Current Affairs – August 13, 2026

{GS1 – A&C} Parliamentary Standing Committee’s 393^rd Report *

Context (PIB): Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture presented its 393^rd Report titled “From Manuscript to Mission: Preserving, Mapping and Sustaining India’s Cultural Heritage in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”

Key Highlights of the Report

{GS1 – IS} Amendments To SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Rules

• Context (TH): Government task force and National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) has recommended amendments to the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Rules to strengthen relief, rehabilitation and support mechanisms for victims of atrocities.

Key Recommendations

• Enhanced Relief: Increase the existing relief and rehabilitation amounts, currently ranging from ₹85,000 to ₹8.25 lakh, which were fixed in 2016.
• Counselling: Introduce counselling facilities for victims, accused persons and their dependents.
• Special Cells: Establish dedicated relief and rehabilitation cells in States and Union Territories.
• Faster Communication: Require FIRs and chargesheets to be forwarded to the concerned government authorities within 24 hours.
• Livelihood Protection: NCST has suggested allowing tribal communities dispossessed of land and involved in prolonged court disputes to continue using the land for livelihood, subject to appropriate legal safeguards.
• Counter-FIRs: Introduce mechanisms to scrutinise counter-FIRs registered against persons reporting atrocities, to prevent intimidation and misuse of the criminal justice process.

Read More> SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989

{GS2 – MoC} Sanchar Mitra Scheme *

• Context (PIB): Three Indian students serving as Sanchar Mitras were selected by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as Generation Connect Youth Envoys for 2026–2030.

• Generation Connect is the ITU’s youth strategy to engage young people worldwide in building an inclusive, safe, and sustainable digital ecosystem. Under its Young Leadership Program (in partnership with Huawei), it equips fellows aged 18 to 28 to run community-based digital development projects.
• ITU (HQ: Geneva) coordinates global telecommunications, manages spectrum allocations, and bridges digital divides across 194 Member States. It is the oldest specialized agency of the UN, founded in 1865 as the International Telegraph Union.

About Sanchar Mitra Scheme

• Volunteer-based digital outreach initiative launched in 2025 by Department of Telecommunications of Ministry of Communications.
• Objective: To engage university students as digital ambassadors for grassroots societal empowerment and digital literacy.
• Eligibility: Open to students in technical institutes pursuing telecom, electronics, computer science, cybersecurity, or related programs.
• Implementing Body: DoT Licensed Service Area (LSA) field offices
• Mandate: Nominated volunteers lead local awareness campaigns on citizen-centric telecom services, mobile security, and telecom fraud prevention.
• Incentives: Exceptional volunteers receive opportunities, including core national telecom projects, internships, and representation at global events such as the ITU.

{GS2 – Polity} National Co-operative Development Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2026

• Context (NOA): Parliament passed the National Co-operative Development Corporation (NCDC) (Amendment) Bill, 2026 to amend the National Co-operative Development Corporation Act, 1962.

Key Features of the Bill

• Functions of Corporation:  Bill provides National Co-operative Development Corporation (NCDC) to plan, promote, and finance programmes for co-operative development in specified areas.
  • Co-operative development is defined as providing assistance directly or through any intermediary, to co-operative societies.
• Expands definition of foodstuff: Includes processed food and other edible products and any other food items notified by central government.
  • Erstwhile Act defines foodstuffs to include items like eggs, milk, meat, and vegetables
• Activities in Industrial Goods: Bill also allows Corporation to undertake its activities in industrial goods, removing requirement for such entities to be situation in rural areas.
  • Earlier Act defines industrial goods as products of specified entities situated in rural areas including industrial co-operatives, cottage and village industries, or allied industries.
• Entities eligible for funding and investments: Allows state governments to extend funding from Corporation to any entity engaged in co-operative development.
  • Further, Corporation may also provide loans and grants directly to any co-operative society or entity engaged in co-operative development.
  • Corporation may also participate in share capital of co-operative societies operating within a state or entities engaged in co-operative development after approval of the central government.
• Collecting and sharing information:  Bill empowers Corporation to collect and furnish credit information or other information for efficient discharge of its functions.
  • Such information may be exchanged with central government, Reserve Bank of India, banking companies or other financial institutions notified by central government.

Read More>  Cooperative Sector in India I Cooperative Societies in India

{GS2 – Social Sector} FDI In Private Hospitals

• Context (TH): A Parliamentary Committee on Health and Family Welfare has recommended reviewing and rationalising FDI limits in private hospitals, warning that aggressive corporatisation and foreign capital could increase healthcare costs and affect affordability.

• Recommendations come against the backdrop of a widening public-private cost gap. According to the 80^th Round of the National Sample Survey, hospitalisation in private facilities costs about 7.6 times more than in government hospitals.

Key Recommendations

• Review FDI: Greater scrutiny of FDI in the operation and acquisition of existing hospitals, while encouraging foreign investment in medical devices, consumables and specialised medicines.
• Strengthen Public Healthcare: Establish autonomous public multi-speciality hospitals in every revenue division to reduce dependence on major cities and create competitive pressure on private healthcare.
• Control Costs: Develop mechanisms to standardise and cap prices of essential treatments, diagnostics and routine procedures in private hospitals.
• Promote Tier-2/3 Healthcare: Provide tax incentives, soft loans, subsidised land and concessional electricity to encourage private hospitals in smaller cities and rural areas.
• Cross-Subsidisation: Hospitals receiving government incentives should use higher-paying patients to help subsidise treatment for poorer patients.
• Increase Reserved Beds: Raise the mandatory reservation of beds for BPL, EWS and AB-PMJAY beneficiaries from 10% to 20%.
• Strengthen Regulation: Establish hospital-level ethics committees and improve oversight of public-private partnerships.

{GS3 – IE} Financial Inclusion in India **

• Context (PIB): Financial inclusion has brought significant transformation by moving India beyond universal bank account ownership towards active participation in formal financial system

Key Indicators of Financial Inclusion in India

• RBI’s Financial Inclusion (FI) Index: Measures extent of financial inclusion across access, usage and quality of financial services.
• World Bank Global Findex: Measures how adults access and use financial services across economies.
  • Account ownership reached 89% since 2011, reflecting significant gains in access to financial services.
• Banking Access Network: Through bank branches, Business Correspondents and India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) outlets.
  • IPPB serves more than 11 crore customers across 5.57 lakh villages and towns.

Pillars of Financial Inclusion

Read More> Financial Inclusion in India

{GS3 – Infra} Bus Transport System Overhaul

• Context (DDN): A Parliamentary Standing Committee tabled its 392^nd report, proposing a comprehensive overhaul of India’s bus transport system.

Key Recommendations

• Unified Permit System: Replace the All-India Tourist Permit with a single All-India Passenger Permit within a year; eliminate physical inter-state check-posts using VAHAN, FASTag, etc.
• Digital Integration: Create a National Bus Digital Grid for tracking and unified ticketing, alongside a National Tourist Bus Grid connecting buses with railways, metros, and airports.
• Infrastructure Funding: Establish a National Bus Terminals Authority like the Airports Authority of India and allocate 25% of the road-sector budget to public transport infrastructure.
• Fleet Modernization: Introduce a fleet-transition compact to promote commercial leasing, accelerate end-of-life vehicle scrapping, and incentivize electric bus adoption.
• Gender-Inclusive Mobility: Deploy peak-hour bus services staffed entirely by women, with mandatory CCTV surveillance and functional emergency alert systems.

{Prelims – IE} Remote Lock on Personal Devices

• Context (IE): RBI issued new guidelines, effective January 1, 2027, barring banks and lenders from remotely locking personal devices for defaults on personal, auto, or home loans.

• Permitted Case: Remote locking is allowed only if the credit facility financed the device and the loan agreement disclosed these terms beforehand.
• Timeline: No restriction applies until the account stays overdue for 30 days. A full device lockdown needs 60 consecutive days of non-payment.
• Protected Functions: Once dues are paid, functionality must be restored within one hour. If the bank delays restoration, compensation of ₹250 per hour applies until access is restored, capped at the loan amount.
• Data Bar: Lenders and their technology providers cannot harvest or review a borrower’s contacts, photos, call logs, messages, or location history.

{Prelims – IR} Southern African Customs Union (SACU)

• Context (PIB): India and SACU signed the Terms of Reference (ToR) to resume negotiations for a Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) (negotiations started in 2007).

• SACU comprises five Southern African states: South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, and Eswatini (formerly Swaziland). Headquarters: Windhoek, Namibia.
• Established in 1910, it is the world’s oldest continuously functioning customs union.
• Members maintain a unified Common External Tariff (CET) on non-members while guaranteeing duty-free, quota-free movement of domestic goods internally.
• All customs and excise duties collected pool into South Africa’s National Revenue Fund, distributed by a revenue-sharing formula.
• SACU-India Relations: India’s trade with SACU is $16.81 billion, with India recording a trade deficit. South African protectionism and Chinese trade dominance constrain India’s market access.

Significance of SACU for India

• Mineral Security: Provides direct access to Namibia’s uranium for civil nuclear energy and to South Africa’s platinum, chromium, and manganese for clean-energy transitions.
  • Namibia is the 3^rd largest uranium producer; South Africa has over 80% of global platinum reserves.
• Geostrategic Balancing: Diversifying supply chains counters China’s dominance in African mining and offers SACU a development-led alternative to Beijing’s model.
• Export Expansion: Lower tariffs can open access to a 75-million consumer market for Indian automobiles, industrial machinery, and affordable pharmaceuticals.
• Continental Gateway: South Africa’s maritime ports and logistics serve as a launchpad to the wider African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), a 1.3-billion market.
• Investment Synergy: The unified CET lets Indian firms build one regional manufacturing hub serving all five member states without internal duties.
• Global South Leadership: Converting anti-apartheid goodwill into economic ties strengthens joint alignment in BRICS, the G20, and the UN on developing-nation interests.

{Prelims – PIN} Ahilyabai Holkar

• Context (NOA): Union Home Minister paid tributes to Ahilyabai Holkar on her death anniversary.

• Ahilyabai Holkar (31 May 1725 – 13 August 1795) was an 18th-century Maratha queen who ruled the Malwa kingdom from 1767.

• She based her capital in Maheshwar on the banks of the Narmada River in present-day Madhya Pradesh.

Key Contributions & Legacy

• Dual Governance: She personally managed civil administration and state finances, while appointing military commander Tukoji Rao Holkar to command army operations.
• Temple Restoration: Rebuilt and restored destroyed sacred sites, including Varanasi’s Kashi Vishwanath Temple and Gujarat’s Somnath Temple.
• Public Works: Her public works program created a pan-Indian network of ghats, wells, roads, and rest houses (dharmashalas) from Kedarnath to Rameswaram.
• Economic Development: Established and financed the Maheshwar textile industry by bringing in master weavers, creating the Maheshwari Saree, and supporting rural livelihoods.
• Women’s Reforms: Opposed forced Sati, protected childless widows’ inheritance rights, and advocated for raising the age of marriage for girls.
• Tribal Integration: Integrated Bhil and Gond communities into state security by granting highway-protection rights (Bhil-Kaur) in exchange for safeguarding trade routes.
• Governance Model: Her rule ensured access to judicial sabhas, low taxes, and peaceful diplomacy. She viewed state revenue as a public trust and replaced capital punishment with economic rehabilitation.
• Legacy: British historian John Keay called her “The Philosopher Queen“; Jawaharlal Nehru described her as ‘a very able ruler and organizer’.

Read More > Lokmata Ahilyabai Holkar

{Prelims – PIN} Dr Vikram Sarabhai

• Context (NOA): Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla paid tributes to Dr Vikram Sarabhai on his 107^th birth anniversary on 12 August 2026.

• Dr Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai (1919–1971) was an Indian physicist and astronomer, regarded as the “Father of the Indian Space Programme.”
• He established Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) in 1962, which became the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on 15 August 1969.
  • He set up the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) in Kerala, launching India’s first sounding rocket in 1963.

• He conceptualized India’s first indigenous satellite, Aryabhata, and pioneered the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) with NASA to broadcast educational media to remote villages.

• Following Dr Homi Bhabha’s death in 1966, Sarabhai became Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, driving nuclear power development.
• He was elected President of 14^th General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency at Vienna in 1970 and served as Vice-President of the 4^thUN Conference on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in 1971.
• Institutions Founded: Physical Research Laboratory, IIM Ahmedabad, the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts, and the Ahmedabad Textile Industry’s Research Association.
• Honors: Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Medal (1962), Padma Bhushan (1966), Padma Vibhushan (posthumously in 1972).
• ISRO’s lead rocket and launch-vehicle facility at Thiruvananthapuram, the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center (VSSC), is named after him.

{Prelims – Misc} One Liners

• A&C – Karkkidaka Vavu (AIR): Devotees across Kerala performed Pithru Tharpanam during Karkkidaka Vavu, a ritual to offer prayers and oblations to deceased ancestors.
  • Karkkidaka Vavu is observed on the new moon day of the Malayalam month Karkkidakam, traditionally considered an important day for remembering and honouring ancestors.
• S&T – NGOPV Shruti (PIB): Launched by Indian Navy, it is an indigenously built Next-Generation Offshore Patrol Vessel (NGPOV), at GRSE in Kolkata. It is part of an 11-vessel NGOPV program; the first vessel was Shachi, and the second was Sanghmitra. Shruti, in India’s cultural heritage, refers to sacred Vedic literature.
  • NGOPVs are indigenous warships conducting multi-domain operations like anti-piracy, search-and-rescue, and offshore asset protection across the Exclusive Economic Zone.
• Social Sector – One Herb, One Standard (AIR): Recently, a MoU signed for the implementation of the One Herb, One Standard initiative. The initiative aims to strengthen the quality, safety, consistency and credibility of traditional medicines by developing uniform quality standards for medicinal herbs.
• In News – Triumph of the Indian Republic: My Life, My Struggles (PIB): PM released the autobiography of former President, Shri Ram Nath Kovind, titled “Triumph of the Indian Republic: My Life, My Struggles”.
  • Ram Nath Kovind served as the 14^th president of India from 2017 to 2022. Prior to his presidency, he served as the Governor of Bihar from 2015 to 2017 and as a Member of Rajya Sabha from UP.