Content

1. Top court asks who will decide that a religious conversion is ‘deceitful’
2. Making health care safe for every Indian
3. Unseen labour, exploitation: the hidden human cost of Artificial Intelligence
4. India Targets Record 119 MT Wheat Output in 2025-26
5. Heavy Rains in the Himalayas: Interplay of Topography, Climate Change, and Rising Disaster Risks

Top court asks who will decide that a religious conversion is ‘deceitful’

Basics

• Issue: A petition before the Supreme Court seeks a ban on “deceitful” religious conversions and questions the constitutionality of State-level anti-conversion laws.
• Constitutional Context:
  • Article 25: Provides freedom of conscience and right to profess, practice, and propagate religion, subject to public order, morality, and health.
  • Supreme Court in Rev. Stanislaus vs State of MP (1977) upheld States’ power to regulate conversion by force, fraud, or inducement.
• State Laws: Around 10 States (UP, MP, Gujarat, Himachal, Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Haryana, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan) have enacted Freedom of Religion Acts, often termed “anti-conversion laws.”
• Recent Hearing (Sept 2025):
  • Chief Justice B.R. Gavai asked who determines if a conversion is “deceitful.”
  • Petitioners argue laws are restrictive; respondents defend their necessity.
  • Court will reconsider the matter after six weeks.

Relevance:

• GS-II (Polity & Governance):
  • Fundamental Rights (Article 25 – freedom of religion; Articles 14, 19, 21 – equality, liberty, life).
  • Judicial review of State legislation (SC role in constitutional validity).
  • Federalism: Centre vs State competence in religious matters.
• GS-I (Society):
  • Inter-faith relations, social harmony, religious practices.
• GS-II (Governance):
  • Criminal justice reforms (burden of proof, third-party complaints).

Overview

Constitutional and Legal Dimensions

• Right to Freedom of Conscience: Protected under Article 25; scope of “propagation” does not necessarily extend to conversion.
• State Regulation: Laws seek to prevent conversions through coercion, fraud, or inducement.
• Judicial Role: SC has clarified its role is to test constitutionality, not legislate.
• Burden of Proof: Some State laws place it on the individual converting, raising constitutional questions.

Federalism

• Religion-related matters fall under the Concurrent List. States have legislated individually, sometimes using other States’ laws as models.
• Debate exists over whether a uniform central framework or diverse State laws are more appropriate.

Individual Rights and Society

• Marriage and Conversion: Many laws scrutinize inter-faith marriages linked to conversion.
• Right to Choice: Questions arise over balancing personal autonomy with State interest in regulating conversions.
• Chilling Effect: Concerns raised that ordinary religious practices could be subjected to suspicion.

Criminal Justice and Governance

• Punishment Provisions: Some Acts provide for stringent penalties, including extended imprisonment.
• Third-Party Complaints: Provisions allowing unrelated individuals to initiate proceedings create scope for wide application.
• Implementation: Conviction rates remain limited; many cases end in prolonged litigation.

Political and Social Dimensions

• Legislative Intent: Governments argue laws are preventive in nature, safeguarding vulnerable groups from coercion.
• Social Context: Critics argue laws may impact interfaith relationships and minority communities.
• Polarization Risk: Debate around conversions often intersects with political and electoral narratives.

Judicial Outlook

• Pending Issues: SC will examine if provisions violate Articles 14, 19, 21, and 25.
• Possible Judicial Outcomes:
  • Striking down specific provisions (burden of proof, third-party locus).
  • Upholding core objectives of preventing forcible conversion.
  • Issuing guidelines for uniform application.

Making health care safe for every Indian

Basics

• Event: World Patient Safety Day observed annually on September 17, declared by WHO in 2019.
• Theme 2025: Focus on safe care for every newborn and every child (WHO campaign).
• Global Context:
  • WHO estimates: 1 in 10 patients harmed during hospitalization.
  • 4 in 10 patients harmed in primary/ambulatory care, with 80% of harm preventable (WHO, 2023 fact sheet).
• Indian Context:
  • Disease burden shifting to chronic conditions (cancer, diabetes, CVD, mental health).
  • Complexity in acute care (multi-speciality coordination) increases risk of patient harm.

Relevance:

• GS-II (Governance, Social Justice):
  • Right to Health (Directive Principles, judicial debates).
  • Public health institutions, policies, and regulation.
  • Role of civil society and CSR in health awareness.
• GS-III (Science & Technology):
  • Use of AI, EHRs, digital tools in patient safety.
• GS-II (International):
  • WHO’s role, India’s commitments in global health governance.

Dimensions of Patient Harm

• Clinical Causes:
  • Hospital-acquired infections, unsafe injections, transfusion errors.
  • Adverse drug reactions, inappropriate medication combinations.
  • Delayed diagnoses, preventable surgical errors, patient falls.
• Systemic Causes:
  • Overburdened staff (low doctor-patient ratio, long shifts, attrition).
  • Weak quality monitoring and low NABH accreditation (<5% of hospitals).
  • Limited patient awareness, passive role in care decisions.

India’s Initiatives

• Policy & Frameworks:
  • National Patient Safety Implementation Framework (2018–25) – roadmap for embedding safety in clinical programs, event reporting, capacity-building.
  • NABH (National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers) – standards on infection control, patient rights, medication safety.
• Institutions & Networks:
  • Society of Pharmacovigilance, India – ADR (adverse drug reaction) monitoring.
  • Patients for Patient Safety Foundation (PFPSF) – awareness to 14 lakh households weekly, supporting 1,100 hospitals and 52,000 professionals.
  • Patient Safety & Access Initiative – focuses on medical devices regulation.
• Civil Society & Technology:
  • CSR-funded campaigns, workplace health programs, safety tech (e-prescriptions, interaction alerts).
  • WHO Global Patient Safety Action Plan promotes Patient Advisory Councils (PACs) – patient representation in hospital governance.

Gaps & Challenges

• Accreditation: Out of 70,000+ hospitals in India (NHP 2023), fewer than 5% NABH-accredited.
• Awareness: Low patient literacy; hesitancy in questioning doctors.
• Implementation Gap: Policy exists but enforcement and monitoring remain weak.
• Resource Constraints: Public hospitals face overload; private sector highly fragmented.

Overview

• Polity/Governance: Patient safety ties into Right to Health debates; requires stronger regulation and accountability.
• Social: Safety lapses disproportionately affect vulnerable groups – poor, elderly, children, women in maternity care.
• Economic: Unsafe care increases out-of-pocket expenditure; WHO estimates adverse events cost trillions globally.
• Technology: AI-driven prescription checks, EHRs, digital ADR reporting can reduce risks.
• International: WHO benchmarks provide templates; India’s progress modest compared to high-income countries with strong PACs and reporting culture.

Way Forward

• Renew Patient Safety Framework (post-2025) with measurable targets.
• Strengthen NABH/NQAS accreditation coverage, link to insurance empanelment.
• Institutionalize Patient Advisory Councils in Indian hospitals.
• Integrate patient safety modules in MBBS, nursing curricula.
• Create national patient safety registry for transparent reporting of adverse events.
• Expand public participation: digital health literacy campaigns, family-based safety checklists.

Unseen labour, exploitation: the hidden human cost of Artificial Intelligence

Basics – Context of the News

• Automated Economy: Refers to increasing reliance on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) systems to perform tasks once handled by humans.
• Core Issue: While AI is seen as “self-learning” and autonomous, it is fundamentally dependent on invisible human labour—especially data annotators, moderators, and gig workers.
• Why It Matters:
  • Challenges the myth of AI being “self-sufficient.”
  • Raises ethical concerns on exploitation of low-paid workers in the Global South.
  • Brings labour rights and digital economy regulations into the AI governance debate.

Relevance:

• GS-III (Economy, Science & Technology):
  • Future of work, gig economy, labour market disruptions.
  • AI, ML, and automation ethics.
• GS-II (Polity & Governance):
  • Labour rights, regulation of digital platforms, global supply chains.
• GS-I (Society):
  • Social impact of digital labour exploitation in developing countries.

Human Involvement in AI Development

• Data Annotation:
  • Essential for training AI models—labelling text, images, video, and audio.
  • Example:
    • LLMs (ChatGPT, Gemini) learn meaning from labelled datasets.
    • Self-driving cars need human-labelled data to distinguish pedestrians vs. traffic signs.
• Training Process of LLMs:
  • Self-supervised learning → machine consumes raw internet data.
  • Supervised learning → annotators refine the dataset.
  • Reinforcement learning → humans provide feedback on AI responses.
• Specialised vs. Non-specialised Tasks:
  • Some require domain expertise (e.g., medical scans, legal texts).
  • Many companies hire non-experts to cut costs → leads to errors in outputs.
• Invisible Labour in “Automated” Features:
  • Content moderation on social media → done by humans reviewing graphic/violent material.
  • Voice and video AI → trained on performances by actors, including children.

Ghost Work – Definition

• Ghost work refers to the invisible human labour that powers supposedly “automated” digital technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and online platforms.
• It includes microtasks like data annotation, content moderation, labeling images/videos/text, training AI models, or cleaning datasets, often outsourced to low-paid workers in developing countries.
• The term highlights how these workers remain uncredited, underpaid, and hidden behind the façade of automation, even though their labour is indispensable to AI systems.

Nature of Exploitation

• Geography of Ghost Work: Primarily outsourced to Kenya, India, Pakistan, Philippines, China.
• Wages and Conditions:
  • Reported pay: <$2/hour for 8+ hours.
  • Exposure to disturbing content → PTSD, depression, anxiety.
  • Tight deadlines, surveillance, microtask-based pay.
• Labour Rights Violations:
  • Companies circumvent local labour laws by outsourcing through intermediaries.
  • Lack of transparency: workers often don’t know which Big Tech firm they are serving.
  • Union busting and dismissal of workers raising concerns.

Larger Structural Concerns

• AI’s “Dependence Myth”: Automation narrative hides human labour inputs.
• Global Inequality: Wealth and value captured in Silicon Valley, while labour exploitation occurs in the Global South.
• Informalisation of Digital Labour: Microtasking, subcontracting, gig-work fragmentation → workers have no bargaining power.
• Ethical & Social Costs:
  • Mental health deterioration of moderators.
  • Risk of bias/errors in AI outputs due to underqualified annotators.
  • Potential exploitation of children in data collection.

Policy and Regulatory Implications

• Transparency in AI Supply Chains: Companies must disclose labour networks behind AI models.
• Fair Wages and Labour Rights: Align digital work with ILO standards (decent work, safe conditions, collective bargaining).
• Global Governance of AI Labour:
  • UN/ILO frameworks for digital gig work.
  • Regulation of cross-border outsourcing and labour practices.
• National-Level Actions:
  • Countries like India/Kenya/Philippines need to update labour laws for gig/digital workers.
  • Formalisation of data annotation industry with minimum wage guarantees.
• AI Governance Debate Expansion: Current focus is on AI ethics, privacy, bias → must include labour justice.

Overview

• Polity: Raises questions of labour rights, regulation of Big Tech, role of unions.
• Economy: Exploitation lowers wages globally, undermines sustainable digital economy.
• Society: Hidden suffering of moderators and annotators shapes the “clean” digital experience of billions.
• Ethics: Transparency vs. corporate secrecy in AI supply chains.
• International Relations: North-South divide in AI’s economic benefits vs. labour burdens.

Way Forward

• Recognise “ghost workers” as integral to AI development.
• Establish global labour standards for AI-linked work.
• Strengthen worker protections: fair pay, mental health support, right to unionise.
• Push for AI supply chain audits just like environmental/ESG audits.
• Shift narrative from “AI is replacing humans” to “AI is built on human labour”.

India Targets Record 119 MT Wheat Output in 2025-26

Basics – Context of the News

• Background:
  • India achieved an all-time high wheat production of 117.51 million tonnes in Rabi 2024–25.
  • For Rabi 2025–26, the Union Agriculture Ministry has set a higher target: 119 million tonnes.
• Significance of Wheat:
  • Wheat is India’s second-largest foodgrain crop after rice.
  • It is the main Rabi crop, covering over 30 million hectares.
  • Vital for food security under NFSA and PMGKAY (subsidised grains to ~81 crore people).
• Overall Foodgrain Target:
  • Govt has set 171.14 million tonnes for Rabi 2025–26.
  • Wheat is the dominant share, followed by pulses, coarse cereals, and oilseeds.

Relevance:

• GS-III (Economy, Agriculture):
  • Food security, agricultural productivity, MSP and procurement.
  • Crop diversification (pulses, oilseeds, millets).
  • Climate-smart agriculture and input management.
• GS-II (Governance):
  • Role of policies, schemes (e.g., Viksit Krishi Sankalp Abhiyan).
• GS-I (Geography):
  • Cropping patterns, agro-climatic zones.

Production Targets for 2025–26 (in mn tonnes)

• Wheat → 119
• Maize → 14.5
• Total Coarse Cereals → 16.55
• Total Shri Anna (millets) → 3.17
• Gram → 11.8
• Total Pulses → 16.57
• Total Foodgrains → 171.14
• Groundnut → 0.74
• Rapeseed & Mustard → 13.9

Key Drivers & Challenges

• Favourable Factors:
  • Higher seed availability: 25 million metric tonnes of seeds already stockpiled (vs requirement of ~22.9 MT).
  • Expected good rainfall in several parts of India → improves soil moisture.
  • Government push for balanced fertiliser supply (coordination with Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilisers).
  • Launch of Viksit Krishi Sankalp Abhiyan from Oct 3 → massive outreach to farmers for awareness, technology adoption.
• Challenges/Risks:
  • Climate variability: untimely rains, heat waves during March (grain filling stage).
  • Rising input costs (fertilisers, diesel).
  • Regional disparities in productivity (Punjab/Haryana high, eastern India lagging).
  • Storage and MSP procurement bottlenecks in bumper production years.

Broader Agricultural Strategy Reflected

• Shift Beyond Wheat & Rice:
  • Push for pulses and oilseeds (reduce import dependence: ~60% edible oil imported, ~20% pulses imported).
  • Special focus on millets (Shri Anna) → nutrition security + climate resilience.
• Per-Hectare Productivity:
  • Chouhan highlighted need for yield enhancement, not just acreage expansion.
  • Crop-wise reviews, large-scale farmer meetings, and technology dissemination planned.
• Food Security + Export Angle:
  • High output sustains NFSA and buffer stocks.
  • Surpluses may open export opportunities, though govt often restricts wheat exports for domestic price stability.

Economic & Policy Implications

• For Farmers:
  • Assured procurement of wheat at MSP (₹2275/quintal in 2025–26).
  • Possible rise in incomes if productivity improves without proportional input cost rise.
• For Economy:
  • Higher wheat output → helps curb food inflation.
  • Reduces import dependence (especially in pulses & oils if strategy succeeds).
• For Government:
  • Balancing act between procurement, storage, and subsidy costs.
  • Must ensure timely fertiliser/seed availability and irrigation support.

Overview

• Polity/Governance: Strengthens govt’s food security narrative; supports welfare schemes.
• Economy: Contributes to agricultural GDP, inflation management, rural employment.
• Environment: Risk of over-dependence on wheat-paddy cycle (soil degradation, groundwater depletion). Need crop diversification.
• Technology: Precision farming, new HYVs, climate-resilient varieties critical for sustaining growth.
• International Relations: India could influence global wheat markets if production exceeds domestic demand.

Way Forward

• Focus on climate-smart agriculture (heat/drought-resistant wheat varieties).
• Incentivise crop diversification into pulses/oilseeds to reduce import bills.
• Invest in post-harvest infrastructure (storage, cold chains, logistics).
• Encourage farm mechanisation and digital extension services.
• Link wheat strategy to broader goals of Doubling Farmers’ Income & Viksit Bharat 2047.

Heavy Rains in the Himalayas: Interplay of Topography, Climate Change, and Rising Disaster Risks

Basics – Context of the News

• Event: Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and other Himalayan states have witnessed extreme rainfall, landslides, and flash floods in recent weeks.
• Impact:
  • At least 15 deaths in the last few days.
  • Multiple landslides, blocked roads, swollen rivers, and destruction of property.
• Pattern:
  • Monsoon activity intensified in northwestern India.
  • Region received 34% surplus rainfall in August 2025.
  • Some districts received rainfall equivalent to an entire year’s quota in just 24–48 hours.

Relevance:

• GS-I (Geography):
  • Monsoon variability, orographic rainfall, Himalayan topography.
  • Disaster-prone areas (cloudbursts, landslides, flash floods).
• GS-III (Environment, Disaster Management):
  • Climate change impacts, glacial melt, NDMA role.
  • Vulnerability mapping and risk reduction strategies.

Why do hilly regions receive more rainfall?

• Topography effect:
  • Hills force moisture-laden winds to rise, cooling them and causing rainfall (orographic effect).
• Sequential rain-bearing systems:
  • Low-pressure systems from the Bay of Bengal travel northwards, increasing rainfall in the Himalayas.
• Seasonal behaviour:
  • Northwest India often gets late-season (August–September) monsoon surges.

Data Highlights (Rainfall Departures)

• All-India Rainfall Departure (Aug 14–Sep 10): consistently above normal.
• Northwest India Rainfall:
  • Aug 21–27: +132%
  • Aug 28–Sep 3: +182%
  • Sep 4–10: +57%
• Cumulative Rainfall (till Sep 15, mm):
  • Uttarakhand: 1192 mm (+134%)
  • Himachal Pradesh: 702 mm (+22%)
  • J&K: 611 mm (+57%)
  • Ladakh: 280 mm (+33%)
  • Punjab/Haryana/Rajasthan: above/below normal but not as extreme as hill states.

Why are hilly regions more vulnerable?

• Steep slopes + fragile geology → high risk of landslides.
• Rivers/streams descend rapidly → cause flash floods.
• Narrow valleys funnel water and debris → more damage.
• Infrastructure exposure: roads, bridges, houses often located close to rivers and slopes.
• Examples: Udhampur (J&K) 630 mm rain in 24 hours; Leh–Ladakh 59 mm in 48 hours (highest since records began).

Role of Climate Change

• Warming atmosphere → holds more moisture, increases intensity of downpours.
• Changing monsoon patterns → longer dry spells + short bursts of extreme rainfall.
• Rising global temperatures → accelerates melting of Himalayan glaciers and snow, adding to flash floods.
• Extreme weather events becoming more frequent:
  • Sudden cloudbursts.
  • Intensification of western disturbances.
  • Increased variability in rainfall distribution.

Disaster Linkages

• Not all heavy rains = disasters, but in Himalayas:
  • Weak slopes + construction + deforestation magnify risks.
  • Cloudbursts + extreme rainfall → landslides + flash floods.
  • Example: Mandi, Kullu, Dharali, Tharali saw severe damage to homes, bridges, and crops.
• Human factor: Unregulated construction, road widening, and riverbank encroachments worsen vulnerability.

Overview

• Polity/Governance: State disaster preparedness, early warning systems, NDMA policies.
• Economy: Damage to roads, hydropower projects, tourism industry, agriculture.
• Society: Loss of lives, displacement, trauma in vulnerable hill communities.
• Environment: Deforestation, slope destabilisation, glacial retreat exacerbate risks.
• Technology: Need for better forecasting, Doppler radars, satellite monitoring.

Way Forward

• Strengthen early warning systems + last-mile connectivity in Himalayan states.
• Enforce scientific land use planning (ban construction in eco-sensitive zones).
• Promote climate-resilient infrastructure: slope stabilisation, drainage systems, safe housing.
• Invest in watershed management (afforestation, river restoration).
• Integrate climate change adaptation into state disaster management plans.
• Regional cooperation for Himalayan ecosystem sustainability (since many rivers are transboundary).