Current Affairs Quiz - May 2025

Notes:
Under the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban, Ghaziabad issued India’s first Certified Green Municipal Bond, raising ₹150 crore for a Tertiary Sewage Treatment Plant (TSTP). This bond marks a major shift towards sustainable urban infrastructure and financial innovation. The Tertiary Sewage Treatment Plant uses advanced Membrane Filtration Technologies like microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, and reverse osmosis (RO) to treat wastewater. The plant has a treatment capacity of 40 Million Litres per Day (MLD) and is linked to a 95 km pipeline network. It supplies treated water to over 1,400 industrial units, cutting dependence on freshwater sources.

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International Labour Day, also called International Workers’ Day, is celebrated every year on May 1 to honour the hard work and contributions of workers across all sectors. The day highlights the need for fair wages, safe working conditions, and reasonable working hours for all employees. It also reminds us of the struggle of workers in history and the continued importance of protecting their rights. The International Labour Organization (ILO), a United Nations agency, plays a key role in setting global labour standards.

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Rajasthan has joined India’s first inter-state cheetah conservation corridor with Madhya Pradesh. This wildlife corridor is designed to connect protected areas in both states, allowing reintroduced cheetahs to roam safely across a vast ecosystem. The corridor covers 17,000 square kilometers, with 10,500 square kilometers in Madhya Pradesh and 6,500 square kilometers in Rajasthan. Key locations include Palpur Kuno National Park and Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh, which will serve as cheetah habitats. Mukundara Hills Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan, along with several districts like Kota and Sawai Madhopur, has been identified as a cheetah habitat.

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Vietnam hosts the United Nations (UN) Day of Vesak in 2025 from May 6 to 8 in Ho Chi Minh City. The United Nations Day of Vesak marks the birth, enlightenment, and passing away of Lord Buddha. In a historic first, the sacred Buddha Relic from Sarnath, India, will be sent to Vietnam for special exposition. The event is being organized by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, along with the International Buddhist Confederation (IBC).

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Mizoram’s Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department has reported over 3,050 pig deaths since March 2025 due to an outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF) in the districts of Siaha, Lawngtlai, Lunglei, and Mamit. African Swine Fever (ASF) is a highly contagious viral disease that affects domestic and wild pigs with a mortality rate that can reach 100%. Though ASF does not affect humans, it severely impacts pig populations and causes major economic loss to farmers. The virus originated in Africa and has now spread globally.

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Years of efforts by Jharkhand forest officials have succeeded with Jaigir becoming the first village to be fully relocated outside the core area of Palamu Tiger Reserve (PTR). Palamu Tiger Reserve is located in the western part of the Chotanagpur plateau and spreads across Latehar and Garhwa districts in Jharkhand. It covers a total area of 1,014 square kilometers, with 414 square kilometers as core and 600 square kilometers as buffer. It was among the first nine reserves established under ‘Project Tiger’, a conservation program launched in 1973 by the Government of India.

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The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJE) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) are now working together under the wastepickers component of the National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem (NAMASTE) Scheme. UNDP is providing financial support to State Project Management Units (PMUs) to strengthen the scheme’s implementation. The NAMASTE Scheme was jointly launched by Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJE) and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) in 2023 to protect the safety and dignity of sanitation workers. Its wastepicker component was launched in 2024 with the goal to digitally profile and register 2.5 lakh wastepickers across India. It also provides health insurance under Ayushman Bharat–Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY), and offers skill development training.

Notes:
Researchers at the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) have developed a 3D computational model to study thermoregulation in space. It shows that microgravity consistently increases human core body temperature, which is important for long-duration space missions. Microgravity is a condition of near-weightlessness experienced when objects are in free fall around Earth, not the absence of gravity. In microgravity, normal body functions like heat regulation are altered due to changes in blood flow and metabolism. The IIST model includes sweating, shivering, clothing, and organ heat to simulate real human conditions in space.

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India has recently received a new shipment of Russian Igla-S air defence missiles amid rising tensions with Pakistan after the Pahalgam terror attack. Igla-S is a Man Portable Air Defence System (MANPADS) developed by Russia. It is a hand-held system that can be used by one person or a small crew. It is designed to shoot down low-flying aircraft, cruise missiles, and drones.

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India recently halted the flow of water through the Baglihar Dam on the Chenab River, a significant move impacting water access to Pakistan. The Baglihar Dam, also known as the Baglihar Hydroelectric Power Project, is located on the Chenab River in the Doda District of Jammu and Kashmir. It features a concrete gravity dam that is 144.5 meters high and 363 meters long, with a reservoir capacity of 475 million cubic meters. The underground powerhouse of the project measures 221 meters long, 24 meters wide, and 51 meters high.