UPSC Current Affairs 23 September 2026

• Inception: First announced by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) - South Africa in 2010, and internationally observed since 2011.
• Primary Goal: To spread global awareness about the threats facing the five remaining species of rhinoceros and to secure funding, research, and habitat protection.
• 2026 Focus & Theme: The official theme for this year is “Keep the Five Alive,” highlighting the urgent need to protect the remaining five rhino species whose global population has shrunk to just around 27,000.

• Black Rhino (Africa): Critically Endangered
• Javan Rhino (Asia): Critically Endangered
• Sumatran Rhino (Asia): Critically Endangered
• White Rhino (Africa): Near Threatened
• Greater One-Horned Rhino (Asia): Vulnerable

• Characteristics: It is the largest of the rhino species, identified by a single black horn and grey-brown skin folds.
• India's Status: India is home to the largest population of Greater One-Horned Rhinos in the world, holding over 80% of the global count (approx. 3,260+ in Assam alone).
• Primary Habitats: The vast majority (over 90%) live in Kaziranga National Park, with other notable populations in Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary and Manas National Park in Assam, as well as parts of West Bengal and the Indo-Nepal terai region.
• Legal Protection: In India, it is heavily protected under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and is listed in Appendix-I of CITES.

• Persistent Poaching: Driven by the illegal wildlife trade on the black market, where rhino horns are falsely valued as status symbols or used in traditional medicine despite lacking any scientific proof of efficacy.
• Habitat Destruction: Forest fragmentation and human encroachment caused by agriculture and development narrow down their grazing areas, leading to human-wildlife conflict.
• Low Genetic Diversity: Small, isolated populations create a high risk of inbreeding, making groups vulnerable to sudden disease outbreaks or natural disasters.

• The four Visegrád Group (V4) countries collectively backed India’s bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, calling India an “upcoming superpower in the Indo‑Pacific” and a major Global South voice.
• Both sides agreed to institutionalise annual foreign ministers’ meetings and launch an annual V4–India Business Forum, signalling a structured, long-term engagement beyond ad‑hoc contacts
• The meeting comes as V4 seeks to deepen ties with Indo‑Pacific partners while India pushes its “Connect Central Europe” strand within its broader Europe policy, alongside EU and key bilateral ties.

• Establishment: Formed on February 15, 1991, when the leaders of Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia signed a declaration in the Hungarian town of Visegrád.
• Transition to V4: It originally began as a trio ("V3"). It naturally became the "V4" in 1993 following the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia into the independent Czech Republic and Slovakia.
• Historical Purpose: The initial core objective was to break away from the communist legacy of the Warsaw Pact and successfully integrate the member states into Western economic and security architectures.

• Informal Forum: The V4 functions without a fixed, permanent institutional structure, secretariat, or physical headquarters.
• Consensus-Based: All joint policy decisions must be reached via complete unanimity and consensus.
• Rotating Presidency: The leadership and meeting agendas shift annually on a rotating basis among the four member nations.
• "V4+" Format: The bloc frequently hosts expanded summits with external regional partners, including both EU and non-EU countries.

• Euro-Atlantic Integration: The group successfully fulfilled its primary geopolitical goals when all members joined NATO (Poland, Hungary, Czechia in 1999; Slovakia in 2004) and simultaneously entered the European Union on May 1, 2004.
• Unified EU Bloc: Following EU integration, the group shifted focus to acting as an alliance to negotiate structural funds, agricultural policies, and regional infrastructure projects inside Brussels.
• The Visegrád Fund: Established in 2000, this is the group's only formal institutional arm. It manages a multi-million-euro budget dedicated to funding regional civil society, cultural, scientific, and educational exchange programs.
• Military Cooperation: The nations created the Visegrád Battle Group, a rotating regional military force designed to boost defence interoperability and enhance security coordination across Central Europe.

• Direct Participants (Air Assets): Nine countries (including India) are deploying their aircraft. Key international participants include the United States, France, Germany, Greece, Australia, the UAE, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.
• Observers: Around 30 to 32 countries will attend strictly as observers to study tactics and operations.
• Leadership Attendance: Approximately 10 Air Chiefs or equivalent global military leaders are expected to attend.

• Foreign Assets: Highlighted by the US F-35 stealth fighters, French Rafales, UAE F-16s, and Bangladeshi C-130J transport aircraft.
• Indian Air Force Assets: The IAF is fielding a robust mix of frontline aircraft including the Su-30MKI, Rafale, Tejas (LCA), Mirage-2000, Jaguar, and MiG-29. These will be heavily supported by mid-air refuelling tankers and airborne surveillance (AEW&CS) platforms.

• Future Air Warfare Integration: The exercise simulates emerging warfare realities, focusing heavily on precision weapons and multi-domain operations.
• Operational Capabilities: Squadrons will execute complex joint missions covering counter-air operations, advanced air defence, tactical combat drills, reconnaissance, strategic airlift, and mid-air refuelling.
• Interoperability & Real-world Lessons: The drills aim to standardise communication and joint operational doctrines among friendly forces, integrating modern air tactics following the IAF's recent operations (such as the lessons gained during Operation Sindoor).

• Keratinophilic Nature: They are uniquely "keratin-loving" organisms. They extract nutrients by breaking down keratin—the structural protein that builds up the outer skin layers, hair, and nails.
• Superficial Colonisation: They strictly colonise the dead, non-living cornified layer of the epidermis. Because they cannot tolerate normal human internal core body temperatures (37°C) and are inhibited by blood serum factors, they rarely invade living or deep subcutaneous tissues in healthy individuals.
• The Three Major Genera: All dermatophytes fall under three distinct evolutionary biological classifications based on their physical structures:
  • Trichophyton: Infects hair, skin, and nails.
  • Microsporum: Infects hair and skin (rarely nails).
  • Epidermophyton: Infects skin and nails (never hair).

• Anthropophilic (Human-to-Human): Fungi strictly adapted to humans. They cause the vast majority of human skin infections and are spread through direct skin contact or shared intimate items.
• Zoophilic (Animal-to-Human): Fungi hosted by domestic pets or livestock (like cats, dogs, or cows). When passed to humans, they often trigger a highly inflamed immune response.
• Geophilic (Soil-to-Human): Fungi residing in soil that occasionally infect humans or animals who come into direct contact with dirt.
• Fomites (Indirect Contact): Fungal spores can survive for long periods on inanimate items, such as public shower floors, locker room benches, hairbrushes, unwashed towels, and bedding.

• Tinea Pedis (Athlete's Foot): Scaling, cracking, and intense itching between the toes or on the soles of the feet.
• Tinea Cruris (Jock Itch): Red, itchy, elevated rashes originating in the groin, inner thighs, and skin folds.
• Tinea Corporis (Body Ringworm): Classic circular lesions with raised, scaly edges and clear centers appearing anywhere on smooth skin.
• Tinea Capitis (Scalp Ringworm): Predominant in children; causes itchy, scaly patches on the scalp, brittle hair, and localized hair loss.
• Onychomycosis (Tinea Unguium): Deep infection of the fingernails or toenails, causing them to become thick, brittle, opaque, and discoloured.

• Diagnostic Tools: Clinicians generally diagnose the infection using KOH (Potassium Hydroxide) microscopy, where skin scrapings are mixed with a solution to visually identify the fungal hyphae under a microscope. A specialized UV light (Wood’s Lamp) or advanced DNA sequencing may be used for atypical or resistant strains.
• Standard Treatment: Mild and localized infections are managed with topical antifungal creams (such as clotrimazole, miconazole, or terbinafine) applied directly to the skin.
• Systemic Treatment: Deeper scalp or nail infections, as well as widespread or drug-resistant strains (like T. indotineae), require oral prescription antifungals taken internally for weeks or months.

• Film-shooting permissions across States/UTs
• Live-event permissions (concerts, festivals, large gatherings)
• Integration with the Film Facilitation Office (FFO) to further streamline clearances for domestic and international producers

• India Cine Hub (ICH) is a single-window digital portal for filmmakers and event organizers to obtain permissions, visas, and access production resources across India.
• It is managed by the National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC) under the Ministry of I&B.
• Aim: Reduce multi-state bureaucratic friction, improve ease of doing business, and position India as an attractive global filming and live-events destination.

• Single-Window Clearances: Eliminates fragmented paperwork by integrating central, state, and union territory agencies into one digital system.
• Ease of Doing Business: Lowers regulatory barriers to position India as a premier global and domestic filming destination.
• Promoting Film Tourism: Showcases lesser-known regional landscapes, infrastructure, and historical sites to drive local tourism and economic growth.

• Digital Approvals: Handles everything from state permissions and police clearances to film visas and archaeological site permissions.
• GIS-Based Location Mapping: Features interactive, geo-tagged location directories allowing filmmakers to virtually explore diverse landscapes across the country.
• Comprehensive Resource Directory: Maps filmic and non-filmic resources, local talent pools, VFX/animation services, and active international co-production treaties.

• Eligible Projects: Welcomes feature films, reality TV shows, web series, and commercial television serials.
• Domestic & Foreign Creators: Originally launched as the Film Facilitation Office (FFO) to assist foreign production crews, its upgraded layout now offers the same seamless backend clearances to domestic Indian filmmakers.
• Exclusions: The platform does not issue permissions for short advertising commercials, music videos, or documentaries; these continue to be routed through the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

• The Pathogen: It is a bacterial infection caused by the intracellular bacterium Orientia tsutsugamushi.
• The Vector: It is not a mosquito-borne disease. It spreads to humans exclusively through the bite of infected larval mites (commonly called chiggers) belonging to the Trombiculidae family.
• Natural Reservoir: Rodents and shrews act as natural hosts for these mites, sustaining the infection cycle in the ecosystem.
• Habitat: Chiggers thrive in areas with heavy, dense vegetation, such as overgrown grass, bushes, jungle terrain, and agricultural fields (hence the name "bush typhus" or "jungle typhus").
• Contagion Status: The disease is strictly non-contagious; it cannot spread from person to person.

• High Fever and Chills: The most common identifier, appearing in nearly 95%–100% of symptomatic patients.
• The "Eschar" Mark: A signature dark, painless, scab-like lesion resembling a cigarette burn forms at the site of the chigger bite (typically hidden in the groin, armpits, neck, or waistline).
• Other Early Signs: Severe headache, body aches, muscle pain, gastrointestinal discomfort, and swollen lymph nodes.
• Neurological Changes: Mental confusion, agitation, delirium, and in extreme cases, coma or seizures.

• Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS)
• Acute Kidney Injury / Renal Failure
• Meningitis or Encephalitis (brain inflammation)
• Multi-organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) and circulatory shock.

• Diagnostic Tools: The infection is confirmed via blood testing, specifically using IgM ELISA or molecular PCR tests.
• Medical Urgency: Because symptoms overlap heavily with other monsoon illnesses, clinical guidelines dictate that antibiotic treatment should begin immediately if scrub typhus is strongly suspected, without waiting for lab confirmations.
• Effective Medications: It is treated using accessible antibiotics like doxycycline or azithromycin. Recent Indian multi-centre trials indicate that a combination therapy of both drugs can resolve complications much faster than using either alone.

• Protective Clothing: Wear full-sleeved shirts, long trousers, and enclosed footwear when visiting vegetated or rural areas.
• Chemical Repellents: Apply insect repellents containing DEET or picaridin to exposed skin and clothing.
• Environmental Hygiene: Keep lawns trimmed, manage weeds around living areas, and exercise robust rodent control measures to eliminate mite habitats.
• Post-Exposure Care: Bathe thoroughly and wash clothes in hot water after spending time in bushy or forested zones.

• Focus Areas: Deliberations primarily centered around oil market stability, long-term energy security, and ensuring adequate and timely investments across the global oil sector.
• India as a Demand Driver: Minister Hardeep Singh Puri highlighted that as one of the world's fastest-growing major economies, India will continue to be a primary driver of incremental global energy demand for decades to come.
• Producer-Consumer Synergy: India emphasized that a sustained dialogue between oil-producing nations (OPEC) and oil-consuming nations (like India) is vital to support economic growth, strengthen resilience, and build a predictable global energy market.
• Priority Status for OPEC: OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais stated that dialogue with India is a top priority for OPEC due to its rapidly expanding global footprint and pragmatic approach to handling energy challenges.
• Shared Vision: The dialogue reiterated that India and OPEC share a "naturally complementary and mutually beneficial relationship," with many of India's domestic energy priorities directly aligning with OPEC’s global market objectives.
• Praise for Diplomacy: OPEC highly commended the Indian Government’s consistent stance on using international collaboration, diplomacy, and constructive dialogue to navigate complex global challenges.
• Technical Framework Progress: The meeting commended the ongoing achievements and milestones reached by both parties at the technical level within the dialogue's official framework.
• Future Roadmap: Both entities agreed to further deepen bilateral energy cooperation. The 8th High-Level Meeting of the OPEC-India Energy Dialogue is scheduled to take place in Vienna, Austria, on a mutually convenient date.

• Scope: It tracks the global water loop quantitatively, mapping metrics like river discharge, groundwater levels, soil moisture, evapotranspiration, and the state of snow and ice (the cryosphere).
• Expanded Data: The report has grown dramatically over 5 years, now utilizing data from over 68 countries and 3,000+ river discharge stations (including heavy data contributions from nations like Canada).

• Historic Lows: Normal river flows were recorded across just 36% of the global river basin area in 2025.
• Abnormal Flows: Another 36% experienced below-normal or much-below-normal flows, while 21% saw above-normal or much-above-normal conditions.
• A 7-Year Trend: The seven-year window from 2019 to 2025 marked the fewest river basins with "normal" flows since 1991.

• Deficit Spikes: In 2025, 34% of monitored groundwater stations reported below-normal or much-below-normal water levels, climbing significantly from 25% in 2024.
• Global Hotspots: Long-term, multi-year groundwater deficits (2022–2025) were recorded heavily across India, the Middle East, the United States, Latin America, Europe, Australia, and Southern Africa.
• The Cause: Over-abstraction (drawing out more water than natural rain or environmental recharge can replace) is explicitly named as the primary driver behind these plunging water tables.

• Decade-Long Decline: Earth's total Terrestrial Water Storage (TWS)—the sum of all water found in soil, snow, ice, rivers, and groundwater—has been on a steady downward trajectory since 2014–2016.
• Land Dryness: Roughly 42% of the global land area exhibited below-normal water storage levels in 2025.
• Accelerating Ice Loss: For the fourth straight year, every major glaciated region on the planet experienced net ice mass loss.
• Sea-Level Rise: Glaciers shed an estimated 408 gigatonnes of ice during the 2025 hydrological year, single-handedly contributing about 1.1 mm to global sea-level rise. Severe losses were concentrated in Central Asia, western Canada, and the US.

• Erratic Swings: The water cycle is swinging violently between extremes of "too little" (droughts) and "too much" (flash floods).
• Vulnerable Zones: Asia and Africa remain the absolute epicentres for water disasters, collectively accounting for over 50% of water-related extreme events and over 80% of all reported deaths from these events over the past 5 years.

• Northern Depletion: Northern and north-western India are experiencing critical, persistent groundwater depletion and below-normal terrestrial water storage.
• Agricultural/Societal Strain: Because India relies heavily on groundwater for irrigation, over-abstraction threatens long-term agricultural sustainability and drinking water security.

• According to details shared via UN Water updates, the WMO urges immediate international action to expand early warning coverage, invest in structural hydrological monitoring infrastructure, and execute stricter water-use regulations to halt over-extraction.

• Official Name: Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies.
• Timeline: Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1967. It opened for signature on January 27, 1967, and officially entered into force on October 10, 1967.
• Signatories: Over 118 countries are parties to the treaty, including all major spacefaring nations like India, the US, Russia, and China.

• Exclusively Peaceful Purposes: The treaty dictates that the Moon and all other celestial bodies must be used entirely for peaceful purposes.
• WMD and Nuclear Ban: States are strictly prohibited from placing nuclear weapons or any other weapons of mass destruction (WMD) into Earth's orbit, on celestial bodies, or stationed anywhere in outer space.
• No Sovereignty (Non-Appropriation): Outer space is declared the "province of all mankind". No nation can claim sovereignty over outer space, the Moon, or other celestial bodies through occupation, use, or any other means.
• Free Exploration: Space is entirely free for exploration and scientific use by all nations without discrimination.
• State Responsibility & Liability: Launching states are legally and financially liable for any damage their space objects cause to other nations—whether on Earth or in space. Governments are also held strictly responsible for activities conducted by their private or non-governmental entities.
• Mutual Assistance: Nations are legally bound to treat astronauts as "envoys of mankind" and render all possible assistance to them in the event of an accident, distress, or emergency landing.

• Conventional Weapons Permitted: The treaty is silent on conventional weapons in space. It does not ban the transit of ballistic missiles carrying WMDs through space, nor does it explicitly prohibit the establishment of military space forces, satellite jamming, or ground-to-space anti-satellite weapons.
• Lack of Mining Guidelines: Written during the Cold War, the text provides no clear legal clarity or rules regarding asteroid and lunar commercial mining.
• Outdated Framework: The treaty lacks concrete mechanisms for managing modern challenges like satellite traffic congestion, private sector mega-constellations, and the growing accumulation of orbital space debris.

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