October 2025
In short: Andhra Pradesh polity & governance current affairs for October 2025.
Current Affairs — Andhra Pradesh › Polity & Governance · 20 min read · Free to read · English & Telugu
Bilingual study notes for the Andhra Pradesh Police SI & Constable exams (SLPRB AP) by AP Police Hub, a product of Anvil Academy.
Andhra Pradesh's October 2025 governance digest — a Group of Ministers to regulate social media, sweeping APPSC exam reforms, the Common Zoning Regulations 2025, a 26-to-32 district redraw, a ₹1.27 lakh crore SIPB Cabinet clearance (Google + JSW), the Excise Suraksha app with a spurious-liquor SIT, AP's first Urban Disaster Management Authority in Visakhapatnam, and a new AP High Court judge.
October 2025 — At a Glance
October 2025 saw Andhra Pradesh push a busy governance agenda. The state set up a Group of Ministers to regulate social media, unveiled far-reaching APPSC recruitment reforms, and introduced the first uniform Common Zoning Regulations (CZR 2025) for all urban bodies. It advanced a plan to grow from 26 to 32 districts, cleared ₹1.27 lakh crore of investments through the SIPB single-window Cabinet, and rolled out the Excise Suraksha app alongside a Special Investigation Team into a spurious-liquor case. Visakhapatnam moved to become AP's first Urban Disaster Management Authority, and Justice Subhendu Samanta joined the AP High Court.
GoM to regulate social media
- What & when — On 2 October 2025, AP announced a Group of Ministers (GoM) to oversee and regulate social media platforms — targeting misinformation, harmful content, online abuse and threats to national security.
- Composition — Nara Lokesh (IT & HRD), Y. Satya Kumar Yadav (Medical & Health), Nadendla Manohar (Civil Supplies), Kolusu Parthasarathy (Housing & I&PR) and Vangalapudi Anitha (Home); Convenor: Commissioner/Director of I&PR.
- Terms of Reference — Review the existing legal framework, study international best practices, recommend accountability measures for platforms, suggest nodal agencies / independent oversight bodies, and submit a report to the state government.
- Central law context — The IT Act, 2000 largely governs social media; state interventions must align with national policy.
APPSC reforms to strengthen recruitment exams
- What — APPSC submitted reform proposals to modernise exams, recruitment standards and digital competency; highlighted by outgoing Chairperson A.R. Anuradha.
- Key reforms — Simplified Group-I syllabus; a mandatory Computer Proficiency Test (CPT) for Group-I (validity extended to two years); offline mode for upcoming exams (over fraud at private online centres); collaboration with IITs; exclusion of unregulated private online centres; removal of 'decayed teeth' as a disqualification for uniformed posts; screening-test relaxations for EWS candidates.
- Financial enhancements — Paper-setting remuneration raised from ₹100 to ₹200 per question (including key); valuation fee ₹100 → ₹300 per script; interview board members' daily allowance doubled from ₹3,000 to ₹6,000/day.
- Achievements (Oct 2024 – Oct 2025) — Offline recruitment for 1,733 posts (1,92,419 candidates); online recruitment for 687 posts (61,100 applicants); 70,762 candidates in departmental/CPT/half-yearly/RIMC exams; 179 selected from 327 interviewed; 20,178 Group-I descriptive scripts evaluated; 31 policy/procedural proposals submitted.
Common Zoning Regulations (CZR) 2025
- What — AP's first uniform zoning framework applicable to all Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and Urban Development Authorities (UDAs).
- Simplification — Reduces 16 land-use categories to 9 zones: Residential (R), Commercial (C), Public & Semi-public (PS), Industrial (I), Recreational (RE), Transportation (T), Mixed Use (M), Agricultural Use (A), and Development Restricted/Protected Use (SA/PR).
- Implementation — Aligned with URDPFI Guidelines and Ease-of-Doing-Business; delivered via the Online Building Permission System (OBPS) for faster approvals and reduced discretion.
2. Redrawing the Map — Districts & Constituencies
New districts: from 26 to 32
- Plan — AP plans to expand from 26 to 32 districts — creating six new districts and reattaching Kandukur and Addanki to Prakasam. Final Cabinet approval/blueprint expected January 2026.
- Proposed districts — Palasa, Amaravati, Markapuram, Gudur, Madanapalle and Rajampet. Amaravati (capital region) is likely to be a separate district; Ongole remains the Prakasam headquarters; Markapuram to be carved out of existing districts.
- Background — Kandukur and Addanki had been split into Nellore and Bapatla during the YSRCP regime; a Cabinet sub-committee has begun deliberations on the reorganisation.
Realignment of Assembly segments and mandals
- What — A Group of Ministers (GoM) proposed realigning Assembly segments and mandals so each constituency lies entirely within a single revenue division — part of the district restructuring that followed the 2022 creation of new districts.
- Krishna region — The erstwhile Krishna district was reorganised into Krishna, NTR and parts of Eluru; of its 16 Assembly constituencies, only Kaikaluru and Nuzvid lie entirely within a single revenue division, while the other 14 overlap divisions/districts.
- Constituency-level proposals — Gannavaram (spans Krishna & NTR) to be brought fully under NTR with a new Gannavaram Revenue Division; Mylavaram and Pamarru realignments proposed; final proposals go to the State Cabinet.
3. Cabinet, Investment & Land Governance
Cabinet approves ₹1.27 lakh crore of SIPB projects
- What — The AP Cabinet (chaired by CM N. Chandrababu Naidu) approved investment proposals worth ₹1.27 lakh crore cleared by the State Investment Promotion Board (SIPB) — a single-window clearance body.
- Flagship projects — Raiden Infotech India (Google subsidiary): 480 acres in Visakhapatnam district + Anakapalli; ₹87,520 crore AI-powered data centres; 200 direct jobs plus thousands indirect. JSW Industrial Park Ltd: 1,166 acres in S. Kota mandal, Vizianagaram; ₹531 crore; ~45,000 jobs.
- Panchayats & Raj Bhavan — 7,244 clusters abolished and 13,351 independent gram panchayats created, categorised (Special Grade / Grade I/II/III) by population and revenue; Raj Bhavan construction in the Amaravati Government Complex approved at ₹212.22 crore.
- Also cleared — Tourism/hospitality (four-star hotels in Amaravati, a luxury resort in Araku Valley, a three-star hotel in Srisailam, a convention centre in Kakinada), renewable energy (solar & pumped storage in Anantapur, Vizianagaram, Kurnool, Nandyal), and food-processing units (Kurnool, Eluru, Chittoor).
Non-agricultural lands exempted from e-Panta registration
- What — The Centre approved AP's request to exempt non-agricultural/non-cultivable lands from mandatory registration under the e-Panta Digital Crop Survey for Kharif 2025.
- Numbers — Of 2.92 crore land parcels, 1.59 crore (55%) were already registered under e-Panta; the remaining 1.33 crore are mostly non-cultivable (hills, rocky terrain, canals, urban land).
- Process — Followed a review chaired by Rajeev Chawla, IAS (AgriStack Chief Officer) on 16 October; NIC built a new digital module to classify exempted parcels, distributed to Rythu Seva Kendras (RSKs). Deadline: 30 October 2025.
Advisory councils: data centres & green hydrogen
- Data Centre Council — An Apex Data Centre Advisory Council was constituted via G.O. 46 (27 October 2025) to achieve 6,000 MW of data centre capacity by 2030 under AP Data Centre Policy 4.0, positioning Visakhapatnam as a flagship AI-infrastructure hub; builds on Google's 1 GW project and Sify Infinity's 550 MW expansion, with Primus Partners as technical coordinator.
- Green Hydrogen panel — A high-level advisory committee was constituted under the 'Green Hydrogen Valley – Amaravati' initiative via G.O. Ms. No. 82 (Energy Dept). Chairman: Dr. V.K. Saraswat (Member, NITI Aayog); Co-Chairman: K. Vijayanand (Chief Secretary); Member-Convener: Dr. M. Kamalakar Babu (MD, NREDCAP). AP aims to be India's largest green hydrogen hub by 2030.
4. Law & Order, Justice & Disaster Governance
Excise Suraksha App & spurious-liquor SIT
- The app — CM N. Chandrababu Naidu launched the A.P. Excise Suraksha App to curb spurious liquor — users scan a bottle's barcode to verify authenticity, bottles are geo-tagged to authorised shops (curbing 'belt shops'), and a track-and-trace mechanism operates. Fully operational from 16 October 2025; available on Google Play Store; public grievances via toll-free 14405.
- The SIT — A Special Investigation Team (SIT) was constituted to probe the Mulakalacheruvu spurious-liquor case (Annamayya district) — Chairperson IG G.V.G. Ashok Kumar, with members Rahul Dev Sharma, K. Chakravarthy (CID SP), Malika Garg (IPS) and an Excise Dept expert. Of 23 accused identified, 16 were arrested and 4 are hiding abroad (transit warrants issued).
Decline in cognizable crimes, 2023
- Headline — AP recorded a decline in cognizable crimes — 2,22,199 (2021) → 1,95,284 (2022) → 1,84,293 (2023). Crime rate 2023 = 346.3 per lakh (mid-year projected population 5.32 crore); overall charge-sheeting rate 92.8%.
- Charge-sheeting — AP ranks among the top states for IPC charge-sheeting (91.6%) — after Kerala (95.6%) and Puducherry (92.5%). Crimes against children declined from 3,308 (2022) to 2,844 (2023).
- Crimes against women — Overall, crimes against women showed a marginal decline in 2023 after a sharp rise in 2022, with a charge-sheeting rate of about 95.2%. (The source's detailed 2023 case-handling breakdown is internally inconsistent and is therefore omitted here.)
Visakhapatnam to get AP's first UDMA
- What — Visakhapatnam is set to be the first city in AP and second in India to establish an Urban Disaster Management Authority (UDMA) under the Disaster Management (Amendment) Act, 2025, which introduces UDMAs for million-plus cities; proposal awaits state approval and comes with a ₹200 crore NDMA sanction under UFRMP.
- Composition & context — Chairperson = Municipal (GVMC) Commissioner, coordinating with the District Collector, NDMA and APSDMA. The DM Act 2005 had created NDMA (PM-chaired), SDMA (CM-chaired) and DDMA (Collector-chaired) but no urban-level mechanism.
New AP High Court judge
- What — Justice Subhendu Samanta, transferred from the Calcutta High Court, assumed charge as a judge of the AP High Court on 29 October 2025; the oath was administered by AP HC Chief Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur in the First Court Hall, Vijayawada.
- Constitutional basis — The transfer was under Article 222(1) of the Constitution; the Gazette Notification was issued by President Droupadi Murmu on 14 October 2025, after consultation with the CJI.
5. Welfare, Fiscal & Recognition in Governance
GST cuts benefit the fisheries sector
- Awareness drive — The AP Fisheries Department ran a GST awareness programme, 'Super GST – Super Savings,' at Narendrapuram village for fish farmers, fishermen and aquaculture stakeholders.
- Rate cut — The GST rate on key fisheries items was cut from 12% to 5% (covering marine products, processed fish, shrimp, fish oils, organic manure, aquaculture equipment, fishing gear and more).
- Power subsidy — A concessional power rate of ₹1.50 per unit applies to registered aqua farmers under APSADA (AP State Aquaculture Development Agency), giving an average saving of ₹20,000 per acre; the Union Budget 2025-26 also cut customs duties on shrimp/fish feed and other inputs.
Nellore teacher tops the iGOT Karmayogi national test
- Who — Challa Chandrasekhar Reddy, a maths teacher from Chilakalamarri Zilla Parishad High School (Ananthasagaram mandal, SPSR Nellore district), topped the national iGOT Karmayogi online test with 5,001 karma points — up from 2,953 the previous month, aided by bonus points for early course completion.
- Mission Karmayogi — Mission Karmayogi / iGOT was launched in 2022 to build the skills of Central and State government officials through structured digital learning.