PM CARES Fund
Context: PM CARES spending fell to ₹87.85 lakh in 2024-25, even as its closing balance reached a record ₹8,452.06 crore.
About PM CARES Fund
- The Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) Fund is a public charitable trust created to provide assistance during emergency and distress situations.
- Origin: The Fund was registered on March 27, 2020, under the Registration Act, 1908, following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Key Features of the PM CARES Fund
- Contributions: It receives voluntary contributions from individuals and organisations, including domestic and foreign donations, along with income generated from its corpus.
- Fund Management: The Fund is administered through a Board of Trustees.
- The Prime Minister is the ex-officio Chairman, while the Defence Minister, Home Minister and Finance Minister are ex-officio trustees.
- Areas of Spending: Funds may be utilised for emergency relief and assistance, including healthcare, disaster management and support for affected persons.
- The PM CARES for Children Scheme is among the initiatives supported through the Fund.
- Tax Exemption: Donations to PM CARES are eligible for 100% deduction under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act, subject to applicable provisions.
- No RTI Coverage: The PM CARES Fund has maintained that it is not a “public authority” under the Right to Information Act, 2005.
- Consequently, it does not fall under the RTI disclosure framework.
BRICS Environment Ministers’ Meeting
Context: BRICS Environment Ministers opposed EU CBAMs as “unilateral, punitive, discriminatory and protectionist” at the 12th BRICS Environment Ministers’ Meeting in New Delhi on August 18, 2026.
12th BRICS Environment Ministers’ Meeting
- The meeting brought together BRICS members to strengthen cooperation on climate change, environmental protection, sustainable development and climate finance.
- Key Outcomes
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- Opposition to CBAM: BRICS criticised unilateral carbon-border measures, arguing that they could undermine developing countries’ climate action and resilience-building efforts.
- Adaptation Finance: Developed countries were urged to significantly increase adaptation finance through new, additional, predictable, adequate and accessible grants and concessional finance.
- Climate Finance Commitment: BRICS called for implementation of the commitment to triple adaptation finance to developing countries by 2035, with improved accessibility and monitoring of its delivery and impact.
European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)
- CBAM is an EU climate-policy instrument that applies a carbon price to certain carbon-intensive imports, primarily to address carbon leakage and maintain fair competition.
- Implementation: The transitional phase operated from 2023–2025, during which importers mainly reported embedded emissions.
- The definitive regime began on January 1, 2026, requiring importers to account financially for embedded carbon emissions through CBAM certificates.
- Key Provisions
- Covered Sectors: CBAM currently covers iron and steel, aluminium, cement, fertilisers, electricity and hydrogen, with scope potentially expanding later.
- Carbon Leakage Prevention: It seeks to prevent production from shifting outside the EU to jurisdictions with weaker climate regulations while aligning import costs with carbon pricing faced by EU producers.
- India’s Exposure: Iron and steel constitute about 90% of India’s exports to the EU falling within the CBAM framework, making Indian exporters particularly exposed to its carbon-related costs and compliance requirements.
Corporate Investment in India
Context: Corporate investment as a share of GDP has declined persistently since demonetisation (2016) and has not recovered even to the levels seen during the Global Financial Crisis.
- The decline continued despite corporate tax cuts (2018) and a prolonged low-interest-rate regime, raising questions about what actually drives private investment.
About Corporate Investment
- Corporate investment refers to expenditure by businesses on productive assets such as factories, machinery, equipment, technology, and infrastructure to expand or improve production.
- It is a key driver of economic growth, productivity, and employment.
Key Drivers of Corporate Investments
- Expected profitability: Firms invest when they expect to earn good profits from expanding their business.
- Business confidence: Firms are more willing to invest when they are confident about future economic conditions, demand, and profits.
- Market demand: Firms invest more when they expect strong future demand for their goods and services.
- Cost and availability of credit: High interest rates or difficulty obtaining loans can discourage investment, especially among smaller firms.
- Firm size: Small firms are mainly limited by a lack of affordable credit, while large firms are more likely to be limited by weak market demand.
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Why Has Investment Remained Weak in India?
- Weak demand: Large firms may have sufficient financial resources but hesitate to expand when demand for their products is uncertain.
- Credit constraints: Smaller firms often face higher borrowing costs and limited access to finance.
- Lower business confidence: Economic shocks can reduce firms’ confidence about future profitability.
- Therefore, lower interest rates or tax cuts alone may not be sufficient to revive investment.
Supreme Court’s Power to Do “Complete Justice”
Context: Recently , the Supreme Court has agreed to invoke Article 142 to quash FIRs against students involved in peaceful NEET-UG protests.
Supreme Court’s Power to Do Complete Justice
- Constitutional Provision: Article 142(1) empowers the Supreme Court, while exercising its jurisdiction, to pass any decree or order necessary for doing complete justice in any cause or matter pending before it.
- Orders or decrees passed under this provision are enforceable throughout the territory of India.
- Article 142(2) gives the Supreme Court powers, subject to parliamentary law, concerning attendance of persons, production of documents, investigation and punishment for contempt of itself.
- Judicial Precedents
- Delhi Judicial Service Association v. State of Gujarat (1991): The Court held that ordinary statutory restrictions cannot curtail its constitutional power under Article 142, although statutory provisions may be considered while exercising the power.
- Supreme Court Bar Association v. Union of India (1998): Article 142 cannot be used to supplant substantive law or assume powers specifically vested in another authority.
- Anil Kumar Jain v. Maya Jain (2009): The Supreme Court clarified that High Courts do not possess powers under Article 226 at par with the Supreme Court’s extraordinary powers under Article 142.
Earthquake Swarms in Maharashtra
Context: Maharashtra recorded 29 tremors in a fortnight, including 24 around Nashik, four in Palghar and one in Nagpur, with the strongest measuring magnitude 4.3.
- Seismologists call this pattern of quakes an earthquake swarm.
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About Earthquake Swarm
- An earthquake swarm is a sequence of earthquakes occurring over several days or longer, without a clearly identifiable mainshock followed by aftershocks.
- Key Features
- No Clear Mainshock: Unlike conventional earthquake sequences, swarms generally contain several earthquakes of comparable magnitude, with magnitudes fluctuating over time.
- Variable Duration: Swarms may continue for days, months or even longer.
- Maharashtra’s Palghar region experienced a prolonged swarm beginning in 2018.
- No Certain Prediction: The occurrence of an earthquake swarm does not necessarily indicate that a larger earthquake is imminent, as different swarms have different causes.
- Why Does Maharashtra Experience Earthquake Swarms?
- Intraplate Seismicity: Maharashtra lies largely within the Indian Plate, away from major plate boundaries, but continuing movement and deformation of the plate can accumulate stresses and trigger intraplate earthquakes.
- Deccan Traps and Geological Structures: The Deccan Plateau, dominated by basaltic Deccan Traps formed around 66 million years ago, contains fractures, shear zones and other weaknesses that can transmit accumulated tectonic stresses.
- Role of Water and Reservoirs: Rainwater infiltration through fractures can increase pore pressure and potentially trigger seismic activity, while the Koyna-Warna reservoir provides a notable example of reservoir-triggered seismicity in Maharashtra.
19 Aug 2026
