8 November 2026
Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeted L. K. Advani as he entered his 100th year on 8 November. Advani holds the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award, and served as Deputy Prime Minister of India. The Prime Minister wrote that Advani rebuilt his life after the trauma of Partition, strengthened the Bharatiya Jana Sangh and helped build the Bharatiya Janata Party. He also recalled Advani's stand for democracy during the Emergency and the Rath Yatra he led from Somnath to Ayodhya. The Prime Minister noted Advani's interest in reading, culture and cinema and his work as a writer. The greeting was shared as an article and a post on social media.
Highest civilian award held:
Bharat Ratna
Office held:
Deputy Prime Minister of India
Why it matters for exams: L. K. Advani is a Bharat Ratna awardee and a former Deputy Prime Minister of India, and he led the Rath Yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya.
Kerala PSCUPSC
Background
India's newest navigation satellite has reached its working orbit, and the facts behind it are worth holding on to. NVS-03 is the third satellite of the next generation series built to keep the IRNSS navigation services running. A GSLV placed it in an orbit of 170.3 km by 38,080 km on 30 October at 23:51 hours. Four orbit raising manoeuvres followed, with the spacecraft's liquid apogee motor firing for 6,164 seconds in all. It now sits in a geosynchronous orbit of 35,765 km by 36,196 km, and the satellite's health is reported normal. The satellite carries an atomic clock built in India along with clocks bought from outside. It sends out signals in the L1, L5 and S bands, and its coverage takes in the Indian landmass and a belt reaching about 1,500 km beyond the country's borders.
Final orbit:
35,765 km x 36,196 km
Total engine burn:
6,164 seconds
Coverage beyond borders:
About 1,500 km
Why it matters for exams: NVS-03 belongs to the next generation series that continues the IRNSS navigation services, and it carries an atomic clock made in India.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
IRNSS Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System — India's own satellite navigation system, known in service as NavIC.
Background
With a new navigation satellite now working in orbit, the rocket that carried it is worth a closer look. The mission was flown by GSLV-F18, and this was the twentieth flight of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle. The vehicle lifted off from the Second Launch Pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, SHAR, which is India's spaceport on the Andhra Pradesh coast. Its payload was NVS-03, the third satellite of the next generation navigation series that keeps the IRNSS services going. The rocket released the satellite into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit, from which the satellite used its own engine to climb higher. The satellite adds an L1 signal to the L5 and S band signals of the earlier spacecraft, which makes it easier for ordinary receivers to use Indian navigation signals.
Flight number of the GSLV:
20th
Launch pad:
Second Launch Pad, Satish Dhawan Space Centre, SHAR
Orbit at separation:
Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit
Why it matters for exams: GSLV-F18 was the twentieth flight of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle and lifted off from the Second Launch Pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, SHAR.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
GSLV Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle — An Indian launch vehicle used to place satellites into geosynchronous transfer orbit.
Background
Behind every monetary policy decision sits a survey most people never see. The Reserve Bank runs the Inflation Expectations Survey of Households, and a fresh round of it has been opened. It is carried out in nineteen cities. Thiruvananthapuram is the one in Kerala, and the rest run from Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad in the south to Jammu, Chandigarh and Delhi in the north, with Mumbai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Patna, Ranchi, Raipur, Bhubaneswar, Bhopal, Nagpur, Jaipur, Lucknow and Ahmedabad on the list. It asks households what they think prices will do, judged against the goods they themselves buy. There are questions on whether prices will move over the next three months and the next year, both for prices in general and for particular groups of goods, and there are questions asking for a number for inflation now, in three months and in a year. The fieldwork is done through an agency, and people not approached by it may still answer using the published schedule. The results go into the making of monetary policy.
Cities covered:
19
Horizons asked about:
Three months and one year
Why it matters for exams: The Inflation Expectations Survey of Households is conducted by the Reserve Bank of India in 19 cities and its results feed into monetary policy.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
IESH Inflation Expectations Survey of Households — A regular Reserve Bank survey that records what households expect prices to do.
Background
The Reserve Bank's weekly data releases are in the news all the time, so the shape of the institution behind them matters. The Reserve Bank of India began work on 1 April 1935, and the law that created it is the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934. Its central office was first in Kolkata and was shifted for good to Mumbai in 1937, and that is where the Governor sits and policy is framed. The Bank is the monetary authority, with price stability as its main aim while keeping growth in view. It also regulates and supervises banks and the payment and settlement systems, manages foreign exchange under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999, issues and withdraws currency notes, and acts as banker to the government and to scheduled banks. Its Central Board is appointed by the Union government for four years, and includes the Governor, up to four Deputy Governors, ten nominated directors, two government officials and four directors drawn one from each local board.
Established:
1 April 1935
Governing Act:
Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934
Term of the Central Board:
Four years
Why it matters for exams: The Reserve Bank of India was established on 1 April 1935 under the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, and its central office moved permanently to Mumbai in 1937.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
FEMA Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 — The law under which the Reserve Bank administers India's foreign exchange transactions.
Background
Investor protection keeps coming up as the securities market regulator signs fresh tie-ups on investor education, so the body itself is worth knowing. The Securities and Exchange Board of India first came into being through a resolution of the Government of India, and at that stage it had no statute behind it. It was given statutory standing a few years later. The law that governs it is the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, and the Act is numbered 15 of 1992. Its preamble sets out the basic purpose of the Board, which is to protect the interests of investors in securities. Alongside that, the Board is charged with developing the securities market and with regulating it, together with matters connected to those two tasks. So the regulator is best remembered by three things: a non-statutory start by executive resolution, a statutory footing under its own Act, and a preamble built around the investor.
Governing Act:
Securities and Exchange Board of India Act (15 of 1992)
Basic function in the preamble:
To protect the interests of investors in securities
Why it matters for exams: SEBI is governed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, numbered 15 of 1992, and its preamble names the protection of investors in securities as its basic function.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
SEBI Securities and Exchange Board of India — The statutory regulator of India's securities market.
Background
With Indian launch vehicles flying regularly again, the human spaceflight programme behind them bears a closer look. Gaganyaan is meant to show that India can send people to orbit and bring them home safely. The planned flight carries a crew of three and lasts three days. The spacecraft is to circle the Earth in low Earth orbit at a height of about 400 km, and the crew module is to come down in Indian sea waters. The rocket for it is the Human Rated LVM3, a reworked version of the heavy lift LVM3, and it carries a Crew Escape System of fast burning solid motors that can pull the crew module clear if something goes wrong on the pad or during the climb. The spacecraft itself is an Orbital Module made of a Crew Module, which is the habitable part with life support and a heat shield, and a Service Module holding propulsion, power and thermal systems. Demonstration flights before it include the Integrated Air Drop Test, the Pad Abort Test and Test Vehicle flights.
Crew size:
Three
Mission duration:
Three days
Orbit height:
About 400 km
Why it matters for exams: Gaganyaan plans a three member crew for three days in a low Earth orbit of about 400 km, flown on the Human Rated LVM3 with a Crew Escape System.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
HLVM3 Human Rated LVM3 — The crew rated version of ISRO's LVM3 heavy lift launch vehicle.
Background
India's space agency has been busy with launches, and it is also a standing member of the main space forum of this region. The Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum held its thirty-second session at Bangkok in Thailand, and ISRO is a founding member of the forum. The session was put together by Thailand's Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency along with Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Its theme was Bridging the Asia-Pacific: Advancing a Trusted and Inclusive Space Future. The Indian delegation was led by Dr Ch. V. N. Rao, Director of the Space Applications Centre at Ahmedabad. India took part in the forum's working groups on satellite applications for societal benefit, space education for all, space frontier and space sustainability, and held bilateral meetings with Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Kazakhstan and the European Space Agency. The next session is to meet at Fukuoka in Japan.
Session held:
Thirty-second
Host city:
Bangkok, Thailand
Next session:
Fukuoka, Japan
Why it matters for exams: ISRO is a founding member of the Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum, whose thirty-second session met at Bangkok and whose next session goes to Fukuoka in Japan.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
APRSAF Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum — A regional forum of space agencies of the Asia-Pacific, which ISRO helped found.
JAXA Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency — Japan's national space agency.