UPSC Darpan

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UPSC Current Affairs — 5 October 2026

The Hindu, The Indian Express & The Economic Times (Delhi Editions) — 5 October 2026

हिंदी संस्करण

Polity & Governance

Each of today’s three stories asks where a discretionary power meets its limit. Parliament has told the Centre it may frame CAPF service rules notwithstanding the Supreme Court’s 2025 judgment, and the Court must now say whether that is allowed. The Election Commission has widened what its officers may do to a voter’s name without hearing the voter. And the Delhi High Court has held that a visa is permission to travel, not a right to enter. In every case the question is who checks the person holding the discretion.

Economy

All three stories today are about how hard the State presses on business, and whether the rules are clear before it does. The GST Council will decide on October 7 whether to trade arrest powers and trapped tax credit for data-led trust, the RBI’s MPC is weighing an oil shock it cannot control against a rupee and bond market it can, and a tax tribunal has shown that one undefined word in a treaty can decide what foreign capital pays. In each case, certainty of rules matters as much as the headline rate.

International Relations

Two stories today show how geography has become India’s trade policy. In the west, a war that began at the Strait of Hormuz has reached the other end of the Arabian Peninsula, and the sea lanes that carry India’s oil and goods are being fought over by armies India does not control. In the east, a methanol barge leaving Assam for Dhaka shows the opposite: a route India can build and open on its own terms.

Environment & Ecology

Delhi has announced protection for its Ridge again and again, and today’s numbers show how much is still on paper. A forest is protected in law only when the final notification is issued, and the capital’s green lung has waited decades for it. The test is whether a government that wants to protect a forest will also settle the claims, encroachments and court cases in its way.

Health & Life Sciences

Two diseases, two ways in which India’s health system looks away. For rabies, the official count and a research estimate differ more than a hundredfold, so a country pledged to eliminate the disease cannot say where it stands. For lung cancer, the biggest cancer killer, national screening covers three other cancers because they are cheap to check. Both stories ask whether what is measured and funded matches what actually kills.

Society

Odisha’s guidelines show that a right written in Parliament’s language is won or lost at the tehsil office. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 already promises equal legal capacity, yet in the cases reported relatives and clerks decide who owns a house. The test of social justice is whether the revenue officer who records the land has been told to look out for the person who cannot walk to the office.

Internal Security

Today’s one security story is about how a state reviews its own policy. The first Agniveers are nearing the end of four years, and the Services have told the Department of Military Affairs how the scheme should change. The question is whether a review done inside the system will ask the hardest question: is a younger force worth the loss of experience?