Current Affairs Today 8 October 2026: UPSC News Roundup

🗞️ Why in News Beyond the deep dives on the RBI’s repo rate hike to 5.50 per cent, the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the release of cheetahs in Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve, the 8 October 2026 roundup covers the Supreme Court agreeing to examine a plea to recall the split verdict on the Election Commissioners law, the 57th GST Council meeting, a revised SOP opening defence test ranges to industry, mandatory reporting of Scheduled Caste beneficiaries under credit schemes, Karnataka’s plea of changed circumstances in the Cauvery dispute, a Supreme Court notice on accessible air travel, Andhra Pradesh’s foreign-campus policy, MoSPI’s environmental accounts strategy, UCIL’s uranium expansion plan and Odisha’s panel on SEBC political backwardness.

Supreme Court to Examine Plea to Recall the Split Verdict on the CEC Appointments Law

The Supreme Court on 7 October agreed to examine, and take a call on hearing, an application seeking to recall the split verdict of 23 September in the challenge to the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023 (background: 24 September deep dive).

• The application, filed by Naman Sherstra and mentioned before Chief Justice of India Surya Kant by senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, asks why Justice Satish Chandra Sharma did not disclose that his son was a standing counsel for the Election Commission of India.
• On 23 September, Justice Dipankar Datta had declined to refer the challenge to a Constitution Bench while Justice Sharma favoured a reference; the two then passed a common order asking the CJI to allocate the case to a Constitution Bench.
• The plea seeks recall of Justice Sharma’s opinion and objects to the common order; it does not specifically challenge Justice Datta’s opinion.

Why it matters. The case tests whether Parliament could replace the CJI with a Union Minister on the selection panel after the Constitution Bench in Anoop Baranwal (2023) had put the CJI on it until a law was made. The recall plea adds a second question, on judicial recusal: India has no codified recusal rule for higher-court judges, and the decision to step aside rests with the judge. The Court has only agreed to consider the application; it has not recalled anything.

📌 Facts Corner

• Article 324(2): the President appoints the CEC and ECs, subject to any law made by Parliament.
• 2023 Act selection committee: Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and a Union Cabinet Minister nominated by the PM.
• With no recognised Leader of the Opposition, the leader of the largest Opposition party in the Lok Sabha sits on the committee.
• Recusal by a Supreme Court judge rests on convention and the judge’s own conscience; no statute says when a judge must step aside.

GST Council Meets Today for the First Time in Thirteen Months

The 57th meeting of the GST Council is scheduled for today, 8 October, from 11:00 am at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi. The GST Council Secretariat moved it, for the second time, from 7 October by an Office Memorandum dated 5 October, citing “unavoidable circumstances”; an earlier date had clashed with the BRICS summit.

• It is the Council’s first meeting since 3-4 September 2025, when it overhauled GST rates and slabs. The Council has met 56 times since GST began on 1 July 2017.
• Finance Ministry sources told The Hindu the meeting will not deliberate on rates. The Centre’s proposals reportedly cover process reforms, structural reforms, ease of living and doing business, exports of services and e-commerce.
• Tax experts want easier input tax credit rules, faster refunds and a lighter compliance burden. Decisions will be known only after the meeting ends.

📌 Facts Corner

• GST Council: Article 279A, inserted by the 101st Constitutional Amendment Act, 2016.
• Chaired by the Union Finance Minister; the Union MoS (Finance) is a member.
• Each State sends its Minister in charge of Finance or Taxation (or another nominated Minister).
• Decisions need three-fourths of the weighted votes present: the Centre carries one-third, the States together two-thirds.

Defence Ministry Opens Its Test Ranges to Industry on Easier Terms

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has approved a revised Standard Operating Procedure for the use of Ministry of Defence proof ranges, field firing ranges and test facilities by the Indian defence industry (PIB, 7 October).

Why it matters. A private firm developing a gun, a fuze or a missile component cannot set up its own firing range. Costly and uncertain access to government ranges has been a bottleneck for start-ups and small firms, so cheaper and scheduled testing shortens the path from prototype to order.

📌 Facts Corner

• iDEX (Innovations for Defence Excellence): launched in 2018, run by the Defence Innovation Organisation under the Department of Defence Production.
• TDF: run by DRDO, funds industry, especially MSMEs and start-ups, to develop defence technology.
• Make category: under the Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP), for indigenous design and development.

Banks Told to Report How Many Scheduled Caste Beneficiaries Get Credit

Following an intervention by the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC), the Department of Financial Services (DFS) issued directions on 5 October to all State Level Bankers’ Committees (SLBCs) and their Union Territory counterparts (PIB, 7 October).

• SLBCs must report the number and percentage of SC beneficiaries, scheme-wise and bank-wise, in their periodic review meetings and share the data with the NCSC.
• The schemes named in the NCSC’s letter of 24 September: PM Mudra Yojana, Stand-Up India, PMEGP, PM SVANidhi, CGTMSE and MSME business loans.
• The data must come from records banks already hold, so that definitions stay consistent; an action-taken report is due to DFS by 9 October.

Why it matters. The NCSC said that without such data it could not discharge its duty under Article 338(5)(c) to evaluate the socio-economic progress of Scheduled Castes. Financial inclusion targets mean little if no one can see who actually receives the loans.

📌 Facts Corner

• NCSC: a constitutional body under Article 338; the 89th Amendment (2003) split the earlier joint commission, creating a separate NCST under Article 338A.
• SLBC: the apex forum of banks in each State under the Lead Bank Scheme, convened by a designated lead bank.
• Stand-Up India (2016): bank loans of Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1 crore to at least one SC or ST borrower and one woman borrower per bank branch.

Karnataka Invokes “Changed Circumstances” in the Cauvery Dispute

Replying to Tamil Nadu’s complaint of a backlog in Cauvery water releases, Karnataka told the Supreme Court on 7 October that it reserves the right to seek a reopening of the water allocation on grounds of “inequitable allocation” and “changed circumstances” (background: our 1 September coverage).

• The reply invokes rebus sic stantibus, the doctrine that a fundamental change in circumstances can justify revisiting an agreement, and argues that water allocations are normally revisited periodically.
• It points out that the Union government itself has sought to modify the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, now in abeyance, on the ground of changed circumstances.
• It also argues there is no scientific formula for sharing distress pro rata in a deficit year.

Why it matters. The Supreme Court’s 2018 judgment declared the Cauvery a national asset and settled a dispute that had run for over a century. Karnataka has so far only “reserved its right” to apply; a formal plea to reopen would revive a dispute that both States and the Court have treated as settled since 2018.

📌 Facts Corner

• Article 262: Parliament may bar courts from hearing inter-State river water disputes; the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956 sets up tribunals.
• Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) and the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee implement the award.
• Rebus sic stantibus is recognised in Article 62 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, 1969.

Supreme Court Seeks Answers on Accessible Air Travel

A three-judge Bench headed by CJI Surya Kant on 7 October issued notice to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, DGCA, Airports Authority of India, CISF and the Digi Yatra Foundation on a petition by Turab Chimthanawala, a Mumbai-based advocate with a benchmark visual disability.

• The plea alleges a “systemic failure” to implement accessibility at every stage of air travel: visually impaired passengers forced into wheelchairs or ambulifts, in-flight systems without accessibility settings, airports without audio or visual alerts, and airline apps that do not work with screen readers.
• India is the third largest aviation market with over 350 million passengers a year; applying the 2.21 per cent disability prevalence of Census 2011, the petition puts disabled air passengers at over seven million a year.

Why it matters. The background is Rajive Raturi v. Union of India (8 November 2024), in which the Supreme Court held Rule 15 of the RPwD Rules, 2017 ultra vires because it offered only persuasive guidelines, and told the Centre to frame mandatory accessibility rules under Section 40 of the Act. This petition tests how far that has reached the airports.

📌 Facts Corner

• Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016: recognises 21 specified disabilities; “benchmark disability” means at least 40 per cent of a specified disability.
• Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan): launched 2015; airports are one of its components.
• UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: India ratified it in 2007.

Andhra Pradesh Clears a Policy for Foreign University Campuses

The Andhra Pradesh Cabinet on 7 October approved amendments to the Andhra Pradesh Education Act, 1982, and a new policy for 2026 to facilitate campuses of foreign higher educational institutions and private universities in the State. It also approved a Centre of Excellence for tribal students at Marikavalasa, Visakhapatnam, with residential coaching for IIT-JEE and NEET.

Why it matters. Foreign universities can set up campuses in India under the UGC (Setting up and Operation of Campuses of Foreign Higher Educational Institutions in India) Regulations, 2023, which follow the National Education Policy 2020. States now compete for these campuses with land and policy support, as they once did for factories.

📌 Facts Corner

• Education is in the Concurrent List (moved from the State List by the 42nd Amendment, 1976).
• The UGC 2023 Regulations require foreign institutions to rank in the top 500 globally (overall or subject-wise) or to be of outstanding expertise in a particular area.

MoSPI Releases a Roadmap for Environmental-Economic Accounts, 2026-2030

The National Statistics Office, MoSPI, on 7 October released the Strategy for Environmental-Economic Accounts in India 2026-2030, a successor to the 2022-2026 strategy.

• It extends accounting to forests, minerals, soil, land, water, carbon stock, biodiversity and environment-related activities.
• MoSPI follows the UN System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA), endorsed by the UN Statistical Commission, and has compiled environmental accounts since 2018.
• It cites the System of National Accounts 2025, which recognises natural resource accounting within the national accounts framework, and is meant as a guide for States and UTs as well.

Why it matters. GDP counts a felled forest as income and ignores the asset lost. Environmental accounts record the stock and its depletion, which is what “green GDP” arguments rest on. The subject list draws on “Green National Accounts in India: A Framework” (March 2013), by an expert group chaired by Sir Partha Dasgupta.

📌 Facts Corner

• SEEA Central Framework (2012) is an international statistical standard; SEEA Ecosystem Accounting was adopted in 2021.
• MoSPI’s annual EnviStats India publishes the environmental accounts.

UCIL Plans to Double Uranium Output by 2036

The Uranium Corporation of India Ltd (UCIL) plans to double domestic uranium output by 2036, its CMD Kancham Anand Rao said at Jaduguda, Jharkhand, according to The Hindu.

• Four greenfield projects: the largest at Rohil, Rajasthan (2,500 tonnes of ore a day), a second at Gogi, Karnataka (early stage), and two planned in Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
• Uranium from copper waste: under an understanding with Hindustan Copper Ltd, UCIL expects to recover uranium from copper mine residue from 2029-30, without new mining.
• He said the entry of private players into nuclear power would complement UCIL.

Why it matters. India’s domestic uranium is low grade and does not meet the needs of its reactors, so imports fill the gap. Nuclear capacity is to rise sharply under the SHANTI Act, 2025, which opened the sector to private companies, and fuel supply is the constraint that capacity targets tend to skip.

📌 Facts Corner

• UCIL: a PSU under the Department of Atomic Energy, set up in 1967; headquartered at Jaduguda.
• Tummalapalle (Andhra Pradesh) is among the largest uranium reserves in India.
• India’s three-stage programme moves from uranium (PHWRs) to plutonium (fast breeders) to thorium.

Odisha Sets Up a Panel on the Political Backwardness of SEBCs

The Odisha government on 7 October formed a commission headed by retired High Court judge Justice Pramath Patnaik to study the numerical strength, political representation and political backwardness of Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBCs) in panchayats and urban local bodies. Retired IAS officer Bijay Kumar Prusty is a member. Local body elections are due in 2027.

Why it matters. This is the first step of the Supreme Court’s triple test for OBC reservation in local bodies: a dedicated commission to study political backwardness, local body-wise proportions based on its findings, and a cap of 50 per cent on total reservation. Quotas fixed without it have been struck down, as in the Andhra Pradesh case covered on 2 October.

📌 Facts Corner

• Triple test: laid down in Vikas Kishanrao Gawali v. State of Maharashtra (2021), building on K. Krishna Murthy v. Union of India (2010).
• Articles 243D(6) and 243T(6) let States reserve seats for backward classes in panchayats and municipalities.
• Political backwardness differs from social and educational backwardness, so data on the latter alone does not justify a local-body quota.

Also in the News

Karnataka’s monsoon was the second weakest in 70 years. Karnataka received 551 mm of rain in the June-September southwest monsoon against a normal of 852 mm, a 35 per cent shortfall and the second lowest in 70 years, after 1956, according to rainfall data reported by The Hindu.

Sagarmanthan 2026 opens (7 October 2026). The third edition of Sagarmanthan: The Great Oceans Dialogue, organised by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways with the Observer Research Foundation, opened in New Delhi with a message from the Prime Minister calling for a free, open, secure and rules-based maritime order. A session reviewed the India-EU Green Shipping Corridor, which links India’s green fuel production with European demand for green ammonia and methanol; its pre-feasibility study was launched in 2025 and an industry coalition set up in 2026.

📌 Facts Corner, Knowledgepedia

• Normal rainfall: the long period average; a deficit of 20 to 59 per cent is classed as deficient by the IMD, and 60 per cent or more as large deficient.
• Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision 2047: MoPSW’s long-term plan for ports, shipping and waterways.

UPSC Relevance

GS Paper 1. Monsoon variability and regional rainfall. GS Paper 2. Election Commission appointments and judicial recusal; GST Council and cooperative federalism; inter-State river water disputes; rights of persons with disabilities; reservation in local bodies; NCSC and the welfare of Scheduled Castes; foreign university campuses. GS Paper 3. Defence indigenisation; financial inclusion; environmental accounting; nuclear fuel security; maritime connectivity and green shipping.

📌 Facts Corner, Knowledgepedia

Prelims, statement-ready facts:

• GST Council: Article 279A; 57th meeting on 8 October 2026, first since 3-4 September 2025.
• Revised defence SOP: charges waived for iDEX, TDF, Make; arbitration replaced by conciliation; three-day slot per quarter.
• NCSC mandate to evaluate SC progress: Article 338(5)(c); DFS directions dated 5 October 2026.
• Cauvery: 740 tmc ft; Tamil Nadu 404.25, Karnataka 284.75, Kerala 30, Puducherry 7.
• Rajive Raturi (2024): Rule 15, RPwD Rules 2017, ultra vires; mandatory rules under Section 40.
• UCIL: double output by 2036; Rohil (Rajasthan), Gogi (Karnataka); uranium from copper residue from 2029-30.
• Odisha SEBC panel: Justice Pramath Patnaik; triple test from Vikas Kishanrao Gawali (2021).

Prelims, the traps:

• The Supreme Court has not recalled the CEC-law verdict; it has only agreed to consider the application.
• NCSC is under Article 338; NCST under 338A; NCBC under 338B.
• Karnataka has reserved its right to seek reopening; it has not yet applied to reopen the award.

Mains, arguments and keywords:

• Judicial recusal and disclosure; cooperative federalism; rebus sic stantibus; rights-based accessibility; disaggregated data for social justice; natural capital accounting; fuel-cycle self-reliance; dedicated commission and empirical data.

Sources: The Hindu, SC to examine plea on CEC appointment law split verdict, 8 October 2026, The Hindu, As GST Council meets today, tax specialists look for reforms beyond rates, 8 October 2026, A2Z Taxcorp, 57th GST Council meeting rescheduled to 8 October 2026, PIB, Revised SOP for utilisation of MoD proof ranges, 7 October 2026, PIB, NCSC intervention results in mandatory reporting of SC beneficiaries, 7 October 2026, The Hindu (Krishnadas Rajagopal), Karnataka Cauvery reply and SC flags accessibility gaps in aviation, 8 October 2026, background: LiveLaw, Rajive Raturi v. Union of India, 8 November 2024, The Hindu, Andhra Pradesh Cabinet and Odisha SEBC panel reports, 8 October 2026, PIB, Strategy for Environmental Economic Accounts in India 2026-2030, 7 October 2026, The Hindu (Vinaya Deshpande Pandit), UCIL bets on greenfield mines, copper residue to double uranium output, 8 October 2026, PIB, Sagarmanthan 2026 opens, 7 October 2026

Source: Current Affairs Today 8 October 2026: UPSC News Roundup — Ujiyari.com | Free UPSC & State PCS Current Affairs