Week 27 was where digital plumbing, factory floors and the deep ocean all made news at once. At home, the rural social contract was rewritten as VB-G RAM G replaced MGNREGA from 1 July — 125 guaranteed days, a ₹300 wage floor and a ₹25,863 crore 'Mother Sanction' — while Digital India turned eleven and pivoted openly to AI and chips, a pivot made concrete when the Sanand OSAT plant began commercial semiconductor production. Health policy scaled in one breath: Nadda's digital-health stack (Aarogya Setu 2.0, UHI, a Drug Registry), the SUMAN 2030 maternal roadmap and an Anemia Mukt Bharat reboot. Money and machines followed — REC folded into PFC to build an ₹11 lakh crore power financier, GST turned nine, NIIF's kitty doubled to ₹60,000 crore, and the DAC cleared ₹52,000 crore of mostly counter-drone firepower. Abroad, the 16th India-Japan Summit reset a 'Special Strategic and Global Partnership', UPI went live in Greece, and the PM's Seychelles visit flew the flag for 'Vision MAHASAGAR' before a three-nation Indo-Pacific tour was announced. Aditya Tiwari Sir's tip: string VB-G RAM G, the digital-health stack and UPI-in-Greece into one 'DPI as delivery and diplomacy' thread — it bridges GS2 governance and GS3 economy in a single, high-scoring line.
PM Modi marked 11 years of Digital India, crediting the Aadhaar–UPI–DigiLocker–ONDC public-infrastructure stack with transforming governance and service delivery.
A national workshop of state Panchayati Raj ministers took up the 16th Finance Commission's recommendations, including ₹4,35,236 crore for rural local bodies over 2026–31.
A Panchayati Raj/NIRD&PR study of ~7,790 respondents across 400 gram panchayats in 26 states found chronically low Gram Sabha participation, the constitutional heart of village democracy.
The Vice-President filed his enumeration form as the Election Commission ran a house-to-house Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, spotlighting roll accuracy and inclusion.
Consumer Affairs introduced an 'Improvement Notice' under the Legal Metrology Act via the Jan Vishwas Act 2026 — letting businesses fix first-time procedural lapses before facing penalties.
The boards of PFC and REC approved merging REC into PFC — creating a power-finance giant with an ~₹11 lakh crore loan book while remaining a government company.
A backgrounder marked nine years of GST, which subsumed 17 taxes and 13 cesses into 'One Nation, One Tax', as the Centre readies next-generation GST reforms.
The Union Cabinet approved an additional ₹30,000 crore commitment to the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund, taking the government's total contribution to ₹60,000 crore.
Index of Industrial Production grew 5.1% in May 2026, led by manufacturing and power, as MoSPI began using Output PPI instead of WPI as the deflator for most item groups.
PM Modi launched the next phase of the regional-connectivity scheme, 'Viksit UDAN', and a new Jodhpur terminal; UDAN now spans 669 routes and 95 airports carrying 1.66 crore passengers.
India unveiled its first indigenously made EXIM shipping container for Maersk at Dadri, which promptly ordered 1,000 more — a step toward the container-manufacturing self-reliance target.
PM Modi inaugurated the CG Semi OSAT facility at Sanand, Gujarat, which began commercial production — a landmark for India's chip-assembly ambitions under the Semiconductor Mission.
ARCI-DST scientists 3D-printed a crack-free bi-metallic superalloy structure (SS316L + IN718) via laser powder bed fusion, a step toward reducing costly superalloy imports.
IIA (DST) astronomers applied AI to 100 years of Kodaikanal solar images to track bright 'plage' regions, and decoded the thermal evolution of ICME solar storms to sharpen space-weather forecasts.
India approved its first PinS (Point-in-Space) instrument approach procedure, built on GAGAN — the ISRO-AAI satellite-based augmentation system for precise, safer aircraft navigation.
The Centre amended the Drugs Rules, 1945 to bring cell and stem-cell, gene-therapy and xenograft products under joint Centre–State (CLAA) licensing — a first regulatory framework for advanced therapies.
India hit 20% ethanol blending (E20) five years ahead of target, with experts backing the fuel as clean and tested; a backgrounder tallied forex, emissions and farmer-income gains.
A backgrounder marked ten years of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana — ₹64,407 crore in central assistance and 110.92 lakh hectares brought under micro-irrigation.
Amit Shah and Shivraj Chouhan reviewed El Niño-linked below-normal rainfall risks, monitoring reservoirs and groundwater and pushing millets, pulses and fodder as contingencies.
Under the National Green Hydrogen Mission, ACME signed green-ammonia (405 kTPA) and green-methanol (100 kTPA) offtake deals with Japanese partners — early export demand for India's clean fuels.
Scientists at BSIP-DST radiocarbon-dated a banyan (Ficus benghalensis) in Munger, Bihar to about 700 years — India's oldest accurately dated banyan, a marker of heritage-tree conservation.
The 16th India-Japan Annual Summit with PM Takaichi produced a Special Strategic & Global Partnership statement, UNICORN co-development and 16 outcome documents spanning economic security to AI.
PM Modi's Seychelles visit — coinciding with its 50th independence anniversary, an ICAR agriculture MoU and an INS Tarkash port call — anchored the 'Vision MAHASAGAR' maritime-neighbourhood outreach.
UPI went live in Greece through a Eurobank-NIPL partnership, demonstrated in Athens with Piyush Goyal present — extending India's digital-payments rails abroad and cutting remittance costs.
The India-France Economic & Financial Dialogue at Aix-en-Provence covered critical minerals, economic sovereignty, cross-investment, high-speed rail and G20/Paris Club coordination.
The India-Israel Bilateral Investment Agreement, signed in September 2025, came into force on 4 July 2026 — providing investor protection while preserving the state's right to regulate.
The government announced PM Modi's visit to Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand — the tour that would begin 6 July, extending Act East and Indo-Pacific engagement to the eastern and southern oceans.
The Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) came into force from 1 July, replacing MGNREGA and raising the guarantee from 100 to 125 days, with a ₹25,863 crore first installment.
Health Minister Nadda launched a digital-health stack — Aarogya Setu 2.0, the Unified Health Interface, a national Drug Registry, NHCX and e-Sushrut — to knit together India's health data systems.
Health Minister Nadda released the 'SUMAN Roadmap 2030', a targeted maternal- and newborn-health strategy for high-focus states aimed at meeting the 2030 SDG targets.
The CCEA approved supplying higher-quality PDS rice — cutting permitted broken grains sharply — for 80 crore beneficiaries, with estimated savings of about ₹2,161 crore.
Week-long celebrations marked five years of the Ministry of Cooperation (formed 6 July 2021), building up to launches spanning e-PACS, grain-storage godowns, NUCFDC's Sahakar tools and 'Sahakar Van'.
Health Minister Nadda released a revamped Anemia Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan, upgrading its intervention framework from 6x6x6 to 7x7x7 and its testing-and-treatment protocol from T3 to T4.
The Defence Acquisition Council accorded Acceptance of Necessity worth about ₹52,000 crore — anti-UAV 'AKASH TARANG', MPATGM, MRSAM, V-SHORADS, kamikaze drones and HAPS among the items.
General Dhiraj Seth took over as the 31st Chief of the Army Staff as General Dwivedi retired, part of a wider reshuffle of vice-chiefs and command heads across the armed forces.
Rajnath Singh released the Delegation of Financial Powers to DRDO (DFP-2026), granting greater financial autonomy for trials, pre-project R&D and iDEX/TDF/Extra-Mural schemes under Aatmanirbhar Bharat.
INS Trikand thwarted a piracy attempt on the merchant vessel MV Golden Arsenal in the Gulf of Aden, deploying a P-8I aircraft; all 21 crew were reported safe.
The Home Ministry designated 23 more individuals as terrorists under the UAPA — 17 Pakistani and 6 Indian nationals said to operate from Pakistan/PoK — extending India's counter-terror listing regime.