Daily UPSC Current Affairs

NASA successfully launched the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center. The observatory is now undergoing commissioning while travelling towards a halo orbit around the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point L2, about 1.5 million km from Earth. With an exceptionally wide infrared view and an experimental coronagraph, Roman will investigate dark energy, map dark matter, study cosmic expansion and conduct one of the most comprehensive censuses of planets beyond the Solar System.

India’s latest GDP estimates have triggered a debate over how economic growth should be interpreted after the country shifted its national accounts from the 2011-12 series to the 2022-23 base-year GDP series. MoSPI estimates that real GDP grew by 7.8% and nominal GDP by 10.3% in April-June 2026. Questions arose because the nominal GDP estimate for the corresponding quarter of 2025-26 changed substantially after rebasing. The controversy provides an important UPSC opportunity to understand GDP, base-year revision, nominal versus real growth, deflators, double deflation, statistical revisions and the need for comparable economic data.

India and Belgium have significantly expanded their bilateral partnership during Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever’s official visit to India, the first by a Belgian Prime Minister in nearly two decades. The two sides launched an Investment Fast-Track Mechanism, set a target to double bilateral trade in five years, institutionalised defence cooperation, signed a renewable-energy MoU, expanded cooperation in semiconductors and critical minerals, and strengthened maritime, counter-terrorism and law-enforcement ties. The visit also connects India-Belgium relations with the wider India-EU strategic partnership and the recently concluded India-EU Free Trade Agreement negotiations.

Private-sector participants at a NITI Aayog-linked stakeholder consultation have sought recognition of nuclear power within India’s green-finance architecture so that upcoming projects can access green bonds, green loans and blended finance. The demand has acquired importance because India plans to scale nuclear capacity from about 8.78 GW today to 100 GW by 2047, while the newly enacted SHANTI framework is opening nuclear generation to wider private participation. The debate is therefore no longer only about nuclear technology; it is also about how India will finance a capital-intensive low-carbon expansion without diluting environmental, safety and financial safeguards.

India’s Copyright Office has rejected Stephen Thaler’s application to register the AI system DABUS as the author of the artwork “A Recent Entrance to Paradise”. Significantly, the Office held that the artwork could satisfy copyright’s originality requirement, but an AI system without legal personality cannot itself be entered as author. Instead, for a computer-generated work, Section 2(d)(vi) of the Copyright Act, 1957 attributes authorship to the legally recognised “person who causes the work to be created”. The decision brings into focus the distinction between originality, authorship and ownership in the age of generative AI.

The Government of India has notified the Legal Metrology (Indian Standard Time) Rules, 2026, creating a legally enforceable framework for Indian Standard Time (IST) as the common reference for legal, administrative, commercial and official purposes. The rules require critical digital and physical infrastructure to synchronise with authorised, traceable IST sources and will come into force after a 180-day transition period. The reform links measurement science, atomic clocks, cybersecurity, NavIC and India’s growing need for sovereign and resilient digital infrastructure.

The Indian Navy has commissioned INS Nipun, the second indigenous Nistar-class Diving Support Vessel (DSV), at Naval Dockyard, Mumbai. Built by Hindustan Shipyard Limited, the specialised vessel strengthens India's ability to conduct sustained deep-sea diving, underwater intervention, salvage and submarine-rescue missions. Together with INS Nistar and India's two Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicles, INS Nipun creates a more resilient two-seaboard underwater rescue architecture and supports India's ambition to emerge as a dependable submarine-rescue partner in the Indian Ocean Region.

Supreme Court judge Justice Ujjal Bhuyan has revived debate over an unusual constitutional route to India's highest court: Article 124(3)(c) allows a citizen who is, in the President's opinion, a “distinguished jurist” to qualify for appointment as a Supreme Court judge. Addressing the 13th convocation of National Law University Delhi, Justice Bhuyan described this as an “unused mandate” because no Supreme Court judge has ever been appointed through this route. The issue raises wider questions about judicial appointments, the Collegium system, diversity on the Bench, the relationship between legal academia and the judiciary, and the meaning of judicial independence.

The Union government has notified the operational framework for Semicon 2.0, the next phase of the India Semiconductor Mission, with a total approved outlay of ₹1,27,500 crore. Unlike a semiconductor policy focused only on building fabrication plants, Semicon 2.0 covers the complete value chain—chip design, indigenous intellectual property, semiconductor equipment and materials, fabrication, advanced packaging, research and talent. The design pillar is especially significant because India possesses a large semiconductor engineering workforce but still lacks comparable Indian-owned chip products and intellectual property.

Concerns have emerged over the implementation of the Foreign Assets of Small Taxpayers–Disclosure Scheme, 2026 (FAST-DS), particularly its fixed ₹1 lakh fee for certain foreign assets that were acquired from already-taxed income or while the taxpayer was a non-resident but were not reported in the income-tax return. Tax professionals argue that the flat charge can appear disproportionate for employees holding small-value or even loss-making overseas shares and ESOPs, even though the scheme was specifically introduced to resolve inadvertent disclosure failures by students, young professionals, returning NRIs and technology-sector employees.

India’s crude oil imports from Russia fell sharply in August 2026 from July’s record level, even though Russia remained India’s largest crude supplier. Provisional tanker-tracking data from Kpler put Russian arrivals at about 2.08 million barrels per day, down 26.3% month-on-month, while India simultaneously increased purchases from Venezuela. The change reflects tighter Russian supplies, Chinese competition, refinery maintenance, freight and sanctions-related risks, and the wider disruption of traditional West Asian supplies through the Strait of Hormuz rather than a simple abandonment of Russian crude.

In Rakhi Bisht v. Union of India & Anr., the Delhi High Court has held that pregnancy or maternity leave cannot become a reason for demotion, loss of professional status or denial of career progression. The Court ruled that merely retaining an employee's salary and designation is not enough if her actual role, authority and advancement prospects are reduced. It also directed the Union government to create a comprehensive post-maternity reintegration framework under the Code on Social Security, 2020.