23 November 2025

• CMFRI scientists in Kochi described a new deep-sea squid species from the Arabian Sea, named Taningia silasii, only the second recognised species in its genus.
• The Sangai Festival 2025 opened in Manipur under the theme "Where blossoms breathe harmony," showcasing Ras Leela and the state's rich cultural heritage.
• India's proposals for a Global Traditional Knowledge Repository and a skills multiplier for Africa were accepted at the G20 Johannesburg Summit.
• Mount Semeru in East Java erupted, sending an ash plume to 13 km altitude, continuing its uninterrupted eruptive activity since 1967.
• Jamaica declared a leptospirosis outbreak after Hurricane Melissa created conditions for rapid spread of the bacterial infection through floodwaters.

GS area: GS-3 (science and technology, environment and biodiversity, marine species)

Scientists at the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) in Kochi described a new squid species from the Arabian Sea, formally naming it Taningia silasii.

• Discoverer: Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI), Kochi, under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).
• Collection site: Arabian Sea, approximately 390 metres depth off the coast of Kollam, Kerala.
• Taxonomic family: Octopoteuthidae.
• Genus context: Taningia silasii is only the second formally described species in the genus Taningia. The first species, Taningia danae, was discovered from the Atlantic Ocean.
• Morphological distinctions from Taningia danae: maximum length 45 cm (compared to 2.3 metres for the Atlantic species); lacks the long feeding tentacles typical of most squid.
• Genetic divergence: 11 percent genetic divergence from Taningia danae, well above the threshold used to define separate species.
• Significance: deep-sea biodiversity in the Arabian Sea remains poorly characterised. Discovery of a new genus member highlights the gap between India's marine resource assessment and the actual diversity of its exclusive economic zone.

GS area: GS-1 (art and culture, northeastern India, biodiversity)

The Sangai Festival 2025 opened in Manipur, celebrating the state's cultural diversity through dance, music, handicrafts, and indigenous games.

• Started: 2010, as an annual state-level tourism and culture festival.
• Named after: the Sangai, Manipur's state animal. Sangai is the brow-antlered deer, a distinct subspecies of Eld's deer (Rucervus eldii eldii) found only in Manipur.
• Theme 2025: "Where blossoms breathe harmony."
• Cultural highlight: Ras Leela, a classical Manipuri dance tradition depicting the divine play of Radha and Krishna.
• Sangai habitat: the deer is endemic to Keibul Lamjao National Park, located in the southern part of Loktak Lake. It lives on floating masses of vegetation called phumdis, which are unique to Loktak Lake.
• Conservation status: IUCN Red List: Critically Endangered. Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 (highest protection level).
• Loktak Lake: the largest freshwater lake in northeastern India. Also a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance.
• Prelims hook: Keibul Lamjao is the world's only floating national park. Its phumdis are a distinctive geomorphological feature.

GS area: GS-2 (international relations, India's foreign policy, multilateral diplomacy)

India secured adoption of several of its key proposals at the G20 Summit in Johannesburg under South Africa's presidency, extending the momentum of its own 2023 presidency.

• Global Traditional Knowledge Repository: India's proposal for a multilateral database of traditional knowledge to prevent bio-piracy and misappropriation of indigenous intellectual property was accepted.
• Skills multiplier for Africa: India committed to training 1 million African professionals across sectors such as healthcare, technology, and public administration.
• Global satellite data partnership: India's proposal for open sharing of earth observation satellite data for climate monitoring and disaster management was included in the Summit outcomes.
• G20 Drug-Terror Nexus Initiative: India's proposal to formally address the link between narcotics trafficking and terrorist financing received G20 endorsement.
• ACITI Partnership: Australia, Canada, and India launched a trilateral partnership for technology and innovation cooperation, focused on supply chain resilience, critical minerals, and clean energy.
• US position: the United States boycotted the Johannesburg Summit, citing unresolved disputes over climate financing language.
• Climate language: the summit maintained strong climate action language and debt relief emphasis despite US absence.

GS area: GS-2 (social justice, child protection legislation, judiciary)

Details of the Juvenile Justice Board's legal constitution and its transfer powers under Section 15 of the JJ Act are a recurring Prelims topic.

• Statutory basis: Section 4 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.
• Constituting authority: state government, which must establish at least one JJB per district.
• JJB composition: one Metropolitan Magistrate or Judicial Magistrate (with minimum three years' experience) and two social workers, at least one of whom must be a woman.
• Section 15 power: when a child between 16 and 18 years of age is accused of a heinous offence, the JJB conducts a preliminary assessment to determine whether the child should be tried as a juvenile or transferred to the Children's Court for trial as an adult.
• Criteria for transfer: the JJB assesses mental and physical capacity, the ability to understand the consequences of the offence, and circumstances of the offence.
• Constitutional context: Section 15 was upheld by the Supreme Court in the Shilpa Mittal v. State of NCT of Delhi case (2020), which also clarified that offences with a maximum sentence of 7 to 10 years could be classified as "heinous" only after judicial determination.

GS area: GS-3 (Indian economy, capital markets, regulatory concerns)

Chief Economic Adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran issued a public warning that the Indian IPO market is increasingly being used as an exit route for early investors rather than as a mechanism for raising long-term productive capital.

• Warning issued by: V. Anantha Nageswaran, Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India.
• Core concern: IPOs are being structured primarily to allow promoters and private equity investors to monetise their holdings (offer-for-sale component) rather than to raise fresh equity for business expansion.
• Offer for Sale (OFS) component: in an OFS, existing shareholders sell their shares; no new capital flows to the company.
• Fresh issue component: only when shares are newly issued does capital enter the company for productive investment.
• Regulatory role: SEBI regulates IPOs, including disclosure norms and minimum public shareholding requirements. SEBI had earlier tightened rules for companies with large OFS components.
• Prelims hook: the distinction between "fresh issue" and "offer for sale" in an IPO is a standard capital markets concept tested in Economy papers.

GS area: GS-3 (environment, pollution control, energy policy)

A review found that 15 of 35 coal power units operating within 300 kilometres of Delhi lacked flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) systems, contributing to winter sulphur dioxide pollution.

• FGD systems: equipment installed in the exhaust stacks of coal-fired power plants to remove sulphur dioxide (SO2) before emission into the atmosphere.
• Mechanism: FGD typically uses a limestone slurry to react with SO2, converting it to calcium sulphate (gypsum), which can be repurposed.
• Relevance to Delhi: SO2 from thermal power plants within a 300-km radius contributes to fine particulate pollution (PM2.5) through secondary aerosol formation.
• Compliance gap: 15 of 35 power units (approximately 43 percent) within 300 km of Delhi did not have operational FGD systems.
• Regulatory mandate: the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change mandated FGD installation for all existing coal plants in 2015, with repeated deadline extensions.
• CPCB role: the Central Pollution Control Board tracks FGD compliance and issues directions under the Environment Protection Act, 1986.

GS area: GS-1 (physical geography, volcanology, natural disasters)

Mount Semeru in East Java erupted in November 2025, generating an ash plume that reached 13 kilometres altitude, one of the highest plumes in recent Semeru activity.

• Type: active stratovolcano (composite volcano built of alternating ash and lava layers).
• Location: Eastern Java, at the southern end of the Tengger Volcanic Complex.
• Height: 3,676 metres; the third-tallest peak in Indonesia.
• Eruptive history: recorded over 61 eruptive periods since 1818; it has been in a state of continuous eruptive activity since 1967, making it one of the world's most persistently active volcanoes.
• November 2025 event: eruption column reached 13 km into the atmosphere.
• Tectonic setting: Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire. Java is positioned above the subduction zone where the Indo-Australian Plate dives beneath the Eurasian Plate, generating the magmatic activity that feeds Semeru.
• Prelims hook: stratovolcanoes (also called composite volcanoes) are associated with explosive eruptions and pyroclastic flows, distinguishing them from shield volcanoes which produce effusive, low-viscosity lava flows.

GS area: GS-2 (health, zoonotic diseases, international outbreaks)

Jamaica declared a leptospirosis outbreak following Hurricane Melissa, focusing attention on this bacterial zoonosis that spreads through floodwaters contaminated with animal urine.

• Causative agent: Leptospira interrogans, a spirochaete bacterium with multiple serovars.
• Transmission route: the bacterium enters the human body through breaks in the skin (cuts, abrasions) or through mucous membranes. It is shed in the urine of infected animals and persists in soil and stagnant water.
• Animal reservoirs: rodents (primary reservoir), cattle, pigs, and dogs. Rodents are typically asymptomatic carriers.
• Disease phases: a biphasic illness. The first phase resembles influenza. The severe second phase (Weil's disease) may involve acute kidney injury, liver failure, and pulmonary haemorrhage.
• November 2025 context: Jamaica declared an outbreak following Hurricane Melissa, which created widespread flooding that mixed floodwater with animal-contaminated surfaces.
• Treatment: early antibiotic treatment (doxycycline or penicillin) is effective. Delay leads to organ failure.
• Prevention: protective footwear in flood conditions, rodent control, vaccination of livestock.

• Taningia danae was first described from specimens collected in the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean and is known to produce light flashes from photophores on its arms, a bioluminescence behaviour rarely observed in cephalopods.
• Keibul Lamjao National Park is the only floating national park in the world. Its phumdis (floating biomass mats) support the Sangai deer and are a UNESCO-recognised unique ecosystem.
• Section 15 JJB assessment is mandatory and cannot be bypassed even when the offence is heinous. The JJB does not automatically transfer the case; it must conduct a formal preliminary assessment.
• FGD gypsum reuse: the calcium sulphate by-product from FGD systems can be used as raw material in cement and wallboard manufacturing, providing an economic incentive for FGD adoption.
• Leptospirosis and UPSC: the disease is also known as "rat fever" in common usage and "Weil's disease" in its severe form, a distinction candidates are expected to know.