1. 10th WHO Global Tobacco Epidemic Report: A Decade of Progress and Persistent Challenges

Context: The World Health Organization (WHO) has released the 10th edition of its Global Tobacco Epidemic Report, evaluating the global response to tobacco use since the launch of the MPOWER strategy in 2008. This milestone edition reflects both significant progress and pressing challenges in the ongoing fight against tobacco-related harm.

Global Impact: MPOWER Strategy Reaches Over 6 Billion Lives

The report highlights that over 6.1 billion people—nearly 80% of the world’s population—are now protected by at least one of the MPOWER tobacco control measures. Since 2007, 155 countries have adopted at least one of these six evidence-based strategies:

• M: Monitor tobacco use and prevention policies
• P: Protect people from tobacco smoke
• O: Offer help to quit tobacco
• W: Warn about the dangers of tobacco
• E: Enforce bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship (TAPS)
• R: Raise taxes on tobacco

Notable Achievements and Insights:

Widespread Graphic Warnings Lead the Way:

• Among the MPOWER measures, large graphic health warnings on cigarette packaging have seen the most extensive and consistent global implementation. These visuals play a powerful role in deterring tobacco use, especially among new users and young people.

India’s Global Leadership in Digital Regulation:

• India has emerged as a global pioneer by becoming the first country to apply tobacco control rules to digital streaming platforms. This bold step underscores India’s commitment to adapt tobacco control to the changing media landscape.

Stringent TAPS Enforcement in India:

• India has taken a strong stance against tobacco advertising, ensuring strict enforcement of bans across all forms of media. This aggressive approach aligns with the “E” in MPOWER and plays a key role in reducing tobacco’s visibility and appeal.

Tobacco Taxation: A Missed Opportunity

Despite being one of the most effective ways to reduce tobacco consumption—particularly among youth and low-income populations—tobacco taxation remains the least adopted MPOWER measure globally. The report calls for urgent global action to close this critical policy gap.

Fact: A 10% increase in tobacco price through taxation can reduce tobacco consumption by about 4% in high-income countries and up to 8% in low- and middle-income countries.

Tobacco’s Toll: A Continuing Health Crisis

• Over 7 million lives are lost every year due to tobacco use—most of them in low- and middle-income countries.
• In India, tobacco causes more than 1.35 million deaths annually, contributing significantly to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and chronic respiratory conditions.
• India ranks as the second-largest producer of tobacco globally, and the 4th largest producer of Flue-Cured Virginia (FCV) tobacco, following China, Brazil, and Zimbabwe.

Looking Ahead: A Call to Action

Over the past two decades, countries burdened with high tobacco usage have made remarkable strides in reducing consumption. This success is largely driven by the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and the MPOWER package.

However, more work lies ahead:

• Expand taxation policies to curb demand effectively.
• Strengthen cessation support services in primary healthcare.
• Counter the rise of novel tobacco products like e-cigarettes and heated tobacco, especially among youth.

Conclusion: Sustaining Momentum, Filling GapsThe 10th WHO report is both a celebration of progress and a reminder of unfinished business. As tobacco companies evolve their tactics, governments must continue to innovate, regulate, and educate to build a tobacco-free future.

2. India’s First Nationwide Household Income Survey to Launch in 2026

Context: For the first time in its history, India will conduct a nationwide Household Income Survey in 2026, addressing a long-standing gap in the country’s socio-economic data framework. Spearheaded by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), this ambitious initiative aims to deliver a comprehensive picture of income levels, distribution, and inequality across both rural and urban India.

About the Survey: Led by NSSO Under Expert Guidance

The survey will be executed by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), operating under MoSPI. To ensure high-quality and globally comparable outcomes, a Technical Expert Group (TEG) has been established, chaired by renowned economist Dr. Surjit S. Bhalla.

Mandate of the TEG Includes:

• Finalizing concepts, definitions, survey design, and sampling methods.
• Integrating global best practices from nations like the USA, Australia, Canada, and South Africa.
• Developing rigorous data quality protocols and estimation methods.
• Leveraging digital tools to track technology-driven changes in income sources and patterns.
• Ensuring timely publication and public access to findings.

Why This Survey Matters: Bridging a Critical Data Gap

1. Mapping Income for the First Time : While India has decades of data on consumption, employment, and poverty, there is no official record of household income distribution. This survey aims to provide a clear and reliable estimate of income levels across demographic, geographic, and occupational lines.
2. Smarter Welfare Delivery : With accurate income data, the government can target subsidies, welfare schemes, and direct benefit transfers more precisely, ensuring that the most vulnerable receive timely support.
3. Understanding the Impact of Digital & Informal Work:  The rise of the gig economy, platform-based jobs, and automation has changed how many Indians earn. This survey will explore the real income implications of this shift—something previous datasets have missed.
4. Foundation for Better Fiscal Policy:  A true picture of income distribution can serve as a benchmark for designing equitable tax policies, minimum wage structures, and fiscal redistribution programs.
5. Global Alignment:  Countries like the USA, South Africa, and Australia regularly conduct household income surveys. India’s move will improve international comparability and enhance economic transparency.

Challenges in Implementation: Navigating Complex Realities

While the initiative is groundbreaking, several practical and technical challenges must be addressed:

1. Income Underreporting:  Many households, especially those dependent on informal or cash-based sources, may hesitate to disclose full income due to fears of taxation or legal consequences.
2. Diverse and Fragmented Income Streams:  Indian households earn from agriculture, labor, remittances, pensions, self-employment, and more. Accurately capturing and verifying these multisource incomes is complex.
3. Inconsistency with Consumption and Savings: Previous research shows income often reported lower than consumption or savings, suggesting inaccurate recall or intentional misreporting.
4. Seasonal and Unstable Incomes:  Income in sectors like agriculture and construction varies seasonally. A one-time survey may miss these fluctuations unless multiple rounds are conducted.
5. Field Investigator Preparedness:  Reliable data hinges on well-trained surveyors who can build trust, ask sensitive questions with empathy, and navigate local economic dynamics effectively.

Way Forward: Toward a Sustainable Income Data System

1. Institutionalizing the Survey:  Rather than treating this as a one-time event, the Household Income Survey should be institutionalized and repeated at regular intervals (e.g., every 5 years), enabling policymakers to track long-term trends and evaluate policy outcomes more accurately.
2. Investing in Enumerator Training: Enumerators must receive intensive training, not only in technical tools but also in ethical interviewing, building rapport, and understanding local income behavior.
3. Leveraging Technology:  Digital tools, such as mobile-based data collection, automated cross-checking, and AI-assisted data validation, can enhance accuracy and reduce human errors.

Conclusion: A Transformative Leap Toward Equitable Growth

The 2026 Household Income Survey marks a historic step in India’s data ecosystem. By capturing the real income dynamics of Indian households, it will empower policymakers to make fairer, evidence-based decisions and pave the way for a more inclusive economy.

3. India-ASEAN Trade Pact Under Review: Rethinking the Future of Regional Economic Ties

Context: In the past year, India has held nine rounds of discussions with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to review the ASEAN-India Free Trade Agreement (AIFTA). Despite sustained engagement, no tangible progress has been achieved so far. The review was launched in 2024 to address growing concerns about trade asymmetries and market imbalances.

About the Agreement: Uneven Playing Field Since 2009

The ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement, signed in 2009 and implemented in 2010, laid the foundation for a liberalized trade regime between India and the 10 ASEAN member nations.

However, India opened 71% of its tariff lines, while key ASEAN countries like Indonesia (41%), Thailand (67%), and Vietnam (66.5%) reciprocated with lower access, leading to imbalanced gains.

Over the past 15 years:

• India’s exports to ASEAN have doubled
• But imports have tripled, widening the trade deficit

These growing imbalances have prompted a comprehensive review of the deal.

India-ASEAN Relations: A Broad-Based Strategic Partnership

Historical and Strategic Evolution

• Ties began in the early 1990s with India’s Look East Policy, transformed into the Act East Policy in 2014.
• India was elevated to Full Dialogue Partner in 1996, then to Strategic Partner in 2012, and Comprehensive Strategic Partner in 2022.

ASEAN: A Brief Overview

• Established: 1967 in Bangkok
• Founders: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand
• Headquarters: Jakarta, Indonesia
• Current Members: 10 nations including Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam
• Dialogue Partners: India, China, USA, Japan, Australia, EU, among others

Economic & Strategic Engagement: A Growing Footprint

Trade and Investment:

• ASEAN is India’s 4th largest trading partner
• Total bilateral trade reached USD 110.4 billion in FY 2021–22
• Agreements include trade in goods (2010), services (2014), and investment (2014)

Connectivity and Infrastructure:

• Major projects like the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway and the Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project aim to boost regional connectivity.

Defense and Security Cooperation:

• India actively participates in ASEAN-led defense mechanisms, including ADMM+ and joint naval drills like the ASEAN-India Maritime Exercise
• India supports ASEAN centrality in its Indo-Pacific strategy, guided by the principle of SAGAR – Security and Growth for All in the Region

Socio-Cultural Ties:

• Cultural initiatives include the ASEAN-India Network of Think Tanks, Student Exchange Programmes, and training programs for ASEAN diplomats

Key Challenges in the ASEAN-India FTA

1. Rising Trade Deficit:

• India’s trade deficit with ASEAN ballooned to USD 44 billion in FY 2023, up from USD 8 billion in FY 2013.
• Imports, particularly of palm oil, rubber, electronics, and machinery, far outpace exports.

2. Limited Access for Indian Services: Despite India’s global strength in IT, health, education, and professional services, ASEAN has offered minimal liberalization in these sectors.
3. Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs): Indian exports, especially agriculture and pharmaceuticals, face complex standards, certifications, and quotas, negating the benefits of tariff cuts.
4. Rules of Origin Loopholes: Lax rules allow third countries like China to reroute products through ASEAN, enjoying tariff benefits and undercutting Make in India efforts.
5. Agricultural Disadvantage: Indian farmers struggle to compete with cheap imports from ASEAN, while facing high sanitary and phytosanitary standards on their own exports.
6. Negotiation Asymmetry: ASEAN negotiates as a unified bloc, while India represents itself alone, limiting its leverage in talks.

Way Forward: A Strategic Rebalancing

1. Urgent Need for FTA Review:  India and ASEAN agreed in 2022 to review the pact and rectify structural imbalances. India is pushing for:

• Stricter Rules of Origin
• Tighter safeguard mechanisms
• Greater access for services and agriculture

2. Enhancing India’s Negotiation Strategy: India must strengthen its institutional capacity, seek coalitions with like-minded ASEAN members, and leverage its growing global standing as a leader of the Global South.
3. Strengthening Regional Connectivity: Fast-tracking infrastructure projects will reduce trade costs, increase economic interdependence, and support supply chain integration.
4. Focusing on Investment and Innovation: Encouraging joint ventures, R&D partnerships, and technology transfer can balance trade and build long-term competitiveness.

Conclusion: Seizing the ASEAN Opportunity

The ASEAN-India FTA, once seen as a bold step toward regional integration, now stands at a crossroads. While it has expanded trade volumes, it has also exposed vulnerabilities in India’s trade architecture.

A balanced, mutually beneficial agreement is now essential—not only to correct past inequities but also to realize the full potential of the India-ASEAN strategic partnership in the evolving Indo-Pacific landscape.

4. Yeast Reveals Physics May Spark Multicellular Life — Even Without Genetic Changes

Context: In a groundbreaking discovery, scientists from the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) have uncovered how multicellular life may emerge not solely through genetic mutations, but also through purely physical processes. Their study, focused on snowflake yeast, challenges traditional ideas about the early evolution of complex life forms.

What is Yeast? A Tiny Yet Powerful Organism

Yeast is a unicellular fungus with widespread applications:

• In baking: helps bread rise by producing carbon dioxide.
• In alcohol production: drives fermentation to produce ethanol.
• In research: serves as a model organism to study genetics, cell division, and evolution.

It reproduces via budding—a small daughter cell forms on the parent, receives a copy of the nucleus, grows, and detaches as an independent cell.

Snowflake Yeast: When Cells Refuse to Separate

Unlike normal yeast, snowflake yeast harbors a genetic mutation that prevents new cells from separating after budding. Instead, they remain attached, forming branching clusters that resemble snowflakes. These clusters:

• Become visible to the naked eye within 12 hours.
• Are used as model systems to study how multicellularity might have evolved from single-celled organisms.

The Scientific Mystery: How Do Clusters Keep Growing?

Biologists have long believed that multicellular organisms require complex systems like blood vessels to deliver nutrients to inner cells. Without such systems, growth should stall once the inner core is starved.

Yet in laboratory conditions, snowflake yeast clusters defy expectations—they continue to grow rapidly, even without any specialized transport system.

New Discovery: Fluid Physics Enables Growth

The NCBS team found that a basic physical phenomenon—fluid flow—explains this unexpected growth. The clusters grew only in liquid, not in thick gel mediums.

Two Main Types of Nutrient Movement:

• Diffusion: Slow movement of nutrients from high to low concentration (limited to ~50 micrometers).
• Advection: Bulk fluid movement that carries nutrients rapidly and over longer distances.

In snowflake yeast, advection occurs naturally. Here’s how:

• Yeast consumes glucose and releases alcohol and carbon dioxide.
• These waste products make the surrounding fluid less dense.
• Less dense fluid rises—similar to warm air rising.
• This creates a natural upward flow, pulling fresh nutrient-rich fluid into the cluster from below and sides.

This self-generated fluid circulation ensures all cells, even those deep inside, receive enough nutrients to stay alive and divide.

Why This Matters: A New Pathway to Multicellularity

Traditional evolutionary theory emphasizes gradual genetic mutations as the driving force behind the emergence of multicellular organisms. However, this study provides compelling evidence that simple physical and chemical laws—like fluid dynamics—can enable multicellular behavior even before genetic changes take hold.

Once physical processes stabilize multicellularity, evolution may later reinforce it genetically, making it a permanent trait.

Conclusion: Evolution Is More Than Just Genes

This study reveals that evolutionary breakthroughs may begin not just at the level of DNA, but through the laws of physics themselves. The work of Indian scientists on snowflake yeast opens a new dimension in our understanding of life’s origins—where simple forces might lead to complex forms, even in the absence of mutation.

5. Enhanced Rock Weathering: A Natural Climate Fix Gains Global Momentum

Context: Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) is fast becoming a preferred tool in the global carbon removal market, with major tech firms, airlines, and fast fashion brands investing in ERW-based carbon credits to offset their emissions. As the world races to meet climate goals, ERW is emerging as a scalable, nature-aligned solution.

What is Enhanced Rock Weathering?

Enhanced Rock Weathering is a technique that accelerates a natural geological process—called chemical weathering—to remove carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere and store it safely.

How It Works:

• Weathering occurs when CO₂ reacts with rainwater, forming a weak acid called carbonic acid.
• This acid breaks down rocks, binding CO₂ into bicarbonates, which eventually form stable minerals like limestone, locking carbon away for thousands to millions of years.
• ERW speeds this process by spreading finely crushed quick-weathering rocks, such as basalt, on land. The greater the surface area, the faster the chemical reactions.

Global Reach of ERW Projects:

ERW initiatives are now being piloted or scaled up across:

• Europe
• North and South America
• Asia

These projects often combine carbon removal with agricultural co-benefits, making them attractive to both climate investors and farmers.

Why It’s Effective: Science Behind ERW

The carbon-capturing efficiency of ERW depends on multiple factors:

• Rock type and grain size (finer grains weather faster)
• Climate conditions (more heat and rainfall speed up reactions)
• Soil characteristics and land management (influence how carbon is absorbed and retained)

Environmental and Agricultural Benefits:

• Increases soil alkalinity, helping to:
  • Improve soil health and fertility
  • Promote crop growth
  • Accelerate soil formation
• Reduces ocean acidification by preventing excess soil acids from entering rivers and eventually releasing CO₂ into the atmosphere

Moreover, basalt—the preferred rock for ERW—is:

• Abundant globally

• Often a byproduct of quarrying, making it cost-effective and sustainable

Challenges and Concerns:

Despite its promise, ERW faces critical challenges:

Heavy Metal Contamination:

• Some rapid-weathering rocks may contain toxic heavy metals such as nickel, chromium, or cadmium.
• These elements could leach into the soil or water, posing environmental and health risks if not properly managed.

Conclusion: A Promising Tool, Not a Silver Bullet

Enhanced Rock Weathering represents one of the most nature-aligned carbon removal techniques available today. While still in early commercial stages, it holds tremendous potential when paired with rigorous monitoring, responsible rock selection, and local soil management practices.

6. India and South Africa Strengthen Naval Ties with Submarine Cooperation Pact

Context: On June 25, 2025, India and South Africa signed crucial agreements focused on submarine cooperation, during the 9th Joint Defence Committee (JDC) meeting held in South Africa. This development highlights the growing depth of India–Africa defence relations, particularly in the realm of maritime security and underwater capabilities.

South Africa: Key Partner at the Southern Tip of Africa

Political Capital Structure:

South Africa is unique for having three capital cities, each serving a different function:

• Pretoria – Administrative Capital
• Cape Town – Legislative Capital
• Bloemfontein – Judicial Capital

Geographical Location:

• Southernmost country on the African continent
• Shares land borders with:
  • Namibia to the northwest
  • Botswana and Zimbabwe to the north
  • Mozambique and Eswatini to the northeast and east
• Lesotho, a landlocked country, is entirely surrounded by South African territory
• Maritime boundaries include the Indian Ocean (southeast) and the Atlantic Ocean (southwest)

Geographical and Natural Wealth:

Mineral Riches:

South Africa is renowned for its abundant natural resources, including:

• Gold, coal, iron ore, manganese, nickel, antimony, and gem diamonds
• In 2022, it was the world’s leading producer of chromite ore, crucial in stainless steel production

Major Rivers:

• Orange River: South Africa’s longest river, flows westward into the Atlantic Ocean
• Limpopo River: Flows eastward, crosses the Tropic of Capricorn twice, and empties into the Indian Ocean

Mountain Range:

• Drakensberg Mountains: The highest mountain range in Southern Africa, known for its dramatic cliffs, rich biodiversity, and cultural significance with ancient San rock art

Additional Insight: Strategic Importance:

South Africa’s position between two major oceans makes it a key maritime gateway for global trade. Its growing defence collaboration with India reflects shared interests in:

• Combating piracy and illegal fishing
• Securing sea lanes of communication
• Enhancing joint naval exercises and technology transfer