgonda have seen substantial migration to the capital region.
• "Dual voter" imbalance: Across the 28 Assembly segments falling under the Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Chevella and Malkajgiri Lok Sabha constituencies, local enrolment rates are relatively low, as residents retained voter registrations in native districts. Migrant workers from Bihar, Chhattisgarh and other States also choose to vote in home States rather than registering locally.
• Next phase: Any elector whose form is missing, uncollected or discrepant may face scrutiny during the claims-and-objections process, which the Congress now treats as a high-stakes effort rather than a routine electoral exercise.

Context

BRICS countries opposed what they described as "unilateral, punitive, discriminatory and protectionist" climate measures, including the European Union's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), while calling for a significant increase in international adaptation funding for developing countries.

Background & Key Facts

• Forum: Positions were contained in the joint statement adopted at the 12th BRICS Environment Ministers' Meeting in New Delhi, held under India's chairship (Union Minister Bhupender Yadav).
• Core objection: Ministers said carbon border measures such as CBAMs could "undermine developing countries' efforts to address climate change and build resilience."
• CBAM status: The EU's CBAM entered its definitive phase from January 1 this year. It requires importers of carbon-intensive products — iron and steel, aluminium, cement, fertilizers, hydrogen and electricity — to account for the carbon emissions associated with their production.
• EU rationale: The measure is intended to prevent "carbon leakage" — the shifting of carbon-intensive production outside the bloc because of differences in climate policies.
• India's exposure: India is among the most exposed countries, particularly through steel exports. A recent analysis found iron and steel account for about 90% of India's exports to the EU falling within the CBAM framework.
• Empirical evidence: A June 2026 analysis in Nature Climate Change, based on shipment-level trade data and facility-level emissions estimates, found that high-emission Indian steel firms reduced export quantities and revenues to the EU during the CBAM reporting phase, while lower-emission firms maintained export levels.
• Trade context: The BRICS position comes as the EU and India move to implement a free trade agreement negotiated earlier this year, even as Indian exporters face additional carbon-related compliance requirements.
• Adaptation finance demand: Ministers called for an urgent increase in adaptation finance from developed countries — "new, additional, predictable, adequate and accessible," provided through grants and concessional finance without increasing the financial vulnerabilities of developing countries.
• Specific commitment cited: They urged developed countries to meet the commitment agreed at the 2025 UN climate conference to triple adaptation finance to developing countries by 2035.
• Purpose of adaptation finance: Used to help countries and communities cope with climate impacts — strengthening water security, agriculture, infrastructure and so on.

Context

Audited financial statements of the PM-CARES (Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations) Fund for FY 2023-24 and 2024-25, released after a delay of two years, show that donations have dropped and utilisation of available funds has been abysmally low.

Background & Key Facts

• Corpus growth: The corpus grew by 25.8% between 2022-23 and 2024-25, from ₹6,722 crore to ₹8,453 crore.
• Utilisation collapse: In the same period, utilisation dropped from ₹437.9 crore to just ₹87.5 lakh — 10,000 times smaller than the available corpus.
• Inflow vs outflow: Money flowing in through donations and interest from corpus far exceeded money disbursed since 2022-23.
• Refunds anomaly: "Refunds" from "implementing agencies" were far higher than money utilised. Neither the details of these implementing agencies nor the purpose for which the refunded money was originally allotted has been made available. ₹324 crore was refunded by implementing agencies in 2024-25.
• Donations decline: Donations dropped sharply — ₹480 crore in 2024-25, down about 30% over the previous year. Corpus growth was mainly due to interest earnings: interest income (₹475 crore) was almost the same as donations (₹480 crore).
• Total income: Total income nonetheless grew to ₹1,279.9 crore, up 41% over the previous year (from net donations, interest on bank and fixed deposits, and refunds from implementing agencies).
• Reason for interest surge: Attributed to the Union government moving the corpus from savings accounts to fixed deposits in 2023-24.
• Spending record: The Fund spent only ₹87.85 lakh — 0.01% of its closing balance. From March 2020 to March 31, 2025, it has spent less than one-fifth (18.1%) of its total income. Closing balance stood at ₹8,452.06 crore in FY 2024-25, 17.8% higher than the previous year.
• Activist reaction: Anjali Bhardwaj, co-convener of the National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI), noted the fund "utilised only 0.01% of available ₹8,452 crore," asked why such large sums are kept idle, questioned whether "refunds were done to evade accountability for faulty equipment," and asked why accompanying notes to the audit report were not uploaded.
• Structural criticism: Created as a public charitable trust in March 2020, PM-CARES has faced criticism for lack of transparency, refusal to share information, and inordinate delays in releasing financial statements. The prolonged delay coincided with the Centre changing the auditors. The Fund continues to evade public scrutiny by refusing to submit itself to the RTI Act. The Hindu had highlighted the disclosure lapse on August 8.

Context

Several States are recording a spike in H1N1 cases, along with other influenza-like illnesses, viral fevers and respiratory tract infections. Experts say there is no cause for alarm, but advise that children with asthma and other chronic conditions may require special intervention.

About the Virus

• Classification: H1N1, commonly known as swine flu, is a subtype of influenza A.
• Symptoms: Fever or chills, cough, sore throat, runny or blocked nose, headache, tiredness, muscle or body aches; in some cases vomiting and diarrhoea.

State-wise Situation

Clinical Observations

• Vani Vilas Hospital, Bengaluru: Paediatrics head Chikkanarasa Reddy P.S. said respiratory complaints and fever account for nearly 80% of the daily paediatric out-patient load, so only children with more aggressive symptoms are tested.
• Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health: Director Narendra Babu said the hospital is confirming around two to three H1N1 cases a day among those tested.
• Private sector: Vikas Satwik (Motherhood Hospitals) said school-going children account for a substantial share; Sujatha Thyagarajan (Aster Women and Children Hospital) said H1N1 and other influenza A infections are rising earlier than the usual seasonal pattern.
• Early testing advice: J.K. Reddy (Apollo Children's Hospital, Chennai) advised testing children suspected of influenza within 24 to 48 hours of developing symptoms, since anti-flu drugs are more effective if started in the first few days of fever.
• Diagnostic gap: Since routine H1N1 testing is not conducted at government hospitals, it is difficult to classify flu-like illness cases.
• Hospitalisation profile: Janani Sankar (CHILDS Trust Hospital) said most children are managed as outpatients; those with extreme fatigue, severe body pain and lack of oral intake needed hospitalisation.

Context

In April 2026, the Governor of Punjab gave assent to the Jaagat Jot Sri Guru Granth Sahib Satkar (Amendment) Act, criminalising sacrilege against the Guru Granth Sahib with sentences running as high as life imprisonment. The law closed out a decade of agitation following the 2015 desecration incidents at Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala, and the police firing at Behbal Kalan that killed two protesters.

The Two-Part Definition

• First half (conduct): Covers any "wilful and deliberate" act of desecration through physical damage, defacement, burning, tearing or theft of the Saroop — the physical volume of the Guru Granth Sahib or part of it.
• Second half (expression): Extends sacrilege equally to acts committed "by words, either spoken or written, or by signs or by visible representations or through electronic means," wherever this is of a nature to hurt the religious feelings of persons professing the Sikh faith.
• The analytical point: The first half criminalises what is done to the book; the second criminalises expressing a disrespectful opinion about it — precisely the blasphemy-type wrong the sacrilege/blasphemy distinction is meant to set apart.

Blasphemy vs. Sacrilege — The Statutory Distinction

Colonial Ancestry of Section 295A

• Origin: The Rangila Rasul pamphlet on the marriages of the Prophet Muhammad, published in Lahore in May 1924 by Mahashe Rajpal, under the anonymous authorship of Arya Samajist Pandit Chamupati.
• Retaliatory context: Per Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's account, it was written in direct retaliation for an earlier Muslim pamphlet, Sitaka Chinala, which made insulting claims about Sita — part of a decade of such exchanges between Hindu and Muslim publicists in Punjab.
• Prosecution and acquittal: Rajpal was prosecuted under Section 153A. A magistrate convicted him in 1926; the Lahore Sessions Court upheld it in February 1927; the Lahore High Court, per Justice Dalip Singh on May 4, 1927, acquitted him, holding that S.153A was meant to prevent attacks on a living community, not polemics against a deceased religious founder.
• Legislative response: Justice Dalip Singh urged the legislature to close the gap. A bill was introduced within months, refined by a Select Committee that included Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and enacted as Section 295A, receiving the Governor-General's assent on September 22, 1927.
• Failure to prevent violence: On April 6, 1929 — nineteen months after S.295A entered the statute book — a young Lahore carpenter, Ilm-ud-din, stabbed Rajpal to death claiming revenge for the Prophet. Jinnah argued Ilm-ud-din's unsuccessful appeal against the death sentence; he was executed that October.
• Drafters' safeguards: The Select Committee inserted "deliberate and malicious" specifically to protect social reformers attacking superstition or ill practice. Jinnah, addressing the Central Legislative Assembly on 5 September 1927, argued the law had to protect "those who are engaged in bona fide and honest criticism of a religion," alongside historians and truth-seekers.
• Constitutional validity: In Ramji Lal Modi v. State of Uttar Pradesh (1957), the Supreme Court upheld S.295A's constitutionality, reasoning it fell within the "public order" exception under Article 19(2).

Enforcement Risk and Comparative Trajectory

• The Seetaram case: In 2007, Karnataka editor B.V. Seetaram, his wife and co-director Rohini were arrested after their Kannada dailies published articles questioning the right of Digambara Jain monks to appear naked in public. Nothing had been physically defiled — the entire complaint concerned words in print — yet it produced arrests and days in judicial custody.
• England and Wales: Common law offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel abolished by Section 79 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, which received Royal Assent on May 8, 2008 and took effect that July.
• Scotland: Repealed its common law blasphemy offence in 2021, in force from 2024.
• The irony: India inherited a colonial category of law that its former coloniser has since dismantled across almost all of its own territory — and then, in Punjab's case nearly a century later, made its own version more severe rather than less.

Context

A report titled 'Macro Perspective of Bihar's Development Achievements, Unfinished Agenda, and the Way Forward,' presented at the India Policy Forum 2026, recommended that Bihar lift its alcohol ban. A rebuttal by Siddhesh Zadey argues the report's two supporting contentions — that the ban did not reduce violence against women, and that it cost valuable revenue — are respectively incorrect and incomplete.

Caution with Crime Data

• NCRB as a proxy: Crime data from the National Crime Records Bureau is often used as a proxy for the most severe forms of violence against women, but does not cover all violence — often only severe violence is reported as crime.
• Under-reporting: Violence perpetrated by family members, friends and those close to the victim in the community is rarely reported.
• Reporting vs incidence: A rise in the total number of crimes "reported" can be explained by secular improvements in crime reporting, de-stigmatisation, public awareness, better legal aid and law-enforcement efforts. A rise in reporting is not synonymous with more crime per se.
• Blanket outcome problem: Only certain crimes can be tied to alcohol use among violent perpetrators. An appendix figure in the report itself shows the incidence of rape decreased or somewhat flattened out after the alcohol ban, especially until 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Assessing the Ban — The Evidence Hierarchy

• Description → association → causation: Descriptive evidence helps allocate resources and association helps identify patterns, but neither can drive policy action, especially for interventions. Ideally, causal evidence should drive policy.
• Finding 1 — Intimate partner violence: The majority of quasi-experimental studies indicate that since the ban, intimate partner or spousal violence against women decreased substantially in Bihar compared to decreases in other States in the same period, after accounting for confounders. One study in The Lancet Regional Health (2024) concluded the ban prevented more than 21 lakh cases of violence.
• Finding 2 — Crime outcomes: Limited studies exist; the sole peer-reviewed quasi-experimental study on the topic, published mid-2024, noted a significant drop in the number of assaults on women. More research is required.
• NCD outcomes: Studies assessing effects on hypertension, diabetes and obesity found substantial reductions among men. The Lancet study also noted the ban prevented 18 lakh cases of overweight/obesity among men.
• Overall: The current quasi-experimental epidemiologic literature does not support the claim that the ban has not worked.

The Distracting Binary — Revenue and Policy Options

• Incomplete fiscal framing: The losses worth "14% of the State revenue" need to be balanced against medium- and long-term economic gains to society from better population health, safety and wellbeing.
• Missing evaluations: Health economic evaluations of the Bihar alcohol ban are key and currently missing. A 2019 estimate in the International Journal of Drug Policy found alcohol use in India is associated with "an average loss of 1.45% of the gross domestic product per year to the Indian economy" — around ₹98 lakh crore, after adjusting for tax receipts. The social value of losses has been estimated at more than three times the economic gains from alcohol excise taxes.
• Pre-conditions for lifting: Even if the ban is lifted, doing so must not undo health and social benefits achieved. The relevant question: over the last 10 years, have mental health and addiction services scaled up, public education and awareness increased, and employment and educational opportunities expanded?
• Policy menu: 'Ban' or 'no ban' are not the only alternatives. Seventy years of global alcohol research, endorsed by all major clinical and public health organisations including the WHO, suggests a menu of alcohol control options. Policies restricting availability, such as rationing systems, could be a softer intermediate step, complemented by policies to control access, economics and education.

Context

India's crude oil import bill surged more than 41% year-on-year in July as elevated global oil prices amid persistent West Asia uncertainty pushed up shipment costs, even as India Ratings & Research projected GDP growth would slow to 6.8% in FY27.

Oil, Gas and Growth — Key Figures

Growth Outlook

• Ind-Ra's reasoning: Risks from fuel and food inflation stemming from the West Asia conflict, a weak currency, and the likely impact of El Niño on agriculture. The 6.8% projection is a tad higher than the 6.7% Ind-Ra had projected in May.
• RBI's view: The RBI earlier this month raised growth projections from 6.6% to 6.7%, citing a resilient domestic economy.

The Corporate Investment Slump (Economic Notes — Rohit Azad & Indranil Chowdhury)

• Long-run trend: Corporate investment as a share of GDP took off in 2004, jumping almost four percentage points from 6.5% to 10.3%. It fell during the Global Financial Crisis, revived steadily, then declined singularly after demonetisation in 2016 — so much so that the share has not even returned to GFC-era lows.
• The damning comparison: The GFC was an external shock beyond India's control; demonetisation was a self-inflicted shock. Covid (2020-21) was another external shock, but the investment decline had begun years earlier.
• Three determinants of investment: (i) expected profitability from selling the goods produced; (ii) confidence with which those profit rates can be predicted over the factory's lifetime ('animal spirits' — Keynes); (iii) the cost of credit, especially where investment exceeds own available funds.
• Kalecki's 'principle of increasing risk': The cost curve is flat up to a firm's own capital and rises steadily thereafter — meaning the system is rigged against small capitalists even when small and large firms share the same technology blueprint. Access to capital, a priori, begets more capital.
• Firm-size asymmetry: For smaller firms with low own capital, the cost curve rises sooner and may cut the upper portion of the profitability curve — so investment is credit-constrained with high interest costs. For larger firms, own capital is high enough that the cost curve cuts the profitability curve on its vertical portion — so they are demand/market-constrained, with interest costs largely inconsequential.
• Empirical validation: Using a balanced panel of listed manufacturing firms from Prowess (2000–2024) categorised as small, medium and large, smaller firms show lower profitability but higher interest costs, while larger firms show higher profitability but lower interest costs.
• Demonetisation's mechanism: The economy-wide shock pushed the profitability curve inward across the board, both because immediate profitability declined and because credibility of future policy became suspect — a fall drastic enough to push small firms below the cost of credit curve altogether, forcing many MSMEs out of business.
• Policy implication: A fall in interest rates may not revive investment among smaller firms and would have no impact on large firms not credit-constrained in the first place. This helps explain why corporate investment did not respond despite the corporate tax cut from 30% to 22% in 2018 and the RBI's low-interest-rate regime.
• Prescription: Push the profitability curve outward through government expenditure acting as an autonomous stimulus, which creates demand actively — meaning giving up on fiscal hawkishness and instead listening to youth protesting for gainful employment.

Sixth Positive Indigenisation List

• Notification: The Department of Defence Production (DDP) notified the sixth Positive Indigenisation List, comprising 405 strategically important defence items with an estimated business potential of ₹3,070 crore.
• Composition: The list includes line replaceable units, sub-systems, sub-assemblies, spares, components and raw materials. Of the 405 items, 16 pertain to the Indian Coast Guard and 389 are associated with defence public sector undertakings (DPSUs).
• Implementation: The detailed list has been uploaded on the SRIJAN Defence Portal, with each item carrying an indicative timeline for indigenisation.
• Objective: Reduce dependence on imports and promote domestic defence manufacturing.

Tata Sons AGM Adjourned — A Corporate Governance Case Study

• Unprecedented event: The Annual General Meeting of Tata Sons Private Ltd., the holding company of the Tata Group, was adjourned for the first time in the company's history due to lack of quorum.
• Cause: Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT), the second-largest shareholder with 23.56%, could not nominate a member due to an ongoing inquiry and curbs by the Maharashtra Charity Commissioner.
• Quorum requirement: Per the Tata Sons Articles of Association, a jointly nominated representative of Sir Dorabji Tata Trust (SDTT, holding 27.98%) and SRTT is required for quorum. The two Trusts together hold 51.54%; the legal requirement was not met.
• Underlying issue: The Charity Commissioner imposed restrictions on SRTT since May 2026 after complaints that three of the six trustees were lifetime or perpetual appointees.
• Statutory basis: Under Section 30A(2) of the Maharashtra Public Trusts Act, amended in September 2025, the total number of lifetime trustees must be one-fourth (25%) of total appointees. Since this ratio was 50% for SRTT, an inquiry was ordered. The matter is scheduled for hearing on September 8, 2026; till then SRTT is barred from holding board meetings, nominating anyone to any meeting, or passing any resolution.
• Business pending: The AGM was to consider FY26 financial statements, the board-approved dividend, and the reappointment of N. Chandrasekaran as a board member. Mr. Chandrasekaran has decided to step down and not seek reappointment at the end of his tenure in February 2027.
• Attendance: In person — Chairman N. Chandrasekaran, Board members Saurabh Agarwal and Anita M. George. Virtually — Noel Tata (also Tata Trusts chairman), Venu Srinivasan and Harish Manwani.

SC Dismisses Plea Against Execution by Hanging

• Ruling: The Supreme Court rejected a plea directing the government to find an alternative to execution by hanging, saying the petitioner failed to show even a single instance of a botched execution in India.
• Bench: Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta, who noted that methods like lethal injection, practised in the United States, have a history of botched executions.
• Scope preserved: Justice Mehta said the judgment should not be understood as foreclosing future constitutional scrutiny if compelling scientific, medical or empirical evidence emerges against death by hanging.
• Executive review permitted: The verdict clarified it should not preclude the Union government from undertaking a comprehensive review of the existing method through an expert body comprising specialists in law, forensic medicine and allied disciplines.
• The challenge: Filed by senior advocate Rishi Malhotra against the constitutional validity of Section 354(5) CrPC, corresponding to Section 393(5) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, which prescribes hanging as the only method of execution.
• Basis: The judgment relied on studies concluding that "neither electrocution, nor lethal gas, nor shooting, nor even the lethal injection has any distinct or demonstrable advantage over the system of hanging."