16 June 2025

• Governance: the government released an 11-year governance report under the Viksit Bharat vision, stacking numbers from 2014 to 2025 across welfare, health, education and infrastructure.
• Energy: the Ministry of Power proposed restricting air conditioner temperatures to a band of 20 to 28 degrees Celsius to manage peak demand.
• Ecology: a new jumping spider species was discovered in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, extending the known range of its subfamily into India.
• Commerce: SEZ rules were relaxed for the semiconductor and electronics sector. Research procurement rules were also eased.
• Big Cats: the IBCA held its first General Assembly with nine nations participating.

GS area: Government Schemes, Social Justice, Economy

The government released a report titled Viksit Bharat Ka Amrit Kaal covering governance outcomes from 2014 to 2025. The report compiles scheme delivery numbers across welfare, health, education, infrastructure and digital access.

Key numbers from the report:

• PM Garib Kalyan Yojana: 81 crore beneficiaries receive free foodgrains under this scheme. It was extended through 2028 in the 2024 Union Budget.
• Jal Jeevan Mission: 15 crore households have received tap water connections. The mission targets every rural household by 2024 (extended in practice to 2025).
• PM Awas Yojana: 4 crore houses constructed or sanctioned under the combined urban and rural components of the scheme.
• PM-KISAN: Rs 3.7 lakh crore transferred directly to farmer accounts. The scheme gives Rs 6,000 per year in three instalments to small and marginal farmers holding less than 2 hectares.
• Foodgrain output: 347 million metric tonnes in 2024-25, a record. For reference output was around 265 MMT in 2014.
• MUDRA loans to women: 38 crore loans sanctioned under the Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency scheme. MUDRA covers Shishu (up to Rs 50,000), Kishore (Rs 50,000 to 5 lakh) and Tarun (Rs 5 lakh to 10 lakh) categories.
• PM Kaushal Vikas Yojana: 6 crore persons trained in short-term skill courses.
• IITs and AIIMS: India now has 23 IITs (up from 16 in 2014) and 23 AIIMS (up from 7 in 2014). New IITs added 6,500 seats in the period.
• Metro rail: Metro rail now operates in 23 cities against 5 in 2014.
• UPI: 46 crore active UPI users. India processes more digital payment transactions than any other country.
• 5G rollout: 5G reached 99.6 per cent of India's districts in 22 months of rollout.
• Maternal Mortality Ratio: fell from 130 to 80 per lakh live births over the decade.
• Ayushman Bharat: over 9 crore hospitalisations covered under the PM-JAY health insurance component.
• e-Sanjeevani: over 37 crore teleconsultations delivered through the national telemedicine platform.
• Jan Aushadhi Kendras: 16,000-plus generic medicine stores saved consumers an estimated Rs 38,000 crore versus brand-name prices.

Static linkage: government schemes (PM-KISAN, JJM, PMAY, MUDRA, PM-JAY), economy (foodgrain, digital payments), education policy.

GS area: Environment and Ecology, Economy, Government Policy

The Ministry of Power proposed a regulation that would restrict air conditioner thermostat settings to a band between 20 and 28 degrees Celsius. The proposal responds to India's rapidly growing cooling demand.

• Why now: India's peak power demand is projected to reach 200 gigawatts by 2030. Air conditioners already account for roughly 50 gigawatts of peak demand. That is about 20 per cent of total peak load from one appliance category.
• Current penetration: only 6 per cent of Indian households own an air conditioner. As incomes rise this will increase sharply. The cooling demand curve is steep.
• One-degree savings rule: every 1 degree increase in the thermostat setting reduces AC electricity consumption by approximately 6 per cent. Restricting the lower limit to 20 degrees (rather than allowing settings of 16 or 18) captures most of this saving.
• Estimated benefit: the Ministry of Power calculates a potential saving of 20 billion units of electricity per year if the 28-degree default becomes standard across commercial establishments.
• Japan's Cool Biz precedent: Japan mandates 28 degrees Celsius as the default setting in government buildings in summer. India's proposal draws on this model.
• India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP): ICAP was released in 2019. It targets a 25 to 30 per cent reduction in cooling demand by 2038 through a combination of energy-efficient equipment, refrigerant phase-down and building codes.
• Opposition concern: critics note that comfort standards in commercial buildings are set by international workplace health guidelines. Mandating a minimum temperature raises questions about worker productivity in hot climates.

Static linkage: environment and ecology (energy efficiency, climate action), India Cooling Action Plan.

GS area: Social Issues, Polity (internal security context)

Two cabin crew members of the Air India flight that crashed at Ahmedabad on June 12 came from communities on opposite sides of the Manipur ethnic conflict. Kongbrailatpam Nganthoi Sharma was Meitei and Lamnunthem Singson was Kuki-Zo (Thadou community). Their shared loss drew solidarity across the state's ethnic fault line.

• Manipur conflict background: armed conflict between Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities began in May 2023 following tensions over Scheduled Tribe status demands and displacement in hill districts. Over 200 people died and tens of thousands were displaced.
• The significance here: civil society groups from both communities held joint condolence events. This was notable precisely because such cross-community public solidarity had been rare since May 2023.
• Thadou community: one of the major Kuki-Zo tribal groups in Manipur and Assam. Listed as a Scheduled Tribe.
• Meitei community: the valley-dominant ethnic group in Manipur. The Supreme Court's 2023 observation that the Meitei petition for ST status required fresh examination by the government was a trigger for the conflict.

This item is not primarily an exam facts item. It enters this page because the Manipur situation and the ST definition process are recurring GS II topics. The shared grief across communities is current context.

Static linkage: Scheduled Tribes definition, Manipur internal security, social harmony.

GS area: Science and Technology, Law

DNA profiling entered the news in the context of victim identification from the Air India crash. The techniques used by the CBI, INTERPOL and the International Committee of the Red Cross in mass casualty identification are testable.

• STR Analysis (Short Tandem Repeat): the most widely used forensic DNA technique. STRs are locations on the chromosome where a short DNA sequence repeats. The number of repeats varies between individuals. Comparing STR profiles from a sample and a reference gives a statistical match probability. STR profiles from 13 to 20 locations are used in criminal databases.
• mtDNA Analysis (Mitochondrial DNA): mitochondria have their own DNA inherited exclusively through the maternal line. mtDNA is useful when nuclear DNA is degraded (old bones, charred remains). All children of the same mother share identical mtDNA. That limits individualisation but is useful for ruling in or out a maternal relationship.
• Y-Chromosome STR: Y-chromosome markers pass unchanged from father to son. Used to trace paternal lineage. All men in a paternal line share the same Y-STR profile (except for occasional mutations).
• SNP Analysis (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism): differences at individual base pairs in the genome. Useful for ancestry estimation and for identifying remains when other methods fail.
• Legal admissibility in India: DNA evidence is admissible under the Indian Evidence Act 1872 (Section 45, which covers expert opinion). The DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill was introduced in Parliament but has not been enacted as of 2025. Admissibility therefore rests on judicial precedent rather than a dedicated statute.

Static linkage: science and technology (biotechnology, forensics), criminal law (evidence).

GS area: Environment and Ecology, Biodiversity

Researchers discovered a new jumping spider species in the Karigiri Elephant Hill area of Devarayanadurga in Karnataka and in Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu. The species is named Spartaeus karigiri.

• Family and subfamily: family Salticidae (jumping spiders). Subfamily Spartaeinae. Jumping spiders are the largest spider family by species count.
• Why it matters for Indian biodiversity: this is the first Indian record of the genus Spartaeus and of the related genus Sonoita. Both genera were previously known only from Southeast Asia and parts of Africa. The discovery extends the known biogeographic range into peninsular India.
• Devarayanadurga: a rocky hill complex in Tumkur district of Karnataka. It is a reserve forest and an important biodiversity hotspot for invertebrates.
• Naming convention: species are binomially named after Linnaeus. The species name karigiri refers to the Karigiri locality where the type specimen was collected.
• Biodiversity significance: India is one of the 17 megadiverse countries. New species discoveries in familiar landscapes (not just deep forests) indicate that invertebrate surveys remain incomplete.

Static linkage: environment and ecology (biodiversity, endemic species, Western Ghats-adjacent landscapes).

GS area: Economy, International Trade, Government Policy

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry relaxed the rules under the Special Economic Zones Act 2005 for the semiconductor and electronics sectors.

• Special Economic Zones Act 2005: the parent law governing SEZs in India. It provides a unified window for approvals, tax incentives and infrastructure within a delineated zone.
• Earlier minimum area: the rules previously required a minimum of 50 hectares for a new SEZ. This made it difficult to develop compact, highly specialised zones for precision manufacturing like semiconductors.
• New minimum for semiconductors and electronics: 10 hectares. The reduction reflects the land-light but capital-heavy nature of chip fabrication and electronics assembly.
• Encumbrance-free clause relaxed: earlier rules required land to be fully free of legal disputes or encumbrances before notification. The relaxation allows phased acquisition in select categories, removing a common blockage in land assembly for large industrial projects.
• Domestic tariff area sales: earlier SEZ units could sell to the domestic market only subject to payment of duties, effectively treating such sales as imports. The relaxation expands the conditions under which SEZ units can supply the domestic market.
• Context: India's semiconductor ambition is being driven through the India Semiconductor Mission under the Ministry of Electronics and IT. The SEZ relaxation is a complementary measure to make location within an SEZ attractive for chip-related investment.

Static linkage: economy (trade policy, SEZs, manufacturing), India Semiconductor Mission.

GS area: Science and Technology, Government Policy

The government announced procurement reforms for scientific and research institutions to reduce administrative burden and accelerate research spending.

• Non-GeM procurement allowed: the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) is mandatory for most government procurement. For specialised scientific equipment not available on GeM, institutions can now procure directly from suppliers or through international channels.
• Direct purchase limit doubled: the limit for direct purchase without a committee process was raised from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh. Small consumables and reagents can be bought quickly.
• Departmental committee limit: raised from an earlier ceiling to Rs 25 lakh. Items within this range can be cleared by an internal committee rather than by a tender process.
• Advertised tender threshold: raised to Rs 1 crore for open tenders. Below this value institutions can use a limited tender process.
• Trust-based governance: the reforms shift from pre-approval scrutiny to post-expenditure audit for smaller purchases. This mirrors OECD practices for public research agencies.
• Why it matters: India's gross expenditure on R&D as a percentage of GDP is around 0.65 per cent against a global average of about 2.5 per cent for OECD countries. Administrative friction in procurement is identified as one reason researchers spend time on paperwork rather than science.

Static linkage: science and technology (R&D policy), economy (public expenditure, government procurement).

GS area: Environment and Ecology, International Organisations

The International Big Cat Alliance held its first General Assembly in New Delhi on June 16. Nine nations participated.

• IBCA recap: launched by India in March 2024. Covers tiger, lion, leopard, snow leopard, cheetah, jaguar and puma. Headquarters in India.
• First Assembly agenda: adoption of the IBCA charter, election of office-bearers and approval of the initial work programme. Nine of the 25 member nations participated in person.
• India's convening role: India chairs the founding phase. The IBCA secretariat is hosted in India's territory. This is analogous to India's hosting of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) secretariat at Gurugram.
• The ISA parallel: the International Solar Alliance was launched in 2015 by India and France. It now has over 120 member countries. ISA shows how India converts a sectoral initiative into a durable intergovernmental body. IBCA is the biodiversity-sector equivalent.

Static linkage: environment and ecology (big cats, Project Tiger, cheetah reintroduction, ISA parallel).

• Air India crash investigation: the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) opened a formal inquiry. AAIB operates under the Ministry of Civil Aviation. The Bureau's reports are mandatory under ICAO Annex 13 which governs accident investigation standards.
• Operation Sindhu: additional flights evacuating Indian nationals from Iran via Yerevan continued. The MEA control room handled over 10,000 calls in the first 48 hours.
• Bonn Climate Conference Day 1: delegates opened debate on the Global Goal on Adaptation framework. India joined the G77 bloc in pressing developed countries on climate finance adequacy.