10 September 2025

• Polity: CP Radhakrishnan elected India's 15th Vice President with 452 votes largest ever margin in a VP election.
• Science: AdFalciVax India's indigenous multi-stage malaria vaccine licensed to five manufacturers for production.
• Geography: Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) Africa's largest hydro project continues to be a flashpoint between Ethiopia and Egypt.
• Economy: China controls over 92 per cent of global rare earth refining; India imports over 75 per cent of its REEs from China.
• Social: Time Use Survey 2024 women spend 7 hours a day on unpaid domestic work worth 7 per cent of India's GDP.

GS area: Polity

CP Radhakrishnan was elected India's 15th Vice President in September 2025.

• Election result: Won with 452 votes versus 300 for the Opposition candidate (Justice B. Sudershan Reddy). Voter turnout exceeded 98 per cent of all MPs.
• Personal background: Born 20 October 1957, Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu. Previously served as Governor of Maharashtra, Jharkhand, and held additional charge of Telangana and Puducherry.
• Constitutional provisions for the Vice President:
  • Article 63: Creates the office.
  • Article 64: VP is ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.
  • Article 65: VP acts as President during vacancy or incapacity.
  • Article 66: Election by proportional representation, single transferable vote, by a secret ballot; electoral college is all MPs (not state MLAs).
  • Tenure: 5 years.
  • Eligibility: Citizen of India, above 35 years, qualified for Rajya Sabha membership, no office of profit.
• Powers as Rajya Sabha Chairman: Maintains order, gives rulings on procedural matters, decides on applications for suspension of rules. Cannot vote in Rajya Sabha (unlike Lok Sabha Speaker who votes only in case of a tie).

Static linkage: Polity (constitutional offices, Article 63-67).

GS area: Science and Technology, Health

India licensed its first indigenously developed recombinant multi-stage malaria vaccine to five manufacturers in September 2025.

• Developers: ICMR – Regional Medical Research Centre (Bhubaneswar); ICMR – National Institute of Malaria Research (New Delhi); National Institute of Immunology (New Delhi).
• Target parasite: Plasmodium falciparum the deadliest of the four malaria parasites affecting humans (others: P. vivax, P. malariae, P. ovale).
• Innovation: "Multi-stage" means the vaccine targets more than one stage of the parasite's life cycle both the liver stage (infection block) and the transmission stage (reducing spread from humans to mosquitoes). Most existing vaccines target a single stage.
• Thermostability: Effective for over 9 months at room temperature (25°C) critical for deployment in rural areas with poor cold chain infrastructure.
• Licensed manufacturers: Indian Immunologicals Ltd, Techinvention Lifecare Pvt. Ltd, Panacea Biotec Ltd, Biological E Ltd, Zydus Lifesciences.
• India's malaria burden: India contributes approximately 1.4 per cent of global malaria cases but carries 66 per cent of Southeast Asia's burden. Target: malaria elimination by 2030 (National Framework for Malaria Elimination).
• Existing vaccines: RTS,S/AS01 (Mosquirix) first WHO-approved malaria vaccine (2021, GlaxoSmithKline). Approved for children in sub-Saharan Africa. AdFalciVax is independent of this.

Static linkage: Science and technology (vaccine development), health governance.

GS area: Geography, International Relations

The GERD dispute between Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan was in the news as impounding continued.

• Location: On the Blue Nile River, approximately 30 km upstream from the Sudan border, in Guba, Benishangul-Gumuz region, Ethiopia.
• Scale: Africa's largest hydroelectric project. Height: ~170 m. Length: ~2 km. Reservoir capacity: 74 billion cubic metres.
• Power output: 5,150-6,450 MW projected to double Ethiopia's electricity generation.
• Construction start: 2011.
• Blue Nile facts:
  • Length: ~1,460 km.
  • Origin: Lake Tana, northwestern Ethiopia (~1,800 m elevation).
  • Flow: Ethiopia through Sudan, then meets the White Nile at Khartoum (Confluence of the Niles).
  • Contribution: Approximately 85 per cent of the Nile's total water and 70 per cent of its floodwater at Khartoum.
• Egypt's position: Egypt considers the Nile its lifeline 95 per cent of Egyptians live in the Nile Valley. Egypt argues GERD violates 1929 and 1959 Nile Water Agreements (which gave Egypt veto power, but Ethiopia was not a signatory).
• Ethiopia's position: GERD is a sovereign development project on Ethiopian territory. Ethiopia argues colonial-era agreements, signed without East African countries, have no legitimacy.
• Sudan: Initially concerned about dam failure risk; later partially supportive because GERD could regulate floods and provide electricity.
• Geopolitical significance: No binding resolution. UN Security Council discussions have been inconclusive.

Static linkage: Geography (Africa, river systems), international relations (water conflict).

GS area: Economy, International Relations, Science and Technology

China tightened export controls on rare earth elements and processing technologies in April 2025, intensifying India's strategic vulnerability.

• What are REEs: Seventeen elements the lanthanide series (lanthanum to lutetium) plus scandium and yttrium. Despite the name, most are not geologically rare but are expensive to extract in pure form.
• Applications: Electric vehicle motors, wind turbines, smartphones, defence systems (guided missiles, night vision, jet engines), medical imaging (MRI machines), and semiconductors.
• China's dominance:
  • ~50 per cent of global reserves (largest).
  • Over 60 per cent of global mining production.
  • ~92 per cent of global refining capacity.
  • Supplies ~30 per cent of global demand.
• India's position:
  • Deposits in Kerala (monazite-rich coastal sands), Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu.
  • Production less than 2 per cent of global output (mainly by Indian Rare Earths Ltd, a public sector enterprise).
  • Very limited refining capacity.
  • Over 75 per cent import-dependent on China since 2021.
• Strategic response: India's Critical Minerals Mission (Budget 2024-25), overseas acquisitions by KABIL (Khanij Bidesh India Ltd), and agreements with Australia and Argentina for lithium and REE supply.
• China's 2025 action: Banned export of processing technology for REEs not just the raw elements. This is a more severe restriction than raw export controls, as it prevents competitor countries from building refining capacity.

Static linkage: Economy (critical minerals), international relations, science and technology.

GS area: International Relations, Internal Security

India participated in Exercise Zapad 2025, a multilateral military exercise hosted by Russia.

• Location: Mulino Training Ground, Nizhniy Novgorod region, Russia.
• Participants: Indian Army, Indian Air Force, and Indian Navy. (Multi-service Indian contingent.)
• Purpose: High-intensity conventional warfare drills and counter-terrorism operations. Focus on interoperability with Russian forces.
• India's previous participation: Last participated in 2021.
• Series context: Zapad (meaning "West" in Russian) is Russia's western military exercise series. Modern versions began in 2009. The exercises have drawn NATO attention as they sometimes involve large troop mobilisations near the European border.
• India's rationale: India maintains a defence partnership with Russia built over decades (India's primary weapons systems including aircraft carriers, fighters, submarines are of Russian origin). Exercise participation maintains interoperability even as India diversifies its defence acquisition.
• Diplomatic sensitivity: India's participation came when Russia was under Western sanctions over Ukraine. India's position of strategic autonomy means it continued mil-to-mil engagement while also exercising with the US, France, and other partners.

Static linkage: International relations (India-Russia, India's strategic autonomy), security.

GS area: Economy, International Relations

The UK-India Infrastructure Financing Bridge was launched in September 2024 and became operationally significant by September 2025.

• Lead organisations: NITI Aayog (India) and City of London Corporation (UK).
• Objective: Mobilise global private capital particularly UK institutional investors (pension funds, insurance companies) for India's sustainable infrastructure.
• India's infrastructure need: $2 trillion in infrastructure investment needed by 2030 (NITI Aayog estimate).
• Mechanisms:
  • Align Indian infrastructure procurement with the UK's Five Case Model (strategic, economic, commercial, financial, management cases).
  • Ensure ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) standards.
  • Address investor concerns: revenue risks, repatriation of profits, taxation, currency hedging.
• Why UK investors? UK pension funds manage over £3 trillion in assets. They need long-duration, inflation-linked returns which infrastructure projects provide. India's growth rate makes it attractive.
• GIFT City connection: Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) serves as the financial gateway for foreign institutional investment into Indian infrastructure.

Static linkage: Economy (infrastructure finance), international relations (India-UK).

GS area: Social Justice, Governance (GS-1/GS-2)

The Time Use Survey 2024 provided fresh data on the gendered division of domestic labour in India.

• Time Use Survey findings: 93 per cent of women spend approximately 7 hours per day on unpaid domestic services. 41 per cent spend approximately 2.5 additional hours on unpaid caregiving.
• Men's contribution: Average 26 minutes of domestic work and 16 minutes of caregiving per day.
• Economic value: SBI (2023) estimate unpaid domestic work by women equals approximately 7 per cent of India's GDP (about ₹22.5 lakh crore).
• Violence data (NFHS-5): 30 per cent of women face intimate partner violence; only 14 per cent lodge complaints.
• Dowry deaths: Approximately 7,000 per year (2017-22 average).
• Constitutional violations: The gendered burden of unpaid labour implicates Articles 14 (equality), 15 (non-discrimination), 21 (right to life with dignity), 39(d) (equal pay for equal work), 42 (just working conditions).
• Policy significance: GDP estimates that exclude unpaid domestic work systematically undervalue women's economic contribution. The SNA (System of National Accounts) traditionally excludes household production.

Static linkage: Social justice (gender, women), governance.

• Loneliness among India's working young: Survey of 14 firms 56 per cent of workers in the 25-35 age group admitted to loneliness, with 64 per cent of women (vs. 36 per cent of men) acknowledging it. Urban migration, technology substitution for organic friendship, and the work-sleep routine erode community bonds.
• Lankhong Puja: Annual festival of the Tiwa (Lalung) tribe of Assam invoking blessings for the Rabi crop season. The Tiwa are a Mongoloid ethnic group speaking a Tibeto-Burman language found in Nagaon, Morigaon, and Dhemaji districts.