Current Affairs Quiz - May 2025

Notes:
Malwa Utsav is one of the biggest cultural festivals of Madhya Pradesh. It is celebrated mainly in Madhya Pradesh to promote Indian dance, music, and art. The recent Malwa Utsav was held from 6 to 12 May 2025 at Lalbagh Complex, Indore. The Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh participated in this grand event. It is organised by Lok Sanskriti Manch and has been celebrated for the past 25 years. The aim is to preserve and promote folk culture and traditions. It provides a platform and market to local artists and craftsmen. The festival promotes national integration and cultural exchange. Folk artists from across India and Madhya Pradesh performed dances and music.

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The military of Taiwan recently conducted its first live-firing of the American-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS). The High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) is developed by the United States. HIMARS is a lightweight and mobile multiple rocket launcher system. It can launch several precision-guided rockets quickly and accurately. It is manufactured by Lockheed Martin Corporation, a defence and aerospace company based in the United States. HIMARS is designed to destroy enemy artillery, air defence units, trucks, light armoured vehicles, and troop or supply areas. This system increases battlefield mobility and firepower with high accuracy. The recent test highlights Taiwan’s efforts to strengthen its defence with U.S. military support.

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The Union Cabinet recently approved a new semiconductor manufacturing unit in Uttar Pradesh, marking a significant step in India’s semiconductor ambitions. This facility is the sixth under the India Semiconductor Mission, a push for self-reliance in semiconductor technology. The unit is a joint venture between HCL and Foxconn and will be located near Jewar Airport in the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) region. It will manufacture display driver chips for devices like mobile phones, laptops, automobiles, and more. The plant will have a production capacity of 20,000 wafers per month, with a target output of 36 million chips monthly.

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The State Government of Himachal Pradesh has notified the Tsarap Chu Conservation Reserve in the Spiti Valley as India’s largest conservation reserve. It is located at the confluence of the Unam River and Charap Nala. The reserve is bounded by the Union Territory (UT) of Ladakh to the north, Kibber Wildlife Sanctuary to the east, Kabjima Nala to the south, and Chandratal Wildlife Sanctuary to the west. It is famous for the snow leopard, also called the ‘ghost of the mountains’.

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The International Day of Families is observed on 15 May every year. The United Nations General Assembly declared this day in 1983 following recommendations from the Commission for Social Development and the Economic and Social Council. The 2025 theme is “Family-Oriented Policies for Sustainable Development: Towards the Second World Summit for Social Development.” The theme highlights the role of family-focused policies in dealing with global changes like technology, migration, climate change, urbanisation, and population shifts. The day aims to raise awareness about family-related issues and promote their role in achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

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Recently, Google launched the AI First India 2025 Startup Accelerator to support AI-based startups in India. The program is designed for startups in the Seed to Series A funding stages. It focuses on emerging areas like Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Multimodal Artificial Intelligence (AI). Selected startups will get mentorship from Google experts and access to Cloud Tensor Processing Units (TPUs). They will also receive advanced AI development tools and help in using AI models like Gemini and Gemma. This initiative highlights Google’s strong commitment to building innovation and AI talent in India’s technology ecosystem.

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National Dengue Day is observed every year in India on May 16 to raise awareness about dengue fever and encourage preventive steps. Dengue is a viral infection spread through the bite of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which breeds in stagnant clean water. The day highlights the need for timely treatment and community efforts to control mosquito breeding. Due to rising urbanization and climate change, dengue cases in India are increasing each year. In this context, National Dengue Day 2025 is more important than ever. The 2025 theme is “Act Early, Stop Dengue: Clean Environment, Healthy Life.”

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Japan’s Sakurajima volcano erupted recently, sending a huge ash plume 3,000 metres above its crater. Sakurajima is one of the most active volcanoes in Japan and is located on the southern tip of Kyushu Island, just 4 kilometers from Kagoshima City. It stands at an elevation of 1117 metres and has a circumference of about 50 kilometres. It is a stratovolcano, formed from layers of lava and ash at a convergent plate boundary. The volcano was once an island, but a massive eruption in 1914 connected it to the mainland. It lies on the south rim of the Aira Caldera and has two main peaks — the North Peak and the South Peak. Sakurajima erupts frequently with ash, pyroclastic flows, volcanic bombs, and poisonous gases.

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India will launch its first manned deep-ocean mission called Samudrayaan by 2026 to explore marine resources up to 6,000 metres deep. The mission is part of the Deep Ocean Mission and will use an indigenously developed submersible named MATSYA 6000. MATSYA 6000 is a 4th generation manned submersible vehicle designed by the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai. It can carry three people and operate for 12 hours, with an emergency endurance of 96 hours. The research vessel Sagar Nidhi will be used to deploy and recover MATSYA 6000 during the mission.

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A protest has erupted in Goa after the release of a scientific paper titled “The water budget of the Mahadayi river and its implications for the inter-State dispute.” The Mahadayi River, also called Mhadei, starts from Bhimgad Wildlife Sanctuary in Karnataka and flows west to the Arabian Sea at Panaji, Goa. It is vital for Goa’s water needs, especially in North Goa, and has tributaries like Rogaro, Kushavati, Nanorem, Nanuz, Valvota, and Mapusa. The Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary lies on Chorao Island in the Mandovi River. A long-standing dispute exists between Goa and Karnataka over water diversion by Karnataka from Kalasa and Bhandura tributaries.