Recently, Supreme Court held that domicile-based reservations in PG Medical seats are impermissible as it is unconstitutional for being violative of Article 14 of the Constitution.

Constitutional Provisions for Domicile-based Reservations

• Article 16 (2): No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, residence or any of them, be ineligible for, or discriminated against in respect of, any employment or office under the State.
  • Article 16(3), however, allows the Parliament to make any law prescribing residence within a State or UT in regard to a class or classes of employment under the Government of State/ UT or local authority.

Three countries (Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger) under military rule have officially left West African regional bloc, ECOWAS, following diplomatic tensions. 

About ECOWAS (Hq: Abuja, Nigeria)

• Genesis: 1975
• Aim: Promote economic cooperation among member states in order to raise living standards and promote economic development. 
  • Citizens of ECOWAS countries have the right to live and work in all member states, along with free circulation of goods. 
• Members: 12 (after the current withdrawal)
  • Benin, Cabo Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo. 

Recently, India has sent humanitarian assistance to support residents of the Kurdistan region in Iraq.

About Kurdistan Region 

• Kurdistan is a mountainous region spanning parts of eastern Turkey, northern Iraq, western Iran, and smaller areas of northern Syria and Armenia.
• It is predominantly inhabited by an ethnic group called “Kurds”.
• They are the fourth-largest Middle Eastern ethnic group without a nation state.
• Post World War I, under the Treaty of Sèvres (1920), Western powers promised the Kurds their own homeland.
• However, this hope was dashed with the Treaty of Lausanne (1924), which divided the Kurds among the newly formed nations of the Middle East. 

Union Minister for Labour & Employment launched the State and Union Territory Microsites under the e-Shram initiative and the Occupational Shortage Index (OSI).

About e-Shram Microsites

• State-specific digital platforms seamlessly integrated with the National e-Shram database. 
• Benefits 
  • For States/UTs: Ready-to-use digital infrastructure, real time data analytics dashboard, etc. 
  • For Workers: Seamless registration process, multilingual facility, etc.  

About OSI

• Purpose: Identify workforce demand-supply gaps using ILO methodology and PLFS data.
• Key Functions: Tracks job shortages in high-demand sectors, Supports workforce planning and skill development etc.

Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change approved the proposal for rebuilding the Teesta-III dam located on the main Teesta River, despite design and stability concerns. 

About Teesta River

• Origin: Tso Lhamo Lake in North Sikkim, flows through India (West Bengal and Sikkim) and Bangladesh. 
• Tributary: Major right-bank tributary of the Brahmaputra.
  • River Rangit is a tributary of Teesta.
• Course: Flows south through Siwalik Hills, southeast via Sivok Khola pass, into West Bengal.
• Drains into: Originally, it emptied directly into the upper Padma River (Ganga). 
  • However, around 1787, it changed its course to flow eastward in Bangladesh joining Jamuna River. 

US President orders setting up of migrant detention centre in Guantánamo Bay. 

About Guantánamo Bay 

• Location: Forms an inlet of the Caribbean Sea, indenting southeastern Cuba.
• Features: Large and well-sheltered bay, has a narrow entrance to a harbour, and capable of accommodating large vessels. 
• Ports: Caimanera and Boquerón, linked to the city of Guantánamo. 
• Naval Station Guantanamo Bay (NSGB): Established in 1903, oldest overseas military installation of USA. 
  • According to the United States' lease with Cuba, the U.S. retains jurisdiction while Cuba maintains sovereignty. 

Recently, Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has notified the Solar Systems, Devices, and Components Goods Order, 2025 for Quality Control of Solar PV modules, Inverters.

• The order has been issued under the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Act, 2016.
• BIS Act, 2016 provides for the establishment of a national standards body (BIS) for the harmonious development of the activities of standardisation and quality assurance of goods, articles, processes, etc.

Key Highlights of the Order

• It revises and supersedes the existing Solar Photovoltaics, Systems, Devices, and Components Goods (Requirements for Compulsory Registration) Order, 2017. 
• Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) will oversee grant of licence and enforcement of the order.

According to Scientists, samples from Bennu Asteroid revealed building blocks of life.

About Asteroid Bennu

• Bennu is a small, near-Earth asteroid that passes relatively close to Earth about every six years.
• NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collected samples in 2020 using a robotic arm and returned them to Earth in 2023 for analysis.
• Findings: Essential life-building compounds, including amino acids, nucleobases, and minerals suggesting water once existed on Bennu.
• It likely was broken off from a much larger carbon-rich asteroid about 700 million to 2 billion years ago