UPSC Current Affairs 02 October 2026
Contents
1. ‘Ek Din, Ek Ghanta, Ek Saath’ Initiative
2. Operation Jagriti
3. Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) 2024–25
4. Status of Policing in India Report (SPIR) 2026
5. Swyer Syndrome
6. CHIME Telescope
7. Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS)
‘Ek Din, Ek Ghanta, Ek Saath’ Initiative
Why in News?
The "Ek Din, Ek Ghanta, Ek Saath" (One Day, One Hour, Together) initiative is in the news because a massive, nationwide collective cleanliness drive was successfully conducted across India on October 1, 2026.
About the Initiative
- Core Umbrella Campaign: The initiative is a core highlight of the Swachhata Hi Seva (SHS) 2026 Campaign, which runs from September 17 to October 17, 2026.
- The 2026 Theme: This year’s activities are centered around the theme "Swachhata Mein Sahbhag, Swachh Bharat, and Viksit Bharat". It emphasizes collective participation, civic duty, and shared responsibility to build a clean and developed India.
- The Meaning of the Slogan:
- Ek Din (One Day): October 1, 2026.
- Ek Ghanta (One Hour): A dedicated, simultaneous one-hour block of voluntary labour.
- Ek Saath (Together): A call for community-driven unity (Jan Bhagidari) involving citizens, sanitation workers, and top political leaders working side by side.
- Wide Institutional Participation: Major government bodies actively conducted localized drives at public and heritage sites. For example:
- The Ministry of Tourism brought together around 500 participants to clean the historic Hauz Khas Fort in New Delhi.
- The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare held a major drive near Kartavya Bhavan.
- The [Ministry of Ayush](https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleaseDetail.aspx?PRID=2317602®=1〈=1 "Ministry of Ayush Observes "Swachhata Hi Sewa" with Cleanliness ...") organized cleanup operations directly at Ayush Bhawan.
- The Ministry of Mines led community cleanup efforts in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi
- Primary Objectives: Beyond physical cleaning, the program focuses heavily on creating widespread public awareness regarding proper waste disposal, minimizing single-use plastics, and institutionalizing personal and environmental hygiene habits.
Operation Jagriti
Why in News?
Operation Jagriti is a dedicated women's safety, awareness, and empowerment initiative launched by the Uttar Pradesh Police in the Agra Zone. Inspired by the state’s overarching Mission Shakti campaign, it has successfully advanced through multiple operational phases.
Core Objectives
- Grassroots Awareness: To educate women and young girls about their foundational legal rights, personal safety measures, and official institutional support.
- Counseling and Redressal: Providing immediate, professional counseling and institutional referral infrastructure to victims of gender-based violence.
- Promoting Legal Literacy: Dispelling taboos and sharing critical structural provisions regarding the POCSO Act, domestic violence acts, and anti-cyber fraud frameworks.
- Addressing Legal Misuse: Sensitizing households on the damages caused by using legal loopholes or staging false FIRs to settle personal or property disputes.
Key Framework & Execution
- Brainchild Authority: Conceived and executed by the Additional Director General of Police (ADG), Agra Zone, Anupam Kulshrestha.
- Inter-Departmental Convergence: Deployed as a multi-layered coalition combining the UP Police with the state health, education, panchayati raj, and women & child development departments.
- International Partnership: Backed and structured in close coordination with UNICEF representatives.
Geographic Scope
The operation spans across seven major districts comprising the Agra and Aligarh administrative divisions:
The operation spans across seven major districts comprising the Agra and Aligarh administrative divisions:
- Agra
- Firozabad
- Mathura
- Mainpuri
- Aligarh
- Etah
- Hathras
- Kasganj
Real-World Impact & Achievements
- Massive Mass Outreach: The targeted phases have directly communicated with and sensitized over 12 to 13 million people across village panchayats, city wards, and local educational complexes.
- Student and Youth Activation: Conducted deeply interactive, student-centric workshops in local schools to train the younger demographic against cyber-exploitation and domestic hazards.
- De-clogging the Legal System: Successfully persuaded citizens to withdraw 72 fabricated or false complaints across the zone (including 26 in Firozabad and 13 in Mathura), significantly reducing unnecessary judicial delays.
Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) 2024–25
Why in News?
- The Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) 2024–25 is in news because the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) released its results on 30 September 2026.
- The survey shows broad-based expansion in India’s registered manufacturing sector: employment crossed 2 crore, Gross Value Added (GVA) rose 9.59%, and industrial output grew 7.81% over 2023–24.
About the Annual Survey of Industries (ASI)
- Conducting Authority: It is the principal industrial statistics survey conducted by the National Statistical Office (NSO) under MoSPI.
- Legal Framework: ASI 2024–25 was conducted under the Collection of Statistics Rules, 2024, framed via the statutory provisions of the Collection of Statistics (COS) Act, 2008.
- Coverage Scope: It serves as the primary data bank for the organised (registered) manufacturing sector, covering factories registered under the Factories Act, 1948, electricity undertakings, and registered bidi/cigar establishments. It does not cover unorganised or informal enterprises.
- Reference Timeline: The timeline mapped for this release spans April 2024 to March 2025. Extensive field data collection was executed digitally via the ASI Web Portal between October 2025 and June 2026.
- Core Significance: This data provides critical granular insights into changes in capital formation, labour productivity, and industrial composition. It is highly essential for state-level policymaking and compiling the National Accounts Statistics (GDP calculations).
Overall Macro Growth & GVA
- Industrial Output: The registered manufacturing sector witnessed a strong output expansion of 7.81% over the previous fiscal year.
- Gross Value Added (GVA): The overall GVA of the sector increased by 9.59%, climbing from ₹24.58 lakh crore in 2023–24 to ₹26.94 lakh crore in 2024–25.
- Net Profits: Demonstrating long-term financial resilience, net profits of registered factories rose to ₹11.56 lakh crore.
Employment & Workforce Compensation
- Job Creation: Total employment in the organised industrial sector jumped by 7.19%, crossing a major milestone to reach nearly 2.10 crore persons engaged.
- Rising Emoluments: Total salaries, wages, and benefits paid out to the workforce witnessed a robust double-digit growth of 12.08% compared to the previous year.
- Factory Count: The number of registered, operational manufacturing establishments increased by 2.64%, reaching 2.67 lakh factories in 2024–25 (up from 2.60 lakh in 2023–24).
- Invested Capital: Capital infused into modernization, machinery, and expansion grew at a healthy rate of 11.10%.
Top Performing Industries
Five primary industries contributed to more than 45% of the total manufacturing GVA of the country:
Five primary industries contributed to more than 45% of the total manufacturing GVA of the country:
- Basic Metals
- Motor Vehicles
- Chemicals and Chemical Products
- Pharmaceutical Products
- Food Products
State-wise Performance Leaders
- Highest Number of Factories: Tamil Nadu leads the country with 41,221 establishments, followed closely by Gujarat (33,084) and Maharashtra (27,379).
- GVA Contribution: Maharashtra retained its position as the top contributor to India's total manufacturing GVA, followed by Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Uttar Pradesh.
- Employment Drivers: Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana emerged as the top five employers. Together, these five states accounted for 56% of total manufacturing employment across India.
Status of Policing in India Report (SPIR) 2026
Why in News?
The Status of Policing in India Report (SPIR) 2026, titled "Cybercrime—Victim Perspectives and Systemic Responses", was jointly published on September 24, 2026, by the non-profit organization Common Cause and Lokniti-CSDS.
Survey Methodology & Scope
- Sample Size: The survey gathered data from 8,306 citizens across 16 Indian States.
- Core Objective: To understand what happens after a victim decides to complain, what factors drive police responsiveness, and the systemic preparedness of banks and state police forces.
Victim Behaviour and Barriers to Reporting
- The Complaint Gap: Only 49% of cybercrime victims formally approach the police.
- Procedural Fatigue: About 39% of victims never complain or completely abandon the legal process due to low police responsiveness, complex paperwork, and repeated station visits.
- Perception of Safety: Paradoxically, a significant share of cybercrime victims are individuals who consciously perceive digital payment modes to be safer than cash, underestimating social engineering tactics.
- Social Engineering: Perpetrators rely aggressively on psychological manipulation and deception to win the trust of victims.
Prevalence of Bribery and Influence
- The Cost of Redressal: Among the victims who successfully registered a complaint, 27% had to pay a bribe to get law enforcement to act on their case.
- The Influence Dynamic: Marginalised demographics—specifically women, poor citizens, and rural victims—depend the most on informal networks or persons of influence to get their First Information Reports (FIRs) filed.
- Low FIR Registration: Out of every 15 victims who approach the police (either online or in-person), only 6 manage to get an FIR registered. Out of those six, multiple instances required intervention by influential external entities.
Systemic Hurdles & Infrastructure Gaps
- Local Cyber Forensics Deficiency: Ground-level, local police stations lack dedicated forensic specialists and automated digital triage tools, leading to a critical loss of the initial "golden hour" recovery window.
- Inter-Jurisdictional Red Tape: Because cyber frauds routinely cross state or national borders, local police face severe coordination bottlenecks when dealing with out-of-state telecom providers and financial entities.
- Poor Bank and Police Cooperation: Despite central mandates directing banks and state agencies to work in tandem, institutional coordination remains poor, severely aggravating the financial distress of victims.
Swyer Syndrome
Why in News?
Swyer Syndrome is a rare genetic disorder of sex development (DSD) where an individual has a 46, XY chromosome pattern (typically associated with males) but develops female external genitalia and reproductive structures due to a failure in gonadal development.
About
- Medical Term: It is formally known as 46, XY complete gonadal dysgenesis ("dysgenesis" meaning abnormal development).
- Anatomical Paradox: Affected individuals are genetically male (XY) but phenotypically female, possessing a normal female appearance, vagina, uterus, and fallopian tubes.
- Streak Gonads: Instead of functional ovaries or testes, they have small, non-functioning fibrous tissue structures called streak gonads.
- Rarity: It is estimated to affect approximately 1 in 80,000 people.
Causes
- Genetic Disruption: It occurs due to a disruption in the genetic pathway that triggers male sex determination during early embryonic development.
- SRY Gene Mutation: In about 15% to 20% of cases, it is caused by a mutation or deletion of the SRY gene (Sex-determining Region Y) on the Y chromosome, which normally tells the body to develop testes.
- Other Involved Genes: In remaining cases, mutations in other genes like SOX9, NR5A1, MAP3K1, and DHH are responsible. Most cases are sporadic (new mutations), though some can be inherited.
Symptoms and Presentation
- Unnoticed in Childhood: The condition is completely unapparent during childhood and is usually discovered during adolescence.
- Primary Amenorrhea: The most defining sign is that menstruation fails to begin naturally at puberty.
- Delayed Puberty: Because streak gonads do not produce sex hormones, secondary sexual characteristics (like spontaneous breast development) are absent or incomplete.
- Physical Traits: Individuals typically grow to a tall stature but have sparse pubic or underarm hair.
Diagnosis
- Karyotyping: A specialized blood test used to study the layout of chromosomes, which confirms a 46,XY pattern.
- Hormone Profiles: Blood tests show clear signs of gonadal failure, showing elevated levels of FSH and LH paired with extremely low estrogen levels.
- Imaging: Pelvic ultrasounds or MRIs are used to confirm the presence of a uterus and identify the underdeveloped streak gonads.
- Cancer Risk: The streak gonadal tissue carries a 30% to 40% risk of developing tumours (such as gonadoblastoma or malignant germ-cell tumours), making regular tracking critical.
- Bone Density Loss: Due to the severe lack of estrogen, untreated individuals face an early, high risk of osteopenia and osteoporosis.
Treatment and Management
- Gonadectomy: Because of the high cancer risk, a preventative surgery is typically performed to remove the streak gonads.
- Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT): Early initiation of estrogen and progesterone therapy helps induce puberty, prompts breast development, enables menstruation, and protects bone health.
- Pregnancy is Possible: Since individuals lack functional ovaries, they cannot produce their own eggs and are naturally infertile. However, because they have a functional uterus, they can successfully carry a pregnancy to term using IVF with donated eggs or embryos.
CHIME Telescope
Why in News?
An international team of scientists, including researchers from India's Raman Research Institute (RRI) in Bengaluru, successfully achieved the first standalone detection of the faint radio glow of neutral hydrogen gas from deep cosmic history.
Overview & Location
- Full Name: Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment.
- Location: It is situated at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory operated by the National Research Council of Canada in British Columbia, Canada.
- Inauguration: The telescope was built and began operations in 2017.
Unique Design and Components
- No Moving Parts: Unlike traditional dish telescopes that rotate to scan the sky, CHIME is entirely stationary. It scans half of the sky every single day purely as the Earth rotates.
- Structure: It consists of four massive parabolic cylindrical antennas, roughly the size and shape of snowboarding half-pipes.
- Digital Steering: It relies on a superpowered digital signal processor called a correlator. It processes data at an astonishing 7 terabits per second (equivalent to a few percent of global internet traffic), allowing the telescope to digitally reconstruct and look in thousands of directions at the same time.
Core Scientific Objectives
- Mapping Hydrogen: CHIME operates in the 400 to 800 MHz radio frequency range, specifically optimized to pick up the 21-cm wavelength line emitted by neutral atomic hydrogen—the most abundant element in the cosmos.
- Measuring Cosmic Expansion: By mapping how hydrogen is distributed and clustered across deep time, scientists can trace the history of the universe's expansion and map galaxy evolution.
- Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs): CHIME is an exceptional instrument for detecting Fast Radio Bursts, which are intense, millisecond-long flashes of radio energy originating from distant galaxies. It has catalogued hundreds of these elusive events.
- Pulsar Science: Its massive field of view and broad bandwidth enable it to monitor and time up to 10 pulsars simultaneously, 24 hours a day. This data assists in gravitational wave experiments by filtering interstellar noise.
Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS)
Why in News?
RIS and the Delhi School of Economics launched the “India and Emerging Economic Order Forum” (IEOF) in New Delhi on 29 September 2026.
Core Profile & Mandate
- Establishment: It was established in May 1983 as a registered autonomous society under the financial support and guidance of India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
- Origins: It was created as India’s contribution to fulfilling the Non-Aligned Movement's (NAM) long-felt need for a dedicated global think tank for developing nations.
- Primary Objective: To foster effective policy dialogue, promote South-South Cooperation (SSC), and assist developing nations in multilateral economic and trade negotiations.
- Advisory Role: It functions as a key advisory body to the Government of India on regional, sub-regional, and multilateral economic issues (e.g., WTO, UN, World Bank, and G20 processes).
Key Operational Pillars
- Global Economic Governance: Conducting intensive research into multilateralism, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and international financial reforms.
- Trade & Investment Cooperation: Providing empirical research and analytical support to India for executing Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and expanding partnerships with regional blocs like ASEAN, BRICS, BIMSTEC, and IBSA.
- Connectivity & Maritime Economy: Leading regional connectivity corridors and housing the Center for Maritime Economy and Connectivity (CMEC) to advance India's Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision 2047.
- New Technologies: Researching the implications of emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), biotechnology, and intellectual property rights (IPR) for developing economies.
Major Institutional Initiatives & Centers
- DAKSHIN: RIS acts as a core partner for the Global South Centre of Excellence (DAKSHIN), an initiative announced by India to share development solutions with fellow developing nations.
- ASEAN-India Centre (AIC): Housed within RIS, it works on strengthening institutional, economic, and people-to-people linkages between India and ASEAN countries.
- Capacity Building Programs: Coordinates elite global academic fellowships and programs, including Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) courses, IBSA fellowships, and the RIS-EXIM Bank Summer School.
- Flagship Publications: Regularly publishes authoritative research documents, including the World Trade and Development Report and policy briefs detailing global supply chains and agricultural transformations.
Question & Answer
Q1. The "Ek Din, Ek Ghanta, Ek Saath" initiative is a key highlight of which campaign?
A. Fit India Movement
B. Swachhata Hi Seva (SHS) 2026
C. Jal Shakti Abhiyan
D. Mission LiFE
Answer: B. Swachhata Hi Seva (SHS) 2026
Q2. Operation Jagriti has been launched by which state's police?
A. Rajasthan
B. Madhya Pradesh
C. Uttar Pradesh
D. Haryana
Answer: C. Uttar Pradesh
Q3. The Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) is conducted by:
A. NITI Aayog
B. National Statistical Office (NSO)
C. Reserve Bank of India
D. Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade
Answer: B. National Statistical Office (NSO)
Q4. The Status of Policing in India Report (SPIR) 2026 was jointly published by:
A. PRS Legislative Research and CSDS
B. Common Cause and Lokniti-CSDS
C. NCRB and BPR&D
D. NITI Aayog and CSDS
Answer: B. Common Cause and Lokniti-CSDS
Q5. Swyer Syndrome is also known as:
A. Turner Syndrome
B. Klinefelter Syndrome
C. 46, XY Complete Gonadal Dysgenesis
D. Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome
Answer: C. 46, XY Complete Gonadal Dysgenesis
Q6. The CHIME Telescope is located in:
A. Australia
B. United States
C. Canada
D. Chile
Answer: C. Canada
Q7. The Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) was established under the guidance of which ministry?
A. Ministry of Commerce and Industry
B. Ministry of Finance
C. Ministry of External Affairs
D. Ministry of Education
Answer: C. Ministry of External Affairs
