Overseas Citizens of India Scheme
Actor Imran Khan, a US citizen and Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cardholder, has been asked by the Foreigners Regional Registration Office to leave India by October 28.
About OCI Scheme: It is governed by the Section 7A to 7D of Citizenship Act 1955 after amending it in 2005. It’s not dual citizenship. OCI Cardholder remains the foreign citizen subject to Indian immigration laws and rules.
Rights of OCI Cardholder:
- Lifelong visa with multiple entry, reside and work in India.
- Not required to register with local police or FRPO regardless of their length of stay.
- They are equivalent to NRIs in case of economic, financial and educational privileges.
Restrictions:
- They don’t have the right to vote in elections.
- They are not allowed to hold any constitutional or official post.
- They are not eligible for appointment in public services.
- They don’t have the right to own the agricultural property.
- They are required to take permission from Ministry of Home Affairs for:
– Research Work
– Foreign diplomatic assignements
– visiting areas where restrictions are in place
The Central Govt can cancel OCI registration in cases:
- Getting registered through fraud, false representation.
- Showing disaffection towards Constitution of India.
- OCI Cardholder acts against the sovereignty, integrity, or security of India or friendly relations with foreign states.
- Sentenced to imprisonment for 2 years within 5 years of OCI registration.
- Necessary in the public interest.
Note: Under Foreigners Act, 1946 & Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920 the Central Government/FRRO has the power to regulate, restrict entry, or issue directions to foreign nationals to leave the country.
Indian military building integrated logistics structure for theatre commands
About Integrated Theatre Commands: These are unified military structure where operational control of resources of Army, Navy and Air Force in a specific geographical area is placed under a single, dedicated Theatre Command.
Currently India has 19 military commands: 17 Single service commands includes Army (7), Air Force (7) and Navy (3).
India has 2 Tri-service Commands:
- Andaman and Nicobar Command: Only geographical tri-service command of India, established in 2001 and its HQ is in Port Blair.
- Strategic Force Command: Established in 2003, an integrated functional command handling nuclear assets.
Proposed Theatre Commands:
- Northern Theatre Command: It will focus on China border, and its HQ will be in Lucknow, UP.
- Western Theatre Command: It will focus on Pakistan border and its HQ will be in Jaipur, Rajasthan.
- Maritime Theatre Command: its focus area will be Indian Ocean Region and its HQ will be in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
The objective of establishing these Theatre Commands is to avoid asset duplication, enabling joint doctrine, ensuring single point operational decision making.
Note: DB Shekatkar Committee in 2016 recommended reorganization of Indian defence forces into integrated theatre commands to ensure operational synergy.
India’s Ramsar Site tally has reached 103 with the addition of 2 new sites: Sukhna Lake and Sauj Jheel.
Sukhna lake is located in the city of Chandigarh, at the base of Shiwalik Hills. It’s a peri-urban reervoir that plays an important role in regulating sediment and water flows from the surrounding catchment.
Sauj Jheel is situated in Uttar Pradesh, a shallow lake surrounded by farmland in the plains of Ganga river. It is situated near to Sman Bird sanctuary, another Ramsar site in UP.
About Ramsar Convention: Its an intergovernmental treaty signed on 2 Feb 1971 in the Ramsar City of Iran. It came into force in 1975.
It is not affiliated to formal UN system but partnered with IUCN as its secretariat. Its not legally binding. India signed the treaty in 1982.
2 Feb is celebrated as World Wetland Day.
3 Pillars of the Convention:
- Wise use of all wetlands
- Designation of wetlands into List of Wetlands of International Importance also known as Ramsar Sites.
- International cooperation on trans-boundary wetlands, shared wetland systems, and species.
Wetlands: these are swamps, marshes, peat-lands, lakes, rivers, mangroves, coral reefs, and even human-made sites.
Note: Montreux Record is a register of Ramsar wetland sites where changes in ecological character have occurred, are occurring, or are likely to occur due to anthropogenic activities. It is maintained as part of Ramsar Convention.
Earthquake of magnitude 7 strikes Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula
About Kamchatka Peninsula: It is situated in the Far Eastern part of Russia. It is bordered by Sea of Okhotsk, Bering Sea, and Pacific Ocean.
It is situated in the Pacific Ring of Fire zone at the junction of North American Plate and Pacific Plate. It shows subduction along the Kuril-Kamchatka trench.
It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site and known as Land of Ice and Fire for the place with more than 150 volcanoes.
Here are 2 mountain ranges: Sredinny Range and Vostochny Range and River Kamchatka flows in this region.
India raised the Windfall Tax on petrol exports and lowered the duty on diesel exports
The export levies on petroleum products are reviewed every 2 weeks by the Central Government, based on the global average crude oil prices.
These are strictly applying to refined fuel exports and not impacting the domestic excise duties on fuels.
About Windfall Tax: A temporary tax levied by the governments on companies that experience sudden, windfall profits or abnormal profits due to external events like crisis due to US Iran conflict.
Its objective is to capture excess economic rents and preventing private companies from prioritizing high-margin exports over domestic supply security.
In India, it is implemented through Special Additional Excise Duty on domestic crude production and specific export duties on petroleum fuels.
A Bengaluru born astronomer will head the NASA’s PUFFINS Space Telescope Mission
Dr. Ramya Anche is selcted to head the NASA’s PUFFINS (Polarimeter to Unify the Far-Ultraviolet & Interstellar Nebula Studies) Mission.
About the PUFFINS Mission: It’s a NASA funded Astrophysics Pioneers SmallSat Mission.
Its objective is to study interstellar dust particles, cosmic magnetic fields and how matter evolves into new stars and planets with the help of 10 inches UV spectropolarimeter in low Earth orbit to observe more than 70 distant stars.
It will help in NASA’s future Habitable Worlds Observatory for technical assistance.
PUFFINS Mission will be launched in 2030.
Data Centre Evaluation Framework 2026
It is released by NITI Aayog’s Frontier Tech Hub with Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Ministry of Power and DPIIT.
Its will serve as a tool for decision support to help state governments in evaluating investment proposals, planning infrastructure and promoting sustainable, high capacity data centre growth.
4 Pillars of Assessment:
- Infrastructure Readiness
- Resource Protection
- Environmental Sustainability
- Long Term Economic Value
It will help in distinguishing between co-location infrastructure and active computer service. Also it will help in strategic zoning while establishing data centers to streamline power and land allocation.
GSAT-7C Communication Satellite
Ministry of Defence signed a contract worth Rs 2,563 Crore with NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) for the procurement of GSAT-7C, a dedicated military communication satellite for the Indian Air Force.
GSAT-7C Satellite is an indigenously designed, developed and manufactured.
Major features:
- It will help in real time connectivity by integrating satellite architecture, ground hubs, and radios to ensure secure voice, video and data links for Indian Air Force platform.
- It will help in developing network centric warfare by connecting aircrafts, ground control stations, air defence radars and air borne early warning systems.
Varunastra Heavy Weight Torpedo
Ministry of Defence signed the deal with Bharat Dynamics Limited for the supply of Varunastra Heavy Weight Torpedoes.
It is designed by Naval Science and Technology Lab, a specialized lab under DRDO and manufactured by Bharat Dynamics Limited.
Features:
- It’s a ship launched electrically powered heavy weight anti-submarine torpedo for anti-submarine warfare.
- It can engage the enemy in shallow and deep waters.
- It has active and passive Acoustic Homing for precision strike.
- It has anti-jamming systems through wire-guided navigation system.
