UPSC current affairs, 12 November 2026

• The High Court bench of Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice K S Hemalekha struck down the enhanced quotas in Sections 3 and 4 of Karnataka's 2022 SC and ST reservation Act.
• The court held consultation with the National Commissions for SCs and STs mandatory under Articles 338(9) and 338A(9).
• The State had sought Ninth Schedule protection for the enhanced quota; the Centre deferred the request while the case was pending.

Useful for the debate on the 50% ceiling on reservation, the 'extraordinary circumstances' exception and the role of the National Commissions.

2024 · GS1 · 15 marks Despite comprehensive policies for equity and social justice, underprivileged sections are not yet getting the full benefits of affirmative action envisaged by the Constitution. Comment.

How to use it: Karnataka's attempt to raise SC and ST quotas to 56%, and the court's 50% ceiling, illustrate the limits of affirmative action as a remedy for under-representation.

• The dispute turned on the DoPT Office Memorandum of 8 August 1993 and a clarificatory letter of 14 October 2004.
• Under the 1993 OM, salary and agricultural income are excluded from the income/wealth test.

Shows how the creamy layer test is designed and why unequal treatment of PSU and government employees' children raised Article 14 and 16 concerns.

• The WHO's recommended 24-hour average for PM2.5 is 15 µg/m³.
• PM2.5 analysers installed with the National Air Quality Index in 2015 were calibrated to measure up to 1,000 µg/m³.

Raises the reliability of air quality monitoring and public data as a governance issue in tackling urban air pollution.

2021 · GS3 · 10 marks Describe the key points of the revised Global Air Quality Guidelines (AQGs) recently released by the World Health Organisation (WHO). How are these different from its last update in 2005? What changes in India's…

How to use it: Peaks far above the WHO 24-hour PM2.5 guideline of 15 µg/m³ show the gap India's clean air programme must close.

• NCAHP works under the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions Act, 2021, in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
• Provisional registrants can move to regular registration in the Central or State Register once they meet the conditions.

Regulating allied health workers is part of building the health workforce and quality of care beyond doctors and nurses.

• Swachh Survekshan is conducted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs; it covered 73 cities in 2016 and 4,751 in 2025-26.
• Cleanest Coastal Town: Puri; Riverfront Town: Rewa; Himalayan City: Rudrapur, all awarded for the first time.
• Under Swachh Shehar Jodi, 70 mentor cities were paired with 191 mentee cities.

Shows competitive ranking as a tool for urban sanitation and solid waste management, with citizen feedback as part of assessment.

• The India-France Economic Security and Critical Technologies Dialogue met for the first time on 10 November 2026.
• ISRO and CNES (France's space agency) cooperation was reviewed at the 3rd Strategic Space Dialogue.

Shows the India-France strategic partnership extending into space, critical technologies and supply chain resilience.

• The museum's proposed built-up area is about 1,78,509 square metres and it is designed for up to one crore visitors a year.
• Around 1.8 million objects have been identified from the National Museum, 52 ASI site museums, State museums and private collections.

An example of heritage conservation through adaptive reuse of colonial-era buildings and of museums as a tool of cultural diplomacy.

2018 · GS1 · 10 marks Safeguarding the Indian art heritage is the need of the moment. Comment.

How to use it: The museum, drawing about 1.8 million objects from national, ASI, State and private collections, is a current example of efforts to safeguard and display Indian art heritage.

• INS Betwa is a Brahmaputra-class frigate of the Indian Navy.
• The refit replaces the ship's steam-based propulsion with diesel-engine-based propulsion.

Mid-life refits extend the service of existing warships and build domestic shipyard and MSME capability under Aatmanirbhar Bharat.

• GW250114 is the loudest gravitational-wave signal recorded so far, with a signal-to-noise ratio of 76.9.
• No new events containing neutron stars were identified in the O4b run.

Illustrates big-science collaboration (LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA) and how catalogues of detections expand what is known about black hole and neutron star populations.

2019 · Prelims Recently, scientists observed the merger of giant 'blackholes' billions of light-years away from the Earth. What is the significance of this observation? (a) 'Higgs boson particles' were detected. (b) 'Gravitational…

How to use it: The catalogue's 390 events, mostly black hole mergers, are gravitational-wave detections, the answer to what such merger observations signify.

• Section 7 of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 deals with certificates of identity recording gender.

Feeds the debate on self-identification of gender under Article 21 and how it interacts with protections for women.

2026 · GS2 · 10 marks Right to privacy relating to self-identity is very dear to every human being and well protected under Article 21 of the Constitution. In this context, examine the effect of the amendment in 2026, to the Transgender…

How to use it: The plea against Section 7 as amended in 2026, and its call to revisit NALSA, bears directly on how the amendment affects self-identity.

• Naseem Al Bahr (Sea Breeze) is the bilateral naval exercise between India and Oman; 2026 was its 15th edition.
• INS Surat represented the Indian Navy in the sea phase.

Shows India's maritime partnerships in the western Indian Ocean under the MAHASAGAR vision.

• IMNEX is the India-Myanmar bilateral naval exercise; IMNEX-26 is its 8th edition, held at Visakhapatnam.
• MAHASAGAR stands for Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions.

Naval engagement with Myanmar supports India's Act East and neighbourhood maritime security goals in the Bay of Bengal.

• The Abhiyaan is the flagship awareness programme of the National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction (NAPDDR).
• 14446 is the National De-addiction Helpline; MANAS (1933) is the Narcotics Control Bureau's helpline.
• The first national survey (2018) found over 7 crore people with substance use disorders.

Shows a demand-reduction, community-based approach to drug abuse that complements enforcement against trafficking.

2018 · GS3 · 15 marks India's proximity to two of the world's biggest illicit opium-growing states has enhanced her internal security concerns. Explain the linkages between drug trafficking and other illicit activities such as gunrunning…

How to use it: Demand reduction through NAPDDR, helplines such as MANAS and a nationwide awareness campaign is one countermeasure alongside enforcement against drug trafficking.