Current affairs — 3 October 2026

Prelims pointers

• Air Marshal Jasvir Singh Mann, Southern Air Command’s AOC-in-C, reviewed the LCA AF Mk-II and Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft programmes in Bengaluru.
• ADA is to execute AMCA through industry partnership; three shortlisted groups include L&T-BEL, Tata Advanced Systems and the Bharat Forge-BEML consortium.
• The fifth-generation AMCA is described as a stealth-fighter programme expected to enter Indian Air Force service in the next decade.
• The Defence Ministry signed a ₹48,000 crore contract with HAL in February 2021 for 73 Tejas Mk-1A fighters and 10 Mk-1 trainer aircraft.
• The 83-aircraft contract envisaged delivery within eight years: three aircraft in the third year and 16 annually during each of the next five years.

Prelims pointers

• The Special Intensive Revision deleted over 47 lakh electoral-roll entries in Bihar and nearly 91 lakh in West Bengal.
• Deepak Chauhan was marked absent, last voted in the 2024 Lok Sabha election and could not vote in Bihar's 2025 Assembly election.
• The family of Border Security Force personnel Sunil Sah was using Form 6 to seek registration after his name was deleted as already registered.
• S.K. Riaz said a discrepancy in his father's name led to tribunal adjudication and affected his family's access to its full ration entitlement.
• Hazera Bibi was marked unmapped because her father was absent from the 2002 SIR list, although his name appeared in the 1995 and 1971 SIR records.

Prelims pointers

• The 2026 rules empower the National Tribunals Commission to appoint chairpersons and members to 16 tribunals and appellate bodies.
• The process for filling a tribunal vacancy must begin at least six months before the vacancy arises.
• The Delhi-headquartered commission will have a chairperson and four members, comprising two judicial and two technical members.
• A retired Supreme Court judge or a retired Chief Justice of a High Court is qualified to chair the commission.
• Monthly remuneration is ₹2.5 lakh for the commission chairperson and ₹2.25 lakh for commission members, with similar tribunal pay subject to exceptions.

Prelims pointers

• The standardised names were placed on the official Survey of India map after consultation with the Union Territory administration of Ladakh.
• Parpik and Skamri Glacier were classified as glaciers, while Chapchingal Pass and Shachmirk Pass were identified as passes.
• Shkorga was identified as a valley, Yangpa as a river, Guru Rinpoche as a lake and Hot Spring as another water body.
• The report describes the Line of Actual Control as 3,488 km long and notes differences in perceptions of its alignment.
• The report dates the Pangong Tso north-bank clashes to May 5, 2020 and the violent Galwan clash to June 15, 2020.

Prelims pointers

• Bandhavgarh was declared a tiger reserve in 1993 after functioning as a national park for several decades.
• The reserve covers 1,536 sq km and is divided almost equally into core and buffer zones.
• The last population census recorded 164 tigers at Bandhavgarh, including 35 accessible to tourists in core and buffer zones.
• A Supreme Court ruling in early 2026 led to tourist cellphone restrictions intended to reduce stress on wildlife.
• Solar energy supplies more than 75% of the cottages at Kings Lodge, which aims to become carbon-neutral.

Prelims pointers

• Three-year-old tigress T138 was moved from Bihar’s Valmiki Tiger Reserve and released into Buxa on October 2, 2026.
• T138 will first acclimatise in an enclosure of about 2.3 hectares before being released into the wider reserve.
• Buxa was declared India’s 15th tiger reserve in 1983 and covers an area of 760.87 sq km in West Bengal.
• Buxa has corridor connectivity with Bhutan’s forests and links to Kochugaon, Manas Tiger Reserve and Jaldapara National Park.
• Tiger reintroduction in India began at Sariska and Panna in 2008 and has been carried out across 12 reserves.

Prelims pointers

• Ukraine identified India, Turkiye, Egypt and the United States as the sources of four proposals for a possible ceasefire.
• Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called India’s proposal the broadest of the four offers received by Kyiv.
• Ukraine said a truce should cover combat operations, attacks on energy and port infrastructure, and the situation in the Black Sea.
• Moscow rejected an unconditional ceasefire along the front line, arguing that a comprehensive peace agreement should be reached instead.
• The report said the Russia-Ukraine war began with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Prelims pointers

• Two days of Russian assaults forced the full or partial closure of three of Kyiv’s six road bridges over the Dnipro River.
• The Russia-Ukraine front line described in the report extends roughly 1,250 kilometres through northern, eastern and southern Ukraine.
• Moldova said five Russian air-attack weapons, including Banderol missiles and drones, violated its airspace and exploded on its soil.
• Banderol cruise missiles were described as low-cost, jet-powered loitering munitions used to overwhelm Ukrainian air defences.
• A Russian strike on a civilian cargo ship flying the Liberian flag in the Odesa region killed one sailor and wounded three others.

Prelims pointers

• Uttarakhand’s final post-SIR electoral roll, published on October 3, 2026, listed 71.59 lakh electors.
• The State had 79,60,762 registered voters when SIR began in June; the July 14 draft contained 71,33,785 names.
• The final roll included 1,29,872 newly enrolled voters and covered 12,543 polling stations.
• Its gender-wise totals were 34,21,036 women, 37,37,701 men and 212 third-gender electors.
• A missing or newly eligible voter may use Form 6 through the ECINet app or submit it offline through a Booth Level Officer.

Prelims pointers

• The IAF’s fighter strength was reported at 29 squadrons against an officially sanctioned strength of 42.
• The Air Chief said the IAF needs at least 36–40 fighter aircraft inducted annually for the next few years.
• A February 2021 contract worth ₹48,000 crore covered 83 Tejas Mk-1A jets, with first delivery scheduled for March 2024.
• The Defence Ministry later signed a ₹62,370 crore deal with HAL for 97 additional Tejas Mk-1A light combat aircraft.
• India cleared a proposal in February to procure 114 Rafale fighters through a government-to-government framework with France.

Prelims pointers

• Quantum-computing operations in Amaravati were announced to begin on February 3, 2027 in collaboration with IBM, TCS and L&T.
• Quantum testbeds were functioning before the arrival of a 156-qubit system, while Q-Shiva comprises five quantum computers.
• A Pan-IIT World Council was proposed to guide curriculum reforms, foster startups and mentorship, and support Andhra Pradesh's knowledge-hub goal.
• The Chief Minister announced a ₹500 crore venture-fund corpus to promote deep-tech startup companies in Andhra Pradesh.
• The State targeted supplying 50 lakh AI professionals against the national target of preparing one crore AI professionals.

Prelims pointers

• Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani issued a June 13, 2014 fatwa calling defence against Islamic State a collective obligation.
• Iraq’s Parliament passed the PMF commission law in 2016, institutionalising the PMF as an independent organisation within the Iraqi armed forces.
• The PMF comprises more than three dozen militias, with an estimated 240,000 fighters and an annual budget of $3.4 billion.
• Its three historical currents were Iran-aligned factions, Sistani-aligned shrine units and the Sadrist Saraya al-Salam.
• The Sistani-aligned shrine units left the PMF structure in 2020 and came under the commander-in-chief’s direct authority.

Prelims pointers

• AIME 2026 was conducted in the Philippines under the theme ‘Anchored in Trust, United at Sea’.
• INS Sahyadri and INS Kulish represented the Indian Navy in the ASEAN-India Maritime Exercise 2026.
• The exercise was organised through Harbour and Sea Phases for interaction, coordination and maritime training.
• Sea Phase drills included Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief, VBSS and Underway Replenishment.
• MAHASAGAR expands to Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions.

Prelims pointers

• The Department of Higher Education approved five Centres of Excellence for studies in five Classical Languages.
• Tezpur University in Assam will host the Centre of Excellence for Classical Assamese.
• Visva-Bharati University in West Bengal will host the Centre for Classical Bengali.
• The Central University of Odisha will host the Classical Pali centre, while the Central University of Gujarat will host the Classical Prakrit centre.
• The centres will support research, preservation, digitisation, wider dissemination and stronger regional academic ecosystems.

Prelims pointers

• The demonstrated free-space Quantum Key Distribution link covered a distance of 5.56 km.
• The September 27–28 field trial connected BISAG-N and IIT Gandhinagar through a secure quantum communication channel.
• The trial maintained a Quantum Bit Error Rate below 5% and generated secure keys at 230–260 bps.
• Armos supplied hardware-based QKD over free-space optical channels, while Vedic Kavach supplied software-based post-quantum cryptography and quantum random number generation.
• BISAG-N is an autonomous scientific society under MeitY working in space applications, satellite communication, geo-informatics and technology-driven governance.

Prelims pointers

• The process was initiated to release two captive-bred Great Indian Bustards from a soft-release facility into Desert National Park, Jaisalmer.
• The Bustard Recovery Programme involves the Union Environment Ministry, Rajasthan Forest Department and Wildlife Institute of India, with National CAMPA funding.
• Sam and Ramdevra facilities house 97 birds: 40 from wild-laid eggs and 57 bred in captivity.
• Of the 97 birds, 86 are maintained for captive reproduction and 11 are earmarked for release into the wild.
• About 200 sq km of fenced grassland enclosures inside Desert National Park serve as prime breeding habitat according to WII telemetry studies.

Prelims pointers

• NABKISAN Finance Limited is a subsidiary of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development.
• The WASH-focused Social Bond was listed on the National Stock Exchange in Mumbai on 1 October 2026.
• The issue was oversubscribed 1.8 times and enabled NABKISAN to raise ₹180 crore.
• The five-year bond carries an 8.10% coupon, matures in September 2031 and holds CRISIL AAA (Stable) and CARE AAA (Stable) ratings.
• Bond proceeds will expand safe water, sanitation and hygiene access across rural and underserved communities.

Prelims pointers

• The release says 288 fugitives were brought back to India from 36 countries between 2019 and August 2026.
• BHARATPOL was launched in January 2025 and connects the CBI, State Police Headquarters through ILOs, and District Police Headquarters.
• More than 1,400 units of State and Central agencies have been connected through the BHARATPOL portal.
• The NIA (Amendment) Act and UAPA (Amendment) Act were enacted in 2019; the fugitive-return process entered mission mode from 2020.
• The release reports attachment of ₹17,874 crore in assets of fugitive criminals under PMLA between 2019 and 2026.

Prelims pointers

• More than 1,850 Gram Panchayats and villages observed Jal Arpan during Gandhi Jayanti Special Gram Sabhas.
• Jal Arpan formally hands completed rural water-supply schemes to Gram Panchayats and Village Water and Sanitation Committees.
• The module generated 346 Har Ghar Jal Certificates for eligible Gram Panchayats and villages in regional languages.
• Under Sujalam Bharat, 2,691 water-supply assets, including around 700 sources, were geotagged on the occasion.
• More than 15.96 crore rural households, or over 82% of rural households, had tap connections under Jal Jeevan Mission.

Prelims pointers

• Special Gram Sabhas were held across rural India on 2 October 2026 under Swachhata Hi Seva 2026.
• Swachh Seva Aankalan is described as a Gram Panchayat-level annual digital self-assessment framework.
• The Gram Sabhas reviewed four-way source segregation in line with the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2026.
• Gram Sabhas were used to identify and register bulk waste generators and discuss Swachh Seva Aankalan in ODF Plus (Model) Gram Panchayats.
• The Special Gram Sabhas enabled gap assessment and integration of relevant actions into Panchayat Development Plans, particularly GPDPs.

Prelims pointers

• PM-SETU was launched on 4 October 2025 with a ₹60,000-crore outlay shared by the Centre, States and industry.
• Component I covers 1,000 government ITIs: 200 Hub ITIs and 800 Spoke ITIs, with four Spokes per Hub on average.
• Component II covers five NSTIs at Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kanpur and Ludhiana.
• The proposed cluster SPVs give 51% ownership to the Anchor Industry Partner and 24.5% each to Centre and State governments.
• In the first year, 850 ITIs were identified and SIPs for 14 clusters with ₹3,446 crore investment were approved.

Prelims pointers

• White Revolution 2.0 targets 75,000 new cooperative dairies and strengthening of 46,000 existing dairies across India.
• Madhya Pradesh set a target to raise daily milk procurement from 12 lakh kg to 52 lakh kg.
• In-principle approval was given for 50 acres for cattle and buffalo breed-improvement programmes in Madhya Pradesh.
• Per-capita milk availability was reported to have risen about 58%, from around 307 grams per day in 2014-15 to 485 grams per day.
• A 3 lakh litres-per-day milk-processing plant in Ujjain was announced at a cost of ₹255 crore.

Prelims pointers

• The 153rd Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly and related meetings were scheduled in Arusha, Tanzania, from 5 to 9 October 2026.
• The Assembly theme was “Enhancing good governance and empowering communities through inclusivity, trust and opportunities for all.”
• Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh led the Indian Parliamentary Delegation.
• Harivansh was to join the Governing Council, General Debate, emergency-item debate and hearing with candidates for IPU President.
• Agenda subjects included critical minerals, artificial intelligence and the future of work, maritime security, climate change, and mountain and ocean ecosystems.