5 January 2025

• Health: China HMPV outbreak continued to attract global monitoring attention.
• Economy: India's logistics sector remained in focus following LEADS 2024 rankings.
• Environment: Winter fog across north India disrupted rail and air operations, a recurring seasonal challenge.
• Space: ISRO's PSLV mission planning for the year was underway with SpaDeX docking experiments announced.
• Governance: Year-end review of the SVAMITVA scheme showed drone surveys completed in over 17 lakh villages.

GS area: Disaster Management, Geography

Dense fog enveloped the Indo-Gangetic Plain in early January 2025, disrupting railways and aviation in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, and Delhi.

• Cause: Fog forms when moist air near the surface is cooled below its dew point. The Indo-Gangetic Plain is especially susceptible in winter due to still air, high moisture from irrigation, and low temperatures.
• Impact: Indian Railways runs fog-safe devices (Linke-Hofmann-Busch cab signalling and fog-pass devices) on some trains. Despite these, visibility below 50 metres grounds aircraft at airports without CAT III instrument landing system capability.
• Cold Wave criteria: The India Meteorological Department defines a cold wave when a station's minimum temperature is 4°C or below, or when it is 4.5°C or more below the normal minimum.
• IMD responsibility: IMD issues nowcasts and forecasts for agricultural advisories and transport safety. It operates under the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

Static linkage: Climate of India (Geography, GS Paper 1), disaster management.

GS area: Governance, Rural Development

The Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas (SVAMITVA) scheme continued its roll-out across India.

• Launch: 2020 as a Central Sector Scheme under the Ministry of Panchayati Raj.
• Technology: Uses drone mapping and CORS (Continuously Operating Reference Stations) to prepare property cards for rural households.
• Progress: Drone surveys completed in over 17 lakh villages across India.
• Saturation: Six states and UTs including Puducherry and Tripura achieved complete village coverage.
• Outcome: Property cards (rights of record) enable rural households to use their homes as collateral for institutional loans, a facility that was largely unavailable to them before.

SVAMITVA addresses the long-standing gap in property rights documentation in rural India. Urban areas have property registration systems; rural abadi land (habitation land) lacked equivalent documentation in most states.

Static linkage: Panchayati Raj, rural development schemes (Governance).

GS area: Agriculture, Environment

Cold waves in January 2025 affected rabi crop health in several north Indian states.

• Rabi season: Sown in October-November, harvested in March-April. Key crops: wheat, mustard, barley, chickpea, lentil.
• Cold wave impact on crops: Frost can damage the tender growing tips of wheat and mustard. However, mild cold spells are beneficial for winter crops as they reduce pest activity.
• PMFBY coverage: Post-harvest and prevented sowing losses from natural calamities including unseasonal cold are covered under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana.
• Crop weather watches: IMD issues daily agricultural meteorology advisories during the rabi season to guide irrigation and pest management decisions.

Static linkage: Agriculture in India (Economy), climate and agriculture linkages.

GS area: Physical Geography

The Indo-Gangetic Plain is a recurring topic in both physical geography and current affairs about agriculture, floods, and pollution.

• Formation: Formed by alluvial deposits of the Indus and Gangetic river systems. The plain stretches from Punjab in the west to West Bengal in the east.
• Breadth: Roughly 240 to 320 km wide and over 2,400 km long.
• Doab: The tract of land between two rivers is called a doab. The Bist Doab (between Beas and Sutlej), Bari Doab (Beas-Ravi), Rachna Doab (Ravi-Chenab), and Chaj Doab (Chenab-Jhelum) are the main doabs in Punjab.
• Economic significance: Accounts for roughly a third of India's total population and is the most agriculturally productive region of the subcontinent.

Static linkage: Physical geography of India (GS Paper 1).

GS area: Science and Technology (Space)

ISRO announced details of the Space Docking Experiment ahead of its launch.

• Mission: Two small satellites named SDX01 (the Chaser) and SDX02 (the Target), each weighing 220 kg, will practise orbital rendezvous and docking.
• Significance: Docking is a prerequisite for crewed space stations, sample-return missions, and lunar missions. India would become the fourth country to demonstrate this capability after the USA, Russia, and China.
• Context for Gaganyaan: The Gaganyaan crewed mission requires docking capability to support future orbital station operations.
• Launch vehicle: PSLV-C60 was designated for the mission.

Static linkage: Space technology, ISRO missions (Science and Technology, GS Paper 3).

• Pixxel hyperspectral satellites: Bengaluru-based Pixxel, a Google-backed startup, was preparing to launch six hyperspectral imaging satellites via SpaceX from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. Hyperspectral imaging captures light across hundreds of wavelength bands, enabling crop health mapping, mineral detection, and pollution monitoring.
• India's 100+ unicorns: As of early 2025, India had more than 100 unicorn startups (companies valued above $1 billion), with an ecosystem value of approximately $349.67 billion. The Startup India programme launched in 2016 created a regulatory and fiscal framework for this growth.