Indian Polity & Governance

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs notified the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Rules, 2026 through gazette notifications on 22 June 2026, overhauling how NGOs and associations receiving foreign funds are registered and regulated. Registrations must now be purpose-specific and geography-specific, activities must be chosen from a defined schedule, and several religious activities are funded only while excluding proselytisation. The rules also expand the definition of "key functionary," mandate social-media disclosure, require 75% utilisation before fresh instalments, and revise compounding penalties. This article explains the FCRA framework, the new rules, the constitutional context of the proselytisation bar, and the long-running debate over regulating foreign funding of civil society.

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer led a high-level American delegation to New Delhi (22–24 June 2026) for talks with Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal aimed at concluding an interim India–US Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA). The visit comes at a decisive moment: the US Supreme Court has struck down the earlier emergency tariffs, the temporary 150-day Section 122 tariffs lapse on 24 July, and a fresh Section 301 tariff architecture is being shaped. This article explains the legal basis of US tariffs, the Supreme Court verdict, India's shrinking goods trade surplus with America, the FDI and rupee pressures, and India's key negotiating concerns.

India’s top atomic energy regulator is expected to maintain rigorous safety and licensing requirements for Small Modular Reactors even as the government prepares rules under the SHANTI Act, 2025. The issue matters because the Act opens India’s tightly controlled civil nuclear sector to private participation, while India is also trying to expand nuclear capacity for clean, round-the-clock power and industrial decarbonisation. The Department of Atomic Energy has earlier stated that AERB’s nuclear safety framework is generally technology-neutral and can be used for both public and private nuclear projects. Press Information Bureau +1

The Supreme Court has held that the right to walk on safe, demarcated footpaths is a fundamental right under Part III of the Constitution, and that pedestrians must take priority over motor vehicles. Delivered while deciding a motor-accident compensation case in which a five-year-old boy was killed by a tanker, the verdict reads this right into Article 19(1)(d) and Article 21, places a binding duty on civic bodies, and asks the government to frame a law. This article explains the judgment, the constitutional basis of the right, the expanding scope of Article 21, the duties of municipal bodies, the road-safety data behind the issue, and the way forward.

A recent Indian Express interview with lawyer and anthropologist Petra Molnar discussed the AI Resist List and warned that AI-led growth narratives can hide issues of invisible labour, data extraction, surveillance, digital infrastructure and democratic accountability. The debate is significant for India as it expands the IndiaAI Mission, data centres, AI compute capacity and digital public infrastructure.

The Union Government, Assam and Nagaland have signed a tripartite MoU to facilitate mineral oil operations in the Assam-Nagaland boundary areas, where exploration had been stalled due to border and law-and-order concerns. The development is important for UPSC because it links energy security, cooperative federalism, inter-state boundary disputes, Article 371A, environmental clearance and India’s dependence on hydrocarbon imports.

The Union environment clearance process for the Kente Extension coal project in Chhattisgarh’s Hasdeo-Arand region is in focus after the MoEFCC Advisory Committee recommended Stage-I/In-principle forest clearance for a coal mine linked to Rajasthan’s power needs. The issue is important for UPSC because it connects forest diversion, coal-based energy security, biodiversity conservation, elephant movement, tribal rights and environmental governance.

The Supreme Court, while upholding the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, has ordered that voters excluded on doubtful-citizenship grounds be referred to the competent authority under the Citizenship Act, 1955 for adjudication within four weeks. Assam's decades-old experience with 'D' (Doubtful) voters shows why this may be far from simple. This article explains the SIR verdict, how the 'D-voter' tag and Foreigners Tribunals work, the burden-of-proof question, and the constitutional and legal framework governing voter citizenship in India.

The Supreme Court, in Dr. Ramesh vs State of Maharashtra, has stressed strict enforcement of the PCPNDT Act to curb sex-selection practices driven by patriarchal preference for a male child. The judgment is important for UPSC because it links gender justice, child sex ratio, reproductive technology regulation, constitutional equality and welfare legislation.

The question of whether a political party can use a “cockroach” as its election symbol came into focus after reports around the Cockroach Janta Party and India’s election-symbol rules. The issue is important for UPSC because it explains the Election Commission of India’s powers, the Election Symbols Order, reserved and free symbols, registered unrecognised parties and the role of symbols in India’s electoral democracy.

The Union government is preparing to reintroduce its constitutional amendment for delimitation and women's reservation, two months after the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026 was defeated in the Lok Sabha in April for want of a two-thirds majority. The reworked plan reportedly seeks to add clarity that every state's existing seat share will be protected even as the House is expanded to around 850 seats, with allocation among states kept proportionate to the 1971 Census — a move aimed at winning over southern states and the DMK. This article explains what delimitation is, the constitutional provisions (Articles 81, 82, 170, 330, 332), the 1971 Census "freeze", the women's reservation link, the North-South federalism debate, and why a Constitution Amendment Bill can fail despite a clear majority.

India is reworking the template for its Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) to make them more investor-friendly while protecting its sovereign policy space, after years of falling net foreign investment and costly arbitration defeats. Reports indicate the Centre is anchoring the new model on three principles: a minimum two-year window for exhausting local remedies before international arbitration, no Most-Favoured Nation (MFN) clause, and exclusion of tax matters. This article explains what BITs are, how India's treaty regime evolved from 1994 to the restrictive 2016 Model BIT, the arbitration losses (White Industries, Vodafone, Cairn, Devas) that reshaped policy, the working of Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), and what the proposed changes mean for India's FDI strategy and regulatory autonomy.