A retired Supreme Court judge has said that a former Chief Justice of India may have discussed proposed names for judgeship with the Union Government before the collegium met — describing it as seeking the executive’s “pre-approval”. The remark has revived debate on the collegium system and on making judicial appointments more transparent.

• United States: federal Supreme Court judges are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
• United Kingdom: an independent Judicial Appointments Commission (15 commissioners from the judiciary, legal profession and public) selects judges; UK Supreme Court appointments use a separate selection commission.
• South Africa: a Judicial Service Commission of 23 members — judiciary, legislature, executive, lawyers and academia — recommends names to the President.
• India’s distinctiveness: the collegium — judges appointing judges — has no close parallel in other major democracies.

• Strength: the collegium has insulated appointments from political favouritism.
• Weaknesses: opacity (criteria and reasons are rarely public), lack of accountability, delays, and allegations that relatives of judges are favoured.
• The present concern: informal prior consultation with the executive, if it occurred, would blur the formal process and could compromise the very independence the collegium was designed to protect.
• Reform options: in the short term, a finalised MoP with published criteria and timelines; in the long term, a broader commission — including legislature, Bar and academia — with a judicial veto to protect independence, as the explainer suggests.

At the 13th ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus in Cebu, Philippines, India’s Defence Minister offered to share India’s counter-terrorism experience through exercises, training and intelligence sharing, proposed a defence “Youth Bridge” with ASEAN, and highlighted 2026 as the ASEAN–India Year of Maritime Cooperation.

Figure 2 — ASEAN members and when they joined

Timor-Leste became the 11th member in October 2025. Schematic map; not to scale. Map reproduced with credit for educational use.

• ASEAN centrality: India supports ASEAN as the hub of regional architecture in the Indo-Pacific; ADMM-Plus is one of the few forums where all major powers meet on defence.
• Maritime stakes: the South China Sea disputes and sea-lane security affect India’s trade, which largely passes through Southeast Asian waters.
• Limits: ADMM-Plus works by consensus and is consultative, not an alliance; divergent interests among members — especially on China — constrain collective positions.

The ICAR–Central Potato Research Institute (CPRI) has developed Kufri Jamunia, a purple-skinned, purple-fleshed potato with more vitamin C, iron, zinc and anthocyanins than ordinary potatoes. The Government is promoting it against hidden hunger, but its yield, disease resistance and market acceptance remain open questions.

Figure 3 — Key features of Kufri Jamunia

Recommended for the North Indian plains; matures in about 90 days. Infographic courtesy PIB / Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare; reproduced with credit for educational use.

• Delivery: potatoes are eaten less consistently than rice or salt; nutrient retention depends on cooking — steaming preserves more than frying — and on how well iron and zinc are absorbed.
• Disease: moderately resistant to late blight (Phytophthora infestans, the cause of the 1840s Irish famine) in the lab, but susceptible in the field — fungicide is recommended.
• Economics: with lower marketable yield, farmers may need a premium of about 15% to match revenue; seed already makes up a large share of potato production costs.
• Consumers: acceptance depends on appearance, taste, awareness and price — the CPRI’s taste test of 64 people is too small to generalise.
• Context: India is the world’s second-largest potato producer; biofortified varieties of rice, wheat, pearl millet and other crops are also being promoted.

A PIB backgrounder outlines the technologies behind India’s next phase in space — a heavy-lift reusable launcher, electric propulsion, docking, advanced navigation and communication satellites, and new Earth observation tools — as the space economy targets $44 billion by 2033.

Figure 4 — The five technology pillars

Infographic courtesy PIB, 28 October 2026; reproduced with credit for educational use.

• Cost of access: reusability and heavier lift lower the cost per kilogram to orbit — essential for constellations, a space station and commercial competitiveness.
• Strategic autonomy: indigenous engines, clocks and thrusters reduce dependence on foreign suppliers, whose failures have hurt programmes such as NavIC.
• Human spaceflight: docking is a prerequisite for the Bharatiya Antariksh Station (targeted by 2035) and lunar sample return.

• Execution: delays in replacement navigation satellites and failed launches show that reliability and quality assurance matter as much as new technology.
• Global competition: private reusable rockets abroad have sharply cut launch prices; India must scale private participation to compete.
• Space debris and sustainability: more launches and constellations raise collision risks; India has committed to debris-free space missions by 2030.

Sections of the indigenous Adi community have protested the proposed 11,200 MW Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP), now at the pre-feasibility stage. The State government presents it as a national-security response to China’s 60,000 MW dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo upstream; residents fear loss of ancestral land and livelihoods.

Figure 5 — Location of the proposed project

The Yarlung Tsangpo enters India as the Siang, joins the Dibang and Lohit to form the Brahmaputra in Assam. Schematic; not to scale. Map courtesy The Indian Express; reproduced with credit for educational use.

• For: national security and water security; clean power; flood moderation downstream in Assam; establishing India’s prior use of the river’s waters.
• Against: displacement and loss of ancestral land, cultural and spiritual ties to the river, risks in a high-seismic zone, impacts on fisheries and riverine ecology, and doubts — raised by experts — about whether the “counter-China” logic is sound without details of China’s dam.
• Process concerns: residents seek written assurance that their consent will be decisive; trust deficits are heightened by past experience with large dams elsewhere in the North-East.

• Free, prior and informed consent of affected communities, with transparent sharing of survey findings.
• Robust environmental, seismic and cumulative impact assessments; compliance with the Dam Safety Act, 2021 and fair compensation under the Land Acquisition Act, 2013 (RFCTLARR).
• Diplomatic push for year-round hydrological data and transparency on China’s project; consideration of smaller, run-of-river alternatives.

The killing of an anti-drug activist and a suspected overdose death have again put Punjab’s drug problem in the spotlight. NCRB data for 2024 show Punjab led the country with 6,060 cases of drug possession for trafficking and recorded 106 overdose deaths — second only to Tamil Nadu (313).

• Supply substitution: crackdowns on one route or substance shift use to another — heroin to pharma drugs, land routes to drones — so supply-side action alone has limited effect.
• Narco-terror nexus: drones also carry arms; cross-border trafficking links organised crime with security threats.
• Governance gaps: regulation of pharmacies and pharmaceutical supply chains, and cases of complicity by officials, need attention.
• Demand and rehabilitation: experts argue that prevention and treatment should lead, not follow, enforcement — along with jobs and skills for youth.