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Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance – Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues
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: The government introduced two Bills in the Lok Sabha Tuesday as part of its plans for simultaneous elections across the country, countering the Opposition’s charge of the move being “anti-constitutional” and “undermining federal structure”. The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Amendment) Bill and Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill were approved by the Cabinet last week.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What is the process of passing the Constitutional Amendment Bill?
• How constitutional amendment bill is different from an ordinary bill?
• What is the basic structure doctrine and how the Supreme Court judgments have defined it?
• What is the purpose of the Joint Parliamentary Committee?
• What is the role of the Election Commission of India in conducting simultaneous elections?
• What are the arguments in favour and against the One Nation, one election?
Key Takeaways:
• The Union Cabinet last week approved the Constitution Bill, and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment Bill), 2024 that would allow holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha as well as state and Union Territory assemblies. The latter seeks to align the elections of the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, Puducherry and the NCT of Delhi.
• In September 2023, a high-level committee chaired by former President Ram Nath Kovind, to suggest ways and amendments to enable simultaneous elections, had submitted its report. Of the 47 parties that submitted their opinion on the matter to the Kovind panel, 32 supported the idea and 15 opposed it.
• As per the draft, the President would have to notify an “appointed date” on the first sitting of the Lok Sabha after a general election, and any Legislative Assembly elected after that date would have its term curtailed to end with that of the Lok Sabha.
Do You Know:
One Nation One Election Bill Explained: Proposals, key takeaways
What are the key takeaways from the two Bills?
• First, simultaneous polls, as of now, are only for Parliament and state Assemblies, and not municipal corporations.
• Second, these changes can in ordinary circumstances take shape earliest in the 2034 election cycle. The Constitution amendment Bill states that the “President may by a public notification issued on the date of the first sitting of the House of the People after a general election, bring into force the provision of this article, and that date of the notification shall be called the appointed date”.
• The earliest date of the first sitting of Lok Sabha will be in 2029, and the next election cycle will be in 2034, assuming that both the 18th and 19th Lok Sabhas complete their full five-year terms.
• For the Constitutional amendment to pass in Parliament will require a “special majority” in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Two conditions have to be satisfied under Article 368 of the Constitution which gives the power to amend.
• First, half of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha must vote in favour of the amendment. Second, of all the members “present and voting”, two-thirds must vote in favour of the amendment.
• It is practical to leave out municipal elections at this stage. That would have required an amendment to be “ratified” (agreed to) by the legislatures of at least half of all states in the country.
• The first Bill is The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Amendment) Bill, 2024, which proposes to amend three articles of the Constitution and insert a new one, Article 82A(1-6).
• This new provision is intended to facilitate the transition to simultaneous elections. It is proposed to be added after Article 82, which pertains to delimitation, which is the readjustment of allocation of Lok Sabha seats among states after every decadal Census.
• According to the Bill, Article 82A provides for simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and state Assemblies.
• Under Article 82A(3), the Election Commission of India (ECI) “shall conduct general elections to the House of the People and all Legislative Assemblies simultaneously”.
• Article 82 A(4) defines simultaneous elections as “general elections held for constituting the House of the People and all the Legislative Assemblies together”.
• Article 82A(5) gives the ECI the option of not holding any particular Assembly election along with the election to Lok Sabha.
• Article 82A(6) says if an Assembly election is deferred, the full term of that Assembly will also end with the full term of the Lok Sabha elected in the general election.
• For state Assemblies, amendments similar to those proposed to Article 83 are proposed to Article 172, which provides for the duration of state legislatures.
• In case of dissolution of a state Assembly before its full term, the election would be held for the unexpired term of the preceding Assembly.
• The second Bill, The Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024, has proposed amendments to the Government of Union Territories Act, 1963, the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi Act, 1991, and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍What the ECI must do to hold simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly polls across India
Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
(1) Consider the following statements: (2017)
1. The Election Commission of India is a five-member body.
2. The Union Ministry of Home Affairs decides the election schedule for the conduct of both general elections and bye-elections.
3. Election Commission resolves the disputes relating to splits/mergers of recognised political parties.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 2 only
(c) 2 and 3 only
(d) 3 only
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: Drawing parallels with the conduct of general elections, a high-level committee — set up by the Education Ministry and chaired by former ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan — has proposed a similar framework for holding important national entrance tests like the NEET, CUET and UGC-NET in order to ensure transparency and efficiency.
Key Points to Ponder:
• Why National Testing Agency was formed and why is it in the news?
• What is the impact of paper leaks on the student’s mental health?
• How can the Digiyatra model be incorporated into conducting digital examinations?
• What are the various educational reforms introduced by the government?
• What is the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024?
Key Takeaways:
• While the seven-member committee of experts, set up in June this year after the National Testing Agency (NTA) came under fire following the NEET-UG (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Undergraduate) paper leak, submitted its recommendations to the Ministry of Education in October, these were made public on Tuesday.
• The panel has suggested that the Centre should collaborate with state governments to conduct these exams, mirroring the election process in which the entire state administrative machinery, down to the district collector, is roped in.
• Each testing centre should have a “presiding officer” of the NTA, who will be the “overall in-charge” and will ensure that the process happens as per pre-defined protocol, similar to how polling booths are managed, it has said. The NTA is the Centre’s autonomous agency charged with the responsibility of conducting all national-level entrance tests.
• The panel has recommended that before scheduled exams, the testing centres should be sealed in the presence of the district administration and police. These centres should be guarded until they are unsealed for the exam, in the presence of the district administration and NTA officials, it has said.
• This, again, is similar to the election process where strong-rooms containing Electronic Voting Machines are locked and sealed in the presence of polling officials and candidates’ representatives, and remain guarded until they are unsealed on counting day.
• For collaboration with the states and districts for “secure test administration”, the panel has recommended establishing state and district-level coordination committees, and suggested their composition and role.
• So far, the NTA has been conducting its exams in government-run schools and colleges, institutes recognised by the AICTE, and private centres where third-party service providers conduct the exam. It relies heavily on TCS iON to conduct its computer-based entrance tests like JEE Main.
• Additionally, the committee has advocated a “digi-exam” system inspired by the DigiYatra model, to verify candidates and ensure only registered individuals can appear for the tests. It suggests that primary data identifying the candidate be recorded at the application stage as a ‘one-time entry’ and biometric data be recorded at the testing centre before the test begins.
• The committee of experts has been tasked with making recommendations on reforms in the mechanism of the exam process, improvement in data security protocol and the structure and functioning of the NTA.
Do You Know:
• NTA will conduct only entrance exams for higher education institutions from 2025 and not recruitment exams, said Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in the Parliament on Tuesday. He further added that the government is looking at moving to computer adaptive test, tech-driven entrance exams in near future.
• National Testing Agency (NTA) has been established in 2017 as a premier, specialist, autonomous and self-sustained testing organization to conduct entrance examinations for admission/fellowship in higher educational institutions.
• President Droupadi Murmu gave the go ahead to The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024, making it a law in February this year. It was passed by the Lok Sabha on February 6 and by the Rajya Sabha on February 9.
• The Act aims to prevent unfair means in the public examinations conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), the railways, banking recruitment examinations and the National Testing Agency (NTA) among others.
• The Act also has provisions for a minimum of three to five years of imprisonment to curb cheating. Those involved in organised crimes of cheating will face five to 10 years of imprisonment and a minimum fine of Rs 1 crore.
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍How the new Public Examinations Act can deal with cheating
Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
(2) 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
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.
General Studies-III: Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.
What’s the ongoing story: ASHA workers, the backbone of India’s primary healthcare system, will soon add another crucial task to their house calls. As the first point of contact for healthcare in remote villages and towns, these workers already handle tasks like vaccination and health reviews. Now, they will also conduct detailed conversations with families about their personal health status and family history of diseases, guided by a formatted questionnaire.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What is the role of AI in cancer detection?
• What is the benefit of early detection of cancer?
• What are the reasons for the increase in cancer cases in India?
• What is the role of ASHA workers?
• What are the government initiatives related to cancer treatment?
Key Takeaways:
• The goal is to collect vital data that can help AI tools identify breast cancer risk factors and patterns specific to Indian women. This initiative is part of an ambitious project by AIIMS Delhi aimed at improving early breast cancer detection and reducing mortality, which remains among the highest globally.
• The project is one of the first under the government’s flagship scheme to establish three Centres of Excellence (CoE) in AI, focusing on healthcare, agriculture, and sustainable cities. AIIMS has secured ₹300 crore in funding to lead the healthcare CoE in partnership with IIT Delhi, working on various national programs to address non-communicable diseases.
• AI will help us on two fronts. First, it can interpret the data pool and identify which women may need mammograms — specialised X-rays to check for signs of breast cancer — while reassuring others with low-risk profiles.
• Second, the AI tool can read mammograms correctly, picking up even the smallest signs of cancer. “This allows advanced breast cancer screening in remote areas where there is a shortage of trained radiologists.
• Mammography is a very complex modality and a radiologist requires many years of experience to be able to read it correctly.
• The AI model will first scan a five-year database of women tested for breast cancer at AIIMS, NCI Jhajjar and PGI Chandigarh regardless of whether they were found clean or had developed cancer. Analysing them, it will predict the risk of developing breast cancer by combining a patient’s general test results with their lifestyle and family history data. This would then allow doctors to sift those at higher risk and recommend interventions.
• What about data protection, considering they cover a huge swathe of the population? “Data security will be our top priority and we will be building a mechanism so that our data is secured and encrypted.
Do You Know:
• A report released by the Indian multinational health care group, Apollo Hospitals, in April 2024 labeled the South Asian nation as “the cancer capital of the world.”
• The study revealed an alarming picture of declining overall health across the country, pointing to soaring cases of cancer and other non-communicable diseases nationwide.
• The report found that at present, one in three Indians is pre-diabetic, two in three are pre-hypertensive, and one in 10 struggles with depression. Chronic conditions like cancer, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and mental health disorders are now so prevalent that they have reached “critical levels,” it added.
• The study projected the number of annual cancer cases to rise from almost 1.4 million in 2020 to 1.57 million by 2025. Breast, cervix, and ovarian cancer are the most common forms of cancer affecting women. And among men, they are lung cancer, mouth cancer, and prostate cancer.
• “Contributory factors to rising incidence are advancing age, unhealthy diets with ultra-processed foods stoking inflammation, exposure to air pollution laden with carcinogens and climate change with increased exposure to ultraviolet radiation,” he explained.
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Why are cancer cases soaring in India?
📍Bringing AI to AIIMS to help identify cancer therapies
Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
(3) 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
Previous year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:
What do you understand by nanotechnology and how is it helping in health sector? (UPSC CSE 2020)
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance – Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues
Mains Examination: General Studies-II: Constitution of India —historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure.
What’s the ongoing story: Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: The debate on the Constitution in Parliament turned out to be bitter and partisan over whether the Congress or the BJP was the greater threat to the Constitution. At one level, this process exemplifies democratic accountability. It would be wonderful if each party held the other’s feet to the fire on core constitutional values. But that bluster did not give us more confidence that core constitutional values will indeed be maintained.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What do you understand by constitutionalism?
• What is Constitutional autochthony?
• How the Supreme Court has defined basic structure doctrine?
• What is the purpose of the Constitution?
• What is the doctrine of checks and balances and why is it necessary?
Key Takeaways:
• The core aspiration of constitutionalism is simple: The entrenchment of individual rights to protect the basic freedom and dignity of individuals; the affirmation of at least the political equality of all citizens; the creation of institutional checks and balances; formally defined limitations on the power of government; the preservation of institutions and practices that allow citizens to exercise political agency (democracy) and engage in practices of political justification for all decisions that affect their common life. This, broadly speaking, is the basic structure of any modern constitutionalism. The rest is diversion.
• The real question is vigilance towards all the forces that subvert this aspiration. Lack of trust in people, and measuring each against compulsory identities whether on caste, religion or nation subverts freedom.
• Most of our significant assaults on free speech and individual freedom are in the name of community identity. The exaltation of executive power subverts checks and balances, and neither party has been vigilant on executive power.
• Practices of political justification can be subverted by state power. But it can also be subverted by oligarchic power that comes from concentration of wealth. It can also be subverted by citizens not treating each other as co-agents in the creation of our collective public life, or impugning their standing just because of their identity.
• Constitutional change was understood to be a change in the social power it represented. Constitutions were not eternal forms: They were a way of channelling social forces.
• Social power is just a series of contingent coalitions carved though politics under conditions of universal suffrage. Modern constitutions therefore rely on pure legal forms for their authority. India makes a concession on this score on the question of caste — it is a social form that has to be represented.
Do You Know:
• Yogendra Yadav writes: A serious search for Indianness in the Constitution can take two forms, one more radical than the other. In its more ambitious avtar, authenticity can require a de novo originality.
• A very Indian version of the Constitution would have meant setting aside the entire received gamut of western political thought and carving each element of the institutional design afresh, drawing upon our civilizational heritage. This is what Gandhi wanted in Hind Swaraj. This is why Gandhians like Shriman Narayan felt that the Constitution did not do justice to the genius of India.
• It must also be noted that hardly any constitution of the last century (with the exception of Iran and Bolivia) would pass this test of authenticity. While searching for this alternative is a valid aspiration, no one has anything like a workable draft of such a constitution. Indianness in this sense must remain a work in progress.
• The more feasible version, the only version known across the world recently, is compositional originality, newness as rearrangement. Here Indianness of the constitution would be tested by a different set of yardsticks: How were the many elements received from the western constitutional tradition rearranged and modified to suit the Indian context? Does this new arrangement reflect India’s civilisational journey? Is the philosophy underlying the Constitution in line with our intellectual traditions? And has the working of this Constitution validated these assumptions?
• Once we ask these appropriate and relevant questions, we can see what is Indian about the Indian Constitution. The Constitution of India may have been written in less than three years, but it was thought through for well over a century. In its essence, the Constitution is a distillation of “modern Indian political thought”.
• Since this body of knowledge was not limited to any one ism or orientation, the Constitution reflects an equilibrium of contesting visions of India. It is informed by a deep engagement with the multiple strands of our intellectual traditions. Faced with a colonial modernity, our Constitution is informed by a conscious effort to forge a very Indian modernity.
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Yogendra Yadav writes: What’s Indian about the Indian Constitution?
📍Debate in Parliament is, in fact, in the spirit of the Constitution
Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
(4) Consider the following statements: (UPSC CSE 2020)
1. The Constitution of India defines its ‘basic structure’ in terms of federalism, secularism, fundamental rights and democracy.
2. The Constitution of India provides for ‘judicial review’ to safeguard the citizens’ liberties and to preserve the ideals on which the Constitution is based.
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
Previous year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:
“Parliament’s power to amend the Constitution is a limited power and it cannot be enlarged into absolute power.” In the light of this statement explain whether Parliament under Article 368 of the Constitution can destroy the Basic Structure of the Constitution by expanding its amending power? (UPSC CSE 2019)
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: General issues on Environmental Ecology, Biodiversity and Climate Change – that do not require subject specialisation
Mains Examination: General Studies-III: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.
What’s the ongoing story: Arctic tundra, a frozen treeless biome which has stored carbon for thousands of years, has now become a source of heat-trapping greenhouse gases (GHGs) which are the primary drivers of global warming, according to a new report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA).
Key Points to Ponder:
• What is the role of the Arctic ecosystem in global warming?
• What is the carbon cycle?
• What is permafrost?
• What is the impact of the cryosphere on global climate?
Key Takeaways:
• Increased wildfires and unusually high temperatures are the main reasons behind the dramatic transformation of this Arctic ecosystem.
• Arctic tundra emitting more carbon than storing it would have global consequences as this would exacerbate climate change, whose adverse impacts are already unfolding across the world.
• In a typical ecosystem, plants absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. These plants grow, die, or are eaten by animals which also grow and die. When they die, the carbon in their corpse feeds microorganisms such as bacteria or fungi which break down larger molecules and return CO2 to the atmosphere, thereby completing the carbon cycle.
• However, in the case of Arctic tundra, the decomposition of organic matter is dramatically slowed down due to the cold climate. Plant and animal remains can stay trapped for thousands of years in a layer of permafrost — any ground that stays frozen for at least two years straight — thwarting CO2 from getting released back into the atmosphere.
• In recent years, however, the Arctic tundra’s ability to emit less and absorb more carbon has taken a hit. The new analysis, which incorporated more data and better methods of examination, confirmed that the ecosystem has now become a source of CO2 and methane (CH4) — a more potent GHG — emissions.
• That has happened for two main reasons. One is rising temperatures. The report said the Arctic is warming four times the global rate, and that annual surface air temperatures in the Arctic in 2024 were the second-warmest on record since 1900.
• As a result, the Arctic’s permafrost is thawing, meaning microbes in the soil are becoming active and breaking the organic matter down, releasing CO2 and CH4 into the atmosphere.
• Wildfires and rising temperatures together, between 2001 and 2020, caused the Arctic tundra to release more carbon than its plants removed from the air, probably for the first time in many millennia, the report said.
• The analysis said it is still possible to flip the Arctic tundra in the other direction, making it absorb more carbon than emitting it. The only way to do so is to reduce global GHG emissions.
• “With projected emissions from land-use change (such as deforestation) of 4.2 billion tonnes, total CO2 emissions are projected to be 41.6 billion tonnes in 2024, up from 40.6 billion tonnes last year,” the study said.
Do You Know:
• The Arctic is warming at a rate four times faster than the global average, leading to an unprecedented loss of sea ice, as well as the thawing of permafrost. Continued Arctic change risks losing the North Pole’s “great white shield” and unleashing vast quantities of stored carbon, rivaling the cumulative emissions from the US at its current rate.
• This can trigger multiple catastrophic and irreversible climate tipping points. Protection of the Arctic is, therefore, crucial to protect the world from the worst effects of the climate emergency.
• Despite awareness about the importance of the Arctic, the climatic challenge is being exacerbated by rapid development and growing geopolitical tensions. Russia stretches over 53 per cent of the Arctic Ocean coastline and is pouring resources into commercialising and expanding trade channels along the Northern Sea Route, while continuing to use and transport high-polluting heavy fuel oil through Arctic waters.
• The Arctic Council is a group of eight countries (the US, Russia, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Canada, Denmark, and Iceland) with primary capacity for protecting or exploiting the vital ecosystem. The suspension of the Council due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine has made it more difficult to hold countries accountable and to monitor wider activity contributing to changes in the Arctic.
• India’s ability to traverse historical divides and develop aligned positions among the Global North and Global South, as evidenced at the G20 Summit, holds the potential to forge a united approach to safeguarding crucial global ecosystems, especially the Arctic.
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Breaking the ice: How India can help save the Arctic
Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
(5) Which of the following statements is/are correct about the deposits of ‘methane hydrate’? (2019)
1. Global warming might trigger the release of methane gas from these deposits.
2. Large deposits of ‘methane hydrate’ are found in Arctic Tundra and under the sea floor.
3. Methane in atmosphere oxidizes to carbon dioxide after a decade or two.
Select the correct answer using the code given below.
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Previous year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:
How do the melting of the Arctic ice and glaciers of the Antarctic differently affect the weather patterns and human activities on the Earth? Explain. (UPSC CSE 2021)
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance
Mains Examination: General Studies-II: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests, Indian diaspora.
What’s the ongoing story: C Raja Mohan writes: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Kuwait this weekend will close the last gap in India’s expanded diplomatic engagement with the Gulf region that is so vital to the country’s security and prosperity. Modi will be the first prime minister to visit Kuwait in more than four decades.
Key Points to Ponder:
• Which region forms part of the Middle East?
• What is the significance of the Gulf region for India?
• What is the significance of the Middle East for India?
• How India’s relationship with the countries in the Middle East has evolved over the past decades?
• Why the Middle East remains an area of conflict and instability?
• What are the recent measures taken by the Indian government to strengthen its relationship with the Middle East?
Key Takeaways:
• When the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein invaded and occupied Kuwait in August 1990, the coalition government in Delhi was so paralysed by the event that it could not bring itself to unambiguously condemn the fact that Saddam Hussein had sought to wipe out Kuwait as a sovereign nation from the map of the Middle East.
• Then, as now, there was little internal criticism of the government’s refusal to condemn Saddam Hussein’s unacceptable aggression by India’s political class or the foreign policy elite.
• To be sure, as a post-colonial nation, India is deeply committed to the inviolability of territorial sovereignty as the core principle of international relations. Delhi was reluctant to condemn these invasions because Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and Brezhnev’s Soviet Union were, and Vladimir Putin’s Russia is a close partner of India. Many countries don’t like criticising their partners.
• Part of the problem was in assessing and dealing with the geopolitical implications and consequences of Saddam Hussein’s attempt to annex Kuwait. The Gulf Arabs as well as Egypt and Syria got together to support a massive American expeditionary army to force Saddam Hussein to vacate the occupied territories and restore the sovereignty of Kuwait within a year.
• Despite much goodwill for India in the conservative Gulf monarchies and the growing energy imports and labour exports, Delhi tended to view them through the prism of Pakistan and struggled to develop a positive engagement strategy.
• The relationship with Kuwait, unsurprisingly, was a casualty from India’s Iraq policy during 1990-91. It was well into the 2000s, when high level visits between Kuwait and India resumed.
• Even as the Gulf’s energy, economic, and security salience grew in the 21st century, the region remained low on India’s diplomatic priorities. During the UPA’s decade-long rule, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited three Gulf countries one time each — Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.
• The PM has visited the region frequently — seven times to the UAE, two times each to Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and once to Bahrain and Oman. His travels to Kuwait this weekend closes the circle on this comprehensive engagement.
• What we have seen in the last decade is the qualitative transformation in ties between India and the Gulf monarchies — from strong personal rapport between the PM and the Gulf rulers to the intensity of commercial engagement and from security partnerships to connectivity projects.
• It is entirely accidental that the PM’s visit to Kuwait comes days after the swift collapse of the last Ba’athist ruler in Syria. If India’s ties with Kuwait were troubled by Delhi’s dalliance with the Ba’athists, the fall of the Assad dynasty marks the long overdue political booster shot for India’s relations with Kuwait.
• Deeper engagement with the moderate Arab states demands better appreciation of their core concerns in Delhi. This in turn will involve discarding many of the old Indian premises about the region. Delhi also needs a clear assessment of the hierarchy of contradictions between the moderate Arab states and the non-Arab powers of the region – Iran, Israel, and Turkey.
• Modi’s visit to Kuwait, then, must be seen as an important first step in upping India’s game in a Middle East poised for deep structural change.
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍EAM Jaishankar calls on Kuwaiti PM, Crown Prince; discuss bilateral ties
Previous year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:
(6) Which of the following is not a member of ‘Gulf Cooperation Council’? (2016)
(a) Iran
(c) Oman
(b) Saudi Arabia
(d) Kuwait
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance
Mains Examination: General Studies-II: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests, Indian diaspora.
What’s the ongoing story: Sujan Chinoy writes: With the Trump presidency around the corner, there is much speculation about its impact on an already uncertain international situation. One may see a reduced proclivity to dabble in India’s internal affairs, especially with respect to so-called human rights and democratic freedoms. Defence cooperation, on the other hand, is likely to deepen.
Key Points to Ponder:
• How has the US upgrading India to a “Major Defence Partner” and granting it Strategic Trade Authorization-1 (STA Tier-1) status been significant for India?
• How is India integrating itself into the Global Supply Chain?
• Indians make up the third largest group of illegal immigrants in the US. How is this going to be impacted with the coming of Donald Trump in power?
• How has the India-US relationship evolved?
• What are the opportunities and obstacles in the India-US relationship with the coming of Trump?
Key Takeaways:
• Since 2016, when the US upgraded India to a “Major Defence Partner” and granted it Strategic Trade Authorisation-1 (STA Tier-1) status, Indian companies have become an integral — although this is still at a nascent stage — part of the value chain for US aircraft manufacturers.
• Under Trump, the US is unlikely to take any steps that undermine the supply chains and operating margins of US’ defence conglomerates anchored in India.
• The Trump administration is likely to be less inhibited about high-tech sales to India, given its geopolitical contestation with China. India would have to weigh its choices carefully, between spending a limited budget on costly US platforms versus atmanirbharta in defence manufacturing.
• Stricter H-1B visa rules could impact the operating margins of Indian IT firms but the focus of the new US administration is likely to be on illegal immigrants.
• Indians make up the third largest group of illegal immigrants in the US. Over 90,000 Indians are reported to have illegally entered the US in 2022-2023. India might have to countenance the return of a large number of deportees.
• Past records point to the likelihood of higher customs duties on India’s export of automobiles, textiles and pharmaceuticals, as part of an America First agenda.
• Climate action goals may receive a setback with the expected reorientation towards fossil fuels. There could be fresh US demands on India to increase imports of US oil and gas.
• Civil aviation is one of the fastest-growing sectors in India, with estimates of more than 500 million domestic and international air travellers by 2030. It is important for India to engage the Trump administration in developing infrastructure for design, development, production and servicing of passenger aircraft.
• India should also seek deeper engagement with the US in space technologies, building on the Axiom Mission 4 initiative which will deliver an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station in 2025. There is a case for closer collaboration on earth observation satellites such as NISAR as well as India’s planned mission to Venus, the manned Moon mission and the development of an Indian space station.
Do You Know:
• India should diversify its IT exports to mitigate risks arising from potential tariffs under US President-elect Donald Trump as a significant portion of India’s IT export revenue comes from the United States, think tank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) said on Sunday.
• India’s total software service exports stood at $205 billion in 2023–24. The US accounted for 54 per cent of these exports, followed by Europe at 31 per cent, according to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) annual survey on computer software and information technology-enabled services (ITES) exports.
• This comes as Trump is widely expected to increase scrutiny of the H-1B visa programme as he has imposed several measures to restrict immigration during his first term too. Curbing immigration was also one of Trump’s key poll promises.
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍C Raja Mohan writes: In Trump 2.0, ‘the art of the deal’ may guide diplomacy
📍Expert Explains: How the prospect of Trump 2.0 has created two warring factions within China
Previous year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:
‘What introduces friction into the ties between India and the United States is that Washington is still unable to find for India a position in its global strategy, which would satisfy India’s National self-esteem and ambitions’. Explain with suitable examples. (UPSC CSE 2019)
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| Rahul Gandhi mentions Eklavya: His story beyond the thumb-cutting, questions of ‘dharma’ it raises | Recounting the story of how the royal teacher Dronacharya made Eklavya cut off his thumb, Rahul Gandhi targetted the government, saying, “Like Dronacharya cut the thumb of Eklavya, you are cutting the thumbs of India’s youngsters.” |
| PRELIMS ANSWER KEY |
| 1. (d) 2. (d) 3. (b) 4. (b) 5. (d) 6. (a) |
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