20^th January 2026

1. Lokayan-26: Recently, the Indian Navy has announced the launch of Lokayan-26, a landmark transoceanic sailing expedition, as INS Sudarshini begins a 10-month voyage across the globe.

• About Lokayan-26: The flagship sail training and outreach expedition of the Indian Navy, designed to showcase India’s maritime heritage while strengthening global naval partnerships through traditional seamanship.

• Key Features: Duration: 10 months and Outreach: 18 ports across 13 countries

• Theme: Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam — the world as one family, across oceans

• About INS Sudarshin: An indigenously built Sail Training Ship (STS) of the Indian Navy. It was constructed by Goa Shipyard Limited and is based at Kochi under the Southern Naval Command.

• The ship was commissioned on 27 January 2012.

• A three-masted barque, capable of operating under both sail and engine power.

• It has high endurance and can remain continuously deployed at sea for up to twenty days.

• It will represent India at globally renowned maritime festivals:

• Escale à Sète, France – celebrating traditional sailing culture

• SAIL 250, New York (USA) – marking 250 years of American maritime heritage

2. Responsible Nations Index (RNI): Recently, India has taken a pioneering step by launching the Responsible Nations Index (RNI), which emphasizes responsibility over raw power in evaluating global governance.

• About RNI: It is a global evaluative framework that ranks countries based on how responsibly they govern, care for society, protect the environment, and contribute to global stability—moving beyond GDP- and power-centric indicators.

• Key Message: Ethical governance, inclusivity, and moral responsibility are foundational to sustainable national and global progress.

• The Index evaluates nations on four broad pillars:

• Ethical Governance – integrity, transparency, institutional trust

• Social Well-being – inclusiveness, human development, equity

• Environmental Stewardship – sustainability and ecological responsibility

• Global Responsibility – peace-building, cooperation, humanitarian conduct

• Top Performers: Singapore. Switzerland, Denmark, Cyprus and Sweden

• India: Rank: 16 and Overall Score:5515

• India’s position reflects its balanced performance in ethical governance, social responsibility, and global engagement, while indicating scope for further improvement.

3. Nivolumab: Recently, in a landmark ruling balancing patent rights and public health, the Delhi High Court cleared the way for a much cheaper biosimilar version of the cancer drug Nivolumab in India.

• About Nivolumab: A monoclonal antibody–based immunotherapy drug used to treat multiple cancers, including: Lung cancer, Renal cancer, Head and neck cancers, Melanoma, Urothelial, oesophageal, and gastric cancers

• It works by enhancing the body’s immune response to identify and destroy cancer cells, unlike chemotherapy which damages both cancerous and healthy cells.

• Immunotherapy Advantage: Targeted action, better quality of life, improved survival outcomes, Effective across early, advanced, and metastatic stages.

• The drug belongs to the same class as Pembrolizumab (Keytruda), which has similarly reshaped global oncology practice.

• About biosimilar: A near-identical version of a biological drug, manufactured after the original patent expires, offering:

• Comparable safety, efficacy and substantially lower cost

4. Indian Skimmer: Recently, the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), in collaboration with the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), launched a dedicated conservation initiative to protect the endangered Indian Skimmer, a flagship indicator of healthy river ecosystems.

• About Indian Skimmer: One of the three species under the skimmer genus Rynchops, belonging to the gull family Laridae. It is a bird species native to South Asia and is best known for its unusual feeding behaviour.

• The bird derives its name from its distinctive hunting technique. It flies just above the water surface, dipping its elongated lower beak into the water to “skim” and snap up small fish and aquatic organisms.

• Geographical Distribution: The species is primarily distributed across India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, with smaller populations reported from Nepal and Myanmar. In India, the Chambal River is regarded as one of the most important habitats and a major site for observing this bird.

• Physical Characteristics: Average length: 40–43 cm

• Plumage: Black upperparts with a contrasting white underside

• Beak: Bright orange, with a uniquely elongated lower mandible that extends beyond the upper one

• Wings: Long, narrow, and sharply angled, enabling swift and controlled flight

5. New State of Matter: Recently, scientists have challenged long-held ideas in physics by identifying a new state of matter that behaves like both a solid and a liquid at the same time.

• Key Findings: The material is not a macroscopic mixture like a gel or slush, but a single nanoparticle containing both solid-like and liquid-like regions simultaneously.

• In this hybrid state, different parts of the same nanoparticle exist in different physical phases at the atomic scale.

• As a result, the nanoparticle exhibits properties of both solids and liquids, along with novel behaviours absent in either phase alone.

• Researchers focused on understanding the solid–liquid phase boundary at the nanoscale, where conventional rules begin to blur.

• Using high-resolution transmission electron (HRTE) microscopy, scientists observed platinum, palladium, and gold nanoparticles placed on graphene.

• The findings show that solid and liquid phases at the nanoscale are not sharply separated, redefining phase transition understanding.

• A key novel property observed was the ability of nanoparticles to stay liquid far below their normal freezing point.

• The research has major implications for heterogeneous catalysis, especially platinum-on-carbon catalysts. Such catalysts are widely used in fuel cells, hydrogen vehicles, pharmaceutical synthesis, petrochemicals, and pollution control.

6. Reserve Bank of India: Recently, the Reserve Bank of India proposed placing the interlinking of Central Bank Digital Currencies of BRICS nations on the summit agenda.

• Key Highlights: The Reserve Bank of India has advised the Indian government to push for a proposal at the 2026 BRICS summit to connect the official digital currencies of BRICS members.

• Objective: Enable faster and cheaper cross-border trade and tourism payments

• Reduce dependence on S. dollar-centric payment systems

• Enhance the global usage of the Indian digital rupee (e-₹)

• It would allow real-time settlement of transactions, particularly benefiting trade finance and international tourism.

• The proposal advances BRICS goals of interoperable payment systems across member countries.

• It also reinforces efforts to make cross-border financial transactions faster, cheaper, and more efficient.

7. Sacred Groves: Recently, a scientific study warned that sacred groves in the northern Western Ghats face the highest human disturbance despite their protected status.

• About Sacred groves: Traditionally protected forest patches, conserved through local beliefs, taboos, and nature worship, often outside formal state protection systems. They represent one of India’s oldest community-based conservation models.

• The research focuses on the Northern Western Ghats and Konkan region, extending about 750 km between the Tapti River and the Kali River.

• This is the first comprehensive study comparing sacred groves, reserve forests, protected areas, and private forests within a single landscape.

• Human pressure was measured using a Combined Disturbance Index, which was highest in sacred groves, followed by private forests, reserve forests, and lowest in protected areas.

• Major disturbances include cutting, branch lopping, fire, grazing, construction activities, pathways, tourism, religious festivals, and road proximity.

• Across all forest types, researchers recorded 3,360 woody plants belonging to 148 species, 118 genera, and 43 families. Nearly half of the plant species were common to all four forest protection regimes, indicating shared species composition.

• Despite heavy disturbance, sacred groves continue to support old-growth forests, large mature trees, and endemic species of high ecological value.

8. Greenland: Recently, signals from the Trump administration about a possible US takeover of Greenland have raised concerns over strain within NATO and growing global tensions.

• About Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat): The world’s largest island, enjoying wide internal autonomy while remaining within the Kingdom of Denmark. Situated in the North Atlantic and Arctic regions, largely inside the Arctic Circle, between North America and Europe.

• Key geological features: Greenland Ice Sheet: Covers nearly 80% of the island, second only to Antarctica, and a vital marker of climate change.

• Ancient shield rocks: Part of the Canadian Shield, dominated by Precambrian formations.

• Fjords and glaciers: Rugged coastline with major outlet glaciers like Jakobshavn Glacier.

• Resource potential: Rich in rare earth elements, critical minerals, and hydrocarbons.

• NATO at Risk: Any US military move into Greenland would undermine the core principles of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

• NATO’s credibility rests on Article 5, which assumes defence against external threats, not internal violations.

• Action by the US against Denmark’s territorial administration would create a crisis beyond NATO’s design.

• Such a scenario would expose a serious institutional gap in managing intra-alliance conflict.

9. Tamil Nadu Assured Pension Scheme (TAPS): Recently, the Tamil Nadu government launched the Assured Pension Scheme (TAPS), combining the income certainty of the Old Pension Scheme with the sustainability of the New Pension Scheme.

• About TAPS: A restructured pension system for Tamil Nadu government employees that guarantees a defined pension while retaining contributory elements similar to NPS.

• It replaces the 23-year-old contributory pension framework introduced after 2003.

• Who Will Benefit: Applicable to state government employees recruited on or after April 1, 2003

• Covers employees currently under the New Pension Scheme (NPS)

• Existing OPS beneficiaries remain unaffected

• Key Features: TAPS assures employees a fixed monthly pension after retirement, eliminating market-related uncertainty seen in pure NPS.

• The pension amount is linked to Dearness Allowance (DA), ensuring inflation protection on the lines of OPS.

• Retirement gratuity benefits are restored, bringing back a key element of defined-benefit pension systems.
• TAPS functions as an OPS–NPS hybrid, combining pension certainty and social security with contribution-based financial discipline.