Daily Current Affairs Analysis | 03rd September, 2026 | Shankar IAS Academy | UPSC | Mains 2026

[music] Hi, hello and welcome to Shankar Academyy's daily current affairs analysis and today's date is the 3rd of September 2026. Please like, comment, share and subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell icon to receive instant updates in all our notifications. We also have a small announcement to make regarding our brainstorming test series which starts on September 7th uh this month and uh we have 48 integrated test series which includes CAT and GS and in that you have about uh a lot of reflections that have come from the UPSC um exams and our question papers. You have a QR code that is present in our website even in this uh brochure. You can scan that and you can see the reflection, the thematic and the direct reflections that are present and make your choice. Choose wisely and all the best for your films 2027. With that, let's move to the topics of discussion for the day. Topics of discussion are the first one is about the Thailand's regime and the peaceful society promotion act. What is the controversy regarding it and what is the amnesty that we are talking about? The second one is about the CBC report on pending corruption cases in the court and why are there so many pending cases and what can be done to actually stop this and what are the measures that we are talking about here and the third one is the SEO summit and what we are talking about the terrorism and how it is funded and uh what are the evils and how do we tackle it the fourth one is about India's data center and climate risk what are we talking about there are various climate risks about the thermal climate risk or the water stress climate risk and there are the global warming climate risks what are the risks we are talking about this article is a very interesting article taken from the Hindu end let's deal with it and the final topic of the day is the prelims focus we have three interesting topics again here so with this what are we waiting for let's move into the first topic of the day about the Thailand's act so now we are going to deal with the first topic of the day the first topic of the day is about the Thailand peaceful society promotion act it talks about who benefits from the act and what are the challenges from the act. So what is this act is basically it is going to give amnesty to people who have been political prisoners who or who have been convicted as criminals because of the political crimes that have happened and they're going to reconsider and pardon those people and give the benefit of doubt that they deserve and the rehabilitation that they deserve. So with this background let's move into the article. So the article talks about the Thailand u peaceful society promotion act. So first we'll see when it came into account. It came into account in 24th August 2026. And so there are offenses. So you need a period of time between which they are actually let out. So you cannot um you know choose to leave out people who have committed crime yesterday. Right? So the time period is a period of 20 years from 2005 to 2025 because you know that Thailand is a region of political instability. So that is going to happen from 1st January 2005 to 16th July 2025. So there there has been a prolonged uh political instability and conflict that happened in Thailand because of which there has been groups pro-democracy groups people who have been against the government. There has been a lot of issues happening in the Thailand region which is why this supporters of um PM Takshin Shintoara and pro-democracy groups royalists all of them are coming under one unified uh point and they're going to take uh a step towards having a peaceful resolution which is why the act is called as the peaceful society promotion act and about 6,000 people who are labeled as prisoners are going to be let out but there There are also exclusions there which we will deal with exclusively. So that is going to happen and there's the map of Thailand that is given. So if you see the map of Thailand here you see that the capital is Bangkok and you have Myanmar as one international border, Laos as one, Vietnam as one, Cambodia as one. If you see the map here, this is where Thailand is present and you have Malaysia here and here you have the Gulf of Thailand and all the all the black dots that are present here are the major cities that are present. It has the Andaman Sea on one side and South China Sea on one side. So this is basically the map of Thailand. If you move further, there are key provisions. If you see that there are key provisions. The first one is the period of 20 years that is from 2005 to 2025 and also there is 40 categories of offenses that is uh including the sedition, it includes rebellion, it includes cyber crime, it includes emergency law violations. So sedition is when you go anti-government and spread hatred and mal intended comments. So uh there's also the rebellion that is present. So rebellion you know people rebel against a cause and emergency law violations. So we can release the eligible prisoners who are present and close investigations and prosecutions and dismiss the pending pending cases that are present and clear criminal records. But also there's an exclusion that is present here. What are the exclusions? The first one is when you have when you misuse your office of power via corruption then you will not be let out. The second one is when you have created serious violence that has resulted in murder or serious injury you will not be let out. Then article 112 when you have gone against the royal Thai family, an insinuated violence and certain offenses against the private entities. So a peaceful society promotion committee will be the one who will determine whether these people the 6,000 criminals who are we who we are pardoning if they are right for this or if they're wrong for this how unbiased will they be who will constitute all this will be a challenge again. So who benefits? Uh so there was a 2006 scoop in Thailand which happened. People who are present there and people who have been uh labeled as criminals ever since they will be benefited and they will be understood as um you know uh there's a theory by Howard Becker which is called as the labeling theory. It states that when you label a person by a certain name, if you label a person saying that this person uh is a criminal, so that is how he'll be viewed. So that you can relate this to the right to be forgotten in our terms. So everybody has the right to be forgotten. So even if there is a criminal issue that happens, they have the right to be forgotten. And when you see when you talk about Becker's labeling theory, you also see that this person if he's termed as a criminal for what he has done, the world will view him as that even if he is a changed person, that uh stigma and that labeling itself will push the person to do the crime that he has already committed. So this includes supporters of the pro-shatwara movements. So this is where you see the rural um background of people against the military and royal family and you have the people from pro-democrac democracy group and yellowshot protesters who protest against the royal family. They term that the royal family of Thailand has nepotism and they want to be against that. So there are many prisoners who are in this accord. But also you have the article 112 in which a lot of prisoners are still prosecuted and they're still branded as criminals because of which um uh they rem remain excluded. So we have to see that as well. So now the major controversy is that all um alleged insult of the king and the members of the royal family they all the people come under article 112. Now if you see that this weakens the reconciliation objective. So one way or other I'm if I talk about the king or if I criticize the government where do I have the freedom of speech? If you say that I have done sedition, fine. If I've turned people against the government, then it's fine. But I do have a freedom of speech and expression, right? So if I had just made one comment and if I'm going to put in jail for 10 uh years and even now you're not going to let me out because of the article 112, then the reconciliation objective itself is not there. Also there are a lot of young pro-democracy activists out there who are outside the amnesty because of the article 112. Also if you see that there is a freedom of expression and human rights that is present that is violated. So now those who are charged under 112 for offenses and when they were under 18 years that was rejected. So you they said that if you're under 18 years of age and if you're going to talk against the government we are not going to let you out. So that is something that is not that should not be done because people in that age they are learning to have their human right of liberty and express what they feel. So this has become a major controversy point and the other shortcomings are there is a selective reconciliation. So uh there are different political groups that are present. each group might not receive the equal amount of uh uh you know treatment that should be given and inclusion of some election fraud offenses also may extend the pardoning beyond politically wanting Thailand to be a peaceful nation because certain electoral offenses also if they are pardoned in this point then what is the point of actually punishing those people you should let out people who are under 18 years of age because they are the people who are in their prime time and they need to learn and build their careers. Right? So also there is a committee deciding the eligibility and regarding the rule of law or justice how justice the committee going to be is a question and this can promote peace but excessive blanket and amnesty may create impunity for people that is other shortcoming. Now we have come to the prelims focus for the day. Consider the follow foreign statements regarding Thailand's peaceful society promotion act. It provides amnesty for certain politically motivated offenses committed between uh 2005 and 2025. Yes. 20 years. Offenses relating to corruption and murder are excluded from this ambit. Yes. Thailand's ley majesty law under article 112 is included in the amnesty provisions. No. A peaceful society promotion committee has been constituted to determine eligibility for amnesty. Yes. So the answer should be 1 2 and four only. Let's check. Yes. The answer is option A 1 2 and four only. With this we have come to the end of this topic and let's move to the next topic for the day. So now the article that I'm going to deal with today is about the CBI corruption cases that are stuck in courts. We know that the Supreme Court and High Court has a lot of pendency of cases, right? So about 14,83 appeals, revisions and rich pleas are present still in the high courts and Supreme Courts. So in specific if you see the CBI, corruption cases are still stuck in quotes. So this article is taken from the Hindu and let's decode it in detail. So now you see the news is about the central vigilance commission, the CVC. They have had a report which says that about 7,229 corruption cases which were investigated by the central information bureau uh central bureau of investigation CBI under the prevention of corruption act were pending for trial from December 31st 2025. So from December 31st there are a lot of cases about 7,000 cases are pending. So now with that you see that there are findings that the report has given. What are the findings? The findings are the corruption cases pending are about 7,000. For more than 20 years, there are about 400 plus cases. So, writ petitions, appeals, revisions more than 14,83. Conviction rate is about 71.71%, conviction rate in 2024 is about 69.14%. And CBI corruption cases which are pending for investigation is about 755. So CBI vacancies that are present are about,88. CBA sanction strength is about 7,300. Executive level vacancy is about 672. And regular cases pending investigation for over 1 year 274 and complaints received are about 34,153 and complaints disposed by CVC is about 35,193. So now we have seen a lot of datas. Yes, I've just given all of the datas that are present with the report and the findings. Now, what is the central vigilance commission? What is the CVC I'm talking about? It is established in 1964 and it is under the Santanam committee. The recommendation of the Santanam committee this can be asked in your prelims. So, it is granted in 2003 under the CVC act and it is headquartered in New Delhi. So once it is headquarter you know the headquarters the next one will be who composes of the CVC. So you see that one central vigilance commissioner will be there and two vigilance commissioners will be there and total of three people and the portal is the CVC complaint management system via which they will actually take in the cases and they will talk. So now we have noted who are the people who are present and what is the composition when did it start what is the um idea of that and which committee gave it what is sana all of it what is the function what do the CVC people do so they are superintendents over CBI investigation corruptions and they inquire or advice on corruption and against specified public servants this is very very important. So they help bring in transparency. So also loal coordination it is referred by the loal and there's a designated authority for public interest dis disclosure. So for whistleblowers also there's a provision that is present and the appointment and the tenure is that it is they are appointed by the president on the recommendation of the high powered committee. So the tenure is 4 years or 65 years of age whichever is earlier and post tenure it is ineligible for further government employment. So the prevention of corruption act 1988 it is strengthened by the 2018 amendment. So there's a legal framework for preventing and prosecuting corruption among public servants. So it is aligned with the UN convention against corruption. So this again is a prelimsy area. Next one, the major provisions. Public servants if you see they are people who perform public duties is covered under section 2C. Special courts under section 3. For some cases need more importance than the other cases. They need speed trial. Right? So for speed trial you have section three. And for property attachment for asset linked to corruption. So one person might have gotten a house because of corruption or one person might have gotten a car because of corruption. So for those properties and burden proof in specified cases accused must explain the legitimacy of assets or transactions. So there's a direct offense. So bribegivers are protected if they report within 7 days. Section 8 corporate liability section 9. So commercial organizations can be prosecuted for bribery and also there is a narrower criminal misconduct wherein misappropriation of misappropriation and disproportionate assets are present and prior government approval is required for investigation of official decision except red-handed bribery traps. This is the 2018 amendment. Now there are delays in completing um the investigations and there's also postponement in filing of the cases. When this happens there is also a procedural requirement for prosecuting public servants. So when you have a procedural requirement when you actually stall the process there is slower uh there is a slower proceeding that is happening because of this. Also when you have charge sheet that prolong the start of the trial again there is a delay and also when court proceedings are long the cases get stagnated. Also when you see for years it goes for a petition appeal revision when it keeps going here and there here and there that becomes an issue and also about 1,088 vacancies are sanctioned on uh um against 7,300 and 672 vacancies are in executive ranks affecting the investigative capacity that is present. So the steps to be taken the first one is fill in the CBI vacancy. So address,88 vacant post in executive level position and special codes. There is prevention of corruption act for cases for faster disposal. There is clear timelines for investigation and charge sheet filing and trial completion. So time bound trial should be there. Special court should be there. CBA vacancies should be filled. Long cases should be uh given urgent priority and they should be dismissed. And now we have the prelims practice question with reference to the central vigilance commission. Consider the following statements. Was established in 1964 in the recommendation of the sanam committee. It was granted statutory status under the CVC commission of 2003. The central vigilance commissioner is appointed by the president on the recommendation of the high powered committee. So all three statements are right. The option should be answer D. Let's check. Yes, the option D is the answer. So with this, let's move to the next topic for the day. The next topic of the day is about the STO summit. The STO summit uh is something that is called as the Shangai Cooperation Organization and this is talking about an uh entire system of terrorism and how to dismantle it. So with that we also have our prime minister Narendra Modi who is addressing at the SEO summit in the Grigistan Republic on Tuesday. So this is the 26th STO summit and it talks about the peaceful cooperation. Um and we are going to deal with it in detail because we have our background and we also know that our prime minister has spoken here. So it becomes even more important for us to know what has happened. So now it is established in 2001. uh their predecessor for this is established in 1996 the Shangai 5 and it was uh the charter is adopted in Petersburg 2002 there's also Beijing China the secretary and there's uh the headquarters in Usbakistan and the official languages are Russian and Chinese the decisions are consensus based and no military alliance so evolution timeline Shangai 5 was formed and then SEO was founded in Usbakistan and Raj was established and then India Pakistan joined and then Iran joined and then Bellaris became the 10th member. Now you see founding six are China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Pythan, Tajakistan, Usbakistan in 2001. So this can be asked as your prelims question and it constitutes about 3.4 4 plus billion people 42%age of the world right now because later members and partners are India Pakistan Iran Bellaris and uh Afghanistan Mongolia as observers and Turkey, Nepal, UAE, Egypt and Sri Lanka are people who are um in dialogue with it and the GDP of approximately 25% of the world is present here and 60% of the Eurasian land mass is also present. So in total China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Tajakistan, Usbakistan, India, Pakistan, Iran, Bellaris, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Turkey, Nepal, UA, Egypt and Sri Lanka all of them are observers, dialogue partners, members all of them constituted. So we know that so much of population approximately 42% of the population is present and this is why we have to talk about the mandate. What are the pillars? What are the three evils? First we'll talk about the three evils. One is terrorism. We have terror financing. We have safe havens where um terrorism is funded and it grown and recruits for terror spreading. sessionist and separ separatist threats and then radical ideology and hate networks that is extremism. So security is to fight terrorism, extremism and separatism across Eurasia. We need some kind of regional stability and then you see drug trafficking in in the Afghan region is very high. You have to curb that and trade and connectivity ties are also to be red uh increased and a non-western voice in governance is required and youth tourism and media is also one of the pillar of um the mandate and multipolarity not just concentrating uh the world with one particular power but helping us gain more power and helping us have a lot of nations who are able to contribute and have an egalitarian voice that is present. This is the mandate. So you see the key initiatives are anti-terror habitat tash kent um then the approved dan 2025 for infra finance then local currency then trade investment and msme links then energy club coordinates oil gas and power ties s university has 80 plus universities and uh members there's a coordination also in taliban regime and there's a new pillar under the taan declaration so these are all the key initiatives that are present So the 25th summit has 24 documents that are adopted, 20 plus heads of state present, 10 international organization and fifth time hosted by China. So you see that it is approved after a decade of push and uh a 10-year road map is adopted and there's a commitment on AI. There's a fairer global order and there's Afghan origin trafficking and bilateral revived talk is present in Galvin. Now you see that their Modi's call is that to dismantle the entire ecosystem of terrorism and warn nations using terror as policy is backed amidst the US Iran conflict. There's a unilateral global deployment that is present in missile defense. There's also a concern over ongoing conflict and non-discriminatory partnership also is present. So the significance is that uration security order will be uh there a voice will be there but China Russia dominance will be there. So uni polarity is present direct dialogue can be there in China and Russia but Pakistan blocks strong terror stand. We have central Asian energy markets access there is a clash on India stand with Pakistan occupied Kashmir. So counterterror operation via rats se bank will deepen the yuan dependence multipolarity diplomacy beyond the west will be there but anti-western tilt limits will limit the Indian flexibility so platform to flag crossber terror is present and here you see that consensus dilutes Indiadriven agenda there's connectivity in charbar and overlap with quad and brick priorities are present so now we have dealt with the significance and the challenges. With this, let's move to the next topic for the day. So the next article of the day is about the India data center and the climate reality. If you see this article is taken from the Hindu, India's data center boom is attracting billions. But also when you talk about uh something uh that is attracting billions, there's also some kind of energy requirement that is there. And in this case the power requirement is there, water stress is there, grid constraint is there, heat constraint is there. So it is enforcable and there's a national standard to protect the consumer. So India hosted 520 megawatt of data center capacity in 2020 and there are also global hyperscalers who are stored in India Indian data outside the country. There is also a no policy that is required for the renewable energy or water disclosure that is present. So this is the situation before the India fragmented uh DC landscape that was present and uh you see that facilities drew groundwater again and again. There was no hydraological approval. People were not telling what kind of uh what amount of hydraological water, hydraological aquifers they're placing, how they taking the groundwater, nothing was there. They were taking it without any regulation. The neighborhoods and cities had a lot of thermal um uh energy extraction that was happening that area. So heat stress was coming apart and states raised on tax breaks and cheap lands and not standards. So why a national framework is required is because electricity use will rise from 13 to 57 TWW by 2030. So AI alone might had about 26.3 gawatt of power that is required and the consumption might double and the doubling of the consumption will create year behind schedule and grid bottleneck. So green power was wasted in uh quarter 1 of 2026 alone and data centers raised land surface temperature by 9.1°C nearby and grid upgrade costs being socialized via tariff that is also the consumer protection. So if you see that there's 4x capacity growth by 2030 26.3 g gawatt uh demand there's also water 358 billion lit water demand 6,500 plus homes that have demand. So two thou $2,000 that is $2,000 billion are the committed investment. So you have certain datas here the key numbers to know the scale of the boom that is present for your reference in this slide. Now the digital economy is the backbone for UPI, ego governance, cloud and 5G rollout. So these are the sectors that are under strain. You see that local storage is very very important that cuts the foreign dependency and there's a legal risk. There are also skilled roles in engineering, cooling, cyber security and anchor demand will crowd the renewable and storage projects. Cooling load competes with agriculture and municipal supply. Emissions can rise if coal fills the renewable curtailment gaps and costs may be socialized via higher electricity tariffs. So the case study is that the top four India's leading DC cluster marked essential service even during shortages land tax clearance meta and no green sourcing rule that is present but the climate pollution is that 16 districts are groundwater stressed very important can be quoted in your mains water supply is down by 20% in summer there is also peak temperature that has caused 43°C in 2024 for urban footprint is doubled from 2001 to 2020. Pockets touched from 47°C in policy zone. If you see challenges are so you will have Chennai, NCR, Hyderabad, Rajasthan the DC clustering is required here. Then you see that over two years if you see the wait time can run up to two years because there is a bottleneck. Wires cannot carry solar and wind energy from Raj Rajasthan and Gujarat. So unre unreliable renewable sources push again the need for thermal power. There is 9.1° CC hotter in extreme cases with 10° 10 kilometer of large DC. State policies also offer incentives but imposed with few conditions that grid upgrades risk being paid via retail electricity tariffs. So the way forward is that for us to have a national framework for this then our benchmarks should be faced. Then uh if you see that assessment should be done before any um DC commissioning so grid impact test must be there public reporting should be there for daily water use and source AI energy star should be there to compare efficiency there's also price ramping storage and demand response that should be given separately seawater cooling should be in incentivized and desalination and freshwater should be there so India's data center boom is driving investment but increasing environmental stress. Critically examine the need for a national framework with enforcable environmental consumer protection standards. This is for 250 words, 15 marks. This is for three pages. Please send us across your answer copy so that we can help you aid better in our preparation. With this, let's move to the prelims focus for the day. The prelims focus for the day. The first topic is about the NASA Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. You see that this Kennedy Space Center in Florida has SpaceX Falcon Heavy. So it is named after NASA's first chief astronomer. So the mission is to study dark matter, dark energy, gravity and exoplanets. So in this if you see the survey is about two plus uh two billion plus galaxies to study the expansion of the universe and it is approximately 1.6 million kilometers from the earth. So it complements the discoveries of the Hubble's Hubble space and the James web telescope. So this is the Roman space telescope that we are talking about the Nancy Grace Roman space telescope. The next one is about the driving support vessel INS Nepun. This was commissioned in 31st August 2026. The builder is from Vishagapnam. So this is under the Y atmanar Bat initiative and there's a submarine rescue that is there. The role is deep sea diving, underwater in inter intervention and submarine rescue. So capabilities are saturation air, helio diving, medicinal facilities. So India's submarine rescue capability in the Indian Ocean is present. So INS Nistar is commissioned in July 2025 in the Eastern Naval Command that is present. This is the sister ship. So this is our INS Nepun in the Navy set to um be there. So with that we have the last and final topic the green forge complex in Mali. The union minister has inaugurated the green porch complex. This is actually a chamber a simulation chamber for cultivation and experimentation. So this is for the genetically modified crops that are present and it can vary with humidity, temperature and uh integrate advanced simulation in AI. There's also the GM crop revolution. It supports location specific club suitability and that there are 22 manufacturing hubs and eight specialized bio foundry facilities that are present. So now we have the prelims question for the day with reference to NASA's Nancy Grace Roman space telescope. Consider the following statement. It is designed to study dark energy matter and exoplanets. It will be positioned in the first sun earth LRAJ point. It is named after NASA's first chief astronomer Nancy Grace Roman. Please send us a crosser answers for this question in the comment section and we'll get back to you with the correct answer. So with this we have come to the end of today's topic. Thank you for watching me. Thank you for watching today's video. Let's meet again in a new video in a new day. Thank you. [music]