Daily News Capsules
1. Centre calls Delhi blast ‘terror incident’ as probe net widens
A rush-hour explosion near the Red Fort in Delhi that killed 10 people was a “heinous terror incident” by “anti-national” forces, the Union government confirmed on Wednesday, as security agencies worked to nab the remaining members of a module operating from Faridabad that allegedly carried out the blast. Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting of the cabinet committee on security and separately met Union home minister Amit Shah and national security adviser Ajit Doval, on a day the Faridabad Police rounded up a red EcoSport car, which they said was owned by the prime suspect of the blast, Umar Un-Nabi, a doctor hailing from Pulwama in Kashmir who was working in Faridabad. Police are also investigating several new suspects, including another doctor from the Al-Falah University in Faridabad that has allegedly emerged as a common link between the main people accused of running the terror module. Investigators say they successfully linked JeM posters appearing in Nowgam in Kashmir on October 18, the arrests of three doctors – Adeel Rather from Saharanpur, Muzammil Shakeel Ganaie from Faridabad, and Shaheen Shahid from Lucknow – the recovery of nearly 2,900kg of ammonium nitrate and other explosive material and firearms in Faridabad this week, and the evening blast in Delhi.
Possible Question
Critically examine the challenges India faces in detecting and disrupting urban terror networks that operate across states and online platforms.
2. Sebi panel proposes disclosure overhaul
The stock market regulator is considering its most comprehensive internal reforms in years, with a top committee proposing sweeping changes to conflict-of-interest and disclosure norms across the organisation. The proposals, which include public asset disclosures by top officials and the formation of ethics committees, aim to strengthen transparency at the appointment stage itself, and ensure that individuals with personal, professional, or financial entanglements are identified early. Candidates for the roles of Sebi chairman, whole-time member (WTM), and other lateral entrants must disclose all actual, potential and perceived conflicts of interest, both financial and non-financial, to the appointing authority in advance, the committee set up by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) in March proposed. The committee’s report comes over a year after American short seller Hindenburg Research accused its chairperson of a conflict of interest, a charge she denied as “baseless” and “devoid of any truth”. Once in office, top Sebi officials must publicly disclose their assets and liabilities, a first for the top brass. The panel recommended that the chairman, WTMs and employees ranked chief general manager and above file such declarations annually. Part time members, who are not involved in day-to-day regulation, may be exempted from public disclosures, but they too must report relevant interests internally. Currently, Sebi board members only need to disclose conflicts to the regulator’s board.
Possible Question
Discuss how stronger internal governance in regulators can reduce regulatory capture and perceptions of bias, while balancing the privacy rights of officials.
3. Players, clubs may petition apex court to start league
Players and CEOs of the ISL clubs are likely to separately petition the Supreme Court to start the top league this season after it found no commercial partners. This transpired after separate meetings between AIFF with a dozen players and
CEOs of 11 ISL clubs on Wednesday. “The league has to happen, there is no conflict between AIFF and us on this,” said one of the CEOs who attended the virtual meeting with AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey and deputy secretary general Satyanarayan M. “One of the options discussed was whether clubs can run the league this term but we will wait for directions from the SC.” Assuming the SC does that by Nov 30, the league can start on Jan 1 and run till May 31, the CEO said, requesting anonymity. Barring Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, all clubs were represented at the meeting. That happened after 12 players, including Sunil Chhetri, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Saul Crespo, Sandesh Jhingan, Rahul Bheke, Hugo Boumous and Carlos Delgao, spoke to Chaubey and Satyanarayan on a video call. The players have also decided to petition the SC to find ways to get the 2025-26 league started, HT can confirm. The meeting with players was initiated by the AIFF after some of them shared a plea on social media on Tuesday, “asking those running our beautiful game, to match our desperation with honest intent.” No player from Mohammedan Sporting or Mohun Bagan attended.
Possible Question
Analyse the structural weaknesses in the governance of national sports federations and leagues. Also, evaluate the appropriate role of the judiciary in resolving commercial, regulatory and players’ rights disputes in sport.
4. Fresh clashes erupt on Cambodia-Thai border
Cambodia and Thailand traded accusations of fresh clashes along their border on Wednesday, with Phnom Penh reporting one civilian shot dead in hostilities flaring after Bangkok paused the implementation of a US-backed peace deal. Five days of combat erupted between Thailand and Cambodia this summer, killing 43 people and displacing around 300,000 before a truce backed by US President Donald Trump took effect. However, Thailand on Monday paused implementation of a follow-on deal to wind down hostilities, claiming a blast from a newly laid landmine had wounded four of its soldiers. Just two days later, officials on both sides have reported gunfire across the boundary between Thailand’s Sa Kaeo province and Cambodia’s Banteay Meanchey province. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said three civilians were wounded and one killed. “The action goes against the humanitarian spirit and recent agreements to resolve border issues peacefully,” he said in a post on Facebook. But Bangkok blamed Cambodian troops who “fired shots into Thai territory”, Royal Thai Army spokesman Winthai Suvaree said. The dispute between Thailand and Cambodia centres on a century-old disagreement over borders mapped during France’s colonial rule in the region, with both sides claiming a smattering of boundary temples.
Possible Question
Examine the role of ASEAN, major powers and international law in managing such conflicts.
5. Govt to boost global exports of tribal products
Union commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday underscored the export potential of tribal specialty products and crafts, stating that the government would market them globally through various channels, including e-commerce platforms. Speaking at the Tribal Business Conclave 2025 in New Delhi, Goyal said a scheme is currently being developed to bolster the export of tribal products, ensuring they gain the visibility and market access they rightfully deserve in both domestic and global markets. Union minister for tribal affairs Jual Oram, who shared the dais with Goyal at the conclave, said products of the Mahua tree (Madhuca longifolia) alone have a potential of ₹1 lakh crore and highlighted the tree’s tremendous economic and nutritional value for tribal Indians and forest dwellers. He also emphasised the nutritional and medicinal value of other forest products, including that of Chironji (Cuddapah almond) and Sal (Shorea robusta) seeds. Goyal said both domestic and international markets offer immense opportunities for tribal goods and crafts, and that the government is taking necessary measures to harness this potentialin the coming years. The conclave was organised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) at the ministry of commerce and industry in collaboration with the ministry of tribal affairs. The conclave was part of the government’s ongoing ‘Janjatiya Gaurav Varsh’ celebrations, which commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of the tribal Independence activist, Birsa Munda.
Possible Question
Critically evaluate how a market-led “local to global” strategy can simultaneously ensure livelihood security, cultural preservation and ecological sustainability for tribal communities.
Editorial Snapshots
A. Nithari case: Indictment of procedural deficiencies
When the Supreme Court on Tuesday acquitted Surendra Koli in the final surviving Nithari case, it did more than just erase a conviction — it exposed one of the worst failures of India’s criminal justice system. At the centre of this horror were two men — Koli, a domestic worker at D5, and his employer, businessman Moninder Singh Pandher. The police claimed that Koli lured children and women to the house, murdered them, and in some cases, even indulged in cannibalism. Pandher was accused of complicity and exploitation. The police investigation was chaotic and unscientific. By the time officers reached D5 on December 29, 2006, crowds had already gathered, trampling through evidence as remains were pulled from the ground. When the probe was handed to the CBI in January 2007, expectations were high. But the agency repeated the same mistakes, relying heavily on Koli’s confession recorded after weeks in custody and on dubious recoveries already known to locals. The trials that followed rested almost entirely on this defective foundation. Confessions, recoveries, and circumstantial evidence were recycled across 13 cases with little effort to establish independent corroboration. It was hardly surprising when higher courts began overturning these convictions one after another. The Supreme Court, in its November 11 judgment, painstakingly pointed out that the same confession and the same recoveries had been rejected as unreliable in all other cases. For the parents of the missing children, the verdict reopens old wounds. The Nithari acquittals are symptomatic of a deeper malaise in India’s criminal investigation machinery. At every level, the system failed. The local police failed to preserve a crime scene, the CBI failed to correct those lapses, prosecutors failed to build a coherent narrative capable of withstanding judicial scrutiny, and the State failed the victims by turning their tragedy into a procedural farce.
Possible Question
Suggest a set of reforms—legal, institutional and technological—to prevent such systemic collapse in future mass-crime investigations.
B. Haze over Delhi AQI data blunts clean-up action
After the air quality index (AQI) in the national capital region (NCR) slipped into the “severe” category on Tuesday — having hovered close to this level for days — stage 3 of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP 3) was finally enforced. On Wednesday, too, the national capital’s AQI remained in the severe category. Whether GRAP 3 will lift some of the grey haze blanketing the region remains to be seen. The Supreme Court directed Punjab and Haryana on Wednesday to submit details of action taken against farm fires next week, and it is likely that farmers, especially in the former, will see this as a deadline and scramble to set fire to the remaining crop stubble in their fields. The haze over the accuracy and integrity of Delhi’s pollution data will also likely erode the effectiveness of pollution control measures. As this newspaper has repeatedly shown, there have been several recent instances of monitoring stations in the national capital falling silent, leading to significant data gaps. Similarly, there have been multiple points of deficiency in source-apportioning estimates from the Decision Support System, which is run by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune. Improbable spikes and falls and odd patterns in measurement, read together with algorithmic loopholes, raise doubts about the AQI data’s integrity. The Commission for Air Quality Management — the NCR pollution watchdog has turned a blind eye to these — and the political establishment must dispel the doubts with detailed clarifications, not dismissive rhetoric.
Possible Question
How can India strengthen its environmental data infrastructure to make pollution-control measures more credible and effective?
Fact of the day
Retail inflation plunges to record low of 0.25%: Wednesday’s inflation data is likely to push the Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee to cut the policy rate when it meets in December, with retail inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index coming in at 0.25%, resulting in a real policy rate of 5.25%. That’s the lowest inflation ever recorded in the current series which starts from January 2012. And it is the highest real interest rate since in the period for which we have data in the current CPI series. The current alignment of inflation and the policy rate means that there is a strong case for bringing down interest rates and administering a booster dose to the growth prospects of the Indian economy. Most analysts expect RBI to bring down the policy rate when it meets next in December. Policy implications and imperatives aside, what really happened to inflation in October? This is where a breakdown of the data can help. Unlike what the headline number suggests, the Indian economy is not caught in some sort of deflationary tail-spin. The biggest reason why inflation has turned out to be a record low is a collapse in food prices. The food part of the CPI basket—it has a share of 39% in the overall index—saw a contraction of 5%, once again a record in the current CPI series. Core inflation —the non-food non-fuel part of the CPI basket—as seen in the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) database came in at 4.3% in October, the ninth consecutive month when it has remained in the ballpark of 4-4.5%. This means that a lot of the moderation in inflation could well be of a seasonal nature rather than a sudden glut of goods and services in the overall economy. Even within the food category, the record deflation was primarily a result of a sharp contraction in prices of vegetables and pulses with respective deflation of 27.5% and 16.2% in October. To be sure, food inflation was benign in most categories except edible oil and even edible oil saw a large decline in inflation between September and October. The growing gap between food and non food inflation also entails a possible worsening of terms of trade for the rural sector in the Indian economy.
