Daily Current Affairs Analysis | 13th September, 2026 | Shankar IAS Academy | UPSC | Mains 2026

Hello everyone, welcome to the daily current affair analysis brought to you by Shangar Academy 13th September 2026. Before getting into the discussion, please make sure that you subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you haven't, please do subscribe and also hit the bell icon to receive ontime updates from the academy. And coming to the topics for today's discussion, the first topic is about winter urban pollution. So a recent study found that comparing with the summer time during the winter days, the waste burning is very high in India approximately three times higher than the summer days and this study was done by the world resources institute. So in this background we'll be discussing what are the reasons you know why this waste burning in the winter time is a is a major concern and the next article is about registered unrecognized political party. So a recent study uh sorry a recent investigation done by the BBC found that six registered unrecognized political parties from the state of Gujarat received approximately,700 cr rupees in the financial year 2023 24. So in this background we'll be discussing what is registered unrecognized political party the classification of political parties in India the registration and what are the major concerns associated with the registered unrecognized political parties and the third article is about antipolio initiatives in Africa. So recently the WHO informed that the Africa is making lot of progress in the fight against the polio and now the concern is vaccine derived polio infection and the fourth article friend of pack warning labels and nutrition literacy. So recently the Supreme Court of India asked the food safety and standard authority of India to give the a clarity regarding the implementation of the second phase of front of pack warning label in India and finally we'll be discussing the prelimin's focus for the day. So if all said let's begin the discussion with the first article. Coming to the first article pollution from winter waste burning in cities three times higher than summer study article is taken from the Hindu. So a recent study done by the world resources institute. So it's a nonprofit organization conducts research regarding the environmental problem. So they found that in India during the winter time during the winter season the waste burning practice is much higher than the summer season that is almost three times higher than the summer season. So in the background let us understand more about this article. So now we are going to see what are the major findings from the world resources institute. So they conducted the study from 2019 to 2026 that means almost seven years covering 11 major uh polluted cities of India and we can see that in tier 2 cities the the recorded the highest quantities of waste burnt. According to the study the tier 2 cities in India has has recorded highest quantities of waste burnt and tier three cities recorded the highest winter burning incidents. So the tier three cities cover recorded the highest winter burning incidents that is almost 49.6 incidents per square kilometer per day that is during the time of winter in every square kilometer every day 46 times sorry 49 times the waste is burned. Okay and uh talking about another major finding so this is also indicating the socioeconomic aspect. So this study also you know throws light into the soio economic aspect regarding the waste management because uh comparing with the regions or the the the areas settled by the welto family the pollution problem is much higher in the region settled by the poor population. So this is indicating the economic uh disparity in the municipal waste collection and waste management. And next is the waste composition. So out of the total burned waste major components are paper and plastic. And next is the seasonal increase. So during the time of summer in tu cities you know uh every day the people burned approximately 21 tons of pigs. That is during the time of summer in the tier two cities people burned 21 tons of waste every day. But when it becomes winter it you know the rate of burning reaches almost double that is 41 tons per day. So this is indicating how the the shift in the season is increasing or influencing the uh the the waste burning practices in India. Okay. And now we are going to see what is the uh why you know the waste burning in the winter is a concern. Why the waste burning in the winter is a concern. First is the weak wind. So we know that during the time of winter the region becomes cold and calm right. So that means there is no much wind. So the dispersion of the pollutants will be affected. That means the pollutants will be accumulated. It will be concentrated in a particular region. Even if the region has only very low amount of waste burning practice. For example, imagine that in a square kilometer there is only one time uh you know uh the waste is burnt per day. Even in that case if that happens in the winter time then the know due to the limited dispersion the risk of air pollution and health problem is very high. Okay. And second is the stable atmospheric condition. So because of the stable atmospheric conditions the pollutants will be trapped they will not be dispos dispersed and next is the temperature inversion. So we know that during the time of winter temperature inversion will happen. So you know a warm layer of uh air will be uh you know will be formed around sorry will be formed on the uh above the cold layer of uh air mass right. So because of this condition the pollutants will be trapped near the ground. Okay. As a result, this will lead to accumulation of the pollutant and limited dispersion. And next is the use of warmth. So we can see that during the time of winter especially in the northern part of India which experiences continental climate the people will burn the the paper plastic and you know other waste products to keep themsel warm. Okay. So these are the major reasons why the so this is this practice is you know also a concern because you know uh without understanding the impact without understanding the the risk of this uh practice the people are still continuing it. So the these are the reasons why the waste burning practice in the winter is a major concern and talking about the environmental and social significance. So the first major issue is the localized exposure. So we can see that burning the waste near the house to keep the region warm or whatever it can lead to uh you know health problem and during the time of winter because of the stable atmospheric condition because of the temperature inversion even if you are burning only a small amount of waste still it can cause air pollution and health problem and second is the health risk. So we can see that pollutants releases pollutants harmful to the respiratory and cardiovascular problem. So we can see that this particulate matter you know all the issues can enter into the blood vessel and it can cause problems in the heart and the legs. And next is the urban inequality. So we can see that higher burning in the poorer poorer area reflect inadequate municipal services. So you know uh in in the in the study we found that the the waste burning incidence is much higher in the region settled by the uh economically backward communities. So this is indicating the economic disparity and how this economic disparity is associated with the the you know the disparity in the waste management and next is the governance gap. So it highlights the needs for better waste segregation collection processing and enforcement. So we know that you know in the recent times we are going with the winter plan especially the national capital Delhi is going with the winter plan. So to you know to address these type of governance gap so it is time to bring such initiatives focusing on these areas. And the next is the government response. So what is the government response? So the we have the commission for air quality management. They have announced measures in the national capital region to identify the locations where the waste is burned repeatedly and developed solutions for waste sensitive sites. And the commission also called for trained waste management workers to collect the waste especially with the uh you know focus on the re on the regions with the the repeated incidents of the waste burning and conduct public awareness campaigns you know uh to raise awareness regarding the negative impact or the harmful impact of the waste burning and strengthen the inspections under the operation clean air and also improve waste processing capacity and provide heating alternatives for the worker. So you know these are the uh uh you know the directions given by the national commission for air quality management. So we know that national commission in the upcoming slide we will discuss what is the national commission for air quality management. So these are the guidelines measures taken by the national air quality management commission for air quality management to address this waste man uh sorry this waste burning problem in the winter phase and talking about the commission for air quality management. So we know that it was established in 2021 under the commission for air quality management act and this commission this uh commission for air quality management act replaced the previous ADOC body that is the environmental pollution prevention and control authority and the jurisdiction. So this commission for air quality management has jurisdiction over uh Delhi NCR and adjoining areas of Punjab, Hana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh and it is under the administrative control of the ministry of environment, forest and climate change and the composition. So it includes government representatives, pollution control bodies and also technical experts to manage the air pollution and next the major powers of the uh commission for air quality management. So it can issue binding directions. So the directions given by the uh commission is binding on the authorities and it can coordinate the measures against the stouble burning industrial emission and construction desk because recently we saw that uh know uh the uh the air commission for air quality management along with the Punjab government they have uh you know uh they met the ISRO for the satellite monitoring of the stubble burning practice in the north India. So they can take such initiatives and they can oversee the implementation of greater response action plan. So we know that greater response action plan is implemented to mitigate the air pollution uh in the national capital and its adjoining regions during the peak air pollution times and uh it can impose environmental compensation and order closure of non-compliant establishment. For example, if the industries or the you know the establishments are not working according to the guidelines given by the commission then in that case they can take action against the such institutions. So the so these are the major powers of the commission for air quality management. And now we have the prelims practice question. The question is consider the following statements regarding the commission for air quality management. Statement one it was established under the commission for air quality management act of 2021. Statement two, its due restriction includes Delhi NCR and adjoining areas of Punjab, Hiana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. And statement three, its directions are legally binding on the concerned state governments and pollution control authorities. So which of the statements given above is or are correct. So we can see that the statement one, two and three all the three statements are correct. Yes, with this we will move to the next article. Coming to the second article, how should registered unrecognized political parties be regulated? Article is taken from the Hind. So a recent investigation done by the BBC found that from the state of Gujarat six registered unrecognized political parties received approximately 1,700 cr in the financial year 2023 24 and the 1,700 cr rupees it is much higher than if you compi if you combine the the total donations received by five national parties in the same financial year excluding BJP. So in this background let us understand more about this article. So now what is the uh issue? The question is how we are going to regulate the recognized uh unregister uh sorry registered unrecognized political parties. In the case of India we have approximately 2,800 plus registered but unrecognized political parties. And out of this 2,800 only 750 parties participated in the 2024 general election and only 26 of them filed the annual report and we can see that in from a single state six registered but unrecognized political party received approximately,700 cr rupees and this is much higher than if you combine the total donation of five national recognized parties excluding So why this is a concern? See we can see that you know if uh the uh this parties are receiving fund and this fund can be used for money laundering or it can be used for you know whitening the black money. So there are different concern there are various concerns associated with the uh you know this issue. Okay. So we can see that in the case of India we can generally classify the political parties into three category. So before that what is mean by political party? Political party is a type of association. In this association, the people will have a common ideology and also they will be working for a common objective right and you know they will be forming polit and compar and if you compare with the pressure groups the political parties will be active in the politics and they will be forming the government if the people vote for them that is the core. So it is a type of association formed by the citizens or the individuals who are working for a common cause and we can classify the political parties into three types. Registered unrecognized political party that means you know these parties are registered with the election commission of India but they are not active in the politics and second we have the state recognized party. So state recognized party you know the best examples are the DMK, ADMK, Biju Janadal in Odisha, Delilingian party in Andhra Pradesh. These are the examples of the state recognized party. And then we have the national recognized party. For example, the international congress, BJP. These are the examples of national recognized party. So this is how we can classify the political parties in India. And to consider a party as a national party or a state party. We have certain criteria that we will be discussing in the coming slide. And how we can form a political party in India. So we can see that under the section 29 of the representation of people's act of 1951 the you know we when a group is planning to form a political party that political party has to register with the election commission of India and this application has to be filed within 30 days of the party's formation and the memorandum must bear allegiance to constitution the sovereignty of the country and also the integrity of the country that means the political party that you are forming should not affect respect to the sovereignity, autonomy and the integrity of the nation and also the party must commit to principles like socialism, secularism and the democratic principles of the nation and the party should have at least 100 members and uh and each must be a registered elector. So the party should have at least 100 members and each must be a registered elector and also the party should hold periodic inner party elections according to their own constitution. So these are the uh you know criteria or this is how the registration of a political party is done. So in the case of the recognized sorry registered but unrecognized political parties these political parties are recognized with the the they have registered with the election commission of India. So they are in the list of the election commission of India but they are not filing their periodic uh know reporting and at the same time they are not conducting sometimes they may not be active they are not conducting the internal election. they are also not participating in the general election. They are not participating in the state election but they are there. So the concern is that this uh party or this recognized but registered but underrecognized platforms or political parties can be used as a medium to divert money or it can be used for whitening the black money. So these are the major concerns associated with the you know the registered and unrecognized political parties and uh recognition of the state party. So according to the election commission of India, if a party meets any one of this criteria, then that party can be considered as a state party. For example, if if the party wins six percentage of the valid plus at least two seats in the state legislative assembly, then that party can be considered as a state party. And if uh if that is not there in case if they can meet if they can win six percentage of valid votes in lock sabha from that state plus one lockaba seat from that state in that case the party can be considered as a state party and in if that is also not there then if the party wins at least three percentage of the total assembly seats or three seats in that assembly then that case whichever is higher that will be taken into consideration and in that case that the the party can be considered as a state party and the next is winning one lockaba seat for every 25 allotted to that state. So you know you know for example u if a if a state has 50 seats in that case if the party wins at least two state seats in that case also the the two lockaba seats in that case also the state the party can be considered as a state party and if it is secures 8%age of total valid votes in the assembly or in lockaba polls from that state. So if that party gets uh 8%age of total valid votes in the assembly or in the loss of a poll that can that party can be also considered as state party. Okay. So these are the criteria for the uh you know for considering or categorizing or recognizing a party as a state party. And next is the national party. So what are the criteria for national party? So if they meet any one of these criteria then we can consider the party as a national party. So the first is securing six percentage of valid votes in four more than four states plus four lock saba states. So they have to secure six percentage of valid votes in four states and also they have to win at least four plus seats in the lock saba. And next is winning two percentage of lock saba seats not less than uh you know 11 drawn from at least three different states. That means winning two percentage of lock saba seats at least from three different states. And the next is be recognized as a state party in at least the four states. So the party which is recognized as a state party in at least four states can be also considered as a national party. And uh the review cycle so you know the regular review will be conducted regarding the status of the party. So before that it was conducted every five year that is uh you know uh until 2016 it was conducted in uh every five year but now the uh the review the status will be reviewed in every 10 year. And what are the benefits for the national party? They will have a reserved symbol for entire India and they can use 40 star campaigners for their election and also you know they have you know they can use office and land in Delhi. So these are the major benefits for the national party and then we have the registered unrecognized political party. So you know they are not conducting an election they they are not actively participating in the politics then why what is the uh you know what is the reason behind this registered unrecognized political party because this registered unrecognized political party will have certain benefits enjoyed by the political parties for example they will have a tax exemption on donations under the section 12 of the income tax act of 9 2005 so they will have a tax exemption under the section 12 of income tax act of 2005. So to uh for the you know here comes the concern sometimes the registered unrecognized political parties can be used as a medium for trackision and next is the common symbol for state and local elections and they can use up to 20 star campaigners for the election and they have to maintain record for every donor who are giving a donation above 20,000 per year and they have to you know file annual contribution report with the election commission under the section 29C of the uh representative representation of people's act of 1951. In case if they are not filing then in that case they will they will sometimes they can lose the ex exemption on on taxation provided under section 12 of the income tax act of 19 sorry 2005 and uh you know yes uh under the you know uh like I mentioned the penalty in case if they are not able to file the uh the account if they are not able to file the audit then in that case they will lose the exemption provided under the income tax act and uh the uh and the political party who receiving the donation about 2,000 rupees has to receive in check or in bank transfer that means digital record or the record has to be there. So these are the major benefits enjoyed by the uh you know the recognized uh registered unrecognized political parties. So now what is the issue? The issue is the letter pad parties. So uh you know we can see that if you take the status uh in in 2024 out of this 2,800 registered unrecognized political parties only 750 participated in the general election that is just 27%age and uh another major concern is about the annual report. So according to the uh the data from the democratic association for democratic reforms uh in the in the financial year 2022 23 only 26%age of the registered unrecognized parties filed their annual report and this is raising concerns about the opacity in the donation and the fund management and next is the tax exempt donations create a scope for money laundering and the fund routting. Yes, the exemption the exemption of the on the taxation can be used for tax evision. It can be used as a platform for you know fund rooting and money laundering. So that is another major concern and money laundering it is directly affecting the security of the nation. And next is field fielding token candidate. Yes, sometimes the political party you know they will uh they will contest in the election nominally. That means without uh much effort they will you know uh they will uh you know file the uh the uh you know they will they will participate in the election and the candidates may not be interested the political party may not be interested in in really they are not interested in conducting the election or winning the election. So they will nominally participate in the election. So that will make the the authorities uh you know more difficult in finding the the real inactive political uh registered unrecognized political party. So the candid the token candidates you know it's another major concern about the registered unrecognized political party. So they they are not real candidates they will be standing in the election just for you know nominal purpose. And next is weak audit absence of inner party polls and opaque donor identity. So these are the other major concerns associated with the registered unrecognized political parties. And next the dregistration. So now we may have a question why can we dregister such inactive registered unrecognized political party but that is not easy. So in the case that is the international congress was institute of social welfare. This case happened in 2002 and in this case the Supreme Court of India ruled that for being inactive a political party should not be dregistered. The political party should not be dregistered and also according to the people's representation act of 1951 there is no d power for the election commission to you know uh dregister a political party for being inactive. But we can dregister political party if the political party obtains the registration through any fraud activity. If the party cease to bear allegiance to the constitution, sometimes if the party is acting against the the principles of the constitution, if the party is acting against the sovereignity integrity of the country, in that case we can take action against uh the political party, we can dregister the political party. And next is the party declared unlawfully unlawful by the uh central government. If the central government declares that this party is unlawful, then in that case the dregistration is possible. So apart from that you know the election commission of India do not uh do not receive the power to dregister a party from the uh the from the representation of people's act of 1951 and another thing is that in 2025 in the month of October the election commission of India notified delisted uh 800 plus uh registered under the political party but the d-listing is not dregistration okay the d-listing is not registration uh sorry dlisting is not dregistr registration. Deregistration means completely dregistering a party. That means the party is not formally existing. Listing means dellisting means removing the party from the list of the election commission of India for being inactive. Okay. So both are different. Okay. And also like I mentioned election commission cannot uh dregister a party for being inactive or for not conducting the the inner election or for not filing the annual audit and reforms uh you know uh that can be brought. So you know it is time anyway it is uh we need some sort of regulation for this registered unrecognized political party because there are a lot of risk factors associated with them. So first is the the suggestion from the law commission. So according the law commission's uh 255th report says that deregister the political party who are being inactive for 10 consecutive years. So if a political part is being inactive for 10 years uh you know uh consecutively then that political party has to be dregistered. uh this is this is mentioned in the law commission's 255th report and uh in uh the according to the election commission's electoral reforms memorandum of 2015 grant statuto dregistration power to the election commission. So now we said now we now we just mentioned that the representation of people's act of 1951 does not grant power to the election commission of India to deregister a political party right but the electoral uh reform memorandum presented by the election commission of India in 2015 sorry 2016 suggested uh this this provision so they said that if they have the power to dregister the party then we can reduce the the you know the the recognized uh rec regist assisted unrecognized political parties and next is tying the tax exemption to a minimum vote share threshold. So this will help us to regulate the the funding you know and at the same time we can uh to an extent we can make sure that the political parties are active. NXT is conducting the digital audit with the support of uh know the income tax department so we can flag the suspicious transactions. NXT is mandate public disclosure of donor and annual report on the election commission of India portal. So this will also bring transparency in the management of the fund and we can see who gives the fund to the election uh sorry the the political party. And next is the crossverification use crossverifery pan of the registered unrecognized political donors under the PMLA and black money act framework. So this will make sure that the fund is not diverted for any money laundering or for funding any illegal organizations. So these are the reforms that we can take. And coming to the prelims practice question. The question is consider the following statement regarding recognition of political parties in India. Statement one. A political party is recognized as a national party only if it secures at least six percentage of valid votes in four or more states and wins a minimum of four state four seats in lockup. And second statement, a registered unrecognized political party is entitled to entitled to rece to a reserved election symbol across all states and union territories. Which of the statements given above is or are correct? Option A one only, option B2 only, option C both one and two and option D neither one nor two. So from this question we can say that the statement one is correct. The political party is recognized as a national political party if it ensures at least six percentage of valid votes in four or more states and wins a minimum a four seats in the lock sabha. So that that that is one of the criteria. So the statement one is correct and statement two a registered unrecognized political party is entitled to a reserved election symbol across all states and union territories. No, they are not entitled to a reserved election symbol. They can use the common symbol. Okay. So the political party can contest using the common symbol but they are not entitled to a reserved election symbol. So the statement two is incorrect. So the correct answer will be option A one only. Let's check yes with this we will move to the next article. Coming to the third article Africa moves closer to polopree future as detection fall 33%age. WH article is taken from the down to earth magazine. So recently the world health organization reported that the continent of Africa is making lot of progress in the fight against the polio virus. So between January and July 2026 only 183 detections were recorded in the Africa and out of 47 countries 31 countries report only fewer polio cases and recently five African nations they are the Burundi, Ghana, Gina, Basau, Congo and Uganda they have successfully contained the polio outbreak and 142 million children in Africa have received at least one of the polio vaccine doses and 284 248 million vaccine doses are delivered in Africa in the recent time. So uh from this we can understand that Africa is making a lot of progress in the fight against the polio. But now why it is in the news? What is the concern for African? Now before that let us understand uh certain basics about the polio. So we know that we have discussed it many times. So polio also called polomiatis. It is a highly infectious and know it is a infectious and contagious uh disease that that causes the irreversible paralysis in the people and this infection is mainly transmitted through fal oral root especially through the contaminated food and water and once the virus enters into the human body it will be damaging the the central nerve system. So once the central nerve system is affected uh the the signals from the nerve system will not reach the muscle as a result the muscles will become inactive and eventually this will lead to irreversible paralysis in the people. So uh the only way to fight this infection only way to deal with the the polio virus is nothing but vaccination. So vaccination is the only way to deal with the infection. And in the case of Africa we can see that you know there are generally there are two types of polio viruses. So the two types of polio virus. So the first is the wild polio virus. So wild polio virus means naturally occurring polio virus and there are the different types of wild polio virus like type 1, type two and type three and successfully we have eliminated the type two and type three globally. So across the world now the type two and type three is not a concern but in certain areas like in the certain regions of a Afghanistan and Pakistan the type one wild polio virus is remaining as a concern. And in the case of Africa in 2020 we certified that Africa is free from wild polio virus and now the concern is the vacciner polio virus. So what is vaccine derived polio virus? See we know that this vaccine derived polio virus is caused because of low vaccination coverage because uh for the oral polio vaccine we are we are using the weakened live virus. uh but due to this low vaccination coverage due to due to this low vaccination coverage what happens is that this weakened live virus in the polio vaccine will eventually undergo genetical change. It will undergo the pressure and it will you know it will experience genetical change and once it goes underos this genetical change it will start spreading infection. So it will it will acquire the ability to uh infect the people and you know it will circulate as the vaccine derived polio virus in the population. So this this uh vaccine derived polio virus is caused not because we are using the the polio virus in the vaccine. It is caused because of the limited or low immunization coverage. Okay. And uh coming to the measures taken. So what are the measures recently Africa taken to fight this infection? First is going for mass surveillance and mass uh you know vaccination campaigns across the board and second is integration of the polio vaccine with the misel dtheria and vitamin A interventions and next is strengthened the uh disease surveillance and laboratory capacity. So the in the previous slide we have mentioned about five African countries which successfully contained the infection right. So the five African countries focused on strengthened disease surveillance and laboratory capacity and next is the use of digital tools and geospatial data to identify the population and also the you know the missed communities and next is who uh who's policy uh sorry who's polio transition and the sustainability framework which aims to integrate the polio vaccination into the national health system and uh at the same time there are a lot of challenges. So the first is low immunization coverage in some communities. So this will lead to vaccine derived polio virus and second is crossber transmission due to the you know migration due to the conflict the people are you know migrating to some other region. So in such situation proper health intervention is not possible and next is the continued circulation of vaccine derived polio virus which you know makes the situation more difficult to you know deal with the infection. And next is need for sustained funding and surveillance even after elimination of wild polio virus. So we can see that elimination of the wild polio virus doesn't mean that the situation is safe. Right? Anytime the transmission is still possible because this uh this infection is highly contagious. And the next is global polio eradication initiative. So we know that you know uh now the world have successfully eliminated the type two and type three wild polio virus. Type one is still remaining as a concern in in certain regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan and many regions you know especially the regions of Africa they are facing the problem of uh you know uh the vaccine derived polio virus and we know that in the case of India we have successfully eliminated the uh the neonatal tetanus you know and at the same time polio as a public health concern so we have the world is you know you know it's a world has taken a lot of initiatives and we have achieved the the or or we have successfully won the uh eliminated the polio virus. But at the same time you know we have to thank the global polio eradication because it was a polio eradication initiative was launched in 1988 and we can see that it includes uh the private public partnership led by national governments and various other research organizations and also the foundations of various uh you know entrepreneurs to fight against the polio and we have brought down the polio virus by more than 99 percentage. So now we have a prelims practice question. The question is consider the following statements regarding polio virus. Statement one wild polio virus and a vaccine polio virus can cause both can cause poliois. Yes, that is correct. And statement two vaccine polio virus can emerge in population with a low vaccination coverage. Yes. And statement uh three while the polio virus type two and type three have been globally eradicated. Yes. So all the three statements are correct. So the correct answer will be option D 1 2 and three. So type one is still remaining as a problem in uh you know Afghanistan and Pakistan. So let's check the answer. Yes, with this we will move to the next article. Coming to the fourth article, Supreme Court of India sees timeline for food safety and standard authority of India's food warning label roll out. Article is taken from the Hindu. So what is the news? So recently the Supreme Court of India that is on 10th September the Supreme Court of India sought a clear timeline from the food safety and standard authority of India for the implementing the second phase of the friend of package warning label on packed food items. So in this background let us understand more about this article. See this uh you know the issue regarding the friend of package uh labeling is going on between the Supreme Court of India and the food safety and standard authority of India for a long time. So this case can be traced even back to 2024. So in between there was lot of you know there were lot of initiatives to uh implement the front of package labeling and food safety food safety and standard authority of India they had their own concerns associated with the introduction of the print of package labeling and eventually in between that is in the towards the end of the 2024 and in the early phase of the 2025 the Supreme Court and the food safety and standard of the India accepted to appoint a committee to study uh know this issue but there was no major progress and eventually Later the food safety and standard authority of India in uh you know decided to introduce the labeling system in two different phases. So now the Supreme Court of India asked the timeline from the food safety and standard authority of India regarding the implementation of the second phase of the front of package labeling that means when since when you are going to start the second phase of this labeling you know system. So that is the question asked by the Supreme Court of India to the food safety and standard authority of India. Now so in this background let us understand more. So we know that food safety and standard authority of India it is a statutory body working under the ministry of health and family welfare and it is responsible for monitoring the food items in the country right and coming to the front of package warning label. So what is front of package warning label? So this is how it will look like. So if you look at this chips packet we can see that you know uh there are certain warnings or certain labels. So from this a common consumer can easily understand the risk factor associated with the consumption of this food product. So from this we can easily find that this food item has excess calorie, excess saturated fat and also excess sodium. Okay. So this is how the friend of package labeling is going to work. So consumer can easily understand about the uh the nutrient value, the nutrients and also the risk factor associated with the consumption of the food. Okay. So the front of package labeling is nothing but displaying the the label in the front of the package uh which will help the consumer to make an informed choice. Okay. And the major focus will be given for added fat, added sugar and added salt because added fat will increase the risk of cancer and cardiovascular problem. Added sugar will increase the risk of diabetes and added salt will increase the risk of hypertension. Right. and talking about the uh food safety and standard authority of India's proposed two-phase roll out. So how this two-phase you know uh implementation of the warning is going to work. So in the first phase we will introduce the warning labels for the fact for the packed food item which has two or more excessive nutrients. For example, if a biscuit packet has too much sugar, too much salt and also too much you know sodium. In that case we will identify such product and we will label them. So in the first phase we will be focusing on labeling the food items which has two or more excessive nutrients. And in the second phase we will be focusing on warning the food items even if the food item has only one excessive nutrient. For example in a food item for example in a in the case of a biscuit know all other nutrients are normal. For example the fat saturated fat sodium content everything is normal but it has excess sugar. In that case we will label such food items in the second phase. So the first phase we'll be focusing on you know labeling the food items which has two or more excessive nutrients and in the second phase we will label the food items even if the food item has only one excessive nutrient. So why the the food safety and standard authority of India suggested such or proposed such uh you know two-phaseed implementation of the warning label because it will give time for both consumer and also for the food industry. So the consumer can adapt to the new labeling system and the the food industry can reformulate their food policy and the food product. Okay. So this is how this is why the uh the FSSAI proposed two-page roll out of the warning label. And coming to the concerns so on 10th September the Supreme Court of India has raised certain concerns. The first is the indefinite delay. So you know uh that means there is no clear uh you know there is no clear mention about the transition phase that means until when the first phase is going to continue from when you are going to implement the second phase. So what are the major future plans for protecting the health of the people or regarding the labeling of the food items? So there is no clear response from the food safety and standard authority of India. So these are the first two concerns uh addressed by the Supreme Court of India. And second is the scientific basis that is the Supreme Court questioned why warning should require high level of at least two nutrients when even one nutrient in excess may cause health. So we can say that sometimes you know excess sugar alone is enough to cause diabetes. Sometimes excess salt is enough to cause hypertension and sometimes the excess trans fat or the saturated fat is enough to cause you know other health problem. In such a situation, why we have to focus on two or more excessive nutrients in the first phase? That is the next question asked by the Supreme Court. And next is alternative approach. So the Supreme Court asked the food safety authority to consider introducing warning first for the products with the highest level of nutrients for concern. So in instead of focusing on the two or more nutrients, go for the nutrient which has the high risk of bringing health problem to the people. Sometimes it can be sugar, sometimes it can be salt or sometimes it can be trans fat or sometimes it can be you know calcium anything. So instead of focusing on two uh instead of focusing on the number of nutrients go for the nutrients which has the high risk for the human health. And next the product classification. So the Supreme Court noted that you know uh there is uh there is you know there there is no major classification between ultrarocessed food and minimally processed packed food. So you know Supreme Court wanted a scientific reason behind you know uh the classification and Supreme Court asked the uh the the food safety and standard authority of India to classify the food items that means bring a distinction between the ultrarocessed food and minimally processed food. So these are the major concerns raised by the Supreme Court on 10th September. And next along with uh you know the question the supreme court also asked the union government to include the nutritional literacy in the school that means including the you know nutritional education in the school curricula. So this will help the teacher you know uh the teachers and sorry that this will help the students to interpret the uh the food label. So we can see that you know sometimes if you purchase a packet of chips you can see you know uh that it will be labeled like 100 g sugar per serving. So this is how it will be labeled. So what does it mean? Is it is easily understandable for the for the children? No. So you know if you can introduce the uh the nutritional educ literacy in the school the children can interpret the food label and next it will promote informed dietary choices and also it will address children's vulnerability to impulsive based or uninformed food consumption. So we can see that comparing with the adult population the children especially the children who are studying in the school you know are at the high risk of cons or or you know or they are at the high risk of consuming the the the food products with the excessive fat, excessive sugar and excessive salt. Right? So therefore the inclusion of the nutrition literacy is very important to protect the health of the children and uh significance. So what is the significance uh you know uh about of this front of package labeling? The first is protection of the consumer. So it will inform the consumer regarding the nutritional value. It will inform the consumer about the the you know the proportion of of nutrient in a food item. Therefore you know they can make an informed choice uh regarding the diet. Next is the public health. So we can see that know front of package labeling comparing with the uh the present labeling system it is more easily to understand right. So it it will be more easy for the consumer to understand it and therefore if the food is too much salty in that case the people with the hypertension they can avoid it so they can reduce the risk of cardiovascular problem and the uh stroke and next is the informed choice. So in India under article 19 we have something called right to be informed. So this is this is applicable to election. This is applicable to conception and also this is applicable you know to every aspect of life. So we can see that through informed choice we are protecting the fundamental right of the people for better health. And next is the industry accountability. So it encourages food manufacturers to reformulate food products and reduce excessive sugar, salt and fat. So if you are going for labeling of the food item you know then people will avoid food items with the excessive nutritions right for example if you know like high salt or high sugar in that case if the consumption falls then the you know the the profit will fall and eventually the food industry will change their their food policy. They will you know try to uh you know bring down the the excessive salt content and sugar content in their food product. and what are the major challenges in implementing it. So first is defining the scientifically valid nutrition threshold. So what is the level of nutrient is harmful to the human health. So this will vary from people to people and population to population. Therefore we cannot bring a scientific threshold for this and second is balancing the consumer health with the industry concern. So we can see that the foot market is a big market right. We can see that you know it is you know it is across the world. So in that case you know if we bring a change in in India or in a particular country how far it will impact the the consumers as well as the the industry that is going to be a question. And next is ensuring labels are simple visible and understandable. So we can see that know yes the the common literacy is very you know uh it is a concern especially when it comes to interpreting the food label. So most of the time you know the food labeling can be uh you know um uh easily can be understood easily in the case of the front of package labeling. But at the same time the language the way of highlighting the concern is is going to be you know uh a limitation for the people. Sometimes the people may not be able to read English. Sometimes the people may not be able to read Hindi. So this language barrier is going to be there. And if you're going for color in that case also the people will not be able to understand it easily. That means every population will not able to understand it easily. And next is avoiding the misleading comparison between ultrarocessed and minimally packed food. So you know so far there is no much scientific classification behind this ultrarocessed food and minimally processed food. So this overlapping can lead to confusion and you know this can mislead the people and next is preventing delay in implementing the second phase. So you know yeah the so far there is no response from the food safety and standard authority of India regarding from when they are going to introduce the second phase of the the the front of package warning label. So you know the this indefinite delay in the implementation is the another major challenge. So these are the major challenges in implementing the front of package labeling. So now we have a mains practice question. The question is front of pack warning labels can promote informed dietary choices and strengthen public health outcomes. Discuss the significance and the challenges of implementing such labels in India. So it's a 15 marks question and you have to write around 250 words. Write the answer post in the comment section. We will review and we will prepare for your answer. Now it's time to move to the prelims focus for the day. Coming to the prelims focus for the day. The first topic is Badilo Bulma UNESCO site. So recently the South Sudan got their first world herit UNUSCO world heritage site that that is Bulma and Badangalo Parks. So talking about the Bulma and Bandala parks, it is a 30 million acres of Africa's largest intact savana system and this region witness a migration of approximately 6 million antelopes every year including white-eared cob and mongala gas and the birds found in this region includes jubel stro kingfishes and nearly uh you know 470 bird species you know migrate through this region and talking about the ecosystem so this region has wetland swam woodland and we can see that this region is also linked to the Sud Ramsar site. So Sud Ramsar site is one of the largest you know tropical wetland and freshwater system located in the country of South Sudan. And uh talking about South Sudan we know that it was formed in 2011 and it is a landlocked country located in the uh in the East Africa and uh uh the significance of this event. So this is a step towards better conservation of the Africa's ecosystem particularly in South Sudan. And uh the next topic is exercise Samudra Lex mana. So recently the INSU arrived at Lamut in Malaysia for the fourth edition of Samudra Lexana. So it's a naval exercise between India and the Malaysian Navy. And this year the venue is Malaysia that is limit. And the activities of this exercise this some other leakana includes cross the visit operational interactions and the sporting events. So the objective is achieving you know better coordination in joint operations and also exchange of you know expertise and uh this is linked with the the Mahasaka the maritime policy of India and also uh you know this this marks the ASEAN India year of maritime cooperation 2026 and the next topic is operation sorry exercise Yudhabias. So uh the the 22nd edition of India USA jointed military exercise Yudabias is being held in India and we can see that as a part of the 22nd edition you know Indian army with the 11th airborne of airborne of USA that is you know it's the section which is trained to fight in the Arctic region along with the third multi-dommain task force will be participating in the uh exercise and talking about the Udabas so it is an annual India US joint military exercise and it is focusing on high altitude warfare long range precision fire precision fires and also counter drill uh drone drills and this year one of the major features of the exercise is the introduction of or the deployment of the emllets emlitz is the mobile low flow uh small unmanned aircraft integrated defense system which was developed by the United States of America so we'll be using this system you know for the first time as a part of this exercise and the drills includes command post exercise field training and also combined live fire demonstrations and now we have a prelimin practice question the question is recently the 22nd edition of Udabia's milit military exercise is being held in India consider the following statements statement oneas is a joint military exercise between Indian army and the US army statement two samudra leakana is a bilateral maritime exercise between India and Indonesia And statement three vadra prahar is a special forces exercise conducted between India and Russia and the statement for Indra is a joint triervice exercise between India and the United States of America. So which of the statements given above is or are correct. Indabia as we discussed just now we discussed it is correct right and statement two samudra leakana is a bilateral maritime exercise between India and Malaysia not Indonesia. So the statement two is incorrect. And statement three, Vadra Prahar is a special force exercise conducted between India and the USA not Russia. And statement four, Indra is a joint tricer exercise between India and the United States of America. No, it is between India and Russia. So the statement 2, three and four are incorrect. So the correct answer will be option A one only. Yes. With this we are coming to the conclusion for today's prelimin forecast focus. With this we are coming to the conclusion for today's current affair analysis. If you like the video hit the like button. Give your feedback comments and share this content with your friends. 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