UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | May 12 to May 18, 2025

Report

(FYI: The data provided in these reports can be used to substantiate your Mains answer and create a broad understanding of the topic.)

• 2025 Human Development Report

— Recently, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) released its latest Human Development Report (HDR) titled “A matter of choice: People and possibilities in the age of AI.”

— UNDP published the following indices: Human Development Index (HDI), Inequality-adjusted HDI, Gender Development Index, Gender Inequality Index, Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI), Multidimensional Poverty Index, and Planetary pressures-adjusted Human Development Index.

— HDI is composite index that measures average achievement in human development taking into account four indicators: life expectancy at birth (Sustainable Development Goal 3); expected years of schooling (SDG 4.3); mean years of schooling (SDG 4.4); and gross national income (GNI) per capita (2017 PPP$) (SDG 8.5).

— India shows steady upward movement in the HDI rankings, ranking 130 in the 2025 UNDP report. The country’s HDI value rose from 0.676 in 2022 to 0.685 in 2023, placing India in the medium human development category and bringing it closer to the high human development threshold (HDI ≥ 0.700).

HDR(2023)	HDI value(Year 2023)	Life expectancy at Birth (Years)	Expected years of schooling(Years)	Mean years of schooling(years)	Gross National Income (GNI) per capita (2021 PPP$)
INDIA	0.685	72.0	13.0	6.9	9047

Read more about the report here.

 

Events

The Pushkar Kumbh has begun at Keshav Prayag, located in the border village of Mana in Chamoli district.

• Pushkar Kumbh

— The Pushkar Kumbh has begun at Keshav Prayag, located in the border village of Mana in Chamoli district, after 12 years.

— According to religious tradition, when the planet Jupiter enters the Gemini sign once in 12 years, the Pushkar Kumbh is held at Keshav Prayag, the confluence of the Alaknanda and Saraswati rivers in Mana village.

— This event is primarily attended by devotees of the Vaishnavite tradition from South India.

• Sikkim Day

— Sikkim Day is annually celebrated on May 16, recalling the history of the former kingdom’s integration with India in 1975.

— History: The kingdom of Sikkim was established in 1642, when, according to one account, three Tibetan lamas consecrated Phuntsong Namgyal as the first ruler or Chogyal of Sikkim. The monarchy of the Namgyal dynasty was maintained for the next 333 years, until its integration with India in 1975.

— Sikkim signed a formal protectorate with the British through the Treaty of Tumlong in 1861, meaning the British had control over it, but it was not officially under their rule, and the Chogyals could continue holding onto power.

—  Other official treaties followed: The treaty of Titaliya in 1817 gave the British authorities a number of commercial and political advantages in Sikkim. The Calcutta Convention of 1890 demarcated the border between Sikkim and Tibet and was signed by Viceroy Lord Lansdowne and Qing China’s Imperial Associate Resident in Tibet. The Lhasa Convention of 1904 affirmed the Calcutta Convention.

— In 1950, the Indo-Sikkim Treaty was signed, making Sikkim an Indian protectorate. It would not be sovereign, as India controlled its defence, external affairs and strategic communications.

— Anti-monarchy protests grew in Sikkim in 1973, where the monarch was left with no choice but to ask New Delhi to send assistance. This led to the signing of a tripartite agreement between the chogyal, the Indian government, and three major political parties, so that major political reforms could be introduced.

— A year later, in 1974, elections were held, where the Sikkim Congress, led by Kazi Dorji won.  A referendum was held in Sikkim in 1975, where two-thirds of eligible voters took part. Here, 59,637 votes were cast in favour of abolishing the monarchy and joining India, with 1,496 voting against.

— Within a week, India’s Ministry of External Affairs introduced the Constitution (Thirty-Sixth Amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha to recognise Sikkim as a state in the Union of India. This was passed in the Parliament and assented to by President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, coming into effect on May 16, 1975.

 

Schemes of the government

• PM SHRI

— The Centre has stopped funding for the umbrella program for school education in three opposition-ruled states that have refused to implement its PM SHRI scheme.

— The scheme was approved in 2022. It seeks to develop 14,500 schools to “showcase” the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, and be “exemplars” for other schools in their region.

— The scheme is for existing elementary, secondary, and senior secondary schools run by the central government and state and local governments around the country.

I&B Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw says the 6th semiconductor plant in India will start production in 2027. (Express Archive Photo by Prem Nath Pandey)

• India Semiconductor Mission

— The Union Cabinet has approved a joint venture between HCL and Foxconn to set up a chip assembly and packaging unit in Uttar Pradesh, making it the sixth project to receive approval under the government’s ambitious Rs 76,000 crore India Semiconductor Mission.

— The Semicon India Programme, with a total outlay of Rs 76,000 crore, was approved in 2022 with a total outlay of INR 76,000 crore for the development of the semiconductor and display manufacturing ecosystem in our country.

— It is a strategic initiative undertaken by the government of India to promote the domestic semiconductor industry. Its goal is to improve semiconductor design and manufacturing capabilities domestically and to encourage innovation, employment, and economic growth.

— India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) has been setup as an Independent Business Division within Digital India Corporation having administrative and financial autonomy to formulate and drive India’s long term strategies for developing semiconductors and display manufacturing facilities and semiconductor design ecosystem.

— ISM is the nodal agency for efficient, coherent and smooth implementation of the schemes under the Semicon India Programme.

 

Supreme Court Judgement

• SC has declared the 2017 notification of the Ministry of Environment as illegal

— The Supreme Court struck down and held as “illegal” a 2017 Ministry of Environment notification that allowed grant of environmental clearance (EC) to projects ex-post facto i.e., after commencement of work.

— The 2017 notification had offered a one-time amnesty window of sorts, and allowed approvals for projects where work had commenced without obtaining prior environment clearance under the 2006 EIA notification.

— The Supreme Court, however, clarified that environmental clearances already granted till date under the 2017 notification and the 2021 office memorandum “shall…remain unaffected.”

Read in detail about the case here.

 

International Cooperation

• International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

— The global nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has said that there has been “no radiation leak” from any nuclear facility in Pakistan after the escalated military engagement with India. Kirana Hills is reported to house some nuclear installations.

— The IAEA was established in 1957 in response to the deep fears and expectations generated by the increased use of nuclear technology. It was the result of U.S. President Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” address to the General Assembly of the United Nations on 8 December 1953.

Do you know about the IAEA safeguards agreements? UPSC has asked questions on the IAEA in 2018 and 2020. Get a comprehensive understanding of this topic from here.

• Most Favoured Nations 

— Donald Trump has said that he would introduce a “most favoured nation” (MFN) policy whereby the US pays “the same price as the nation that pays the lowest price anywhere in the World”.

— Under Article 1 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), 1994, every member country of the World Trade Organization (WTO) must accord Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to all other member countries.

— Under the WTO agreements, countries following the MFN status cannot discriminate among their trading partners or grant one country “a special favour” such a lower customs duty on one of their products, without extending the same to other WTO members.

• Prohibition of Attacks against Nuclear Installations and Facilities

— This agreement was signed between India and Pakistan on December 31, 1988, and entered into force on January 27, 1991.

— It provides that India and Pakistan inform each other of the nuclear installations and facilities to be covered under this Agreement on January 1 of every calendar year.

— On January 1, 2025, too, India and Pakistan had exchanged, through diplomatic channels, the list of “nuclear installations and facilities. This was the 34th consecutive exchange of such lists between the two countries, the first one having taken place on January 1, 1992.

 

Environment

• CAQM issues 19-point directives to eliminate Stubble farming

— The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) is tasked with formulating air pollution control strategies in the National Capital Region (NCR) and adjoining areas.

— According to an order issued by the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), a new “Parali Protection Force” to patrol fields once dark and a common fixed price for paddy straw are among the 19-point steps that Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh must take to fully eliminate stubble burning this year.

— The Parali Protection Force — made up of police, agriculture, and civic officers — is to “closely monitor, oversee and guard” against stubble burning incidents.

CAQM

The Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) was constituted through the CAQM Act, 2021, which came into force in the same year on April 13. The air quality monitoring body is tasked with improving coordination, conducting research, identifying, and resolving problems related to the air quality index and its surrounding matters in the NCR and adjoining areas. It has the power to take measures, issue directions, and entertain complaints to protect and improve the air quality in the region.

• Onset of Monsoon

— The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Tuesday(13th May) announced the onset of the Southwest Monsoon over some areas of the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea.

— The Southwest Monsoon is the chief rainy season for the country. Over 70 per cent of the country receives the majority of its annual rainfall during the June to September season.

— Every year, the monsoon winds first arrive over the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal around the third week of May and further progress into mainland India.

Do you know how the shifting in the position of the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and withdrawal of the westerly jet streams lead to the onset of the monsoon? 

Science and Technology 

ISRO launches the PSLV-C61 space mission from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on Saturday. (Source: Screengrab/YT)

• ISRO’s 101st space mission

— The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) 101st satellite launch failed in the early hours of May 18. The Earth observation satellite EOS-09 was aboard the PSLV-C61 (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle).

— This was the 63rd PSLV launch. Since their introduction in the 1990s, PSLVs have only failed twice – the first during the inaugural flight in 1993 and in 2017, when the C-39 mission was unsuccessful.

— ISRO has three main types of launchers: the PSLV, the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), and the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk-III (LVM3). Variants are chosen based on the payload weights and the orbit they are to reach.

—The EOS-09 satellite carried a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) payload, capable of providing images of the Earth in all weather conditions.

— Notably, to ensure a debris-free mission, the space agency had put on the satellite some fuel reserved for de-orbiting manoeuvre after the end of its life so that it would fall into the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up within two years.

FYI: Space agencies are getting serious about space debris. There is a call for a new space treaty as well. They are more scared of the Kessler syndrome. Do you know what this syndrome is?

• Kosmos 482 Mission

— A piece of a Soviet spacecraft, which is from the Kosmos 482 mission, launched more than 50 years ago, is expected to crash back to Earth later this week.

— It was supposed to land on Venus but could not as something went wrong with the spacecraft, and it failed to finish its mission. Most parts of the mission, launched on March 31, 1972, came back to Earth within 10 years of liftoff.

— It was launched under the Venera Program (named after the Russian word for Venus), in which the country sent 28 spacecraft to Venus between 1961 and 1984. Thirteen probes successfully entered the Venusian atmosphere, and 10 of those landed on the planet.

• Chandrayaan-5 – LUPEX

— The Chandrayaan-5 mission, weighing 6.5 tonnes, is proposed to lift off on a Japanese rocket, H3, sometime in 2027-28. Indian and Japanese space agencies will soon commence the preliminary design phase of the lander and the rover.

— Chandrayaan-5, also known as LUPEX (Lunar Polar Exploration), is a joint project between ISRO and JAXA to study water and water-ice both on the lunar surface and the subsurface.

— ISRO is developing Chandrayaan-5’s lander, whereas JAXA is building the 350-kg rover. There will be seven scientific instruments onboard, some contributed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA. ESA is developing the mass spectrometer and NASA the neutron spectrometers — both are currently in the design phase

— Using the rover, JAXA teams plan to trace areas on the Moon with presence of water, sample the nearby soil or regolith by drilling into the surface. The onboard instruments will measure the water content and its quality and perform other in-situ observations.

— Spectrometers are specialised scientific instruments that aid in performing in-situ (at the site) experiments requiring calculation of the energy and mass of samples. These experiments help understand the evolution of the composition of hydrogen and other elements.

— The proposed Chandrayaan-4 mission will be a return sample mission: samples dug from the Moon will be brought to Earth for ISRO to study the mineral composition of the lunar surface.

• Rare-earth magnets

— China has imposed new restrictions on rare-earth magnets and related materials as a direct response to US tariffs imposed on April 4, now it has started impacting the EV markets in India.

— Rare earth magnets, especially neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets, are crucial for EV manufacturing, particularly in electric motors. They provide the strong magnetic fields needed for efficient and powerful electric motors, including traction motors that drive EVs.

 

Defence

• Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS)

— At the media briefing on Operation Sindoor, military officers displayed a picture of the IACCS node of the Indian Air Force (IAF).

— IACCS is an automated command and control system that integrates data from all air defence assets, including ground-based radar, airborne sensors, civilian radar, communication nodes, and the various command and control centres of the IAF.

— It is developed by the public sector aerospace and defence electronics company Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL).

— The Indian Army has a similar air defence control and reporting system called Akashteer, which connects the units of its air defence.

 

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.)

• Justice Bhushan Ramakrishnan Gavai

— Justice B R Gavai was sworn in as the 52nd Chief Justice of India.

— He succeeds Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna, who demitted office on May 13, and will hold office till November 23, 2025.

— He is the first practising Buddhist to be Chief Justice of India. He is only the second Dalit to hold the office of CJI.

Read about his journey here.

Newly appointed UPSC Chairperson Dr Ajay Kumar (Photo via X/drajaykumar_ias)

• Dr Ajay Kumar

— Dr Ajay Kumar is appointed as the new UPSC chairperson. He succeeds Preeti Sudan, whose tenure ended on April 29, 2025.

— Dr Ajay Kumar, a 1985-batch IAS officer of the Kerala cadre, has served as India’s Defence Secretary from August 23, 2019, to October 31, 2022, before being appointed as the UPSC chairperson.

— Article 316 of the Constitution provides for the appointment of the Chairman and other members of a Public Service Commission shall be appointed, in the case of the Union Commission or a Joint Commission, by the President, and in the case of a State Commission, by the Governor of the State.

— A member of a Public Service Commission shall hold office for a term of six years from the date on which he enters upon his office or until he attains, in the case of the Union Commission, the age of sixty-five years, and in the case of a State Commission or a Joint Commission, the age of sixty-two years, whichever is earlier.

Anita Anand is the Member of Parliament from Oakville East. (Photo: X/@AnitaAnandMP)

• Anita Anand

— Anita Anand on Wednesday (May 14) became the first Hindu woman to be sworn in as Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs.

— In 2019, she became the first Hindu woman to serve as a Member of Canada’s Parliament, and the first Hindu to become a Cabinet Minister.

— Since then, she has served the public in several capacities. In 2021, she became the second woman ever to become Canada’s Defence Minister.

 

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.)

A satellite image of the damaged Sargodha air base runway hit by India. (PTI)

• Kirana Hills, Pakistan

— During Operation Sindoor, the Mushaf air base in Sargodha was targeted. Sargodha is one of Pakistan’s biggest air bases, located near Kirana Hills. Kirana Hills is reported to house some nuclear installations.

— Air Marshal A K Bharti, DG Air Operations, had said that India has not hit any target in Pakistan’s Kirana Hills. The global nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has also confirmed that there has been “no radiation leak” from any nuclear facility in Pakistan after the escalated military engagement with India.

 

Sports

(Just FYI: With the unpredictability of the UPSC examinations and questions like the ICC World Test Championship question 2021, you can’t be sure of anything. It is wise to know what it is and not go into too much detail.)

Athletics – Diamond League – Doha – Qatar Sports Club Stadium, Doha, Qatar – May 16, 2025 India’s Neeraj Chopra in action during the Men’s Javelin Throw REUTERS/Ibraheem Al Omari

• Doha Diamond League

— At the Doha leg of the Diamond League, Neeraj Chopra breached the elusive 90m frontier with a 90.23m throw to finish second in the league.  He became the third Asian and 25th man in history to achieve the feat.

— Germany’s Julian Weber, with 91.06m throw, came first to win the title.

— The 90m mark in men’s javelin (800g) has been breached a total of 129 times in history by 26 different athletes, considering of course the one best throw in any given event.

— One man alone is responsible for 34 of those: Czechia legend Jan Zelezny, the world record holder and, more relevantly, Chopra’s coach.

 

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) The seasonal reversal of winds is the typical characteristic of (UPSC CSE 2014)

(a) Equatorial climate

(b) Mediterranean climate

(c) Monsoon climate

(d) All of the above climates

(2) Consider the following statements:

1. The Constitution (Thirty-Sixth Amendment) Bill recognised Sikkim as a state in the Union of India.

2. This bill was passed in the Parliament and assented to by President V.V. Giri, making Sikkim part of India on May 16, 1975.

3. A formal protectorate was signed by Sikkim with the British through the Treaty of Tumlong in 1861.

Which of the following statements is/are correct?

(a) 1 and 2 only

(b) 1 and 3 only

(c) 2 and 3 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3

(3) In the Indian context, what is the implication of ratifying the ‘Additional Protocol’ with the ‘International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)’? (UPSC CSE 2018)

(a) The civilian nuclear reactors come under IAEA safeguards.

(b) The military nuclear installations come under the inspection of IAEA.

(c) The country will have the privilege to buy uranium from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

(d) The country automatically becomes a member of the NSG.

Answer Key

1. (c)   2. (b)  3. (a)

Previous Articles

UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | May 5 to May 11, 2025

UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | April 28 to May 4, 2025

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