Current Affairs Quiz 22 October 2026

The Index of Core Industries is a production volume index that measures the combined and individual performance of key infrastructure-based industries, and it is read as a lead indicator for overall industrial performance. It is compiled by the Office of the Economic Adviser in DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, while the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) is compiled by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI); the ICI comes out about ten days before the IIP.

The current series, with base year 2022-23, covers nine industries: coal, natural gas, crude oil, refinery products, fertilizers, steel, cement, electricity and iron ore, the last added in the new series. The heaviest weights are electricity (30.932), refinery products (22.572) and steel (17.584).

Electricity’s weight rose from 19.853 in the old series, partly from including renewable sources. In a weighted index, a fast-growing small industry moves the total less than a moderately growing large one: in September 2026 iron ore grew fastest, at 18.4 per cent, on a weight of 4.905, while electricity grew 11.4 per cent on a weight of 30.932.

The CDRI was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York on 23 September 2019. Its secretariat is headquartered in New Delhi with the status of an International Organization, which the Union Cabinet approved in June 2022 together with the signing of a Headquarters Agreement.

According to the CDRI, it has 59 member countries and 13 partner organisations. A country joins by endorsing the CDRI Charter and designating a focal point and a lead representative; the Governing Council then reviews and approves the request, a process that typically takes around six weeks.

During Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s official visit to India, the Joint Statement listed four outcomes of different weight: a target of doubling bilateral trade by 2030 (trade was US$ 6.36 billion in 2025, per the MEA citing Poland’s Central Statistical Office), Poland’s announcement on the CDRI, a proposed Defence Industry Dialogue, and a dialogue on counter-terrorism. India also invited Poland to join the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative, the International Solar Alliance and the Global Biofuels Alliance: invitations, not accessions.

The BNSS, 2023 (Act No. 46 of 2023) received assent on 25 December 2023 and has been in force since 1 July 2024. A cognizable offence is one for which a police officer may arrest without warrant (Section 2(1)(g)); information about it goes to the officer in charge of a police station (Section 173(1), corresponding to CrPC Section 154), and the police may investigate without a Magistrate’s order (Section 175(1)).

If the police refuse to record it, the person aggrieved may write to the Superintendent of Police and then apply to a Magistrate (Section 173(4)), who may order an investigation (Section 175(3)). In Lalita Kumari (Constitution Bench, 12 November 2013) the Supreme Court held FIR registration mandatory if the information discloses a cognizable offence; in Priyanka Srivastava (2015) it required Section 156(3) applications to be supported by an affidavit.

Two other shields sit alongside Section 175(4): Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act (inserted in 2018) needs previous approval before police enquire into a public servant’s decision or recommendation, and Section 218 needs previous sanction before cognizance. Section 175(4) states no time limit for the superior’s report.

Article 243K provides for the State Election Commission for elections to the Panchayats, and the same body serves the Municipalities: Article 243ZA(1) vests the superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of electoral rolls for, and the conduct of, all elections to the Municipalities in the State Election Commission referred to in Article 243K. Article 243ZG(b) then limits the courts: no election to a Municipality can be called in question except by an election petition under a law made by the State Legislature.

On 21 October 2026 a special Bench of Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana directed the Andhra Pradesh SEC to decide on a plea to extend the deadline for municipal nominations; if the SEC extends the time, the extension is to run for at least 48 hours from publication of its decision. The Bench called it ‘a constitutional duty vested on the State Election Commission under Article 243ZA’ to conduct municipal elections in a free and fair manner, and said ‘All grievances to such election process may be agitated in an election petition after the process is over’.

The Social Stock Exchange lets social-purpose organisations raise money on a stock exchange platform. A ZCZP instrument, in PIB’s words, ‘enables eligible social-purpose organisations to mobilise resources without conventional interest or principal repayment obligations’: the subscriber gets neither interest nor principal back.

Under SEBI’s Master Circular on the SSE of 19 January 2026, a ZCZP is issued by an NPO registered on the SSE, in dematerialised form only; the minimum issue size is Rs 50 lakh, the minimum application Rs 1,000, and the minimum subscription 75 per cent of the funds proposed to be raised. The first listing on the SSE, SGBS Unnati Foundation, came in December 2023, according to the NSE.

NSDC’s issue funds a programme for 600 young people from economically weaker OBC households in Madhya Pradesh to find jobs abroad, 300 in Japan and 300 in Germany, at an estimated Rs 11.25 crore. Beneficiaries bear 15 per cent, SSE financing 35 per cent, and the Government of Madhya Pradesh 50 per cent ‘upon successful international placement’, under a Social Impact Bond framework.

The Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Act, 2021 (Act No. 29 of 2021) is deemed to have come into force on 13 April 2021. The Central Government constitutes the Commission by notification under Section 3(1), and its seat is in Delhi.

Section 11(1) of the Act names three sub-committees: Monitoring and Identification; Safeguarding and Enforcement; and Research and Development. The Graded Response Action Plan is applied in stages linked to Delhi’s AQI, and Stage I covers ‘Poor’ air, an AQI of 201 to 300.

On 21 October 2026 the CAQM’s Sub-Committee on GRAP invoked all 25 Stage I action points ‘with immediate effect, in the entire NCR’, after Delhi’s daily average AQI reached 244 at 2 PM and 245 at 4 PM. The actions include dust mitigation at construction and demolition sites, a prohibition on open burning of biomass and municipal solid waste, strict enforcement of PUC norms for vehicles, and enforcement of the NGT and Supreme Court orders banning overaged diesel and petrol vehicles.

PM-KUSUM, launched in 2019, has three components: small grid-connected renewable energy plants on barren or fallow land (A), standalone solar pumps (B), and solarisation of existing grid-connected agricultural pumps (C). At the 7th AgriVoltaics World Conference, which opened at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, on 21 October 2026, the Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy said 30 lakh agricultural pumps had so far been connected to solar energy under the scheme, and that the government would soon launch ‘the world’s most ambitious AgriVoltaics programme under the next phase of PM-KUSUM’.

AgriVoltaics, as the Agriculture Minister described it, lets solar panels generate electricity above the ground while crops continue to grow below. The same week the Khet Bachao Abhiyan began as a rabi campaign on balanced fertiliser use.

Its background is the nationwide Soil Health Card scheme, launched by the Prime Minister from Suratgarh, Rajasthan, on 19 February 2015. For Prelims, keep the letters straight: A is land-based plants, B is new standalone pumps, C is solarising pumps already on the grid.

Under UNESCO’s Operational Guidelines (WHC.26/01, 29 July 2026), a Tentative List is a State Party’s inventory of the sites on its territory that it considers suitable for nomination (paragraph 62). A nomination dossier is not complete unless the property is already on that list and has undergone a Preliminary Assessment (paragraph 63), and States Parties ‘are encouraged to re-examine and re-submit their Tentative List at least every ten years’ (paragraph 65).

So a site moves in steps: Tentative List, Preliminary Assessment, nomination, and only then a decision on inscription. Three Indian sites now appear on India’s Tentative List on the UNESCO World Heritage Centre’s website; each page reads ‘Submitted by: Permanent Delegation of India to UNESCO’, with a submission date of 28 September 2026.

The Karst-mud-volcano Complex of Baratang and the Andaman Subduction Volcanoes are natural sites in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands; UNESCO’s page on the volcanoes names Barren Island and Narcondam. The Sirpur Cultural and Archaeological Landscape in Chhattisgarh is cultural, under criteria (ii) and (iv).

UNESCO’s India page shows 81 sites on India’s Tentative List and 45 properties inscribed.

The Law Commission of India is a non-statutory body: it is constituted by a notification of the Ministry of Law and Justice (Department of Legal Affairs), and it makes recommendations to the Government in the form of reports. The 23rd Law Commission is chaired by Justice (Retd.) Dinesh Maheshwari.

On 22 October 2026 it convened a National Conference on ‘Co-operative Federalism and Law Reforms: National and State Perspectives’ at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. There the Chairperson spoke of a ‘citizen friction test’ to assess ‘whether a proposed law reduces the time, cost and procedural burden on citizens’.

The priorities set out at the conference were ‘continuous institutional dialogue; evidence-based and participatory law reform; technology with human oversight; and citizen-centric legal design’. For Prelims, the classic trap is the body’s status: the Law Commission is non-statutory, unlike bodies created by an Act.

Under Article 342(1) the President, by public notification, specifies the tribes or tribal communities deemed to be Scheduled Tribes, and under Article 342(2) Parliament may by law include a community in, or exclude it from, that list; Article 366(25) defines Scheduled Tribes by reference to Article 342. The Hindu Succession Act, 1956 covers Hindus by religion, Buddhists, Jainas, Sikhs and others who are not Muslim, Christian, Parsi or Jew (section 2(1)), but section 2(2) excludes Scheduled Tribes unless the Central Government notifies otherwise.

Succession among them therefore turns on custom, and Article 13(3)(a) counts a ‘custom or usage having in the territory of India the force of law’ as ‘law’ for Article 13. In Bejla Oraon v Kali Das Oraon (9 July 2026), a Bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and N. Kotiswar Singh held that the party alleging a custom must prove it, under section 48 of the Evidence Act, 1872.

PESA, in force from 24 December 1996 in 10 States, requires State laws on Panchayats in Schedule V areas to conform to customary law. Shalini Saboo argues in The Hindu that this leaves tribal women’s land claims to male-dominated custom; that critique is the author’s, not the Court’s.

India’s two crop missions for import-dependent foods run to 2030-31. The National Mission on Edible Oils - Oilseeds (NMEO-Oilseeds) covers 2024-25 to 2030-31 with an outlay of Rs 10,103 crore and aims to raise primary oilseed production from 39 million tonnes (2022-23) to 69.7 million tonnes by 2030-31; when the Cabinet approved it, PIB said on 3 October 2024 that imports account for 57 per cent of domestic demand for edible oils.

The Mission for Aatmanirbharta in Pulses, approved by the Cabinet on 1 October 2025, covers 2025-26 to 2030-31 with Rs 11,440 crore, targets 350 lakh tonnes of pulses by 2030-31, and provides 88 lakh free seed kits. PM-AASHA ensures that oilseed farmers receive the MSP through two routes, price support and price deficiency payment.

The National Food Security and Nutrition Mission, formerly the NFSM, is a centrally sponsored scheme for rice, wheat, pulses and nutri-cereals/coarse cereals. The authors propose converging these schemes with the Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan for tribal-majority villages; the district counts in their column are their own analysis.

The Forest Rights Act (Act No. 2 of 2007; President’s assent 29 December 2006) recognises rights of forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes, who primarily reside in and depend on forests or forest lands for bona fide livelihood needs, and of other traditional forest dwellers who did so for at least three generations (25 years each) before 13 December 2005. Its main rights include the individual right to hold and live in forest land for habitation or self-cultivation (section 3(1)(a)), ownership of minor forest produce (section 3(1)(c)), and the right to protect, regenerate, conserve and manage a community forest resource (section 3(1)(i)).

The individual right is capped at four hectares, limited to land under actual occupation (section 4(6)). Forest land (section 2(d)) includes protected and reserved forests, Sanctuaries and National Parks.

The Gram Sabha initiates the process (section 6(1)), the Sub-Divisional Level Committee reviews, and the District Level Committee’s decision is final and binding. As on 31 August 2026, about 25 lakh titles had been distributed (Ministry of Tribal Affairs).

Two chokepoints frame Saudi Arabia’s oil exports. The Strait of Hormuz, between Oman and Iran, joins the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea; the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) put its oil flow at about 20 million barrels a day in 2024, with 84 per cent of the crude and condensate going to Asia.

The Bab al-Mandeb, between the Horn of Africa and West Asia, joins the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and is 18 miles wide at its narrowest; a closure could keep Gulf tankers from the Suez Canal and the SUMED pipeline, forcing them around the southern tip of Africa. Saudi Aramco’s East-West pipeline, which EIA describes as a 5 million barrels a day line from the Abqaiq processing centre to Yanbu (temporarily raised to 7 million in 2019), bypasses Hormuz but ends on the Red Sea, so a bypass is only as safe as its own chokepoint.

India imported 33.14 million tonnes of crude from Saudi Arabia in FY2024-25, 13.58 per cent of its crude imports (MEA), and the two countries signed a Strategic Partnership Council Agreement during the Prime Minister’s Riyadh visit of 28 and 29 October 2019.

Two statutes govern guardianship of Hindu minors. The Guardians and Wards Act, 1890 (Act 8 of 1890), in force from 1 July 1890, is the general law: a court appoints or declares a guardian when this is for the welfare of the minor (Section 7), guided by that welfare and by the child’s age, sex and religion and the proposed guardian’s character and capacity (Section 17).

The Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956 applies in addition to the 1890 Act (Section 2); a minor is a person under eighteen (Section 4); the father, and after him the mother, is the natural guardian of a boy or unmarried girl, but custody of a child under five shall ordinarily be with the mother (Section 6); and the welfare of the minor is the paramount consideration (Section 13). ‘Visitation’ appears in neither Act; it is court usage.

In an interim order of 29 September 2026 (WP 26958/2026), Justice Lalitha Kanneganti of the Karnataka High Court directed Family Courts and courts dealing with guardianship matters to use ‘parenting time’ instead. The Supreme Court released its Handbook on Combating Gender Stereotypes on 16 August 2023, and a report, Judgments and Gender, in August 2026.

The National Food Security Act, 2013 (Act No. 20 of 2013) was deemed in force from 5 July 2013 and published in the Gazette on 10 September 2013. It entitles priority households to 5 kg of foodgrains per person per month and Antyodaya Anna Yojana households to 35 kg per household per month (section 3(1)), and covers up to 75 per cent of the rural and 50 per cent of the urban population (section 3(2)).

A fair price shop is a shop licensed under section 3 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 (section 2(4)). The reform clause, section 12(2), lists end-to-end computerisation, the use of Aadhaar and full transparency of records, and prefers Panchayats, self-help groups and co-operatives in licensing fair price shops; section 13(1) makes the eldest woman the head of the household for the ration card.

ONORC was sanctioned in 2018-19 at an outlay of Rs 127 crore over four years, began with inter-State portability in 4 States in August 2019, and covered all 36 States/UTs on 21 June 2022. Since January 2024 grain under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana is free, for about 81.35 crore beneficiaries for five years.

Under Article 23 of the UN Charter, the Security Council has fifteen members: five permanent members and ten non-permanent members elected by the General Assembly for two years, and a retiring member cannot be re-elected at once. Under Article 27, procedural decisions need nine votes, and all other decisions need nine votes including the concurring votes of the permanent members, the rule called the veto.

Under Article 97, the General Assembly appoints the Secretary-General on the Council’s recommendation; before that the Council holds straw polls, informal ballots marking each candidate ‘encouraged’, ‘discouraged’ or ‘no opinion expressed’. Under Article 108, an amendment needs a two-thirds vote of the General Assembly and ratification by two-thirds of members, including all the permanent members.

The General Assembly decided to begin intergovernmental negotiations on Council reform by decision 62/557 of 15 September 2008. The Pact for the Future, adopted on 22 September 2024 (A/RES/79/1), deals with the Council in Actions 39 to 41.

India is a member of the G4 with Brazil, Germany and Japan. United Nations Day, 24 October, marks the entry into force of the Charter in 1945.

The Visegrad Group (V4) is a Central European grouping of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, and India engages it through the V4+India format. In the Joint Statement issued during Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s official visit to India in October 2026, the leaders welcomed the first Foreign Ministers’ meeting of India and the V4.

India and Poland established diplomatic relations in 1954, and the Indian Embassy opened in Warsaw in 1957. During Prime Minister Modi’s official visit to Poland on 21 and 22 August 2024, on the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations, ties were raised to a Strategic Partnership and an Action Plan 2024-2028 was adopted.

In the 2026 Joint Statement, Poland expressed support for India’s membership of a reformed and expanded UN Security Council and reiterated its support for India’s candidature for a non-permanent seat for 2028-29. India also invited Poland to join the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative, which Prime Minister Modi launched on 4 November 2019 at the East Asia Summit in Bangkok.