Loading…
Jal Sanchay Jan Bhagidari: Catch the Rain (JSJB: CTR) 2026 was launched on 1 June 2026, merging the JSJB initiative with the Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain campaign.
JSJB was first launched at Surat, Gujarat on 6 September 2024; JSJB 2.0 ran from 1 June 2025 to 31 May 2026.
The initiative focuses on low-cost rainwater harvesting structures - borewells, recharge shafts and recharge pits - built in saturation mode using locally available material.
It is guided by the 3Cs principle - Community, CSR and Cost - and draws convergent financing from VB-G RAM G, AMRUT, Per Drop More Crop, PMKSY, CAMPA and Finance Commission grants.
Water being a State subject, the Centre supplements State efforts; progress is tracked on the JSJB: CTR online portal.
Jal Shakti Abhiyan launched as a time-bound, mission-mode water conservation campaign in 256 water-stressed districts identified by the Central Ground Water Board
Relaunched by the Prime Minister as Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain, with the message 'Catch the Rain: Where It Falls, When It Falls'
JSA: CTR themed 'Source Sustainability for Drinking Water', with 150 special focus districts identified by the Jal Jeevan Mission
JSA: CTR themed 'Nari Shakti se Jal Shakti', with special focus on 151 districts identified by the Central Ground Water Board
Jal Sanchay Jan Bhagidari launched at Surat, Gujarat
JSJB 2.0 launched; implementation cycle 1 June 2025 to 31 May 2026
JSA: CTR themed 'Jal Sanchay Jan Bhagidari: Jan Jagrukta Ki Or', with special focus on 148 CGWB-identified districts
JSJB: Catch the Rain 2026 launched, integrating JSJB with the JSA: CTR campaign
Enhance physical access to water on farms, expand cultivable area under assured irrigation, improve on-farm water use efficiency and introduce sustainable water conservation practices.
Key: Har Khet Ko Pani (HKKP) is a component, under which the Surface Minor Irrigation (SMI) scheme and the Repair, Renovation and Restoration (RRR) of Water Bodies scheme operate, with Central Assistance to States for creating and restoring irrigation potential.
Promote micro-irrigation and water-use efficiency in agriculture.
Key: One of the convergent funding sources tapped by JSJB.
Urban water supply, sewerage and water body rejuvenation.
Key: Provides the urban leg of convergent financing for water conservation structures.
Rural employment and livelihoods.
Key: Funds water-related works through wage employment, historically the largest source of rural water asset creation.
Manages compensatory afforestation funds collected for diverted forest land.
Key: Contributes to catchment treatment and water conservation works.
Untied and tied grants to local bodies.
Key: A significant tied component is earmarked for water supply and sanitation, usable for recharge structures.
Rainwater harvesting can do two different things, and the distinction matters. Storage captures rain in a tank or pond for direct use. Recharge instead routes rainwater underground, through recharge pits, recharge shafts and defunct or purpose-built borewells, so that it replenishes the aquifer rather than evaporating or running off. JSJB is explicitly a recharge programme - its named structures are recharge pits, recharge shafts and borewells - and that choice follows from India's actual water problem. The country depends on groundwater for the majority of its irrigation and rural drinking water, and extraction in many blocks exceeds natural replenishment, which is precisely what the Central Ground Water Board measures when it classifies blocks as safe, semi-critical, critical or over-exploited. Surface storage does not fix an over-drawn aquifer; recharge does. The second design choice is 'saturation mode' - building structures across every eligible site in an area rather than a scattered sample - because an aquifer responds to the total volume infiltrated across its recharge zone, not to isolated works.
Simple Analogy: Storing rain is filling a bucket; recharging is topping up the well everyone already draws from.
The national apex body for groundwater assessment, monitoring, exploration and management. It identifies the water-stressed and special-focus districts that successive JSA: CTR editions target - 256 at launch in 2019, 151 in 2024 and 148 in 2025.
Runs the Jal Shakti Abhiyan and Jal Sanchay Jan Bhagidari campaigns and maintains the JSJB: CTR monitoring portal.
Water being a State subject, States study, plan, fund and execute water conservation works from their own resources and priorities; the Centre supplements.
GS Paper 3 > Environment: Conservation; Economy: Irrigation. GS Paper 2 > Centre-State Relations
General Awareness > Government Schemes and Environment
General Awareness > Government Schemes
General Awareness > Environment and Schemes
The term 'M-STrIPES' is sometimes seen in the news in the context of
Answer: Maintenance of Tiger Reserves
Recently there was a proposal to translocate some of the lions from their natural habitat in Gujarat to which one of the following sites?
Answer: Kuno Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary
Consider the following pairs: Wildlife : Naturally found in 1. Blue-finned Mahseer : Cauvery River 2. Irrawaddy Dolphin : Chambal River 3. Rusty-spotted Cat : Eastern Ghats Which of the pairs given above are correctly matched?
Answer: 1 and 3 only
Consider the following statements: 1. Under Ramsar Convention, it is mandatory on the part of the Government of India to protect and conserve all the wetlands in the territory of India. 2. The Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2010 were framed by the Government of India based on the recommendations of Ramsar Convention. 3. The Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2010 also encompass the drainage area or catchment regions of the wetlands as determined by the authority. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Answer: 2 and 3 only
Which one of the following protected areas is well-known for the conservation of a sub-species of the Indian swamp deer (Barasingha) that thrives well on hard ground and is exclusively graminivorous?
Answer: Kanha National Park
Water conservation campaigns and the Centre-State division on water are recurring UPSC Prelims and Mains themes, and scheme names appear routinely in SSC and Railway papers.
Community-led rainwater harvesting initiative launched at Surat on 6 September 2024, merged with JSA: Catch the Rain from 1 June 2026.
Community, CSR and Cost - the guiding principle of JSJB, emphasising community ownership, corporate funding and low-cost structures.
A vertical structure that channels surface rainwater past impermeable layers into the aquifer below.
Building structures at every eligible site in an area rather than a scattered sample, so the aquifer receives enough total infiltration to respond.
A PMKSY component covering Surface Minor Irrigation and Repair, Renovation and Restoration of Water Bodies.
Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority, one of the convergent financing sources for water conservation works.