Daily News Capsules
1. Cabinet freezes Vodafone’s AGR dues, grants more time
The government on Wednesday froze Vodafone Idea Ltd’s (Vi) adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues at ₹87,695 crore as of December 31, 2025, and allowed the telecom operator to repay the amount over 10 years from fiscal 2032 to fiscal 2041. The cabinet decision, announced following Vi’s request for relief after recent Supreme Court orders, aims to protect the government’s 49% stake in the company acquired earlier this year and maintain competition in the sector. AGR dues represent licence fees and spectrum charges that telecom operators pay the government, calculated as a percentage of their revenues. A 2019 Supreme Court judgment had broadened the definition of AGR to include non-telecom revenues, significantly increasing liability for operators. After Vi reported losses for several consecutive quarters, the government acquired a 49% stake earlier this year to prevent the sector from becoming a duopoly. “The survival of M/s VIL as a viable player is critical for Telecom Sector,” the government said on Wednesday, describing telecoms as a “critical infrastructure sector with strong linkages to economic growth” that requires multiple players for healthy competition. The decision seeks to ensure “orderly payment of dues” such as spectrum charges and AGR, maintain sectoral competition, and safeguard the interests of “20 crore VIL consumers,” the government said. It noted the sector is “highly concentrated” and the move is in the interest of consumers and competition. Vi in a stock exchange submission uploaded on its website on Wednesday, referring to the report regarding AGR dues being frozen by the government, said, “We have not received any communication from the Government in relation to the above reported matter. As and when there is any development which requires disclosure, we will do the needful.”
Possible Question
The Union Cabinet’s decision to freeze Vodafone Idea’s AGR dues and stretch repayments over a decade marks a deeper state intervention in a stressed sector. Analyse the rationale behind the government’s move in the context of market concentration, competition policy, and the state’s role as both regulator and shareholder in strategic infrastructure sectors like telecom.
2. Cab-sharing to restart as Delhi pushes carpooling
Ride-sharing might be back on the Capital’s roads by the end of January after the Delhi government said on Wednesday that it directed cab aggregators to revive a practice abandoned during the pandemic five years ago over Covid transmission concerns. Delhi environment minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said the government held a high-level meeting with aggregator services – which included Ola, Uber and Rapido – on Tuesday and asked the firms to ensure full deployment of ride-sharing functionality on their platforms within a month. Aggregators were also asked to look at car-pooling functionalities, Sirsa added. Other measures suggested include incentivising green ride options and introducing in-app features that display emission savings, allowing users to visualise the environmental benefits of choosing shared or electric rides. The meeting, which included senior officials from the transport department, also focused on carpooling. Introduced in India in 2015, ride-sharing was a popular option for commuters using cab aggregators but the pandemic-induced lockdown and fears of virus transmission put paid to the practice. Vehicular emissions remain a major and consistent contributor to Delhi’s pollution, unlike seasonal sources such as stubble burning. A 2015 IIT-Kanpur study estimated that the transport sector contributed around 20% of year-old PM2.5 pollution in the Capital, while later studies by TERI-ARAI and SAFAR in 2018 placed the contribution much higher, at 39% and 41%, respectively.
Q: With the Delhi government pushing the revival of ride-sharing and carpooling to curb vehicular pollution, examine the role of demand-side behavioural interventions and platform regulation in addressing urban air quality challenges. What governance and enforcement issues could limit the effectiveness of such measures?
3. France plans social media ban for U-15s
France will make a fresh attempt to protect children from excessive screen time, proposing a ban on social media access for children under 15 by September, according to a draft law seen by AFP. The initiative is backed by President Emmanuel Macron, who said earlier this month that parliament should start debating such a proposal in January. Australia this month imposed a social media ban on under 16s, in a world first. “Many studies and reports now confirm the various risks caused by excessive use of digital screens by adolescents,” the draft says. Chidren with unfettered online access were exposed to “inappropriate content” and could suffer from cyber-harassment or experience changes to their sleep patterns, the government said. The draft law has two articles. One would make illegal “the provision by an online platform of an online social media service to a minor under 15”. The second calls for a ban of mobile phone use in secondary schools. Macron has said that the digital protection of minors is a priority for his government, but enforcement and compliance with international law have been issues. A ban on mobile phone use in pre-schools and middle-schools came into force in 2018, but is rarely enforced. France meanwhile ran foul of EU rules with a law calling for a “digital legal age” of 15, passed in 2023, that has since been blocked. The French upper house, the Senate, this month backed an initiative for the protection of teenagers from excessive screen time and social media access, which includes a requirement for parental authorisation for children between 13 and 16 to register with social media sites.
Q: France’s proposal to ban social media access for children under 15 reflects a growing global push to regulate digital platforms for child safety. Compare this approach with India’s regulatory framework for online child protection, and discuss the challenges of enforcement, parental consent, and compatibility with international digital norms.
4. Indore contaminated water kills 4, HC seeks report
The Madhya Pradesh high court on Wednesday directed the state government to provide free treatment to people suffering from vomiting and diarrhoea after consuming contaminated water in Indore city and submit a report, even as the authorities confirmed four deaths since December 25, and said probe was on to ascertain the cause of five more fatalities. Meanwhile, an official was sacked, and two others suspended in connection with the matter. Chief medical and health officer Madhav Prasad Hasani said that a leak in the main water line beneath a toilet is suspected to have contaminated the water. adding that around 12,000 people have been examined. Taking cognisance of the matter, the HC’s Indore vacation bench asked the state government to submit a status report in the matter by January 2, while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Indore High Court Bar Association chief Ritesh Inani. A total of 191 patients with similar symptoms are currently undergoing treatment, of whom 41 have been discharged. Mayor Pushyamitra Bhargava said zonal officer Shaligram Shitole and in charge assistant engineer Yogesh Joshi have been suspended, while in charge deputy engineer Shubham Srivastava has been sacked. A three-member inquiry committee, led by IAS officer Navjeevan Panwar, will look into the matter.
Possible Question
The Indore water contamination deaths have once again highlighted failures in urban service delivery. Examine the role of municipal accountability, regulatory oversight, and judicial intervention in ensuring safe drinking water as a public health obligation under the constitutional framework.
5. Xi says Taiwan reunification unstoppable, lauds Brahmaputra dam
Chinese President Xi Jinping in his New Year address on Wednesday said Taiwan’s reunification with China is “unstoppable” while projecting the country’s growing defence advances, and highlighted the construction of the world’s largest dam over Brahmaputra river. Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a bond of blood and kinship, Xi said in his nationally televised 2026 New Year message. “The reunification of our motherland, a trend of the times, is unstoppable,” Xi said amid stepped up high powered drills by the Chinese military in the last three days around the self-governing island, which China claims as part of its mainland. This is the sixth time since 2022 that China held intensified military drills using the latest air force jets, aircraft carriers, missiles and drones practising the capture of Taiwan. In his address, Xi, 72, the longest serving leader of the People’s Republic of China also sought to project advances made by Beijing in economic, defence and tech sectors. “Construction of the hydropower project at the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo (Brahmaputra river) started,” he said, referring to the Brahmaputra dam construction. China formally started the construction of the $170 billion dam over Brahmaputra river in ecologically fragile Tibet, closer to the Indian border in Arunachal Pradesh, which evoked concerns of flooding in the lower riparian states of India and Bangladesh. Xi also spoke of the commissioning of China’s first aircraft carrier equipped with an electromagnetic catapult system. The ship named Fujian is the second such carrier in the world after the USS Gerald R Ford.
Possible Question
President Xi Jinping’s remarks on Taiwan and the construction of a mega dam on the Brahmaputra reflect China’s simultaneous use of military signalling and infrastructure diplomacy. Analyse the strategic and ecological implications of China’s upstream river projects for India and Bangladesh, in the context of regional security and transboundary water governance.
Editorial Snapshots
A. Restoring trust in the judicial process
The Supreme Court’s decision to stop the release of former BJP lawmaker Kuldeep Singh Sengar from jail and stay an earlier order by the Delhi High Court, which had opened the door for some relief for the convicted rapist, makes two important points. One, it points out that Sengar was convicted not just under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act — the victim was a minor when the crime occurred in 2017 — but also under section 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code. The apex court said that the high court was not conscious that the strongman politician was found guilty under two penal statutes, and therefore, the definition of public servant under Pocso — the high court had found that Sengar could not be classified as a public servant — was not the only relevant question. Two, it hinted that the high court’s definition of “public servant” might have been off the mark. In its earlier controversial decision, the high court had said that Sengar was convicted under Section 5 (C) aggravated penetrative sexual assault by a public servant) of the Pocso Act, but an elected representative did not fit the definition of a “public servant” under Section 21 of the IPC, now BNS Section 2(28). The apex court, however, said that this interpretation was “a little bit disturbing” because a constable or patwari will be classified as a public servant, but an elected member of a legislative assembly or council will be exempt. The top court is right in taking an expansive view of the issue, instead of favouring a hyper-technical view that runs the risk of endangering justice. In a country where politicians often enjoy unbridled impunity from prosecution, it is rare for any lawmaker to pay for his crimes. It took national outrage after the victim attempted to immolate herself in 2018, and multiple charges — the conspiracy to kill the victim’s father in custody, for one — for Sengar to be arrested, charged and finally convicted. While any convict or undertrial deserves due process and the full protection of the law, there should be adequate consideration of the victim’s rights and the sociopolitical powers of the convict. Anything less might be a miscarriage of justice.
Possible Question
The Supreme Court’s intervention in the Kuldeep Singh Sengar case underscores tensions between strict statutory interpretation and substantive justice. Critically examine how courts can balance textual fidelity with victim-centric justice, especially in cases involving political power and sexual violence.
B. Bridging the intent and outcome gap
To become a sporting nation, India needs not just athletes or coaches or infrastructure or professional administrators. It needs all of them to come together and make it work like a well-oiled machine for a significant period of time. When it comes to Olympic sport, the Indian government is by far the biggest supporter in the ecosystem. So, it won’t be right to say that the government does nothing. But doing a lot and doing it right are two very different things and that is what the nine-member committee set up by the government has zeroed in on. The Abhinav Bindra-led panel has presented a detailed roadmap with India’s Olympic goals in mind. The main idea is to empower administrators, strengthen governance, and shape India’s sporting future. Much of this boils down to the Sports Authority of India (SAI), which funds, hires coaches, and hosts athletes in its campuses all over the country. It is the backbone of Indian sports administration. But the influence isn’t always wielded in the right way because neither SAI nor the state departments have a dedicated sports administration service. So, the roles are filled by generalist civil servants or contractual staff who are often lacking sector-specific expertise. That is a miss more often than a hit. It’s time India realises that sport requires specialisation too. The co-ordination between SAI, National Sports Federations (NSFs), and state departments is limited and fragmented. All of these create bottlenecks that India can well do without. Many of the suggestions, such as the need for global governance alignment, are the need of the hour but India has never faulted in making committees. Rather, the problem has almost always come down to executing the recommendations. For starters, that is where the sports ministry will need to focus on.
Possible Question
India’s repeated failures to translate sports policy intent into Olympic outcomes have brought governance capacity under scrutiny. Evaluate the case for a specialised sports administration cadre, and discuss why institutional reforms in sports governance often falter at the implementation stage.
Fact of the day
2025 among 3 hottest years on record, say scientists: Climate change worsened by human behaviour made 2025 one of the three hottest years on record, scientists said. It was also the first time that the three-year temperature average broke through the threshold set in the 2015 Paris Agreement of limiting warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times. Experts say that keeping the Earth below that limit could save lives and prevent catastrophic environmental destruction around the globe. The analysis from World Weather Attribution researchers, released Tuesday in Europe, came after a year when people around the world were slammed by the dangerous extremes brought on by a warming planet. Temperatures remained high despite the presence of a La Nina, the occasional natural cooling of Pacific Ocean waters that influences weather worldwide. Researchers cited the continued burning of fossil fuels — oil, gas and coal — that send planet-warming greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. “If we don’t stop burning fossil fuels very, very, quickly, very soon, it will be very hard to keep that goal” of warming, Friederike Otto, co-founder of World Weather Attribution and an Imperial College London climate scientist, told The Associated Press. “The science is increasingly clear.”
