News Summary · 3 minutes read
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.
Involuntary narco test is unconstitutional, reaffirms Supreme Court
Recently, the Supreme Court (SC), referring to the guidelines in Selvi v. State of Karnataka (2010), held that an involuntary narco test is unconstitutional and quashed a Patna High Court order permitting such a test in Amlesh Kumar v. State of Bihar (2025).
What is a narco test?
- An investigation technique that involves injecting a sedative drug (truth serum) like sodium pentothal into a suspect, followed by interrogation.
- Drug reduces suspect’s inhibitions and reasoning ability, neutralises imagination, making responses more spontaneous → helps get truthful information from the suspect.
- Different from a polygraph test, which uses sensors to measure physiological responses (blood pressure, pulse, respiration, skin conductivity) during interrogation without using drugs.
- Reliability of this technique is debated.
Legal and constitutional aspects
- Narco test violates:
- Article 20(3), which provides for the protection against self-incrimination.Article 21, which provides for the Right to Privacy.
- Golden Triangle of the Indian Constitution, which is made of Articles 14, 19 and 21 → propounded in Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India (1978).
- In Manoj Kumar Saini v. State of MP (2023) and Vinobhai v. State of Kerala (2025), the courts held that the results of a narco test do not confirm guilt.
- Information obtained from a narco test is not considered evidence in court → can only assist in gathering other independent evidence.
Rising education costs undermine ideal of free schooling in India
- Article 21A (86th Amendment, 2002) guarantees the Right to Free and Compulsory Education for children aged 6-14 years.
- National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 proposes expanding free education coverage to children aged 3-18 years.
- The NSS 80th Round survey reveals that 55.9% of students in India are enrolled in government schools, 11.3% in private aided schools, and 31.9% in private unaided schools.
- Many students attend private schools and private coaching/tuition with high fees despite the constitutional guarantee of free schooling → increases financial burden on families with lower-income backgrounds.
- Reasons behind opting for private school/coaching/tuition:
- Better learning outcomes.
- Poor quality of education in government schools (pushes students towards private schools)
- Poor quality of education in private schools (pushes students towards private coaching/tuition)
- Symbol of prestige among families.
Impacts of high education costs
- Widens inequalities in access to quality education → wealthy have an advantage over disadvantaged households
- Financial strain on poor families.
- Threatens the principle of basic and universal education.
Way forward
A 2024 study in The Journal of Development Studies shows private coaching correlates negatively with school quality. Students in better schools depend less on private coaching. Improving government schools’ quality and access could reduce inequalities and uphold education as a right, not a privilege.
Human-rating of space systems
- A rigorous engineering and certification process that makes sure a space system, like a launch vehicle or a crew module, can safely carry humans to space.
- Launch vehicles like India’s HLVM-3, Russia’s Soyuz-2, China’s Long March 2F, and SpaceX’s Falcon 9 are human rated.
- HLVM3 is India’s first human-rated launch vehicle → will be used for Gaganyaan, India’s maiden human spaceflight programme.
Why aren’t all launch vehicles human-rated?
- Because it’s technically challenging and expensive.
- Requires additional systems, rigorous testing, and extensive documentation.
- Increases complexity and rocket mass, potentially reducing payload performance → cargo missions prioritise the mass of the payload (e.g. satellite or supplies) at the lowest possible cost.
Quick Picks for Pre and Mains (QPPM)
- Project Rakhi: a QR-based WhatsApp chatbot launched by Keonjhar police (Odisha) for enhancing women’s safety.
- Maharashtra (1st) and Karnataka (2nd) lead India in both farmer suicides and agricultural labourer suicides (NCRB 2023).
- Pakistan’s crippled economy is currently being supported by the IMF’s dual track bailout combining the Extended Fund Facility and the Resilience Sustainability Facility.
- Blue Notice of Interpol: to collect additional information about a person’s identity, location or activities in relation to a criminal investigation → was recently issued against co-owners of the Goa nightclub where a blaze claimed 25 lives.