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One continuously-updated note per topic — when the story moves, the same note updates. Open any topic for its preview; the full note, version history, and what-changed tracking live in the app.
Government Schemes
- PM SVANidhi — Credit for Street Vendorsv3 · Marks one year of the restructured scheme: 78.68 lakh vendors, over 1.18 crore loans and ₹19,171 crore lent by 27 August 2026, with 10.56 lakh new vendors and 21.86 lakh loans worth ₹6,294 crore in the revamp's first year. Adds the 27,077 RuPay credit cards approved, the Digital Lending Platform and Vendor Migration Module, the 50 planned Street Food Hubs at up to ₹4 crore each, the September 2026 Lok Kalyan Melas, and the latest digital-payment and SVANidhi se Samriddhi counts.
- India's Tribal Development Schemesv3 · Added the Mysuru National Conclave on Tribal Languages and Museums (24–26 August 2026): Adi Vaani upgraded with an iOS app and five new languages, the ministry's 'Jago' AI assistant launched, an MoU signed with CIIL, Karnataka's Jenukuruba primers released, and 11 Tribal Freedom Fighter Museums sanctioned across 10 States with four already open.
- NAMASTE Scheme (Mechanised Sanitation)v3 · Added the NCSK's 33rd Foundation Day (23 August 2026) — compensation paid in 1,223 of 1,377 reported sewer and septic-tank deaths, FIRs in 750, a new missed-call grievance number — and the Mission Zero national workshop in Bhubaneswar (22 August) on ending sanitation fatalities; NSKFDC confirmed as nodal agency, capsule restructured to nine stats.
- Scheme Milestones — 2026 Trackerv5 · Adds the late-August 2026 anniversaries: e-Shram at five years with 31.89 crore registered unorganised workers, its 15-scheme One-Stop Solution and eligibility rules; the PMFME Conclave 2026 in New Delhi with the PMFME Bazaar from 25 states and UTs, the FoodNova magazine, three MoUs and the state, bank and district awards; and one-line rows pointing to the PMJDY 12-year, UPI 10-year and PM SVANidhi restructuring-anniversary cards.
- GOBARdhan and the Compressed Biogas Frameworkv1 · Cabinet clears GOBARdhan, a Rs 23,731 crore ten-year scheme to scale compressed biogas ten-fold with a 3-5 percent blending mandate and a Rs 2,110 per MMBTU administered price.
- Khelo India Scheme, 2026-31v2 · Added the 27 August Khelo India Dialogue: the Prime Minister's talent hunt for children aged 5 to 15, his call to enter the Olympic sports India skips, and the 5,000-plus institutes that joined ahead of National Sports Day.
- NADCP: India's FMD and Brucellosis Vaccination Drivev1 · New card: NADCP's FMD and brucellosis vaccination record (147.16 crore doses, outbreaks down to 40 and 15 in 2025) and its place inside the Rs 2,010-crore LHDCP umbrella.
- BHAVYA Rasayan - Chemical Parks Schemev2 · Added the 24 August CEO Roundtable setting a USD 1 trillion chemicals-sector goal for 2040 and the first CHEMCONNECT meet at IIT Madras, where DCPC's 18 Centres of Excellence showcased technologies.
- Jal Jeevan Mission 2.0v5 · States and UTs have been asked to plan JJM 2.0 and SBM-G 2.0 works together inside the VB-G RAM G Act's Viksit Gram Panchayat Plans, with water security as one of the Act's four work verticals and every asset geo-tagged on the national rural infrastructure stack. The tenth Sujal Gram Samvad (25 August 2026) put four panchayats' community-run, user-charge-funded supply on record. The 2019 baseline of 3.23 crore households (16.71 percent) is back as its own pointer.
- Nasha Mukt Yuva Abhiyan — The 100-Week Youth Campaignv3 · Updates MY Bharat's reach: the youth platform now counts over 25 million (2.5 crore) registered young people, per the minister on 22 August 2026, up from the 2.3 crore cited at the campaign's launch.
- Bal Vivah Mukt Bharatv2 · Union Minister Annpurna Devi renewed the pledge in August 2026: ending child marriage is a national commitment, and every citizen should report a suspected case on Child Helpline 1098. The card is restructured to the full reader contract - the law, the 2024 Supreme Court framework, the 100-day drive and the Balod milestone all stay.
- National Cooperation Policy 2025v7 · Amit Shah's 16 August Rajasthan double-header joins the card: ground broken for a 3-lakh-litre Saras Dairy plant at Alwar (headed for 5 lakh), four plants worth ₹274 crore switched on at Jaipur, Pali, Rajsamand and Bhilwara, four new district cooperative banks lending at zero percent interest, and works of ₹5,755 crore at Chittorgarh plus ₹6,453 crore at Alwar launched in one day.
- Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana and the fisheries scheme familyv2 · Added the new Access Pass regime for India's exclusive economic zone - 9,650 free digital passes issued under the 2025 EEZ Rules, duty-free status for EEZ catch and the 61-day breeding-season closure - plus the constitutional split between State and Union fisheries powers, the GST and customs cuts that lowered aquaculture input costs, and the cost squeeze Andhra Pradesh's shrimp farmers are reporting.
- AYUSH sector and the Ministry of Ayushv2 · Added the renewed One Herb, One Standard pact: the Ayush and health ministries' pharmacopoeia commissions signed on for three more years on 12 August 2026, extending a 2022 effort that has already produced 50 plant monographs, so each medicinal plant carries one agreed quality standard whichever system of medicine uses it.
- Farm Mechanisation and Digital Agriculture Frameworkv1 · Pulls the mechanisation and agri-technology stack into one card after Parliament was told no separate national mechanisation policy exists: the SMAM subsidy ladder, DGCES now in 23 States and UTs, and the satellite, drone and AI systems behind crop estimation.
- Student Mental Health and Suicide Preventionv1 · Sets out how India supports student mental health, after a Lok Sabha reply on student suicides: the crime bureau's reports as the data of record, Manodarpan and school counsellors, UGC and coaching-centre rules, campus counselling centres, and 53 Tele-MANAS cells that have handled over 43.25 lakh calls.
- PMAY-Urban — India's City Housing Missionv1 · PMAY-Urban has crossed 1.25 crore houses sanctioned and 1 crore delivered, a crore of them owned by women; the 8th sanctioning committee cleared 2.09 lakh more on 6 August 2026, taking PMAY-U 2.0 past 18.38 lakh sanctions across its four verticals.
- Startup India - DPIIT's Ecosystem Pushv1 · New card on the Startup India delivery machinery. DPIIT signed five support agreements on 8 August 2026 - cloud credits and training from Vultr India, payment and fraud-control rails from Cashfree Payments, mobility and AI programmes with Cars24, Tier II, Tier III and rural outreach through Darwin Dynamics, and investment readiness, governance and global-market work through the Council for Startup India. All benefits run through DPIIT-recognised status, and no outlay or target figure was announced.
- Ayushman Bharat Digital Missionv1 · Scan and Register, the QR-based hospital sign-in run under the mission, has crossed 25 crore outpatient registrations and now works in 30,800 health facilities across 756 districts.
- Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 — India's Nutrition Missionv1 · Sets out India's flagship nutrition mission in full — who is entitled to which food, how the Poshan Tracker app polices last-mile delivery, and what the 2025 NITI Aayog evaluation and the earlier World Bank survey actually found.
- PMAY-Gramin — India's Rural Housing Pushv1 · Added the 3 August 2026 position — 3.12 crore rural houses finished against a 4.18 crore target, with 79 lakh sanctioned homes still under construction.
- Mission Shakti — Women's Safety and Empowermentv1 · Sets out Mission Shakti's reach as told to Lok Sabha on 7 August 2026: 991 of 1,033 One Stop Centres running, 15.20 lakh women assisted since 2015, and the 181 helpline past 1.04 crore women by 30 June 2026.
- RDI Scheme — Rs 1 Lakh Crore for Private R&Dv2 · The government has answered the conflict-of-interest questions hanging over the fund. On 7 August 2026 the Department of Science and Technology, the Technology Development Board and the ANRF said each award is cleared by an Investment Committee of independent outside experts on a supermajority vote, with disclosure and full recusal mandatory, no vote for the board's member secretary, and no proposals accepted at all from a firm a committee member owns. The first round backed 22 deep-science companies; support goes to named projects against matching private investment, never to companies as such. The card is also restructured for faster reading, with no factual change to earlier content.
- DAY-NRLM — Rural Livelihoods Missionv1 · NITI Aayog's evaluation of DAY-NRLM lands: beneficiary household incomes up 49 percent, 10.08 crore women inside 92 lakh Self-Help Groups, and bad loans held to 1.85 percent.
- India's Electric Mobility Pushv2 · Records India's best-ever month for electric vehicles: 3,27,901 retail sales in July 2026, more than 66 percent above a year earlier, with nearly one vehicle in eight sold now electric. Electric two-wheelers crossed two lakh units in a month for the first time at an 11.2 percent share, three-wheelers reached 65.1 percent, passenger cars grew 83 percent and commercial vehicles more than doubled their share — dealer-body figures reported by DD News. The card is also rebuilt to the current reading format, with the scheme's detail moved into the pointer checklist and a nine-stat capsule on top.
- TB Mukt Bharat — The Elimination Pushv2 · Drone-carried sputum samples cut the wait for a TB diagnosis to 5 days from 15 in an ICMR field study in Telangana, and pulled a patient's own spending down to about Rs 91 from roughly Rs 9,451 — the Health Ministry's first Parliament read-out on the i-DRONE work under the TB programme.
- PM-VBRY Employment Incentive Schemev1 · PM-VBRY finished its first year on 1 August 2026: over 72 lakh first-time workers formalised, nearly a third of them women, and more than 15 lakh already paid.
- Samudra Manthan Offshore Exploration Schemev1 · Cabinet cleared Samudra Manthan: ₹84,084 crore to de-risk deepwater oil and gas drilling up to March 2031, with the state meeting as much as half of each well's cost.
- India's Organ Donation and Transplant Networkv1 · Recorded India's best transplant year yet — 20,138 in 2025 — and added the four tools launched on Organ Donation Day: the Jug Jug Jiyo campaign, the e-प्रत्यारोपण platform, a NOTTO app and two national guidelines.
- PM-KISAN Farm Income Supportv1 · Cabinet cleared five more years of PM-KISAN, with ₹3.15 lakh crore for 2026-27 to 2030-31 and the ₹6,000-a-year, three-instalment design carried forward.
- PM-SSY — India's Floating Solar Schemev1 · Cabinet approved a ₹5,070 crore floating-solar scheme: 5,000 MW on water bodies with 10,000 MWh of paired storage, to be sanctioned between 2026-27 and 2030-31.
- Bihar's Kosi-Mechi River Linkv1 · Bihar's Kosi-Mechi canal link is 8.5% built, with ₹3,652.56 crore of central assistance behind it and March 2029 as the finish date.
- PM Vidyalaxmi — Collateral-Free Education Loansv1 · Sets out PM Vidyalaxmi as it stands: 1,425 listed institutions, a 75% credit guarantee on loans up to ₹7.5 lakh, 3% interest subvention below ₹8 lakh family income, and 67,728 loans disbursed in FY 2025-26.
- PARIVARTAN Schemev1 · Lays out the newly approved PARIVARTAN scheme — its Rs 9,585 crore outlay, the 16 July 2026 guideline approval, the incentive stack, and how MoRTH, the NCRPB and 11 OEMs fit in.
- Modified UDAN (UDAN 2.0)v2 · Alliance Air flew NAMO Airport, Daman's first-ever service (a Daman-Delhi flight) on 16 July 2026, giving the Union Territory its first direct air link. The card is also rebuilt with fresh Modified-UDAN detail: the 4 July 2026 launch, refreshed UDAN totals (679 routes and over 1.68 crore passengers as of 15 July 2026), India's operational airports up from 74 to 165, and all five funding components in full.
- Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme (MPMS)v2 · Repacked the fact strip into a quick stat capsule and added the scheme's jobs scale, women-led workforce and component-ecosystem gains from the Cabinet's fuller rollout; the ₹62,500 crore outlay, 2.25-5% incentives and ₹39 lakh crore production target are unchanged.
- National Investment Policy for Urea-2026 (NIPU-2026)v1 · Cabinet clears NIPU-2026 to pull PSU and private money into new gas-based urea units, offering a 12-16% return band and rupee cost-conversion after four years, in a push for urea self-sufficiency.
- PM-KUSUM & Agri-Photovoltaicsv1 · PM-KUSUM 2.0 in the works: a proposed 10 GW Agri-PV component (crops plus solar on one field), with the FY2026-27 outlay set at Rs 5,000 crore.
- VB-G RAM G Act, 2025 (MGNREGA's Successor)v1 · VB-G RAM G Act commenced 1 July 2026, repealing MGNREGA; 125-day work guarantee now in force under a fixed 60:40 Centre-state normative-funding model, with states due to notify their own schemes within six months.
- Mission for Aatmanirbharta in Pulsesv1 · Pulses mission launched 11 Oct 2025, Rs 11,440 crore: 100% MSP buying of tur/urad/masoor for 4 years, self-reliance targeted by December 2027.
- BHAVYA — Bharat Audyogik Vikas Yojnav1 · Cabinet-cleared BHAVYA (₹33,660 cr for 100 plug-and-play parks); DPIIT issued operational guidelines on 23 May 2026, with the first 50 parks to be picked by challenge.
- Urban Challenge Fundv1 · UCF operational: Rs 1 lakh crore fund, 25% central cap, guidelines released (Apr 2026); about Rs 4 lakh crore of urban investment targeted by 2030-31.
- PM Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojanav1 · PM-DDKY launched 11 Oct 2025 with Rs 24,000 crore outlay; 36-scheme convergence across 100 low-productivity districts, tracked on 117 KPIs.
- Atal Pension Yojana — Continued to 2030-31v1 · Cabinet cleared APY's continuation to FY 2030-31 (21 Jan 2026); over 8.66 crore subscribers; ₹1,000-5,000 guaranteed pension for the unorganised sector.
- PM MITRA Textile Parksv1 · Warangal opens as India's first functional PM MITRA park (10 May 2026); all seven sites locked, Rs 4,445 cr outlay to 2027-28.
- SARTHAK-PDSv1 · SARTHAK-PDS cleared: Rs.25,530 cr umbrella scheme to 2031 merges foodgrain-movement/FPS-margin aid with SMART PDS for 81.35 cr NFSA beneficiaries.
- Export Promotion Missionv1 · EPM fully rolled out: 10 interventions live; ₹497-cr RELIEF war-risk cover extended to Egypt and Jordan; ₹12,980-cr Bharat Maritime Insurance Pool cleared.
Science & Technology
- Indian Biotech Breakthroughsv2 · Added three August 2026 lab results from DST institutes: RK-251, a prodrug that activates only inside tumour cells (IASST and IIT Guwahati); TZ-48 with the ADxFluor phone app for reading Alzheimer's amyloid in blood (JNCASR); and SAMBAR, the 575-person South Asian gut-microbiome baseline (BSIP). Restructured the capsule for faster reading; no earlier fact removed.
- Private Space Companies in Indiav4 · Adds the National Space Day interaction of 23 August 2026, when space start-up founders briefed the Prime Minister: Skyroot, India's first space-technology unicorn, has three factories, capacity for a rocket a month and a pledge of one launch a month by mid next year; other founders described satellite engines now exported with government backing, a robotic craft to remove dead satellites, India's first docking-and-refuelling effort, a space-pharma start-up, eight launch contracts won in a month, and a global ground-station network within 18 months. The Prime Minister's message: consistent decisions build the trust risk-takers need, and India competes on cost, talent and appetite for risk.
- IndiaAI Missionv6 · Added the 20 August 2026 AIKosh workshop - the datasets platform now lists over 15,000 datasets, 300 models and 30 toolkits - with the IndiaAI-NeGD-CDPI MoU on AI-enabled governance and data exchange and the EkStep MoU, plus NSDC's 23 August cloud-and-AI skilling drive with Cultus and AWS for 1,50,000 learners.
- ICAR -- Crop Varieties, Livestock Breeds, R&D and Agricultural Educationv3 · Added the 16 indigenous animal breeds registered by ICAR-NBAGR on 7 August 2026 - Periyar cattle, the Kombai dog and the Sikkimese yak among them - which take India's registered breeds to 262 (258 indigenous, four synthetic), plus the 24 August launch of an Indian-bred non-GMO popcorn maize hybrid in Andhra Pradesh.
- India's Semiconductor Mission (ISM & Semicon 2.0)v3 · Aheesa's VIHAAN broadband chip - a DLI-backed design on the indigenous VEGA microprocessor - achieved first-pass silicon on Independence Day, and ECMS crossed its investment target: 31 new approvals take it to 106 applications and about Rs 69,000 crore committed.
- India's Semiconductor Mission (ISM & Semicon 2.0)v3 · Aheesa's VIHAAN broadband chip - a DLI-backed design on the indigenous VEGA microprocessor - achieved first-pass silicon on Independence Day, and ECMS crossed its investment target: 31 new approvals take it to 106 applications and about Rs 69,000 crore committed.
- Bharat Forecast Systemv4 · Added Mission Mausam's next phase and the warning machinery built around the Bharat Forecast System. Rajya Sabha replies of 13 August 2026 set the mission's 2026-27 budget at Rs 1,342.29 crore and name the six verticals it will run on from 2026 to 2031, on top of the Rs 2,000 crore the Cabinet approved for its first two years. Also new: where BharatFS sits inside IMD's operational model suite; the observation count behind it - 50 Doppler radars, 1,008 automatic weather stations and 6,885 rain gauges; the Multi-Hazard Early Warning Decision Support System; the national lightning-safety pilot; an earthquake early-warning pilot on a 174-station seismic network; and IMD's statement that no conclusive study explains the perceived rise in Himachal cloudbursts.
- Digital Rupee vs Stablecoinsv3 · The CBDC-based food-subsidy transfer goes live today: Chandigarh launches PMGKAY payments as programmable digital-rupee tokens on 14 August 2026, in what official sources call the first full-fledged rollout of its kind by a Union Territory, with Dadra & Nagar Haveli launched virtually from the same event. Adds the three-stage framing of welfare delivery and who is presiding.
- Kavach - Train Collision Protectionv2 · Added the 12 August 2026 sanction of Version 4.0 over 660 route km on North Eastern Railway's Izzatnagar Division, costed at Rs 295 crore under the umbrella work that pairs Kavach with an LTE data backbone. Corrected the coverage figure this card had carried since January: Version 4.0 was live on 2,633 route km as on 31 July 2026, not 1,306.3 route km. The whole note is rebuilt for the current reader layout, with a nine-stat capsule.
- SHANTI Act & the Nuclear Openingv5 · Adds the 12 August 2026 Lok Sabha roadmap: 100 GWe by 2047, built two ways — large 700 MWe heavy-water units on new sites, small modular reactors on retiring thermal ones; thorium-bred uranium-233 already fuelling KAMINI; a sanctioned Isotope Production Reactor due around 2035 at 0.5 million curie; and the security, cyber and emergency-drill regime at nuclear stations. The date the Act's own reforms begin is still not stated.
- Deep Ocean Mission & Samudrayaanv5 · Adds the 12 August 2026 Lok Sabha replies: India's seabed contracts cover polymetallic sulphides as well as nodules, and only exploration — not commercial mining — is permitted on the international seabed for now; NIOT is building the nodule collection and crushing gear for its 5,270-metre-tested mining system; and CMLRE has run about 19 surveys of India's EEZ in three years, with a Bhavasagara repository coming up for deep-sea specimens.
- India's Chandrayaan Lunar Programmev3 · Records NASA's invitation for ISRO to take part in its Moon base programme, the ninth India-US civil space working group at Bengaluru on 5-6 August 2026, and the agreement to pursue open scientific data sharing under the Artemis Accords; the whole card is also rebuilt to the current reader format.
- Green Hydrogen: Mission, Refineries and the Trainv4 · Adds the refinery tranche disclosed on 11 August 2026: 30 KTPA of green hydrogen capacity placed with four refineries through SIGHT Mode-2B, with 10 KTPA each at Numaligarh and Panipat and 5 KTPA each at Vizag and Bina, to be built and run by private developers on Build-Own-Operate terms. Mission outlay, the 2030 goal and all hydrogen-train material carry forward.
- India's Bioeconomy & BioE3 Policyv2 · Adds the government's own framing of where this policy is meant to lead. On 9 August 2026 the Minister of State for Science and Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh, said the next industrial revolution will be biotechnology- and AI-driven and that India, late to the IT-led one, will be an essential player this time, counting BioE3 alongside the National Quantum Mission and the India AI Mission. Read it as stated ambition: the speech carries no new bioeconomy figure, and the $195.3 billion size and the $300 billion 2030 target still rest on the India BioEconomy Report 2026. The whole card is also restructured for faster reading — a nine-stat capsule, a prelims checklist and key-term rails — with no fact dropped.
- India's Bioeconomy & BioE3 Policyv2 · Adds the government's own framing of where this policy is meant to lead. On 9 August 2026 the Minister of State for Science and Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh, said the next industrial revolution will be biotechnology- and AI-driven and that India, late to the IT-led one, will be an essential player this time, counting BioE3 alongside the National Quantum Mission and the India AI Mission. Read it as stated ambition: the speech carries no new bioeconomy figure, and the $195.3 billion size and the $300 billion 2030 target still rest on the India BioEconomy Report 2026. The whole card is also restructured for faster reading — a nine-stat capsule, a prelims checklist and key-term rails — with no fact dropped.
- India in the FAIR Mega-Science Projectv1 · India's first beam catcher has reached the FAIR accelerator site in Germany, one of three such units designed by CSIR-CMERI and built in Kanpur; the card sets out what FAIR is, how India pays for it, and every component Indian industry supplies.
- Gaganyaan & Bharatiya Antariksh Stationv3 · Reset the flight schedule from the official Lok Sabha reply of 5 August 2026: the first uncrewed test flight is now targeted in the last quarter of 2026 and the first crewed mission by 2027, replacing the 2027-28 slippage reported earlier; the station is still to be operational by 2035.
- PFBR Criticality - Stage II Milestonev3 · Added the government's account of how the Kalpakkam breeder was commissioned — IGCAR's under-sodium ultrasonic imaging, the DISHA weld-inspection robot and about 90 percent indigenous manufacture — plus the two more 500 MW breeders in pre-project work there and the climb from 8,780 MW of nuclear capacity to 22,480 MW by 2031-32.
- India's Indigenous African Swine Fever Vaccinev1 · Added India's first home-grown African Swine Fever vaccine - who built it, how it works, the dosing schedule, and the crore-scale losses in Assam and Mizoram it is meant to prevent.
- Qdenga — India's First Dengue Vaccinev1 · India's drug regulator CDSCO has approved Qdenga, the country's first dengue vaccine, for people aged 4 to 60 — a live attenuated tetravalent shot already cleared in 42 countries with WHO prequalification.
- India's National Time Networkv1 · Commissioned a White Rabbit-based network to disseminate secure Indian Standard Time at RRSL Bengaluru on 16 July 2026, verified over a Bengaluru-Chennai link to the NSE.
- ICMR i-DRONE -- Drones for Healthcare Accessv1 · New: an ICMR i-DRONE study in Telangana finds that flying TB samples by drone cut the median diagnosis time from 15 to 5 days and average patient cost from about Rs 9,451 to roughly Rs 91.
- NavIC — India's Satellite Navigationv1 · Constellation stretched thin: only 3 of 8 working NavIC satellites still broadcast full navigation signals (Mar 2026); the second-gen NVS series with L1 and indigenous clocks is the fix.
- National Quantum Missionv1 · NQM at mid-2026: a 1,000-km quantum key distribution network demonstrated via QNu Labs, roughly halfway to the 2,000-km goal; startup support widened to 17.
- NISAR — The NASA-ISRO Radar Satellitev1 · NISAR in routine science operations: launched 30 Jul 2025 on GSLV-F16, the first dual-band (L+S) radar satellite images all of Earth every 12 days and streams about 85 TB/day of open data.
Defence & Security
- PRAHAAR — National Counter-Terrorism Policyv3 · Added the 9th National Security Strategies Conference (24–25 Aug 2026) — the Home Minister's call to take PRAHAAR from document to daily practice down to DySP level, about 274 fugitives brought back since 2019, the four-pronged border-security approach with state nodal officers — and the 22 Aug Siliguri corridor security review as a new border-security section.
- Defence Budget & Aatmanirbharta Drivev4 · Added the late-August 2026 self-reliance moves: the Raksha Mantri cleared transfer of DRDO technology for all conventional missile systems to Indian industry (25 Aug), three indigenous vessels reached the Navy and Coast Guard (ASW craft Mangrol, diving support vessel Nipun, patrol vessel ICGS Ajit), a Rs 472 crore T-72/T-90 overhaul plant broke ground at Jabalpur, GRSE and Yantra India began Rs 3,500 crore of expansion in Bengal, and CSIR-NAL unveiled three small gas-turbine engines for drones.
- ASW Shallow Water Craft (Mahe class)v3 · Mangrol, the third of eight Mahe-class submarine-hunters from Cochin Shipyard, was delivered to the Navy on 21 August 2026 — added its Gujarat namesake, its minesweeper predecessor retired in 2004, its waterjet propulsion and weapons fit, and where it sits in the 16-craft programme.
- Military Exercises - 2026 Trackerv7 · Added the Air Force's back-to-back Pitch Black 2026 (Australia, 20-plus nations, Rafales) and Udara Shakti 2026 (Malaysia, against Su-30MKM and F/A-18) runs, both concluded by 22 August; INS Sudarshini's Lisbon call on Lokayan 2026 (22-25 August, her 15th port in seven months); and the India-Vietnam Coast Guard exercise SAHYOG-HOPTAC set for 27 August after the seventh high-level meeting in Chennai. Tracker count rises to 12.
- Red Fort Bombing and the AQIS Attributionv1 · Names the group a UN Security Council expert panel now blames for the Red Fort suicide car bombing of November 2025, in which 11 people died: Al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent. The same panel had reported a Jaish-e-Mohammed link in February 2026, so the attribution has moved. Note what kind of statement this is - a panel's finding reported to the Council, not an official Indian attribution.
- Jammu & Kashmir After Article 370v7 · Takes the PoJK story abroad. Reported on 14 August 2026: Kashmiri diaspora groups marched in Brussels from the European Parliament towards the United Nations, and demonstrations were reported in Bologna and outside Pakistani diplomatic premises in the United Kingdom, after the Awami Action Committee called for a worldwide turnout. The protests inside PoJK have now run for more than two months. A committee leader puts the dead at around 100 - higher than India's official figure of more than 90 from the 11 August MEA briefing, which still leads this card; neither count is verified.
- India's Left-Wing Extremism Endgamev2 · Revised the affected-district count to zero — the earlier figure of two no longer stands — and added the government's full ledger: 663 fortified police stations, 15,189 km of roads, 9,497 mobile towers, 3,927 surrenders and 37 districts still under Legacy and Thrust watch.
- BrahMos Goes Globalv1 · BrahMos exports expand: Philippines (2022) remains the first customer; the July 2026 India-Indonesia joint statement elevates BrahMos cooperation, with defence press reporting a ~$630m deal whose value is not officially confirmed.
- DRDO's Emerging Weapons - Hypersonics & Lasersv1 · DRDO's 2025 emerging-weapons run: 1,000-second scramjet ground test (Apr), 30 kW Mk-II(A) laser downs drones at Kurnool (Apr), and a stratospheric airship reaches 17 km (May).
- AMCA - India's Fifth-Gen Fighterv1 · AMCA execution model approved (27 May 2025) opening the 5th-gen fighter to private bidders; Mk2 Safran-GTRE engine deal awaiting final CCS clearance; first flight targeted ~2028-29.
- Chief of Defence Staff — 2026 Transitionv1 · Gen N.S. Raja Subramani took charge as India's 3rd Chief of Defence Staff on 31 May 2026, succeeding Gen Anil Chauhan.
- Agni-5 & India's MIRV Capabilityv1 · Advanced Agni missile with MIRV flight-tested 8 May 2026 over the Indian Ocean, reaffirming the multi-warhead capability first shown by Mission Divyastra (Mar 2024).
- AFSPA in the Northeast - The Long Rollbackv1 · HM says 80%+ of the Northeast is AFSPA-free, targets near-full withdrawal 'next year'; six-month disturbed-area extensions continue in Manipur, parts of Nagaland and Arunachal.
- C-295 - First Made-in-India Military Transportv1 · First India-built C-295 rolled out and flew from the Tata-Airbus Vadodara line in 2026; 40 aircraft to be built in India under the Rs 21,935-crore, 56-aircraft programme.
- India-US 10-Year Defence Frameworkv1 · 10-year US-India Major Defence Partnership framework signed (31 Oct 2025, Kuala Lumpur); F414 co-production and drone deals in train; Feb 2026 trade deal cut tariffs to 18%.
- Mission Sudarshan Chakrav1 · Mission Sudarshan Chakra: PM-announced indigenous multi-layered air-defence shield targeted by 2035; DRDO leading, advanced weapon complex inaugurated at DRDL Hyderabad (Jun 2026).
- India–Japan Defence Cooperationv1 · 8th India-Japan Defence Policy Dialogue held in Tokyo; 2+2 ministerial expected later this year
Economy & Banking
- Financial Inclusion: FI-Index and Banking Accessv4 · PM Jan Dhan Yojana turned 12 on 28 August 2026. Added the anniversary scorecard as on 19 August 2026: 59.09 crore accounts (up from the 58.77 crore of 17 July), deposits of ₹3,16,514 crore, 41.29 crore RuPay cards, average balance ₹5,356, 55.7 percent women holders, 77.8 percent rural and semi-urban accounts, the 2015 Guinness record and the growth multiples since 2015. Added the scheme's design - ₹2 lakh accident cover, ₹10,000 overdraft, the 2018 shift to every unbanked adult - and the JAM trinity. FI-Index and village-coverage readings unchanged.
- One State One RRBv2 · Added the FY2025-26 scorecard - record ₹10,176 crore net profit, ₹13.5 lakh crore business, GNPA 5.3% - and the SIDBI-RRB MSME co-lending push; card restructured to the reader contract.
- RBI Forex Swap Schemes — FCNR(B), ECB & OFCBv2 · Added the outcome: US$73 billion mobilised in eleven weeks (FCNR(B) US$65.40 billion), beating the 2013 scheme, so the FCNR(B) window closes early on 31 August 2026.
- India's Digital Payments Engine (UPI & Beyond)v5 · UPI completed ten years on 25 August 2026. Added the Finance Ministry's decade scorecard: volume up almost 13,000-fold to 24,162 crore payments in FY2025-26, value up more than 4,000-fold to ₹314 lakh crore, 741 banks live by July 2026, 66 crore payments a day, and an 84 percent share of India's digital payments (the earlier 85 percent figure is superseded). Added the full 11-country footprint after Cambodia, Greece and the Maldives went live in June-July 2026, plus the feature timeline from BHIM (2016) to Aadhaar face authentication (2025). Pricing position unchanged: no merchant fee is in force.
- WPI Base Revision & the Move to PPIv4 · Adds the first Service PPI print of FY 2026-27. Released 24 August 2026 on the 2022-23 base, the provisional Q1 indices put air passenger services at 126.4 (up 31.94 percent on the year), pension-fund management at 113.3, telecom at 112.2, railways at 103.4, insurance at 102.9, banking at 100.9 and securities transactions at 89.9; Q4 FY26 values were finalised in the same release and the next print is due 25 November 2026.
- India's Steel Sectorv1 · New card on India's steel sector: April to July 2026 production and demand, the net-import position and trade partners, August 2026 prices, and policy moves including the MMDR Amendment 2026 notification and Green Steel Certificates.
- RBI Monetary Policy 2026v3 · Corrects the FCNR(B) swap window: it now closes 31 August 2026, not 30 September, after inflows hit US$73 billion; the ECB/OFCB cover still runs to 31 December 2026.
- India's Sugar Sectorv1 · New card on India's sugar sector: cane output, FRP for 2026-27, exports, the ethanol link, and the August 2026 price spike with the government's stock limits and 10 lakh MT duty-free import window.
- India's Mining Law Reformsv4 · The 2026 MMDR amendment is now law — notified 17 August 2026 as the MMDR Amendment Act, 2026; Section 9D's bar on state levies over mineral rights and mineral-bearing land is in force, per the Ministry of Steel's April-July review.
- The Rupee in 2026v3 · Corrects the FCNR(B) swap window: RBI closed it on 31 August 2026, a month before the original 30 September date, after inflows reached US$73 billion; the ECB/OFCB cover still runs to 31 December 2026.
- India's Maritime & Shipping Reformsv6 · Adds the National Shipping Board's first Sagar Samvad, held in Delhi on 25 August 2026, and the fleet numbers it put on record: India pays close to $75 billion a year in freight to foreign shipping lines for its crude, gas, coal and urea; an Indian-flagged ship costs 16 to 20 percent more to run than a foreign one; and the board's five-point roadmap — fiscal reform, assured cargo, competitive finance, lighter regulation, ease of doing business — aims to add 100 ships in five years. Also records the NSB's origins (1958, reconstituted May 2025 under Sameer Kumar Khare, now anchored in the Merchant Shipping Act 2025), its new website, the ₹10,000 crore Container Manufacturing Assistance Scheme and the 10,000 million tonnes port-capacity goal for 2047. The stat strip now carries the freight bill and the fleet goal; the EXIM share and dredger count stay in the prose and pointers.
- India's Medical Devices & MedTech Sectorv2 · Added the Medical Devices Rules amendments: outsourced sterilisation no longer needs a separate loan licence (Rule 44) and EU approval now waives clinical investigation for devices without a predicate (Rule 63); plus the Section 26A order keeping chlorpheniramine-phenylephrine combinations away from children under four.
- RBI Regulatory Actions 2026v3 · Adds the RBI's ₹59.20 lakh penalty on IndusInd Bank, ordered 14 August 2026 — interest paid on current-account deposits and synthetic securitisation — under section 47A of the Banking Regulation Act.
- Banking Sector Reformsv1 · Two-day PSB Confluence 2026 opens under DFS and the Finance Minister announces a high-powered committee that will set the future course of banking reforms — with the meet's conclusions as its inputs.
- Consumer Price Index (CPI) & Retail Inflationv3 · Fixed garbled characters in the key facts, the explanatory text and the source list, so the dashes and separators read properly again. No fact, figure or date has changed.
- New GDP Series (Base Year 2022-23)v3 · Fixed garbled characters in the key facts, the explanatory text and the source list, so the dashes and separators read properly again. No fact, figure or date has changed.
- India's Foreign Trade - FY 2026-27v6 · Adds the July 2026 trade print: exports of goods and services reached US$ 80.14 billion, 13.31% above July 2025, taking the April-July total to US$ 316.42 billion and four-month growth to 13.16%, with the monthly gap at US$ 15.03 billion. Also records Piyush Goyal's Bharatiya Vyapar Mahotsav address, which set a US$ 1 trillion export target for this year against the US$ 863.1 billion of FY 2025-26.
- Sixteenth Finance Commissionv3 · Added the rural local-body grants under the 2026-31 award: ₹4,35,236 crore for panchayats across 28 states, split 80:20 between basic and performance grants, with half the basic grant tied to water and sanitation — plus the Article 280(3)(bb) route that sends that money to a panchayat through its state.
- GeM — India's Public Procurement Platformv3 · Adds the seller-side headcount Parliament was given for 30 July 2026 — 11,75,001 MSMEs, 37,758 startups, 2,17,155 women entrepreneurs and 3,784 self-help groups — with the Karnataka and Bengaluru splits. Sets out the five-year procurement series: the MSME share of GeM orders sank to 36.2 percent in 2024-25 and rebounded to 47.2 percent, worth ₹2,37,235 crore, in 2025-26 even as total order value fell. Also records how GeM polices the market — machine-learning screening, the competition regulator's cartel toolkit, 365-day bans and 55,772 sellers suspended last year — and the Prime Minister's 11 August post on the minister's article.
- Urban Cooperative Banksv1 · Opens a standing card on urban cooperative banks. NUCFDC, the sector's umbrella body, switched on shared technology in Mumbai on 8 August 2026 — a bundled 'Bank in a Box' platform, a Security Operations Centre watching member banks around the clock, and a forensics tie-up — with 650 of about 1,400 banks now signed up and ₹306 crore of capital raised. The Reserve Bank's draft 'on tap' licensing route is open for comment until 5 September 2026, alongside five years of relief that reset branch, priority-sector and settlement rules.
- MSME Payment-Delay Reform Billv1 · Parliament has passed the MSME payment-delay amendment: state-owned buyers must clear small-firm invoices on TReDS, and disputes now run on 30-day, 90-day and six-month clocks. Presidential assent is the last step before it becomes law.
- India's Pharmaceutical Sectorv2 · Added the new debarment penalty - licensing authorities can now bar applicants who file fake or fabricated data, on top of rejection or licence cancellation - and restructured the card for faster reading.
- Union Budget 2026-27v2 · Adds the first-quarter scorecard: by end-June 2026 the Centre had taken in 28.7% of budgeted receipts and spent 25.4% of the Budget, with tax devolution to states Rs 63,605 crore below last year.
- India's Coal Sectorv2 · Set out the reform architecture behind the production numbers, from a Lok Sabha reply of 5 August 2026. Coal linkages are now sold through two SHAKTI windows plus a no-end-use CoalSETU window, and all of Coal India's non-linkage coal moves through a single mode-agnostic auction. Clearances run on PARIVESH 2.0, 44 private firms are accredited prospecting agencies, coking coal is a critical and strategic mineral under the MMDR Act, and insurance surety bonds may replace bank guarantees. New targets: 100 MT of gasification capacity by 2030 against outlays of Rs 8,500 crore and Rs 37,500 crore, 58 MT of washery capacity by FY 2030, and 9.5 GW of Coal India renewables by FY 2029-30. The Coal Exchange Rules, 2026 create a regulated online market.
- Gwalior Telecom Manufacturing Zonev2 · Commitments for the Gwalior telecom zone reached ₹5,500 crore after a second investors' meet in Mumbai on 4 August 2026 — ₹2,000 crore of fresh proposals and nearly 4,000 more jobs, lifting projected employment past 18,000.
- Paytm Payments Bank: Licence Cancellation and Winding Upv1 · Explains the RBI's cancellation of Paytm Payments Bank's licence and the Delhi High Court order winding the bank up under a court-appointed liquidator.
- The Four Labour Codes in Forcev1 · All four Labour Codes operative since 21 Nov 2025 (29 laws consolidated); gig/platform-worker social security and aggregator levy now in law; state-level rule notification still catching up.
- Income Tax Act, 2025v1 · Income Tax Act, 2025 in force since 1 April 2026, replacing the 1961 Act; CBDT's PRARAMBH 2026 outreach and new Rules/Forms preceded the switch.
- IBC at Ten - The Review Debatev1 · Standing Committee's 28th Report (2 Dec 2025) reviews IBC at ten: 32.8% recovery, 713-day average resolution, backs the pending IBC (Amendment) Bill, 2025.
- GST 2.0 — The Two-Slab Reformv1 · GST 2.0 two-slab reform (5%/18%, 40% demerit rate) in force since 22 Sep 2025; tobacco items held back pending compensation-cess loan payoff; GSTAT going operational.
- RBI Surplus Transfer & the Economic Capital Frameworkv1 · RBI's Central Board approved a Rs 2,86,588.46 crore FY26 surplus transfer to the Centre on 22 May 2026, resolving conflicting reported figures
- Economic Survey 2025-26v1 · Economic Survey 2025-26 (tabled 29 Jan 2026): FY26 growth pegged at 7.4%, FY27 at 6.8-7.2%; case made for an entrepreneurial state moving India from self-reliance to strategic indispensability.
- National Monetisation Pipeline 2.0v1 · NMP 2.0 launched: Rs 16.72 lakh crore brownfield asset pipeline (FY26-30), 2.6x NMP 1.0; asset recycling to fund new CAPEX.
- India - World's Largest Rice Producerv1 · India now world's largest rice producer: 2024-25 output 150.18 mt vs China's 145.28 mt; 2025-26 at a record 154 mt.
- India's Net FDI Storyv1 · RBI's FY26 balance-of-payments data: net FDI recovered to US$ 6.9 billion after bottoming at US$ 1.0 billion in FY25, still far below the US$ 44 billion FY21 peak.
- National Logistics Policy at Threev1 · NLP at three: ULIP past 160 crore transactions, India 38th on the LPI; DPIIT-NCAER study pegs logistics cost at 7.97% of GDP (2023-24), down from the long-quoted 13-14%.
- Insurance Laws (Amendment) Act, 2025v1 · Insurance Laws (Amendment) Act, 2025 in force: 100% FDI allowed, IRDAI penalty ceiling raised to Rs 10 crore, foreign-investment rules notified 30 Dec 2025.
International Relations
- India-Canada Resetv2 · Added the finance track: Nirmala Sitharaman heads to Toronto for the first India-Canada Economic and Financial Dialogue with François-Philippe Champagne (25 Aug–2 Sep 2026 Canada-USA visit, including the G20 finance ministers' meeting at Asheville). Card restructured to the reader contract — no earlier fact dropped.
- India–Japan Economic Partnershipv1 · Goyal takes India's biggest-ever business delegation to Japan: JPY 10 trillion investment target reaffirmed, CEPA review to be accelerated, semiconductor and startup roundtables held in Tokyo.
- India-Nepal Relations: Boundary Row and the 2026 Floodsv2 · Added India's response to Nepal's 26 August 2026 flash floods: the Modi-Shah call, the MEA 24x7 control room, 288 Indians out of contact (73 at Trishuli-1), 21 Tamil Nadu pilgrims rescued, 47-plus tonnes of relief and NDRF alerts in Bihar and UP; toll 270 dead on 27 August. Boundary content restructured to the reader contract.
- India-Uzbekistan Relationsv2 · Prime Minister Modi makes a State Visit to Tashkent on 29-30 August 2026, his fourth trip to Uzbekistan, for delegation-level talks with President Mirziyoyev on trade, defence, energy, digital connectivity and education, before heading to the SCO summit in Bishkek.
- The West Asia War & India's Stakesv3 · Added the August 2026 fight over who controls the Strait of Hormuz: President Trump said the United States has total control of it, while Iran's joint military command says no ship may cross without Tehran's permission and the Pentagon says its blockade of Iranian ports can run indefinitely. The June interim ceasefire collapsed, so the passage carrying much of India's oil and cooking gas is still not open.
- Saudi-Türkiye-Pakistan Pact & Indiav2 · Added the first sign of the pact becoming machinery: Türkiye's defence ministry said on 13 August 2026 that the three states will build political and military mechanisms under it - their military chiefs, foreign ministers and defence ministers - and are planning joint exercises and closer defence-industry cooperation. This is a stated Turkish intention, not a constituted body, and no Indian reaction is on record.
- India-SACU Preferential Trade Agreement Talksv1 · India has opened a trade negotiation with Southern Africa. India and the Southern African Customs Union signed Terms of Reference on 12 August 2026 for talks towards a Preferential Trade Agreement covering eight chapters - India's first Terms-of-Reference signing with the African region, and with the world's oldest customs union. Talks should start within a month of signing and finish within a year. The text was settled days earlier at the fourth India-Namibia Joint Trade Committee, which put bilateral goods trade at US$ 592.94 million in 2025-26, up from US$ 568.40 million.
- India-China Relations — The Cautious Resetv3 · Restated India's position that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral and inalienable part of the country, and added the 36th WMCC round's review of the Line of Actual Control — the agreed diplomatic and military mechanisms, local commander-level meetings among them, stay the route for pending border issues.
- India, UAE & Saudi Arabia — Gulf Anchorsv2 · Restructured for faster reading - no factual change.
- India-Sri Lanka Relationsv4 · Fills in what the 7 August power talks in New Delhi did and did not settle: the two sides took stock under their standing bilateral mechanisms and framed the HVDC grid link, Sampur solar and renewables as regional energy security and a clean-energy transition - with no new figure, target date or signed instrument announced.
- Indian Seafarers in the Black Seav1 · Five Indian seafarers have been killed in Black Sea shipping attacks since 18 July; India summoned Ukraine's ambassador on 27 July and has issued an advisory for Indians taking jobs on ships in the region.
- India-Israel Relationsv2 · India and Israel wrapped up the second round of proposed free-trade-agreement talks (20-23 July 2026, New Delhi), building on the February 2026 upgrade to a Special Strategic Partnership; bilateral merchandise trade stands at USD 3.93 billion. The whole card is also restructured for faster reading.
- President Murmu's 2026 Europe State Visitsv2 · Completes the tour with the Romania leg: in Bucharest President Murmu addressed the India-Romania Business Forum on 24 July, held talks with President Nicusor Dan and Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan, and signed three MoUs - including a Chair of Indian Studies at the University of Bucharest - pitching the India-EU FTA and inviting Romanian firms into India's growth story.
- India-EU Trade & Technology Council (TTC)v1 · Launched at the third TTC ministerial in Brussels (15 July 2026): India and the EU opened talks on India joining the EUR 93.5-billion Horizon Europe programme, agreed a Semicon India 2026 chip roundtable and a first EV-charging Innovation Hub, and set a roadmap to upgrade the Council; India hosts the next meeting in 2027.
- India-UK CETA in Forcev2 · Records the India-UK CETA entering into force on 15 July 2026: about USD 140 million of goods shipped on day one, the first UK-bound cargo dispatched from Amritsar, and the Double Contribution Convention now ending double social-security payments for Indian workers.
- India-Maldives Relationsv2 · First round of the India-Maldives FTA concluded (virtual, 29 Jun-7 Jul 2026); two-way trade rose 13.54% to USD 771.76 million in 2025-26, with India the Maldives' second-largest trading partner.
- India-EU Free Trade Agreement Talksv1 · India-EU FTA concluded at the 27 Jan 2026 summit: duty-free access for 99%+ of Indian exports, dairy fully protected, CBAM safeguards secured; signing and ratification pending.
- India-Russia at 25 (Strategic Partnership)v1 · 23rd Annual Summit (Dec 2025): Programme 2030 adopted, trade target set at USD 100 bn by 2030; defence shifting to co-production
- The US Retreat from Multilateralismv1 · US completes WHO exit (Jan 2026) and heads for a third UNESCO withdrawal by Dec 2026, leaving swelling UN arrears and a funding gap the Global South must absorb.
- UNSC Reform — India's Pushv1 · G4 offers 15-year veto deferral for new permanent members (Apr 2026); India rejects a veto-less two-tier Council and backs the veto for African seats.
- Indus Waters Treaty in Abeyancev1 · IWT in abeyance since April 2025 post-Pahalgam; India rejects the June 2025 arbitration award on Kishenganga-Ratle as void.
- India-EFTA TEPAv1 · India-EFTA TEPA in force since 1 Oct 2025; carries a first-of-its-kind USD 100 bn investment and 1-million-jobs pledge over 15 years.
- India-Bangladesh After the 2024 Upheavalv1 · Post-Hasina reset: BNP's Tarique Rahman is Bangladesh PM (Feb 2026); the 1996 Ganga water treaty expires Dec 2026 with renewal talks yet to start.
- India-Oman CEPAv1 · India-Oman CEPA in force since 1 Jun 2026: 99.38% of India's exports get duty-free access; India is only the 2nd country after the US to sign a comprehensive pact with Oman.
- The Gaza Plan & Abraham Accords 2.0v1 · Trump's Board of Peace runs Gaza's transition under UNSC Res 2803; UK, Canada, France, Australia, Portugal recognise Palestine; India holds to two-state line
- India-ASEAN Comprehensive Strategic Partnershipv1 · 22nd ASEAN-India Summit (Oct 2025): 2026-30 CSP Plan of Action adopted, Timor-Leste welcomed as 11th ASEAN member, 2026 named Year of Maritime Cooperation; AITIGA review pressed at 13th Joint Committee (Jul 2026).
- India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC)v1 · IMEC progress stalls as the 2025-26 West Asia war hits the route; the India-UAE leg advances (IGFA 2024, construction from April 2025) while the Levant stretch awaits stability.
- Chabahar Port - India's Iran Gatewayv1 · US sanctions waiver on Chabahar lapsed 26 Apr 2026; 2026-27 budget gave zero allocation; India weighing stake transfer to Iran; port operating but not commercially scalable.
- India-France Special Global Strategic Partnershipv1 · Ties elevated to “Special Global Strategic Partnership” at Macron’s Feb 2026 visit; Horizon 2047 roadmap, 26 Rafale-Marine, nuclear and space deals.
Sports
- Cricket 2026 — Results Trackerv4 · Added the Colombo Test: India declared on 503, bowled Sri Lanka out for 290 and enforced the follow-on, leading the two-match series 1-0 with the hosts 229 for 6 and just 16 ahead after a rain-hit fourth day.
- Multi-Sport & Global Events 2026 - Trackerv14 · The Sports Ministry has suspended the Table Tennis Federation of India's recognition over governance failures and overdue elections, handing the sport to an Indian Olympic Association ad-hoc committee formed with the ITTF. The card also adds India's three golds on day three of the Commonwealth Fencing Championships at Lagos and R Praggnanandhaa's first win at the Sinquefield Cup, and tightens the build-up prose around events that have now finished.
- India's Anti-Doping Lawv1 · Brought the National Anti-Doping Act, 2022 and its 2025 Amendment into force on 17 July 2026 — India's clean-sport regime now carries full statutory force, aligned with the WADA Code and the UNESCO anti-doping convention.
Environment & Ecology
- Snow Leopard Conservation in Indiav1 · New card: India presents its snow leopard science — counting, radio-collaring and genetics — at a Russia-India roundtable in Moscow under the Irbis-IBCA partnership.
- India's Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) Regimev2 · Added the 22 August 2026 release: ₹2.82 crore to 27 State boards, 3 UT councils and ICAR-IIHR, the first microbial-strain payment with a 30 percent institute share, and the cumulative total now at ₹185 crore (up from ₹166 crore).
- India at UNCCD COP17v2 · Added India's four ministerial interventions at COP17: the 21.76 million-hectare restoration record for 2011-2020, the 26 million-hectare Bonn Challenge pledge, the rangelands, drought-resilience and land-finance positions, and a UNCCD backgrounder.
- Monsoon 2026, El Nino & Climate Signalsv4 · Put the mid-August flood emergency on the record without losing the season's shape. On 14 August 2026 IMD held Chhattisgarh under a red warning for very heavy to extremely heavy rain, with Odisha, Jharkhand, Gangetic West Bengal, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh a step below - the red that had sat over Odisha days earlier having moved west as the system tracked inland. In Odisha the Baitarani ran above its danger mark at Anandapur and Patna, the Budhabalanga reached parts of Baripada, a bridge in Mayurbhanj was washed away, and Sundargarh and Keonjhar carried district-level red warnings; a further low-pressure area is expected around 20 August. The season itself is unchanged at 12 percent below the long period average on 2 August, which is the point: the shortfall is an average, the damage arrives in one catchment at a time. Restored too: the weekly crop weather watch the agriculture ministry runs off IMD's rainfall data.
- Elephants - Census & Human-Wildlife Conflictv3 · Added the 13 August 2026 national elephant event at Visakhapatnam - the Gaj Gaurav Awards 2026, and, more substantially, a Rs 500 crore Regional Action Plan that puts human-elephant conflict in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka on a single landscape footing rather than four separate ones. New too: Project Elephant's 1992 start as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme, the 30 Giant Steps record of 2020-2026, the 23rd Steering Committee's Phase II conflict study across five States, Andhra Pradesh's H.A.N.U.M.A.N. wildlife-care units, and a school campaign that reached over 20 lakh children.
- Restoring India's Degraded Forestsv1 · Tracks how India repairs degraded forest land: 1,84,467 hectares eco-restored under the Green India Mission across 17 states and one Union Territory, the urban Nagar Van push on CAMPA money, and the 45-species invasive-plant list states work from.
- Asiatic Lions — Population and Second Homev2 · Added the ministry's World Lion Day 2026 markers — 891 lions against 523 in 2015, and a range now near 35,000 sq km versus about 30,000 in 2020 — and rebuilt the card into a scannable checklist, stat capsule and four sections.
- India's Groundwater Resourcev1 · India draws 247 billion cubic metres of groundwater a year against 408 BCM that can safely be extracted — a 60.63 percent extraction stage, exceeded in nine States and UTs and in 281 districts.
- India's River Interlinking Programmev1 · Of the 30 river links planned under the National Perspective Plan, only Ken-Betwa is being built, at ₹44,605 crore; the Kosi-Mechi inter-state link is dropped, and Polavaram has drawn ₹20,658 crore of central assistance.
- India's Renewable Energy Milestonesv5 · India's non-fossil capacity crossed 300 GW on 31 July 2026, reaching 300.50 GW — solar 164.59 GW, wind 58.14 GW, hydro 57.24 GW, bio-power 11.75 GW and nuclear 8.78 GW — replacing the 297.36 GW of 30 June; the card now spells out how non-fossil, renewable and solar-plus-wind totals differ, and solar module capacity on the ALMM register has passed 200 GW.
- E20 Achieved - India's Ethanol Programmev3 · Rebutted the E20 contamination scare: nationwide testing on 8 August 2026 found chloride of 0-3 parts per million at pumps — against a claim of 500 ppm — with refinery petrol at or under 1 ppm, ethanol from 80 distilleries under 3 ppm, and no water ingress in underground tanks at about 90,000 outlets.
- Tiger Conservation in Indiav1 · India's tiger count stands at 3,682 across 58 reserves - about 70% of the world's wild tigers. Global Tiger Day 2026 brought an NTCA eco-tourism webpage, the NTCA Awards and greetings from the Prime Minister and Vice-President.
- India's Updated NDC (2031-2035)v2 · The government has put current NDC progress on the parliamentary record: emissions intensity down 37.38 per cent by 2022 (earlier reported as 36 per cent to 2020), non-fossil capacity at 54.18 per cent as on 30 June 2026, and a carbon sink of 2.44 billion tonnes to 2022. One correction: India's live 2030 emissions-intensity goal is 45 per cent, set by the 2022 NDC update - the 33-35 per cent figure this card carried belongs to the superseded 2015 pledge.
- Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Normsv1 · Introduces India's CAFE fuel-economy norms and the draft CAFE-III standards the Ministry of Power circulated on 16 July 2026 — covering M1 passenger cars for 2027-28 to 2031-32, open for stakeholder feedback until 6 August 2026.
- The Aravalli Definition Disputev1 · SC stays its own 100-metre Aravalli definition (29 Dec 2025), orders new expert panel; blanket freeze on new mining leases stays until ICFRE plan.
- Delhi-NCR Air Quality & GRAPv1 · CAQM tightened GRAP (Nov 2025); Stage IV hit Delhi on 13 Dec 2025 (AQI >450), lifted 24 Dec at 271; new CAQM source study names transport top local PM2.5 source.
- India's Waste Rules Overhaulv1 · SWM Rules 2026 in force (four-stream segregation, EBWGR); plastic recycled-content rises to 60% by 2028-29; DRAP targets zero dumpsites by Oct 2026.
- COP30 Belém & India's Stancev1 · COP30 closes with Global Mutirão finance package but no fossil-fuel phase-out; India presses CBDR, Article 9.1 and finance 'in trillions'.
- Western Ghats ESA Notificationv1 · Centre moves to notify Western Ghats ESA phase-wise from consenting states (Gujarat first); sixth draft covers about 56,825 sq km, expires July 2026.
- The Great Nicobar Projectv1 · NGT (16 Feb 2026) declined to interfere with the Great Nicobar clearance; FRA-consent disputes over Shompen and Nicobarese rights remain in court.
- Great Indian Bustard Conservationv1 · Captive flock reaches 94 (year 4, June 2026); soft release into the wild being prepared; SC fixes priority zones ~14,013 sq km (Rajasthan), 740 sq km (Gujarat).
- EU CBAM & Indian Exportsv1 · EU CBAM enters paying phase (1 Jan 2026): India''s steel/aluminium exports hit; Delhi objects on CBDR and WTO grounds, weighs domestic carbon pricing as its counter.
- India's Ramsar Sites & Wetlandsv1 · India hits 100 Ramsar sites: Surha Tal (Ballia) listed on World Environment Day 2026; four new sites added in the first half of 2026.
- India''s Carbon Market (CCTS & GEI Rules)v1 · India''s carbon market widens: GEI intensity targets now bind 490 industrial units across 8 sectors (nine planned, ~740 units); FY24 baseline, 2025-27 compliance window.
- Project Cheetahv1 · Botswana becomes the third source country: 9 cheetahs reach Kuno (Feb 2026); Gandhi Sagar readied for a 60-70 cat metapopulation by 2032.
- The High Seas (BBNJ) Treatyv1 · High Seas (BBNJ) Treaty entered into force 17 Jan 2026 after the 60th ratification (19 Sep 2025); India signed Sept 2024 but has not yet ratified.
- Himalayan Glaciers & GLOF Riskv1 · Himalayan ice loss has roughly doubled since 2000 (ICIMOD 2026); India runs a Rs 150-crore NGRMP across four states to cut GLOF risk after the 2023 South Lhonak disaster.
Summits & Conferences
- India-Africa Engagement: IAFS-IV and the Bilateral Tracksv2 · Added the 7th India-Morocco Joint Commission (trade ~USD 4 billion in 2025, doubling target in five years, PTA working group, FSSAI-ONSSA MoU, 8th session in New Delhi), PM Modi's message to Zambia's re-elected President Hichilema, and India's condemnation of the 24 August UNMISS ambush citing Resolution 2589. Summit history restructured to the reader contract; IAFS-IV still without new dates.
- BRICS 2026 — India's Presidencyv14 · Late August brought the chairship's youth, sports and science rounds: a Youth Summit at Gandhinagar (19-20 August) where 'Friends of MY Bharat' was announced, youth and sports ministerials at Visakhapatnam (22-23 August) adopting a Joint Statement and a Sports Joint Declaration, and the unanimous Chennai Declaration closing the 14th STI ministerial. Earlier, ocean-polar scientists met at Goa and India and Brazil signed a telecom MoU at Pune. The MEA has fixed the 18th summit at Bharat Mandapam on 12-13 September, after 350-plus meetings in over 25 cities.
- SCO Summits: Tianjin 2025 to Bishkek 2026v2 · Prime Minister Modi heads to Bishkek for the 26th SCO Summit on 31 August-1 September 2026 - the bloc's 25th-anniversary meeting hosted by the Kyrgyz Republic - to press Security, Connectivity and Opportunity, hold sideline bilaterals and open the 6th World Nomad Games.
- India at the WTO: Fisheries Pact, MC14 and Trade Reviewv2 · India accepted the WTO Fisheries Subsidies Agreement on 20 July 2026 as the 123rd member, ending its long holdout; and its 8th Trade Policy Review opened in Geneva on 21 and 23 July, spotlighting record USD 863.1 billion exports.
- Bharat Tex (Global Textiles Expo)v3 · Logged mid-event outcomes through day three: about Rs 14,300 crore in investment commitments, 30-plus state MoUs, roughly $2.8 billion in business enquiries and 28,500-plus B2B meetings, with 1,647 exhibitors and 11,315 buyers (6,090 international) from 138 countries; Lakhpati Didis, a Premiere Vision Paris LoI and the Sanrachna Hackathon featured.
- BIMSTEC - Bangkok Vision 2030v2 · Added the 5th BIMSTEC National Security Advisers' Meeting (New Delhi, July 2026): NSA Ajit Doval urged decisive cooperation on terrorism, cyber and maritime threats, valuing the bloc at ~1.7 billion people and a ~USD 5 trillion GDP and tying it to India's Neighbourhood First, Act East and MAHASAGAR visions; the card is also restructured for faster reading.
- India AI Impact Summit 2026v1 · Delhi summit concludes: 92-nation India AI Impact Declaration adopted, 13 frontier-model firms sign New Delhi commitments, USD 200bn+ in AI investment pledged.
- The Quad in 2026v1 · Quad FMs meet in New Delhi (26 May 2026): new Critical Minerals, maritime-surveillance and energy-security frameworks launched, plus a Fiji port pilot
- G7 Evian & G20 Johannesburgv1 · First G20 in Africa (Johannesburg, Nov 2025): India floats six Global South initiatives; India joins G7 Evian (15-17 Jun 2026) as France's invited partner.
Important Days
Awards & Honours
- Major Awards – 2026 Trackerv7 · Adds the National Sports Awards 2025 announced on 18 August — 17 Arjuna Awards (Treesa Jolly, Divya Deshmukh, Vidit Gujrathi, Lalremsiami among them), a lifetime Arjuna for I Arumainayagam, five Dronacharya coaches and the Khel Protsahan Puraskar for the Army Paralympic Node, Pune, with no Khel Ratna named in the release. Also adds the National Awards to Teachers 2026 for 21 higher-education faculty (5 September) and the Publications Division's seven FIP book-production prizes.
- Nobel Prizes 2025v1 · 2025 Nobels awarded across all six categories; MOFs, macroscopic quantum tunnelling and peripheral immune tolerance take the science prizes
- Gallantry & National Honours 2026v1 · Republic Day 2026: 70 gallantry awards - Ashok Chakra to Gp Capt Shubhanshu Shukla, 3 Kirti Chakras; Jeevan Raksha Padak 2025 to 30.
- Padma Awards 2026v1 · Padma Awards 2026: 131 conferred - 5 Vibhushan, 13 Bhushan, 113 Shri; Dharmendra and V S Achuthanandan among posthumous Vibhushan.
Places in News
Polity & Governance
- Key Appointments - 2026 Trackerv10 · Adds three late-August entries. The Union government put three part-time non-official Directors on the RBI Central Board from 24 August 2026 - Annie George Mathew, Syed Akbaruddin and Janmejaya Kumar Sinha - for four years each. On 27 August the President made Chirag Bhanu a Judge of the Himachal Pradesh High Court and Bhupesh Sharma and Yogesh Jaswal its Additional Judges. And on 24 August President Murmu received the credentials of new envoys from six countries, including the UAE, Germany and Sweden. Every earlier row carries over.
- School Education - the RTE Quota, Funds and Curriculumv3 · Adds the UDISE+ 2025-26 report card for the whole school system: 24.72 crore students in 14.67 lakh schools with 1.03 crore teachers, at an overall 24:1 pupil-teacher ratio; secondary GER up to 71.7%; Preparatory-stage dropout down to 1.8% and the Secondary stage at 7.0%; single-teacher schools down to 1,00,843 and zero-enrolment schools down 29% to 5,663; girls at 48.4% of enrolment and women at 54.9% of teachers; computers in 69.9% of schools and internet in 67.4%.
- The 2026 Red Fort Addressv1 · Decodes the 80th Independence Day address: the Sapt Dhara seven streams, AI training for 1 crore youth, a voluntary civil-defence force, free online exam coaching, the 6-crore Lakhpati Didi goal and the 100 GW nuclear target for 2047.
- Examination Governance After the NEET 2026 Leakv11 · The overhaul has reached the NTA's own staff: more than 50 employees removed, ten professional leadership posts - CTO, CFO, CISO and test-security and psychometrics chiefs - advertised, and private-sector specialists hired for cybersecurity and question-paper design. Education Minister Pralhad Joshi has ordered a war-footing rebuild of the confidential-operations architecture and a full audit of every exam process. The trigger: on 16 August the NTA set September re-tests for three error-hit UGC-NET June papers - English and Commerce on the 9th, Sociology on the 10th.
- Examination Governance After the NEET 2026 Leakv11 · The overhaul has reached the NTA's own staff: more than 50 employees removed, ten professional leadership posts - CTO, CFO, CISO and test-security and psychometrics chiefs - advertised, and private-sector specialists hired for cybersecurity and question-paper design. Education Minister Pralhad Joshi has ordered a war-footing rebuild of the confidential-operations architecture and a full audit of every exam process. The trigger: on 16 August the NTA set September re-tests for three error-hit UGC-NET June papers - English and Commerce on the 9th, Sociology on the 10th.
- The Election Commission Under Scrutinyv3 · Supreme Court refused to interfere with 2002 as the SIR base year, rejecting a plea for a 1993 baseline in Sikkim; Telangana published its draft roll, with about 92 lakh electors to get notices before the 19 October final list.
- School Education - the RTE Quota, Funds and Curriculumv3 · Adds the UDISE+ 2025-26 report card for the whole school system: 24.72 crore students in 14.67 lakh schools with 1.03 crore teachers, at an overall 24:1 pupil-teacher ratio; secondary GER up to 71.7%; Preparatory-stage dropout down to 1.8% and the Secondary stage at 7.0%; single-teacher schools down to 1,00,843 and zero-enrolment schools down 29% to 5,663; girls at 48.4% of enrolment and women at 54.9% of teachers; computers in 69.9% of schools and internet in 67.4%.
- Regulating India's Higher Educationv4 · Fixed garbled characters in the exam pointers, the explanatory text and the source list, so the dashes and separators read properly again. No fact, figure or date has changed.
- Parliament's 2026 Monsoon Sessionv10 · Closed the ledger: both Houses rose sine die on 13 August 2026, and the official count is 12 Bills through both Houses. Two the card had recorded in one House only - the excess-grants appropriation Bill and the mining amendment - are now complete. The twelfth, the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026, has already been assented to and had never been logged here as a passage. Time used is on the record too: about 19 percent of Lok Sabha hours, 39.17 percent of the Rajya Sabha's, which sat 37 hours and 49 minutes across its 271st Session. The whole card is repacked from a sitting-by-sitting diary into a finished record, with the Indian Statistical Institute Bill and the foreign-contribution referral still open.
- Access to Justice - DISHA 2.0, eCourts and Fast-Track Courtsv3 · Added mediation as a fourth track to the access-to-justice story: 1,394 Mediation Centres and 452 ADR Centres were working as on March 2026, pre-institution mediation is compulsory in large commercial suits under Section 12A of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015, and the Mediation Council of India sits under the Mediation Act, 2023. The 13 August reply to the Rajya Sabha also settles the page count - 753.60 crore pages digitised, replacing the 734 crore given to Parliament in July - and adds 18,380 courts equipped in Phase II, 2,372 trainings and 174 SDWAN sites. The card now also carries the revamped India Code Portal and who decides women-friendly court-hall design.
- FSSAI - India's Food Safety Regulatorv1 · Sets out FSSAI's draft numeric cut-offs for foods high in fat, sugar or salt sold to children in schools — above 4.2 g of added fat, 3 g of added sugar or 0.625 g of salt per 100 g for a solid, with separate marks for liquids — and the 60-day comment window before the rules are finalised.
- OBC Classification and OBC Certificates in West Bengalv1 · Explains the Calcutta High Court ruling that ends West Bengal's OBC-A and OBC-B split and leaves everyone holding a certificate issued under the earlier rules in the general category.
- Panchayati Raj: Advancement Index, Digital Push and Panchayat Financesv3 · Added the Atmanirbhar Panchayat Programme — a four-year, challenge-based push to make panchayats earn their own revenue — plus what eGramSwaraj actually carried in FY2025-26 (₹57,337 crore of payments, plans from 98.65 percent of panchayats) and West Bengal's RGSA record.
- Census of India 2027v3 · Added the Gazette dates for the first Population Enumeration round: 1 to 30 September 2026 in Ladakh and the snow-bound belts of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, with online self-enumeration from 17 to 31 August. Houselisting is now finished in 31 States and Union Territories, the rest are due by September 2026, and Rs 4,102 crore has reached the States so far.
- Cybercrime in India - The Fraud Epidemicv4 · Refreshed every I4C number to 30 June 2026: savings through the 1930 helpline climb past Rs 11,158 crore over 32.80 lakh complaints, up from Rs 8,690 crore and 24.65 lakh at the end of January, while the Suspect Registry now holds 30.48 lakh bank identifiers and 32.08 lakh mule accounts against 23.05 lakh and 27.37 lakh in January, has turned away Rs 25,698 crore of transactions, and Pratibimb has driven 29,837 arrests. New this time: 281 trained Cyber Commandos, seven Joint Cyber Coordination Teams, 2,77,053 fraudulent links pulled down through Sahyog, a forensics centre in Assam, and money-restoration and grievance modules live since April 2026. One correction too - the newest 'Crime in India' volume covers 2024, not 2022 - and the bureau keeps no data at all on fake e-challan fraud.
- FCRA and the 2026 Amendmentsv3 · Added the Lok Sabha's referral of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026 to a Joint Parliamentary Committee - further scrutiny, so the Bill is neither passed nor rejected, and cannot become law until the panel reports and the House then votes. The committee has 31 members drawn from both Houses and reports by the close of the winter session's first week. Only the Bill went to the JPC: the Amendment Rules, 2026 notified on 22 June are untouched and stay in force.
- Renaming Kerala as Keralamv3 · Recorded the Rajya Sabha's passage on 12 August 2026, which takes the renaming Bill through both Houses, and added the Upper House debate that the Lok Sabha never had. Fills in the state-consent step too: the President referred the Bill to the Kerala Assembly, which agreed to it by a unanimous resolution. Nothing is renamed yet - the Bill still awaits the President's assent, so Kerala remains the State's constitutional name.
- India's Public Grievance Portal (CPGRAMS)v1 · Explains the portal that handles India's public grievances, and where it now stands. CPGRAMS gives citizens one 24x7 window into every Central Ministry and Department and all States and Union Territories: grievances have grown from about 3.01 lakh a year in 2014 to roughly 27 lakh in 2024, average disposal time in Central Ministries has fallen from 157 days to 14, and guidelines issued in August 2024 cut the redressal deadline from 30 days to 21 with a 30-day appeal to a Nodal Appellate Authority. The AI voice chatbot Samadhan Didi launched on 30 May 2026, and a NextGen rebuild is under development.
- Women's Reservation & the Delimitation Questionv2 · Added the Parliamentary Affairs Minister's 8 August warning that the one-third women's quota could slip to the 2034 general election unless delimitation begins early on census figures already published, and rebuilt the card to the current reader format.
- Collegium & Judicial Appointments in 2026v3 · Parliament has completed the Bill's passage: on 5 August 2026 the Rajya Sabha debated the Supreme Court judges amendment and returned it to the Lok Sabha, so the sanctioned bench of 37 besides the Chief Justice now waits only on Presidential assent. Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal called it judicial reform; Opposition members questioned the ordinance route, put the court's backlog near 95,000 cases and High Court vacancies at about 30 percent.
- India's Late Birth and Death Registration Rulesv2 · Parliament passed the bill - the Rajya Sabha cleared it on 4 August after the Lok Sabha on 31 July - so an entry made more than two years late will need a judicial magistrate's order. The reports record no Presidential assent yet. Ministers also put birth registration above 99 percent in 2024 and counted about 3.5 lakh registration units.
- Assembly Elections 2026v2 · Removed/corrected unverifiable CM ordinal numbers
- Online Gaming Rules 2026 & OGAIv1 · Online Gaming Rules 2026 in force (1 May): money games banned, e-sports recognised, and a new regulator, OGAI, set up under MeitY to classify games.
- NATGRID - India's Intelligence Gridv1 · NATGRID linked to NPR (about 119 crore residents) and opened to state police (SP+); AI Organised Crime Network Database launched Dec 2025
- IT Rules Amendment 2026 (AI-Content Labelling)v1 · IT Rules 2026 in force: AI/deepfake content must be labelled with permanent provenance metadata, and the unlawful-content takedown window is cut from 36 hours to 3.
- The Anti-Defection Law Back in Focusv1 · 7 of AAP's 10 Rajya Sabha MPs merge into BJP; disqualification plea before the Chairman tests the Tenth Schedule's two-thirds merger exception.
- Denotified Tribes (DNTs)v1 · DNTs cleared for a first dedicated count in Census 2027 (since 1931); welfare via DWBDNC and the Rs 200 crore SEED scheme, with ~267 communities still unclassified.
- Amaravati - Andhra's Sole Capitalv1 · Amaravati is now AP's sole, permanent capital in law - President assented 6 Apr 2026; 'three capitals' plan buried.
- The Age-of-Consent Debate (POCSO)v1 · SC (Jan 2026) urges Centre to weigh a Romeo-Juliet exemption; Law Commission 283rd keeps consent age at 18 but backs sentencing discretion for 16-18 cases
- Custodial Deaths & the Anti-Torture Law Gapv1 · Govt data: 170 custodial deaths in 2025-26 (to 15 Mar), just one disciplinary action in five years; India still has not ratified UNCAT or enacted an anti-torture law
- The Right to be Forgotten in Indiav1 · Delhi HC (29 May 2026) roots the right to be forgotten in Article 21 and frames de-indexing/masking rules for online court records
- Passive Euthanasia — From Doctrine to Applicationv1 · SC's Harish Rana ruling (11 Mar 2026) becomes the first application of India's passive-euthanasia framework: CANH held to be medical treatment and lawfully withdrawn.
- PESA Rules in Jharkhandv1 · Jharkhand notifies PESA Rules (Jan 2026), about 25 years on: Gram Sabha powers extended to 16,022 villages across 13 districts.
- The Federalism Reset Debate (Kurian Joseph Committee)v1 · Kurian Joseph Committee (TN) report submitted Feb 2026: proposes a structural federal reset - fixed Governor terms, GST Council veto cut to 20%, delimitation freeze extended to 2126.
- Article 142, Suo Motu & the Limits of Judicial Powerv1 · SC's June 2026 'right to walk' ruling and rising suo motu use reignite the Article 142 judicial-overreach debate.
- Uniform Civil Code — The State-by-State Rolloutv1 · Assam becomes the 3rd state (first in the Northeast) to pass a UCC in 2026, after Gujarat (2nd) and Uttarakhand's 2025 rollout.
Reports & Indices
- NITI Aayog's Manufacturing Hub Reportv1 · NITI Aayog put out its manufacturing-hub study on 13 August 2026: 12 sectors shortlisted overall, four of them — chemicals, textiles, telecom gear and solar PV — assessed in full, with eight further sector reports still to come.
- NFHS-6 - India's Health & Family Snapshotv2 · Parliament was told how the NFHS-6 fact sheets were designed: a Technical Advisory Committee held them to harmonised key indicators, and anaemia prevalence will now be taken from a separate ICMR survey that measures haemoglobin from an intravenous draw rather than a finger prick. The fact sheets themselves were released on 29 May 2026.
- Investment Friendliness Index (IFI)v1 · Breaks down NITI Aayog's new Investment Friendliness Index, released 17 July 2026: its eight pillars, 84 indicators, four performance bands, and where each state and UT landed.
- India in Global Indices — 2026 Trackerv1 · 2026 indices so far: India up in Happiness (116th), Corruption Perceptions (91st), Innovation (38th) and SDG (94th, highest-ever); down to 157th on Press Freedom and 115th on Peace.
- Global Multidimensional Poverty Index 2025v1 · Global MPI 2025 released: India down to 16.4% multidimensionally poor (from 55.1% in 2005-06); 1.1 billion poor worldwide, now mapped against climate hazards.
- SIPRI Arms Transfers & Military Expenditurev1 · SIPRI 2026: India is the world's 2nd-largest arms importer (2021-25) and 5th-largest military spender ($92.1 bn in 2025); Russia's share of Indian arms down to 40%.
- Women & Men in India 2025 (Gender Data)v1 · Women & Men in India 2025 (27th ed.): sex ratio at birth 917, female higher-ed GER 30.2 tops male, rural female LFPR 45.9%; NITI credit report - women hold Rs 76 lakh crore, 36% penetration
- Fiscal Health Index 2026v1 · NITI Aayog's second Fiscal Health Index (FY2023-24): Odisha tops the major states, Punjab, West Bengal and Kerala sit at the bottom, and coverage now extends to 10 NE & Himalayan states.
- NCRB Crime in India 2024v1 · NCRB Crime in India 2024 released: overall crime down 6% (rate 418.9 per lakh), but cybercrime crosses 1 lakh cases for the first time (+18%); first full year under BNS.
- Digital Threat Report (BFSI Sector)v1 · 2nd edition (2025-26) released: AI asymmetry named the defining BFSI cyber risk; 18-month roadmap issued
Art & Culture
- India's Cultural Diplomacy Machineryv1 · Sets out how India projects culture abroad: the Global Engagement Scheme's four arms, Cultural Exchange Programmes with 98 countries, the ICCR's centres overseas, the upgraded Indian Culture Portal, and the CCRT and Sangeet Natak Akademi schemes that pay students to train in classical dance.
- Major Anniversaries -- 2026 Trackerv4 · Adds a 10 August row: President Droupadi Murmu laid floral tributes at Rashtrapati Bhavan to former President V.V. Giri, whose birth anniversary falls that day. The Vande Mataram entry now also notes that the song's 150th year shapes the 80th Independence Day, where it will be sung from the Red Fort ramparts for the first time.
- GI Tags — 2025-26 Trackerv2 · Adds the first sea-route export of a GI-tagged product from Bihar: APEDA sent 18 tonnes of Mithila Makhana from Bihta to Australia on 8 August 2026, earning Darbhanga growers about 18 percent above market rates — and the whole tracker is restructured into scannable rows with a stat capsule.
- Sarnath - India's 45th World Heritage Propertyv1 · Sarnath is on the World Heritage List: the committee's 48th session in Busan inscribed it on 25 July 2026 as India's 45th property, under criteria (iii) and (vi), in a two-part serial listing covering the Chaukhandi Stupa and the excavated remains at Varanasi.
- Gita & Natyashastra in UNESCO's Memory of the Worldv1 · Bhagavad Gita and Natyashastra manuscripts (held at BORI, Pune) inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register on 17 Apr 2025, taking India to 14 entries on the international register.
- The Piprahwa Relics Returnv1 · Piprahwa Buddha relics repatriated (30 Jul 2025) after Sotheby's Hong Kong auction was halted; Godrej-backed return, now on public display in India.
- Maratha Military Landscapes — 44th World Heritage Sitev1 · Maratha Military Landscapes — a serial of 12 Shivaji-era forts — inscribed as India's 44th UNESCO World Heritage Site (Jul 2025); India stays at 44 pending Sarnath's bid at the 48th session in Busan.