UPSC Key: Elephant conservation in India, Swadeshi, and Chandrayaan-2

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national importance, environment. 

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

What’s the ongoing story: After over a year’s delay, the results of the Synchronous All India Elephant Estimation 2021-25 were released Tuesday (October 14) in Dehradun by officials of the Union Environment Ministry and Wildlife Institute of India (WII).

Key Points to Ponder:

— Read about elephants and their types.

— Know about the Synchronous All India Elephant Estimation (SAIEE).

— What are the key highlight of SAIEE 2021-25?

— What is the Conservation status of Asian elephants?

— What are the Elephant reserves in India?

— What is human-animal conflict?

— What are the issues related to elephant conservation in India?

— What are the initiatives taken by the government?

— What is the Project Elephant?

Key Takeaways:

— The estimation reported 22,446 elephants in the country, primarily concentrated across the Western Ghats in the southern states, and the hills and plains of the Northeast. And while the exercise followed a different methodology compared to previous SAIEEs, its results reveal significant challenges faced by India’s national heritage animal.

— The endangered Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) is an endangered species. It has been on the IUCN Red List, which details the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species, since 1986.

— As per official data, India accounts for the largest population, over 60%, of the endangered species. The largest mammal found in India’s forests, elephants have been counted every five years since the launch of Project Elephant in 1992.

— The latest estimation exercise was initiated in 2021-22. It was held simultaneously with the tiger count estimation for the very first time in order to harmonise estimation methods. The delay in results was due to additional sampling coverage in elephant occupied areas of Northeast, as the initial data was deemed limited compared to the distribution of elephants in the region.

— The results showed that the Western Ghats continues to be the home to the largest number of elephants, with 11,934 jumbos — more than half of India’s elephant population — found in this cluster. 

— The North Eastern Hills and Brahmaputra floodplains hold an estimated 6,559 elephants, Shivalik Hills and Gangetic plains have 2,062 elephants, and Central India and Eastern Ghats 1,891 elephants.

— Among states, Karnataka continues to be home to the largest elephant population, 6013, followed by Assam (4,159), Tamil Nadu (3,136), Kerala (2,785), Uttarakhand (1,792), and Odisha (912).

— The Brahmagiri – Nilgiri – Eastern Ghats block is home of the largest sub-population in Western Ghats. It comprises the Mysuru Elephant Reserve, Nilgiri Elephant Reserve, Wayanad Elephant Reserve, Nilambur Elephant Reserve and Coimbatore Elephant Reserve.

— Compared to the 2017 numbers, the estimated population of elephants has dipped by nearly 18%, with the highest dip seen across the Northeast Region and Central India and Eastern Ghats region. Jharkhand and Odisha have seen a 68% and 54% drop, respectively, compared to the 2017 estimate.

— The government has, however, said in the report that the current estimate is not directly comparable to earlier figures due to the change in methodology and protocol differences across estimation cycles. The latest SAIEE employed a methodology used to count tigers since 2006; the government has termed the population estimate as a “new baseline.”

— That said, despite the variance in methodologies and the resultant change in estimates, elephants face some steep challenges in the form of habitat loss and degradation, and threats due to mining and the growing network of linear infrastructure such as railways, roadways, canals and power lines.

Do You Know:

— Earlier elephant censuses relied on a mix of direct sightings, counts at waterholes, and dung-decay methods, where population density was inferred from how quickly dung was deposited and decayed. In recent rounds, this approach was refined by combining dung-decay data with sample block counts in 5 sq km areas, and then using extrapolation to estimate elephant numbers across larger landscapes.

— For SAIEE 2021–25, India’s forests were divided into 100 sq km cells, further subdivided into 25 sq km and 4 sq km grids, which is a design borrowed from the tiger estimation program used since 2006. Data on elephants and other species have been collected under this framework largely for mapping distribution and relative abundance.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍New count: Elephant population dips nearly 18%, Western Ghats remains primary habitat

📍Elephants as symbol of wealth and power in Indian culture 

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:

(1) With reference to Indian elephants, consider the following statements: (UPSC CSE 2020)

1. The leader of an elephant group is a female.

2. The maximum gestation period can be 22 months.

3. An elephant can normally go on calving till the age of 40 years only.

4. Among the States in India, the highest elephant population is in Kerala.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 and 2 only

(b) 2 and 4 only

(c) 3 only

(d) 1, 3 and 4 only

Swadeshi: the idea, its economics

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies-I, II: Modern Indian history from about the middle of the eighteenth century until the present –significant events, personalities, issues; Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

What’s the ongoing story: As the government doubles down on its swadeshi push, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday (October 8) became the latest member of the Union Cabinet to switch to the home-grown Zoho Mail.

Key Points to Ponder:

— What was the Swadeshi Movement in pre-independent India?

— What is the objective of the Swadeshi mission of the government?

— What is the impact of British rule on the Indian economy?

— What is the drain of wealth theory?

— The greatest champion of swadeshi as a moral force was Mahatma Gandhi. Elaborate.

— What are the various schemes launched by the government for creating Aatmanirbhar Bharat?

Key Takeaways:

— This came days after the Ministry of Education issued a circular titled ‘Strengthening digital sovereignty under Swadeshi movement’ which directed officials to use the “indigenous” Zoho Office Suite for official work to “empower India to lead with homegrown innovation, strengthen digital sovereignty, and secure our data for a self-reliant future”.

— Most notably, in 2020-21, the government had embraced the Mohandas Pai-funded Koo, a microblogging platform, as an alternative to Twitter (now X).

— The genesis of swadeshi as an idea can be traced to two interrelated criticisms of British rule: one, that colonialism was ruinous for India economically, and two, that it was pernicious to the nation’s culture and spiritual ethos.

— The former criticism was articulated in various forms from the early- to mid-19th century onwards, including in rebel proclamations in 1857. But its most sophisticated conceptions were put forth in the late-19th, early 20th centuries by Dadabhai Naoroji (1825-1917) and Romesh Chunder Dutt (1848-1909) who argued that “on the whole, British rule was economically injurious to India and that perhaps it was designedly so”. (Bipan Chandra, The rise and growth of economic nationalism in India, 1966).

— Dutt’s thesis on deindustrialisation — that the British destroyed traditional handicrafts of India, created a “helpless dependence” on agriculture, which in turn was ruined by excessive taxes — was in vogue, especially in Left intellectual circles, well into the 1970s-80s. 

— Naoroji’s “drain of wealth” theory, on the other hand, showed how the Indian taxpayer was effectively paying the British for his own servitude.

— In a series of speeches in Poona (now Pune) in 1872, Mahadev Govind Ranade (1842-1901) spoke about “preferring the goods produced in one’s own country even though they may prove to be dearer or less satisfactory than finer foreign products”. (Chandra 1966).

— The idea that the moral, patriotic obligation toward swadeshi overrode economic logic has been a central feature of the idea’s enduring political resonance — and its failures — over the years.

— The greatest champion of swadeshi as a moral force was Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), who, in a 1916 speech, described it as “that spirit in us which restricts us to the use and service of our immediate surroundings to the exclusion of the more remote”.

— This moral force operated across domains, from politics to religion to economics. Swadeshi, for Gandhi, was “the ‘law of laws’ ingrained in the basic nature of human being”, academic Siby K Joseph wrote in ‘Understanding Gandhi’s vision of Swadeshi’ in 2012.

— In economics, for instance, swadeshi would mean that one “should use only things that are produced by my immediate neighbours” (Joseph 2012). Gandhi’s argument was borne out of moral considerations.

— During the freedom struggle, the political deployment of swadeshi occurred in the form of boycotts of British-manufactured goods, and the concurrent push for indigenous manufacturing and enterprise.

— In 1896, Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1856-1920) organised public burnings of foreign cloth in the Bombay Presidency, as a response to newly-introduced excise duties on manufactured Indian cloth.

— Less than a decade later, the first “mass movement” of the freedom struggle, the so-called Swadeshi Movement which was triggered by Lord Curzon’s decision to Partition Bengal, borrowed heavily from Tilak’s methods.

— Beyond the rejection of foreign goods, swadeshi entailed embracing domestic industry. There was general consensus among Indian nationalists, including those on the Left, that industrialisation was necessary to uplift the country’s downtrodden masses. 

— By the 1930s, as the economic historian Aashish Velkar wrote, the concept of swadeshi had become a fulcrum for making capitalist demands.

— Nitin Pai, director of The Takshashila Institution, wrote in his 2021 paper ‘A Brief Economic History of Swadeshi’ that while the “fear of economic imperialism” drove Jawaharlal Nehru’s India to adopt a mixed economy model with a large role for the public sector, the use of “import substitution as a policy tool…eventually became an end in itself”.

— The result: decades of protectionism with the stated goal of helping domestic industry find its feet. Economists have long argued that this protectionism, while allaying the insecurities of indigenous capitalists by shielding them from competition, was ultimately detrimental for the economy on the whole.

— It was only in the 1980s, as the Indian economy stagnated and amid a crippling balance of payments crisis, that the allure of swadeshi in the halls of power in New Delhi began to wane.

— As India opened up it economy after the landmark economic reforms of 1991, swadeshi took a backseat for a couple of decades. This was the high noon of globalisation around the world, the “end of history” as Francis Fukuyama had famously declared.

— But this hyperglobalisation, which upended old supply chains and industries, particularly in the West, while providing a ballast for countries in the Global South — China, India, Vietnam, among others — to grow rapidly, ended with the financial crisis of 2008. 

— Since then, economic stagnation in developed countries, and growing popular resentment against offshoring and immigration, has created a new political and economic landscape for swadeshi.

— Although the BJP has frequently also championed easing FDI norms, since the beginning of Narendra Modi’s second term, the government has renewed its swadeshi push, in terms of both rhetoric and substance. 

— The Make in India initiative and the emphasis on creating an Aatmanirbhar Bharat (Self-reliant India) echo the concerns and prescriptions that advocates of swadeshi have had since the 19th century — but in context of the supply chain disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and India’s difficult relationship with China.

— But as past experiences show, an uncritical, dogmatic embracing of swadeshi may in the end be counterproductive. As Pai wrote, “the compass of economic nationalism is better pointed to samarthya (capability) rather than swadeshi.

Do You Know:

— Anil Agarwal writes: The road to Viksit Bharat by 2047 includes a destination we must reach much sooner. And that is Atmanirbhar Bharat. No nation has become strong by being dependent on imports.

— Just four policy measures can completely change the scenario: A new way of exploration, self-certification of clearances, rejuvenation of existing assets and a level playing field between public and private sector.

— The Prime Minister’s Swadeshi call, rooted in the legacy of the national movement, harks back to the Swadeshi movement of 1905-1911. Born out of the anti-partition protests in Bengal in British India, the Swadeshi movement put economic pressure on England by boycotting British goods and promoting Swadeshi goods. 

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍For an atmanirbhar Bharat, India needs to mine at home

📍Revisiting the legacy of Swadeshi movement amid Trump’s tariff tirade

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:

(2) With reference to Swadesh Movement consider the following statements: (UPSC CSE 2019)

1. It contributed to the revival of the indigenous artisan crafts and industries.

2. The National Council of Education was established as a part of Swadeshi Movement.

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

 

EXPRESS NETWORK

Chandrayaan-2 detects first evidence of solar storms stirring Moon’s atmosphere

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Main Examination: General Studies-III: Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and developing new technology.

What’s the ongoing story: An instrument aboard India’s Chandrayaan-2 mission has confirmed what scientists had long predicted — an increase in the density of molecules in the Moon’s exosphere, or its extremely thin atmosphere, during a major solar event called a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) last year.

Key Points to Ponder:

— What are the Chandrayaan missions?

— Read about the Chandrayaan-2 mission and its payloads in detail.

— What is the significance of Chandrayaan-2’s CHACE-2 instrument findings in studying the Moon’s exosphere?

— What is Coronal Mass Ejection (CME)?

— Read about the Moon’s exosphere?

— How do solar storms affect the Earth?

— What is Earth’s magnetic field?

Key Takeaways:

— The Moon’s exosphere, found close to its surface, is made up of molecules released through processes such as solar radiation, solar wind, and meteorite impacts. During a CME — when the Sun ejects a burst of plasma from its outer layer — more molecules are knocked off the lunar surface, raising the density of the exosphere. Unlike Earth, the Moon lacks a magnetic field to shield it from these solar blasts, making it especially vulnerable.

— This is what Chandrayaan-2’s payload, the Chandra’s Atmospheric Composition Explorer-2 (CHACE-2), recorded during a series of powerful CMEs in May last year. The event led to a noticeable increase in total pressure in the Moon’s sunlit exosphere, exactly when the CME reached the lunar surface.

— The finding is significant, as it deepens understanding of the Moon’s exosphere and space weather — knowledge crucial for India’s goal of sending humans to the Moon by 2040. Such insights will also help design lunar habitats that can withstand extreme solar events, which are known to damage satellites outside Earth’s magnetic field.

Do You Know:

— A solar storm or a Coronal Mass Ejection as astronomers call it, is an ejection of highly magnetised particles from the sun. These particles can travel several million km per hour and can take about 13 hours to five days to reach Earth.

— Earth’s atmosphere protects us humans from these particles. But the particles can interact with our Earth’s magnetic field, induce strong electric currents on the surface and affect man-made structures.

— The first recorded solar storm occurred in 1859 and it reached Earth in about 17 hours. It affected the telegraph network and many operators experienced electric shocks.

— The Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT) on board the Aditya-L1 mission has captured a solar flare ‘kernel’ in the lower solar atmosphere, namely the photosphere and the chromosphere.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Explained: Can a solar storm disrupt an internet connection?

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:

(3) If a major solar storm (solar flare) reaches the Earth, which of the following are the possible effects on the Earth?( UPSC CSE 2022)

1. GPS and navigation systems could fail.

2. Tsunamis could occur at equatorial regions.

3. Power grids could be damaged.

4. Intense auroras could occur over much of the Earth.

5. Forest fires could take place over much of the planet.

6. Orbits of the satellites could be disturbed.

7. Shortwave radio communication of the aircraft flying over polar regions could be interrupted.

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

(a) 1, 2, 4 and 5 only

(b) 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7 only

(c) 1, 3, 4, 6 and 7 only

(d) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7

Previous year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:

India has achieved remarkable successes in unmanned space missions including the Chandrayaan and Mars Orbiter Mission, but has not ventured into manned space missions, both in terms of technology and logistics? Explain critically (UPSC 2017)

Staff seek old scheme as govt extends opt-in period for UPS

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies-II: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

What’s the ongoing story: Even as the government’s Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) that was introduced earlier this year has found few takers so far, several employee associations are now planning to hold a protest at Jantar Mantar on November 9 to press for a return to the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) that was replaced by the National Pension System (NPS) in 2004.

Key Points to Ponder:

— What are UPS, OPS, and NPS?

— What are the key features of UPS?

— What are the reasons for discontinuing OPS?

— What is the purpose of providing pension schemes by the government?

— How is UPS different from the Old Pension Scheme and NPS?

— What are the benefits of UPS?

— What are the provisions of pension under voluntary retirement in UPS?

— The government had moved away from OPS due to its unsustainable fiscal liability on the Government exchequer. Elaborate.

Key Takeaways:

— The All-India NPS Employees Federation, along with other associations, is set to hold the protest to demand restoration of OPS at Jantar Mantar, its president, Manjeet Singh Patel, said. The federation has written to the Delhi Police to intimate the same, he said.

— According to government sources, only about 4.5% (1.11 lakh) of the 23.93 lakh employees under NPS had decided to switch to UPS as on September 30.

— The Cabinet had approved the UPS in August 2024 and the Ministry of Finance rolled it out with effect from April 1 this year. Initially, employees under NPS had till June 30 to opt-in for UPS, but the deadline has been extended twice due to the slow pace of adoption, first till September 30 and then till November 30.

— Under OPS, employees get 50% of their last drawn basic salary as pension. All those employed on or after January 1, 2004, are under the NPS — in which the pension amount is linked to the markets and the amount invested by the employee.

— With employees continuing to demand a return to OPS, the government last year came up with the UPS, in which employees are guaranteed 50% of the average basic pay drawn in the last 12 months prior to retirement as pension for those completing 25 years of service. 

— Employees under NPS have the option of switching over to UPS. However, many Central government employees, requesting anonymity, said the NPS, which is linked to the markets, was still a better option than the UPS.

— In a representation submitted to the Department of Pensions and Pensioners Welfare on October 7, the federation demanded that the pension benefits under UPS be made applicable from the date of voluntary retirement, rather than the date of superannuation. 

Do You Know:

Key features of UPS:

1. Assured Pension: The scheme provides an ‘Assured Pension’, which will be calculated at 50 per cent of the average basic pay drawn over the last 12 months by the employee, prior to superannuation or before their retirement, for a minimum qualifying service of 25 years. The pension will be proportionate for a lesser service period up to a minimum of 10 years of service.

2. Assured minimum pension: The UPS guarantees a monthly pension of Rs 10,000 for superannuation after at least 10 years of service.

3. Assured family pension: If a retiree dies, their immediate family is entitled to 60% of the pension last taken by the retiree.

4. Inflation indexation: Dearness relief for three types of pensions will be determined using the All India Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers, which is similar to serving workers.

5. Lumpsum payment at superannuation: In addition to gratuity, lump-sum payment will be given at superannuation. This will be one-tenth of the monthly emolument (pay + DA) as on the date of superannuation for every completed six months of service. The payment will not reduce the quantum of assured pension.

6. Pension assurance for compulsorily retired employees: The UPS will also be available for employees compulsorily retired under fundamental rule 56 (j), which is not a penalty under central civil services rules, the notification said. However, assured payout will not be available in case of removal or dismissal from service or resignation of the employee. “In such cases, the Unified Pension Scheme option shall not apply,” it said.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Unified Pension Scheme: All that matters for UPSC Exam

📍Explained: In Unified Pension Scheme, extra burden on govt but no pushing back on reforms

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:

(4) Who among the following can join the National Pension System (NPS)? (UPSC CSE 2017)

(a) Resident Indian citizens only

(b) Persons of age from 21 to 55 only

(c) All State Government employees joining the services after the date of notification by the respective State Governments

(d) All Central Government employees including those of Armed Forces joining the services on or after 1st April, 2004

 

THE WORLD

Blackouts and water shortages: The other side of tech companies’ AI frenzy

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance, Environment. 

Mains Examination: General Studies-III: Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life,  Awareness in the fields of IT, Environment. 

What’s the ongoing story: The United States has been at the nexus of a data center boom, as OpenAI, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and others invest hundreds of billions to build the giant computing sites in the name of advancing artificial intelligence. But the companies have also exported the construction frenzy abroad, with less scrutiny.

Key Points to Ponder:

— What is AI? What are the various applications of AI?

— What is the distinction between AI data centres and traditional data centres?

— What are the concerns associated with the use of AI?

— What are the challenges associated with the AI data centres?

— What are the recent collaborations signed by India in this regard?

Key Takeaways:

— Nearly 60 percent of the 1,244 largest data centers in the world were outside the United States as of the end of June, according to an analysis by Synergy Research Group, which studies the industry. More are coming, with at least 575 data center projects in development globally from companies including Tencent, Meta and Alibaba.

— As data centers rise, the sites — which need vast amounts of power for computing and water to cool the computers — have contributed to or exacerbated disruptions not only in Mexico, but in more than a dozen other countries, according to a New York Times examination.

— In Ireland, data centers consume more than 20 percent of the country’s electricity. In Chile, precious aquifers are in danger of depletion. In South Africa, where blackouts have long been routine, data centers are further taxing the national grid. Similar concerns have surfaced in Brazil, Britain, India, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Singapore and Spain.

— The issues have been compounded by a lack of transparency. Google, Amazon, Microsoft and other tech companies often work through subsidiaries and service providers to build data centers, masking their presence and revealing little about the resources that the facilities consume.

— Many governments are eager for an A.I. foothold, too. They have provided cheap land, tax breaks and access to resources and are taking a hands-off approach to regulation and disclosures.

— Tech companies, which are racing to build data centers to power new A.I. models and create “superintelligence,” or A.I. with power that exceeds the human brain, said the boom brought jobs and investment. They added that they were working to shrink their environmental footprint by generating their own energy and recycling water.

— Directly linking any data center to local power and water shortages is difficult. Yet building in areas with unstable grids and existing water strains has pressured already frail systems, according to experts, increasing the potential for cascading effects.

— In country after country, activists, residents and environmental organizations have banded together to oppose data centers. Some have tried blocking the projects, while others have pushed for more oversight and transparency.

Do You Know:

— Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to the field of computer science which aims to make computer systems think, reason, learn, and act to solve a complex system like humans.

— To enable computer systems to imitate the way that humans learn, and perform tasks autonomously (meaning, without instructions), machine learning (ML) is used. ML is implemented by training (this term will also be explained in subsequent explainers) computers on data so that they can make predictions about new information.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍The dark side of AI: Its growing environmental footprint

📍AI basics: What are artificial intelligence and machine learning?

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:

(5) With the present state of development, Artificial Intelligence can effectively do which of the following? (UPSC CSE 2020)

1. Bring down electricity consumption in industrial units

2. Create meaningful short stories and songs

3. Disease diagnosis

4. Text-to-Speech Conversion

5. Wireless transmission of electrical energy

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

(a) 1, 2, 3 and 5 only

(b) 1, 3 and 4 only

(c) 2, 4 and 5 only

(d) 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5

 

THE EDITORIAL PAGE

A campus that listens

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies-II: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

What’s the ongoing story:  S S Mantha and Ashok Thakur write: The Supreme Court had to intervene last month suo motu, following tragic incidents of student suicides in top institutions including IITs, highlighting the urgent need for systemic reform. The NCRB 2022 statistics are staggering — 7.6 per cent of the total suicides in India were by students, translating to 13,089, an increase from 12,526 from the previous year. 

Key Points to Ponder:

— What is the Sustainable Development Goal of reducing suicide mortality?

— What is the status of the mental health care system in India?

— What is the National Suicide Prevention Strategy?

— What is the recent data of the World Health Organisation on mental health?

— What is mental health literacy?

— What are the measures adopted by the government to integrate mental health support in our health care?

— From individuals to school and college institutions— what are the necessary steps need to be taken to provide mental health support? 

Key Takeaways:

— Almost 44 per cent of these were female, while 56.51 per cent were male. The most affected states were Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Madhya Pradesh. 

— It is distressing to see young college students and those in their early 20s dying by suicide. That it is happening with great regularity is a blot on our societal standards and norms. 

— Academic pressure, financial burden, social isolation, and identity crisis could all be reasons. Tackling depression and suicidal ideation among university students requires more than pamphlets and crisis hotlines.

— Even as traditional therapy, medication, and counselling are vital, there is an urgent need for some innovative and holistic strategies to support student mental health in personalised ways.

— Mental health literacy is one of the most underutilised but powerful tools in fighting depression. Maybe gamified mental health education is an answer.

— Why not integrate interactive, story-driven apps or games into freshers’ orientation or course modules in our universities? Through gamification, students can learn about anxiety, depression, coping strategies, and when to seek help.

— “SPARX” (Smart, Positive, Active, Realistic, X-factor thoughts) is a digital platform that uses a fantasy-themed role-playing game to deliver Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to those experiencing mild to moderate depression. It helps in personal connection and recall, making students more likely to seek support when needed.

— Peer support is another powerful method. Many students are more likely to confide in a peer than a professor or counsellor. Our institutions must train select students as Mental Health Navigators (MHNs), equipped with mental health first aid, motivational interviewing, and active listening skills.

— Several technology-based tools too could be used. Every student has a smartphone. Why not use them to manage mental health? Some universities are beginning to experiment with AI-powered mood tracking apps that monitor language, sleep, and social behaviours via passive data and self-reporting. 

— Even physical spaces significantly impact emotional well-being. Why not rethink campus architecture with mental health in mind? Universities could create “emotional wellness zones”, designed for de-stressing and reflection. 

— Lack of sleep and poor nutrition are both strongly correlated with depression. Campuses must innovate by creating “wellness labs” or “body-mind biohacking labs”, spaces where students experiment with improving sleep, nutrition, and hydration under guided protocols. 

— Mental health is not one-size-fits-all. Just as an academic advising helps students achieve goals, mental health roadmaps should also be customised.

— Finally, many students report feeling unseen or unheard by the institution itself. Faculty and administration should undergo “radical listening” training, learning to create safe spaces for students to voice their concerns without fear of judgment or retaliation.

Do You Know:

— Suicide accounts for one in every 100 deaths globally. According to new data released by the World Health Organisation (WHO), an estimated 727,000 people across all ages lost their lives to suicide in 2021, with one suicide death happening in over 20 suicide attempts. The WHO further says that more than a billion people are living with mental health disorders.

— The new findings were published in two reports – ‘World Mental Health Today’ and ‘Mental Health Atlas 2024.’ Over the next few weeks, WHO will also be releasing country profiles as part of ‘Mental Health Atlas 2024,’ the first after Covid and factors in after-effects of the pandemic.

— The most common mental disorders are anxiety and depressive disorders, which together accounted for more than two-thirds of all mental health conditions in 2021. Between 2011 and 2021, the number of people living with mental disorders increased faster than the global population.

— As a result, the global age-standardized point prevalence of mental disorders reached 13.6 per cent, which is 0.9 per cent higher than a decade ago.

— Younger adults aged 20–29 years are estimated to have the largest increases (1.8 per cent) in prevalence since 2011. Males are estimated to more commonly have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorders, and idiopathic disorder of intellectual development (comprising intellectual disability from any unknown source).

— Females are estimated to more often experience anxiety, depressive and eating disorders. Anxiety disorders typically emerge earlier than depressive disorders, which are rare before ten years of age.

— Suicide is the leading cause of death among young people across all countries and socio-economic contexts. Yet, progress in reducing suicide mortality is too low to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of a one-third reduction in suicide rates by 2030.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍World Mental Health Day 2024: Towards a holistic understanding of mental health

📍Over a billion people living with mental health conditions globally: WHO

Previous year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:

Why suicide among young women is increasing in Indian society? (UPSC CSE 2023)

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Centre plans play on Sardar Patel’s life, NSD to stage it in cities across the country

To mark Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s 150th birth anniversary next week, the government has commissioned a play on his life story, which will be staged in Gujarat’s Kevadia on October 30-31. The play will showcase Sardar Pate’s return to Ahmedabad as a barrister after studying law in London, and how a 1916 speech by Bal Gangadhar Tilak marked the turning point in Patel’s political consciousness.  Patel was so moved by Tilak’s message of Swaraj (self-rule) that it inspired him to erect a statue of Tilak, despite British opposition. His relationship with Mahatma Gandhi will also be highlighted; how in 1946, just ahead of Independence, Patel didn’t flinch when asked by Gandhi to withdraw his candidacy for the Indian National Congress presidency in favour of Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru then went on to become the country’s first Prime Minister, Patel was the Deputy PM and Home Minister.

 

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