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Important topics and their relevance in UPSC CSE exam for March 16, 2026. If you missed the March 15, 2026 UPSC CSE exam key from the Indian Express, read it here
FRONT
Contest kicks off: Bengal to vote in 2 phases, others one
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance, Current events of national and international importance
Mains Examination: General Studies II: Parliament and State legislatures—structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers & privileges and issues arising out of these.
What’s the ongoing story: Setting the stage for intense electoral campaigns in the coming weeks, the Election Commission Sunday announced single-phase Assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Puducherry (April 9) and Tamil Nadu (April 23), and two-phased polling in West Bengal on April 23 and April 29, down from the eight phases last time.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What are Assembly Elections?
• What is the process of election?
• What is the maximum and minimum strength of a legislative assembly?
• How is the legislative assembly’s strength determined?
• There is no uniformity in the organisation of state legislatures-Why?
• How is the Assembly Election different from the General Election?
• What happens after the Election Commission announces schedule for the polls?
• From which date the Model Code of Conduct is enforced and operational up to which date?
• What is the role of Election Commission in the matter?
• Election Commission of India- Powers and Functions
• What are the salient features of the Model Code of Conduct?
• Whether Govt. can make transfers and postings of officials who are related to election work?
• Election Commission of India and Article 324 of the Constitution-Know in detail
• The independent and impartial functioning of the Election Commission-How it is ensured?
• What is Special Intensive Revision (SIR)?
• Why EC has conducted the Special Intensive Revision (SIR)?
Key Takeaways:
• “Elections in all these four states and Union Territory of Puducherry shall be violence-free and inducement-free. The Commission will take strict action if anything to the contrary is noticed and reported,” Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar told at a press conference in New Delhi.
• With the announcement of the schedule by the CEC, accompanied by Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, the Model Code of Conduct came into force.
• The four states and the Union Territory have a total of 17.4 crore electors across 824 constituencies at 2.18 lakh polling stations, the CEC said. The EC had visited the states and the UT over the last month to review preparations.
• Of the total 25 lakh election staff to be deployed across the four states and one UT, around 8.5 lakh security personnel will be pressed into service, according to the EC.
• Starting in June 2025, the EC has conducted the SIR in 11 states and three UTs so far, including West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry. The exercise involved the creation of the electoral rolls from scratch, with all registered electors required to submit enumeration forms and some categories of electors required to submit additional documents and appear for hearings to prove their eligibility, including citizenship.
• The last intensive revision of electoral rolls across states was carried out in the early 2000s. Since then, the electoral rolls have been updated annually, and before each election. The EC, while ordering the SIR on June 24, 2025, said it felt the need for the exercise due to rapid urbanisation, migration and possibility of electors being registered at multiple places.
Do You Know:
• In India, the first-past-the-post voting method is used to elect members of the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha. In this system, the candidates with the most votes win the election. It is one of the most basic methods of holding elections.
• The Constituent Assembly, on the other hand, called for proportional representation in the Rajya Sabha and presidential elections. Members of the Rajya Sabha are elected by the elected members of state legislative assemblies and the electoral college from union territories. The election employs a single transferable vote system, which is a type of proportional representation. This system helps ensure that the composition of the Rajya Sabha more accurately reflects the proportion of votes received by different parties.
• SIR, or Special Intensive Revision, is a large-scale verification exercise that the ECI undertakes when it believes the routine annual “Summary Revision” is not enough to clean the voter rolls. It involves house-to-house enumeration, pre-filled forms, online submissions, and fresh verification of old voter data.
Article 324 of the Indian Constitution grants ECI ‘plenary powers’ to supervise and update electoral rolls. Section 21 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, also allows the Commission to order an intensive revision whenever it finds inaccuracies in the existing rolls.
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍‘Under adjudication’: Lakhs of Bengal voters in race against time
Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
(1) Consider the following statements: (UPSC CSE 2017)
1. In the election for Lok Sabha or State Assembly, the winning candidate must get at least 50 percent of the votes polled, to be declared elected.
2. According to the provisions laid down in the Constitution of India, in Lok Sabha, the Speaker’s post goes to the majority party and the Deputy Speaker’s to the Opposition.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
a) 1 only
b) 2 only
c) Both 1 and 2
d) Neither 1 nor 2
Previous year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:
📍‘Simultaneous election to the Lok Sabha and the State Assemblies will limit the amount of time and money spent in electioneering but it will reduce the government’s accountability to the people’ Discuss. (UPSC CSE 2017)
34 cr LPG consumers: Average household use half cylinder per month
Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.
Mains Examination: General Studies III: Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.
What’s the ongoing story: As the energy crisis stemming from the conflict in West Asia continues to grow, data on consumption of liquified petroleum gas (LPG) shows that states with the most beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), a programme that largely targets rural households, tend to consume the most LPG overall, though each household in such states consumes less LPG per month than states with more urban populations.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What is liquified petroleum gas (LPG)?
• What data on consumption of liquified petroleum gas (LPG) shows?
• Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY)-Know in detail
• What exactly Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) data says?
• A war in West Asia chokes global energy flows-Analyse
• How India is impacted by war in West Asia?
• Map Work-West Asia, Strait of Hormuz
• India has expanded LPG coverage significantly in the last decade, yet average consumption remains low-Why?
Key Takeaways:
• Over the last three decades, as per data published by the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC), which falls under the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, India’s total LPG consumption has grown six-fold — from 446 TMT (thousand metric tonnes) in 1998-99 to 2,754 TMT in 2025-26.
• The 2000s and 2010s saw the highest growth rate of LPG consumption — between 8% and 11% each year. In 2016-17, after the launch of the PMUY, which provides free LPG connections and subsidised cylinders to poor and rural households, there was a considerable spike in LPG consumption – with a growth rate of 10.1% over the previous year. But since 2020, growth in consumption has slowed as LPG connections reached a saturation level.
• Earlier, while rural households traditionally relied on fuel sources like firewood and animal dung for cooking, the introduction of the PMUY resulted in an increasing acceptance of LPG as a cooking fuel. As per an answer to a Lok Sabha question, 80% of PMUY’s beneficiaries were rural households as of end-2024.
• As of today, there are 33.37 crore LPG customers across India, including 10.56 crore PMUY connections. The PPAC data, as of December 2025, shows that largely rural and poorer states have the most LPG consumers, particularly under PMUY, and the highest total monthly LPG consumption.
• Uttar Pradesh alone, with 4.87 crore LPG consumers including 1.88 crore PMUY beneficiaries, accounts for 15% of India’s total LPG consumers. The other states with the most LPG consumers are Maharashtra at 3.2 crore, West Bengal at 2.72 crore, Tamil Nadu at 2.4 crore, Bihar at 2.33 crore and Karnataka at 1.9 crore.
• An analysis of monthly average consumption of LPG per household shows that urban consumers use far more cooking gas than rural ones.
• This consumption pattern has a strong correlation with PMUY beneficiaries, 80% of whom live in rural areas. In the states with the most Ujjwala connections, like Bihar and UP, a majority of the population is rural. A comparison of average monthly LPG consumption per household of a largely rural state like Bihar with a mostly urban one like Delhi suggests that while rural households have the connections, they are likely stretching their cylinders out over longer periods or using other cooking fuels, whereas urban households rely on LPG exclusively and use it more intensively.
• The per-household monthly usage also correlates with per capita income. Households in richer states are more likely than poorer states to consume more LPG each month.
Do You Know:
• LPG is produced as a byproduct of refining crude oil or processing liquified natural gas (LNG). Between 2011-12 and 2024-25, crude oil imports have grown by 40% in volume and LNG imports have doubled.
• While India sees seasonal spikes in LPG consumption every year, particularly during festive periods and in the winter, consumption has seen a consistent year-on-year growth over the past two-and-a-half decades as more and more households turned to LPG as a clean fuel source for cooking.
• LPG consumption saw the highest growth rates in the 2000s and 2010s, between 8% and 11% each year.
• In 2016-17, after the launch of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), which provides free LPG connections and heavily subsidised cylinders to poor and rural households, LPG consumption recorded a growth spike of 10.1% over the previous year. That year also saw a sharp rise in LPG imports, to 11,097 TMT from the 8,959 in the previous year.
👁 LPG production and consumption
• Data shows India’s reliance on imports of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), used in crores of domestic and commercial kitchens, has grown consistently in recent decades. Now, as much as 60% of India’s LPG supply comes from outside the country. To ensure a steady supply of LPG, particularly to households, the government has ordered a 25% increase in domestic production and widened the gap between cylinder bookings from 21 days to 25 days for urban households and to 45 days for rural households. It has even made fuels such as kerosene, biomass and coal available for commercial users.
• According to data published by the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC), which falls under the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, India has been a net importer of crude oil and LPG since 1999, the earliest year for which data is available.
• In May 2016, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MOPNG), introduced the ‘Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana’ (PMUY) as a flagship scheme with an objective to make clean cooking fuel such as LPG available to the rural and deprived households which were otherwise using traditional cooking fuels such as firewood, coal, cow-dung cakes etc. Usage of traditional cooking fuels had detrimental impacts on the health of rural women as well as on the environment.
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Explained, in 3 charts: How India became so dependent on LPG imports
📍Why LPG sector is the worst hit by Iran war
UPSC Prelims Practice Question Covering similar theme:
(2) Consider the following statements regarding the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY):
1. It aims to provide LPG connections to women from poor households.
2. The scheme is implemented by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
3. The scheme provides a free LPG cylinder every month to beneficiaries.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
a) 1 and 2 only
b) 2 and 3 only
c) 1 only
d) 1, 2 and 3
Nation
Nor’wester wreaks havoc in Odisha, 2 dead
Preliminary Examination: Indian and World Geography
Mains Examination: General Studies I: Important Geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes, Tsunami, Volcanic activity, cyclone etc., geographical features and their location-changes in critical geographical features (including water-bodies and ice-caps) and in flora and fauna and the effects of such changes.
What’s the ongoing story: At least two people died and several others sustained severe injuries as a Nor’wester wreaked havoc in the Karanjia area in Mayurbhanj district on Sunday afternoon, officials said.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What are Nor’westers?
• How Nor’westers are formed?
• What is the significance of Nor’westers?
• What are the impacts of Nor’wester storms on agriculture and rural livelihoods in eastern India?
• Why are Nor’westers called Kalbaisakhi?
• What are the other local winds of India?
• Know the difference between Nor’wester storms, Western Disturbances, and tropical cyclones.
• Why are Nor’wester storms important for tea plantations in eastern India?
Key Takeaways:
• Two panchayats under Karanjia subdivision were severely lashed by strong winds followed by heavy rainfall, thunderstorm and lightning, leaving a trail of destruction, including uprooted trees, electricity poles and damaged thatched houses.
• Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi expressed concern over the deaths and directed the administration to ensure good treatment to the injured. Majhi also announced ex gratia of Rs 4 lakh each to the next of kin of the deceased.
• According to the Mayurbhanj Collector, officials have been rushed to the affected areas to take stock of the situation and to assess the damage, following which victims will be compensated.
Do You Know:
• According to NCERT textbooks, the movement of air from high pressure area to low pressure areas is called wind.
Winds can be broadly divided into three types.
—Permanent winds – The trade winds, westerlies and easterlies are the permanent winds. These blow constantly throughout the year in a particular direction.
—Seasonal winds – These winds change their direction in different seasons. For example monsoons in India.
—Local winds – These blow only during a particular period of the day or year in a small area. For example, land and sea breeze. It is called loo.
• According to NCERT textbooks, a striking feature of the hot weather season is the ‘loo’. These are strong, gusty, hot, dry winds blowing during the day over the north and northwestern India. Sometimes they even continue until late in the evening. Direct exposure to these winds may even prove to be fatal. Dust storms are very common during the month of May in northern India. These storms bring temporary relief as they lower the temperature and may bring light rain and cool breeze. This is also the season for localised thunderstorms, associated with violent winds, torrential downpours, often accompanied by hail. In West Bengal, these storms are known as the ‘Kaal Baisakhi’. Towards the close of the summer season, pre-monsoon showers are common especially, in Kerala and Karnataka. They help in the early ripening of mangoes, and are often referred to as ‘mango showers’.
• Originating over east and northeast India, south Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh, the nor’westers are extremely severe thunderstorms accompanied by squally winds. Though the nor’westers were less active this summer, there were occasional instances in April and early
• In the early summer months (March and April), the daytime landmass heating over these regions triggers convection over some areas of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and sub-Himalayan West Bengal.
• As these convective clouds move towards West Bengal and Bangladesh, the nor’westers mix with the warm, moist air mass hovering over the Bay of Bengal, causing significant wind discontinuity. In addition, the local hills and thick forest cover combined with the sea breeze make it ideal for developing thunderstorm cloud cells. These thunderstorm events usually prevail between two to four hours during late afternoon hours.
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍India’s first research testbed to study Nor’westers getting ready: Here’s all you need to know
Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
(3) Consider the following statements: (UPSC CSE 2020)
1. Jet streams occur in the Northern Hemisphere only.
2. Only some cyclones develop an eye.
3. The temperature inside the eye of a cyclone is nearly 10C lesser than that of the surroundings.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
a) 1 only
b) 2 and 3 only
c) 2 only
d) 1 and 3 only
Vairamuthu wins Jnanpith; many rush to Tamil poet’s defence as MeToo allegations kick up dust
Preliminary Examination: Current events of national importance
Mains Examination: General Studies I: Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.
What’s the ongoing story: The Tamil poet and lyricist Vairamuthu, whose verses have shaped the language of popular music and modern Tamil poetry for more than four decades, has been chosen for the 2025 Jnanpith Award, India’s highest literary honour.
Key Points to Ponder:
• Read about the Jnanpith Award and its history?
• What is the significance of this award?
• Who was the first recipient of the Jnanpith Award?
• What is the process of selection?
• What you know about the #MeToo movement in India?
• How Jnanpith Award contributed to the preservation and promotion of India’s cultural heritage?
Key Takeaways:
• The announcement on Saturday placed him among a small group of Tamil writers to receive the prize — and immediately reopened a long-running debate about artistic achievement, accountability and the unresolved tensions of the #MeToo movement.
• The Bharatiya Jnanpith literary organisation said the 60th Jnanpith Award recognised Vairamuthu’s contributions to Tamil literature and his wide influence as a poet and lyricist. Since 1964, the award has been presented annually to writers in Indian languages and carries a cash prize of Rs 11 lakh, a bronze statuette of Saraswati and a citation presented by the President of India.
• Vairamuthu, 72, becomes only the third Tamil writer to receive the award, after Akilan in 1975 and Jayakanthan in 2002. Unlike them, he is the first to be honoured primarily for Tamil poetry rather than prose.
• Born in Theni district in 1953, Vairamuthu published his first poetry collection, Vaigarai Meengal, at the age of 18. He later entered the Tamil film industry as a lyricist with the 1980 film Nizhalgal, working with director Bharathiraja and composer Ilaiyaraaja. Over the next four decades, he wrote more than 8,000 songs and won seven National Film Awards for his lyrics, earning the honourific “Kaviperarasu”, or Emperor of Poets.
• The award, however, has been met with sharp criticism from some writers, artists and activists who point to sexual harassment allegations made against him during the #MeToo movement in India.
Do You Know:
• The Jnanpith Award, instituted in 1961 by the Bharatiya Jnanpith, is the oldest and most prestigious literary accolade in India. It honors authors for their exceptional contributions to literature in Indian languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, with English being included from the 49th award onwards.
• The award is not given posthumously, ensuring that it recognizes living writers for their literary excellence.
• The Jnanpith award carries with it a cash of Rs 11 lakh, a bronze statue of the Hindu Goddess Vagdevi and a citation.
• The #MeToo movement in India, gaining momentum in 2018, is a social media-driven, watershed campaign against workplace sexual harassment and abuse of power, predominantly affecting women. The #MeToo movement, which began as a hashtag on Twitter in 2017 amid the Weinstein incident
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
UPSC Prelims Practice Question Covering similar theme:
(4) With reference to the Jnanpith Award, consider the following statements:
1. It is the highest literary award in India.
2. It is given annually for contributions to Indian literature.
3. It is awarded only for works written in Hindi.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
a) 1 and 2 only
b) 2 and 3 only
c) 1 only
d) 1, 2 and 3
The Ideas Page
Disruption carries a reminder: Policy reforms in fertiliser sector are overdue
Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.
Mains Examination: General Studies III: Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.
What’s the ongoing story: Ashok Gulati and Ritika Juneja writes-There is a famous saying, “never let a serious crisis go to waste”. India’s landmark economic reforms in 1991 were the result of a balance-of-payments crisis. And today the country sits on comfortable foreign exchange reserves of over $728 billion, providing a good cushion to absorb external shocks. But the ongoing war in the Gulf between Iran on one side and Israel and the US on the other has exposed the vulnerabilities of energy and fertiliser supplies.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What are the structural challenges in fertilizer sector?
• What are the impact of geopolitical conflicts, such as ongoing West Asian Crisis, on India’s fertilizer supply chain and agricultural
economy?
• What you about the fertilizer subsidy regime in India?
• How global energy prices influence fertilizer production and agricultural costs in India.
• What is Essential Commodities Act?
• What are the immediate reforms suggested by the authors in fertilizer sector?
Key Takeaways:
Ashok Gulati, Ritika Juneja writes-
• The escalating war is threatening a major disruption in energy and fertiliser supplies. The risks extend to vital maritime chokepoints such as the Strait of Hormuz, through which a substantial share of global oil and gas trade passes. Any disruption in this corridor quickly ripples across commodity markets. Oil and gas, and by extension fertilisers, especially urea, have already felt the tremors.
• India’s exposure extends to cooking gas as well. The country imports about two-thirds of its LPG (31.3 Mt in FY25), much of which moves through the same corridor. As supplies tightened and import costs rose, domestic LPG prices were raised by Rs 60 per cylinder.
• India’s Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) imports have also been hit. In FY25 , the country imported about 27 Mt of LNG — roughly half of its requirement — worth around $15 billion, with Qatar accounting for nearly half of these imports. The disruptions across the Middle East pushed Asian spot LNG prices from around $10/mmBtu to $24-25/mmBtu within two weeks. By invoking the Essential Commodities Act, the government has prioritised gas allocation for households and transport, leaving fertiliser producers with only 70 per cent of their usual six-month consumption. This is likely to adversely hit the domestic production of urea.
• India consumes about 40 Mt of urea annually, but domestic output has stagnated at around 30 Mt, forcing rising imports that could exceed 10 Mt in FY26, nearly double the 5.6 Mt imported in FY25. Over 60 per cent of these imports come from the Persian Gulf region.
• Following the escalation in the war, global urea prices surged from about $484/tonne to $652/tonne within 10 days — a 35 per cent jump — and may rise further as uncertainty persists. The dependence runs deeper: Natural gas, the key feedstock for urea, is largely imported, supplying about 85 per cent of the gas used in domestic production. Once both direct urea imports and imported gas feedstock are considered, India’s effective import dependence in urea goes up to about 55 per cent.
Do You Know:
• For India, crude oil is the largest import item, with about 88 per cent of its requirement being met through imports. In the financial year 2024–25 (FY25), India imported approximately 243 million tonnes (Mt) of crude oil worth $137 billion, nearly half of which was sourced from the Middle East via the Strait of Hormuz.
• Dependence is similarly high for other fertiliser inputs. Over 80 per cent of ammonia and sulphur imports come from the Gulf, while around 40 per cent of DAP imports are sourced from Saudi Arabia. India also relies almost entirely on imports for potassic fertilisers (MOP) and about 90-95 per cent for phosphatic raw materials (rock and acid).
• India also exports agri-products to the Middle East ($11.8 billion in FY25), which are under strain. But the biggest worry is about imports of oil, gas, and fertilisers. If this crisis continues beyond a month or so, the country’s fertiliser subsidy bill in FY27 could cross Rs 2 lakh crore, against a budgeted figure of Rs 1.7 lakh crore.
• The answers to the ongoing crisis given by Ashok Gulati, Ritika Juneja are-
—India must diversify its imports beyond the Gulf countries. Complementing this, India should expand overseas investments in fertiliser minerals and production assets while accelerating domestic exploration of fertiliser resources.
—Establishing a dedicated fertiliser investment fund of say, $1 billion, could enable Indian companies to acquire equity stakes in global mining projects and finance domestic exploration, shifting India from reactive import dependence to investment-led supply security.
—Policy reforms in fertiliser pricing and subsidies are essential and overdue. Direct transfer of fertiliser subsidies to farmers and gradual deregulation of macro-nutrient prices would encourage balanced fertiliser use of N, P and K, while reducing fiscal pressures.
—At least bring urea under the Nutrient-Based Subsidy (NBS) framework, aligning its price with other fertilisers (P and K) and promoting
more balanced nutrient application.
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Why fertilisers could be the war’s soft underbelly victim for India
Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
(5) With reference to chemical fertilizers in India, consider the following statements: (UPSC CSE 2020)
1. At present, the retail price of chemical fertilizers is market-driven and not administered by the Government.
2. Ammonia, which is an input of urea, is produced from natural gas.
3. Sulphur, which is a raw material for phosphoric acid fertilizer, is a by-product of oil refineries.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
a) 1 only
b) 2 and 3 only
c) 2 only
d) 1, 2 and 3
Economy
India’s FDI policy tweak for LBCs: Who stands to gain from these changes
Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.
Mains Examination: General Studies III: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment.
What’s the ongoing story: To boost investment in key manufacturing sectors such as mobile phone components and rare earth magnets, the Union government this week announced calibrated changes in the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy for investments from Land Bordering Countries (LBCs), or those that share a land border with India.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What are the changes suggested in the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy for investments from Land Bordering Countries (LBCs)?
• Which countries share land borders with India?
• Know the rationale behind decision to require government approval for FDI from countries sharing land borders with India.
• National security concerns and economic openness in India’s foreign investment policy-Analyse
• What is Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)?
• What are the differences between FDI and FPI?
• Know the role of DPIIT and RBI in managing foreign investment flows in India.
Key Takeaways:
• The decision comes nearly six years after the government made its prior approval mandatory for Indian entities receiving investments from LBCs in April 2020. The changes, introduced through a document known as Press Note 3 or PN3, were to curb potential takeovers of local companies during the slump in equity valuations around Covid-19.
• PN3 was primarily meant for Chinese investors, as entities from Bangladesh and Pakistan can invest only under the government route, while investments from Nepal, Myanmar, Bhutan and Afghanistan comprise a minuscule share of India’s total foreign investment inflows.
• To fast-track decisions on investment proposals from LBCs, the government announced that applications from “specified sectors”, such as capital goods, electronic capital goods, electronic components, polysilicon, ingot-wafer and rare earth magnets “shall be processed and decided within 60 days.”
• Further, automatic approval would be given to investors with “non-controlling LBC Beneficial Ownership of up to 10 percent.” An equity ownership of up to 49% is typically considered “non-controlling”, while a beneficial owner is the owner and controller of an entity.
• The political decision to ease the PN3 restriction, which had a national security consideration, was taken after the Economic Survey 2023-24 made a strong case for attracting investment from Chinese companies to strengthen India’s export competitiveness. A high-level committee chaired by NITI Aayog member Rajiv Gauba also recommended withdrawing curbs on Chinese investments in the interest of the manufacturing sector.
Do You Know:
• The first amendment to PN3 defines “Beneficial Owner” and applies only to non-LBC investor entities, including global funds like BlackRock and Carlyle.
Here, cases below the threshold (10%) of non-controlling ownership in investor entities shall be permitted under the automatic route. Officials in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) have said that these funds, often having minimal Chinese ownership, were forced to require government approval under the PN3 restriction.
• The second amendment pertains to LBC investments, except from Pakistan, in “specified sectors”, defined as electronic capital goods manufacturing, electronic component manufacturing, polysilicon wafers, advanced battery components, rare earth permanent magnets and rare earth processing.
• Such investments have to ensure “Indian majority shareholding and control of the Investee entity at all times”. This effectively means that ventures in these sectors must have an Indian equity holding of 51% or more throughout their existence. The Committee of Secretaries under the Cabinet Secretary may also revise the list of sectors, DPIIT said.
• DPIIT officials clarified that the changes will primarily accrue to private equity and venture capital funds because the definition of “beneficial ownership” is only applicable to non-LBC entities. The automatic route will thus help entities with less than 10% shareholding from land bordering countries.
• Government officials said there is demand for electronic components, rare earth magnets, polysilicon wafers and India is import-dependent on these items. The idea behind the amendment is to bring capital and technology while ensuring that the majority stake remains with Indian companies.
• Electronic goods and rare earths — metallic elements used in a variety of key industries like defence and automobiles — are today central to the growth of high-value industries. China dominates the processing of rare earths and has used this to its advantage in its tariff war with the US, reiterating the need for countries to achieve self-sufficiency in the sector.
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍ExplainSpeaking: Why trading with China, as against the US, poses more challenges for India
Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
(6) Consider the following: (UPSC CSE 2021)
1. Foreign currency convertible bonds
2. Foreign institutional investment with certain conditions
3. Global depository receipts
4. Non-resident external deposits
Which of the above can be included in Foreign Direct Investments?
a) 1, 2 and 3
b) 3 only
c) 2 and 4
d) 1 and 4
How inflexible coal-fired plants harmIndia’s clean energy push
Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development
Mains Examination: General Studies III: Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.
What’s the ongoing story: Even as India rapidly expands its renewable energy capacity, the operational limitations of coal-fired power plants is emerging as a critical bottleneck in creating more headroom for clean energy in the national grid.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What are the challenges posed by the inflexibility of coal-fired power plants?
• India’s clean energy transition requires both renewable expansion and grid flexibility-Discuss
• Know the role of coal-based power plants in India’s energy security and climate commitments.
• What is the concept of “flexible thermal power generation?
Key Takeaways:
• With the addition of over 44 GW of renewable energy in 2025, India’s total installed renewable energy (RE) capacity has reached 262 GW, accounting for more than 51% of the country’s overall installed power capacity.
• But integrating this growing green energy into a grid is proving difficult. Addressing the issue, Ghanshyam Prasad, Chairperson of the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), said an incentive scheme is now being proposed to encourage thermal power plants to adopt greater operational flexibility.
• However, industry insiders remain unconvinced. They say running plants at lower loads can cause damage to boilers and turbines, increase wear and tear, and shorten the life of the units — risks that, in their view, financial incentives alone cannot fully address. This is true especially for the older thermal power plants in the country.
• Coal plants are expected to reduce output during peak solar hours — when generation from solar projects surges — and ramp up quickly after sunset when renewable supply dips. However, many of India’s coal-fired stations lack this operational flexibility.
• A recent report by energy think tank Ember estimated that India lost 2.3 terawatt-hours (TWh) of solar generation between May and December 2025 due to curtailment. That is enough electricity to power nearly 14 lakh households for a year.
• The financial impact is also significant. The curtailment resulted in an estimated compensation payout of Rs 5.75 billion to Rs 6.9 billion to RE generators, the Ember report said. Notably, renewable energy generators are compensated when curtailed during emergency conditions.
• Separately, a latest CEA report also highlighted the issue of heavy curtailment of renewable energy during peak solar hours during May- November last year as rising green power generation collided with the operational limits of coal-fired plants.
• The curtailment was largely necessitated because a significant portion of India’s coal-based thermal fleet is unable to operate below 55% minimum technical load (MTL), the report said. MTL is the lowest stable generation level at which a thermal unit can safely operate without shutting down.
Do You Know:
• India operates a unified national grid connecting generators, distribution utilities, and bulk consumers. Any demand-supply imbalance affects system frequency. The permissible band of system frequency is 49.900 Hz – 50.050 Hz. However, the latest CEA report said that in May last year, system frequency remained above the Indian Electricity Grid Code (IEGC) operating band for nearly 20% of the time. Sustained high-frequency conditions persisted for almost four hours during solar generation hours, reflecting the strain of surplus supply.
• Under the Detailed Procedure for Tertiary Reserve Ancillary Services (TRAS), renewable energy generators are compensated when curtailed during emergency conditions. They receive compensation at the energy charge rate adopted under the Electricity Act. This compensation is socialised across the power system and indirectly passed on to consumers through electricity tariffs. In effect, consumers pay for electricity that was generated but not used.
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Renewable energy to dominate India’s grid by 2070, but ‘structural challenges’ are slowing the pace
Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
(7) With reference to the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Limited (IREDA), which of the following statements is/are correct? (UPSC CSE 2015)
1. It is a Public Limited Government Company.
2. It is a Non-Banking Financial Company.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
a) 1 only
b) 2 only
c) Both 1 and 2
d) Neither 1 nor 2
Explained
SHANTI Act: How thorium can power India’s path to energy independence
Preliminary Examination: Current events of national importance
Mains Examination: General Studies III: Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.
What’s the ongoing story: The SHANTI Act 2025 represents a watershed moment for India’s atomic energy programme. It opens the doors of nuclear energy to the public and private sectors, academia and industry alike, fostering an ecosystem that responds to India’s needs and opportunities in this field.
Key Points to Ponder:
• The Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Act-know the key highlights and features
• What is High Assay Low Enriched Uranium (HALEU)?
• What is a Thorium-based nuclear reactor?
• How do fast breeder reactors support thorium nuclear energy?
• Thorium in India’s long-term nuclear energy strategy- know its significance
• What are the technological challenges associated with the commercialisation of thorium-based nuclear energy?
Key Takeaways:
• The growth of our nuclear generation capacity currently depends heavily on imported uranium. Domestic uranium ores are lean and costly to extract, though this does provide some insulation against supply disruptions. The ‘100 GWe by the year 2047’ nuclear energy mission announced by the Government consists largely of thermal reactors, which would require around 18,000–20,000 tonnes of mined uranium annually — roughly a third of current global production.
• By the time India reaches 100 GWe, global nuclear generation capacity is expected to grow from around 380 GWe today to around 1,400 GWe. At that scale, known global uranium resources of around 8 million tonnes could sustain the fleet in once-through mode for only about three decades.
• Two conclusions follow: uranium use in once-through mode is not sustainable, and securing our share of global uranium supply will become progressively more difficult.
• Nuclear capacity will need to grow well beyond 2047. Energy demand is perpetual, and fission must play its role, at least until fusion energy arrives at the requisite scale. The solution to uranium supply constraints in once-through mode is nuclear recycling, which increases the energy potential of nuclear fuel 50- to 100-fold. Yet, with a few notable exceptions — France, India, and Russia — most countries have not adopted recycling, citing fears of fissile material diversion for weapons proliferation.
• Shifting to thorium recycling changes this situation: India holds the world’s largest thorium reserves, and thorium use not only offers energy independence but also virtually eliminates proliferation risk. Resolving the remaining challenges of thorium utilisation is therefore urgent and demands a large, multidisciplinary effort with significant scope for innovation.
Do You Know:
• India’s three-stage nuclear power programme, designed to leverage thorium resources, envisages fast breeder reactors (FBRs) as the stage beyond thermal reactors. The first 500 MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor is almost ready. Beyond this, metal-fuelled FBRs with associated fuel recycling technology must also be developed to achieve the short doubling times needed to support rapid capacity growth. The phase in which fast reactor capacity grows in step with economic demand is, realistically, still about three decades away.
• The principal purpose of FBRs is to irradiate thorium at scale and produce the uranium-233 needed for the third stage. While that is delayed, the 100 GWe mission — fuelled largely by imported uranium — is driving Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) capacity well beyond the 10 GWe previously envisaged. This creates a valuable opportunity: irradiating thorium in PHWRs can advance uranium-233 production and accelerate deployment of third-stage Thorium Molten Salt Reactor (TMSR)-based Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). Doing so would recover some lost time and ease the inevitable slowdown in nuclear power growth between the first and second stages.
• Large-scale thorium irradiation can, in fact, be carried out in PHWRs with no significant design changes by using thorium in combination with HALEU (high-assay low-enriched uranium) as fuel. This approach offers additional benefits in economics, safety, and, as noted above, proliferation resistance. Most significantly, burnup levels comparable to light water reactors become achievable, leading to considerably less spent fuel and lower back-end costs.
• Qualifying such HALEU–thorium fuel requires accelerated irradiation testing and demonstration in actual PHWRs. India currently lacks facilities for accelerated irradiation testing, but existing international cooperation agreements can be leveraged — preferably as genuine partnerships rather than simple vendor–buyer arrangements.
• On fuel supply, India already imports both natural and enriched uranium; the HALEU supply chain is evolving rapidly, driven by demand from numerous next-generation reactor programmes worldwide.
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Parliament approves Nuclear Bill; SOP puts safety first, says MoS
📍Why Thorium-based nuclear power generation is key to securing India’s energy independence
Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
(8) With reference to India, consider the following statements (UPSC CSE 2022)
1. Monazite is a source of rare earths.
2. Monazite contains thorium.
3. Monazite occurs naturally in the entire Indian coastal sands in India.
4. In India, Government bodies only can process or export monazite.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
a) 1, 2 and 3 only
b) 1, 2 and 4 only
c) 3 and 4 only
d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
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