India’s Resolution on ‘Strengthening the Global Management of Wildfires’ adopted at UNEA-7

• The resolution aimed at strengthening international cooperation and coordinated action for wildfire management.
• UNEP’s report ‘Spreading Like Wildfire’, warns that wildfires may rise 50% by 2100, if current trends continue.
• Total 11 resolutions were passed at the UNEA-7 including coral reefs, anti-microbial resistance, cryosphere, chemical, waste, etc.

Key Provisions of India’s Resolution

• Strengthening International Cooperation: Development of early warning systems, risk assessment, satellite- and ground-based monitoring and community alerts.
• Enhanced Regional and Global Collaboration: Mechanisms supporting prevention, post-response recovery, and ecosystem restoration.
• Knowledge Sharing and Capacity Building: Creation of platforms for best practices and training and programmes.
• Support for National and Regional Action Plans: Assistance for integrated fire management and wildfire resilience strategies.
• Facilitating Access to Finance: Help in project preparation for multilateral and results-based funding.

Current status of wildfires in India

• According to Forest Survey of India Report, more than 36% of the country’s forest prone to frequent forest fires, nearly 4 % extremely prone, 6%  found to be very highly fire prone (ISFR 2019).
• Satellite based remote sensing technology and GIS tools have been effective in better prevention and management of fires, like MODIS sensor and  SNPP-VIIRS.

About United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA, HQ: Nairobi, Kenya)

• Established in 2012, at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.

Roles and Functions:

• Highest-level decision-making body on the matters related to environment.
• It set the global environmental agenda; provide policy guidance and define policy responses to address emerging environmental challenges in the world.

PMGKY Package: Insurance Scheme for Health Workers

• Supreme Court Extends ₹50 Lakh Insurance to All Doctors Who Died on COVID Duty under “Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package: Insurance Scheme for Health Workers Fighting COVID-19”.

About Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package: Insurance Scheme for Health Workers Fighting COVID-19

• Objective: To provide financial protection to health workers engaged in COVID-19 duties.
• Implementing Ministry: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India
• Insurance Coverage: ₹50 lakh accident insurance cover per beneficiary.

Coverage Provided

• Death due to COVID-19 infection during duty.
• Accidental death while performing COVID-19–related duties.
• Beneficiaries: Healthcare workers including doctors, nurses, paramedics and support staff directly involved in COVID-19 duties.

Underlying Challenges in India’s Civil Aviation Sector

• A wave of mass flight cancellations by IndiGo exposed structural weaknesses and longstanding regulatory gaps in India’s civil aviation sector.

Challenges Faced by India’s Civil Aviation Sector

• Regulatory Capture: The DGCA remains under the Ministry despite the 2006 ICAO audit recommending independent oversight.
• Market Duopoly: Dominance of IndiGo (60%) and the Tata Group (20%) makes nationwide operations vulnerable to disruptions.
• Fuel Cost: High taxes and GST exclusions make Aviation Turbine Fuel form 40-50% of total airline operating expenses.
• Currency Risk: Dollar-denominated costs raise operating expenses and reduce profits when the Rupee weakens.
• Route Mortality: Over 100 UDAN routes closed after government subsidies ended due to a lack of commercial viability.
• Pilot Shortage: Insufficient trained pilots make compliance with Flight Duty Time Limitations difficult.
• ATCO Shortage: Inadequate Air Traffic Controller (ATCO) strength reduces safe-handling capacity during peak traffic.
• MRO Gap: Limited domestic MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) capacity makes airlines rely on foreign servicing for major maintenance.

Way Forward

• Implement Convention: Strictly implement the 2025 Protection of Interests in Aircraft Objects Act to secure lessor rights during defaults.
• Reform ATF: Bring Aviation Turbine Fuel under GST to allow airlines to claim Input Tax Credit for reducing operating costs.
• Expand MRO: Reduce GST on MRO services to 5% and attract OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturer) like Safran to strengthen domestic maintenance capacity.
• Optimise FDTL: Introduce stricter Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms in phases to manage pilot fatigue without causing capacity shocks.
• Build Hubs: Develop coordinated flight banks and a “Hub and Spoke” model at Delhi and Jewar to capture international transit traffic.
• Sustain UDAN: Use targeted Viability Gap Funding and smaller aircraft to keep regional routes commercially viable.

MAVEN Spacecraft

• NASA loses contact with MAVEN spacecraft in Mars orbit.

Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft

• Launched: In 2013 by NASA
• Objective: To explore Mars'' upper atmosphere, ionosphere, and interactions with the Sun and solar wind to explore the loss of the Martian atmosphere to space.

Pax Silica Initiative

• India has been left out of new US critical mineral diversification plan ‘Pax Silica’.

About Pax Silica Initiative

• It is a U.S.-led strategic initiative to build a secure, prosperous, and innovation driven silicon supply chain from critical minerals and energy inputs to advanced manufacturing, semiconductors, AI infrastructure, and logistics.
• Aim: To reduce dependencies and ensure aligned nations can develop and deploy transformative technologies at scale.
• Members: Japan, Republic of Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, The United Kingdom, Israel, United Arab Emirates, and Australia.

National Makhana Board

• ₹476-crore Central Sector Scheme has been rolled out for holistic development of makhana sector in first meeting of National Makhana Board.
• Roadmap has been approved for research, quality seed production, value addition, and export promotion.

About National Makhana Board (Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare)

• Established to boost value addition, branding, and global positioning of makhana.
• Location: Bihar
• Objectives: Improve farmers’ income and promote scientific cultivation, post-harvest processing and value addition.

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

• Government of India highlighted rural transformation and development leadership at International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)–India Day.

About IFAD (HQ: Rome, Italy)

• UN Specialised Agency: IFAD is an international financial institution and a United Nations specialised agency dedicated to eradicating rural poverty and hunger.
• Focus on Smallholders: It supports smallholder farmers, pastoralists and rural entrepreneurs through finance, training and technology.
• Rural Development Financing: Provides loans and grants for agriculture, climate resilience, value-chain development and livelihood diversification.

UN Champions of the Earth award

• Tamil Nadu IAS officer Supriya Sahu awarded for her pioneering leadership on critical environmental challenges in India, including plastics and wildlife conservation.

About Award

• UN''s highest environmental honour.
• Awarded every year since 2005.
• UNEP honours individuals and organizations working on innovative and sustainable solutions to address the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste.

Charaichung Festival

• Assam’s Majuli hosts Charaichung Festival to revive Asia''s first protected royal bird sanctuary.
• The festival commemorates the 392-year-old legacy of Asia''s first protected Royal Bird Sanctuary, ''Charaichung'', established in 1633 AD by Ahom king Swargadeu Pratap Singha.
• Majuli is the world''s largest river island in the Brahmaputra River, Assam.

Supernova

• Recently NASA''s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has observed one of the earliest supernova recorded.
• JWST is a collaboration between NASA, European and Canadian Space Agency to understand the early universe. It orbits the sun at 2nd Lagrange point (L2) and views the universe primarily in the infrared spectrum.

About Supernova

It is an explosion of a star and is of several types:-

• Core-collapse” supernova- When the massive star (5-8 times the size of the sun) exhausts its nuclear fuel, it begins to cool, causing the outward pressure to drop significantly.
• When pressure is no longer sufficient to counteract gravity, the star collapses leaving behind a dense core and a cloud of hot gas ie. nebula .
• If star was ~10 times larger than sun it may leave behind Black Hole.
• Thermal Runaway Supernova: It forms when 2 stars orbiting one another (at least 1 being white dwarf) collide or white dwarf pulls too much matter from a nearby star.
• White dwarfs are the remains of a star roughly the size of our Sun when it runs out of fuel.