UPSC Key: NITI Aayog, Nipah Virus and Wages for Housework

PM calls for district GDP estimates, CMs press for affordable energy

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Functions and responsibilities of the Union and the States, issues and challenges pertaining to the federal structure, devolution of powers and finances up to local levels and challenges therein.

What’s the ongoing story: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday asked states to pursue investments from par­t­ner countries by addressing gri­evances rapidly and to come up with district-level GDP estimates to deal with growth-related challenges at the grassroots level.

Key Points to Ponder:

• NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog-What you know about the same?

• Which commission was replaced by NITI Aayog?

• Why did NITI Aayog replace the Planning Commission?

• How are the principles followed by the NITI Aayog different from those followed by erstwhile Planning Commission in India?

• What is the Composition of NITI Aayog?

• What is the Governing Council of NITI Aayog?

• Who chairs Governing Council of NITI Aayog?

• Governing Council Meeting of NITI Aayog 2026-know key highlights

• Governing Council Meeting of NITI Aayog 2026-what are the key takeaways?

• What is the one district one product ODOP scheme?

• What is Lakhpati Didi Scheme?

Key Takeaways:

• He was addressing the 11th Governing Council meeting of NITI Aayog which was attended by all Chief Ministers including those appointed recently — Tamil Nadu’s C Joseph Vijay, West Bengal’s Suvendu Adhikari, Karnataka’s D K Shivakumar, and Kerala’s V D Satheesan. NITI Aayog members said the CMs sought more support for elderly care and professional skilling.

• “This was the first time when Chief Ministers of all 28 states participated in the Governing Council Meeting of NITI Aayog,” an official statement said.

• Members who attended the meeting said energy and a redoubled manufacturing push were the focal points of the meeting, and several Chief Ministers raised the need for energy availability at competitive prices and support in spreading solar infrastructure so that dependency of households on the grid is reduced. The issue of affordable energy comes amid rising fuel prices in the backdrop of the West Asia crisis.

• NITI Aayog Vice Chairperson Ashok Kumar Lahiri said, “On energy, there was a lot of discussion… on making energy prices competitive and making reliable energy available. The governing council members also talked about spreading solar energy on rooftops, in residential buildings, in schools, hospitals and government buildings so that dependence of households on grid electricity is reduced and the subsidy problem becomes manageable.”

• The Prime Minister, according to the official statement, emphasised on women-led development. He asked the states to work on increasing the number of Lakhpati Didis from 3 crore to 6 crore and stressed the importance of ensuring a safe and secure environment for Nari Shakti.

Do You Know:

• The Governing Council of NITI Aayog comprises the Prime Minister of India; Chief Ministers of all the States and Union Territories with Legislature; Lt Governors of other UTs; Ex-Officio Members; Vice Chairperson, NITI Aayog; Full-time Members, NITI Aayog and Special Invitees. First constituted in February 2015 and reconstituted in February 2021, the Governing Council embodies the objectives of cooperative federalism and presents a platform to discuss inter- sectoral, inter-departmental and federal issues to accelerate the implementation of the national development agenda.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Suman Bery writes: NITI Aayog’s role in ensuring collaboration between states and centre

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
1) Atal Innovation Mission is set up under the (UPSC CSE, 2019)
(a) Department of Science and Technology
(b) Ministry of Labour and Employment
(c) NITI Aayog
(d) Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship

2) The Government of India has established NITI Aayog to replace the (UPSC CSE, 2015)
(a) Human Rights Commission
(b) Finance Commission
(c) Law Commission
(d) Planning Commission

Previous year UPSC Main Question Covering similar theme:
📍How are the principles followed by the NITI Aayog different from those followed by erstwhile Planning Commission in India? (UPSC, 2018)

THE SECOND PAGE

Kerala’s 1st Nipah case this year: Trader whose godown had fruit bats hospitalised

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: A 43-year-old man was admitted to an isolation ward at the Government Medical College Hospital in Kerala’s Kozhikode on Wednesday night after initial tests indicated that he had contracted the Nipah virus. This is the first such case in the state this year.

Key Points to Ponder:

• Nipah Virus-what you know about the same?

• Nipah Virus and fruit bats or ‘flying foxes’-connect the dots

• How does Nipah spread or get transmitted?

• What are the symptoms of the Nipah infection?

• Why there is recurrent Nipah spillovers in India?

• How surveillance changed the response?

• Why ecology shapes outbreaks?

Key Takeaways:

• A Health Department official said the man had developed symptoms of the infection a few days ago. While samples tested at a research and diagnostic lab in the Government Medical College have indicated Nipah, official confirmation must come from NIV-Pune, where the samples have been sent.

• The Kerala Health Department has already activated all the protocols laid down for dealing with a Nipah outbreak, including the declaration of a containment zone and the isolation of primary contacts of the patient, officials said. People in Kozhikode’s Ramanattukara municipality have been advised to practise social distancing and wear masks at public places.

• The patient is a trader whose godown is situated close to thick vegetation. According to Health officials, when the trader opened the godown after a long time, he saw a large number of fruit bats, which are considered the reservoir of the virus.

• The severe zoonotic disease was first detected in Kerala in 2018, in Kozhikode district. Out of 18 cases that year, 17 died. In 2021, the state saw another outbreak, killing one person. In 2023, two Nipah deaths were reported in Kerala, and in 2024, there were two deaths. Last year, Kerala reported four cases of Nipah, out of which two patients died. The total death toll from the Nipah virus in Kerala since 2018 is 24.

• A study on the 2018 outbreak found that the index case was infected from bats, and the others from the hospital where the patient was admitted. The virus reported in Kerala belonged to a Bangladeshi strain, which is known for a mortality rate of up to 90%.

• A field survey conducted by the National Institute of Virology (NIV) and the National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD) after the Nipah death in July 2024 indicated fruit bats as the source of infection. The presence of antibodies to the virus was detected in fruit bats’ samples collected from the village where the July victim lived. The minor boy had consumed a fruit from his neighbourhood, where fruit bats were known to be present.

Do You Know:

• Nipah, a highly pathogenic virus carried primarily by Pteropus fruit bats, was first identified during a large outbreak in Malaysia in 1998-99. Since then, repeated spillover events have occurred across South and Southeast Asia, often with high fatality rates and no specific treatment available.

• Although the bat reservoir is widely distributed across India, recurring human infections have been reported mainly in West Bengal and Kerala. These states differ markedly in ecology, population density, healthcare capacity and human-animal interactions, yet both continue to experience Nipah spillovers. West Bengal reported outbreaks in 2001 and 2007, both epidemiologically linked to Bangladesh, and again in 2026. Kerala has recorded recurring spillovers since 2018, with outbreaks in 2018, 2019, 2021, 2023, 2024 and 2025. Most have been limited to isolated cases or small clusters that were rapidly contained.

• India’s first Nipah outbreak occurred in Siliguri, West Bengal, in 2001 and remains a classic example of hospital-acquired transmission. The outbreak exposed major gaps in infection prevention, including limited awareness of the disease, inadequate use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and poor infection-control practices.
The outbreak resulted in 66 cases with a case fatality rate of 68.2%. Nearly 75% of infections occurred among healthcare workers and hospital visitors.
A smaller outbreak in Nadia district in 2007 caused five deaths and was linked to consumption of contaminated palm-derived products.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Nipah in India: Why Kerala and West Bengal face the same virus but different outbreak risks

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
3) With reference to monoclonal antibodies, often mentioned in news, consider the following statements: (UPSC CSE, 2025)
I. They are man-made proteins.
I. They stimulate immunological function due to their ability to bind to specific antigens.
III. They are used in treating viral infections like that of Nipah virus.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
(a) I and II only
(b) II and III only
(c) I and III only
(d) I, II and III

Nation

‘Homemakers nation builders’: SC puts ‘loss of domestic care’ at Rs 30K monthly

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies I: Role of women

What’s the ongoing story: Housewives or homemakers are “nation builders” and “building blocks for the nation’s road to holistic progress”, the Supreme Court said Thursday as it fixed Rs 30,000 as their notional monthly income, for the purpose of motor accident insurance claims.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What exactly Supreme Court ruling on compensation for homemakers said?

• Housework and the economy-can you relate both?

• What is the concept of the care economy?

• How Housework is measured and monetised?

• Wages for housework-what is the situation in India?

• What data and statistics says about unpaid Work in India?

• Why is the recognition of homemakers contribution important in a welfare state?

Key Takeaways:

• A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and N K Singh enhanced the insurance amount payable for the death of a woman in a road accident on November 25, 2001, from Rs. 8.4 lakh to Rs 62.78 lakh.

• In December 2023, the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal ordered the payment of Rs 2,42,000 to the woman’s legal heirs by way of insurance. In December 2024, the Punjab and Haryana High Court enhanced this to Rs 8.43 lakh with 7.5 per cent interest from the date of filing of the claim petition, following which her heirs approached the top court.

• “When the efforts of the homemaker towards the husband and children are taken on the whole, it cannot be disputed that although her labour, be emotional or physical, is within the four walls of the home, its impact is much wider. In enabling the direct contribution today of their husbands and tomorrow of their children, they are the building blocks for the nation’s road to holistic progress,” the bench said. Writing for the bench, Justice Karol said the loss of a homemaker is “not limited to husband and children”.

• The bench said that in cases involving the death of a homemaker, Motor Accident Claims Tribunals, High Courts, and the Supreme Court should award an additional lump-sum amount of Rs 30,000 under the head of “loss of domestic care”. The amount, it said, would help offset the inherent disadvantage faced by homemakers when compensation is calculated on the basis of a conservatively assessed notional income.

• It added that the amount should take into account the homemaker’s contribution to the household’s smooth functioning, the loss of maternal support for children, the loss of spousal support, the support and care of an adult child, and the support and care of the deceased’s parents.

• The bench clarified that the amount of Rs. 30,000 is “to be taken as a ‘stand-in’ (basic minimum monthly income) for monthly income in cases where the homemaker does not have an input into the house, in strictly conventional, monetary terms”. “In those cases where the homemaker is part of the workforce, the component of loss of domestic care shall be in addition to the monthly income as may be proved before the Tribunal/Courts.”

Do You Know:

• Explaining how the work performed by homemakers is often undervalued, the court observed that routine household tasks such as cooking, cleaning and caregiving play a vital role in supporting the paid workforce and enabling economic productivity. However, it noted that these contributions are generally not recognised as productive economic activity in measures such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“To put the enormity of what is missed out by these conventional methods” of calculating notional income, “it may be noted that every day, around 16 billion hours individual are devoted to unpaid domestic work and care,” the bench said.

• The court also referred to a Time Use Survey conducted in 2019, “which highlights the extent of unpaid domestic and caregiving work, particularly undertaken by women.”

• It said the survey found that women aged 15–59 spend more than seven hours a day on unpaid domestic work, compared with fewer than three hours for men. On average, women undertake 2.6 times more unpaid caregiving and household responsibilities, even while also engaged in income-generating work. “This one-sided scenario is probably one of the reasons why the country has a low female labour force participation at 31.7 per cent, since the societal framework generally presumes such responsibilities to be automatically falling upon women. Women’s unpaid caregiving work is estimated to contribute 15-17 per cent of India’s GDP, yet it remains unpaid and unrecognised,” the bench said.

• Unpaid care work, according to the OECD, refers to all unpaid services provided within a household for its members, including care of persons, housework and voluntary community work. These activities are considered work because theoretically one could pay a third person to perform them.
Standard measures of economic activity do not take into account a large portion of this work, much of which is done by women and girls. The gender inequalities in the time allocated to this work are glaring, with McKinsey estimating that women do 75% of the world’s total unpaid care work. In India, women spend 299 minutes a day on unpaid domestic services while men spend 97 minutes, according to the 2019 NSS report on time use. This inequality has a direct correlation with participation in the formal economy.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Explained: How to measure unpaid care work and address its inequalities  

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
4) With reference to the Indian economy, consider the following statements: (UPSC CSE, 2022)
1. A share of the household financial savings goes towards government borrowings.
2. Dated securities issued at marked-related rates in auctions form a large component of internal debt.
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Previous year UPSC Main Question Covering similar theme:
📍Distinguish between ‘care economy’ and ‘monetized economy’. How can the care economy be brought into a monetized economy through women empowerment? (UPSC, 2023)

Two killed in fresh violence as tensions boil over in Manipur

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Role of external state and non-state actors in creating challenges to internal security.

What’s the ongoing story: Two people were killed in a Kuki-Zo village near the Indo-Myanmar border in Manipur on Thursday amid heightened tensions following the recovery of the bodies of six Naga men nearly a month after they had been abducted.

Key Points to Ponder:

• Map Work-Manipur and adjoining States

• How many different ethnic groups are there in Manipur?

• What exactly triggered the violence in the state?

• Who are Kuki and Meitei?

• Which are the major communities residing in Manipur?

• Manipur has been in the cross-currents of India’s oldest insurgent movements-why?

• History of conflict in Manipur-Know in detail

• Arambai Tenggol and Manipur Violence-Connect the dots

• Illegal arms proliferation is a major challenge in conflict-prone regions like Manipur. Examine the factors contributing to weapon looting and discuss potential strategies to curb this issue.

Key Takeaways:

• Tensions started rising in Manipur soon after police announced Wednesday evening that joint security forces had recovered six bodies of those “believed to be among” the men abducted on May 13.

• Search operations for the six men had been underway for the past four weeks. Their bodies were recovered a day after Naga groups released 14 Kuki men they had been holding hostage in Senapati district, demanding that the six men be located and handed over.
Once news spread that the bodies had been recovered and were being taken to the capital, Imphal, for post-mortem examination, large numbers of people began gathering at the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS) in Imphal East, where the bodies were brought at around 2 am on Thursday.

• As emotions and tempers rose among those gathered at the institute, which included family members and Naga civil society groups, security forces deployed there used teargas at around midnight.

Do You Know:

• The Meiteis are the largest community in Manipur. There are 34 recognized tribes, which are broadly classified as ‘Any Kuki Tribes’ and ‘Any Naga Tribes’. The central valley in the state accounts for about 10% of the landmass of Manipur, and is home primarily to the Meitei and Meitei Pangals who constitute roughly 64.6% of the state’s population. The remaining 90% of the state’s geographical area comprises hills surrounding the valley, which are home to the recognized tribes, making up about 35.4% of the state’s population.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Expert Explains | The long, fractured history of Manipur, and the road ahead

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
5) If a particular area is brought under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution of India, which one of the following statements best reflects the consequence of it? (UPSC CSE, 2022)
(a) This would prevent the transfer of land of tribal people to non-tribal people.
(b) This would create a local self-governing body in that area.
(c) This would convert that area into a Union Territory.
(d) The State having such areas would be declared a Special Category State.

The Editorial Page

R&D underspending in India has no one cause. It’s systemic as well as cultural

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: V Anantha Nageswaran Writes-The truth, as usual, lies in the interaction between multiple causes, none of which is individually sufficient.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What is Research and Development (R&D)?

• Why Research and Development (R&D) is significant for economic growth and technological self-reliance?

• How much does India spend on research and development?

• What are the reasons for low R&D spending in India?

• Why is scientific temper important for building an innovation-driven society?

• What are the structural challenges affecting research and innovation in India?

Key Takeaways:
V Anantha Nageswaran Writes-

• When analysts encounter the observation that Indian businesses chronically underinvest in research and development, the instinct is to reach for systemic explanations and to resist cultural ones. Cultural explanations, carelessly deployed, slide into stereotypes, and stereotypes foreclose rather than illuminate. Yet the categorical rejection of culture as an explanatory variable creates its own blind spot, because some of the most persuasive systemic explanations turn out, on inspection, to incorporate cultural elements — not as fixed ethnic traits but as historically conditioned orientations that may change as the circumstances that produced them change.

• Begin with the most structurally respectable explanation: India’s domestic market is vast, and vastness, paradoxically, can be an impediment. A large captive market insulates producers from the bracing pressure of export competition, which has historically been the driving force behind quality improvement and technological upgrading. This is the R&D equivalent of Dutch disease — the same abundance that appears to be an asset quietly erodes the competitive muscle that exposure to harder markets would build.

• Indian commercial communities have historically been trading rather than manufacturing communities, and while this characterisation admits exceptions, it reflects a genuine historical reality. Whatever manufacturing instincts and capabilities existed before colonial rule were, in many cases, systematically suppressed. The de-industrialisation documented by economic historians — the destruction of India’s textile industry, among others — was not merely an economic event; it reshaped the orientation of Indian enterprise toward commerce, intermediation, and arbitrage rather than production and innovation. The few families that retained or rebuilt a manufacturing identity stand as evidence of what might have been more widespread had history taken a different course.

Do You Know:

• India barely spends 0.7 per cent of its GDP on research and development, which is extremely low compared to many other countries. In fact, the gross expenditure on R&D declined from 0.84 per cent in 2008 to about 0.69 per cent in 2018, the last year for which confirmed figures are available. In comparison, the US spent 2.83 per cent, China spent 2.14 per cent, and Israel spent 4.9 per cent. Even Brazil, Malaysia and Egypt spend more of their GDP on research. The proposal for an NRF was first floated in the public domain by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 3, 2019 during his address to the Indian Science Congress.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍National Research Foundation gets Centre nod, Rs 50,000 crore over 5 years for R&D

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
6) Which of the following statements is/are correct regarding National Innovation Foundation-India (NIF)? (UPSC CSE, 2015)
1. NIF is an autonomous body of the Department of Science and Technology under the Central Government.
2. NIF is an initiative to strengthen the highly advanced scientific research in India’s premier scientific institutions in collaboration with highly advanced foreign scientific institutions.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Previous year UPSC main Question Covering similar theme:
📍Scientific research in Indian universities is declining because a career in science is not as attractive as are business professions, engineering or administration, and the universities are becoming consumer-oriented. Critically comment. (UPSC, 2014)

 

PRELIMS ANSWER KEY

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

  

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