Department of Consumer Affairs, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, has notified the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Amendment Rules, 2025.

About the Amendment Rules 2025

• Introduces specific provisions for packages containing medical devices, aligning the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011 with the Medical Devices Rules, 2017.
• It provides that while requirement to make mandatory declarations remains, the specific font size and dimensional standards prescribed under Medical Devices Rules shall apply instead of those under Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules.
• It aims to ensure regulatory harmony, reduce compliance ambiguity, and enhance consumer protection in the healthcare sector.

Researchers identified 5 carbon-rich compounds surrounding a nascent star called ST6 in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC).

• The discovery could illuminate how life’s building blocks formed in the universe’s infancy.

About Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC)

• It is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, floats in space nearly 200,000 light-years from Earth.
• This dwarf galaxy looms large on the southern nighttime sky at 20 times the apparent diameter of the full Moon.
• Vast clouds of gas within it slowly collapse to form new stars. 

The Supreme Court(SC) has recently clarified the ‘Doctrine of Merger’ not of rigid & universal application.

Doctrine of Merger

• Rationale: there cannot be more than one operative decree at a given point of time. 
• Application: It applies irrespective of whether the appellate court has affirmed, modified or reversed the decree of the trial court. 
  • It means that after a higher court gives its verdict, the lower court’s decision becomes part of that ruling and is no longer treated as a standalone judgment.
• Purpose and Benefits: maintenance of the decorum of the hierarchy of courts and tribunals, ensures finality in judicial decisions
• In State of Madras v. Madurai Mills Co. Ltd., SC  held that the doctrine of merger applies depending on the nature of the appellate or revisional order and the scope of the statutory provisions granting such jurisdiction.

The Cabinet Secretary chaired a meeting of the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) in regard to cyclones in Bay of Bengal.

About NCMC

• Has been given statutory status under The Disaster Management Act (Amendment) Act, 2025.
• Status: Nodal statutory body to deal with the major disasters which have serious or national ramifications.
• Members: Cabinet Secretary as Chairperson and such other members as may be notified by the Central Government.
• Powers and Functions
  • Can evaluate preparedness for any disaster or emergency situation.
  • Coordinates and monitors national disaster response efforts.

Climate Inequality Report 2025 is was recently released by World Inequality Lab.

Key Findings

• Disproportionate Emissions from Wealth Ownership: Top 1% contributes 15% of global consumption-based emissions but 41% of emissions arising from private capital ownership.
• Extreme Emission Inequality: Per capita emissions of the top 1% are 75 times higher than those of the bottom 50% by consumption.
• Concentration of Industrial Emissions: Around 100 companies are responsible for 71% of industrial GHG emissions.

Google achieved a verifiable quantum advantage, proving its quantum processor “Willow” outperforms the fastest supercomputers.

• The team detected faint “echoes” of scrambled data, proving information retention through entanglement.

About Quantum information Scrambling

• Definition: It refers to the rapid spread of information across a quantum system, making it inaccessible to local measurements.
• Mechanism: It distributes quantum data among particles through entanglement, hiding information globally rather than erasing it.
  • Analogy: Like a drop of dye dispersing in water, information initially stored in one qubit gets distributed among many qubits.
• Significance: Demonstrates a verifiable quantum advantage and enhances understanding of quantum technologies

Key Findings

• Finance Gap: Developing nations face an adaptation shortfall of $310–365 billion/year by the mid-2030s.
  • Current Funding: Global adaptation finance is only $26 billion, far below needs.
• Implementation Lag: Most nations have plans, but execution and quality remain weak.
• Urgent Action: Calls for a major scale-up in finance, innovative tools, and stronger resilience planning.
• India’s Scenario: India has advanced its National Adaptation Fund and State Action Plans, but remains highly vulnerable to heat stress, erratic monsoons, and coastal flooding.