Important topics and their relevance in UPSC CSE exam for April 25, 2026. If you missed the April 24, 2026 UPSC CSE exam key from the Indian Express, read it here.Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.Main Examination: General Studies-II: Appointment to various Constitutional posts, powers, functions and responsibilities of various Constitutional Bodies.What’s the ongoing story: The Opposition Friday submitted a fresh notice in Rajya Sabha seeking the removal of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, listing nine charges of “proven misbehaviour” and backed by 73 MPs from multiple parties. — What are the constitutional provisions related to the Election Commission of India?— What is the process of selection of CEC? — How does the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, elaborate the selection of the CEC?— How is the CEC different from the other Election Commissioner?— How is a CEC removed?— What is the model code of conduct?Story continues below this ad— How does the constitution provide for the independence of constitutional bodies like the Election Commission? Key Takeaways:— According to sources, a new notice was submitted with “fresh grounds” for the removal of Kumar, with the coordination and collection of the notice handled by the TMC and Congress.— “We have submitted the notice with 73 signatures today afternoon. This time, we have given fresh grounds for the removal of the CEC. We have mentioned specific instances with regard to the CEC which are grounds for his removal from the post,” said a source privy to the matter.— Giving details of the notice, Congress communication in charge, and MP Jairam Ramesh said, —“The grounds are proven misbehaviour constituted by acts and omissions committed on and after 15 March 2026,” said Ramesh.Story continues below this ad— “There are now nine specific charges against the CEC that have been documented in great detail and that simply cannot be denied or whitewashed away. His continuation is an assault on the Constitution. It is an absolute disgrace that the man continues to be in office to do the bidding of the PM and HM,” he added.— The first charge against Kumar is “continued partisan asymmetry in the enforcement of the model code of conduct”, under which the Opposition has mentioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation on April 18, saying that a complaint was submitted by Opposition parties, saying the address was in violation of the Model Code of Conduct and that the CEC took no action against it.— This comes weeks after the notice for motion to impeach Gyanesh Kumar was rejected by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan, who had both said that the allegations levelled by the Opposition members “lack the proof necessary to constitute misbehaviour which establishes a prima facie case for removal of Chief Election Commissioner”.Do You Know:— As per Article 324 (5) of the Constitution, the “Chief Election Commissioner shall not be removed from his office except in like manner and on the like grounds as a Judge of the Supreme Court.” It also says that Election Commissioners can only be removed on the recommendation of the Chief Election Commissioner.Story continues below this ad— The article also states that this process is “subject to provisions of any law made by Parliament” on the matter. Following that, Parliament passed the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023 in December 2023. Section 11 of the Act provides for the resignation and removal process. It sticks to the same process as mentioned in the Constitution.ALSO READ | Knowledge Nugget | Model Code of Conduct: What parties can and cannot do during polls— The process for removing a judge of the Supreme Court is as per Article 124 of the Constitution and the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968. Article 124 (4) says that a Supreme Court judge can be removed “by an order of the President passed after an address by each House of Parliament supported by a majority of the total membership of that House and by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of that House present and voting has been presented to the President in the same session for such removal on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity.” Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:Knowledge Nugget | Impeachment notice against CEC Gyanesh Kumar: What to read in Article 324Knowledge Nugget | Model Code of Conduct: What parties can and cannot do during pollsPrevious year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:(1) Consider the following statements: (UPSC CSE 2017)1. The Election Commission of India is a five-member body.Story continues below this ad2. Union Ministry of Home Affairs decides the election schedule for the conduct of both general elections and bye-elections.3. Election Commission resolves the disputes relating to splits/mergers of recognised political parties.Which of the statements given above is/are correct?(a) 1 and 2 only(b) 2 only(c) 2 and 3 only(d) 3 onlyPrevious year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:Discuss the role of the Election Commission of India in the light of the evolution of the Model Code of Conduct. (UPSC CSE 2022) THE IDEAS PAGEThree pathways for energy diversificationSyllabus:Preliminary Examination: Current events of National & International importance, Economic development. Story continues below this adMains Examination: General Studies-II, III: Government policies and interventions, Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilisation of resources, Energy.What’s the ongoing story: Prodipto Ghosh and Kolluru Krishnan write- “The closure of the Strait of Hormuz is, perhaps, a crisis too valuable to ignore. While some disruption is inevitable in the near term, within a timeframe of 5-10 years, more sustainable solutions may be found by realigning our energy dependence from external to internal sources.”Key Points to Ponder:— Know about the West Asia crisis and its impact on India’s energy security.— Why does India need energy diversification?— What are the alternative internal energy sources for India’s energy resilience?Story continues below this ad— How can renewable and bioenergy contribute to India’s biofuel economy?— What are the challenges related to shifting from external energy dependence to internal energy sources?— What are rare earths? How can rare earths help in India’s energy transition?— What measures should be taken to promote biomass-based energy and biofuels in India?Key Takeaways:Story continues below this ad— “What are these internal sources? We could “drill, baby drill” for oil and gas off the Andaman & Nicobar islands. However, this is a very capital-intensive undertaking with uncertain outcomes, and if successful, it will, based on evidence, take decades to exploit. Commercialising fossil-fuel alternatives from locally available resources is imperative, along with an alternative supply and distribution chain for LNG.”— “Based on current and emerging technologies, there are three feasible pathways for greater energy resilience: Widening electricity applications in transport, cooking, industrial process heat, and production of e-fuels; biofuels from agricultural residues and manure, municipal solid and liquid waste, and forestry biomass; increasing the share of natural gas in primary energy, and integrating small-scale LNG (SSLNG). We take up each in turn:”— “First, India’s targets for non-fossil electricity are ambitious: 500 GW by ߮ 1,800 GW and 100 GW nuclear power by 2047. This will require scaling up energy storage using the Internet of Things and AI to minimise capital investment, enabling increased use of EVs and electric cooking. We also have to seriously invest in domestic rare earths extraction. India has significant rare earth deposits.”— “Second, India has considerable sustainable biomass resources and crop residues: A total of c. 950 mmta from grain crops, oilseed crops, sugarcane, cotton, and horticulture (besides spoilt produce). After use as cattle-feed and crop fertility management, the net is c. 400 mmta, most of which is used in inefficient and polluting ways. The annual yield of forest biomass is 260 mmta, again mostly put to low-value use. Such biomass may be used for a range of biofuels from pellets and briquettes to biochar and pyrolytic oil. It may also be used to produce syngas, from which, in turn, hydrocarbons may be produced by the established Fischer-Tropsch process.”— “Biomethane can thus, in principle, fully replace current imports of LNG in all uses, including producing higher-value biofuels and industrial feedstock. It may be distributed through natural gas pipelines and SSLNG infrastructure.”— “Third, the key to increasing the share of natural gas in India’s energy mix is to widen its sourcing and distribution. The wide global distribution of natural gas sources means that it is immune to cartelisation, unlike oil. We must negotiate long-term contracts with new sources less susceptible to disruption.”— “All three pathways are technically feasible and important for our climate mitigation goals. However, biomass and manure are low-value, low-bulk-density commodities. There are significant logistical difficulties in procuring and transporting them, or more concentrated intermediates, to processing and distribution centres. Entrepreneurial skill and imagination are needed to overcome this problem. Such entrepreneurship should be encouraged by payments for environmental services (not subsidies), carbon credits, and premiums for mitigating the risk of disruption of petroleum imports. Financial institutions must be pressed to finance these business models, as for “priority sectors”.Do You Know:— Rare Earth Elements (REEs) or Rare Earth Metals are a set of 17 chemical elements in the periodic table — the 15 lanthanides, plus scandium and yttrium, which tend to occur in the same ore deposits as the lanthanides, and have similar chemical properties. REEs are classified as light RE elements (LREE) and heavy RE elements (HREE). — REEs are an essential — although often tiny — component of more than 200 consumer products, including mobile phones, computer hard drives, electric and hybrid vehicles, semiconductors, flatscreen TVs and monitors, and high-end electronics. Rare Earth elements are also used in space shuttle components, jet engine turbines, and drones.— Some REEs are available in India — such as Lanthanum, Cerium, Neodymium, Praseodymium and Samarium, etc. Others such as Dysprosium, Terbium, and Europium, which are classified as HREEs, are not available in Indian deposits in extractable quantities. Hence, there is a dependence on countries such as China for HREEs, which is one of the leading producers of REEs, with an estimated 70 per cent share of the global production.Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:Why India must step on the gas with ethanol Previous year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:“Access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy is the sine qua non to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”.Comment on the progress made in India in this regard. (UPSC CSE 2018) NATION No BRICS consensus on war, India’s Chair summary notes ‘deep concern’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: With opinion divided within the BRICS grouping on the US-Israel war on Iran, a consensus was elusive and Delhi issued a Chair’s summary on Friday and said that “members expressed deep concern on the recent conflict in the Middle East [West Asia] and offered views and assessments on the matter”. Key Points to Ponder:— BRICS, its evolution and members-Know in detail.— BRICS and Iran War-know in detail. — How have BRICS nations reacted to the Iran War?— What efforts has BRICS taken to de-escalate the War?— Why BRICS Matters?— How is BRICS rewriting some of the rules of global politics, and increasingly positioning itself as a challenger to the Western-led liberal international order?— The geopolitics of BRICS looks quite different today, how?— Map Work: BRICS CountriesKey Takeaways:— The Chair’s statement is a declaration by the host and the chair of any grouping, which is a summary of the statement, but has not been agreed to by all the members. Usually, a joint statement which is agreed to by all the members is issued after any multilateral meeting. This was a practice in the G20 meetings in the run-up to the summit in 2023, when there was no consensus on the Russia-Ukraine war.— India, which holds the chair of BRICS in 2026, said, “The BRICS Deputy Foreign Ministers and Special Envoys on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) met on 24 April 2026 in New Delhi, and exchanged views on the current situation in the region. Members expressed deep concern on the recent conflict in the Middle East and offered views and assessments on the matter”.— In early March, The Indian Express had reported that on March 13 Tehran reached out to Delhi to take the lead in issuing a statement on behalf of the BRICS, currently chaired by India, condemning the US and Israeli strikes against Iran in the previous two weeks. This put Delhi in a diplomatic pickle since it has stayed away from taking sides in the ongoing conflict.NEW IN OUR LIST | UPSC Prelims S.E.E. Snapshot: VitalID, Non-deliverable derivative, Galactic cosmic rays— quick look— The BRICS grouping has Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (the original five), along with Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Indonesia. Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which host US bases and personnel, have been targeted by Iranian missiles and drones.— The fact that all three countries are in the BRICS has made diplomatic navigation difficult for India. India, which holds the rotational presidency of the grouping for 2026, is expected to host the summit of BRICS leaders later this year.— With Iran reaching out to India for a statement by BRICS, Delhi had made it public in mid-March that it has been difficult to forge a consensus on the issue because of involvement of BRICS member countries in the ongoing conflict.— Without naming any country, the Ministry of External Affairs’ official spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had said, “Some members of the BRICS are directly involved in the current situation in the West Asia region, which has impacted forging a consensus on a common BRICS position on the ongoing conflict. As Chair of BRICS, India has been facilitating discussions among members through the Sherpa channel.”—India is likely to host the BRICS Foreign ministers’ meeting on May 14-15, which Chinese Foreign minister Wang Yi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are expected to attend, sources said. Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi may join virtually, depending on the circumstances.—While there are many moving parts as a result of the ongoing conflict and the ceasefire talks between US and Iran, sources said, Delhi is preparing the ground for the meeting of the Foreign ministers.—The timing of the BRICS foreign ministers is significant since India has not been able to forge a consensus among the BRICS grouping on the war in West Asia.Do You Know:— The acronym BRIC was first used in 2001 by Goldman Sachs in their Global Economics Paper, ‘The World Needs Better Economic BRICs’. The paper projected that Brazil, Russia, India, and China would be among the world’s largest economies in the next 50 years or so.— As a formal grouping, BRIC started after the meeting of the leaders of Russia, India and China in St. Petersburg on the margins of the G8 Outreach Summit in 2006. The grouping was formalised during the first meeting of BRIC Foreign Ministers on the margins of the UNGA in New York in 2006.— The first BRIC Summit was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia, in 2009. It was decided to include South Africa at the BRIC Foreign Ministers’ meeting in New York in 2010, and accordingly, South Africa attended the 3rd BRICS Summit in Sanya, China, in 2011.Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:Iran war: BRICS should step in and restrain the US and Israel How BRICS is chipping away at the Western orderPrevious year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:(2) Consider the following statements with regard to BRICS: (UPSC CSE, 2025)I. The 16th BRICS Summit was held under the Chairship of Russia in Kazan.II. Indonesia has become a full member of BRICS.III. The theme of the 16th BRICS Summit was Strengthening Multiculturalism for Just Global Development and Security.Which of the statements given above is/are correct?(a) I and II(b) II and III(c) I and III(d) I onlyPrevious year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme: Compare the significance of IBSA and BRICS in the context of India’s multilateral diplomacy. (UPSC CSE 2012) EXPLAINEDThe global risks posed by Anthropic’s Mythos AISyllabus:Preliminary Examination: Current events of national importance.Mains Examination: General Studies-III: Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights. What’s the ongoing story: In 2019, Dario Amodei, then OpenAI’s research director, warned that the startup’s new large language model was “too dangerous to release” due to its potential for generating misleading content. When GPT-2 was eventually released almost a year later, the concerns seemed somewhat overblown. Key Points to Ponder:— What is Mythos?— What are the concerns related to the Mythos?— What is artificial intelligence (AI)?— What are the advantages and disadvantages of AI?— How is AI currently governed?— Is there any global AI governance framework?— Why is the regulation of AI the need of the hour?— What are the challenges associated with the regulation of AI?— What has been India’s response to demands for AI regulation?Key Takeaways:— But fresh warnings by the soft-spoken Amodei, now chief of OpenAI rival Anthropic, about the risks posed by his company’s latest AI model — Claude Mythos — appear far more grounded. Mythos was held back from release by Anthropic but now appears to have been leaked.— The model has prompted concerns around the world, and in India. On Thursday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman chaired a high-level meeting over concerns that it could pose significant risks to India’s banking sector. The Indian Express has learnt that the government is currently in conversation with Anthropic’s senior leadership in the US on the issue.— Sparking more worry within the government are reports that China has developed its own version of Mythos, called Qihoo 360. This “vulnerability discovery agent” has already identified nearly 1,000 software flaws. While Mythos is recognised as a breakthrough in automated cyber defence, Chinese state-owned enterprises and specialised firms such as 360 are aggressively advancing similar capabilities.— Mythos is the latest addition to Anthropic’s Claude AI family. Anthropic has unveiled only a limited preview version of the general-purpose language model.— But Mythos represents a major leap in capability over Anthropic’s existing AI systems. It has drawn global attention because of its ability to autonomously identify serious vulnerabilities in widely used software and infrastructure at a pace far beyond most human researchers. It is highly capable of fixing security issues (if set to work as a defender) — but also, crucially, at exploiting them (if deployed as a hacker).— What’s spooked policymakers around the world is Anthropic’s claim that Mythos has already found severe vulnerabilities in “every major operating system and web browser”, including one that had gone undetected for nearly three decades.— Where earlier models often showed patchy results at higher difficulty levels, Mythos demonstrated a stronger ability to sustain performance across complex challenges. This suggests improvements in reasoning and planning, enabling the model to navigate layered cyber problems rather than just isolated exploits.— Even as it held back commercial deployment citing all these concerns, Anthropic parallelly announced Project Glasswing, which aims to assist companies that hope to use Mythos to step up cyber-defences before it is widely released. Major software developers—including Apple, Nvidia, the Linux Foundation and CrowdStrike, as well as competitor Google were in this list.— What has now set the cat among the pigeons is a report by Bloomberg that the Mythos model was accessed by “a handful of users” in a private Discord chat on the day it was announced publicly, despite the restricted release. US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met with top American bank CEOs in a closed-door meeting earlier this month to discuss the cybersecurity risks posed by Mythos.— On April 23, at a high-level meeting to assess the risks that Mythos poses to India’s financial sector, Union Finance Minister Sitharaman told banks to exercise a “high-degree” of vigilance and develop a coordination mechanism to respond to threats emerging from capabilities of this model.— Globally, most experts see the compelling need for an overarching consensus when it comes to governing AI. Even though regulatory approaches to the technology could differ from one jurisdiction to another, the need for global coordination on AI and an agreement on a set of standards and common guardrails is being articulated. Without that, this technology is going to be very difficult to contain and tough to enforce.— So far, India has maintained that it wants to maintain a light touch regulatory framework for AI, looking to incentivise the potential economic aspects of the technology. The Mythos episode could force a rethink. — In the aftermath of Mythos, the IT Ministry set up the AI Governance and Economic Group — an inter-ministerial body — as the apex mechanism for coordinating AI policy and governance framework. From the Editorial Page- “Mythos challenge: Delhi needs say in AI regulation”— “For India, the challenges (related to Mythos) are clear. On Thursday, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman held a meeting to gauge the risks to the Indian financial system from Mythos. While this is certainly a crucial first step, the government must be mindful that the risks could well extend beyond the banking system to other critical sectors. Addressing these will require a concerted and coordinated effort at the global level.”— “Considering that India’s numbers make it one of the world’s biggest markets for AI models, and that it is consumer data that greases these models, it must have a seat at the high table of global AI governance. It has to be able to shape the regulatory framework. In these fraught times of war and tariff, consensus is elusive but the good news is that Mythos has rattled all governments. This is reason enough for all to come to the negotiating table to work on a global governance architecture — and India should have a seat there.”Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:Mythos risk: Govt pings Anthropic, FM urges banks to remain vigilant Mythos shock: Why regulators in India, other nations are spooked by Anthropic’s new tool Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:(3) With the present state of development, Artificial Intelligence can effectively do which of the following? (UPSC CSE, 2020)1. Bring down electricity consumption in industrial units2. Create meaningful short stories and songs3. Disease diagnosis4. Text-to-Speech Conversion5. Wireless transmission of electrical energySelect the correct answer using the code given below:(a) 1, 2, 3 and 5 only(b) 1, 3 and 4 only(c) 2, 4 and 5 only(d) 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5Previous year UPSC Main Question Covering similar theme: Introduce the concept of Artificial Intelligence (AI). How does AI help clinical diagnosis? Do you perceive any threat to privacy of the individual in the use of AI in healthcare? (UPSC CSE 2023)As 7 AAP members in the Rajya Sabha switch to the BJP, will they face disqualification?Syllabus:Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance-Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.Mains Examination: General Studies-II: Parliament and State legislatures—structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers & privileges and issues arising out of these.What’s the ongoing story: Seven Rajya Sabha MPs of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) — Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Rajinder Gupta, Swati Maliwal and Vikramjit Sahney — switched to the BJP on Friday. Their move left the AAP with just three members in Rajya Sabha. What happens to these members, the AAP and the Upper House now? Key Points to Ponder:— What is the anti-defection law? Discuss its major features. — Know about the 10th Schedule of the Constitution of India. — What are the grounds for disqualification?— Under the Tenth Schedule, who decides defection cases?— How do the 52nd and 91st Constitutional Amendments shape the exercise of disqualification powers?— What is the Kihoto vs Zachillhu case?— What did the Supreme Court of India say in the Kihoto Hollohan case (1993)?— What did the Supreme Court say in the SR Bommai case (1994) with respect to defection?— What are the limitations of the anti-defection law?Key Takeaways:— Chakshu Roy of PRS Legislative Research told The Indian Express that the seven MPs would not face disqualification, citing precedent. While AAP has members in both legislatures, the Rajya Sabha Chairman would only consider the House he is presiding over. The Chairman can say that since two-thirds of the members of the party have merged with the BJP, they will now be BJP members and not face disqualification, said Roy.— However, according to former Lok Sabha secretary general PDT Achary, the AAP has members in various legislatures, not just Rajya Sabha. He pointed to paragraph 4 of the 10th Schedule — inserted in the Constitution by the 52nd Constitutional Amendment Act 1985 and strengthened by the 91st Constitutional Amendment Act 2003 — which says: “A member of a House shall not be disqualified… where his original political party merges with another political party and he claims that he and any other members of his original political party have become members of such other political party or, as the case may be, of a new political party formed by such merger”. — Achary said that since Chadha has reportedly said that he has merged with the BJP, there are no factions of the AAP for the EC to take a call on. But until the Chairman’s ruling, the seven MPs who jumped ship will officially remain AAP members. — Achary pointed to paragraph 2 (1) (a) of the 10th Schedule: “An elected member of a House shall be deemed to belong to the political party, if any, by which he was set up as a candidate for election as such member.” — However, if they support the NDA on any legislative issue in the pendency of the Chairman’s ruling, their seven votes would be added to the BJP’s tally of 106, despite them technically belonging to AAP. — This will also be an anomaly that will come up during the pendency of a disqualification petition, says Achary. According to the 10th Schedule, defying the party whip, too, attracts a disqualification petition. Achary said: “AAP can still issue a whip to Chadha’s group and they can keep violating it, with the Chairman being the person to take a call on any disqualification petition even on this ground.” — What if less than two-thirds had switched loyalties? In that case, the rebels would have been liable for disqualification under the anti-defection law in terms of numbers even in a single legislature. The process would have entailed any member of the House petitioning the Rajya Sabha Chairman to disqualify the rebel members for having switched sides. — The 10th Schedule, however, does not lay down any time limit for the presiding officer of a House to rule on the disqualification of a member for either switching over or defying the party whip. — Judicial review of the presiding officer’s ruling also takes place only after he has given his ruling — something that can make a presiding officer sit on a petition so that a member liable to be disqualified still retains the membership of the House. This is despite the Supreme Court having observed that presiding officers should decide a petition within a reasonable time.— The 91st Constitutional Amendment Act of 2003 did two things. First, it said that to avoid disqualification proceedings, at least two-thirds of the members of a party in a House had to switch over to another party, something that would be seen as a merger. If the numbers were below two-thirds of that party’s strength of the House, the shifting members would be liable to face disqualification proceedings. ALSO READ | The World This Week | Two ceasefire extensions in West Asia and a doorway to cold peace— Second, the Act laid down that the total number of ministers in a government would not exceed 15% of the total strength of Lok Sabha or state Assembly, adding that the number would not be less than 12 in very small states. — This Act strengthened the 10th Schedule as it stood after the 52nd Constitutional Amendment Act 1985 which inserted the above Schedule. However, the 10th Schedule in 1985 recognised a split of one-third of the members of a party in a House as legitimate. As this, too, was misused many times, the 91st Constitutional Amendment Act made switching over more difficult by deleting the one-third reference from the 10th Schedule, and mandating that two-thirds had to switch for a merger that would save them from disqualification proceedings.Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:Anti-defection law: Features, limitations and reformsExplained: The anti-defection law, and how it has often failed to discourage defectionUPSC Prelims Practice Questions Covering the same theme:(4) With reference to the Anti defection law, consider the following statements:1. It was introduced by the 53rd Constitutional Amendment Act.2. The decisions of the Speaker or Chairman regarding disqualification are subject to judicial review.3. The law specifies a strict timeline for the decision.How many of the statements given above are correct?(a) Only one(b) Only two(c) All three(d) NonePrevious Year Mains Questions Covering the same theme: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)The Goldilocks period that wasn’t for the economySyllabus:Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importanceMains Examination: General Studies-III: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilisation of resources, growth, development and employment; Government Budgeting.What’s the ongoing story: When the Union Budget was presented in February, a popular notion was that the Indian economy was witnessing a “rare goldilocks period”, as RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra put it. A cultural reference, goldilocks refers to an economy being exactly where policymakers would like it to be — sustained growth, low inflation, and low unemployment. Key Points to Ponder:— What is meant by a “Goldilocks economy”? — Why is GDP considered a fundamental measure of a country’s economic growth?— How does GDP maintain accuracy in economic measurement?— What is the difference between nominal GDP and real GDP?— Why is real GDP considered a better indicator of economic performance? — What does India’s recent trend in real GDP growth indicate?Key Takeaways:— Since then, the news has turned negative. First, India revised (with a new base year of 2022-23) how it calculates its gross domestic product (GDP) — the measure used to assess the size of any economy — and found that the old series (with 2011-12 as base year) was overestimating GDP. — Then came the US’s war in Iran, and the further fall in the rupee’s exchange rate with the US dollar. Last week, Japan and the UK overtook India in terms of GDP.— With the hostilities in Iran still on, more observers are pencilling in a slower growth and high inflation for India, especially given India’s overwhelming reliance on energy imports via the Strait of Hormuz.— If one looks at the data from the old GDP series (as it provides data for past years), it becomes clear that — contrary to popular notion that India’s economy was doing very well — the truth is far more sobering.— The table gives the nominal GDP (in current day prices) and the real GDP (without the effect of inflation) of some key years. — Whereas the chart provides the GDP’s compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) for the past 12 years (since 2014) and the past 7 years (since 2019) as well as over the past 22 years (since 2004). Chart 2 provides the GDP’s compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) for the past 12 years (since 2014) and the past 7 years (since 2019) as well as over the past 22 years (since 2004).— The two main takeaways are: One, CAGR of nominal GDP over the past 12 years (April 2014-March 2026) has been just above 10% each year. For perspective, CAGR over the past 22 years has been around 12.3%. So, India’s growth rate is decelerating over time — and this deceleration is getting worse. In the past 7 years, nominal GDP growth rate clocked just 9.5% annually.— Two, in terms of real GDP — the variable that is more commonly talked about when one refers to India’s growth rate — India clocks a modest growth rate of just 6.2% per annum over the past 12 years. Again, CAGR over the past 22 years is higher than that over the past 12 years, suggesting that the growth momentum had weakened in the past 12 years. Also, CAGR of real GDP over the past 7 years has been less than 5.5%.— In short, just above 6% real GDP growth rate over the past 12 years and less than 5.5% growth rate over the past 7 years is nowhere near the kind of growth rate required to become a developed country in the next two decades. — Lack of foreign capital flows has been a big reason why the Indian rupee has weakened. This data also explains why the Indian rupee has been weakening against the dollar even when the dollar has been weakening against all the other currencies.— What makes this data from the old GDP series even more relevant is that the new GDP series has actually rolled back the size of India’s GDP. In other words, India is today a smaller economy than what was previously imagined.Do You Know:— The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) recently released a new series of national income accounts, shifting the base from 2011-12 to 2022-23, alongside methodological reforms intended to align national accounts with existing economic realities. The last time the GDP series was revised was in early 2015. — The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a key indicator to assess the annual economic growth or the overall size of an economy and the “base year” refers to the year that works as a starting point for calculations. — The base year for GDP calculation is now 2022-23. In other words, the GDP in 2022-23 is used as a “base” over which the GDP growth of any following year is calculated.Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:UPSC Prelims ‘SEE’ Snapshot : Talking cars, GDP rebasing and Nor’westers — quick lookDoes the new GDP series strengthen statistical credibility?Understanding the ‘discrepancies’ in India’s new GDP data Previous year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:Explain the difference between computing methodology of India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) before the year 2015 and after the year 2015. (UPSC CSE 2021) ALSO IN NEWSEngineering goods exports to West Asia drop by 50%India’s engineering goods exports to the West Asia and North Africa (WANA) region slipped by 50% to $864 million in March against the same period last year, dragged down by Iran war and subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz, data released by the Engineering Exports Promotion Council (EEPC) said. Engineering goods comprised nearly a quarter of the total goods that India exported globally in the financial year 2025-26 (FY26). While for the WANA region, the share was nearly 10%. Former CEA Ashok Lahiri to be NITI Aayog vice-chairmanRenowned economist Ashok Lahiri and scientist Gobardhan Das, two illustrious personalities from West Bengal, were on Friday named as the Niti Aayog vice-chairman and member, respectively, government sources said. Karnataka Cabinet approves internal reservation for SCsThe Congress government in Karnataka on Friday decided to implement temporary internal quotas for Scheduled Caste communities in the state in the ratio of 5.25% for the SC ‘right’, 5.25% for the SC ‘left’ and 4.50% for others under the existing 15% quota for SC communities even as it awaits legal clarity for a proposed 17% quota.The decision, which was taken at a special Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, will pave the way for recruitment of government staff, which had been stalled for over a year.Extreme events could impact 36%of land animal habitats by 2085, says new studyBy 2085, over a third of wildlife habitats on land could suffer multiple types of climate-driven extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, wildfires, and floods, if warming continues to rise in the second half of the century, according to a new study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution journal. The study, led by researchers at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Germany, analysed the impact of climate change in a medium-high emission scenario on nearly 34,000 vertebrate species. Answer Key 1. (d) 2. (a) 3. (d) 4. (a) Click Here to read the UPSC Essentials magazine for March 2026. Share your views and suggestions in the comment box or at manas.srivastava@indianexpress.comSubscribe to our UPSC newsletter. Stay updated with the latest UPSC articles by joining our Telegram channel – Indian Express UPSC Hub, and follow us on Instagram and X.