Polity and Governance
SHINE Scheme:
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- Context: The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) launched the SHINE Scheme on its Foundation Day to empower women as quality ambassadors and strengthen consumer awareness on standards, safety and quality.
- What is the SHINE Scheme? The SHINE Scheme stands for “Standards Help Inform & Nurture Empowered Women” a new initiative by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution. Its objective is to empower women with knowledge on quality standards, safety, and consumer protection, positioning them as agents of quality awareness in households and communities.
- How does it work and what’s its focus? The scheme operates through structured training and grassroots outreach in partnership with Self Help Groups (SHGs) and NGOs. Women are trained on standards and safety so they can educate others in their communities, helping to prevent the use of substandard products and improve overall consumer welfare.
- Significance of SHINE in governance and consumer protection: SHINE aligns with larger goals of women’s empowerment and inclusive governance by making women “quality ambassadors”. It enhances consumer awareness about standards, promotes safe and quality products, and strengthens a culture of quality at the grassroots level expanding the role of BIS beyond industrial regulation into community engagement.
(PIB)
National Quality Assurance Standards:
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- Context: India has crossed the milestone of 50,000 public health facilities certified under the National Quality Assurance Standards (NQAS), reinforcing quality in public healthcare delivery across the country.
- What is NQAS? The National Quality Assurance Standards (NQAS) is a comprehensive quality framework established by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to assess and certify public health facilities based on quality, safety, and patient centred care benchmarks across all levels of the healthcare system, from Sub Health Centres to District Hospitals.
- Historic Milestone Achieved: As of 31 December 2025, India has achieved 50,373 certifications across all States and Union Territories, marking a significant scale up of quality assurance in public healthcare, a jump from just 10 certified facilities in 2015 to over 50,000.
- Strategic Importance: The rapid expansion of NQAS supports India’s goal of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) under the National Health Policy, 2017, ensuring equitable access to high quality, safe and patient centric healthcare, especially for poor, vulnerable and marginalised populations.
(PIB)
Science & Technology
Dust EXperiment (DEX):
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- Context: ISRO’s Dust EXperiment (DEX) has confirmed that interplanetary dust particles hit Earth’s atmosphere approximately every 16 minutes, providing critical insights into near Earth space and aiding future missions like Gaganyaan.
- About Dust EXperiment (DEX): Dust EXperiment (DEX) is India’s first indigenous cosmic dust detector, developed under the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in collaboration with the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad. It was deployed onboard the PSLV Orbital Experimental Module (POEM) of the PSLV C58 XPoSat mission.
- Scientific Finding: Using the hypervelocity detection principle, DEX detected microscopic interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) impacting near Earth orbit, showing that a dust particle strikes Earth’s atmosphere roughly every 1,000 seconds (approx. 16 minutes).
- Significance for Space Environment: These measurements help quantify the constant bombardment of cosmic dust, improving understanding of the space environment, which is vital for protecting satellites and spacecraft from high speed particle impacts.
- Relevance to Future Missions: Data from DEX contributes to space weather and environment modelling, crucial for planning and ensuring the safety of future human and robotic deep space missions, including Gaganyaan and missions to the Moon, Mars and Venus.
(IE)
Residue Upgradation Facility (RUF) and Hydrocracking Technology:
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- Context: Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) has commissioned a Residue Upgradation Facility (RUF) with advanced hydrocracking technology at its Visakh Refinery to increase distillate yield by up to 10%, boost refining margins and strengthen energy security.
- What is the Residue Upgradation Facility (RUF)? The RUF is a newly commissioned unit at HPCL’s Visakh Refinery that employs advanced LC Max based residue hydrocracking technology to convert low value bottom oils (residue) from crude refining into high value petroleum products, significantly improving output quality.
- Capacity and Technology: With a capacity of 3.55 million tonnes per annum (MMTPA), the RUF uses residue hydrocracking – a process of breaking heavy residue molecules using hydrogen under high pressure and temperature – to achieve around 93% conversion of bottom oils into valuable distillates.
- Impact on Distillate Yield: The facility enables the Visakh Refinery to increase its distillate yield by up to 10% compared to pre modernisation levels, thus producing more middle distillate fuels like diesel and jet fuel from the same crude input.
- Economic and Strategic Benefits: Higher distillate output and improved product slate enhance Gross Refining Margins (GRMs), reduce dependence on imported fuels (especially high speed diesel), strengthen supply chain resilience and support national energy security.
- Refining Complexity and Self Reliance: The commissioning of RUF has raised the refinery’s Nelson Complexity Index to around 11.6, placing Visakh Refinery among India’s more advanced deep conversion refineries. Many critical components were indigenously manufactured, aligning with the Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative.
(NIE)
Geography, environment and mapping
India becomes first country to commercially produce bio-bitumen:
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- Context: India has become the first country in the world to commercially produce bio bitumen, an eco-friendly road construction material derived from agricultural waste, marking a breakthrough in sustainable infrastructure and circular economy.
- Historic Sustainable Milestone: India has emerged as the first nation globally to commercially produce bio bitumen for road construction, an alternative to conventional petroleum based bitumen, developed through an indigenous technology transfer.
- Technology & Environmental Benefits: Bio bitumen is produced by processing agricultural residues (e.g., farm waste) via pyrolysis, converting biomass into bio oil that can partially replace crude oil derived bitumen. This helps reduce crop residue burning, carbon emissions, and dependence on imported bitumen, while supporting circular economy goals.
- Strategic & Economic Significance: Developed by research institutions like CSIR CRRI and CSIR IIP and transferred to industry for commercial production, bio bitumen supports sustainable infrastructure, reduces foreign exchange outflow on bitumen imports, and aligns with initiatives such as Green Highways and Viksit Bharat 2047.
(TBL)
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