Important topics and their relevance in UPSC CSE exam for February 24, 2026. If you missed the February 23, 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, III: Government policies and interventions, Role of external state and non-state actors in creating challenges to internal security.What’s the ongoing story: The Centre on Monday unveiled India’s first counter-terrorism policy, ‘Prahaar’, a comprehensive framework built on zero tolerance, intelligence-led prevention and coordinated response to extremist violence. The policy seeks to deny terrorists, their financiers and supporters access to funds, weapons and safe havens – both within the country and abroad.Key Points to Ponder:— What is state-sponsored terrorism and its implications for regional security?— How does cross-border terror pose a huge security challenge for India?— India’s counter-terrorism doctrine—Know its evolution.— What are the key pillars of India’s counter-terror policy?— Read about Operation Sindoor.— What is the significance of Operation Sindoor in India’s counter-terrorism strategy?Story continues below this ad— What are the challenges faced by India in preventing terrorism?— What is the importance of international cooperation in combating terrorism?Key Takeaways:— Announced by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Prahaar lays out a multi-layered strategy structured on seven key pillars — prevention, responses, aggregating internal capacities, human rights and rule-of-law based processes, countering conditions that enable terrorism including radicalisation, alignment with global efforts and shaping the international efforts to counter terrorism and recovery and resilience through a whole-of-society approach.— Without naming any country, it observed that “a few countries in the region have sometimes used terrorism as an instrument of state policy”, while reaffirming that India does not associate terrorism with any religion, ethnicity or civilisation, the document said.Story continues below this ad— Stating that India has consistently stood by the victims of terrorism and has been steadfast in its belief that there can be no justification whatsoever for violence in the world, the document said it is this principled approach that informs New Delhi’s policy of zero tolerance against terrorism.— The policy lists out technological evolution, which offers terrorists a cloak of invisibility, making it difficult to track their funds. “Technological advancements like encryption, dark web, crypto wallets, etc. have allowed these groups to operate anonymously. Disrupting/intercepting terrorist efforts to access and use CBRNED (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, explosive, digital) material remains a challenge for counter terrorism (CT) agencies. The threat of state and non-state actors misusing drones and robotics for lethal purposes remains another area of concern, even as criminal hackers and nation states continue to target India through cyberattacks,” the document read.— The document highlighted the misuse of the internet for communication, recruitment, glorification of jihad and other terror-related activities, which are countered through proactive disruption of such cyber activities, online networks of terrorist groups and their propaganda and recruitment by intelligence and counter-terror agencies.Do You Know:— India launched ‘Operation Sindoor’ after the terror attack in Pahalgam, hitting nine terror locations in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). This marked the most expansive and widespread retaliation by India in recent years, since the Balakot airstrikes in 2019 and the surgical strikes following the Uri attack in 2016. The attacks were made at nine locations, which were terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.Previous year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:Story continues below this adAnalyse the complexity and intensity of terrorism, its causes, linkages and obnoxious nexus. Also suggest measures required to be taken to eradicate the menace of terrorism. (UPSC CSE 2021) FRONTNCERT’s new Class 8 book lists ‘corruption in judiciary’, ‘massive backlog’ as challengesSyllabus:Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importanceMains Examination: General Studies-II: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources; Structure, organisation and functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary.What’s the ongoing story: The new Social Science textbook for Class 8, released by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) on Monday, includes a section on “corruption in the judiciary” as part of a chapter on “The role of the judiciary in our society”.Key Points to Ponder:— What are the three pillars of democracy?— What is the significance of the judiciary?Story continues below this ad— What are the challenges facing the judicial system in India?— The new NCERT book has a section on ‘corruption in judiciary’. How does corruption impact the functioning of various wings of governance?— Suggest measures need to be taken to address challenges faced by the Indian judiciary system.— Know about the Justice Verma Cash-in-row case.— What is the process of impeachment of a judge in the Supreme Court? How is it different for a High Court judge?— What are e-courts?— What was Direct Action Day in Indian History?Story continues below this ad— Know about the Jalliawalabagh massacre, conditions leading to Partition of India, and aftermath of the partitionKey Takeaways:— The chapter lists “corruption at various levels of the judiciary” and “massive backlog…on account of multiple reasons, such as a lack of an adequate number of judges, complicated legal procedures, and poor infrastructure” as among the “challenges” faced by the judicial system.— The old textbook only described the role of the judiciary, what an independent judiciary is, the structure of the courts, and access to them, without any mention of corruption. It did, however, have a paragraph that said an issue that affects the common person’s access to justice is the number of years that courts take to hear a case.— The new book lists the approximate number of pending cases in the Supreme Court (81,000), High Courts (62,40,000), and District and Subordinate Courts (4,70,00,000).Story continues below this ad— The section on “corruption in the judiciary”, in the new book, states that judges are bound by a code of conduct that governs not only their behaviour in court, but also how they conduct themselves outside it.— It refers to the judiciary’s internal mechanism to maintain accountability, and an “established procedure for receiving complaints through the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS)”, adding that over 1,600 such complaints were received between 2017 and 2021.ALSO READ | Knowledge Nugget | Rajagopalachari installed, Lutyens removed: What you need to know about both personalities— The NCERT has been developing new textbooks for all classes in line with the National Education Policy, 2020, and the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) for School Education. So far, new books for Classes 1 to 8 have been released. The first part of the Social Science textbook for Class 8 was released in July last year.From the Nation page: Congress leaders accepted Partition as only way forward: New NCERT book— A new NCERT Class 8 social science textbook released on Monday notes that though Mahatma Gandhi and most Congress leaders had opposed the idea of Partition of the country in 1947, “they ended up accepting it as the only way forward, even though it was also clear that a certain proportion of Indian Muslims did not favour Partition”.Story continues below this ad— In a section on cultural currents that would play a part in the rise of nationalist feelings, the book refers to Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s ‘Bande Mataram’ and features the first two stanzas of the song, asking students if they can “make out some of their meaning”.— On the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919, the book states that “up to this day, despite many requests, the British government has not apologised for this atrocity, only describing it as a ‘deeply shameful event in British history’.” The old book does not mention requests for an apology.— On ‘Direct Action Day’, which was marked by the Muslim League in August 1946, “a wave of brutal communal violence submerged Calcutta – often encouraged by provocative speeches and pamphlets – leading to thousands of deaths as Muslim mobs attacked Hindus, who then retaliated.— This is different from the old book, which only mentions that “riots broke out in Calcutta, lasting several days and resulting in the death of thousands of people”.— The new book also features a section on the ‘Paika Sangram’ – the rebellion of Odisha’s “traditional peasant militia” against the British in the 1800s.From the Editorial Page: Tech reform in courtrooms needs autonomy, transparency — Supriya Sankaran writes: A few weeks ago, the Madras High Court permitted an AI-assisted system inside live court proceedings. Kerala’s 24×7 ON Court, just a year old, has already shown how locally designed solutions can significantly compress resolution time. But for these efforts to scale, the Rs 1,200 crore e-courts budget announced earlier this year must become accessible to the high courts willing to act.— Closer to litigants and lawyers, high courts can meaningfully improve user experience and access to justice. Tailored pilots will also reduce wasted investment in poorly matched national rollouts.— One option is to release a defined share of the e-courts budget directly to high courts as conditional block grants for transformation. Conditions can be simple: Utilisation of funds, alignment with national technical standards, and transparent publication of outcomes. This could enable rapid disbursal, local ownership, and lower transaction costs.— The budget of Rs 1,200 crore is in place. The Supreme Court, in coordination with the Department of Justice, has a historic opportunity to pilot a decentralised architecture this year.— A blended model (conditional block grants and competitive innovation funding) offers the best of both worlds: Local relevance, experiential learning, and national standards.Do You Know:— Since its establishment in 1950, the Supreme Court has had only 11 women judges. The first woman judge of the Supreme Court, Justice M. Fathima Beevi, was appointed in 1989 – 39 years after the court came into being.— Currently, there are no women in the Supreme Court collegium – a system for the appointment and transfer of judges in the Supreme Court and High Courts. Though it is not a Constitutional provision, the collegium system has evolved through judgments of the Supreme Court itself. It consists of the Chief Justice of India and four senior judges from the apex court.— The lack of gender diversity and women’s under-representation in the judiciary often lead to judgments that reinforce existing patriarchal biases. It is visible in some of the recent judgments from the Allahabad High Court. For instance, on March 11, 2025, the Allahabad High Court granted bail in an alleged rape case and said that the woman had “herself invited trouble and was also responsible for the same”.Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:The judiciary is slow and clogged — it’s time to get outside help to fix it Women in judiciary: A mountain to climbPrevious year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:(1) Which one of the following in Indian polity is an essential feature that indicates that it is federal in character? (UPSC CSE 2021)(a) The independence of judiciary is safeguarded.(b) The Union Legislature has elected representatives from constituent units.(c) The Union Cabinet can have elected representatives from regional parties.(d) The Fundamental Rights are enforceable by Courts of Law.Previous year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:Discuss the desirability of greater representation to women in the higher judiciary to ensure diversity, equity and inclusiveness. (UPSC CSE 2021) EXPLAINEDTo make India full member, IEA needs to amend founding charterSyllabus:Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importanceMains Examination: General Studies-II: Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandateWhat’s the ongoing story: At its recent annual ministerial meeting in Paris last week, the International Energy Agency (IEA) welcomed the progress being made on India’s request for full membership of the organisation.Key Points to Ponder:— Know about the origin of IEA— How has the role of IEA evolved in recent times?— What is the role and function of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)?— What is the LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment) initiative?— What is the difference between oecd and non-oecd countries?— Understand the difference between OECD and Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)Key Takeaways:— As of now, India is an associate member of the Paris-based agency, which is a leading intergovernmental body that works on energy security, global energy policy, and, now increasingly, on climate change and energy transitions.— But India’s request for membership is not straightforward. It would require IEA to amend its founding legal framework which restricts membership only to OECD countries.— IEA was created in 1974 as one of the responses to the global oil crisis, triggered by the decision of the major Arab oil producing countries to impose an embargo on oil supplies to countries that were seen to be supporting Israel during the Yom Kippur War the previous year. The embargo had led to unprecedented rise in oil prices and fuel scarcity.— The crisis exposed the vulnerability of major industrial countries, which also happened to be the biggest consumers of oil. These countries, which had formed the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) a decade earlier, decided to act together to reduce or manage their dependence on imported oil in future. One of the results of their decision was the setting up of IEA by 17 OECD countries.— IEA’s original mandate was to ensure that oil supplies were kept stable, and potential disruptions in future were anticipated and prevented through timely action. It also developed an elaborate mechanism to deal with oil emergencies in future, making it mandatory for every member country to maintain certain minimum strategic stocks of oil that can be used to neutralise supply disruptions.— Many more countries became members of IEA at a later stage, but the membership was kept open only for OECD countries. There are now 32 full members. At last week’s ministerial meeting, Colombia was inducted as the 33rd full member. Colombia had become a member of OECD in 2020, thus clearing the way for its induction into IEA.— In 2015, IEA opened the doors for non-OECD countries to become associate members. The associate members participate in the policy discussions and activities, but do not have decision-making rights. India became an associate member in 2017. There are 13 associate members right now.— The IEA now concerns itself not just with oil, but a variety of energy sources, including renewables. Climate change, decarbonisation and energy transition now form important areas of its work. Recently, it also launched a critical minerals programme.Don't miss | UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | February 16 to 22, 2026— India has been seeking full membership for the last few years. In October 2023, it submitted its formal request to IEA. The issue of India’s full membership has come up in India’s bilateral discussions with the US as well.— The move to become a full member arises mainly from the desire to have a role in the decision-making process of IEA. IEA has been playing an increasingly influential role in guiding global energy policies.— While it remains the most important agency to deal with energy -related emergencies, it has also been evolving into a very useful knowledge platform for energy transitions, climate change, and clean energy technologies.— Agreeing to India’s request, however, would require IEA to amend its founding charter. IEA’s expansion till now has happened either through countries that were already OECD members or through those that joined OECD.— Since there is no inclination from India to seek OECD membership, IEA would have to either amend its eligibility criteria for members, or make an exception for India. Current deliberations suggest that an amendment to IEA’s legal framework might be on the cards. Recently, even Brazil, also a non-OECD member like India, has sought full membership of IEA.— IEA’s engagement with India has also increased significantly in recent years. It has published several India-focused reports and data. India also engaged IEA recently to do a special report on its LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment) initiative. The IEA report revealed that widespread adoption of simple lifestyle changes had the potential to avoid global emissions by as much as 2 billion tonnes by 2030.Do You Know:— India’s new Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE) initiative is an important platform that could help lower energy costs, carbon dioxide emissions, air pollution and inequalities in energy consumption.— LiFE demonstrates India’s leadership on global issues by promoting sustainable lifestyles and consumption choices worldwide. The programme could potentially help put developing and advanced economies alike onto a more sustainable path.— Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the LiFE initiative in October 2022 to nudge individual and collective action to protect the environment. This includes making informed personal choices such as using public transport more, buying electric rather than petrol or diesel vehicles, adopting energy-efficient appliances in homes, and much more.Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:Why India’s reliance on imported oil may hit fresh full-year high in FY26India’s G20 Presidency: LiFE lessons for global marketsPrevious year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:(2) ‘Global Financial Stability Report’ is prepared by the (UPSC CSE 2016)(a) European Central Bank(b) International Monetary Fund(c) International Bank for Reconstruction and Development(d) Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development(3) The Fortaleza Declaration’, recently in the news related to the affairs of (UPSC CSE 2015)(a) ASEAN(b) BRICS(c) OECD(d) WTOAI Summit: India makes string start, yet to arriveSyllabus:Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.Mains Examination: General Studies-II, III: Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate; Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.What’s the ongoing story: New Delhi wrapped up the India AI Impact Summit 2026 on February 21, with its organisers billing it as the world’s “largest and most historic” AI summit.Key Points to Ponder:— What is Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its application?— Know the key highlights of the New Delhi Declaration on AI Impact.— What do you understand from sovereign AI?— What are the opportunities and challenges posed by AI?— What are the initiatives taken by India to integrate AI?— Read about the Sarvam AI.— What are the challenges faced by the developing countries as the world is embracing the impact of AI?Key Takeaways:— The summit achieved real diplomatic heft, but exposed the limits of both India’s AI ambitions and its capacity to host an event of this scale.— The summit positioned New Delhi as a convening power in global AI governance discussions, producing a declaration with broader country sign-on than any previous summit in the series. It brought together the most prominent names in AI under one roof and generated large investment commitments.— But at the same time, the summit’s voluntary framework, the logistical difficulties that inconvenienced ordinary visitors and delegates alike, and some embarrassments around domestic AI claims all point to the gap between India’s ambitions and its present reality.— The headline outcome of the summit was the New Delhi Declaration on AI Impact, which was endorsed by 88 countries and international organisations, including the US, China, Russia, the UK, France, and a wide range of developing nations.— That count comfortably exceeded the 61 signatories at the previous Paris AI Action Summit in February 2025, something that India’s IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw was quick to point out. —The declaration’s substance, however, is more measured. It lays out a shared vision for collaborative, trusted, and inclusive AI. The commitments, though, are voluntary, with no enforcement mechanism.— When the UK government organised the first summit in this series, at Bletchley Park in November 2023, the explicit mandate was narrow and serious: to build shared understanding of the risks posed by frontier AI models and to begin coordinating government responses to those risks.— The Seoul summit in May 2024 carried that thread forward. But, by the time France hosted the third summit in Paris in February 2025, the momentum had already begun to dissipate. The emphasis in Paris shifted to boosting the AI sector and setting aside safety concerns — a far cry from Bletchley’s founding spirit.ALSO READ | UPSC Essentials | Daily subject-wise quiz on History and Culture : Can you pass this Prelims challenge? (week 146)— India inherited and deepened this trajectory. Delhi’s pitch centred on inclusion, economic opportunity, and investment. The result was an event that functioned far more as an AI trade expo than a governance forum. Investment pledges, product launches, bilateral partnerships, and CEO appearances dominated the programme.— Governance, in the sense that Bletchley had originally intended — risk thresholds, safety standards, coordinated oversight of frontier models — was barely on the agenda. What was on the agenda was who gets to build AI, who gets to deploy it, and who gets to profit from it.— One of the summit’s more substantive domestic moments came from Sarvam AI, the Indian startup that announced it had trained a 30-billion-parameter model and a 105-billion-parameter model from scratch using a mixture-of-experts architecture.— The models, designed with multilingual Indian-language capability, represent a meaningful step for India’s homegrown AI development.— It was not, by most accounts, a DeepSeek-scale disruption– but it was a credible demonstration that India can build at some level of the AI stack.From the Ideas Page: From Panini to AI stack: Delhi is forging new structures, rewriting frameworks— Hardeep S Puri writes- “When Panini reduced the chaos of spoken language into a compact, computable grammar, he proved something that still holds: Intelligence is most powerful when it is expressed as structure. Nalanda took that instinct to institutions, building methods to debate, preserve, and transmit knowledge across borders. India’s decision to host the India AI Impact Summit 2026 draws from the same civilisational impulse, because the next leap in technology is about systems that can learn, reason, and act at scale, and the world cannot afford a future in which only a few capitals decide how those systems are built.”— “This was the first global AI summit hosted by a Global South nation, and no previous edition drew participation at this scale: Over 20 heads of state, 60 ministers, more than 500 AI leaders from over 100 countries, 300 exhibitors across 10 thematic pavilions.”— “That idea finds its sharpest expression in the PM’s MANAV vision: Ethical guardrails, accountable governance, sovereignty over data so that the raw material of intelligence is not extracted the way commodities once were, broad access so that benefits reach a farmer in Madhya Pradesh as surely as an engineer in Bengaluru, and legal validity so that every deployed system is subjected to democratic scrutiny. His formulation about giving AI an open sky while keeping command in human hands draws a line many advanced economies have been reluctant to draw.”— “Those principles now carry multilateral weight through the Delhi Declaration, adopted at the summit and already being called the first major AI governance blueprint from the Global South; taking a development-oriented view, anchored in a techno-legal approach that favours flexible guardrails over rigid compliance. It organises global collaboration around three pillars: People, planet, and progress.”— “What gives that framework credibility is the decade of execution that precedes it. This government arrived at AI through the most ambitious digital public infrastructure programme any democracy has undertaken.”Do You Know:— Artificial Intelligence is the ability of machines, especially computers, to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence. These tasks include things like understanding language, recognising patterns, solving problems, and making decisions.Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:India pitch: Democratising AI, respecting sovereigntyKnowledge Nugget | AI Impact Summit 2026 and beyond: What are the must-know AI-related initiatives of India?Artificial intelligence’s larger promise—together, let’s keep itPrevious year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:(4) 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 Mains 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) POLITICSRajaji set example of mental decolonisation: PresidentSyllabus:Preliminary Examination: Current events of national importance, History of India & Indian National Movement.Mains Examination: General Studies-I: Modern Indian history from about the middle of the eighteenth century until the present- significant events, personalities, issues.What’s the ongoing story: As part of its “series of steps towards shedding the vestiges of colonial mindset and embracing India’s heritage”, President Droupadi Murmu on Monday unveiled the bust of freedom fighter and the first and only Indian governor general of independent India, C Rajagopalachari, at the grand open staircase near Ashok Mandap at Rashtrapati Bhavan, which will replace the bust of Edwin Lutyens, the architect of New Delhi.Key Points to Ponder:— Who was Edwin Lutyens?— Read about the evolution of European architecture.— Know the contribution of C. Rajagopalachari in India’s freedom struggle.— How can architecture be used as a tool for cultural assertion and nation-building?— What is the significance of renaming institutions and replacing colonial symbols in independent India?— What is Granth Kutir?— Read about the Swatantra Party.Key Takeaways:— During the event, Murmu said that Rajaji, after arriving at the then Government House, placed portraits of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Mahatma Gandhi in his room, thus setting an inspiring example of “mental decolonisation”. “Rajaji sent a clear message that while India was formally still a Dominion, Swaraj had been fully established in the hearts of Indians.” Lutyens, along with Herbert Baker, had designed the estate in the 1920s.— During his Mann ki Baat address on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the move and described it as a measure towards freedom from the mentality of slavery— a call he had given from the Red Fort.— Exactly a month ago, on January 23, speeches of Lord Curzon and original works of William Hogarth at the Rashtrapati Bhawan library gave away to Puranas, Vedas, Upanishads and several other ancient manuscripts and books covering Indian epics and philosophy. These were among 2,300 books and manuscripts — in 11 classical languages — that now form part of Granth Kutir, the library at the Rashtrapati Bhawan.— ’Granth Kutir’ is part of the Rashtrapati Bhavan’s measure to shed vestiges of colonial past and create a dedicated space for the 2,300 books and manuscripts, said a statement by the President’s office.— In the same month, the portraits of British ADC were replaced by 21 portraits of Param Vir Chakra awardees, highest military honour, for the Param Vir Dirgha gallery.ALSO READ | UPSC Essentials | Mains answer practice — GS 3 : Questions on AI in healthcare and Exchange Traded Funds (Week 143)— Last July, President Murmu had announced the renaming of two of the most important halls of Rashtrapati Bhavan — Durbar Hall and Ashok Hall to Ganatantra Mandap and Ashok Mandap, respectively. This, according to a statement by Rashtrapati Bhavan, is “to make the ambience of the Rashtrapati Bhavan reflective of the Indian cultural value and ethos”.— Important ceremonies and celebrations such as the presentation of national awards are held at the Durbar Hall while the Ashok Hall, originally a ballroom, is now the venue for special events.In January 2024, a day before the Mughal Gardens was to open to the public for the season, the Rashtrapati Bhavan announced that it was giving it “a common name” of ‘Amrit Udyan’. Spread over 15 acres, the grounds drew their name from being laid out in the style of gardens built by the Mughals in Jammu & Kashmir.Do You Know:— Born in London in 1869, Edwin Lutyens was a prominent British architect who designed large parts of New Delhi. He was engaged to design prominent buildings of the city in 1912, after the capital was shifted from Kolkata to New Delhi. This included Rashtrapati Bhavan, India Gate, North Block and South Block. He also designed the Cenotaph in London and was knighted in 1918.Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:Knowledge Nugget | Rajagopalachari installed, Lutyens removed: What you need to know about both personalitiesProponent of temple entry, critic of Hindi policy: Story of C. Rajagopalachari, with new statue in Rashtrapati BhavanUPSC Prelims Practice Question Covering similar theme:(5) With reference to C.Rajagopalachari, consider the following statements:1. He was the first and only Indian Governor-General of independent India.2. He led the Salt Satyagraha march in Madras Province from Tiruchi to Vedaranyam.3. He founded the Swatantra Party, which advocated a market-oriented economy.4. He was awarded ‘Bharat Ratna’ in 1954Which of the statements given above are correct?(a) 1 and 2 only(b) 1, 2 and 3 only(c) 2, 3 and 4 only(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4 ECONOMYUS trade deal: Why a clause offers India some wriggle roomSyllabus:Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importanceMains Examination: General Studies-II: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests, Indian diaspora.What’s the ongoing story: Indian trade negotiators, headed to Washington, DC, for three-day talks starting Monday to finalise the legal text of the India-US trade agreement struck earlier this month, had to literally abort their trip as New Delhi pushed for rescheduling these discussions.Key Points to Ponder:— What is the significance of the US economy for India?— How does the reciprocal tariff from the US impact the Indian economy?— What steps were taken by the Indian government to overcome the impact?— What does the Economic Survey 2026 say about this?— What steps need to be taken in the future to be ready for such a situation?— What were the key highlights of the interim trade deal signed between India and the USA?— Why did the US Supreme Court strike down Trump’s global tariffs?— Know about the Section 122 as invoked by TrumpKey Takeaways:— The US has signed framework agreements with nearly 20 trade partners, and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer was at pains to assert that all these 20-odd trade deals stand as negotiated.— But for India, there is sufficient wriggle room: One, India’s deal is still very much under negotiation and the two countries have only reached a framework for an Interim Agreement; two, and more importantly, clause 8 in the Framework for an Interim Agreement says: “In the event of any changes to the agreed upon tariffs of either country, the United States and India agree that the other country may modify its commitments.”— This clause, an insertion from the Indian side given the multiple legal challenges to Trump’s tariffs, could now provide some space for India to recalibrate the tariff and non-tariff concessions from its side, while keeping the American side engaged on thrashing out a meaningfully balanced trade deal.— After the US Supreme Court ruled that President Donald Trump overstepped his powers by imposing sweeping tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), India can potentially invoke that specific clause to say that America’s commitment now stands “modified”. The earlier 18% “concessional” tariff offered by the Trump administration under IEEPA is now replaced with a flat 15% tariff for all of America’s trading partners.— The 15% announced Saturday is the maximum allowed under a never-used American trade law (under Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act). Also, this 15% is temporary, given that the provision only allows the new tariffs to stay in place for around five months (150 days). After that, the American government must seek US Congressional approval. So, the uncertainties persist.— Even the flat 15% that the US administration has now imposed under Section 122 is open to legal challenge, because the administration has to prove balance of payments-related challenges for America as a justification to do so.— Also, now for any tariff deal to be inked by a trade partner, this new 15% uniform rate becomes the baseline scenario. So, for any preferential access or concessions offered by trade partners, the tariff for access to the US market has to be lower than this uniform rate.— From India’s perspective, it would be important to watch where the Chinese trade deal is headed. A White House official said that US President Donald Trump is set to visit China from March 31 to April 2 this year, with trade talks on the anvil. Any decision on the India talks would be likely with this visit looming in the horizon.Do You Know:— Trump’s choice of Section 122 marks yet another use of an instrument associated with Richard Nixon to pressure American trading partners. In 1971, Nixon invoked the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917 (TWEA) to briefly impose a 10% tariff on all imports, while the US struggled to resolve its balance-of-payments crisis with the collapse of the fixed exchange rate system. Trump has cited this precedent as a rationale for his tariffs under the IEEPA, which succeeded the TWEA.— Nixon’s next action was enacting Section 122, which directs the President to take measures, including imposing a temporary import surcharge, or tariff, when necessary to address “large and serious United States balance-of-payments deficits” or certain other situations that present “fundamental international payments problems.”Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:Despite top court blow, US trade drama far from overWhat are Section 122 tariffs and how will they differ from Trump’s earlier tariffs?Previous year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:‘What introduces friction into the ties between India and the United States is that Washington is still unable to find for India a position in its global strategy, which would satisfy India’s National self-esteem and ambitions’. Explain with suitable examples. (UPSC CSE 2019)ALSO IN NEWSPM Modi’s call for organ donation highlights India’s deceased donors challengeIn the latest episode of ‘Mann Ki Baat’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi narrated stories of 10-month-old Aalin Sherin Abraham whose family decided to donate her organs.In fact, the country saw its highest number of transplants using organs from deceased donors in 2024 — the last year for which data is available. There was an increase of 16% in the number of such transplants as compared to the previous years, taking the total number to 3,403, according to data from the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO).The national regulator NOTTO has been implementing several measures to increase organ donation and transplants such as doing away with the requirement to register in the domicile state or age limit for receiving an organ. It is also working on creating a national portal and a uniform policy for allocation of organs, ensuring greater transparency and reducing wastage of organs through coordination with the national network.Kingfisher jingle gets ‘sound mark’ tag: The process, the litmus testA brand doesn’t always speak through a logo. Sometimes, it rings. Kingfisher’s iconic jingle “Oo la la la le o” secured a sound mark registration earlier this month.A sound mark is a non-conventional trademark in which a sound functions as a source identifier. Instead of words, symbols or designs, it is an audio signal that tells the consumer who is behind a particular product or a service. If anyone associates it with one commercial source, it may qualify for registration.FM Sitharaman launches NMP 2.0, Rs 16.72 lakh crore of asset monetisation seen by 2030Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday launched the National Monetisation Pipeline 2.0 (NMP 2.0), with proceeds from asset monetisation seen at Rs 16.72 lakh crore over the five years that started April 2025. Developed by the Niti Aayog, the government’s top think-tank, the second phase of the pipeline is based on the mandate for ‘Asset Monetisation Plan 2025-30’ announced in the Union Budget for 2025-26 last year, but exceeds the figure of Rs 10 lakh crore that was then mentioned.India’s new federal compact must be based on principle of non-dominationYogendra Yadav writes: Tamil Nadu must be thanked for restarting a badly needed conversation on Indian federalism. Following the precedent of the Rajamannar Committee (1969–71) which made a case for state autonomy in an era when no one spoke about it, the Tamil Nadu government last year appointed a High-Level Committee on Union-State Relations. Chaired by Justice (retd) Kurian Joseph, the three-member committee (with retired IAS officer K Ashok Vardhan Shetty and professor M Naganathan) has just submitted a report that deserves to be read and debated by anyone interested in the future of Indian federalism. It does not merely reiterate or update earlier suggestions, but takes the discussion forward with a set of concrete proposals on improving the constitutional design of federalism.To put it simply, the report is a plea for a fresh federal compact or a “structural reset” of Indian federalism…. In this context, the report makes a case that a federation “that trusts its states, respects subsidiarity, empowers local governments, and accommodates heterogeneity does not weaken sovereignty; it deepens democracy. Unity in such a system is sustained not by command but by consent, not by enforced uniformity but by negotiated accommodation, and not by the concentration of power but by its principled distribution.” PRELIMS ANSWER KEY1. (a) 2. (b) 3. (b) 4. (b) 5. (d)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. Click Here to read the UPSC Essentials magazine for February 2026. Share your views and suggestions in the comment box or at manas.srivastava@indianexpress.com