8 March 2026

On International Women's Day, the Government launched Mission Shakti 2.0, consolidating the Sambal (safety) and Samarthya (empowerment) sub-schemes under a revised ₹25,000 crore allocation for 2026-31. New features include a National Database of Domestic Violence Cases integrated with the e-FIR system, 1,000 new One-Stop Centres, and entrepreneurship grants for Women SHGs under DAY-NRLM.

The Reserve Bank of India launched UPI Lite X, enabling offline Near-Field Communication (NFC) based payments without internet connectivity for amounts up to ₹500 per transaction with a wallet limit of ₹2,000. The system works via on-device wallets stored in the secure element of smartphones, facilitating digital payments in remote areas without network coverage.

India and the United Kingdom signed the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) at the UK-India Summit in London, replacing the 2021 Comprehensive Strategic Partnership declaration with a binding 10-year framework. Key pillars include the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) finalisation, defence-industrial cooperation under iCET, and a Technology Security Initiative with shared AI governance principles.

NITI Aayog released the India Innovation Index 2025, with Karnataka topping the Major States category for the fourth consecutive year, followed by Telangana and Tamil Nadu. The index evaluates 36 indicators across knowledge workers, investment, knowledge output, and knowledge diffusion pillars. The Aspirant States category was led by Rajasthan, reflecting growth in patent filings and MSME innovation.

The Ministry of Coal reported that India's coking coal production crossed 75 million tonnes in FY2025-26 for the first time, reducing import dependence from 85% to 72%. Coal India Limited and private mine operators contributed equally. The government's Coking Coal Mission targets 140 MTPA by 2030 to serve the integrated steel plants under the National Steel Policy 2017.

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) issued India's first ambient air quality standards for PM1 (particles less than 1 micron) and ultrafine particles (UFP), setting annual standards of 15 µg/m³ and 24-hour standards of 35 µg/m³ for PM1. The new standards are notified under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and will apply to all 131 CPCB Air Quality Index monitoring cities from 2028.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Lok Sabha submitted its report on expenditure efficiency under MGNREGS, finding that 28% of projects remain incomplete beyond statutory timelines, material component exceeds 40% limit in 11 states, and muster roll irregularities persist in 6 states. The PAC, chaired by the Leader of Opposition, recommended a real-time project tracking dashboard.

The Geological Survey of India (GSI) confirmed inferred lithium resources of 5.9 million tonnes in the Barmer-Jaisalmer basin of Rajasthan, the second major lithium discovery after the Salal-Haimana deposits in J&K. The discovery is significant for India's transition to electric vehicles and storage batteries under the PM E-drive scheme. Lithium is categorised as a critical mineral under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2023.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet reappointed Dr. Sanjay Malhotra as the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India for a second three-year term. Dr. Malhotra, a 1990-batch IAS officer of the Rajasthan cadre, succeeded Shaktikanta Das in December 2023. The RBI Governor is appointed under Section 8 of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.

The National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC), constituted under Article 338B, submitted a sub-categorisation framework to the Union Government following the Supreme Court's 7-judge Constitution Bench ruling in Pankaj Kumar Barman v. State of Punjab (2024) permitting states to sub-categorise OBCs. The framework recommends classifying OBCs into Extremely Backward, More Backward, and Backward categories.