UPSC Prelims Current Affairs: 8 October 2026

Background. The repo rate is the rate at which the RBI lends short term funds to commercial banks, and is the MPC's main tool for managing inflation under its flexible inflation targeting mandate, which sets a target of 4 per cent CPI inflation within a band of plus or minus 2 per cent. The MPC had cut the rate four times for a total of 125 basis points through 2025 before holding it at 5.25 per cent since.

For Prelims, remember

• The RBI Monetary Policy Committee has six members: the Governor as chairperson, two other RBI officials, and three external members appointed by the central government.
• The repo rate was last hiked in February 2023, when it was raised to 6.50 per cent.
• The MPC's inflation target under the RBI Act is 4 per cent CPI inflation, within a tolerance band of 2 to 6 per cent.

Background. Municipalities in India are governed under Part IXA of the Constitution, added by the 74th Amendment of 1992, which vests the conduct of their elections in a State Election Commission under Article 243ZA, similar to the Article 243K mechanism for panchayats. The Supreme Court acted here on the report of a fact-finding committee it had itself appointed to examine the conduct of the Punjab civic polls.

For Prelims, remember

• The 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992 added Part IXA to the Constitution, dealing with Municipalities.
• Article 243ZA of the Constitution vests superintendence, direction and control of municipal elections in the State Election Commission.
• The Supreme Court bench that ordered the re-election was headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant.

Background. India currently permits cotton hybrids containing only two Bt genes, cry1Ac and cry2Ab, both approved through the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee under the Environment Protection Act, 1986. Commercial cultivation of any other genetically modified trait in cotton, including herbicide tolerant cotton, has not received regulatory approval in India.

For Prelims, remember

• India's cotton biotechnology approvals currently cover only the cry1Ac and cry2Ab Bt genes, both derived from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis.
• The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee, under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, is the apex body that approves the environmental release of genetically modified organisms in India.
• The cp4-epsps gene, not approved in Indian cotton, confers tolerance to the herbicide glyphosate.

Background. The GST Council, set up under Article 279A of the Constitution, is the joint Centre-state body that decides GST rates, exemptions and administrative rules, with the Union Finance Minister as chairperson and state finance ministers as members. Arrest powers for GST offences currently derive from Section 69 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.

For Prelims, remember

• The GST Council was constituted under Article 279A of the Constitution, inserted by the 101st Constitutional Amendment Act, 2016.
• Section 69 of the CGST Act, 2017 currently empowers tax officers to arrest a person for specified serious GST offences.
• The proposal discussed at the October 2026 Council meeting would raise the prosecution threshold for GST offences from Rs 1 crore to Rs 5 crore.

Background. An initial public offering is the process by which a private company first sells shares to the public and lists on a stock exchange, and in India this requires clearance from the Securities and Exchange Board of India. Jio Platforms is the digital services arm of Reliance Industries, and has previously taken investment from global technology firms including Meta Platforms and Google.

For Prelims, remember

• Jio Platforms' planned IPO, at about 3.8 billion US dollars, would be India's biggest ever stock market listing, ahead of Hyundai Motor India's 2.9 billion dollar listing in 2024.
• Jio Platforms is the digital services arm of Reliance Industries, and counts Meta Platforms and Google among its major investors.
• An initial public offering in India requires clearance from the Securities and Exchange Board of India before shares can be listed on stock exchanges.

Background. The Living Planet Index measures average change in the relative abundance of monitored wild vertebrate populations over time, not the absolute number of animals or populations lost, and has been published by WWF with the Zoological Society of London since 1998. Habitat loss from the way the world produces and consumes food is identified as the single largest driver of the declines the index tracks.

For Prelims, remember

• The Living Planet Index is produced by the Zoological Society of London in partnership with WWF.
• Global wild tiger numbers rose from about 3,200 in 2010 to around 5,700 by 2025, according to the Living Planet Report 2026.
• The Living Planet Report 2026 found the steepest population decline, 85 per cent, in freshwater ecosystems.

Background. Asymmetric synthesis is the branch of chemistry concerned with making molecules that exist as mirror image pairs, called enantiomers, in a way that favours one form, which matters because the two mirror forms of a drug molecule can have very different biological effects. The prize follows the 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, also awarded for asymmetric catalysis work, to William Knowles, Ryoji Noyori and K. Barry Sharpless.

For Prelims, remember

• The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2026 was awarded to Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai for discovering non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis.
• The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, unlike the Peace Prize, which is announced by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo.
• Henri Kagan is French and Kenso Soai is Japanese; both are organic chemists known for asymmetric catalysis research.

Background. The Inter-Parliamentary Union, founded in 1889 and headquartered in Geneva, is the international organisation of national parliaments, and India has been a member since 1949. A right of reply is a procedural device allowing a delegation to respond immediately to remarks made by another country's delegation at a multilateral forum.

For Prelims, remember

• The Inter-Parliamentary Union was founded in 1889 and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
• Jammu and Kashmir recorded a voter turnout of 63 per cent in its 2024 Assembly elections, its first since the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.
• Harivansh Narayan Singh is the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.