Kerala has become the first state in India to pass a Kerala State Senior Citizens Commission Bill creating a commission for senior citizens.

• People over age 60 in Kerala were 13.1 per cent compared to the national average of 8.3 per cent in 2015, according to Kerala’s planning board.

About Commission for Senior Citizens

• Objective: To Provide for Protection, Welfare and Social Security of Senior Citizens and for inspiring confidence in them.
• Composition: Chairperson and not less than three members, all of whom will be senior citizens.

The Ministry of Defence has signed a contract under the Buy (Indian-Indigenously Designed Developed and Manufactured) category for procurement of NAMIS.

About NAMIS

• Developed by Defence Research & Development Laboratory of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
  • DRDO is the R&D wing of the Ministry of Defence.
• It is one of the most sophisticated anti-tank weapon systems  with fire-and-forget anti-tank missiles and sighting 

Doctors in China have transplanted a pig’s liver into a human being through Gene-modified pig-to-human liver xenotransplantation.

• Pig liver did not completely replace the patient’s original liver. 
  • The transplant (termed ‘auxiliary’) can help serve as a ‘bridge organ’ to support people who are waiting for a human donor.

About Xenotransplantation

• It is a  procedure that involves the transplantation, implantation or infusion into a human recipient of either live cells, tissues, or organs from a nonhuman animal source. 
• Advantage: Alternative supply of organs, Reduce shortage of transplantable organs, etc.

Indian Armed Forces (Army, Navy, Air Force) conducted a tri-service integrated multi-domain exercise, Prachand Prahar, in Arunachal Pradesh. 

• It validated integrated planning, command and control, and seamless execution of surveillance and firepower platforms across the three services.

Asian Development Bank-funded Assam Solar Park is opposed by local communities for ‘Green Grabbing’ indigenous land.

About Green Grabbing

• It is the appropriation of land and resources in the name of environmental goals and has emerged as an issue of rising concern. 
• Green grabs occur when land is repurposed for projects like carbon offsetting, biodiversity reserves, afforestation, or clean energy production. 
• They often displace local communities, threaten livelihoods, undermine food security, and erode the local knowledge systems that protect agro-biodiversity.

Kasampatty Sacred Grove is declared as Tamil Nadu (TN)’s second BHS (Arittapatti in Madurai being the first in TN).

• It is located near the Alagarmalai Reserve Forest in Dindigul district. 

About Biodiversity Heritage Site

• BHS are unique, ecologically fragile ecosystems having rich biodiversity comprising - species richness, high endemism, presence of rare, endemic and threatened species, keystone species, etc.
• Notified as per Section 37 (1) of the Biological Diversity Act,2002. 
  • It states that State Government,  in consultation with the local bodies, notify in the Official Gazette, areas of biodiversity importance as BHS.

European Space Agency (ESA) shut down its space observatory mission, GAIA.

About Global Astrometric Interferometer for Astrophysics (GAIA)

• Itis a mission to chart a three-dimensional map of our Galaxy, the Milky Way.
• Gaia was positioned in Lagrange point 2 (L2), around 1.5 million kilometres ‘behind’ the Earth, when viewed from the Sun.
  • Lagrangian Points are locations in space where gravitational forces and the orbital motion of a body balance each other. 
• Objective:  Designed for astrometry (the science of mapping the cosmos) through precise measurement of the location and movement of stars and other celestial bodies.

Recently, DX-EDGE (Digital Excellence for Growth and Enterprise) initiative was launched by CEO, NITI Ayog.  

About DX-EDGE

• Spearheaded By: Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) with the support of NITI Frontier Tech Hub (NITI FTH) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). 
• Aim:  Empowering India’s Micro Small Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to become resilient, competitive, and digitally enabled by leveraging digital technologies and sector-specific strategies. 
  • Empowers academic and technical institutions to play a pivotal role in India’s digital journey by transforming them into Digital Transformation Facilitation Centres (DTFCs).