Current affairs relevant to GS3.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the National Investment Policy for Urea-2026 for Atmanirbhar Bharat (NIPU-2026) on 15 July 2026. It aims to draw investment into new gas-based urea plants. Compared with NIP-2012, it separates fixed and variable costs, sets a 12% to 16% return-on-equity band, and cuts foreign-exchange risk.
15 Jul 2026
MoSPI's Periodic Labour Force Survey bulletin for June 2026, released on 15 July, shows the labour force participation rate at 54.4%, the worker population ratio at 51.4% and the unemployment rate at 5.5%, all unchanged from May. Female LFPR was 32.7%, up 0.7 percentage points on June 2025. Urban unemployment rose to 6.6%.
15 Jul 2026
Decongestion of a pilgrim city.
15 Jul 2026
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved a 43.218 km link corridor along the River Varuna in Varanasi on 15 July 2026. It connects NH-31 and the Varanasi Ring Road. NHAI will build the 6/4-lane, mostly elevated road on the Hybrid Annuity Model at ₹10,998.32 crore, cutting NH-31 to Kashi Railway Station travel time from about 40 to 20 minutes.
15 Jul 2026
The Union Cabinet approved Semicon 2.0 on 15 July 2026 with a budget outlay of ₹1,27,500 crore to build India's semiconductor design and manufacturing ecosystem. It rests on six pillars: design, machines and materials, more fabs, ATMP/OSAT, R&D and talent. Under Semicon 1.0, twelve units worth over ₹1.64 lakh crore were approved.
15 Jul 2026
The Ministry of Mines launched the eighth tranche of critical and strategic mineral block auctions on 15 July 2026, it announced a day earlier. The tranche has 20 blocks in nine States: 13 new and 7 offered a second time. Across seven earlier tranches, 56 of 88 blocks were auctioned, a success rate of over 63%.
14 Jul 2026
MoSPI released its first trial Index of Services Production (ISP) on 14 July 2026, for April 2026. It covers 19 sub-sectors, about 60% of the services sector, with base year 2024-25. 14 of the 19 grew at double digits over April 2025. From now on, the ISP will be released on the 29th of every month.
14 Jul 2026
The North Eastern Space Applications Centre (NESAC) at Umiam, Meghalaya, is contributing to geospatial mapping of the India-Myanmar border and inter-State boundaries in the Northeast, the Minister for Space said on 14 July 2026. NESAC has nearly 130 projects, around 50 recently completed and 78 ongoing, across the eight north-eastern States.
14 Jul 2026
On 14 July 2026 the Railway Minister announced eight more structural reforms under the "Reform Express", taking the total to 17 against a target of 52 reforms in 52 weeks. They cover containerised fly ash, a single pan-India container train licence, simpler freight for fertilisers and foodgrains, private wagon designs, oil-company tank wagons, artisan skilling and construction rules.
14 Jul 2026
More than 8.9 crore enterprises, employing over 38 crore people, are registered on the Udyam Registration Portal and the Udyam Assist Platform, the MSME Ministry said on 14 July 2026. Udyam gives MSMEs a free, paperless identity. Udyam Assist brings informal micro units without GST or income-tax cover into the formal economy.
14 Jul 2026