News Summary: 18 April 2025

📝 Prison Conditions in India[1]

🚀 Highlighted by the recently released India Justice Report 2025.

🚀 Indian jails are overcrowded ⇒ National average occupancy rate is over 131%.

🚀 There are only 25 psychologists available to assist all the prisoners.

🚀 43% vacancy among medical officers ⇒ India’s prisoner-doctor ratio is 775.

💡Model Prison Manual (2016): Benchmarks the prisoner-doctor ratio at 300 and the prisoner-psychologist/psychiatrist ratio at 500.

🚀 Health data on prisoners related to disability is not available.

📝 V2G technology[2]

🚀 Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology: Enables electric vehicle (EV) batteries to send power back to the grid ⇒ When an EV is not in use, it can act as a decentralised battery energy storage device.

👉🏽 Other possibilities: Vehicle to Home (V2H), Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) etc.


🚀 The Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) and IIT Bombay have initiated a pilot project to explore the implementation of V2G technology.

📝 World Heritage Day[3]

🚀 Celebrated every year on 18th April ⇒ Started in 1982 by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS)UNESCO officially adopted it in 1983.

👉🏽 2025’s theme: Heritage under Threat from Disasters and Conflicts: Preparedness and Learning from 60 years of ICOMOS Actions.

💡India has 43 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, with Agra Fort, Taj Mahal, Ajanta, and Ellora Caves among the first listed in 1983.

💡World Heritage Convention: Adopted by UNESCO in 1972 ⇒ Joined by 196 countries ⇒ Adopted by India in 1977.

📝 Bhagvad Gita and Natyashastra[4]

🚀 Inscribed in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register.

👉🏽 Bhagavad Gita: Philosophical dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna comprising 700 verses across 18 chapters.

👉🏽 Natyashastra: Foundational treatise by Bharat Muni on Indian performing arts, encompassing theatre, dance, and music.

💡India now has 14 entries in this register.

📝 India’s Electronics Sector[5]

🚀 Manufacturing: Increased 5 times to ₹11 lakh crore in the last 10 years.

🚀 Exports: Increased 6 times in the last 10 years ⇒ Crossed ₹3,25,000 crore.  

🚀 Employment: Nearly 25 lakh persons.

📝 Axiom Mission 4[6][7]

🚀 A planned private spaceflight to the International Space Station (ISS) operated by Axiom Space in partnership with SpaceX and NASA.

👉🏽 It will use a SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket to place Crew Dragon C213 into low Earth orbit.

🚀 4 crew members: Commander Peggy Whitson (Axiom, USA), Pilot Shubhanshu Shukla (ISRO), Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski (Poland), and Tibor Kapu (Hungary).

👉🏽 It will mark the visit of the 1st Indian ever to the ISS and the 1st Indian astronaut to travel to Space in over 4 decades after Rakesh Sharma’s iconic 1984 flight aboard a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft.

📝 Miscellaneous[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]

🚀 Andhra Pradesh has promulgated an ordinance to subcategorise the SCs.

🚀 K2-18b: Discovered by the Kepler telescope in 2015 ⇒ Recent observations from the James Webb Space Telescope suggest it may be habitable.

🚀 Russia has removed the Taliban’s designation as a “terrorist organisation.”

🚀 Golden Dome: A proposed missile defence shield for the USA.

🚀 Mahila Samvad Campaign: Launched by Bihar to receive feedback about the women empowerment schemes.

🚀 Hind Di Chadar: Epithet of Guru Tegh Bahadur (9th Guru).

🚀 Sanskriti Ka Panchva Adhyay:  A compilation of speeches delivered by PM Modi ⇒ Launched by Juna Akhara head Acharya Mahamandaleshwar Swami Avdheshanand Giri.

Citations

Explore Daily News Summary HERE

Join our Telegram channel HERE

Join our Telegram (Pre) group HERE

Join our Telegram (Mains) group HERE

Scroll to Top