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RAS News Digest — 10 July 2026

Newspaper-based news digest for the RPSC RAS exam, dated 10 July 2026.

Polity / Elections

Thousands of teachers gathered at Mumbai's Azad Maidan and across Maharashtra in a one-day shutdown on July 9, protesting the assignment of Booth Level Officer (BLO) duties to teachers for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls; over 60% of government and aided schools stayed shut.
Their demands included a full waiver from BLO duties, withdrawal of FIRs against teachers who did not report, and exemption from the mandatory Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) for those appointed before 2013 — arguing non-academic duties erode teaching quality.
A BLO is a local officer (often a teacher) appointed to prepare and revise the electoral roll of a polling booth, working under the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) — a machinery drawn from the Representation of the People Act framework under the Election Commission.

Source: Electoral machinery (SIR of electoral rolls); Maharashtra, July 2026

Polity / Criminal Law

The Maharashtra Legislative Council passed key amendments to the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) — the 2023 law that replaced the CrPC — on July 8; they are yet to be passed by the Legislative Assembly.
Key changes: preventive detention under Section 170 may be extended by a magistrate to a maximum of 30 days (from 24 hours); Section 98's power to forfeit offending books/newspapers is widened to electronic and digital content; and the rank for certain investigative powers is lowered from Superintendent of Police to Assistant Commissioner of Police.
Since criminal procedure is in the Concurrent List, a state can amend a central law, but such an amendment needs the President's assent under Article 254(2) to prevail; the Opposition warned the wider preventive-arrest window could be misused against protesters and rivals.

Source: Maharashtra Legislative Council, July 2026

Polity / Rights

The Directorate of School Education, Kashmir, in an order dated July 6, directed all government and private schools and coaching centres to screen every book in their libraries, offices and staff rooms for 'inappropriate or objectionable content' and to certify that none remains.
It follows the J&K administration's August 2025 ban on the publication of 25 books on Kashmir — including works by Arundhati Roy and A G Noorani — on grounds that they propagate 'secessionism'; there are 10,787 government and 2,386 private schools in the Kashmir division.
The order drew criticism across the political spectrum, including from a National Conference MP, who said 'libraries exist to preserve knowledge, not curate political narratives,' and that erasing books does not erase history.

Source: Directorate of School Education, Kashmir (J&K), July 2026

Economy / Social Security

The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) will roll out a revamped portal by July 15, letting members view all their details on one unified interface after migrating every regional record into a single centralised database.
The database ends the earlier link to a particular Regional Office, so a member who migrates for work can be served from any authorised location; claims for advances up to Rs 5 lakh that are KYC-linked and validated will be auto-settled, and withdrawal categories were streamlined from 13 to three in October 2025.
The EPFO — a statutory body under the Employees' Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952, administered by the Ministry of Labour and Employment — will credit the annual interest of about Rs 1.44 lakh crore for FY2025-26 by July 15 to some 34 crore accounts.

Source: EPFO / Ministry of Labour and Employment, July 2026

International Relations

During PM Modi's Melbourne visit, India and Australia signed a series of pacts spanning defence and maritime security, energy, education and critical minerals, and agreed to fast-track their trade agreement; Modi called both nations 'vibrant democracies' and 'significant ocean powers'.
A key step was to operationalise the 2014 India-Australia Civil Nuclear Agreement, securing a stable corridor of uranium supplies to India for peaceful purposes.
India and Australia are both members of the Quad (with the US and Japan); the deepening ties come against China's assertive behaviour in the Indo-Pacific and the conflict in West Asia, and build on their 2022 Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA).

Source: Ministry of External Affairs, July 2026

Polity / Uniform Civil Code

Maharashtra announced a seven-member committee headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjana Desai to draft rules and recommendations for implementing a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the state; members include former High Court judges and legal experts.
Justice Desai earlier headed the expert panel that drafted Uttarakhand's UCC legislation — Uttarakhand being the first state to enact and implement a UCC (2025).
A Uniform Civil Code — a common set of personal laws on marriage, divorce, inheritance and adoption across communities — is a Directive Principle under Article 44 of the Constitution, and remains a subject of active debate.

Source: Government of Maharashtra, July 2026

Economy / Energy

Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari acknowledged that E20 petrol (20% ethanol) can reduce mileage because ethanol's calorific value is lower than petrol, but said the West Asia crisis shows India must explore alternatives to imported fossil fuels.
India spends nearly Rs 2 lakh crore in foreign exchange every year on fuel imports; blended fuel — ethanol in petrol and methanol in diesel — is projected to cut this import dependence.
India reached E20 in 2025-26, about five years ahead of its 2030 target under the Ethanol Blended Petrol Programme, with the National Policy on Biofuels (2018) and a push toward flex-fuel vehicles as the next steps.

Source: Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, July 2026