6 September 2025

• Defence: Technology Perspective and Capability Roadmap (TPCR-2025) outlines India's 15-year modernisation plan including hypersonic missiles, directed energy weapons, and nuclear-propelled submarines.
• Energy: India's first port-based green hydrogen pilot project commissioned at V.O. Chidambaranar Port, Tuticorin.
• Astronomy: Total lunar eclipse (Blood Moon) visible in India on 7 September 2025 the first since 2022.
• Education: Rajasthan passes a bill to regulate coaching centres in the wake of student suicides in Kota.
• Polity: India's vote of no-confidence compared to the French Article 49-3 mechanism a GS-2 constitutional comparison topic.

GS area: Internal Security, Science and Technology

The Ministry of Defence released the Technology Perspective and Capability Roadmap 2025 a 15-year strategic planning document for force modernisation.

• What it is: A tri-service roadmap listing technologies to be inducted or developed by 2040, aligned with the Atmanirbhar Bharat defence agenda.
• Navy inductions planned:
  • Nuclear propulsion systems for future submarines.
  • Next-generation aircraft carrier with EMALS (Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System) replacing steam catapults.
  • Landing Platform Docks (LPDs), destroyers, corvettes, and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs).
• Army inductions planned:
  • 1,800 Future Ready Combat Vehicles (FRCVs) to replace aging T-72 fleet.
  • Anti-Tank Guided Missiles (ATGMs) and loitering munitions (kamikaze drones).
  • Counter-IED robotic systems.
• Air Force inductions planned:
  • 500+ hypersonic missiles with scramjet propulsion (Mach 5+).
  • Directed-energy weapons (high-energy laser systems) for drone and missile interception.
  • High-Altitude Pseudo-Satellites (HAPS) unmanned quasi-orbital platforms.
• Tri-services (cross-domain):
  • AI-enabled cyber tools for offensive and defensive operations.
  • Quantum communication networks for secure command links.
  • Satellite-hardening measures against anti-satellite (ASAT) attacks.
• Policy context: TPCR 2025 is aligned with the Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020 and the goal of achieving 70% domestic procurement by 2030.

Static linkage: Defence technology, internal security (multi-domain warfare).

GS area: Environment, Economy, Science and Technology

V.O. Chidambaranar Port Trust in Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu, commissioned India's first port-based green hydrogen pilot project.

• Capacity: 10 normal cubic metres per hour (Nm³/hr).
• Cost: ₹3.87 crore.
• Operational use: Powers streetlights and EV charging stations in the port colony.
• Port location significance: VOC Port is part of the Coastal Green Shipping Corridor (Kandla to Tuticorin) under the Ministry of Ports.
• Next planned step: A Green Methanol Bunkering Facility at ₹35.34 crore with 750 m³ storage capacity.
• National Mission context: National Green Hydrogen Mission (launched 2023) targets 5 million metric tonnes (MMT) of green hydrogen production annually by 2030. Green hydrogen requires electrolysis of water using renewable electricity.
• Why ports? Ships are among the hardest-to-decarbonise sectors. Green methanol and ammonia are emerging maritime fuels. Port-level pilots are essential to build the supply infrastructure.
• V.O. Chidambaranar: Named after freedom fighter Valliyappan Olaganatha Chidambaranar Pillai Tamil Nadu's first trade union leader.

Static linkage: Energy transition, port infrastructure (Sagarmala scheme).

GS area: Science and Technology (Astronomy)

A total lunar eclipse colloquially called a Blood Moon was visible across India on 7 September 2025.

• What causes it: The Moon passes fully into the Earth's umbra (total shadow). The Sun's light, which would otherwise illuminate the Moon, is blocked. However, Earth's atmosphere refracts (bends) some sunlight around the planet and projects it onto the lunar surface.
• Why it appears red: Only the longer-wavelength red and orange light can bend around Earth; shorter blue wavelengths scatter away. This is the same principle as Rayleigh scattering that makes sunsets red.
• Colour intensity: Varies by how much dust, volcanic ash, or pollution is in Earth's atmosphere at the time. Darker red means more atmospheric particulates (Danjon scale 0-4).
• Frequency: Total lunar eclipses occur roughly every 1.5 years on average but are visible from a given location less often.
• Difference from solar eclipse: A lunar eclipse is visible from the entire night-time hemisphere of Earth simultaneously, unlike a solar eclipse which traces a narrow path.
• Cultural significance: Lunar eclipses are referenced in Vedic texts, used for archaeological dating of ancient events.

Static linkage: Science (astronomy, atmospheric optics).

GS area: Governance, Social Justice, Education

Rajasthan became the first state to pass a comprehensive coaching centre regulation bill following repeated student suicides in Kota.

• Threshold: Mandatory registration required for all coaching institutes with more than 100 enrolled students.
• Class hours: Maximum 5 hours of coaching per day; mandatory weekly holiday.
• Penalty range: ₹50,000 to ₹2 lakh for violations; higher penalties for repeat offences.
• Regulatory authority: Multi-member body including officials, doctors, parents, and police.
• Context: Kota, Rajasthan, is India's coaching capital. Over 1 million students enrol annually. Student suicide deaths have drawn national attention; 2023 saw 26 confirmed student deaths in Kota alone.
• Background: The Centre's guidelines (2024) for coaching institutes are non-statutory. The Rajasthan bill is the first state law.
• Policy tension: Industry argues over-regulation will shift students to unregistered centres. Regulators argue welfare cannot be deferred.

Static linkage: Education policy, social justice (student welfare), state legislature.

GS area: Governance, Social Justice (Urban Housing)

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs launched Angikaar 2025 a two-month nationwide outreach campaign under PMAY-U 2.0.

• Full name: Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Urban 2.0.
• Scale: Covers 5,000+ Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) across all states and UTs.
• Objective: Deliver and complete the 1 crore sanctioned but pending urban houses. Focus on last-mile delivery to beneficiaries who faced delays.
• Campaign activities: Door-to-door outreach, loan melas (financial literacy), and PM Awas Mela – Shehri (community events at ward level).
• PMAY-U background: Launched 2015; extended and revised to 2.0. Provides financial assistance under four verticals In-Situ Slum Redevelopment, Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS), Affordable Housing in Partnership, and Beneficiary-Led Construction.
• Progress: By 2025, over 1.2 crore houses have been grounded and over 80 lakh completed under the original PMAY-U.

Static linkage: Urban development, welfare schemes.

GS area: Science and Technology, Environment (Public Health)

Acanthamoeba came into focus following cases of granulomatous amoebic encephalitis (GAE) linked to household water sources.

• Classification: Free-living protozoan parasite (not a bacterium or virus).
• Habitat: Soil, freshwater, household wells, storage tanks, cooling towers, contact lens solution.
• Two life stages:
  • Trophozoite: Active, feeding form.
  • Cyst: Dormant, highly resistant to chlorine, desiccation, and UV. This is why standard water treatment may not fully eliminate it.
• Diseases caused:
  • Acanthamoeba keratitis: Severe eye infection linked to contact lens use. Causes pain, redness, and can lead to vision loss.
  • Granulomatous Amoebic Encephalitis (GAE): Fatal brain infection, primarily in immunocompromised individuals (HIV/AIDS, transplant recipients). Spreads through nasal passages.
• Treatment: Biguanide-based eye drops (polyhexamethylene biguanide) and diamidines for keratitis; antifungals and antibiotics for GAE (treatment is difficult and outcomes poor).
• Prevention: Proper well chlorination, never rinsing contact lenses in tap water.

Static linkage: Public health, water quality, disease ecology.

GS area: International Relations, Geography

Mauritius Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam undertook his first state visit to India in September 2025.

• Location: Island nation in the Indian Ocean, approximately 800 km east of Madagascar.
• Territories: Main island (Mauritius), Rodrigues Island, Cargados Carajos Shoals, and Agalega Islands.
• Capital: Port Louis.
• Ethnic composition: Majority Indo-Mauritian (descendants of indentured labourers sent from India after slavery's abolition, 1835). Also Creole, Franco-Mauritian, and Chinese communities.
• Historical India-Mauritius tie: India's diaspora constitutes ~70% of the population, making this a natural civilisational relationship.
• Strategic significance: Mauritius sits astride sea lanes linking the Suez Canal to South Asia and East Africa. Agalega Island is being developed with Indian assistance for maritime surveillance (airstrip and jetty).
• Bilateral instruments: CECPA (Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement, 2021) India's first such agreement with an African country.
• Sovereignty issue: Chagos Archipelago dispute between Mauritius and UK (Diego Garcia). India has supported Mauritius's decolonisation claim.

Static linkage: Indian Ocean region strategy, India-Africa relations.

• Comparative constitutionalism: France's Fifth Republic (1958) uses a semi-presidential system. Article 49-3 allows the PM to tie a bill to a confidence vote forcing the Assembly to either accept it or bring the government down. India has no equivalent; simple majority for ordinary bills, and the entire Cabinet must resign on a no-confidence vote.
• India's strategic autonomy: Rooted in Nehru's Non-Aligned Movement; evolved post-1991 into "multi-alignment" joining QUAD, SCO, BRICS, and signing defence agreements with the US while maintaining ties with Russia. China trade deficit now exceeds $100 billion.