November 04, 2026
34 articles published on this date
Draft National Policy on Sustainable Aviation Fuels: Mandatory Blending in Jet Fuel from 2027
The Ministry of Civil Aviation has circulated a draft National Policy on Sustainable Aviation Fuels. It proposes making it compulsory to blend (mix)...
NVS-03 Navigation Satellite Reaches Geosynchronous Orbit: What It Means for NavIC
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said its navigation satellite NVS-03 has reached its planned geosynchronous orbit, and the satellite is in...
Weak Monsoon Puts India's 20% Ethanol Blending Target at Risk: The Food vs Fuel Question
A weak 2026 monsoon (rainfall about 13% below normal, linked to a strong El Niño) has hurt crops like maize and sugarcane, which are the main raw materials...
How the Supreme Court Built Due Process in Death Penalty Cases: From Bachan Singh to Manoj
Over more than four decades, the Supreme Court has built a set of rules on how a court must decide whether to give the death penalty. This is the idea of...
Special Intensive Revision of Voter Lists: Why It Is Being Done and Why It Is Debated
The Election Commission of India (ECI) is carrying out a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls (voter lists). In an SIR, the voter list is...
Back-to-Back GSLV Successes: EOS-05 and NVS-03 Restore Confidence in ISRO's Cryogenic Rocket
ISRO's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) has flown two successful missions in a row in 2026, after a difficult period for Indian launches....
Cabinet Approves ₹2,814 Crore Capex Scheme for Lithium and Nickel Processing in India
The Union Cabinet approved a Capex Support Scheme to Promote Critical Mineral Processing with a total outlay of ₹2,814 crore. 'Capex' (capital expenditure)...
Supreme Court Says Two-Child Rules for Local Body Elections Have Lost Relevance as Fertility Falls; Javed Ruling Sent to a Larger Bench
On 4 November 2026, the Supreme Court, in Mangala Bhimrao Ingle v. Additional Commissioner, Amravati Division, said that laws which disqualify people with...
Cabinet Approves VISTAR: A ₹4,371 Crore Plan to Modernise India's Official Statistics
The Union Cabinet approved a new central sector scheme called VISTAR (Viksit Bharat Initiative for Statistical Transformation, Analytics and Research) for...
COP30 Fossil Fuel Roadmap Asks Countries for National Transition Plans; India Declines COP31 Electrification Pledge
Brazil's COP30 Presidency released its Roadmap for Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels (TAFF) in Energy Systems. It asks every country to make a national...
UNEP Adaptation Gap Report 2026: Developing Countries Get Only a Fraction of the Money They Need to Adapt
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released its Adaptation Gap Report 2026, titled 'Ready? Not', on 4 November 2026, just before the COP31...
Cabinet Approves ₹14,500 Crore VGF Scheme for 92 GWh of Grid-Scale Energy Storage
The Union Cabinet approved a Viability Gap Funding (VGF) scheme of ₹14,500 crore to build 92 GWh (gigawatt-hours) of grid-scale energy storage across India....
Keralam's Draft Report on the Labour Codes: Higher Minimum Wages, Wider Bonus Eligibility
A committee set up by the Keralam (Kerala) government submitted a draft report on how the State should implement the four Labour Codes. The State Labour...
India-Bangladesh Joint Rivers Commission: The Forum for the Ganga Water Treaty as It Nears Expiry
The Ganga Water Treaty between India and Bangladesh will expire on December 12, 2026, 30 years after it was signed. Asked about the treaty, the Official...
Cabinet Clears ₹14,500 Crore VGF Scheme for 92 GWh of Grid-Scale Energy Storage
The Union Cabinet approved a Viability Gap Funding (VGF) scheme of ₹14,500 crore for grid-scale energy storage. VGF is a one-time government grant that...
Agnipath Scheme Changed: Two-Year "Second Tour of Duty" for Agniveers
On 4 November 2026, the Union Cabinet approved a two-year 'Second Tour of Duty' for Agniveers recruited under the Agnipath scheme. The Defence Minister...
Cabinet Clears ₹14,500 Crore Viability Gap Funding for 92 GWh of Grid Energy Storage
The Union Cabinet approved a Viability Gap Funding (VGF) scheme of ₹14,500 crore to build 92 GWh (gigawatt-hours) of grid-scale energy storage. A...
Supreme Court Says States' Additional Sales Tax Question Is Now Academic: S. Kodar Ruling Still Holds
On 4 November 2026, a seven-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, unanimously held that a legal...
Supreme Court Orders a Special Cell to Enforce the 2016 Child Labour Law
The Supreme Court directed the Centre, through the Ministry of Women and Child Development, to set up a special cell to watch over how the Child Labour...
Cabinet Backs Lithium and Nickel Processing Plants and Grid-Scale Energy Storage: What the Two Schemes Mean
The Union Cabinet met on 4 November 2026 to take up two schemes: capital support for critical mineral processing and Viability Gap Funding (VGF) for...
India's Foreign Secretary Visits Kathmandu to Prepare for Nepal PM's First Visit to New Delhi
India's Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri reached Kathmandu on a two-day official visit (4 to 6 November 2026) and met Nepal's Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal...
Supreme Court Questions the Two-Child Norm for Panchayat Polls as India's Fertility Falls
On 4 November 2026, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court (Justices P.S. Narasimha and Alok Aradhe) said that state laws which punish people for having...
Lifelong Legal Immunity for Election Commissioners: Supreme Court Seeks Centre's and ECI's Reply
The Supreme Court has asked the Union government and the Election Commission of India (ECI) to reply to a new petition against Section 16 of the Chief...
Delhi SIR: Supreme Court to Hear Dispute Over Form 6 for Voters Deleted From the Draft Roll
In the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Delhi's voter list, 47,56,722 electors (32.78% of Delhi's electorate) were left out of the draft electoral roll...
Supreme Court Orders Uniform Bonded Labour Rehabilitation; NGT Acts on Riverbed Encroachment and Illegal Mining in Arunachal Pradesh
Supreme Court on bonded labour (order of 2 November 2026): A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Aparesh Kumar Singh told the Union government to make sure...
Food Before Fuel: El Niño Hits Crops and India's Ethanol Blending May Fall to About 15%
India's share of ethanol mixed into petrol may fall to about 15% in the 2026-27 Ethanol Supply Year (November 2026 to October 2027), down from the 20% (E20)...
IndiaAI Mission Releases Three Homegrown AI Models: EKA-1, Dhīr 2B and Dhīr 5B
The IndiaAI Mission, under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), released three indigenous foundation models (large...
DEPA for AI Training: Government Handbook on Sharing Hospital, Bank and Government Data to Train AI Models
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) released a handbook called Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture (DEPA) for AI...
NavIC vs GPS: Why India Is Strengthening Its Own Navigation System After NVS-03
At the end of October 2026, ISRO's GSLV-F18 rocket placed the NVS-03 navigation satellite into its planned orbit from Sriharikota. NVS-03 is the third of...
Climate India 2026 Report: Extreme Weather on Almost Every Day for Five Years
A new report, Climate India 2026: An Assessment of Extreme Weather Events, by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and Down To Earth, studied...
Gig Workers' Social Security: Government Weighs a 2% Transaction Levy on Aggregators
The Union government is considering a 2% levy on each transaction handled by aggregators (app-based companies such as food delivery, ride-hailing and...
GRAP Stage 2 Invoked in Delhi as Air Quality Turns "Very Poor": What Is Allowed and What Is Not
The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) invoked Stage 2 of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) in Delhi after the city's Air Quality Index (AQI)...
Duplicate Voter IDs Found in Bengaluru's Mahadevapura After SIR: How EPIC and Voter Roll Rules Work
After the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Karnataka, a check of the final roll of the Mahadevapura Assembly constituency in Bengaluru...
NEET-PG to Move from Percentile Cut-offs to a Rank-based Merit System: What Changes and Why
A 12-member expert committee set up by the Union government told the Supreme Court that NEET-PG (the entrance exam for MD/MS seats) should stop using a...