Worried about covering Current Affairs for the UPSC exam? Every Monday, we bring you UPSC Current Affairs Pointers—a concise, exam-focused guide to help you stay ahead in your preparation. If you missed the UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | May 12 to May 18, 2025, from the Indian Express, read it here. Defence Field Marshal — The Pakistan government has announced that the Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army, General Asim Munir, is being promoted to the rank of Field Marshal. — He will be the second person in history to hold this rank, after Field Marshal Ayub Khan in 1959. — The Indian and Pakistani armies are modelled on the British army’s system of ranks and privileges. A Field Marshal or FM is a five-star officer rank, and the highest attainable rank, above the general. — In the context of India: The FM rank in the Indian Army is equivalent to the Admiral of the fleet in the Indian Navy and the Marshal of the Indian Air Force. — India has had two FMs: Sam Manekshaw was the first, ascending to the rank in January 1973. KM Cariappa was the second Field Marshal and was promoted in January 1986. India has also had one Marshal of the Air Force, Arjan Singh, who was elevated to the rank in 2002. — The Field Marshal rank is typically bestowed on generals for ceremonial reasons or during wartime. A Field Marshal is considered to be on ‘active list’ until his death. Awards International Booker Prize — Kannada author Banu Mushtaq’s short story collection Heart Lamp, which interprets and inhabits the faultlines and silent revolts in the everyday lives of Muslim women, won the 2025 International Booker Prize. — Deepa Bhasthi has translated this book into English, which brings the voice of one of southern India’s most potent protest writers to a global audience. — Mushtaq, a lawyer and activist from Karnataka, is the second Kannada writer in recent times to be recognised by the Booker Prize, the last being UR Ananthamurthy in 2013. — Her win comes just a few years after another Indian writer, Geetanjali Shree, won the 2022 International Booker for her family saga, Tomb of Sand, making her the first Indian author to win the International Booker Prize. FYI: Don’t confuse the International Booker Prize with the Booker Prize — First awarded in 1969, the Booker Prize is one of the prestigious awards in English fiction. In 2005, the Booker Foundation instituted the International Booker Prize for translated works. — The International Booker Prize began in 2005. A biennial prize initially, it was then awarded for a body of work available in English, including translations, with Alice Munro, Lydia Davis and Philip Roth becoming some of the early winners. — In 2015, the rules of the International prize changed to make it an annual affair. The new rules stipulated that it will be awarded annually for a single book, written in another language and translated into English. The £50,000 prize money is divided equally between the author and translator each year. International Cooperation Global Pandemic Treaty — On 20th May, member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) adopted the Global Pandemic treaty, a legally binding treaty designed to tackle future pandemics better. The United States has not signed the treaty. — It is the only the second legally binding accord in the WHO’s 75-year history, the first being the 2003 tobacco control treaty. — One of the key elements of the agreement is a “pathogen access and benefit sharing” system. It gives pharmaceutical companies access to scientific data such as pathogen samples and genomic sequences in return for more equitable sharing of drugs, vaccines and diagnostics during a pandemic. — The treaty says participating manufacturers will have to allocate 10% of their production of vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics to the WHO. Another 10% will then be supplied at “affordable prices”. — However, the agreement does not give the WHO powers over individual states. The treaty also says that the WHO does not have the power to mandate or otherwise impose any requirements such as “ban or accept travellers, impose vaccination mandates or therapeutic or diagnostic measures, or implement lockdown”. China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) — During the trilateral talks, China, Pakistan, and Afghanistan have agreed to extend CPEC to Afghanistan. CPEC is part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and India has been opposed to it since the beginning. — In 2013, President Xi Jinping announced the Silk Road Economic ‘Belt’ during his visits to Kazakhstan. 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, President Xi announced a sea trade infrastructure called the ‘Road’. This maritime ‘Road’ would connect China with Southeast Asia, Europe, and Africa. The major focus has been to build ports, bridges, industry corridors, and other infrastructure throughout Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean. — 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. — India’s position on the BRI has remained relatively consistent since 2013. From the beginning, India had reservations about the BRI – mainly due to sovereignty-related issues, as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) goes through the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), and geopolitical implications of projects in the Indian Ocean. Environment Shirui Lily Festival — After a two-year pause, the Shirui Lily festival returns in Manipur. It is the first major tourism festival to be hosted by the state since the start of the conflict in May 2023. — The Shirui Lily Festival is organised by the Manipur government’s Department of Tourism. It is one of the two major tourism festivals organised by the state. The other one is the Sangai festival, named after the Manipur brow-antlered deer. — The Shirui Lily festival is named after the Shirui Lily, or the Lilium mackliniae, recognised as the state flower of Manipur. It was first held in 2017. The festival coincides with the blooming season of this rare flower. — It is held in Manipur’s Ukhrul district, which is home to the Tangkhul Naga community. The event is designed as an eco-tourism festival to raise awareness about the Shirui Lily and to promote tourism to the hills of Ukhrul. — The Shirui Lily is endemic to the upper reaches of the Shirui Hill range in Ukhrul district at an elevation of 2,673 m above sea level. — The locals had long been familiar with the plant — calling it the ‘Kashsong Timrawon’ after Timrawon, the daughter of mythical goddess Philava who resides and protects the hills of Shirui. — It was in 1946, botanist Frank Kingdon-Ward identified it and gave it its scientific name. The name, Lilium mackliniae, draws from his wife Jean Macklin’s name. Great Indian Bustard (GIB) — Radheshyam Pemani Bishnoi, a wildlife conservationist and animal rescuer from Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer district, died in a road accident. He is celebrated for his efforts to protect the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard (GIB). — Scientific name: Ardeotis nigriceps — IUCN Red List status of Great Indian Bustard: Critically Endangered — Indian Wildlife Protection Act: Schedule I — Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS): Appendix I — Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES): Appendix 1 — Plans to recover the species first started in 2013 under the National Bustard Recovery Plan, which later gave way to the Bustard Recovery Project in 2016. Later, in July 2018, a tripartite agreement was signed between MoEFCC, Rajasthan forest department and WII. — As part of the project run by the three parties, two GIB conservation breeding centres and one Lesser Florican centre are functioning in Rajasthan’s Sam, Ramdevra, and Sorsan, respectively. Radheshyam Pemani belonged to the Bishnoi community. Do you know the role and contribution of the Bishnoi community in the conservation of wildlife? Read here. Asiatic lions — As per the latest official figures of the 16th Lion Census, the total population of Asiatic Lions, primarily found in the Gir Forests of Gujarat — the last abode of the species in the world — has been estimated at 891. — According to Gujarat government records, the first lion census was conducted by the Nawab of Junagadh in 1936. — In 1965, the Gir forest was declared a sanctuary, and since then, the Gujarat Forest Department has been regularly conducting lion censuses every five years. — The lions have colonised at least three new areas — Barda wildlife sanctuary, Jetpur and Babra-Jasdan — in the last five years. — IUCN status: Vulnerable — Listed in Schedule I and IV of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972, in Appendix I of CITES. — Asiatic lions are slightly smaller than African lions. Adult males weigh 160 to 190 kg, while females weigh 110 to 120 kg. — The most striking morphological character, which is always seen in Asiatic lions and rarely in African lions, is a longitudinal fold of skin running along its belly. Project Lion was announced in August 2020 to secure the future of Asiatic lions through comprehensive, long-term conservation efforts. August 10 is observed as World Lion Day annually to raise awareness of the rapidly diminishing lion population and the critical need for their conservation. Science and Technology Steady-state theory of the universe — The Hoyle-Narlikar theory produced evidence to support what is known as the steady-state theory of the universe. It was an alternative model of the universe, separate from the Big Bang. — Unlike the Big Bang theory that suggests a definite beginning, and possibly an end, to the universe, the steady-state theory maintains that the universe has always been, and would continue to be, the way it is — infinite in extent, without a beginning or an end. It acknowledged an expanding universe, which was experimentally verifiable, but proposed that the universe was able to maintain a constant density by continuously creating new matter. — The steady-state theory, mainstream in the 1950s and the 1960s, has become less popular over time, mainly because of the emergence of new evidence that better supports the Big Bang theory. — Despite the elegant mathematics that Narlikar had produced, the steady-state theory slowly lost out, with the emergence of new observations that fit the Big Bang model better. One of the most prominent discoveries in this regard was that of cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation in 1965. Hoyle–Narlikar theory of gravity — Jayant Narlikar, who passed on May 20, was best known for propounding the Hoyle–Narlikar theory of gravity (also known as conformal gravity), which he developed with English astronomer and professor Fred Hoyle in 1964. —- The theory sought to improve on Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, published in 1915. — The Hoyle–Narlikar theory of gravity also proposed a “creation field” (C-field), a hypothetical negative-energy field responsible for the continuous creation of matter. — It is linked to Mach’s principle. This principle says that the mass of every object in the universe is affected by its interaction with every other object. — Hoyle and Narlikar said that the inertia of an object, that is, the tendency to resist change in its state of motion, arises from its interaction with all other matter in the universe. 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.) Jayant Narlikar (1938-2025) — Jayant Narlikar, who had contributed immensely to the development of an alternative model of the universe along with his mentor Fred Hoyle, passed away on 20th May in Pune. He was 87. — He was the recipient of the Padma Vibhushan. He was best known for propounding the Hoyle–Narlikar theory of gravity (also known as conformal gravity), which he developed with English astronomer and professor Fred Hoyle in 1964. The theory sought to improve on Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, published in 1915. — He has written an autobiography, ‘A Tale of Four Cities’ where he acknowledged that he remains a small minority who are not convinced by the Big Bang theory. 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.) Mohmand Dam in Pakistan — Amid India-Pakistan tensions, China is accelerating the pace of work on the Mohmand dam in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. — The Mohmand dam is being constructed on the Swat river, which originates from the glaciers of the Hindu Kush mountains. It is a perennial river, flowing through picturesque valleys and mountains, and later joining the Indus. Karni Mata temple in Bikaner, Rajasthan — On May 24, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Karni Mata temple in Deshnok, a small town about 30 km from Bikaner, Rajasthan. — Dubbed the “rat temple”, this historical place of worship is famous for being the home to tens of thousands of kabas (rats), which are considered sacred and protected. — Karni Mata, also known as Ridhi Kanwar or Ridhu Bai, is believed to have been a 14th–15th sage, and an incarnation of Goddess Durga. She is said to have been born in 1387 CE in the village of Suwap near Phalodi, about 100 km from Deshnok, into a Charan family. 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 the Global Pandemic Treaty: 1. The World Health Organization has signed a non-legally binding treaty. 2. QUAD countries have signed the treaty. 3. One of the key elements of the agreement is a pathogen access and benefit-sharing system. How many of the above statements are correct? (a) Only one (b) Only two (c) All the three (d) None (2) Who is the Indian Army Field Marshal? (a) Anil Chauhan (b) Amar Preet Singh (c) R. Hari Kumar (d) None of the above (3) Consider the following statements: Statement I: Hoyle-Narlikar theory provided an alternative model of the universe, building on conformal gravity, an improvement on Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. Statement II: The universe is continuously expanding in the Hoyle-Narlikar theory. If we retrogress that back in time, in the past the universe was smaller and as we reach time equal to zero, all visible universe collapses down to an infinitely small volume of infinite density and infinite temperature. Which one of the following is correct in respect of the above statements? (a) Both Statement I and Statement II are correct and Statement II explains Statement I (b) Both Statement I and Statement II are correct but Statement II doesn't explain Statement I (c) Statement I is correct but Statement II is not correct (d) Statement I is not correct but Statement II is correct Answer Key 1. (a) 2. (d) 3. (c) Previous Articles UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | May 12 to May 18, 2025 UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | May 5 to May 11, 2025 For your suggestions, write to khushboo.kumari@indianexpress.com Subscribe to our UPSC newsletter. Stay updated with the latest UPSC articles by joining our Telegram channel – IndianExpress UPSC Hub, and follow us on Instagram and X. 🚨 Click Here to read the UPSC Essentials magazine for May 2025. Share your views and suggestions in the comment box or at manas.srivastava@indianexpress.com🚨
