17 July 2025

• Space: Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla returned from the International Space Station via splashdown, a parachute-assisted water landing.
• SDGs: The UN SDG Report 2025 found 35 per cent of targets stagnating or reversing. 713 to 757 million people face hunger globally.
• Agriculture: The PM Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana launches with a 24,000 crore rupees annual budget targeting 100 low-performing agricultural districts.
• Defence: Delhi's seismic exposure came under focus: the city saw 159 earthquakes in just 4 months in 2025. Over 80 per cent of pre-2000 buildings do not meet seismic safety standards.
• International: US constructed two boat repair facilities for the Philippines in Palawan, directly challenging China's Nine-Dash Line claims in the South China Sea.

GS area: Disaster Management, Geography

A 4.4 magnitude earthquake near Jhajjar brought attention to seismic vulnerability across India.

• Seismic zone exposure: 59 per cent of India lies in earthquake-prone zones (II to V).
• Zone V: The highest risk zone, covering the Himalayas, Northeast states and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• Delhi's recent record: The city recorded 159 earthquakes in 4 months of 2025.
• Building stock vulnerability: Over 80 per cent of pre-2000 buildings do not comply with the Indian Standard IS 1893:2016 for seismic safety.
• Observatory expansion: The government expanded seismic observatories from 80 in 2014 to 168 in 2025.
• Historical scale: Kangra earthquake (1905): 8.0 magnitude, 19,800-plus deaths. Bhuj earthquake (2001): 7.9 magnitude, 12,932 deaths.

Static linkage: Disaster management (seismic zones, earthquake preparedness, NDMA), geography (plate tectonics).

GS area: International Relations, Economy (sustainable development)

The High-Level Political Forum released the UN SDG Report 2025 with the 2030 deadline in five years.

• Stagnating or reversing targets: 35 per cent of all SDG targets.
• Hunger: 9.1 per cent of the global population, or 713 to 757 million people, is affected.
• Water and sanitation: 2.2 billion lack safely managed drinking water. 3.4 billion lack sanitation access.
• Youth unemployment: 12.9 per cent globally, three times the adult rate of 3.7 per cent.
• Oceans: 40 per cent of ocean-related SDG targets are regressing.
• Positives: HIV infections declined 40 per cent since 2010. 2.2 billion malaria cases were averted since 2000.
• India's relevance: India's SDG targets are tracked through the NITI Aayog SDG Index.

Static linkage: International relations (UN, SDGs, 2030 Agenda), economy (poverty, hunger, water).

GS area: Governance (agriculture schemes)

The government launched the PM Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana with an annual budget of 24,000 crore rupees.

• Duration: 2025 to 2031 (6 years).
• Target districts: 100 low-performing agricultural districts.
• Design: Converges 36 schemes from 11 ministries into a single district-level programme.
• Focus areas: Agricultural productivity, irrigation, crop diversification and credit access.
• Significance: A convergence model rather than a new standalone scheme. Aims to address the concentration of agricultural underperformance in specific districts.

Static linkage: Governance (agriculture, centrally sponsored schemes, convergence model).

GS area: Governance (social welfare, child rights)

The Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) data reveals a worsening mismatch between families seeking to adopt and available children.

• Ratio: 13 families waiting per 1 legally adoptable child (up from 11:1 in 2021).
• CARA portal: 36,381 families registered. Only 2,652 children legally free for adoption.
• Wait time: Average referral wait rose from 1 year in 2017 to 5 years in 2025.
• Children in CCIs: Over 22,000 children in Child Care Institutions (CCIs). Only 12 per cent cleared for adoption.
• CARA: Established 1990. Statutory body under the Juvenile Justice Act 2015. Regulates both in-country and inter-country adoption and implements the Hague Convention (1993) provisions.
• Root problem: Procedural delays in declaring children legally free for adoption. Courts, Child Welfare Committees and CCIs each add wait time.

Static linkage: Governance (CARA, JJ Act, child welfare, Hague Convention).

GS area: International Relations (South China Sea, Indo-Pacific)

The United States constructed two boat repair facilities in Palawan in the Philippines, directly in the zone China claims under its Nine-Dash Line.

• Nine-Dash Line: China's claim to roughly 90 per cent of the South China Sea. Rejected by the 2016 Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling (Philippines v. China).
• Key disputed features: Spratly Islands, Paracel Islands and Scarborough Shoal.
• Claimants: China, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan all have overlapping claims.
• India's stake: India's ASEAN trade and ONGC Videsh's oil exploration blocks in Vietnamese waters give India a direct interest in rules-based resolution.

Static linkage: International relations (South China Sea, UNCLOS, ASEAN, Nine-Dash Line).

GS area: Science and Technology (genomics, health)

Gujarat launched India's first tribal genome sequencing project through the Gujarat Biotechnology Research Centre (GBRC).

• Scope: 2,000 tribal individuals across 17 districts.
• Diseases targeted: Sickle cell anaemia, thalassemia and hereditary cancers, which disproportionately affect tribal populations.
• Purpose: Create a reference genome database for India's tribal communities, enabling personalised disease prevention.
• Significance: Global genomic databases are dominated by European populations. Tribal genomes are entirely underrepresented, making diagnostic benchmarks unreliable.

Static linkage: Science and technology (genomics, precision medicine, tribal health), governance (health of STs).

GS area: Science and Technology (space)

Indian Air Force officer Shubhanshu Shukla returned from the International Space Station via a splashdown landing.

• Splashdown: A parachute-assisted water landing, typically in the ocean. Used by both NASA's Crew Dragon (SpaceX) capsules and earlier Apollo missions.
• Advantages: Simpler recovery logistics than runway landing. Water absorbs landing shock. Lower engineering complexity than powered vertical descent.
• Final descent speed: 25 to 30 km per hour under parachutes.
• India's space milestones: Shukla was part of ISRO's astronaut training programme under the Gaganyaan mission framework.

Static linkage: Science and technology (space, ISRO, Gaganyaan, ISS).

• ICAR 97th Foundation Day: Founded 16 July 1929, ICAR launched farmer-scientist dialogue platforms, pushed for natural farming, deployed fertilizer testing kits and is cracking down on 30,000-plus unregulated bio-stimulant products in the market.
• NLCIL renewable energy: NLC India Limited (Navratna CPSE under Ministry of Coal) received Cabinet approval to invest 7,000 crore rupees in renewable energy through its subsidiary NIRL, with the 30 per cent net worth ceiling waived for this purpose.