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UPSC Current Affairs Pointers brings you essential current affairs of the past week, every Monday, to aid you in your Prelims and Mains preparation of UPSC, State PCS, and other competitive examinations.
If you missed the UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | April 21 to April 27, 2025, from the Indian Express, read it here.
(FYI: The data provided in these reports can be used to substantiate your Mains answer and create a broad understanding of the topic.)
— Last month, the fourth edition of the India Justice Report (IJR) 2025 was published, which tracks each state’s structural and financial capability to deliver justice. It was first published in 2019 with the support of Tata Trusts.
— IJR uses the filters of human resources, infrastructure, budgets, workload, and diversity to assess the capacity of four core pillars of the justice system to deliver to mandates: police, prisons, judiciary, legal aid, and Human Rights Commissions.
— According to the report, the police-to-population ratio remains at 155 police personnel per 100,00 population – well below the sanctioned strength of 197. In Bihar, it is just 81 police personnel per lakh population.
— In the Judiciary, there is a 20 per cent increase in pending cases, crossing the five-crore mark. The vacancies in the high courts and district courts stand at 33 per cent and 21 per cent, respectively.
— The average overcrowding in prisons stands at 131 per cent, and Prisoners awaiting trial stand at 76 per cent.
— The report highlighted that in the district judiciary, the share of women judges has increased to 38 per cent.
Overall Ranking of Large and Mid-sized States
| States | IJR 2025 | IJR 2022 |
| Karnataka | 1 | 1 |
| Andhra Pradesh | 2 | 5 |
| Telengana | 3 | 3 |
| Kerala | 4 | 6 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 17 | 18 |
| West Bengal | 18 | 17 |
— The third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) is being held in Nice, France, from June 9 to 13, 2025. France will co-host the event with Costa Rica. The theme of the conference is “Accelerating action and mobilizing all actors to conserve and sustainably use the ocean.”
— The first UN Ocean Conference was held in June 2017 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City (U.S.A.), and it was co-hosted by the governments of Fiji and Sweden. The second conference was held in Lisbon in 2022.
— The UN Ocean Conference is the United Nations conference dedicated to Sustainable Development Goal 14 with the aim to mobilise action for the conservation, protection and sustainable use of the ocean, seas and the marine resources.
— The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the enumeration of castes in the upcoming Census.
— The last census that collected caste information was of census of 1931. The 1941 Census, carried out during the War, collected data on caste, but they were never released.
— To include caste enumeration in the next Census, the government does not need to amend the Census Act. The Registrar General and Census Commissioner (RG&CC) is already empowered under existing law to design the census proforma.
— The funds spent by the listed companies on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) rose by 16 per cent to Rs 17,967 crore during the year ended March 2024 as compared to Rs 15,524 crore spent in 2022-23.
— CSR is a management framework through which companies incorporate social and environmental considerations into their business operations and interactions with stakeholders.
— According to the section 135(1) of the Companies Act, 2013 read with the Companies (CSR Policy) Rules, 2014, companies with net worth of Rs 500 crore and above or turnover of Rs 1,000 crore and above or net profit of Rs 5 crore and above have to spend two per cent of average net profits of last three years.
— Notably, a holding or subsidiary of a company is not required to comply with the CSR provisions unless the holding or subsidiary itself fulfils the eligibility criteria prescribed under section 135(1) stated above.
— The Centre has decided to increase the fair and remunerative price (FRP) of sugarcane by Rs 15 (or 4.41%) to Rs 355 per quintal for the sugar season 2025-26.
— FRP is the minimum price mandated by the Government that sugar mills are obligated to pay farmers for their produce.
— It is decided by the Centre’s Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA). This committee includes the Prime Minister, the Defence Minister, the Home Minister, the Finance Minister, the Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and some other senior ministers.
— The FRP for sugarcane is decided using the same mechanism as the one that is used to calculate the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of 23 other crops. However, while the MSP is not legally guaranteed, sugar mills are legally obligated to pay the FRP.
— The FRP is based on the recovery of sugar from the cane. Sugar recovery is the ratio between sugar produced versus cane crushed, expressed as a percentage. The higher the recovery, the higher is the FRP, and higher is the sugar produced.
— To boost India’s green hydrogen exports and encourage energy-intensive sectors to adopt the emerging fuel, the Centre has introduced a certification scheme under the National Green Hydrogen Mission. It aims to measure, monitor, report, verify on-site, and certify green hydrogen based on a standard introduced by the Ministry in 2023.
— On April 27, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), nodal agency for the Green Hydrogen Certification Scheme, also announced an offset mechanism for hard-to-abate sectors using green hydrogen under CCTS, to allow them to earn and trade credits.
— Green hydrogen is produced by splitting water through electrolysis, using an electrolyser that is powered by renewable energy. Green hydrogen has specific advantages. One, it is a clean-burning molecule, which can decarbonise sectors including iron and steel, chemicals, and transportation. Two, renewable energy that cannot be stored or used by the grid can be channelled to produce it.
— India has inked a Rs 63,000 crore deal with France to procure 26 Rafale-Marine (Rafale-M) fighter jets for the Navy.
— The Rafale, designed and built by Dassault Aviation, is a French twin-engine, “omnirole” fighter aircraft most hailed for its versatility. According to Dassault’s website, the Rafale’s mission capabilities include Air-to-ground precision strike, Anti-ship attacks, and Buddy-buddy refuelling.
— The United States Trade Representative’s (USTR) Special 301 Report has placed India, China and six other countries on its ‘priority watch list’ for weak intellectual property (IP) protection.
— The USTR report stated that over the past year, India has remained inconsistent in its progress on IP protection and enforcement, even as it has worked to strengthen its IP regime.
— India’s R&D spending is now below the 0.83 per cent of GDP recorded in 2008, the highest in the past two decades. While neighbouring China spends 2.43 per cent of its GDP on R&D, the figure stands at 4.93 per cent for South Korea, 1.21 per cent for Thailand, 2.21 per cent for the European Union, and 3.46 per cent for the United States.
— In the 13th edition of the U.S. Chamber’s International IP Index, India is ranked 43 (score: 36.45%) out of 55 economies, highlighting the need to strengthen the ecosystem for innovation and creativity through more effective intellectual property (IP) standards. The United States is at the top with a score of 95.17%.
— Following the Pahalgam terror attack, as part of the strategy to curb financial flows that aid terror activities, India is planning to bring Pakistan back into the ‘grey list’ of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Notably, Pakistan was put in the ‘grey list’ in June 2018, and faced “increased monitoring” till it was removed in October 2022.
— The FATF is commonly referred to as the world’s “terrorism financing watchdog”. It was formed in 1989 as a G7 initiative to examine and develop measures to combat money laundering. It originally included the G7 countries, the European Commission and eight other countries.
— According to the official site of FATF, there are currently 40 members of the FATF; 38 jurisdictions and 2 regional organisations (the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the European Commission).
— India became a member of FATF in 2010. Interestingly, Pakistan is not a member of FATF but of the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG), the largest FATF-Style Regional Body. India is a member of APG as well as of the FATF.
— The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has released the Draft Greenhouse Gases Emissions Intensity (GEI) Target Rules, 2025. It puts in place a compliance mechanism for the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme, 2023 (CCTS).
— The CCTS was launched to create a framework for the trading of carbon credits, to facilitate the reduction of emissions in energy-intensive industries, and to support India’s climate commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015.
— The five most abundant GHGs in the atmosphere are water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. Other GHGs include synthetic fluorinated gases such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs).
— GHG emissions intensity, or GEI, is the amount of GHGs that are emitted per unit of product output — the amount of GHGs that are released in the production of, say, 1 tonne of cement, aluminium, or paper, etc.
— The draft Rules define GEI as “greenhouse gases emission intensity in tCO2e/ equivalent output or product”. tCO2e, or tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, is the standard unit used to measure the impact of all GHGs, not just CO2, based on their potential to warm the planet.
Read more about the target.
— After months of intense negotiation, the US and Ukraine signed a deal on Wednesday (April 30) allowing the US preferential access to Ukraine’s minerals and energy reserves.
— Rare Earth Elements (RREs), as defined by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) in 2005, are a group of 17 elements. These elements share similar properties such as high density and high conductivity.
— The main sources of REEs are minerals such as bastnasite, loparite and monazite. Based on their atomic numbers, they are divided into two groups: the light group, also known as the Cerium group (light REE), and the heavy group, also known as the Yttrium group (heavy REE).
— Despite the name – rare earth elements – these elements are not so rare. They are found in abundance in the Earth’s crust. However, they’re rarely found in concentrations that are economically viable for mining.
— India has the third-largest reserves of REEs, estimated at 6.9 million metric tons, largely in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Odisha, and Kerala. The monazite sands in Kerala are particularly rich in REEs.
— In January, the Indian government has also approved a Rs 16,300-crore National Critical Minerals Mission (NCMM) to promote the exploration of critical minerals within the country and at offshore locations.
(Just FYI: Noting historical personalities’ anniversaries aids UPSC prep. UPSC often includes such personalities in questions, so revisiting their lives refreshes your static syllabus.)
— The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has planned to rename a stretch of Lala Lajpat Rai Marg in South Delhi to Bodofa Upendra Nath Brahma Marg, after the prominent Bodo social activist and leader.
— Upendra Nath Brahma is called “Bodofa”, which means “father or guardian of the Bodos.” He served as president of the All Bodo Students’ Union and dedicated his life to championing the education and well-being of the Bodo community before passing away at the young age of 34 from cancer in 1990.
— Mark Carney has become the new Prime Minister of Canada after the Liberal Party won the election, marking the fourth term in the Parliament.
Major parties in Canada that contested the election:
— Canadian politics has been historically dominated by two parties: the Liberals and the Conservatives. In recent years, the smaller Bloc Québécois (BQ) and New Democratic Party (NDP) have sometimes played kingmaking roles.
— The CONSERVATIVES, also called the Tories, have been led by Pierre Poilievre, 45, since 2022. The LIBERALS are led by Carney. He is a former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, and is untested politically. The NDP, led by Canadian Sikh leader Jagmeet Singh, 46, supported Trudeau’s minority government between 2021 and 2024.
— The Maharashtra government on April 29 reclaimed the iconic sword of Maratha warrior Raje Raghuji Bhonsle I at an auction in London for Rs 47.15 lakh.
— Raghuji Bhonsle I was an important figure in 18th-century Maratha history, whose power was shaped by both family conflict and strategic alliances.
— His decisive victory in 1730 after the siege of Bham marked a turning point, securing his leadership and laying the foundation for the Bhonsle dynasty’s rise in Nagpur.
— In the 1751 treaty with Nawab Alivardi Khan, Raghuji Bhonsle I emerged as the key figure in bringing Odisha under Maratha rule. He played a pivotal role in reviving the Shree Jagannath Temple’s activities, which had languished under Mughal rule.
— Raghuji Bhonsle I expanded the Maratha empire to Orissa, Bihar, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. He led pivotal military campaigns in Bengal from 1745 and 1755.
(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.)
— One of India’s longest transportation tunnels is in Uttarakhand’s Devprayag, the 14.57-km Janasu twin tunnel, also known as tunnel no 8 (T-8). A part of the 125-km Rishikesh-Karnaprayag line is located in this.
— T-8 also has the distinction of being the first place in the Himalayas where Indian Railways has used tunnel boring machines (TBMs) to excavate hard rocks to make tunnels.
— At present, India’s longest rail tunnel is the 12.77-km T-50, which lies between Khari and Sumber stations on the Katra-Banihal section of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL), also known as the Kashmir line.
— Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 2nd May, 2025, inaugurated the Vizhinjam International Sea Port in Kerala in a major step towards putting the state on the global maritime map.
— The Vizhinjam Port is located in Kerala’s capital city Thiruvananthapuram, and is expected to significantly boost India’s presence in global shipping and trade routes.
— Built at a cost of around Rs 8,900 crore under public-private partnership (PPP) mode, the transshipment port is operated by the Adani Group, with the Kerala government holding the majority stake.
— In April, the Vizhinjam International Seaport, which began limited operations last year, received MSC Türkiye—one of the world’s largest cargo ships, with a capacity of over 24,000 containers, making it the first port in India to handle a vessel of that size.
— A transshipment port includes terminals, where cargo containers are shifted from one vessel to another before they reach their final destination. Countries with robust global trade networks tend to use such ports to efficiently process large amounts of international cargo.
— Currently, India has 13 major ports and 217 non-major ports, including private ports like Adani’s Mundra port and the Krishnapatnam port. Navi Mumbai’s Jawaharlal Nehru Port and the Mundra Port are the largest container ports in the country, each handling upwards of 7 million containers per annum.
— Lapu-Lapu Day: Lapu-Lapu Day is observed on the anniversary of the Battle of Mactan, fought in 1521. In this battle, the chieftain (or Datu) of the Mactan island, Lapulapu, defeated Spanish forces under Ferdinand Magellan.
(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) The Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) of sugarcane is approved by the: (UPSC CSE 2015)
(a) Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs
(b) Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices
(c) Directorate of Marketing and Inspection, Ministry of Agriculture
(d) Agricultural Produce Market Committee
(2) Consider the following statements:
1. In the fourth edition of IJR, Karnataka ranked first in the overall ranking.
2. The report is published by the Ministry of Law and Justice biennially.
3. It uses the four pillars to measure the justice system — police, prisons, judiciary, and legal aid.
How many of the above statements are correct?
(a) Only one
(b) Only two
(c) All three
(d) None
(3) With reference to green hydrogen, consider the following statements: (UPSC CSE 2023)
1. It can be used directly as a fuel for internal combustion.
2. It can be blended with natural gas and used as fuel for heat or power generation.
3. It can be used in the hydrogen fuel cell to run vehicles.
How many of the above statements are correct?
(a) Only one
(b) Only two
(c) All three
(d) None
| Answer key |
| 1. (a) 2. (b) 3. (c) |
Previous Articles
UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | April 21 to April 27, 2025
UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | April 14 to April 20, 2025
UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | April 7 to April 13, 2025
UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | March 31 to April 6, 2025
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