Why in News?

• The Zojila Tunnel, a strategically significant infrastructure project connecting Sonmarg in Jammu & Kashmir with Minamarg in Ladakh, has achieved a major milestone with over 13 km of excavation completed.
• Situated at an altitude of 11,578 feet, the tunnel is expected to provide year-round connectivity across the Zojila Pass and become operational by 2028.
• The project highlights India's efforts to strengthen border infrastructure, regional development, and strategic mobility in the Himalayas.

What’s in Today’s Article?

• Zojila Tunnel
• Challenges of Tunnelling Through the Himalayas
• Engineering Solution
• Conclusion

Zojila Tunnel:

• About:
  • It will be India’s longest road tunnel and is expected to be Asia’s longest bi-directional road tunnel, with a length of 14.15 km. It is being constructed at an estimated cost of ₹6,500–6,800 crore.
  • The project forms part of a larger 33-km connectivity corridor spanning Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.
  • It includes expansion and development of the 18.475-km Z-Morh–Zojila highway stretch, two twin-tube tunnels, five bridges, and two snow galleries.
  • The tunnel is one among 19 tunnels being built in the region under projects worth nearly ₹25,000 crore.
• Need:
  • Overcoming seasonal isolation:
    • The Srinagar–Leh route currently passes through the Zojila Pass, one of the most difficult mountain passes in the Himalayas.
    • Heavy snowfall, avalanches, landslides, and slippery roads force closure of the pass for nearly five months annually.
    • During winter, Ladakh remains dependent largely on air connectivity, leading to extremely high transportation costs.
  • Strategic importance:
    • Ladakh shares sensitive borders with both China and Pakistan.
    • The tunnel will ensure uninterrupted movement of troops, military equipment, and essential supplies.
    • It strengthens India's border management and logistical preparedness.
• Expected benefits:
  • Improved connectivity:
    • Provides all-weather and perennial connectivity between Kashmir and Ladakh.
    • Travel time from Ganderbal to Kargil will be reduced from about three hours to around 20 minutes.
    • The distance between Baltal and Minamarg will shrink from nearly 40 km to 13 km.
  • Enhanced safety: The existing route witnesses frequent accidents due to steep gradients, poor visibility, snow and landslides. Tunnel-based travel will significantly reduce weather-related risks.
  • Integrated regional development: Better connectivity is expected to boost tourism, promote trade and investment, generate employment, and reduce outmigration from remote regions.

Challenges of Tunnelling Through the Himalayas:

• Extreme climatic conditions: High altitude, where temperatures can plunge to –30°C, affecting both workers and machinery. Frequent avalanches pose serious risks to life and infrastructure.
• Geological complexity of the Himalayas:
  • Young and active mountains: The Himalayas are a young fold mountain system, formed by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates. They remain tectonically active and geologically unstable.
  • Highly variable rock strata: Rock formations can change dramatically within short distances. Engineers encounter soft sedimentary rocks, hard boulders, cavities, faults, shear zones, and water-bearing fractures.
  • Water ingress risks: The mountains contain large quantities of groundwater and snowmelt channels. Sudden water inflows can flood excavation sites, destabilize rock formations, and increase collapse risks.

Engineering Solution:

• New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM):
  • The Zojila Tunnel is being excavated using the NATM, widely regarded as suitable for difficult geological conditions.
  • Key features:
    • Selective and controlled blasting.
    • Excavation in stages (upper half first, lower half later).
    • Continuous monitoring of rock behaviour.
    • Immediate structural support through shotcrete (sprayed concrete), rock bolts, and drainage systems.
  • Adaptive design approach:
    • Tunnel alignment can be modified to bypass weak geological zones.
    • The number and spacing of rock bolts are adjusted according to rock quality.
    • Drainage pipes are installed to safely release groundwater pressure.
• Safety measures:
  • To enhance operational and construction safety, three vertical ventilation and rescue shafts have been built.
  • Shafts [depth: 474.3 m (India’s longest tunnel shaft), 367.5 m, and 213.5 m] facilitate ventilation, emergency evacuation, rescue operations, and disaster response.

Conclusion:

• The Zojila Tunnel represents a landmark achievement in Himalayan infrastructure development, combining strategic necessity with advanced engineering.
• It is poised to become a transformative asset for both regional development and national integration.

Context

• Higher education has emerged as a significant arena through which the evolving nature of Indian federalism is being negotiated.
• Issues relating to regulatory authority, language policy, curriculum design, public funding, and digital governance have transformed higher education from a sectoral concern into a constitutional and political issue.
• As a result, the governance of higher education increasingly reflects broader debates concerning the distribution of power between the Union government and State governments.

Instances of Centre’s Growing Influence in Higher Education

• Regulatory and Institutional Expansion
  • Although education falls under the Concurrent List, the governance framework increasingly favours the Centre.
  • Through the Ministry of Education, the University Grants Commission (UGC), accreditation bodies, and other national regulators, the Union government exercises considerable influence over universities and colleges across the country.
• National Education Policy (NEP) 2020
  • The NEP 2020 represents a major restructuring of higher education.
  • Reforms such as four-year undergraduate programmes, the Academic Bank of Credits, institutional restructuring, multidisciplinary universities, and internationalisation seek to enhance quality and competitiveness.
  • However, these measures also extend the Centre’s role into areas traditionally shaped by State governments.
• Financial Centralisation
  • The Centre’s influence is reinforced through funding mechanisms.
  • Programmes such as the Institutions of Eminence initiative and research support under the Anusandhan National Research Foundation increasingly connect financial assistance with compliance to nationally designed reforms.
  • Consequently, funding has become an important tool of policy coordination and influence.
• Digital Governance and Standardisation
  • Digital platforms such as the Academic Bank of Credits have expanded the Centre’s capacity to standardise, coordinate, and monitor educational systems across States.
  • While these mechanisms improve efficiency and student mobility, they also strengthen central oversight over higher education governance.

Centre-State Tensions in Higher Education

• Language and Curriculum Disputes
  • The implementation of the NEP 2020 has generated significant political contestation.
  • In Tamil Nadu, opposition to the three-language formula and related UGC directives reflects concerns regarding linguistic identity and State autonomy.
  • Such disputes demonstrate how educational policy often intersects with regional politics and cultural aspirations.
• Governance and Vice-Chancellor Appointments
  • Tensions have also emerged regarding the appointment of Vice-Chancellors and the role of Governors in university administration.
  • States such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, and West Bengal have witnessed disputes over the extent of gubernatorial powers and State authority in higher education governance.
• Concerns Regarding Regulatory Reforms
  • Proposals under the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, aimed at replacing existing regulatory bodies, have generated concerns regarding the gradual erosion of State authority.
  • In States with strong regional political identities, such reforms are viewed as constitutional questions concerning autonomy and the balance of power within the Indian Union.

Strategic Adaptation and Negotiated Federalism

• Selective Adoption of Reforms
  • Centre-State relations in higher education are not purely adversarial.
  • Many States have adopted a strategy of selective adaptation, implementing aspects of national reforms that align with local priorities while resisting measures perceived as encroaching upon State authority.
  • This reflects a model of negotiated federalism rather than outright confrontation.
• Internationalisation as a Shared Objective
  • Several States are actively seeking to become regional education hubs by promoting partnerships with foreign institutions.
  • Higher education is increasingly viewed as a tool for global visibility, economic growth, and knowledge-driven development.
• Role of States in Implementation
  • The debate surrounding international branch campuses highlights the interdependence of the Centre and States.
  • While the Union government establishes the regulatory framework, implementation depends heavily on States through administrative clearances, infrastructure support, and investment facilitation.
  • This ensures that States remain important stakeholders in shaping educational outcomes.

Conclusion

• Higher education has become a key arena through which the changing dynamics of Indian federalism are expressed.
• The expansion of national regulatory frameworks, funding mechanisms, and digital governance has strengthened the Centre’s influence over higher education.
• At the same time, States continue to assert their role through resistance, negotiation, and selective adaptation.
• The future of higher education governance will depend on the ability of the Centre and States to balance national objectives with regional aspirations, ensuring that educational reforms strengthen both institutional excellence and the federal spirit of the Indian Union.

Why in news?

India's net FDI has declined sharply in recent years — from a peak of $44 billion in 2020-21 to less than $1 billion in 2024-25 — even as gross inflows remain strong.

This has triggered a debate between critics who see it as a sign of weakness and the Chief Economic Adviser who points to large gross inflows as evidence of strength. This article argues that both sides are missing the bigger picture.

What’s in Today’s Article?

• Understanding the FDI Gap: Gross vs Net
• Three Types of FDI: Not All Investment is Equal
• The Problem with Gross FDI Numbers
• Manufacturing FDI: A Worrying Decline
• Outward FDI: Maturity or Capital Recycling
• The True Cost: For Every Dollar In, $1.50 Goes Out
• Conclusion

Understanding the FDI Gap: Gross vs Net

• Gross FDI refers to total capital coming into India. Net FDI is what remains after subtracting outflows — disinvestment, repatriation of capital, and profits sent abroad.
• India's net FDI recovered partially to $7.6 billion in 2025-26 against gross inflows of $94.6 billion — a massive gap that demands explanation.
• The official narrative blames profit repatriation for weak net FDI. However, analysts point out this is misleading.
• Under Balance of Payments (BoP) conventions, dividend remittances are recorded in the current account, not the financial account.
• They widen the Current Account Deficit (CAD) but do not reduce net FDI figures.
• The actual culprit is disinvestment and capital repatriation, which appear in the financial account.

Three Types of FDI: Not All Investment is Equal

• FDI is commonly seen as a uniform, long-term commitment. In reality, it comprises three very different investor categories:
  • Real FDI (RFDI) consists of traditional multinational enterprises bringing technology, brands, and productive capabilities. These represent genuine long-term commitments to host country development.
    • Between 2022-23 and 2025-26, RFDI accounted for 41.9% of effective inflows.
  • Financial Investors — private equity funds, venture capital firms, sovereign wealth funds, and asset managers — contribute 40.5% of effective inflows. Their primary goal is capital growth and planned exits, not long-term industrial development.
    • A stark example: Singapore's Temasek exited Schneider Electric India in 2025, earning $6.4 billion on a $637 million investment made just five years earlier.
    • In CY 2025 alone, 45 major PE/VC exits accounted for $29 billion in outflows out of a total divestment of $52 billion.
  • Diaspora investments and Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) make up the remaining 17.6%. These involve capital raised abroad and channelled through offshore financial centres, and may sometimes include round-tripping of Indian funds.

The Problem with Gross FDI Numbers

• A significant blind spot in gross FDI figures is that they mix fresh capital with mere accounting changes — intra-group ownership reorganisations, mergers, share swaps, and conversion of External Commercial Borrowings (ECBs) into equity.
• No new money actually enters the country in such transactions.
• Of the $560 billion in equity inflows between 2014-15 and 2025-26, approximately $40 billion fall into this non-fresh-capital category.
• Large individual transactions — such as those involving Bosch and Meesho Technologies — can significantly distort annual inflow and sectoral data.

Manufacturing FDI: A Worrying Decline

• Real FDI into India's manufacturing sector has declined across three consecutive four-year periods.
• In the most recent period (2022-23 to 2025-26), RFDI into manufacturing accounted for just 10.6% of total effective inflows.
• This is particularly concerning because manufacturing FDI — not financial investor FDI — is what drives technology transfer, job creation, and industrial development.

Outward FDI: Maturity or Capital Recycling

• India's Outward FDI (OFDI) has also risen sharply.
• Between 2023-24 and 2025-26, India invested $65 billion outward — but 45% of this went into "Financial, Insurance, and Business Services" (FIB) sectors, primarily through holding companies and SPVs in Singapore (27%) and the UAE (11%).
• This pattern raises questions. Much of this OFDI flows to holding entities rather than operational businesses, and may represent capital recycling across jurisdictions rather than genuine corporate expansion.
• The example of TML Commercial Vehicles (a Tata Motors subsidiary) routing a $405 million investment through a Singaporean entity to acquire an Italian company illustrates the complexity.
• GIFT City further adds to this complexity — OFDI through it rose from $246 million in 2023-24 to $1.18 billion in 2025-26, creating significant two-way capital flows that are difficult to track cleanly.

The True Cost: For Every Dollar In, $1.50 Goes Out

• When outflows from disinvestment, dividend remittances ($118.9 billion), and IPR/royalty payments ($46.6 billion) are added up — excluding OFDI and technical service payments — total outflows between 2022-23 and 2025-26 reached $344.4 billion.
• Against fresh inflows (excluding reinvested earnings) of $230.6 billion, this means for every $1 of fresh inflow, approximately $1.50 flowed out.
• This ratio has steadily worsened: outflows per dollar stood at 56 cents (2014-18), rose to 70 cents (2018-22), and have now crossed $1.50 — signalling a serious external sustainability concern.

Conclusion

Strong gross FDI numbers can mask a fragile reality. When capital exits faster than it enters, and financial investors crowd out industrial investors, the promise of FDI — technology, jobs, and growth — remains only partially fulfilled.

Why in news?

On June 9, 2026 — the death anniversary of Birsa Munda — tribal organisations in Jharkhand took a public pledge to protect his legacy. This came in the backdrop of renewed demands for "delisting" of tribal converts to Christianity or Islam from the Scheduled Tribes (ST) list, most recently raised at a gathering attended by Union Home Minister.

The controversy has reignited a fundamental question: what did Birsa Munda actually stand for?

What’s in Today’s Article?

• Who Was Birsa Munda?
• Early Life and Formative Influences
• The Ulgulan: The Great Tumult
• Religious Identity: The Birsait Faith
• Conclusion

Who Was Birsa Munda

• Birsa Munda was one of the most influential figures from the Chotanagpur plateau — the mineral-rich region spanning present-day Jharkhand and adjoining states.
• Revered as "Dharti Aba" (Father of the Earth), he led the Ulgulan (the "Great Tumult") — a movement against colonial rule and diku (non-tribal outsider) zamindars who were encroaching upon Adivasi land and cultural life in the late 19th century.
• Historians described him as a religious reformer, social mobiliser, and political leader who transformed Munda tribal society.
• They contend that Birsa articulated a broader vision of Adivasi identity, autonomy, and self-rule (Adivasi disum), making him far more than just the leader of an agrarian uprising.

Early Life and Formative Influences

• Birsa was born on November 15, 1875, in Ulihatu village, present-day Khunti district of Jharkhand.
• His father, Sugna Munda, had embraced Christianity and was associated with the Sardari movement — an earlier Adivasi mobilisation against the erosion of traditional land rights and the growing influence of outsider landlords.
• Colonial Disruption of Adivasi Land Systems
  • Adivasi territories had been under pressure even before formal British rule.
  • Colonial land policies, especially the Permanent Settlement of 1773, gave legal backing to revenue intermediaries (dikus) who displaced the traditional Khuntkatti system — the customary Munda practice of collective land ownership by the descendants of original forest-clearing settlers (Khuntkattidars).
  • This led to a cascade of dispossession: growing indebtedness, forced labour, and the collapse of village self-governance.
  • These grievances became the fertile ground for agrarian unrest across Chotanagpur.
• Contact with Christian Education
  • Birsa spent part of his early childhood at his uncle's village before attending missionary schools in Chaibasa, where he was known by the Christian name "Daud" (or David).
  • His association with missionary education later ended after a disagreement with church authorities over his remarks about the Munda community.

The Ulgulan: The Great Tumult

• Ulgulan (meaning "Great Tumult" or "Great Rebellion") was the armed uprising led by Birsa Munda in the late 19th century against British colonial rule and diku (outsider) zamindars who were displacing Adivasi communities from their traditional lands.
• Climax at Dombari Buru
  • The Ulgulan reached its peak at Dombari Buru (a hill in Khunti) in January 1899, where thousands of Birsa's followers gathered to assert land rights and challenge British authority.
  • British forces surrounded the hill and fired on the crowd. Adivasi oral memory recalls this as a massacre that killed hundreds, though official colonial records estimate far fewer casualties.
• Arrest and Death
  • Birsa was arrested on February 3, 1900, in the forests of Porahat after months as a fugitive. He died in Ranchi Jail on June 9, 1900.
  • Colonial records attributed his death to cholera and dysentery complications, but suspicions of poisoning have persisted in popular memory.
• Legislative Outcome: CNT Act, 1908
  • Though the uprising was militarily crushed, it compelled the colonial administration to act.
  • The Chotanagpur Tenancy (CNT) Act, 1908 was enacted to legally recognise traditional land tenure systems like Khuntkatti and Bhuinhari, and to prevent transfer of Adivasi land to non-Adivasis.
  • Missionary ethnographer Father J.B. Hoffmann is credited as one of its principal architects.
  • Despite occasional misuse, the CNT Act remains one of the strongest legal protections against tribal land alienation in Jharkhand even today.

Religious Identity: The Birsait Faith

• After distancing himself from Christianity, Birsa came under the influence of Vaishnavism for a period. He was jailed in 1885 on charges of inciting people against the British, missionaries, and diku zamindars.
• After his release, he began preaching a distinct spiritual worldview centred on life, nature, and community.
• This evolved into the Birsait faith — a distinct religion separate from Sarnaism (traditional tribal faith), Christianity, and Hinduism.
• His followers revere him as a messiah, calling him "Bhagwan" and "Dharti Aba."

Conclusion

Historians note that the aspiration for Adivasi self-governance articulated during the Ulgulan was later channelled into the movement for a separate Jharkhand under Jaipal Singh Munda in the mid-20th century — a lineage that culminated in the creation of Jharkhand in 2000.

Birsa Munda was not merely a rebel — he was a civilisational voice. His struggle reminds us that Adivasi identity is rooted in land, ancestry, and self-governance — not in religious labels imposed from outside.

Context:

• As India marches toward Viksit Bharat 2047, the health sector faces a fundamental question: how to build a system that is not merely reactive, but anticipatory, equitable, and innovation-driven.
• The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) — India's apex biomedical research body — has responded with a series of structural and strategic reforms, drawing lessons from COVID-19 and aligning science with national public health priorities.
• This article highlights how the ICMR is transforming India's health ecosystem through institutional reforms, technology-driven innovation, interdisciplinary research, and stronger integration with public health systems.
• It examines how ICMR is shifting from a reactive research body to a proactive health intelligence and innovation platform aligned with the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047.

Strategic Reorientation: From Silos to Systems

• Institutional Restructuring
  • ICMR has expanded the mandates of several of its institutes, repositioning them as interdisciplinary hubs rather than narrowly focused entities.
  • Key domains now include digital health and data science, child health, and women's health — areas that reflect India's evolving disease burden and technological capabilities.
• Regional Research Network
  • A network of National Institutes of Health Research (NIHRs) is being created across the country — from Dibrugarh in the Northeast to Jodhpur in the West.
  • These institutes will embed themselves within state and district health systems to conduct operational research that is both locally relevant and practically actionable.
• From Projects to Solutions
  • The funding ecosystem is being redesigned to move beyond piecemeal project support toward an integrated research continuum — one that funds solutions, not just studies.
  • The National Health Research Programme (NHRP) anchors this shift by identifying 13 priority areas including antimicrobial resistance (AMR), tuberculosis, mental health, nutrition, and emergency care.

Technology as a Transformative Force

• AI in Diagnostics and Surveillance
  • AI-enabled tools are already supporting frontline health workers — notably in tuberculosis screening, diabetic retinopathy detection, and nutritional monitoring.
  • This is helping bridge the longstanding urban-rural healthcare divide.
• Innovation at the Frontier
  • The i-Drone initiative — initially used for vaccine delivery — has expanded to transport critical medical supplies, demonstrating how technology can overcome geographic barriers.
  • Advances across medtech, from medical devices to next-generation vaccines and therapeutics, are enabling more targeted, patient-centric interventions.
• From Lab to Market
  • Platforms like MedTechMitra and the Medical Innovations-Patent Mitra initiative are accelerating the journey from publicly funded research to affordable, accessible commercial products.
  • The integration of traditional knowledge systems with evidence-based models is also gaining international recognition.

Impact on Ground: Towards Universal Access

• Reforms are showing measurable public health outcomes.
• The India Hypertension Control Initiative has demonstrated how evidence-based strategies can transform chronic disease management at scale.
• Mission-mode programmes in emergency care — including mobile stroke units and rapid cardiac response systems — are redefining survival outcomes.
• Expanded diagnostic networks and indigenous technologies are strengthening early detection across diseases from cancer to infectious outbreaks.
• All of this aligns closely with the National Health Policy 2017, which emphasises preventive care, universal access, and quality of care.

The Road to 2047

• ICMR's vision is to serve as a catalyst — connecting researchers, clinicians, policymakers, and industry.
• The roadmap to 2047 will be defined by advances in digital health, biomanufacturing, and sustainable development, with strong emphasis on capacity building and global collaboration.

Conclusion

• ICMR's reimagination — from a research body to a national health intelligence system — reflects a mature understanding that science must serve society.
• When data meets decisions and innovation meets equity, the aspiration of a healthy, developed India becomes genuinely achievable.

About Pseudocapritermes novus:

• It is a new species of soil-dwelling termite.
• It was discovered during an exploration of the Chapramari Wildlife Sanctuary, West Bengal.
• It is different from the usual termites that are destructive in nature.
• These soil-feeding termites play a crucial role in enriching the earth by feeding on soil and humus, making them vital indicators of an ecosystem's soil health and fertility.
• This discovery brings the total number of Pseudocapritermes species found in India to five.
• Features:
  • The new termite stands out from its closest relatives in the unique shapes of its mouthparts and body armour.
  • Like others in its group, this insect belongs to a special club of termites known for their asymmetrical, snapping jaws, which they use to defend themselves or raise an alarm by producing a loud clicking sound.
  • However, compared to its closest known cousin, P. bhutanensis, the newly discovered species boasts a strongly bent left jaw with a slightly incurved tip, a more rounded swollen section below its beak, and a longer, wider postmentum (the lower part of its mouth).

About American Foulbrood (AFB):

• It is a fatal infectious disease of honey bee larvae, caused by a spore-forming bacterium called Paenibacillus larvae.
• While it only attacks larvae, AFB weakens the colony and can quickly lead to its death in only three weeks.
• Cause:
  • Paenibacillus larvae produce spores when subjected to stress such as lack of nutrients.
  • It's these spores that actually cause and are the source of the disease.
  • Spores enter the larva through feeding of contaminated food.
  • The bacteria kill the bee larva by completely consuming the body tissues.
  • The spores are highly resistant to extremes of temperature, chemical attack, and other adverse conditions and can remain viable for over 50 years
  • Once hardship has passed, for example, when nutrients become available again, the bacterium will germinate and reproduce.
  • The cycle will repeat if hardship occurs again. This means that it is difficult to eliminate the spores from colonies.
• Transmission:
  • Although AFB is not highly contagious, bacterial spores can easily be spread between hives and apiaries through beekeeping practices such as the exchange of equipment and movement of infected combs.
  • Though adult bees are not affected by AFB, they can spread spores within and between infected and clean hives through robbing and drifting.
• Treatment: The disease is not able to be cured, meaning that destruction of infected colonies and hives or irradiation of infected material is the only way to manage AFB.

About Dark Patterns:

• Dark patterns, also known as deceptive patterns, are deliberate design tactics that trick online users into making choices that aren’t always in their best interest.
• They are designed to mislead users to do something they originally did not intend or want to do.
• At their core, dark patterns exploit cognitive biases. They leverage the way our brains process information to nudge us toward specific decisions, often against our best interests.
• Dark patterns take many forms, and different sources may categorize them in various ways.
• Each is designed to manipulate users into making choices that benefit the company rather than the user.
• These deceptive design tactics can pop up across websites, forms, emails, and apps.
• The Central Consumer Protection Authority notified the Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns in 2023 and specified 13 dark patterns, namely:
  • False urgency, Basket Sneaking, Confirm shaming, forced action, Subscription trap, Interface Interference, Bait and switch, Drip Pricing, Disguised Advertisements and Nagging, Trick Wording, Saas Billing and Rogue Malwares.
• For example, drip pricing is when extra costs appear after the user has started the purchase process.
• False urgency: Dark patterns sometimes invent deadlines or stock shortages, sometimes known as scarcity cues, to exploit a fear of missing out, pressuring users into quick decisions without taking the time to think through the purchase.
• Basket Sneaking: This is when extra products or services are added to a user’s shopping cart without their explicit consent.
• Subscription Trap: This dark pattern is the common case of making it substantially harder to cancel a subscription than it was to start the subscription in the first place.