Current Affairs – January 24, 2026

{GS2 – Polity} Governor’s Walkout During Address to State Legislatures **

• Context (TH): Recent walkouts by Governors during special addresses at inaugural State Legislative Assembly sessions have sparked constitutional debate about the limits of gubernatorial discretion.

Governor’s Address to State Legislature

Article 175: Discretionary Address

• Discretionary Address: Article 175(1) empowers the Governor to address the Legislative Assembly, either House, or both Houses assembled together, at any time.
• Legislative Messages: Article 175(2) authorises the Governor to send messages to the House(s) on pending Bills or otherwise.
  • Mandatory Duty: The House is required to consider messages under Article 175(2) with “all convenient dispatch” (in the fastest reasonable speed).

Article 176: Special Address

• Special Address: Article 176(1) mandates the Governor to address the Legislative Assembly (or both Houses assembled together) at the commencement of
  • The first session after each General Election and
  • The first session of each year.
• Constitutional Purpose: The address informs the Legislature about the “causes of its summons” as mandated by Article 176(1).
• No Discretion: The Governor has no constitutional authority to refuse or alter this address, as it is a binding duty.

Motion of Thanks

• Discussion Requirement: Article 176(2) requires the State Legislature to allot time for discussion on the Governor’s Special Address.
• Formal Motion: A member of the ruling party submits the Motion of Thanks to formally acknowledge the Governor’s address.
• Amendment Right: Members may move amendments to highlight omissions, raise criticism, or address specific policy grievances.
• Confidence Test: Defeat of the Motion of Thanks amounts to a loss of confidence in the Government.

Nature of Governor’s Address

• Executive Function: The address is an executive function performed with the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers.
• Cabinet Text: The speech content is drafted entirely by the State Cabinet and represents the elected government’s views.
• No Alteration: Constitutional convention bars the Governor from adding, deleting, or modifying the text prepared by the Cabinet.
• Colonial Origin: This practice mirrors the British “Speech from the Throne,” in which the Sovereign reads the government’s statement without personal responsibility.

Challenges with the Governor’s Address

• Text Ambiguity: The Constitution mandates the Governor to “address” the House, but remains silent on the requirement of verbatim reading.
• Political Loading: Cabinets increasingly insert partisan rhetoric or Centre-State debates, turning the address into a political instrument.
• Conflict of Conscience: Governors often argue that they cannot be forced to read statements they deem factually incorrect or “misleading” to the public.
• Procedural Vulnerability: Legislatures’ reliance on “taken as read” resolutions following Governors’ walkouts dilutes procedural sanctity.

{GS2 – IR} Spain Formally Joined Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative *

• Context (NIE): Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares concluded a visit to New Delhi, commemorating 70 years of diplomatic relations between India and Spain.

• Upgrade: Both countries agreed to elevate bilateral ties to a formal “strategic association” framework.
• IPOI Participation: Spain formally joined the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI) to support a free and rules-based maritime order.
• Dual Year: 2026 was declared the India-Spain Dual Year of Culture, Tourism, and AI.
• Consular Expansion: Spain announced the opening of a new Consulate General in Bengaluru to strengthen engagement in southern India.

About Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI)

• IPOI is an India-led, non-treaty collaborative framework that promotes regional cooperation and a rules-based maritime order.
• Launch Origin: PM Narendra Modi proposed the IPOI at the 14th East Asia Summit in Bangkok in November 2019.
• Strategic Basis: The initiative extends India’s SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region) doctrine to advance a free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific.
• Operational Design: IPOI functions through seven pillars, with partner countries leading or co-leading specific pillars according to their expertise.
  • Seven Pillars: Maritime Security, Maritime Ecology, Maritime Resources, Capacity Building, Disaster Risk Reduction, Science and Technology, and Trade Connectivity.
• India’s leadership: India formally co-leads two pillars: (1) Maritime Security with the UK and (2) Disaster Risk Reduction & Management with Bangladesh.
• Lead Countries: Currently, twelve countries have formally assumed lead or co-lead roles, including India, the UK, Australia, France, Japan, Germany, and the United States.
• Global Alignment: IPOI aligns with the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP) to support a rules-based international order under UNCLOS.

{GS3 – IE} Capital Infusion in SIDBI to Expand MSME Credit Coverage

• Context (TH): Union Cabinet approved equity infusion into Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) to enhance MSME credit and expand financial assistance coverage.

Decision Roadmap for Credit Infusion

• Equity Infusion Plan: Department of Financial Services (DFS) to infuse ₹5,000 crore in three tranches.
• Tranche Structure: ₹3,000 crore in 2025–26, ₹1,000 crore each in 2026–27 and 2027–28.
• Credit Expansion Goal: MSMEs supported to rise from 76.26 lakh (FY25 end) to 102 lakh by FY28 end.

Expected Impact

• Employment Push: With an average of 4.37 jobs per MSME, ~25.74 lakh new MSME beneficiaries could create ~1.12 crore jobs by 2027–28.
• Cheaper Credit Flow: Higher capital improves SIDBI’s ability to raise funds at fair rates, enabling competitive-cost MSME lending.

Need For Capital Infusion in MSME

• Rising Beneficiary Demand: MSMEs supported are expected to rise from 76.26 lakh (FY25 end) to 102 lakh by FY28, requiring higher lending capacity.
• Massive Enterprise Base: India has ~6.9 crore registered MSMEs (Sept 2025), so scaling institutional credit needs stronger development finance buffers.
• Prudential Capital Need: Higher MSME lending increases risk-weighted assets, so equity is needed to maintain a strong Capital to Risk-Weighted Assets Ratio (CRAR).

Challenges in MSME Credit Ecosystem

• Large Credit Gap: MSME credit gap is ~₹20–25 lakh crore, forcing many firms into informal borrowing.
• Payment Delays: Delayed payments lock working capital; MSMEs often face receivables cycles running into 60–90 days, worsening liquidity stress.
• Low Credit Penetration: Formal credit access remains uneven; MSMEs contribute ~30% of India’s GDP/GVA but receive only ~16–18% of total bank credit, showing a persistent credit-access gap.

Way Forward

• Credit Guarantees: Expand risk-sharing cover to unlock collateral-free MSME loans; E.g., strengthen CGTMSE coverage limits and reduce guarantee fees for micro units.
• Prompt Payments: Enforce faster MSME receivables and expand invoice discounting to free working capital; E.g., scale up TReDS across PSUs, CPSEs and large private buyers.
• Cluster Financing: Create sector-based credit windows for MSME clusters to reduce transaction costs.
• Last-Mile Channels: Deepen NBFC-fintech partnerships for micro and informal units with limited banking reach; E.g., SIDBI refinancing lines for NBFC–fintech co-lending models.

{GS3 – Envi – Pollution} Pollution as the Largest Economic Drag **

• Context (IE): At the World Economic Forum (Davos), experts warned that economic damage from pollution far exceeds losses from trade tariffs, reframing pollution as an economic crisis.

Economic Cost of Pollution

• Global Welfare Loss: Air pollution causes ~$5.7 trillion annual welfare loss, ~4.8% of global GDP, through productivity loss, health spending and premature mortality (World Bank).
• Mortality Burden: Pollution linked to ~1.7 million deaths annually in India, ~18% of total deaths, directly shrinking labour supply and effective workforce participation.
• GDP Drag: Economic cost of pollution estimated at ~$150 billion annually, ~1.7% of India’s GDP, reflecting persistent long-term growth erosion (World Bank).

Channels of Economic Damage by Pollution

• Productivity Loss: Chronic pollution exposure lowers labour efficiency and increases absenteeism.
• Healthcare Drain: Rising pollution-related diseases inflate public and household health expenditure.
• Human Capital Erosion: Early-life PM₂.₅ exposure reduces cognitive outcomes and lifetime earnings; E.g., childhood exposure linked to lower schooling outcomes (Lancet studies).
• Crop Yield Loss: Ground-level ozone and PM₂.₅ diminish agricultural productivity; e.g., India loses millions of tonnes of crops annually due to air pollution (ICAR/World Bank).

Why Pollution Causes More Damage Than Tariffs?

• Structural Drag: Pollution imposes continuous economy-wide costs, unlike episodic tariff shocks; E.g., annual GDP loss of ~1–2% in India persists year after year.
• Invisible Externalities: Health damage and mortality are underpriced in markets; E.g., welfare loss equals ~4.8% of global GDP annually (World Bank).
• Investment Deterrence: Poor air quality lowers city liveability and talent attraction; E.g., polluted metros rank lower on global competitiveness indices.
• Urban Exposure Evidence: Delhi met national air quality standards on only 156 of 365 days in 2025, indicating sustained economic stress on urban labour markets (CPCB data).

Way Forward

• Clean Regulation: Tighten emission standards with strict enforcement across sectors; E.g., real-time monitoring under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).
• Urban Transport: Strengthen mass transit and electric mobility adoption; E.g., metro–bus integration and faster EV penetration in cities.
• Airshed Governance: Implement regional pollution control beyond city limits; E.g., coordinated Airshed Management Models used in China.
• Health Accounting: Internalise pollution costs into economic planning frameworks; E.g., use health-adjusted growth metrics in cost–benefit analyses.

{GS3 – S&T} Space Insurance in India **

• Context (TP): Space insurance demand in India is rising following the consecutive launch failures of PSLV-C61 and PSLV-C62 missions.

• Space insurance offers financial coverage for losses from manufacturing, transport, launch, and in-orbit operations of space assets.

Need for Space Insurance in India

• State Responsibility: Under the Outer Space Treaty, 1967, India bears international responsibility for all space activities from its territory, including private missions.
• Absolute Liability: The Liability Convention, 1972, makes India absolutely liable for Earth or aircraft damage caused by its space objects.
• Startup De-Risking: Space missions are capital-intensive; insurance safeguards startups from bankruptcy resulting from launch failures.
• FDI Confidence: A clear insurance framework builds investor confidence and supports the 100% FDI liberalisation in the space sector (2024).
• Private Participation: India’s goal of shifting its space sector to a demand-driven, commercially independent ecosystem requires a structured risk-management mechanism.
• Global Competitiveness: International customers prefer insured launches; mission assurance is essential for access to the $500+ billion global space economy.

Key Challenges of Space Insurance in India

• High Premiums: Launch insurance costs 15–20% of mission value; premiums increased 20–30% after PSLV launch failures.
• Capital Strain: Early-stage startups struggle to pay upfront premiums, diverting funds from R&D and hardware development.
• Reinsurance Dependency: Domestic insurers lack capacity for large risks, relying on foreign reinsurance markets, exposing missions to global market volatility.
• Legislative Gap: The absence of an umbrella Space Activities Act leaves liability caps undefined, complicating insurers’ actuarial pricing.
• Orbital Risks: Rising space debris and Kessler Syndrome (fear of a chain reaction of collisions) increase in-orbit insurance costs and complexity.

Way Forward

• National Space Act: Enact legislation defining Maximum Probable Loss and government indemnity beyond thresholds to keep premiums affordable.
• Domestic Pool: Create a public-private space insurance pool involving New India Assurance and GIC Re to retain risks domestically.
• Risk Guarantee Fund: Establish a government-backed partial risk guarantee to subsidise premiums for early-stage startups.
• Data Sharing: Enable ISRO and IN-SPACe to share non-sensitive performance data with insurers for accurate actuarial pricing.
• Regulatory Empowerment: Grant IN-SPACe statutory authority to enforce insurance compliance, verify satellite health, and resolve claim disputes.

Read More > Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle | India’s Draft Space Activities Bill

{Prelims – Polity} ECINET Digital Platform *

• Context (NOA): Election Commission of India launched ECINET Digital Platform at the IICDEM 2026 in New Delhi to strengthen end-to-end digital electoral governance.

About ECINET

• Nature: Unified digital election platform integrating over 40 apps and web services under a common, secure and interoperable architecture.
• Users Covered: Citizens, voters, candidates, political parties and election officials connected through one seamless national digital interface.
• Language Support: Available in 22 Indian languages plus English, significantly improving accessibility for diverse voter populations.
• Legal Alignment: ECINET data usage is strictly governed by the Representation of the People Act, 1950 & 1951, Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 and Conduct of Election Rules, 1961.

Key Features

• Single Window: Consolidates voter services, candidate processes and election administration tools into one integrated national access point.
• Citizen Engagement: Enables easier participation, grievance redressal and verified information access across all election stages.
• Operational Integration: Links backend systems used by election officials for real-time coordination, supervision and monitoring.

{Prelims – Geo} Gangapur Dam

• Context (TH): The Indian Air Force (IAF) conducted an aerial display over the Gangapur Dam.

• Gangapur Dam is an earthfill dam near Nashik, Maharashtra. It is the longest earthen dam in Asia.
• It is built on the Godavari River at the confluence with the Kashyapi River.
• The dam is designed using Terzaghi’s soil mechanics principles, ensuring structural stability.
• It has a unique emergency spillway designed to protect the dam body in case the main spillway fails.
• The dam supplies irrigation and drinking water to Nashik and the surrounding drought-prone regions.

{Prelims – PAN} Eco-Sensitive Zone Declared Around Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary *

• Context (UT): The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has declared a zero-to-one-kilometre zone around the Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary as an Eco-Sensitive Zone.

About Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary

• Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary is a dry deciduous forest in the Aravalli Range of Rajasthan.
• Fort Surroundings: The sanctuary surrounds Kumbhalgarh Fort, a UNESCO World Heritage Site featuring the world’s second-longest continuous wall.
• Aravalli Ranges: It covers four specific Aravalli ranges – Kumbhalgarh, Sadri, Desuri, and Bokhada.
• Watershed Divide: Eastern slopes drain into the Banas River, while the western slopes feed small tributaries of the Luni River.
• Wolf Habitat: It is among the few Indian locations where Indian wolf packs breed successfully and remain highly visible.
• Faunal Diversity: Leopard, Sloth Bear, Striped Hyena, Jackal, Sambar, Chinkara, Chausingha, etc.
• Floral Diversity: Vegetation is predominantly dry deciduous, with common tree species including Dhok, Salar, and Khair.
• Tribes: The main tribal communities living around the sanctuary are the Bhils and the Garasias.

{Prelims – Species} Whale Shark (Rhincodon typus)

• Context (TH): A whale shark (Rhincodon typus) was recently sighted near Rushikonda Beach in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.

About Whale Shark (Rhincodon typus)

• About: The Whale Shark is the world’s largest living fish and belongs to Class Chondrichthyes (cartilaginous fishes).
• Appearance: It has a flattened head, a wide terminal mouth, and a dark grey body marked by white spots and stripes.
  • Spot Pattern: The arrangement of spots and lines on the skin is unique to each whale shark.
  • Mouth Position: Unlike most sharks, its mouth opens at the front of the head, not on the underside.
• Habitat Preference: The species prefers warm surface waters, typically between 21°C and 30°C.
• Distribution: It is found in tropical and warm-temperate oceans but is rare in the Mediterranean Sea.
• Indian Range: Major aggregations occur along Gujarat’s Saurashtra coast, with smaller populations in Lakshadweep, Kerala, and Andhra Pradesh.
• Behaviour Traits: Despite its enormous size, it is solitary, gentle, and harmless to humans, earning it the name “gentle giant.”
• Feeding Method: It is a filter feeder that consumes plankton, krill, and small fish by sucking in water and filtering it through gill rakers.
• Ecological Role: Whale Shark serves as an indicator species, reflecting nutrient-rich waters and high plankton productivity.
• Reproductive: The species is ovoviviparous, with eggs hatching inside the female and releasing fully formed live pups.
• Key Threats: Net bycatch, vessel collisions, and ingestion of marine plastic debris.
• Conservation Status: IUCN: Endangered; CITES: Appendix II; WPA: Schedule I
• Conservation Initiative: The “Save the Whale Shark Campaign”, launched in 2004 by Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), is recognised as a community-based marine conservation model.

{Prelims – S&T} Blue Origin TeraWave Satellite Constellation *

• Context (RE): Blue Origin announced plans to launch the TeraWave satellite constellation in 2027.

• TeraWave is a multi-orbit, space-based communications network developed by Blue Origin.
• It is designed to serve enterprise, data centre, and government customers who need mission-critical, high-capacity connectivity.
• The system integrates Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites to create a global space backbone.
• Data Capacity: The network is designed to deliver 6 terabits per second of throughput with symmetrical upload and download speeds, supporting real-time IoT data transfers and cloud operations.
• Significance: TeraWave complements fibre networks, offering route diversity and resilience, particularly in remote or suburban areas where fibre deployment is costly.

{Prelims – S&T} Humanoid Robot ASC ARJUN *

• Context (PIB): Indian Railways has deployed a humanoid robot named “ASC ARJUN” at Visakhapatnam Railway Station.

• Objective: To modernise station security, improve passenger services, and work alongside the Railway Protection Force (RPF) to support station operations
• Significance: It is developed using fully indigenous technology and marks a first-of-its-kind deployment across the Indian Railways network.

Key Features & Capabilities

• AI Surveillance: The robot uses a Face Recognition System (FRS) and AI-based crowd analytics to detect intrusions and manage congestion.
• Multilingual Assistance: It delivers automated safety messages in English, Hindi, and Telugu.
• Autonomous Navigation: The system conducts round-the-clock platform patrols using semi-autonomous navigation and obstacle avoidance.
• Emergency Response: Integrated fire and smoke sensors generate real-time alerts to control rooms.
• Interactive Design: It features a passenger-friendly interface supporting familiar gestures like “Namaste” and salutes for RPF personnel.

{Prelims – PIN} Karpoori Thakur *

• Context (PIB): PM Narendra Modi paid tributes to Karpoori Thakur on his birth anniversary.

• Karpoori Thakur was born on January 24, 1924, in Karpoori Gram, Bihar.
• He was a socialist leader and former CM of Bihar, popularly known as “Jan Nayak”.
• He actively participated in India’s freedom struggle, including the Quit India Movement of 1942.
• Major Reform: He introduced the “Karpoori Thakur Formula”, a layered reservation system for government jobs and educational institutions.
  • The formula allocates 26% reservation;12% for OBCs, 8% for Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs), 3% for women, and 3% for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS).
• Social Measures: He enforced a total prohibition of alcohol in Bihar, waived school fees, strengthened Panchayati Raj, and prioritised farmers’ welfare.
• National Honour: He was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna in 2024 for advancing social justice.

Read More > Karpoori Thakur