Current Affairs – March 01, 2026

{GS2 – Governance} India’s First State Innovation Mission Launched in Tripura

Context (PIB): NITI Aayog launched India’s first State Innovation Mission (SIM) in Tripura under the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) 2.0 initiative.

Objective: SIM aims to help States and Union Territories build long-term, inclusive, state-specific innovation ecosystems.
Sectoral Focus: Niche sectors relevant to a State’s local resources, such as bamboo, rubber, or high-tech agriculture in Tripura, are prioritised.
Incubation Hub: T-NEST (Tripura-Nurturing Entrepreneurship and Startups) was launched as an incubation and innovation facility under SIM.
Grassroot Fellowships: Tripura launched India’s first District Innovator Fellowships (DIF) to identify and support talented youth at the grassroots level.

About Atal Innovation Mission 2.0 (AIM 2.0)

It is the second phase of India’s flagship innovation initiative, Atal Innovation Mission (AIM).
Phase Shift: While AIM 1.0 built foundational infrastructure, AIM 2.0 targets systemic gaps and scales proven successes.
Nodal Agency: It is managed by NITI Aayog and remains operational till March 31, 2028.
Strategy: The scheme operates on a three-pronged strategy –
1. Increasing Input: Widening the innovator and entrepreneur base
2. Improving Throughput: Raising startup success rates through specialised support
3. Enhancing Output: Creating higher-quality jobs, products, and services

Key Initiatives under AIM 2.0

LIPI: The Language Inclusive Program of Innovation (LIPI) plans to establish 30 Vernacular Innovation Centres to support innovators across 22 scheduled languages.
Frontier Program: 2,500 new Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs) are being set up in Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, North Eastern states, and Aspirational Districts.
Deeptech Reactor: It is a research sandbox designed to commercialise deep tech startups requiring longer gestation periods and heavy investment.
Industrial Accelerator: At least 10 accelerators will be set up through Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) to scale advanced startups.
ASIL: Atal Sectoral Innovation Launchpads (ASIL) create platforms across central ministries to facilitate integration and procurement of startup solutions.

Read More> India’s Innovation Ecosystem

{GS2 – Vulnerable Sections} Rethinking Tribal Women’s Inheritance Rights

Context (TH): The Supreme Court, in Nawang v. Bahadur (2025), reaffirmed that the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 (HSA), cannot apply to Scheduled Tribes.

Sastri Yagnapurushadji v. Muldas Brudardas Vaishya (1966): The Supreme Court described Hinduism as a “way of life”, open by birth or conversion, a definition that later influenced debates where tribal individuals adopting Hindu customs sought inheritance rights.

Legal Background & Structural Tension

Customary Law Dominance: Tribal inheritance systems historically prioritise lineage-preservation norms, often restricting women’s independent and absolute property ownership rights.
Statutory Exclusion Framework: Section 2(2) of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, explicitly excludes Scheduled Tribes, reinforcing legislative recognition of distinct customary succession systems.
Judicial Inconsistency: Courts delivered divergent outcomes, as cases like Ram Charan v. Sukhram granted inheritance rights based on “Hinduisation”, despite statutory exclusion.
Identity–Rights Conflict: Legal ambiguity indirectly compelled tribal women to reconcile tensions between constitutional equality guarantees and preservation of indigenous legal traditions.

Hinduisation: The process by which tribal individuals adopt Hindu customs, practices, or social norms, often influencing legal interpretation of identity and succession rights.

Judicial Clarification by the Supreme Court

Reaffirmed Legislative Exclusivity: Supreme Court emphasised that extension of HSA to Scheduled Tribes lies solely within Parliament’s authority (Article 245).
Jurisdictional Restraint Principle: The ruling underscored separation of powers, cautioning against judicial encroachment into legislative policymaking domains.
Customary Autonomy Protection: Tribal succession remains governed by community norms unless modified through statutory intervention consistent with Article 366(25) classification safeguards.
Equality Doctrine Tension: Article 14 mandates non-arbitrariness, yet constitutional design accommodates protective frameworks preserving tribal cultural autonomy.
Cultural Protection Mandate: Articles 29 & Article 244 institutionalise safeguards for distinct tribal institutions, customs, and socio-legal practices.

Way Ahead

Special Succession Law: Enact a dedicated inheritance framework ensuring minimum gender parity protections while respecting tribal customary autonomy.
Customary Codification: Expand codification initiatives; E.g., Mizoram model balancing legal clarity, community autonomy, and gender equity.
Community-Led Reform: Promote consultative evolution of inheritance practices through culturally sensitive engagement with Tribal Advisory Councils and local institutions.

{GS3 – IE} India’s GDP Revision **

Context (IE | TH): After 11 years, India is revising its GDP series, shifting the base year, incorporating methodological upgrades and new data sources.

Need for Revising India’s GDP Series

IMF Data Quality Concern: In December 2025, the IMF retained a ‘C’ grade for India’s GDP data, partly due to a delayed base-year revision.
Structural Economic Changes: Continued use of 2011–12 as a base year failed to capture structural shifts such as digitalisation, GST formalisation, and platform-based services.
International Practice: Globally, GDP base years are typically updated every 5 years, whereas India’s revision gap extended to over a decade.

Major Methodological Changes

Base Year Shift: Updating the base year from 2011–12 to 2022–23 allows GDP and GVA estimates to better reflect structural transformations.
Double Deflation Adoption: The new series eliminates the single-deflator method, moving toward a double-deflator framework for real GVA estimation.
Granular Deflators: Price adjustments will now be applied at a more detailed sectoral level, reducing the risk of overstated or understated growth.
Supply & Use Tables (SUT) Integration: SUT will show production sources, intermediate & final consumption, etc., which gives better alignment between production and expenditure approaches.

New Data Sources Incorporated

Expanded GST Utilisation: GST data, earlier used selectively in quarterly estimates, is now systematically incorporated for annual sectoral and regional corporate output estimation.
ASUSE Annual Integration: The Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises is used annually rather than extrapolated from older benchmarks.
PLFS & Household Surveys: Periodic Labour Force Survey and updated consumer expenditure surveys enhance labour productivity and consumption estimation accuracy.
Financial Sector Data Upgrade: RBI’s Statistical Table Related to Banks in India (STRBI) data and Ministry of Corporate Affairs filings are now directly used for banks and NBFCs.

Sector-Wise Improvements

Corporate Sector Allocation: Multi-sector firms are now classified using activity-wise revenue shares instead of allocating the entire GVA to dominant business segments.
Government Sector Enhancement: Inclusion of imputed housing services for government employees improves the accuracy of public sector value added.
Household Sector Estimation: The household sector, a major contributor to GDP, is now directly estimated annually using updated enterprise surveys.
Agriculture & Allied Activities: Updated methodologies from fisheries and fodder research institutes improve sectoral output estimation in primary activities.

Back-Series & Future Revision

Back-Series Preparation: Historical GDP data before 2022–23 will be recalculated under the new methodology and linked back potentially to 1950–51, with release expected by December 2026.
Transition to SNA 2025: India currently follows SNA 2008; the next revision cycle post-2030 is expected to align India with the updated System of National Accounts (SNA 2025) standards.

Impacts of GDP Revision

Improved Policy Targeting: Better fiscal, monetary, and sectoral policy decisions.
Enhanced Informal Sector Capture: Annual ASUSE-based estimation improves representation of India’s large unincorporated sector in national accounts.
Global Statistical Alignment: Adoption of 2022–23 base year and future SNA 2025 transition strengthens India’s compliance with international and national accounting standards.

{GS3 – Envi} Wildfire Smoke Vortex

Context (TH): Recent atmospheric research has clarified why wildfire smoke plumes sometimes organise into stable rotating structures instead of dispersing irregularly.

Wildfire Smoke Vortex

Smoke Bubble Formation: Under favourable stratospheric conditions, dense wildfire smoke can aggregate into a compact, vertically coherent bubble-like structure rather than dispersing horizontally.
Directional Rotation Pattern: These smoke bubbles exhibit systematic rotation, clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.

Formation of Wildfire Smoke Vortex

Solar Heating Mechanism: Smoke particles efficiently absorb incoming solar radiation, resulting in measurable warming of the surrounding air column.
Buoyancy-Induced Uplift: The heated air becomes less dense and generates strong buoyant forces, driving sustained vertical ascent of the smoke mass.
Atmospheric Layer Interaction: As the warming zone migrates upward, it interacts with multiple atmospheric layers that exert differential rotational influences.
Vortex Collar Formation: The rising warm core temporarily induces organised circulation, producing a coherent vortex-like rotational collar around the smoke bubble.

Effects of Wildfire Smoke Vortex

Vortex Stabilisation Process: Continuous upward movement of the heating pattern helps preserve rotational coherence, preventing rapid dissipation of the vortex structure.
Self-Containment Effect: The rotating vortex functions as a stabilising envelope, limiting turbulent mixing and allowing prolonged vertical persistence of the smoke bubble.
Long-Range Transport: Stable smoke vortices can persist for weeks to months, enabling smoke particles to travel thousands of kilometres across continents.
Radiative Impact: Stratospheric smoke layers modify Earth’s radiation balance by absorbing and scattering solar energy, influencing regional temperature patterns.

{Prelims – Polity} Rajasthan Removes Two-Child Rule and Leprosy Bar for Local Polls

Context (IE): The Rajasthan cabinet removed its two-child rule and leprosy-based disqualification for contesting panchayat and urban local body elections.

Rationale: The two-child norm was withdrawn as it had met the goal of stabilising Rajasthan’s population; the leprosy bar was removed to ensure equal electoral opportunity.
Constitutional Basis: Articles 243F and 243V empower State Legislatures to lay down the parameters for disqualifying Panchayat and Municipal candidates.
Significance: The reform marks a shift from punitive to voluntary family planning, reinforces Articles 14 and 21, and complies with Supreme Court directives against discriminatory laws.

About Leprosy

Leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease, is a chronic infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae.
It damages the skin, peripheral nerves, the mucosa of the upper respiratory tract, and the eyes.
Transmission: It spreads through prolonged, close contact with untreated individuals via respiratory droplets. It does not spread through casual contact.
Treatment: It is entirely curable with Multi-Drug Therapy (MDT), which includes Rifampicin, Clofazimine, and Dapsone.
Elimination Milestone: India officially eliminated leprosy as a public health problem (fewer than 1 case per 10,000 population) at the national level in 2005.

Read More > Leprosy

{Prelims – Envi} Declining Functional Diversity in Spiders of the North-Western Himalayas *

Context (DTE): Land-use change in the north-western Indian Himalayas has altered functional diversity within spider communities, potentially reducing ecosystem resilience.

About Functional Diversity

Functional diversity is a subset of biodiversity that measures the range of ecological roles species perform within an ecosystem.
Distinction: Unlike species richness, which merely counts species, functional diversity measures the diversity of biological roles within a community.
Components: Ecologists divide functional diversity into 3 independent dimensions –
1. Functional Richness (FRic) measures how many distinct niches a community’s species collectively occupy. Low richness indicates unused resources and reduced productivity.
2. Functional Evenness (FEve) measures how evenly species abundance is distributed across occupied niches. High evenness implies effective utilisation of all available resources.
3. Functional Divergence (FDiv) measures the degree to which species with the most extreme functional traits are most abundant. High FDiv means dominant species are functionally distinct.
Ecosystem Role: Higher functional diversity is strongly linked to increased productivity and nutrient cycling within an ecosystem.
Biological Insurance: Redundant species, those performing similar roles, ensure ecosystem functions are maintained even if one species is lost to a disturbance.

Read More > Biodiversity

{Prelims – S&T} Bacterium-derived Biosurfactant Developed for Cosmetics and Medicine *

Context (PIB): Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST), Guwahati, developed a lipopeptide biosurfactant from a probiotic bacterium.

Source: It is derived from the bacterium Lactobacillus plantarum JBC5 using ghee as the primary nutrient source.
Application: The biosurfactant serves as an eco-friendly substitute for synthetic lubricants, dispersants and emulsifiers in the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industry.
Antibacterial Use: It exhibits significant antibacterial activity, particularly against Staphylococcus aureus, a common cause of skin infections.
Properties: The compound demonstrates high thermal stability, functions across diverse pH levels, and achieves a high emulsification index for edible oils.

A surfactant is a chemical compound that reduces surface tension between two immiscible substances (i.e., oil and water or liquid and solid), allowing them to mix and stabilise.

{Prelims – S&T} Satellite Phones

Context (TH): Security agencies issued an alert about the illegal use of satellite communication devices in Indian waters, citing national security concerns.

Satellite phones transmit signals through Geostationary (GEO) or Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites, eliminating the need for ground-based cellular towers.
Strategic Utility: Disaster management agencies, maritime vessels, and defence forces rely on these networks for reliable coverage in remote and infrastructure-deprived regions.
Key Concern: Unlicensed satellite devices prevent intelligence agencies from intercepting and tracing communications, enabling terrorists to evade surveillance.
Regulatory Authority: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) strictly regulates the possession and use of satellite phones.
Legal Framework: The Telecommunications Act, 2023, prohibits unlicensed possession and imposes heavy penalties for unauthorised operation.
Service Provider: BSNL is the only authorised provider of handheld satellite phone services known as the Global Satellite Phone Service (GSPS) in India.