Context

• India’s achievements in space missions, pharmaceutical innovation, and scientific research demonstrate its growing global influence.
• Despite this progress, many women researchers continue to face institutional barriers that restrict their academic growth.
• To reduce such inequality, funding agencies introduced age relaxation policies for women researchers.
• However, these measures alone cannot fully address the structural disadvantages embedded within Indian academic institutions.

Constitutional Basis for Gender-Sensitive Policies

• Equality and Affirmative Support
  • The Indian Constitution provides a strong legal foundation for policies supporting women researchers.
  • Article 15(3) permits the state to create special provisions for women and children, while Article 16 guarantees equality of opportunity in public employment.
  • Together with the Directive Principles, these provisions support affirmative measures that correct historical and social disadvantages faced by women.
• Dignity and Institutional Responsibility
  • The constitutional duty under Article 51A(e) calls upon citizens and institutions to reject practices harmful to the dignity of women.
  • Persistent underrepresentation of women in research funding and academic leadership reflects structural inequality rather than individual failure.
  • Therefore, research institutions and funding bodies carry a constitutional responsibility to ensure fair opportunities for women scholars.

The Legislative Gap at the Heart of the Problem

• Limitations of the Maternity Benefit Act
  • The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017 expanded paid maternity leave to 26 weeks and introduced provisions for crèche facilities in larger workplaces.
  • Although beneficial in principle, these protections often exclude women researchers working through fellowships, temporary contracts, or project-based appointments.
  • As a result, many early-career scholars remain outside the effective scope of the law.
• Challenges After Childbirth
  • Women frequently face interrupted laboratory work, delayed collaborations, and pressure to regain immediate productivity.
  • Academic institutions continue to function around uninterrupted career models that rarely account for maternity-related breaks.
  • The absence of structured support systems such as re-entry fellowships, flexible reporting schedules, or reduced workloads further weakens women’s long-term participation in research.
• Absence of Paternity Leave
  • India also lacks a comprehensive statutory paternity leave policy. Limited leave provisions exist only for certain government employees and do not apply uniformly to researchers funded through grants.
  • This imbalance reinforces the assumption that caregiving is primarily a woman’s responsibility.
  • Consequently, institutional policies focus mainly on women-specific support instead of recognising caregiving responsibilities more broadly.

Persistent Gender Disadvantage in Academia

• Unequal Representation
  • According to the All-India Survey on Higher Education (2021–22), women constitute only 43% of faculty positions in higher education and remain significantly underrepresented in science and technology institutions.
  • Reports by the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) also indicate lower grant application and success rates among women researchers.
• Domestic Responsibilities and Career Impact
  • Women often enter postdoctoral and early-career research during years associated with marriage, childcare, and family obligations.
  • Studies on dual-career households show that women continue to bear a greater share of domestic work despite equal professional qualifications.
  • These unequal responsibilities contribute to delayed publications, weaker grant records, reduced international visibility, and slower career progression.
  • In such circumstances, age relaxation policies function as corrective measures rather than preferential treatment.

Judicial Perspective on Substantive Equality

• The Vijay Lakshmi Case
  • In Vijay Lakshmi vs Punjab University And Others (2003), the Supreme Court distinguished between formal equality and substantive equality.
  • Formal equality promotes identical treatment for all individuals, whereas substantive equality recognises that unequal social conditions may require special protections to achieve genuinely fair outcomes.
• Relevance to Research Funding
  • This principle directly supports age relaxation policies for women researchers.
  • Extending eligibility windows compensates for interruptions caused by caregiving and maternity-related responsibilities.
  • However, eligibility extensions alone are insufficient because they do not address everyday institutional barriers such as childcare support, reintegration after career breaks, or flexible grant management systems.

Need for More Inclusive Policy Reforms

• Expanding Support Mechanisms
  • The National Education Policy 2020 encourages institutional flexibility and faculty wellbeing, but these commitments have not been fully translated into research funding frameworks.
  • Funding agencies should introduce no-cost grant extensions, structured childcare assistance, flexible reporting systems, and stronger re-entry programmes for researchers returning after caregiving breaks.
• Balancing Gender-Specific and Caregiving Support
  • Although women continue to experience the greatest caregiving burden in Indian academia, other caregivers may also face career disruption.
  • A balanced policy approach should therefore retain women-specific protections while adding broader caregiving-based support.
  • Several European research councils have already adopted such models successfully.

Conclusion

• The inequalities faced by women researchers arise from deeply rooted institutional and social structures rather than lack of merit or ability.
• Removing such protections in the name of neutrality would ignore the realities of unequal caregiving burdens and career interruptions.
• A more effective approach requires layered reforms that combine women-specific measures with broader caregiving support.

Why in news?

PM Modi recently urged citizens to reduce spending on petroleum products, edible oils, gold imports, foreign travel, and other non-essential foreign currency expenditures, while promoting public transport, electric vehicles, work-from-home, and locally made products.

The central objective is to reduce India’s foreign exchange outflow amid growing external economic pressures. The significance of this appeal lies in the fact that such a public warning is unprecedented, even compared to the 1991 balance of payments crisis, when India’s forex reserves had fallen below $1 billion, forcing the country to pledge gold reserves to avert an international debt default.

What’s in Today’s Article?

• Rising Trade Deficit Raises Concern
• Rising Import Dependence: Key Areas of Concern
• Rising Trade Deficit and Pressure on the Rupee

Rising Trade Deficit Raises Concern

• India’s merchandise trade deficit reached a record $333 billion in 2025-26, rising over 17% from the previous year.
• This was driven by imports surging 7% to an all-time high of $775 billion, while exports remained almost stagnant at $442 billion.
• The situation could worsen further as the impact of the U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran on crude oil prices has not yet been fully reflected in import figures.
• According to the IMF crude oil price index, oil prices have risen by 53% since the conflict began, which could significantly inflate India’s future import bill.
• Key Drivers of Import Growth
  • Four major product groups drove India’s import surge:
    • Precious Metals - Gold and silver imports exceeded $90 billion
      • Accounted for about 12% of total imports
      • Became the third-largest import category after crude oil and electronics
    • Other major contributors to the rising import bill were: Edible oils; Fertilizers; Electronic components.
  • While imports of precious metals increased sharply, gems and jewellery exports declined by over 5%, indicating that most imported gold and silver were absorbed by domestic consumption rather than export production.

Rising Import Dependence: Key Areas of Concern

• India’s gold import dependence remains a major concern, with gold imports rising 82% in April 2026 compared to the previous year, despite the government increasing customs duty on gold and silver to 15% and urging citizens to defer non-essential purchases.
• Continued stock market volatility has pushed retail investors toward gold as a safe asset, both in physical form and through Gold ETFs.
• Higher duties on physical gold may further encourage investment through ETFs rather than significantly reducing overall demand.
• Edible Oil Import Dependence
  • India’s heavy reliance on imported edible oils remains one of the weakest aspects of its agricultural performance.
    • Edible oil imports rose over 12% in 2025-26
    • Increased by 40% in April 2026 over the previous year
    • Imports accounted for over 56% of domestic edible oil demand in 2023-24
  • With domestic oilseed production failing to keep pace, the government is seeking reduced household consumption to contain foreign exchange outflows.
• Fertilizer Import Vulnerability
  • India’s dependence on imported fertilizers has worsened amid rising global prices and geopolitical disruptions.
    • Global fertilizer prices increased 46% between December 2025 and April 2026.
    • Urea prices doubled during this period.
  • Over the past five years, fertilizer imports met 31–37% of India’s requirements, but this share is expected to cross 50% in 2025-26 due to a 60% surge in urea imports.
  • Supply disruptions linked to the West Asia conflict have pushed India’s fertilizer import bill up by nearly 80%, increasing both foreign exchange pressure and the government’s subsidy burden.
• Structural Concern
  • The continued dependence on imports for critical commodities like gold, edible oils, and fertilizers raises questions about why domestic production capacity has not been strengthened sufficiently to reduce external vulnerability.

Rising Trade Deficit and Pressure on the Rupee

• Limited Progress in Import Substitution - Despite the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, launched in 2020 to reduce import dependence, especially on China, progress has been limited in several strategic sectors.
• Electronics Dependence Persists - Even after substantial incentives under the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, India remains heavily dependent on imported electronic components, whose imports grew by over 20% in the previous fiscal year.
• Battery and EV Import Dependence - Efforts to boost domestic production of accumulators and batteries to support electric vehicle manufacturing have also fallen short, with imports of these products rising by 50% in 2025-26.
• Cost of Technological Upgradation - India’s move towards greater technological advancement and clean mobility is increasing dependence on imported components, leading to significant foreign exchange outflows.
• Pressure on the Rupee - A widening trade deficit poses additional risks to the already weakened rupee.
• RBI’s Intervention - The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been selectively intervening in currency markets to prevent a sharp depreciation of the rupee.
• Declining Forex Reserves - However, RBI’s ability to continue such interventions is constrained, as foreign exchange reserves have fallen by over $21 billion since the end of February 2026, making further reserve depletion a matter of concern.

Why in news?

Debates over the recently defeated Constitutional Amendment Bill reflect a long history of contestation in India’s federalism, which has continuously evolved since Independence as a key instrument of nation-building.

Federalism in India has remained dynamic, shaped by issues such as post-Partition centralisation in constitutional design, disputes over fiscal devolution, the centralising influence of the Planning Commission, misuse of Article 356, partisan roles of Governors, language conflicts, delimitation, and parliamentary seat distribution.

The article argues that Indian federalism has always been a work in progress rather than a fixed arrangement.

What’s in Today’s Article?

• Rising Democratic Deficit in India’s Federal Structure
• Rising Fiscal Transfers as a Federal Challenge
• Divergent State Performance
• Erosion of Democratic Sensibility
• Conclusion

Rising Democratic Deficit in India’s Federal Structure

• In a democracy, equal citizenship requires that every vote carries similar weight.
• As population patterns change over time, the distribution of parliamentary seats across and within states must be periodically adjusted to maintain fair representation.
• However, constitutional amendments in 1976 and 2002 froze the allocation of political representation based on the 1971 Census, postponing fresh redistribution until after the first Census conducted post-2026.
• This prolonged freeze has created a growing “democratic deficit”—the gap between a state’s share in India’s population and its share in parliamentary seats.
• By the 2024 elections, if seats had been allocated according to current population estimates:
  • The four southern states (Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana) would have lost 23 seats
  • The four northern states (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh) would have gained 31 seats
• While the South and West Bengal have reached or fallen below replacement fertility levels, the population share of the Hindi heartland has steadily increased, intensifying representation-related tensions in India’s federal framework.

Rising Fiscal Transfers as a Federal Challenge

• In a federal system, fiscal resources are ideally linked to states’ economic size and performance.
• However, some redistribution from richer to poorer states is necessary to ensure equitable access to public goods and support national integration.
• The concern arises when redistribution becomes continuously expanding and open-ended, creating resentment among contributing states.
• Shift Over Time
  • Early 1960s - Fiscal disparities were relatively modest:
    • Hindi heartland states received about 20% more than their economic contribution
    • Southern and western states received about 20% less
  • By 2023 - The redistribution gap widened sharply:
    • Hindi heartland states received 90% more Finance Commission resources relative to their economic contribution
    • Southern states received 44% less
    • Western states received 58% less
  • This indicates a significant expansion in the gap between contributing and beneficiary states, especially in recent decades.
  • Hence, the democratic deficit and rising fiscal transfers are symptoms, while the underlying challenges in India’s federal structure lie in deeper systemic causes.

Deeper Structural Cause: Divergent State Performance

• A major underlying challenge in India’s federalism is the sharp divergence in demographic and economic performance among states.
• Since 1980, the southern states, western states, and Haryana have recorded rapid growth in per capita GDP, comparable in pace and duration to China’s growth.
• These states have steadily moved ahead of the Hindi heartland states and West Bengal in terms of economic performance and living standards.
• Federalism Under Strain
  • Such widening disparities create serious pressures within a federal system because they directly affect:
    • Political representation (through population-based seat allocation)
    • Economic redistribution (through fiscal transfers)
  • Balancing these competing claims becomes increasingly difficult.
• Perception of Reward and Penalty
  • The challenge is intensified by a growing perception that:
    • Better-performing states are being penalised for successful economic growth and population control
    • Poorer-performing states are being rewarded through greater fiscal transfers and potentially higher political representation
  • This perception deepens tensions in debates over India’s federal structure.

Erosion of Democratic Sensibility

• A major factor aggravating India’s federal challenges is the increasingly divisive nature of national politics.
• Analysts believe, on several major policy decisions—such as demonetisation, farm laws, the Citizenship Amendment Act, new criminal laws, electoral revisions, and recent constitutional proposals—the Centre has acted unilaterally with limited consultation and insufficient democratic consensus-building.
• From Cooperative to Combative Federalism
  • Politics is increasingly being framed not as democratic competition, but as an existential struggle against opponents.
  • As a result, cooperative federalism, essential for nation-building, is giving way to contentious and confrontational federalism.
  • This has intensified grievances across regions and communities, including: Kashmir; Ladakh; Manipur; Southern states; Religious minorities.
  • The biggest casualty of this shift is trust, which is vital for a functioning federal democracy: Trust among citizens; Trust between citizens and the state; Trust between the Centre and states.
• What is Democratic Sensibility?
  • Experts define democratic sensibility as the willingness to consult, accommodate, compromise, and exercise restraint, especially by those holding greater power.
  • An example cited is a GST Council meeting around 2018, when Kerala Finance Minister, isolated in opposition on gambling taxation, considered walking out.
  • Although the Centre and almost all states could have easily overruled Kerala, then Union Finance Minister instead persuaded Kerala to stay, accommodated its concerns, and preserved consensus—demonstrating democratic maturity and cooperative federalism.

Conclusion

• While several institutional solutions have been proposed—such as revised fiscal formulas, new federal compacts, and voting reforms—analysts argue that no structural reform will succeed without democratic sensibility, especially from the Central government.
• Without mutual trust and consultation, even manageable federal issues can escalate into major political crises.

Context:

• The West Asia conflict and rising fuel and fertilizer costs have created an opportunity for India to improve fertilizer use efficiency and reduce excessive demand.
• While India produces about 80% of its urea requirement domestically and is expanding capacity for self-reliance, the sector remains heavily dependent on imported fuel.
• Green ammonia is a possible alternative, but its viability is limited in water-scarce regions.
• The challenge is more severe for phosphatic fertilizers, as India lacks domestic rock phosphate reserves and depends largely on imports.
• Since nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers are critical for food security, the government continues to provide heavy subsidies to keep prices affordable.
• However, a significant share of the ₹2 lakh crore annual fertilizer subsidy is effectively wasted due to inefficient use and pollution rather than contributing to food production.

The Fertilizer Trap in India

• Excessive, unbalanced, and inefficient use of fertilizers not only wastes public resources but also harms soil health, water quality, air quality, biodiversity, human health, and contributes to climate change.
• Excess fertilizer use depletes soil organic matter and reduces the soil’s ability to retain water and nutrients. This lowers crop productivity over time, forcing farmers to apply even more fertilizers, creating a self-reinforcing “fertilizer trap.”
• This cycle explains why India’s fertilizer demand continues to grow despite decades of increased supply, showing the limitations of a supply-focused approach.
• The focus must shift from simply increasing supply to improving fertilizer use efficiency—either by producing more crop per kilogram of fertilizer used or maintaining yields with lower fertilizer input.

Limits of Existing Policy Measures

• Nutrient-Based Subsidy (NBS) - The government’s nutrient-based subsidy scheme failed to significantly improve efficiency or reduce demand because urea was excluded.
• Neem-Coated Urea - Although introduced to improve nitrogen-use efficiency, neem-coated urea could not prevent substantial nitrogen loss as ammonia emissions, contributing to air pollution.
• Phosphatic Fertilizers - A large share of phosphatic fertilizers is also lost through runoff, contributing to water pollution.

Policy Gaps and the Need for Crop Diversification

• Lack of Coordinated Policy Action
  • Although alternatives such as pulses, leguminous cover crops, manure, compost, and biochar can significantly reduce fertilizer dependence, they are no longer central to India’s farming systems.
  • Policy efforts have remained fragmented, with poor coordination between ministries and departments, preventing an integrated agricultural strategy.
• MSP and Procurement Distort Cropping Choices
  • While the government announces Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) for more than 20 crops, effective procurement is largely limited to rice, wheat, and sugarcane.
  • This encourages farmers to focus on these fertilizer-intensive crops, which consume over two-thirds of India’s urea, weakening traditional crop rotations with pulses and legumes.
• Food Surplus but Resource Misallocation
  • India produces far more cereals and sugarcane than domestic requirements:
    • Around 40% of rice output is exported
    • Another 9% is diverted for grain-based bioethanol production
    • India also produces excess wheat and sugarcane
  • This creates competition between food and fuel for land, water, fertilizers, and subsidies, highlighting the need to restrict bioethanol production to molasses or waste biomass instead of food grains.
• Why Pulses Matter?
  • Natural Fertilizer Efficiency - Traditional pulse-cereal rotations sustained agriculture for centuries because legumes naturally fix atmospheric nitrogen, reducing or eliminating the need for urea.
  • Climate and Nutritional Benefits - Pulses are well-suited to rain-fed and drought-prone regions, making them valuable during weak monsoon years. They are also crucial for tackling protein malnutrition, especially in India’s large vegetarian population.
• Declining Pulse Cultivation
  • Cereal-focused policies have reduced pulse cultivation, causing shortages and higher import dependence:
    • India now imports around 20% of its pulses
    • Telangana’s pulse production has halved since statehood
    • Shifting even 20% of rice acreage to pulses could save water, urea, and improve nutrition
• Weak Implementation of Dalhan Aatmanirbharta Mission
  • The Dalhan Aatmanirbharta Mission (2025) promised full MSP procurement for key pulses and allocated ₹11,440 crore to boost production to 350 lakh tonnes annually within five years.
  • However, implementation remains weak:
    • Pulse cultivation area increased by only 1.26% in 2026
    • This is negligible compared to the 10% decline in area between 2021-22 and 2024-25
    • Groundnut sowing rose only 1.3%
  • This highlights the urgent need for stronger policy execution and structural agricultural reforms.

Measures to Enhance Fertilizer Use Efficiency

• Greater Use of Organic Alternatives - India needs to significantly increase the use of manure, compost, and biochar (biogas residue) to reduce dependence on chemical fertilizers and improve soil health.
• Revising Fertilizer Application Practices - Fertilizer recommendations should be redesigned so that organic inputs form the base nutrient dose, with chemical fertilizers used only as supplementary top-ups after exhausting locally available organic sources.
• Evidence from Crop Trials - Coordinated crop trials across India have shown that up to 50% of recommended fertilizer use can be replaced by manure, compost, or biochar without reducing crop yields.
• Need for Better Nutrient-Efficient Crop Varieties - Investment should focus on improving existing crop varieties for better nutrient-use efficiency, rather than relying mainly on expensive technologies or capital-intensive solutions.
  • India’s research indicates that rice germplasm alone has the potential to double nitrogen-use efficiency, measured in terms of grain output per unit of urea applied.
• Need for Institutional Coordination - To ensure coordinated implementation across sectors, the Union government should revive the Inter-ministerial National Nitrogen Steering Committee, whose tenure ended before its recommendations could be implemented.

Conclusion

• India’s food security requires not more fertilizer, but smarter fertilizer use through pulse-based farming, organic inputs, efficient crop varieties, and coordinated long-term agricultural policy reforms.

About Anaimangalam Copper Plates:

• The Anaimangalam Copper Plates, also known as the Leiden Plates, are 11th-century inscriptions associated with the Chola Empire.
• They are held together by a bronze ring locked with the royal seal of Rajendra Chola I.
• The inscriptions on the copper plates date to the reign of Emperor Rajaraja Chola I (985–1014 CE) and his son Rajendra.
• The plates are divided into two sections: one has texts in Sanskrit; the other, in
  • The initial plates are in Sanskrit, offering a detailed genealogy of the Chola rulers and linking them to mythological figures.
  • The majority of plates are in Tamil, documenting administrative and grant details.
• The Tamil section records Rajaraja’s grant of land revenues and taxes to the Chudamani Vihara, a Buddhist monastery in Nagapattinam.
  • The monastery was built by Sri Mara Vijayotunga Varman, the ruler of the Srivijaya kingdom in present-day Indonesia.
  • The land grants were originally issued by Rajaraja Chola I, but his son, Emperor Rajendra Chola I, later had the order engraved onto the copper plates to preserve it.
• The inscriptions provide a rare insight into the maritime links, religious pluralism, and cultural exchanges that existed between South India and Southeast Asia during the peak of the Chola period.
• The plates’ journey abroad began around 1700 when Dutch missionary Florentius Camper acquired them during the Dutch East India Company’s control of Nagapattinam.
• They eventually found their way to Leiden University Library, Netherlands, where they have been studied by scholars but are largely inaccessible to the public.

About International Criminal Court (ICC):

• It is a permanent and independent criminal court established to prosecute offenders of serious crimes in the international community.
• It is the only permanent international criminal tribunal.
• It was created by the Rome Statute, which came into force in 2002.
• Mandate: ICC investigates and, where warranted, tries individuals charged with the gravest crimes of concern to the international community.
• Specifically, the ICC is intended to prosecute the following crimes:
  • Genocide
  • Crimes against humanity
  • War crimes
  • The crime of aggression
• The ICC is meant to serve as a last resort when the courts of sovereign states are unwilling to prosecute.
• Therefore, the ICC is complementary to national criminal jurisdiction and does not supersede it.
• Additionally, the ICC serves a different purpose than the International Court of Justice, which resolves conflicts between nations.
• Members: There are 125 member countries (China, India, Israel, Russia, and the United States are not ICC parties).
• Funding: The Court is funded by contributions from the States Parties and by voluntary contributions from Governments, international organizations, individuals, corporations, and other entities.
• Composition:
  • Judges: The court has eighteen judges, each from a different member country, elected to non-renewable nine-year terms.
  • The Presidency: Consists of three judges (the President and two Vice-Presidents) elected from among the judges. It represents the Court to the outside world and helps with the organization of the work of the judges.
  • Office of the Prosecutor (OTP): OTP is responsible for receiving referrals and any substantiated information on crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court. OTP examines these referrals and information, conducts investigations, and conducts prosecutions before the Court.
  • Registry: It provides administrative and operational support to the Chambers and the Office of the Prosecutor.
• Jurisdiction:
  • The ICC is only competent to hear a case if:
    • The country where the offence was committed is a party to the Rome Statute; or
    • The perpetrator’s country of origin is a party to the Rome Statute.
  • The ICC only has jurisdiction over offences committed after the Statute’s entry into force on 1 July 2002.
• Various parties have the right to refer a case to the ICC:
  • any State Party to the Rome Statute, irrespective of any involvement in the alleged offence;
  • the Prosecutor of the ICC;
  • the United Nations Security Council (UNSC)
• The UNSC may ask the ICC to defer investigation of a case for a limited period if it considers that the proceedings would constitute an obstruction to its powers.

About Model Collapse:

• Model collapse is what happens when AI models are trained on data that includes content generated by earlier versions of themselves, known as synthetic data or model-generated data.
• Over time, this recursive process causes the models to drift further away from the original data distribution, losing the ability to accurately represent the world as it really is.
• This means that large language models (LLMs) and other complex AI systems are increasingly ingesting generated data that is statistically simpler than the human-generated data on which they were originally built, leading to irreversible defects in future models.
• Instead of improving, the AI starts to make mistakes that compound over generations, leading to outputs that are increasingly distorted and unreliable.
• This takes place because any errors present in one model’s output during its fitting are later included in the training of its successor.
• AI Model Collapse Can Cause:
  • Limited creativity: Collapsed models can’t truly innovate or push boundaries in their respective fields.
  • Stagnation of AI development: If models consistently default to “safe” responses, it can hinder meaningful progress in AI capabilities.
  • Missed opportunities: Model collapse could make AIs less capable of tackling real-world problems that require nuanced understanding and flexible solutions.
  • Perpetuation of biases: Since model collapse often results from biases in training data, it risks reinforcing existing stereotypes and unfairness.
• Some solutions include tracking data provenance, preserving access to original data sources, and combining accumulated AI-generated data with real data to train AI models.

About Tungabhadra Dam:

• Tungabhadra Dam, also known as Pampa Sagar, is constructed across the Tungabhadra River, a tributary of the Krishna
• It is located in Hosapete, Ballari District of Karnataka.
• The dam’s construction started as a joint project between the erstwhile Hyderabad State and Madras Presidency.
• It became a joint project of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh later, which saw its completion in 1953.
• It is a multipurpose dam serving irrigation, electricity generation, flood control, etc.
• The left canals of the dam serve irrigation in Karnataka only, whereas the right canals serve parts of Karnataka and areas in the Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh.
• The Tungabhadra reservoir and the Mullaperiyar dam in Kerala hold the unique distinction of being the only two reservoirs in the country that were built using a combination of mud and limestone.

Key Facts about Tungabhadra River:

• It is the largest tributary of the Krishna
• It flows through the states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
• It derives its name from two streams viz., the Tunga and the Bhadra
• It is influenced chiefly by the West monsoon.
• Major Tributaries: Varada River and Hagari (Vedathy) River.
• Major Dams: The Tunga Anicut Dam, the Bhadra Dam, the Hemavathy Dam, and the Tungabhadra Dam.

About Nordic Countries:

• The Nordic countries, also known as the Nordic region, are a group of countries in northern Europe consisting of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.
• The designation includes the Faroe Islands and Greenland, which are autonomous island regions of Denmark, and the Åland Islands, an autonomous island region of Finland.
• The term is sometimes used interchangeably with Scandinavia, a peninsular region of northern Europe that serves as the geographic core of the Nordic countries.
  • Scandinavia is typically defined more restrictively, however, and refers primarily to Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.
• Sweden is the largest and most populous of the Nordic countries. Iceland is the least populous. Denmark is the smallest.
• The countries have many similarities in that they rank highly worldwide in such areas as education, civil liberties, quality of life, and economic competitiveness.
• Language:
  • Most inhabitants of the Nordic region speak North Germanic languages (also called Nordic or Scandinavian languages): Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish, as well as Faroese and Icelandic.
  • Native non-Germanic languages include Greenlandic, Finnish, and Sami languages.
• Political System:
  • Denmark, Sweden, and Norway are constitutional monarchies and parliamentary democracies.
  • Finland and Iceland are democratic republics.
  • Iceland's parliament, the Althing, is the oldest parliament in the world.
• Cooperation:
  • There is close cooperation between the countries through the Nordic Council and the Nordic Council of Ministers.
  • Denmark, Sweden, and Finland are members of the European Union (EU).
  • Norway and Iceland are European Economic Area (EEA) members.
    • EEA includes EU countries and also Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway. 

About Democratic Republic of Congo:

• Location: It is located in Central Africa with the equator passing through the country.
• Bordering countries: Angola, Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia.
• Maritime Border: It has a coastline on the Atlantic Ocean to the southwest.
• Capital City: Kinshasa
• Geographical Features of Democratic Republic of Congo:
  • Climate: It has an equatorial climate.
  • High Point: The highest point in the Republic of the Congo is Mount Nabemba.
  • Plateau region: The plateaus are mostly covered in savanna grasslands, with patches of forests in the valleys and lower areas.
  • Major River: Congo River 
  • Lakes: It has famous lakes like Lake Tanganyika, Lake Albert, Lake Edward, Lake Kivu
  • Volcano: Mount Nyiragongo which is an active volcano located in Virunga Mountains.
  • Natural Resources: The DRC is rich in natural resources such as industrial diamonds, cobalt, and copper etc.