Current Affairs Quiz 13 October 2026

The 50 per cent rule is a creation of the Supreme Court, not of the constitutional text. Article 15(4) enables special provision for socially and educationally backward classes and for SCs and STs; Article 16(4) enables reservation in posts for backward classes not adequately represented; neither names a number.

In Indra Sawhney (1992), paras 809-810, the Court held that reservation ‘should not exceed 50%’, while allowing relaxation in ‘extraordinary situations’, with extreme caution and ‘a special case made out’. The 103rd Amendment (2019) added Articles 15(6) and 16(6) for the EWS quota of up to ten per cent, ‘in addition to the existing reservations’, and Janhit Abhiyan (7 November 2022) upheld it, holding that the ceiling binds only the 15(4), 15(5) and 16(4) classes.

States that want to go higher have looked to the Ninth Schedule. Article 31B, inserted by the First Amendment, shields its laws from challenge under Part III, and Tamil Nadu’s 69 per cent law sits there as entry 257A (76th Amendment).

But I.R. Coelho (2007) opened entries added after 24 April 1973 to basic-structure review. Karnataka’s 2022 Act is not in the Ninth Schedule, and the High Court struck down Section 4 in full and Section 3 insofar as the total exceeds 50 per cent.

Inflation targeting in India has a statutory base. Section 45ZA of the RBI Act, 1934 leaves the target to the Central Government, in consultation with the Bank, once in every five years, in terms of the CPI.

The first target ran from 2016 to 2021 and was retained to 2026 by a notification of 31 March 2021; a Gazette notification of 25 March 2026 (S.O. 1580(E)) renewed 4 per cent with a ±2 per cent band through March 2031. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) sets the repo rate; it raised it by 25 basis points to 5.50 per cent before the September print.

The index itself has changed. MoSPI’s 2024=100 series, released on 12 February 2026, has 358 items (308 goods, 50 services) against 299, 12 COICOP 2018 Divisions in place of 6 Groups, weights from HCES 2023-24 and 12 online markets.

Prices are collected by the Field Operations Division of the National Statistics Office (NSO) on a weekly roster. MoSPI warns that the new series cannot be compared directly with the old one, because the basket, weights, market coverage and methodology all differ.

So a September 2026 print should not be set beside a month of 2024 or 2025.

Stabilisation policy uses monetary and fiscal tools to accelerate a slowing economy or brake an overheating one. The traditional Keynesian models rested on statistical links between aggregates, such as the Phillips curve (‘inflation tends to be low when unemployment is high, and vice versa’).

The oil crises of the 1970s broke those links: ‘Inflation rose despite increasing unemployment’. Robert E. Lucas, Jr., the 1995 laureate, argued that a change in policy changes the behaviour that produced the old correlations, so models need microfoundations.

Hall supplied the household side: if consumption follows expected income, changes in consumption cannot be predicted, and Hall and Mishkin (1982) found about 80 per cent of the households studied acted in line with the theory. Woodford’s 2003 book Interest and Prices joined households, firms with sticky prices and a central bank that sets the interest rate into a three-equation New Keynesian model.

Its lessons: policy works through the interest rate, with Knut Wicksell’s natural rate (1898) as the neutral point; credibility and transparency matter because firms look ahead; and the output gap, actual minus natural output, is the guide. A supply shock lowers natural output, which is why the model advises cooling.

The prize in the news has a long official name, and each part of it is a Prelims fact. It is the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel; ‘Economics Nobel’ is shorthand.

Sveriges Riksbank, Sweden’s central bank, established it in 1968, and it was first awarded in 1969, to Ragnar Frisch and Jan Tinbergen. The prize amount is the same as for the Nobel Prizes and is paid by the Riksbank.

The awarding body is the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, founded in 1739, which awards it ‘according to the same principles as for the Nobel Prizes that have been awarded since 1901’. Three roles therefore sit with three names: the Riksbank established the prize and pays for it, the Academy awards it, and Alfred Nobel is remembered in the title.

The 2026 prize, 12 million Swedish kronor shared equally, went to Robert E. Hall of Stanford University and Michael Woodford of Columbia University ‘for microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic stabilisation’. This year’s texts also name two earlier laureates: Robert E. Lucas, Jr. (1995), whose critique of Keynesian models the prize work answers, and Angus Deaton (2015), named for further work on consumption.

Protest is protected through two clauses of Article 19. Clause (1)(a) guarantees the right ‘to freedom of speech and expression’, and clause (1)(b) the right ‘to assemble peaceably and without arms’.

Neither is absolute. Under Article 19(3), the State may impose reasonable restrictions on the right of assembly in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India or public order.

A restriction on the place and manner of protest must itself be reasonable, and that is what courts examine. The Delhi Police order, a standing order of the Commissioner issued after recommendations of a committee constituted by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, partially modifies Standing Order No. L&O/48/22 of April 2022, which had identified Jantar Mantar as a designated site.

It names three grounds instead, with revised standard operating procedures to be issued separately. A Supreme Court Bench had earlier urged the Union government to look for a ‘spacious, open’ alternative site, with basic amenities for those engaged in peaceful and lawful protest.

Activists say relocation makes it harder for citizens to draw the attention of political leaders and decision-makers to their demands. The Delhi High Court is to hear two petitions on the closure.

The Governor is the constitutional head of the State, and Articles 153 to 158 set out the office. Article 153 provides ‘There shall be a Governor for each State’, and its proviso allows one person to be Governor of two or more States.

Article 155 makes the appointment by the President, by warrant under his hand and seal. Article 156 is the key to tenure: the Governor holds office during the pleasure of the President, so the five-year term from entering office is not a guarantee, and a Governor whose term ends continues until a successor enters office.

Article 157 fixes two qualifications, citizenship of India and 35 completed years of age. Article 158 bars a Governor from membership of either House of Parliament or of a House of a State Legislature.

The communique of the President’s Secretariat covers six States: Keralam, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Karnataka, Uttarakhand and Sikkim. Two are transfers of serving Governors, from Sikkim to Keralam and from Keralam to Tamil Nadu.

Each appointment takes effect only when the Governor assumes charge, so until then the earlier holder continues. For Prelims, the trap is usually tenure: a fixed five years is wrong, the pleasure of the President is right.

ULLAS is the adult literacy scheme in the news. Its full name is Nav Bharat Saaksharta Karyakram.

It is a Centrally sponsored scheme aligned with the National Education Policy 2020, and it aims to give foundational literacy, numeracy and lifelong learning to non-literate persons aged 15 and above. The method matters for the exam.

In Lakshadweep, literacy was not self-declared: an initial survey identified 1,113 adult non-literates across the islands, and all eligible learners then cleared the Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Assessment Test (FLNAT). Teachers and supervisors volunteered to run doorstep and home-based assessments for learners who were unable or hesitant to attend examination centres.

Only after the FLNAT results did the Administrator declare Lakshadweep a 100 per cent literate Union Territory, at Kavaratti, achieving full literacy status under ULLAS. The sequence to remember is a survey, teaching, a test and then a declaration.

A Mains answer on adult education can use it to show how a numerical target is turned into a verifiable outcome, and why assessment by test is more credible than a count of enrolments. For Prelims, the four tags go together: Centrally sponsored, aged 15 and above, NEP 2020 and FLNAT.

Climate figures mean little without their baselines, and the Copernicus bulletin uses two reference periods plus a running average. The anomaly against the 1991-2020 average compares a month with the recent climate: September 2026 was 0.82°C above it.

The anomaly against 1850-1900, the pre-industrial reference, measures warming since then: September 2026 was 1.63°C above it, the second consecutive month more than 1.5°C above the pre-industrial level. A 12-month running average smooths out single months: for October 2025 to September 2026 it was 1.50°C above pre-industrial, which Copernicus calls a return to that level for the first time since October 2025.

A single warm month above 1.5°C is therefore not the same as a long-term average above it. The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), implemented by ECMWF, draws these numbers from ERA5.

September 2026’s average surface air temperature was 16.27°C, making it the second-warmest September on record, 0.11°C cooler than September 2023. The extra-polar ocean surface reached a record high for September, as an exceptionally strong El Niño continued to develop in the tropical Pacific.

In Europe it was the third-warmest September, and January to September 2026 ranks second, behind 2024.

Price transparency in hospitals rests on a central law that applies only where it has been adopted. The Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2010, with the Clinical Establishments (Central Government) Rules, 2012, requires establishments in the States and UTs where the Act applies to display the rates for each service and facility at a conspicuous place, in the local language as well as in English.

Where the Act does not apply, establishments are regulated under the State or UT’s own framework. The Union Health Ministry’s advisory reflects this division of powers: the letter recognises health as a State subject (hospitals and dispensaries are entry 6 of the State List), so the Centre can urge but the States must act.

The letter, from the Union Health Secretary to all Chief Secretaries, also asks them to encourage the display of package rates for foreign patients who travel to India on Medical or Ayush Visas. Visible prices let patients plan their spending and reduce billing disputes.

For the exam, keep three layers apart: the 2010 Act, the 2012 Rules made under it, and the States’ role in enforcement. A question that makes the Centre the enforcer, or English the only language, is the usual trap.

PM GatiShakti is a planning platform rather than a construction scheme. It brings the data of ministries, States and Union Territories onto a common GIS-based platform, so that projects in different sectors can be planned against the same layers of data.

It covers 58 Central Ministries and Departments and all 36 States and UTs. Its seven infrastructure engines are roads, railways, ports, waterways, airports, mass transport and logistics infrastructure.

The platform holds over 23,493 data layers, and the PM GatiShakti Public platform gives access to 230 approved datasets. The plan was launched in October 2021, so October 2026 marks five years, as a PIB background note pointed out.

For Mains, the idea is integrated, multimodal planning across ministries and levels of government, which is also why the plan needs the States on board. The related Integrated Transport and Logistics Authority was the subject of our 7 October deep dive.

For Prelims, learn the seven engines exactly, since a plausible but absent sector, such as power or telecom, is the usual trap. Also keep the counts straight: 58 is the number of Central Ministries and Departments, and 36 is the number of States and UTs.