Trucks-on-Trains

• Indian Railways, through its Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) network, is scaling up the Trucks-on-Trains (ToT) service to shift long-haul freight from roads to electrified rail.

Trucks-on-Trains:

• Trucks-on-Trains (ToT) is a multimodal freight service under the DFC that allows loaded trucks to be carried on specially designed flat wagons for the long-haul rail leg, while trucks handle only the first- and last-mile by road.

Aim:

• Enable a strategic modal shift from road to rail for long-distance freight.
• Reduce logistics costs, fuel consumption, and emissions.
• Decongest highways and improve supply-chain reliability.
• Integrate road agility with rail efficiency under a national multimodal logistics vision.

Key features:

• Multimodal integration: Combines road flexibility with high-speed, electrified freight rail.
• Dedicated Freight Corridor backbone: Operates on high-capacity, fully electrified DFC routes.
• Time efficiency: Cuts transit time from ~30 hours by road to ~12 hours via ToT.
• Competitive pricing: Transparent weight-based tariffs; GST exemption for milk tankers, aiding perishables.
• Environmental benefits: Significant reductions in CO₂, NOₓ, particulate matter, diesel use, and road dust.
• Operational resilience: Less affected by fog, rain, and extreme weather than highways.
• Scalability: New Flat Multipurpose (FMP) wagons and expansion to more Origin–Destination terminals.

Pollution as the Largest Economic Drag

• At the World Economic Forum (Davos), experts warned that economic damage from pollution far exceeds losses from trade tariffs, reframing pollution as an economic crisis.

Economic Cost of Pollution

• Global Welfare Loss: Air pollution causes ~$5.7 trillion annual welfare loss, ~4.8% of global GDP, through productivity loss, health spending and premature mortality (World Bank).
• Mortality Burden: Pollution linked to ~1.7 million deaths annually in India, ~18% of total deaths, directly shrinking labour supply and effective workforce participation.
• GDP Drag: Economic cost of pollution estimated at ~$150 billion annually, ~1.7% of India’s GDP, reflecting persistent long-term growth erosion (World Bank).

Channels of Economic Damage by Pollution

• Productivity Loss: Chronic pollution exposure lowers labour efficiency and increases absenteeism.
• Healthcare Drain: Rising pollution-related diseases inflate public and household health expenditure.
• Human Capital Erosion: Early-life PM₂.₅ exposure reduces cognitive outcomes and lifetime earnings; E.g., childhood exposure linked to lower schooling outcomes (Lancet studies).
• Crop Yield Loss: Ground-level ozone and PM₂.₅ diminish agricultural productivity; e.g., India loses millions of tonnes of crops annually due to air pollution (ICAR/World Bank).

Why Pollution Causes More Damage Than Tariffs?

• Structural Drag: Pollution imposes continuous economy-wide costs, unlike episodic tariff shocks; E.g., annual GDP loss of ~1–2% in India persists year after year.
• Invisible Externalities: Health damage and mortality are underpriced in markets; E.g., welfare loss equals ~4.8% of global GDP annually (World Bank).
• Investment Deterrence: Poor air quality lowers city liveability and talent attraction; E.g., polluted metros rank lower on global competitiveness indices.
• Urban Exposure Evidence: Delhi met national air quality standards on only 156 of 365 days in 2025, indicating sustained economic stress on urban labour markets (CPCB data).

Way Forward

• Clean Regulation: Tighten emission standards with strict enforcement across sectors; E.g., real-time monitoring under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).
• Urban Transport: Strengthen mass transit and electric mobility adoption; E.g., metro–bus integration and faster EV penetration in cities.
• Airshed Governance: Implement regional pollution control beyond city limits; E.g., coordinated Airshed Management Models used in China.
• Health Accounting: Internalise pollution costs into economic planning frameworks; E.g., use health-adjusted growth metrics in cost–benefit analyses.

Capital Infusion in SIDBI to Expand MSME Credit Coverage

• Union Cabinet approved equity infusion into Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) to enhance MSME credit and expand financial assistance coverage.

Decision Roadmap for Credit Infusion

• Equity Infusion Plan: Department of Financial Services (DFS) to infuse ₹5,000 crore in three tranches.
• Tranche Structure: ₹3,000 crore in 2025–26, ₹1,000 crore each in 2026–27 and 2027–28.
• Credit Expansion Goal: MSMEs supported to rise from 76.26 lakh (FY25 end) to 102 lakh by FY28 end.

Expected Impact

• Employment Push: With an average of 4.37 jobs per MSME, ~25.74 lakh new MSME beneficiaries could create ~1.12 crore jobs by 2027–28.
• Cheaper Credit Flow: Higher capital improves SIDBI’s ability to raise funds at fair rates, enabling competitive-cost MSME lending.

Need For Capital Infusion in MSME

• Rising Beneficiary Demand: MSMEs supported are expected to rise from 76.26 lakh (FY25 end) to 102 lakh by FY28, requiring higher lending capacity.
• Massive Enterprise Base: India has ~6.9 crore registered MSMEs (Sept 2025), so scaling institutional credit needs stronger development finance buffers.
• Prudential Capital Need: Higher MSME lending increases risk-weighted assets, so equity is needed to maintain a strong Capital to Risk-Weighted Assets Ratio (CRAR).

Challenges in MSME Credit Ecosystem

• Large Credit Gap: MSME credit gap is ~₹20–25 lakh crore, forcing many firms into informal borrowing.
• Payment Delays: Delayed payments lock working capital; MSMEs often face receivables cycles running into 60–90 days, worsening liquidity stress.
• Low Credit Penetration: Formal credit access remains uneven; MSMEs contribute ~30% of India’s GDP/GVA but receive only ~16–18% of total bank credit, showing a persistent credit-access gap.

Way Forward

• Credit Guarantees: Expand risk-sharing cover to unlock collateral-free MSME loans; E.g., strengthen CGTMSE coverage limits and reduce guarantee fees for micro units.
• Prompt Payments: Enforce faster MSME receivables and expand invoice discounting to free working capital; E.g., scale up TReDS across PSUs, CPSEs and large private buyers.
• Cluster Financing: Create sector-based credit windows for MSME clusters to reduce transaction costs.
• Last-Mile Channels: Deepen NBFC-fintech partnerships for micro and informal units with limited banking reach; E.g., SIDBI refinancing lines for NBFC–fintech co-lending models.

Space Insurance in India

• Space insurance demand in India is rising following the consecutive launch failures of PSLV-C61 and PSLV-C62 missions.
• Space insurance offers financial coverage for losses from manufacturing, transport, launch, and in-orbit operations of space assets.

Need for Space Insurance in India

• State Responsibility: Under the Outer Space Treaty, 1967, India bears international responsibility for all space activities from its territory, including private missions.
• Absolute Liability: The Liability Convention, 1972, makes India absolutely liable for Earth or aircraft damage caused by its space objects.
• Startup De-Risking: Space missions are capital-intensive; insurance safeguards startups from bankruptcy resulting from launch failures.
• FDI Confidence: A clear insurance framework builds investor confidence and supports the 100% FDI liberalisation in the space sector (2024).
• Private Participation: India’s goal of shifting its space sector to a demand-driven, commercially independent ecosystem requires a structured risk-management mechanism.
• Global Competitiveness: International customers prefer insured launches; mission assurance is essential for access to the $500+ billion global space economy.

Key Challenges of Space Insurance in India

• High Premiums: Launch insurance costs 15–20% of mission value; premiums increased 20–30% after PSLV launch failures.
• Capital Strain: Early-stage startups struggle to pay upfront premiums, diverting funds from R&D and hardware development.
• Reinsurance Dependency: Domestic insurers lack capacity for large risks, relying on foreign reinsurance markets, exposing missions to global market volatility.
• Legislative Gap: The absence of an umbrella Space Activities Act leaves liability caps undefined, complicating insurers’ actuarial pricing.
• Orbital Risks: Rising space debris and Kessler Syndrome (fear of a chain reaction of collisions) increase in-orbit insurance costs and complexity.

Way Forward

• National Space Act: Enact legislation defining Maximum Probable Loss and government indemnity beyond thresholds to keep premiums affordable.
• Domestic Pool: Create a public-private space insurance pool involving New India Assurance and GIC Re to retain risks domestically.
• Risk Guarantee Fund: Establish a government-backed partial risk guarantee to subsidise premiums for early-stage startups.
• Data Sharing: Enable ISRO and IN-SPACe to share non-sensitive performance data with insurers for accurate actuarial pricing.
• Regulatory Empowerment: Grant IN-SPACe statutory authority to enforce insurance compliance, verify satellite health, and resolve claim disputes.

ECINET Digital Platform

• Election Commission of India launched ECINET Digital Platform at the IICDEM 2026 in New Delhi to strengthen end-to-end digital electoral governance.

About ECINET

• Nature: Unified digital election platform integrating over 40 apps and web services under a common, secure and interoperable architecture.
• Users Covered: Citizens, voters, candidates, political parties and election officials connected through one seamless national digital interface.
• Language Support: Available in 22 Indian languages plus English, significantly improving accessibility for diverse voter populations.
• Legal Alignment: ECINET data usage is strictly governed by the Representation of the People Act, 1950 & 1951, Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 and Conduct of Election Rules, 1961.

Key Features

• Single Window: Consolidates voter services, candidate processes and election administration tools into one integrated national access point.
• Citizen Engagement: Enables easier participation, grievance redressal and verified information access across all election stages.
• Operational Integration: Links backend systems used by election officials for real-time coordination, supervision and monitoring.

Whale Shark (Rhincodon typus)

• A whale shark (Rhincodon typus) was recently sighted near Rushikonda Beach in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.

Whale Shark (Rhincodon typus)

• About: The Whale Shark is the world’s largest living fish and belongs to Class Chondrichthyes (cartilaginous fishes).
• Appearance: It has a flattened head, a wide terminal mouth, and a dark grey body marked by white spots and stripes.
• Spot Pattern: The arrangement of spots and lines on the skin is unique to each whale shark.
• Mouth Position: Unlike most sharks, its mouth opens at the front of the head, not on the underside.
• Habitat Preference: The species prefers warm surface waters, typically between 21°C and 30°C.
• Distribution: It is found in tropical and warm-temperate oceans but is rare in the Mediterranean Sea.
• Indian Range: Major aggregations occur along Gujarat’s Saurashtra coast, with smaller populations in Lakshadweep, Kerala, and Andhra Pradesh.
• Behaviour Traits: Despite its enormous size, it is solitary, gentle, and harmless to humans, earning it the name “gentle giant.”
• Feeding Method: It is a filter feeder that consumes plankton, krill, and small fish by sucking in water and filtering it through gill rakers.
• Ecological Role: Whale Shark serves as an indicator species, reflecting nutrient-rich waters and high plankton productivity.
• Reproductive: The species is ovoviviparous, with eggs hatching inside the female and releasing fully formed live pups.
• Key Threats: Net bycatch, vessel collisions, and ingestion of marine plastic debris.
• Conservation Status: IUCN: Endangered; CITES: Appendix II; WPA: Schedule I
• Conservation Initiative: The “Save the Whale Shark Campaign”, launched in 2004 by Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), is recognised as a community-based marine conservation model.

Blue Origin TeraWave Satellite Constellation

• Blue Origin announced plans to launch the TeraWave satellite constellation in 2027.
• TeraWave is a multi-orbit, space-based communications network developed by Blue Origin.
• It is designed to serve enterprise, data centre, and government customers who need mission-critical, high-capacity connectivity.
• The system integrates Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites to create a global space backbone.
• Data Capacity: The network is designed to deliver 6 terabits per second of throughput with symmetrical upload and download speeds, supporting real-time IoT data transfers and cloud operations.
• Significance: TeraWave complements fibre networks, offering route diversity and resilience, particularly in remote or suburban areas where fibre deployment is costly.

Humanoid Robot ASC ARJUN

• Context (PIB): Indian Railways has deployed a humanoid robot named “ASC ARJUN” at Visakhapatnam Railway Station.
• Objective: To modernise station security, improve passenger services, and work alongside the Railway Protection Force (RPF) to support station operations
• Significance: It is developed using fully indigenous technology and marks a first-of-its-kind deployment across the Indian Railways network.

Key Features & Capabilities

• AI Surveillance: The robot uses a Face Recognition System (FRS) and AI-based crowd analytics to detect intrusions and manage congestion.
• Multilingual Assistance: It delivers automated safety messages in English, Hindi, and Telugu.
• Autonomous Navigation: The system conducts round-the-clock platform patrols using semi-autonomous navigation and obstacle avoidance.
• Emergency Response: Integrated fire and smoke sensors generate real-time alerts to control rooms.
• Interactive Design: It features a passenger-friendly interface supporting familiar gestures like “Namaste” and salutes for RPF personnel.

WEF announced five new ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0) Centres’ globally

• One of the Centre will be built in in Andhra Pradesh, India as well.
• It will be 3rd such centre in India after Mumbai and Telangana.

What is the Fourth Industrial Revolution?

• The term was coined by Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2016.
• IR 4.0 describes the current era in which digital, physical and biological technologies converge such as AI, robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT), quantum computing, etc.
• Unlike earlier revolutions, IR 4.0 is blurring boundaries between physical, digital and biological systems.

Significance of Fourth Industrial Revolution

• Economic growth: Enhances productivity and improves supply chain resilience through automation, data analytics and smart manufacturing.
• Inclusive development potential: Offers developing countries like India an opportunity to leapfrog legacy technologies and expand digital access.
• Environmental sustainability: Supports low-carbon and resource-efficient growth through smart grids, precision agriculture and circular economy practices.  For example, "Lighthouse" factories have demonstrated significant reductions in CO2 emissions and water usage through predictive analytics and IoT.
• Human capital centrality: Shifts the focus from physical labour to skills, innovation, and lifelong learning.

Challenges and Risks

• The Technology Gap: There is a risk of widening inequality between developed and developing nations.  E.g. Ten "frontrunner" economies account for 91% of global patent applications in advanced digital production technologies.
• Workforce Disruption: The demand for manual skills in repeatable tasks is expected to decline by nearly 30%, while demand for technological skills (e.g., coding) will rise by over 50%.
• Security and Cyber Resilience: As industrial sites become more connected, they become vulnerable to cyberattacks, espionage, and disruption of critical infrastructure.
• Environmental Effects: The increased use of sensors, data centers, and connected devices consumes energy and scarce resources.

Graça Machel Wins Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace 2026

• Graça Machel, a globally respected humanitarian and women’s rights advocate from Mozambique, has been selected for the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development (2026).

What is the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development?

• The Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development is an international award conferred annually on an individual or organisation for outstanding creative contributions to global peace, nuclear disarmament, equitable development, and human welfare.

When and why was the Prize instituted?

• Year of institution: 1985
• Instituted by: Government of India
• Administered by: Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust, New Delhi
• The Prize was created to commemorate the global vision and leadership of Indira Gandhi, particularly her commitment to peace, non-alignment, and justice in international relations.

What are the core objectives of the Indira Gandhi Prize?

• The Prize seeks to uphold and promote ideals consistently championed by Indira Gandhi, including:

1. International peace and nuclear disarmament, especially in a divided world order
2. Equitable global development with emphasis on South–South cooperation
3. Expansion of human freedom, dignity, and social justice
4. Use of science, technology, and knowledge for human welfare, not militarism

• These objectives align with India’s post-colonial foreign policy ethos and leadership in the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

Who is eligible for the Prize?

Eligible candidates:

• Individuals or organisations

Eligibility conditions:

• No distinction of nationality, race, religion, or gender
• Only living persons may be nominated

Who can nominate?

• Parliamentarians
• Past awardees
• Jury members
• Reputed national or international organisations
• Legislators from UN member states

How is the Indira Gandhi Prize selected?

• Selection authority: International Jury
• Jury size: 5 to 9 members
• Decision method: Consensus
• Nature of decision: Final and binding
• The jury may choose to divide the prize or withhold it if no suitable candidate is found.

What does the award consist of?

• Prize money: ₹10 million (₹1 crore) or equivalent in foreign exchange

Components:

1. Cash prize
2. Formal citation
3. Trophy made of Haematite Jasper, the stone used at Indira Gandhi’s samadhi (Shakti Sthal), featuring a Jaipur miniature–style silver-rimmed portrait

• Funding source: Endowment provided by the Government of India to the Trust
• Frequency: Annual.

Report on Circular Economy of E-Waste and Lithium-ion Batteries

• The report has been released by NITI Aayog in collaboration with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).
• Circular economy is a model of production and consumption, which involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products.

Challenges in Circularity of E-Waste

• Informal and inefficient collection: Approximately 78% of India''s total E-waste is processed by the informal sector, achieving material recovery rates of only 10-20% compared to 95-97% in formal facilities.
• Weak monitoring & enforcement: Manipulation of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system. E.g. spurious EPR certificates.
• Limited EPR coverage: Only a few metals dominate, Iron (52%), Copper (18%) etc.; critical minerals (such as Lithium and Cobalt) remain neglected.
• Low technical capacity: Lack of skills and technologies for efficient, safe, and scalable recycling.

Recommendations:

• Strengthen Waste Management Rules: Monitoring of recyclers through an expanded of EPR coverage to include high-value metals.
• Provide Incentives: Additional incentives proposed for manufacturers of Advanced Chemistry Cells under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI).
• Integrate Battery recycling into the Indian Carbon Market, allowing recyclers to monetize Green House Gas (GHG) emission reductions.
• Informal Sector Integration: Use the single-window system; establish a separate vertical in National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM) only on recycling.
• Other:  Consumer awareness; skilling and re-skilling of workforce, etc.

Status of E-Waste in India

• E-waste generation: Increased to ~6.19 MMT in 2024 and is projected to reach 14 MMT (2030), making India the 3rd largest globally (7% of global volumes).
• Recycling rate: At 10% is much lower than global average (~22%), EU (55%) and USA (56%).

India’s Initiatives

• E-waste Management Rules (EWMR), 2022: Establishes Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) mandates, requiring producers to fulfill recycling targets through the purchase of EPR certificates.
• Battery Waste Management Rules (BWMR), 2022: Mandates collection, recycling, and refurbishment targets, prohibiting landfill disposal and incineration.

Gangapur Dam

• The Indian Air Force (IAF) conducted an aerial display over the Gangapur Dam.
• Gangapur Dam is an earthfill dam near Nashik, Maharashtra. It is the longest earthen dam in Asia.
• It is built on the Godavari River at the confluence with the Kashyapi River.
• The dam is designed using Terzaghi’s soil mechanics principles, ensuring structural stability.
• It has a unique emergency spillway designed to protect the dam body in case the main spillway fails.
• The dam supplies irrigation and drinking water to Nashik and the surrounding drought-prone regions.