News In Short 16-01-2026

2025 Warmest La Nina Year on Record

Syllabus: GS1/Geography/GS3/Environment 

In News

• According to a new report ,2025 was the third warmest year on record and the warmest La Niña year.

La Niña

• It  is the cool phase of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO).
• It is a Pacific Ocean weather pattern where warm water and clouds shift westward.
  • This causes heavier rainfall in regions like Indonesia and Australia.
  • Conversely, areas like the southwestern United States experience drier-than-usual conditions.

Impacts on India

• In India, El Niño usually causes less rainfall and higher temperatures, while La Niña brings more rainfall and cooler temperatures.
• La Niña may cause colder winters in parts of India, especially the north, with cold waves and more snowfall in hilly regions.
  • However, global warming can offset these cooling effects, so La Niña does not always result in a colder winter.
    • La Niña impacts are occurring within the broader context of human-induced climate change, which is raising global temperatures, intensifying extreme weather, and affecting seasonal rainfall and temperatures.

Source :DTE

Womaniya Initiative

Syllabus: GS1/Women Empowerment

In News

• Government e-Marketplace (GeM) marked seven years of the Womaniya initiative

Womaniya initiative

• It was launched in 2019, aims to enhance access for women entrepreneurs and Self-Help Groups (SHGs) to government markets by providing a direct, transparent, and fully digital interface with buyers, removing intermediaries and entry barriers. 
• It is aimed at strengthening the participation of women-led Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) in public procurement. 
• Over time, it has evolved into a national ecosystem supporting women-led MSEs and strengthening their participation in public procurement.

Progress 

• Womaniya has grown into a structured and scalable ecosystem and has emerged as a flagship initiative enabling women-led enterprises to scale their businesses through resilience and credibility.
• Over two lakh women-led MSEs are registered on the GeM portal, collectively securing public procurement orders worth over ₹80,000 crore, which is 4.7% of GeM’s total order value, exceeding the mandated 3% target for women-owned and women-led enterprises.

Importance 

• The Womaniya initiative reflects the Government’s commitment to gender-inclusive economic growth and demonstrates how policy, platforms and partnerships can work together to transform participation into prosperity.

Source :PIB

India’s First National Capacity Building Programme for Tribal Healers

Syllabus: GS2/Governance

Context

• The Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) is organizing India’s first National Capacity Building Programme for Tribal Healers on Strengthening Health Outreach in Tribal Areas.

About

• The initiative will recognize and integrate tribal and indigenous healers as trusted community-level partners within India’s public health ecosystem.
  • Tribal healers remain the most culturally trusted touchpoint for healthcare-seeking behaviour, especially in remote habitations where frontline staff mobility and Institutional access remain limited.
  • Healers possess deep-rooted ethnomedicinal knowledge, are accessible to the community, and often act as the first point of health contact.
• An MoU will be signed between ICMR–Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC) and MoTA to establish India’s first National Tribal Health Observatory – the Bharat Tribal Health Observatory (B-THO) under Project DRISTI.
  • It will institutionalize tribe-disaggregated health surveillance, implementation research, and research-driven disease elimination initiatives in tribal districts.
• The capacity-building programme is being organized with strong technical and knowledge partnerships involving leading national and international institutions.
  • These collaborations will bring global evidence, national best practices, and scientific rigour to structured engagement with tribal healers.

Source: PIB

28th Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of the Commonwealth (CSPOC)

Syllabus: GS2/Governance 

In News

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 28th Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of the Commonwealth (CSPOC) at Samvidhan Sadan, highlighting how India has transformed its diversity into a democratic strength. 

28th Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of the Commonwealth (CSPOC)

• The conference, attended by 61 Speakers and Presiding Officers from 42 Commonwealth countries.
• It aims to promote knowledge and understanding of parliamentary democracy in its various forms and to develop parliamentary institutions.
  • Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla is the Chairperson of this Conference.
• It focused on the use of Artificial Intelligence in Parliament, the sharing of best practices and innovative ideas among the participants, Social media’s impact on Parliamentarians, enhancing public understanding of Parliament and Security, and the health and well-being of MPs.

Key Points 

• The Prime Minister emphasized that Indian democracy ensures last-mile delivery of welfare, helping lift around 25 crore people out of poverty.
• He underscored India’s economic and institutional progress, citing its status as the fastest-growing major economy, world’s largest digital payments system, leading vaccine producer, and hub for startups, infrastructure, and manufacturing. 
• He noted the scale of Indian democracy, with 980 million registered voters in the 2024 elections, and highlighted the increasing leadership role of women at all levels of governance.
• He traced India’s democratic tradition to centuries-old practices of consultation and collective decision-making, comparing it to a deep-rooted tree.
• He emphasized India’s role in raising Global South concerns at international platforms like the G20. 
• He also highlighted the use of AI in parliamentary proceedings to enhance citizen understanding.

Source :IE

India’s First State-funded BSL-4 lab for deadliest pathogens in Gujarat

Syllabus: GS2/Health; GS3/Science and Tech

In News

• The Union Home Minister laid the foundation stone for a Bio-Safety Level 4 (BSL-4) Containment Facility and laboratory in Gandhinagar, describing it as a “health shield” for India.

BSL-4 Facility

• Bio-Safety Level 4 (BSL-4) labs represent the highest level of biological containment.
• It is  designed to safely study the world’s most dangerous and highly infectious pathogens that often lack vaccines or treatments. 
• Scientists conduct advanced research, develop diagnostics, vaccines, and therapeutics, and carry out rapid outbreak investigation and response under strictly controlled and internationally monitored conditions.

Preset status in India 

• Currently, there is only one civilian BSL-4 laboratory functional in India, located at the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune, Maharashtra.
• However, in late 2024, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) under the Defence Ministry set up its own BSL-4 lab in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh.
• The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had established a network of Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratories (VRDL) under the central sector scheme “Setting up of a Nationwide Network of Laboratories for Managing Epidemics and National Calamities.”
  • Under this scheme, 165 biosafety laboratories, including 11 BSL-3 level labs and 154 BSL-2 level labs, have been approved.

New laboratory in Gujarat 

• The BSL-4 laboratory coming up in Gandhinagar, along with an Animal Bio-Safety Level (ABSL) facility, will be a strategic national asset where research is conducted on the deadliest pathogens known to mankind, including the Ebola virus, Marburg virus, Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) virus, Kyasanur Forest Disease virus, and Nipah virus, among others.

Source :IE

Synthetic Cattle Breeds

Syllabus: GS3/Dairy Sector

Context

• India registers two new synthetic cattle breeds Karan Fries and Vrindavani developed by the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI).

About

• Karan Fries is a synthetic cow breed developed through crossbreeding Holstein Friesian, a globally recognised high-yielding breed with India’s indigenous Tharparkar zebu cattle, known for their hardiness and resilience.
• The synthetic Karan Fries cow breed combines high productivity with resilience, delivering peak daily milk yields of up to 46.5 kg.
  • Indigenous breeds typically produce 1,000–2,000 kg of milk per lactation.
• Karan Fries and Vrindavani along with another high-yielding synthetic cow breed took the country’s total number of registered livestock and poultry breeds to 246. 
• Synthetic cattle breeds are those developed through planned cross-breeding of two or more breeds usually indigenous (Bos indicus) with exotic (Bos taurus) followed by stabilisation of desired traits over generations.
  • Once stabilised, they breed true and are recognised as distinct breeds.
• Significance: 
  • Higher productivity than indigenous cattle.
  • Better climate resilience than pure exotic breeds.
  • Improved economic returns for dairy farmers.
  • Lower mortality and better reproductive efficiency.

Source: BS