Current Affairs – July 31, 2026

{GS2 – Governance} AI as the Next Digital Public Infrastructure Utility **

• Context (TH): India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), comprising identity (Aadhaar), payments (UPI), and data (DEPA), will achieve population-scale transformation if AI becomes the 4^th foundational utility.

• DPI is an open, interoperable network that provides essential population-scale services like identity, payments, and data sharing as a public good.

Significance of AI as India’s Next DPI

• Service Reach: Multi-dialect voice engines such as Bhashini can connect India’s 250 million non-English-speaking citizens with essential digital government services.
• Cost Reduction: Sovereign open-source intelligence layers reduce generative technology development costs by 80%, freeing rural startups from proprietary foreign API fees.
• Credit Expansion: AI analysis of non-traditional operational footprints on the Open Credit Enablement Network may enable tailored micro-loans for 60 million unbanked MSMEs.
• Leakage Prevention: Cross-referencing Aadhaar and DigiLocker records through predictive analytics can target national subsidy funds to eliminate systemic financial leakage.
• Diagnostic Scale: Sovereign algorithmic models integrated with Ayushman Bharat networks could perform automated early cancer screenings across 1,50,000 rural Health and Wellness Centres.
• Yield Optimisation: Regional agricultural applications using visual AI would enable hyper-local crop-disease identification for India’s 140 million marginal farming households.

India’s Structural Advantages

• Training Volume: The 22 billion monthly UPI transactions provide the world’s largest structured dataset to train localised foundational models.
• Multilingual Capability: India’s 22 official languages and thousands of active dialects furnish a unique textual baseline to train highly complex, non-English large language models.
• Authentication Scale: 1.4 billion Aadhaar-linked identities secure a universal verification layer for autonomous AI agents to execute sensitive legal and financial transactions.
• Integration Speed: Non-proprietary public networks like ONDC and OCEN eliminate switching costs to allow seamless integration of interoperable AI agent layers into existing commerce.
• Privacy Shield: Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture (DEPA) secures a ready-made, privacy-first legal structure for AI agents to process user data.
• Sovereign Capital: ₹10,372 crore IndiaAI Mission supports sustained public funding and strategic compute procurement to deploy national regulatory sandboxes.

Challenges in Building AI as DPI

• Infrastructure Deficit: Current national target of 38,000 GPUs under the India-AI Mission falls far short of the 100,000 public GPUs required to train competitive sovereign foundational models.
• Grid Overload: The projected expansion of data centres to 12 GW by 2030 imposes an unsustainable peak-demand burden on India’s existing transmission networks.
• Capital Drain: Renting proprietary foreign models forces Indian startups to surrender revenue to dollar-priced API tokens set by Western hyperscalers.
• Liability Ambiguity: IT Amendment Rules 2026 regulate synthetic media labelling but lack clear accountability protocols for administrative or financial errors caused by autonomous public AI agents.
• Intelligence Extraction: Operating without sovereign open-weights frameworks enables foreign tech monopolies to harvest India’s digitised public data for training their proprietary models.
• Data Vulnerability: The mass centralisation of sensitive civic records across interoperable networks increases the systemic risk of state surveillance and of catastrophic data breaches.

Way Forward

• Compute Procurement: Implement IndiaAI Compute Portal pricing to secure graphics processing units (GPUs) for domestic startups at subsidised rates of around ₹65 per hour.
• Grid Expansion: Fast-track transmission network upgrades under the National Electricity Plan to support the projected 26.3 GW load from AI data centres by FY32.
• Data Pooling: Aggregate anonymised agricultural, legal, and educational public records exclusively for domestic researchers to train highly capable Indic large language models.
• Agentic Regulation: Expedite RBI approval of the Unified Agent Protocol to establish a national standard for autonomous artificial intelligence tools processing UPI transactions.
• Open Licensing: Mandate that any AI model developed using state-subsidised computing infrastructure be released under an open-weights licence to ensure broad public utility.
• Interface Standardisation: Deploy a national API gateway to abstract away inter-model complexity and establish common identity, billing, and safety standards across all sovereign AI applications.

Read More> Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) | AI Infrastructure as Public Utility | AI for Viksit Bharat

{GS2 – Governance} PM CARES Fund

• Context (TH): PM CARES Fund has not published any audited financial statements since its last public disclosure for Financial Year 2022-23.

• Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM-CARES) Fund is a non-statutory public charitable trust set up in 2020 under the Registration Act, 1908.
• Objective: Collect voluntary contributions to secure healthcare infrastructure and provide relief during the COVID-19 pandemic and similar future emergencies.
• Composition: Prime Minister is the ex-officio Chairperson of the trust. Union Ministers of Defence, Home Affairs, and Finance serve as its ex officio trustees. PM may nominate up to three eminent experts from science, law, medicine, or philanthropy on a pro bono basis.
• Administrative: The trust deed allows an Advisory Board of up to 10 members. Daily duties are discharged honorarily by Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) officers.
• Funding Model: It receives no budgetary support, relying entirely on voluntary donations. Contributions are 100% tax-exempt and count towards Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) spending.
• The fund is not audited by Comptroller and Auditor General but by an independent private accounting firm.
• RTI Exclusion: It is not a “public authority” under Section 2(h) of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, keeping it outside RTI disclosures and parliamentary scrutiny.

{GS2 – Governance} Use of Pellet Guns *

• Context (BS): Supreme Court held that pellet guns cannot be banned as long as existing advisory permits their use for crowd control in exceptional circumstances by security agencies.

• However, to seek a ban, the provisions governing it should be challenged as ultra vires to Article 21.

Regulation of Pellet Guns in India

• Indian Arms Act, 1959: Governs the manufacture, sale, possession, and use of arms and ammunition across India, requiring a licence for most firearms and dangerous weapons.
• Arms Rules 2016 (updated from the 1962 Rules): Exempts any air rifle or air pistol with a muzzle energy of 20 joules (15 foot-pounds) or less from the licensing requirement.
• Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD)’s 2011 Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs): States that force must be proportional, used only when absolutely necessary.
  • SoP does not recommend the use of pellet guns as one of non-lethal weapons and only mentions plastic pellets as anti-riot gun.

Concerns regarding the use of pellet guns

• Violating International Standards: United Nations Guidelines on Less Lethal Weapons in Law Enforcement states that pellet guns fails the constitutional tests of “necessity, proportionality, and reasonableness”.
• Curtailing Human Rights: Perceived as tools of inhuman, degrading treatment and punishment causing further fractures in an already vulnerable socio-political context curtailing democratic rights.

Way Forward on Deploying Pellet Guns

• Graduated Use-of-Force Framework: Pellet guns should be used only as a last resort, after exhausting less harmful crowd-control measures such as negotiation, water cannons, tear smoke, etc.
• Clear Mandate: Clear Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and command-level authorization should govern their deployment to ensure necessity and proportionality.
• Balance Security with Human Rights: Periodic review of crowd-control policies with inputs from human rights bodies, police experts, and civil society can ensure humane and effective policing.

{GS2 – Governance} Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Bill, 2026

• Context (AIR): The bill seeks to amend the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971 to give Vande Mataram the same statutory protection as the national anthem, Jana Gana Mana.

• Presently, Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act contains provisions for respecting National Flag, Constitution, and National Anthem with no legal provision preventing insult to National Song.
• Proposed bill seeks to amend section 3 of Act to include the National Song, Vande Mataram within its ambit making the offences punishable with imprisonment up to three years, a fine, or both.

{GS3 – Envi} Ex Post Facto Environmental Clearances

• Context (TH | IE): In Vanashakti v. UoI, the Supreme Court nullified the 2021 Office Memorandum, which permitted retrospective Environmental Clearances (ECs) by paying ecological damage penalties.

About the Ruling

• The judgment applies prospectively, preserving earlier clearances granted under the 2017 Notification and 2021 Office Memorandum.
• SC clarified administrative orders can’t override the EIA Notification, 2006, but affirmed the Union Government’s power to issue time-limited notifications under the EPA, 1986.
• Ex post facto clearances cannot become routine or permanent; they should serve the public interest and meet proportionality and reasonableness under Articles 14 and 21.
• The Supreme Court retains the authority to grant ex post facto clearances in appropriate cases through its extraordinary powers under Article 142.

Significance of the Judgment

• Preventive Principle: Reinforces prior ECs and the Precautionary Principle by requiring risk assessment before potentially irreversible ecological damage.
• Polluter Liability: Preserves the Polluter Pays Principle by requiring violators to bear compensation, remediation and ecological-restoration costs under lawful schemes.
• Public Trusteeship: Affirms the State’s duty to protect air, water, and forests as public resources held by the State as a trustee, not as an owner.
• Deterrence Value: Restricts the “violate first, clear later” approach by prohibiting routine or permanent retrospective Environmental Clearances.

Judicial Precedents

• Alembic Pharmaceuticals Ltd. v. Rohit Prajapati (2020): Rejected ex post facto ECs for encouraging a “violate first, clear later” approach.
• Pahwa Plastics Pvt. Ltd. v. Dastak NGO (2022): Employment should not be shut down solely for lacking prior EC if they meet pollution norms and do not cause irreversible harm.
• Vanashakti Litigation (2025–26): A 2025 Bench invalidated retrospective clearances, but the review recalled the ruling to prevent disruption of public infrastructure.

{Prelims – A&C} Kanwar Yatra

• Context (HT): The Kanwar Yatra has begun across North India amid extensive security measures.

• It is an annual Hindu pilgrimage by Shiva devotees, called Kanwariyas, during Shravan (July–August).
• Kanwariyas collect Ganga water from pilgrimage sites like Haridwar, Gangotri, Sultanganj, Prayagraj, and Varanasi, carrying it in pitchers suspended from a decorated bamboo pole (Kanwar) to offer at Jyotirlingas and Shiva shrines.
• The bamboo pole symbolises Lord Shiva, and the two water pots represent Brahma and Vishnu, together signifying the Trimurti.
• Historical Evidence: A 7^th or 8^th century sculpture at Kalinjar Fort (UP) shows a figure carrying a Kanwar.

{Prelims – Geo} Cauvery River

• Context (TH): CWMA upheld the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee’s (CWRC) order directing Karnataka to release water to Tamil Nadu at a rate of 3,500 cusecs a day for 15 days.

• Karnataka mentioned in its appeal that it was facing an acute hydrological distress, and cumulative inflows into all four reservoirs in Cauvery basin were 65.65% below 30-year average due to super El Nino effect.

About Cauvery River

• Origin: Cauvery is designated as ‘Dakshina Ganga’ or ‘Ganga of the South’, it rises at an elevation of 1,341m at Talakaveri on Brahmagiri range near Cherangala village of Kodagu (Coorg) district, Karnataka.
• Basin: Extends over states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Union Territory of Puducherry.
• Left Bank: Harangi, Hemavati, Shimsha and Arkavati.
• Right Bank: Lakshmantirtha, Kabbani, Suvarnavati, Bhavani, Noyil and the Amaravati.

Read More> Cauvery River Water Dispute, Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA)

{Prelims – PIN World} Red Sea *

• Context (TH): The Houthis have announced a maritime blockade in the Red Sea.

{Prelims – S&T} Machilipatnam, ASW SWC

• Context (PIB): Machilipatnam (BY 529), the seventh of eight Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Craft (ASW SWC), being built by Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) for Indian Navy was launched.

• It is equipped for Underwater Surveillance, Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) operations, and Low Intensity Maritime Operations (LIMO), along with Mine Warfare capability.

{Prelims – IE} Bharat Maritime Insurance Pool (BMIP) *

• Context (NOA): Department of Financial Services (DFS) launched India’s first sovereign-backed Protection and Indemnity insurance product under BMIP.

• The first Protection and Indemnity policy document was handed over to Shipping Corporation of India Limited.

About BMIP

• It was launched on 12 May 2026 by DFS, Ministry of Finance (Cabinet approval 18 April 2026).
• Meaning: BMIP is a state-backed co-insurance and reinsurance pool.
  • Domestic insurers who are pool members issue policies, drawing on combined underwriting capacity of the pool, and then reinsure risks among themselves in proportion to their committed capacity.
  • Above the pool’s own USD 100 million layer stands sovereign guarantee invoked only after the pool’s reserves, member contributions and reinsurance are exhausted.
• Capacity: It carries USD 1.5 billion of total pool capacity, a sovereign guarantee of ₹12,980 crore (USD 1.4 billion), and a USD 100 million claims threshold for the pool’s own resources.
• Coverage: Hull & Machinery, Cargo, Protection & Indemnity and War Risk for Indian flagged or controlled vessels, or vessels destined to or starting from India.
• Administration: General Insurance Corporation of India Re administers the arrangement.

• Significance: With its introduction, war risk premium rates have decreased by 35-40% from those observed during West Asia conflict.

{Prelims – Social Sector} Sooty Bark Disease

• Context (TOI): Scientists have now confirmed Sooty Bark Disease in Bigleaf Maple, Canada’s largest native maple species and an important component of West Coast forests.

• Sooty bark disease is a fatal fungal infection affecting maple and sycamore trees, caused by Cryptostroma corticale. It is triggered by hot weather and drought and causes rapid wilting and mortality.
• The fungus can remain hidden inside healthy trees for years and once activated, the fungus rapidly spreads through the wood.
• The fungus releases billions of airborne spores from infected trees. Exposure to these spores can cause Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis, a rare inflammatory lung disease commonly referred to as “Farmer’s Lung.”

{Prelims – Misc} One-Liners

• Awards – Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Telecom Excellence Awards 2025 (PIB): Union Minister of Communications conferred it on Amantya Technologies Pvt. Ltd. and Finaara for their outstanding technological contributions. Instituted by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), the annual award honors up to five individuals and institutions for exceptional work in telecom innovation, skilling, manufacturing, and services. Awardees receive ₹2,00,000, a citation, plaque, shawl, and travel allowance.
• Sports – Commonwealth Games Winners (NOAIDDN): Para-atheles Dilip Mahadu Gavit won Gold medal (10.72s) in the Men’s 100m T47 event while Mohammed Basil Morssinganakath won Silver (10.38s) at the same event.
  • Seema Kaliramna secured bronze medal in women’s discus throw with a best effort of 58.65m.