UPSC Current Affairs 24th July 2026

Assam Floods and Flood Management in India

Context: Assam recently witnessed its worst floods in over 60 years, affecting over 8 lakh people and claiming more than 30 lives. This disaster highlights the persistent challenges in India’s flood management and underscores the urgent need for climate-resilient infrastructure.

Why is Assam Highly Prone to Floods?

• Geographical Vulnerability: Located in the Brahmaputra and Barak river basins with over 50 tributaries. As the highly sediment-loaded Brahmaputra enters Assam’s plains, reduced gradients cause massive sediment deposition, raising riverbeds.
• High Flood Exposure: Nearly 39.58% of Assam’s geographical area is flood-prone, which is almost four times the national average.
• Heavy Monsoon Rainfall: Intense southwest monsoon rainfall, coupled with heavy upstream discharge from Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya, routinely triggers flash floods.
• Riverbank Erosion: The dynamic nature of the Brahmaputra causes frequent channel shifts. Around 4.27 lakh hectares of land have been eroded since 1950.
• Deforestation: Upstream catchment degradation increases sediment inflow, drastically reducing the river’s carrying capacity.
• The “Embankment Trap”: Assam relies heavily on embankments, many of which have exceeded their design life and fail against the river’s dynamic flow.

Causes of Floods in India

India has over 40 million hectares of flood-prone area (out of 329 million hectares). Floods affect an average of 75 lakh hectares annually.

1. Natural Causes

• Concentrated Rainfall: 75–80% of India’s annual rainfall occurs during the Southwest Monsoon (June–September), frequently overwhelming river capacities.
• Heavy Siltation: Young Himalayan rivers (Ganga, Brahmaputra) deposit immense silt, leading to riverbed aggradation.
• River Meandering: Sediment-laden rivers frequently shift courses (e.g., the Kosi River, known as the “Sorrow of Bihar”).
• GLOFs (Glacial Lake Outburst Floods): Climate-change-induced glacier retreats are expanding Himalayan lakes, causing sudden downstream floods (e.g., Sikkim GLOF 2023).

2. Anthropogenic Causes

• Catchment Degradation: Large-scale deforestation in the Himalayas and Western Ghats accelerates surface runoff and soil erosion.
• Dam Mismanagement: Poor adherence to reservoir “Rule Curves” and sudden water releases during peak monsoons exacerbate downstream flooding (e.g., Kerala floods 2018).
• Floodplain Encroachment: Unregulated construction and degradation of wetlands (like Assam’s Beels) destroy natural water storage buffers.
• Unscientific Sand Mining: Destabilizes riverbanks and disrupts natural flow patterns.

3. Urban Flooding

• Concretization: Rapid unplanned urbanization replaces permeable soil with concrete, drastically increasing surface runoff.
• Loss of Water Bodies: Encroachment on lakes and natural drainage channels (e.g., Bengaluru, Chennai).
• Inadequate Infrastructure: Aging storm-water drains blocked by solid waste fail during short-duration, high-intensity rainfall events.

India’s Flood Management Framework

Structural Measures

• Infrastructure: Over 34,000 km of embankments and drainage channels constructed.
• Dam Safety Act, 2021: Establishes institutional frameworks for dam surveillance, inspection, and maintenance to mitigate structural failures.
• Inter-Basin Water Transfer: The National Perspective Plan (1980) aims to link rivers to transfer surplus floodwaters to deficit regions.

Non-Structural Measures

• Flood Plain Zoning: The CWC’s Model Flood Plain Zoning Bill (1975) seeks to regulate development in vulnerable areas.
• Early Warning Systems: The Central Water Commission (CWC) operates a nationwide telemetry and inundation forecasting network.

Institutional & Policy Measures

• Disaster Management Act, 2005: Provides the legal backbone for NDMA, SDMAs, and the NDRF.
• FMBAP: The Flood Management and Border Areas Programme provides central assistance for flood control and anti-erosion works.
• National Water Policy, 2012: Advocates for integrated river basin management and the restoration of natural drainage.

Key Concerns and Governance Gaps

• Constitutional Gridlock: Water is a State subject (Entry 17), while inter-state rivers are a Union subject (Entry 56). This fragmentation leads to upstream states prioritizing hydropower/irrigation over downstream flood safety.
• Transboundary Data Gaps: The Indus Waters Treaty ignores climate change. In the Northeast, India relies on non-binding seasonal MoUs with China for Brahmaputra hydrological data, limiting early warning capabilities.
• Fiscal and Execution Failures: CAG audits highlight delayed project approvals (DPRs), unutilized funds, and incomplete anti-erosion works.
• Deficient Forecasting: Many automated CWC telemetry sensors remain non-functional due to poor maintenance and vandalism.
• Weak Local Capacity: States underfund their SDRFs and district administrations, relying too heavily on the central NDRF for post-disaster response rather than investing in local preparedness.

Way Forward: Enhancing Flood Resilience

1. Shift to Resilience: Adopt the recommendations of the Rashtriya Barh Ayog (1980) and R. Rangachari Committee (2003) to move away from indiscriminate embankment construction toward floodplain zoning, raised settlements, and living with floods.
2. Integrated River Basin Management (IRBM): Operationalize River Basin Organizations to coordinate planning, sediment management, and reservoir operations across state lines.
3. Nature-Based Solutions: Adopt the “Room for the River” approach and Sponge City initiatives by restoring wetlands and increasing permeable urban surfaces.
4. Modernize Forecasting: Develop a National Water Model with AI and IoT-enabled monitoring for real-time, highly accurate early warnings.
5. Enforce Floodplain Zoning: Incentivize states to finally implement the 1975 Model Bill to stop rampant encroachment on ecological buffer zones.

Space Oncology and Cancer Treatment

Context: With India projected to witness around 1.87 million new cancer cases in 2026, Space Oncology is emerging as a critical new frontier in cancer research, leveraging space environments to accelerate advanced therapies.

What is Space Oncology?

Space oncology is the study of how space conditions—specifically microgravity and cosmic radiation—affect cancer cells, tumor growth, treatment response, and cellular adaptation.

• Space as a “Natural Laboratory”: The space environment allows researchers to study complex cancer biology (metastasis, treatment resistance, and tissue behavior) in ways that are impossible on Earth.
• Research Applications: It supports 3D cell cultures, tumor spheroid development, advanced drug formulation, and protein crystallization.

How Microgravity Affects Cancer Cells

Microgravity fundamentally alters how cells behave, structure themselves, and interact.

• Cellular Changes: It triggers cytoskeletal reorganization, alters focal adhesion signaling, and changes how cells interact with the extracellular matrix.
• Tumor Behavior: It directly impacts cancer cell adhesion, migration, proliferation, invasion, and gene expression.
• Spheroid Formation: Microgravity allows cancer cells to easily form multicellular tumor spheroids (3D clusters of cells), which are much better models for studying real tumor behavior than flat 2D Earth cultures.
• Drug Response: Altered cellular structures and gene expressions under microgravity can change how cells take up drugs, often making them more responsive to treatments.

Impacts on Specific Cancers

• Breast Cancer: Microgravity can reduce malignant characteristics by disrupting adhesion and migration, making tumor spheroids more responsive to targeted therapies.
• Gastrointestinal Cancer: Exhibits altered progression in space, showing increased sensitivity to drugs due to changes in cellular proteins and resistance genes.

Why is Space Oncology Important?

• Advanced Modeling: Provides superior tumor models that reveal hidden cancer mechanisms.
• Drug Development: Enhances testing models, improves drug formulation, and reduces the reliance on animal testing.
• Addressing the Economic Burden: Accelerating drug discovery can ultimately help alleviate the massive financial stress (treatment costs, asset depletion) cancer places on patients and healthcare systems.

What Role Can India Play?

India has a unique opportunity to lead in this emerging sector by merging its pharmaceutical prowess with its space capabilities.

• Leveraging ISRO and Private Space: Utilizing ISRO’s expertise alongside India’s growing commercial space sector to build domestic space-based biomedical research facilities.
• Fostering PPPs: Creating collaborations between ISRO, space startups, hospitals, and the pharma industry to accelerate biotech innovation.
• Affordable Therapeutics: Translating space-developed research into cost-effective diagnostics, targeted therapies, and advanced drug delivery systems suited for the Global South.
• Global Hub Potential: Capitalizing on falling launch costs to position India as a premier destination for space biotechnology and pharmaceutical manufacturing.

National Anti-Doping (Amendment) Act, 2025

Context: India’s Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2026 campaign recently suffered a setback as two medal prospects were removed due to anti-doping violations. Against this backdrop, the Government has officially notified the commencement of the National Anti-Doping Act, 2022 and the National Anti-Doping (Amendment) Act, 2025 to strengthen India’s legal framework for clean sport.

Why is India’s Doping Issue in Focus?

• Quota Reductions: India’s weightlifting quota for the CWG 2026 was slashed from 16 to 11 athletes due to multiple anti-doping rule violations during the qualification period.
• High Offender Rate: India topped the list of doping offenders globally in the 2024 annual report of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), recording a positivity ratio of 3.6%.
• Future Hosting Aspirations: As India prepares to host the 2030 Commonwealth Games and continues its bid for the 2036 Olympics, cleaning up the domestic sporting ecosystem is a critical priority.

What is Doping? Doping refers to the use of prohibited substances or methods by athletes to artificially enhance their physical performance.

Key Features of the Anti-Doping (Amendment) Act, 2025

The 2025 Amendment builds upon the 2022 Act to closely align India’s system with the World Anti-Doping Code and the UNESCO International Convention against Doping in Sport.

Key Anti-Doping Institutions

1. National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA)

• About: India’s autonomous anti-doping body, established in 2005.
• Functions: Responsible for planning, implementing, and coordinating India’s anti-doping activities in adherence to WADA regulations.
• Initiatives: Conducts widespread testing and athlete education programs, such as the #PlayTrue Campaign, to promote clean competition.

2. World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)

• About: The global independent authority established in 1999 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to coordinate the fight against doping.
• Governance Model: Uniquely funded and operated through an equal partnership between the global Sport Movement and national Governments.
• Core Framework: Governed by the World Anti-Doping Code, designed to harmonize rules across all sports globally.
• The Prohibited List: WADA publishes and annually updates the international standard list identifying banned substances and methods, applicable both in and out of competition.