Current Affairs — 13 July 2026

1. India–New Zealand Strategic Partnership

Core Context

A recent visit by the Prime Minister of India to New Zealand, the first by an Indian Prime Minister in four decades, elevated the bilateral relationship from a modest, largely trade-focused engagement to a full-fledged Strategic Partnership. Both nations adopted a Roadmap to 2030 to steer cooperation across diplomacy, defence, trade, education and climate action, reflecting a broader Indian push to deepen ties across the Indo-Pacific and the Pacific Islands region.

Latest Developments

• India and New Zealand adopted the India–New Zealand Strategic Partnership: Roadmap to 2030 to guide cooperation across strategic sectors.
• A regular Foreign Ministers' Dialogue, annual senior officials' meetings and stronger parliamentary exchanges were established to institutionalise engagement.
• Defence cooperation was strengthened through a Maritime Cooperation Arrangement, a Mutual Logistics Support Arrangement, hydrography cooperation and an annual Maritime Security Dialogue.
• A Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism was set up, along with cooperation against narcotics trafficking, cybercrime and organised crime.
• The two countries concluded a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement, setting a target of doubling bilateral trade to roughly thirty-five thousand crore rupees by 2030.
• An Agricultural Productivity Partnership was launched covering kiwifruit, apples and honey, alongside cooperation in dairying and food safety.
• New Zealand extended support for India's bid for permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council and entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

UPSC Prelims Pointers

• New Zealand is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations and shares long-standing democratic and parliamentary traditions with India.
• The Nuclear Suppliers Group is a multilateral export-control regime that governs the transfer of nuclear material, equipment and technology.
• India's Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative seeks maritime cooperation across seven pillars including maritime security, ecology and trade connectivity.
• The Global Biofuels Alliance was launched by India during its G20 presidency to promote biofuel adoption worldwide.
• The Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation is India's platform for engaging with small Pacific Island nations.

2. Helium as a Strategic Resource

Core Context

Helium, long treated as an ordinary industrial gas, has rapidly acquired the status of a strategic resource. Recent tensions in West Asia, including disruptions near facilities in Qatar and shipping risks through the Strait of Hormuz, prompted a temporary curb on helium exports from a major producing nation, exposing how concentrated and fragile the global helium supply chain really is.

Latest Developments

• Helium is a non-renewable resource formed over millions of years through the radioactive alpha decay of heavy elements such as uranium and thorium, and it becomes trapped alongside natural gas deposits underground.
• Extraction is commercially viable only when a natural gas reservoir contains at least three percent helium by volume, after which cryogenic fractional distillation is used to isolate it.
• Global helium output is heavily concentrated, with the United States accounting for about forty-three percent and Qatar around thirty-three percent of world supply.
• Roughly one-third of the world's helium supply passes through the Strait of Hormuz, making global markets vulnerable to sudden disruptions from regional conflict.
• Helium can only be transported in specialised vacuum-jacketed cryogenic vessels manufactured by very few firms worldwide, adding to supply bottlenecks.

UPSC Prelims Pointers

• Helium has the lowest boiling point of any element, remaining liquid near absolute zero, and is chemically inert as a noble gas.
• It is essential for cooling superconducting magnets in MRI machines, semiconductor fabrication, quantum computing, and for pressurising rocket fuel tanks in space missions.
• The noble gases, in order of atomic number, are helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon and radon.
• The Strait of Hormuz lies between Iran and Oman and connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman, making it one of the world's most strategically sensitive maritime chokepoints.

3. India's First Hydrogen Train

Core Context

India is preparing to launch its first hydrogen-powered passenger train, a milestone in the country's pursuit of zero-emission mass transit. The train will be flagged off on the Jind-Sonipat section in Haryana, marking a significant step in indigenous clean-energy railway technology.

Latest Developments

• The train is a Hydrogen-Electric Multiple Unit built by retrofitting older Diesel Electric Multiple Unit rakes with hydrogen fuel cells and lithium battery propulsion, removing the need for overhead electric wires or fossil fuel.
• The project was executed by Northern Railway, with equipment supplied by an Indian engineering firm and fuel cells sourced from a leading Canadian manufacturer.
• The rake consists of eight passenger coaches and two driving power cars with a combined output of about two thousand four hundred kilowatts.
• It will operate along an eighty-nine kilometre stretch, carrying close to seven hundred passengers per trip at a maximum speed of seventy-five kilometres per hour.
• A dedicated hydrogen fuelling station with a large storage capacity has been built to support refuelling, using a chiller plant to liquefy hydrogen for fast, safe dispensing.

UPSC Prelims Pointers

• Hydrogen fuel cells generate electricity by combining hydrogen with oxygen through an electrochemical reaction, releasing only water vapour and heat as by-products.
• Hydrogen is classified by production method into grey, blue and green hydrogen, with green hydrogen produced using renewable electricity.
• India's National Green Hydrogen Mission aims to make the country a global hub for green hydrogen production and export.
• Zero-emission rail transport supports India's broader commitment to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2070.

4. Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Scheme

Core Context

The Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Scheme recently crossed the milestone of two lakh credit-linked beneficiaries, reaffirming its role as a key instrument for formalising India's vast unorganised micro food processing sector.

Latest Developments

• The scheme was launched on 29 June 2020 under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan and is implemented by the Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries.
• It aims to bring an estimated twenty-five lakh informal micro food processing units into the formal economy through credit linkage and capacity building.
• Individual micro units receive a thirty-five percent credit-linked capital subsidy, capped at ten lakh rupees, for upgrading machinery and packaging.
• The scheme follows a One District One Product strategy, encouraging each district to focus on a signature food product for economies of scale.
• Farmer Producer Organisations, cooperatives and Self-Help Group federations receive group infrastructure grants of up to three crore rupees, while individual Self-Help Group members receive seed capital of forty thousand rupees.
• The funding pattern follows a sixty-forty Centre-State split in general states, ninety-ten for North-Eastern and Himalayan states, and full central funding for Union Territories without a legislature.

UPSC Prelims Pointers

• The scheme is a centrally sponsored scheme, distinct from a central sector scheme, meaning it involves cost-sharing between the Centre and States.
• The One District One Product approach also supports Geographical Indication tagging and export promotion of local food products.
• The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India regulates food safety standards that beneficiaries must comply with.
• Udyam registration is the government's online registration portal for micro, small and medium enterprises.

5. South China Sea Dispute

Core Context

On the tenth anniversary of the 2016 Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling on the South China Sea, a claimant nation strongly reiterated its rejection of the verdict, calling it illegal and invalid. The episode keeps alive one of Asia's most enduring and strategically significant maritime disputes.

Latest Developments

• The 2016 arbitration ruling had rejected sweeping historical claims over the South China Sea based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
• The disputing nation continues to assert a nine-dash line covering close to ninety percent of the South China Sea.
• The Spratly and Paracel Islands remain contested among multiple claimant states, with several islands and reefs converted into military outposts featuring runways and radar installations.
• The sea is estimated to hold around eleven billion barrels of oil and one hundred ninety trillion cubic feet of natural gas, alongside rich fishing grounds supporting millions of livelihoods.
• Over one-third of global maritime trade passes through the South China Sea, making it critical to global supply chains and energy security.

UPSC Prelims Pointers

• The South China Sea is bordered by China and Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia.
• It connects to the East China Sea via the Taiwan Strait, to the Philippine Sea via the Luzon Strait, and to the Indian Ocean region via the Strait of Malacca.
• The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, concluded in 1982, governs maritime boundaries, exclusive economic zones and territorial waters.
• The Permanent Court of Arbitration is headquartered at The Hague in the Netherlands.

6. Space Technology in the News: Orbital Mirrors and Reusable Rockets

Core Context

Two developments highlighted the fast pace of global space technology. An American regulator cleared a private mission to test whether sunlight can be redirected from orbit using a giant space mirror, while a major spacefaring nation achieved its first successful sea-based recovery of a reusable rocket booster, a milestone with implications for lowering the cost of space access.

Latest Developments

• A California-based aerospace startup received a limited two-year operating licence for a technology-demonstration satellite designed to test orbital sunlight reflection.
• The satellite carries a deployable thin-film reflector and operates in a near-polar low Earth orbit at an altitude of around six hundred twenty-five kilometres, aiming to extend solar power generation after sunset and assist emergency illumination during disaster relief.
• Scientists have cautioned that such orbital mirrors could brighten night skies and interfere with astronomical observations.
• Separately, a next-generation reusable rocket achieved its first successful sea-based booster recovery at a coastal launch site, using nitrogen thrusters, grid fins and a net-capture system mounted on a recovery vessel.
• The rocket can carry payloads of up to sixteen metric tonnes to low Earth orbit and is expected to support future crewed lunar missions while lowering the cost of satellite launches.

UPSC Prelims Pointers

• Low Earth Orbit typically extends from about two hundred to two thousand kilometres above the Earth's surface and is used for most communication and remote-sensing satellites.
• Reusable rocket technology significantly lowers launch costs by allowing booster stages to be recovered and reflown, a concept pioneered commercially in the previous decade.
• Light pollution from space-based reflectors or satellite constellations is an emerging concern for ground-based astronomy worldwide.