5 November 2026
The Reserve Bank of India has reviewed the instructions it has issued over the years on Priority Sector Lending and has released drafts that pull them together. Instead of one common set, it proposes a separate Direction for each kind of regulated entity. Five drafts are out for comment, each called the Priority Sector Lending - Targets and Classification Directions, 2026, covering commercial banks, small finance banks, local area banks, regional rural banks and urban co-operative banks. Once the final Directions are issued, older instructions left out of them will stand repealed, and the Reserve Bank says it will notify those separately. Comments may be sent up to November 26, 2026, either through the Connect 2 Regulate section of the Reserve Bank website or by email to the Financial Inclusion and Development Department.
Draft Directions released:
5
Last date for comments:
November 26, 2026
Why it matters for exams: The durable fact is that the Reserve Bank of India regulates Priority Sector Lending and is moving to entity-wise Directions named Priority Sector Lending - Targets and Classification Directions, 2026.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
PSL Priority Sector Lending — The share of bank credit the Reserve Bank requires to go to listed sectors such as agriculture and small enterprises.
6 November 2026
The Reserve Bank of India has released the provisional results of its annual census on foreign liabilities and assets of Indian direct investment entities for 2025-26. The census covers companies, limited liability partnerships, alternative investment funds and partnership firms that hold inward or outward direct investment. In all, 43,123 entities reported, of which 36,168 reported inward direct investment. At end-March 2026 the market value of inward foreign direct investment stood at Rs 70,71,945 crore, against Rs 16,71,463 crore for overseas direct investment, so inward holdings were 4.2 times outward. The United States was the largest source of inward direct investment with a 16.5 per cent share, followed by Mauritius, Singapore and the United Kingdom. By market value, manufacturing accounted for 50.1 per cent of foreign direct investment equity and services for 45 per cent.
Entities reporting:
43,123
Market value of inward FDI:
₹70,71,945 crore
Largest source country:
United States (16.5 per cent)
Why it matters for exams: The durable fact is that the Reserve Bank of India conducts the annual Foreign Liabilities and Assets census, and that the United States led inward direct investment in the 2025-26 round.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
FLA Foreign Liabilities and Assets — The annual return through which Indian entities report their cross-border liabilities and assets to the Reserve Bank.
ODI Overseas Direct Investment — Direct investment made by Indian entities in businesses outside India.
6 November 2026
India and the European Union have finished negotiating India's association to Horizon Europe, the European Union's research and innovation programme, which carries a budget of EUR 93.5 billion and runs to 2027. Association is the closest form of research cooperation the European Union offers a country outside the bloc: an associated country takes part on the same terms as member states and pays into the programme budget. India's association will be to Pillar II, titled Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness, the largest part of the programme, which funds work on health, digital technology, industry, space, climate, energy and the bioeconomy. Indian researchers, companies and research organisations will be able to draw funding directly and to lead collaborative projects. Ekaterina Zaharieva, the European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, said the agreement opens new opportunities for business on both sides. Once signed and ratified, the association is expected to take effect in January 2027.
Programme budget:
EUR 93.5 billion
Pillar India joins:
Pillar II
Expected to take effect:
January 2027
Why it matters for exams: The durable fact is that Horizon Europe is the European Union's research and innovation programme, that India has concluded association negotiations for its Pillar II, and that Ekaterina Zaharieva is the European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Horizon Europe European Union research and innovation framework programme — The European Union's main funding programme for research and innovation, running from 2021 to 2027.
6 November 2026
A Supreme Court bench of Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Vipul M. Pancholi has directed that show-cause notice go to every office bearer of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee, not only to its President Sunny Joseph, in a suo motu matter registered as a writ petition. The notices ask why proceedings under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 should not be initiated over a social media post of 12 October 2026 that sought the resignation of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant. Counsel accepted notice and waived service for the office bearers, but the Court still asked its Registry to serve each of them, a group counsel put at more than forty. The Supreme Court's power to punish for contempt of itself comes from Article 129 of the Constitution, which makes it a court of record. An amicus curiae has been appointed to advise whether civil or criminal contempt should be taken up.
Bench:
Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Vipul M. Pancholi
Statute invoked:
Contempt of Courts Act, 1971
Why it matters for exams: The durable fact is that contempt of the Supreme Court is dealt with under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 and Article 129 of the Constitution, which makes the Supreme Court a court of record.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Amicus curiae Friend of the court — A lawyer appointed by a court to assist it on a question, rather than to represent a party.
KPCC Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee — The State unit of the Indian National Congress in Kerala.
6 November 2026
The Supreme Court has issued notice to the news portal NewsClick and its founder Prabir Purkayastha on a plea by the Enforcement Directorate. The Directorate is challenging an order of the Delhi High Court that quashed a case registered against them under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. The notice means the Court will hear whether the High Court was right to end the proceedings. The Enforcement Directorate is the agency under the Department of Revenue in the Union Ministry of Finance that investigates offences of money laundering and violations of foreign exchange law. Under the 2002 Act, proceeds of crime traced to a scheduled offence may be attached and the accused prosecuted before a Special Court. The matter now joins a line of appeals in which the Supreme Court is examining how far a High Court may halt an investigation under that Act at the threshold.
Statute involved:
Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002
Order challenged:
Delhi High Court quashing the case
Why it matters for exams: The durable fact is that money laundering in India is prosecuted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 by the Enforcement Directorate, which works under the Department of Revenue in the Ministry of Finance.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
PMLA Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 — The law under which proceeds of crime may be attached and money laundering prosecuted in a Special Court.
ED Enforcement Directorate — The agency under the Department of Revenue that enforces money laundering and foreign exchange laws.
5 November 2026
The Supreme Court has set aside a criminal case against the office bearers of a school after a girl died when a pillar on the premises collapsed. The bench held that a conviction for causing death by a rash or negligent act requires the death to be the direct result of that act, and that a remote or indirect link is not enough. Section 304A of the Indian Penal Code punishes causing the death of any person by doing a rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide. The Court expressed pain at the death but found the material did not connect the office bearers' conduct to it in the direct way the provision demands. The ruling restates a standard that courts apply across accident and building collapse prosecutions, where negligence must be both established and proximate before criminal liability follows.
Provision considered:
Section 304A, Indian Penal Code
Why it matters for exams: The durable fact is that Section 304A of the Indian Penal Code punishes causing death by a rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide, and that the death must be the direct result of that act.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
IPC Indian Penal Code — India's general criminal code, under which Section 304A deals with death by negligence.
6 November 2026
The Supreme Court has held that planned cultivation of a commercial crop inside a forest cannot be treated as a forest right under the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006. The case concerns encroachments in the Megamalai area of Tamil Nadu, part of the Srivilliputhur-Megamalai Tiger Reserve. The State had argued that silk cotton grown there could count as minor forest produce. The Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta took the prima facie view that Section 3(1)(c) protects the collection of minor forest produce, which must occur naturally, and not a planted cash crop. It asked the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) to examine whether silk cotton can be minor forest produce. People who only cultivate there, while living outside the forest or staying only temporarily, were excluded from FRA claims. The Court set up a Special Committee under former Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai to scrutinise the claims.
Law:
Forest Rights Act, 2006
Provision:
Section 3(1)(c)
Committee head:
Former CJI B.R. Gavai
Why it matters for exams: The Forest Rights Act, 2006, its Section 3(1)(c) on minor forest produce and India's tiger reserves are regular Polity and Environment questions.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
FRA Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 — The law that recognises the land and forest rights of forest-dwelling communities.
Minor forest produce — Non-timber produce of plant origin, such as bamboo, honey or tendu leaves, gathered from forests.
OTFD Other Traditional Forest Dwellers — Non-tribal forest dwellers who must show three generations of residence to claim rights under the FRA.
7 November 2026
Indian diplomat Shivani Gupta has been elected to the United Nations' Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ). Her term covers 2027-2029 and starts in January 2027. India's Permanent Mission to the UN announced the result and thanked member states for their support. The ACABQ is a subsidiary organ of the General Assembly. It has 21 members, chosen by the Assembly to serve in their individual capacity rather than as country delegates. Members serve three-year terms, picked with broad geographical representation in mind. The committee examines the UN's budget and resource proposals so that member states' contributions are used with accountability.
Term:
2027-2029
Members:
21
Why it matters for exams: UN bodies such as the ACABQ, their size and the General Assembly committee they serve are standard International Organisations questions.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSCBank
In plain words
ACABQ Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions — A 21-member expert body of the UN General Assembly that reviews the UN budget.
Permanent Mission — A country's standing diplomatic office at the United Nations, headed by its Permanent Representative.
6 November 2026
The Indian Air Force (IAF) has announced that an IL-76MD transport aircraft landed at the Mudh-Nyoma airbase in eastern Ladakh. The airfield sits at 13,629 feet, making this the highest-altitude landing by the aircraft anywhere in the world. Nyoma lies about 25 km from the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China and opened as an airbase a year ago. The IL-76, known in the IAF as 'Gajraj', is a Russian-origin four-engine heavy-lift aircraft that can carry 40-45 tonnes, including tanks. India bought 17 of these aircraft in the 1980s. Lighter aircraft have landed higher before: a C-130J touched down at Daulat Beg Oldie, at 16,614 ft, in 2013. The landing shows that heavy loads can now be flown right up to the border.
Altitude:
13,629 feet
Distance from LAC:
25 km
Payload:
40-45 tonnes
Why it matters for exams: Ladakh airfields such as Nyoma and Daulat Beg Oldie, the LAC and IAF aircraft names are frequent Defence and Geography questions.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
LAC Line of Actual Control — The de facto border between India and China.
ALG Advanced Landing Ground — A small forward airstrip used by the military near the border.