UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | February 10 to February 16, 2025
As only three months are left to UPSC Prelims 2025, is your Current Affairs prep on point? Don't miss out on important weekly pointers — Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), BRICS, Gross Domestic Knowledge Product (GDKP), Einstein ring, and more. You can also test your knowledge by solving MCQs.
UPSC Current Affairs pointers: U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shake hands as they attend a joint press conference at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 13, 2025. (Reuters) Every Monday, UPSC Current Affairs Pointers in UPSC Essentials aim to go beyond the headlines and provide content relevant to your UPSC Prelims, State PCS, and other competitive examinations.
If you missed the UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | February 3 to February 9, 2025, from the Indian Express, read it here.
Index
(FYI: The data provided in these reports can be used to substantiate your Mains answer and create a broad understanding of the topic.)
India’s score since 2012 on the Corruption Perceptions Index. (Transparency International)
— India, with a score of 38, ranked 96 out of 180 countries on the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for 2024, according to the Transparency International report.
— The index, which lists countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, ranked Denmark at the top, followed by Finland, and Singapore.
— The index uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is corruption clean. The rank tells the country’s position relative to other countries in the index.
— In 2023, India’s overall score was 39 while in 2022, it was 40. There is a decline in the score of India on CPI.
— The report has highlighted that corruption is strongly intertwined with climate change. The funds intended to help those suffering from the consequences of global heating are stolen or misused due to corruption in the system.
— Denmark held on to first place with an unchanged 90 points, followed by Finland with 88 and Singapore with 84. New Zealand dropped from third to fourth, shedding two points to 83. South Sudan slid to the bottom of the index with just eight points, displacing Somalia although the latter country’s score dropped to nine.
Events
—The Artificial Intelligence Action Summit, co-chaired by India and France, was held in Paris on 10 and 11 February 2025.
— The Paris AI Action Summit builds on the AI Safety Summit held in the United Kingdom in 2023 and a smaller gathering in Seoul, South Korea, last year.
— The UK Summit led to the Bletchley Declaration on AI Safety which was signed by all 29 participating nations, including the US, China, and India.
— The Seoul Summit, co-hosted by the UK, was attended by 27 nations. The Seoul Declaration reaffirmed their commitment to international cooperation on AI, and to addressing the challenges and opportunities presented by the new technology.
— The Paris Summit focussed on five major themes, including public service AI, future of work, innovation and culture, trust in AI, and global governance of AI.
The air show also featured India’s indigenously developed single-engine multirole fighter, HAL Tejas.
— The 15th edition of Aero India 2025 was held from February 10th to 14th February at Yelahanka Air base in Bengaluru.
— It is a biennial event that was first held at Yelahanka Air Force Station, Bengaluru, in 1996.
— The theme of this year is ‘The Runway to a Billion Opportunities‘.
International
— Recently, Panama did not renew the Memorandum of Understanding on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), marking its exit from the initiative. In 2017, Panama became the first Latin American country to officially join the BRI.
— BRI was launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013. The ‘Belt’ plan was to revitalise a series of trading and infrastructure routes between Asia and Europe. Connectivity through Central Asia was a key element of the initiative. Subsequently, a sea road infrastructure was also initiated.
— For some time, together these initiatives were referred to as the One Belt One Road Initiative (OBOR). Since 2015, it has been mostly referred to as the BRI.
— The ballot for this year’s United Kingdom-India Young Professionals Scheme (YPS) will open next week. The scheme offers both British and Indian nationals the opportunity to live, study, travel, and work in the other country for up to two years.
— The scheme was launched in February 2023 and provides for UK and Indian nationals aged from 18 to 30 to live, study, travel, and work in another country for up to two years. It is part of the Migration and Mobility Agreement that the two countries signed in 2021, capping the number of young professionals admitted to either country at 3,000 per year.
— YPS is not extendable unless the regular work visas which are valid for five years can be extended. The scheme also does not allow any dependent children to accompany the applicant.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House, in Washington, DC, USA. (PMO via PTI Photo)
- Key Takeaways from the Modi-Trump Meeting
— Transforming Relationship Utilizing Strategic Technology (TRUST) initiative: Taking forward the Biden administration’s Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET), India and the US decided to rename it and launch the US-India TRUST initiative.
— It aims to catalyse collaboration among governments, academia and the private sector to drive innovation in defence, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, quantum computing, biotechnology, energy and space.
— Autonomous Systems Industry Alliance: It refers to India-US cooperation in the area of underwater domain awareness technologies. The US has offered a few co-production and co-development opportunities for UDA technologies, on a commercial basis. India is the very first country with whom US defence industry has offered to work with on these sensitive technologies.
— US-India COMPACT (Catalyzing Opportunities for Military Partnership, Accelerated Commerce & Technology) for the 21st century: Under this initiative, they committed to drive transformative change across key pillars of cooperation – defence, investment and trade, energy security, technology and innovation, multilateral cooperation, people to people connection.
— INDUS-Innovation: It an innovation bridge modelled after the successful INDUS-X platform, that will advance US-India industry and academic partnerships and foster investments in space, energy, and other emerging technologies.
— India and the US signal their commitment to “fully realise” the US-India 123 Civil Nuclear Agreement.
— The bilateral “Agreement for Co-operation between the Government of India and the Government of the United States of America concerning Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy” has been done because of the requirement for the US side under Section 123 of its Atomic Energy Act 1954. Hence it is also popularly known as the 123 Agreement.
— The 123 Agreement aimed to enable full civil nuclear energy cooperation between India and the US by providing for “full civil nuclear energy cooperation covering nuclear reactors and aspects of the associated nuclear fuel cycle including enrichment and reprocessing”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Kazan. (Photo: AP)
— Brazil has announced that the next BRICS summit will be held in Rio de Janeiro on 6-7 July.
— The country, which will lead the bloc of developing economies throughout 2025, aims to focus on global governance reform and strengthening cooperation among Global South nations, according to a government statement.
— BRICS stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, the original five members who were large, non-Western economies in 2009.
— In January this year, Indonesia officially joined the BRICS as a full member taking total membership to 10. Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates are also part of the bloc. The organisation now represents almost half the world’s population and almost one quarter of the world’s economy. Saudi Arabia has also been invited to join.
Polity
— On February 6, US Secretary of State said he would not attend the G20 summit in Johannesburg this year, saying South Africa was doing “very bad things” – including “expropriating private property.”
— The Constitution of India initially recognised the right to own property as a fundamental right under Article 19, which said all citizens have the right “To acquire, hold and dispose of property”.
— This was further protected under Article 31, which stated that property could not be taken possession of or acquired for public purposes unless “the law provides for compensation for the property taken possession of or acquired”.
— However, in 1978 these rights were removed from the fundamental rights chapter. Instead, Article 300A was introduced later, stating, “No person shall be deprived of his property save by authority of law”.
— Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharman while presenting the Union Budget on February 1 announced the launch of the Prime Minister Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana (PMDKY).
— PMDKY will cover 100 districts based on three broad parameters: low productivity, moderate crop intensity, and below-average credit parameters. The program has the following five objectives:
• Enhancing agricultural productivity;
• Adopting crop diversification and sustainable agriculture practices;
• Augmenting post-harvest storage at the panchayat and block level;
• Improving irrigation facilities; and
• Facilitating availability of long-term and short-term credit.
— PMDKY is on the line of the Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) which was launched in 2018. ADP aimed to quickly and effectively transform 112 of the most under-developed districts across India, based on 3 Cs — Convergence (of Central and State schemes), Collaboration (of Central and State level nodal officers, and District Collectors), and Competition (among districts through monthly delta ranking).
Economy
— In a revival of an idea that had been shelved in 2021, the government is looking to capture the knowledge economy through GDKP, as a metric to supplement the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
— GDKP was discussed earlier in 2021 when NITI Aayog made a presentation on the concept note. The National Statistical Commission had pointed out then that the concept note did not provide the methodology for capturing the data and computation of GDKP.
— Like several emerging markets, India also turned to sovereign green bonds to help fund its transition to a low-carbon economy, but investor demand remains weak.
— Green bonds are debt instruments issued by governments, corporations, and multilateral banks to raise funds for projects that reduce emissions or enhance climate resilience.
— Issuers typically offer green bonds at lower yields than conventional bonds, assuring investors that the proceeds will be used exclusively for green investments.
— The difference in yield — known as the green premium, or greenium — determines the cost advantage of green bonds. A higher greenium allows issuers to raise funds at lower costs, making green investments more attractive.
— Sovereign green bonds (SGrBs) are those that are issued by sovereign entities, like the Government of India, which formulated a framework for issuing such bonds in 2022.
Environment
— Last month was the hottest January on record, with the global average surface air temperature being 1.75 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level (1850-1900 average), Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said last week. It reached record-breaking levels despite the development of La Niña conditions.
— La Niña is one of the three phases of what is known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), a climate phenomenon characterised by changes in sea temperatures along the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, accompanied by fluctuations in the atmosphere overhead.
— ENSO has three phases — warm (El Niño), cool (La Niña), and neutral — which occur in irregular cycles of two to seven years. In La Nina, the trade winds become stronger than usual and push larger quantities of water to the western Pacific.
The discovery of the miracle plant later led to the development of the herbal drug, Jeevani. (Express photo)
— A member of Kerala’s indigenous Kani tribal community, who had been instrumental in unveiling the medicinal properties of Western ghat plant arogyapacha (trichopus zeylanicus) to the scientific world, was found dead at a cave in the forest.
— The plant grew in the Western Ghat regions of Thiruvananthapuram and the Kani community had been familiar with the medicinal values of the plant. The discovery of the properties of the plant for the modern scientific world was accidental in 1987.
Science and Technology
— On the priority list of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the USA is public-private partnerships for small modular reactors (SMR) for nuclear energy. The Union Budget has also announced that the government would set up a Nuclear Energy Mission worth ₹20,000 crore for research and development of SMRs.
— SMRs are essentially advanced small nuclear reactors that have a power capacity of 30MWe to 300 MWe (megawatt electrical) per unit. Conventional nuclear reactors, the kind which are currently installed in India and elsewhere, usually have capacities to produce 500 MW of electricity or more.
— The relatively simpler and modular design of SMRs—enabling their components to be assembled in a factory instead of being constructed on-site—lowers costs and allows flexible deployment, making them a much more attractive proposition in recent years.
— While lots of different types of SMRs are being developed, there are currently four main types, each using a different coolant to manage the extreme heat of a nuclear fission reaction — light water, high-temperature gas, liquid metal, and molten salt.
The ring of light surrounding the center of the galaxy NGC 6505, captured by ESA’s Euclid telescope, is an example of an Einstein ring. (Photo: ESA)
— The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Euclid space telescope has discovered a rare ring of light, known as an Einstein ring, around a galaxy nearly 590 million light-years away from Earth.
— Photos of the Einstein ring show a bright ball of light in the centre with a bright, cloudy ring around it. The ring was discovered around NGC 6505, a galaxy that was first found in the 19th Century.
— An Einstein ring is a ring of light around a form of dark matter, galaxy or cluster of galaxies. It is essentially an example of gravitational lensing.
— Gravitational lensing is a phenomenon that occurs when a massive celestial body — such as a galaxy or cluster of galaxies — creates a gravitational field that distorts and amplifies the light from distant galaxies that are behind it but in the same line of sight. The body causing the light to curve is called a gravitational lens.
— Einstein’s rings are named after mathematician and physicist Albert Einstein, whose general theory of relativity predicted that light could bend and brighten around objects across the cosmos. The first Einstein ring was discovered in 1987, and since then, several more have been discovered.
Persons in News
(Just FYI: Noting historical personalities’ anniversaries aids UPSC prep. UPSC often includes such personalities in questions, so revisiting their lives refreshes your static syllabus.)
Tulsi Gabbard is sworn in as Director of National Intelligence at the White House in Washington. (Source: Reuters)
— Tulsi Gabbard has been appointed as the head of the National Intelligence in the US by the Trump administration. She is the first Hindu member of the US House of Representatives.
— Despite frequent assumptions about her Indian heritage, Gabbard is not of Indian origin. Her mother converted to Hinduism and gave all her children Hindu names—her siblings are named Bhakti, Jai, Aryan, and Vrindavan.
Kallur Balan alias A V Balakrishnan, was a native of Mankara in Palakkad. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
— Kerala’s green man Kallur Balan, an exceptional conservationist who planted around 20 lakh tree saplings over the last 25 years, died in Palakkad.
— Balan alias A V Balakrishnan, a native of Mankara in Palakkad, had devoted his life to biodiversity conservation, which included feeding birds, wild animals and adding greenery to barren hills of Palakkad.
— He embarked on his conservation mission in 2000 and was conferred with the state forest department’s vanamitra (friend of the Forest) award in 2011 for his contributions.
Places in News
(Just FYI: The location of the place is important, considering that UPSC has asked several questions about places that were in the news, such as Aleppo and Kirkuk, in the 2018 UPSC Prelims. The best way to remember them is to plot them on a world map.)
— The decision to set up the CIP-South Asia Regional Centre (CIP-SARC) in Agra was taken last year. However, the UP government has pointed out that despite transferring 10 hectares to the National Horticulture Board for the International Potato Center’s (CIP) South Asia Regional Center, no work has begun yet.
— The CIP, headquartered at Lima in Peru, was founded in 1971 as a research-for-development organisation with a focus on potato, sweet potatoes and Andean roots and tubers. The potato crop is native to the Peruvian-Bolivian Andes in South America.
— In 2017, the CIP set up its first Asia centre in China, the world’s top potato producer and consumer.
— China is the top potato producer and consumer in the world, followed by India. In India, Uttar Pradesh (15 million tonnes), West Bengal (15 million tonnes), and Bihar (9 million tonnes) were the top three potato producers in 2020-21.
— The proposed CIP-SARC will be the second major international agricultural research institute in India. In 2017, the Agriculture Ministry supported the establishment of a regional centre of the Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Varanasi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and France President Emmanuel Macron at the Mazargues War Cemetery in Marseille on Wednesday. (X/@narendramodi)
— Prime Minister Narendra Modi and France President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to fallen Indian soldiers at the Mazargues War Cemetery in Marseille on February 12.
— The cemetery commemorates 1,487 soldiers who fell during World War I (1914-18), and 267 from World War II (1939-45), a majority of whom — 998 — were Indians fighting for the British.
Terms making buzz
— Gastroparesis: Stomach paralysis, medically known as gastroparesis, is a condition where the stomach muscles are weakened or unable to function properly, leading to delayed emptying of food into the small intestine. It disrupts the normal digestive process and can result in symptoms including nausea, vomiting, bloating, early satiety, and abdominal discomfort.
Test Your Knowledge
(Note: The best way to remember facts for UPSC and other competitive exams is to recall them through MCQs. Try to solve the following questions on your own.)
A. Consider the following statements about the Right to Property in India:
1. The right to own property is recognised as a fundamental right under Article 19, which said all citizens have the right “To acquire, hold and dispose of property”.
2. Article 300A was introduced to protect this right, stating, “No person shall be deprived of his property save by authority of law.”
Which of the following statements is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
B. Consider the following statements related to the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI):
1. India was ranked 86 out of 180 countries on the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for 2024.
2. The index uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is corruption clean. The rank tells the country’s position relative to other countries in the index.
Which of the following statements is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
C. What is the position of the Right to Property in India?
(a) Legal right available to citizens only
(b) Legal right available to any person
(c) Fundamental Right available to citizens only
(d) Neither Fundamental Right nor legal right
| Answer key |
| A. (b) B. (b) C. (b) |
Previous Articles
UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | February 3 to February 9, 2025
UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | January 27 to February 2, 2025
UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | January 20 to January 26, 2025
UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | January 13 to January 19, 2025
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Khushboo Kumari previously worked as a Deputy Copy Editor at The Indian Express, where she wrote for... Read More
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