8 November 2026
The Keralam government has ordered laboratory testing of petrol sold in the State to find out whether the ethanol in it goes beyond the permitted level. Food and Civil Supplies Minister Anoop Jacob issued the direction after discussing the question with the Chief Minister. Samples are to be drawn from petrol outlets in Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, Kozhikode and Kannur. The testing is to be done in NABL-accredited laboratories in those districts. Petrol in India is now sold as E20, in which ethanol is blended with petrol up to a fifth of the volume. The order follows claims raised in Karnataka that the ethanol in petrol sold there was above the permitted limit, a claim the oil companies and the Union petroleum ministry have rejected.
Districts covered:
Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, Kozhikode, Kannur
Permitted blend:
E20
Why it matters for exams: It fixes two durable facts: Anoop Jacob holds the Food and Civil Supplies portfolio in the Keralam cabinet, and E20 is petrol blended with up to 20 per cent ethanol, tested in NABL-accredited laboratories.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
E20 Petrol blended with 20 per cent ethanol — The fuel grade now sold at Indian outlets, in which ethanol makes up a fifth of the volume.
NABL National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories — The body that accredits testing laboratories in India; its accreditation is what makes a laboratory's test report acceptable.
9 November 2026
Training of prison staff has begun for the artificial intelligence drone surveillance system that the Prison Department is piloting at Viyyur Central Prison. It is the first such project in a prison in Kerala. The drones fly on autopilot, can cover the whole prison premises in about ten minutes, and alert the prison authorities when they pick up unusual movement. They carry thermal imaging, which reads differences in heat and so can work in darkness or smoke, and their sensors let them turn when an object is thrown in from outside. Each drone costs Rs 10 lakh. Eighteen staff members are being trained in sessions spread over four Sundays, and the system is expected to be working at Viyyur within two months. The Prison Department plans to take the system to other central prisons afterwards.
Cost of one drone:
Rs 10 lakh
Staff under training:
18
Why it matters for exams: The durable fact is the institution and the first: Viyyur Central Prison is where the Kerala Prison Department is piloting its first artificial intelligence drone surveillance system.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Thermal imaging Imaging that reads differences in heat — It records heat rather than light, so it can show a moving person in darkness or smoke.
Background
The Kerala State Higher Education Council has brought out a pilot study on what college students in the State want from higher education. Its findings come from a survey called All Kerala Higher Education Survey on Student Aspirations, and the report is dated 2026. More than 2,500 responses were read, from students in six government and aided colleges. Of those who answered, 56.5% want a degree from a foreign university, and 42.4% intend to go on to doctoral work. Under the Four-Year Undergraduate Programme, 39.1% favoured the Honours and Research pathway, while 32.6% chose the Honours one. On the language of teaching, 88.6% wanted Malayalam and English used together. In short the council is called KSHEC, and the four-year degree route is written as FYUGP in its report.
Responses read:
more than 2,500
Wanting a foreign degree:
56.5%
Why it matters for exams: The higher education council of the State and the four-year degree route are both asked about in exams on education administration.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
KSHEC Kerala State Higher Education Council — The State level council that advises on and plans higher education in Kerala.
FYUGP Four-Year Undergraduate Programme — The four-year degree route in which a student may take Honours or Honours with Research.
Background
Contracts of 1,495 temporary staff who worked under the National Health Mission in the State have been ended. Those affected include doctors, nurses, pharmacists, lab technicians, and the staff who coordinate the work of the Accredited Social Health Activists in the field. The mission also runs Ashadhara, a project for haemophilia and other rare bleeding and clotting disorders. Special newborn units in district hospitals and urban health centres also lean on this staff. Ernakulam and Thrissur had the largest numbers affected, at 183 and 180. Staff under the mission are appointed for one year at a time, and this year the term was stretched twice.
Contracts ended:
contracts of 1,495 temporary staff
Project for rare disorders:
a project called Ashadhara
Why it matters for exams: The National Health Mission, the Accredited Social Health Activists under it and a State project like Ashadhara are all standard scheme questions.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
NHM National Health Mission — The centrally sponsored mission through which much of the staff and programmes of public health work are funded.
Ashadhara Ashadhara project — A project run through the mission for people with haemophilia and other rare bleeding disorders.
Background
A man listed as a known offender at a Kozhikode police station has been moved to the Kannur Central Prison, under an order of the District Collector, after a report from the police. KAAPA is the short name of the Kerala Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, the law used in such a case. Under that law a person can be held in preventive detention, which is a step for public order and not a punishment for a past offence. The same man had earlier been held for six months under Section 3(1) of that law. Before such an order is passed, a preliminary report comes from the local sub-inspector, and then a recommendation from the Deputy Commissioner of Police of the city. A person is first listed as a known offender at the police station that handles the cases. The cases in this instance were spread over stations in Kozhikode and Malappuram districts.
Short name of the Act:
known as KAAPA
Earlier spell inside:
six months under Section 3(1)
Why it matters for exams: KAAPA and the preventive detention power of a District Collector are regular questions in Kerala polity and police administration papers.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
KAAPA Kerala Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act — A State law under which a person repeatedly involved in certain offences can be kept in preventive detention.
preventive detention preventive detention — Holding a person to stop an expected act, rather than as punishment for an act already done.
Background
The Kerala High Court has refused an interim plea that sought to keep a former Chairman of the Bar Council of Kerala away from a function held as Executive Trustee of an advocates academy trust. The Bar Council of a State is a body under the Advocates Act, 1961 and the court has treated its elected character as part of the democratic scheme of that law. The newly elected XIII Bar Council of the State has since been constituted. The court had earlier stayed what the Chairman of the Bar Council of India had ordered, namely a Limited Interim Authority for the State body. It held that putting a former Chairman, no longer an elected member, on that authority went prima facie against the democratic scheme of that law. The academy is provided for in section 2(ab), and the law behind it is the Kerala Advocates Welfare Fund Act, 1980. Its trust deed makes the Chairman of the Bar Council of Kerala for the time being its Executive Trustee, with a special rule for the first ten years.
Law behind a State Bar Council:
an Advocates Act of 1961
Provision for the academy:
section 2(ab) of a 1980 Act
Why it matters for exams: The Advocates Act, 1961 and the Bar Council it sets up in each State come up every time a bar body reaches the courts.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
State Bar Council Bar Council of a State — The elected body that enrols advocates in a State and governs their conduct.
Executive Trustee Executive Trustee of a trust — The office holder who runs a trust under its trust deed.
Background
The Enforcement Directorate searched at least eleven places in the State and in Tamil Nadu in a case about a co-operative society. BLM is the short name of the Bharath Lajhna Multi State Co-operative Society, the body at the centre of that case. It began at Chennai in the year 2006 as a housing co-operative society. Its members are spread across Keralam, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, and the figures for its branches and members come only from accounts of the inquiry. The agency acts in such a matter under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, shortened to PMLA in practice. A society of this kind works in more than one State, and that is why those words sit in its very name. An inquiry by the Crime Branch of the State police is going on in the same matter. Searches were held in cities that include Kochi, Kozhikode and the Tamil Nadu capital.
Registered at:
Chennai, in the year 2006
Law the agency acts under:
Prevention of Money Laundering Act
Why it matters for exams: The money laundering law and the idea of a co-operative that works in several states are both standard economy and polity topics.
Kerala PSCUPSCBank
In plain words
PMLA Prevention of Money Laundering Act — The central law under which the Enforcement Directorate investigates the handling of money got from crime.
multi-State co-operative society multi-State co-operative society — A co-operative society whose area of work covers more than one State.
Background
Water taken from the Valapattanam river at Narath, Parassinikadavu and Pappinisseri has shown high levels of chemical pollutants and harmful bacteria. The test reports come from the Kerala State Pollution Control Board, which measures water and air quality for the government. The chemical oxygen demand is one of the measures used, and at Narath it stood at 3,584 milligrams per litre. The prescribed limit for wastewater discharge is 250 mg/L, so that reading was more than 14 times the limit. Near the Parassinikadavu temple, at a drainage outlet, the reading was 22,898 mg/L. The sample there also carried 27,000 colony-forming units of coliform bacteria in every 100 millilitres. A joint inspection was coordinated by the District Pollution Control Board, with local self-government institutions and health officials taking part. It had all begun with a complaint to the Environment Committee of the Kerala Legislative Assembly some years ago.
Reading at Narath:
chemical oxygen demand of 3,584 milligrams per litre
Prescribed limit:
a limit of 250 mg/L for wastewater discharge
Why it matters for exams: The pollution control board of a State, and the measures it uses such as chemical oxygen demand, come up in environment questions.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
chemical oxygen demand chemical oxygen demand — A measure of how much chemical pollution a sample of water carries.
coliform bacteria coliform bacteria — Bacteria counted in water tests, whose faecal kind points to human or animal waste.
Background
An elephant calf that cannot stand or walk has been flown out of Keralam to Vantara at Jamnagar, in Gujarat, for treatment. It had been found in an abandoned condition in forest under the Malayatoor division, and was then shifted to Abhayaranyam, an animal shelter of the Forest department. That shift was made as directed by the Chief Wildlife Warden, the officer who orders such steps for wild animals here. An expert committee was then constituted to watch the health of the calf. After a fall hurt its shoulder, its bones turned brittle, and the committee read the bone condition as one present from birth. The committee was of the view that a healthy recovery was doubtful, and it said the animal should be euthanised at an early date. The Chief Wildlife Warden then spoke to a specialist elephant veterinary doctor from Assam, and a doctor from Vantara examined the calf. Cochin International Airport Ltd, written in short as CIAL, handled the transfer at its cargo terminal.
Shelter it was kept in:
an animal shelter called Abhayaranyam
Flown to:
a centre at Jamnagar, in Gujarat
Why it matters for exams: The Chief Wildlife Warden is the office that carries wildlife powers in a state, and that is a steady question in environment papers.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Chief Wildlife Warden Chief Wildlife Warden — The senior officer in charge of wildlife in a State, whose directions govern the handling of wild animals.
Abhayaranyam Abhayaranyam animal shelter — A Forest department shelter in Kerala where rescued animals are kept and treated.
Background
A municipal wastewater treatment plant at Malappuram that has stayed idle since it was opened in 2020 is to be revived. The revival follows the approval of an upgrade project by the District Planning Committee, the body that clears the plan projects of local bodies in a district. Under the sanctioned plan, 50 lakh rupees comes from the Central Finance Commission tied grant. Another 50 lakh rupees from the basic grant will buy two tanker trucks, one to carry wastewater and one to supply treated water for reuse. The plant itself was built at a cost of 35 lakh rupees, and was opened during the term of an earlier municipal council. It went into use without the oil-and-grease separator unit needed for kitchen effluents, so it stayed idle from the start. A technical check put the cost of fitting an oil separator and allied works at about 25 lakh rupees. The project will now go for technical vetting, and after that to tender.
Grant for the upgrade:
a tied grant of 50 lakh rupees
Cost of the old plant:
about 35 lakh rupees
Why it matters for exams: The District Planning Committee and the two kinds of Finance Commission grant to local bodies are regular local government questions.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
District Planning Committee District Planning Committee — The district level body that consolidates and clears the plans of the local bodies in that district.
tied grant tied grant — A grant that may be spent only on the purposes stated for it, unlike a basic grant.
Background
Lanka, a small island in the Ezhikkara panchayat in North Paravur, is to get a community led project against high tide flooding. The project is named Resilient Lanka, and it is to be run by Equinoct with a new foundation named Happiness Project, under the panchayat. Keralam has treated high tide coastal flooding as a State-specific disaster, which lets the State pay relief to those hit by it. The work at Lanka grew out of five years of joint effort between Equinoct and the panchayat to record and measure tidal flooding. A Detailed Project Report, or DPR, is the first phase, and it is to be ready by the end of the year. The team has asked the State Planning Board to treat the pilot as a model for locally led climate adaptation. Short term measures are being worked out ahead of the tidal flooding expected in the coming days. The panchayat president has said that if it works the project will reach other parts of the panchayat hit by tidal flooding.
Project name:
a project named Resilient Lanka
First phase:
a Detailed Project Report by the year end
Why it matters for exams: A State-specific disaster is the category that decides who pays relief, and it is asked about in disaster management questions.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
State-specific disaster State-specific disaster — A kind of calamity a State itself lists as a disaster so that relief can be paid for it.
DPR Detailed Project Report — The document that sets out the works, costs and design of a project before it is taken up.
Background
Some 13 Adivasi families displaced after the 2024 Wayanad landslide are still waiting for houses of their own. Their homes were not damaged, but the area around their settlements was treated as a no-go zone, which means land unsuitable to live in. One of those settlements also falls in a red zone. Alternative land at Puthiyavillage in Meppadi has been allotted to them under the Forest Rights Act, 2006. Construction of the promised houses on that land is yet to begin. Some of the families now live in rented houses with government help, away from their forest surroundings and old work. Others have gone back to their forest land at Erattukundu, and one family stays on at Punchirimattam, not willing to leave the land of its forebears. At the township project built at Kalpetta for the survivors, 327 families have been allotted houses.
Families still waiting:
thirteen Adivasi families
Allotted land:
land at Puthiyavillage in Meppadi
Why it matters for exams: The Forest Rights Act, 2006 is the route through which forest land was allotted to these families, which makes it a frequent polity topic.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
no-go zone no-go zone — An area that officials have held unsuitable for people to live in after a disaster.
Forest Rights Act, 2006 Forest Rights Act, 2006 — The central law under which forest land is recognised and allotted for forest dwelling families.