29 June 2026 - "Daily Current Affairs" Updates

GS 2 (International Relations)

Financial Action Task Force (FATF)

News:

India has been elected as the Vice-President of the Financial Action Task Force

(FATF) for the first time, marking a significant milestone in its role in global

financial governance.

About FATF

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an independent intergovernmental

body that sets global standards to combat:

Money Laundering (ML)

Terrorist Financing (TF)

Proliferation Financing (PF)

Its 40 Recommendations serve as the global benchmark for Anti-Money

Laundering (AML) and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT).

Origin

Established in 1989 during the G7 Summit in Paris, France, to combat mone laundering.

Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks (2001), its mandate was expanded to

include terrorist financing.

Headquarters

Paris, France

Membership

Comprises 40 members, including 39 jurisdictions and 2 regional organizations

(the European Commission and the Gulf Cooperation Council).

India became a full member in 2010.

GS 3 (Science & Technology)

Drunix

News:

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has launched Drunix, an enterprise-grade Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platform to enable large-scale blockchain applications.

About Drunix

Drunix is an enterprise-grade Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platform

developed by NPCI.

It enables organizations to build and scale tokenization platforms, digital asset

ecosystems, and multi-organization blockchain networks.

It is built on a private blockchain framework, offering high scalability,

performance, and enterprise-grade reliability.

Objective

Promote large-scale adoption of blockchain technology across enterprises and

public infrastructure.

Provide a secure, scalable, and high-performance distributed ledger for digital

transactions.

Key Features

Enterprise-grade private blockchain platform.

High scalability and optimized transaction processing.

Supports tokenization and digital asset ecosystems.

Enables secure collaboration across multiple organizations.

Designed for enterprise and public-sector use cases.

GS 3 (Environment & Biodiversity)

Apristurus drona (Arabian Slender Catshark)

News:

Scientists have discovered a new deep-sea catshark species, Apristurus drona

(Arabian Slender Catshark), from the Arabian Sea off the Kerala coast.

About Apristurus drona

Apristurus drona is a newly identified species of deep-sea catshark belonging to

the genus Apristurus.

It was discovered near Sakthikulangara Harbour off the Kollam coast, Kerala.

Genetic analysis confirmed it as a distinct species, closely related to catsharks

found in the Pacific Ocean and New Zealand.

Key Features

A deep-sea shark adapted to life on the continental slope.

Shows 5.5–5.7% genetic divergence from its nearest known relative.

Considered an extremely rare species.

Its known distribution is limited to the continental slope off Kollam and the

Wadge Bank region.

Has no commercial value and is only occasionally caught as fishery bycatch.

Ecological Importance

Contributes to the biodiversity of India’s deep-sea ecosystems.

Serves as an indicator of the rich but poorly explored marine fauna of the

Arabian Sea.

Highlights the need for conservation of fragile deep-sea habitats.