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Latest edition: September 2026. Covered from 1 June to 30 September 2026. Next edition, October 2026, publishes on 5 November 2026.

The monthly magazine

June 2026

7 lead articles · 72 new articles · 3 updates

LeadPrelims and MainsClimate science: records, attribution and tipping points

Climate science in 2026: new scenarios, tipping points and the next IPCC report

The new emissions scenarios for the next assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published in April 2026, retire the worst case scenario, known as RCP8.5. In June a global report put human caused warming at 1.37°C in 2025, with the carbon budget for 1.5°C nearly spent.

LeadPrelims and MainsUNFCCC negotiations and the Paris framework

The Bonn climate talks: what India asked for

The mid year climate talks at Bonn, held from 8 to 18 June 2026, ended in gridlock over finance and trade. India used the session to press three demands before COP31 at Antalya.

LeadPrelims and MainsExtreme weather, monsoon and forecasting

Heat stress in India, and the cooling paradox

Studies published in June 2026 found that humid heat is spreading in India beyond the summer into the monsoon, and that India has more cities among the world's most heat vulnerable than any other country. India's peak power demand reached a record in May, much of it for cooling.

LeadPrelims and MainsCourts, tribunals and environmental jurisprudence

The Aravallis: a definition before the Supreme Court

By an order of 25 May 2026 the Supreme Court set up a High Powered Committee to review the definition of the Aravalli hills that it had accepted in November 2025, and barred fresh mining leases until a management plan is ready.

LeadPrelims and MainsDrugs, diagnostics and medical technology

Regulating medicines: cough syrups, fixed dose combinations and QR codes

In June 2026 the Health Ministry announced four changes to how medicines are regulated: cough syrups may be sold only by licensed pharmacies, sixteen fixed dose combinations were banned, QR codes were notified for vaccines, antimicrobials and cancer drugs from 2027 and 2028, and minor offences under the health laws were decriminalised.

LeadPrelims and MainsSemiconductors, computing hardware and data centres

India's semiconductor strategy: mature nodes and packaging

NITI Aayog's Frontier Tech Hub has released a report, Future of India's Semiconductor Industry, reported on 3 June 2026. It advises India to put public money into mature chips and packaging, and not into the most advanced chips.

Environment and Disaster Management

1Protected areas and habitats

1.1Marine and coastal ecosystems

  • 1.1.1Great Nicobar projectNewPrelims and Mains

    The Great Nicobar project is a plan for an International Container Transshipment Port at Galathea Bay, a greenfield joint use airport, a township and a power plant on Great Nicobar Island.

  • 1.1.2Sand mining at ThottappallyNewPrelims and Mains

    The Kollam to Alappuzha coast is dense black sand rich in ilmenite, monazite, rutile, zircon and sillimanite.

  • 1.1.3Coastal adaptation: seawalls, mangroves and managed retreatNewMains

    Coastal protection has three options: hold the line with seawalls and groynes, retreat, or use ecosystems as the buffer.

2Biodiversity governance

2.1Human wildlife conflict and wildlife crime

  • 2.1.1Turtle trafficking by railNewPrelims and Mains

    Turtle trafficking by rail moves Indian softshell and flapshell turtles, Schedule I species under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, from the Ganga and its tributaries in Uttar Pradesh in passenger luggage, with Madhya Pradesh as a transit corridor.

3Climate science

3.1Climate science: records, attribution and tipping points

  • 3.1.1Climate science in 2026: new scenarios, tipping points and the next IPCC reportLead

    The new emissions scenarios for the next assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published in April 2026, retire the worst case scenario, known as RCP8.5. In June a global report put human caused warming at 1.37°C in 2025, with the carbon budget for 1.5°C nearly spent.

  • 3.1.2Extreme event attributionNewPrelims and Mains

    Extreme event attribution is the science that estimates how much likelier, or how much more intense, climate change made a particular weather event.

3.2Extreme weather, monsoon and forecasting

  • 3.2.1Mission MausamNewPrelims and Mains

    Mission Mausam is the Ministry of Earth Sciences programme, launched in 2024, to widen India's observing network, sharpen its models and take up weather modification research.

4Climate negotiations and finance

4.1UNFCCC negotiations and the Paris framework

  • 4.1.1The Bonn climate talks: what India asked forLead

    The mid year climate talks at Bonn, held from 8 to 18 June 2026, ended in gridlock over finance and trade. India used the session to press three demands before COP31 at Antalya.

4.2Climate finance, carbon markets and carbon pricing

  • 4.2.1Carbon Border Adjustment MechanismNewPrelims and Mains

    The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is the European Union's charge on certain imports, paid by buying certificates that track the Union's carbon price.

4.3Mitigation: industry, methane and carbon removal

  • 4.3.1Biochar from crop residueNewPrelims and Mains

    Biochar is made by heating farm waste with little oxygen, leaving a carbon rich, porous material that decays very slowly in soil.

5Pollution

5.1Air pollution

5.2Water pollution and river rejuvenation

  • 5.2.1Urban River Management PlansNewPrelims and Mains

    Urban River Management Plans shift urban planning from city centric to river centric, a shift set out at the National Ganga Council in Kanpur in December 2019.

5.3Groundwater and water conservation

  • 5.3.1Jal Jeevan Mission 2.0NewPrelims and Mains

    The Jal Jeevan Mission is the central scheme for a functional tap water connection to every rural household.

  • 5.3.2Punjab's paddy and its groundwaterNewPrelims and Mains

    Paddy is a water hungry kharif crop: in Punjab it needs about 25 to 30 irrigation cycles a season.

5.4Chemicals, noise, light and soil pollution

6Conservation initiatives

6.1Sustainable agriculture

  • 6.1.1Fertiliser registration and nutrient use efficiencyNewPrelims and Mains

    New fertilisers are registered under the Fertiliser (Control) Order, 1985: a dossier, two season bio efficacy trials by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and State universities, and Central Fertiliser Committee review.

7Environmental law and institutions

7.1Courts, tribunals and environmental jurisprudence

  • 7.1.1The Aravallis: a definition before the Supreme CourtLead

    By an order of 25 May 2026 the Supreme Court set up a High Powered Committee to review the definition of the Aravalli hills that it had accepted in November 2025, and barred fresh mining leases until a management plan is ready.

  • 7.1.2Climate litigationNewPrelims and Mains

    Climate litigation is the use of courts to hold governments and companies to climate obligations.

7.2Rivers: sharing, linking and disputes

  • 7.2.1The Teesta and ChinaNewPrelims and Mains

    The Teesta is a river shared by India and Bangladesh, rising from Tso Lhamu lake in Sikkim.

  • 7.2.2Cauvery and MekedatuNewPrelims and Mains

    The Cauvery Water Management Authority implements the sharing of the river between Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry as fixed by the tribunal and modified by the Supreme Court in 2018.

  • 7.2.3The Tungabhadra and the Krishna awardNewPrelims and Mains

    The Tungabhadra is a tributary of the Krishna, formed where the Tunga and Bhadra, which rise in the Western Ghats, join near Shivamogga.

  • 7.2.4Farakka and the 1996 Ganges Water TreatyNewPrelims and Mains

    The Farakka Barrage, commissioned in 1975 on the Ganga in West Bengal, diverts water into the Bhagirathi Hooghly to keep Kolkata port navigable, a purpose inside India rather than at the border.

8Disaster Management

8.1Extreme weather, monsoon and forecasting

  • 8.1.1Heat stress in India, and the cooling paradoxLead

    Studies published in June 2026 found that humid heat is spreading in India beyond the summer into the monsoon, and that India has more cities among the world's most heat vulnerable than any other country. India's peak power demand reached a record in May, much of it for cooling.

Science and Technology

9Space

9.1Human spaceflight and space stations

  • 9.1.1GaganyaanNewPrelims and Mains

    Gaganyaan is the first human spaceflight programme of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and it will carry a crew module to low Earth orbit and bring it back.

  • 9.1.2Deorbiting the International Space StationNewPrelims and Mains

    The International Space Station, occupied since 2000, is to retire around 2030.

10Defence technology

10.1Military platforms, drones and new weapons

  • 10.1.1Airborne Early Warning and Control Mk IINewPrelims and Mains

    The Mk II is DRDO's airborne early warning aircraft built on a converted A321 airliner, with the radar and mission systems developed in India.

  • 10.1.2Fibre optic dronesNewPrelims and Mains

    A fibre optic drone unspools a hair thin cable that carries all its control and video, so it emits no radio signal.

11Health and disease

11.1Communicable diseases, animal health and One Health

  • 11.1.1Ebola: the Bundibugyo strainNewPrelims and Mains

    The Bundibugyo strain is one of several species of Ebola, with a fatality rate of up to 40 per cent and no approved vaccine or treatment.

  • 11.1.2TB Mukt Bharat AbhiyaanNewPrelims and Mains

    The intensified 100 day TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan, a campaign against tuberculosis (TB), moves from waiting for patients to active case finding in villages, urban wards and congregate settings.

11.2Vaccines and immunisation

  • 11.2.1National HPV Vaccination CampaignNewPrelims and Mains

    Cervical cancer is one of the few cancers with a single known cause, and human papillomavirus (HPV) is it.

11.3Antimicrobial resistance

  • 11.3.1Drug resistant malariaNewPrelims and Mains

    Artemisinin based combination therapies (ACTs) pair a fast acting artemisinin drug with a partner drug that clears remaining parasites.

11.4Non communicable diseases, nutrition and food safety

  • 11.4.1Anemia Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan: 7x7x7NewPrelims and Mains

    Anemia Mukt Bharat ran for eight years on a 6x6x6 strategy of six beneficiary groups, six interventions and six institutional mechanisms, with prophylactic iron supplementation at its centre.

  • 11.4.2SUMAN Roadmap 2030 and SSBSKNewPrelims and Mains

    The Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan (SUMAN) Roadmap 2030 takes a life cycle approach from pre pregnancy to the postnatal period and tracks high risk pregnancies across four stages: antenatal, third trimester, intrapartum and postnatal.

  • 11.4.3National Family Health Survey 6NewPrelims and Mains

    The National Family Health Survey is India's periodic household survey of health, nutrition and fertility; the sixth round covers 2023 to 24.

  • 11.4.4Foodborne illness in IndiaNewPrelims and Mains

    Foodborne illness covers over 200 diseases caused by bacteria, viruses, parasites and chemicals.

11.5Drugs, diagnostics and medical technology

  • 11.5.1Regulating medicines: cough syrups, fixed dose combinations and QR codesLead

    In June 2026 the Health Ministry announced four changes to how medicines are regulated: cough syrups may be sold only by licensed pharmacies, sixteen fixed dose combinations were banned, QR codes were notified for vaccines, antimicrobials and cancer drugs from 2027 and 2028, and minor offences under the health laws were decriminalised.

  • 11.5.2Virtual autopsyNewPrelims and Mains

    A virtual autopsy, or virtopsy, examines a body with computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) instead of extensive dissection.

  • 11.5.3The PCPNDT Act and the child sex ratioNewPrelims and Mains

    The Pre Conception and Pre Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994, amended in 2002 and 2013, prohibits sex selection before or after conception and limits prenatal diagnostic techniques to detecting abnormalities or metabolic disorders.

12Biotechnology

12.1Agricultural and food biotechnology

  • 12.1.1Herbicide tolerant mustard hybridsNewPrelims and Mains

    Herbicide tolerant mustard hybrids carry a single DNA change, made by mutation breeding and not genetic modification, that lets them survive imidazolinone herbicides.

13Computing and AI

13.1AI governance, safety and ethics

  • 13.1.1AI in courts: the draft 2026 RegulationsNewPrelims and Mains

    The draft Regulations for Use of Artificial Intelligence in Courts, 2026, prepared by the Supreme Court's AI Committee, are a 57 regulation framework for every court and tribunal in India.

  • 13.1.2Export controls on frontier modelsNewMains

    Export controls on artificial intelligence are curbs on what a country lets out, and they work on scarce hardware such as advanced chips.

13.2Semiconductors, computing hardware and data centres

  • 13.2.1India's semiconductor strategy: mature nodes and packagingLead

    NITI Aayog's Frontier Tech Hub has released a report, Future of India's Semiconductor Industry, reported on 3 June 2026. It advises India to put public money into mature chips and packaging, and not into the most advanced chips.

  • 13.2.2India's data centre capacityNewPrelims and Mains

    A data centre is counted in megawatts of IT load, because uninterrupted power is what it must be given and constant cooling is what that power becomes.

13.3Digital public infrastructure and platforms

14Communications

14.1Telecom networks, spectrum and internet infrastructure

  • 14.1.1The one time spectrum chargeNewPrelims and Mains

    Spectrum is a public asset of the Union, divided into frequency bands and assigned by the Department of Telecommunications through auctions.

15Energy technology

15.1Solar energy

15.2Wind, hydro and other renewables

  • 15.2.1Small hydro powerNewPrelims and Mains

    Small hydro in India means a project of up to 25 MW, usually run of river, using a stream's natural fall rather than a large reservoir.

15.3Hydrogen and bioenergy

  • 15.3.1National Green Hydrogen MissionNewPrelims and Mains

    The National Green Hydrogen Mission is the money and the architecture India has put behind making hydrogen from water instead of fossil gas.

  • 15.3.2Compressed biogasNewPrelims and Mains

    Compressed biogas is the gas of anaerobic digestion, in which bacteria break down wet organic matter without oxygen, stripped of its carbon dioxide and other impurities to leave almost pure methane.

15.4Grid, power sector and energy policy

  • 15.4.1Power exchanges and market couplingNewPrelims and Mains

    A power exchange is a platform where generators, distribution companies, traders and large consumers buy and sell electricity.

16Nuclear technology

16.1Fusion, radiation applications and nuclear governance

  • 16.1.1Downblending enriched uraniumNewPrelims and Mains

    Downblending, the reverse of enrichment, mixes enriched uranium with natural or depleted uranium to below 5 per cent uranium 235, lengthening breakout time.

17IPR and science policy

17.1Intellectual property and Geographical Indications

17.2Research funding, institutions and awards

  • 17.2.1Mega Science Vision 2035 for climate researchNewPrelims and Mains

    Mega Science Vision 2035 for climate research is a community document, indicative rather than government policy, submitted to the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser.

  • 17.2.2Anusandhan National Research FoundationNewPrelims and Mains

    The Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) pays for research in universities and colleges, and its mandate is to widen the base beyond the institutions that already win grants.

17.3Ocean, polar and earth science missions

  • 17.3.1Seismic monitoringNewPrelims and Mains

    The National Seismological Network of 172 stations records India's earthquakes.

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