UPSC Key: Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, SC sub-categorisation, and UNSC reforms

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Mains Examination: General Studies-II: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.

What’s the ongoing story: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is headed to Saudi Arabia next week — his first visit to the country in his third term. Since first assuming office in 2014, Modi has travelled there twice before — in 2016 and 2019.

Key Points to Ponder:

— What is the significance of the IMEEC (India-Middle East-Europe Corridor) in the India-Saudi Arabia relationship?

— Learn about the historical background of the India-Saudi relationship.

— What are the areas of cooperation and conflict?

— Ties with Saudi Arabia are important for energy security. Elaborate.

— What are the reasons for turmoil in the Red Sea region? How has maritime trade been affected because of that?

Key Takeaways:

— Sources said that trade and investments, energy cooperation, reviving the IMEEC (India-Middle East-Europe Corridor) and defence partnership will be among the issues on the agenda for discussion when Modi visits the country on April 22-23.

— Modi is expected to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah. His visit comes ahead of US President Donald Trump’s expected visit to Saudi Arabia in mid-May — Trump’s first foreign trip in his second term at the White House.

— The tension in the West Asian region has impacted the ambitious IMEEC in the last couple of years, ever since the October 7, 2023, terror attacks by Hamas on Israel led to the war in Gaza. New Delhi would want to take stock of the current situation, and move forward on the IMEEC — that will connect India with Europe, through the Middle East.

— Saudi Arabia is a key partner in this endeavour and India wants to move on this swiftly, after high-level visits by the UAE’s royalty, Israel’s minister and Italy’s deputy prime minister among others.

— Modi visited Riyadh again in October 2019, during which the Strategic Partnership Council Agreement was signed, establishing a high-level council to steer India-Saudi ties. Prince Mohammed bin Salman then visited India in September 2023 to participate in the G20 Leaders’ Summit and to co-chair the First Leaders’ Meeting of the India-Saudi Arabia Strategic Partnership Council along with Modi.

— Ties with Saudi Arabia are important for energy security — it was India’s third largest crude and petroleum products sourcing destination in 2023-24. India imported 33.35 MMT of crude oil from Saudi Arabia in 2023-24, accounting for 14.3% of the country’s total crude oil imports. Saudi Arabia was the third largest LPG sourcing destination for India in this period, accounting for 18.2% of India’s total LPG imports. Delhi will want to engage with Saudi for better deals, as they discuss India’s high energy needs.

— Indian investments in Saudi Arabia have also increased in recent years, reaching a cumulative figure of approximately US$ 3 billion in August 2023. Saudi investment in India has been about US$ 10 billion. Efforts will be made to enhance these investments as well.

Do You Know:

— The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) is a connectivity project that seeks to develop a seamless infrastructure of ports, railways, roads, sea lines and pipelines to enhance trade among India, the Arabian Peninsula, the Mediterranean region and Europe.

— The IMEC aims to capitalise on the existing trade routes between India and the Arab Gulf and the Eastern Mediterranean and Europe and build the missing infrastructure to link the Gulf and Mediterranean regions.

— The project is an outcome of the growing diplomatic and political convergence between India, the Arab Gulf monarchies, Israel, the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) with a common understanding for the need to enhance sea and land connectivity towards greater economic exchanges among these regions.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor: Significance and Prospects for India

📍Israel, Saudi Arabia, and churn in the Middle East: The view from India

Previous year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:

The question of India’s Energy Security constitutes the most important part of India’s economic progress. Analyse India’s energy policy cooperation with West Asian countries. (2017)

EXPLAINED

The Andhra Pradesh SC sub-quotas, and how they will work

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance – Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues

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: The Andhra Pradesh Cabinet on Tuesday (April 15) approved the draft ordinance proposal made by the Social Welfare Department to implement sub-categorisation among Scheduled Castes in the state. Basically, this means that the state government wants to give ‘reservation within reservation’ to communities based on their backwardness.

Key Points to Ponder:

— What is an ordinance? Which articles of the Constitution give power to the government to pass an ordinance?

— What is the Supreme Court ruling on the sub-categorisation of the SC community?

— What was the purpose of the reservation? Has it achieved its objective?

— What do you understand by ‘reservation within reservation’?

— What are the arguments for and against the subcategorisation of the SC community?

— Connect various provisions of the Constitution with this – Preamble, Fundamental Rights and DPSP.

Key Takeaways:

— In the backdrop of the Supreme Court’s verdict allowing states to sub-classify Scheduled Castes, the Telugu Desam Party-led NDA government in Andhra Pradesh on November 15, 2024 formed a commission to study SC sub-categorisation in the state.

— Leaders of SCs, and STs, and BCs say that it is important to provide reservations based on the numerical strength of the various sub-castes, rather than give a consolidated quota for all of them based on their overall population.

— The SC sub-caste of Madiga, which is further divided into several other sub-castes, claims that the other main SC sub-caste, the Mala community, corners all reservation benefits in the state.

— The Rajeev Ranjan Mishra Commission recommended dividing the SCs in Andhra Pradesh into 59 SC sub-groups classified into three different categories.

— Group 1 consists of the ‘Most Backward’, known as the Relli sub-group. Group 2 consists of 18 castes of the Madiga sub-group, and has been classified as `backward’, including the Arundhatiya, Bindala, Chamar, Chambhar… Group 3 comprises 29 castes of the Mala Group classified as `less backward’, including Adi Dravida, Anamuk, Arayamala…

— Group 1 – Most Backward (Relli sub-group) – 1.0% reservation

Group 2 – Backward (Madiga sub-groups) – 6.5% reservation

Group 3 – Relatively Less Backward (Mala sub-groups) – 7.5% reservation

— It is aimed at the integrated and equitable progress of various sub-castes in the state, ensuring their inclusion in education, government jobs, politics, and civil society representation.

Do You Know:

— Telangana became the first state in the country to implement the Scheduled Caste sub-categorisation, popularly called reservation within reservation.

— This comes after a seven-judge Constitution Bench in Davinder Singh v State of Punjab (August 2024) that allowed further sub-classification of SCs and STs to ensure the grant of quota to more backward castes inside these groups.

— The Seven-judges Bench, headed by then Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud in a 6:1 ruling, permitted states to create sub-classifications within the SC and ST categories for the purpose of according wider protections — through fixed sub-quotas — to the most backward communities within these categories

— This judgement overturns the apex court’s 2004 decision in E V Chinnaiah v State of Andhra Pradesh, in which it had held that the SC/ST list is a “homogenous group” that cannot be divided further. The Court has stated that micro-classification of SCs was unconstitutional.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Knowledge Nugget: What to look for in Telangana’s implementation of Scheduled Castes sub-categorisation for your UPSC exam

Prelims Question Covering similar theme:

(1) Consider the following organizations/bodies in India:

1. The National Commission for Scheduled Castes

2. The National Human Rights Commission

3. The National Law Commission

4. The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission

How many of the above constitutional bodies?

(a) Only one

(b) Only two

(c) Only three

(d) All four

UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:

Whether National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) can enforce the implementation of constitutional reservation for the Schedules Castes in the religious minority institutions? Examine.(2018)

Kailash Mansarovar Yatra to resume soon: Everything you need to know

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Mains Examination: General Studies-I: Salient features of the world’s physical geography.

General Studies-II: India and its neighbourhood- relations.

What’s the ongoing story: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday announced that the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, which has not taken place since 2020, will resume this year. This comes as a part of a larger rapprochement between India and China in recent months.

Key Points to Ponder:

— What is the cultural significance of Kailash Mansarovar Yatra?

— Read about the geographical location of Kailash Mansarovar, the routes leading to it, Demchok and Depsang

— How has the India-China relationship evolved in recent times?

— What are the other people-to-people connect initiatives between India and China?

Key Takeaways:

— While the yatra had initially been suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic, deteriorating relations between India and China meant that it did not resume even after the virus was no longer a concern.

— Since 2024, however, both countries have been looking to improve ties. They signed a pact last October to disengage at Demchok and Depsang, the two remaining friction points on the border.

— The resumption of the yatra was formally discussed for the first time at the Special Representatives meet in Beijing between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and China Foreign Minister Wang Yi in December.

— Lake Mansarovar, known locally as Mapam Yumtso, is a high altitude freshwater lake near Mount Kailash in the Ngari Prefecture of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).

— Both the lake, which is at an elevation of 4,600 metres, and the adjacent 6,638-metre high mountain, which Hindus believe is the home to Lord Shiva, are sacred in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and the Tibetan Bon religion.

— Hundreds of pilgrims make the arduous journey to the region each year; they generally trek to Lake Manasarovar, and then circumambulate the nearby Mount Kailash.

Do You Know:

— There are two primary routes to reach Lake Mansarovar from India.

— LIPULEKH PASS ROUTE: Lipulekh pass lies at an altitude of 5,115 metres, on the border between Uttarakhand and TAR, near the trijunction with Nepal. It is an ancient passageway between the Indian subcontinent and the Tibetan Plateau, frequented by traders and pilgrims alike.

— While the Lipulekh pass route is the most direct way to get to Mansarovar from India — as the crow flies, the lake is roughly 50 km from the border — the terrain makes the journey very challenging. Currently, this route entails roughly 200 km of hard trekking. Before 2020, it had been operational since 1981.

— NATHU LA PASS ROUTE: Nathu La pass lies at an altitude of 4,310 metres on the border between Sikkim and TAR. It is one of two mountain passes in the region — the other being Jelep La — that have connected Sikkim and Tibet since ancient times.

— The route to Mansarovar from Nathu La is much longer in terms of distance — close to 1,500 km. But it is fully motorable, meaning pilgrims can make it all the way to the lake without any trekking. (They would only need to trekk 35-40 km for the circumambulation of Mount Kailash). This route became operational in 2015.

— NEPAL ROUTE: No private operators function on the two official routes. There is, however, a third route through Nepal in which private companies do operate. In theory, this route has been accessible to Indians since 2023, when China reopened its border with Nepal. But visa and permit requirements, as well as high costs due to China-imposed fees, have meant that few have likely availed this option.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Jaishankar and Wang discuss next steps: resumption of Mansarovar Yatra, direct flights

Prelims Question Covering similar theme:

(2) Consider the following pairs :

Pass	Link
1. Bom di La	Arunachal Pradesh
2. Zoji La	Srinagar with Kargil and Leh
3. Shipki La Pass	Himachal Pradesh with the Autonomous Region of Tibet, China
4. Nathu La Pass	Sikkim with the Autonomous Region of Tibet, China

Which of the above pairs are correctly matched?

(a) l and 3 only

(b) 2 and 4 only

(c) 1, 3 and 4 only

(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

Bhagavad Gita and Natyashastra added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register:All you need to know

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

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

What’s the ongoing story: Manuscripts of the Bhagavad Gita and Bharata’s Natyashastra are among the 74 new additions to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register this year.

Key Points to Ponder:

— What is the UNESCO Memory of the World Register?

— What is the significance of Bhagvad Gita and Natyashashtra?

— What are the other inscriptions that are registered with UNESCO?

— Know about the other inscription that was inscribed into the list.

Key Takeaways:

— Union Culture Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said this was a “historic moment for Bharat’s civilisational heritage”. “… we now have 14 inscriptions from our country on this international register,” Shekhawat said on X.

— NATYASHASTRA: Traditionally attributed to the sage Bharata, Natyashastra is an ancient Sanskrit treatise on performing arts. Comprising 36,000 verses, the “Naṭyashastra embodies a comprehensive set of rules that define natya (drama), abhinaya (performance), rasa (aesthetic experience), bhava (emotion), sangita (music),” the UNESCO citation says.

— Natyashastra is most notable for its exposition of the concept of rasa, literally “juice/essence”, which Bharata says is the goal of any performance art. “Bharatamuni makes a groundbreaking statement in Natyashastra, asserting that ‘no meaning can blossom forth without rasa’, a profound contribution to world literature,” the UNESCO citation says.

— BHAGAVAD GITA: Traditionally attributed to the sage Vyasa, Bhagavad Gita is a Sanskrit scripture comprising 700 verses that are organised in 18 chapters, embedded in the sixth book (Bhishma Parva) of the epic poem Mahabharata.

— The text is generally dated to the first or second century BCE, although there is considerable debate on the matter. According to Winthrop Sargeant, who produced one of the most well-regarded English translations of the Gita, the oral composition was likely written down for the first time in the second or third centuries CE. (Sargeant, Bhagavad Gita, 1979).

Do You Know:

— The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, better known as UNESCO, launched the Memory of the World (MoW) Programme in 1992 with the aim of “guarding against the collective amnesia, calling upon the preservation of the valuable archive holdings and library collections all over the world, and ensuring their wide dissemination”.

— The central project of the MoW Programme was to create a compendium of documents — manuscripts, oral traditions, audio-visual materials, and library and archive holdings — which are of “world significance and outstanding universal value”. This is the MoW Register.

— Beginning in 1997, the Register has been biennally updated — with the exception of a lengthy gap between 2017 and 2023 — with between nine (in 1999) and 78 (in 2017) additions. In any year, at most two submissions from a country are added. With the latest additions, the Register now contains 570 entries.

— The Register contains 13 submissions by India, including two joint-submissions. These range from the Rig Veda (added in 2005) and the collective works of the Shaivite philosopher Abhinavagupta (added in 2023), to the archives of the first summit meeting of the Non Aligned Movement in Belgrade in 1961 (added in 2023) and the archives of the Dutch East India Company (added in 2003).

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Ramcharitmanas included in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Regional Register: Its significance

📍Bhagavad Gita, Natyashastra manuscripts enter UNESCO register; proud moment: PM Modi

Prelims Question Covering similar theme:

(3) Consider the following:

1. Bhagvad Gita

2. Ramcharitmanas

3. Natyashastra

Which of the following inscriptions are added to the UNESCO Memory of the World (MoW) register?

(a) 1 only

(b) 1 and 2 only

(c) 1, 2 and 3

(d) 2 and 3 only

 

THE IDEAS PAGE

Hindi and Urdu — a tale of twins

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

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

General Studies-II: Constitution of India —historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure.

What’s the ongoing story: Recently, the Supreme Court has upheld the use of Urdu on the signboard of a municipal council building in Maharashtra in Varshatai w/o Sanjay Bagade vs State Of Maharashtra case. The court has said that language is culture and must not become a cause for dividing people, and Urdu “is the finest specimen of Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb, or the Hindustani tehzeeb”.

Key Points to Ponder:

— Know about the origin of Urdu?

— What are the constitutional provisions related to official languages in India?

— Why is Urdu sometimes referred to as “camp language” or “lashkari zaban”?

Key Takeaways:

— Peggy Mohan writes: In the Delhi region, a new language had already emerged; let us call it “Dehlavi”. It shared space in the larger region with other new languages, like Braj and Awadhi, but it had one immense advantage: Location. It was the vernacular language of the capital city.

— The new migrants, like all migrants throughout Indian history, preserved their “high” language, but abandoned their earlier vernacular. They kept Persian, but replaced Uzbek with Dehlavi for their daily conversations.

— Dehlavi was a spoken language, but soon people began to write in it, though serious literature continued to be in Persian and Sanskrit. It was written both in the Persian script and in local scripts like Kaithi and Mahajani.

— Centuries later, in Mughal times, during the reign of Aurangzeb, Jafar Zatalli, a poet from Narnaul, near Delhi, dreamed of writing for a larger audience. This was verse critical of the government, so it had to be in a language people understood: In “spoken Hindi”.

— Up till this moment, he had been composing ghazals only in Persian. So Persian became the fount he dipped into for the new words he needed, and these were almost all nouns. The basic operating system of spoken Hindi was unchanged.

— And in 1780, the poet Mus’hafi, writing in Lucknow, named this new language “Urdu”. Now that Urdu was a literary language, it began to drink in new nouns from Persian.

— It was the British who, uncomfortable with the Persian words in Urdu, and in the old legal system they were still using, decided in 1900 to “purge” Urdu of its Persian words and substitute vocabulary from the language they admired: Sanskrit.

Do You Know:

— The first Urdu newspaper, Jam-i-Jahan-Numa, was published on March 27, 1822. The weekly was launched by Harihar Dutta from Kolkata.

— The Urdu press, the voice of revolution during colonial rule, was instrumental in the promulgation of the Vernacular Press Act, 1877. It coined the war cry of the freedom struggle,” Inqilab Zindabad”, which is still the slogan of dissent.

— Maulvi Muhammad Baqir (1780-1857), a Urdu journalist, was the first to lay down his life for the nation. He started a Urdu newspaper, ‘Delhi Urdu Akhbar’, dedicated to the nationalist cause in the wake of the revolt of 1857. After the revolt broke out on 10 May 1857, Baqir renamed the paper as ‘Akhbar-us-Zafar’ (Paper of Zafar) to pay tribute to the leader of the revolt.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Knowledge Nugget: Urdu and the history behind it — All you need to know for UPSC

📍Supreme Court upholds Urdu signage in Maharashtra, calls it ‘finest specimen of Hindustani culture

Prelims Question Covering similar theme:

(4) Which of the following was the first Urdu newspaper of India?

(a) Delhi Urdu Akhbar

(b) Jam-i-Jahan-Numa

(c) Akhbar-us-Zafar

(d) The Musalman

EXPRESS NETWORK

India sure contender for seat in expanded UNSC: IGN Chair

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Mains Examination: General Studies-II: Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate.

What’s the ongoing story:  If a decision is made on expanding the UN Security Council, “then surely” India will be a contender, Chair of Intergovernmental Negotiations on UNSC reforms said on Thursday.

Key Points to Ponder:

— What are the G4 nations?

— Why is India pushing for reform at the UNSC?

— What is the Uniting for Consensus (UfC) Group?

— What was the objective of forming the United Nations? How far has it succeeded in achieving those objectives?

— “We must move forward in a time-bound manner on reforms in global institutions such as the UN Security Council, multilateral development banks, and the WTO.” Why?

— In what ways could non-western organisations like SCO and BRICS challenge the legitimacy of the United Nations’ collective security mechanisms?

Key Takeaways:

— “The goal of this reformed Council must be representative. Obviously, India is a main player on the world stage today. But it (UN) is a membership of 193 countries. The consideration is representative for everybody and the whole membership of the United Nations,” Ambassador Tareq AlBanai said at a press briefing here.

— AlBanai, who is Kuwait’s Permanent Representative to the UN, recalled that last year he and co-Chair Ambassador Alexander Marschik of Austria had visited India and had a conversation there “at the highest level” on the issue of UNSC reform.

— Earlier this week, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador, P Harish, in a statement on behalf of the G4 nations of Brazil, Germany, Japan, and India, told an IGN meeting that the existing UN architecture is from a different era, one that no longer exists and the current geopolitical realities warrant a review of this architecture.

Do You Know:

— India, a founding member of the United Nations, has been an active contributor to United Nations peacekeeping missions since their inception. As the world’s largest democracy and an emerging global power, India advocates strongly for United Nations Security Council reforms, seeking a permanent seat to ensure greater inclusivity in global governance.

— Currently, the powerful UN organ consists of five permanent members – China, France, Russia, the UK and the US. The remaining 10 members are elected to sit at the horse-shoe table for two-year terms as non-permanent members. India had last sat in the Council as a non-permanent member in 2021-22.

— The Uniting for Consensus (UfC) Group, comprising Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Malta, Mexico, Pakistan, the Republic of Korea, San Marino, Spain, Turkiye and Italy, reiterated its position of increasing the number of Security Council seats exclusively in the non-permanent category.

— UfC proposes a 27-member Security Council, without any increase in the number of permanent members, which currently stands at five.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍United Nations Day 2024: India continues to push for Security Council Reform

UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:

(5) The Security Council of UN consists of 5 permanent members, and the remaining 10 members are elected by the General Assembly for a term of (2009)

(a) 1 year

(b) 2 years

(c) 3 years

(d) 5 years

UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:

Discuss the impediments India is facing in its pursuit of a permanent seat in the UN Security Council. (2015)

ALSO IN NEWS
Long-delayed ISRO-NASA mission NISAR may finally be launched in June	The long-awaited NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Satellite) mission, a first-of-its-kind collaboration between the space agencies of India and the US, may finally be launched in June.

 

PRELIMS ANSWER KEY

1. (a)  2. (d)  3. (c)   4. (b)  5. (b)

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