Current Affairs | National | International | SSC | UPSC 29th April 2025

 

International News 

1. Long-term and diplomatic visas of Pakistani nationals valid: ocials 

•  Long-term visas (LTVs) and official or diplomatic visas will remain valid even after the April 29 deadline when Indian visas issued to Pakistani citizens will be revoked. 
• Religion no bar Officials here clarified that of the 16 categories of visas issued by India to Pakistan nationals, two would remain valid after Tuesday and the validity of the LTVs would not be affected by the religious identity of the visa holders. 
•  On April 23, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri announced that all visas issued to Pakistan nationals under the SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme (SVES) would be revoked on April 26. 
•  Briefing press persons on April 23, Mr. Misri urged all Pakistani nationals with “valid endorsements” to exit India through the Integrated Check Post at Attari by May 1. 
• The rest of the visas such as “visa on arrival”; those issued to business persons, visitors, film industry workers, and journalists; and visas issued for transit, conference, mountaineering, and tourist groups were revoked on April 27. 
•  Apart from these, pilgrim visas and group pilgrim visas to religious minorities of Pakistan were revoked. The official notification said the deadline for visa for officials and diplomats from Pakistan would be determined by the External Affairs Ministry. 
•  An official note circulated by the Ministry on April 24 said the LTVs would remain valid after April 29 only in cases of Pakistani Hindu visitors. 
• Referring to that decision, the official note had declared: “The revocation of visas does not apply to the Long Term Visas (LTVs) already issued to Hindu Pakistani nationals, which remain valid.” But an official source said on Monday that “all” LTVs issued to Pakistani citizens will remain valid after April 29.

 Defence News 

2. India, France finalise deal for 26 Rafale-M aircraft 

•  India and France on Monday formally concluded an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA), valued at nearly ₹64,000 crore, to procure 26 Rafale-M fighter jets for the Indian Navy. Deliveries are set to begin from mid-2028 and likely to be completed by 2030. 
• The IGA was signed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Minister of Armed Forces of France Sebastien Lecornu remotely. “The deal includes training, simulator, associated equipment, weapons, and performance based logistics. 
•  It also includes additional equipment for the existing Rafale feet of the Indian Air Force,” a Defence Ministry statement said, adding that the crew will undergo training in France and India. 
• The IGA also includes transfer of technology for the integration of indigenous weapons, such as the Astra Beyond Visual Range air-to-air missile, on the Rafale jets. 
•  “The delivery of these aircraft would be completed by 2030, with the crew undergoing training in France and India,” the Defence Ministry statement said. ‘Thousands of jobs’ “It also includes the setting up of production facility for Rafale Fuselage as well as Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facilities for aircraft engine, sensors and weapons in India,” the statement said, adding that the deal is expected to generate thousands of jobs and revenue for a large number of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). 
• The French Defence Minister was scheduled to visit India to sign the deal, but the visit was deferred due to personal reasons. Hence, the signing of the IGA was done by the two Ministers remotely.

 3. In 2024, India’s military expenditure was 9 times that of Pakistan: SIPRI 

•  India’s military spending in 2024 was nearly nine times that of Pakistan’s expenditure, according to a study released on Monday by a leading Swedish think tank that comes amid growing tensions between the two countries over the Pahalgam terror attack. 
• The country’s military expenditure, the fifth largest globally, grew by 1.6% to $86.1 billion while Pakistan spent $10.2 billion, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). 
•  The top five military spenders — the United States, China, Russia, Germany and India — accounted for 60% of the global total, with combined spending of $1,635 billion, it said. China’s military expenditure increased by 7% to an estimated $314 billion, marking three decades of consecutive growth, the study noted. 
•  China accounted for 50% of all military spending in Asia and Oceania, investing in the continued modernisation of its military and expansion of its cyberwarfare capabilities and nuclear arsenal, it said in the report titled ‘Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024’. SIPRI said military spending in Europe (including Russia) rose by 17% to $693 billion and was the main contributor to the global increase in 2024. 
• With the war in Ukraine in its third year, military expenditure kept rising across the continent, pushing European military spending beyond the level recorded at the end of the Cold War, it noted. SIPRI said Russia’s military expenditure reached an estimated $149 billion in 2024, a 38% increase from 2023 and double the level in 2015.
•   This represented 7.1% of Russia's GDP and 19% of all Russian government spending. Ukraine's total military expenditure grew by 2.9% to reach $64.7 billion — equivalent to 43% of Russia's spending. At 34% of GDP, Ukraine had the largest military burden of any country in 2024, the report added. 

Award News

4. Murmu presents the Padma awards to 71 personalities 

• O samu Suzuki, former chief of Suzuki Motor Corporation; singer Pankaj Udhas; Sushil Kumar Modi, former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister; film director Shekhar Kapur; and Lakshmipathy Ramasubbaiyer, publisher of the Tamil daily Dinamalar, were among the prominent personalities given the Padma awards by President Droupadi Murmu on Monday. 
• President Murmu conferred the honours on 71 of the 139 distinguished persons who were named for the country’s top civilian awards — Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri — on the eve of the 76th Republic Day in January. 
•  The award ceremony was held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan’s Durbar Hall on Monday in the presence of Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and others. Among the awardees, four received Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest civilian honour in the country.
•   While Suzuki and M.T. Vasudevan Nair, Malayalam writer and film director, were given the award posthumously, D. Nageshwar Reddy, chairman of Asian Institute of Gastroenterology and AIG Hospitals, and violinist Lakshminarayana Subramaniam received their awards in person.
•   Mr. Kapur, Telugu actor Nandamuri Balakrishna, Pankaj Udhas, Sushil Kumar Modi, former hockey player P.R. Sreejesh, Tamil actor S. Ajith Kumar, chairperson of Zydus Lifesciences Pankaj Patel, and Vinod Dham, an Indian-American engineer widely known as the ‘Father of the Pentium’, were the 10 distinguished personalities given the Padma Bhushan. As many as 57 prominent personalities were given the Padma Shri. 
• These include Mr. Ramasubbaiyer; former chairperson of the State Bank of India Arundhati Bhattacharya; industrialist Pawan Kumar Goenka; wildlife researcher and Marathi author Maruti Bhujangrao Chitampalli, who gave unique dictionaries on birds, animals and trees; and master puppeteer Bheemavva Doddabasappa Shillekyathara, who was one of the first women to practise Togalu Gombeyaata (leather puppetry). 
•  Former AIIMS and SGPGI Director A.K. Mahapatra and Punjabi singer Jaspinder Narula Kaul were also awarded the Padma Shri. 30 unsung heroes This year, the Padma awards were given to 30 unsung heroes, including 100-year-old Libia Lobo Sardesai, who played an important role in Goa’s freedom movement.