1 . SME Growth Fund (SGF)
Syllabus Mapping: GS-III: Indian Economy | MSMEs | Industrial Growth | Employment | Exports | Alternative Investment Funds
- The Union Cabinet has approved a ₹10,000 crore commitment towards establishing the SME Growth Fund (SGF) as part of the Union Budget 2026–27
- The Fund will provide patient equity capital to high-potential Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) having demonstrated business viability and scalability, with the objective of helping them emerge as sectoral champions.
- The SGF is designed as a direct equity investment fund operating as an Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) under the SGF framework.
- Its major focus will be small and medium manufacturing enterprises, particularly those seeking to expand capacity, adopt advanced technology, improve productivity and strengthen export competitiveness.
- The Fund will also consider SMEs located in industrial clusters in Tier-II and Tier-III cities, supporting regional industrial development, local supply chains and quality employment.
- The Fund addresses a financing gap where existing equity funding is relatively concentrated towards early-stage/micro enterprises, while growing SMEs require larger amounts of long-term growth capital to cross critical stages of expansion.
- Growth capital can enable SMEs to scale operations, undertake acquisitions, adopt advanced technologies, foster innovation, integrate into global value chains, expand manufacturing capacity and enter international markets.
- As of 6 October 2026, Udyam and Udyam Assist Platform registrations together stood at around 9.78 crore, with registered MSMEs reporting around 28 crore employment opportunities.
- MSMEs account for 1% of GDP, 35.4% of manufacturing output and 48.58% of exports, according to the Economic Survey 2025–26.
- The wider MSME support ecosystem includes CGTMSE for credit guarantees, PMEGP for employment generation, PM Vishwakarma for end-to-end support, ESDP/ASPIRE for entrepreneurship and skills, RAMP/ZED/Tool Rooms for technology and competitiveness, and MSME SAMBANDH/SC-ST Hub for public procurement.
- The SME Growth Fund is fundamentally an equity-capital intervention, unlike credit-guarantee schemes such as CGTMSE, which facilitate access to institutional credit by providing credit guarantees.
- Patient capital refers to relatively long-term capital that allows an enterprise sufficient time to scale, invest in technology and capacity, undertake strategic expansion and reach commercial maturity without the immediate repayment pressure associated with conventional debt.
- An Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) is a privately pooled investment vehicle established in India that raises funds from investors and invests them according to a defined investment policy; the SGF is structured in this form.
- Under the MSME classification effective from April 2025, a small enterprise has investment up to ₹25 crore and annual turnover up to ₹100 crore, while a medium enterprise has investment up to ₹125 crore and turnover up to ₹500 crore.
2. OJ 287: Binary Supermassive Black Hole System
Syllabus Mapping: GS-III: Science & Technology | Astronomy & Space Technology | Black Holes | Multimessenger Astronomy
- A decade-long international study led by Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Nainital, an autonomous institution under DST, has tracked the changing brightness, colour and polarization of the blazar OJ 287 using observations from 2015–2025.
- OJ 287 is located about 4 billion light years away and contains two supermassive black holes (SMBHs) orbiting each other in a roughly 12-year orbit, forming a rare binary black-hole system.
- OJ 287 is a blazar, a type of active astronomical object that produces powerful plasma jets moving at nearly the speed of light and directed toward Earth, resulting in strong and rapidly variable emission across the electromagnetic spectrum.
- Its characteristic double-peaked brightness pattern was identified in 1988 using nearly a century of optical observations dating back to 1880, after which astronomers continued monitoring its approximately 12-year cycle.
- Analysis of eight optical spectra obtained in 2017 from the Steward Observatory estimated the mass of the central black hole to be at least 3.89 billion times the mass of the Sun, based on the width of the [O III] emission line.
- The observations also have significance for multimessenger astronomy, which combines different signals from cosmic sources, including electromagnetic radiation, gravitational waves, neutrinos and cosmic rays.
- Supermassive black holes can have masses ranging from millions to billions of times the mass of the Sun and are generally associated with the centres of galaxies.
- A binary black hole system consists of two black holes gravitationally bound and orbiting a common centre of mass; their orbital dynamics can produce observable periodic or quasi-periodic signatures.
- A blazar is an active galactic nucleus in which a relativistic jet is oriented close to the line of sight of Earth, making its emission particularly bright and highly variable.
- Relativistic jets consist of highly energetic plasma moving at speeds approaching that of light and can produce radiation across multiple electromagnetic wavelengths.
- Multimessenger astronomy combines information from different cosmic messengers rather than relying only on electromagnetic observations, enabling complementary information about energetic astrophysical events and objects.
3. SAREX-2026 – National Maritime Search & Rescue Exercise
Syllabus Mapping: GS-III: Internal Security | Maritime Security | Disaster Management | Search & Rescue | International Cooperation
- The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) will conduct the 12th National Maritime Search & Rescue Exercise (SAREX-2026) off the Paradip coast, Odisha, with the Raksha Rajya Mantri inaugurating the exercise on 7 October 2026.
- The exercise will witness 32 international observers from 30 countries, highlighting international cooperation, common SAR protocols and interoperability in maritime emergencies.
- SAREX-2026 will deploy 15 Coast Guard ships, 2 Dornier aircraft, 3 ALHs, 1 Chetak helicopter, IAF C-130J and Mi-17 aircraft, 2 Indian Navy ships, along with civil/state assets and shore-based support units.
- The exercise will simulate a Mass Rescue Operation (MRO) involving simultaneous aeronautical and maritime distress situations, including the ditching of a passenger aircraft carrying 228 persons at sea and its collision with the container vessel MV Zumba.
- The exercise aims to strengthen multi-agency coordination, rapid mobilisation of rescue assets and operational interoperability during complex maritime emergencies.
- The NMSAR Board deliberations will focus on national SAR preparedness, distress-alert management, technology integration and faster mobilisation of rescue assets through seamless inter-agency coordination.
4. Fleet Support Ship (FSS) ‘Surya’
Syllabus Mapping: GS-III: Defence Technology | Defence Manufacturing | Maritime Security | Indigenisation | Make in India |
- Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh launched FSS-1 ‘Surya’, laid the keel of FSS-5, and inaugurated the upgraded Slipway-4 and 300-tonne Goliath Crane at Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL), Visakhapatnam, on 6 October 2026.
- The Fleet Support Ships are designed to strengthen the Indian Navy’s operational reach, endurance and sustained deployment in distant maritime areas by providing at-sea replenishment and logistical support.
- The indigenous FSS vessels will have enhanced cargo and fluid capacity, first-line maintenance workshops, a helicopter deck for Multi-Role Helicopter operations and self-defence systems.
- HSL has upgraded and strengthened Slipway-4 to enable construction and launching of ships of up to 45,000 DWT, supporting larger and more complex shipbuilding programmes.
- The 300-tonne Goliath Crane, spanning Slipways 3 and 4, has been manufactured under Make in India and incorporates PLC controls, Variable Frequency Drives, tandem lifting, remote diagnostics and condition monitoring for precise handling of heavy ship blocks.
- HSL attained Miniratna Category-I status in 2025 after coming under the Ministry of Defence, reflecting its expanded role in India’s indigenous maritime and defence manufacturing ecosystem.
- The development aims to strengthen an integrated maritime industrial ecosystem involving the Indian Navy, HSL, DRDO, academia, MSMEs and startups, with Visakhapatnam envisioned as a major Maritime Industrial Hub.
5. Indo-Swiss Research Framework (ISRF) 2026
Syllabus Mapping: GS-III: Science & Technology | International Cooperation in S&T | Research & Innovation
- The Indo-Swiss Research Framework (ISRF) was highlighted at the Indo-Swiss Research Flagship Event 2026 as a new structured platform to deepen long-term India–Switzerland cooperation in Science, Technology and Innovation.
- India–Switzerland S&T cooperation was formally established through an Inter-Governmental Agreement in 2003, followed by the Indo-Swiss Joint Research Programme in 2005 to bring together researchers and faculty from both countries.
- The Indo-Swiss Joint Committee on Science & Technology reviews and guides bilateral cooperation; its seventh round was held in Bern in September 2025.
- Cooperation has expanded across institutions including DST, DBT, MoES, ICMR and ICSSR on the Indian side and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and other Swiss institutions.
- Major areas of cooperation include mountain and glacier research, geoscientific hazards, systems medicine, One Health and social sciences, with newer work covering AI ethics, digital governance, inequality, justice, inclusion and economic transformation.
- Under the new framework, cooperation will focus on research networks, researcher mobility, knowledge exchange, sustained collaboration and stronger academia–industry linkages, while aligning research with national and globally relevant priorities.
- The Explore programme, a co-funded SNSF–DST initiative scheduled to open in November 2026, aims to build new research networks and larger consortia, with 9–12 month support for travel, networking and small equipment.
- The Academia-Industry Training (AIT India) programme will promote science-based innovation, technology transfer and entrepreneurship through cooperation between DST and Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW).
- A Letter of Intent between DST and SNSF will support exploratory scientific collaboration, future joint research and long-term cooperation in mutually agreed priority areas.
