Recently, the International Migration Outlook 2025 report has been released by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Major Findings

• In 2023, 225 000 Indian citizens acquired the nationality of an OECD country.
• China and India continued to account for a third of all international students in OECD countries. 

Chandigarh High Court reminds Punjab State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) that it can only recommend, not issue directions like court.

About SHRC

• Statutory body formed under the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993.
• Inquires into human rights violations under the State List and Concurrent List.
• Its recommendations are advisory, not legally binding.
• Composition: A Chairperson (retired Chief Justice or Judge of a High Court) and two members. 
• Appointment of Chairpersons and Members: Appointed by the Governor on the recommendation of a committee.
• Members can be removed by the President of India.

Typhoon Kalmaegi made landfall in the central Philippines.

About Typhoon

• Typhoons are essentially tropical cyclones that originate over Western Pacific Ocean.
  • A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm that begins over tropical oceans, and they can vary in speed, size, and intensity.
• Favourable conditions for tropical cyclones include warm ocean waters, atmosphere cooling fast with height, relatively moist air, pre-existing near-surface disturbance etc. 
• Other names for Tropical Cyclones include:
  • Hurricane in Atlantic Ocean and Northeast and South Pacific Ocean. 
  • Cyclones in the Indian Ocean, 
  • Willy-willies in the Western Australia.

Bangladesh became the eighth country in the world to introduce the Typhoid Conjugate Vaccine (TCV).

About Typhoid Conjugate Vaccine:

• It is a single-dose, injectable vaccine that protects against typhoid fever by triggering the body to produce antibodies against the Salmonella Typhi bacterium.
  • Eg- Typbar TCV (manufactured by Bharat Biotech).

About Typhoid

• Caused by: Bacterium Salmonella Typhi.
• Spread through: Contaminated food or water.
• Symptoms include: prolonged high fever, fatigue, headache, nausea, abdominal pain, and constipation or diarrhoea.

Maldives becomes thde first country to impose a generational ban on tobacco.

About Generational Ban

• Generational Tobacco Ban, or Lifetime Tobacco Ban, refers to a policy that permanently prohibits the sale of cigarettes or other tobacco products to anyone born after a specified date—meaning they can never legally purchase tobacco at any age.
• Other measures used for tobacco control: monitoring use, warning about harms, banning advertising, raising taxes, stopping illicit trade, and regulating new nicotine products.

Status of Tobacco consumption: 

• Status: Around 80% of the world's 1.3 billion tobacco users live in low- and middle-income countries.
• Forms of Tobacco Use includes cigarette smoking, waterpipe tobacco, cigars, heated tobacco, roll-your-own tobacco, pipe tobacco,smokeless tobacco products,etc.
• Steps Taken: 
  • WHO Member States adopted the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) in 2003. Currently 183 countries are Parties to this treaty.

Real Estate is now the single largest recipient of AIF capital in India.

About Alternative Investment Fund (AIF)

• AIF means any fund established or incorporated in India which is a privately pooled investment vehicle which collects funds from sophisticated investors, whether Indian or foreign, for investing it in accordance with a defined investment policy for the benefit of its investors. 
• It can be set up in the form of a trust or a company or a limited liability partnership or a body corporate
• Regulated by: Securities and Exchange Board of India
• Types:
  • Category I - Investments in Startups & Social Ventures. 
    • E.g: Venture Capital Funds (VCFs), SME Funds, Social Venture Funds, Infrastructure Funds
  • Category II - which do not fall in Category I and III and which do not undertake leverage or borrowing other than to meet day-to-day operational requirements
    • E.g: Real Estate, Private Equity Funds, funds for distressed assets
  • Category III - employ diverse or complex trading strategies and may employ leverage including through investment in listed or unlisted derivatives
    • E.g: Hedge Funds, Private Investment in Public Equity (PIPE) Funds

Note: AIF does not include funds covered under the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996, SEBI (Collective Investment Schemes) Regulations, 1999 or any other regulations of the Board to regulate fund management activities.

Mussels reveal growing microplastic pollution in Greece’s seas.

About Mussels

• Mussels are bivalve mollusks characterized by a blue–black shell that lives attached to surfaces in marine environments. 
  • The molluscs include many familiar animals, including clams, snails, slugs, squid, tusk shells and chitons.
• These are filter-feeding organisms that absorb a range of contaminants into their tissue, including invisible microplastics.
• They are known for their efficient feeding, higher protein content compared to oysters.
• They have been used globally for decades as a barometer of marine pollution.

Comet 3I/ATLAS has been found to contain water, marking a significant discovery in understanding cometary evolution.

About 3I/ATLAS  

• Comet 3I/ATLAS is the third known object from outside our solar system to be discovered passing through our celestial neighborhood. 
  • Other two are 1I/ʻOumuamua seen in 2017 and 2I/Borisov seen in 2019.
• Astronomers have categorized this object as interstellar because of the hyperbolic shape of its orbital path. (It does not follow a closed orbital path about the Sun.) 
• It was first spotted by NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescope in Río Hurtado, Chile.