Merchandise Trade Indices have been revised to better reflect the evolving structure of India’s trade and changing global trade patterns.

About Merchandise Trade Indices

• Compiled and published: By the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCI&S), under the Ministry of Commerce & Industry.
• Purpose: Measure changes in the unit values (prices) and quantities of India’s exports and imports over time.
• Base Year Revision: From FY 2012–13 to FY 2022–23
• Indices Compiled: Various indices are compiled across multiple classifications, like Export Unit Value Index, Import Unit Value Index, Terms of Trade, etc. 
  • Terms of Trade includes
    • Net Terms of Trade/ commodity Terms of Trade: Ratio of export prices to import prices.
    • Gross Terms of Trade: Ratio of physical quantity of import to physical quantity of export.
    • Income Terms of Trade: Net Terms of Trade multiplied by quantity of export.

The Public Accounts Committee flagged weak planning, fund underutilisation, and poor Centre–State coordination in the Skill Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion scheme.

About SANKALP Scheme (2018)

• Objective: Improve quality and scale of short-term skill training through institutional strengthening, better market linkages, and inclusion of marginalised groups.
• Ministry: Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 
• It is a World Bank loan assisted scheme

India assumes chairmanship of the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium.

About IONS

• It is a voluntary and inclusive multilateral forum of navies of the Indian Ocean Region, established in 2008. 
• Initiated by the Indian Navy.
• Objective: Enhancing maritime co-operation among littoral states of the Indian Ocean Region.
  • It provides a platform for constructive engagement, enabling navies to address shared challenges and contribute to regional stability.
• Member Nations: 25

An extensive review meeting of the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) was held. 

About NAFED

• NAFED is an apex organization of marketing cooperatives for agricultural produce in India.
• Established in 1958
• Registered under the Multi-State Co-operative Societies Act.
• Objective: Promote cooperative marketing of agricultural produce to enhance farmers’ income.
• Farmers’ cooperatives are core members, participating in governance through the General Body.
• Headquarters: New Delhi

NGT directs Suav’s status be changed from drain to river in official records.

• Suav (or Suwawan) is a tributary of the Rapti River.

About Rapti River

• It is the most important left bank tributary of the Ghaghra, which is a tributary of Ganga.
• Origin: It rises in Nepal in the Dregaunra range. 
• Its Catchment area falls in Nepal, and the remaining in the State of U.P. 
• Total length:  782 km. 

Gentoo penguins have become first bird species to be infected with H5 avian influenza on Australia’s Heard Island.

• Heard Island is a remote Australian external territory in the Southern Indian Ocean, dominated by Big Ben (Mawson Peak), Australia’s highest active volcano.
  • It along with McDonald Islands form part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Gentoo Penguins

• IUCN Status: Least Concern.
• Distribution: Antarctic Peninsula and sub-Antarctic islands; vagrants recorded in Argentina, New Zealand, and Tasmania.
• Identification: White head stripe, bright orange beak, peach-coloured feet; third-largest penguin species.
• Special feature: Fastest-swimming penguin; generalist feeder on krill, fish, and squid.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the US President lacked the authority to impose broad import tariffs on trade partners under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), 1977. 

• After court order, US President has signed a proclamation using an alternative law — Trade Act of 1974 — which would allow him to impose a new 10% temporary tariff on goods from all countries.

About IEEPA

• Purpose:  Allows the President to act against unusual and extraordinary external threats to National security, Foreign policy, Economy.
• Historically used for: Economic sanctions, Freezing foreign assets.

Uttarakhand Forest Department has documented the presence of smooth-coated otters in Uttarakhand’s Nandhaur Wildlife Sanctuary. 

• As bio-indicators, otters only inhabit pristine freshwater environments with a robust food chain, indicating healthy and unpolluted environment.

About Smooth-Coated Otters

• Conservation Status: IUCN – Vulnerable.
• Listed under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA), 1972.
• Habitat: Freshwater rivers, lakes, wetlands, estuaries, and mangrove forests across South & Southeast Asia.
• Distribution (India): Ranges from the Himalayas to southern India; co-occurs with other otter species in the Western Ghats and Northeast India.
• Key Features: Largest Asian otter; smooth short fur; highly social; strong swimmer; mainly fish-eating.

European Space Agency’s CHEOPS has revealed a four-planet system (around the red dwarf star LHS 1903) whose outermost world is a small and rocky planet.

• This challenges current theories that predict rocky planets form close to stars while gaseous planets form farther out.

About CHEOPS

• Launched in 2019.
• Objectives: To study the structure of exoplanets in the size range of super-Earths to Neptunes that are orbiting bright stars with revolution periods below 50 days.
• CHEOPS observes bright, nearby stars that are already known to host exoplanets, focusing particularly on those with Earth to Neptune-sized planets.