Current Context : Quad nations — India, USA, Japan, and Australia — conducted a simulation exercise under the Indo-Pacific Logistics Network (IPLN) in Honolulu, Hawaii in May 2025 to boost regional disaster-response capabilities.

About IPLN

• Purpose: To strengthen civilian disaster-response logistics through cooperation among Quad nations.
• Mechanism: Enables sharing of logistics like supply chains, warehousing, and emergency transport across Indo-Pacific.
• Complementary Initiative: Works alongside the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA).
• Focus Areas: Humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, and regional logistical resilience.

Observed globally on 10 May.

Objective :  to raise awareness about lupus — a chronic autoimmune disease that is often misdiagnosed due to its wide-ranging symptoms.

• Established: 2004 by the Lupus Foundation of America and other international organizations.

About Lupus

• Nature of Disease: It is a chronic autoimmune disorder where the immune system attacks healthy tissues, affecting skin, joints, kidneys, heart, and lungs.
• Symptoms: Fatigue, joint pain, facial rash (butterfly rash), and organ inflammation.
• Types: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is the most common and serious form.
• Global Impact: Over 5 million people worldwide live with lupus.

Current Context: In response to the recent Pahalgam terror attack and heightened tensions between India and Pakistan, Indian security forces have initiated “Operation Shiva” to ensure the safety of pilgrims during the upcoming Amarnath Yatra.

Key Highlights:

• Duration of Yatra: Scheduled from July 3 to August 9, 2025.
• Security Deployment: Thousands of personnel from the Indian Army, CRPF, Jammu and Kashmir Police, and other paramilitary forces will be deployed along the pilgrimage routes to provide layered security.

About Shri Amarnath Ji:

• Location: Situated in Anantnag district at an altitude of 13,000 ft.
• Significance: The cave houses a naturally formed ice lingam, symbolizing Lord Shiva. Two smaller ice formations represent Goddess Parvati and Lord Ganesha.
• Pilgrimage Period: Occurs during the Shravan month (July-August), when the ice lingam reaches its full size.

Historical Reference: The origin of the pilgrimage is described in the Sanskrit text “Bringesha Samhita”.

Current Context: Kozhikode has been officially recognized as a member of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Network for Age-friendly Cities and Communities (GNAFCC), becoming the second Indian city after Kochi to join the network.

About GNAFCC:

• Established: 2010
• Members: Over 1,300 cities and communities from 51 countries.
• Aim: To connect cities and communities worldwide with the common vision of making their communities great places to grow older in.

Objectives:

• Inspire change by showing what can be done and how.
• Connect cities and communities worldwide to facilitate the exchange of information, knowledge, and experience.
• Support cities and communities to find appropriate innovative and evidence-based solutions.

Current Context: India and the United Kingdom have successfully concluded a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) after three years of negotiations, aiming to boost bilateral trade and economic cooperation.

Key Highlights:

• Tariff Elimination: India will reduce tariffs on 90% of goods, including significant cuts for whisky, gin, cosmetics, and food products.
• Professional Mobility: The agreement includes provisions to ease the mobility of professionals, investors, and intra-corporate transferees, along with their dependents.
• Double Contribution Convention: Indian workers temporarily in the UK and their employers will be exempt from paying UK national insurance contributions for up to three years.
• Export Opportunities: Enhanced market access for sectors like textiles, marine products, leather, footwear, engineering goods, auto parts, and organic chemicals.
• Services Sector: The deal benefits services like IT/ITeS and financial services through new opportunities and job creation.
• Digital Trade: Improved access for UK services in India’s market, particularly for professional services, with mutual qualification recognition and non-discrimination measures.
• About FTA: A Free Trade Agreement is a pact between two or more nations to reduce barriers to imports and exports among them. The purpose of FTAs is to reduce trade barriers and increase trade between the participating countries.

Current Context: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) released the Human Development Report 2025 titled “A Matter of Choice: People and Possibilities in the Age of AI,” ranking India 130th out of 193 countries.

Relevant Data:

• HDI Value: India’s Human Development Index (HDI) value improved to 0.685 from 0.676 in 2022.
• Life Expectancy: Increased to 72 years in 2023.
• Education: Average mean years of schooling reached 13 years.
• GNI per Capita: India’s Gross National Income per capita rank is seven positions below its HDI rank.
• Gender Inequality: India ranks 102nd on the Gender Inequality Index, indicating significant gender disparities.
• Global Trends: The report notes a slowdown in human development progress globally, with increasing inequality between low and very high HDI countries for the fourth consecutive year.
• About UNDP: The United Nations Development Programme is the UN’s global development network, advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience, and resources to help people build a better life.

Current Context : The winners of the 2025 Pulitzer Prizes—America’s top journalism and arts awards—were announced by Columbia University.

About Pulitzer Prizes:

• Established by: Joseph Pulitzer, newspaper publisher.
• First awarded in:
• Administered by: Columbia University, USA.
• Awarded in: 23 categories (15 for journalism, 8 for arts/books/music).
• Selection Process: Winners are selected by the Pulitzer Prize Board.

Key Journalism Winners (2025):

• Public Service: ProPublica
• Investigative Reporting: Reuters (for fentanyl drug investigation)
• International Reporting: New York Times (on Sudan conflict)
• Breaking News Reporting: Washington Post (on assassination attempt of Donald Trump)
• Photography: Doug Mills, NYT (photo of bullet in air during Trump speech)
• Editorial Writing: Houston Chronicle team
• Audio Reporting: The New Yorker

Key Arts & Letters Winners:

• Fiction: “James” by Percival Everett
• Drama: “Purpose” by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
• Biography: “Every Living Thing” by Jason Roberts
• History: “Combee” by Edda L. Fields-Black
• Poetry: “New and Selected Poems” by Marie Howe
• General Non-Fiction: “To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause” by Benjamin Nathans
• Music: “Sky Islands” by Susie Ibarra

Current Context: The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has extended the tenure of Praveen Sood as the Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) by one year, effective beyond May 24, 2025.

About Praveen Sood:

• A 1986-batch IPS officer from the Karnataka cadre.
• Assumed charge as CBI Director on May 25, 2023.
• Previously served as the Director General of Police in Karnataka.

Appointment Process:
As per the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act, 1946, the CBI Director is appointed by the Central Government on the recommendation of a three-member committee comprising:

• Prime Minister (Chairperson)
• Chief Justice of India or a Supreme Court judge nominated by him
• Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha or the leader of the single largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha

Tenure: The Director’s tenure is for two years, extendable up to five years with annual extensions.

Current Context : Parameswaran Iyer has been appointed as India’s new Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in May 2025, replacing Krishnamurthy Subramanian.

• He is an IAS officer of 1981-batch.
• Former CEO of NITI Aayog and credited with leading the Swachh Bharat Mission.
• Previously served as an Executive Director at the World Bank.

About IMF Executive Board:

• Composed of 25 Executive Directors, each representing a country or group of countries.
• Oversees the day-to-day operations of the IMF and is chaired by the IMF Managing Director.
• Approves lending arrangements, surveillance reports, and policy decisions.

About the IMF:

• Founded: 1944 at Bretton Woods Conference; began functioning in 1945.
• Headquarters: Washington, D.C., USA.
• Members: 190 countries (as of 2025).
• Mandate: Ensure global monetary cooperation, financial stability, and facilitate international trade.
• Key Functions:
  • Providing financial assistance to member countries.
  • Monitoring economic and financial policies.

Observed on 9 May 2025 (25th day of Boishakh as per Bengali calendar).

Aim : To commemorate the birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, the first Asian Nobel Laureate.

About

• Born on 7 May 1861 in Kolkata.
• Also known as Gurudev, Tagore was a poet, philosopher, dramatist, painter, and social reformer.
• Nobel Prize: Received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 for his book Gitanjali, becoming the first non-European Nobel laureate in literature.
• Legacy:
• Composed the national anthems of both India (Jana Gana Mana) and Bangladesh (Amar Shonar Bangla).
• Founded Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan, West Bengal.