UPSC CURRENT AFFAIRS 29 MAY 2026

Context: The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), enacted in 2016, has completed a decade of operation, establishing itself as a transformative institutional shift for India’s credit markets and corporate accountability.

About The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) completes 10 years:

What It Is?

• The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) is a single, consolidated legislative framework enacted in 2016 to replace India’s older, fragmented, and slow insolvency laws.
• It provides a legally binding, creditor-driven, and time-bound mechanism to resolve insolvency and financial distress for corporate entities, partnership firms, and individuals.

Key Features of the IBC:

• Integrated Legal Consolidation: Unifies multiple legacy insolvency laws into a single code to streamline processes for corporations, partnerships, and individuals.
• Time-Bound Resolution Window: Mandates a strict timeline for completing the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) to ensure asset values do not erode.
• Creditor-in-Control Model: Shifts operational control of a defaulting company away from the existing promoters to a creditor-led Committee of Creditors (CoC), fundamentally altering debtor-creditor dynamics.
• Two-Tiered Adjudication Infrastructure: Utilizes the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to handle corporate insolvencies, while the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) manages individuals and partnership firms.
• Institutional Support Ecosystem: Governed by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI), utilizing licensed Insolvency Professionals (IPs) to run distressed assets alongside Information Utilities (IUs) that store verified financial data.
• Clear Priority of Payouts (Waterfall Mechanism): Establishes a transparent, structured ladder for distributing liquidation assets, ensuring secured creditors and workmen receive clear priority over equity shareholders.

Current Success Metrics of the IBC:

• Substantial Realization of Locked Capital: The framework has successfully unlocked significant stuck capital, returning frozen funds back into the formal financial system.

Example: As of March 2026, 1,419 cases yielded final resolution plans, realizing over ₹4 lakh crore for creditors—representing 95% of their fair value and 167% of liquidation value.

• Significant Reductions in Banking Non-Performing Assets (NPAs): The code’s strict rules have helped clean up bank balance sheets, driving non-performing loans down to healthier historical levels.

Example: The banking sector’s gross NPA ratio dropped to a low of 2.1% in September 2025, a massive shift from the peak of nearly 11.8% logged in 2017.

• Powerful Pre-Admission Settlement Deterrent: The threat of losing control over an enterprise forces defaulting debtors to settle their debts before formal court proceedings begin.

Example: More than 30,000 cases were resolved at the pre-admission stage through withdrawals, settling an estimated ₹14 lakh crore outside court.

• Post-Resolution Corporate Revival and Value Creation: Restructured companies show significant operational turnaround and value growth under new management.

Example: Resolved firms saw an 89% jump in sales and a 131% rise in asset turnover, expanding the market value of listed resolved firms from ₹2.8 lakh crore to ₹9 lakh crore.

Key Challenges Facing the IBC Ecosystem:

• Persistent Delays and Blocked Timelines: Despite a statutory emphasis on speed, heavy case volumes often clog up tribunal benches, extending resolutions past original targets.

Example: While pre-IBC delays spanned up to 8 years, current resolution timelines still average around 2 years, highlighting ongoing structural friction within NCLT benches.

• Erosion of Value in Forced Liquidations: When a business cannot be rescued, delays can cause its physical assets to degrade, hurting final recovery values.

Example: Out of 7,102 closed cases by March 2026, 3,003 entities ended in liquidation, highlighting cases where delays left assets to be sold piecemeal.

• Varying Recovery Outcomes Across Industry Segments: While the average post-IBC recovery rate has risen to over 30%, asset recovery success remains uneven.

Example: Even with overall improvements, the recovery rate for scheduled commercial banks fluctuated to 36.6% in 2024–25, down from higher initial resolution peaks.

• Overreliance on Formal Systems for Defunct Entities: Benches are frequently burdened with long-dead companies that have no active operations to save.

Example: Around 42% of cases that reached resolution plans were previously stuck with the legacy BIFR or were already defunct, slowing down the courts.

Way Forward:

• Expanding NCLT Bench Infrastructure: Increase the number of specialized NCLT benches and fill judicial vacancies promptly to eliminate backlogs and meet the code’s strict timelines.
• Promoting Pre-Packaged Insolvency Frameworks: Expand out-of-court pre-packaged insolvency options to all corporate categories, encouraging faster, consensual settlements that ease the burden on tribunals.
• Upgrading Digital Tracking via Information Utilities: Enhance data integration across Information Utilities to give lenders instant access to verified default data, cutting down verification times.
• Standardizing Inter-Regulatory Mediation Systems: Create a smooth coordination bridge between the IBBI, the Reserve Bank of India, and the enforcement directorates to resolve competing asset claims cleanly.
• Specializing Training for Insolvency Professionals: Provide advanced industry-specific management training to Insolvency Professionals, enabling them to better preserve complex enterprise value during restructuring.

Conclusion:

Over the past ten years, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code has completely reshaped corporate accountability and credit discipline across the Indian economy. By moving past slow legacy legal systems, it has successfully recovered over ₹4 lakh crore for creditors while breathing new life into financially distressed businesses. As India advances toward its long-term goals for economic growth, continuously refining the IBC through smart updates will be essential to sustain entrepreneurship, preserve productive capital, and anchor financial stability.

Context: India and Singapore held the 16th Defence Policy Dialogue (DPD) in Singapore, reviewing bilateral defence cooperation and exploring collaboration in emerging domains such as cyber security, AI, maritime security, and advanced defence technologies.

About The 16ᵗʰ India–Singapore Defence Policy Dialogue (DPD):

What It Is?

• The Defence Policy Dialogue (DPD) is the highest institutional mechanism for defence consultations between India and Singapore, providing a platform to review ongoing military cooperation and chart future defence engagements.

Aim:

• To strengthen the India–Singapore strategic defence partnership through regular policy consultations and military cooperation.
• To expand collaboration in emerging technologies, defence industries, and Indo-Pacific security architecture.

Key Features:

• Review of Defence Cooperation: Assessed progress in bilateral military exercises, training programmes, capacity-building initiatives, and defence exchanges.
• Defence Industry Collaboration: Explored greater cooperation between Indian and Singaporean defence industries, including opportunities for joint innovation and technology partnerships.
• Focus on Emerging Domains: Discussed collaboration in cyber security, artificial intelligence, unmanned systems, maritime security, and advanced defence technologies.
• Support for Regional Security Mechanisms: Reaffirmed cooperation through ASEAN-led forums and the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) framework.
• Digital Warfare and Technology Cooperation: The Indian delegation visited Singapore Armed Forces’ Digital Operations Technology Centre to explore cooperation in digital and intelligence-driven warfare capabilities.

Significance:

• Reinforces commitment to a free, open, inclusive, and rules-based Indo-Pacific while enhancing regional stability and maritime security.
• Promotes technology-driven defence cooperation in AI, cyber, autonomous systems, and advanced military capabilities critical for future warfare.

Relevance in UPSC Exam Syllabus:

• GS Paper II:

• • India and its neighbourhood relations.
  • Bilateral, regional and global groupings involving India.
  • International relations and strategic partnerships.

• GS Paper III:

• • Internal security and defence technology.
  • Cyber security and emerging technologies.
  • Indigenisation of technology and defence manufacturing.

Context: The Ministry of Panchayati Raj successfully conducted a three-day national Training of Trainers (ToT) program in New Delhi.

• The program focused on legal provisions for women’s security, marking a major step forward for the Ministry’s newly launched ‘Nirbhay Raho’ initiative.

About Nirbhay Raho Initiative:

What It Is?

• The ‘Nirbhay Raho’ Initiative is a national gender-responsive governance and grassroots capacity-building program. It is structurally funded and implemented through the Union Government’s non-lapsable Nirbhaya Fund, transforming local self-governments into active protective anchors for women.

Nodal Ministry: Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Government of India.

Aim:

• The primary aim of the initiative is to eliminate grassroots gender-based discrimination and violence by building inclusive, responsive, and women-friendly Panchayats.
• It seeks to equip local rural leaders with deep legal literacy, survivor-centered focus, and first-responder capabilities to guarantee safety and access to justice across rural India.

Key Features:

The initiative is built around a comprehensive three-pronged framework designed to address infrastructure, leadership, and cultural mindsets:

1. Nirbhay Netri (Empowering Female Leadership): Focuses entirely on the intensive training, capacity building, and legal awareness of 14.5 lakh Elected Women Representatives (EWRs) to help them confidently handle local security challenges.
2. Nirbhay Chetna (Sensitizing Male Peers): Aimed at sensitizing 17.5 lakh Male Elected Representatives across India, breaking down patriarchal biases, and involving male leaders in local gender-equality and safety campaigns.
3. Nirbhay Drishti (Surveillance Infrastructure): Enhances technology-enabled safety infrastructure by funding the installation of CCTV security cameras at strategic rural locations within Gram Panchayats.

• Massive Scale of Action: Targets a combined national footprint of over 32 lakh elected Panchayat representatives, making it one of the largest rural outreach programs for public safety.
• Comprehensive Curricular Training: Combines core legal training on domestic violence, child marriage, cyber safety, victim compensation, and local referral reporting networks.
• Cascading Model of Scaling: Uses a dynamic Training of Trainers (ToT) approach, where master trainers use practice-oriented simulations, moot courts, and role-plays to pass knowledge down to state, district, and block levels.

Context: Following a prolonged leadership tussle, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah resigned from his position.

About The Chief Minister and Powers:

What It Is?

• In the scheme of parliamentary government provided by the Constitution, the Governor is the nominal executive authority (de jure head) of a state, whereas the Chief Minister is the real executive authority (de facto head).
• Positioned as the head of the state government, the Chief Minister acts as the chief advisor to the Governor, the leader of the Council of Ministers, and the foremost representative of the state’s political and administrative framework.

Key Constitutional Provisions:

• Article 163: Mandates that there shall be a Council of Ministers with the Chief Minister at the head to aid and advise the Governor in the exercise of their functions, except in matters requiring gubernatorial discretion.
• Article 164: Stipulates that the Chief Minister shall be appointed by the Governor, and other ministers shall be appointed on the Chief Minister’s advice. It also notes that the Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the State Legislative Assembly.
• Article 167: Defines the duties of the Chief Minister regarding the furnishing of information to the Governor concerning administrative decisions and legislative proposals of the state.

Powers and Functions of the Chief Minister:

The Chief Minister holds wide-ranging authority across various branches of state administration:

1. In Relation to the Council of Ministers:

• Recommends individuals to the Governor for appointment as ministers.
• Allocates, shuffles, and reallocates portfolios among the ministers.
• Presides over cabinet meetings and directly guides, directs, and controls their activities and decisions.

2. In Relation to the Governor:

• Serves as the principal channel of communication between the Governor and the Council of Ministers.
• Advises the Governor regarding the appointment of important officials, such as the Advocate General, Chairman of the State Public Service Commission, and State Election Commissioners.

3. In Relation to the State Legislature and State at Large:

• Advises the Governor regarding the summoning, proroguing, and dissolution of the State Legislative Assembly.
• Announces major government policies on the floor of the House.
• Functions as the chief spokesperson of the state government and the dynamic leader of the ruling party.

Procedure for Resignation:

• Submission of Resignation: To resign, the Chief Minister must formally submit a handwritten letter of resignation directly to the Governor of the State.
• Dissolution of Council: Under the principle of collective responsibility, the resignation of the Chief Minister automatically dissolves the entire incumbent Council of Ministers. The CM’s exit collapses the full executive team, though the Governor typically requests the outgoing CM to continue as a caretaker until a successor is officially sworn in.

Next Chief Minister Selection Process:

• Party High Command & CLP Meeting: The ruling party or majority coalition calls an emergency meeting of its Legislative Party (CLP) to formally deliberate, vote, and elect a new leader.
• Staking the Claim: The newly elected leader submits the CLP resolution to the Governor, formally staking a claim to form the next government.
• Gubernatorial Invitation: The Governor invites the leader to take the oath of office. If the majority support is explicitly clear, the leader is sworn in as the Chief Minister.
• Proving Majority: If the Governor determines that a floor test is required due to fluid political alliances, the newly appointed Chief Minister is given a strict, time-bound window to prove their majority by winning a Vote of Confidence on the floor of the Legislative Assembly.

Context: Scientists from the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad, used observations from Chandrayaan-2’s Dual Frequency Synthetic Aperture Radar (DFSAR) to discover evidence of subsurface water-ice in the Moon’s South Polar Region.

About The Chandrayaan-2 Dual Frequency Synthetic Aperture Radar (DFSAR):

What It Is?

• The Dual Frequency Synthetic Aperture Radar (DFSAR) is a state-of-the-art microwave imaging instrument operating onboard the active Chandrayaan-2 lunar orbiter. It holds the technological distinction of being the first fully polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) ever deployed to study the lunar surface.

Aim:

• The primary objective of DFSAR is to map and investigate the lunar topography, surface roughness, and subsurface material composition.
• It specifically aims to explore permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) and doubly shadowed craters at the poles to identify, quantify, and map volatiles like water-ice, which are crucial for long-term human survival and fuel production on the Moon.

How It Works?

Unlike optical cameras that need visible light, DFSAR maps the Moon by emitting its own microwave signals and listening to the echoes that bounce back:

• Signal Penetration: The radar transmits structured L-band and S-band microwave radio frequencies. These long wavelengths pass directly through top-layer surface dust to interact with hidden, subsurface materials.
• Volumetric Reflection: When the waves hit pocketed subsurface ice, they bounce around internally (volumetric scattering). This changes the wave properties before reflecting back to the orbiter.
• Polarimetric Profiling: The instrument measures two critical properties of the returned echo: the Circular Polarization Ratio (CPR) and the Degree of Polarization (DOP). DOP measures how much of the reflected signal retains its original polarization state after the collision.
• Signature Separation: Rocky terrains can easily mimic ice by scattering signals wildly. DFSAR isolates genuine water-ice by filtering for regions where a high CPR (CPR > 1) matches an ultra-low DOP (DOP < 0.13), providing a highly refined blueprint for mapping subterranean volatiles.

Key Features:

• Dual-Frequency Versatility: Operates across both L-band and S-band frequencies, allowing for varying depths of subsurface penetration and high-resolution imaging capability.
• Fully Polarimetric Matrix: Collects complete polarimetric radar returns simultaneously, giving scientists a clear look at the physical geometry and orientation of subsurface targets.
• Non-Line-of-Sight Imaging: Functions entirely independently of solar illumination, enabling it to look inside dark craters that have been frozen in darkness for billions of years.
• High-Contrast Resolution Mapping: Capable of generating detailed, high-contrast radar maps to distinguish fine differences between fine lunar soil (regolith), jagged boulders, and embedded ice blocks.

Recent Discoveries Made:

• Subsurface Polar Ice Substream: Successfully confirmed the potential presence of subsurface water-ice beneath the floors of four distinct doubly shadowed craters in the lunar South Polar Region.
• The Faustini Crater Discovery: Identified strong, concrete evidence of subsurface ice inside a small, 1.1 km diameter doubly shadowed crater (F2) located within the larger Faustini crater matrix (87.39^OS, 82.31 ^OE)
• Lobate-Rim Morphological Confirmation: Discovered a distinct, flow-like lobate-rim morphology around the 1.1 km crater. This structural feature suggests that the original meteor impact cracked through a solid sheet of subsurface ice, melting and shifting the rim into a unique lobed pattern during the impact.
• Extreme Cold Preservation Proof: Mapped these ice signatures to interior crater pockets where temperatures remain pinned around an ultra-cold 25K (~ -248°C), proving that these doubly shadowed zones act as ideal deep-freezers for preserving volatile resources over long geological timescales.

Context: The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) has officially launched the National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment (NeSDA) 2025 Portal.

About Portal for the National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment (NeSDA), 2025:

What It Is?

• The National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment (NeSDA) is a specialized, biennial assessment framework deployed to evaluate digital governance from the citizen’s perspective. It is conceptually customized for the Indian federal structure based on the internationally recognized Online Service Index (OSI) of the United Nations e-Government Survey.

Nodal Organisation: Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India.

Aim:

• The ultimate aim of the NeSDA 2025 framework is to comprehensively measure the maturity, availability, and delivery success of Government-to-Citizen (G2C) and Government-to-Business (G2B) digital services.

Key Features & Framework Grid:

• Dual Portal Categorization: Evaluates and separates all government web touchpoints into two functional streams:

• • State, UT, City, and Central Ministry Portals (General information landing pages).
  • State, UT, City, and Central Ministry Service Portals (Active transaction-handling gateways).

• Expanded Sectoral Coverage: Spans key public sectors, including Finance, Labour & Employment, Education, Local Governance, Social Welfare, Environment, Tourism, Public Grievances, and Transport. The 2025 framework explicitly adds services under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs into the focus matrix.
• Expanded Mandatory Service Thresholds: Proposes the strict assessment of 59 mandatory online services for every single Indian State and UT, along with 43 services across central ministries and departments.
• Multi-Dimensional Assessment Parameters: Maturity is scored across specific qualitative markers:

• • Accessibility, Content Availability, and Ease of Use.
  • Information Security, Privacy, and End Service Delivery.
  • Status and Request Tracking, and Integrated Service Delivery.
  • Open Government Data (OGD) and E-Participation.

• Digital Data Ingestion Instrument: The newly launched portal acts as an automated repository, collecting workflow-tracked self-assessments and data points submitted directly by designated central and state nodal officers.
• Cascading Review & Capacity Support: DARPG will manage stakeholder consultations, interactive capacity-building workshops, and real-time portal walkthrough demonstrations to ensure smooth data flows and accurate reporting across all administrative levels.

Context: Following a three-day official visit by India’s Commerce and Industry Minister to Canada, the two nations issued a joint statement, announcing the launch of the Canada-India Trade and Investment Forum.

About The Canada-India Trade and Investment Forum:

What It Is?

• The Canada-India Trade and Investment Forum is a high-level, bilateral institutional platform established to serve as the primary conduit for corporate and economic diplomacy between the two countries.

Member Nations: India and Canada.

Aim: The aim of the forum is to deepen economic cooperation across complementary sectors, expand market access, and secure resilient supply chains.

Key Features:

• Targeted Sectoral Cooperation: Prioritizes high-growth, complementary industrial segments including clean energy, critical minerals, agri-food, advanced manufacturing, digital technologies, and skills development.
• CEPA Negotiation Catalyst: Functions as a strategic steering mechanism to advance negotiations for a mutually beneficial Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), with a strict shared deadline for conclusion by the end of 2026.
• Unprecedented Diplomatic Scale: Backed by the largest Indian business and ministerial delegation ever sent to any single country, signaling a historic focus on Canadian market integration.
• Multi-Tiered Connectivity Enhancements: Focuses directly on improving cross-border operational frameworks, including business mobility direct commercial trade links, and foundational people-to-people ties.
• Trade Mission Integration: Integrates its baseline operations with the upcoming Team Canada Trade Mission, which will be led by Canada’s Minister of International Trade, Maninder Sidhu, to India later this year.
• Long-Term Capital Mobilization: Creates standardized guidelines to encourage steady, high-quality institutional investments in priority sectors while supporting continuous dialogue between innovators and sovereign wealth channels.

Significance of the Forum:

• Focus on critical minerals and clean-energy technologies helps both countries build resilient supply chains and reduce dependence on dominant global suppliers.
• The forum institutionalizes economic cooperation, ensuring trade, investment, and strategic partnerships continue to grow despite diplomatic challenges.

Context: U.S. President issued a high-stakes directive calling on several Muslim-majority nations—including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey, and Jordan—to simultaneously sign the Abraham Accords.

About The Abraham Accords:

What It Is?

• The Abraham Accords are a series of landmark, U.S.-brokered diplomatic peace and normalization agreements designed to alter West Asian geopolitics by formalizing direct bilateral relations between Israel and Muslim-majority nations.
• Named after the biblical patriarch Abraham—the common ancestor in both Judaism and Islam—the framework shifts regional dynamics from decades of traditional hostility to an open matrix of international collaboration.

The Signatory Matrix:

• The Broker & Facilitator: The United States.
• The Focal State: Israel.
• The Initial 2020 Signatories: The United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, and Morocco.
• Subsequent Joinees: Kosovo, Sudan, Somaliland, and Kazakhstan.
• The 2026 Target Additions: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, and Jordan.

Aim:

The strategic architecture of the Accords is designed around three primary goals:

• Regional Stability & Containment: Building a unified, U.S.-backed defensive and intelligence bloc to counter Iran’s regional influence and nuclear initiatives.
• Economic & Technological Integration: Unlocking multi-billion dollar trade loops, security cooperation, defense exports, and direct commercial partnerships.
• Bypassing Historical Bottlenecks: Expanding Israel’s circle of recognition in the Arab world by separating bilateral economic progress from the long-standing, unresolved issue of Palestinian statehood.

Key Structural Features:

• Fully Normalized Bilateral Ties: Mandates the opening of embassies, exchange of ambassadors, and establishment of direct commercial flights between Israel and participating nations.
• Defense & Intelligence Interoperability: Enables deep military collaboration, sharing of early-warning radar data, and high-value Israeli defense tech exports to Arab partner states.
• U.S. Diplomatic Incentives: Facilitates secondary strategic sweeteners from Washington for new signatories, mirroring past incentives like advanced weapons sales or unique sovereign recognitions.
• Economic Sachet Frameworks: Fosters shared investments in clean energy, agri-food, tourism, and digital security infrastructure to build interconnected regional financial interests.

Context: Due to the escalation of the Middle East conflict and the approach of the rough monsoon season, the Union Government temporarily designated Porbandar as an Immigration Check Post (ICP) for the non-notified ports of Salaya and Okha.

About The Salaya Port:

What It Is?

• Salaya is a historic, traditional minor tidal port heavily celebrated as the primary hub for India’s traditional dhow and mechanised sailing vessel (MSV) trade. It serves as a vital logistics base for small-scale, export-oriented merchant commerce connecting the Indian western seaboard with West Asia and East Africa.

Location:

• Geographic Feature: Situated inside the well-sheltered, natural contours of the Gulf of Kutch.
• Administrative District: Located in the Devbhoomi Dwarka district of Gujarat, India.

Key Features:

• Protected Tidal Setting: Natural creeks and mangroves shield vessels from strong waves and monsoon winds, making Salaya a safe tidal harbor.
• Major Repair Hub: Known for cost-effective ship painting, hull cleaning, scrapping, and dry-dock repair services on India’s west coast.
• Large Vessel Capacity: Its broad shoreline can accommodate around 100–200 wooden dhows simultaneously, far exceeding nearby ports.
• Seasonal Beaching Centre: Serves as a key off-season anchorage where vessels undergo maintenance and seaworthiness inspections.

Significance of Salaya Port:

• Hub of India’s MSV Fleet: Salaya hosts about 175 of Gujarat’s 275 mechanised sailing vessels, making it the state’s principal dhow port.
• Supports Regional Exports: Facilitates nearly 5 lakh tonnes of annual exports, including livestock, rice, sugar, onions, and soybean products.
• Safe Refuge During Crises: Provides a secure shelter for vessels during regional geopolitical tensions and disruptions in Gulf waters.
• Preserves Maritime Livelihoods: Supports traditional shipbuilding and repair activities, generating employment for local artisans and workers.