RBI Releases Draft Framework for Digital Fraud Protection

• Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued a revised draft framework on unauthorised digital banking transactions to strengthen customer protection against digital fraud.
• The guidelines will apply to commercial banks but exclude Small Finance Banks, Payments Banks, Regional Rural Banks, and Local Area Banks.

Digital Fraud Landscape in India

• Key Trend: Fraud cases dropped 34% in FY25, but the total fraud value tripled.
• Volume: ~24 lakh digital frauds occurred in the first 10 months of FY25, surpassing FY23’s total losses.
• Card & Internet Fraud: Made up 66.8% of cases in FY25, but account for 7.2% of total fraud value.
• Mule Accounts: One partner bank discovered that 90% of mule accounts went unnoticed.
• Sectoral Share: Private banks reported 59.3% of fraud cases, while Public Sector Banks accounted for 70.7% of the total fraud amount.

Key Proposals of the Draft Framework

• Definition Expanded: “unauthorised transactions” now include trickery or coercion, offering protection for vulnerable or digitally illiterate customers.
• Compensation: The framework offers compensation for small-value digital frauds (up to ₹50,000), covering 85% of the net loss or ₹25,000, whichever is lower.
• Zero Liability: Customers do not incur any loss if fraud occurs due to bank negligence or third-party security breaches.
• Burden of Proof: Banks need to prove customer negligence in disputed transactions, shifting evidentiary responsibility away from the fraud victim.
• Authentication: Banks should use risk-based security filters like biometrics for high-risk transactions and enable easy low-risk payments.

Other Digital Fraud Prevention Measures by RBI

• Institutional System: Established the Indian Digital Payment Intelligence Corporation (IDPIC) in 2025 under the Companies Act, 2013, for real-time AI fraud monitoring.
• AI Surveillance: Deployed MuleHunter.AI across banks to identify and freeze mule accounts laundering cyber-fraud proceeds.
• Literacy Expansion: Scaled up the Centre for Financial Literacy (CFL) project to expand community-based financial education.
• Awareness Campaigns: Launched ‘RBI Kehta Hai’ to promote safe digital banking.

Role of Oceans in Land Heatwaves

• Context (DTE): A recent study has found that warming oceans contribute to 50–64% of global land heatwaves, highlighting strong land–ocean climate linkages.
• Rising temperatures in the Indian Ocean trigger widespread heatwaves in South Asia and West Asia.
• Sea surface temperature rise can act as an early warning signal for predicting extreme heat events.

How Oceans Affect Heatwaves?

• Moisture from Oceans: Warmer oceans release more water vapour, increasing atmospheric humidity and intensifying heatwaves.
• Heat & Humidity: High humidity reduces evaporative cooling (sweating), making heatwaves more severe and dangerous.
• Land–Ocean Interaction: Oceans transfer heat and moisture to land through winds and atmospheric circulation, spreading heatwaves.
• Atmospheric Wave Patterns: Ocean warming influences large-scale atmospheric patterns, causing simultaneous heatwaves across distant regions.
• Clustering of Heatwaves: Leads to frequent and prolonged heat events across multiple regions.

Trends of Heatwaves in India

• Rising Duration: Average heatwave duration increased by ~6.5 days (1961–2021).
• Extreme Events: The maximum duration of heatwaves has risen by ~2 days, indicating prolonged heat.
• Heat Stress: Current definitions ignore humidity, meaning many Indians face dangerous heat (high wet-bulb temperatures) without official classification.

Heatwaves

• Heatwaves are prolonged periods of abnormally high temperatures, often exceeding regional thresholds set by the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

Criterion for Declaring Heat Wave:

• Temperature Threshold: Heatwave is declared when temperature reaches ≥ 40°C in plains, ≥ 30°C in hills, ≥ 37°C in coastal areas.
• Departure from Normal: Heatwave when temperature is +4.5°C to +6.4°C above normal & Severe heatwave if > 6.4°C above normal.
• Absolute Temperature Criteria: Heatwave if temperature ≥ 45°C & Severe heatwave if ≥ 47°C.

Scheduled Caste Status After Religious Conversion

• Supreme Court of India reaffirmed that only individuals professing Hinduism, Sikhism, or Buddhism are eligible for Scheduled Caste (SC) status.
• Conversion Effect: Any conversion to another religion results in immediate and complete loss of SC status, regardless of birth.
• PoA Bar: Such converts cannot claim protection under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
• Legal Basis: The court relied on Clause 3 of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, describing the religion-based restriction as “categorical and absolute.”
• Religion Neutral: Unlike the Scheduled Castes, the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950, imposes no religion-based bar on ST status.
• Retention Condition: ST status depends on continued adherence to tribal customs and community acceptance, not religious affiliation.
• Clause 3: The Constitution (SC) Order, 1950 mandates that ‘no person who professes a religion different from Hinduism, Sikhism, or Buddhism shall be deemed to be a member of a Scheduled Caste.’
• ‘Profess’: The term “profess” under Clause 3 implies publicly declaring and actively practising the customs and rituals of one’s religion.
• Converted Dalits: Dalits who have converted to Islam or Christianity are generally categorised under Other Backward Classes (OBC) or state-specific Backward Class (BC) lists.

Doctrine of Eclipse

• Core Principle: Upon conversion, an individual’s SC status is not extinguished but “eclipsed,” suspended by the new religious identity.
• Revival: If that person reconverts to Hinduism, Sikhism, or Buddhism, the eclipse is lifted, and the original SC status revives.
• Conditions: Revival requires three strict evidentiary conditions: proof of original caste, genuine re-conversion, and satisfactory evidence of community re-acceptance.
• No Retrospective: While SC status is reinstated upon re-conversion, benefits cannot be claimed for the period of conversion.

Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950

• It is a Presidential Order issued under Article 341(1), identifying castes, races, or tribes deemed Scheduled Castes (SC).
• Scope: Initially restricted to Hinduism, the Order was amended in 1956 and 1990 to include individuals professing Sikhism and Buddhism, respectively.
• State-Specific: The SC list is not a single national list, but State and UT-specific; a caste recognised as SC in one state may not be so in another.
• Notification: The President has the initial power to notify the SC list after consulting the Governor of the concerned state.
• Amendment: Once notified, only Parliament can include or exclude any caste from the SC list.

Need for Plea Bargaining in India

• India’s large judicial backlog and delays have led to calls for a national mission to promote plea bargaining and faster dispute resolution.

Problem of Judicial Delays in India

• Massive Backlog: Over 5 crore cases pending, with more than 80% in district courts.
• Delayed Justice: Leads to prolonged trials, undertrial detention, and victim hardship.
• Economic Impact: Weakens contract enforcement, raises business costs, & affects investor confidence.
• Erosion of Trust: Slow justice system creates a crisis of credibility and public confidence in judiciary.

What is Plea Bargaining?

• Plea bargaining is a legal process where the accused pleads guilty in exchange for reduced charges or lighter punishment.
• Origin: In the USA in the 19th century, it became a dominant feature of the US criminal justice system.
• Purpose: Aims to ensure speedy disposal of cases and reduce judicial backlog.
• Mutual Agreement: Involves negotiation between the accused, prosecution, and sometimes the victim.
• Global Practices: Countries like the USA, UK, Canada, and Australia widely use plea bargaining. In the USA, over 90% of criminal cases are settled through plea deals.

Plea Bargaining in India

• Legal Basis: Introduced via CrPC Amendment 2005; now under Sections 289–300 of BNSS 2023.
• Applicability: Only for offences punishable up to 7 years; not available for offences against women, children, and socio-economic crimes.
• Objective: Aims to reduce judicial backlog and ensure speedy justice through negotiated settlements.
• Low Adoption: Used in less than 1% of cases, due to lack of awareness and institutional hesitation.
• Mutual & Voluntary: Requires consent of the accused and the prosecution; ensures it is voluntary.
• Judicial Oversight: Courts supervise the process to ensure fairness, transparency, and legality.

Way Forward

• Capacity Building: Train prosecutors and legal professionals to negotiate fair and efficient plea deals.
• Incentives for Lawyers: Align incentives to encourage lawyers to settle cases through negotiation.
• Support for Early Settlement: Courts should promote pre-trial settlements and identify suitable cases for plea bargaining.
• Public Awareness: Educate litigants that plea bargaining is a practical, fair, and efficient option, not a sign of defeat.

Permanent Commission for Women in the Armed Forces

• Supreme Court has directed the armed forces to grant Permanent Commission to eligible women officers and ordered full pension and consequential benefits.
• The Court invoked Article 142 to ensure complete justice, applying this as a one-off measure.
• Deemed Service: Women SSC officers will be treated as having completed 20 years of service for pension.
• Pensionary Benefits: Entitled to pension based on 20 years of service, effective from November 1, 2025.
• No Reinstatement: Court denied reinstatement & notional promotions, citing operational effectiveness.
• Article 142 empowers the Supreme Court to pass orders to ensure complete justice in any case.

Key Findings of the Court

• Systemic Discrimination: Denial of PC was rooted in institutional bias against women officers.
• Biased Evaluation: Performance reports were casually graded, with assumptions of no career progression, affecting merit.
• Lack of Transparency: Evaluation criteria were not clearly disclosed, undermining fairness in selection.
• Violation of Equality: The process compromised equal opportunity and fair competition, contrary to constitutional values.

Short Service Commission (SSC) vs Permanent Commission (PC)

• SSC is short-term (10–14 years), while PC offers service till retirement.
• SSC has limited career growth, whereas PC ensures full promotions and leadership roles.
• SSC lacks an assured pension, while PC provides a pension and long-term benefits.

Evolution of Permanent Commission for Women in the Army

• 1992: Women were first allowed in the Army; only in select cadres via Short Service Commission (SSC); tenure limited to 10+4 years.
• Pre-2020: Women ineligible for Permanent Commission (till retirement); restricted to SSC tenures only.
• Babita Puniya Case (2020): SC ordered PC for women officers, eligibility for command posts.

Environmental Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in India

• Supreme Court of India ruled that corporations have a fundamental duty to protect the environment under Article 51A(g) of the Constitution.
• CSR Scope: The Court held that corporate social responsibility (CSR) must inherently include environmental responsibility.
• CSR is a statutory corporate obligation under Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013, requiring eligible Indian and foreign companies operating in India to spend at least 2% of their average net profits from the previous three financial years on approved social development activities.

Why Environmental CSR Is Necessary?

• Constitutional Duty: Under Article 51A(g), corporations as legal persons have a fundamental duty to protect and improve the natural environment.
• Fiduciary Duty: Section 166(2) of the Companies Act requires that directors prioritise the interests of the environment and community alongside those of shareholders and employees.
• Polluter Pays: Companies damaging fragile ecosystems are legally liable to internalise costs by funding habitat restoration and climate mitigation.
• Greenwashing Check: Mandatory reporting frameworks like Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) ensure that corporate claims are backed by measurable outcomes.
• Circular Innovation: A CSR mandate can drive firms to adopt circular economy models that transform industrial waste into sustainable secondary resources.

Challenges with Environmental CSR

• Operational Exclusion: Current rules prohibit CSR spending on activities that directly benefit a company’s own business, limiting investments in circular economy and green supply chains.
• Temporal Mismatch: CSR regulations follow a rigid financial cycle of up to four years, which conflicts with the 10-15-year gestation periods required for ecological restoration.
• Measurement Gap: Quantifying intangible environmental outcomes remains difficult due to a lack of standardised metrics and monitoring frameworks.
• Spending Disparity: Over 60% of CSR funds are concentrated in a few industrialised states, leaving ecologically fragile regions (like the Northeast and tribal belts) severely underfunded.
• Regulatory Complexity: Overlapping environmental laws, land acquisition rules, and approvals from state forest departments can stall meaningful environmental interventions for years.

Govt. Initiatives Complementing Environmental CSR

• Incentivised Restoration: Under the Green Credit Programme (GCP), companies earn tradable credits for verified environmental actions such as reforestation and water conservation.
• Audited Transparency: The BRSR Core framework mandates that top-listed companies provide reasonable assurance on key ESG metrics
• Lifecycle Responsibility: Mandatory Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) rules shift the financial burden of recycling plastics and e-waste from the state to manufacturers.
• Emissions Trading: Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS) creates a domestic market for trading emission certificates to achieve Net Zero targets.
• Statutory Afforestation: Under Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAMPA), industries diverting forest land are legally required to fund restoration at alternative locations.
• Energy Optimisation: The PAT Scheme (Perform, Achieve and Trade) incentivises energy-intensive sectors to reduce consumption through tradable efficiency certificates.

WMO Released State of the Global Climate 2025

• World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) released its State of the Global Climate 2025, highlighting accelerating global warming trends.
• WMO is a specialised UN agency established in 1950 and based in Geneva. State of the Global Climate 2025 is its annual flagship climate assessment.

Key Findings of the Report

• Global Temperature: 2015–2025 is the hottest 11-year period on record; 2025 ranks among the top three warmest years, with ~1.43°C above the pre-industrial baseline.
• Energy Imbalance: The report for the first time includes Earth’s Energy Imbalance (EEI) as a key indicator, signalling rapid heat accumulation.
• EEI represents the difference between incoming solar energy and outgoing radiation from Earth.
• Ocean Heat Content: Reached a new record in 2025, with around 90% of the ocean surface experiencing marine heatwaves.
• Glacier Melt & Sea Level: Arctic sea ice stayed near record lows, while the overall rate of global sea-level rise doubled compared to 1993–2002.
• Irreversible Changes: Ocean warming and acidification are now permanent over centennial to millennial timescales due to the accumulation of heat and GHGs.
• Health Impacts: Climate change is accelerating disease spread with dengue at record levels; heat stress affects over one-third of the global workforce.

GlobE Network

• India hosted the 12th Steering Committee Meeting of the Global Operational Network (GlobE Network) in New Delhi.
• Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) hosted the meeting jointly.
• Participation: It brought together representatives from 15 member nations of the Steering Committee.
• Key Focus: Strengthening informal cooperation tools to accelerate transnational corruption investigations beyond slower formal legal assistance channels.

About GlobE Network

• The Network originated from the Riyadh Initiative during Saudi Arabia’s G20 Presidency (2020) and was formally launched in 2021.
• Objective: Facilitate swift international cooperation among law enforcement agencies to combat transnational corruption and recover illicit assets.
• Legal Basis: It operates under the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) mandate.
• Secretariat: The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) serves as its permanent secretariat in Vienna.
• Membership: The Network currently comprises 250 specialised authorities from 135 countries.
• India’s Role: India joined the GlobE Network in 2022 & was elected to its Steering Committee in 2024.

World Air Quality Report 2025

• Swiss company IQAir published the World Air Quality Report 2025, highlighting a deteriorating global air quality.

Key Findings of the Report

• WHO Compliance: Only 14% of cities met the WHO’s PM2.5 annual guideline (5 µg/m³) in 2025, down from 17% in 2024.
• Leading Polluter: Pakistan is the most polluted country, with PM2.5 levels over 13 times WHO limit.
• Worst City: Loni, Uttar Pradesh, is the world’s most polluted city, with PM2.5 levels about 22 times higher than WHO guidelines.
• Regional Dominance: Twenty-five of the most polluted cities are in India, Pakistan, and China; Central and South Asia remain the most polluted region.
• India’s Stand: India ranked as the 6th most polluted country in 2025, improving from 5th in 2024.
• New Delhi remained the world’s most polluted capital for the 8th consecutive time.

Study of Moon’s Titanium-Rich Rocks Offers Insights for Chandrayaan-4

• A recent study by Indian researchers offers insights into the Moon’s titanium-rich rocks.
• These findings can assist ISRO in selecting high-value landing sites for Chandrayaan-4 and in analysing returned lunar samples.

Key Findings of the Study

• Origins: Lunar rocks rich in titanium (Ti) formed 4.3–4.4 billion years ago as dense ilmenite-bearing cumulates sank into the Moon’s interior.
• Ilmenite is a black, weakly magnetic iron–titanium oxide; it is Earth’s main source of Ti and a vital component of lunar basalt.
• Process: These cumulates re-erupted as Ti-rich basalts through Mantle Overturn, where sinking dense, titanium-rich minerals caused lighter rocks to ascend.
• Temperature Dynamics: Higher temperatures produced intermediate-Ti melts, while cooler conditions generated extremely high-Ti, low-magnesium magmas.

About Chandrayaan-4

• It is India’s first lunar sample-return mission aimed at collecting and bringing back 3 kg of lunar materials to Earth.
• The mission is planned for 2027–2028; if successful, India will be the fourth country to return lunar samples after the USA, USSR, and China.
• Landing Site: ISRO has chosen Mons Mouton near the Moon’s South Pole as a primary site due to the presence of water ice and ancient rocks.

Space Reactor 1 (SR-1) Freedom Spacecraft

• NASA has revamped the Artemis programme, scrapping the Lunar Gateway plan and prioritizing a moon base and Mars missions.
• It also announced Space Reactor 1 Freedom, a nuclear-powered spacecraft to be launched by 2028.

About Space Reactor 1 (SR-1) Freedom Spacecraft:

• Space Reactor 1 Freedom is set to be the first interplanetary spacecraft powered by a nuclear fission reactor, marking a transition from experimental laboratory research to active deep-space operations. It is a pathfinder spacecraft utilizing Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NEP).
• Announced By: The mission was officially announced by NASA.

Aim:

1. To prove the viability of advanced nuclear electric propulsion for long-duration, deep-space travel.
2. To deliver the Skyfall payload—a fleet of robotic helicopters—to the Martian surface to scout for water ice and human landing sites.
3. To retire flight risks and activate the industrial supply chain for future nuclear-powered missions to the outer solar system.

Key Features:

• Repurposed Hardware: It will utilize the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) originally designed for the now-paused Lunar Gateway station.
• Fission Reactor: Features an onboard reactor that splits uranium atoms to provide a continuous, high-output power source independent of sunlight.
• Skyfall Payload: Carries three (or up to six, per some reports) Ingenuity-class helicopters equipped with ground-penetrating radar and high-resolution cameras.
• Launch Date: Scheduled for launch in December 2028.

Significance:

• This will be the first U.S. space reactor since SNAP-10A in 1965, and the first ever used for propulsion beyond Earth orbit.
• Nuclear power allows for missions to the outer planets and through Martian dust storms where solar panels fail.

Reform Express Initiative

Source:  PIB

• Union Railway Minister has announced five new reforms under the Reform Express initiative to modernize cargo and passenger services.

About Reform Express Initiative:

• The Reform Express is a comprehensive policy framework launched in 2026 to fast-track the transformation of Indian Railways into a more efficient, transparent, and passenger-friendly network.
• Organisation Involved: The initiative is spearheaded by the Ministry of Railways, Government of India.

Aim:

• The primary objective is to overhaul legacy systems by integrating advanced technology, improving ease of doing business for cargo transporters, and eliminating inefficiencies in project execution and passenger ticketing.

Key Features:

• Specialized Cargo Logistics: Introduction of stainless steel, top-loading, and hydraulic side-discharge containers specifically for salt transportation to prevent wagon corrosion and leakage.
• Infrastructure Quality Control: Implementation of stricter contractor eligibility, fixed 2% bid security, and safeguards against predatory bidding (bids significantly below cost) to ensure project durability.
• Ticketing Integrity: Removal of nearly 3 crore fake IRCTC accounts and the introduction of Aadhaar-based OTP verification to prevent touts from cornering tickets.
• Passenger Flexibility: New rules allowing passengers to change boarding stations or upgrade travel classes digitally up to 30 minutes before departure.
• Automobile Transport Optimization: Introduction of flexible wagon designs tailored to specific rail routes to bypass constraints like low bridges and narrow tunnels, increasing the rail share of auto logistics.

Significance:

• By targeting salt and automobile sectors, the Railways aims to lower logistics costs for essential and high-value goods, supporting the national economy.
• Stricter bidding rules and the cleanup of the IRCTC database reduce corruption and ensure that government funds are used effectively.

Vayu Baan Project

• The Indian Air Force (IAF) has initiated Vayu Baan, a pioneering project to develop India’s first helicopter-launched drone system.

About Vayu Baan Project:

• It is a small, autonomous drone designed to be dropped from a moving helicopter mid-flight. Once released, the drone unfolds its wings, activates its propulsion, and operates as either a surveillance asset or a precision-guided munition (kamikaze drone).
• The Vayu Baan (meaning Air Arrow) is an indigenous Air-Launched Effects (ALE) program designed to integrate unmanned aerial systems directly with manned rotary-wing platforms.
• Launched By: The project is being led by the IAF’s Directorate of Aerospace Design (DAD).

Aim:

• The primary goal is to provide stand-off capability, allowing helicopters to identify and destroy enemy targets from a safe distance (over 50 km) without entering the kill zone of enemy man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS).

Key Features:

• Extended Range: Capable of flying over 50 km after being dropped, significantly extending the reach of the mother ship.
• Dual-Role Capability: Equipped for both high-definition ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) and precision strikes using an onboard warhead.
• Autonomous Navigation: Features advanced flight control systems for autonomous waypoint navigation and target tracking.
• GNSS-Denied Operation: Specifically designed to function effectively even in electronic warfare environments where GPS signals are jammed or disabled.
• Advanced Sensors: Integrated with electro-optical and infrared (EO/IR) sensors for clear day and night operations.
• Endurance: Provides approximately 30 minutes of loitering time to scout for targets or wait for the optimal strike window.

Significance:

• By acting as a forward scout or attacker, it minimizes the risk to aircrew in high-threat environments.
• Joining an elite club (including the US and China), India is reducing its reliance on foreign air-launched technologies.
• A single helicopter can deploy multiple Vayu Baan drones to create a mini-swarm, overwhelming enemy localized defenses.

Biologics

• The Union Budget 2026 announced the Biopharma SHAKTI strategy to boost domestic production of biologics and biosimilars, alongside a shift toward non-animal testing models.

What are Biologicals?

• Biologicals are a class of advanced medicines produced using living organisms. Unlike traditional small molecule drugs (like aspirin) which are synthesized through chemical processes, biologics are large, complex proteins derived from biological sources.

Aim:

• The primary goal of biologics is to provide highly targeted therapy for chronic and life-threatening diseases—such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and diabetes—by interacting specifically with human receptors and immune pathways that traditional chemicals cannot reach.

How They are Produced?

• Host Cell Selection: Scientists select living cells (bacteria, yeast, or mammalian cells) to act as factories.
• Genetic Engineering: The specific DNA sequence for the desired protein is inserted into these cells.
• Large-Scale Culture: The cells are grown in massive bioreactors under strictly controlled conditions.
• Purification: The protein is extracted and purified from the cell culture to ensure it is free from contaminants.
• Batch Testing: Because they are grown rather than made, every single batch must undergo extensive testing to ensure consistency and safety.

Key Features:

• Molecular Complexity: They are significantly larger and more structurally complex than chemically synthesized drugs.
• Living Sources: Derived from living systems such as microorganisms, plant cells, or animal/human cells and plasma.
• High Specificity: They bind to specific cell receptors, which allows for precision medicine with fewer off-target effects.
• Sensitivity: Extremely sensitive to environmental factors like temperature and light; they usually require a cold chain for storage.
• Immunogenicity: Because they are proteins, they have the potential to trigger an immune response in the human body, requiring rigorous safety monitoring.

Significance:

• Biologics have turned once-fatal conditions, like certain types of leukemia and autoimmune disorders, into manageable chronic conditions.
• Through initiatives like Biopharma SHAKTI, India aims to become a global hub for biosimilars (generic biologics), making expensive treatments affordable.

Districts as Export Hubs Initiative

• The government has expanded the Districts as Export Hubs (DEH) initiative to strengthen district-level export capacity.
• Launch: In 2019, as part of the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP).
• Nodal Agency: Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) under Ministry of Commerce & Industry.
• Objective: Promote district-led export growth by identifying and developing products/services with export potential.
• Institutional Mechanism: Creation of State Export Promotion Committees (SEPCs) and District Export Promotion Committees (DEPCs) in all States/UTs.
• District Export Action Plans (DEAPs): Prepared for 590 districts (249 notified) to guide export strategies at the district level.
• Product: Focus on local products, GI goods, agriculture, and handicrafts for export promotion

Halometallurgy for Lithium-ion Battery Recycling

• Recent scientific studies have introduced a novel halometallurgical method using common alkali salts for Lithium-ion battery (LIB) recycling.
• Halometallurgy employs halogens (mainly chlorine) or halogen salts to recover critical metals like lithium from used lithium-ion batteries.
• Mechanism: Battery waste is heated with chloride salts to convert lithium into a water-soluble form, leaving other metals as an insoluble fraction; it is then separated by water leaching.
• Key Advantage: This process operates at lower temperatures than conventional methods, reducing energy use and enhancing selective recovery.
• Halogens are five highly reactive non-metals—fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine, and astatine—that form salts with metals.
• Significance: It offers a scalable, cost-effective way to recover critical minerals, enhancing India’s circular economy and lowering dependency on lithium and cobalt imports.

New Superconductivity Breakthrough

• Scientists have developed a new technique that breaks a 33-year-old record for superconductivity temperature at normal pressure.
• Superconductivity was achieved at –122°C, breaking a 33-year-old record at normal pressure.
• New Technique: Pressure Quenching (PQP) used to retain high-pressure superconducting properties at normal pressure.
• Material Used: Copper oxide Hg1223, a known superconductor, was modified to improve performance.
• Significance: It could enable lossless power transmission, efficient motors, and advanced technologies.
• Limitation: Still requires very low temperatures, not yet near room temperature.
• Future Potential: Opens pathways to stabilise superconductivity under normal conditions.
• Superconductivity is a phenomenon where a material conducts electricity with zero electrical resistance.
• Enables lossless energy transmission; makes it useful for technologies like power grids & MRI machines.