Newspapers
The day's papers, read for the exam. Every article here is rewritten and reviewed — we link you to the original, we never reprint it.
Read the week in one go15 August 2026
Read these
2 articles- The HinduGS-1GS-2GS-334min
Financial democracy, the Jan Dhan transformation
Vinay Sahasrabuddhe
The article marks 12 years of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) on Independence Day 2026. Its central claim is that political independence in 1947 gave Indians the right to vote, but not real economic freedom — for decades, ordinary Indians remained outside the formal banking system. It argues that PMJDY, announced on 15 August 2014 from the Red Fort, tried to close that gap by making a bank account, a RuPay card and insurance cover available to every household. The author positions PMJDY as the first layer of the JAM trinity (Jan Dhan–Aadhaar–Mobile), which later enabled Direct Benefit Transfer and India's wider Digital Public Infrastructure including UPI. The Antyodaya principle — "reach the last person first" — is the ideological anchor. The figures it gives: by July 2026, over 58 crore accounts, roughly ₹3 lakh crore in deposits, more than half held by women, and about three-fourths in rural and semi-urban areas. The sharpest line to carry out of this piece: Jan Dhan is not one leg of JAM among three — it is the base layer that made the other two useful. Without an account, Aadhaar has nothing to authenticate into and UPI has nothing to move money to.
- 9Key Ideas
- Ammunition
- 6Prelims Drill
- Mains Practice
- The HinduGS-1GS-2GS-418min
India at 80: a democracy in search of renewal
Ashwani Kumar
Ashwani Kumar is a senior lawyer at the Supreme Court and was once the Law Minister of India. He has written this piece as India enters its 80th year of freedom. His main point is simple. India has done well in many areas — the economy is strong, science and defence have grown, the country now has a big role in world affairs. But when we look at the quality of our democracy, the picture is mixed. He lists his worries. Centre and States are fighting more than they should. Members of Parliament change parties for personal gain. The Election Commission's fairness is being doubted. The Supreme Court has been slow in giving bail and slow in deciding cases. The way judges are picked — the collegium system — is being questioned. And the media, which should watch power, is now often serving power. He ends by saying the fix is not just political. It has to start with ordinary citizens waking up. He points to the recent student protests at Jantar Mantar as a sign of hope — young people still care about justice. The outer machine of democracy is working — elections happen, courts open, Parliament meets. The audit here is of the inner layer: what those institutions are actually delivering for an ordinary Indian.
- 8Key Ideas
- Ammunition
- 5Prelims Drill
- Mains Practice
11 August 2026
Read these
3 articles- The HinduGS-1GS-310min
Why does handloom remain a key part of India's economy?
Priyambada Jayakumar
More than 35 lakh weavers and allied workers sit at India's handlooms, spread across over 31 lakh households. Nearly 70% of them are women. Between them they make about 15% of the country's cloth, almost entirely by hand. That is not a craft. That is an industry, and it is one of rural India's largest sources of work outside farming. Now here is the writer's point. Handloom is usually filed under culture — valuable, admired, economically small. She argues that reading is simply wrong, and the number that settles it is the capital. Handloom does all of the above on very little investment. Few manufacturing sectors create as many jobs for so small a sum. And India's central economic problem is exactly that — manufacturing that does not create enough jobs per rupee put in. The trouble is not with the famous weaves. Those still sell. It is the hundreds of lesser-known traditions that are dying, as returns fall, markets stay scattered, and families stop teaching the skill to their children. Her answer has two halves. Stop selling handloom because it is old and start selling it as premium — craftsmanship, sustainability, exclusivity — with limited production treated as a feature rather than a weakness. The second half is duller and probably matters more. Nobody counts this sector. There is no reliable figure for what it contributes to GDP, exports, taxes or household income. A sector that is not counted cannot be planned for, and will keep being treated as small.
- 6Key Ideas
- Ammunition
- 2Prelims Drill
- Mains Practice
- The HinduGS-1GS-2GS-310min
Agasthyamalai eviction orders still silence Forest Rights Act
C.R. Bijoy
Thousands of families in the Agasthyamalai hills of Tamil Nadu have been given eviction notices. The Forest Department says they are sitting on forest land illegally. The order came from the Supreme Court. Before that, a committee surveyed the whole area and reported what it found. Now here is the writer's point. He is not saying evictions are unfair. He is saying something sharper — the law already tells us who is an illegal occupier, and nobody has bothered to apply it. The Forest Rights Act says this. If you were living on forest land before 13 December 2005, you have a right there. Nobody can evict you until your claim is checked and decided. Only if your claim fails that check are you an encroacher. That check has not been done. And no government has ever published how many people fall outside the Act. So every "encroacher" number in this case is a number nobody can verify.
- 6Key Ideas
- Ammunition
- 2Prelims Drill
- Mains Practice
- The HinduGS-1GS-2GS-49min
How personality cults derail democracy
Nirupama Rao
In 1937 an essay appeared in The Modern Review titled 'The Rashtrapati'. It was signed, cryptically, "Chanakya". Readers at the time did not know who had written it. It was Jawaharlal Nehru. He was at the height of his popularity, and he was writing anonymously about the danger that his own popularity posed to India. "Therein lies danger for Jawaharlal and for India," he wrote. The country might prosper a little under a benevolent despotism, but she would remain stunted. Twelve years later, addressing the Constituent Assembly on 25 November 1949, B.R. Ambedkar said the same thing far more bluntly. "Bhakti in religion may be a road to the salvation of the soul. But in politics, Bhakti or hero-worship is a sure road to degradation and to eventual dictatorship." Now here is the writer's point. Neither warning is aimed at rulers, she argues. Both are aimed at citizens. Because the danger rarely arrives from above, as a leader seizing power. It rises from below — from ordinary people willing to hand over the burdens of citizenship to someone who looks larger than life. And look again at the word Nehru chose. Not "despotism". "Stunted". His fear was not that India would become a dictatorship. It was that India would stop growing, because a people used to looking for a saviour loses the habits a republic runs on — doubt, argument, participation, responsibility.
- 5Key Ideas
- Ammunition
- 2Prelims Drill
- Mains Practice
Worth knowing
2 articlesshorter — summary and concepts- 4min
State song must be sung first, says T.N. Assembly resolution
Tamil Nadu now requires its State song to be sung before any programme begins — in schools and universities, in government offices, in public sector undertakings, at public institutions of every kind. The Assembly voted for it on Monday, and every party voted yes. The song is Tamil Thai Vazhthu, taken from Manonmaniam, written by Manonmaniam Sundaranar in 1891. Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay moved the resolution, later called it historic, and thanked all parties for supporting it. It has in fact been sung first at government functions for a long time. A government order to that effect came into force on 23 November 1970, and the previous DMK government recognised it as the State song by an order of 12 December 2021. Now here is why this matters. The DMK voted for the resolution and then asked for something more — a special law to give it legal status. That single demand tells you what Monday's vote is worth. A resolution is the House saying what it thinks. It carries weight, and a government usually follows it, but nobody can be taken to court for ignoring it. A law is different: it creates a duty, names who must do what, and provides a consequence when they do not. Ask what happens if somebody ignores it — that is the whole test, and it travels far beyond this story, because Parliament and every Assembly pass resolutions that never bind the way a statute does.
The HinduGS-1GS-2 - 4min
Meghalaya's district council approves amendments to bar non-tribals from poll process
In the Garo Hills of western Meghalaya, the district council has decided who is allowed to vote for it. From now on, only tribals. Non-tribals can neither vote in its elections nor contest them. The council will also stop borrowing the voters' list made for Assembly elections and prepare one of its own. Rules 128 and 129 were amended on Monday to do both things. The council's Chief Executive Member, M. Dhormonath Ch Sangma, called it a significant step in protecting the rights and interests of the tribal people of Garo Hills. This did not come out of nowhere. Earlier this year a notification tried to bar non-tribals from contesting. Violence followed in Garo Hills and two people died. The Meghalaya High Court cancelled that notification, and the election due on 10 April was postponed. Now here is why this matters. Most Sixth Schedule news is about places asking to be brought under it — Ladakh, parts of Manipur, parts of Jharkhand. This story is the other half. It shows what a council does once it already holds those powers. The first thing this one has done is decide its own electorate. And that runs straight into Article 325, which says nobody may be left out of an electoral roll only because of religion, race, caste or sex. Whether a Sixth Schedule council sits outside that sentence, because the Schedule gives it its own powers, is not settled. It is the question a court will be asked next.
The HinduGS-1GS-2
10 August 2026
Read these
2 articles- The HinduGS-1GS-321min
Combined effects of climate and geology caused 2024 Wayanad landslide: study
Sam Paul A.
This is a news report, not an opinion piece. It covers a new study published in Landslides, an international peer-reviewed journal, which means other specialists checked the method and the evidence before it appeared. The study asks why the 2024 landslide in Kerala's Wayanad district became as destructive as it did, and answers that the extraordinary rain was only half the story. The rock beneath the slope, the shape of the valley and the cracks running through the rock decided where the hillside broke and how far the debris travelled. The work was carried out jointly by researchers from the University of Kerala, IISER Mohali and Savitribai Phule Pune University.
- 6Key Ideas
- Ammunition
- 3Prelims Drill
- Mains Practice
- The HinduGS-1GS-224min
The stakes in India's delimitation debate
Varghese K. George
This is an explainer, taken from the author's introduction to a book on delimitation published by the paper. Delimitation means redrawing the boundaries of parliamentary constituencies and redistributing Lok Sabha seats among the States. The piece answers a set of practical questions: what triggers the next exercise, how the 2027 Census affects seat allocation, whether it can be finished before the 2029 election, and which States could gain or lose. Its central point is that a fresh delimitation needs no constitutional amendment at all — Articles 81 and 82 already require one once data from the first Census after 2026 is published, and an amendment is needed only to change those existing rules. The article then sets out the real tension underneath the debate: federalism, which represents States as units, against one person one vote one value, which says every citizen's vote should weigh the same.
- 6Key Ideas
- Ammunition
- 3Prelims Drill
- Mains Practice