Current Affairs – August 01, 2025

{GS1 – Geo – PG – Geomorphology} Puga Hot Spring

• Context (PIB): A study identifies Puga Hot Spring, Ladakh, as a potential site to understand the origin of life and aid Mars life-detection, owing to its extreme geothermal and organic-preserving conditions.

About Puga Hot Spring

• Location: Puga Valley is located in the Changthang Plateau, in the southeastern part of Ladakh, within the Union Territory of Ladakh, India.
• Geothermal Significance: Part of the Himalayan geothermal belt, known for intense hydrothermal activity.
• Key Features: Hot springs, mud pools, sulphur deposits, and surface temperatures reaching up to 84°C, indicating intense geothermal activity.
  • Rich in borax, sulphur, and lithium; forms travertine deposits through continuous CaCO₃ precipitation, which helps preserve organic molecules.

Puga’s Role in Origin of Life Studies

• Travertine deposits at Puga preserve amino acids, formamide, and fatty acids, confirming CaCO₃’s role in stabilising prebiotic organic molecules.
• Acts as a natural prebiotic reactor, offering insights into the origin of life on Earth.
• Serves as a Mars analogue, aiding ISRO’s life-detection tools for future planetary missions.

{GS2 – Governance – Issues} Governance Lapses in Ladki Bahin Welfare Scheme

• Context (IE): Over 26 lakh ineligible beneficiaries, including 14,000 men, received funds under Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana, exposing ethical breaches, poor targeting, and administrative lapses.

Ethical and Administrative Concerns

• Breach of Public Trust: Misuse of funds meant for underprivileged women violates the scheme’s intent, highlighting ethical lapses by both beneficiaries and administrators.
• Leakage in welfare schemes: It reflects weak digital governance, marked by poor Aadhaar-seeding & inadequate inter-departmental data sharing.
• Administrative Vigilance: The absence of strong cross-verification mechanisms before disbursal shows a failure in due diligence & accountability.
• Politicisation of Welfare: Announced close to elections, the scheme served as a vote-pulling tool, raising concerns about populist policymaking & fiscal irresponsibility.
• Targeting Failures: Inclusion of lakhs of ineligible recipients indicates flawed targeting, potentially excluding genuine beneficiaries.

Way Forward

• Digital Beneficiary Mapping: Integration of Aadhaar, income tax, & welfare databases while using AI/ML-based eligibility validation models.
• Gender-Specific Digital Filters: Use gender authentication tools at onboarding to detect & prevent male inclusion in women-centric schemes.
• Citizen Oversight: Establish quarterly audit bodies involving officials, civil society, and data experts to ensure local transparency.
• Rationalisation of Scheme Overlaps: Undertake a policy audit to reduce welfare duplication and improve progressive targeting.

{GS3 – IE – Banking} Minimum Average Balance Penalties

• Context (IE): The Department of Financial Services (DFS) advised Public Sector Banks (PSBs) to review penalties for not maintaining the minimum average balance (MAB).

About Minimum Average Balance Penalties

• MAB penalties are fees charged by banks when an account holder does not maintain the required monthly average balance in their savings account.
  • Monthly Average Balance is the average of daily closing account balances over a month.
• Purpose: It incentivises account holders to maintain stable balances, improving banks’ CASA ratio.
• Penalty Revenue: PSBs earned approximately ₹9,000 crore from MAB penalties over five years.
• Penalty Basis: MAB thresholds and penalties are set individually by banks within RBI guidelines.
• Penalty Calculation: It varies by bank and account type; penalties can be fixed or calculated as a percentage of the shortfall from the required MAB.
• Customer Implication: Heavy penalties disproportionately impact low-income users, prompting a shift away from formal banking towards fixed deposits or informal cash

{GS3 – IE – Banking} Banking Laws (Amendment) Act, 2025

• Context (PIB): The Banking Laws (Amendment) Act, 2025, comes into effect from August 1, 2025, aiming to modernise & strengthen governance and regulatory frameworks across India’s banking sector.

Key Provisions of the Act

• The provisions of the Act address legacy gaps through a comprehensive legal overhaul aimed at enhancing governance, audit quality, and depositor protection in Public Sector Banks (PSBs).
• Governance Safeguard: Raises ‘substantial interest’ threshold from ₹5 lakh to ₹2 crore, updating the 1968 limit to reduce insider control risks in banks.
• Tenure Reform: Extends the tenure of cooperative bank directors (excluding the chairperson and whole-time director) from 8 to 10 years, aligning with the 97th Constitutional Amendment.
• Investor Safeguard: Enables PSBs to transfer unclaimed shares and proceeds to the Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF), enhancing fund transparency.

• Audit Reform: Permits PSBs to determine auditor remuneration, improving audit quality and oversight.

{GS3 – DM – Issues} Kamchatka Earthquake & Tsunami

• Context (BBC): A magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck near Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula, triggering trans-Pacific tsunami warnings with limited damage.

About the Earthquake

• The 2025 Kamchatka earthquake was a high-magnitude rupture along a plate subduction boundary.
• Earthquake Type: It was a megathrust earthquake caused by one plate slipping beneath another.
• Subduction: Occurred off Kamchatka, where the Pacific Plate subducts beneath Okhotsk microplate.
• Epicentre: Epicentre lies ~130 km southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, in the North Pacific.
• Rupture: Fault rupture stretched ~450 km along the Kuril-Kamchatka trench segments.
• Fault Mechanism: The earthquake showed reverse faulting with vertical seafloor displacement.
• Slip Magnitude: The Pacific Plate moved ~10 metres during fault rupture off the Kamchatka coast.
• Hypocentre: Focus at ~21 km depth intensified vertical seabed displacement and tsunami risk.
• Slab Rigidity: Cold subducting slab enabled extreme elastic strain accumulation before rupture.
• Tsunami Alerts: Warnings were issued for Japan, Hawaii, the Philippines, and the Pacific Americas.

Tsunami After the Earthquake

• Megathrust earthquakes generate tsunamis by vertically displacing the overlying water column.
• Primary Trigger: Sudden vertical fault slip forces seawater upward, initiating tsunami formation.
• Prevalence: Over 80% of global tsunamis originate from megathrust subduction earthquakes.
• Rapid Onset: Vertical energy transfer during rupture causes tsunami waves within seconds.
• Rupture Magnitude: Longer fault ruptures displace larger volumes, increasing tsunami wave height.

Conditions for Tsunami Formation

• Tsunamis require specific earthquake properties related to magnitude, depth, and fault motion.
• Magnitude Threshold: Earthquake must exceed magnitude 6.5 to displace sufficient ocean water.
• Shallow Focus: Rupture depth must lie within ~70 km to disturb the seafloor.
• Vertical Uplift: Rapid upward movement of the seabed is essential to generate wave energy.
• Rupture Extent: Fault must rupture over a wide area to displace sufficient water.
• Plate Rigidity: The subducting slab must be rigid enough to store and release vertical strain.

Why the Kamchatka Tsunami Was Not Severe?

• Several geophysical factors limited the tsunami’s height and trans-oceanic impact.
• Shelf Gradient: A broad, shallow continental slope reduced tsunami wave amplification nearshore.
• Trench Geometry: The narrow subduction trench limited vertical uplift and tsunami spread.
• Segmented Rupture: Multi-segment rupture scattered energy, limiting vertical water displacement.
• Offshore Slip: Maximum displacement occurred far offshore, reducing wave buildup near land.
• No Submarine Landslide: Absence of underwater landslide averted tsunami wave amplification.

{GS3 – S&T – BioTech} CRIB Rare Blood Group Found in India

• Context (TH): A new human blood group antigen named CRIB was discovered in Bengaluru and officially recognised by the International Blood Group Reference Laboratory (IBGRL), UK.

About CRIB Discovery

• CRIB is a recently identified human blood group antigen within the Cromer (CR) blood group system.
• Name Significance: ‘CRIB’ combines Cromer (CR) and India–Bengaluru (IB) to indicate its origin.
• Diagnostic Trigger: The antigen was identified following panreactivity, indicating the presence of an unknown antigen.
• Nomenclature Authority: It was officially designated by the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT), the global authority for naming and classifying rare blood group antigens.

Significance of CRIB Discovery

• It improves the Cromer group database and supports the advancement of global research.
• The discovery highlights India’s increasing expertise in molecular blood grouping research.
• It emphasises the need for rare donor registries and international coordination in blood typing.

{Prelims – In News} Piprahwa Relics

• Context (PIB): Piprahwa relics, associated with Lord Buddha’s mortal remains, returned to India.

Historical Background

• In 1898, British engineer William Claxton Peppé excavated a stupa at Piprahwa, Uttar Pradesh, believed to be one of the original eight built to enshrine Lord Buddha’s mortal remains.
• The excavation yielded a stone coffer containing ashes, bone fragments, and offerings such as gold ornaments, pearls, and gemstones.
• A Brahmi inscription on a casket confirmed the relics belonged to Lord Buddha, deposited by members of his Shakya clan.

Distribution and Dispersal of Relics

• Over 1,800 items were recovered during the excavation. In 1899, the Indian Museum in Kolkata received the largest share.
• Viceroy Lord Elgin gifted a portion of the bone relics to King Rama V of Siam (Thailand), and William Peppé kept a part, which was later listed for auction in 2025.

{Prelims – In News} SIMBEX-25

• Context (PIB): Recently, INS Satpura reached Singapore to participate in the 32^nd edition of the Singapore-India Maritime Bilateral Exercise (SIMBEX-25).

About SIMBEX-25

• SIMBEX is a bilateral naval exercise between India and Singapore, held annually since 1994 (originally launched as Exercise Lion King).
• Longest uninterrupted naval exercise India has with any country.
• Aims to enhance interoperability and maritime security in the Indo-Pacific.
• Aligns with India’s ‘MAHASAGAR’ vision and Singapore’s strategic role in ASEAN.

{Prelims – In News} Launch of NISAR Satellite

• Context (TH): ISRO launched the NASA–ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite using the GSLV-F16 rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

• Polar Orbit: GSLV conducted its first satellite launch into sun-synchronous polar orbit (SSPO).
• Cryogenic Precision: The mission showcased the CE20 cryogenic stage’s accuracy for orbital injection.
• NASA Launch: ISRO commercially launched a fully NASA-owned satellite for the first time.

Significance of the Launch

• Revenue Gain: The commercial contract generated significant revenue for ISRO.
• Strategic Partnership: The joint mission deepens India-U.S. trust in complex space collaboration.
• Tech Sovereignty: Launch proved indigenous cryogenic strength for independent satellite launches.
• Global Reputation: The mission elevated India’s profile in precision foreign satellite launches.

Read More > NISAR Satellite.