The Hindu Editorial Analysis : 25th September 2026

The Hindu Editorial Analysis

We understand the significance of reading The Hindu newspaper for enhancing reading skills, improving comprehension of passages, staying informed about current events, enhancing essay writing, and more, especially for banking aspirants who need to focus on editorials for vocabulary building. This article will explore today’s editorial points, along with practice questions and key vocabulary.

India and EU to Sign Free Trade Agreement on December 16

• The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and the European Union (EU) is scheduled to be signed on December 16, according to two diplomatic sources who separately confirmed the information to The Hindu.
• The signing will be part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s back-to-back December visits to Canada, the U.S., and Belgium, where three separate FTAs are currently either under negotiation or in the process of receiving approval.
• The India-EU FTA has already received “majority approval” in Europe. Therefore, once the European Council gives its approval, the agreement will not require separate ratification by each individual EU member country.
• After the agreement is signed, the next step will be its approval by the European Parliament, which is expected to take another one to two months. This would allow the agreement to be rolled out in “early 2027.”
• A diplomatic source told The Hindu that the most recent development was the European Commission finalising the text of the agreement and sending it to the European Council.
• The same source said that the signing is scheduled for December 16, after which the agreement will be sent to the European Parliament.
• Negotiations for the India-EU FTA restarted in June 2022 after a long period of suspension and were concluded in January 2026.
• Leaders on both sides have described the agreement as the “mother of all deals.”
• Under the agreement, the EU will remove tariffs on 99.5% of the items exported by India to the European market.
• Most of these EU tariffs will be reduced to 0% immediately after the agreement comes into effect.
• In return, India has agreed to provide tariff concessions on 97.5% of the traded value between India and the European Union.
• A second diplomatic source also confirmed December 16 as the signing date and said that the agreement would be signed in Brussels in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
• The first diplomatic source further stated that the agreement has majority support in Europe, meaning it will not have to be individually ratified by every EU country.
• One reason for the broad support is that India and the EU agreed to leave contentious issues outside the agreement rather than allowing disagreements over those issues to prevent the overall deal from being concluded. The approach was described as not making “the best the enemy of the good.”
• Prime Minister Modi is expected to travel to Canada first, probably around December 12, before attending the G20 Summit in Miami.
• Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed Modi’s visit and said that the India-Canada trade negotiations had made “good progress.”
• At a briefing in New York on Tuesday, Mr. Carney said that the commitment made by him and Prime Minister Modi at last year’s G20 in Canada was to try to conclude the negotiations by this year’s G20 in the U.S., which is scheduled for the middle of December, around December 14–15.
• In an interview with Canada’s Globe and Mail, India’s High Commissioner to Canada, Dinesh Patnaik, also confirmed Prime Minister Modi’s visit.
• Patnaik said that he expected the India-Canada FTA to be completed by November and that Prime Minister Modi would visit Canada in December to sign the agreement.
• Prime Minister Modi is then expected to attend the G20 meeting in Miami, where the India-U.S. Interim Agreement on trade and a larger Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) will also be on the agenda.
• Both the India-U.S. Interim Agreement and the larger Bilateral Trade Agreement have already missed several deadlines.

Super El Niño Could Cause 15,800 Heat-Related Deaths in India: Report

• India could see an estimated 15,800 more heat-related deaths, with a possible difference of 1,600, between September 2026 and February 2027, as the ongoing Super El Niño causes unusually high temperatures. This estimate is compared with the average conditions during the same months from 1996 to 2025, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Climate Impact Lab.
• Around the world, the report estimates 4,51,000 additional heat-related deaths during the first six months of the El Niño event, including 2,39,000 deaths between September 2026 and February 2027.
• The report estimates 19,300 additional deaths in Indonesia, 19,400 across the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia, 13,300 in Brazil, and 66,800 across the Sahel region.
• The Sahel is a 5,000-kilometre-long region covering about 10 countries in Africa, including Senegal, the Gambia and northern Nigeria.
• Michael Greenstone, co-founder of the Climate Impact Lab at the University of Chicago, said that the report helps decision-makers know where emergency action can be taken now to save tens of thousands of lives in the coming months.
• The report calls the present event a “Super El Niño”, which is an informal term generally used for very strong El Niño conditions.
• El Niño happens when the water in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean becomes unusually warm. This changes the movement of the atmosphere and affects rainfall and temperature patterns across the world.
• Forecasts made earlier this month showed a more than 90% chance of a very strong El Niño during the autumn and winter in the Northern Hemisphere.
• The sea-surface temperature in the eastern equatorial Pacific was already more than 3°C above normal, showing how unusually warm the region has become.
• The effects of El Niño are already being seen in different parts of the world. Indonesia has experienced conditions that can lead to wildfires, while parts of Central America have faced agricultural problems because of drought.
• An accompanying press statement said that this year’s El Niño is a “postcard from our future” because it is bringing temperatures that climate change is expected to produce about 20 years from now.
• In this way, the current El Niño event gives us a preview of what future climate conditions may look like, even without making new investments to help people adapt to climate change.
• In India, the southwest monsoon is now entering its withdrawal phase after a season that saw less rainfall than normal.
• India’s overall rainfall deficit was about 15% below normal up to September 22, 2026, with greater shortages of rainfall in the southern and eastern parts of the country.
• The higher temperatures are also increasing the demand for electricity in India.
• Nearly 40% of India’s coal-fired power plants have reported critically low stocks of coal, as electricity demand has increased because of hotter-than-normal weather linked to El Niño.
• The Climate Impact Lab made its estimate by using previously studied links between temperature and deaths in 24,378 regions and applying them to seasonal temperature forecasts.
• The method also considers the local climate, the level of vulnerability of people, and their ability to adjust to or deal with the effects of heat in different regions.
• However, the report does not give the exact numerical relationship or calculations that show how a particular rise in temperature is connected to a specific number of deaths.

Mirabai Wins Silver, Ends Long Wait for Asian Games Medal

• Mirabai Chanu had already secured her place among India’s greatest sportspersons. She had won an Olympic silver medal, a World Championship gold medal and several gold medals at the Commonwealth Games.
• Even after achieving so much, winning a medal at the Asian Games was still very important to her. It was a goal she had been trying to achieve for nearly a decade and a half.
• Mirabai said that she had already won medals at the Olympics, World Championships and Asian Championships. She wondered why she could not win a medal at the Asian Games. She had been trying to win one since 2014, but had not been able to do so.
• In the final of the 49kg category, North Korea’s Ri Song Gum was much better than the other competitors. She won her third Asian Games gold medal in a row and also broke her own World record with a total lift of 215kg.
• Twenty-one-year-old Indonesian lifter Wijayana Diana moved ahead of Mirabai after the snatch. Diana lifted 88kg, while Mirabai lifted 87kg.
• But Mirabai’s strength in the clean and jerk changed the situation. She lifted 107kg and then 111kg, while the Indonesian lifter could lift a maximum of 103kg.
• Mirabai’s total of 198kg was enough to win the silver medal. She did not even need to make another final attempt.
• The Asian Games medal was the one Mirabai had been trying to win for many years. After such a long wait, the medal she had been so determined to win finally became a reality.

Important Questions

1. According to two diplomatic sources, on what date is the India-EU Free Trade Agreement scheduled to be signed in Brussels in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi?
2. Under the India-EU Free Trade Agreement, what percentage of the items exported by India to the European market will the EU remove tariffs on?
3. According to the Climate Impact Lab report, how many additional heat-related deaths could India see between September 2026 and February 2027 due to the ongoing Super El Niño?
4. According to the report, what percentage of India’s rainfall deficit was recorded below normal up to September 22, 2026?
5. In the 49kg final at the Asian Games, what medal did India’s Mirabai Chanu win after trying to secure an Asian Games medal since 2014?
6. What total of 198kg did Mirabai Chanu lift in the 49kg final to win the Asian Games silver medal?

Important Vocabulary

1. Ratification — Formal approval of an agreement.
2. Contentious — Causing disagreement or argument.
3. Concessions — Special reductions or benefits given in an agreement.
4. Negotiations — Discussions to reach an agreement.
5. Vulnerability — The condition of being easily harmed.
6. Withdrawal — The process of moving back or ending.
7. Deficit — A shortage or amount below what is normal.
8. Adapt — To adjust to new conditions.
9. Competitors — People taking part in a competition.
10. Snatch — A weightlifting event in which the weight is lifted in one movement.
11. Clean and jerk — A weightlifting event involving two lifting movements.
12. Determined — Having a strong decision to achieve something.