News Summary · 5 minutes read
Vrindavani Vastra, 17th century, British Museum. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Stay ahead in your UPSC CSE preparation with our daily News Summary. Designed to save time, it highlights key national and international events from leading newspapers and government websites.
AMRIT initiative completes 10 years
- AMRIT stands for Affordable Medicines and Reliable Implants for Treatment → launched in 2015 by Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.
- Aim: to provide life-saving branded and branded-generic medicines, implants, and medical consumables at discounts of 50–90%, mainly targeting tertiary-care patients, especially those from low-income backgrounds.
- Focuses on diseases like cancer and cardiovascular disorders.
- Govt aims to establish AMRIT Pharmacies in each medical college and district hospital across India.
Jan Aushadhi Kendras
- Launched in 2008 under the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers.
- Expanded as Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Jan Aushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP) in 2015.
- Offer high-quality generic medicines and surgical consumables at affordable prices.
Toto and Lodha languages
- UNESCO has classified Toto as critically endangered → Spoken ONLY in West Bengal.
- UNESCO has classified Lodha as endangered → Spoken primarily in West Bengal.
- Both the Lodha and Toto tribes are Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs).
Vrindavani Vastra
- A drape woven by Assamese weavers led by Mathuradas Burha Aata during the 16th century under the guidance of Srimanta Sankardeva (Vaishnavite saint in 15th–16th century Assam).
- Illustrates Lord Krishna’s childhood activities → renowned for its artistic brilliance and devotional significance.
- Parts of the original vastra are owned by Museums in London and Paris.
- Assam’s CM Himanta Biswa Sarma is expected to ink a deal with the London museum to return Vrindavani Vastra to India.
Southern elephant seal (SES)
- One of two species of elephant seals (sea elephants) → other is Northern elephant seal (NES).
- SES and NES are found mainly in the Southern Ocean and the northeastern Pacific Ocean, respectively.
- IUCN status of both the southern and northern elephant seals is Least Concern (LC).
- Recently, researchers using drone imagery observed a 47% decline in breeding females of the southern elephant seals on South Georgia Island (British overseas territory, South Atlantic Ocean) between 2022 and 2024. → most probable reason is an avian influenza.
Moore’s Law vs Eroom’s Law
- Moore’s Law: number of transistors in an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years, leading to more powerful and affordable computers → enabled rapid progress in electronics, software, and data-driven fields.
- Reflects the predictability and simplicity of physical systems in electronics.
- Eroom’s Law (Moore spelt backwards): cost and time required to develop a new drug roughly doubles every nine years, despite new technologies and research strategies.
- Reflects the unpredictable complexity of biological systems, making innovation more challenging despite technological tools.
- There is an optimism that AI, machine learning, and advanced computational methods (Moore’s Law) can eventually reverse Eroom’s Law by improving drug development efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
| Aspect | Moore’s Law | Eroom’s Law |
|---|---|---|
| Field | Computing/Electronics | Pharmaceutical R&D |
| Trend | Exponential improvement, lower costs | Exponential slowdown, higher costs |
| Main Cause | Rapid Tech Advances, Scaling | Regulatory burden, complexity, diminishing returns |
| Interval | Doubles every ~2 years (performance) | Cost doubles every ~9 years (drug development) |
| Impact | Faster, cheaper products; widespread innovation | Fewer, costlier drugs; innovation bottleneck |
Global Tuberculosis Report (TB) 2025
- Released by the World Health Organization (WHO).
- key highlights
- Globally, TB claimed over 12 lakh lives and affected over 1 crore people in 2024.
- In 2024, 87% of the world’s TB patients were concentrated in 30 countries → Max: India (25%) > Indonesia > Philippines.
- Challenges in funding and equitable access to care threaten to reverse hard-won gains in the global fight against TB.
- TB incidence in India: dropped by 21% from 237 per lakh population in 2015 to 187 per lakh population in 2024 → treatment coverage increased to 92%.
- In 2020, India renamed the Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTCP) as the National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP) and set a target to eliminate TB by 2025, five years before the global target of 2030 → India has missed this goal.
- No. of TB cases in Indian States: Uttar Pradesh > Maharashtra > Bihar > Madhya Pradesh.
- Delhi has the highest TB infection prevalence rate in India.
- Challenges for India
- High burden of drug-resistant TB.
- Weak healthcare infrastructure, especially in rural areas.
- Socio-economic disparities, affecting access to diagnosis and treatment.
- Supply chain disruptions, leading to stockouts.
- Shortage of trained personnel.
- Social stigma attached to TB.
- Refers to a situation where fake satellite signals trick GNSS receivers into calculating false position or time → mimics real signals, causing navigation errors or system disruptions.
- Threatens critical applications: aviation, military, and infrastructure.
- GNSS: a constellation of Earth-orbiting satellites that provide global positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) services to users worldwide. Four main operational GNSS systems are:
- GPS (United States)
- GLONASS (Russia)
- Galileo (European Union)
- BeiDou (China)
- India has its own regional satellite navigation system called NavIC or IRNSS → plans to expand into a global system called the Global Indian Navigation System (GINS).
Quick Picks
- 8th edition of Exercise Garuda: between Indian and French Air Forces → being held at Mont-de-Morsan (France) from 16 to 27 November 2025.
- 27th Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan: creates a new Federal Constitutional Court, strips the Supreme Court’s constitutional powers, centralizes military command under the Army Chief with lifelong privileges, and erodes provincial autonomy.
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