1.
USTR SPECIAL 301 REPORT 2026
·
The United
States Trade Representative (USTR) released its 38th annual 2026
Special 301 Report, classifying countries
into Priority Foreign Country (PFC), Priority Watch List, and Watch List.
·
India was placed on the Priority Watch List alongside 5
countries, while Vietnam was designated as a Priority Foreign Country (PFC), the highest
scrutiny category
·
Countries
classified into Priority Watch List are India, China, Russia,
Chile, Indonesia, Venezuela
·
Watch
List are 19 countries including Pakistan, Türkiye, European Union
(EU), Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Canada and others.
·
Argentina
and Mexico were moved to the Watch
List due to improvements, Bulgaria was removed, the EU was added over concerns related to Geographical Indications (GI)
and pharmaceutical legislation, and Ukraine’s review was suspended due to the
ongoing war.
·
Under
Section 301 of Trade Act of 1974, USTR may initiate an investigation within 30 days
against Vietnam, leading to consultations to resolve trade issues.
2. INDIA
DEPLOYS ‘AAROGYA MAITRI’ IN JAMAICA
·
The Government of India(GoI) deployed
its AarogyaMaitri (BHISHM Cube) healthcare system in Jamaica, marking a key step in Humanitarian Diplomacy and Relief (HADR) framework
and strengthening ties with Caribbean nations (CARICOM).
·
The BHISHM (Bharat Health Initiative for
SahyogHita&Maitri) Cube is the world’s first portable, modular hospital
designed for rapid deployment during disasters or in remote areas.
·
72
mini-cubes forming specialized pods, equipped with an operation
theatre, mini-ICU (Intensive Care Unit), ventilators, diagnostics, and basic
utilities, and can be deployed in under
12 minutes to treat severe injuries of up to 200 patients for 48 hours.
3. ‘PROJECT
FREEDOM’ TO ESCORT SHIPS THROUGH STRAIT OF HORMUZ
·
USA
launched ‘Project Freedom,’ a naval escort operation
to guide stranded commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz amid
escalating Iran–USA tensions.
·
The operation involved the deployment of the USA Navy under USA
Central Command (CENTCOM), including warships, over 100 air- and sea-based
aircraft, multi-domain unmanned platforms, and around 15,000 personnel, while
continuing an economic blockade restricting transit to and from Iranian ports.
·
Strait of Hormuz is
a narrow maritime passage between Oman
and Iran that connects the Persian
Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.
4. IOM’S
WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2026
·
The International
Organisation for Migration (IOM), the leading United Nation(UN)-related
agency for migration, released its latest report titled “World Migration Report 2026”, 13th edition
of the World Migration Report series, during the International Migration Review Forum (IMRF) week in New York
·
As per
the report, India received over USD 137
billion in remittance in
2024, thereby retaining its position as the world’s top
remittance recipient country since 2010, and the only
country to surpass the USD 100 billion mark.
·
After India, Mexico is
the 2nd highest recipient of remittance in the
world and received USD 67.6 billion as remittance in 2024.
·
The Philippines (USD 40.3 billion), France
(USD 38.8 billion), and Pakistan (USD 34.9 billion) were among the world’s top 5 remittance recipient countries.
·
High-income countries (HICs) like USA continued
to be the top remittance-sending country
in the world, with a total outflow breaching the USD 100 billion mark in
2024.
·
The USA
was followed by Saudi Arabia (over USD
46 billion), Switzerland (around USD
40 billion), and Germany (around USD 24 billion).
5. WORLD’S
FIRST OPTOSAR SATELLITE ‘DRISHTI’
·
India’s space start-up GalaxEye Space
Solutions Private Limited launched ‘Mission
Drishti’, the world’s
first OptoSAR Earth observation satellite, aboard a SpaceX
Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California,
USA.
·
OptoSAR
is an Earth observation satellite that
integrates Electro-Optical (EO)/Multispectral Imager (MSI) and Synthetic
Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors on a single operational platform.
·
It Weighs 190
kilograms (kg), making it India’s largest privately built Earth observation satellite.
6. PULITZER
PRIZE 2026
·
The Pulitzer Board announced the winners
of 110th Pulitzer Prize (2026) under the categories
such as: Journalism, Books, Drama and Music, and Special Citations.
·
This
year, The New York Times (NYT) won 3 awards in different categories of
Pulitzer Prize (including for investigative
reporting).
·
It
is followed by Reuters which secured 2 Pulitzer prizesin national reporting and beat reporting.
·
Washington
Post won the Pulitzer Prize
for Public Service.
·
This year, two Indian journalists
namely, Anand RK and Suparna Sharma, along
with their Bloomberg colleague Natalie Obiko
Pearson, won the Pulitzer Prize in the ‘Illustrated Reporting and Commentary’ category for their
report ‘trAPPed’, exposing cybercrime like‘digital arrest’.
·
Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown was honoured with a special citation for her groundbreaking reporting in 2017 and
2018 that exposed Jeffrey Epstein’s
abuse of young women and the powerful network that protected him.
7. INDIA’S
1ST SPACE-TECH UNICOR
·
A private
Indian space launch startup Skyroot Aerospace Private Limited became India’s
first space-tech unicorn after raising USD 60 million (around Rs
570 crore), taking its valuation to USD 1.1 billion, nearly
double its 2023 valuation of about USD 550 million.
·
With this Skyroot Aerospace became the fourth
startup to enter India’s unicorn club in 2026, following Kredit Bee, Neysa, and Juspay.
8. INDIA’S
1ST IOE TO RECEIVE DASCA ACCREDITATION
·
O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU) becomes
India’s Institute of Eminence (IoE) to
be accredited by the Data Science
Council of America (DASCA), an international
standards body that provides accreditation for academic institutions and
certification for professionals in data science and Artificial Intelligence
(AI).
·
JGU
received this accreditation under the World Data Sciences
& AI Initiative (WDSAI), an international
platform led by DASCA, supporting universities in adopting internationally
benchmarked standards.
9.
WORLD RECORD FOR YOUNGEST AND FASTEST PALK
STRAIT CROSSING
·
Seven-year-old Ishank Singh from
Ranchi, Jharkhand, set a world
record by swimming about 29 kilometer (km)
across the Palk Strait from Talaimannar
(Sri Lanka) to Dhanushkodi (Tamil Nadu, TN) in 9 hours 50 minutes, becoming
the youngest and fastest swimmer on this route
·
The swim involved a highly challenging route
between TN (India) and Jaffna (Sri Lanka), known for strong currents, high
waves, and unpredictable weather, connecting
the Bay of Bengal and Gulf of Mannar.
10. THOMAS
& UBER CUP
·
The Badminton World Federation (BWF)
Thomas & Uber Cup Finals 2026, marking the 34th edition
of the Thomas Cup (men’s world team championship) and the 31st edition
of the Uber Cup (women’s world team championship), were held at Horsens, Denmark .
·
The People’s
Republic of China men’s team won the Thomas Cup 2026 title by defeating
France 3–1, marking their 13th overall title.
·
The Republic
of Korea women’s team won the Uber Cup 2026 title by defeating
China 3–1, securing their third title.
·
Sixteen
teams per event are divided into four groups of four /
·
Thomas Cup-Denmark and India secured bronze medals as
losing semi-finalists.
·
Uber Cup: - Japan and Indonesia secured bronze
medals as losing semi-finalists.
11. NCRB’S
CRIME IN INDIA 2024
·
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), under
the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), released its annual report titled “Crime
in India 2024”.
·
As per the data, India recorded 58.86 lakh cognisable crimes
in 2024, marking a 6% decline compared to 62.41
lakh cases reported in 2023.
·
The
total cognisable offences reported in 2024 included: 35.44 lakh cases were registered under the Indian Penal Code (IPC)/Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), while 23.41 lakh cases were registered
under Special and Local Laws (SLL).
·
As per NCRB’s latest data,
the overall crime rate in India declined from 448.3 (in 2023) to
418.9 (in 2024).
·
Delhi topped
in terms of number of cognisable
offences, recording more than 2.7 lakh cases(2,75,402) ,
with charge-sheeting rate being the lowest.
·
NCRB also released the ‘Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India (ADSI) 2024 report. The
report showed that a total of 1,70,746 suicide cases were
registered in 2024.
·
The
report revealed that Bengaluru (Karnataka) which is
commonly referred as ‘Silicon Valley of
India’registered over 2,313 suicides (in 2022), 2,370 (in 2023) and 2,403 (in 2024).
12. NITI
AAYOG - REPORT ON SCHOOL EDUCATION SYSTEM IN INDIA
·
Suman K. Bery, former
Vice Chairman and NidhiChhibber, interim Chief Executive
Officer (CEO) of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog,
released a policy report titled ‘School Education System in
India: Temporal Analysis and Policy Roadmap for Quality Enhancement’ in
New Delhi
·
The
report provides a decade-long (2014–25) assessment
of India’s school education system, covering access and enrolment,
infrastructure, equity and inclusion, learning outcomes.
·
India has 14.71 lakh
schools serving over 24.69
crore students across all 36 States and Union Territories (UTs), making it
the world’s largest school education system.
·
Key
concerns include a low higher
secondary Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of 58.4%, a secondary dropout rate of 11.5%, and only ~5% composite schools, resulting in major transition gaps from
primary to secondary education.
·
Approximately 8,000 schools across
India reported zero student enrolment
(ghost schools), with the highest numbers recorded in West Bengal(WB)(3,812) and Telangana (2,245), followed by Jammu and
Kashmir(J&K) (146) and Punjab (13).
13. INDIA
& CAMBODIA MILITARY EXERCISE ‘CINBAX-II’
·
The Indian Army(IA) and
the Royal Cambodian Army(RCA) commenced the second edition of the bilateral military
exercise, CINBAX-II, in Kampong Speu Province,
Cambodia.
·
The
Indian contingent includes 120 personnel from Battalion of the Maratha Light
Infantry Regiment.
