Daily Current Affairs · Last published 2 October 2026
UPSC Prelims Current Affairs: 2 October 2026
GST collections rise 14.7% in September, the Supreme Court tightens rules on unpaid traffic fines and preventive detention, and the UPSC completes 100 years.
India's gross GST collections rise 14.7% to over Rs 2.03 lakh crore in September
India's gross Goods and Services Tax collections rose 14.7 per cent year on year to over Rs 2.03 lakh crore in September 2026, government data released on 1 October showed. Gross domestic GST revenue grew 10.1 per cent to about Rs 1.38 lakh crore, while revenue from imports rose about 26 per cent to Rs 65,525 crore. GST refunds fell nearly 3 per cent year on year, so net GST revenue after refunds rose a sharper 18.1 per cent to over Rs 1.76 lakh crore. During the first half of the financial year, April to September, gross GST collections grew 11.6 per cent to over Rs 12.46 lakh crore.
Supreme Court orders curbs on licence renewal and vehicle registration for unpaid traffic fines
The Supreme Court, in a 28 September 2026 order made public on 1 October, directed States and Union Territories to block registration renewal, fitness and pollution certificates, ownership transfer and driving licence renewal for vehicles with unpaid traffic e-challans. The Bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and K.V. Viswanathan was told that e-challans worth about Rs 49,194 crore remained outstanding nationally, against Rs 26,175 crore recovered so far. The directions, issued in a road safety case the court has monitored since 2012, also require States to implement the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways' October 2025 standard operating procedure for electronic enforcement through CCTV and speed cameras, backed by a public compliance dashboard.
Supreme Court: a confession to police alone cannot justify preventive detention
The Supreme Court on 29 September 2026 set aside a preventive detention order passed under the National Security Act, 1980, holding that a confession made before a police officer cannot, on its own and without independent supporting material, form the basis of the detaining authority's subjective satisfaction. A Bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu held that since the confessional statement was the sole basis for the detention order, it was unsustainable in law. The ruling, made public on 1 October, reinforces that preventive detention, though it bypasses ordinary criminal trial safeguards, still requires the detaining authority to rely on material beyond an uncorroborated police confession.
Government ties Divyangjan FASTag exemption validity to disability percentage
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways on 1 October 2026 revised the guidelines for issuing and renewing the exempted FASTag given to Divyangjan and other persons with disabilities for toll payments on national highways. Previously the exempted FASTag had to be renewed every year regardless of the beneficiary's disability percentage. Under the new rules, the exemption is valid for five years for persons with 70 to 100 per cent disability and for three years for those with 40 to under 70 per cent disability, as recorded on their disability certificate or Unique Disability ID card, and can be renewed thereafter subject to continued eligibility under the National Highways Fee Rules, 2008.
Government launches National PNG Drive 3.0 to add 50 lakh piped gas connections
Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on 1 October 2026 launched the third phase of the National PNG Drive, targeting 50 lakh new domestic piped natural gas connections, conversion of 40 lakh existing connections into active consumers, and 50 lakh fresh domestic PNG registrations by the end of FY27. The drive builds on its second phase, which ran from January to June 2026 and added about 13.4 lakh billed connections. The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board said about 6.9 lakh inch kilometres of city gas pipeline have been laid so far, with the potential to support around 1.3 crore domestic PNG connections, as the government works to raise natural gas's share in India's primary energy mix from around 6 per cent currently.
Putin praises PM Modi's 'good ideas' for ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking at the Valdai Discussion Club forum on 2 October 2026, praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for repeatedly raising the question of ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict despite the two countries' close relations, saying Modi has an avid interest and very good ideas aimed at finding mutually acceptable solutions. Putin said Modi takes a neutral position but with an interest in ending the conflict, and thanked him for his efforts towards a peaceful resolution. Modi and Putin last met in September on the sidelines of the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi, where the two countries discussed the Programme for Economic Cooperation 2030 along with trade, infrastructure, energy and defence ties.
The Union Public Service Commission completes 100 years
The Union Public Service Commission completed one hundred years on 1 October 2026, tracing its origin to the Public Service Commission constituted on 1 October 1926 under the Government of India Act, 1919, an advisory body whose Chairman and Members were then appointed by the Secretary of State in London. It was renamed the Federal Public Service Commission in 1937 and became the Union Public Service Commission on 26 January 1950, with its functions now drawn from Articles 315 to 323 in Part XIV of the Constitution. A PIB backgrounder marking the centenary noted that in 2023-24 the Commission processed the promotion records of 24,581 officers and inducted 532 officers into the All India Services, alongside its continuing role, since 2012-13, of empanelling senior IPS officers for appointment as state Directors General of Police under the Supreme Court's 2006 ruling in Prakash Singh vs Union of India.
New open-source tool links individual fossil fuel projects to specific climate damage
Researchers from universities in Australia and the United Kingdom have released an open source tool called the Carbon Impacts Tracer that calculates how much warming a specific new fossil fuel project will cause and quantifies the resulting damage across eight measurable categories, from crop losses to heatwave deaths in Europe. The tool builds on a study of Western Australia's Scarborough gas project, which found its 876 million tonnes of lifetime carbon dioxide emissions would expose an extra 516,000 people worldwide to unprecedented heat and cause 484 heat related deaths in Europe by 2100. It uses the near linear relationship, drawn from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's latest assessment, between cumulative global emissions and warming of about 0.45 degrees Celsius per trillion tonnes of carbon dioxide, and lets users enter emissions from any project, company or country to generate a damage report.