Current affairs — 1 September 2026

Prelims pointers

• The Kerala High Court treated the State government as the owner and custodian of wild animals for compensating attack victims.
• Justice C.P. Mohammed Nias dismissed the appeal filed by the Kurichiyadu Range Wildlife Warden and other Forest authorities.
• The Kerala Rules for Payment of Compensation to Victims of Attack by Wild Animals, 1980, provided ₹20,000 in this case.
• The High Court held that the 1980 Rules form an ex gratia scheme and are not the sole remedy for a citizen’s loss or injury.
• The lower court found no power fencing lines or trenches along the forest boundary at the site of the elephant-attack case.

Prelims pointers

• The Variable Rate Reverse Repo auction was scheduled for Tuesday, September 1, 2026.
• The notified amount for the VRRR auction was ₹6,00,000 crore.
• The liquidity operation had a tenor of seven days and a reversal date of September 8, 2026.
• The auction window was fixed from 9:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.
• The operational guidelines cited were those in Reserve Bank Press Release 2019-2020/1947 dated February 13, 2020.

Prelims pointers

• SIR phase three covered 16 States and three Union Territories; draft rolls were still awaited for Nagaland and Tripura.
• Of 36.08 crore names on the earlier rolls, 29.93 crore were retained and 6.15 crore, or 17.04%, were removed in drafts published so far.
• Delhi had the highest deletion percentage at 32.78%, while Maharashtra had the largest absolute deletion at 2.06 crore.
• The ECI permits claims and objections for draft-roll additions and deletions, as well as applications for registration of new voters.
• Assam underwent a ‘special revision’ instead of SIR because of legal issues concerning the National Register of Citizens.

Prelims pointers

• Narendra Modi and Masoud Pezeshkian met in Bishkek on August 31, 2026, on the sidelines of the SCO summit.
• The report called this the first top-level India–Iran meeting since the war on Iran began in February 2026.
• Modi called for lasting peace and freedom of navigation and commerce, including protection for commercial shipping and seafarers.
• Pezeshkian asked India to use its extensive contacts with different parties to help the dialogue process.
• Modi said India and Iran wanted to expand and diversify trade and looked forward to welcoming Pezeshkian to the upcoming BRICS summit in India.

Prelims pointers

• Tamil Nadu used the price stabilisation fund to procure onions for sale through fair price shops to reduce open-market prices.
• NAFED obtained A-grade onions under instructions from the Government of India.
• A goods train carrying 850 tonnes of onions from Nashik arrived at the Korukkupet Railway Goods Shed.
• The onions were assigned to 21 districts; Chennai and Tiruchi were allotted 75 tonnes each and Coimbatore 100 tonnes.
• The Tamil Nadu Consumers’ Cooperative Federation was told to ensure timely fair-price-shop supply, likely at ₹35 per kg.

Prelims pointers

• India’s vulture population fell 99.5% by 2007 from about four crore in the 1980s, severely affecting three named vulture species.
• Diclofenac damages vulture kidneys; additional 2023 bans addressed aceclofenac and ketoprofen among other NSAIDs.
• A 2025 official survey reported that vultures were nesting at only 50% of their historic nesting sites.
• A study reported that moving a livestock carcass dump 2.4 km away from high-tension lines near Dehradun may have prevented electrocution.
• Risk-reduction measures include conductor insulation, wider gaps between components, safe perches and separating feeding sites from power lines.

Prelims pointers

• Article 41 directs the State, within its economic capacity and development, to make effective provision for securing the right to work.
• MGNREGA offered up to 100 days of work per rural household before its replacement by the VB-GRAM G Act in December 2025.
• The VB-GRAM G Act began implementation on July 1; the article reports a 68% July-August employment decline against the preceding five-year average.
• Olga Tellis v. Bombay Municipal Corporation (1985) treated the right to livelihood as necessary for the fundamental right to life.
• Sanjit Roy v. State of Rajasthan (1983) held that payment below minimum wages violates Article 23 and is akin to forced labour.

Prelims pointers

• Myristica swamp plants include pneumatophores and stilt roots adapted to waterlogged freshwater conditions.
• The swamps recharge groundwater, maintain perennial stream flow, moderate floods and filter silt, sediment and pollutants.
• Freshwater swamp forests occupy no more than 2.1% of Earth’s surface; Myristica genetic variety is described as 500 million years old.
• Kerala’s Myristica swamps are now limited to 53 patches in Shendurney Wildlife Sanctuary, Anchal and Kulathupuzha forest areas.
• Recommended measures include habitat protection, hydrological restoration, biodiversity documentation, community monitoring and DNA barcoding.

Prelims pointers

• A UPI ID is an alias for a bank account: the text before ‘@’ identifies the user alias and the text after it identifies the bank.
• NPCI operates UPI and provides switching and routing infrastructure connecting about 730 participating banks.
• A UPI PIN authenticates the sender before the sender’s bank checks funds, limits, validity and possible fraud.
• UPI was built as an interoperable layer over IMPS and was piloted by RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan with 21 banks in April 2016.
• UPI 2.0 added overdraft-account linking, mandates, invoice verification, signed QR codes and enhanced autopayments in mid-2018.

Prelims pointers

• UPI processed a record 24.51 billion transactions in August 2026, compared with 23.66 billion in July.
• August UPI transaction value was ₹29.82 lakh crore, up 20% from ₹24.85 lakh crore a year earlier.
• UPI volume rose 22% year-on-year from 19.63 billion to 24.51 billion transactions in August.
• NPCI is an RBI and Indian Banks’ Association initiative that operates retail payment and settlement systems.
• UPI was accepted in 11 countries, with Uzbekistan reported as the latest addition to the overseas network.

Prelims pointers

• UNEP estimates that 2.7 billion people lack waste collection worldwide, including 2 billion people in rural areas.
• CPCB data put India’s daily waste generation at 1.7 lakh tonnes, with 22% landfilled and 17% unaccounted for.
• Majuli now collects garbage in 19 of 20 panchayats and has collected 82.4 tonnes since 2024.
• Twenty-six Arunachal villages organised more than 150 Swachchata Divas and collected 30 tonnes of waste.
• The Arunachal model charges households ₹50 monthly and shops and cafes ₹100 to support operations.

Prelims pointers

• The University of Wisconsin-Madison study analysed more than 100,000 recordings representing 77% of known bird species.
• The research was led by H.S. Sathya Chandra Sagar and published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
• Birds in habitats with rushing water or dense vegetation tended to use higher-frequency sounds above low-frequency background noise.
• Smaller birds generally produce higher-frequency sounds and wider frequency ranges, while larger birds make lower-frequency calls.
• Loss of low-frequency calls from a soundscape can indicate declining large birds, overhunting or environmental degradation.

Prelims pointers

• The study analysed more than one lakh recordings from over 3,000 passerine bird species worldwide using machine learning.
• Eight motifs were identified: three trills, three whistles, atonal chaotic notes and harmonic stacks.
• The three trill types were slow, fast and ultrafast; the whistle types were flat, slow-modulated and fast-modulated.
• Bird species used between one and all eight motifs, with an average of five motifs per species.
• Tropical rainforest birds tended to use simpler songs, while temperate-region birds tended toward complex, information-rich songs.

Prelims pointers

• Gross GST collections increased 14.8% year-on-year to about ₹2 lakh crore in August 2026.
• GST revenue from domestic transactions rose 9.3% to more than ₹1.37 lakh crore during August.
• Revenue from imports increased 29% to ₹62,604 crore, outpacing growth in domestic-transaction revenue.
• Gross Central GST was ₹38,413 crore, State GST ₹46,316 crore and Integrated GST more than ₹1.15 lakh crore.
• Refunds rose 68% to ₹31,795 crore, leaving net GST collection at ₹1.68 lakh crore, up 8.3%.

Prelims pointers

• Additional Secretary Darpan Jain, India’s chief negotiator for the India-U.S. bilateral trade agreement, chaired the exporters’ meeting.
• India and the U.S. announced a framework for the trade pact’s first phase in February, followed by further tariff-related negotiations.
• The U.S. imposed an additional 10% tariff on several countries, including India, from July 24.
• India-U.S. total trade rose 6.53% to $140.76 billion in 2025-26 from $132.2 billion in 2024-25.
• India’s trade surplus with the U.S. narrowed to $33.9 billion in 2025-26 from $40.9 billion a year earlier.

Prelims pointers

• More than 1,000 bodies had been recovered and nearly 4,500 people were missing in Nepal and across the Chinese border in Tibet.
• Nepal’s Foreign Minister sought international support from a climate-justice perspective rather than only as aid or charity.
• Nepal’s largely rural population is about 30 million and contributes a fraction of industrialised countries’ greenhouse-gas emissions.
• Himalayan and Hindu Kush glaciers supply water to about 240 million mountain residents and 1.65 billion people in downstream valleys.
• The glacial-collapse disaster increased urgency for faster cross-border data-sharing mechanisms to warn of similar catastrophes.

Prelims pointers

• Tamil Nadu completed the Houselisting operations under Phase 1 of Census 2027 in August 2026.
• About 1.5 lakh officials participated in Phase 1, including about 1.15 lakh enumerators.
• District Census Handbook data will cover roads, hospitals and educational institutions in revenue villages and towns.
• Field-level functionaries will train in September-October and collect data from October 16 to November 15, 2026.
• Phase 2 of Census 2027 is scheduled across Tamil Nadu in February 2027.

Prelims pointers

• India’s LPG consumption fell 16.2% year-on-year in August to 2.424 million metric tonnes, according to provisional government data.
• PNGRB data showed piped natural gas connections rising 36% between April and June to 4.61 lakh.
• Diesel consumption rose 6.5% year-on-year to more than 7 million metric tonnes, supported by irrigation and generator use.
• Petrol consumption increased 7.9% year-on-year to around 3.83 million metric tonnes as mobility and commuting picked up.
• India recorded its seventh-lowest August rainfall since 2001 during the period covered by the fuel-demand data.

Prelims pointers

• The CVC report listed 7,229 CBI-probed corruption cases pending trial as of December 31, 2025.
• Of the pending trials, 2,447 had lasted over 10 and up to 20 years, while 409 exceeded 20 years.
• The report recorded 473 corruption cases pending CBI investigation, including 39 for over five years.
• The CVC said CBI investigations are expected to be completed within one year of case registration.
• In 2025, the CBI registered 615 corruption-related cases involving 855 public servants, including 237 gazetted officers.

Prelims pointers

• India placed the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance after the Pahalgam terror attack in April of the previous year killed 26 civilians.
• Pakistan approached the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in March 2026 to determine the treaty's status.
• Pakistan is set to chair the SCO Council of Heads of State for 2026–27 and host the next summit in Islamabad.
• Pakistan proposed an SCO framework for sovereign AI infrastructure and governance under its forthcoming chairmanship.
• The proposed chairmanship priorities include IT and AI, energy, poverty reduction, disaster management, health, culture and sports.

Prelims pointers

• The SCO members listed are China, Russia, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus.
• The SCO headquarters is in Beijing, and China founded the organisation with Russia and Central Asian states.
• The Shanghai Spirit comprises mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for diverse civilisations and common development.
• China proposed increasing photovoltaic and wind installed capacity with SCO partners by 10 million kilowatts each.
• China proposed 100 technology-cooperation projects with other SCO countries during the next three years.

Prelims pointers

• The Ministry of Jal Shakti’s Departmental Summit was held over September 1–2, 2026.
• The summit was the first in a proposed series designed to deepen cooperative federalism and Centre–State collaboration.
• One focus area was Jal Sanchay Jan Bhagidari–Catch the Rain and public participation in water conservation.
• Drinking-water source sustainability formed a separate core area of the summit agenda.
• The agenda included operation and maintenance of rural drinking-water schemes under Jal Jeevan Mission 2.0.

Prelims pointers

• PM-DDKY covers 100 districts identified through low productivity, low cropping intensity and low agricultural-credit disbursement.
• The scheme converges 36 Central schemes administered by 11 Ministries and Departments, alongside State schemes and private participation.
• Its monitoring framework has 121 indicators: 74 output indicators and 47 outcome indicators.
• The average score of the 100 districts rose from 22.54 in April 2026 to 38.85 in July 2026.
• The Union Cabinet approved PM-DDKY on July 16, 2025, and the Prime Minister launched it on October 11, 2025.

Prelims pointers

• Ahmedabad became India’s third international Hub & Spoke airport after Varanasi and Amritsar.
• Varanasi began Hub & Spoke operations on June 25, 2026, followed by Amritsar on July 28, 2026.
• Passengers complete check-in, immigration and customs at the originating international spoke airport.
• The strategy targets India as the preferred aviation hub for Indian travellers by 2030 and a leading global hub by 2047.
• The Ministry said Hub & Spoke connectivity would next extend to 22 more airports in the phase, including Surat.

Prelims pointers

• DGFT enabled automated issuance of eligible Free Sale and Commerce Certificates on its portal.
• These certificates are issued under the Foreign Trade Policy for items outside the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.
• Regional Authorities previously issued the certificates after scrutiny and verification.
• Applications requiring verification or failing automated parameters may still be routed for manual processing.
• Auto-approved applications can later be flagged to a Regional Authority under risk-management parameters.

Prelims pointers

• India Post Payments Bank was launched on September 1, 2018, under the Department of Posts, Ministry of Communication.
• IPPB is owned entirely by the Government of India and uses the India Post network for last-mile services.
• As of March 31, 2026, IPPB had 13.25 crore customers; 77% were rural and 49% were women.
• The DakPay Sound Box was launched to simplify digital-payment acceptance for merchants.
• IPPB’s Digital Insurance Technology Platform covers opportunities across life, health and general insurance.

Prelims pointers

• Estimated paddy procurement for Kharif Marketing Season 2026–27 was fixed at 708.64 LMT.
• The New Storage Policy envisages 131 LMT of additional capacity: 111 LMT by States and 20 LMT by FCI.
• SARTHAK-PDS is a 2026–31 umbrella scheme linking intra-State foodgrain movement and FPS dealer margins with SMART-PDS.
• PDS e-KYC coverage stood at 90.64% as of July 30, 2026.
• Section 29 of the NFSA, 2013 was cited for constituting and operating Vigilance Committees.

Prelims pointers

• Onion-buffer disposal under the Price Stabilization Fund began on August 24, 2026, through NAFED and NCCF.
• The first Kanda Express carried 450 MT from Nashik and reached Delhi late on August 27, 2026.
• The second Kanda Express carried 840 MT and reached Chennai on August 31, 2026.
• Retail onions were offered at ₹35 per kg through NCCF, NAFED, Kendriya Bhandar and mobile vans.
• The Government reported direct payment of ₹210 crore to around 3,400 farmers.

Prelims pointers

• Swachh Sagar, Surakshit Sagar 5.0 is led by the Ministry of Earth Sciences.
• The fifth edition is scheduled as a week-long campaign from September 12 to September 19, 2026.
• The campaign plans major beach clean-up drives at more than 100 locations across the country.
• The 2026 edition includes the first national Ocean Olympiad for students and youth.
• Citizen participation channels include the Ocean Pledge, the campaign website and the SAGAR PRAHARI application.

Prelims pointers

• The annual review covered 16 Defence Public Sector Undertakings on September 1, 2026.
• India’s 2025–26 defence production was reported at about ₹1.8 lakh crore.
• DPSUs contributed ₹1.29 lakh crore to the reported defence-production total for 2025–26.
• Seven DPSUs presented dividend cheques totalling ₹3,951 crore for Government equity shares.
• The review covered indigenous production, advanced technologies, exports, supply chains and major-project execution.

Prelims pointers

• The dealer stock limit was reduced from 4,000 quintals to 2,000 quintals from September 15, 2026.
• The reduced limit remains effective through November 30, 2026.
• Dealers may not hold sugar stock for more than 30 days from its date of receipt.
• Kolkata and its extended metropolitan areas retain a 4,000-quintal stock limit.
• Sugar stocks must be regularly declared and updated through the Department of Food and Public Distribution’s portal.

Prelims pointers

• The 26th SCO Council of Heads of State meeting was held in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic, from August 31 to September 1, 2026.
• The 2026 meeting marked the 25th anniversary of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
• India described Security, Connectivity and Opportunity as the three pillars of its SCO vision.
• The summit adopted the Bishkek Declaration, four MoUs, and more than twenty decisions and statements.
• India offered to host the first edition of the SCO Civilisation Dialogue Forum later in 2026.

Prelims pointers

• The Pacific Islands Forum comprises 18 member states and territories; China, the United States and Taiwan are not members.
• China holds dialogue-partner status with the forum, while Taiwan is registered as a development partner.
• Palau is among 11 countries and the Vatican that recognise Taiwan, which Beijing claims as part of China.
• The forum's annual gathering has expanded into a summit attended by about 2,000 people amid growing external interest.
• Forum foreign ministers failed to reach consensus on criticising China's July ballistic-missile launch into the South Pacific Ocean.

Prelims pointers

• India's data-centre capacity grew from 520 MW in 2020 to nearly 1.5 GW and is projected to reach 6.5 GW by 2030.
• Data-centre electricity demand is projected to rise from about 13 TWh in 2024 to roughly 57 TWh by 2030.
• A 100 MW data centre consumes about two million litres of water daily, approximately the daily use of 6,500 households.
• India's data centres used an estimated 150 billion litres of water in 2024-25; annual use is projected at 358 billion litres by 2030.
• A March 2026 Cambridge study found an average 2°C rise in land surface temperature within a 10 km radius of data centres.

Prelims pointers

• Malaysia's first repatriation phase was planned to return 1,476 Myanmar refugees on September 29, according to its Home Ministry.
• Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim had said Myanmar agreed to repatriate 5,000 Rohingya from Malaysia.
• UNHCR said customary international law bars sending people to a country where their rights or freedoms may be at risk.
• UNHCR said refugee return must be voluntary, informed and conducted under conditions of safety and dignity.
• Malaysia hosted about 193,800 refugees from Myanmar as of February, including Rohingya and Chin people, according to UNHCR data.

Prelims pointers

• India’s current-account deficit was US$4.2 billion, or 0.5% of GDP, in Q1:2026-27.
• The merchandise trade deficit widened to US$86.1 billion from US$68.9 billion a year earlier.
• Net services receipts increased to US$51.6 billion, led by growth in computer, business and transportation services.
• Personal transfer receipts, mainly overseas-worker remittances, rose to US$42.9 billion from US$33.2 billion.
• Net FDI was US$6.1 billion, whereas foreign portfolio investment posted a US$9.6-billion net outflow.

Prelims pointers

• U.S. Central Command said the September 1 strikes followed attempted IRGC attacks on commercial shipping and American personnel in the region.
• The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow waterway off Iran's coast through which 20% of the world's oil normally flows, according to the article.
• The June interim U.S.-Iran arrangement called for an immediate ceasefire and a 60-day period for negotiations, but soon collapsed.
• U.S. Central Command said its preceding Sunday strikes targeted Iranian rocket launchers intended to launch sea mines into the strait.
• Crude prices were about 7% higher during the week and more than 50% higher over the year amid renewed hostilities.

Prelims pointers

• On a BoP basis excluding valuation effects, reserves fell by US$8.1 billion in April-June 2026.
• Including valuation effects, foreign-exchange reserves declined by US$22.5 billion in April-June 2026.
• The valuation change was minus US$14.4 billion in April-June 2026, against plus US$25.3 billion a year earlier.
• Net FDI was US$6.1 billion, while portfolio investment recorded a US$9.6-billion outflow in April-June 2026.
• The current-account balance was minus US$4.2 billion and the net capital account was minus US$3.9 billion.