Current affairs — 15 August 2026

Prelims pointers

• Theppakadu Elephant Camp in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve dates to the 1920s and rehabilitates 27 elephants.
• Kaatunaickers, Kurumbas and Malasars have cared for elephants at Theppakadu across generations.
• Kozhikamuthi Elephant Camp lies in Anamalai Tiger Reserve and has more than 20 elephants under tribal mahout care.
• Project Elephant is a Union Environment Ministry flagship providing States with funding and technical support for elephant conservation.
• Project Elephant has supported AI-enabled monitoring and early-warning systems for human-elephant conflict mitigation.

Prelims pointers

• The planned sports talent hunt will identify children aged 5–15 in villages, cities and schools across India.
• India was described as a strong contender to host the 2036 Olympics and as the host of the 2030 Commonwealth Games.
• The Pradhan Mantri Viksit Bharat Rojgar Yojana was described as a ₹1 lakh crore employment scheme.
• Under the employment scheme, a youth entering a private-sector job would receive ₹15,000 and job-creating companies would get incentives.
• The employment scheme was projected to create opportunities for approximately 3.5 crore youth.

Prelims pointers

• Raksha Shakti was presented as one of seven streams of power for building Viksit Bharat by 2047.
• The address identified drones, counter-drone systems and hypersonic defence technologies as priority capabilities.
• Defence production was reported to have increased nearly fourfold over the preceding 12 years.
• Defence exports were reported to have risen almost 50 times, with Indian weapons reaching about 100 countries.
• The Prime Minister announced a vibrant civil-defence network and a large voluntary force trained for modern challenges.

Prelims pointers

• The address fixed 2047, the centenary year of Independence, as the target year for building a Viksit Bharat.
• It said defence production rose nearly fourfold, electronics manufacturing nearly sevenfold and modern railway-coach production 21-fold over 12 years.
• The National Critical Minerals Mission has been launched, while a Critical Minerals Corridor was announced in the Budget.
• The nuclear-energy goals cited were 100 GW of capacity by 2047 and commissioning five new reactors during the current decade.
• PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana was said to have crossed 50 lakh homes, with government assistance of ₹80,000 per family.

Prelims pointers

• Har Ghar Tiranga 2026 was the fifth year of the campaign and was observed from August 9 to 17.
• The 2026 campaign commemorated 150 years of Vande Mataram, described in the release as the National Song.
• More than 8.24 crore Tiranga selfies were uploaded by citizens during the 2026 campaign.
• Citizen activities included Tiranga Yatras, mass singing, rangolis, bike rallies and cycle rallies.
• The Suryapath Tiranga Global Relay concluded as part of the wider Har Ghar Tiranga 2026 observance.

Prelims pointers

• Saptadhara was described as seven pillars of strength intended to advance self-reliance across sectors.
• The address announced AI skilling for over one crore young people within a single year.
• Youth measures also included free online coaching and a talent hunt linked to the 2036 Olympics.
• The release cited a target of 100 gigawatts of nuclear-power capacity by 2047.
• The release cited a target to establish eight new semiconductor units by 2047.

Prelims pointers

• ITDAs and ITDPs are principal field-level institutions for delivering tribal-development programmes and entitlements.
• The April 2026 assessment covered 214 ITDAs and ITDPs across 17 States and Union Territories.
• The Evidence-Weighted ITDA Diagnostic Scoring Framework uses 15 parameters across five institutional domains.
• The National Conclave on strengthening ITDAs and ITDPs was held at Vigyan Bhawan on June 3, 2026.
• Each ITDA can use the common assessment methodology to prepare a context-specific Performance Improvement Roadmap.

Prelims pointers

• India’s Department of Telecommunications will organise the BRICS ICT Track in Pune from 17 to 21 August 2026.
• The Track’s theme is “Innovate, Cooperate and Transform (ICT) for a Resilient Future.”
• The seventh BRICS Working Group for Cooperation in ICTs is scheduled for 17–19 August 2026.
• The Digital BRICS Forum and Expo is scheduled for 20 August, followed by the twelfth Communications Ministers Meeting on 21 August.
• The release lists 11 BRICS members, including Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Prelims pointers

• Sapt Dhara comprises seven streams spanning manufacturing, agriculture, technology, infrastructure, defence, green and blue economies, and soft power.
• The technology stream named AI, quantum, space, robotics, data centres and Made-in-India 6G as priority areas.
• The defence stream specifically identified drones, counter-drone systems, hypersonic defence technologies and cybersecurity.
• The 100-week Nasha Mukt Bharat campaign involves MY Bharat volunteers, NGOs, socio-cultural organisations and spiritual leaders.
• The address linked the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam with 33% representation for women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies.

Prelims pointers

• The announced AI-skilling initiative aims to train one crore youth in artificial-intelligence skills within one year.
• The free online coaching network is to combine Digital Public Infrastructure with available teachers and talent.
• A nationwide sports talent hunt will identify children aged five to 15 in villages, cities and schools for specialised training.
• India’s stated nuclear targets are 100 GW of capacity by 2047 and five new reactors during the current decade.
• After surpassing the earlier three-crore goal, the government announced a new target of six crore Lakhpati Didis.

Prelims pointers

• Over 12 years, mobile-phone production was reported to have risen 35 times and modern railway-coach production 21 times.
• City Gas Distribution expanded from fewer than 70 cities in 2014 to around 700 cities at the time of the address.
• The release said more than 10,000 Atal Tinkering Labs had been established in schools to encourage technology and innovation.
• Under SVAMITVA, around 3.25 crore families had received property cards, enabling access to bank loans against rural property.
• Social-security coverage was reported to have risen from around 25 crore people before 2014 to around 100 crore people.

Prelims pointers

• Social-security coverage was reported to have risen from 25 crore before 2014 to 100 crore within a decade.
• Ayushman Bharat was cited as providing people above age 70 free treatment up to ₹5 lakh.
• Startup India was said to have enabled more than 2.5 lakh registered startups.
• A ₹1 lakh crore Innovation Fund was cited among measures supporting youth opportunities.
• Skill India, Digital India and the National Drone Policy were linked to employment, skilling and entrepreneurship.

Prelims pointers

• RSVC-AMRIT was launched by Principal Scientific Adviser Ajay Kumar Sood on 15 August 2026.
• NABARD developed AMRIT with the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser as the RSVC ecosystem’s digital backbone.
• AMRIT covers technology discovery, validation, deployment tracking, collaboration, monitoring and knowledge management.
• NABARD was supporting eight RuTAGe Smart Village Centres at the time of the platform’s launch.
• NABFOUNDATION, a NABARD subsidiary, is the implementation partner for RSVCs established with corporates through CSR.

Prelims pointers

• The Prime Minister said the target of creating three crore Lakhpati Didis had already been surpassed.
• The government’s newly announced target is to create a total of six crore Lakhpati Didis.
• The additional three crore Lakhpati Didis were linked to a major transformation in the rural economy.
• The Prime Minister called for 33% representation for women in State Legislative Assemblies and the Lok Sabha.
• The announcement was made from the Red Fort during the address marking India’s 80th Independence Day.

Prelims pointers

• VIHAAN is a fibre-broadband networking system-on-chip built using the indigenous VEGA microprocessor.
• Chennai-based Aheesa achieved first-pass silicon success in 2026 and targets production tape-out in 2027.
• Government programmes provided chip-design tools to 455 organisations: 350 academic institutions and 105 startups.
• Under Chips to Startup, 245 chip designs had been taped out by 71 academic institutions.
• Semicon 2.0 was approved in July 2026 with an outlay of ₹1,27,500 crore.

Prelims pointers

• The latest review reduced the export duty on petrol to nil and diesel to ₹24 per litre.
• The export duty on aviation turbine fuel was reduced to ₹19.5 per litre in the latest review.
• Excise-duty rates on petrol and diesel meant for domestic consumption were left unchanged.
• Fortnightly reviews of fuel export levies had been conducted since 27 March to protect domestic availability.
• The preceding review had set export levies at ₹3.5 for petrol, ₹25.5 for diesel and ₹22 for ATF per litre.

Prelims pointers

• BCG stands for Bacillus Calmette-Guérin, a century-old vaccine used for tuberculosis.
• The Massachusetts General Hospital study enrolled 23 older adults and administered two BCG doses one month apart.
• Researchers followed blood and cerebrospinal fluid for one year after vaccination.
• The trained cells responded more strongly to unrelated lipopolysaccharide, but not more strongly to BCG itself.
• The study lacked a placebo group and was designed to study BCG biology, not prevention or treatment efficacy.

Prelims pointers

• The Rajya Sabha passed the amendment to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act on 12 August 2026.
• The law bars State taxes, cesses and similar levies tied to mineral rights, mineral-bearing lands and covered mining operations.
• The amendment has retrospective effect, invalidating covered levies that became liable but remained uncollected before enforcement.
• The Union said the amendment covers certain major minerals but leaves minor minerals under the States’ absolute control.
• Coal, lignite, iron ore, graphite, cobalt, lithium and nickel were among the major minerals listed in the government memo.

Prelims pointers

• The Green India Mission is one of eight missions under India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change.
• The CAG audit covered GIM interventions in 16 States and Union Territories from 2015–16 through 2024–25.
• Forest-cover quality improved over 0.11384 million hectares against 1.4 million hectares, a 91.87% shortfall.
• Forest cover increased over 0.03409 million hectares against 1.4 million hectares, a 97.57% shortfall.
• India’s NDC seeks an additional carbon sink of 2.5–3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent by 2030 through forest and tree cover.

Prelims pointers

• FAST-DS took effect on 16 August 2026, and its online declaration window remains open until 31 December 2026.
• For previously untaxed foreign assets or income, the aggregate eligibility ceiling is ₹1 crore and the effective levy is 60%.
• The fair market value of assets declared under FAST-DS is to be determined as of 31 March 2026.
• The second category has a ₹5 crore threshold and a ₹1 lakh fee for specified assets omitted from the return schedule.
• A valid declaration gives specified immunity under the Black Money Act, 2015 from further tax, penalty and prosecution.