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January – 14

TNPSC BITS
❖ India will host the 28th Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of
Parliaments of Commonwealth Countries (CSPOC) in 2026.
❖ Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI) has been chosen for
establishing the South India's first Infectious Disease Research and Diagnostic
Laboratory (IRDL).
❖ The Department of Youth Affairs of the Union successfully kicked off Day 2 of the
Viksit Bharat Young Leaders Dialogue in New Delhi.
❖ The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) of Mumbai has
become the first airport in India to have received the prestigious Level 5
accreditation from the globally acclaimed Airports Council International (ACI).
❖ Malaysia has officially extended its visa exemption for Indian nationals until
December 31, 2026, allowing them to visit the country without a visa for up to
30 days.

TAMIL NADU
Amendment of Tamil Nadu Forest Act -1882

❖ The Tamil Nadu Assembly passed a Bill to further amend the Tamil Nadu Forest
Act, 1882.
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❖ It aims to expedite the process of allotting compensatory afforestation lands as

reserved forests.
❖ Whenever any forest land was used for the non-forest purposes, the user agency
should provide the specific extent of land for the purpose of the compensatory
afforestation.
❖ The Bill also seeks to delegate powers of the government to issue notification
under Section 16 of the said Act to an officer of the Revenue department not
below the rank of District Collector by amending Section 65 of the Act.

Kalaignar Porkizhi Award 2025

❖ The Tamil scholars and artistes who won M Karunanidhi Golden Award winners
received a purse of Rs 1 lakh each
❖ Arunan bagged the award for prose/research, Nellai Jayantha for poetry, Suresh
Kumar Indrajith for novel, N Sriram for short stories, Kalai Rani for drama, and
Nirmalya for translation.
❖ Semmal K Kanathi’s Karpagam bookstore bagged the BAPASI award for the best
publisher.
❖ The best librarian award went to R Kothandaraman and publisher Semmal S
Meiyappan won the award for best book seller.

New Tamil Nadu Sexual Harassment Bill 2025

❖ The Tamil Nadu Assembly tabled a Bill to amend the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of
Harassment of Women (Amendment) Act, 1998.
❖ The Bill seeks to incorporate the Section 7C, enabling the issuance of “protection
orders” to restrain the accused individuals from contacting the women they have
allegedly harassed.
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❖ The bill also aims to increase the penalties ensuring stricter actions against those
committing crimes punishable under the Section 74-79 or the Section 296 of the
Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023.

World Tamil Diaspora Day 2025

❖ January 12 is celebrated as World Tamil diaspora Day every year.

❖ TN government has inaugurated the World Tamil Diaspora Day 2025 exhibition,
celebrating Tamil heritage and culture.
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❖ The event was themed ‘Ethisaiyum Tamizhanangey’.

❖ The last year’s exhibition was held under the theme ‘Tamizh Vellum’.

NATIONAL
8th Edition NPOP

❖ The 8th edition of National Programme for Organic Production was held in New
Delhi.
❖ The Centre announced that the organic farming exports could reach Rs 20,000
crore in next three years.
❖ Following new portals unveiled during the event to aid Organic Production:
❖ NPOP portal: It will provide more visibility and ease of operations for the Organic
stakeholders.
❖ Organic Promotion Portal: the Farmers, FPOs and exporters can showcase their
certified organic products, generate Trade Leads and connect with global buyers.
❖ The TraceNet 2.0: The upgraded online Organic traceability system for seamless
operations and enhanced tools for regulatory oversight.
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❖ APEDA portal: The Redesigned and revamped APEDA portal with enhanced user
experience and information for the benefit of Agri and Processed food products’
stakeholders.
❖ AgriXchange portal: Redesigned and revamped AgriXchange portal enables more
user-friendly data analysis and generation of reports & data of Agricultural
exports making it accessible for the general public.

Tax devolution to states 2025

❖ The Centre released tax devolution of ₹1.73 lakh crore to the state governments
to accelerate capital expenditure and finance welfare activities.
❖ It was ₹89,086 crore in December 2024.
❖ Currently, 41% of taxes collected by the Centre is devolved in instalments among
states during a fiscal year.
❖ Uttar Pradesh received the highest allocation of ₹31,039.84 crore, followed by
Bihar with ₹17,403.36 crore and West Bengal with ₹13,017.06 crore.

INTERNATIONAL
First ever silver notice by Interpol
❖ The Interpol has issued its first Silver Notice to locate assets laundered across
borders as part of a pilot project.
❖ The first Silver Notice on the request of Italy which has sought information about
the assets of a senior mafia member.
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❖ The pilot project has participation from 52 members including India.

❖ At present, the Interpol has eight types of colour-coded notices which allows a
member country to seek specific kind of information worldwide.
❖ The Red Notice allows a country to request the detention of fugitive living in
another country.
❖ The Yellow Notice helps locate missing persons, often minors, or identify persons
who are unable to identify themselves.
❖ The Blue Notice collects additional information about a person's identity, location
or activities in relation to a criminal investigation.
❖ The Black Notice is issued to seek information on unidentified bodies.
❖ The Green Notice is for providing warning about a person's criminal activities,
where the person is considered to be a possible threat to public safety.
❖ The Orange Notice warns of an event, a person, an object or a process
representing a serious and imminent threat to public safety.
❖ The Purple Notice seeks or provides information on modus operandi, objects,
devices and concealment methods used by criminals.

ENVIRONMENT
1st year to breach global warming limit
❖ The average global temperature for the year exceeded 1.5°C above the pre-
industrial baseline for the first time in 2024.
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❖ The WMO’s assessment is calculated using the average global temperature across
six datasets, with the period of 1850 to 1900 used to provide a pre-industrial
baseline.
❖ Every month from January to June 2024 was the warmest ever recorded for those
months.
❖ From July to December, except for August, each month was the second warmest
on record, behind 2023.
❖ The average global temperature was 15.1 degrees Celsius - 0.72 degrees above
the 1991-2020 average and 0.12 degrees higher than that in 2023, the previous
record-holder.

New species of Indo-Burmese pangolin

❖ The Scientists have identified a new species of Indo-Burmese pangolin (Manis
indoburmanica) in Arunachal Pradesh.
❖ It is diverged from the Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) approximately 3.4
million years ago.
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❖ They spread across Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.

MISCELLANEOUS
Donations to Political parties 2022-23

❖ Regional political parties declared the receipt of almost ₹217 crore through 2,119
donations in the financial year 2022-23.
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❖ The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), which got ₹154 crore, almost 71% of the total
donated amount.
❖ About 90% of the donations — more than ₹196 crore — went to five major regional
parties: the BRS, YSR-Congress, Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Dravida Munnetra
Kazhagam (DMK), and the Communist Party of India (CPI).
❖ Of these, the BRS, TDP, DMK, and CPI have declared a rise in their donations
while the YSR-Congress declared a decrease, in comparison with 2021-22.
❖ The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha recorded a whopping 3685% growth in donations
between 2021-22 and 2022-23, the highest percentage increase among regional
parties.
❖ It is followed by the Jannayak Janta Party (1997%), the TDP (1795%).
❖ Among the States, donors from Kerala made the highest cash donations of ₹9.09
lakh, followed by donors from West Bengal who gave ₹5.91 lakh in cash.

Most congested city in Asia 2024

❖ Kolkata was the second most congested city in the world in 2024 and the most
congested in Asia.
❖ The Drivers in the city spent an average of 34 minutes and 33 seconds to travel
a distance of 10 km.
❖ Kolkata was followed closely by Bengaluru, where drivers spent 34 minutes and
10 seconds to cover 10 km.
❖ While 110 hours were lost per year due to traffic conditions in Kolkata, it was
117 hours in Bengaluru, 108 hours in Pune and 85 hours in Hyderabad.
❖ Pune finished third with a travel time of 33 minutes and 22 seconds for the same
distance, leaving India with three cities in the global top five.
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❖ Barranquilla City (36 minutes, six seconds) in Colombia took the top spot and
London (33 minutes, 17 seconds) rounded up the top five of the rankings.

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