Daily Editorials Snapshot & FREE Vocabulary PDF – 25 November 2025

The Hindu Editorials snapshot

Editorial 1

Labour and honour: On the four Labour Codes, the path ahead

The Centre’s move to implement the four Labour Codes—covering wages, industrial relations, social security, and occupational safety, health, and working conditions—has been welcomed by business and investors as a major reform. Passed between 2019 and 2020 but delayed until now, these Codes replace 29 existing laws, streamlining compliance and reducing burdens on companies. The government plans to assist States in drafting and adopting Rules under the Codes, with most States and Union Territories already releasing draft Rules. Labour laws were seen by free market advocates as obstacles to India’s growth. The Codes promise major changes in worker-employer relations, wages, and social security, which is critical given India’s growing youth workforce, with 12 million people reaching working age annually and a need to create about 7.85 million non-farm jobs each year until 2030. However, labour unions argue that the Codes ignore pro-worker recommendations from the 2002 Second National Commission on Labour and disproportionately favour employers. With evolving work patterns—gig jobs, platform work, and AI disruptions—the Government must implement reforms wisely while ensuring healthy labour relations. The Indian Labour Conference, which has not convened since 2015, should be called for its 47th session to facilitate smooth implementation, involving states, employers, and workers.

Editorial 2

​Missing ‘Ubuntu’: On the G-20 leaders’ summit in Johannesburg

The G-20 summit held in Johannesburg in 2025 was the first hosted in Africa and marked the historic inclusion of the African Union as a member, reflecting the spirit of the Global South. The Summit focused on challenges like conflicts, inequality, and economic uncertainty, calling for “just, comprehensive, and lasting peace” in conflict zones including Sudan, DRC, Palestine, and Ukraine. Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed six initiatives including skills training for a million Africans, a Traditional Knowledge Repository, a Global Healthcare Response Team, and a Critical Minerals Circularity initiative. However, the absence of U.S. President Donald Trump and the official U.S. boycott due to tensions over South Africa’s domestic policies weakened the summit’s unity. This unprecedented boycott by America—the world’s largest economy and incoming G-20 president in 2026—raised questions about its commitment to multilateralism and the G-20’s democratic aspirations. The summit’s declaration, which referenced the African philosophy of Ubuntu (“I am because we are”), underscored the need for solidarity, a principle undermined by the U.S.’s sidelining of the grouping.

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The Indian Express Editorials snapshot

Editorial 3

​Farmers must reap fruits of genetic engineering

India missed much of the Genetic Modification (GM) revolution except in cotton, as no new GM technology was commercialised after Bollgard-II Bt in 2006 due to opposition from swadeshi and green groups. The country must not fall prey to similar Luddite resistance against Genome-Edited (GE) crop breeding. Encouragingly, two GE rice lines — improved mutants of Samba Mahsuri and MTU-1010 — have been identified for release after gene editing with CRISPR-Cas technology to boost yields and enhance drought and salinity tolerance. Field trials of a pest- and disease-resistant, low-pungent mustard variety developed with CRISPR-Cas are underway. ICAR scientists have also patented a new indigenous GE tool based on Transposon-associated protein TnpB, offering an alternative to US-controlled CRISPR-Cas systems. This may ease concerns about surrendering Indian farmers’ interests to global agritech monopolies, a key argument used by activists, who earlier blocked GM hybrid mustard developed by Indian scientists. India faces the tremendous task of feeding an estimated 1.7 billion people by 2060 amid shrinking land and water and growing climate challenges. This requires embracing improved breeding technologies including GM and GE. Denying science and succumbing to pseudo-environmentalism or protectionism will be costly, as seen in rising vegetable oil imports and loss of cotton export status. Indian farmers deserve access to genetic engineering’s benefits for sustainable agriculture and food security.

Editorial 4

Forgot password? So do cryptographers

Even experts in cryptography are not immune to forgetting critical digital keys, as demonstrated recently when the International Association of Cryptologic Research (IACR) was forced to cancel its leadership elections. The election results were sealed with a highly secure cryptographic system that required three trustees to provide decryption keys to unlock the vote tally. However, one trustee irretrievably lost their private key, making it technically impossible to decrypt and verify the results. This human error, despite the system being foolproof, highlights the vulnerability caused by the “Human Factor” even in advanced cryptographic processes. The IACR has decided to rerun the election with a new mechanism requiring only two of three keys to decrypt results, aiming to prevent such incidents in future elections. The incident shows that while technology can secure information strongly, human mistakes remain a significant risk.​

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