News Summary · 5 minutes read
Indian-origin Ghazala Hashmi won the Virginia Lieutenant Governor election. Photo: X/@allenanalysis
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.
Centre releases India AI Governance Guidelines
- The India AI Governance Guidelines were drafted by a committee led by Balaraman Ravindran → constituted by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in July 2025.
- By Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
- Emphasises 7 principles for AI (adapted from the RBI’s FREE-AI Committee report):
- Trust is the Foundation
- People First
- Innovation over Restraint
- Fairness & Equity
- Accountability
- Understandable by Design
- Safety, Resilience & Sustainability
- 6 Key Recommendations:
- Infrastructure: Promoting AI innovation through resource access, investment, and digital infrastructure for inclusive impact.
- Capacity Building: Empower people via AI-skilling and awareness programs.
- Policy & Regulation: Adopt flexible frameworks supporting AI innovation while addressing regulatory gaps.
- Risk Mitigation: Develop a tailored, evidence-based risk framework using voluntary, tech-legal measures, with additional protections for sensitive groups.
- Accountability: Implement a graded liability system with transparency in AI value chain.
- Institutions: adopt a collaborative approach to AI governance by establishing an AI Governance Group, Technology & Policy Expert Committee, and an AI Safety Institute.
Contempt of Court
- Contempt of court preserves the judiciary’s authority by penalising acts that obstruct justice or undermine public trust in the judicial system.
Constitutional & Legal Framework
| Provision | Principle | Implication |
|---|---|---|
| Article 19(2) | Reasonable restrictions on free speech | Includes contempt of court as a valid ground |
| Article 129 | Supreme Court as Courts of Record | Inherent power to punish for contempt |
| Article 215 | High Courts as Courts of Record | Inherent power to punish for contempt |
| Article 142 (2) | Enforcement powers of Supreme Court | Power to make orders for punishment for its contempt. |
| Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 | Defines procedure & scope | Codifies civil and criminal contempt |
- Types of Contempt (Act 1971):
- Civil Contempt: Wilful disobedience of any judgment, order, or undertaking.
- Criminal Contempt: Any publication or act that scandalises or lowers court authority, prejudices proceedings, or interferes with justice.
- Proceedings may be initiated suo motu or via a petition with the consent of the Attorney General / Advocate General.
- Court rulings
- Ashwini Kumar Ghosh v. Arabinda Bose (1952): Fair and reasoned criticism of judgments is permissible; malicious or distorted criticism invites contempt.
- Anil Ratan Sarkar v. Hirak Ghosh (2002): Contempt power must be exercised sparingly and only in clear violations.
- M.V. Jayarajan v. High Court of Kerala (2015): Abusive public speech against judicial orders constitutes criminal contempt; public faith is integral to justice.
- Shanmugam @ Lakshminarayanan v. High Court of Madras (2025): The objective of contempt action is to safeguard the administration of justice, not to shield judges from fair scrutiny.
- A fine balance is needed: authority must protect justice, not insulate courts from democratic accountability → strength of institutions lies in transparency and reasoned defence of judgments, not in suppressing informed dissent.
FATF releases updated asset recovery framework
- Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has released the “Asset Recovery Guidance and Best Practices” guidelines → provides a comprehensive and updated framework to strengthen the global system for asset recovery against financial crimes.
- Key highlights
- Outlines practical measures to identify, trace, freeze, manage, confiscate, and return assets derived from criminal activity.
- Expands the definition of asset recovery to cover the entire process from the identification of criminal property to its eventual confiscation and return.
- Mandates to recover criminal assets even in the absence of a criminal conviction, where prosecution is not possible/practical.
- Suggests to secure assets at an early stage and prevent their dissipation.
- India played a prominent role in the development of both the revised FATF standards and the guidance document.
Financial Action Task Force (FATF)
- Founded in 1989 on the initiative of the G7.
- FATF Secretariat is administratively hosted at the OECD in Paris.
- Members: 40 → 38 countries + 2 regional organizations (the Gulf Cooperation Council and the European Commission).
- India joined FATF as its 34th member in 2010.
- Objectives: to set standards and promote measures for combating –
- Money laundering
- Terrorist financing
- Proliferation financing – financial support for the spread of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs)
- The FATF does not focus on combating the financing of genocide.
- Since 2000, FATF has maintained two lists:
- FATF blacklist: formally called the Call for action → includes countries with significant shortcomings in their efforts to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, and that are not actively working with FATF to resolve these issues → currently, blacklisted countries are: North Korea, Iran, Myanmar.
- FATF greylist: formally called the Other monitored jurisdictions → includes countries that have deficiencies in their efforts against money laundering and terrorist financing, but are actively cooperating with FATF to address them.
QS World University Rankings: Asia 2026
- Released by QS Quacquarelli Symonds, a global higher education analyst based in London.
- China (394) has overtaken India (294) as the most-represented location in the rankings.
- University of Hong Kong topped the rankings.
- 7 Indian institutions feature in the top 100 → IIT Delhi (59th) ranked highest in India.
Quick Picks
- Zohran Mamdani: became New York City’s first Muslim and South Asian-origin Mayor-elect.
- India and New Zealand have begun the 4th round of negotiations towards a free trade agreement recently → Agricultural technology sharing and methods to increase output are a big part of the negotiations.
- El-Obeid / Al-Ubayyid: capital of the state of North Kordofan, in Sudan.
- Nepali Communist Party: a new political party in Nepal formed after the merger of 10 leftist parties, ahead of general elections.
- Ghazala Hashmi: first South Asian American and the first Indian-origin woman to become Lieutenant Governor of Virginia (USA).
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