National Affairs
- The Centre plans to amend the Forest Conservation Act to redefine forest areas and ease clearances for strategic projects.
- A committee is set up to examine the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in multiple states.
- The Union Cabinet approved new health infrastructure schemes targeting rural and tribal areas.
- Delhi High Court ordered strict measures to check illegal encroachment on government land.
- India is witnessing a steady drop in daily COVID-19 cases, with vaccination coverage crossing 90% of the eligible population.
- Supreme Court stayed a state government’s attempt to scrap local body reservation for OBCs.
- Assam and Bihar reported flood alerts after heavy monsoon rainfall.
- Delhi’s air quality remained in the ‘moderate’ category despite intermittent rains.
- The government launched an initiative to promote drone use in precision agriculture.
- A proposal to boost ethanol blending to 30% by 2030 is under review to cut oil imports.
- For the first time, the Supreme Court adopted a formal reservation policy for SC (15%) and ST (7.5%) staff in court administration posts (not for judges).
International Affairs
- India condemned the recent terror attacks in Afghanistan and reiterated support for regional stability.
- Indian Navy participated in a multilateral maritime exercise with ASEAN countries in the South China Sea.
- Talks resumed between India and the UK on the pending Free Trade Agreement.
- India expressed concern at the UN about the humanitarian crisis in Sudan.
- The PM visited Cyprus after 23 years, strengthening India’s outreach to Europe.
- Under the Wilmington Declaration, QUAD countries launched the first ‘QUAD at Sea Ship Observer Mission’ to boost maritime security in the Indo-Pacific.
- Other QUAD initiatives include the Quad Cancer Moonshot for cervical cancer and MAITRI for maritime training.
Governance & Economy
- GST collections crossed ₹1.6 lakh crore in June, showing robust consumption.
- Retail inflation eased to 4.9% in June, driven by falling vegetable prices.
- The Finance Ministry is drafting guidelines for digital currency regulation.
- SEBI approved stricter rules to curb insider trading.
- Startups in Tier-II cities will get special incentives under a new MSME policy.
- India’s crude oil imports from Russia rose 25% in the last quarter.
Science & Technology
- ISRO announced it will test its reusable launch vehicle (RLV) prototype in August.
- Scientists at S.N. Bose National Centre discovered unique properties of Altermagnets, combining ferromagnet-like spin splitting with antiferromagnetic symmetry, using Chromium Antimonide (CrSb).
- A new indigenous TB vaccine candidate entered Phase III trials.
- IIT Delhi researchers developed a cost-effective water purifier for arsenic removal.
- The government aims to set up 100 new bio-incubators to boost biotech innovation.
Environment & Climate
- India released its updated Forest Survey Report, showing a marginal increase in forest cover.
- Wildlife officials reported the first photographic evidence of snow leopards in Uttarakhand’s Kedarnath sanctuary.
- Delhi government launched a pilot project for artificial rain to tackle air pollution.
- The National Green Tribunal fined a state pollution control board for negligence in river cleaning.
- The Draft Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emission Intensity Target Rules, 2025 propose legally binding GHG emission targets for 400+ industrial units under the CCTS.
- The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) will set these emission targets; failure to comply will invite penalties under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
- India’s carbon market steps include the Compliance Mechanism for obligated industries and a Voluntary Offset Mechanism for other sectors.
- The World Bank’s “State and Trends of Carbon Pricing 2025” recognised India’s growing leadership in carbon pricing frameworks.
- India’s experience with market mechanisms includes the PAT Scheme for energy savings, REC trading for renewable energy, and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol.
Law & Society
- Supreme Court directed states to ensure proper implementation of the POCSO Act.
- A special task force will review pending cases related to crimes against women and children.
- The Election Commission started verifying political parties’ compliance with financial disclosure norms.
Culture & Miscellaneous
- Archaeologists unearthed a medieval temple complex in Odisha’s Ganjam district.
- UNESCO added India’s Holi festival to its list of intangible cultural heritage practices.
- National Film Awards jury announced this year’s awards, with regional films winning big.
- A memorial for freedom fighters will be built in Port Blair, Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
Finance & Economy
- The Finance Minister proposed a Seven-Point Strategy at the UN’s 4th International Conference on Financing for Development to mobilise private capital for sustainable development.
- The strategy stresses stronger domestic financial markets, institutional reforms to reduce perceived risk, and scaling up blended finance using tools like sovereign green bonds.
- The UNCTAD’s “A World of Debt” Report 2025 shows global public debt at a record $102 trillion in 2024, with developing countries’ debt growing twice as fast as that of developed economies.
- Asia and Oceania hold 24% of global public debt among developing nations; high borrowing costs widen development finance gaps.
- UN Secretary-General’s Expert Group suggested debt service pauses during crises, SDR re-channelling, and debt swaps to manage public debt sustainably.
- RBI’s Financial Stability Report (FSR) confirms India’s economy remains resilient, with real GDP projected to grow at 6.5% in 2025–26.
- India’s Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) reported multi-decadal low NPAs — Gross NPA ratio at 2.3% and Net NPA at 0.5%.
- India’s capital-to-risk weighted assets ratio rose to a high of 17.3%, and large borrowers’ GNPA fell from 3.8% to 1.9%.
- Domestic CPI inflation hit a six-year low of 2.8% in May 2025.
- The FSR highlights global macro-financial risks from trade tensions, high global debt, and climate-related shocks.
- Key regulatory updates: Basel III norms review, IOSCO reforms for securities markets, and RBI’s new Digital Lending Guidelines 2025.
Digital & Technology
- Digital India Mission marks 10 years, now contributing 11.74% of national income; expected to reach 13.42% by 2024–25.
- Internet connections grew from 25.15 crore (2014) to 96.96 crore (2024); BharatNet has connected 2.18 lakh Gram Panchayats.
- India accounts for 49% of global real-time digital payments, with UPI live in over seven countries.
- The WaveX Startup Challenge 2025 (under MoI&B) launched the BhashaSetu hackathon to develop real-time AI language translation tools for 12+ Indian languages.
Statistics & Development
- The National Indicator Framework (NIF) Progress Report 2025 tracks India’s SDG progress — highlights include rising adolescent birth rate, road accident deaths, and declining soil health card issuance.
- SDG progress: Agriculture productivity rose to ₹94,110 per worker, rural safe drinking water access up to 99.62%, and forest cover increased to 21.76%.
Disaster Management
- The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) operationalised the Integrated Alert System (SACHET) for geo-targeted SMS disaster alerts.
- The new Cell Broadcast System enables near real-time alerts for urgent disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis.
History
- The 170th anniversary of the Santhal Rebellion (Hul Diwas) was marked, remembering the 1855–56 uprising led by Sidhu, Kanhu, Chand-Bhairav, Phulo & Jhano Murmu in Damin-i-Koh against British oppression.
- Supreme Court declined to hear a plea challenging the Bodh Gaya Temple Act governing the Mahabodhi Temple Complex, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
- The Mahabodhi Temple was originally built by Ashoka in the 3rd century B.C., current structure dates to the Gupta period with a unique blend of Nagara and Dravida elements.
Geography
- The Andaman Sea, a high-risk seismic zone, experienced three earthquakes in a day; it’s bounded by Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Andaman-Nicobar Islands.
- It’s geologically active due to the subduction of the Indian Plate beneath the Eurasian Plate, and hosts rich marine biodiversity as part of the Coral Triangle.
New Employment-Linked Incentive (ELI) scheme
Context: The Union Cabinet has approved a new Employment-Linked Incentive (ELI) scheme with an outlay of nearly ₹99,446 crore to boost job creation, especially in the manufacturing sector, as part of the broader employment push under Budget 2024–25.
Key Highlights:
- The ELI scheme aims to help create over 3.5 crore new jobs over two years, with 1.92 crore first-time workers entering the workforce.
- Employers will receive incentives for hiring new employees — up to ₹3,000 per employee per month for two years, provided the job is sustained for at least six months.
- In manufacturing, benefits will extend to the third and fourth years to encourage longer-term job retention.
- First-time employees will get one month’s wage (up to ₹15,000) as a direct benefit under the scheme.
- The scheme will cover jobs created between August 1, 2025, and July 31, 2027, for employees earning up to ₹1 lakh per month.
- The ELI scheme is part of a larger ₹2 lakh crore youth package announced in Union Budget 2024–25 to generate 4.1 crore opportunities through employment, skilling, and allied measures.
- The industry has welcomed the incentives for formal hiring, but trade unions like CITU have criticised it as a hidden subsidy for employers using public funds.
- The government expects the scheme to particularly benefit youth and first-generation workforce entrants, boosting formalisation and income security.
Gross GST collections for June 2025
Context: India’s Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue growth slowed to its lowest level in four years, as June 2025 collections show the effects of muted consumer sentiment and external economic headwinds.
Key Highlights:
- Gross GST collections for June 2025 stood at ₹1.85 lakh crore, a 6.2% rise year-on-year but an 8.2% drop compared to May 2025.
- This is the lowest monthly GST revenue growth since June 2021, highlighting signs of a possible moderation in economic activity or consumption.
- After adjusting for refunds, net GST revenue for June stood at ₹1.59 lakh crore, only 3.3% higher than last year’s figure.
- Total GST collections for April–June FY26 reached ₹2.07 lakh crore, indicating moderate growth for the first quarter.
- Tax experts say the slowdown may partly reflect geopolitical uncertainty, global spillovers, and weaker consumer demand.
- However, some regions — Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Lakshadweep, and Ladakh — saw strong local growth, suggesting robust consumption in smaller states and UTs.
- Overall, the data signals that while GST continues to be a stable source of revenue, there is a need to watch domestic demand trends and global economic risks.
Research Development and Innovation (RDI) scheme
Context: The Union Cabinet has cleared a major ₹1 lakh crore Research Development and Innovation (RDI) scheme to push the private sector to invest more in basic research, aligning India with advanced economies where industry drives a large share of R&D spending.
Key Highlights:
- First proposed in the interim Budget 2024, the scheme’s goal is to shift India’s R&D funding balance — today, most basic research spending comes from government.
- The Ministry of Science and Technology will administer the scheme, with an extra ₹20,000 crore allocated in its 2025–26 budget to start implementation.
- The RDI fund will support projects that have reached Technological Readiness Level (TRL) 4 — meaning they have crossed basic lab research and show clear commercial and development potential.
- TRL-4 projects often face the highest funding risk because they need to bridge the “valley of death” between lab stage and large-scale market deployment.
- The focus is on converting lab-scale innovations into market-ready products, boosting India’s deep tech, advanced manufacturing, and future technologies ecosystem.
- The scheme is expected to catalyse private sector R&D participation, which remains far below global benchmarks.
- By incentivising industry to co-invest in high-risk, high-reward research, the government hopes to strengthen India’s innovation ecosystem and global competitiveness.
HSBC India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI)
Context: India’s manufacturing sector saw robust expansion in June 2025, reaching its highest growth in 14 months, driven by strong export orders, according to the HSBC India Manufacturing PMI survey.
Key Highlights:
- The HSBC India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to 58.4 in June, up from 57.6 in May, signalling stronger momentum.
- June’s PMI reading is the highest since April 2024 and well above the long-run average of 54.1, indicating sustained expansion in manufacturing output.
- The sector recorded one of the fastest growth rates in new export orders in over 20 years of survey history, highlighting India’s improving export competitiveness.
- Domestic output and new orders also improved significantly, providing a strong close to the first fiscal quarter of FY26.
- Firms reported a record upturn in employment, suggesting manufacturing job creation is picking up in response to rising demand.
- Overall, the data signals healthy industrial activity amid broader concerns of patchy growth trends in other parts of the economy.
India’s biggest legal reform since Independence
Context: Union Home Minister Amit Shah has hailed the new criminal laws — the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Bharatiya Sakshya (BS), and Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) — as India’s biggest legal reform since Independence, aiming to modernise and make the justice system faster, more transparent, and citizen-centric.
Key Highlights:
- The three new codes replaced the colonial-era IPC (1860), Indian Evidence Act (1872), and Code of Criminal Procedure (1898) from July 1, 2024.
- Mr. Shah said the reforms include tech-based processes like e-evidence, e-summons, and digital tools to plug loopholes that let offenders escape conviction.
- The new framework enforces strict timelines for the police, prosecutors, and courts to prevent delays in justice delivery.
- The laws embed checks and balances to hold police accountable for lapses in investigation.
- New provisions such as community service as punishment have been notified in 12 States/UTs, while Nyay Shruti, e-evidence, and e-summons are active in several States.
- In the first year of rollout, over 14.8 lakh police personnel, 42,000 jail staff, 19,000 judicial officers, and 11,000 public prosecutors have been trained on the new system.
- The Home Minister emphasised the mindset shift: people should believe “filing an FIR will deliver prompt justice”, not fear delays or harassment.
- The government claims that once fully implemented, the new criminal laws will raise India’s conviction rate by streamlining evidence gathering, trial, and sentencing.
INS Tamal (F71) Commissioned
Context: The Indian Navy has commissioned INS Tamal (F71), a multi-role stealth guided missile frigate, marking the last major foreign-built warship to enter service as India shifts focus to indigenous shipbuilding under Aatmanirbhar Bharat and Make in India.
Key Highlights:
- INS Tamal was commissioned at the Yantar Shipyard, Kaliningrad (Russia), highlighting Indo-Russian maritime cooperation that spans 65 years and 51 ships.
- It is the eighth warship of Project 1135.6 (Talwar class) and the second follow-on Tushil-class frigate — earlier seven serve in India’s Western Fleet.
- The frigate is designed for blue-water operations and can counter threats in air, surface, sub-surface, and electronic warfare domains.
- Key armament includes dual-role BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, enhancing India’s long-range strike capability at sea.
- Commanded by Captain Sridhar Tata, an expert in gunnery and missile warfare.
- Russian officials hailed Tamal as a testament to the durable Indo-Russian defence partnership, while Vice Admiral R. Swaminathan noted it symbolises the transition to greater indigenisation in India’s warship production.
- The Navy’s future acquisitions will focus on Indian shipyards, strengthening domestic defence manufacturing and strategic autonomy.
Indian Railways has launched RailOne
Context: The Indian Railways has launched RailOne, a new all-in-one passenger services app, to make train travel smoother and more integrated, part of a broader push to upgrade India’s rail digital infrastructure.
Key Highlights:
- RailOne has been developed by the Railways’ Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) to improve the passenger interface.
- The app is available on the Android Play Store and iOS App Store, offering a single sign-on with login through mPIN or biometrics and supporting existing RailConnect and UTS credentials.
- It consolidates multiple passenger services into one platform — unreserved and platform ticket booking (with a 3% discount), live train tracking, grievance redressal, e-catering, porter booking, and last-mile taxi booking.
- For reserved tickets, RailOne is integrated with IRCTC, similar to other IRCTC-authorised third-party apps.
- The goal is to replace multiple railway apps, saving storage space on mobile devices and improving ease of use for passengers.
- RailOne complements the Railways’ larger digital push, which includes the development of a next-generation Passenger Reservation System (PRS) — designed to be agile, multilingual, and capable of handling 1.5 lakh ticket bookings and 40 lakh enquiries per minute, 10 times the current load.
- Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw highlighted that CRIS will continue to play a key role in strengthening the Railways’ digital backbone.