🔆 CURRENT AFFAIRS — 15 DEC 2025

🔆 BANKING & FINANCE

📍 India’s Forex Reserves
✅ Forex reserves rise by $1.03 bn
✅ Total reserves: $687.26 bn (RBI data)
✅ FCA remains largest component
✅ Increase supported by gold reserves & SDR gains

🔆 INSURANCE / LEGISLATION

📍 Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha Bill, 2025
✅ Approved by Union Cabinet
✅ FDI cap in insurance ↑ 74% → 100%
✅ NOF for foreign reinsurers ↓ ₹5,000 cr → ₹1,000 cr
✅ LIC empowered to open zonal offices without govt approval
✅ Amends: Insurance Act 1938, LIC Act 1956, IRDAI Act 1999

🔆 INTERNATIONAL

📍 Passport Index 2025 (Arton Capital)
✅ UAE ranks 1st (Mobility Score: 179) – 7th consecutive year
✅ Rank 2 (joint): Singapore & Spain
✅ India rank: 67th (Mobility Score: 74)

📍 Global AI Rankings
✅ India ranks 3rd globally in AI competitiveness
✅ Source: Stanford Global AI Vibrancy Tool
✅ India = highest-ranked lower-middle-income country

🔆 NATIONAL

📍 PM Modi’s Three-Nation Visit
✅ Countries: Jordan, Ethiopia, Oman
✅ Jordan: Marks 75 yrs of diplomatic relations
✅ Ethiopia: PM’s first-ever visit
✅ Oman: Marks 70 yrs of diplomatic ties

📍 ASEAN–India Tourism Exchange Programme 2025
✅ Launched in Guwahati
✅ Duration: 12–17 Dec 2025
✅ Locations: Guwahati, Kaziranga, New Delhi
✅ Participants: 41 ASEAN delegates

📍 Atomic Energy Reform
✅ Cabinet approves SHANTI Bill
✅ Opens civil nuclear sector to private players
✅ Target: 100 GW nuclear capacity by 2047
✅ Nuclear Energy Mission outlay: ₹20,000 cr
✅ Goal: 5 indigenous SMRs by 2033

📍 India–Oman CEPA
✅ Cabinet clears FTA between India & Oman
✅ Bilateral trade (FY25): $10.61 bn
✅ Petroleum + urea = ~75% of imports from Oman

📍 Bharatiya Bhasha Utsav 2025
✅ Organised by Ministry of Education in New Delhi
✅ Theme: Many Languages, One Emotion
✅ Adi Vaani AI tribal language translator showcased
✅ Developed by IIT Delhi

🔆 DEFENCE

📍 Indian Navy
✅ INAS 335 (Ospreys) – MH-60R helicopter squadron to be commissioned
✅ Date: 17 Dec 2025 | Location: INS Hansa, Goa

📍 Military Exercise
✅ Exercise Harimau Shakti 2025
✅ Participants: India & Malaysia
✅ Venue: Mahajan Field Firing Range, Rajasthan

🔆 STATES

📍 Madhya Pradesh
✅ Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve to become cheetah habitat
✅ Will be MP’s 3rd cheetah site

📍 Maharashtra
✅ Brookfield to invest $1 bn to build Asia’s largest GCC (Powai)
✅ Jobs: 30,000+ by 2029

📍 Chhattisgarh
✅ Kopra Reservoir declared state’s 1st Ramsar site

📍 Uttarakhand
✅ CM launches ‘Meri Yojana’ portal
✅ Aim: Awareness & access to welfare schemes

🔆 IMPORTANT DAY
📍 National Energy Conservation Day
✅ Observed on 14 December

🔆 APPOINTMENTS
📍 Key Appointments
✅ Aman Jain → Head of Public Policy, Meta India

🔆 AWARDS
📍 National Energy Conservation Awards 2025
✅ Presented by President Droupadi Murmu
✅ Organised by BEE (Ministry of Power)
✅ India achieves 50% non-fossil installed capacity (5 yrs ahead of NDC target)

🔆 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
📍 Medical Breakthrough
✅ AIIMS Delhi conducts India’s 1st clinical trial of Supernova Stent
✅ First stroke device cleared via domestic clinical trial

🔆 SPORTS
📍 Squash
✅ India wins Squash World Cup for first time
✅ Final: India 3–0 Hong Kong
✅ Venue: Chennai

#CurrentAffairs

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🔆 Project SunCatcher (Google)

✅ What: Google’s plan to shift AI computation into space using solar-powered satellites
✅ Aim: Meet rising AI energy demand by using continuous solar energy in orbit
✅ Launch plan: 2 prototype satellites by 2027 with Planet Labs

📍 Key Features
✅ AI data centres in Low Earth Orbit (LEO)
✅ Satellites with solar panels + Trillium TPUs
✅ ~80 satellites in tight 1-km formation
✅ Laser-based inter-satellite communication (up to 10 Tbps)
✅ ML-based formation control for stability
✅ Payload includes compute hardware, solar arrays, optical lasers

📍 Why in Space?
✅ No night cycle / weather interruption
✅ Lower water & carbon footprint vs Earth data centres
✅ Fewer power outages & disaster risks
✅ Data sovereignty flexibility under Outer Space Treaty

#prelims #GS3
#science_and_technology
#science_technology

Join @PIB_UPSC
@upsc_science_and_technology

A question in prelims can be formed from this infographics. Question can ask you what type of ecosystem service/services are they?

🔆 National Makhana Board

✅ Why in News: ₹476-crore Central Sector Scheme launched for holistic development of makhana sector
✅ Roadmap approved for: research, quality seed production, value addition & export promotion

📍 About National Makhana Board
✅ Ministry: Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare
✅ Location: Bihar
✅ Purpose: Boost value addition, branding & global positioning of makhana
✅ Goal: Enhance farmers’ income through scientific cultivation, post-harvest processing & value addition

#cse #prelims

🔆 Ozone Depleting Substances (ODSs)
📍 Definition:
✅ Chlorine, bromine, CFCs, carbon tetrachloride, halons, etc.

📍 Potential Drivers of Ozone Hole over Antarctica:
1. Changes in Antarctic polar vortex
2. Changes in solar cycle
3. Increased atmospheric abundance of Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)

📍 Polar Vortex
✅ Stratospheric wind patterns with vast low-pressure areas and very cold air, more pronounced over the South Poles.
✅ Leads to formation of Polar Stratospheric Clouds (PSCs).

📍 Impact of Volcanic Eruptions on Ozone Layer:
✅ Triggers massive stratospheric water vapor plume.
✅ Injects large quantities of sulphur dioxide (facilitates chemical conversion of chlorine making it more reactive).
✅ Contributes atmospheric bromine and hydrogen chloride.
✅ Eruption particles provide surfaces for chemical reactions for ODSs.

📍 PSCs (Polar Stratospheric Clouds):
✅ Also known as nacreous clouds or mother of pearl.
✅ Formed below -78°C and trap outgoing longwave radiation.

📍 Location:
✅ Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai, a submarine volcano in the Tongan archipelago located in the Southern Pacific Ocean, erupted in January 2022.

📍 Ozone Layer Depletion Process (Infographic):
✅ 1st step: UV rays split chlorine atom from CFC molecule.
✅ 2nd step: Chlorine atom breaks up ozone molecule.
✅ 3rd step: The chlorine molecule left behind creates chlorine monoxide and oxygen (O2).

#environment

2nd Phase Schedule CSE PT25

https://t.me/upsc_cse_update

Searchable PDF

🔆 CURRENT AFFAIRS — 16 DEC 2025

🔆 REGULATORY / RBI

📍 Monetary Policy Actions
✅ Repo rate cut by 100 bps → 5.25%
✅ CRR cut by 100 bps
✅ Objective: improve monetary transmission & liquidity

🔆 BANKING & FINANCE

📍 Multilateral Lending
✅ ADB approves $240 mn loan for Chennai Metro expansion
✅ Focus: clean, safe & low-carbon urban mobility

📍 Healthcare Financing
✅ ADB approves $108 mn loan for Mizoram healthcare
✅ Supports MUHCS → ₹5 lakh cashless cover per family
✅ Integrates PMJAY + state schemes into one platform

🔆 ECONOMY / MSMEs

📍 Credit & Quality Norms
✅ RBI asks banks to link MSME loans to external benchmark
✅ Interest reset period reduced to 3 months

📍 Quality Control Orders (QCOs)
✅ MSMEs get extra compliance time under BIS-led QCOs
✅ Fee concessions:
• Micro: 80%
• Small: 50%
• Medium: 20%
• +10% for NE & women-led MSMEs

📍 Credit Guarantee
✅ MCGS-MSME offers collateral-free loans
✅ No collateral required up to ₹10 lakh for MSEs

🔆 INTERNATIONAL

📍 Currency Rules
✅ Nepal lifts ban on high-value Indian notes
✅ ₹200 & ₹500 notes allowed up to ₹25,000 per person

📍 Asia Power Index 2025
✅ India ranks 3rd (Lowy Institute)
✅ Category: Major Power
✅ Ranked after USA & China

📍 Global AI Rankings
✅ India ranks 3rd globally in Global AI Vibrancy Index 2024
✅ Published by Stanford University

🔆 NATIONAL

📍 Labour Market
✅ LFPR rises to 55.8% (7-month high)
✅ WPR improves to 53.2%
✅ Unemployment rate falls to 4.7%

📍 Rural Employment Reform
✅ VB-G RAM G 2025 announced
✅ Guarantees 125 days wage employment (vs 100 under MNREGA)
✅ Focus: water security, rural infra, climate resilience

📍 Maritime Affairs
✅ Union Minister inaugurates 3rd IALA Council Session (Mumbai)
✅ All 193 lighthouses now solar-powered
✅ Digital ticketing launched for 75 lighthouse tourism sites

🔆 ENVIRONMENT
📍 Wetlands
✅ Siliserh Lake (Rajasthan) & Kopra Jalashay (Chhattisgarh) added as
→ India’s 95th & 96th Ramsar Sites

🔆 ACHIEVEMENTS
📍 Mountaineering
✅ Kavita Chand (Uttarakhand) scales Mount Vinson (Antarctica – 4,892 m)

🔆 MoUs
📍 Defence Cooperation
✅ India–Brazil MoU on Scorpene submarine maintenance

🔆 STATES
📍 Renewable Energy
✅ NLC India to develop 110 MW solar plant in Uttar Pradesh

🔆 APPOINTMENTS
📍 Key Positions
✅ Raj Kumar Goyal sworn in as Chief Information Commissioner
✅ Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty elected 1st woman President of PCI
✅ Suresh Goyal appointed DG, NCAER (from Jan 5)

🔆 AWARDS

📍 Technology
✅ C-DOT wins IEEE SA Corporate Award 2025
✅ First Indian organisation to receive the honour
📍 Motorsport
✅ MRF Tyres wins 2025 FIA European Rally Championship (Teams)
📍 Innovation
✅ DV Kapur Energy Innovation Awards → NTPC-NETRA & CSIR scientists

🔆 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
📍 Space
✅ Google launches Project Suncatcher – solar-powered space data centres
📍 Semiconductors
✅ India launches DHRUV64 — first indigenous 1.0 GHz 64-bit microprocessor

🔆 SPORTS
📍 Cricket
✅ Shafali Verma wins ICC Women’s Player of the Month (Nov 2025)
📍 WWE
✅ John Cena retires after 20-year career
✅ Record 17-time World Champion

#CurrentAffairs

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BPSC
70th BPSC MAINS RESULT

🔆 Famous Indian Painters

📍 Raja Ravi Varma
✅ First great modern Indian painter
✅ National style blending Indian themes + European realism
✅ Mythology focus: Ramayana, Mahabharata
✅ Award: Gold Medal – Vienna Art Exhibition
✅ Famous work: Lady in the Moonlight

📍 Amrita Sher-Gil
✅ Iconic 20th-century woman painter
✅ Called India’s Frida Kahlo
✅ Blend of Western techniques + Mughal & Pahari styles
✅ Themes: Indian life, women, social realism

📍 M. F. Husain
✅ Leading figure of Modern Indian Art
✅ Style: Bold lines, vibrant colours, distorted forms
✅ Influenced by Cubism (Picasso, Gris, Léger)
✅ Works: Ramayana, Mahabharata, Mother Teresa

📍 Abanindranath Tagore
✅ Pioneer of Bengal School of Art
✅ Use of wash technique & calligraphy
✅ Iconic painting: Bharat Mata
✅ Art rooted in Indian nationalism

📍 Tyeb Mehta
✅ Member of Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group
✅ Known for Diagonal Series
✅ Themes: Violence, myth, existential crisis
✅ Works: Kali, Mahishasura

📍 Satish Gujral
✅ Painter, sculptor, muralist & architect
✅ Strong expressionist & socio-political themes
✅ Partition paintings highly acclaimed
✅ Awarded Padma Vibhushan (1999)

#prelims
#art_and_culture

@studytoday1
@upsc_art_and_culture

🔆 Tribes & Nomadic Groups in Medieval India

📍 Gond Tribe
✅ Lived in vast forested region called Gondwana
✅ Practised shifting cultivation
✅ Akbarnama mentions Garha Katanga with 70,000 villages
✅ Kingdoms developed centralised administration
✅ Emergence of large states transformed Gond society
✅ Some Gond chiefs sought Rajput status

📍 Ahom Tribe
✅ Migrated to Brahmaputra Valley from present-day Myanmar (13th century)
✅ Established state by suppressing Bhuiyans (local landlords)
✅ Annexed Chhutiyas (1523) and Koch-Hajo (1581)
✅ Early users of firearms (1530s)
✅ Defeated by Mughals under Mir Jumla (1662)
✅ State based on forced labour system (Paiks)
✅ Administration became highly centralised by 17th century
✅ Growing Brahmanical influence in religion
✅ Flourishing literature – Buranjis (Ahom → Assamese)

📍 Trader Nomads – Banjaras
✅ Most important trader nomads of medieval India
✅ Caravan called Tanda
✅ Used by Alauddin Khalji to transport grain
✅ Mentioned in Jahangir’s memoirs

📍 UPSC Prelims Focus
✅ Banjaras during the medieval period of Indian history were generally

a)agriculturists
b)warriors
c)weavers
d)traders

📌 UPSC CSE Prelims 2016 – Correct Answer: (d) Traders

#history #prelims #mains

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