Defence: INS Aridaman, India's third nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, is commissioned.
Navy: INS Taragiri, the fourth Project 17A frigate, is delivered with over 75% indigenous content.
Disability: International Day of Persons with Disabilities; India counts 2.68 crore PwDs per the 2011 Census.
Geology: East African Rift Valley is in focus as a classic case of continental rifting.
Space weather: An X1.9-class solar flare causes radio blackouts over Australia.
1. International Day of Persons with Disabilities
GS area: GS II - Social justice; Welfare schemes
3 December is observed as the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
India's PwD count: 2.68 crore persons with disabilities, representing 2.21 per cent of the population (Census 2011).
Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016: Recognises 21 categories of disability. This expanded the earlier list of 7 categories under the Persons with Disabilities Act 1995.
UDID Programme: Unique Disability ID Programme issues digital disability certificates to replace paper documents and enable tracking of scheme benefits.
Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan: The Accessible India Campaign launched in 2015. It aims to make built environments, transport and information systems accessible.
ADIP Scheme: Assistance to Disabled Persons scheme provides assistive devices to persons with disabilities below a certain income threshold.
Static linkage: RPwD Act 2016; Social welfare schemes; Disability rights
2. INS Aridaman: India's third SSBN
GS area: GS III - Defence; Nuclear doctrine
INS Aridaman is commissioned as India's third nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine.
Vessel class: SSBN (Ship Submersible Ballistic Nuclear). These submarines carry submarine-launched ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads.
Project: Advanced Technology Vessel project, a highly classified programme under the Navy.
Construction: Ship Building Centre, Visakhapatnam. Over 90 per cent indigenous content.
Predecessors: INS Arihant was commissioned in 2016. INS Arighat was commissioned in 2024.
Missile tubes: Carries 4 vertical launch tubes for ballistic missiles.
Missiles: Compatible with K-15 Sagarika (range approximately 750 km) and K-4 (range approximately 3,500 km).
Strategic significance: Completes the sea leg of India's nuclear triad. India's nuclear doctrine requires a credible second-strike capability. SSBNs at sea provide survivable deterrence.
GS area: GS III - Defence; Indigenous manufacturing
INS Taragiri is the fourth ship delivered under Project 17A, the Nilgiri-class stealth frigate programme.
Class: Nilgiri class. Named after rivers in India.
Stealth features: Reduced radar cross-section through hull design and superstructure shaping.
Indigenous content: Approximately 75 per cent. Over 200 micro, small and medium enterprises contributed components.
Armament: BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, MRSAM (Medium-Range Surface-to-Air Missile), 76 mm naval gun and heavyweight torpedoes.
Builder: Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited, Mumbai.
Project 17A context: Project 17A was sanctioned in 2015 as a follow-on to Project 17 (Shivalik class). It incorporates improved stealth and weapon systems.
Static linkage: Defence Public Sector Undertakings; Make in India in defence; BrahMos missile
4. East African Rift Valley
GS area: GS I - Physical geography; Geomorphology
The East African Rift Valley is the world's largest active continental rift system.
Extent: Approximately 3,500 km from the Afar region in Ethiopia (near the Red Sea) to Mozambique.
Afar Triple Junction: The point where three tectonic plates diverge: the Red Sea rift, the Gulf of Aden rift and the East African rift converge here.
Plates involved: The Somali plate is separating from the Nubian (African) plate.
Spreading rate: 5 to 16 mm per year depending on the segment.
Future geography: The separation is expected to form a new ocean basin in approximately 5 to 10 million years. East Africa will become an island continent.
Geological features: The rift hosts the Great Rift Valley lakes (Tanganyika, Malawi, Turkana), volcanic peaks (Kilimanjaro, Ol Doinyo Lengai) and the Danakil Depression.
Data from Madhya Pradesh show a 47 per cent rise in child marriage cases between 2020 and 2025.
Numbers: Cases rose from 366 in 2020 to 538 in 2025.
Damoh district concentration: Damoh district alone accounts for 21 per cent of the state's total child marriage cases.
Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006: Prohibits marriage where either party is below 18 for girls or 21 for boys. Violations are cognisable and non-bailable.
Enforcement gap: Registration of child marriages is inconsistent. Many cases surface only when a complaint is filed or a girl seeks shelter.
Social drivers: Economic pressure on families, norm persistence in specific communities and lack of girl-child schooling retention.
The law is adequate. Enforcement and community mobilisation are not.
Static linkage: Child Marriage Prohibition Act 2006; Women and child welfare schemes
6. Opium poppy cultivation: Myanmar and India
GS area: GS III - Internal security; Drug policy
Myanmar's illicit opium poppy cultivation rose 17 per cent to 53,100 hectares in 2025.
Myanmar's position: Myanmar is the world's largest producer of illicit opium after overtaking Afghanistan in 2023.
India's licit cultivation: India is the only country in the world that produces opium legally under direct government supervision.
Licensed states: Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh are the only states licensed for opium cultivation.
Governing law: Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act 1985 regulates opium production, processing and export.
International oversight: The International Narcotics Control Board monitors India's licit production under UN drug conventions.
Static linkage: NDPS Act 1985; Drug trafficking; Golden Triangle and Golden Crescent
7. GLP-1 medicines for obesity
GS area: GS II - Health; Science and technology
The World Health Organisation has conditionally approved GLP-1 receptor agonist medicines for long-term weight management.
What GLP-1 drugs do: They mimic the GLP-1 gut hormone to suppress appetite and slow gastric emptying. Originally developed for Type 2 diabetes (semaglutide, liraglutide), they are now approved for obesity.
Efficacy: Clinical trials show 10 to 20 per cent body weight reduction over one year.
WHO condition: Treatment must be combined with behavioural interventions including dietary counselling and physical activity support.
Access problem: Fewer than 10 per cent of people who could benefit are expected to access these medicines by 2030. Cost is the primary barrier. A year's supply costs thousands of dollars in private markets.
Static linkage: Essential medicines list; Non-communicable diseases; WHO policy
8. Solar flares and space weather
GS area: GS III - Science and technology; Space
An X1.9-class solar flare from sunspot region AR 4294-96 caused radio blackouts over Australia.
Solar flare classification: Flares are ranked by X-ray brightness. The scale runs from A (weakest) through B, C, M and X (strongest). Within X-class, numbers indicate intensity.
Sunspot AR 4294-96: The active region generating the flare measured approximately 10 times the diameter of Earth.
Radio blackout mechanism: X-ray radiation from the flare ionises the upper atmosphere (D-layer of the ionosphere) on the sunlit side of Earth. This absorbs high-frequency radio signals.
CME relationship: Flares can but do not always accompany Coronal Mass Ejections. A CME sends charged particles toward Earth and can disrupt satellite operations and power grids.
Solar maximum: The Sun entered its 25th solar cycle maximum in 2024-25, making intense flares more frequent.
Static linkage: Solar activity and Earth systems; Space weather; ISRO satellite operations
9. World Summit on Disaster Management 2025
GS area: GS III - Disaster management; Internal security
The World Summit on Disaster Management 2025 was held in Dehradun, Uttarakhand.
Theme: Strengthening International Cooperation for Building Resilient Communities.
Uttarakhand infrastructure highlighted: 6 new weather radars, 33 observatories and 142 Automatic Weather Stations are operational across the state.
Relevance: Uttarakhand is a high-risk state for cloudbursts, glacial lake outburst floods and landslides. The monitoring network is a direct response to the 2013 Kedarnath disaster.
Sendai Framework link: India committed to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, which calls for early warning systems and resilience investment.
GS area: GS I - Geography; GS III - Internal security
A new naval detachment at Bitra Island in Lakshadweep is expected to be operational by 2026.
Location: Bitra Island is 483 km west of Kochi.
Size: 0.177 square kilometres. It is the smallest inhabited island in the Lakshadweep union territory.
Island type: Coral atoll.
Strategic significance: The Lakshadweep archipelago lies in the Exclusive Economic Zone India relies on to project presence in the Arabian Sea. A naval detachment on Bitra extends surveillance to the western edge of the island chain.
Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006: The Act makes child marriages voidable (not void) at the instance of the underage party. This distinction is important for prelims.
Practice MCQs
Check yourself
Consider the following statements about INS Aridaman. (1) It is India's second SSBN after INS Arihant. (2) It is constructed at the Ship Building Centre, Visakhapatnam with over 90 per cent indigenous content. (3) It can carry the K-4 missile with a range of approximately 3,500 km. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Check yourself
Consider the following statements about the East African Rift Valley. (1) It extends approximately 3,500 km from the Red Sea area to Mozambique. (2) The Afar Triple Junction is where the Red Sea rift, the Gulf of Aden rift and the East African rift converge. (3) The Somali plate is separating from the Eurasian plate. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Check yourself
Under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016, how many categories of disability are recognised?
Check yourself
India is the only country that produces opium legally under government supervision. Which three states are licensed for this licit cultivation?
Check yourself
Solar flares are classified on a scale of X-ray brightness. Which of the following correctly lists the scale from weakest to strongest?
Check yourself
Which of the following statements about INS Taragiri is correct?