Comprehensive Current Affairs & Legal-Constitutional Developments 2025–2026

Essential vocabulary terms, legal citations, legislative acts, and international summits covering the 2025–2026 lecture curriculum.

18th BRICS Summit (2026)

The summit hosted by India in New Delhi under its fourth chairship, centered on the theme “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability,” resulting in the New Delhi Declaration.

Jaipur Consensus

A 2026 BRICS economic agreement focused on studying an MSME Invoice Discounting Mechanism to unlock working capital from unpaid invoices.

Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA)

A BRICS financial mechanism that adopted treaty amendments and executed its 9th Test Run to provide short-term liquidity support without reliance on the IMF.

Global Research Advanced Infrastructure Network (GRAIN)

A BRICS science and infrastructure initiative whose Action Plan was adopted alongside a feasibility study for a direct high-speed submarine communication network.

BRICS AGRIN

The Agro-Inputs, Genetic Resources, and Information Network established during the 2026 summit to coordinate seeds, germplasm, and agricultural inputs across member states.

New Development Bank (NDB)

A multilateral financial institution established in 2014 and headquartered in Shanghai, China, where founding members are required to retain at least $55\%$ of the total voting power.

Harish Rana v. Union of India (2026)

A Supreme Court ruling delivered by Justices J.B. Pardiwala and K.V. Viswanathan that authorized India's first fully implemented, court-approved passive euthanasia procedure for a quadriplegic patient in a Persistent Vegetative State (PVS).

Advance Directive (Living Will)

A legal instrument recognized in Common Cause v. Union of India (2018) that enables individuals to articulate their medical treatment preferences in advance should they become terminally ill or incompetent to provide informed consent.

Active Euthanasia (in India)

The direct administration of lethal substances to end life, which remains prohibited under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023 as culpable homicide under Section 100 or murder under Section 101.

R. Vairamuthu

A renowned Tamil poet, lyricist, and author who received the 60th Jnanpith Award (2025), becoming the third Tamil writer and the first primarily recognized for poetry to win the honor.

Jnanpith Award

India's highest literary award, instituted in 1961 by Bharatiya Jnanpith, honoring a living author's lifetime literary contribution in any of the 22 Eighth Schedule languages or English with a ₹11 lakh cash prize and a bronze Vagdevi replica.

Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill, 2026

Legislation introduced by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment replacing Section 4(2) self-declaration affidavits with mandatory Medical Board screening for gender identification certificates.

Makkah Joint Defence Agreement (MJDA), 2026

A trilateral collective defence treaty signed on 7 August 2026 between Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and Pakistan featuring a NATO Article 5-style collective defense trigger and a permanent secretariat in Saudi Arabia.

Taiwan Travelogue

A metafictional novel by Taiwanese author Yang Shuang-zi, translated into English by Lin King, that won the International Booker Prize 2026 as the first winning work originally written in Mandarin Chinese.

The Kerala (Alteration of Name) Bill, 2026

A statutory measure passed by the Lok Sabha under Article 3 of the Constitution to amend the First and Fourth Schedules, changing the official name of the state from “Kerala” to “Keralam”.

Aikya Kerala Movement

A 1920s socio-political movement that campaigned for the administrative unification of Malayalam-speaking regions (Malabar, Kochi, and Travancore), resulting in the formation of Kerala State on 1 November 1956.

Sarnath

An ancient Buddhist site in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, inscribed as India's 45th UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2026, venerated as the location of Gautama Buddha's first sermon.

Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta

The first sermon delivered by Gautama Buddha at Sarnath in the 6th century BCE, often translated as “Turning of the Wheel of the Law,” which marked the founding of the Buddhist Sangha.

Dhamekh Stupa

A cylindrical brick and stone stupa featuring Gupta-era carvings located in Sarnath, built to mark the exact location where Gautama Buddha delivered his first sermon to his first five disciples.

Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) [India-EU FTA]

An EU climate border levy regime under which India secured Most Favored Nation (MFN) status alongside €500 million in technical and financial aid to assist its heavy industries in decarbonization.

Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL)

An Indian digital database formally recognized in the India-EU Free Trade Agreement to prevent the erroneous or abusive granting of foreign patents on traditional Indian medicine and knowledge.

131st Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2026

A defeated bill that proposed raising the Lok Sabha constitutional membership ceiling from 550 to 850 seats and delinking women's reservation from post-2026 census delimitation exercises.

Delimitation Commission

A high-power statutory body whose orders have the force of law and cannot be altered by Parliament, responsible for redrawing territorial constituency boundaries based on census populations.

Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026

A statutory enactment amending Section 3 of the 1971 Act to penalize disrespect toward the National Song (Vande Mataram), granting it equal statutory protection alongside the National Anthem.

Bishkek Declaration

The primary outcome document of the 26th SCO Summit (2026) in Kyrgyzstan, which formally established English as an official SCO working language alongside Russian and Chinese.

Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS)

A permanent organ of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, created to coordinate security, intelligence, and counter-terrorism measures among member states.

Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025

Legislation taking effect on 1 July 2026 to replace MGNREGA, enhancing the annual rural wage-employment guarantee from 100 to 125 days per household with a base wage of ₹300.

Agricultural Pause (VB-G RAM G Act)

A statutory clause allowing State Governments to suspend rural public employment guarantee operations for up to 60 days during peak agricultural sowing and harvesting seasons.

Yuktdhara Portal

A spatial-planning and GIS mapping tool utilized to coordinate infrastructure development and plan community assets under the VB-G RAM G Act framework.

SHANTI Act, 2025

The Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Act, 2025, which replaced the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and CLNDA, 2010 to allow licensed private participation in nuclear power generation.

Operator Liability Limit (SHANTI Act)

A graded statutory compensation framework establishing financial caps on nuclear operators, ranging from ₹100 crore for small facilities to ₹3,000 crore for reactors exceeding $3{,}600\text{ MW thermal}$.

Bharat Small Modular Reactor (BSMR-200)

An indigenous Small Modular Reactor design associated with Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), backed by a ₹20,000 crore mission aimed at deploying at least 5 SMRs by 2033.

Bhairav Battalion

A newly raised specialized assault infantry unit of the Indian Army that made its inaugural operational appearance at the 77th Republic Day Parade in 2026.

Judges Inquiry Act, 1968

The statutory procedure governing judicial removal in India, initiated by 100 Lok Sabha MPs or 50 Rajya Sabha MPs and referred to a three-member judicial committee for formal investigation.

Article 217(1)(a) of the Constitution of India

The constitutional mechanism permitting a High Court judge to unilaterally resign from their judicial office by submitting a written notice under their hand directly to the President of India.

Environmental Performance Index (EPI) 2026

A biennial sustainability metric developed by Yale and Columbia universities evaluating 177 countries across 47 indicators, where Estonia placed 1st (74.79), Laos placed 177th (21.78), and India placed 176th.