News In Short 19-06-2026

Rung Community

Syllabus: GS1/ Indian Society

Context

• The Rung community in Uttarakhand opposed the installation of a Shivling and near Om Parvat citing their tradition of nature worship. 

About

• Rung is an indigenous community residing primarily in the border valleys of Dharchula in Pithoragarh district and parts of Nepal, known for their distinct cultural traditions of nature worship.
  • They live mainly in the valleys of Vyans Valley, Darma Valley and Chaudans Valley.
• They Revere natural manifestations of Lord Shiva, including sacred mountains such as Om Parvat and Adi Kailash.

Source: TH

NPCI Unveils Drunix Platform

Syllabus: GS3/ Economy

Context

• The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) rolled out Drunix, an open-source blockchain platform, to help companies build and scale tokenisation platforms, digital asset ecosystems, multi-organisation networks.

About

• Drunix is a high-performance distributed ledger platform designed for enterprise-scale and public infrastructure adoption.
• Drunix is built as an enhanced fork of Hyperledger Fabric.
  • Hyperledger Fabric is an open-source enterprise blockchain framework, developed under the umbrella of the Linux Foundation and widely used for permissioned blockchain applications.

What is Tokenization?

• Tokenization is the process of converting ownership rights or assets into digital tokens on a blockchain.
• These assets include financial securities, real estate, commodities, digital currencies and identity credentials.

Source: BS

SHe-Box 2.0 Portal Under Mission Shakti

Syllabus: GS2/ Governance

Context

• The government has highlighted the role of the SHe-Box 2.0 Portal under Mission Shakti in strengthening the implementation of workplace sexual harassment laws and ensuring a safer work environment for women.

What is SHe-Box?

• The Sexual Harassment electronic Box (SHe-Box) portal has been developed to operationalise the provisions of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (SH Act).
• The portal was launched by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD).
• SHe-Box 2.0 was launched in 2024, providing a secure, confidential and user-friendly interface that enables women to report incidents without fear of stigma or retaliation.
  • It provides single-window access for women across all organised, unorganised, public and private sectors to register and track complaints
• The portal is available in 22 languages, including Hindi and English.

About Mission Shakti

• It is a scheme in mission mode aimed at strengthening interventions for women safety, security & empowerment.
• Mission Shakti has two sub-schemes – ‘Sambal’ and ‘Samarthya’. 
  • In the Sambal subscheme, which is for safety and security of women, the existing scheme of One Stop Centre (OSC), Women Helpline (WHL), Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) have been included with modifications and a new component of Nari Adalat – women collective has been added.

Source: AIR

Dark Web

Syllabus: GS3/Cybersecurity

Context

• The Union government submitted before the Delhi High Court that the messaging platform Telegram has evolved into the “new dark web”.

About

• It argued that its architecture and privacy features have made it a preferred tool for cybercriminals, fraud networks, extremist and terror groups, and operators involved in examination paper leaks.
• The government’s submissions relied heavily on an Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) assessment that the platform is a growing hub for illicit online activity.

Dark Web

• The dark web is the part of the internet where users can access unindexed web content anonymously through special web browsers like The Onion Router (Tor). 
• Origin: It can be traced to researchers and scientists in the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in 2002.
  • They recognized how easily digital activity and communication could be monitored, intercepted, and exploited. 
  • It grew out of a need for a more secure communications channel in the intelligence community.
• Concerns: The dark web is unregulated, meaning that it is run and upheld by a vast network of individuals around the world.
  • This operating model is what makes the dark web such a valuable and appealing tool for cybercriminals and other people with questionable intentions.

Open web vs deep web vs dark web

Source: TH

Pradhan Mantri Viksit Bharat Rojgar Yojana (PM-VBRY)

Syllabus: GS2/Governance; GS3/Employment

Context

• The Prime Minister will disburse ₹2,400 crore worth incentives under the Pradhan Mantri Viksit Bharat Rojgar Yojana (PM-VBRY).

About PM-VBRY

• It is a flagship government program launched in 2025 and implemented by the Ministry of Labour & Employment.
• Aim: To promote employment generation, enhance employability, and strengthen social security across all sectors with a particular focus on the manufacturing sector.
• The scheme aims to create more than 3.5 crore meaningful jobs across the country.
• Features: 
  • First-time employees are eligible for incentives of up to ₹15,000.
  • For the employer’s side, the government offers a reward of up to ₹3,000 per new employee after six months of stable employment. 
• The initiative is expected to encourage greater participation in the formal workforce and contribute to sustained long-term economic growth.

Source: TH

QS Rankings 2027

Syllabus: GS2/Education

Context

• Recently QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) World University Ranking 2027, was released ranking Higher education institutions across the world.

Major Findings

• It evaluated more than 1,500 institutions across 106 countries and territories.
  • It features 52 Indian universities, making India the world’s fifth most represented higher education system.
• IIT Delhi remains India’s highest-ranked institution at 118th globally, while IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay and IIT Madras are among the world’s Top 200 universities.
• Top Ranked Institutions Globally: The US’ Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has retained the top position for the 15th consecutive year.
  • UK’s Imperial College London and US’ Stanford University are joint second followed by UK’s University of Oxford. 
  • The top ranked Chinese institution is Peking University at 13th position, the top ranked German one is Technical University of Munich at 25th.
• Concerns: The report noted that Indian universities continue to face challenges in attracting international students and faculty, despite making significant gains in research impact and graduate employability.

QS Rankings

• QS was founded in 1990 and headquartered in London, QS specialises in providing data, research and consulting services to the international higher education sector.
• QS Rankings, established in 2004, is the most reputed Ranking among the major global university rankings and offers an impartial assessment of institutions.
• It assesses institutions across 10 key indicators including academic reputation, employment outcomes, international faculty ratio, international research network, international student diversity, faculty-student ratio and sustainability.

Source: AIR

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban 2.0

Syllabus: GS2/Government Initiatives

Context

• The Union Government has approved over 2.13 lakh additional houses for eligible urban poor families under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban 2.0 (PMAY-U 2.0). 

About PMAY-U 

• It is a flagship scheme of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), under which central assistance of up to ₹2.50 lakh crore is provided. 
• It was launched in September 2024 as an upgraded and expanded version of PMAY-U, which was launched on 25 June 2015. 
• It is open to families belonging to the Economically Weaker Section (EWS), Low Income Group (LIG), and Middle Income Group (MIG) segments who do not own a pucca house anywhere in the country. 
• The income criteria for eligibility are as follows:
  • EWS households: Annual income up to ₹3 lakh.
  • LIG households: Annual income from ₹3 lakh to ₹6 lakh.
  • MIG households: Annual income from ₹6 lakh to ₹9 lakh.
• The cost of house construction is shared among the Centre, States/UTs, Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), and beneficiaries, with the cost-sharing pattern varying across regions.
• PMAY-U and PMAY-U 2.0 together have sanctioned over 1.27 crore houses across the country. 

Source: AIR

Exercise KHAAN QUEST 2026

Syllabus: GS3/Defence

Context

• The Exercise KHAAN QUEST is going to be conducted from 20 June to 3 July at the Five Hills Training Area in Ulaanbaatar.

About

• The exercise first started as a bilateral event between USA and Mongolian Armed Forces in the year 2003. 
• Subsequently, from the year 2006 onwards the exercise graduated to a Multinational Peacekeeping Exercise with the current year being the 23rd iteration.
• The exercise aims to enhance interoperability and cooperation among participating militaries in peace support operations under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter.

Source: AIR