UPSC Key: Dragonfly, Railway finances and Green Card

Key Points to Ponder:

• Who is Marco Rubio?

• Who is called the Secretary of State?

• Is Secretary of State equivalent to foreign Minister?

• The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio visit to India-what are the key takeaways?

• Why the United States has emerged as an important energy partner for India?

• Know the evolution of India–US relations with special reference to energy cooperation.

• What is Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD)?

• Know the Principles and the motive behind the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD)

• Who are member nations in Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD)?

• Who are observer nations in Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD)?

• Know the difference between observer and member countries

• What are U.S. interests in the Quad?

• What is Japan’s aims for the Quad?

• How is China’s relations with each of the Quad members?

• The QUAD in the Indo-Pacific region and its geopolitical implication-Know in detail

• How QUAD is Significant for India?

Key Takeaways:

• Rubio, who landed in Kolkata in the morning before travelling to New Delhi, also “shared US perspective on various regional and global issues, including the situation in West Asia,” according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office.

• US State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said, “The Secretary and Prime Minister discussed the current situation in the Middle East. The Secretary emphasized that the United States will not let Iran hold the global energy market hostage and affirmed that US energy products have the potential to diversify India’s energy supply”.

• The Prime Minister, according to the PMO, reaffirmed India’s consistent support for “peace efforts and reiterated the call for peaceful resolution of the conflicts through dialogue and diplomacy”, the PMO.

• Rubio’s visit – he will be attending the May 26 meeting of Quad Foreign Ministers – is important given that bilateral ties have been hit in the last 12 months, more so post Operation Sindoor. US visa curbs, deportations and President Donald Trump’s pronounced tilt towards Pakistan. The war in West Asia, triggered by the US-Israel combine’s attack on Iran, has had an adverse economic impact on India.

Do You Know:

• Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) is the informal strategic dialogue between India, USA, Japan and Australia. The four nations share a common objective to ensure and support a “free, open and prosperous” Indo-Pacific region.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍The Quad question: Rejuvenate, neglect or abandon?

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
1) With reference to the ‘Trans-Pacific Partnership’, consider the following statements: (UPSC CSE, 2016)
1. It is an agreement among all the Pacific Rim countries except China and Russia.
2. It is a strategic alliance for the purpose of maritime security only.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

New friction point: Return-home rule for Green Card applicants

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests, Indian diaspora.

What’s the ongoing story: IN WHAT could emerge as a new point of contention between New Delhi and Washington DC, the Donald Trump-led US administration has announced that those in the US temporarily must return to their home countries to apply for a Green Card. A Green Card (officially known as a Permanent Resident Card) allows a person to live and work permanently in the United States.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What is Green Card?

• The Donald Trump-led US administration has announced certain changes for the Green Card-what are those?

• What is the significance of skilled migration in the India–US relationship?

• What is the difference between Adjustment of Status and Consular Processing in immigration systems?

• Know the role of the Indian diaspora in strengthening India–US relations.

• What can be the long and short term implications of restrictive immigration policies for skilled labour mobility?

Key Takeaways:

• The announcement by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services is a sweeping reversal of a practice in place for over half a century. It could potentially impact thousands of Indians presently in the US in different stages of residence and seeking a Green Card.

• The earlier policy allowed foreign workers to change from non-immigrant to immigrant by applying for “adjustment of status” from within the US. “From now on, an alien who is in the US temporarily and wants a Green Card must return to their home country to apply, except in extraordinary circumstances,” USCIS spokesperson Zach Kahler said in a statement.

Do You Know:

• While there are approximately 1.5 million Indian Green Card holders in the US, an additional 1.2 million highly skilled Indian nationals and their dependents are estimated to be presently stuck in the employment-based Green Card backlog. Every year, tens of thousands of new Green Cards are issued to Indian nationals, positioning India as the second-largest country of origin for new permanent residents.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Trump’s green card rule explained: What it means for visa holders in the US

Previous year UPSC main Question Covering similar theme:
📍The Indian diaspora has a decisive role to play in the politics and economy of America and European Countries’. Comment with examples. (UPSC CSE, GS2, 2020)

Opinion

What a raingauge tells us about Indian science history

Preliminary Examination: History of India

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.

What’s the ongoing story: India’s contributions to global scientific and technological developments are quite significant, but sadly, neither India nor the rest of the world knows much about them. A primary reason is that, unlike the West, not a single Indian university, IITs, or IISc has a credible research unit on the history of science and technology.

Key Points to Ponder:

• Know the significance of rainfall measurement in ancient and modern governance systems.

• What is the contribution of the Arthashastra to administrative and scientific thought?

• “The history of science is also a history of institutions, governance, and social organisation”-discuss

• What are the implications of data-driven governance in historical and modern contexts?

Key Takeaways:

• The Arthashastra, attributed to Kautilya, chief minister to Chandragupta Maurya, is a treatise on statecraft, economics, and administration written roughly around the 4th-3rd century BCE.

• What is mostly unknown is that it contains the details of a complete operational system for measuring rainfall — a standardised instrument, defined units of measurement, prescribed placement locations, and a regional data collection system for six distinct zones of the subcontinent. This is an example of evidence-based hydrological knowledge that drove Indian public policy.

• The unit of measurement was the drona, approximately 13.2 kg by weight of water, translatable into a depth reading. The text then enumerates expected annual rainfall for six distinct regions of the empire: Himalayan foothills, Gangetic plains, regions toward the western and southern coasts, and drier inland zones. Actual rainfall was used as a proxy for economic conditions of a primarily agrarian country to decide on taxation and also subsidies when rainfall was low.

Do You Know:

• The next development in raingauge came more than 17 centuries later. The Korean Cheugugi, installed under King Sejong in 1441 CE, is consistently cited in international hydrological literature as the world’s first standardised raingauge network. European instrumentation began even later: with Benedetto Castelli’s rainfall observations in 1639, followed by Christopher Wren’s tipping-bucket gauge in 1662.

• If the Arthashastra’s system is accepted on its own terms, it represents the earliest documented, state-administered rainfall measurement system in the entire recorded human history.
What makes this finding genuinely remarkable is not merely the instrument. The measurement was mandatory, not a matter of local discretion. The gauge was placed at a specific government facility, the storehouse, ensuring consistency across locations. The data was fed directly into tax policy. The text explicitly connects rainfall totals to the remission of agricultural taxes. Farmers in drought-stricken regions received state relief calibrated to what the gauge recorded. This is integrated, evidence-based governance, a hydrological information system embedded in the machinery of an ancient state.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍A deluge from history: How Indian monsoon was documented by foreign travellers

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
2) According to Kautilya’s Arthashastra, which of the following are correct? (UPSC CSE, 2022)
1. A person could be a slave as a result of a judicial punishment.
2. If a female slave bore her master a son, she was legally free.
3. If a son born to a female slave was fathered by her master, the son was entitled to the legal status of the master’s son.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3

Economy

How a Supreme Court verdict may put Railways’ finances under strain

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment.

What’s the ongoing story: For around a decade now, the Indian Railways has operated under the tag of an electricity distribution entity, allowing it to procure electricity at a lower cost.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What is a deemed licensee?

• Why did the Railways seek the tag?

• How could these surcharges affect Railway finances?

• What is the structure of Indian Railways’ revenue and expenditure system?

• What is the significance of operating ratio in assessing Railway finances.

• What is the implications of the Supreme Court ruling on Railways’ electricity procurement costs?

Key Takeaways:

• A recent Supreme Court order, however, has cancelled this “deemed licensee” status, setting off alarm bells for the national transporter at a time when its earnings are already under stress.

• The Railways is the country’s single largest user of electricity, deploying it mainly to run its locomotives as it rapidly electrifies the track network. It spent Rs 32,378 crore to run trains in 2024-25. But the Supreme Court ruling could push up these traction energy costs by over 30%, the Railway Board has warned in a May 15 letter.

• This would come on top of a 11.6% increase in ordinary working expenses (OWE) and 9.1% rise in pension expenditure in April. Meanwhile, freight operations, which make up 65% of the Railways’ earnings, have declined by 5%.
All this could combine to hurt the Railways’ operating ratio — that is, how much it spends to earn every rupee — which has been under pressure for years. A lower operating ratio indicates better financial health. Railways’ operating ratio has usually remained above 98%, meaning it spends more than Rs 98 to earn Rs 100.

Do You Know:

• A deemed distribution licensee is essentially a type of power distribution company (discom). It operates a system to distribute and supply electricity — rather than consuming it for its own use.
A consumer can procure electricity in two ways — either from the distribution licensee in their area or through “open access”. If the consumer opts for the second route, they need to pay two surcharges — ‘cross-subsidy surcharge’ and ‘additional surcharge’. These charges compensate distribution companies for subsidised tariffs extended to categories such as farmers and low-income households.

• The Railways used to procure electricity like an ordinary consumer through the second route, paying both surcharges.
But it argued that it qualified as a deemed distribution licensee since it operated a vast electricity distribution network for locomotives, signalling systems and station facilities. This status allowed it to procure electricity through open access without paying the two surcharges.
It began operating under this tag in November 2015 following a Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) order.

• For FY27, total revenue is projected at Rs 3.02 lakh crore and total expenditure is estimated at Rs 2.99 lakh crore. Of this revenue, passenger revenue is projected at Rs 87,300 crore and freight revenue at Rs 1.89 lakh crore
In comparison, passenger revenue stood at Rs 75,368 crore in 2024-25 and around Rs 80,000 crore in 2025-26. Freight earnings were Rs 1.71 lakh crore in 2024-25 and Rs 1.77 lakh crore in 2025-26.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍How India is modernising railways, the ‘transport lifeline of the nation’

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
3) Consider the following statements: (UPSC CSE, 2025)
I. Indian Railways have prepared a National Rail Plan (NRP) to create a future-ready railway system by 2028.
II. ‘Kavach’ is an Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system developed in collaboration with Germany.
III. ‘Kavach’ system consists of RFID tags fitted on tracks in station sections.
Which of the above statements given above are not correct?
(a) I and II only
(b) II and III only
(c) I and III only
(d) I, II and III

Down in Jungle

Dragonfly Down

Preliminary Examination: General issues on Environmental ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate Change – that do not require subject specialization.

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.

What’s the ongoing story: Dragons and damsels lay their eggs in and under water and that water must meet quality standards required for the species: some can tolerate fairly polluted waters, most cannot

Key Points to Ponder:

• Know the features and characteristics of Dragonflies.

• What is bioindicator?

• What is the ecological significance of wetlands?

• Why dragonflies are often considered indicators of water quality?

• Why freshwater ecosystems are increasingly treated as policy concerns?

• What are the major threats facing freshwater ecosystems in India?

Key Takeaways:

• In their own right, they are magnificent, well-armed flying machines, taking down flies (as many as 40 in an hour), mosquitoes and other flying insects (including others of their kind) in mid-air, fiercely dogfighting each other for air space which they assiduously patrol. It’s something they have been doing for the past 250 to 300 million years, when incidentally they were much larger (with 70 cm wingspans).

• Dragons are stouter, bigger and more robust than the damsels, who are needle slim and stay close and virtually invisible near the surface of a water body. Dragons rest with their wings outspread, damsels with wings demurely folded along their fuselages.

• Most surprisingly, they spend most of their lives in the guise of fearsomely armed ‘nymphs’ or naiads – underwater, for as many as up to five years, terrorising small fish and tadpoles with their prehensile flick-knife like mandibles, swiftly moving with the help of jet-propelled enemas, before finally moulting and crawling up a stem or stalk and transforming in the sun into the master areal hunters that they are.

Do You Know:

• Of the some 5,000 species worldwide, India has around 500 (Delhi about 50), and Dragonfly month is celebrated in August which is the best month to see them. And now, the dragons are down! Lady dragons and damsels lay their eggs in and under water – in streams, rivers, lakes, (and even swimming pools) and that water must meet quality standards required for the species: some can tolerate fairly polluted waters, most not. A two-year study and survey conducted between 2021 and 2023 – in some of their hotspot habitats — the Western Ghats, spanning five states, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Goa and Gujarat, by the MIT-World Peace University and Society for Odonata Studies, revealed a whopping 35 per cent decline in the number of species observed, many of them endemic.

• Endemic species are usually fussy and particular about the kind of habitats they choose to live and reproduce in, and these guys are clearly sending out huge warning signals: The water is too polluted, degraded and disturbed, for them to lay their eggs in, and even if they do, for their nymphs to survive. And behind it are the usual suspects: pollution, reckless infrastructure development, quarrying and mining, rampant building of hydroelectric power plants, climate change, irresponsible tourism, fragmentation, et al. All this coming from one of the world’s top biodiversity hotspots, which ought to be guarded zealously, with pride, and not ravaged and made sewer-filthy.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Survey shows 35% drop in recorded dragonfly, damselfly populations in Western Ghats

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
4) Which of the following organisms perform a waggle dance for others of their kin to indicate the direction and the distance to a source of their food? (UPSC CSE, 2023)
(a) Butterflies
(b) Dragonflies
(c) Honey Bees
(d) Wasps

 

PRELIMS ANSWER KEY

1.(d)  2.(d)  3.(d)  4.(c)

  

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