In-Depth News Analysis7 Items

Core TopicImportantConcise

Polity, Governance & Social JusticeGS Paper II

01AB-PMJAY at 8 & the Ayushman Bharat Architecture02WAVES OTT & MyWAVES: Public Broadcasting Goes Digital

International RelationsGS Paper II (and GS III)

03Hormuz, Red Sea & Black Sea: The Triple Chokepoint

Economy & InfrastructureGS Paper III

04India’s First Blue Bond — Sagarmala Finance05Yuan vs Dollar: Why De-dollarisation Stalls06NHAI Design Norms for High-Speed Corridors

Internal Security & DefenceGS Paper III

07Exercise Tarang Shakti 2026 & French Deployment

Polity, Governance & Social JusticeGeneral Studies Paper II

01

Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY Completes Eight Years: Coverage, Eligibility, Financing and the Four-Pillar Push Towards Universal Health Coverage

GS-II · Social Justice — Health; Welfare Schemes for Vulnerable SectionsPrelims + MainsPIB · Ministry of Health & Family Welfare · National Health Authority

On its eighth anniversary (23 September 2026), Ayushman Bharat–Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) has issued over 48.51 crore Ayushman cards — about a third of India’s population. The Government presents it as the anchor of a four-part architecture for Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

◈ Static Background — Health in the Constitution and Policy

• Entry 6, List II (State List): public health and sanitation; hospitals and dispensaries — health delivery is primarily a State responsibility; the Centre acts through funding and Centrally Sponsored Schemes.
• Article 47 (DPSP): the State shall regard improvement of public health as among its primary duties.
• Article 21: the Supreme Court has read the right to health and emergency medical care into the right to life — Paschim Banga Khet Mazdoor Samity v. State of West Bengal (1996).
• National Health Policy, 2017: set a goal of raising public health expenditure to 2.5% of GDP by 2025 and proposed Health and Wellness Centres.
• Ayushman Bharat was announced in the Union Budget 2018–19. The first Health and Wellness Centre opened at Jangla (Bijapur, Chhattisgarh) on 14 April 2018. PM-JAY was launched at Ranchi on 23 September 2018.
• Predecessor: the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), 2008 (Ministry of Labour), with ₹30,000 cover per family; its beneficiaries were carried into PM-JAY.

▤ Scheme at a Glance — AB PM-JAY

• Nature: public health assurance scheme for secondary and tertiary hospitalisation; a Centrally Sponsored Scheme.
• Nodal body: National Health Authority (NHA), attached office of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare; State Health Agencies implement it.
• Cover: ₹5 lakh per family per year, cashless, with no cap on family size or age; 3 days pre- and 15 days post-hospitalisation expenses included.
• Packages: 1,961 procedures across 27 specialities; national portability across empanelled hospitals.
• Funding: Centre–State 60:40; 90:10 for North-Eastern States, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and the UT of J&K; 100% central for UTs without a legislature; 60:40 for UTs with a legislature.
• Budget Estimate 2026–27: ₹9,500 crore.
• Reach (as of 31 August 2026): about 13.25 crore hospital admissions worth ₹2.03 lakh crore, through over 38,000 empanelled public and private hospitals.

Figure 1 — What AB-PMJAY covers

The cover is per family, per year, and includes medicines, diagnostics, ICU, implants and food during admission. Infographic courtesy PIB / Ministry of Health & Family Welfare; reproduced with credit for educational use.

Who Is Eligible — The Layered Coverage Base

The core beneficiary base is drawn from the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC), 2011. Families covered under RSBY are also included.

• Rural — six SECC deprivation criteria: D1 one-room kutcha house; D2 no adult aged 16–59; D3 female-headed household with no adult male aged 16–59; D4 disabled member and no able-bodied adult; D5 SC/ST households; D7 landless households dependent on manual casual labour.
• Prelims trap: D6 (no literate adult above 25 years) is not one of the PM-JAY criteria.
• Urban — 11 occupational categories: including ragpickers, domestic workers, street vendors, construction workers, sanitation workers, home-based artisans, transport workers, electricians and mechanics.
• Expansion, March 2024: about 37 lakh families of ASHAs, Anganwadi workers and helpers; over 44.81 lakh cards issued to them.
• Expansion, 11 September 2024: all senior citizens aged 70+, irrespective of income (about 6 crore people), through the Ayushman Vay Vandana card; over 1.36 crore issued so far.
• Convergence categories: BOCW workers; road-accident victims under PM-RAHAT; transgender persons under SMILE; children under PM CARES for Children; sanitation workers under NAMASTE; PVTGs under PM-JANMAN.

Figure 2 — Illustrative specialities covered

Emergency-room packages cover care needing less than 12 hours’ stay. Infographic courtesy PIB / National Health Authority; reproduced with credit for educational use.

The Four Pillars of Ayushman Bharat

Figure 3 — How the four schemes map onto the continuum of care

AYUSHMAN BHARAT — towards Universal Health CoverageAyushman ArogyaMandirs (2018)Primary care,screening, free drugsPM-JAY(2018)Secondary & tertiaryhospitalisation coverABDM(2021)ABHA IDs, registries,Unified Health InterfacePM-ABHIM(2021)Labs, critical-careblocks, surveillancePrevent & treat earlyProtect from medical debtConnect recordsBuild capacity

PM-JAY finances hospital care; the other three pillars aim to reduce the need for it and to make care traceable and resilient.

• Ayushman Arogya Mandirs (AAM): renamed from Health and Wellness Centres in 2023; upgraded Sub-Health Centres and PHCs providing 12 service packages, including NCD screening, oral, eye and ENT care, mental health and first-level emergency care, with free essential medicines and diagnostics.
• AAMs are also hubs for eSanjeevani teleconsultation — over 50 crore teleconsultations to date — and have recorded over 540 crore cumulative footfall.
• Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM): launched in September 2021; over 97.61 crore ABHA IDs, 119.95 crore linked health records, 5.78 lakh verified facilities and 11 lakh+ professionals registered (as of 17 September 2026).
• ABDM building blocks: Healthcare Professionals Registry, Health Facility Registry, Unified Health Interface (a UPI-like open network) and Aarogya Setu 2.0 as the personal health record app.
• PM-ABHIM: launched on 25 October 2021 with ₹64,180 crore (2021–26). Targets include 3,389 block public health units, 744 integrated public health labs and 631 critical-care hospital blocks in districts with over 5 lakh population.

Figure 4 — Functional Ayushman Arogya Mandirs (as on 17 September 2026)

Of 1,87,112 functional AAMs, about 72% are upgraded Sub-Health Centres — primary care is being pushed to the village level. Infographic courtesy PIB / Ministry of Health & Family Welfare; reproduced with credit for educational use.

Why It Matters — Out-of-Pocket Expenditure

Hospitalisation costs are a leading cause of households falling into poverty. The Government attributes the fall in out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) to higher public spending and schemes such as PM-JAY.

62.6% → 39.4%

OOPE as share of total health expenditure, 2014–15 to 2021–22

1.84%

Government health expenditure as % of GDP, 2021–22

2.5%

NHP 2017 target for public health spending (% of GDP)

These figures are from the National Health Accounts estimates for 2021–22. Even after the decline, public spending remains well short of the 2.5% of GDP goal.

The Critical View

• Outpatient gap: PM-JAY covers hospitalisation, but a large share of OOPE goes on outpatient care and medicines, which the scheme does not cover.
• Integrity of claims: a CAG performance audit (2023) flagged beneficiary-database weaknesses, such as many registrations against the same mobile number, and irregular claims.
• Uneven utilisation: claims tend to cluster in States with dense private-hospital networks, while districts with thin supply see low use of the entitlement.
• Package rates and delays: private hospitals have complained of low package rates and slow claim settlement, which affect empanelment.
• Dated targeting: reliance on SECC 2011 data may exclude households that have become poor since then; the “missing middle” of informal workers above the poverty line remains uninsured.
• Data privacy: ABDM’s scale requires strong safeguards under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.

✎ Mains Practice Question

“Insurance-led health coverage cannot substitute for a strong public health system.” Critically examine this statement in the context of eight years of Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY and the reduction of out-of-pocket health expenditure in India. 15 marks · 250 words

02

WAVES OTT and MyWAVES: Prasar Bharati Moves Public Broadcasting to a Participatory Digital Platform

GS-II · Governance — Statutory Bodies, Role of Media; GS-III · Creative EconomyPrelims + MainsPIB · Ministry of Information & Broadcasting

Prasar Bharati’s OTT platform WAVES and its creator section MyWAVES aim to shift public broadcasting from fixed-schedule television and radio to on-demand, multilingual and participatory digital media.

◈ Static Background — Public Broadcasting in India

• All India Radio: the Indian State Broadcasting Service was renamed All India Radio in 1936; it adopted the name Akashvani in 1957.
• Doordarshan: began as an experimental service in Delhi on 15 September 1959.
• Autonomy debate: the Chanda Committee (1966) and the Verghese Working Group (1978) recommended an autonomous broadcaster.
• Prasar Bharati: a statutory autonomous body under the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act, 1990, in force from 23 November 1997; it runs Doordarshan and Akashvani.
• Airwaves as public property: Secretary, Ministry of I&B v. Cricket Association of Bengal (1995) held that airwaves are public property to be used for public good; Article 19(1)(a) covers broadcasting.
• OTT regulation: the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 set a three-tier grievance and self-regulation structure for online curated content.

▤ Initiative at a Glance

• WAVES OTT: launched on 20 November 2024 at the 55th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Goa, as Prasar Bharati’s public-service OTT platform.
• Library: 20,000+ titles, 18,000+ hours, from 480+ content partners; 140+ TV channels (including all 35 Doordarshan satellite channels) and 220+ radio services live.
• Other content: PM eVidya educational channels; 9,300+ e-books and publications, including Yojana and Kurukshetra; games and ONDC-integrated shopping.
• Reach: 1.4 crore+ registered users, 1.7 crore+ downloads, audiences in 130+ countries; interface in 10+ languages, content in 26+ languages.
• Pay-Per-View Content Sourcing Policy: a transparent route for producers and rights holders to supply content.
• MyWAVES: launched on 23 March 2026 within WAVES OTT for citizens to upload short, vertical and episodic content; linked to the Create in India Challenge.
• Gems of India Challenge: pilot launched on 21 July 2026 in six States/UTs; 1–3 minute videos on district culture, heritage, tourism, crafts, cuisine and local achievers; submissions 1–31 August 2026. Partners include MY Bharat and district administrations.

Figure 5 — WAVES by the numbers

The infographic’s user count (1.2 crore users, 1.5 crore downloads) is older than the release’s latest figures of 1.4 crore and 1.7 crore. Infographic courtesy PIB / Ministry of Information & Broadcasting; reproduced with credit for educational use.

Figure 6 — Seven shifts in public broadcasting

The platform combines archive access, open content sourcing and citizen creation. Infographic courtesy PIB / Ministry of Information & Broadcasting; reproduced with credit for educational use.

Why It Matters

• Cultural preservation: decades of Doordarshan and Akashvani archives become accessible to younger audiences.
• Linguistic diversity: regional content with subtitles reaches audiences that commercial platforms often underserve.
• Creator economy: MyWAVES gives creators outside metro media networks a national platform. It builds on the first WAVES (World Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit), held in Mumbai in May 2025.
• Soft power: reach in 130+ countries connects the diaspora with Indian content.

The Critical View

• Competition: a public platform must compete with well-funded commercial OTT services for attention and quality content.
• Moderation of user content: citizen uploads need clear, rights-respecting content moderation and copyright checks.
• Editorial autonomy: the long-standing debate over Prasar Bharati’s functional independence applies equally to digital platforms.
• Digital divide: OTT access depends on data costs, devices and connectivity, which are weakest where public broadcasting matters most. Free-to-air DD Free Dish therefore remains important.

✎ Mains Practice Question

What role should a public broadcaster play in a digital media landscape dominated by commercial streaming platforms? Discuss with reference to Prasar Bharati’s WAVES OTT and MyWAVES initiatives. 10 marks · 150 words

International RelationsGeneral Studies Paper II (with GS III — Food & Energy Security)

03

A “Triple Chokepoint”: Disruptions at Hormuz, the Red Sea and the Black Sea Raise Global Food and Fuel Security Risks

GS-II · Effect of Policies & Politics of Other Countries on India’s Interests; GS-III · Food Security, EnergyPrelims + MainsDown To Earth · 25 Sep 2026

The conflict involving Iran and the intensified Russia–Ukraine war are disrupting three of the world’s key maritime routes at once — the Strait of Hormuz, the Black Sea and the Bab-el-Mandeb / Red Sea. Humanitarian agencies warn of a combined shock to oil, grain and fertiliser flows.

◈ Static Background — The Three Chokepoints

• Strait of Hormuz: links the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, between Iran to the north and Oman’s Musandam peninsula to the south; about 39 km (21 nautical miles) wide at its narrowest. It carries roughly a fifth of global oil and gas supplies.
• Bab-el-Mandeb (“Gate of Tears”): links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden, between Yemen and Djibouti/Eritrea; Perim Island splits it into two channels. With the Suez Canal (1869), it forms the shortest Asia–Europe sea route.
• Black Sea: connected to the Mediterranean through the Turkish Straits (Bosphorus and Dardanelles), whose passage is governed by the Montreux Convention, 1936.
• Black Sea Grain Initiative: brokered by the UN and Türkiye in July 2022; it lapsed after Russia withdrew in July 2023.
• FAO Food Price Index: tracks international prices of a basket of food commodities against a 2014–16 base of 100.

Figure 7 — Location of the Strait of Hormuz

The boxed area marks the strait between Iran and Oman’s Musandam peninsula, the only sea exit from the Persian Gulf. Locator map as supplied (reference base map, Wikimedia Commons); reproduced with credit for educational use.

Figure 8 — How the three disruptions reinforce one another

Strait of Hormuz~1/5 of global oil & gasDiesel, LNG, fertiliser inputsBab-el-Mandeb / Red Sea~14% of maritime tradeCape detour adds 25–30 daysBlack SeaRussia + Ukraine: 27.3%of global wheat exportsHigher fuel, freight, insurance & grain costsImport-dependent & aid-dependent countries hit hardest (e.g., Egypt, Sudan)

Energy and food shocks compound each other: diesel powers farm machinery, irrigation and transport, and marine fuel sets freight costs.

What Is Happening at Each Route

• Energy: global diesel prices are at record levels. Middle Eastern diesel shipments halved between March and August from a year earlier, European diesel futures have more than doubled since the start of 2026, and Russia banned diesel exports in July after drone strikes on its refineries.
• Red Sea: Iran-backed Houthi forces have made gains along Yemen’s western coast and captured Perim Island, bringing shipping lanes within range of missiles, drones and artillery.
• Black Sea: attacks on ports and vessels since July have reduced exports; London insurers widened the high-risk zone, raising war-risk premiums. An industry estimate says strikes have removed about one-third of Ukraine’s grain export capacity.
• Ukraine: the constraint is logistics, not harvest. Production is forecast at 84.6 million tonnes in 2026, but seaports handle about 90% of exports; alternative routes added at least $50 per tonne in August.
• Russia: 4.4 million tonnes of grain exported in July–August, 31% lower year on year. It is adapting Ust-Luga (Baltic, 37 Mt capacity) and Murmansk (Arctic, up to 24 Mt) for grain, but at higher cost.
• EU Solidarity Lanes (since May 2022) have moved about 230 million tonnes of Ukrainian goods, including 94 million tonnes of agri-products, but cannot replace Black Sea ports.

▤ The Numbers

• FAO Food Price Index: 133.3 in August 2026 — up 1.9% from July and 2.5% from a year earlier. Wheat prices rose 2.6% in the month and were 15% above a year earlier.
• Price gap: Black Sea wheat at about $260–280/t, against about $315–320/t for Australian replacement cargoes to Asia.
• Egypt, the world’s largest wheat importer, sourced over 82% of imported wheat from Russia and Ukraine in the first half of 2026.
• Sudan: about 20 million people face acute hunger and 14 million are displaced. Food costs rose almost 40% in seven months; WFP’s shipping costs rose 20% and fuel for aid flights 35%.
• IOM’s 2026 Sudan response plan needs $170.15 million to help 1.321 million people.
• Supply cushion: FAO forecasts 2026 cereal output at 2.98 billion tonnes (the second-largest on record), a stocks-to-use ratio of 31.6%, and no immediate global shortage.
• Substitution: Argentina’s corn exports are expected at a record 10 Mt in August–September, against about 3 Mt usually. France shipped wheat to Sudan for the first time in 18 years.

India’s Stakes

• Energy import dependence: India imports about 88% of its crude oil, and much of its crude, LPG and LNG comes from the Gulf through Hormuz.
• Fertilisers: India relies on imports of urea, DAP and potash, and on imported LNG as feedstock for domestic urea — higher costs raise the fertiliser subsidy bill.
• Buffers: Strategic Petroleum Reserves of 5.33 MMT at Visakhapatnam, Mangaluru and Padur; FCI buffer stocks and free foodgrains under the NFSA / PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana cushion consumers.
• Maritime security: the Navy’s Operation Sankalp (2019) escorts Indian-flagged ships in the Gulf region; the Information Fusion Centre–IOR (Gurugram, 2018) tracks shipping risks.
• Connectivity alternatives: the International North–South Transport Corridor (INSTC), Chabahar port and the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC, 2023) — though each is itself exposed to regional conflict.
• Opportunity: as the world’s largest rice exporter, India can supply food-insecure regions and strengthen its Global South credentials.

A Balanced View

• The immediate risk is one of price and access, not global shortage — stocks remain comfortable by historical standards.
• The burden falls unequally: import- and aid-dependent countries pay more for the same grain, while humanitarian budgets buy less food.
• Rerouting reduces physical disruption but adds time, carbon emissions and cost, showing how concentrated global trade remains in a few narrow passages.

✎ Mains Practice Question

Simultaneous disruptions at maritime chokepoints expose the fragility of global food and energy supply chains. Examine the implications for India’s energy and food security, and suggest measures to reduce its vulnerability. 15 marks · 250 words

Economy & InfrastructureGeneral Studies Paper III

04

India’s First Blue Bond: Sagarmala Finance Corporation to Tap Markets for Maritime and Water Infrastructure

GS-III · Mobilisation of Resources; Infrastructure — Ports; Blue EconomyPrelims + MainsBusinessLine (Reuters) · BW Businessworld · 22 Sep 2026

Sagarmala Finance Corporation, a state-owned maritime lender under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW), plans to issue India’s first blue bond on 28 September 2026. The issue extends India’s labelled sustainable-debt market beyond green bonds.

◈ Static Background — Blue Economy and Labelled Bonds

• Blue bond: a debt instrument whose proceeds fund ocean, coastal and water-related projects — clean water, sustainable fisheries, marine conservation, shipping, ocean energy and mapping. It is linked to SDG 14 (Life Below Water) and SDG 6 (Clean Water).
• World’s first sovereign blue bond: issued by Seychelles in 2018, with World Bank support.
• Green bonds in India: Yes Bank issued the first in 2015; SEBI framed green-debt guidelines in 2017; the Centre issued Sovereign Green Bonds from January 2023.
• SEBI’s 2023 framework widened “green debt securities” to include blue bonds (water and marine) and yellow bonds (solar energy).
• Greenshoe option: lets an issuer accept subscriptions above the base issue size when demand is strong.
• India’s maritime base: a coastline of 11,098.81 km (revised count), 12 major ports, and an Exclusive Economic Zone of about 2.02 million sq km.
• Policy anchors: Sagarmala Programme (2015) for port-led development; Maritime India Vision 2030; Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision 2047; Deep Ocean Mission (2021); and a ₹25,000 crore Maritime Development Fund announced in the Union Budget 2025–26.

▤ The Issue at a Glance

• Issuer: Sagarmala Finance Corporation Ltd (formerly Sagarmala Development Company Ltd), described as India’s first maritime-focused lender; state-owned, under MoPSW.
• Instrument: 10-year bonds; issue date 28 September 2026.
• Size: a provisional term sheet shows ₹600 crore, including a ₹500 crore greenshoe (about $62.6 million). Earlier reports indicated up to ₹1,000 crore; final terms depend on approvals and market conditions.
• Use of proceeds: port connectivity, shipbuilding, inland waterways and coastal infrastructure.
• Pipeline: Vadodara Municipal Corporation is considering a ₹200 crore blue bond for a pump house, water-treatment plant and clear-water reservoir.

Figure 9 — Milestones in labelled sustainable debt

2015First Indiangreen bond2017SEBI green-debtguidelines2018Seychelles: firstsovereign blue bond2023Sovereign green bonds;SEBI adds blue & yellow2026India’s firstblue bondGreen = climate/energy labels · Blue = ocean and water labels

The blue label is India’s next step after nearly a decade of green-bond market building.

Why It Matters

• Tenure matching: ports and shipyards need long-term capital; 10-year bonds match these gestation periods better than short-term bank loans.
• Diversified funding: reduces reliance on budgetary support and bank credit for maritime infrastructure.
• Price discovery: tests investor appetite for blue finance and could set a template for municipal and corporate issuers.
• ESG capital: labelled bonds can attract sustainability-focused domestic and foreign investors.

The Critical View

• “Blue-washing” risk: port expansion and shipbuilding are not automatically ocean-positive; credibility needs clear eligibility criteria, third-party review and impact reporting.
• Small size: the issue is modest relative to maritime investment needs; its value is mainly as a market signal.
• “Greenium” uncertainty: India’s sovereign green bonds drew only a thin pricing advantage over regular bonds; a blue label may not lower borrowing costs much.
• Municipal capacity: city issuers such as Vadodara need credit ratings, audited accounts and revenue streams — constraints that have held back municipal bonds generally.

✎ Mains Practice Question

Explain the concept of blue bonds. How can labelled sustainable-debt instruments help finance India’s blue economy, and what safeguards are needed to ensure their credibility? 10 marks · 150 words

05

Displacing the Dollar: Why the Yuan’s Challenge to the Global Reserve Currency Remains Limited

GS-III · Indian Economy — External Sector; GS-II · Global Financial InstitutionsPrelims + MainsThe Indian Express · Data column

The yuan’s share of SWIFT payments rose sharply after sanctions on Russia in 2022, peaked at 4.7% in July 2024, and has since fallen to 2.75%. The data suggest that economic size alone does not make a global currency.

◈ Static Background — How the Dollar Became Dominant

• Bretton Woods (1944): currencies were pegged to the dollar, and the dollar to gold; the conference also created the IMF and the World Bank.
• Nixon shock (1971): the US ended dollar–gold convertibility; the dollar remained central through its deep, liquid financial markets.
• “Exorbitant privilege”: a phrase from the 1960s, attributed to French Finance Minister Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, for the US ability to borrow cheaply and finance deficits in its own currency.
• Triffin dilemma: a reserve-currency issuer must supply the world with its currency, which requires persistent deficits that can erode confidence over time.
• IMF SDR basket: the renminbi joined in October 2016. Weights from the 2022 review: USD 43.38%, EUR 29.31%, CNY 12.28%, JPY 7.59%, GBP 7.44%.
• SWIFT: founded in 1973, a member-owned cooperative headquartered in Belgium; it is a messaging network and does not move funds itself.
• CIPS: China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System, launched in 2015, settles payments in yuan.

Figure 10 — The yuan’s share of SWIFT payments, October 2010–May 2026

The spike followed the 2022 sanctions on Russia, then partly reversed. Chart courtesy The Indian Express (data: PIIE, SWIFT); reproduced with credit for educational use.

What the Data Show

• Relative size: China’s GDP is about $21 trillion, against the US at about $32 trillion and the euro area at under $20 trillion.
• Dollar dominance: the dollar is used in over half of global transactions and makes up over half of global foreign-exchange reserves; its SWIFT share is close to 50%.
• Yuan’s rise and fall: at 4.7% in July 2024 it overtook the yen and the Canadian dollar to rank fourth, behind the dollar, euro and pound. At 2.75% it now ranks sixth.
• The CIPS caveat: a Peterson Institute (PIIE) paper notes more banks joining CIPS and more yuan payments settling there. Part of the SWIFT decline may reflect payments moving off SWIFT, reflecting China’s emphasis on resilience to sanctions.

Why the Yuan Falls Short

A reserve currency rests on trust in institutions, not just economic size. Investors look for rule of law, independent courts, transparent data, a free press and limits on arbitrary state action.

• Capital controls: the yuan is not fully convertible on the capital account, which limits foreign holders’ freedom to move money.
• Policy unpredictability: state intervention in markets reduces confidence in property rights and exit options.
• Network effects: trade invoicing, commodity pricing and debt markets remain dollar-based, so switching is costly.
• The flip side: US tariff actions and the weaponisation of the dollar through sanctions — such as removing Russian banks from SWIFT in 2022 — have eroded trust at the margin. This has created demand for alternatives, if not a replacement.

◈ India Angle — Rupee Internationalisation

• July 2022: the RBI allowed trade settlement in rupees through Special Rupee Vostro Accounts (SRVAs).
• 2023: an RBI Inter-Departmental Group set out a roadmap for internationalising the rupee.
• Payment links: cross-border UPI links and local-currency settlement arrangements (e.g., with the UAE) reduce reliance on third currencies.
• India’s stated position: it seeks to de-risk and diversify trade settlement, not pursue de-dollarisation as a goal.
• Domestic system: India’s bank-messaging platform SFMS, run by IDRBT, handles domestic interbank messages.
• Convertibility: the Tarapore Committees (1997, 2006) laid out preconditions for capital account convertibility.

✎ Mains Practice Question

“The dominance of a global currency rests more on institutional trust than on economic size.” Discuss in the context of the yuan’s challenge to the US dollar, and examine the implications for India’s efforts to internationalise the rupee. 15 marks · 250 words

06

NHAI Issues Uniform Design Guidelines for High-Speed Corridors Under the 50,000-km Expressway Plan

GS-III · Infrastructure — Roads; Investment ModelsPrelims + MainsThe Indian Express · 26 Sep 2026

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has issued uniform guidelines on the design, standards and specifications of high-speed corridors (access-controlled national highways or expressways). Until now, consultants prepared Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) to varying standards.

◈ Static Background — The Highway Framework

• Entry 23, List I (Union List): highways declared by or under law made by Parliament to be national highways; declared under the National Highways Act, 1956.
• NHAI: constituted under the NHAI Act, 1988; operational from 1995; under the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH).
• Scale: national highways form about 2% of India’s road network but carry about 40% of road traffic.
• Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase-I (2017): about 34,800 km, including economic corridors; PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan (2021) integrates infrastructure planning.
• Standards body: the Indian Roads Congress (IRC), set up in 1934, issues road codes, including the manual for expressways (IRC:SP:99).
• Target: 50,000 km of high-speed corridors by 2036–37 under Vision 2047, against 3,052 km built by December 2025.

Figure 11 — Lane configuration by traffic volume under the new guidelines

Present traffic (Passenger Car Units per day) → design choiceUp to 15,000 PCU15,000–25,000 PCU25,000–40,000 PCU4-lane highway4-lane structures4-lane highway6-lane structures6-lane highway6-lane structuresBuilding bridges and structures wider than the carriageway allows later widening without rebuilding them

The middle band builds for future growth — structures are the costliest element to widen later.

Key Provisions

• Traffic assessment: must account for existing, generated, induced and diverted traffic through modelling, validated against toll data; freight data and the Vehicle Damage Factor (VDF) are to be checked against GST portal and mining data.
• Full access control: no at-grade intersections; entry and exit only through designed ramps, so through traffic is not slowed by local or cross traffic.
• Farm-friendly underpasses: height of 4.5 m where harvesters and loaded tractors operate; service roads with drain-cum-footpaths on both sides in built-up sections.
• Signage: overhead gantries 5 km and 2 km before an exit, and cantilever gantries at 1 km and 500 m; lane markings 150 mm wide and edge markings 200 mm.
• Barrier-less tolling: layouts must provide for Multi-Lane Free Flow (MLFF) tolling, which uses FASTag and automatic number-plate recognition instead of toll plazas.
• Corridor protection: a 1-metre RCC boundary wall along the right of way (ROW) to prevent encroachment; drip irrigation for median plantations, with tree planting built into the DPR stage.

▤ Terms to Know

• Passenger Car Unit (PCU): a standard that converts different vehicles into car-equivalents (e.g., a truck counts as several PCUs).
• Vehicle Damage Factor (VDF): a measure of how much pavement damage a vehicle causes relative to a standard axle load — used in pavement design.
• Right of Way (ROW): the full width of land legally held by the road authority for construction, maintenance and future expansion.
• Access-controlled highway: a road with entry and exit only at designated points, with no direct access from adjoining land.

Assessment

• Gains: uniform standards cut design variation, reduce cost and time overruns from DPR revisions, and improve safety — relevant as India records about 1.7 lakh road-accident deaths a year.
• Concerns: fully fenced corridors can split villages and farmland; the underpass and service-road norms partly address this.
• Traffic forecasting risk: over-optimistic projections have produced under-used, loss-making stretches in the past; validating against toll and GST data is meant to guard against this.
• Financing: 50,000 km within a decade needs large-scale funding through Hybrid Annuity, BOT, InvITs and asset monetisation.

✎ Mains Practice Question

High-speed corridors are central to India’s logistics ambitions under Vision 2047. Discuss the significance of standardised design norms for such corridors and the challenges in achieving the target of 50,000 km. 10 marks · 150 words

Internal Security & DefenceGeneral Studies Paper III

07

French Rafales and A400Ms Arrive in Jodhpur for the Second Edition of Exercise Tarang Shakti

GS-III · Security — Defence Cooperation; GS-II · Bilateral RelationsPrelims-orientedThe Hindu

Under Mission Pégase 26, the French Air and Space Force has deployed aircraft to Jodhpur for the second edition of Tarang Shakti, the multinational air exercise hosted by the Indian Air Force from 28 September to 12 October 2026.

◈ Static Background

• Tarang Shakti: India’s largest multinational air exercise; the first edition was held in 2024 in two phases, at Sulur (Tamil Nadu) and Jodhpur (Rajasthan).
• India–France: Strategic Partnership since 1998 (India’s first); the Horizon 2047 roadmap (2023) guides cooperation.
• Bilateral exercises: Garuda (air, since 2003), Varuna (navy) and Shakti (army).
• Rafale in India: 36 jets under a 2016 inter-governmental agreement; a deal for 26 Rafale-M jets for the Navy was signed in 2025.

• French deployment: four Rafale F4 fighters, three A330 MRTT Phénix multi-role tanker-transports and two A400M Atlas airlifters.
• Mission Pégase 26: the seventh edition of France’s long-range air-projection deployment, from 8 September to 15 October 2026.
• Aim: interoperability and operational cooperation among participating air forces, including air-to-air refuelling and long-range operations.

✎ Mains Practice Question

How do multinational military exercises such as Tarang Shakti serve India’s strategic interests in the Indo-Pacific? 10 marks · 150 words