UPSC CURRENT AFFAIRS – 25 JUNE 2026

Context: Despite a mild revival in rainfall activity toward the end of June 2026, severe structural deficits in the monsoon’s early-season coverage have raised widespread concerns over a prolonged dry season.

• The IMD reports that nearly 75% of India’s landmass is currently experiencing an acute rainfall deficiency exceeding 20%.

About India’s Poor Monsoon and Preparedness:

What it is?

• Over the past decade, climate change has made this weather pattern highly erratic, presenting severe regional and local distribution variations. To counter this vulnerability, India has structurally transformed its economic resilience through large-scale rainwater harvesting infrastructure, improved groundwater management under rural employment schemes, and a rapid transition to renewable energy grids.

Key Data and Statistics on the Current Poor Monsoon:

• The Massive June Deficit: The aggregate rainfall deficit across India for June 2026 has crossed a staggering 40% threshold, a gap that meteorologists deem unlikely to be bridged before July.
• Lagging Territorial Coverage: Monsoon currents have covered only around half of the country’s landmass, whereas normal historical timelines dictate that the rainfall grid should envelope almost the entire nation by late June.
• Widespread Regional Deficiencies: Approximately 75% of India’s total land area is currently suffering from a severe rainfall deficiency of 20% or more.

Reasons for the Poor Monsoon in India:

• The Emergence of the El Niño Phenomenon: The El Niño phase—characterized by the abnormal warming of the equatorial Pacific Ocean off the northwestern coast of South America—has officially emerged, suppressing multi-month rainfall activity.
• The Delayed Impact Factor (Lag Effect): While El Niño emerged in the first week of June 2026, its full, disruptive atmospheric block takes over a month to filter through to the sub-continent, creating compounding pressures for July and August.
• An Unfavourable Madden Julian Oscillation (MJO) Phase: Throughout most of June, the rain-suppressing ring of the MJO wind-and-cloud system was positioned directly over the Indian region, pushing the rain-bearing clouds far away.
• Inadequate Structural Strength of Low-Pressure Systems: The regional low-pressure atmospheric configurations formed over the ocean lacked the thermal and structural strength required to drive continuous rain over land.
• Weak Operational Monsoon Currents: The early-season maritime wind currents lacked the momentum needed to push the monsoon grid past the country’s central boundaries, leaving half the landmass dry.

Implications of a Poor Monsoon on India:

• Threats to Agricultural Productivity: A sustained dry spell severely impacts the sowing of vital summer (kharif) crops, lowering overall farm output.
• Reduction in Rural Demand and Income: Because a vast segment of the population relies on agriculture, lower crop yields directly compress farm incomes, slowing down rural retail consumption.
• Pressures on National Food Security: Lower crop yields can cause structural food price inflation, forcing the government to draw heavily on buffer stocks or implement export curbs.
• Depleted Groundwater and Hydro-Reservoir Baselines: A weak monsoon hinders the natural recharging of underground aquifers, drying up local wells and lowering drinking water availability.
• Disruptions to Hydropower Electricity Generation: Low water levels in major river systems lower the operational capacity of hydroelectric plants, adding strain to the national power grid.

India’s Preparedness to Handle a Poor Monsoon:

• Abundant Legacy Reservoir Storage: Thanks to exceptionally high, multi-year rainfall over the previous two consecutive years, India’s major industrial and agricultural reservoirs are operating at healthy buffer storage levels.
• Decoupling Power Grids from Hydropower via Renewables: The rapid expansion of solar and wind electricity installations over the last ten years has reduced the power grid’s reliance on hydro-turbines, preserving precious reservoir water for drinking and irrigation.
• Targeted Infrastructure Under Rural Employment Schemes: A bulk of the public works executed under rural asset-creation schemes has focused on building check-dams, implementing rainwater harvesting, and optimizing water conservation.
• Measurable Reversals in Groundwater Depletion: Official scientific data demonstrates a clear turnaround and improvement in India’s regional groundwater tables due to systematic watershed management.
• Proactive Sowing Adaptations by Farmers: Timely, digitized weather forecasts issued by the IMD effectively prompted farmers to adapt their kharif crop timelines, leveraging early pre-monsoon showers efficiently.

Conclusion:

The buffer stocks in major reservoirs, coupled with a booming renewable energy grid and widespread water-harvesting networks, provide a vital safety cushion. Moving forward, adapting to climate change will require continuous investments in regional climate resilience and smart agricultural forecasting to shield the domestic economy from erratic weather shifts.

Context: Recent data from the national Sample Registration System (SRS) reveals that India has entered a structural demographic transition, with its national Total Fertility Rate (TFR) slipping to 1.9 children per woman.

About India’s Evolving Low-Fertility Architecture:

What it is?

• The decline in India’s fertility rate marks a major historical shift for a country that has long focused on controlling population growth. However, this demographic transition is not uniform, creating a divided economy where different states are moving at completely different speeds.
• While several southern and eastern states are rapidly transitioning into aging societies, poorer northern regions continue to produce large youth cohorts that are set to enter the workforce over the next two decades.

Key Data and Statistics on India’s Fertility and Aging Trends:

1. The Deep Geographic TFR Divide:

• The Urban-Rural Variance: While rural fertility remains close to the replacement mark, urban fertility has dropped sharply to 1.5 children per woman.
• The Ultra-Low Cohorts: Delhi has reached an ultra-low TFR of 1.2, while Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal sit at 1.3—levels lower than advanced economies like the United States (1.6) and matching Japan (1.3).
• The High-Fertility Pockets: Conversely, northern states maintain high fertility rates, led by Bihar at 2.9, followed by Uttar Pradesh (2.6), Madhya Pradesh (2.4), and Rajasthan (2.3).

2. Looming Senior Demographic Projections:

• The Multitude of Aging Populations: India is currently home to approximately 150 million people aged 60 and above.
• The 2050 Surge: By the year 2050, this elderly cohort is projected to more than double, skyrocketing to 347 million individuals, or nearly one-fifth of the country’s total population.
• Severe Economic Vulnerability: Reports from NITI Aayog reveal that 70% of the elderly are entirely dependent on others, while 78% have no formal pension coverage.

Key Institutional and Fiscal Challenges:

• Mass Aging Preceding Mass Industrialisation: Advanced economies like Western Europe and Japan aged only after they had fully industrialized, formalized their workforces, widened their tax nets, and built robust social safety nets.
  • India, by contrast, is entering mass aging on a fragile institutional footing, with a low per-capita income of around $2,800.
• An Exceptionally Narrow Direct Tax Base: The state’s capacity to fund senior welfare programs is heavily constrained because net direct taxpayers account for a minor 6% of the total population.
• A Highly Fragile, Informal Labor Market: Because most workers spend their lives in informal or semi-formal roles, old-age income security remains entirely outside formal employment contracts. Contribution-based programs fail informal workers due to their highly volatile, unpredictable incomes.
• Weak and Outdated Public Cash Transfer Safety Nets: The old-age pension under the National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) provides a meager ₹200 a month for individuals aged 60 to 79, and ₹500 for those above 80, which fails to protect seniors from poverty.
• The Structural Weakening of the Household Safety Net: Historically, India’s welfare state has been hidden inside the home, where joint families and unpaid female labor absorbed eldercare costs. This setup is breaking down under the pressures of urbanization, migration, and nuclear households, leaving left-behind parents highly vulnerable to severe loneliness and health crises.
• A Major Shift in National Healthcare Demand: Aging populations will drastically shift medical demand away from short-term treatments toward the complex, long-term management of chronic illnesses like hypertension, diabetes, dementia, physical disability, and palliative dependence.

Way Forward:

• Implementing an Inflation-Indexed Minimum Pension Floor: Introduce a basic, publicly funded, inflation-indexed pension floor to serve as a baseline layer of risk-pooling for the informal workforce.
• Mandating Nationwide Portability of Welfare Entitlements: Build a national labor market where social protections are completely decoupled from local domicile rules, allowing interstate migrant workers to carry their healthcare and nutritional benefits across state borders.
• Deploying Mission-Mode Actions for Geriatric Healthcare: Launch targeted public healthcare programs to embed specialized geriatric care directly into nursing practices, district health planning, and primary health networks.
• Shoring Up Human Capital Investments in Younger States: Direct younger states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to invest aggressively in high-quality education, healthcare, and technical skills so their migrating youth do not get trapped in low-wage informality.
• Strengthening Formal Public Systems to Replace Domestic Care: As traditional family structures continue to weaken, the state must expand formal public assistance programs to handle responsibilities that households once carried quietly.

Conclusion:

Entering mass aging before achieving widespread economic formalization or a broad tax base leaves the country’s senior citizens uniquely vulnerable. Ultimately, sustaining this transition will depend on moving away from a reliance on shrinking family support systems toward building robust, portable public safety nets, inflation-indexed pensions, and advanced geriatric healthcare networks.

Context: India, as the BRICS Chair for 2026, hosted the BRICS Heads of Space Agencies (HOSA) Meeting in Bengaluru. India has proposed the concept of a “BRICS Space Economy” to strengthen space cooperation, innovation, and sustainable growth among member nations.

About The BRICS Space Economy:

What It Is?

• The BRICS Space Economy is India’s proposed collaborative framework to promote deeper cooperation among BRICS nations in space technology, innovation, satellite applications, and commercial space activities.

Aim:

• To build a resilient and inclusive space economy through scientific collaboration, technology sharing, and joint innovation among BRICS nations.
• To utilize space technology for addressing global challenges such as climate change, disaster management, food security, and sustainable development.

Key Features:

• Strengthening BRICS Remote Sensing Satellite Constellation (RSSC): Promotes satellite data sharing among BRICS nations for disaster management, agriculture, weather monitoring, and environmental protection.
• Proposed BRICS Space Council: Discussions are underway to establish an institutional mechanism for long-term coordination and policy continuity in space cooperation.
• Focus on Space Sustainability: Member nations emphasized debris-free missions, responsible space operations, and sustainable use of outer space.
• Promotion of NewSpace and Private Participation: The initiative encourages collaboration among startups, private industries, scientists, and innovators across BRICS countries.

Significance:

• BRICS countries possess significant scientific capabilities, industrial strength, and market size, enabling them to become a major pillar of the global space economy.

• Joint space applications can support disaster management, climate monitoring, navigation, agriculture, healthcare, and environmental sustainability.

Relevance in UPSC Examination:

• GS Paper II:

• • International Relations, India and multilateral groupings such as BRICS.

• GS Paper III:

• • Science and Technology – Developments and Applications.
  • Space Technology and its applications.
  • Indigenization of technology and innovation.

• Ethics:

• • Space diplomacy and Global governance of outer space.
  • Emerging technologies and sustainable development.

Context: The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) is preparing to launch the Index of Services Production (ISP) in July 2026 to track short-term changes in the services sector.

About Index of Services Production (ISP):

What It Is?

• The Index of Services Production (ISP) is a macro-economic short-term indicator designed to measure monthly changes over time in the real volume of output produced by the services sector. It serves as a direct counterpart to the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) used for the industrial sector.

Nodal Ministry: The index is compiled, managed, and disseminated by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) of the Government of India.

Aim and Objectives

• To capture high-frequency economic trends that complement the IIP on the short-term movement of the Indian economy.
• To provide planners and policymakers with timely information on the service industry’s performance to support evidence-based policy decisions, economic forecasting, and business cycle analysis.
• To effectively monitor a sector that has emerged as a dominant force, contributing over 50% of India’s Gross Value Added (GVA) since 2013–14.

How It Is Calculated:

• Data Sourcing Structure: Output data is pooled across three major operational pipelines:
  • GST Database: Utilizes aggregated Service Accounting Code (SAC) data from GSTR-1 filings on outward supplies to reflect real-time service turnover.
  • Administrative Records: Directly pulls secondary quantity metrics for sectors like Air and Railway transport, alongside performance logs for Banking and Insurance.
  • ASISSE Surveys: Draws estimates from the Annual Survey of Incorporated Services Sector Enterprises for non-government Health and Education sub-sectors.
• The Deflation Process: Value-based (nominal) turnover data is deflated using designated indices to obtain real volume metrics. Wholesale trade utilizes the Wholesale Price Index (WPI); Banking and Insurance use General Consumer Price Index (CPI); while other sub-sectors rely on specific CPI divisions or CPI (Non-Food) as an acceptable proxy.
• Weight Assignment: Individual sector weights are strictly assigned based on their relative economic contributions to the Gross Value Added (GVA) pulled from National Account Statistics.
• Mathematical Formula: The final calculation is structurally compiled using a fixed-weight Laspeyres volume index formula.

Key Features:

• Base Year Selection: The series uses 2024–25 as its base year, satisfying the criteria for structural recency and alignment with the new series of the CPI.
• Primarily Formal Sector Coverage: The index reflects the formal corporate services sector because its baseline parameters are built around units officially registered under the GST net.
• Strategic Exclusions: It explicitly excludes core government, non-market, and heavily unorganized informal fields, including Public Administration and Defence, personal services, gambling, social work without accommodation, and central bank monetary activities.
• Initial Phased Rollout: Ssub-sectors like Health and Education (excluding Government) will be integrated into the framework later, once complete ASISSE survey reports are officially available.
• Monthly Release Cycle: Disseminated on a monthly basis with a structural lag of about 60 days, specifically scheduled for release on the 29th day of every month.

Context: The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in Scotland, widely considered the oldest surgical college in the world, unveiled a 90-kilogram bronze statue to honor the ancient Indian physician Sushruta.

About Sushruta:

Who He Was?

• Sushruta is a legendary ancient Indian physician and surgeon who is widely celebrated across the globe as the “Father of Plastic Surgery“ and the “Father of Surgery”. He pioneered complex operative procedures, structural anatomical dissections, and structured medical education millennia before similar practices were established in the Western world.

History and Era:

• Chronology: He is believed to have lived and practiced approximately 2,600 years ago (around 600 BCE).
• Historical Timeline: Sushruta performed advanced, calculated surgical procedures a millennium before Hippocrates and two millenniums before prominent European medical stalwarts like Celsus and Galen emerged.

Literary Works: The Sushruta Samhita

Sushruta compiled his medical and surgical knowledge into the Sushruta Samhita, which remains one of the most detailed and foundational medical compilations from the ancient world surviving today.

• Structural Division: The compendium is divided into two primary sections: the Purva-tantra (which deals with advanced surgery, internal medicine, pediatrics, anatomy, and toxicology) and the Uttara-tantra (which covers psychiatry, care for the elderly, and diseases of the eye, ear, nose, and throat).
• The Scope of the Text: The treatise documents a vast medical lexicon containing:
  • 1,120 distinct illnesses and medical conditions.
  • Over 700 medicinal plants and hundreds of remedies derived from animal and mineral sources.
  • More than 300 complex medical and operative procedures.
  • Around 120 unique, highly specialized surgical instruments.

Key Contributions to Medical Science

• Pioneering Rhinoplasty and Plastic Reconstruction: His most celebrated contribution is the development of rhinoplasty (the surgical reconstruction of a severed nose) using a flap of skin harvested from the forehead or cheek (pedicle flap).
• The Ashtavidha Shastrakarma (Eight Categories of Surgery): He classified all surgical interventions into eight fundamental structural methods: Chedana (excision), Bhedana (incision), Lekhana (scraping), Vyadhana (puncturing), Eshana (probing), Aharya (extraction), Visravana (drainage), and Seevana (suturing).
• Advanced Thermal Trauma Framework: He created a modern-style classification system for burns, heat stroke, frostbite, and lightning strikes, grouping different forms of thermal injuries into a unified clinical framework long before Western medicine adopted this approach.
• Lifestyle and Metabolic Medicine: He identified lifestyle-correlated conditions resembling modern diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disorders.
• Structured Hands-on Medical Education: Sushruta mandated that students must perform practical mock surgeries on inanimate objects to master precision before operating on human patients.

Context: On the occasion of the 14th Passport Seva Divas, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) issued a structural clarification stating that an Indian passport is primarily a legal travel document and should not be construed as a standalone certificate of citizenship.

About Indian Passport Is Not Proof of Citizenship:

What It Is?

• An Indian passport is an official national transit document issued by the Ministry of External Affairs. While it is granted only after strict background checks and verification by multiple security agencies to establish a holder’s nationality abroad, its primary legal purpose is to facilitate international mobility and provide consular protection, rather than acting as a definitive, standalone proof of citizenship.

Key Features of the Upgraded Passport System:

• Advanced RFID Microchip Technology: Newly issued Indian passports are chip-enabled e-passports embedded with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) microchips and secure biometric data storage.
• Anti-Forgery and Identity Security: Designed to international safety standards, the biometric architecture heavily reduces the risks of identity fraud, tampering, and passport forgery.
• Accelerated Global Clearances: The automated chip configuration allows for faster, seamless electronic immigration clearances at international borders. Over 14.7 million e-passports have already been issued under this modernized framework.
• Expanded International Mobility: Driven by recent migration and mobility partnerships, Indian passport holders now enjoy:
  • 27 countries offering completely visa-free entry (up from 16 in 2019).
  • 47 countries providing convenient visa-on-arrival facilities.
  • 66 countries offering accessible e-visa entry channels.

Definitive Citizenship Documents in India:

Because a passport is legally defined as a transit document, definitive Indian citizenship is verified through distinct statutory civil records managed under the Citizenship Act, 1955:

• Natural Citizenship Proofs: A formal birth certificate issued by competent municipal or local registrar bodies under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, especially for individuals whose parentage complies with the baseline criteria of Indian descent.
• The National Register of Citizens (NRC): A certified inclusion within the official state citizen registers serves as definitive proof of citizenship status.
• Certificates of Naturalization or Registration: Official registration certificates issued directly by the Ministry of Home Affairs for individuals who have successfully acquired Indian citizenship through formal legal channels.

Context: India has officially resumed its border trade with China via the Lipulekh Pass in Uttarakhand after a six-year suspension that began during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

About Lipulekh Pass:

What It Is?

• Lipulekh is a highly strategic, high-altitude mountain pass in the Himalayas that acts as a vital cross-border trade corridor and transit gateway. It sits at a crucial geographic trijunction connecting India, Nepal, and China (Tibet).

Location:

• Indian: Located within the Vyas Valley in the Pithoragarh district of the Kumaon region in Uttarakhand, India.
• Chinese: Links India directly with the Purang region (also known as Taklakot) in Tibet, China.
• Elevation: Situated at an approximate high-altitude crest of 5,200 meters (around 17,060 feet) above sea level.

History and Geopolitical Conflict:

• The 1816 Sugauli Treaty: Following the Anglo-Nepal War, British India and the Kingdom of Nepal signed the Treaty of Sugauli, which designated the Kali River as the definitive western boundary of Nepal.
• The Origin Disagreement: The core dispute arises because both nations disagree on the geographical source of the Kali River. India maintains that the river begins at the springs of Kalapani, placing Lipulekh safely within Indian boundaries. Nepal argues the river originates farther west at Limpiyadhura, claiming the entire land pocket as Nepalese territory.
• The 1991 Resumption: After decades of closure following the 1962 Sino-Indian War, bilateral border trade through the pass originally resumed in 1991 under a formal bilateral protocol.
• The 2020 Map Escalation: In 2020, India inaugurated an 80-kilometer road linking Dharchula to Lipulekh to ease pilgrim transit. Nepal strongly protested this infrastructure project and retaliated by publishing a revised constitutional political map that unilaterally incorporated Kalapani, Lipulekh, and Limpiyadhura into its sovereign territory—a move India rejected.

Key Features of the Pass:

• Kailash Mansarovar Gateway: Serves as one of the most popular, shortest, and historically preferred trekking and driving routes for pilgrims undertaking the sacred Kailash Mansarovar Yatra.
• Active Cross-Border Trade Hub: Functions as a vital direct overland trade link between Indian merchants and Tibetan trading depots. The trade mainly involves high-altitude commodities, wool, and local crafts.
• Logistical Assembly Points: Features specialized high-altitude base camps, such as Nabhidhang and Gunji, which host dedicated customs infrastructure, border security outposts, and warehouse storage facilities.
• Mule and Pack-Animal Transit: Due to the steep terrain near the pass, the final 600-meter approach relies on horses and mules to move cargo to the border line.

Context: The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) successfully concluded the inaugural cohort of its flagship export acceleration initiative, the BHARATI programme.

About The BHARATI Programme:

What It Is?

• BHARATI (Bharat’s Hub for Agritech, Resilience, Advancement and Incubation for Export Innovation) is an insight-driven, flagship export enablement and acceleration programme.
• It is structured to instil an “export-first” mindset among Indian food startups, nurturing and empowering them to transition into globally successful agri-food exporters.

Nodal Body: The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA).

Aim:

• To build a future-ready export pipeline aligned with India’s national target of achieving USD 50 billion in APEDA-scheduled product exports by 2030.
• To identify and nurture high-potential agritech startups, bridging critical gaps in product development, sustainability, perishability, logistics, and quality compliance.

Eligibility Criteria:

• Eligible Entities:

• • Agri-Food Startups: Early-stage or established units focusing on high-value products designed for international markets.
  • SPS Solution Providers: Startups, individual researchers, or solo entrepreneurs developing answers to Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) bottlenecks.
  • Exporters: APEDA-registered exporters seeking to expand their existing portfolios with innovative, high-value offerings.
  • Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs): FPCs producing high-value agri-foods or designing ideas to counter export friction.

• Statutory Definition of a Startup under BHARATI:

To qualify for the acceleration benefits, an entity must satisfy the following tight criteria:

• • Type of Entity: Must be incorporated as a Private Limited Company, a Registered Partnership Firm, or a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP).
  • Age of the Entity: Should not exceed 5 years old from its official date of incorporation or registration.
  • Annual Turnover: The total turnover must not have exceeded ₹10 crore in any financial year since its inception.

Key Features of the Scheme:

• Rigorous Selection Matrix: Out of more than 700 nationwide applications, only 100 high-potential startups were selected for the inaugural cohort through a multi-stage evaluation process.
• Balanced Cohort Split: The first cohort maintained a specialized functional division: 68 agri-food product startups, 26 export-enabling technology providers, and 6 innovators focused entirely on SPS measures and quality compliance.
• 120-Hour Fast-Track Curriculum: Features a structured 120-hour acceleration curriculum spanning export preparedness, business scaling, branding, regulatory compliance, and investor readiness.
• Direct International Exposure: Facilitated immediate global outreach by sponsoring the top eight performing startups at the Gulfood 2026 exhibition in Dubai, generating more than 100 international B2B buyer
• Intergenerational Entrepreneurship: Showcased wide demographic participation, with active entrepreneurs ranging in age from 17 to 75 years.

Context: Venezuela has been placed under a state of emergency after two powerful back-to-back earthquakes of magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5 struck west of the capital city of Caracas.

About Venezuela:

What It Is?

• Venezuela is a sovereign, physiographically diverse federal multiparty republic located on the northern coast of South America. Economically transformed in the 20th century by the exploitation of the world’s largest known petroleum reserves, the nation is an urbanized society currently managed by an interim administration under President Delcy Rodríguez.

Location: Venezuela lies in a highly active seismic zone where the Caribbean Plate collides with and meets the South American Plate.

National Capital: Caracas.

Border Nations: Brazil, Guyana, Colombia, the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.

Key Geological Features:

• The Andean Mountain System:

• • Northwestern Venezuela is dominated by the Perijá Mountains and Cordillera de Mérida, extensions of the Andes.
  • The region contains Bolívar Peak (4,978 m), the country’s highest point.

• The Coastal Mountain System:

• • The Coastal and Interior ranges form a narrow upland belt housing major cities like Caracas, Valencia, and Maracay.
  • Naiguatá Peak (2,765 m) is the highest point of this region.

• Northwestern Valleys and Segovia Highlands:

• • This transitional upland area lies east of Lake Maracaibo.
  • It contains Venezuela’s only desert landscape, the Coro sand dunes.

• Lake Maracaibo Lowlands: A large basin between the Andes containing Lake Maracaibo, South America’s largest natural lake.
• The Llanos (Lowland Plains): Vast savanna plains extending along the Orinoco River.
• The Guiana Highlands:

• • Covering over two-fifths of Venezuela south of the Orinoco, this region consists of ancient plateaus and hills.
  • It is famous for tepuis, including Mount Roraima.

• The Orinoco Delta and Angel Falls:

• • The region contains Angel Falls, the world’s highest waterfall (979 m).
  • The Orinoco River Basin drains most of Venezuela before entering the Atlantic through a large delta.

Tags: Venezuela, Caracas, Venezuela Earthquake, South America, Caribbean Plate, South American Plate, Orinoco River, Angel Falls, Lake Maracaibo, Andes Mountains, Guiana Highlands, Mount Roraima.