VidBodh
हिन्दी — Read in HindiLatest edition: September 2026. Covered from 1 June to 30 September 2026. Next edition, October 2026, publishes on 5 November 2026.
The monthly magazine
8 lead articles · 68 new articles · 11 updates
LeadPrelims and MainsIndia's climate policy: NDCs, net zero and adaptation
The government restated in July 2026 India's enhanced climate targets for 2035, filed earlier in the year: a 47 per cent cut in the emissions intensity of GDP, 60 per cent of installed electricity capacity from non fossil sources, and a larger carbon sink.
LeadPrelims and MainsExtreme weather, monsoon and forecasting
Assam's eastern districts saw what the State called its worst floods in 60 years in July 2026, after a cloudburst in Nagaland. In the same month floods struck Jammu and Kashmir, Gujarat and Odisha, each from a different cause.
LeadPrelims and MainsEIA, clearances and pollution control law
The Supreme Court on 29 July 2026 struck down the Environment Ministry's office memorandum of July 2021, which had set a standard procedure for clearing projects that began work without environmental clearance.
LeadPrelims and MainsLaunch vehicles, satellites and applications
Vikram-1, built by Skyroot Aerospace of Hyderabad, lifted off from Sriharikota on 18 July 2026 and placed its payloads in low Earth orbit. It is the first privately built Indian rocket to reach orbit.
LeadPrelims and MainsVaccines and immunisation
The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation granted marketing authorisation to Qdenga in July 2026, the first dengue vaccine approved in India, for people aged 4 to 60.
LeadMainsMilitary platforms, drones and new weapons
Reports in July 2026 on the conflict between the United States and Iran showed that about nine in ten attack drones were shot down, yet each interceptor cost far more than the drone it destroyed. In the same month the Defence Acquisition Council cleared drone and counter drone systems for the Indian forces.
LeadPrelims and MainsSolar energy
A rule in force from 1 June 2026 requires solar projects under government schemes, net metering and open access to use cells made in India. India makes far fewer cells than modules, so by July many module factories stood idle for want of cells.
LeadPrelims and MainsCyber security and data protection
A ransomware group published about 19,000 files relating to the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in July 2026. The files were taken from a contractor's data held with a third party provider, and not from the plant's own network.
1.1.1The Great Indian BustardNewPrelims
The Great Indian Bustard, Ardeotis nigriceps, is a large ground dwelling grassland bird and the State bird of Rajasthan.
1.1.2White-bellied heronNewPrelims and Mains
The white-bellied heron (Ardea insignis) is Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List and is in Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
1.1.3Indian skimmerNewPrelims and Mains
The Indian skimmer, Rynchops albicollis, is an Endangered fish eating waterbird whose lower mandible is longer than the upper, which lets it skim the water surface in flight.
1.2.1Himalayan salamanderNewPrelims and Mains
The Himalayan salamander (Tylototriton himalayanus) is one of only three salamander species found in India.
1.3.1Animal Discoveries and Plant Discoveries 2025NewPrelims
The Zoological Survey of India and the Botanical Survey of India publish an annual account of species newly described from India and species recorded in the country for the first time; this subject holds the 2025 account.
2.1.1India's mangroves: what they are worth and what they loseNewPrelims and Mains
Blue carbon is the carbon stored by coastal ecosystems such as mangroves, salt marshes and seagrass, in the standing wood and in the waterlogged sediment below.
2.1.2MISHTINewPrelims and Mains
MISHTI, the Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats and Tangible Incomes, was launched on World Environment Day 2023 to restore about 540 sq km of mangroves along the coast.
2.2.1Forest firesNewPrelims and Mains
Forest fires in India are tracked through alerts that the Forest Survey of India (FSI) reads off satellite passes.
3.1.1National Board for WildlifeNewPrelims and Mains
The National Board for Wildlife is the apex statutory wildlife body under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, chaired by the Prime Minister with the Environment Minister as vice chairperson.
3.2.1WTO Agreement on Fisheries SubsidiesNewMains
The WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, adopted at the 12th World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference in Geneva in 2022, is the first WTO agreement with an environmental objective.
3.3.1Centre of Excellence on Human Wildlife ConflictNewPrelims and Mains
The Centre of Excellence is the national hub set up by the Environment Ministry for research and policy on human wildlife conflict, paired with a National Human Wildlife Conflict Portal that pools conflict data from the States.
4.1.1The 4.2 ka eventNewPrelims
The 4.2 ka event was an abrupt drought and cooling about 4,200 years ago recorded across continents, and it marks the start of the Meghalayan Age, the youngest stage of the Holocene.
4.2.1Mission MausamPrelims and Mains
22 Jul 2026The Bharat Forecast System now runs operationally at a horizontal resolution of 6 km, against about 12 km for the older global model. It issues forecasts for a cluster of panchayats rather than a district. Warnings travel as Common Alerting Protocol alerts through the SACHET app. PIB, 22 Jul 2026: PARLIAMENT QUESTION: BHARAT FORECAST SYSTEM (opens in a new tab) · PIB, 22 Jul 2026: PARLIAMENT QUESTION: IMPLEMENTATION OF MISSION MAUSAM (opens in a new tab) · PIB, 23 Jul 2026: PARLIAMENT QUESTION: IMPLEMENTATION OF MISSION MAUSAM (opens in a new tab)
5.1.1India's climate targets for 2035Lead
The government restated in July 2026 India's enhanced climate targets for 2035, filed earlier in the year: a 47 per cent cut in the emissions intensity of GDP, 60 per cent of installed electricity capacity from non fossil sources, and a larger carbon sink.
5.2.1Methane from paddyNewPrelims and Mains
Flooded paddy fields release methane because microbes in waterlogged soil break down organic matter without oxygen.
6.1.1Flue gas desulphurisation normsNewPrelims and Mains
Flue gas desulphurisation removes sulphur dioxide from a coal plant's exhaust, usually with a limestone slurry.
6.2.1Atal Bhujal YojanaNewPrelims and Mains
Atal Bhujal Yojana was a central scheme for community led groundwater management in water stressed blocks of seven States, in which every gram panchayat prepared a water budget and a water security plan.
6.2.2Jal Jeevan Mission 2.0Prelims and Mains
27 Jul 2026The Cabinet has extended the mission to December 2028 and raised the total outlay from ₹3.60 lakh crore to ₹8.69 lakh crore. As on 18 July 2026 about 82 per cent of rural households had tap water, against about 17 per cent in August 2019. PIB, 27 Jul 2026: 15.89 Crore Rural Households Connected to Functional Household Tap Connections Under JJM (opens in a new tab) · PIB, 30 Jul 2026: WATER QUALITY MANAGEMENT UNDER JAL JEEVAN MISSION (opens in a new tab)
6.3.1Lead and toxic sites near schoolsNewPrelims and Mains
Lead is a neurotoxin that lowers IQ and attention in children, and in Indian cities much of the exposure comes from informal recycling of lead batteries near where children live and study.
7.1.1Marine litter and microplasticsNewPrelims and Mains
Most marine plastic starts on land and reaches the sea through drains and rivers, and the National Centre for Coastal Research measures it on India's coast through a Clean Coast Index and surveys of microplastics.
8.1.1National CAMPANewPrelims and Mains
The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority holds and releases the money paid by users of diverted forest land, under the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016.
8.2.1Heat stress and milk yieldNewPrelims and Mains
Heat stress in dairy animals is the fall in milk yield that comes when heat and humidity act together.
9.1.1Clearance after the fact: the Supreme Court on ex post facto environmental clearanceLead
The Supreme Court on 29 July 2026 struck down the Environment Ministry's office memorandum of July 2021, which had set a standard procedure for clearing projects that began work without environmental clearance.
9.2.1Fortress conservationNewMains
Fortress conservation is the protection of wildlife by removing the communities that live in an area.
9.2.2Hasdeo Arand coal blocksNewPrelims and Mains
Hasdeo Arand in northern Chhattisgarh is one of central India's largest intact forests and overlies coal.
9.2.3Gram sabha consent for forest clearancePrelims and Mains
29 Jul 2026Recognition of community forest resource rights stands at under 10 per cent of the roughly 1,70,000 eligible villages, because shrines, burial grounds and several titles over one patch are counted. The requirement that rights be settled and the gram sabha consent before forest land is diverted has been reversed, so approval now comes first. Of 395 diversion proposals for large mining projects between 2009 and 2024 only 20 were rejected, none over unsettled rights. Frontline, 29 Jul 2026
9.3.1Mahanadi water disputeNewPrelims and Mains
The Mahanadi dispute between Chhattisgarh and Odisha went to a tribunal set up in 2018 under the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956, and the States may instead settle it by negotiation.
9.3.2Cauvery and MekedatuPrelims and Mains
30 Jul 2026The Cauvery Water Management Authority upheld a direction that Karnataka release 3,500 cusecs a day to Tamil Nadu. On Mekedatu the Centre told Parliament that the 2018 Supreme Court judgment does not require Karnataka to obtain other States' permission. But any revised project report needs appraisal by the Central Water Commission and the Authority's views. Mains: Karnataka often meets the annual quantity but not the monthly schedule, so compliance figures and distress can both be true. Frontline, 2 Aug 2026: The Cauvery Water Management Authority upheld a direction to release 3,500 cusecs daily to Tamil Nadu, and the Mekedatu project has reopened the question of whether a riparian State needs its neighbours' consent. (opens in a new tab)
10.1.1The floods of July 2026: cloudbursts, embankments and warningLead
Assam's eastern districts saw what the State called its worst floods in 60 years in July 2026, after a cloudburst in Nagaland. In the same month floods struck Jammu and Kashmir, Gujarat and Odisha, each from a different cause.
11.1.1Vikram-1: a private Indian rocket reaches orbitLead
Vikram-1, built by Skyroot Aerospace of Hyderabad, lifted off from Sriharikota on 18 July 2026 and placed its payloads in low Earth orbit. It is the first privately built Indian rocket to reach orbit.
11.2.1Science results from Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya-L1NewPrelims
Chandrayaan-3 landed near the lunar south pole in 2023 with a thermal probe, a spectrometer, a plasma probe and a seismometer, and Aditya-L1 observes the Sun from the first Lagrange point.
11.3.1Indian Astronomical Observatory, HanleNewPrelims
The Indian Astronomical Observatory at Hanle in Ladakh, at 4,517 metres, is run remotely from Bengaluru by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics and gives more than 250 usable nights a year with very little water vapour.
11.4.1India's re-entry rulesNewPrelims and Mains
India's first rules for the planned re entry of space objects were issued by IN-SPACe in 2026.
12.1.1Project KushaNewPrelims
Project Kusha is DRDO's long range surface to air missile system, with indigenous missiles, radars and command centre, in a class India has so far bought abroad.
12.1.2Pinaka Long Range Guided RocketNewPrelims
Pinaka is the Army's multi barrel rocket launcher, and its guided long range rocket fires from the launcher already in service, so one launcher can fire variants of different ranges.
12.1.3BrahMos exportsNewPrelims and Mains
BrahMos is a supersonic cruise missile made by a joint venture of DRDO and a Russian partner, so each export needs agreement on both sides; the Philippines was the first customer.
12.2.1Drones, autonomy and the cost of defenceLead
Reports in July 2026 on the conflict between the United States and Iran showed that about nine in ten attack drones were shot down, yet each interceptor cost far more than the drone it destroyed. In the same month the Defence Acquisition Council cleared drone and counter drone systems for the Indian forces.
12.2.2Micro gas turbine enginesBrief
23 Jul 2026India's first indigenous expendable turbojet of the 350 kg thrust class, designed by the Gas Turbine Research Establishment and built by a private firm, was delivered. PIB, 23 Jul 2026: Successful development of first indigenous Expendable Turbo Jet Engine of 350 kg thrust class (opens in a new tab)
12.2.3Airborne Early Warning and Control Mk IIBrief
22 Jul 2026DRDO's Centre for Air Borne Systems signed contracts to convert six A321 airliners into bare airframes and to build the radar and mission systems with an Indian private firm as development and production partner. PIB, 22 Jul 2026: DRDO inks two major contracts with Industry partners as part of AEW&C MK-II programme (opens in a new tab)
12.2.4The Navy's new hulls: Project 17A and the Mahe classBrief
22 Jul 2026INS Mahendragiri, the sixth Project 17A frigate, joined the Eastern Fleet. INS Malvan, the second Mahe class craft, was commissioned, and Machilipatnam was launched. PIB, 11 Jul 2026: Govt is committed to invest in next-gen tech while strengthening conventional capabilities: RM (opens in a new tab) · The Hindu, 6 Jul 2026: Stealth frigate Mahendragiri set to join Indian Navy (opens in a new tab) · PIB, 22 Jul 2026: INDIAN NAVY COMMISSIONS INS MALVAN, THE SECOND OF THE MAHE-CLASS ANTI-SUBMARINE WARFARE SHALLOW WATER CRAFT (opens in a new tab) · PIB, 29 Jul 2026: LAUNCH OF MACHILIPATNAM, THE SEVENTH OF THE MAHE-CLASS ANTI-SUBMARINE WARFARE SHALLOW WATER CRAFT (opens in a new tab)
13.1.2Chandipura virusNewPrelims and Mains
Chandipura virus is a rhabdovirus related to rabies, carried mainly by sandflies.
13.1.3Pandemic Agreement: pathogen access and benefit sharingNewPrelims
The Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing system links the sharing of pathogens with pandemic potential to the sharing of the vaccines, tests and treatments made from them.
13.1.4Zoonoses action planNewPrelims and Mains
The National Action Plan for Prevention and Control of Zoonoses is built on the One Health approach and names ten priority zoonoses.
13.2.1India's first dengue vaccineLead
The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation granted marketing authorisation to Qdenga in July 2026, the first dengue vaccine approved in India, for people aged 4 to 60.
13.3.1Codex Alimentarius CommissionNewPrelims
Codex is the joint food standards body of the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization, whose standards are the reference for food trade under the World Trade Organization.
13.3.2Cancer: notification and the global countNewPrelims and Mains
Making cancer a notifiable disease obliges doctors and hospitals to report every case to the State.
13.3.3National Family Health Survey 6Prelims and Mains
24 Jul 2026Institutional deliveries rose to 90.6 per cent and full immunisation of children aged 12 to 23 months to 87.1 per cent. Stunting among children under five fell to 29.3 per cent. Against this, 30.7 per cent of women and 27.3 per cent of men aged 15 to 49 are now overweight or obese. Mains: India now carries a double burden of undernutrition and metabolic disease. PIB, 24 Jul 2026: NFHS-6 Highlights Rising lifestyle diseases among Adults (opens in a new tab)
13.4.1Drones for tuberculosis samplesNewPrelims and Mains
i-DRONE is the Indian Council of Medical Research's programme for carrying medical samples and supplies by drone, tested for tuberculosis sputum samples in Telangana.
13.4.2Central licensing of cell and gene therapiesNewPrelims and Mains
Stem cell products, gene therapies and xenografts are licensed jointly by the central and State drug regulators under the Drugs Rules, 1945, as vaccines and recombinant medicines already are.
14.1.1Base editingNewPrelims and Mains
Base editing, developed in 2016, converts one DNA letter into another without cutting both strands, unlike CRISPR-Cas9.
14.2.1Genome edited crops: India's rule and the European lawNewPrelims and Mains
Genome editing makes edits classed as SDN-1, SDN-2 or SDN-3, and India exempts SDN-1 and SDN-2 edits, which leave no foreign DNA, from the rules for genetically modified organisms.
14.3.1India's bioeconomyNewPrelims and Mains
The bioeconomy is the part of the economy built on biological resources and biotechnology, from vaccines and biofuels to industrial enzymes.
15.1.1IndiaAI MissionNewPrelims and Mains
The IndiaAI Mission is the central programme for artificial intelligence capability.
15.2.1A proposed law on AINewPrelims and Mains
Artificial intelligence in India is governed through rules under the Information Technology Act, 2000, and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has been weighing a separate law covering synthetic content, agentic systems and sandboxes for high risk uses.
15.2.2Copyright in a machine generated workPrelims and Mains
24 Jul 2026In a case brought by a news agency against OpenAI, the Delhi High Court took the prima facie view that storing copyrighted work to train a language model falls within fair dealing. Its reason was that training supplies the work to no third party; it took the same view of outputs produced by retrieval augmented generation, and the ruling is interim. The Indian Express, 24 Jul 2026: Delhi High Court holds that training a large language model on copyrighted work is fair dealing (opens in a new tab)
15.2.3Export controls on frontier modelsBrief
3 Jul 2026A Chinese firm released a rival open weight model within a day of the restriction; controls work on scarce hardware, but published model weights cannot be withdrawn. The Hindu, 3 Jul 2026: Can caged frontier AI models outrun open ones? (opens in a new tab)
15.3.1Data centres: water, cooling and sitingNewPrelims and Mains
Data centres are cooled by carrying their heat away with water, which makes cooling the demand that meets a local limit first.
15.3.2Mobile Phone Manufacturing SchemeNewPrelims and Mains
The Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme succeeds the production linked incentive for large scale electronics, and pays a share of eligible sales.
15.3.3India's data centre capacityBrief
9 Jul 2026Gujarat notified India's first State data centre policy, for 2026 to 29, with support for captive desalination plants. The Hindu, 9 Jul 2026: 'Data centre capacity to jump to 12 GW as AI fuels demand' (opens in a new tab)
15.4.1Cyber security of critical infrastructure: the Kudankulam leakLead
A ransomware group published about 19,000 files relating to the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in July 2026. The files were taken from a contractor's data held with a third party provider, and not from the plant's own network.
15.4.2Sanchar Saathi, ASTR and ChakshuNewPrelims
Sanchar Saathi is the Department of Telecommunications portal against telecom fraud, ASTR is its artificial intelligence tool for finding suspicious connections, and Chakshu is its channel for citizens to report fraud calls and messages.
15.5.1Digital public infrastructure abroadNewMains
India offers its digital public infrastructure, such as DigiLocker and the payments and identity stack, to other countries through digital cooperation agreements.
16.1.1Bharat 6GNewPrelims and Mains
Bharat 6G is India's programme for the sixth generation of mobile technology, with a spectrum roadmap, a terahertz testbed and an alliance of research and industry bodies, working within the International Telecommunication Union's IMT-2030 framework.
17.1.1Solar manufacturing: modules without cellsLead
A rule in force from 1 June 2026 requires solar projects under government schemes, net metering and open access to use cells made in India. India makes far fewer cells than modules, so by July many module factories stood idle for want of cells.
17.2.1Wind energy in IndiaNewPrelims and Mains
Wind energy in India is the power drawn from India's installed wind capacity, in which India ranked fourth in the world at the end of 2025.
17.3.1Hydrogen fuel cell trainNewMains
India's first hydrogen train runs between Jind and Sonipat in Haryana on proton exchange membrane fuel cells.
17.3.2E20NewPrelims and Mains
E20 is petrol blended with 20 per cent anhydrous ethanol by volume, and since 1 April 2026 it is the only petrol sold in India, at a minimum Research Octane Number of 95.
17.4.1Mine closureNewPrelims and Mains
Scientific mine closure returns a worked out mine to farming, renewable energy or community use, paid for from a closure corpus held in escrow and governed by the Ministry of Coal's guidelines on progressive closure and monitoring after closure.
17.4.2Coal in the power mixNewPrelims and Mains
Coal and lignite supply about two thirds of India's electricity.
17.5.1Energy storage: batteries, targets and long durationNewPrelims and Mains
Energy storage does the firming a weather driven grid needs, holding the midday surplus until the evening peak.
17.5.2Delhi Electric Vehicles Policy, 2026NewPrelims and Mains
Delhi's electric vehicle policy sets dates after which only electric vehicles of a given class may be registered in the city, beginning with three wheelers and light goods vehicles and then two wheelers.
18.1.1The Nuclear Energy MissionNewPrelims and Mains
The Nuclear Energy Mission, announced in the 2025 to 2026 Budget with Rs 20,000 crore, sets the target of 100 GWe of nuclear capacity by 2047, more than ten times what runs today.
18.1.2The Prototype Fast Breeder ReactorNewPrelims and Mains
The Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor at Kalpakkam is a 500 MWe sodium cooled fast reactor, about 90 per cent Indian built, run by BHAVINI.
18.1.3Uranium from AustraliaNewPrelims and Mains
Uranium from Australia is the supply India can buy under the civil nuclear cooperation agreement the two countries signed in 2015.
18.2.1Medical radioisotopesNewPrelims
Medical radioisotopes are the radioactive isotopes nuclear medicine uses for scans and treatment, and India makes its own in a research reactor rather than a dedicated one.
18.2.2Radiation in agriculture: mutation breeding and food irradiationNewPrelims
Mutation breeding exposes seeds to radiation to create changes within the crop's own genome, and the breeder then selects the plants worth keeping.
18.2.3United States and Saudi Arabia civil nuclear agreementNewPrelims and Mains
The United States and Saudi Arabia civil nuclear agreement is a 30 year agreement the two countries signed on 22 July.
19.1.1Critical mineral block auctionsNewPrelims and Mains
The Centre auctions blocks of critical minerals in tranches under the mining law amended in 2023, offering rare earths, lithium, graphite, vanadium, tungsten and potash among others.
19.1.2National Critical Mineral MissionNewPrelims and Mains
The National Critical Mineral Mission, approved in January 2025, is India's umbrella programme for critical mineral security.
20.1.1Traditional Knowledge Digital LibraryNewPrelims and Mains
The Traditional Knowledge Digital Library was set up in 2001 by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research with the Ministry of AYUSH.
20.2.1India's research spendingNewPrelims and Mains
India's research spending is its gross expenditure on research and development (GERD), paid by government and by private industry.
20.3.1India's Arctic policyNewMains
India's Arctic Policy of 2022 frames its work in the Arctic, where it runs the Himadri research station at Svalbard.
20.3.2Ocean observation and tsunami warningNewPrelims and Mains
The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services runs India's ocean observing network of buoys, current profilers, tide gauges and Argo floats.
21.1.1National Quantum MissionNewPrelims and Mains
The National Quantum Mission, approved in 2023 and run by the Department of Science and Technology, funds India's work in quantum technology through four thematic hubs, each led by an institute.
21.1.2Quantum advantage claim from IndiaNewPrelims and Mains
Quantum advantage is a result a quantum computer reaches faster than any known classical method.