5 February 2026

• India-US trade: Implementation details of the interim trade agreement firm up; India commits to reduce Russian oil imports and shift to US and Venezuelan sourcing.
• SHANTI Act: The 2025 Act replacing the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act discussed as the enabling framework for US civil nuclear access to India.
• Exercise Vayu Shakti: India's largest air-power exercise at Pokaran; over 120 aircraft including Rafale, Su-30 MKI, Tejas Mk1, Mirage-2000, Apache and Chinook participate.
• Bharat Taxi: India's first cooperative taxi service, driver-owned under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, launches nationally.

GS area: Economy (Energy), International Relations, Polity (Legislation)

The SHANTI Act 2025 replaced the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act (CLNDA) 2010. The change is at the centre of the India-US trade deal.

• CLNDA 2010's problem: Section 17(b) of the old law allowed the nuclear operator to claim compensation from the supplier if the equipment or material caused a nuclear accident. Foreign nuclear suppliers (primarily US firms like Westinghouse and GE-Hitachi) considered this an unlimited and uninsurable liability. That blocked civil nuclear cooperation under the 2008 US-India Civil Nuclear Agreement (the 123 Agreement).
• SHANTI Act 2025: Limits operator liability to ₹3,000 crore. Suppliers are exempt from liability. This matches the international standard under the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage (CSC).
• What it enables: US private companies and foreign operators can now invest in Indian nuclear plants. The budget's Biopharma SHAKTI and the AI data-centre sector both benefit from the prospect of additional baseload power.
• The criticism: ₹3,000 crore is far below any realistic disaster cost. The Chernobyl disaster cost is estimated at over $700 billion. Critics argue the Act socialises catastrophic risk onto the public.

Static linkage: Civil nuclear policy, CLNDA, US-India 123 Agreement (Economy/IR/Polity).

GS area: Security (Defence, Air power)

The Indian Air Force conducted Exercise Vayu Shakti, its largest periodic air-power demonstration, at the Pokaran air-to-ground range in Rajasthan.

• Scale: Over 120 aircraft participated. Platforms included Rafale, Su-30 MKI, Tejas Mk1 (LCA), Mirage-2000, Apache attack helicopters and Chinook heavy-lift helicopters.
• Purpose: Live demonstration of integrated strike, air defence and support capabilities. Vayu Shakti exercises are held periodically to showcase capability and doctrine to foreign observers and the public.
• Rafale in Vayu Shakti: India received the first batch of 36 Rafale fighters under the 2016 inter-governmental agreement. They are based at Ambala (air-superiority role) and Hasimara (eastern command).
• Tejas Mk1: The first domestically designed and manufactured supersonic fighter to enter IAF service. It is produced by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). Mk2 (with the F-414 engine from GE) is under development.
• Pokaran range: The same location where India conducted nuclear tests in 1974 (Pokhran-I, Operation Smiling Buddha) and 1998 (Pokhran-II, Operation Shakti).

Static linkage: India's air power, defence indigenisation, IAF (Security).

GS area: Economy (Cooperative sector, Gig economy, Labour)

Bharat Taxi (also called Sahakar Taxi Cooperative) launched as India's first cooperative-based taxi platform.

• Legal structure: Registered under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002. Unlike private platforms, the cooperative is owned by its driver members.
• Zero-commission model: Drivers pay a flat daily access fee (approximately ₹30 for cabs and ₹18 for autos) rather than a commission on each ride. This is structurally different from Ola and Uber, which charge 20-30 per cent of fare revenue.
• Social cover: Member drivers get ₹5 lakh accident cover and ₹5 lakh family health insurance. The Sarathi Didi and Bike Didi sub-initiatives target women drivers.
• Regulatory context: Gig and platform workers are defined under the Code on Social Security, 2020. They remain classified as self-employed, which keeps them outside Employees' State Insurance and other formal social security frameworks. Bharat Taxi's cooperative structure is an attempt to provide social security outside the ESI/PF system.
• Scale: 150 women drivers in the first cohort. National rollout across 50 cities planned.

Static linkage: Cooperative societies, gig economy, Code on Social Security (Economy/Labour).

GS area: International Relations, Economy

Beyond nuclear access, the interim trade deal includes specific energy commitments:

• Russian oil reduction: India commits to reduce Russian crude imports from 37.88 per cent of total imports to a lower share over the agreement period. The drop from pre-deal levels is already visible: Russia's share fell from 37.88 per cent to 32.18 per cent.
• US crude: Currently at 7.48 per cent of India's import basket. US LNG is already India's second-largest LNG source.
• Venezuelan sourcing: India agreed to shift some volumes from Russian suppliers to Venezuelan crude. Venezuela's Orinoco heavy crude requires refinery upgrades but is priced competitively.
• 2.2 million tonnes LPG: India signed an import agreement for 2.2 million tonnes per annum of US LPG. This represents roughly 10 per cent of India's total LPG imports.
• Dairy exclusion: Both core agricultural and dairy sectors remain outside zero-tariff provisions, protecting domestic producers of milk and milk products.

Static linkage: India-US relations, energy security, trade policy (IR/Economy).

GS area: Governance, Science and Technology

SabhaSaar is an AI-powered voice-to-text meeting summarisation platform for Gram Panchayats, launched on 14 August 2025 and now adopted by 1.11 lakh Gram Panchayats.

• What it does: Records panchayat meetings, converts speech to text in 13 Indian languages via BHASHINI integration, and produces structured minutes automatically.
• BHASHINI: The national language interface mission under the Digital India programme. It provides open APIs for multilingual AI services in Indian languages.
• Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2025 compliance: The platform stores meeting minutes. Compliance with the DPDP Act ensures that personal data mentioned in meetings is handled with required safeguards.
• Scale signal: 1.11 lakh panchayats out of roughly 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats nationally. This is a 44 per cent adoption rate in under six months.

Static linkage: Gram Panchayats, e-governance, BHASHINI (Governance/S&T).

GS area: Governance, Social Justice (Internal security)

Delhi reported 807 missing persons in the first 27 days of January 2026, an average of 27 per day. Of those, 137 were children and 120 were adolescent girls.

• Backlog: About 5,559 children reported missing in Delhi since 2015 remain untraced. Of recent cases, approximately 700 are unaccounted for after a decade.
• Recovery rate: Only about 11 per cent of missing children over the last decade were recovered. The figure reflects investigation and tracking failures.
• Trafficking nexus: The National Crime Records Bureau links many missing-children cases to organised human trafficking networks. Delhi's location as a transit point and destination amplifies the problem.
• Legal framework: The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO) covers exploitation offences. The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 covers trafficking broadly. The Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 governs care and protection of missing and at-risk children.

Static linkage: POCSO Act, human trafficking, child protection (Governance/Social Justice).

• Exercise Khanjar (13th edition): India-Kyrgyzstan special forces exercise in Assam. Special forces exchanges with Central Asian SCO members continue despite the broader geopolitical complications.
• Exercise Agni Pariksha: Joint training between the Army and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police in Arunachal Pradesh. The exercise focuses on artillery procedures in high-altitude terrain.
• Rafah Border Crossing: The only Gaza-Egypt border point not under Israeli control. It reopened under the ceasefire with EU monitoring and Israeli security oversight for humanitarian supply access.