Welcome to the Ujiyari Rajasthan Current Affairs notes for 26 August 2026, prepared for RPSC and other State PCS aspirants. Two radio-collared cheetahs from Kuno crossed into Baran district, the Medical and Health Department suspended eleven ART and surrogacy facilities over an advertisement held to promote sex selection, and 215 RGHS-empanelled pharmacies had their transaction access suspended. Two MPs and the Leader of Opposition questioned the Supreme Court-appointed Aravalli committee’s consultation process, and the monsoon ran 16 per cent below normal. Each item below carries a Prelims fact set and a Mains angle, followed by five practice MCQs.

1. Two Kuno Cheetahs Cross Into Baran’s Shahabad Forests

Why in News: Two female cheetahs from Kuno National Park, radio-collared and tagged OKAD-1 and OKAD-2, crossed the interstate boundary into the Shahabad forest range of Baran district, Rajasthan, on 26 August 2026, killing two goats in the Telni forest block.

What happened: DFO Vivekanand Badde directed the response and Ranger Mukesh Suman led the field team, with a Kuno monitoring team tracking both animals round the clock by radio collar. The forest department appealed to villagers not to leave livestock unattended near the forest and to report sightings immediately. Separately, female cheetah Veera, which had been roaming the same border forests, returned safely to Kuno on 25 August.

Rajasthan Relevance:

  • Prelims: OKAD-1 and OKAD-2, both female; Shahabad range, Baran district; source population Kuno National Park, Sheopur district, Madhya Pradesh.
  • Prelims: Project Cheetah began with translocation from Namibia in September 2022 and South Africa in February 2023; the cheetah is the only large carnivore to have gone extinct in independent India, declared extinct in 1952.
  • Mains: Interstate movement of reintroduced cheetahs exposes the absence of a Rajasthan-Madhya Pradesh joint landscape management and compensation protocol under Project Cheetah (GS3 environment and conservation).

2. Eleven ART and Surrogacy Facilities Suspended Over a Sex-Selection Advertisement

Why in News: The Rajasthan Medical and Health Department suspended the registrations of 11 facilities on 26 August 2026 for an advertisement using blue baby booties, held to be indirect promotion of sex selection.

What happened: The suspensions cover 9 ART clinics, 1 ART bank and 1 surrogacy clinic, held to have violated the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act, 2021. The break-up is Jaipur with two ART Level-2 clinics plus one surrogacy clinic and one ART bank; one ART Level-2 clinic each in Kota, Udaipur, Ajmer and Jodhpur; and one ART Level-1 clinic in Bhilwara. Registrations stand suspended until further orders. Health Minister Gajendra Singh Khinvsar and Principal Secretary (Medical and Health) Gayatri Rathod are named in the action.

Rajasthan Relevance:

  • Prelims: 11 registrations suspended, comprising 9 ART clinics, 1 ART bank and 1 surrogacy clinic; districts Jaipur, Kota, Udaipur, Ajmer, Jodhpur, Bhilwara.
  • Prelims: Governing statutes are the ART (Regulation) Act, 2021 and the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021; sex selection is separately prohibited under the PCPNDT Act, 1994.
  • Mains: Enforcement against covert sex-selection marketing in a state with an adverse child sex ratio, and the limits of advertising regulation in changing son preference (GS2 health governance and women’s issues).

3. RGHS Suspends Transaction Access of 215 Private Pharmacies

Why in News: The Medical and Health Department suspended the Transaction Management System (TMS) access of 215 private pharmacies empanelled under the Rajasthan Government Health Scheme (RGHS) on 26 August 2026.

What happened: The action, on the directions of Principal Secretary Gayatri Rathod, followed show-cause notices over negligence and delay in supplying medicines to beneficiaries. Jaipur accounted for the largest number at 39, followed by Alwar and Sikar with 20 each, Bharatpur, Churu and Dausa with 10 each, and Ajmer with 9, with the rest spread across more than twenty other districts and even Delhi and Gurgaon. RGHS Project Officer Nidhi Patel said the objective is timely and uninterrupted availability of essential medicines.

Rajasthan Relevance:

  • Prelims: RGHS covers state employees, pensioners and their dependants; 215 pharmacies’ TMS access suspended; Jaipur 39, Alwar 20, Sikar 20, Ajmer 9.
  • Mains: Regulating empanelled private providers in a cashless state health scheme, and the accountability-versus-access trade-off in publicly funded health purchasing (GS2 health and governance).

4. Aravalli Committee’s Consultation Process Questioned

Why in News: Banswara-Dungarpur MP Rajkumar Roat, Sikar MP Amra Ram and Leader of Opposition Tika Ram Jully objected on 26 August 2026 to the working of the Supreme Court-appointed Aravalli high-powered committee.

What happened: They said public hearings were confined to only four cities, namely Gurugram, Alwar, Ajmer and Udaipur, leaving out remote tribal and rural populations; that the sudden rescheduling of the Udaipur hearing shut out affected districts; and that mining-hit villages such as Jodhpura in Kotputli-Behror were never visited. They argued that limited field visits meant groundwater depletion and river degradation went undocumented, and that officials and industry were heard more than affected communities. They demanded an extension of the committee’s 31 August report deadline and grassroots consultations across all Aravalli districts.

Rajasthan Relevance:

  • Prelims: Public hearings at Gurugram, Alwar, Ajmer, Udaipur; report deadline 31 August 2026; objectors Rajkumar Roat, Amra Ram (CPI-M), Tika Ram Jully.
  • Prelims: The Aravalli range is among the world’s oldest fold mountains, running roughly 692 km from Delhi to Gujarat, with Guru Shikhar in Mount Abu its highest peak; it acts as a barrier against the eastward spread of the Thar desert.
  • Mains: Judicially supervised environmental policymaking and the adequacy of public consultation for forest-dwelling and mining-affected communities (GS3 environment, GS2 judicial activism).

5. Monsoon Falters: 18 of 41 Districts in Rainfall Deficit

Why in News: Rajasthan’s cumulative monsoon rainfall to 25 August 2026 stood at 16.13 per cent below normal, with 18 of the state’s 41 districts recording deficient rainfall, as reported on 26 August.

What happened: Pali was the worst affected district. The IMD had flagged that the monsoon would weaken further from 26 to 27 August. The pattern is uneven, with heavy-rain alerts persisting in some eastern districts even as the western belt runs dry, raising early questions about kharif yields and drinking-water storage.

Rajasthan Relevance:

  • Prelims: State-wide deficit 16.13 per cent as on 25 August 2026; 18 of 41 districts deficient; Pali worst hit.
  • Prelims: Rajasthan is India’s largest state by area; the Aravalli range divides the arid western region from the semi-arid eastern region, and the Luni is the principal river of the western basin.
  • Mains: Intra-state rainfall asymmetry in an arid state strengthens the case for district-level drought contingency planning rather than a single state-level declaration (GS1 geography, GS3 agriculture).

Practice MCQs

1. The two cheetahs that entered Baran district’s Shahabad forests in August 2026 originated from which protected area?

a) Mukundra Hills Tiger Reserve b) Kuno National Park c) Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary d) Ranthambore National Park

Answer: b Explanation: OKAD-1 and OKAD-2, both radio-collared females, moved from Kuno National Park in Sheopur district, Madhya Pradesh, into the Shahabad range of Baran district, Rajasthan. Kuno is the principal site of Project Cheetah.

2. Under which statute were the eleven Rajasthan facilities suspended for an advertisement held to promote sex selection?

a) The Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 b) The Clinical Establishments Act, 2010 c) The Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act, 2021 d) The Consumer Protection Act, 2019

Answer: c Explanation: The Medical and Health Department suspended nine ART clinics, one ART bank and one surrogacy clinic under the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act, 2021, holding that an advertisement using blue baby booties amounted to indirect promotion of sex selection.

3. The Rajasthan Government Health Scheme (RGHS), under which 215 pharmacies faced suspension, primarily covers which group?

a) All residents below the poverty line b) State government employees, pensioners and their dependants c) Migrant workers registered under e-Shram d) Students enrolled in state universities

Answer: b Explanation: RGHS is the cashless health scheme for Rajasthan state government employees, pensioners and their dependants. The Transaction Management System access of 215 empanelled private pharmacies was suspended for delays in supplying medicines.

4. The Aravalli high-powered committee, whose consultation process was questioned, was appointed on the direction of which authority?

a) The National Green Tribunal b) The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change c) The Rajasthan High Court d) The Supreme Court

Answer: d Explanation: The committee was appointed on the direction of the Supreme Court. Objectors sought an extension of its 31 August 2026 report deadline, arguing that public hearings were held in only four cities and that mining-affected villages were not visited.

5. As on 25 August 2026, how many of Rajasthan’s 41 districts recorded deficient monsoon rainfall?

a) 12 districts b) 24 districts c) 18 districts d) 30 districts

Answer: c Explanation: Eighteen of Rajasthan’s 41 districts recorded rainfall deficits, with the state-wide shortfall at 16.13 per cent below normal and Pali the worst affected district.