2 April 2025

• International Relations: India and China marked 75 years of diplomatic ties on 1 April 2025. Presidents Xi Jinping and Droupadi Murmu exchanged messages emphasising strategic trust and mutual growth.
• Agriculture: India faces sustained international pressure to liberalise agricultural markets, particularly from the United States, with India's agricultural exports to the US standing at 8.4 billion dollars.
• Internal Security: Left Wing Extremism affected districts reduced from 38 to 18. The government aims for complete eradication by March 2026.
• Science: CERN proposed a Future Circular Collider with a 91-km tunnel, roughly 3.4 times the size of the current Large Hadron Collider.

GS area: International Relations

On 1 April 2025, India and China marked 75 years of diplomatic relations, the anniversary falling in the middle of an ongoing effort to normalise ties after the 2020 Galwan Valley standoff.

• Historical milestones: Diplomatic relations were established in 1950. The Panchsheel Agreement was signed in 1954. The 1962 Sino-Indian War was the defining rupture.
• 2020 context: The Galwan Valley clash in Ladakh triggered a multi-year military standoff along the Line of Actual Control.
• Trade numbers: Bilateral trade stood at 138.5 billion dollars in 2024 despite political friction.
• Visa signal: China issued 70,000 visas to Indian nationals in the first quarter of 2025, a figure cited as evidence of a thaw.
• Mechanism: Special Representatives talks, established in 2003, remain the primary channel for border dispute management.
• Challenges: LAC disputes, the trade deficit (which favours China heavily), border militarisation, and competition for regional influence all remain active fault lines.

Static linkage: India's foreign policy, border disputes, bilateral relations (GS-2 IR).

GS area: Economy, International Relations

India faces global pressure to reduce agricultural tariffs and open its markets further, primarily from developed countries within the WTO framework.

• Employment weight: Agriculture employs 42 per cent of India's workforce. Any tariff reduction has direct income consequences for hundreds of millions of people.
• Export figures: India's agricultural exports to the United States stand at 8.4 billion dollars.
• Dairy sector: Around 100 million dairy farmers rely on tariff protection to remain competitive against imported dairy products.
• MSP controversy: India's Minimum Support Price system faces WTO scrutiny over whether procurement at MSP prices constitutes an actionable subsidy.

The tension is structural. A country that has achieved food security through protective policies is reluctant to expose its farm sector to global price competition. UPSC frequently tests whether candidates understand this trade-off rather than treating agriculture liberalisation as simply good or bad.

Static linkage: Trade policy (Economy), WTO and India (GS-2 IR).

GS area: Internal Security

The Ministry of Home Affairs released updated data on Left Wing Extremism (LWE) in April 2025.

• District reduction: Most-affected districts reduced from 12 to 6. Total LWE-affected districts fell from 38 to 18.
• Target: Complete eradication by March 31, 2026.
• Focus states: Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, and Jharkhand remain the primary zones of activity.
• Security tools: CRPF and specialised CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action) units provide the operational backbone. Forward Operating Bases extend state presence into previously ungoverned forest areas.
• Development component: The most-affected districts receive 30 crore rupees in additional development funding. Districts categorised as "concern" districts receive 10 crore rupees.

Static linkage: Internal security challenges (GS-3).

GS area: Science and Technology

CERN announced its proposal for a Future Circular Collider (FCC) that would dwarf the existing Large Hadron Collider.

• Scale: The proposed tunnel is 91 km in circumference, compared to the current LHC tunnel of 27 km.
• Location: Beneath the French-Swiss border near Lake Geneva, at approximately 200 metres depth.
• Energy target: The FCC would generate roughly 10 times the energy of the LHC, enabling experiments that could detect dark matter, supersymmetric particles, and other phenomena beyond the Standard Model.
• Phased approach: Phase I in the 2040s would focus on precision studies. Phase II, planned for the 2070s, would run high-energy proton collisions.
• Cost estimate: Approximately 14 billion Swiss francs.
• Funding decision: Expected in 2028. Twenty-four member countries back the project.

Static linkage: Science and Technology paper (particle physics, India's role in CERN).

GS area: Defence, Science and Technology

INSV Tarini, crewed by two Indian women naval officers, reached Cape Town in April 2025 on the Navika Sagar Parikrama II voyage.

• Vessel: INSV Tarini is a 56-foot indigenous sailing vessel, in service since 2017.
• Crew: Lieutenant Commander Dilna K and Lieutenant Commander Roopa A, both women naval officers.
• Launch: Departed Goa on 2 October 2024.
• Route: Goa to Fremantle (Australia), then Lyttelton (New Zealand), Port Stanley (Falklands), Cape Town, and back to Goa.
• Total distance: 23,400 nautical miles, approximately 43,300 km.
• Milestone: Cape Town was the fourth and final stopover before the return leg.

Static linkage: Defence and security (women in armed forces), Indian Ocean strategy.

GS area: Indian History, Culture

The Archaeological Survey of India notified a 10-acre demarcated protection zone around the Mitathal and Tighrana Harappan sites in Bhiwani district, Haryana, in March 2025.

• Mitathal: Dates to the third to second millennium BCE. Characterised by red pottery with black motifs including pipal leaf and fish-scale designs. Artefacts include beads, copper tools, bangles, terracotta figurines, and bone items.
• Tighrana: Contains both post-Harappan and pre-Harappan layers. Associated with the Sothian culture, a Chalcolithic phase. Features mud-brick houses and green carnelian bangles.

Static linkage: Prehistoric India and Indus Valley Civilisation (Indian History).

• Saturn's new moons: 128 new moons discovered using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope's "shift and stack" technique. Saturn now has 274 confirmed moons, surpassing Jupiter's 95. Most are small, irregular, potato-shaped bodies believed to be captured asteroids or collision fragments.
• Silicon-carbon batteries: Next-generation batteries using silicon-carbon composite anodes achieve 470 mAh/g energy density compared to 372 mAh/g for graphite. Higher density enables slimmer, faster-charging smartphones but silicon swelling reduces lifespan.