On 25 October, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Reserve Bank of India's ₹169-crore data centre and Cybersecurity Training Institute in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. He said wars are no longer fought only with weapons and that a country can be weakened by attacks on its economy. Protecting the banking system from cybercriminals and cyberterrorists is therefore a national priority.
What the PM said:
Cyber threats are changing, and outdated systems, old training methods and obsolete tools cannot meet them.
India needs both modern infrastructure and a skilled cyber workforce, which the new institute is meant to build.
Odisha is moving from a mineral-based economy towards micro-chip manufacturing.
Why banks are a target:
Digital payments (UPI, cards, net banking) mean money now moves through networks that can be attacked.
A successful attack can freeze payments, leak customer data and shake trust in the financial system.
Training people is as important as hardware, because many breaches start with human error such as phishing.
Prelims pointers
CERT-In is the national nodal agency for cyber incident response under Section 70B of the IT Act, 2000. It works under MeitY.
The National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) is set up under Section 70A of the IT Act. It works under the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO).
The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) works under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Citizens report cyber fraud on helpline 1930.
The National Cyber Security Policy was released in 2013.
Reserve Bank Information Technology Pvt. Ltd. (ReBIT) is a wholly owned RBI subsidiary for IT and cybersecurity.
The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 governs how organisations, including banks, handle personal data.
Mains angle
Financial cyber resilience is now part of national security. Gaps include a shortage of trained cyber professionals, legacy IT in smaller banks and cooperative banks, and dependence on foreign hardware and software. Priorities:
A dedicated cyber workforce pipeline for the financial sector.
Regular audits and stress tests of bank IT systems.
Real-time information sharing between RBI, CERT-In and banks.
Customer awareness against digital-arrest and phishing frauds.
The Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission has granted Eleven Power Pvt Ltd a 25-year parallel distribution licence for Gurugram and Nuh. It will be the first private player in Haryana's power distribution. The Haryana government, which opposed the move, plans to appeal to the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity.
Haryana's distribution is run by two state discoms, UHBVN and DHBVN.
A parallel licence lets a second company supply power in the same area through its own network, giving consumers a choice of supplier.
Prelims pointers
The sixth proviso to Section 14 of the Electricity Act, 2003 allows two or more distribution licensees in the same area, each with its own network.
Eleven Power plans a capital investment of ₹4,717 crore between 2026-27 and 2030-31.
Mumbai is India's best-known example of overlapping licensees: Tata Power, BEST and Adani Electricity.
The Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (APTEL) hears appeals against orders of electricity regulatory commissions under the Electricity Act, 2003.
According to a Central Electricity Authority report, fixed costs make up 38–56% of a discom's annual revenue requirement. Fixed charges recover only about 9–20% of revenue.
Electricity is a Concurrent List subject (Entry 38).
Mains angle
Competition can improve service. But duplicate networks and loss of high-paying industrial consumers could raise costs and weaken the cross-subsidies that keep household and farm tariffs low.
Two years after its launch, the PM Internship Scheme is drawing more young people since its 2026 revamp. Yet fewer than half of those who join complete the internship, and many report doing work unrelated to the skills they hoped to learn.
The scheme was announced in the 2024-25 Budget, and its pilot began in October 2024. Weak joining and completion in the first rounds led the government to revise it in 2026.
Prelims pointers
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs is the nodal ministry for the scheme.
It aims to give 1 crore youth internships in India's top 500 companies over five years, with an outlay of ₹63,000 crore.
The top 500 companies are chosen by their average CSR spending over the previous three years.
The original design offered ₹5,000 a month: ₹4,500 from the Centre through DBT and ₹500 from company CSR funds. It also paid a one-time grant of ₹6,000.
The revamp raised monthly assistance to ₹9,000, widened the age band from 21–24 to 18–25 years, and cut the duration to six to nine months.
Mains angle
Internships help only if they teach. Low completion, mismatched tasks and a stipend that loses to paid work show the gap between slots offered and skills gained.
BPCL's October 16 tender seeks about 11 billion litres of ethanol for November 2026 to October 2027. It excludes sugarcane juice, syrup and B-heavy molasses after the Centre ordered zero sugar diversion. Only maize, broken rice, FCI surplus rice and C-heavy molasses qualify, and the maize ethanol price has been cut to ₹68.86 a litre. With the E20 target unchanged, the load shifts to grains, sharpening the food-versus-fuel trade-off.
India's total exports of goods and services rose 13.84% to an estimated $476.20 billion in April to September 2026-27, Commerce Ministry data released on October 15 shows. Merchandise exports grew 18.51% to $259.89 billion. In September alone, electronic goods exports jumped 70.44% to $5.31 billion. However, the goods trade deficit widened to $177.64 billion for the half-year, while services posted a surplus of $102.71 billion. Overall, the combined trade deficit stood at $74.93 billion.
