News In Short 26-05-2026

President Confers Padma Awards

Syllabus: GS1/Culture

In News

• President Droupadi Murmu conferred Padma Awards to 66 eminent personalities for the year 2026 at the first Civil Investiture Ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

More about the News

• The awards are announced annually on Republic Day. For 2026, the President approved 131 Padma Awards, including 5 Padma Vibhushan, 13 Padma Bhushan, and 113 Padma Shri. 
• Remaining awardees will be felicitated in a second ceremony later. 

Key Recipients

• Dharmendra Singh Deol was honoured with the Padma Vibhushan posthumously for contributions to art. N. 
• Rajam also received the Padma Vibhushan for contributions to music.
• Bhagat Singh Koshyari received the Padma Bhushan for public affairs. 
• Uday Kotak was awarded the Padma Bhushan for trade and industry.
• Harmanpreet Kaur received the Padma Shri for sports.
• Folk musician Taga Ram Bheel was conferred the Padma Shri award for keeping alive the legacy of the Algoza.

Source: TH

Pratas Islands 

Syllabus: GS1/Geography; GS2/International Relations

Context

• The Pratas Islands recently witnessed a maritime standoff between the coast guards of China and Taiwan.

About Pratas Islands

• Location: The Pratas Islands, also known as Dongsha Islands, are a group of coral atolls located in the northern part of the South China Sea.
  • The islands lie roughly midway between southern Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Chinese mainland.
  • The atoll is currently administered and controlled by Taiwan.
• Population: The islands are lightly populated and mainly host Taiwan’s coast guard personnel and research facilities.
• Ecological Importance: The area also includes the Dongsha Atoll National Park, which is known for its marine biodiversity and coral reef ecosystems.
• Strategic Importance: The islands are situated at the northern edge of the South China Sea, making them strategically significant for maritime surveillance and naval operations.

Source: IE

Launch of JEEVAN App and SHATAYU Geriatric Caregiver Dashboard

Syllabus: GS2/Governance

Context

• A mobile application JEEVAN (Joint Elderly Empowerment and Virtual Assistance Network) has been launched by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

About

• Aim: To strengthen support systems for senior citizens across the country. 
• Features of JEEVAN App: Information on Government schemes and welfare programmes, emergency assistance and details of senior citizen homes.
  • The platform has been designed with a user-friendly interface, simplified navigation and accessibility features.
• The ministry also launched Senior Holistic Care Assistance and Training for Your Utility (SHATAYU) Dashboard to support and strengthen caregiving services for senior citizens.
  • The platform is designed to enhance the safety, welfare, healthcare access and social inclusion of senior citizens across the country. 
  • It provides features such as information on the availability of Geriatric Caregivers in a particular district and the State for the senior citizens.

Source: AIR

Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (PMFME) Scheme

Syllabus: GS2/Government Initiatives

Context

• Ministry of Food Processing Industries, addressed a media interaction regarding the implementation and achievements of the Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (PMFME) Scheme.

About

• The PMFME Scheme was launched in 2020 under the Ministry of Food Processing Industries as part of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. 
• The scheme was conceptualised to address the challenges faced by India’s unorganised micro food processing sector.
• It is the centrally sponsored scheme, with an outlay of Rs. 10,000 crore, approved for implementation during 2020-21 to 2024-25 and has been extended till September 2026.
• The Scheme also operationalizes the One District One Product (ODOP) approach, enabling economies of scale in procurement, common services, and market linkage.
  • The scheme has so far identified 137 unique products across 726 districts in 35 States and Union Territories.
• Achievements: A total of 1,96,270 individual micro food processing enterprises have been supported under the Credit Linked Subsidy component with more than 40% of beneficiaries being women entrepreneurs.
  • Under Branding and Marketing support, 32 proposals and 40 ODOP brands have been approved, resulting in the launch of more than 200 food products. 
  • A total of 1,164 micro enterprises have directly benefited from branding and marketing assistance.

Source: PIB

Fractional Quantum Hall Effect (FQHE)

Syllabus: GS3/ Science and Technology

Context

• Recent advances in quantum materials, especially in twisted multilayer graphene, have enabled physicists to recreate the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect (FQHE) without extremely strong magnetic fields.

Hall Effect 

• The Hall Effect was discovered in 1879 by Edwin Hall.
• Principle: When electrons move through a conductor under a magnetic field, they experience a sideways force known as the Lorentz force.
  • This force causes electric charges to accumulate on one side of the material, producing a transverse voltage called the Hall voltage.
  • The Hall Effect helped scientists understand the nature of electric charge carriers in materials.

What is the Quantum Hall Effect (QHE)?

• The Quantum Hall Effect (QHE) is a quantum mechanical version of the Hall Effect observed in two-dimensional electron systems under extremely low temperatures and very strong magnetic fields.
• In ordinary conditions, electrical resistance changes smoothly with changes in magnetic field strength.
  • However, under quantum conditions, the Hall resistance changes only in discrete steps rather than continuously. This phenomenon is known as quantisation of Hall resistance.
• The Quantum Hall Effect demonstrated that electron behaviour at microscopic scales follows the principles of quantum mechanics.
• Integer Quantum Hall Effect (IQHE): In the Integer Quantum Hall Effect, the Hall resistance takes only whole-number values such as 1, 2, 3, etc.
  • The effect occurs because electrons occupy discrete energy levels known as Landau levels under strong magnetic fields.
• Fractional Quantum Hall Effect (FQHE): In the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect, the Hall resistance takes fractional values such as 1/3, 2/5, and 3/7.
  • The phenomenon occurs due to strong interactions between electrons, which form collective quantum states.
  • These collective states give rise to quasiparticles carrying fractional electric charge, known as anyons.

Applications of the Quantum Hall Effect (QHE)

• The Fractional Quantum Hall Effect produces quasiparticles called anyons, which are considered promising for fault-tolerant quantum computing.
  • Anyons can store quantum information in a more stable manner than ordinary quantum particles.
• The Quantum Hall Effect provides extremely precise measurements of electrical resistance. It is used internationally to define resistance standards in metrology.
• QHE has contributed significantly to research on advanced quantum materials such as Graphene.

Source: TH

Carbon-Free Ferrocene Breakthrough

Syllabus: GS3/ Science and Technology

Context

• Researchers from IIT Madras and Indian Institute of Science have synthesized a new carbon-free molecule with a structure similar to ferrocene, solving a chemistry puzzle that had remained unresolved for more than 70 years.

What is Ferrocene?

• Ferrocene is a chemical compound discovered in the 1950s with a unique sandwich structure.
• It consists of an iron atom placed between two carbon-ring molecules.
• Ferrocene is an important compound in organometallic chemistry due to its high stability and unusual bonding.
• It is used in medicines, batteries, catalysts, advanced materials, and electronics.

What is the new Discovery?

• Researchers synthesized a completely carbon-free molecule similar to ferrocene.
• In the new molecule, Osmium replaces iron at the centre and Boron-based rings replace carbon rings.
• The discovery solved a scientific puzzle that had remained unresolved for more than seven decades.

Significance of the Discovery

• The breakthrough proves that stable ferrocene-like sandwich structures can exist without carbon.
• It expands scientific understanding of chemical bonding and molecular stability.
• The discovery opens new possibilities in advanced materials, nanotechnology, catalysis, and electronics.

Source: IE

Oreshnik Missile

Syllabus: GS3/Defence

Context

• Russia used its powerful Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile in an overnight missile and drone attack on Kyiv, Ukraine.

About

• Oreshnik is an intermediate-range hypersonic weapon believed to be based on Russia’s RS-26 Rubezh system. It can carry both nuclear and conventional warheads. 
• Its strike range is estimated between 3,000 and 5,500 kilometres, allowing it to target large parts of Europe.
• It is almost impossible for modern air defence systems to intercept the missile owing to its speed of Mach 10, or nearly 2.5–3 kilometres per second.
• What makes Oreshnik especially significant is its ability to carry multiple warheads capable of striking different targets simultaneously, a feature generally associated with Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs).

Do you know?

• Oreshnik’s range falls within the category once banned under the Cold War-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, from which the United States withdrew in 2019, followed later by Russia. 

Source: HT

Deaths Caused by Lightning have been Consistently Rising

Syllabus: GS3/Disaster Management

Context

• Lightning has emerged as the most lethal natural hazard in India, with the number of fatalities rising consistently over the years.

About

• A review of reports published by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) showed that the country reported a total of 1,02,263 deaths due to lightning in the 50-year-period between 1975 and 2024.
  • Over half of these deaths happened between 2005 and 2024.
• From 2016, lightning accounted for at least 50% of all deaths due to natural causes while cyclones and floods accounted for fewer. 
• State-wise trends show that the majority of deaths caused by lightning happened in non-peninsular States.
  • In 2024, five States — Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh — accounted for nearly 60% of total deaths.

What is Lightning?

• It is a giant spark of electricity in the atmosphere between clouds, the air, or the ground. 
• The thunderclouds possess millions of volts of electrical charge and different polarity within the cloud itself. 
• In the early stages of development, air acts as an insulator between the positive and negative charges in the cloud and between the cloud and the ground. 
• When the opposite charge builds up enough, this insulating capacity of air breaks down and there is a rapid discharge of electricity known as lightning. 
• Lightning can occur between opposite charges within the thunderstorm cloud (intra-cloud lightning) or between opposite charges in the cloud and on the ground (cloud-to-ground lightning).

• The atmospheric conditions are quite conducive for formation of severe thunderstorms in the pre – monsoon season. 

Forecasts and Awareness 

• The India Meteorological Department currently provides thunderstorm forecasts, while the IITM provides real-time alerts on lightning through its mobile application Damini.
  • The app also shares precautionary guidelines during thunderstorms in 23 regional languages, making safety information more accessible. 
• The increasing fatalities emphasise the need for creating more awareness among the public on precautions to be taken during lightning attacks.

Source: TH