CLAT 2027 Current Affairs: How to Prepare and 2026 Themes

Last updated: 18 October 2026

Short answer: Current Affairs, including General Knowledge, carries about 28 to 32 of the 120 questions in CLAT 2027, roughly a quarter of the paper. The questions are set on news based passages, so you need both facts and the background behind them. Cover January 2026 to the week before the exam from one daily newspaper and one monthly compilation, keep short notes by theme rather than by date, and revise each month at least three times before 6 December 2026. The big themes of 2026 include the State elections, the renaming of Kerala as Keralam, Census 2027, the BRICS summit in New Delhi and India’s T20 World Cup win.

This guide explains how the section is set according to the Consortium of National Law Universities’ CLAT 2027 UG syllabus, which sources to use, how to make notes you will actually revise, and a revision timetable for the seven weeks left. It ends with a list of major 2026 themes. We have checked each fact listed against published reports and left out items we could not confirm.

How CLAT tests current affairs

The official syllabus says this section has passages of up to 450 words drawn from news, journalistic sources and other non fiction writing. Questions may test your knowledge of contemporary events of significance in India and the world, arts and culture, international affairs and historical events of continuing significance, and may also examine legal information or knowledge discussed in or related to the passage.

Two things follow. First, the passage gives you the topic but not always the answer: a passage on a summit may ask where the next one will be held, or which country chairs the group. Second, static background matters. A question on Kerala’s change of name may well ask which Article of the Constitution lets Parliament alter the name of a State.

Sources: keep the list short

• One national newspaper, every day. Read the front page, national, international, economy and sports pages. Twenty five to forty minutes is enough if you skip opinion columns on days you are short of time.
• Official sources for facts. Press Information Bureau releases and the websites of ministries and international bodies give the correct names, dates and figures when newspaper reports differ.
• One monthly compilation. Use it to check what you missed, not as a substitute for the newspaper. Using two or three compilations wastes time on repetition.
• A basic static GK source. Keep a short reference for the Constitution, international organisations and their headquarters, and major awards, so you can add background as you read the news.

Note making that works for CLAT

Make notes by theme, not by date. A notebook that records news day by day is hard to revise; a notebook with pages for elections, international summits, sports, awards, economy, science and environment, and law and governance lets you see a whole topic at once. For each item, write four short lines:

1. What happened, with the date and place.
2. Who was involved, with exact names and titles.
3. The number, such as seats, medals, margin or amount, if there is one.
4. The background link, such as the constitutional provision, the previous edition, or the organisation’s headquarters.

The fourth line is where most CLAT questions sit, and it is the line most aspirants skip. Keep each item to these four lines. If your notes for a month run beyond eight to ten pages, you are copying, not summarising.

A monthly revision cycle for the weeks left

Test yourself after each round rather than only re-reading. Close the notebook, write down everything you remember about a theme in two minutes, then check. The gaps are what you revise next.

The big themes of 2026

The list below is a starting point for your notes, not a complete list. Each item has been checked against published reports.

Polity and governance

• State elections 2026. Results for West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Keralam, Assam and Puducherry were declared on 4 May 2026. Suvendu Adhikari took oath on 9 May as the first BJP Chief Minister of West Bengal. In Tamil Nadu, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam won 108 of 234 seats and its founder C. Joseph Vijay was sworn in as Chief Minister on 10 May. Himanta Biswa Sarma began a second term in Assam on 12 May, N. Rangasamy took oath in Puducherry for a fifth time, and V.D. Satheesan became Chief Minister of Keralam on 18 May as the UDF returned to power.
• Kerala becomes Keralam. Parliament passed the Kerala (Alteration of Name) Bill, 2026 (Lok Sabha on 11 August, Rajya Sabha on 12 August), and the Act took effect on 25 August 2026. Background: Article 3 of the Constitution empowers Parliament to alter the name of a State.
• Census 2027. India’s 16th Census, and the eighth since Independence, is the first to be conducted digitally and the first to allow self enumeration. Houselisting ran in State wise windows from April to September 2026; population enumeration is scheduled for February 2027 with a reference date of 1 March 2027 (October 2026 for snow bound areas). Castes will be enumerated in the second phase.
• Judiciary. Justice Surya Kant was sworn in as the 53rd Chief Justice of India on 24 November 2025. On 6 October 2026, three new judges took oath, taking the Supreme Court’s working strength to 37 against a sanctioned 38. For the year’s legal developments, see our legal current affairs for October 2026.

Economy and international affairs

• Union Budget 2026 to 27. Presented in the Lok Sabha on Sunday, 1 February 2026, with a fiscal deficit target of 4.3 per cent of GDP.
• India AI Impact Summit. Held at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, in February 2026, focused on global cooperation on responsible and inclusive artificial intelligence and ending with a leaders’ declaration.
• 18th BRICS Summit. Hosted by India, which chairs BRICS in 2026, in New Delhi on 12 and 13 September 2026; it concluded with the adoption of the New Delhi Declaration.
• COP31. The UN climate conference is scheduled for 9 to 20 November 2026 in Antalya, Türkiye, under a partnership arrangement between Türkiye and Australia. Watch for outcomes in the weeks just before CLAT.
• Nobel Peace Prize 2026. Announced on 9 October 2026 for Navanethem (Navi) Pillay, the South African jurist and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Sports

Current affairs often feed the Legal Reasoning section too, since passages there may be built around a new law or judgment. Our CLAT 2027 legal reasoning tips explain how to handle those passages, and our last 50 days strategy shows where current affairs fits in a daily timetable.

Frequently asked questions

How many months of current affairs should I cover for CLAT 2027?

Cover January 2026 to the week of the exam thoroughly, and keep an eye on major events from late 2025, such as the appointment of the Chief Justice of India, that remain relevant.

Is static GK asked in CLAT UG?

Not as a separate topic, but questions on a news passage often ask for background, such as a constitutional provision, the headquarters of an organisation or the previous edition of an event. Learn static facts around the news, not in isolation.

Should I read more than one newspaper?

No. One newspaper read carefully, plus one monthly compilation to fill gaps, is enough. Spend the saved time on revision and mocks.

What should I do about events after my notes are complete?

Keep a separate page for November and early December, and add only major stories. Events in the last few days before the exam are less likely to appear because the paper is set in advance.

*This article is general information, not legal advice. Facts are stated as reported up to the date of update. Lexfolio is an independent publisher and is not affiliated with the Consortium of National Law Universities or any NLU.*