10th November, 2026

1. MHA Relaxes Passport and Visa Rules for Several Categories of Foreign Nationals Residing in India
2. IB Solar Signs MoU with German Technology Leaders to Set Up India’s First CoE for Solar Technology in UP
3. MobiKwik’s Arm MFSPL Secures RBI Approval to Operate as NBFC
4. SBI’s USA Subsidiary Opens First Branch Outside California in Texas
5. Pedro Alliana Sworn In as Paraguay’s New President Following Santiago Peña’s Impeachment
6. Shivani Gupta Elected to UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions for 2027–2029 Term
7. Former Supreme Court Judge Justice Rajesh Bindal Appointed Chairperson of NCLAT
8. Adani Ports to Acquire 100% Stake in Netherlands-Based Evos for USD 2.88 Billion
9. India Successfully Completes Unmanned Trials of MATSYA-6000 Human Submersible Under Deep Ocean Mission
10. Anuj Shrivatri Becomes India’s 100th Chess Grandmaster After Winning 7th ASEAN+ Individual Open Championship in Philippines
11. Indian Fast Bowler and Arjuna Awardee Mohammed Shami Retires from Test Cricket After 13-Year Career
12. International Day of Radiology 2026 – November 8
13. Arpita Singh, Renowned Indian Modernist Painter, Dies at 89
14. World Freedom Day 2026
15. National Legal Services Day 2026
16. INS Surat reaches Oman to participate in 15th edition of India-Oman maritime exercise Naseem Al Bahr
17. Indian Navy to hold Passing Out Parade of its largest-ever Agniveer batch at INS Chilka on November 13
18. Global Innovation Index 2026: India Ranks 38th, Switzerland Retains Top Position

National News

Union Home Ministry Relaxed Passport, Visa Rules

• What: The Union Home Ministry published the Immigration and Foreigners (Exemption) (Amendment) Order, 2026, which relaxes passport and visa rules for some foreign nationals living in India, including certain Pakistani citizens, minority refugees, Sri Lankan Tamils and Tibetans.
• Tell me more:
  • Pakistani nationals: Pakistani nationals who entered India on or before December 31, 2009, to live here permanently no longer have to meet standard passport renewal rules if they cannot renew because they don’t hold Pakistan’s Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC).
  • Minority refugees: The order also exempts Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian people from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who entered India on or before December 31, 2024, because of religious persecution or fear of it.
  • Nepal, Bhutan and India: The amendment makes travel and identification rules simpler for citizens of these three countries travelling between them.

MATSYA-6000 Completed Unmanned Trials at Kattupalli

• What: India’s deep-ocean human scientific submersible MATSYA-6000 completed its unmanned trials at the L&T Shipyard in Kattupalli, Tamil Nadu.
• Tell me more:
  • The National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) developed MATSYA-6000 indigenously under the Samudrayaan Project of the Deep Ocean Mission of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES).
  • MATSYA-6000 is India’s fourth-generation human submersible. It can carry three people to a depth of 6,000 metres to explore deep-sea minerals and marine life.

Banking and Economy

MobiKwik Financial Services Received RBI NBFC Licence

• What: MobiKwik Financial Services Private Limited (MFSPL), a wholly owned subsidiary of fintech company One MobiKwik Systems, received a Certificate of Registration from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a non-banking financial company (NBFC).
• Tell me more:
  • The licence allows MobiKwik to give loans directly through its own NBFC.
  • MFSPL plans to disburse loans worth Rs 5,000 crore over the next three to four years by offering secured and unsecured credit products to consumers and MSMEs.

State Bank of India (California) Opened Texas Branch

• What: State Bank of India (California) (SBIC Bank), the wholly owned US subsidiary of State Bank of India (SBI), opened its first branch outside California at Frisco, North Dallas, Texas.
• Tell me more:
  • The new branch takes SBIC Bank’s network in the US to eight branches.
  • SBI also runs three branches of its own in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, and a representative office in Washington DC.
  • Inaugurated by: SBI Chairman Challa Sreenivasulu Setty
  • Consul General of India in Houston: DC Manjunath

Adani Ports and SEZ to Acquire Evos

• What: Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited (APSEZ), India’s largest private port operator, agreed to acquire a 100% stake in Netherlands-based Evos B.V. from Igneo Infrastructure Partners for €2.56 billion (USD 2.88 billion).
• Tell me more:
  • The deal gives APSEZ a strong presence in Europe and helps it enter the business of new-age fuels such as sustainable aviation fuel and biofuels.
  • Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) will provide a loan up to €2.8 billion to APSEZ for the deal.
  • Evos is Europe’s second-largest independent liquid storage operator. It runs eight port terminals in the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Belgium and Malta, which can store 6.3 million cubic metres in total.
  • APSEZ Managing Director: Karan Adani

Reports and Indices

Global Innovation Index 2026 Released by WIPO

• What: World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) released the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2026, which ranks the innovation performance of 139 economies and maps the world’s top 100 innovation clusters.
• Tell me more:
  • Theme: The GII 2026 asks how deep science startups turn frontier research into new industries, and what they need to grow.
  • Parameters and indicators:
    • The GII has 2 sub-indices, 7 pillars, 21 sub-pillars and 78 indicators. Each pillar has 3 sub-pillars.
    • The Innovation Input Sub-Index uses the average scores of the first five pillars.
      • WIPO added a new indicator, Green-field R&D & high-tech FDI under the Business sophistication pillar.
      • The United States, India and the UAE attracted the most such projects in 2025 in this indicator.
    • The Innovation Output Sub-Index uses the average scores of the last two pillars.
  • Top 10 economies:

• Top rank: Switzerland topped the GII for the 16th year in a row.
• Only middle-income economy in the top 10: China (10th)
• New in the top 25: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) entered the top 25 at 25th.
• Top 3 economies in each income group:

• Top economy in each region:
  

• GII 2026 Innovation Clusters:
  

India’s clusters (India has 4 in the top 100):

• India’s performance:
  • India ranked 38th overall, 49th in innovation inputs and 25th in innovation outputs, and it topped both the lower middle-income group and the Central and Southern Asia region.
  • Pillar wise rank:

• India’s innovation is driven mainly by digital services, venture capital and entrepreneurship.
• India ranks 1st in ICT services exports, 4th in late-stage venture capital deals and 13th in intangible asset intensity. These strengths take India to 15th in Knowledge and technology outputs.
• India’s scientific publications grew 4.4% to reach a 6.6% share of the world total. Its international patent filings under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) fell 32%, which the report calls a return to normal after several exceptional years.
• India and Viet Nam have done better than expected for their income level for 16 years in a row, longer than any other economy.
• India, China, Viet Nam, Türkiye, the Philippines, Morocco and Indonesia are the seven middle-income economies that have moved up the most in the GII since 2013.
• India is thin in researchers and scientific articles. Its weakest pillar is Business sophistication (63rd), and within it Knowledge workers ranks 111th. India also ranks low in Ecological sustainability (105th) and Tertiary education (88th).
• Global trends:
  • China’s total R&D spending (USD 860 billion) moved slightly ahead of the United States’ (USD 850 billion) in 2024.
  • Global scientific publications reached a record 2.4 million articles in 2025, and China produced 37% of them.
  • Global R&D spending stayed close to 2% of world GDP.
  • AI accounted for 53% of global venture capital value in 2025.

Defence News

15th Naseem Al Bahr Exercise in Muscat, Oman

• INS Surat reached Muscat, Oman, for the 15th edition of Naseem Al Bahr (Sea Breeze), a bilateral maritime exercise between the Indian Navy and the Royal Navy of Oman. The two navies will hold a Coordinated Patrol (CORPAT) after the exercise.

Ninth Agniveer Passing Out Parade at INS Chilka

• The Indian Navy, whose core values are Duty, Honour and Courage, will hold the Passing Out Parade (POP) of its ninth batch of Agniveers and Indian Coast Guard Naviks at INS Chilka. It is the largest batch of Agniveers to pass out from INS Chilka, Odisha.

Important Days

World Radiography Day and International Day of Radiology – November 8

• What: The world observes World Radiography Day and the International Day of Radiology on November 8 every year to mark German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen’s discovery of X-rays in 1895.
• Tell me more:
  • Röntgen won the first edition of Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901 for discovering X-rays.

World Freedom Day – November 9

National Legal Services Day (India) – November 9

• The day marks the implementation of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987, which came into force on this day in 1995 to provide free legal aid to the needy.

Sports

Anuj Shrivatri Became India’s 100th Chess Grandmaster

• What: International Master Anuj Shrivatri of Madhya Pradesh became India’s 100th chess Grandmaster (GM) by winning the 7th ASEAN Plus Individual Open Chess Championship 2026 in Ozamiz City, Philippines, which gave him a direct GM title.
• Tell me more:
  • Anuj Shrivatri is the first player from Madhya Pradesh to become a GM.
  • Viswanathan Anand became India’s first GM in 1987 after he won the Shakti Finance International chess tournament in Coimbatore.
  • Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi became India’s first Woman Grandmaster (WGM) in 2001.
• Knowledge Nuggets:
  • Grandmaster: It is the highest title in chess. A player earns it by achieving three GM norms across at least 27 games and reaching a FIDE rating of 2500.
  • International Chess Federation (FIDE): It is the global governing body of chess, which awards the GM title. Its headquarters is in Lausanne, Switzerland.
  • All India Chess Federation (AICF) President: Nitin Narang**;** AICF HQ: New Delhi

Mohammed Shami Retired from Test Cricket

• What: Indian fast bowler Mohammed Shami retired from Test cricket, but he will keep playing limited-overs cricket for India.
• Tell me more:
  • Test record: Shami took 229 wickets in 64 Test matches.
  • Ranking: Shami finished as India’s sixth-highest wicket-taking fast bowler in Tests. The five fast bowlers ahead of him are Kapil Dev, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Javagal Srinath and Jasprit Bumrah.

Memorandum of Understanding

IB Solar Signed MoU with German Technology Organisations

• What: IB Solar signed an MoU with three German technology organisations to set up India’s first Centre of Excellence for Solar Technology in the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) region, Uttar Pradesh.
• Tell me more:
  • German partners: RENA Technologies GmbH, Centrotherm international AG and ISC Konstanz.
  • The centre will bring German expertise in manufacturing equipment, process engineering and photovoltaic research to India, so that solar technologies are researched and developed in India, not just manufactured here.
• Knowledge Nuggets:
  • Signed at: Bharat Renewable Energy Summit & Expo (BRES) 2026, which the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) organised.
  • Supporting organisations of BRES 2026: National Solar Energy Federation of India (NSEFI), German Solar Association (BSW) and GIZ.

Appointments

Pedro Alliana Became President of Paraguay

Shivani Gupta Elected to UN’s ACABQ

• What: Indian diplomat Shivani Gupta was elected to the UN’s Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) for the 2027–2029 term.
• Tell me more:
  • Surendra Kumar Adhana is the other Indian on the committee during the current term.
• Knowledge Nuggets:
  • ACABQ: It is a subsidiary organ of the UN General Assembly with 21 members, who are elected for three-year terms and serve in their individual capacities. It examines the UN’s administrative and budgetary matters and resource proposals.
  • Chairperson: Juliana GASPAR RUAS (Brazil)

Justice Rajesh Bindal Appointed NCLAT Chairperson

• What: Former Supreme Court judge Justice Rajesh Bindal was appointed Chairperson of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT).
• Knowledge Nuggets:
  • NCLAT: It was set up in 2016 under Section 410 of the Companies Act, 2013.
  • Term: The NCLAT Chairperson holds office for five years and can be reappointed for another five years, but only until the age of 67.
  • NCLAT hears appeals against orders of:
    • the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) under the Companies Act, 2013 and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC), Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI), Competition Commission of India (CCI) and National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA)

Miscellaneous

Renowned Contemporary Artist Arpita Singh Passed Away

• Singh painted colourful works on women’s lives in abstract and figurative styles, drawing on Indian miniature and folk traditions, and her famous paintings include People Around the Table (1993), My Lollipop City: Gemini Rising (2005) and B for Boxes (2007).
• Awards:

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