3 March 2026

• West Asia: Day 4 of the US-Israel offensive. Iran launched retaliatory strikes on Gulf Arab states. The Strait of Hormuz was formally announced closed.
• Nepal: Elections set for March 5 drew first-time analysis of the Rastriya Swatantra Party's surge.
• Economy: The February GST figure (₹1.83 lakh crore) was confirmed with state-level breakdowns. Import IGST share rose to 27 per cent of gross collections.
• Nuclear: Iran's damaged facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan made IAEA monitoring central.
• Environment: Bengaluru flooding analysis introduced hydrological hysteresis as a policy concept.

GS area: International Relations, Economy (energy)

Iran announced the formal closure of the Strait of Hormuz to all traffic on March 3. The implications for India became concrete:

• Strait basics: A narrow channel connecting the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. Iran controls the northern shore. Oman's Musandam exclave and the UAE occupy the southern shore.
• Traffic: In normal times roughly 21 per cent of the world's traded petroleum transits the strait daily, about 17 million barrels.
• India's vulnerability: India imports about 88 per cent of its crude requirement. Gulf nations supply roughly 60 per cent of total imports. About 40 per cent of India's annual natural gas imports come from Qatar via this route.
• Qatar LNG: Qatar halted production at the South Pars field (the world's largest natural gas field, shared with Iran) citing safety. India imports 40 per cent of its LNG from Qatar.
• Basmati rice exports: About 75 per cent of India's $6 billion annual basmati rice exports go to West Asian markets. Shipments were halted at ports.
• Air cargo rates: Jumped from ₹60 per kg to ₹215 per kg as airlines rerouted around West Asian airspace.
• Rupee: Fell to ₹91.49 on March 2 and continued depreciating.

The UNCLOS framework governs the legal status of the strait. Under Part III of UNCLOS, ships of all nations have the right of transit passage through international straits used for international navigation. Iran's closure claim is therefore challenged under international law by the US and most maritime nations.

Static linkage: World geography (chokepoints), energy security, maritime law (GS I, GS III).

GS area: International Relations, Science and Technology

US and Israeli strikes damaged three key Iranian nuclear facilities:

• Fordow: An underground enrichment facility built inside a mountain near Qom, designed to survive air attack. Now partially damaged.
• Natanz: The main uranium enrichment complex. The site where centrifuge operations for both low-enriched and high-enriched uranium took place.
• Isfahan: A fuel production and research site. The IAEA found that enriched uranium stockpiles at Isfahan were largely intact despite US claims to the contrary.

The legal angle:

• NPT: Iran is a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968. Signatories may run civilian nuclear programmes under IAEA safeguards.
• JCPOA (2015): The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was signed by Iran and the P5+1 (US, UK, France, Russia, China, Germany). The US withdrew in 2018. No replacement deal was agreed before the strikes.
• Geneva Conventions Additional Protocol I, Article 56: Prohibits attacks on nuclear facilities where damage could release dangerous forces on the civilian population. The strikes raised allegations of this violation.
• IAEA: Founded in 1957. Headquarters in Vienna. 176 member states. Its safeguards inspections are the only international verification mechanism for civilian nuclear activity.

Static linkage: Nuclear non-proliferation, international law (GS II, International Relations).

GS area: International Relations (neighbourhood)

Nepal's general election was three days away. The landscape:

• House of Representatives: 275 seats total. 165 elected by first-past-the-post. 110 by proportional representation.
• Established parties: Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) have dominated since the 2015 Constitution.
• New challengers: The Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), founded in 2022 by Rabi Lamichhane, ran on an anti-corruption, youth-oriented platform. Its supporters included those who joined the September 2025 Gen-Z protests in which 77 people were killed and K.P. Sharma Oli's government was toppled.
• Balen Shah: Then Kathmandu Mayor, age 35, a structural engineer and former rapper. Ran as the RSP's prime ministerial candidate.
• India's interest: A stable Nepal with predictable foreign policy is a structural interest. Post-2025 upheaval, India engaged cautiously with the new political actors to avoid being seen as favouring any party.

Static linkage: Neighbourhood policy, India-Nepal relations (GS II).

GS area: International Relations, Economy

PM Mark Carney's India visit (February 27 to March 2, 2026) produced a package of agreements:

• Uranium supply: A $1.9 billion, 10-year agreement via Cameco. Canada is the world's second-largest uranium producer.
• CEPA: Terms of Reference formally signed. The target was a doubling of bilateral trade from roughly $10 billion today to $70 billion by 2030.
• Critical minerals: An MoU on lithium, cobalt, and rare earths. India's EV and electronics industries depend on these inputs. Canada has significant reserves in its northern territories.
• Institutional investment: Canadian pension funds have committed CAD $100 billion-plus in Indian infrastructure over the medium term.

The relationship had been under strain since 2023 over allegations of Indian government involvement in the killing of a Canadian Sikh activist. The Carney government reset the bilateral tone.

Static linkage: Bilateral trade, critical minerals, civil nuclear (GS II, GS III).

GS area: Polity (social justice)

The Karnataka Cabinet failed to reach a decision on implementing the Supreme Court's 2024 ruling on SC sub-classification. The background:

• Davinder Singh (2024): A seven-judge Constitution Bench held that states may sub-classify the Scheduled Caste reservation to prioritise the most marginalised sub-groups. This overruled the E.V. Chinnaiah judgment of 2004 which had treated SCs as a homogeneous class.
• Karnataka's numbers: 56,432 government posts were ready for recruitment. The state's existing SC quota is 15 per cent. Proposed internal sub-classification would create separate slots for groups like the Madiga and Holeya communities, who argued they received fewer benefits than other SC groups.
• Indra Sawhney (1992): This is the foundational case that upheld the 50 per cent cap on total reservation and the concept of the creamy layer for OBCs. It did not directly apply to SCs but is the backdrop for all reservation jurisprudence.
• H.N. Nagamohan Das Commission: Karnataka appointed this commission to gather empirical data on which SC sub-groups are most marginalised, as evidence for any sub-classification decision.

Static linkage: Reservation policy, SC/ST rights (GS II).

GS area: Society, Public health

The World Obesity Federation released its 2026 atlas. India's numbers:

• India's ranking: Second globally for the number of children with high BMI, after China.
• Scale: About 41 million children in India have a high BMI. Of these, about 14 million are classified as obese (BMI above 30 by WHO standards).
• Physical activity: 74 per cent of Indian adolescents fail to meet recommended activity levels.
• School meals: Only 35.5 per cent of school-age children receive any school meal programme.
• Early breastfeeding: 32.6 per cent of infants face sub-optimal breastfeeding in the first six months.

Government programmes relevant here:

• PM POSHAN (Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman): Renamed from the Mid-Day Meal Scheme in 2021. Covers Classes 1 to 8.
• POSHAN Abhiyan: National Nutrition Mission (2018 onward). Targets stunting, undernutrition, anaemia, and low birth weight. The obesity dimension was not its original focus.

Static linkage: Social sector, nutrition policy (GS II).

• India's SPR covers only 25 days: Earlier reports had cited 9.5 days for crude imports. Some estimates count both crude and product reserves. The consistent UPSC-relevant fact is that the IEA recommends 90 days and India falls far short regardless of which measure is used.
• Vijay Diwas context on IRIS Dena: The Iranian frigate IRIS Dena (IRIS = Islamic Republic of Iran Ship) was sunk on March 4 by a US submarine torpedo near Sri Lanka, the first torpedo sinking of a warship since World War II. It had participated in the International Fleet Review 2026 at Visakhapatnam days earlier.