Current Affairs — 12 June 2026

📖 Explanation

India's large cities have recorded an average temperature rise of close to 0.9 degrees Celsius over recent decades. The urban heat island effect occurs because concrete, tar roads, buildings and vehicles absorb solar radiation during the day and release it slowly at night, keeping cities consistently warmer than surrounding rural areas. Under the worst emissions scenario, urban temperatures could climb by as much as 4.4 degrees Celsius by 2100. This makes urban heat one of the most serious climate risks for Indian cities.

📖 Explanation

India's Total Fertility Rate has fallen to approximately 1.9, which is below the replacement rate of 2.1. The replacement rate is the level at which a population exactly replaces itself from one generation to the next without growing or shrinking. Some southern states have seen their TFR drop even further, to as low as 1.3. This demographic shift has prompted states like Andhra Pradesh to offer cash incentives to encourage larger families, though global evidence suggests such incentives produce only short-lived gains.

📖 Explanation

Andhra Pradesh announced a cash incentive of ₹30,000 for a woman having a third child and ₹40,000 for a fourth child, in response to the state's falling fertility rate. The policy is aimed at reversing demographic concerns including a shrinking working-age population and potential loss of political representation through delimitation. However, economists caution that international precedents from countries such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Sweden and France show that financial incentives typically produce only short-term, unsustainable rises in birth rates.

📖 Explanation

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) estimated India's nuclear stockpile at 190 warheads as of January 2026, up from 180 a year earlier. Of these, 12 were described as deployed for the first time. Pakistan was estimated to hold around 170 warheads, while China had 620. The global total stood at approximately 9,745 warheads, with the United States and Russia together accounting for the overwhelming majority. SIPRI is an independent Swedish research institute whose annual yearbook is a widely cited reference on global security.

📖 Explanation

The New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) between the United States and Russia expired in February 2026, removing the caps on their deployed strategic nuclear warheads. SIPRI warned that the expiry, combined with faster arsenal build-ups by nuclear-armed states, could weaken the credibility of the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The NPT bars non-nuclear states from acquiring weapons, in exchange for existing nuclear powers committing to eventual disarmament. India has not signed the NPT, partly because it viewed the treaty as discriminatory.

📖 Explanation

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is the body that investigates the causes of aviation accidents in India. Its role is safety-focused — to understand what went wrong and prevent recurrence. It is distinct from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), which is the regulator responsible for airworthiness certification, pilot licensing and operational standards. Both bodies function under the Ministry of Civil Aviation. Understanding this distinction is important for polity and current-affairs questions related to the AI171 crash investigation.

📖 Explanation

ICAO Annex 13, which governs aircraft accident investigations internationally, expects a final report within twelve months of the accident. If the investigation cannot be concluded in that time, the leading country is required to release a public interim statement on each anniversary of the accident, covering the progress made and any safety-related findings identified so far. This rule applies to the AI171 investigation by India's AAIB: as the crash occurred on 12 June 2025, the one-year mark on 12 June 2026 triggered the requirement for a public update.

📖 Explanation

India and Israel first launched free trade agreement talks in 2010, but negotiations moved slowly and stalled. The two sides signed a Terms of Reference document in November 2025, formally relaunching negotiations. The first round of these relaunched talks was held in New Delhi in late February 2026, and the next round is expected to be held in Israel after July 2026. India is Israel's second-largest trading partner in Asia, with bilateral trade spanning pharmaceuticals, diamonds, gems, machinery and technology.

📖 Explanation

The 2026 Nipah case from Kerala was confirmed by the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune, after a preliminary positive test at the Kozhikode Government Medical College Hospital. The patient, a 43-year-old businessman from Feroke in Kozhikode district, was placed on ventilator support. The NIV is the nodal institution for confirming dangerous viral infections in India. Kozhikode district has been the epicentre of Nipah outbreaks in Kerala since the virus first emerged in the state in 2018.

📖 Explanation

Nipah virus carries a high case fatality rate, estimated between 40 and 75 percent of confirmed infections. Its primary natural reservoir is the fruit bat, also known as the flying fox. The virus can transmit to humans through contact with infected bats or their droppings and secretions, and limited person-to-person transmission is also possible. In the 2026 Kerala case, the patient had reportedly cleaned a godown that showed signs of bat activity, illustrating the typical route of zoonotic spillover. Kerala has recorded 32 cases and 23 deaths from Nipah since 2018.

📖 Explanation

The 13-km Zojila tunnel links Baltal near Sonamarg in the Kashmir Valley with Minimarg near Drass in the Kargil district of Ladakh. It bypasses the Zojila Pass, cutting the Sonamarg-to-Drass road distance by 27 km. Drass town and Kargil town are distinct locations in the same district, while Leh is much farther east and connected by the separate Leh-Manali highway.

📖 Explanation

The New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM) was chosen for the Zojila tunnel because it suits geologically complex and fragile Himalayan rock. NATM proceeds step by step, providing immediate support to the tunnel walls after each blast to prevent collapse. TBM is used in more uniform rock or soft ground, while cut-and-cover is a surface-level technique unsuitable for high-altitude mountain tunnels.

📖 Explanation

The Caltech study found that when soil dries out, the concentration of naturally occurring antibiotics within it rises. This elevated concentration kills off antibiotic-sensitive bacteria while allowing resistant strains to survive and multiply. The key finding is that this process is driven by environmental stress alone, entirely separate from the better-known cause of resistance — overuse of antibiotics in medicine and agriculture.

📖 Explanation

India faces an unusually concentrated set of risk factors: more frequent and severe droughts due to climate change, heavy use of antibiotics in both human healthcare and animal husbandry, and the widespread practice of irrigating fields with partially treated or untreated wastewater. These pressures act together, making antibiotic resistance in soil a compounding climate-health challenge for India rather than a single-cause problem.

📖 Explanation

The Tenth Schedule was originally inserted by the 52nd Amendment in 1985. It initially included an exception that shielded legislators from disqualification if at least one-third of the legislature party split and formed a separate group. The 91st Amendment of 2003 deleted this split exception entirely, so a mere split within the legislature party no longer provides any protection. The only remaining exception is a genuine merger where at least two-thirds of the legislature party consent.

📖 Explanation

In Kihoto Hollohan v. Zachillhu, the Supreme Court held that when the Speaker decides a disqualification petition under the Tenth Schedule, the Speaker functions as a tribunal. This means the final decision is subject to judicial review — courts can examine it for illegality, bias, or violation of constitutional principles. However, the Court also laid down that courts must not interfere while the proceedings are still pending before the Speaker, except in cases of clear constitutional violation.

📖 Explanation

Article 324 of the Constitution vests the superintendence, direction, and control of the preparation of electoral rolls and the conduct of all elections to Parliament and State Legislatures in the Election Commission of India. Article 326 deals with the right to vote based on adult suffrage, Article 243K sets up State Election Commissions for local body elections, and Article 329 bars courts from interfering in electoral matters except as provided by law.

📖 Explanation

Education was moved to the Concurrent List (List III) by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment in 1976. This means both Parliament and State Legislatures can enact laws on the subject. In practice, however, the Union government exercises considerable influence through bodies like the University Grants Commission (UGC) and by linking central funding to compliance with nationally designed reform frameworks such as NEP 2020.

📖 Explanation

NEP 2020 proposes the Academic Bank of Credits (ABC), a digital repository where students can store credits earned from different higher education institutions and redeem them toward a degree. This is designed to give students flexibility to study across institutions and take breaks without losing their earned credits. The National Academic Depository (NAD) is a separate, existing system for storing academic certificates digitally and should not be confused with the ABC.