UPSC IR UPSC UPSC UPSC UPSC™™ UPSC UPSC UPSC Upsc Upsc UPSC UPSC UPSC MPPSC MPPSC BPSC CGPSC CAPF

🔆 Trump’s Tariffs & U.S.–India Trade Tensions 📍 Key Issue ✅ Trump-era tariffs (10–135%) disrupted global trade norms. ✅ U.S. cited $44 billion trade deficit with India; India actually has a $35–$40B surplus. 📍 India’s Response ✅ Opposed U.S. unilateralism; raised duties on U.S. goods. ✅ Emphasized mutual trade solutions under WTO rules. 📍 Way Forward ✅ Future deals must protect India’s interests in tariffs, digital services, and remittances. ✅ India urged to push for multilateralism and WTO compliance amid U.S. unpredictability. #IR

🔆 Key Takeaways: India-Africa Digital Collaboration ✅ Significance of Africa Day: • Celebrated on May 25 to mark the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (1963). • Symbolizes Africa’s journey toward unity, independence, and socio-economic development. ✅ Africa’s Digital Transformation Strategy (2020–2030): • Emphasizes digital innovation as central to development. • Encourages governments to adopt digital solutions for inclusive growth. ✅ India’s Evolving Africa Strategy: • Blends state-led financing with socially embedded solutions. • Social enterprises delivering low-cost, high-impact innovations are increasingly part of New Delhi’s engagement, reflecting inclusive, adaptable partnerships. ✅ Technology-Driven Partnerships: • Marked by integrated, technology-driven cooperation. • Builds on India’s success with Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) systems: Aadhaar, UPI, CoWIN, DIKSHA. • Focus on sharing and co-creating digital solutions to improve governance and service delivery. • Aligns with Africa’s continental digital agendas, including Policy and Regulatory Initiative for Digital Africa and Smart Africa Alliance. ✅ Key India-Africa Collaborations: • MoUs with Togo and Zambia for digital ID and governance systems. • Partnership with Ghana to implement India’s UPI for faster transactions. • Bank of Namibia pact with India’s National Payments Corporation to develop a UPI-like system. ✅ Educational and Capacity-Building Initiatives: • IIT Madras campus established in Zanzibar focusing on data science and AI. • Public-private partnerships fund scholarships and foster talent. ✅ Strategic Importance: • India’s DPI model is framed as a digital public good, open-source and adaptable. • Offers a public-oriented alternative to surveillance-driven or proprietary systems. • Emphasizes adapting tools to local contexts through state-led collaboration beyond technology transfer. ✅ Challenges to Digital Adoption in Africa: • Africa faces the world’s largest digital divide due to high data/device costs, rural-urban connectivity gaps, and gender disparities in digital access. • Digital infrastructure expansion depends on reliable energy, a bottleneck in many countries. • Sustainable power generation and grid investments are essential. ✅ Global Competition and Future Roadmap: • India competes with China, EU, and US in Africa. • About 85% of African countries have national ID systems with digital capabilities; over 70% collect biometric data. • A new India-Africa digital compact could be a scalable model for inclusive global digital governance. #IR #globalpartnerships

🔆Colombia officially joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). 📍What is the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)?  ✅BRI is an international strategy aimed at improving global connectivity and cooperation. ✅Launched in:  2013, it connects Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Gulf region through land and sea routes. ✅Known as: Originally called ‘One Belt, One Road’, later renamed Belt and Road Initiative to reflect inclusivity. 📍Consists of two major components: Silk Road Economic Belt and Maritime Silk Road. ✅Silk Road Economic Belt: Focuses on developing roads, railways, and trade routes across Eurasia. ✅Maritime Silk Road: Strengthens port infrastructure, shipping routes, and maritime cooperation, linking South China Sea, Indo-China, South-East Asia, the Indian Ocean, Africa, and Europe. 📍China’s Economic Influence & US Concerns ✅China is now the largest trading partner of several Latin American countries (Brazil, Chile, Peru). ✅China is expanding its footprint through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), while the U.S. views Chinese presence near strategic locations like the Panama Canal as a national security threat. #gs2 #ir #prelims L

Kannad writer Banu Mushtaq wins Booker prize For Heart Lamp -Collection of Short stories..which is translated by Deepa bhashti #prelims @upsc_prep_squad

✅New Caledonia is a French territory in the South Pacific with a long-standing independence movement led by its Indigenous Kanak population. Tensions have resurfaced in 2024 after failed negotiations over its political future and voting rights reforms. 📍New Caledonia ✅New Caledonia is a small group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, around 1,200 km east of Australia. ✅It is a French overseas territory with a population of about 271,000. ✅While geographically part of Melanesia, it has been under French rule since 1853. ✅Even today, it remains politically tied to France, but the question of whether it should remain a part of France or become independent has been a deeply emotional and political issue — especially for the Indigenous Kanak people, who have long demanded sovereignty. 📍What was the Nouméa Accord (1998)? ✅The Nouméa Accord recognised the colonial trauma of the Kanak people and aimed to provide them with greater autonomy. ✅It created a unique political arrangement — a “sui generis” status: 🔰A local Congress with legislative powers 🔰Restricted voting rights to long-term residents (to protect Kanak political strength) Own citizenship status (New Caledonian) 🔰Most importantly, it agreed on three referendums on independence, to be held from 2018 to 2021. ✅Despite these the political and economic system remains unequal, dominated by French settlers and loyalists. ✅Kanaks face higher unemployment, poorer education and health indicators. #gs2 #ir

✅India's "new normal" post-Pahalgam refers to a shift in India's approach to India-Pakistan relations, emphasizing self-reliance and decisive responses to terrorism. ✅This "new normal" involves precision strikes against terrorist groups, a more assertive stance in confronting Pakistan's nuclear bluff, and prioritizing India's security and unity over external pressures. ✅Self-Reliance: The "new normal" signifies a move away from relying solely on international mediation and towards independent action by India. ✅Decisive Response to Terrorism: India is now adopting a more proactive and forceful approach in addressing terrorism, particularly in the context of its relations with Pakistan. ✅Precision Strikes: The strategy includes carrying out targeted operations against terrorist groups and infrastructure. ✅Calling Pakistan's Nuclear Bluff: India is asserting itself in a way that challenges Pakistan's nuclear capabilities and intimidation tactics. ✅Prioritizing National Security #gs2 #ir

🔆Golden Dragon 2025 ✅The Golden Dragon military exercise is a bilateral annual drill between China and Cambodia, first initiated in late 2016 to strengthen military cooperation and strategic ties. ✅The official theme of Golden Dragon 2025 is joint counter-terrorism operations and humanitarian relief, portraying the exercise as a peace-building and capacity-building initiative. ✅The 2025 edition is being held at the Ream Naval Base, located in Sihanoukville, on Cambodia’s southern coast. ✅The base was officially inaugurated in April 2025 with the docking of Chinese warships, highlighting China’s expanding naval presence in the Gulf of Thailand. ✅The Golden Dragon drills coincide with the S. -Philippines-led ‘Balikatan’ exercise involving troops from the U.S, Philippines, Australia, and Japan.

🔆Operation Sindoor — A Reshaping of Confrontation ✅The recent India-Pakistan standoff, particularly as exemplified by Operation Sindoor, marks a significant paradigm shift in the conduct and understanding of modern warfare. 📍The Rise of Drone Warfare: ✅The widespread deployment of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), as highlighted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, marks the arrival of asymmetric technological capabilities on the battlefield. ✅Instead of relying solely on high-value aircraft, nations can now deploy swarms of inexpensive and expendable drones for reconnaissance and precision strikes. ✅India’s interception of 300 to 400 Turkish-made Songar drones across 36 locations demonstrated the scale and ambition of Pakistan’s drone operations. ✅In response, India’s use of SkyStriker kamikaze drones allowed for real-time intelligence gathering and precise targeting with minimal human risk, underscoring a shift to probabilistic, low-cost, high-impact combat. ✅Systems such as Akash and QRSAM, combined with adv

✅Recently the Directorate General of Foreign Trade shut down all land ports with Bangladesh for export of apparel from Bangladesh. ✅The move is being interpreted as a fallout of the downturn in relations between New Delhi and Dhaka ✅Export Bans to Bangladesh through the Northeast 🔰Exports of specific goods have been banned through the land ports of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Tripura. 🔰These include fruits, fruit-flavoured drinks, processed food items (like baked goods, chips, and confectionery), cotton and cotton yarn waste, finished plastic and PVC goods (excluding pigments, dyes, plasticisers, and granules), and wooden furniture. ✅Additional Land Routes Affected 🔰The same export restrictions apply at the Changrabandha and Fulbari land customs stations in West Bengal. ✅Exemptions from the Ban Imports of fish, LPG, edible oil, and crushed stone from Bangladesh remain unaffected by the order. #gs3 #economy #gs2 #ir

🔆A Medical Oxygen Access Gap SE Asia Must Bridge ✅The Lancet Global Health Commission on medical oxygen security reveals that South Asia and East Asia and the Pacific bear the brunt of this crisis, with an oxygen service coverage gap of 78% and 74% respectively. ✅These figures underline the massive shortfall in oxygen availability, despite its fundamental role in treating conditions ranging from pneumonia and sepsis to COVID-19 and obstetric emergencies. ✅While emergency interventions during the pandemic brought short-term relief, progress has since stalled. ✅The World Health Organization (WHO) has emphasised the need for sustained investment and policy commitment to maintain momentum. ✅Their 2022 report from the South-East Asia Region stresses that equitable access to oxygen is both a healthcare imperative and a matter of social justice. #gs2 #ir #prelims @upsc_4_ir @upsc_the_hindu_ie_editorial