Daily Current Affairs (DCA) 23 October, 2026

• Edition and venue: The 7th Agrivoltaics World Conference (AWC) 2026 was held at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, marking the first time India and the Global South hosted the conference.
• Meaning: Agrivoltaics refers to the combined use of the same land for agricultural crop production and solar photovoltaic electricity generation.
• Organising ministry: The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India, hosted the conference.
• Theme: “Powering the Global South.”

• The Index of Eight Core Industries recorded 7.9% growth in September 2026, its highest growth in the series and the second consecutive month of acceleration.
• Key growth drivers included electricity (11.4%), coal (10.7%) and refinery products (10.3%).
• The editorial cautions that the strong figures may be temporary and may not reflect sustained economic growth.
• Exam point: The Eight Core Industries are coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity.

• The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has eased rules for Early Pay-In (EPI), which allows investors to deliver shares before the normal settlement date.
• Shares delivered early can be used to meet the margin requirement for the related sale.
• The revised framework is scheduled to take effect on 22 February 2027.
• Brokers and clearing corporations have four months to update their systems.

• AU Small Finance Bank (AU SFB) partnered with Paytm to launch the Paytm AU SFB Credit Card, described in the supplied news as India’s first RuPay credit card offering family airport lounge access.
• The card has no joining or annual fee and supports digital payments, including eligible Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions.
• It offers up to 12 complimentary family lounge visits annually on eligible round-trip flights booked through Paytm.
• Rewards include up to 2% on eligible Paytm UPI transactions and 5% on eligible Paytm Travel bookings and gold purchases.

• Bank of Baroda (BoB) launched “bob Ke Sang Tyohaar Ki Umang – Shubh bhi, Labh bhi” to offer festive benefits on loans, savings products and debit card spending.
• Home loans start at 7.40% per annum, while car loans start at 7.85% per annum, according to the supplied news.
• The bob Green Wheels loan offers an additional interest concession for eligible electric vehicle buyers.
• Other offerings include loans for electric vehicle charging infrastructure and collateral-free financing for women entrepreneurs.

• The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) introduced Form 173A, effective 19 October 2026, under the Income-tax (Seventh Amendment) Rules, 2026.
• It aims to standardise reporting and improve verification of specified tax exemption claims on interest and capital gains from government securities.
• The form applies to eligible Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), subject to prescribed conditions.
• Part A records investor details, while Part B covers securities, holdings, transactions, interest income and capital gains.

Context of the News

UNEP released the Emissions Gap Report 2026: The Point of Return. Its central warning is that the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C limit without overshoot is no longer possible.

What Is the Report?

• The 17th edition of UNEP’s annual assessment
• It measures the gap between:
  • Emissions projected under countries’ current pledges
  • Emissions needed to meet the Paris temperature goals

Where Does India Stand?

On meeting its targets

• India is projected to achieve its 2030 and 2035 NDC targets under existing policies
• No additional measures are needed

On per capita emissions

Projected for 2035:

Important Facts for Exams

• Emissions Gap Report 2026: The Point of Return — UNEP’s 17th edition
• 1.5°C without overshoot is no longer possible
• Global emissions: about 58.4 GtCO₂e (2025), broadly flat
• Required cuts from 2025: 18 per cent by 2030, 45 per cent by 2035, 69 per cent by 2040
• Current 2035 NDCs leave a gap of 16 GtCO₂e, delivering only 11-15 per cent
• Projected warming: 2.8°C under existing policies; about 2.1°C if all pledges are met
• 320 GtCO₂ of carbon removal would be needed this century
• Solar deployment grew sevenfold faster than 2015 projections
• India will meet its 2030 and 2035 NDC targets under existing policies
• India’s projected 2035 per capita emissions: 3.6 tCO₂e, against China 9.3, Russia 11.5, Saudi Arabia 15.2
• India’s NDC: 45 per cent cut in emissions intensity by 2030 over 2005; 50 per cent non-fossil power capacity by 2030; net zero by 2070
• India crossed 300 GW non-fossil capacity in 2026; target 500 GW by 2030 and 900 GW by 2035
• UNEP — founded 1972 after the Stockholm Conference; headquartered at Nairobi, Kenya`

Context of the News

The Coal Controller Organisation received the SKOCH Gold Award 2026 for its SUVIKALP Mine Repurposing Tool, which helps plan the reuse of closed coal mines.

What Is SUVIKALP?

• An indigenous, data-driven tool
• It identifies and ranks sustainable alternative uses for closed and abandoned coal mines
• Developed by the Coal Controller Organisation, under the Ministry of Coal

What Is the Aim?

• Scientific mine closure
• Environmental restoration
• Livelihood generation
• Sustainable regional development

Context of the News

Google, Mozilla, Apple and Microsoft took emergency action to block digital certificates issued by eMudhra, after a serious cryptographic flaw came to light.

What Is eMudhra?

• Founded in 2008
• A CCA-licensed digital identity and security firm under the IT Act, 2000
• Holds nearly 38 per cent of India’s digital signature certificate market
• Issues TLS/SSL certificates and code-signing certificates

What does eMudhra do?

• Digital Signature Certificates (DSC): Used for online activities such as Goods and Services Tax (GST) filings, company filings and e-tendering.
• Electronic signatures: Help organisations approve and sign documents without printing them.
• Digital identity and verification: Help businesses verify customers and manage secure access.

What is a Digital Signature Certificate?

A Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) is an electronic certificate that helps verify the identity of a person or organisation and supports secure digital signing. For example, a company may use a DSC to sign documents while filing returns on a government portal instead of signing paper documents physically

• India and New Zealand signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) in October 2026 to exchange electronic data on the origin of goods traded between them.
• The arrangement supports customs coordination under the India–New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which, according to the supplied news, came into force on 20 October 2026.
• Rules of Origin determine whether goods qualify for preferential or reduced customs duties under an FTA.
• The agreement aims to reduce customs clearance time, transaction costs and information gaps, helping trade and Indian exports such as textiles and engineering goods.

• Conference: Representatives from 196 countries, Indigenous peoples, local communities and other stakeholders gathered in Yerevan, Armenia, for the 17th United Nations biodiversity conference.
• Main objective: To review global progress towards biodiversity conservation targets for 2030 and assess the action needed to address the decline in biodiversity caused by human activities.
• Key concern: Habitat destruction, pollution, climate change and the overuse of natural resources threaten biodiversity and ecosystem stability.
• Significance: The conference provides an opportunity to strengthen international cooperation and accelerate implementation of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

• The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) released its 2026 Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Gender Report, titled Gender Equity in Access to Education.
• The report examines school enrolment, completion rates and access to higher education, highlighting barriers such as poverty, child marriage and geographical disadvantages.
• In 2024, global gender parity had been achieved in pre-primary, primary and secondary enrolment, but inequalities remained in tertiary education and disadvantaged communities.
• Between 2000 and 2024, the share of countries with fewer than nine girls enrolled for every ten boys fell from 15% to 2% in primary education and from 18% to 5% in upper-secondary education.

• Launch: Union Education Minister Pralhad Joshi launched the registration portal for the fifth edition of Kashi Tamil Sangamam in October 2026.
• Theme: Thirukkural, the classical Tamil text written by poet and philosopher Thiruvalluvar.
• Objective: The programme aims to strengthen cultural and educational connections between Kashi (Varanasi) in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
• Cultural significance: Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently gifted a Russian translation of Thirukkural to Russian President Vladimir Putin during the BRICS Summit 2026.

• Edition and venue: The 33rd edition of the Singapore–India Maritime Bilateral Exercise (SIMBEX) commenced in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, in October 2026.
• Participating countries: India and Singapore, represented by their respective navies.
• Indian Navy ships: The opening ceremonies took place aboard INS Nilgiri and INS Kamorta.
• Objective: The exercise aims to improve maritime cooperation, tactical coordination and operational interoperability between the two navies, particularly in addressing shared security challenges in the Indo-Pacific region.

• Trigger: The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) invoked Stage I of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) after the Air Quality Index (AQI) entered the Poor category (201–300).
• Purpose: GRAP is an emergency framework that introduces progressively stricter measures to control air pollution across Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR).
• Background: GRAP was formally notified on 12 January 2017 by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, following Supreme Court directions in M. C. Mehta v. Union of India.
• Four stages: Stage I applies to Poor air quality (201–300), Stage II to Very Poor (301–400), Stage III to Severe (401–450), and Stage IV to Severe+ (above 450).

• The Digital India BHASHINI Division and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, developed text-to-speech models for Sourashtra, a minority Indo-Aryan language spoken mainly in Tamil Nadu.
• The four models use the Variational Inference with adversarial learning for end-to-end Text-to-Speech (VITS) architecture and generate speech at 22,050 hertz.
• The training corpus contains over 28 hours of recordings, with approximately 10,000 male and 11,400 female utterances.
• The models are available through BHASHINI’s AIKosh platform and can support language learning, accessibility, digital content creation and language preservation.

• The 25th Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government (CHG) of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) was held in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on 19–20 October 2026, under the chairmanship of Tajikistan’s Prime Minister Qohir Rasulzoda.
• Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh represented India.
• India announced that it would host the first SCO Civilisational Dialogue Forum by the end of 2026.
• Outcomes included a Joint Communiqué, an action plan for multilateral trade and economic cooperation for 2026–2030, and approval of the organisation’s 2027 budget.

• Renowned jeweller and craftsman Vummidi Ethiraj passed away at the age of 99 in Chennai in October 2026.
• He helped craft the historic Sengol, a silver sceptre coated with gold, in 1947 for presentation to India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.
• The Sengol symbolised the transfer of power from British rule to independent India and features a Nandi (bull) figure at the top.
• On 28 May 2023, Prime Minister Narendra Modi ceremonially installed the Sengol in India’s new Parliament building.

• Former Prasar Bharati Chairman Surya Prakash released Harsaran Bir Kaur Pandey’s book, The Evolution of TV News in India: From Doordarshan to Digital Disruption – An Insider’s Account.
• Published by Om Books International, the book traces nearly five decades of Indian television journalism.
• It covers the growth of Doordarshan, satellite television, private news channels, 24-hour news and digital media.
• The book also discusses television coverage of major events, including the Emergency of 1975–1977, the Jayaprakash Narayan Movement and Operation Blue Star.

• World Iodine Deficiency Day, also known as Global Iodine Deficiency Disorders Prevention Day, is observed annually on 21 October.
• It raises awareness about iodine deficiency and its effects on health, growth and brain development.
• Iodine is essential for producing the thyroid hormones triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4), which regulate metabolism and development.
• Global efforts to prevent iodine deficiency gained momentum at the 1990 World Summit for Children, with support from the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF.