Daily Current Affairs- 12th June 2025

Daily Current Affairs- 12th June 2025

Air India Boeing 787 Crash in Ahmedabad Claims Over 240 Lives

In the News – A Boeing 787‑8 Dreamliner operated by Air India, Flight AI 171 en route from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick, crashed shortly after takeoff from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, resulting in a catastrophic loss of life and one miraculous survivor.

• Incident Details: The aircraft departed at 1:38 pm local time and reached approximately 625 feet in altitude before it descended rapidly and collided with the hostel block of B.J. Medical College, located in the Meghani Nagar neighbourhood near the airport. The crash happened within roughly 30 seconds of takeoff, generating a massive explosion and thick black smoke visible across the area.
• Casualties: Flight records indicate there were 242 people on board, comprised of 230 passengers (including 169 Indian nationals, 53 British citizens, seven Portuguese, and one Canadian) and 12 crew members. Officials have reported 241 onboard fatalities and at least 28 additional deaths on the ground—primarily students in the hostel—bringing the total death toll to at least 269. One British passenger, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, seated at an emergency exit row (11A), survived with minor injuries after escaping through an exit window.
• Rescue and Response: Emergency services, including fire engines, ambulances, and army personnel, were dispatched immediately, and roads were sealed to facilitate rescue efforts. At least 60 injured people were taken to hospitals, while DNA profiling has been used to identify the severely damaged remains .
• Investigation Underway: The crash is being investigated by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau with technical assistance from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, the U.K. Air Accidents Investigation Branch, and Boeing. Investigators have retrieved one of the aircraft’s black box flight recorders. Initial tracking data indicates the plane failed to climb and issued a mayday call before descending, but investigators caution that the ultimate cause may take years to determine.
• Aircraft Background: This marks the first fatal accident involving a Boeing 787 Dreamliner since the model’s commercial debut, surprising aviation experts given its otherwise strong safety record. U.S. authorities have indicated there is no immediate reason to ground the 787 fleet. 

India’s First Underwater Museum to Be Built Around INS Guldar in Maharashtra

In the News: The Indian Navy has officially handed over one of its decommissioned vessels, INS Guldar, to the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) as part of a project to convert the ship into India’s very first underwater museum and artificial coral reef. The handover took place at Karwar on 21 February 2025. 

Key Facts:

• Location & Scope The underwater museum is slated to be established off Nivati Rocks, near Vengurla in Sindhudurg district, Maharashtra. The initiative, funded by the central government, involves an investment of ₹46.91 crore, approved by the Union Tourism Ministry .
• Ship Details & Timeline INS Guldar is a Polnocny‑class Landing Ship Tank (Medium), constructed in Poland and commissioned into the Indian Navy on 30 December 1985. It served for approximately 39 years before being decommissioned on 12 January 2024. Over its service, the vessel completed more than 3,900 days at sea and undertook over 490 beaching operations, aiding in troop landings.
• Conversion Process MTDC will undertake the full conversion, starting with rigorous environmental cleaning to remove all pollutants and hazardous materials. The procedure will adhere to marine conservation guidelines, secure required NOCs, and ensure thorough scuttling at a safe location near Sindhudurg.
• Tourism & Conservation Objectives The project is designed to enhance marine biodiversity by creating an artificial reef and to support eco-tourism, including scuba diving and potential submarine expeditions. It will also provide advantages for the Indian Navy, offering a platform for underwater diving training. 

India Slips to 131st in WEF Gender Gap Index 2025

In the News: On June 12, 2025, the World Economic Forum published its Global Gender Gap Report 2025, which ranks India at 131st out of 148 countries. India’s overall gender parity score increased slightly to 64.4%, yet its rank dropped from 129th in 2024—a decline attributed to faster improvements in other countries. 

Key Points:

• India’s overall gender parity score improved by 0.3 percentage points, rising to 4%, while its ranking fell by two places from 129th to 131st because other nations advanced more rapidly.
• Under the Economic Participation and Opportunity sub-index, India’s score increased by 9 percentage points, reaching 40.7%, driven by higher estimated earned income parity (from 28.6% to 29.9%) and sustained labour-force participation parity at 45.9%, the highest on record.
• In the Educational Attainment dimension, India achieved 1% parity, reflecting progress in female literacy and tertiary education enrolment.
• The Health and Survival sub-index also showed high parity, bolstered by improved sex ratio at birth and healthy life expectancy, even though overall life expectancy declined.
• The Political Empowerment sub-index declined by 6 percentage points, as the share of female Members of Parliament dropped from 14.7% to 13.8%, and women in ministerial positions decreased from 6.5% to 5.6%.
• Regionally, India ranks among the lowest in South Asia, trailing Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, with Bangladesh leading at 24th
• At the global level, the average gender gap closed to 8% in 2025, marking the largest annual gain since the COVID‑19 pandemic, although full gender parity is still projected to take around 123 years. 

2025 State of World Population Report

In the News: On 10 June 2025, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) released its State of World Population 2025, titled “The Real Fertility Crisis: The Pursuit of Reproductive Agency in a Changing World”. The report highlights a global crisis in unmet reproductive desires caused by economic, social, and gendered barriers. 

Key Points:

• According to the findings, one in five people worldwide expect not to have the number of children they desire, due to financial hardship, job instability, housing costs, and concerns over climate change and future prospects.
• The report makes a clear distinction that the global fertility crisis stems from a lack of reproductive choice, rather than a reduced desire for parenthood, with nearly 39% of respondents attributing constrained choices to financial reasons.
• The UNFPA/YouGov survey presented in the report shows that women are nearly twice as likely as men to cite unequal domestic workloads as a deterrent to parenthood, and both genders express high levels of anxiety about future uncertainties.
• The report criticizes coercive demographic policies and states that neither financial incentives, such as baby bonuses, nor restrictions on reproductive rights have effectively addressed the fertility decline and could be counterproductive.
• Under its demographic analysis, the report indicates that global fertility rates have fallen below the replacement threshold in over half of countries, with rapid declines across both high-income countries (such as Japan, the UK, and the US) and emerging economies (like South Korea, Thailand, Colombia, and Sri Lanka).
• From a demographic transition standpoint, the report projects that the world population is expected to peak within this century before starting to decline, emphasizing that one-quarter of people now live in countries where population numbers have already peaked.
• Focusing on India, the report states that the country’s population reached 46 billion by April 2025 and has already surpassed China. It also records a steep decline in its total fertility rate (TFR), which has decreased from nearly 5 children per woman in 1970 to 1.9 in 2025, placing it below the replacement threshold. 

Brazil and France Initiate the Blue NDC Challenge at UNOC3 in Nice

In the News: On 10 June 2025, during the opening of the third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) in Nice, France, Brazil and France jointly launched the “Blue NDC Challenge”, urging all signatory countries to integrate ocean-focused climate actions into their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) ahead of UNFCCC COP30 scheduled for November in Belém, Brazil.

Key Points:

• The Blue NDC Challenge is a multilateral global initiative, co-founded by Brazil and France, designed to incentivize nations to centre the ocean in their climate strategies by prioritizing its inclusion in NDCs under the Paris Agreement.
• Eight countries—including Australia, Fiji, Kenya, Mexico, Palau, Seychelles, France, and Brazil—have already committed to participating in the initiative by incorporating marine actions such as sustainable fisheries, offshore renewable energy, blue carbon ecosystems and coastal restoration into their NDCs.
• Brazil’s Minister for the Environment and Climate Change, Marina Silva, emphasized that this initiative enables Brazil to enhance ocean-related climate efforts by integrating ecosystems like mangroves and coral reefs and marine spatial planning into its climate commitments—a first under its updated NDC submitted in November 2024.
• The initiative promotes a suite of ocean-based climate strategies, including the sustainable management and restoration of marine ecosystems, phasing out offshore fossil fuels, expansion of clean ocean energy (such as tidal, wave, and offshore wind), and strengthening maritime sector resilience—including fisheries, shipping, and tidal power across the participating countries.
• The urgency of the initiative is underscored by the fact that out of 195 parties to the Paris Agreement, only 21–22 countries had submitted updated NDCs by early June 2025, despite a February 2025 deadline for the third NDC submissions ahead of COP30.
• Support for the Blue NDC Challenge is being provided through partnerships with key organizations including Ocean Conservancy, the Ocean and Climate Platform, the World Resources Institute via the Ocean Resilience and Climate Alliance (ORCA), the Global Mangrove Alliance, the NDC Partnership, and WWF-Brazil.
• Experts highlight that ocean-based solutions could contribute up to 35% of the global emissions reductions necessary to limit warming to 5°C, reinforcing the critical role oceans play in both climate mitigation and resilience. 

Environment Ministry’s forest committee clears Arunachal’s Etalin hydel project

In the News: On June 11, 2025, the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) under India’s Environment Ministry granted in-principle forest clearance to the 3,097 MW Etalin hydropower project in Dibang Valley, Arunachal Pradesh. This key decision allows diversion of 1,175 hectares of forest land and the felling of approximately 278,000 trees, despite earlier ecological concerns.

Key Points:

• The Etalin project, one of India’s largest proposed hydel ventures, will operate as a run-of-the-river facility on the Dri (locally Dibang) and Talo rivers and it does not involve large-scale storage reservoirs.
• In its earlier review dated December 2022, the FAC had rejected the proposal, citing inadequate biodiversity studies and requesting fresh multi-seasonal and cumulative impact assessments; however, the new clearance was granted using existing reports, including a Wildlife Institute of India study conducted over four months.
• The clearance allows for diversion of 1,175.03 hectares of (mostly community) forest and the cutting down of approximately 78 lakh trees, despite the region’s designation as a high conservation value area rich in biodiversity.
• The Dibang Valley forest, set to be impacted, is home to endangered species, including tigers, snow leopards, black bears, alpine musk deer, and around 680 bird species, of which several are critically endangered, endangered, or vulnerable.
• Since 2014, the Etalin proposal has undergone six FAC reviews; its latest approval was issued after the Arunachal Pradesh government addressed earlier concerns to the FAC’s satisfaction, leading to the clearance being granted subject to general, standard, and specific conditions.