UPSC Essentials | Mains answer practice — GS 3 : Questions on TB elimination and RBI’s export-relief measures (Week 129)

QUESTION 1

“While India has improved treatment coverage, key structural challenges are hindering TB elimination.” Discuss this statement in the context of the 2025 TB elimination goal.

QUESTION 2

Discuss the risk-management concerns for banks arising out of the RBI’s export-relief measures and suggest ways to safeguard financial stability.

General points on the structure of the answers for UPSC Mains

Introduction

— The introduction of the answer is essential and should be restricted to 3-5 lines. Remember, a one-liner is not a standard introduction.

— It may consist of basic information by giving some definitions from the trusted source and authentic facts.

Body

— It is the central part of the answer and one should understand the demand of the question to provide rich content.

— The answer must be preferably written as a mix of points and short paragraphs rather than using long paragraphs or just points.

— Using facts from authentic government sources makes your answer more comprehensive. Analysis is important based on the demand of the question, but do not over analyse.

QUESTION 1: “While India has improved treatment coverage, key structural challenges are hindering TB elimination.” Discuss this statement in the context of the 2025 TB elimination goal.

Note: This is not a model answer. It only provides you with thought process which you may incorporate into the answers.

Introduction:

— While the burden of tuberculosis in India continues to decline, the country is nowhere close to achieving elimination, according to the Global TB Report 2025.

— In 2024, India recorded around 27.1 lakh cases and more than three lakh deaths, making it one of the top contributors to the number of TB cases across the world, the analysis said. Last year, TB was the deadliest infectious killer globally, as it infected 10.7 million people and killed 1.23 million.

Body:

You may incorporate some of the following points in your answer:

— India diagnosed the highest ever 26.18 lakh cases in 2024, further closing the gap between the estimated number of cases and the ones actually diagnosed. There were only around one lakh “mission cases”. This is significant considering that people who miss out on a diagnosis under the programme continue to spread the infection further.

— India was among the eight high-burden countries that were able to diagnose more than 80% of the estimated cases last year. However, with the highest burden of TB cases, India was among the top countries contributing towards the global gap. The country accounted for 8.8% of the global gap, which was behind only Indonesia, which accounted for 10% of the global gap between estimated and diagnosed cases.

— In 2018, the government announced India’s ambitious target of eliminating TB by 2025, five years ahead of the global target. Although there has been a consistent decline in the estimated number of TB cases — as well as the rate of TB cases per 100,000 population — India is nowhere close to its target of eliminating the bacterial disease by 2025.

Around 92% of the people estimated to have tuberculosis in the country were diagnosed and put on treatment in 2024.

Note: Elimination is defined as less than one case per million population, the WHO End TB strategy targets an 80% decline in new TB cases and 90% decline in TB deaths by 2030 as compared to the baseline year of 2015.

— The Global TB Report 2025 shows that India has achieved only a 21% reduction in new cases and a 28% reduction in deaths between 2015 and 2024. This does not even come close to the End TB milestones for 2025 — a 50% reduction in TB incidence and 75% reduction in TB deaths. In fact, it essentially means that India in 2024 was able to meet only half of the global milestones set for 2020 — reducing TB cases by 20% and deaths by 35% as compared to 2015.

— India also continues to be a big contributor towards drug-resistant TB, accounting for nearly a third of the global cases. While the burden of such resistant infections has not reduced, it has not increased significantly either. In 2024, 12.63% of those previously treated for TB and 3.64% of the new cases were drug-resistant in India. This increased from 12.5% and 3.53% the previous year, according to the new report. This translates to around 1.27 lakh people with drug-resistant TB in 2024, up from 1.26 lakh in 2023 and 1.24 lakh in 2024.

— Pollution, along with diseases such as diabetes that are on the rise, also increases the risk of TB in people. In 2024, an estimated 3.2 lakh TB cases could be attributed to diabetes.

Conclusion:

— The Global TB Report shows significant improvement in India’s treatment coverage, which stood at 92% in 2024, increasing from 85% in 2023. “India’s innovative case finding approach, driven by the swift uptake of newer technologies, decentralisation of services and large-scale community mobilisation, has led to the country’s treatment coverage to surge to over 92% in 2024 from 53% in 2015,” the Union Health Ministry said in a statement.

— The expansion of treatment coverage came due to initiatives such as the BPaL regimen, which cut the treatment time for resistant infections to six months from the previous 18 to 24 months.

(Source: Why hasn’t India met its target of eliminating TB by 2025?)

Points to Ponder

Read more about T.B

Read about the initiatives related to TB elimination

Related Previous Year Questions

What is the basic principle behind vaccine development? How do vaccines work? What approaches were adopted by the Indian vaccine manufacturers to produce COVID-19 vaccines? (2022)

Stem cell therapy is gaining popularity in India to treat a wide variety of medical conditions including Leukaemia, Thalassemia, damaged cornea and several burns. Describe briefly what stem cell therapy is and what advantages it has over other treatments? (2017)

QUESTION 2: Discuss the risk-management concerns for banks arising out of the RBI’s export-relief measures and suggest ways to safeguard financial stability.

Note: This is not a model answer. It only provides you with thought process which you may incorporate into the answers.

Introduction:

— To ease debt repayment pressures on certain exporters hit by trade tensions with the US, which has imposed elevated tariffs of 50 per cent on Indian shipments, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced a set of relief measures.

— These include a four-month moratorium on loans and interest payments from September 1, 2025 to December 31, 2025, an extension of export credit tenure to 450 days, and relaxed asset classification norms which would ease payment burden.

— The RBI’s relief package comes soon after the government approved a six-year Export Promotion Mission with an outlay of Rs 25,060 crore. Together, the measures are expected to provide liquidity support to exporters and help them manage any short-term cash flow disruptions that may arise from delayed orders and payments.

Body:

You may incorporate some of the following points in your answer:

RBI’s relief measures

— Moratorium on debt repayments: The RBI said that its regulated entities — commercial banks, non-banking financial companies and all-India financial institutions — should grant a moratorium on or deferment of payment of all term loans and recovery of interest on working capital loans falling due between September 1, 2025, and December 31, 2025. In case of working capital facilities, the RBI said that regulated entities can recalculate “drawing power” by reducing the margins during the moratorium period.

— Relaxation in export credit repayment: The RBI said that all regulated entities eligible to undertake export financing business may permit an enhanced credit period of up to 450 days (from 270 days earlier) for pre-shipment and post-shipment export credit disbursed till March 31, 2026.

— Relaxed asset classification norms: The RBI said that the moratorium period should be excluded by lenders while calculating the number of days past due (DPD) for asset classification under the applicable Income Recognition, Asset Classification and Provisioning (IRACP) norms.

— Provisioning: The RBI said banks will have to make a general provision of 5 per cent against the accounts which were in default but classified as “standard” as on August 31, 2025, and where trade relief measures have been extended, by December 31, 2025.

— Amendment in FEMA regulations: The RBI also tweaked the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) regulation on realisation and repatriation of proceeds of export of goods, software, services and advance payment against exports. The exporters will now have 15 months instead of nine months for realisation and repatriation of full export value of goods, software, services exported from India. The time period for shipment of goods has been increased from one year to three years from the date of receipt of advance payment.

How it will safeguard financial stability

— The RBI’s relief measures are expected to ease short-term liquidity pressures and help exporters meet any payment obligations.

— The regulator said that its trade relief measures are aimed at “mitigating the burden of debt servicing brought about by trade disruptions caused by global headwinds and to ensure the continuity of viable businesses”.

— The proposed regulatory measures coupled with the credit guarantee scheme for exporters announced by the Government of India could provide liquidity relief to exporters and help them ride out the near-term pressure on cash flows because of deferment of orders or payments.

Conclusion:

— Sectors and articles such as organic chemicals, plastic, rubber, leather, carpets, apparel and clothing accessories, footwear, articles of iron or steel, nuclear reactors, boilers, electrical machinery and equipment and parts, aluminium, furniture, bedding, mattresses, mattress supports and cushions are eligible for the RBI’s trade relief measures.

(Source: RBI rolls out relief measures for tariff-affected exporters: How they could get relief)

Points to Ponder

Read about India’s export-import policy

What is financial inclusion?

Related Previous Year Questions

What are the challenges before the Indian economy when the world is moving away from free trade and multilateralism to protectionism and bilateralism? How can these challenges be met? (2025)

What are the causes of persistent high food inflation in India? Comment on the effectiveness of the monetary policy of the RBI to control this type of inflation. (2024)

Previous Mains Answer Practice

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 3 (Week 128)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 3 (Week 127)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 2 (Week 128)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 2 (Week 127)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 1 (Week 127)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 1 (Week 128)

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