Current Affairs

Ministry for doubling auto PLI allocationto ₹5,800 crore

Context: As the scheme, in its third year now, is production-linked, higher output levels necessitate a corresponding scale-up in incentives.

• The Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI) has proposed doubling the allocation for the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for automobiles and auto component manufacturers to ₹5,800 crore in the upcoming financial year. The scheme had received ₹2,818.85 crore in FY 2025-2026.
• The PLI auto scheme incentivises local production of only those products that achieve a domestic value add (DVA) of 50%. The scheme was focused on zero emission vehicles (ZEVs), i.e., battery electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
• The scheme was announced in 2021, but FY 2023-24 was the first performance year, and an amount of ₹322 crore was disbursed to four approved applicants in FY 2024-25. For the performance year 2024-25, a total amount of ₹1,999.94 crore was disbursed for five approved applicants.
• Looking ahead, the target allocation for FY 2027-28 is nearly ₹8,000 crore, increasing to ₹9,500 crore in the fifth year.
• These allocations are aimed at achieving the total outlay of ₹25,938 crore as defined when the scheme was launched in 2021.
• Explaining the rationale behind seeking doubling of allocation, that in the initial years, the OEMs were focused on setting up manufacturing plants, which required substantial capital investment. Now, in the third year of the scheme, the focus would be on ramping up production output. As the scheme is production-linked, higher output levels necessitate a corresponding scale-up in incentives.

Source: The Hindu

ISRO calls for proposals from Indian scientists to analyse data from Aditya-L1

Context: On the second anniversary of India’s maiden solar mission Aditya-L1 reaching the Lagrangian point (L1), the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) made the Announcement of Opportunity (AO) soliciting proposals for the first AO cycle observations.

• The Aditya-L1 spacecraft reached the L1 point on January 6, 2024, 127 days after it was launched on September 2, 2023, and since then has been making continuous and comprehensive observations of the Sun from the Sun–Earth L1 point.
• According to ISRO, scientific data from the mission are regularly released in public domain for global scientific utilisation.

To maximise return

• “At present there are more than 23 TB data in public domain and several important scientific results have been published in International peer reviewed journals. To further maximise the scientific return from this unique mission, the ISRO has released the first AO inviting proposals from the Indian solar physics community for Aditya-L1 observation time,” ISRO said.
• It added that this L1 point, located approximately 1.5 million kilometers away from Earth, offers the unique advantage of continuous, uninterrupted observation of the Sun, free from eclipses or occultation.

Source: The Hindu

EC says it has constitutional duty to bar foreigners from voter rolls

Context: Poll body defends SIR in the Supreme Court, insists it has power to verify citizenship status under the Constitution; it calls claims of the exercise being a ‘parallel NRC’ ‘rhetoric’, says roll revision counts only legal adults unlike citizenship register.

• The Election Commission of India (EC) began its defence of the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls before the Supreme Court by dismissing claims that it is conducting a “parallel” National Register of Citizens (NRC) as sheer “rhetoric”.
• The poll body maintained that it has the “constitutional power, even a constitutional duty” to ensure that not a single foreigner, as far as possible, occupies space in the nation’s electoral rolls.
• The SIR kicked off in Bihar last year and expanded to cover 12 more States and Union Territories in the ongoing second phase.
• “We have a constitutional duty, and not just a constitutional power, to ensure no foreigners are there on the electoral rolls. It is not important how many foreigners are found… It was repeatedly asked of us to show how many foreigners were found in Bihar, but that is not important.
• Even if there was one foreigner, he had to be excluded. We are not concerned with the rhetoric of the political parties. They may be right or wrong. As the Election Commission, it is our constitutional duty to ensure there are no foreign voters as far as possible,” senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the EC, clarified before a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant.
• Mr. Dwivedi said the comparison of the SIR with the NRC was devoid of truth.

Faulty comparison

• In the NRC, “all citizens”, even those of unsound mind, were tallied, the EC said. In the SIR, only those 18 years and above were counted. The EC differentiated between the NRC conducted in Assam and the “special revision” of electoral rolls underway in the State.
• The petitioners, who included Opposition parties and States, had argued that the SIR was merely a “citizenship drive” and a parallel NRC.
• “Of course, rhetorically it was said we are carrying out a ‘parallel’ NRC. The NRC register includes all the people, all citizens, whereas, in electoral rolls it is citizens who are above 18 years of age. Less than that they are not in the electoral roll. A person of unsound mind is excluded from the electoral roll, but is part of the NRC. Preparation of the electoral roll is not a parallel NRC on the face of it,” Mr. Dwivedi contended.
• The senior counsel argued that it was for the Centre to issue a ‘national identity card’ and maintain a ‘National Register of Indian Citizens’ and, for that purpose, establish a National Registration Authority under Section 14A of the Citizenship Act, 1955. On the other hand, the EC drew its power to verify citizenship for the “preparation of the electoral rolls” under Article 324 of the Constitution.

Citizenship status

• “All the important functionaries of the three organs of governance have to be citizens of India, be it the President, Vice-President, MPs, MLAs, or judges of the constitutional courts… No person is eligible to participate in the electoral process unless he is a citizen,” Mr. Dwivedi said.
• Addressing the petitioners’ submission that citizenship was exclusively the domain of the Union government, the EC counsel pointed to Section 9(2) of the Citizenship Act. “The Central government has exclusive jurisdiction only with termination of citizenship on account of voluntary acquisition of foreign citizenship under this provision,” Mr. Dwivedi submitted.
• He said the EC was not foreclosed from “deviating” while revising electoral rolls, provided it recorded the reasons. In SIR 2025, the reasons included rapid urbanisation and migration with an eye to preserving the purity of the electoral rolls.

Source: The Hindu

Share of southern States in FDI rises as IT inflows double

Context: The doubling of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows into Information Technology (IT) sector in the first half of FY26 (H1FY26) helped the southern States of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu raise their share in total FDI even as Maharashtra and Gujarat saw their shares shrink.

• FDI into India stood at $35.2 billion in H1FY26 (April-September 2025), up 18% from $29.8 billion in the same period last fiscal, official data show.
• The FDI growth was driven by a two fold jump in inflow into the IT sector (categorised as ‘Computer Software & Hardware’) to $9 billion in H1FY26. With this, the sector’s share rose up to 25% of the total FDI flow compared with 14% in the prior period.

Still in pole position

• Maharashtra, still at the top position, saw a reduction in share of total FDI in H1FY26 to 30% vs. 45% ($10.6 billion). Gujarat’s share halved to 6.4% while Karnataka with $9.4 billion and Tamil Nadu with $3.6 billion were at second and third spot in overall tally.
• FDI into e-commerce majors Meesho and Flipkart, from foreign promoter entities and investors, dominated the top deals. Large PE investments in Access Healthcare Services and Haldiram Snacks and investments by Ardour Investment Holdings in Adani Green Energy were also among the top deals. A $0.8 billion FDI into Raiden Infotech, a subsidiary of Google, for data centre business was another key FDI during this period.
• Madhavi Arora, chief economist, Emkay Global; the change in FDI shares of States was a function of India receiving more services FDI compared with manufacturing. GCCs and new-age technology firms were concentrated in the Southern states, especially Karnataka.
• Sectorally, the “Services” sector (which is said to include other services besides technology) and ‘non-conventional’ energy saw a decline in the FDI inflows in this half year.
• In terms of origin, Singapore led the way with a significant $12 billion invested accounting for 34% of the total FDI.
• The U.S. and Mauritius followed with $6.6 and $3.5 billion respectively.

Sources: The Hindu

Coast Guard adds pollution control vessel to its fleet

Context: Samudra Pratap, built with over 60% indigenous content, will substantially enhance the Coast Guard’s capability in fire-fighting, maritime safety, environmental protection, and surveillance.

• Defence Minister Rajnath Singh commissioned the Indian Coast Guard Ship ICGS Samudra Pratap, the first of two indigenously designed pollution control vessels (PCVs) for the Indian Coast Guard (ICG), in Goa.
• The Minister described the ship, built with over 60% indigenous content, as a symbol of India’s maturing defence industrial ecosystem.
• The vessel was built by Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL).
• The Defence Ministry: Samudra Pratap is India’s first homegrown pollution control vessel and the largest ship in the Coast Guard’s fleet so far. Its induction substantially enhances the ICG’s capability in pollution response, fire-fighting, maritime safety, environmental protection, and extended surveillance across the country’s vast maritime zones.
• Commissioning the ship, Mr. Singh reiterated the government’s goal to increase indigenous content in warships to 90%. He said the vessel integrated multiple roles on a single platform, making it effective not only for pollution control but also for coastal patrol and maritime security in today’s complex maritime environment.
• The ship is equipped with advanced pollution detection systems, specialised pollution response boats, modern firefighting equipment, and aviation facilities including a helicopter hangar, enabling greater operational reach even in rough sea conditions.

Protecting marine life

• Mr. Singh noted that these capabilities would ensure rapid detection and containment of pollution incidents, helping protect coral reefs, mangroves, fisheries, and marine biodiversity, directly supporting coastal communities and the blue economy.
• Emphasising that marine environmental protection is both a strategic necessity and a moral responsibility, the Defence Minister praised the ICG’s role in oil spill response, maritime law enforcement, and coastal cleanliness.

Women officers

• In a notable first, Samudra Pratap will have two women officers aboard. Mr. Singh hailed it as a proud step towards a more inclusive and gender-neutral Coast Guard, highlighting the growing role of women in frontline maritime operations.
• Reaffirming the government’s commitment to modernising the ICG, he stressed the need for an intelligence-driven and integration-centric force to address emerging technology-led threats. He expressed confidence that Samudra Pratap will significantly strengthen India’s maritime governance.

Sources: The Hindu

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