Current Affairs One-liners — 15 July 2026

Wed, 15 Jul 2026

• The India–UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and the Agreement on Social Security (Double Contribution Convention) entered into force on 15 July 2026, giving zero-duty access to nearly 99% of India's exports.
• The Union Cabinet approved Semicon 2.0 on 15 July 2026 with a total outlay of ₹1,27,500 crore to build India's semiconductor design and manufacturing ecosystem on six pillars.
• The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways gave in-principle approval on 15 July 2026 under the Shipbuilding Development Scheme to a greenfield shipbuilding cluster in Porbandar and a ₹1,570-crore ship repair facility at Vadinar, Gujarat.
• On World Youth Skills Day, 15 July 2026, MoS Jayant Chaudhary unveiled the IndiaSkills Competition 2026–27 guidelines covering 63 skill categories, launched the WorldSkills India Champions Club and announced a ~₹530-crore Skills Outcomes Fund.
• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the National Investment Policy for Urea-2026 for Atmanirbhar Bharat (NIPU-2026) on 15 July 2026 to attract new investment in gas-based urea plants.
• The Union Cabinet approved the Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme (MPMS) on 15 July 2026 with an outlay of ₹62,500 crore for FY 2026-27 to FY 2030-31.
• Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy launched the eighth tranche of e-auction of 20 critical and strategic mineral blocks across nine States on 15 July 2026, at the curtain raiser of India Mining Week 2026.
• Vice-President C. P. Radhakrishnan addressed the valedictory session of the Vidhayi Gaurav Yatra, part of the 75th-year celebrations of the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly, in Jaipur on 15 July 2026.
• The CCEA approved two railway multitracking projects worth about ₹3,907 crore in Odisha and Jharkhand on 15 July 2026 — Paradeep–Haridaspur doubling and Rajkharsawan–Dangoaposi 4th line — adding about 145 km.
• The CCEA approved two Varanasi decongestion corridors on 15 July 2026: a 43.218-km corridor along the Varuna (₹10,998.32 crore) and a 46.039-km corridor along the Ganga between NH-19 and the Ring Road (₹14,447.64 crore).
• The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) monthly bulletin for June 2026, released on 15 July 2026, put the unemployment rate (15+ years) at 5.5% and the labour force participation rate at 54.4%.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid homage to K. Kamaraj on his birth anniversary on 15 July 2026, remembering him as a stalwart of India's freedom movement.