Current Affairs — 20 June 2026

📖 Explanation

The National Critical Mineral Mission was launched in January 2025 with an approved outlay of Rs 16,300 crore. Critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, and rare earths are essential for clean energy technologies, electronics, and defence equipment. India's push for this mission reflects its intent to reduce import dependence and build domestic mining and processing capacity for these strategically vital resources.

📖 Explanation

China dominates the global processing stage for critical minerals, controlling up to 90 per cent of world capacity for several key materials. This is a critical vulnerability for countries pursuing clean energy transitions and advanced manufacturing, as mining the ore is only one step — refining and processing it into usable form is equally important. India is working to build its own processing ecosystem to reduce this dependence.

📖 Explanation

Locus standi is a Latin legal term meaning the right or standing to bring or participate in a legal or official proceeding. In diplomacy, it refers to whether a party has any legitimate basis — legal or moral — to comment on or intervene in another country's affairs. The principle of sovereign non-interference holds that states should not direct or comment on the internal administrative or judicial decisions of other sovereign states. When a government invokes 'no locus standi', it is asserting that the foreign party simply has no standing to raise the matter.

📖 Explanation

Chabahar port, located on Iran's southeastern coast along the Gulf of Oman, gives India direct access to Central Asia and Afghanistan while bypassing the Strait of Hormuz entirely. India has been developing Chabahar as a strategic alternative sea-land corridor to reduce its energy supply vulnerability. This matters because India's LPG imports flow heavily through the Strait, and with no robust contingency plan, any Hormuz disruption directly threatens domestic energy security. Gwadar, Duqm, and Hambantota serve other strategic interests but are not the primary India-Iran energy corridor being developed.

📖 Explanation

Section 69A of the IT Act, 2000 grants the Central government the power to issue directions for blocking public access to information. The grounds include sovereignty, integrity, defence, security, public order, or prevention of incitement to cognizable offences. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is the nodal authority that exercises this power. The procedure for such blocking is detailed in the IT (Blocking) Rules, 2009.

📖 Explanation

The Delhi High Court established a landmark precedent by ruling that an app's software and underlying architecture — not merely the specific content hosted on it — constitutes 'information' within the meaning of the IT Act, 2000. The IT Act's definition of information includes data, codes, computer programmes, software, and databases. This was the first time a court extended the scope of Section 69A blocking powers to cover an entire application's software structure. The ruling has significant implications for how digital platforms can be regulated in India.

📖 Explanation

Prof. B Ravindran heads the Centre for Responsible AI at IIT Madras. He is one of 40 global experts appointed to the UN's Independent International Scientific Panel on AI for a three-year term. This panel is tasked with producing periodic scientific assessments to guide the UN's Global Dialogue on AI. IIT Madras is among India's premier technical institutions and has been at the forefront of responsible AI research.

📖 Explanation

Data sovereignty refers to a nation's right and ability to govern the data generated within its borders, including how it is stored, processed, and shared. This concept is central to AI governance because AI systems are heavily dependent on large volumes of data. Without global rules, countries may impose conflicting national regulations, which could slow innovation and disadvantage developing nations. The UN panel aims to provide scientific guidance to help harmonise such policies globally.