UPSC current affairs, 5 September 2026

• UNEP's 'Limiting Overshoot' report projects 1.8 degrees Celsius of warming with current pledges and 2.6 degrees under existing policies.
• Over 155 countries support the Global Methane Pledge; India has not joined it.
• COP31 is to be held in Turkiye.

Climate mitigation: the overshoot, peak and decline approach and methane cuts, alongside developing countries' demand for climate finance from developed nations.

• The Right to Education Act, 2009, sets minimum standards for school infrastructure, including classrooms, separate toilets and drinking water.
• PM POSHAN, formerly the Midday Meal Scheme, provides free meals to students in government and government-aided schools.

Gaps in school infrastructure despite RTE norms show how attendance, health and learning suffer, and how focus on flagship schools can leave smaller rural schools behind.

• The NCPCR works under the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
• Article 24 of the Constitution prohibits employment of children below 14 years in factories and mines.
• India has ratified ILO Conventions 138 and 182 on child labour.

Enforcement against child labour needs inter-departmental coordination and rehabilitation, not rescue alone; useful for questions on child rights bodies.

• The Tripura Peace Accord was signed on September 4, 2024, by the Government of India, the Government of Tripura, the NLFT and the ATTF.
• The accord included a Rs 250 crore package for rehabilitating militants, and about 584 NLFT and ATTF militants surrendered in September 2024.
• The Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council was established under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.

Peace accords in the Northeast depend on implementation of rehabilitation and development commitments; unmet promises can bring former militants back to protest.

2025 · GS3 · 15 marks What are the major challenges to internal security and peace process in the North-Eastern States? Map the various peace accords and agreements initiated by the government in the past decade.

How to use it: The 2024 Tripura Peace Accord with the NLFT and ATTF, and protests over its implementation, is an example of a recent Northeast peace accord and its challenges.

• The August 26, 2026 flash flood in Nepal was triggered by a glacial collapse near the Nepal-China border.
• The principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities holds that all states share responsibility for climate action but their obligations differ by historical contribution and capacity.

Loss and damage claims in South Asia and how India positions itself as a developing country while being a large emitter.

2022 · GS2 · 15 marks 'Clean energy is the order of the day.' Describe briefly India's changing policy towards climate change in various international fora in the context of geopolitics.

How to use it: India's MEA invoking Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and asking developed countries to lead on emissions and finance shows India's stance on climate change in international fora.

• The Port of Antwerp-Bruges was formed by the merger of the ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge.
• India-Belgium gems and jewellery trade was about $3.5 billion in 2025-26, according to the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council.

Shows how the India-EU FTA could be used through logistics hubs and sector partnerships such as diamonds.

• The Bab el-Mandeb Strait lies between Yemen and Djibouti and connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.
• The Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, control Yemen's capital Sanaa.
• A UN-brokered truce in 2022 was not formally extended beyond October 2022.

Security of maritime chokepoints in West Asia and its effect on shipping and energy flows relevant to India.

• Part XI of UNCLOS designates the deep seabed as the common heritage of mankind.
• As of July 2024, UNCLOS had 170 state parties.
• Under UNCLOS, the Exclusive Economic Zone extends up to 200 nautical miles from the coast.

Rules-based maritime order: transit passage through straits such as Hormuz and disputes in the South China Sea rest on UNCLOS.

• The III Corps (Spear Corps) is headquartered at Rangapahar, Nagaland, and covers Nagaland, Manipur and the central and eastern Arunachal Pradesh sectors along the LAC.
• A new Border Personnel Meeting point is to be set up at Joshimath, Uttarakhand, adding to the existing points at Tawang and Chushul.
• The Special Representatives mechanism on the boundary question involves NSA Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Border management with China: new hotlines and meeting points show how India and China are building military communication channels to prevent incidents along the LAC since the 2020 eastern Ladakh standoff.

2024 · GS3 · 15 marks India has a long and troubled border with China and Pakistan fraught with contentious issues. Examine the conflicting issues and security challenges along the border. Also give out the development being undertaken in…

How to use it: Tension in Arunachal's Taksing area and the new hotlines and Border Personnel Meeting point at Joshimath illustrate contentious issues and management mechanisms along the China border.

• The G20 summit under the US presidency will be held at Trump National Doral Miami, Florida, on December 14 and 15.
• The Quad is an informal strategic forum of the United States, India, Japan and Australia.
• Sherpas are the personal representatives of leaders of member countries at international summits.

India-US relations and the Quad: the Sherpas agenda (maritime security, economy, critical technologies, humanitarian assistance) shows the grouping's widening scope beyond security.

2020 · GS2 · 15 marks 'Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad)' is transforming itself into a trade bloc from a military alliance, in present times. Discuss.

How to use it: The Sherpas meeting agenda spanning maritime security, economic prosperity, critical technologies and humanitarian assistance shows the Quad's scope is wider than military cooperation alone.

• The Supreme Court put on hold an October 2025 report that recommended a 100-metre height threshold for defining the Aravalli hills.
• The committee plans to use the Copernicus 30-metre digital elevation model and CartoDEM data, with validation from the National Remote Sensing Centre and ISRO.
• The Forest Survey of India works under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

Shows why legal definitions of ecosystems matter for conservation and mining regulation, and the case for an ecosystem-based rather than height-based approach.

• India-Poland ties were elevated to a Strategic Partnership in 2024 during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit.
• The India-Poland Joint Action Plan 2024-28 covers areas including cybersecurity, space, digital technologies, AI, semiconductors and critical minerals.
• The India-EU Free Trade Agreement was concluded on January 27, 2026.

India's balancing position on the Russia-Ukraine war and its deepening ties with Central Europe, linked to the India-EU FTA.

• MoSPI introduced a new GDP series in February 2026 with 2022-23 as the base year, replacing the 2011-12 base.
• A CMIE report noted a 1.5% average wage decline in July 2026.
• Retail inflation rose from about 2% in January 2026 to over 5% in July 2026.

Credibility of official statistics: the gap between headline GDP growth and indicators of jobs, wages and inflation is a ready example for questions on growth quality.

2019 · GS3 · 10 marks Do you agree with the view that steady GDP growth and low inflation have left the Indian economy in good shape? Give reasons in support of your arguments.

How to use it: Strong 7.8% GDP growth alongside falling wages, declining employment and retail inflation rising above 5% questions whether headline growth alone shows the economy is in good shape.

• Under Section 14A of the Citizenship Act, 1955, the Centre can conduct a State-specific NRC without a nationwide exercise.
• Manipur's Assembly has 60 seats: 40 in the valley and 20 in the hills.
• The Free Movement Regime, which let border residents travel up to 16 km into Myanmar without a visa, was scrapped in February 2024.

Links citizenship verification, migration from Myanmar, delimitation and ethnic conflict in Manipur; useful for internal security and federal questions on the Northeast.

2019 · GS3 · 15 marks Cross-border movement of insurgents is only one of the several security challenges facing the policing of the border in North-East India. Examine the various challenges currently emanating across the India-Myanmar…

How to use it: Migration from Myanmar driving NRC demands and the scrapping of the Free Movement Regime in February 2024 illustrate challenges along the India-Myanmar border beyond insurgent movement.

• A zero-day vulnerability is a software or hardware flaw unknown to the vendor and without a patch.
• OpenAI's Preparedness Framework is its system for tracking severe risks from capable AI models.

AI and cybersecurity: frontier models able to find and exploit vulnerabilities raise dual-use concerns and the question of how release safeguards should be governed.

• Article 142 traces its origin to Section 210 of the Government of India Act, 1935, and was Article 118 in the Draft Constitution.
• In Prem Chand Garg v. State of Uttar Pradesh (1962), the Court held Article 142 orders must be consistent with fundamental rights and existing law.
• In Supreme Court Bar Association v. Union of India (1998), the Court held Article 142 can supplement but not replace statutory schemes.

Judicial overreach versus complete justice: past uses (Bhopal settlement, Ayodhya dispute, Perarivalan's release) and the collective FIR quashing frame the debate on limiting Article 142.

2019 · Prelims With reference to the Constitution of India, prohibitions or limitations or provisions contained in ordinary laws cannot act as prohibitions or limitations on the constitutional powers under Article 142. It could mean…

How to use it: The 1962 and 1998 rulings on whether Article 142 orders must respect existing law and statutory schemes help judge how far ordinary laws constrain the Court under Article 142.

• Double deflation separately deflates output and intermediate consumption to calculate real Gross Value Added.
• The revised National Accounts use the Producer Price Index in place of the Wholesale Price Index for price adjustments.

Counterpoint to doubts about GDP data: methodological changes (PPI, double deflation) and high-frequency indicators can be cited when assessing the reliability of growth estimates.

• The FAO Food Price Index tracks monthly changes in international prices of a basket of five major food commodity groups.
• Despite the rise, the index is nearly 17% below its record peak of March 2022.

Global food inflation driven by climate shocks and geopolitics, with implications for India's food security and import costs.

• The changes were incorporated into the Foreign Exchange Management (Non-debt Instruments) Rules, 2019, on September 2.
• FDI continues to be prohibited in inventory-based e-commerce retailing for domestic sales.
• In inventory-based e-commerce, the platform owns the goods it sells to consumers.

Uses e-commerce as an export channel for domestic manufacturing while keeping the line between marketplace and inventory models for domestic retail.

• FCNR(B) deposits are fixed deposits held by Non-Resident Indians in foreign currencies.
• The capital account records transactions such as FDI, portfolio investment and loans.
• The current account deficit for FY27 is projected at $44 billion, or 1% of GDP.

External sector: strong capital inflows financing the current account deficit show how BoP components interact.

• India's first two geothermal wells were commissioned in July 2026 by ONGC Energy Centre in Puga Valley, Ladakh.
• The National Policy on Geothermal Energy was notified in September 2025.
• India's 10 geothermal provinces include the Himalayan and Son-Narmada-Tapi (SONATA) regions.

Diversifying renewables with a baseload source; geothermal can also serve district heating, agriculture and aquaculture.