03^rd January 2026

1. Galaxy Frogs: Recently, seven galaxy frogs (Melanobatrachus indicus) are presumed to have died due to disturbances caused by photo tourism.

• About Galaxy Frogs: Species is among the world’s rarest amphibians, endemic to Kerala’s Western Ghats.

• Galaxy frogs are 2–3.5 cm long, silent, and believed to communicate via skin patterns.

• Listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN.

• Live exclusively under rotten logs, requiring precise temperature and humidity

• Traditional threats include forest conversion, firewood collection, and landslides.

• Photographers disturbed the habitat by overturning logs and trampling vegetation.

• Handling and flash exposure can dry frog skin, disrupt respiration, and transfer pathogens.

• Human presence may also interfere with breeding behaviour.

• Study calls for ethical wildlife photography standards, including: No capturing, handling or chasing animals

• Minimal use of intense lighting and use of diffusers

• Avoiding disturbance to microhabitats

• Suggests training of tour operators and guides by forest and tourism departments.

2. Interventions for MSME Exporters: Recently, the Government of India has launched two major financial interventions for MSME exporters under the Niryat Protsahan sub-scheme of the Export Promotion Mission.

• Key Highlights:

• First Intervention: Interest Subvention on Export Credit

• Interest support for pre- and post-shipment rupee export credit for MSMEs.

• Objective: Reduce cost of export credit and ease working capital constraints.

• Focus on sectors with high MSME participation, labour intensity, capital intensity, and value addition.

• Excludes restricted/prohibited items, waste & scrap, and overlapping incentive products.

• Interest rates to be reviewed bi-annually (March & September).

• Second Intervention: Collateral Guarantee for Export Credit

• Introduced to address collateral constraints faced by MSME exporters.

• Guarantee coverage: Up to 85% for micro & small exporters and up to 65% for medium exporters

• Designed to complement existing credit guarantee schemes and boost bank lending.

3. Methane Emissions: Recently, lowering methane emissions in paddy fields offers Indian rice farmers an opportunity to earn extra income through carbon credit markets.

• Key Highlights: India has 86% small and marginal farmers, making low-cost, low-effort climate practices crucial.

• Traditional paddy cultivation involves continuous flooding for ~65 days to suppress weeds.

• Flooded, anaerobic soils promote methane-producing microbes, increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

• Methane has 28× higher global warming potential than CO₂ over 100 years.

• Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) is a climate-smart alternative to continuous flooding.

• Under AWD, fields are periodically dried and re-flooded to disrupt methane formation.

• Uses direct methane measurement, geo-tagging, satellite imagery, and lab verification.

• Carbon credit buyers include data centres, airlines, and energy-intensive industries.

• Good Rice Alliance (Bayer, Shell Energy India, GenZero) also promoting AWD and direct seeding.

• Alliance covers 12,000+ farmers, 35,000 ha, 120,000 t CO₂e reduction annually.

• India being the world’s largest rice producer and exporter strengthens scalability of this model.

4. Bulgaria: Recently, Bulgaria officially adopted the euro, becoming the 21st member of the eurozone and phasing out its national currency, the Bulgarian lev.

• About Bulgaria: A Balkan country in southeastern Europe.

• Member of the European Union since 2007 and NATO since 2004.

• Adopted the euro after meeting the EU convergence (Maastricht) criteria.

• The Bulgarian lev, in circulation since 1881, has been replaced by the euro.

  • Location: Situated in the eastern Balkan Peninsula, at the crossroads of Europe, the Black Sea region, and West Asia.

• Shares borders with Romania, Greece, Turkey, Serbia, North Macedonia, and has a Black Sea coastline.

• About the Eurozone: Comprises EU member states that use the euro (€) as their official currency and operate under a common monetary policy.

• Key Features: Single common currency across member states.

• European Central Bank (ECB) formulates and implements unified monetary policy.

• Supports free movement of goods, services, capital, and labour.

• Member states have representation in the ECB Governing Council.Top of FormBottom of Form

5. Sirkeer Malkoha: Recently, the rare Sirkeer Malkoha (Taccocua leschenaultii) was recorded for the first time in Uttarkashi district, indicating a notable range extension.

• About Sirkeer Malkoha: Also known as the Sirkeer Cuckoo, belongs to the cuckoo family. Unlike many cuckoos, it does not practice brood parasitism and raises its own chicks.

• Distribution: Widely found across the sub-Himalayan Indian subcontinent, including Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, with scattered presence in Pakistan and Rajasthan.

• Habitat: Prefers scrublands and open, thin forests, commonly in hilly areas, generally below 1,500 metres altitude.

• Conservation status: Listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.

  • Key Features: Medium-sized bird measuring 42–44 cm in length.

• Characterised by a long tail and olive-brown upper plumage.

• Distinctive curved red beak with a yellow tip.

• Grey legs and a generally shy, quiet nature.

• Males and females look alike.

• Possesses zygodactyl feet (two toes forward, two backward), aiding in gripping branches and ground movement.

• Diet: Feeds on insects, small lizards, berries, and seeds.

6. e-Bill System: Recently, the Union Government introduced an integrated e-Bill System to digitally manage fertiliser subsidy payments amounting to nearly ₹2 lakh crore.

• About e-Bill System: A comprehensive digital platform that enables end-to-end submission, processing, tracking, and payment of fertiliser subsidy bills, replacing the earlier manual and paper-based system.

• Nodal Ministry: Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers

  • Objectives: Ensure timely, transparent, and accountable release of fertiliser subsidies.

• Improve financial discipline, auditability, and administrative efficiency through digital governance.

• Key Features: Removes physical handling of bills and manual intervention.

• Fertiliser companies can submit claims digitally and monitor payment status in real time.

• Verifies claims against predefined norms and ensures compliance.

• Records all actions to enable transparency and effective audits.

• Ensures predictable, uniform, and rule-based bill clearance.

• Enables timely weekly disbursal of fertiliser subsidies.

• Significance: Strengthens transparency and accountability in managing one of India’s largest subsidy programmes.

• Minimises fraud, delays, and discretionary decision-making through automation.

7. Asteroid Bennu: Recently, NASA’s research on asteroid Bennu revealed the presence of basic building blocks of life, reinforcing the theory that asteroids may have delivered life’s ingredients to early Earth.

• Key Highlights: Detected compounds include amino acids, ribose (RNA sugar), glucose (metabolic sugar), and all five nucleobases of DNA and RNA.

• Ribose and glucose are the first large (6-carbon) sugar molecules ever found on an asteroid.

• Their formation likely required liquid brine, suitable pH, extremely low temperatures, and protected internal pockets on the asteroid.

• Findings strongly support the RNA World Hypothesis, suggesting early life relied on RNA before DNA and proteins evolved.

• A Nature Astronomy study found nitrogen- and oxygen-rich polymer molecules (carbamates) on Bennu.

• These polymers were likely soft and gummy when formed, later hardening over time.

• Such long polymer chains had never before been observed in asteroid samples.

• Bennu samples contain an unusually high amount of presolar grains formed before the Sun.

• Presolar grain concentration is at least six times higher than in other asteroid or meteorite samples.

• Many grains originated from supernova explosions, indicating Bennu’s parent body formed in a region rich in supernova material.

• Evidence suggests liquid movement on Bennu disturbed and redistributed these grains.

8. Sudarshan Chakra: Recently, the Defence Minister officially announced that the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will lead the Sudarshan Chakra air defence initiative.

• About Mission Sudarshan Chakra: A national security mission aimed at creating a fully indigenous, AI-driven, multi-layered air defence system for India by 2035.

• Designed as a hybrid framework, functioning both as a defensive shield and an offensive deterrent, marking a shift from passive defence to active deterrence.

• Incorporates Artificial Intelligence and Big Data for real-time threat assessment, automated target allocation, and predictive interception.

• Built on a layered architecture comprising: Outer layer: Space-based, long-range surveillance and detection

  • Middle layer: Missile-based interception systems

  • Inner layer: Point defence using directed-energy lasers and anti-drone technologies

• Features robust cyber warfare protection, safeguarding power grids, communication networks, and command-and-control systems.

• Operates as an integrated network, linking systems like the Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS), Akashteer, Trigun, and Project Kusha.

9. Drinking Water Contamination: Recently, drinking water contamination in Indore’s Bhagirathpura area caused fatalities and widespread illness, tarnishing the city’s reputation as one of India’s cleanest.

• Key Highlights: Cause: Mixing of sewage water with drinking water pipelines.

• Health Department report confirmed contaminated water; cholera-like bacteria suspected.

• Tap water is generally not potable without purification (alum/chlorine), supplied once every two days.

• CAG Report (2019) flagged serious flaws in water management in Indore and Bhopal. Despite findings, no corrective action taken.

• Key CAG Findings: 4,481 water samples unfit for drinking (2013–18).

• 45 lakh cases of waterborne diseases reported in the period.

• Overhead tanks not regularly cleaned; lack of water audits.

• Experts termed pipeline contamination as “criminal negligence”.

• Activists warn unchecked urbanisation is increasing public health risks.
• Incident seen as a symptom of systemic failure in urban water governance.