Current Affairs — 3 November 2026
01Banking & Economy
Centre aims to double coastal and waterway share of freight to 12% by 2047
- Ports, Shipping and Waterways Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said coastal and inland waterway shipping now carries about 6% of India's freight; the target is 12% by 2047.
- Coastal cargo at Indian ports rose from 74 to 177 million tonnes in 12 years.
- He chaired the Consultative Committee meeting in Puri, Odisha, where a ₹1,500 crore Puri International Cruise Terminal was outlined.
Exam point: The Cruise Bharat Mission (launched September 2024) targets 10 lakh sea-cruise passengers by March 2029. India has more than 11,000 km of coastline.
Revise: Government schemes
02National
PM inaugurates Pune Metro Line 3 and lays foundation of Phase II
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Line 3 (Pink Line, Hinjawadi IT hub to Shivajinagar) and laid the foundation of Phase II, by video conference; the projects are worth about ₹21,800 crore.
- Line 3 (about 23 km, over ₹8,300 crore) is built on the Public-Private Partnership model and will be run entirely by women train operators.
- Phase II (about ₹13,500 crore) covers Lines 2A, 2B, 4 and 4A.
Exam point: The PM said India's metro network is about 1,200 km across 26 cities. Maharashtra's metro network grew from about 10–11 km in 2014 to about 175 km.
Background: understand this
In a Public-Private Partnership (PPP), a private company builds (and often runs) a public project and recovers its money over a fixed period, while the government keeps ownership and sets the rules. It lets public projects start without the government paying the full cost upfront.
Revise: Prime Ministers of India
IndiaAI Mission releases indigenous AI models EKA-1, Dhīr 2B and Dhīr 5B
- EKA-1, by Soket AI Labs, has 26.3 billion parameters, was trained on about 7.5 trillion tokens and covers all 22 Scheduled languages plus English.
- Dhīr 2B and Dhīr 5B, by ZenteiQ AiTech, are open-source multilingual models for English and 10 Indian languages; they can run offline and on mobile phones.
- They were released by the Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY) under the IndiaAI Mission's foundation-models pillar.
Exam point: The IndiaAI Mission was approved by the Union Cabinet on 7 March 2024. Its motto: "Making AI in India and Making AI Work for India". AIKosh is its datasets platform.
Revise: Government schemes
03International
India sets out its position for COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye
- COP31, the UN climate conference, will be held in Antalya, Türkiye, from 9 to 20 November 2026.
- Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav said climate finance is an obligation of developed countries under Article 9.1 of the Paris Agreement and must be predictable and not add to debt.
- India wants adaptation indicators and carbon-market participation to stay voluntary, and will work with the G-77 and China, LMDC and BASIC groups.
Exam point: COP30 was held in Belém, Brazil (2025). India's long-term target is net zero by 2070. BASIC = Brazil, South Africa, India, China.
Background: understand this
COP is the yearly 'Conference of the Parties' of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC, 1992). Under the Paris Agreement (2015), each country sets its own targets (NDCs). Article 9.1 says developed countries shall provide finance to help developing countries.
Revise: The Constitution of India
04Science & Defence
Indian Navy frees hijacked fishing vessel Azini off Somalia, rescues 20 crew
- The vessel had been hijacked by armed pirates off Somalia's north-eastern coast in October.
- A Navy warship, backed by a maritime reconnaissance aircraft, tracked it; an IAF C-17 air-dropped Marine Commandos (MARCOS). The operation lasted over 48 hours.
- All 20 crew (Iranian nationals) were rescued unhurt.
Exam point: MARCOS is the Indian Navy's special forces unit. The Indian Navy has kept anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden since 2008.
Background: understand this
Somali piracy peaked around 2008–2011 and has returned since late 2023. Ships seized by pirates are used as 'mother ships' to attack others, which is why navies act quickly to free them.
Revise: Defence chiefs & CDS
India–US exercise Tiger Triumph 2026 opens in Visakhapatnam
- It is the 5th edition of the India–US tri-service Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) exercise, held this year as a table-top exercise.
- The opening ceremony was held at the Maritime Warfare Centre, Visakhapatnam, on 2 November.
- The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) is taking part for the first time.
Exam point: Tiger Triumph began in 2019 as India's first tri-service exercise with the US. Other India–US exercises: Yudh Abhyas (Army), Cope India (Air Force), Malabar (naval, with Japan and Australia).
Revise: Defence chiefs & CDS
Aditya-L1 shows a solar eruption expanding unevenly
- Data from VELC (Visible Emission Line Coronagraph) on Aditya-L1 showed the coronal mass ejection of 5 August 2024 grew in an asymmetric shape, not as an even bubble.
- Uneven expansion can change how fast and when such eruptions reach Earth, which matters for space-weather forecasts.
- The study, by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bengaluru, appeared in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Exam point: Aditya-L1, India's first solar mission, was launched on 2 September 2023 on PSLV-C57 and observes the Sun from the Lagrange point L1, about 1.5 million km from Earth.
Revise: ISRO & India in space
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