🔆 WEEKLY CURRENT AFFAIRS | 15–20 DECEMBER 2025

🔆 REGULATORY / RBI / MARKETS

📍 SEBI Reforms
✅ SEBI revises governance norms for Market Infrastructure Institutions (MIIs)
✅ Mandatory Board role for Executive Directors
✅ Compensation safeguards + succession planning
✅ Effective: 20 Dec 2025

📍 RBI Liquidity
✅ RBI OMO bond buys hit ₹3.16 trillion (FY26) – record high
✅ December OMO tranche: ₹50,000 crore
✅ Repo rate cut: 100 bps → 5.25%
✅ CRR cut: 100 bps

📍 Investors
✅ India: 13.6 crore investors, 21 crore demat accounts (SEBI)

🔆 ECONOMY / FINANCE

📍 Forex Reserves
✅ India’s forex reserves at $687.26 bn

📍 GDP Outlook
✅ India Ratings projects GDP 7.2% (Q2 FY26)
✅ Growth driven by private consumption

📍 Exports
✅ Apr–Oct exports cross $491.8 bn
✅ MSME exports (H1 FY26): ₹9.52 lakh crore

🔆 INTERNATIONAL

📍 Global Rankings
✅ UAE tops Passport Index 2025 (Arton Capital)
✅ India ranks 67th (visa-free access to 74 countries)

📍 AI & Power
✅ India ranks 3rd globally in AI competitiveness (Stanford)
✅ India ranked 3rd in Asia Power Index 2025

📍 Diplomacy
✅ PM Modi visits Jordan, Ethiopia, Oman
✅ India–Oman CEPA approved
✅ Brazil hands over BRICS presidency to India (2026)

🔆 GOVERNANCE / LEGISLATION

📍 Major Bills
✅ Securities Markets Code Bill, 2025 introduced
→ Replaces SEBI Act, SCRA & Depositories Act
→ Decriminalises minor offences

📍 Education Reform
✅ Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill proposed
→ Single higher-education regulator
→ UGC, AICTE, NCTE to be replaced

🔆 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

📍 Semiconductors & AI
✅ India launches DHRUV64 (1.0 GHz) indigenous microprocessor
✅ India plans Maitri-II Antarctic Station (completion by 2032)

📍 Health Tech
✅ AI-based diabetic retinopathy screening launched
✅ India’s first clinical trial of Supernova Stroke Stent

🔆 ENVIRONMENT / ENERGY

📍 Renewables
✅ India crosses 505 GW installed power capacity
✅ Non-fossil sources >50% of total capacity (ahead of NDC target)

📍 Wetlands
✅ Siliserh Lake (Rajasthan) & Kopra Reservoir (Chhattisgarh) added as Ramsar sites
✅ India total Ramsar sites: 96

🔆 DEFENCE
📍 Exercises
✅ Harimau Shakti 2025 – India–Malaysia
✅ AviaIndra 2025 – India–Russia (Air Force)

📍 Naval Power
✅ Indian Navy commissions MH-60R Squadron INAS-335
✅ INS Mahe (ASW Shallow Water Craft) inducted

🔆 STATES
📍 Major Updates
✅ UP to get India’s first Forest University (Gorakhpur)
✅ Haryana declares Hansi as 23rd district
✅ Chhattisgarh gets first Ramsar site
✅ Uttarakhand launches Meri Yojana Portal

🔆 SCHEMES
📍 Rural & Social
✅ VB-G RAM G 2025 replaces MNREGA model
→ 125 days guaranteed work
→ Climate-resilient assets focus

📍 Skills
✅ PMKVY: 53 lakh trained in last 5 years

🔆 AWARDS / APPOINTMENTS
📍 Awards
✅ National Energy Conservation Awards 2025
✅ MRF wins FIA European Rally Championship

🔆 SPORTS
📍 Major Wins
✅ India wins Squash World Cup (Chennai)
✅ Jharkhand wins Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (maiden title)

#CurrentAffairs

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🔆 Women in Ancient India – Evolution of Status

📍 Overall Trajectory
✅ Status of women was not static
✅ Gradual shift from relative autonomy → increasing subordination
✅ Variations existed based on period, varna, class, and region

📍 Harappan & Early Vedic Period
(c. 2600–1500 BCE | Era of Esteem & Participation)

✅ Harappan Civilization (c. 2600–1900 BCE)
✅ Religious reverence for women reflected in Mother Goddess figurines
✅ Active economic roles – weaving, pottery (spindle whorls, tools)
✅ Social parity indicated by similar grave goods for men & women
✅ No strong evidence of gender-based hierarchy

✅ Early Vedic Period (c. 1500–1000 BCE)
✅ Access to education – women scholars like Ghosha, Apala, Lopamudra
✅ Public participation – Sabha & Vidatha assemblies
✅ Marriage choice – practice of Swayamvara
✅ Presence of wife essential for religious rituals (Yajnas)

📍 Later Vedic & Post-Vedic Period
(c. 1000–300 BCE | Onset of Decline)

✅ Strengthening patriarchy – dominance of male head (paterfamilias)
✅ Women’s identity defined via father–husband–son
✅ Loss of privileges – restricted education & public participation
✅ Dharmasutras codified subordination & dependence
✅ Emphasis on domestic roles over public life

📍 Mauryan to Gupta Period
(c. 300 BCE – 600 CE | Consolidation of Restrictions)

✅ Domestic confinement became normative
✅ Marriage practices deteriorated – child marriage, dowry system
✅ Property rights restricted – limited mainly to Stridhana
✅ Economic dependence on men increased
✅ Emergence of Sati – earliest epigraphic evidence (Eran inscription, 510 CE)
✅ Woman’s status linked strongly to varna
✅ Exceptions existed – e.g., Prabhavati Gupta (female regent)

#history #prelims #mains

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🔆 Urban Malaria & Anopheles stephensi
(Malaria Elimination Technical Report 2025)

📍 Why in News
✅ Urban malaria driven by invasive Anopheles stephensi threatens India’s malaria elimination targets
✅ Highlighted in Health Ministry’s Malaria Elimination Technical Report 2025

📍 About Anopheles stephensi
✅ A major malaria-transmitting mosquito, now recognised as an invasive urban species
✅ Transmits: Plasmodium falciparum & Plasmodium vivax
✅ Urban adaptability: Breeds in overhead tanks, construction sites, discarded tyres, water containers
✅ Behaviour:
✅ Endophagic – feeds indoors
✅ Endophilic – rests indoors
✅ Shows high preference for human blood in urban areas
✅ High resilience:
✅ Tolerates salinity
✅ Survives extreme temperatures
✅ Enables year-round transmission
✅ Spread: From South Asia & Arabian Peninsula → parts of Africa & Asia
✅ WHO status: Considered a major global threat; WHO has launched initiatives to curb its spread in Africa

📍 Malaria in India – Key Facts
✅ Caused by parasites transmitted by female Anopheles mosquitoes
✅ Five malaria parasites:
✅ Plasmodium falciparum
✅ Plasmodium vivax (most common in India)
✅ Plasmodium malariae
✅ Plasmodium ovale
✅ Plasmodium knowlesi
✅ India’s targets:
✅ Zero indigenous cases by 2027
✅ Malaria elimination by 2030 (WHO-aligned)
✅ Progress:
✅ Cases reduced from 11.7 lakh (2015) → ~2.27 lakh (2024)
✅ Deaths declined by 78%
✅ 92% districts have Annual Parasite Incidence (API) < 1
✅ Remaining hotspots: Odisha, Tripura, Mizoram (local ecology & health access factors)

📍 Malaria Elimination Technical Report 2025
✅ Released by: Ministry of Health
✅ Compiled by:
✅ ICMR–National Institute of Malaria Research
✅ National Centre for Vector Borne Disease Control
✅ Highlights sharp decline in malaria burden
✅ Marks India’s transition to pre-elimination phase
✅ Warns that urban malaria via Anopheles stephensi.

#GS3
#prelims
#science_technology
#science_and_technology

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🔆 Ethics Through Quotes – Amartya Sen

📍 Thinker: Amartya Sen
📍 Theme: Justice, Freedom, Capability & Ethical Governance

📍 Quote 1
“Development is not about income growth, but about expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy.”

✅ Ethics = freedom + dignity, not charity
✅ Useful for: Welfare, development ethics, human dignity

📍 Quote 2
“A society cannot be judged by how it treats the powerful, but by how it treats the weakest.”

✅ Justice measured by treatment of the vulnerable
✅ Useful for: Social justice, equity, inclusive governance

📍 Quote 3
“Poverty is not just lack of income; it is deprivation of basic capabilities.”

✅ Shifts ethics from relief to capability-building
✅ Useful for: Education, health, empowerment, GS-4 case studies

📍 Quote 4
“Freedom is both the primary end and the principal means of development.”

✅ Ethical governance must enable choice, not impose outcomes
✅ Useful for: Democracy, rights, public policy ethics

📍 Quote 5
“Justice is not merely about institutions, but about the lives people are actually able to lead.”

✅ Focus on outcomes with fairness, not paperwork
✅ Useful for: Administrative ethics, implementation failure cases

📌 Model concluding line:
“As Amartya Sen argues, ethical governance must expand real freedoms, ensuring justice is reflected in lived outcomes, not merely institutional design.”

#ethics

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🔆 Martial Arts of India

📍 Major Traditional Martial Arts & Regions

✅ Silambam — Tamil Nadu
✅ Kalaripayattu — Kerala
✅ Lathi Khela — North India
✅ Gatka — Punjab
✅ Thang-Ta — Manipur
✅ Mardani Khel — Maharashtra
✅ Pari Khanda — Bihar
✅ Kathi Samu — Andhra Pradesh
✅ Paika Akhada — Odisha
✅ Sqay — Kashmir
✅ Bandesh — Pan-India
✅ Malla Yuddha — South India
✅ Malla Khamb — Maharashtra (12th century origin)
✅ Insu Knawr — Mizoram
✅ Kirip / Saldu — Nicobar Islands
✅ Varma Ati — Tamil Nadu

#prelims
#art_and_culture

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🔆 CAG Flags Gaps in PMKVY

📍 Key Findings (Audit 2015–22)
✅ Training not aligned with market skill needs
✅ ~20% funds unutilised (State component)
✅ Serious data lapses on Skill India Portal (95% records invalid/incomplete)
✅ Low placement rate (41%)
✅ Fictitious / ineligible training agencies
✅ 85.4% certified candidates lacked required technical education

📍 CAG Recommendations
✅ Align training with real skill gaps
✅ Strengthen PMKVY processes & IT controls (PMKVY 4.0)
✅ Improve oversight and data validation
✅ Integrate UDISE data with PMKVY

📍 About PMKVY
✅ Launched: 2015 | Ministry: MSDE
✅ Objective: Skill training, upskilling & RPL
✅ 1.6+ crore youth trained; 45% women
✅ PMKVY 4.0 focuses on Industry 4.0, AR/VR, Green & Digital skills

#goverment_schemes

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🔆 Martial Arts of India

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🔆 Ethics Through Quotes – Narayana Guru

📍 Thinker: Narayana Guru
📍 Theme: Equality, Human Dignity, Social Ethics & Moral Reform

📍 Quote 1
“One caste, one religion, one God for humankind.”
✅ Ethics rooted in human equality, not identity divisions
✅ Useful for: Social justice, discrimination, inclusive governance

📍 Quote 2
“Any progress that denies human dignity cannot be real progress.”
✅ Development must preserve dignity, not just growth
✅ Useful for: Development ethics, welfare policies, GS-4 answers

📍 Quote 3
“Knowledge alone is the path to true freedom.”
✅ Education as ethical empowerment
✅ Useful for: Education policy, empowerment, capability building

📍 Quote 4
“The essence of religion is humanity, not division.”
✅ Ethical governance requires tolerance and humanism
✅ Useful for: Diversity management, social harmony, secular ethics

📍 Quote 5
“True reform begins not with external change, but with inner transformation.”
✅ Ethical administration starts with inner moral reform
✅ Useful for: Integrity, character, ethical leadership

📌 Model Concluding Line:
“As Narayana Guru emphasised, ethical governance rests on equality, human dignity, and inner moral transformation rather than mere institutional change.”

#ethics

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GDP, GNP, NDP, NNP & National Income Accounting | Economy Basics
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