UPSC Current Affairs 22 July 2026

 
Contents
1. North Macedonia
2. Mission Golden Spice
3. Gyan Bharatam Portal
4. Dengue Vaccine (QDENGA (TAK-003))
5. “Gems of India” Challenge
6. Regional Meteorological Centre
7. e-Shram Portal
 
 

 
Why in News?
North Macedonia is in the news because President Droupadi Murmu a historic state visit to capital city Skopje on 21–22 July 2026 – the first-ever visit by an Indian President.
 
Basic & Geographical Information

• Official Name: Republic of North Macedonia.
• Location: A landlocked country located in the south-central Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe.
• Borders: It shares borders with Kosovo and Serbia to the north, Bulgaria to the east, Greece to the south, and Albania to the west.
• Capital: Skopje, which functions as the country's political, economic, and cultural hub.
• Population: Approximately 1.8 million people.
• Official Language: Macedonian (a South Slavic language) and Albanian.

Political Profile

• Government Type: Unitary parliamentary republic.
• Head of State: President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova (elected in 2024 as the country's first female president).
• Head of Government: Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski.
• Legislature: A unicameral parliament known as the Sobranie, containing 120 seats.
• International Memberships: Gained official entry into NATO in 2020 and is currently an official candidate country for European Union (EU) membership.

Historical Background & The Naming Dispute

• Yugoslav Era: The territory was formerly part of Yugoslavia as the Socialist Republic of Macedonia.
• Independence: The country peacefully declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 under the name "Republic of Macedonia".
• The Greek Dispute: Greece heavily objected to the name "Macedonia," arguing it implied territorial claims over Greece’s own northern region of the same name. This dispute blocked the country from joining NATO and the EU for decades.
• The Prespa Agreement: In 2018, the two nations signed the historic Prespa Agreement. The country officially changed its name to North Macedonia, and in return, Greece lifted its vetoes against its Euro-Atlantic integration.
• Birthplace of Mother Teresa: The prominent humanitarian Mother Teresa was born in Skopje in 1910, a heritage fiercely celebrated by the nation.

Economy & Key Industries

• Currency: Macedonian Denar (MKD).
• Economic Drivers: Driven primarily by agriculture (wine, vegetables, tobacco), mining (iron, zinc, lead), textiles, and automotive component manufacturing.
• Major Trade Partners: Germany serves as its largest export market, alongside regional partners like Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria.
• Current Status: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) notes the economy is stabilizing post-pandemic with projected growth around 3.1%, but faces structural drag from youth emigration and energy price inflation.

 
 
   
Why in News?
Mission Golden Spice was launched on 21 July 2026 by Union Minister for DoNER (Development of North Eastern Region) Jyotiraditya M. Scindia along with Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma in New Delhi.
 
Budget & Timeline

• Financial Outlay: A dedicated fund of ₹175.45 crore has been allocated.
• Duration: The project is a five-year phased initiative running from 2026 to 2030.
• Funding Model: Jointly funded by the DoNER Ministry and the North Eastern Council (50% contribution), the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Government of Meghalaya.

Product Profile (Lakadong Turmeric)

• High Curcumin: It naturally possesses an exceptionally high curcumin content of 7% to 12%, compared to the global average of just 2% to 4%.
• GI Tag: It holds a Geographical Indication (GI) tag, legally protecting its unique origin in the Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya.
• Agro-climatic Niche: Past attempts to grow this variety outside its home region failed because the high curcumin content dropped drastically when grown elsewhere.

Targets & Objectives

• Area Expansion: Aims to nearly triple cultivation from 2,500 hectares to 7,000 hectares by 2030.
• Production Volume: Targets a massive annual yield of 49,400 metric tonnes.
• Income Growth: Plans to double farm-gate prices, increasing farmers' income from ₹30–40 per kg to ₹80 per kg.
• Economic Scale: Aims to establish a ₹100-crore local value-chain economy by the fiscal year 2028-29.

Social Impact & Infrastructure

• Women Empowerment: The mission will benefit 17,500 tribal farming families, with 99% of beneficiaries being women who lead the cultivation and processing cycles.
• Job Creation: It is projected to create 3,000 additional jobs across the state.
• Infrastructure Fix: Resolves structural gaps by introducing cold chain storage, advanced processing centers, and curcumin extraction facilities.
• Traceability: Introduces blockchain-based supply chain tracking to eliminate corporate adulteration and maintain organic certification.

• Target Markets: Positioned to tap into organic nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, and luxury culinary markets.
• Global Footprint: Focuses heavily on establishing trade channels to the United States, European Union, Japan, and the Gulf countries.

 
 
   
Why in News?
The Ministry of Culture informed the Lok Sabha that the Gyan Bharatam Portal now hosts digital records of over 88,800 manuscripts from across India, highlighting rapid progress in the national manuscript digitisation mission.
 
Administrative Framework

• Nodal Ministry: Managed entirely by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India.
• Origin: Developed as the primary digital wing of the Gyan Bharatam Mission, which was announced in the Union Budget 2025-26.
• Financial Outlay: Supported by a sanctioned budget of ₹491.66 crore spanning the period from 2025 to 2031.
• Institutional Network: Implemented via a pan-India network of 45 onboarded centers (including 19 Cluster Centers and 12 Independent Centers) across 20 States and Union Territories.

• AI & Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR): Tools designed to decipher, read, and translate complex ancient texts automatically.
• Blockchain Integration: Employed to systematically track the provenance, history, and verification records of precious artifacts.

Primary Objectives

• Massive Archiving: Aiming to survey, document, and conserve over one crore (10 million) manuscripts scattered across private homes, temples, libraries, and monasteries.
• National Repository: To build a centralized National Digital Repository (NDR) making traditional Indian knowledge globally accessible to scholars, researchers, and students.
• Public Participation: Empowering common citizens and custodians to voluntarily upload manuscript information using the dedicated mobile app without changing original text ownership.

The Five Core Verticals
The portal and mission operate across five structured functional areas:

1. Survey & Cataloguing: Building local, state, and national inventories.
2. Conservation & Capacity Building: Setting up labs and training grassroots volunteers (Pandulipi Mitras).
3. Technology & Digitization: Implementing high-quality optical character recognition (OCR) and imaging standards.
4. Linguistics & Translation: Modernizing ancient scripts for contemporary research.
5. Research, Publication & Outreach: Fostering educational modules and immersive VR/AR experiences for public engagement.

 
 
 
Why in News?
The dengue vaccine QDENGA (TAK-003) is in the news because the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has officially granted market authorization to the vaccine, making it India's first-ever approved dengue vaccine.
 
Vaccine Profile & Composition

• Developer: Created by the Japanese multinational pharmaceutical company, Takeda Biopharmaceuticals.
• Vaccine Type: It is a live-attenuated (weakened) tetravalent vaccine.
• The Genetic Backbone: It uses a live-attenuated Dengue Serotype 2 (DENV-2) virus as its genetic framework. The surface proteins of serotypes 1, 3, and 4 are engineered into this backbone to trigger a defensive response against all four strains.

Target Age & Eligibility

• Approved Age Group: Cleared for use in individuals aged 4 to 60 years.
• Serostatus Independent: It can be safely given to both dengue-naive individuals (those who have never had dengue) and seropositive individuals (those who have survived a past infection).

• Schedule: It is a two-dose regimen administered subcutaneously (under the skin).
• Interval: The second dose must be taken exactly three months after the first.

Proven Efficacy & Safety

• Symptomatic Prevention: Clinical trials demonstrate 80.2% efficacy against virologically confirmed dengue 12 months post-vaccination.
• Hospitalisation Reduction: Shows 90.4% efficacy in preventing severe, hospital-grade dengue at 18 months, with protection sustained up to 4.5 to 7 years.
• Strain Discrepancy Note: While highly effective across all four strains in previously exposed individuals, it shows stronger efficacy against DENV-1 and DENV-2 in dengue-naive individuals.

Global Recognition & Manufacturing

• Global Footprint: Already approved and distributed across 43 countries, including the UK, EU, Brazil, and Indonesia.
• WHO Status: It holds World Health Organization (WHO) prequalification, authorizing its procurement by global agencies like UNICEF.
• Make in India Tie-up: Takeda partnered with Hyderabad-based Biological E to scale production up to 50 million doses annually to meet global demands.

Critical Limitations (Why It Isn’t a Silver Bullet)

• Not Transmission-Blocking: QDENGA is a disease-modifying vaccine. It drastically reduces medical severity and hospitalization but does not completely stop mosquito transmission or prevent light infections.
• Mosquito Control remains Mandatory: Public health bodies stress that the vaccine must complement—not replace—vector management, stagnant water clearing, and mosquito repellent use.

 
 
   
Why in News?
On 21 July 2026, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) launched the pilot phase of the “Gems of India” Challenge, a nationwide initiative to identify, nurture and promote grassroots digital creators who tell local stories from their districts.
 
Key Highlights & Purpose

• Core Objective: To identify local digital talent and encourage them to showcase the unique culture, heritage, tourism, traditions, and history of their specific districts.
• Platform: The challenge is hosted on the MyWAVES platform, a citizen-creator ecosystem under the government's WAVES OTT initiative.
• Storytelling Focus: Under the vision that "every district has a story waiting to be told," it aims to build a comprehensive nationwide archive of user-generated local content.

Participation & Submission Rules

• Video Duration: Participants must create and submit short original videos lasting between 1 to 3 minutes.
• Timeline: The submission window opens on August 1, 2026, and closes on August 31, 2026.
• How to Join: Creators can upload their submissions directly via the MyWAVES section on the WAVES OTT Platform.

Pilot Phase Coverage
The initial pilot phase is restricted to the following 6 States and Union Territories before its planned pan-India expansion:

• Andaman and Nicobar Islands
• Arunachal Pradesh
• Chandigarh
• Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu
• Goa
• Ladakh

Institutional & Tech Partnerships

• Government Collaboration: Implemented jointly by Prasar Bharati, My Bharat, and respective local State/District Administrations.
• Industry Giants: The MIB has partnered with YouTube and Meta to help mobilise creator communities and heavily expand the challenge's outreach.
• Evaluation Panels: Local juries comprising eminent experts from media, tourism, academia, and culture will evaluate the entries.

Prize Money & Tiered Awards
The competition features a lucrative three-tier cash award structure to reward exceptional local talent:

Level	Award Structure	Cash Prize
District Level	Up to 20 exceptional creators per participating district.	₹50,000 each
State Level	One standout winner selected from each district's pool.	₹2,000,000 (₹2 Lakh)
National Level	Finalists competing during the upcoming nationwide rollout.	₹5,000,000 (₹5 Lakh)

 
 
   
Why in News?
The Union Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences inaugurated India’s seventh Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) in Jammu. Alongside the Jammu expansion, a brand-new RMC was launched in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, to scale up weather services in the plain regions.
 
About

• Definition: An RMC is a specialized regional administrative and technical hub of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) responsible for regional weather observation and warning dissemination.
• Parent Ministry: RMCs operate under the IMD, which functions under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Government of India.
• The Full Network: Initially, IMD operated through six historical centers, but with the recent additions, there are now active RMCs catering to distinct zones:
  • Mumbai (Western Region)
  • Chennai (Southern Region)
  • New Delhi (North-Western Region)
  • Kolkata (Eastern Region)
  • Nagpur (Central Region)
  • Guwahati (North-Eastern Region)
  • Jammu (North-Western Himalayan Region — Newly Added)
  • Lucknow (North-Central Plains Region — Newly Added)

Roles and Responsibilities of RMCs

• Multi-Hazard Early Warnings: Issue immediate alerts for localized severe weather, including flash floods, cloudbursts, avalanches, heavy snowfall, thunderstorms, and landslides.
• Sector-Specific Advisories: Provide tailored updates such as the Agromet Advisory Services for farmers, transport operators, and mountain pilgrims.
• Aviation & Marine Forecasts: Manage weather monitoring for regional airports and coastal regions (via specialized wings like the Area Cyclone Warning Centres).
• Data Synthesis: Maintain networks of Doppler Weather Radars (DWR), Automatic Weather Stations (AWS), and Automated Rain Gauges (ARG) to feed high-resolution localized data into numerical prediction models.

Key Highlights of the New Centers
RMC Jammu

• Jurisdiction: Serves Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, and Himachal Pradesh.
• Technological Backbone: Backed by four operational Doppler Weather Radars at Jammu, Srinagar, Leh, and Banihal Top, with 5 more proposed for high-altitude locations.
• Focus Area: Geared completely towards complex Himalayan weather topography and high-altitude disaster management.

RMC Lucknow

• Jurisdiction: Caters to Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and adjoining plain boundaries.
• Infrastructure Boost: Accompanied by an increase in Automatic Weather Stations (from 59 to 107) and lightning detection sensor networks.
• Focus Area: Dedicated to river basin flooding patterns, intense heatwaves, and tracking plain-level convective storms.

 
 
   
Why in News?
The e-Shram Portal is recently in the news because the Ministry of Labour and Employment announced in Parliament that the portal has achieved a massive milestone of over 31.78 crore registered unorganised workers.
 
Key Objectives

• National Database: To create India's first centralized National Database of Unorganised Workers (NDUW) seeded with Aadhaar.
• Targeted Welfare Delivery: Ensuring seamless implementation and direct distribution of social security benefits to informal labourers.
• Formalizing the Economy: Bringing gig, platform, migrant, and construction workers into a regularized framework.
• Job & Skill Mapping: Linking workers directly with employment opportunities and digital skill training programs.
• 15 Central Schemes Integrated: Schemes like Ayushman Bharat (AB-PMJAY), PM-KISAN, and One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) are now mapped directly onto the platform.
• State-Specific Microsites: Dedicated regional microsites launched to customize services, handle local data verification, and run regional analytics.

Features & Benefits

• Universal Account Number (UAN): Workers receive a unique, lifelong 12-digit UAN portable across all states.
• Accidental Insurance Cover: Registered individuals receive ₹2 Lakh for accidental death/permanent disability and ₹1 Lakh for partial disability.
• Multilingual Functionality: The portal supports 22 Indian languages integrated via the AI-powered Bhashini platform.
• Platform Linkages: Direct digital architecture linkage to the National Career Service (NCS) and Skill India Digital Hub (SIDH).
• Free Registration: Zero-cost enrolment available via self-registration or through local Common Service Centres (CSCs).
• Leading Regions: Uttar Pradesh leads nationwide registrations with 8.45 crore workers, closely followed by Bihar and West Bengal.
• Digital Upgrades: Introduction of the advanced mobile application alongside direct profile syncing with Digi Locker and UMANG platforms.

Eligibility Criteria

• Target Sectors: Open to construction workers, agricultural labourers, street vendors, domestic help, and gig/platform workers.
• Age Group: Restricted strictly to individuals aged between 16 and 59 years.
• Exclusions: The worker must not be a member of formal retirement funds like EPFO or ESIC, and should not be an income taxpayer.
• Documents Needed: Requires an active mobile number linked with a valid Aadhaar Card along with standard Bank Account details.

 
 
 
Question & Answer
 
Q1. North Macedonia officially became a member of which international organization in 2020?
a) European Union (EU)
b) NATO
c) United Nations (UN)
d) BRICS

Answer: b) NATO
 
 
Q2. Mission Golden Spice primarily focuses on promoting which GI-tagged crop of Meghalaya?
a) Basmati Rice
b) Lakadong Turmeric
c) Saffron
d) Black Pepper

Answer: b) Lakadong Turmeric
 
 
Q3. The Gyan Bharatam Portal aims to create a National Digital Repository of approximately how many manuscripts?
a) 10 lakh
b) 25 lakh
c) 50 lakh
d) 1 crore

Answer: d) 1 crore
 
 
Q4. QDENGA (TAK-003), India's first approved dengue vaccine, is administered in how many doses?
a) Single dose
b) Two doses
c) Three doses
d) Four doses

Answer: b) Two doses
 
 
Q5. The "Gems of India" Challenge encourages creators to submit original videos of what duration?
a) 30 seconds to 1 minute
b) 1 to 3 minutes
c) 3 to 5 minutes
d) 5 to 10 minutes

Answer: b) 1 to 3 minutes

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