Current Affairs – June 12, 2026

{GS1 – IS} India’s Declining Fertility Rate **

Context (TH): India’s Total Fertility Rate (TFR) has fallen to 2.0, below the replacement level (2.1), marking population-control success but raising long-term economic, social, and political concerns.

About TFR and India’s Scenario

TFR is the average number of children a woman would have in her childbearing years (ages 15–49) based on current birth rates.
Replacement Level: The TFR where a population exactly replaces itself across generations without migration, indicating population growth stabilisation; it’s universally set at 2.1.
- A TFR above 2.1 indicates population growth; below 2.1 suggests shrinking and ageing.
Regional Disparity: Urban India has a TFR of 1.6, while rural India remains at the replacement level. Most states and UTs (31 of 36) have a TFR below 2.1, with Andaman and Nicobar Islands recording the lowest (0.9) and Bihar the highest (2.7).

Key Factors Behind Declining TFR

Women’s Empowerment: Increased female education has raised marriage age and changed reproductive priorities, while greater workforce participation has raised the opportunity cost of large families.
Child Survival: Improved paediatric and maternal healthcare and institutional deliveries have lowered the infant mortality rate to 24, reducing the need for multiple children as ‘insurance’.
Socio-Economic Shifts: Urbanisation and rising costs of education, healthcare, and housing make larger families economically unviable.
State Interventions: Initiatives like Mission Parivar Vikas have accelerated family planning education and increased national contraceptive access to 67%.

Key Implications for India

Dependency Shift: Declining TFR could double India’s elderly population by 2050, straining a shrinking workforce, similar to China’s 4-2-1 family pattern (the only child supports six elders).
Labour Imbalance: Low-fertility Southern states face labour shortages, while Northern states add workers, creating migration pressures.
Federal Friction: Lok Sabha seat recalibration using new demographic data may reduce parliamentary power and tax allocations for southern states.
Gender Dividend: Lower TFR reduces caregiving burdens and can increase female labour force participation if supported by investments in crèches and safe transport, as in Sweden.

Measures to Stabilise India’s Fertility Transition

Care Support: Provide universal subsidised childcare and equal paternity leave to prevent severe fertility crashes observed in East Asian economies,
Fertility Incentives: Low-fertility states like Sikkim and Goa must shift from population control to child allowances and subsidised Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART).
Cost Regulation: The government must regulate private urban education and paediatric healthcare and mandate affordable family-sized housing near transit corridors (Singapore Model).
Norm Reversal: Remove punitive two-child norms in jobs and local elections to avoid further fertility suppression, as recently done by Telangana and Rajasthan.

Read More > Total Fertility Rate in India

{GS2 – IR} India-Nepal Ties **

Context (IE | TH ): Nepal’s Foreign Minister recently visited New Delhi under the newly elected Rashtriya Swatantra Party (RSP), signalling renewed India-Nepal engagement.

Significance of Nepal for India

Strategic Buffer: Nepal serves as a buffer between China and India; the 1,850 km porous border with India makes its internal stability vital.
Civilisational Link: Nepal has a unique ‘Roti-Beti’ relationship with India through religious links, cross-border marriages, and Nepali service in the Indian Army Gorkha Regiments.
Water & Energy: Nepal’s river treaties support flood mitigation in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, while its 83,000 MW hydropower potential aids India’s renewable transition.

Key Friction Points with New Leadership

Treaty Pressure: Nepal’s youth-led leadership portrays Indian diplomacy as paternalistic, intensifying calls to revise the 1950 India-Nepal Treaty.
Border Disputes: Disputes persist over the Kalapani-Limpiyadhura-Lipulekh passes, rooted in the 1816 Treaty of Sugauli, which sets the Kali River boundary.
Trade Protectionism: Nepal’s customs duties on daily goods priced above Nepalese Rupees (NRS) 100 threaten to disrupt historically open border markets.
Defence Impasse: Nepal’s opposition to Agnipath’s short-term, non-pensionable terms has halted Gorkha recruitment, weakening a key military link.

Key Opportunities and Way Forward

Hydropower: Expedite the bilateral power pact to import 10,000 MW of electricity over 10 years and facilitate sub-regional energy grids via the BBIN frameworks.
Rail Connectivity: Accelerate the construction of the Raxaul-Kathmandu and Jaynagar-Kurtha rail corridors to reduce Nepal’s logistics costs relative to BRI alternatives.
Fintech Integration: Scale the recently operationalised peer-to-peer (P2P) UPI-NPI network to formalise annual remittances and deepen financial inclusion.
Tech-Led Soft Power: Collaborations like the Mou between Digital India Bhashini and Kathmandu University for voice-first translation platforms support cultural diplomacy.

Read More > India-Nepal Relations

{GS2 – MoMSME} National SC-ST Hub Scheme

Context (PIB): National SC-ST Hub (NSSH) Scheme is making transformational impact by empowering Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) entrepreneurs.

Key Features

Flagship scheme of Ministry of MSME launched in 2016.
Aim: Capacity enhancement of SC-ST entrepreneurs and promoting “entrepreneurship culture” amongst the SC-ST population.
Implementation: National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC).
Priority Areas: Focuses on financial support, capital subsidy, reimbursements, skill development, market access, and credit facilitation.
Key Objectives:
- Help achieve the Public Procurement Policy target of procuring at least 4% of annual purchases from SC/ST-owned MSEs.
- Collection, collation and dissemination of information regarding SC/ST enterprises and entrepreneurs.
- Facilitating SC/ST Entrepreneurs to be part of vendor development programs and mentoring support by specific CPSE matching the products/services of such entrepreneurs.

Major Sub-Schemes

Special Credit Linked Capital Subsidy Scheme: Provides a 25% capital subsidy (up to ₹25 Lakhs) for procuring plant and machinery or equipment.
Single Point Registration Scheme: Offers NSIC registration which exempts MSEs from paying Earnest Money Deposits (EMD) on tenders.
Special Marketing Assistance Scheme: Provides financial assistance for participating in domestic and international trade fairs and vendor development programs.

Context (TH): Following the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine in India has evolved from a temporary emergency measure into a well-structured and rapidly growing pillar of the national healthcare system.

Regulatory Framework of Telemedicine in India

Regulatory Framework: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare issued the Telemedicine Practice Guidelines, 2020, as India’s first consolidated regulatory framework for teleconsultation.
Eligibility: Only Registered Medical Practitioners (RMPs) listed in the State Medical Register or the Indian Medical Register under the National Medical Commission (NMC) Act, 2019 may provide teleconsultations.
Prescription Tiers: RMPs may prescribe List O, List A, and List B drugs via teleconsultation; Schedule X drugs under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, and narcotics under the NDPS Act, 1985, are prohibited.
SPDI Status: Patient data exchanged during teleconsultation qualifies as Sensitive Personal Data or Information (SPDI) under the IT Rules, 2011, and is subject to mandatory security compliance requirements.

Significance of Telemedicine in India

Urban Concentration: Over 75% of India’s doctors practise in urban areas, leaving rural patients reliant on virtual platforms for specialist care that would otherwise require 100+ km of travel.
Financial Burden: India’s out-of-pocket health expenditure at 39.4% of total spending, the highest among BRICS nations, drives patients towards zero-fee virtual consultations as a cost-reduction measure.
Disaster Resilience: With 85% of India’s landmass exposed to one or more natural hazards, telemedicine’s infrastructure-independent delivery helps fill the healthcare gap when ground-level facilities fail.
Chronic Load: 101 million diabetics and 54 million cardiac patients generate a continuous monitoring load that hospital outpatient departments cannot absorb at scale.
Gender Equity: Women facing mobility and safety constraints account for 57% of government teleconsultation users, far exceeding their share of conventional outpatient attendances.

Challenges with Telemedicine in India

Diagnostic Ceiling: Precluding physical examinations during virtual consultations exposes doctors to liability for misconduct arising from diagnosis-deficient prescriptions.
Workforce Gap: Inadequate training of frontline workers in triage and tele-referral protocols leads to over-referrals and clinically ineffective consultations.
Prescription Limit: Prohibition on Schedule X drugs (narcotics and psychotropic substances) via teleconsultation limits clinical utility for patients with complex pain and psychiatric needs.
Regulatory Lag: The DPDP Act, 2023, lacks sector-specific provisions for health data, leaving telemedicine platforms without statutory guidance on consent flows, audit trails, and liability for breaches.
Quality Deficit: IRDAI’s recognition of teleconsultation for insurance reimbursement triggered a surge in private telemedicine platforms, with no mandated standardised clinical outcome metrics.

Government Initiatives for Telemedicine in India

National Platform: eSanjeevani, developed by C-DAC Mohali under the MoHFW, delivers free teleconsultations via 1,75,000+ Ayushman Arogya Mandirs using a hub-and-spoke model.
Mental Health: Tele-MANAS (National Tele Mental Health Programme) offers 24×7 multilingual counselling and psychiatric referrals across all 36 states and union territories.
Cancer Network: ONCONET India, under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), links 108 Peripheral Cancer Centres to 27 Regional Cancer Centres for specialist oncology teleconsultations.
Defence Coverage: SeHAT (Services e-Health Assistance and Tele-consultation) OPD connects armed forces personnel, veterans, and their dependants with military doctors through video teleconsultation.
Satellite Backbone: ISRO’s telemedicine network connects over 78 rural hospitals with 22 super-speciality centres via INSAT satellite bandwidth, covering areas beyond terrestrial broadband reach.

{Prelims – Awards} Sangeet Natak Akademi Ratna

Context (PIB): Sangeet Natak Akademi has selected 7 eminent personalities for the prestigious Akademi Ratna (Fellowship) and conferred Akademi Awards on 108 artistes for 2024-25.

It has also selected 106 young artists for Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar for the years 2024 and 2025
The Akademi Fellowship (Akademi Ratna) carries a cash prize of ₹3 lakh, while the Akademi Award carries ₹1 lakh, along with a Tamrapatra (citation plaque) and Angavastram (shawl of honour).
Fellowship of the Akademi is a most prestigious and rare honour, which is restricted to 40 at any given time.

About Sangeet Natak Akademi

It is India’s national academy for music, dance, and drama and the apex body for the promotion and preservation of the country’s performing arts and intangible cultural heritage.
Created by a Government of India resolution in 1952 and became functional in 1953; it is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Culture.
Chairman: Appointed by the President of India for a term of 5 years.
Confers the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards and Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship (Akademi Ratna), provides grants to artists and institutions, undertakes research and documentation, and organises festivals, seminars, workshops, and cultural exchange programmes.

{Prelims – Envi} Climate Change Slowing Earth’s Rotation

Context (NDTV): Recent research shows that climate change is slowing Earth’s rotation, lengthening days by about 1.33 milliseconds per century.

Climate-driven melting of glaciers and polar ice causes melted water to flow into oceans, bulging the equator. This shift in mass away from Earth’s rotational axis, increases the moment of inertia, thereby slowing the planet’s rotation.
Key Implications: The tiny change can affect satellite navigation, space missions, and timekeeping systems that require precise Earth-rotation data.

{Prelims – Envi} Excise Duty Exemption for Higher Ethanol-Blends

Context (TH): Ministry of Finance exempted four ethanol-blended petrol grades, E22, E25, E27, and E30, from all forms of central excise duty.

The exemption aims to reduce production costs for Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) and incentivise gradual market expansion of higher ethanol blends.

Excise duty is an indirect tax levied on the manufacture or production of specific goods within the country. It is imposed at the point of production.

{Prelims – Geo} Rip Currents

Context (TH): Recently, the ISRO sanctioned a research project to study rip currents and develop AI- and satellite-based tools for beach safety.

Rip currents are narrow, fast-moving channels of water that flow away from the shore towards the sea.
They form when waves continuously push water towards the coast, and the accumulated water finds a narrow path to flow back into the ocean.

Read More> Rip Currents

{Prelims – PIN World} Bulgaria

Context (DDN): EAM S. Jaishankar called for transforming the longstanding India–Bulgaria relationship into a modern, forward-looking partnership.

Location: In Southeastern Europe on the Balkan Peninsula, bordering Romania, Serbia, North Macedonia, Greece, and Türkiye, with a coastline on the Black Sea.
Bulgaria has recently become the 21^st member of the Eurozone (2026) and is already a member of the EU, NATO, and the Schengen Area.
Capital: Sofia. Danube River forms much of its northern border with Romania, while the Balkan Mountains run across the country.

{Prelims – Misc} One-Liners

Infra – Network Survey Vehicle (PIB): A sensor-equipped vehicle that collects road inventory and pavement condition data (e.g., surface cracking, potholes, rut depth) while travelling at normal traffic speeds.
- It carries laser profilers, high-resolution cameras, LiDAR sensors, GPS receivers, accelerometers, a Distance Measuring Instrument (DMI), and a video logging system.
Initiatives – One Station One Product (PIB): Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MoMSME) is using OSOP outlets to market Divyangjan crafts under PM Vishwakarma, promoting Samriddhi (Prosperity). Launched by the Ministry of Railways in 2022, OSOP identifies regional handicrafts, handlooms, agricultural produce, and regional foods and allocates exhibition kiosks at local railway stations.
- PM Vishwakarma, launched in 2023 by MoMSME, offers holistic support—recognition, skill training, and credit access—to traditional artisans across 18 trades.