Indian Drainage (Geography).
Syllabus: UPSC Pre GS1: Indian & World Geography; Mains GS1
Indus Waters Treaty for UPSC: Indus system, eastern and western rivers, India's rights, Indus Commission, Kishenganga and Ratle, and the 2025 abeyance.
On 5 October 2026 a barge with 540 tonnes of methanol from Assam Petro-Chemicals, Namrup, left Bogibeel terminal in Dibrugarh for Dhaka. It travels about 768 km on National Waterway-2 and then the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol Route, about 1,300 km in all. It is the first cargo from upper Assam to a foreign port since 1947.
UPSC angle: Prelims: NW-2, IBPR, places. · Mains GS-III: inland waterways; GS-II: India-Bangladesh.
5 Oct 2026
A study by the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, reported by DST on 10 September 2026, measured magnetic minerals in sediments of Bakhira Lake in Sant Kabir Nagar, UP, to track 25,000 years of Indian Summer Monsoon change. Bakhira is an oxbow wetland of the Rapti and a Ramsar site since 2022. The record can improve monsoon models.
UPSC angle: Prelims: places in news (Bakhira).
10 Sep 2026
A PIB Backgrounder of 21 August 2026 answers questions on the Ken-Betwa Link Project, the first river-interlinking project under the National Perspective Plan to reach implementation. Costing ₹44,605 crore, it moves Ken water to the Betwa basin through the 96.7 m Daudhan Dam and a 216.465 km canal. It will irrigate 10.62 lakh hectares in Bundelkhand by 2030.
UPSC angle: Mains: River interlinking: benefits and risks.
21 Aug 2026
The government told Rajya Sabha on 10 August 2026 that 30 river interlinking projects were identified under the National Perspective Plan: 16 in the Peninsular component and 14 in the Himalayan component. The Ken-Betwa Link, costing ₹44,605 crore, is the only priority link under implementation. The Polavaram-linked Godavari-Krishna link has been completed by Andhra Pradesh.
UPSC angle: Mains: Interlinking rivers.
10 Aug 2026
The Kosi-Mechi Intra-State Link Project in Bihar has been included under PMKSY-AIBP for balance works of ₹6,143.22 crore, with central assistance of ₹3,652.56 crore, the Jal Shakti Ministry told Rajya Sabha on 27 July 2026. It is due by March 2029. Remodelling of the Eastern Kosi Main Canal has reached 8.5 per cent physical progress.
UPSC angle: Prelims: intra-State links.
27 Jul 2026
Scientists of the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, Lucknow, reconstructed nearly 4,000 years of climate and vegetation history of Majuli, Assam, the DST said on 1 June 2026. Using pollen and grain size from a 150 cm sediment core of Sakali Wetland, they traced a warm, humid early phase, the Medieval Climatic Anomaly and the Little Ice Age.
UPSC angle: Prelims: Majuli.
1 Jun 2026