In the category of best state, Maharashtra has been ranked 1st, followed by Gujarat and Haryana under 6th National Water Awards (2024).

National Water Awards

• Instituted by: By Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Ministry of Jal Shakti
• Aim: To create awareness among people about importance of water and motivate them to adopt the best water usage practices.
• Presented in 10 categories: Best State, Best District, Best Village Panchayat, Best Urban Local Body, Best School or College, Best Industry, Best Water User Association, Best Institution (other than school or college), Best Civil Society and Best individual.

As per some economists, Inflation rate in India has fallen low due to various reasons including a highly favourable base effect.

About Base effect

• Definition: The base effect refers to the impact of the reference point (base year/month/data point) used for comparison on the outcome of ratio or percentage-based indicators.
• It can distort trends if the base period had abnormally high or low values.
• Uses: To calculate Inflation data (CPI/WPI), GDP growth rates, etc.

Recently, CCPI) was released which compares climate performance of 63 countries and the EU, which together account for over 90% of global GHG emissions

About Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI)

• Published by: Germanwatch, NewClimate Institute & Climate Action Network (CAN).
• Ranking
  • None of the countries are in the top 3.
  • Denmark: 4th, followed by UK & Morocco
• It measures climate mitigation performance in four categories of GHG Emissions, Renewable Energy, Energy Use and Climate Policy.

Findings for India

• India ranks 23rd, going from a high performer to a medium one in this year’s CCPI.
• There is no national coal exit timeline and new coal blocks continue to be auctioned.
• Key demands: time-bound coal phase-down and eventually a phase-out and redirecting fossil subsidies toward decentralised, community-owned renewable energy

A technical outage at Cloudflare, triggered by a latent bug in its bot-mitigation system, led to significant global service disruptions, affecting platforms such as X and ChatGPT.

About Bot-Mitigation System

• Bot mitigation is the task of blocking bad bots or botnet activity from accessing websites, servers, or IT ecosystems.
  • Bots are automated programs, some aid tasks like indexing, while others steal data, spread spam, or trigger Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks.
•  Techniques: Relies on behaviour patterns, IP checks, CAPTCHA, and ML tools.

The Union Minister of Commerce and Industry inaugurated the Trade Intelligence and Analytics Portal.

Trade Intelligence and Analytics Portal

• Objective: To deliver transparent, accessible trade intelligence that supports businesses and strengthens evidence-based policymaking.

Key Features.

• FTA Utilization: Improves the effective use of trade agreements by exporters
• Country and commodity intelligence tools help identify focus products for each market.
• Efficiency: Replaces old fragmented portals with a unified, scalable system.
• Empowerment: Helps small and remote businesses access clear market insights

India has been re-elected to the Codex Executive Committee for the Asia region at the 48th Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC48).

About Codex Alimentarius Commission

• Genesis: Intergovernmental body established jointly by the FAO and WHO in 1963.
• Objective: Protecting consumer’s health and ensuring fair practices in the food trade.
• Membership: Open to all Member Nations and Associate Members of FAO and WHO interested in international food standards.
  • Current Members: 189 (188 Member Countries(Including India) and 1 Organization i.e. EU).
• Meetings: Convenes annually, with sessions alternating between Geneva and Rome.

The UN Security Council has approved a US-backed Gaza peace plan.

Gaza Peace Plan

• Proposed framework to end the Israel–Hamas conflict through ceasefire, humanitarian relief, governance reform, and reconstruction.
• The Gaza Peace Plan was primarily brokered by the United States, with mediation support from Qatar and Egypt.

Key Features

• Ceasefire Mechanism: Immediate, internationally monitored halt in hostilities to stabilise Gaza.
• Hostage–Prisoner Exchange: Mutual release of hostages (Hamas) and detainees (Israel).
• Other Features: Governance Reform in Palestine, deployment of an international stabilization force etc.