Weekly Current Affairs Test : 8th to 14th December 2025

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) was found non-compliant in stopping untreated sewage from entering Powai Lake. National Green Tribunal (NGT) committee recommended a fine of Rs 5 lakh per month per inlet if the action plan is violated. Powai Lake is an artificial lake in northern Mumbai, Maharashtra. It lies near Western Ghats and has a catchment area of 6.6 square kilometres.

A new spider species named Dolomedes indicus was discovered in the evergreen rainforests of Western Ghats in Wayanad district, Kerala. It is the first recorded species of the Dolomedes genus, also called raft or fishing spiders, found in India. Unlike house spiders, it is an active semi-aquatic hunter that hunts on water surfaces. It senses vibrations using water surface tension and quickly jumps to catch insects or small fish. It can swim and dive in water.

Niger became the first country in the African Region to eliminate onchocerciasis, also called river blindness. Niger is the fifth country worldwide to stop transmission of Onchocerca volvulus parasite. Other successful countries are Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Mexico in the Americas. World Health Organisation (WHO) praised Niger’s strong leadership and public health efforts. Onchocerciasis is the second leading infectious cause of blindness after trachoma. It spreads through bites of infected black flies found near rivers. It mainly affects rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa and Yemen, and some parts of Latin America.

A tigress will be airlifted from Pench Tiger Reserve (Madhya Pradesh) to Ramgarh Vishdhari Tiger Reserve (RVTR), Rajasthan, marking the state’s first inter-state tiger translocation. Ramgarh Vishdhari Tiger Reserve (RVTR) is located in Bundi district, Rajasthan. It acts as a wildlife corridor between Ranthambore Tiger Reserve and Mukundara Hills Tiger Reserve. Mez River, a tributary of Chambal River, flows through the reserve.

Two pairs of red-breasted parakeets were spotted on the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Patna campus, exciting birdwatchers and highlighting local biodiversity. These birds are listed as Near Threatened on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. This is the first confirmed sighting of red-breasted parakeets in Bihar. Scientific name of the species is Psittacula alexandri, also called the moustached parakeet. They are native to Southeast Asian countries and easily identified by the large red patch on their breast.

Defence Minister dedicated 125 new projects built by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), marking the highest number and value of projects inaugurated in a single day. Border Roads Organisation (BRO) is a road construction force that supports the Indian Armed Forces (IAF – Indian Armed Forces). It was brought fully under the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in 2015. It builds and maintains roads, bridges, tunnels, airfields and marine structures in 19 states and 3 Union Territories (UTs), including Andaman and Nicobar Islands. BRO also operates in friendly neighbouring countries like Afghanistan, Bhutan, Myanmar, Tajikistan and Sri Lanka.

India hosted the 20th session of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Intergovernmental Committee for Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) from 8–13 December 2025 in New Delhi. Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) includes traditions, practices, knowledge, skills, expressions, objects and cultural spaces that communities consider part of their identity. UNESCO adopted the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of ICH on 17 October 2003 at its 32nd General Conference in Paris. The Convention created formal systems for international cooperation, recognition, and support, and led to the creation of UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Lists.

International Anti-Corruption Day is observed every year on 9 December. It spreads awareness about the harmful effects of corruption on society, governance, development and equality. The theme for 2025 is “Uniting with Youth Against Corruption: Shaping Tomorrow’s Integrity”. It focuses on the role of youth in promoting honesty and ethical behaviour. It emphasises integrity, accountability and collective action at all levels. It highlights the roles of governments, institutions and citizens in fighting corruption. It encourages students to develop moral values and civic responsibility early in life.

Ten blackbucks died in Jamshedpur Zoological Park, Jharkhand due to suspected Haemorrhagic Septicaemia (HS). Haemorrhagic Septicaemia (HS) is also called Pasteurellosis and is caused by Pasteurella multocida bacteria. It mainly affects cattle and buffaloes, with young animals more vulnerable. Bacteria survive longer in humid and waterlogged conditions. It spreads through contaminated food, water, air and direct contact.

Rajasthan became the first state to achieve 100% digitisation of voter lists under Special Intensive Revision 2026 (SIR-2026). More than 97% voter mapping completed; only 3% voters need document verification during claims and objections. This equals about 30 voters per polling booth needing extra checks. Success credited to Booth Level Officers (BLOs), supervisors and district officials. Digitisation made the process more transparent, improved booth-wise voter management, and reduced repeated document submission by voters.

The Government of India launched State-Level Watershed Mahotsav 2025 and Mission Watershed PUNARUTTHAN at Kohima, Nagaland, to revive traditional water bodies, restore degraded lands, and strengthen water-harvesting systems for long-term water security. The mission focuses on community participation and convergence with the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) to ensure sustainable rural livelihoods. Minister of State (MoS) Dr. Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar stated that “water security is national security” and highlighted the importance of preserving natural resources for future generations. Nagaland is leading community-driven watershed management through restoration of springs, renovation of water-harvesting structures, and rejuvenation of land resources.

Bluetongue Virus (BTV) has recently been detected in more suspected cases in Northern Ireland, raising concerns about livestock health. Bluetongue is a severe haemorrhagic disease that affects animals and is infectious, but it is non-contagious and spreads only through insect vectors. The virus mainly infects domestic ruminants such as cattle, sheep, and goats, as well as wild animals like buffalo, deer, antelope, and camels, with sheep being the most severely affected. It spreads primarily through the bites of infected Culicoides midges, which are tiny blood-feeding insects commonly found on farms. There is no effective treatment for bluetongue, but vaccines are available for certain strains and are used in Africa, Asia, and parts of Europe.

A new Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) facility will be set up in Bengaluru to support the C-130J Super Hercules aircraft, boosting India’s defence self-reliance. The C-130J Super Hercules is a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft developed by Lockheed Martin of the United States of America (USA). It is the principal tactical cargo and personnel transport aircraft of the United States Air Force (USAF) and is the latest variant of the C-130 Hercules. The aircraft can operate from rough and dirt airstrips and is used for airdroppping troops and equipment in hostile areas.

The Indian Navy deployed INS Gharial and three other naval vessels under Operation Sagar Bandhu to provide humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to cyclone-affected regions of Sri Lanka. INS Gharial (L23) is a Magar-class amphibious warfare ship of the Indian Navy designed for transporting troops, vehicles, and equipment for amphibious operations. It is the second indigenously built Landing Ship Tank (Large), highlighting India’s growing shipbuilding capabilities. The ship was constructed by Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) and Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE). INS Gharial is among the largest ships of the Indian Navy and is part of the Eastern Fleet under the Eastern Naval Command.

Assam’s Majuli hosts the Charaichung Festival for the second time to revive and conserve the historic Royal Bird Sanctuary. Charaichung, Asia’s first protected bird sanctuary, was established in 1633 AD by Ahom king Swargadeu Pratap Singha. The four-day festival (December 7–10) is organised by Majuli Sahitya and local residents to rejuvenate bird habitats and promote the sanctuary globally. A special exhibition showcases forest conservation efforts and ongoing biodiversity protection initiatives in Majuli. The sanctuary is home to around 150 indigenous and migratory bird species and rich aquatic life, making conservation vital.

Scientists from the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) discovered two new jumping spider species — Asemonea dentis and Colyttus nongwar — in Meghalaya. Both belong to the Salticidae family known for sharp vision, fast reflexes and hunting by stalking instead of web-making. Asemonea dentis is only the third Indian species of its genus, named for a tooth-like projection on the male; males are greenish-brown with a pale-yellow V-shape and females are creamy white with black marks. Colyttus nongwar is the second Indian species of its genus, named after Nongwar village; both sexes have a reddish-brown oval body with creamy bands and chevron patches.

Aditya-L1, India’s first solar observatory, helped scientists understand why the May 2024 solar storm — the strongest in 20+ years — behaved unusually. A solar storm is a sudden burst of particles, energy, magnetic fields, and solar material ejected by the Sun. It is caused when the Sun’s twisted magnetic fields become overstretched and snap in a magnetic reconnection, releasing huge energy. Solar storms can produce a solar flare, radiation storm, or a coronal mass ejection (CME).

Sultanpur National Park, located in the Gurgaon district of Haryana about 46 km from Delhi, is witnessing a major increase in migratory birds as winter temperatures drop. The Sultanpur Jheel is a seasonal freshwater wetland whose water levels rise and fall depending on rainfall and seasonal inflows. This shallow lake is mainly replenished by water from the Yamuna River’s Gurgaon canal and by overflow from surrounding agricultural fields. It was designated a Ramsar Site in 2021, recognising its global ecological importance.

A new study revealed that over 60,000 African penguins died from starvation between 2004 and 2011 due to a collapse in sardine stocks. The African penguin (Spheniscus demersus) is a flightless species adapted to marine life in southern African waters. They live mostly within 40 km of the shore, using coastal habitats for breeding, resting and moulting. Their distribution mainly covers Namibia and South Africa’s Atlantic coast. The species has an average wild lifespan of 20 years. Global warming is severely damaging their marine and coastal habitats. The IUCN lists the African penguin as Critically Endangered.

The 3rd Session of the Council of the International Organization for Marine Aids to Navigation (IALA) was recently inaugurated virtually in Mumbai by the Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways. Its motto is “Successful Voyages, Sustainable Planet.” It aims to improve and standardise aids to navigation worldwide, promote safe and efficient vessel movement, support new technological developments and strengthen international cooperation.

NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), has signed 70 Technology Transfer Agreements with industry. NSIL was incorporated on 6 March 2019 under the Companies Act, 2013, and works under the Department of Space (DOS), Government of India. It helps Indian industries take up high-technology space activities and promotes commercial use of India’s space products and services.

A new shieldtail snake species, Rhinophis siruvaniensis, was discovered with help from citizen scientists in the Siruvani Hills, spanning Kerala and Tamil Nadu in the Western Ghats. The snake is shiny brownish-black with creamy white patches and has a dome-shaped tail tip. Shieldtail snakes are small, non-venomous, soil-burrowing snakes of the Uropeltidae family, also called uropeltids. They are named “shieldtails” because of their disc-shaped tail tip. These snakes are endemic to India and Sri Lanka, mainly found in the Western Ghats and parts of Peninsular India.

Controller General of Communication Accounts (CGCA) Smt. Vandana Gupta inaugurated onboarding of MTNL employees retiring in November 2025 onto the SAMPANN pension portal at the Principal CCA Office, Delhi. The initiative covers 45,939 MTNL pensioners from Delhi and Mumbai, including current and past retirees, and will enable fully digital pension processing from December 2025. SAMPANN (System for Accounting and Management of Pension) is a Comprehensive Pension Management System (CPMS). It is an online pension processing and payment system for Department of Telecommunications pensioners under the Ministry of Communications.

The Minister of Tribal Affairs confirmed that the Swasthya Portal will not be expanded to include national health databases, district dashboards, or AI-enabled analytics. Swasthya Portal is a one-stop platform showing the health and nutrition status of India’s tribal population. It was developed under the central sector scheme Tribal Research Information Education Communication and Events (TRI ECE) of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. It provides data, research briefs, case studies, best practices, and innovative models. It features a dashboard, knowledge repository, partner section, and Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) support corner, covering 177 high-priority tribal districts.

Scientists at the Bose Institute, Kolkata have developed GlowCas9, a CRISPR protein that glows during gene editing. It is a bioluminescent Cas9, created by fusing Cas9 with a split nano-luciferase enzyme from deep-sea shrimp proteins. GlowCas9 is highly stable, retaining structure and activity even at higher temperatures. When Cas9 folds correctly, the luciferase pieces reconnect and produce light, enabling real-time, non-harmful tracking of gene editing in cells, tissues, and plant leaves. It improves the precision of Homology-Directed Repair (HDR), a key DNA repair process for genetic diseases like sickle cell anaemia and muscular dystrophy. GlowCas9 advances theratracking, the visual monitoring of molecular gene therapy in action.

Rare migratory Pallas’s Gull (Great Black-headed Gull) was spotted again in Udhwa Bird Sanctuary, Jharkhand after nearly 10 years. It is the world’s largest black-headed gull and the third-largest gull species globally. It breeds in marshes and islands from southern Russia to Mongolia. It migrates in winter to the Mediterranean Sea, Arabian Peninsula, and India. It prefers wetlands, salt lakes, lagoons, and slow-flowing rivers as its habitat. It is classified as Least Concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The government informed Lok Sabha that 1,469 film titles, equal to 4.3 lakh minutes, have been digitized under the National Film Heritage Mission (NFHM). NFHM was launched by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to restore and preserve India’s film heritage. The National Film Archive of India in Pune implements the mission. The mission also conducts training workshops and uses a web-based IT system for smooth preservation processes.

NASA has lost contact with its MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) spacecraft, which has been orbiting Mars since 2014. MAVEN stopped communicating after it went behind Mars, and NASA received only silence when it reappeared. The spacecraft was launched in 2013 as the first mission dedicated to studying the Martian upper atmosphere and its interaction with the solar wind. MAVEN helped show that the Sun stripped Mars of its atmosphere over time and also served as a relay for Curiosity and Perseverance rovers. NASA is currently conducting engineering investigations while its other orbiters, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey, remain operational.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) released the report Right to Education: Past, Present and Future reviewing progress since the 1960 Convention against Discrimination in Education. The report highlights major gains, including free basic education in 82% of countries and primary school completion rising to 88%. Higher education enrolment grew from 100 million in 2000 to 264 million today. Despite progress, 272 million children still drop out early and 762 million adults remain illiterate, mostly women. UNESCO warns that climate shocks, conflicts and artificial intelligence demand urgent updates to global education laws. It stresses lifelong learning as essential for workers and older adults.

Google’s CEO announced Project Suncatcher, a long-term research plan to set up solar-powered data centers in space. The project aims to build satellite constellations that can perform large-scale machine learning using Google’s Tensor Processing Units (TPUs). These space-based data centers avoid the environmental impact created by Earth-based data centers. They also reduce risks from power outages, undersea cable failures, and natural disasters. The project supports data sovereignty because outer space is not under national jurisdiction as per the Outer Space Treaty of 1967.