UPSC Daily News Summaries: Essential Current Affairs, Key Issues and Important Updates for Civil Services

Stay updated with short notes that make sense of major events in India and beyond.

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Daily News Capsules

1. Railways increases fares: ₹10 extra for 500km non-AC trip

Indian Railways on Sunday raised prices for long-distance and premium travel while exempting suburban services and short-distance ordinary class tickets. For ordinary class travel beyond 215km, fares will increase by a paise per kilometre. Mail and express non-AC classes, and AC classes will also see a hike of two paise per kilometre. Railway officials said that a 500km journey in non-AC coaches will now cost passengers approximately ₹10 more. So, for instance, an AC 3-tier journey on the CSMT Rajdhani Express (a 1,537km trip between Delhi and Mumbai), which now costs ₹3,180, will cost ₹31 more. Indian Railways said the fare rationalisation is linked to rising operational expenses amid a significant expansion of its network and services over the past decade. Increased manpower has been deployed to manage higher traffic volumes and improve safety standards, it added. The increase is expected to generate an additional ₹600 crore in revenue, it said. “To meet this higher cost of manpower, Railways are focusing on higher cargo loading and a small amount of passenger fare rationalisation,” a release said. The Opposition Congress criticised the fare revision.

Possible Question

Examine the fiscal and policy rationale behind such fare revisions. How can public transport pricing balance financial sustainability with affordability and social equity?

2. Indian H-1B visa workers alter travel plans amid vetting delay

Indian H-1B visa holders in the United States are delaying plans to travel back home in order to renew their visa authorisations amid reports of delays of up to 12 months for visa stamping appointments at embassies due to a new social media vetting policy. Immigration firms representing Apple and Google have sent memos to employees advising them not to travel home for visa appointments given major delays, according to a Business Insider report. H-1B visa holders have been advised to avoid all international travel. “I was planning on booking an H-1B visa interview appointment for December but this stuff happened. So I decided on pushing it by a couple of months,” one young tech professional currently in the US told HT. “Companies are recommending not to travel if you are already in the US including all big tech companies,” said another professional working for a tech company who landed in India only to find their visa appointment had been shifted from December to April. The advisory applies to holders of H-1B, H-4, F, J and M visas, according to Google’s memo, which said some U.S. embassies and consulates face appointment delays of up to a year, according to the report. Social media platforms like Reddit also saw H-1B visa holders posting about cancelling their appointments in order to help create more room for those already in India. The visa appointment date changes have been linked to the new social media vetting policy for H 1B and H-4 dependent visa application, which went into effect on December 15. US authorities said the new policy was required to protect the US from “national security” risks. However, the enhanced vetting has led to many receiving revised appointment dates in mid to late 2026, with some even receiving dates in 2027. Immigration lawyers warned of the possibility of H1-B visa holders losing their jobs if they are stranded in India.

Possible Question

Discuss the implications of such immigration policies on India’s human capital mobility, remittance flows, and bilateral relations with the United States.

3. Eight elephants die after being hit by Rajdhani Express

The number of elephant deaths in a collision between a Rajdhani Express and a herd of pachyderms in Assam’s Hojai increased to eight on Sunday as a calf succumbed to injuries. The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) said the incident occurred around 2.17am on Saturday when the 20507 Sairang-New Delhi Rajdhani Express hit the herd in the Jamunamukh-Kampur section of the Lumding division, about 126 km from Guwahati. The train connects Mizoram’s Sairang, near Aizawl, to the Anand Vihar Terminal in Delhi. There were no casualties or injuries to any passenger. Collisions involving trains and wild elephants are not rare in Assam, home to an estimated 6,000 Asiatic elephants, one of the highest concentrations of the animals in India. Since 2020, at least a dozen elephants have been killed by trains across the state. The NFR noted that the crash site is not a designated elephant corridor. “The train driver, on observing the herd of elephants, applied emergency brakes. However, the elephants dashed with the train,” it said. Experts blamed the accident on a lack of coordination. “Very much saddened by this huge loss of wild elephants’ lives. This shows that coordination between concerned departments with railways are still far from satisfactory,” said Bibhab Talukdar, CEO of Aaranyak, a prominent wildlife NGO in Assam.

Possible Question

Examine the causes of human–wildlife conflict in India with specific reference to railway projects. What institutional coordination and mitigation measures are required to prevent such incidents?

4. SC curbs overhead power lines to save bustards

The Supreme Court on Friday expanded priority conservation areas for the Great Indian Bustard in Rajasthan and Gujarat and banned new overhead power lines — except through dedicated power corridors — wind turbines and solar plants exceeding 2MW capacity in these zones. The order came on recommendations from a nine-member expert committee the court formed in March 2024, comprising technical experts from the Union government and agencies including the Wildlife Institute of India. The committee issued separate recommendations for Rajasthan and Gujarat on undergrounding power cables, installing bird diverters to prevent Great Indian Bustards from hitting transmission lines, and other measures to conserve the critically endangered bird species’ dwindling population. The court accepted the committee’s most critical suggestion to increase the priority area for the bustard in both states — from 13,163 sq km to 14,013 sq km in Rajasthan and from 500 sq km to 740 sq km in Gujarat, forming the revised priority area (RPA). The Great Indian Bustard population in India was reported at 150 when the April 2021 direction was issued. It is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature on its Red List of threatened species. The birds are also protected under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. The order was issued on a petition filed by wildlife conservationist MK Ranjitsinh, who approached the court in 2019 seeking a comprehensive policy to preserve populations of the Great Indian Bustard and Lesser Florican, both on the brink of extinction.

Possible Question

Analyse the role of the judiciary in balancing environmental conservation with developmental priorities, particularly in the context of India’s clean energy transition.

5. Tihar’s ‘open jail’ inmates to soon get phone access

Inmates of Tihar’s open jail will soon be able to use mobile phones, albeit, with some limitations, with the jail authorities in the process of coming up with a standard operating procedure (or SOP) for this, officials familiar with the matter said. The move is unprecedented, and comes in the wake of an October directive of the Delhi high court to the authorities to come up with a plan for mobile access for open jail inmates, and is aimed to balance the need for security, with the larger objective of rehabilitating prisoners who are considered safe enough to be housed in the open jail. Tihar’s open jail is set to complete 10 years in 2026. An open jail is a correctional facility where inmates with good conduct are allowed to live with minimal supervision and work outside the prison during the day, promoting reintegration into society. The building where inmates of the open jail reside is behind the office of the Director General but is currently under renovation. According to officials cited above, who asked not to be named, the move is intended to help inmates stay connected with family members and employers while ensuring strict safeguards against misuse. “The SOP is in the final stages and is being prepared by the legal cell of Tihar Prisons,” one of them added. A second official said that as per the draft SOP, inmates may be permitted to use only mobile numbers that are pre-registered with and verified by the prison administration. In addition, the SOP is likely to lay down a clearly defined time limit for phone usage, restricting the number of hours an inmate can use the device .

Possible Question

Discuss the objectives and significance of the open jail system in India. How does controlled access to communication technologies aid prisoner rehabilitation while addressing security concerns?

Editorial Snapshots

A. Acrimonious end to winter session

The 19-day winter session of Parliament closed with productivity figures of 111% and 121% for the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, respectively. While this might look impressive, it hides the fact that the session was largely lopsided. While the first week of the session was spent largely in breaking a gridlock between the government and the Opposition, the second was dominated, first by a rousing, if somewhat ill-timed, debate on Vande Mataram, and then another debate on electoral reforms and voter roll lacunae, a pet issue of the Opposition despite no conclusive evidence and no proof that it has grassroots resonance. This left little time for a raft of key bills that were cleared by the Cabinet on Friday of the second week and then pushed through Parliament in the third and final week. All of these bills were of huge public and national consequence. One of these bills — the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) or VB-G RAM G — sought to replace the two-decade-old Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) that was a showpiece of the previous UPA administration. A second — the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Bill, 2025, — proposed the grant of licences to private companies to operate nuclear power plants, the removal of an existing contentious liability clause for suppliers of fuel and technology, as well as the rationalisation of the levels of payouts by operators in case of accidents. A third — the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025 — sought to establish a three-council commission as a single higher education regulator, tasked with enforcing outcome based accreditation, setting academic standards, and granting graded autonomy to higher education institutions. And a fourth — the Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha Amendment of Insurance Laws) Act, 2025 — allows 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) in insurance in a move aimed at boosting capital inflows and expanding one of the world’s fastest-growing insurance markets. In each of these cases, the Opposition demanded that the bills be sent to parliamentary committees for greater scrutiny, but in only one case — the higher education bill — was this successful. This isn’t desirable. Parliament is meant to be a check on executive power where the representatives of every person in the country deliberate on the laws that govern every citizen. Rushing bills through on the final few days threatens to erode the status of the temple of democracy. Similarly, the Opposition must decide whether time used up in disruption is better spent demanding accountability from the government.

Possible Question

Critically examine the role of parliamentary committees in ensuring legislative scrutiny and accountability. How does bypassing these mechanisms affect democratic governance?

B. A message to Gill and Indian cricket

Cricket is a meritocracy. But very often, it can seem like it is a consumerist meritocracy. Board members need to be kept happy, broadcasters need to be kept happy, fans need to be kept happy, and the market needs to be kept happy. However, the decision to drop Shubman Gill from India’s squad for the 2026 T20 World Cup shows that, eventually, form must matter over reputation and everything else. Gill is the next big thing in Indian cricket, and this setback doesn’t change that. But this decision by the selection committee is what sport is really about — winning. Being dropped from the 2011 ODI World Cup team lit a fire in Rohit Sharma that propelled him to a great white-ball career; perhaps it will do the same for the 26-year-old Gill. The pitches for the World Cup are expected to be on the slower side, and that makes a good start critical. At the top of the order, Sanju Samson, long given the short shrift by administrators, seems a better fit for the attacking direction that the team has chosen to take. If not him, Ishan Kishan, who will want to make the most of his second chance after performing in domestic cricket, will be hungrier than ever. The rest of the team is built around players who can be match-winners on their day, and that is exactly what the defending champions need. Captain Suryakumar Yadav, whose record as skipper is outstanding, hasn’t been in the best of form with the bat, but he has done enough over the years to earn the long rope. Jasprit Bumrah and Varun Chakaravarthy are the best bowlers in the world. In Abhishek Sharma, India has the most destructive opener. All that’s left now is to go out there and win it.

Possible Question

Elite sports selection often reflects tensions between merit, market pressures, and institutional decision-making. Using Indian cricket as an example, analyse how governance structures in sports can balance performance-based selection with commercial and public expectations.

Fact of the day

In 3 years, cyber-related incidents nearly double: Cyber incidents reported to the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), the national agency for responding to cybersecurity incidents, have nearly doubled in three years, rising from 1.39 million in 2022 to 2.58 million in 2025 (till October). The ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) shared the data in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha on Friday. According to the answer given by minister of state for electronics and IT Jitin Prasada, the number of cybersecurity incidents reported to CERT-In increased steadily from 1,391,457 in 2022 to 1,592,917 in 2023, 2,041,360 in 2024, and 2,580,655 in 2025 (till October). The government has previously alluded to the need for higher cybersecurity spending, citing an assessment by CERT-In which recommends that between 15 and 20% of overall spending on software, IT and digital infrastructure be earmarked for cybersecurity. This benchmark, a MeitY official noted, has not yet been met in India, underscoring gaps in preparedness despite rising incident numbers. In a written response to another question on December 5 in the Rajya Sabha, the IT ministry said that cybersecurity incidents reported by private sector organisations stood at 1,199,018 in 2022 and rose to 1,388,073 in 2023. In 2024, reported incidents fell to 731,988. Data for 2025 was not provided.