#EXPLAINER | India usually talks about its groundwater crisis in terms of water shortages: uneven rainfall, falling water levels and climate change. Electricity is discussed separately, mainly in terms of farm subsidies, tariffs and the finances of power distribution companies.

Significantly, the two are closely linked. For crores of farmers, electricity is the cost of getting groundwater. A pump uses electricity to bring water up for irrigation. But the electricity bill does not always increase when more water is pumped. In some states, farm electricity is free. In others, farmers pay a fixed or heavily subsidised rate.

Take a look at the details:

#WaterCrisis

🔗https://www.newindianexpress.com/explainers/2026/Aug/19/explained-indias-ground-water-crisis-has-an-electricity-problem

#EXPLAINER | The proposed FCRA Amendment Bill, 2026 has raised concerns among NGOs, religious organisations, charitable institutions and other stakeholders.

A major issue is the proposed power of the Designated Authority to take control of assets created wholly or partly from foreign contributions, potentially affecting assets acquired years earlier for schools, hospitals and other charitable purposes. Critics are particularly concerned about mixed-funded assets and the possibility that vested assets could eventually be transferred or sold, with proceeds going to the Consolidated Fund of India.

🔗https://www.newindianexpress.com/explainers/2026/Aug/25/fcra-bill-2026-why-asset-control-registration-rules-and-government-powers-are-raising-concerns

#EXPLAINER | Road traffic fatalities are a major public health concern, with about 1.2 million people dying each year in crashes worldwide. India accounts for about 11% of global road accident fatalities.

The problem is particularly serious because Indian roads carry mixed traffic, lane discipline is poor, unsafe non-standard vehicles remain in use, and schools, markets and other roadside development are common. Government data show that crashes and deaths increased in 2024, with speeding the biggest contributor.

Take a look at the details:

#RoadSafety

🔗https://www.newindianexpress.com/explainers/2026/Aug/26/how-crucial-is-speed-management-for-road-safety

#EXPLAINER | Madhya Pradesh has begun what officials describe as India’s first systematic scientific study focused specifically on snakes. The exercise has widely been called a “snake census”, but that description is not quite accurate. The researchers are not trying to count every snake in all 55 districts of the state.

Instead, the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, and the state’s Forest Department are studying which snake species occur in selected protected areas, where they occur, how common each species is and how they use their habitats. Particular attention is being given to venomous snakes.

Take a look at the details:

🔗https://www.newindianexpress.com/explainers/2026/Aug/27/madhya-pradeshs-snake-census-what-is-the-state-actually-studying

#EXPLAINER | For close to six decades, the route a DRDO missile travelled from a test range at Chandipur to a frontline regiment was effectively predetermined.

The laboratory designed it, a defence public sector undertaking, most often Bharat Dynamics Limited, was nominated to build it, and private firms fed the chain from below with castings, seekers, actuators and airframes. Earlier this week, that arrangement was formally dismantled.

Take a look at the details:

🔗https://www.newindianexpress.com/explainers/2026/Aug/29/india-bets-on-private-industry-to-build-missile-stockpiles

#EXPLAINER | Rishikesh Kumar, 31, an MSc Physics student at IIT Delhi, died on August 22 after falling from the sixth floor of the Lecture Hall Complex. Delhi Police has registered a case and is investigating the circumstances of his death. IIT Delhi has constituted an external inquiry committee headed by retired Delhi High Court judge Justice Mukta Gupta to examine the circumstances surrounding the death and the functioning of the institutional mechanisms concerned.

The wider question is not simply what happened to one student, but how institutions respond when illness or personal difficulty disrupts a student’s education — and whether the systems meant to support that student work together.

Take a look at the details:

#IITDelhi

https://www.newindianexpress.com/explainers/2026/Sep/03/iit-crisis-what-lies-behind-persistent-student-distress

#EXPLAINER | When Kambala — the traditional buffalo race of Karnataka’s coastal districts — arrives in Mysuru for the Dasara celebrations this October, it will bring with it far more than a sporting spectacle.

The state government’s decision to include the centuries-old tradition in the Dasara festivities has opened up an unusually layered debate: about whether a cultural practice can be separated from the landscape and social context that shaped it, about the constantly expanding character of Mysuru Dasara, and about the ecological cost of recreating a water-intensive rural sport in an urban setting.

Take a look at the details:

🔗https://www.newindianexpress.com/explainers/2026/Sep/04/explained-kambala-in-dasara-tradition-out-of-context

#EXPLAINER | The 18th BRICS Summit, to be hosted by India in New Delhi on September 12–13, 2026, comes at an important moment for the grouping.

India’s 2026 chairship is guided by the theme, “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.”

The crucial question, however, is whether BRICS can translate this wide-ranging agenda into a common political outcome. The challenge is particularly significant because geopolitical differences, including disagreements over the West Asia conflict, have already made consensus difficult at some ministerial meetings. India’s task as chair is consequently not to eliminate differences among members, but to find enough common ground for a credible summit declaration.

Take a look at the details:

#BRICSSummit #BRICS2026


🔗https://www.newindianexpress.com/explainers/2026/Sep/05/brics-summit-2026-what-are-the-key-likely-outcomes

#EXPLAINER | India has built an indigenous missile for almost every major conventional warfare role, from air-to-air and surface-to-air weapons to anti-radiation, anti-tank, anti-ship and long-range strike systems. The harder challenge now is building the industrial depth to produce these weapons in sufficient numbers and replenish stocks during a prolonged conflict.

The government’s decision, in the last week of August 2026, to open DRDO-developed technology for conventional missile systems to Indian industry has put that challenge in focus.

What missiles does India have, what are their ranges, how indigenous are they, where are the gaps and can industry build the capacity needed to sustain production?

Take a look at the details:

🔗https://www.newindianexpress.com/explainers/2026/Sep/09/missiles-for-a-long-war-what-india-has-and-what-it-still-needs

#EXPLAINER | UPI's real achievement was to separate the payment network from the app used to access it. A customer no longer needs to know, or care, which bank or company sits behind a transaction; interoperability turned out to be the idea that made everything else possible.

Its first decade was about scale: proving that a country could move crores of people onto instant digital payments quickly and for free. The second decade, however, poses harder questions. Can it stay affordable while becoming financially sustainable? Can it stop fraud without slowing down convenience? And can it finally reach older people, the poorer sections and those who are less connected?

#UPI

🔗https://www.newindianexpress.com/explainers/2026/Sep/18/from-cash-to-qr-codes-how-upi-changed-the-way-india-pays

#EXPLAINER | On September 17, the Odisha government informed the Supreme Court that its State Sentence Review Board (SSRB) has rejected the premature release plea of Bajrang Dal activist Rabindra Kumar Pal alias Dara Singh, who is serving a life sentence for the 1999 murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons, Philip and Timothy. The decision followed a Supreme Court fiat to the state to decide on his remission plea.

Here's what the law on remission of sentence says:

🔗https://www.newindianexpress.com/explainers/2026/Sep/19/staines-murder-dara-singh-and-his-remission-quest

#EXPLAINER | The most important question is not how many tents are packed away or how many trucks leave Bastar. It is about how far the State can afford to reduce the security footprint. India has already moved from 126 Maoist violence-affected districts in 2014 to zero by March-April 2026, according to the government, while violence has fallen dramatically over the same period.

That achievement creates a paradox. The very success of the security campaign makes the giant apparatus less necessary, but dismantling it too quickly could recreate the vacuum in which insurgency once flourished. The likely future is therefore Red Corridor security becomes ordinary governance.


🔗https://www.newindianexpress.com/explainers/2026/Sep/21/explained-what-happens-to-indias-anti-maoist-apparatus

#EXPLAINER | The US authorities have said that more than 70,000 customers across its northeast were without power as a powerful nor’easter swept through the region. With hazardous conditions expected to persist throughout the weekend, forecasters warned of gale-force winds capable of bringing down trees, along with heavy rainfall that could cause widespread flooding and leave roads submerged.

Read on:

🔗https://www.newindianexpress.com/explainers/2026/Sep/26/what-is-a-noreaster-the-coastal-storm-that-turns-into-a-winter-powerhouse

#EXPLAINER | The IIT Bombay tragedy appears to encapsulate many themes identified by the NTF. The interim report cautions against searching for a single cause after every suicide. Instead, it argues that crises often emerge from overlapping pressures involving academic experiences, social relationships, institutional responses and broader life circumstances. Many warning signs are missed not because institutions lack compassion, but because they lack systems. The NTF considers these deaths as resulting from structural problems requiring measurable institutional reforms.

#IITBombay

🔗https://www.newindianexpress.com/explainers/2026/Sep/26/why-single-cause-explanation-for-student-suicide-is-erroneous

#EXPLAINER | The Supreme Court on September 22 said that a conscientious objector should not be punished for refusing to sing Vande Mataram. A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana made the observation while hearing a petition by noted Carnatic vocalist T M Krishna, challenging the constitutional validity of the 2026 amendment to the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, which criminalises insults to the National Song, Vande Mataram. The petition went on to argue that the last four verses of Vande Mataram violate the secular character of the nation.

Read on:

#VandeMataram

🔗https://www.newindianexpress.com/explainers/2026/Sep/26/how-a-1986-verdict-is-tied-to-the-vande-mataram-case

#EXPLAINER | Efforts are on to find a settlement to the decade-old dispute between Odisha and Chhattisgarh over sharing of Mahanadi River waters.

The process, being facilitated by the Ministry of Jal Shakti and the Central Water Commission, has moved into technical discussions and mediation, even as the Mahanadi Water Disputes Tribunal continues with the adjudication. Its deadline has been extended to January 2027.

The dispute has its roots in water development in the Mahanadi basin going back several decades.

Read on:

https://www.newindianexpress.com/explainers/2026/Sep/30/mahanadi-water-dispute-what-are-the-issues-holding-up-a-settlement

#EXPLAINER | As the time for filing claims and objections and listing suggestions on the 7th draft notification for the implementation of the Kasturirangan Report draws to an end, debate over its implementation has gained centre-stage. The draft notification to protect the fragile and ecologically sensitive Western Ghats has raised concerns. Each of the six states — Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Keralam and Tamil Nadu — has been handling the issue differently.

While Keralam and Tamil Nadu are undertaking independent studies on ecologically sensitive areas, Karnataka has sought a year’s time to undertake a field study. In the meantime, experts are looking at the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal for stringent action.

Read on:

https://www.newindianexpress.com/explainers/2026/Oct/01/western-ghats-esa-why-the-kasturirangan-report-is-still-stuck

#EXPLAINER | Andhra Pradesh has built one of India’s largest aquaculture ecosystems, with shrimp at its centre and exports linking thousands of farms to global markets. In 2025-26, the State exported 4.09 lakh tonnes of seafood worth Rs 23,765 crore ($2.72 billion), accounting for 20.75% of India’s seafood export volume and more than 32% of its export value.

But farmers face rising feed and input costs, disease and seed-quality concerns, volatile international markets, and disruptions in the US market. Can Andhra Pradesh turn its production strength into sustained farmer profitability and export competitiveness?

Read on:

https://www.newindianexpress.com/explainers/2026/Oct/02/can-the-andhra-shrimp-powerhouse-stay-ahead

#EXPLAINER | Finding the right middle ground on bursting firecrackers to keep Delhi and other urban areas safe from harmful emissions, while addressing the aspirations of festival revelers and safeguarding the industry, remains a policy and regulatory minefield.

Policymakers have seldom gone the distance, wary of political backlash. Judicial interventions, meanwhile, have swung from partial curbs to blanket bans, with limited impact on the ground.

Read on:

#GreenCrackers #Delhi

https://www.newindianexpress.com/explainers/2026/Oct/04/striking-a-balance-with-next-gen-joined-green-crackers

#EXPLAINER | First notified by the government in 2017 under the Energy Conservation Act, 2001, Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) norms were introduced to reduce fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions, with the broader aim of lowering oil dependency and air pollution.

Read on:

https://www.newindianexpress.com/explainers/2026/Oct/04/all-about-new-cafe-norm