UPSC CSE Current Affairs — 27 September 2026

JSW One Platforms Ltd, a B2B technology platform for manufacturing and construction, filed a draft red herring prospectus with SEBI to raise up to ₹3,054 crore through an IPO. The offering combines a fresh issue of ₹1,300 crore and an Offer for Sale of ₹1,754 crore by JSW Steel, JSW Cement, and Mitsui. Fresh issue proceeds will fund marketing (₹125 crore), capital augmentation of JSW One Finance (₹500 crore), and technology development (₹350 crore).

An IPO in India is regulated by SEBI's Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements (ICDR) Regulations. The first mandatory step is filing a Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with SEBI, which then reviews the document and may issue observations before the company can proceed to an actual public issue.

The JSW One IPO has two components that aspirants must distinguish:

1. Fresh Issue: New shares created by the company. The money raised flows into the company's treasury and is used for stated business purposes — here, marketing (₹125 crore into JSW One Distribution), strengthening the lending subsidiary JSW One Finance (₹500 crore), and platform/technology development (₹350 crore).

2. Offer for Sale (OFS): Existing shareholders — JSW Steel, JSW Cement, and Japanese conglomerate Mitsui & Co — sell their shares. OFS proceeds go to the selling shareholders, not the company itself. This is a critical regulatory distinction that SEBI exams test directly.

JSW One Platforms is a B2B digital marketplace connecting manufacturers and construction companies, with an embedded finance subsidiary (JSW One Finance Ltd). The presence of a finance subsidiary means capital raised under the fresh issue for that subsidiary must comply with RBI's NBFC norms as well.

The DRHP stage is a pre-IPO regulatory checkpoint — SEBI can raise objections, demand disclosures, or reject the filing. Only after SEBI's observations can the company file the final Red Herring Prospectus and open the issue for subscription.

India's agriculture sector recorded significant expansion between 2014 and 2024: foodgrain production rose from 252 million tonnes to 329 million tonnes, agricultural exports crossed ₹4 lakh crore, and the sector's GDP contribution stabilised around 18%. Key interventions include PM-KISAN (₹6,000/year direct transfer), PM Fasal Bima Yojana, e-NAM electronic markets, and the FPO promotion scheme targeting 10,000 farmer producer organisations. Horticulture output crossed 352 million tonnes, and allied sectors — fisheries, dairy, and poultry — saw record production figures.

This PIB factsheet consolidates a decade of agricultural policy outcomes across crops, allied sectors, credit, and market infrastructure — exactly the territory NABARD and UPSC examiners mine for scheme-specific questions.

The core architecture rests on three pillars:

1. INCOME SUPPORT AND INSURANCE: PM-KISAN provides ₹6,000 per year in three equal instalments directly to farmer bank accounts — the examiner regularly blanks out the instalment amount (₹2,000) or the annual figure. PM Fasal Bima Yojana caps farmer premium at 2% for Kharif, 1.5% for Rabi, and 5% for commercial/horticultural crops — these percentages are classic fill-in-the-blank targets.

2. MARKET INFRASTRUCTURE: e-NAM (Electronic National Agriculture Market) integrates APMC mandis into a unified online platform. The 10,000 FPO scheme — jointly implemented by MoA&FW, NABARD, and SFAC — gives each FPO a financial handholding support of up to ₹18 lakh over three years.

3. ALLIED SECTORS: India became the world's largest milk producer (over 230 million tonnes annually), second-largest fish producer, and the poultry sector crossed 100 billion eggs per year. The 'Blue Revolution' covers fisheries; 'White Revolution' covers dairy (Operation Flood); the examiner has asked which revolution maps to which sector.

Foodgrain production crossing 300+ million tonnes situates India among the top global producers — context UPSC uses in food security essays and statement-based MCQs.

The Agricultural Infrastructure Fund (AIF) — ₹1 lakh crore — and the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) for irrigation efficiency complete the static constellation around this factsheet.

Passed in 1978 under the Janata government, the 44th Constitutional Amendment directly reversed the Emergency-era excesses of the 42nd Amendment. It tightened the National Emergency threshold, requiring cabinet advice in writing and Lok Sabha approval by two-thirds majority. Critically, it deleted the right to property from fundamental rights under Article 19(1)(f) and Article 31, relocating it as a legal right under Article 300A. It also restored the Supreme Court's power to scrutinise emergency proclamations.

The 44th Amendment is best understood as the constitutional corrective to the authoritarian excesses of the Emergency period (1975–77) institutionalised through the 42nd Amendment. Its significance spans three doctrinal areas tested in CLAT PG and UPSC CSE.

First, on National Emergency (Article 352): The amendment raised the bar for proclamation by requiring the President to act only on written advice of the Cabinet (not just the Prime Minister), mandatory approval within one month by both Houses of Parliament by special majority (two-thirds of members present and voting, plus more than half the total strength), and mandatory periodic renewal every six months. The Supreme Court's jurisdiction to review Emergency proclamations was explicitly restored.

Second, on the right to property: This is the most constitutionally significant change. Articles 19(1)(f) (freedom to acquire, hold, and dispose of property) and Article 31 (compulsory acquisition) were deleted from Part III (Fundamental Rights). Property was relocated to Article 300A in Part XII — meaning it is now a constitutional right but not a fundamental right. The consequence: it cannot be enforced through Article 32 (Supreme Court writ jurisdiction), only through ordinary courts. Deprivation requires legal authority, not necessarily compensation (Jilubhai Nanbhai Khachar v. State of Gujarat, 1995).

Third, the amendment restored Article 19 freedoms and Article 20/21 protections that had been curtailed, and prevented the suspension of Articles 20 and 21 even during Emergency. This directly responded to the ADM Jabalpur ruling (1976) where the Supreme Court had held that Article 21 could be suspended during Emergency — a position later overruled in K.S. Puttaswamy (2017).

On the sidelines of the 81st UNGA High-level Week, India conducted an intensive diplomatic campaign covering AI governance, maritime security, seafarer safety, and a Free Trade Agreement with the Gulf Cooperation Council. India also signed a multilateral pact to combat cybercrime. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar held bilateral meetings with several counterparts, reflecting India's multi-vector foreign policy approach across security, trade, and technology governance at the United Nations platform.

The UNGA High-level Week is the annual gathering at the United Nations General Assembly in New York where heads of state and foreign ministers meet for multilateral and bilateral diplomacy. The 81st session (UNGA81) convened in September 2026. India's engagement this year was notably broad-spectrum.

Key pillars of India's diplomacy at UNGA81:

1. Cybercrime Pact: India signed a new international agreement to combat cybercrime — significant because India has historically been cautious about binding multilateral cyber-norms. This reflects a shift toward cooperative frameworks on digital security.

2. GCC Free Trade Agreement: India has been negotiating an FTA with the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE). The GCC is India's largest trading bloc partner collectively, and the Gulf hosts over 8 million Indian diaspora members. Progress at UNGA signals renewed momentum.

3. Maritime Security and Seafarer Safety: India, as the world's largest supplier of maritime officers, has a strategic interest in international seafarer welfare norms. India's push at UNGA connects to its obligations under the Maritime Labour Convention and its Indo-Pacific security role.

4. AI Governance: India advocated for inclusive, development-oriented AI governance at the UN, consistent with its G20 AI principles and the Global Digital Compact framework adopted at the UN Summit of the Future (September 2024).

For exam purposes, note that the UNGA was established in 1945 under the UN Charter, and India is a founding member of the United Nations.

Nigerian Vice President Kashim Shettima arrived in New Delhi on September 12, 2026, to attend the 18th BRICS Leadership Summit hosted by India. Alongside multilateral engagements, Nigeria sought to deepen its $14 billion bilateral trade relationship with India. The visit signals Nigeria's strategic interest in BRICS-related economic frameworks and India-Africa ties at a moment when BRICS membership and influence continue to expand following the 2024 enlargement round.

BRICS — originally Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa — is a multilateral grouping of major emerging economies that coordinates on trade, finance, and geopolitical issues. India hosted the 18th edition of the Leaders' Summit in 2026, marking a significant moment given BRICS' expanding membership after the 2024 round admitted several new members including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, and Argentina (though Argentina later declined). Nigeria, Africa's largest economy, has been an observer and aspirant to deeper BRICS engagement.

For India, BRICS is central to its multipolar world diplomacy. The grouping's New Development Bank (NDB), headquartered in Shanghai, finances infrastructure and sustainable development projects in member and non-member states. India has been among the NDB's founding shareholders.

The $14 billion India-Nigeria trade figure is exam-relevant: it positions Nigeria as one of India's significant African trading partners. India exports pharmaceuticals, machinery, and petroleum products to Nigeria, while importing crude oil. The bilateral visit also connects to India's broader India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS) engagement framework.

For aspirants, the key static hinterland includes: BRICS founding year (2006 as BRIC, South Africa joined in 2010), NDB establishment (2014, operational 2015), and the ongoing debate over BRICS currency and de-dollarisation — all frequently examined concepts.

A panel warned that large-scale tree felling across 2,733 hectares of dense forest in Arunachal Pradesh for the Subansiri hydroelectric project risks damaging forest structure, habitat continuity, biodiversity, and wildlife movement corridors. The Subansiri Lower Hydroelectric Project on the Assam-Arunachal border is one of India's largest run-of-river schemes. Forest diversion of this scale requires clearance under the Forest Conservation Act, raising questions about compensatory afforestation and cumulative ecological impact assessments.

The Subansiri Lower Hydroelectric Project (2,000 MW), being built by NHPC on the Subansiri river at the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border, has faced prolonged controversy since its inception. Forest diversion at this scale triggers multiple regulatory layers that aspirants must understand.

Forest Conservation Act, 1980 (now Forest Conservation Amendment Act, 2023): Any diversion of forest land for non-forest purposes requires prior approval from the central government. For projects of this size, Stage I and Stage II forest clearances are mandatory, with conditions including Compensatory Afforestation (CA) — planting equivalent or double the area of diverted forest on non-forest or degraded land.

CAMPA (Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority): Funds collected from project proponents for CA are deposited into CAMPA. The 2016 CAMPA Act restructured this into a statutory authority managing funds at national and state levels.

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA): Under the Environment Protection Act, 1986, large hydro projects require EIA notification compliance, public hearings, and Expert Appraisal Committee clearance from MoEFCC.

Wildlife corridors and biodiversity: The Subansiri basin sits in one of the world's biodiversity hotspots — the Eastern Himalaya. Felling in such dense forests disrupts wildlife movement corridors, threatening species listed under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and India's obligations under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

India's forest governance framework — especially the tension between development infrastructure and forest conservation — is a recurring UPSC and NABARD theme. The Subansiri project also illustrates cumulative impact assessment gaps in India's hydro-power corridor planning.

India–Bangladesh relations are increasingly shaped by elite diplomatic frameworks that often fail to reflect ground-level realities. Shared rivers, cross-border trade, cultural ties, and migration patterns bind millions of ordinary citizens on both sides of the 4,156-km border. Critics argue that foreign policy conducted through closed negotiations and bureaucratic channels neglects people-to-people connectivity, water-sharing grievances, and the aspirations of border communities. The argument is that durable bilateral stability requires embedding civil society, local economies, and grassroots concerns into the diplomatic architecture itself.

India and Bangladesh share one of the world's most complex bilateral relationships — built on the 1971 Liberation War solidarity, the Ganga Waters Treaty (1996), the Land Boundary Agreement (2015), and extensive trade and connectivity frameworks. Yet each of these achievements was negotiated at the state level, with limited formal input from affected communities.

The 'people-centric' foreign policy argument challenges the conventional realist model, insisting that neighbourhood diplomacy must account for the lived experiences of border populations. For India, this matters because Bangladesh is its largest trade partner in South Asia (bilateral trade exceeding $14 billion), a key partner in BBIN (Bangladesh–Bhutan–India–Nepal) connectivity, and a frontline state in managing insurgency routes from India's Northeast.

The Teesta River dispute — unresolved since the 2011 draft agreement — exemplifies how elite-level impasses harm farmers and fisherfolk on both banks. Similarly, killings at the India–Bangladesh border by BSF remain a persistent human-rights flashpoint that erodes public trust far more than diplomatic communiqués can repair.

For UPSC, the conceptual link is between India's 'Neighbourhood First' policy (announced 2014) and its practical execution. The examiner tests whether aspirants understand the gap between stated policy and structural delivery — and how multilateral frameworks like BIMSTEC, SAARC, and BBIN attempt to bridge that gap institutionally. Static knowledge about the Land Boundary Agreement (ratified 2015, resolved enclaves issue), the Ganga Waters Treaty duration (30 years), and Bangladesh's role in India's Act East Policy are all frequently tested.