Science & Technology Current Affairs July 2026

On 24 July 2026, HCLTech announced it will set up its first AI Data Centre in the upcoming Odisha Sovereign AI Park, in partnership with AI startup Sarvam and the Government of Odisha, with a planned capital outlay of Rs 14,257 crore (total project ~Rs 15,000 crore across the three entities). It will provide secure, scalable digital infrastructure for government, research bodies, startups and enterprises. HCLTech will also set up a Global Delivery Centre (GDC) in the state, creating about 5,000 jobs, with operations expected to begin by 2028. It forms part of HCLTech's entry into the full-stack AI market.

China's 'LineShine' was named the world's fastest supercomputer at the 2026 ISC High Performance conference, displacing the US-based 'El Capitan' from the top spot. LineShine achieved the leading double-precision performance on the High-Performance Linpack (HPL) benchmark, the standard test used to rank supercomputers by floating-point operations per second (FLOPS). Global supercomputer rankings are tracked by the biannual TOP500 list. The Linpack benchmark measures a computer's raw mathematical processing speed.

Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk launched Awiqli (insulin icodec) in India - the world's first once-weekly basal (long-acting) insulin approved for clinical use - for adults with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. It reduces injections from 365 to 52 per year. India is the seventh country to launch the drug (after the US, EU, Canada and others). A 70-unit weekly dose is priced at about Rs 261. India has over 101 million people living with diabetes and another 136 million with prediabetes. A single weekly injection replaces a full week of daily basal insulin doses.

In July 2026, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) released the second edition of the Digital Threat Report 2025-26 for the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) and payments ecosystem. It was jointly released by MeitY, CERT-In, CSIRT-Fin and SISA. The report sets an 18-month roadmap for financial institutions and introduces a new Anatomy of Cyber Failure — 4-Layer Gap Archetype Framework explaining how a cyberattack progresses from initial weakness to a full-scale breach.

NIELIT (National Institute of Electronics & Information Technology) will establish two Centres of Excellence in Ahmedabad (Gujarat) and Guwahati (Assam) to train talent in OSAT (Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly & Test) and ATMP (Assembly, Testing, Marking & Packaging). It supports India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) 2.0, approved with an outlay of Rs 1.28 lakh crore. NIELIT has partnered with Tata Electronics, Infineon and SCL Mohali, and will offer BTech, MTech and diploma programmes in semiconductors.

The Union Cabinet, chaired by PM Narendra Modi, approved the Semicon 2.0 programme — a new semiconductor incentive scheme with a total budget outlay of Rs 1,27,500 crore — to deepen India's semiconductor design and manufacturing ecosystem. It builds on Semicon 1.0 (the India Semiconductor Mission, ISM 1.0) and reaffirms India's goal of becoming a global hub for chip design, manufacturing and innovation. Semicon 2.0 is structured around six pillars: Design; Machines & Materials; Setting up more Fabs; ATMP/OSAT (assembly, testing, marking & packaging); Research & Development (R&D); and Talent development. Under ISM 1.0, the government has approved 12 semiconductor manufacturing projects with cumulative investment of over Rs 1.64 lakh crore, plus 24 design projects from startups/MSMEs, and provided EDA-tool access to 105 startups and MSMEs.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) signed an MoU with the Telecommunications Standards Development Society, India (TSDSI) during the 9th TSDSI Technical Deep Dive 2026, under the TDIP Scheme (outlay ₹203 crore for 2026–31) supporting the Bharat 6G Mission. DPIIT-recognised startups/MSMEs get up to 98% support, plus travel assistance for participation in global bodies like 3GPP, ITU and oneM2M.

China successfully recovered the first-stage booster of its new Long March-10B (CZ-10B) carrier rocket during its maiden flight on 10 July 2026, becoming only the second nation after the United States to recover an orbital-class rocket. Launched from the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site at Wenchang, the booster was caught at sea using a novel wire-arrestment 'net-capture' system rather than SpaceX-style landing legs - the world's first net-based recovery of a carrier rocket. Built by CASC (China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation), the reusable Long March-10B can lift about 16 tonnes to low-Earth orbit and supports China's crewed lunar programme (a Moon landing is targeted before 2030). Reusable first stages sharply cut the cost of reaching orbit.

VK Saxena, Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh, commissioned India's first and deepest two geothermal wells (1,000 m each) at Puga Valley, Ladakh, executed by the ONGC Energy Centre. The wells are critical to a planned 1 MW pilot geothermal power plant at Puga (altitude over 14,000 feet) — India's first demonstration-scale geothermal power project. At 400 m depth, the wells recorded a maximum temperature of 135°C.

VK Saxena, Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh, commissioned India's first and deepest two geothermal wells, each 1,000 metres deep, at Puga Valley in Ladakh in July 2026. The wells were executed by the ONGC Energy Centre of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC). Significance: The wells are critical to implementing a 1 Megawatt (MW) Pilot Geothermal Power Plant at Puga Valley, situated at an altitude of over 14,000 feet above sea level. This will be India's first demonstration-scale geothermal power project. Technical findings: At a depth of 400 metres, the wells recorded a maximum temperature of 135 degrees Celsius. Purpose: The pilot will evaluate drilling, fluid behaviour, thermal profiles and energy-conversion mechanisms before full-scale deployment. Successful completion enables reservoir evaluation, power plant planning and eventual commercial development of geothermal resources in Ladakh.

On 17 July 2026, PM Narendra Modi flagged off India's first hydrogen-powered train from Jind railway station, Haryana. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Haryana Governor Ashim Kumar Ghosh and CM Nayab Singh Saini were present. The train runs the 89-km Jind-Sonipat route, covering it in about two hours with 12 intermediate stops, at an operating speed of 75 km/h (design speed 110 km/h). The 10-coach train can carry nearly 2,600 passengers, uses a 3,200-horsepower propulsion system, and its hydrogen fuel cells emit only water vapour. It is reportedly the largest-capacity hydrogen train in operation worldwide; a hydrogen refuelling facility has been set up at Jind.

On 27 July 2026, the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) celebrated its 20th Foundation Day at Prithvi Bhawan, New Delhi, marking two decades of work in weather forecasting, oceanography, seismology and polar research. The event was presided over by MoES Secretary Dr N. Kalaiselvi. Key launches included: the India Meteorological Department (IMD) establishing 13 Centres of Excellence, upgrading the Thiruvananthapuram Cyclone Warning Centre to an Area Cyclone Warning Centre, and launching IMD NOVA for thunderstorm nowcasting; the NCMRWF's WINGS mobile app and a National Doppler Weather Radar Reflectivity Mosaic; and the National Centre for Seismology releasing the Strong Motion Atlas of India (2010-2020).

The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) celebrated its 20th Foundation Day at Prithvi Bhawan, New Delhi, presided over by Secretary Dr. N. Kalaiselvi. Key launches include: the India Meteorological Department (IMD) established 13 Centres of Excellence, upgraded the Thiruvananthapuram Cyclone Warning Centre to an Area Cyclone Warning Centre (ACWC), and launched IMD NOVA for thunderstorm nowcasting. The NCMRWF introduced the WINGS mobile app for numerical weather prediction and a National Doppler Weather Radar Reflectivity Mosaic. The National Centre for Seismology (NCS) released the Strong Motion Atlas of India (2010–2020), and the CMLRE released marine taxonomic manuals.

<b>India</b> recorded its best-ever performance at the <b>56th International Physics Olympiad (IPhO 2026)</b>, held in <b>Bucaramanga, Colombia</b> (4-12 July 2026), with all <b>five</b> Indian participants winning <b>gold medals</b>. India secured <b>joint first place</b> in the overall medal tally alongside Russia, China, Kazakhstan, South Korea and Taiwan. The gold medallists were Kanishk Jain, Riddhesh Anant Bendale, Rishit Garg, Shresth Suraiya and Svarit Joshi. It was India's <b>27th participation</b>; the team was trained by the <b>Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE)</b>, a centre of TIFR under the Department of Atomic Energy. IPhO was established in <b>1967</b>.