31 May 2026

• Exams: NTA's CUET-UG faced a technical glitch leaving 3,765 candidates without a test; CBSE on-screen marking drew controversy over a fall in pass rates.
• Energy: the government announced Rs 37,500 crore in incentives for coal gasification, targeting 100 million tonnes by 2030.
• Health: NFHS-6 NCD data showed obesity and diabetes rising sharply, and C-sections at 62.2 per cent in Telangana.
• Defence: BrahMos recorded its first export delivery to the Philippines; Cyprus expressed interest.
• Finance: the RBI announced a "Kill Switch" allowing account holders to freeze all digital payment channels instantly against fraud.

GS area: Polity (governance, education, examination bodies)

The Common University Entrance Test (Undergraduate) first shift was disrupted by a technical failure attributable to the examination technology vendor, leaving 3,765 candidates unable to attempt their paper.

• Vendor: TCS iON: Technology Corporation Solutions' iON division was the examination management vendor. The failure occurred during the candidate login and question-loading phase before the first shift could begin at affected centres.
• NTA's role: the National Testing Agency administers CUET-UG alongside NEET, JEE, NET, and other central examinations. Together these affect over one crore candidates annually.
• One-time retest: the NTA announced an immediate one-time retest for the 3,765 affected candidates. No fee will be charged and the retest will be held at the original centre.
• Accountability question: the CUET technical failure compounds the NEET paper leak controversy and the NEET CBT transition order. The common thread is inadequate vendor oversight and the absence of statutory accountability mechanisms for NTA as a registered society.
• Scale of NTA operations: CUET-UG replaced the individual entrance examinations of central universities from 2022. It now covers over 200 universities and approximately 50,000 courses, making it one of the largest higher-education entrance examinations in the world.

Static linkage: NTA, examination governance, higher education, accountability.

GS area: Governance (education, technology adoption)

CBSE's Board Examination results for Class 10 and Class 12 showed the overall pass percentage fell from 88.39 to 85.29 per cent, triggering a parliamentary and legal controversy over the newly introduced on-screen marking system.

• On-screen marking: under this system, physical answer sheets are scanned and evaluators mark digitally on screen rather than on physical scripts. This is standard in high-stakes examinations globally (JEE advanced, GATE) but was rolled out across all CBSE subjects in 2026 without a pilot.
• Reported problems: evaluators and students alleged blurred or missing scanned pages, answers that appeared on screen but were not accessible to evaluators, and cases of answer sheets with no evaluator markings that received a score.
• Vendor controversy: COEMPT Eduteck was named as the on-screen marking system vendor. Opposition parties and teacher unions alleged the tender was irregularly awarded.
• Teacher training: evaluators received approximately 10 days of training before the new system was deployed. Experts in digital assessment design consider this grossly insufficient for a system processing millions of answer sheets.
• Fall in pass rates: whether the decline reflects the new marking system's errors or genuine student performance is disputed. CBSE argued that pass rates fluctuate annually. Critics argued the 3 percentage point fall in a single year without corresponding curriculum changes warrants investigation.

Static linkage: CBSE, public examination governance, technology in education, accountability.

GS area: Economy (energy, coal, import substitution)

The Cabinet approved a financial incentive scheme of Rs 37,500 crore to promote coal gasification, targeting 100 million tonnes of coal gasified annually by 2030.

• Coal gasification process: coal reacts with steam and limited oxygen at high temperatures to produce syngas, a mixture of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide. Syngas is then processed into downstream products.
• Downstream products: urea (fertiliser), methanol (fuel and chemical feedstock), ammonia (fertiliser), Substitute Natural Gas (replacing CNG and LNG), and hydrogen (clean fuel).
• Import substitution potential: the government estimates that gasification-based domestic production could substitute approximately Rs 3 lakh crore of imports annually in fertilisers, chemicals, and gas. India imports significant quantities of urea, LNG, and methanol.
• India's coal reserves: approximately 401 billion tonnes of coal reserves, the fifth largest in the world. Lignite reserves add approximately 47 billion tonnes. These are geologically concentrated in Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and West Bengal.
• Environmental trade-off: coal gasification with carbon capture and storage (CCS) can reduce net emissions. Without CCS, gasification is a carbon-intensive process. The incentive scheme does not mandate CCS, which is a gap in the climate-transition framing.
• National Coal Gasification Mission: this incentive scheme operates under the Mission, which sets the 100 million tonne target by 2030. Current gasification capacity is minimal.

Static linkage: coal policy, energy security, import substitution, coal reserves geography.

GS area: Health (NCDs, nutrition, NFHS)

NFHS-6 published state-level and national NCD indicators that show a significant deterioration in metabolic health across both urban and rural India.

• Obesity (women): rose from 24 per cent (NFHS-5) to 30.7 per cent. Nearly one in three women is now classified as obese by BMI criteria.
• Obesity (men): rose from 22.9 per cent to 27.3 per cent.
• Diabetes (women, medicated): rose from 13.5 per cent to 17.8 per cent. This measures only those on medication, meaning the undiagnosed prevalence is higher.
• Diabetes (men, medicated): rose from 15.6 per cent to 20.9 per cent. One in five adult men is now on diabetes medication.
• C-sections nationally: 27.2 per cent, against the WHO medically justified norm of 10 to 15 per cent. Private hospitals: 54.1 per cent. Public hospitals: 16.9 per cent. Telangana: 62.2 per cent.
• Child dietary adequacy (6 to 23 months): only 15.3 per cent of children in this age group receive an adequately diverse diet, meaning they receive foods from all recommended food groups. This tracks to early-childhood NCD risk factors including future obesity and metabolic syndrome.
• NCD-undernutrition double burden: India faces simultaneous obesity and undernutrition, with stunting at 29.3 per cent (undernutrition) and adult obesity above 27 per cent occurring in the same population. This is the "double burden of malnutrition."

Static linkage: NFHS, NCD burden, obesity, diabetes, double burden of malnutrition.

GS area: Health (government schemes, cardiac care)

Mission AMRIT (Affordable Medical Response and Intervention Technology) Cardiac Care demonstrated results from its Ludhiana pilot, offering a low-cost heart attack treatment model for primary and secondary care settings.

• STEMI: ST-elevation myocardial infarction (the most severe form of heart attack) kills quickly without treatment. Standard treatment in major cities is primary percutaneous coronary intervention (stenting), but this requires a catheterisation lab.
• Thrombolysis alternative: administering a clot-dissolving drug (thrombolytic agent) can open the blocked artery in the field or at a district hospital without a cath lab. Time from symptom onset to drug administration is critical.
• Ludhiana pilot results: approximately 900 of 1,900 STEMI patients in the district were thrombolysed through Mission AMRIT. The treatment cost to the patient is Rs 35,000, covered free under the scheme.
• Hub-and-spoke model: district hospitals and health centres diagnose via ECG (shared to the hub via WhatsApp), and a cardiologist at the hub remotely authorises thrombolysis. The spoke administers the drug.
• Drug: Tenecteplase: this is the thrombolytic agent used. It is a genetically modified tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) that can be given as a single intravenous injection, unlike older agents requiring long infusions.
• Scale-up target: the model is intended for replication across all tier-2 and tier-3 districts. India has approximately 3.5 to 4 million STEMI events annually, most of which receive no reperfusion therapy.

Static linkage: National Health Mission, cardiac care access, thrombolysis, hub-and-spoke model.

GS area: Science and Technology (defence exports, India-Russia)

India completed the first delivery of BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles to the Philippines, marking India's most significant defence export to date.

• BrahMos: a joint venture between DRDO (India) and NPO Mashinostroyenia (Russia), incorporated as BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited. The name combines the Brahmaputra and Moskva rivers.
• Specifications: supersonic cruise missile with a range of 290 km (extended versions exceed 450 km). Speed: approximately Mach 2.8. Versions: ship-launched, land-launched, air-launched, and submarine-launched.
• Philippines contract: signed in 2022, valued at approximately USD 375 million. The Philippines purchased the shore-based anti-ship version for its navy.
• Cyprus interest: Cyprus has expressed interest in a BrahMos package valued at approximately Rs 1.2 billion (approximately USD 145 million). This would be a NATO-adjacent purchase, with significant strategic implications for Russia-NATO dynamics.
• Defence export target: India aims for defence exports worth Rs 50,000 crore (approximately USD 6 billion) annually by 2029. Actual exports in 2024-25 were approximately Rs 21,083 crore.
• Make in India in defence: BrahMos is the flagship of India's defence joint-venture model. The export validates this model commercially.

Static linkage: BrahMos, India-Russia defence cooperation, defence exports, cruise missiles.

GS area: Economy (financial regulation, digital payments)

The Reserve Bank of India announced the Kill Switch mechanism, allowing bank account holders to immediately freeze all digital payment and banking channels to prevent fraud-in-progress.

• Activation channels: customers can activate the Kill Switch through the bank's mobile app, SMS, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) call, or internet banking portal. Multiple channels ensure access even if one is compromised.
• Channels frozen: UPI (Unified Payments Interface), IMPS (Immediate Payment Service), NEFT (National Electronic Funds Transfer), internet banking, and debit card transactions.
• Granular toggling: the mechanism allows selective freezing of specific channels rather than requiring a blanket freeze, allowing a customer to block UPI while keeping ATM withdrawals functional if the fraud is UPI-specific.
• Digital arrest scam context: "digital arrest" fraud involves callers impersonating police or regulatory officials who convince victims they are under investigation and coerce them into transferring funds. The Kill Switch gives victims a fast self-service exit.
• RBI's payment system oversight: the RBI regulates payment systems under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act 2007. Kill Switch is an operational directive to banks rather than a new statute.
• NPCI's role: the National Payments Corporation of India operates UPI, IMPS, and several other retail payment systems. The Kill Switch works at the bank level, instructing NPCI-operated rails to reject transactions from the frozen account.

Static linkage: RBI, payment systems, digital fraud, UPI, Payment and Settlement Systems Act.

GS area: Economy (technology, Aatmanirbhar Bharat)

NITI Aayog published a semiconductor roadmap targeting a domestic value chain of USD 120 to 150 billion by 2035, against a current import dependency of 90 to 95 per cent.

• Current state: India currently imports 90 to 95 per cent of its semiconductor requirements. Domestic demand is projected to reach USD 200 billion by 2035, making the import dependency both an economic and a national security issue.
• Design workforce: India hosts approximately 20 per cent of the global semiconductor design workforce, concentrated in cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune. This is a strong foundation but does not translate into domestic chip manufacturing.
• India Semiconductor Mission: launched in 2021 with a financial outlay of Rs 76,000 crore to support semiconductor fabrication (fabs), display fabs, packaging, and design infrastructure under the Semicon India programme.
• First fab approvals: Tata Electronics, CG Power (Renesas JV), and Kaynes Technology received approval for semiconductor assembly and test facilities. Tata is the first to build a full fabrication plant in partnership with PSMC of Taiwan, to be located in Dholera, Gujarat.
• Ecosystem gap: chip design capability and fab manufacturing are distinct. India's design strength does not automatically produce fab capacity, which requires massive capital investment (USD 10 to 20 billion per leading-edge fab) and deep process expertise.

Static linkage: India Semiconductor Mission, Aatmanirbhar Bharat, supply chain security, NITI Aayog.

• Myanmar President's India visit: the Myanmar President visited India with the bilateral border (approximately 1,640 km) and the Manipur situation as backdrop. Assam Rifles guards the India-Myanmar border. The Manipur National Highway 2 had faced blockade since May 13, making supply routes a live concern in the talks.
• Heatwave night warming (IMD data): nighttime temperatures are rising at approximately 0.21 degrees Celsius per decade nationally. Urban nighttime warming is faster at 0.53 degrees per decade. Warm nights prevent physiological recovery from daytime heat stress, making them more dangerous than peak daytime temperatures alone.
• AI and IT workforce: entry-level IT hiring fell from a 28 per cent share of new hires in 2024 to 15 per cent in 2025 as AI tools handle tasks previously assigned to junior developers. Utilisation of existing staff rose to 85 to 89 per cent. This structural shift is entering the UPSC Current Affairs syllabus as a labour market and technology policy question.