Current Affairs 20 February 2026
IndiaAI Mission
- Launched: In 2024 with budget outlay of ₹10,371.92 crore over five years.
- Target: Initial target of 10,000 GPUs, India has achieved 38,000 GPUs.
- Ministry: Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY)
- Key Pillars: IndiaAI Compute Capacity, IndiaAI Application Development Initiative, IndiaAI Datasets Platform (AIKosh), IndiaAI FutureSkills, IndiaAI Startup Financing, and Safe & Trusted AI.
International Solar Alliance (HQ: Gurugram)
- About: It is a treaty based intergovernmental organization established by India and France in 2015 at the COP21 summit in Paris.
- Aim: To mobilize more than USD 1000 billion of investment needed by 2030 for the massive deployment of solar energy.
- Key Initiatives: One Sun One World One Grid (OSOWOG), The Global Solar Facility (GSF), Solar Technology Application Resource Centre [STAR C], etc.
Offshore Wind Energy
- It refers to the use of wind turbines to generate electricity in bodies of water such as oceans or large lakes.
- Advantages of Offshore Wind over Onshore Wind Energy
- Generates more energy: Offshore turbines generate 1MW more energy than onshore turbines due to larger turbines.
- Efficiency: winds at sea are stronger and blow in the same direction more often than winds on land.
- No land requirement: Land acquisition issue absent with no discomfort to locals.
- Challenges of Offshore Wind Energy
- High Capital Costs for installation
- Exposure to harsh marine conditions like saltwater corrosion increases wear and tear, requiring more frequent and specialized maintenance.
- Underwater operational noise can affect marine fauna and ecosystems.
- In India, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is the Nodal Ministry for offshore wind development.
- Potential: Gujarat (36GW), Tamil Nadu (35GW) (according to National Institute of Wind Energy).
VoicERA launched on BHASHINI National Language Infrastructure at India AI Impact Summit 2026.
- About VoicERA
- An open source, end to end Voice AI stack
- Developed by: Digital India BHASHINI Division (DIBD) under Digital India Corporation (DIC), MeitY.
- Function: As a national execution layer for multilingual Voice & Language AI.
- It will expand BHASHINI’s capabilities from translation and language technologies to real time speech systems, conversational AI, and multilingual telephony at population scale
Food Corporation of India (FCI)
- Genesis: It is a statutory body set up under the Food Corporations Act 1964.
- Core Functions:
- Procurement: Procure food grains from farmers at Minimum Support Prices (MSPs).
- Storage: Maintains an extensive network of modern warehouses and silos to store food grains .
- Buffer Stock Management: It manages the strategic buffer stock of essential food grains to meet any unforeseen contingencies, such as droughts, floods etc.
- Quality Control: The Quality Control (QC) wing of FCI manages procurement & preservation of foodgrains.
Kuno National Park
- Houses Project Cheetah: India’s exclusive home for cheetahs.
- Location: lies in Madhya Pradesh’s Sheopur-Shivpuri region, in the Vindhyan landscape, named after the Kuno River.
- Area: Spread across ~74,200 hectares (around 748 sq km), known for dry deciduous forests and open grasslands.
- Biodiversity: Flora like Kardhai, Salai, Khair and diverse; fauna including deer, hyena, reptiles and over 200 bird species.
Municipal Bonds
- Marketable debt instruments issued by Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) either directly or through any intermediate (Corporate Municipal entity/statutory body/special purpose distinct entity).
- First issued by Bengaluru in 1997.
- Objective: Finance ULBs’ capital projects, refinance existing loans, meeting working capital requirements, etc.
- Regulation: Under Securities and Exchange Board of India ([Issue and Listing of Municipal Debt Securities]) Regulations, 2015.
- As of September 2025, 26 municipal bond issuances have been completed under SEBI’s framework, towards mobilising ₹3783.90 crore.
Rajya Sabha Elections
- Nature of Rajya Sabha: Permanent House, not subject to dissolution.
- However, one-third Members retire after every second year, with tenure of each member being six years.
- Manner of Election: Indirect, in accordance with system of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote (Article 80(4)).
- Electoral College: Representatives of each State and three Union territories are elected by elected members of Legislative Assembly of that State.
- For 3 UTs (NCT of Delhi, Puducherry, and Jammu & Kashmir), it consists of elected members of respective Legislative Assemblies.
Chagos Archipelago
- Location: Indian Ocean in the northeast of Mauritius.
- Background: Became a British territory along with Mauritius in 1814 under treaty of Paris.
- Designated as British Indian Ocean Territory in 1965 and was detached from Mauritius, which became independent in 1968.
What is the Death Penalty?
- Definition: Death Penalty or Capital punishment is the execution of an offender sentenced to death after conviction by a court of law.
- It is distinct from extrajudicial executions, which lack due process.
- Philosophical Basis: It is rooted in the principle of retributive justice – the idea that severe crimes, especially murder, warrant a proportional punishment.
- Indian History: The Manusmriti prescribed execution (e.g., by elephants) for offences including theft.
- The Indian Penal Code (1860) prescribed death as a punishment, which was retained after independence.
- Legal Position in India:
- Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023: It retains the death penalty and has expanded it to include offences like mob lynching (if it results in death) and rape of a minor.
- Around 14 categories of crime attract the death penalty, including murder, terrorism, and abetting mutiny.
- Exemptions: Juveniles, pregnant women, and mentally ill persons cannot be executed.
- Appellate Process: A death sentence by a Sessions Court must be confirmed by the High Court. The accused can appeal to the Supreme Court.
- Legal Recourse for Death Row Convicts:
- Mercy Petition: It is a formal request made by someone who has been sentenced to death or imprisonment seeking mercy from the President or the Governor, as the case may be.
- Pardoning Power: The pardoning power is subject to judicial review.
- President (Article 72): Can grant pardons, reprieves, or commutations.
- Governor (Article 161): Has similar powers but typically defers major capital cases to the President.
- Curative Petition: Evolved in Rupa Ashok Hurra v. Ashok Hurra (2002), this allows the SC to reconsider its final judgment to cure a “gross miscarriage of justice.”
Offshore Wind Energy
- About: It refers to the generation of electricity from wind turbines installed in marine environments such as seas or oceans, harnessing stronger and more consistent wind resources.
- Potential in India: As per the National Institute of Wind Energy, Chennai, India possesses an estimated offshore wind potential of approximately 70 GW, primarily along the coastlines of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.
- India’s non-fossil fuel capacity has surpassed 272 GW, comprising over 141 GW from solar and 55 GW from wind energy.
- Policy and Institutional Framework: The National Offshore Wind Energy Policy (2015) provides the overarching framework, with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) as the nodal ministry and the National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE) as the nodal agency for assessments and facilitation.
- To catalyse early projects, the government has introduced a Viability Gap Funding (VGF) scheme with a total outlay of Rs 7,453 crore.