Nepal floodsdisaster responseNDRRMAhydropower tunnelsIndia-Nepal
- 675 dead, at least 2,498 missing, 7,514 rescued on day four, per Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA). Remoteness of the terrain remains the central constraint on rescue.
- The hydropower tunnel crisis is now the defining challenge: over 900 people associated with 11 hydropower projects, including those under construction, remain unaccounted for. 279 were rescued from tunnels in the last two days, with hundreds more believed trapped inside.
- India's response: a tunnel rescue team with specialised machinery reached Nepal, following a reconnaissance team sent a day earlier. Six teams of Indian forensic experts are expected, to help identify recovered remains. China dispatched five tunnel experts who landed directly in the disaster zone.
- 261 tourists rescued per the Nepal Tourism Board, including 167 from India and 40 from China, plus eight Ukrainians, four Maltese, three Americans and 21 unidentified persons.
- Nepal pushed back on the 'refused aid' narrative: Foreign Minister Shishir Khanal said the government had requested specific and specialised assistance from friendly neighbours, particularly for tunnel search-and-rescue - not blanket international deployment.
- 18,708 security personnel have been mobilised. PM Balendra Shah said DNA and other identification evidence would be preserved for bodies that cannot be identified, with identified bodies handed to families.
- For the exam: this is a live illustration of disaster diplomacy - India and China assisting simultaneously in a third country - and of why specialised capability, not troop numbers, determines rescue outcomes. Note the confined-space rescue parallel with Silkyara tunnel (2023).
Practice Questions
Which agency is Nepal's designated authority for disaster risk reduction and management, referred to in the context of the August 2026 floods?
A National Emergency Operations Command
B National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority
C Nepal Tourism Board
D Department of Hydrology and Meteorology
The deployment of Indian and Chinese tunnel rescue experts to Nepal following the 2026 floods best illustrates which concept?
A Collective security, requiring member states to respond to armed attack on any one of them
B Disaster diplomacy, where humanitarian assistance operates alongside and sometimes despite geopolitical competition
C Extraterritorial jurisdiction over disaster-affected regions
D The Responsibility to Protect doctrine as applied to natural disasters
Shakti Vahinihonour killingsinter-caste marriagekhap panchayatsTamil Nadu
- Tamil Nadu will establish a 'safe house' in every district for couples and individuals facing threats over inter-caste or inter-religious marriage - announced in the State Assembly by Social Justice Minister Vanni Arasu.
- The legal anchor: the scheme is framed as implementing the Supreme Court's ruling in Shakti Vahini v. Union of India (2018), which laid down preventive, remedial and punitive measures against honour crimes and khap panchayat interference in adult marriage choices.
- Shakti Vahini directions worth recalling: safe houses for threatened couples, special cells in each district, a 24-hour helpline, preventive action by police where such a marriage is reported, and the principle that two consenting adults have an absolute right to marry which no assembly can question.
- Why the gender dimension matters: activist Geeta Ilangovan noted that when a groom is murdered in an honour killing and the bride survives, she is left in 'utter devastation and helplessness' - a safe house lets her rebuild her livelihood and pursue her legal battle.
- The implementation caution: activist Evidence Kathir warned the space must not become a venue for persuading couples to end their marriage, and argued safe houses should be under direct court monitoring.
- The credibility problem: Tamil Nadu already created special cells with a 24-hour helpline as early as 2018, but these were not functioning properly - a reminder that institutional creation is not institutional functioning.
- For the exam: the strongest answer connects Article 21 (autonomy in choice of partner) and Article 19 with the reality that caste endogamy is enforced socially rather than legally - so the State's role shifts from prohibition to protection and enablement. Pair with the khap panchayat debate and Lata Singh v. State of U.P. (2006).
Practice Questions
The Supreme Court's judgment in Shakti Vahini v. Union of India (2018) is primarily associated with which of the following?
A Directions to prevent honour crimes and protect the right of consenting adults to marry
B Guidelines on the reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes in local bodies
C The constitutional validity of the Special Marriage Act, 1954
D Regulation of religious conversion for the purpose of marriage
Consider the following statements regarding State measures to protect couples in inter-caste marriages:
1. The Supreme Court has held that khap panchayats cannot question the marriage of two consenting adults.
2. Safe houses and district-level special cells were among the remedial measures directed by the Supreme Court.
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
Border Personnel MeetingLine of Actual ControlSpecial RepresentativesKepang LaIndia-China
- India and China have not yet announced the locations of two additional Border Personnel Meeting (BPM) points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), though at least two rounds of local commander meetings have already been held at Kepang La in Arunachal Pradesh's Upper Siang district over the past year.
- The origin: an eight-point outcome document released on August 26 after the 25th round of Special Representatives (SR) talks on the Boundary Question. India was represented by NSA Ajit Doval, China by Wang Yi.
- The two sides also agreed to establish two additional meeting points for General-level or Senior Highest Military Commander-level meetings - a tier above the existing BPM mechanism.
- The five existing BPM points: Daulat Beg Oldie and Chushul in Ladakh, Nathu La in Sikkim, and Kibithu and Bum La in Arunachal Pradesh - covering the western and eastern sectors.
- Why Kepang La: the PLA proposed it a year ago. It carries religious significance for people on both sides of the undefined border, with locals permitted to visit the Chorten, a Buddhist holy site - a rare instance of shared cultural space shaping a security mechanism.
- The stated purpose: per a 2019 Defence Ministry statement, the BPM mechanism is an interface where local issues are discussed and resolved, fostering confidence among Border Guarding Troops and ensuring peace and tranquility along the LAC.
- For the exam: BPMs are confidence-building measures (CBMs), not boundary-settlement mechanisms - they manage friction without resolving the dispute. Situate them alongside the 1993, 1996 and 2005 agreements and the post-2020 disengagement process.
Practice Questions
With reference to Border Personnel Meeting (BPM) points along the India-China Line of Actual Control, consider the following statements:
1. Daulat Beg Oldie and Chushul are BPM points located in Ladakh.
2. Nathu La is a BPM point located in Sikkim.
3. BPM points are mechanisms for the final delimitation of the boundary between India and China.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
A 1 and 2 only
B 2 and 3 only
C 1 and 3 only
D 1, 2 and 3
The Special Representatives (SR) mechanism between India and China deals principally with:
A Bilateral trade disputes and tariff negotiations
B The boundary question between the two countries
C Cooperation on transboundary river data sharing
D Coordination of positions within multilateral forums such as BRICS
BNSS 2023FIR accessYouth Bar Associationpress freedomcriminal procedure
- On August 25, the Supreme Court ordered the Ghaziabad Police to give independent journalist Abhishek Upadhyay a copy of the FIR and CCTV footage in a road-rage case against him. He had reported on alleged irregularities in Ram Mandir donations and claimed the case was retaliatory.
- A three-judge Bench headed by CJI Surya Kant directed the Police Commissioner to comply and file a compliance report by September 7, protected him from arrest, and allowed him to approach the High Court for further relief.
- The statutory gap is the exam-relevant core: the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS) does not require police to furnish the FIR to the accused on registration. Section 173(2) requires a free copy 'forthwith' - but only to the informant or victim.
- Under Section 230, the accused receives the FIR only after investigation ends and a chargesheet is filed, when the magistrate must furnish prosecution documents within 14 days of appearance. The BNSS is silent on access during investigation.
- Courts filled the gap: in Court on its Own Motion v. State (2010), the Delhi High Court created a mechanism for pre-chargesheet access and directed FIRs be uploaded within 24 hours. In Rama Nand Rathore v. State of H.P. (2014), the Himachal Pradesh HC required a certified copy within 24 hours on request.
- Youth Bar Association of India v. Union of India (2016) gave these directions pan-India effect: FIRs must be uploaded on police websites within 24 hours of registration (extendable to 48 hours, or 72 hours for connectivity difficulties), and the accused is entitled to the FIR before the Section 230 stage.
- The carve-out: FIRs involving 'sensitive' offences - including sexual offences - may be withheld from online publication, through a reasoned decision by an officer not below the rank of DCP.
- For the exam: a clean illustration of judicial supplementation of statutory silence under Article 21 and Article 32, and of how re-codification (IPC/CrPC to BNS/BNSS) can carry forward gaps that case law had already addressed.
Practice Questions
With reference to access to a First Information Report (FIR) under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, consider the following statements:
1. Section 173(2) requires a copy of the FIR to be given free of cost forthwith to the informant or victim.
2. The Sanhita expressly requires the police to furnish a copy of the FIR to the accused immediately upon its registration.
3. In Youth Bar Association of India v. Union of India (2016), the Supreme Court directed that FIRs be uploaded on police websites within 24 hours of registration.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
A 1 and 2 only
B 1 and 3 only
C 2 and 3 only
D 1, 2 and 3
Under the directions of the Supreme Court, FIRs relating to offences classified as 'sensitive' may be exempted from mandatory online publication. Such a decision must be taken by an officer not below the rank of:
A Station House Officer
B Deputy Superintendent of Police
C Deputy Commissioner of Police
D Director General of Police
SCOUzbekistanKyrgyzstanCentral Asiaconnectivity
- Prime Minister Modi arrived in Tashkent on his fourth visit to Uzbekistan, received by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev - the first leg of a two-nation visit to Uzbekistan and the Kyrgyz Republic.
- Bilateral agenda: trade and investment, digital connectivity, defence and energy, framed around the twin national visions of 'Viksit Bharat' and 'Yangi Uzbekistan' (New Uzbekistan).
- The civilisational touch: Modi will visit the Shastri Memorial - Lal Bahadur Shastri died in Tashkent in 1966 after signing the Tashkent Declaration - and the Mahatma Gandhi Centre at Tashkent State University of Oriental Studies.
- From Tashkent to Bishkek for the 26th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit, at the invitation of Kyrgyz President Sadyr Zhaparov. India has been a full member since 2017.
- India's stated priorities at the summit: security, connectivity and opportunity, and working toward a region 'free from the scourge of terrorism, separatism and extremism' - the SCO's own 'three evils' formulation, which India consistently invokes.
- Modi will also attend the opening of the 6th World Nomad Games in Kyrgyzstan.
- For the exam: Central Asia matters to India for energy, critical minerals (uranium), and counter-terrorism, but is constrained by the absence of direct land connectivity - which is why Chabahar Port and the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) carry disproportionate weight. Recall also the 'Connect Central Asia' policy and the India-Central Asia Summit format.
Practice Questions
With reference to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), consider the following statements:
1. India became a full member of the SCO in 2017.
2. The SCO identifies terrorism, separatism and extremism as the 'three evils'.
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
India's engagement with Central Asia faces a structural constraint principally because:
A India has no diplomatic relations with the Central Asian Republics
B India lacks direct land connectivity to the region, increasing reliance on routes such as Chabahar and the INSTC
C Central Asian states are not members of the United Nations
D India is prohibited from importing energy resources from the region
Metachild online safetydata privacyplatform regulationaddictive design
- On August 26, Meta reached a settlement of up to $17.1 billion with at least 47 U.S. States, ending a lawsuit alleging it concealed harms its platforms caused children, violated child privacy laws, and used tactics to keep teens addicted. The settlement also requires changes to safety features on Instagram and Facebook.
- The allegations: the suit, brought by 29 States, alleged Meta collected data on children under 13 without parental consent, breaching State and federal privacy laws, and deliberately designed platforms to be addictive, contributing to depression and anxiety.
- Meta's own internal research was the most damaging evidence: a Facebook study found 13.5% of British teenage girls surveyed said their suicidal thoughts became more frequent after joining Instagram. Internal researchers concluded some harms - particularly social comparison - were specific to Instagram, not social media generally.
- The mechanism identified: internal researchers noted that where other platforms focus on the face and playful filters, Instagram focuses on body and lifestyle, driving comparison and feelings of inadequacy.
- The key witness: Arturo Bejar, a former Meta safety engineer, testified that the company knew of harms to children - including exposure to sexual predators and violent content - and that repeated escalation to executives produced no action. He specifically flagged infinite scroll as a feature that sustains engagement while generating targeted-ad revenue.
- Meta's defence: it denied all allegations, called the documents cherry-picked, cited disabling over 1 million young users' accounts, and has denied wrongdoing even after settling.
- For the exam: this is the reference case for addictive design as a regulatory target - distinct from content moderation. Connect to India's DPDP Act, 2023, which requires verifiable parental consent for children under 18 and bars tracking and targeted advertising directed at children.
Practice Questions
The Meta settlement of 2026 with multiple U.S. States is significant chiefly because it targeted:
A The company's failure to pay corporate taxes in the States concerned
B Design features alleged to be deliberately addictive and harmful to minors, alongside child privacy violations
C Anti-competitive acquisition of rival social media platforms
D The refusal to share encrypted user communications with law enforcement
Under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, processing the personal data of children requires:
A Verifiable consent of a parent or lawful guardian, with tracking and targeted advertising directed at children barred
B No consent, provided the platform is registered outside India
C Consent of the child alone once the child turns 13 years of age
D Prior approval of the Ministry of Home Affairs for each instance of processing
vulture conservationelectrocutionWildlife Institute of IndiaHimalayan griffonscavengers
- A study in the Journal of Threatened Taxa finds that moving a livestock carcass dump 2.4 km away from high-tension power infrastructure near Sudhauwala, Dehradun may have removed a major and under-reported threat to vultures: electrocution.
- The evidence base: 34 surveys between May 2011 and February 2014 recorded 743 individual vultures across five species, and documented 46 vulture carcasses attributable to electrocution near high-tension transmission structures.
- Species most affected, by proportion of mortality relative to observations: Himalayan griffon (Gyps himalayensis), followed by Eurasian griffon (Gyps fulvus) and cinereous vulture (Aegypius monachus).
- The intervention and result: local authorities relocated the dumping site in April 2015. Vultures continued using the new site, with no mortality events recorded during post-relocation monitoring. Other raptors - black kite (Milvus migrans) and crested serpent eagle (Spilornis cheela) - also used it.
- The honest limitation, stated by the researchers: surveys were non-systematic, and no studies have been conducted after 2015 - so the finding is indicative rather than conclusive.
- Mr. Javed Anver of the Wildlife Institute of India said relocating carcass dumps away from hazardous power infrastructure is a practical, replicable conservation measure.
- For the exam: vultures are the classic case of an ecosystem service provider - carcass disposal limiting rabies and anthrax spread. The diclofenac-driven collapse (over 90% decline) prompted the veterinary ban, Vulture Safe Zones and the SAVE programme; this study adds infrastructure siting as a low-cost complementary lever.
Practice Questions
Consider the following vulture species:
1. Himalayan griffon
2. Eurasian griffon
3. Cinereous vulture
Which of the above were recorded as electrocution mortalities in the Dehradun study?
A 1 and 2 only
B 2 and 3 only
C 1 and 3 only
D 1, 2 and 3
The catastrophic decline of vulture populations in South Asia since the 1990s is attributed principally to:
A Hunting for the international wildlife trade
B Poisoning through the veterinary use of diclofenac in livestock
C Competition from invasive bird species
D Loss of nesting sites due to afforestation programmes
compressed biogasGOBARdhanCBGbioenergyenergy pricing
- The Union Petroleum Ministry has responded to concerns that compressed biogas (CBG) would become expensive under a revised offtake price, saying government-funded support and a wider gas pool would avert any material price impact on consumers.
- The trigger: the Union Cabinet on August 6 approved the GOBARdhan scheme, introducing a CBG offtake price of ₹2,110 per metric million British thermal unit (MMBtu).
- The stated rationale: the revised framework seeks to give CBG producers a 'stable and viable' price enabling them to operate sustainably - addressing the producer-viability problem that has slowed CBG capacity addition.
- How consumers are insulated: the Ministry clarified the full offtake price would not be recovered from gas consumers, and that the government would provide an affordability cushion of ₹10 per kilogram of CBG.
- The mechanism worth understanding: because CBG is blended into a much larger conventional gas pool, a higher price for the small biogas share is diluted across total volumes - the same logic as blending mandates in fuels generally.
- GOBARdhan = Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan, which converts cattle dung, agricultural residue and organic waste into biogas and bio-fertiliser, linking waste management, rural income and clean energy.
- For the exam: CBG sits at the intersection of energy security (import substitution for natural gas), Swachh Bharat waste-to-wealth, farmer income and emissions reduction. Connect it to the SATAT initiative and to India's net-zero-by-2070 commitment.
Practice Questions
With reference to the GOBARdhan scheme and compressed biogas (CBG), consider the following statements:
1. The Union Cabinet approved a CBG offtake price denominated in rupees per metric million British thermal unit.
2. The government has stated that the full offtake price will be recovered directly from gas consumers.
3. GOBARdhan converts organic waste such as cattle dung and agricultural residue into biogas and bio-fertiliser.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
A 1 and 2 only
B 1 and 3 only
C 2 and 3 only
D 1, 2 and 3
Blending a higher-priced fuel such as compressed biogas into a much larger conventional gas pool limits the impact on final consumer prices primarily because:
A The higher cost is spread across total volumes, diluting its effect on the average price
B Blended fuels are statutorily exempt from all indirect taxation
C Compressed biogas has a substantially higher calorific value than natural gas
D Blending eliminates the need for transmission and distribution infrastructure