National News

CCRAS and Central Sanskrit University Collaborate to Preserve Rare Ayurvedic Manuscript

• India has undertaken a major initiative to safeguard its ancient medical heritage through a specialized 15-day residential Ayurvedic manuscript workshop held in Kerala from January 12-25, 2026, jointly organized by the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) and Central Sanskrit University (CSU).
• The intensive programme brought together thirty-three distinguished scholars, including experts in Ayurveda and Sanskrit, who received comprehensive hands-on training in advanced disciplines such as manuscriptology, palaeography, and specialized Ayurvedic terminology to ensure accurate preservation and interpretation of historical texts.
• The workshop placed particular emphasis on transliteration and research-based study of rare palm-leaf manuscripts, with focused training on deciphering ancient scripts including Grantha, Medieval Malayalam, and Vattezhuthu, which are critical for understanding centuries-old Ayurvedic knowledge systems.
• This collaborative effort represents a significant step in India’s commitment to preserving and digitizing its invaluable ancient medical literature, ensuring that rare Ayurvedic manuscripts are not only protected from deterioration but also made accessible for contemporary research and application in modern healthcare practices.

Science and Technology News

Indian Railways Deploys Humanoid Robot ‘ASC ARJUN’ for Station Security

• Indian Railways achieved a groundbreaking technological milestone on January 27, 2026, with the deployment of its first humanoid robot named ASC ARJUN at Visakhapatnam Railway Station, marking a transformative leap towards AI-driven railway infrastructure and smart transportation systems across the country.
• The robot was developed entirely through indigenous efforts by the Railway Protection Force (RPF), demonstrating India’s growing capabilities in robotics and artificial intelligence, with the primary objective of enhancing station security, conducting advanced surveillance operations, and improving passenger services through cutting-edge technology integration.
• ASC ARJUN is equipped with sophisticated technological features including facial recognition capabilities, AI-based crowd monitoring systems, real-time connectivity with RPF control rooms for immediate threat response, and multilingual announcement capabilities to assist diverse passenger groups effectively.
• The humanoid robot supports proactive threat detection by continuously scanning station premises for suspicious activities or individuals, while simultaneously providing passenger assistance services, representing a dual-purpose security and service enhancement that aligns with India’s vision of modernizing railway infrastructure through smart technology adoption.

National News

Why Is India Counting Incomes Now? NSO Gears Up for First-Ever National Income Surveys

• India is preparing to launch two unprecedented statistical exercises as the National Statistics Office (NSO) gears up for the first-ever National Household Income Survey (NHIS) and the Annual Survey of Incorporated Service Sector Enterprises (ASISSE), with extensive fieldwork scheduled to commence in April 2026.
• The ambitious initiative is being supported by comprehensive nationwide training programmes, including the All-India Workshop of Trainers conducted in Chennai, ensuring that field investigators are adequately prepared to collect accurate and reliable data across diverse geographical and socio-economic contexts throughout the country.
• The National Household Income Survey will generate comprehensive data on household income distribution patterns across urban and rural India, providing crucial insights into economic inequality, purchasing power, and living standards that have been largely estimated through indirect methods until now.
• The Annual Survey of Incorporated Service Sector Enterprises will focus on gathering detailed information about the corporate services sector, including employment patterns, revenue generation, investment trends, and growth trajectories, filling a critical data gap in understanding India’s rapidly expanding service economy which contributes significantly to national GDP.

State News

Gujarat to Support Girls’ Education with ₹1,250 Crore under Namo Laxmi Scheme

• Gujarat is set to allocate ₹1,250 crore under the Namo Laxmi Scheme for the fiscal year 2025-26, a comprehensive educational support initiative designed to benefit over 12 lakh girls studying in Classes 9 through 12 across government and recognized schools in the state.
• The scheme’s primary objectives include preventing student dropouts at the critical secondary and higher secondary levels, improving nutritional outcomes for adolescent girls, and promoting sustained educational engagement during the crucial transition years when dropout rates among girls historically increase due to socio-economic pressures.
• Under the financial structure of the programme, each eligible girl student receives a total of ₹50,000 distributed over four years—₹20,000 for Classes 9-10 and ₹30,000 for Classes 11-12—combining monthly direct benefit transfers with completion-based milestone payouts to incentivize continued enrollment and academic progression.
• Eligibility criteria for the scheme require that students must be enrolled in government or state-recognized schools, have completed Classes 1-8 in eligible educational institutions within the specified framework, and come from families with an annual income of up to ₹6 lakh, ensuring that benefits reach economically disadvantaged sections while maintaining broad accessibility.

State News

Kerala Officially Adopts Bacillus subtilis as Its State Microbe

• Kerala has created history by becoming the first Indian state to officially declare Bacillus subtilis as its State Microbe, with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan making the landmark announcement in Thiruvananthapuram, recognizing the fundamental importance of microorganisms in human health, agricultural productivity, and environmental sustainability.
• Bacillus subtilis is a beneficial probiotic bacterium with multifaceted applications including improving gut health and digestion in humans, boosting immunity against various diseases, enhancing soil fertility through natural processes, and providing biological control against plant diseases, making it invaluable across health, agriculture, and environmental sectors.
• The historic declaration highlights Kerala’s progressive approach to scientific recognition and underscores the state’s commitment to promoting awareness about the critical but often overlooked role of microbes in supporting life systems, from microscopic cellular processes to large-scale ecosystem functions.
• Coinciding with the state microbe announcement, Kerala also launched the Centre of Excellence in Microbiome (CoEM), a specialized research facility dedicated to advancing cutting-edge microbiome research across diverse domains including human health, nutrition science, sustainable agriculture practices, and environmental conservation, positioning the state as a leader in microbiological research and application.

National News

Is India’s Only Meteor Lake Slowly Dying? Rising Waters Threaten Lonar Lake and Ancient Temples

• Lonar Lake in Maharashtra, recognized as the world’s only basaltic meteor crater lake formed approximately 50,000 years ago by meteorite impact, is currently facing a severe environmental crisis that threatens both its unique geological characteristics and its rich cultural heritage spanning centuries.
• The primary threat stems from rising freshwater inflow into the lake system, which has caused water levels to increase dramatically, resulting in the submersion of ancient temples situated along the lake’s periphery that hold immense archaeological and religious significance, while simultaneously reducing the lake’s distinctive highly alkaline nature that supports rare extremophile microorganisms.
• Environmental experts and geologists have issued urgent warnings that unchecked groundwater intrusion from numerous borewells installed in the surrounding region is fundamentally altering the lake’s hydrochemistry, potentially causing permanent and irreversible damage to the delicate ecosystem that has evolved over millennia in this unique meteoric environment.
• The dilution of the lake’s alkaline waters due to freshwater contamination threatens the survival of specialized microbial communities found nowhere else on Earth, while the physical submersion of heritage structures undermines both the cultural landscape and the site’s potential for geotourism, calling for immediate intervention through scientific management and regulatory controls on groundwater extraction.

State News

Uttarakhand Implements Uniform Civil Code (Amendment) Ordinance, 2026

• Uttarakhand has significantly strengthened its Uniform Civil Code framework by implementing the UCC (Amendment) Ordinance, 2026, which was approved by the Governor under Article 213 of the Indian Constitution to enhance clarity in provisions, improve administrative efficiency, and strengthen enforcement mechanisms across civil matters.
• The amendments introduce comprehensive improvements including streamlined procedures for various civil matters, alignment of penal provisions with India’s new criminal laws that came into effect recently, and enhanced digital governance infrastructure particularly focused on marriage registration and documentation systems to improve accessibility and transparency.
• Since the original Uniform Civil Code’s implementation on January 27, 2025, Uttarakhand has witnessed remarkable public response with over five lakh marriages being registered through the online digital platform, demonstrating strong citizen engagement and the effectiveness of technology-driven governance in civil administration.
• The reformed UCC framework reflects the state’s commitment to core principles including transparency in civil proceedings, gender equality in matters of marriage, divorce, inheritance and succession, women’s empowerment through equitable legal provisions, and citizen-friendly administration that reduces bureaucratic complexities and ensures easy access to legal remedies and documentation services.

International News

Key Outcomes of India–EU Leaders’ Visit 2026: Trade, Security and Green Growth

• India-European Union relations achieved a significant milestone in 2026 with a high-level visit by EU leaders including European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, marking a new chapter in the India-EU Strategic Partnership that has been evolving since its inception.
• The comprehensive discussions between Indian and EU leadership covered diverse strategic areas including bilateral trade expansion, security cooperation frameworks, clean energy transition initiatives, technology collaboration, digital connectivity, and people-to-people ties, reflecting the multidimensional nature of contemporary India-EU engagement.
• A major highlight of the visit was the announcement of the India-EU Free Trade Agreement, designed to substantially boost bilateral trade volumes and investment flows between India and the 27-member European Union bloc, potentially creating one of the world’s largest trading partnerships, alongside the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Reserve Bank of India and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) to enhance financial regulatory cooperation.
• On defense and security fronts, both sides formally launched a comprehensive Security and Defense Partnership covering multiple domains, and agreed to commence negotiations on a Security of Information Agreement that would establish legal frameworks for secure exchange of classified information, enabling deeper intelligence sharing and joint security operations.

International News

India–EU Sign First-Ever Comprehensive Defence and Security Partnership

• India and the European Union marked a historic milestone on January 27, 2026, by signing their first comprehensive Security and Defence Partnership, a landmark agreement that coincided with the conclusion of the long-pending India-EU Free Trade Agreement, together representing unprecedented deepening of strategic ties between the world’s largest democracy and the European bloc.
• The Security and Defence Partnership establishes a formal institutional framework covering critical security domains including maritime security cooperation in the Indian Ocean and beyond, defence industry collaboration and technology transfers, joint approaches to cyber threats and digital security, coordinated counter-terrorism strategies and intelligence sharing, and space security cooperation addressing satellite safety and space debris management.
• The partnership reflects growing mutual trust and strategic convergence between India and the EU amid evolving global uncertainties, including concerns about authoritarian expansionism, maritime security challenges, terrorism threats, and the need for like-minded democracies to collaborate on maintaining rules-based international order.
• Both parties have also formally launched negotiations on a Security of Information Agreement (SOIA), which will establish legal and procedural frameworks to enable secure and systematic exchange of classified information between Indian security agencies and EU institutions, facilitating deeper intelligence cooperation and joint security assessments on shared threats.

Banking and Finance News

RBI Introduces Draft Framework to Support Borrowers Hit by Natural Calamities

• The Reserve Bank of India issued comprehensive draft guidelines on January 27, 2026, proposing a structured disaster relief framework designed to enable banks and financial institutions to systematically support borrowers adversely affected by natural calamities including floods, landslides, earthquakes, cyclones, and other climate-related disasters.
• The framework, scheduled to become applicable from April 1, 2026, encourages banks to adopt a proactive approach by factoring climate risks and disaster vulnerability into their credit policies and risk assessment frameworks, while designing principle-based, standardized resolution plans rather than relying on ad hoc relief measures that often lack consistency and adequacy.
• The proposed relief options available to affected borrowers include flexible rescheduling of loan repayments to align with recovery timelines, temporary moratoriums on principal and interest payments during the immediate aftermath of disasters, innovative mechanisms for converting accrued interest into separate credit facilities to avoid default classifications, and provision of additional finance to support rehabilitation and business recovery efforts.
• Implementation of relief measures will be subject to the lending institution’s assessment of the borrower’s genuine distress, the extent of damage to income-generating assets or livelihood sources, and the viability of recovery post-disaster, ensuring that the framework balances compassionate support for affected populations with prudent banking practices and financial system stability.

Banking and Finance News

How Will RBI’s ₹1 Lakh Crore OMO Purchases Ease Liquidity Stress?

• The Reserve Bank of India has strategically advanced its Open Market Operation (OMO) purchase schedule to inject ₹1 lakh crore of liquidity into the banking system by purchasing government securities from the market, responding decisively to emerging liquidity tightness and concerning upward pressure on bond yields in the financial system.
• Banking system liquidity surplus experienced a sharp decline to just ₹56,987 crore on January 26, 2026, falling significantly below the comfortable operational range of ₹1.5-2 lakh crore that the RBI typically maintains to ensure smooth monetary transmission and adequate credit flow to the economy, while simultaneously the benchmark 10-year Government Security yield climbed to an 11-month high of 6.72 percent, signaling stress in bond markets.
• The RBI has restructured its liquidity intervention strategy by scheduling two substantial OMO purchase tranches of ₹50,000 crore each on January 29 and February 5, 2026, significantly advancing the operations from the previously planned February schedule, demonstrating the central bank’s commitment to pre-emptive monetary management.
• These OMO purchases will involve the RBI buying government securities from banks and primary dealers, thereby infusing fresh rupee liquidity into the banking system, which is expected to ease short-term interest rates, improve credit availability, support bond prices, lower yields, and facilitate smoother transmission of the recent policy rate cuts to the broader economy.

Banking and Finance News

Juspay Becomes India’s First Unicorn of 2026 After $50 Million Fundraise

• India’s vibrant fintech ecosystem commenced 2026 on an optimistic note with Bengaluru-based payments infrastructure firm Juspay emerging as the country’s first unicorn of the year after successfully raising $50 million in a Series D follow-on funding round, elevating its valuation to $1.2 billion and reinforcing investor confidence in India’s digital payments sector.
• The funding round was led by prominent venture capital firm WestBridge Capital and comprised a strategic mix of primary capital infusion into the company for growth initiatives and secondary transactions that provided liquidity opportunities to early-stage investors and employees holding Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs), rewarding their contribution to the company’s journey.
• Juspay has established itself as a critical payments infrastructure provider serving major e-commerce platforms, digital wallets, and banking institutions across India, offering enterprise-grade payment gateway solutions, checkout optimization technology, fraud detection systems, and seamless payment orchestration that powers millions of daily transactions.
• The fresh capital infusion will be strategically deployed to accelerate Juspay’s global expansion initiatives and strengthen its enterprise-grade payment technology offerings across key international markets including the Asia-Pacific region, Middle Eastern countries, various European nations, the United Kingdom, and North and South American markets, positioning the company to compete with global payments infrastructure giants.

Science and Technology News

IIT Guwahati Creates Technique to Track Glacier Hazards in Eastern Himalayas

• Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati have developed an innovative scientific methodology to predict glacial hazards in the ecologically sensitive Eastern Himalayas, successfully identifying 492 potential sites where future glacial lakes could form, thereby enabling proactive disaster preparedness and risk mitigation strategies.
• The groundbreaking study, published in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports, specifically focuses on mitigating the catastrophic risks posed by Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs), which occur when glacier-dammed or moraine-dammed lakes suddenly breach their natural barriers, releasing massive volumes of water that can devastate downstream villages, critical infrastructure, agricultural lands, and ecosystems within minutes.
• The research team employed advanced remote sensing techniques using high-resolution satellite imagery combined with sophisticated digital elevation models to conduct comprehensive terrain analysis, examining critical geomorphological features including slope gradients, cirques (bowl-shaped depressions formed by glacial erosion), existing glacial lakes in proximity, ice thickness variations, and terrain stability indicators.
• The newly developed predictive model demonstrates significantly improved accuracy compared to earlier hazard assessment frameworks, enabling more precise identification of high-risk zones and allowing government agencies, disaster management authorities, and local communities to implement targeted early warning systems, strategic infrastructure planning, and community relocation programmes well in advance of potential GLOF events.

Science and Technology News

Scientists Discover Rare Mushroom in Uttarakhand’s Oak Forests

• Scientists have made a significant mycological discovery by identifying a new mushroom species, scientifically named Hemileccinum indicum, in the high-altitude oak forests of Uttarakhand, marking the first recorded presence of the entire genus Hemileccinum in India and expanding the country’s documented fungal biodiversity.
• The species was discovered in the remote Dhakuri region of Bageshwar district at elevations exceeding 2,600 metres above sea level during systematic macrofungal surveys conducted between 2022 and 2023 in the temperate oak-dominated forest ecosystems that characterize the Western Himalayan ecological zone.
• The identification was confirmed through collaborative research involving scientists from the Botanical Survey of India (BSI), the University of Torino in Italy, and St. Xavier’s College, who employed advanced DNA-based phylogenetic analysis techniques to establish the species’ distinct genetic identity and evolutionary relationships.
• Despite morphological similarities with Hemileccinum species previously documented from North America and China, the molecular genetic analysis revealed unique DNA sequences that conclusively established Hemileccinum indicum as a distinct species, highlighting the Eastern Himalayas as a biodiversity hotspot with significant potential for discovering additional endemic fungal species that may have ecological, medicinal, or agricultural importance.

Important Days News

International Data Privacy Day 2026: India’s Drive to Safeguard Personal Data

• International Data Privacy Day is observed globally on January 28 to raise awareness about the fundamental importance of protecting personal data in an increasingly digitized world, with particular significance for India as the world’s third-largest digitalized economy where digital platforms operate at unprecedented population scale.
• India’s digital transformation has brought extraordinary opportunities for economic growth, financial inclusion, and service delivery, but simultaneously elevated risks associated with data misuse, unauthorized surveillance, identity theft, cyber threats, and privacy violations, necessitating robust legal and technological frameworks to protect citizens’ personal information.
• India’s data protection architecture comprises multiple layers including the foundational Information Technology Act 2000 which provides basic digital governance provisions, the landmark Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act 2023 which establishes comprehensive citizen rights regarding data collection, processing, and storage, and the recently implemented DPDP Rules 2025 which operationalize the protective mechanisms through detailed compliance requirements for data fiduciaries.
• The government has allocated ₹782 crore specifically for strengthening cybersecurity infrastructure, developing indigenous data protection technologies, capacity building for enforcement agencies, and public awareness campaigns, reflecting a strategic commitment to building a digital ecosystem where innovation, economic growth, and citizen privacy can coexist harmoniously through balanced regulation and technological safeguards.