January 2026

India launches new e-Business visa for Chinese nationals

• India has introduced an e-Production Investment Business Visa called e-B-4 Visa that Chinese businessmen can apply for to travel to India for specific business activities, including installation and commissioning of equipment. A latest advisory on the Indian Embassy website here said the e-B-4 Visa, which was introduced on January 1, can be applied for online without visiting the embassy or agents. The new visa is introduced in view of the growing demand for business visas to travel to India. It will be issued in about 45 to 50 days, with permission to stay in India for up to six months.

Police in States step up social media monitoring

Context: Dedicated cells rise from 262 in 2020 to 365 in 2024; numbers high in Bihar (52), Maharashtra (50), Punjab (48), West Bengal (38) and Assam (37); officials cite evolving crime trends for rise in cells.

• Over the past five years, police forces across States have dedicated significant resources to monitoring social media platforms, an analysis of police infrastructure data shows. The number of dedicated social media monitoring cells rose from 262 across 28 States and eight Union Territories as of January 1, 2020, to 365 as of January 1, 2024.
• Most of such cells are operational in Bihar (52), Maharashtra (50), Punjab (48), West Bengal (38) and Assam (37).
• In Manipur, where ethnic violence erupted on May 3, 2023, the number of police social media monitoring cells rose from three on January 1, 2020, to 16 on January 1, 2024. The expansion occurred despite the Internet being suspended in the State for about 140 days in 2023.
• Assam increased the number of social media monitoring cells from one in 2022 to 37 in 2024. West Bengal expanded its network from two to 38 cells, while Punjab doubled its capacity, increasing the number from 24 to 48 between 2022 and 2024.
• Earlier, social media monitoring cells were not counted separately or were part of the cybercrime police stations. They began to function as distinct units from 2021, according to Data on Police Organisations (DoPO) reports for the years 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.
• The annual DoPO reports are prepared by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D), a police think tank under the Union Home Ministry.
• The cells started featuring in the reports since 2021, which includes data for the 2020.
• Meanwhile, the number of cybercrime police stations increased from 376 as of January 1, 2020, to 624 as of January 1, 2024.

‘Evolving crime trends’

• Police officials attribute the need for dedicated cells to track and pre-empt the evolving crime trends on social media platforms such as Facebook, X, Snapchat, WhatsApp and Instagram.
• The 2024 DoPO report said that the number of drones available with police forces in States and Union Territories stood at 1,147, up from 1,010 as of January 1, 2023.
• The report also noted that 5,92,839 police posts were vacant across the country, against the total sanctioned strength of 27,55,274.
• Of the total sanctioned strength of 27.55 lakh, the actual strength comprised 3,30,621 personnel belonging to Scheduled Castes, 2,31,928 to Scheduled Tribes and 6,37,774 to Other Backward Classes.

Source: The Hindu

Bhu Suraksha project launched to digitise land records

Context: Minister for Revenue Krishna Byre Gowda launched the Bhu Suraksha Project to expand the digitisation of land records to the offices of Assistant Commissioners (ACs) and Deputy Commissioners (DCs).

‘To curb malpractice’

• Karnataka’s land records were being fully digitised to curb malpractice and improve transparency.
• The original land records in all taluk offices had been scanned and digitised. Digitisation plays crucial measure to prevent fake entries and the creation of forged documents in land records.
• Work under the Bhu Suraksha project to digitise records in AC and DC offices had begun last month.

Suspicious cases

• Of the forged land documents, treated with seriousness.
• “Each suspicious case will be examined thoroughly. Wherever required, documents will be sent to forensic laboratories to verify their authenticity, and appropriate action will follow,”.

📌 Key Highlights of the Bhu Suraksha Project
Launch Date: January 5, 2026, in Bengaluru.

Launched By: Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda.

Objective: To digitise Karnataka’s vast land records and make them easily accessible online.

Scale: Karnataka has an estimated 100 crore pages of land records, of which 62 crore pages have already been scanned.

Coverage Expansion: Digitisation will now extend to the offices of Assistant Commissioners (ACs) and Deputy Commissioners (DCs).

Technology Use: Advanced scanning and digital archiving to ensure secure, tamper-proof records.

🏛️ Why It Matters
Transparency: Eliminates scope for manipulation of land records.

Accessibility: Citizens can access verified land documents online without middlemen.

Legal Security: Prevents fake entries and forged documents, reducing land disputes.

Efficiency: Streamlines land administration and reduces delays in property transactions.

⚠️ Challenges & Risks
Completion Timeline: Scanning of all records is targeted by March 2026, requiring massive coordination.

Data Security: Ensuring protection against cyber threats is critical.

Training Needs: Revenue staff must adapt to digital workflows.

Citizen Awareness: Rural populations need guidance on accessing digital records.

✨ Significance
The Bhu Suraksha Project is a landmark initiative in Karnataka’s governance, aligning with Digital India goals. By digitising land records, the state aims to provide secure land ownership, reduce disputes, and empower citizens with transparent access to property information.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah equals Urs’s record on tenure

• Chief Minister Siddaramaiah equals the record of D. Devaraj Urs as Chief Minister with the longest tenure in Karnataka. Both hailed from Mysuru.

Karnataka’s Longest-Serving Chief Ministers
While Karnataka is known for its competitive and often volatile political landscape, a few leaders have managed to maintain extended leadership across multiple terms.

List of Chief Ministers of Karnataka (1947–2026)

India’s Longest-Serving Chief Ministers
Nationally, the benchmarks for “long tenure” are significantly higher. In several states, regional dominance has allowed leaders to stay in power for over two decades.

Tiger census gets under way in Karnataka

Context: tiger census got under way in Karnataka across all forest areas of the State, including the Kali, Bhadra, Nagarahole, Bandipur, and B.R.T. Tiger reserves.

• It is the sixth such exercise with the enumeration conducted earlier in 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022; in the previous census, it was estimated that Karnataka had around 563 tiger.
• Karnataka has the second highest number of tigers in the country after Madhya Pradesh.
• The census is part of the nationwide tiger estimation exercise which is conducted once every four years.
• The 2026 census is the sixth such exercise with the enumeration conducted earlier in 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, and 2022. In the previous census, it was estimated that Karnataka had around 563 tigers.
• The census will be carried out in all patrol beats of the 38 forest divisions across every forest range in the State for which training was given to frontline personnel of the all 13 forest circles and the five tiger reserves between October and December last year.

Census in two phases

• During the first phase of the enumeration for three days, teams comprising three members will patrol five km daily in forest areas across the State. They will collect details of pugmarks, scats, and direct sightings of tigers, leopards, and other carnivores and also elephants.
• During the second phase, from January 15 to 17, the estimation will be conducted in 14 forest divisions, during which teams will move through forests to collect data on direct sightings of herbivores such as deer, sambar, wild buffalo, and gaur. “This will help determine where camera traps should be installed.
• Project Tiger Director Ramesh Kumar who has been nominated as the nodal officer to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) will oversee this year’s census.
• “He (Ramesh Kumar) has been instructed to list the number of tigers and other carnivores in each area, assess the population of herbivores in each division, understand how many tigers each forest supports and how much prey is available for them, and thereby identify the forest’s carrying capacity,”.

Camera trap surveys

• Using the data collected in the first two phases, camera traps will be installed at suitable locations in the third phase.
• “There are 2,230 camera traps in the five tiger reserves and camera trap surveys have already begun in all five tiger reserves. Of these, the Nagarahole Tiger Reserve has 600 camera traps, Bandipur Tiger Reserve 550, B.R.T. Tiger Reserve 300, Bhadra Tiger Reserve 330, and Kali Tiger Reserve 450 camera traps,”.
• Steps have also been taken to install camera traps outside tiger reserves.
• Nearby tiger reserves that have completed camera trap surveys will provide cameras for this purpose. “It is observed that tigers are increasingly venturing out of forests into human habitations, and it appears that the tiger population in the State has increased this time. It will help to know the exact numbers through this census,”.

⭐ Karnataka (highlight)

Karnataka’s estimated tiger numbers across census cycles: 290 (2006) → 300 (2010) → 406 (2014) → 524 (2018) → 563 (2022).

In 2022, Karnataka is reported as the #2 state after Madhya Pradesh (785), just above Uttarakhand (560).

Sources: The Hindu

Venezuela crisis unlikely to hit India’s energy security

Context: Venezuelan crude accounted for about 0.3% of India’s total oil import in the current financial year up to November; since 2019, India has been cutting its imports from Venezuela after U.S. sanctions.

• The United States attack on Venezuela is unlikely to have any direct impact on India’s energy security, an analysis of the latest data shows.
• Numbers from the Commerce and Industry Ministry show that India imported $255.3 million worth of oil from Venezuela in the current financial year up to November 2025, about 0.3% of its total oil import during this period.
• In 2013, India had imported as much as $13 billion worth of Venezuelan oil. Since 2019, India has been cutting its oil imports and commercial engagements with Venezuela in response to U.S. sanctions and threats of secondary sanctions.
• “Given the low trade volumes, existing sanctions constraints, and the large geographical distance, the current developments in Venezuela are not expected to have any meaningful impact on India’s economy or energy security,”.

OPEC member

• Venezuela is a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), a group of countries that largely dominates the global oil market. However, Venezuela currently produces a relatively small amount of crude oil compared with the other oil-producing nations.
• According to OPEC data, Venezuela accounts for about 3.5% of the OPEC’s total oil exports, and about 1% of global oil supplies.

Heavy oil

• This relatively low supply is due to the U.S. sanctions on Venezuela and the heavy nature of Venezuelan oil, which requires special refineries that most countries do not have. Most of Venezuela’s oil supply goes to China.
• Following the U.S. actions in Venezuela over the weekend, Mr. Trump announced that the U.S. would take over Venezuela’s oil supply. “We are going to rebuild the oil infrastructure, which will cost billions of dollars, it will be paid for by the oil companies directly,” Mr. Trump said in his address following the attack.

Source: The Hindu

India loses 0.4% of its GDP every year to natural disasters

Context: As the scale of economic loss escalates, disaster risk finance has moved to the forefront of policy.

• Emerging Asian economies that comprise India, China, and the ASEAN-11, face an escalating threat from natural disasters that are growing in both frequency and intensity (Chart 1).
• Over the past decade, the region has had an average of 100 disasters annually, impacting approximately 80 million people.
• The nature of these threats varies by geography: while floods and storms are the primary drivers of risk in India, tropical cyclones frequently batter the Philippines and Vietnam.
• Meanwhile, China and Indonesia contend with significantly higher seismic risks (Chart 2).
• The human and economic toll of this vulnerability has been punctuated by several landmark catastrophes.
• As the scale of economic loss escalates (Chart 3), disaster risk finance has moved to the forefront of regional policy. To design an effective response, governments must first establish a data-driven foundation.
• From 1990 to 2024, India sustained average annual disaster-related losses equivalent to 0.4% of GDP (Chart 4). The composition of these losses is geographically distinct. India’s vulnerability is primarily hydrological (non-storm-related floods and landslides), whereas Myanmar’s losses are predominantly meteorological (extreme temperatures and cyclonic storms).
• The regional risk framework also includes climatological factors (drought and wildfire), and geophysical hazards (seismic activity and volcanic eruptions) too. Among the Asian economies analysed, India ranks second only to the Philippines in the World Risk Index (Chart 5). The index calculates risk as the geometric mean of exposure (population burden) and vulnerability (a combination of structural susceptibility, coping capacity, and long-term adaptation).

Source: The Hindu