UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | May 26 to June 1, 2025

Economy

• Important economic data 

— India’s total exports, comprising goods and services, increased to $820.93 billion in FY25 (2024-25), marking a 6.5 per cent increase over FY24 (2023-24). Maximum contribution is by Merchandise exports, contributing 53 per cent ($437.42 billion), followed by Services, which has the contribution of 47 per cent ($383.51 billion).

— The trade deficit has reached $94.26 billion, up from $78.39 billion in FY24. The trade-to-GDP ratio stands at a robust 41.4 per cent — this reflects a deeper link with global markets.

Agriculture Sector

— It employs over 46 percent of the workforce, with agri-exports inching up to $52 billion in FY25 from $48.9 billion a year earlier, registering a modest 6.3 per cent increase. The top agricultural export from India in FY25 is Rice. The country exported 20.2 million metric tonnes (MMT), worth $12.5 billion, nearly a fourth of all agri-exports.

— In terms of imports, India’s agri-imports rose by 16.5 per cent in FY25, from $32.8 billion in FY24 to $38.2 billion in FY25. Edible oils dominate the import basket, comprising $17.3 billion for 16.4 MMT, accounting for 45.4 per cent of total agri-imports.

 

Defence

• Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA)

— Defence Minister Rajnath Singh approved the execution model for the AMCA i.e, the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) will have to bid independently or in partnership with other firms to get the contract for manufacturing it.

— The execution model approach provides equal opportunities to both private and public sectors on a competitive basis.

— The Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)—the agency that will design the aircraft—is set to execute the programme through industry partnership.

Features of AMCA:

• STEALTH: The 25-tonne twin-engine aircraft, which will be bigger than other fighters in the Indian Air Force inventory, will have advanced stealth features to avoid detection by enemy radar.
• FUEL & WEAPONS: The aircraft will have a large, concealed internal fuel tank of 6.5-tonne capacity, and an internal weapons bay for a range of weapons, including indigenous weapons, to be buried in its belly.
• ENGINE: The AMCA Mk1 variant will have the US-built GE414 engine of the 90 kilonewton (kN) class, while the more advanced AMCA Mk2 will fly on the more powerful 110kN engine, which will be developed indigenously by DRDO’s Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE) in collaboration with a foreign defence major.

— The AMCA will be India’s indigenous fifth-generation fighter aircraft. The indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas is a 4.5-generation single-engine multirole aircraft.

— The manufacturing of the aircraft will bring India into a select league of nations that possess its fifth-generation fighter aircraft—the US (F-22 Raptor and F-35A Lightning II), China (J-20 Mighty Dragon), and Russia (Sukhoi Su-57).

(Why is it important? In 2025, UPSC Prelims a question was asked on the aircraft type and description, which included Dornier-228.)

 

International

• Dag Hammarskjold medal

— On the occasion of the International Day of UN Peacekeepers, Brigadier General Amitabh Jha, who served with the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), and Havildar Sanjay Singh, who was deployed with the UN Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO), were honoured with the Dag Hammarskjold medal at a solemn ceremony.

— India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish received the Dag Hammarskjold Medal on behalf of the families of fallen Indian Peacekeepers from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the solemn ceremony in the UN headquarters.

— The theme for this year’s International Day of UN Peacekeepers is the ‘Future of Peacekeeping’, which emphasises that the ‘Pact for the Future’ – adopted by world leaders in September last year – includes a commitment to adapt peacekeeping to the changing world.

 

Polity

• Urban Challenge Fund

— In the Union Budget 2025, the government has announced the Rs 1 Lakh Crore “Urban Challenge Fund” to implement the proposals for ‘Cities as Growth Hubs’, ‘Creative Redevelopment of Cities’, and ‘Water and Sanitation.’ Under this fund, Rs 10,000 Crore is earmarked for the first year.

— Urbanisation is the process of transformation that occurs as a society evolves from predominantly rural to predominantly urban areas. It involves the increase in the proportion of a country’s population residing in urban areas, leading to the expansion and growth of cities and towns.

 

Environment

•  Monsoon update

— As monsoon has onset over Kerala on May 24, eight days ahead of its normal date schedule of June 1. Let’s look at the key terminology that contributed to the early onset of monsoon.

— Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO): The MJO is a moving system of wind, cloud and pressure that brings rain as it circles around the equator. The phenomenon takes its name from the two scientists who identified it in 1971 — Roland Madden and Paul Julian. A disturbance of clouds, wind and pressure, moving eastward at a speed of 4-8 metres per second, MJO goes around the globe in 30-60 days on average. Sometimes, it can take 90 days. In a favourable phase, it can enhance rainfall over India during the monsoon season.

— Mascarene High: It is a high-pressure area found around the Mascarene Islands (in the south Indian Ocean) during the monsoon period. The variation in the intensity of high pressure is responsible for heavy rains along India’s west coast.

— The Somali jet: It is a low-level, inter-hemispheric cross-equatorial wind band originating near Mauritius and north Madagascar. During May, after crossing the east coast of Africa, it reaches the Arabian Sea and the west coast of India. A strong Somali jet is associated with the strengthening of monsoon winds.

• Bharat Forecast System (BFS)

— The India Meteorological Department (IMD) will soon adopt the BFS, which offers the highest resolution among weather models.

— It offers a spatial resolution of 6km x 6km, making it the first weather model with such high resolution.

— Currently, the IMD operates the Coupled Forecasting System (CFS) developed under the Monsoon Mission Project.

• Oil spill off Kerala

— A day after the Liberian-flagged cargo ship, MSC ELSA 3, capsized off the Kerala coast, 30 containers washed ashore on May 26.

— Three Indian Coast Offshore Patrol Vessels, Vikram, Saksham and Samarth, have been deployed in a pollution response configuration in the area where the ship capsized.

— A Dornier aircraft equipped with specialised gear has been positioned in Kochi to undertake aerial assessments of the oil spill situation. A dedicated pollution control vessel, Samudra Prahari, is being mobilised from Mumbai to further augment oil spill response efforts.

— The ship was carrying an estimated 640 containers, including 13 with “hazardous cargo”, of which 12 are said to have contained calcium carbide.

— Calcium carbide: It is a solid compound that is not flammable by itself, but it reacts vigorously with water and moisture to produce highly flammable acetylene gas, posing a significant fire hazard.

Do you know which fuel is used by the cargo ships, and what the International Maritime Organization (IMO)’s mandate is on that?

 

Science and Technology

• New solar cell technology

— The Maharashtra government and ART-PV India Pvt Ltd, a start-up founded at IIT Bombay’s Society for Innovations and Entrepreneurship (SINE), are working to provide a new solar cell technology.

— It is expected to lead to a 25–30 per cent boost in efficiency over conventional solar technology and potentially reduce cost of solar power at around `1 per kwh compared with ` 2.5-4 per unit now.

— They have successfully engineered a semi-transparent perovskite solar cell (PSC) which is layered over a traditional silicon-based solar cell, forming a 4-terminal (4T) tandem structure.

— The bottom sub-cell uses well-established silicon technology, while the top sub-cell features an indigenously developed halide perovskite semiconductor, enabling high light absorption and efficient energy conversion.

— One of the challenges of perovskite materials is in long-term stability, particularly when exposed to heat, light, and prolonged electrical stress. To address this, the IIT Bombay team devised a novel 4-terminal tandem configuration – two for each layer in the tandem device – allowing both layers to operate independently and efficiently under different conditions.

What is a Perovskite Solar Cell?

Perovskites are commonly used in photovoltaic (PV) solar cells. They are more specifically called “metal-halide perovskites” since they are made of a combination of organic ions, metals, and halogens. The name “perovskite” comes from their crystal structure. Metal-halide perovskites are the main absorbing material, or “active layer,” in PSC. A thin layer of perovskite absorbs light, which excites charged particles called electrons; when these excited electrons are extracted, they generate electric power.

• Battery technology

— The research team at the Bengaluru-based Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology, has developed a super-fast charging sodium-ion (Na-ion) battery that can charge up to 80 per cent in just six minutes and claims to last over 3,000 charge cycles.

— It is a promising step in India’s efforts at nurturing an alternative to the lithium-ion chemistry— the most common element in battery manufacturing where China has a virtual stranglehold.

— The new battery is based on a ‘NASICON-type’ (Na-Super-Ionic Conductor) chemistry, a class of polyanionic materials with a known structure in electrochemical materials.

FYI: 2025 UPSC Prelims have questions on EVs, and previously, questions have been asked on batteries, making it an important topic.

Kamo‘oalewa was discovered in 2016 by the Pan-STARRS 1 asteroid survey telescope on Haleakalā in Hawaii. (Ilustration/NASA)

• Tianwen-2 mission

— This is China’s first mission to survey and sample a near-Earth asteroid,  called 469219 Kamo‘oalewa,  which orbits the Sun at a distance relatively close to Earth, this week.

— If successful, the mission will place China in a group of a handful of countries — including the United States and Japan — which have been able to sample asteroids and return the samples to Earth successfully.

— The mission will use a “touch-and-go” technique, which has been successfully implemented by the United States’ OSIRIS-Rex and Japan’s Hayabusa2 missions.

— In this technique, the spacecraft hovers close to the surface of the asteroid while a robotic arm fires an object or burst of gas to knock fragments into a collection chamber.

— Kamo‘oalewa was discovered in 2016 by the Pan-STARRS 1 asteroid survey telescope on Haleakalā in Hawaii. It is one of just seven asteroids that fall into a little-understood class known as quasi-satellites of Earth — satellites that orbit the Sun, but because of their close distance to Earth, they are gravitationally influenced by the planet.

• CRISPR-Cas9

— Following infection by a virus, humans generate an “immune memory” in the form of antibodies. When they are infected by the same virus again, these antibodies quickly identify the pathogens and help neutralise them.

— Kyle “KJ” Muldoon Jr suffers from CPS1 deficiency which causes toxic levels of ammonia to accumulate in his blood. A personalised treatment based on “base editing”, a new version of the decade-old CRISPR-Cas9 technology, was used for his treatment.

— CRISPR, short for “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats”, is an immune system found in microbes such as bacteria which fights invading viruses. When a virus infects a bacterial cell, CRISPR too helps establish a memory — but a genetic one, not in the form of antibodies like in humans.

— Its mechanism is often compared to the ‘cut-copy-paste’, or ‘find-replace’ functionalities in common computer programmes. A bad stretch in the DNA sequence, which is the cause of disease or disorder, is located, cut, and removed — and then replaced with a ‘correct’ sequence. The tools used to achieve this are not mechanical, but biochemical — specific protein and RNA molecules (Cas9).

— In 2012, scientists Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier replicated this mechanism found in microbes to develop a gene-editing tool, which they called CRISPR-Cas9, a feat which earned them the Nobel Prize for Chemistry eight years later.

• India’s first gene-edited sheep

— A team of researchers from the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences (SKUAST) in Srinagar has produced India’s first gene-edited sheep.

— The gene-editing of the sheep was possible after four years of research and will enhance the muscle mass of the animal by 30%, the researchers said.

 

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.)

Lt Commander Roopa A and Lt Commander Dilna K became the first from India to circumnavigate the globe onboard a sailing vessel in double-handed mode. (Image source: @indiannavy)

•  Lieutenant Commander Roopa A and Lieutenant Commander Dilna K

— The two sailors, Lieutenant Commander Roopa A and Lieutenant Commander Dilna K, became the first from India to circumnavigate the globe onboard a sailing vessel in double-handed mode, which means having a crew of two sailors.’

— After sailing for 239 days and covering 25,600 nautical miles across four continents, three oceans and three Great Capes, the sailors have become the first Indian duo to circumnavigate the globe without external assistance and relying solely on wind power

— These two officers embarked on a historic sailing expedition from Goa on October 2, 2024 to circumnavigate the globe aboard INSV Tarini, without external assistance and solely relying on wind power.

— During the voyage, the crew recounted facing winds up to 50 knots and stormy weather as they navigated through the treacherous Drake Passage and rounded Cape Horn.

What is the Drake Passage?

— The passage is named after Sir Francis Drake, who was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe. According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, the passage has an average depth of about 11,000 feet, with deeper regions going up to over 15,600 feet near the northern and southern boundaries.

Why is it considered so treacherous?

— The Drake Passage is considered one of the roughest waterways in the world because here, layers of cold seawater from the south and warm seawater from the north collide to form powerful eddies, which, when combined with strong winds and storms can be treacherous for those attempting to navigate it.

• Pandurang Hegde

— Renowned environmentalist and social activist Pandurang Hegde was conferred the inaugural M P Veerendra Kumar National Thought Leadership award for his work in forest conservation and community-based environmental activism. The award was presented by water conservationist Magsaysay award winner Dr Rajendra Singh.

— The honour carries a citation, plaque, and a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh, which Hedge announced he was sharing with the members of Prakurti, an environmental organisation in Sirsi, Uttara Kannada.

Indian conservationist Valmik Thapar (File photo)

• Valmik Thapar

— Conservationist and tiger chronicler, Valmik Thapar (1952-2025), who is considered one of the world’s foremost authorities on tigers, passed away on 31st May.

— He had authored over two dozen books on wildlife and conservation. Thapar has also presented several landmark wildlife documentaries, including the seminal BBC series “Land of the Tiger” (1997).

— In 1987, Thapar set up Ranthambhore Foundation, a non-profit that worked for integrating local communities into conservation efforts.

Thailand’s Opal Suchata Chuangsri crowned Miss World 2025 (Instagram)

• Opal Suchata Chuangsri

— Thailand’s Opal Suchata Chuangsri was crowned Miss World 2025 after the grand finale in Hyderabad. Ethiopia’s Hasset Dereje Admassu was declared Miss World 2025 runner-up.

— Chuangsri received her crown from last year’s winner Krystyna Pyszková. The 72nd Miss World beauty pageant was hosted by Miss World 2016 Stephanie del Valle and Indian presenter Sachiin Kumbhar.

— Six Indian women have won the title, including Reita Faria (1966), Aishwarya Rai (1994), Diana Hayden (1997), Yukta Mookhey (1999), Priyanka Chopra (2000) and Manushi Chillar (2017).

 

Awards

There are three levels of Padma Awards: Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri. (Photo: Padma Awards website)

• Padma Awards

— On May 27, Droupadi Murmu, the President of India, awarded Padma Awards for 2025 at the Civil Investiture Ceremony-II at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

— This year, seven people were conferred with the Padma Vibhushan, 19 were awarded the Padma Bhushan and 113 received the Padma Shri, with 139 awardees in total. The highest number was in the category of arts (51).

— Considered as one of India’s highest civilian honours, Padma Awards are conferred in three categories: Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, and Padma Shri for contributions in diverse disciplines/fields.

Read the full list of winners here.

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.)

• Dzoe-Nga

— Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang has written to the Union Home Minister, expressing concern over the scaling of the “sacred Mount Khangchendzonga” (Mount Kangchenjunga) by a team from the National Institute of Mountaineering and Adventure Sports, based in Arunachal Pradesh.

— Mount Khangchendzonga is regarded as the most sacred mountain in the state, its name translates to ‘Five Treasures of the High Snows,’ symbolising five divine treasures. It is locally known as “Dzoe-Nga.”

• Blatten, Switzerland

— A huge chunk of a glacier in the Swiss Alps broke off, causing a deluge of ice, mud and rock to bury part of a mountain village of Blatten, Switzerland.

— A new study published in Science came just after this incident, pointing out that if the world gets warmer by 2.7°C due to the current trajectory of climate policies, only 24% of the world’s present-day glaciers will remain.

— Limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C — as adopted in the Paris climate agreement — could preserve up to 54% or twice as much glacier mass, the study said

— Among the most vulnerable regions, as per the study, were glaciers in Scandinavia, Rockies in Western Canada and the US, and the European Alps.

— In Scandinavia, no glacier ice would be left at 2°C warming while Rockies and European Alps would see only 10-15% glaciers left at the same levels of warming. In the Hindu Kush Himalayas, only 25% of ice from 2020 levels will be left at 2°C of warming.

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) With reference to India’s defence, consider the following pairs:

Aircraft/Vessel type	Description
I. Dornier-228	: Maritime patrol aircraft
II. Samudra Prahari	: Pollution control vessel
III. C-17 Globemaster III	: Military transport aircraft

How many of the pairs given above are correctly matched?

(a) Only one

(b) Only two

(c) All the three

(d) None

(2) Consider the following statements in respect of Bharat Ratna and Padma Awards: (UPSC CSE 2021)

1. Bharat Ratna and Padma Awards are titles under Article 18(1) of the Constitution of India.

2. Padma Awards, which were instituted in the year 1954, were suspended only once.

3. The number of Bharat Ratna Awards is restricted to a maximum of five in a particular year.

Which of the above statements are not correct?

(a) 1 and 2 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 1 and 3 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3

(3) What is Cas9 protein that is often mentioned in news? (UPSC CSE 2019)

(a) A molecular scissors used in targeted gene editing

(b) A biosensor used in the accurate detection of pathogens in patients

(c) A gene that makes plants pest-resistant

(d) A herbicidal substance synthesized in genetically modified crops

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

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