24 July 2026 Current Affairs (With PDF)

We bring you the most relevant and important news updates from around the world and India, specially curated for competitive exams and different entrance exams. Today's Current Affairs cover all significant national and international headlines, legal updates, economic news, and environmental highlights to boost your preparation. With our crisp, to-the-point coverage, you can confidently tackle current affairs questions in your exams.

Internet Shutdowns in India

The Union government suspended mobile internet services in parts of Central Delhi during the CJP’s ‘Chalo Sansad’ protest, renewing debate over the legal limits and constitutional safeguards governing internet shutdowns.

Extent of Internet Shutdowns in India

• India recorded 65 internet shutdowns in 2025, ranking second globally, with disruptions mainly linked to protests, conflicts, communal violence and religious events.
• Jammu and Kashmir and Manipur have historically witnessed frequent and prolonged internet shutdowns.
• Since 2016, India accounted for 920 of 2,102 recorded global shutdowns, nearly 44% of the total.
• India ranked ninth globally in the total duration of disruptions and incurred an estimated economic cost of $179.8 million in 2025.

Legal and Statutory Framework

• Section 20(2)(b) of the Telecommunications Act, 2023, read with the Telecommunications (Temporary Suspension of Services) Rules, 2024, governs internet shutdowns.
• Every suspension order must State the reasons for the shutdown; Specify a precise duration; and Clearly define the affected geographical area.
• Grounds: Emergencies, threats to sovereignty and integrity, national security concerns, risks to foreign relations, public disorder and incitement to offences.
• Competent Authority: Union or State Home Secretaries can issue shutdown orders. Joint Secretaries may do so only in urgent emergencies.
• Duration: A shutdown order is limited to 15 days and must be reviewed by a Review Committee within five days. However, repeated renewals may potentially enable prolonged disruptions through successive short-term orders.
• Telecom Compliance: Telecom service providers must appoint nodal officers in every State and Union Territory.

Judicial Safeguards

• Anuradha Bhasin v. Union of India (2020): The Supreme Court recognised the protection of online speech and trade under Articles 19(1)(a) and 19(1)(g). It held that indefinite internet shutdowns are impermissible and that restrictions must satisfy the principles of necessity, proportionality and least-restrictive means.
• Faheema Shirin v. State of Kerala (2019): The Kerala High Court recognised access to the Internet as part of the Right to Education and Right to Privacy under Article 21.
• Press Freedom: The Supreme Court has recognised press freedom as part of Article 19(1)(a) in cases such as Bennett Coleman & Co. v. Union of India (1972) and Indian Express Newspapers v. Union of India (1984).

Regulating Foreign Philanthropy Ecosystem in India

The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) has transformed India’s foreign philanthropy ecosystem from a largely opaque foreign-grant marketplace into a centralised, security-vetted framework for regulating overseas contributions.

Regulation of Foreign Philanthropy

• Registration Requirement: Under FCRA 2010, NGOs must obtain a five-year registration certificate or secure prior permission on a case-by-case basis from Ministry of Home Affairs before receiving foreign contributions.
• Sub-Granting Prohibition: Registered organisations cannot transfer or sub-grant foreign contributions to another domestic organisation.
• Purpose Tracking: Foreign funds must be used only for approved programmes and purposes. Diversion to unauthorised geographical areas or activities such as prohibited religious conversion is not permitted.
• Administrative Expenses: Administrative expenditure is capped at 20% of foreign contributions received.

State of Foreign Philanthropy in India

• Foreign Inflows: Annual foreign philanthropic contributions have increased from approximately ₹10,000 crore to nearly ₹22,000 crore over the past decade.
• Domestic Philanthropy: Domestic private philanthropy is estimated at around ₹1.18 lakh crore annually, exceeding foreign philanthropic inflows by more than five times.
• Registration: Only around 14,500 of the six lakh voluntary organisations listed on NGO Darpan have active FCRA registrations.
• Registration Attrition: Only 27.7% of organisations granted FCRA licences since 2012 are currently active.
• Geographical Concentration: Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh together receive nearly two-thirds of international philanthropic remittances.
• State Variation: Tamil Nadu has the highest number of active foreign-funded organisations, while Bihar has experienced the sharpest decline in active registrations.

Significance of Regulation

• Security and Infrastructure Protection: Restrictions on foreign-funded advocacy seek to prevent external financing from contributing to disruption of critical infrastructure or organised obstruction.
• End-Use Accountability: The prohibition on inter-organisational transfer of foreign contributions creates a direct accountability chain between the approved recipient and the final use of funds.
• Transparency: Periodic cancellation of inactive or non-compliant registrations helps eliminate dormant and potentially shell entities.
• Grassroots Focus: The administrative expenditure ceiling encourages organisations to direct a larger share of foreign funding towards development activities.

Key Challenges

• Approval Backlog: Delays in registration and renewal processes can stall the deployment of committed international grants.
• Entry Barrier: The requirement to demonstrate prior social expenditure can make it difficult for smaller and newly established organisations to access foreign philanthropy.
• Utilisation Requirement: Minimum spending thresholds may create difficulties for organisations maintaining reserves for long-term projects.
• Definition Ambiguity: The absence of clear statutory definitions regarding prohibited proselytisation practices may lead to uncertainty and arbitrary compliance concerns.
• Operational Bottlenecks: Routing foreign contributions through a single designated branch in New Delhi can create transaction delays and administrative difficulties for organisations operating in distant regions.

WTO Plurilateral Agreements

The European Union, Canada, the United Kingdom, Cambodia and Gambia have alleged that India is obstructing WTO reform by opposing plurilateral agreements concerning e-commerce and investment.

What are Plurilateral Agreements?

Plurilateral agreements are trade agreements negotiated voluntarily among a subset of WTO members, rather than the entire membership.

• Unlike core multilateral agreements that apply to all 166 WTO members, plurilateral agreements generally create rights and obligations only for participating countries that ratify them.
• Under Article X.9 of the Marrakesh Agreement, adding a new official plurilateral agreement to Annex 4 requires the explicit consensus of all WTO members.

Two Types of Plurilateral Agreements

Significance of Plurilateral Agreements

• Veto Circumvention: Allows willing coalitions to negotiate new rules without waiting for consensus among all WTO members.
• Regulatory Innovation: Enables countries to develop rules in emerging areas such as e-commerce and investment facilitation.
• Gridlock Management: Isolates new negotiations from long-standing disputes in traditional areas of WTO negotiations.
• Regulatory Experimentation: Smaller groups can test and refine complex trade disciplines before wider adoption.
• Multilateral System Preservation: Keeping agreements within the WTO framework may prevent major economies from shifting entirely towards exclusive regional trade blocs.

India’s Concerns

• Consensus Principle: India argues that bypassing the consensus-based decision-making structure could undermine the equal-voice architecture of the WTO.
• Legal Mandate: India has questioned negotiations launched without an explicit ministerial mandate and their integration into the WTO legal framework.
• Special and Differential Treatment: Uniform plurilateral obligations may dilute the flexibilities traditionally available to developing countries.
• Institutional Fragmentation: Exclusive agreements could create a multi-tier WTO, potentially disadvantaging non-participating members.
• Negotiating Mandate: India argues that reviving subjects previously removed from the WTO negotiating agenda through plurilateral channels may conflict with earlier ministerial decisions.

Amendment to Environment Impact Assessment Notification, 2006

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has restructured the environmental clearance framework under the EIA Notification, 2006 to address delays and administrative gaps in the appraisal of Category B projects.

Objective

• The framework seeks to prevent delays caused by non-functional, expired or slow-performing State-level environmental appraisal bodies.

New Backup Appraisal Mechanism

1. Two permanent backup entities have been established for each State/UT:

• Standing Authority on Environment Impact Assessment (SAEIA): Performs the functions of the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA).
• Standing Committee on Environment Impact Appraisal (SCEIA): Performs the functions of the State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC).

2. Tenure:

• These interim bodies will function for six months, extendable by another six months, with a maximum cumulative tenure of one year.

Changes in Tenure and Eligibility

• The tenure of members of SEIAA, Central EAC and SEAC has been increased from three to four years.
• Members may serve a maximum of two terms.
• The standard upper age limit is 70 years, extendable to 75 years in exceptional cases where qualified personnel are unavailable.
• State governments must begin the renewal or reconstitution process six months before the expiry of existing bodies.

Accountability and Escalation

• The Central Government may remove members of the EAC, SEIAA or SEAC during their tenure for persistent and objectively established delays in processing environmental clearances.
• If a SEAC fails to complete appraisal within 120 days, the proposal will automatically escalate to the SCEIA through the PARIVESH portal.
• Category B projects will no longer automatically shift to the Central EAC merely because a state-level appraisal body becomes non-functional.

Key Concerns

• Independence: Greater reliance on ex-officio bureaucratic officials may reduce the role of independent environmental experts.
• Central Oversight: Automatic escalation mechanisms may bypass the established central appraisal structure.
• Speed versus Scientific Rigor: A fixed 120-day deadline may create pressure for rapid disposal of proposals rather than comprehensive scientific assessment.
• Environmental Governance: The effectiveness of the reform will depend on whether institutional continuity is achieved without compromising the independence and quality of environmental appraisal

Gor Boli’s Inclusion in the Eighth Schedule

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs informed Parliament about continuing demands for the inclusion of Gor Boli in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.

About Gor Boli

• Other Name: Lambadi
• Language Family: Indo-Aryan
• Major Speakers: Primarily the Banjara community.
• States of Usage: Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.
• Script: It has no standardised indigenous script and is generally written using Devanagari, Telugu or Kannada scripts.

About the Banjara Community

• The Banjaras are also known as Lambadi, Lambani, Vanjara and Sugali. Traditionally, they were a nomadic trading and pastoral community believed to have originated from the Mewar region of Rajasthan.

Eighth Schedule of the Constitution

1. The Eighth Schedule lists the recognised scheduled languages of India and is linked to:

• Article 344(1): Deals with the Commission and Committee on official language.
• Article 351: Directs the Union to promote the spread and development of Hindi.

2. Evolution of Scheduled Languages

• Originally: 14 languages
• Current: 22 languages

3. Important additions include:

• 21st Constitutional Amendment Act, 1967: Sindhi
• 71st Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992: Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali
• 92nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 2003: Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali

Criteria for Inclusion

• There is no constitutionally prescribed fixed criterion for inclusion of a language in the Eighth Schedule. This position has been highlighted by the Ashok Pahwa Committee (1996) and the Sitakant Mohapatra Committee (2003).

GREAT Scheme

The Ministry of Textiles is implementing the GREAT (Grant for Research and Entrepreneurship across Aspiring Innovators in Technical Textiles) scheme under the National Technical Textiles Mission to strengthen India’s technical textiles start-up ecosystem.

Objective

• Supports innovators, scientists and technologists in converting novel ideas and prototypes into commercially viable technical textile products.
• Aims to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in the technical textiles sector.

Funding Support

• Provides grant-in-aid of up to ₹50 lakh per start-up.
• The funding support is available for a period of 18 months.
• The Ministry provides an additional 10% of the grant amount to the designated incubator.

Priority Areas

• The scheme focuses on emerging areas such as High-performance fibres, Smart textiles, Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things (AI/IoT) integration, Biodegradable and sustainable materials

Eligibility

• Applicants must be incubated at a recognised incubator.
• The start-up must contribute at least 10% of the funding amount towards the project.

India’s First eVTOL Aircraft

The ePlane Company, a deep-tech startup incubated at IIT Madras, unveiled e200X (PT-01), India’s first full-scale prototype of an electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft.

What is eVTOL?

• An eVTOL aircraft uses electric propulsion to take off and land vertically, eliminating the need for conventional runways. It is a key technology for Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) and can enable faster, cleaner and more sustainable urban transportation.

Key Features of e200X (PT-01)

• Airframe: Lightweight carbon-fibre structure.
• Capacity: One pilot and two passengers, or up to 200 kg of cargo.
• Range: Approximately 110 km, suitable for urban and regional mobility.
• Infrastructure: Designed to operate from standard rooftops and helipads.
• Propulsion: Uses Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP).
• Safety: Separate fixed propellers for vertical and forward flight provide greater redundancy.

NSE’s Ahimsa Index

National Stock Exchange (NSE) launched the Nifty 500 Ahimsa Index, a thematic index that enables investors to gain exposure to companies whose business practices align with the principle of Ahimsa, or non-violence.

Key Features

• Covers the top 500 companies listed on the NSE.
• Focuses on businesses that do not engage in animal cruelty.
• It is the first index of its kind in India to offer investors an investment approach centred on avoiding companies associated with animal cruelty.
• Developed by the NSE in collaboration with the Ahimsagain Foundation, a non-profit organisation.

Moldova

President Droupadi Murmu arrived in Chișinău, marking the first-ever state visit by an Indian Head of State to Moldova.

• Capital: Chișinău
• Location: Landlocked country in Eastern Europe
• Moldova is not an EU member.
• It received EU candidate status in 2022.
• Transnistria is an internationally unrecognised breakaway territory located between the Dniester River and Ukraine. It is supported and controlled by Russia. It is often described as a remnant of the Soviet Union because of its strong Soviet-era political and institutional legacy.

North Macedonia

President Droupadi Murmu arrived in Skopje, marking the first visit by an Indian President to North Macedonia.

• Capital: Skopje
• Location: Landlocked country in the south-central Balkan Peninsula of Southeast Europe.
• North Macedonia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.
• It officially adopted the name North Macedonia in 2019 under the Prespa Agreement with Greece.
• The agreement resolved a long-standing dispute over the country’s name.
• It is an official candidate for European Union membership.
• It joined NATO in 2020.
• Lake Ohrid is located on the border between North Macedonia and Albania.
• It is among the oldest and deepest lakes in Europe.
• The lake and the surrounding region are recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

One-Liners

• Pickaxe Mountain: Pickaxe Mountain, known locally in Iran as Kuh-e Kolang Gaz La, is a heavily fortified underground nuclear facility located around 220 km south of Tehran and approximately 2 km from the Natanz nuclear facility. It is excavated deep inside the Zagros mountain range.
• Mission Senehjori: The Assam Government launched Mission Senehjori to strengthen the State’s iconic Muga silk ecosystem by converting silk waste into high-value spun yarn and generating new employment opportunities.
• Puga Valley Geothermal Wells: The ONGC Energy Centre has drilled India’s first and deepest geothermal wells, reaching 1,000 metres, at Puga Valley in Eastern Ladakh. The twin wells are crucial for the proposed 1 MW pilot geothermal power project at Puga.
• Geothermal Potential of India: The Geological Survey of India has identified around 340 geothermal sites, concentrated mainly in Himalayan region, including Puga and Chumathang, Son-Narmada-Tapti (SONATA) lineament, and the western coast.

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