Current Affairs Quiz 1 November 2026

The Seventh Schedule separates two kinds of entry: subject entries, which let a legislature regulate a field, and taxing entries, which let it raise money. A State may legislate on water and water power (List II, Entry 17), but a tax needs its own taxing entry.

For electricity, the State’s taxing entry is Entry 53, which covers consumption or sale only. Anything not enumerated in Lists II or III, including any tax not mentioned in them, falls to Parliament under Article 248 and Entry 97 of List I, which is why the Union of India and the Ministry of Power argue that a tax on generation lies outside State competence.

Article 265 adds that no tax may be levied or collected except by authority of law, and Article 287 creates a further limit by exempting electricity consumed by or sold to the Government of India and electricity used in running railways. In October 2026 the J&K and Ladakh High Court applied these rules to the Jammu and Kashmir Water Resources (Regulation and Management) Act, 2010, holding that its adoption under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 did not cure a law that was beyond competence when it was made.

Article 270 governs the sharing of Union taxes: all taxes and duties in the Union List, except those under Articles 268, 269 and 269A, surcharges under Article 271 and cesses levied for specific purposes, are levied and collected by the Government of India and distributed between the Union and the States. The Finance Commission, constituted by the President under Article 280 every fifth year or earlier, with a Chairman and four other members, recommends the vertical split (the States’ share of the divisible pool) and the horizontal split (each State’s share).

The Sixteenth Finance Commission, chaired by Dr. Arvind Panagariya and covering 2026-27 to 2030-31, recommended that the States’ share be retained at 41 per cent, and the Government accepted it. Grants-in-aid under Article 275(1) are a separate channel: they are sums Parliament provides to States in need of assistance, not a share of taxes.

On 31 October 2026 the Union released an additional instalment of tax devolution of Rs 1,09,019 crore, the second additional instalment of 2026-27, in addition to the regular monthly devolution, ahead of the festive season and to speed up capital spending.

Devolution has two stages. The vertical stage fixes the States’ share of the divisible pool, retained at 41 per cent by the Sixteenth Finance Commission and accepted by the Government.

The horizontal stage divides that share among the States by a weighted formula. The Sixteenth Commission’s weights (Table 8.8) are: per capita GSDP distance 42.5, population (2011) 17.5, demographic performance 10, area 10, forest 10 and contribution to GDP 10, totalling 100.

Compared with the Fifteenth Commission, as summarised by PRS, income distance falls from 45 to 42.5, population rises from 15 to 17.5, demographic performance falls from 12.5 to 10, area falls from 15 to 10, forest stays at 10, tax and fiscal effort (2.5) is dropped, and contribution to GDP is added. The Commission was constituted by Notification S.O. 5533(E) of 31 December 2023 and submitted its report on 17 November 2025; its award covers 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2031.

Each State’s devolution equals its inter se share times the amount released, which is why Uttar Pradesh (17.619 per cent) received the largest amount in the 31 October 2026 instalment.

BIMSTEC is a grouping of seven countries lying in the littoral and adjacent areas of the Bay of Bengal, linking South Asia with South-East Asia. It began on 6 June 1997 as BIST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand); Myanmar joined on 22 December 1997 and Bhutan and Nepal in 2004.

Decisions are taken by consensus. The Permanent Secretariat has worked in Dhaka since 2014, and the BIMSTEC Charter, which MEA calls a milestone in its transition from a grouping into a regional organisation, came into force on 20 May 2024.

Cooperation is organised in seven pillars, each led by one member; India leads the Security pillar, with counter-terrorism and transnational crime, disaster management and energy security as its sub-sectors. Six Summits have been held: Bangkok 2004, New Delhi 2008, Nay Pyi Taw 2014, Kathmandu 2018, Colombo 2022 and Bangkok 2025.

The sixth, on 4 April 2025, adopted the Bangkok Vision 2030 and saw the signing of the BIMSTEC Maritime Transport Agreement. The first maritime security exercise follows the Expert Group on Maritime Security Cooperation, which in November 2025 discussed the feasibility of maritime exercises.

Bhutan and Nepal, the two landlocked members, depend on the Bay for their EXIM trade.

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands number 836 islands and islets over 8,249 sq km, of which only 31 are permanently inhabited, according to the A&N Administration. They extend from about 6 to 14 degrees North and 92 to 94 degrees East, forming an arc of about 1,000 km between Myanmar and Sumatra (Indonesia) that separates the Bay of Bengal from the Andaman Sea.

The Ten Degree Channel divides the Andaman group in the north from the Nicobar group in the south. Indira Point, at 6 degrees 45 minutes North on Great Nicobar, is India’s southernmost point.

The capital, Sri Vijaya Puram, was renamed from Port Blair in September 2024; it lies about 1,190 km from Chennai and 1,255 km from Kolkata. The Andaman and Nicobar Command, created on 8 October 2001, is described by PIB as India’s first integrated tri-service command; PIB adds that its location astride critical sea lanes of communication and its capabilities in maritime surveillance, disaster relief and search and rescue make it ‘an important pillar of maritime security in the Bay of Bengal’.

The Census is a Union subject (List I, Entry 69). Under section 3 of the Census Act, 1948, the Central Government declares its intention to take a census by notification in the Official Gazette.

Section 8 binds a person asked a census question to answer to the best of his or her knowledge or belief, though its proviso spares anyone from stating the name of a female member of the household, and a woman from naming her husband. Section 15 keeps census records from inspection and makes them inadmissible as evidence in any civil proceeding, or in any criminal one other than a prosecution under the census law.

The count is run by the Registrar General of India and Census Commissioner under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Census 2027 runs in two phases: Houselisting (April to September 2026) and Population Enumeration, due in February 2027 with a reference date of 00:00 hours of 1 March 2027.

Ladakh and the snow-bound areas were counted first, and Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and the non-snow-bound areas of Uttarakhand are to be counted from 1 December 2026. The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs decided on 30 April 2025 to include caste enumeration, which the Government noted had been excluded from all census operations since Independence.

The four Labour Codes (the Code on Wages, 2019, the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, the Code on Social Security, 2020 and the OSH Code, 2020) were made effective from 21 November 2025, rationalising 29 earlier labour laws; the OSH Code repealed the Factories Act, 1948 among 13 enactments. The Code fixes the day limit (eight hours, section 25), allows no more than six working days in a week (section 26) and makes overtime paid at double the rate and consensual (section 27).

The 48-hour weekly ceiling and the cap of 144 overtime hours a quarter come from the OSH (Central) Rules, 2026 (G.S.R. 345(E), 8 May 2026), which bind only establishments for which the Centre is the appropriate Government: railways, mines, oil fields, major ports, air transport, telecom, banks and insurers. Factories and most other establishments fall under State rules, because labour is a Concurrent subject (List III, Entries 22 and 24) on which both Parliament and the States legislate under Article 246(2).

The Industrial Relations Code’s definition of worker excludes those employed mainly in a managerial or administrative capacity and supervisors drawing over Rs 18,000 a month. India has no statutory right to disconnect; the 2025 Bill seeking one is a private member’s bill.

An alternating-current grid stays stable only while supply matches demand second by second, and frequency is the signal of that balance: it falls when supply drops below demand and rises when supply runs ahead. India’s Grid Code, specified by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission under section 79(1)(h) of the Electricity Act, 2003, sets a reference frequency of 50.000 Hz and a narrow allowable band.

The Central Electricity Authority specifies technical standards for connectivity to the grid and the Grid Standards under section 73. Operation is in tiers: the National Load Despatch Centre, five Regional Load Despatch Centres run by Grid-India, and the State Load Despatch Centres.

Rooftop solar, a non-dispatchable source, feeds the grid through inverters that disconnect when voltage or frequency leaves set limits; the CEA’s 2013 regulations on connecting distributed generation set frequency trip limits at 50.5 Hz and below 47.5 Hz, which a licensee may narrow. Under Frequency Load Shedding automatically cuts selected loads when frequency falls.

Under PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana, 14.8 GW of rooftop capacity had been commissioned, per a PIB release of 13 August 2026. Sri Lanka’s experience shows that the settings in the field, and who audits them, matter as much as the rules.

The tax-fee distinction decides which entry of the Seventh Schedule a levy must fall under. The State List has separate taxing entries (such as Entry 53 for taxes on the consumption or sale of electricity) and subject entries (such as Entry 17 on water), so a levy labelled a fee or a charge that in substance is a tax must find a taxing entry, or it fails.

The headnote of the Shirur Mutt case (1954) describes a tax as a compulsory exaction of money by public authority for public purposes, enforceable by law and not a payment for services rendered, and a fee as a charge for a special service. Article 265 adds that no tax shall be levied or collected except by authority of law.

Applying the test, the J&K and Ladakh High Court found that the water usage charges under the 2010 Act went to a fund for building and buying power projects and transmission networks, not to a service for the hydro producers, who use water without consuming it and return it to the river. It held the charges to be a tax on the generation of electricity, beyond the State Legislature’s competence, and quashed the demand notices.

The States Reorganisation Act, 1956 (Act No. 37 of 1956) redrew India’s internal map on largely linguistic lines. From its appointed day, 1 November 1956, it formed new States including Kerala, Mysore and Madhya Pradesh, which is why Keralappiravi, Kannada Rajyotsava and Madhya Pradesh’s foundation day all fall on 1 November.

A decade later, the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966 carved Haryana out of Punjab with effect from 1 November 1966. Tamil Nadu marks 1 November as the day Madras State was formed, and in July 2026 its Chief Minister announced that the State would also mark 18 July, the day the Legislative Assembly resolved to name it Tamil Nadu.

For Prelims, the trap is the name: the 1956 Act speaks of the State of Mysore, not Karnataka, and Kannada Rajyotsava marks that 1956 formation.

These three items test which body does what. The Geological Survey of India, an attached office of the Ministry of Mines, carries out mineral exploration; its new Director General is tasked with intensifying exploration for critical and strategic minerals and delivering auction-ready blocks, and PIB records that 202 of the blocks covered by its recent reports and memorandums pertained to critical minerals, of which 40 have been auctioned.

Customs duty exemptions are issued as notifications by the Department of Revenue in the Ministry of Finance; the cotton exemption, which was to end on 31 October 2026, now runs two months longer, to help the textile sector get cotton at competitive prices while, the Ministry of Textiles said, balancing the interests of domestic cotton farmers. NVS-03 belongs to India’s regional navigation system, NavIC.

ISRO launched it on GSLV-F18 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, completed its first orbit manoeuvre on 31 October 2026, and plans further manoeuvres to place it in its designated geosynchronous orbital slot at 111.75 East. NVS-01, NVS-02 and NVS-03 have been launched, while NVS-04 and NVS-05 are in the pipeline.