News Summary · 5 minutes read
President Draupadi Murmu at the Mokolodi Nature Reserve (Botswana) during the symbolic handover of 8 Cheetahs by Botswana to India on 13 November 2025. Photo: X/@rashtrapatibhvn
Stay ahead in your UPSC CSE preparation with our daily News Summary. Designed to save time, it highlights key national and international events from leading newspapers and government websites.
Supreme Court protects lawyer-client privacy
- Recently, the Supreme Court (SC) ruled that lawyers cannot be forced to reveal what clients tell them unless the advice is linked to a crime.
- Privileged communications
- Private talks that the law protects from disclosure, such as those between lawyer and client, husband and wife, or govt and its officials.
- Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA), 2023, lists these rights: Section 128 protects marital communication, Section 129 protects state records, and Section 132 protects lawyer-client discussions.
- SC said forcing lawyers to share client information harms the citizen’s right to a fair trial.
- Section 132 allows disclosure only if:
- Client agrees
- Talk involves an illegal purpose
- Lawyer sees a crime being committed.
- If citizens can’t be made to confess, their lawyers also can’t be pressured to reveal private details → Article 20(3) protects people from being forced to confess.
- Forcing lawyers to testify against their clients breaks equality under Article 14 and the right to fair defence under Article 21.
- While Section 179 of the BNSS lets police call witnesses, they cannot summon a lawyer about their client’s case unless one of the legal exceptions applies.
Road accidents in India
- In 2023 alone, over 1.7 lakh people died in road accidents across India.
- Reasons
- Faulty licensing system: In many states, people get driving licenses without proper training or testing. Once a licence is issued, there are almost no checks on health or driving skills.
- Weak enforcement of traffic rules: speeding, overloading, lane violations, and drunk driving are the primary causes of road accidents. Policing remains largely manual, inconsistent, and prone to errors.
- Unsafe road infrastructure: Many roads lack safety features like crash barriers, proper lighting, and rest areas. Poorly maintained dividers, roadside encroachments, and unmarked construction zones all contribute to making roads dangerous.
- Poor trauma care: After accidents, victims often die due to delayed medical help. Ambulances are scarce, hospitals near crash sites lack trauma facilities, and rural areas face long delays.
Tuberculosis (TB) in India
- TB cases in India fell by 21%, from 237 cases per lakh population in 2015 to 187 per lakh population in 2024, according to WHO Global TB Report, 2025 → declined 12% globally.
- India’s TB treatment coverage surged to over 92% in 2024, from 53% in 2015 → 26.18 lakh TB patients were diagnosed in 2024, out of an estimated incidence of 27 lakh cases.
- No significant increase in multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB cases is reported in India.
- TB treatment success rate under the TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyan (launched in 2024) has increased to 90% → global success rate is 88%.
- India’s TB mortality rate has also decreased from 28 per lakh population in 2015 to 21 per lakh population in 2024.
Climate Risk Index (CRI) 2026
- Published by Germanwatch, released at COP30 in Belém, Brazil.
- Highlights that nearly 8.5 lakh people died, 5.7 billion were affected, and $4.5 trillion were lost due to thousands of extreme weather events between 1995 and 2024.
- India ranks ninth among the countries most affected during this period, facing recurring floods, cyclones, droughts, and increasingly severe heatwaves.
Centre approves Export Promotion Mission
- A ₹25,060 crore scheme, approved for 6 financial years: 2025-26 to 2030-31.
- It was announced in Budget 2025-26 to strengthen India’s export competitiveness, particularly for MSMEs, first-time exporters, and labour-intensive sectors.
- Expected to help exporters deal with high tariffs imposed by the U.S.
- To be implemented via two sub-schemes: Niryat Protsahan and Niryat Disha.
- Govt also gave a nod to the Credit Guarantee Scheme for Exporters → will provide 100% credit guarantee coverage by the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Limited to Member Lending Institutions for extending additional credit facilities up to ₹20,000 crore to eligible exporters → will enhance the global competitiveness of Indian exporters and support diversification into new and emerging markets.
President Draupadi Murmu’s visit to Botswana
- India and Botswana signed an MoU on cooperation in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors.
- India announced that it would send Antiretroviral (ARV) medicines, used to treat HIV infections, to Botswana.
- Botswana announced that it would translocate 8 Cheetahs to India → President Droupadi Murmu was symbolically handed over 8 cheetahs by her Botswana counterpart Duma Gideon Boko at Mokolodi Nature Reserve (Botswana) on 13 November 2025.
Quick Picks
- Retail inflation, measured by the Consumer Price Index, fell to 0.25% in October 2025.
- Lowest rate of inflation since January 2012, and lowest in the current CPI series.
- Reason: largely due to the statistical impact of the base effect on food inflation.
- National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the UP govt to map the total number of people affected by heavy metal contamination, particularly chromium and mercury, in Kanpur Nagar, Kanpur Dehat, Fatehpur, and nearby areas of the State.
- A 31-member Parliamentary Joint Committee headed by BJP MP Aparajita Sarangi has been constituted to review the three Bills that seek to remove Ministers, including PM and CMs, facing serious criminal charges. The three bills to be reviewed are:
- The Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill, 2025
- The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2025
- The Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill, 2025
- The application fee for the Geographical Indications (GI) tag has been reduced to ₹1,000 from ₹5,000.
- Pratyush Sinha Committee: formed by SEBI in March 2025 to review and overhaul its conflict of interest and disclosure framework → recently, it submitted recommendations, proposing reforms to enhance transparency, accountability, and ethical standards within SEBI.
- Zuwara: a city located on the Mediterranean coast in north-western Libya.
- Public Service Broadcasting Day: observed on 12 November every year to commemorate Mahatma Gandhi’s address through Akashvani on this day in 1947, which was dedicated to Indians displaced from Pakistan due to India’s partition.
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