10 October 2025

• Nobel Literature: László Krasznahorkai of Hungary wins the Nobel Prize in Literature for his dense philosophical prose and Central European literary tradition.
• Diplomacy: Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi's six-day visit to India. India invested more than $3 billion in Afghan reconstruction post-2001.
• Economy: The Foreign Currency Settlement System (FCSS) launched at GIFT City's IFSC enables real-time dollar settlements, replacing the 36-48 hour correspondent banking model.
• Governance: The DRAVYA portal for Ayush medicinal substances was launched by CCRAS.
• Welfare: The Maldives became the first country globally to achieve triple elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B.

GS area: International Relations (India-Afghanistan, South Asia)

Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi concluded a six-day visit to India, the first high-level Taliban delegation since the group took power in August 2021.

• India's investment in Afghanistan: more than $3 billion in reconstruction projects after 2001. Key projects include the Salma Dam (Herat), the Afghan Parliament building in Kabul and the Zaranj-Delaram Highway connecting Afghanistan to Iran.
• Post-2021 assistance: 50,000 tonnes of wheat; medicines and vaccines; scholarships for Afghan students.
• Afghanistan's mineral wealth: estimated at $3 trillion. India has a strategic interest in stable access to these reserves.
• India's position: de facto engagement without formal diplomatic recognition. India did not accept the Taliban as the legitimate government but maintains operational contact.
• Engagement forums: the Moscow Format dialogue and the Heart of Asia conference have been the multilateral channels India has used.
• Strategic calculus: India's interest in a stable Afghanistan is driven by concern about cross-border terrorism, regional connectivity (TAPI pipeline, air corridor to Central Asia) and countering Pakistani influence in Kabul.

Static linkage: India's neighbourhood policy, Afghanistan, Indian Ocean and Central Asian connectivity.

GS area: Economy (Banking, Financial Infrastructure)

The Foreign Currency Settlement System (FCSS) was launched at GIFT City's International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) in Gandhinagar.

• Operator: CCIL IFSC Ltd, a subsidiary of the Clearing Corporation of India Ltd (CCIL).
• Regulatory authority: the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA).
• Legal basis: the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007.
• Initial currency: US dollar; the system is designed to expand to euro, yen and sterling.
• Settlement speed: real-time or near real-time (approximately 4 to 5 seconds). The previous correspondent banking model took 36 to 48 hours.
• Mechanism: uses IBU (IFSC Banking Unit) Nostro accounts at CCIL IFSC. Eliminates the need to route transactions through overseas correspondent banks.
• Significance: reduces costs, counterparty risk and settlement latency for dollar-denominated trade and financial transactions routed through GIFT City.
• GIFT City: India's first operational International Financial Services Centre; established under the SEZ Act.

Static linkage: Banking reform, financial infrastructure, GIFT City, IFSC.

GS area: Art and Culture (Nobel Prizes, World Literature)

The 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to László Krasznahorkai of Hungary.

• Born: 1954 in Gyula, Hungary.
• Award citation: for "dense philosophical prose, absurdism, existential dread in the Central European tradition."
• Notable works: Satantango (1985), The Melancholy of Resistance (1989), War and War (1999) and Herscht 07769 (2018).
• Themes: totalitarianism, the collapse of order, the apocalyptic undercurrent in everyday life, and the weight of history in post-communist Europe.
• Prize amount: 11 million Swedish crowns.
• Awarded by: the Swedish Academy, Stockholm.

Static linkage: Nobel Prize in Literature (static knowledge of laureates), world literature.

GS area: Governance (Health, Digital India)

The Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS), under the Ministry of Ayush, launched the DRAVYA portal.

• Full name: Digitised Retrieval Application for Versatile Yardstick of Ayush.
• Phase 1 content: 100 key medicinal substances.
• Features: AI-ready; open-access; integrates classical text references with modern scientific data; QR code integration for physical product linkage; interoperable with the Ayush Grid platform.
• Purpose: create a standardised, accessible database of Ayurvedic medicinal substances to support quality control, research and regulatory decisions.
• CCRAS: a statutory body under the Ministry of Ayush responsible for research in Ayurvedic medicine.

Static linkage: Ayush, digital health, traditional medicine regulation.

GS area: International Relations (Health, South Asia Neighbours)

The Maldives became the first country globally to achieve triple elimination, zero new mother-to-child transmission of HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B for two consecutive years, meeting the WHO criteria.

• WHO criteria for triple elimination: incidence of each condition in newborns reduced below specific thresholds for two consecutive years.
• Maldives achievement: antenatal care coverage exceeds 95 per cent of pregnant women; hepatitis B birth-dose vaccination coverage exceeds 95 per cent within 24 hours of birth.
• Geography of the Maldives: approximately 1,200 coral islands grouped in 26 atolls in the Indian Ocean; about 600 kilometres southwest of India and 645 kilometres southwest of Sri Lanka. About 200 islands are inhabited.
• Highest elevation: 1.8 metres, one of the world's lowest-lying nations, making it acutely vulnerable to sea-level rise.
• Capital: Malé.
• India-Maldives relations: India is a key development partner. The "India First" policy of earlier governments was modified toward a more transactional approach under President Muizzu from 2023.

Static linkage: India-Maldives relations, public health, geography of South Asian neighbours.

GS area: Economy (Employment), Society

An editorial on graduate unemployment documented conditions that the data alone understates.

• Scale: 46,000 graduates and postgraduates applied for sanitation worker positions in Haryana in 2024. Twelve thousand professionals competed for 18 peon positions in Rajasthan.
• IT sector impact: 64,000 jobs cut in the Indian IT sector in FY2024. Two of five IIT graduates went unplaced.
• Composition: 66 per cent of India's unemployed are graduates or postgraduates. 33 per cent cite skills misalignment as the cause.
• Wages: the average graduate salary has stagnated at Rs 3 to 4 lakh per year for a decade.
• Official unemployment rate: 4 to 6 per cent. This figure undercounts educated unemployment because graduates often take jobs far below their qualification level and are counted as employed.
• NCRB 2023: 14,000 suicides among unemployed youth.

Static linkage: Employment, education-economy interface.

• India's National Red List Roadmap: launched at the IUCN Congress in Abu Dhabi. Implementing agencies: ZSI, BSI, IUCN India and the Centre for Species Survival. Red Data Books to be produced by 2030, aligned with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
• Sawalkote Hydro Project (J&K): run-of-the-river project on the Chenab River. Developer: NHPC. Installed capacity: 1,856 MW. Dam height: 192.5 metres. Annual energy: 8,000 million units. Fresh environmental clearance obtained in October 2025 after India suspended the Indus Waters Treaty.
• Toyoake screen time ordinance (Japan): the Toyoake city council (near Nagoya) enacted a voluntary 2-hour daily screen time limit for recreational use. Passed 12 votes to 7. Non-punitive, no fines.