Daily Current Affairs Quiz
8 November, 2025
National Affairs
1. Google Announces Project Suncatcher
Source: IE
Context:
Google has unveiled Project Suncatcher, a pioneering initiative to build AI-powered data centres in space to utilise uninterrupted solar energy and reduce the environmental impact of terrestrial data centres.
About Project Suncatcher
A Google-led research project to deploy solar-powered AI data centres aboard satellites, equipped with advanced TPUs (Tensor Processing Units) and connected through high-speed optical communication links.
Launched by: Google’s AI and Advanced Infrastructure Division, as part of its long-term climate sustainability and next-generation computing roadmap.
Aim of the Initiative
- To reduce the growing energy, water, and carbon footprint of Earth-based data centres.
- To harness continuous solar power available in space for 24×7 AI computation.
- To create a scalable, interconnected space-based computing network for high-volume AI workloads.
Key Features
- Solar-Powered Satellite Constellation:
Solar panels in orbit generate energy up to 8× more efficiently than on Earth. - Orbiting TPUs:
High-performance Trillium v6e TPUs engineered to withstand radiation exposure in space. - High-Speed Optical Links:
Free-space optical communication providing multi-terabit per second data transfer rates between satellites. - Prototype Launch (2027):
Two test satellites planned for early 2027 to validate hardware, AI workloads, and optical communication. - Scalable Architecture:
Analytical models show satellites can operate within hundreds of meters of each other, forming cluster-style space data hubs.
2. Ethiopia to Adopt India’s Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM)
Context:
Ethiopia has announced that it will adopt India’s Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) model to combat rural poverty and enhance women’s economic empowerment. This marks a significant recognition of India’s rural development approach at the global level.
About DAY-NRLM
India’s flagship rural poverty alleviation and women’s empowerment programme under the Ministry of Rural Development, focused on sustainable livelihoods, financial inclusion, and community-based institution building through Self-Help Groups (SHGs).
- Launched in: 2011 as National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) under Ministry of Rural Development, restructuring the earlier Swarnajayanti Grameen Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY).
- Renamed in: 2016 as Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – NRLM (DAY-NRLM).
- Aim: To reduce rural poverty by enabling poor households—especially women—to access self-employment, skilled wage opportunities, credit, and community-driven livelihood support.
Background / Evolution
- Represents a shift from subsidy-based schemes to self-reliance and institution-building.
- Jointly funded by the Central and State governments.
- One of the largest community mobilisation programmes in the world, aligned with SDG 1 (No Poverty) and SDG 5 (Gender Equality).
Key Features of DAY-NRLM
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| 1. Social Mobilisation & SHG Network | • 10.05 crore rural women mobilised • 90.9 lakh SHGs formed across 28 States & 6 UTs |
| 2. Community Resource Persons Model | • Deployment of trained CRPs such as Bank Sakhis, Krishi Sakhis, Pashu Sakhis • Ensures last-mile delivery of financial, agricultural & livestock services |
| 3. Financial Inclusion & Credit Access | • ₹11 lakh crore collateral-free credit disbursed to SHGs • 98% repayment rate; globally acclaimed for credit discipline |
| 4. Livelihood Diversification | • Support to 4.62 crore Mahila Kisans • 1.95 lakh Producer Groups supported • 3.74 lakh rural enterprises supported under SVEP |
| 5. Skill Development Initiatives | • DDU-GKY for placement-linked skilling • RSETIs for entrepreneurship training • 74+ lakh youth trained (cumulative, mid-2025) |
| 6. Sustainable Agriculture | • 6,000 Integrated Farming Clusters established • Promotes agro-ecological & climate-resilient farming practices |
| 7. Digital Inclusion | • Full integration with DBT and Digital Public Infrastructure • Ensures transparency, direct benefit flow, and efficient service delivery |
3. Bangladesh joins UN Water Convention
Context:
Bangladesh has become the first South Asian country to accede to the United Nations Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (UN Water Convention). The Convention, adopted in 1992, aims to promote equitable, sustainable and cooperative management of shared water resources. It was originally a regional treaty and became globally open to all UN member states in 2016.
About the Convention:
- Formally known as the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (1992).
- Promotes equitable use, environmental protection, data sharing and dispute prevention related to shared rivers.
- Open to global membership since 2016.
Why Bangladesh Joined:
- Bangladesh depends heavily on transboundary rivers such as the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna.
- The country faces serious hydro-climatic challenges, including floods, droughts and rising demand for water.
- Accession provides Bangladesh with a legal and multilateral framework to support water management and dispute resolution.
Potential Impact on India–Bangladesh Relations:
- Shift from Bilateralism:
India traditionally prefers bilateral treaties for water-sharing negotiations. Since India is not a member of the UN Water Convention, Bangladesh’s move may create a new multilateral framework that alters negotiation dynamics. - Negotiating Leverage:
Being part of the Convention may allow Bangladesh to push for internationally recognised principles like equitable use and environmental sustainability. This could reduce India’s leverage in future river-sharing discussions. - Regional Influence:
Bangladesh’s accession could influence other South Asian countries to consider joining the Convention. This may gradually challenge India’s bilateral approach to water diplomacy in the region.
Why India is Concerned:
- India is not a party to the Convention.
- Prefers flexibility of bilateral treaties over binding multilateral norms.
- May face pressure to align with standards it has not formally accepted.
4. Economics and a Mamdani Model, Big Apple Style
Source: TH
Context:
As 2025 concludes, Zohran Mamdani has been elected as the incoming Mayor of New York City (NYC). His welfare-focused agenda — including free public buses, rent freezes, and universal childcare — has reignited global debate on sustainable welfarism in market-based economies.
Key Highlights:
Global Return of Welfarism:
- Around the world, welfare-led politics is resurging — from Lula da Silva’s Brazil to Keir Starmer’s UK, and several Indian States under welfare-driven governance.
- Welfarism often reappears during periods of rising inequality or exclusive growth, as governments seek to ensure visible, equitable outcomes.
The Two Sides of Welfare:
- Advantages: Welfare policies deliver immediate social outcomes such as access to education, housing, and mobility.
- Challenges: Over time, they can lead to quality deterioration, inefficiency, and black markets when prices are pushed below cost.
- Example: Free buses → poor maintenance; rent freezes → lower housing supply; free childcare → underfunded quality.
Balancing Rawls and Pareto:
- John Rawls’ principle: Judge society by the welfare of its least advantaged.
- Pareto principle: Efficiency is achieved when no one can be made better off without making someone worse off.
- The article argues that economies must oscillate between welfare protection and market liberalisation, a process Karl Polanyi termed the “double movement.”
The ‘Mamdani Model’: Towards Sustainable Welfarism
Chatterjee suggests creating a “Rawls–Pareto thermostat” — welfare systems that are compassionate during crises but efficiency-oriented as capacity grows.
Key features:
- Subsidise outcomes, not inputs: Selective fare caps, transparent contracts (e.g., Singapore’s Bus Contracting Model).
- Use automatic, means-tested vouchers: Adjust support dynamically during economic shocks.
- Ensure fiscal honesty: Transparent funding, productivity-linked reforms, and public investment to expand supply.
- Engage mission-driven enterprises: Public–private partnerships that blend profit with social objectives (e.g., Aravind Eye Care, Bolsa Família).
Fiscal and Social Discipline:
- Welfare must be fiscally sustainable, transparently costed, and supported by growth measures.
- Users should be treated as customers with recourse, and suppliers as partners with accountability through open data, service audits, and grievance mechanisms.
Banking/Finance
1. World Bank’s Financial Sector Assessment (FSA) 2025
Source: BL
Context:
The World Bank’s Financial Sector Assessment (FSA) 2025, conducted jointly with the IMF under the FSAP framework, reviewed India’s financial system, highlighting achievements since 2017 and recommending reforms for future growth.
Key Findings:
- Resilience and Inclusion: India’s financial system is more resilient, diversified, and inclusive. Public digital infrastructure and government programmes have improved access to accounts, credit, insurance, and pensions.
- Private Sector Mobilisation Needed: The State still plays a dominant role. Reducing the footprint of state-owned financial institutions (SOFIs) and removing exemptions for state-owned NBFCs could improve efficiency and attract private capital.
- Financial Sector Growth: Total financial sector assets reached 187% of GDP in 2024. NBFIs and market financing grew faster than banks, now accounting for 44% of sector assets (up from 35% in 2017).
Institutional Observations:
- SOFIs—including public banks, development finance institutions, regional rural banks, NBFCs, and public insurers—remain significant but their share is declining.
- Public credit support programmes, such as priority sector lending (PSL), influence credit allocation.
- Stress tests show broad resilience to macro-financial shocks, though some tail risks remain.
Emerging Risks and Recommendations:
- NBFI Exposure: Large NBFCs have significant exposure to the energy sector. Distress could spill over to banks, mutual funds, and corporate bond markets.
- Macroprudential Tools: Introduce borrower-based measures, Debt Service to Income (DSTI) limits, and counter-cyclical capital buffers (CCyBs) for banks.
- Regulatory Governance: Clarify the primacy of supervisory safety and soundness versus investor protection mandates; strengthen SOFI governance and internal controls.
- Coordination & Scope: Improve regulator coordination to handle conglomerate supervision, cybersecurity, and climate-related financial risks.
- Support for Corporate Bonds: RBI could include corporate bonds (with haircuts) as collateral in crisis facilities to develop market financing.
2. IBBI Proposes Mandatory Disclosure of Beneficial Ownership for Insolvency Bidders
Source: BS
Context:
The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) has proposed a stricter disclosure framework requiring bidders under the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) to declare their Ultimate Beneficial Ownership (UBO). The reform aims to prevent misuse of IBC’s clean slate provision, strengthen due diligence, and ensure transparency in the resolution ecosystem.
Mandatory UBO Disclosure
- Prospective Resolution Applicants (PRAs) must reveal all natural persons who exercise ultimate ownership, control, or significant influence over the bidding entity.
- PRAs must also provide details of all intermediate entities, including jurisdiction, ownership structure, and control pathways.
Framework Aligned with RBI Norms
- The disclosure template is modelled on RBI’s updated UBO guidelines, ensuring regulatory uniformity across the financial system.
- Helps harmonize ownership reporting under insolvency, banking, and financial markets.
Section 32A Affidavit Requirement
- PRAs must submit an affidavit confirming eligibility under Section 32A of IBC, which grants immunity to a company (post-resolution) from prosecution for offences committed prior to the CIRP.
- Aims to stop benami, proxy, conflicted, or promoter-linked bidders from misusing the immunity provision.
Exemption for Listed Entities
- Listed companies and their subsidiaries may receive a relaxed disclosure regime because they already comply with SEBI’s detailed ownership reporting norms.
Strengthened Due Diligence for RPs & CoC
- Enhanced disclosures will enable Resolution Professionals (RPs) and Committees of Creditors (CoC) to conduct deeper due diligence.
- Improves credibility, integrity, and governance standards in bidder evaluation.
New Measures for Cases Involving Financial Crimes
- IBBI has empowered RPs to approach special PMLA courts when insolvency cases overlap with money laundering or financial crime.
- RPs must provide an undertaking ensuring restituted assets benefit creditors only, preventing diversion to promoters or accused persons.
3. India Retains Cap on Voting Rights for Large Shareholders in Banks
Source: BS
Context:
India plans to maintain existing limits on voting rights for large shareholders in domestic banks, even as the government works to attract more foreign investment and liberalise the financial sector. This signals that reforms will remain cautious in scope.
Key Highlights:
- Voting Rights Caps:
- Private banks: A single shareholder cannot exercise more than 26% of voting rights, even if ownership is higher.
- Public sector banks: Cap is 10%.
- Government Decision:
- Finance Ministry and RBI considered relaxing the cap to give large shareholders more influence in strategic decisions.
- Decided against it to prevent excessive control by any single investor.
- Safeguards aim to ensure no shareholder can make unilateral decisions.
- Foreign Investment:
- RBI has eased rules for foreign investors to hold large stakes in Indian banks.
- Government plans to increase foreign investment limit in state-owned banks to 49%, though voting rights caps will remain.
- Recent foreign transactions include Emirates NBD acquiring 60% of RBL Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp investing in YES Bank.
- Market Implications:
- Voting limits may deter investors seeking controlling stakes, but high foreign interest and strong secondary market for stakes indicate confidence in India’s banking sector.
- Government seeks a majority investor for IDBI Bank, expected by March 2026.
Agriculture
1. FAO Releases ‘The State of Food and Agriculture 2025’ Report
Context:
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has released its flagship report, The State of Food and Agriculture 2025, titled “Addressing Land Degradation Across Landholding Scales.” The report highlights how human-induced land degradation is undermining global food production, soil health, and climate resilience.
About the Report
- What it is:
An annual flagship publication assessing global agricultural and food systems performance. - Published by:
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Rome (2025). - Aim:
To examine human-induced land degradation and its impact on productivity, livelihoods, and environmental sustainability, while guiding policies to avoid, reduce, and reverse degradation across landholding scales.
Key Findings of the Report
- Global Cropland Decline: Nearly 20% of global cropland shows declining productivity due to soil erosion, nutrient depletion, and organic carbon loss—worst in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
- Severe Regional Yield Gaps: Yield gaps for 10 major crops reach up to 70% below potential levels in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia due to poor soil fertility and input shortages.
- Soil Organic Carbon Loss: Falling SOC levels are reducing water retention and microbial activity, increasing vulnerability to droughts and floods.
- Smallholder Vulnerability: Farms under 2 hectares constitute 84% of global farms but hold only 12% of farmland, restricting their access to finance and technology.
- Large Farm Pressures: The top 1% of farms control over 70% of agricultural land, often causing degradation through monocropping yet possessing more restoration resources.
- Land Abandonment: From 1992–2015, 60 million hectares of cropland were abandoned globally, mainly in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and South America.
- Climate–Degradation Nexus: Degraded soils emit significant GHGs, diminishing carbon sequestration and slowing progress toward SDG 15.3 (Land Degradation Neutrality).
Successes Identified
- Land Degradation Debt Model: A new machine-learning model reveals 30% tree cover loss, 20% biomass carbon loss, and a fourfold rise in soil erosion, offering the most accurate global assessment so far.
- Economic Cost Assessment: Land degradation costs the world about USD 300 billion annually, with most losses arising from land-use and cover changes—positioning land restoration as a vital public investment.
- Yield Gap–Risk Correlation: A 10% rise in degradation debt worsens yield gaps by 2%, especially in Southeast Asia and Western Europe.
- Multi-Scale Policy Framework: Using GAEZ v5 datasets, the report links degradation data to farm-size structures, enabling targeted interventions for both smallholders and large farms.
Gaps and Failures
- Weak Monitoring Capacity: Low-income nations lack satellite and technical monitoring systems, unlike successful models such as Inner Mongolia’s grazing management.
- Inadequate Finance & Coordination: Despite USD 19 billion pledged under initiatives like the Great Green Wall, donor fragmentation and weak project alignment hinder results.
- Poor Integration with Climate & Livelihood Goals: Restoration projects rarely align with SDG 13 (Climate Action) and SDG 8 (Decent Work), limiting inclusivity and community benefits.
- Limited Indigenous Involvement: Indigenous stewardship—effective in East African pastoral zones and Latin American forests—remains marginal in national strategies.
Key Challenges
- Land Inequality: Top 1% farms control 70% of farmland, restricting equitable access to restoration funds.
- Investment Deficit: Only 15% of agricultural investment targets sustainable land management.
- Policy Fragmentation: Poor coordination among land, water, and energy policies causes inconsistent implementation.
- Data Gaps: Weak monitoring of soil carbon, biodiversity, and erosion affects SDG 15.3 tracking.
- Climate Shocks: Recurrent droughts and floods are accelerating land degradation in semi-arid regions.
FAO Recommendations
- Scale-Specific Interventions:
- Payments for ecosystem services (PES) for smallholders.
- Stricter regulation of fertilizer and monocropping in large commercial farms.
- Strengthen Investment in Restoration:
Promote carbon farming, regenerative agriculture, and public-private partnerships. - Empower Local & Indigenous Communities:
Integrate gender-inclusive, community-led restoration into national programs. - Improve Global Monitoring:
Establish a real-time Global Land Degradation Data Hub using remote sensing and field data. - SDG Alignment:
Integrate restoration planning with SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 13 (Climate Action), and SDG 15 (Life on Land).
Facts To Remember
1. Raahul wins ASEAN championship, becomes India’s 91st Grandmaster
Chennai’s V.S. Raahul became India’s 91st Grandmaster by winning the sixth ASEAN individual chess championship at Ozamiz City, the Philippines, on Friday, with a round to spare.
2. China Commissions Third Aircraft Carrier ‘Fujian’ to Expand Naval Power
China has officially commissioned its third aircraft carrier, Fujian, after successful sea trials. The commissioning ceremony was held at a naval base in Hainan Province and attended by President Xi Jinping. This marks a major step in China’s efforts to modernize its navy and project power beyond its regional waters.
Advanced Technology:
- Fujian introduces an Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) — a cutting-edge technology also used in the U.S. Navy’s Ford-class carriers.
- This system replaces traditional steam catapults and offers precise speed control, reduces mechanical stress, and allows launch of a wider variety of aircraft.
- The adoption of EMALS signals China’s leap toward next-generation carrier operations.
3. Indian Army’s Southern Command Conducts Tri-Services Exercise TRISHUL to Strengthen Joint Operations
Indian Army’s Southern Command is participating in a series of Tri-Services exercises to validate full-spectrum land-sea-air integration embodying the mantra of JAI – Jointness, Atmanirbharta and Innovation in action under Exercise TRISHUL.
4. VP C.P. Radhakrishnan Hails Gyan Bharatham Mission, Praises Classical Language Status for Prakrit
Vice-President C.P. Radhakrishnan today lauded the Government’s Gyan Bharatham Mission for preserving Jain manuscripts and praised the move to grant Classical Language status to Prakrit.
5. NHAI Launches Lavender Plantation Along Jammu-Srinagar Highway to Boost Aesthetics and Aroma Tourism
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has started a unique initiative of lavender plantation along a 16-kilometre stretch of the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway between Banihal and Qazigund.
6. Indian Navy to Celebrate Navy Day with Mega Operational Demonstration in Thiruvananthapuram
The Indian Navy will celebrate Navy Day with a spectacular Operational Demonstration on the 4th of next month in Thiruvananthapuram.
7. Union Minister Manohar Lal Highlights Citizen-Centric Urban Transformation at National Urban Conclave 2025
Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Manohar Lal today said that urbanisation is the pathway to Viksit Bharat.
8. India Reaffirms Climate Commitment at COP 30
India’s Ambassador to Brazil, Dinesh Bhatia, has reaffirmed India’s climate commitment, saying that the country is ready to work with all nations to achieve an ambitious, inclusive, fair, and equitable transition to sustainability.
