Daily Current Affairs – 17-02-2025
Tamil Nadu
Republic Day
celebrations
®
India celebrated its 76th Republic Day with the theme ‘ Swarnim Bharat: Virasat aur Vikas ’.
®
The Republic Day parade included 31 tableaus from 16 states/UTs and 10 central government ministries/departments.
®
The tableau of Haryana focused on the Bhagavad Gita .
®
The tableau of Uttar Pradesh focused on the Mahakumbh 2025 .
®
For the first time, a tri-services tableau was displayed, representing the coordinated efforts of India’s three armed forces.
®
Three government school bands (including two all-girl teams) performed for the first time at the parade.
®
200 artists performed the Sinhtoo dance, a folk dance from Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh, for the first time.
®
DRDO displayed its innovations for national security, including the Pralay missile (a short-range tactical missile).
®
The celebrations concluded with the Beating Retreat ceremony at Vijay Chowk, New Delhi .
India celebrates
76th Republic Day
®
India celebrated its 76th Republic Day at Kartavya Path in New Delhi .
®
The event’s theme was ‘ Swarnim Bharat: Virasat aur Vikas ’ (Golden India: Heritage and Development).
®
The event displayed India’s military strength, cultural heritage, and development.
®
Prabowo Subianto , the President of Indonesia , was the Chief Guest of the event.
®
A 148-member all-woman marching contingent of the Central Reserve Police Force also participated in the parade.
MoMSME enables
MSMEs to join ONDC
®
The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MoMSME) has partnered with the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) to onboard small and micro enterprises (SMEs) onto the network.
®
They had launched Trade Enablement, Marketing (TEAM) Initiative designed to help Small,
and Micro Enterprises (SMEs) join ONDC.
®
This initiative, aims to onboard 5 lakh MSMEs , with 50% being women -led businesses over 3 years.
Samman Sanjeevani
app launched
®
The Haryana government has launched the ‘ Samman Sanjeevani ’ app on National Girl Child Day 2025.
®
The app aims to improve the efficiency of the ‘ Mahila Evam Kishori Samman Yojana ’.
®
The scheme provides essential services like sanitary napkins to Below Poverty Line (BPL) women and girls aged 10-45.
RBI report on State Finances
® According to the RBI ‘s “State Finances: A Study of Budgets of 2024-25” report, the total Gross Fiscal Deficit (GFD) of states remained within 3% of GDP for three consecutive years (FY22-FY24).
® Revenue deficit was limited to 0.2% of GDP in FY23 and FY24.
® States have estimated a GFD
of 3.2% of GDP in FY25, compared to 2.8% in FY24.
Highest GFD states:
® Arunachal Pradesh
® Himachal Pradesh
® Sikkim
® Tripura
Lowest GFDs:
® Gujarat
® Maharashtra
® Capital expenditure increased to 2.8% in FY24 and is budgeted at 3.1% in FY25.
® The overall debt of states decreased to 28.5% at the end of March 2024.
® The total outstanding debt of state-owned Electricity Distribution Companies ( DISCOMs ) increased at an average annual rate of 8.7% to ₹6.5 lakh crore in FY23 ( 2.4% of GDP).
® Revenue expenditure of states is estimated to increase to ₹47.5 trillion in FY25 (14.6% of GDP), compared to ₹39.9 trillion (13.5% of GDP) in FY24.
® The average buoyancy of states’ own tax increased to 1.4 (FY21-FY25).
®
States’ dependence on market borrowings increased to 79% of GFD in FY25.
®
Gross market borrowings of states and UTs increased by 32.8% to ₹10.07 trillion in FY24.
India State of Forest Report
2023
® The 18th edition of the “India State of Forest Report (ISFR 2023)”
at the Forest Research Institute
(FRI) in Dehradun, Uttarakhand was released by Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change .
® The report states that the total forest and tree cover of India in 2023 was 827,357 sq km ( 25.17%
of the geographical area).
Largest forest and tree cover:
® Madhya Pradesh
® Arunachal Pradesh
® Maharashtra
® Chhattisgarh saw the highest increase ( 683.62 sq km ) in forest and tree cover (1,445 sq km overall).
® Madhya Pradesh saw the highest decrease (612.41 sq km).
® Lakshadweep has the largest forest cover percentage (91.33%).
Highest Forest cover:
® Madhya Pradesh (77,073 sq km)
® Arunachal Pradesh
® Chhattisgarh
Highest tree cover:
® Maharashtra
® Rajasthan
® Uttar Pradesh
® The Northeastern region’s total forest and tree cover is 174,394.7 sq km (67% of the geographical area).
® Mangrove cover was 4,991.68 sq km (0.15% of the total area).
® 203,544 fire points were detected in 2023-24, with Uttarakhand reporting the highest number.
® Growing stock increased by 4.25%
to 6,429.64 M m³, with Arunachal Pradesh
having the highest (457.83 M m³).
® Bamboo-bearing area is estimated at 154,670 sq km .
® Total carbon stock in forests is estimated at 7,285.5 million tonnes .
India’s Flood and Drought Risk
Map
® IIT Guwahati , in partnership with IIT Mandi and the Centre for Study of Science, Technology, and Policy (CSTEP), has released a report titled “District-Level Climate Risk Assessment for India: Mapping Flood and Drought Risks Using the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Framework” .
® The report assessed flood and drought risks across 698 districts in India.
® The report was prepared with support from the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
® 11 districts are at ‘Very High’ risk for both floods and droughts, which includes Patna (Bihar), Alappuzha (Kerala), Kendrapara (Odisha); Murshidabad, etc.
FAO report
® According to the FAO’s “Global Status of Salt-Affected Soils” report, about 1.4 billion hectares (10.7% of global land area) is salt-affected.
® This is the first major global assessment in 50 years which was launched during the International Soil and Water Forum 2024 in Bangkok, Thailand.
® India has approximately 6.72 million hectares of salt-affected soils.
® About 10% of irrigated and rain-fed cropland in India is salt-affected.
® Afghanistan, Australia, the United States of America (USA), Iran, Argentina, China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Sudan and Uzbekistan account for 70% of the world’s salt-affected soils.
® Australia (357 mha) has the largest area affected by salinity ( 357 million ha ).
® Oman (93.5%) is the most affected country by salinity and sodicity (93.5%).
® In India, about 20% of agricultural land is affected by salt or sodicity, with 17% of irrigated land affected by secondary salinization.
® Gujarat , Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, and Rajasthan account for about 75% of India’s salt-affected soils (Gujarat alone accounts for 2.23 million ha).