Current Affairs 23 June 2026

Building Viksit Bharat from Ground Up: 12 Years of Panchayat Reforms and Innovation

The Ministry of Panchayati Raj, headed by Union Minister Shri Rajiv Ranjan Singh (Lalan Singh), has released a review of the last twelve years of rural governance, highlighting progress in empowering Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) through fiscal devolution, digital transformation, and grassroots capacity building, in line with the vision of Viksit Bharat.

Approximately 3.18 crore property cards have been issued under the SVAMITVA Scheme, over 4.10 crore elected representatives have been trained, and Rural Local Body grants have seen an 84% jump under the 16th Finance Commission recommendations compared to the 15th.

• Inserted Part IX (Articles 243 to 243O) and the Eleventh Schedule (29 subjects) into the Constitution, giving Panchayats constitutional status as the third tier of government.
• Article 243(d) defines “Panchayat”; Article 243(b) defines “Gram Sabha” — the body of all persons registered as electors in a village, distinct from the elected Gram Panchayat.
• Article 243D mandates reservation of seats for SC/ST in proportion to population, and not less than one-third of seats (including chairperson posts) for women at all three tiers.
• Article 243E mandates that elections to Panchayats be conducted regularly, every five years.
• Article 243I mandates the constitution of a State Finance Commission (SFC) every five years to recommend the distribution of funds between the State and Panchayats.
• Article 243K provides for an independent State Election Commission (SEC) for superintendence and conduct of Panchayat elections, distinct from the Election Commission of India.
• Panchayat is a State subject under the State List of the Seventh Schedule; States enact their own Panchayati Raj Acts within the constitutional framework.

• The Balwant Rai Mehta Committee (1957) first recommended a three-tier Panchayati Raj structure — Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti, and Zila Parishad.
• The Ashok Mehta Committee (1978) recommended a two-tier structure instead, though this was not widely adopted.
• The L.M. Singhvi Committee (1986) recommended granting constitutional status to PRIs, which directly paved the way for the 73rd Amendment.

• Introduced in 2018-19 and revamped from 2022-23, RGSA has trained 4.10 crore Panchayat elected representatives and functionaries across more than 2.70 lakh PRIs at all three tiers.
• More than 33.55 lakh women elected representatives were trained from FY 2022-23 to FY 2025-26 alone.
• Over 25,100 Gram Panchayat buildings and over 61,000 computers have been provided under RGSA, strengthening both physical and digital infrastructure.

• Gram Panchayat Development Plans (GPDPs) have been institutionalized as the primary instrument of participatory village planning, prepared across more than 2.55 lakh Gram Panchayats, digitally integrated via the e-GramSwaraj platform.
• SVAMITVA Scheme (launched 2020): drone-based survey of inhabited rural areas; ~3.18 crore property ownership cards distributed across 1.92 lakh villages (as on 10 June 2026), improving access to institutional credit and reducing property disputes.
• e-Panchayat ecosystem: over 2.59 lakh Panchayats onboarded; integration with the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) enables real-time financial monitoring — over ₹3.16 lakh crore in online transactions processed as on 10 June 2026.
• Meri Panchayat App — citizen-facing app for accessing Panchayat development information; over 1 crore downloads.

• SAMARTH Panchayat Portal and the Atmanirbhar Panchayat Program have been launched to strengthen Own Source Revenue (OSR) mobilization, providing digital tools for revenue assessment, demand generation, and collection.

• Panchayat Advancement Index (PAI) introduced in April 2025 — assesses Panchayat performance against the nine themes of Localised Sustainable Development Goals (LSDGs); covers over 2.59 lakh Gram Panchayats; won the gold prize at National Awards for e-Governance (NAeG) 2026.
• SabhaSaar — AI-enabled platform launched August 2025 for automatic generation of Gram Sabha Minutes of Meetings in 23 Indian languages; used by more than 1.35 lakh Panchayats, generating over three lakh Minutes of Meetings.
• Gram Panchayat-level weather forecasting — launched October 2024 in collaboration with the India Meteorological Department and Ministry of Earth Sciences; India’s first such initiative at the GP level.
• Gram Manchitra and GPSDP — GIS-based spatial governance tools; enhanced GPSDPs align local infrastructure with the “One Nation One Map” framework.

• The Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA), rooted in the Bhuria Committee (1995) recommendations, empowers traditional Gram Sabhas in Fifth Schedule Areas.
• Seven specialized training manuals translated into tribal languages; a dedicated PESA-GPDP Portal; a Centre of Excellence for PESA; and India’s first PESA Ranking Framework, fostering competitive federalism among States and districts.

• Sashakt Panchayat-Netri Abhiyan (launched 2025) — enhances leadership and governance capacities of elected women representatives; 744 Model Women Friendly Gram Panchayats identified; Nirbhay Raho Campaign launched for women’s safety and participation.
• Model Youth Gram Sabha (MYGS) (launched October 2025) — introduces students to grassroots democracy via simulated Gram Sabha proceedings, covering 619 Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas, 200 Eklavya Model Residential Schools, and select government schools; engaged over 29,000 students across 819 residential schools in 2025, aligned with NEP 2020.

• Heavy reliance on tied grants and state devolution; Own Source Revenue (OSR) remains abysmal — PRIs depend on devolved funds for up to 95% of revenue.
• As per the RBI’s 2024 report on ‘Finances of Panchayati Raj Institutions’, PRIs generate a mere 1.1% of total revenue from local taxes and fees.
• Irregular constitution of State Finance Commissions (SFCs) and non-implementation of their recommendations cripple financial autonomy and predictability.

• Incomplete devolution of the 29 subjects listed in the Eleventh Schedule (e.g., agriculture, minor irrigation, rural housing, poverty alleviation); functional devolution has stagnated or declined in several States.
• State governments frequently bypass PRIs by creating Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), parastatals, or line-department committees, fragmenting local governance and eroding the Gram Panchayat’s constitutional authority.
• Despite Article 243E mandating timely elections, States often delay them citing delimitation, census, or administrative reasons; courts frequently intervene to enforce timely elections.

• Severe shortage of dedicated Panchayat cadres and technical staff (engineers, accountants), leading to excessive dependence on state-appointed bureaucrats and ad-hocism.

• The persistent phenomenon of ‘Sarpanch Pati/Pradhan Pati’, where male relatives dominate decision-making of elected women representatives, undermines the 33%+ reservation mandate.
• National surveys indicate critically low Gram Sabha participation, with entrenched caste divisions and gender biases limiting meaningful citizen involvement.

• Operationalize the ‘4Fs’ Framework: time-bound devolution of Functions, Funds, Functionaries, and Freedom, enabling genuine local autonomy free from excessive bureaucratic control.
• Institutionalize Fiscal Empowerment: enhance OSR mobilization by empowering Panchayats to levy local taxes and user charges; explore monetization of rural assets and credit rating of high-performing PRIs.
• Granular Activity Mapping: replace vague delegation of the Eleventh Schedule’s 29 subjects with strict task-level mapping across village, block, and district tiers.
• Panchayat Bonds: credit-rate high-performing PRIs to access capital markets via local/Panchayat bonds, drawing on Indonesia’s Dana Desa model.
• Institutionalized Social Audits: following the Mani Shankar Aiyar Committee (2012) report, treat Gram Sabhas as supreme local deliberative assemblies; replicate Meghalaya’s Community Participation and Public Services Social Audit Act, 2017 nationwide.
• Leverage Emerging Technologies: AI-based analytics for predictive planning, early warning systems, and asset management.

Biochar Offers Way to Turn India’s Farm Smoke into ‘Black Gold’

India’s farms burn more than 20 million tonnes of paddy straw every year, primarily in Punjab and Haryana, due to short post-harvest windows and lack of alternatives. Scientists say this same biomass could instead be converted into biochar — a carbon-rich material being called ‘black gold’ for soil health and climate action, addressing both crop residue burning and declining soil organic carbon.

• Definition: Biochar is a highly porous, carbon-rich material resembling charcoal, produced through thermal decomposition of organic biomass (agricultural waste, forestry residues, food processing waste).
• The Process — Pyrolysis: heating biomass in an oxygen-depleted environment at high temperatures, typically between 300°C and 700°C.
• Valuable By-products: pyrolysis also yields syngas and bio-oil, both usable as renewable energy sources.
• Mechanism in Soil: its highly porous structure aggregates soil particles, holds water, and creates a habitat for beneficial microorganisms.

• Carbon-negative (biochar’s classification) means it removes more CO₂ from the atmosphere than is emitted in its production and use — distinct from carbon-neutral (no net addition) and carbon-positive (net emitter).
• Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) is a key indicator of soil health and fertility; many Indian soils, including semi-arid and black soil regions, are widely SOC-deficient.
• Biochar-related interventions fall under the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), one of the eight missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC).

• Applying biochar to degraded soils improves crop yields by 10% to 30%, particularly in nutrient-deficient regions.
• Increases soil’s water-holding capacity by 10% to 25%, helping crops withstand moisture stress during droughts and heatwaves.

• India produces over 500 million tonnes of crop waste annually; converting stubble into biochar offers a sustainable alternative to open-field burning in North India.
• Offers a solution for urban waste management — over 50% of India’s 62 million tonnes of annual urban waste is biodegradable municipal solid waste that could be diverted from landfills via this route.

• Biochar locks atmospheric carbon into a stable form that persists in soil for centuries, preventing its release as methane or CO₂.
• One tonne of biochar can sequester an estimated 2.5 to 3 tonnes of CO₂-equivalent.
• Carbon Credits: each tonne of certified biochar can generate an estimated 2 to 2.8 tonnes of CO₂-equivalent in carbon credits, typically traded in voluntary carbon markets (as distinct from regulated compliance markets).
• India’s domestic regulatory architecture for carbon trading is the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS), 2023, notified under the Energy Conservation (Amendment) Act, 2022.

• Field trials in Akola district, Maharashtra using maize stalk biochar improved soil fertility and organic carbon content in black soils.
• Research in Kerala showed biochar from coconut leaf stalks significantly increased soil quality across cropping systems.
• The KISAN kiln project from IIT-Kharagpur is enabling smallholders to monetise farm waste through village-level biochar production.

• Kenya: converting rice husks into biochar has produced certified carbon credits while improving soil phosphorus content and pH.
• Thailand: the government has tied biochar certification to its national carbon registry system.
• Brazil: reported large yield gains and high carbon retention using biochar from sugarcane bagasse.

• Verification of Claims: the yield-improvement, carbon-sequestration, and energy-potential figures circulating for biochar are largely research-based and pilot-scale estimates rather than nationally audited statistics, and should be read with that caveat.
• Logistics and Cost: aggregation of dispersed crop residue and the upfront cost of pyrolysis units remain barriers to large-scale, farmer-level adoption.
• Short Harvest Windows: the same time pressure that drives stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana also constrains the window available for residue collection and processing into biochar.

• Scale up tractor-mounted pyrolysis units for village-level conversion of stubble into biochar, giving farmers an income stream instead of smoke.
• Strengthen linkages between biochar production and carbon credit markets to make adoption financially attractive for farmer cooperatives.
• Integrate biochar promotion with existing crop residue management schemes and the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture.
• Expand pilot programmes like the KISAN kiln project beyond IIT-Kharagpur to other agricultural universities and KVKs (Krishi Vigyan Kendras).

Sixteen Countries Adopt Mombasa Declaration to Advance Fisheries Transparency and Combat Illegal Fishing

Sixteen national governments from across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, and the Pacific adopted the Mombasa Declaration at the 11th Our Ocean Conference in Mombasa, Kenya (June 2026), committing to advance global fisheries transparency and strengthen efforts to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Notably, India is not a signatory.

• UNCLOS (1982) — the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea — is the foundational legal framework for ocean governance; it establishes the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), extending 200 nautical miles from a coastal State’s baseline, within which most fisheries jurisdiction and IUU disputes arise.
• “Blue Economy” refers to the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth while preserving ocean health; India has articulated a draft Blue Economy Policy framework under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES).
• The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is the lead UN agency on global fisheries governance, publishing the periodic “State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture” report; its Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA), 2009 is the principal binding international instrument against IUU fishing.
• India’s domestic fisheries architecture is anchored by the Department of Fisheries under the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, and the flagship Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY), launched in 2020.

• Modernizing vessel registries and improving collection and dissemination of vessel information.
• Publishing fishing authorisations and improving public access to vessel ownership data.
• Strengthening information-sharing mechanisms to support enforcement and accountability across fisheries sectors.

• IUU fishing threatens marine ecosystems, coastal communities, small-scale fishers, food security, and livelihoods, especially in developing and low-income countries dependent on fisheries.
• IUU fishing is estimated to cost the global economy up to $50 billion annually, while distorting markets and reducing income for legitimate fishers.
• Limited transparency in vessel ownership, tracking, fishing activity, and supply chains allows such practices to persist and is often linked to serious human rights abuses, including unsafe working conditions and forced labour.

• Ghana’s Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture noted that 60% of the country’s animal protein comes from fish, and 10% of its population depends on the fisheries value chain for livelihood, framing fisheries transparency as a matter of culture and national security.
• France participated on behalf of its Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs), underscoring that combating IUU fishing requires greater transparency and international cooperation.
• Global Fishing Watch, an NGO providing open vessel-tracking data, offered to equip signatory nations with open data and analytical tools to drive these transparency measures.

• India’s Non-Participation: despite India’s significant coastline and growing Blue Economy ambitions, it is not among the 16 signatories — a gap worth noting against its stated interest in sustainable ocean governance.
• Enforcement Gap: the Declaration itself carries no binding enforcement mechanism; its impact depends on voluntary implementation by signatory States.
• Transnational Nature of IUU Fishing: vessels frequently operate across multiple jurisdictions, complicating accountability even where transparency commitments exist.

• India should evaluate joining future transparency frameworks, leveraging its own vessel registry and PMMSY-linked digital infrastructure.
• Strengthen the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA) ratification and implementation globally to close enforcement gaps.
• Expand use of satellite-based vessel tracking (e.g., through partnerships with organisations like Global Fishing Watch) for real-time monitoring of high-seas fishing activity.

Indian Army Contingent Leaves for Mongolia to Participate in Exercise Khaan Quest 2026

An Indian Army contingent of 40 personnel, comprising troops from a battalion of the JAT Regiment and personnel from other Arms and Services, left for Mongolia to participate in the multinational joint military exercise Khaan Quest 2026, held from 20 June to 3 July at the Five Hills Training Area, Ulaanbaatar.

• Objective: enhances interoperability, cooperation, and operational readiness among participating militaries for UN peacekeeping and peace support operations in a multinational environment.
• Chapter VII, UN Charter: deals with action the UN Security Council may take in response to threats to peace, breaches of peace, and acts of aggression, including enforcement measures.
• Training focus: joint planning and tactical drills — static and mobile checkpoints, cordon and search operations, patrolling, evacuation of civilians from hostile areas, counter-IED drills, combat first aid, and casualty evacuation.

• Reflects India’s steadfast commitment to global peace and UN peacekeeping.
• Strengthens India’s strategic partnership with Mongolia.
• Facilitates sharing of best practices in tactics, techniques, and procedures among participating armed forces.

Kheer Bhawani Mela: Faith, Sacred Springs and Cultural Memory in Kashmir

The annual Kheer Bhawani Mela at the Mata Kheer Bhawani Temple, Tulmulla, in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district, recorded a notable turnout of displaced Kashmiri Pandits on the occasion of Jyeshtha Ashtami. Many devotees, including members of the post-exodus generation, travelled to the Valley for the pilgrimage, with the Mata Kheer Bhawani Ji Yatra Welfare Society facilitating logistics, including community kitchens (langar) for thousands of pilgrims.

• Ragnya Devi, popularly known as Kheer Bhawani, is the principal household deity (Kuldevi) of a large section of Kashmiri Pandits.
• She is regarded as a form of Adi Shakti, within the broader Shakta tradition of goddess worship in Hinduism.
• The name “Kheer Bhawani” derives from the temple’s central ritual — the offering of kheer (a rice-and-milk pudding) into the sacred spring at the site.

• The temple is located at Tulmulla village, on the banks of a stream in Ganderbal district, and is built around a sacred spring, locally called a “nag”.
• The colour of the spring’s water is traditionally believed by devotees to change, and is read as an omen — with darker hues considered inauspicious and clearer, lighter water seen as auspicious.
• This spring-worship tradition forms part of a wider Kashmiri practice of venerating nags (springs); Kashmir has historically been referred to as the “Land of Nagas,” a theme found in the Nilamata Purana, an important early text on Kashmiri religious geography and the valley’s mythological origins.

• Kashmiri Pandit religious practice is historically rooted in Kashmir Shaivism, also called the Trika philosophy — a distinct non-dualist (advaita) school of thought within Hindu philosophy, differing from the dualist Shaiva Siddhanta tradition prevalent in South India.
• Vasugupta is credited with the Shiva Sutras, a foundational text of Kashmir Shaivism.
• Abhinavagupta (10th–11th century CE) was among the most significant polymath philosopher-aestheticians in Indian intellectual history — author of the Tantraloka and major contributions to Indian aesthetic theory, particularly the theory of rasa.
• Shakta worship of goddesses such as Kheer Bhawani is closely interwoven with the Trika framework, in which the Goddess represents the dynamic, creative aspect (Shakti) of consciousness.

• Jyeshtha Ashtami falls on the eighth day (Ashtami) of the bright lunar fortnight in the Hindu month of Jyeshtha (typically May–June), and marks the temple’s principal annual festival day.
• The pilgrimage is organised with the support of the Mata Kheer Bhawani Ji Yatra Welfare Society, which coordinates devotee logistics, including the operation of a community kitchen (langar) that, in the run-up to this year’s festival, attended to over 10,000 devotees.
• The temple and its festival calendar sit alongside other major Kashmir-linked Hindu pilgrimage traditions, such as the Amarnath Yatra.

• For the Kashmiri Pandit community, a large section of which has been displaced from the Valley since 1990, the annual pilgrimage functions as an act of cultural continuity, sustaining ritual practice, oral tradition, and a connection to ancestral land despite long physical displacement.
• Visits to ancestral homes during the pilgrimage period — a recurring feature of such yatras — illustrate the broader theme of how sacred sites and recurring festivals help displaced communities preserve collective memory and identity across generations.
• This phenomenon is studied within Indian culture and society as part of the broader relationship between pilgrimage, displacement, and heritage preservation, a theme with parallels among other displaced or diaspora communities.

No One Should Own the Law: Why Government Standards Should Be Public

An opinion piece by Carl Malamud, founder of the U.S.-based non-profit Public Resource, revisits long-running disputes over public access to technical standards issued by the Indian Roads Congress (IRC) and the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), linking the debate to Parliament’s recent passage of the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act and proposals that all “edicts of government” be made freely and centrally accessible. As the author is the petitioner in the underlying disputes, this article should be read as an advocacy perspective rather than an official government position.

• Right to Information Act, 2005 — the foundational transparency law in India; Section 2(h) defines “public authority,” a definition broad enough to cover bodies that are substantially financed, controlled, or established by government, even when structured as societies or non-profits.
• Delegated/subordinate legislation — rules, regulations, and notifications made under the authority of a parent statute; this is why non-statutory instruments such as circulars, office memoranda, and advisories can still carry legal force even though they are not Acts of Parliament.
• Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution — guarantees freedom of speech and expression, judicially interpreted to underpin the citizen’s right to know and access public information.
• India Code — the Government of India’s official portal for consolidated central and state legislation, proposed as the natural home for centralizing access to all government edicts.

• The principle that rules governing public life must be widely accessible is traced in the article to Emperor Ashoka, whose 7th Pillar Edict (now in Delhi) contained an extensive section on road safety and was meant to be broadly disseminated.
• Today, the Indian Roads Congress continues this function — though structured as a non-profit association, it is described in the article as effectively an arm of government: it is subject to the RTI Act, its website is maintained by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), and its governing council is predominantly composed of government officials.
• IRC standards cover matters such as route signage on national highways, vehicle design dimensions and weights, and the design of prestressed concrete road bridges, and are incorporated into subordinate legislation and regulations issued by bodies including the National Rural Infrastructure Development Agency and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

• The author’s non-profit had posted over 14,000 Indian Standards issued by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) — covering areas such as the National Building Code, safety requirements for motorcycle helmets and drinking water, sewer entry procedures, and construction practices in typhoon-prone areas.
• When BIS objected, the author and two Indian co-petitioners filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Delhi High Court; the case ran for seven years.
• During this period, even as the standards remained freely posted, BIS’s own sales of these publications reportedly rose — even though government revenue from selling such documents is not its primary purpose, and the standards had been hard to procure through official channels.
• A senior Ministry official eventually directed that BIS standards be made freely available on the BIS website, after which the PIL was withdrawn before the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court.

• Parliament has passed the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, described in the article as a move to “liberate governance from the steel cage” — a characterisation offered by commentators rather than the Act’s own stated text. The Act’s formal legislative objective is to decriminalize and rationalize minor, technical, or procedural offences across numerous Central Acts, reducing compliance burden as part of the “ease of doing business/living” agenda.
• Commentators cited in the article have called for removing what they term “shadow instruments” — edicts not readily available to read — including circulars, master circulars, departmental and ministerial directions, office memoranda, public notices, general orders, guidance notes, advisories, schemes, consultation papers, standard operating procedures, policies, notifications, and gazettes.
• The proposal: post all such edicts on a central website such as India Code, and treat any edict not publicly accessible as null and void.

• Edicts of government — instruments carrying normative or binding legal force (laws, regulations, mandatory standards) — are argued to have a special, protected place in constitutional law and must be freely accessible for democracy to function.
• Works of government — other documents issued by the state that may be informational or cultural rather than binding, such as publications by the Publications Division, the National Book Trust, and the Archaeological Survey of India — are treated as a distinct category, though still considered valuable public knowledge.

• IP vs. Right to Know: standard-setting bodies often cite cost-recovery and intellectual property rationale for restricting access, which sits in tension with the constitutional right to access binding legal instruments.
• Proliferation of Shadow Instruments: the wide array of non-statutory instruments that nonetheless carry the force of law, without centralized public access, complicates compliance for citizens and businesses alike.
• Advocacy Source: as this account originates from the very petitioner who challenged these bodies, the specific claims of revenue trends and institutional motivations should be read as one party’s characterization of the dispute.

• Adopt a clear “works of government” policy in India, drawing on the US and UK models, distinguishing copyright treatment of binding edicts from other government works.
• Operationalize a single centralized portal (building on India Code) listing all binding government instruments, including circulars and standards with the force of law.
• Extend the spirit of the Jan Vishwas Act’s ease-of-compliance objective to cover free access to all technical standards referenced in regulations.

ASI Transfers Rakhigarhi Skeletons to AnSI for Scientific Investigation

Human skeletal remains excavated from the archaeological site of Rakhigarhi in Haryana have been formally handed over by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to the Anthropological Survey of India (AnSI), a national research institute under the Union Culture Ministry, for detailed scientific investigation. The transfer was carried out under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two institutions, as announced by AnSI Director Dr. B.V. Sharma.

• Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) — premier organisation for archaeological research and protection of monuments, under the Ministry of Culture; conducts excavations such as at Rakhigarhi.
• Anthropological Survey of India (AnSI) — also under the Ministry of Culture; established in 1945, with Dr. Biraja Sankar Guha as its first Director; the only institute of its kind in the world pursuing anthropological research within a governmental setup; current Director is Dr. B.V. Sharma.
• AnSI maintains an ancient human skeletal repository and laboratory in Kolkata, where the transferred remains will be examined.

• Spread across approximately 550 hectares in Haryana, Rakhigarhi is widely recognised as the largest known settlement of the Harappan Civilisation.
• Excavations reveal evidence of continuous habitation from the Early Harappan to Mature Harappan periods.
• Mound 7 at the site has been identified as a burial plot, where 56 skeletons were recovered, including that of a woman roughly 4,600 years old, whose DNA analysis created significant scientific interest.

• Also referred to as the Indus Valley Civilisation or, in some scholarship, the Indus-Saraswati Civilisation.
• Chronologically divided into three phases: Early Harappan, Mature Harappan, and Late Harappan.
• Known for advanced town planning — grid-pattern streets, covered drainage systems, granaries, and standardised weights and measures.
• The Indus script remains undeciphered to date, despite numerous attempts.

• DNA analysis of the “Rakhigarhi woman” skeleton reportedly revealed the absence of the steppe pastoral gene, fanning ongoing debate around the migration of Indo-Aryan-speaking groups into India.
• The term “Indo-Aryan” is increasingly preferred by scholars over “Aryan” to avoid racial connotations associated with the older usage.
• Two broad frameworks exist in current academic and public discourse on Indo-Aryan origins: the Aryan Migration Theory (AMT), which holds that Indo-Aryan-speaking groups migrated into the subcontinent from Central Asia around 1500 BCE, and the Out-of-India Theory (OIT), which proposes an indigenous origin. Both views continue to be debated, and this analysis does not take a position on the matter.
• Three complete human skeletons from Mound 7, along with skeletal fragments from other burials, have now been transferred to AnSI’s Kolkata repository, with the remaining material expected to follow shortly.

• Ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis — extraction and sequencing of genetic material from ancient remains.
• Stable isotope studies — used to infer diet, migration patterns, and environmental conditions of ancient populations.
• Osteological assessments — study of skeletal structure to determine age, sex, health, and physical characteristics.
• Palaeopathological investigations — study of ancient disease and trauma evidence in skeletal remains.
• Environmental reconstruction — reconstructing the ecological context in which the population lived.

• Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences
• University College London (UCL)
• Banaras Hindu University (BHU)

CAG Report: Indian States Spent ₹1.9 Lakh Crore on Power Subsidies in a Year

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), Shri K. Sanjay Murthy, released the State Finances 2024-25 report, showing that Indian states spent nearly ₹1.9 lakh crore on energy subsidies in 2024-25 — the largest component of their subsidy bill — even as interest payments on old loans exceeded total subsidy spending and put growing pressure on state budgets.

• Article 148 of the Constitution provides for an independent office of the CAG, the apex audit institution of India; Articles 149–151 deal with the CAG’s duties, powers, and the form of accounts of the Union and States.
• The current CAG, K. Sanjay Murthy, is the 15th CAG of India, in office since 21 November 2024, succeeding Girish Chandra Murmu.
• FRBM Act, 2003 (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act) — targets a fiscal deficit ceiling of 3% of GDP for the Centre; States enact parallel FRBM legislation with similar targets, typically around 3% of GSDP.
• Revenue expenditure (recurring, e.g., salaries, subsidies, interest payments) is distinguished from capital expenditure (asset-creating, e.g., infrastructure) — a distinction central to understanding the “crowding out” concern raised in the report.
• “Crowding out” refers to a situation where committed, largely non-discretionary revenue expenditure (salaries, pensions, interest, subsidies) leaves little fiscal space for capital investment.

• Energy and agriculture together accounted for about 73% of all state subsidies in 2024-25.
• Power subsidies were mainly used to support distribution companies (discoms), supply electricity at subsidised rates to domestic and agricultural consumers, and compensate for power-sector revenue losses.
• State subsidy expenditure rose 214% over the decade — from ₹1.39 lakh crore in 2015-16 to ₹4.37 lakh crore in 2024-25.

• Total public debt of states rose from ₹23.92 lakh crore in 2015-16 to a projected ₹75.52 lakh crore in 2024-25 — an increase of 216% over ten years.
• Outstanding state debt reached 186% of annual revenue receipts.
• Several states are reportedly using borrowings to cover revenue deficits rather than create capital assets, adding to fiscal pressure.
• Tamil Nadu had the highest public debt in absolute terms as of March 2025, at ₹7.98 lakh crore, followed by West Bengal (₹6.12 lakh crore), Rajasthan (₹5.02 lakh crore), and Andhra Pradesh (₹4.95 lakh crore).
• As a share of GSDP, Nagaland had the highest public debt at 41.5%, followed by Punjab (39.9%), Arunachal Pradesh (38.8%), and Meghalaya (36.6%).
• Public debt in 10 states exceeds 30% of GSDP; total liabilities in 13 states exceed the 32.8% of GSDP limit suggested by the Finance Commission.

• Interest payments stood at about ₹5.7 lakh crore in 2024-25, exceeding total subsidy spending by around ₹1.3 lakh crore.
• In 2024-25, states spent ₹7.71 lakh crore on employee salaries and about ₹5.12 lakh crore on pensions; together these accounted for roughly 25% of total state expenditure (about ₹12.84 lakh crore).
• Including grants-in-aid for salaries in autonomous institutions, universities, and local bodies, salary spending rises to ₹11.07 lakh crore, taking combined salary-and-pension spending to about ₹16.2 lakh crore.
• Rising debt, salaries, pensions, and interest payments are progressively reducing the fiscal space available for development schemes, infrastructure, and capital investment.

• Discom Financial Stress: persistent financial losses of power distribution companies underlie much of the growth in power subsidies.
• Fiscal Squeeze: states spending more on interest than on subsidies signals a structural debt-servicing burden, not a temporary shortfall.
• Capital Expenditure Crowding Out: committed revenue expenditure (salaries, pensions, interest, subsidies) is increasingly leaving little room for capital/development spending.
• FRBM Breaches: several states exceed the suggested 32.8% of GSDP total liabilities limit, raising medium-term fiscal sustainability concerns.

• Discom Reform: address the root cause of rising power subsidies by improving distribution company efficiency and reducing revenue losses, building on schemes like UDAY (Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana) and its successors.
• Targeted Subsidy Delivery: shift toward better-targeted, direct benefit transfer-based subsidy mechanisms to reduce leakages.
• Strengthen FRBM Compliance: states exceeding the suggested debt-to-GSDP limits should adopt credible medium-term fiscal consolidation roadmaps.
• Expenditure Reprioritization: rebalance state budgets to protect capital/development spending even amid rising committed expenditure.

Built in India, Served in India — How Unicorn Sarvam AI Plans to Inject Its Millions

Bengaluru-based Sarvam AI became an AI unicorn after raising $300 million in Series B funding, led by HCLTech, taking its valuation past $1 billion. The company plans to direct 30–50% of the new funding toward procuring compute and GPU power, while scaling its “sovereign” AI offerings for Indian governments, defence, and enterprises.

• A “unicorn” is the standard term for a privately-held startup valued at $1 billion or more.
• “Sovereign AI” refers to nationally controlled AI infrastructure — compute, data, and models — aimed at reducing dependency on foreign AI providers and infrastructure.
• Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) — India’s foundational digital stack, including Aadhaar and UPI, is frequently cited as the base layer upon which sovereign AI ambitions such as Sarvam’s are being built.
• IndiaAI Mission — approved in January 2024 with a total outlay of ₹10,372 crore, structured around seven pillars: IndiaAI Compute Capacity, IndiaAI Innovation Centre, IndiaAI Datasets Platform, IndiaAI Application Development Initiative, IndiaAI FutureSkills, IndiaAI Startup Financing, and Safe & Trusted AI.

• Over 90% of Sarvam’s current usage comes from revenue-generating business and government enterprise clients rather than individual consumers.
• The company describes its business model as closer to Anthropic’s than to a direct-to-consumer model like OpenAI’s — targeting governments, defence, large developers, and enterprises rather than individual users (B2G/B2B, not B2C).
• Sarvam is building a full-stack approach — spanning compute and cloud infrastructure, data centres, APIs, LLM training, and customer-facing products — which the company frames as the “sovereign” aspect of its work.
• According to investor Bessemer Venture Partners, Sarvam is among a small group of labs globally capable of pre-training competitive agentic AI models from scratch.

• Sarvam Samvaad — voice-based conversational AI, available in 11 Indian languages; plans to scale to a full-fledged software-as-a-service (SaaS) model.
• Sarvam Studio — AI content tool for dubbing and translation.
• Sarvam Akshar — AI document digitalisation tool, with active work to improve digitisation capabilities tailored for Indian government documents.
• New agentic and coding products are planned beyond the existing five products.

• UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) — for Aadhaar services enhancement.
• Governments of Odisha and Tamil Nadu — for AI compute infrastructure and data centres.
• Swiggy — Voice AI offerings.
• Pixxel — orbital data centres.
• Microsoft — developing a sovereign, “Indic” LLM for Azure.
• HCLTech — lead investor in the latest funding round, also an enterprise customer relationship.

• Plans to set up a San Francisco office for frontier model research and to attract top talent, though no date has been finalised.
• The company says it will predominantly continue to hire in India, with exceptions for select individuals based in the US.
• Plans to raise additional funding rounds in the future, citing the capital-intensive nature of the AI industry.

• AI Sovereignty Push: the company’s framing connects its growth to a broader Indian push for AI sovereignty, which it links to recent restrictions imposed by the United States government on access to certain foreign AI models — a characterisation offered by the company rather than an established government policy position.
• India-Specific Differentiation: Sarvam’s stated value proposition, unlike global labs such as OpenAI, Anthropic, or Mistral, is being purpose-built for Indian languages, documents, and region-specific use cases at a cost affordable to Indian enterprises and governments.
• Investor View: Bessemer Venture Partners has framed the coming decade as “India’s AI decade,” reflecting growing investor confidence in India-focused AI infrastructure plays.

• Compute Dependency: a large share of new funding going toward compute/GPU procurement highlights India’s continuing reliance on imported hardware for frontier AI development.
• Talent Retention vs. Global Expansion: the planned San Francisco office sits in some tension with the company’s India-first hiring philosophy and sovereign AI framing.
• Capital Intensity: the company itself acknowledges that the current funding, while substantial, will not be sufficient long-term given the capital-intensive nature of frontier AI development.

• Scale up domestic compute capacity under the IndiaAI Mission’s Compute Capacity pillar to reduce reliance on imported GPUs over time.
• Deepen India-specific datasets and language coverage through the IndiaAI Datasets Platform pillar.
• Expand government partnerships for digital public service delivery while maintaining data security and sovereignty safeguards.
• Build a sustainable funding pipeline through a mix of domestic and global investors to support continued frontier research.