24 November 2025

• Justice Surya Kant was sworn in as the 53rd Chief Justice of India on 24 November 2025, following the retirement of CJI B.R. Gavai.
• The Sirpur archaeological site in Chhattisgarh was nominated for UNESCO World Heritage consideration, recognised for its rare Hindu-Buddhist-Jain architectural harmony across the 5th to 12th centuries.
• The Constitution 131st Amendment Bill 2025 proposed bringing Chandigarh under Article 240, enabling the President to make regulations for the Union Territory.
• Bharat NCAP 2.0 draft expanded vehicle safety testing to five verticals, adding protection for vulnerable road users and post-crash safety as new dimensions.
• A US-drafted 28-point Ukraine peace plan proposed that Ukraine abandon its NATO membership bid and accept a cap of 600,000 troops.

GS area: GS-2 (Indian polity, Supreme Court, appointment procedures)

Justice Surya Kant was sworn in as the 53rd Chief Justice of India on 24 November 2025, following the retirement of CJI B.R. Gavai.

• Swearing-in date: 24 November 2025.
• Predecessor: CJI B.R. Gavai retired on 23 November 2025.
• Expected tenure: until 9 February 2027, approximately 15 months, making it a relatively long tenure compared to recent CJIs.
• Constitutional provision: Article 124(1) establishes the Supreme Court of India comprising the Chief Justice and not more than 33 other judges. Article 124(2) covers the appointment of Supreme Court judges.
• Appointment procedure: the outgoing CJI recommends the senior-most judge considered fit to the Law Minister, who forwards the recommendation to the Prime Minister, who advises the President.
• Memorandum of Procedure (1999): states that appointment to the office of CJI should normally go to the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court who is considered fit for the office.
• CJI responsibilities: serving as the administrative and judicial head of the Supreme Court, functioning as Master of the Roster (assigning cases to benches), leading the Supreme Court Collegium for judicial appointments, and presiding over constitutional benches.
• Collegium system: the CJI leads a five-judge collegium for Supreme Court appointments and a three-judge collegium for High Court appointments.

GS area: GS-2 (Indian polity, constitutional amendments, Union Territories, federalism)

The Constitution 131st Amendment Bill 2025 proposed extending the scope of Article 240 to include Chandigarh, enabling the President to frame regulations for the Union Territory by executive order.

• Amendment objective: bring Chandigarh under the ambit of Article 240, which allows the President to make regulations for certain Union Territories without full Parliamentary legislation.
• Chandigarh's founding: envisioned by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru as a planned city after Partition; designed by the Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier; foundation stone laid in 1952.
• Post-1966 status: became joint capital of Punjab and Haryana after the Punjab Reorganisation Act 1966 bifurcated Punjab into two states.
• Current governance: Union Territory administered by the Ministry of Home Affairs; the Governor of Punjab simultaneously serves as the Administrator of Chandigarh.
• Article 240: grants the President power to make regulations for the peace, progress, and good governance of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, and Puducherry. The Bill would add Chandigarh to this list.
• Distinction from full statehood: the amendment does not grant Chandigarh statehood; it adjusts the regulatory mechanism within the existing UT framework.

GS area: GS-2 (government schemes, transport policy, consumer protection); GS-3 (road safety)

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways released a draft for Bharat NCAP 2.0, expanding vehicle safety assessment from three to five verticals and introducing more realistic crash test scenarios.

• Testing authority: Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT), Pune.
• Five assessment verticals in NCAP 2.0: Safe Driving, Accident Avoidance, Crash Protection, Vulnerable Road User Protection (new), and Post-Crash Safety (new).
• New crash test protocols: full-width frontal barrier test and rear impact test, added alongside the existing offset frontal and side-impact tests.
• Star rating rule: a vehicle cannot receive a 5-star overall rating if it scores zero in any single assessment category, preventing partial excellence from masking critical failures.
• Road safety target: India's National Road Safety Strategy aims for a 50 percent reduction in road fatalities by 2030, consistent with the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety.
• Pedestrian fatalities: pedestrians account for approximately 20 percent of all road-accident deaths in India, justifying the new Vulnerable Road User Protection category.
• Bharat NCAP 1.0 context: the first Bharat NCAP was launched in 2023 for M1-category passenger vehicles (cars). It is aligned with the Global NCAP framework but calibrated for Indian road and usage conditions.

GS area: GS-2 (education, government policy, regulatory reforms)

The Higher Education Commission of India Bill 2025 proposed creating a single regulatory authority to replace the existing multiplicity of higher education regulators, in line with the National Education Policy 2020.

• Proposal: establish the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) as a single overarching regulatory body.
• Bodies to be replaced or merged: University Grants Commission (UGC), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), among others.
• Exclusions: medical education (under the National Medical Commission) and legal education (under the Bar Council of India) are excluded from HECI's jurisdiction.
• Four-vertical structure: National Higher Education Regulatory Council (NHERC) for regulation and licensing; National Accreditation Council (NAC) for quality accreditation; General Education Council (GEC) for setting graduate outcome standards; Higher Education Grants Council (HEGC) for funding.
• NEP 2020 mandate: NEP 2020 recommended replacing existing single-function regulators with an integrated, multi-function higher education regulator.
• Current status: the Bill was tabled in Parliament and referred to a Parliamentary Standing Committee for examination.

GS area: GS-2 (international relations, geopolitics, European security)

A US-drafted 28-point roadmap for ending the Russia-Ukraine war was circulated among stakeholders, proposing significant concessions by Ukraine in exchange for a ceasefire and reconstruction support.

• Origin: drafted by the United States government and circulated to Ukraine, European allies, and other stakeholders.
• Key demands on Ukraine: abandon the pursuit of NATO membership and enshrine neutrality in the Ukrainian Constitution; accept a military size cap of 600,000 troops.
• Territorial dimension: the plan is understood to expect Ukraine to accept de facto territorial concessions in Russian-occupied areas.
• Ukraine Development Fund: the plan proposes a fund for rebuilding Ukraine across technology, energy, artificial intelligence, and urban infrastructure sectors.
• Russian asset allocation: USD 100 billion from frozen Russian sovereign assets would be directed to Ukraine, with 50 percent of returns on those assets going to the United States.
• Russia's incentives: gradual lifting of Western sanctions and a potential pathway for Russia to rejoin an expanded G8 format.
• Reaction: the plan provoked controversy among European allies, who objected to the implied legitimisation of Russian territorial control.

GS area: GS-1 (art and culture, ancient history, UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Chhattisgarh)

Sirpur, a 5th to 12th century city in Chhattisgarh, was nominated for UNESCO World Heritage Site consideration on account of its exceptional multi-religious architectural heritage.

• Location: Mahasamund district, Chhattisgarh, on the banks of the Mahanadi River.
• Active period: 5th to 12th centuries CE.
• Excavated religious structures: 22 Shiva temples, 5 Vishnu temples, 10 Buddhist viharas, and 3 Jain viharas, representing a rare and sustained co-existence of three major Indian religious traditions.
• Political significance: Sirpur served as the capital of the Dakshina Kosala region under the Panduvanshi and Somavamshi dynasties during the 6th to 8th centuries CE.
• Key monument: the Lakshmana Temple (7th century CE) is a brick temple dedicated to Vishnu and is considered one of the finest examples of early Gupta-period brick architecture in India.
• UNESCO criterion: the nomination cites Outstanding Universal Value on the basis of its exceptional architectural harmony across three religious traditions, demonstrating the pluralistic character of early medieval Indian civilisation.
• Prelims hook: Dakshina Kosala was an ancient region corresponding roughly to present-day Chhattisgarh and parts of Odisha. It is mentioned in the Ramayana as a region traversed by Rama.

GS area: GS-1 (physical geography, ecologically sensitive areas); GS-3 (environment, biodiversity, land use policy)

A proposed government redefinition of "Aravalli Hills" would exclude most of the Aravalli landscape from legal protection, drawing criticism from ecologists and courts.

• Proposed new definition: only landforms rising 100 metres or more above the immediate surrounding terrain qualify as "Aravalli Hills" under the proposed classification.
• Impact of the new definition: removes over 90 percent of the Aravalli landscape from protection, opening it to construction and mining.
• Geological age: the Aravallis are one of the world's oldest fold mountain ranges, formed in the Proterozoic era (approximately 1,500 to 2,500 million years ago). They are older than the Himalayas by more than a billion years.
• Geographical extent: approximately 670 km from the Raisina Hills in Delhi, through Haryana and Rajasthan, to the Palanpur region of Gujarat.
• Height range: generally 300 to 900 metres; Guru Shikhar in Rajasthan is the highest point at 1,722 metres.
• Ecological functions: serves as an ecological and geological barrier against the westward spread of the Thar Desert; provides a wildlife corridor connecting Sariska and Ranthambore tiger reserves; generates the headwaters of the Banas, Luni, Sabarmati, and Sahibi rivers; and acts as a windbreak reducing dust storms reaching Delhi.
• Judicial oversight: the Supreme Court and Punjab and Haryana High Court have issued multiple orders protecting Aravalli forests from encroachment and mining.

• CJI appointment seniority norm: the Memorandum of Procedure prescribes that the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court should ordinarily be appointed CJI. This convention was violated only twice in post-independence history: in 1973 (Justice A.N. Ray superseded three senior judges) and in 1977 (Justice M.H. Beg superseded Justice H.R. Khanna).
• Chandigarh UNESCO status: Chandigarh's Capitol Complex (designed by Le Corbusier) was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2016 as part of the "Architectural Work of Le Corbusier" transnational serial nomination.
• Bharat NCAP and Global NCAP: Global NCAP is an international non-profit based in Geneva. Bharat NCAP follows similar crash test methodology but uses a mandatory government programme structure rather than an independent NGO structure.
• Lakshmana Temple Sirpur: unlike the Lakshmana Temple in Khajuraho (10th century sandstone), the Sirpur Lakshmana Temple (7th century) is built entirely in brick, making it a distinctive example of early Gupta-period brick temple architecture.