News Summary · 5 minutes read
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.
Centre’s efforts against MGNREGS frauds
- Major initiatives to prevent fraud
- 2016–17: Rollout of the National Electronic Fund Management System (NeFMS) → wages credited directly from Centre to workers’ accounts, removing intermediaries.
- 2017: Introduction of Aadhaar-based Payment System (ABPS) for identity-verified wage transfer and elimination of ghost beneficiaries.
- 2021: Launch of the National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) app for real-time, geo-tagged, photo-verified attendance at worksites.
- 2023: Universal digital attendance through NMMS for almost all works and Mandatory ABPS for wage disbursal.
- 2025: Introduction of mandatory e-KYC for workers → Aadhaar-based live authentication → large-scale deletion of duplicate/fake worker entries.
- e-KYC process requires the MGNREGS supervisors to click pictures of each of the workers and upload them on NMMS to match with their Aadhaar data.
- Challenges in e-KYC compliance include poor internet connectivity, technical glitches, limited smartphone access, migration of workers, and difficulties in using the NMMS app in rural and remote areas.
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005
- Came into force in 2006 → 1st demand-driven, rights-based wage employment law in the world.
- Provides 100 days of wage employment per rural household willing to do unskilled manual work.
- Allows for an additional 50 days of work in drought- or calamity-notified rural areas, and for ST households with Forest Rights Act (FRA) land titles.
- Work must be provided within 15 days of demand, otherwise unemployment allowance is payable.
- Women participation: Aimed at one-third of workers → in practice often higher.
- Funding Pattern
- Central Government: 100% of unskilled wage cost + 75% of material cost.
- State Government: 25% of material cost + full unemployment allowance.
- Gram Panchayat is the Primary implementing agency.
- Criticisms & Challenges
- Delays in wage payments and material fund release.
- Technology barriers for workers (NMMS, ABPS failures).
- Declining real wages in some states.
- Worksite facilities (crèche, drinking water) inconsistent.
- Variability in asset quality across states.
Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Rules, 2025
This topic has already been covered HERE.
Precision biotherapeutics
- Refers to the treatment of a disease based on a person’s unique biology — their genes, proteins, and cells.
- It is personalised and targeted treatment that uses:
- Genomics/proteomics: finding the faulty gene or protein causing the disease.
- Gene editing: fixing faulty genes using tech such as CRISPR.
- mRNA/nucleic-acid therapies: giving cells instructions to make or block specific proteins.
- Monoclonal antibodies/biologics: lab-made molecules that target only the disease cells.
- AI-based drug discovery: using big data to design the right drug for the right patient.
- Opportunities for India
- Global precision medicine market is projected to exceed $22 billion by 2027.
- India’s skilled workforce, data analytics strength, and cost advantage position it as a potential hub for affordable precision therapies.
- India’s growing genomic research base, such as the IndiGen programme (launched by CSIR in 2019) and GenomeIndia (launched by Department of Biotechnology in 2020), can be leveraged to customize treatments for local genetic profiles → can shift healthcare to predictive, preventive, and personalised models.
- India’s BioE3 policy has identified precision biotherapeutics as one of the six focus areas.
- Challenges for India
- Absence of clear regulatory framework for technologies related to the gene and cell therapies.
- High cost of precision drugs → restricts access to affluent patients.
- Ethical and privacy concerns → without strict data protection and consent frameworks, genomic information could be misused.
India announces country platform for climate and nature finance
- Announcement made by India, along with 12 other countries and African Islands States Climate Commission (AISCC), at a ministerial event during COP30 (Belem, Brazil), co-hosted by Brazil and Green Climate Fund (GCF).
- Brings No. of such platforms to 16 → two already existed: Brazil Country Platform and Caribbean Regional Platform.
- Country Platforms
- Strategic, country-driven mechanisms that translate climate priorities into programmatic investment approaches → replace fragmented project approach with the coordination between different stakeholders: public, private, international, and local.
- Supported through the GCF’s Readiness and Preparatory Support Programme.
Green Climate Fund (GCF)
- Established in 2010 during COP16 to UNFCCC (Cancún) → operationalised in 2015.
- Based in Songdo, Incheon, South Korea → governed by a Board of 24 members.
- Objective: to assist developing countries with climate change adaptation and mitigation activities.
- Serves the financial mechanism of the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement.
- Faces criticism for its difficult disbursal mechanisms and limited technical support.
- UNFCCC coordinates 5 climate funds: GCF, Adaptation Fund (AF), Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF), Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF), Global Environment Facility (GEF) → GCF is the largest of these funds.
Quick Picks for Prelims (QPP)
- e-Jagriti: a unified, AI-enabled digital consumer grievance redressal platform → launched on 1 January 2025 by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.
- Siliguri Corridor (Chicken’s Neck): a stretch of land around Siliguri (West Bengal) that connects northeast India to the rest of India → 20–22 km at the narrowest section → surrounded by Nepal, Bangladesh, and Bhutan.
- India’s bilateral trade with Qatar in 2023-24 was $14.08 billion.
- Greater Noida is hosting the World Boxing Cup Finals at the Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex.
- Hungarian-British writer David Szalay’s Flesh has won the Booker Prize for 2025.
- Senkaku/Diaoyu/Diaoyutai Islands: a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, administered by Japan → disputed between Japan, China and Taiwan.
Practice: Daily Current Affairs Quiz ↗️
Read: News Summary ↗️
Subscribe: Telegram Channel ↗️
Join: Telegram Group ↗️