22 August 2025

• Polity: Ninth Schedule : 280 laws protected from judicial review. Post-1973 laws are subject to basic structure review.
• Economy: Inflation targeting framework review due March 2026. July CPI at 1.55 per cent : second-lowest on record.
• Governance: Kerala becomes India's first fully digitally literate state under Digi Kerala project.
• Health: Fortified rice scheme extended to December 2028 with Rs 17,082 crore central funding.
• Justice: Chhattisgarh High Court's "disciplinary" framing of custodial torture draws Supreme Court attention.

GS area: Polity (Constitutional Law)

The Ninth Schedule of the Constitution protects laws listed in it from being challenged on grounds that they violate fundamental rights.

• Introduced: First Constitutional Amendment, 1951. Proposed by V.K. Thiruvenkatachari, then Advocate General of Madras, to protect land reform laws from being struck down by courts citing property rights.
• Current coverage: Over 280 laws are listed. The schedule includes land reform acts, language protection laws and other social welfare legislation.
• Kesavananda Bharati (1973): Introduced the basic structure doctrine. Laws added to the Ninth Schedule after April 24, 1973 can be challenged if they violate the basic structure.
• Waman Rao v. Union of India (1981): Clarified the dividing line : laws inserted before April 24, 1973 are fully protected; post-1973 laws are subject to basic structure review.
• Land reform significance: "UP alone abolished 2 crore acres of landlord holdings by 1960" under laws that the Ninth Schedule protected from court challenge. This is the original purpose of the schedule.

Static linkage: Constitutional law, land reform, Polity.

GS area: Economy (Monetary Policy)

India's flexible inflation targeting framework : which mandates the RBI to keep CPI at 4 per cent with a 2 per cent tolerance band : is due for its five-year review by March 2026.

• July 2025 CPI: 1.55 per cent : the second-lowest reading since the series began. Food prices fell sharply with a strong monsoon.
• Food's share in CPI: Almost 50 per cent of the basket. This makes India's inflation data highly sensitive to food price volatility : a structural feature that complicates monetary policy.
• RBI's position: Retaining the 4 per cent target preserves credibility. Lowering the target when inflation is already low would be seen as gaming the metric.
• Historical range (2014-2025): CPI moved between 1.5 per cent and 8.6 per cent. The framework survived both extremes.
• S&P credit upgrade link: S&P specifically cited RBI's inflation management as a factor in upgrading India's sovereign rating.

Static linkage: Monetary policy, inflation, RBI.

GS area: Governance, Society (Digital Inclusion)

Kerala completed the Digi Kerala Phase 1 project, making it the first state in India declared fully digitally literate.

• Survey scope: 1.5 crore individuals from 83.46 lakh families were surveyed for digital literacy.
• Digitally illiterate identified: 21.88 lakh persons.
• Training completion: 21.87 lakh : 99.98 per cent of those identified as illiterate completed training.
• Remarkable participant: 104-year-old M.A. Abdullah Moulavi Baqavi completed the digital literacy programme.
• Digital literacy definition: The ability to access, understand and use digital devices and the internet for basic needs : banking, government services, communication.

Static linkage: Digital governance, social inclusion, Kerala.

GS area: Governance (Health and Nutrition Schemes)

The Cabinet extended the fortified rice scheme through December 2028 with 100 per cent central funding of Rs 17,082 crore.

• Nutrients added: Iron, folic acid and Vitamin B12 : addressing the most prevalent micronutrient deficiencies in India.
• Pilot: Launched in 2019. National scale-up began in 2022.
• Coverage schemes: PDS, PM POSHAN (midday meals), ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) and special nutrition initiatives.
• Status as of March 2024: Fortified rice had replaced normal rice in all central schemes.
• Mechanism: Rice kernels are fortified by blending a small proportion of pre-fortified rice with regular rice at the blending facility.

Static linkage: Nutrition, welfare schemes, governance.

GS area: Polity (Judiciary), Social Justice

A Chhattisgarh High Court verdict reduced a murder conviction (Section 302 IPC) to culpable homicide (Section 304) in a case of custodial death, framing the police violence as "disciplinary" rather than criminal.

• Case facts: A Dalit man arrested by police died with 26 postmortem injuries. The trial court convicted four officers of murder. The High Court reduced the charge.
• "Teaching a lesson" framing: The High Court rationalised the violence as an attempt at discipline. The Supreme Court took note of this framing as normative of custodial violence.
• D.K. Basu case (1997): The landmark Supreme Court case that established mandatory safeguards for arrest and detention : informing family, medical examination, legal aid. Violation of D.K. Basu guidelines is itself a contempt of court.
• SC/ST Act problem: Courts have demanded explicit evidence of caste intent for SC/ST Act charges, ignoring structural caste bias. Critics argue this sets an impossible evidentiary standard.
• Munshi Singh Gautam v. State of M.P. (2005): Condemned police brutality in explicit terms. The Chhattisgarh High Court did not engage with this precedent.

Static linkage: Social justice, judiciary, custodial violence.

GS area: Economy (Capital Markets)

SEBI proposed a formalised platform for trading shares of unlisted companies before their IPO.

• Problem with the grey market: Unregulated pre-IPO share trading occurs in the grey market. Prices are opaque, tax compliance is poor and investor protection is absent.
• SEBI's proposal: A regulated, SEBI-supervised platform for pre-IPO secondary transactions. This would promote fair price discovery and bring transactions under the tax net.
• Investor benefit: Retail investors who miss the IPO window could access pre-IPO shares through a transparent market rather than grey market intermediaries.
• Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA): Separately, CCPA fined Rapido Rs 10 lakh for a misleading advertisement : "Auto in 5 min or get Rs 50" : and ordered consumer compensation. CCPA was established in July 2020 under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.

Static linkage: Capital markets, SEBI, consumer protection.

• NOTTO directive: The National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation directed priority allocation of donated organs to female patients and female relatives of deceased donors, addressing the gender disparity in organ access.
• NTCA tiger corridor restrictions: National Tiger Conservation Authority limited tiger corridor designations to 32 "least cost pathways" from its 2014 report, excluding newer scientific studies. Critics argue this narrows conservation options.
• Vocational education crisis (Legacy IAS August 22): ITI seat utilisation at only 48 per cent. Employment rate of ITI graduates 63 per cent : versus 80 to 90 per cent in Germany and Singapore. India allocates 3 per cent of education budget to VET versus 10 to 13 per cent in developed nations.