Daily Current Affairs: 9 & 10 February 2025

Current affairs of 9 & 10 February 2025: National Mission for Manuscripts: Autonomy and ₹491.66 Crore Funding; Antibiotic Resistance: How Bacteria Adapt Cell Wall Repair; Budget 2025-26 R&D Boost: ₹20,000 Crore for SMRs, and 8 more topics. Key facts for every exam, with a quiz.

Take the quiz (10 questions)February 2025

In this issue: 11 topics

Government Schemes

National Mission for Manuscripts: Autonomy and ₹491.66 Crore Funding

Banking & Finance

Microfinance in India and Karnataka’s 2025 Ordinance

Economy

Sitharaman on RBI Rate Cut: Fiscal-Monetary Coordination
Asset Monetisation and the National Monetisation Pipeline
Urban Development Outlay in Budget 2025-26: Gaps and Cuts

International Affairs

AI Action Summit 2025: India as Co-chair and Global South Voice

Agriculture & Rural

Agricultural Drones in India: Benefits, Challenges, Schemes
Nano Fertilizers and PLI: Govt Rules Out Inclusion

Science & Technology

Antibiotic Resistance: How Bacteria Adapt Cell Wall Repair
Budget 2025-26 R&D Boost: ₹20,000 Crore for SMRs
DeepSeek vs ChatGPT: Market Shock and AI Debate

Government Schemes

1. National Mission for Manuscripts: Autonomy and ₹491.66 Crore Funding

NMM, set up in 2003, is being made fully autonomous with nearly ₹500 crore over six years.
A Special Finance Committee sanctioned ₹491.66 crore for it till 2031.
The Ministry of Culture created NMM in 2003, during the 10th Five Year Plan.

Full notes and 3 MCQs ›

Banking & Finance

Economy

2. Microfinance in India and Karnataka’s 2025 Ordinance

Microfinance loan book was ₹384,396 crore in Dec 2024; Karnataka ranks 4th.
Karnataka's 2025 ordinance proposes jail of 6 months to 10 years and fines up to ₹5 lakh.
Andhra Pradesh's strict 2010 law triggered MFI collapse.

Full notes and 3 MCQs ›

Economy

3. Sitharaman on RBI Rate Cut: Fiscal-Monetary Coordination

Hours after the RBI rate cut, Nirmala Sitharaman stressed coordination between fiscal and monetary policy.
She compared the two policies to the two wheels of a car.
The Budget's ₹1 lakh crore tax breaks aim to spur urban demand.

Full notes and 3 MCQs ›

Economy

4. Asset Monetisation and the National Monetisation Pipeline

Asset monetisation earns revenue from public assets through private operation without any transfer of ownership.
National Monetisation Pipeline launched 23 August 2021 targeted ₹6 trillion over FY22-FY25.
NMP sector shares: roads 27%, railways 25%, power 15%, pipelines 8%, telecom 6%.

Full notes and 3 MCQs ›

Economy

5. Urban Development Outlay in Budget 2025-26: Gaps and Cuts

Urban development outlay is ₹96,777 crore, up from ₹82,576.57 crore but lower in real terms.
PMAY (Urban) was revised down from ₹30,170.61 crore to ₹13,670 crore.
The ₹10,000 crore Urban Challenge Fund expects 50% private funding.

Full notes and 3 MCQs ›

International Affairs

Science & Technology

6. AI Action Summit 2025: India as Co-chair and Global South Voice

India accepted France's invitation to co-chair the AI Action Summit in Paris on 10-11 February 2025.
It is the third major global AI summit, after the U.K. (2023) and South Korea (2024).
India's priorities: democratise AI access, build Global South use cases and document regional AI risks.
Success at Paris could help India's bid to host the next summit.

Full notes and 3 MCQs ›

Agriculture & Rural

Agriculture & Rural Development

7. Agricultural Drones in India: Benefits, Challenges, Schemes

Salam Kisan (PRYM Solutions) signed an MoU with Maharashtra to democratise farm drone technology, with Microsoft as technology partner.
In Punjab, 93 of 100 IFFCO drones under the Namo Drone Didi scheme are operational.
Each drone costs ₹16 lakh and carries a 12-litre tank.
Drone spraying takes about 57 minutes per acre and can save up to 90% water.

Full notes and 3 MCQs ›

Economy

8. Nano Fertilizers and PLI: Govt Rules Out Inclusion

MoS Anupriya Patel said nano fertilizer production will not be brought under the PLI scheme.
PLI schemes began in 2020 under Atmanirbhar Bharat and Make in India.
Nano-coated fertilisers control nutrient release and reduce leaching, runoff and wastage.

Full notes and 3 MCQs ›

Science & Technology

9. Antibiotic Resistance: How Bacteria Adapt Cell Wall Repair

Antimicrobial resistance was linked to an estimated 1.2 million deaths in 2021; Indian hospital data suggest 13% mortality from resistant infections.
Bacteria have a peptidoglycan cell wall that human cells lack, which is why antibiotics can target them.
Penicillin weakens the wall's crosslinks, causing the cell to burst.
Dr. Manjula Reddy's CCMB Hyderabad team found bacteria offset endopeptidase loss by overproducing LT enzymes.

Full notes and 3 MCQs ›

Economy

10. Budget 2025-26 R&D Boost: ₹20,000 Crore for SMRs

Budget 2025-26 earmarks ₹20,000 crore for five small modular reactors (SMRs) by 2033.
DST's allocation rises to ₹28,000 crore and a Research, Development and Innovation fund is set up.
R&D spending fell to 0.64% of GDP in 2020, the lowest since 1995.

Full notes and 3 MCQs ›

Science & Technology

11. DeepSeek vs ChatGPT: Market Shock and AI Debate

DeepSeek is a Chinese AI model seen as rivalling ChatGPT; it is free and open source.
Nvidia lost $593 billion in market value in one day, the biggest single-day loss by any firm.
Other AI-linked firms lost over $1 trillion.
DeepSeek reportedly trained its model for only $6 million.

Full notes and 3 MCQs ›

Test yourself

10 questions from the news of 9 & 10 February 2025, with answers and explanations.

Start the quiz

Current Affairs

General Studies

Exams

PDFs

Practice

More

Daily Current Affairs: 9 & 10 February 2025

In this issue: 11 topics

Government Schemes

1. National Mission for Manuscripts: Autonomy and ₹491.66 Crore Funding

Banking & Finance

2. Microfinance in India and Karnataka’s 2025 Ordinance

Economy

3. Sitharaman on RBI Rate Cut: Fiscal-Monetary Coordination

4. Asset Monetisation and the National Monetisation Pipeline

5. Urban Development Outlay in Budget 2025-26: Gaps and Cuts

International Affairs

6. AI Action Summit 2025: India as Co-chair and Global South Voice

Agriculture & Rural

7. Agricultural Drones in India: Benefits, Challenges, Schemes

8. Nano Fertilizers and PLI: Govt Rules Out Inclusion

Science & Technology

9. Antibiotic Resistance: How Bacteria Adapt Cell Wall Repair

10. Budget 2025-26 R&D Boost: ₹20,000 Crore for SMRs

11. DeepSeek vs ChatGPT: Market Shock and AI Debate

Test yourself