UPSC Current Affairs 21 July 2026

• Landlocked Position: A small landlocked nation located in the northeastern Balkan region of Eastern Europe.
• Strategic Borders: It is bordered entirely by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south.
• Capital City: Chișinău serves as the administrative, cultural, and financial capital.
• Major Rivers: The country’s natural landscape is defined by the Prut River (bordering Romania) and the Dniester River to the east.

• Form of Government: Moldova is a unified parliamentary republic with a Prime Minister heading the government and a President as the head of state.
• Current President: Maia Sandu, elected on a pro-Western, anti-corruption, and reformist platform.
• Official Language: Romanian (a regional dialect virtually identical to standard Romanian).
• The Transnistria Conflict: A narrow breakaway strip of land on the east bank of the Dniester River remains under the de facto control of pro-Russian separatists, permanently hosting unauthorized Russian troops.

• Economic Status: Historically considered one of the poorest countries in Europe by GDP per capita, heavily impacted by structural issues and energy dependencies.
• Primary Industries: Strongly driven by the services sector and agriculture. It is globally renowned for its massive underground wine cellars and premium wine production.
• Currency: The Moldovan Leu (MDL).
• Diaspora & Remittances: A vast portion of the country's GDP relies on financial remittances sent home by Moldovans working across Western Europe.

• Nature of Scheme: It is a 100% Central Sector Scheme fully funded and administered by the Central Government.
• Nodal Ministry: Formulated and executed entirely under the aegis of the Ministry of Culture.
• Primary Objective: To systematically preserve, promote, and disseminate traditional Indian performing arts, folk traditions, and vulnerable cultural heritage.
• No State-Wise Quota: Funds are disbursed directly to individuals or cultural groups based on strict eligibility criteria and expert committee evaluations, rather than fixed state-wise or district-wise allocations.

• Inclusion Focus: Intentionally targets underrepresented segments, ensuring artists from rural spaces, tribal belts, and Scheduled Castes retain equity-based access to opportunities.
• Digital Transmission: Following foundational blueprints established in recent years, the scheme encourages virtual events, online performance modes, and digital platforms to sustain the creative economy.
• Zonal Hub Integration: Works alongside India’s seven Zonal Cultural Centres (ZCCs) to streamline domestic festivals like the Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav.

• Goal: Safeguards standard oral transmission lineages in classical theatre, music, and traditional dance.
• Framework: Financial backing covers a maximum setup of 1 Guru matched with up to 18 Shishyas (disciples).
• Stipend Values: Approved Gurus receive ₹15,000 per month, while Shishyas receive a monthly stipend ranging between ₹2,000 to ₹10,000 depending on their age bracket.

• Goal: Enhances pan-India cultural initiatives steering large-scale heritage promotion.
• Eligibility: Granted to registered Indian organisations with nationwide reach that have logged expenses of ₹1 crore or higher on art activities in 3 out of the previous 5 years.
• Funding Quantum: Provides baseline support of ₹1.00 crore, extendable to ₹5.00 crore in unique or exceptional circumstances.

• Goal: Aids ground-level artistic outputs like webinars, local drama productions, research documentation, and exhibitions.
• Funding Quantum: Generally, covers up to ₹5 lakh per institutional applicant, which may scale up to ₹20 lakh based on specific merit.

• Himalayan Region: Allocates between ₹10 lakh to ₹30 lakh annually for research, training, and audio-visual archiving across states like Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh.
• Buddhist / Tibetan Culture: Directs an annual baseline of ₹30 lakh (extendable up to ₹1 crore) to voluntary monasteries and institutions preserving Tibetan and Buddhist traditions.

• Building and Studio Grants: Funds up to ₹50 lakh in metro cities and ₹25 lakh in non-metros to build or upgrade facilities like auditorium spacing, studio theatres, acoustics, and lighting arrays.
• Veteran Artists Component: Disburses formal pensions and medical relief grants to recognize senior artists who have dedicated their lives to national folk and classical arts.

• Combat Use: International militant groups and militias use it to suppress physical pain, anxiety, and fatigue during prolonged combat.
• Terror Financing: Cartels and terror networks illicitly traffic high-dose formulations (like the seized 250 mg tablets) to fund active conflict zones.

• Chemical Class: It is a centrally acting synthetic opioid analgesic.
• Medical Purpose: It alters how the body perceives pain by targeting the central nervous system.
• Dual Mechanism: It binds to mu-opioid receptors and simultaneously inhibits the reuptake of serotonin and norepinephrine.

• Acute Pain: Relieves moderate to severe post-surgical and dental pain.
• Chronic Pain: Manages long-term discomfort from osteoarthritis, severe back pain, and fibromyalgia.
• Advanced Care: Prescribed for cancer-related pain management.

• Common Symptoms: Nausea, dizziness, constipation, headache, and severe drowsiness.
• Respiratory Depression: Higher doses can dangerously slow down breathing, potentially leading to a coma or death.
• Seizure Threshold: It lowers the body's seizure threshold, spiking convulsion risks.
• Serotonin Syndrome: Combining it with common antidepressants can trigger a life-threatening build-up of serotonin.
• Dependence: Regular non-medical use rapidly causes chemical tolerance, addiction, and severe withdrawal.

• In India: It is heavily regulated under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, making unauthorized possession or sale a severe criminal offence.
• In Sports: The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has strictly banned its use in competitive sports due to widespread abuse among athletes trying to suppress fatigue.

• Developing Authority: Created by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and Indian Highway Management Company Limited (IHMCL).
• Primary Objective: Acts as a unified, citizen-centric app to make National Highway travel safer and smoother.
• Supported Platforms: Free to download on both Google Play Store and Apple iOS App Store.

• Real-Time Highway Info: Offers details on toll plazas, fuel stations, hospitals, hotels, and EV charging stations along the route.
• Weather & Traffic Alerts: Shares live broadcast alerts on traffic bottlenecks and weather variations.
• FASTag & Pass Integration: Enables users to recharge wallets, handle FASTag services, and track the ₹3,000 Annual Pass balances.
• Safety Protocols: Includes proactive over-speeding alerts and an integrated voice assistant to help driver focus.

• Geo-Tagged Complaints: Commuters can record road safety risks, potholes, or encroachments using live, geo-tagged photos and videos.
• Time-Bound Execution: System features an automatic escalation path to higher officials if ground contractors fail to address errors quickly.
• Real-Time Tracking: Allows users to check resolution stages and file a direct appeal if dissatisfied.
• Emergency Lifeline: Features an instant click-to-call tool routing directly to the 1033 National Highway Helpline.

• Digital Securities: Dematerialised instruments representing absolute ownership of real, physical gold.
• Asset Backing: Every single digital receipt is fully backed by real physical gold bars.
• Storage Location: The underlying gold is kept inside secure vaults accredited by SEBI.
• Legal Standing: Notified as official securities under the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956.

• Step 1 (Deposit): Refiners or importers deposit physical gold into a SEBI-approved vault.
• Step 2 (Creation): The vault manager checks the gold quality and issues a digital EGR.
• Step 3 (Credit): This electronic receipt is credited directly into the investor's Demat account.
• Step 4 (Trading): Investors buy or sell these receipts on the stock exchange like regular shares.
• Step 5 (Redemption): Holders can surrender the digital receipt to withdraw actual physical gold.

• Purity Standards: Available exclusively in 999 (99.9%) and 995 (99.5%) fineness.
• Flexible Denominations: Traded in flexible weights including 10 mg, 100 mg, 1g, 10g, 100g, and 1 kg.
• Physical Withdrawal: Redemption into physical gold typically requires minimum weights like 10g or 100g.

• No Storage Worries: Eliminates the risk of theft, locker costs, or home storage safety concerns.
• Guaranteed Purity: Vault managers verify quality benchmarks under strict LBMA/BIS standards.
• Transparent Pricing: Nationwide uniform pricing on the exchange prevents hidden dealer markups.
• High Accessibility: Fractional denominations let retail buyers invest with very small amounts of money.
• Extended Trading Hours: Operates Monday to Friday from 9:00 AM to 11:30 PM / 11:55 PM.
• T+1 Settlement: Trade settlements clear quickly on a rolling T+1 day cycle.

Feature	Electronic Gold Receipts (EGR)	Gold ETFs	Sovereign Gold Bonds (SGB)
Physical Delivery	Yes, fully convertible back to physical gold.	No, typically redeemed only in cash.	No, cash payout at maturity.
Regulation	Fully regulated by SEBI.	Fully regulated by SEBI.	Regulated by the RBI.
Interest Payout	No periodic interest.	No periodic interest.	Fixed annual interest paid semi-annually.

• Transaction Fee: Subject to normal brokerage, depository, and clearing charges.
• Storage Fees: Investors pay recurring vaulting and storage fees while holding the gold.
• GST Treatment: No GST is charged for standard electronic trading on the stock exchange.
• Withdrawal Tax: A 3% GST applies when converting electronic receipts into physical delivery.
• Capital Gains: Capital gains are taxed at a 12.5% Long-Term Capital Gains (LTCG) rate after a 12-month holding window.

• Lower Liquidity: Trading volumes on the exchange are still building up, creating wider bid-ask spreads.
• Platform Support: Major discount brokers are still progressively enabling the EGR segment for retail users.

• Coverage Amount: Provides up to ₹5 Lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary hospital care.
• Target Audience: Reaches the bottom 40% of India's population comprising roughly 12 crore poor and vulnerable families.
• Policy Parameters: Cashless and paperless operations with no cap on family size, gender, or age.
• Zero Waiting Periods: All pre-existing health conditions are fully covered from day one of enrollment.
• Treatment Network: Covers over 1,900 medical procedures across a vast web of 36,000+ empanelled hospitals.

• Age Eligibility: Extended to all Indian citizens aged 70 and above, completely ignoring family income status.
• Top-Up Benefit: Elderly in existing PM-JAY families receive an exclusive, dedicated ₹5 Lakh top-up.
• Independent Benefit: Seniors outside existing PM-JAY boundaries get a fresh ₹5 Lakh cover on a shared family basis.
• Distinct Identification: Users receive a specialized Ayushman Vaya Vandana Card for targeted hospital care.

• Grassroots Transition: Upgrading over 1.5 lakh sub-centres into functional Health and Wellness Centres.
• Comprehensive Care: Delivering non-communicable disease screening, mental health triage, and geriatric services.
• Free Diagnostics: Ensures complimentary access to basic diagnostic services and essential pharmacy stock.

• Unified Health ID: Over 94 crore citizens have registered an ABHA (Ayushman Bharat Health Account) number.
• Digital Registries: Interlinks medical institutions and verified practitioners onto a unified public health framework.
• NHCX Integration: Standardizes insurance claim processing via the National Health Claims Exchange to stop billing delays.

• Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS): AI models developed with AIIMS New Delhi are being deployed to assist doctors in evidence-based treatments.
• Tech-Driven Tracking: Utilizes deep data analytics to curb medical fraud, map regional disease loads, and trace hospital efficiencies.

• First Environmental Trade Pact: It is the first-ever multilateral WTO agreement driven purely by an environmental sustainability objective.
• Strict Prohibitions: It legally bans government subsidies and financial support for three deeply destructive categories:
  1. Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing.
  2. Fishing of overfished and depleted stocks.
  3. Unregulated fishing activities on the high seas (international waters outside regional control).
• Specific Boundary: The pact targets only marine wild-capture fishing and activities at sea. It completely excludes aquaculture and inland fisheries from its scope.
• Transparency Mandates: Signatories are legally required to report detailed catch data, fish stock status, and subsidy programs directly to the WTO.

• Fulfilling UN Mandates: It represents a massive global stride toward achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal SDG Target 14.6 (eliminating harmful fishing subsidies).
• Curbing Overexploitation: A significant portion of global marine fish stocks is overexploited. The treaty works to dry up the multi-billion-dollar state funding that incentivizes industrial fleets to overfish.
• Disciplining Distant-Water Fleets: The pact aims to limit the heavily subsidized industrial fleets operated by major developed nations, creating a more equitable playing field for smaller coastal economies.

• No Impact on Major Seafood Exports: India’s core seafood export market relies heavily on aquaculture-based shrimp. Since aquaculture is entirely excluded from the treaty, India's export competitiveness remains secure.
• Insulation for Small-Scale Fishers: Traditional, artisanal, and small-scale fishers operating within territorial waters are legally safe from the subsidy prohibitions.
• Policy Readiness: India’s domestic maritime laws and initiatives—such as the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY)—are already fully aligned with the pact's resource conservation goals.
• Special Treatment: As a developing country, India benefits from built-in technical assistance and special flexibilities, including dispute exemptions during early phases.

• The WTO Fish Fund: A dedicated financial vehicle designed to deliver technical aid and capacity-building grants to developing nations and Least Developed Countries (LDCs).
• Oversight Committee: Operational compliance is closely tracked by the Committee on Fisheries Subsidies, providing a formal global forum for member transparency.
• Phase II Negotiations: While this initial agreement ("Fish 1") is active, members are concurrently negotiating tougher rules to target broader subsidies that lead to overcapacity and overfishing.

• District: Situated in the Shivpuri district of Madhya Pradesh, India.
• Terrain: Stands proudly atop a 500-foot-high plateau in the Vindhya Mountain Range.
• Scale: Spans an enormous area of roughly 8 square kilometres with perimeter walls stretching several kilometres.
• Proximity: Located just east of the Sindh River and situated a short distance away from the Madhav National Park.

• Mahabharata Connection: The town below the fort was anciently called Nalapura. Traditional lore recognizes it as the capital of Raja Nala and Queen Damayanti from the epic Mahabharata.
• Kachwaha Rajputs (10th Century): The primary structure of the fort was constructed and reinforced by the Kachwaha Rajputs in the 10th century.
• Dynastic Successions: Control of the fort frequently shifted hands over the centuries, changing from the Kachwaha clan to the Parihara and Tomara Rajputs.
• Mughal & Maratha Eras: The fort fell under Mughal rule in the 16th century. Later, in the early 19th century, it was conquered by the Maratha Maharaja Scindia of Gwalior.

• Unique Layout: The fort's defensive perimeter is uniquely shaped like a duck from an aerial perspective. It is split by internal crosswalls into distinct quarters (Ahata), such as Majh Mahal and Dulha Kot.
• Design Elements: The structural style heavily emphasizes classic Rajput architecture, characterized by multifold arches, fluted columns, and flat, decorated ceilings.
• Prominent Monuments: It features historical structures such as the Chhip Mahal (built using carved pillars from an 11th-century temple), Hawa Paur Mahal, Phulwa Mahal, a Sikandar Lodi Mosque, and the historic Maa Pasar Devi Temple.

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