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What’s the ongoing story: THE GOVERNMENT on Saturday sent a test notification in the form of a text message with a sharp beep sound to almost all citizens around 11:42 am, demonstrating its indigenously developed Cell Broadcast system for instant communication during critical situations such as natural disasters and man-made emergencies.
— What is the Cell Broadcast system?
— How is it different from an SMS system?
— What is the significance of the cell broadcast system?
— Why is it important for disaster management?
— What are the steps taken by the Indian government for building disaster resilience?
— What is the significance of the early warning system?
— What is the Common Alerting Protocol?
— What is the role and function of the National Disaster Management Authority?
— A pop-up message flashed on mobile screens in English, Hindi and other languages with the headline ‘Extremely Severe Alerts’. “India, launches Cell Broadcast using indigenous technology, for instant disaster alerting service for its citizens. Alert citizens, safe nation. No action is required by the public upon receipt of this message. This is a test message. – Government of India,” it read.
— Currently, the government already issues disaster alerts through SMS by deploying the Integrated Alert System called SACHET, which is developed by the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), the research and development centre of the DoT.
— This system, based on the Common Alerting Protocol recommended by the International Telecommunication Union, has been successfully operationalised by the National Disaster Management Authority.
— It has been operational across all 36 states and Union Territories to deliver disaster and emergency-related alerts via SMS to mobile users within geo-targeted areas. Till date, 134 billion SMS alerts in more than 19 languages have been disseminated during natural disasters, weather warnings and cyclonic events.
— But unlike SMS alerts (which is a one-to-one channel) which may be missed by many, the ‘cell broadcast’ technology used on Saturday is unmissable since its a one-to-many channel communication system.
— It mirrors the technologies used in countries such as Japan (which issued tsunami alerts). It is a method where short messages with sound alerts can be sent to all mobile devices within a defined geographic area simultaneously almost in near real-time delivery.
— The Cell Broadcast technology, also introduced by C-DOT, will further strengthen alert dissemination in time-critical situations, such as tsunamis, earthquakes, lightning strikes and man-made emergencies like gas leaks or chemical hazards, the government said.
— These “test messages” will only be received on mobile devices with Cell Broadcast test channels enabled (Users can enable or disable alerts through the following menu path on their mobile devices: Settings → Safety and emergency →Wireless emergency alerts →Test alerts).
— Many countries across the world now use cell broadcast–based emergency alert systems to warn citizens about disasters and security threats.
— Among the first to adopt it was Japan in 2007. Its J-Alert system transmits instant emergency information about threats such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and ballistic missiles via sirens.
— It was trialled in the western city of Kobe, which suffered a devastating earthquake in 1995 that killed nearly 6,500 people, according to the BCG-backed non-profit Centre for Public Impact.
— Several other countries followed. The US rolled out its Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) system in 2012. Across Europe, countries have adopted similar systems under the EU-Alert framework, especially after an EU directive in 2018 mandated member states to implement public warning systems using cell broadcast by 2022.
— In Asia, besides Japan, countries such as South Korea and Singapore have also deployed nationwide alert systems over the past decade. Other countries, including Canada, New Zealand and Chile, have introduced similar broadcast-based alerts tailored to risks like wildfires, earthquakes and floods.
— As climate-related disasters become more frequent and severe, technologies such as cell broadcast become extremely important for survival.
— India, especially, has seen an increasing frequency of natural disasters such as flash floods, extreme temperatures and cyclones.
— According to the ITU, such systems can play a large role in helping societies adapt to the impacts of climate change. It says technologies like cell broadcast are “critical elements for delivering early-warning alerts to populations at risk”.
What is disaster resilience? How is it determined? Describe various elements of a resilience framework. Also mention the global targets of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030). (UPSC CSE 2024)
Mains Examination: General Studies-II, III: Government Policies and Interventions, Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.
What’s the ongoing story: A high-powered US nuclear ‘executive mission’ is headed to India later this month with a two-pronged agenda: Taking stock of India’s nuclear energy landscape less than six months after a landmark legislation opened up this critical sector and to communicate the American industry’s interest, as well as coordinate US government messaging, on the emergent opportunities in this field.
— What is the status of nuclear energy generation in India?
— What is the target set by India for nuclear energy?
— What is the process of nuclear energy generation?
— What is the three-stage nuclear programme of India?
— What is the Nuclear Mission of India?
— What are small modular reactors or SMRs?
— Deliberations planned during the course of the delegation’s five day schedule (May 17-21) include meetings with the Department of Atomic Energy top brass, NITI Aayog, other energy ministries and representatives of state-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) and NTPC Ltd.
— Last December, Parliament had passed the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Act, 2025, marking a major shift in how India’s tightly-controlled nuclear power sector will be governed in the coming years.
— For the first time, the Act enabled private players to enter the operations side of this critical sector as well as areas such as fuel management, which had remained under tight public-sector control for decades.
— Alongside the increased role for the private sector in nuclear plant operations, the deployment of imported Light Water Reactor-based projects, aided by foreign funding, are two outcomes in the wake of the passage of the new legislation.
— It opens up the possibility of more imported LWR-based nuclear projects of the kind that are being set up by the Russians in Kudankulam, Tamil Nadu. India is also keen to look at the possibility of the deployment of small modular reactors or SMRs.
— Although India’s civil nuclear programme has expertise in manufacturing pressurised heavy water reactors – from 220MWe PHWRs to the new 700MWe reactors – an impediment of sorts for the country’s nuclear establishment is its reactor technology.
— Based on heavy water and natural uranium, the PHWRs are a technology that India’s nuclear establishment has a mastery over, but one that is increasingly out of sync with the LWRs that are now the most dominant reactor type across the world.
— The Americans, the Russians and the French are among the leaders in LWR technology. Also, India’s dominant nuclear technology – its mainstay PHWRs – has scalability issues.
— The SHANTI Act repealed both the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010.
— In India, nuclear energy accounts for only 3 per cent of the overall power generation today. The country has set a short-term goal to increase its nuclear power capacity to 22.5 GW by 2032, and a long-term target to reach 100 GW by 2047.
— The new law allows public and private companies to set up nuclear power plants and undertake activities related to the transport, storage, import and export of nuclear fuel, technology, equipment and minerals. Until now, these activities were restricted to public sector entities only.
— All entities involved in the nuclear energy activities will be required to obtain safety authorisation from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB); such authorisation is also mandatory for the manufacture, possession, use, transport, import, export or disposal of radioactive substances and radiation-generating equipment, as well as for establishing, operating or decommissioning radiation facilities.
— The law also retains exclusive central government control over certain critical and sensitive activities. These include the enrichment and isotopic separation of radioactive substances, the management and reprocessing of spent fuel and high-level radioactive waste, and the production and upgradation of heavy water, among others.
(1) India is an important member of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor’. If this experiment succeeds, what is the immediate advantage for India? (UPSC CSE 2016)
With growing energy needs should India keep on expanding its nuclear energy programme? Discuss the facts and fears associated with nuclear energy. (UPSC CSE 2018)
SECOND PAGE
Mains Examination: General Studies-II, III: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation; Money-laundering and its prevention
What’s the ongoing story: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has declared 21 people, including businessmen Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya, UK-based arms consultant Sanjay Bhandari, and Hajra Iqbal Memon (wife of the late Iqbal Mirchi, gangster Dawood Ibrahim’s aide), as fugitive economic offenders (FEOs) over the past seven years, according to its annual report.
— What is the role and function of the ED?
— What is the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act (FEOA)?
— What is the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act (PMLA)?
— What are the important laws and agencies against money laundering?
— What do you mean by extradition?
— India has signed an extradition treaty with which countries?
— An FEO is an individual against whom a warrant for arrest in relation to a scheduled offence, where the total value involved in such offence or offences is Rs 100 crore or more, has been issued by any court in India, and who has left India to avoid criminal prosecution or being abroad, refuses to return to India to face criminal prosecution.
— However, the report added, decisions to declare diamond trader Mehul Choksi, Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, and Mahadev app promoters Sourabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal as FEOs under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act (FEOA) remain sub judice in courts.
— The central agency’s annual report, released on Friday, states that proceedings under FEOA have been initiated against 54 individuals to date, with 21 declared FEOs and assets worth around Rs 2,178.34 crore confiscated.
— According to the report, the ED’s performance under FEOA in the past two financial years—2024-25 and 2025-26—shows significant asset recovery and a rising number of offenders declared as fugitives.
— Citing Bhandari as an example, the report noted that a special court (PMLA) declared him an FEO last year following ED’s application on December 13, 2019, under FEOA.
— The ED was established on May 1, 1956, as the ‘Enforcement Unit’ under the Department of Economic Affairs within the Ministry of Finance for handling violations of exchange control laws under the now-repealed Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1973 (FERA).
— Later on, it was renamed the Enforcement Directorate and was transferred to the administrative control of the Department of Revenue, and subsequently entrusted with the enforcement of a broader range of financial laws.
— The enactment of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), which replaced FERA in 1999, and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the early 2000s, increased the power of ED. These moves aligned its functions with international standards to combat financial crimes, notably those recommended by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
— In 2006, India received observer status in FATF – which was created in 1989 to coordinate anti-money laundering efforts across the world – and in 2010, it became its member state.
(2) With reference to the Government of India, consider the following information: (UPSC CSE 2025)
| Organisations | Some of its functions | It works under |
| I. Directorate of Enforcement | Enforcement of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 | Internal Security Division I, Ministry of Home Affairs |
| II. Directorate of Revenue Intelligence | Enforces the Provisions of the Customs Act, 1962 | Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance |
| III. Directorate General of Systems and Data Management | Carrying out big data analytics to assist tax officers for better policy and nabbing tax evaders | Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance |
In how many of the above rows is the information correctly matched?
Discuss how emerging technologies and globalisation contribute to money laundering. Elaborate measures to tackle the problem of money laundering both at national and international levels. (USPC CSE 2021)
OPINION
Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance – Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues
Mains Examination: General Studies-II: Constitution of India —historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure.
What’s the ongoing story: In March 1993, a month into becoming Chief Justice of India, Justice M N Venkatachaliah faced a constitutional crisis. The apex court had ordered Dr H Borobabu Singh, the Speaker of the Manipur Legislative Assembly, to appear before it, and the Speaker repeatedly refused. The apex court and the Speaker were on a collision course.
— What is the role and function of the Speaker?
— What are the provisions of anti-defection law in India?
— What the Supreme Court said in the SR Bommai case (1994) with respect to Defection?
— Has the anti-defection law ensured the stability of governments?
— What the Supreme Court of India said in the Kihoto Hollohan case (1993)?
— What is the significance of the Kihoto Hollohan case?
— What is the significance of judicial review?
— Is judicial review allowed in an anti-defection case?
— What are the constitutional immunity enjoyed by the members of Parliament?
— In a 1964 face-off between the judiciary and the UP assembly, the legislature had ordered the arrest of Allahabad High Court judges. Justice Venkatachaliah must have wondered what he would do if the Speaker continued to defy the court’s authority and dignity. The 1993 crisis stemmed from a case about the defection of seven Manipur MLAs.
— The anti-defection law is back in the news with seven Rajya Sabha AAP members requesting the Rajya Sabha Chairman that they wish to merge with the BJP under the anti-defection law.
— Parliament inserted the Tenth Schedule into the Constitution (popularly known as the anti-defection law) to prevent MPs and MLAs from shifting their loyalty from one party to another. It specifies that the presiding officers of the legislature will decide defection cases, with their decisions being final.
— If the Speaker decides that an MP/MLA has defected, then the legislator loses their seat in the legislature. When Parliament made the law in 1985, it also barred courts from getting involved in these cases.
— With Speakers gaining the power to make and break governments, the non-partisan office came under tremendous political pressure. For example, during a trust vote, a Speaker disqualified MLAs on the House floor while the vote was underway.
— In another case, a Speaker disqualified some MLAs, was himself removed, and the next Speaker reversed the decision. Another Speaker was elected as the Chief Minister after a government fell due to defecting MLAs. And in one case, a Speaker disqualified some MLAs one day and reinstated them the next day.
— In July 1991, Dr Singh, the Manipur Assembly Speaker, disqualified seven Congress (I) MLAs on grounds of defection. His decision, along with those of the Speakers of the legislatures of Goa, Gujarat, Manipur, Meghalaya, Madhya Pradesh and Nagaland in defection cases, was taken up by a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court (the Kihoto Hollohan case).
— This bench, of which Justice Venkatachaliah was a part, examined the constitutionality of the anti-defection law. The court held that the law was valid but struck down the provision that restricted judicial review of the Speaker’s decisions. In November 1991, the court also quashed the Manipur Speaker’s decision disqualifying the seven MLAs.
— In a case filed by the secretary, the apex court asked Dr Singh to appear before it on multiple occasions. But the Speaker refused, stating that he enjoyed constitutional immunity from the court’s orders. The court clarified that it was ordering Mr Singh’s appearance not as the Speaker but as the administrative head of the legislature.
— An entire year passed with the Speaker refusing to appear before the Supreme Court. Then, in February 1993, the court ordered the central government to take all necessary steps, including the use of “minimum force,” to ensure the Speaker’s presence.
— The anti-defection law punishes individual MPs/MLAs for leaving one party for another. It allows a group of MP/MLAs to join (i.e. merge with) another political party without inviting the penalty for defection. And it does not penalise political parties for encouraging or accepting defecting legislators.
— Parliament added it to the Constitution as the Tenth Schedule in 1985. Its purpose was to bring stability to governments by discouraging legislators from changing parties. It was a response to the toppling of multiple state governments by party-hopping MLAs after the general elections of 1967.
— The law covers three kinds of scenarios. One is when legislators elected on the ticket of one political party “voluntarily give up” membership of that party or vote in the legislature against the party’s wishes. A legislator’s speech and conduct inside and outside the legislature can lead to deciding the voluntarily giving up membership.
(3) With reference to anti-defection law in India, consider the following statements? (UPSC CSE 2022)
1. The law specifies that a nominated legislator cannot join any political party within six months of being appointed to the House.
2. The law does not provide any time-frame within which the presiding officer has to decide a defection case.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(4) Which one of the following Schedules of the Constitution of India contains provisions regarding anti-defection? (UPSC CSE, 2015)
The role of individual MPs (Members of Parliament) has diminished over the years and as a result healthy constructive debates on policy issues are not usually witnessed. How far can this be attributed to the anti-defection law, which was legislated but with a different intention? (UPSC CSE 2013)
ECONOMY
Centre notifies 100% foreign investment in insurance sector
Mains Examination: General Studies-III: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilisation, of resources, growth, development and employment.
investment (FDI) in the insurance sector under the automatic route, allowing greater participation from global investors and eliminating the need for an Indian joint venture
partner to do insurance business in India.
— What is the status of the insurance sector in India?
— What is the significance of allowing 100 % FDI in the insurance sector?
— What is “Insurance for all by 2047”?
— What are the potential benefits and challenges of globalising India’s insurance sector through higher FDI?
— What are the major initiatives taken by the government to increase insurance penetration in India?
— What are the major features of the Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha (Amendment of Insurance laws) Act?
— Total foreign investment in Indian insurance companies, including by portfolio investors, is permitted up to 100% of the paid-up equity capital and is allowed under the automatic route, subject to approval and verification by the Insurance Regulatory and Development AuthorityofIndia(Irdai),as per the gazette notification.
— However, foreign investment in Life Insurance Corporation of India (lIC) will continue to remain capped at 20% under the automatic route, keeping the state-run insurer under a separate framework.
— “Foreign investment in lIC shall be subject to compliance with the provisions of the life Insurance Corporation Act, 1956 (31of1956), and such other provisions of the Insurance Act, 1938 (4 of 1938), as are applicable to lIC as per the provisions of section 43 of the life Insurance Corporation Act, 1956 (31 of 1956),” the notification said.
— The policy amendment aligns the foreign investment framework with the sabka Bima sabki Raksha (Amendment of Insurance laws) Act, 2025. Most provisions of the law, except section 25, were already in force from February 5.
— To ensure regulatory oversight and domestic control, insurance companies with foreign investment must appoint at least one resident Indian citizen as chairperson, managing director, or chief executive officer.
— Any increase in foreign shareholding must comply with pricing guidelines prescribed by the Reserve Bank of India under FEMA regulations.
— India had earlier opened full foreign ownership in insurance intermediaries in 2020 and allowed 20% FDI in lIC in 2022. India’s pension sector is also poised for a structural shift, with the FDI limit raised to 100%, in line with the insurance sector.
— Recently, Germany’s Allianz Group announced its reentry into Indian market with a 50:50 joint venture with Jio Financial services to offer general and health insurance solutions, with plans to enter the life insurance segment under a similar partnership structure
— Parliament passed the sabka Bima sabki Raksha (Amendment of Insurance laws) Bill, 2025 in December, raising the FDI limit in the insurance sector to 100% from 74%. Despite the earlier cap of 74%, foreign ownership has not been fully utilised. Only four of the 19 life insurance companies have reached the 74% limit.
What are the primary challenges confronting the insurance sector in India, and what strategies can be implemented to address them?
| ALSO IN NEWS | |
| Prasoon Joshi appointed prasar Bharati chairman | Noted lyricist and writer Prasoon Joshi has been appointed as the chairman of Prasar Bharati, India’s public service broadcaster, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) announced on Saturday. Joshi is also serving as the chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), Mumbai since August 2017. |
| Top 500 companies’ profits grew 30% post Covid, but no investments: CEA | INDIA’S TOP economist on Saturday criticised the private sector asking it to reflect why it has been reluctant to invest, which in itself might have contributed to demand uncertainty.
Addressing the second annual Isaac Centre for Public Policy Growth Conference organised by Ashoka University, Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran said, “Post Covid, if you look at BSE 500 or NSE 500 companies, corporate profits grew at 30.8% per annum. But still, our overall capital formation rates from the private sector have been disappointing.” The CEA also warned about a more restrictive external environment and said India needed its own “answer” to Chinese and American laws that secure their supply chains and inward investments. He said global companies will find it “more and more difficult” to move out of China, and warned that India will have to “accept and be willing to work alongside” such a restrictive global environment. |
| PRELIMS ANSWER KEY |
| 1. (d) 2. (a) 3. (b) 4. (d) |
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Curated by Dr. Elena Rodriguez
