Top 20 UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | August 17 to 23, 2026

— The report, based on data from the 78th round of the National Sample Survey, identifies this group as NEET youth — those not in education, employment or training, including unemployed people. NITI Aayog said this group, along with women, needs affordable or subsidised training and financial support, while skilling programmes should be linked to local demand, self-employment opportunities and emerging sectors.

— One of the concerns highlighted by the report is the weak link between formal education and employment. Only 8.25 per cent of graduates are employed in roles aligned with their qualifications, it said. Limited practical exposure and industry-aligned training continue to affect employability even among formally educated young people.

— The report said students from low-income households often cannot afford additional paid skilling alongside college expenses and private tuition. After graduation, some take up whatever work provides a stable income, even when it is low-paying, while others struggle to enter the workforce and become NEET.

Art & Culture

• Vaishya Tekri

— The Madhya Pradesh government has begun restoring Buddhist monuments linked to the Mauryan emperor Ashoka, starting with a fresh excavation at Vaishya Tekri.

— In his 2011 paper, Aśoka and Buddhist Nuns: Early Buddhism in Ujjain and Malwa, academic Peter Skilling wrote: “The largest stupa, popularly called Vaisya Tekri, is about 350 feet at its base and 100 feet high. Nearby is a smaller stupa, called Kumbhar (or Kumhar) Tekri. Both are relatively undisturbed, except for the unfortunate fact that a power line runs between them, and a giant pylon squats rudely on Kumbhar Tekri’s shoulder.”

— Initial excavations by the Department of Archaeology of the erstwhile Gwalior State in 1938–39 unveiled large bricks and punch-marked coins, prompting archaeologists to date the structures to the Mauryan period.

— The monument’s size was only one part of what fascinated the excavators; its construction was unlike what they had encountered elsewhere. Instead of a conventional solid brick structure, the heart of the monument was made from local blackish murum, rammed hard to form the massive core. The exterior was then faced with brick masonry laid in mud mortar.

 

International Cooperation

• India and Mauritius sign five-year fuel supply pact

— India and Mauritius have deepened their energy partnership with a five-year agreement under which Indian Oil Corporation will supply the island nation’s entire import requirement of petrol, diesel and aviation turbine fuel, strengthening New Delhi’s role as a key energy-security partner in the Indian Ocean.

— The agreement was exchanged during Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri’s official visit to Mauritius on August 20-21, alongside a government-to-government memorandum of understanding (MoU) to expand cooperation in oil and gas, including petroleum product supplies, training and capacity building, and biofuels.

• India’s campaign for UNSC seat in 2028-29

— India recently launched its campaign to serve the two-year (2028-29) term on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). If elected, this will be India’s 9th time on the UNSC. The election will be held in June 2027. The other contestant for the one seat from Asia is Tajikistan.

— The United Nations is divided into five regional groups representing Asia, Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Western Europe & Others (WEOG). The latter comprises the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Israel.

— The Eastern Europe group is reminiscent of the Cold War era, with the UNSC’s permanent membership (P5) of the United States, United Kingdom, France and Russia also representing the victorious Allied powers, plus China.

— The UNSC also has 10 non-permanent members elected by the UN General Assembly for two-year terms. These include three from Africa, one from Eastern Europe, and two each from Asia, Latin America and WEOG.

— Five elected members retire every year, making way for a rotation among the non-permanent members.

 

Polity

• PM CARES Fund

— Total contributions to the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund) fell to Rs 479.96 crore in financial year 2024-25. Its closing balance, however, touched an all-time high of Rs 8,452.06 crore as the spending, too, fell to a five-year low of Rs 87.85 lakh.

— According to the latest Receipt and Payment Accounts (Audited) statement available on the PM CARES Fund portal, domestic donations accounted for Rs 479.04 crore of the total contributions while foreign donations added up to about Rs 92 lakh.

The Prime Minister is the ex-officio chairman of the Fund, while the Defence Minister, Home Minister and Finance Minister are ex-officio trustees. (File Photo)

— Notably, the PM CARES Fund was registered as a public charitable trust under the Registration Act, 1908, on March 27, 2020 — days after the country went into a lockdown in the wake of Covid-19. The Prime Minister is the ex-officio chairman of the Fund, while the Defence Minister, Home Minister and Finance Minister are ex-officio trustees.

• Surrogate advertising

— Maharashtra’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued show-cause notices to Hindi cinema actors Shah Rukh Khan, Ajay Devgn, and Tiger Shroff last week, alleging that their advertisement for Vimal Elaichi amounts to surrogate advertising for Vimal Pan Masala.

— Surrogate advertising is a form of marketing used to promote products banned or limited from advertising under government regulations — such as alcohol, tobacco, and pan masala — by promoting another product under the exact same brand name, logo, or visual style to ensure brand awareness in minds of consumers.

— The latest action reportedly marks the first instance of the regulator examining surrogate advertising even as it ramps up its crackdown on gutkha and pan masala containing tobacco or nicotine.

Economy

• Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme (MPMS)

— With a budgetary outlay of Rs 62,500 crore, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has notified the Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme.

— The five-year scheme, which will run from FY 2026-27 to FY 2030-31, has been split into two distinct tracks. The first is designed as a successor to the earlier PLI programme, offering incentives to large manufacturers and electronics manufacturing services (EMS) companies for expanding production, while increasingly linking benefits to the domestic sourcing of components.

— The second sets aside a separate incentive structure for Indian smartphone brands, offering higher support for companies that not only manufacture in the country but also keep their intellectual property, management control, design and research and development capabilities in India. It marks an effort to move beyond India being primarily a manufacturing base for global brands, towards building a domestic handset company with its own technology and brand.

• Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES)

— With the next edition of the HCES expected to begin in mid-2027 and continue for about a year, the ministry is looking at the adoption of “diary-based data collection” for high-income households living in gated societies, instead of a door-to-door survey by field officials.

— In this method, households note down the information themselves, as and when the relevant activity occurs. In the case of the HCES, this would mean jotting down how much is spent in a month on different goods and services, ranging from food items to haircuts.

— HCES is intended to collect data on households’ consumption and expenditure on goods and services. The survey collects data needed to monitor economic trends and identify and update the basket of consumer goods and services and weights used to calculate the Consumer Price Index.

— The survey is conducted by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI). Data from HCES is also used to assess poverty, inequality, and social exclusion. The Monthly Per Capita Consumption Expenditure (MPCE), derived from HCES, is the principal indicator used for most analytical purposes.

— In the past, the HCES was conducted every five years. However, after an overhaul of the methods, two back-to-back surveys were conducted in 2022-23 and 2023-24. Going forward, the ministry intends to conduct the HCES every three years or so.

Science and Technology

• AI agent

— Last week, an Australian man shared that his AI agent, which he had tasked with helping him move up the waitlist for his gym class, went above and beyond. It exploited vulnerabilities in the gym’s software. 

— Unlike an AI assistant, which primarily responds to a user’s prompts, an AI agent can independently take a series of actions using other tools or software to achieve a user-defined goal. Such an agent can, for instance, access other software and navigate websites.

— AI agents allow users to hand over the task itself. A user can set a goal for the agent to achieve, while leaving it to figure out the steps required to achieve it. A user may now ask an agent to plan a holiday, from finding suitable flights and drawing up an itinerary to making reservations on their behalf.

• GISAT-1A (EOS-05)

— After a seven-month hiatus, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is set to resume its launch services, with the earth observation satellite GISAT-1A set to be launched in the first week of September.

— This is one of two satellites — the other being NVS-03 — that has remained parked at Sriharikota spaceport for months as launches were put on hold following a series of setbacks, said officials in the know.

— GISAT-1A or Geo Imaging Satellite — also referred to as EOS-05 under the new nomenclature — is a replacement satellite for the 2021-launched GISAT-1 (or EOS-03), which missed the orbit after the final propulsive segment of the rocket failed to ignite.

— The new satellite, GISAT-1A, which boasts a 10-year mission life, is designed to image large areas of interest at frequent intervals for the purposes of monitoring natural disasters or keeping a track of agriculture or forestry.

• Carbon Border Tax

— BRICS environment and climate ministers on August 18 opposed the European Union’s (EU) Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) or Carbon Border Tax, calling it a unilateral, punitive, discriminatory and protection measure that is not in line with international law.

— CBAM is an import levy on carbon-intensive goods like steel, iron, fertilisers, aluminium and cement. The tax was aimed as a measure to reduce the carbon footprint of imported goods, but the step has been seen as a trade barrier by developing countries.

— Rolled out on October 1, 2023, with a reporting-only phase, CBAM was entirely effected from January 1, 2026, when importers were asked to purchase and surrender CBAM certificates tied to carbon emissions embedded in their goods.

• Mission CosmoCube

— A proposed suitcase-sized satellite could give astronomers a new way to study the universe’s earliest stages by listening for faint radio signals from more than 13.5 billion years ago.

— The mission, called CosmoCube, would operate near the Moon and use the lunar far side as a natural shield against radio interference from Earth. Researchers say the concept could help scientists study the poorly understood period between the Big Bang and the formation of the first stars.

— The international team behind CosmoCube proposes placing the small spacecraft in orbit around the Moon, allowing it to collect measurements as it passes behind the Moon’s far side. The Moon would block radio noise originating from Earth, creating a much quieter environment for the spacecraft’s instruments.

— According to the researchers, CosmoCube would spend around 40 minutes on the far side during every two-hour orbit. Over a proposed two-year mission, the satellite could collect roughly 1,000 hours of data at extremely low radio frequencies.

— The measurements could offer scientists a clearer picture of the cosmic dark age and the transition towards the formation of the first stars and galaxies.

 

Defence

• MAITREE-XV 

— The Indian Army contingent departed on August 17 for Thailand to participate in the 15th edition of the India-Thailand Joint Military Exercise MAITREE-XV. 

— The Joint Military Exercise will be conducted from 18 to 31 August 2026 in Surat Thani, Thailand. The last edition of the exercise was conducted in Umroi, Meghalaya. Notably, Exercise MAITREE was instituted in 2006.

• MQ-9B Sea Guardian HALE RPAS

— The Ministry of Defence on August 17 inked a Rs 1,943-crore contract with American defence major General Atomics Aeronautical to lease two MQ-9B Sea Guardian High-Altitude Long-Endurance (HALE) Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) for the Indian Navy for 30 months.

— In a statement, the Defence ministry said the MQ-9B Sea Guardian HALE RPAS, equipped with advanced systems, state-of-the-art sensors and sophisticated payloads, will significantly enhance the Indian Navy’s Maritime Domain Awareness capabilities.

— “The systems will provide persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance coverage over vast areas of the maritime domain, strengthening India’s ability to monitor and respond to developments across the Indian Ocean Region,” it added.

In 2024, India and the United States inked a deal of around $3.5 billion or over Rs 28,000 crore to procure 31 MQ-9B HALE RPAS for the Indian armed forces. (Credits: General Atomics Global Corporation)

— Currently, the Navy operates two MQ9As on lease, which were procured in 2020 in the thick of border tensions between India and China for a period of one year, and their lease period was subsequently extended.

• IN–USN Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Exercise 2026

— On August 14, the eighth edition of the IN–USN Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Exercise 2026 was held at the Southern Naval Command, Kochi.

— The exercise provided a platform for sharing knowledge on various facets of EOD operations and witnessed intensive professional interaction, exchange of best practices, and demonstrations by teams from both Indian and US navies.

• USS Abraham Lincoln

— The senior-most US military commander in the Middle East, US Central Command chief Admiral Brad Cooper, visited the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea, amid claims of food shortages, flagging morale, and even suicide attempts on the aircraft carrier. The USS Abraham Lincoln has been at sea without a break for over 260 days.

— USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) is America’s fifth Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and is named in honor of the 16th president of the United States.

— The largest warships in the world, Nimitz-class aircraft carriers support and operate aircraft that engage in attacks on airborne, afloat, and ashore targets that threaten free use of the sea and engage in sustained power projection operations in support of U.S. and coalition forces.

— Notably, an aircraft carrier is basically a mobile airbase. A land-based fighter plane can fly hundreds or even thousands of kilometres out over the ocean. But after it completes its mission, it needs somewhere to land. It also needs fuel, weapons, maintenance and people to service it. A carrier takes all of this with it.

— India currently operates two aircraft carriers — INS Vikramaditya, the refurbished former Soviet-era Admiral Gorshkov, and the indigenously built INS Vikrant. The Navy has also sought a third carrier to expand its ability to maintain a sustained presence in distant waters.

(Infographic: AI-generated)

 

Environment

• India launched its first-ever Guide to Grasslands and ONEs

— Recently, India launched its first-ever Guide to Grasslands and Other Open Natural Ecosystems (ONEs) of India at the 17th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

— India’s Guide to Grasslands and ONEs marks an important step in the direction of strengthening their conservation, restoration, and sustainable management. It highlights the rich diversity, ecological significance, and socio-economic importance of India’s grasslands and other open natural ecosystems.

— It brings together information on major ONEs across India, covering their geographical settings, ecological characteristics, biodiversity, and the communities and tribes associated with them. It also contains sections on pastoralism, fire ecology, and carbon sequestration.

(Infographic: AI-generated)

— Notably, India’s ONEs range from Himalayan and Terai grasslands to the Thar and Banni landscapes, rocky plateaus, ravines, scrublands, Deccan savannas, coastal ecosystems, and desert landscapes.

World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought  June 17 is observed as the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought under the UNCCD. The day serves as a global platform to raise awareness and promote action against desertification, land degradation and drought. The theme for this year is “Rangelands: Recognize. Respect. Restore.” Notably, the UN has declared 2026 as the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP).

 

Health

• RK-251

— RK-251 is a new ‘smart’ cancer drug designed to activate primarily in cancer cells and does not harm healthy cell. Collaborative research led by Dr. Asis Bala from the Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST), an Autonomous Institute under the Department of Science & Technology (Govt. of India), and Dr. K.P. Bhabak from the Indian Institute of Technology-Guwahati has developed a new “smart” cancer drug called RK-251.

— The Ministry of Science & Technology has shared details of the drug, which is designed to exploit a feature of cancer cells: they often have higher levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), molecules that can be harmful when present in excess. Researchers have used this difference to create a drug that can be activated preferentially inside cancer cells.

— The approach could potentially make cancer treatment more selective and reduce damage to healthy cells. When RK-251 enters a cancer cell with high ROS levels, these molecules trigger the drug’s activation, releasing an anticancer compound called NBDHEX.

— NBDHEX blocks target proteins that many cancer cells use to survive and resist treatment. The idea is to keep RK-251 relatively inactive in normal tissues and activate its anticancer action inside cancer cells.

• E. coli

— The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has flagged violations of water quality norms after E. coli bacteria was found in water samples collected from water coolers at multiple railway stations. The findings have raised concerns about water quality and passenger safety. 

— Escherichia coli (E.coli) is a bacterial strain that is commonly found in the intestines of people and animals, fecal waste of cattle and humans. The most common manner in which this bacteria contaminates water is if there is a leak in the sewage pipelines in a locality. 

(Infographic: AI-generated)

— Unlike other disease-causing bacteria, E. coli can cause an infection even if you ingest only small amounts. So even taking a bite of undercooked or contaminated food or swallowing a mouthful of contaminated pool water can cause an infection. 

— Consumption of water contaminated with E.coli can cause diarrhoea, digestive issues, urinary tract infection and vomiting. The world over, children have been found more vulnerable to diseases caused by this bacteria. 

Click here to read more on E.coli.

Places in News

(Just FYI: The location of the place is important, considering that UPSC has asked several questions about places that were in the news, such as Aleppo and Kirkuk, in the 2018 UPSC Prelims. The best way to remember them is to plot them on a world map.)

• Iturup (Etorofu in Japan)

— Russia’s Foreign Ministry on August 18 summoned the Japanese ambassador to protest Tokyo’s condemnation of President Vladimir Putin’s trip to the Kuril Islands, the Moscow-controlled Pacific archipelago that is claimed by both countries.

— Last week, Putin visited Iturup, one of the four southernmost islands of the chain, which Japan calls the Northern Territories. The Soviet Union took them from Japan in the final days of World War II, and the dispute has kept the countries from signing a peace treaty formally ending their hostilities.

Test Your Knowledge

(Note: The best way to remember facts for UPSC and other competitive exams is to recall them through MCQs. Try to solve the following questions on your own.)

(1) With reference to E. coli, consider the following statements:

1. It is a bacterial strain that is commonly found in the intestines of people and animals.

2. Adults and senior citizens are more vulnerable to diseases caused by this bacterium.

3. E.coli strains can be treated.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 and 2 only

(b) 2 only

(c) 1 only

(d) 2 and 3 only

(2) Consider the following statements with reference to the PM CARES Fund:

1. It has been registered as a Public Charitable Trust

2. It receives budgetary support from the Consolidated Fund of India.

3. Donations to the fund qualify as CSR expenditure under the Companies Act, 2013.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 1 and 3 only

(c) 2 and 3 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3

Answer Key

1. (c)  2. (b)

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