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

Scan through simple, relatable summaries that help you make sense of the day’s news.

UPSC file image

Daily News Capsules

1. App glitch: ‘Unmapped’ WB voter tally may dip

Many people in West Bengal could not be linked to the base 2002 voter roll during the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) due to glitches in the app used for the contentious exercise, the election commission has admitted, adding that such voters won’t be labelled as ‘unmapped’ anymore. The number of people who could not show either their own name or the names of their parents or grandparents in the rolls of 2002 — the last time the SIR was conducted in Bengal — stood at 3.1 million when the draft voter roll was published on December 16. To be sure, this number is separate from the 5.82 million names that have been dropped from the draft roll already. The 3.1 million people were called for hearings — which began on Saturday — to verify their documents. “It has been reported from the districts that due to incomplete conversion of PDF of 2002 electoral roll data to CSV, linkage could not be fetched in BLO app in respect of many electors. These electors are marked unmapped, though they have either self or progeny linkage with the hard copy of 2002 electoral roll as authenticated and provided by the District Election Officer (DEOs) and published in the website of Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal (WBCEO),” said a letter sent by the state’s additional chief electoral officer to all district electoral officers on Saturday. EC data recorded 76.64 million electors in West Bengal as on October 27, 2025. Of this, 70.82 million had their electoral forms digitised by December 13 (92.4%). Of this, 38.28 million (54.1%) mapped themselves to the 2002 roll through their relatives, 29.39 million (41.5%) mapped themselves to the 2002 roll, and 3.1 million (4.4%) had no mapping to the 2002 roll. It is these 3.1 million who were called for hearings. The number of names dropped from the rolls was 5.82 million, with reasons ranging from death, untraceability of electors, among others.

Possible Question

The West Bengal electoral roll revision highlights the challenges of integrating legacy paper-based records into digital governance systems. Examine the administrative risks involved in large-scale data migration exercises in the public sector. What safeguards should be built into such transitions to prevent exclusion errors and policy backlash?

2. Govt seeks single survey to fast-track mining leases

Amid concerns that the Centre’s definition of the Aravalli hills will open the range up for mining, the Union environment ministry earlier this month ordered states and Union territories to conduct just one survey of forests to be mined, saying “repetitive” surveys caused delays and “unnecessary expenditure”. In the letter, dated December 11, the ministry said separate surveys by multiple agencies as well as the bidder delayed the execution of mining leases. Experts, however, criticised the move and pointed out that each survey had separate objectives and unique parameters. A joint check, they argued, will not meet these standards, impinge on each department’s autonomy and will water down a crucial process baked into law to safeguard forests and green spaces. A copy of the letter, signed by Charan Jeet Singh, a scientist at the forest conservation division of the Union environment ministry, has been seen by HT. The move comes in the backdrop of a swirling controversy against the Centre’s definition of the Aravalli hills, which environmentalists have said will free up swathes of the critical landmasses for commercial exploitation. It also makes way for the mining of critical minerals such as lead, zinc, silver and copper ore, and atomic minerals across the entire range. A central government panel in November defined landforms rising at least 100 metres above the local relief as Aravalli hills, a definition the Supreme Court accepted during a November 20 hearing.

Possible Question

Critically examine the tension between ease of doing business and environmental due diligence in India’s mining sector. How should regulatory institutions address conflicts between development imperatives and ecological protection?

3. Football body shares 20-year plan with ISL franchises to restart league

A reimbursable participating fee of ₹1 crore, a consortium where clubs’ ownership can go up to 60%, parachute payments, annual operational budget of ₹70 crore for a league with promotion and relegation were among the salient features of the 20-year plan shared by the All India Football Federation (AIFF) with clubs of the Indian Super League (ISL) on Friday. Costing ₹96 crore per season, the league would be, in keeping with the AIFF constitution approved by the Supreme Court, owned and operated by the ederation but with greater agency for the commercial partners. AIFF will have a veto on essential items such as licensing and disciplinary matters, according to the proposal. ISL has been in limbo since July, with AIFF struggling to find a new commercial partner after its 10-year deal with the previous one expired. “We have a lot of questions but I think this is a very strong foundation to take the discussion forward,” Mandhar Tamhane, CEO of NorthEast United (NEUFC) told HT. NEUFC, the reigning two-time Durand Cup champions, is one of the eight clubs that was part of the start of ISL in 2014. “This was our second meeting in three days and both have been fruitful,” said Anirban Dutta who is part of the three-member committee appointed by AIFF to try and work out a solution in the short and long-term for India’s top men’s league which, in the absence of a commercial partner, has been paused this season. Another meeting has been scheduled on Sunday and a third in New Delhi on Monday, said Dutta. An AIFF official said a date for the start of the season is likely to be announced on Monday. “We are looking at the first week of February,” said the official.

Possible Question

The proposed long-term participation model for the Indian Super League seeks to introduce promotion–relegation, revenue sharing, and financial safeguards such as parachute payments. Analyse how such league structures can contribute to the sustainable development of professional sports ecosystems in India. What constraints unique to the Indian football context may limit their effectiveness?

4. National advisory body Saarthi for ITIs on cards

The skills development and entrepreneurship ministry (MSDE) is set to create a national advisory body to steer “long-term reforms and holistic transformation” of Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), in an effort to align vocational education with industry needs, officials familiar with the matter said on Thursday. The body, Saarthi (Strategic Advisory and Reforms Taskforce for Holistic ITI Transformation), will be chaired by the minister of state (independent charge), MSDE, and will provide strategic direction, facilitate policy convergence, and enable long-term planning for reforms under the Craftsmen Training Scheme (CTS). Under the CTS, 14,615 ITIs — comprising 3,316 government and 11,299 private institutes — provide industry-oriented skill training to young students with the objective of supplying a skilled workforce to industry. Currently, the Directorate General of Training (DGT) under MSDE oversees standards, curriculum and certification at the national level, while the day-to-day administration of ITIs lies with state governments. The National Council for Vocational Education and Training (NCVET) acts as the regulator of the skilling ecosystem, and industry contributes to technical aspects in ITIs such as curriculum development. “While each of these entities plays a critical role, the absence of a single unified platform for strategic dialogue and coordination among them has limited the system’s responsiveness to evolving skill demands,” reads the concept note of Saarthi. HT has a copy of the note. An MSDE official said Saarthi will function as a central council for CTS, bringing together the Centre, states, industry, and key regulatory institutions on a single platform to guide long-term reforms in ITI training. “It will guide curriculum standards, certification, ITI regulation and industry alignment to address long-standing coordination gaps in India’s vocational training ecosystem,” the official added, asking not to be named.

Possible Question

The proposed Saarthi body aims to address coordination gaps in India’s vocational training ecosystem. Examine the structural challenges facing Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) in aligning with industry needs. How can institutional convergence improve outcomes in skill development and workforce readiness in India?

5. Review provision added to Hindu Succession Act in 2005: HC to govt

The Karnataka high court has urged the Union government to review a key provision in the Hindu Succession Act , introduced through the 2005 amendment, cautioning that the change has created confusion over the inheritance rights of Hindu widows and mothers. Flagging what it described as an “inadvertent gap” under the 2005 law, the high court said the amended law, while intended to strengthen the rights of daughters in ancestral property, fails to clearly spell out the position of widows and mothers, both explicitly protected under the original 1956 law. A bench of justices R Devdas and B Muralidhara Pai said that the problem lies in the drafting of the amended Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act. The 2005 amendment was meant to give daughters equal rights as sons in joint family (coparcenary) property. But in doing so, the court noted, the amendment dropped any express reference to other Class I heirs, such as widows and mothers. Under the unamended Section 6, the law was clearer. At the stage of a notional partition, an assumed division of property to calculate shares, the widow and mother were specifically recognised and guaranteed a share. The amended provision, however, is silent on this point. This silence, the high court said in a judgment earlier this month, has left “room for confusion” on a plain reading of the law. While Parliament never intended to reduce or take away the inheritance rights of widows and mothers, the absence of an explicit mention now risks obscuring those rights, particularly in property disputes, it noted.

Possible Question

The Karnataka High Court has flagged ambiguities in the Hindu Succession Act following the 2005 amendment regarding the inheritance rights of widows and mothers. Analyse how legislative drafting impacts substantive justice in personal laws. What principles should guide future reforms to ensure gender equity and legal clarity?

Editorial Snapshots

A. The vanishing Indian Left

The Communist Party of India (CPI), the oldest Communist party in the country, was born exactly 100 years ago on December 26 in Kanpur. Today, CPI — and, in fact, the entire family of communist parties — is facing an existential crisis, electorally and ideologically. The CPI, and its more influential offspring, the CPM, together had a total of 53 MPs in the Lok Sabha and 8% vote share in 2004; in 2024, both the parties and the CPI(ML) have just eight seats and a 3% vote share. This decline is not wholly surprising, for it mirrors the trajectory of communism world over, where it has been in retreat since the end of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. Communist parties do hold office in China and Vietnam, and have electoral relevance in pockets in Latin America and Asia, but most of these are merely authoritarian outfits facilitating State-controlled capitalism. The Indian Communist groups have mostly found themselves on the wrong side of history. Their stubborn adherence to internationalism found them sailing against the tide of nationalism in the 1940s: Opposition to Gandhi, the Quit India movement, the short-lived support for the Muslim League’s demand for Pakistan, and finally, the Ranadive thesis period that saw an armed insurrection against independent India, prevented the party from expanding its support among industrial workers and peasants into a mass front. Dogmatic analysis limited their understanding of the caste question and the authoritarian impulse in the imposition of the Emergency. The disappearance of the Soviet utopia has made revival difficult. Where does the Communist Left go from here? The recent success of the Janata Vimukthi Peramuna in Sri Lanka and Zohran Mamdani in New York suggest that political ideologies can revive in new and unexpected forms. The CPI — and the CPM — have shown inventiveness while running governments in Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura: They were pioneers of united front politics in the 1960s and 70s that involved building social and political coalitions, creating cooperatives, and addressing questions of equality and equity through land reforms, acknowledgment of citizen rights, and welfare schemes. But, at a time of global retreat of democratic politics, the Indian Communists have failed to break fresh ground on ideas or practise, preferring dogma and nostalgia to creatively engaging with the challenges of the time such as the climate crisis, anti-migration policies, and the rise of social conservatism. Indian politics is poorer for the absence of an inventive Left.

Q: The steady electoral and ideological decline of the Indian Left reflects deeper shifts in political economy, identity politics, and voter mobilisation. Critically examine the reasons for the Left’s marginalisation in contemporary Indian politics. Can ideological reinvention and grassroots engagement enable a revival, or has the space permanently shifted?

B. Addressing political vacuum in Bangladesh

The return of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Tarique Rehman to Dhaka after 17 years in exile in the UK is a development with significant ramifications for his party and the country’s political landscape. Rahman, the son of former dictator Ziaur Rahman and former premier Khaleda Zia, left Bangladesh in 2008 as per an understanding with the then military-backed government; his return shows he believes the general election will go ahead as scheduled on February 12 and his presence will bolster the BNP’s fortunes in the face of a challenge from the Jamaat-e-Islami and the student-led National Citizen Party. Since the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina government last year, Bangladesh has faced a political and leadership vacuum. The interim government led by Muhammad Yunus was meant to oversee a transitory phase. Despite Yunus enjoying the goodwill of many western capitals, the widespread anarchy and chaos witnessed during protests across Bangladesh over the killing of radical leader Sharif Osman Hadi exposed the interim government’s inability to govern. Fingers pointed at India in connection with Hadi’s killing by political leaders, with zero evidence, were a key reason why the protests took on a virulently anti-India hue. The interim government ensured the election won’t be inclusive by banning the Awami League. New Delhi’s experience of dealing with past BNP governments have been anything but pleasant, though many party leaders have signalled a change in approach towards India. In the current circumstances, a BNP-led government offers the best prospects for predictability and stability in bilateral relations. Tarique Rehman’s return bolsters the BNP’s electoral prospects.

Possible Question

Assess the challenges facing democratic consolidation in Bangladesh in the current phase. How should India recalibrate its neighbourhood policy to safeguard strategic interests while respecting democratic processes?

Fact of the day

Army revises social media usage guidelines for personnel: The Indian Army has revised its guidelines for the usage of social media, allowing personnel to sign up on Instagram, but remain only as a “passive observer, without putting up posts or comments on the platform, people familiar with the matter said last week. The revision aims to augment the awareness level of Army personnel in the “digital age of information” and guard them against any potential or inadvertent leak of sensitive information, they said. The change in guidelines applies to all ranks in the Indian Army. “The revised guidelines essentially mean that Army personnel can now sign up on Instagram, but with the condition that they can use it only as passive observers. They can view posts, but cannot post content or comments on the platform,” the source said. Essentially, no “user-generated content” is allowed, so even ‘liking’ a post would fall in that category, the source added. Earlier, Army personnel could sign up and use X, but not Instagram. “The restrictions already apply on X, so Army personnel using X can only view posts, but cannot post, repost or comment on them,” another source said.