UPSC current affairs, day by day
Every day's UPSC-relevant news from The Hindu, The Indian Express and PIB, with Prelims facts, Mains answers and the previous-year questions each story connects to. Free and open source.
October 2026
5 October 2026 Monday
- Does a valid visa guarantee entry into India? The Delhi High Court says no
- Official rabies death count is under 1% of ICMR's estimate, clouding the 2030 goal
- One year of two-slab GST: Finance Minister cites a wider base and higher collections
- Op-ed: Over-regulation is stifling India's universities; one regulator may not fix it
- Op-ed: In a trade deal with the US, India should value terms that are hard to reverse
4 October 2026 Sunday
- Education Ministry approves five Centres of Excellence for newer classical languages
- Andhra Pradesh moves Supreme Court to restore 34% BC quota in local bodies
- Karnataka seeks ₹7,142.64 crore in Central drought aid for 177 taluks
- No timeline for Sheikh Hasina's extradition, says India's envoy in Dhaka
- India demonstrates a 5.56 km free-space quantum key distribution link in Gandhinagar
3 October 2026 Saturday
- Captive-bred Great Indian Bustards to be released into the wild for the first time
- Centre resumes appraising pending post facto green clearances after Supreme Court ruling
- Centre issues rules creating a National Tribunals Commission to select tribunal members
- Op-ed: Split verdict on the Election Commissioners Act exposes how the Supreme Court sits
- Explained: First official Indian visit to Pakistan since Operation Sindoor
2 October 2026 Friday
- Supreme Court orders curbs on vehicle services until unpaid e-challans are cleared
- EC orders drive to enrol left-out voters in 20 SIR States, drops added Form 6 question
- Op-ed: India's factories are growing, but not creating jobs at the scale needed
- Centre and Ladakh fix standard names for 28 places on the Survey of India map
- Delhi's September AQI hits a five-year low even as PM2.5 and PM10 levels rose
1 October 2026 Thursday
- Monsoon 2026 ends 12.6% below normal, India's weakest season since 2015
- Cabinet clears ₹1.86 lakh crore Green Energy Corridor Phase-III with 50 GWh of batteries
- Editorial: Supreme Court flags ten-fold drug markups, exposing gaps in price control
- Supreme Court rules out a total firecracker ban, open to next-generation green crackers
- Centre notifies CAFE-III fuel-efficiency norms for cars from April 2027
September 2026
30 September 2026 Wednesday
- Supreme Court: a police-custody confession alone cannot justify NSA detention
- Why the Centre cut import duty on crude edible oils ahead of the festival season
- Policing report: one in eight faced cybercrime, poor victims paid more bribes for redress
- ₹1 lakh crore RDI Fund for deep tech pauses new applications as funds run short
- Op-ed: To protect tigers, track wildlife crime beyond reserve boundaries
29 September 2026 Tuesday
- Supreme Court orders Delhi-NCR safety audit in four weeks after a string of rapes
- Supreme Court asks Centre to frame rules to stop social media firms signing up minors
- Industrial output grows 8% in August 2026, but consumer non-durables lag at 2.1%
- J&K Assembly passes resolution seeking restoration of statehood as BJP walks out
- Op-ed: Cutting food loss and waste offers India a triple win
28 September 2026 Monday
- Should the right to vote become a fundamental right?
- Tamil Nadu withdraws order that kept its law and order department out of RTI
- UN adopts a declaration that rising seas will not erase island states
- Census 2027 first phase nears completion, PM calls it a national responsibility
- RBI's listing rule for large NBFCs and the Tata Sons debate
27 September 2026 Sunday
- Justice Nagarathna: family disputes need mediation and adjudication working together
- Why Japan wants the UN Charter's 'enemy state' clauses deleted
- Centre orders 112 captive coal plants to run at full capacity till December
- Vedanta seeks a return to Niyamgiri, 13 years after gram sabhas said no
- India's first port-based e-methanol plant to come up at Kandla
26 September 2026 Saturday
- AFSPA extended in parts of Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal for six more months
- Census 2027: no decision yet on how open-field caste entries will be sorted
- Centre and banks to settle UPI subsidy once merchant charges begin
- Should India review its nuclear doctrine without changing its core?
- Expert panel backs green clearance for the Subansiri Upper hydro project
25 September 2026 Friday
24 September 2026 Thursday
- India and the EU to sign their trade deal on 16 December
- A Supreme Court judge defends the Collegium and hits back at the Centre
- Quality control orders and India's manufacturing growth
- El Niño, heat deaths and why parched Maharashtra cannot declare drought yet
- India rejects the OIC contact group's remarks on Kashmir
23 September 2026 Wednesday
- Supreme Court: refusing to sing the National Song cannot be punished
- Karnataka's legislature asks the Centre to shrink the Western Ghats eco-sensitive area
- Towards recognising women as farmers
- Drug trade to be uprooted by the end of 2029, says Home Minister
- Green clearances for ports now valid for 20 years
22 September 2026 Tuesday
- Supreme Court: an accused must be released if not told the grounds of arrest
- Article 371 A to J, and what a new 371K could do for Ladakh
- India-New Zealand trade deal to take effect on 20 October
- How Gaganyaan's crew module will deploy its parachutes
- Nearly 40% of coal power plants are critically low on fuel
21 September 2026 Monday
20 September 2026 Sunday
- Supreme Court strikes down Maharashtra's methanol rules, calls prohibition no solution
- Trump signs Russia sanctions law that allows up to 100% tariffs on buyers like India
- At NGT's climate conference, Modi says developing nations are wrongly blamed for emissions
- Monsoon begins withdrawing from west Rajasthan with 43% of India's area rain-deficient
- Trump extends the $100,000 H-1B fee by a year and orders tighter vetting of employers
19 September 2026 Saturday
18 September 2026 Friday
17 September 2026 Thursday
- Pakistani corvette collides with Indian warship; India cites the 1991 military pact
- Global Gender Gap Index 2026: India stays 131st of 145 with 64.5% of its gap closed
- Urban Ministry tells House panel the 'census town' definition is outdated; RGI keeps it
- Op-ed: Section 9D of mining law curbs States' mineral taxes, undercutting a 2024 verdict
- Op-ed: E20 petrol's mileage loss may have cost consumers ₹88,234 crore in three years
16 September 2026 Wednesday
- Six States sign the Kishau dam pact on the Tons; Centre to bear about 90% of the cost
- U.S. says it has 'space control' weapons in orbit, exposing gaps in space law
- Unemployment steady at 5% in August 2026 as rural rate falls to 4.1%, says PLFS
- Op-ed: China's cheap open-weight AI models may not stay open for long
- Op-ed: What India's smallholder farming model can teach other developing nations
15 September 2026 Tuesday
- Hindi Diwas: how the Constituent Assembly settled India's language question
- Op-ed: After the SIR, use Aadhaar to keep voter rolls clean
- After a 99.97% haircut order, IBBI proposes safeguards in personal guarantor insolvency
- India and Vietnam agree to co-produce Indian defence equipment at 19th Joint Commission
- RRI scientists show a well-timed single operation can delay quantum decoherence
14 September 2026 Monday
- Op-ed: India should make the New Development Bank the core of its BRICS finance agenda
- Environment Minister opens a soft release centre for Great Indian Bustards in Kutch
- Defence Ministry: S-400 downed a Pakistani aircraft 314 km away in Operation Sindoor
- India-EU trade deal: a 1.64 million tonne steel quota for India, a car quota for the EU
- Op-ed: Anganwadis shape India's future, and communities must share responsibility for them
13 September 2026 Sunday
- BRICS adopts a 140-paragraph New Delhi Declaration at its 18th summit
- Why the NCPCR has summoned Meta over ads linked to child sexual abuse material
- Saudi Arabia shuts its East-West oil pipeline after attacks: why it matters for India
- Study finds rapid Himalayan erosion releases CO2 through pyrite oxidation
- First Badri calf born through OPU-IVF, a boost for Uttarakhand's hill cattle
12 September 2026 Saturday
- Centre tightens e-commerce rules: prior price, origin labels and a 48-hour grievance clock
- Indonesia prepares to take back five baby orangutans rescued in Odisha's Balasore
- Bankers' Books Evidence Act, 2026 to replace the 1891 law from 1 October 2026
- Editorial: India's road deaths need a Safe System approach, not just fines
- U.S. proposes ending the 60-day grace period for H-1B and other laid-off visa workers
11 September 2026 Friday
- How should registered unrecognised political parties be regulated?
- NSO releases first district-level estimates of the unincorporated non-farm sector
- Bihar floods despite a 27% rain deficit, and the Ganga, not Nepal, is behind it
- Editorial: What the U.S.-Canada trade rupture teaches India
- Mercury may have shrunk by up to 23 km in diameter, about 30% more than thought
- Centre launches DILRMP 3.0 guidelines for a GIS-based land records system, 2026-31
- Houthis seize Yemen's Red Sea port of Mokha, close to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait
- Op-ed: Fast growth, weak jobs and India's risk of a middle-income trap
- India-U.S. Army exercise Yudh Abhyas opens its 22nd edition with a counter-drone focus
10 September 2026 Thursday
- IAEA Board reports Iran to the UN Security Council, first time in 20 years
- India and Sri Lanka sign three defence MoUs during Rajnath Singh's visit
- Producer prices and double deflation: what changed in India's new GDP series
- Open waste burning in Indian cities triples in winter, finds WRI India study
- Op-ed: Warning labels alone will not fix India's sugar problem
9 September 2026 Wednesday
- Editorial: The push to dilute gram sabha consent for forest diversion
- PAC flags ₹9,222 crore of cess collections not moved to their reserve funds in 2024-25
- Op-ed: India-Japan defence ties move from dialogue to shipbuilding and joint drills
- CosmoCube: a satellite to listen for the universe's Dark Ages from the Moon's far side
- After a deadly glacier collapse, Nepal seeks climate compensation, not aid
8 September 2026 Tuesday
- Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan 2026: Lucknow tops million-plus cities on clean air action
- UK recognises India's carbon credit trading scheme under its carbon border tax
- Manipur to press the Centre for an NRC update with 1951 as the base year
- FATF warns that hawala networks are going digital, using stablecoins and AI
- Op-ed: India's BRICS chairship is a chance to put a divided group back together
7 September 2026 Monday
- Punjab asks Centre to hold High Court Chief Justice appointment, citing MoP breach
- Tribal Affairs Ministry says Forest Rights Act has no provision for gram sabha consent
- Ten years of inflation targeting: does the RBI's framework work in India?
- Bhutan first in WHO's South-East Asia Region to eliminate dog-mediated rabies
- Rajghat finds from decades-old digs shed new light on ancient Kashi
6 September 2026 Sunday
- Bihar makes prior State consent mandatory for CBI probes into its employees
- ISRO staff bodies question the plan to hand rocket making to industry
- Census count advanced in four poll-bound States, formally deferred in Manipur
- Why is BRICS exploring its own cross-border payment links?
- UN General Assembly backs the Equal Earth map to show Africa's true size
5 September 2026 Saturday
- Supreme Court asks States to raise district judges' retirement age from 60 to 62
- GSLV-F17 launches EOS-05, India's first imaging satellite for geosynchronous orbit
- As India revises its Model BIT, an op-ed seeks consultation and Parliament's scrutiny
- Mecca defence pact prompts a call for India to add a security role in the Gulf
4 September 2026 Friday
- Supreme Court: Bar Councils have no power to discipline law students
- India and Belgium sign a defence letter of intent and aim to double trade in five years
- Centre asks Himalayan States to step up monitoring of glacial lakes and avalanche zones
- Ladakh notifies autonomous hill development councils for all seven districts
- Newborn deaths in hospital fires and the case for 'hospital plus home' care
3 September 2026 Thursday
2 September 2026 Wednesday
- Supreme Court uses Article 142 to quash FIRs against NEET-UG protesters
- At the SCO summit in Bishkek, Modi calls for dismantling the terror ecosystem
- India's current account deficit widens to $4.2 billion in April-June 2026
- Why no 'distinguished jurist' has ever been appointed to the Supreme Court
- Is 'purifying' a venue after a Dalit leader's rally untouchability under Article 17?
- Delhi HC: return from maternity leave must restore role, not just pay and title
1 September 2026 Tuesday
- GDP grows 7.8% in April-June 2026, beating the RBI's 7% projection
- Hague court says the Indus Waters Treaty is fully in force; India rejects the award
- India records its hottest August since 1901; IMD forecasts below-normal September rain
- Op-ed: Is the right to work fading under the new rural jobs law?
- Op-ed: Falling fertility, delimitation and the politics of population