UPSC Current Affairs 18 September 2026

• The Drivers: The initiative is part of the 'Aadi' farmer carbon programme, launched in 2019 by private agronomy firm Grow Indigo with deep technical guidance from ICAR.
• Massive Scale: The entire project currently spans more than 2 million acres and supports over 100,000 farmers across seven Indian states.
• Methodology Used: The credits were evaluated, monitored, and independently verified using the strict, globally recognized Verra VM0042 methodology for improved agricultural land management.

• Direct Seeded Rice (DSR): Sowing rice seeds directly into the field, bypassing the water-intensive nursery transplantation stage.
• Reduced or No Tillage: Limiting soil disturbance during land prep to keep organic carbon locked underground.
• Crop-Residue Management: Incorporating crop remains back into the soil instead of burning them.

• Performance-Based Income: Payments were distributed based on the actual verified volume of carbon credits generated from the specific field, rather than a flat, area-based acreage subsidy.
• Individual Earnings: This initial phase covered roughly 30,000 acres and generated over 50,000 carbon credits, allowing individual farmers to earn anywhere between ₹3,000 and ₹15,000.
• Flexible Payout Models: Grow Indigo funded the digital transfers immediately from its own reserves so farmers wouldn't have to wait for the final market sale of the credits. Farmers could choose between an assured upfront payment or keeping 75% of the net carbon revenue post-sale.

• High-Tech Verification: The ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, deployed satellite remote-sensing data (such as Sentinel-2), crop-simulation modelling, and stringent soil-sampling protocols to accurately track carbon increases and methane drops.
• Cost Efficiency: Using this combined digital and satellite framework slashed verification expenses by up to 90% compared to traditional physical soil coring.

• Water Conservation: The practices saved an estimated 45 billion litres of groundwater by avoiding traditional paddy flooding.
• Air Quality Control: More than 2 lakh tonnes of crop residue were kept out of open-air fires, preventing roughly 1,000 tonnes of toxic PM2.5 air pollution.
• Drop in Farm Fires: Backed by these incentives, government data logged only 5,114 farm-fire incidents in Punjab during the 2025 paddy harvesting season—marking a massive 93% reduction compared to 2021.

• The Nizam’s Rule: Before 1947, Hyderabad was one of the largest and wealthiest princely states in India, ruled by the seventh Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan.
• Refusal to Accede: When India gained independence on August 15, 1947, the Nizam refused to join either India or Pakistan, choosing instead to declare Hyderabad an independent nation.
• The Standstill Agreement: To buy time, the Nizam signed a Standstill Agreement with the Indian government on November 29, 1947, maintaining existing administrative relations for one year while negotiations continued.

• The Razakar Terror: During this period, an extremist private militia called the Razakars, led by Kasim Rizvi, unleashed large-scale communal violence and atrocities against the local population, political opponents, and rural communities.
• Telangana Peasant Movement: Parallelly, a massive communist-led Telangana Peasant Armed Struggle was fought by local farmers against oppressive feudal landlordism and the tyranny of the Nizam's regime.

• The Military Move: Driven by the deteriorating law and order situation and strategic security concerns, India's Home Minister, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, ordered military intervention.
• Timeline: The Indian Army launched the assault on September 13, 1948, under the code name "Operation Polo" (also referred to as "Police Action").
• The Surrender: Unable to withstand the Indian forces, the Nizam's military commander surrendered, and a ceasefire was formally declared on September 17, 1948, marking the end of Nizam's rule.

• Nizam's Status: Following the integration, the Nizam was not immediately exiled. When India became a republic, he was designated as the Rajpramukh (Governor equivalents of the time) of Hyderabad State.
• Geographical Spread: The historic state of Hyderabad was much larger than modern Telangana; it encompassed the present-day regions of Telangana, Marathwada (in Maharashtra), and Hyderabad-Karnataka (in Karnataka). Because of this, parts of Maharashtra and Karnataka also officially celebrate September 17 as Liberation Day.

• Coverage Radius: It provides detailed meteorological data within a 250 km radius.
• Resolution & Update Speed: Operates at a high 150-metre resolution and generates fresh data updates every 10 minutes.
• Target Forecasts: Explicitly designed to give advanced warnings for localized severe events such as thunderstorms, lightning, hailstorms, and heavy rainfall.

• Three-State Benefit: The radar covers 13 districts in western Odisha and extends its tracking reach to adjacent areas of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
• Agriculture & Crop Protection: It will issue precise warnings to safeguard farming assets and crops, particularly across the volatile Mahanadi basin.
• Water Management: Data from this unit will help administrative bodies precisely manage water inflows and flood parameters at the critical Hirakud Reservoir.

• Exponential Network Growth: India's radar footprint has grown by over 250% over the last 12 years.
• Future Targets: Under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, the government plans to add 40 more radars in the next phase, aggressively moving toward a target of approximately 100 radars nationwide to achieve highly localized "nowcasting".
• State-Level Growth: Additional future radars in Odisha are slated for installation at Balasore, Puri, and Bhubaneswar.

• The Mechanism: DWR utilizes the Doppler Effect—calculating shifts in the frequency of reflected microwave signals to measure the exact velocity and direction of wind and rain droplets inside clouds.
• Superiority over Conventional Radars: While older radars could only detect the intensity and location of rain, a Doppler radar computes real-time wind speed and atmospheric motion, which is vital for tracking moving cyclonic paths and sudden storm fronts.

• The Material (GaN): Gallium Nitride is a next-generation, wide-bandgap semiconductor material. It is highly superior to traditional Silicon (Si) and Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) for handling high-frequency and high-power applications.
• The Circuit (MMIC): A Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit is an all-in-one microchip. It combines active and passive components—like transistors, resistors, and capacitors—onto a single semiconductor substrate to process high-frequency microwave signals (from 300 MHz to 300 GHz).
• How It Works: By layering aluminum gallium nitride over a GaN crystal, it creates a highly conductive "two-dimensional electron gas" (2DEG). This allows electrons to move with extreme mobility and speed without melting the chip under high temperatures.

• Power & Compactness: A single indigenous GaN chip measuring just 3.5 mm × 3 mm can deliver an impressive 30 Watts of power.
• Extreme Speed: The chip operates at speeds up to 300 times faster than conventional silicon components.
• Frequency Band: It is fully operational up to the X-band frequency range, which is ideal for radar and satellite communications.
• Production Hub: The fabrication and production capabilities have been established at GAETEC (Gallium Arsenide Enabling Technology Centre) in Hyderabad.

• Superior Thermal Performance: GaN withstands significantly higher temperatures and features excellent thermal conductivity, meaning it doesn't require bulky cooling systems.
• Higher Breakdown Voltage: It operates safely at much higher voltages (50V to 100V range compared to 5V to 15V for traditional chips), preventing component burnout during sudden energy spikes.
• Size and Weight Reduction: High power density allows for significantly smaller, lighter components—a critical factor for aerospace and mobile military units.
• Radiation Resistance: It has low sensitivity to ionizing radiation, ensuring high reliability in harsh outer-space and combat environments.

• Advanced Defence Systems: It will directly empower next-generation electronic warfare systems, active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars, missiles, and frontline combat communication tech.
• Space and Aerospace: Ideal for satellite communication arrays, space sensors, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs/drones).
• Commercial Frontiers: Beyond defence, it acts as a foundational pillar for 5G/6G base stations, clean energy grids, rapid wireless power transfers, and electric vehicle (EV) traction inverters.

• Launched by: NITI Aayog, in collaboration with WRI India.
• Purpose: To track, evaluate and compare States/UTs on their progress in electric mobility—covering vehicle adoption, charging infrastructure, and R&D/innovation.
• Frequency: Annual index (2024 was the first edition; 2025 is the second).
• Coverage: All 36 States and Union Territories.

• Transport Electrification Progress (50% weight): Assesses the actual registration, conversion rates, and adoption of two-wheelers, three-wheelers, commercial cars, and public buses.
• Charging Infrastructure Readiness (30% weight): Measures physical and regulatory enablers, such as charging density, single-window clearances, tariff structures, and power availability.
• EV Research and Innovation Status (20% weight): Tracks regional innovation ecosystems through EV startups, green technology patents, and industrial R&D incubation.

• Top Performers: Delhi secured the 1st position with a top score of 84, followed closely by Maharashtra (78) and Karnataka (73).
• Shifting Ranks: Compared to the 2024 edition, Delhi and Maharashtra retained the top two slots, while Karnataka climbed to third place. Goa jumped ten spots to rank fifth.
• Most Improved State: Madhya Pradesh registered the most substantial leap, surging 16 places from 23rd in the previous index to 7th position in 2025.
• National Performance Curve: Composite scores across all 36 States and UTs ranged from 10 to 84, with the overall national median score rising from 36 last year to 40 in 2025.
• Policy Proliferation: A broad-based improvement was driven by the fact that 29 out of 36 states/UTs have officially notified their EV policies, though only 26 are actively functional.

• Infrastructure vs. Vehicle Adoption Mismatch: The index revealed that charging infrastructure deployment is currently outstripping actual vehicle purchase rates. For example, Karnataka scored a near-perfect 97 in charging infrastructure readiness, yet only three states managed to clear the top performance band for actual vehicle electrification.
• Pillar Strengths: Delhi stood out uniquely in the innovation pillar, scoring 94 due to its density of EV startups and registered technological patents.
• Core Challenges: Dispersed rural settlements, grid integration issues, sluggish subsidy delivery mechanisms, and a developing local component manufacturing pipeline remain critical hurdles for lagging regions.

• Approved "Standard Care" Only: Stem cell therapy can only be offered in routine clinical practice for a very specific, approved list of diseases designated by the Health Ministry. This is primarily limited to Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT) for blood and immune disorders.
• Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) Barred: The Ministry clarified that mesenchymal stem cell transplantation is not currently recommended as standard care for any disease condition.
• Autism Restricted to Trials: The use of any type of stem cells for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) must remain strictly confined to duly approved and monitored clinical trials.

• Consent Does Not Legalize Irregularity: The Supreme Court explicitly emphasized that patient or caregiver consent cannot validate or legitimize scientifically unproven treatments.
• Advertising Restrictions: Any unauthorized prescription, administration, promotion, or advertisement of stem cell therapies beyond approved medical indications is classified as professional misconduct.

• Role of State Medical Councils: The NMC has directed State Medical Councils to proactively investigate complaints of violations. If a Registered Medical Practitioner is found guilty, strict disciplinary action will be taken under the IMC Regulations.
• Cancellation of Clinic Licences: State and District Regulatory Authorities are empowered to invoke the Clinical Establishments Act, 2010, which allows for heavy penalties and the immediate cancellation of registrations for non-compliant clinics.

• All authorized clinical research must strictly adhere to the National Guidelines for Stem Cell Research, jointly framed by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT).
• This follows a previous amendment bringing advanced cell and gene therapy products under the Centrally Licence Approving Authority (CLAA) framework, requiring dual Central and State licensing oversight to verify safety and efficacy before public access.

• NHAI said the move aims to expand consumer choice and streamline the FASTag ecosystem for over 130 million users.

• No Physical Replacement: Drivers can switch their participating issuer bank while retaining the exact same physical sticker, Tag ID, and vehicle registration linkage.
• Centralized Platform: The entire process is conducted completely digitally via the official NHAI Rajmargyatra Mobile App.
• 6-Month Cooling Period: To prevent frequent shifting and ensure systematic alignment, an interoperable FASTag can only be ported once every six months.
• Automated Refunds: Upon successful porting, the older issuer bank automatically closes the previous wallet and refunds the remaining balance directly to the user (post any pending toll adjustments).
• Joint Development: The ecosystem has been built collectively by the Indian Highways Management Company Limited (IHMCL) and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
• Seamless Toll Integration: The backend functions entirely through the current National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) framework. Toll plazas do not need to alter their scanners or transaction architecture.

1. Eligibility Check: Open the Rajmargyatra app, log in, and enter your vehicle registration number to check eligibility for porting.
2. Verification Code: Upon verification, you will receive a 6-digit Mobile Verification Code (MVC) from your current issuing bank.
3. Select New Issuer: Enter the code to authorize the transfer, then select your preferred new participating bank from the available list.
4. KYC & Onboarding: Complete the standard KYC customer verification and set up the new wallet link.
5. Activation: The existing tag transfers ownership to the new bank, and the old wallet initiates its closure and refund cycle.

• Enhanced Consumer Choice: Drives healthy competition among banks to provide better digital services, easier wallet top-ups, and cleaner customer support interfaces.
• Environmental & Cost Savings: Lowers operational costs, physical dispatching, and material reissuance expenses by dramatically reducing the lifecycle production of plastic/RFID stickers.
• Reduced Waiting Times: Contributes to the government's broader goal of reducing average toll plaza wait times down to less than 10 seconds.

1. Measures wind speed and direction using the Doppler Effect.
2. Provides real-time atmospheric motion data.
3. Helps track thunderstorms and heavy rainfall.

Download Pdf