Daily News Capsules
1. Asean cornerstone of India’s Act East policy, says Modi
The India-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) partnership lays the foundation for global stability and development in an era of uncertainties, with the two sides cooperating in areas ranging from digital inclusion and food security to resilient supply chains, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday. In addition to observing 2026 as the ‘Asean-India Year of Maritime Cooperation’, the two sides are taking forward their cooperation in technology, education, tourism, health, green energy, and cyber-security, Modi said in a virtual address to the Asean-India Summit in Kuala Lumpur. “Even in this era of uncertainties, the India-Asean Comprehensive Strategic Partnership has continued to make steady progress. And this strong partnership of ours is emerging as a robust foundation for global stability and development,” Modi said, in an apparent reference to the churn created by the trade policies of the US. Modi unveiled several initiatives to bolster cooperation with Asean, including a proposal to organise the second Asean-India defence ministers meeting and the second Asean-India maritime exercise, training 400 professionals to support the Asean Power Grid initiative, extending quick impact projects to Timor Leste, setting up a centre for Southeast Asian studies at Nalanda University, and increased cooperation in infrastructure, semiconductors, emerging technologies and critical minerals.
Possible Question
How does India’s Act East Policy, particularly its partnership with ASEAN, strengthen regional stability and economic integration in the Indo-Pacific?
2. Six thalassemic kids test HIV+ after getting ‘infected’ blood
Six children suffering from thalassemia have contracted HIV after they were allegedly administered infected blood during transfusions at a hospital in Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district, prompting the State Government to order a high-level investigation and suspend the civil surgeon and other officials concerned, officials aware of the matter said on Sunday. The Jharkhand High Court has taken suo motu cognisance of the incident and sought a report from the health secretary. The development comes days after a seven-year-old thalassemia patient, who had received a blood transfusion at a local blood bank in Chaibasa town on September 13, tested HIV positive during a follow-up test on October 18. His family later filed a complaint against a blood bank technician, alleging negligence. A five-member medical team subsequently launched an investigation and confirmed similar infections in five more children. District civil surgeon Dr Sushanto Kumar Majhi, who has since been suspended, said four of the six patients are from West Singhbhum district and two are from the Seraikela-Kharsawan district in Jharkhand. Thalasssemia is a genetic condition in which a person can be chronically low on oxygen-carrying haemoglobin, making regular transfusions necessary for most. Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Sunday ordered an audit of all blood banks in the state and sought a report within five days.
Possible Question
What systemic reforms are needed in India’s public health system to ensure the safety of blood transfusions and restore public trust in healthcare delivery?
3. Pilots’ body asks DGCA to roll back Boeing 787 crew’s extended hours
The Airline Pilots’ Association of India (ALPA) wrote to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Sunday, raising serious operational and safety concerns over the regulator’s decision to extend the Flight Duty Time Limit for two pilot operations on Boeing 787 aircraft. In a letter, ALPA said the DGCA’s move to increase the flight time for two-man crews from 10 hours to 10 hours 30 minutes and the total duty period from 13 hours to 14 hours poses a “grave safety risk”, especially in light of recent restrictions imposed by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on the same aircraft type. The FAA had earlier issued an Airworthiness Directive, restricting the captain’s seat recline function on Boeing 787s due to safety concerns, which, according to ALPA, has directly impacted crew rest during long-haul operations. The association pointed out that most airlines worldwide have responded to the FAA directive by rostering additional crew to mitigate fatigue risks, whereas the DGCA has chosen to stretch duty hours without mandating an augmented crew. In India, Air India operates B787s and IndiGo operates two leased 787s.
Possible Question
Examine the role of aviation regulators like DGCA in balancing airline economics with passenger and crew safety. How do global regulatory norms influence India’s decisions?
4. Government set to ease industrial standards law
India is set to overhaul and decriminalise all provisions and rules of the Legal Metrology Act, which governs the robustness of consumer and industrial products, cosmetics to elevators, to usher in a regime of quicker and reliable private-sector certification with the oversight of State controllers, Union Consumer Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said on Saturday. Legal metrology deals with the quality and quantity of consumer items to ensure products contain and conform to what their labels claim. It is especially key to the weights and measures of packaged items and machines used for industrial calibration. “The development of an eMaap portal will unify all functions of legal metrology, including enforcement, to create a unified database, providing transparency for consumers, easing compliance burdens for traders and industries, and simplifying procedures for legal metrology officials,” Joshi said. According to the minister, India has become the 13th country globally to issue OIML or International Organisation of Legal Metrology-based approval certificates. This has helped to expand the export market, as instruments, such as microscopes or high-tech scales, manufactured and tested in India are now recognised globally. The upshot of the proposed changes is that adhering to rules regarding standards, such as net quantity and on-package claims and declarations, will become self-regulatory, an official said separately. With the proposal to decriminalise all provisions under the Legal Metrology Act, industries shall bear “greater responsibility to ensure the accuracy and reliability”, the minister said.
Possible Question
Critically analyse the implications of decriminalising provisions under the Legal Metrology Act for consumer protection, industry compliance, and India’s export competitiveness.
5. Student handcuffed after AI mistakes bag of chips for gun
A student at a high school in the US was handcuffed and searched by armed police last week after an artificial intelligence (AI) security system mistakenly flagged his empty bag of Dorito chips as a gun, CNN reported on Sunday. The incident took place at Kenwood High School in Baltimore County, Maryland on Monday evening when student Taki Allen was waiting with friends outside the school for a ride home after football practice. He was eating chips at the time. “Eight cop cars suddenly pulled up at the school. The officers made me get on my knees, put my hands behind my back, and cuffed me,” Allen told CNN affiliate WBAL. “The first thing I was wondering was, was I about to die? Because they had a gun pointed at me.” According to police, officers responded to “a report of a suspicious person with a weapon” but quickly determined Allen was unarmed. The supposed firearm turned out to be a Doritos bag that the AI system had misidentified as a gun. “I was just holding a Doritos bag — it was two hands and one finger out, and they said it looked like a gun,” Allen said, according to CNN. According to school officials, the school district’s security department reviewed and cancelled the gun detection alert after confirming there was no weapon. Omnilert, the company behind the AI gun detection system, said it regretted the incident but the system worked as intended — “to prioritise safety and awareness through rapid human verification”.
Possible Question
What ethical and legal safeguards are necessary to govern the deployment of AI surveillance systems in public spaces, especially in schools and sensitive areas?
Editorial Snapshots
A. Ensure bus safety to avoid Kurnools
The bus fire on Friday in Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh, occurred within days of the one in Jaisalmer earlier this month — 47 people died in the two accidents. On Sunday, passengers narrowly escaped a similar fate when their bus caught fire on the Agra-Lucknow expressway. Three major accidents in such a short span raises questions about the safety practices of privately owned, inter-State public transport buses and the regulatory ecosystem that oversees them. These buses have sprung up as a transport option over the last few decades, mainly because of the rise of many Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities as regional growth hubs, the combination of a shrinking of Government-operated public transport system and the constraints of the railways on last-mile connectivity. The expansion of highways that allows faster commutes has increased the popularity of these private buses, also called “luxury coaches”, given many offer comforts absent in State transport buses. Unfortunately, the demand for convenience has created an ecosystem that ignores safety protocols. Take the Kurnool accident. Survivor accounts reveal that escaping the burning vehicle was a struggle as there was no easy route to evacuate. Bad road design and overspeeding compound the risks for passengers. Untrained, overworked staff often act recklessly, endangering lives. The fact that many operators have powerful political backing engenders a sense of impunity. Road transport officials and police are mandated to ensure compliance, but often they limit their tasks to rent-seeking. As in the case of airlines, safety drills must be made compulsory in the inter-State buses so that passengers know what to do in the event of accidents. Without strict monitoring and enforcement of existing rules, and sensitisation of operators and their personnel, the next Kurnool or a Jaisalmer is just a bus ride away.
Possible Question
What institutional and policy interventions are necessary to improve passenger safety in India’s inter-State bus services, and how can accountability be enforced on private operators?
B. Ro-Ko show in Sydney, with records tumbling
It was a dead rubber, but it was yesterday again. And all of India’s batting troubles seemed far away as two ageing maestros, in the twilight of their careers, dominated the stage, turning their bats into magic wands and taking India to an easy win against Australia on Saturday. A sea of Indians had arrived at the Sydney Cricket Ground, aware that this was most likely the last chance to witness a Rohit Sharma-Virat Kohli tango in Australia. And they were served a feast by two of India’s one-day greats. The Ro-Ko combine stitched together an unbeaten partnership of 168 runs for the second wicket, their 12th stand of 150- plus runs going level with the legendary pair of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly. Ro-Ko partnerships have so far yielded 5,483 runs in 101 innings, the second-highest by an Indian pair after Tendulkar and Ganguly, who have scored an ODI record of 8,227 runs batting together. So what makes Ro-Ko, or any of the great batting pairs, click? The most crucial ingredient in this chemistry is understanding each other. Sydney indicated that Ro-Ko are not finished yet and fans are likely to see them bat at least until the 2027 World Cup in South Africa. That’s a challenge both batsmen will relish, though it is no easy task to maintain match fitness when so little game time is available to them, as this is the only format in which they play international matches.
Possible Question
How can institutions like the BCCI manage senior players nearing the end of their careers to ensure they continue contributing through mentoring, leadership, and talent development? What does this reveal about organisational man-management in Indian sport?
Fact of the day
Exports to China surge 22%: India’s exports to China surged about 22% in the first half of 2025-26 compared to the first half (H1) of the previous year, driven by items such as parts of telephone sets, shrimps, aluminium and capsicum, according to the government’s data. This trend, suggest experts, indicates that Indian exporters have successfully diversified some of their trade to different destinations in the aftermath of the US tariffs. Some Indian exports to the US, such as shrimps and aluminium, were hit hard after the US imposed a combined tariff of 50% on exports from India, but those items have seen significant demand in the Chinese market, according to the data. Interestingly, Indian exporters have been successfully shipping new products to China such as flat panel display modules of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) and dried beans. India’s exports to China in April-September 2025 stood at $8.41 billion as compared to $6.90 billion in April-September 2024. After the imposition of high tariffs by the US on Indian goods from August, exports to China have seen a 34% jump to $1.47 billion as against $1.09 billion in September 2024. According to data, the rise in India’s exports to China during April-September 2025 was led by higher shipments of light oils and preparations of petroleum or bituminous minerals, which grew from $686.11 million in the first half of FY25 to $1.48 billion in H1 of FY26, a jump of 116%.
