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Topic-shaped analysis of the day's editorials for the RPSC RAS Mains, dated 10 July 2026.
India has been celebrating a run of trade agreements — the India-UK CETA signed in July 2025 and an India-EU FTA expected to enter force by early 2027. Yet a closer look at the numbers suggests the celebrations may be aimed at the wrong prize. India's single largest goods trade surplus, by a wide margin, is with the United States — a country with which it has no free trade agreement at all. The real strategic question is whether India's trade diplomacy is chasing the deals that improve the margin, or the one that changes the game.
Mains question (10 marks): 'A trade agreement is not the same as trade.' In the light of India's recent FTAs with the UK and EU, critically examine whether India's trade diplomacy is prioritising the right partners, and suggest a way forward for its external trade strategy.
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As India debates the mileage impact of E20 petrol and pushes toward even higher blends, Brazil's five-decade ethanol success has become a reference point. Brazil's first ethanol blending law dates back to 1931, and its programme was built over decades of graded, milestone-based policy that gave vehicles and consumers time to adapt and offered them real choice. India, by contrast, has moved from about 5% to 20% blending in barely six years — a remarkable feat, but one that raises questions Brazil answered patiently over ninety years.
Mains question (10 marks): 'In fuel policy, sequencing matters as much as ambition.' Comparing Brazil's decades-long ethanol journey with India's rapid blending push, examine the opportunities and risks of India's ethanol programme for energy security and agriculture.
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The Lok Sabha Speaker's decision to table the report of the parliamentary committee that probed former Allahabad High Court judge Justice Yashwant Varma has pushed India's judicial-accountability framework into uncharted territory. When Justice Varma resigned earlier this year — after wads of burnt currency were reportedly found at his official residence and an in-house Supreme Court panel found him culpable — it was widely assumed the removal process had hit a dead end. Tabling the report challenges a long-held belief: that a judge's resignation automatically extinguishes a parliamentary inquiry into his conduct.
Mains question (10 marks): 'Judicial independence and judicial accountability are two halves of public trust.' In the light of the tabling of the Justice Varma inquiry report, discuss the constitutional process for removing judges and examine the gaps in India's judicial-accountability framework.
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