17th July 2026

Explanation – The Double Contribution Convention addresses a long-standing problem: Indian workers in the UK were paying social security in both countries, even though UK benefits require 10 years of contributions, well beyond the typical 5-year stay of most Indian workers.

Under the DCC, Indian workers and their employers are exempted from UK social security contributions for five years, provided they continue paying in India. This benefits roughly 75,000 Indian professionals and over 900 firms. About 90% of Indian workers in the UK will save close to 23% of their salaries that would otherwise go toward UK social security. Importantly, the DCC is not applicable to Indians who were already working in the UK before July 15, 2026.

Explanation – The Ladakh administration has announced the constitution of an Autonomous Hill Development Council (AHDC) in each of the Union Territory's seven districts. This has reopened debate over how political power should be distributed in the region, with civil society groups opposing the move even as they support decentralised governance.

What Has Been Announced? Recently, the Ladakh administration announced an AHDC for each of its seven districts. Earlier, such councils existed only in Leh and Kargil. The move follows the creation of five new districts — Drass, Sham, Nubra, Changthang and Zanskar — in April 2026. Govt officials called this a step towards democratic decentralisation. They also said the Centre and Ladakh had broadly agreed on a Union Territory-level representative body under a customised Article 371 framework, with legislative, executive, financial and administrative powers. The administration argues both moves are complementary. Section 3 of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council Act allows a council in every district.

How Powerful Are the Hill Councils? On paper, LAHDCs are among India's more powerful statutory district bodies. Under the 1997 Act, they handle district planning, budgets, development schemes, management of council land, and collection of local taxes. In practice, though, elected representatives across parties say the councils have lost relevance since UT status. Decision-making has reportedly shifted to the Lieutenant Governor's secretariat, land recommendations are often ignored, and council budgets and staff have been reduced. This creates a paradox: the government wants to increase councils from two to seven, while representatives say the existing ones need to be made functional first.

Explanation – The Cabinet has approved Rs. 1.27 lakh crore for the second edition of the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM 2.0), aimed at developing India's semiconductor design and manufacturing ecosystem.

Expected Outcomes:

• Investments of around Rs. 4 lakh crore are expected to be attracted.
• Semiconductor production worth Rs. 2 lakh crore during the scheme period.
• Self-reliance in indigenous chip production by the end of the programme.

Six Pillars of Semicon 2.0:

• Design of chips
• Development of chips
• Production of indigenous chips
• Support for raw material suppliers including minerals and gases
• Meeting chip requirements for AI devices
• Building end-to-end semiconductor value chain

Comparison with ISM 1.0: ISM 1.0 was allocated Rs. 76,000 crore. Under ISM 1.0, the government approved 12 projects with cumulative investments of around Rs. 1.64 lakh crore. Majority of investment came from Tata Electronics and its semiconductor arm.

Strategic Timing: The programme comes at a critical time when the world is facing a memory chip shortage, companies are working on enhancing production capacity, demand for AI-related chips is rising, and geopolitical tensions are affecting global supply chains.

Explanation – CapaCITIES Programme was launched in 2016. The Capacity Building Project on Low Carbon and Climate Resilient City Development in India (CapaCITIES) programme strengthens the capacities of Indian cities to promote low-carbon, climate-resilient urban development.

Funding: It is funded by the Embassy of Switzerland to India and Bhutan.

Implemented By: The initiative was implemented through a collaborative partnership involving ICLEI South Asia, South Pole and econcept.

Knowledge Partner: The National Institute of Urban Affairs.

Phases: First phase (2016–19) and second phase (2019–23).

Key Features:

• It has equipped Indian cities with the knowledge, tools, and institutional capacities to mainstream low carbon, climate-resilient development into urban governance.
• City Support: It has supported cities like Coimbatore, Thiruchirappalli, Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Vadodara, Udaipur and Siliguri and the state governments of Gujarat, Tamil Nadu.

•           Institutional Governance: Established permanent Net-Zero and Climate Action Cells in six project cities to enable long-term implementation, monitoring, and climate budgeting.

Explanation – The Ravidassias are a Dalit community of whom the bulk — nearly 12 lakhs — live in the Doaba region. The Dera Sachkhand Ballan, their largest dera with 20 lakh followers worldwide, was founded in the early 20th century by Baba Sant Pipal Das.

Once closely connected with Sikhism, the dera severed these decades-old ties in 2010 and announced they would follow the Ravidassia religion. The dera made the announcement on Guru Ravidas Jayanti in Varanasi. Guru Ravidas was a mystic poet saint of the Bhakti Movement from the 15th and 16th centuries and founded the Ravidassia religion.

From 2010, the Dera Sachkhand Ballan started replacing the Guru Granth Sahib with its own Granth, Amritbani, carrying 200 hymns of Guru Ravidas, in Ravidassia temples and gurdwaras.