Daily Current Affairs 2025  

17/10/2025

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CA-17/10/2025

 
Why in news?

• India has been elected as the Co-Chair of UN-GGIM-AP (Asia-Pacific) for the term 2025–2028, reflecting its growing influence in geospatial innovation, capacity building, and regional cooperation.
• Under this leadership, the focus will be on secure digital transformation, good governance, and data-driven decision-making in line with the UN-GGIM Strategic Framework.

About UN-GGIM

• Originally established in 1995 as the Permanent Committee on GIS Infrastructure for Asia and the Pacific (PCGIAP), it was rebranded as UN-GGIM-AP in 2012 following the launch of the global UN-GGIM in 2011.
• Since 2018, its secretariat is hosted by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP).

Key functions and programs of UN-GGIM-AP

• Strengthening regional geospatial information management
• Addressing regional challenges with geospatial solutions
• Nationally integrated geospatial information systems
• Geospatial information use for sustainable development and disaster response
• Marine geospatial information management
• Policy and legal framework development
• Land administration and resource management

Thus, UN-GGIM-AP acts as a critical regional mechanism to leverage geospatial information for advancing regional development agendas, environmental sustainability, disaster resilience, and good governance across Asia and the Pacific.
 
 
   
Why in news?
In a landmark judgment by the Supreme Court in October 2025, expanded the scope of Public Trust doctrine to include man-made or artificially created waterbodies in addition to natural ones like rivers, lakes, and wetlands. '

About

• The doctrine establishes that certain natural resources like air, water, forests, and shorelines are held in trust by the State for public use and benefit.
• The State acts as a trustee responsible for protecting and preserving these resources for present and future generations, not for private gain.
• Citizens are the beneficiaries who have equitable rights to access and use these natural resources sustainably.
• Non-renewable resources must be used reasonably to prevent depletion and environmental harm.
• The doctrine restricts the government from selling, misusing, or allowing private ownership of these public trust resources.
• Originating from Roman law and rooted in common law jurisprudence, it has been incorporated into Indian legal framework through court judgments.
• Article 48A, Article 21, and Article 39 of the Indian Constitution support the principles underlying this doctrine.
• The doctrine empowers courts to hold the State accountable for environmental protection and sustainable resource management.
• Legal cases in India such as M.C. Mehta vs Kamalnath have emphasized this doctrine to curb unauthorized resource exploitation.

The doctrine promotes environmental justice, ensuring natural resources remain accessible to all and safeguarded against degradation.
 
 
   
Why in news?

• The Scheme is an initiative launched by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to foster innovation, collaboration, and indigenization in the digital identity ecosystem centered around Aadhaar.

• It aims to bring together startups, academic institutions, and industry players to co-develop secure, scalable, and globally benchmarked solutions to enhance the security and efficiency of Aadhaar authentication.

Key Features of SITAA:

• Promotes AI-driven and advanced biometric technologies, authentication frameworks, data privacy, and secure identity applications.
• Encourages indigenous innovation aligned with Atmanirbhar Bharat and Digital Public Infrastructure goals.
• Strategic partners like MeitY Startup Hub (MSH) and NASSCOM provide mentoring, incubation, industry linkages, and global outreach support.
• Initial pilot phase hosts three major innovation challenges:
  • Face Liveness Detection for spoofing prevention using software development kits (SDKs).
  • Presentation Attack Detection leveraging AI/ML techniques to detect various types of attacks.
  • Contactless Fingerprint Authentication using smartphone cameras with liveness detection.
• The program is open for applications until November 15, 2025, encouraging eligible and innovative entities to participate.

This scheme signifies India's commitment to building a secure, inclusive, and self-reliant digital identity ecosystem by leveraging advanced technology and collaborative innovation.
 
 
 
Why in news?

• Astronomers have observed a ring system forming around the icy celestial body Chiron, which is a centaur object orbiting between Jupiter and Neptune.

• Four distinct rings were detected: three dense inner rings at about 273 km, 325 km, and 438 km from Chiron’s center, and a newly discovered fourth outer ring about 1,400 km away.
• The rings are composed mainly of water ice with some rocky material, similar to Saturn’s rings.
• These rings are evolving in real time, providing rare insight into ring system development.
• Chiron sometimes behaves like a comet, releasing gas and dust, and in 1993 it showed a small comet-like tail.
• The observations were made using a method called stellar occultation by a team including researchers from Brazil, France, and Spain.

About Chiron

• Chiron, officially designated as 2060 Chiron, is a celestial body classified as a centaur—a small object in the outer solar system with characteristics of both asteroids and comets.
• It orbits the Sun between Saturn and Uranus in an eccentric, unstable orbit, completing one orbit roughly every 50 years.
• Discovered in 1977 by astronomer Charles Kowal, Chiron is about 200 kilometers (125 miles) in diameter.
• Chiron exhibits dual behavior: initially classified as an asteroid, it was later found to display comet-like activity, such as ejecting gas and dust and sometimes developing a coma and tail, leading to its dual classification also as comet 95P/Chiron.
• Its composition includes rock, water ice, and complex organic compounds, resembling a comet nucleus.

 
 
   
Why in news?

• The IN-RoKN Exercise is the inaugural bilateral naval exercise between the Indian Navy (IN) and the Republic of Korea Navy (RoKN), which commenced on October 13, 2025, at the Busan Naval Base in South Korea.
• It aims to enhance interoperability, mutual understanding, and trust between the two navies and is structured in two phases: the Harbour Phase and the Sea Phase.

Key points

• Harbour Phase involves professional exchanges and goodwill activities.
• Sea Phase involves joint operational maneuvers between INS Sahyadri and ROKS Gyeongnam.
• INS Sahyadri is a Shivalik-class stealth frigate built indigenously.
• The exercise strengthens maritime cooperation, interoperability, and regional stability in the Indo-Pacific.

 
 
   
Why in news?

• India and Brazil have initiated talks to expand and deepen the existing trade pact between India and the MERCOSUR group.
• The aim is to transform the current Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) with limited coverage (only 450 tariff lines) into a more comprehensive trade agreement that covers a broader range of products and services. 

About MERCOSUR Group

• The MERCOSUR Group, also known as the Southern Common Market (Mercado Común del Sur in Spanish, Mercosul in Portuguese),
• It is a South American regional economic and political organization established by the Treaty of Asunción in 1991 and the Protocol of Ouro Preto in 1994.
• It aims to facilitate free movement of goods, services, capital, and people among its member countries to create an integrated regional market and promote economic development.
• Headquarters is located in Montevideo, Uruguay.
• Official working languages are Spanish and Portuguese.
• The group has a combined population of over 285 million and a GDP nearing $3 trillion.

Member Countries

• Full members: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
• Venezuela is a full member but has been suspended since December 1, 2016.
• Associate members include Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Panama, Peru, and Suriname.

Main Objectives and Structure

• The organization facilitates free trade and a customs union with a common external tariff on imports from non-member countries.
• MERCOSUR aims to become a common market similar to the European Union, enabling more integration of member economies.

Challenges and Trade Agreements

• The bloc has faced challenges such as political disagreements, uneven economic development, and reduced intra-bloc trade at times.
• It has worked on trade agreements outside the bloc, including recently clinching a trade deal with the European Union in late 2024 after long negotiations.
• Other negotiations with the US and China remain ongoing as of 2025.
• The bloc aims to protect regional industries but has also expanded trade opportunities within the region and beyond.

 
 

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