Context

• For decades, India approached West Asia through strategic caution, economic pragmatism and diplomatic balancing.
• The region was primarily a source of crude oil, employment and remittances, while New Delhi maintained relations with competing powers such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Israel and the UAE.
• This policy of multi-alignment allowed India to maximise economic benefits without becoming involved in regional conflicts, however, West Asia’s geopolitical environment is changing rapidly.
• The changing American role, emerging regional security arrangements and growing threats to trade routes require India to reconsider its traditional approach. Economic influence alone can no longer guarantee strategic relevance.

What Worked Until Now?

• India’s policy was based on maintaining friendly relations with all major regional powers without becoming excessively dependent on any one of them.
• This enabled cooperation with Saudi Arabia, Iran, Israel and the UAE despite their rivalries.
• West Asia offered enormous economic opportunities because of its oil and gas resources, accumulated capital, strategic geography and demand for foreign labour.
• Millions of Indians working in the Gulf strengthened people-to-people ties, while remittances contributed significantly to India’s economy.
• This approach also benefited from the United States acting as the principal security guarantor of the region.
• American military power helped protect maritime routes and maintain regional stability, allowing India to concentrate largely on commerce and diplomacy.
• That foundation is now weakening. As Washington adopts a more selective approach to global commitments, West Asian countries are seeking alternative and dependable security partners.

A Changing Regional Security Architecture

• The emergence of the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement involving Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan demonstrates the changing regional security environment.
• Such arrangements can combine Gulf financial strength, Turkish defence technology and Pakistani military expertise, creating new strategic configurations close to India’s western maritime neighbourhood.
• West Asian countries increasingly expect partners to provide tangible security capabilities rather than diplomatic assurances.
• This weakens the strategic value of maintaining distance from regional security arrangements.
• For India, the development is significant because the region is vital to its energy security, trade routes, diaspora and maritime interests. New Delhi must therefore reconsider whether traditional multi-alignment remains sufficient.

Why Economic Ties Alone Are Insufficient?

• Economic relationships cannot protect infrastructure from drones, asymmetric warfare, terrorism and maritime disruption.
• Ports, energy facilities and logistics corridors can remain vulnerable despite massive technological investment.
• The Gulf’s economic model also depends heavily on foreign companies and expatriate workers.
• Prolonged insecurity can damage investor confidence, encourage capital flight and reduce the attractiveness of the region.
• Disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz, Gulf of Aden and Bab-el-Mandab can affect energy supplies and global trade.
• For India, instability directly threatens commercial interests and the welfare of its large Gulf diaspora.

The Strategic Gap Facing India

• India’s dependence on transactional diplomacy is becoming a weakness.
• High-level visits, investment agreements, energy contracts and diaspora diplomacy remain valuable but cannot replace naval protection, intelligence cooperation and strategic deterrence.
• Regional powers increasingly seek defence cooperation, intelligence sharing, counter-terrorism capabilities and maritime security. If India remains hesitant, other powers will fill the strategic vacuum.

The Hard Moves India Must Make

• India should evolve from a beneficiary of regional stability into an active contributor to security.
• It should expand maritime cooperation across the Strait of Hormuz, Gulf of Oman, Gulf of Aden, Somali waters and Bab-el-Mandab.
• This requires joint naval patrols, logistics access, maritime surveillance and information-sharing networks with friendly regional states.
• India should also use its expanding defence manufacturing ecosystem to offer West Asian countries alternatives in military technology.
• Joint production, military exercises, defence research and technology partnerships should complement arms sales.
• Flexible minilateral security partnerships with the UAE, Israel and Saudi Arabia can create a strategic deterrence network without forcing India into rigid military alliances.
• Greater intelligence and counter-terrorism cooperation would further strengthen regional security.

Balancing Ambition with Strategic Autonomy

• India must increase its security role without becoming entangled in West Asian conflicts.
• Strategic engagement should therefore focus on maritime security, deterrence, intelligence and protection of economic interests, rather than permanent military intervention.
• Such an approach would preserve strategic autonomy while giving India greater influence over developments that directly affect its national interests. 

Conclusion

• India’s traditional West Asia policy succeeded because it matched the geopolitical conditions of its time.
• However, the changing American role, emerging security partnerships and growing threats to critical infrastructure have made passive diplomacy increasingly inadequate.
• India needs a new balance between economic engagement and security responsibility.
• Stronger naval capabilities, defence partnerships, intelligence networks and flexible minilateral arrangements can help protect its energy supplies, trade routes and diaspora.
• The objective should not be unnecessary military intervention but the creation of sufficient strategic capacity to safeguard Indian interests.
• India must evolve from being merely an economic partner to becoming an active and credible security stakeholder in West Asia.

Why in news?

The Union government has deferred the 2027 Census in Manipur, following demands that a National Register of Citizens (NRC) be conducted first. While Meitei and Naga groups support this demand, Kuki-Zo groups strongly oppose it.

Understanding this dispute requires unpacking three interlinked issues: citizenship, displacement, and political representation.

What’s in Today’s Article?

• Why Is the Census Being Opposed?
• Is the NRC Demand New?
• The Myanmar Factor
• What Do Kuki-Zo Groups Say?
• Why Delimitation Is the Real Stakes?
• Can Manipur Have Its Own NRC?
• Alternative Tools Being Used

Why Is the Census Being Opposed?

• Citizenship and demographic change: Civil society groups in both the valley and Naga-dominated hill districts allege that migration from Myanmar has altered Manipur's population composition.
  • They want an exercise to distinguish citizens from illegal immigrants before population is recorded.
• Displacement from ethnic conflict: More than three years after violence began in May 2023, thousands remain displaced. Meitei groups argue a Census conducted now would capture displacement patterns rather than the state's real population.
  • Hence, the Meitei Alliance wants Census delayed until displaced people return home.
• Political representation: Census figures feed into delimitation, and Manipur hasn't had fresh delimitation since the 1970s. This gap means new figures could significantly alter Assembly seat equations.

Is the NRC Demand New?

• In June 2022, the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) and the United Naga Council (UNC) jointly demanded an NRC and State Population Commission.
• The Manipur Assembly adopted a resolution seeking both on August 5, 2022, reaffirmed on March 1, 2024.
• The resolution cited hill district population growth of 153.3% (1971-2001) and 250.9% (2001-2011), compared to 94.8% and 125.4% in the valley — though these figures alone don't prove illegal immigration.
• The then government set up the Manipur State Population Commission in February 2023 to identify "illegal immigrants".

The Myanmar Factor

• The 2021 military coup in Myanmar triggered fighting in Chin State, driving thousands into India — many with ethnic ties to Manipur's Kuki-Zomi population.
• The state government linked this influx to new settlements, poppy cultivation and encroachment.
• Kuki organisations disputed this, saying legitimate Indian citizens were being wrongly conflated with recent arrivals.
• In February 2024, the Centre scrapped the Free Movement Regime with Myanmar over security and demographic concerns.
• Various groups of Manipur have explicitly tied the demand to Census and delimitation, declaring: "NRC first: No Census, No Delimitation Before Implementation of NRC in Manipur," demanding NRC with 1951 as base year.

What Do Kuki-Zo Groups Say?

• The Kuki-Zo Council (KZC) holds the opposite position, calling a pre-Census NRC "premature and unjustified." Its arguments:
  • NRC is a national exercise — no state or community can unilaterally initiate a separate NRC.
  • Allegations against the Kuki-Zo community are largely unsubstantiated and should be tested against credible Census data, not the reverse.
  • Since Kuki, Zomi and Chin communities straddle the India-Myanmar border, an NRC using an old documentary cut-off could wrongly implicate families that have lived in Manipur for generations.
  • KZC supports delimitation, but only based on verified demographic data.

Why Delimitation Is the Real Stakes?

• Manipur has 60 Assembly seats: 40 in the valley (Meitei-dominated) and 20 in the hills (Naga and Kuki-Zomi).
• The current map dates to 1973 delimitation, based on the 1971 Census.
• Manipur was excluded from the 2002-2008 national delimitation exercise (along with Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland) due to security concerns and disputes over 2001 Census credibility.
• The 2001 Census showed some hill subdivisions growing over 100% between 1991-2001, fuelling controversy.
• Fear in valley political circles: fresh delimitation could shift the 40:20 split toward 35:25 or even 30:30, reducing the valley's political advantage.

Can Manipur Have Its Own NRC?

• A nationwide NRC is typically expected to follow updating of the National Population Register (NPR) — but NPR hasn't been notified for the 2027 Census.
• However, there's no legal bar on a state-specific NRC: under Section 14A of the Citizenship Act, 1955, the Centre holds power to maintain the National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC), with no requirement for simultaneous nationwide rollout.
• Ultimately, this remains a political decision.

Alternative Tools Being Used

• Instead of (or alongside) NRC, the Centre has other mechanisms:
  • A High-Level Committee on Demographic Change (announced May 2026) to study illegal immigration-driven demographic shifts;
  • Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls — already excluded around 7% of voters in Manipur at the draft stage;
  • Tighter border management, biometric registration of migrants, and identification/deportation of illegal foreigners

Conclusion

The Manipur Census deferral reveals how deeply citizenship, ethnic conflict displacement, and electoral representation are intertwined in the state's politics.

While Meitei and Naga groups see NRC as essential to establishing an accurate demographic baseline, Kuki-Zo groups view it as a premature exercise that risks disenfranchising genuine citizens.

Resolving this standoff will require careful sequencing of NRC, Census, and delimitation — sequencing has now become the field of political contest.

Why in news?

The Supreme Court recently used its special powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to quash FIRs filed against participants in nationwide exam protests led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP).

This decision has renewed debate over a provision that gives the Court unusually wide powers — one that legal scholars have argued about since the Constitution was adopted.

What’s in Today’s Article?

• What Happened in the CJP Case?
• About Article 142
• How Has the Court Used This Power Before?
• Has the Court Tried to Limit Its Own Power?
• A Recurring Source of Controversy

What Happened in the CJP Case?

• A bench led by CJI Surya Kant, along with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, closed cases linked to the July protests over the NEET-UG 2026 exam leak.
• The Centre told the Court it had "consciously decided" not to pursue these cases, and the Court also ordered compensation — within three months — for families of students who died by suicide over the leak.
• Nearly all FIRs from the protests were quashed, except those involving about 2,873 individuals with "serious and grave criminal antecedents."
• As part of the same hearing, CJP was asked to publicly commit to calling off a protest march planned for September 5.
• In effect, the Court became the platform through which the government fulfilled a demand CJP had made back in July.

About Article 142

• Article 142 allows the Supreme Court to pass any order necessary for "doing complete justice" in a case before it.
• Unusually for a constitutional provision, it does not define what "complete justice" means, or lay down when it can be used — leaving this entirely to the Court's discretion.
• Its roots go back to Section 210 of the Government of India Act, 1935, and further still, to the colonial-era practice of deciding cases based on "justice, equity and good conscience" when no written law applied.
• It appeared in the Draft Constitution as Article 118 and was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on May 27, 1949 — without any real debate.
• Essentially, its true scope was left for the Court to shape over the following decades, case by case.

How Has the Court Used This Power Before?

• Because it is so open-ended, Article 142 has become one of the Supreme Court's most frequently used tools. Some notable examples:
  • Bhopal Gas Tragedy (1989): Used to secure a $470 million settlement from Union Carbide, and to quash criminal cases against the company.
  • Ayodhya Title Dispute: Applied to resolve the case on "preponderance of probability," awarding five acres of land to the Muslim side.
  • A G Perarivalan's release (2022): Ordered release of a convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
• The Court has also used it to grant divorces where a marriage has "irretrievably broken down," and in various public interest cases
• An empirical study by IIM Ahmedabad researchers, examining all cases from 1950 to 2023 referencing "Article 142" or "complete justice," found 1,579 references and 791 direct invocations — mostly in civil matters.

Has the Court Tried to Limit Its Own Power?

• The Supreme Court is often called one of the most powerful constitutional courts in the world, largely because of how it uses Article 142.
• This power becomes even more significant in a "polyvocal" court, where 38 judges typically sit in small benches of two.
  • A "polyvocal" court is a supreme court that speaks through multiple small, independent benches rather than a single unified voice, leading to different or overlapping interpretations of the law.
  • The term is most famously used to describe the Supreme Court of India.
• The Court has occasionally tried to set boundaries on itself:
  • Prem Chand Garg v State of Uttar Pradesh (1962): Held that Article 142 orders must still respect fundamental rights and existing law.
  • Supreme Court Bar Association v Union of India (1998): Held that Article 142 can fill gaps left by a statute, but cannot override an existing statutory scheme.
• However, the Court has often departed from its own cautionary rulings.

Why Does the CJP Order Raise Concerns?

• Normally, an FIR is examined individually — under Section 528 of the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita — to check whether an offence is genuinely made out, or whether the case is clearly malicious.
• In the CJP order, however, thousands of FIRs from multiple states were grouped together and quashed without individual scrutiny, as part of a negotiated deal between the government and a protest group.
• Legal scholars argued that criminal law provisions cannot be overridden through such a blanket judicial decree — since this bypasses the normal legal process, rather than simply filling a gap in it.

A Recurring Source of Controversy

• This isn't the first time Article 142 has drawn sharp criticism:
  • When the Court last year used the same provision to treat long-pending Tamil Nadu Bills as automatically assented to, the then Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar described it as a "nuclear missile" against democratic institutions.
  • Former Attorney General K K Venugopal wrote in 2017 that while the provision had done "tremendous good" for disadvantaged sections, it needed proper checks and balances.
  • After the Sabarimala judgment, he went further, calling Article 142 a "Kamdhenu from which unlimited powers flowed" (referring to the mythical wish-granting cow).
  • He suggested that only five-judge Constitution Benches should be allowed to invoke it — to prevent its use resting on the interpretation of a single small bench

Conclusion

Article 142 remains one of the Supreme Court's most powerful yet controversial tools — enabling it to deliver justice beyond the limits of ordinary law, but also raising concerns about judicial overreach when used to bypass established legal procedures.

The CJP case highlights this tension sharply, reviving long-standing calls for clearer limits on how and when this extraordinary power should be exercised.

About Reverse Vaccinology:

• It is an emerging concept in the field of vaccine development.
• It is defined as an innovative approach to vaccine development that utilizes bioinformatics and computational analysis.
• It identifies potential vaccine targets within pathogen genomes, allowing for the modeling of epitopes and the creation of tailored vaccines for improved efficacy and safety.
• Reverse vaccinology is a term coined by Rino Rappuoli in 2000.
• He described it as a method for vaccine design that uses the information obtainable from whole-genome analysis. 
• It was first applied to the development of a vaccine against serogroup B Neisseria meningitidis (MenB). 
• The concept of reverse vaccinology has also successfully been applied to many other pathogens, for example, Bacillus anthracis, Streptococcus pneumonia, M. tuberculosis.
• Mechanism:
• Genome Sequencing: It involves the cloning and expression of all the proteins in an organism’s genome sequence that are predicted in silico to be surface exposed or secreted.
• Screening: Then each protein is screened, through high-throughput immunization.
• Laboratory Testing: Scientists make the chosen proteins in a lab and test them in animal models to see if they safely cause immunity.

About Limiting Overshoot Report:

• It is released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
• It has for the first time, set out an overshoot, peak and decline pathway, warning that breaching the 1.5°C global warming limit is now unavoidable.
• Key highlights of the Report:
• Even a scenario in which every country delivers on its national climate plan and net-zero target puts peak warming at 1.8°C
• According to the report, current policies point to a rise of about 2.6°C by 2100, with a range of 1.9–3.6°C.
• It warned that time spent above 1.5°C carries compounding costs such as faster sea-level rise, coral reef collapse, glacier loss exceeding a quarter of global mass by 2100, declines of up to 14% in global food production by 2050 without effective adaptation,
• Irreversible tipping points in the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and the Amazon.
• It placed significant stress on methane and suggested that cutting it is described as the most effective way to slow warming in the near term.

About Northern Goshawk:

• It is a large, powerful bird of prey belonging to the Accipitridae family.
• Distribution: It is widely distributed across Europe, Asia, and parts of North America.
• Habitat: It is found in dense forests, particularly coniferous and mixed woodlands.

Features

• Appearance: It has relatively short, broad wings and a long tail. Females are significantly larger than males.
• These are partial migrants, generally migrates between September and November and February to April in the spring.
• These birds are diurnal and are always found singly or in pairs.
• They are highly territorial and maintain their home ranges in display flights.
• These are powerful hunters and mainly use a perch-hunting style;
• Perch-hunting style includes a series of quick flights low to the ground, interspersed with brief periods of scanning for unsuspecting prey from elevated perches (short duration sit-and-wait predatory movements).
• Conservation Status:
• IUCN Red List: Least Concern

About Osbeckia ulotricha:

• It is a newly identified flowering plant that belongs to the Melastomataceae family. 
• It has been discovered in the shola grasslands of the Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve in the Western Ghats.
• Characteristics
• It is a woolly-haired species endemic to elevations of 1,200–1,500 metres.
• It leaves clustered at the apex, a sub-globose hypanthium (or an almost round flower base) and an ovary crowned with true bristles, meaning fine, stiff hairs at the top.
• The species flowers and fruits between February and May
• Habitat: It grows mainly in the damp margins of Tropical Montane Wet Temperate Forest (shola) and Montane Temperate Grassland ecosystems.
• It has an urn-shaped hypanthium (a cup-like flower base) with a neck. 

Key Features of Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve

• Location: It is located in the southern part of the Western Ghats in India, spreading across Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
• The reserve was established in 2001 and later included in the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves in 2016.
• Vegetation: It consists of variety of vegetation types such as tropical evergreen forests, semi-evergreen forests, moist deciduous forests, montane Agasthyamalai B rainforests, and shola-grassland ecosystems.
• Rivers: Important Rivers such as Thamirabarani, Neyyar, and Karamana originate from this region.
• The biosphere reserve includes several important protected regions, namely: Shendurney Wildlife Sanctuary, Peppara Wildlife Sanctuary, Neyyar Wildlife Sanctuary and Kalakkad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve.

About BIO-NIVESH Platform:

• It is aimed at connecting biotechnology startups with investors and increasing private capital for innovations that are ready for scale-up and commercialisation.
• It is envisaged as a recurring platform, with subsequent editions proposed across different cities to broaden participation.
• It has been designed as a two-way engagement mechanism which enables innovators to understand the investment lens while giving investors deeper insight into the scientific, regulatory and development pathways of biotechnology.
• The inaugural BIO-NIVESH edition brought together 20 high-potential biotechnology and deep-tech startups and around 50 investors.
• The first session featured direct startup-investor interactions, with startups selected on the basis of innovation, development stage, market potential, scalability and regulatory readiness.
• The second session involved an interaction between minister, investors and startups on access to capital, commercialisation, scale-up and measures to support innovation-led growth.
• Significance: It would help build the bridge required to take promising ideas from research and entrepreneurship to industry, scale and markets.

About AgriStack:

• It is a Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for the farm sector.
• It is an initiative under the Digital Agriculture Mission (DAM) and was approved by the Union Cabinet in September 2024.
• It comprises three foundational registries or databases in the agriculture sector:
• The Farmer Registry, Geo-referenced village maps, and the Crop Sown Registry, all created and maintained by the State Governments or Union Territories.
• Farmer Registry:
  • Under the AgriStack, farmers are given digital identities (Farmer ID), which are linked dynamically to the State’s land records, livestock ownership, crops sown, demographic details, family details, schemes, and benefits availed.
  • Target: The government aims to create digital identities for 11 crore farmers.
  • The Centre has allocated financial support to states to create their respective registries under the Special Assistance to States for Capital Investment.
  • Advantage: A farmer would be able to access benefits and services digitally.
  • The Centre aims to complete the Farmer Registry with dynamic Records of Rights (RoR) synchronisation by March 2027. In the Northeastern States, the target was set to March 2028.
• Crop Sown Registry:
  • It includes details on crops planted by farmers.
  • This is recorded through mobile-based Digital Crop Surveys on the ground each season.
• Geo-Referenced Village Map Registry:
  • It comprises geographic information of land records linked with their locations (latitudes and longitudes).
  • The target is to cover all villages by March 2027.
• Once fully implemented, Agristack will enable farmers to receive several benefits through a paperless and contactless digital ecosystem, including:
  • Paperless and contactless crop loan facilities.
  • Transparent and efficient crop insurance claim settlement.
  • Timely availability of agricultural inputs.
  • Personalized advisories on pests and diseases.
  • Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) of government scheme benefits.
  • Procurement of agricultural produce at the Minimum Support Price (MSP).
• Agristack will enable the Government to deliver services to farmers in a more transparent, efficient, and technology-driven manner while improving the accessibility and effectiveness of agricultural support systems.