Current affairs — 23 July 2026

Prelims pointers

• The second and final session of India's Eighth Trade Policy Review concluded at the WTO in Geneva on 23 July 2026.
• India's delegation was led by Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agarwal.
• India received 1,094 written questions from 44 WTO Members during the review.
• Sixty-eight WTO Members made interventions during the two review sessions held on 21 and 23 July 2026.
• Members welcomed India's acceptance of the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies.

Prelims pointers

• BARC Training School, Mumbai is listed with an institute capacity of 230.
• GCNEP, Bahadurgarh has five specialised schools for international collaboration in nuclear energy research.
• NPCIL has seven Nuclear Training Centres located at Rawatbhata, Tarapur, Narora, Kaiga, Kakrapar, Kalpakkam and Kudankulam.
• During the last five years, 917 Trainee Scientific Officers were admitted to BARC Training Schools and 863 completed training and were absorbed as Scientific Officers in DAE units.
• Fifteen Radiography Technique and Radiological Safety Level-2 courses were conducted during the last five years, with 514 participants and 446 certificates awarded.

Prelims pointers

• Private investment in India's space sector crossed USD 618.5 million by 31 March 2026, according to the release.
• IN-SPACe had granted 105 authorisations to Non-Government Entities as on 14 July 2026.
• Cumulative private funding rose from USD 100.5 million in 2021-22 to USD 348.5 million in 2023-24.
• IN-SPACe evaluates private space applications under its Norms, Guidelines and Procedures before authorisation.
• Active space startups increased from one in 2014 to over 400, according to IN-SPACe's impact assessment.

Prelims pointers

• Aditya-L1 studies solar wind particles, the solar corona, near-UV signatures on the solar disc and interplanetary magnetic fields.
• The spacecraft's position around the Sun-Earth L1 point enables a continuous view of the Sun.
• Aditya-L1 captured first-ever spectroscopic signatures of the onset phase of a Coronal Mass Ejection.
• Aditya-L1 observations helped analyse intense geomagnetic storms of May and October 2024.
• The mission observed photospheric iron fluorescence across 47 massive X-class solar flares during Solar Cycle 25 in 2024.

Prelims pointers

• From July 2023 to June 2026, India launched 12 launch vehicle missions, 11 national satellites and 9 international customer satellites.
• The reply says Chandrayaan-3 made India the first country to soft-land near the south pole of the Moon.
• India became the fourth country to demonstrate docking and undocking in space through the SPADEX mission.
• The Department of Space has operationalised PSLV, GSLV, GSLV MkIII and SSLV as launch vehicles.
• IN-SPACe has a vision under which India's space economy is targeted to reach USD 44 billion by 2033.

Prelims pointers

• BARC's Health Physics Unit regularly carries out environmental monitoring around uranium mining facilities.
• UCIL's mining and processing activities are under AERB regulatory oversight, with periodic inspections and reviews involving AERB, DGMS and SPCB.
• Radiological monitoring of workplaces and surrounding areas has been carried out continuously since operations began.
• A UCIL health survey in villages around Jharkhand establishments examined many villagers and found issues similar to rural areas with comparable socio-economic conditions.
• UCIL's CSR initiatives mentioned include safe drinking water, healthcare, sanitation, education, skill development and infrastructure development.

Prelims pointers

• DAE says India's three-stage nuclear power programme is based on a closed fuel cycle.
• The programme aims to use limited uranium resources and large thorium reserves for long-term energy security.
• Plutonium extracted from spent fuel of domestic PHWRs is used as fuel for the second stage.
• The PFBR attained first criticality on 6 April 2026, marking India's entry into the second stage of the programme.
• The third stage envisages the use of U-233 bred from Th-232 as fuel.

Prelims pointers

• The SHANTI Act, 2025 is described as focused on the Nuclear Energy Mission target of 100 GW by 2047.
• Thirteen reactors totalling 10,600 MW have been at various stages of construction or commissioning during the last ten years.
• Four reactors with total capacity of 3,100 MW have commenced commercial operation.
• Nine reactors with total capacity of 7,500 MW are at various stages of construction.
• BARC has undertaken design and development of BSMR-200, SMR-55 and an up-to-5 MWth HTGCR for hydrogen generation.

Prelims pointers

• DoT activated emergency measures after telecom disruption caused by heavy rainfall, cloudburst and landslides.
• ICR was enabled in Poonch and Rajouri in Jammu & Kashmir.
• ICR was enabled in Sibsagar, Charaideo and Jorhat in Assam, and Mon in Nagaland.
• Intra-Circle Roaming allows a subscriber to connect to another operator's network within the same telecom circle when the home network is unavailable.
• DoT said the facility would also be available to subscribers visiting the listed districts from other parts of the country.

Prelims pointers

• A centralized Right of Way portal was launched on May 14, 2022 to streamline permissions for optical fiber cable laying and telecom tower installation.
• The Telecommunications (Right of Way) Rules, 2024 were issued under the Telecommunications Act, 2023 to streamline RoW permissions and applicable charges.
• The 4G Saturation scheme aims to provide 4G mobile coverage in all uncovered villages.
• As of June 2026, about 24,000 mobile towers had been commissioned under Digital Bharat Nidhi-funded 4G Saturation Project and other mobile projects.
• 5G services have been rolled out in all States and UTs and are available in 99.9% of districts in the country.

Prelims pointers

• DoT developed ASTR as an artificial intelligence and big data analytics tool to identify suspicious mobile connections.
• As on 15 July 2026, more than 88 lakh suspicious mobile connections had been disconnected after failing reverification.
• Chakshu on Sanchar Saathi enables citizens to report suspected fraud communications.
• Based on 11.18 lakh citizen reports on Sanchar Saathi, 50.90 lakh mobile connections had been disconnected as on 15 July 2026.
• DoT developed the Digital Intelligence Platform for bi-directional information sharing with stakeholders including I4C of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Prelims pointers

• Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis launched Bharat Taxi in Maharashtra at Navi Mumbai International Airport.
• The initiative is linked in the release to the vision of Sahakar Se Samriddhi and the leadership of the Union Minister of Cooperation.
• Bharat Taxi treats taxi Sarathis as owners of the service, members of the cooperative institution and partners in its progress.
• The release says Bharat Taxi will have no surge pricing or hidden charges and will operate on the basis of a fixed service fee.
• The service had earlier been launched in Delhi and Gujarat before its Maharashtra launch.

Prelims pointers

• The Ministry of Culture administers schemes for preservation and promotion of tangible and intangible cultural heritage across India.
• ASI is responsible for protection and conservation of Centrally Protected Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains.
• The DESH Scheme is a Centrally Sponsored Sub-Scheme announced in Union Budget 2026 for sustainable development of 15 selected tangible cultural heritage sites.
• The Museum Grant Scheme provides financial assistance for development, modernisation and digitisation of museums at regional, State and district levels.
• The Scheme for Safeguarding the Intangible Cultural Heritage supports identification, documentation, preservation, safeguarding and promotion of India's living heritage.

Prelims pointers

• Development of spiritual corridors in Kashi, Ayodhya and Mathura has been undertaken through tourism infrastructure projects sanctioned under multiple Ministry of Tourism schemes.
• The listed schemes include PRASHAD, Swadesh Darshan, Swadesh Darshan 2.0, CBDD, ACA and SASCI.
• Projects are sanctioned based on proposals from State Governments or UT Administrations, subject to scheme guidelines and fund availability.
• For Kashi, listed works include Varanasi Phase I and II, river cruise tourism on the Ganga and illumination of monuments and heritage sites.
• For Mathura-Vrindavan, listed works include a Tourist Facilitation Centre, Mega Tourist Circuit development and infrastructure facilities at Govardhan.

Prelims pointers

• JATAN software was developed in technical collaboration with C-DAC, Pune for digitisation of museum collections and archival resources.
• The Museums of India portal hosts digitised collections of eight National Level Museums, two ASI Site Museums and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Museum, Pune.
• As on 15 July 2026, 3,75,707 artefacts out of 4,88,983 artefacts had been digitised and made available online.
• More than 3.5 lakh digitised manuscripts are available on the Gyan Bharatam portal for public access.
• The National Archives of India is in the process of digitising 30 crore pages and preserving 4.5 crore pages.

Prelims pointers

• As of June 2026, 24,784 towers had been made on air, covering 35,022 villages or locations across the country.
• The TTDF Scheme was launched by Digital Bharat Nidhi, formerly the Universal Service Obligation Fund, on 1 October 2022.
• Start-ups are collaborators with academia in 26 TTDF-supported projects related to 6G technologies amounting to Rs.57 crore.
• Sanchar Saathi is available as a web portal and mobile app to help prevent misuse of telecom resources in digital frauds.
• All post offices in the region have been brought on the Advanced Postal Technology platform under the IT 2.0 Project.

Prelims pointers

• The Nuclear Energy Mission was announced in Union Budget 2025-26 with the objective of 100 GWe nuclear capacity by 2047.
• The mission also aims to develop and operationalise at least five indigenous SMRs by 2033.
• BARC is developing BSMR-200, SMR-55 and an HTGCR up to 5 MWth for hydrogen production.
• The roadmap expects present capacity of 8.78 GW to reach about 22 GW by 2031-32.
• The SHANTI Act, 2025 opens the nuclear energy sector to private participation and gives statutory status to the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board.

Prelims pointers

• NICDC, with Maharashtra Industrial Township Limited, began a two-day cross-learning visit to AURIC Smart City on 23 July 2026.
• AURIC Smart City is located in the Shendra-Bidkin Industrial Area, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Maharashtra.
• The programme brought together State officials, SPVs, PMNCs, EPC contractors and other industrial-corridor stakeholders.
• NICDC's CEO and MD Rajat Kumar Saini described AURIC as a model for integrated industrial city development under NICDP.
• The visit discussed BHAVYA, a NICDC initiative for world-class plug-and-play industrial parks.

Prelims pointers

• Vice-President C. P. Radhakrishnan paid floral tributes to Thiru Subramania Siva at Uprashtrapati Bhawan on 23 July 2026.
• The occasion mentioned in the PIB release was the death anniversary of freedom fighter Thiru Subramania Siva.
• The Vice-President said Subramania Siva hailed from Vatlagundu in the southern part of Tamil Nadu.
• The release says Siva travelled to villages inspiring people with the slogan Vande Mataram during the freedom struggle.
• Subramania Siva and V. O. Chidambaram Pillai were described as imprisoned by the British colonial government for their commitment to freedom.

Prelims pointers

• Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla paid tributes to Bal Gangadhar Tilak in the Central Hall of Samvidhan Sadan on 23 July 2026.
• Members of Parliament, former Members and other dignitaries also offered floral tributes to Lokmanya Tilak on the occasion.
• The PIB release describes Bal Gangadhar Tilak as a nationalist, visionary leader, social reformer and scholar.
• Tilak is associated in the release with the call, Swaraj is my birthright, and I shall have it.
• Tilak's portrait in the Central Hall was unveiled on 28 July 1956 by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Prelims pointers

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the welfare and future of youth are the government's highest priority.
• The government decided to set up fast-track courts for cases involving paper leaks, according to the release.
• The stated purpose of the fast-track courts is swift and stringent punishment for those involved in paper leaks.
• The Prime Minister said concerned authorities and officials had been directed to take necessary steps on the decision.
• The release frames the decision as part of a series of measures aimed at safeguarding the interests of students.

Prelims pointers

• Rules under the SHANTI Act are in the drafting stage and will be notified through due legislative processes.
• The Act's civil-liability framework is described with reference to Sections 13 and 14 of the SHANTI Act, 2025.
• The maximum liability for each nuclear incident is stated as the rupee equivalent of 300 million Special Drawing Rights or as specified by the Central Government.
• Operator liability limits listed in the reply range from INR 100 crore to INR 3000 crore depending on the nuclear-installation category.
• Private operators must obtain insurance, financial security, or a combination of both before operating a nuclear installation.