In News:

In May 2025, the Department of Posts, under the Ministry of Communications, released the policy framework for DHRUVA (Digital Hub for Reference and Unique Virtual Address) — a key initiative aimed at creating a standardized, geo-coded digital address infrastructure across India.

What is DHRUVA?

DHRUVA is a Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) initiative that conceptualizes Address-as-a-Service (AaaS) — a secure, consent-based, and interoperable system for managing and sharing address data. It builds upon the earlier DIGIPIN (Digital Postal Index Number) system, which created a national-level, geo-tagged addressing grid for improved governance and service delivery.

Objectives of DHRUVA

• Transform address information into a digital public good.
• Enable secure, standardized, and interoperable access to address data across sectors.
• Empower users with control and consent over how their address data is shared.
• Promote public-private collaboration in areas like logistics, e-governance, and financial inclusion.

Key Features

• DIGIPIN Backbone: Utilizes the Digital Postal Index Number system, allowing logical and directional naming of addresses with precise geolocation.
• Address-as-a-Service (AaaS): Facilitates seamless address validation, authentication, and sharing across government and private platforms.
• User Autonomy: Individuals can manage and consent to how their address data is used, ensuring privacy and user-centric governance.
• Open & Inclusive Access: The infrastructure is freely accessible, promoting innovation and broad-based adoption.
• Consent Framework: Address data sharing will be user-approved, ensuring a secure and trusted digital ecosystem.

Significance of DHRUVA

• Geospatial Governance: Enhances planning, disaster management, and delivery of public services through precise address mapping.
• Improved Logistics & E-Commerce: Enables more efficient last-mile delivery, reducing ambiguity in address identification.
• Financial Inclusion: Facilitates smoother KYC, subsidy disbursement, and service access in rural and underserved areas.
• Ease of Living & Digital India: Aligns with broader national goals by supporting smart governance and digital transformation.
• Public-Private Synergy: Encourages co-creation of solutions by government bodies and private enterprises based on shared, trusted digital address data.

In News:

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) released the Provisional Estimates (PEs) of India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross Value Added (GVA) for the financial year 2024–25 (FY25), providing a comprehensive picture of the country's economic performance.

Understanding GDP and GVA

• GDP (Gross Domestic Product) measures the total expenditure in the economy, including consumption, investment, government spending, and net exports — representing the demand side.
• GVA (Gross Value Added) evaluates the income generated from the production of goods and services in different sectors — representing the supply side.
• The two are related by the formula:GDP = GVA + Taxes – Subsidies
• Both are reported in nominal terms (current prices) and real terms (adjusted for inflation).

Nature of Provisional Estimates

• The estimates are termed provisional because they include data from all four quarters but are subject to revision:
  • First Advance Estimates (FAE): January
  • Second Advance Estimates (SAE): February
  • Provisional Estimates (PE): May
  • Revised Estimates: Finalized over the next two years (in 2026 and 2027 for FY25)

Key Economic Indicators for FY 2024–25

• Nominal GDP
  • Estimated at ?330.68 lakh crore, showing a 9.8% growth over FY24.
  • In dollar terms (?85.559/USD), India’s economy reached $3.87 trillion.
  • However, this 9.8% nominal growth marks the third-slowest since 2014.

• Real GDP
  • Rose by 6.5%, reaching ?187.97 lakh crore.
  • The real GDP growth slowed from 9.2% in FY24, indicating reduced economic momentum.
• Sectoral GVA Performance
  • Overall GVA grew by 6.4%, down from 8.6% in FY24.
  • Sector-wise real GVA growth:
    • Agriculture & Allied Activities: 4.4% (up from 2.7% last year)
    • Industry (including Manufacturing & Construction): 6.1%
    • Services: 7.5% (notable growth in public admin, trade, and finance)
• Q4 FY25 Trends
  • Real GDP growth: 7.4%
  • Nominal GDP growth: 10.8%
  • Indicates a strong end-of-year performance.

Structural Insights and Concerns

• Manufacturing Weakness:Since FY20, manufacturing GVA CAGR (4.04%) lags behind agriculture (4.72%), signaling industrial stagnation.
• Employment Implications:Manufacturing’s sluggishness contributes to high urban unemployment and labour migration to rural/agricultural sectors.
• Consumption and Investment Revival:
  • Private Final Consumption Expenditure (PFCE) grew by 7.2%.
  • Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF) increased by 7.1%, indicating investment momentum.

Significance for Policymaking

• The GDP data serves as a basis for fiscal planning, monetary policy decisions, and public investment.
• It highlights India’s position as one of the fastest-growing major economies, while also revealing structural vulnerabilities — particularly in manufacturing.
• For international comparison, real GDP is crucial as it neutralizes inflationary differences across countries.

In News:

The Zangezur Corridor gained renewed attention following the visit of Armenia’s Security Council Secretary to New Delhi, where he held discussions with India’s National Security Advisor, AjitDoval.

What is the Zangezur Corridor?

The Zangezur Corridor is a proposed transport and transit route that aims to connect mainland Azerbaijan with its exclave, the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, by bypassing Armenia’s Syunik Province. The corridor passes through the Zangezur region, which is currently part of southern Armenia and has been a historically disputed territory since World War I.

Geographical and Strategic Linkages

• On the Azerbaijani side, the corridor integrates with the Horadiz-Agbend highway and railway infrastructure.
• On the Turkish side, it connects with the Nakhchivan-Igdir-Kars railway and highway, creating a direct land route from Azerbaijan to Turkey, and further west to Anatolia and Europe.
• The corridor, therefore, would serve as a critical land bridge across the South Caucasus, improving connectivity between Europe and Asia.

Economic and Strategic Significance

• The corridor is envisioned to:
  • Boost regional trade and connectivity across Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia, and Central Asia.
  • Reduce transportation time and costs between Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan.
  • Improve logistics infrastructure and increase supply chain efficiency across the region.
• It has implications for wider Eurasian integration, especially as global trade seeks alternatives to vulnerable chokepoints like the Suez Canal.

India’s Strategic Interest

India's engagement with the Zangezur Corridor gained attention after a meeting between India’s National Security Advisor and Armenia’s Security Council Secretary in New Delhi.

India’s interests in the region include:

• Chabahar Port in Iran: India’s investment here aims to create a secure route to Central Asia and Europe.
• Engagement with Armenia: India has been increasing strategic and defence cooperation with Armenia.
• Alternative Connectivity: The Zangezur Corridor challenges India’s north-south connectivity vision, as it could marginalize the Chabahar route if dominated by Turkish-Azerbaijani interests.
• Geopolitical Balance: India's presence helps counterbalance Turkish-Pakistani influence in the South Caucasus.

In News:

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has recently unearthed one of the first known Neolithic rock grooves in Kanniyakumari district, Tamil Nadu, specifically near Boothapandi village. These grooves—estimated to be around 4,000 years old—were likely created by Neolithic people to sharpen tools and weapons used for hunting, agriculture, and digging.

The discovery was made during a field study conducted by K. Hari Gopalakrishnan, ASI Officer (Tirunelveli &Kanniyakumari), and M. Faisal of the Sembavalam Research Centre. The grooves vary in size:

• Length: 8 cm to 15 cm
• Width: 3 cm to 4 cm

Such grooves have also been previously documented in Krishnagiri, Tiruvannamalai, and Villupuram districts of Tamil Nadu. The find strongly suggests the presence of Neolithic human activity in southernmost India and adds a significant layer to our understanding of prehistoric settlements in the region.

Neolithic Age

The Neolithic Age (New Stone Age) marks the final stage of prehistoric human evolution before the emergence of metal tools. Beginning around 10,000 BCE, it coincides with the Holocene Epoch and follows the Paleolithic Age (chipped-stone tools) and precedes the Bronze Age.

Key Features of the Neolithic Age

• Lifestyle Shift: Transition from hunting-gathering to agriculture and animal domestication.
• Permanent Settlements: Emergence of village communities with mud-and-reed houses, both rectangular and circular in design.
• Toolmaking: Development of polished and ground stone tools.
• Crafts and Culture: Rise of pottery, weaving, alcohol production, and early architecture.
• Burial Practices: Use of status objects (e.g., jade, pottery) in burials indicates belief in afterlife and emerging social hierarchies.
• By the end of the Neolithic era, copper metallurgy began, marking the Chalcolithic (Copper-Stone) Age. Eventually, bronze tools replaced stone ones, signaling the end of the Stone Age and the dawn of early civilizations.

Major Neolithic Sites in India

• Burzahom – Kashmir
• Chirand (Chiron) – Bihar
• Uttarapalli – Andhra Pradesh
• Edakkal Caves – Kerala
• Boothapandi (newly identified) – Tamil Nadu

In News:

• The Perito Moreno Glacier, often referred to as the ‘White Giant’, is Argentina’s most iconic glacier, located in the Los Glaciares National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• Situated in the Andes Mountains, near El Calafate in Santa Cruz province, this glacier spans approximately 250 sq km—about the size of Patna, Bihar—and stretches 30 km in length, with ice walls rising 60 meters above water.
• Formed during the last Ice Age (~18,000 years ago), Perito Moreno has historically remained unusually stable, defying the global trend of rapid glacier retreat. However, this stability changed around 2020, raising alarms among scientists.

Recent Developments and Ice Calving Events

• Perito Moreno is globally renowned for its ice calving events, where massive blocks of ice break off into the lake with thunderous crashes. These events, though natural due to the glacier’s forward motion, have recently become more intense.
• On April 21, 2025, a colossal ice chunk the size of a 20-story building plunged 70 meters into the water—an increasingly frequent occurrence in the past 4–6 years.
• According to local experts and a 2024 government-backed report, the glacier has been retreating steadily since 2015, with an average mass loss of 0.85 meters annually—the fastest in nearly five decades.
• Between 2020 and 2023, the glacier lost over 700 meters of mass, equivalent to around seven large ice blocks.

Causes: Global Warming & Climate Impact

• The primary cause behind this dramatic retreat is climate change. Scientists from IANIGLA (Argentine Institute of Glaciology and Environmental Sciences) and CONICET state that the region has experienced an air temperature rise of 0.06°C per decade and reduced precipitation, leading to less snow accumulation and thinning of the glacier.

Global Perspective on Glacier Retreat

Perito Moreno is now part of a larger, alarming global trend.

• A 2024 study in Nature estimates that glaciers worldwide are losing 273 billion tonnes of ice annually, contributing to a 2 cm rise in global sea levels this century alone.
• A UNESCO report (March 2025) highlighted that glaciers (excluding Greenland and Antarctica) have shed over 9,000 billion tonnes of ice since 1975—comparable to an ice block the size of Germany with 25 meters thickness.

Environmental Significance

• Freshwater Source: Perito Moreno is a major reservoir of freshwater in Argentina.
• Tourism: The glacier attracts global tourists, boosting the local economy.
• Climate Indicator: Its recent retreat reflects the delayed but accelerating impact of global warming, making it a critical environmental bellwether.