Daily Current Affairs for UPSC IAS: 28th February 2025

Accredited Social Health Activist:

ASHA workers have been on an indefinite stir in front of the Kerala government secretariat over the last several days demanding an increase of their monthly remuneration to Rs 21,000, retirement benefit of Rs 5 lakh and other basic benefits.

• ASHA is a trained female community health activist.
• The ASHA program is funded by the National Rural Health Mission (NHRM) in an effort to promote public health awareness amongst local, rural populations, and increase the utilization and accountability of existing health services.
• Selected from the community itself and accountable to it, the ASHA worker is trained to work as an interface between the community and the public health system.
• They Act as a care provider at the community level
• They Facilitating access to healthcare, medicine, and sanitation services
• They Raising the level of awareness of health issues among the marginalised sections within the community
• They Advocate for female health and hygiene standards
• They Advocate for a health-conscious behaviour and approach to livelihood
• The ASHA scheme is presently in place in all States/UTs (except Goa).
• The States are mandated to employ at least one ASHA worker per every 1000 people.
• They receive basic public health training and are equipped with a standard drug kit, which allows them to deliver first-contact healthcare.
• They are chosen through a rigorous process of selection involving various community groups, self-help groups, Anganwadi Institutions, Block Nodal officer, District Nodal officer, the village Health Committee, and the Gram Sabha.
• On average, an ASHA worker’s monthly income varies from Rs 2,000 per month to Rs 7,000 per month, depending on the state.she is eligible for incentives offered under various national health programmes.

Cholanaikkan Tribe : New Scope

In a novel attempt to provide education to a bed-ridden girl belonging to the Cholanaikkan tribe, the Samagra Shiksha Kerala programme of the general education department has prepared 30 audio-visual texts in the tribe’s own distinct language.

• They are a diminishing tribe of India. With a population of less than 400 members, it is one of the most isolated tribes.
• They reside deep inside the Karulai and Chungathara forest ranges of Western Ghats.
• This is in the Nilambur region of the Malappuram district in Kerala.
• They are classified as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG).
• The community prefers to stay isolated and away from both agrarian and urban lifestyles.
• They are among those unique tribes that still depend largely on forest produce for their survival.
• Also known as “Caveman of Kerala”, even to the present date, they use natural caves as a safe dwelling space in the forest.
• The community speaks a distinct Dravidian language called Cholanaikkan.

Mount Fentale:

Mount Fentale volcano in Ethiopia is spewing unusually large volumes of methane from its crater, according to satellite measurements of the potent greenhouse gas.

• It is a stratovolcano located in Awash National Park in the Oromia Region, Ethiopia.
• It rises approximately 600 m from the floor of the Rift Valley, and the lavas of the volcano cover an oval area of approximately 100 sq km.
• An elliptical caldera, approximately 6 km in diameter, dominates the upper portion of the volcano.
• A magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit under Fentale volcano on 14 February 2025.
• It is the strongest earthquake to strike Ethiopia since 1989.
• The stratovolcano is a tall, steep, and cone-shaped type of volcano.
• Unlike flat shield volcanoes like in Hawaii, they have higher peaks.
• At the peak, stratovolcanoes usually have a small crater.
• Stratovolcanoes build up on height by layering lava, ash, and tephra. By definition, they have alternating layers of pyroclastics and lava.

Petrification:

Geologists and forest officials recently unearthed a rare and well-preserved petrified fossil at Rajmahal Hills near Barmasia village in Pakur district, Jharkhand.

• Petrification (petros means stone) occurs when the organic matter is completely replaced by minerals and the fossil is turned to stone.
• This generally occurs by filling the pores of the tissue and inter- and intracellular spaces with minerals, then dissolving the organic matter and replacing it with minerals.
• This method reproduces the original tissue in every This kind of fossilization occurs in both hard and soft tissues.
• This typically occurs when the material is buried under sediment and exposed to mineral-rich water over long periods.
• This process is involved in many forms of fossilization and leaves behind many stunning and beautifully preserved fossils.

Svalbard Global Seed Vault:

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault received more than 14,000 new seed samples.

• It is the largest backup facility for the world’s crop diversity.
• Svalbard is the Norwegian archipelago half way between the Northern pole and Mainland Norway.
• The Seed Vault’s objective is to safeguard as much of the world’s unique crop genetic material as possible while also avoiding unnecessary duplication.
• It offers free-of-charge, long-term storage of seed duplicates from international, national and regional gene banks and institutions.
• The ownership of the seeds remains with the depositing gene bank. In the Seed Vault they are stored under so called black box conditions, meaning that only the institution that deposited the seeds has access and is allowed to withdraw them.
• It was set deep inside a mountain to withstand disasters from nuclear war to global warming, in 2008 as a backup for the world’s gene banks that store the genetic code for thousands of plant species.
• It has the capacity to store 4.5 million varieties of crops.
• The facility serves a humanitarian purpose and is part of the international system for conserving plant genetic diversity guided by the UN organisation for Food and Agriculture (FAO).

Kundi Water Harvest System:

The Kundi traditional Water Harvest System is an excellent example of how local knowledge and architectural ingenuity can address environmental challenges in water scarce region.

• The kundi (also known as a kund) is a traditional rainwater harvesting system that is predominantly found in desert regions in Rajasthan, India.
• This system is designed to capture and store rainwater, which is crucial in arid and semi-arid areas where water is scarce and rainfall is unpredictable.
• It consists of a deep, circular or rectangular pit that is either dug into the ground or constructed above ground.
• It is usually lined with stones, bricks, or other materials to reinforce the structure and prevent seepage.
• The pit is often covered with a lid or stone slab to prevent contamination from debris and to reduce evaporation.
• Rainwater is collected through channels or from rooftops, and then funneled into the kundi, where it is stored for use during the dry season.
• It serves as an efficient method of water conservation, particularly in places where surface water is limited, and access to groundwater is difficult.
• It helps to ensure that water is available for drinking, irrigation, and other domestic purposes when rainfall is scarce.

Cali Fund:

The ‘Cali Fund’ was launched at the resumed 16th Conference of Parties (COP16) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Rome.

• It is a new international fund has been created to help protect biodiversity.
• It will collect money from private companies. These companies use genetic data from nature in their businesses.
• The Cali Fund will receive money from businesses that rely on Digital Sequence Information (DSI).
• DSI includes genetic data from plants, animals, and microorganisms. Industries like pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, agriculture, and biotechnology use DSI to develop products.
• Under this new system, they will now have to contribute a part of their revenue to support biodiversity efforts.
• The money collected will be used in several ways.
• It will support biodiversity conservation projects, help developing countries implement their biodiversity action plans, and fund scientific research to improve how genetic data is stored and used.
• At least 50 per cent of its resources will go to indigenous peoples and local communities, recognising their crucial role in protecting nature.
• This is the first time that a global biodiversity fund under the UN will receive direct contributions from businesses.
• This fund will be managed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Environment Programme.
• This marks an important step in ensuring industries benefiting from biodiversity also contribute to its conservation.
• It is seen as a key step towards meeting the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) goal of stopping and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030.

SPHEREx Telescope:

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is tentatively scheduled to launch its new megaphone-shaped space telescope aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

• The Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) telescope is a megaphone-shaped telescope.
• Tenure: 2 year
• It will map the universe while detecting two kinds of cosmic light, optical and infrared.
• It will measure something called cosmic inflation.
• Cosmic inflation refers to a period which took place around 14 billion years ago, during which the universe expanded faster than the speed of light for a fraction of a second.
• It will help better understand things about the formation of the universe, the growth of all galaxies across cosmic history, and the location of water and life-forming molecules in the Milky Way galaxy.
• It will use spectroscopic images to measure the 3D positions of about 450 million galaxies across cosmic history.
• It will complement the work being done by other infrared telescopes in space, such as the James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope.
• Mapping the whole sky enables astronomers to identify promising regions for life and gather large-scale data to separate meaningful patterns from anomalies, making this mission a transformative step in the search for life beyond Earth.
• One can determine the necessary conditions to form biogenic molecules in space. In turn, this can tell about a crucial step in how life came to be.

National Green Financing Institution:

The Government is working to set up a National Green Financing Institution to aggregate green finance from different sources and lower the cost of capital to support its net-zero target by 2070.NITI Aayog is evaluating models like NaBFID/NABARD, IREDA, Green InvITs, and global Green Banks for a National Green Financing Institution. Climate change could lead to an estimated 10% loss in total economic value and up to 18% of global GDP wiped out by 2050. This economic threat is particularly severe for India, which aims to grow its economy to USD 10 trillion by 2030.

Disaster Risk and Resilience Assessment Framework (DRRAF):

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in collaboration with the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) has launched a report on the Disaster Risk and Resilience Assessment Framework (DRRAF). The report, part of CDRI’s study on National and Sub-national Disaster Risk & Resilience Assessment, aims to enhance the resilience of India’s telecom sector against natural disasters. DRRAF: Developed by CDRI, DoT, and NDMA, DDRAF adopts a system-scale approach covering all connectivity levels and regions. It aims to reduce infrastructure damage, financial losses, and enhance emergency connectivity and service restoration aligning with the Early Warnings for All (EW4All) by 2027’ initiative. EW4All was launched by the UN in 2022 to ensure global protection from climate-related disasters through early warning systems by year 2027.

Death Anniversary of VD Savarkar:

The Prime Minister paid tributes to VD Savarkar on his death anniversary on 26th February 2025. He passed away in Mumbai on 26th February 1966.VD Savarkar was a nationalist, revolutionary, and writer who played a key role in India’s independence and shaped nationalist ideology .Founded Abhinav Bharat Society (Young India Society, 1904): A secret revolutionary group advocating armed resistance against British rule.

NSO Time Use Survey 2024:

The National Statistics Office (NSO), under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), has released Time Use Survey (TUS) 2024, the second such nationwide survey after the first conducted in 2019. The survey highlights rising women’s employment, greater male caregiving, and increased leisure time, signaling evolving gender roles in India.75% of males and 25% of females (aged 15-59 years) participated in employment-related activities in 2024, compared to 70.9% males and 21.8% females in 2019. 41% of women participated in caregiving compared to 21.4% of men in the 15-59 age group.

94th Martyrdom Day of Chandra Shekhar Azad:

Political leaders across parties paid heartfelt tributes to freedom fighter Chandra Shekhar Azad on his 94th martyrdom day on 27th February 2025.Chandra Shekhar Azad was a revolutionary freedom fighter known for his bravery, and his commitment to never being captured alive by the British.He was deeply impacted by the Jallianwala Bagh massacre (1919) and joined the freedom struggle at a young age. Joined NCM (1921) as a student and became a key member of the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) after Gandhiji suspended NCM in 1922.

Gallantry Award for ICG Personnel:

The Defence Minister conferred gallantry, distinguished service, and meritorious service medals to Indian Coast Guard (ICG) personnel for their exemplary service.They honor bravery in the Armed Forces, other forces, and civilians and are announced on Republic Day and Independence Day. Order of precedence of the Award: Param Vir Chakra, Ashoka Chakra, Mahavir Chakra, Kirti Chakra, Vir Chakra, and Shaurya Chakra. ICG is a maritime security force responsible for enforcing maritime laws and operates under the Ministry of Defence.

Spinal Muscular Atrophy : First Person To Be Treated

A 2.5-year-old girl is the first person in the world to receive treatment for Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) before birth.SMA is a genetic disorder affecting motor neurons, leading to progressive muscle weakening due to SMN1 (survivor motor neuron 1) gene mutation and protein deficiency. It affects one in every 10,000 births, making it a leading genetic cause of infant and child mortality. SMA occurs when both parents pass SMN1 gene mutations; they are usually carriers without symptoms. It primarily affects muscles, which don’t receive signals from nerve cells. Symptoms:Weakness in voluntary muscles (shoulders, hips, thighs), respiratory and swallowing difficulties, etc.

Japan-India-Africa Forum:

External Affairs Minister emphasized India’s commitment to Africa through capacity-building, skill development, and infrastructure investment, unlike extractive economic models.A trilateral economic and strategic platform promoting investment, trade, and development projects across Africa. Facilitates collaboration between India, Japan, and African nations to drive infrastructure, digital transformation, and human capital development.The initiative evolved from India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS) and Japan’s TICAD (Tokyo International Conference on African Development). Gained momentum in 2021 with the Japan-India-Africa Growth Corridor discussions.

Madhya Pradesh Chief released 10 gharials into the Chambal river:

Madhya Pradesh Chief released 10 gharials into the Chambal river at the National Chambal Gharial Sanctuary in Morena.Gharials is a freshwater crocodile belonging to the Crocodylia Order and Crocodylidae Family. Its range spanned the rivers of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan. Their major population occurs in three tributaries of the Ganga River: the Chambal and Girwa Rivers in India and the Rapti-Naryani River in Nepal. The Gharial reserves of India are located in three States: Uttar Pradesh, Madhya

India – UK Free Trade Agreement:

India and the UK have resumed negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) after an eight-month gap, with 14 rounds of talks completed since January 2022. An FTA is a pact between two or more countries to reduce or eliminate import duties on a majority of traded goods.It also aims to minimize non-tariff barriers, facilitate trade in services, and enhance bilateral investments.India has signed 13 FTAs and 6 preferential trade agreements, with a recent focus on western partners like the UK, EU, and US to expand exports and enhance trade relations.

Gold Card Visa:

The US is set to reintroduce its EB-5 visa program as the “Gold Card” visa, requiring a $5 million investment for a green card and path to citizenship.An investment visa allows individuals to obtain residency or citizenship in a foreign country by making financial investments. These visas are commonly referred to as Golden Visas, offering long-term residency, tax benefits, and business opportunities.

Delimitation Exercise:

Union Home Minister assured that no parliamentary seats will be reduced in South Indian states after the proposed delimitation exercise, countering Tamil Nadu CM concerns.Delimitation refers to fixing the number of seats and defining the boundaries of parliamentary and legislative assembly constituencies in each state. It ensures proportional representation based on population while determining reserved seats for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs).Delimitation Commission is established under an act of Parliament.It is a high-powered body, whose orders cannot be challenged in any court. The Election Commission assists in the process.