IranStrait of HormuzSCO summitfreedom of navigationWest Asia
- The first top-level meeting between India and Iran since the war on Iran began in February: PM Modi met President Masoud Pezeshkian on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Bishkek.
- India's two asks: peace and stability in West Asia, and freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. The MEA said Modi called for freedom of navigation and commerce, adding that 'civilians and civilian infrastructure, including commercial shipping and seafarers must not be harmed under any circumstances.'
- Iran's ask in return: Pezeshkian blamed Israel and the U.S. for the conflict and requested India 'use its extensive contacts with various parties' to help the dialogue process - an explicit invitation for Indian mediation.
- Why Hormuz is India's core interest: roughly a fifth of global oil consumption transits this narrow chokepoint between Iran and Oman, and India imports a large share of its crude through it. Disruption transmits directly into Indian energy prices, the current account and inflation.
- The timing is significant: the meeting came as the U.S. and Iran traded strikes for the first time in over a month - a U.S. strike on an Iranian island, followed by Iranian attacks on U.S. military targets in West Asia.
- Modi said he looked forward to welcoming Pezeshkian to India for the BRICS summit, and spoke of expanding and diversifying the trade basket.
- For the exam: this is India's multi-alignment doctrine in operation - maintaining a long-standing relationship with Iran (Chabahar, connectivity to Central Asia via the INSTC) while preserving ties with Israel and the U.S. Being asked to mediate is the diplomatic payoff of not having picked a side.
Practice Questions
The Strait of Hormuz, referred to in the context of India's concerns over West Asia, connects:
A The Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden
B The Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea
C The Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea
D The Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara
India being asked by Iran to use its 'extensive contacts with various parties' to assist dialogue best reflects which feature of Indian foreign policy?
A Strategic autonomy and multi-alignment, which preserve India's credibility with rival parties simultaneously
B A formal treaty obligation to mediate disputes in West Asia
C India's membership of a military alliance in the region
D A constitutional mandate requiring India to intervene in foreign conflicts
Special Intensive RevisionElection Commissionelectoral rollsdraft rollsfranchise
- As the third phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) nears completion, more than 6 crore names have been deleted from the voters' registry per the draft lists published so far.
- The arithmetic: of 36.08 crore names on the rolls across these States, 29.93 crore have been retained while 6.15 crore - 17.04% - have been removed on the draft rolls.
- Coverage: the third phase spans 16 States and three Union Territories. Draft rolls are out for all except Nagaland (September 20) and Tripura (October 21). Delhi and Maharashtra were published on Monday.
- Delhi has the steepest proportional cut at 32.78% - nearly a third of its electors. Maharashtra saw the largest absolute removal at 2.06 crore. Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Daman and Diu followed Delhi on percentage terms.
- The draft is not final: the Election Commission provides a window for claims and objections - for additions, deletions and new voter registration - so final figures may differ.
- Final rolls begin September 6, with Mizoram, Sikkim and Manipur the first to publish.
- For the exam: place this beside the earlier phase figures - Telangana at ~22% and Karnataka at ~19.5%. A 17% average with Delhi at nearly 33% in a high-in-migration capital sharpens the same question: whether the rolls were previously inflated, or whether the revision is now over-deleting. The claims-and-objections window is the designed safeguard; the test is how many deletions are reversed on appeal.
Practice Questions
With reference to the third phase of the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, consider the following statements:
1. Approximately 17% of names on the existing rolls were removed in the draft lists.
2. Delhi recorded the highest deletion in percentage terms among the units covered.
3. The draft rolls represent the final electoral rolls, with no further additions or deletions permitted.
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
In the revision of electoral rolls, the period for filing 'claims and objections' after publication of the draft roll principally serves to:
A Allow political parties to nominate candidates for the ensuing election
B Permit electors to seek inclusion of wrongly omitted names, object to wrongful entries, and register as new voters
C Enable the Election Commission to redraw constituency boundaries
D Determine the reservation status of constituencies
Nepal floodsglacial collapsetunnel rescueUSGStransboundary disaster
- Nepal's disaster agency reported 939 deaths with 3,925 people missing, including 592 foreigners - a sharp upward revision as access improved and hydropower sites were reached.
- Combined deaths in both countries surpassed 950, underlining that this was a transboundary disaster affecting Nepal and China together, not a Nepal-only event.
- Rescuers continue racing to free hundreds of workers believed trapped in tunnels at hydropower sites buried in mud by the flooding along the Nepal-China border.
- The cause is now settled: the U.S. Geological Survey confirmed the disaster was sparked by a glacial collapse - not by tectonic activity or rainfall.
- The scale of the missing figure deserves care: 3,925 missing against 939 confirmed dead reflects both genuine uncertainty in a remote, debris-covered zone and the presence of migrant and transient populations at construction sites whose numbers were never precisely recorded.
- The pattern across the week is instructive: toll estimates rose from 389 to 579 to 675 to 788 to 939 as access expanded - a reminder that early casualty figures in remote-terrain disasters are systematically undercounted.
- For the exam: this is now the reference case for cascading Himalayan hazards - a single glacial collapse producing a debris dam, an outburst surge, transboundary damage, hydropower destruction and a mass-casualty tunnel entrapment. Useful for disaster management, Himalayan geomorphology and infrastructure-siting answers alike.
Practice Questions
The steady upward revision of casualty figures over successive days following the Nepal flood disaster is best explained by:
A Deliberate suppression of figures by disaster agencies in the initial period
B Progressive expansion of access to remote and debris-covered areas, including hydropower sites with transient worker populations
C Duplicate counting of the same victims across agencies
D A second, separate flood event occurring later in the week
The August 2026 Nepal disaster is described as a 'cascading hazard' primarily because:
A A single initiating event triggered a sequence of secondary hazards including a debris dam, an outburst surge and infrastructure collapse
B It occurred simultaneously in several unconnected river basins
C It was caused by the successive failure of multiple dams built across a river
D It recurred at regular intervals through the monsoon season
GDPGVAmanufacturingEl Ninonational accounts
- India's GDP grew 7.8% in April-June 2026 (Q1 FY27) - quicker than the 6.9% in Q1 of last year, but slower than the 8.6% recorded in January-March 2026.
- The other two headline numbers: nominal GDP grew an estimated 10.3%, and real Gross Value Added (GVA) came in at 8.2% - per Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
- What drove it: the manufacturing sector grew 9.2%, a three-quarter high, up from 8.3% in Q1 last year. Broad services also contributed - utilities, financial services, real estate, IT, and public administration and defence.
- The laggard: mining slipped into a contraction of 2.4%, partly explained by a high base of 12.4% growth in Q1 of last year - a reminder to check base effects before reading a contraction as collapse.
- The CEA's framing: V. Anantha Nageswaran said the data showed 'continued resilience' backed by high-frequency indicators. PM Modi called the growth 'a Herculean feat' achieved despite oil price shocks and supply chain issues.
- The caution economists are flagging: a deficient south-west monsoon amid El Nino conditions poses downside risks to agriculture and rural demand, while unfavourable base effects are likely to weigh on growth from Q2 onward.
- For the exam: know the distinction being used here - GDP is measured at market prices and includes net taxes on products, while GVA measures output at basic prices, so GVA is the cleaner read on production-side activity. The gap between nominal 10.3% and real 7.8% implies a deflator of roughly 2.5%, indicating subdued economy-wide price pressure.
Practice Questions
With reference to India's Q1 FY27 national accounts data, consider the following statements:
1. Real GDP growth was higher than in the corresponding quarter of the previous year but lower than in the immediately preceding quarter.
2. The mining sector recorded a contraction, partly attributable to a high base in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.
3. Nominal GDP growth was lower than real GDP growth.
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
Gross Value Added (GVA) differs from Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in that GVA:
A Measures output at basic prices, excluding net product taxes which GDP at market prices includes
B Is always calculated at current prices while GDP is calculated only at constant prices
C Excludes the contribution of the services sector
D Measures only the output of the public sector
vulturesdiclofenacelectrocutionecosystem servicesNSAIDs
- The historic collapse in numbers: India's vultures crashed 99.5% by 2007 from a high of around four crore in the 1980s. The white-rumped, Indian and slender-billed vultures were nearly wiped out.
- The cause and the response: diclofenac, a painkiller given to cattle that destroys vulture kidneys, was banned for veterinary use, with further bans in 2023 on aceclofenac and ketoprofen and other NSAIDs.
- The economic cost of losing a scavenger - the single most quotable statistic: with carcasses left exposed longer, feral dog populations rose and rabies outbreaks followed. A 2024 study in the American Economic Review estimated that human mortality rose 4%, costing India $69.4 billion a year in associated damages.
- The new threat: electrocution from expanding power infrastructure may supersede chemical threats. An official survey reported in 2025 that vultures were nesting at only 50% of their historic nesting sites.
- Why vultures specifically: their wide wingspans mean a large bird can contact two conductors at once; they habitually perch on elevated structures, are drawn to open landscapes, and congregate where food is predictable - a risk worsened by people dumping food waste near electrical installations.
- An important nuance: an assessment for the State Climate Resilient Power System Development Project found an Egyptian vulture and steppe eagles electrocuted on medium-voltage rather than high-voltage lines. Research warns that electrocution alone could render a local population extinct, and that avian electrocution is under-documented in India because carcasses are removed or scavenged.
- The mitigation menu: separating feeding sites from power infrastructure (the cheap fix), insulating conductors, increasing the gap between energised and grounded components so a bird cannot bridge them, and installing safe perches.
- For the exam: this is the strongest available case that biodiversity loss carries measurable economic cost, converting conservation from an ethical argument into a public-health and fiscal one.
Practice Questions
A 2024 study cited in the context of India's vulture decline estimated that the collapse in vulture populations led to:
A A rise in human mortality of about 4%, with associated damages estimated at $69.4 billion a year
B A decline in agricultural productivity of 4% nationwide
C The extinction of feral dog populations across northern India
D A 4% reduction in India's forest cover
Vultures are considered particularly vulnerable to electrocution on power infrastructure principally because:
A They are nocturnal and cannot see power lines
B Their large wingspans allow a single bird to bridge two conductors simultaneously while perching on elevated structures
C They nest exclusively on electricity transmission towers
D They are attracted to the electromagnetic fields generated by transmission lines
AYUSHNCISMmedical educationAYURGYANregulation
- The private sector now dominates AYUSH education: non-government institutions accounted for 86% of Ayurveda and 85% of homoeopathy colleges in 2024, per government data.
- The scale of expansion: permitted seats rose 43% and total admission capacity 25% between 2021 and 2024, a period when the Centre's AYURGYAN allocation for AYUSH education, training, research and capacity-building increased nearly sixfold.
- The distinctive concern: for allopathic education the debate is whether institutions adequately prepare students for evidence-based practice. For AYUSH the questions are about both the quality of training and what students are being trained to practise.
- Quality problems long predate the boom: a 2005 CAG audit found insufficient hospital beds, outpatient services and staff widespread among homoeopathy colleges, with bed occupancy ranging from 1% to 71%. A 2020 article in the Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine reported many institutions had a shortfall exceeding 50% in required teaching staff.
- The regulator is active: the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine (NCISM) has withheld or denied permission after inspections found gaps in faculty and infrastructure. As of August 21, it had listed 17 Ayurveda colleges - all private - whose permissions were denied, several for non-compliance with the inspection process.
- The incentive problem, stated judicially: in Hillside Ayurveda Medical College (2023), the Karnataka High Court acknowledged that 'often educational institutions are ... guilty of admitting excess students for financial gains'. The National Commission for Homoeopathy has given 41% of all homoeopathy colleges the lowest grade, including nearly half of all private institutions.
- For the exam: the editorial's recommendation is threefold - tougher quality control, a reexamination of incentives facing private institutions, and questions about the evidence base underpinning AYUSH systems. This is a clean case study in regulating a rapidly expanding private education sector where information asymmetry is high.
Practice Questions
The National Commission for Indian System of Medicine (NCISM) is principally responsible for:
A Regulating education and practice standards in Indian systems of medicine, including granting or denying permission to institutions
B Manufacturing and distributing Ayurvedic medicines nationwide
C Conducting research trials on allopathic pharmaceuticals
D Accrediting hospitals under the National Health Mission
The editorial's concern regarding private sector-led expansion of AYUSH education rests principally on:
A The constitutional invalidity of private participation in medical education
B Incentives for institutions to maximise student intake while faculty strength and laboratory infrastructure lag behind
C A statutory bar on private institutions offering Ayurveda courses
D The absence of any regulator for Indian systems of medicine
Article 142right to protestFIR quashingNEET-UGSupreme Court
- A three-judge Bench headed by CJI Surya Kant found no 'compelling circumstance' to interfere with the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protest march planned in central Delhi, declining to halt it.
- Within hours, the Delhi police moved an urgent plea asking the Court to invoke Article 142 to quash FIRs registered against students and youth who participated in the NEET-UG paper leak protests.
- What the police conceded: they 'no longer wished' to pursue the FIRs registered across central Delhi police stations following the July 20 crackdown. Those FIRs had carried charges of rioting, attempt to murder, and damage to public property.
- The carve-out sought: permission to file 'fresh, specific' FIRs against 2,873 individuals with criminal antecedents reported present at the protest site, while expressing willingness to close other FIRs not listed in the application.
- The context: the CJP decided to return to the streets on September 5, days before the BRICS Summit on September 12-13, citing the Centre's failure to honour commitments including immediate withdrawal of FIRs against student protesters.
- Why Article 142 is the operative provision: it empowers the Supreme Court to pass any decree or order necessary for 'complete justice' in a pending cause - a power used precisely where ordinary statutory procedure offers no clean route, as with mass quashing of FIRs across multiple police stations.
- For the exam: two threads worth separating. First, the right to protest under Articles 19(1)(a) and 19(1)(b), subject to reasonable restrictions - and the Court's reluctance to pre-emptively restrain a peaceful march. Second, Article 142's breadth, which has drawn debate about whether extraordinary equitable power can substitute for legislative and executive process.
Practice Questions
Article 142 of the Constitution empowers the Supreme Court to:
A Pass any decree or order necessary for doing complete justice in any cause or matter pending before it
B Issue writs solely for the enforcement of fundamental rights
C Transfer judges of the High Courts between States
D Review the constitutional validity of Money Bills
The right to assemble peaceably and without arms, invoked in the context of protest marches, is guaranteed under which provision of the Constitution?
A Article 19(1)(a)
B Article 19(1)(b)
C Article 19(1)(c)
D Article 21
ManipurKuki-ZoNagainsurgencyinternal security
- Manipur Deputy Chief Minister Losii Dikho has urged the Centre to take punitive measures against fellow Deputy Chief Minister Nemcha Kipgen for allegedly 'colluding' with a Kuki insurgent group implicated in the killing of Naga civilians.
- The political threat: Mr. Dikho and eight other Naga MLAs have said they will pull out of the BJP-led government if no action is taken. Five are from the Naga People's Front (NPF), two from the BJP, one from the National People's Party, and one is an Independent.
- The specific demands, listed in a letter hand-delivered to Union Home Minister Amit Shah: arrest of Kuki-Zo leaders who publicly claimed responsibility for the killing and dismemberment of six Naga civilians, whose mutilated bodies were recovered on June 10, almost a month after they were abducted.
- They also demanded the arrest of Thangboi Kipgen, head of the Kuki National Front (Presidential) faction - and the husband of Deputy Chief Minister Nemcha Kipgen, which is the basis of the collusion allegation.
- The violence is continuing and reciprocal: unidentified gunmen killed three Kuki villagers and injured four in Kangpokpi district, on the same road where four Liangmai Naga civilians were gunned down on August 27.
- The analytically important shift: Manipur's conflict has been framed largely as Meitei-Kuki. These killings mark the hardening of a Naga-Kuki axis, meaning the State now faces multiple overlapping ethnic fault lines rather than one.
- For the exam: the governance dimension is that the ruling coalition depends on MLAs across these communities, so ethnic conflict translates directly into coalition instability. Connect to Article 355, the role of the Home Ministry in State security, and the limits of a security-only response where the underlying dispute concerns land, ST status and administrative autonomy.
Practice Questions
The escalation described in Manipur involving Naga and Kuki communities is analytically significant primarily because it:
A Indicates the conflict has expanded beyond a single ethnic fault line to multiple overlapping ones
B Demonstrates that insurgency in the north-east has been fully resolved
C Shows that the State has no elected government in place
D Establishes that the dispute concerns only linguistic identity
Article 355 of the Constitution imposes on the Union the duty to:
A Protect every State against external aggression and internal disturbance and ensure State governance is carried on in accordance with the Constitution
B Dismiss a State government whenever law and order deteriorates
C Appoint the Director General of Police in every State
D Assume all legislative powers of a State during civil unrest