UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | December 29, 2025 to January 4, 2026

UPSC Current Affairs Pointers brings you essential current affairs of the past week, every Monday, to aid you in your Prelims and Mains preparation of UPSC, State PCS, and other competitive examinations.

Government supporters display posters of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, right, and former President Hugo Chávez in downtown Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Maduro had been captured and flown out of the country. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

— US President Donald Trump on 3rd January claimed that Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, had been “captured and flown out of the country” after the US carried out widespread strikes on Venezuela. At least seven explosions were heard in the country’s capital, Caracas.

— The US attack marks a significant escalation after months of strikes on Venezuelan “drug boats” and a massive military build-up in the Carribean with the deployment of troops, aircraft and warships.

— The US has accused Maduro of drug trafficking and working with gangs designated as terrorist organisations. Maduro has denied these allegations.

— This operation that sent shockwaves across the world was reportedly carried out by the Delta Force, a US military top special mission unit. Delta Force, officially known as the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1st SFOD-D), is the US Army’s premier Tier-1 special mission unit.

— Bulgaria, the poorest member of the European Union (EU), became the 21st member of the eurozone on January 1, 2026, bringing it closer to full European integration. Croatia was the last country to join the eurozone in 2023. Bulgaria’s inclusion increases the population of Europeans using the euro to 350 million.

— Bulgaria is retiring the lev, its currency since 1881, which, has been pegged to the Deutschmark and later the euro since 1997.

— Bulgaria’s admission to the eurozone makes it the 21st nation out of 27 EU members to do so. The remaining six use their own currencies instead

— The Maastricht Treaty of 1992, which established the European Union, paved the way for the adoption of a common currency, which would be accepted as the sole legal tender, the euro.

— The eurozone, or officially the euro area, refers to the geographic and economic region comprising those members of the EU that have fully adopted the euro as their official currency.

— Four microstates, Andorra, Monaco, the Vatican City, and San Marino, also use the euro through agreements with the EU, while Kosovo and Montenegro use the euro as their sole currency without an agreement. However, none of these countries is regarded as a member of the eurozone.

India has criticised CBAM as violating multilateral norms and called for such measures to be debated in broader international forums, not imposed by one trading bloc.

— The European Union on January 1, 2026, began implementing the world’s first carbon tax under the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), which has antagonised much of the developing world, including India.

— In its current form, CBAM would apply a carbon-related charge to the import of goods from the power sector and energy-intensive industrial sectors, such as cement, steel, aluminium, oil refinery, paper, glass, chemical and fertilisers from countries with lower environmental ambitions and regulations than the European Union.

— India largely exports aluminium, iron and steel to the EU, which are expected to be impacted due to the regulation.

— According to the World Bank, “a carbon tax directly sets a price on carbon by defining a tax rate on greenhouse gas emissions or – more commonly – on the carbon content of fossil fuels”. It is a type of carbon pricing, and the other type of carbon pricing is the emissions trading systems (ETS). The CBAM is a form of carbon pricing system

— The CBAM or Carbon Tax was first introduced by the European Union in 2021.  It taxes certain products coming in from other countries based on their carbon emissions footprint in their production process. For instance, if the imported steel was produced through a process that entailed higher emissions than the emissions standards for that product in Europe, it would be taxed.

INSV Kaundinya is a stitched sail ship, based on a 5th-century CE ship depicted in the paintings of Ajanta Caves. (Image: PM Modi/X)

— INSV Kaundinya, the Indian Navy’s pioneering stitched sailing vessel, has undertaken her maiden overseas voyage on 29 December 2025.

— The vessel was flagged off from Porbandar, Gujarat, for Muscat, Oman, symbolically retracing the historic maritime routes that connected India with the wider Indian Ocean world for millennia.

— INSV Kaundinya is a stitched sail ship, based on a 5th-century CE ship depicted in the paintings of Ajanta Caves. The project was initiated in July 2023 through a tripartite agreement signed by the Ministry of Culture, the Indian Navy, and Hodi Innovations, with funding from the Ministry of Culture.

— The ship is named after Kaundinya, a legendary Indian mariner. Legend says Kaundinya sailed to Southeast Asia about 2,000 years ago. After surviving pirate attacks, he married Queen Soma and founded the Funan kingdom.

— Its sails display motifs of the Gandabherunda and the Sun, the bow bears a sculpted Simha Yali, and a symbolic Harappan-style stone anchor adorns its deck.

— Gandabherunda is a symbol of the Kadamba dynasty which ruled the Konkan and Karnataka coast between 345 and 540 AD. Gandaberunda, with two heads, reflected unstoppable might. It  was also the insignia of South India’s Vijayanagara Empire in the mid-1300s. It is the state symbol of Karnataka.

— Simha Yali is a mythical lion-like creature symbolizing strength and guardianship over the ship.

— Recently, the Archaeologists in Jammu and Kashmir have uncovered a 2,000-year-old Buddhist complex in the village of Zehanpora, Baramulla District.

— What set the discovery in motion was an archival photograph preserved in a French museum, showing three ancient stupas standing in Baramulla. The image hinted that the unassuming mounds at Zehanpora might conceal the remains of a significant Buddhist site.

— It was during the Kushan period that the significance of Kashmir in Buddhist history became noticeable, precisely the era to which the Zehanpora remains are dated.

An aerial view of boats anchored at the Sangam on the eve of the Paush Purnima snan during the Magh Mela, in Prayagraj, Friday. PTI

— Northern Railway (NR) has issued a travel advisory due to the ongoing Magh Mela in Prayagraj.

— The Magh Mela, one of the big religious events after Mahakumbh, is an annual pilgrimage in Prayagraj where devotees bathe at the Sangam on auspicious dates. It is held every year during the Hindu month of Magh, while the Maha Kumbh is held once every 12 years.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the grand international exposition of the sacred Piprahwa Relics in New Delhi, bringing ancient Buddhist artefacts discovered in 1898 back into public view after more than a century. (PTI)

— Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated “The Light and The Lotus: Relics of the Awakened One”, an exhibition in New Delhi on January 3 to present the Piprahwa Gems, the sacred Buddhist relics.

— The Piprahwa relics, comprising gems and jewels, were discovered in 1898 by William Claxton Peppe during the excavation of a stupa in Uttar Pradesh’s Piprahwa village, in present-day Siddharthnagar district.

— In possession of his great-grandson Chris Peppe, the relics were repatriated to India recently, after their scheduled auction at Sotheby’s Hong Kong was stopped.

— Considered sacred in Buddhist heritage, the Piprahwa relics, deposited by the Sakyas, Lord Buddha’s kin, also comprise his bone fragments, crystal caskets and gold ornaments.

—  The government has notified the new duty rates for tobacco products, including cigarettes and cess rates for paan masala. The new levies on tobacco and pan masala will be over and above the GST rate, and will replace the compensation cess, which is currently being levied on such sin goods.

—  From February 1, pan masala, cigarettes, tobacco and similar products will attract a GST rate of 40 per cent, while biris will attract 18 per cent Goods and Services Tax (GST). Along with this, the Health and National Security Cess will be levied on pan masala, while tobacco and related products will attract additional excise duty.

— Compensation cess was introduced to help states make up for the revenue they lost during the initial 5 years of GST implementation. This came under the GST (Compensation to States) Act, 2017. Subsequently, its levy was extended till March 2026, to service the loans raised during the Covid years for providing GST compensation to the states

— The Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR) achieved a breakthrough in its first mountain tunnel – and second tunnel overall — in Maharashtra’s Palghar. A tunnel breakthrough is the point or moment when a tunnel being excavated from both ends finally connects, marking the completion of a critical work.

— Located between Virar and Boisar bullet train stations in Palghar, the 1.5-km-long Mountain tunnel no. 5 (MT-5) is the longest mountain tunnel in the project. It is almost 55% complete.

— The total estimated cost of the MAHSR project is Rs 1,08,000 crore (approximately). Of these, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is funding 81% of the project cost i.e. Rs. 88,000 crores.

— Recently, the Supreme Court held that a recruitment authority cannot exclude a candidate from consideration for open category posts solely because they belong to a reserved category, if they have secured marks above the general cut-off.

—The court clarified that the open or general category is not a closed compartment reserved for candidates of a particular social group. It is a pool open to all candidates on a merit basis. Treating it otherwise, the court held, risks converting affirmative action into a form of exclusion.

—There were three main challenges before the Supreme Court. All three were rejected by the Court.

First, that candidates who had participated in the recruitment process were estopped from challenging it later.

Second, allowing reserved category candidates to be considered in the open category at the shortlisting stage amounted to giving them a “double benefit”.

* Third, that precedents on “migration” of reserved category candidates apply only at the final stage of selection, not at intermediate stages.

— The Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways (MoPSW) has notified guidelines for two major shipbuilding initiatives—the Shipbuilding Financial Assistance Scheme (SBFAS) and the Shipbuilding Development Scheme (SbDS).

— Under SBFAS, which has a total corpus of ₹24,736 crore, the government will provide financial assistance ranging from 15% to 25% per vessel, depending on the vessel category.

— The SbDS, with a budgetary outlay of ₹19,989 crore, focuses on long-term capacity and capability creation.

— The Delhi government is exploring the possibility of collaborating with IIT Kanpur on an AI-based, data-driven system to combat pollution in the city.

— The proposed collaboration aims to strengthen the ability of the Capital to identify pollution sources at a granular level, assess their impact, and enable targeted, timely interventions across sectors.

— At present, the Capital relies on Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology Pune’s (IITM) DSS. Experts have flagged concerns in the past about the reliability of data.

— Secondary aerosols now contribute at least one-third of Delhi’s annual PM2.5 pollution.

— Primary pollutants emerge directly from factors such as road dust resuspension, construction activity, open burning, vehicle exhaust and industries. Secondary particulate matter, on the other hand, forms after gases are released into the air.

— These gases, known as precursor pollutants, undergo chemical reactions influenced by humidity, temperature and sunlight. They eventually form microscopic particles that penetrate deep into the lungs.

— Among the most dominant of these pollutants in Delhi is ammonium sulfate, a secondary inorganic aerosol. Ammonium sulfate is formed from a gas called sulphur dioxide (SO₂), which is largely released by coal-fired power plants.

— India is currently the world’s largest emitter of SO₂, largely due to coal-based power generation. In July 2025, the government exempted nearly 78% of coal-fired thermal power plants from installing flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) systems, weakening SO₂ control at the source.

A galaxy frog (Melanobatrachus indicus). (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

— According to the study, a group of seven galaxy frogs vanished, all likely to be dead, after multiple photographers descended on their habitat, causing disturbances and behavioural changes that could have disrupted their feeding and breeding success.

— Galaxy frogs (Melanobatrachus indicus) are one of the rarest and most dazzling amphibians in the world that live exclusively under rotten logs in Kerala’s Western Ghats. In 2021, they were designated as the flagship species of Kerala’s Mathikettan Shola National Park

— Although galaxy frogs were first discovered in 1878, not much is known about them since they are difficult to find. Measuring between 2 cm and 3.5 cm, these frogs do not produce sounds. Scientists believe they use their spots to communicate, making existing data about their population and breeding behaviour deficient.

— The frogs are already listed as vulnerable to extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

— The study highlighted the need to establish ethical standards in both nature and conservation photography to reduce the negative impact on wildlife and nature.

— The first supermoon of 2026 was visible on January 3. The Moon looked about 30 per cent brighter and nearly 14 per cent larger than the smallest full moon of the year.

— A supermoon is a bit larger and brighter than the usual full moon. This happens when the Moon’s perigee or the point in the orbit of the moon is nearest to the Earth. Occasionally, this happens at the same time as a full moon and at that point, it is called the supermoon.

— For a supermoon, it reportedly needs to be at its closest point in its 27-day orbit and fully illuminated by the Sun and this happens every 29.5 days. This alignment is rare and only happens a few times a year as the Moon’s orbit changes its orientation due to the Earth orbiting the Sun.

(Just FYI: UPSC has consistently included questions on health and diseases in its examinations over the years. For instance, in 2014, a question about the Ebola virus appeared in the Prelims, and in 2017, a question about the Zika virus was featured. Therefore, it is crucial to stay updated on diseases that are currently in the news.)

— The Australian health department recently urged its citizens who may have received a rabies shot in India to check if they needed additional replacement doses amidst concerns about counterfeit rabies vaccines. The UK and the US have released similar advisories.

— The counterfeit vaccines of Abhayrab were detected in several cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Agra, Lucknow, Kanpur, and Patna. Based on the complaints, raids were carried out in Delhi, Mumbai, and Agra.

— Drugs are on the concurrent list. Both the Central and State governments are responsible for regulatory control over the quality of drugs through the provisions of the Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1940 and the Drugs & Cosmetics Rules, 1945.

— The  State Drugs Control Authorities, appointed by the state government, look at the manufacture and sale of drugs while imports, market authorisation and new drugs are the responsibility of the Central Government.

— The Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation (CDSCO) with the Drugs Controller General (India) as its head is the Central regulatory body for enforcing the quality standards of drugs, cosmetics and medical devices in the Central Government.

— Researchers from the School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, collected air samples from parts of Delhi and found high levels of antibiotic-resistant staphylococci in both the indoor and outdoor environment.

— Notably, the bacteria load peaked in winter months, explaining why people are more vulnerable to falling sick and developing respiratory infections during this time of the year.

— Staphylococci are spherical bacteria, commonly called “staph.” They exist in clusters and are found on skin and mucous membranes, inside our nasal cavities for example.

— They can cause infections, ranging from minor skin issues (boils, pimples) to severe illnesses like pneumonia, sepsis, or MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, methicillin being an antibiotic from the penicillin family).

— The higher the particulate matter (PM2.5, PM10), the higher the number of bacteria that sticks to them. The particles act as carriers for bacteria, facilitating their transport in the atmosphere, enhancing their toxicity or ability to invade host cells and triggering respiratory infections.

— The Union Health Ministry has banned the manufacture, sale and distribution of the common pain and fever medication nimesulide in all oral “immediate release” formulations above the dosage of 100 mg.

— The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) made the recommendation on nimesulide after reviewing its effect on adults. Nimesulide is known to cause liver toxicity in some cases.

(Just FYI: Noting historical personalities’ anniversaries aids UPSC prep. UPSC often includes such personalities in questions, so revisiting their lives refreshes your static syllabus.)

The late Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Khaleda Zia hold a meeting at Hotel Sonargaon in Dhaka, Bangladesh. (Archives)

— Khaleda ‍Zia, Bangladesh’s first woman Prime Minister, passed away on December 30. She was the chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

— Zia served as Bangladesh’s prime minister three times — 1991-96, briefly in 1996, and again from 2001-06 — and is widely remembered for expanding access to education and initiating key economic and administrative reforms.

— After the fall of military rule, elections in February 1991 brought the BNP to power, and Zia became the country’s first woman Prime Minister. Her government restored the parliamentary system through the 12th Constitutional amendment.

— Kaamya Karthikeyan, the daughter of an Indian Navy officer, has etched her name in the record books by becoming the youngest Indian and the second-youngest woman in the world to ski to the South Pole.

— The 18-year-old reached the South Pole on December 27 after completing a challenging 115 km trek on foot.

— Enduring temperatures that dropped to -30°C and battling gale-force winds, Karthikeyan hauled a sledge carrying all her expedition supplies to successfully finish the journey.

(Note: The best way to remember facts for UPSC and other competitive exams is to recall them through MCQs. Try to solve the following questions on your own.)

1. Displayed on  sails of the INSV Kaundinya 2. Used by the Kadamba dynasty

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

1. The euro as currency is used only by the members of the European Union (EU).

2. Bulgaria became the 21st nation out of 29 EU members to adopt the euro.

Which of the statements given above is/are incorrect?

(3) In 2021, Galaxy Frog was declared the flagship species of which of the following national parks?

For your suggestions and feedback, write to khushboo.kumari@indianexpress.com

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