UPSC Current Affairs 18 June 2026

• Nodal Ministry: Implemented by the Ministry of Labour and Employment (MoLE) via the EPFO.
• Total Outlay: Backed by an extensive financial package of ₹99,446 Crore.
• Ultimate Target: Aims to incentivize the creation of 3.5 Crore jobs by July 2027.
• Primary Scope: Covers all formal jobs created between 1 August 2025 and 31 July 2027.
• Vision Alignment: Formulated to enhance social security infrastructure and drive formalisation towards the Viksit Bharat @ 2047 objective.

• Target Audience: Fresh entrants joining the formal workforce for the first time.
• Monetary Benefit: Direct financial assistance of up to ₹15,000.
• Salary Cap: Applicable only to employees earning a monthly wage of up to ₹1 Lakh.
• Disbursal Structure: Released in two equal tranches via Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT):
  • 1st Installment: Paid after completing 6 months of continuous formal service.
  • 2nd Installment: Paid after 12 months, subject to completing an online financial literacy program.
• Savings Component: To build long-term financial discipline, the second installment is locked into a fixed saving instrument for a specific period before withdrawal.

• Target Audience: PF-registered establishments generating additional, net-new job opportunities.
• Monetary Support: The government provides a wage-based subsidy of up to ₹3,000 per month for every additional employee hired.
• Payment Mode: Direct electronic transfers processed straight into the firm's PAN-linked corporate bank account.
• Sectoral Duration: Designed to support business scaling over multi-year brackets:
  • General Sectors: Cash incentives provided for a tenure of 2 years.
  • Manufacturing Sector: Extended support for up to 4 years to push the National Manufacturing Mission.

• For Employers: Establishments must complete a one-time onboarding form on the Official PMVBRY Portal.
• For Employees: First-time hires must generate a Universal Account Number (UAN) utilizing the Face Authentication Technology (FAT) on the central UMANG Mobile App.

• Long-Term Projection: The agreement is engineered to boost annual bilateral trade by £25.5 Billion (~$32.5 billion).
• GDP Growth: CETA is projected to uplift India’s GDP by £5.1 Billion and the UK’s GDP by £4.8 Billion annually.
• Bilateral Targets: The pact directly drives the India–UK Roadmap 2030 objective to touch USD 100 Billion in bilateral trade by the end of the decade.
• National Vision Alignment: Serves as a primary component in establishing India's global trade footprint toward the Viksit Bharat 2047 mandate.

• Duty-Free Access: The UK has dismantled tariff barriers, granting immediate zero-duty access to 99% of Indian product lines.
• Labour-Intensive Gains: Sectors like textiles, leather, marine products, gems & jewellery, footwear, and toys will compete on a zero-tariff level playing field.
• Agricultural Push: Indian farmers gain preferential entry into the UK's multi-billion-dollar agricultural market. Agri-exports like processed foods, spices, and seafood are expected to scale up by over 50% in the next three years.
• Domestic Safeguards: India has deliberately excluded highly sensitive domestic sectors from concessions, including dairy, wheat, millets, pulses, gold, and smart phones.

• Tariff Liberalisation: India has liberalised 90% of its tariff lines for British commodities.
• Alcohol Duties Plunged: Import duties on world-renowned premium Scotch whisky will drop dramatically from 150% down to 40% over a 10-year period.
• Automotive Concessions: Heavy custom tariffs on British cars will slide from 100% down to 10% under a strictly monitored country quota.
• Gradual Reductions: For tech items where India is currently building local manufacturing under its PLI schemes, tariffs will be reduced progressively over 5, 7, or 10 years.

• Opening Services: The deal opens market access across 137 distinct service sub-sectors for Indian corporations.
• The DCC Advantage: Under the simultaneous Double Contribution Convention, Indian professionals on temporary assignments to the UK are exempt from paying local National Insurance contributions.
• Exemption Period Extended: The exemption period has been successfully negotiated upwards from 3 years to 5 years, protecting thousands of Indian IT and tech workers from dual social security tax exposure.

• Next-Gen Disciplines: Spanning 30 distinct chapters, CETA moves past traditional customs cuts to integrate advanced digital trade, telecommunications, intellectual property rules, and sustainable commerce policies.
• Government Procurement: For the first time on a bilateral level, a comprehensive chapter governing mutual government procurement systems is included.

• Artificial Intelligence (AI): AI algorithms power predictive models to track grains, oversee stocks, and optimise dispatch timelines.
• Internet of Things (IoT): Smart IoT sensors continually track warehouse metrics like temperature, moisture, and ambient conditions to maintain food grain quality.
• Real-time Analytics: Integrated digital dashboards offer senior officials end-to-end, live operational oversight across the entire food supply chain.

• Automated Entryways: Gate and weighbridge frameworks are automated via FASTag and digital vehicle scanning to ensure tamper-proof data logging.
• Digital Access Control: Access management is restricted using modern identity verification systems to prevent theft and unauthorised entry.
• CCTV & Yard Management: Advanced CCTV surveillance networks and digital twin setups mimic the warehouse layout for quick stock location tracking.

• Zero Waste Target: By replacing traditional, damp structures with modern steel silos and moisture-controlled spaces, foodgrain wastage falls to near zero.
• Strengthened Governance: Removing paperwork and replacing it with blockchain-ready or digital logs prevents leakage in the Public Distribution System (PDS).
• Policy Synergy: The initiative builds on the Ministry of Consumer Affairs mandate, linking with the India AI Mission, PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan, and Digital India.

• Better Safety Standards: Rigorous digital tracking guarantees that the food grains distributed to over 80 crore citizens adhere to high health and hygiene standards.
• Ease of Doing Business: Streamlined loading, offloading, and automated record-generation cut turnaround times for farmers, transport contractors, and cooperatives.

• Full Name: Rajasthan Jan Aadhaar Yojana
• Launch Year: 2019
• Issuing Authority: Government of Rajasthan

• Unified identity for accessing state government welfare schemes
• Single identifier for scholarships, medical treatment, admissions
• Integration with service delivery systems (title deeds, driving licenses)
• Enables efficient public policy formulation based on demographic data
• Currently has 78 million individual registrants and 20 million families

• Resident families of Rajasthan
• State employees who are residents of outside Rajasthan

• Core Philosophy: Operates on the unified model of "One Number, One Card, One Identity" for resident households.
• Nodal Authority: Governed by the Rajasthan Jan-Aadhaar Authority under legislative rules framed to oversee citizen socio-economic databases.
• Target Reach: Serves as the primary key to access dozens of state welfare programs, including public distribution (PDS), student scholarships, and healthcare.

• Family ID: A unique 10-digit family identification number is assigned to the entire household repository.
• Individual ID: Each individual member mapped inside that family is granted an independent 11-digit personal identification number.
• Women Empowerment Focus: To champion gender inclusion, the card is strictly issued in the name of the woman head of the family (aged 18 or above).
• Male Representation Exception: A male member aged 21 or older is designated as the head only if the family has no adult females.

• Personal Data Limits: Corrections to critical fields like names (self, father, mother, spouse) and marital status are strictly capped at a maximum of 2 changes per lifetime.
• Financial & Education Data Limits: Bank account updates, educational details, and annual income declarations can only be changed twice per financial year.
• Structural Modifications: Processes involving family splitting (SPLIT) or changing the designated head of the family are restricted to a lifetime limit of 5 times.
• Fee Structure: The first correction remains completely free, while subsequent allowed modifications attract a specified government tariff to deter random editing.

• Aadhaar e-KYC: Any edit or data refresh is blocked until the family head and members over 5 years of age complete their primary Aadhaar e-KYC authentication.
• Minor Registration Rule: Children under 5 years are onboarded using verified birth certificates issued within the state.
• Life-Cycle Automation: The system recently deployed provisions for automated enrollment of newborns upon birth registration and automated deletion of members upon death data integration.

• National Gold Award: The model bagged the prestigious National Gold Award at the SKOCH Awards for Government Efficiency.
• Inter-State Replication: Recognizing its data-driven targeting efficiency, states like Arunachal Pradesh have officially announced plans to replicate the Rajasthan Jan Aadhaar model to clean up their state public registries.

• Nodal Ministry: Developed and managed directly by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).
• Primary Objective: Provides a transparent, end-to-end Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) platform to authenticate that hydrogen is produced through clean energy pathways.
• Combating Greenwashing: Eradicates misleading or false eco-friendly claims by tracking real-time carbon intensity throughout production cycles.
• Global Trade Integration: Builds investor confidence and helps domestic producers align with strict international low-carbon fuel standards for export.

• Strict Emission Standard: To qualify for a certificate via the portal, the average greenhouse gas emissions must not exceed 2 kg CO2 equivalent per kg of hydrogen.
• Boundaries for Calculation: The portal computes emissions from on-site water treatment, electricity, feedstock, purification, compression, and local storage. It excludes civil construction and external transport.
• Authorized Gatekeepers: All data submitted online must undergo third-party auditing from a Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) Accredited Carbon Verification (ACV) Agency.
• Unique Identification: Every 100 kg of certified green hydrogen receives a unique blockchain-ready ID marking its location, production year, and emission data.

• Provisional Certificates: Auto-generated through the portal on a voluntary monthly basis (valid for 1 to 11 months) based on initial self-submitted factory metrics.
• Final Certificates: Issued annually by July 31st after mandatory on-site physical audits by ACVs. This final certificate is compulsory for producers seeking government subsidies or participating in domestic commerce.
• Trade Functionality: While the certificates serve as non-tradeable origin labels on their own, they allow hard-to-abate sectors to earn and trade carbon offsets under India's Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS).

• Financial Outlay: The portal tracks and anchors activities driven by the ₹19,744 crore National Green Hydrogen Mission.
• Production Targets: Tailored to help achieve 5 MMT of green hydrogen production capacity and add 125 GW of dedicated renewable energy capacity by 2030.
• SIGHT Performance: Under the Strategic Interventions for Green Hydrogen Transition (SIGHT) programme, incentives have already been granted for 8,62,000 MTPA of hydrogen capacity.
• Commercial Absorption: Contracts have been signed to deliver 6.7 lakh MTPA of Green Ammonia to 11 fertilizer plants, alongside 30,000 MTPA of green hydrogen to public refineries (IOCL, BPCL, HPCL, and NRL).

• The study successfully mapped how the temperature of Earth’s upper atmosphere and variations in the Sun's magnetic field directly influence the intensity of muons—highly penetrating subatomic particles arriving from deep space.

• Full Name: Stands for Gamma Ray Astronomy PeV EnergieS phase-3 (GRAPES-3).
• Facility Type: It is an advanced cosmic-ray observatory and muon telescope that tracks high-energy particles rather than capturing visible starlight.
• Primary Objective: Designed to explore the origin, acceleration mechanisms, and propagation of high-energy cosmic rays and diffuse gamma rays traversing the universe.

• Location: Situated in the scenic hills of Ooty, Tamil Nadu, India, at a high altitude of 2,200 metres above mean sea level.
• Key Operators: Maintained and operated primarily by the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in collaboration with multiple Indian and Japanese scientific institutions.

• Dual-Component Design: The observatory features a large, dense ground grid spread over an expansive footprint of 25,000 square metres.
• Scintillator Array: Equipped with roughly 400 plastic scintillator detectors that sense charged particles generated during extensive air showers in the sky.
• Muon Tracker: Houses the world’s largest area muon telescope, covering 560 square metres across 16 modular units and utilising roughly 4,000 gas-filled proportional counters.

• Cosmic Rays: High-energy charged particles bombarding Earth uniformly from outer space, originating from volatile sources like supernovas or active galaxies.
• Muons: Subatomic particles resembling electrons but possessing significantly greater mass. They are generated when primary cosmic rays violently collide with molecules in Earth's upper atmosphere.
• Detection Process: When a muon passes through the gas tubes of the telescope, it ionises gas molecules to generate distinct electrical signals, mapping the particle's cosmic pathway.

• Spectral Kink Discovery: The telescope identified a unique, unexpected "kink" or deviation in the cosmic-ray proton spectrum at 166 Tera-Electron-Volt (PeV) energy.
• Gigavolt Thunderstorm Potential: GRAPES-3 holds the world record for measuring a massive 1.3 Gigavolt electrical potential inside a 400-square-kilometre thundercloud using advanced muon imaging.
• Magnetic Shield Defect: The array previously discovered a temporary "crack" in Earth's protective magnetic shield caused by a severe solar storm burst.

• Ship Type: It is a state-of-the-art, guided-missile stealth frigate of the Indian Navy.
• Class: Belongs to the Talwar-class (specifically the second ship out of the three Batch-II frigates).
• Origin: Designed and constructed by the Yantar Shipyard in Kaliningrad, Russia (modified from the Krivak III-class design).
• Commissioning: Officially entered active service in the Indian Navy on 9 November 2012.
• Command Base: Operates under the flag of the Western Naval Command, based primarily out of Mumbai.

• Physical Dimensions: Displaces approximately 3,850 tonnes with a hull length of 124.8 metres and a beam width of 15.2 metres.
• Propulsion System: Driven by four powerful gas turbines that enable top operational speeds exceeding 30 knots (approx. 55 km/h).
• Complement & Endurance: Manned by a crew of 253 naval personnel with a continuous high-sea endurance of 30 days or a range of 4,500 miles.

• Missile Arsenal: Unlike early Talwar-class ships, INS Tarkash is heavily armed with India's supersonic BrahMos surface-to-surface missile system.
• Air Defence: Outfitted with advanced vertical-launch surface-to-air missile (SAM) configurations to neutralize airborne threats.
• Artillery & Torpedoes: Features a 100 mm calibre main gun, close-in weapon systems (CIWS), specialized anti-submarine rocket launchers, and heavyweight torpedo tubes.
• Aviation Deck: Equipped with a flight deck and hangar capable of operating one Kamov Ka-28 (anti-submarine) or a Ka-31 (airborne early warning) helicopter.
• Radar Signature Reduction: Designed with an engineered hull geometry and radar-absorbent radar-cross-section (RCS) stealth properties.

• Anti-Narcotics Success (2025): Operating under Combined Task Force 150 in March 2025, it intercepted a suspect dhow in the Western Indian Ocean, seizing and destroying over 2,500 kg of illicit narcotics (hashish and heroin).
• Anti-Piracy (2024): Successfully intercepted the hijacked Bangladeshi commercial ship MV Abdullah off the coast of Somalia to safeguard its crew.
• Operation Raahat (2015): Deployed to the war-torn Gulf of Aden to safely evacuate thousands of Indian citizens and foreign nationals from Yemen.

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