15 October 2025

• Polity: Right to Information Act turns 20. The law exposed landmark scams but faces a systemic backlog crisis, Telangana's wait time for first appeals is 29 years.
• Defence: Three major military exercises concluded in the same week, AUSTRAHIND (India-Australia), INDRA (India-Russia) and India-South Korea bilateral exercise.
• Social Security: EPFO 3.0 simplified the PF withdrawal framework from 13 purposes to three categories, with enhanced digital processing.
• Space: ISRO's Gaganyaan Crew Escape System design was detailed for public understanding.
• Elections: India was elected unopposed to the UN Human Rights Council for the 2026-2028 term.

GS area: Polity (Governance, Transparency)

The Right to Information Act, 2005 completes 20 years.

• Enactment: passed under the UPA government in June 2005.
• Three-tier structure: Public Information Officers (PIOs) at the first instance; First Appellate Authorities within the department; Central or State Information Commissioners (CIC/SIC) at the apex.
• Response mandate: 30 days for ordinary requests; 48 hours for requests affecting life and liberty.
• Fee: Rs 10 for the application; Rs 2 per page for documents.
• Penalty provision: Section 20 allows the CIC to impose a penalty of up to Rs 25,000 on a PIO for malicious denial, delay or misleading.
• Impact: more than 2.5 crore RTI applications filed since 2005. The law helped expose the 2G spectrum scam, the Commonwealth Games corruption, the Adarsh Housing Society scam and numerous other cases.
• 2019 Amendment: removed the fixed tenure and salary parity of Information Commissioners with Election Commissioners. Critics argue this weakened institutional independence.
• Systemic crisis: chronic vacancies at CIC and SICs. Telangana has a backlog where the wait for a first appeal decision is estimated at 29 years. Only 1.2 per cent of penal actions under Section 20 are actually imposed.
• DPDPA conflict: Section 44(3) of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 restricts disclosure under Section 8(1)(j) of RTI, weakening the personal information access provisions.

Static linkage: Fundamental rights (Article 19), transparency laws, governance.

GS area: International Relations (UN Bodies)

India was elected unopposed to the UN Human Rights Council for the 2026-2028 term. This is India's seventh tenure on the Council.

• UNHRC establishment: 2006 by UNGA Resolution 60/251. It replaced the UN Commission on Human Rights, which was widely criticised for politicisation.
• HQ: United Nations Office, Geneva.
• Membership: 47 seats, each serving a three-year term. A member may not serve more than two consecutive terms.
• Regional distribution: Africa 13 seats; Asia-Pacific 13 seats; Latin America and Caribbean 8; Western Europe and Others 7; Eastern Europe 6.
• Functions: Universal Periodic Review (UPR), every UN member state's human rights situation is reviewed every 4.5 years; appointment of Special Rapporteurs; fact-finding missions.
• India's criticism: India has faced scrutiny at the UPR on issues of press freedom, minority rights and treatment of critics.

Static linkage: UN bodies, international human rights law.

GS area: Economy (Social Security, Labour)

The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation announced EPFO 3.0, a major overhaul of the PF withdrawal framework.

• Scale: EPFO covers more than 30 crore subscribers.
• Simplified categories: 13 existing purposes were merged into three categories, Essential Needs (illness, education, marriage), Housing, and Special Circumstances.
• Enhanced limits: up to 10 withdrawals permitted for education; up to 5 for marriage during service.
• Minimum corpus retained: 25 per cent of EPF balance must remain after each partial withdrawal.
• Tenure thresholds reduced: 12 months of service now qualifies for housing withdrawal; 7 years for marriage and education (down from earlier thresholds).
• Full withdrawal: up to 100 per cent of eligible balance in qualifying circumstances.
• Digital processing: automated, document-free settlement for most claims; cloud-based core banking; multilingual self-service portals.
• Vishwas Scheme: a dispute resolution mechanism for contested claims.

Static linkage: EPFO, social security, labour law.

GS area: Science and Technology (Space)

ISRO released details of the Crew Escape System (CES) for the Gaganyaan human spaceflight programme.

• Function: the CES is the last-resort safety system mounted at the top of the LVM3 rocket. If sensors detect an anomaly during launch or early ascent, the CES fires its motors and pulls the crew module away from the rocket.
• Motor type: multiple high-burn solid-propellant motors.
• Sensing system: the Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM) system continuously monitors rocket parameters and triggers the CES if anomalies exceed defined thresholds.
• Parachute recovery: after CES activation, a multi-stage parachute system deploys for controlled sea splashdown.
• Type used, Puller Type: the CES motor is positioned above the crew module, pulling it away. This is the same approach used by Russia's Soyuz spacecraft and the historic Apollo Saturn V Launch Escape System.
• Alternative type, Pusher Type: SpaceX's Falcon 9 uses pusher-type escape (the Crew Dragon's SuperDraco engines push the capsule away from the rocket).

Static linkage: Space technology, ISRO, Gaganyaan.

GS area: Defence (Military exercises, International Relations)

Three significant exercises concluded this week.

• AUSTRAHIND 2025 (India-Australia): fourth edition; conducted near Perth, Australia; focused on sub-conventional warfare and urban operations; approximately 120 Indian Army personnel.
• INDRA 2025 (India-Russia): conducted at Mahajan Field Firing Range, Bikaner, Rajasthan; joint exercises in live fire, UAV reconnaissance, counter-terrorism and desert warfare.
• India-South Korea Navy exercise: INS Sahyadri and ROKS Gyeongnam exercised at Busan Naval Harbour, South Korea.

Static linkage: India's bilateral defence relations, military diplomacy.

GS area: Economy (Mining Policy)

The Ministry of Mines announced that limestone would be reclassified from a dual major/minor classification to a single Major Mineral category regardless of end-use.

• Enabling legislation: Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 (MMDR Act). This Act governs all mineral development in India.
• Previous regime: limestone's classification depended on the intended end-use. Used for cement it was a major mineral; used for building material it was sometimes classified as a minor mineral.
• Significance of reclassification: all limestone now requires central government oversight for mining leases, standardising regulation and improving traceability.
• Limestone facts: composed primarily of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃). Uses include cement production, steel (as flux), fertiliser, sugar refining and building material.

Static linkage: Mining law, MMDR Act, mineral policy.

• Visva-Bharati University: founded in 1921 by Rabindranath Tagore at Shantiniketan (campus established 1901), Birbhum district, West Bengal. Declared a Central University of national importance by Parliament in 1951. Key schools: Kala Bhavana (Fine Arts) and Sriniketan (Rural Development). NEP 2020 implementation was triggering faculty and funding disputes.
• Civil Registration System (CRS) Report 2023: total births registered: 2.52 crore (a decline of 2.32 lakh from 2022). Deaths: 86.6 lakh. Sex ratio at birth lowest in Jharkhand (899) and Bihar (900). Institutional births: 74.7 per cent. The Registrar-General of India (under MHA) administers the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969.
• Madagascar: military takeover by a CAPSAT unit in October 2025. Gen Z-led protests over corruption preceded the coup. Madagascar is an island republic about 400 kilometres east of Mozambique.