6 August 2026

Parliamentary disruption: accountability and deliberation are both constitutional duties

• Both Houses remained disrupted for a thirteenth consecutive day over demands concerning alleged police excesses against students and other contested issues.
• The Lok Sabha passed the Bankers' Books Evidence Bill by voice vote without debate; five Bills had reportedly been passed without debate during the Monsoon Session.
• Question Hour had not been transacted in the Lok Sabha since the session began on July 20.
• The government is responsible for responding to legitimate demands for accountability; the Opposition is responsible for using procedural devices without making the House permanently dysfunctional.

• Question Hour enables MPs to obtain information, expose administrative failure and place ministerial responsibility on record.
• Debate improves legislation through scrutiny of definitions, delegated powers, financial implications and implementation risks.
• A voice vote is constitutionally valid where permitted, but repeated passage without meaningful deliberation weakens democratic legitimacy.
• Disruption also sidelines private members, regional issues and committee-informed scrutiny.

• Guarantee a minimum number of sitting days and protected time for the Opposition's agenda.
• Use structured debates, time allocation and automatic referral of complex Bills to committees.
• Apply disciplinary rules consistently while requiring ministers to answer major public controversies.
• Publish session productivity by function - questions answered, Bills scrutinised and committee work - not merely hours used.

• Revise Question Hour, Zero Hour, voice vote, division, Business Advisory Committee and department-related standing committees.
• Connect with UPSC questions on the decline of individual parliamentarians, committee effectiveness and Parliament's accountability function.

Legislature party versus political party: a numerical majority cannot rewrite the mandate

• The Supreme Court observed during the Shiv Sena faction dispute that a majority among elected legislators cannot by itself override the official direction of the parent political party.
• The dispute raises the distinction between the original political party and its legislature party under the Tenth Schedule.
• Voluntarily giving up party membership can be inferred from conduct; a formal resignation is not always necessary.
• The deleted "split" exception cannot be recreated by calling coordinated defection an internal majority decision.

• Anti-defection law protects the electoral mandate and government stability.
• Excessive party control can suppress legitimate legislative dissent and reduce representatives to numbers.
• The merger defence requires the constitutional conditions of the Tenth Schedule; it is not a licence for a faction to capture the party.
• Recognition of a party symbol by the Election Commission and disqualification under the Tenth Schedule answer related but legally distinct questions.

• Require presiding officers to decide disqualification petitions within a defined period.
• Limit the whip to confidence motions, money matters and measures central to the government's survival.
• Strengthen internal party democracy and transparent procedures for leadership change.
• Ensure judicial review remains available where delay or partisan conduct defeats the Schedule.

• Revise Articles 102 and 191, the Tenth Schedule, the 52nd and 91st Amendments, merger exception and the Kihoto Hollohan and Subhash Desai judgments.

FCRA amendment debate: financial oversight must remain proportionate

• A proposed FCRA amendment became a major point in talks to restore parliamentary functioning.
• The reported provision would allow a government-appointed authority to take over foreign-funded assets of organisations whose FCRA registration ceases.
• The policy objective may be to prevent diversion or dissipation of assets created with regulated foreign contributions.
• The constitutional concern is whether executive control could become automatic, overbroad or punitive without timely independent review.

• Foreign funding can legitimately be regulated for sovereignty, security and financial transparency.
• Civil-society organisations also support welfare delivery, research, rights protection and democratic participation.
• Cancellation of registration, freezing of funds and takeover of assets have different consequences and require different safeguards.
• Donor origin cannot by itself establish unlawful purpose; enforcement should be based on documented violations.

• Define the authority's powers, duration and permitted use of assets precisely.
• Provide notice, reasons, access to records, an appeal and protection for beneficiaries and employees.
• Use audited escrow or court-supervised administration where continuity of public-benefit activity is necessary.
• Publish aggregate enforcement data and distinguish technical non-compliance from fraud or national-security offences.

• Revise freedom of association under Article 19(1)(c), reasonable restrictions, FCRA registration and the role of civil society in governance.

Special intensive revision: cleaner rolls require stronger protection against wrongful exclusion

• Jharkhand's draft revision removed 43.62 lakh names - about 16.5% of electors - under absent, shifted, dead or duplicate categories.
• Reported categories included more than seven lakh deceased, over 14 lakh untraceable, over 15 lakh permanently shifted and 1.16 lakh people who did not return signed enumeration forms.
• Karnataka expected roughly 20.03% of electors marked under similar categories to be removed from its draft; 34.17 lakh "unmapped" entries were to receive notices.
• A claims-and-objections stage and Form 6 route exist, but a remedy is meaningful only if voters know about it and can use it before polling.

• Duplicate and deceased entries can reduce public confidence and enable malpractice.
• Wrongful deletion denies the practical exercise of universal adult suffrage and can disproportionately affect migrants, tenants, women, elderly people and marginalised communities.
• Non-submission of a form should trigger verification, not an assumption that citizenship or residence has ended.
• Large deletion rates require transparent methodology, sample audits and public explanation.

• Give individual notice with a reason code and more than one mode of communication.
• Use booth-level verification, public lists, accessible online search and local help camps.
• Allow restoration through simple documents and a time-bound appeal.
• Publish constituency-wise additions, deletions, objections, restorations and error audits while protecting personal data.

• Revise Article 326, the Representation of the People Acts, Election Commission powers, electoral registration officers and Form 6.

Sixteenth Finance Commission: efficiency incentives cannot replace equalisation

• The reported FC-16 framework retains vertical tax devolution to States at 41% for 2026-31.
• Grants-in-aid are reported at ₹9.47 lakh crore, compared with ₹10.1 lakh crore under FC-15; their share in Finance Commission transfers falls from 19.4% to 8.3%.
• Revenue Deficit Grants and sector- and State-specific grants are removed, while grants focus on local bodies and disaster management.
• The weight for income distance falls from 45% to 42.5%, and contribution to GDP receives a 10% weight.

• Article 280 creates the Finance Commission; Article 275 enables grants-in-aid where formula-based devolution cannot meet special needs.
• Efficiency rewards can encourage tax effort and accountability, but structural disadvantages arise from geography, demography, border location and inherited human-development obligations.
• Aggregate State finances can hide serious inter-State disparity; a surplus in one State does not repair a deficit in another.
• Cesses and surcharges are not shareable through the divisible pool, so their expansion can deepen vertical imbalance even when the headline devolution percentage is unchanged.

• Retain transparent, declining and reviewable gap-filling support for genuinely constrained States.
• Reward outcomes without penalising jurisdictions that begin with weaker capacity.
• Reduce reliance on non-shareable levies or define a credible consolidation path.
• Make local-body grants predictable; conditions should build capacity rather than suspend funds for the weakest institutions.

• Revise vertical and horizontal devolution, income distance, divisible pool, grants under Article 275 and Finance Commission composition.

RBI holds repo rate at 5.25%: neutrality means data dependence, not inaction

• The Monetary Policy Committee unanimously kept the repo rate at 5.25% and retained a neutral stance.
• The Standing Deposit Facility remains 5%; the Marginal Standing Facility and Bank Rate remain 5.5%.
• Real GDP growth for 2026-27 was projected at 6.7%, with quarterly estimates of 7.0%, 6.4%, 6.5% and 6.8%.
• CPI inflation rose to 4.4% in June after staying below target for 16 months, led largely by food and fuel.

• A rate hold balances resilient domestic demand against imported energy costs, supply-chain uncertainty and risks to agriculture from an uneven monsoon.
• Repo transmission affects lending, deposits, investment, housing and exchange-rate expectations with a lag.
• A neutral stance preserves the option to tighten or ease as inflation and growth data evolve.
• Food inflation cannot be solved by interest rates alone; supply, storage, trade and logistics policy remain important.

• Separate headline inflation from underlying inflation and temporary supply shocks.
• Assess real interest rates, credit growth, fiscal stance and global capital conditions together.
• Use calibrated communication so households and markets understand the reaction function.

• Revise the flexible inflation-targeting framework, MPC membership, repo, SDF, MSF, Bank Rate and monetary-policy transmission.

Who should pay for UPI? Digital public infrastructure needs a transparent funding compact

• The RBI Governor said UPI has an operating cost that must ultimately be borne by someone.
• A Bill reportedly allows the government to notify transaction categories on which a Merchant Discount Rate may be levied; discussion initially concerns larger merchants and transactions above a threshold.
• The newspaper estimates operating cost at roughly ₹0.40-₹1 per transaction and 24,161.69 crore transactions in 2025-26, implying ₹9,664-₹24,161 crore annually.
• Zero-price use accelerated adoption, but permanent cross-subsidy without transparent budgeting can weaken reliability and innovation.

• Government subsidy treats UPI as public infrastructure but creates a budgetary cost.
• A merchant charge follows usage but may be passed to consumers or push small sellers back to cash.
• Tiered pricing can protect low-value and small-merchant transactions while charging high-value commercial use.
• Competition policy should prevent banks or apps from degrading free services to steer users toward profitable alternatives.

• RBI plans to resume on-tap licensing of urban cooperative banks after more than two decades, subject to new guidelines.
• CBDC and the Unified Lending Interface are moving beyond pilots, including government use cases and digitised land records.
• Expansion must be paired with cybersecurity, grievance redress, privacy, interoperability and clear liability for failed transactions.

• Revise NPCI, UPI, MDR, retail versus wholesale CBDC, ULI and the role of urban cooperative banks.

GST buoyancy: rising collections are not automatically evidence of broad-based production

• Gross GST revenue reached ₹2.11 lakh crore in July, 15.4% higher year-on-year.
• Import IGST grew 26.9% while domestic revenue grew 4.5%, showing that import values and currency depreciation contributed heavily.
• Crude oil, electronics, machinery and chemicals together form a large share of imports; a weaker rupee raises their taxable value.
• Only 16 States and Union Territories reportedly recorded post-settlement growth above the national average, reflecting geographic concentration of formal production and services.

• GST is ad valorem: inflation can raise nominal collections even when real output is weak.
• Import-driven IGST may reflect capital formation, but it can also reveal dependence on imported inputs.
• National aggregates conceal weak tax capacity in States with larger informal sectors.
• Refund growth and formalisation are positive only when firms receive credits promptly and litigation over input tax credit declines.

• Read collections with real GDP, manufacturing PMI, consumption volume, e-way bills, refunds and State-wise settlement.
• Broaden domestic value addition and reduce cascading and classification disputes.
• Use GST reform to improve simplicity and compliance, not merely maximise gross revenue.

• Revise destination-based taxation, CGST-SGST-IGST, input tax credit, GST Council and the divisible implications of indirect taxation.

Deepfakes and platform liability: takedown speed must coexist with due process

• The Bombay High Court directed platforms to remove identified deepfake and AI-generated videos falsely linking a Union Minister to alleged corruption in ethanol blending.
• The dispute invokes reputation, defamation and personality or publicity rights.
• The court also questioned why people must repeatedly approach courts to remove abusive synthetic content.
• Separately, the government summoned Meta over platform errors, child sexual abuse material and deepfake content, intensifying debate over intermediary status.

• Deepfakes reduce the cost of believable impersonation and can cause electoral, financial and reputational harm before adjudication is complete.
• Automatic platform liability for every user post can produce excessive private censorship.
• Safe harbour should depend on reasonable diligence and compliance with lawful orders, not on prior monitoring of all speech.
• Public officials must have protection from fabricated attribution without acquiring a privileged right to suppress criticism or parody.

• Create an authenticated rapid-notice route for impersonation, CSAM and immediate fraud.
• Require preservation of evidence, reasons for action and an appeal for lawful speech.
• Use provenance labels, watermark standards and disclosure for political or commercial synthetic media.
• Mandate transparency reports on complaints, response times, automated errors and government requests.

• Revise Article 19(1)(a), reasonable restrictions under Article 19(2), intermediary safe harbour, due diligence and the difference between misinformation, defamation and impersonation.

India's cancer strategy must move upstream to prevention and early detection

• More than 70% of patients reportedly reach oncology clinics at an advanced stage, when treatment is costlier and cure is less likely.
• India recorded an estimated 1.56 million new cancer cases and over 8.74 lakh cancer deaths in 2024.
• Lifetime cancer risk is estimated near 11% nationally and above 20% in some north-eastern States.
• More than three-quarters of affected households reportedly face catastrophic health expenditure; late diagnosis is therefore both a health and poverty issue.

• Nearly half of cancers are considered preventable through tobacco control, vaccination, diet, activity, occupational protection and reduced harmful exposure.
• School-based health literacy can shape habits before adult risk patterns become entrenched.
• Persistent symptoms require referral, while screening seeks disease before symptoms appear.
• Multi-cancer early-detection blood tests are promising but need Indian validation for accuracy, false positives, cost and population benefit.

• Use a layered model linking ASHAs and primary care to mobile diagnostics, district facilities and cancer centres.
• Build referral tracking so a positive screen results in confirmed diagnosis and treatment.
• NITI Aayog's proposed imaging biobank of more than 20,000 cancer profiles can support AI, but datasets must be representative and privacy-protected.
• Measure stage at diagnosis, screening-to-treatment time and financial protection - not only the number of tertiary centres.

• Revise primary-secondary-tertiary care, screening versus diagnosis, catastrophic health expenditure and prevention under Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres.

Chandipura virus outbreak: rapid paediatric encephalitis response must begin at village level

• A national team was sent to Gujarat and Rajasthan after at least 22 children died during the monsoon outbreak.
• The joint team includes the National Centre for Disease Control, Indian Council of Medical Research and Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying.
• Chandipura virus can cause rapidly progressing encephalitis, especially in children, and is transmitted mainly by sandflies.
• Monsoon conditions, vector habitats, delayed recognition and weak referral can convert local transmission into a high-fatality emergency.

• Strengthen fever and acute encephalitis surveillance with immediate laboratory referral.
• Train frontline workers to recognise danger signs and arrange paediatric critical care without delay.
• Use vector control around homes, environmental sanitation and community communication against panic and misinformation.
• Integrate human, entomological and animal-health intelligence under a One Health approach even where the precise reservoir ecology remains uncertain.

• Chandipura virus is an RNA virus associated with the Rhabdoviridae family; it is not the same as Japanese encephalitis virus.
• Sandflies are insects distinct from mosquitoes. Vector-specific control is essential.

• Connect with UPSC themes on zoonoses, vector-borne disease, One Health, surveillance and primary-health capacity.

Less-lethal weapons can still create a medical crisis

• Reports from student protests described injuries linked to lathis, tear gas, pellet guns and shock batons.
• "Less lethal" means designed to reduce the probability of death; it does not mean harmless.
• CS tear gas can cause intense coughing, chest tightness, eye injury and skin effects; enclosed spaces and blocked escape routes magnify risk.
• Kinetic projectiles are inaccurate at distance and can cause blindness, head trauma, disability or death.

• Force must be lawful, necessary, proportionate, differentiated and preceded by communication and de-escalation wherever possible.
• Weapons should not target the head, neck or torso, and vulnerable people require additional protection.
• The Chemical Weapons Convention prohibits riot-control agents as a method of warfare but does not impose the same blanket ban on domestic law enforcement.
• Peaceful participants cannot be treated as a homogeneous violent crowd.

• Publish approved weapon specifications, deployment protocols and batch-testing results.
• Use body-camera and command logs; record weapon, officer, time, location and warning.
• Provide rapid medical access and independently investigate serious injury or death.
• Train police in crowd psychology, graded response, disability sensitivity and safe dispersal routes.

• Revise Articles 19 and 21, reasonable restrictions on assembly, police as a State subject and UN guidance on less-lethal weapons.

Asiatic lion recovery: numbers are rising, but one landscape remains one point of failure

• The free-ranging Asiatic lion population has increased from roughly 100-150 six decades ago to over 1,000, with nearly half now outside protected areas.
• About 50 lions occupy coastal Jafrabad habitats linked to the wider population through Babarkot, identified as a movement corridor.
• A proposal to divert about 75 hectares of reserved forest for limestone mining could require felling nearly 5,000 mature trees and fragment this linkage.
• The entire population remains concentrated in one broad Gujarat landscape, leaving it vulnerable to disease and disaster.

• The IUCN Red List category has improved from Critically Endangered to Endangered, but the Green Status asks how fully a species has recovered across its ecological and historical range.
• More than 20 lions died in a 2018 canine distemper outbreak; reports of babesiosis and possible disease recurrence underline concentration risk.
• Corridors, prey, community tolerance and land-use decisions outside sanctuaries are as important as the core protected area.
• A scientifically managed second free-ranging population is insurance against a single catastrophic event.

• Meghalaya launched Mission Clouded Leopard for habitat restoration, research, monitoring, landscape connectivity, frontline capacity and community participation.
• The clouded leopard is Meghalaya's State animal; species missions work best when embedded in landscape and livelihood planning.

• Revise in-situ conservation, wildlife corridors, metapopulation, genetic bottleneck, IUCN Red List versus Green Status and the proposed second home for Asiatic lions.

Neutrinos from spent fuel: "ghost particles" could strengthen nuclear verification

• The Double Chooz collaboration reported the first high-precision measurement of the antineutrino signature emitted by spent nuclear fuel.
• Using a detector about 400 metres from the Chooz B plant during 2.5 weeks when both reactors were offline, researchers recorded around 106 candidate events.
• The analysis attributed about 56% of the signal to reactor cores and 44% to cooling pools.
• Radioactive fission products such as praseodymium-144 and rhodium-106 continue to decay after shutdown and produce the residual signal.

• A decline in the characteristic antineutrino signal could indicate removal of spent-fuel assemblies.
• Real-time spectral measurements may help estimate plutonium content and detect premature fuel removal.
• Remote verification can complement cameras, seals, inventories and on-site IAEA inspection.
• The method is non-intrusive because neutrinos pass through shielding and matter with very little interaction.

• Current detectors are extremely large; one Double Chooz detector had about 300 tonnes of shielding.
• Signals are weak and must be separated statistically from cosmic-ray and environmental backgrounds.
• Technology supports safeguards but cannot replace access rights, declarations and political cooperation.

• Revise neutrino and antineutrino, beta decay, fissile material, plutonium production, IAEA safeguards and the difference between safety, security and safeguards.

Indian Statistical Institute Bill: modernisation should not become executive capture

• The Indian Statistical Institute Bill, 2026 seeks to replace the 1959 law and convert ISI from a society-led model into a statutory body corporate.
• ISI was founded by P.C. Mahalanobis in 1931 and declared an Institution of National Importance in 1959.
• The proposed 11-member Board of Governors would become the principal policy and executive body, with a separate Academic Council.
• Critics argue that the Union government would directly or indirectly influence eight of the 11 Board positions and that internal stakeholders were insufficiently consulted.

• A compact board can reduce delay, clarify responsibility and align ISI with other national institutions.
• Statutory accountability does not require government dominance over appointments or academic decisions.
• Data, statistical methods and official measurement have public-policy consequences; institutional credibility depends on professional independence.
• Reform should correct genuine governance failures rather than merely transfer control.

• Ensure transparent search-cum-selection, fixed terms, conflict-of-interest rules and meaningful faculty representation.
• Give the Academic Council control over curriculum, research standards and academic appointments.
• Require public consultation, parliamentary committee scrutiny and periodic independent review.
• Protect research publication and statistical integrity from political or commercial interference.

• Revise Institutions of National Importance, statutory body versus registered society, autonomy-accountability balance and P.C. Mahalanobis's role in Indian statistics and planning.

Ports are cyber-physical infrastructure: a digital breach can stop physical trade

• The maritime regulator warned that automated ports face growing cyber risk across terminal systems, cargo handling, vessel traffic management, access control, surveillance and communications.
• Threats include unauthorised access, malware, ransomware, insecure remote connections, vendor compromise and failures across interconnected IT and operational-technology systems.
• A successful attack can stop cargo movement, corrupt manifests, misdirect equipment, endanger vessels and disrupt national supply chains.
• The advisory asks ports to include cyber risk in Port Facility Security Assessments and integrate mitigation into Port Facility Security Plans.

• Inventory assets and network dependencies; separate critical operational technology from ordinary office networks.
• Control privileged and third-party access, patch safely and maintain offline or immutable backups.
• Conduct drills that include manual fallbacks, incident containment, customs, shipping lines and local emergency services.
• Create rapid reporting, sectoral information-sharing and recovery standards without punishing good-faith disclosure.
• Procurement must assess lifecycle security, not only installation cost.

• Revise critical information infrastructure, CERT-In, maritime domain awareness and the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code under SOLAS.

Strait of Hormuz: navigation arrangements cannot remove geopolitical risk

• Iran and Oman reportedly agreed geographic coordinates for a shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz and were drafting a joint-management statement.
• Hormuz is a narrow strategic passage between the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman and is central to global oil and LNG trade.
• A technical route can reduce navigational uncertainty, but safety still depends on military restraint, insurance, sanctions, port access and credible communication.
• India's high import dependence makes shipping disruption an inflation, fiscal, current-account and energy-security risk.

• Maintain balanced engagement with Iran, Oman, Gulf partners and major powers while supporting freedom and safety of navigation.
• Diversify suppliers, shipping routes and contract structures; expand refining flexibility.
• Strategic reserves should have transparent release rules and should not substitute for domestic clean-energy transition.
• A reported proposal to build crude, LNG and LPG stocks through consumer levies raises an equity question: resilience costs should be transparent and protect low-income households.

• Revise Strait of Hormuz, Gulf of Oman, Persian Gulf, Chabahar, International North-South Transport Corridor, strategic petroleum reserves and sea lanes of communication.

Seven years after Article 370 changes: evaluate outcomes with comparable data

• The edition contrasts official claims of transformation after the 2019 constitutional changes with indicators on growth, education, employment, security and civil liberties.
• It reports contraction in real GSDP in 2019-20 and the pandemic year, followed by recovery but slower growth in 2024-25.
• Higher-education enrolment and Gross Enrolment Ratio declined in 2022-23 and 2023-24, with enrolment reportedly falling 11% in 2023-24.
• Women's unemployment rose sharply in the reported period, while security incidents and deaths had not consistently fallen below earlier reference years.

• Do not infer causation from a single before-after trend; COVID-19, national cycles and security shocks are confounders.
• Use per-capita, gender- and district-disaggregated data and comparable geographic boundaries.
• Measure political rights, Statehood, local representation and civil liberties alongside roads, tourism and investment.
• Missing or discontinuous official data is itself a governance concern because it weakens public evaluation.

• The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 created the Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh.
• The Supreme Court upheld the constitutional changes in 2023 while emphasising restoration of democratic processes; the political commitment to restore Statehood remains important.

• Revise Articles 370 and 35A, asymmetric federalism, Union Territory administration, reorganisation of States and the relationship between constitutional integration and democratic consent.

India-Sri Lanka ties: devolution, connectivity and recovery must move together

• India urged Sri Lanka to conduct delayed Provincial Council elections and fully implement constitutional provisions addressing Tamil aspirations.
• Talks also covered recovery assistance, Trincomalee as an energy hub, a unique digital identity project, Kankesanthurai harbour and possible trade-agreement improvement.
• The difference between the two sides' public statements illustrates how minority rights and domestic devolution remain sensitive in bilateral diplomacy.
• India must support equality and reconciliation without appearing to dictate Sri Lanka's domestic politics.

• The 13th Amendment created Provincial Councils following the 1987 India-Sri Lanka Accord.
• Trincomalee and Kankesanthurai matter for energy, logistics, connectivity and development in northern and eastern Sri Lanka.
• Digital and infrastructure partnerships can create durable public value if they respect data protection, local ownership and debt sustainability.
• Cooperation on drugs, disaster recovery and climate risk can broaden the relationship beyond security competition.

• Revise the 13th Amendment, India-Sri Lanka Accord, Tamil question, Trincomalee, Palk Strait and SAGAR.

Bangladesh after the uprising: regime change does not automatically create democratic consolidation

• Two years after the 2024 uprising, clashes among student wings and political groups highlight fragmentation inside the coalition that displaced the previous government.
• Rights concerns include campus violence, weak law enforcement, mob action and political arrests.
• Bangladesh also objected to former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina addressing media from India and repeated its extradition demand, creating a bilateral diplomatic challenge.
• A memorial museum and competing narratives over the uprising show that control of public memory is part of post-authoritarian politics.

• An election transfers authority; democratic consolidation requires impartial police, independent institutions, peaceful competition and minority protection.
• Student mobilisation can create change but must transition from street legitimacy to constitutional organisation.
• Collective punishment of a former ruling party can reproduce authoritarian methods; accountability should be individual, evidence-based and judicial.
• India's choices must balance treaty-based extradition processes, legal due process, border stability, security, trade and long-term public goodwill.

• Revise India's neighbourhood-first policy, extradition, political asylum, democratic transition and the strategic importance of Bangladesh for connectivity to the Northeast.

Climate resilience as limited India-China cooperation: start with low-risk public goods

• India and China face similar urban flooding, heat, drought, glacial and coastal risks intensified by warming and rapid urbanisation.
• Past agreements envisaged hydrological, oceanic and seismic data-sharing, disaster research, waste and water management and sister-city cooperation.
• Many mechanisms stalled amid deteriorating relations; shared-water arrangements reportedly ceased functioning in 2022.
• Disaster mitigation and urban resilience may offer a lower-risk field for rebuilding functional trust than critical minerals or strategic technology.

• Exchange municipal practice on sponge cities, drainage modernisation, heat plans, cool roofs and nature-based solutions.
• Restore reliable hydrological and glacial data-sharing with verification and disaster-use protocols.
• Link planning agencies and universities on modelling, early warning and resilient agriculture.
• Explore blended finance, municipal bonds and credit enhancement while protecting sovereign decision-making.

• Climate cooperation cannot substitute for resolving border and security concerns.
• Data dependence, dual-use technology and asymmetric capability require phased projects and reciprocal access.
• Success should be measured by operational data, joint pilots and lives or losses avoided - not declarations.

• Revise climate adaptation versus mitigation, transboundary rivers, Himalayan cryosphere, municipal finance and issue-based cooperation in international relations.

Prelims rapid revision

• The Tenth Schedule deals with disqualification on grounds of defection; the merger exception requires at least two-thirds of the legislature party.
• Article 280 provides for the Finance Commission; Article 275 concerns grants from the Union to certain States.
• Cesses and surcharges levied by the Union are generally not part of the divisible pool shared with States.
• SDF is the floor and MSF the upper emergency-lending side of the RBI's liquidity corridor.
• UPI is operated by NPCI; MDR is a merchant-side charge associated with payment acceptance.
• Chandipura virus is associated with sandflies and acute encephalitis in children.
• The Chemical Weapons Convention prohibits riot-control agents as a method of warfare, not all domestic law-enforcement use.
• The Asiatic lion's only free-ranging population is concentrated in the Gir-Saurashtra landscape.
• IUCN Green Status evaluates species recovery in addition to extinction risk.
• Neutrinos interact only weakly with matter; residual antineutrinos can reveal spent nuclear fuel.
• ISI was founded by P.C. Mahalanobis and is an Institution of National Importance.
• The ISPS Code operates under the SOLAS framework.
• The Strait of Hormuz links the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman.
• The 13th Amendment to Sri Lanka's Constitution created Provincial Councils.

Mains practice - two questions

1. The Finance Commission must reconcile fiscal efficiency with its constitutional role as an equalising institution. Discuss in the context of performance-linked grants, revenue-deficit support and non-shareable cesses.
2. Weapons described as "less lethal" can still produce grave violations of life, dignity and public health. Examine the legal, operational and accountability safeguards required in protest policing.