Prelims Focus 17th July 2026

17/07/2026

26 3 minutes read

Trial in Absentia

In News: A trial in absentia under Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023, has come into focus after a Special NIA Court in Jammu issued a non-bailable warrant against Hafiz Saeed related to the terror attack in Pahalgam.

Trial in absentia is a trial without the defendant, or, in a criminal trial, without the defendant’s presence.
Section 356 of the BNSS says that if the person who declared a proclaimed offender refuses to come to court for trial and there is no immediate prospect of his/her arrest, then it may be treated as a waiver of his/her presence during the proceedings.
To whom is it applicable?
- It can only be applied to a “proclaimed offender”, as defined by Section 84 of the BNSS.
- After making such inquiry as the court may deem fit, the court may declare a person a proclaimed offender if the person accused of the offence punishable by life imprisonment or death under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, or under any other law fails to appear at the place and time so specified.

India’s Imports from China soar to $80 bn in First Half of 2026

In News: The data released by China’s General Administration of Customs showed that India’s imports from China jumped 21.8% to a record high of $79.41 billion in the first half of 2026.

China has become India’s biggest trade partner in 2025-26 with bilateral trade valued at USD 151.1 billion, with India’s trade deficit with China increasing to USD 112.16 billion.
The US was India’s largest trading partner for four consecutive years till 2024-25.
During the previous financial year, India’s exports to China grew by 36.66%, to USD 19.47 billion and imports grew by 16%, to USD 131.63 billion.
There is a high growth in merchandise imports and a rise in the value of crude oil, electronics and gold imports.
In addition to the huge import volumes of electronics and other equipment from China, India is also importing intermediates, which are required for Indian electronics manufacturing, as well as for export.

First Monthly Services Production Index

In News: The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has just released the first trial Index of Services Production (ISP) for 19 sub-sectors.

A short-term indicator used to calculate changes in the volume of output provided by the services sector relative to a particular base period is called the Index of Services Production (ISP). It is a measure of the change in real output in service-producing sectors of the economy over time.
It is the services sector equivalent of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) which is the indicator of industrial production.
The benchmark year of the index has been set at the year 2024–25.

NIDAR 2.0

In News: The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), in partnership with Drone Federation India (DFI) conducted the 2nd edition of National Innovation Challenge for Drone Application and Research (NIDAR 2.0, 2026-27) under the SwaYaan initiative.

NIDAR 2.0 takes the challenge from the conventional drone platform to the autonomous drone, as well as to the avionics and the fundamental parts of a drone.
Track 1: Drone Innovation will feature the development of an autonomous swarm drone for disasters and GPS-denied drones for industrial inspections in the indoor environment.
Under Track 2 (Component Innovation), teams are required to develop an indigenous flight controller and autopilot using VEGA processor and indigenous electronic components. The top 100 teams will be provided with VEGA processor kits for further development and testing.

Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE)

In News: Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) is quickly becoming one of the buzziest roles in AI hiring.

Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) is a multi-functional, software development, AI implementation, solutions architecture, and business consulting position.
It makes AI experiments real, like robust and usable systems that are part of everyday work.
They integrate with clients, gain knowledge of the actual business challenge first-hand and create AI solutions that seamlessly integrate into clients’ existing (and often sensitive) data.
They rely on developing standards such as Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Agent2Agent (A2A) to enable different AI agents and platforms to communicate with one another.