CURRENT AFFAIRS

The Union Finance Minister has tabled the Securities Markets Code (SMC) Bill, 2025 in the Lok Sabha. The Bill, first proposed in the Union Budget 2021–22, has been referred to the Standing Committee on Finance for detailed scrutiny.

Recently, according to information provided by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Institute (CSIR-CFTRI), Mysuru, initiated four grant-funded projects related to the study and development of Annatto. The objective of these projects is to further the scientific understanding of natural food colors and their associated health benefits.

India is fast-tracking negotiations and signings of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with partners such as New Zealand, Russia, Oman, the EU, and others, despite evidence that earlier FTAs yielded limited trade benefits.

A profound structural shift is taking place in India's capital markets. Domestic savings are now replacing foreign institutional investors (FIIs), reducing Indian markets' dependence on volatile global capital.

The Prime Minister has urged citizens to actively participate in the ‘Your Money, Your Right’ movement—an initiative designed to help people reclaim their unclaimed deposits, insurance proceeds, mutual fund payouts, dividends, and other forgotten financial assets.

The year 2025 witnessed major disruptions across India’s transportation systems—severe train overcrowding, widespread flight cancellations, aviation safety concerns, and growing road congestion. These events highlight long-standing structural challenges of underinvestment, market concentration, and weak regulation, putting India’s mobility network under severe stress.

The World Inequality Report 2026, released by the World Inequality Lab (led by economists Thomas Piketty, Lucas Chancel, Emmanuel Saez & Gabriel Zucman), highlights widening income, wealth, gender, and climate inequalities across India and the world.

India recorded a strong 8.2% GDP growth, supported by robust manufacturing and services performance. However, the IMF graded India’s national income accounting system as ‘Grade C’, pointing to statistical limitations and structural data gaps.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), in its June 2025 report “Growing Retail Digital Payments (Value of Interoperability)”, has recognized India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) as the world’s largest retail fast payment system.

India’s persistent current account deficit (CAD) remains a structural challenge, yet the recent sharp weakening of the rupee is being driven not by the CAD but by severe stress in capital inflows. This shift highlights that India’s external vulnerability now lies in the capital account rather than the current account.