06^th November 2025

1. Ikshak: Recently, the Indian Navy is enhancing its maritime survey and charting capabilities by inducting Ikshak, the third vessel in the Survey Vessel (Large) [SVL] class.

• Key Highlights: The third vessel of the Survey Vessel (Large) [SVL] class and the first to be based at the Southern Naval Command.
• It will be commissioned on 06 November 2025 at Naval Base Kochi, in the presence of Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi, Chief of the Naval Staff.
• The ship is built by GRSE Ltd., Kolkata, and features over 80% indigenous content, reflecting the Aatmanirbhar Bharat
• The name ‘Ikshak’ means ‘Guide’ in Sanskrit, indicating its role in maritime survey and navigation support.
• Its main function is to conduct coastal and deep-water hydrographic surveys of ports, harbours, and navigational channels to aid safe navigation.
• The vessel carries advanced hydrographic and oceanographic equipment, including:
• High-resolution multi-beam echo sounder
• Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV)
• Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) and Four Survey Motor Boats (SMBs)

2. India AI Governance Guidelines: Recently, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) unveiled the India AI Governance Guidelines.

• Key Highlights: The approach focuses on promoting innovation while ensuring basic guardrails, rather than imposing strict regulations.
• The guidelines were drafted by a committee led by Balaraman Ravindran (IIT Madras).
• These guidelines are separate from the proposed IT Rules, 2021 amendment, which seeks mandatory labelling of AI-generated content on social media.
• The government clarified that there are no immediate plans to introduce a new AI law.
• The framework emphasises seven key principles for AI: Trust, People-centricity, Responsible innovation, Equity, Accountability, Understandability of large AI models, Safety, resilience, and sustainability
• Compared to the earlier draft, which prioritised risk reduction, the new guidelines shift toward enabling AI adoption without “throttling” its growth.
• The report reduces emphasis on earlier frameworks from NITI Aayog and the OECD, signaling a new direction.

3. Microbial Interactions: Recently, a study published in eLife applied statistical physics to analyze microbial interactions, drawing inspiration from disordered systems such as spin glasses.

• Key Findings: Researchers used the disordered generalized Lotka-Volterra (dgLV) model, which tracks how species’ populations change based on interaction strengths treated as random variables.
• They analyzed microbiome data from 91 healthy and 202 diseased gut samples, calibrating the model so it matched real microbial patterns.
• Results showed: Healthy gut microbiomes have strong but diverse and balanced interactions, making the system stable and resilient.
• Diseased microbiomes have weaker, less diverse, and more random interactions, leading to instability and reduced resilience.
• Diseased microbiomes were found to be closer to a critical threshold where microbial communities can tip into chaotic or unstable behavior.
• The study suggests dysbiosis is less about missing bacteria, and more about breakdown of interaction structure within the microbial network.
• This new framework shifts gut health from a composition-based view to an interaction-based

4. Financial Action Task Force (FATF): Recently, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) introduced new ‘Asset Recovery Guidance and Best Practices’ aimed at enhancing global mechanisms for recovering assets associated with financial crimes. This guidance represents one of the most significant updates in over 30 years to FATF standards on confiscation and international cooperation.

• Key Highlights: The framework covers the entire asset recovery process: identifying, tracing, freezing, managing, confiscating, and returning illicit assets.
• India played a key role in drafting the revised standards and guidance, with Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials participating in project teams, working groups, and plenary discussions.
• The guidance includes Indian case studies as global best practices, showcasing India’s increasing influence in international financial crime enforcement.
• The updated framework includes non-conviction-based confiscation, allowing authorities to recover criminal assets even without a criminal conviction when prosecution is not feasible.
• It promotes tools such as extended confiscation and unexplained wealth orders, requiring individuals to justify their assets’ legal origin.
• Countries are urged to strengthen rapid and informal cross-border cooperation
• The guidance stresses transparency, victim-centered asset return, and ensuring confiscated proceeds are used for public or victim benefit.

5. Nature Water Study: A new Nature Water study shows that agriculture in 155 countries depends on atmospheric moisture from forests in other countries, accounting for up to 40% of annual rainfall in some regions.

• Key Findings: In 105 countries, around 18% of rainfall is recycled from their own national forests.
• Globally, forest-generated moisture supports 18% of total crop production and 30% of crop exports.
• Countries are connected through transboundary moisture flows — meaning rainfall in one country often originates from forests upwind, located in another country.
• Example: Brazil’s forests supply moisture to Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia, influencing regions responsible for 10% of global crop exports.
• At the same time, Brazil imports 77% of its own crops, showing mutual interdependence — conserving forests can stabilize both climate and food supply chains.
• Ukraine’s crop production depends partly on forests in Russia; deforestation or land-use change in Russia can impact food security across Europe, Asia, and Africa.
• Major global agricultural systems most dependent on forest moisture include Brazil, Argentina, Russia, China, Canada, and Ukraine.
• Tropical forests (Brazil, Indonesia, and Democratic Republic of Congo) are especially critical, supplying high rainfall to agricultural lands and supporting 10% of global crop production.
• The study stresses that forest conservation is directly tied to global food security, crop stability, and trade resilience.

6. INS Savitri: Recently, INS Savitri arrived at Port Louis, Mauritius, as part of a Long-Range Operational Deployment in the South West Indian Ocean Region, underscoring India’s continued focus on maritime cooperation and regional security.

• About INS Savitri: An indigenously built Offshore Patrol Vessel of the Indian Navy.
• Constructed by Mazagon Dock Limited, Mumbai, it was commissioned on 7 June 1990.
• The ship operates under the Eastern Naval Command, headquartered in Visakhapatnam.
• It performs multiple operational tasks, including: Aerial surveillance, Search and Rescue (SAR) missions, Patrol and security operations
• The vessel has a top speed of 15 knots (≈30 km/h).
• Key features include: A 40×60 Bofors Naval Gun
• A helicopter deck capable of supporting Chetak

7. Vijayanagara Era Coins: Recently, over 100 gold coins from the Vijayanagara era were unearthed during restoration work at a Later Chola-period Shiva temple in Kovilur, situated in the Jawadhu Hills of Tamil Nadu’s Tiruvannamalai district.

• Key Highlights: A total of 103 punch-marked gold coins, differing in shape and size, were found in an earthen pot near the sanctum sanctorum of the temple.
• Officials from the Tamil Nadu State Archaeology Department (TNSAD) and the Revenue Department secured the discovery and moved the coins to the district treasury under the Indian Treasure Trove Act, 1878.
• The coins display the boar (Varaha) emblem, the state symbol of the Vijayanagara Empire, signifying royal authority.
• The coins are believed to date to the reigns of rulers such as Harihara II or Krishnadevaraya (14th–16th century CE).
• Each coin is estimated to be around 5 mm, composed of pure gold, and likely served as temple offerings or endowments.

8. Black Hole Morsels: Recently, a theoretical study suggested that micro–black holes, or “black hole morsels,” may form during massive black hole mergers and emit gamma-ray flashes as they evaporate, offering a possible way to detect Hawking radiation.

• About Black Hole Morsels: These are extremely small black holes, far smaller than typical stellar black holes.
• Though small, they are highly dense, and due to their size, they are much hotter and emit energy in the form of Hawking radiation.
• The concept was put forward by Giacomo Cacciapaglia and Francesco Sannino, in a study accepted for publication in Nuclear Physics B.
• How They May Form: When two massive black holes merge, the process may cause tiny, dense fragments of spacetime to “pinch off.”
• These fragments collapse into micro–black holes.
• They do not last long; they slowly evaporate, disappearing anywhere from fractions of a second to a few years, depending on their mass.

9. G2: Recently, the U.S. President indicated a move back toward the “G2” idea—a potential U.S.–China partnership to jointly influence global economic governance.

• About G2 Idea: The term was introduced by economist Fred Bergsten (2005).
• After the 2008 financial crisis, China played a major role in stabilizing global markets through large-scale stimulus spending.
• Recent years saw trade wars between the U.S. and China, but Beijing’s strong retaliatory capacity pushed Washington to shift from “decoupling” to a more moderate “de-risking”
• With Trump’s return, the U.S. appears more pragmatic, recognizing China’s indispensable economic influence—making renewed engagement under a G2 model more likely.
• Implications of a U.S.–China G2 Arrangement: Bilateral management of global issues may limit the role of other countries.
• The U.S. may downgrade its earlier strategy of promoting India as a counterweight to China.
• This could reduce India’s strategic space in global decision-making unless it proactively adapts.
• Way Forward for India: Strengthen regional diplomacy by deepening partnerships with ASEAN, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Iran, and West Asian countries.
• Use multilateral groupings—G20, BRICS+, IPEF, and QUAD—to uphold a multipolar order instead of a G2-dominated one.