UPSC Key: South Korea Plane Crash, Houthis of Yemen, and Women’s Participation in Politics

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: Amid the public row among his supporters over the H-1B visa programme, US President-elect Donald Trump has backed key ally Elon Musk, calling himself a “believer in H-1B” and saying he has “always been in favour of the visas”.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What is the difference between a visa and a passport?

• What is the history of India-US relations?

• What is the H-1B visa program?

• What are the key developments in India-US relations in the various sectors?

• How does the H-1B visa program impact skilled migration from India to the United States?

• What significant policy changes have occurred in recent years regarding the H-1B visa?

• How does the H-1B visa program affect relations between India and the United States?

Key Takeaways:

• Trump’s remarks followed a series of social media posts from Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, who vowed late Friday to go to “war” to defend the visa programme for foreign tech workers. The H-1B programme allows businesses in the US to employ skilled foreign nationals.

• The topic has become a flashpoint within Trump’s conservative base. In the past, Trump has criticised the H-1B visas, calling them “very bad” and “unfair” for US workers. During his first term as President, he unveiled a “Hire American” policy that directed changes to the programme to try to ensure the visas were awarded to the highest-paid or most-skilled applicants.

• Trump’s hardline immigration policies, focused mostly on immigrants who are in the country illegally, were a cornerstone of his presidential campaign and a priority issue for his supporters. But in recent days, his coalition has split in a public debate, largely taking place online, about the tech industry’s hiring of foreign workers.

• Software engineers and others in the tech industry have used H-1B visas for skilled foreign workers and say they are a critical tool for hard-to-fill positions. But critics have said they undercut US citizens who could take those jobs. Some on the right have called for the programme to be eliminated.

Do You Know:

• Between October 2022 and September 2023, 72 per cent of the nearly 4 lakh visas issued under the H-1B programme went to Indian nationals. During the same period, top four Indian IT majors with a presence in the US — Infosys, TCS, HCL, and Wipro — obtained approval for around 20,000 employees to work on H-1B visas, as per the latest US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) data.

• The H-1B visa programme allows US employers to hire immigrant workers in specialty occupations that require “a high level of skill” and “at least a bachelor’s degree”, according to the US Department of Labour. The H-1B visa can be issued for a maximum of six years at a stretch.

• “The intent of the H-1B provisions is to help employers who cannot otherwise obtain needed business skills and abilities from the US workforce by authorising the temporary employment of qualified individuals who are not otherwise authorised to work in the United States,” the department’s website says.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Explained: Debate on skilled immigration, green cards & H-1B visas in US

📍What is the contribution of Indian Americans to US society and economy?

Previous year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:

Indian diaspora has a decisive role to play in the politics and economy of America and European Countries.’ Comment with examples (UPSC CSE 2020)

GOVT & POLITICS

Expanding poll reach: Women fought in 390 LS seats, highest since 1957, shows EC data

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance

Mains Examination: General Studies-I, II: Role of women and women’s organisation, Social empowerment, Indian polity

What’s the ongoing story: With more and more women participation in electoral exercises, the 2024 Lok Sabha elections saw 800 women candidates contesting across 390 parliamentary constituencies, the higher-ever since the second general elections in 1957, showed an analysis of the data released by the Election Commission recently.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What are the constitutional provisions related to Elections in India?

• Read about the Election Commission of India. 

• What are the major economic and socio-cultural issues that impede women’s empowerment in India?

• What are the ways of empowering women in India?

• What is the significance of women’s representation in politics? 

• What steps have been taken by the government to promote women’s representation in politics and governance? 

• What lessons can India learn from countries with higher female participation in governance? 

• What is the significance of the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments in enhancing women’s representation in local governance? 

• Know in detail about the Women’s Reservation Act, 2023. 

• How does reservation for women in Panchayati Raj institutions and Urban Local Bodies work?

Key Takeaways:

• With 800 women candidates in the fray, this also led to a decline in the number of seats having no women candidate to its lowest-ever of 152. Comparable data was unavailable for 1951 and 1971. Over the years, however, the number of women candidates has been on the rise.

• According to EC data, no women candidate was in fray in 152 constituencies of the 543 constituencies, down from 171 in 2019 and 166 in 2014.

• Of the constituencies having no female candidate in 2024 LS polls, the highest of 30 was in UP, followed by Bihar (15) and Gujarat (14). In the 2024 LS polls, 167 constituencies saw at least one woman candidate. There were two women candidates in 119 seats, 3 in 59 seats, 4 in 25 seats, 5 in 10 seats, 6 in 5 seats, 7 in 2 seats, and 8 in three seats.

• Three constituencies — Baramati, Secunderabad, and Warangal — had the highest number of women candidates at eight. Of the 800 women candidates this year, only 74 won and 629 lost their deposits, data showed.

• More and more women are coming out to vote, and in fact they again outnumbered men in exercising their franchise in 2024, in continuation of a trend from 2019. According to the poll panel, 65.78% of women voters cast their votes in 2024 (excluding Surat) as compared to 65.55% men. “Females outnumbered men in 2024 again like in 2019; this is only the second time in the history of GEs to Lok Sabha,” the EC noted.

Do You Know:

• One can argue that one of the biggest achievements of independent India’s experiments with democracy has been its commitment to universal adult franchise since its first general election in 1951-52. The fact that all adult women in India were eligible to vote since the birth of the nation, and without much opposition, was indeed historic given that in most developed and powerful countries of the world such as Great Britain and America, suffrage for women was achieved through a long, tiresome and violent process.

• Despite the remarkable achievement in women’s voting rights, till about the 1990s, women voter turnout in India remained significantly lower compared to men. That trend, though, appears to have changed through a major shift in more recent years.

• India has elected 74 women MPs to Lok Sabha this year, four fewer than in 2019 and 52 more than in India’s first elections in 1952. These 74 women make just 13.63% of the elected strength of the Lower House, much less than the 33% that will be reserved for women after the next delimitation exercise.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍The 360° UPSC Debate | How effective is the Women’s Reservation Bill?

📍Lok Sabha elections 2024: On women’s representation, a step backwards

📍The representation of women in the incoming Lok Sabha, how it compares to previous years

UPSC Prelims Practice Question Covering similar theme:

(1) With reference to the women’s representation in the Lok Sabha, consider the following statements:

1. The number of women contesting elections has consistently increased in the past three elections.

2. The number of women candidates elected for the Lok Sabha has consistently increased in the past three elections.

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

(2) Consider the following statements: (UPSC CSE 2021)

1. In India, there is no law restricting the candidates from contesting in one Lok Sabha election from

three constituencies.

2. In the 1991 Lok Sabha Election, Shri Devi Lal contested from three Lok Sabha constituencies.

3. As per the existing rules, if a candidate contests in one Lok Sabha election from many constituencies, his/her party should bear the cost of bye-elections to the constituencies vacated by him/her winning in all the constituencies.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) 1 and 3 only

(d) 2 and 3 only

 

EXPRESS NETWORK 

A plane’s tail end seats safer? What studies say on survival rate

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Mains Examination: General Studies-III: Technology, Security and Infrastructure

What’s the ongoing story: Fatal accidents in commercial aviation are rare, but when they do occur, they can be catastrophic with low chances of survival for passengers and crew. What is also extremely rare are two airplane disasters within the span of a week. Unfortunately, this was one of those rarest-of-rare weeks.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What is Belly-landing?

• What were the key differences and commonalities in the Azerbaijan Airlines and Jeju Air crashes?

• What are the global aviation safety trends?

• What is the statistical safety of air travel compared to other modes of transportation?

• What factors influence passenger survival in aircraft crashes?

• What are the implications of military activities on civil aviation safety?

• How should governments and international bodies respond to recurring aviation incidents to enhance global air safety standards?

• Organisation to look for: International Civil Aviation Organisation.

Key Takeaways:

• On December 25, 38 of 67 people on board died when Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 — from Baku to Gronzy in Russia’s Chechnya region — crash-landed near Aktau in Kazakhstan. The aircraft (an Embraer 190) was purportedly hit mistakenly by Russian air defence and was forced to divert from its intended flight path. Investigation to conclusively determine the cause of the accident is underway.

• Then on Sunday (December 29), a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 aircraft operating a flight from Bangkok crashed during an emergency landing at Muan International Airport in South Korea. Of the 181 people on board, only two are reported to have survived the crash, which is now being seen as the worst aircraft disaster in the history of South Korea.

• The two survivors were reportedly pulled out by emergency responders from the tail section of the ill-fated aircraft.

• Even as investigations are on into the causes behind these accidents, it can be inferred that the two crashes were not similar on most counts. Be that as it may, there is one commonality — the bulk of the survivors were seated in the rear part of the aircraft.

• While air travel is statistically the safest form of transportation and survival in any crash depends on a plethora of factors, there are some limited studies that show that the back of a plane could be the safest spot to sit, if and when that one-in-a-million crash occurs.

• The Time magazine, in a 2015 study, analysed 35 years of crash data up to that year and reported that statistically fewer people who were sitting in the back died in plane crashes. This study, which went through US aviation regulator Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) database tracking accidents with both fatalities and survivors, found 17 with seating charts that could be analysed. While the oldest accident was in 1985, the most recent was in 2000.

• In April 2012, a team of television studios staged an airplane crash in Mexico, where a Boeing 727-200 fitted with crash test dummies and other scientific instruments was flown into the ground. The test result showed that passengers at the front of an aircraft would be the ones most at risk in a crash, while those seated closer to the airplane’s wings were reported as having suffered survivable injuries. The test dummies near the tail section were largely intact, so most passengers there would have likely walked away without serious injury.

• These statistical trends are very specific to the circumstances of the crash in question. In some crashes, such as when the tail hits the ground first, fatalities could be higher in the rear of the aircraft. In others, where the front or the middle of the aircraft bears the major brunt of the impact, those in the rear may have a better shot at surviving the accident.

Do You Know:

• Belly-landings are risky and carried out only in an emergency. With the landing gear up, the wings are very close to the ground when an aircraft touches down. Therefore, the wings must be held absolutely ‘level’ (parallel to the ground). With even a slight left or right bank either by the pilot or a strong gust of wind, a wing could hit the ground, flip the jet, send it cartwheeling or break it apart.

• Even if the landing goes well and everyone walks out alive, a belly-landing results in considerable damage to the plane, its engines and wings as the aircraft skids to a stop and can leave those onboard injured. The friction generated by the aircraft skidding on the runway can also create sparks or result in a fire.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍South Korea Plane Crash kills over 170 people: How do bird strikes impact flights?

📍Jeju Aircraft Crash: How exactly a plane lands, and what could have gone wrong

 

THE EDITORIAL PAGE

A crisis to the west

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Mains Examination: General Studies-II: India and its neighbourhood- relations, Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests.

What’s the ongoing story: In August 2021, there was a barely disguised triumphalism in Rawalpindi and Islamabad after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the swift takeover of the country by the Taliban. Then PM Imran Khan had said that the Taliban’s return marked the Afghan people “breaking the shackles of slavery” and there was talk from senior members of the government about the “creation of a new bloc” in the region. 

Key Points to Ponder:

• What is Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)?

• What is the Durand Line? 

• Why has the Durand Line been a point of contention between Afghanistan and Pakistan? 

• How does the strained relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan impact regional stability in South Asia? 

• How has the legacy of colonial borders influenced modern interstate relations? 

• Read about India’s international borders and related disputes. 

• What is the history and current status of India’s bilateral relations with Pakistan and Afghanistan?

• Map Work: Balochistan and Pashtun territories, India’s international borders (Refer to Atlas).

Key Takeaways:

• The clashes between the two countries on Pakistan’s western border — Afghanistan retaliated with strikes across the Durand Line after Pakistan targeted what it called hideouts for militants in the former — mark a deterioration of ties and the deepening of instability in an already volatile region.

• There has been an intensification of insurgencies in both Balochistan and Pashtun territories. The Pakistan Army, which has long fostered militant groups to deploy against India, faces significant challenges to its authority. It has accused Kabul of sheltering the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and trying to foment insurgency in parts of Pakistan. 

• The Taliban does not recognise the Durand Line — it continues to refer to it as “hypothetical”. The Pashtun people continue to suffer at the hands of extremists and Rawalpindi’s counter-terrorist operations. 

• The Pakistan state’s refusal to engage with the Pashtun Tahafuz (self-respect) Movement (PTM) — the organisation was banned earlier this year — and take seriously the grievances of the community only make a peaceful, constructive dialogue more difficult. 

• For long, the Pakistan state has sought “strategic depth” on its western front vis-a- vis its conflict with India. At a time when the focus must be on economic reforms and expanding state capacity, the army seems to be sinking deeper into the morass of its own making.

• Military force can only be one aspect of dealing with an insurgency. The degree of maturity with which Pakistan deals with the current unrest and violence will be watched closely in New Delhi. That may well be among the defining elements for both regional security and bilateral ties.

Do You Know:

• The Durand Line was demarcated as the border between British India and Afghanistan in 1893 and with partition in 1947 became the border of the newly created Pakistan with Afghanistan.  The McMahon Line was drawn up in British India at the Simla Conference that lasted from October 1913 to July 1914. It separates Tibet from Assam and was named after the chief British negotiator Sir Henry McMahon. The McMahon Line became the basis of the Sino-India War of October-November 1962.

• The border that divides India and Pakistan is called the Radcliffe line as it was drawn up by the Boundary Commission headed by Cyril Radcliffe. 

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Taliban forces hit back at Pakistan days after airstrikes inside Afghanistan 

UPSC Prelims Practice Question Covering similar theme:

(3) The Durand Line was demarcated as the border between:

(a) British India and Afghanistan

(b) India and Pakistan

(c) India and China

(d) China and Afghanistan

 

THE IDEAS PAGE

Paradigm shift without shocks

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Mains Examination: General Studies-III: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilisation, of resources, growth, development and employment

What’s the ongoing story: C Rangarajan writes— “Dr Manmohan Singh will go down in history as one of the ablest prime ministers of the country. As Finance Minister in the Narasimha Rao cabinet, he brought about fundamental changes in the Indian economy. The changes he introduced were revolutionary by any yardstick. They required vision and courage, and he had these qualities in abundance.”

Key Points to Ponder:

• What was the economic crisis of 1990?

• What are LPG reforms?

• What is a market-determined exchange rate system?

• What is the Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme?

• Read about the National Food Security Act.

• What role did Manmohan Singh play in the economic reforms of 1991?

• What were Manmohan Singh’s major contributions to the Indian economy?

Key Takeaways:

• “People are aware of the three major breaks we made in the economic paradigm in the early 1990s. The first was the dismantling of the wide network controls, licenses and permits that dominated the system. The second was to redefine the role of the state in the economy and the third was to give up the “import substitution” policy and be a part of the world trading system. It showed that India was willing to compete.”

• “One of the basic elements of the reform process was to introduce greater competition. We applied that principle to the banking system by allowing new banks to be set up by the private sector and also by reducing the share of government from 100 per cent to 51 per cent in public sector banks.”

• “The foreign exchange market underwent a big change. By 1993, India moved to a market-determined exchange rate system. We managed the system in such a way that there were no shocks.”

• “Fiscal reforms were an integral part of the early reforms because they had an impact on restoring stability in the economy. The concept of reducing fiscal deficit took a more formal shape under the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act.

• “His emphasis on efficiency did not take away his concern for the vulnerable groups. The Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is one good example of how he tried to take care of the deprived. The National Food Security Act was another example. Given the production and procurement capabilities, he asked the Committee that he set up under my chairmanship to formulate a scheme of entitlements for the vulnerable.”

Do You Know:

• A sharp jump in oil prices in August 1990 led to an acute economic crisis, turning the balance of payment situation unmanageable, depleting foreign exchange reserves along with massive capital outflows, and pushing India closer to a possibility of default.

• These peculiar circumstances led to the government mounting the economic defence by devaluing the rupee on July 1, 1991, and the RBI transferring over 46 tonnes of gold from its reserves to the Bank of England for borrowing forex to manage immediate liquidity problems resulting from the Balance of Payment problem.

• It was for the first time that there was the prospect of default on external commitments as the foreign currency reserves had fallen to a mere $1 billion by mid-1991. This crisis compelled the government to create a new framework in which the fundamental principle would be that competition is key to improving efficiency.

• The objective of the Economic Reform: Liberalisation, Privatisation, and Globalisation

• Liberalisation: The reform ended the excessive regulatory framework known as the ‘license-permit raj’ system. The new industrial policy abolished industrial licensing for all projects barring a select few strategic industries, allowed the government to disinvest its shareholding in the public sector, and amended the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices (MRTP) Act to allow for the setting up, expansion, and merger of businesses without prior approval. These measures were followed up with liberalisation of the banking sector and capital markets.

• Privatisation: It led to the transfer of businesses from the control of the state to the private sector. The new policy reduced the number of areas reserved only for public sector companies from 17 to 8. These structural reforms led to new enterprises coming into the picture both in the industrial and services sectors, growth gaining momentum, and a large number of Indians exiting poverty.  With these policy reforms, nearly 80 percent of the industry was taken out of the industrial licensing framework and the MRTP Act was repealed to eliminate the need for prior approval for capacity expansion by companies.

• Globalisation: The main objective of globalisation was to integrate the Indian economy with the world economy by reducing trade barriers, and facilitating the free flow of capital, technology, and labour. The 1991 reform reduced the trade import duties, automatic permission was allowed to be given for foreign technology agreements in high-priority industries, and disallowed the permission for hiring of foreign technicians and foreign testing of indigenously developed technologies. The Indian government allowed direct foreign investment of up to 51 per cent foreign equity and removed bottlenecks to facilitate foreign technology agreements in high-priority industries.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Knowledge nugget of the day: LPG Reforms — Manmohan Singh’s economic contribution to India

📍 India’s last true Nehruvian

📍Manmohan Singh’s 10 pivotal reforms

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:

(4) Which of the following has/have occurred in India after its liberalization of economic policies in 1991? (UPSC CSE 2017)

1. Share of agriculture in GDP increased enormously.

2. Share of India’s exports in world trade increased.

3. FDI inflows increased.

4. India’s foreign exchange reserves increased enormously.

Select the correct answer using the codes given below:

(a) 1 and 4 only

(b) 2, 3 and 4 only

(c) 2 and 3 only

(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

 

EXPLAINED

Rising above the AI line

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights.

What’s the ongoing story: Nandagopal Rajan writes— “Our predictions for 2024 were that Artificial Intelligence (AI) would become all-pervasive, with a move toward responsible AI; more Made in India tech products; greener tech; a more private Internet; and virtual reality (VR) adding a virtual layer over reality.” 

Key Points to Ponder:

• What is artificial intelligence (AI)?

• What are the areas of AI application?

• Is there any legal framework for AI regulation globally and nationally?

• What are the benefits of AI?

• What are the ethical challenges posed by the use of Generative AI (GenAI)?

• What are the challenges associated with the AI?

Key Takeaways:

• AI has indeed entered lives in a big way — and has opened up existential issues for both the technology and its users. Everyone is adopting AI, but finding returns on these heavy investments has not been easy.

• In 2025, there is going to be some recalibration of the actual use cases of AI — with a lot of large corporations expected to cut down on the scale of deployment, limiting it to areas where the technology has had visible impact. Companies that have been early adopters have realised that while there is no future without AI, this is not the one answer to all their problems, at least not yet.

• So with all the caveats that the fast-moving technologies of our times warrant, here are our predictions for what to expect in the world of tech in 2025.

• Takeover by AI agents: The adoption of AI agents that can perform certain tasks without any guidance, learn from their mistakes, and even make decisions on these tasks, will become the more popular way to adopt AI for enterprise as well as consumer uses.

• Death of dashboards: AI has started to make data more accessible, removing hurdles of skill behind analysing large data sets. This will gradually lead to dashboards being replaced by GenAI tools that answer specific data questions with visualisations, trend lines, or even predictions based on their visibility.

Do You Know:

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the ability of machines, especially computers, to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence. These tasks include things like understanding language, recognising patterns, solving problems, and making decisions. 

• AI can be classified into two types: Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI) also known as weak AI and Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) also referred to as strong AI. 

• ANI is designed for specific tasks and excels within a narrow domain. Examples include virtual assistants like Siri, recommendation systems on platforms like Netflix, and image recognition software. ANI systems are highly specialised and cannot transfer their expertise to unrelated tasks. 

• In contrast, AGI aims to replicate human cognitive abilities, enabling it to perform any intellectual task a human can do. AGI would possess general reasoning skills, understand context, and adapt to new situations across various domains. It would be capable of autonomous learning and problem-solving without requiring task-specific programming.

• Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) are subsets of AI but differ in complexity and capabilities. ML involves training algorithms to learn from data and make predictions and often requires manual feature extraction. 

• DL, a subset of ML, uses neural networks with many layers (hence “deep”) to automatically learn features from large datasets. While ML works well with smaller datasets, DL requires vast amounts of data and computational power.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍As tech firms look to translate the promise of AI in 2025, 3 clear templates emerge 

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:

(5) 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:

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

How do the Houthis of Yemen figure in Iran’s ‘axis of resistance’ against Israel?

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of 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: Israel bombed several places in Yemen on Thursday, including the airport in Sana’a, where a high-level United Nations delegation led by World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was present.

Key Points to Ponder:

• Read about the Israel-Hamas War?

• Who are the Iran-backed regional groups of concern and why?

• Read about the Houthi militant group. 

• What is the “axis of resistance”?

• What is the background of the Israeli strikes in Yemen?

• What are Operation Long Arm, Operation Poseidon Archer and Operation Prosperity Guardian.

• What is the significance of  direct strikes against the Houthi group in Yemen? 

• How has the role of the Houthi group evolved throughout the Yemen Civil War? 

• In what ways has Iran supported the Houthis in Yemen? 

• What role do the Houthis play in the broader Iranian “axis” against Israel and other regional adversaries?

• Map work: Tel Aviv, Damascus, Tehran, Yemen, Iran, Israel, Qatar, Lebanonn, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Red Sea, Strait of Hormuz, Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Gulf of Aden, Bab-el-Mandeb.

Key Takeaways:

• Israel began directly striking the Houthi (Ansar Allah) militant group in Yemen last week, expanding its ongoing campaign against Iran and the so-called “axis of resistance”.

• Israeli war jets have carried out such long-distance operations earlier, flying more than 2,000 km for example, during its Operation Long Arm in response to a Houthi drone attack in July, which disrupted humanitarian operations at the Yemeni port of Hodeida.

• The scale of the ongoing strikes is wider, and the bombing of Sana’a is a first. With the capabilities of Hamas and Hezbollah severely degraded but with the Houthis continuing to succeed in direct attacks, Israelis have been debating whether to focus on the “last remaining Iranian proxy” in Yemen or to go after Iran itself.

• The Houthis have long had an interest in fighting the US (which supported Saudi Arabia in its war against the Tehran-backed group) and Israel. While the tactical necessities of the civil war, ongoing since 2014, kept the Houthis focused on Yemen, by October 7, 2023 – the day of the Hamas attacks on southern Israel – they were at an interesting juncture.

• Following the October 7 terrorist attacks, as Israel began its bombardment of Gaza, the Houthis declared their casus belli as stopping Israel and deterring America. At that point, they were a group that had not only survived a 10-year civil war and high- casualty Saudi and Emirati air strikes, but one that had begun to project, from 2021 onward, a certain permanence. Indeed, the US had in a show of pragmatism lifted the Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) tag from the Houthis that year. (The Biden Administration redesignated them in January 2024.)

• Exploiting the window of opportunity to increase their profile, the Houthis first mounted a cruise/ ballistic missile and drone campaign against Israel, before shifting their attacks to the maritime domain by December 2023. They benefited not only from Iranian military aid and supply, but also Russian targeting intelligence. And they have remained defiant in the face of the fresh Israeli air strikes.

• The Houthi stock in Iranian overseas operations continued to rise through 2024, especially as Israel significantly weakened Hezbollah and Hamas, and the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria severed Tehran’s lines of communication with Lebanon.

• December may be seen as having injected a stronger instinct of self-preservation into the weakened Iranian axis – even as Iranian government officials themselves write editorials in The Economist and Foreign Affairs signaling openness to engaging the West. The Houthis are currently the spearhead of the axis against Israel, with the Hashd enabling that effort, even as they keeps their own distance from the war, at least for now.

Do You Know:

• The Houthis are a large clan belonging to the Zaidi Shia sect, with roots in Yemen’s northwestern Saada province. Zaidis make up around 35 per cent of Yemen’s population.

• The Zaidis ruled over Yemen for over a thousand years until 1962, when they were overthrown and a civil war followed, which lasted until 1970. The Houthi clan began to revive the Zaidi tradition from the 1980s, resisting the increasing influence of the Salafists, who were funded by the state. The unprecedented success in the Red Sea and the renewed American focus on destroying them have raised the domestic profile of the Houthis.

• Iran, a Shia-majority country, is believed to back the Houthis, even as it has denied the charge. Its regional rival, the Sunni-majority Saudia Arabia (along with Western allies like the US) backs the Yemen government. Houthis’ support for Palestine is, therefore, also a manifestation of existing regional rivalries.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Who are the Shia Houthis, and why are they aligned with the Sunni Palestinian Hamas?

UPSC Prelims Practice Question Covering similar theme:

(6) Consider the following pairs:

1. Houthis: Yemen

2. Hezbollah: Lebanon

3. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham: Syria

Which of the pairs given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 and 2 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 1 and 3 only

(d) 1,2 and 3

 

For your queries and suggestions write at roshni.yadav@indianexpress.com

The Indian Express UPSC Essentials brings to you the December issue of its monthly magazine. Click Here to read. Share your views and suggestions in the comment box or at manas.srivastava@indianexpress.com

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