UPSC Prelims 2026 Revision Checklist: Top 20 Reports and Indices that aspirants shouldn’t miss

Are you UPSC Prelims ready? The UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2026 is scheduled to be held on May 24, and with only a few weeks remaining, this is the time for aspirants to revise important reports and indices that have made headlines over the past year.

Here’s a checklist of important reports and indices you shouldn’t miss. Are they part of your revision plan yet?

#1 Responsible Nations Index (RNI)

— A new index was launched by India, RNI, under the aegis of the World Intellectual Foundation (WIF).

— The Index incorporates a comprehensive global framework for assessing nations on parameters such as ethical governance, social well-being, environmental stewardship, and global responsibility, going beyond conventional indicators of power and economic prosperity.

Rank	Country	Score
1	Singapore	0.61945
2	Switzerland	0.58692
3	Denmark	0.58372
4	Sweden	0.57397
12	Germany	0.55703
16	India	0.551513

(Source: WIF)

#2 Global Terrorism Index 2026

— Recently, the 13th annual edition of the Global Terrorism Index (GTI) was published by the Institute for Economics and Peace. The GTI provides a detailed summary of key global trends and patterns in terrorism over the last decade, drawing on data from 163 countries.

(AI-generated image)

— The index highlights that the number of countries experiencing at least one terrorist incident increased to 66, the highest level since 2018. 

Institute for Economics and Peace The Institute for Economics and Peace, established in 2007 by Steve Killelea AM, publishes global reports including the Global Peace Index, Global Terrorism Index, and Ecological Threat Report.

— Pakistan surpassed Burkina Faso as the country with the highest impact of terrorism in 2025. This is the first time Pakistan has been ranked at number one on the Index. 

— Several of the world’s most persistent terrorism hotspots are concentrated along border regions. 

— India ranks 13th in the GTI 2026. India recorded significant improvements on the Index, with falls in the number of terrorist attacks. 

— Notably, in 2025, South Asia was the most impacted by terrorism and had the highest average score in the Index.

#3 World Happiness Report 2025

— The annual report is published by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford. The study was done in partnership with the analytics firm Gallup and the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

— Finland remains the happiest country in the world in 2026, holding the top spot for the ninth consecutive year. 

— India improved its ranking from 126th in 2024 to 118th in 2025, rising two positions this year and currently standing at 116th. 

— Afghanistan, at the bottom of the list at 147th, has once again been ranked the world’s unhappiest country, along with Malawi (145th) and Sierra Leone (146th), all affected by conflict.

#4 Global Peace Index (GPI) 2025

— The 10th edition of the GPI 2025 released by the Institute for Economics and Peace covers 163 countries, comprising 99.7 per cent of the world’s population.

— The report states, there is a deterioration of global peacefulness by 0.36 per cent, marking the 13th deterioration in peacefulness in the last 17 years. 

— Iceland continues to lead and maintain its position as the world’s most peaceful country, a position it has held since 2008.

— Western and Central Europe is the most peaceful region in the world, home to eight of the ten most peaceful countries.

— India ranks 115th globally with a GPI score of 2.229. This marks a gradual upward trajectory from its rankings of 116 in 2024, 126 in 2023, 139 in 2020, and 141 in 2019.

— Russia dropped down two ranks and stands at #163, making it the least peaceful country in the world on the 2025 GPI, followed by Ukraine at #162 as the second least peaceful country in the world.

#5 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2025

— Transparency International’s 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index shows that corruption globally is worsening, even in advanced democracies. 

—  The index focuses on perceptions of domestic public-sector corruption, including low-level administrative corruption. It evaluated 182 countries based on perceived public sector corruption, using a scale  of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is corruption clean. The rank tells the country’s position relative to other countries in the index. 

— Denmark, maintaining its eight-year streak, tops the CPI 2025 with the highest score of 89, followed closely by Finland (88) and Singapore (84). South Sudan and Somalia, both scoring 9, tied at rank 181. 

— India ranked 91st globally on the CPI 2025, scoring 39 out of 100, which is a slight improvement from the previous year. In 2024, India’s overall score was 38.

#6 Global Risks Report 2026

— The World Economic Forum (WEF) recently released Global Risks Report 2026 outlining the major risks the world is facing. The 21st edition of this annual report marks the second half of a turbulent decade and identifies geoeconomic confrontation as the most significant global risk. 

— The report explores risks in the current or immediate term (in 2026), the short-to-medium term (to 2028) and in the long term (to 2036). 

— Geoeconomic confrontation tops the Global Risks Perception Survey 2025-2026 (GRPS) ranking this year over both the immediate-term and the two-year time horizon, rising eight positions compared to last year in the latter ranking.

— In the long term (up to 2036), extreme weather events tops the list as the  most significant identified risks. 

— As per the report, cyber insecurity is the major risk faced by India.

#7 Climate Change Performance Index 2026

— The CCPI is an independent monitoring tool that tracks the climate mitigation performance of 63 countries and the EU. The CCPI report is jointly published by Germanwatch, the New Climate Institute, and the Climate Action Network (CAN) International. 

— The CCPI assesses each country’s performance in four categories:

(i) GHG Emissions (40% of the overall ranking), (ii) Renewable Energy (20%), (iii) Energy Use (20%) and (iv) Climate Policy (20%).

— According to the CCPI 2026 published at the UN COP30 Climate Summit, the top three places continue to remain vacant, as no country achieved an overall very high rating.

— Denmark emerged as the top-ranked country in the CCPI 2026 report, leading the index with 80.52 points at the 4th position. 

—  Saudi Arabia, at the 67th position, stands at the bottom of the index with a score of 11.9. It follows Iran at 66th position with 14.33 points.

— India fell 13 places from its previous ranking of 10th to stand at 23rd in CCPI 2026 with a score of 61.31.

#8 Climate Risk Index (CRI) report 

— During the COP30 climate conference, the CRI report was released by Germanwatch, a Bonn-based non-governmental organisation.

Published since 2006, the CRI measures the consequences of climate-related extreme weather events’ effect on countries. It ranks countries by their economic and human impacts (fatalities, as well as total affected), with the most affected country ranked highest.

India has been ranked 9th in the list of countries worst affected by climate-related disasters in the last 30 years. The last time this index was prepared, in 2023, India was ranked eighth.

#9 World Water Development Report 2025 

— On the occasion of the first-ever World Day for Glaciers on March 21, UNESCO released The United Nations World Water Development Report 2025 – Mountains and Glaciers: Water Towers. 

– According to the UNESCO report, snow cover in nearly all mountain regions has reduced, especially in spring and summer, with an expected further decrease in the coming decades. Snow cover is the total of all the snow and ice on the ground. It includes new snow and previous snow and ice that have not melted.

#10 Greenhouse Gas Bulletin

— According to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, an annual publication, globally averaged surface concentrations of carbon dioxide had increased by 3.5 parts per million from the 2023 levels to reach 423.9 ppm in 2024, a record high.

— The year 2024 was also the warmest year ever recorded, with the global average temperature being 1.55 degrees Celsius higher than pre-industrial times.

#11 Global Tuberculosis Report 2025

— The World Health Organisation released the Global TB Report 2025. The Report shows that India has achieved only a 21% reduction in new cases and a 28% reduction in deaths between 2015 and 2024. This does not even come close to the End TB milestones for 2025 — a 50% reduction in TB incidence and 75% reduction in TB deaths.

#12 Human Development Report 2025 

— The latest Human Development Report (HDR) was published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

—  Human Development Index (HDI) is composite index that measures average achievement in human development taking into account four indicators: life expectancy at birth (Sustainable Development Goal 3); expected years of schooling (SDG 4.3); mean years of schooling (SDG 4.4); and gross national income (GNI) per capita (2017 PPP$) (SDG 8.5).

— India shows steady upward movement in the HDI rankings, ranking 130 in the 2025 UNDP report.

#13 Global Gender Gap Report

— The 19th edition of the Global Gender Gap Report 2025 was published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) with the global gender gap at 68.8 per cent for 148 countries, marking the strongest annual advancement since the COVID-19 pandemic. 

— No country has yet achieved full gender parity. Iceland retains the world’s most gender-equal economy for the 16th consecutive year. 

— India has ranked 131 out of 148 countries, slipping two places from its position last year.

#14 SIPRI Report- Trends in International Arms Transfers 2025

— The global volume of major arms transfers between states in 2021–25 was 9.2 per cent higher than in the previous five-year period (2016–20), according to the latest report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

— The five largest suppliers of major arms in 2021–25 were: the USA, France, Russia, Germany and China. These five countries accounted for 70 per cent of all arms exports.

— The top five recipients of major arms in 2021–25 were—Ukraine, India, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Pakistan— received 35 per cent of total global arms imports in the period.

— The top 3 arms suppliers to India in 2021–25 were Russia (40%), France (29%) and Israel (15%).

#15 Fiscal Health Index 2026

— NITI Aayog released the Fiscal Health Index (FHI) 2026 for the Financial Year 2023-24. This is the second edition of the FHI, which assesses the state-level fiscal performance in India by expanding coverage to the North-Eastern and Himalayan states and refining indicators to better capture fiscal sustainability. 

— The FHI continues to use the five fiscal pillars to measure the fiscal health of states. The five pillars are: quality of expenditure, revenue mobilisation, fiscal prudence, debt index, and debt sustainability.

— Odisha remains the top performer, improving its score over the previous year, with Goa and Jharkhand also featuring among the top Achiever states. Gujarat and Maharashtra continue in the top five. 

Final Ranking of States for 2023-24 (Source: FHI 2026)

— Front-Runner states are Gujarat, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka. Whereas Performer states are Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan. Aspirational states in the index are West Bengal, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab.

— The NE /Himalayan States have been ranked separately from the major states and classified into three groups i.e.,

(i) Achievers: Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand

(ii) Performers: Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim, Tripura

(iii) Aspirational: Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland

#16 Global Innovation Index 2025

— The Global Innovative Index 2025 published by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) shows that R&D growth fell to 2.9 per cent in 2024 and is expected to drop further to 2.3 per cent in 2025. 

— Switzerland is the world’s most innovative country, followed by Sweden, the United States and others. Europe leads as the most innovative region, with 15 countries in the global top 25.

— India is ranked 38 and holds the #1 spot among lower-middle-income economies and in the Central and Southern Asia region. India performs best in Knowledge & Technology Outputs (#22) and Market Sophistication (#38), while its weakest rankings are in Business Sophistication (#64), Infrastructure (#61), and Institutions (#58).

#17 Financial Inclusion Index

— The Financial Inclusion Index (FI-Index), which captures the extent of financial inclusion across the country, improved to 67 in March 2025 from 64.2 in March 2024, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). 

— The index captures information on various aspects of financial inclusion in a single value ranging between 0 and 100, where 0 represents complete financial exclusion and 100 indicates full financial inclusion.

— The index comprises three broad parameters — access, usage, and quality, having weight 35 per cent, 45 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively. The FI-Index has been constructed without any base year and as such it reflects cumulative efforts of all stakeholders over the years towards financial inclusion.

#18 Panchayat Advancement Index (PAI) 2.0

— The Panchayat Advancement Index (PAI) 2.0 was released by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj. It covers all Gram Panchayats in the country, except West Bengal. 

— PAI is a multi-dimensional index used to assess the implementation of Localization of Sustainable Development Goals (LSDGs) across nine broad themes. 

— Under PAI, the Gram Panchayats have been ranked under five categories based on their score on a scale of 0-100: ‘Achiever’ (90-100), ‘Front Runner’ (75-90), ‘Performer’ (60-75), ‘Aspirant’ (40-60 ) and ‘Beginner’ (below 40). 

—  Among the ‘Front Runner’ panchayats, 943 were in Tripura, which constituted 80 per cent of the state’s total 1,176 rural local bodies. The state was followed by Kerala, where 10 per cent of its 941 Gram Panchayats have been assessed as ‘Front Runner’. With 8 per cent of its total 6,794 Gram panchayats assessed as ‘Front Runner’, Odisha stood next. 

#19 Water Bankruptcy Report

— The United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) has released a new report titled “Global Water Bankruptcy: Living Beyond Our Hydrological Means in the Post-Crisis Era”. 

— The Report has declared that the world has entered into the era of “global water bankruptcy”  due to a structural imbalance between water demand and available resources. The report calls for effective action to protect water-related natural capital before damages become fully irreversible. 

—  These report become important as we approach the conclusion of the International Decade for Action “Water for Sustainable Development” in 2028 and UN Water Conferences in 2026 and 2028. 

World Water Day To focus on the importance of freshwater, the United Nations marks March 22 every year as World Water Day. The theme of World Water Day 2026 is Water and Gender.

#20 Panchayat Devolution Index (PDI)

— Last year, the Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj released the Panchayat Devolution Index , which is based on a study conducted by the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA). The index was last published in 2014, and over the past decade, the national average score has increased from 39.92 to 43.89 

— The IIPA studied 172 panchayats across 68 districts in India to assess the performance of the panchayat system based on six parameters: framework, functions, finances, functionaries, capacity building, and accountability. Using this data, the IIPA developed the Panchayat Devolution Index . 

— The index scores states on a scale of 0 to 100. Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu ranked highest on the index, while Uttar Pradesh and Bihar showed the most significant improvement. 

— According to the index, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, and Jharkhand are the lowest-scoring states.  

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