2 March 2025

• Security: The Union Home Minister reviewed the security situation in Manipur, with a focus on restoring free movement of civilians.
• Health: Gujarat's government launched a state-wide obesity awareness campaign following PM Modi's call for a 10 per cent cut in edible oil consumption.
• Finance: The Finance Ministry continued rollout of the Income Tax Bill, 2025 provisions governing digital asset taxation.
• Space: Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lunar lander, which touched down on the Moon on 2 March 2025, began transmitting scientific data from Mons Latreille in Mare Crisium.

GS area: Science and Technology (Space)

Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost became the first private spacecraft to land upright on the lunar surface, touching down on 2 March 2025 at Mons Latreille in Mare Crisium.

• Programme: NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, which contracts private companies to deliver payloads to the Moon.
• Landing site: Mare Crisium is a large lunar impact basin on the northeastern portion of the near side of the Moon.
• Payload: 10 scientific instruments, including sensors for regolith study, magnetic field measurement and thermal probing.
• Operational period: One lunar day, approximately 14 Earth days, before the site entered the two-week lunar night.
• Significance: First fully private lunar landing upright and without tipping. The earlier IM-1 mission (Intuitive Machines, February 2024) landed at a tilt.
• Lunar eclipse observation: The spacecraft was designed to capture a lunar eclipse on 14 March 2025 from the lunar surface.

The CLPS model is directly comparable to ISRO's approach of engaging private industry through IN-SPACe. UPSC tests the distinction between NASA's Artemis programme (human return to Moon) and CLPS (uncrewed commercial deliveries).

Static linkage: Space science, commercial space exploration, India's space policy.

GS area: Polity, Internal Security

Union Home Minister Amit Shah reviewed the security situation in Manipur, with a focus on restoring free movement of civilians across ethnic group areas.

• AFSPA: The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, empowers armed forces to maintain order in areas declared "disturbed." Manipur has had AFSPA coverage in varying districts since 1958.
• Ethnic conflict: The Meitei-Kuki-Zo conflict that erupted in May 2023 displaced over 60,000 people and caused sustained violence.
• Sixth Schedule: Parts of Manipur's hill districts fall under Sixth Schedule governance through Autonomous District Councils. This is distinct from the Fifth Schedule which applies to tribal areas elsewhere.
• Article 355: Places an obligation on the Union government to protect every state against internal disturbance.

The constitutional interplay between Article 355 (Union's duty to protect states) and the Governor's reporting role under Article 356 is a recurring polity question.

Static linkage: Polity (AFSPA, Sixth Schedule), internal security.

GS area: Society, Health, Government Schemes

Prime Minister Modi's appeal for a 10 per cent reduction in edible oil consumption as part of a nationwide anti-obesity campaign received state-level response from Gujarat and several other governments.

• NFHS-5 data (2019-21): 24 per cent of women and 23 per cent of men in India are overweight or obese.
• Global childhood obesity: The WHO documented a fourfold increase in childhood obesity rates globally between 1990 and 2022 (from 2 per cent to 8 per cent).
• Government programmes: National Programme for Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases (NP-NCD), Fit India Movement, and the Eat Right India campaign under FSSAI.
• POSHAN Abhiyaan: Addresses malnutrition but excludes overweight as an outcome indicator, a design gap that critics highlight.
• "Aaj Se Thoda Kam" campaign: The government's messaging campaign to reduce oil, salt and sugar in daily diets.

The coexistence of undernutrition and overnutrition in India is called the "double burden of malnutrition." It is a favourite essay and mains topic.

Static linkage: Social issues (health, nutrition), government welfare schemes.

GS area: Economy (Taxation)

The Income Tax Bill, 2025, introduced in the Lok Sabha in February 2025, was under parliamentary scrutiny. Its provisions on Virtual Digital Assets (VDAs) attracted particular attention.

• Classification: VDAs classified as capital assets and property under the Bill.
• Tax rate: 30 per cent flat tax on transfers of VDAs.
• TDS: 1 per cent Tax Deducted at Source on VDA transactions above the threshold.
• Scope: Covers cryptocurrencies, NFTs, stablecoins and other blockchain-based tokens.
• Global alignment: Aligns with treatment in the UK, Australia and USA.
• New concept: The Bill introduces "tax year" (April 1 to March 31) replacing the older "assessment year" terminology from the 1961 Act.

The 1961 Act's 298 sections were consolidated and simplified into the 2025 Bill, though critics note it does not change the fundamental tax burden.

Static linkage: Indian economy, taxation policy, digital economy.

GS area: Economy (Agriculture), Government Schemes

The government reported that India's 10,000th Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO) was formed in Khagaria district, Bihar, completing a target set in 2020.

• Central Sector Scheme: Launched 2020 with a budget of 6,865 crore rupees, targeting 10,000 FPOs over five years.
• Focus of 10,000th FPO: Maize, banana and paddy cultivation in Khagaria, Bihar.
• Women's participation: 40 per cent of FPO members nationwide are women.
• Support per FPO: Credit guarantee of up to 2 crore rupees and management support of 18 lakh rupees per FPO.
• FPO structure: A cooperative-type entity of at least 10 farmers, registered under the Companies Act or Cooperative Societies Act. Members own shares and share profits.

FPOs reduce the cost of inputs by buying in bulk and increase farmer bargaining power in output markets. They are distinguished from SHGs (primarily savings-credit bodies) and PACS (credit cooperatives).

Static linkage: Agriculture, rural economy, cooperative movement.

GS area: Environment (Biodiversity)

Researchers discovered two new species of jumping spiders of the genus Epidelaxia from Shendurney Wildlife Sanctuary in Kerala.

• Location: Kollam district, Kerala. Part of the Agasthyamalai Biosphere Reserve.
• Area: About 100 square kilometres (core zone approximately 4 sq km). Declared in 1984.
• Biodiversity: 1,257 flowering plant species, of which 309 are endemic to the Western Ghats. The sanctuary hosts the lion-tailed macaque and 267 bird species.
• Biosphere reserve: Agasthyamalai is one of India's 18 UNESCO-recognised biosphere reserves.
• Tourism: Shendurney is considered India's first eco-tourism project.

Species discovery in the Western Ghats reinforces the hotspot status of the region. UPSC tests species names, IUCN status, and the biosphere reserve framework.

Static linkage: Environment and ecology (Western Ghats, biodiversity hotspot).

• Gangasagar erosion: Sagar Island in the Sundarbans (Bay of Bengal) reported continued coastal erosion, threatening the annual Gangasagar Mela site.
• Multilingualism study: A study of 2011 Census data published this week showed only 26.02 per cent of Indians are bilingual, with Goa leading at 77.21 per cent.