The Bay of Bengal system strengthened into Cyclone Murasu, with IMD forecasting 100–110 kmph winds, gusting to 120 kmph; alerts and school closures were announced across parts of southern India.
Source ↗The October 2026 Poverty and Equity Brief says India’s extreme-poverty rate fell from 27.1% in 2011 to 2.6% in 2023, while 496 million people moved above the $4.20-a-day lower-middle-income threshold measured at 2021 PPP.
Source ↗The six-month committee, chaired by former Central Vigilance Commissioner Suresh N. Patel, will review banking regulation and recommend structural, institutional and legislative reforms, including for RRBs and cooperative banks.
Source ↗CBIC’s changes include revised treatment of post-supply discounts, a 90% provisional refund mechanism for eligible inverted-duty claims within seven days, and removal of the ₹1,000 minimum refund restriction for tax paid on exported goods.
Source ↗The new 29th Chief of the Air Staff’s four-pillar roadmap—Vigilance, Aatmanirbharta, Yukti and Unity of Effort—prioritises readiness, indigenous capability, innovation, AI-enabled systems and tri-service jointness.
Source ↗The update highlights rapid solar-capacity growth, more than 21 lakh PM Surya Ghar households recording zero electricity bills, and the need to address storage, grid integration, DISCOM finances and domestic upstream manufacturing.
Source ↗Coal India recorded 67.2 million tonnes of October production, 70.3 million tonnes of supply and 310 railway rakes a day for power-sector evacuation, reinforcing the energy-security and logistics themes relevant to GS-III.
Source ↗The Ministry of Civil Aviation began trials for eligible Indian e-passport holders on selected Air India and IndiGo international flights, extending the biometric, paperless airport-processing platform beyond domestic travel.
Source ↗The AI INSPIRED programme will provide grants of up to ₹1 crore each, supporting applications such as precision landing, space-surveillance and debris detection, satellite servicing, automated target recognition and spacecraft autonomy.
Source ↗Bengaluru-based Pranos Fusion plans to finalise PRANIK’s design by 2027 after developing PRAGYA, a compact tokamak for plasma-confinement research—an emerging private-sector contribution to low-carbon energy technology.
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