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Critical Topics and Their Significance for the UPSC CSE Examination on May 19, 2025

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Why is there variation in fertility rates?

For Preliminary Examination: Total Fertility Rate (TFR) , Crude Birth Rate (CBR)

For Mains Examination: GS III - Science and Technology

Context:

The Sample Registration System (SRS) Statistical Report of 2021, released by the Office of the Registrar General of India recently, showed that India has maintained its Total Fertility Rate (TFR) at 2.0 — the same as reported in 2020. While the national average for TFR has remained the same, there is a wide regional variation in TFR data for States and Union Territories (UTs) reported independently.

Read about:

Total Fertility Rate (TFR) at 2.0

Sex Ratio at Birth

General Fertility Rate

Key takeaways:

• The Sample Registration System (SRS) Statistical Report for 2021, published by the Office of the Registrar General of India, indicates that India's Total Fertility Rate (TFR) has remained stable at 2.0, consistent with the figure reported in 2020.
• Although the national TFR has not changed, there are significant regional disparities in fertility rates across various States and Union Territories. Bihar recorded the highest TFR at 3.0, whereas West Bengal and Delhi reported the lowest at 1.4.
• Over the ten-year span from 2009-11 to 2019-21, TFR has shown a steady decline both at the national and state levels, though the pace of decline has varied.
• The SRS calculates TFR as the average number of children a woman is expected to bear during her reproductive years, defined as between ages 15 and 49. This metric is derived using age-specific fertility rates, which estimate the fertility of women within specific age groups.
• The SRS survey, which is India’s largest demographic survey, collects annual data on fertility and mortality indicators. The 2021 edition covered 8,842 sample units across all States and UTs, representing a population sample of around 84 lakh individuals.
• In addition to TFR, the report includes other fertility-related metrics such as the Crude Birth Rate (CBR), Sex Ratio at Birth, General Fertility Rate, Age-Specific Fertility Rate, and the Gross Reproduction Rate.
• The CBR measures the number of live births per 1,000 people, while the General Fertility Rate counts live births per 1,000 women of reproductive age. The Gross Reproduction Rate assesses the average number of daughters a woman is expected to have, who will themselves become mothers.
• Importantly, India’s TFR has now dropped below the replacement level of 2.1, which is the threshold needed for a generation to replace itself. In 2021, only six States had TFRs exceeding this replacement level: Bihar (3.0), Uttar Pradesh (2.7), Madhya Pradesh (2.6), Rajasthan (2.4), Jharkhand (2.3), and Chhattisgarh (2.2). All other States reported TFRs at or below 2.1.
• The report also notes that India’s Crude Birth Rate stood at 19.3 in 2021, having declined at an average annual rate of 1.12% since 2016. Most large States and UTs have shown a decreasing trend in CBR, with the exception of Uttarakhand, which recorded a slight increase. Notably, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Delhi have experienced the fastest rate of decline in CBR, almost double the national average

Follow Up Question

How is cyberbullying tackled under the law?

For preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international significance

For Mains Examination: GS II - Governance

Context:

In the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack, Himanshi Narwal, the wife of slain Navy Lt. Vinay Narwal, issued an appeal for peace, rejecting the vilification of Muslims and Kashmiris. However, her message triggered a wave of vicious trolling on X. Similarly, after Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri announced on May 10 that India and Pakistan had reached an understanding to halt military hostilities, his account was flooded with abusive messages, with many targeting even his daughter.

Read about:

Cybercrime

Cyberbullying

Key takeaways:

Various terms have emerged to describe different types of cybercrimes, such as cyberbullying, online stalking, and doxxing. Doxxing—a term derived from "dropping documents"—refers to the unauthorized disclosure of someone's private information, often resulting in harassment or even threats in real life. Research indicates that such forms of abuse disproportionately impact women and marginalized communities.

India does not have a specific law to directly address online hate speech or trolling. Instead, certain sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, and the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000, apply to cyberbullying incidents. The BNS includes relevant sections such as:

• Section 74: Assault or criminal force with the intent to outrage a woman's modesty

• Section 75: Sexual harassment

• Section 351: Criminal intimidation

• Section 356: Defamation

• Section 196: Inciting hatred between communities

Complementing these, the IT Act includes:

• Section 66C: Identity theft

• Section 66D: Online impersonation

• Section 67: Circulating obscene content through digital means

The monsoon’s green energy potential

For Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international sognificance

For Mains Examination: GS III - Environment & Ecology

Context:

As the sweltering heat of summer reaches its peak, our thoughts turn towards the approaching rainy season. Data collected by weather stations and rain gauges for over a century tell us that this season begins with the arrival of the southwest monsoon over Kerala on June 1, give or take a week. Weather forecasting has become more accurate in recent years, and it is predicted that the monsoon will reach Kerala around May 27 this year

Read about:

Southwest Monsoons

Renewable energy

Key takeaways:

• As the intense heat of summer reaches its peak, thoughts naturally shift toward the upcoming rainy season. Historical data collected over more than a century from weather stations and rain gauges indicate that the southwest monsoon typically arrives in Kerala around June 1, with a margin of about a week. Thanks to improvements in weather forecasting, this year’s prediction suggests the monsoon could reach Kerala as early as May 27.
• Moisture-laden southwesterly winds originating over the Indian Ocean, combined with powerful air currents over the Arabian Sea from East Africa—known as the Somali Jet Stream—bring much-needed relief to the region, rejuvenating both the environment and our spirits.
• Beyond refreshing rains, these winds also symbolize a shift toward renewable energy. Growing concerns over climate change have highlighted the urgent necessity to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, a challenge India faces acutely as about 75% of its electricity is coal-generated.
• To address this, the Central Electricity Authority has set an ambitious target of achieving 121 GW of installed wind power capacity by 2032, building on the current capacity of 45 GW.
• Unlike fossil fuel plants that can produce electricity on demand, renewable sources like wind are intermittent, leading to lower utilization rates. Therefore, accurate forecasting of wind availability is vital to optimizing investments in wind energy.
• The overarching objective is to maximize electricity generation while minimizing fossil fuel consumption. Seasonal climate forecasts, starting at the regional level, play a key role in this planning. For instance, Rajasthan experiences weak winds from October to December.
• Monsoons significantly influence the climate and can be predicted and modeled similarly to rainfall. Power demand in cities spikes during summer, while agricultural electricity consumption peaks during the monsoon, particularly for kharif crops grown from June to October, which require more energy than the winter rabi crops. Wind turbines in regions like the Western Ghats produce about 70% of their annual electricity output between June and September.
• However, surface wind speeds during the monsoon season can vary widely. Accurately forecasting this variability helps prevent either shortages or excesses in power generation.
• This has driven advances in numerical weather prediction models that operate at fine spatial resolutions, sometimes just a few hundred meters to a kilometer. Utilizing these models, the National Institute of Wind Energy in Chennai has created a Wind Atlas of India—a valuable resource for planning new wind farms.
• Techniques such as Google’s MetNet3 enable the integration of sparse meteorological data—like wind speed and temperature—from relatively few weather stations. This allows the creation of high-resolution wind speed maps that estimate conditions between stations, enhancing the accuracy of wind forecasts with limited direct measurements

 Follow Up Question

1.Which of the following statements about renewable energy in India is/are correct?

1. India’s Central Electricity Authority aims to install 121 GW of wind power capacity by 2032.

2. Renewable energy sources like wind provide constant power generation similar to fossil fuel plants.

3. Seasonal climate forecasting plays a key role in optimizing renewable energy utilization.

4. The National Institute of Wind Energy has developed a Wind Atlas to assist in planning wind farms.

Select the correct answer using the code below:
A) 1, 2 and 3 only
B) 1, 3 and 4 only
C) 2 and 4 only
D) 1, 2, 3 and 4

 Earth observation satellites (EOS)

For Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international Significance

For Mains Examination: GS III - Science & Technology

Context:

In a rare failure, India’s main rocket PSLV developed problems a few minutes after take-off and failed to place earth observation satellite EOS-09 into the intended orbit in an early morning launch on Sunday.

Read about:

What is the difference between PSLV and GSLV?

What are the Earth observation satellites?

Key takeaways:

— Earth Observation Satellite data serves a wide range of purposes, including applications in agriculture, water management, urban and rural development, mineral exploration, environmental monitoring, forestry, ocean resource management, and disaster response.

— Space debris consists of both natural objects like meteoroids and human-made items such as inactive spacecraft, old satellites, spent rocket stages, and debris from satellite collisions or explosions.

— NASA reports that over 25,000 pieces of space debris larger than 10 centimeters are currently tracked, with an estimated half a million particles ranging from 1 to 10 centimeters. As of January 2022, the total mass of debris orbiting Earth surpassed 9,000 metric tons.

— ISRO’s recent launch attempt, the 101st mission, involved the PSLV-C61 rocket. While the rocket performed normally until the second stage, an issue in the third stage prevented the mission from succeeding.

— This marked ISRO’s 101st mission and the 63rd using the PSLV vehicle, which is India’s most reliable launch system. PSLV has experienced failure only twice before: its first flight in 1993 and again in 2017 during the C-39 mission.

— The failed mission follows closely after ISRO’s 100th mission, when the GSLV vehicle failed to place the NVS-02 satellite into the intended orbit. After it entered an incorrect elliptical orbit, ISRO began exploring alternative uses for the NVS-02 satellite, which has a planned operational life of 15 years.

— This mission was the second to involve integration of the PSLV rocket at the newly constructed Payload Integration Facility (PIF) rather than directly at the launch pad. The PIF was built to allow assembly activities to continue without occupying the launch pad, thereby enabling more frequent launches.

— The objective was to deploy a 1,700-kilogram Earth observation satellite into a sun-synchronous polar orbit approximately 597 kilometers above Earth. The EOS-09 satellite was equipped with a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) payload, capable of capturing images under all weather conditions.

— EOS-09 was intended to complement the EOS-04 satellite launched in 2022, ensuring continuous monitoring and increasing the frequency of observations.

— To minimize space debris, the satellite was fitted with fuel reserved for a de-orbit maneuver at the end of its operational life, allowing it to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up within two years

Follow Up Question

Rare earth magnets

For Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international significance

For Mains Examination: GS III - Science & Technology

Context:

New restrictions on rare earth magnets and related materials imposed by China, as a direct response to US imposing tariffs that kicked in from April 4, are beginning to impact automakers across the world, including electric vehicle manufacturers in India

Read about:

What are rare earth magnets?

What are the rare earth minerals found in India?

Key takeaways:

— According to a recent press release from the Ministry of Mines, India imported 2,270 tonnes of rare earth elements (REEs) in the fiscal year 2023–24, reflecting a 23% increase from 1,848 tonnes in 2019–20. Of these imports, 65% came from China, while 10% were sourced from Hong Kong.

— The group of 17 rare earth elements includes 15 lanthanides (atomic numbers 57–71), scandium (21), and yttrium (39). These are categorized into light rare earth elements (LREEs) and heavy rare earth elements (HREEs).

— India has domestic reserves of some LREEs like lanthanum, cerium, neodymium, praseodymium, and samarium. However, HREEs such as dysprosium, terbium, and europium are either not present or not found in sufficient quantities for extraction, leading to reliance on imports—particularly from China, which currently accounts for about 70% of global REE production.

— Although named “rare,” these elements are relatively abundant in the Earth’s crust. The real challenge lies in their low concentration in minable ores, making their extraction and purification technologically complex and costly, requiring advanced techniques and skilled manpower.

— Electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers in India are facing a potential supply shortage of these essential materials, which could lead to increased costs and production setbacks in the growing and price-sensitive EV market.

— In light of this, Indian automakers have reportedly engaged with government officials to facilitate rare earth magnet procurement from China.

— Neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets, which are vital for the construction of EV electric motors, are a key application of REEs. These magnets provide the strong magnetic fields necessary for efficient and high-performance motors, including those used for vehicle propulsion.

— Additionally, these magnets are also critical for other EV parts, such as power steering, windshield wipers, and braking systems. Currently, China dominates the rare earth magnet market.

— While REEs are not exclusive to China, it is China’s expertise in efficiently processing and refining them that gives it a strategic edge. This dominance was once shared by Japan and the US, although Japan has revived part of its processing capacity through targeted government initiatives. However, India and the US continue to depend significantly on Chinese exports for these critical materials.

Follow Up Question

Left Wing Extremism (LWE)

For Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international Significance

For Mains Examination: GS III - Development and extremism

Context:

The Centre said incidents of violence by Left Wing Extremism (LWE) have reduced to 374 in 2024 from its highest level of 1936 in 2010, on Saturday.

Read about:

What is LWE?

How is terrorism different from Naxalism?

Key takeaways:

• The Maoist insurgency in India had reached its zenith in 2010, impacting 223 districts across 20 states with varying levels of violence. At that time, then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh labeled Left-Wing Extremism (LWE) as the most significant internal security challenge facing the nation. Over time, the extensive deployment of central paramilitary forces helped reduce the territorial influence of the Maoists.
• However, a major issue remains: states often treat LWE as primarily a national concern, conveniently shifting responsibility to the central government. Sustainable progress in combating Maoism will require state police forces to lead counterinsurgency operations, while central forces should play a supporting role—similar to the strategy used successfully during the Punjab insurgency, where local police spearheaded efforts.
• A key missing element in counter-LWE efforts is the integrated involvement of all arms of governance. Security forces can only go so far by pushing extremists out of an area; it is then up to civil administration to develop infrastructure and deliver governance. Unfortunately, this follow-through often fails to materialize, resulting in Maoists regaining control over previously cleared zones.
• Underlying the unrest are deeper structural issues. Deforestation has been steadily increasing, with over 3 lakh hectares of forest land diverted for non-forest purposes since 2008-09. This has led to large-scale displacement of tribal communities, stripping them of their traditional livelihoods and pushing many towards the Maoist movement.
• Economic disparity is another serious concern. A report from the World Inequality Lab titled ‘Income and Wealth Inequality in India, 1922–2023: The Rise of the Billionaire Raj’ found that in 2022–23, the top 1% of the population controlled over 40% of the country’s wealth—highlighting the alarming levels of inequality.
• Despite the history of violence, the current security gains present an opportunity. With the government now in a stronger position, initiating dialogue with Maoist leaders would be seen not as a weakness, but as a statesmanlike gesture. According to official data, violent incidents have dropped by 81%, and fatalities—including both civilians and security personnel—have decreased by 85%, from 1,005 in 2010 to just 150 in 2024.
• The number of affected districts has also declined from 126 in 2018 to only 38 by April 2024. The Indian government has set a target to completely eradicate Maoist influence by March 31, 2026, as it sees LWE as a major hindrance to the development of remote and tribal regions by obstructing access to essential services like education, healthcare, transportation, banking, and postal networks

 What is a Presidential reference?

For Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international Significance

For Mains Examination: GS II - Indian Polity & Governance

Context:

President Droupadi Murmu, has made a reference to the Supreme Court, under Article 143 of the Constitution, on certain questions of law and has sought its opinion on those questions.

Read about:

Article 143

Government of India Act, 1935

Key takeaways:

The Supreme Court’s advisory jurisdiction under Article 143 traces its roots to the Government of India Act of 1935, which had empowered the Governor-General to consult the Federal Court on significant legal issues. A comparable provision exists in the Canadian Constitution, where both federal and provincial governments can request legal opinions from the Supreme Court of Canada. Conversely, the U.S. Supreme Court has refrained from offering advisory opinions, citing the Constitution’s emphasis on a strict separation of powers.

Under Article 143 of the Indian Constitution, the President, guided by the Union Council of Ministers, can refer legal or factual matters of national importance to the Supreme Court for an advisory opinion. As stipulated in Article 145, such references must be deliberated upon by a bench comprising at least five judges.

Though the Supreme Court’s opinion in such cases carries no binding legal force nor sets precedent, it often holds significant persuasive value and is generally respected by both the executive and judiciary.

Since 1950, there have been approximately fifteen references made to the Supreme Court. Some of the key ones include:

• Delhi Laws Act case (1951): Defined the scope of delegated legislation, allowing the legislature to delegate certain powers to the executive.

• Kerala Education Bill case (1958): Provided a framework for reconciling Fundamental Rights with the Directive Principles of State Policy, and interpreted Article 30’s protection of minority-run educational institutions.

• Berubari Union case (1960): Clarified that transferring territory would necessitate a constitutional amendment under Article 368.

• Keshav Singh case (1965): Interpreted legislative privileges and powers.

• Presidential Election case (1974): Affirmed that Presidential elections must proceed even if State Assemblies are dissolved and vacancies exist.

• Special Courts Bill reference (1978): Emphasized that the Court can refuse to answer vague or overbroad questions and that it must not infringe on the domain of the legislature.

• Third Judges Case (1998): Detailed the functioning of the collegium system for appointing judges to the higher judiciary.

 Follow Up Question

1.Consider the following statements: (UPSC 2017)

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

A. 1 and 2 only         

B. 2 only             

C. 2 and 3 only               

D. 3 only