Current Affairs – June 14, 2026

{GS1 – Geo} State of India’s Urban Water Governance **

• Context (IE): Ageing pipelines and damaged joints in South Delhi colonies, such as Gulmohar Park, allowed sewage to infiltrate the drinking water supply, causing widespread waterborne illnesses.

Overview of India’s Urban Water Management

• Resource Gap: Indian cities house ~36% of the national population, yet municipal grids access less than 15% of the nation’s freshwater resources.
• Constitutional Basis: The 74^th Constitutional Amendment Act vests urban drinking water and sanitation with Urban Local Bodies. State governments often bypass this by delegating functions to parastatal agencies such as state Jal Boards.
• Benchmark: Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs set a baseline of 135 Litres Per Capita per Day (LPCD) for urban water supply, requiring 100% consumer metering and 100% operating cost recovery.
• Tap Growth: Urban tap water coverage rose from 49% (2011) to 77% (2025-26), driven by 238 lakh new household tap connections primarily under AMRUT missions.
• Demand Projection: Aggregate urban water demand will likely outpace replenishable supply by 2030, leaving 30 major Indian cities at grave risk of water shortages by 2050.

Challenges in Urban Water Governance

• Systemic Contamination: Intermittent municipal supply depressurises ageing pipelines, allowing raw sewage to infiltrate and triggering over 5,500 illnesses and 34 deaths in 2025-26.
• Distribution Losses: Public supply networks lose 25-50% of treated water as Non-Revenue Water (NRW), well above the 20% benchmark set by MoHUA.
• Catchment Failure: Deficient urban stormwater networks and extensive surface concretisation limit the effective utilisation of India’s 4,000 BCM of annual rainfall to just 8%.
• Institutional Fragmentation: Siloed governance across Jal Boards, Municipal Corporations, and PWDs impedes the integration of street-level engineering protocols and rapid emergency response.
• Financial Unsustainability: Weak tariff structures and the absence of volumetric metering leave most ULBs with operating cost recovery below 50%, stalling capital upgrades.

Government Initiatives in India’s Urban Water Sector

• Universal Coverage: AMRUT 2.0 deploys a total indicative outlay of ₹2,77,000 crore to achieve universal household tap coverage across all 4,378 statutory towns.
• Circular Management: “Jal Hi AMRIT” initiative incentivises states to establish Water Resource Recovery Cells (WRRCs) to scale the reuse of treated urban wastewater.
• Performance Accountability: Pey Jal Survekshan conducts independent national field audits across 485 AMRUT cities to rank municipal utilities on water quality, delivery compliance, and NRW losses.
• Wastewater Recovery: National Mission for Clean Ganga funds sewage treatment projects, including under the Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM), to treat 6,255 MLD of urban wastewater.
• Resource Mapping: City Water Balance Plans (CWBPs) require all 4,378 statutory towns to log localised aquifer extractions and to target 20% recycled wastewater consumption under AMRUT 2.0.

Read More> 10 Years of AMRUT Mission | India Needs an Efficient Water Governance | National Water Policy

{GS1 – IS} Irretrievable Breakdown of Marriage (IBM)

• Context (IE): SC recently granted a divorce to a couple living separately for 15 years, reigniting the debate on incorporating IBM as a ground for divorce.

• The SC observed that keeping alive a marriage that is “already decayed and decomposing day by day,” and compelling estranged spouses for years to continue the legal relationship, amounts to cruelty.

What is IBM?

• It refers to a situation where a marriage has broken down beyond repair, and there is no reasonable possibility of reconciliation between the spouses.
• Underlying Principle: It acknowledges that some marriages may fail due to irreconcilable differences and incompatibility rather than legally recognised fault by either spouse.
• Current Legal Status: IBM is not a statutory ground for divorce under existing Indian personal laws (such as the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955).

Supreme Court’s Stance

• Use of Article 142: In the absence of statutory backing, the SC has periodically invoked its extraordinary powers under Article 142 to grant divorce on IBM grounds in individual cases.
• Naveen Kohli vs Neelu Kohli (2006): The SC urged the government to amend the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 to incorporate IBM as a ground for divorce.

Need for Recognising IBM as a Ground for Divorce

• Reduces Prolonged Litigation: It eliminates decades of bitter, adversarial “blame game” lawsuits by replacing them with a swift, factual assessment of whether the couple can reconcile.
• Shields Mental Well-Being: It prevents long-term trauma, anxiety, and depression for spouses while shielding children from growing up in a toxic environment of perpetual hostility.
• Restores Personal Autonomy: It stops vindictive spouses from holding the other “legally captive” in a dead marriage, ensuring the constitutional right to live with dignity under Article 21 and move on.
• Aligns with Modern Social Realities: It legally normalizes “faultless failure,” allowing fundamentally incompatible couples to part ways with their privacy, mutual respect, and dignity intact.

{GS3 – Agri} State of the Cotton Sector in India **

• Context (IE): India’s cotton production has declined at an average annual rate of ~2% since 2014–15, with total output reaching a low of 29 million bales in 2025-26.

Overview of India’s Cotton Sector

• Economic Share: Cotton and its downstream textile industries contribute ~2% to India’s GDP, ~10% of industrial output, and ~8% of export earnings.
• Global Standing: India has the largest cultivation area at ~12 million hectares and ranks 2^nd in global production, supplying ~20% of the world’s cotton.
• Employment Scale: The sector supports more than 6 million smallholder farmers and provides direct and indirect employment for 40-50 million people across processing, ginning, and trade.
• Crop Composition: India is the only country that commercially cultivates all four domesticated cotton species; Genetically modified Bt cotton accounts for 93–95% of total planted acreage.
• Regional Concentration: Cultivation is heavily concentrated, with Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Telangana collectively generating ~65–70% of national output.

Challenges in India’s Cotton Sector

• Yield Stagnation: India’s average cotton yield stagnates at ~440 kg/hectare, well below the global average of ~770 kg/hectare, due to limited high-density planting and severe fragmentation of landholdings.
• Pest Destruction: Overreliance on ageing Bt cotton has triggered widespread Pink Bollworm resistance, causing seasonal yield losses of 20–30% and sharply escalating pesticide costs.
• Monsoon Vulnerability: With 67% of cotton acreage under rain-fed farming, seasonal crops remain susceptible to erratic monsoon cycles, with historical output declines of 10-15% in poor rainfall years.
• Picking Burden: Manual harvesting, covering ~95% of India’s cotton acreage, consumes 30-35% of farmers’ seasonal cultivation budget and introduces 3-7% trash content into raw lint.
• Technology Bottleneck: A regulatory freeze since the 2006 rollout of Bollgard II (BG-II) has blocked the development of next-generation transgenic traits, halting genetic progress against abiotic stresses.

Government Initiatives in India’s Cotton Sector

• Productivity Mission: Mission for Cotton Productivity (2026-31) targets raising lint productivity from ~440 kg/ha to 755 kg/ha by deploying pest-resistant, climate-resilient seeds across 140 districts.
• Global Branding: Kasturi Cotton Bharat initiative uses QR code and blockchain traceability to certify pure Indian origin as a premium brand, targeting raw lint contamination below 2%.
• Digital Extension: The Cotton Corporation of India’s (CCI) “Cott-Ally” mobile app gives cotton farmers direct access to MSP rates, payment status, and procurement centre locations across.
• Sector Coordination: Committee on Cotton Production and Consumption (COCPC) is a representative body under the Ministry of Textiles that aligns policy among cotton growers, traders, and spinning mills.
• MSP Digitisation: CCI’s Kapas Kisan app enables Aadhaar-based farmer self-registration, procurement slot booking, and real-time MSP payment tracking across 11 cotton-growing states.

Read More > Cotton Production | Cotton Industry in India | Mission for Cotton Productivity

{Prelims – Agri} Extreme Rainfall and Soil Degradation

• Context (TH): Recent studies show that extreme rainfall bursts can cause a double blow by depleting soil moisture and washing away soil nitrogen.

• Moisture Depletion: Intense downpours surpass soil absorption capacity, causing rapid surface runoff instead of groundwater recharge. Dry spells between rains boost evaporation in topsoil.
• Nutrient Deficit: Excessive water flushes water-soluble nitrogen from the root zone before crops can absorb it. 700 mm of annual rainfall is a threshold at which nitrogen loss accelerates.
• Key Implications: If average global temperatures increase by 2°C, it will cause dry conditions for ~27% of the global population, threatening food security, as annual rainfall totals no longer guarantee actual water availability.

{Prelims – IR} 114^th International Labour Conference

• Context (ILO | BS): The 114^th International Labour Conference (ILC) took place in Geneva, Switzerland.

• ILC serves as the supreme decision-making body of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), meeting annually in Geneva to set labour policies and review standards.
• It includes 187 Member States and operates under a tripartite structure, with each member sending two government, one employer, and one worker delegate.
• Functions: Adopts labour standards, approves the biennial programme and budget, elects the Governing Body, and monitors treaty implementation through the Committee on the Application of Standards.

{Prelims – MeitY} DigiLocker

• Context (PIB): DigiLocker has onboarded 68 Electricity Distribution Companies (DISCOMs) and Power Departments, enabling consumers in 35 States and Union Territories to access digital electricity bills.

• DigiLocker is a cloud-based repository under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), launched in 2015 as part of the Digital India programme.
• Objective: Digital empowerment of citizens through paperless governance, enabling real-time issuance and verification of documents.
• Under Rule 9A of the Information Technology Rules, 2016, documents issued via DigiLocker are deemed at par with original physical documents.
• Government agencies and registered organisations can verify documents only with explicit user authorisation. Integrated eSign services allow users to digitally self-attest to uploaded legacy records.

{Prelims – MoCF} Biopharma SHAKTI Initiative *

• Context (PIB): India, which is already known as the “Pharmacy of the World” for generic medicines, Biopharma SHAKTI aims to extend this leadership into the high-value biologics and biosimilars segment.

• Launched by the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilisers, with an outlay of ₹10,000 crore for five years (2026–31).
• Aims to launch 100 biologics by 2047, supporting the goals of Viksit Bharat and Swasth Bharat. Biologics are expected to account for nearly 40% of global prescription drugs by 2031.
• Supported by schemes such as the PRIP Scheme, National Biopharma Mission, and BIRAC programs.

{Prelims – MoF} Credit Guarantee Scheme for Microfinance Institutions-2.0

• Context (DDN): Ministry of Finance extended the Credit Guarantee Scheme for Microfinance Institutions-2.0 (CGSMFI-2.0) until 31 August 2026, or until guarantees worth ₹20,000 crore are issued, whichever is earlier.

• CGSMFI-2.0, managed by the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Limited (NCGTC), provides default risk cover for commercial banks that lend to Microfinance Institutions (MFIs).
• It scales guarantee coverage by Assets Under Management (AUM): 80% for small MFIs (below ₹500 crore), 75% for medium, and 70% for large (₹2,000 crore or more).
• MFIs must cap their interest rate at least 1 percentage point below their average lending rate over the previous six months to pass benefits to borrowers.

{Prelims – Sci} Night Vision Devices (NVDs)

• Context (BS): India is expanding indigenous night-fighting capabilities to strengthen operational readiness and enhance defence self-reliance.

• NVDs are electro-optical devices that enable soldiers to see in low-light or complete darkness.
• Core Technologies: Image Intensification (amplifies ambient & infrared light) and thermal imaging (detects heat signatures).
• Integrated into goggles, weapon sights, tanks, helicopters, aircraft, and drones for 24×7 operational capability.
• India’s indigenous NVDs include ELFIE, Netro NB-3100, Netro NW-3000, T-90 tank Driver Night Sight, etc.