Yuva Sangam | Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) | Coal Gasification Incentive Scheme | Aditya-L1 Mission | INS Taragiri | INS Aridhaman

Yuva Sangam

Government Initiatives

Context

• Registrations for institution-led exposure tours under Yuva Sangam Phase-VI were held, covering 22 States and Union Territories.

Yuva Sangam

• It is an initiative by the Government of India to strengthen people-to-people connect between youth belonging to different States/UTs of India.
• It was conceptualised by the Ministry of Education and was launched under the banner of Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat (EBSB).

Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat (EBSB)

• It is a landmark initiative to celebrate the country’s unity in diversity.
• It was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 31st October 2015, coinciding with the 140th birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

Key Initiatives Under Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat

• Yuva Sangam: A youth exchange program that allows students and off-campus youth to travel to paired states, focusing on five pillars: Paryatan (Tourism), Parampara (Tradition), Pragati (Progress), Paraspar Sampark (People-to-people connect), and Devshakti (Spiritual connection).
• Bhasha Sangam: An initiative to encourage people to learn basic sentences in different Indian languages, promoting linguistic harmony.
• Educational Integration: Schools and universities across the country conduct EBSB clubs, student exchange trips, and cultural festivals like Kala Utsav.
• Special Events: Celebration of Statehood Days and integration of cultural themes in national events like Bharat Parv.
• Implementation – The Ministry of Education serves as the nodal ministry for coordinating the program

Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI)

Economy

Context

• The West Asia crisis has led to India’s Manufacturing PMI falling from 56.9 in February 2026 compared to 53.9 in March 2026.

Comparison: PMI vs. IIP

Coal Gasification Incentive Scheme

Economy

In Context

• The Union Minister has unveiled India’s roadmap to address this through domestic coal utilisation, with the Coal Gasification Incentive Scheme as a central instrument.

Coal Gasification

• Coal gasification is the process of converting coal into syngas (synthesis gas) — a mixture primarily of hydrogen (H₂) and carbon monoxide (CO) — through a reaction with steam and oxygen at high temperatures.

Syngas serves as a feedstock for producing:

• Ammonia → used in fertiliser manufacturing
• Methanol → used as fuel and chemical feedstock
• Hydrogen → clean energy carrier
• Synthetic natural gas → substitute for imported LNG.

Aditya-L1 Mission

Science and Tech

News

• ISRO invites proposals from the Indian solar physics community to analyse data from the Aditya-L1 mission.

Aditya-L1 mission

• Uniqueness – Aditya-L1 is the first space-based Indian observatory to study the Sun. It will be launched by the PSLV-C57.
• Note – The solar mission will not see the spacecraft actually go to the sun, it will instead create a space observatory at a point from which the sun can be observed even during an eclipse.
• The spacecraft is planned to be placed in a halo orbit around the Lagrange point 1 (L1), around 1.5 million km from the Earth, of the Sun-Earth system.

Major objectives of the mission

• The mission will focus on study of the Solar upper atmospheric (chromosphere and corona) dynamics.
• It will also identify what drives space weather, along with the origin, composition and dynamics of the solar wind.

Additional Information – International Solar Missions

INS Taragiri

Defence

Context

• INS Taragiri, a Nilgiri-class stealth guided missile frigate, has been commissioned into the Indian Navy.

INS Taragiri

• It is the 4th of the 7 Project 17A multi-mission stealth guided missile frigates.
• It was built by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL).
• It is named after the Taragiri hill ranges of Uttarakhand.
• About 75% of the ship is indigenously built.

Key Features

• It is designed for multi-role operations across air, surface and sub-surface warfare.
• It is equipped with MF-STAR radar, MRSAM, Barak air defence missiles, and BrahMos missiles.

Additional Information – Project 17A (P-17A)

• Objective: To build seven advanced stealth guided-missile frigates for the Indian Navy.
• Key Manufacturers: The project is split between Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) in Mumbai (4 ships) and Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE) in Kolkata (3 ships).
• Design: Designed in-house by the Warship Design Bureau (WDB).
• Indigenization: Approximately 75% of the content is indigenous, involving over 200 MSMEs, aligning with the Aatmanirbhar Bharat (Self-reliant India) initiative.

List of Seven Frigates

1. INS Nilgiri – Commissioned Jan 2025
2. INS Himgiri – Commissioned Aug 2025
3. INS Udaygiri – Commissioned Aug 2025
4. INS Taragiri – Commissioned April 2026
5. INS Dunagiri  – Delivered March/April 2026
6. INS Vindhyagiri – Under sea trials/outfitting
7. INS Mahendragiri – Under construction/outfitting

INS Aridhaman

Defence

In News

• INS Aridaman, part of India’s Arihant-class ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) fleet, has been commissioned as a more advanced platform than its predecessors — INS Arihant (commissioned 2016) and INS Arighaat (commissioned 2024).

Key Features

• It is larger than INS Arihant and INS Arighaat, with a displacement of about 7,000 tonnes.
• It can carry up to 24 K-15 Sagarika missiles, or 8 K-4 / K-5 missiles.
• The K-4 missile has a range of about 3,500 km.
• These are nuclear-capable submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs).
• India’s Nuclear Submarine Programme – It was developed through collaboration between DRDO, the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), the Navy, and private defence firms, with technical assistance from Russia in the early phases.