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UPSC Daily News Summaries: Essential Current Affairs, Key Issues and Important Updates for Civil Services
Simple, relatable summaries that help you make sense of the day’s news.
Daily News Capsules
1. Luthras detained, to be brought back to India
Delhi-based entrepreneurs Saurabh and Gaurav Luthra, who fled to Phuket within hours after a blaze ripped through their club in Goa and killed 25 people, were detained by local authorities in Thailand and a joint investigation team will soon bring the accused back to India, chief minister Pramod Sawant said on Thursday. His comments came a day after the external affairs ministry began considering the Goa government’s request to revoke the passports of the two brothers, after receiving a communication from the state government. Twenty-five people, including four from a Delhi family, were killed and six injured after a massive fire tore through their nightclub – Birch by Romeo Lane – in the coastal village of Arpora in north Goa around 11.45pm on Saturday. Authorities have said that even as the fire was gutting the structure, the two brothers booked tickets to Thailand at 1.17am on Sunday and flew out at 5.30am the same day. A lookout notice against them was issued roughly 24 hours later. “We have detained them today in Thailand. We will bring them to Goa within a short span of time,” Sawant told reporters in state capital Panaji on Thursday. The brothers’ lawyer, Tanvir Ahmed Mir, told news agency Reuters that they were facing a “vengeful government” and that they went to Thailand to set up a restaurant in Phuket. The Goa Police, while opposing the plea for transit bail, submitted before the court that the two had no known business interests in Thailand. Sawant confirmed that the duo were detained by Thailand police based on a request by India and in connection with the case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder registered in Goa.
Possible Question
Evaluate how India’s use of Look-Out Circulars, passport impoundment, and mutual legal assistance frameworks strengthens accountability. What procedural safeguards must accompany these measures to prevent misuse while ensuring timely extradition or deportation of fugitives?
2. SC widens ambit of sexual harassment at workplace Act
The Supreme Court has ruled that proceedings under the Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) Act can be initiated not only at the department where the accused employee works but also at the workplace of the complainant and at any site visited by the employee in the course of employment, in a judgment that significantly strengthens workplace-safety protection for women. Settling a long-standing legal ambiguity, a bench of justices JK Maheshwari and Vijay Bishnoi rejected the argument that an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) can inquire into a complaint only if it is constituted in the accused employee’s own department. Any narrower interpretation, the court said, would erect fresh “procedural and psychological barriers” for aggrieved women, forcing them to pursue complaints in unfamiliar offices and undermining the POSH Act’s social welfare purpose. The judgment came in an appeal filed by a 2010-batch India Revenue Services (IRS) officer challenging the jurisdiction of the ICC at the Department of Food and Public Distribution, where a 2004-batch Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer was posted and where she (the IAS officer) alleged that he (the IRS officer) sexually harassed her on in May 2023 (at Krishi Bhawan in New Delhi) The IAS officer lodged an FIR the next day and then approached the POSH ICC in her own department. As the ICC initiated proceedings and summoned him for a hearing, the accused officer moved the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), contending that only the ICC under the Department of Revenue -- his own controlling authority, had jurisdiction to inquire into the allegations. The CAT rejected his plea, and the Delhi high court upheld that decision in June 2023. The officer then approached the Supreme Court, which allowed the inquiry to continue but directed that the final report be sealed pending the outcome of the appeal. The inquiry has since concluded, and the report was shared with the Court in a sealed cover.
Possible Question
Discuss how does the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the POSH Act advance workplace justice. Assess the administrative and institutional reforms needed to ensure consistent compliance across India’s fragmented public and private sectors.
3. SC moves closer to first passive euthanasia nod
The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the constitution of a secondary medical board at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, to examine whether life support and treatment may be withdrawn from a 31-year-old man who has remained in a vegetative state for over a decade, in what may become India’s first judicially sanctioned case of passive euthanasia. A bench of justices JB Pardiwala and KV Viswanathan said it was “very, very unfortunate” that the man, who suffers from 100% disability quadriplegia, is surviving in a condition so “pathetic” that he has now developed severe bedsores, an indicator of prolonged neglect and irreversible deterioration. The direction came after a primary medical board, constituted pursuant to the court’s November 26 order, visited the man’s home and submitted a grim assessment. Taking note of this material and submissions by petitioner’s counsel, advocate Rashmi Nandakumar, the bench said it was time to proceed to the next step laid down in the Supreme Court’s Common Cause judgment (2018) - obtaining the opinion of a secondary medical board. The court ordered AIIMS to constitute the secondary board and submit its report by December 17. Once the AIIMS secondary board submits its opinion, the court will decide whether life support, including feeding tubes and clinically assisted hydration, may legally be withdrawn. Passive euthanasia, legal in India since the Common Cause decision of 2018 (later modified in 2023), permits withdrawal of life support or medical treatment when a patient is terminally ill or in an irreversible vegetative state, subject to a multilayered medical and judicial process.
Possible Question
The Supreme Court’s evolving jurisprudence on passive euthanasia hinges on medical-board oversight and patient autonomy. Analyse the ethical, legal, and administrative challenges in operationalising the modified Common Cause guidelines across India’s healthcare system. What mechanisms are necessary to prevent both misuse and prolonged suffering?
4. Private docs who worked during Covid and died entitled to govt aid: SC
Underlining that “the courage and sacrifice of our doctors remain indelible,” the Supreme Court on Thursday held that even private practitioners who kept their clinics open during the Covid-19 pandemic and later succumbed to the infection must be treated as frontline workers “requisitioned” by the State, and therefore eligible for the ₹50-lakh insurance under the Centre’s Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP). A bench of justices PS Narasimha and R Mahadevan rejected the Union government’s narrow interpretation that only those formally “drafted” or “requisitioned” by state or central authorities could claim the benefit. The court said the government’s own laws, regulations and executive actions during the early months of the pandemic made it clear that authorities had invoked emergency powers to draw upon all available medical professionals, including those in private practice, to keep essential healthcare functioning during the national health crisis. The ruling is a major relief for families of several private doctors whose compensation claims were rejected for want of a formal requisition order - a position earlier upheld by the Bombay High Court. The present case involved five widows of Maharashtra-based doctors. “Taking into account the live situation that existed as on March 2020, coupled with the invocation of the Epidemic Diseases Act and the Regulations of 2020, there cannot be any doubt about the compelling situation in which governments requisitioned the services of as many doctors as possible,” the bench held.
Possible Question
Analyse how this judgment reshapes the interpretation of emergency powers, the State’s obligations during public-health crises, and the design of future disaster compensation frameworks. What administrative reforms are needed to ensure timely and equitable disbursal of such benefits?
5. Mexico’s Congress gives nod to higher tariffs on goods from India, China
Mexico’s Congress has approved a bill that seeks to impose higher tariffs on imports from India, China, Brazil and several other countries with which the North American nation doesn’t have free trade agreements. The levies, set to take effect on January 1, 2026, was passed by Mexico’s Senate on Wednesday after the lower house approved it. The development comes months after US President Donald Trump imposed a steep 50% tariffs on Indian goods entering American markets, including 25% for Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil, in August. The bill, submitted to Congress by President Claudia Sheinbaum in September, proposes modifications to 1,463 tariff categories (or products) covering more than a dozen sectors, including auto parts, light vehicles, plastic, toys, textiles, furniture, footwear, clothing, aluminium and glass, according to the Mexico News Daily. The proposed tariffs range from 5% to 50%. Among the other countries that will be affected by the proposed higher tariffs are India, China, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates, the daily said. China will be the most affected country. The paper said that the government believes that the proposed tariffs would generate additional revenue of $3.8 billion per year. The Mexican government is aiming to reduce reliance on imports from Asian countries, especially China, it added. The proposal to increase tariffs on China and other countries with which Mexico doesn’t have free trade agreements represents “an alignment with US trade policy”, Horacio Saavedra, a Mexican diplomat, was quoted as saying by the news outlet La Silla Rota. India was Mexico’s 9th largest trading partner in 2023, with a trade of $10.58 billion.
Possible Question
With Mexico aligning tariff policy more closely with the US, assess how rising protectionism in North America shapes India’s trade diversification strategy. What diplomatic, industrial, and supply-chain measures can India adopt to mitigate external tariff shocks and strengthen competitiveness in global manufacturing?
Editorial Snapshots
A. Viksit Bharat goal needs investing more in health
Viksit Bharat 2047 imagines India as a $30-trillion economy with per capita income of $18,000–21,000, implying developed-nation status and requiring sustained nominal GDP growth of about 10% annually. But even with $21,000 per capita GDP, will India be a developed country? A developed country is one whose wealth rests primarily on human capital rather than natural resources. In essence, development means shifting from extracting value from the land to generating value from human potential. Economic growth without parallel investment in health is possible, but is almost always temporary and uneven. Empirical studies from parts of Central Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America show that countries can grow for years while health indicators stagnate. In contrast, countries that integrated health into development — such as South Korea, Sri Lanka, or Costa Rica — converted economic gains into longevity, workforce resilience, and social cohesion. Life expectancy at birth is one measure of health — imperfect yet stable. India’s life-expectancy goals are ambitious but unevenly grounded in current trends. Although there is no stated national target under Viksit Bharat vision documents, several states have articulated concrete targets. Nationally, life expectancy has been rising by about 0.4 years annually. In the most optimistic scenario, a level of 81 years by 2047 is realistic if the current rate of progress to continue. But that is unlikely. Communicable-disease mortality has already fallen sharply, but non-communicable diseases now account for roughly 65% of all deaths. Without decisive action on obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disorders, air pollution, and mental-health care, India’s steady climb could flatten by the 2030s — mirroring the plateau seen in wealthier nations. India has, in recent years, stepped back from strong central investment in public health, leaving states to shoulder the burden. That approach is unsustainable.
Possible Question
As India pursues the Viksit Bharat 2047 vision, critically assess how inadequate investment in public health may constrain productivity, labour-force resilience, and long-term economic growth. What institutional reforms and federal financing mechanisms are essential to integrate health as a core pillar of India’s development strategy?
B. A first step towards protecting the Ridge
The Centre’s reconstitution of the Delhi Ridge Management Board (DRMB) and grant of statutory powers — following a Supreme Court directive — is a fresh attempt to protect the national Capital’s “green lungs”. To be sure, the Ridge Management Board has been around since 1995, but has always lacked the teeth needed to ensure the area remains protected. With multiple authorities vested with jurisdiction over the area, the Ridge eventually became nobody’s baby. As a result, nearly 5% of the area has already been encroached upon. Making DRMB the single window for Ridge governance, including clearances and permissions for development projects, should address lingering problems. The importance of the Delhi Ridge — including the Morphological Ridge — can’t be overstated. Apart from its ecological value in terms of biodiversity, it filters out toxic pollutants from Delhi’s air to a considerable extent. It aids temperature regulation and checks desertification by blocking hot, dry winds from the west and south-west. It also plays an important role in recharging groundwater in the national Capital. But protection for this vital region has moved far too slowly — against more than 7,700 hectares of identified area, just 103 hectares has been notified as protected forests. So, while 4% of the Ridge area has already been diverted to non-forest use, just over 1.3% has been notified as protected forest. A centralised approach to Ridge protection could help check this — especially when it can override the jurisdictions of a clutch of authorities, some of which have actively felled trees in the area. A quick reclamation of the land lost to encroachment would be in order. But, all this depends on enforcement powers — experts believe this has not been made explicit, with only a general direction to national capital authorities to aid the discharge of duties by the DRMB. This needs to be corrected if the granting of statutory powers to the body is to prove meaningful.
Possible Question
Strengthening the Ridge Management Board aims to create a unified governance mechanism for Delhi’s ecological assets. Evaluate the legal, administrative, and inter agency challenges in implementing effective Ridge protection. How can statutory authority, data transparency, and local accountability be enhanced to prevent encroachment and ensure ecological restoration?
Fact of the day
US approves sale of tech, support for F-16 aircraft to Pakistan: The United States has approved the sale of advanced technology and support for F-16 fighter jets valued at $686 million to Pakistan. The US Defence Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), in a letter sent to Congress on Monday, gave the approval, reported Dawn on Thursday. The package includes Link–16 systems, cryptographic equipment, avionics updates, training, and comprehensive logistical support. The DSCA letter makes clear the rationale for the sale, stating that it “will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by allowing Pakistan to retain interoperability with US and partner forces in ongoing counter-terrorism efforts and in preparation for future contingency operations”. The proposed sale is also aimed at modernising Pakistan’s F-16 fleet and addressing operational safety concerns.The letter notes that it will “maintain Pakistan’s capability to meet current and future threats by updating and refurbishing its Block–52 and Mid Life Upgrade F–16 fleet.” These updates will provide more “seamless integration and interoperability between the Pakistan Air Force and the US Air Force in combat operations, exercises, and training, and refurbishment will extend the aircraft life through 2040 while addressing critical flight safety concerns,” the letter adds. The letter concludes that the sale “will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States” while ensuring that Pakistan can continue to operate its F-16 fleet safely and effectively.
