Daily Current Affairs (DCA) 05 November, 2026

Context of the News

Five saltwater crocodiles died within 27 days in and around Bhitarkanika National Park, in Odisha’s Kendrapara district. This takes unnatural crocodile deaths to 22 over six years and 44 over fourteen years. The concern is illegal fishing in the area.

What Is the Saltwater Crocodile?

• Also called the estuarine crocodile or saltie
• It is the largest living reptile in the world
• IUCN: Least Concern; CITES Appendix I (for the Indian population); Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972
• It sits at the top of its food chain
• Family: Crocodylidae

Where Does It Live?

• Coastal mangrove swamps with brackish water
• Tidal estuaries, river deltas, lagoons and creeks
• Across the Indo-Pacific — eastern India, Southeast Asia and northern Australia

About Bhitarkanika National Park

• It is India’s second-largest mangrove forest, after the Sundarbans.
• Kendrapara district, Odisha
• On the delta formed by the Brahmani, Baitarani, Dhamra and Pathsala rivers
• It borders the Bay of Bengal

• Marine products and buffalo meat have become India’s two largest agricultural export items, moving ahead of traditional exports such as basmati rice.
• During April–September 2026, India’s agricultural exports reached $27.1 billion, registering 4.7% growth. Marine exports stood at $4.5 billion, while buffalo meat exports reached $3.4 billion.
• Livestock and fisheries now contribute around 40% of agricultural GDP, compared with 30% a decade ago. India is the world’s second-largest fish producer and second-largest aquaculture producer.
• APEDA promotes agricultural exports, while MPEDA promotes marine product exports. India has also become a net cotton importer, with imports of $1.9 billion against exports of $560.7 million in 2025–26.

• The Coal Controller Organisation (CCO), under the Ministry of Coal, developed SUVIKALP, an indigenous digital decision-support platform.
• It identifies, evaluates and ranks suitable uses for closed and abandoned coal and lignite mines.
• Suggested uses include eco-parks, floating solar projects, afforestation, agriculture and industrial hubs.
• Its main objective is to promote scientific and transparent mine closure while supporting ecological restoration and local community livelihoods.

• On 4 November 2026, the Union Cabinet approved the Capex Support Scheme to Promote Critical Mineral Processing with an allocation of ₹2,814 crore.
• The scheme will run for five years, starting from Financial Year 2026–27.
• It aims to strengthen India’s domestic critical mineral processing capacity.
• The initiative is important for reducing dependence on imports and supporting strategic industries and clean-energy technologies.

• CSIR-NIScPR organised the international conference CDTK-2026 to mark 25 years of the Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge (IJTK).
• IJTK is a peer-reviewed research journal that studies and scientifically documents traditional knowledge, including indigenous practices and the use of plants and biological resources.
• It was launched in 2002 by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), under NISCAIR, now known as CSIR-NIScPR.
• It is a diamond open-access journal, meaning readers can access its articles free of cost and authors do not have to pay publication charges.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has established the Technical Consultative Committee for Financial Markets (TCCFM).
• The committee will be headed by the Deputy Governor in charge of the Financial Markets Regulation Department, currently Rohit Jain.
• It will have seven external members and will meet at least once every three months.
• It will provide a regular platform for discussions between RBI and market participants on money markets, government securities, foreign exchange markets, derivative markets and related market infrastructure.

• The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has relaxed Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements for Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) and foreign nationals.
• Eligible investors residing in Financial Action Task Force (FATF)-compliant countries can now complete their KYC process online from abroad.
• Earlier, digital KYC required investors to be physically present in India, creating difficulties for overseas investors.
• The change will make it easier for overseas investors to access Indian financial markets without waiting for a visit to India.

• On 3 November 2026, SEBI signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Digital India BHASHINI Division (DIBD) to expand investor education and financial services in regional Indian languages.
• BHASHINI operates under the Digital India Corporation (DIC), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
• The collaboration will use language technologies such as Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Text-to-Speech (TTS), Machine Translation and Optical Character Recognition (OCR).
• It will also improve BHASHINI’s language models by adding securities-market terminology, making financial information more accessible to people across India.

• In November 2026, Equitas Small Finance Bank appointed Balaji Nuthalapadi as its Interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO), subject to RBI approval.
• He is the bank’s Whole-Time Director and Executive Director and has more than 28 years of banking experience.
• The appointment followed the resignation of Managing Director and CEO P. N. Vasudevan on 29 October 2026.
• Balaji Nuthalapadi began his banking career with Citibank in Chennai in 1997 and joined Equitas in March 2025.

• On 3 November 2026, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) approved Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited’s proposed acquisition of Deutsche Bank’s retail banking, private banking and wealth management businesses in India.
• The transaction will take place on a slump sale basis, meaning an entire business undertaking will be transferred rather than individual assets being sold separately.
• The acquired businesses include deposits, loans, investments, insurance and foreign exchange services.
• The wealth management business mainly serves High-Net-Worth Individuals (HNIs).

Context of the News

The Union Cabinet has extended the scheme for Fast-Track Special Courts (FTSCs) by five more years — from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2031. These courts handle rape cases and cases under the POCSO Act.

What Is the Scheme?

• A Centrally Sponsored Scheme, meaning the Centre and states share the cost
• It runs special courts that deal only with rape and POCSO cases
• Some of these are exclusive POCSO courts, which handle only child sexual abuse cases

Important Facts for Exams

• FTSC scheme extended from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2031
• Started on 10 October 2019
• Total outlay ₹3,788.04 crore — Centre ₹2,353.15 crore, states ₹1,434.89 crore
• The Centre’s share comes from the Nirbhaya Fund
• Each court gets a judge, a special public prosecutor and six staff
• The Nirbhaya Fund was created in 2013, after the December 2012 Delhi case. It is managed by the Ministry of Finance, with the Ministry of Women and Child Development as the nodal body
• POCSO Act, 2012 is gender-neutral and covers anyone below 18 years

Context of the News

The Union Cabinet approved a ₹4,371 crore scheme called VISTAR. It will overhaul how India collects and uses official data, at both the Centre and state level. The full name is Viksit Bharat Initiative for Statistical Transformation, Analytics and Research.

What Is the Scheme?

• Outlay: ₹4,371 crore
• Period: 2026-27 to 2030-31
• It covers the statistical system at both Central and state level

What Is VISTAR?

VISTAR aims to transform the way India collects, processes, analyses and uses official data.

It will focus on:

• Real-time data: Making important information available more quickly.
• Data accuracy: Improving the quality and reliability of government statistics.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI): Using AI and Machine Learning (ML) for data processing, checking and analysis.
• Data integration: Connecting datasets from different government departments to avoid duplication.
• Evidence-based policymaking: Helping governments make better decisions using reliable data.

What Are Its Three Components?

Context of the News

The Union Cabinet approved a ₹14,500 crore Viability Gap Funding scheme for large-scale energy storage. It will run from 2026-27 to 2030-31.

What Is Viability Gap Funding?

• Some projects are useful but not profitable enough for a private company to build
• The government fills that gap with money
• This is called Viability Gap Funding, or VGF

What Will the Scheme Build?

• 92 GWh of new storage capacity
• This is 170 per cent of all the grid-scale storage India has today
• It will help India reach its target of 411 GWh by 2031-32

Important Facts for Exams

• The scheme will also help domestic battery manufacturing
• India ranks 4th globally in pumped storage, with 7.43 GW, behind China, Japan and the US
• The CEA has identified 320 pumped storage sites with 345.38 GW potential

Context of the News

The Centre has extended Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) Phase-II until March 2028. This means about ₹7,000 crore can be set aside for it in the 2027-28 Budget.

What Is Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen)?

What is the aim?

• Improve sanitation in rural India
• Build toilets
• End open defecation
• Manage waste properly

What Is Phase-II?

What Are the Four Goals of Phase-II?

Keeping ODF status

• Villages must stay open defecation free
• People must keep using the toilets
• Good sanitation habits must continue

Solid waste management

• Collect and dispose of household waste properly
• Promote composting
• Manage plastic waste
• Stop garbage from piling up in villages

Liquid waste management

• Treat and dispose of waste water
• Handle greywater — the water that comes from kitchens, bathrooms and washing
• Build soak pits and drains

Visual cleanliness

• Keep streets and public places clean
• Stop standing dirty water
• Stop plastic waste from collecting

What Is an ODF Plus Village?

A village is ODF Plus if it does all three of these:

• Keeps its open defecation free status
• Has arrangements for both solid and liquid waste management
• Looks clean

The three levels of ODF Plus

Context of the News

QS released the World University Rankings: Asia 2027. 71 per cent of Indian universities that were ranked earlier have slipped this time. This happened even though India does well in research output and PhD education.

Who Is at the Top?

Which Country Has the Most Universities?

India has 34 new entrants this year.

Where Do Indian Institutions Stand?

All six of India’s top institutions fell.

IIT Delhi remains India’s top-ranked institution.

• In November 2026, NITI Aayog and TEXMiN (Technology Innovation in Exploration & Mining Foundation) signed a Joint Statement of Intent (SoI) to strengthen India’s critical and strategic minerals sector.
• The agreement was signed during the visit of NITI Aayog Member Prof. Gobardhan Das to IIT (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad, Jharkhand.
• The partnership focuses on four areas: collaborative research and technology development, technical and strategic studies, policy and institutional support, and capacity building.
• The initiative aims to promote indigenous technologies, research and innovation in India’s critical minerals ecosystem.

• Bihar became the first Indian state to introduce a comprehensive state-level silt management policy.
• The Bihar Water Sources Restoration and Silt Management Policy, 2026 was notified on 17 September 2026.
• It aims to restore rivers and water bodies through scientific desilting, improve water-carrying capacity and strengthen flood management.
• The policy also promotes the use of excavated silt in construction projects and allows the removal of sand and silt deposited on agricultural land after floods.

• The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) and the Government of Bihar signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to promote scientific desilting.
• The initiative focuses on reusing extracted river silt in National Highway construction projects.
• Bihar’s Road Construction Department (RCD) will coordinate the policy with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
• A State-level Coordination Committee will support implementation.

• India plans to construct a railway station at approximately 5,256 metres near Tanglang La Pass.
• The proposed station will be part of the 489-km Bilaspur–Manali–Leh broad-gauge railway line.
• The project is significant for improving railway connectivity in the high-altitude Himalayan region.
• The proposed station would be among the world’s highest railway stations.

• On 2 November 2026, the Indian Air Force Educational and Cultural Society partnered with the Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC) Foundation.
• The partnership will implement the ScrollControl Programme, a Child Digital Safety Programme.
• It will be introduced across 42 Air Force Schools in India.
• The programme focuses on promoting digital safety and awareness among schoolchildren.

• The Union Cabinet approved an extension of the Agniveer service period from four years to six years.
• The Agnipath programme was introduced in 2022 for recruitment into the Indian Armed Forces.
• Under the original arrangement, 75% of Agniveers were required to leave service after completing four years.
• The reported change will allow the armed forces to retain personnel for a longer period and provides a change to the original short-term recruitment arrangement.

• The opening ceremony of the 5th edition of Exercise Tiger Triumph 2026 was held at the Maritime Warfare Centre (MWC), Visakhapatnam.
• It is a bilateral, tri-service exercise between the armed forces of India and the United States.
• The exercise focuses on Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations and amphibious military operations.
• Its objective is to strengthen joint planning, operational coordination and interoperability for disaster response across the Indo-Pacific region.

• NASA’s 1.5-tonne Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is undergoing an uncontrolled re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere after completing more than 22 years of operations.
• It was launched on 20 November 2004 aboard a Delta II rocket under NASA’s MIDEX programme.
• It is a multi-wavelength space telescope designed to detect Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) and study black holes and other high-energy cosmic events.
• It was renamed in January 2018 in honour of scientist Dr. Neil Gehrels.

• India and Israel voted against a draft resolution sponsored by Pakistan and Belarus in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) First Committee.
• The resolution deals with regional and subregional conventional arms control.
• The UNGA First Committee is responsible for matters related to disarmament and international security.
• The draft aimed to establish regional legal and institutional arrangements to limit conventional armed forces and weapon stockpiles.

• In November 2026, Air Chief Marshal Ashutosh Dixit, the 29th Chief of the Air Staff, introduced the VAYU Vision for the Indian Air Force (IAF).
• V – Vigilance, Victory and Readiness: Maintaining operational preparedness and restoring combat strength.
• A – Aatmanirbharta; Y – Yukti: Promoting indigenous defence capabilities and innovation, including artificial intelligence-enabled command and counter-drone systems.
• U – Unity of Effort: Strengthening coordination with the Indian Army, Indian Navy and other national agencies.

• On 3 November 2026, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully test-fired the Pralay surface-to-surface quasi-ballistic missile from Chandipur, Odisha.
• The missile was launched from Launch Complex-3 and engaged two simulated targets approximately 500 km away.
• It has an operational range of 150–500 km, a speed of around Mach 5 and can carry payloads weighing 350–1,000 kg.
• It uses a solid-propellant rocket motor and has in-flight manoeuvrability, including during its terminal phase.

• On 3 November 2026, Pakistan successfully conducted the first flight test of its indigenously developed Fa’az air-to-air missile.
• The missile was launched from a JF-17 Thunder multirole fighter aircraft.
• It features an advanced terminal guidance system designed to track and engage fast-moving hostile aircraft.
• The development aims to reduce Pakistan’s dependence on imported air-to-air missiles and strengthen its domestic defence manufacturing capabilities.

• World Tsunami Awareness Day (WTAD) is observed every year on 5 November by the United Nations (UN), through the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR).
• The day was established through UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/70/203, adopted on 22 December 2015, following an initiative led by Japan.
• The first observance took place on 5 November 2016. The year 2026 marks its 11th observance.
• 2026 Theme: “Be Tsunami Ready: Resilience Starts With You”.

• Kazakhstan released a male Amur tiger named Amur into the Ile-Balkhash State Nature Reserve on 31 October 2026.
• It is the second tiger released in the reserve, following the release of a tiger named Umit.
• The initiative is part of efforts to restore the Amur tiger population in the region.
• The Ile-Balkhash State Nature Reserve is located in Kazakhstan.

• The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) launched the Network Anubhav Platform in New Delhi on 4 November 2026.
• It is a geospatial dashboard that combines anonymised consumer connectivity test data.
• The platform will help assess mobile network and internet connectivity experiences across different locations.
• It can support better monitoring of telecom service quality and identification of connectivity gaps.

• The Ministry of Mines is organising the 4th Conference of Mining Ministers in Goa on 5–6 November 2026.
• Mining Ministers from different States and senior Central and State Government officials are participating.
• The conference provides a platform to discuss issues related to mining sector development.
• It aims to strengthen coordination between the Centre and States in the mining sector.

• Burglars broke into the Bengaluru residence of former Indian hockey player M. M. Somaya and stole his 1980 Moscow Olympics gold medal, other international medals, jewellery and cash.
• The incident took place in the early hours of 28 October 2026 at New Thippasandra, Bengaluru.
• CCTV footage from a neighbouring house showed two men breaking open the house door.
• M. M. Somaya is a three-time Olympian (1980, 1984 and 1988) and received the Arjuna Award in 1985. He captained India’s hockey team at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

• Rajkumari Lanchenbi Chanu became the first Indian to win a wushu medal at the Youth Olympic Games.
• She secured bronze in the women’s Changquan combined event in Dakar, Senegal.
• She scored 18.039 points to finish third.
• Egypt’s Sondos Sonbol won gold with 18.660 points, while Venezuela’s Valeria Frannerys Dudamel won silver with 18.199 points.

• Indian table tennis players P. B. Abhinandh and Divyanshi Bhowmick became World No. 1 in the under-19 mixed doubles category.
• Their rise was supported by their gold-medal-winning performance at the WTT Youth Star Contender in Doha in January.
• They also secured a bronze medal at the Asian Youth Championships in Bangkok in June–July.
• The achievement highlights India’s growing performance in international youth table tennis.

• Tanvi Patri, a 15-year-old badminton player from Odisha, became the first Indian woman to reach the badminton final at the Youth Olympic Games.
• She achieved this milestone at the Youth Olympic Games held in Dakar, Senegal.
• Her achievement represents an important milestone for Indian badminton at the youth level.
• She is among India’s emerging young badminton players.

• Indian boxers topped the medal standings at the 46th International Tammer Boxing Tournament, held in Tampere, Finland, from 30 October to 1 November 2026.
• India won 14 medals: 4 gold, 2 silver and 8 bronze.
• Gold medal winners included Aarti Dhariyal (54 kg), Ankushita Boro (65 kg), Arundhati Chaudhary (70 kg) and Pawan Bartwal (55 kg).
• Established in 1977, the annual tournament is organised by the Tampere Boxing Association in Finland.

• Indian men’s hockey captain Harmanpreet Singh scored his 250th international goal on 5 November 2026.
• He achieved the milestone during the Asian Champions Trophy Punjab 2026 semifinal against South Korea.
• The achievement highlights his contribution to Indian hockey.
• Harmanpreet Singh is known for his penalty-corner conversion skills and goal-scoring ability.

This achievement is covered above under Tanvi Patri and has not been repeated.

• Former Australian Formula One champion Alan Jones died on 5 November 2026 at the age of 80.
• His family announced his death following a short illness.
• His wife, Amanda Butler-Davis, released the announcement.
• Jones was a former Formula One World Champion.