What to Read in Indian Express Editorial( Topic and Syllabus wise)

EDITORIAL1 : Nuts and bolts diplomacy

Context

PM’s five-nation tour is an opportunity beyond BRICS, Quad. At a turbulent time, Delhi must focus on securing its interests — not an expansive ideological vision

The Annual Summit

• Prime Minister Modi’s multi-nation tour, centered on the BRICS summit in Brazil, reflects India’s pursuit of strategic opportunities amid global uncertainty.
• With stops in Argentina, Trinidad and Tobago, Ghana, and Namibia, the trip signals diplomatic outreach beyond traditional partners.
• However, India must temper ideological ambitions and focus on pragmatic goals. BRICS, once promising, now reveals internal rifts—especially between India and China.
• Meanwhile, the Quad meetingin Washington highlights India’s balancing act between rival blocs.
• In a volatile world, India’s priority must remain self-strengthening and resilience at home, rather than grand declarationsabout reshaping global order through fragile multilateral

forums.

The History

• Prime Minister Modi’s first foreign visit in 2014 to the BRICS summit in Brazil marked his early enthusiasm for engaging major powers, especially China and Russia, while signaling a willingness to reset ties with Beijing.
• Just weeks later, his Washington visit aimed to elevate ties with the US, suggesting India’s intent to engage all major powers simultaneously.
• However, India’s great power relations have been far from linear.PM’s optimism on China quickly faded after repeated border crises in 2014, 2017, and 2020, underscoring Beijing’s assertive posture and exposing the widening power asymmetry.
• As relations with China soured, India’s partnership with the US gained traction.
• Meanwhile, Russia’s tilt toward Beijing, driven by its estrangement from the West following the Crimea annexation and Ukraine invasion, has diminished its role as a regional balancer for India.
• Once a hedge against US dominance, BRICS now appears less effective, prompting India to counterbalance China through the Quad.
• Promoting a multipolar Asia has become as crucial as advocating for a multipolar world.
• Since the Quad’s revival in 2017,it has become more central to India’s strategic calculus than BRICS, whose internal contradictions and the transactional approaches of Russia and China have become increasingly apparent.
• Despite anti-West rhetoric, both Moscow and Beijing are open to deals with Washington, as seen in their muted response during the Iran crisis and ongoing trade overtures.
• Meanwhile, India is focusing on substance over symbolism, working toward a bilateral trade deal with the US.
• Yet the Quad faces challenges too, especially amid Trump’s transactional foreign policy, rising allied concerns, and hints of a US-China rapprochement.

India’s concerns

• India has its own concerns, especially with Trump’s unexpected overture to Pakistan, which has caused unease in Delhi.
• However, the real challenge lies not with BRICS, but with the growing strategic alliance between China and Pakistan.
• More troubling is the emerging trilateral cooperation among Beijing, Dhaka, and Islamabad, and speculation about a China-led regional grouping outside the now-stalled SAARC.
• China has already launched its own Indian Ocean forum, signaling shifting regional dynamics.
• While these nations welcome diversified partnerships, including with India, they prioritize practical cooperation over ideology.

Way forward

• At a time when new uncertainties envelop India’s relations with great powers as well as neighbours, Delhi needs to focus on accelerating economic reforms at home, restoring domestic political unity, reclaiming the leadership of the Subcontinent, and strengthening ties with key developing nations.

 

EDITORIAL2 : When data informs, enlivens

Context

Purposeful, empathetic data empowers communities to improve health, nutrition, and education outcomes where it matters most.

Data That Matters

• India’s public systems generate an overwhelming volume of data — from dashboards like the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE+)and the Health Management Information System (HMIS) to national surveys like the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) and the National Sample Survey (NSS).
• Yet, amidst hundreds of tracked indicators, there is insufficient clarity on what truly matters.
• Inputs are recorded in detail, but outcomes much less so. Frontline workers feed data upwards without knowing how it leads to better delivery.
• National surveys, while valuable, are too infrequent, too broad and often overlook state-specific schemes and local goals.

From Data Fatigue to Data That Drives Decisions

• To shift from overwhelming data collection to meaningful action, systems must embrace the 4As of outcome-driven monitoring: Ascertain, Assess, Assist, and Adapt.
• First, Ascertainwhat truly matters. When systems try to track everything, they risk focusing on nothing. Outcome-driven monitoring begins with clarity—identifying a few key goals and aligning processes, people, and data around them.
• Uttar Pradesh’s NIPUN Bharat Missionbegan not with spreadsheets, but a clear question: What should a child know by the end of each grade?
• These learning goals, or Lakshyas,were broken into weekly checkpoints through the NIPUN Soochi, giving teachers a practical roadmap. Learning improvement became a clear, time-bound goal.
• Second, Assessprogress against these clear goals using simple, regular tools. In UP, the focus was not on creating new assessments, but on making existing ones more purposeful and timely.
• Third, Assistthe frontline. Data should not flow only upward—it should return as insight. Teachers and officials were supported with tailored training, mentoring, and feedback linked directly to their local performance data.
• Finally, Adaptbased on what the data reveals. Regular review meetings were made sharper, not by adding new layers, but by aligning existing structures—training, reviews, assessments—toward the same goals. This added coherence, not complexity.

Turning Data into Action

• This requires regular, embedded assessments—built into everyday processes, not reserved for audits.
• In Andhra Pradesh, a pilot led by Karthik Muralidharan showed that pairing real-time dashboards with mentoring and visits improved learning by nearly 20% in a year.
• Models like 4+1+1,used in states like Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, and UP, build weekly cycles of teaching, assessment, and remediation, helping identify and support struggling learners early.
• Data becomes powerful when it drives action, not fear.
• Telangana’s HDLS and rural development systems, Odisha’s school-level data discussions, and Andhra’s real-time citizen feedbackare shifting the narrative—from inspection to improvement.
• These approaches increase trust, speed up response, and close delivery gaps.
• For sustained progress, states need embedded Data Analytics Units (DAUs) that combine programme data, feedback, and surveys into insights.With the right tools, public systems can adapt faster and serve better.

Way forward

• By anchoring public monitoring in the 4As, we can move from counting activities to changing lives, from tracking inputs to building a truly Viksit Bharat.
• Because what is measured can be managed. But what is understood improves the last mile for 1.4 billion citizens.