UniFocus IAS ( UNIFOCUS UNIVERSAL )

 The Minister of State for Environment and Forests clarified the issues regarding Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act in tiger reserves and in the critical wildlife habitats. The Minister states that: 1.                  “Section 38V of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 (as amended in 2006) explains the core or critical tiger habitat as well as the buffer or peripheral area of a tiger reserve. 2.                  A tiger reserve includes two parts: A.                Core or critical tiger habitat (National Park or Sanctuary status). B.                 Buffer or peripheral area. 3.                  The phrase ‘core or critical tiger habitat’ is mentioned only in the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, as a sequel t...

It was  jointly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science. It is located in  Cerro Pachón in Chile. It’s named after astronomer Vera Rubin, who provided the first convincing evidence for the existence of dark matter. The 8.4-meter Simonyi Survey Telescope at Rubin Observatory is equipped with the LSST Camera — the largest digital camera ever built.  The telescope will take detailed images of the southern hemisphere sky for 10 years. About  Vera C. Rubin Observatory Relevance: BBC

Regional Geography  The Strait  The Strait of Hormuz is about 275 kilometers long and an average of 80 kilometers wide. At its narrowest point, between Ra's Sharitah on Oman's Musandam Peninsula and the Iranian island of Jazireh-ye Larak, the waterway is about 50 kilometers wide. Nearly everywhere the Strait is more than 45 meters deep; off the Omani coast, depths range from 75 to 225 meters. The main inbound and outbound shipping channels traverse this area.  There are several islands in the Strait. The largest are close to the Iranian shore and of little concern to vessels transiting the main shipping channels. The remaining islands lie off the northern coast of the Musandam Peninsula, and, while they are important in the demarcation of the shipping channels, they offer no impediment to vessels. They could, however, provide concealment for seaborne terrorists in the channel area.  From July through September the currents in the Strait of Hormuz generally flow weste...

On 24 and 25 June the Netherlands will be hosting the NATO Summit 2025 at the World Forum in The Hague. This is the first time a NATO summit is being held in the Netherlands. This is the first time since NATO’s founding in 1949 that the Netherlands is hosting a NATO summit. The decisions the NATO members make at these summits are important to international peace and security – especially in these times, with so many conflicts in the world, like the war in Ukraine. NATO News

  As part of the Dharti Aaba Jan bhagidari Abhiyan (DAJA) — the largest tribal outreach and empowerment campaign in the history of independent India, so far in last 9 days, the Tribal Empowerment camps at Village & PVTG Habitation level has delivered impressive outcomes for Tribal Communities. As per available data the campaign has reached as much as 53 lakh+ tribal citizens through 22,000+Tribal Empowerment camps organised organised at various parts of the nation. It facilitates more than 1.38 lakh people for Aadhaar enrolments, more than 1.68 lakh  Ayushman Bharat cards has been issued, besides more than 46,000 farmers registered for  PM-Kisan  and more than 22,000 beneficiaries have enrolled for the  PM Ujjwala Yojna alongwith opening up more than 32,000  new PM Jan Dhan accounts. The main target of the campaing is to achieve complete saturation of various welfare schemes of the union government. It is construed as one of the landmark step toward inc...

 During Prime Minister Netanyahu’s tenure after 2009, Israel has threatened multiple times to act militarily to destroy or set back Iran’s nuclear program. Israel, which for decades has presumably maintained a nuclear arsenal but has not officially acknowledged it, has taken preemptive action against nuclear programs in the region—destroying an Iraqi facility in 1981 and a Syrian one in 2007. In the 2010s, Israel apparently executed a number of covert actions against Iranian facilities and personnel to disrupt and delay the program. Alongside U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil exports, the Obama Administration led international efforts to reach a 2015 agreement (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA), which placed new physical constraints, as well as inspection and monitoring provisions, on Iran’s nuclear program. In 2018, President Trump (with strong support from Netanyahu) ended U.S. participation in the JCPOA, citing what he described as the accord’s defects, and increase...

Panel aims to support  the sound management of chemicals and waste and to prevent pollution. As the impacts of the triple planetary crisis – the crisis of climate change, the crisis of nature and biodiversity loss, and the crisis of pollution and waste – become ever more extreme, this new panel works with Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services ( IPBES ). Newly established panel is expected to conduct global assessments, identify knowledge gaps, communicate complex science in policy-friendly formats, and integrate capacity for national decision-making in relation to the panel’s function.  UNEP News

  In line with the Prime Minister’s vision of Viksit Bharat@2047 and Government’s unwavering commitment to women-led development, Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD), in convergence with Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), will launch the joint pilot initiative of both the Ministries for Skilling of Adolescent Girls NAVYA – Nurturing Aspirations through Vocational Training for Young Adolescent Girls on 24th June 2025 in Sonbhadra, Uttar Pradesh . NAVYA is a pilot initiative aimed at equipping adolescent girls aged 16–18 years with a minimum qualification of Class 10, with vocational training mainly in non-traditional job roles. This pilot initiative will be implemented in 27 Districts of the country which include Aspirational districts and districts of North -eastern States spanning across 19 States, reflecting the Government's inclusive and targeted approach to reaching underserved regions and vulnerable populations. As part of the launch, both Mi...

The ULI was developed by RBIH and co-conceptualized with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). ULI is a technology platform built to facilitate easy access to authenticated data from various sources, through standardised APIs to which all lenders can connect seamlessly through a ‘plug and play’ model. RBI Innovation Hub

Elected Countries:  Bahrain, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Latvia, and Liberia They were  elected on Tuesday to serve as non-permanent members of the UN Security Council, with two-year terms beginning in January 2026. They will serve through the end of 2027 on the UN body. The non-permanent seats on the Security Council are distributed according to four regional groupings: Africa and Asia; Eastern Europe; Latin America and the Caribbean; and the Western European and other States group. UN News <<< UN Security Council

  In furtherance of the commitment made during the high-level dialogue between India and Chile, the Terms of Reference for negotiating the India-Chile Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) were signed on 8th May, 2025.   The next round of negotiations is expected in July/August 2025. Discussions during the round were held across 17 thematic tracks including: Trade in Goods, Trade in Services, Movement of Natural Persons, Rules of Origin, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, Technical Barriers to Trade, Customs Procedures and Trade Facilitation, Initial Provisions and General Definitions, Core and Institutional Provisions, Final Provisions, Transparency, Dispute Settlement, Economic Cooperation, MSMEs, Women’s Economic Empowerment, Critical and Strategic Minerals Trade & Sustainable Development, Global Value Chains, Investment Promotion & Cooperation, and Intellectual Property Rights. The CEPA aims to unlock the full potential of the trade and commercial r...

  The  Caspian gull  ( Larus cachinnans ) is a large  gull  and a member of the  herring and lesser black-backed gull complex . The scientific name is from  Latin .  Larus  appears to have referred to a gull or other large seabird, and  cachinnans  means 'laughing', from  cachinnare  'to laugh'. [ 2 ] The Caspian gull has a long, slender bill, accentuated by the sloping forehead. The legs, wings, and neck are longer than those of the herring gull and  yellow-legged gull . The eye is small and often dark, and the legs vary from pale pink to a pale yellowish colour. The back and wings are a slightly darker shade of grey than the herring gull, but slightly paler than the yellow-legged gull. The outermost  primary feather  has a large white tip and a white tongue running up the inner web. The Caspian gull breeds around the  Black  and  Caspian Seas , extending eastwards across  Central Asia ...

  The    Seventy-eighth World Health Assembly   (WHA78), the annual meeting of World Health Organization’s (WHO) Member States, came to a close Tuesday, as health leaders lauded vast accomplishments and global solidarity. The Assembly, WHO’s highest decision-making body, convened from 19 May to 27 May, under the theme “One World for Health”. Member States considered approximately  75 items and sub-items  across all areas of health, engaging in lively debate and adopting consequential resolutions to improve health for all. World’s first pandemic agreement: equity for all On 20 May, Member States adopted the historic WHO Pandemic Agreement. The moment was met with heartfelt applause, celebrating over three years of intense negotiations by the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body, comprising WHO’s Member States. The adoption of the Agreement is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to safeguard the world from a repeat of the suffering caused by the COVID-19 pandemi...