11 May 2026

• Social security: the Jan Suraksha Schemes turned 11. Enrollment data and claim figures enter the exam frequently.
• Water treaty: India placing the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance remained a live diplomatic and constitutional question.
• Wildlife: a tiger sighted at D'Ering Memorial Wildlife Sanctuary after 20 years and continuing updates from Kuno National Park.
• Urban heat: Delhi surface temperatures hit 50-60 degrees Celsius in dense areas. The economics of urban heat are more testable than the weather itself.
• Law and order: fake currency seizure data since 2017 came with a state breakdown that turns into a map question.

GS area: Government schemes (financial inclusion, social security)

Three interlinked micro-insurance and pension schemes launched in May 2015 marked 11 years of operation.

• PMJJBY: provides life insurance cover of Rs 2 lakh for a premium of Rs 436 per year. Covers death from any cause. Available to bank account holders aged 18 to 50.
• PMSBY: provides accidental death or permanent disability cover of Rs 2 lakh for a premium of Rs 20 per year. Available to account holders aged 18 to 70.
• APY (Atal Pension Yojana): guarantees a monthly pension of Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 after age 60. The pension amount depends on the monthly contribution and the age at which the subscriber joins. The younger the subscriber, the lower the required monthly contribution for the same pension.
• Cumulative enrollments: 94.56 crore across all three schemes.
• PMJJBY claims settled: Rs 21,512.50 crore paid to families of 10.7 lakh deceased policyholders.
• Female participation in APY: 49 per cent of APY subscribers are women. This is the highest female share across the three schemes.
• PMJDY linkage: 19.30 crore Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana account holders are covered under PMSBY. The Jan Dhan account is the access point into all three schemes.

Static linkage: Government schemes (financial inclusion), social security (Economy).

GS area: International Relations, Geography

India placed the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance following the Pahalgam terror attack of April 2025. The legal and geographical facts around the treaty are direct prelims material.

• Signing: September 19, 1960. Signed by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and President Ayub Khan of Pakistan. Brokered by the World Bank after nine years of negotiation.
• River allocation: the treaty divides six rivers of the Indus system between the two countries. The three eastern rivers (Ravi, Beas and Sutlej) were allocated to India. The three western rivers (Indus, Jhelum and Chenab) were allocated to Pakistan with limited Indian use rights.
• Pakistan's dependence: the Indus river system provides roughly 70 per cent of Pakistan's irrigation water. The treaty is therefore existential for Pakistan's agriculture.
• India's action: India served notice to Pakistan that it is treating the treaty as being in abeyance. This is legally contested: the treaty has no abeyance or unilateral withdrawal clause.
• World Bank's role: the World Bank is a permanent mediator. When disputes arise it can convene a Neutral Expert or a Court of Arbitration. Pakistan invoked the Court of Arbitration in 2016 over Kishenganga and Ratle hydropower projects.
• Kishenganga project: a run-of-river hydroelectric project on the Kishenganga (known in Pakistan as Neelum) tributary of the Jhelum. India completed it. Pakistan contested it at the Court of Arbitration.

Static linkage: India's water disputes, river systems (Geography); India-Pakistan relations (International Relations).

GS area: Environment, Geography, Economy

Delhi's surface temperatures reached 50 to 60 degrees Celsius in densely built areas. The policy dimension is more testable than the meteorology.

• Urban heat island effect: dense construction, asphalt, concrete and reduced vegetation trap heat that open land would radiate away. Urban cores run significantly hotter than surrounding rural areas.
• Air conditioner paradox: AC units remove heat from interior spaces but expel it as hot air into the outdoor environment. Dense clusters of AC units can raise surrounding outdoor temperatures by 1 to 2 degrees Celsius, worsening the heat island they were purchased to escape.
• Labour productivity cost: India loses over Rs 100 billion annually from heat-related decline in labour productivity. Outdoor workers and those in non-air-conditioned settings bear almost all of this cost.
• Heat-vulnerable populations: the 16th Finance Commission recommended notifying heatwaves as a natural disaster, which would trigger compensation and relief norms. No such notification has been made.
• IMD heatwave definition: a heatwave is declared when the maximum temperature on the plains reaches at least 40 degrees Celsius and departs by at least 4.5 degrees from the normal for that location and date.
• Ahmedabad Heat Action Plan (2013): India's first city-level heat action plan. It has become the model for other cities and has been cited in global climate adaptation literature.

Static linkage: Climate change and its impacts (Environment), urban planning issues (Geography).

GS area: Economy (monetary policy, law enforcement)

The government released data on fake currency seizures from 2017 to 2025.

• Total seized since 2017: Rs 638 crore worth of counterfeit notes.
• 2024 seizure: Rs 54.61 crore. This is below the peak but above the post-demonetisation lows.
• Peak year: Rs 382.6 crore seized in 2022. The rise followed the return of high-value notes into circulation.
• Currency in circulation: rose 137 per cent to Rs 42.12 lakh crore (May 2026) since 2016. More currency in circulation creates a larger surface area for counterfeiting.
• Gujarat hotspot: Gujarat accounts for Rs 355.72 crore of the total, more than 50 per cent of all seizures since 2017. The state's long coastline and cross-border smuggling routes are identified as factors.
• Institutional response: the Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) Network is the coordinating body. The National Investigation Agency and state police handle prosecution.

Static linkage: Monetary system (Economy), internal security (GS Paper 3).

GS area: Environment and Ecology (biodiversity, wildlife)

Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh remains the centre of India's cheetah reintroduction programme.

• Location: Kuno National Park covers 748 square kilometres in the Sheopur district of Madhya Pradesh. The Kuno River flows through the park.
• Cheetah population: 57 individuals currently in the park. India had no cheetahs after the species was declared extinct in India in 1952.
• Reintroduction source: cheetahs brought from Namibia (September 2022) and South Africa (February 2023) under an agreement with the respective governments.
• Asiatic cheetah distinction: the cheetahs reintroduced are African cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus jubatus). The Asiatic cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus) is a separate subspecies found only in Iran and is critically endangered.
• Challenges: mortality from injury, disease and inbreeding risks in a bounded enclosed area have drawn scientific criticism. Expansion to a second site is under consideration.

Static linkage: Biodiversity (Environment), wildlife conservation.

GS area: Environment and Ecology (wildlife, Arunachal Pradesh)

A tiger was sighted at D'Ering Memorial Wildlife Sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh for the first time in approximately 20 years.

• Location: D'Ering Memorial Wildlife Sanctuary covers 190 square kilometres in the East Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh. The Siang and Dibang rivers frame the sanctuary.
• Habitat character: 75 to 80 per cent of the sanctuary consists of alluvial grasslands. This is one of the largest alluvial grassland stretches in the Northeast.
• Tiger presence: the 2022 tiger census recorded 3,167 wild tigers in India. Arunachal Pradesh has several tiger reserves but D'Ering had seen no confirmed sighting in two decades.
• Conservation significance: the sighting suggests natural range expansion. Tigers return to habitats when prey base and corridor connectivity improve.
• Tiger reserves in India: India has 54 designated tiger reserves under Project Tiger (1973). The programme is managed by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).

Static linkage: Biodiversity, wildlife sanctuaries and national parks (Environment).

GS area: Social issues, Governance

Road accident fatalities remained among the highest globally. The legislative and institutional framework carries direct prelims implications.

• MoRTH figure: approximately 1.77 lakh deaths in 2024. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways collects this data from police reports.
• NCRB figure: the National Crime Records Bureau reports 1.75 to 1.81 lakh deaths. Minor differences reflect reporting timelines and definitional variations.
• Global rank: India records the highest total number of road deaths in the world. India has roughly 3 per cent of the world's vehicles but accounts for 11 per cent of global road deaths.
• Section 106 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita: introduced a new offence of causing death by negligent driving. It provides for up to 10 years imprisonment in cases involving hit-and-run. Medical practitioners were initially concerned the provision might deter bystanders from offering emergency care; the government clarified its application.
• Speed governors and tracking devices: speed governors are fitted in fewer than 5 per cent of commercial vehicles despite being mandatory under the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 (Rule 125C). Vehicle tracking devices are present in fewer than 1 per cent.

Static linkage: Social issues (road safety), governance (law enforcement).

• India renewable energy milestone: India crossed 262.7 GW of non-fossil installed capacity, passing 50 per cent of total installed capacity. Third globally behind China and the United States.
• Urban heat and NCDs: persons with non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and heart disease face disproportionately elevated mortality risk during heatwaves. An estimated 270 million Indians with NCDs constitute the heat-vulnerable cohort.