Current Affairs – July 28, 2026

{GS1 – Geo} Fire Clouds

• Context (Gurdian): As France and Spain battle some of the worst wildfires in recent history, scientists have warned about the formation of pyrocumulonimbus (PyroCb) clouds, commonly known as fire clouds.

• “Fire Clouds” are giant thunderstorm clouds created by extremely intense wildfires. Nasa calls them the “fire-breathing dragon of clouds”
• Experts attribute the increasing frequency to Climate change (hotter and drier conditions), longer wildfire seasons, prolonged droughts, heatwaves, and large amounts of dry vegetation acting as fuel etc.
• They are among the most dangerous wildfire-related weather phenomena because they can make fires much larger, faster, and more unpredictable.

How Do Fire Clouds Form?

1. Intense wildfire releases enormous amounts of heat.
2. The hot air rises rapidly, carrying smoke, ash, water vapour, and burning debris high into the atmosphere.
3. As the rising air cools, the water vapour condenses into a towering cloud.
4. If the cloud grows high enough (often 10–15 km), it develops into a pyrocumulonimbus, similar to a thunderstorm.

{GS2 – Governance} Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026

• Context (IE I TH): The Union Government has introduced the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026 to strengthen the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024.

• The objective of the Act is to bring greater transparency, fairness, and credibility, and to inspire confidence in the public examination system.

Key Features

• Examinations Covered: The Act applies to examinations conducted by UPSC, Staff Selection Commission (SSC), Railway Recruitment Boards, National Testing Agency (NTA), Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) or any other public examination notified by the Central Government.
• Special Task Forces (STFs): Empowers the Central Government to constitute Special Task Forces dedicated to investigating examination-related offences.
• Time Bound Investigation: All investigations whether conducted by local police, Central Investigating Agencies, or a Special Task Forces (STF) must be concluded within 60 days.
• Special Fast Track Courts: State Governments and UTs will designate Special Fast Track Courts. Trials will be conducted on a day-to-day basis and must be completed within three months from filing of the chargesheet.
  • Existing cases under the 2024 Act will be transferred to these courts and disposed of within three months.
• Restrictions on Adjournments: Courts cannot grant adjournments beyond the next working day except for recorded exceptional reasons, ensuring speedy disposal of cases.
• Special Public Prosecutors: Empowers State Governments and Union Territory Administrations to appoint one or more Special Public Prosecutors for conducting cases under the Act.
• Time-bound Appeals: Appeals against bail, conviction, or sentence must be filed within 30 days. Maximum extension allowed up to 90 days.
  • Appeals will be heard by a Division Bench (two judges) of the High Court and disposed of within 3 months.
• Enhanced Punishments: Enhance the terms of imprisonment and fines for offences committed under the Act.

{GS2 – Governance} India’s Sporting Journey **

• Context (PIB): With India’s Participation in the ongoing Commonwealth Games (CWG) in Glasgow, India begins another chapter in its sporting journey.

Key Measures taken to Enhance India’s Sporting Spirit

• Budgetary Allocation: Union Budget 2026–27 allocated a record ₹4,479.88 crore to Ministry of Youth Affairs Sports, from ₹1,219 crore in 2013–14.
• Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS): Launched in 2014 (revamped in 2018) to improve India’s performance at the Olympic and Paralympic Games through foreign training, camps, etc.
  • As of April 2026, scheme supports 51 Core Athletes, 52 Para Core Athletes and 130 Development Athletes.
• Khelo India Rising Talent Identification (KIRTI): Identifies and nurtures sporting talent among children between 9 and 18 years of age.
  • Aims to build a sustainable talent pipeline to help India become a top 10 sporting nation by 2036 and a top 5 sporting nation by 2047.
• Sports Goods Manufacturing: Announced in Union Budget 2026–27 with an allocation of ₹500 crore to strengthen India’s position as a global hub for high quality and affordable sports goods.

Read More> Sports Governance in India I India’s Sports Sector I Khelo Bharat Niti 2025

{GS2 – IR} United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL)

• Context (NOA): India hosted the inaugural session of an international conference commemorating UNCITRAL’s 60^th anniversary in New Delhi.
• UNCITRAL (Headquarters: Vienna) is a subsidiary body of the United Nations General Assembly, established in 1966 to promote the progressive harmonisation and unification of international trade law.
• Objective: Remove legal friction and barriers to cross-border commerce by establishing modern, equitable, and standardised rules governing private international commercial transactions.
• Composition: 70 member states are elected by the UNGA for six-year terms from five regional groups (Africa, Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe, Latin America & Caribbean, Western Europe & Others).
  • India is one of only eight nations maintaining uninterrupted membership in UNCITRAL since 1966.
• Legal Force: UNCITRAL develops Conventions (binding upon ratification), along with non-binding Model Laws and Legislative Guides, which carry no legal force until voluntarily enacted into domestic law.

{GS2 – Polity} Modernising Legal Publishing in India

• Context (TH): While India accelerates its digital public infrastructure, the archaic legal publishing framework leaves binding statutes fragmented, linguistically inaccessible, and confined to static PDF silos.

India’s Legal Publishing Framework

• Notification Gateway: The Gazette of India, managed by the Department of Publication, serves as the sole official journal where central legislation must be notified to enter the public domain.
• Parallel Channels: State governments maintain independent official gazettes to publish state-level enactments, amendments, and localised municipal rules.
• Digital Validity: Section 8 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 grants the electronic Gazette (e-Gazette) the same legal status and validity as the print Gazette.
• Authoritative Text: Article 348(1)(b) designates English as the authoritative language for all Acts, Bills, and Orders until Parliament legislates otherwise.
  • Hindi Parity: Section 5 of the Official Languages Act, 1963 requires the publication of an authoritative Hindi translation alongside the English text of all Central Acts.
• Prior Consultation: Section 23 of the General Clauses Act, 1897 governs the ‘previous publication’ requirement, mandating the publication of draft rules for public objection before finalisation in the Gazette.
• Statute Repository: India Code portal, maintained by the Legislative Department, serves as the post-publication database that aggregates and updates enactments and subordinate legislation.

Significance of Modernised Legal Publishing

• Liberty Protection: Open digital access to binding statutes fulfils the fundamental right under Article 21 to understand the laws governing personal liberty.
• Investment Shield: Transparent, machine-readable statutory registries improve national contract-enforcement metrics, raising foreign investors’ confidence in the domestic regulatory landscape.
• Screen-Reader Compatibility: Mandating XML markup for official gazettes permits visually impaired citizens to navigate legally binding text without intermediary assistance.
• Vernacular Parity: Open data feeds from official digital portals provide SUVAS (Supreme Court Vidhik Anuvaad Software) with the structured text required to scale regional-language translations.
• Advocacy Access: An open-access public legal repository equips underfunded pro bono litigators with the baseline statutory knowledge required for rural representation.

Challenges Associated with Legal Publishing in India

• Query Failure: Publishing official gazettes as static PDFs rather than in XML markup strips the text of the metadata required for automated digital retrieval.
• Statutory Void: The absence of a centralised commencement registry leaves enacted laws, such as the Delhi Rent Act, 1995, appearing in the Gazette while remaining unenforceable.
• Discovery Block: Using proprietary fonts across regional state gazettes renders the published statutory text invisible to digital search algorithms.
• Compliance Blindness: The fragmentation of municipal bylaws across isolated ministry websites prevents firms from building a complete regulatory liability profile.
• Linguistic Exclusion: Delays in publishing concurrent regional translations deny non-English speakers direct, legally binding access to active statutes.

Read More> Digitisation of Judiciary

{GS3 – Agri} Modernisation of India’s Public Distribution System (PDS)

• Context (NIE): A Parliamentary panel report on the Modernisation of the PDS flagged 2.91 crore suspect or ineligible beneficiaries, including 2.20 crore silent and 34.12 lakh deceased beneficiaries.

Key Challenges in PDS Modernisation

• Connectivity Exclusion: Poor network access in remote areas disrupts real-time biometric authentication and ePoS synchronisation.
• Biometric Failures: Worn fingerprints among elderly people and manual workers cause authentication failures and risk exclusion from foodgrain entitlements.
• Financial Viability: Inter-state portability alters local grain demand and dealer commissions, weakening FPS incomes and encouraging retail malpractices.
• Outdated Beneficiary Data: National Food Security Act (NFSA) coverage remains linked to Census 2011, excluding newly vulnerable populations.
• Regional Disparities: Uneven Aadhaar seeding and digital infrastructure cause authentication and PDS delivery gaps across states (98% in Bihar, 73% in Meghalaya).

Recommendations of the Standing Committee

• Mission-Mode Ground Verification: Conduct time-bound field verification of flagged beneficiaries while preventing wrongful exclusion of eligible vulnerable households.
• Action Plan for No-Network Zones: Provide offline synchronisation, alternative authentication and dedicated connectivity for FPS in remote and no-network areas.
• Strengthen FPS Viability: Increase dealer margins, link ePoS devices with electronic weighing scales and permit supplementary citizen-centric services.
• DBT Assessment: Periodically review the DBT model, comparing cash transfers with physical distribution for adequacy, convenience, and exclusion before wider expansion.
• Integrate Agency Databases: Connect PDS databases with FCI, CWC and UIDAI for coordinated beneficiary verification and supply-chain monitoring.

Read More > Public Distribution System

{Prelims – Envi} Zoopharmacognosy

• Context (TH): Scientific Reports have indicated the prevalence of Zoopharmacognosy in animals.

• The term ‘zoopharmacognosy’ stands for animals (Zoo), medicines (pharmaco), and knowledge (gnosy).
• It describes the process by which wild animals select and use specific plants with medicinal properties for treatment of diseases and protection from parasites.

{Prelims – Infra} Sri City Dry Port Proposal

• Context (TH): The Inter-Ministerial Committee is examining a proposal to designate Sri City, located in Tirupati district, Andhra Pradesh, as a dry port.

• Sri City is a massive, multi-product Integrated Business incorporating a SEZ, Domestic Tariff Zone (DTZ), Free Trade Warehousing Zone (FTWZ), and an Electronics Manufacturing Cluster (EMC).
• Criteria: Under CBIC guidelines, the development of new dry ports is generally restricted within 200 km of seaports or 100 km of inland depots.
  • Exceptions: Green-zone states get explicit relaxations, while Blue-zone states (Andhra Pradesh) may qualify in trade hubs lacking logistics.
• Sri City’s dry port status will enable on-site customs clearance, reducing freight detours and export costs.

{Prelims – S&T} India’s First Expendable Turbojet Engine

• Context (TOI): First indigenous expendable turbo jet engine of 350 kg thrust class, designed by Defence Research and Development Organisation’s Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE), has been developed.

• The engine has been designed to power cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), drones and other platforms requiring turbojet power.
• Mastered by only a handful of nations, the jet engine technology is widely regarded as one of the most sophisticated engineering disciplines in the world.

{Prelims – S&T} Unjha Cumin and Fennel Received GI Tags

• Context (TH): Geographical Indications (GI) Registry granted GI tags to Unjha Cumin (Jeera) and Unjha Fennel (Saunf) from North Gujarat under Class 30 for spices.

• Unjha Cumin: Small, greyish-brown split seeds known for aroma and a dense concentration of essential oils. It thrives in the well-drained, sandy-loam soils and the dry, arid micro-climate of North Gujarat.
• Unjha Fennel: Elongated greenish seeds with a naturally sweet taste profile due to high anethole oil content. It is cultivated as an annual herb that can grow to six feet tall.
• Legal Conflict: Farmers from western Rajasthan districts opposed the tag, citing the GI of Goods Act 1999, which requires GI status to be granted to genuine cultivation regions rather than to localised trading and processing hubs such as Unjha.

{Prelims – S&T} PRAXIS Mission

• Context (TH): NASA selected PRAXIS (Planetary Rings Autonomous EXploration with In-situ Sampling) for funding under its 2026 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) programme.

• It is conceived as the first space mission designed to physically touch, collect, and analyse real particles from the planetary ring systems.
• The spacecraft would use AI models and bio-inspired robotics to operate autonomously in deep space.
• AI will predict particle paths and dodge debris in moving ring environments, while onboard instruments will analyse particles for size, porosity, and composition without returning samples to Earth.

• Significance: Can clarify the origin, composition, and evolution of planetary rings and enable exploration of rings around Centaur minor planets like Chariklo and Chiron (between Saturn and Uranus).

{Prelims – S&T} BitChat Repository Restrictions

• Context (BS): The Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) recently directed GitHub, a code-hosting platform, to remove BitChat’s repositories, citing severe national security risks.

• BitChat is an open-source messaging application using Bluetooth mesh networks for end-to-end encrypted communication without relying on the internet, cellular networks, or centralised servers.
• The platform’s lack of registration, phone verification, or centralized metadata logging hampers user attribution and evidence collection, raising misuse risks during unlawful activities and internet restrictions.
• Legal Framework: The removal notice invoked Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act, 2000 and Rule 3(1)(d) of the IT Rules, 2021.
• Concerns: Blocking open-source repositories due to potential misuse violates the constitutional doctrine of proportionality and bypasses Section 69A safeguards.

{Prelims – Social Sector} Hepatitis

• Context (PIB): On World Hepatitis Day, 28 July, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare highlighted India’s progress towards eliminating viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030.

About Hepatitis

• Hepatitis is liver inflammation caused mainly by hepatitis viruses, although alcohol, certain drugs and autoimmune diseases can also cause it.
• Symptoms: Acute hepatitis may remain asymptomatic or cause jaundice, dark urine, extreme fatigue, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.
• Disease Burden: India has the second-highest viral hepatitis burden, with 29.8 million chronic Hepatitis B and 5.5 million Hepatitis C cases, accounting for ~11.6% of global cases.

Types of Hepatitis Virus

India’s Hepatitis Elimination Efforts

• National Viral Hepatitis Control Program (NVHCP): Launched in 2018, it aims to eliminate viral hepatitis under SDG 3.3 by raising awareness and providing free screening, diagnostics, and treatment beyond tertiary centres.
  • The NVHCP Portal records patients, diagnostics and treatment progress. India has screened over 21 crore people and treated 6.12 lakh patients via 1,153 decentralised sites.
• Integrated Health System Approach:
  • National Tuberculosis Elimination Program (NTEP): Repurposes existing molecular-testing machines for hepatitis viral-load diagnostics. NVHCP and NTEP offer a toll-free number for guidance on transmission, screening locations and hepatitis management.
  • National AIDS Control Program (NACP): Integrates screening of high-risk groups for Hepatitis B and C; vaccinates health workers and those who test negative.
  • UIP & Maternal Health Synergy: Provides Hepatitis B doses at birth followed by doses at 6, 10 and 14 weeks. Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescent Health and Nutrition (RMNCAH+N) program mandates universal screening of pregnant women for Hepatitis B.

Read More> Copyright, Trademark, Geographical Indication (GI), Differences | GI Tag in India