UPSC Current Affairs 09 June 2026

• Launch Date: Officially launched by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare on June 9, 2016.
• Primary Target: Focuses on pregnant women, particularly those in their second and third trimesters.
• Fixed-Day Strategy: Services are provided uniformly across the nation on the 9th of every month.
• Universal Access: Assures free of cost, comprehensive, and quality antenatal care (ANC) universally to all pregnant women at designated government health facilities.

• Specialist Access: Guarantees at least one comprehensive check-up by an Obstetrician & Gynaecologist or a specialized medical officer.
• Single-Window System: Delivers diagnostics and medicines efficiently through a single-window mechanism.
• Free Diagnostic Tests: Includes necessary laboratory investigations such as blood/urine tests and ultrasonography.
• Essential Supplements: Provides free essential medicines, including Iron Folic Acid and calcium supplements.
• Holistic Counselling: Offers critical advice on nutrition, birth planning, and complication readiness.

• Early Screening: Screens for 25 high-risk factors to detect complications at an early stage.
• Color-Coded Sticker System: Patient Mother and Child Protection (MCP) cards are tagged using distinct colours to easily identify risks:
  • Red Sticker: High-Risk Pregnancy.
  • Green Sticker: No detected risk factors.
  • Blue Sticker: Pregnancy-induced hypertension.
  • Yellow Sticker: Comorbid conditions.
• First Referral Units (FRU): Seamlessly links all identified high-risk cases to the nearest FRU to facilitate a safe institutional delivery.

• Launch Year: Rolled out in January 2022 to upgrade individual tracking systems.
• Continuous Monitoring: Ensures that HRP-identified women receive intensive follow-up care and additional ANC checkups until safe delivery.
• Digital Tracking Feature: Integrates tracking directly within the web-based PMSMA Portal.
• Financial Incentives: Benefits both the mother and accompanying Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers with financial supports for up to 3 additional tracking visits.
• Automated SMS Alerts: Sends direct updates to beneficiaries and ASHA workers regarding HRP registration and upcoming check-up schedules.

• Voluntary Support: Encourages private sector obstetricians, radiologists, and physicians to volunteer 12 days a year to serve at public health facilities.
• Recognition Awards: The government honours outstanding voluntary private practitioners with the 'IPledgeFor9' Achievers Awards.

• Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY): Promotes institutional delivery using conditional cash transfers.
• Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram (JSSK): Eliminates out-of-pocket expenses for delivery and neonatal care.
• Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan (SUMAN): Secures zero-tolerance for denial of services and ensures dignified healthcare at no cost.

• Segment Length: Covers a distance of 10.65 kilometers between Mararikulam and Alappuzha in Kerala.
• Executing Zone: Managed under the jurisdiction of the Southern Railway network.
• Network Umbrella: Sanctioned under the Central Government’s umbrella initiative for multi-tracking capacity augmentation (doubling, tripling, quadrupling, flyovers, and bypasses).

• Increased Passenger Capacity: Enables the seamless introduction of 9 additional passenger trains per day in each direction upon final commissioning.
• Freight Augmentation: Built to safely handle a targeted annual freight traffic load of up to 2.88 million tonnes.
• Financial Returns: Projected to boost regional rail revenue, yielding an estimated net growth of ₹3.08 crore annually through the improved transit system.

• National Corridors: Formally aligned with the Indian Railways' landmark Mission 3000 MT initiative and designated under the High-Density Traffic Network Corridor.
• Economic Viability: Showcases strong economic metrics with a Financial Internal Rate of Return (FIRR) of 3.99% and a notable Economic Internal Rate of Return (EIRR) of 22.30%.
• Operational Relief: Eradicates the severe operational delays caused by train crossings on single lines, significantly improving overall punctuality and reducing train detention times.

• Record Altitude: Constructed at a staggering height of 11,578 feet (nearly 3,000 metres) above sea level beneath the treacherous Zojila Pass.
• Asia's Longest: Set to become Asia's longest high-altitude highway tunnel and the world's longest single-tube bi-directional road tunnel.
• Core Dimensions: Measures 13.153 kilometers in core length, operating as a 7.57-metre-high horseshoe-shaped, two-lane tunnel.
• Full Corridor Length: The entire project span encompasses 30.18 km, which features the main tunnel paired with 17.03 km of fortified approach roads, bridges, and catch tunnels.

• All-Weather Lifeline: Replaces the seasonally blocked highway route across the Zojila Pass, which traditionally closes for 5 to 6 months each winter due to heavy snowfall and avalanches.
• Srinagar-Ladakh Link: Establishes continuous, year-round surface transit between the Kashmir Valley (Srinagar) and Ladakh (Kargil and Leh).
• Drastic Travel Reduction: Reduces the transit time required to cross the challenging Zojila Pass section from over three and a half hours down to just 15 minutes.
• Socio-Economic Growth: Prevents severe weather-driven isolation, allowing a smooth supply flow of food, fuel, and essential medicines while bolstering regional Himalayan tourism.

• Executing Agency: Developed by the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) and constructed by Megha Engineering & Infrastructures Limited (MEIL).
• Project Cost: Built with a total revised layout estimated at ₹6,809.69 crore.
• Advanced Technology: Built using the New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM), which is specifically designed to navigate highly fragile Himalayan rock conditions and manage underground water ingress.
• Smart Tunnel Features: Outfitted with a fully transverse ventilation system, uninterrupted power supply, emergency lighting, and CCTV tracking.
• Emergency Infrastructure: Safety protocols incorporate emergency telephone booths every 125 meters, pedestrian cross-passages every 250 meters, and motorable cross-laybys every 750 meters.

• Inception: Construction originally commenced under Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) mode in October 2020.
• Revised Deadline: While excavation is virtually finished, technical fitting, concrete lining, and safety installations have pushed the final operational completion target to February 2028.
• Delay Factors: The timeline shifted from its initial 2026 target due to interruptions from the Covid-19 pandemic, localized cloudbursts, severe alpine winter hazards, and security disruptions.

• The Milestone Find: Discovered in August 1984 near Nariokotome, on the western shores of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya.
• Key Excavators: First spotted as a tiny skull fragment by the legendary Kenyan fossil hunter Kamoya Kimeu, working alongside famed paleoanthropologist Dr. Richard Leakey.
• Unparalleled Completeness: It is globally recognized as the most complete early hominin skeleton ever found, with only the humerus (upper arm bone) and ends of the hands and feet missing.
• Museum Security: While replicas are on display globally, the authentic, delicate fossil remains are safeguarded in a secure, bombproof vault at the National Museums of Kenya in Nairobi.

• Classification: Classified under Homo erectus, though some taxonomic authorities alternatively designate the African population as Homo ergaster.
• Geological Age: Securely dated back to approximately 1.5 to 1.6 million years ago.
• Age and Stature: The youth was estimated to be between 8 and 12 years old at death. Despite his young age, he stood remarkably tall at 5 feet 3 inches (160 cm) and was projected to reach 6 feet in adulthood.
• Bipedal Evolution: Features highly developed long limbs, narrow hips, and a tucked-in pelvis that are perfectly adapted for efficient, upright walking and long-distance running in high temperatures.
• Body Design Shift: Unlike earlier, funnel-chested ancestors like "Lucy" (Australopithecus), Turkana Boy had a modern, barrel-shaped chest and smaller gut, signalling a major evolutionary shift toward high-energy, meat-rich diets.

• Expanding Brain: Possessed a cranial capacity of approximately 880 cc, which is roughly double that of a chimpanzee and two-thirds the size of a modern human brain.
• Language Precursors: Endocast skull studies reveal the distinct structural presence of Broca’s area—the brain region dedicated to language production in modern humans. However, specialists believe he possessed neurological motor controls for basic, primitive communication rather than fully complex speech.
• Technological Sophistication: Lived during a period of significant technological advancement, utilizing specialized Acheulean stone handaxes for digging and butchering meat.
• Handedness: Skeletal and tool-marking evidence indicates that Turkana Boy was explicitly right-handed.

• Dental Tragedy: Investigations indicate his life was abruptly cut short due to a severe dental infection in his mandible (jaw). This likely triggered systemic blood poisoning (septicaemia) that proved fatal.
• Spinal Trauma: The fossil also shows definitive evidence of lumbar disc herniation (a slipped disc in the lower back), suggesting he suffered a notable physical injury prior to his death.
• Ideal Preservation: Following his collapse in a marsh, his body was rapidly covered in thick layers of mud and volcanic ash, protecting the bones from scavengers and preserving them flawlessly for millions of years.

• United Nations Core Theme: "REIMAGINE: Beyond the world we know, a new relationship with our ocean". This focus calls for a major cultural and behavioural shift in how humanity understands, respects, and interacts with marine life.
• Global Action Theme: "Strong Marine Protected Areas for Our Blue Planet". This initiative works to drive international momentum toward the "30x30" goal, which aims to legally safeguard at least 30% of the planet's lands and ocean spaces by the year 2030.

• Initial Proposal: The core concept of a dedicated ocean day was first introduced by Canada’s International Centre for Ocean Development during the landmark 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
• UN Designation: The United Nations General Assembly officially formalized the day in December 2008 through resolution 63/111, designating June 8 as an annual international observance starting in 2009.

• Oxygen Generation: Marine organisms, primarily phytoplankton, produce at least 50% of the planet's oxygen, effectively serving as the primary "lungs of our planet".
• Carbon Absorption: The ocean acts as a massive carbon sink, absorbing roughly 25% to 30% of all anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions.
• Sustenance and Jobs: Over one billion people rely on marine ecosystems as their primary source of protein. Furthermore, ocean-based industries are projected to employ over 40 million people globally by 2030.

• Plastic Crisis: Over 8 million tonnes of plastic enter marine environments every year. If current consumption rates go unchecked, plastic is projected to completely outweigh fish in the ocean by 2050.
• Biodiversity Depletion: Destructive practices and commercial overfishing have fully exploited or severely depleted 90% of the world's big fish populations.
• Habitat Loss: Rising global temperatures and marine heatwaves have already permanently destroyed 50% of Earth’s coral reefs, leading to mass bleaching events.

• Power Capacity: Designed to operate with a substantial nameplate capacity of 930 Megawatts (MW).
• River and Basin: Located on the Chenab River, situated upstream of the upcoming Kiru Hydroelectric Project.
• Geographic Site: Positioned within the Kishtwar district of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
• Design Type: Conceptualized strictly as a run-of-the-river power plant.
• Reservoir Volume: Planned to maintain a hydro reservoir live capacity of 51.26 million cubic meters.

• Dam Architecture: Envisages the construction of a 121-meter-high concrete gravity dam featuring an overall top length of 219.8 meters.
• Split Power Generation: Combines an 840 MW underground powerhouse on the left bank of the river with an accompanying 90 MW dam toe powerhouse.
• Headrace & Intakes: Includes a 4.29 km-long headrace tunnel coupled with 4 specialized intake tunnels that route river flow into distinct desilting chambers.

• Executing Entity: Entrusted to Chenab Valley Power Projects Limited (CVPPL) to handle detailed investigations and land acquisitions.
• Stake Ownership: The executing joint venture operates under shared ownership divided between:
  • NHPC Limited: Holding a majority 51% stake.
  • Jammu & Kashmir State Power Development Corporation (JKSPDC): Holding a 49% stake.

• Annual Output: Engineered to supply an estimated annual energy generation of roughly 3,329.52 million units (MU) during a 90% dependable water year.
• Grid Relief: Targeted to resolve significant energy deficits affecting the Northern Grid and localized shortages within Jammu & Kashmir.
• Basin Synergy: Integrates into India’s broader, cascading Chenab network to reinforce water management alongside sister initiatives like Pakal Dul, Kiru, Kwar, and Ratle.

• Alternative Names: Globally referred to as autoimmune bullous disorders or autoimmune bullous diseases.
• Pathology: Rare, chronic conditions occurring when the body's immune system mistakenly generates autoantibodies to attack healthy structural proteins.
• Loss of Adhesion: The targeted proteins are vital for skin layers to adhere together; their disruption results in a complete loss of epithelial tissue integrity.
• Primary Manifestation: Leads directly to the formation of severe, fluid-filled, painful or itchy blisters and deep erosions.
• Non-Contagious Nature: Despite their aggressive physical appearance, these disorders are entirely non-contagious.

• Cutaneous Surfaces: Blisters and erythematous lesions frequently cover significant portions of the outer skin.
• Mucous Membranes: Errant antibodies heavily attack the delicate inner linings of the mouth, nose, throat, eyes, and genitals.
• Sore Formation: The fragile blisters easily rupture, breaking open to leave exposed, raw, and highly painful sores.

• Pemphigus Diseases: Characterized by intraepidermal blistering. It includes Pemphigus Vulgaris (affecting mucous membranes first) and Pemphigus Foliaceus.
• Pemphigoid Diseases: Characterized by subepidermal blistering at the dermal-epidermal junction. It includes Bullous Pemphigoid (common in older adults) and Mucous Membrane Pemphigoid.
• Other Variants: Includes conditions such as Linear IgA Bullous Dermatosis and Dermatitis Herpetiformis (which is directly linked to gluten sensitivity).

• Extensive Skin Loss: Resembles severe thermal burn injuries.
• Secondary Infections: Exposed sores leave the body highly vulnerable to systemic bacterial infections and sepsis.
• Nutritional Deficiencies: Blistering inside the mouth and throat makes swallowing food painfully difficult.
• Ocular Damage: Uncontrolled mucous membrane pemphigoid can cause permanent scarring and blindness.

• Direct Immunofluorescence (DIF): The absolute gold standard test; involves taking a skin tissue biopsy near a blister to visualize antibody or complement component 3 deposits under a microscope.
• Indirect Immunofluorescence (IIF): Uses patient blood serum to screen for circulating autoantibodies against specific substrate tissues.
• ELISA Tests: Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assays are deployed to quantify specific autoantibody levels in the bloodstream.

• Systemic Corticosteroids: First-line medications (like prednisone) used to quickly suppress inflammation and halt new blister growth.
• Immunosuppressive Adjuvants: Steroid-sparing agents like azathioprine and mycophenolate mofetil are added to reduce long-term steroid toxicity.
• Biologic Targeted Therapies: Infusions of Rituximab (a monoclonal anti-CD20 antibody that depletes B-cells) are now recommended for moderate-to-severe cases.
• Recent FDA Approvals: The therapeutic landscape has shifted toward precision medicine, underscored by the recent FDA approval of the interleukin inhibitor Dupilumab to treat severe Bullous Pemphigoid.
• Dietary Adjustments: Patients suffering from the Dermatitis Herpetiformis variant require a strict, lifelong gluten-free diet to clear skin lesions.

• District: Situated in the Rupnagar district of Punjab, India.
• Proximity: Located roughly 15 kilometers away from the historic city of Sri Anandpur Sahib.
• Terrain: Nestled directly along the fragile foothills of the Shivalik Range.
• Hydrology: Strategically located adjacent to the Sutlej (Satluj) River, acting as an important habitat corridor for migrating seasonal wildlife.

• Total Coverage Area: Spreads over an extremely compact footprint of 289 acres (approx. 116 hectares).
• Smallest Status: Noted structurally as one of the smallest of Punjab's 13 notified wildlife sanctuaries.
• Village Distribution: The core layout is split across three distinct local villages:
  • Jhajjar Village: Houses the vast majority, covering 218 acres.
  • Bachauli Village: Spans 55 acres.
  • Lamlehri Village: Comprises the remaining 16 acres.

• Initial Protection: The region was first designated as a wildlife reserve via government notification in September 1998.
• Final Notification: Officially declared a protected sanctuary on December 11, 2003, under Section 18(1) of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.

• Vegetation Type: Predominantly composed of dry deciduous forests.
• Plant Species: Rich in native timber and medicinal trees, including Eucalyptus, Khair, Neem, Shisham, Amla, and Subabul.
• Apex Predators: Primarily known for its migratory and resident leopards.
• Other Wildlife: Serves as a vital sanctuary for Sambar deer, barking deer, wild boars, pangolins, blue bulls (Nilgai), porcupines, jackals, and jungle cats.
• Reptilian Diversity: Provides shelter to large reptiles, notably Python molurus (Indian Rock Python), cobras, rat snakes, and monitor lizards.

• Nature Interpretation Centre: A state-of-the-art educational hub for visitors.
• Observation Frameworks: Construction of camouflaged watchtowers, elevated viewing decks, and dedicated walking trails.
• Green Transit: Complete restriction on fossil-fuel vehicles inside, replacing them with battery-operated visitor vehicles.
• Clean Energy: Installation of independent solar lighting grids and perimeter chain-link security fencing.

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