Current Affairs — 23 July 2026

1. India's Wholesale Inflation Hits a Decade-High: Understanding Cost-Push Pressures

Core Context

Inflation in India is usually explained through two lenses: demand-pull inflation, where prices rise because people are buying more than the economy can supply, and cost-push inflation, where prices rise because the cost of producing and moving goods has gone up. The situation unfolding in mid-2026 belongs squarely to the second category, and that distinction matters enormously for how policymakers should respond.

Latest Developments

• Wholesale Price Index (WPI) inflation touched approximately 9.87% in June 2026, its sharpest rise in over a decade outside the Covid-19 period, driven mainly by fuel, power and manufactured goods.
• Retail inflation (CPI) rose to an 18-month high of 4.38% in June 2026, still within the Reserve Bank of India's comfort band of 2 to 6%, but climbing steadily.
• The main triggers include a geopolitical energy shock pushing crude oil above USD 110 a barrel, a weakening rupee near ₹95 to ₹97 per US dollar making imports costlier, an uneven monsoon squeezing farm output, and a near-tripling of import duty on gold and silver to 15%.
• Economists are flagging that interest rate hikes by the RBI, the standard tool against inflation, work mainly on demand and cannot fix supply bottlenecks such as global oil prices or monsoon failure, which is why several expert committees are recommending a coordinated fiscal and structural response instead of monetary tightening alone.

UPSC Prelims Pointers

• The Flexible Inflation Targeting (FIT) framework, recommended by the Urjit Patel Committee (2014) and adopted in 2016, mandates the RBI to keep CPI inflation at 4%, with a tolerance band of plus or minus 2%.
• The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), a six-member body chaired by the RBI Governor, decides the repo rate to manage inflation.
• WPI (Wholesale Price Index) is released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, while CPI (Consumer Price Index) is released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI); India shifted its primary anchor for monetary policy from WPI to CPI in 2014.
• Key related committees to remember: N.K. Singh Committee on FRBM review, Shanta Kumar Committee on restructuring the Food Corporation of India (FCI), and the M.S. Swaminathan Commission on agriculture.
• Related tools for price stabilisation include the Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF) and the Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS) used to release buffer food stocks.

2. Fodder Scarcity and Dairy Inflation: A Climate Risk Hiding in Plain Sight

Core Context

India is the world's largest milk producer, and livestock feed alone makes up 60 to 70% of the cost of producing milk. Because of this, even a modest disruption in fodder availability shows up quickly in dairy prices, and since milk carries significant weight in the consumer price basket, this becomes a national inflation issue rather than merely a rural livelihood issue.

Latest Developments

• An uneven southwest monsoon in 2026, linked to El Niño variability, has suppressed green fodder availability, forcing farmers toward costlier commercial concentrate feed, which itself becomes more expensive in poor monsoon years.
• Nearly four-fifths of India's milk is produced by small and marginal farmers owning just two to five animals, a group with very limited capacity to absorb rising feed costs.
• Heat stress independently lowers milk yield by reducing feed intake and raising the animal's maintenance energy needs, compounding the effect of fodder shortage.
• Experts are calling for a dedicated National Fodder Security Mission that treats fodder as strategic agricultural infrastructure, alongside better integration of India Meteorological Department forecasts with district-level fodder planning.

UPSC Prelims Pointers

• Operation Flood, launched in 1970 under the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), is the programme that made India the world's largest milk producer, often called the White Revolution.
• The Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute (IGFRI), headquartered in Jhansi, is India's premier body for fodder research.
• Common green fodder crops include maize, sorghum (jowar), bajra (pearl millet) and cowpea.
• Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) is a sub-index within CPI tracking only food inflation and is usually more volatile than the headline CPI.

3. India's First Geothermal Wells Commissioned at Puga Valley, Ladakh

Core Context

Geothermal energy is heat drawn from the interior of the earth, and unlike solar or wind power, it is available round the clock regardless of weather. This makes it a valuable 'baseload' renewable source, and India has now taken its first serious step toward tapping this resource in one of its most remote and energy-isolated regions.

Latest Developments

• India has commissioned its first-ever geothermal wells at Puga Valley in the Changthang region of Ladakh, drilled to a depth of 1,000 metres at an altitude exceeding 14,000 feet, making them the country's deepest geothermal wells to date.
• The wells recorded a temperature of 135°C at just 400 metres depth, and further testing is underway to assess the reservoir's full commercial potential.
• The project is being executed by the ONGC Energy Centre in collaboration with the Ladakh Administration and the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), Leh, and aims to build India's first demonstration-scale 1 MW geothermal power plant.
• This effort falls under the National Policy on Geothermal Energy, 2025, administered by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, and supports Ladakh's ambition of becoming carbon-neutral.

UPSC Prelims Pointers

• The Geological Survey of India (GSI) has identified 381 hot springs across the country, with surface temperatures ranging from about 35°C to 89°C.
• India has 10 recognised geothermal provinces: Himalayan, Naga-Lusai, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Son-Narmada-Tapi, West Coast, Cambay Graben, Aravalli, Mahanadi, Godavari, and South Indian Cratonic.
• India's estimated geothermal power potential stands at around 10,600 MW.
• Other major geothermal sites to remember: Puga and Chumathang (Ladakh), Manikaran (Himachal Pradesh), Tapoban (Uttarakhand), Bakreshwar (West Bengal), Tuwa (Gujarat), Tattapani (Chhattisgarh), and Deulajhari (Odisha).
• Globally, the United States leads in installed geothermal capacity, followed by Indonesia and the Philippines.

4. Antibiotic Misuse in India: The AWaRe Classification and the Threat of Antimicrobial Resistance

Core Context

The World Health Organization's AWaRe classification is a simple but powerful tool that sorts antibiotics into three categories based on how likely they are to encourage drug-resistant infections, and it is used worldwide to guide rational prescribing. A recent study has shown that India's actual antibiotic usage pattern is dangerously out of step with what this framework recommends.

Latest Developments

• A study published in The Lancet Public Health finds that India uses proportionally more broad-spectrum 'Watch' antibiotics, which carry a higher resistance risk, while underusing first-line 'Access' antibiotics that are safer and equally effective for common infections.
• Ideal antibiotic consumption in India should be around 78.5% Access, 6% Watch and 15.4% Reserve category drugs, but actual use in 2021 was only about 45.6% Access, with Watch antibiotics far higher than recommended.
• A national hospital survey found that 57% of hospital antibiotic prescriptions were for Watch-category drugs, and most were started without any microbiological culture test to confirm they were actually needed.
• Experts are calling for stronger Antimicrobial Stewardship Programmes (ASPs) in hospitals that make culture confirmation mandatory before prescribing Watch or Reserve antibiotics, along with a strengthened National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance.

UPSC Prelims Pointers

• AWaRe stands for Access, Watch and Reserve, a classification introduced by the World Health Organization in 2017 to promote rational antibiotic use.
• Access antibiotics are first-choice drugs for common infections (example: amoxicillin); Watch antibiotics are broad-spectrum drugs with higher resistance risk (example: azithromycin, ciprofloxacin); Reserve antibiotics are last-resort drugs for multidrug-resistant infections (example: colistin, meropenem).
• Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is recognised by the WHO as one of the top ten global public health threats facing humanity.
• India released its National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance (NAP-AMR) for the period 2017 to 2021, coordinated by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

5. Amazon Forest Fires Fall to a Historic Low, But a 'Super El Niño' Looms

Core Context

The Amazon rainforest, often called the 'lungs of the earth', plays a critical role in absorbing greenhouse gases and regulating global climate. Because of this, year-on-year changes in Amazon fire activity are closely tracked as a global environmental indicator, and the 2025 numbers brought welcome, if fragile, good news.

Latest Developments

• Environmental monitoring network MapBiomas reports that fires in the Brazilian Amazon fell in 2025 to their lowest level since satellite records began in 1985, with 3.1 million hectares burned, a sharp reversal from the record-high fire crisis of 2024.
• The 2024 fires had been driven by an unprecedented drought that fuelled largely human-caused blazes across the world's largest tropical rainforest.
• The improvement in 2025 is attributed to a delayed rainy season that shortened the usual burning window, reduced deforestation that left less fuel to burn, and greater caution among local communities after witnessing the scale of destruction in 2024.
• Despite this improvement, researchers are warning that a potential 'super El Niño' event in 2026, which would bring an extended dry season, could reverse these gains and trigger a fresh spike in fires.

UPSC Prelims Pointers

• El Niño refers to the periodic warming of sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean, which typically brings drier conditions to parts of South America and South Asia, including a weaker Indian monsoon.
• The Amazon rainforest is spread mainly across Brazil, and also touches Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.
• The Cerrado is a vast tropical savanna in central Brazil, ecologically distinct from the Amazon rainforest, and continued to see high fire activity even as Amazon fires declined.
• MapBiomas is a Brazilian collaborative network that uses satellite imagery to monitor land use, deforestation and fire across Brazil.

6. Internet Shutdown During Delhi's 'Chalo Sansad' Protest Reopens the Debate on Digital Rights

Core Context

Access to the internet today is closely tied to freedom of speech and freedom of trade, both fundamental rights under the Indian Constitution. Because internet shutdowns restrict these freedoms for entire regions at once, courts have laid down strict standards for when and how they can be legally imposed, yet India continues to record shutdowns more frequently than almost any other democracy.

Latest Developments

• Mobile internet services were suspended across around 150 cell sites in parts of central Delhi on 20 July 2026 during the 'Chalo Sansad' protest march, reviving concerns about the proportionality of such shutdowns.
• The suspension was ordered under Section 20 of the Telecommunications Act, 2023, read with the Telecommunications (Temporary Suspension of Services) Rules, 2024, which replaced the older framework under the colonial-era Indian Telegraph Act, 1885.
• Under the 2024 Rules, a shutdown order must be reasoned, published, limited in area and duration, and issued only by a competent authority; the maximum duration permitted for a single order is 15 days.
• Civil society organisations, including the Internet Freedom Foundation and the Software Freedom Law Centre, criticised the Delhi shutdown, and it was pointed out that several states continue to invoke the repealed 1885 law, bypassing the newer procedural safeguards altogether.

UPSC Prelims Pointers

• The landmark case governing internet shutdowns in India is Anuradha Bhasin versus Union of India (2020), where the Supreme Court held that internet access is protected under Article 19(1)(a), the freedom of speech and expression, and Article 19(1)(g), the freedom to practise any trade or business.
• The Court ruled that any shutdown must be lawful, necessary, proportionate and the least restrictive option available, and orders can be challenged before a High Court under Article 226 or the Supreme Court under Article 32.
• The Telecommunications Act, 2023 replaced the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 as the primary law governing telecom services in India, including shutdown powers.
• According to global trackers, India has recorded the highest number of internet shutdowns in the world for several consecutive years, with Jammu and Kashmir being the most frequently affected region historically.

7. Pellet Guns and Shock Batons at a Delhi Protest: Rethinking Crowd-Control Weapons

Core Context

Crowd-control weapons such as pellet guns and shock batons are officially described as 'non-lethal', meaning they are meant to disperse crowds without causing death. However, their repeated use across India over the past decade has left many protesters seriously injured or blinded, raising uncomfortable questions about how 'non-lethal' these weapons really are in practice.

Latest Developments

• At least one protester at the 20 July 2026 'Chalo Sansad' march in Delhi sustained pellet gun injuries near the eye, marking the first reported use of pellet guns against civilian protesters in the national capital.
• Pellet guns and shock batons form part of the standard equipment of the Rapid Action Force (RAF), the anti-riot wing of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), which was deployed alongside Delhi Police during the protest.
• Standing instructions require police to fire 'below the waist' when the use of force becomes unavoidable, but pellets fired from close range can still cause serious injury if they strike the eyes or neck.
• This is not the first controversy of its kind; pellet guns were first deployed in Jammu and Kashmir after the 2010 unrest and saw the most severe backlash after the 2016 post-Burhan Wani protests, when several people were blinded, prompting calls for their withdrawal that continue even today.

UPSC Prelims Pointers

• Pellet guns are technically known as 'pump action guns'; each cartridge contains hundreds of small lead or metal pellets that disperse over a wide area when fired.
• Pellets used in India are manufactured at the Ordnance Factory, Ishapore (West Bengal); plastic bullet alternatives have been tested at the Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory (TBRL), Chandigarh.
• The Rapid Action Force (RAF) is a specialised wing of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), raised in 1992 specifically for riot control and communal violence situations.
• Under Ministry of Home Affairs Qualitative Requirements (2021), shock batons must weigh no more than 1 kg and are required to function across a temperature range of minus 20°C to plus 50°C.

8. 'Museum of Word' Opens in Kolkata to Celebrate India's Multilingual Heritage

Core Context

India's linguistic diversity is one of its defining civilisational features, spanning oral traditions passed down for millennia to inscriptions, manuscripts, the printing press, and now artificial intelligence. A new museum in Kolkata attempts to tell this entire journey through a single immersive experience, reflecting the state's growing effort to institutionalise the preservation of language and culture.

Latest Developments

• Union Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurated the first phase of the 'Museum of Word' in Kolkata on 23 July 2026, an initiative of the Ministry of Culture.
• The museum traces the evolution of language from oral Shruti-Smriti traditions and palm-leaf manuscripts, through stone inscriptions and copper plates, to the printing press and the digital and artificial intelligence era.
• It uses visual, auditory and tactile immersive galleries, including a dedicated space honouring poets, writers and scholars who preserved Indian languages across generations.
• The Home Minister called for the museum to be expanded further to cover digital technologies and AI, so that Indian languages can evolve alongside future technology rather than being left behind by it.

UPSC Prelims Pointers

• Bengali was conferred classical language status by the Union Government in 2024, part of a broader recognition drive that already covers languages such as Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Odia.
• Classical language status is granted based on criteria such as high antiquity of early texts, a body of ancient literature considered a valuable heritage, and a literary tradition that is original and not borrowed from another community.
• The year 2026 marks the 150th anniversary of the composition of 'Vande Mataram'.
• Panini's Ashtadhyayi is regarded as one of the earliest and most systematic works of grammar in the world, foundational to the study of Sanskrit.

9. NSE Launches the Nifty 500 Ahimsa Index: India's First Animal-Cruelty-Free Equity Index

Core Context

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing has been growing steadily in India, and thematic indices are one way stock exchanges channel investor preferences into measurable financial products. The launch of an index built specifically around the principle of non-violence marks a novel extension of this trend into ethical and animal-welfare-linked investing.

Latest Developments

• The National Stock Exchange (NSE) launched the Nifty 500 Ahimsa Index on 10 July 2026, a thematic index drawn from the top 500 NSE-listed companies, screened to exclude firms involved in animal cruelty.
• The index was developed in collaboration with the Ahimsagain Foundation, using its AIM (Ahimsa Investment Movement) framework, which classifies companies into green, orange and red bands based on their business practices; only green-band companies are included in the index.
• Excluded sectors include pharmaceutical companies that rely on animal testing, commercial banks with exposure to such industries, and dairy, meat, leather, and most fashion and cosmetics companies.
• This index complements the BSE's Saatvik 100 Index, launched on 17 June 2026, which applies a broader Saatvik philosophy screening out companies linked to animal harm, addictive products and toxic activities.

UPSC Prelims Pointers

• ESG investing refers to investment strategies that evaluate companies on Environmental, Social and Governance criteria alongside traditional financial performance.
• NSE (National Stock Exchange) and BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange) are India's two principal stock exchanges, both regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
• A thematic index tracks a specific investment theme (such as ESG, infrastructure, or consumption) rather than the market as a whole, and is often used as the basis for index funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

10. India Unveils Its First Full-Scale eVTOL Aircraft Prototype

Core Context

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) refers to the use of small, often electric aircraft for short-distance air travel within and around cities, intended to ease road congestion and enable faster emergency response. India has now entered this emerging global sector with its first indigenously developed full-scale prototype.

Latest Developments

• The ePlane Company, a startup incubated at IIT Madras, unveiled India's first full-scale electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft prototype, named the e200X (PT-01), at its new production facility on the IIT Madras Discovery Campus in Chennai.
• The prototype is a 2.2-tonne aircraft capable of travelling around 110 km on a single charge, featuring a carbon-fibre airframe and an 800V high-voltage electric powertrain.
• Ground testing is expected to begin in 2027, with commercial operations targeted for 2028; the company plans to first deploy the aircraft for emergency medical and air ambulance services before expanding into airport transfers and urban passenger transport.
• The new facility, spread across 60,000 square feet, is described as India's largest eVTOL prototyping hub, marking the company's transition from sub-scale models to flight-ready, certifiable aircraft.

UPSC Prelims Pointers

• eVTOL stands for electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing, an aircraft category that combines the vertical take-off ability of a helicopter with the energy efficiency of electric propulsion.
• Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is being explored globally as a solution to urban traffic congestion, with applications ranging from air taxis to emergency medical transport.
• IIT Madras Discovery Campus is home to several deep-tech startups working in advanced manufacturing, aerospace and robotics, reflecting the growing role of Indian technical institutes in incubating hard-tech ventures.

11. Harjit Singh Grewal Takes Charge as Chairman of the National Commission for Minorities

Core Context

The National Commission for Minorities (NCM) is a statutory body created to safeguard the interests of India's notified minority communities, and its leadership appointments are periodically tested in the UPSC prelims for institutional and constitutional-body knowledge.

Latest Developments

• Harjit Singh Grewal, a senior BJP leader from Punjab, assumed charge as Chairman of the National Commission for Minorities on 21 July 2026, with his appointment notified by the Ministry of Minority Affairs.
• He succeeds Iqbal Singh Lalpura as the head of the statutory body and will serve a three-year term from the date of assuming office, or until further orders, whichever comes earlier.
• The appointment fills a key vacant statutory post responsible for monitoring the welfare and rights of India's minority communities across the country.

UPSC Prelims Pointers

• The National Commission for Minorities was established under the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992, and is a statutory body, not a constitutional one.
• The Commission currently recognises six communities as minorities at the national level: Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis (Zoroastrians) and Jains, the last of which was added in 2014.
• Functions of the NCM include evaluating the progress of minorities, monitoring the working of safeguards, looking into specific complaints of rights deprivation, and advising the government on minority welfare.
• The nodal ministry overseeing the NCM is the Ministry of Minority Affairs, a separate ministry carved out in 2006.