The UPSC Daily Chronicle

KALAMKARI TEXTILE ART: SRIKALAHASTI PEN-WORK VS MACHILIPATNAM BLOCK-PRINT & ORGANIC MORDANT CHEMISTRY

Context & Analysis: The Development Commissioner for Handicrafts has initiated a revival campaign for traditional natural-dye artisan clusters in Andhra Pradesh, spotlighting the two distinct Geographical Indication (GI) traditions of Kalamkari. Derived from the Persian words kalam (pen) and kari (craftsmanship), Kalamkari evolved under the patronage of the Vijayanagara Empire and the Golconda Sultanate. The art form is divided into two prominent stylistic lineages: the Srikalahasti style, centered around the temple town in Tirupati district, and the Machilipatnam style, located in Krishna district. Srikalahasti Kalamkari relies entirely on freehand drawing with a sharp-pointed bamboo or date-palm reed pen (*kalam* wrapped in wool), depicting temple narrative scrolls, epics (Ramayana, Mahabharata), and Shaivite motifs. In contrast, Machilipatnam Kalamkari employs hand-carved wooden relief blocks influenced by Persian florals, arabesques, and Dutch trade cloth designs.

SISTER NIVEDITA (MARGARET NOBLE): WOMEN'S EDUCATION, SWADESHI SCIENTIFIC PATRONAGE & THE VAJRA EMBLEM

Context & Analysis: Commemorating the birth anniversary of Sister Nivedita (Margaret Elizabeth Noble; 28 October 1867 – 13 October 1911), historians are reassessing her multidimensional contributions to the Indian freedom struggle, indigenous science, and social welfare. An Anglo-Irish disciple initiated into Brahmacharya by Swami Vivekananda in 1898 (who gave her the name Nivedita, meaning "Dedicated to God"), she established the first girls' school in Bosepara Lane (Baghbazar, Calcutta) to educate child widows and girls from orthodox households. During the devastating 1899 Calcutta plague, she organized grassroots sanitization corps alongside the Ramakrishna Mission. Beyond social reform, she provided critical financial and intellectual patronage to pioneering biophysicist Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose, defending his plant neurobiology research against colonial academic gatekeeping, and financially supported revolutionary national societies including the Anushilan Samiti.

ZOJILA PASS & 14.15-KM TUNNEL: GREAT HIMALAYAN OROGRAPHY, AVALANCHE DYNAMICS & LEH STRATEGIC CORRIDOR

Context & Analysis: The National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) and the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) have accelerated structural tunneling works on the Zojila Tunnel, which upon commissioning will become Asia’s longest bi-directional road tunnel at high altitude. Situated on the Srinagar–Kargil–Leh highway (National Highway 1) at an elevation of 11,578 feet (3,528 m) in the Great Himalayan Range, the Zojila Pass is historically severed for five to six months every winter due to heavy blizzards, massive avalanches, and severe icing, cutting off Ladakh from the rest of the nation. The 14.15-km single-tube horseshoe tunnel connects Baltal in the Kashmir Valley directly to Minamarg in Drass (Ladakh), reducing travel time across the treacherous pass from over 3.5 hours to merely 15 minutes, ensuring 365-day strategic military mobilization and civil supply security.

ARTICLE 200 & GUBERNATORIAL ASSENT: JUDICIAL RESTRAINTS ON POCKET VETO & THE FIRST PROVISO

Context & Analysis: Constitutional friction between elected State Governments and Governors over prolonged delays in granting assent to legislative bills has brought renewed judicial clarity to Article 200 of the Indian Constitution. When a bill is passed by a State Legislative Assembly, Article 200 outlines four constitutional pathways for the Governor: (1) grant assent, (2) declare that assent is withheld, (3) reserve the bill for the consideration of the President (governed by Article 201), or (4) return the bill (if not a Money Bill) with a message recommending reconsideration. In landmark judgments (*State of Punjab v. Principal Secretary to Governor, 2023* and *State of Tamil Nadu v. Governor, 2024*), the Supreme Court ruled that the constitutional phrase "as soon as possible" imposes an urgent constitutional duty. Crucially, a Governor cannot exercise an indefinite "pocket veto" by simply sitting on a bill; if the Governor decides to withhold assent, they are constitutionally bound by the First Proviso to Article 200 to return the bill to the legislature with reasons.

PM POSHAN SCHEME EXPANSION: BALVATIKA INTEGRATION, FORTIFIED RICE & STATUTORY SOCIAL AUDITS

Context & Analysis: The Ministry of Education has released updated operational guidelines under the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN), mandating 100% fortified rice coverage and institutionalizing mandatory district social audits across all government and government-aided schools. Revamping the erstwhile Centrally Sponsored Mid-Day Meal Scheme (launched in 1995), PM POSHAN operationalizes the right to food under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013. The scheme now covers pre-primary children (aged 3–5 years attending Balvatikas / preschools in primary schools) in addition to Class I to VIII pupils (approx. 11.8 crore children across 11.2 lakh schools). To tackle hidden hunger, anaemia, and micro-nutrient deficiencies, the scheme mandates Fortified Rice Kernels (FRK) blended with Iron, Folic Acid, and Vitamin B12, alongside the promotion of school nutritional kitchen gardens (*Poshan Vatikas*).

UNCLOS AT 30 YEARS & THE BBNJ HIGH SEAS TREATY: OCEAN ZONATION, COMMON HERITAGE & MARINE GENOMIC EQUALITY

Context & Analysis: Marking three decades since the 1994 entry into force of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), multilateral momentum has shifted toward the entry into force of the landmark BBNJ Agreement (Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction), popularly known as the High Seas Treaty. Adopted by consensus under UNCLOS in June 2023, the BBNJ Treaty is the first legally binding instrument dedicated to the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction—covering nearly two-thirds of the world's oceans. India has actively signed and advanced ratification of the BBNJ agreement, aligning it with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework's '30x30' target (protecting 30% of marine ecosystems by 2030).

DOMESTIC SYSTEMICALLY IMPORTANT BANKS (D-SIBs): RBI BUCKETING, CET-1 SURCHARGES & 'TOO BIG TO FAIL' RISKS

Context & Analysis: The Reserve Bank of India has reaffirmed the systemic classification of State Bank of India (SBI), HDFC Bank, and ICICI Bank as Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIBs) under its macroprudential regulatory framework. Stemming from the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) guidelines, D-SIBs are financial institutions perceived as "Too Big to Fail" (TBTF)—entities whose distress or disorderly collapse would trigger severe contagion across the entire domestic financial system. To prevent moral hazard and insulate taxpayers from potential sovereign bailouts, the RBI requires designated D-SIBs to maintain an Additional Common Equity Tier 1 (CET-1) capital surcharge over and above standard Basel III Capital Adequacy Ratios (CAR) and the Capital Conservation Buffer (CCB).

PULSES MISSION & NFSM STRATEGY: DYNAMIC BUFFER PROCUREMENT, RHIZOBIUM SYMBIOSIS & IMPORT SUBSTITUTION

Context & Analysis: Under the revamped National Food Security Mission (NFSM-Pulses) and PM-AASHA, the Central Government has committed to 100% procurement of Tur (Arhar / Pigeon pea), Urad (Black gram), and Masur (Lentil) registered on the e-Samridhi portal by NAFED and NCCF to achieve permanent self-sufficiency by 2027. India is simultaneously the world’s largest producer, consumer, and importer of pulses, accounting for ~25% of global output and ~27% of global consumption. While India has achieved structural self-sufficiency in Chana (Gram / Chickpea)—which constitutes over 45% of total domestic pulse production—kharif pulses (Tur and Urad) remain structurally volatile, heavily exposed to rainfed monsoon deficits (as ~84% of pulses acreage is rainfed). Beyond food security, pulses are vital restorative crops: their symbiotic root nodules harbor Rhizobium bacteria, fixing 30–150 kg of atmospheric nitrogen per hectare, restoring degraded soils and minimizing chemical urea run-off.

CRISPR-CAS9 BASE EDITING VS. PRIME EDITING: OVERCOMING DOUBLE-STRAND BREAKS & SICKLE CELL THERAPEUTICS

Context & Analysis: Under the National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission, researchers at CSIR-IGIB and DBT autonomous institutes have initiated preclinical trials evaluating Base Editing and Prime Editing—next-generation CRISPR technologies that bypass the hazardous side effects of standard gene scissors. First-generation CRISPR-Cas9 operates by creating complete Double-Strand Breaks (DSBs) in target DNA, relying on error-prone cellular repair mechanisms (Non-Homologous End Joining / NHEJ) that frequently introduce unintended insertions, deletions (indels), or chromosomal translocations. Base editing, developed by David Liu’s team, uses a catalytically impaired Cas9 nickase fused to a deaminase enzyme, directly converting one target base into another (Cytidine deaminase converts C•G into T•A; Adenine deaminase converts A•T into G•C) without cutting both DNA strands. Prime Editing advances this further, using a reverse transcriptase fused to Cas9 to write new genetic sequences directly into specified genomic loci.

SNOW LEOPARD (PANTHERA UNCIA): SPAI BASELINE, HIMALAYAN CRYOSPHERE BIODIVERSITY & THREAT MATRIX

Context & Analysis: The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has released follow-up conservation guidelines grounded in the first-ever scientific Status of Snow Leopards in India (SPAI) report coordinated by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII). Known colloquially as the "Ghost of the Mountains", the Snow Leopard (Panthera uncia) serves as an apex predator and vital bio-indicator of the health of high-altitude Himalayan cryospheric and alpine ecosystems. The rigorous nationwide camera-trapping survey covered over 70% of potential snow leopard range across Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh, establishing an estimated baseline population of 718 individuals. Ladakh harbors the vast majority of the population (477 individuals), anchored in the world-famous Hemis National Park.

COMPREHENSIVE INTEGRATED BORDER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (CIBMS): SMART FENCING, INFRA-RED SENSORS & BORDER DEFENSE

Context & Analysis: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has accelerated the deployment of the Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System (CIBMS) along vulnerable, non-feasible unfenced stretches of the India-Pakistan and India-Bangladesh international borders. Recommended by the Madhukar Gupta Committee (2016) following the Pathankot terror attack, CIBMS shifts border guarding from traditional physical patrolling to an integrated multi-tier technological surveillance matrix. Conventional physical barbed-wire fencing frequently fails in challenging topographies—such as the riverine tracts of Dhubri (Brahmaputra in Assam), the marshlands and tidal creeks of Sir Creek in the Rann of Kutch (Gujarat), and the dense undulating nullahs of the Jammu international border. CIBMS bridges these physical gaps through "smart virtual fencing".