India ranked 176th of 177 countries in the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) 2026 with a score of 22.46, second from bottom, and has stayed among the five worst performers since 2022. It ranked 174th in both air quality and biodiversity. Estonia topped (74.79), followed by Luxembourg, the UK, Finland and the Netherlands.
A joint communication from the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and MoEFCC asked States to align Community Forest Resource Management Plans (CFRMPs) with Forest Department Working Plans, raising concern that it could dilute Gram Sabha powers. The Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006 makes the Gram Sabha the primary authority for determining and managing community forest rights.
The NTCA's 'Roadmap for Active Management of Tigers in India', based on the 2022 All India Tiger Estimation, found that 38 of India's 58 tiger reserves have a declining prey base, poor habitat, or both. Only 20 reserves have both adequate prey and good habitat; 36 face prey shortages and 17 have both problems.
India has reached near-universal banking coverage, with 99.92% of inhabited villages having a banking outlet within 5 km. Of 6,01,328 inhabited villages, 6,00,868 are served by a bank branch, Business Correspondent (BC) or India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) centre. The network has over 1.81 lakh branches, 17.36 lakh BCs and 1.65 lakh IPPB centres.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) will set up India's first Telecom Manufacturing Zone in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. India aims to connect 100 crore people to 5G by 2030, double the current base of about 50 crore.
Marking the 16th Indian Organ Donation Day (3 August), the government said India performed a record 20,138 organ transplants in 2025, against 4,990 in 2013. Over 5 lakh Aadhaar-verified pledges have been made since the National Digital Pledge Portal began in 2023. India ranks third in total transplants after the US and China and leads in living-donor transplants.
The ICAR–National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD), Bhopal, has developed India's first indigenous live attenuated vaccine against African Swine Fever (ASF) for pigs, based on the MA-104 cell line. ASF is a highly contagious viral disease caused by the African Swine Fever Virus (ASFV).
India's distributed solar capacity reached 31.5 gigawatts (GW) in FY 2026, more than 17 times the 1.8 GW recorded in FY 2018. Rooftop solar grew from 1.1 GW to 25.7 GW over the period, while solar pumps installed under the PM-KUSUM scheme reached 5.8 GW. Distributed solar lets households and farmers generate power close to where it is used.
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