UPSC Weekly Current Affairs | 19 to 25 October 2026
This Week’s Top Current Affairs: Important national and international developments from 19 – 25 October 2026, explained for UPSC Prelims and Mains with key facts, analysis and practice questions.
If you missed the UPSC Weekly Current Affairs of the past week | October 12 to 18, 2026, read it here.
Economy
• Mission for Aatmanirbharta in Pulses
— The first year of the six-year Mission for Aatmanirbharta in Pulses (2025-26 to 2030-31) is already over and no research project has yet been approved against the allocation of Rs 500 crore. The Agriculture Ministry, on Sunday, vowed to expedite the process.
— Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the mission on October 11, 2025 after it got approval from the Union Cabinet on October 1, 2025. The mission was announced by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech on February 1 last year.
— As outlined in the Finance Minister’s Budget speech, the mission emphasises five points: development and commercial availability of climate-resilient seeds, enhancing protein content, increasing productivity, improving post-harvest storage and management, assuring remunerative prices to the farmers.
— The Mission will be implemented over a six-year period, from 2025-26 to 2030-31, with a financial outlay of Rs 11,440 crore. The initiative focuses on three types of pulses: tur (arhar), urad (mash), and masoor.
— It aims to increase the total production of pulses in the country by 45 per cent– from 242 lakh metric tonnes in 2023-24 to 350 lakh metric tonnes in 2030-31. In the same period, it also aims at increasing the area under pulses by 13 per cent — from 275 lakh hectare to 310 lakh hectare, and improving the average yield by 28 per cent —from 881 kg/hectare to 1130 kg/hectare.
Report
• Emissions Gap Report
— The just-released Emissions Gap Report, an annual publication by the UN Environment Programme, acknowledges what has been evident for quite some time now — that a breach of 1.5 degree Celsius temperature target set in the Paris Agreement is unavoidable now.
— Global temperatures are almost certain to rise up to at least 1.8 degree Celsius from pre-industrial times, and human efforts would need to be focused to pull it back from there to the 1.5 degree Celsius level sometime in the second half of this century.
— “The task now, therefore, is not only to ensure that global warming stays well below 2 degree Celsius, but to minimize the duration and magnitude of overshoot and establish a credible return path to 1.5 degree Celsius by the end of the century,” this year’s edition of Emissions Gap Report, released on October 21, said.
— The Emissions Gap Report noted that the United States, the world’s second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, saw its annual emissions increase by more than 133 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2025, the largest for any country, as per preliminary data. Emissions grew in China as well while at least one dataset showed that it had slowed down marginally in India, the world’s third largest emitter.
— Globally, greenhouse gas emissions in 2025 remained around the same levels as in 2024, around 58.4 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent.
— Emissions have steadily grown over the past decade since 2016 (0.8 per cent per year) and in the period between 1990 and 2016 (1.7 per cent per year),” the report said.
— The report covers global greenhouse gas emissions, including carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O).
International Cooperation
• Badr Memorandum of Understanding
— Turkey, Qatar, Pakistan, and Indonesia signed an agreement on October 21 to boost defence cooperation and strengthen defensive capabilities, the Turkish Defence Ministry said.
— In a statement, the ministry said the countries signed the “Badr Memorandum of Understanding” in Doha as a sign of their desire to further deepen cooperation and develop partnerships. The ministry said the Badr accord would strengthen ties between the countries’ defence industries and bolster collaboration to promote security and achieve shared objectives.
— Notably, Turkey, which has NATO’s second-largest army and a robust defence industry, has been helping Gulf nations, including Qatar, where it has a military base, bolster their defences amid the Iran war.
— In August, it signed a mutual defence pact ‘Mecca Joint Defence Agreemen’ with nuclear-armed Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, under which an attack on one party constitutes an attack on all.
• India and Poland look at tie-ups in strategic sectors
— Aware of Delhi’s close ties with Moscow, visiting Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told Prime Minister Narendra Modi October 22 that India and Poland have “no conflict of interest” and their pursuit of “shared goals” in the space industry, digitisation, satellites, state-of-the-art defence systems can deepen the strategic partnership between the two countries.
— The two sides agreed to establish a defence industry dialogue and a counter-terrorism dialogue, two critical areas of strategic cooperation. Also, the two countries have decided to double bilateral trade by 2030.
Science and Technology
• Nutrient-Rich Purple Potato
— Indian Council of Agricultural Research- Central Potato Research Institute (ICAR-CPRI) developed nutrient-rich coloured potato varieties, including Kufri neelkanth, Kufri manik, and Kufri jamunia.
— These varieties contain important antioxidants and micronutrients, such as anthocyanins, iron, and zinc. Among them, Kufri jamunia represents a major advancement due to its higher levels of Vitamin C, anthocyanins, and carotenoids.
— Its improved nutritional profile, attractive purple flesh, and strong consumer appeal make it an important variety for addressing hidden hunger and improving nutritional security.
• PHP2Shell
— PHP, short for Hypertext Preprocessor, is an open-source programming language that runs behind the scenes on roughly 70% of websites whose server-side language is identifiable. It helps websites process information, whether someone is logging into an account, submitting an application or making an online purchase.
— PHP is free to use and maintained by volunteers. WordPress, which powers more than 40% of websites worldwide, is powered by PHP. These websites include blogs, government portals, news websites and online shops.
— PHP2Shell is the name given to two critical vulnerabilities in PHP that could allow attackers to remotely execute malicious code on affected web servers without logging in, or access sensitive information stored in the server’s memory. Cybersecurity researchers flagged the following two vulnerabilities:
— A problem when PHP runs out of memory: When PHP runs into a memory problem while processing a web request, it can be interrupted midway and later treat incomplete or invalid information as legitimate.
— A problem with leftover information: PHP may sometimes retain references to internal information from an earlier web request even after the computer has cleared the memory where that information was stored. When a new request arrives, the software may mistakenly use this outdated information instead of starting from a clean slate.
— Both vulnerabilities pose serious security risks even without the involvement of AI. However, AI tools could help attackers develop working methods to exploit them more quickly, potentially reducing the time organisations have to respond.
— Crucially, attackers may not need an account or physical access to a server. Under certain conditions, they could send a malicious request over the internet and make the server execute instructions of their choosing, potentially compromising the website or its data.
• eMudhra certificates
— Some of the world’s biggest Internet browser companies, including Google, Mozilla, Apple and Microsoft, have taken action to block digital certificates associated with Bengaluru-based eMudhra, after a serious security flaw was detected in the company’s systems for generating cryptographic keys. The flaw could have allowed attackers to impersonate legitimate websites and intercept supposedly secure Internet communications.
— Founded in 2008, eMudhra is one of India’s largest digital identity and security companies. It issues digital signature certificates, provides electronic signing services and supplies technology for authenticating online identities and securing digital transactions.
Cryptographic keys— Cryptographic keys are central to how digital certificates work. A private key is meant to remain secret and is used to authenticate the identity of an entity, such as a website or software publisher. Generating such keys requires sufficient randomness to prevent outsiders from predicting or reconstructing them. — Cryptographic keys are parameters used in conjunction with a cryptographic algorithm that determines its operation. |
— The company is India’s largest certifying authority in the digital signature certificate market. Certification authorities are organisations entrusted with issuing digital certificates that establish the identity of websites, individuals or organisations. These certificates form part of the Internet’s public key infrastructure (PKI), which allows users and computer systems to verify identities and communicate securely.
— These certificates are issued through a hierarchy consisting of trusted root authorities, intermediate authorities and certificates issued to websites or other end users.
— In India, certifying authorities issuing digital signature certificates are licensed by the Controller of Certifying Authorities under the Information Technology Act, 2000.
• Martian Moons Exploration (MMx)
— On October 21, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched an H3 rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center at approximately 4:40 am Japanese Standard Time (JST) — or 1:11 am IST — towards Mars.
— The mission, termed Martian Moons Exploration (MMx), aims to study the origin of the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos — named after the sons of the Greek god of war, Ares, who is better recognised as his Roman counterpart, Mars.
— The mission endeavours to retrieve physical samples from Phobos and return them to Earth. The samples are expected to return to Earth in 2031 and the agenda states that it shall collect at least 10 grams of material from Phobos.
— MMx is designed to be a five-year round trip to the Martian system and the craft is expected to return to Earth in 2031. The spacecraft is scheduled to take approximately a year to reach Mars and shall arrive around August 2027.
— The spacecraft is made up of three main modules — propulsion, exploration and sample return — which will support the journey to Mars, surface ops and eventual return to Earth.
— It carries 13 scientific instruments, including cameras, spectrometers and devices to measure the moon’s surface and composition. One of its key components is the IDEFIX rover, developed jointly by CNES (France) and the DLR (Germany). The rover will be deployed on Phobos before the main aircraft.
— Although largely headed by JAXA, the mission also includes the European Space Agency (ESA), NASA, CNES (France), DLR (Germany), and the Australian Space Agency.
Do you Know?Earlier in 2010, Japan’s Hayabusa spacecraft returned samples from the asteroid Itokawa, which made Japan the first country to successfully execute a sample-return mission from an asteroid. |
• Shamonda virus
— France has confirmed the first known human case of Shamonda virus in a patient who died at a Lyon hospital earlier in October. This raises questions about the risks posed by a virus that has reached Europe this year decades after first being detected in Nigeria.
— The Shamonda virus is a vector-borne virus belonging to the genus Orthobunyavirus in the family Peribunyaviridae. It is part of the Simbu group of viruses, which also includes Schmallenberg virus — which is known to cause congenital malformations and stillbirths in cattle and other domesticated species.
— The virus, first isolated in cattle in Nigeria in 1965 and since identified in parts of Africa, Asia, and Europe, is understood to spread through bites from Culicoides midges (small, two-winged fly-like insects). Although recent reports have primarily concerned cattle, cases have also been reported in sheep, goats, horses, and even alpacas.
— Fever, diarrhoea, reduced milk production, and reproductive disorders such as abortions and foetal malformations are some of the signs reported in animals — neurological signs are less common. Since these can often resemble other diseases, laboratory testing is needed to confirm infection.
— According to the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), two different variants of the virus — Shamonda virus Europe 1 (SHAV-EU1) and Shamonda virus Europe 2 (SHAV-EU2) — have caused this year’s outbreaks in Europe. Although its long-term impact and significance in Europe is still unclear, outbreaks caused by the Simbu group tend to occur in cycles as per the seasonal patterns of midges.
Defence
• AUSTRAHIND 2026
— On October 19, the 5th edition of the India-Australia Joint Military Exercise AUSTRAHIND 2026 was commenced at the Foreign Training Node, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
— The exercise will be conducted from 19 October to 01 November 2026. The Indian Army contingent comprises troops from the Garhwal Rifles, along with personnel from other arms and services, while the Australian Army contingent comprises troops from 13 Brigade.
— The exercise is conducted on the theme “Joint Sub-Conventional Operations in Island and Coastal Environment under Chapter VII of the UN Mandate”. It is aimed at enhancing interoperability and operational coordination between the two armies.
— Notably, the fourth edition was held at Irwin Barracks, Perth, Australia, from 13 to 26 October 2025.
• SIMBEX-2026
— The 33rd edition of the Singapore-India Maritime Bilateral Exercise (SIMBEX-2026) is being commenced at from 21 to 26 October at Visakhapatnam.
— The opening ceremony of SIMBEX-2026 was held on 21 October onboard INS Nilgiri and INS Kamorta. Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) ship RSS Supreme arrived at Visakhapatnam on 21 Oct 2026 to participate in the exercise.
— Since its inception in 1994 as Exercise Lion King, SIMBEX has evolved into a significant bilateral maritime engagement between the Indian Navy and the RSN.
Police Commemoration DayPolice Commemoration Day is observed annually on October 21 to honour the 10 CRPF personnel killed in a 1959 ambush by heavily armed Chinese troops at Hot Springs, Ladakh, as well as all police personnel who sacrificed their lives in the line of duty across India. The National Police Memorial was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2018. |
• IBSAMAR Exercise 2026
— The ninth edition of the India-Brazil-South Africa Maritime (IBSAMAR) Exercise 2026 took place at Simon’s Town, South Africa.
— It brought together Navies of these countries for a series of professional interactions and maritime evolutions aimed at enhancing interoperability, strengthening operational cooperation and fostering greater mutual understanding among the three maritime forces.
— The trilateral exercise provides an avenue for their Navies to address common maritime challenges, exchange best practices and strengthen their ability to operate together, thereby contributing to a peaceful maritime environment.
• Low Level Light Weight Radar
— On October 21, the Ministry of Defence has signed a contract with Bharat Electronic Limited (BEL) to procure Improved Low Level Light Weight Radar (LLLR-I).
— The LLLR(I) system has the capability of detecting and tracking fighter size targets and mini/micro drones, it has additional capability of prioritizing aerial targets.
— LLLR(I) system will enable the Army to successfully counter the threat of the Unmanned Aerial System (UAS).
Environment
• Graded Response Action Plan
— With Delhi’s air quality deteriorating to the ‘poor’ category on October 21, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) invoked Stage I of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) across the National Capital Region with immediate effect, directing agencies to intensify pollution-control measures.
— GRAP is a set of emergency measures that kick in to prevent further deterioration of air quality once it reaches, or is forecast to reach a certain threshold in the Delhi-NCR region.
— Following Supreme Court directions in December 2016, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change notified the GRAP on January 12, 2017, assigning its implementation to the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA). The plan established graded measures to address different levels of air pollution in Delhi-NCR.
— GRAP is incremental in nature and thus, when the air quality deteriorates from ‘poor’ to ‘very poor,’ measures listed under both sections must be followed:
→ Stage I of GRAP is activated when the Air Quality Index (AQI) is in the ‘Poor’ category (201 to 300).
→ Stage II is activated when the AQI is in the ‘Very Poor’ category (301-400)
→ Stage III is activated when the AQI falls in the ‘Severe’ category (401-450)
→ Stage IV is activated when it rises to the ‘Severe +’ category (more than 450).
— Under GRAP Stage I, authorities are directed to strengthen dust-mitigation measures and enforce existing rules governing construction and demolition activities, waste management and other pollution sources.
— The schedule also includes measures concerning vehicle emissions, diesel generator sets, public transport, industrial emissions and the use of coal and firewood in tandoors.
Zavodovski Island— Nearly two-thirds of its chinstrap penguin population disappearing over just 14 years on Zavodovski Island in the South Sandwich Islands, Antarctica. Once home to the world’s largest penguin colony, the island has seen its chinstrap penguin numbers plummet, with researchers pointing to climate change and its effects on the birds’ food supply as the most likely explanation. — Zavodovski Island is an uninhabited volcanic island situated in the Traversay Islands subgroup of the South Sandwich Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. |
Sports
• Asian Para Games 2026
— The Indian contingent at the Asian Para Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, ended the campaign with the best ever performance at the continental showpiece with a total of 114 medals, including 30 gold, 35 silver, and 49 bronze medals.
— India is placed fourth in the medal table right now. India surpassed the previous edition medal count of 108 medals which had 27 gold, 32 silver and 49 bronze medals.
— As usual Para Athletics accounted for more than half of the medal tally as the Indian para athletics team won a total of 65 medals.
— Para Badminton was the second largest contributor with 16 medals. Para Swimming and Para Table Tennis were the two events where the Indian athletes improved massively.
Awards
• Oskar Klein medal
— Noted physicist Ashoke Sen has been awarded the prestigious Oskar Klein medal, one of the highest honours in theoretical physics, the Bengaluru-based International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS), where Sen is a professor, announced.
— A decorated scientist, Sen is the first Indian to win this medal, awarded every year since 1988 by the Stockholm University and the Nobel Committee for Physics of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
— Known for his work on string theory, Sen has earlier been awarded the Dirac medal as well as the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, both very prestigious honours.
— String theory is one of main efforts to bridge the inconsistencies between quantum theory and gravitation, in an attempt to find a new grand unified theory of physics that can explain the behaviour of all particles and forces at every scale, from tiny subatomic particles to large galaxies.
Do you Know?— Earlier this year, theoretical physicist Deepak Dhar had been named as the winner of the Dirac medal, making him the second Indian, after Ashoke Sen, to win this prize. A few years ago, he was also awarded with the Boltzmann Medal, another top prize in physics. He is the only Indian to win both the Dirac Medal as well as the Boltzmann Medal. — Last year, Professor Jainendra Jain, an Indian-origin American physicist who is associated with multiple institutions in India, was named one of the winners of the Wolf Prize. |
Persons in News
• Bodhana Sivanandan
— Less than a month after becoming the youngest Woman Grandmaster (WGM) in history, 11-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan became the youngest female to earn the International Master (IM) title.
— At 11 years, seven months and 16 days, the Indian-origin British chess prodigy broke the record held by chess legend Judit Polgar since 1988.
— Bodhana earned her final IM norm, a pre-requisite standard, at the European Club Cup in Budva, Montenegro, this week. In the all-time rankings, she is the seventh youngest player (male or female) to earn the International Master title, a month behind Javokhir Sindarov (sixth) but ahead of world champion D Gukesh (ninth).
International Master vs Woman GrandmasterThe Woman Grandmaster (WGM) requires a classical rating of at least 2,300 and three norms. The International Master (IM) title, open to both men and women, ranks below Grandmaster but above WGM. It requires a rating of at least 2,400 and three IM norms. |
Art & Culture
• Excavation in Kashipur
— A 90-acre mound near Uttarakhand’s Rudrapur is the Archaeological Survey of India’s latest subject of probe owing to its connection with the Mahabharata as well as Chinese scholar Xuanzang. The excavation in Kashipur started this week and is expected to go on until March, ASI officials said.
— According to mythology and local legend, this site was the training ground and residence of sage Dronacharya from the Mahabharata, and the Pandavas are said to have built the Drona Sagar Lake as ‘guru dakshina’ (an offering) to him, for imparting battle skills to them.
— Excavations at Kashipur – also identified as Govisana by Xuanzang who had visited the place in the 6th century – have been conducted by ASI across multiple phases since 1939, uncovering Gupta-to-early-medieval temple complexes, the 90-acre mound near Drona Sagar and rich multi-period artifacts.
— As per ASI, Kashipur is identified by Alexander Cunningham with Kiu-pi-shwang-na (or Govisana) of Xuanzang. Cunningham, a British Army engineer who founded and served as the first Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), traced the remains of a large structure at Bhim-Gaja, the highest place at the site. The ASI conducted excavations here in the years 1939-40, 1965-66 and 1970-71 in order to reveal the details of the structure traced by Cunningham.
• Three new Indian sites in UNESCO’s tentative list
— Sirpur, an archaeological site boasting of remains belonging to multiple religious traditions – Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism – and dating back from the 5th century up to the 12th century CE, has made it to the UNESCO’s tentative list. The development brings the premises one step closer to receiving the coveted World Heritage Site status from the UN agency.
— Along with Sirpur, the Karst-mud-volcano complex of Baratang and the Andaman subduction volcanoes are also added into the list taking the country’s total sites in the list to 81.
— Sirpur, also known as Shripur and Sripura, is situated on the eastern banks of the Mahanadi River in Mahasamund district, about a two-hour drive from state capital Raipur (Chhattisgarh). It is a multi-religious urban centre first discovered in 1882 by Alexander Cunningham. Excavations stalled in subsequent years, resuming only in the early 1950s, and later in the 1990s and 2003.
— These excavations revealed 22 Shiva temples, five Vishnu temples, 10 Buddhist viharas and three Jain viharas, with the earliest monuments dating back to the 5th Century AD.
— Karst-mud-volcano Complex of Baratang, located in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the site hosts numerous individual limestone caves, the majority of which remain largely inaccessible due to the challenging terrain.
— Baratang Mud Volcanoes are a significant example of seismically triggered mud volcanism. Unlike igneous volcanoes, they emit cool slurries of mud, water and gases, principally methane and hydrogen sulphide, driven upward by diapiric movements of over pressured shale layers, rather than by magma.
— Andaman Subduction Volcanoes showcase remarkable geological processes and volcanic activity. Comprising Barren Island, South Asia’s only active volcano, and Narcondam Island, this distinctive natural landscape demonstrates volcanic activity and ecological succession.
— Narcondam and Barren Islands are the only Quaternary-period (the last ~2.6 million years) subduction volcanoes in the inner volcanic arc chain of the Burma-Andaman-Java complex. Together they offer complementary stories of volcanism, ecological succession and endemism.
• Khajuraho’s temples
— The well-known headless idol of Vishnu at Khajuraho’s Javari temple may soon be restored. The Archaeological Survey of India plans to re-attach the long-lost sandstone head, which has now reportedly been found in an ASI store, by November.
— The restoration plan brings renewed attention to Khajuraho, home to one of India’s largest groups of medieval temples. Located in Madhya Pradesh, the site rose to prominence under the Chandela rulers between the 10th and 12th centuries. It is believed to have once covered 13 sq. km and contained 85 temples, of which around 20 survive today in varying states of preservation.
— The antiquity of Khajuraho can be traced to prehistoric times, with artefacts from the Middle and Late Stone Ages and the Neolithic period unearthed at the site. However, there is no evidence of a township here before 900 CE.
— The Chandela rulers commissioned the temples of Khajuraho as expressions of religious devotion, royal patronage, political legitimacy, and cultural accomplishment. Dedicated to Hindu and Jain traditions, these monuments reflect a period when kingship, sacred architecture, and artistic excellence were closely intertwined.
— In 1986, the Khajuraho Group of Monuments was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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