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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.
Daily News Capsules
1. NIA names LeT, TRF in Pahalgam charge sheet
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday filed a charge sheet against terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), its proxy The Resistance Front (TRF), and others in connection with the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that claimed 26 lives, detailing conspiracy by Pakistan and roles of the accused nearly eight months after the incident that had brought India and Pakistan to the brink of a full-scale war. The 1,597-page charge sheet, filed before a special NIA court in Jammu, named seven accused, including Sajid Jatt, a Pakistan-based commander of TRF and a close aide of LeT chief Hafiz Saeed. An NIA spokesperson said Jatt supervised the Pahalgam terror attack — which involved religion-based targeted killings of 25 tourists and one local civilian — and was also behind a majority of targeted attacks carried out by TRF on non-Kashmiri civilians in Jammu and Kashmir since 2021. The charge sheet also names three terrorists — Faisal Jatt alias Suleman Shah, Habeeb Tahir alias Jibran, and Hamza Afghani — who had executed the attack and were killed by the security forces in an encounter in Dachigam forest in Srinagar on July 28. Two locals Parvaiz Ahmad Jothar and Bashir Ahmad Jothar, who were arrested by NIA for harbouring and assisting the three Pakistani terrorists have also been named in the charge sheet. The agency has invoked various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Arms Act, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act or UAPA, and a section pertaining to waging war against India.
Possible Question
Examine the legal and institutional framework for counter-terrorism in India. How does the use of laws such as the UAPA balance national security imperatives with constitutional safeguards for civil liberties?
2. India’s exports to US grow in Nov despite steep tariffs
India’s merchandise exports registered a 19.38% annualised growth at $38.13 billion in November 2025, the highest level compared to any November of the previous 10 years despite headwinds, commerce secretary Rajesh Agrawal said. Notwithstanding the high US tariff on Indian goods, India’s exports to America saw a significant 22% growth at $6.98 billion in the month as compared to $5.70 billion in November 2024, the latest trade data released by the government showed. After a 50% tariff on Indian goods was imposed in August, India’s exports to the US fell in the first two months (September and October), but rose significantly in the third month, Agrawal said. The month also saw a decline in imports, thereby, reducing trade deficit to $24.53 billion, he said. India’s imports dipped by 1.88% to $62.66 billion as compared to $63.87 billion in November 2024. According to data released last month, merchandise exports in October 2025 fell by 11.8% year-on-year to $34.38 billion due to the US tariff barrier even as imports surged on the back of high gold and silver demand, widening the trade deficit to a record $41.68 billion. In November 2025, India registered a 59.15% dip in gold imports to $4 billion, while crude oil imports fell by 11.27% to $14.11 billion.
Possible Question
Analyse the structural and policy factors that can explain such resilience in bilateral trade flows. What does this episode reveal about India’s export diversification strategy, trade diplomacy, and exposure to protectionist shocks?
3. Bill seeks to open up N-energy, scrap supplier liability clause
The Centre on Monday introduced a bill in Parliament that proposes 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. The Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India bill, 2025, or SHANTI Bill, aims to boost investments in the nuclear power sector to help India achieve its ambitious target of 100 GW of nuclear power capacity by 2047. The bill permits any company or joint venture to construct, own, operate, or decommission a nuclear power plant or reactor within the country after receiving a licence that requires a safety authorisation on radiation exposure. However, enrichment of nuclear fuel and management of spent fuel as well as the production of heavy water will remain the preserve of the central government or entities owned by it. So far only public sector companies could operate nuclear power plants, though joint ventures were allowed. Indian conglomerates, including the Adani Group, Larsen & Toubro (L&T), and Tata Power Ltd, have previously publicly shown interest in entering the nuclear power generation space. Along with exempting research, development and innovation activities from needing a licence, the bill would “provide for a pragmatic civil liability regime for nuclear damage”, says the statement of objects of the bill. The bill also calls for an amendment to the Patents Act 1970 for the grant of patents relating to atomic energy. The bill proposes to repeal the Atomic Energy Act 1962 and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act (CLND Act) 2010. It removes a clause in the CLND Act, that gave the operator of a nuclear power plant the right of recourse in case of damage that has “resulted as a consequence of an act of supplier or his employee, which includes supply of equipment or material with patent or latent defects or sub-standard services.” The bill, which was introduced by Union minister for state for atomic energy Jitendra Singh, will be sent to a standing committee.
Possible Question
Critically examine the rationale behind reforming India’s nuclear liability framework. What are the implications for energy security, foreign investment, safety regulation, and public accountability?
4. WhatsApp ad data must meet consent rules, says NCLAT
The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Monday clarified that the privacy and consent safeguards it upheld in a November verdict apply to WhatsApp’s sharing of user data with its parent company Meta for all purposes, including advertising. The tribunal noted that its November order did not intend to exclude advertising from the transparency and consent obligations, and reading it otherwise “defeats the central objective of restoring user choice and preventing exploitation under WhatsApp’s 2021 privacy policy”. “Once users are provided optionality at any stage to opt in or opt out of data sharing – whether using regular features or optional features - their rights are protected for all times and there is a removal of exploitation, which has been the issue in 2021 WhatsApp policy,” NCLAT bench of Justice Ashok Bhushan and technical member Arun Baroka said. In November 2024, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) imposed a penalty of ₹213.14 crore on Meta with respect to the WhatsApp privacy policy update done in 2021. Meta Platforms and WhatsApp challenged this order before the NCLAT. Last month , NCLAT upheld the CCI findings that WhatsApp’s 2021 privacy policy imposed unfair and exploitative terms on users by compelling them to share data with Meta companies. It also upheld the penalty imposed by CCI. However, the tribunal struck down a part of the CCI’s order that imposed a blanket five-year prohibition on WhatsApp using user data for advertising, reasoning that once WhatsApp offers users a genuine opt-in and opt-out choice, a time-bound ban becomes unnecessary. CCI had then filed an application seeking clarity, arguing that the operative portion of the tribunal’s judgment did not expressly extend the safeguards to advertising-related data flows. On Monday, NCLAT said the remedial directions that it had upheld earlier, including directions to WhatsApp and Meta to ensure “clear disclosure, purpose limitation and meaningful user choice,” will apply to WhatsApp’s user data collection and sharing for “all non-WhatsApp purposes, including non advertising and advertising purposes.” The tribunal rejected Meta and WhatsApp’s objections that CCI’s application amounted to an “impermissible review.”
Possible Question
Discuss the significance of this ruling for data governance in India. How do competition law, data protection principles, and digital market regulation intersect in regulating Big Tech platforms?
5. Russia seeks $230bn from Euroclear over seized assets
Russia’s central bank has filed a lawsuit in Moscow seeking $230 billion in damages from Euroclear, marking the first step in what the Kremlin has warned will be a legal nightmare for the EU over plans to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine. The European Union wants to tap part of the roughly €210 billion worth of Russian central bank assets frozen in Europe after Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022 to back a loan for Kyiv’s military and civilian needs in 2026 and 2027, Reuters reported. EU leaders agreed on Friday to indefinitely freeze the assets, arguing they must support Ukraine because if they don’t Moscow could one day attack Nato — a claim Russia denies. Legal experts expect Moscow’s Commercial Court to issue a swift ruling against Euroclear, the Belgium-based depository that holds most of the assets. The court said it received the central bank’s claim on December 12, demanding 18.2 trillion roubles — the full value of Russia’s frozen sovereign assets. If the central bank wins, it could seek enforcement against Euroclear’s assets in other jurisdictions, especially those deemed “friendly” by Russia.
Possible Question
Examine the legality of freezing and repurposing sovereign assets under international law. What are the potential consequences for the global financial system, sanctions regimes, and the credibility of financial intermediaries?
Editorial Snapshots
A. Infrastructure gaps delay justice
The role of infrastructural and personnel deficiencies in delaying justice delivery has been flagged again, this time by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant. These problems are now a chronic affliction of the Indian judicial system, with the symptoms being trial delays, overcrowding in prisons with undertrials held for long periods, and even, in some cases, the matter reaching resolution long after the plaintiff or defendant is dead. The personnel deficiency, including judges, has become a leitmotif of discussions about delayed justice in the country. Against a Supreme Court-set target of 50 judges per million population, as per a reply from the law ministry in the Lok Sabha in February last year, the actual strength stood at 21 per million. Thousands of vacancies for judicial officers in the lower courts remain unfilled; the constitutional courts, from time to time, fall short of the sanctioned strength for judges for months, before the executive and the top judiciary remedy this. Add the shortage of support staff to the mix, and it isn’t difficult to imagine the serious constraints that justice delivery faces in the country. Without adequate numbers manning the courts, the existing strength is over-burdened and is likely to function below the expected levels of productivity. A similar story of deficiency plays out in physical infrastructure. The country has 22,372 court halls, as per the law ministry. But this is hardly adequate. The infrastructural deficiency is a lot worse than it appears at first glance. Technology integration under the e-Courts Mission Mode Project of the National e-Governance Plan — which was supposed to ease functioning of the courts — is still behind benchmarks, with many courts yet to enter the second phase of e-Courts initiative that was piloted in 2015. Without addressing these deficiencies, there is very little hope of moving the needle on pending adjudication. Meanwhile, mediation must be encouraged and technology must be deployed in a manner that makes judicial processes less time-consuming, as the CJI pointed out on Sunday. The judiciary and the executive certainly must plug existing gaps, but also need to look beyond them.
Possible Question
Analyse the structural causes of judicial delays. How can judicial reforms—covering appointments, infrastructure, technology, and alternative dispute resolution—be prioritised to improve access to justice?
B. Orwellian inflection to US visa vetting
The US’s new regime of expanded vetting of H-1B came into force from Monday. “Online presence review” may sound innocuous at first instance, but it is Orwellian in every sense. The new vetting norms require every applicant (and their dependents) to adjust the settings of their social media profiles to “public”, so that the US State department builds profiles of them based on their online posts preceding the date of application. Similar vetting norms have also been proposed for tourist visa applications. The US State department says in no uncertain terms that every visa adjudication is a matter of national security, and it will use “all available information” to identify applicants who are “inadmissible to the United States”. The wide sweep of the vetting would mean anything that an applicant has posted online, which may be remotely considered to be “against US interests”, will be grounds for visa rejection. The chilling effect from this should be clear to all. And, deleting a post from years ago that could run afoul of the current regime may not matter much, given that it will always leave a footprint that can be seen by anyone wishing to dig it up. It is unclear what will be picked up to profile a visa applicant — a direct post criticising the US, or even a post by someone else, shared from one’s social media account. Will it be limited to criticism of the US and its policies or — given how President Donald Trump has handled personal criticism — also of its “political personages”, particularly Trump? Or will it also extend to criticism of countries that the US sees as allies? What is certain is that the Trumpian US will be watching, with a not so-discreet thought police clamping down on free speech.
Possible Question
Critically assess the implications of such extraterritorial data scrutiny for individual rights and international mobility. How should democratic states balance national security with civil liberties in migration governance?
Fact of the day
Wholesale inflation still in negative zone, narrows to -0.32% in November: India’s wholesale inflation, as measured by the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), remained in negative territory but edged up from -1.21% in October to -0.32% in November, according to data released by the Union ministry of commerce and industry on Monday. The negative rate of inflation has primarily been driven by lower prices of food articles, mineral oils, crude petroleum, manufacture of basic metals and electricity. On a month on-month basis, the WPI rose 0.71% in November compared to October, marking the strongest sequential increase in 13 months after two consecutive months of decline. “The extent of deflation narrowed compared to the previous month due to a seasonal increase in prices of select food items. While food prices continued to remain in deflation, elevated edible oil inflation limited further easing in overall food inflation. This remains a key area to monitor amid weak kharif oilseed sowing and elevated global prices of edible oils. Additionally, the government’s decision to impose a 30% import duty on certain pulses is expected to lend support to prices in the segment,” said Rajani Sinha, chief economist at CareEdge Ratings. A disaggregated reading of the data shows that primary articles continued to see deflation on an annual basis, though the pace of contraction moderated. Inflation in primary articles stood at -2.93% in November, compared to -6.18% in October. The WPI food index also remained in deflation at -2.6%, easing from a contraction of -5.04% in the previous month. Prices of vegetables continued to decline sharply on a year-on-year basis, led by steep falls in onion and potato prices, while categories such as milk and eggs, meat and fish recorded positive inflation.
