UPSC Mains 2024 GS Question Papers with Model Answers

Society

• Varna hardened: the fluid Rig Vedic division became a hereditary four-fold order with Brahmins and Kshatriyas dominant and Shudras degraded; gotra and the ashrama system appeared.
• Women's status declined: loss of access to the sabha, child marriage.
• Tribal kinship gave way to territorial identity; the rajan became hereditary, with rituals like rajasuya and ashvamedha elevating kingship.

Economy

• Pastoralism with cattle wealth shifted to settled agriculture with iron tools (krishna ayas), rice, wheat and barley.
• Land became valuable, though private property was still weak; taxes (bali) became regular.
• Crafts diversified: smiths, potters (Painted Grey Ware), weavers.

Art and architecture

• Rock-cut phase under Mahendravarman I: mandapas at Mandagapattu and Mahendravadi, introducing stone temples without brick or timber.
• Monolithic phase under Narasimhavarman I: the rathas of Mamallapuram and the open-air relief Descent of the Ganga.
• Structural phase: the Shore Temple at Mamallapuram and the Kailasanatha temple at Kanchi under Rajasimha, the model for the Dravida style.
• Sculpture of Somaskanda panels and Durga Mahishasuramardini; murals at Panamalai.

Literature

• Kanchi's ghatika attracted scholars; Dandin wrote Dasakumaracharita and Kavyadarsha, Bharavi composed Kiratarjuniya; Mahendravarman wrote the Sanskrit farce Mattavilasa Prahasana.
• Patronage of Tamil Bhakti poets of the Alvars and Nayanars (Appar, Tirujnanasambandar) whose hymns became the Tevaram.

Events leading to it

• The Second World War and Britain's refusal to promise independence; the Congress ministries had resigned in 1939.
• Failure of the August Offer (1940) and the Cripps Mission (March–April 1942), which offered only post-war dominion status.
• Japanese advance after the fall of Singapore and Burma brought the war to India's borders.

Results

• Immediate arrest of leaders led to a leaderless, spontaneous revolt: strikes, attacks on railways and government buildings, parallel governments at Ballia, Tamluk and Satara; underground work by Jayaprakash Narayan and Aruna Asaf Ali.
• Brutal repression: about 1,000 killed, 60,000 arrested.
• It showed that British rule could not continue without Indian consent, placed independence firmly on the post-war agenda, though the Muslim League's abstention widened the communal divide.

Effect on tropical cyclone formation

• Threshold: cyclones need SST above 26.5°C to a depth of about 50 m; warmer seas extend this zone poleward and lengthen the cyclone season, as in recent pre-monsoon Arabian Sea storms (Tauktae, Biparjoy).
• Energy: higher SST increases evaporation and latent heat release, intensifying storms; more cyclones now reach categories 4–5 and intensify rapidly, like Amphan (2020).
• Rainfall: a warmer atmosphere holds 7 per cent more moisture per degree, giving heavier cyclone rainfall and flooding.
• Frequency may not rise overall, but the share of intense cyclones does.

Why large cities attract more migrants

• Diversified labour markets: large cities offer jobs across formal and informal sectors, so migrants of every skill find work; small towns have narrow economies.
• Agglomeration economies concentrate industry, services and investment, as in the Delhi–NCR and Bengaluru clusters, creating continuous demand for labour.
• Higher and more regular wages, even in informal work, compared with agricultural distress at home.
• Social networks of kin and village migrants lower the cost of moving and finding housing and jobs (chain migration).

How it occurs

• Warm, moist monsoon winds are forced up steep mountain slopes (orographic lift), forming towering cumulonimbus clouds up to 15 km high.
• Strong updrafts keep large raindrops suspended; when the updraft weakens, the accumulated water falls suddenly.
• Convergence of winds in narrow valleys and interaction with western disturbances intensify the convection.

Is the world moving towards it?

• Global fertility has fallen from about 5 in 1960 to 2.3 today and is projected to drop below replacement by the 2050s; two-thirds of people already live in countries with fertility under 2.1.
• East Asia and Europe are furthest ahead: South Korea at 0.7, Japan 1.2, China 1.0 with a population now declining, Italy and Spain near 1.2.
• India reached 2.0 in NFHS-5, below replacement, with southern states near 1.5.

Why gender concerns matter in programmes

• Gender-neutral design often becomes gender-blind: MGNREGA worksites without creches limited women's participation until the provision was enforced.
• Needs differ: Ujjwala targeted women because they bear the health cost of smoke; Jan Dhan accounts in women's names improved household spending on children.
• Access barriers of mobility, time poverty, literacy and social norms require tailored delivery.
• Gender budgeting and sex-disaggregated data reveal who actually benefits.

Why inter-caste marriage has increased

• Education, urban living and workplaces bring young people of different castes but similar class together; love marriages are more acceptable when status is comparable.
• State incentives such as the Dr Ambedkar Scheme for inter-caste marriages and the Special Marriage Act and court protection against honour crimes (Shakti Vahini, 2018).

Why inter-religious marriage lags

• Religion involves ritual, dietary and identity boundaries beyond class; conversion of one partner is often demanded.
• Political mobilisation around 'love jihad' and anti-conversion laws in several states that require notice and permission for marriages involving conversion.
• Family and community resistance is stronger.

Productive forms of collaboration

• Government as policy-maker and funder, NGOs as last-mile implementers: Pratham's Teaching at the Right Level adopted by state governments; SEWA and Kudumbashree working with rural livelihood missions.
• Private sector bringing technology and management: Akshaya Patra's centralised kitchens for mid-day meals with government grants and corporate CSR.
• Outcome-based partnerships: development impact bonds (Educate Girls, Rajasthan) where private investors fund NGOs and government pays on verified results.
• Co-creation platforms: Aspirational Districts programme pairing districts with NGOs and companies.

Architecture

• The Dravida temple reached maturity: the Brihadishvara temple at Thanjavur (1010) by Rajaraja I has a 66-metre vimana crowned by an 80-tonne capstone, a vast prakara, and Nandi mandapa; its scale and engineering remain unmatched.
• Rajendra I's Gangaikondacholapuram temple refined proportions with a graceful concave vimana; Airavateshvara temple at Darasuram under Rajaraja II added intricate carving and a stone chariot mandapa.
• Early Chola temples at Narttamalai and Srinivasanallur show the transition from Pallava forms; gopurams grew into gateway towers later adopted by the Vijayanagara and Nayaka rulers.
• Temples functioned as economic and social institutions, recorded in thousands of inscriptions.

Sculpture and bronzes

• Lost-wax (cire perdue) bronzes reached their peak: the Nataraja of Shiva dancing the cosmic dance, Ardhanarishvara, Somaskanda and saints like Appar, admired worldwide for grace and balance.
• Stone sculpture of dvarapalas, Durga and narrative panels at Thanjavur.

Painting and other arts

• Chola murals in the Brihadishvara temple's passage depicting Shiva, Rajaraja and Sundarar, India's finest medieval frescoes after Ajanta.
• Music and dance institutionalised through 400 devadasis at Thanjavur; Tamil literature flourished with Kamban's Ramayana and Shaiva canon compilation.

War as preservation of the balance

• Germany's unification (1871) and rapid industrial and naval growth threatened the equilibrium; Britain abandoned 'splendid isolation' and joined France and Russia to check it, forming the Triple Entente against the Triple Alliance.
• Britain entered the war to prevent German domination of the continent and the Channel coast after the invasion of Belgium.
• France sought to recover Alsace-Lorraine and contain Germany; Russia fought to preserve its influence in the Balkans against Austria-Hungary.
• Germany's Schlieffen Plan aimed at a quick victory before the rising power of Russia upset the balance against it.
• Alliance commitments, made to keep the balance, turned a Balkan crisis into a continental war.

Limits of the explanation

• Nationalism, especially Serbian and pan-Slav aspirations and German Weltpolitik, drove the crisis after the Sarajevo assassination.
• Imperial rivalry over colonies and markets, the Anglo-German naval race and militarism that treated war as inevitable.
• Miscalculation: leaders expected a short war; Austria's blank cheque from Germany and Russia's mobilisation created a chain reaction.

How the Industrial Revolution contributed

• Machine-made Lancashire cloth, produced by power looms and cheap, undercut Indian handloom textiles in both export and home markets; British textile exports to India rose from almost nothing in 1813 to over 50 per cent of Indian cloth consumption by the 1880s.
• One-way free trade: British goods entered India almost duty-free while Indian textiles faced high tariffs in Britain until manufacturers no longer needed protection.
• Railways after 1853 carried imported goods to the interior and raw cotton to ports, converting India into a supplier of raw materials.
• Loss of court patronage after conquest and the decline of towns like Dhaka and Murshidabad removed demand for fine crafts.

Other factors

• Colonial revenue and land policies impoverished the rural market; the Company's earlier coercion of weavers (dadni system) had already weakened production.
• Indian industries received no state support or tariff protection, unlike British and later Japanese industry.

Qualifications

• Decline was uneven: coarse cloth for the poor and some crafts survived; handlooms still employed millions in 1900, and some weavers adapted to mill yarn.
• Modern Indian industry (Bombay mills, 1854; jute, Tata steel) later emerged.

Impact on food security

• Production: the region supplies about half of India's wheat and rice procurement; falling water tables raise pumping costs, dry shallow wells and threaten yields, especially of water-hungry paddy.
• Procurement and buffer stocks: the Public Distribution System and welfare schemes depend on Punjab–Haryana surpluses; a supply shock there would hit 80 crore beneficiaries and push prices.
• Smallholders without deep borewells lose first, increasing rural distress and migration.
• Quality: deeper aquifers bring arsenic, fluoride and salinity into food chains.
• Climate vulnerability: erratic monsoons remove the buffer that groundwater provides in dry years, making harvests more volatile.

Way forward

• Shift to eastern India for rice under a 'second Green Revolution', using its abundant but under-used groundwater.
• Crop diversification in Punjab–Haryana to maize, pulses and oilseeds with price support; direct-seeded rice and delayed transplanting.
• Micro-irrigation under 'per drop more crop', metered or solar power with buy-back (PM-KUSUM), recharge through Atal Bhujal Yojana and restoration of ponds.

How they are triggered

• The Sun constantly emits the solar wind, a stream of charged particles (electrons and protons). Coronal mass ejections and solar flares, especially near the 11-year solar maximum, send out stronger bursts.
• Earth's magnetic field deflects most of the solar wind, but particles are trapped in the magnetosphere and funnelled along field lines towards the magnetic poles.
• Magnetic reconnection on the night side accelerates these particles down into the upper atmosphere at 100–300 km altitude.
• They collide with atmospheric gases and excite them; as the atoms return to normal states they emit light: oxygen gives green (at about 100–150 km) and red (above 200 km), nitrogen gives blue and purple.
• The result is curtains, arcs and rays that shift with the moving field lines.

Why they cluster around the Gulf of Mexico

• Moisture: the warm Gulf of Mexico supplies warm, humid air at low levels across Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and the Mississippi valley, the fuel for powerful thunderstorms.
• Collision of air masses: this moist air meets cold, dry air descending from the Rockies and Canada and hot, dry air from the south-west, producing extreme instability along the 'dry line'.
• Wind shear: the jet stream and south-westerly upper winds over the Great Plains blow across south-easterly surface winds, giving the shear that generates rotation.
• Geography: the flat, unbroken plains between the Rockies and the Appalachians let these air masses flow freely and give storms room to organise; no mountain barrier like the Himalaya or the Alps blocks them.
• Season: spring and early summer produce the strongest contrasts, making 'Tornado Alley' and the Gulf-coast 'Dixie Alley' the world's most active regions.

Seriousness in India

• Income: per capita income of Goa, Delhi or Karnataka is five to six times that of Bihar; the five southern states and Maharashtra produce about half of GDP with a third of the population, and the gap has widened since 1991.
• Human development: Kerala's life expectancy, literacy and infant mortality resemble developed countries, while Bihar, UP and Madhya Pradesh lag decades behind; NITI Aayog's multidimensional poverty index shows Bihar at 34 per cent versus Kerala under 1 per cent.
• Infrastructure and investment: FDI and industry cluster in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu; power, roads and credit per capita are far lower in the east.
• Political consequences: migration tensions, demands for special status, friction over Finance Commission weights and the forthcoming delimitation, where high-fertility northern states may gain seats.

Evidence of incomplete benefits

• Representation: SC/ST posts in Group A services and faculty positions remain under-filled; promotions stall despite the 77th and 85th Amendments.
• Education: tribal literacy is 59 per cent against 73 nationally; dropout rates are highest among Dalit and Adivasi girls.
• Economy: SC/STs own little land, dominate manual scavenging and informal work, and face higher poverty (MPI 2023).
• Atrocities continue, with low conviction rates; untouchability persists in rural life.

Reasons

• The 'creamy layer' and dominant sub-castes capture benefits, leaving the poorest, such as PVTGs and Musahars, behind; the Supreme Court's 2024 ruling allowing sub-classification addresses this.
• Reservation applies only to public employment, which is shrinking with contractualisation and privatisation; the private sector has no obligations.
• Poor-quality schooling and lack of early support mean many cannot compete even for reserved seats; unfilled posts lapse or are dereserved.
• Weak implementation: delayed scholarships, non-functional SC/ST commissions, Forest Rights Act claims rejected.

Impact on personal freedom

• Economic independence: their own income gives control over spending, savings and lifestyle choices, from clothing to travel.
• Autonomy in daily life: freedom from parental supervision, choice of friends and partners, and delayed marriage; the median age of marriage of urban educated women has risen.
• Identity and aspiration: careers become central to self-worth; exposure to diverse cultures loosens caste and regional constraints.
• Constraints: safety concerns limit mobility at night; paying-guest rules and moral policing by landlords reproduce control; workplace harassment and the 'glass ceiling' persist; loneliness and stress are common.

Impact on relationship with family

• Negotiated patriarchy: families accept migration for income and status but expect 'respectability', regular contact and eventual arranged marriage; women manage this through selective disclosure.
• Reversal of roles: daughters remit money, fund siblings' education and gain a voice in family decisions, raising their status.
• Conflict: disputes over marriage timing, inter-caste partners and returning home; some families pressure women to quit after marriage.

Evidence supporting the correlation

• Caste: Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have the highest multidimensional poverty, lowest land ownership and highest share in manual and bonded labour;
• Tribes: Adivasis, with distinct languages and cultures, are 8.6 per cent of the population but about 40 per cent of the displaced; tribal districts of central India are the poorest.
• Religion: Muslims, as the Sachar Committee (2006) showed, lag in education, government jobs and credit.
• Language and region: speakers of non-scheduled and tribal languages, and residents of the North-East and Hindi heartland districts, have weaker human development; linguistic minorities face barriers to schooling.

Evidence against a simple correlation

• Many culturally distinct groups are prosperous: Parsis, Jains, Sikhs, Christians of Kerala and Nagaland, and some tribal communities in Mizoram with high literacy.
• Diversity in the south coexists with better development than in the culturally more homogeneous north; Kerala's religious plurality and high human development contradict the thesis.
• Marginality has structural causes, such as historical land relations, colonial policy, geography and state capacity, rather than culture itself.

Why reforms are needed

• 46 per cent of MPs elected in 2024 face criminal cases; expenditure ceilings are routinely evaded.
• Frequent elections keep the country in permanent campaign mode under the model code.

'One nation, one election'

• Simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly polls, held till 1967, were recommended by the Law Commission (2018) and the Kovind Committee (2024), which proposed synchronisation in two phases, a common electoral roll and amendments to Articles 83, 172 and 324A; a bill went to a Joint Parliamentary Committee in December 2024.
• Benefits: lower cost, less policy paralysis, higher turnout.
• Concerns: curtailing assembly terms weakens federalism and accountability; national issues may overshadow regional ones; mid-term dissolutions and logistics.

Lok Adalats

• Statutory under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987, organised by legal services authorities; Permanent Lok Adalats handle public utility disputes.
• Settle cases by conciliation and compromise, free of cost and procedure; the award is a civil court decree with no appeal.
• Take referred pending cases or pre-litigation matters; unsettled cases return to court.

Arbitration tribunals

• Private adjudication under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, based on an agreement between parties who choose the arbitrators.
• Hear evidence and give a reasoned, binding award, challengeable only on narrow grounds under section 34; parties bear costs.

Civil and criminal cases

• Lok Adalats entertain civil matters and compoundable criminal offences only; non-compoundable offences are excluded.
• Arbitration covers only civil and commercial disputes arising from contracts; criminal, matrimonial status and insolvency matters are non-arbitrable.

How the cabinet marginalises Parliament

• The anti-defection law (Tenth Schedule) binds MPs to party whips, so governments rarely lose votes; Parliament ratifies rather than decides.
• The cabinet controls the agenda; bills pass with little debate, as the farm laws did, and ordinances bypass Parliament.
• Sittings have fallen to about 60 days a year; under 20 per cent of bills in the 17th Lok Sabha went to committees.
• Guillotining of budget demands and the money bill route for substantive laws (Aadhaar Act) weaken scrutiny.

Counter-view

• Parliament retains no-confidence motions and committee scrutiny; coalition eras showed real bargaining, and the 2024 coalition has restored some balance.

Legality

• Compliance audit checks that expenditure was authorised by law, sanctioned by competent authority and applied to the purpose granted.

Propriety

• Propriety audit asks whether money was spent as a prudent person would spend their own: without extravagance, undue benefit to individuals or wasteful decisions.
• Performance audit tests economy, efficiency and effectiveness, as in reports on 2G spectrum (presumptive loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore), coal blocks, the Commonwealth Games and Ayushman Bharat (2023), which led the Supreme Court to cancel licences and the government to adopt auctions.

Limits

• The CAG audits after the event, cannot question policy choices, and depends on Public Accounts Committee follow-up; hindsight judgments may discourage decision-making.

Role in good governance

• Participation and accountability through gram sabhas, ward committees and social audits.
• Responsive delivery of water, sanitation, roads and primary health, as Kerala's People's Plan shows.
• Inclusion through reservation: about 14 lakh elected women.
• Local planning through Gram Panchayat Development Plans and Finance Commission grants.

Cons

• Rural interests may be swamped: land conversion, higher taxes, loss of gram sabha voice and PESA protections.
• Urban bodies already lack capacity; mergers spread them thinner and face political resistance.

Potential for inclusive development

• Education: Tata Trusts helped found IISc and TISS; the Azim Premji Foundation works in rural government schools.
• Health: Tata Memorial, Aravind and LV Prasad eye hospitals serve the poor at low cost.
• Neglected issues: disability, mental health, water and livelihoods, where trusts pilot models later scaled by the state.
• Religious trusts such as Tirupati and Shirdi fund hospitals and schools.
• They bring private wealth and patient capital to regions markets ignore.

Limitations

• Opaque governance, urban concentration, misuse for tax evasion, weak charity commissioners and FCRA restrictions.

Steps to break the cycle

• First 1,000 days: maternal nutrition through Poshan Abhiyaan 2.0 and PMMVY cash support, breastfeeding promotion and anaemia control with fortified rice.
• Diet diversity: eggs, millets and pulses in ICDS and PM POSHAN; pulses and oil in the PDS.
• Water, sanitation and hygiene through Jal Jeevan Mission and Swachh Bharat to cut infections.
• Income security: MGNREGA wages, SHG livelihoods and timely PDS entitlements.
• Women's education and delayed marriage, which improve child nutrition.
• Health services: immunisation, treatment of severe acute malnutrition and Ayushman Arogya Mandirs.
• Real-time tracking through the Poshan Tracker with district accountability.

Why a positive perception is necessary

• Trust produces voluntary compliance with taxes, records and health advice, as in the Pulse Polio and COVID-19 vaccination drives.
• Decisions on licences, contracts and welfare are accepted when seen as impartial; perceived corruption breeds litigation and cynicism.
• Officials seen as fearless and committed encourage citizens to report wrongdoing and strengthen the rule of law.

Current gaps

• India's Corruption Perceptions Index rank (93 in 2023), counter-level delays and political transfers damage perception despite many honest officers.

Building it

• Transparency through RTI and digital delivery that removes discretion.
• Citizens' charters, time-bound grievance redress and social audits.
• Swift action against corrupt officers, protection of honest ones and ethics training under Mission Karmayogi.

As supply-chain alternative

• Apple's suppliers Foxconn and Pegatron shifted iPhone assembly to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka; India now makes about 14 per cent of iPhones.
• Micron's semiconductor plant at Sanand, the India–US iCET (2023) and the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework's supply-chain pillar.
• The EU–India Trade and Technology Council, Japan's supply-chain resilience initiative and the India–UK FTA (2025).

As strategic ally against China

• Quad summits, Malabar exercises and logistics pacts (LEMOA, BECA); support during the 2020 Ladakh standoff.
• Arms sales such as P-8I aircraft, Rafale and Predator drones; the IMEC corridor as a counter to the Belt and Road.

Caveat

• India keeps strategic autonomy and ties with Russia and avoids alliances; its manufacturing share remains small.

Evolving relations

• Diplomatic: Connect Central Asia policy (2012), Modi's 2015 tour of all five, the India–Central Asia Dialogue (2019) and the first India–Central Asia Summit (2022) with a joint working group on Afghanistan.
• Economic: trade is only about USD 2 billion; investments in Kazakh uranium and oil and Uzbek pharma; USD 1 billion credit line; Chabahar port, INSTC and the Ashgabat Agreement bypass Pakistan.
• Strategic: Ayni airbase, exercises KazInd and Dustlik, counter-terror cooperation and SCO membership.

Rising significance

• Energy, uranium and rare earths; gateway to Eurasia; buffer against radicalism from Afghanistan.

Critical view

• Connectivity is the Achilles heel and China's USD 90 billion trade dwarfs India's.

Aims and objects

• Bring transparency, fairness and credibility to public recruitment and entrance examinations, assuring youth that merit will be rewarded.
• Deter organised gangs, service providers and insiders who leak papers, impersonate candidates or manipulate computer-based tests.

Salient features

• Lists 15 unfair means: question-paper leakage, unauthorised access, tampering with OMR sheets, impersonation, fake websites and manipulation of seating or shifts.
• Offences are cognisable, non-bailable and non-compoundable: three to five years' imprisonment and fine up to Rs 10 lakh; organised crime draws five to ten years and fine of at least Rs 1 crore; service providers face Rs 1 crore fine, a four-year bar and recovery of exam costs.
• Investigation by officers not below Deputy Superintendent of Police; central agencies may be deployed.
• Candidates are not punished under the Act; they remain subject to the examination authority's rules.

Coverage

• It applies to 'public examinations' by central authorities listed in the Schedule: UPSC, SSC, Railway Recruitment Boards, IBPS, the National Testing Agency (NEET, JEE, CUET, UGC-NET) and central ministries, with power to add bodies by notification.
• University examinations, State Education Board examinations and state public service commissions are not covered; states such as Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Gujarat have their own anti-cheating laws, for which the Act serves as a model.

Why privacy is intrinsic to Article 21

• Life with dignity includes control over one's body, mind, home, family, sexual orientation, data and decisions; without this zone of autonomy liberty is hollow.
• Earlier cases such as Gobind (1975) and R. Rajagopal (1994) recognised facets of privacy; Puttaswamy overruled M.P. Sharma and Kharak Singh to the extent they denied it.
• Privacy is not absolute: restrictions must satisfy legality, legitimate aim and proportionality.

DNA testing of a child in the womb for paternity

• Compelled testing intrudes into the bodily privacy of the mother and the child.
• Section 112 of the Evidence Act (now section 116 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam) presumes the legitimacy of a child born in wedlock unless non-access is proved, a presumption that protects the child.
• Goutam Kundu (1993): courts cannot order blood tests routinely; a strong prima facie case is needed and no test should bastardise a child. Sharda (2003) allowed tests where necessary. Aparna Ajinkya Firodia (2023): DNA tests of children only in exceptional circumstances, with the child's best interest paramount, since the child's privacy and legitimacy are at stake.

Recent changes

• Fiscal: NITI Aayog replaced the Planning Commission (2015), ending plan grants; 42 and 41 per cent devolution under the 14th and 15th Finance Commissions; GST (2017) with the GST Council pooling tax sovereignty and compensation ending in 2022; rising cesses and surcharges outside the divisible pool; tighter borrowing limits including off-budget debt.
• Legislative: laws on concurrent subjects such as the farm laws (repealed), the 2023 criminal codes and the Forest Conservation Amendment Act; reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir.
• Governance: the GNCTD (Amendment) Act, 2023 overriding the Supreme Court; disputes over Governors withholding assent in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Punjab, and the Court's 2025 ruling fixing timelines; expanded role of central agencies; proposals for simultaneous elections and delimitation.
• Cooperative steps: GST Council consensus, PRAGATI reviews and state capex loans.

Measures to build trust and strengthen federalism

• Convene the Inter-State Council regularly, as the Punchhi Commission advised, and consult states before legislating on concurrent subjects.
• Cap cesses and surcharges or share them; involve states in Finance Commission terms of reference; create a shock-absorber like GST compensation.
• Reform the Governor's office: consultation with Chief Ministers on appointment, fixed tenure and time limits on assent, as Sarkaria and Punchhi recommended.
• Rationalise centrally sponsored schemes for flexibility; safeguard southern states' representation in delimitation.
• Strengthen the Rajya Sabha's federal role.

Reasons for its growth

• Post-Emergency, the judiciary sought legitimacy by protecting the weak against the state.
• The poor, prisoners and bonded labourers could not reach courts; letters and news reports were treated as petitions.
• The expansive reading of Article 21 to cover dignity, environment, health and education widened the field.
• Executive and legislative failures created a vacuum filled by cases such as M.C. Mehta, Vishaka (1997) and Prakash Singh (2006).
• Active civil society, an independent bar and media attention made PIL a route to policy change.
• Procedural flexibility: continuing mandamus, expert committees and monitoring.

The world's most powerful judiciary?

• For: the Court appoints judges through the collegium, reviews constitutional amendments under the basic structure doctrine, monitors agencies (Vineet Narain, 2G), frames policy on pollution, forests and electoral disclosure, and struck down the NJAC affecting its own appointments. Few courts combine such powers.
• Against: it depends on executive compliance and cannot ensure implementation (police reforms remain largely unimplemented); it avoided questions such as Article 370 for years; it is criticised for inconsistency, delay and sealed-cover practice. The US Supreme Court reshapes social policy with greater finality.

Features of Indian secularism

• Articles 25–28: freedom of conscience and practice, denominational autonomy, no taxes for promoting religion and no religious instruction in state-funded schools.
• Articles 14–16 forbid religious discrimination; Articles 29–30 protect minorities' culture and institutions.
• 'Principled distance' (Rajeev Bhargava): the state may intervene to reform religion, as in abolishing untouchability, opening temples (Article 25(2)(b)), regulating endowments, banning triple talaq and the Sabarimala ruling.
• Positive accommodation: minority commissions, personal laws and state-managed temples, balanced by the goal of a Uniform Civil Code (Article 44).

US secular principles

• The First Amendment's Establishment Clause bars government from establishing or favouring religion; the Free Exercise Clause protects belief; Article VI bans religious tests for office.
• Jefferson's 'wall of separation' means strict separation: no state funding of religious instruction, no school prayer (Engel v. Vitale, 1962) and no state regulation of churches, though religion remains prominent in public life.

Comparison

• India: positive, interventionist and group-sensitive, aiming at equality and social reform among religions.
• US: negative and individualistic, keeping state and religion apart.
• Both face strains: majoritarian politics and personal-law debates in India; religious influence on abortion and schooling in the US.

Factors hindering its promise

• Non-statutory: charters have no legal force; the Right of Citizens for Time-bound Delivery of Goods and Services Bill, 2011 lapsed.
• Top-down drafting without consulting citizens or frontline staff, giving vague standards such as 'as soon as possible'.
• Low awareness: charters are rarely displayed, publicised or available in local languages.
• Weak redress: no penalty for breach; CPGRAMS closures are often mechanical.
• No review, training or link to performance appraisal; the Sevottam framework was partially adopted.
• A rule-bound bureaucracy that treats citizens as applicants rather than clients.

Measures to overcome them

• Legislate a right to time-bound services with compensation, as 20 states have done through Public Service Guarantee Acts (Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka's Sakala), and link them to charters.
• Participatory, periodically revised charters with measurable standards and one-page versions in local languages, displayed and online.
• Independent audit and public reporting of compliance; citizen report cards and social audits.
• Integrate charters with digital delivery and grievance platforms, tracked in officers' appraisals; appoint charter officers.
• Training in citizen-centric values under Mission Karmayogi, following the Second ARC's recommendations.

Why the state must contain marketisation

• Private care clusters in cities and profitable specialities, neglecting primary care and the poor.
• Over-prescription, unnecessary procedures and opaque pricing, exposed during COVID-19; regulation under the Clinical Establishments Act is patchy.
• Insurance-led models such as PM-JAY channel funds to private hospitals without strengthening public facilities.

Measures to extend public healthcare at the grassroots

• Complete 1.7 lakh Ayushman Arogya Mandirs with community health officers, essential drugs, diagnostics and tele-consultation; raise spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP as the National Health Policy 2017 envisages.
• Fill vacancies in PHCs and CHCs, incentivise rural postings, expand nursing and mid-level providers and pay ASHAs fairly.
• Free medicines and diagnostics on the Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan models and Jan Aushadhi outlets.
• District hospitals with specialist and critical care under PM-ABHIM and strong referral links.
• Regulate private providers through standard treatment guidelines and price transparency; purchase private care through PM-JAY only where public capacity is absent.
• Converge with nutrition, water and sanitation; empower Village Health, Sanitation and Nutrition Committees and Rogi Kalyan Samitis.
• Use ABDM and e-Sanjeevani to bring specialist advice to villages.

The Interactive Service Model

• Government and citizens engage in multidirectional exchange: citizens access information, submit requests and grievances, track status and give feedback, while government consults them on policy and publishes performance data.
• It differs from the one-way broadcasting model and the purely transactional service-delivery model.

Indian examples

• MyGov for crowdsourcing policy ideas and pre-legislative consultation.
• CPGRAMS and state grievance portals with tracking and feedback ratings; social audit portals under MGNREGA.
• RTI Online, PRAGATI reviews, UMANG service ratings and open data on data.gov.in.
• Ministries and the Railways responding to complaints on social media in real time.

Evaluation

• Transparency: status tracking and open data expose delays and discretion.
• Accountability: feedback and public rankings such as Swachh Survekshan create pressure to perform.
• Participation: citizens co-create policy and flag local problems, strengthening legitimacy.
• Limits: the digital divide excludes the poor, elderly and women; interaction is often tokenistic, with feedback ignored and grievances 'closed' without resolution; privacy and surveillance concerns; siloed departments and untrained staff.
• Interaction without back-end process reform adds a layer rather than transforming government.

Effectiveness

• Norm-setting: almost all states have anti-terror-financing laws aligned with FATF; Resolutions 2178 on foreign fighters and 2396 on border security and passenger data set global standards.
• Capacity building: over 150 CTED assessment visits and technical assistance; the 2022 Delhi Declaration, adopted under India's CTC chairmanship, addressed drones, crypto-financing and online radicalisation.
• Sanctions: the 1267 list freezes assets and bans travel of Al-Qaida and ISIL affiliates, including Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed leaders.
• Coordination with INTERPOL, FATF and regional bodies.

Limitations

• Politicisation: China's holds on listing Masood Azhar (till 2019) and, in 2022, Abdul Rehman Makki and others show P5 interests overriding evidence.
• No agreed definition of terrorism; India's 1996 Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism remains stalled.
• Monitoring without enforcement: the CTC cannot penalise non-compliance, and state sponsors escape.
• Uneven state capacity, reporting fatigue and weak attention to human rights and emerging threats such as lone actors and encrypted platforms.

Geopolitical and geostrategic importance

• Trade and energy flows pass through the one-and-a-half-degree and eight-degree channels near the Maldives; disruption would raise freight and insurance costs and threaten energy security.
• Maritime domain awareness: Indian-built coastal radar stations, gifted Dornier aircraft and hydrographic surveys extend India's watch over the central Indian Ocean.
• China's presence: the Sinamale bridge, a large share of Maldivian debt, research vessel visits and the 2024 defence pact raise fears of a naval foothold in the 'string of pearls'.
• Regional stability: politics swinging between pro-India and 'India Out' positions, radicalisation, drug trafficking and piracy affect the region.

Effect on India's maritime security and stability

• A friendly Maldives anchors Neighbourhood First and SAGAR; Operation Cactus (1988), tsunami relief, Operation Neer (2014) and COVID vaccines built goodwill.
• Loss of influence would open a gap between Lakshadweep and Diego Garcia and let China monitor Indian naval movements.
• The US, Japan and the Colombo Security Conclave help balance China; India must avoid appearing overbearing after withdrawing its military personnel in 2024.

Way forward

• The USD 400 million currency swap and budget support of 2024, the Greater Male Connectivity Project, UPI and RuPay links and Hanimaadhoo airport show that economic engagement with respect for sovereignty works.

Pattern and trend

• Combined Union and state spending rose from about 5–6 per cent of GDP in the 1990s to about 7.8 per cent in 2023–24, yet education stays near 3 per cent and health under 2 per cent against targets of 6 and 2.5.
• Composition moved from subsidies to rights-based programmes (MGNREGA, RTE, NFSA) and then to asset and insurance schemes (PMAY, PM-JAY, Jal Jeevan Mission).

Consonance with inclusive growth

• Positive: multidimensional poverty fell from 29 to 11 per cent (2015–16 to 2023); near-universal enrolment, electrification and toilets.
• Gaps: poor learning outcomes (ASER), 36 per cent child stunting, high out-of-pocket health spending, pro-cyclical and uneven spending.

Causes

• Supply shocks: erratic monsoons, heatwaves and unseasonal rain hitting tomato, onion and pulses.
• Structural gaps: low productivity, post-harvest losses of 30 per cent in perishables, weak cold chains and fragmented markets.
• Cost push from fertiliser, diesel, wages and rising MSPs.
• Stop-go export bans and import duties, hoarding and global prices after the Ukraine war.

Effectiveness of RBI's monetary policy

• Repo hikes to 6.5 per cent (2022–23) and liquidity tightening act on demand-driven core inflation, not on supply shocks; vegetables respond to the next harvest, not interest rates.
• Yet the RBI must act when food inflation persists and spills into wages and expectations; the MPC credibly anchors headline CPI.

Factors behind success

• Political will: Left governments in Kerala (1969 Act) and West Bengal (Operation Barga, 1978), and Sheikh Abdullah's Big Landed Estates Abolition Act (1950), treated reform as a core commitment.
• Peasant mobilisation: kisan sabhas and tenant movements (Tebhaga, Punnapra-Vayalar) built pressure from below and helped identify tenants.
• Administrative commitment: Operation Barga recorded sharecroppers through village camps; Kerala's land tribunals processed claims quickly.
• Legal clarity: closing loopholes on 'personal cultivation', retrospective ceilings, ownership conferred on tenants, and Ninth Schedule protection.
• Accurate records and involvement of panchayats.
• Social conditions: high literacy and weaker landlord dominance in Kerala; Karnataka's 1974 Act under Devaraj Urs used tribunals and backward-class politics.

Role in health and nutritional security

• Nutrient density: rich in protein, fibre, iron, calcium (ragi has about ten times the calcium of rice), zinc and B vitamins, helping fight anaemia and child malnutrition.
• Low glycaemic index and gluten-free, suited to India's 100 million diabetics and to managing obesity.
• Diversify diets away from the rice–wheat monotony of the Green Revolution and PDS.
• Food security: they grow with little water on marginal soils and tolerate heat, giving stable yields under climate stress, plus fodder.

Measures

• Inclusion in PDS, mid-day meals and ICDS under NFSA; MSP for millets; the National Millet Mission.

World scenario

• The US and Europe patent genetically modified organisms, isolated genes and CRISPR tools, driving biotech industries; the US bars patents on natural DNA (Myriad, 2013).
• Debates continue on biopiracy, farmers' rights and access to medicines; India protects plant varieties under the PPV&FR Act and bars patents on plants, animals and seeds (section 3(j)).

Why India commercialises few patents

• Most patents come from academia and public labs with weak industry links; research is curiosity-driven, not demand-driven.
• Early-stage, low-quality patents, poor drafting and little freedom-to-operate analysis.
• Weak technology transfer offices and incubation; no Bayh-Dole-type framework.
• Risk-averse industry, scarce venture capital and long regulatory approvals.
• Examination backlogs and litigation uncertainty.

Advantages

• Less waiting, fuel use and emissions; cashless, transparent revenue and traffic data; lower leakage for NHAI.

Limitations

• Vehicles still slow at barriers; misreads, low balances and blacklisted tags cause queues.
• Plaza-based tolling charges full stretches even for short use.

Proposed changes

• GNSS-based barrier-free tolling: on-board units with satellite positioning charge for exact distance travelled, with a 20 km free daily allowance, piloted on the Bengaluru–Mysuru and Panipat–Hisar highways under the 2024 National Highways Fee Rules amendment.

Potential hazards

• Privacy and surveillance from continuous location tracking; security of movement data.
• Wrongful deductions, GPS errors, enforcement against non-payers and cost of on-board units.

Mitigation measures

• Prevention at source: cleaner production, water audits and zero liquid discharge for highly polluting units, as mandated for Tamil Nadu textile clusters and distilleries.
• Treatment: effluent treatment plants in units and Common Effluent Treatment Plants for clusters (Kanpur, Vapi, Tirupur), with online continuous monitoring linked to CPCB.
• Recycling treated water in industry and irrigation to cut freshwater draw.
• Siting: industrial estates away from floodplains; red–orange–green classification of industries.
• Polluter-pays: environmental compensation, consent conditions, closure of defaulters; incentives for green technology.
• Ecological restoration: wetlands and riparian buffers as natural filters.
• Transparency: real-time pollution data, river committees and NGT litigation.

Government initiatives

• Namami Gange (2014): inspection of over 1,000 grossly polluting industries, CETPs and zero liquid discharge in the Ganga basin under the National Mission for Clean Ganga.
• Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and its 2024 amendment; Environment Protection Act standards.
• National River Conservation Plan and Yamuna Action Plan; National Water Quality Monitoring Programme.
• NGT orders such as the Rs 3,800 crore compensation on Tamil Nadu and directions on Tirupur dyeing units.
• Jal Shakti Abhiyan and reuse policies.

Roles

• Exposing flawed or copied EIA reports and submitting scientific objections.
• Mobilising public hearings and litigating for compliance.

Examples

• Niyamgiri, Odisha: the Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti and Dongria Kondh movement led the Supreme Court (2013) to mandate gram sabha consent for Vedanta's bauxite mining; all 12 gram sabhas rejected it.
• Sterlite, Thoothukudi: protests over pollution ended in closure in 2018, upheld by the Supreme Court in 2024.
• Lavasa, Maharashtra: the National Alliance of People's Movements exposed construction without clearance; the MoEF stop-work order (2010) forced conditions.
• Save Aarey, Mumbai: citizens contested tree felling for the metro shed; the Supreme Court restricted felling in 2019 and 2022.

How it has emerged

• Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir: heroin pushed across the Pakistan border by drones and tunnels funds Khalistani and Kashmiri modules.
• North-East: methamphetamine and heroin from Myanmar finance insurgents and feed the Manipur conflict.
• Maritime routes: seizures of 3,000 kg of heroin at Mundra (2021) and 3,300 kg off Gujarat (2024) show cartel-scale shipments.

Measures

• Border security: anti-drone systems, tunnel detection, coastal surveillance and Navy–Coast Guard coordination.
• Legal and financial: NDPS with UAPA, PMLA investigations, NCB's Narco Coordination Centre, NIA narco-terror cells and asset forfeiture.
• Demand reduction through Nasha Mukt Bharat and de-addiction centres; alternative livelihoods in Manipur's poppy belts.

Salient features

• Applies to digital personal data processed in India, or abroad for offering goods and services to Indians; anonymised data excluded.
• Processing needs clear, informed consent for a specified purpose, or 'legitimate uses' such as state benefits and emergencies.
• Data principals' rights: access, correction, erasure, grievance redress and nomination.
• Data fiduciaries must ensure security, breach notification and deletion after purpose.
• Children: verifiable parental consent, no tracking or targeted advertising.
• Data Protection Board adjudicates; penalties up to Rs 250 crore; appeals to TDSAT; exemptions for security and research.

Merits

• One registration, licence and return; a uniform definition of 'wages' ends litigation and widens social security contributions.
• Universal floor wage and timely payment for all workers.
• Social security extended to gig, platform and unorganised workers through a national fund and aggregator contributions; portability through e-Shram.
• Flexibility: fixed-term employment with equal benefits, standing-orders threshold raised to 300 workers, women allowed night shifts with safeguards, inspector-cum-facilitators.
• Safety: health check-ups, appointment letters and migrant worker provisions.

Demerits

• Weaker job security: retrenchment without permission up to 300 workers may increase informalisation.
• Right to strike curtailed by 14-day notice for all establishments.
• Union recognition tilted to 'negotiating unions' with 51 per cent membership.
• Many provisions left to rules; small establishments excluded; gig social security underfunded.
• Self-certification dilutes inspection; enforcement capacity is thin.

Progress

• All Codes received assent by 2020; the Centre pre-published rules and most states framed draft rules, but implementation was deferred for consensus.
• The Codes came into force on 21 November 2025 with transitional arrangements; e-Shram registration crossed 30 crore; several states had already adopted fixed-term employment and higher thresholds.

Need for regional air connectivity

• Economic integration: faster movement of people and high-value goods boosts tourism, trade and investment, especially in the North-East and hill states.
• Decongesting metros in the world's third largest domestic market.
• Social access for medical, educational and business travel from remote regions such as Ladakh and the islands.
• Strategic and disaster-response value of airstrips near borders and flood-prone areas.
• Jobs in hotels, logistics and maintenance.

UDAN scheme (2016)

• Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik connects unserved and under-served airports through routes awarded by competitive bidding.
• Fares capped at about Rs 2,500 per flying hour on half the seats; the gap met by viability gap funding from a levy on trunk routes and state contributions; airport charges waived; states cut ATF VAT to 1 per cent.
• Phases added helicopter routes, seaplanes, international UDAN from Assam and Krishi UDAN for perishables.

Achievements

• Over 600 routes and about 90 airports, heliports and water aerodromes operationalised, including Darbhanga, Jharsuguda and Pakyong; about 1.5 crore passengers flown by 2024.
• Airports rose from 74 in 2014 to over 150; new regional airlines emerged.

Shortcomings

• Nearly half the awarded routes were discontinued due to low demand, airline failures and subsidy dependence; small aircraft are scarce.

Major challenges

• Groundwater over-extraction: 60 per cent of irrigation depends on tube-wells; aquifers in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan are over-exploited, worsened by free power.
• Inefficient canals: seepage, siltation, poor maintenance, tail-end deprivation and head-reach waterlogging and salinity.
• Water-intensive cropping of paddy and sugarcane in semi-arid regions, driven by MSP.
• Incomplete projects and cost overruns; 99 priority projects under PMKSY ran years late.
• Inter-state disputes (Cauvery, Krishna, Ravi–Beas), low water charges and poor cost recovery.
• Climate change: erratic monsoons, glacial retreat and silting of reservoirs.
• Equity: small farmers and rainfed regions excluded; weak water user associations.

Government measures

• Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (2015): Har Khet Ko Pani, Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme to complete pending projects, Command Area Development, watershed development and Per Drop More Crop subsidising drip and sprinklers.
• Atal Bhujal Yojana for community groundwater management; PM-KUSUM solar pumps with grid buy-back to discourage over-pumping.
• Micro-irrigation Fund with NABARD; crop diversification incentives and direct-seeded rice in Punjab and Haryana.
• Repair and restoration of water bodies, Amrit Sarovar tanks and Jal Shakti Abhiyan.
• Participatory irrigation management acts, the National Water Policy and river interlinking (Ken–Betwa).
• Remote-sensing monitoring under the National Hydrology Project.

Importance for price stabilisation

• Floor price: MSP procurement absorbs surpluses, preventing distress sales and price collapse.
• Ceiling effect: open market sales in shortages, as in 2022–24 when wheat was sold under OMSS and exports curbed, cool prices.
• Food security: stocks enable NFSA coverage of 80 crore people and made free grain under PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana possible during COVID-19.
• Insurance against drought and global shocks, reducing dependence on volatile imports.
• Stable prices protect consumers and allow planned farm decisions.

Challenges in storage

• Excess stocks often two to three times the norms, raising carrying costs, locking capital and encouraging rice–wheat monoculture.
• Inadequate covered capacity and reliance on Cover and Plinth open storage, causing losses to rain, pests and rodents.
• Regional imbalance: stocks concentrated in the north-west need long-distance movement on weak rail logistics.
• Quality deterioration of old stocks; low off-take of coarse grains; limited private storage.
• Fiscal cost: food subsidy above Rs 2 lakh crore a year with FCI's economic cost far above MSP; leakages in distribution.

Way forward

• World's Largest Grain Storage Plan in cooperatives (2023), steel silos under PPP, decentralised procurement in eastern states and negotiable warehouse receipts.
• Dynamic buffer norms, timely open market sales and exports, procurement of pulses and millets, and cash transfers where markets work.

Desalination

• Reverse osmosis forces seawater through membranes; thermal distillation uses heat. Plants serve Chennai (Minjur, Nemmeli), Israel and the Gulf.
• Merits: drought-proof, almost unlimited for coastal cities and islands; costs falling with better membranes.
• Demerits: high energy and carbon footprint unless renewable-powered; brine harms marine life; water costs two to three times conventional supply; unsuitable inland.

Wastewater recycling and reuse

• Tertiary treatment, membrane bioreactors and disinfection make sewage reusable for industry, irrigation, recharge or even drinking, as in Singapore's NEWater; Surat and Nagpur sell treated water to power plants.
• Merits: turns a pollutant into a resource, cuts freshwater demand by up to 30 per cent, protects rivers and is cheaper than desalination.
• Demerits: public resistance, need for strict monitoring of pathogens and micro-pollutants, sewage network gaps and sludge disposal.

Atmospheric water generation and fog harvesting

• Devices condense moisture from humid air; fog nets collect droplets in arid coastal hills (Chile, Morocco); Indian start-ups deploy generators in Chennai and Delhi.
• Merits: decentralised, off-grid, useful for remote or disaster-hit areas.
• Demerits: low output, energy-intensive cooling, dependence on humidity and high cost per litre.

How real is the extinction threat?

• Impacts have shaped life: a 10-km asteroid at Chicxulub 66 million years ago ended the dinosaurs; Tunguska (1908) and Chelyabinsk (2013) show smaller risks persist.
• Probability: an extinction-level impact occurs roughly once in 100 million years; city-destroying 100-m objects strike every few thousand years. NASA has catalogued over 95 per cent of near-Earth objects above 1 km and none threatens Earth this century, but about 40 per cent of 140-m objects remain undiscovered.
• The threat is low-probability but high-consequence, and uniquely preventable.

Strategies developed

• Detection: NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office, Pan-STARRS and Catalina surveys, ESA's Flyeye telescope, the NEO Surveyor mission (about 2027) and the Sentry risk list; the UN-backed International Asteroid Warning Network and Space Mission Planning Advisory Group coordinate responses.
• Deflection: NASA's DART (2022) struck Dimorphos and shortened its orbit by 33 minutes, proving the kinetic impactor; ESA's Hera is studying the result.
• Other concepts: gravity tractors, ion-beam shepherding, laser ablation and, as a last resort, nuclear stand-off bursts.
• Civil defence: evacuation planning and impact modelling; biennial Planetary Defense Conference exercises.
• India: ISRO tracking and interest in asteroid missions; Apophis's 2029 approach offers a global observation opportunity.

How it is determined

• Hazard exposure and vulnerability: location, population density and fragility of assets.
• Capacities: physical (infrastructure, early warning), social (community networks), economic (diversified incomes, insurance), institutional (laws, plans, trained agencies) and environmental (ecosystem buffers).
• Measured by tools such as the UNDRR Disaster Resilience Scorecard, NDMA vulnerability atlases, recovery time and losses avoided.

Elements of a resilience framework

• Risk understanding: hazard mapping and impact data.
• Governance: laws and institutions under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 and its 2025 amendment.
• Prevention and mitigation: land-use planning, building codes, resilient infrastructure, ecosystem protection.
• Preparedness: early warning, drills, stockpiles, NDRF and community volunteers.
• Response coordination and recovery that 'builds back better' with social protection and risk financing.
• Inclusion of women, the poor and disabled, and continuous learning.

Sendai Framework global targets (2015–2030)

• Substantially reduce global disaster mortality per 100,000 in 2020–2030 compared with 2005–2015.
• Substantially reduce the number of affected people per 100,000.
• Reduce direct economic loss relative to global GDP.
• Substantially reduce damage to critical infrastructure and disruption of basic services, including health and education.
• Increase countries with national and local DRR strategies by 2020.
• Enhance international cooperation to developing countries.
• Increase availability of and access to multi-hazard early warning systems and risk information by 2030.

Causes

• Climatic: extreme rainfall from a warmer atmosphere, cloudbursts and cyclones, plus sea-level rise and high tides in coastal cities.
• Encroachment on floodplains, lakes and wetlands: Bengaluru lost most of its lakes; Chennai built over the Pallikaranai marsh.
• Old, undersized storm drains clogged with solid waste.
• Concretisation reducing infiltration; loss of green cover.

Two major floods

• Mumbai, 26 July 2005: 944 mm in 24 hours; the encroached Mithi river overflowed; over 1,000 deaths in Maharashtra, rail and airport shut, losses about Rs 5,000 crore.
• Chennai, November–December 2015: over 1,000 mm in a month and 494 mm on 1 December; sudden release from Chembarambakkam reservoir flooded the Adyar basin; about 400 deaths, airport closed, losses over Rs 20,000 crore; exposed wetland construction and absent flood forecasting.

Policies and frameworks

• NDMA Guidelines on Urban Flooding (2010): urban flood cells, drainage design for higher return periods, wetland protection and early warning.
• Disaster Management Act institutions, the National Disaster Management Plan (2019) and the 2025 amendment creating Urban Disaster Management Authorities for large cities.
• AMRUT and Smart Cities funding for drains; Budget 2024 support for flood mitigation in Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
• Model Building Bye-laws (2016) mandating rainwater harvesting.
• IMD urban flood warning systems and the Integrated Flood Warning System (IFLOWS) for Mumbai and Chennai.

Conflicting issues and security challenges

• China: differing LAC perceptions in Ladakh (Depsang, Demchok, Pangong), Arunachal Pradesh claimed as 'South Tibet' and Sikkim; the Doklam (2017) and Galwan (2020) clashes; infrastructure and 'xiaokang' border villages, Brahmaputra dams and presence in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir through CPEC; disengagement at Depsang and Demchok agreed in October 2024.
• Pakistan: the Kashmir dispute, infiltration and terrorism across the LoC, ceasefire violations, drones dropping arms and drugs in Punjab and Jammu, and the Sir Creek boundary; Operation Sindoor (2025) followed the Pahalgam attack.

Border Area Development Programme (BADP)

• Begun in 1986–87 for Punjab, extended to 17 border states and UTs, funding villages within 0–10 km of the border in a 60:40 Centre–state share, with 10 per cent for security-related works.
• Projects: roads, bridges, schools, health centres, drinking water, solar lighting, sports and skills.
• Now complemented by the Vibrant Villages Programme (2023) covering 2,967 villages on the China border with Rs 4,800 crore for connectivity, tourism and livelihoods to stop migration.

Border Infrastructure and Management (BIM) scheme

• A central-sector Ministry of Home Affairs scheme with Rs 13,020 crore for 2021–26 for fencing, floodlighting, border roads and bridges, Border Out Posts, the Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System on the Pakistan and Bangladesh borders, anti-drone systems and smart fencing.

Measures adopted

• Legal: IT Act sections 69 (interception) and 69A (blocking); the IT Rules, 2021 requiring grievance officers, 36-hour takedowns and traceability of the 'first originator' by significant messaging intermediaries; UAPA for online terror activity; cyber offences in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
• Institutional: the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, CERT-In, state cyber cells and Grievance Appellate Committees.
• Operational: monitoring during riots and elections, internet shutdowns under Telecom Act rules, blocking of apps and accounts, Election Commission advisories.
• Platform-level: AI removal of extremist content, fact-check partnerships, WhatsApp forwarding limits and safe-harbour tied to due diligence.
• International: the Christchurch Call, the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism and mutual legal assistance.

Other remedies

• A balanced lawful-access framework with judicial oversight, time-bound data preservation and transparency reports, instead of blanket traceability that weakens encryption for all.
• Digital literacy in schools and villages to build resilience against fake news and radical content.
• A single nodal mechanism for faster cooperation with platforms and India-based data access under the DPDP Act.
• Counter-narratives and de-radicalisation programmes with community leaders.
• An independent online-harms regulator with proportionate penalties and algorithmic audits.

Arguments for

• Consistency and speed reduce discretion and corruption; evidence replaces intuition.
• It finds patterns humans miss, improving welfare targeting and disaster response.

Ethical concerns

• Bias: models trained on skewed data reproduce caste, gender or regional discrimination, as the COMPAS sentencing tool and facial-recognition errors showed.
• Opacity: 'black box' outputs cannot be explained, defeating reasoned orders and natural justice.
• Accountability gap: who answers when an algorithm wrongly denies a pension?
• Privacy and surveillance through mass data use; automation bias, where officials defer to machines.
• Loss of empathy: administrative rationality includes equity and compassion, which AI lacks.

Key dimensions

• Deontological: duties and rules such as honesty and promise-keeping (Kant), regardless of consequences.
• Consequentialist: judging actions by outcomes and the greatest good (Bentham, Mill).
• Virtue ethics: character traits such as integrity, courage and compassion (Aristotle, Gandhi).
• Justice and rights: fairness, equality and respect for others' rights (Rawls).
• Descriptive, meta-ethical and applied dimensions: how people behave, what moral terms mean, and ethics in medicine or business.

Shaping professional decisions

• A civil servant tests a proposal against rules (legality), outcomes (welfare), character (would an honest officer do this?) and fairness (who bears the burden?).
• Example: relocating slum dwellers for a project may be lawful and benefit many, but justice and virtue demand consent, fair rehabilitation and dignity.

Ethical considerations for powerful nations

• Duty to protect life: the UN Charter and humanitarian law oblige them to end wars, not prolong them; profiting from death treats persons as means, violating Kant's principle.
• Consistency: condemning aggression while arming belligerents is hypocrisy; embargoes should apply impartially.
• Restraint in arms trade: enforce the Arms Trade Treaty, stop exports to parties committing war crimes, curb arms-industry lobbying over foreign policy.
• Diplomacy over coercion: use influence for ceasefires and mediation rather than fuelling proxy wars.
• Reparative justice: fund reconstruction and refugees; shift arms budgets to development.

Ending the cycle

• Redefine development: measure well-being and ecological cost, not GDP alone; Mission LiFE promotes mindful consumption.
• Gandhian restraint: 'the earth has enough for everyone's need but not for everyone's greed'; aparigraha and the Vedic reverence for nature counter consumerism.
• Intergenerational justice: treat the climate as a trust; the Supreme Court's 2024 recognition of a right against climate change gives this legal form.
• Decarbonise through renewables, green hydrogen, public transport and a circular economy, with polluter-pays carbon pricing.
• Protect life: the 30x30 target, restored wetlands and forests.

Examples

• Section 377 IPC was upheld in 2013, but by 2018 (Navtej Johar) consensual same-sex relations were decriminalised as understanding of dignity evolved.
• Adultery as a crime (Joseph Shine, 2018) and triple talaq (Shayara Bano, 2017) fell as gender-equality norms changed.
• The Supreme Court's 2024 approval of sub-classification within Scheduled Castes recognised that benefits captured by advanced sub-castes had become unjust for the most backward.
• COVID-19 lockdown rules, just in April 2020, became unjust for stranded migrants, forcing change within weeks.

Implications

• Laws and orders need sunset reviews, judicial reconsideration and feedback from the affected so they do not outlive their justification.

Illustrations

• Ration denial when biometric authentication of manual labourers failed caused starvation deaths in Jharkhand; officers who kept exception registers served the intent of food security.
• An officer who waits for formal sanction before releasing food to flood victims follows form; one who acts and regularises later serves the purpose, as Kerala's officers did in 2018.
• Refusing a widow's pension because a death certificate spells a name differently is literalism; verifying identity by other means fulfils intent.

Limits

• Discretion must be transparent, recorded and within law; ignoring form cannot become cover for arbitrariness or favouritism.

Suggested model

• Core values: integrity, impartiality, objectivity, commitment to the Constitution and public interest, empathy, accountability and transparency.
• Guidance on dilemmas: conflicts of interest, gifts, political neutrality, use of public resources, post-retirement jobs and social media, with illustrative cases.
• Duty to citizens: courtesy, timely service, protection of the vulnerable and proactive disclosure.
• Institutions: an ethics officer in each department, an independent Civil Services Authority to interpret the code, ethics training under Mission Karmayogi and annual ethical self-appraisal.
• Linkage: the code of ethics informs appraisal and promotion; the code of conduct remains the enforceable minimum.

Justice over punishment

• Community service introduced for petty offences such as defamation and small theft, reflecting reformative justice.
• Victim-centric provisions: time-bound investigation and trial, the victim's right to be heard and to information, and compensation.

Equality

• Gender-neutral definitions in several offences, protection of children, and a new offence of sexual intercourse on a false promise of marriage.
• Organised crime, terrorism and mob lynching defined for the first time, giving equal protection to vulnerable groups.

Impartiality

• Uniform application regardless of status, with technology-enabled procedures under the BNSS and mandatory forensics for serious offences reducing discretion and delay.

Challenges

• Dual burden of care, absence of workplace childcare and transfers that disrupt families; career breaks slow promotion.
• Safety and harassment in field postings; weak implementation of the POSH Act.
• Stereotyping as unsuited to 'hard' postings such as law and order; exclusion from informal networks that shape careers.

Measures

• Gender-sensitive HR: flexible hours, creches, spouse-coordinated postings and childcare leave without career penalty.
• Zero tolerance for harassment with functioning internal committees, secure accommodation and transport.
• Gender audits of infrastructure and merit-based assignment to all postings.
• Leadership training, visible role models and transparent transfer policies that protect honest officers.

How it empowers civil servants

• Role-based competencies: the FRAC framework maps each post to the behavioural, functional and domain skills needed, so officers train for what they actually do.
• Anytime learning: the iGOT Karmayogi platform offers thousands of courses in Indian languages to over one crore officials.
• Ethics and conduct modules on integrity, empathy and constitutional values build the high standard of conduct that earns trust.
• Institutional support: the Capacity Building Commission, a Prime Minister's HR Council and Karmayogi Bharat coordinate training; Karmayogi Prarambh orients recruits.

Delivery at the grassroots

• Trained frontline workers deliver schemes with fewer errors and more empathy.
• Service orientation improves responsiveness and grievance handling.

(b) Ethical issues

• Environmental responsibility versus profit and shareholder value.
• Intergenerational justice: today's emissions burden future generations and vulnerable communities whose water and power data centres consume.
• Honesty: risk of greenwashing a net-zero target without a pathway.
• Proportionality: AI's benefits in health and education against its energy cost.

(d) Measures to balance innovation and footprint

• Power data centres with renewables through long-term solar and wind contracts and storage; site new centres where clean power is abundant.
• Efficient hardware, liquid cooling, smaller and sparse AI models, and scheduling workloads when clean power is available.
• An internal carbon price and 'green by design' review for every AI product; link executive pay to emissions targets.
• Third-party-verified annual reporting and science-based targets rather than offsets alone.

(b) Strengthening the set-up

• A dedicated counter-radicalisation cell with police, psychologists, educators and community members; train station-level officers to spot early signs.
• Community policing and regular dialogue with the targeted community, avoiding communal profiling.
• Partnerships with universities and employers for skills and jobs; youth engagement through sports and civic programmes.
• SOPs for social media monitoring that respect privacy and due process; rapid coordination with platforms.
• Awareness campaigns on online manipulation and helplines for families.

(c) Action plan for intelligence gathering

• Equip the Cyber Cell with open-source intelligence tools, analytics and trained analysts to map networks rather than posts.
• Build human intelligence through informants, beat constables, campus liaison and mohalla committees.
• Fuse intelligence in a state Multi-Agency Centre linked to IB, NIA and neighbouring states for real-time alerts.
• Track hawala and crypto flows funding recruits.
• Oversight to prevent misuse and protect sources.

(b) Ethical dilemmas

• Duty to bring dangerous insurgents to justice versus duty to protect civilian lives, especially women.
• Short-term peace versus long-term rule of law: releasing wanted men rewards intimidation and hurts morale.
• The 'hearts and minds' approach versus coercion that could alienate tribals further.
• Acting without orders and bearing accountability for the outcome.

(d) Extra precautions with women protesters

• Deploy women police to handle, search or detain women; no male officer should touch them.
• Avoid lethal force; use minimal, graded measures with clear warnings under Supreme Court and NHRC guidelines.
• Provide water and medical aid; care for the elderly, pregnant and children.

(b) Justification

• Conflict of interest is unethical whether or not the hospital is public; a decision favouring a relative can never appear impartial, however honest.
• The management's trust demands greater care, not the use of discretion for her brother; betraying it would damage her integrity and the institution.
• Transparency and recusal protect her reputation and her brother, whose selection would otherwise be tainted.
• Perceived fairness matters as much as actual fairness in a reputed hospital.
• Compassion for her brother can be shown privately, not through institutional resources.

(c) How medical ethics is compromised by vested interest

• Patient welfare first: procurement driven by personal interest may bring inferior or over-priced equipment, compromising diagnosis and treatment and inflating patient bills.
• Non-maleficence and justice: substandard machines can harm patients, and costs fall on those least able to pay.
• Trust and integrity: hospitals depend on public confidence; favouritism in procurement is corruption that erodes institutional ethics and may lead to kickbacks and unnecessary procedures.
• Precedent: once personal interest overrides merit, others follow, normalising unethical practice.

(b) Actions for mutually compatible interests

• Transparency: publish who draws how much; meter industrial borewells and reservoir intakes; let farmer representatives monitor.
• Equitable rationing: a water budget placing drinking water first, then critical irrigation for standing crops and reduced industrial quotas; mandate industries to recycle and use treated wastewater.
• Support farmers: compensation or input support for crop loss, drip irrigation and short-duration crops, MGNREGA work and insurance claims.
• Protect workers: stagger industrial operations instead of closure; industry funds recharge structures and tankers under CSR.
• Even enforcement: act against illegal industrial borewells as firmly as against farmers; order an independent inquiry into bribery allegations and transfer tainted officials.

(c) Administrative and ethical dilemmas

• Drinking water versus livelihoods: protecting the right to water while farmers and workers face ruin.
• Equity versus efficiency: industry's economic weight against farmers' claim as weaker stakeholders.
• Enforcement versus public order: strict action may provoke unrest; leniency undermines conservation.
• Perception of partiality: corruption allegations demand transparency even if untrue.

(b) Options and consequences

• Accept the shortcuts: fastest to market, but an unsafe drug could kill patients and bring recalls, litigation, regulatory bans and criminal liability; it violates non-maleficence and honesty, and patent infringement invites injunctions.
• External whistle-blowing: protects the public but is a last resort after internal channels fail.
• Refuse shortcuts while pursuing legitimate acceleration (chosen): protects patients, scientific credibility and the company's long-term reputation, respects participants' autonomy, at the cost of possibly losing first-mover advantage.

(c) How data ethics and drug ethics save humanity

• Data integrity ensures regulators, doctors and patients decide on truth; manipulated data in a pandemic causes mass harm and erodes trust in science and vaccines.
• Informed consent protects dignity and autonomy, preventing abuses like Tuskegee and sustaining public willingness to join trials.
• Respect for intellectual property encourages innovation, while licensing and patent pools, as with COVID-19 vaccines, expand access ethically.
• Rigorous trials, pharmacovigilance and fair pricing ensure medicines are safe, effective and available to the poor.