🔆 India’s Secular Constitution: Beyond the Preamble Wordplay

📍 42nd Amendment added “secular” & “socialist” to Preamble, triggering fresh debates
✅ VP Dhankhar called the amendment a “sacrifice to the spirit of Sanatan”
✅ “Secular” never defined, but enshrined in Articles 14, 15, 16 (equality, non-discrimination)
✅ Landmark SC judgments (e.g. Kesavananda Bharati, Bommai case) upheld secularism
✅ Secularism visible in Directive Principles promoting equality, welfare
✅ 1980 Minerva Mills case said socialism was a core constitutional ideal
✅ Indira Gandhi’s leftward push linked “socialist” to her economic narrative
✅ 42nd Amendment also added Fundamental Duties and Directive Principles emphasis
✅ Critics say wordplay was more symbolic; real secularism lies in constitutional values
✅ Court: Removal of “secular” won’t affect the basic structure

📝 Prelims Question:
Which of the following is correct about the 42nd Constitutional Amendment?
(a) It abolished Fundamental Duties
(b) It removed the word “democratic” from the Preamble
(c) It added “socialist” and “secular” to the Preamble ✅
(d) It introduced a Presidential system

📝 Mains GS2 Question:
Discuss how secularism in India functions as an essential constitutional value, even without being explicitly defined in the Constitution.

#GS2 #Polity

📝 Answer Writing That Builds Ranks

🗂 Writing practice without feedback is noise.

💡 Join our free daily UPSC writing initiative with model answers + detailed explanations.

🎥 Video guidance every evening.

📌 Improve with each answer you write.

📥 Join the challenge: https://www.tg-me.com/northstarinstitute

🔆 Pollution Crisis in India: Key Data Points with Sources

✅ 2.3 million deaths in 2019 due to pollution in India
🟢 Source: Lancet Study

✅ India = 3rd most polluted country, New Delhi = world’s most polluted capital (5th year)
🟢 Source: World Air Quality Report 2023

✅ Air pollution losses = 8.5% of India’s GDP
🟢 Source: World Bank

✅ Air pollution = 3rd highest cause of death in India
🟢 Source: WHO

✅ 3,469 DALYs/100,000 due to air pollution
🟢 Source: SDG India Index 2024

✅ Life expectancy in Delhi cut by 11.9 years due to air pollution
🟢 Source: Air Quality Life Index Report 2023

✅ 1.2 lakh deaths annually due to landscape fires (2000–2019)
🟢 Source: Lancet

✅ 1,800 vehicles added daily in Delhi
🟢 Source: Delhi Transport Department

✅ 61% urban sewage goes untreated into water bodies
🟢 Source: CPCB

✅ 276 districts have contaminated groundwater (fluoride, arsenic, nitrate)
🟢 Source: CPCB

✅ Water pollution health costs = ₹470–610 billion/year ($6.7–8.7 billion)
🟢 Source: WEF

✅ Plastic production doubled from 234 mt (2000) to 460 mt (2019)
🟢 Source: Our World in Data

✅ Only 23% plastic mismanaged, but 5% leaks into environment, 1.7% to rivers
🟢 Source: Our World in Data

✅ Asia = 50% of global plastic production
🟢 Source: Our World in Data

✅ Only 10% of all plastic ever produced has been recycled
🟢 Source: UN & IUCN Report

✅ India = largest plastic polluter, 9.3 Mt/year (≈ 1/5th of global emissions)
🟢 Source: Nature Journal

✅ 89% plastic in oceans = Single Use Plastic
🟢 Source: UNEP

✅ 50% of plastic in India discarded after single use; 60% recycled
🟢 Source:MoEFCC


#Data #GS1 #GS2 #GS3 #mains #social_issue

Join @CSE_EXAM
@UPSC_FACTS

🔆 Dispute over Tikri Khurd Lake Symbolises Delhi’s Wetland Crisis

📍 Long-standing tussle between DDA & Wetland Authority
✅ 8 years since 2017 wetland rules—not a single wetland notified in Delhi
✅ Tikri Khurd lake (40 acres) still not protected despite NGT order
✅ DDA claims it’s “low-lying land”, not a water body
✅ WAD cites hydrological & flood-mitigation roles of such wetlands
✅ Experts: Wetlands aid recharge, storage, flood control, purification
✅ Over 22% (232 out of 1045) water bodies in Delhi “deleted” due to encroachment
✅ Lack of coordination, political will, and technical conflicts stall wetland protection
✅ Field visits show large parts of Tikri Khurd still hold waterlogged areas

📝 Prelims Q (Environment)
Under the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2017, which authority is responsible for notifying wetlands in a State/UT?
(a) Central Pollution Control Board
(b) National Green Tribunal
(c) State Wetland Authority ✅
(d) Ministry of Jal Shakti

📝 Mains GS3 Q:
Critically examine the reasons for poor implementation of Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2017 in urban areas, with special reference to Delhi.

#GS3 #Environment