UPSC Current Affairs 11 June 2026

• Statutory Body: It is an official Indian statutory organization operating directly under the Ministry of AYUSH.
• Establishment: It was constituted on July 5, 2021, under the National Commission for Homoeopathy Act, 2020.
• Predecessor: It officially replaced and dissolved the old Central Council of Homoeopathy (CCH).
• Headquarters: The main administrative office is located in Janakpuri, New Delhi.

• Education Access: To improve student access to high-quality and affordable medical education in Homoeopathy.
• Availability: To ensure a reliable supply of qualified medical professionals across every region of India.
• Universal Healthcare: To advocate for equitable healthcare services that integrate homoeopathy into national community health targets.
• Ethical Standards: To strictly enforce transparency, institutional evaluations, and professional ethics among practitioners.

• Policy Formulation: Frames the central policies that govern homoeopathic institutions and research frameworks.
• National Registers: Responsible for updating and maintaining the Homoeopathy Medical Register for India.
• Infrastructure Mapping: Assesses human resources and infrastructure needs to design progress roadmaps.
• Compliance Checks: Ensures all state-level medical councils strictly execute the rules and regulations passed by the central commission.

Autonomous Board	Primary Responsibility
Homoeopathy Education Board (HEB)	Designs the course curriculum, standardizes education, and grants recognition to UG and PG degrees.
Medical Assessment and Rating Board for Homoeopathy (MARBH)	Evaluates medical colleges, issues permissions for new institutions, and levies penalties for standard violations.
Board of Ethics and Registration for Homoeopathy (BERH)	Monitors professional conduct, addresses ethical malpractice, and handles the registration of practitioners.

• Core Objective: The scheme provides default risk mitigation (guarantee cover) to commercial banks against expected losses on loans extended to microfinance entities.
• On-Lending Mechanism: The recipient Non-Banking Financial Company-Microfinance Institutions (NBFC-MFIs) and standard MFIs use these bank funds to on-lend to small, underserved borrowers.
• Target Audience: Focuses heavily on the economic base, aiming to deliver credit to approximately 36 lakh small borrowers (households with an income under ₹3 lakh).
• Nodal Department: Administered by the Department of Financial Services (DFS) under the Ministry of Finance.
• Trustee Agency: Managed and operated directly by the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Limited (NCGTC).

• Small-Size MFIs (AUM < ₹500 Crore): Receives the highest default protection at 80% guarantee coverage.
• Medium-Size MFIs (AUM ₹500 Crore to < ₹2,000 Crore): Receives 75% guarantee coverage.
• Large-Size MFIs (AUM ≥ ₹2,000 Crore): Receives 70% guarantee coverage.
• Total Corpus Scale: Operates on an overall financial volume cap of ₹20,000 crore.

• Bank to MFI Rate: Lenders cannot charge MFIs more than the 1-year MCLR / External Benchmark Lending Rate (EBLR) + 2% per annum.
• MFI to Small Borrower Rate: MFIs must cap their consumer interest rates at least 1% below their own average lending rate recorded over the past 6 months.
• Guarantee Fee: Member Lending Institutions (MLIs) pay a nominal 0.50% annual fee to NCGTC for the risk cover.

• Asset Creation Mandate: MFIs must utilize the received funds strictly to generate fresh loan assets within 3 months of disbursement.
• No Fund Diversion: The capital cannot be used to clear older institutional debts or alternate projects.
• Dedicated Accounting: MFIs are required to open a separate bank account specifically to monitor the scheme’s funds.
• Auditor Verification: Institutions must submit a Statutory Auditor Certificate within 6 months of any loan tranche disbursement to verify compliance.

• Definition: Deceptive user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) designs used by websites and apps.
• Purpose: They deliberately trick, manipulate, or nudge consumers into making choices that benefit the business but are not in the consumer's best interest.
• Origin: The term was first coined in 2010 by user experience researcher Harry Brignull.
• Legal Status: Under India’s Consumer Protection Act, 2019, dark patterns are officially classified as an Unfair Trade Practice.

• CCPA Corporate Crackdown: The CCPA penalised Zepto (₹7 lakh) for drip pricing. It also imposed generic fines totalling ₹44 lakh against e-commerce and media firms like Flipkart, Meta (Facebook Marketplace), and Meesho for unfair trade and misleading ads.
• Self-Audit Mandates: The government ordered digital storefronts to conduct internal audits and formally self-declare themselves "Dark Pattern Free". Platforms like BlinkIt, Zomato, and BigBasket have submitted these compliance filings.

1. Basket Sneaking: Adding unselected items, charitable donations, or insurance to the digital shopping cart without the consumer’s active consent.
2. Drip Pricing: Concealing the final price elements (like unexpected platform fees or packaging charges) until the very last stage of payment.
3. False Urgency: Displaying fake countdown timers or misleading messages ("Only 1 room left!") to scare consumers into booking quickly.
4. Forced Action: Preventing a user from accessing a free service unless they buy an unrelated product or share excessive personal data.
5. Subscription Traps (Roach Motel): Making it incredibly easy to sign up for a paid plan but intentionally difficult, confusing, or multi-stepped to cancel it.
6. Bait and Switch: Advertising an item at a highly attractive price but changing it to a pricier alternative or claiming it is out of stock when clicked.
7. Confirm Shaming: Using emotional manipulation or guilt-tripping text ("No thanks, I hate saving money") to stop users from opting out of a service.
8. Interface Interference: Highlighting preferred corporate buttons in bright colours while hiding the "Decline" or "Exit" options in tiny, low-contrast fonts.
9. Disguised Advertisements: Blending promotional ads or sponsored videos into organic content feeds so users accidentally click on them.
10. Nagging: Repeatedly disrupting user workflow with pop-up requests ("Upgrade to Premium") after the user has already said no.
11. Trick Questions: Using complex double negatives or confusing phrasing to make users accidentally pick an unintended option.
12. SaaS Billing / Auto-Renewal: Charging a consumer’s card automatically without providing a clear alert or invoice warning beforehand.
13. Ransomware / Rogue Coercion: Demanding money or forcing actions under the threat of locking data or blocking account usage.

• Elected Tenure (The Record): Nehru still retains the record for longest-serving Prime Minister overall with 6,130 total days, counting his pre-election interim stewardship starting from Independence in 1947.
• Surpassing Indira Gandhi: This milestone follows an earlier achievement in July 2025, when Modi surpassed Indira Gandhi's longest single uninterrupted stint of 4,077 days (1966–1977).
• Total Executive Experience: Counting his previous 13 years as the Chief Minister of Gujarat alongside his prime ministership, Modi has served a total of 8,931 days as an elected head of government, making him the longest-serving executive leader in modern Indian history.

• Three Consecutive Terms: He is the first leader since Jawaharlal Nehru to win three consecutive national mandates (2014, 2019, and 2024).
• Non-Congress Milestone: He stands as the first and only non-Congress Prime Minister to complete two full terms and successfully cross into a third.
• Post-Independence Born: He remains the first and only Indian Prime Minister born after the country achieved Independence in 1947.

• Poverty Alleviation: Delivering welfare amenities to the economic base, helping over 25 crore citizens defeat poverty through pucca housing, electricity access, and direct benefit transfers.
• Social Safety Nets: Distributing free food rations to over 80 crore citizens and free healthcare cover to over 60 crore poor individuals under flagship public schemes.
• Demographic Development: Cultivating the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem, executing the Chandrayaan space missions, and enacting 33% women's reservation in legislative bodies.
• Decisive Legal Reforms: Implementing major structural changes including the abrogation of Article 370, introducing the Goods and Services Tax (GST), and replacing old colonial laws with the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
• National Security: Taking strict actions against cross-border terrorism via surgical air strikes and systematically mitigating domestic Naxalism.

• Core Definition: Reciprocal agreements signed between two sovereign nations designed to promote and protect cross-border private investments.
• Investor Protections: They grant foreign businesses legal safeguards, such as protection against illegal asset nationalisation (expropriation) and discriminatory treatment.
• Historical Shift: India signed its first BIT in 1994 (with the UK). However, after losing major international arbitration cases against companies like Vodafone and Cairn Energy, India terminated around 75 old treaties and adopted a defensive, restrictive Model BIT in 2016.

• Aimed at boosting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows, the updated 2026 text introduces fairer, streamlined international arbitration timelines for foreign entities while strictly embedding safeguards to preserve India's sovereign policymaking authority.

• Shortened Local Remedy Window: The previous, widely criticised 5-year mandatory waiting period in domestic courts has been slashed to a 2-year requirement. Foreign companies must now only try Indian courts for two years before invoking global arbitration.
• Customised Cooling-off Periods: For highly trusted strategic partner nations, India may negotiate an even shorter one-year domestic remedy window.
• Exclusion of the MFN Clause: The revised framework excludes the Most-Favoured-Nation (MFN) clause. This prevents foreign companies from "treaty shopping" to claim better benefits given to alternate countries.
• Strict Taxation Shield: Tax-related disputes remain entirely outside the scope of investment treaties. The Indian government maintains that national taxation is a non-negotiable sovereign policy matter.
• Sustainable and Digital Inclusion: The model integrates modern provisions that reward and protect green energy projects, digital trade infrastructure, and corporate environmental responsibility.

• Reviving the Treaty Network: Easing the rigid 2016 guidelines will help India rebuild its depleted treaty network, reassuring foreign firms that their capital is legally secure.
• Achieving Economic Goals: Stronger FDI inflows are vital to fuelling India's massive macro infrastructure developments and long-term economic growth targets.
• Protecting Outbound Investments: As Indian multinational conglomerates expand globally, a strong, modern BIT blueprint helps safeguard Indian capital invested in foreign jurisdictions.
• Reducing Sovereign Liabilities: By keeping tax rules exempt and enforcing short local remediation, the government minimizes the threat of massive financial penalties handed out by international tribunals.

• Total Valuation: India signed a ₹21,935 crore contract in September 2021 to procure a total of 56 C-295MW transport aircraft.
• The 16 "Fly-Away" Units: The first 16 aircraft were manufactured entirely at the Airbus facility in Seville, Spain, and delivered to India in ready-to-fly condition.
• The 40 "Made in India" Units: The remaining 40 aircraft are being built from scratch and assembled domestically at the TASL Vadodara plant.
• Final Delivery Deadline: The entire fleet of 56 aircraft is scheduled to be fully integrated into the Indian military by August 2031.

• Aircraft Type: A highly versatile, twin-engine turboprop tactical military airlifter designed for medium-range operations.
• Capacity Limits: Features a transport capacity ranging between 5 to 10 tonnes.
• Aging Fleet Replacement: Directly replaces the Indian Air Force's legacy, decades-old British-origin Avro-748 transport planes.
• Rough-Terrain Landing: Capable of executing short take-offs and landings on unprepared, rough, or short airstrips, making it perfect for remote mountain and border operations.
• Multi-Role Capability: Engineered to swiftly shift between troop transport (up to 71 troops), logistical cargo delivery, medical evacuation (MEDEVAC), and disaster relief missions.
• Indigenous Electronic Warfare: Every single one of the 56 aircraft is equipped with a homegrown, indigenously manufactured Electronic Warfare Suite for defence protection.

• This historic flight marks the first time a military aircraft has been manufactured in India by a private sector company, signalling a massive breakthrough for the country's defence indigenization and aerospace ecosystem.

• Boosting Atmanirbhar Bharat: Acts as the primary blueprint for the "Make in India" initiative in deep-tech defence and aerospace manufacturing.
• Deep Supply Chain Integration: The manufacturing process uses over 13,000 individual parts and 4,600 sub-assemblies, sourcing roughly 70% of its components locally from an extensive network of 37 Indian suppliers (including 33 MSMEs).
• Job Creation: The project has generated more than 600 highly technical aerospace engineering positions alongside 3,000 indirect industrial jobs.
• Civilian Use Flexibility: The aircraft's foundational blueprint is designed so it can eventually be customized and manufactured for domestic maritime, coast guard, or civilian regional connectivity purposes.

• Core Setup: Photovoltaic panels are mounted on modular, buoyant platforms that float on top of calm bodies of water like reservoirs, lakes, quarry ponds, or industrial treatment basins.
• Key Components: Systems comprise a buoyancy body (floats), a heavy-duty anchoring/mooring system to prevent drifting, and specialized underwater power cabling.
• Hybrid Operations: They are heavily deployed on hydropower reservoirs, creating a solar-hydro hybrid loop that shares grid transmission lines and saves infrastructure costs.

• Zero Land Footprint: Completely eliminates conflicts over land acquisition, making it perfect for highly populated or agricultural regions.
• Higher Power Generation: The natural cooling effect of the water beneath the arrays prevents panels from overheating, boosting electricity generation efficiency by 0.6% to 4.4% compared to land-based farms.
• Water Conservation: The physical layout covers the water surface, blocking solar radiation to drastically lower water loss from evaporation, an invaluable benefit during droughts.
• Reduced Algae Bloom: By blocking excessive sunlight from entering the water column, it slows down toxic algae growth, improving overall water quality.

• Concurrently, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi announced that the Central Government is launching a dedicated financial incentive scheme alongside a ₹5,500 crore floating solar-plus-battery storage program to fast-track its nationwide development.

• High Initial Capital: Setting up specialized marine-grade floats and anchoring systems makes initial installation costs substantially higher than traditional solar fields.
• Corrosion Risks: Constant exposure to moisture and humidity demands expensive, specialized anti-corrosive materials and higher maintenance costs over time.
• Environmental Uncertainty: Long-term impacts of restricted sunlight on underlying aquatic ecosystems, marine life, and dissolved oxygen levels are still being studied.

• Ramagundam Project: A 100 MW operational facility in Telangana developed by NTPC, previously marking a major milestone for India's inland water solar initiatives.
• Omkareshwar Dam Project: An ambitious 600 MW project currently being scaled on the Narmada River in Madhya Pradesh, set to be one of the largest globally.
• Rengali Reservoir: Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) is actively constructing a massive 300 MW project in Angul, Odisha.

• Core Definition: A fatal, highly infectious bacterial disease that specifically attacks developing honeybee larvae and pupae.
• Causative Agent: Caused by the Gram-positive, spore-forming bacterium known as Paenibacillus larvae.
• Target Stage: It exclusively impacts the brood (young larvae in the prepupal or older stage) and does not affect adult honeybees directly.
• Global Classification: Classified as a highly dangerous, notifiable animal disease by the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) due to its economic threat to global apiculture.

• Infection Pathway: Young larvae contract the bacterium by accidentally consuming food contaminated with bacterial spores.
• Extreme Longevity: The spores are incredibly hardy, resisting extreme temperatures and chemical agents, and can remain dormant yet viable for over 50 years.
• Hive Spreading: Adult bees act as carriers; they spread the spores within and between colonies via natural activities like robbing honey from weak hives and drifting.
• Human Spread: It is easily tracked between different locations by beekeepers through the interchange of infected equipment, combs, and wooden hive tools.

• Spotty Brood Pattern: Infected hives exhibit an irregular, scattered layout often described as a "shotgun pattern".
• Sunken Cappings: The wax coverings over the brood cells become dark, moist, sunken, and frequently show jagged perforations.
• The "Ropiness" Test: If a matchstick or toothpick is inserted into a dying larva, the decaying tissue draws out into a sticky, brown, rope-like thread.
• Foul Odor: The collapsing hive emits a distinct, putrid, non-typical smell of decaying animal matter.
• Hard Scale: Dead larvae dry down into a flat, blackish scale tightly glued to the bottom of the cell wall, which is nearly impossible for worker bees to remove.

• No Medical Cure: Once a honeybee colony develops an active infection, the disease cannot be cured with traditional antibiotics.
• Mandatory Destruction: The primary and most effective control measure remains the complete incineration (burning) of the infected bees, hives, and associated frames.
• Strict Biosecurity: Beekeepers must execute thorough hive inspections, sanitize tools with alcohol/flame between hives, and avoid buying second-hand woodenware of unknown origin.
• Breakthrough Vaccine: To curb global losses, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) previously granted a conditional license for the world's first honeybee vaccine. It uses dead Paenibacillus larvae bacteria mixed into "queen candy" to transfer immunity to developing larvae through royal jelly.

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