PIB Current Affairs 27 July 2026

Science & TechMediumquizQuiz

Ministry of Earth Sciences Marks 20th Foundation Day, Unveils New Weather & Ocean Tools

•Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) marked its 20th Foundation Day at Prithvi Bhawan, New Delhi, on 27 July 2026, reviewing two decades since its formation
•MoES Secretary Dr N. Kalaiselvi described the ministry as a complete value chain — data provider via Prithvi systems, service provider via Mission Mausam, and technology provider via the Deep Ocean Mission
•New tools and upgrades were launched across MoES institutes: 13 IMD Centres of Excellence, an upgraded Cyclone Warning Centre for Kerala-Karnataka-Lakshadweep, new NCMRWF/NCS/NIOT platforms, and CMLRE taxonomic manuals

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PM Modi Interacts with Skyroot Founders After Vikram-1's Debut Orbital Launch

•PM Modi interacted with Skyroot Aerospace co-founders Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka, congratulating them on the success of Vikram-1
•Vikram-1, launched 18 July 2026 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, is the first privately developed Indian rocket to reach orbit
•The PM called it a reflection of the vibrant private space ecosystem, which India opened up through reforms including the creation of IN-SPACe in 2020

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Schemes & CommitteesMediumquizQuiz

DPIIT Sets Up Toy Sector Task Force, Targets 5% Global Market Share by 2032

•Commerce & Industry Minister Piyush Goyal announced a Task Force for India's toy sector at DPIIT's 'Team Up for Toys' stakeholder meet in New Delhi on 27 July 2026, targeting a 5% share of the global toy market by 2032
•He also launched the Toy Sector Playbook, a roadmap on manufacturing, standards, IP, skilling and exports for manufacturers, startups, MSMEs and investors
•DPIIT said India's toy ecosystem now has 21,000+ MSMEs, 770+ DPIIT-recognised toy startups, ~50 toy clusters and 1,800+ BIS toy licensees

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Schemes & CommitteesMediumquizQuiz

PM-ONOS: 7,499 Institutions Onboarded Nationally, AP Uptake Detailed in Lok Sabha

•In a Lok Sabha written reply, the Ministry of Education said PM-ONOS now covers 7,499 higher-education and R&D institutions nationally (7,073 HEIs + 426 R&D), giving access to 13,000+ journals from 32 publishers
•In Andhra Pradesh, 3.11 lakh students and 6,974 faculty have accessed ONOS journals so far, while 68 of the state's 310 eligible institutions remain unonboarded
•The information was given by Minister of State for Education Dr. Sukanta Majumdar on 27 July 2026, in reply to Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 1169

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Polity & GovernanceHighquizQuiz

Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026 Introduced in Lok Sabha

•Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh introduced the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026 in the Lok Sabha, to strengthen the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024 with fast-tracked investigation, Special Fast Track Courts, Special Public Prosecutors and stricter penalties.
•For individuals: minimum imprisonment raised from 3 to 5 years (max up to 10 years, from 5); maximum fine raised from ₹10 lakh to ₹50 lakh.
•For service providers: maximum fine raised from ₹1 crore to ₹5 crore; debarment period from conducting exams extended from 4 to 8 years. For organised crime: minimum imprisonment raised from 5 to 7 years; maximum fine raised from ₹1 crore to ₹10 crore.

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Schemes & CommitteesLowquizQuiz

PM-Vidyalaxmi Portal: ₹15,634.78 Crore in Collateral-Free Education Loans Sanctioned

•In a Lok Sabha written reply, MoS Education Dr. Sukanta Majumdar said that since PM-Vidyalaxmi's launch (6 November 2024) till 21 July 2026, 1,12,817 collateral-free, guarantor-free education loans worth ₹15,634.78 crore have been sanctioned via the PM Vidyalaxmi portal (live since 25 February 2025).
•Separately, under the older PM-USP Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme for Education Loans (CGFSEL, since 2015), 14,65,880 credit guarantees worth ₹59,843.74 crore have been issued as of the same date.
•Higher education Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) rose from 23.0 (2013-14) to 30.0 (2023-24).

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Govt Reports 1.18 Lakh Atrocity Victims Relieved Under SC/ST POA Act Scheme

•In a written Rajya Sabha reply, Minister of State Ramdas Athawale said the Centre gave Central Assistance to States/UTs under a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) that enforces the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 and the Protection of Civil Rights (PCR) Act, 1955, benefiting 88,172 victims in 2022-23, 79,667 in 2023-24, and 99,965 in 2024-25 — over 1.18 lakh combined relief figure cited in the subtitle spans 2022-23 to 2024-25.
•Central Assistance released was ₹392.71 crore (2022-23), ₹535.30 crore (2023-24) and ₹495.29 crore (2024-25).
•Per NCRB's Crime in India report (latest data up to 2024): 55,685 SC-related and 9,961 ST-related POA Act cases were registered in 2024, with 17,123 SC and 7,219 ST cases pending investigation; the all-India conviction rate in 2024 was 33.9% (SC cases) and 33.2% (ST cases).

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Schemes & CommitteesHighquizQuiz

Jal Jeevan Mission: Tap Water Coverage at 82.09%, Scheme Extended to 2028 as JJM 2.0

•The Union Minister for Jal Shakti told the Rajya Sabha that rural tap water coverage under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) — Har Ghar Jal has risen from 16.71% (3.23 crore households) at launch in August 2019 to 82.09% (15.89 crore of 19.36 crore rural households) as on 18.07.2026.
•In March 2026, the Union Cabinet approved extending JJM to December 2028 as 'JJM 2.0', with the total outlay enhanced from ₹3.60 lakh crore to ₹8.69 lakh crore (central share up from ₹2.08 lakh crore to ₹3.59 lakh crore) and a Comprehensive Implementation and Reform Plan (CIRP) for each State/UT.
•A new 'Jal Arpan' community-led initiative, with a standardised Handbook on Community-Managed Piped Water Systems mandating a 15-day trial run, aims to ensure sustainable handover of completed schemes to Gram Panchayats/VWSCs/Pani Samitis.

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Schemes & CommitteesHighquizQuiz

Atmanirbhar Panchayat Programme, SAMARTH Portal & Model OSR Rules Launched

•Union Minister of Panchayati Raj Rajiv Ranjan Singh launched the Atmanirbhar Panchayat Programme, the SAMARTH Panchayat Portal, and released Model OSR (Own Source of Revenue) Rules for Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) at Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi.
•The Atmanirbhar Panchayat Programme will develop 350 revenue-generating projects over four years (50 in year 1, 100 each in the following three years) from Gram/Block Panchayats' local assets, financed via PPP, CSR, scheme convergence and bank finance, with NABARD and HUDCO as institutional partners.
•The SAMARTH Portal, a unified national platform for digitally managing Panchayat OSR, has already onboarded Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh — registering over 51 lakh taxpayers, generating ₹95 crore in demand notices and collecting over ₹27 crore.

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Indian Astronomers Catch a Blue Straggler Star Actively Forming

•Astronomers from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), with international collaborators, reported catching a Blue Straggler Star (BSS) actively forming in the binary system TIC 327546480 within the old open star cluster Collinder 261, about 9,500 light-years away.
•The study combined high-precision light curves from NASA's TESS space mission with radial-velocity data from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, finding the BSS (about 1.67 solar masses) actively accreting matter from a smaller companion star (about 0.32 solar mass).
•Strong X-ray emission from the system provided independent evidence of ongoing mass transfer, offering direct observational support for one of the leading theories of BSS formation — rejuvenation via mass transfer in a semidetached binary.

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EconomyHighquizQuiz

Grid Storage Push: India's BESS, PSP Capacity Targets Under National Electricity Plan

•The Minister of State for Power told the Rajya Sabha that India's Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) capacity requirement is projected to rise from 8.68 GW/34 GWh by 2026-27 to 47.24 GW/236 GWh by 2031-32, per the National Electricity Plan (Generation) notified in May 2023, entailing an estimated investment of about ₹3.49 lakh crore by 2031-32.
•Pumped Storage Plant (PSP) capacity requirement is projected to rise from 7.45 GW/47 GWh by 2026-27 to 26.69 GW/175 GWh by 2031-32, with an estimated investment of about ₹1.29 lakh crore by 2031-32.
•The reply listed 18 policy, regulatory, demand-side and supply-side measures taken since 2022 to promote energy storage — including ISTS charge waivers, CERC-enabled ancillary-services access for storage, and the ₹18,100-crore PLI scheme for Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) battery manufacturing.

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Schemes & CommitteesLowquizQuiz

PM SHRI Scheme: 13,092 Schools Selected Against 14,500-School Target

•The Minister of State for Education informed the Lok Sabha that 13,092 schools have been selected as PM SHRI schools nationally, against the scheme's target of upgrading about 14,500 schools.
•Uttar Pradesh has the highest count (1,888 schools), followed by Andhra Pradesh (982) and Maharashtra (946).
•The reply also gave State/UT-wise teacher appointments for non-Hindi native languages under PM SHRI — 6,102 Sanskrit, 1,994 Urdu and 9,152 regional-language teachers nationally.

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Schemes & CommitteesMediumquizQuiz

PMAY-U 2.0: 1.27 Crore Houses Sanctioned Under Four-Vertical Housing Push

•MoHUA informed the Rajya Sabha that 127.68 lakh houses have been sanctioned under PMAY-U and PMAY-U 2.0 combined, of which 99.07 lakh have been completed and delivered to beneficiaries as on 13.07.2026.
•PMAY-U 2.0 'Housing for All' Mission, running since 01.09.2024 to support 1 crore additional beneficiaries, has sanctioned 16.20 lakh houses so far under its four verticals — Beneficiary Led Construction (BLC), Affordable Housing in Partnership (AHP), Affordable Rental Housing (ARH) and the Interest Subsidy Scheme (ISS).
•The scheme follows a demand-driven approach with no fixed national target; for Jammu & Kashmir, 45,982 houses (including 2,120 under PMAY-U 2.0) have been sanctioned, of which 35,961 are completed.

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EconomyMediumquizQuiz

National Coal Gasification Mission: New ₹37,500 Crore Scheme to Push Toward 100 MT by 2030

•The National Coal Gasification Mission targets 100 Million Tonnes (MT) of coal gasification capacity by 2030; about 22.6 MTPA is currently operational or under implementation — Jindal Steel Limited (~8 MTPA, operational), Talcher Fertilisers Limited (~2.6 MTPA) and 8 projects under the ₹8,500 crore Financial Incentive Scheme (~12 MTPA) — the Ministry of Coal told Rajya Sabha on 27 July 2026.
•A new Scheme for Promotion of Surface Coal/Lignite Gasification Projects, approved on 13 May 2026 with a ₹37,500 crore outlay, is expected to utilise ~75 MTPA of coal, substantially closing the gap to the 100 MT target.
•Support measures include capex incentives (15% under the older scheme, up to 20% under the new one), a 30-year coal linkage tenure, a 50% revenue-share rebate on coal used for gasification, and a reduced 2% auction floor price for underground coal gasification (UCG) blocks.

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Coal Exchange Rules, 2026 Notified for Structured Price Discovery under MMDR Act

•The Ministry of Coal has notified the 'Coal Exchange Rules, 2026' (Gazette Notification G.S.R. 442(E), dated 4 June 2026) under Section 18B(3) of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 — a provision inserted by the MMDR Amendment Act, 2025.
•The Coal Controller Organisation (CCO) has been appointed (Notification S.O. 5730(E), 10 December 2025) as the authority to register and regulate Coal Exchange(s) to be set up in the country.
•Any entity, including captive and commercial coal miners, can transact and enter delivery-based contracts on the Exchange, with the CCO-approved bidding mechanism and quality-based price adjustment designed to prevent market manipulation.

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Science & TechHighquizQuiz

IndiaAI Mission's Safe & Trusted AI Pillar: 13 Responsible AI Projects, AI Safety Institute

•The IndiaAI Mission, approved by the Union Cabinet in March 2024 with a five-year outlay of ₹10,371 crore, comprises seven pillars — IndiaAI Compute, Foundation Models, AIKosh, IndiaAI Application Development Initiative, FutureSkills, Startup Financing and Safe & Trusted AI — Electronics & IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw informed Rajya Sabha on 24 July 2026.
•Under the Safe & Trusted AI pillar, 13 Responsible AI projects have been approved across institutions like IIT Jodhpur, IIT Madras, IIT Delhi, IIT Kharagpur, NIT Raipur and DIAT, covering bias mitigation, machine unlearning, privacy-preserving AI, explainability and deepfake detection.
•The AI Safety Institute (AISI), announced in January 2025, oversees these projects through a hub-and-spoke model and anchors India's risk-based AI Governance Guidelines, which propose institutional mechanisms — AIGEG, TPEC and AISI itself.

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Schemes & CommitteesMediumquizQuiz

Museum Grant Scheme: Ministry of Culture's Three-Tier Funding for New and Existing Museums

•The Ministry of Culture operates the Museum Grant Scheme (MGS), giving financial assistance for setting up new museums, developing existing ones, digitising collections and creating virtual museums, Culture Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat told Lok Sabha on 27 July 2026.
•Museums are classified into three categories for funding: Category I (renowned, government-owned museums in state capitals with at least 1 lakh annual footfall) gets up to Rs 15 crore, while Category II and III new-museum projects are capped at Rs 10 crore and Rs 5 crore respectively.
•Separate, smaller ceilings — up to Rs 50 lakh (Category I) and Rs 25 lakh (Category II) — apply for digitisation and virtual-museum components, with proposals vetted by a Ministry Expert Committee.

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Kalpasar Project: Gulf of Khambhat Dam to Ease Saurashtra Water Scarcity

•The Gulf of Khambhat (Kalpasar) Project — a Gujarat State Government scheme to dam the Gulf of Khambhat and create one of the world's largest coastal freshwater reservoirs — is expected to significantly ease water scarcity in the Saurashtra region, the Union Minister of State for Jal Shakti told Rajya Sabha on 27 July 2026.
•Its Detailed Project Report (DPR) is being finalised with Indo-Dutch technical cooperation on coastal engineering, hydraulic modelling, salinity management and climate resilience; the project also envisages about 2,470 MW of hybrid renewable energy capacity on tidal land reclaimed for the purpose.
•A proposed highway-cum-rail corridor over the dam would cut the Bhavnagar-Surat road distance from about 356 km to about 177 km.

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Schemes & CommitteesMediumquizQuiz

Gyan Bharatam Mission Onboards 47 Manuscript Cluster Centres, Reports 1.19 Crore Manuscripts

•The Gyan Bharatam Mission (GBM) has onboarded a nationwide network of Cluster Centres (CCs) and Independent Centres (ICs) for manuscript conservation, digitisation and research, Culture Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat told Lok Sabha on 27 July 2026.
•The National Manuscript Survey, launched in March 2026 across all States and UTs, has reported over 1.19 crore manuscripts so far; more than 8 lakh have been digitised, of which 3.90 lakh are viewable on the Gyan Bharatam portal.
•GBM's sanctioned budget has risen from Rs 3.50 crore in 2024-25 to Rs 60 crore in 2026-27, and its portal now runs AI tools — Gyan Mitram, BharatiyaGPT and Pandulipi Darpan — for script recognition, translation and search.

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Schemes & CommitteesMediumquizQuiz

PMJVK Funds ₹1,563.87 Crore Spent in 2025-26; Ministry Details Minority-Affairs Schemes

•PMJVK, a demand-driven Centrally Sponsored Scheme, spent ₹1,563.87 crore in 2025-26 on community infrastructure in Minority Concentration Areas; 8,59,972 units completed since inception, per Rajya Sabha data.
•No poor-quality work has been flagged in any third-party quality audit; Third Party Quality Assurance (TPQA) is now mandatory for all PMJVK projects.
•A separate reply detailed PM VIKAS (converging 5 earlier skilling schemes) and confirmed a Sikh-community leader, Sh. Harjit Singh Grewal, as the newly appointed NCM Chairperson.

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EnvironmentHighquizQuiz

India's NDC Progress: 37.38% Emissions-Intensity Cut, 54.18% Non-Fossil Power Capacity

•India achieved a 37.38% reduction in GDP emissions intensity by 2022 (from 2005 levels), against its NDC goal of a 45% reduction by 2030.
•Non-fossil fuel-based power capacity crossed 50% of installed capacity in June 2025 — five years ahead of the 2030 NDC target — and reached 54.18% as of 30 June 2026.
•India created an additional carbon sink of 2.44 billion tonnes of CO2-equivalent during 2005-2022, against a 2030 target of 2.5-3.0 billion tonnes.

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EnvironmentMediumquizQuiz

Govt Details Heat Action Plans and Urban Tree-Plantation Drives in Lok Sabha

•The National Disaster Management Plan (first issued 2016, revised 2019) lists Heat Wave among 17 major hazards; NDMA's Heat Wave guidelines (2016, revised 2019) drive State, District and City Heat Action Plans.
•Nagar Van Yojana (2020-21 to 2026-27) targets 600 Nagar Vans and 400 Nagar Vatikas nationwide, funded through CAMPA, alongside AMRUT 2.0's urban parks/water-body development.
•Under AMRUT Mitra, Women Self Help Groups undertake tree plantation and green-space maintenance; 'Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam' promotes citizen tree plantation as a tribute to mothers.

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Govt Details Tree Felling and Timber Transit Rules for Agroforestry in Lok Sabha

•Tree felling and timber transit permits for agroforestry are regulated by States under the Indian Forest Act 1927, State Forest/Tree Acts and court orders — rules vary state to state.
•The National Transit Pass System (NTPS), launched December 2023, is a digital platform that has issued 4,36,258 transit passes so far for timber, bamboo and forest produce nationwide.
•ICFRE has released 69 tree varieties/clones for agroforestry, and the Ministry issued advisory Model Rules for tree-felling on agricultural land in June 2025.

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PIB Backgrounder: Khelo India and India's Commonwealth Games 2026 Journey

•Khelo India, launched in 2017 by merging three earlier schemes, has approved 349 infrastructure projects (₹3,176 crore), set up 1,067 Khelo India Centres and supports 2,745 Khelo India Athletes as of July 2026.
•The Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports budget rose to a record ₹4,479.88 crore in 2026-27, up from ₹1,219 crore in 2013-14.
•At Commonwealth Games Glasgow 2026 (23 July-2 August), India's 124-member contingent had won 4 medals (1 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze) as of 27 July 2026.

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Schemes & CommitteesMediumquizQuiz

PIB Backgrounder: India's National Viral Hepatitis Control Programme Targets 2030 Elimination

•NVHCP integrates hepatitis screening and treatment across national health programmes to meet India's 2030 elimination goal, aligned with WHO's Global Hepatitis Strategy.
•Free diagnostics and drugs are provided nationwide for Hepatitis B and C management since the programme's 2018 launch, run through the paperless NVHCP-MIS portal.
•2021 HIV Sentinel Surveillance data found Hepatitis B seroprevalence at 0.85% and Hepatitis C at 0.29% among the tested population.

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Current Affairs Pulse

PIB Current Affairs — 27 July 2026

Ministry of Earth Sciences Marks 20th Foundation Day, Unveils New Weather & Ocean Tools

PM Modi Interacts with Skyroot Founders After Vikram-1's Debut Orbital Launch

DPIIT Sets Up Toy Sector Task Force, Targets 5% Global Market Share by 2032

PM-ONOS: 7,499 Institutions Onboarded Nationally, AP Uptake Detailed in Lok Sabha

Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026 Introduced in Lok Sabha

PM-Vidyalaxmi Portal: ₹15,634.78 Crore in Collateral-Free Education Loans Sanctioned

Govt Reports 1.18 Lakh Atrocity Victims Relieved Under SC/ST POA Act Scheme

Jal Jeevan Mission: Tap Water Coverage at 82.09%, Scheme Extended to 2028 as JJM 2.0

Atmanirbhar Panchayat Programme, SAMARTH Portal & Model OSR Rules Launched

Indian Astronomers Catch a Blue Straggler Star Actively Forming

Grid Storage Push: India's BESS, PSP Capacity Targets Under National Electricity Plan

PM SHRI Scheme: 13,092 Schools Selected Against 14,500-School Target

PMAY-U 2.0: 1.27 Crore Houses Sanctioned Under Four-Vertical Housing Push

National Coal Gasification Mission: New ₹37,500 Crore Scheme to Push Toward 100 MT by 2030

Coal Exchange Rules, 2026 Notified for Structured Price Discovery under MMDR Act

IndiaAI Mission's Safe & Trusted AI Pillar: 13 Responsible AI Projects, AI Safety Institute

Museum Grant Scheme: Ministry of Culture's Three-Tier Funding for New and Existing Museums

Kalpasar Project: Gulf of Khambhat Dam to Ease Saurashtra Water Scarcity

Gyan Bharatam Mission Onboards 47 Manuscript Cluster Centres, Reports 1.19 Crore Manuscripts

PMJVK Funds ₹1,563.87 Crore Spent in 2025-26; Ministry Details Minority-Affairs Schemes

India's NDC Progress: 37.38% Emissions-Intensity Cut, 54.18% Non-Fossil Power Capacity

Govt Details Heat Action Plans and Urban Tree-Plantation Drives in Lok Sabha

Govt Details Tree Felling and Timber Transit Rules for Agroforestry in Lok Sabha

PIB Backgrounder: Khelo India and India's Commonwealth Games 2026 Journey

PIB Backgrounder: India's National Viral Hepatitis Control Programme Targets 2030 Elimination