UPSC Key: Ken-Betwa Link Project, Chabahar Port and National Song

UN: International criminal groups using technology to expand in and beyond Asia

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: Southeast Asia-based criminal groups are using increasingly integrated networks and technology to build a rapidly growing illicit economy with tentacles that reach far beyond Asia, with scams alone causing estimated combined losses of $88.3 billion to $114.1 billion in 2025, a U.N. report says.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What exactly U.N. report says on Southeast Asia-based criminal groups?

• What does the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) do?

• How Artificial Intelligence has transformed the nature of organized crime?

• What are the challenges before law enforcement agencies?

• What are the impact of cyber-enabled transnational organized crime on India’s internal security?

• What are the emerging threats posed by cybercrime syndicates in the era of Artificial Intelligence?

• What are the challenges in combating cybercrime that originates beyond national borders?

• Connect the dots between cybercrime, money laundering and organized crime.

• Why cybercrime has become an important issue in India’s foreign policy?

Key Takeaways:

• The report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime outlines how transnational crime that used to be concentrated in Southeast Asia has expanded to other regions, while global criminal groups are increasingly engaging in drug, human and wildlife trafficking in Asia.

• Criminals are using new technologies to launder money through global financial systems and using artificial intelligence to steal from victims worldwide, said the report.

• One key finding of the report is the threat to children both from AI and from online gaming, as hundreds of scam compounds scattered across Southeast Asia provide venues for sex trafficking and selling of child sexual abuse content.

• “There is a huge jump in AI-generated child sexual images … communicated through encrypted communications platforms,” said Inshik Sim, UNODC researcher and coordinator for the report, told reporters at a briefing at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand.

Do You Know:

• According to the UNODC website, South-East Asia’s criminal ecosystem has undergone a fundamental restructuring, according to a new report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Once-fragmented, locally rooted syndicates have merged into a single transnational, tech-driven criminal economy sophisticated enough to outpace conventional law enforcement and threaten governance, economic stability, and development in the region and beyond.
“What we are seeing is a shift in which groups that stayed within their own geographic domain and criminal specialty are now operating across multiple illicit markets at once, relying on the same service streams,” said Delphine Schantz, UNODC Regional Representative for South-East Asia and the Pacific, during the report launch today in Bangkok. “Their operating model looks like corporate franchising: imagine specialized departments for laundering money, trafficking people, smuggling migrants, and harvesting data, all plugged into the same, service-based interconnected network.”

• The report, titled An Interconnected Criminal Ecosystem: Transnational Organized Crime Threat Assessment for Southeast Asia 2026, reveals how criminals are weaving these different types of crime into a single, shared financial and operational infrastructure that is allowing for an increasingly thriving crime ecosystem.

• UNODC’s new report puts a figure on that shift: combined annual losses from scam offences across East Asia, South-East Asia, Australia, and New Zealand are estimated at between USD 88.3 billion and USD 114.1 billion for 2025 alone, a sum that, even at the low end, outstrips the GDP of several countries in the region.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Knowledge Nugget | From Telegram Drug Networks to Nitazenes: What the NCB Annual Report 2025 reveals

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
1) Consider the following UN organisations/agencies: (UPSC CSE, 2026)
1. World Food Programme
2. United Nations Children’s Fund
3. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
4. International Labour Organisation
How many of the above has/have been awarded the Nobel Prize twice?
(a) 1
(b) 2
(c) 3
(d) 4

Front Page

Census: 6 months to go, Govt explores how to count caste

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance-Constitution, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.

Mains Examination: General Studies I: Population and associated issues

What’s the ongoing story: With the population enumeration phase of the nationwide Census just six months away, the Registrar General of India (RGI) is learnt to be grappling with the methodology for caste enumeration that is meant to be a part of it.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What is the meaning of ‘Census’?

• What is Population Census?

• Why the Census matters?

• How caste census will ensure social justice?

• What do you understand by caste census?

• What is the difference between caste census and socio economic caste census?

• Know the historical context and significance of conducting a caste census in India after nearly a century.

• How the 2027 Census is proposed to be conducted?

• How will this Census be different from the 2011 Census?

• When was 1st census held in India?

• How is census enumeration collected?

• Registrar General of India-About, Role and Functions

• What do you understand by the term ‘Administrative Boundaries’?

• The Census in India is conducted by whom?

• The Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner comes under which Ministry?

• What is the Constitutional Provisions to Conduct census in India?

Key Takeaways:

• Sources said two broad options are under consideration: allowing respondents to state their caste in an open-ended format or restricting entries to a drop-down menu of recognised castes.

• While the first option risks a repeat of the 2011 Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) experience, when more than 46 lakh distinct caste names were listed by respondents, the second is learnt to have run into resistance from the RSS. The Sangh Parivar believes a drop-down menu based on existing caste lists would effectively reinforce the caste architecture institutionalized during British rule.

Do You Know:

• The caste enumeration will happen along with the population enumeration phase of the Census, which will start early next year.

• The 2011 SECC failed to produce usable caste data largely because of poor data quality, the absence of a standardized caste registry and flaws in operational design. Since respondents could self-report caste names without verification, the exercise generated an administrative nightmare. The final dataset contained nearly 46.7 lakh distinct caste names, compared with the 4,147 castes recorded in the last comprehensive caste census conducted back in 1931.

• The Union government eventually withheld the raw caste data.

• As per the drop-down menu proposal under consideration, Central and state caste lists would be combined, with many states maintaining their own lists of OBC and other castes that differ from the Central list.

• At present, the Census captures castes only for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs). The Census enumeration application already contains a drop-down menu for notified SC and ST communities, while all others are recorded simply as ‘Others’.

• As per this proposal, there would be a separate OBC category or all castes would be listed under the ‘Others’ category through the comprehensive drop-down menu, drawing from both Central and state lists. The RGI would maintain a backend database mapping each caste to the appropriate classification.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍ExplainSpeaking: The critical importance of the next Census for India’s economy

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
2) Consider the following statements: (UPSC CSE, 2009)
1. Between Census 1951 and Census 2001, the density of the population of India has increased more than three times.
2. Between Census 1951 and Census 2001, the annual growth rate (exponential) of the population of India has doubled.
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

With a page out of China book, TN maintains lead in share of women workers

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development-Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.

Mains Examination: 

• General Studies I: Social empowerment

• General Studies III: Inclusive growth and issues arising from it

What’s the ongoing story: New data underlines how Tamil Nadu remains closest in India to replicating China’s women-led electronics manufacturing model, with other states far behind.

Key Points to Ponder:

• The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation’s (MoSPI) recent report on the labour market says what?

• What is female Labour Force Participation Rate?

• Which practice is modelled after China by the Tamil Nadu?

• What are the factors contributing to higher female labour force participation rate in Tamil Nadu?

• What is female labour force participation rate (LFPR) in India?

• What do you understand by Labour Force and Labour Force participation rate (LFPR)?

• What is the present situation of female labour force participation rate in India?

• How the lower female labour force participation rate impacts economy?

• Employment Rate (ER) and Unemployment Rate (UER)-Know in Detail

• What do you understand by “Informal economy” and “Unorganised Sector”?

Key Takeaways:

• The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation’s (MoSPI) recent report on the labour market in India’s 46 most populous cities (with a population of more than 10 lakh as per Census 2011) shows that two Tamil Nadu cities – Coimbatore at 41.3% and Madurai at 37% – rank in the top three when it comes to the female Labour Force Participation Rate. This is well above the urban India average of 27.7%.

• Sandwiched between the two, at 40.6%, is Surat. However, the Annual Survey of Industries data shows that Gujarat’s share among women employed in the manufacture of computers, electronics and optical products remained stagnant at 10% from 2013-14 to 2023-24, even as it grew from 20% to 43% for Tamil Nadu in the same period.

• At the same time, Maharashtra and Karnataka saw notable declines in the share of women they employ in the manufacture of computers, electronics and optical products – 24% to 6%, and 11% to 8%, between 2013-14 and 2023-24.

• According to a December 2024 paper by think-tank Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, almost half the working women hostels in the country are in just two states: Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

• Apart from security, the close proximity of these hostels to the place of work of the women helps attract and retain migrant labour. For the employers, it reduces the requirement of providing last-mile mobility infrastructure.

• The practice of providing dormitories to house women workers to power manufacturing is modelled after China.

Do You Know:

• The Labour Force Participation Rate refers to the percentage of people either already employed or looking for work.

• Data on migrant women workers in India is hard to come by. What we do know from the MoSPI’s 2020-21 (July-June) migration survey is that almost every other woman in urban India (47.8%) is a migrant; and that 54% of female migrants in urban areas come from rural regions.

• The Female Labor Force Participation Rate (FLFPR) measures the proportion of the working-age female population that is employed or actively seeking work. In India, the FLFPR for those aged 15 and above hovers around 32% to 35%. Globally, this rate averages near 50%, with developed nations often seeing rates above 55%.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Women participation in economy rising, but presence at top dismal

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
3) With reference to the Indian economy after the 1991 economic liberalization, consider the following statements: (UPSC CSE, 2020)
1. Worker productivity (Rs. per worker at 2004 — 05 prices) increased in urban areas while it decreased in rural areas.
2. The percentage share of rural areas in the workforce steadily increased.
3. In rural areas, the growth in non-farm economy increased.
4. The growth rate in rural employment decreased.
Which of the statements given above is/are Correct?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 3 and 4 only
(c) 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 4 only

The Ideas Page

From 1991, three foreign policy lessons for managing disruption of certainties

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance

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: C Raja Mohan writes- The collapse of old certainties transformed India’s strategy once before. Iran and Ukraine should force Delhi to rethink it again

Key Points to Ponder:

• Know India’s evolving strategy of multi-alignment in an increasingly fragmented world order

• What are the main basic pillars of Indian foreign policy?

• How geopolitical disruptions influence India’s economic and foreign policy choices?

• “A critical assessment of India’s foreign policy during 1947–2022 should begin with the changing perceptions of
this nation, internally and internationally”-Decode the statement

• Why the changing nature of the Indian economy, evolution of external conditions, emergence of new regional challenges, and shifts in the global power hierarchy all demand new foreign policy strategies?

• Why India needs to overcome the residual legacies of Partition that continue to undermine Delhi’s geopolitical position?

• “No balance of power is permanent.” Explain the statement in the context of contemporary international relations.

• “The most enduring lesson of the 1991 crisis is the importance of domestic economic resilience rather than diplomacy alone”-how far you agree?

Key Takeaways:

• Historical analogies must be approached with caution. Yet there is a striking symmetry between the foreign policy challenges that confronted India in 1990-91 and those now posed by the wars in Iran and Ukraine. Simultaneous upheavals in the Middle East and Europe in 1991 shattered India’s economic and strategic assumptions. Today, the two regions are again compelling Delhi to reconsider the foundations of its national strategy.

• Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, and the US-led war to reverse Saddam Hussein’s annexation, sent oil prices soaring, disrupted remittances and aggravated India’s balance-of-payments crisis. Within months, the Soviet Union — the principal anchor of Indian foreign policy during the Cold War — collapsed. The twin shocks forced India to reform its economy, diversify its international partnerships and rethink its place in the world.

• The circumstances today are different, but the underlying challenge is familiar. The war that began with the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader on February 28 has raised energy costs, disrupted navigation through the Strait of Hormuz and exposed India’s dependence on the Middle East.

• The relief in Delhi after Washington and Tehran signed a memorandum of understanding in June has proved premature as the conflict escalates again. In Europe, meanwhile, the Ukraine war has entered its fifth year without a clear path to settlement. Russia is not about to disintegrate as the Soviet Union did in 1991. But the prolonged war, with its mounting costs, is generating new questions about Russia’s future at home and abroad.

Do You Know:

• India’s interests require an empathetic understanding of the domestic politics of Russia and Iran — not reflexive signalling of solidarity to the governments of the moment.
—The first lesson from 1991, therefore, is that no balance of power is permanent. The certainties of the 1980s — a stable Soviet Union, a bipolar order and dependable partnerships — vanished with astonishing speed in 1991. Unpredictability is not an interruption of normal international politics; it is one of its permanent features. Indian strategy must devote as much attention to discontinuity as to continuity.
—The second is that debate itself is a strategic asset. A foreign policy community organised around a rigid consensus will repeatedly miss inconvenient possibilities. India needs stronger expertise on Russia, Iran, Central Asia and the internal politics of the Middle East. India needs sustained investment, more than ever, in languages, history and regional specialisation. It also needs institutions willing to reflect on competing scenarios and encourage contrarian judgments.
—The third and most important lesson is that external shocks and systemic changes cannot be managed by diplomacy alone. What rescued India after 1991 were the internal reforms. The answer must be the same today — sweeping domestic reform to cope with a changing world. Diplomacy’s role then and now is to support internal transformation.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Stepping Up to the World

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
📍“Energy security constitutes the dominant kingpin of India’s foreign policy, and is linked with India’s overarching influence in Middle Eastern countries.” How would you integrate energy security with India’s foreign policy trajectories in the coming years? (2025)

The Big Picture

Ken, Betwa and a line drawn on water

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Main 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: After decades of uncertainty, the Ken-Betwa river linking project, India’s first inter-basin river transfer that aims to irrigate the parched Bundelkhand region, is now racing to meet new deadlines.

Key Points to Ponder:

• River-linking projects in India-Know in detail

• What is Ken-Betwa Link Project?

• Map Work-Ken, Betwa, panna tiger reserve,

• What are the geographical and ecological implications of river-linking projects in India, with special reference to the Ken-Betwa Link Project?

• Assess the impact of large-scale infrastructure projects like river-linking on wildlife habitats and protected areas such as tiger reserves.

• Analyse the trade-offs between water security and biodiversity conservation in the context of the Ken-Betwa Link Project.

Key Takeaways:

• After decades of uncertainty, the project to link the Ken and Betwa rivers has entered a decisive phase, triggering a race to evacuate nearly 2,000 families across 10 villages — a rushed deadline that has fuelled protests across the submergence zone as residents challenge compensation surveys, eligibility lists and the terms on which they are being asked to leave.

• For the administration, the remaining months are about meeting engineering timelines, completing rehabilitation and clearing the reservoir before the next phase of construction. For the many families still living in the shadow of the Daudhan dam — one of the main architectural features under the project — it’s a struggle of a different kind: proving, through Aadhaar cards, school certificates, revenue records and decades-old family registers, that they belong to the places they are being asked to abandon.

Ken-Betwa is India’s first inter-basin river link. (Source: Express GFX)

Do You Know:

• The idea of linking India’s rivers dates back to the early 1980s. The National Water Development Agency, set up in 1982 to examine the feasibility of interlinking river basins, identified the Ken-Betwa Link, as a priority project. The project, India’s first inter-basin river link, aims to transfer water from the Ken to the Betwa basin.

• A feasibility report followed in 1995, and in August 2005, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and the Centre agreed to prepare a Detailed Project Report. The Union Cabinet finally approved the project in December 2021, transforming the landscape around the rivers into construction sites.

• Officials say that once ready, the project will irrigate 9.04 lakh hectares, utilise more than 4,843 million cubic metres of water, generate 103 MW of hydropower and 27 MW of solar energy, and supply nearly 194 million cubic metres of drinking water each year.

• At the heart of the project is the Daudhan dam planned across the Ken river in Madhya Pradesh — a structure that stretches for more than 2 km. The reservoir of the dam is designed to hold 2,853 million cubic metres of water, while two proposed power stations at the site are expected to generate more than 219 million units of electricity annually.

• Water from the Daudhan reservoir will flow through a 218.6-km link canal (which gives the Ken-Betwa Link project its name) into the Betwa basin. The network also includes other irrigational structures such as the Lower Orr Project, the Kotha Barrage, the Bina Complex Multipurpose Project across Sagar and Raisen districts and the restored Ken Canal System in Uttar Pradesh.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Cabinet nod to Ken-Betwa river link: what it envisages, who will benefit

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
4) ‘Gadgil Committee Report’ and ‘Kasturirangam Committee Report’, sometimes seen in the news, are related to (UPSC CSE, 2019)
(a) constitutional reforms
(b) Ganga Action Plan
(c) linking of rivers
(d) protection of Western Ghats

Previous year UPSC main Question Covering similar theme:
📍The interlinking of rivers can provide viable solutions to the multi-dimensional inter-related problems of droughts, floods, and interrupted navigation. Critically examine. (2020)

Explained

Education’s falling share in Budget over 12 years

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Main 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: The Cockroach Janta Party-led protests were triggered by discontent with the NEET-UG. But as discussions spill over to criticisms of the broader education system, what do data show about the government’s focus on the sector?

Key Points to Ponder:

• How much of India’s budget is spent on education?

• What percentage of GDP is spent on education in India in 2026?

• What is the role of education in reducing multidimensional poverty?

• Connect the relationship between public expenditure on education and governance outcomes.

• What are the constitutional obligations of the State towards education?

• How quality education contributes to achieving Sustainable Development Goals?

• “Budgetary decisions reflect public values.” Discuss in the context of education.

Key Takeaways:

• Over the past three days, Delhi’s Jantar Mantar has attracted significant attention as many disgruntled youth from across India have come together under the leadership of the so-called Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) to demand the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

• The immediate trigger for the protests was the leak of the 2026 NEET-UG question paper. Every year, millions of students hoping to become doctors take the exam. This was neither the first time NEET papers got leaked, nor was it the only examination to witness such a lapse. Reports suggest that over the past decade, test papers have been leaked in over 150 different competitive examinations held in India.

• What has intensified criticism is a sense of impunity and lack of accountability surrounding such repeated lapses. A recent Indian Express investigation into the status of cases linked to 45 major exam paper leaks over the past two decades, where each exam saw at least 1 lakh applicants, threw up stark results.

• Only two of these cases led to convictions. Most are either trapped in legal quicksand or have simply hit a dead end. In fact, two of the accused in exam leaks are now elected representatives in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly.

• In the past, several scholars have repeatedly criticised Indian governments for not allocating enough funds to critical ministries, such as education and health. Here is a look at how the annual allocations towards the education ministry in the Union Budgets have changed over the years.

• Since Budget Estimates have routinely changed, the following exercise only looks back on the period for which hard data is available. In other words, all analysis uses data up to the end of the last financial year. The starting point for the data is 2009, the earliest year for which the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy’s (CMIE) Economic Outlook module provides details. When data is compiled, a clear picture emerges with reference to the education ministry’s relative importance, or the lack of it, during the first 12 years of this NDA government.

Do You Know:

• Looking back at the Union Budget from 2009-10 onwards, it becomes clear that, on average, the total size of the Union Budget grew by an average of 10.4% each year. This means that the total amount of money the government spent each year was roughly 10% more than what it spent the year before. As such, across most ministries and departments, Budget allocations (in absolute terms) also went up.

• For the purpose of this analysis, however, the focus is not on the absolute amount of money spent on a ministry but whether its share in the overall Budget expanded or shrunk or remained stagnant.
The chart below maps the relative share (in the overall Budget) of three key ministries over the years:
—Ministry of Education (earlier called the Ministry of Human Resource Development). The chart also maps the share of allocations for the two departments under this ministry: the Department of School Education and the Department of Higher Education
—Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
—Ministry of Road Transport and Highways

Share of Budget allocations for various ministries and departments.

• The data on the other two ministries provide context by showing other sectors where people often demand higher allocation (health) and which represent the growth model of the Modi era (roads and highways).

• The data show that the Education Ministry’s share in the Union Budget fell from 4.6% in 2013-14 (the last year that the Congress-led UPA government was in power) to 2.5% in 2025-26. In other words, the Education Ministry now commands only half the share that it had before PM Modi took charge. The fall in relative share can also be seen in the allocation to both departments. The share of the Department of School Education is less than half of what it was 12 years ago, while the Department of Higher Education’s share is just around 60% of what it used to be.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Who will be held accountable for exam paper leaks? Don’t bet on it, records show most get away

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
5) Which of the following provisions of the Constitution does India have a bearing on Education? (UPSC CSE, 2012)
1. Directive Principles of State Policy
2. Rural and Urban Local Bodies
3. Fifth Schedule
4. Sixth Schedule
5. Seventh Schedule
Select the correct answer using the codes given below:
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 3, 4 and 5 only
(c) 1, 2 and 5 only
(d) 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5

First sanctions, now war: India’s Chabahar plans up in the

Syllabus:

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: A dramatic image posted on social media by US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth last week fuelled concern in India. It showed the maritime control tower at Iran’s Chabahar port collapsing after US military strikes. The image was part of a series of photographs posted by Hegseth, captioned: “Iran does not control the Strait of Hormuz”.

Key Points to Ponder:

• India and Iran bilateral relations-know in detail

• Importance of Iran for India and India for Iran-Discuss

• Map Work-Chabahar Port

• How does the Chabahar Port enhance India’s geopolitical influence in the region?

• What is the strategic significance of the Chabahar Port for India’s foreign policy?

• Iran occupies a pivotal position in India’s regional strategy-How?

• What are the challenges and opportunities in strengthening India-Iran relations, particularly in the context of Chabahar Port and the INSTC?

• Compare the strategic importance of the Chabahar Port and Pakistan’s Gwadar Port in the context of regional geopolitics.

• How can India leverage its investment in Chabahar to counterbalance China’s influence in the region?

• The Chabahar Port is often viewed as a gateway for India’s outreach to Afghanistan and Central Asia—What are the potential challenges in realizing this vision?

Key Takeaways:

• While New Delhi is already reeling under the impact of US sanctions on its strategically vital infrastructure project in Iran, where it has invested billions, the military strikes sparked fresh concerns.

• The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) clarified that the terminal it operates at Chabahar Port, Shahid Beheshti, was not damaged in the US strikes. “We have seen some reports in that regard, but we can also tell you that the terminal itself did not face any damage,” said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal. The ministry, however, reiterated India’s position that civilian infrastructure should not be targeted during conflicts.

• In 2021, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told Parliament that the grant assistance for the supply of equipment (to Chabahar) had been enhanced to $120 million. “India has also committed to provide a Line of Credit of $250 million in rupee equivalent for the development of Chabahar Port. Since 2018, the port has handled over 450 vessels, 1,34,082 TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent) of containerised cargo and more than 8.7 million tons of bulk and general cargo,” he said.

Do You Know:

• The Chabahar port has two main terminals — Shahid Beheshti and Shahid Kalantari — with India managing the former. It is operated by India Ports Global Ltd (IPGL), a wholly owned subsidiary of India Ports Global Chabahar Free Zone (IPGCFZ), under a 10-year renewable agreement with Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organisation.

• India and Iran have been developing Chabahar as a key trade and connectivity hub, particularly to improve access to Afghanistan and Central Asia. Chabahar holds strategic importance for India as it provides an alternative trade route to Afghanistan, bypassing Pakistan, which does not allow Indian goods transit through its territory. For Iran, Chabahar is vital because it is its only oceanic port with direct access to the Indian Ocean, bypassing the congested Strait of Hormuz.

• To ensure its continuous operation, India and Iran signed a landmark 10-year contract in May 2024 — replacing previous short-term contracts — to equip and operate the Shahid Beheshti terminal. To avoid financial penalties in the wake of US sanctions, India prepaid its $120 million investment and transferred its operational stake at Shahid Beheshti to local entities.

• American sanctions on Chabahar stem from its broader economic and military measures against Tehran. Despite India’s continued efforts to develop the port for regional connectivity, the history of these sanctions and waivers has severely restricted the project’s progress.

Chabahar port location

• Chabahar is vital for India not only because it provides direct, secure access to Afghanistan and Central Asia, but also because it serves as a counterweight to China’s development of the Gwadar Port in Pakistan, located just 140 km away. The sea-land transit route that allows India to bypass Pakistan is also viewed as an important part of the International North-South Transport Corridor, a multi-mode transport network connecting India with Iran, Russia, Europe and parts of Central Asia. In that sense, the port represents far more than maritime infrastructure.

• For Tehran, however, it also serves as a crucial economic hub in the Sistan-Baluchistan province, functioning as a gateway to connect Iran with landlocked Central Asian states, Afghanistan and Russia. As Chabahar was hit by the US military strikes last week, Iran Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei lashed at Hegeseth, talking about Chabahar in the same breath as the Minab school attack.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍The history of Iran’s Chabahar port, and its imperative for India

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
6) What is the importance of developing Chabahar Port by India? (UPSC CSE, 2017)
(a) India’s trade with African countries will enormously increase.
(b) India’s relations with oil-producing Arab countries will be strengthened.
(c) India will not depend on Pakistan for access to Afghanistan and Central Asia.
(d) Pakistan will facilitate and protect the installation of a gas pipeline between Iraq and India.

How a new law aims to place ‘Vande Mataram’ on a par with ‘Jana Gana Mana’

Syllabus:

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

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: Union Home Minister Amit Shah is set to introduce the Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026, in Rajya Sabha during the monsoon session starting Monday (July 20). This will amend the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, to grant the national song, ‘Vande Mataram’, the same statutory protection currently given to the national anthem, ‘Jana Gana Mana’.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What is National Song?

• Know the legal status of the national song

• What is ‘Vande Mataram’?

• What are the important facts about Vande Mataram?

• The Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026-what are the key highlights of this bill?

• What is National Anthem?

• The National Anthem and National Song-know the difference

• Why Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Ananda Math (1882) is considered a foundational text for understanding Indian nationalism?

• What was the contribution of Vande Mataram song in the Indian freedom struggle?

• Why the song Vande Mataram holds historic importance in India?

• Why Vande Mataram not chosen as National Anthem?

Key Takeaways:

• According to Section 3 of the Act, intentionally preventing the singing of the national anthem or causing a disturbance to any assembly engaged in such singing is a criminal offence punishable with imprisonment of up to three years, a fine or both. The Bill proposes to include the national song within the ambit of this section.

• Earlier this year, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs issued guidelines regarding the singing and playing of the national song. The “orders relating to the National Song of India” detailed the authorised lyrics, written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, and specified occasions for its mass singing, such as “on the unfurling of the National Flag, on cultural occasions or ceremonial functions”.

Do You Know:

• Vande Mataram (Mother, I bow to thee) was composed in sanskritised Bengali by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in 1875, and was first published in 1882 as part of his novel, Anandmath. Chatterjee had been inspired by freedom movements such as the 18th-century Sannyasi Rebellion and the 1857 revolt.
The song became popular during the freedom struggle and was adopted by the Indian National Congress in 1905 to rouse nationalist sentiment for the motherland.

• President Rajendra Prasad bestowed equal honour on Vande Mataram and Jana Gana Mana in the 1950 Constituent Assembly debate.

• “The composition consisting of the words and music known as Jana Gana Mana is the National Anthem of India, subject to such alterations in the words as the Government may authorise as occasion arises; and the song Vande Mataram, which has played a historic part in the struggle for Indian freedom, shall be honoured equally with Jana Gana Mana and shall have equal status with it,” he said.

• For one, the National Anthem enjoys constitutional privileges that the National Song does not. Article 51A(a) of the Constitution makes it a fundamental duty for every citizen to respect the National Anthem, while the decorum for playing or singing the National Anthem is regulated by ‘Orders relating to the National Anthem of India’ and ‘The Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971’.

• Jana Gana Mana was chosen as the national anthem for its secular, inclusive nature, celebrating the nation’s unity in diversity.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Vande Mataram at 150: How the National Song is different from the National Anthem

📍Vande Mataram 150 years: How Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay imagined nation as motherland in Ananda Math

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
7) With reference to Madanapalle of Andhra Pradesh, which one of the following statements is correct? (UPSC CSE, 2021)
(a) Pingali Venkayya designed the tricolor Indian National Flag here.
(b) Pattabhi Sitaramaiah led the Quit India Movement of Andhra region from here.
(c) Rabindranath Tagore translated the National Anthem from Bengali to English here.
(d) Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott set up headquarters of Theosophical Society first here.

 

PRELIMS ANSWER KEY

1.(a)  2.(d)  3.(b) 4.(d) 5.(d) 6.(c) 7.(c)

  

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