UPSC current affairs, 3 October 2026

• Buxa Tiger Reserve, declared in 1983, lies in Alipurduar district of West Bengal, in a landscape connected to Bhutan and Assam.
• Valmiki Tiger Reserve, Bihar's only tiger reserve, is in West Champaran district and borders Nepal's Chitwan National Park.
• The National Tiger Conservation Authority is a statutory body set up in 2006 under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

An example of species reintroduction that pairs translocation with prey base and grassland restoration, plus telemetry and camera trap monitoring after release.

• India's previous Model BIT was approved in 2015, influenced by the White Industries Australia Limited vs Republic of India award (2011).
• UNCITRAL is exploring reforms to Investor-State Dispute Settlement, including a permanent tribunal and an appellate body.

Balancing investor protection with the state's right to regulate; useful for questions on FDI, investment treaties and ISDS reform.

• The SoO pact was first signed in 2008 by the United Peoples' Front and the Kuki National Organisation with the Home Ministry and the Manipur government.
• The SoO pact aims to confine cadres to designated camps and monitor their weapons.

Ceasefire agreements as a tool of the North East peace process, and their limits when ethnic violence persists.

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 SoO pact with Kuki-Zo groups, first signed in 2008 and now lapsed amid Naga-Kuki violence, is a current example of a stalled North East peace agreement.

• Form 6 is the application for inclusion in the electoral roll, typically used by new voters.
• BLOs are expected to cover at least 20 to 25 electors a week to finish within a month.

Balancing clean electoral rolls with preventing disenfranchisement; an analysis cited suggests about 72% of deleted voters could be re-included, as many were marked absent, shifted or others rather than dead or multiple entries.

2026 · GS2 · 10 marks Is the right to vote a fundamental right? Discuss the position of the Election Commission of India while undertaking the revision of electoral rolls. Can it also examine the question of citizenship of the voters?

How to use it: The EC's order to re-enrol eligible electors dropped during SIR, after about 13.3 crore deletions, shows its role and limits in revising rolls.

• The 28 features are 11 peaks, five mountains, six land areas, two glaciers, two passes, one valley, one river, one lake and one other water body.
• The Survey of India, established in 1767, is the national mapping agency that produces official maps.

Cartographic assertion as part of India's response to China's territorial claims, alongside border infrastructure and military posture.

• The Surat Emissions Trading Scheme, launched in 2019, achieved 99% compliance and cut particulate pollution by 20 to 30% when robustly enforced.
• An Emissions Trading Scheme, or cap-and-trade, sets a limit on total emissions and lets entities trade permits.

Links climate justice and historical responsibility to market-based mitigation; a proposal to cite on climate finance design.

• The International Energy Agency will coordinate the four-month G7 release of 100 million barrels.
• A Strategic Petroleum Reserve is an emergency crude oil stock held to deal with supply disruptions.

Shows coordinated use of strategic reserves as a tool against oil price shocks, relevant to India's own reserve and import strategy.

• Proposals from Turkey and Egypt focus on a grain and agricultural truce in the Black Sea, while the US proposal calls for an energy truce.
• The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation was established in 2001; India became a full member in 2017.

Shows India moving from calls for dialogue to a formal peace proposal, and how its position with both Russia and Ukraine supports a mediator role.

• The Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 permits US tariffs of up to 100% on major buyers of Russian energy, including India.
• India had earlier agreed to negotiate robust bilateral digital trade rules in exchange for the removal of a 25% tariff.

An example of tariffs and sanctions being used as bargaining tools in bilateral trade talks, and of concerns that economic security clauses could constrain India's foreign policy.

2025 · GS3 · 10 marks What are the challenges before the Indian economy when the world is moving away from free trade and multilateralism to protectionism and bilateralism? How can these challenges be met?

How to use it: A second Section 301 probe and the US Graham sanctions Act holding up a deal with India show the protectionist, bilateral pressures Indian trade now faces.

• The Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill, 2024 seeks to amend Articles 83, 172 and 327 and insert a new Article 82A.
• India held simultaneous Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections in 1952, 1957, 1962 and 1967.
• Under the Bill, an election after premature dissolution would be only for the remainder of the five-year term.

Shows judicial independence and the separation of powers in practice: a court avoiding pre-judging a law it may later review.

• El Nino is the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.
• Western Disturbances are extratropical storms from the Mediterranean region that bring non-monsoon winter rain and snow.
• The Vasundhara Tal system in Uttarakhand uses sensors for water level and snow depth, linked to early warning for glacial floods.

Climate adaptation needs ecological monitoring beyond weather forecasting; Himalayan glacial lake monitoring is an example of disaster early warning.

2017 · GS3 · 15 marks 'Climate Change' is a global problem. How India will be affected by climate change? How Himalayan and coastal states of India will be affected by climate change?

How to use it: A 12.6% post-monsoon rainfall deficit under a strengthening El Nino, and glacial lake monitoring at Vasundhara Tal in Uttarakhand, show how climate stress is affecting India and its Himalayan states.

• Delhi's Central Ridge is part of the Aravalli Range.
• Prosopis juliflora (vilayati keekar), an invasive species, was introduced in Delhi in the 1920s.

Shows that ecological restoration needs native, site-appropriate methods, and that tree planting targets are not the same as forest restoration.

• Poompuhar, at the mouth of the Cauvery on the Bay of Bengal, was a port of the early Chola kings.
• Tamil texts such as Pattinappalai, Manimekalai and Silappathikaram describe Poompuhar as a cosmopolitan port with foreign contacts.
• Torpedo jars and Roman amphorae have also been found at Pattanam (Kerala), Alagankulam (Tamil Nadu) and Arikamedu (Puducherry).

Archaeological evidence for early Indian Ocean trade that corroborates literary sources on South Indian maritime history.

• In September, imports from Iraq rose 238.2% to over 551,000 barrels per day and from Saudi Arabia 56.2% to almost 543,000 barrels per day.
• Ship-to-ship transfer is the movement of liquid cargo between two vessels at sea.

Energy security through supplier diversification under sanctions pressure and chokepoint risks.

2017 · GS2 · 15 marks The question of India's Energy Security constitutes the most important part of India's economic progress. Analyze India's energy policy cooperation with West Asian Countries.

How to use it: Rising imports from Iraq and Saudi Arabia, aided by ship-to-ship transfers, show West Asia's role as India diversifies away from Russian crude.

• India's Total Fertility Rate fell from 6.18 in the 1950s to 1.9 in 2021, with urban TFR at 1.6 and rural at 2.1.
• Replacement level fertility is a TFR of about 2.1 births per woman.
• The government has constituted a High-Level Committee on Demographic Change.

Demographic transition and ageing: the dividend is time-bound and needs skilling and job creation now.

2024 · GS1 · 10 marks What is the concept of 'demographic winter'? Is the world moving towards such a situation? Elaborate.

How to use it: Over 70% of humanity lives at or below replacement fertility, and China's TFR is 0.9, evidence that the world is moving towards a demographic winter.

• China has held de facto control of the Paracel Islands since 1974; Vietnam and Taiwan also claim them.
• The Permanent Court of Arbitration rejected China's Nine-Dash Line claims in 2016.
• China earlier built a 3 km runway on Fiery Cross Reef in 2015-2016.

South China Sea militarisation matters for freedom of navigation and India's trade through the Strait of Malacca.

• The Drugs (Prices Control) Order is issued under Section 3(2)(c) of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955.
• The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority, set up in 1997, fixes and revises ceiling prices of scheduled formulations.
• Non-scheduled formulations have no price ceiling but their MRP cannot rise more than 10% a year.

Affordable medicines and Article 21: the gap between scheduled price control and unregulated launch prices of non-scheduled drugs.

• RoDTEP refunds embedded, un-rebated central, state and local duties, taxes and levies on exported products.
• The extension covers DTA units, Advance Authorisation holders, SEZ units and Export Oriented Units.

Export competitiveness through tax neutrality: refunding embedded taxes rather than giving direct export incentives.

• Ghaziabad is the second urban local body in India to turn waste into carbon value, accredited under the Verified Carbon Standard.
• The Saligao waste facility in Goa is operated by the Goa Waste Management Corporation.

Examples of urban local bodies moving from waste disposal to value recovery, useful for questions on solid waste management and urban governance.