Sahas IAS Academy

Current Affairs 2nd October

SAHAS IAS ACADEMY

UPSC CURRENT AFFAIRS — 2 OCTOBER 2026

1. Electoral Rolls + SIR + Form 7

The Election Commission is undertaking a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The exercise has also brought attention to bulk applications for the deletion of names through Form 7.

Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is a comprehensive exercise to verify and update electoral rolls.

Focus Areas:

No eligible citizen should be left out.
No ineligible person should be included.
Errors in electoral rolls should be corrected.
Electors should be verified through the prescribed process.

The ECI derives its constitutional authority over elections from Article 324.

2. Vande Mataram + Article 25 + Bijoe Emmanuel

The Supreme Court has considered the relevance of the Bijoe Emmanuel judgment in proceedings concerning Vande Mataram and the limits of compulsory participation in activities related to national symbols.

Bijoe Emmanuel Case — 1986

Three schoolchildren belonging to the Jehovah's Witnesses faith respectfully stood during the National Anthem but did not sing it because of their religious beliefs.

The Supreme Court held that, in the circumstances of the case, their fundamental rights under Article 19(1)(a) — freedom of speech and expression — and Article 25(1) — freedom of conscience and religion — were protected.

Core Principle: Respect for a national symbol does not necessarily mean compulsory participation in singing it.

Balance: National Symbols ↔ Fundamental Rights ↔ Freedom of Conscience

Article 25: Freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practise, and propagate religion. This right is not absolute and is subject to constitutional limitations.

3. Women's Safety + NCRB + Nirbhaya Fund

The issue highlights the gap between laws and schemes and their implementation.

According to NCRB data, 4.41 lakh cases of crimes against women were registered in 2024, a marginal decline from 2023. Cruelty by husbands or relatives remained the largest category.

Nirbhaya Fund: Created following the 2012 Delhi gang-rape case to support initiatives aimed at women's safety.

Supported measures include:

Women's help desks
Emergency response systems
Fast-track courts
Safety infrastructure

An analysis reported that â‚¹5,846 crore out of â‚¹7,713 crore allocated under the fund between 2015 and 2025 had been utilised.

Mission Shakti: An umbrella scheme for women's safety, security, and empowerment.

Sambal — Safety and Security
Samarthya — Empowerment

The scheme focuses on convergence among ministries, states, and local governance institutions.

Safe City Project: Focuses on better lighting and civic infrastructure, CCTV and technology, police response, identification of vulnerable areas, and community sensitisation.

Eight cities were initially selected: Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, and Mumbai.

4. Monsoon 2026 + El Niño + Climate Change

India's 2026 southwest monsoon ended below normal, with cumulative rainfall of around 759.4 mm, compared with an LPA of 868.6 mm, representing a deficit of roughly 13%.

El Niño: A periodic warming of the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.

It can influence:

Walker circulation
Atmospheric circulation
The Indian monsoon
Global temperatures
Drought conditions

The IMD noted that El Niño conditions developed in 2026 and strengthened, acting as a major climate driver affecting monsoon circulation.

Why Is India Vulnerable?

A weak monsoon can affect:

Agriculture → Food Prices → Rural Income → Reservoirs → Hydropower → Groundwater → Inflation

Climate Change Connection

Extreme rainfall events
Heatwaves
Rainfall variability
Agricultural uncertainty
Water stress

5. Indore Water Contamination + Urban Governance

The Bhagirathpura water-contamination tragedy in Indore has highlighted systemic failures in urban water and sanitation infrastructure.

A judicial commission described the incident as resulting from cumulative failures over several decades rather than a single act of negligence.

The NHRC had earlier taken suo motu cognisance following deaths and hospitalisations linked to contaminated water.

Constitutional Angle: Article 21 — Right to Life

The right to life has been judicially interpreted broadly to include conditions necessary for a dignified life, including access to essential environmental and health-related protections.

Way Forward:

Regular pipeline audits
Separation of sewage and drinking-water networks
Real-time water-quality monitoring
Preventive maintenance
Accountability mechanisms
Stronger municipal capacity

6. Brain Organoids + Stem-Cell Technology

A September 2026 Nature study reported extensive integration of laboratory-grown human brain organoid tissue into mice lacking a key part of the brain.

What Is a Brain Organoid?

A brain organoid is a three-dimensional, laboratory-grown neural tissue structure derived from stem cells that can reproduce some features of early brain development.

Stem Cells

Stem cells have the ability to self-renew and differentiate into specialised cell types.

Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs)

Ordinary adult cells that have been reprogrammed into a pluripotent state and can then be differentiated into various cell types.

Potential Applications:

Brain development
Neurological diseases
Psychiatric disorders
Genetic disorders
Drug responses
Human neuronal development

The 2026 study provides a model for studying human brain development and disease in ways that conventional laboratory cultures cannot fully reproduce.

Limitations & Ethics

Brain organoids are not equivalent to a complete human brain.

Major concerns include:

Ethical status of advanced organoids
Animal experimentation
Biosafety
Limitations of extrapolating animal results to humans
Possible future questions about consciousness

Nature has also highlighted the need for discussion of biosafety, ethics, and international oversight in this field.

QUICK REVISION

Topic	Remember
SIR	Electoral-roll verification; ECI under Article 324
Form 7	Objection/deletion of an electoral-roll entry
Bijoe Emmanuel	Articles 19(1)(a) + 25; freedom of conscience
Nirbhaya Fund	Women's safety infrastructure & institutional response
Mission Shakti	Sambal + Samarthya
El Niño	Pacific warming; major climate driver affecting the monsoon
2026 Monsoon	~13% below normal
Indore Water Crisis	Urban infrastructure + governance + public health
Brain Organoid	3D neural tissue derived from stem cells
iPSC	Reprogrammed adult cells with pluripotent potential

SAHAS IAS ACADEMY

UPSC CURRENT AFFAIRS