Indian Constitution & Basic Structure

The Armed Forces are reportedly seeking a higher retention percentage for Agniveers after completion of their four-year tenure, with the Navy likely to seek around 75% retention and the Army and Air Force around 50%, against the current approved ceiling of 25%. The issue is important for UPSC because it connects military manpower planning, national security, defence reforms, youth employment, training costs, operational readiness and post-service rehabilitation.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has notified a revised compensation framework for victims of small-value digital banking fraud, under which a bona fide customer who loses up to Rs 50,000 in a fraudulent electronic banking transaction (EBT) can recover a major portion of the loss. The framework will take effect from 1 January 2027 and, notably, makes the RBI itself bear the largest share of the compensation. This article explains the new mechanism, the eligibility conditions and cost-sharing math, the existing zero-liability/limited-liability framework of 2017, the scale of bank and digital fraud in India, and the concerns around implementation.

The Reserve Bank of India has temporarily withdrawn interest-rate restrictions on select non-resident deposits to attract overseas funds and support external-sector stability. The relaxation covers NRE deposits of three years and above and FCNR(B) deposits of three to five years. This article explains what NRE and FCNR(B) accounts are, how the rate ceiling worked, why RBI is using this route, and what it means for the rupee, banks, NRIs and India’s balance of payments.

The Supreme Court, while upholding the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, has ordered that voters excluded on doubtful-citizenship grounds be referred to the competent authority under the Citizenship Act, 1955 for adjudication within four weeks. Assam's decades-old experience with 'D' (Doubtful) voters shows why this may be far from simple. This article explains the SIR verdict, how the 'D-voter' tag and Foreigners Tribunals work, the burden-of-proof question, and the constitutional and legal framework governing voter citizenship in India.

The Supreme Court, in Dr. Ramesh vs State of Maharashtra, has stressed strict enforcement of the PCPNDT Act to curb sex-selection practices driven by patriarchal preference for a male child. The judgment is important for UPSC because it links gender justice, child sex ratio, reproductive technology regulation, constitutional equality and welfare legislation.

The newly released National Family Health Survey (NFHS-6), 2023-24 shows that infant and young child feeding practices in Delhi have declined sharply across almost every indicator compared with NFHS-5 (2019-21). Early initiation of breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding and the share of children getting an adequate diet have all fallen, and underweight has risen — even as several national child-nutrition indicators improved. This article explains what NFHS-6 is, the key breastfeeding and complementary-feeding indicators, what stunting, wasting and underweight mean, India's nutrition schemes and legal framework, and the way forward — all mapped to the UPSC Prelims and Mains syllabus.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is facing nationwide criticism after rolling out On-Screen Marking (OSM) — a fully digital answer-sheet evaluation system — for Class 12 board exams for the first time in 2026, amid complaints of low marks, blurred scans, and a crashing re-evaluation portal. This article explains what OSM is, how digital evaluation works, why CBSE adopted it, what went wrong in the rollout, the constitutional and governance questions it raises, and the wider e-governance lessons for India's examination system.

The Supreme Court has invoked its extraordinary powers under Article 142 to crack down on rampant illegal sand mining inside the tri-state National Chambal Gharial Sanctuary, pulling up Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh for "casual and indolent" inaction after two forest guards were killed in 2026. This in-depth explainer covers the Chambal sanctuary's unique ecology, the critically endangered gharial, India's sand-mining laws (MMDR Act, Sustainable Sand Mining Guidelines), the Deepak Kumar verdict, denotification controversies, and the constitutional principles of environmental governance — everything a UPSC aspirant needs in one place. Why in News The Supreme Court of India is hearing a suo motu case on large-scale illegal sand mining inside and around the National Chambal (Gharial) Sanctuary, a riverine protected area shared by Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. In a series of strongly worded orders through April and May 2026, the Court has rebuked the three state governments for administrative apathy, linked their inaction to the killing of frontline forest staff, and invoked Article 142 of the Constitution to issue sweeping enforcement directions. The case has brought national attention to sand mining as an environmental and rule-of-law crisis, and to the survival of the critically endangered gharial, whose last major wild stronghold is the Chambal.

The Supreme Court of India, on 29 May 2026, invoked its extraordinary powers under Article 142 to issue binding, nationwide guidelines directing all High Courts to pronounce reserved judgments within three months, decide bail matters the same or next day, and upload verdicts within 24 hours. Linking judicial delay to a violation of the right to personal liberty under Article 21, the Court created an enforceable accountability framework. This article explains reserved judgments, the Article 142 power, the right to a speedy trial, landmark precedents like Anil Rai and Hussainara Khatoon, and the pendency crisis — everything a UPSC aspirant needs in one place.

India's chemical industry bodies and key ministries — including Textiles and Commerce — have urged a suspension of ongoing anti-dumping investigations on petrochemical intermediates amid surging input prices caused by the West Asia war and Strait of Hormuz disruptions. With the government already exempting customs duty on 40 critical petrochemicals till June 30, 2026, and DPIIT pushing indigenisation of 200+ import-dependent items, this article explains the anti-dumping framework under the Customs Tariff Act 1975, DGTR's role, WTO rules, the MSME vs large-manufacturer divide, and India's $31 billion chemical trade deficit.

On 28 May 2026, the Supreme Court of India upheld the constitutional validity of the retrospective levy of 28% Goods and Services Tax (GST) on online money gaming, fantasy sports and casinos, reviving tax demands worth nearly ₹2.5 lakh crore against companies like Dream11, Gameskraft and Delta Corp. The Bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan held that any game involving staking of money on uncertain outcomes amounts to "betting and gambling" for GST purposes, irrespective of whether skill or chance dominates. This article explains the verdict, the constitutional and statutory framework under Articles 246A and 366, the meaning of "actionable claims," the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming (PROG) Act 2025, the long-standing skill versus chance jurisprudence, and the wider economic and federal implications for India's gaming sector.

Women's representation in India's Lok Sabha and state assemblies has rarely crossed half of the 33% mark, with the current share in Lok Sabha at around 14.4% and even lower in most Vidhan Sabhas. Despite the passage of the Women's Reservation Act in 2023 providing one-third quota, the reservation is not yet operational because it is linked to the delimitation exercise after the next Census. This article explains the constitutional framework for women's representation, current data, the 2023 Act provisions, the technical role of delimitation, global comparison and all basic concepts from the UPSC point of view.

The United States has initiated a Section 301 investigation into India’s labour practices, questioning whether India has ratified key International Labour Organization (ILO) treaties related to the future of work. Indian negotiators will hold talks with the US next week to address the concerns. This article explains what Section 301 investigation means, the role of ILO treaties, India’s position on labour standards, implications for bilateral trade and all basic technical concepts behind the probe.

On March 28, 2026, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said it is seriously studying the idea of introducing electronic cheques (e-cheques) as part of its plan to modernise the country’s payment system. The central bank is carrying out a full review of how cheques are designed and secured so that they can combine the trusted features of old paper cheques with the speed and safety of digital payments. This step is aimed at meeting the changing needs of businesses and common people who want quicker and paperless options.

On March 28, 2026, the Rajasthan High Court issued an important order banning night safaris and the use of drones, spotlights, torch lights and similar devices in the Jawai Leopard Reserve in Pali district. The court acted on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by local resident Apoorva Agrawat. It directed the state government to ensure no wildlife spotting activities take place after 7 pm or before 6 am. The bench noted that unregulated tourism, especially at night, was causing serious disturbance and stress to leopards and other animals. This order aligns with similar restrictions already followed in places like Ranthambore National Park.

On March 11, 2026, the Supreme Court directed the Centre, states, Union Territories, universities, and public institutions receiving government funds to immediately disassociate three experts—Professor Michel Danino (chairperson of the NCERT social science curriculum committee), Suparna Diwakar, and Alok Prasanna Kumar—from any role in preparing school curriculum or finalising textbooks using public funds. This came after a suo motu case over a withdrawn Class 8 Social Science textbook chapter discussing "corruption in the judiciary," which the court called an attempt to demean the institution and harmful to impressionable students. The court also ordered formation of an expert committee to review legal studies content and barred publication of any rewritten chapter without domain expert approval.

The Supreme Court, on March 11, 2026, approved the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment for 32-year-old Harish Rana, who has remained in a persistent vegetative state for over 13 years following a severe head injury. This decision represents the first real-world use of India's passive euthanasia guidelines, highlighting the need for clear rules on end-of-life care to allow individuals to pass away naturally when medical treatment offers no hope of recovery.

The Supreme Court and several High Courts have increasingly adopted AI-powered tools to tackle persistent issues like case delays, translation barriers, and heavy workloads, with recent implementations showing significant efficiency gains. This comes amid a growing backlog of over 50 million cases across Indian courts, prompting the judiciary to leverage technology for faster justice delivery while maintaining human oversight.

The Madras High Court has made a landmark ruling by recognizing cryptocurrency as "property" under Indian law, providing legal protection to digital assets for the first time in a judicial decision. This came in a case where an investor's XRP holdings on the WazirX exchange were frozen after a 2024 cyberattack, allowing the court to grant interim relief and assert jurisdiction over such assets. The decision boosts investor confidence in a market where crypto is already taxed as virtual digital assets, but lacks full regulatory clarity, amid growing adoption in India with over 100 million users.

Google DeepMind, in collaboration with Yale University, has unveiled the C2S-Scale 27B AI model, which generated a completely new scientific hypothesis about how certain drugs can make "cold" cancer tumors more detectable by the immune system. This hypothesis was tested and confirmed through lab experiments on living human cancer cells, marking the first time an AI has proposed and validated a novel biological idea in this way. The discovery, announced on October 16, 2025, and detailed in a bioRxiv preprint, highlights AI's potential to speed up cancer drug research by simulating thousands of possibilities virtually before lab work.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) issued a detailed advisory on October 25, 2025, directing all political parties to prominently label videos, images, and audio clips that are created or altered using artificial intelligence (AI). This move addresses the rising threat of deepfakes, which the ECI says are "contaminating the level-playing field" in elections by spreading misleading information that looks real. The advisory builds on earlier warnings and aligns closely with recent draft amendments to the Information Technology Rules, 2021, proposed by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). It comes amid growing concerns over AI's role in shaping public opinion during campaigns, as seen in past elections where synthetic content disrupted voter trust.

The Indian government, through the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), proposed amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules on October 22, 2025, making it mandatory for social media users and platforms to label AI-generated or synthetically altered content. This move comes amid a surge in non-consensual deepfake videos targeting women, including celebrities like Rashmika Mandanna and Aishwarya Rai, which blend seamlessly into feeds on Instagram and X, eroding privacy and consent while spreading misinformation at scale. The rules aim to empower users to distinguish real from fake, with platforms required to verify declarations and apply visible markers, addressing a crisis where 90% of deepfake victims are women.

The Supreme Court relaxed the absolute ban on firecrackers in Delhi-NCR, allowing the use of green crackers on a test case basis during Diwali. This order, passed by a bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, aims to find a middle ground between cultural practices and the growing public health crisis from air pollution, as complete bans have proven hard to enforce and led to smuggling of more harmful crackers.

The Supreme Court has relaxed the complete ban on firecrackers in Delhi-NCR for Diwali, permitting the sale and use of green crackers on a trial basis for two days from October 18 to 20, 2025, with specific timings, following requests from the Centre and considering enforcement challenges, to test if regulated use can balance cultural celebrations with air quality protection amid rising pollution concerns.