Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) issued guidelines for the NPS Vatsalya Scheme, 2025.

NPS Vatsalya Scheme, 2025

• Nodal Ministry: Union Ministry of Finance.
• Regulator: Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA).
• Core Objective: To inculcate a habit of early and disciplined long-term savings among children, ensuring financial security and pension preparedness from a young age.
• Key Features
  • Eligibility: Open to all Indian citizens, including NRI/OCI, below 18 years of age.
  • Beneficiary: The minor is the sole beneficiary under the scheme.
  • Account Operation: Account is opened in the name of the minor and operated by the parent or legal guardian.
  • Minimum Contribution: Minimum initial and annual contribution of ₹250 and no maximum limit on contributions.

Food prices slipped into deflation (-0.2%) for the first time since 2014.

About Deflation

• Also called as negative inflation, it refers to a sustained decrease in the general price levels of goods and services.
• The major causes of deflation include decreased aggregate demand, increased productivity, and shifts in monetary policy.

The World Bank released the Global Economic Prospects (GEP) report for January 2026.

• Published twice a year  (January and June) assessing global growth  prospects.

Key highlights 

• Revision in India’s growth forecast:  7.2% for fiscal year 2025-26 from 6.3% projected last June.
  • Reasons: Robust local demand, strong private consumption, tax reforms and rising real household incomes in rural areas.
• Global trade growth: Projected to decelerate from 3.4% in 2025 to 2.2% in 2026.
• Record Debt Levels: Government debt in emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs) has climbed to a 55-year high of nearly 70% of GDP.

• Unusual cold seen across East, Central and South India, possibly linked to La Niña induced strengthening of Walker and Hadley circulation.

Walker Circulation

• Type: East–West (zonal) atmospheric circulation over the tropical Pacific
• Mechanism: Warm air rises over the western Pacific, moves eastward aloft, sinks over the eastern Pacific, and returns westward as trade winds
• Impact: Influences global weather patterns, including monsoons and winter anomalies.

Hadley Circulation

• Type: North–South (meridional) atmospheric circulation
• Mechanism: Warm air rises near the equator, moves poleward aloft, sinks around 30° latitude, and returns equatorward at the surface
• Impact: Redistributes heat, shapes trade winds, deserts and tropical rainfall patterns

Traditional harvest festivals are being celebrated in different parts of India.

• These festivals, celebrated under different names and customs across the country, mark the change of seasons, the Sun’s northward journey (Uttarayana), and the harvest of crops.

Traditional Harvest Festivals

• Makar Sankranti (Maharashtra): It marks the Sun’s transition into Capricorn.
• Uttarayana (Gujarat and Rajasthan): It is known for kite flying, which commemorates the Sun's rise and is a day of joy and celebration.
• Pongal (Tamil Nadu): It marks four-day harvest festival that includes Thai Pongal, Mattu Pongal, Kaanum Pongal, and Bhogi, people make the rice and lentil dish Pongal.
• Lohri (Punjab): Celebrated a day before Makar Sankranti, it marks the harvest of Rabi crops and is celebrated around bonfires with folk songs, Bhangra and Gidda.
• Magh Bihu (Assam): It celebrates the end of the harvest season with community feasts, traditional games and bonfires known as Meji.
• Kanuma (Telangana): It is a festival to express thankfulness and admiration towards the agriculture sector.

India’s ranking improved in the Henley Passport Index 2026 to 80, compared to the 85th rank the country had in 2025.

Henley Passport Index

• It is the original, authoritative ranking of all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa. 
• The index is based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
• In 2026 edition, Singapore has retained its position as the world’s most powerful passport.

India has built a strong and growing presence in cold- and ultracold-atom physics, with leading groups at institutions.

About Ultracold Atoms

• Atoms are always moving, their motion is what we feel as temperature.
• By cooling atoms to temperatures just a tiny fraction of a degree above absolute zero (-273 ^oC), we can slow their motion enough to observe their strange quantum behavior directly.
• At these nanokelvin temperatures, atoms no longer behave like tiny billiard balls - they start to act like waves.
• When atoms are cold enough, their de Broglie waves grow and begin to overlap with each other. This overlap creates a state of matter known as a Bose-Einstein Condensate, where many atoms behave as one unified quantum object.
  • According to quantum physics, every particle has a de Broglie wavelength, which depends on its mass and velocity.

A fire was reported near the Valley of Flowers, a UNESCO World Heritage Site (Natural).

About Valley of Flowers National park

• Location: Chamoli district of Uttarakhand.
• It forms one of 2 core zones (the other being the Nanda Devi National Park) of the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve which is part of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB).
  • Both encompass a unique transition zone between the mountain ranges of Zanskar and Great Himalaya.
• Forest Type: Sub-alpine forests birch 
• Flora: Rhododendron, Brahma Kamal, blue poppy, cobra lily, saxifrages etc.
• Fauna: Snow leopard, Asiatic black bear, Himalayan musk deer, brown bear, blue sheep.

Major delivery aggregators agree to remove the 10 minute delivery deadline for gig workers.

• The move is aimed at ensuring greater safety, security and improved working conditions for gig workers.

Gig Economy

• A gig economy is characterized by temporary, contract, and freelance jobs rather than permanent positions.
• The Code on Social Security, 2020, defines a gig worker as a person who works outside a traditional employer-employee relationship.
• Challenges: Work-life balance, Income Volatility, lack of social security, limited career development etc.
• Initiatives for gig workers: Code on Social Security, 2020, Code on wages 2019, e-Shram Portal, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) etc.