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UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | April 7 to April 13, 2025

Did you miss out on important current affairs tidbits from last week for your Prelims and Mains preparation? Here's a checklist of the must-know facts: learn about the Supreme Court ruling on TN Governor case, Digital Threat Report 2024, Ramappa Temple, Biomass Mission, and more. You can also test your knowledge by solving MCQs.

UPSC, current affairs, prelims, important newsThe Ramappa temple in Palampet, Telangana. (Twitter/@narendramodi)

UPSC Current Affairs Pointers brings you essential current affairs of the past week, every Monday, to aid you in your Prelims and Mains preparation of UPSC, State PCS, and other competitive examinations.

If you missed the UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | March 31 to April 6, 2025, from the Indian Express, read it here.

Report

(FYI: The data provided in these reports can be used to substantiate your Mains answer and create a broad understanding of the topic.)

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— According to the sixth edition of global energy think tank Ember’s Global Electricity Review, India became the world’s third-largest producer of electricity from wind and solar energy in 2024, overtaking Germany.

— The low-carbon sources, including renewables and nuclear power, together provided 40.9 per cent of the world’s electricity in 2024. This is the first time the 40 per cent mark has been crossed since the 1940s.

— As part of its climate commitments or Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) submitted to the UNFCCC in 2022, India aims to achieve 50 per cent of its installed electric power capacity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030.

— In 2021, the country also announced a goal of achieving 500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030.

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— The Digital Threat Report 2024 was published by CERT-In, CSIRT-Fin, and global cybersecurity company SISA on April 7. The report is aimed at mapping the landscape of cyber threats in 2024, particularly in the Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI) sector.

Cryptocurrency has been flagged as a new frontier for cyber threats by the report.  The report also identified deepfakes and AI-generated content as “potent tools for intrusion, particularly in social engineering attacks.”

— The report highlighted that Jailbreaking attempts have been successful against OpenAI’s ChatGPT in the past through a technique known as the ‘grandma exploit’.

— In cybersecurity, jailbreaking refers to the process of removing restrictions or security measures imposed on a device or system to gain root access or bypass security features, potentially leading to vulnerabilities and security risks.

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— Beyond jailbreaking, the report noted that malicious LLMs such as WormGPT and FraudGPT are capable of writing convincing phishing emails, coding highly effective malware programmes, and automating the development of exploits.

 

Economy

upsc, economy, RBI

— The Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) reduced the repo rate by 25 basis points (bps) to 6 per cent. With this, the monetary policy stance has shifted from ‘neutral’ to ‘accommodative’, signalling more cuts in the offing.

— The RBI charges the interest rate when commercial banks borrow money from it is called the repo rate. The banks use it to meet their short-term funding needs.

— The interest rate that the RBI pays commercial banks when they park their excess cash with the central bank is called the reverse repo rate. Since RBI is also a bank and has to earn more than it pays, the repo rate is higher than the reverse repo rate.

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Do you know what the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is, its role in deciding the repo rate, and in changing the policy stance? In 2017, UPSC asked a direct question on the MPC.

 

Polity

upsc, governor Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi (File Photo)

— In the recent ruling, Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan in the Supreme Court set aside Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi’s decision to withhold assent to 10 pending Bills, deeming it illegal and erroneous in law.

— Constitutional Provision: Article 200 deals with the issue of granting assent to Bills by the Governor. When a Bill passed by the legislature of a state is presented to the Governor, the Governor has four options: (1) grant assent to the Bill; (2) withhold assent to the Bills; (3) return the Bills for reconsideration; or (4) reserve the Bill for the consideration of the President.

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— However, once the Legislative House reconsiders the Bill and sends it to the Governor once again, the Governor “shall not withhold assent therefrom. The proviso says the Governor must return the Bill “as soon as possible,” but does not prescribe a specific timeframe. This has been addressed in the current ruling.

— The court fixed maximum time limits of one to three months for Governors to take a call on Bills. The Supreme Court has, for the first time, prescribed that the President should take a decision on the Bills reserved for consideration by the Governor within a period of three months from the date on which such reference is received.

— While exercising powers under Article 142 of the Constitution, the court also declared the 10 Bills as having received assent.

— The Union Cabinet approved the Modernization of Command Area Development and Water Management (M-CADWM) as a sub-scheme of the PM Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) for the 2025-26 period on with an initial outlay of `1,600 crore.

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— The scheme aims for modernisation of the irrigation water supply network to supply irrigation water from existing canals or other sources in a designated cluster.

— Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and Internet of Things technology will be used for water accounting and management, the statement added.

kavach, upsc, railways

— In a major step to upgrade Mumbai’s suburban train travel, Union Minister for Railways announced that Kavach 5.0 will be implemented to increase the number of trains by 30 percent.

Kavach is India’s very own advanced Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system developed by the Research Design and Standards Organisation in collaboration with the Indian industry to prevent train collisions by automatically activating the braking system of the train.

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— This technology features an electronic device linked with radio frequency identification systems positioned at stations, trains and tracks. If a loco pilot inadvertently skips a red signal, Kavach automatically activates and controls the train’s braking systems. Additionally, the system detects any trains approaching the same tracks, taking necessary actions to avert collisions and alerting the loco pilot.

— Recently, a report emerged that the EU is considering revising the GDPR because it creates a cumbersome and costly compliance regime.

— GDPR is a legal framework that sets guidelines for the collection and processing of personal information from individuals who live in and outside of the European Union (EU).

— It was approved in 2016 and put into effect in 2018. It aims to give consumers control over their own personal data by holding companies responsible for the way they handle and treat this information.

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— India also has its data protection law, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA), 2023, which has been in the news because several concerns have been raised that it is an attack on the Right to Information Act. Do you know how it is different from GDPR? Click here to read.

 

International Cooperation

upsc, bangladesh, india

— Days after Bangladesh Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus advocated the extension of the Chinese economy around the strategically important Northeast India region, New Delhi has terminated the transshipment facility for Bangladesh’s export cargo.

— This comes after Muhammad Yunus’ statement in China that with Northeast India being “landlocked”, Dhaka was the “only guardian of the ocean for all this region”.

— The Northeastern states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram, Tripura and Sikkim collectively have a 1,596 km long international border with Bangladesh, 1,395 km with China, 1,640 km with Myanmar, 455 km with Bhutan and 97 km with Nepal, but are connected with the rest of India only through a 22-km strip of land called the “Chicken Neck” corridor.

Environment

upsc, current affairs The pistol shrimp, also known as the snapping shrimp, possesses an extraordinary weapon (Source: Instagram/Dive Pros)

— The pistol shrimp, also known as the snapping shrimp, has an oversized claw that can “fire” underwater bullets made of bubbles. These aren’t ordinary bubbles — they’re created through a process called sonoluminescence

— In sonoluminescence, water is energised with specific vibrations, causing emission of light through bubbles. The resulting temperatures can reach an astounding 4,400°C — nearly as hot as the sun’s surface.

— The sound reaches an incredible 218 decibels — louder than a gunshot, typically around 140-175 decibels. In fact, these tiny creatures “compete with larger sperm whales and beluga whales for the title of the loudest animal in the oceans.”

— Earlier this month, a large part of the United States witnessed heavy rain, strong winds and severe thunderstorms due to a type of storm known as an atmospheric river.

— Atmospheric rivers are a narrow, fast-moving band of moisture and wind — like rivers in the sky — that transport large amounts of water vapour. While they are an essential source of rainfall, they can lead to flooding, trigger mudslides and result in loss of life and property damage.

— One of the most well-known and strongest atmospheric rivers is the Pineapple Express, with moisture transported from the tropical Pacific around Hawaii to the US and Canadian West Coasts.

 

Science and Technology

UPSC, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Illustration of the Biomass satellite (ESA)

— The European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) Biomass Mission, which will map the world’s forests, will launch on April 29. It will be placed in a sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) — a type of orbit in which satellites are in sync with the Sun — at an altitude of around 666 km.

— It will provide information about the state of the planet’s forests and how they are changing, which will help expand the knowledge about the role forests play in the carbon cycle.

— It is ESA’s seventh Earth Explorer mission. Under the Earth Explorer programme, the space agency has launched satellites to observe different aspects of the planet’s system.

Interesting fact (Value addition for your Mains): Scientists estimate that forests absorb around 16 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, and currently hold 861 gigatonnes of carbon in their branches, leaves, roots, and soils.

— The mission will use a synthetic aperture radar (SAR). It will operate in the long-wave P-band frequency range, with a wavelength of 70 cm. Therefore, unlike other shorter-wave SAR sensors, the P-band SAR will be able to peer down through forest canopies to assess how much carbon is stored on the floor and branches of the trees in the world’s forests and to assess how levels are changing. The sensor will also estimate the amount of forest biomass.

— Notably, Biomass is the first satellite in the world to host a P-band SAR. The satellite is fitted with a huge 12 m antenna which will be deployed as it begins its sweep over the Earth.

 

Places in News

(Just FYI: The location of the place is important, considering that UPSC has asked several questions about places that were in the news, such as Aleppo and Kirkuk, in the 2018 UPSC Prelims. The best way to remember them is to plot them on a world map.)

upsc The 13th century temple was named after its architect, Ramappa. (Twitter/@IndiaatUNESCO)

— Telengana tourism to showcase the Kakatiya dynasty and the UNESCO World Heritage Site Ramappa Temple to Miss World contestants on May 14. Miss World 2025, the 72nd edition of the pageant, will be held in Hyderabad on May 31. This is going to be the third time India will host this event.

— Rudreswara Temple, also known as Ramappa temple, located at Palampet, Mulugu district, near Warangal in the state of Telangana. It was declared a UNESCO site in 2021.

— The temple complex was built by Racherla Rudra Reddy during the period of the Kakatiya ruler Ganapati Deva. It was built using sandstone and its construction, which began in 1213 CE, is believed to have continued for over four decades.

— UNESCO notes on its website that, “The building features decorated beams and pillars of carved granite and dolerite with a distinctive and pyramidal Vimana (horizontally stepped tower) made of lightweight porous bricks, so-called ‘floating bricks’, which reduced the weight of the roof structures. The temple’s sculptures of high artistic quality illustrate regional dance customs and Kakatiyan culture.”

 

Awards

— The 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics was awarded to 13,508 physicists across four collaborative projects at CERN, the European particle physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland. It is dubbed as the “Oscars of Science”.

— The awards were established in 2013 by Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, former Google chief Sergey Brin, genomics company 23&Me founder Anne Wojcicki, and tech investor couple Yuri and Julia Milner.

 

Terms making buzz

upsc, current affairs, hands-off protest Protestors shout slogans as they take to the streets and march during a “Hands Off!” protest against President Donald Trump in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

Hands-off Protests: The “Hands Off!” protests were organized for more than 1,200 locations in all 50 states by more than 150 groups, including civil rights organizations, labor unions, LBGTQ+ advocates, veterans and election activists. The rallies appeared peaceful, with no immediate reports of arrests. They are protesting against Donald Trump’s administrative policies.

 

Test Your Knowledge

(Note: The best way to remember facts for UPSC and other competitive exams is to recall them through MCQs. Try to solve the following questions on your own.)

(1) Which one of the following statements is correct? (2013)

(a) In India, the same person cannot be appointed as Governor for two or more States at the same time

(b) The Judges of the High Court of the States in India are appointed by the Governor of the State just as the Judges of the Supreme Court are appointed by the President

(c) No procedure has been laid down in the Constitution of India for the removal of a Governor from his/her post

(d) In the case of a Union Territory having a legislative setup, the Chief Minister is appointed by the Lt. Governor on the basis of majority support

(2) Which of the following statements is/are correct regarding the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC)? (UPSC CSE 2017)

1. It decides the RBI’s benchmark interest rates.

2. It is a 12-member body including the Governor of RBI and is reconstituted every year.

3. It functions under the chairmanship of the Union Finance Minister.

Select the correct answer using the code given below :

(a) 1 only

(b) 1 and 2 only

(c) 3 only

(d) 2 and 3 only

(3) Which of the following adopted a law on data protection and privacy for its citizens known as ‘General Data Protection Regulation’ in April, 2016 and started implementation of it from 25th May, 2018? (2019)

(a) Australia

(b) Canada

(c) The European Union

(d) The United States of America

Answer Key
1.  (c)   2. (a)   3. (c)

Previous Articles

UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | March 31 to April 6, 2025

UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | March 24 to March 30, 2025

UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | March 17 to March 23, 2025

UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | March 10 to March 16, 2025

For your answers, queries and suggestions write at khushboo.kumari@indianexpress.com

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Khushboo Kumari is a Deputy Copy Editor with The Indian Express. She has done her graduation and post-graduation in History from the University of Delhi. At The Indian Express, she writes for the UPSC section. She holds experience in UPSC-related content development. You can contact her via email: khushboo.kumari@indianexpress.com ... Read More

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