BPSC Bihar Special • Current Affairs01 October 2026
Bihar Current Affairs: Ex. KHANJAR 2026, Cauvery Water Dispute, Madhav Gadgil Committee & PM Vidyalaxmi
Source: Ministry of Defence / Cauvery Water Management Authority / MoEFCC / Supreme Court of India•Exam Target: BPSC 71st & 72nd CCE Prelims
BPSC 72nd Special Dossier — Track B, Day 5
1. Exercise KHANJAR 2026: India-Kyrgyzstan Special Forces Collaboration
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Edition & Venue: The 13th edition of the annual India-Kyrgyzstan Joint Special Forces Exercise KHANJAR was conducted from 4 to 17 February 2026 at the Missamari Military Station in Sonitpur District, Assam. (The 12th edition was held in March 2025 in Kyrgyzstan).
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Participating Formations:
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Indian Army: Elite commandos of the Parachute Regiment (Special Forces).
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Kyrgyzstan: The famed ILBRIS (Snow Leopard) Special Forces Brigade.
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Operational Scope: Enhancing interoperability, urban counter-terrorism, hostage rescue, and tactical deployment under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter.
2. Cauvery Water Dispute: Federal Hydro-Jurisprudence & Constitutional Architecture
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Constitutional Anchor: Governed under Article 262 of the Constitution of India and the Inter-State River Water Disputes (ISRWD) Act, 1956, which bars the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court or any court in respect of any river water dispute referred to a tribunal.
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Geographical Matrix:
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Cauvery originates at Talakaveri in the Brahmagiri Range (Kodagu district, Karnataka) and empties into the Bay of Bengal near Poompuhar, Tamil Nadu (~800 km length, 81,155 sq km basin).
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Riparian Stakeholders: Karnataka (upper riparian), Tamil Nadu (lower riparian), Kerala, and Puducherry.
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Crucial Inter-State Measuring Station: Biligundlu on the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border.
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Institutional Regulators: Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) and Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC).
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2026 Escalation: Triggered by deficit southwest monsoon inflows; CWMA directives ordering daily releases of 3,500 to 6,000 cusecs were contested by Karnataka citing reservoir depletion, reviving petitions before the Supreme Court.
3. Western Ghats Ecology: Legacy of Madhav Gadgil vs Kasturirangan Panel
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Demise of Modern Ecology Pioneer: Dr. Madhav Gadgil, celebrated as the "Father of Modern Indian Ecology" and founder of the Centre for Ecological Sciences at IISc Bengaluru, passed away on 7 January 2026 in Pune at the age of 83.
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Comparative Committee Jurisprudence:
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WGEEP / Gadgil Committee (2011): Recommended that the entire Western Ghats (~1,29,037 sq km) be declared an Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA), demarcated into ESZ 1, 2, and 3. Advocated strict bans on mining, large dams, and thermal power, with bottom-up Gram Sabha-centered governance. Vehemently rejected by all six riparian states as anti-development.
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HLWG / Kasturirangan Committee (2013): Diluted Gadgil's recommendations to make them administrative; recommended designating only 37% of the Western Ghats (~56,000 to 60,000 sq km) as ESA, restricting prohibitions strictly to natural landscape zones while sparing human settlements and agriculture.
4. PM Vidyalaxmi Yojana: Collateral-Free Higher Education Financing
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Launch & Mandate: Central Sector Scheme launched in November 2024 ensuring no meritorious youth is denied quality higher education due to financial deprivation.
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Core Financial Parameters:
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Collateral-Free & Guarantor-Free Loans: Covers full tuition, hostel charges, books, and living expenses with no upper cap.
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Credit Guarantee Support: Government of India provides a 75% credit guarantee on education loans up to ₹7.5 lakh to encourage commercial bank lending.
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Interest Subvention: Full 3% interest subvention during the study and moratorium period for students from families with annual income up to ₹8 lakh, applicable on loans up to ₹10 lakh (benefiting 1 lakh fresh students annually).
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Eligible Institutions: Over 1,425 Quality Higher Education Institutions (QHEIs) ranked within NIRF Top 100/200 categories.
5. Buxa Tiger Reserve: Transboundary Wildlife Corridor & Bihar Translocation
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Location & Setting: Situated in the Alipurduar district of northern West Bengal (Dooars region), covering ~760 sq km. Established in 1983 as India’s 15th Tiger Reserve.
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Transboundary Connectivity: Forms an unbroken ecological corridor with Bhutan's Phipsoo Wildlife Sanctuary and Assam's Manas National Park along the Sinchula hill range.
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Historic Translocation from Bihar: Following decades of local tiger extirpation, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) approved the translocation of healthy wild tigers from Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR) in West Champaran, Bihar to Buxa in late 2026.
6. Landmark Judicial & Technological Interventions: Digital Arrest, Samudra Pratap & Coral Cryopreservation
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Supreme Court Intervention on 'Digital Arrest': The Supreme Court took suo motu cognizance in August 2026 against rampant cyber frauds where criminals stage fake video-call police stations to extort victims, mandating a national SOP, Zero FIRs, and expedited bank freeze protocols. Over 2.97 lakh cases with ₹4,057 crore losses were documented from 2022 to May 2026.
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ICGS Samudra Pratap: First indigenously designed Pollution Control Vessel (PCV) built by Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL), commissioned on 5 January 2026 by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. Largest vessel in the Indian Coast Guard fleet (114.5m length, 4,200 tonnes displacement).
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Legal Recognition of Homemakers' Unpaid Care Work: In Shishupal v. Surjeet (11 June 2026), the Supreme Court hailed homemakers as "Nation Builders", establishing a mandatory minimum notional monthly income of ₹30,000 (with 10% increment every 3 years) for motor accident compensation, fulfilling constitutional parity under Article 14 and SDG 5.4.
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Cryo-born Baby Corals: Australian marine scientists (AIMS) successfully preserved coral sperm at -196°C in liquid nitrogen and fertilized fresh eggs in SeaSim simulators, outplanting thousands of heat-resilient baby corals onto the Great Barrier Reef to combat mass bleaching.
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UNFCCC COP-31: Scheduled for 9–20 November 2026 in Antalya, Türkiye, focusing on accelerating the 2035 global electrification transition (increasing electricity from 20% to 35% of total final energy consumption).
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