30 October 2026
Excise Minister M Liju has directed bar owners to verify the age of customers who appear to be under 23 before serving liquor. An Aadhaar card or another valid age-proof document must be asked for. The minister said the ban on serving liquor to anyone below the prescribed age must be enforced strictly, and that establishments that break the rule will face action. Responsibility for the check rests with the bar owner. The direction came after a car crash in Kochi in which three students on a scooter were killed by a 19-year-old driver. Kerala's minimum age for being served liquor is 23, set under the Abkari Act.
Minimum age:
23
Proof accepted:
Aadhaar or other valid age proof
Why it matters for exams: The legal drinking age in Kerala, 23, and the Abkari Act are repeat Kerala PSC facts.
Kerala PSCSSC
In plain words
Bevco Kerala State Beverages Corporation — The state company that holds the wholesale and much of the retail liquor trade in Kerala.
29 October 2026
Noolpuzha Grama Panchayat in Wayanad has been declared a fully e-waste-free panchayat. The declaration is part of the Sampoorna E-Malinyamukta Wayanad project, which aims to make Wayanad the first fully e-waste-free district in the country. Collection ran in two phases, on 15 and 16 October and again on 25 October. The first phase gathered 3,395 kg of electronic waste and the second 2,028 kg. All 5,423 kg has been handed over for scientific processing. Haritha Karma Sena members, elected representatives and panchayat officials collected the waste from households through a public campaign. Collection drives are moving quickly in the district's other panchayats and municipalities.
Phase one collection:
3,395 kg
Phase two collection:
2,028 kg
Total handed over:
5,423 kg
Why it matters for exams: The Haritha Karma Sena and e-waste rules are regular Kerala PSC questions on local self government and environment.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Haritha Karma Sena green task force of a local body — Groups of workers attached to Kerala's local bodies who collect and sort non-biodegradable waste.
31 October 2026
The Kerala High Court starts its platinum jubilee celebrations on the morning of 1 November at its Kochi premises. Chief Justice of India Surya Kant will open the ceremony and give the inaugural address, with the High Court's Chief Justice, Soumen Sen, in the chair. Supreme Court judge Justice S V Bhatti and Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal are the guests of honour, and Advocate General K Jaju Babu and Additional Solicitor General P Sreekumar will also speak. A welfare scheme of the High Court Advocates' Association is being started on the same day, and Advocate P B Menon, lately made a Senior Advocate, will be honoured. Three things will be released at the function: a film on the Court's seventy years, a jubilee souvenir and a commemorative postage stamp. The film will be screened once the formal session ends, and lawyers and staff will put on cultural programmes in the evening. Chief Justices and judges of other High Courts, sitting judges of the Kerala High Court and retired judges are expected to attend.
Date of inauguration:
1 November
Years marked:
70 years
Time:
11:00 am
Why it matters for exams: The office of the Chief Justice of India and of a High Court Chief Justice is a standing Polity question.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
ASG Additional Solicitor General — A senior law officer who appears for the Union Government in the courts.
31 October 2026
A government order issued on Friday has handed the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau a detailed inquiry into land acquisition by the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board. A Special Investigation Team headed by DIG Thomson Jose, with officers of the Bureau, will carry it out. The inquiry rests on the findings of an expert panel headed by retired Indian Administrative Service officer Sudha Pillai, which the state set up to review how KIIFB works. The land in question is the 4,896 acres in Kannur district cleared for industrial projects, part of 5,336 acres in all that also takes in 470 acres in Palakkad. The board approved the acquisition at its thirty-third meeting in October 2018, at an estimated cost of Rs 12,710 crore. A preliminary inquiry will come first, and a case would be registered only after that. The Chief Minister has also raised questions about a proposal to take another 4,000 acres in Kannur.
Team head:
DIG Thomson Jose
Land in Kannur:
4,896 acres
Total land approved:
5,336 acres
Estimated cost:
Rs 12,710 crore
Why it matters for exams: KIIFB is Kerala's off-budget borrowing body and a frequent Kerala PSC and UPSC economy question.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
KIIFB Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board — A state body that raises money outside the budget to fund Kerala's infrastructure projects.
VACB Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau — Kerala's anti-corruption police wing.
31 October 2026
Water Resources and Housing Minister Mons Joseph has laid the foundation stone for a ring road inside Kottayam Science City, to be built at Rs 3.40 crore. The road is meant to improve movement within the campus and access to its different sections. He laid the stone on the same visit on which he opened the campus's three-day show on atomic energy, titled 'Atoms in the Service of the Nation', which runs from 30 October to 1 November and is free for students and the public. The show is put together by the Kerala State Science and Technology Museum, Kottayam Science City and the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research at Kalpakkam, which works under the Union Department of Atomic Energy. Sreekumar G Pillai, Director of the Centre, was the chief guest and said the road work would be finished on schedule. The minister said the government would take the steps needed to grow the Science City into a hub for science, technology and research. Kottayam Science City is run by the Kerala State Science and Technology Museum, which also runs the Priyadarshini Planetarium at Thiruvananthapuram.
Ring road cost:
Rs 3.40 crore
Exhibition dates:
30 October to 1 November 2026
Entry:
free
Why it matters for exams: IGCAR at Kalpakkam works under the Department of Atomic Energy and is a repeat science and technology question.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
IGCAR Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research — A centre at Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu, under the Department of Atomic Energy, known for fast breeder reactor research.
KSSTM Kerala State Science and Technology Museum — The state body that runs Kerala's science museums, planetarium and science city campuses.
Background
Kerala has just raised the housing assistance it pays Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and fishing families, and the statutory frame under such help is older than any single scheme. The Kerala State Housing Board Act, 1971 asked for planned, organised direction in preparing and carrying out housing and improvement schemes, and set up a State Housing Board to do that work. A decade later the Kerala Slum Areas Improvement and Clearance Act, 1981 set out extensive provisions for the improvement and development of slums. The rural counterpart of the same period is the Kerala State Rural Development Act, 1971, which provided for a Board for conducting development schemes in rural areas. All three sit under what the Kerala Legislature records as its social welfare legislation. Two of them create standing Boards rather than one-time programmes. The Legislature places two more statutes in the same body of social welfare law: a 1993 Act for the Kerala State Commission for Backward Classes, and a 1995 Act for the Kerala Women's Commission.
Housing Act:
The Kerala State Housing Board Act,1971
What the Board is to plan and execute:
housing and improvement schemes
Body the Act establishes:
establishment of a State Housing Board
Slum Act:
The Kerala Slum Areas Improvement and Clearance Act, 1981
Rural counterpart:
The Kerala State Rural Development Act,1971
Why it matters for exams: Which Kerala Act set up the State Housing Board, and which one deals with slum improvement and clearance, are standard Kerala PSC questions on State institutions.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Clearance Slum clearance — Removing or rebuilding slum housing, as against improving it where it stands.
Background
The Kerala Assembly is in session and clearing Bills, which makes a good moment to recall that one of the State's universities was created without waiting for the House at all. The University of Calicut dates from 1968 and describes itself as the largest University in Kerala. A 22-member committee of experts, headed by Samuel Mathai, then Vice-Chancellor of Kerala University, had recommended a university at Calicut. It was to run its own postgraduate departments for study and research, and to take every college of the northern districts under its affiliation. The University Grants Commission gave its concurrence for a university at Calicut after a special commission headed by P S Reddi examined the State's proposal. Rather than wait for the State Legislative Assembly to be convened to pass the legislation, the then Education Minister had an Ordinance issued on July 23, 1968 creating the university; the Calicut University Bill was passed by the Assembly on August 29, 1968. Under its own direct control it now keeps 25 Departments of postgraduate studies and research, and it lists 395 affiliated colleges besides. Those colleges are spread across the five northern districts of Kerala, named by the university as Kozhikode, Malappuram, Palakkad, Thrissur and Wayanad. The university puts the number it serves at about 2.75 lakh students every year.
Affiliated colleges:
395 affiliated colleges
Postgraduate departments under direct control:
25 Departments of postgraduate studies and research
Students served a year:
2.75 lakh students
Date of the Ordinance creating it:
July 23, 1968
Districts its colleges lie in:
Kozhikode, Malappuram, Palakkad, Thrissur and Wayanad
How it describes its size:
largest University in Kerala
Why it matters for exams: The year, the seat and the affiliating area of each Kerala university are standing Kerala PSC questions, and the ordinance route to creating one is a Polity point in its own right.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Ordinance Ordinance promulgated when the legislature is not in session — A law made without the House sitting, which has to be placed before it later.
UGC University Grants Commission — The central body whose concurrence a new university proposal is taken to.
Background
Kerala's High Court opens its platinum jubilee celebrations tomorrow, so here is where the Court came from. It was established on 1 November 1956, the day the State of Kerala itself was created, and was inaugurated on 5 November 1956. Its immediate predecessor was the High Court of Travancore-Cochin, which also sat at Ernakulam. The Malabar area that joined the new State had until then come under the Madras High Court. Justice K T Koshi, the last Chief Justice of the Travancore-Cochin High Court, became the first Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court. The Court first worked from Ram Mohan Palace in Kochi and moved in 2006 to its present brick red and white building in the city. Justice Soumen Sen, who came from the Meghalaya High Court, is its fortieth Chief Justice.
Established:
1 November 1956
Inaugurated:
5 November 1956
Present building from:
2006
Why it matters for exams: The founding date of the Kerala High Court and its first Chief Justice are set Kerala PSC facts.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Thiru-Kochi Travancore-Cochin — The State formed by merging Travancore and Cochin in 1949, which was merged into Kerala in 1956.
Background
The Kerala High Court is monitoring stray dog work in the State this week, so here is the law behind it. The Animal Birth Control Rules, 2023 were framed under clause (ea) of sub-section (1) and sub-section (2) of Section 38 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. A local authority that wants to run an Animal Birth Control programme needs a Certificate of Project Recognition from the Animal Welfare Board of India, and the Rules set out the conditions for granting it. Rule 7 classifies animals for the purposes of the Rules. The Rules lay down duties both for owners of animals and for local authorities. Local authorities must keep records and send reports. The Board may inspect any Animal Birth Control Centre.
Parent Act:
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960
Enabling section:
Section 38
Why it matters for exams: The parent Act and the recognising Board for Animal Birth Control programmes are set exam facts.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
AWBI Animal Welfare Board of India — The statutory body that advises the government on animal welfare and recognises Animal Birth Control projects.