UPSC CURRENT AFFAIRS – 26 February 2026

UPSC CURRENT AFFAIRS – 26 February 2026 covers important current affairs of the day, their backward linkages, their relevance for Prelims exam and MCQs on main articles

InstaLinks : Insta Links help you think beyond the current affairs issue and help you think multidimensionally to develop depth in your understanding of these issues. These linkages provided in this ‘hint’ format help you frame possible questions in your mind that might arise(or an examiner might imagine) from each current event. InstaLinks also connect every issue to their static or theoretical background.

Table of Contents

GS Paper 1 & 2:

• Attracting Talent Positioned Abroad

Attracting Talent Positioned Abroad

GS Paper 3:

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) Transforming Rural India

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Transforming Rural India

Content for Mains Enrichment (CME):

• Operation Crackdown

Operation Crackdown

Facts for Prelims (FFP):

• Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) Technologies

Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) Technologies

• International Climate Initiative (IKI)

International Climate Initiative (IKI)

• Understanding Large Language Models (LLMs)

Understanding Large Language Models (LLMs)

• El Nino

El Nino

• Speaker of the Knesset Medal

Speaker of the Knesset Medal

Mapping:

• The Chagos Islands

The Chagos Islands

UPSC CURRENT AFFAIRS – 26 February 2026

GS Paper 1 & 2 :

Attracting Talent Positioned Abroad

Source: TH

Subject: Human Resource/Diaspora

Context: Recent U.S. policy shifts, including a disruptive $100,000 H-1B visa fee imposed in 2025, are catalyzing a reverse brain drain.

• This has prompted the Indian government to launch structured re-engagement initiatives like GATI and VAJRA to attract global Indian talent back.

About Attracting Talent Positioned Abroad:

What it is?

• This refers to a strategic national effort to transition from brain drain to brain circulation. It involves creating the necessary economic, social, and research infrastructure to encourage highly skilled Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) to return and reinvest their expertise, capital, and global networks into India’s growth story.

Data & Stats: The Indian Talent Landscape

• H-1B Dominance: Indian nationals accounted for 71% of the 399,395 H-1B approvals in FY2024.

• Educational Shift: The proportion of H-1B holders with a master’s degree rose from 31% (2000) to 57% (2021), reflecting a highly specialized talent pool.

• Returnee Surge: There is a reported 30% rise in Ivy League Indian graduates seeking positions in India this year following U.S. visa uncertainties.

• GCC Expansion: India hosts over 1,600 Global Capability Centres (GCCs) employing 1.66 million people, which serve as primary landing hubs for returnees.

• R&D Gap: India’s R&D investment stands at 0.64% of GDP, significantly lower than the U.S. (3.47%) and Israel (5.71%), highlighting a critical area for improvement.

Opportunities to Attract Foreign Talent:

• Rise of Global Capability Centres (GCCs): GCCs have evolved from back-offices to strategic innovation hubs for aerospace, semiconductors, and AI.

E.g. Over 2,000 GCCs in India now manage end-to-end global R&D operations, offering high-level leadership roles for returning executives.

• Sovereign Tech Missions: National missions in AI and semiconductors provide frontier research opportunities similar to those in Silicon Valley.

E.g. The IndiaAI Mission offers subsidized compute and massive datasets, attracting researchers who want to build AI for the next billion users.

• Tier-2 City Growth: Decentralization policies are making smaller cities viable for tech professionals seeking a better quality of life.

E.g. Karnataka’s Beyond Bengaluru initiative is successfully attracting talent to Mysuru and Mangaluru by offering 10-35% lower operational costs.

• Robust Startup Ecosystem: India is the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem, providing a platform for returnees to launch their own ventures.

E.g. Maharashtra’s 2025 Startup Policy aims to support 50,000 startups, creating a massive demand for global mentorship and leadership.

• Academic-Industry Collaboration: New schemes allow overseas faculty to lead research projects in Indian universities without relocating permanently.

E.g. The VAJRA Faculty Scheme allows NRI scientists to spend 1–3 months annually at public-funded Indian institutions to co-guide research.

Key Initiatives Taken:

• Global Access to Talent from India (GATI): A program designed to streamline the recruitment of overseas Indian experts into domestic strategic sectors.

• eMigrate V2.0: A digital platform that facilitates seamless migration and re-entry processes for Indian professionals.

• VAJRA (Visiting Advanced Joint Research): A scheme by the Department of Science and Technology for overseas scientists to participate in high-end R&D in India.

• Know India Programme (KIP): An engagement initiative for young diaspora members to reconnect with India’s developmental progress and professional avenues.

Challenges Associated:

• Inadequate Family-Readiness: While firms provide jobs, Indian cities often lack the social infrastructure returnees expect for their families.

E.g. High entry costs for quality housing and the scarcity of international school seats in congested hubs like Bengaluru and Mumbai often deter permanent relocation.

• Low Private R&D Incentive: A lack of significant private sector investment in research limits the high-intensity roles available for PhD returnees.

E.g. The structural composition of Indian firms favors services over semiconductors or advanced manufacturing, where R&D intensity is highest.

• Institutional Gatekeeping: Returnees without existing local institutional capital or networks often find it difficult to navigate Indian recruitment systems.

E.g. Senior roles in national labs and ministries in Delhi are often favored by those with established proximity to policy networks.

• Infrastructure Bottlenecks: Beyond-metro locations often lack the specialized healthcare and research infrastructure required for global-standard work.

E.g. Global professionals in Mysuru or Mangaluru often face constraints in accessing global-grade specialized medical care or niche lab equipment.

• High Cost of Household Entry: Returnees face reverse culture shock in the form of high inflation in domestic services and lack of housing subsidies.

E.g. Returnees frequently view India as a temporary assignment rather than a home due to the lack of spousal employment support and high urban rent.

Way Forward:

• Integrated Family Policies: States must shift focus from just attracting firms to planning for people—including school seat guarantees and spousal hiring programs.

• Incentivizing Private R&D: Introduce deeper tax credits and risk-capital for firms diversifying into higher-intensity sectors like biotech and semiconductors.

• Global Research Infrastructure: Upgrade labs in Tier-2 cities to Ivy League standards to sustain the interest of high-end researchers.

• Housing Subsidies for Returnees: Launch specific affordable housing schemes or Innovation Villages for skilled returnees to lower their initial entry costs.

• Brain Circulation Networks: Formalize mentorship programs where NRIs can contribute digitally or through short-term residencies before committing to a full return.

Conclusion:

The current H-1B disruption is a golden window for India to convert a global setback into a domestic innovation dividend. By strengthening the “social and research infrastructure” of its cities, India can move beyond being a talent exporter to becoming a global talent magnet. Success depends on whether Indian states can plan as much for the people as they do for the firms.

Q. The diaspora has become India’s informal diplomatic asset, but its political mobilisation creates new vulnerabilities. Evaluate mechanisms to manage such risks. (10 M)

#### UPSC CURRENT AFFAIRS – 26 February 2026 GS Paper 3:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Transforming Rural India

Source: PIB

Subject: Rural Development

Context: The India–AI Impact Summit 2026 recently highlighted AI as a structural pillar for Viksit Bharat@2047, transitioning from pilot projects to system-wide implementation in rural governance and livelihoods.

• Additionally, the launch of BharatGen and the India AI Governance Guidelines have formalized the roadmap for inclusive, multilingual AI on Indian soil.

About Artificial Intelligence (AI) Transforming Rural India:

What it is?

• In the rural context, AI is a social-purpose technology designed to perform cognitive tasks like crop disease reasoning and multilingual translation. It functions as a public good, integrated into Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) to bridge service gaps in areas where physical infrastructure is limited.

Opportunities for AI in Transforming Rural Development:

• Precision Agriculture & Risk Mitigation: AI optimizes farm management by predicting weather and pests, significantly boosting yields.

E.g. The National Pest Surveillance System uses AI to analyze satellite and soil data, providing real-time advisories to farmers in states like Karnataka.

• Multilingual Governance & Inclusion: AI breaks literacy barriers by allowing rural citizens to interact with the government via voice in their native tongues.

E.g. BHASHINI is integrated into 23+ services, enabling farmers to access PM-Kisan details using voice commands in 14+ languages.

• Enhanced Healthcare Reach: AI-powered diagnostic tools and chatbots provide maternal and newborn health support where doctors are scarce.

E.g. The Suman Sakhi WhatsApp Chatbot in Madhya Pradesh offers accessible maternal health info to rural families in real-time.

• Decentralized Administrative Efficiency: AI automates the documentation of local governance, ensuring transparency in village meetings.

E.g. SabhaSaar generates structured minutes of Gram Sabha meetings from audio, reducing manual bias and errors for over 2.5 lakh Panchayats.

• Smart Asset & Resource Management: Geospatial AI tracks rural infrastructure projects to ensure they are actually built and maintained.

E.g. BhuPRAHARI uses satellite imagery and AI to monitor MGNREGA assets like Amrit Sarovars (water bodies) for scientific storage assessment.

Key Initiatives Taken:

• IndiaAI Mission: A ₹10,372 crore mission providing subsidized compute (GPUs) and datasets to startups and researchers.

• BharatGen (2025): India’s first government-funded Multimodal Large Language Model (LLM) supporting 22 Indian languages.

• Adi Vaani: An AI platform specifically for tribal communities to access services and preserve endangered oral traditions.

• YUVAI (Youth for Unnati & Vikas with AI): A national program equipping school students (Classes 8-12) with AI skills to solve village-level problems.

• eGramSwaraj & Gram Manchitra: Unified digital platforms for Panchayat planning, budgeting, and GIS-based asset mapping.

Challenges Associated:

• Digital Infrastructure Deficit: Uneven access to reliable electricity and high-speed broadband remains a bottleneck for real-time AI tools.

E.g. Many Shadow Areas in remote hilly regions still face patchy connectivity, making cloud-based AI unusable.

• Low Digital & AI Literacy: Rural users often lack the foundational skills to navigate AI-enabled interfaces safely.

E.g. A significant portion of the rural population struggles to distinguish between genuine AI-generated advice and misinformation or deepfakes.

• Data Representative Bias: Most AI models are trained on Western datasets, which may not understand specific Indian rural dialects or soil conditions.

E.g. Global LLMs often fail to grasp nuanced Bourbonnais Creole or specific tribal dialects handled by localized models like Adi Vaani.

• High Implementation & Maintenance Costs: While AI saves money long-term, the initial cost of GPUs and data annotation is high for local bodies.

E.g. Rural local bodies often face competing priorities (like basic sanitation) that stall the adoption of SabhaSaar or GIS tools.

• Ethical & Privacy Risks: The use of facial recognition and biometric data in welfare delivery raises concerns about surveillance and exclusion.

E.g. Challenges in the Supreme Court (2025/26) regarding the DPDP Act highlight fears of government surveillance over rural beneficiary data.

Way Ahead:

• Hybrid Connectivity: Deploying low-latency LEO (Low Earth Orbit) satellites to provide AI access to off-grid villages.

• AI Data Labs: Establishing the proposed network of 570+ labs in Tier-2/3 cities to curate diverse, India-centric datasets.

• Explainable AI (XAI): Ensuring AI decisions in welfare (like MGNREGA payments) are transparent and can be challenged by citizens.

• Grassroots Capacity Building: Integrating AI literacy into the PMGDISHA (Digital Literacy) scheme for all rural households.

• Sovereign AI Stack: Doubling down on models like BharatGen to ensure data sovereignty and cultural relevance.

Conclusion:

AI is not just a technological upgrade but a structural public good that can democratize opportunities across India’s 700,000 villages. By anchoring innovation in the India AI Governance Guidelines and local languages, the country can ensure that digital progress empowers the most marginalized. Success will ultimately be measured not by algorithmic complexity, but by the tangible improvement in the quality of life for every rural citizen.

Q. Explain the concept of Physical AI and world models. Evaluate their impact on manufacturing, healthcare and urban infrastructure. Propose a strategic roadmap for India to secure technological and economic advantage in this transition. (15 M)

#### UPSC CURRENT AFFAIRS – 26 February 2026 Content for Mains Enrichment (CME)

Operation Crackdown

Context: Telangana Police has launched ‘Operation Crackdown’ to dismantle the growing cybercrime ecosystem in the state by targeting mule bank accounts used for financial fraud.

About Operation Crackdown:

What it is?

• Operation Crackdown is a coordinated anti-cybercrime enforcement drive aimed at identifying and disrupting mule bank account networks that facilitate digital financial frauds.

• It focuses on breaking the financial backbone of cybercriminal ecosystems through data-driven policing and inter-agency coordination.

Launched by: Conceived and led by the Telangana Cyber Security Bureau (TGCSB).

• To dismantle organized cybercrime networks by tracing, verifying, and disabling mule bank accounts used for laundering proceeds of cyber fraud.

• To strengthen cyber-financial security through coordinated policing and improved banking compliance.

Features:

• Targeted Data Analytics: TGCSB used data analysis to identify 4,775 mule accounts linked with cybercrime transactions across multiple jurisdictions.

• Large-Scale Coordinated Enforcement: 137 police teams involving over 500 personnel simultaneously inspected 137 bank branches across 16 districts.

• Financial Network Disruption: Verification of KYC records and investigation into possible collusion between account holders, agents, and bank officials to break organized cybercrime chains.

Relevance in UPSC Exam Syllabus

• GS Paper 3 – Internal Security & Cyber Security

• Challenges to internal security through cybercrime Role of technology in crime prevention Money laundering and digital financial frauds

• Challenges to internal security through cybercrime

• Role of technology in crime prevention

• Money laundering and digital financial frauds

• GS Paper 2 – Governance

• Police reforms and institutional capacity building Cooperative federalism in law enforcement

• Police reforms and institutional capacity building

• Cooperative federalism in law enforcement

UPSC CURRENT AFFAIRS –26 February 2026 Facts for Prelims (FFP)

Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) Technologies

Source: TH

Subject: Science and Technology/Environment

Context: The Union Budget 2026 recently allocated ₹20,000 crore to scale up Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage (CCUS) technologies over the next five years.

About Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) Technologies:

What it is?

• Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) is a suite of technologies designed to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from industrial point sources or directly from the atmosphere and transform them into commercially valuable products rather than just storing them underground.

How it Works?

The process involves three main stages:

• Capture: CO2 is separated from other gases (like nitrogen and water vapor) in industrial flue gas or ambient air.

• Compression & Transport: The captured CO2 is compressed into a liquid-like state for easier handling and moved via pipelines or tankers.

• Conversion/Utilisation: The CO2undergoes chemical, biological, or physical processes to be recycled into new materials.

Types of CCU:

• Direct Utilisation: Using CO2 without chemical alteration, such as in carbonated beverages or Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR).

• Chemical Conversion: Transforming CO2 into chemicals (e.g., urea, polymers) or synthetic fuels (e.g., methanol).

• Biological Conversion: Using algae or bacteria to consume CO2 and produce biomass, biofuels, or animal feed.

• Mineralisation: Reacting CO2 with minerals (like magnesium or calcium) to create stable solid carbonates for building materials like bricks and green concrete.

Aim: The primary goal of CCU is to decouple economic growth from CO2 emissions by treating carbon as a feedstock rather than a waste product, helping industries reach Net Zero while creating a circular carbon economy.

Key Features:

• Retrofitting Capability: Can be added to existing industrial plants, extending the life of assets without needing a total shutdown.

• Circular Economy Link: Promotes the reuse of waste, turning harmful emissions into industrial inputs.

• Versatility: Applicable across diverse sectors including aviation (sustainable fuels), construction (bricks), and agriculture (fertilizers).

• Revenue Generation: Unlike pure storage (CCS), CCU creates products that can be sold, potentially offsetting the high cost of capture.

International Climate Initiative (IKI)

Source: NIE

Subject: Environment

Context: Germany and India have launched a new €20 million (approx. ₹180 crore) Large Grant project under the International Climate Initiative (IKI) to strengthen India’s climate resilience.

About International Climate Initiative (IKI):

What it is?

• The International Climate Initiative (IKI) is a key financial instrument of the German government that funds international projects focused on climate change mitigation, adaptation, and biodiversity conservation in developing and emerging economies.

Established In: It was established in 2008.

Nations Involved:

• Donor: Germany.

• Partner Nations: Over 150 countries, with 14 designated Priority Countries including India, Brazil, China, South Africa, Mexico, and Indonesia.

Aim: The IKI aims to support partner countries in implementing and ambitiously developing their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement and achieving goals set by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Key Features:

• Thematic Diversity: Focuses on four main areas: Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, Adapting to the impacts of climate change, Conserving natural carbon sinks (REDD+), and Protecting biological diversity.

• Consortium-Based Funding: Projects are typically implemented by a mix of NGOs, research institutes, international organizations (like GIZ), and the private sector to ensure multidisciplinary expertise.

• Ecosystem-Based Adaptation (EbA): A core feature is using nature (e.g., forest restoration, wetland protection) to help human communities adapt to climate risks like floods and heatwaves.

• Innovative Financing: Promotes high-risk/high-reward financial mechanisms like blended finance, biodiversity credits, and climate insurance to mobilize private capital.

• Monitoring & Learning: Requires rigorous Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) frameworks to ensure that local successes can be scaled up to national or global policies.

About The New India-Germany Project:

The newly announced €20 million project specifically targets high-risk Indian ecosystems:

• Priority Regions: The Himalayas, Western Ghats, North-East India, Island regions, and the Lower Gangetic floodplains.

• Focus Areas: Forest restoration, groundwater recharge, flood control, and creating biodiversity corridors to allow species to move safely as temperatures rise.

Understanding Large Language Models (LLMs)

Source: TH

Subject: Science and Technology

Context: Bengaluru-based startup Sarvam AI recently launched two indigenous Large Language Models (35B and 105B parameters) at the AI Impact Summit 2026, marking a major milestone for India’s Sovereign AI ambitions.

About Understanding Large Language Models (LLMs):

What it is?

• A Large Language Model (LLM) is a type of Artificial Intelligence trained on vast amounts of text data to understand, generate, and manipulate human language.

• They are large because they contain billions of parameters—internal variables that the model learns during training to make predictions.

How it Works?

• Breaking text into tokens: An LLM doesn’t read whole words like humans; it splits text into tokens (word pieces/characters) so it can represent rare words, names, spellings, and grammar patterns efficiently.

• The Transformer “map”: Tokens get turned into vectors (embeddings) in a high-dimensional space, where semantic + syntactic similarity makes tokens closer helping the model generalize meaning.

• Self-attention mechanism: For each token, the model assigns attention weights to other tokens to decide what matters most, letting it link references, handle long dependencies, and resolve ambiguity (like what “it” points to).

• Predicting the next token: The model outputs a probability distribution over possible next tokens; generation is choosing tokens step-by-step, which is why it can sound fluent without knowing like a person.

• Layers of refinement: Many stacked transformer layers progressively build richer representations—lower layers catch form/grammar, higher layers capture relationships, intent, and reasoning patterns—then a final layer converts that into the next-token prediction.

Principles Behind Training:

• Pre-training: The model is fed petabytes of raw data (books, websites, code) and tasked with predicting the next word in a sequence. This helps it learn grammar, facts, and reasoning.

• Fine-Tuning: The model is further trained on narrower, high-quality datasets to perform specific tasks, like medical diagnosis or legal drafting.

• RLHF (Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback): Human testers rank the model’s responses, teaching it to be more helpful, accurate, and safe.

• Compute Intensity: Training requires massive clusters of GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) and high electricity consumption, often costing millions of dollars.

Key Features:

• Generative Capability: Can create original text, code, poems, and summaries.

• In-context Learning: Can follow instructions or replicate a style based on a few examples provided in a prompt.

• Multilingualism: Can translate and understand multiple languages, though performance varies based on the training data.

• Zero-shot Reasoning: Ability to solve problems it has never explicitly been trained for by using general logic.

El Nino

Source: IT

Subject: Geography

Context: Researchers at Duke University have identified that ocean salinity can amplify the intensity of El Niño by approximately 20%.

About El Nino:

What it is?

• El Niño (meaning “Little Boy” in Spanish) is a recurring climate pattern characterized by the unusual warming of surface waters in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. It is the warm phase of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle and typically occurs every two to seven years.

How it Forms?

• Normal Conditions: Strong trade winds blow from east to west along the equator, pushing warm surface water toward Asia. This allows cold, nutrient-rich water to rise (upwelling) near the coast of South America.

• Weakening Winds: During El Niño, these trade winds weaken or even reverse direction.

• Warm Water Shift: The warm water that was piled up in the western Pacific begins to flow back eastward toward the Americas.

• Atmospheric Disruption: This shift in heat alters the Pacific jet stream, disrupting global weather patterns, leading to floods in some regions and droughts in others.

Factors Influencing El Niño:

• Trade Wind Strength: The primary driver; weaker winds trigger the eastward movement of warm water.

• Ocean-Atmosphere Coupling: A feedback loop where warming water further weakens winds, which in turn warms the water more.

• Thermocline Depth: The depth of the transition layer between warm surface water and cold deep water influences how much heat is available to fuel the event.

• Rossby and Kelvin Waves: Large-scale internal ocean waves that transport heat across the Pacific.

Implications for India:

A stronger El Niño directly impacts India’s food and water security:

• Monsoon Suppression: It pulls moisture away from South Asia, frequently resulting in below-normal rainfall.

• Drought Risk: There is a 60% likelihood of drought in various regions during a strong El Niño year.

• Agricultural Impact: Drier conditions lead to food grain shortfalls, as seen in 2023, which saw the driest August in years and triggered food inflation.

• Heatwaves: El Niño often correlates with higher-than-average temperatures and prolonged heatwaves during the Indian summer.

Speaker of the Knesset Medal

Source: DD News

Subject: Polity

Context: The Israeli Parliament (Knesset) conferred the “Speaker of the Knesset Medal” on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, recognising his role in strengthening India–Israel strategic ties.

About the Speaker of the Knesset Medal:

What it is?

• The Speaker of the Knesset Medal is the highest honour awarded by the Israeli Parliament (Knesset).

• It is a special parliamentary distinction instituted to recognise individuals for exceptional contributions to Israel and the Jewish people.

Honoured by:

• The medal is conferred by the Speaker of the Knesset, the presiding officer of Israel’s unicameral legislature.

• In this case, it was awarded by Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana after PM Modi’s address to the parliament.

• To acknowledge global leaders and personalities who significantly strengthen Israel’s diplomatic, strategic or cultural partnerships.

• To symbolise parliamentary-level recognition beyond executive diplomacy.

Key Features:

• Considered the highest parliamentary honour of Israel.

• Awarded for strategic, political, technological, cultural or security cooperation contributions.

• Reflects recognition by the legislative institution, not merely the government.

• Recently instituted as a formal medal of honour by the Knesset.

Significance

• Highlights the growing India–Israel strategic partnership, especially in defence, cyber security, innovation and technology.

• Symbolises strong people-to-people and civilisational links, including historical Jewish presence in India.

About Knesset:

What it is?

• The Knesset is the unicameral national legislature of Israel, functioning as the supreme law-making body of the country.

• It represents the sovereign authority of the Israeli state and performs legislative, supervisory and constitutional functions.

Houses:

• Unicameral Legislature → Israel has only one house, called the Knesset.

• Electoral System: Members are elected through proportional representation based on party lists, making coalition governments

• Term: Normal tenure is 4 years, though early elections can be called.

#### UPSC CURRENT AFFAIRS – 26 February 2026 Mapping:

The Chagos Islands

Source: TG

Subject: Mapping

Context: The UK government is facing conflicting reports regarding a pause in the Chagos Islands sovereignty deal with Mauritius following opposition from US President Donald Trump.

About The Chagos Islands:

What it is?

• The Chagos Islands, also known as the Chagos Archipelago, is a group of seven atolls comprising more than 60 individual tropical islands. It is officially administered as the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), though its sovereignty is heavily contested.

Located In: The archipelago is situated in the Indian Ocean, approximately 500 kilometers south of the Maldives.

• It sits atop the Chagos–Laccadive Ridge, a massive submarine mountain range.

Origin: The islands are coralline rock structures formed by volcanic activity over the Réunion hotspot.

• They consist of low-lying atolls set around central lagoons, including the Great Chagos Bank, which is the world’s largest atoll structure.

History:

• Colonial Era: Originally settled by the French in the 18th century (administered via Mauritius), the islands were ceded to the United Kingdom in 1814 under the Treaty of Paris.

• The Split (1965): Before granting Mauritius independence, the UK detached the Chagos Archipelago to create the BIOT.

• Expulsion (1967–1973): The UK forcibly removed the native Chagossian people to make way for a strategic US military base on the largest island, Diego Garcia.

• Legal Battles: For decades, displaced Chagossians and the Mauritian government have fought for the right of return and sovereignty. In 2019, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that the UK’s occupation was illegal.

Features:

• Diego Garcia: The largest and most significant island (32.5 $km^2$), hosting a critical joint UK-US naval and air support facility.

• Biodiversity: Home to some of the world’s most resilient coral reefs and the world’s largest coral atoll.

• Strategic Location: Its mid-ocean position provides a vital military “foothold” for monitoring the Indian Ocean and surrounding regions.

• Demographics: Currently, there is no permanent civilian population; the islands are inhabited only by military personnel and contractors.

Current Status:

• In October 2024, the UK announced an agreement to transfer sovereignty to Mauritius, with a deal signed in May 2025.

• Under this treaty, the UK would lease back Diego Garcia for 99 years to maintain the military base.

• However, as of early 2026, the ratification process in the UK Parliament is reportedly being paused or delayed due to concerns raised by the United States administration regarding the security of the base.

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