2 November 2026
The Railways has taken away the superfast tag from two Jan Shatabdi services running inside the State.
The Thiruvananthapuram-Kozhikode pair, numbered 12075 and 12076, will run as an ordinary express as 16376 and 16375.
The Thiruvananthapuram-Kannur pair, 12081 and 12082, becomes 16380 and 16379.
The reason given is that the trains do not keep up the average speed of 55 kilometres an hour that the Railway Board fixes for a superfast service.
The change takes effect from the first of January 2027, and timings and stops stay as they are.
With the superfast surcharge gone, non-air-conditioned fares are expected to fall by fifteen rupees and air-conditioned fares by forty-five rupees.
Six trains, among them the Lokmanya Tilak-Thiruvananthapuram North bi-weekly and the Yesvantpur-Thiruvananthapuram North, had already been moved down from superfast to express.
Southern Railway plans to raise six express trains in its other divisions to superfast in exchange.
Minimum superfast speed:
55 km an hour
Thiruvananthapuram-Kozhikode:
12075/12076 becomes 16376/16375
Thiruvananthapuram-Kannur:
12081/12082 becomes 16380/16379
Effective from:
1 January 2027
Expected fare fall:
Rs 15 non-AC, Rs 45 AC
Why it matters for exams: The Railway Board's minimum average speed for a superfast service is 55 kilometres an hour; two Jan Shatabdi services in Kerala fell below it and become express trains 16376/16375 and 16380/16379 from 1 January 2027.
Kerala PSCSSC
In plain words
Superfast surcharge Superfast surcharge — An extra charge added to the fare of a train classified as superfast, which goes away when the classification is withdrawn.
Background
An engineer from Kanhangad has said he will take the Indian Railways to the consumer court after a train delay of eight hours cost him a business meeting and money. The forum he means is the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, known in short as the District Commission. Section 28 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 requires the State Government to establish such a commission in every district of the State by notification. The same section allows a State to set up more than one District Commission in a single district if it thinks fit. Each District Commission is made up of a President and not fewer than two members, the number being prescribed in consultation with the Central Government. The 2019 Act replaced the older consumer law and built a three-tier structure of District, State and National Commissions. A consumer who is unhappy with a service can file a complaint before the District Commission without engaging a lawyer.
Section:
Section 28
Act:
Consumer Protection Act, 2019
Composition:
A President and not fewer than two members
Why it matters for exams: Which Act sets up the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, under which section, and how it is composed are repeat consumer-law questions.
Kerala PSCUPSCBank
In plain words
District Commission District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission — The consumer forum established in each district of a State.
Redressal Redressal — Setting right a wrong by a legal remedy.
Background
Kerala said on 2 November that it will file a special petition in the Supreme Court to get that court's judgment of 2024, which allowed a detailed safety inspection of the Mullaperiyar dam, carried out, and Water Resources Minister Mons Joseph added that the State will ask the Centre to step in on the long dispute with Tamil Nadu. The dam is built across the Periyar, and Tamil Nadu draws its water. Tamil Nadu's rights over the water of the existing dam rest on a lease deed signed in 1886 and on agreements of 1970. The Supreme Court decided the dispute in Original Suit No. 3 of 2006 by its judgment of 7 May 2014. To meet Kerala's fears about safety when the full reservoir level was restored to 142 feet, that judgment constituted a three-member Supervisory Committee. One member comes from the Central Water Commission and one each from Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and the Central Water Commission's representative chairs it. The same judgment set out, as one of the steps on the way to a new dam, that the existing dam would be strengthened by the measures the Central Water Commission suggests, dam-safety requirements among them.
River:
Periyar
Full reservoir level in dispute:
142 feet
Supervisory Committee:
Three members, chaired by the Central Water Commission representative
Why it matters for exams: The river the dam sits on, the lease that gives Tamil Nadu its rights and the make-up of the Supervisory Committee are the durable facts in the Mullaperiyar dispute.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
CWC Central Water Commission — The central technical body on water resources and dam safety.
Full reservoir level Full reservoir level — The highest water level a reservoir is allowed to hold.
Original suit Original suit — A case filed directly in the Supreme Court, as between two States.
Background
Kerala ordered a large reshuffle of its IAS cadre on 2 November, moving 35 officers and changing charges across departments including Home, Finance, Health, Power and Industries. The service those officers belong to is defined by central law. Section 2 of the All India Services Act, 1951 defines the expression. Only two services are named in that definition: the Indian Administrative Service and the Indian Police Service. Any further service counts as an all-India Service only where Section 2-A specifies it. Those further services come into being from a date the Central Government appoints by notification in the Official Gazette, and separate dates can be fixed for separate services. So only two services are named in the definition itself, and every later one rests on such a notification. Officers of these services are posted to State cadres, which is why a State government issues the transfer orders even though the service is a central creation.
Act:
All India Services Act, 1951
Services named in the definition:
Indian Administrative Service and Indian Police Service
Who can add more:
The Central Government, by notification
Why it matters for exams: Which two services the All India Services Act names, and who can add more, is a standard polity and public-administration question.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
IAS Indian Administrative Service — One of the two services named in the definition of an all-India Service.
Cadre Cadre — The State or group of States an all-India Service officer is allotted to.
Background
Chief Minister V D Satheesan said on 2 November that Kerala is examining legal ways to bring in a dedicated Act against insults and attacks on women on social media, telling the HER Summit 2026 that existing law does not protect them enough. The law as it stands rests largely on the Information Technology Act, 2000. Section 67 of that Act punishes anyone who publishes obscene material in electronic form, transmits it, or causes it to be published or transmitted. The test it sets is whether the material is lascivious, appeals to the prurient interest, or tends to deprave and corrupt those likely to see, read or hear it. On a first conviction the punishment is imprisonment of up to three years together with a fine of up to five lakh rupees. On a second or later conviction it rises to imprisonment of up to five years and a fine of up to ten lakh rupees.
Act:
Information Technology Act, 2000
Section:
Section 67
First conviction:
Up to three years and a fine of up to five lakh rupees
Why it matters for exams: Which Act and section punish obscene material in electronic form, and the punishment on a first conviction, are asked in cyber-law questions.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
Electronic form Electronic form — Information held or sent through computers or networks.
Conviction Conviction — A court's finding that an accused person is guilty.
Background
Road works proposed by panchayats, block panchayats and a district panchayat in rural Thiruvananthapuram have been held up because contractors are staying away until the Local Self Government Department revises its rates, with 42 works finding no takers after three rounds of tendering. Works like these are placed before the Grama Sabha, the body the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act, 1994 builds at the base of rural local government. Under Section 3 of the Act, a constituency of a village panchayat may be specified to be a village for the purposes of clause (g) of Article 243 of the Constitution. Everyone whose name is on the electoral roll for that village is a member of its Grama Sabha. The Grama Sabha has to meet at least once in three months, at a place the village panchayat fixes. Its convenor is the panchayat member who represents that constituency, and the convenor must invite the Block Panchayat, District Panchayat and Assembly members for the area. On a written request by at least ten per cent of its members, a special meeting has to be convened within fifteen days, and only one such special meeting may be held between two general meetings.
Act:
Kerala Panchayat Raj Act, 1994
Minimum meetings:
At least once in three months
Special meeting:
On a written request by at least ten per cent of members, within fifteen days
Why it matters for exams: How often the Grama Sabha must meet, who convenes it and the tenth-of-members rule for a special meeting are standard Kerala local-government questions.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Grama Sabha Grama Sabha — The body of all voters of a village panchayat constituency.
Convenor Convenor — The panchayat member who calls and conducts the Grama Sabha.
Background
Kerala announced on 2 November a plan to overhaul its Water Resources Department and the Kerala Water Authority, with a common water policy to be framed and a Kerala Water Conclave to be held, alongside its move to the Supreme Court on Mullaperiyar dam safety. One standing part of the State's water law is a Kerala Act of 2001 on the protection of river banks and the regulation of sand removal. That Act gives the word Kadavu a legal meaning: a river bank or a water body from which sand is taken. At each such place there is a Kadavu Committee constituted under Section 4. Above those committees sits a District Expert Committee constituted under Section 3, and a State High Level Committee added by an amendment of 2013. The authorised officer under the Act is the Commissioner of Land Revenue. Money raised under the Act goes into a River Management Fund kept under Section 17, and the 2013 amendment also provided for a Special Protection Force. For the purposes of the Act, the local authority is a village panchayat or a municipality.
Act:
Kerala Protection of River Banks and Regulation of Removal of Sand Act, 2001
Authorised officer:
Commissioner of Land Revenue
Fund:
River Management Fund
Why it matters for exams: The legal meaning of Kadavu, the Kadavu Committee and the River Management Fund are the durable facts of Kerala's sand removal law.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Kadavu Kadavu — A river bank or water body where sand removal is carried out.
Kadavu Committee Kadavu Committee — The committee constituted for each place where sand is removed.
River Management Fund River Management Fund — The fund kept under the Act for river protection work.
Background
The General Education Department of Kerala withdrew on 1 November a circular that would have removed or demoted aided-school teachers appointed or promoted after 1 September 2025 who do not hold the K-TET qualification. The teachers the circular touched work under the Kerala Education Act, 1958, which still governs school management in the State. The Act defines an aided school as a private school that is recognised by the Government and receives aid from it. It uses the term educational agency for the person or body permitted to run a private school. Under Section 11 of the Act, teachers of aided schools are appointed by the managers of those schools, and not by the Government. That power is not unlimited: the manager must choose from among persons who hold the qualifications prescribed under Section 10, and must follow the rules and conditions the Government lays down. The Act also provides for a District Educational Authority constituted under Section 17.
Act:
Kerala Education Act, 1958
Appointment section:
Section 11
Who appoints:
The manager of the aided school
Why it matters for exams: Who appoints an aided-school teacher in Kerala, and under which Act and section, is a standing Kerala PSC question.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Aided school Aided school — A private school recognised by the Government and receiving aid from it.
Educational agency Educational agency — The person or body permitted to run a private school under the Act.
K-TET Kerala Teacher Eligibility Test — The State test a school teacher must pass to be eligible for appointment.
Background
Kerala's withdrawal on 1 November of the circular against aided-school teachers without K-TET turns on a national rule about who may teach. Section 23 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 makes a person eligible for appointment as a teacher if he holds the minimum qualifications that an academic authority, notified for the purpose by the Centre, has fixed. The Central Government, and not the State, can relax those minimum qualifications by notification where a State has too few teacher-training institutions or too few qualified teachers. Such a relaxation cannot run for more than five years. A teacher already in service without the minimum qualifications when the Act began had to acquire them within five years. An amendment of 2017 gave teachers in position on 31 March 2015 four more years from the start of that amending Act. The same section governs the salary, allowances and service conditions of teachers.
Act:
Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009
Section:
Section 23
Maximum relaxation period:
Five years
Why it matters for exams: Section 23 of the RTE Act, and the fact that the Centre and not the State can relax teacher qualifications, is asked in both school-law and polity papers.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
RTE Act Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act — The central law that makes elementary education a right of every child.
Academic authority Academic authority — The body the Centre notifies to lay down minimum teacher qualifications.
Background
Applications under the Commission's previous extraordinary gazette close this week, which makes the newest one worth reading closely.
The Kerala Public Service Commission's latest extraordinary gazette carries Category Numbers 162 of 2026 to 173 of 2026.
The Commission has set the second of December as the last date for these applications.
The batch runs heavily to Medical Education posts, with Assistant Professor notifications in Cardiology, Pathology and Cardio Vascular and Thoracic Surgery.
Most of those are NCA notifications, meant for communities whose earlier reserved vacancies went unfilled, and they name Muslim, Latin Catholic and Anglo Indian, Dheevara and Scheduled Caste turns.
Two Laboratory Assistant notifications for the Kerala Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation are split into a General Category part and a Society Category part.
The rest cover an Attender post at Travancore-Cochin Chemicals reserved for Scheduled Tribes, Sterilisation Technician posts, a Police Constable Trainee turn in the Armed Police Battalion, and a Typist post for ex-servicemen.
The Commission works from Thulasi Hills at Pattom in Thiruvananthapuram.
Category Numbers:
162/2026 to 173/2026
Last date:
02-12-2026
Commission's address:
Thulasi Hills, Pattom, Thiruvananthapuram
Why it matters for exams: The Kerala Public Service Commission's newest extraordinary gazette notifies Category Numbers 162/2026 to 173/2026 with 2 December as the last date, mostly NCA vacancies in Medical Education.
Kerala PSC
In plain words
NCA Non-Joining Candidate Available / Nil Candidate Available vacancy — A notification made for a reserved community whose turn in an earlier recruitment went unfilled for want of candidates.
Background
The inquiry into the fatal Cheranalloor car crash in Kochi has stayed in the news through this week, with four police personnel of the Cheranalloor station suspended and the case taken over by the Crime Branch, so the change at the top of the city police matters.
R. Nishanthini, an Indian Police Service officer of the 2008 batch, holds the post of Inspector General of Police and Commissioner of Police, Kochi City.
She was moved into the post with immediate effect by a government order, from her earlier charge as Inspector General of Police, South Zone.
She took over from Kaliraj Mahesh Kumar.
In the same order P. Prakash, of the 2004 batch, moved from Inspector General of Police at the State Crime Records Bureau to Inspector General of Police, South Zone.
He also holds additional charge of the State Crime Records Bureau and the Cyber Crimes wing.
Four police personnel attached to the Cheranalloor station had been suspended the previous day over lapses in the investigation into the fatal accident.
The city police chief's post in Kochi is held at the rank of Inspector General, above the Superintendent of Police rank that heads a district force.
Commissioner of Police, Kochi City:
R. Nishanthini, IPS (2008 batch)
Replaced:
Kaliraj Mahesh Kumar
Rank of the post:
Inspector General of Police
Inspector General, South Zone:
P. Prakash, IPS (2004 batch)
Why it matters for exams: R. Nishanthini, IPS of the 2008 batch, is Inspector General of Police and Commissioner of Police, Kochi City, in place of Kaliraj Mahesh Kumar, with P. Prakash moving to Inspector General of Police, South Zone.
Kerala PSC
In plain words
SCRB State Crime Records Bureau — The State agency that keeps crime and criminal records and feeds the national crime records system.