The Global EV Outlook 2025, released by the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Key Findings

• EV Share: Over 1 in 4 cars sold globally in 2024 was electric.
  • China, leads with nearly 50% of global EV car sales.
• Asia and Latin America (notably Thailand, Vietnam, and Brazil) are emerging as new EV growth hubs.
• Projection: Despite uncertainties, EVs are expected to reach over 40% share of global car sales.
• Manufacturing: ​​China remains the global EV production leader, contributing > 70% of total output.
• 2 & 3-Wheelers: Most electrified transport segment in 2024.
  • India, leads global growth in electric three-wheelers (~20% YoY growth in2024), aided by PM E-DRIVE.

Scientists have discovered a small three-eyed predator called Mosura fentoni, nicknamed as “sea moth”, which lived in the ocean about 506 million years ago.

About Mosura fentoni

• It belonged to an ancient group of sea creatures called radiodonts, which are related to today’s insects, spiders and crabs. 
• It had jointed claws like insects or crabs.
• Fossils show it had a unique body part with 16 segments and gills, helping it breathe better.
• Size: Only about the size of a human finger.
• Significance: Scientists can understand how these sea animals evolved from simple, worm-like bodies to more complex forms.

Many traditional folk art forms like Tholu Bommalata, Jamukula Pata, and Tappeta Gullu are vanishing due to loss of patronage.

Key Folk Arts of Andhra Pradesh

• Tholu Bommalata: 3rd-century shadow puppetry art, depicting Hindu epics through music, storytelling, and acrobatics by wandering performers.
• Jamukula Pata: It is performed by three artistes:  one patakudu (singer) with a chorus given by two persons in villages and entertained people from downtrodden communities.  
• Tappeta gullu: Traditional devotional dance form performed by shepherds to appease the rain god and Gangamma. The artistes, wearing ankle bells, play a small drum tied to their chest as they dance to devotional songs.
• Puli Veshalu: Performed by a group of artists painted like tigers moving their bodies rhythmically in this art form.  It is a famous folk art form of Vizianagaram. 

New Caledonia, a French Pacific territory under the 1998 Nouméa Accord, faces renewed unrest after May 2024 riots over electoral roll changes and the collapse of political talks.

• Despite the rejection of independence in all three referendums (2018, 2020, and 2021), pro-independence demands by indigenous Kanak people remain strong.

About New Caledonia

• It is a French collectivity in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, east of Australia.
• It includes the island of New Caledonia, where the capital, Noumea, is located; the Loyalty Islands; the Bélep Islands; and the Île des Pins.
• New Caledonia’s lagoons, with their diverse reefs and associated ecosystems, were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2008.

A new study reveals that Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a common hospital bacterium in India, can degrade medical-grade plastic, materials used in sutures and implants. 

• Scientists isolated the enzyme Pap1 from a strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and the enzyme degraded 78% of a plastic sample in just seven days.

About Pseudomonas aeruginosa

• Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a bacteria known for causing 10%-30% of hospital-acquired infections in India.
• These bacteria are commonly found in the environment, like in soil and water.
• It can cause infections in the blood, lungs (pneumonia), urinary tract or other parts of the body after surgery.
• It uses plastic as its only food source.

Researchers have predicted where DNA sequences might form alternative structures beyond the traditional double helix. These alternative conformations, known as non-B DNA.

• It refers to any DNA structure that deviates from the standard right-handed double helix (B-DNA) and include structures such as cruciforms, slipped structures, triplexes, G-quadruplexes, Z-DNA etc.
• Non-B DNA have been linked to the regulation of cellular processes and genome evolution and has been associated with genetic diseases and cancer.
• It has higher mutation rates and instability, potentially causing DNA breakpoints and chromosomal rearrangements linked to evolution and genetic disorders.
• It is  associated with genetic diseases and cancer.

US FDA approves Novavax’s protein-based COVID vaccine called Nuvaxovid.

About Protein-based vaccines

• These are a type of subunit vaccines that also includes polysaccharide vaccines and conjugate vaccines.
• They contain carefully identified protein fragments of a virus, chosen for their ability to stimulate your immune system.
  • These are often combined with another substance that helps to increase the immune system response to the protein fragments, called an adjuvant.
• Protein fragments by themselves are harmless and incapable of causing disease; they have no function on their own.

In exercise of powers under Foreign Trade (Development & Regulation) Act, 1992, Central Government restricted import of readymade garments from Bangladesh to India through Land Ports. 

About Land port

• Land port means an area on the international borders of India with facilities for clearance and transport of passengers and goods.
• Established as a statutory body under the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Land Ports Authority of India is entrusted with the task of building land ports.
• There are currently Fifteen Land ports in India at Attari, Agartala, Darranga, Petrapole etc.

California's Tulare Lake, which disappeared earlier, reemerged after 130 Years as a result of 2023’s atmospheric rivers over California. 

About Tulare Lake

• Location: San Joaquin Valley, California, USA. 
• It was once the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River.
• Kern River, fed by snowmelt from the southern Sierra replenishes Tulare Lake.
• It disappeared due to man-made irrigation.
• Tachi Yokut tribe relied on the lake as rainfall is scarce in the region.