News Summary · 6 minutes read
Stay ahead in your UPSC CSE preparation with our daily News Summary. Designed to save time, it highlights key national and international events from leading newspapers and government websites.
Scheduled Tribe (ST) status: criteria and process
Article 342 empowers the President to specify communities as STs for any State/UT (via public notification), subject to Parliament’s power to modify it by law. The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950 (as amended), constitutes the state-specific List of STs. Parliament amends this Order from time to time for inclusion or exclusion.
Criteria
The Lokur Committee (1965) laid down five key criteria for recognising communities as Scheduled Tribes:
- Indications of primitive traits
- Distinctive culture
- Geographical isolation
- Shyness of contact with the community at large
- Backwardness
These remain the official criteria for granting ST status to a community in India.
Process (Modalities approved in 1999, amended in 2002 and 2022)
- Step 1: State/UT Govt proposes for inclusion/exclusion of a community into the ST list → includes ethnographic report.
- Step 2: Registrar General of India (RGI) examines the State/UT’s proposal based on the Lokur Committee’s criteria, and sends its report to the Ministry of tribal Affairs (MoTA) → If RGI rejects, State/UT can resubmit for re-examination.
- Step 3: National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) examines (field visits, anthropological study) the proposal and submits a report to the Ministry of tribal Affairs (MoTA).
- Step 4: if both RGI and NCST agree with the State/UT’s proposal, MoTA seeks approval from the Union Cabinet.
- Step 5: If the Union Cabinet approves the proposal, MoTA introduces the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order Amendment Bill in Parliament.
- Step 6: If both houses of parliament pass the bill, and it gets Presidential assent, the ST Order 1950 stands amended to include or exclude a community in the ST list.
In short: State/UT’s proposal → RGI’s nod → NCST’s nod → Union Cabinet’s nod → MoTA introduces Bill in Parliament → Bill is passed and gets Presidential assent → ST list is modified
Notably:
- ST status of a community applies only in the notified State/UT.
- Only a State/UT can propose for granting ST status to a community → central govt cannot initiate it.
- Xaxa Committee (2014) criticised the criteria laid down by the Lokur committee as outdated and obsolete, but it has not been modified to date.
Swachh Bharat Mission – Grameen (SBM-G): achievements, challenges, and way forward
SBM-G was launched in 2014. It aimed to provide universal access to household toilets across rural India and make all Indian villages Open Defecation Free (ODF).
Achievements of SBM-G
- Led to the construction of more than 12 crore rural household toilets.
- Enabled all Indian villages to achieve Open Defecation Free (ODF) status.
- 2019 onwards, SBM-G has transitioned to Phase II, introducing the concept of ODF Plus to sustain sanitation outcomes beyond toilet construction → emphasises solid and liquid waste management, behavioural change, and safe sanitation service chains.
- As of October 2025, nearly 97% of India’s villages have been declared ODF Plus.
- Improved public health and dignity, especially for women and vulnerable groups.
Challenges faced by SBM-G
- Toilet proliferation has created substantial faecal waste in septic tanks and pits that require regular desludging.
- Rural and peri-urban areas often lack organised systems for safe collection, transport, and treatment of faecal sludge, relying instead on informal, unsafe operators.
- Lack of robust faecal sludge management (FSM), ODF achievements face reversal, risking health hazards, environmental contamination, and loss of public trust.
Way Forward
- Cluster Faecal Sludge Treatment Plants (FSTPs): Group of villages builds FSTPs → treated sludge converted to biogas andcompost, generating revenue to fund FSM services, e.g., Mayani village, Maharashtra.
- Urban–rural partnership: Link villages to urban faecal treatment plants, e.g., Satara district (Maharashtra) gram panchayats’ model.
- Sanitation Cess by Gram panchayats for managing FSM services, e.g., Kerala’s user fee model
- FSM Digital Platform: to enable households to book desludging, track GPS-equipped trucks in real-time, make digital payments, and lodge complaints.
- Mandate twin-pit toilets for all new construction to increase the time period between two desludging requirements.
- Arrange portable bio-digesters to process waste onsite, e.g., Himachal Pradesh’s biodigester programme
- Mini biogas plants integrated with the toilet pits can also be explored and distributed if viable, e.g., SBM’s GOBARdhan initiative can be expanded to cover faecal waste as well.
- Attract private players to manage FSM services for clusters of gram panchayats, e.g., Odisha and Andhra Pradesh are doing it in urban areas → can be extended to rural areas.
SBM’s enduring legacy depends on resilient FSM systems, not just toilets. Strategic linkages and partnerships will secure health, environmental, and dignity gains for future generations.
Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation (PRAGATI)
PRAGATI is a multi-purpose, multi-modal ICT-based online platform that promotes proactive governance, e-transparency, and e-accountability in the implementation of significant projects. It was launched in 2015. It integrates:
- Project monitoring
- Programme implementation review
- Public grievance redressal
Objectives
- To fast-track implementation of important central and state projects
- Identifying and resolving bottlenecks such as clearances, coordination issues and land acquisition problems.
- To provide time-bound redressal of citizens’ grievances.
Key features
- Three-tier structure: PMO + Union Government Secretaries + Chief Secretaries of States.
- Prime Minister chairs monthly PRAGATI Review Meetings.
- Enables cooperative federalism through meetings via video‑conferencing sessions between Union and State authorities.
- Integrates digital and geospatial technology to monitor project status.
- Draws issues from existing databases: CPGRAMS for grievances, the Project Monitoring Group (PMG) for investment projects, and the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation’s monitoring systems for plan schemes.
- Considers representations sent to the PMO by citizens, public representatives and state governments.
Significance
- Accelerated implementation of mega projects and key welfare schemes by ensuring top-level review and follow-up.
- Helped commissioning of critical projects like Jammu- Udhampur- Srinagar Baramulla Rail Link and Bogibeel Rail cum Road Bridge over Brahmaputra.
- A model of technology-driven governance that strengthens accountability, inter-departmental coordination and citizen-centric service delivery.
Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS)
- A ₹22,919-crore Scheme, notified by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in April 2025.
- Tenure: 6 years, spanning FY 2025-26 to FY 2031-32 → 1-year gestation period during the initial project setup phase.
- Aims to make India self-reliant in the electronics supply chain.
- A horizontal initiative with benefits spanning multiple sectors (e.g. consumer electronics, medical devices) → expected to create a strong multiplier effect.
- Focuses on passive electronic components, e.g., resistors, capacitors, and connectors (active components come under the India Semiconductor Mission).
- Will support the design/manufacturing of capital equipment used in electronics production.
- 3 incentive structures: Turnover-linked, Capex-linked, and Hybrid → employment generation is a mandatory requirement.
- Unlike past schemes, this is NOT based on a production-linked incentive.
Quick Picks for Pre and Mains (QPPM)
- Recently, a Group of Ministers of the Assam govt suggested in a report to grant status to 6 communities: Chutia, Koch-Rajbongshi, Matak, Moran, Tai Ahom, and “Tea Tribes” (Adivasis) → being opposed by several tribal organisations of Assam.
- India ranks 8th globally in WHO Pharmacovigilance Contributions, as compared to 123rd ten years ago.
- Piprahwa relics of Buddha: discovered in 1898 by British archaeologist William Claxton Peppe in Piprahwa (Siddharthnagar, UP).
- Sjoerd Marijne: appointed as the chief coach of the Indian women’s hockey team.
- Crans-Montana: municipality in Sierre, Switzerland.
- Ecuador has declared an emergency in several provinces to deal with ongoing criminal violence.