Current Affairs — 7 August 2026

1. Money Bills in India — Supreme Court Judges Bill Passed Through the Money Bill Route

Core Context: A Money Bill enjoys a special constitutional procedure under which the Rajya Sabha has only a recommendatory role, while the Lok Sabha holds final authority. This mechanism, meant strictly for taxation and expenditure matters, has repeatedly triggered controversy whenever it is used to pass laws with only incidental financial provisions.

Latest Developments:

• The Rajya Sabha passed the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Bill, 2026, raising the sanctioned strength of Supreme Court judges from 34 to 38, including the Chief Justice of India.
• Its passage through the Money Bill route revived debate over whether the executive is using this special procedure to bypass full scrutiny in the Rajya Sabha.
• Critics point out that several major laws passed as Money Bills, including the Aadhaar Act, 2016 and amendments to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, have previously been challenged before the Supreme Court, with a seven-judge Constitution Bench now expected to lay down clearer benchmarks for Money Bill certification.

UPSC Prelims Pointers:

• Article 110(1) defines a Money Bill as one containing only provisions relating to taxation, government borrowing, the Consolidated Fund of India, appropriation of money, or matters incidental to these.
• Article 110(3) makes the decision of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha on whether a Bill is a Money Bill final.
• Under Article 109, a Money Bill cannot be introduced in the Rajya Sabha, requires prior recommendation of the President, and the Rajya Sabha must return it within 14 days with or without recommendations, which the Lok Sabha may accept or reject.
• Unlike ordinary Bills, there is no joint sitting mechanism under Article 108 for resolving disagreement over a Money Bill.

2. Reimagining Care in Viksit Bharat@2047 — NITI Aayog's Caregiving Report

Core Context: As India's population ages and disability prevalence rises, caregiving remains a largely informal, unpaid and undervalued activity, disproportionately performed by women, with no dedicated regulatory or social security architecture around it.

Latest Developments:

• NITI Aayog released a report titled "Reimagining Care: Strategies for Empowering Caregivers in Viksit Bharat@2047," recommending the constitution of a National Caregiver Council under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to regulate, accredit and standardise caregiving courses and maintain a National Caregiver Registry.
• Other recommendations include a National Policy on Caregiving that recognises caregiving as an allied health profession with fair minimum wages, aligning caregiving qualifications with the National Skills Qualification Framework, using Recognition of Prior Learning to formalise family caregivers, and expanding government-to-government mobility pathways to deploy trained Indian caregivers abroad.
• The report also calls for formal care-leave provisions for employees and community respite infrastructure linked to Ayushman Arogya Mandirs.

UPSC Prelims Pointers:

• India's elderly population, aged 60 and above, stood at about 149 million in 2022 and is projected to reach 347 million by 2050.
• According to Time Use Survey data, Indian women spend far more daily minutes on unpaid domestic and caregiving work than men, reflecting a significant gender care gap.
• Formal caregivers are trained professionals delivering paid care, while informal caregivers are unpaid family members, friends or community volunteers.

3. GOBARdhan — National Circular Bioenergy Scheme

Core Context: India generates vast quantities of cattle dung, crop residue and municipal solid waste that can be converted into clean fuel and organic fertiliser, offering a way to cut both fossil-fuel imports and open-field crop burning.

Latest Developments:

• The Union Cabinet approved GOBARdhan, standing for Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan, as a unified National Circular Bioenergy Scheme with a total outlay of 23,731 crore rupees for the ten-year period from 2026-27 to 2035-36.
• The scheme consolidates earlier initiatives such as SATAT, Market Development Assistance, Biomass Aggregation Machinery and the National Bioenergy Programme into a single framework under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
• It sets mandatory compressed biogas blending targets for City Gas Distribution entities, rising from 3 percent in FY27 to 5 percent from FY29 onward, backed by an administered price of 2,110 rupees per MMBTU, capital assistance of up to 2 crore rupees per tonne of installed capacity, and a dedicated credit guarantee mechanism for rural entrepreneurs and cooperatives.

UPSC Prelims Pointers:

• GOBARdhan converts organic biomass into Compressed Biogas and Fermented Organic Manure.
• The scheme's nodal ministry is the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, distinguishing it from purely agricultural or environmental schemes.
• SATAT, meaning Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation, was an earlier scheme aimed at setting up compressed biogas plants and has now been folded into GOBARdhan.

4. The Rise of India's Electric Vehicle Ecosystem

Core Context: Electric mobility sits at the intersection of India's climate commitments, energy security goals and manufacturing ambitions, and the sector has scaled up rapidly over the past decade through a combination of national missions and state-level incentives.

Latest Developments:

• India's electric vehicle penetration rose from 0.08 percent of total vehicle sales in FY 2015-16 to 8.26 percent in FY 2025-26, with annual EV sales climbing from around 50,000 units in 2016 to 2.3 million units in 2025.
• Uttar Pradesh was India's largest EV market in 2025 with more than 4 lakh units sold, followed by Maharashtra and Karnataka, while electric two-wheelers and three-wheelers together accounted for the bulk of sales.
• India's EV exports rose from 1.2 million US dollars in 2020 to 84 million US dollars in 2024, and the country had over 52,000 public charging stations by July 2026, including more than 16,000 fast-charging stations.
• NITI Aayog's India Electric Mobility Index, launched in August 2025, ranks states as Frontrunners, Performers or Aspirants across transport electrification, charging-infrastructure readiness and research and innovation, with Delhi, Maharashtra and Chandigarh emerging as Frontrunners.
• Key supporting schemes include PM E-DRIVE with an outlay of 10,900 crore rupees for vehicle incentives and charging infrastructure, the PM e-Bus Sewa Payment Security Mechanism supporting deployment of electric buses, and the Scheme for Promotion of Manufacturing of Electric Passenger Cars in India.

UPSC Prelims Pointers:

• India's electric mobility journey began in 2015 with the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan 2020 and the FAME scheme, short for Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles.
• FAME Phase I ran until March 2019 and FAME Phase II until April 2024, after which PM E-DRIVE took over as the principal EV incentive scheme.
• The e-Amrit portal is a government tool that helps users locate nearby EV charging stations.
• The transport sector accounts for roughly 9 percent of India's total greenhouse gas emissions, underscoring the climate rationale for electrifying mobility.

5. Heatwaves and Lightning Declared Notified Natural Calamities

Core Context: India's disaster relief funding is tied to a fixed list of "notified natural calamities," and hazards left outside this list, however deadly, could previously draw only limited support through a restrictive local disaster clause.

Latest Developments:

• The Ministry of Home Affairs formally added heatwaves and lightning to the list of notified natural calamities under the operational guidelines of the State Disaster Response Fund and National Disaster Response Fund for 2026-2031, expanding the list from 12 to 14 categories.
• Lightning is India's single largest killer among extreme weather hazards, causing an estimated 2,000 to 2,500 deaths annually and accounting for more than 35 percent of all natural disaster deaths, with the East and Chota Nagpur Plateau belt, spanning Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal, recording the highest strike density.
• With the new notification, states gain full access to primary SDRF and NDRF funds rather than relying on the earlier 10 percent local disaster cap, and roughly 20 percent of disaster allocations can now be used for long-term mitigation measures such as cool roofs and lightning protection poles.

UPSC Prelims Pointers:

• Notified natural calamities are recognised under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, making them eligible for systematic central and state relief funding.
• SDRF funds are shared between the Centre and states in a 75:25 ratio for general states and 90:10 for North-Eastern and Himalayan states, with allocations further split 80 percent for immediate response and 20 percent for mitigation.
• The SACHET portal is used for early-warning alerts related to extreme weather events including heatwaves and lightning.

6. The Satpura-Melghat Tiger Corridor — Railway Clearance Sparks Concern

Core Context: Wildlife corridors connecting isolated tiger reserves are essential for maintaining genetic diversity and preventing inbreeding, but they are increasingly under pressure from linear infrastructure projects such as railway lines and highways.

Latest Developments:

• The Standing Committee of the National Board for Wildlife granted in-principle clearance for a Central Railway third line project requiring more than 200 hectares of forest land within the Satpura-Melghat tiger corridor.
• The corridor spans roughly 7,325 square kilometres across Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, connecting the Satpura Tiger Reserve with the Melghat Tiger Reserve, and is home to tigers, leopards, sloth bears, striped hyenas and the endangered Forest Owlet.

UPSC Prelims Pointers:

• The corridor links Satpura National Park, Bori and Pachmarhi Sanctuaries in Madhya Pradesh with Gugamal National Park and the Wan, Narnala and Ambabarwa Sanctuaries in Maharashtra.
• The National Board for Wildlife, constituted under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, is the apex statutory body advising on wildlife-related projects, with its Standing Committee empowered to approve or reject projects affecting protected areas and wildlife corridors.
• The corridor forms part of the wider Central Indian Tiger Landscape, linking further with the Satpura-Pench and Melghat-Bor corridors.

7. Bhawana Kanth — India's First Woman Fighter Combat Leader

Core Context: The gradual opening of combat roles to women in the Indian Air Force has been a marker of institutional reform, and each new milestone reflects both individual excellence and a broader shift toward merit-based opportunity.

Latest Developments:

• Squadron Leader Bhawana Kanth qualified from the Tactics and Air Combat Development Establishment in Gwalior, becoming the Indian Air Force's first woman Fighter Combat Leader, a role responsible for shaping combat tactics for frontline squadrons.
• She had entered the Air Force in 2016 as one of India's first three women fighter pilots when the combat stream was opened to women on an experimental basis, and in 2019 became the first Indian woman qualified for day fighter combat missions.

UPSC Prelims Pointers:

• This development is relevant to GS Paper III on defence modernisation and human resource development in the armed forces, and to GS Paper IV on values such as perseverance, professionalism and gender equality in public service.
• The Fighter Combat Leader course is conducted at the Tactics and Air Combat Development Establishment, Gwalior, considered one of the Indian Air Force's toughest professional qualifications.

8. The Sarvottam Jeevan Raksha Padak — Honouring the Silkyara Tunnel Rescuers

Core Context: Civilian life-saving awards recognise acts of extraordinary bravery performed by ordinary citizens, often in professions that rarely receive national recognition.

Latest Developments:

• The Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways conferred the Sarvottam Jeevan Raksha Padak on 12 rat-hole miners who had rescued 41 workers trapped during the Silkyara tunnel collapse.

UPSC Prelims Pointers:

• The Sarvottam Jeevan Raksha Padak is the highest tier of the Jeevan Raksha Padak series of civilian life-saving awards, instituted in 1961 and administered by the Ministry of Home Affairs, followed by the Uttam Jeevan Raksha Padak and the Jeevan Raksha Padak.
• Recipients receive a cash grant of 2,00,000 rupees along with a medal, a miniature replica and a certificate signed by the Union Home Minister, and the award can be conferred posthumously.

9. Hero Stone Discovery Fixes Hoysala King Vishnuvardhana's Death Date

Core Context: Hero stones are an important source of local and dynastic history in South India, often carrying precise epigraphical details that help historians resolve chronological uncertainties.

Latest Developments:

• Residents of Neeragunda village in Karnataka's Arsikere taluk unearthed a 12th-century hero stone, known locally as veeragallu, during temple restoration work.
• Its Kannada inscription fixes the death of the Hoysala ruler King Vishnuvardhana to 11 December 1141, resolving a long-standing debate among historians, and also references the Garuda tradition of royal guards sacrificing themselves after the king's death.

UPSC Prelims Pointers:

• Hero stones, dating back to the Iron Age and Sangam period, reached their artistic and epigraphical peak under dynasties such as the Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas, Gangas, Kadambas and Hoysalas between the 5th and 14th centuries.
• They typically carry a three-tiered relief: a battle scene at the bottom, celestial nymphs carrying the hero's soul in the middle, and the hero worshipping a deity at the top, often topped by sun-and-moon symbols denoting eternal fame.
• King Vishnuvardhana was a prominent Hoysala ruler known for temple building, including the Chennakesava Temple at Belur.

10. Ceuta — Spain's North African Enclave and the Migration Crisis

Core Context: Enclaves at the edge of continents often become flashpoints where border security, asylum law and geopolitics intersect, and Ceuta exemplifies this as one of the European Union's only land borders with Africa.

Latest Developments:

• A large migrant influx at Ceuta triggered military deployment by Spain and renewed debate across Europe over border security and the use of migration as a geopolitical pressure tactic.

UPSC Prelims Pointers:

• Ceuta is a Spanish autonomous city and exclave on the North African coast, located at the Strait of Gibraltar and bordered entirely by Morocco.
• Along with Melilla, it forms the European Union's only direct land border with Africa and lies within the Schengen Area despite being outside the EU Customs Union, functioning as a free port.
• Its population is a distinct multicultural mix of Spanish Christians, Arab Muslims and small historic Jewish and Sindhi Hindu communities.