1 October 2025

• Milestone: The Union Public Service Commission turns 100. The UPSC was established on 1 October 1925 under the Lee Commission's recommendations.
• Trade: India-EFTA Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) entered into force. EFTA committed $100 billion in FDI over 15 years.
• International: India was re-elected to the ICAO Council for the 2025-2028 term.
• Ocean resources: India secured its second polymetallic sulphides exploration contract on the Carlsberg Ridge in the Indian Ocean.
• Agriculture: False smut disease spread across rice crops in Punjab, prompting agronomic alerts.

GS area: Polity (Constitutional Bodies)

The Union Public Service Commission completes a century on 1 October 2025. Its origin traces to the Lee Commission of 1924 and the subsequent Public Service Commission set up on 1 October 1925 under the Government of India Act 1919. The GOI Act 1935 elevated it to a Federal PSC. After Independence, Articles 315 to 323 of the Constitution gave it permanent statutory form.

• Article 315: mandates the establishment of a Public Service Commission for the Union and for each State. It is not a discretionary body.
• Article 316: the Chairman and members are appointed by the President for Union and by the Governor for State commissions. The term is six years or age 65, whichever comes first.
• Article 317: removal requires the President to refer the matter to the Supreme Court for inquiry. Ordinary executive action cannot remove a Chairman or member.
• Article 320: lists the functions, which include recruitment, promotions, disciplinary proceedings and advising on service matters.
• PRATIBHA Setu: a recent reform that connects interview-qualified but unselected candidates to alternate employment opportunities in the public sector.
• Scale today: about 10 to 12 lakh applicants a year; more than 2,500 examination centres; 48 optional subjects; 22 scheduled languages available for the mains examination.

The centenary raises a pointed question. The selection ratio stands at roughly one in a thousand. Coaching costs have pushed effective participation toward urban middle-class aspirants. The Commission has introduced biometric authentication and AI-enabled screening to fight impersonation. The deeper question of access has no equivalent technological answer.

Static linkage: Constitutional bodies (Polity), Articles 315-323.

GS area: International Relations, Economy

The Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement between India and the four EFTA nations, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, entered into force on 1 October 2025. It was signed on 10 March 2024.

• FDI commitment: $100 billion in foreign direct investment over 15 years, projected to generate one million direct jobs in India.
• Tariff coverage: 92.2 per cent of tariff lines at zero duty; 99.6 per cent of India's exports covered.
• Services access: more than 100 sub-sectors including information technology, education, audio-visual and business services.
• Mutual Recognition Agreements: nursing, architecture and chartered accountancy are the three professions covered.
• IP provisions: TRIPS-plus standard but with safeguards for generic medicines. Patent evergreening is explicitly blocked, which protects India's pharmaceutical sector.
• EFTA identity: European Free Trade Association is not the EU. Its four members stayed outside the EU single market. Switzerland is the largest economy in the group.

The deal is structurally different from a conventional FTA because the FDI commitment is binding in a schedule, not merely a political statement. Enforcement mechanisms for the investment target will be the real test.

Static linkage: International organisations, India's trade policy.

GS area: International Relations (International Organisations)

India retained its seat on the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organisation for the 2025-2028 term. India has been on the Council without interruption for 81 years, since ICAO's founding in 1944.

• ICAO origin: established by the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation in 1944. It became a UN specialised agency in 1947.
• Headquarters: Montreal, Canada.
• Members: 193 states are parties to the Chicago Convention.
• Council composition: 36 elected members serving three-year terms. Members are elected by the General Assembly into three parts based on air traffic importance, geographic diversity, and representation of states not otherwise included.
• Key function: ICAO issues Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) that all member states incorporate into national aviation law.
• India's category: Part II of the Council, which groups states of chief importance in providing facilities for international air navigation.

Static linkage: Specialised UN agencies, Chicago Convention.

GS area: Economy (Blue Economy, Ocean Resources)

India signed its second exploration contract for polymetallic sulphides (PMS) with the International Seabed Authority. The exploration area covers 10,000 square kilometres on the Carlsberg Ridge in the Indian Ocean.

• Executing agency: National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR).
• First contract: awarded in 2016 for areas on the Central and Southwest Indian Ridge.
• Significance: India is now the first country with two PMS exploration contracts and commands the largest allocated PMS area globally.
• International Seabed Authority (ISA): established under UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea). Regulates exploration and extraction of mineral resources from the seabed beyond national jurisdiction.
• Carlsberg Ridge: a mid-ocean ridge formed by seafloor spreading at the junction of the African, Indian and Australian tectonic plates. Located at approximately 2 degrees North, 66 degrees East. Spreading rate is 2.4 to 3.3 centimetres per year.
• PMS deposits: found at hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor at depths of 2,000 to 5,000 metres. They contain copper, zinc, lead, silver, gold and rare metals.

Static linkage: Ocean resources, UNCLOS, India's maritime interests.

GS area: Modern History

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh marks its centenary in 2025. It was founded on 27 September 1925 in Nagpur by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, a physician from the city.

• K.B. Hedgewar: a Congress member before founding the RSS. He participated in the Jungle Satyagraha of 1930 against British forest laws in the Central Provinces.
• Ban and lift: the organisation was banned in 1948 following Gandhi's assassination, when the government cited links between the assassin Nathuram Godse and the RSS. The ban was lifted in 1949.
• Bharatiya Jana Sangh: the RSS supported the founding of the BJS in 1951 under Syama Prasad Mookerjee.
• Gandhi's September 1947 visit: Gandhi addressed an RSS gathering and praised its discipline while cautioning against exclusivist nationalism.

Static linkage: Freedom struggle and post-Independence political history.

GS area: Agriculture (Crop diseases)

A widespread outbreak of false smut disease affected rice crops at the maturing and harvest stage in Punjab in October 2025.

• Causal organism: the fungus Ustilaginoidea virens.
• Local names: Haldi Rog, Lakshmi disease or Oothupathi disease.
• Symptoms: black fungal mycelium covers individual grains; spores turn from yellow to greenish-black.
• Favourable conditions: temperature between 25 and 30 degrees Celsius, relative humidity above 80 per cent, and excess nitrogen application in the soil.
• Impact: infected grains produce mycotoxins and are unfit for consumption. The disease reduces both yield and grain quality.

Static linkage: Crop protection, kharif agriculture in India.

GS area: Society (Public Safety)

The National Crime Records Bureau published the 2023 Accidental Deaths and Suicides report. Road accident data:

• Total accidents: 4,64,029; deaths: more than 1,73,000; injuries: more than 4,47,000.
• Peak hours: 6 pm to 9 pm accounted for 20.7 per cent of all accidents.
• Two-wheelers: responsible for 79,533 deaths, which is 45.8 per cent of total fatalities.
• Speeding: caused 1,01,841 deaths, 58.6 per cent of all road accident deaths.
• National Highways: site of 34.6 per cent of all deaths despite forming a small fraction of the total road network.
• Highest fatality states: Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh.
• Delhi: 5,715 accidents; 1,457 deaths.

Static linkage: Disaster management, urban governance, Motor Vehicles Act.

• NCRB on crimes against children (2023): 1,77,335 cases, a 9.2 per cent increase over 2022. Kidnapping and abduction made up 45 per cent. POCSO accounted for 38.2 per cent of cases. Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest total (22,393 cases).
• Wassenaar Arrangement: established in 1996 as successor to the Cold War-era COCOM. Forty-two member countries regulate exports of conventional arms and dual-use goods. HQ in Vienna. India joined in 2017.
• Jiya Rai: a 17-year-old autistic swimmer from India became the first autistic woman to complete the 34-kilometre Catalina Channel swim in the United States. She is a Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar recipient.