In News:

The Rajya Sabha passed the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Bill, 2026, increasing the sanctioned strength of the Supreme Court from 34 to 38 judges, including the Chief Justice of India. However, its passage as a Money Bill has raised concerns regarding the use of the Money Bill route to limit the role of the Rajya Sabha.

What is a Money Bill?

• A Money Bill is a specific category of financial legislation dealing exclusively with matters such as taxation, government borrowing, expenditure and the Consolidated Fund of India. Its special procedure gives the Lok Sabha primacy, while the Rajya Sabha has a restricted role.
• Under Article 110(1), a Bill qualifies as a Money Bill only when it contains provisions dealing with specified financial matters, including taxation, government borrowing, appropriation from the Consolidated Fund, custody or withdrawal of public funds, and matters incidental to these provisions.

Special Procedure for Money Bills

• The Constitution provides a distinct procedure under Article 109. A Money Bill can be introduced only in the Lok Sabha and requires the prior recommendation of the President. The Speaker of the Lok Sabha certifies whether a Bill is a Money Bill under Article 110(3).
• Once passed by the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha has only 14 days to return the Bill with recommendations. It cannot reject or amend the Bill, and the Lok Sabha may accept or reject its recommendations. There is also no provision for a joint sitting in case of disagreement.

Why is the Money Bill Route Controversial?

• The controversy arises because Article 110 requires a Money Bill to contain only provisions relating to the specified financial matters. Critics argue that governments may use the incidental matters clause under Article 110(1)(g) to bring legislation containing broader policy or institutional changes within the Money Bill framework.
• This becomes significant because the route can effectively bypass detailed scrutiny by the Rajya Sabha, thereby affecting the federal and bicameral character of Parliament.
• Several major legislations, including the Aadhaar Act, 2016, amendments to the PMLA framework and the Tribunals reforms, have faced challenges regarding their classification as Money Bills.
• The issue has also acquired constitutional significance following the 2018 Aadhaar judgment, in which Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, in dissent, described the use of the Money Bill route for a non-financial structural law as a “fraud on the Constitution.” A seven-judge Constitution Bench is examining the broader constitutional parameters governing Money Bill certification.

In News:

Recently, the Union Cabinet approved the GOBARdhan Scheme, a national circular bioenergy initiative aimed at developing a nationwide waste-to-energy ecosystem and significantly expanding India’s Compressed Biogas (CBG) production.

About GOBARdhan Scheme

• GOBARdhan stands for Galvanising Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan. The scheme seeks to convert organic and agricultural waste into useful energy and other value-added products, thereby promoting a circular bioeconomy.
• It aims to increase domestic CBG production nearly ten-fold, attract large-scale private investment and establish CBG as an important component of India’s future energy mix.
• The scheme will be implemented from FY 2026–27 to FY 2035–36.
• Nodal Ministry: Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

Key Components

The scheme focuses on creating a complete CBG ecosystem rather than providing support only to individual plants.

• Assured CBG Offtake: City Gas Distribution entities will follow a notified CBG blending obligation of 3% in FY 2026–27, 4% in FY 2027–28 and 5% from FY 2028–29 onwards in the CNG and PNG segments.
• Stable Pricing: A government-backed pricing framework provides for an administered CBG price of ?2,110 per MMBTU, offering greater predictability to producers.
• Capital Assistance: Eligible greenfield CBG projects can receive assistance of up to ?2 crore per tonne per day (TPD) of installed CBG capacity. Support also covers feedstock aggregation, organic manure processing and other value-chain infrastructure. Brownfield capacity expansion is also eligible.
• Pipeline Infrastructure: The scheme supports cluster-based as well as standalone pipelines connecting CBG plants with trunk pipelines and City Gas Distribution networks.
• Credit Guarantee: A dedicated credit guarantee mechanism is intended to improve lender confidence and increase institutional credit for eligible MSME-based CBG projects.
• CBG Ecosystem Challenge Fund: The fund will promote district-level implementation and strengthen local feedstock and value chains associated with CBG production.

In News:

Researchers from the Double Chooz Collaboration in France have reported the first high-precision measurement of the energy signature of antineutrinos emitted by spent nuclear fuel. The finding could provide a new method for the remote monitoring and verification of nuclear facilities.

What are Neutrinos and Antineutrinos?

• Neutrinos are extremely light, electrically neutral subatomic particles that interact very weakly with matter. As a result, enormous numbers of them can pass through matter, including the human body, with very little interaction.
• During nuclear fission, large quantities of antineutrinos are produced. Importantly, antineutrino emissions do not stop immediately when a nuclear reactor is shut down.

Antineutrinos from Spent Nuclear Fuel

• Radioactive isotopes present in partially used and spent nuclear fuel continue to undergo radioactive decay and emit antineutrinos. Isotopes such as praseodymium-144 and rhodium-106 contribute to this residual antineutrino flux.
• The Double Chooz study detected this residual signal and found that approximately 56% originated from fuel in reactor cores, while 44% came from spent fuel stored in nearby cooling pools.

Significance for Nuclear Safeguards

The predictable antineutrino signal could potentially act as a remote fingerprint of nuclear fuel inventories. Any significant change in the detected flux could indicate the movement or removal of fuel assemblies, allowing inspectors to monitor facilities without directly accessing them.

In the future, neutrino detectors could potentially help estimate plutonium content in reactor cores and detect premature fuel removal that could be associated with attempts to produce weapons-grade plutonium. Thus, the technology has potential applications in nuclear safeguards and non-proliferation.

In News:

The RBI is set to resume ‘on-tap’ licensing of Urban Cooperative Banks (UCBs) after more than two decades. Draft guidelines were released in August 2026 for stakeholder consultation. The move aims to strengthen the cooperative banking sector while ensuring stronger capital, governance and financial stability.

Key Provisions

• The proposed framework seeks to ensure that only financially sound and experienced cooperative societies can enter banking.
• Applicants must have at least 10 years of active operations, a minimum deposit base of ?10,000 crore, net worth of ?300 crore, CRAR of at least 12% and net NPA of not more than 3% at the time of licensing.
• The RBI will initially give preference to societies registered under the Multi-State Co-operative Societies Act, 2002.
• The licensing framework comes against the background of the earlier pause on new UCB licences in 2004, following concerns arising from the rapid expansion under the 1993–2001 liberalised licensing regime, including governance weaknesses and financial instability.

Strengthening the UCB Ecosystem

The National Urban Cooperative Finance and Development Corporation (NUCFDC), an RBI-registered NBFC and umbrella organisation for UCBs, is being promoted to provide shared digital banking infrastructure, cybersecurity, liquidity support, regulatory assistance and capacity building.

At the same time, the RBI has proposed rationalisation of the MCLR and EBLR frameworks to standardise interest-rate calculation and benchmark resets, improving transparency, loan pricing and monetary policy transmission.

Urban Cooperative Banks (UCBs)

• UCBs operate mainly in urban and semi-urban areas, serving small borrowers, MSMEs and retail customers.
• They are regulated by the RBI under the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, while their cooperative/managerial aspects remain under the Registrar of Cooperative Societies or Central Registrar, depending on their jurisdiction.
• The Banking Regulation (Amendment) Act, 2020 strengthened RBI's regulatory powers over cooperative banks.
• Since 2022, UCBs have followed a four-tier regulatory structure based on deposit size: Tier 1 up to ?100 crore; Tier 2 above ?100 crore–?1,000 crore; Tier 3 above ?1,000 crore–?10,000 crore; and Tier 4 above ?10,000 crore.

In News:

Lab-grown diamonds are gaining prominence as an alternative to mined diamonds due to concerns over environmental damage, declining natural diamond reserves and ethical issues associated with mining. India is also promoting indigenous LGD technology and production.

What are Lab-Grown Diamonds?

LGDs are synthetic diamonds produced in controlled laboratory conditions. They have the same crystalline carbon structure and are chemically, physically and optically similar to natural diamonds.

They are primarily produced through two methods:

• HPHT (High Pressure, High Temperature): Replicates the high-pressure and high-temperature conditions under which natural diamonds form deep inside the Earth.
• CVD (Chemical Vapour Deposition): Uses a diamond seed placed in a chamber containing carbon-rich gases. Ionised gases release carbon, which deposits layer by layer on the seed to form a diamond.

Beyond jewellery, LGDs have applications in industrial cutting and drilling, semiconductors, protective coatings and advanced technologies, owing to their hardness and thermal conductivity.

Why are LGDs Important?

• Natural diamond mining can involve deforestation, soil erosion, water consumption and ecological disruption. LGDs can reduce dependence on mining and offer greater supply-chain traceability. However, their environmental advantage depends significantly on the energy source used in production; renewable-powered production can have a substantially lower carbon footprint.
• There are also concerns surrounding mined diamonds, including occupational hazards and conflict diamonds. India, as the 2026 Chair of the Kimberley Process, has an important role in promoting transparency in the global diamond trade.

India’s Push for Indigenous LGD Production

• India is a major global diamond-processing hub, handling around 90% of the world's diamonds. The government has encouraged domestic research in HPHT and CVD technologies.
• The India Centre for Lab-Grown Diamond (InCent-LGD) at IIT Madras, supported through a five-year grant of about ?243 crore, aims to develop indigenous capabilities in LGD manufacturing machinery, refining processes and diamond seeds.
• This can help India move beyond diamond cutting and polishing towards technology-intensive manufacturing, strengthening domestic value addition and self-reliance.

India’s Natural Diamond Resources

India has a long history of diamond production, with important areas including the Panna Diamond Belt, Krishna River gravels, Mahanadi River gravels and Wairagarh Conglomerates. The Majhgawan Diamond Mine in Panna, Madhya Pradesh, operated by NMDC, is currently India's only active mechanised commercial diamond mine.