18 July 2026

4 articles3 high importance4 with quiz

•India's first two deep geothermal wells, each 1,000 metres deep, were commissioned at Puga Valley in Ladakh at an altitude of over 14,000 feet.
•They were drilled by the ONGC Energy Centre with the Ladakh administration and LAHDC Leh, and are the first tangible output of the National Policy on Geothermal Energy notified in September 2025.
•One well was spudded on 3 June 2026 and completed to 1,000 metres on 8 July 2026; a maximum temperature of 135 degrees Celsius was recorded at 400 metres.

•Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) scientists documented two new spider species — Simonia lawbah and Hamataliwa papikonda — from Meghalaya and Andhra Pradesh respectively.
•Simonia lawbah, found in Krem Lawbah Cave (Meghalaya), is a sub-2mm cave-dwelling ray spider marking the first Indian record of the genus Simonia, notable for its cone-shaped 'ray web'.
•Hamataliwa papikonda, recorded in Papikonda National Park (Andhra Pradesh), is a sub-5mm lynx spider and the first documented Hamataliwa species in the state, hunting via speed and agility rather than web-building.

•Hungarian President Tamas Sulyok signed a constitutional amendment on 18 July 2026 that ends his own term in office at midnight on 20 July 2026, following a standoff with the new government.
•Prime Minister Peter Magyar's Tisza party, which defeated long-serving PM Viktor Orban in the April 2026 election, had pushed for the Orban-appointed Sulyok's removal; the amendment ends his term after he refused to resign.
•Parliament Speaker Agnes Forsthoffer will assume presidential duties temporarily, with lawmakers given a 30-day deadline to elect a new president.

•Skyroot Aerospace's Vikram-1, India's first privately developed orbital-class rocket, completed a successful maiden flight on 18 July 2026.
•The mission, named Aagaman, lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota and deployed its payloads on schedule.
•The success made India the third country with a private orbital launch capability, after the United States and China.