4 December 2025

• Parliament: Winter Session disruption continues; 17th Lok Sabha is on track to be the shortest in sitting days since 1952.
• Climate: India's non-fossil power capacity crossed 50 per cent in June 2025 ahead of the 2030 NDC target.
• Environment: Supreme Court ruling allows regularisation of projects built without prior environmental clearance, drawing a sharp dissent.
• BRICS: Thailand joins as a new member; India chairs the grouping in 2026.
• Technology: Google's Tensor Processing Units set a benchmark for AI hardware specialisation.

GS area: GS II - Parliament; Constitutional bodies

The 17th Lok Sabha (2019 to 2024) held the fewest sitting days of any Lok Sabha since 1952. The Winter Session of 2025 continues the trend.

• Historical baseline: The first few Lok Sabhas held over 100 to 120 sitting days per year.
• 17th Lok Sabha: Recorded the lowest total number of sitting days since the first general election.
• Bills without committee review: Less than 30 per cent of Bills introduced in the 17th Lok Sabha were referred to parliamentary standing committees.
• Winter Session trigger: The current session began amid protests over electoral roll revision processes in several states.
• Structural cause: The Business Advisory Committee, which schedules legislative work, is often not convened in advance. This leaves floor time reactive rather than planned.

Static linkage: Parliamentary functioning; Role of standing committees; Anti-defection law

GS area: GS III - Environment; Energy

India's Nationally Determined Contribution targets have been revised with a more ambitious 2035 framework.

• Non-fossil milestone: India's non-fossil electricity generation capacity crossed 50 per cent in June 2025. This is ahead of the 2030 NDC target of 50 per cent.
• Renewable share: Renewables reached a 51.5 per cent daily share of electricity generation on a peak day in July 2025.
• Emission intensity: India has already reduced emission intensity of GDP by 36 per cent compared to 2005 levels.
• NDC 2035 targets: Emission intensity reduction target raised to 65 per cent by 2035. Non-fossil capacity target set at 80 per cent by 2035 (total 1,600 GW with 1,200 GW from solar and wind).
• Coal commitment: No new unabated coal plants to be sanctioned after 2030.
• Transport targets: 50 per cent electric urban buses by 2035 and 100 per cent three-wheeler electrification.
• Carbon market: Carbon Credit Trading Scheme to be operational from April 2026.
• Financing gap: $62 billion per year is needed to meet 2026 to 2035 targets. India has flagged this as contingent on developed country finance and technology transfer.

Static linkage: Nationally Determined Contributions; Paris Agreement; Renewable energy policy

GS area: GS I - Culture and heritage

The 26th edition of the Hornbill Festival runs from 1 to 10 December at Kisama Heritage Village near Kohima, Nagaland.

• Festival origin: Started in 2000 by the Nagaland government to promote inter-tribal cultural exchange and tourism.
• Named after: The Hornbill bird, which is revered across most Naga tribes for its beauty and cultural significance. The bird appears in headgear and folklore.
• Tribes represented: 17 Naga tribes participate.
• Venue: Kisama Heritage Village, approximately 12 km from Kohima.
• Cultural content: Morungs (traditional youth dormitories) of each tribe are re-created. Tribal dances, games, craft markets and food stalls represent each tribe's traditions.

Static linkage: Naga tribes and culture; North-east India heritage; Cultural festivals of India

GS area: GS III - Digital infrastructure; Government schemes

PM-WANI (Prime Minister Wi-Fi Access Network Interface) is a public Wi-Fi scheme launched on 9 December 2020 by the Department of Telecommunications.

• No licence requirement: Small shops and establishments can set up Wi-Fi access points without a telecom licence, making it the first scheme to do this.
• Four-tier architecture:
  1. Public Data Offices (PDOs): the shops or outlets providing Wi-Fi hotspots.
  2. Public Data Office Aggregators (PDOAs): entities that aggregate and manage PDOs.
  3. App Providers: who build apps for users to discover and pay for Wi-Fi access.
  4. Central Registry: maintained by C-DoT (Centre for Development of Telematics).
• Current reach: 3.9 lakh hotspots nationwide.
• Policy goal: Bridging the digital divide by providing affordable internet access in rural and peri-urban areas through existing retail infrastructure.

Static linkage: Digital India; Telecom policy; DoT schemes

GS area: GS II - Institutions; Parliament

The government introduced the Indian Statistical Institute Draft Bill 2025 to convert ISI into a statutory body.

• ISI founding: Founded in 1931 by Professor P.C. Mahalanobis in Calcutta.
• P.C. Mahalanobis: Known for the Mahalanobis distance (a statistical measure) and for designing India's Second Five-Year Plan model.
• Existing status: ISI has been an Institution of National Importance since 1959 under an Act of Parliament.
• Bill provisions: The new Bill makes ISI a statutory body with the President of India as its Visitor. It changes governance structures.
• Controversy: Faculty and staff have protested the governance changes, arguing they reduce academic autonomy and increase government control over a research institution.

Static linkage: Institutions of National Importance; Statistical system of India

GS area: GS II - Constitutional bodies; Social justice

The NCBC recommended excluding 35 communities from the OBC list in West Bengal.

• Constitutional basis: Article 338B, inserted by the 102nd Constitutional Amendment Act 2018.
• Composition: Five members appointed by the President of India.
• Powers: The NCBC has powers equivalent to a civil court for summons, evidence and inspection.
• Functions: Examines complaints from backward classes, advises on social and educational development of OBCs and participates in planning.
• 102nd Amendment significance: This amendment also inserted Article 342A, which empowers the President to specify the Central OBC list. It limited states' power to add or delete from the Central list without the President's concurrence.

Static linkage: OBC reservation; NCBC; 102nd Constitutional Amendment

GS area: GS III - Environment; GS II - Judiciary

The Supreme Court, in CREDAI v Vanashakti (November 2025), reversed its earlier May 2025 ruling. The November judgment allows regularising construction projects that were built without prior environmental clearance.

• Prior environmental clearance: Required under the Environment Impact Assessment Notification 2006 before commencing construction on projects above specified thresholds.
• May 2025 ruling: The Court had held that post-facto clearances violate the precautionary principle and Article 21 (right to a clean environment).
• November 2025 reversal: The Court allowed regularisation subject to conditions, overturning its own earlier position.
• Justice Ujjal Bhuyan's dissent: He wrote that allowing post-facto clearances "turns illegality into its own justification." The dissent invokes Article 21 and the precautionary principle.
• Precautionary principle: An international environmental law norm requiring that when an activity poses risk of harm, precautionary measures must be taken even without full scientific certainty.

The dissent carries significant weight. Allowing builders to regularise violations after construction undermines the entire prior-clearance framework. The ruling creates a moral hazard.

Static linkage: Environmental Impact Assessment; Precautionary principle; Article 21

GS area: GS III - Environment; Climate policy

India's revised NDC framework for 2026 to 2035 is built around seven action pillars.

• Pillar 1: Reduce emission intensity of GDP by 65 per cent from 2005 levels by 2035.
• Pillar 2: Achieve 80 per cent non-fossil electricity capacity by 2035. Target: 1,600 GW total with 1,200 GW from solar and wind.
• Pillar 3: No new unabated coal power plants after 2030.
• Pillar 4: 50 per cent electric urban buses by 2035.
• Pillar 5: 100 per cent three-wheeler electrification by 2035.
• Pillar 6: Carbon Credit Trading Scheme operational from April 2026.
• Pillar 7: $62 billion per year in climate finance from developed countries as a conditionality.

Static linkage: Paris Agreement; India's climate commitments; Carbon markets

GS area: GS II - International relations; Groupings

Thailand has formally joined BRICS as the grouping continues its expansion.

• BRICS size: Now 11 member countries following the 2024 expansion round.
• Thailand basics: Capital Bangkok. Borders Myanmar to the northwest, Laos to the north and northeast, Cambodia to the east and Malaysia to the south.
• India's BRICS chair: India holds the BRICS chairship in 2026.
• BRICS+ expansion logic: The grouping seeks to build a bloc of emerging economies that can negotiate collectively on global financial architecture, trade settlement currencies and development finance.

Static linkage: BRICS; India's multilateral diplomacy; South-East Asia geography

GS area: GS III - Science and technology; Artificial intelligence

Google's Tensor Processing Units are custom chips designed specifically for machine learning workloads.

• What a TPU is: An Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) built to accelerate the matrix multiplication operations that dominate machine learning training and inference.
• History: Google deployed the first TPU internally in 2015. External cloud access was opened in 2018.
• Architecture: TPUs use 128 by 128 Arithmetic Logic Unit arrays optimised for the specific operations needed in neural networks.
• Advantage over CPUs and GPUs: TPUs deliver substantially higher throughput for ML tasks at lower energy per operation than general-purpose processors.
• UPSC relevance: TPUs illustrate the trend of purpose-built AI hardware as a strategic asset. Nations without domestic chip design capacity depend on foreign suppliers for AI infrastructure.

Static linkage: Artificial intelligence policy; Semiconductor strategy; Digital economy

• Hornbill Festival: The festival is also an economic event. Nagaland's tourism revenue spikes in December. The state promotes it as a vehicle for preserving dying traditions and creating livelihood.