Daily Current Affairs- 19th September 2025

Daily Current Affairs- 19th September 2025

India & FAO Launch Blue Ports for Smart Fisheries

In the News: India’s Department of Fisheries under the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying signed a Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP) agreement with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to strengthen Blue Ports infrastructure. Under this initiative, three Smart and Integrated Fishing Harbours in Gujarat, Daman & Diu, and Puducherry, are being developed with a combined investment of ₹369.80 crore.

Key Points:

• Programme Launch & Institutional Collaboration: The Government of India (DoF) and FAO have formalized cooperation via the TCP agreement to work on developing Blue Ports. The first webinar under this series was held on 18 September 2025 to share global best practices and build capacity among stakeholders.  
• What are Blue Ports: These are fishing harbors designed to be smart, sustainable, inclusive, integrating advanced technologies while ensuring ecological stewardship. They are intended to transform the post-harvest fisheries infrastructure, improve efficiency, traceability, and reduce environmental footprint.
• Pilot Harbours & Investment: Three Smart and Integrated Fishing Harbours have been approved under this initiative:

Harbour	Location
Vanakbara	Diu
Jakhau	Gujarat
Karaikal	Puducherry

• Total investment: ₹369.80 crore.
• Technology & Infrastructure Components: The Blue Ports will deploy/benefit from:5G, Artificial Intelligence, digital platforms and automation for port operations.Eco-friendly infrastructure: rainwater harvesting, electric-powered equipment, energy-efficient lighting, robust waste management, sewage treatment. Real-time monitoring using sensors, IoT, satellite communication, data analytics.
• Supporting Schemes & Policies: The Blue Ports initiative is aligned with existing Indian programmes:Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) – central scheme for upgrading fisheries and aquaculture infrastructure. Fisheries & Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF) – for financing infrastructure in fisheries sector.
• Webinar & Capacity Building: The first webinar under the Blue Ports framework was conducted to define foundations of Blue Ports, share global models (including a case study of Port of Vigo, Spain), discuss stakeholder roles, and address challenges such as climate resilience, traceability, and energy transition.

Mission Shakti 5.0

In the News: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath launched Mission Shakti 5.0, the fifth phase of the state’s flagship programme for women’s safety, dignity, and empowerment. The month-long campaign coincides with the start of Sharadiya Navratri, and will run for 30 days.

Key Points:

• Start Date & Duration: Mission Shakti 5.0 begins 22 September 2025, aligned with Sharadiya Navratri, and continues for 30 days.
• Objectives: The phase focuses on enhancing women’s safety, dignity, and empowerment through stronger policing, wider outreach, awareness, and interdepartmental coordination. 
• Policing & Visibility Measures:
  • Increased foot patrols by police.
  • Activation of PRV-112 vehicles (Rapid Response Vehicles) constantly on roads.
  • Senior police officers (IGs, DIGs, ADGs etc.) to inspect police lines, join patrols, and engage with public directly. 
• Role of Women Police Personnel & Outreach:
  • Deployment of 44,177 women police personnel.
  • These personnel will be active in 57,000 village panchayats and 14,000 urban wards, engaging women and girls, informing them of their rights, and government schemes.
  • Special deployment in public and religious places, fairs and during festival period for increased safety monitoring.
• Awareness & Legal Rights:
  • Awareness campaigns about women’s rights, government welfare schemes.
  • Use of help lines (like 1090) for women.
  • Legal aid, sensitization, outreach via schools, colleges, and local communities.
• Enforcement & Special Measures:
  • Anti-Romeo squads to take “exemplary action” against offenders, while ensuring sensitivity and targeting actual offenders.
  • Law enforcement to be gender-neutral when acting against offenders.

India-AI Impact Summit 2026

In the News: The Government of India via the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) will host the India-AI Impact Summit 2026 at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi. The summit aims to shift global AI discourse toward impact, especially for development, social good, and inclusive growth.

Key Points:

• Summit Theme & Evolution:  The Summit represents a strategic shift from earlier global summits that centred largely on AI safety, regulation, or governance, toward emphasising measurable impact—how AI can be implemented to bring tangible benefits, particularly in sectors like health, education, agriculture, climate etc.
• Organisers & Stakeholders: Organised by MeitY under the IndiaAI Mission.
  • Participants expected include global leaders, governments, industry players, startups, researchers, civil society, and multilateral organisations.
• Objectives / Key Goals:
  • Democratise access to AI resources (data, compute, models).
  • Promote inclusive development of AI applications that are localised, multilingual, culturally grounded.
  • Use AI for sustainable development (climate resilience, environment) and social good.
  • Build safe, transparent, fair, human-centric, and trusted AI systems.
  • Empower the Global South’s voice in the AI narrative; reduce the “AI divide.”
• Features & Flagship Initiatives:
  • Thematic” structure with identified themes like Democratization of AI, AI for Social Impact, Safe & Trustworthy AI, Global South inclusion, etc.
  • Global hackathons, innovation challenges, an AI Expo, side events, working groups that prepare deliverables & action-plans.
  • Flagship initiatives include support for startups, local foundational AI models, fellowship programmes, lab networks, etc. 
• Preparatory Steps & Stakeholder Input: Public consultations held in June 2025 with over 300 stakeholders to shape themes, formats. Calls for proposals / side events and partnerships aligned with thematic areas.

Australia sets a new emissions reduction target of 62% by 2035 under the Paris Agreement, aligning with global climate goals amid domestic risk warnings.

In the News: The Australian government led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a new emissions reduction target: 62-70% below 2005 levels by 2035. This builds on Australia’s previous target of 43% reduction by 2030, and reaffirms its commitment to reach net zero by 2050.

Key Points:

• New Target & Baseline: Australia will aim to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 62-70% below 2005 levels by the year 2035. 
• Connection with Existing Goals:
  • The target is part of the trajectory to achieve already legislated goals: a 43% reduction by 2030 and net zero by 2050.
  • The plan accompanies the release of the “Net Zero Plan,” which outlines sectoral pathways and policy levers to achieve the 2035 goal.
• Advice & Analysis:
  • The Climate Change Authority provided advice recommending the 62-70% range.
  • Modelling by CSIRO and other bodies under different scenarios suggests that while the upper end (70%) is more challenging, it is technically feasible. 
• Implementation Policies / Measures: Some of the key policies and measures to meet the target include:
  • Strengthening the Safeguard Mechanism to lower emissions from large industrial emitters. Promoting electrification and efficiency.
  • Expanding clean fuels and clean technology, including for transport and industry.
  • Boosting investment in things like home energy storage (batteries), EV infrastructure, industrial decarbonisation. 
• Economic and Social Dimensions / Risk Warnings:
  • Treasury and the Climate Change Authority modelling warn that failing to manage the transition smoothly could pose risks to living standards, especially in a “disorderly transition” scenario.
  • On the positive side, the baseline and upside scenarios project significant economic benefits: growth in GDP, new jobs, reduced electricity costs etc.
  • There is also concern over the credibility of the targets from opposition, industry, and environmental groups, with debates over whether the 62% lower bound is strong enough.
• International & Paris Agreement Context:
  • The target update is part of Australia’s updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), as required under the Paris Agreement’s cycle of increasing ambition.
  • Australia claims that this range of ambition is among higher ones for advanced economies.

2025 World Trade Report

In the News: The 2025 World Trade Report published by the World Trade Organization examines how Artificial Intelligence (AI) interacts with international trade, exploring both the opportunities and risks. It highlights projections up to 2040 and urges policy action to ensure benefits are shared broadly.

Key Points:

• Theme & Focus:
  • The central theme of the report is “Making trade and AI work together to the benefit of all.”
  •  It looks at how AI technologies could transform trade in goods and services, but also warns of inequalities that might arise if gaps in policy, technology, infrastructure aren’t addressed.
• Projected Impacts by 2040: 
  • Global trade (goods + services) could increase by 34-37% relative to scenarios with less AI uptake.
  •  Global GDP could rise by 12-13% across various scenarios, depending on how fast countries adopt AI and bridge digital divides. 
• Risks & Challenges:
  • Without inclusive policies, AI may deepen the economic divide between high-income and low- or middle-income countries.
  • Digital infrastructure gaps (access to compute, connectivity, data), regulation, and skills are key constraints.
  • Regulatory fragmentation among countries could reduce the potential benefits.
• Policy Implications / Recommendations:
  • Need for policies that support access to data, compute resources, AI-friendly regulation, skills development, especially in developing economies.
  • International cooperation to manage trade rules in a world where AI is more embedded in trade workflows.
  • Address issues of fairness, transparency, trust, and ethical use of AI in trade contexts.
• Scenarios & Variants:

• The report models different scenarios depending on how much “policy catch-up” and technology uptake occurs.
• In the “fast catch-up / inclusive” scenario, outcomes are far better; in slower or more unequal uptake, gains are much more modest.
• Emphasis that effects will vary by country and sector; some will gain more than others.

Vyommitra: ISRO’s AI Half-Humanoid for Gaganyaan

In the News: ISRO Chairman V. Narayanan announced that Vyommitra, an AI-enabled half-humanoid robot, will be aboard the uncrewed test mission of Gaganyaan scheduled for December 2025. The robot is to simulate human presence in the spacecraft and help validate life-support, environment, and safety systems ahead of sending astronauts.

Key Points:

• What is Vyommitra:  Vyommitra is a “half-humanoid” robot designed by ISRO. It has only upper body components (head, torso, arms) and no lower limbs.  The name comes from Sanskrit: Vyoma = “space”, Mitra = “friend”.
•  Purpose & Role in Gaganyaan Mission:  To test and monitor spacecraft systems including life support, environmental controls (temperature, pressure, humidity, CO₂ levels), avionics, safety mechanisms.  To simulate human functions (from the upper body) in microgravity and check responses of spacecraft systems before carrying humans.
• Timeline: The first uncrewed Gaganyaan mission carrying Vyommitra is expected in December 2025.  The crewed Gaganyaan flight (with human astronauts, “Gaganyatris”) is planned for early 2027.
• Technological & Safety Features:
  • Vyommitra will help test environmental hazards (temperature, pressure, humidity, CO₂) and give warnings if parameters deviate.
  • The mission includes an escape system for safety, and the spacecraft will use nine parachutes to aid splash-down in the sea.
• Partners & Institutions: The development involves not just ISRO but also support from other Indian institutions like the Indian Air Force, Navy, DRDO etc.

India Records First Half-Year CO₂ Emission Drop in 2025

In the News: A report by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), for Carbon Brief, showed that India’s power-sector carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions fell by about 1% year-on-year in the first half of 2025 (January-June) compared to the same period in 2024 — marking only the second such drop in almost 50 years.

Key Points:

• Scale & Sector:
  • The drop is specifically in the power / electricity sector, which contributes roughly 40% of India’s annual greenhouse gas emissions.
  • It’s a sectoral half-year drop (first time outside COVID years) rather than whole economy.
• Contributors to the Emission Decline: Lower electricity demand growth — milder summer weather and above-normal rainfall (especially pre-monsoon) reduced need for air conditioning, etc.
•  Expansion of clean energy / non-fossil power capacity — India added 25.1 GW of non-fossil capacity in Jan-June 2025, up ~69% over same period last year.
• Higher hydropower output — helped by abundant rainfall, increased hydropower generation also contributed.
• Electricity Generation vs Fossil Generation:
  • Total power generation rose by ~9 TWh compared to first half of 2024.
  •  Yet fossil-fuel generation fell by ~29 TWh.
  • Clean sources increased: solar up ~17 TWh;
  • wind up ~9 TWh;
  •  hydropower ~9 TWh;
  • nuclear ~3 TWh. 
• Other Sectors & Emission Trends:
  • Oil product demand growth stalled (i.e. nearly zero growth in oil sector) in the first half of 2025, compared to previous growth rates.
  •  However, emissions from steel and cement production rose (by ~7-10%) due to infrastructure investment.

Marium Fatima Becomes Bihar’s First Woman FIDE Master

In the News: Marium Fatima of Muzaffarpur, Bihar, made history by becoming the first woman from Bihar to earn the Woman FIDE Master (WFM) title, awarded by FIDE (the International Chess Federation).

Key Points:

• Who is Marium Fatima & Origin: She is from Muzaffarpur, Bihar. Started chess very young — in class 3 — in St. Xavier’s Kindergarten, Muzaffarpur.
• Achievement & Title Details: She has become the first Woman FIDE Master (WFM) from Bihar. Her current FIDE rating is 2083.
• Chessing Journey & Training:  Early coaching came through her school; later, her father arranged regular coaching in Patna under coaches like Minhazul Hoda and Kumar Gaurav.  She won several state-level age-group tournaments (under-7, under-9, under-17, under-19).
• Significance & Recognition: This is a historic achievement for Bihar’s chess community.  The Director General of the Bihar State Sports Authority, Ravindran Shankaran, has officially congratulated her