UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | June 30 to July 6, 2025

Polity

• RailOne App

— The Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has launched the RailOne App as a one stop solution for all passenger services.

—  The app integrates services spread across different apps into a single platform for reserved, unreserved and platform ticket bookings, live train tracking, grievance redressal mechanism through RailMadad, PNR enquiry and e-catering.

— Officials said that 3% discount will be offered on unreserved tickets purchased through R-Wallet.

•  Employment Linked Incentive (ELI) scheme 

— With an objective to boost employment generation in formal sectors, especially in manufacturing, the Union Cabinet approved the Employment Linked Incentive (ELI) scheme on Tuesday (July 1)

— The scheme, which was announced in the Union Budget for 2024-25, was presented in July 2024, has an outlay of Rs 99,446 crore and aims to create 3.5 crore jobs over two years.

 

Defence

• INS Tamal

— The Navy commissioned INS Tamal, a Russian-manufactured guided missile frigate that also features dual-role BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, into the force on 1st June 2025.

— INS Tamal’s commissioning ceremony was held at Yantar shipyard in Russia’s Kaliningrad, where it was built. The ship will soon embark for her homeport of Karwar in Karnataka.

— INS Tamal is the eighth multi-role stealth frigate in Project 1135.6 — a series of frigates built by Russia for the Indian Navy — and the second of the additional follow-on Tushil class of ships.

— The seven Project 1135.6 ships inducted thus far are part of the Western Fleet, ‘The Sword Arm’ of the Navy under the Western Naval Command.

— INS Tamal is equipped with dual-role BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, vertically launched surface-to-air missiles with extended ranges, the standard 30 mm Close-in Weapon System, the 100 MM Main gun and very potent ASW rockets and heavyweight torpedoes.

 

International Cooperation

• Ottawa Convention

— After Russia’s extensive aerial attack on Ukraine, it is learnt that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree to withdraw Ukraine from the Ottawa Convention banning antipersonnel land mines.

— Anti-personnel landmines are generally hidden in the ground and designed to detonate automatically when someone steps on them or passes nearby.

— The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction. It is the international agreement that bans antipersonnel landmines. It is usually referred to as the Ottawa Convention or the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty.

Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar along with other foreign ministers of Quad nations. (Photo/AP/PTI)

• Quad foreign ministers’ meeting

— The foreign ministers of the Quad grouping met in Washington, D.C. on July 1, 2025, for the 10th Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting.

— External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Japan Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya met for the second Quad foreign ministers’ meeting this year, and the first since Operation Sindoor.

Major Outcomes:

➥ Quad Critical Minerals Initiative: The Quad countries launched the new flagship initiative to strengthen economic security and collective resilience by collaborating on securing and diversifying critical mineral supply chains.

➥ Maritime and Transnational Security: The Quad grouping discussed enhancing maritime security cooperation, including the launch of the Quad Ports of the Future Partnership. This month, the first-ever Quad-at-Sea Ship Observer Mission was launched by the Quad. Later this month, the second maritime legal dialogue to advance efforts to uphold maritime order will be held.

About QUAD

➢ Quad brings together four countries – India, Australia, Japan, and the United

States, with a commitment to work as a force for global good and to support a free and

open Indo-Pacific that is prosperous and resilient.

➢ It was formed as an informal alliance after the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004. It was formalised in 2007 by the efforts of the then-Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe.

➢ The United States hosted the 2025 Quad Foreign Ministers Meeting, and India will host the 2025 Quad Leaders Summit.

Do you know who hosted the fourth Quad Leaders’ Summit? What is the Cancer Moonshot Initiative?

(FYI: In 2020, GS paper II, UPSC has asked a question on QUAD, making it an important topic for your exam, so don’t miss out on understanding this grouping and important developments related to it.)

• PM Modi conferred Ghana’s national honour

— Prime Minister Narendra Modi was conferred with ‘The Officer of the Order of the Star of Ghana’, the country’s national honour, for his “distinguished statesmanship and influential global leadership”.

— The award was conferred on the prime minister in recognition of his “distinguished statesmanship and influential global leadership,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a press release.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi being conferred with ‘The Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago’ (PTI)

• PM Modi conferred Trinidad and Tobago’s highest civilian honour

— Prime Minister Narendra Modi was conferred with ‘The Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago’ – the country’s highest civilian honour. Modi is on a two-day visit to the Caribbean island nation on the second leg of his five-nation tour.

— This is Modi’s first visit to the country as prime minister and the first Indian bilateral visit at the prime ministerial level to Trinidad and Tobago since 1999.

— Modi said Trinidad and Tobago is not only a CARICOM partner for India but also an important partner globally. “Our cooperation is significant for the entire Global South,” he added.

CARICOM

➥ CARICOM, the Caribbean Community, is a regional political and economic union of 15 states and five associated members. It was formed on 4 July 1973 after signing the Treaty of Chaguaramas.

➥ Member states: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad & Tobago.

➥ Of the 15, all except Montserrat are nation States. Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands and Turks & Caicos Islands are Associate Members of the Community.

➥ The Chairmanship of the Community is rotated every six months among the member countries’ Heads.

Do you know about the India-CARICOM Summit? When was it held? 

F-35B Lightening jet.

• F-35B Lightning jet

— An engineering team from the United Kingdom arrived at the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport in Kerala to assess and repair the British Royal Navy’s F-35B fighter jet, which made an emergency landing on June 14 and had been stranded there for more than three weeks.

— The F-35B from the Royal Navy’s aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales made the landing in Thiruvananthapuram when it was undertaking a routine flight outside the Indian air defence identification zone, which is a designated area of airspace extending beyond a country’s sovereign territory.

— Thiruvananthapuram was designated as the emergency recovery airfield, a location where aircraft can land in the event of an in-flight emergency.

— The F-35B is the only fifth-generation fighter jet with short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) capabilities, making it ideal for operating from smaller decks, austere bases, and ships. Known simply as the ‘Lightning’ in British service, the F-35B is the STOVL variant of the fighter jet, designed to operate from short-field bases and air-capable ships.

 

Environment

• Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) deferred clearance

— The Environment Ministry’s Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) has deferred its clearance for the proposed international airport in Odisha’s Puri, citing its regional office’s concerns about potential harm to Olive Ridley turtles, Irrawaddy dolphins, and migratory birds. There is a potential risk to lakhs of migratory birds that visit the Chilika estuarine lake, which is at a distance of approximately 10-11 km from the proposed area.

Odisha told the panel that 345 Olive Ridley turtle nests were detected in the Brahmagiri range as on March 20, 2025. (AP/File)

— Olive Ridley: The Olive Ridley nesting site at Balukhand wildlife sanctuary is at a distance of 2.3 km from the proposed airport site, and it is also contiguous to the sea and beach adjacent to the site.

➢ Olive ridley turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) are the smallest and most abundant of all sea turtles in the world. They get their name from the olive green colour of their heart-shaped shell, and inhabit warm waters of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans. It is recognized as Vulnerable by the IUCN Red list.

➢ The coast of Odisha (where Rushikulya and Gahirmatha rookeries are situated) is the largest mass nesting site for the Olive ridley, followed by the coasts of Mexico and Costa Rica.

— Irrawaddy dolphins: Irrawaddy dolphins are found in coastal areas in South and Southeast Asia, and in three rivers: the Ayeyarwady (Myanmar), the Mahakam (Indonesian Borneo) and the Mekong. It is listed as Endangered in the IUCN Red List. In India, it is found in Chilika Lake.

— Chilika Lake: It is a brackish water lake and a shallow lagoon with estuarine character spread across the districts of Puri, Khurda and Ganjam in the state of Odisha. It is India’s first wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention.

— Forest Advisory Committee (FAC): It is a statutory body under the provisions of section-3 of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. The role of the FAC is recommendatory in nature so far as diversion of forest land for the purpose of non-forestry use, including mining, is concerned.

 

Science and Technology

• GPS interference

— An Air India Express flight from Delhi to Jammu returned to the Delhi Airport on Sunday (20th June) morning after it was diverted mid-air following a suspected “GPS interference”.

— GPS interference refers to spoofing or jamming, two types of deliberate cyber-attacks on Global Positioning System (GPS) signals, which disrupt or deceive vehicles’ navigation systems. While both are often used synonymously with each other, spoofing and jamming refer to slightly different kinds of interference.

— GPS jamming, also known as GPS intervention, involves a device (jammer) emitting strong radio signals on GPS frequencies in order to overpower weaker signals. This disrupts the functioning of GPS systems by rendering receivers unable to determine location or time.

— GPS spoofing involves a device transmitting signals on the same frequencies used by GPS satellites, overwhelming or blocking the GPS receivers from acquiring or maintaining the right satellite signals. Unlike jamming, which disrupts signals entirely, spoofing deceives the receiver into trusting false data.

— GPS interference can occur due to various reasons, not all of them malicious. These include electromagnetic radiation from nearby devices, adverse atmospheric conditions like ionospheric disturbances, solar activity (such as flares), and, of course, intentional jamming/spoofing.

• Ham Radio Communication

— Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla interacted with the country’s students using a ham radio from the International Space Station (ISS) on July 4.

— Amateur radio, popularly known as ham radio, is a licensed radio service that relies on radio waves for establishing communication.

— In India, any individual above the age of 12 is permitted to operate a ham radio. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issues these licences.

— Amateur radio was first used on a space shuttle to establish communication between space and Earth in 1983.

— The ISS also has a ham radio, known as the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS), which is often used to organise astronaut-student interactions.

— They rely on radio waves to transmit and receive information. Radio waves have the longest wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum. Heinrich Hertz proved the existence of radio waves in the late 1880s.

 

Diseases

(Just FYI: UPSC has consistently included questions on health and diseases in its examinations over the years. For instance, in 2014, a question about the Ebola virus appeared in the Prelims, and in 2017, a question about the Zika virus was featured. Therefore, it is crucial to stay updated on diseases that are currently in the news.)

• Nipah virus

The Kerala Health Department has stepped up vigil against the Nipah virus after two positive cases of the deadly zoonotic disease were detected in two districts.

— Nipah is a viral infection that mainly affects animals such as bats, pigs, dogs, and horses but can jump to humans who come in contact with the infected animals and cause a serious disease. The transmission can happen due to “consumption of raw date palm sap or fruit that has been contaminated with saliva or urine from infected bats.”

— According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), its symptoms are fever, headache, cough, sore throat, difficulty in breathing, and vomiting. In severe cases, disorientation, drowsiness, seizures, encephalitis (swelling of the brain) can occur, progressing to coma and death.

 

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.)

Sub Lieutenant Aastha Poonia has become the first woman to be streamed into the fighter stream of Naval Aviation. (Credit: X/@indiannavy)

• Sub Lt Aastha Poonia

— Sub Lieutenant Aastha Poonia has become the first woman to be streamed into the fighter stream of Naval Aviation, the Navy said Friday (4th July).

— Once she completes her year-long training, she would qualify for the fighter stream of naval aviation and may fly the MiG-29K or Rafale M fighter jet off the Navy’s aircraft carriers.

— Advanced flying training of India military pilots take place in the British-origin Hawk Mk 132 advanced jet trainer before they train on frontline fighter jets.

— The Navy operates two aircraft carriers, which are the INS Vikrant and INS Vikramaditya. The MiG-29K is the primary aircraft that operates from INS Vikramaditya.

• Dalai Lama

— The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, turns 90 on Sunday (6th July).

— In his birthday message on Saturday, the leader urged his followers to focus on achieving peace of mind, and make the world a better place.

— The 14th Dalai Lama was born as Lhamo Thondup on July 6, 1935, in the small village of Taktser in northeastern Tibet. He was recognised as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama at the age of two, and was formally enthroned in Lhasa at age four and given the spiritual name Tenzin Gyatso.

— After a failed uprising against Chinese rule in Lhasa, the Dalai Lama fled the Potala Palace in 1959 and took refuge in India: he crossed the border on March 31, 1959. He has lived in exile in McLeodganj since 1960, where he helped establish the Central Tibetan Administration and became the global face of the Tibetan struggle

— His reincarnation will be identified by the Gaden Phodrang Trust.

Gaden Phodrang Trust

— The 14th Dalai Lama has said that the Gaden Phodrang Trust shall be the “sole authority to recognize the future reincarnation”.

— The term Gaden Phodrang refers to the residential quarters of the Dalai Lama lineage from the second Dalai Lama onward at Drepung Monastery in Lhasa. It is one of three institutions associated with the Dalai Lama. The other two are the Dalai Lama Trust and Gaden Phodrang Foundation.

Know about the previous incarnations of the Dalai Lama here. 

— The Gaden Phodrang Trust was registered in 2011 in Dharamshala to recognise the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. It is based in the office of the Dalai Lama, and is managed by the former Kalon Tripa (head of the CTA) Prof Samdhong Rinpoche, a senior monk and a close confidant of the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama heads the trust, whose members include some other aides of the spiritual leader.

— Gaden Phodrang Foundation is a tax-exempt Swiss nonprofit with its registered office in Zurich, and is supervised by the Swiss Federal Department of Home Affairs. It is funded by charitable contributions made by the founder and the public. The Dalai Lama is the founder and president of the foundation, and Tseten Samdup Chhoekyapa (India), Kelsang Gyaltsen (Switzerland), and Jamphel Lhundup (India), are its co-vice presidents.

— The Dalai Lama Trust is a non-profit charitable organisation founded by the 14th Dalai Lama in 2009. It is headquartered in New Delhi but works with a range of partners internationally, too. The purpose of the trust is to support the welfare of the Tibetan people and to promote human values, interfaith harmony, and world peace, which have been key elements of the Dalai Lama’s lifelong mission.

 

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.)

• Samjung, Nepal

— Samjung is a Himalayan village located in Nepal. After generations of herding and harvesting in the mountains, villagers in Samjung have been forced to relocate as snow fails, rains flood, and water sources disappear.

— The Hindu Kush and Himalayan mountain regions, stretching from Afghanistan to Myanmar, hold more ice than anywhere else outside the Arctic and Antarctic. Their glaciers feed major rivers that support 240 million people in the mountains, and 1.65 billion more downstream.

— Such high-altitude areas are warming faster than the lowlands. Glaciers are retreating and permafrost areas are thawing as snowfall becomes scarcer and more erratic, according to the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICMOD).

(FYI: Climate change is impacting the communities, habitats, and job preferences. In this regard, the example of Samjung Nepal can be cited to highlight the impact of climate change in your Mains and Essay answers.)

 

Sports

(Just FYI: With the unpredictability of the UPSC examinations and questions like the ICC World Test Championship question 2021, you can’t be sure of anything. It is wise to know what it is and not go into too much detail.)

India’s Neeraj Chopra celebrates as he competes in the Neeraj Chopra Classic 2025 international javelin competition, in Bengaluru, Karnataka, Saturday, July 5, 2025. (PTI Photo)

• Neeraj Chopra Classic 2025

— Neeraj Chopra, with a javelin throw of 86.18m, won the inaugural NC Classic 2025. Julius Yego (84.51m) and Rumesh Pathirage (84.34m) came second and third, respectively.

— NC Classic is India’s first-ever international javelin competition, which took place at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru on Saturday (5th July).

 

Terms making buzz

— Kolhapuri chappal: Kolhapuri chappals are handcrafted unisex leather sandals traditionally made by artisans in Maharashtra’s Kolhapur district and parts of Karnataka. In 2019, after sustained advocacy by artisan groups and craft researchers, Kolhapuri chappals were granted a Geographical Indication (GI) tag under India’s Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999.

 

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.)

(1) Consider the following statements about Ham radio:

1. They use radio waves for communication.

2. In India, any individual above the age of 12 is permitted to operate a ham radio.

3. The Ministry of Defence issues these licences.

How many of the above statements is/are correct?

(a) 1, 2 and 3

(b) 1 only

(c) 2 and 3 only

(d) 1 and 2 only

(2) Consider the following statements about CARICOM:

1. It was founded in 1973 by the Treaty of Chaguaramas

2. India became an observer state in 2015.

3. The Chairmanship of the Community is rotated every six years among the member countries’ Heads.

4. Trinidad & Tobago is a member state.

How many of the above statements are correct?

(a) Only one

(b) Only two

(c) Only three

(d) All four

(3) Consider the following pairs: (UPSC CSE 2019)

(a) 1 and 2 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 1 and 3 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3

For your suggestions, write to khushboo.kumari@indianexpress.com

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