India’s Development Cooperation

• India has evolved from being a major aid recipient to a proactive development partner, championing South–South Cooperation (SSC) through inclusive capacity-building models.

Current Status of India’s Development Cooperation

• India–UN Development Partnership Fund: Established in 2017 under UNOSSC, with India committing US$150 million over 10 years; has supported 85+ projects across 65 countries.
• Geographical Priority: Targets Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs), and Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
• India–UN Global Capacity-Building Initiative (2025): Enhances training, knowledge exchange, and institutional learning to complement project-based funding.
• Focus Sectors: Renewable energy, digital infrastructure, climate-resilient agriculture, women-led enterprises, and ecosystem restoration.
• Demand-Driven Model: Projects proposed by partner governments, ensuring national ownership.
• Implementation Approach: Collaboration with UN agencies ensures transparency and scalability.

Significance of India’s Distinct Model of South–South Cooperation

• Blended Financing: Combines grants and technical expertise, ensuring sustainability.
• Knowledge Transfer: Draws on India’s domestic successes, Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), renewable energy missions, and Agri-innovation ecosystems.
• Global Credibility: The Fund has become a flagship model of equitable, evidence-based cooperation, endorsed during India’s G20 Presidency (2023).
• Principled Partnership: Focuses on solidarity, not leverage, guided by Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (“The world is one family”).

Challenges in India’s Development Cooperation Framework

• Fragmented Coordination: Absence of a centralised monitoring authority across. E.g. NITI Aayog’s 2024 review found overlap among 30+ ongoing capacity-building initiatives.
• Impact Measurement Deficit: No real-time results dashboard linking projects to SDGs or social impact outcomes. E.g. 40% of funded projects lack consolidated evaluation reports (MEA 2025).
• Resource Constraints: India’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) outflows (~$2.6 billion in 2024) remain modest compared to China or Japan, constraining scale.
• Regional Complexity: Political sensitivities in South Asia and Africa occasionally slow implementation or create duplication with other donor programs.
• Limited Private Sector Integration: Only 12–15% of India’s development cooperation projects involve private-sector participation, compared to 40–45% in OECD countries (OECD Development Report, 2024)
• Low Documentation: India allocates less than 0.5% of its total development assistance budget to public communication and evaluation, whereas OECD donors allocate around 3–5% (NITI Aayog Review, 2024)

Way Forward

• Institutionalise Coordination: Establish a National Development Cooperation Authority (NDCA) to unify capacity-building initiatives. E.g. Japan’s JICA for coherent strategy and impact alignment.
• Real-Time Impact Dashboard: Consolidate project data, SDG linkages, and outcome mapping for transparency similar to UNDP’s Data Futures Platform, enabling open-access accountability.
• Regional Scaling: Replicate successful pilots across geographies like Pacific renewable projects in Africa, and East African climate-smart agriculture in South Asia.
• Evaluation and Communication: Commission independent reviews and build an India Development Cooperation Portal showcasing global good practices.
• Deepen Multilateral Linkages: Collaborate with BIMSTEC, African Union (Agenda 2063), and Pacific Islands Forum to institutionalise cross-regional cooperation.

India’s largest and first MWh-Scale Vanadium Redox Flow Battery (VRFB) inaugurated at NTPC NETRA

Flow Batteries, along with solid state batteries, are one of the next generation battery technologies and are emerging as an alternative to lithium-ion for grid-scale applications, offering flexibility, longevity, and safety.

Next Generation Battery Technologies

• Flow Batteries: Flow batteries are powered by reduction-oxidation (redox) reactions and involve two different liquid electrolytes that pass ions or protons back and forth through a porous membrane.
• These batteries can store larger amounts of energy—as much as the size of the electrolyte cells can contain—and don’t use flammable or polluting materials.
• Types of Flow Batteries: Vanadium Redox, Zinc–Bromine, Iron–Salt/Organic systems.
• Solid-State Batteries: These use solid electrolyte solutions, which don’t need a different separator. 
• It makes them safer because they are less prone to leakage from damage or swelling in hot temperatures.

Significance of Next Generation Battery Technologies

• Suitable for grid-scale energy storage due to independent scaling of power and energy capacity. 
• Provides an alternative to lithium-ion batteries, as it diversifies material dependency and enhances supply chain security.
• Used in power management, pumps, grid energy storage, etc.
• Provides Long-Duration Energy Storage (LDES) solutions, enhancing renewable energy integration and grid resilience.

National Biodiversity Authority Releases ABS Funds

• The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) released ₹43.22 lakh in patent-linked Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) funds to reward biodiversity contributors.

• These funds were generated from Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) applications that used Indian biological resources for commercial or research purposes.
• The funds will be distributed to local communities, with Andhra Pradesh getting the largest share.

Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS)

• ABS refers to the framework that governs how genetic resources are accessed and how the benefits from their use are equitably shared between users and providers.
• It is a core principle of the Nagoya Protocol (2010), an international agreement under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
• Implementation: Through a three-tier mechanism under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, involving the NBA, State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs), and local Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs).

National Biodiversity Authority (NBA)

• NBA is a statutory autonomous body created in 2003 under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002.
• Based in Chennai, it functions under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC).
• It regulates access to biological resources, monitors benefit-sharing compliance, and provides policy advice to the Central Government. It holds the power of a civil court

Citizen Protest Over Toxic Air as Delhi’s AQI Turns ‘Severe’

• A peaceful citizen protest was held at India Gate, New Delhi, against the worsening air pollution levels as the city’s overall Air Quality Index (AQI) deteriorated to the ‘Severe’ category.

• The alarming situation prompted the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) to invoke Stage-III of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) across the National Capital Region (NCR).

Key Issues Highlighted by Protesters

• Air quality in Delhi has reached hazardous levels, making breathing a survival act, particularly for children, the elderly, and asthma patients.
• Citizens expressed that the right to clean air is a basic right, not a privilege.
• Despite being peaceful and non-political, protesters were detained and prevented from moving by barricades, indicating a shrinking democratic space for environmental activism.

Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP)

• GRAP is a region-specific emergency action framework to control air pollution in Delhi-NCR, prescribing graded measures based on the severity of air quality.
• It classifies actions under four stages: Poor (AQI 201–300), Very Poor (301–400), Severe (401–450), and Severe Plus (above 450), with escalating restrictions at each level.
• The plan includes coordinated steps such as vehicular restrictions, dust control, curbing industrial emissions, and promoting public transport.

Key Measures Under GRAP Stage-III

• Ban on construction and demolition activities across Delhi-NCR to curb dust pollution.
• Prohibition on BS-III petrol and BS-IV diesel four-wheelers in Delhi, Gurugram, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, and Gautam Buddha Nagar.
• Shift to hybrid learning mode for students up to Class V in Delhi and the above NCR districts.
• Continuation of restrictions under Stage-I (Poor) and Stage-II (Very Poor) categories already in force.

Struggle to Produce Indian Nobel Laureates

• India has not produced a Nobel laureate in science in nearly a century, despite a vast scientific talent base and expanding research network.

Current Status of Indian Science and R&D

• Low Research Investment: India’s R&D expenditure remains at 0.7% of GDP, far below China (2.4%), Japan (3.3%), and South Korea (4.9%) (UNESCO, 2023).
• Public-Dominated Research: Over 80% of total R&D spending comes from government sources, while the private sector’s share remains under 15% (DST, 2024).
• Talent Drain: India contributes nearly 10% of global STEM graduates, yet loses thousands of researchers annually to advanced ecosystems abroad.
• Publication–Innovation Gap: India ranks 3rd globally in research output but only 36th in citation impact (Scopus, 2024), reflecting a focus on volume, not value.
• Fragmented Institutions: The country hosts over 1,400 R&D institutions, but many operate in silos with limited inter-agency collaboration

Barriers to Scientific Excellence in India

• Opaque Recruitment: Hiring in major research institutions lacks transparency, with reports of regional bias and patronage overshadowing merit-based selection (CAG, 2022).
• Weak Research Infrastructure: Equipment shortages and maintenance delays, especially in universities, result in under-utilisation of up to 40% of laboratory capacity (NITI Aayog, 2023).
• Leadership Deficit: Top posts in bodies like the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and Department of Biotechnology (DBT) often remain vacant for long periods (Parliamentary Committee, 2020).
• Overlapping Governance: The 2021 NITI Aayog Science and Technology Index found overlapping mandates among agencies, causing duplication and underutilisation of research grants.

Way Forward

• Younger Leadership: Reserve half of top posts – Directors, Vice-Chancellors, and Secretaries of DST/DBT/CSIR – for mid-career scientists (40–50 years), replicating the reformist model once led by Homi Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai.
• Higher R&D Spending: Raise research outlay to 3% of GDP as envisaged in STIP-2020, with separate funds for basic sciences, clean energy, and space technology to build global-scale labs.
• Industry Collaboration: Provide tax credits and grants for companies partnering with public labs – similar to the ISRO-L&T and DRDO-Tata Advanced Systems models to scale applied research.
• Outcome-based evaluation: Under the National Research Foundation (NRF), rank institutions by patents, technology transfers, and societal impact instead of publication count.

Aditya L1 Observes Coronal Mass Ejection

• The VELC onboard Aditya-L1 has enabled the first spectroscopic observation of a coronal mass ejection (CME) in the visible wavelength range.

• Scientists from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) and NASA have collaborated to estimate the key parameters of the observed CME.

Coronal Mass Ejections

• A coronal mass ejection (CME) is a massive release of hot, magnetised gas and charged particles from the Sun’s outer layer, the corona.
• Cause: It occurs when magnetic field lines on the Sun abruptly break and reconnect, releasing a significant amount of energy that sends material into space.
• Effect on Earth: CMEs directed toward Earth can cause geomagnetic storms, disrupting satellites, power grids, and communications; they can also create auroras.

Key Findings and Parameters

• Electron Density: The CME contained about 370 million electrons per cubic centimetre—much higher than the 10–100 million in the normal corona.
• Energy: Its energy was estimated at 9.4 × 10^21 joules, which significantly exceeds the energy of WWII atomic bombs.
• Mass and Speed: The CME had a mass of about 270 million tonnes and an initial velocity of 264 km/sec, with plasma temperatures reaching nearly 1.8 million Kelvin.

‘Global Cooling Watch 2025’ Report calls for urgent shift to Sustainable Cooling

Report published by the UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Cool Coalition, details a Sustainable Cooling Pathway aimed at dramatically reducing projected GHG emissions from cooling by 2050.

Key concerns raised in the Report

• Surge in cooling demand: Under a Business-as-Usual (BAU) Cooling Pathway, the global stock of cooling equipment will more than triple by 2050, from 22 terawatts (TW) in 2022 to 68 TW.
• Policy Gaps: Only 54 nations meet full Sustainable Cooling Pathway standards despite broad policy inclusion.
• Escalating extreme heat: Global population exposed to deadly heat stress could rise from 30% today to between 48% and 76% by the end of the century. (IPCC)
• This gets further amplified by urban heat island effect, heatwaves, etc.

Proposed Sustainable Cooling Pathway

• Passive Cooling: Reduce cooling loads through passive design, urban planning, and simple measures like doors on refrigerated cabinets to cut costs and emissions.
• Low-Energy Cooling: Prioritize low-energy systems such as fans and evaporative coolers instead of, or alongside, air conditioning to cut energy use and costs.
• Best Energy Efficiency: Adopt high-efficiency systems with variable-speed compressors and proper maintenance for optimal performance.
• Rapid HFC Phase-Down: Select low-GWP refrigerants that maintain system efficiency to reduce direct emissions and support sustainable cooling.

Lake Turkana

• A recent study found that changes in Lake Turkana’s water levels affected fault movement and magma generation, showing a direct link between climate change and tectonic processes.

Key Findings of the Study

• Climate-Rift Link: Climate change–driven shifts in Lake Turkana’s water levels directly influenced crustal pressure and earthquake activity in the East African Rift Valley.
• Dry-Phase Unloading: During dry periods, falling lake levels reduce water pressure, letting faults move faster and causing more earthquakes.
• Magma Uplift: Reduced surface pressure lets magma melt and rise faster, triggering more earthquakes and eruptions.
• Wet-Phase Stability: In wetter periods, added water weight presses the crust down, slowing fault slips and reducing earthquake frequency.
• Geological Evidence: Geological records show faster fault slips and stronger earthquakes after 5,000 years ago, when the region became drier.

Lake Turkana

• Lake Turkana is the world’s largest permanent desert lake and the largest alkaline lake, mainly situated in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley. Its northern end extends into Ethiopia.
• World Heritage Site: Known as the “Jade Sea” for its turquoise colour, its basin was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997
• Hominin Site:  The Turkana Basin is a significant paleoanthropological site, often referred to as the “Cradle of Humankind” due to numerous hominin fossil discoveries.
• River Flow: Three rivers, Omo, Turkwel, and Kerio, feed the lake, with the Omo River contributing nearly 90% of the total inflow.
• Nile Crocodile: It has the world’s largest breeding colony of Nile crocodiles, concentrated on its Central and South Islands.

CAQM invokes Stage-III of Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) in NCR amid severe Air Pollution

It will include a 9-point action plan comprising a ban on construction, mining, and polluting vehicles, along with hybrid schooling and staggered office timings to reduce emissions and congestion.

• Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR and adjoining Areas (CAQM) is a statutory body established under the Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region (NCR) and Adjoining Areas, Act 2021.

GRAP

• It is an emergency response mechanism for the entire NCR, triggered by Delhi''s Average AQI, to coordinate multiple stakeholders against deteriorating air quality in Delhi-NCR.
• It is divided into four stages, based on AQI levels: 
• Stage 1: Poor category (AQI 201 to 300).
• Stage 2: Very poor category (AQI 301-400).
• Stage 3: Severe category (AQI 401-450). 
• Stage 4: Severe + category (AQI 451+)

Reasons for NCR Air pollution:

• Topographical Factors: It includes basin effect of indo gangetic plain, Natural barriers (Himalayas and Aravalis), etc.
• Meteorological Factors: It includes temperature inversion, low wind speeds etc.
• Pollution: It includes pollution from Stubble burning, Vehicular and Industrial emissions etc.

DNA Pioneer James Watson

• Nobel laureate James Watson, who co-discovered the double-helix structure of DNA, has recently died.
• He received the 1962 Nobel Prize with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins for discovering DNA’s structure and self-duplication mechanism.

DNA

• Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a molecule that contains genetic instructions essential for growth, reproduction, and biological functions in all living organisms.
• It is the hereditary material passed from parents to offspring, forming life’s unique genetic blueprint.
• Structure: DNA has a double-helix shape like a twisted ladder. Its sides have sugar and phosphate molecules, and the rungs are made of four nitrogen bases—adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine.
• Location: In eukaryotes, DNA is found in the nucleus and mitochondria, whereas in prokaryotes, it exists as circular chromosomal DNA in the cytoplasm..
• Function: Specific DNA segments known as genes guide the production of proteins that regulate traits and body functions.
• Key Applications: DNA fingerprinting aids forensic and paternity tests; sequencing helps diagnose genetic disorders, supports evolutionary studies, and improves precision medicine.

Booker Prize

David Szalay has won the 2025 Booker Prize for his novel Flesh.

• It was his sixth work of fiction, and he became the first Hungarian-British author to win the award.

• Genesis: Established in 1969 in the United Kingdom.
• Aim: To honor the best English language fiction published in the UK or Ireland each year.
• Reward: Winner receives £50,000 and shortlisted authors get £2,500 each.

International Booker Prize is different from Booker Prize, which celebrates the best works of long-form fiction or collections of short stories translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland.

India’s Defence Manufacturing Landscape

• Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated the Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) Bhavan in New Delhi and highlighted the central role of DPSUs in India’s defence manufacturing.

• Record Output: Defence production hit an all-time high of ₹1.51 lakh crore in FY 2024-25, marking an 18% growth over FY 2023-24 and nearly doubling since FY 2019-20.
• Sectoral Contribution: DPSUs accounted for 71.6% of total output, while the private sector contributed 23%.
• Export Record: Defence exports increased to ₹23,622 crore in FY 2024-25, marking a 12% rise from the previous year.
• DPSU Export: DPSUs contributed ₹8,389 crore to total exports, a 43% increase year-on-year.

Mitra Shakti-XI

• The 11^th edition of the India–Sri Lanka Joint Military Exercise, “Mitra Shakti-XI – 2025”, has begun at the Foreign Training Node in Karnataka, India.

• Objective: To improve coordination and strengthen joint sub-conventional operations under the United Nations mandate.
• Representation: The exercise involves Indian troops from the RAJPUT Regiment and Sri Lankan troops from the GAJABA Regiment, along with Air Force personnel from both countries.
• Focus Areas: Includes counter-terrorism operations, heliborne raids, drone deployment, counter-unmanned aerial systems (C-UAS) operations, Army Martial Arts Routine (AMAR), and yoga.
• Significance: The exercise enhances India–Sri Lanka defence cooperation, deepens bilateral relations, and promotes regional peace and stability.

National Water Awards 2024

• The Ministry of Jal Shakti has announced the winners of the 6^th National Water Awards for the year 2024.
• The awards were instituted in 2018 to recognise exceptional efforts in water conservation and management across the country.
• Objective: To raise public awareness about the importance of water and promote community participation towards a “Jal Samridh Bharat” (Water-Prosperous India).
• Categories: The 2024 edition featured 10 categories, recognising states, individuals, institutions, panchayats, industries, and non-governmental organisations.
• Key Winners: A total of 46 winners were announced.
• Best State: Maharashtra secured the first prize, with Gujarat in second place and Haryana in third.
• Best Urban Local Body: Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation, Maharashtra.
• Best Village Panchayat: Dubbiganipalli (Andhra Pradesh) and Payam (Kerala) won jointly.

TB Vaccine Development

WHO report calls for bold financing and equitable access strategies to ensure novel tuberculosis (TB) vaccines reach adolescents and adults in high-burden countries.  

• Despite TB’s devasting global impact, no new vaccines have been licensed in over a century. 
• Presently available Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine offers protection against the consequences of TB for infants and young children but it offers only limited and variable protection against pulmonary TB in adolescence and adulthood. 
• WHO established the TB vaccine accelerator Council in 2023 to facilitate the development, testing, authorization, and use of new TB vaccines.

Digital Gold

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) issued a public advisory warning investors against investing in ‘Digital Gold’ or ‘E-Gold’ products offered via various online platforms, clarifying that such products do not fall under SEBI’s regulatory framework.

• Digital gold refers to buying gold without physically possessing the precious metal. 
• The price of digital gold is linked to that of physical gold.
• Digital gold is created using blockchain technology and allows investors to buy, sell and store gold electronically.
• These products are neither notified as securities nor regulated as commodity derivatives.

COP32 in Ethiopia

Ethiopia will host the 32^nd Conference of the Parties (COP32) to the UNFCCC in 2027. The COP presidency & venue rotate among five UN-recognised regional groups: Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Central and Eastern Europe, and Western Europe & Others.

VINBAX

6th India-Vietnam Army Exercise VINBAX starts off in Hanoi.

• It is a bilateral army exercise between India and Vietnam aimed at enhancing interoperability and sharing best practices in UN peace-keeping operations.

Union Government to launch National One Health Mission

The mission approved by the Prime Minister''s Science, Technology, and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC), aims for robust pandemic preparedness and integrated disease control by recognizing the interconnected nature of health risks.

National One Health Mission

• Vision: To build an integrated disease control and pandemic preparedness system in India by bringing human, animal and environmental sectors together for better health outcomes, improved productivity and conservation of biodiversity.
• Implementing Agency: Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
• Anchor Institution: National Institute of One Health, Nagpur.
• Critical pillars: 
• Research and Development: Driving targeted R&D to develop essential tools such as vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics.
• Clinical Readiness: Enhancing preparedness in terms of clinical care infrastructure and response capabilities.
• Data Integration: Streamlining data and information linkages across the human, animal, and environmental sectors for improved access and analytics.
• Community Engagement: Ensuring close community participation to maintain a constant state of response readiness. 

‘One Health’

• It is an integrated, unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimize the health of people, animals, and ecosystems.
• ‘One Health’ imperatives in India: Unique demographics (diverse wildlife, one of the world''s largest livestock populations, and a high density of human population); Recent Disease Outbreaks (including the COVID-19 pandemic, outbreaks of Lumpy Skin Disease in cattle, and the persistent threat of Avian Influenza, etc.), among others.

International Cryosphere Climate Initiative released the State of the Cryosphere Report 2025

The report highlights the status and impact of changes in five key components of cryosphere – Ice Sheets, Mountain Glaciers and Snow, Polar Oceans, Sea Ice, and Permafrost. 

Key Highlights of Report

• Ice Sheets: Losses from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have quadrupled since the 1990s.
• Impact: Sea-level rise results in widespread loss of infrastructure, agricultural land, homes, and livelihoods in coastal regions.
• Polar Oceans: Rising greenhouse gases are impacting their role as heat/carbon absorbers and drivers of global circulation. 
• Impact: Two major ocean current systems, Antarctic Overturning Circulation (AOC) and Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), have slowed substantially due to freshwater melt.
• Mountain Glaciers and Snow: Glacier ice loss is increasing exponentially worldwide, with 273 gigatons lost per year between 2000 and 2023.
• Impact: Threatens water, food, economic, and political security for billions of people.
• Sea Ice: Sea ice extent and thickness have declined 40-60% at both poles since 1979. 
• Impact: Loss of sea ice drives Arctic amplification, threatens ice-dependent species, disrupts weather and ocean currents and increases sea-level rise risks. 
• Permafrost: Over 210,000 km² of permafrost has thawed per decade since current warming began. 
• Impact: Thawing permafrost decreases the global carbon budget and releases vast amounts of ancient organic carbon (three times more than currently in the atmosphere). 

Climate Risk Index (CRI)

Germanwatch releases Climate Risk Index (CRI) 2026.

• It ranks countries based on the human and economic toll of extreme weather events, highlighting the urgency for stronger climate resilience.

• Genesis: Introduced in 2006 as an annual global climate impact index.
• Key Findings: 
• Between 1995 and 2024, 9,700 extreme weather events caused over 8 lakh deaths and $ 4.5 trillion in damages.
• India  ranked 15^th in CRI Rank 2024 and 9^th in CRI Rank 1995-2024.
• India faced nearly 430 extreme weather events in three decades, causing $ 170 billion losses and 1.3 billion affected.