23 June 2025
(Current Affairs Notes - Prelims)

Manosphere

• A network of online communities where men discuss issues like masculinity, gender roles, and perceived societal biases against men, often from an anti-feminist perspective.

• It includes subgroups like men's rights activists, incels, and Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW), and has been criticized for promoting misogyny and toxic masculinity.

Strait of Hormuz

• A narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, acting as a vital chokepoint for global oil transportation.

• Located between Iran and Oman, it handles nearly one-fifth of the world's oil trade, making it strategically and geopolitically critical.

China, Pakistan and Bangladesh Trilateral

• Recently, China hosted a trilateral meeting with Pakistan and Bangladesh in Kunming. It establishes a structured working group to promote economic, diplomatic, and potential defence ties.

• Indian analysts warn that this emerging bloc may strategically encircle India, tightening Chinese influence around India’s land and maritime periphery – especially concerning the Siliguri Corridor – posing a two-front security challenge.

• China’s backing of infrastructure (e.g. Teesta project), trade corridors, energy deals in Bangladesh and Pakistan could diminish India’s influence in South Asian economic and connectivity frameworks.

• Emergence of alternate regional platforms may reduce relevance of India-led regional groupings like Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC).

CaTRAT

• Camera Trap data Repository and Analysis Tool

• For automated segregation of camera trap photographs of species using artificial intelligence

• Recently used to identify Himalayan snow leopards

• Other similar technologies

  • • Tigers: M-STrIPES (Monitoring System for tigers – intensive protection and ecological status), that uses GPS to geotag photoevidences

    • Lion: AI-driven systems like SIMBA, E-GujForest, Alert Generation System

Gwada Negative

• Officially registered by International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT) as ISBT042

• A negative blood group system defined by the absence of the EMM antigen

• A French woman from the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe has been identified as the only known carrier of this new blood type