Ministry of Heavy Industries issued operational guidelines for deployment of EV public charging stations under the PM E-DRIVE scheme.

About PM E-DRIVE (Electric Drive Revolution in Innovative Vehicle Enhancement) scheme

• Ministry - Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI).
• Objective: To accelerate Electric Vehicles (EV) adoption and establish essential charging infrastructure across the country, promoting cleaner and more sustainable transportation.
• Major Component:
  • Subsidies/Demand Incentives for e-2Ws, e-3Ws, e-ambulances, e-trucks, e-buses and other emerging EVs.
  • Grants for Creation of Capital Assets: Funding for acquisition of e-buses, establishment of network of charging stations, and upgrading testing facilities of MHI. 

Sonam Wangchuk, who was leading the movement seeking statehood and protections under Sixth Schedule for Ladakh, has been detained under NSA.

NSA, 1980

• Empowers Centre & States to detain individuals to prevent them from acting in a manner “prejudicial to the defence of India, relations with foreign powers, the security of India, or the maintenance of public order or essential supplies”.
• Authorities: District Magistrates (DMs) and Police Commissioners can issue detention orders with authorization.
• Act mandates that grounds of detention must be communicated to detainee within 5 days (up to 15 days in special cases).

India’s first dedicated Space Astronomy Observatory, AstroSat completes a decade of operations.

About Astrosat

• AstroSat is the first dedicated Indian astronomy mission aimed at studying celestial sources in X-ray, optical and UV spectral bands simultaneously.
• It enables the simultaneous multi-wavelength observations of various astronomical objects with a single satellite.
• It was launched into a 650 km orbit by PSLV-C30 from Sriharikota. 
• Scientific Objectives of Mission:
  • Understand high-energy activities in binary star systems with neutron stars and black holes.
  • Study star birth regions and high energy processes in star systems. 
  • Detect new briefly bright X-ray sources in the sky.

Recently Ministry of Road Transport and Highways mandated in a draft notification that all new private and commercial electric vehicles (EVs) are to be fitted with AVAS from October 1, 2026.

• This move is aimed at alerting pedestrians about approaching EVs which do not emit any sound and sometimes result in accidents. 

About AVAS 

• It is a safety feature in EVs that emits varying sounds with varying speeds using external speakers to alert pedestrians about their presence 
• Countries like the US, Japan and some EU nations have already mandated uses of AVAS in hybrid vehicles.

SODAR (Sound Detection and Ranging) system facility has been inaugurated at India Meteorological Department (IMD), Delhi.

• It is designed & developed by CSIR–Advanced Materials and Processes Research Institute (AMPRI), Bhopal. 

About SODAR

• Function: SODAR works by sending sound pulses and subsequently monitoring the intensity and frequency of the returned signal.
  • Specifically, it determines the lower-atmosphere wind profile and temperature structure.
• It provides information on height of inversion, height of fog layer, strength of turbulence etc.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has launched the Swachh Shehar Jodi (SSJ) initiative.

• It will be implemented under the Swachh Bharat Mission- Urban (SBM-U).

About SSJ initiative:

• It is a structured mentorship and collaborative action program involving 72 mentor cities and around 200 mentee cities.
  • The mentee cities will get direct exposure to well performing cities to replicate their best practices.
• Aim:  Foster knowledge and experience sharing, peer learning and transforming best practices in sanitation and waste management across urban India.

The RBI has recently set the WMA limit for the Central Government for the second half of the 2025–26 financial year.

• WMA limit is decided by RBI in consultation with the Central government.

About WMA 

• It is a temporary advance given by the RBI to the central to cover any mismatch in receipts and payments.
  • Unlike ad hoc Treasury Bills, the instrument of WMAs is not a source of financing fiscal deficit.
  • WMA is also available for state governments and Union Territories. 
• Legal framework: RBI Act, 1934 authorises the central bank for WMA
• Interest rate: Interest rate on WMA is the RBI’s repo rate
  • However, interest on overdraft (amounts in excess of their WMA limits) is 2 % above the repo rate. 
• Duration- It shall be fully paid off within 3 months from the date of making the WMAs. 

NISAR satellite sends first radar images of Earth’s surface

About NISAR

• It is the world’s first Earth observation satellite to carry dual-frequency synthetic aperture radars—L-band and S-band, on a single platform
• Placed in a Sun-synchronous orbit 
• It will deliver high-resolution, all-weather, day-and-night imagery of Earth’s land and ice surfaces, revisiting each location every 12 days. 
• Applications: Disaster management, climate monitoring, etc.
• It was launched aboard ISRO’s GSLV-F16
  • This was the first time GSLV vehicle successfully placed a satellite into a Sun-synchronous Polar Orbit.