The UPSC Daily Chronicle

DOKRA (DHOKRA) BRONZE CASTING: CIRE PERDUE LOST-WAX HERITAGE, BELL METAL METALLURGY & BASTAR CLUSTERS

Context & Analysis: TRIFED has launched an international export acceleration initiative for traditional tribal metalsmiths practicing Dokra (or Dhokra) metal casting. Traced back over 4,000 years to the iconic bronze Dancing Girl of Mohenjo-daro (Indus Valley Civilisation), Dokra is an ancient non-ferrous metal casting technique utilizing the lost-wax process (cire perdue). Practiced traditionally by nomadic metalsmiths (the Dhokra Damar tribes), major contemporary artisan clusters are concentrated in Bastar (Chhattisgarh), Bikna and Daryapur (West Bengal), Mayurbhanj and Rayagada (Odisha), and Adilabad (Telangana). The process begins with a clay core model, wrapped in fine threads of pure beeswax mixed with resin (damar) and nut oil, encased in outer layers of clay mixed with river silt and rice husk. Molten brass, bronze, or scrap bell metal is poured into channels, melting and displacing the wax to form intricate, one-of-a-kind rustic artifacts.

DR. HOMI JEHANGIR BHABHA: ARCHITECT OF INDIA'S 3-STAGE NUCLEAR ROADMAP, TIFR & ATOMIC SOVEREIGNTY

Context & Analysis: On the birth anniversary of Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha (30 October 1909 – 24 January 1966), the scientific fraternity is commemorating the foundational visionary who established India's atomic sovereignty and indigenous institutional complex. Internationally acclaimed in theoretical quantum electrodynamics for discovering Bhabha Scattering (electron-positron scattering cross-section), Bhabha returned to India in 1939 and persuaded J.R.D. Tata and the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust to establish the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in 1945. Recognizing India’s acute resource asymmetry—possessing modest domestic reserves of natural Uranium (U-238) but hosting roughly 25% of the world's Thorium (Th-232) in coastal monazite beach sands of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Odisha—Bhabha formulated India’s sequential Three-Stage Nuclear Power Programme to achieve self-reliance.

WESTERN GHATS (SAHYADRI) ECO-SENSITIVE AREAS: GADGIL VS KASTURIRANGAN FRAMEWORKS & OROGRAPHIC INSTABILITY

Context & Analysis: Following repeated catastrophic monsoon slope failures across the Sahyadri ranges (notably in Wayanad and the Konkan belt), the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has re-issued draft notifications to designate 56,825 sq km of the Western Ghats across six states (Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu) as an Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) under Section 3 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. Recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the world’s eight 'hottest biodiversity hotspots', the Western Ghats represent a high-relief fault-scarp formed during the rifting of Greater India from Madagascar. The persistent policy stalemate stems from conflicting expert committee recommendations: the Madhav Gadgil Committee (WGEEP, 2011), which recommended classifying 100% of the Western Ghats into three graded Ecologically Sensitive Zones (ESZ-1, 2, 3), versus the Kasturirangan Committee (HLWG, 2013), which demarcated only 37% of the total geographic area as ESA.

'DIGITAL ARREST' CYBER FRAUD: ARTICLE 21 PROCEDURAL DUE PROCESS, STATUTORY ARREST NORMS & I4C COUNTERMEASURES

Context & Analysis: Following nationwide advisories issued by the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), legal scholars and law enforcement agencies have underscored that no concept of "Digital Arrest" exists in Indian law. Organized transnational cyber syndicates operating from Southeast Asia have orchestrated systemic intimidation scams—confining victims in their homes via video calls under the false pretense of "virtual arrest" by impersonating police, CBI, ED, narcotics, or judicial officers, coercing them into liquidating bank deposits. Under the Indian constitutional framework, depriving any person of liberty must strictly conform to "Procedure Established by Law" under Article 21 and statutory safeguards under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023 / CrPC, reinforced by the Supreme Court’s landmark guidelines in D.K. Basu v. State of West Bengal (1997) and Arnesh Kumar (2014).

PRADHAN MANTRI AWAS YOJANA - URBAN 2.0: ₹10 LAKH CRORE OUTLAY, 4 STRUCTURAL VERTICALS & WOMEN TITLE MANDATES

Context & Analysis: The Union Cabinet has rolled out the operational guidelines for Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Urban 2.0 (PMAY-U 2.0), sanctioning a total investment of ₹10 lakh crore (with Central assistance of ₹2.30 lakh crore) to build 1 crore affordable pucca homes for urban poor and middle-class families over five years (2024–2029). Building on PMAY-U 1.0 (launched in 2015), the expanded scheme targets Economically Weaker Section (EWS; annual income up to ₹3 lakh), Lower Income Group (LIG; income ₹3–6 lakh), and Middle Income Group (MIG; income ₹6–9 lakh) segments. To guarantee social equity and women's empowerment, the scheme statutorily mandates that houses constructed or acquired under PMAY-U must be registered in the name of the female head of the family or in joint ownership with the spouse.

INDIA-CENTRAL ASIA CONNECTIVITY: ASHGABAT AGREEMENT, CHABAHAR-INSTC INTEGRATION & STRATEGIC ACCESS

Context & Analysis: High-level diplomatic consultations under the India–Central Asia Dialogue framework have accelerated efforts to operationalize multimodal transit routes linking India to the resource-rich, landlocked Central Asian Republics (CARs: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan). Denied direct overland transit across Pakistan, India has strategically anchored its continental access in the Ashgabat Agreement (which India acceded to in 2018) and the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) via Iran's Chabahar Port (Shahid Beheshti terminal). The Ashgabat Agreement establishes an international multimodal transit corridor connecting Central Asia with the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea, harmonizing customs protocols and rail-sea freight transit. Central Asia is pivotal to India's energy security, holding major uranium reserves (Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan provide long-term uranium fuel supplies for Indian civil nuclear reactors under IAEA safeguards) and vast hydrocarbon basins.

SEBI TIGHTENS INDEX DERIVATIVES (F&O) NORMS: CONTRACT SCALING, SPECULATIVE CURBS & RETAIL CAPITAL PROTECTION

Context & Analysis: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has finalized a comprehensive regulatory framework to curb hyper-speculative retail trading in equity index futures and options (F&O). Empirical studies conducted by SEBI revealed that over 93% of individual retail traders incurred net trading losses in the F&O segment between FY22 and FY24, accumulating an aggregate net loss exceeding ₹1.81 lakh crore. Unchecked speculative capital diversion from productive capital formation into zero-sum derivative gambling poses systemic macroprudential risks to household savings. To protect retail investors, SEBI has implemented structural friction: scaling up the minimum contract trading size from ₹5 lakh to ₹15–20 lakh, mandating upfront collection of option premiums from buyers, rationalizing weekly index expiry contracts to only one benchmark index per exchange, and removing the calendar spread margin benefit on expiry days.

MILLETS (SHREE ANNA) IN RAINFED AGRONOMY: C4 PHOTOSYNTHETIC PATHWAY, NUTRITIONAL SECURITY & TPDS EXPANSION

Context & Analysis: Building on the momentum of the International Year of Millets (IYM), the Ministry of Agriculture and state departments are expanding the institutional procurement and inclusion of Millets (Shree Anna / Nutri-Cereals) into the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) and PM POSHAN. Millets are ancient, small-seeded warm-season grasses cultivated predominantly across dryland and marginal ecologies. Botanically, millets belong to the C4 photosynthetic plant category, giving them superior water-use efficiency (WUE), photo-respiratory suppression, and the biochemical capacity to synthesize biomass under extreme temperatures (exceeding 42°C) and water deficits. Cultivating one kilogram of rice requires roughly 3,000 to 5,000 liters of water, whereas millets require merely 250 to 350 liters. Furthermore, millets are nutritionally dense, exhibiting low Glycemic Indices (GI), high dietary fiber, iron, calcium (exceptionally high in Ragi), and gluten-free protein.

PEROVSKITE SOLAR CELLS & TANDEM PHOTOVOLTAICS: SURPASSING THE SHOCKLEY-QUEISSER LIMIT

Context & Analysis: Under the National Solar Mission and R&D grants from the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Indian academic and industrial laboratories are benchmarking pilot production lines for Perovskite-Silicon Tandem Solar Cells. Named after the Russian mineralogist L.A. Perovski, 'perovskite' describes any material sharing the same distinctive crystallographic structure as calcium titanate (ABX3, where A and B are cations and X is an anion). Conventional single-junction silicon solar cells, which dominate over 95% of the commercial photovoltaic market, face a hard thermodynamic efficiency ceiling—the Shockley-Queisser Limit (~29.4% for silicon)—because silicon can only absorb a specific portion of the solar spectrum. In tandem architectures, a perovskite top cell absorbs high-energy blue/green photons while a silicon bottom cell absorbs low-energy red/infrared photons, pushing lab power conversion efficiencies beyond 33.9%.

OLIVE RIDLEY TURTLES (LEPIDOCHELYS OLIVACEA): ODISHA ARRIBADA ECOLOGY, OPERATION OLIVIA & TED COMPLIANCE

Context & Analysis: Ahead of the winter mass nesting season, the Odisha Forest Department, Department of Fisheries, and the Indian Coast Guard have operationalized Operation Olivia, enforcing a 7-month ban on mechanized sea fishing within 20 km of the Odisha coastline to protect the annual congregation of Olive Ridley Sea Turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea). The Olive Ridley is the most abundant sea turtle in the world, renowned for its spectacular synchronized mass nesting phenomenon known as Arribada (Spanish for "arrival"), where hundreds of thousands of gravid females emerge simultaneously on beaches under the cover of night to lay eggs. The coastal beaches of Odisha host the world’s largest rookery, anchored by three major nesting sites: the Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary, the mouth of the Rushikulya River, and the mouth of the Devi River.

HEAT ACTION PLANS (HAPs): IMD HEATWAVE THRESHOLDS, WET-BULB DYNAMICS & URBAN HEAT ISLANDS

Context & Analysis: Under climate adaptation directives, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has updated guidelines for institutionalizing city-level and district-level Heat Action Plans (HAPs). First pioneered by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation in 2013 following a catastrophic heatwave, HAPs represent comprehensive disaster response frameworks establishing inter-agency early warning protocols, cool-roof public works, and adaptive labor schedules. Driven by anthropogenic greenhouse warming and the compounding Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, heatwaves are no longer isolated meteorological anomalies but severe public health hazards. Biometeorologically, human survivability is governed by the Wet-Bulb Temperature (combining dry ambient heat with relative humidity); a sustained wet-bulb temperature exceeding 35°C represents the physiological threshold beyond which the human body can no longer cool itself through sweating, leading to fatal heatstroke even in shaded, well-ventilated environments.