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

A quick look at the key current affairs making headlines on October 14, 2025 along with potential relevant UPSC questions

Daily News Capsules

1. Charges framed against Lalu, Tejashwi weeks before polls

UPSC File Image

A Delhi court on Monday framed charges of corruption, conspiracy, and cheating against RJD chief Lalu Prasad, his wife and former chief minister Rabri Devi, and their son and leader of Opposition in Bihar, Tejashwi Yadav, in connection with the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) hotels case. The case, investigated by the CBI, centres on alleged irregularities in the leasing of two IRCTC hotels to a private company owned by Vijay and Vinay Kochhar, during Lalu Prasad’s tenure as Union railway minister. The agency alleges that the tender process was rigged to favour the Kochhars’ firm in exchange for land and company shares transferred to Lalu Prasad’s family at throwaway prices. Framing charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act and provisions of the Indian Penal Code for criminal conspiracy and cheating, special judge Vishal Gogne noted that there was prima facie material to show that Lalu Prasad “abused his position” as railway minister to influence the tender process. Lalu Prasad and his family sought trial in the case, which will commence on October 27, when the prosecution begins presenting its evidence. The development comes as Bihar heads into a high-stakes Assembly elections next month.

Possible Question

Q: Discuss how corruption in public procurement processes undermines governance and development. Suggest reforms to enhance transparency and accountability in awarding government contracts.

2. TN shuts down pharma firm linked to cough syrup deaths

The Tamil Nadu government on Monday revoked the manufacturing licence of Sresan Pharmaceuticals that produced the now-banned contaminated cough syrup Coldrif, which is linked to the deaths of several children in Madhya Pradesh, an official statement said. The Tamil Nadu health department has also ordered comprehensive inspections across all pharmaceutical manufacturing units in the state, with officials saying statewide inspections were underway. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a health advisory warning about three contaminated cough syrups identified in India, including Coldrif, Respifresh TR, and ReLife, manufactured by Sresan Pharmaceuticals, Rednex Pharmaceuticals, and Shape Pharma, respectively. “The drug manufacturing license of Sresan Pharmaceuticals has been completely cancelled, and the company has been closed. Orders have been given to conduct a detailed inspection of other drug manufacturing companies located in Tamil Nadu,” the state health department said.

Possible Question

Q: Critically examine the challenges in regulating India’s pharmaceutical sector, especially small and medium manufacturers. How can regulatory capacity and global credibility of Indian drugs be strengthened?

3. Inflation at historic low of 1.7% in September quarter

India’s benchmark inflation fell to its lowest-ever level of 1.7% in the quarter ending September, also making it the first-ever quarter when inflation has ended up below the Reserve Bank of India’s target band of 2%-6%. This unique feat is a result of the monthly inflation print for September coming at 1.5%, in line with what was predicted by a Bloomberg forecast of economists.

Consumer Price Index grew at 1.5% in September, the lowest this number has been since June 2017. To be sure, the extraordinarily benign inflation in September is a result of disinflation in food prices rather than the Goods and Services reforms which came into effect on September 22, leading to a reduction in indirect tax rates in many goods and services. Analysts believe that the latest trend adds to the possibility that inflation for the fiscal year 2025-26 will undershoot RBI’s target of 2.6% and expect RBI to bring down interest rates when the Monetary Policy Committee meets in December.

Possible Question

Q: What are the risks of prolonged low inflation for a developing economy like India? Analyse the implications for monetary policy, growth, and investment.

4. Trio that explained link between innovation and growth win Nobel in economics

The Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded on Monday to American-Israeli Joel Mokyr, France’s Philippe Aghion, and Canada’s Peter Howitt for explaining the link between technology-driven innovation and economic growth. Their work was credited with helping economists better understand how new ideas and inventions come about — a process as old as steam locomotives replacing horse-drawn transport and as contemporary as e-commerce shuttering shopping malls. Mokyr, 79, won one half of the prize “for having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress”. Aghion, 69, and Howitt, 79, shared the other half “for the theory of sustained growth through creative destruction”. The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, commonly known as the Nobel Prize in Economics, comes at a time when the world is at the cusp of a new technology boom – most prominently, astonishing advances in artificial technology that threaten to overhaul labour practices in skilled sectors, coinciding with mounting protectionism and trade volatility.

Possible Question

Q: Explain the concept of “creative destruction” in economic theory. How relevant is it for India’s efforts to harness innovation-led growth in the age of AI and automation?

5. Tajikistan donates ice cores to study climate history

Tajikistan became the first country to donate two ice cores to the international scientific community — one each to the Pamir Research programme and the Ice Memory sanctuary in Antarctica on Monday. The ice cores were collected from the Kon Chukurbashi area of Pamir, one of the regions covered by what the scientific community calls the “Karakoram Anomaly”. Ice cores are a vertical column of ice extracted from glaciers and ice-sheets; they hold records of what the planet was like hundreds of thousands of years ago. Older ice cores could be between 500,000 and 800,000 years old. On September 24, an international team of scientists launched a new ice coring expedition on the Pamir Mountains, Tajikistan, at an altitude of 5,800 metres, on the Kon Chukurbashi ice cap. Thirteen scientists led by the Swiss-funded PAMIR Project and a team of Tajik partners extracted the first-ever deep ice cores from the Pamirs from a depth of around 105 metres. The Pamirs remained one of the last major high altitude regions from where no deep ice core had ever been retrieved, according to glaciologists. “If many glaciers in the Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan still seem resilient in the face of global warming, scientists do not know how long this will last. Past efforts to extract ice cores have been inhibited by challenging site access, complicated logistics,” a statement by the Pamir Research Program said. These ice cores will eventually be shipped to Japan and Antarctica for research into the climate history of the region.

Possible Question

Q: How can paleoclimate studies, such as ice core research, inform India’s climate adaptation policies? Illustrate with examples from Himalayan glacier studies.

Editorial Snapshots

A. The changing ground in Bihar

The subtext of the seat deal announced by the NDA for the upcoming Bihar assembly polls is that the Janata Dal (United) or JD(U) is no longer in pole position. Since 2005, the JD(U) has made it a point to contest more seats than the BJP in all Assembly polls, sending out the message that the former, which claims the inheritance of Mandal politics in the state, is the coalition leader. This time, the BJP and the JD(U) will contest the same number of seats — 101 each — suggesting an impending transition in Bihar politics. The shift in the balance of power within the NDA is also a reflection of a generational change at the top in the making — it has been looming since the sub-par showing of the JD(U) in the last Assembly election, and needs to be seen in the context of the indifferent health of chief minister Nitish Kumar. He is now more of an NDA icon rather than the general of its troops, useful to consolidate the non-Yadav OBC votes, especially the extremely backward castes (EBCs), and to emphasise the “jungle raj” under Lalu Prasad and the RJD. In some ways, Lalu’s retreat from electoral politics may have diminished the electoral utility of Kumar, though his legacy as a Mandal face and “sushasan babu” (good-governance leader) makes the NDA campaign a layered one. In the 2020 assembly elections, the BJP won 74 of the 110 seats it contested, ahead of the JD(U), which won 43 of the 115 seats it fought. Can Kumar rally his cadre, consolidate his support base, and guard his ground this time around?

Possible Question

Q: Examine the role of caste politics in shaping electoral strategies in Bihar. How do shifting alliances within the NDA reflect larger trends in India’s coalition politics?

B. Road to perdition for pedestrians

Nearly 100 pedestrians die in road accidents every day in India. Against this backdrop, there is an urgent need to implement the directives on making Indian roads safe for those on foot — including compliance with the standardsspecified by the India Road Congress — issued by the Supreme Court earlier this month. Several aspects of road infrastructure, governance, and use need fixing if pedestrian deaths are to be brought down. To start with, roads in India are designed with only vehicular traffic in mind: Pedestrians are an after thought, as evident from the lack of functioning footpaths. Very few people trained on designing with a holistic perspective on safety and ease of traffic. Similarly, regulatory authorities oversee construction quality and efficiency, and not enforcement based on street planning and management. This deficit is compounded by outdated procedures, where the absence of urban designers and landscape specialists afflicts tender evaluation. Additionally, policing of traffic in most cities is virtually non-existent, except for rent-seeking. Without urgent changes here, the necessary discipline among citizens and safe traffic behaviour will remain elusive.

Possible Question

Q: Road safety in India remains a major public policy challenge. Evaluate the institutional, infrastructural, and behavioural factors responsible for high pedestrian fatalities, and suggest policy measures to address them.

Fact of the day

Gold’s record rally explained: After spending much of the 2010s in the ₹40,000-50,000 range per 10 grams, domestic prices have now surged past ₹100,000, doubling in just a few years. This rally is driven by a mix of factors: inflation worries, geopolitical conflict, and expectations of US rate cuts that lifted the price of gold in the international markets. Meanwhile, the dollar has weakened, and the rupee has slid steadily, so Indians already invested in gold are getting a double boost, namely an international price surge and a currency amplification. Central banks are quietly resuming gold accumulation despite seeing moderation in their purchases earlier this year due to pricing pressures. Globally, over the long run, equities like the S&P 500 have usually delivered higher returns. In India, though, gold prices have risen much faster than the benchmark BSE Sensex since 2008. Also, gold purchasing behaviour of Indian households is unlikely to change on the occasion of price change. For instance, in both 2023 and 2024, prices rose sharply by 16% to 20%, yet imports edged higher instead of falling, underlining how seasonal demand and cultural factors can outweigh the effect of cost when it comes to gold in India. Demand for gold jewellery in India in 2023 was about 575.8 tonnes compared with 185.2 tonnes for bars and coins, while in 2024 jewellery eased to 563.4 tonnes but bar and coin investment rose to 239.4 tonnes. Even when retail demand for jewellery softened under the weight of higher prices, overall demand went up because household turned to bars and coins, reinforcing gold’s position as both adornment and a trusted savings instrument. However, the latest World Gold Council data indicates that demand in the first two quarters of 2025 has dropped in the face of the latest massive surge in prices.