Daily Newspaper Notes: February 26, 2026

Defence Budget 2026-27 And Deterrence Consolidation

Core Points:

• Defence allocation for 2026-27 stands at Rs 7.85 lakh crore, marking a 15.19% increase over the previous year.
• Capital outlay increased by 21.8% to Rs 2.19 lakh crore to accelerate military modernisation.
• Focus on procurement of next-generation platforms including fighter aircraft, submarines, and drones.
• Nearly 75% of the modernisation fund earmarked for domestic procurement under Atmanirbhar Bharat.
• Revenue budget increased to Rs 3.65 lakh crore to improve operational readiness and logistics after Operation Sindoor.
• Defence modernisation has drawn external criticism portraying India as fuelling an arms race.
• The spending increase is described as deterrence consolidation, not escalation.
• Aim is to reduce vulnerability, address capability gaps, and prevent adversaries from gaining advantage.
• Persistent mismatch between strategic ambitions and military preparedness highlighted.
• Documented deficiencies include:
  • Reduced fighter squadron strength.
  • Overstretched naval assets.Patchy air defence coverage.
  • Continued reliance on outdated Army platforms.
• Deterrence is based on material capability, not rhetoric.
• Underinvestment in defence invites coercion rather than ensuring peace.
• Security environment has become more complex:
  • Pakistan’s military posture linked to nuclear strategy.
  • China’s prolonged military modernisation and hardened positions along the Line of Actual Control.2020 Galwan crisis demonstrated China’s willingness to test India.
  • Increasing China–Pakistan coordination creates a two-front dynamic.
• Global geopolitical uncertainty, including transactional global commitments, underscores need for strategic autonomy.
• Strategic autonomy requires credible national defence capability.
• Objective is not matching adversaries weapon-for-weapon, but plugging gaps and strengthening resilience.
• Strengthened defence capability intended to prevent quick, decisive advantages that could trigger wars.
• Defence budget viewed as a corrective measure and insurance for national security.
• Underinvestment poses greater danger than increased spending.
• Enhanced deterrence presented as essential for stability in a shrinking margin-of-error environment.
• The spending surge is framed as responsible and mature recognition of security needs.

Calibrated Quantum Preparedness Under India’s National Quantum Mission

Core Points:

• National Quantum Mission approved in 2023 with INR 6,000 crore allocation till 2031.
• Focus areas include quantum computing, communication, sensing, and advanced materials.
• Union Budget 2026 integrates quantum ambitions with semiconductor development, AI capability, advanced materials research, and DPI security architecture.
• Globally, quantum technologies are framed within strategic competition.
• United States advancing National Quantum Initiative and cryptographic transition under CNSA 2.0.
• China investing in quantum communication and computing, including satellite-based quantum key distribution.
• European Union pursuing coordinated research under Quantum Flagship programme.
• Policy challenge lies in calibrating investment sequencing to engineering realities rather than geopolitical momentum.
• Shor’s 1994 algorithm demonstrated theoretical vulnerability of RSA and elliptic curve cryptography.
• Breaking RSA-2048 would require thousands of logical qubits and potentially millions of physical qubits under current error correction models.
• Present systems remain in the noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) regime.
• No cryptographically relevant quantum computer (CRQC) currently exists.
• Vulnerability is conditional; timeline remains uncertain.
• Strategic policy must distinguish between mathematical inevitability, engineering feasibility, and strategic immediacy.
• “Harvest now, decrypt later” (HNDL) risk concerns long-term confidentiality.
• Most routine encrypted data has limited long-term value.
• Greater risk applies to defence archives, intelligence assets, diplomatic communications, critical infrastructure designs, and long-lived identity systems.
• India’s DPI, including Aadhaar-linked frameworks and digital payments, represents long-horizon assets requiring structured transition planning.
• Transition must remain threat-proportionate and periodically reassessed.
• NIST-led post-quantum cryptography (PQC) standardisation represents scientific progress.
• No PQC algorithm has been empirically tested against an operational CRQC.
• “Quantum-proof” claims should be approached cautiously.
• Procurement must be standards-driven and independently validated.
• Risk of vendor-driven transition without strong certification frameworks.
• Certification capacity is critical to quantum preparedness.
• Cryptographic migration requires implementation testing, side-channel evaluation, lifecycle assurance, and interoperability validation.
• India has accredited institutions under STQC and technical depth within C-DAC.
• Dedicated PQC testing ecosystems remain globally nascent.
• Absence of sovereign evaluation infrastructure risks external dependency.
• Proposal for a National Quantum Testing and Evaluation Centre integrated with existing frameworks.
• Quantum sovereignty must include certification sovereignty.
• India’s first dedicated quantum technology laboratory established at MCTE, Mhow.
• Military institutions adopt technology based on operational viability.
• Defence systems require cryptographic integrity, signal resilience, and hardware assurance.
• Armed Forces operate within long-duration security horizons aligned with HNDL risks.
• Defence procurement incorporates layered validation practices.
• Civil–military integration can strengthen national transition frameworks.
• Quantum preparedness should be a whole-of-nation capability.
• Budget 2026 situates quantum within broader deep-technology ecosystem.
• Semiconductor, AI, and secure digital infrastructure evolve on distinct maturity curves.
• Strategy requires sequencing rather than simultaneous expansion.
• Strategic differentiation may lie in quantum communication security, sensing applications, governance frameworks, and Global South partnerships.
• Leadership depends on coherence, calibration, and institutional depth.
• Preparedness must balance risks of under-preparation and narrative-driven acceleration.
• Calibrated roadmap should sustain foundational research, prioritise sector-specific cryptographic transition, expand sovereign certification capacity, integrate military-grade assurance, and reassess hardware readiness periodically.

Strategic And Economic Significance Of Northeast India’s River Networks

Core Points:

• Northeast India comprises eight states and is among Asia’s most riverine and ecologically diverse regions.
• The terrain was shaped by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates.
• Slopes and valleys channel rivers across the region, forming fertile floodplains in Assam and Bangladesh.
• The Brahmaputra (Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet) originates in the Angsi Glacier.
• It flows through Tibet, turns at Namcha Barwa, enters Arunachal Pradesh, passes through Assam, joins the Padma (Ganges) in Bangladesh, and drains into the Bay of Bengal.
• The river is fed by tributaries across Northeast India.
• Functions as a transportation corridor and supports agriculture, irrigation and hydropower.
• Provides riverine links to China, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
• Positions the Northeast as a strategic bridge between the Indian subcontinent and Indo-Pacific.

Northeast Rivers As Trade Corridors:

• Brahmaputra and Barak Rivers historically used for trade and expeditions.
• East India Company established Kolkata–Dibrugarh water route in 1844.
• Steamships transported tea, passengers and cargo from 1847 onwards.
• Barak–Surma–Meghna waterway connected Silchar to Kolkata port.
• Several Brahmaputra Valley ports (Dhubri, Dibrugarh, Pandu, Neamati, Tezpur, Jogigopa) and Barak Valley ports (Badarpur, Karimganj, Silchar) were key trade hubs.
• Under National Waterways Act 2016:
  • Brahmaputra designated National Waterway NW-2.
  • Around 6 lakh tonnes of cargo transported via NW-2.
  • Barak stretch (Lakhimpur–Bhanga) declared NW-16.
• NW-16 faces challenges: inadequate dredging and lack of serviceable ports.
• Trade volumes on NW-2 and NW-16 remain lower than NW-1 (Ganga–Bhagirathi–Hooghly).

Other Strategic Rivers:

• Teesta originates in northern Sikkim glaciers, flows into Bangladesh.
• Important for hydroelectricity and agriculture.
• Water-sharing concerns between India and Bangladesh affect infrastructure development.
• Manipur River was navigable during WWII; potential gateway to Bay of Bengal remains unexplored.
• Kaladan River links Mizoram to Sittwe Port in Myanmar under KMTTP.
• Sittwe Port expected to be fully operational by 2027.
• Offers alternative route independent of Bangladesh.
• Political instability in Bangladesh and Myanmar complicates prospects.
• India engaging with Myanmar’s junta and Arakan Army to safeguard Sittwe interests.

Policy Approaches Under Act East Framework:

• Look East Policy (1991) later evolved into Act East Policy.
• Water diplomacy central to leveraging transboundary rivers for connectivity and integration.
• Focus on managing shared water resources to mitigate conflict and strengthen ties.
• Investments made in Kopili River and Pandu Port.
• Increased cargo movement on Sadiya–Dhubri stretch (6 lakh tonnes annually).
• Infrastructure gaps remain: dredging, embankments, groynes, barrages required.
• Several connectivity projects pending or lapsed:
  • India–Myanmar–Thailand Trilateral Highway.
  • Moreh–Tamu–Kalewa Road.KMTTP.Myanmar–India–Bangladesh gas pipeline.Tamanthi Hydroelectricity Project.
  • Optical fibre network.
• Need to ensure tangible outcomes under Act East Policy.

Domestic LLM Development And India’s AI Infrastructure Push

Core Points:

• Sarvam AI launched two LLMs trained on 35 billion and 105 billion parameters.
• Models claim lower power and compute requirements compared to comparable systems.
• Demonstrated improved performance in Indian languages.
• LLMs are trained on GPU clusters; costs include GPUs and electricity running into millions of dollars.
• Training data largely scraped from the Internet, where Indian languages are underrepresented.
• Twofold challenge for Indian LLMs:
  • Scarcity of high-quality Indian language data.
  • Limited capital for large-scale training.
• Many LLMs rely on translating Indian languages into English for better performance, increasing token usage.
• Machine translation remains a widely used workaround.
• Suboptimal Indian language performance affects adoption, especially in low-resource devices like feature phones.
• IndiaAI Mission commissioned over 36,000 GPUs in domestic data centres.
• Researchers and startups allowed access at nominal cost.
• Sarvam received access to 4,096 GPUs from the common compute cluster.
• Subsidy estimated at nearly ₹100 crore; total cluster bill of materials ₹246 crore.
• Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology promotes domestic LLM development:
  • Concern that foreign LLMs may not prioritise Indian languages.
  • Focus on building domestic AI talent ecosystem.
• Sarvam claims models were trained from scratch and will be open source.
• Model available via Indus app, but not hosted on platforms like Hugging Face for external scrutiny.
• Mixture of Experts (MoE) architecture reduces inference cost by activating only a fraction of parameters.
• MoE enables faster performance with lower compute consumption.
• Sarvam acknowledges 105B model is smaller than global frontier models.
• Focus currently on accuracy, efficiency and alignment for Indian context before scaling.
• Responses are less in-depth compared to paid versions of Gemini or ChatGPT.
• Larger models planned subject to future investment.
• BharatGen (IIT Bombay-incubated) trained a 17B multilingual model using the same compute cluster.
• BharatGen model targeted at education and healthcare sectors.
• Gnani.ai launched a small text-to-speech model.

Essential Religious Practices Vs Anti-Exclusion Test In Sabarimala Case

Core Points:

• In Indian Young Lawyers Association vs State of Kerala (2018), a five-judge Bench allowed entry of women of all ages into Sabarimala temple.
• Verdict delivered by 4:1 majority.
• Majority held:
  • Ayyappa devotees are not a separate religious denomination.
  • Ban on women aged 10–50 violated women’s freedom of religion.
  • Rule 3(b) of 1965 Rules unconstitutional and contrary to parent law guaranteeing temple access to all Hindus.
• Justice Indu Malhotra dissented:
  • Equality doctrine cannot override collective religious rights.
  • Exclusion based on custom constituted an “essential religious practice”.
• Constitution protects:
  • Individual freedom of religion.
  • Rights of religious denominations to manage religious affairs.
  • Both subject to public order, morality, health, and other fundamental rights.
• Court has historically applied the “essential religious practices” (ERP) test.
• ERP test requires court to determine whether a practice is essential to a religion.
• This involves judicial scrutiny of theology and doctrinal content.
• Example: Sastri Yagnapurushadji vs Muldas Bhudardas Vaishya (1966) where Court assessed essentials of Swaminarayan sect through scriptural interpretation.
• ERP test criticised for:
  • Making courts arbiters of religious doctrine.
  • Requiring factual findings without oral evidence or cross-examination.
  • Failing to resolve conflicts where essential practices undermine dignity.

Anti-Exclusion Test:

• Proposed by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud.
• Shifts inquiry from theological essentiality to constitutional compatibility.
• Allows religious groups autonomy in defining doctrines.
• Intervenes only when exclusion:
  • Impairs dignity.
  • Restricts access to basic goods integral to a dignified life.
• Focuses on consequences of exclusion rather than doctrinal necessity.
• Grounds inquiry in constitutional values, not religious interpretation.
• Distinction:
  • ERP: Protection depends on court’s view of essentiality.
  • Anti-exclusion: Protection limited if practice violates equality and dignity.
• Test may impact other disputes:
  • Dawoodi Bohra excommunication.
  • Rights of Parsi women marrying outside the faith.
• Recognises religion’s social embeddedness in India.
• Prioritises individual dignity as core constitutional concern.
• Aims to balance faith autonomy with equal moral membership.
• Seeks to protect belief without permitting discrimination.