UPSC Key: PM visits Israel, Kerala to be Keralam, and HPV vaccination

Key Points to Ponder:

— How has the India-Israel relationship evolved since India’s independence?

— What are the areas of cooperation between both the nations?

— What is India’s stand on the Israel-Palestine issue?

— What is the significance of peace in West Asia from India’s perspective?

— What are Abraham Accords?

— What is the peace plan for Gaza? What is India’s response to it?

— What is the significance of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor?

— What are the efforts being taken to normalise ties between Israel and other Arab nations?

— What is Netanyahu’s “hexagonal” alliance?

— What is the Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan?

Key Takeaways:

— The circumstances of the latest visit are very different. West Asia is holding its breath over the prospect of a potential US-Iran conflict, even as a fragile ceasefire remains in effect in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.

— India recognised the state of Israel soon after it was created in 1948. The establishment of full diplomatic relations would take four more decades — but not before a defining moment involving an unlikely figure.

— Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was in India on January 19-20, 1992. During a meeting with Prime Minister P V Narsimha Rao, he was told that India’s establishment of the relationship with Israel would be helpful for the Palestinian cause.

— This would prove to be a game-changer. India formally established diplomatic ties with Israel on January 29, 1992, around 10 days after Arafat’s public approval.

— By the time of the Kargil war in 1999, the full diplomatic ties came in handy. The Indian Air Force (IAF) desperately needed precision bombs to target Pakistani intruders hiding in the caves and bunkers in Kargil’s mountains. After political approvals, IAF leaders reached out to their Israeli counterparts, who wasted no time. Israel is understood to have dug into its emergency stockpiles and shipped them to India’s air bases within days.

— India responded to this decisive show of support by organising a series of high-profile visits to Israel in 2000, with external affairs minister Jaswant Singh leading the first-ever Indian bilateral visit to the country. Home minister L K Advani also visited that summer.

— After coming to power in 2014, Modi has made the relationship much more visible. He met Netanyahu in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September 2014 — the first such meeting in a decade.

— Home minister Rajnath Singh visited Israel in November 2014, followed by President Pranab Mukherjee in October 2015 (the first-ever Presidential visit from India) and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj in January 2016.

— In the last three years, since Netanyahu was re-elected for the sixth time, Modi and Netanyahu have spoken at least 10 times. In November 2025, pacts on defence and launch of free trade negotiations were signed. The two sides have been cooperating on a range of sectors, from AI to agriculture.

— The October 7, 2023 Hamas attack triggered a two-year war in which Israel killed around 70,000 people in Gaza and left much of the territory in ruins. An uneasy truce now prevails in the territory under Trump’s peace plan, which now faces a crucial test — disarming Hamas.

— Then there are the spiralling tensions in Iran as the US masses its forces around the country. This comes after the 12-day war in June 2025 between Israel and Iran during which the US bombed Iranian nuclear facilities.

— Clearly, the Indian government and Modi are taking the risk of travelling to Israel at a time when the region is in turmoil. For New Delhi, this is a tricky diplomatic situation where it has to weigh the cost and the benefit of the visit.

— Israel is not only a key defence and security partner, it is also an important economic partner in the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor. And Tel Aviv is a political player with whom many countries in the region are willing to have bilateral ties.

From the Editorial Page: With Israel and broader Middle East, a diplomacy less defensive, more realist

— C Raja Mohan writes: India’s engagement with Israel was taboo in the early decades of post-Independence diplomacy. It became a cautious adjunct after the early 1990s, when Delhi established full diplomatic relations. It was only after the Modi government took charge in 2014 that the relationship acquired a strategic dimension.

— There is no question that stronger ties with Israel are part of the BJP’s ideology, dating back to the Jana Sangh days… But it would be incorrect to say Congress was always hostile to Israel. Jawaharlal Nehru recognised Israel early on, but held back on establishing full relations. 

— Rajiv Gandhi revived engagement, and Narasimha Rao normalised ties in 1992. Yet, the Congress governments thereafter kept the relationship discreet.

— Modi’s visit comes as Israel faces global criticism for its regional policies. But that is not weighing heavily in Delhi’s calculus. Israel today enjoys greater room for manoeuvre in the region than ever before. Several Arab and Muslim states have normalised ties with Israel.

— Meanwhile, the balance of power on the ground has shifted dramatically since October 7, 2023. The US and Israel’s attacks against Iranian nuclear infrastructure and the systematic degradation of Hamas and Hezbollah — Tehran’s allies — have reshaped the regional balance.

— Iran — the most consequential revisionist power in the Middle East for four decades — has been severely weakened. Its Axis of Resistance against Israel has been hollowed out. Israel, by contrast, emerges militarily dominant in the region.

— Amid this churn, Netanyahu has floated a new “hexagonal” alliance. Presented as a regional coalition against regional radicalism, it seeks to cover a vast swath stretching from the Mediterranean to the Horn of Africa and Asia. The proposal reflects Netanyahu’s view that India must play a key role in stabilising the Middle East. 

— Meanwhile, Iran’s weakening in relation to Israel has also triggered a counter-movement among some regional states — including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar — exploring a coalition to constrain Israel. Pakistan has been drawn in. Riyadh and Islamabad signed a Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement last year, treating an attack on one as an attack on both. Turkey has signalled interest in joining.

— Talk of an “Islamic NATO” worries many, including India. But alliances of this kind have rarely endured in the Middle East; what has persisted is the historic Anglo-American domination. The US remains the chief arbiter of war and peace in the Middle East.

— India’s ties with Israel now sit atop a broader transformation. Relations with the UAE are flourishing — from energy and investments to defence manufacturing, fintech, AI, and critical minerals. Economic and military ties with Saudi Arabia have grown.

— This has enabled India to pursue parallel tracks with confidence: Supporting Palestinian statehood while engaging Israel as a vital partner. 

— None of this means India’s Middle East policy has become a walk in the park. The region remains volatile, and conflict remains endemic. Military tensions between the US and Iran, Israel’s domestic political turbulence, and humanitarian crises in Gaza and elsewhere in the region will test India’s ability to balance principle and pragmatism.

— But unlike in the past, Delhi is no longer defensive. Today, it engages the Middle East with greater realism.

From the Ideas Page: India and Israel, trusted partners in times of need

— Reuven Azar writes: India and Israel are two old civilisations that have left a significant mark in history. Despite many centuries of foreign invasions, both have managed to preserve their unique identity and cultural heritage.

— On top of these significant advancements, 2025 was by itself a transformative year for bilateral relations. While Israel emerged triumphant from one of the more significant war efforts in its history, India managed to change the rules of the game in its neighbourhood following Operation Sindoor. Both India and Israel discovered, again, who their trusted partners are in times of need.

— This discovery has been a catalyst in the expansion of our exchanges: Deeper cooperation in defence and new dimensions in our cooperation, such as doubling the Indian workforce in Israel, inviting Indian infrastructure companies into the Israeli market or signing the bilateral investment treaty and the terms of reference for a free trade agreement.

— India and Israel are ideal partners also because of almost perfect complementarity of relative advantages. India is the fastest-growing large economy in the world, capable of scaling-up solutions that benefit billions of people, while Israel is the strongest innovation hub outside the US. 

— With the right set of policies and agreements, India and Israel can increase the already existing wave of technological partnerships through joint ventures, capital investments, mergers and acquisitions, and joint R&D.

Do You Know:

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

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

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Defence ties to regional alignments: Why PM Modi is visiting Israel now

📍Timing of PM Modi’s visit to Israel displays India’s confidence in navigating a combustible region 

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:

(1) The term “two-state solution” is sometimes mentioned in the news in the context of the affairs of (UPSC CSE 2018)

(a) China

(b) Israel

(c) Iraq

(d) Yemen

Previous year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:

“India’s relations with Israel have, of late, acquired a depth and diversity, which cannot be rolled back.” Discuss (UPSC CSE 2018)

 

FRONT

SC allows Odisha, Jharkhand judges to help with Bengal SIR

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Salient features of the Representation of People’s Act, Constitution of India — features, significant provisions and basic structure.

What’s the ongoing story: The Supreme Court on Tuesday permitted the deployment of judicial officers from Odisha and Jharkhand for completing the adjudication of claims and objections of persons included in the “logical discrepancy/unmapped category” during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal.

Key Points to Ponder:

— What is the objective of SIR?

— What are the legal and constitutional backing to conduct SIR by the Election Commission of India (ECI)?

— What are the concerns related to SIR in West Bengal?

— The SC took note of the “trust deficit” between the state government and the ECI. Why? What efforts need to be taken to address it?

— What is the significance of Article 142?

— What is the role and function of the Electoral Registration Officers (EROs)?

— What is the purpose of appointing micro-observers by the ECI in West Bengal?

Key Takeaways:

— A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi also said that the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court can depute civil judges, if needed.

— On February 20, the top court, while taking note of the “trust deficit” between the state government and the Election Commission of India (ECI), had directed deployment of serving and former district judges of West Bengal for vetting claims and objections.

— The CJI said that on February 22 he had received a communication from the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court stating that while there are 50 lakh cases of logical discrepancy/unmapped categories to be decided, only 250 judicial officers were available for such duties. Even if one officer was to decide 250 matters a day, it would take at least 80 days to complete the process.

— In view of this, the court directed that judicial officers from neighbouring states could be deployed too, if required.

— The SC asked the ECI to bear the expenses of their travel, honorarium etc and urged the Chief Justice of Jharkhand and Orissa “to sympathetically and urgently consider any request that may be made by the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice in this regard.” The bench also issued some directions for streamlining the nature of the work.

— The court directed that “the verification shall be with reference to documents referred to in (a) notification dated October 27, 2025, issued by the ECI… declaring the commencement of SIR in the state of West Bengal, read with notification dated June 24, 2025 of the Standard Operating Procedure (b) the order passed by this Court on September 8, 2025… whereby Aadhaar card was allowed to be accepted as proof of identity and (c) the order of this Court on January 19, 2026… whereby Maadhyamik (Class X) admit card and Maadhyamik pass certificate was also allowed to be submitted.”

— Invoking its extraordinary powers under Article 142, the court also declared that “the voters enlisted in such subsequent supplementary list shall be deemed to have been part of the final list published on February 28, 2026.”

From the Front page: Unauthorised reviews, dodgy log-ins, blurred papers: TMC MP to top court

— Raising concerns that eligible voters could be deleted from the final electoral roll during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal, TMC MP Dola Sen has told the Supreme Court that Election Commission-appointed micro-observers were allegedly overriding decisions taken by Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), the statutory authority for inclusion and deletion of electors.

— While the EC announced the SIR in nine states and three Union Territories on October 27 last year, it deployed micro-observers only in West Bengal, which was a first. On February 4, while defending its decision to appoint 8,100 micro-observers, who are Central Government employees, the EC told the Supreme Court that their role was to assist EROs and Assistant EROs (AEROs). “It is false to suggest that statutory powers have been vested in the micro-observers,” the EC had said.

— In her February 16 application, Sen submitted that micro-observers were allegedly continuing to exercise powers to review ERO decisions, in violation of the Supreme Court’s February 9 order directing that they only assist the prescribed statutory authority.

— She alleged that the micro-observers, who are Group B and C officers, were using the ECINET portal to review decisions taken by EROs and AEROs from the Group A and B categories. She cited 13 cases in which electors cleared by statutory authorities were allegedly later marked for review by micro-observers.

— The petitioner also raised concerns regarding the ECINET portal, which is used by EROs, AEROs and micro-observers to process forms. She annexed purported screenshots, alleging that after February 14, the option for EROs and AEROs to upload documents had been removed from the interface.

— While February 14 was the last date for hearings, the Supreme Court had granted EROs and AEROs a one-week extension until February 21 to scrutinise documents.

— Sen also submitted screenshots allegedly showing electors being marked for review by micro-observers on grounds such as “no document of elector found to match with father’s name”, despite extracts of the 2002 electoral roll having been submitted along with the relevant details.

Do You Know:

— The ECI conducts SIR with the objective of deleting duplicate and illegal registrations of voters. The exercise was first carried out in Bihar ahead of its Assembly elections in November this year, and now is being rolled out across the country, starting with nine states and three Union Territories.

— Article 324(1) of the Constitution vests the ECI with the power of superintendence, direction,  and control of the preparation of the electoral roll. Specifically, Section 21(2) of  the Representation of the People Act, 1950 provides that “the Election Commission may at any time, for reasons to be recorded, direct a special revision of the electoral roll for any constituency or part of a constituency in such manner as it may think fit.”

— Section 13B of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, empowers the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) for each constituency to prepare and revise the electoral roll. In discharging this function, the ERO can employ persons deemed fit for the preparation and revision of the electoral roll. This statutory provision enables the appointment of BLOs.

— A BLO serves as a representative of the Election Commission of India (ECI) at the grassroots level and is responsible for collecting authentic field information about the electoral roll. BLOs, who are familiar with local electors, act as guides for voters at their doorstep in matters of electoral enrolment, correction, and verification.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Knowledge Nugget: Who are BLOs and what are their duties?

📍Bihar playbook, Bengal pushback: local officials flag fear of deletions, say being bypassed as EC generates notices

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:

(2) Consider the following statements: (UPSC CSE 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

Previous year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:

To enhance the quality of democracy in India the Election Commission of India has proposed electoral reforms in 2016. What are the suggested reforms and how far are they significant to make democracy successful? (UPSC CSE 2017)

 

POLITICS

Cabinet nod to rename Kerala as Keralam, PM says ‘will of people’

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national importance, Indian Polity and Governance.

Main Examination: General Studies-II: Indian Constitution—historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure,  Issues and challenges pertaining to the federal structure.

What’s the ongoing story: The Union Cabinet on Tuesday approved the proposal to change the name of Kerala to Keralam.

Key Points to Ponder:

— What is the process of altering the names of states provided in the constitution of India?

— Know Article 3 and the First Schedule of the Constitution of India.

— What are the factors behind the demand for renaming of the state?

— Read about the State Reorganisation Commission and its recommendations.

— How is a new state formed in India?

— What are the challenges related to altering the name of the state?

— Know about the state of Kerala from a geographical perspective.

Key Takeaways:

— Briefing reporters after the Cabinet meeting, Information & Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the Kerala (Alteration of Name) Bill, 2026, will now be sent to the state Assembly for its approval, following which the Centre will take the next steps.

— In a post on X, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who chaired the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, said, “The decision of the Union Cabinet on alteration of the name of Kerala to Keralam reflects the will of the people of the state. It is in line with our efforts to strengthen the connect with our glorious culture.”

— The decision, which was taken at the first Cabinet meeting held at Seva Teerth – the new PMO complex – comes ahead of the Assembly elections in the state.

— “After approval of the Union Cabinet, the President of India will refer a Bill, namely the Kerala (Alteration of Name) Bill, 2026, to the State Legislative Assembly of Kerala for expressing its views under the proviso to Article 3 of the Constitution of India,” Vaishnaw told reporters.

— After receipt of the views of the Assembly, the Centre will take further action, and the recommendation of the President will be obtained for the introduction of the Kerala (Alteration of Name) Bill, 2026, in Parliament.

— In June 2024, the Kerala Assembly had passed a resolution to alter the name of the state to “Keralam”. Quoting the resolution, a statement by the Union government on Tuesday said: “The name of our State is ‘Keralam’ in Malayalam Language. States were formed on the basis of language on the 1st day of November, 1956. The Kerala Piravi Day is also on the 1st day of November.”

— “Since the time of National Independence Struggle, there has been a strong demand for the formation of United Kerala for the people speaking Malayalam language. But in the First Schedule to the Constitution the name of our State is recorded as ‘Kerala’. This Assembly unanimously appeals to the Central Government to take urgent steps as per Article 3 of the Constitution for modifying the name as ‘Keralam’,” the resolution read.

— Thereafter, the Kerala government requested the Centre to take necessary measures to amend the First Schedule to the Constitution by altering the name of ‘Kerala’ as ‘Keralam’ under Article 3 of the Constitution, said the government statement. Article 3 of the Constitution provides for alteration of names of existing states.

From the Politics Page- “Historical, linguistic roots of the demand”

— With the Union Cabinet approving the renaming of Kerala as Keralam on Tuesday, the demand, previously endorsed twice by the Kerala Assembly, is finally set to be fulfilled.

The Assembly unanimously requested the Union government to take immediate steps under Article 3 of the Constitution to change the name to Keralam.

— There are multiple theories about the origin of the name “Kerala”. The earliest epigraphic reference is found in Rock Edict II of Ashoka, dated to 257 BCE, which mentions “Keralaputra” (Sanskrit for “son of Kerala”), also interpreted as a reference to the Chera dynasty.

— Some scholars trace Keralam to Cheram. German scholar Herman Gundert, who compiled the first Malayalam-English dictionary, noted that keram is the Kannada form of cheram and described Keralam as Cheram, the region between Gokarnam and Kanyakumari. The root “cher” is understood to mean “to join”, and appears in the compound “Cheralam”, with “alam” meaning land or region.

— Malayalam-speaking regions were historically ruled by various kings and princely states. The Aikya (unified) Kerala movement gathered momentum in the 1920s, demanding a separate state for Malayalam-speaking people by integrating Malabar, Kochi and Travancore. Inspired by the freedom movement, Malayalis — bound by a shared language, cultural traditions, and social customs — pressed for political unification.

— Following Independence, the integration of princely states paved the way for statehood. On July 1, 1949, Travancore and Kochi merged to form the Travancore-Cochin state. When the Union government decided to reorganise states on linguistic lines, the State Reorganisation Commission, headed by Syed Fazl Ali, recommended the creation of Kerala by including the Malabar district and the Kasargod taluk, while excluding the southern taluks of Travancore that now form part of Tamil Nadu.

— Unlike the renaming of cities, changing the name of a state requires a Constitutional amendment, for which a proposal must originate from the state government. The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) examines the request and seeks No Objection Certificates (NOCs)from agencies such as the Ministry of Railways, the Intelligence Bureau, the Department of Posts, Survey of India, and the Registrar General of India.

— If cleared, the proposal is introduced in Parliament as a Bill. Once passed and notified, the new name comes into effect.

— In a previous instance, a 2018 proposal to rename West Bengal as Bangla was not cleared after the Ministry of External Affairs raised concerns about its similarity with Bangladesh.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍UPSC Issue at a Glance | The story of how India formed its states

UPSC Prelims Practice Question Covering similar theme:

(3) With reference to the States Reorganisation Commission, consider the following statements:

1. It was appointed to make recommendations to resolve the linguistic problem in India.

2. The Commission comprised Tej Bahadur Sapru, KM Panikkar, and Vivian Bose.

3. The commission recommended reorganisation of India’s administrative units to form 24 states on linguistic lines and eight centrally administered territories.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 1 and 2 only

(c) 1 and 3 only

(d) 2 only

Previous year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:

 Has the formation of linguistic states strengthened the cause of Indian unity? (UPSC CSE 2016)

 

NATION

Centre to soon roll out HPV vaccination drive for girls aged 14

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies-II: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Government policies and interventions.

What’s the ongoing story: India will roll out a special HPV vaccination campaign for 14-year old girls later this month, according to sources from the Union Health Ministry. The government has decided to go ahead with a single-dose regimen, in line with the recommendations of the World Health Organisation’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on immunisation.

Key Points to Ponder:

— What is Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infection?

— Know about cervical cancers.

— How common is cervical cancer in India?

— How does the vaccine prevent cancers?

— Why is an HPV vaccination campaign important?

— What is the U-win portal?

— Read about the GAVI vaccine alliance.

Key Takeaways:

— During the first 90 days of the campaign, girls aged 14 years as per their date of birth will be able to get the vaccine across government health centres. Following this, girls aged 14 years will be able to book a vaccination slot at their nearest health and wellness centre using the U-win portal — a process similar to what was used for vaccination during the pandemic using CoWIN. Every year, 1.15 crore girls who turn 14 years of age will be eligible for the HPV vaccine. 

— For the vaccination campaign to be rolled out soon, the well-proven vaccine MSD’s Gardasil will be used, at least for the first two years. “The indigenous vaccine developed by the Serum Institute of India has not yet been approved by the WHO. Additionally, the efficacy of a single-dose regimen using Cervavac has not yet been established. A call on using this vaccine can be taken at a later date,” the officials said. The doses, at present, will come from the GAVI vaccine alliance.

— The organisation will provide India 2.6 crore doses, of which 1 crore doses have already reached India. The rest will come into the country through this year and next.

— Persistent HPV infection is known to cause nearly 85% of all cervical cancers. This is important considering cervical cancer is the second most common type of cancer among women, affecting nearly 1.25 lakh and killing 75,000 each year. HPV vaccination using the four most common strains known to cause cervical cancer has been shown to prevent most infections and thereby cancers. Studies from Sweden and England in 2020-2021 also demonstrated that vaccination in teenage years could reduce the risk of cervical cancer by over 85 per cent at age 30.

— Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, during her 2024 interim budget speech, had said that the government will encourage HPV vaccination.

— The government has decided to go ahead with a one-dose regimen using MSD’s Gardasil. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is still studying a one-dose regimen using the indigenously developed SII Cervavac.

— Experts had earlier proposed a delayed second dose — to be given three or five years after the first shot — giving time to the company to generate evidence. This extended interval between the two doses was recommended by the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts to tide over shortages in doses when a country is introducing HPV vaccination campaign. 

— This recommendation was based on findings from the UK and Quebec, Canada — both of which had introduced similar extended interval HPV vaccination. The experience of the two countries showed the antibody levels in both groups — those who received the second dose after six months and those who received it after 3-5 years — was similar.

Do You Know:

— Cervical cancer is preventable, but kills one woman every eight minutes in the country, said Dr Smita Joshi, senior scientist with Prayas health group, a public charitable trust working on sexuality, gender, and HIV/AIDS. It is preventable as long as it is detected early and managed effectively. It is a common sexually transmitted infection. Long-lasting infection with certain types of HPV is the main cause of cervical cancer.

— More than 95% of all cervical cancer cases are linked to persistent infection with certain high-risk strains of HPV. What this essentially means is vaccination can be effectively used to prevent the infection and thereby cervical cancer cases. This is especially necessary in a country like India that accounts for nearly a fifth of the cervical cancer cases globally. India reports around 1.25 lakh cases and about 75,000 deaths each year.

— While the effect of a vaccination drive will be most pronounced for cervical cancer, with HPV infection linked to cancers of anus, vagina and oropharynx, there is likely to be a drop in the incidence of these as well.

— Gavi is a public-private partnership including WHO, UNICEF, the Gates Foundation and the World Bank, and it is estimated that the vaccination programs have saved 18 million lives. 

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍India gears up for HPV vaccine drive against cervical cancer

UPSC Prelims Practice Question Covering similar theme:

(4) Consider the following statements:

1. Cervical cancer is a common sexually transmitted infection.

2. Long-lasting infection with certain types of HPV is the main cause of cervical cancer.

3. Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer type.

How many of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) Only one

(b) Only two

(c) All three

(d) None

As forests shrink and herds grow, central India’s jumbo crisis is primed to spiral

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

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

What’s the ongoing story: Elephant attacks killed eight people in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh district and one in West Bengal’s Paschim Medinipur district last week. In neighbouring Odisha, three women were killed and three injured in a tusker attack in Dhenkanal district the previous week. The attacks followed nearly two dozen deaths in West Singhbhum district in Jharkhand, prompting authorities to declare an “elephant emergency” last month.

Key Points to Ponder:

— What do you understand from human-animal conflict?

— What are the reasons for this conflict?

— How does human-animal conflict impact the livelihood of people?

— What are the reasons for the shift in elephant populated regions?

— What steps need to be taken to address this in the long run?

— Know about Elephants, conservation efforts, and population

— What are the government measures in mitigating human-animal conflict?

Key Takeaways:

— These incidents are part of a wider pattern. Fewer than 8% of India’s 22,446 elephants – spread across six states – are responsible for nearly half of all human-elephant conflict casualties nationwide. Most belong to nomadic herds displaced from shrinking forest habitats and forced into croplands.

— In fact, four of the new ‘elephant’ areas, located across central India – south Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra – had negligible elephant presence till herds from the other two states, Jharkhand (then south Bihar) and Odisha, started moving in around the mid-1980s. 

— What forced these now ‘stateless’ elephants out were a combination of natural and manmade triggers: serial droughts, rapid expansion of mining, and construction of reservoirs in south Bihar and Odisha.

— The outcome is that hundreds of elephants now depend solely or primarily on raiding agricultural fields, where they must compete with desperate farmers.

— This deadly phase of human-elephant conflict, experts warn, is likely to intensify. Even as high-nutrient crops are boosting breeding in the crop-dependent herds, leading to a surge in numbers, the elephant population in the forests exceeds what these heavily degraded habitats can sustain.

— Annual to-and-fro movements between forests depending on seasonal needs is natural, what biologists describe as migration of wildlife. Most elephant herds in India used to migrate locally, driven by rainfall and foraging requirements. However, beginning the 1980s, herds of central India were increasingly denied access to their traditional migratory routes.

— One of the triggers was the severe drought caused by one of the 20th century’s most intense El Nino events, that scorched much of India, particularly then south Bihar, in 1982-1983 and 1986-1987.

— Around the same time, iron ore mines expanded rapidly in Bihar’s Singhbhum (Saranda) and Odisha’s Keonjhar and Sundargarh forests. Meanwhile, a series of reservoirs in the Mahanadi and Brahmani river basins, beginning with the Rengali Dam in 1985, drowned vast stretches of quality riverine forests.

— As villages in Bankura and Purulia suffered routine crop raids, the watershed moment arrived in 1993 when more than 60 elephants travelled nearly 400 km, reaching the outskirts of Kolkata.

— Conflict peaked in 2010s as more and more elephants started entering through the Singhbhum-Jhargram-Bankura-Purulia route from Jharkhand, and also through Kharagpur-Nayagram forests of Paschim Medinipur from Odisha, to stay put for longer periods and raid Bengal’s irrigated croplands

— Elephants thrive in areas where moisture is available for extended periods of the year – from the Western Ghats and Himalayan foothills to the Northeast. In Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, elephants have entered seasonal rainfall zones not that suitable for their water and nutritious fodder needs, points out Sukumar.

— Everywhere, and particularly in a thickly populated country like India, wildlife’s future depends largely on the goodwill it enjoys with people. Considered godly across the subcontinent, elephants are usually well-tolerated by communities.

— That is why the government’s 2025 elephant report acknowledged “the urgent need to devise policy mechanisms for uniform compensation across areas with elephant presence, prioritizing the well-being of these communities”.

— More importantly, the report underlined the need to “critically analyse and arrive at future strategies that will not exacerbate existing threats”. Until then, says Pandav, efforts should focus on reducing the human-elephant interface in conflict hotspots.

Do You Know:

— According to the Ministry of Environment and Forest, there are three species of elephants in the world. There are two of them in Africa and one in Asia. The Asian elephant is the largest sthetric mammal in India that requires large forest areas to manage and maintain. Therefore, there is no benefit of doubt that the conservation of elephants clearly depends on securing large forest areas.

— Given their ecological importance, elephants are considered one of the major species of biodiversity conservation. Additionally, elephants are also considered umbrella species because tropical diversity can be preserved under the requirements of large and varied habitat of elephants. In addition, due to cultural and religious importance and aesthetic charm, elephants also have major species in biodiversity conservation. 

— The elephant is the national heritage animal of India and is protected under Schedule I species of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Given the primary need to re-establish elephant habitats and alleviate the suffering of both elephants and human populations, the Government of India launched “Project Elephant” in 1991-92 as a centrally sponsored scheme of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Wayanad elephant kills man: Behind escalating human-animal conflict in Kerala

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:

(5) With reference to Indian elephants, consider the following statements: (UPSC CSE 2022)

1. The leader of an elephant group is female.

2. The maximum gestation period can be 22 months.

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

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

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 and 2 only

(b) 2 and 4 only

(c) 3 only

(d) 1, 3 and 4 only

 

THE IDEAS PAGE

After AI Summit, a question: Has India chose to be a consumer in age of creators?

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies-II, III: Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate; Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.

What’s the ongoing story: Manish Tewari writes- “The India AI Impact Summit 2026 was unfortunately marred by allegations of plagiarism, leading to unseemly optics. The substance, in any case, was always a chimera, a delusion erected on foundations of sand. The chasm between our aspirational rhetoric and our investment reality looks unbridgeable.” 

Key Points to Ponder:

— What is Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its application?

— Know the key takeaways of India AI Impact summit?

— What are the opportunities and challenges posed by AI?

— What are the initiatives taken by India to integrate AI?

— What are the challenges faced by the developing countries as the world is embracing the impact of AI?

Key Takeaways:

— “The Union Budget 2026’s allocation of a mere Rs 1,000 crore for the IndiaAI Mission is, in the context of global capital flows into this domain, tokenism. It is a figure that speaks not of a national mission, but of a pilot project. It is not even enough to subsidise the compute costs for a significant portion of our research community, let alone build the kind of large-scale GPU clusters that would allow Indian researchers to train models comparable to GPT-6 or Claude 4.5.”

— “The message from the finance mandarins is clear: Artificial intelligence, for all the ministerial speeches dedicated to it, remains just another sector, not a core strategic priority. The greatest risk we face is not an AI investment bubble, but insufficient investment, and consequently ceding the technological future to competitors like the US, China and Europe. Yet, our response to this existential challenge is a budget that has been effectively halved from previous projections, a move that signals to the world, and more importantly, to our own innovators, a comfortable acceptance of the slow lane.”

— “This chronic underfunding has a corrosive effect that permeates the ecosystem. The IndiaAI Mission, with its stated goal of building sovereign capabilities, finds its ambition directly contradicted by the ground reality.”

— “The talent pool, too, is a casualty of this skewed investment. While MeitY mandarins underscore that global giants are looking to India to hire AI engineers, we must interrogate the nature of this demand. The shortage is not in machine learning theory, but in “AI Ops” — the practical, high-level expertise required to evaluate, optimise, deploy, and monitor complex AI systems in production”

— “Our education system, starved of research funding and world-class computational infrastructure, is producing a workforce that is highly skilled for service roles but ill-equipped for the frontier work of model development. We are training the global AI economy’s middle management, not its C-suite.”

— “The World Economic Forum’s recent ranking places us eighth in AI investment, a position that sounds respectable until one comprehends the gulf that separates the top three from the rest of the pack. The rhetoric of “AI for All” collides with the reality that “All” includes virtually no one when it comes to foundational investment.”

— “Many patents are defensive, incremental, or filed for tax and compliance reasons. The real measure of sovereignty is the ability to build and train state-of-the-art models on homegrown infrastructure using sovereign data. On that front, the Carnegie Endowment’s recent analysis correctly identifies the missing pieces in India’s AI puzzle: Talent, data, and R&D funding.”

— “The government has based its entire AI vision on India’s rapid adoption of digital payments. However, adoption of finished technology is not the same as ownership of the means of production. India’s UPI is a world-class digital public infrastructure, but it was built on top of underlying technologies and protocols that are globally available. AI is different. The models themselves are the product, and the countries that control the most advanced models will set the terms for everyone else. We become the perfect market for others’ innovations, our data and our market size fuelling their growth while we remain on the periphery of value creation.”

— “The summit’s real value does not lie in the myriad photo opportunities or lofty declarations, but in its potential to catalyse a fundamental rethink of our AI fiscal strategy. The potential is real; the opportunity to build India into a global AI powerhouse exists. The adoption of AI agentic workflows among Indian developers shows the hunger and willingness to experiment. But we are asking our start-ups to run a marathon on a diet of crumbs. The global AI race is not a sprint; it requires sustained, massive investment in data centres, in research grants, and in PhD programmes.”

— “If this is not prioritised, the summit will be remembered not as a turning point, but as a poignant misfortune of a nation that mistook a conference for a commitment. The world will smile for the camera, and quietly note that India, for all its grand ambitions, has chosen to remain a consumer in an age of creators.”

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Knowledge Nugget | AI Impact Summit 2026 and beyond: What are the must-know AI-related initiatives of India?

📍Artificial intelligence’s larger promise—together, let’s keep it

Previous year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:

Introduce the concept of Artificial Intelligence (AI). How does AI help clinical diagnosis? Do you perceive any threat to privacy of the individual in the use of AI in healthcare? (UPSC CSE 2023)

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PRELIMS ANSWER KEY

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

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