Current Affairs – March 17, 2026

{GS1 – Geo} Illegal Sand Mining in National Chambal Sanctuary

• Context (TH): The Supreme Court of India took suo motu cognisance of rampant illegal sand mining in the National Chambal Sanctuary.

• Species Impact: The court noted that illegal mining is forcing the critically endangered Gharial and the endangered Gangetic River Dolphin to relocate from their habitats.

Impacts of Illegal Sand Mining

• Nesting Loss: Sand extraction removes the beaches that gharials and turtles require for egg-laying.
• Water Table: Sand acts as a natural sponge, recharging aquifers. Its removal lowers the water table and dries nearby community wells.
• Channel Change: Excessive extraction leads to channel incision (deepening) and bank erosion, destabilising public infrastructure like bridges.
• Turbidity: Mining increases turbidity, blocks sunlight, & reduces dissolved oxygen levels in the river.

About National Chambal Sanctuary

• Location: National Chambal Sanctuary is a 5,400 sq km riverine protected area located at the tri-junction of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh.
• Establishment: It was established in 1978-79 under Project Crocodile.
• Distinction: The sanctuary is India’s first and only tri-state riverine protected area, covering a 400-600 km stretch of the Chambal River.
• Ecosystem: It features a pristine lotic ecosystem with deep channels, vast sandy beaches, and rugged Chambal ravines.
• Gharial: The sanctuary hosts nearly 80% of the world’s remaining wild gharials.
• Other Fauna: Marsh crocodile (mugger), red-crowned roof turtle, smooth-coated otter, Gangetic river dolphin, etc.
• Avifauna: Recognised as an Important Bird Area (IBA), the sanctuary shelters the Indian skimmer, black-bellied tern, Pallas’s fish eagle, black-necked stork, etc.
• Threats: Illegal sand mining, irrigation pressure, proposed river-linking projects, commercial fishing, etc.

Read More > Surge in Quarrying After Sand Mining Ban

{GS2 – Polity} Total Shutdown Observed in Ladakh Over Four-Point Demands

• Context (IE): A total shutdown was observed across Ladakh, marking the first major demonstration since violent clashes in September 2025.

• Trigger: The protest took place two days after climate activist Sonam Wangchuk was released from National Security Act (NSA) detention.
• Agenda: The ongoing agitation concerns a four-point charter under negotiation with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA);
  1. Full statehood for Ladakh in place of its current status as a UT without a legislature.
  2. Inclusion under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution to protect tribal land, culture, and identity.
  3. Job reservations for local youth and a separate Public Service Commission for Ladakh.
  4. Creation of two separate Lok Sabha constituencies for the Leh and Kargil districts.

Read More > Ladakh Protests | Centre’s new regulations for Ladakh

{GS3 – IE} Preparing India for a True Innovation-Led Economy

• Context (TH): India’s rising innovation rankings contrast with weak fundamentals, exposing structural gaps and the need for stronger private-sector participation.

Current status of India’s Innovation Landscape

• Rising Metrics: India ranked 38^th among 139 economies in the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2025.
• Patent Filing: Domestic applicants accounted for 62% of patent filings in 2024–25, but India’s filings lag behind China and the US.
• Low R&D: Gross Expenditure on Research and Development remained at 0.65% of GDP.
• Gender Gap: India ranks 101^st among 119 economies for employment of women with advanced degrees.

Structural Challenges and Gaps

• Funding Imbalance: In advanced economies, industry funds over 70% of R&D, but in India, the government funds most research due to private-sector risk aversion.
• Commercialisation Gap: Weak linkages between laboratories and industry hinder technology transfer, venture creation, and market deployment.
• Capital Shortage: Deep-tech entrepreneurship needs long-term funding, which is limited in India’s venture capital landscape.
• Startup Orientation: Much of India’s startup ecosystem focuses on labour-intensive service delivery rather than creating IP-driven deep-technology advantages.
• Human Capital: Weak talent retention and diversity inclusion threaten the long-term sustainability of India’s innovation pipeline.

Read More > Innovation Transparency in India | India’s Innovation Ecosystem

{GS3 – IE} Heightened Vulnerability of India’s LPG Supply **

• Context (IE): Despite disruptions across India’s crude oil, LNG, and LPG imports due to the Iran-West Asia war, LPG supplies face the most severe stress.

Factors for Increased Vulnerability of India’s LPG Sector

• Concentration Risk: Nearly 90% of India’s LPG imports pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical maritime chokepoint.
• Reserve Deficit: India maintains only a two-day LPG buffer stock of 1.4 lakh tonnes, compared to a 74-day combined national reserve for crude oil.
• Asymmetric Reliance: Despite diversifying crude sources to Russia and Africa, 92% of LPG imports come from only four Persian Gulf nations – the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait.
• Supply-Demand Gap: Domestic LPG production remains stagnant at 40% of demand, while household connections have more than doubled from 150 million in 2015 to over 330 million.
• Fixed Infrastructure: Specialised pressurised infrastructure, such as “gas bullet” tankers, makes LPG sourcing more difficult to diversify than with standard oil tankers.

LPG Landscape in India

• Consumption Scale: India is the world’s second-largest LPG consumer (after China), with 332 million active domestic connections.
• Structural Deficit: Domestic production meets only 40% of national demand, requiring annual imports of nearly 20 million tonnes of LPG.
• Household Dominance: Households account for over 85% of total LPG consumption, followed by commercial and industrial sectors; transport contributes less than 1%.
• Welfare Expansion: Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) has provided deposit-free LPG connections to over 100 million BPL households, reaching near-universal access.
• Urban Transition: The City Gas Distribution (CGD) network aims to shift urban users to Piped Natural Gas (PNG), freeing up LPG supply for remote rural areas.
• Cluster Bias: LPG consumption remains concentrated in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Bihar, which together account for nearly half of India’s total demand.

Read More > India’s Strategy Amid West Asia Conflict | Emergency Powers to Ensure LPG Availability

{GS3 – S&T} New Chemical Reaction Opens Pathways for Drug Development **

• Context (TH): An international team of scientists discovered the ‘Trisulfide Metathesis Reaction’, a new chemical process that can advance drug development.

• Mechanism: In this process, organic trisulfides (molecules containing three sulfur atoms) spontaneously break sulfur-sulfur bonds and exchange molecular parts.
• Conditions: The sulphur–sulphur (S–S) bonds break and recombine when molecules are immersed in specific solvents at room temperature.
• Key Advantage: Conventional sulphur-bond modification requires heat, light, or catalysts, but this reaction occurs naturally and rapidly.

Key Applications

• Drug Development: Allows scientists to modify and improve complex drug molecules, like anti-cancer and anti-tumour compounds.
• Protein Science: Facilitates the selective modification of biomolecules and advances in protein engineering for biotechnology.
• Medicinal Chemistry: Its rapid speed enables the creation of chemical libraries (large collections of molecules) to screen new medicines faster.
• Sustainable Materials: Allows synthetic materials to be broken down into their original chemical components for recycling.

{GS3 – Envi} Bhutan’s “Pay-to-Protect” Approach for Sustainable Tourism in the Himalayas **

• Context (DTE): Bhutan’s “pay-to-protect” model offers a policy template to address ecological stress from mass tourism in the Himalayan Region.

About Bhutan’s “Pay-to-Protect” Tourism Model

• This model treats access to the Himalayas as a priced privilege to prevent Tragedy of the Commons and prioritise ecological protection.
• Sustainable Development Fee: Bhutan imposes an SDF ($100 per person per night) on most international visitors to encourage ecological responsibility.
• High Value, Low Volume: The fee limits the number of tourists while increasing revenue per visitor.
• Revenue Use: SDF revenue is mandated for reinvestment into conservation programmes and providing free healthcare to citizens.
• Carbon Control: Tourist caps via high prices limit vehicle emissions, helping Bhutan remain one of the world’s few carbon-negative countries.

Key Solutions for India

• Capacity Assessment: Conduct seasonal carrying-capacity audits in hill stations and link entry permits, hotel approvals, and vehicle access to real-time limits.
• Green Charges: Impose ecological surcharges on vehicles entering fragile high-altitude zones and ring-fence proceeds for local restoration.
• LiFE Alignment: Build tourism systems where sustainable choices become the default option, in line with India’s Lifestyle for Environment initiative.
• Nature Solutions: Prioritise springshed restoration through ‘Dhara Vikas’ and enforce zero-waste hotel rules with on-site composting and plastic processing.
• Policy Shift: Incentivise homestays and promote certified Green Hotels under the National Strategy for Sustainable Tourism, 2022.

Read More > Increasing Natural disaster in the Himalayas

{GS3 – Envi} Forest Finance Mechanisms Introduced in COP30 at Belém **

• Context (TH): COP30 in Belém, Brazil, introduced new forest finance mechanisms to safeguard forests and strengthen Indigenous and community stewardship.

Key Forest Finance Initiatives from COP30

• TFFF: Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF) is a $125 billion fund that pays over 70 tropical nations $4/hectare annually to maintain forest canopy, verified by satellite.
• ILTC: Intergovernmental Land Tenure Commitment (ILTC) commits $1.8 billion to legally secure 160 million hectares of Indigenous and community lands by 2030.
• J-REDD+: Scaling J-REDD+ is a coalition that seeks to mobilise $3-6 billion annually by 2030 through high-integrity carbon credit sales at the jurisdictional scale.
• RAIZ: The RAIZ Accelerator leverages public de-risking capital to attract private investment for restoring degraded lands and scaling sustainable agroforestry.
• Baku-to-Belém: Jointly prepared by the COP29 and COP30 presidencies, the roadmap targets $1.3 trillion in annual climate finance for developing nations by 2035.
• Amazonia Forever: It is an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) program that offers technical and financial support for sustainable development across eight Amazonian nations.

Key Indian Forest Finance Initiatives

• Horizontal Devolution: 15^th Finance Commission assigned 10% weightage to ‘Forest and Ecology’ in the Centre-to-State tax devolution formula.
• GCP: Green Credit Programme, under Mission LiFE, awards Green Credits to individuals and corporations for tree plantation on degraded lands.
• CAMPA: Compensatory Afforestation Fund transfers 90% of environmental compensations to states for afforestation and wildlife management.
• GIM: Green India Mission, under the NAPCC, aims to restore ~25 million hectares of degraded land by 2030, creating an additional carbon sink of 3.4 billion tonnes CO₂e.
• PMVDY: Pradhan Mantri Van Dhan Yojana funds Van Dhan Vikas Kendras at ₹15 lakh per centre to help tribal communities process and market Minor Forest Produce (MFP).
• MISHTI: With a ₹100 crore outlay, Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats and Tangible Incomes (MISHTI) targets restoration of 540 sq km of mangroves by 2028.

Read More> UNFCCC COP 30 Climate Summit | Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF)

{Prelims – Species} Dual-Sex Biological Traits Recorded in Vela carli Crabs *

• Context (TH): Scientists recorded gynandromorphy in the Vela carli crab at Silent Valley National Park, Kerala, where an individual exhibits both male and female traits.

• This is the first instance of gynandromorphy reported in the freshwater crab family Gecarcinucidae.

About Vela carli

• Vela carli is a tiny nocturnal freshwater crab belonging to the family Gecarcinucidae.
• Appearance: It has an inflated box-like carapace with a brown-yellow dorsal and a pale underside.
• Habitat Preference: The species inhabits damp, shaded microhabitats like rocky streams, wet leaf litter, and waterlogged tree cavities.
• Distribution: It is strictly endemic to the Central Western Ghats, with major populations in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
• Ecological Role: The crab acts as a bioindicator of unpolluted freshwater ecosystems and supports local benthic nutrient recycling.

About Silent Valley National Park

• Silent Valley National Park is a tropical moist evergreen forest in Palakkad district, Kerala.
• Status: It is part of the Western Ghats UNESCO World Heritage Site and forms the core area of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve.
• Origin: The park was established after the Save Silent Valley movement of the 1970s that halted a proposed hydroelectric dam.
• Flagship: The endangered Lion-tailed Macaque is the park’s flagship species.
• Faunal Diversity: Nilgiri langur, Malabar giant squirrel, Nilgiri tahr, tiger, leopard, Travancore flying squirrel, Malabar grey hornbill, etc.
• River: Kunthipuzha River, a tributary of the Bharathappuzha, originates and flows through the park.
• Relief: High-altitude ridges like Anginda Peak (2,383 m) create a unique microclimate supporting Shola-grassland ecosystems.

{Prelims – A&C} Gajapati Empire Inscription Discovered in Guntur *

• Context (HI): A 15^th-century Telugu inscription associated with the Gajapati rulers of Odisha was recently discovered in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh.

About Gajapati Empire

• Gajapati Empire (c. 1434–1541 CE) was a medieval Hindu monarchy founded by Kapilendra Deva in Odisha. The name “Gajapati” literally means “Lord of the Elephants.”
• At its peak in the 15^th century, it extended from the Ganges in the north to the Kaveri in the south.
• They patronised the Odia language; Sarala Das wrote the first Odia Mahabharata during this era.
• Architectural Legacy: They expanded the Jagannath Temple at Puri and constructed the Kapilesvara Temple, Bhubaneswar.
• Religious Practice: Primarily Vaishnavites, they follow the Hari-Hara tradition, which combines worship of Shiva and Vishnu.
• Prataparudra Deva: The last major Gajapati ruler whose reign witnessed the arrival of the Vaishnava saint Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

{Prelims – In News} Samarth Incubation Programme

• Context (DDN): Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) organised a Demo Day in New Delhi for 18 startups under the Samarth Incubation Programme.

• The Programme, launched by C-DOT in 2025, offers financial aid and infrastructure support to DPIIT-recognised startups.
• Implementation: Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) assist in programme execution.
• Objective: To promote indigenous innovation and support early-stage startups in transitioning from ideation to commercialisation.
• Target Sectors: It focuses on Telecom Software, Cybersecurity, 5G/6G networks, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and Quantum Technologies.

{Prelims – Awards} Jnanpith Award 2025 *

• Context (IE): Tamil poet & lyricist R. Vairamuthu has been chosen for the 60^th Jnanpith Award for 2025.

• Vairamuthu becomes the third Tamil writer to receive it and the first primarily honoured for poetry.

Jnanpith Award

• It is the oldest and highest Indian literary award, presented annually by the Bharatiya Jnanpith to authors for their outstanding contributions towards literature.
• It is bestowed upon Indian writers for their work in Indian languages included in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India, as well as in English.
• The award was instituted in 1961 and first awarded in 1965 to G. Sankara Kurup, a Malayalam writer.
• The award includes a cash prize (₹11 lakh), a bronze Saraswati statuette, and a citation.
• The award is not conferred posthumously.

{Prelims – Awards} Oscars Awards 2026

• Context (TH): The 98^th Academy Awards (Oscars 2026) were recently held in Los Angeles.

• Key Winners: One Battle After Another won Best Picture; Paul Thomas Anderson won Best Director.
  • Autumn Durald Arkapaw became the first woman and woman of colour to win an Oscar (Best Cinematography).

About Oscar Award

• Oscar Awards, first presented in 1929, are regarded as most prestigious honours in global film industry.
• They are held annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), a professional honorary organisation in the United States.
• Indian Milestones: Bhanu Athaiya was India’s first Oscar winner for ‘Gandhi’.
  • In 2023, RRR won Best Original Song for “Naatu Naatu”, and The Elephant Whisperers won Best Documentary Short Film.

{Prelims – In News} Instagram to Stop End-to-End Encrypted Messaging

• Context (TH): Meta has announced that end-to-end (E2E) encrypted messaging on Instagram will be discontinued. Users will lose encrypted chat access, lowering Instagram messaging privacy.

End-to-End Encryption (E2E)

• E2E is a security method where only the sender and receiver can read the message, and no third party (including the platform) can access it.
• Messages are encrypted using unique cryptographic keys on the sender’s device and can only be decrypted on the recipient’s device.
• Privacy Protection: Ensures high level of privacy and confidentiality, preventing interception, hacking, or surveillance.

{Prelims – In News} FSSAI Directs Mandatory Registration for Milk Producers and Vendors *

• Context (AIR): Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has directed milk producers and vendors to obtain mandatory registration or licence to operate legally.

• The directive mainly targets milk producers who are not part of dairy cooperative societies and independent milk vendors.
• The move aims to ensure food safety, improve regulatory compliance, and strengthen oversight of the milk supply chain.

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI)

• Established in 2008, FSSAI is the national food safety regulator of India.
• It is a statutory body established under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.
• Nodal Ministry: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
• Food Regulation: It regulates manufacture, storage, distribution, sale, & import of food products in India.
• Consumer Awareness Initiatives: Runs campaigns like Eat Right India to promote healthy eating habits.

{Prelims – S&T} ISRO and AIIMS Sign MoU for Space Medicine Research

• Context (TH): ISRO and AIIMS New Delhi signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on space medicine and research.

• The partnership will utilise both ground-based simulations and space-based studies to generate mission-relevant human health data.
• Objective: To address medical challenges in long-duration missions like the Bharatiya Antariksh Station and future crewed Moon missions.
• Focus Areas: Includes human physiology, microgravity, immunology, and psychological health in isolated confinement conditions.
• Significance: The findings will enhance astronaut safety and advance terrestrial healthcare innovations.

{Prelims – PIN – Asia} Fujairah *

• Context (NDTV): Iranian drone strikes on the UAE’s Fujairah have raised concerns over potential disruptions to critical energy supply routes.

• Location: Fujairah is the only UAE emirate located entirely on the eastern coast along the Gulf of Oman.
  • It is the only emirate without a coastline on the Persian Gulf.
• Mountain: The Hajar Mountains separate Fujairah from the rest of the UAE.
• Port: The Port of Fujairah is the world’s fourth-largest marine refuelling (bunkering) hub after Singapore, Rotterdam, and Zhoushan.
• Pipeline: The 360-km Habshan–Fujairah Pipeline can export about 1.5 million barrels per day directly to the Indian Ocean, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz.