August 2025
In short: India's science, environment and technology this month — distilled for SI/Constable Prelims.
Current Affairs — India › Science, Environment & Technology · 20 min read · Free to read · English & Telugu
Bilingual study notes for the Andhra Pradesh Police SI & Constable exams (SLPRB AP) by AP Police Hub, a product of Anvil Academy.
August 2025's defence-tech, space and environment round-up — the Agni-5 test-fire, DRDO's new air-defence shield, the Vaishno Devi landslide, and a wide sweep of health/science briefs from LUPEX to the India Semiconductor Mission.
Agni-V intermediate-range ballistic missile lifting off from Integrated Test Range, Wheeler Island, Odisha (2012) — the same DRDO missile family test-fired again in August 2025 · DRDO / Ministry of Defence, Government of India (GODL-India)
August 2025 — At a Glance
August 2025 was rich in defence and space milestones — the Agni-5 test-fire, DRDO's new integrated air-defence system, INS Himgiri's delivery, and the ISRO-JAXA LUPEX agreement. On environment, a major landslide struck near Vaishno Devi, Haryana defined 'forest' under a Supreme Court directive, and a global WHO-WMO report flagged workplace heat stress. A wide sweep of health and research briefs — from Hepatitis D's reclassification to a new diatom species — rounded out the month.
1. Defence & Security Tech
Agni-5 missile test-fired
- What — India test-fired its Agni-5 intermediate-range ballistic missile from the Integrated Test Range, Chandipur (Odisha) under the Strategic Forces Command, validating all operational parameters.
- Specs — Range 5,000 km, designed by DRDO; earlier trial (March 2024) featured MIRV technology enabling strikes on multiple targets from a single launch.
DRDO tests the Integrated Air Defence Weapon System (IADWS)
- What — DRDO conducted maiden flight-tests off the Odisha coast, simultaneously destroying three targets at varying ranges and altitudes.
- Components — QRSAM (Quick Reaction Surface-to-Air Missile), VSHORADS (Very Short Range Air Defence System), a laser-based Directed Energy Weapon (DEW) — all under a centralised command centre by DRDL, Hyderabad.
- Significance — Viewed as a stepping stone toward Mission Sudarshan Chakra — India's planned Iron-Dome-like, multi-layered defence shield targeted for 2035.
Other defence & security developments
- INS Himgiri delivered to the Navy — 3rd Nilgiri-class (Project 17A) frigate, first built by GRSE, Kolkata; 75% indigenous content, generated ~4,000 direct jobs.
- MiG-21 fighter jets retired — IAF retires MiG-21s in September 2025 after six decades (inducted 1963); reduces fighter strength to 29 squadrons vs sanctioned 42, pending LCA-Mk1A deliveries.
- Mission Sudarshan Chakra — PM announced a multi-layered defence framework (envisioned like Israel's Iron Dome/US's Golden Dome) integrating missile interception, cyber and physical safeguards; targeted for 2035 under Aatmanirbhar Bharat.
- Army to deploy drones at battalion level — Major overhaul integrating UAVs/counter-UAVs as standard battalion assets; raising 30 'Bhairav' light commando battalions and restructuring brigades into integrated 'Rudra' brigades.
- Deception techniques — X-Guard decoy — During Operation Sindoor, the IAF reportedly deployed the Israeli X-Guard Fibre-Optic Towed Decoy, an AI-enabled decoy trailed behind Rafale jets, working with the SPECTRA electronic-warfare suite.
- Exercise Achook Prahar — Army's Spear Corps and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) conducted a joint battlefield-preparedness exercise in central Arunachal Pradesh.
- Women's representation in Indian Armed Forces — 2024 data: IAF 13.4% (highest), Army 6.85%, Navy 6% — a sharp rise from 2005; Navy's only closed branch is submarines.
- IONS Emerging Leaders Panel & MILMEDICON-2025 — The Indian Ocean Naval Symposium's leaders panel met in Kochi (19 member nations); MILMEDICON-2025, an international military-medicine conference, was held in New Delhi marking a century of the Military Nursing Service.
- Telecom (Cyber Security) Amendment Rules, 2025 — Tightens telecom-network cybersecurity compliance under the Telecommunications Act, 2023 — mandatory incident reporting and stricter data-security obligations for telecom entities.
2. Space & ISRO
- LUPEX Mission (Chandrayaan-5) — PM welcomed the ISRO-JAXA agreement for the Lunar Polar Exploration (LUPEX) mission — ISRO builds the lander, JAXA the rover — launching on Japan's H3 rocket to detect water-ice at the Moon's south pole; supports India's 2040 human-Moon-mission goal.
- Human Outer Planet Exploration (HOPE) station — Bengaluru startup Protoplanet + ISRO built India's first analogue space-research station in Ladakh's Tso Kar valley (14,500 ft) — its cold-desert terrain mimics Moon/Mars conditions for crew-training and technology-readiness studies.
- LVM3 launch vehicle upgrade — ISRO targets a 2027 launch of an upgraded LVM3 with a semi-cryogenic (SE2000) core stage, raising GTO payload from 4,200 kg to 5,200 kg and cutting launch cost ~25%; it launched Chandrayaan-2/3 and will power Gaganyaan.
- Leap-1 Mission — Indian space startup Dhruva Space's first commercial satellite mission, built on its indigenous P-30 platform, carrying AI and Earth-observation payloads (Nexus-01) with Australian/US collaboration.
- Bluebird satellite — ISRO is set to help launch the US-based AST SpaceMobile's Block 2 BlueBird — a direct satellite-to-smartphone communications satellite, strengthening Indo-US space collaboration.
- India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) — Government approved 4 more semiconductor projects (Odisha, Punjab, AP). Launched 2021, ₹76,000 crore outlay; India's first indigenous chip production expected in 2025; SEMICON India's 4th edition in Delhi (Sept 2025).
- Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) — A refresher on the sensor (invented 1969 by Boyle & Smith) that converts light into electrical signals via a pixel grid — foundational to digital cameras, medical imaging and astronomy.
3. Environment & Disaster Management
Landslide near the Vaishno Devi shrine
- What — A major landslide, triggered by torrential rains, struck near the Vaishno Devi shrine (Jammu & Kashmir).
- Institutional framework — Monitored via GSI's Landslide Hazard Zonation Mapping and ISRO's Bhuvan Portal; nodal agency is GSI, with NDMA Guidelines (2009) for mitigation.
Haryana notifies the 'dictionary meaning of forest'
- Context — Follows a March 2025 SC directive requiring all States/UTs to define 'forest' and identify forest-like/unclassified/community forest lands within six months, amid a challenge to the Forest Conservation Amendment Act, 2023.
- Criteria set by Haryana — Minimum area 5 hectares (isolated) / 2 hectares (contiguous to notified forests); minimum canopy density 40%.
- Legal roots — Builds on the landmark T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad case (1996), which held any land recorded as forest or fitting the 'dictionary meaning' qualifies, regardless of ownership.
First-ever WHO-WMO report on workplace heat stress
- What — First joint WHO-WMO effort since the 1970s; 2024 confirmed the hottest year on record, with over 2.4 billion workers (70%) exposed to excessive heat globally.
- Impact — ~22.85 million injuries, ~19,000 deaths yearly from heat exposure; 2-3% productivity loss per degree Celsius above 20°C — could cost $2.4 trillion globally by 2030 (ILO estimate).
Other environment developments
- District Flood Severity Index (DFSI) — New IIT Delhi/IIT Gandhinagar index incorporating human impacts alongside flood duration/area; finds Patna (Bihar) the highest-DFSI district (19.37), followed by Murshidabad (WB) and Thane (Maharashtra).
- National Designated Authority (NDA) for carbon markets — MoEFCC constituted a 21-member authority to operationalise India's carbon market under Paris Agreement Article 6, integrating with the domestic Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS).
- State Energy Efficiency Index (SEEI) 2024 — BEE's 6th edition assesses 36 States/UTs on 66 indicators; Front Runners: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, Tamil Nadu (reduced from 7 in 2023 to 5 in 2024).
- Dibru-Saikhowa National Park (DSNP) — Assam park (Tinsukia/Dibrugarh districts) facing habitat shifts from invasive species (Siam weed, Mikania micrantha); a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve known for feral horses and Gangetic dolphins.
- Palmyra Palm Tree — Gained attention in Odisha (India's most lightning-prone state, 300+ deaths/year) for its dual role as a natural lightning conductor and elephant food source in lean seasons; State Tree of Tamil Nadu.
- Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) 2024 — University of Chicago's EPIC finds India's PM2.5 ~8× the WHO safe limit; average life expectancy cut by 3.5 years (up to 8.2 years in Delhi); 46% of Indians live above India's own PM2.5 standard.
- Draft Energy Conservation (Compliance Enforcement) Rules, 2025 — Strengthens penalty and enforcement mechanisms under the Energy Conservation Act, 2001 for designated consumers failing to meet efficiency norms.
- Species in the news — Sliteye shark recorded for the first time at the Great Chagos Bank (Indian Ocean, 'Near Threatened'); Mycetia malayana plant documented in India for the first time, at Tripura's Sepahijala Wildlife Sanctuary.
4. Health & Biotech Briefs
A wide sweep of health, disease and research items made news this month — grouped here briefly for quick revision.
- New rules for organ transplant allocation — NOTTO's revised policy gives additional priority points to women patients and immediate relatives of deceased donors to address gender disparity; 2024 saw a record 18,900 transplants (up from under 5,000 in 2013).
- Hepatitis D reclassified as carcinogenic — WHO reclassified Hepatitis D (needs co-infection with Hepatitis B) as carcinogenic — HBV+HDV co-infection carries 2-6× higher cirrhosis/liver-cancer risk.
- WHO certifies Kenya sleeping-sickness-free — Kenya became the 10th country certified free of Human African Trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness), a tsetse-fly-borne disease; cases fell 97% in 20 years.
- WHO declares Nepal rubella-free — Nepal eliminated rubella as a public health problem, a viral infection dangerous in pregnancy (Congenital Rubella Syndrome); prevented via the MMR vaccine.
- Pfizer's PCV20 vaccine for adults — India got Pfizer's next-gen 20-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine for adults, protecting against 20 serotypes of *Streptococcus pneumoniae*.
- CATCH Grant Program — IndiaAI + National Cancer Grid launched the Cancer AI & Technology Challenge — up to ₹50 lakh per project to fund AI solutions in cancer screening/diagnostics.
- Primary Amoebic Meningoencephalitis (PAM) — Kerala reported cases (incl. a child death) of this rare, often-fatal brain infection caused by the 'brain-eating amoeba' *Naegleria fowleri*, found in warm freshwater.
- CLOVES Syndrome — An ultra-rare genetic disorder (<200 cases worldwide) caused by PIK3CA gene mutations, marked by fatty-tissue overgrowth and vascular malformations.
- Liver Cirrhosis — new Indian research — ILBS Delhi + NIPER Guwahati found a VEGF-C-based nanocarrier approach that improved lymph drainage and reduced ascites/portal pressure in cirrhosis models.
- Huntington's Disease policy gap — Patients demand inclusion of this rare inherited neurodegenerative disorder (50% inheritance risk from an affected parent) under the National Policy for Rare Diseases.
- Glanders — revised National Action Plan — A contagious zoonotic equine disease (*Burkholderia mallei*), rare but up to 95% fatal in humans if untreated; notifiable under the PCICDA Act, 2009.
- Bloom Syndrome — Chennai bone-marrow transplant — A 12-year-old with this rare autosomal-recessive disorder (BLM gene, very high cancer risk) received a sibling bone-marrow transplant in Chennai.
- Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD) rise in Delhi — A common, highly-contagious viral illness (Coxsackievirus A16) affecting infants/children with mouth sores and hand-foot rash; usually resolves in 7-10 days.
- Orbiting Carbon Observatories (OCO) — funding cut proposed — US Trump administration proposed shutting NASA's OCO programme (satellite-based CO₂ monitoring) — data identified the Amazon as a net CO₂ emitter and boreal forests as unexpected carbon sinks.
- Genetically engineered E. coli as chemical sensors — Researchers showed genetically engineered *E. coli* bacteria can be turned into self-powered chemical sensors that interface directly with electronics.
- Sakura Science Programme 2025 — 34 Indian government-school students set to visit Japan under this JST youth science-exchange programme (India a participant since 2016).
- Ionic Liquids and life on rocky exoplanets — Scientists found ionic liquids (salts that stay liquid below 100°C) could enable life on volcanically-active, water-scarce rocky super-earths.
- Bioactive Peptides (BAPs) — A study found the health effects of these short amino-acid chains (from fermented foods, milk, fish) vary across populations, opening a personalised-nutrition angle for India's diverse population.
- New diatom species discovered — Indian and international researchers discovered *Climaconeis heteropolaris*, a new species of diatom — photosynthetic microalgae that produce 20-50% of Earth's oxygen.