Daily Current Affairs 2025  

16/12/2025

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CA-16/12/2025

• This edition, instituted by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) under the Ministry of Power since 1991, introduced a new category for digital content creators and influencers to promote awareness via social media.
• It supports India's Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) by honoring energy savings and innovations, with past winners achieving substantial reductions in consumption and emissions.​

• Industries, commercial buildings, transport undertakings, and energy-efficient appliances.
• Institutions and state-level energy efficiency (e.g., Karnataka topped Group 1, Andhra Pradesh Group 2).​
• Special recognitions like the National Painting Competition, won by Anuj Prince (Group A) and Soumya Jeet Malik (Group B).​

• Manufactured by Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, and Lockheed Martin
• All-weather, multi-role platform derived from the Black Hawk family, with a glass cockpit featuring multi-function displays, night-vision compatibility, and integrated avionics.​
• Equipped with advanced sensors: multi-mode radar (APS-147 with periscope detection), electronic support measures (ESM), electro-optical/infrared (FLIR) camera, dipping sonar (AN/AQS-22), and sonobuoys.​
• Powered by two General Electric T700-GE-401C turboshaft engines (each ~1,425-2,554 kW), with self-sealing fuel tanks and external auxiliaries.​

• Maximum speed: 267-330 km/h; range: 454-830 km; endurance up to 3.3 hours.​
• Operable from frigates, destroyers, carriers, and littoral environments.​

• Primary: Anti-submarine warfare (ASW), anti-surface warfare (ASuW), search-and-rescue (SAR), surveillance.​
• Secondary: Vertical replenishment (VERTREP), medical evacuation, command/control, logistics.​
• Weapons: Mk 54 torpedoes, Hellfire missiles, rockets, .50 caliber guns, airborne mine-clearing systems.​

• A mercy petition is a formal request by a death row convict or their representative seeking clemency from the President of India under Article 72 or the Governor under Article 161 of the Constitution.
• It serves as the final constitutional remedy after exhausting all judicial appeals, rooted in the right to life under Article 21.​

• Article 72 empowers the President to grant pardons, reprieves, respites, or remissions for Union laws, court-martial sentences, or death penalties.
• Governors hold similar powers under Article 161 for state laws, excluding court-martial cases.
• The Supreme Court has ruled this as a constitutional right, not discretionary.​

• No statutory procedure exists, but convicts or relatives submit written petitions post-Supreme Court dismissal, typically within 7 days under prior CrPC rules or 30 days under BNSS Section 472.
• Petitions go to the President's Secretariat, then Ministry of Home Affairs for state/central input and recommendations within 60 days. Multiple convicts' petitions are decided together.​

• Clemency considers health, mental fitness, family dependency, or judicial errors.
• Types include pardon (full forgiveness), reprieve (temporary delay), respite (longer medical suspension), and remission (sentence reduction).

• Nauradehi spans 1,197 km² across Sagar, Damoh, and Narsinghpur districts in central Madhya Pradesh.
• It sits on the upper Vindhyan plateau within the Deccan Peninsula biogeographic region.​

• Declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1975, it ranks as Madhya Pradesh's largest. Recent developments include tiger reintroduction since 2018 and selection as India's third cheetah site.​

• It forms a key corridor linking Panna Tiger Reserve and Satpura Tiger Reserve, with indirect ties to Bandhavgarh via Rani Durgavati Sanctuary.
• The area straddles Ganga (Yamuna basin, three-fourths) and Narmada basins, with rivers like Kopra, Bamner, and Bearma.​

• Dominant tropical dry deciduous forests feature teak alongside saja, dhaora, mahua, and tendu.
• Fauna includes tigers (now around 25), Indian wolf (keystone species), leopards, sloth bears, nilgai, chinkara, sambar, blackbuck, over 170 bird species, and mugger crocodiles.​

• Known for wolf conservation originally, it supports cheetah reintroduction in a predator-rich landscape and holds potential for over 70 cheetahs post-relocation efforts.​

• The bill guarantees 125 days of wage employment per rural household annually, up from 100 days under MGNREGA.
• Works focused on four verticals: water security, rural infrastructure, livelihoods, and climate resilience.
• It introduces a 60-day pause during peak agricultural seasons (notified by states) to aid farming and shifts to normative central allocations based on objective parameters, capping funds beyond which states bear extra costs.​

• Unlike MGNREGA's 100% central funding for wages, VB–G RAM G adopts a cost-sharing model: 90:10 (Centre:State) for Northeastern/Himalayan states and select UTs, 60:40 for others, and 100% central for UTs without legislatures.
• States handle unemployment allowances and additional material costs, raising fiscal burdens but promising digital payments and Aadhaar verification.​

• Critics argue the bill undermines MGNREGA's demand-driven right to work by imposing central allocations, potentially capping employment when funds deplete and reducing it to a "centrally managed publicity scheme."
• It sidelines panchayats and local planning in favor of GIS tools, PM Gati Shakti, biometrics, and AI audits, risking exclusion for rural workers due to tech failures without appeal options.​
• The bill eliminates unemployment allowances, universal entitlements, and decentralized Gram Sabha planning, reverting to pre-MGNREGA eras with minimal work days. 

• Five MoUs were signed to boost cooperation in renewable energy, water resources management, cultural exchanges (including twinning Petra and Ellora caves), and digital solutions.
• These build on sectors like fertilizers, defense, IT, health, and tourism.​

• India and Jordan share a strong bilateral relationship established through a 1947 agreement and formalized diplomatic ties in 1950, marking 75 years in 2025.
• Diplomatic relations began with mutual respect and goodwill post-1947, evolving through key visits such as President Ram Nath Kovind's in 2015 and King Abdullah II's state visit to India in 2018, which signed 12 MoUs.
• Recent mechanisms include the fourth Foreign Office Consultations in April 2025 and ongoing reviews of the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement.​
• The partnership spans political, economic, security, and cultural domains, bolstered by high-level exchanges like PM Narendra Modi's visit on December 15-16, 2025.

• Bilateral trade reached USD 2.8-2.875 billion in 2023-24, with India as Jordan's third- or fourth-largest partner; key Indian exports include machinery and cereals, while imports feature phosphates and fertilizers.
• Flagship projects like the Jordan India Fertilizer Company (JIFCO) joint venture and USD 1.5 billion in Indian investments in phosphates and textiles highlight depth, alongside NRI-owned garment firms.

• Both nations coordinate on West Asia stability, counter-terrorism, and global forums; Jordan backs India's UNSC bid.
• Cultural ties thrive via Bollywood, yoga events, and the India-Jordan IT Centre of Excellence training 3,000 in AI and cybersecurity; about 17,500 Indians reside in Jordan.​

• It is Google's research initiative to develop solar-powered satellite constellations equipped with Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) for scalable AI computing in space.
• Announced in November 2025, it addresses the energy demands of AI data centers by leveraging near-constant sunlight in sun-synchronous orbits, where solar panels can produce up to 8 times more power than on Earth.​

• Satellites will use radiation-hardened TPUs, tested to withstand low-Earth orbit conditions with minimal failures up to 15 krad(Si) dose.
• Free-space optical links, including multi-channel dense wavelength-division multiplexing, enable data center-scale bandwidth (tens of terabits per second) by flying in tight formations under 1 km radius.​

• Two prototype satellites, in partnership with Planet Labs, are slated for launch by early 2027 to validate hardware, orbital dynamics, and inter-satellite communication.
• Models predict stable clusters at 650 km altitude with modest station-keeping, despite challenges like space debris and thermal management.​

• Terrestrial data centers face rising power needs—potentially up 165% by 2030—and environmental strain from fossil fuels and water use.
• Space offers uninterrupted solar energy, disaster resilience, and data sovereignty under the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, with launch costs projected below $200/kg by mid-2030s making it economically viable.​

• MANPADS, or Man-Portable Air-Defense Systems, are lightweight, shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles designed for individual soldiers or small teams to counter low-flying aircraft like helicopters.​
• These systems typically include a missile in a disposable launch tube, a reusable gripstock, and a battery, weighing around 15-20 kg for easy portability.
• They use infrared homing guidance to target heat signatures, with ranges up to 5-8 km and altitudes reaching 3-5 km, making them effective "last-ditch" defenses.​

• Modern examples include the FIM-92 Stinger and Mistral, used in conflicts like Ukraine for downing drones and aircraft.​

• Primarily for infantry protection against aerial threats, they integrate into layered air defenses alongside guns or longer-range systems.
• Their proliferation raises concerns for terrorists targeting civilian airliners, prompting international controls.​

• Russian Igla-S systems inducted with indigenous Rajak thermal sights from Tata Advanced Systems, enhancing night operations.​
• Thales and Bharat Dynamics to deliver STARStreak MANPADS in 2025 under "Make in India," with 60% local production.​
• DRDO's indigenous VSHORAD progressing via successful trials for self-reliance.​

• Affected areas show wilting, browning, and curling leaves; dark, sunken cankers on stems; gum oozing from branches; and eventual defoliation or bark cracking.
• In trees like neem or mango, symptoms worsen during rainy seasons, mimicking drought stress.​

• First reported in India during the 1990s near Dehradun, Uttarakhand, it recently devastated neem trees in Telangana, prompting research by the Forest College & Research Institute in Mulugu.
• The fungus spreads via soil movement, water, or root contact, thriving in warm, moist conditions and causing near-total fruit loss in severe infections.​

• No cure exists, but prevention involves hygiene like cleaning tools and footwear, improving drainage, avoiding root damage, and using fungicides such as carbendazim or mancozeb for high-risk crops.
• Early pruning of infected parts and stress reduction through proper watering enhance plant resilience.​

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