Current Affairs Quiz 12 June 2026

The ILO is a UN specialised agency (founded in 1919, the only major surviving creation of the Treaty of Versailles) that sets international labour standards. India ratified the two core child-labour conventions, ILO Convention 138 (Minimum Age) and Convention 182 (Worst Forms of Child Labour), in 2017.
India’s constitutional framework is strong: Article 24 prohibits the employment of children below 14 in factories, mines or hazardous work (a Fundamental Right); Article 21A guarantees the Right to Education for ages 6 to 14; Articles 23, 39(e) and (f), and 45 add further protections. The key statute is the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 (amended 2016), which bans all employment of children below 14 (with limited exceptions) and bars adolescents (14 to 18) from hazardous work, complemented by the RTE Act, 2009, the PENCIL enforcement portal and the National Child Labour Project.
Globally, about 138 million children were in child labour in 2024, most of them in agriculture.

The distinction matters for prelims. Article 24 (a Fundamental Right) is the prohibition on hazardous child labour; Article 21A (a Fundamental Right since 2002) is the Right to Education; Articles 39(e), 39(f) and 45 are Directive Principles guiding the state to protect childhood and provide early childhood care.
The statutory backbone is the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, renamed and strengthened by the 2016 amendment to bar children below 14 from all work (except a family enterprise or the entertainment industry, with safeguards) and adolescents (14 to 18) from hazardous occupations. India ratified ILO Conventions 138 and 182 in 2017.
Enforcement runs through the PENCIL portal (Platform for Effective Enforcement for No Child Labour) and rehabilitation through the National Child Labour Project. A recurring criticism is that the “family enterprise” exception can mask exploitation.

The Global Economic Prospects (GEP) is a World Bank flagship report published twice a year (January and June). It should not be confused with the IMF’s World Economic Outlook or the World Bank’s own World Development Report.
India’s resilience is largely domestic, a big home market and strong services insulate it from global trade shocks, while its main risks are imported: the Middle East conflict raises oil prices (India imports most of its crude), threatening inflation, the current-account deficit and the rupee. Different agencies see India slightly differently: the World Bank at 6.6% (2026), Fitch at 6.4% (FY27), with the RBI holding the repo rate at 5.25% amid the oil shock.
Forecasts diverge because of assumptions on oil, the monsoon and global demand, but the consistent message is resilience with imported risk. Developing economies overall are projected to grow at a post-pandemic low of about 3.6% in 2026.

The Assam-Nagaland boundary dispute dates to Nagaland’s creation as a state in 1963, and the contested belt is among several inter-state disputes pending before the Supreme Court. The presence of oil and gas had made exploration impossible for decades because neither state would allow the other to extract from contested land.
The MoU, signed at the Ministry of Home Affairs in the presence of the Home Minister and the two Chief Ministers (Himanta Biswa Sarma of Assam and Neiphiu Rio of Nagaland), covers more than 1,000 sq km; current output of 1,000 to 1,500 barrels per day could rise more than tenfold, with a single field potentially worth over Rs 15,000 crore. It illustrates the Centre’s facilitating role under cooperative federalism (in the spirit of the Inter-State Council under Article 263).
The deeper constitutional knot is Article 371A, which gives Nagaland (which is governed by Article 371A, not the Sixth Schedule) a say over the ownership of land and its resources, against the Centre’s regulation of petroleum under Entry 53 of the Union List; the MoU reconciles the two. Cautions include environmental clearances and Naga customary land and resource rights.

Critical minerals (such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite) are minerals essential to the economy and national security whose supply is at risk; rare earth elements are a group of 17 elements vital to magnets, electronics, EVs, wind turbines and defence. They are the backbone of the clean-energy transition.
China dominates the global supply and especially the processing of rare earths, making import dependence a strategic vulnerability. Recovering minerals from mine waste (overburden and tailings) embodies a circular-economy approach, extracting value while reducing the burden of waste.
NLC India is a Navratna PSU (lignite mining and power); CSIR-CECRI is the Central Electrochemical Research Institute at Karaikudi. India’s wider critical-mineral strategy includes the National Critical Mineral Mission, Khanij Bidesh India Limited (KABIL) for overseas mineral assets, and membership of the Mineral Security Partnership.

The G7 (Group of Seven) comprises the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada, plus the European Union; it is an informal grouping of major advanced economies with no charter or permanent secretariat, and its presidency rotates annually. India is a regular invitee, not a member, and should not be confused with the G20, of which India is a full member and which it hosted in 2023.
India-France ties span defence (Rafale fighters, Scorpene submarines, jet-engine cooperation), space (ISRO-CNES), nuclear energy (Jaitapur), the Indo-Pacific, and connectivity (the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor). India’s regular G7 presence illustrates multi-alignment: it engages the G7 while remaining in BRICS and the SCO, and acts as a bridge between the Global North and the Global South.
France supports India’s claim to a permanent UN Security Council seat.

Lantana camara is an ornamental shrub introduced to India in the 19th century that has become one of the country’s worst invasive alien species, covering a large share of forest and scrubland and crowding out the native vegetation that herbivores, and therefore tigers, depend on. An invasive alien species is a non-native organism that spreads aggressively and harms the local ecosystem.
The SOE report is the annual flagship of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and Down To Earth. India’s tiger-conservation framework includes Project Tiger (launched 1973), 58 tiger reserves, the statutory National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), and the India-headquartered International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA); India holds around three-quarters of the world’s wild tigers.
The report argues conservation must move beyond counts to habitat quality, invasive-species management, grassland restoration and conflict reduction. Other major invasives in India include Prosopis juliflora and water hyacinth.

The ILO has a set of fundamental conventions covering core labour rights. Convention 138 (1973) requires states to set and enforce a minimum age for work (generally not below the age of completing compulsory schooling).
Convention 182 (1999) targets the “worst forms” of child labour, slavery, trafficking, forced recruitment, prostitution and hazardous work, for immediate elimination. India’s ratification in 2017 brought it into line with the global consensus and complemented the 2016 amendment to the Child and Adolescent Labour Act, which bars children below 14 from all work and adolescents (14 to 18) from hazardous occupations.
The 2026 World Day Against Child Labour theme, “Red card to child labour: fair play for children, decent work for adults,” stresses that ending child labour requires decent work and fair wages for adults, so that families do not depend on children’s income. Globally, about 138 million children remained in child labour in 2024, with agriculture the largest sector.

The GEP is one of the World Bank’s flagship publications, offering forecasts and analysis of the global and regional economy. It is distinct from the World Bank’s World Development Report (an annual, theme-based report) and from the IMF’s World Economic Outlook (also biannual, with updates).
For an aspirant, the high-yield discriminators are: which institution publishes which report, and how often. The June 2026 GEP found India to be the fastest-growing major economy and one of the few to be upgraded, on domestic demand and exports, even as the Middle East conflict, higher energy prices and trade uncertainty dragged global growth to its weakest since the pandemic.
Developing economies overall were projected to grow at a post-pandemic low of about 3.6% in 2026. Reading the GEP alongside the IMF’s WEO, Fitch and RBI projections shows a consistent theme of Indian resilience with imported risk.

Article 263 empowers the President to establish an Inter-State Council to inquire into and advise on inter-state disputes, and to discuss subjects of common interest. Cooperative federalism describes the Centre and states working together as partners rather than competitors.
The Assam-Nagaland boundary dispute, dating to Nagaland’s creation in 1963, had blocked oil-and-gas extraction for decades; the tripartite MoU sets it aside with a 50:50 revenue-sharing deal while the boundary is resolved separately. Distinguish the relevant bodies: the Finance Commission (Article 280) recommends the sharing of taxes between the Centre and states; the GST Council (Article 279A) decides on GST; the National Development Council is an extra-constitutional body.
The pact is a positive-sum, economics-first approach to an inter-state dispute, and a possible template for others (following the Assam-Meghalaya 2022 and Assam-Arunachal 2023 pacts), though it must respect environmental clearances and Naga land and resource rights under Article 371A (Nagaland is under Article 371A, not the Sixth Schedule).

Despite the name, rare earths are not especially rare in the Earth’s crust; they are “rare” in the sense of being difficult to find in concentrated, economically extractable deposits and challenging to separate and process. The 17 REEs are essential to the clean-energy transition and high-technology and defence industries, particularly for powerful permanent magnets.
China’s dominance over mining and especially processing makes REE supply a strategic chokepoint, which is why countries are diversifying. India’s response includes the National Critical Mineral Mission, Khanij Bidesh India Limited (KABIL) for overseas assets, membership of the Mineral Security Partnership, and now domestic R&D such as the NLC-CSIR effort to recover REEs from the overburden and tailings of the Neyveli lignite mines, a circular-economy approach.
Critical minerals more broadly include lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite, the building blocks of batteries and electronics.

The G7 is an informal grouping of major advanced economies, with no charter or permanent secretariat and an annually rotating presidency. Its members are the US, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada, with the European Union also participating.
India is a frequent invitee but not a member; it is, however, a full member of the G20 (which it hosted in 2023), of BRICS, and of the SCO. The June 2026 G7 summit, hosted by France, features a session on West Asia, where India’s voice on de-escalation matters amid the oil crisis. The India-France “Special Global Strategic Partnership” spans defence (Rafale, Scorpene), space, nuclear energy (Jaitapur) and connectivity (IMEC).
India’s presence at the G7 without membership reflects multi-alignment, engaging multiple power centres and acting as a bridge between the Global North and South.

Project Tiger, launched in 1973, is one of India’s flagship conservation programmes; India now has 58 tiger reserves. The statutory body overseeing tiger conservation is the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), constituted under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 (as amended in 2006).
India also hosts the International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA), launched to protect seven big-cat species globally. The Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 is the parent law; the tiger is on its Schedule I (highest protection).
The SOE 2026 report’s key argument is qualitative: rising numbers in degraded habitat are fragile, because invasive species like Lantana camara crowd out the native grasses and plants that prey species need, pushing tigers into thickets and into conflict with people. Effective conservation therefore requires invasive-species removal, grassland restoration and buffer management, not just population counts.
The All-India Tiger Estimation is conducted every four years.

The 1986 Act originally regulated rather than fully prohibited child labour. The 2016 amendment marked a shift to near-total prohibition for children below 14, matching the RTE age, while creating a new protected category of “adolescents” (14 to 18) barred from hazardous work.
The exceptions, helping in a family enterprise (after school hours or in holidays) and working in the entertainment industry (with safeguards), are criticised as potential loopholes, since much child labour is home-based or in family-linked informal work. The constitutional basis is Article 24 (Fundamental Right against hazardous child labour) and Article 21A (Right to Education); enforcement runs through the PENCIL portal and rehabilitation through the National Child Labour Project.
Despite the strong legal framework, child labour persists, mainly in agriculture and the informal sector, driven by poverty, which is why the 2026 World Day theme emphasises “decent work for adults” as the durable solution.