Current Affairs – March 25, 2026

{GS1 – Geo} Role of Oceans in Land Heatwaves

Context (DTE): A recent study has found that warming oceans contribute to 50–64% of global land heatwaves, highlighting strong land–ocean climate linkages.

Rising temperatures in the Indian Ocean trigger widespread heatwaves in South Asia and West Asia.
Sea surface temperature rise can act as an early warning signal for predicting extreme heat events.

How Oceans Affect Heatwaves?

Moisture from Oceans: Warmer oceans release more water vapour, increasing atmospheric humidity and intensifying heatwaves.
Heat & Humidity: High humidity reduces evaporative cooling (sweating), making heatwaves more severe and dangerous.
Land–Ocean Interaction: Oceans transfer heat and moisture to land through winds and atmospheric circulation, spreading heatwaves.
Atmospheric Wave Patterns: Ocean warming influences large-scale atmospheric patterns, causing simultaneous heatwaves across distant regions.
Clustering of Heatwaves: Leads to frequent and prolonged heat events across multiple regions.

Trends of Heatwaves in India

Rising Duration: Average heatwave duration increased by ~6.5 days (1961–2021).
Extreme Events: The maximum duration of heatwaves has risen by ~2 days, indicating prolonged heat.
Heat Stress: Current definitions ignore humidity, meaning many Indians face dangerous heat (high wet-bulb temperatures) without official classification.

Heatwaves

Heatwaves are prolonged periods of abnormally high temperatures, often exceeding regional thresholds set by the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
Criterion for Declaring Heat Wave:
- Temperature Threshold: Heatwave is declared when temperature reaches ≥ 40°C in plains, ≥ 30°C in hills, ≥ 37°C in coastal areas.
- Departure from Normal: Heatwave when temperature is +4.5°C to +6.4°C above normal & Severe heatwave if > 6.4°C above normal.
- Absolute Temperature Criteria: Heatwave if temperature ≥ 45°C & Severe heatwave if ≥ 47°C.

Read More> Heatwaves

{GS2 – Polity} Scheduled Caste Status After Religious Conversion **

Context (TH): Supreme Court of India reaffirmed that only individuals professing Hinduism, Sikhism, or Buddhism are eligible for Scheduled Caste (SC) status.

Conversion Effect: Any conversion to another religion results in immediate and complete loss of SC status, regardless of birth.
PoA Bar: Such converts cannot claim protection under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
Legal Basis: The court relied on Clause 3 of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, describing the religion-based restriction as “categorical and absolute.”
Religion Neutral: Unlike the Scheduled Castes, the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950, imposes no religion-based bar on ST status.
- Retention Condition: ST status depends on continued adherence to tribal customs and community acceptance, not religious affiliation.

Clause 3: The Constitution (SC) Order, 1950 mandates that ‘no person who professes a religion different from Hinduism, Sikhism, or Buddhism shall be deemed to be a member of a Scheduled Caste.’
‘Profess’: The term “profess” under Clause 3 implies publicly declaring and actively practising the customs and rituals of one’s religion.
Converted Dalits: Dalits who have converted to Islam or Christianity are generally categorised under Other Backward Classes (OBC) or state-specific Backward Class (BC) lists.

Doctrine of Eclipse

Core Principle: Upon conversion, an individual’s SC status is not extinguished but “eclipsed,” suspended by the new religious identity.
Revival: If that person reconverts to Hinduism, Sikhism, or Buddhism, the eclipse is lifted, and the original SC status revives.
Conditions: Revival requires three strict evidentiary conditions: proof of original caste, genuine re-conversion, and satisfactory evidence of community re-acceptance.
No Retrospective: While SC status is reinstated upon re-conversion, benefits cannot be claimed for the period of conversion.

Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950

It is a Presidential Order issued under Article 341(1), identifying castes, races, or tribes deemed Scheduled Castes (SC).
Scope: Initially restricted to Hinduism, the Order was amended in 1956 and 1990 to include individuals professing Sikhism and Buddhism, respectively.
State-Specific: The SC list is not a single national list, but State and UT-specific; a caste recognised as SC in one state may not be so in another.
Notification: The President has the initial power to notify the SC list after consulting the Governor of the concerned state.
Amendment: Once notified, only Parliament can include or exclude any caste from the SC list.

Read More > Religion-based Reservation in India

{GS2 – Polity} Need for Plea Bargaining in India

Context (IE): India’s large judicial backlog and delays have led to calls for a national mission to promote plea bargaining and faster dispute resolution.

Problem of Judicial Delays in India

Massive Backlog: Over 5 crore cases pending, with more than 80% in district courts.
Delayed Justice: Leads to prolonged trials, undertrial detention, and victim hardship.
Economic Impact: Weakens contract enforcement, raises business costs, & affects investor confidence.
Erosion of Trust: Slow justice system creates a crisis of credibility and public confidence in judiciary.

What is Plea Bargaining?

Plea bargaining is a legal process where the accused pleads guilty in exchange for reduced charges or lighter punishment.
Origin: In the USA in the 19^th century, it became a dominant feature of the US criminal justice system.
Purpose: Aims to ensure speedy disposal of cases and reduce judicial backlog.
Mutual Agreement: Involves negotiation between the accused, prosecution, and sometimes the victim.
Global Practices: Countries like the USA, UK, Canada, and Australia widely use plea bargaining. In the USA, over 90% of criminal cases are settled through plea deals.

Source: Indian Express

Plea Bargaining in India

Legal Basis: Introduced via CrPC Amendment 2005; now under Sections 289–300 of BNSS 2023.
Applicability: Only for offences punishable up to 7 years; not available for offences against women, children, and socio-economic crimes.
Objective: Aims to reduce judicial backlog and ensure speedy justice through negotiated settlements.
Low Adoption: Used in less than 1% of cases, due to lack of awareness and institutional hesitation.
Mutual & Voluntary: Requires consent of the accused and the prosecution; ensures it is voluntary.
Judicial Oversight: Courts supervise the process to ensure fairness, transparency, and legality.

Way Forward

Capacity Building: Train prosecutors and legal professionals to negotiate fair and efficient plea deals.
Incentives for Lawyers: Align incentives to encourage lawyers to settle cases through negotiation.
Support for Early Settlement: Courts should promote pre-trial settlements and identify suitable cases for plea bargaining.
Public Awareness: Educate litigants that plea bargaining is a practical, fair, and efficient option, not a sign of defeat.

{GS2 – Governance} Permanent Commission for Women in the Armed Forces **

Context (ET | DTE): Supreme Court has directed the armed forces to grant Permanent Commission to eligible women officers and ordered full pension and consequential benefits.

The Court invoked Article 142 to ensure complete justice, applying this as a one-off measure.
Deemed Service: Women SSC officers will be treated as having completed 20 years of service for pension.
Pensionary Benefits: Entitled to pension based on 20 years of service, effective from November 1, 2025.
No Reinstatement: Court denied reinstatement & notional promotions, citing operational effectiveness.

Article 142 empowers the Supreme Court to pass orders to ensure complete justice in any case.

Key Findings of the Court

Systemic Discrimination: Denial of PC was rooted in institutional bias against women officers.
Biased Evaluation: Performance reports were casually graded, with assumptions of no career progression, affecting merit.
Lack of Transparency: Evaluation criteria were not clearly disclosed, undermining fairness in selection.
Violation of Equality: The process compromised equal opportunity and fair competition, contrary to constitutional values.

Short Service Commission (SSC) vs Permanent Commission (PC)

SSC is short-term (10–14 years), while PC offers service till retirement.
SSC has limited career growth, whereas PC ensures full promotions and leadership roles.
SSC lacks an assured pension, while PC provides a pension and long-term benefits.

Evolution of Permanent Commission for Women in the Army

1992: Women were first allowed in the Army; only in select cadres via Short Service Commission (SSC); tenure limited to 10+4 years.
Pre-2020: Women ineligible for Permanent Commission (till retirement); restricted to SSC tenures only.
Babita Puniya Case (2020): SC ordered PC for women officers, eligibility for command posts.

Read More > Women in Defence Forces

{GS3 – IE} RBI Releases Draft Framework for Digital Fraud Protection **

Context (DDN | MC): Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued a revised draft framework on unauthorised digital banking transactions to strengthen customer protection against digital fraud.

The guidelines will apply to commercial banks but exclude Small Finance Banks, Payments Banks, Regional Rural Banks, and Local Area Banks.

Digital Fraud Landscape in India

Key Trend: Fraud cases dropped 34% in FY25, but the total fraud value tripled.
Volume: ~24 lakh digital frauds occurred in the first 10 months of FY25, surpassing FY23’s total losses.
Card & Internet Fraud: Made up 66.8% of cases in FY25, but account for 7.2% of total fraud value.
Mule Accounts: One partner bank discovered that 90% of mule accounts went unnoticed.
Sectoral Share: Private banks reported 59.3% of fraud cases, while Public Sector Banks accounted for 70.7% of the total fraud amount.

Key Proposals of the Draft Framework

Definition Expanded: “unauthorised transactions” now include trickery or coercion, offering protection for vulnerable or digitally illiterate customers.
Compensation: The framework offers compensation for small-value digital frauds (up to ₹50,000), covering 85% of the net loss or ₹25,000, whichever is lower.
Zero Liability: Customers do not incur any loss if fraud occurs due to bank negligence or third-party security breaches.
Burden of Proof: Banks need to prove customer negligence in disputed transactions, shifting evidentiary responsibility away from the fraud victim.
Authentication: Banks should use risk-based security filters like biometrics for high-risk transactions and enable easy low-risk payments.

Other Digital Fraud Prevention Measures by RBI

Institutional System: Established the Indian Digital Payment Intelligence Corporation (IDPIC) in 2025 under the Companies Act, 2013, for real-time AI fraud monitoring.
AI Surveillance: Deployed MuleHunter.AI across banks to identify and freeze mule accounts laundering cyber-fraud proceeds.
Literacy Expansion: Scaled up the Centre for Financial Literacy (CFL) project to expand community-based financial education.
Awareness Campaigns: Launched ‘RBI Kehta Hai’ to promote safe digital banking.

Context (TH): Supreme Court of India ruled that corporations have a fundamental duty to protect the environment under Article 51A(g) of the Constitution.

CSR Scope: The Court held that corporate social responsibility (CSR) must inherently include environmental responsibility.

CSR is a statutory corporate obligation under Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013, requiring eligible Indian and foreign companies operating in India to spend at least 2% of their average net profits from the previous three financial years on approved social development activities.

Why Environmental CSR Is Necessary?

Constitutional Duty: Under Article 51A(g), corporations as legal persons have a fundamental duty to protect and improve the natural environment.
Fiduciary Duty: Section 166(2) of the Companies Act requires that directors prioritise the interests of the environment and community alongside those of shareholders and employees.
Polluter Pays: Companies damaging fragile ecosystems are legally liable to internalise costs by funding habitat restoration and climate mitigation.
Greenwashing Check: Mandatory reporting frameworks like Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) ensure that corporate claims are backed by measurable outcomes.
Circular Innovation: A CSR mandate can drive firms to adopt circular economy models that transform industrial waste into sustainable secondary resources.

Challenges with Environmental CSR

Operational Exclusion: Current rules prohibit CSR spending on activities that directly benefit a company’s own business, limiting investments in circular economy and green supply chains.
Temporal Mismatch: CSR regulations follow a rigid financial cycle of up to four years, which conflicts with the 10-15-year gestation periods required for ecological restoration.
Measurement Gap: Quantifying intangible environmental outcomes remains difficult due to a lack of standardised metrics and monitoring frameworks.
Spending Disparity: Over 60% of CSR funds are concentrated in a few industrialised states, leaving ecologically fragile regions (like the Northeast and tribal belts) severely underfunded.
Regulatory Complexity: Overlapping environmental laws, land acquisition rules, and approvals from state forest departments can stall meaningful environmental interventions for years.

Govt. Initiatives Complementing Environmental CSR

Incentivised Restoration: Under the Green Credit Programme (GCP), companies earn tradable credits for verified environmental actions such as reforestation and water conservation.
Audited Transparency: The BRSR Core framework mandates that top-listed companies provide reasonable assurance on key ESG metrics
Lifecycle Responsibility: Mandatory Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) rules shift the financial burden of recycling plastics and e-waste from the state to manufacturers.
Emissions Trading: Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS) creates a domestic market for trading emission certificates to achieve Net Zero targets.
Statutory Afforestation: Under Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAMPA), industries diverting forest land are legally required to fund restoration at alternative locations.
Energy Optimisation: The PAT Scheme (Perform, Achieve and Trade) incentivises energy-intensive sectors to reduce consumption through tradable efficiency certificates.

{GS3 – Envi} WMO Released State of the Global Climate 2025 **

Context (DTE): World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) released its State of the Global Climate 2025, highlighting accelerating global warming trends.

WMO is a specialised UN agency established in 1950 and based in Geneva. State of the Global Climate 2025 is its annual flagship climate assessment.

Key Findings of the Report

Global Temperature: 2015–2025 is the hottest 11-year period on record; 2025 ranks among the top three warmest years, with ~1.43°C above the pre-industrial baseline.
Energy Imbalance: The report for the first time includes Earth’s Energy Imbalance (EEI) as a key indicator, signalling rapid heat accumulation.

EEI represents the difference between incoming solar energy and outgoing radiation from Earth.

Ocean Heat Content: Reached a new record in 2025, with around 90% of the ocean surface experiencing marine heatwaves.

Glacier Melt & Sea Level: Arctic sea ice stayed near record lows, while the overall rate of global sea-level rise doubled compared to 1993–2002.
Irreversible Changes: Ocean warming and acidification are now permanent over centennial to millennial timescales due to the accumulation of heat and GHGs.
Health Impacts: Climate change is accelerating disease spread with dengue at record levels; heat stress affects over one-third of the global workforce.

{Prelims – IR} GlobE Network *

Context (NOA): India hosted the 12^th Steering Committee Meeting of the Global Operational Network (GlobE Network) in New Delhi.

Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) hosted the meeting jointly.
Participation: It brought together representatives from 15 member nations of the Steering Committee.
Key Focus: Strengthening informal cooperation tools to accelerate transnational corruption investigations beyond slower formal legal assistance channels.

About GlobE Network

The Network originated from the Riyadh Initiative during Saudi Arabia’s G20 Presidency (2020) and was formally launched in 2021.
Objective: Facilitate swift international cooperation among law enforcement agencies to combat transnational corruption and recover illicit assets.
Legal Basis: It operates under the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) mandate.
Secretariat: The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) serves as its permanent secretariat in Vienna.
Membership: The Network currently comprises 250 specialised authorities from 135 countries.
India’s Role: India joined the GlobE Network in 2022 & was elected to its Steering Committee in 2024.

{Prelims – Envi} World Air Quality Report 2025 *

Context (DDN | IT | TH): Swiss company IQAir published the World Air Quality Report 2025, highlighting a deteriorating global air quality.

Key Findings of the Report

WHO Compliance: Only 14% of cities met the WHO’s PM2.5 annual guideline (5 µg/m³) in 2025, down from 17% in 2024.
Leading Polluter: Pakistan is the most polluted country, with PM2.5 levels over 13 times WHO limit.
Worst City: Loni, Uttar Pradesh, is the world’s most polluted city, with PM2.5 levels about 22 times higher than WHO guidelines.
Regional Dominance: Twenty-five of the most polluted cities are in India, Pakistan, and China; Central and South Asia remain the most polluted region.
India’s Stand: India ranked as the 6^th most polluted country in 2025, improving from 5^th in 2024.
- New Delhi remained the world’s most polluted capital for the 8^th consecutive time.

Read More > Air Quality Monitoring

{Prelims – Eco} Districts as Export Hubs Initiative *

Context (PIB): The government has expanded the Districts as Export Hubs (DEH) initiative to strengthen district-level export capacity.

Launch: In 2019, as part of the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP).
Nodal Agency: Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) under Ministry of Commerce & Industry.
Objective: Promote district-led export growth by identifying and developing products/services with export potential.
Institutional Mechanism: Creation of State Export Promotion Committees (SEPCs) and District Export Promotion Committees (DEPCs) in all States/UTs.
District Export Action Plans (DEAPs): Prepared for 590 districts (249 notified) to guide export strategies at the district level.
Product: Focus on local products, GI goods, agriculture, and handicrafts for export promotion.

{Prelims – Infra} Raajmarg Infra Investment Trust (RIIT)

Context (PIB): Raajmarg Infra Investment Trust (RIIT) was officially listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE).
RIIT is an Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvIT) sponsored by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH).
It is NHAI’s first InvIT to directly allow everyday retail citizens to invest in highway infrastructure equity.
Objective: Monetise operational highway assets and offer retail investors stable toll-based cash flows.
Asset Portfolio: The trust initially holds five toll roads across Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka.

{Prelims – S&T} Halometallurgy for Lithium-ion Battery Recycling

Context (TH | HIU): Recent scientific studies have introduced a novel halometallurgical method using common alkali salts for Lithium-ion battery (LIB) recycling.

Halometallurgy employs halogens (mainly chlorine) or halogen salts to recover critical metals like lithium from used lithium-ion batteries.
Mechanism: Battery waste is heated with chloride salts to convert lithium into a water-soluble form, leaving other metals as an insoluble fraction; it is then separated by water leaching.
Key Advantage: This process operates at lower temperatures than conventional methods, reducing energy use and enhancing selective recovery.

Halogens are five highly reactive non-metals—fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine, and astatine—that form salts with metals.

Significance: It offers a scalable, cost-effective way to recover critical minerals, enhancing India’s circular economy and lowering dependency on lithium and cobalt imports.

Read More > Lithium-ion (Li-ion) Battery

{Prelims – S&T} New Superconductivity Breakthrough

Context (TH): Scientists have developed a new technique that breaks a 33-year-old record for superconductivity temperature at normal pressure.

Superconductivity was achieved at –122°C, breaking a 33-year-old record at normal pressure.
New Technique: Pressure Quenching (PQP) used to retain high-pressure superconducting properties at normal pressure.
Material Used: Copper oxide Hg1223, a known superconductor, was modified to improve performance.
Significance: It could enable lossless power transmission, efficient motors, and advanced technologies.
Limitation: Still requires very low temperatures, not yet near room temperature.
Future Potential: Opens pathways to stabilise superconductivity under normal conditions.

Superconductivity is a phenomenon where a material conducts electricity with zero electrical resistance.
Enables lossless energy transmission; makes it useful for technologies like power grids & MRI machines.

{Prelims – S&T – Space} Study of Moon’s Titanium-Rich Rocks Offers Insights for Chandrayaan-4 *

Context (TH): A recent study by Indian researchers offers insights into the Moon’s titanium-rich rocks.

These findings can assist ISRO in selecting high-value landing sites for Chandrayaan-4 and in analysing returned lunar samples.

Key Findings of the Study

Origins: Lunar rocks rich in titanium (Ti) formed 4.3–4.4 billion years ago as dense ilmenite-bearing cumulates sank into the Moon’s interior.
- Ilmenite is a black, weakly magnetic iron–titanium oxide; it is Earth’s main source of Ti and a vital component of lunar basalt.
Process: These cumulates re-erupted as Ti-rich basalts through Mantle Overturn, where sinking dense, titanium-rich minerals caused lighter rocks to ascend.
Temperature Dynamics: Higher temperatures produced intermediate-Ti melts, while cooler conditions generated extremely high-Ti, low-magnesium magmas.

About Chandrayaan-4

It is India’s first lunar sample-return mission aimed at collecting and bringing back 3 kg of lunar materials to Earth.
The mission is planned for 2027–2028; if successful, India will be the fourth country to return lunar samples after the USA, USSR, and China.
Landing Site: ISRO has chosen Mons Mouton near the Moon’s South Pole as a primary site due to the presence of water ice and ancient rocks.