UPSC Daily News Summaries: Essential Current Affairs, Key Issues and Important Updates for Civil Services

A quick look at all the current affairs topics making headlines on October 13, 2025 and the possible questions for the UPSC exam.

Daily News Capsules

1. China pushes back on new tariff threat by US

UPSC exam file

China signalled on Sunday that it would not back down in the face of a 100% tariff threat from President Donald Trump, urging the US to resolve differences through negotiations instead of threats. US Vice President JD Vance defended Trump’s position and seemed to warn China not to be aggressive in its response. “China’s stance is consistent,” the commerce ministry said in a statement posted online. “We do not want a tariff war but we are not afraid of one.” It was China’s first official comment on Trump’s threat to jack up the tax on imports from China by November 1 in response to new Chinese restrictions on the export of rare earths, which are vital to a wide range of consumer and military products. The back and forth threatens to derail a possible meeting between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping and end a truce in a trade war in which new tariffs from both sides briefly topped 100% in April. Trump has raised taxes on imports from many US trading partners since taking office in January, seeking to win concessions. China has been one of the few countries that hasn’t backed down, relying on its economic clout.

Possible Question:

How do US–China tariff wars impact the global economy? Examine the strategic options available to India in safeguarding its trade and technology interests in this context.

2. Green clearances for airports set to be made easier

The Union environment ministry has decided to downgrade the environmental assessments needed for all expansion/modernisation activities confined within the existing boundaries of airports. In an office memorandum, the Environment Ministry has said that it has received a representation from the Airports Authority of India seeking rationalisation of such environmental clearance requirements. With initiatives such as UDAN and Krishi UDAN leading to significant growth in passenger traffic and cargo movement, there is a need for such expansion work, covering terminal buildings, allied facilities (including Air Traffic Control towers, fire stations, cargo terminals) as well as extension or construction of runways, taxiways, aprons, and other operational infrastructure. These works are primarily operational in nature, aimed at improving passenger convenience, safety, and efficiency in view of rising demand, the memorandum states. The representation was examined by the sectoral Expert Appraisal Committee, which observed that such expansion activities are unlikely to result in incremental environmental impact beyond the existing operational footprint of the airport.

Possible Question:

What are the environmental and economic trade-offs in easing clearance norms for airport expansion in India? Discuss in light of sustainable infrastructure development goals.

3. 1,040 Maoists surrendered in 2025, says police data

Over 1,000 Maoists have surrendered in Chhattisgarh in 2025 so far –– the highest ever in a single year, as security forces intensify efforts to eliminate Left Wing Extremism (LWE) ahead of the Centre’s proposed deadline of March 31, 2026. According to police data, 1,040 cadres have laid down arms in 2025 so far compared to 881 last year, marking a sharp rise amid a sustained joint offensive by central and state forces. To be sure, the past two years have seen a meteoric rise in surrenders. In 2020, 344 Maoists had surrendered, followed by 544 in 2021, 417 in 2022, and 414 in 2023. With less than six months to go for the Centre’s March 2026 deadline to end LWE, security forces expect a record number of surrenders by the end of 2025. The surrenders will come ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposed visit to Chhattisgarh to attend the State Foundation Day celebrations on November 1. Ahead of the Centre’s deadline, Chhattisgarh is set to host the annual director generals of police/inspector generals of police (DGPs/IGPs) conference.

Possible Question:

Critically analyse the government’s surrender-and-rehabilitation policy for Maoists. How effective is it in addressing the structural causes of Left Wing Extremism?

4. Pak-Af border crossings shut after clashes erupt

Key border crossings between Pakistan and Afghanistan were closed on Sunday after fierce clashes erupted overnight following Taliban accusations that Islamabad had carried out airstrikes last week, officials said. Neighbouring Afghanistan and Pakistan have had frosty relations since the Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021. Islamabad accuses authorities there of harbouring militants carrying out strikes on its soil, an accusation Afghanistan denies. Afghanistan’s Taliban forces attacked Pakistani soldiers along their shared border on Saturday night, accusing Islamabad of violating its sovereignty after explosions were heard in Kabul and in the southeast two days earlier. Officials from both sides of the border told news agency AFP that crossings at Torkham, which connects Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province with Nangarhar in Afghanistan, and Chaman, more than 800 kilometres to the southwest, were closed. At least three minor crossings, at Kharlachi, Angoor Adda and Ghulam Khan, were also closed, local officials told Reuters.

Possible Question:

Examine how the deteriorating relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan will impact peace in this part of Asia? What are the implications for India?

5. ‘NCDs account for two-thirds of world’s mortality, morbidity’

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) now account for nearly two-thirds of the world’s total mortality and morbidity, led by ischemic heart disease, stroke, and diabetes, according to the latest Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study published in ‘The Lancet’ on Sunday, even as the global all-cause mean age at death increased from 46.8 years in 1990 to 63.4 years in 2023. For men, the mean age increased from 45.4 years to 61.2 years, and for women it increased from 48.5 years to 65.9 years in the corresponding period. Researchers also estimate that nearly half of all death and disability could be prevented by modifying some of the leading risk factors, such as reducing high levels of blood sugar and high body mass index (BMI). “Over the past three decades, we found large reductions in age-standardised rates of YLLs (Years of Life lost) for four causes — respiratory infections and tuberculosis, nutritional deficiencies, other infectious diseases, and enteric infections — which had individual declines ranging from 58.9% to 79.0%,” said authors in the study. Life expectancy exceeds pre-pandemic levels, with a median life expectancy of 76.3 years for females and 71.5 years for males.

Possible Question:

With NCDs emerging as the leading cause of mortality, evaluate India’s public health strategies in tackling lifestyle diseases. How can preventive healthcare be strengthened?

Editorial Snapshots

A. The Great Game in rare earths

US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose 100% additional tariffs on China after the latter tightened export controls on rare earth minerals that are essential to the production of a range of goods, across areas of utility — from daily consumption to frontier technology. China accounts for 61% of global rare earth production and 92% of their processing, giving it near-total control over supply till the time other potential sources are explored, developed, and integrated into the global supply chain. Beijing’s new controls go far beyond curbing mere shipment of the minerals— they severely restrict access to technologies involved in their exploration, mining, and refining. Also, it is moving aggressively to invest in reserve-holding geographies elsewhere. Such overwhelming influence calls for global regulation. But the retreat of consensus-building and multilateralism from global governance that the world is seeing currently makes this task particularly difficult. There is a need to avoid OPEC-style cartelisation (in oil and gas) in the space. The imperative for the demand side is clear. To illustrate, China’s curbs could slow India’s EV plans, clean energy expansion, and defence manufacturing. Against this backdrop, countries (including India) should use multilateral forums such as COP30 in Brazil to build the momentum for a rules-based architecture for critical and rare earth minerals. And they should launch missions to prospect for and tap these resources within their boundaries, forge partnerships with countries possessing untapped deposits, and identify alternatives.

Possible Question

China’s dominance in rare earths poses economic and strategic risks for the world. How should India recalibrate its resource diplomacy and industrial policy to secure its critical mineral needs?

B. Message from Haryana: Caste spares no one

The tragic circumstances surrounding the suicide of senior Haryana IPS officer Y Puran Kumar have underlined that allegations of caste discrimination continue to permeate the highest echelons of the Indian officialdom and must be thoroughly probed. Kumar, 52, a 2001-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, shot himself dead at his residence in Chandigarh Sector 11 on October 7, at a time when his wife, senior bureaucrat Amneet P Kumar, was part of a delegation led by Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini. An eight-page letter written by Kumar has blamed senior officers, including the director general of police in Haryana and the Rohtak superintendent of police (SP), of “blatant caste-based discrimination, targeted mental harassment, public humiliation and atrocities”. Despite the damning note, political pressure and public anger, the probe in the case threatened to take the usual route in those involving Dalit victims — the FIR, lodged after outrage, initially didn’t name the eight accused or invoke stringent sections of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. These were only added after the family protested and withheld the last rites. Though the Rohtak SP has now been transferred and a special investigation team set up, the government will need to ensure a thorough and transparent probe that affixes accountability without scapegoating anyone.

Possible Question

Despite constitutional safeguards, caste-based discrimination continues to affect India’s institutions. Analyse why legal measures alone have not sufficed and suggest complementary social and administrative reforms.

Fact of the day

As RTI Act completes 20 yrs, report shows lapses: With the Right To Information (RTI) Act completing 20 years on October 12, 2025, a report on the performance of information commissions shows that two, Jharkhand and Himachal Pradesh, are defunct and three, Central Information Commission (CIC) and that of Andhra and Chhattisgarh, are without the chief commissioner. The report, compiled by the Satark Nagrik Sangathan (SNS), a non governmental organisation, based on information accessed under the RTI Act, said that for the seventh time in 11 years , CIC, which hears all RTI appeals against the Central government and its public sector undertakings, is without a head. Of the 10 information commissioners, eight positions are lying vacant in CIC and a case is being heard in the Supreme Court to fill these vacancies. Under the sunshine RTI Act, the information commissions comprise a chief information commissioner and up to 10 information commissioners. But the Chhattisgarh state information commission (SIC) is functioning with a single commissioner and the SICs of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Bihar have only two commissioners. Not filling the posts has resulted in pendency of appeals and complaints. According to the report, 241,751 appeals and complaints were registered between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025, with the 27 information commissions, which already had 413,972 pending appeals. During this period, these commissions disposed 182,165 cases.