Current Affairs – June 24, 2026

{GS1 – IS} Implementation Gaps in Forest Rights Act, 2006 **

• Context (DTE): Nearly two decades after its enactment, concerns persist regarding the inadequate implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (FRA).

About Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006

• It was enacted to correct the “historical injustices” suffered by forest-dwelling communities whose customary rights were ignored during the colonial era and in post-independence forest consolidation.
• The Act aligns with constitutional vision of 5^th and 6^th Schedules, Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA), and international frameworks like UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
• It primarily recognizes 2 categories of forest dwellers – STs and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (OTFDs) (who must have resided in the forest for at least 3 generations/75 years prior to 2005).

Poor Implementation of FRA

• Implementation Gaps: An estimated 1.77 lakhs forest-dependent villages and nearly 20 crore people are eligible under FRA, yet recognition of CFRR has reached only a small fraction of this population.
• Claim Rejection: As per Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) data (March 2026), over 47,900 CFR and CFRR claims have been rejected.

Key Challenges

• Neglect of Community Rights: Implementation has largely focused on Individual Forest Rights while neglecting CFRR, which are central to community-led forest governance.
• Procedural Violations: Many claims are rejected without proper verification, written justification, or opportunities for appeal, contrary to FRA Rules. In several areas, Forest Rights Committees and Gram Sabhas are bypassed, weakening the democratic processes envisaged under the Act.
• Weak Institutional Capacity: As the nodal ministry, MoTA faces constraints in staffing, technical expertise, geospatial mapping, monitoring systems, and inter-ministerial coordination. These limitations affect its ability to support states, and monitor implementation.
• Restriction on Minor Forest Produce (MFP): Despite the law granting ownership of MFP to locals, restrictive state transit permits and predatory market monopolies stifle indigenous livelihoods.
• Policy Conflict: Parallel bodies like Joint Forest Management Committees (JFMCs) and CAMPA-funded projects frequently bypass Gram Sabhas, causing legal and administrative friction.

Way Forward

• Establish a time-bound National FRA Mission with dedicated funding, monitoring mechanisms, and state-specific targets.
• Ensure Gram Sabha consent in matters related to forest governance, conservation, mining, infrastructure, and relocation projects.
• Mandate written reasons for claim rejections & establish accessible grievance redressal mechanisms.
• Prioritize recognition of CFRRs and habitat rights of PVTGs.
• Remove barriers in MFP trade and strengthen value addition through producer collectives, Van Dhan Kendras, and market linkages.
• Align FRA implementation with PESA, Wildlife Protection Act, CAMPA Act, and Biological Diversity Act etc.

{GS2 – Polity} India v/s British Parliamentary System *

• Context (IE): UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer formally announced his resignation as Prime Minister and as leader of the Labour Party.

{GS2 – Polity} Amendments in FCRA Rules

• Context (HT): Ministry of Home Affairs amended the rules under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, imposing stricter compliance and transparency requirements.

Key New Rules

• Operations & Objectives: NGOs must explicitly state their intended activities and specify the States or UTs where they will operate.
• Personnel Restrictions: Associations appointing foreign citizens, except PIOs, as key functionaries will be ineligible for FCRA registration.
  • Key functionaries now include trustees, company directors, and Hindu Undivided Family Kartas.
• Financial Controls: NGOs must spend at least ₹10 lakh in foreign funds over two years for renewal. Prior-permission holders must use 75% of an instalment before seeking the next tranche.
• Proselytisation Ban: Foreign contributions may support faith-based activities, including religious education, but cannot finance proselytisation or forced conversion.
• Transparency: NGOs need to disclose social-media accounts, identify original donors behind transfers, and submit detailed activity reports with annual returns.

Read More > FCRA Amendment Bill, 2026

{GS3 – IE} Industrial Climate Policy in India

• Context (TH): India’s first Biennial Transparency Report reveals a patchy industrial climate strategy, in which headline decarbonisation targets coexist with a large share of unregulated industrial emissions.

• Industrial climate policy comprises the regulatory and market-based instruments that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy use in the manufacturing and industrial sector.
• India’s industrial sector generated over 20% of total emissions in 2022: 13% from fuel use in manufacturing and construction, and 9% from industrial processes.

Challenges with India’s Industrial Climate Policy

• Coverage Blindspot: ‘Non-specific industries’ generate over 40% of manufacturing emissions yet remain outside both the PAT and the CCTS due to a lack of sub-sectoral data required for targeted regulation.
• Ambition Deficit: Current CCTS mandates prescribe only a 1.68% annual reduction in emissions intensity for 2023-27, falling short of the 2.53% rate required by an NDC-aligned 2030 pathway.
• Enforcement Failure: Oversupply-driven 50% unsold rate for issued ESCerts in past PAT cycles undermined the market’s carbon-price signal, forcing all trades to clear at the floor price.
• Infrastructure Lag: Incomplete deployment of the Indian Carbon Market registry by the Grid Controller of India has effectively suspended initial carbon-credit trading operations.

Way Forward

• Sub-Sectoral Mapping: Disaggregate the “non-specific industries” block in the national emission inventory to pinpoint emission hubs and bring manufacturing fuel combustion within the compliance net.
• Pathway Normalisation: Transition CCTS’s initial learn-by-doing phase into a predictable, NDC-aligned reduction schedule that drives structural decarbonisation rather than capturing low-cost abatement.
• Price Containment: Institute a rule-based Price or Supply Adjustment Mechanism, such as consignment auctions or vintage-based credit limits, to manage surplus accumulation and prevent market collapse.
• Attribute Interoperability: Establish accounting protocols for legacy Energy Saving Certificates, Renewable Energy Certificates, and new carbon credits to eliminate the risk of double-counting.
• Tariff Shielding: Fast-track integration of the domestic carbon registry with Article 6 bilateral mechanisms to establish globally recognised verification standards and to protect exporters from carbon taxes.

Read More> India’s Carbon Credit Mechanism | Electrifying Industrial India

{Prelims – A&C} Skeleton Remains in Rakhigarhi

• Context (IE): Archaeological Survey of India has transferred excavated human skeletal remains from Rakhigarhi, Haryana, to the Anthropological Survey of India in Kolkata.

• The excavation recovered five complete skeletons, all aged 30 to 40 years, alongside three fragmentary burials at Mound No. 7.
• Earlier excavations here revealed female skeletons adorned with jewellery, including jasper, agate beads, and shell bangles on their wrists. DNA analysis of a Rakhigarhi female revealed the absence of the “Steppe Pastoralist” gene, challenging Aryan invasion theories and indicating indigenous ancestral continuity.
• Skeletons are consistently buried in a standardised north-south orientation, surrounded by earthenware pots filled with provisions.

{Prelims – Envi} UNGS Brief on Earth System Tipping Points

• Context (DTE): UN Secretary-General António Guterres released the Scientific Advisory Board’s Brief #12 on Earth system tipping points during the London Climate Action Week.

• Guterres also launched a global Call to Action on Methane, co-developed by the UNSG’s Climate Action Team, to reduce methane emissions from three sources: waste, agriculture, and fossil fuel operations.
• Tipping points are critical thresholds at which small environmental changes trigger major, self-perpetuating shifts in ecosystems. These shifts cannot be reversed on human timescales, even if greenhouse gas emissions are reduced or eliminated.

Key Findings of the Brief

• Current Warming: Global temperatures are about 1.3°C above pre-industrial baselines, and planetary tipping risks are escalating sharply as warming intensifies.
• Ecosystem Thresholds: The 1.2°C temperature threshold for large-scale collapse of warm-water coral reefs has already been crossed. Beyond approximately 2°C of warming, parts of the Amazon rainforest could become savanna, shifting from a carbon store to a carbon source.
• Cryosphere Melting: Melting of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets could raise sea levels by 10 metres, while thawing permafrost threatens to release massive volumes of trapped methane.
• Ocean Circulation: Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is weakening as freshwater from melting ice slows its sinking currents, disrupting rainfall distribution across tropical regions.
• West Asia conflict triggered an energy shock that rivals the 1970s oil crises and the Ukraine-war turmoil combined. The 8 largest fossil fuel firms earned $6.5 billion in windfall profits in early 2026.
• Cost-effective RE: Solar costs have fallen by ~90%, onshore wind by over 70%, and battery storage by 95% since 2010. Existing clean energy capacity saved the global economy $480 billion in avoided fuel costs in 2025.

Read More> Climate Tipping Points

{Prelims – IE} QS World Future Skills Index 2027

• Context (ET): India secured 13^th position globally and ranked 1^st among lower-middle-income economies in the QS World Future Skills Index 2027.

• Released by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), the index assesses countries’ preparedness for an AI-driven, rapidly evolving labour market.
• The index evaluates 89 countries across four pillars – Skills Alignment, Academic Readiness, Future of Work, and Economic Transformation.
• Top Countries: The United States topped the index, followed by Australia and the United Kingdom
• India’s Strength: World’s largest IT workforce and a large number of tertiary-educated graduates, robust digital public infrastructure (UPI, Aadhaar, India Stack, ONDC) and a growing startup ecosystem.
• Concern: Skills alignment gap persists, as educational institutions are not producing AI-, digital-, and green-skilled graduates at the pace required by rapidly changing labour market demands.

{Prelims – IE} RBI’s FCNR(B) Swap Facility *

• Context (ET): RBI issued guidelines regarding its special swap facility for Foreign Currency Non-Resident (Bank) [FCNR(B)] deposits, and External Commercial Borrowings (ECBs) and overseas Foreign Currency Borrowings (OFCBs) to encourage foreign currency inflows into India.

• Recently the RBI announced a forex swap facility covering FCNR(B) deposits, ECBs, and Overseas Foreign Currency Borrowings (OFCBs) to encourage foreign currency inflows into India.

Key Highlights

• Loans Against FCNR(B) Deposits: Indian banks, including their overseas branches, can offer loans to non-residents and issue standby letters of credit against FCNR(B) deposits under a new RBI swap facility.
• Scope of the Swap: The forex swap window offered by the RBI is a plain buy/sell transaction that covers only the original principal amount of the eligible foreign currency deposits.
• Maturity Conditions: FCNR(B) deposits mobilized under the scheme must have a minimum tenor of three years. The swap facility can be availed even if the residual maturity falls below three years, provided the original deposit met the eligibility criteria.
• External Commercial Borrowings (ECBs): Only ECBs with an average maturity of three years or more are eligible for the swap facility. The swap tenor will remain co-terminus with the repayment schedule, subject to a maximum period of five years.
• OFCB Eligibility: The swap facility is also available for overseas foreign currency borrowings raised by authorised dealer banks with a minimum maturity of three years.

Read More> Foreign Currency Non-Resident Bank (FCNR(B)) Deposits

{Prelims – IE} Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS)

• Context (ET): RBI permitted financiers on Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS) platforms to avail government-backed credit guarantee cover for financed invoices.

• TReDS is an RBI-regulated electronic platform that allows MSMEs to access working capital by discounting invoices via competitive bidding.
• It offers quick, collateral-free, non-recourse MSME financing, reducing default risk. It lowers corporate procurement costs, supports Priority Sector Lending, and ensures secure transactions.
• Participants: MSME sellers, corporate or government buyers, and financiers (banks, NBFCs, insurance companies, and credit guarantee trusts).
  • Registration is mandatory for all CPSEs and corporate buyers with annual turnover over ₹250 crore.
• RBI regulates TReDS under Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007. The Factoring Regulation Act, 2011, governs transactions.

{Prelims – Infra} Mekedatu Dam Project *

• Context (TH): Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly has unanimously passed a resolution opposing Karnataka’s Mekedatu dam project.

• Location: Proposed across the Cauvery River at Mekedatu Gorge in Karnataka, downstream of the confluence of the Arkavathi & Cauvery rivers.
• Objectives: Intended to provide drinking water to Bengaluru & generate about 400 MW of hydropower.
• Inter-State Dispute: Strongly opposed by Tamil Nadu, which fears reduced downstream water availability and violation of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (2007) award and Supreme Court judgment (2018).

Read More> Cauvery River Water Dispute

{Prelims – Infra} Mullaperiyar Dam

• Context (TH): Kerala objected to the removal of its nominee from the Dam Safety Committee constituted to assess the safety of Mullaperiyar Dam.

• The Comprehensive Dam Safety Evaluation Committee is constituted by the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) under the Dam Safety Act, 2021.

• Mullaperiyar Dam is a masonry gravity dam built across the Periyar River in Kerala’s Idukki district between 1887–1895 by British engineer John Pennycuick.
• It is located within the Periyar TR and diverts water from the west-flowing Periyar basin to the east-flowing Vaigai basin in Tamil Nadu.
• It operates under an 1886 lease agreement (renewed in 1970), under which Tamil Nadu manages and utilises the dam’s waters.

{Prelims – Misc} One Liners

• IS – Abhigyan (TH): National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) developed mobile application integrated with National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS), enabling police personnel to use portable fingerprint scanners and smartphones for real-time biometric verification and instant access to over 1.3 crore criminal records.
• Awards – Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar (PIB): India’s highest civilian honour for children, conferred annually by the President on those aged 5-18 across 6 categories: Bravery, Social Service, Environment, Sports, Art & Culture, and Science & Technology.
  • The award is presented annually on Veer Bal Diwas (26 December). National Selection Committee, constituted by Ministry of Women and Child Development, reviews applications and makes final selections.
• S&T – Bow-and-Arrow-shaped Radio Galaxy (DTE): A giant radio galaxy located roughly 2 billion light-years away from Earth, with a straight, narrow jet feeding into a backwards-sweeping radio arc to form a “bow and arrow” shape on one side, and an elongated, twisted S-shaped plasma jet on the other.
  • It occurs when a host galaxy moves through a dense galaxy cluster at supersonic speeds, warping the plasma jets emitted by its central supermassive black hole.
• S&T – INS Udaygiri and INS Kavaratti (NOA): Arrived at Nha Rong Port in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, as part of an operational deployment to the South East Asia region. INS Udaygiri is a Project 17A Nilgiri-class stealth frigate indigenously built by MDL, equipped with advanced stealth features and BrahMos missiles.
  • INS Kavaratti is a Project 28 Kamorta-class anti-submarine warfare corvette indigenously built by GRSE, featuring a carbon-fibre superstructure that reduces weight and radar signature.