Current Affairs Quiz - May 2025

Notes:
The Asian Games 2026 will be held in Aichi and Nagoya, Japan, from September 19 to October 4. This will mark the third time the Asian Games is being hosted in Japan, after Tokyo in 1958 and Hiroshima in 1994. Cricket has been officially retained for the Asian Games 2026. Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) will make its debut in the 2026 edition of the continental event.

Notes:
Operation Kagar has successfully encircled the last remaining Naxal strongholds in the Chhattisgarh-Telangana border regions. Operation Kagar was launched by the Ministry of Home Affairs to eliminate Maoist insurgents and dismantle the political ideology of Maoism. The operation combines military action, surveillance technology, and development outreach to combat Left-Wing Extremism (LWE). The campaign has reduced Naxal-affected districts from 106 in 2015 to just 6 in 2025. In 2024, 287 Naxals were neutralized, with over 150 already in 2025.

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The Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) recently scaled Mt. Makalu, the fifth highest mountain in the world. Mt. Makalu stands at 8,485 meters above sea level and is located in the Mahalangur range of the Nepal Himalayas on the Nepal-Tibet border. It lies 23 kilometers southeast of Mount Everest and is part of the Makalu Barun National Park. The mountain is famous for its pyramid-like shape with sharp ridges and includes two subsidiary peaks, Makalu I and Makalu II.

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The Ramman Festival, inscribed in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, is celebrated in Uttarakhand. It takes place annually in late April, after the harvest season, in the twin villages of Saloor-Dungra. The festival honours Bhumiyal Devta, the village’s tutelary deity, and holds deep religious significance. The celebration includes complex rituals such as the recitation of a version of the epic of Rama, songs, and masked dances. A key feature is the singing of Jagar, a musical performance that narrates local legends.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the seventh edition of the Khelo India Youth Games on May 4, 2025, through videoconferencing. The Khelo India Youth Games are being held in Bihar for the first time, from May 4 to 15, across five districts including Patna, Nalanda, Gaya, Bhagalpur, and Begusarai. More than 8,500 athletes and 1,500 technical staff are participating in 28 sports. Bihar has seen new institutions like the Khelo India State Centre of Excellence and Bihar Sports University set up.

Notes:
Archaeologists have recently discovered prehistoric tools from the Lower Paleolithic age at Mangar Bani, highlighting its ancient human presence. Mangar Bani is a sacred grove and Paleolithic site located in the Aravalli hills on the Delhi-Haryana border. It lies within the only primary forest in the Delhi National Capital Region (NCR), meaning the forest is largely untouched by human activities and contains native tree species. Evidence shows continuous human occupation from around 100,000 years before present (BP) to 1000 AD. The site also has rock shelters and ancient rock and cave paintings estimated to be 20,000 to 40,000 years old.

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In response to the recent terror attack in Pahalgam and rising tensions with Pakistan, the Indian Navy is enhancing its maritime strength by inducting INS Tamal. INS Tamal is a stealth guided missile frigate with advanced features designed for modern naval warfare. It is an upgraded Krivak-III class warship built under a $2.5 billion India-Russia defence deal for four stealth frigates. Two of these frigates are being built in Russia, and the other two at Goa Shipyard Limited in India. INS Tushil, the first warship of this class, joined the Indian Navy in December 2024. INS Tamal will be the last imported warship, marking India’s shift to building its own warships. The remaining two frigates, INS Triput and INS Tavasya, are being constructed in India under a technology transfer agreement worth around Rs 13,000 crore.

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NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) recently solved the mystery behind X-ray emissions in black hole jets. IXPE is a joint satellite mission by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Italian Space Agency, launched on December 9, 2021. It is the first satellite designed to measure the polarisation of X-ray light, helping scientists study extreme cosmic environments. The mission focused on blazars, which are a type of active galactic nucleus with a supermassive black hole ejecting a powerful jet of particles aimed toward Earth.

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The Hubble Space Telescope recently completed 35 years of space exploration since its launch on April 24, 1990. It is the first dedicated space-based telescope system and is named after astronomer Edwin Hubble. The idea of such a telescope was first proposed in the 1940s by US astronomer Lyman Spitzer. It was launched as a joint mission between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA). ESA contributed 15% of the mission’s cost in return for 15% of observation time. Its launch was delayed from 1986 to 1990 due to technical issues and the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. Hubble orbits Earth at around 569 km in Low Earth Orbit and observes ultraviolet, visible, and infrared light. It was designed to be repaired and upgraded in space, making it a renewable telescope. This historic telescope continues to help scientists understand galaxies, stars, and the vast universe beyond Earth.

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A group of tourists in Spiti Valley, Himachal Pradesh, recently had a rare encounter with a snow leopard, often called the ‘ghost of the mountains’ due to its elusive nature. The snow leopard, scientifically known as Panthera uncia, is a medium-sized big cat found in the rugged mountains of Central and South Asia. Although it has a wide range of over 2 million square kilometres, only around 3,920 to 6,390 are estimated to remain in the wild. It lives between 1,800 to 5,500 metres in altitude and is found in 12 countries including India, China, Nepal, and Russia. In India, it is found in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh. It is listed as Vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, under Appendix I of Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), and in Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 in India.