The Hindu Gist - 25th August, 2026
1 . Supreme Court’s New Interpretation of “Industry” — Industrial Relations Code, 2020
Why the definition of “industry” needed reconsideration?
- A 9-judge Constitution Bench has held that the nearly half-century-old interpretation of “industry” in Bangalore Water Supply & Sewerage Board v. A. Rajappa (1978) will not automatically govern the Industrial Relations Code (IRC), 2020.
- The 1978 judgment had significantly widened Section 2(j) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, bringing activities such as hospitals, educational institutions and municipalities within the definition of industry.
- Its “triple test” treated an activity as an industry where there was systematic activity, organised cooperation between employer and employee, and production/distribution of goods or services to satisfy human wants and wishes.
- This broad interpretation enabled workers across diverse sectors to access labour rights, legal recourse, collective bargaining and protection against unfair practices.
- However, the Court noted that the 1978 framework was a “child of its time”, framed when India was transitioning towards private employment. The subsequent transformation through privatisation, liberalisation, globalisation and changing industrial structures necessitates interpretation in the contemporary context.
A New Statutory Framework for “Industry”
- The majority held that “industry” under the IRC must be interpreted “independently”, based on its own statutory text and context, rather than being burdened by the legacy of the 1978 judgment.
- Pending disputes under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 will continue under the 1978 framework, while future disputes under the IRC, 2020 will be interpreted afresh.
- The Court has not completely discarded the triple test; the Chief Justice indicated that a “reformulated” triple test could operate prospectively under the new Code.
- The ruling therefore seeks to align the definition of industry with contemporary industrial dynamics while retaining the underlying concern for worker protection.
Worker Protection, Legal Certainty and the Way Forward
- The ruling brings a tension between modernising labour jurisprudence and preserving legal certainty.
- The minority — Justices B.V. Nagarathna, Dipankar Datta and Ujjal Bhuyan — considered reconsideration of the 1978 judgment “unwarranted”, warning that changing the definition could create uncertainty and disrupt industrial relations.
- Justice Nagarathna stressed the importance of finality, while Justice Datta emphasised judicial consistency and institutional credibility.
- The larger issue is ensuring that a new definition does not dilute the social-protection architecture that workers gained under the expansive 1978 interpretation.
- The judgment represents a shift from a 1978-era conception of organised employment towards a framework suited to contemporary economic realities, requiring a balance between worker protection, statutory autonomy, legal certainty and evolving industrial structures.
2. FDI Policy: Balancing Investment Facilitation with Strategic Safeguards
Press Note 3: Protecting India from Opportunistic Takeovers
- Press Note 3 (April 2020) required Government approval for FDI from countries sharing a land border with India. The move was aimed at preventing “opportunistic takeovers” of Indian firms whose valuations had fallen sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The policy covered countries including China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. Although introduced before the Galwan clashes, it subsequently acquired greater strategic significance amid the India–China downturn.
- The underlying concern was not foreign investment per se, but the possibility of foreign entities acquiring significant stakes in vulnerable Indian companies, potentially creating strategic and economic vulnerabilities.
2026 Relaxation: Selective Liberalisation, Not Deregulation
- In 2026, the Centre revised the Press Note 3 framework, allowing non-controlling beneficial ownership of up to 10% from land-bordering countries through the automatic route, subject to applicable conditions
- This creates a distinction between minority, non-controlling capital and investments that could provide meaningful control over Indian enterprises.
- The relaxation seeks to restore the flow of investments that had earlier been locked out, while retaining scrutiny over larger or potentially strategic acquisitions.
- It is also intended to provide “clarity and ease of doing business”, facilitate technology access, domestic value addition, expansion of Indian firms and integration with global supply chains.
Emerging Impact and Policy Balance
- By August 10, 2026, 29 FDI projects worth ₹4,895.65 crore had been reported under the revised framework. Investments covered IT, AI, communications, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, data centres and transport services, with investors from countries including Mauritius, the U.S., South Korea, Japan, Singapore and Luxembourg.
- Yet the quantum remains modest — less than 10% of India’s total FDI received in 2025-26. Hence, the significance lies less in the immediate volume and more in whether such investment generates technology transfer, domestic value addition and global supply-chain integration.
- India is moving towards calibrated openness — easing genuine minority investment while retaining safeguards against hostile takeovers and strategic economic vulnerabilities. The challenge is to reconcile ease of doing business with national security and economic resilience.
3. Rare Diseases: Patient Data Collective as a Cooperative Model
From Amul’s Cooperative Model to a Patient Data Collective
- Amul’s success lay in converting fragmented individual contributions into collective strength—farmers pooled milk through cooperatives, while processing, infrastructure and market access created value that ultimately supported their livelihoods.
- The same principle can be applied to rare diseases, where individual patient datasets are too small to generate sufficient evidence for research. A Patient Data Collective (PDC) can pool medical records, genetic information and patient experiences to create a research resource of much greater value.
- This addresses a major limitation of conventional clinical trials: small patient pools make it difficult to form adequate treatment and control groups.
- Patient registries and natural-history studies can serve as “external controls” by documenting disease progression, clinical parameters and treatment outcomes over time.
- Such pooled evidence can help researchers identify diagnostic biomarkers, predict disease progression, select suitable participants, establish meaningful clinical endpoints and improve clinical-trial design.
How a Patient Data Collective can transform rare-disease research?
- Better evidence base: Aggregated longitudinal data can reveal disease progression and identify suitable clinical endpoints, particularly where conventional control groups are difficult to construct.
- Accelerated drug discovery: Comprehensive datasets can improve diagnostic biomarkers, disease modelling and trial design, reducing the time and uncertainty involved in developing therapies.
- Patient-centric governance: A cooperative model can allow patients to collectively contribute data while retaining safeguards over consent, access and privacy; patient advocacy groups can play a key role in building natural-history datasets.
- India already has building blocks: ICMR has reportedly collected data on around 4,000 rare-disease patients from 19 specialised hospitals; such datasets can potentially be integrated with the Ayushman Bharat Digital Health Mission (AB-DM)
- Emerging technologies: AI can synthesise large medical records, identify clinically relevant patterns and support personalised treatment decisions, while advanced computational modelling and non-animal testing models can strengthen rare-disease research.
From Data Pooling to a Rare-Disease Revolution
- Once sufficiently large and reliable datasets are available, AI can synthesise large volumes of medical records, identify clinically relevant patterns and support doctors and researchers in decision-making.
- Patient groups can also help build disease-specific communities, improve data quality and participate in setting up research protocols.
- Such a collective can make India more attractive to pharma and biotech developers, provided there is strong governance, data quality and regulatory clarity.
- The New Drugs and Clinical Trials Rules and emerging approaches such as computational modelling and non-animal testing models can further support faster and more efficient research.
- The larger lesson from the Amul analogy is that collective ownership of dispersed resources can generate public value at scale: just as pooled milk created a sustainable dairy ecosystem and improved farmers’ livelihoods, pooled patient data can create a research ecosystem for diseases where individual datasets are too small to be commercially or scientifically useful.
The Indian Express Gist - 25th August, 2026
1 . Right to Walk: Andhra Pradesh’s Pedestrian Safety Policy
From the “Right to Walk” to a Pedestrian-Centric Road System
- The policy follows the Supreme Court’s recognition of safe footpaths as a fundamental right, seeking to translate this right into a concrete pedestrian-safety framework.
- Andhra Pradesh’s Pedestrian Safety and Universal Accessibility Policy, 2025 adopts a three-pronged approach: road-safety audits, fixing footpath infrastructure and behavioural change.
- The need is evident from the scale of pedestrian vulnerability: in 2024, Andhra Pradesh recorded 8,346 road-accident deaths, including 1,739 pedestrian deaths; nationally, pedestrians accounted for around 31% of road deaths on national highways.
- The policy applies to all local-body areas, placing responsibility on agencies responsible for roads and making pedestrian safety a part of routine urban governance.
Footpath Audits + Universal Accessibility
- Local authorities will undertake footpath audits, prioritising crowded and high-footfall areas such as markets, railway stations, bus stands, religious and educational institutions.
- Audits will assess pavement conditions, pedestrian crossings and accessibility, while identifying “black spots” where pedestrian injuries or deaths have repeatedly occurred.
- Authorities must assess whether 20% of roads within their policy area require additional pedestrian crossings and identify locations where working women face particular safety concerns.
- The policy seeks to tackle the everyday causes of pedestrian vulnerability—unauthorised structures, illegal stalls, encroachments and obstructions on footpaths—and recommends automated and camera-based monitoring.
- Universal accessibility is built into footpath design: adequate width for wheelchairs, a 1-metre buffer space, a 5-metre area for multi-utility zones, firm and slip-resistant surfaces, ramps and safe pedestrian crossings.
- It also provides for tactile paving to assist visually impaired pedestrians and curb ramps at crossings.
- Importantly, Section 198A of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 is invoked to fix accountability where infrastructural or design failures by officials, contractors or consultants cause pedestrian death or disability.
Preventive Enforcement, Social Policing and Accountability
- The policy moves beyond post-accident response towards routine, preventive enforcement through audits, monitoring and identification of vulnerable locations.
- Social policing and performance are incorporated through a district-level grievance mobile application/portal, enabling reporting of violations and tracking the performance of local bodies.
- Enforcement also targets practical problems such as unauthorised parking, with fines and monitoring mechanisms to prevent obstruction of pedestrian space.
- The approach recognises that pedestrian safety is not merely an infrastructure issue but a combination of road design + accessibility + enforcement + behavioural change.
- Thus, the policy attempts to make the “right to walk” meaningful on the ground by shifting from a vehicle-centric road system to a pedestrian-centric, universally accessible and accountable urban mobility framework.
2 . Tracing Ashoka in Ujjain: Vaishya Tekri Excavations
- The Madhya Pradesh Government has begun restoring Buddhist monuments linked to Emperor Ashoka, beginning with a fresh excavation at Vaishya Tekri in Ujjain. The excavation, initiated by the Department of Archaeology, is being conducted through 39-inch-level large brick-and-punch-mark coin finds, aimed at dating the structure.
- Vaishya Tekri: An ancient Buddhist mound in Ujjain, estimated at ~100 ft high, compared with the 54-ft Sanchi Stupa.
- Earlier excavations: In 2011, archaeologists found a large brick stupa, popularly called Vaishya Tekri, about 350 feet at its base and 100 feet high. A smaller stupa, called Kumhar (or Kumbhar) Tekri, was also identified.
- Dating: The present excavation seeks to establish the exact chronology of the structure through archaeological evidence including large bricks and punch-marked coins.
- Ashoka and Ujjain: Before becoming emperor, Ashoka is believed to have served as viceroy of Avanti at Ujjain. Ujjain was an important centre on the Dakshinapatha and a major urban/trade centre.
- Ashoka’s Buddhist connection: Historical traditions associate Ashoka with Buddhist sites and patronage; Sanchi became an important Buddhist centre under Mauryan patronage.
- Ancient Ujjain: The city was the capital of Avanti, located on the banks of the Shipra River, and emerged as a powerful urban centre by the 6th century BCE.
- Vaishya Tekri–Sanchi comparison: Earlier accounts, including Alexander Cunningham’s writings, suggested the impressive size of Vaishya Tekri and compared it with the Great Stupa at Sanchi.
- Buddhist remains: The excavation is expected to investigate monastic structures, stupas and other remains around the mound and determine whether they pre-date or post-date the major stupa.
- Ashoka’s family link: The article notes the tradition that Ashoka’s wife Devi was associated with Vidisha, and their children Mahinda and Sanghamitta are traditionally linked with the spread of Buddhism to Sri Lanka.
3. Urban Flooding & Heat Stress: Why Indian Cities Flood and Overheat
Urbanisation is Turning Climate Hazards into Urban Disasters
- Heatwaves and cloudburst-like intense rainfall are natural hazards, but become urban disasters when the city’s people, buildings and public services lack the capacity to withstand them.
- Heavy rain does not necessarily produce severe flooding if water can drain, spread and seep into the ground. However, concretisation, encroachment of natural drains, lakes and floodplains, and loss of open spaces disrupt this natural drainage.
- The same built environment intensifies heat: dense construction, asphalt, poor ventilation and loss of tree cover absorb heat during the day and retain it after sunset, producing an urban heat-island effect.
- Thus, Indian cities face a compound climate vulnerability—the urban form that makes them overheat in summer also makes them flood during intense rainfall.
- The burden is particularly high on people living in poorly ventilated homes, informal settlements and those working outdoors, especially where reliable access to shade and drinking water is limited.
Why Urban Vulnerability is Increasing?
- Climate extremes are interacting with unplanned urbanisation: heatwaves and intense rainfall are becoming more severe while cities continue replacing soil, vegetation and water bodies with buildings, roads and other hard surfaces.
- The World Bank estimates that temperatures in Indian cities can be 3–4°C higher than surrounding areas, reflecting the urban heat-island effect.
- India’s urban population is expected to reach 951 million by 2050, while more than half of the infrastructure that Indian cities will need by then is yet to be built. Present planning decisions will therefore lock in future climate vulnerability.
- The costs are wider than officially recorded deaths and damage to roads and buildings. Repeated flooding causes lost wages for informal workers, illness, healthcare costs and disruption to small businesses.
- Adaptation has substantial economic and human returns: timely measures could prevent around $5 billion in annual urban flood losses by 2030 and $30 billion by 2070, while heat adaptation could save more than 130,000 lives by 2050.
- Governance capacity is another vulnerability. The 2025 amendment to Section 41A of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 enables States to constitute Urban Disaster Management Authorities (UDMAs), but responsibilities remain divided among municipal corporations, district administrations and State departments.
- The planning deficit compounds the problem: the 2021 NITI Aayog assessment found that 65% of India’s 7,933 urban settlements lacked master plans, while urban planning departments were often understaffed or lacked adequate technical capacity.
From Disaster Response to Risk-Informed Urban Planning
- Disaster planning must become part of routine decisions about how a city grows, rather than being activated only after a flood or heatwave.
- Flood maps should determine where construction is permitted, while drainage capacity must be increased in vulnerable areas and natural drainage systems and open spaces retained.
- Building regulations should incorporate minimum plinth levels, shade, ventilation, tree cover and climate-resilient building materials to reduce heat and flood vulnerability.
- Cities require qualified urban planners and technical experts who can integrate hazard assessments into development decisions; project approvals should involve climate-risk assessment, with clear responsibility assigned to those preparing and implementing projects.
- Financing must move beyond post-disaster relief towards anticipatory and preventive measures, including early-warning systems, hospital preparedness, school closures and traffic management.
- The larger governance shift is from reactive relief to preventive resilience: the aim is not to eliminate weather risk—which is impossible—but to prevent the same planning failures from repeatedly exposing the same neighbourhoods to flooding and overheating.
