UPSC Key: Concept of red teaming, Madden-Julian oscillation and Rajya Sabha elections

First in Op Sindoor: ‘Red teams’ of experts to map ‘mind of adversary’

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies II: India and its neighbourhood- relations

What’s the ongoing story: For the first time, Operation Sindoor — the military strike launched by India earlier this month against terror targets in Pakistan — employed the concept of “red teaming” as part of its operational planning, The Indian Express has learnt.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What is the primary purpose of employing ‘Red Teams’ in military operations?

• India first implement ‘Red Teaming’ as part of its military strategy–why?

• What is the concept of ‘Red Teaming’ in military strategy?

• What are the advantages and potential challenges of integrating ‘Red Teams’ into the recent operation Sindoor?

• What are impact of ‘Red Teaming’ on the effectiveness of Operation Sindoor?

• What are the adoption of ‘Red Teaming’ reflect India’s evolving approach to counter-terrorism and cross-border operations?

Key Takeaways:

• Red teaming involves embedding a small group of experts familiar with the adversary’s mindset, tactics and response patterns into the planning process. Their role is to critically challenge the plan, simulate enemy reactions, and help test the robustness of the intended military strategy.

• According to sources, this is the first time the Indian military has tested this concept in an actual operation, marking a shift in India’s strategic doctrine, bringing in a more dynamic and anticipatory approach to such cross-border operations.

• It is learnt that the red team embedded in the broader planning process comprised five senior officers drawn from different commands and postings across the country.

• Sources said the concept was introduced following the Army Commanders’ Conference in October 2024, after which a group of 15 officers underwent specialised training in red teaming. A roadmap has now been drawn up to expand and formalise the ‘Vidur Vakta’ programme over the next two years, they said. The aim is to build in-house expertise and eventually reduce dependence on foreign trainers.

• In May last year, as first reported by The Indian Express, the Army had begun exploring the feasibility of creating a dedicated unit to function as an adversarial force — OPFOR (Opposing Force) — to conduct realistic wargaming and enhance combat preparedness. Several militaries, including in the US, have long employed such units to simulate enemy behaviour during training exercises.

• The Army already has a REDFOR (red forces) unit within its training command (ARTRAC) headquartered in Shimla, which is responsible for vetting wargame plans and simulations — typically conducted on paper or using sand models — and for laying down the parameters and terms of reference within which these exercises are to be planned and executed.

Do You Know:

• Although red teaming has long been a formalised component of military operations abroad — particularly during the Cold War, when it was instrumental in anticipating Soviet strategies — it has only recently been test-bedded within the Indian Army. The term ‘red team’ originates from war-game exercises where one group, designated as the red team, simulates enemy tactics and launches hypothetical attacks against a defending force, known as the blue team.

• In the Indian Army, the concept was named ‘Vidur Vakta’ — after the advisor to the Pandavas in the Mahabharata — and was under discussion for some time before being test-bedded across various Army commands, sources said. Trials were held at multiple levels to draw lessons from different operational scenarios and refine the approach accordingly.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍From Kargil to Operation Sindoor, India has scored its point — without escalation

As early monsoon hits Mumbai, the key factor: Madden-Julian Oscillation

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian and World Geography

Mains Examination: General Studies I: Important Geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes, Tsunami, Volcanic activity, cyclone etc., geographical features and their location-changes in critical geographical features (including water-bodies and ice-caps) and in flora and fauna and the effects of such changes.

What’s the ongoing story: Mumbai woke up to an unusual Monday in what has been an unusual May — monsoon arrived two weeks in advance, and in full force. Life was thrown out of gear in the maximum city as several pockets reeled under water logging, traffic and slow train services.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What is the Madden-Julian oscillation?

• How does the Madden-Julian oscillation affect India?

• What is the difference between Madden-Julian oscillation and ENSO?

• Why did the monsoon arrive early in Mumbai this year?

• Why has this May been one for the history books for Mumbai?

Key Takeaways:

• This year’s monsoon onset has shattered all-time records. Data show that this is the earliest that the monsoon has ever arrived in Mumbai (IMD has been keeping records since 1950), with the previous earliest onset date logged at May 29 in the years 1971, 1962 and 1956. For perspective, the normal date of monsoon onset in Mumbai is June 11.

• Typically, monsoon onset in Mumbai is nearly 10 days after the arrival of rains in Kerala. The normal date of onset in Kerala is June 1, following which the southwest monsoon typically advances to Maharashtra by June 6 and then onto the Mumbai coast by June 11.

• This year, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) announced the onset of monsoon in Kerala on May 24, the earliest since 2009. Also, the southwest monsoon travelled from Kerala to Maharashtra within 24 hours, reaching Maharashtra on Sunday and Mumbai on Monday.

• According to Shubhangi Bhute, director of IMD Mumbai, the early onset and fast progression were spurred by “very favourable” conditions.
Senior meteorologists pointed to the active Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) as a crucial contributing factor. MJO originates in the Indian Ocean and is one the most important factors influencing Indian monsoons.

Do You Know:

• The MJO is basically a complex, moving system of winds, clouds and pressure. It travels eastward at the speed of 4-8 metres per second. Within 30 to 60 days, MJO wind bands can travel around the world and cause significant weather changes in their wake. In favourable phases, they can enhance monsoon rainfall over India.

• In its extended range forecast issued on May 22, the IMD had said that the MJO was then in Phase 4 with an amplitude greater than 1, which is indicative of strong rainfall and storms.

• “While the favourable MJO is one contributing factor, the cross equatorial flow (which carries heat and moisture between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres) is also very strong at the moment. This further brings in a lot of moisture,” added an IMD official.

• Further, a low pressure area in the Arabian Sea, which developed owing to a cyclonic circulation, also aided the fast movement of the southwest monsoon, IMD scientists said. It was this low pressure area that had brought in heavy pre-monsoon showers in Mumbai over the past few weeks.

• In what has made this month Mumbai’s wettest May in the past 107 years, the IMD’s Colaba observatory has recorded 295 mm rain so far this month. Prior to this, the heaviest showers in the island city had been recorded in May 1918 at 279.4 mm. Meanwhile, having already received 197 mm rain this month, this is also Santacruz’s rainiest May month since 2021.

• The IMD had said in its long-range forecast that this year, the country is expected to experience above normal monsoon, which is forecast to be “105% of the Long Period Average (LPA) with a model error of ± 5%”.

• The Met Department has pointed out that the neutral El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) conditions, slated to prevail during the monsoon, will contribute to a bountiful season.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Madden Julian Oscillation: The reason behind the unexpectedly good June rain

Aizawl becomes fourth N-E capital with rail link, trial run successful

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Main Examination: General Studies III: Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.

What’s the ongoing story: In A big push for deeper connectivity in the North-East, Mizoram’s capital Aizawl has now been linked to the national railway network via the Bairabi–Sairang line in the state.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What is north eastern railway connectivity project in India?

• How many North-eastern state capitals are connected to the national railway network?

• Know the strategic and economic significance of connecting Aizawl to the national railway network via the Bairabi–Sairang line.

• What are the challenges faced during the construction of the Bairabi–Sairang railway project?

• How PM Gati Shakti initiative helped in transforming infrastructure in the North-eastern region of India?

• Know the potential benefits of the Bairabi–Sairang railway line in promoting tourism in Mizoram.

Key Takeaways:

• Bairabi in Kolasib district, near the border with Assam, has so far been the only railhead in Mizoram. Sairang is a satellite town of Aizawl, around 20 km from the city.

• A senior official of the Ministry of Railways said the formal inauguration of the Bairabi–Sairang line is likely to take place after June 17.

• “The Commission of Railway Safety (CRS) will conduct the inspection of the project this week. Only after that can the inauguration happen, leading to the start of train operations. Barring a few sideworks, work on the line is almost complete,” the official said.

• The inspection by the CRS, the railway safety audit body, is the final stage for the train operation. A successful trial run to Sairang was conducted on May 1 by the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), marking a historic step.

• Until now the train used to go only up to 1.5 km in Mizoram. The Bairabi–Sairang New Line is a 51.38-km railway project with a revised sanctioned cost of Rs 5,021.45 crore.

Do You Know:

• Mizoram becomes the fourth N-E state with its capital city connected to the national railway network. The other three states are Assam, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh.

• According to data available with the Ministry of Railways, the project has achieved 94.52 per cent physical progress and 97.13 per cent financial progress. The project is divided into four sections with the Bairabi–Hortoki section (16.72 km) already commissioned in July 2024.

• The remaining sections — Hortoki–Kawnpui (9.71 km), Kawnpui–Mualkhang (12.11 km), and Mualkhang–Sairang (12.84 km) — are slated for operations by June.
The project was also very challenging from the engineering point given the difficult terrain of Mizoram. The line has 48 tunnels with a total length of 12,853 m, alongside 55 major bridges and 87 minor bridges. It also includes five Road Over Bridges (ROBs) and six Road Under Bridges (RUBs). One of the notable structures is Bridge No. 196, standing at a height of 104 m, which is 32 m taller than the Qutub Minar.

• The Bairabi-Sairang project is part of a broader, accelerated push by the Ministry of Railways to connect all N-E state capitals by rail and enhance infrastructure in the region. This involves numerous new line and doubling projects across Assam, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Manipur and Tripura. The railways work is yet to take off in full flow in Meghalaya because of years of opposition by local pressure groups against rail connectivity.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍New North-East link to Kolkata will be via sea, giving Bangladesh a miss

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
1. If you travel by road from Kohima to Kottayam, what is the minimum number of States within India through which you can travel, including the origin and the destination? (2017)
(a) 6
(b) 7
(c) 8
(d) 9

EXPRESS NETWORK

RS polls on June 19: Tight race likely in Assam, seat-sharing suspense in TN

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance

Mains Examination: General Studies II: Parliament and State legislatures

What’s the ongoing story: The Election Commission (EC) on Monday announced June 19 as the polling date for the eight Rajya Sabha seats – two in Assam and six in Tamil Nadu – which will fall vacant over the next two months.

Key Points to Ponder:

• Nominated and Elected Members of Rajya Sabha-Know the procedure of Nomination and Election in the Rajya Sabha

• Members of Rajya Sabha-Eligibility, Qualification (Article 84), Disqualification (Article 102)

• What is Article 80 of the Constitution of India?

• Know about Council of States or Rajya Sabha

• Why are Rajya Sabha elections important?

• How often are Rajya Sabha elections held?

• The Constitution has fixed the term of office of members of the Rajya Sabha and accordingly the term of office of a member of the Rajya Sabha shall be six years-True or False?

• What is a maximum strength of the Rajya Sabha?

• How many seats are being contested in the current elections?

• Montague-Chelmsford Report of 1918, The Government of India Act, 1919, The Government of India Act, 1935 and Rajya Sabha-Connect the Dots

• Constitutional Provisions relating to Rajya Sabha-Maximum strength, Allocation of Seats

• Type of Voting to Elect members in the Rajya Sabha-is it First-past-the-post-system or is it through proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote?

• Vice-President of India and Rajya Sabha-Connect the dots

• Special Powers of Rajya Sabha (Article 249 and Article 312)

• Significance of Rajya Sabha in Indian Parliamentary System-Brainstorm

• Rajya Sabha has special powers that are not at all shared with the Lok Sabha-What are they?

• The Constitutional position of the Rajya Sabha (as compared with the Lok Sabha) Where Rajya Sabha is equal to Lok Sabha-know in detail

Key Takeaways:

• Both the ruling NDA as well as the Opposition do not have the numbers to win both the seats in Assam. While in Tamil Nadu, constituents of both the DMK-led ruling alliance as well as the NDA are in the dark over seat distribution.

• In Assam, two seats will fall vacant as the terms of Birendra Prasad Baishya of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) – an NDA ally – and the BJP’s Mission Ranjan Das will end on June 14.

• In the 126-member Assam Assembly, each Rajya Sabha candidate would require 42 votes to win the poll. The ruling NDA with 80 MLAs (BJP: 64, AGP: 9 and UPPL: 7) has the numbers to comfortably win one seat, but is likely to fall short by four votes in the second seat.

• The NDA’s tally in the Rajya Sabha will not see a change if it manages to win both the seats.

Do You Know:

• Rajya Sabha or the Council of States is the Upper House of the Indian Parliament. The House is limited by the Constitution to a maximum of 250 members, out of which 12 members are nominated by the President and 238 are representatives of the States and of the two Union Territories. The present Rajya Sabha, however, is 245, out of which 233 are representatives of the States and Union territories of Delhi and Puducherry and 12 are nominated by the President.

• The representatives of each State and two Union territories are elected by the elected members of the Legislative Assembly of that State and by the members of the Electoral College for that Union Territory. The Chairperson of the House is the Vice President of India. The Upper House is a permanent House and is not subject to dissolution. But one-third of its members retire after every two years. Each member’s term is for six years.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Explained: How are Rajya Sabha MPs elected? Why are the polls important?

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
2. Rajya Sabha has equal powers with Lok Sabha in: (2020)
a) the matter of creating new All India Services
b) amending the Constitution
c) the removal of the government
d) making cut motion

Tribals’ concerns on Great Nicobar project under examination: Minister

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Main Examination: General Studies III: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment and Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.

What’s the ongoing story: Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Jual Oram on Monday said that concerns raised by the tribal communities from the Great Nicobar island regarding the Great Nicobar Infrastructure project are “under examination”.

Key Points to Ponder:

• Map Work-Great Nicobar Island

• What is the Great Nicobar Island Project?

• What are the issues related to the Great Nicobar Island Project?

• Analyse the trade-offs between development and conservation in the Great Nicobar Island Project.

• How the Great Nicobar Project can enhance India’s maritime security?

• Examine the impact of the Great Nicobar Project on the Shompen and Nicobarese tribes.

Key Takeaways:

• Oram and MoS for Tribal Affairs, Durgadas Uikey, were speaking at Oram’s residence while addressing the media on the initiatives and achievements of the ministry in the last 11 years of the NDA government.

• Oram was asked during the media interaction whether his ministry has examined complaints regarding alleged violations of Forest Rights Act in the archipelago during implementation of the project in Nicobar, Oram said, “It is under examination”. “In Parliament too this question was raised in Rajya Sabha, I had answered it. We are examining documents submitted,” Oram said but did not offer more details.

• “In a tribal or Schedule area we have to check whether a Gram Sabha was held, what were its decisions and recommendations and whether they were violated. While we look at the conduct of a Gram Sabha, the environmental impact assessment is looked at by another ministry,” he said.

• The Parliament question Oram was referring to was asked by TMC MP Saket Gokhale in March. Gokhale had sought to know what action the Ministry had taken on a letter of the tribal council of the Great Nicobar Island withdrawing its no-objection certificate (NOC) to the denotification of a tribal reserve for the mega infrastructure project.

• The tribal council had in November 2022 revoked its no-objection certificate to the denotification of 84.1 sq km of tribal reserve and diversion of 130.75 sq km of forests, alleging that it was done without consent of indigenous inhabitants of the island and by concealing information.

Do You Know:

• Great Nicobar is the southernmost and largest of the Nicobar Islands, a sparsely inhabited 910-sq-km patch of mainly tropical rainforest in southeastern Bay of Bengal. Indira Point on the island, India’s southernmost point, is only 90 nautical miles (less than 170 km) from Sabang at the northern tip of Sumatra, the largest island of the Indonesian archipelago.

• Great Nicobar has two national parks, a biosphere reserve, small populations of the Shompen and Nicobarese tribal peoples, and a few thousand non-tribal settlers.

• The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a cluster of 836 islands, split into two groups — the Andaman Islands to the north and the Nicobar Islands to the south — by the 150-km wide Ten Degree Channel. President Droupadi Murmu visited the archipelago in February this year, and interacted with some of its indigenous inhabitants.

• The mega infrastructure project — which is being implemented by the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation (ANIIDCO) — is proposed to include an International Container Transhipment Terminal (ICTT), a greenfield international airport with a peak hour capacity to handle 4,000 passengers, a township, and a gas and solar based power plant spread across 16,610 hectares.

• The project for the “holistic development” of Great Nicobar Island was implemented after a report by NITI Aayog. A pre-feasibility report flagged the opportunity to leverage the strategic location of the island, which is roughly equidistant from Colombo in Sri Lanka to the southwest and Port Klang (Malaysia) and Singapore to the southeast.

• The proposed infra upgrade has been opposed on grounds of the threat it poses to the ecology of the islands. The opposition — by wildlife conservation researchers, anthropologists, scholars, and civil society apart from the Congress — has focused on the potentially devastating impact on the Shompen, a particularly vulnerable tribal group (PVTG) of hunter-gatherers with an estimated population of a few hundred individuals who live in a tribal reserve on the island.

• It has been alleged that the project violates the rights of the tribal population, and will impact the island’s ecology with the felling of nearly a million trees. It is feared that the port project will destroy coral reefs with spinoff effects on the local marine ecosystem, and pose a threat to the terrestrial Nicobar Megapode bird and leatherback turtles who nest in the Galathea Bay area.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍The fate of Great Nicobar Island: Its Indigenous peoples displaced by aid, robbed by development

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
3. Which one of the following pairs of islands is separated from each other by the ‘Ten Degree Channel’? (2014)
(a) Andaman and Nicobar
(b) Nicobar and Sumatra
(c) Maldives and Lakshadweep
(d) Sumatra and Java

ECONOMY

NITI Aayog proposes concessional loan scheme for medium-sized companies

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development-Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Inclusive growth and issues arising from it.

What’s the ongoing story: A new report by NITI Aayog has proposed a concessional loan scheme for India’s medium-sized enterprises, arguing that these firms face higher capital costs than both large and small companies.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What is the definition of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME)?

• How many types of MSME are there?

• What is new criteria for the classification of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises-know in detail

• What are the Schemes and Programmes by union government related to MSME?

• Why Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector is important for Indian Economy?

• Know Issues and challenges faced by Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs)?

• According to NITI Aayog’s recent report, what percentage of registered MSMEs in India are medium enterprises?

• What is the rationale behind NITI Aayog’s proposal for a concessional loan scheme for medium-sized firms?

• How does this recent initiative aim to address the challenges faced by medium enterprises?

• What are the structural imbalances within the MSME sector in India?

• How do medium enterprises, despite being a minority, contribute significantly to exports and employment?

Key Takeaways:

• The report titled ‘Designing a Policy for Medium Enterprises’ released Monday also called for streamlining research and development (R&D) efforts and expanding cluster-based quality testing to help medium firms scale and become more export-competitive.

• The latest push to support medium-sized firms with cheaper credit comes after the definition of ‘medium’ was broadened in the Union Budget 2025. Until April 1, medium enterprises were defined as those with a turnover between Rs 50–250 crore and investment of Rs 10–50 crore in plant and machinery. The revised thresholds—Rs 100–500 crore in turnover and Rs 25–125 crore in investment—have expanded the category to cover more firms.

• “Medium Enterprises receive much lesser priority sector loans, compared to micro enterprises. Additionally, the interest rates for Medium Enterprises are on average 4% higher than for larger firms, making capital more expensive,” the report said.

• It proposed a dedicated financing scheme under the Ministry of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME) to allow medium firms to avail loans at concessional rates, capped at Rs 25 crore, with a maximum of Rs 5 crore per request. The report also suggested launching a medium enterprise credit card with a pre-approved limit of up to Rs 5 crore at interest rates aligned with market rates.

• From over 6 crore registered MSMEs in India, medium enterprises are only 0.3 per cent, the report said. However, average employment per entity is significantly higher amongst medium firms at 89 people, compared to 19 for small and 6 for micro. Medium firms also account for 81 per cent of all MSME investment in R&D.

Do You Know:

• To boost R&D, the report recommended reserving 25-30 per cent of the Self-Reliant India (SRI) Fund for exclusively financing projects by medium firms. The SRI Fund has an allocated of Rs 10,000 crore from the Centre and Rs 40,000 crore from private equity. Since its launch in 2021, a total of Rs 4,885 crore has been invested in MSMEs.

• At the report launch, NITI Aayog’s Vice Chairperson Suman Bery said focussing on skilling and medium enterprises together is crucial. “On the labour market side, we need to make the transition from informal employment, which is typically associated with micro and small enterprises, to formal employment, associated with the medium enterprise sector. It is with formal employment that firms get an incentive to invest in the training of their workforce,” Berry said.

• The report by India’s apex public policy think tank noted that the availability of skilled labour in India stands at 55 per cent, compared to 88 per cent in South Korea, 85 per cent in the United States, and 81 per cent in Japan.

• The report recommended real-time skill mapping via the MSME Sampark Portal, expanding skill development schemes like the Entrepreneurship and Skill Development Programme (ESDP), and introducing subsidized, customized training programmes aligned with technology trends.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍NITI Aayog Releases Report on “Designing a Policy for Medium Enterprises”

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
4. What is/are the recent policy initiative(s)of Government of India to promote the growth of the manufacturing sector? (2012)
1. Setting up of National Investment and Manufacturing Zones
2. Providing the benefit of ‘single window clearance’
3. Establishing the Technology Acquisition and Development Fund
Select the correct answer using the codes given below:
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3

5. Consider the following statements with reference to India : (2023)
1. According to the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development (MSMED) Act, 2006, the ‘medium enterprises’ are those with investments in plant and machinery between `15 crore and `25 crore.
2. All bank loans to the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises qualify under the priority sector.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

EXPLAINED

What monsoon ‘onset’ means, why it is early

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Indian and World Geography

Mains Examination: General Studies I: Important Geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes, Tsunami, Volcanic activity, cyclone etc., geographical features and their location-changes in critical geographical features (including water-bodies and ice-caps) and in flora and fauna and the effects of such changes.

What’s the ongoing story: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) declared the monsoon onset over Kerala on Saturday (May 24), eight days ahead of its normal date schedule of June 1.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What is the arrival and departure of monsoon?

• What is meant by the “onset of the monsoon”?

• What are these conditions, which determine the onset of monsoon?

• Monsoon mechanism in India-Know in detail

• How Arabian Sea branch and Bay of Bengal branch are associated with Indian monsoon?

• What is difference between Arabian Sea branch and Bay of Bengal branch?

• What is the difference between the southwest monsoon and the Northeast Monsoon?

Key Takeaways:

• The onset marks the beginning of the four-month, June-September southwest monsoon season over India, which brings more than 70 per cent of the country’s annual rainfall. This makes the date a significant event in India’s economic calendar.

• The IMD attempts to declare the schedule for southwest monsoon onset any time after May 10. To do so, certain essential criteria are considered, including:
1. Rainfall: If 60% of the available 14 southern meteorological stations – Minicoy, Amini, Thiruvananthapuram, Punalur, Kollam, Allapuzha, Kottayam, Kochi, Thrissur, Kozhikode, Thalassery, Kannur, Kudulu and Mangalore – report rainfall measuring 2.5 mm or more rainfall for two consecutive days.
2. Wind field: Westerly winds blow from West to East in the 30 to 60 degree latitudes, both in the northern and southern hemispheres. For the onset, the depth of westerly winds should be maintained at upto 600 hectoPascals or hPa, which is the unit for measuring atmospheric pressure, and wind speeds must range between 15-20 knots (27-37km/hr) at 925 hPa.
3. Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR): The Earth both absorbs and reflects energy from the Sun, and the difference between these processes impacts the Earth’s temperature and atmosphere. For instance, larger aerosol particles in the atmosphere interact with and absorb some of the radiation, thus warming the atmosphere. According to NASA, the resultant heat is emitted as longwave infrared radiation.

• OLR includes radiation from the warmed upper atmosphere, along with a small amount from the Earth’s surface. Most of OLR warms the lower atmosphere, in turn warming the surface. For India’s southwest monsoon, Satellite-derived OLR values should be below 200 Watts per square metre.

• If all these criteria are fulfilled, the IMD declares the monsoon onset over Kerala on the second day of observations. This year, there has been a simultaneous onset over the entire Lakshadweep, Mahe (Puducherry), many parts of the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, along with monsoon winds reaching parts of southern Karnataka and Mizoram in northeast India.

Do You Know:

• The southwest monsoon has hit India with a bang, covering the southwest and east-central Bay of Bengal, Maldives and Comorin regions, south and central Arabian Sea, Kerala, Lakshadweep and Mahe.

• It has made a simultaneous and early onset over northeast India (Mizoram), southern and coastal Karnataka and Tamil Nadu (except its northern regions).

• Under normal conditions, the monsoon crosses central Kerala and reaches Karnataka around June 5, making this year’s onset the earliest over these regions in recent years. In Karnataka, the onset advance is over 10 days this year.

• On Sunday, the second day since the onset, the southwest monsoon further advanced into some parts of west-central and east-central Arabian Sea, more parts of Karnataka, the entirety of Goa, some parts of Maharashtra, parts of west-central and north Bay of Bengal, and of Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland.

• The Northern Limit of Monsoon, an imaginary line marking the progress of the southwest monsoon, now passes through Devgad, Belagavi, Haveri, Mandya, Dharmapuri, Chennai, Aizawl and Kohima.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍IMD Monsoon Predictions 2025: Southwest monsoon to hit South Andaman Sea around May 13: IMD

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
6. With reference to ‘Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD)’ sometimes mentioned in the news while forecasting Indian monsoon, which of the following statements is/are correct? (2017)
1. IOD phenomenon is characterised by a difference in sea surface temperature between tropical Western Indian Ocean and tropical Eastern Pacific Ocean.
2. An IOD phenomenon can influence an El Nino’s impact on the monsoon.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

A first: how a customised gene-editing tool was used to treat 9-month-old boy

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights.

What’s the ongoing story: A nine-month-old boy, born with a rare genetic disorder, has become the first (known) person to successfully receive a custom gene-editing treatment, a report published on May 15 in the New England Journal of Medicine said.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What is CRISPR?

• How does CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing work?

• How does base editing work?

• Will base editing become commonplace soon?

Key Takeaways:

• Kyle “KJ” Muldoon Jr suffers from CPS1 deficiency which causes toxic levels of ammonia to accumulate in his blood. To treat him, scientists and doctors from the University of Pennsylvania and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia developed a personalised treatment based on “base editing”, a new version of the decade-old CRISPR-Cas9 technology.

• Scientists say this technology can potentially treat thousands of uncommon genetic diseases. But there remain many roadblocks to its universal adoption.

• 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.

Do You Know:

• 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.

• When a virus enters a bacterial cell, the bacterium takes a piece of the virus’s genome and inserts the DNA into its own genome. CRISPR then produces a new “guide” RNA with the help of the newly acquired DNA.

• During a future attack by the same virus, the guide RNA quickly recognises the virus DNA and attaches itself to it. Then, the guide RNA directs an enzyme (a type of protein) called Cas9 to act like “molecular scissors” to cut and eliminate the virus DNA.

The ABCs of DNA.

• The tool works much like the “cut-copy-paste”, or “find-replace” functionalities in common computer programmes.

• Genetic information in DNA is stored as code made up of four chemical bases — adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T). These bases exist in pairs, which are then stacked one on top of each other, creating the horizontal layers of the double-helix structure of DNA.

• Base editing and CRISPR-Cas9 differ significantly in how they modify DNA. Unlike CRISPR-Cas9, base editing does not make a double-strand break. Rather, it enables targeted single-base conversions with the help of a Cas9 enzyme fused to a base-modifying enzyme. This allows scientists to fix mispairing of the bases by changing one specific base. For instance, mispaired A-C bases can be corrected to A-T by converting C to T.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍What Is Genome Editing, And How Is It Different from Gm Technology?

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:
7. What is Cas9 protein that is often mentioned in news? (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

CHINA’S MISSION TO BRING BACK SAMPLES FROM AN ASTEROID

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies III: Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights.

What’s the ongoing story: China will launch its first mission to survey and sample a near-Earth asteroid this week. Known as the Tianwen-2 mission, the probe will investigate an asteroid called 469219 Kamo‘oalewa, which orbits the Sun at a distance relatively close to Earth.

Key Points to Ponder:

• What is the Kamo‘oalewa asteroid?

• Why does China want to investigate Kamo‘oalewa?

• How will Tianwen-2 retrieve samples?

• Know the scientific objectives of China’s Tianwen-2 mission and its significance in understanding quasi-satellites.

• Compare and contrast the Tianwen-2 mission with previous asteroid sample-return missions by other countries.

Key Takeaways:

• 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.

• “This is an ambitious mission to explore a fascinating object,” astrophysicist Amy Mainzer of the University of California, Los Angeles, told the journal Science. Here is a look at the mission, the Kamo‘oalewa asteroid, and why China wants to investigate it.

• 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.

• The asteroid “travels in a highly elliptical solar orbit and appears to Earth-bound observers to be alternately leading and trailing Earth in its more circular orbit. This gives the impression the asteroid orbits Earth,” according to a report in Science.
Quasi-satellites are known to shift their orbits over time. For instance, Kamo‘oalewa has been in its current orbit for around 100 years, and is expected to remain there for the next 300 years.

Do You Know:

• Kamo‘oalewa has garnered attention due to its unusual orbit and unknown origin. Scientists believe exploring this asteroid would help
them find clues about how quasi-satellites came to be, and how their orbits evolved over time.

• In 2021, University of Arizona planetary scientist Benjamin Sharkey and colleagues wrote in the journal Communications Earth & Environment that Kamo‘oalewa might have been ejected from the Moon’s surface due to a collision with some other astronomical object. They said so because the telescope that they used to investigate Kamo‘oalewa picked up a usual spectrum, or pattern of reflected light, that suggested Kamo‘oalewa is composed of silicates resembling those found in Apollo lunar samples.

• The exploration of the asteroid could settle the hypothesis that the Moon was formed as a result of a collision between the Earth and another small planet (Kamo‘oalewa could be a small remnant of that collision).

• To collect the samples from Kamo‘oalewa, the Tianwen-2 mission will use a “touch-and-go” technique which has been successfully implemented by the United States’ OSIRIS-Rex and Japan’s Hayabusa2 missions.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍A short history of China’s rise as a space power

 

PRELIMS ANSWER KEY

1.(b)  2.(b) 3.(a) 4.(d) 5.(b) 6.(b) 7.(a)

  

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