UPSC Key: Urban Maoism, USAID funding and Namami Gange Programme

Indian Express

11-07-2025

Important topics and their relevance in UPSC CSE exam for July 11, 2025. If you missed the July 10, 2025 UPSC CSE exam key from the Indian Express, read it here
FRONT PAGE
SC lets EC revision continue, suggests adding Aadhaar, ration, voter card to list of documents
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance
Mains Examination: General Studies II: Salient features of the Representation of People's Act.
What's the ongoing story: Declining to restrain the Election Commission of India from proceeding with the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar, the Supreme Court Thursday suggested to the poll panel to also consider Aadhaar, voter ID and ration cards for the purpose of updating the rolls.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What Supreme Court of India said about special intensive revision?
• What is an 'intensive' revision?
• How does 'intensive' revision differ from other revisions?
• Why is the ongoing exercise in Bihar called a special intensive revision?
• Why has the ECI undertaken this exercise at the present moment — and why has Bihar been chosen for it?
• How often has the ECI revised electoral rolls intensively, and what were the circumstances of those earlier exercises?
• How electoral roll revision ensures free and fair elections in India?
• How can the inclusion of Aadhaar, Voter ID, and Ration Cards aid this process?
• How does the Supreme Court's intervention in electoral roll revision reflect the balance between electoral integrity and individual rights?
• Compare India's approach to electoral roll management with other democratic countries.
Key Takeaways:
• The vacation bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi said it was leaving it to the EC to consider its suggestion on the inclusion of these three documents and 'if you have good reasons to discard it, discard it' but 'give reasons'.
• It directed that the matter be listed for hearing again on July 28, before publication of the draft electoral roll.
• The bench's suggestion to consider Aadhaar, voter ID and ration cards for updating the rolls, came after Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the ECI, submitted that the list of 11 documents to be considered for the revision exercise was not exhaustive.
• Intensive revision refers to the de novo preparation of the electoral roll from scratch through personal, house-to-house field verification by electoral registration officers.
Do You Know:
• The nomenclature 'Special Intensive Revision' (SIR) indicates that the ECI is exercising its discretionary powers under Section 21(3) of the 1950 law, which permits it to revise electoral rolls 'in such manner as it thinks fit'.
• For this exercise, the ECI has adopted a hybrid approach — combining door-to-door field verification that is characteristic of an intensive revision with elements of a summary revision, such as the reliance on existing electoral rolls to distribute enumeration forms. What has set the ongoing SIR apart, however, is the introduction of a new step — the requirement of documentary proof at the enumeration stage itself. This is a striking departure from past practice. The 'special' in this intensive revision in effect signals its methodological flexibility.
• The SIR is not limited to Bihar. On June 24, the ECI announced that it would carry out an intensive verification of electoral rolls across the country. This would be the first such exercise in more than two decades, and the process has begun with Bihar, where Assembly elections are due before November.
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Why three documents SC suggests widen net, dial down panic
📍Timing, due process & PART 8 citizenship: SC flags key issues for poll panel
📍The revision of electoral rolls
📍EC must listen
📍As hearing starts, recalling key case from 1977
Fadnavis warns of 'urban Maoism', Bill to tackle 'extremist Left ideology' passed
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance
Mains Examination: General Studies II: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
What's the ongoing story: The stringent Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill, which seeks 'to provide for effective prevention of certain unlawful activities of Left Wing Extremist organizations or similar organizations and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto', was passed by the state Assembly Thursday via a voice vote amid Opposition concern over the definition and interpretation of some of the terms and clauses in the Bill.
Key Points to Ponder:
• Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill-Know its key features
• What makes Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill stringent?
• What is Urban Maoism?
• How the term Urban Naxal came in to the picture?
• Know the rationale and implications of Maharashtra's Special Public Security Bill in addressing 'urban Maoism.'
• What are the key challenges in tackling urban ideological radicalisation as opposed to rural insurgency?
• How legislative efforts like the Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill align with national strategies against Left Wing Extremism?
• To what extent does urban Maoism pose a challenge to India's internal security?
Key Takeaways:
• Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who tabled the Bill in the House and assured members that the Bill would not be misused against political protesters and activists, said Maoists had lost ground in the state and were 'trying to brainwash the youth of urban areas and make them stand up against the democratic system'. He warned of the rise of 'urban Maoism' and said the Bill would 'control them'.
• Underlining the difference between dissent and extremism, Fadnavis said every citizen has the right to protest, and in case of violence, relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) would apply, not the new law.
Do You Know:
• The statement of objects and reasons of The Maharashtra Special Public Security (MSPC) Bill, 2024, says the 'menace of Naxalism is not only limited to remote areas of the Naxal affected states, but its presence is increasing in the urban areas also through the Naxal front organisations'.
• The Bill, which provides for punishment ranging from two to seven years in prison, defines 'unlawful activity' as 'any action taken by an individual or organization whether by committing an act or by words either spoken or written or by sign or by visible representation or otherwise, (i) which constitute a danger or menace to public order, peace and tranquility; or (ii) which interferes or tends to interfere with maintenance of public order; or (iii) which interferes or tends to interfere with the administration of law or its established institutions and personnel' – the Bill defines four other actions that constitute 'unlawful activity'.
• Maharashtra becomes the fifth state to pass such a Bill. It will now be tabled in the upper house for further deliberations.
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Maharashtra Public Security Bill: Vague and dangerous for civil liberties
📍What is Maharashtra's proposed law against 'urban Naxalism'?
With USAID shut, Norman Borlaug's institute knocks on India's doors
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.
Mains Examination: General Studies II: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India's interests
What's the ongoing story: Six decades ago, the legendary agricultural scientist Norman Borlaug ushered in India's Green Revolution through his high-yielding, semi-dwarf wheat varieties such as Lerma Rojo 64A, Sonora 63, Sonora 64 and Mayo 64.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What is CIMMYT International research Centre for?
• Know about USAID funding.
• How USAID funding helped India?
• The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT)-what you know about the same?
• What is the historical role of Norman Borlaug and CIMMYT in shaping India's agricultural landscape and food security?
• Know the significance of the USAID shutdown on CIMMYT's R&D operations and its repercussions for Indian agriculture.
Key Takeaways:
• Today, his organisation – the Mexico-headquartered International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center or CIMMYT – is reaching out to the Indian government and the private sector, seeking financial support for its breeding research and development programme in the two cereals that cover over a quarter of the world's cropped area.
• The reason: A funding crunch brought about by global factors, including the shutting down of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) by the Donald Trump administration, officially from July 1.
• The agency, which administered civilian foreign aid and development assistance for the US government, accounted for about $83 million out of CIMMYT's total grant revenue of $211 million in 2024. That made it CIMMYT's largest funder, followed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (now Gates Foundation), which gave $42 million.
• CIMMYT's current research and field trials are aimed at raising yields as much as breeding varieties with improved heat tolerance, disease resistance and biological nitrification inhibition (BNI) traits.
• Wheat is increasingly prone to yield losses from mercury spikes in March, at the crop's final grain formation and filling stage. Studies show that every one-degree Celsius rise in night temperatures lowers yields by an average of 6%. By identifying traits in wheat plants
that promote heat tolerance, scientists are able to develop varieties better adapted to hotter days as well as warmer nights.
Do You Know:
• CIMMYT's advanced breeding lines are present as parent or grandparent in wheat varieties planted on more than 60 million hectares (mh) globally. The early Green Revolution blockbuster varieties that Indian scientists developed were all through selections from CIMMYT materials. That included Kalyan Sona (released in 1967), Sonalika (1968) and PBW 343 (1995), which, at their peak, were grown on 5-6 mh, 14 mh and 7-8 mh respectively.
• In October 2011, CIMMYT established the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) as a joint venture with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). BISA has three research stations at Ludhiana (Punjab), Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh) and Samastipur (Bihar).
• CIMMYT has also opened a 'doubled haploid' facility for maize at Kunigal (Karnataka), jointly with the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore. This first-of-its-kind facility in Asia produces genetically pure inbred lines of maize that can be used as parents for further crossing and breeding of hybrids by both public sector institutions and private seed companies.
• CIMMYT's India office has 19 international and 144 national staff. Besides, some 25 scientists from India work at CIMMYT offices all over the world. 'A tenth of our 1,800-plus global staff are Indians,' Govaerts noted.
• India's contribution to CIMMYT's budget was just $0.8 million in 2024. While CIMMYT began as a pilot programme of the Mexican government and the Rockefeller Foundation in the 1940s and 50s, over time it became more reliant on funding from USAID and newer non-profits like the Gates Foundation.
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍USAID has been dismantled. CSR funds should be used in research and innovation
THE IDEAS PAGE
Global South, building BRICS
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.
Mains Examination: General Studies II: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India's interests.
What's the ongoing story: Pankaj Saran Writes: Don't blame BRICS for the curse of multipolarity. BRICS is not the reason for the relative decline of the US as a global power. The folly lies at the doorstep of a multi-decadal US policy, with active abetment by its Western allies, to outsource manufacturing to China and make it the manufacturing capital of the world.
Key Points to Ponder:
• Know the influence of BRICS in enhancing the agency of the Global South.
• What is the symbolism and practical impact of BRICS countries trading in local currencies and building alternative financial systems?
• 'BRICS Pay and the New Development Bank represent an alternative architecture to the Western financial order'-Discuss
• Know the India's position on cross border terrorism in the BRICS Rio Declaration.
• Compare India's multilateral outreach in BRICS with its efforts in G20, SCO, and other Global South groupings.
• Where does BRICS stand?
Key Takeaways:
Pankaj Saran Writes:
• To make matters worse, the US-led West handed over the fate of a devastated global economy to China in the wake of the collapse of capitalism and the financial crisis of 2008. China was happy to play saviour. Neither BRICS nor India can be blamed for the rapid rise of a power that today believes it is poised to challenge US global hegemony.
• In fact, India is at the receiving end of policies pursued by its Western partners. The lessons have not been learnt even now. Europe and the US are divided about whether and how much to shake off their interdependence with China. In fact, we are told there may not be any good solutions.
• China continues to ride the wave of the American and European economies. Its integration with them is far greater than with any BRICS member.
• Unlike his predecessors, the current US President has launched a frontal attack on BRICS, with the threat of punitive tariffs. Some truths need to be told here.
• The Global South is a reality, whichever way we define it. The question is how India sees itself in the larger comity of nations. For years, China relished being referred to as the 'G77 plus China' in diplomatic jargon. India is embedded in the South in real terms as well as in philosophical terms. It would be delusional to think otherwise.
• At the same time, India can barely be faulted for believing in itself and having a sense of its destiny in the long run. Its accretion of power is an inexorable process, unless we reconcile ourselves to a forever status of a post-colonial emerging nation and perpetual aspirant.
Do You Know:
Pankaj Saran Writes:
• A scenario where India walks out of BRICS is possible, because nothing is impossible. It has been made clear that in today's world, democracy has lost its premium. It is no longer the glue that attracts the like-minded. Military-ruled Pakistan is considered as great a nation as India, and as indispensable a partner for the US. Russia, on the other hand, must be shunned for being authoritarian. If the world has to be rebuilt using the alliance template of the last century, India should also be walking out of the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) and the RIC (Russia-India-China) and IBSA (India, Brazil, South Africa) groupings, which variously represent systemic challengers and the Global South.
• India needs to be in as many thematic and geographical coalitions and groupings as necessary till it is made a genuine participant in the governance of international institutions. This is the essence of India's case.
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍What PM Modi's recent visit says about the tenets of India's Global South outreach
BRICS is China's playground
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.
Mains Examination: General Studies II: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India's interests.
What's the ongoing story: Surupa Gupta Writes: As an emerging power, India's interests are arguably served best by aligning with multiple major powers, which according to conventional wisdom allows Delhi to limit its dependence on any one power and instead work with each on specific issues of common interest.
Key Points to Ponder:
• How the BRICS grouping has evolved from its original purpose to its present state, particularly in the context of India–China dynamics?
• Know the implications of China's economic dominance within BRICS for India's strategic autonomy.
• What are the limitations faced by India in leveraging BRICS to pursue its foreign policy objectives?
• The article calls for India to 'revaluate BRICS's utility'—do you agree? Substantiate with arguments.
• How has China used BRICS to advance its global economic strategy, such as de-dollarisation and influence in global governance?
Key Takeaways:
Surupa Gupta Writes:
• India's membership of multilateral institutions such as BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) has been justified along the lines that these provide platforms to push for a more multipolar world order that limits the dominance of Western powers and West-led institutions.
• Indeed, BRICS emerged as a group focused on challenging the norms that shaped multilateral economic institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
• BRICS offered another avenue for India's aspirations for global leadership as it, along with Brazil, China and Russia, negotiated a larger proportion of quotas and votes at these institutions. In recent years, as BRICS has expanded its membership, it has arguably provided India another platform to develop ties with countries in the Global South. One could argue that as the US under the Donald Trump administration pursues an unpredictable and more volatile foreign policy, it might be even more imperative for India to build ties with such institutions.
Do You Know:
Surupa Gupta Writes:
• China's GDP, at $17.79 trillion, is nearly five times the size of India's at $3.56 trillion. This economic might, along with China's extensive trade and investment ties with other BRICS countries, allow it to exert greater political influence. At the BRICS summits, Beijing has used its leverage to promote goals such as de-dollarisation and expansion of the organisation's membership.
• It has also used the venue to advocate for a larger role in global governance for itself. While India seeks to pursue some of these goals, it has not been able to further its interests through BRICS. The redistribution of IMF quotas in 2015 may have been the only exception. Even then, as BRICS countries banded together to reform global governance, China emerged as the clear winner as it was able to secure a deputy managing director position at the IMF.
• While India seeks to expand its ties with countries in the Global South and portray itself as their leader, given the deep economic ties China enjoys with other BRICS countries, it is difficult for New Delhi to claim the leadership mantle while operating within the organisation. It might be easier for India to create a leadership narrative through its bilateral ties and in blocs where China is not present.
• In the early years of the forum, BRICS membership likely gave India a larger profile in global governance by providing a mechanism for policy coordination by emerging economies.
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍As Trump warns BRICS, China, Russia say group doesn't target anyone
Let the rivers talk to each other
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.
Mains Examination: General Studies II: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
What's the ongoing story: Srinivas Chokkakula and Debarshee Dasgupta writes: Cleaning the Yamuna is among the top priorities of the newly elected BJP government in Delhi. The keen interest from the central government, also led by the BJP, favours the project. The project also has the advantage of the Yamuna being part of the Namami Gange Programme (NGP).
Key Points to Ponder:
• How Delhi's Yamuna cleanup can inform the design and implementation of the broader Namami Gange Programme?
• What is the role of flagship programmes, like Namami Gange, in ecological restoration and river rejuvenation in India?
• What is the significance of keystone species such as the Ganges dolphin in assessing the success of river-cleaning initiatives?
• Know the governance structure of Namami Gange (Centre State synergy, institutional setup) and identify key challenges and opportunities.
• How inter-state and inter-river coordination enhances the effectiveness of river conservation efforts in India?
Key Takeaways:
Srinivas Chokkakula and Debarshee Dasgupta writes:
• Delhi's state-driven effort to clean the Yamuna carries the prospect of valuable reciprocal learning, which can help shape a comprehensive policy ecosystem for rejuvenating India's rivers.
• The NGP, launched in 2014 as the Government of India's flagship programme, can boast of a discernible impact in improving the water quality and ecological status of the Ganga.
• Besides the recent cleaner Maha Kumbh, the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) offers the rising populations of keystone species such as the Ganges dolphin as evidence of the improved ecological status of the river. In over a decade of its implementation, the NGP's responsive policy and institutional experiments stand out as a departure from the earlier Ganga Action Plan.
• Implemented in mission mode, the NGP has interesting legal and institutional innovations to its credit. The foremost among these is that it has shifted from the regulatory framing of what was the Ministry of Environment and Forests to an executive approach, in the Ministry of Jal Shakti (earlier the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation).
• The programme also marks a shift from pollution abatement to improving the ecological condition of the river. The NGP has pursued a river basin approach informed by a plan produced by a consortium of the Indian Institutes of Technology. In celebrated river restoration programmes, like those in Europe, such shifts took decades. The International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine (ICPR), established in 1950 to restore the River Rhine, made these shifts only after the Sandoz disaster in 1986.
Do You Know:
Srinivas Chokkakula and Debarshee Dasgupta writes:
• The NMCG was accorded the status of an authority soon after it was launched through the River Ganga (Rejuvenation, Protection and Management) Authorities Order of 2016. The National Ganga River Basin Authority, constituted earlier, was dissolved through this order and was replaced with a National Ganga Council (NGC). There are other institutional innovations that show an unusual agility in policymaking.
• The NGC is headed by the Prime Minister with the chief ministers of the riparian states and 10 Union ministers as members. The NGC guides an empowered task force headed by the Union Minister for Jal Shakti, and an executive council headed by NMCG's director general with extensive financial and regulatory powers.
• The most striking feature of the 2016 order is the recognition of the subnational governments as important partners. It mandates a layered structure of state Ganga committees and district Ganga committees — accommodating the important roles of governments at different levels. Despite this deliberate effort, the subnational participation in Namami Gange has not been very encouraging. The absence of ownership of the programme — the basin states' legal, institutional and budgetary responses — raises questions about its enduring impact.
• Delhi's Yamuna project is a particularly complex one and can therefore make a useful contribution. The Yamuna, like all other major Indian rivers, is an interstate river.
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Namami Gange: In The Name of Ganga
ECONOMY
India gears up for trade policy review as EU chief calls for an alternate to WTO
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development
Mains Examination: General Studies II: Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate.
What's the ongoing story: At a time when multilateralism is taking a back seat — with an ineffective UN Security Council and a dysfunctional dispute settlement body at the World Trade Organization (WTO) — India appears committed to key WTO processes and has begun preparations for its eighth trade policy review after five years.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What is the significance of the WTO Trade Policy Review (TPR) mechanism for India in light of recent global trade developments?
• What are the reasons behind the European Union's call for an alternative to the World Trade Organization as reported recently?
• Know India's approach and challenges as it prepares for its upcoming WTO Trade Policy Review.
• Why there is the need for WTO reforms?
• What are India's key concerns and proposals in WTO reforms?
• How does India's classification as a developing country within the WTO framework affect its trade policy and negotiations?
Key Takeaways:
• The preparations in the Ministry of Commerce come at a time when the US has all but abandoned the forum for resolving trade disputes and is instead striking bilateral trade deals, which experts fear are often not WTO-compliant. This poses significant risk for the rules-based system and for developing countries such as India, experts have warned.
• While the US continues to block the appointment of judges to the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body (DSB), the European Union has called for wide-ranging reforms. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week proposed to EU leaders the launch of a Europe-led initiative to establish structured trade cooperation with Asian countries — potentially pitching for an alternative to the WTO.
Do You Know:
• The Financial Times reported earlier this week that von der Leyen suggested Brussels team up with the 11 other global economies of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) to form an institution to replace the WTO, which is struggling to contain global trade tensions.
• This is of particular importance for India, since New Delhi has been filing several disputes against the US even while negotiating a bilateral trade agreement.
• India revised its proposal to impose retaliatory duties under WTO norms against the US over American tariffs on steel and aluminium, in view of the Trump administration's further hike in duties.
• The US first imposed 25 per cent tariffs on imports of aluminium, steel, and derivative articles on March 12. On June 3, these tariffs were further raised to 50 per cent.
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍India-US trade pact: 'Deal with India close,' says Trump; slaps 25–40% reciprocal tariffs on 14 nations largely ASEAN
For any queries and feedback, contact [e-mail]
Subscribe to our UPSC newsletter. Stay updated with the latest UPSC articles by joining our Telegram channel – IndianExpress UPSC Hub, and follow us on Instagram and X.
Priya Kumari Shukla is a Senior Copy Editor in the Indian Express (digital). She contributes to the UPSC Section of Indian Express (digital) and started niche initiatives such as UPSC Key, UPSC Ethics Simplified, and The 360° UPSC Debate. The UPSC Key aims to assist students and aspirants in their preparation for the Civil Services and other competitive examinations. It provides valuable guidance on effective strategies for reading and comprehending newspaper content. The 360° UPSC Debate tackles a topic from all perspectives after sorting through various publications. The chosen framework for the discussion is structured in a manner that encompasses both the arguments in favour and against the topic, ensuring comprehensive coverage of many perspectives.
Prior to her involvement with the Indian Express, she had affiliations with a non-governmental organisation (NGO) as well as several coaching and edutech enterprises. In her prior professional experience, she was responsible for creating and refining material in various domains, including article composition and voiceover video production. She has written in-house books on many subjects, including modern India, ancient Indian history, internal security, international relations, and the Indian economy. She has more than eight years of expertise in the field of content writing.
Priya holds a Master's degree in Electronic Science from the University of Pune as well as an Executive Programme in Public Policy and Management (EPPPM) from the esteemed Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, widely recognised as one of the most prestigious business schools in India. She is also an alumni of Jamia Milia Islamia University Residential Coaching Academy (RCA).
Priya has made diligent efforts to engage in research endeavours, acquiring the necessary skills to effectively examine and synthesise facts and empirical evidence prior to presenting their perspective. Priya demonstrates a strong passion for reading, particularly in the genres of classical Hindi, English, Maithili, and Marathi novels and novellas. Additionally, she possessed the distinction of being a cricket player at the national level.
Qualification, Degrees / other achievements:
Master's degree in Electronic Science from University of Pune and Executive Programme in Public Policy and Management (EPPPM) from Indian Institute of Management Calcutta
... Read More