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- In Vanashakti v. Union of India (2025), the Supreme Court barred the Central Government from granting ex-post facto environmental clearances (ECs) to mining operations or legitimizing activities that violate the 2006 Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification.
- The Court emphasized that this notification mandates prior environmental clearance before any project commences.
- It held that retrospective approvals issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) were unlawful, arbitrary, and in violation of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution, which guarantee equality before the law and the right to life, respectively.
- This stance aligns with the Court’s earlier ruling in Common Cause v. Union of India (2017), which declared post-facto clearances incompatible with established environmental law.
- Under the EIA Notification 2006, projects are classified into two categories: Category A projects require central approval based on Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) advice, while Category B projects require state-level approval via SEIAA and SEAC recommendations.
- A recent analysis revealed that 97% of documented deep-sea dives have been conducted by just five nations: the United States, Japan, New Zealand, France, and Germany.
- These dives primarily use observation tools like manned submersibles, Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs), Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), and tow cameras.
- Exploration efforts have focused heavily on prominent undersea features such as ridges and canyons, while the vast, flat abyssal plains—making up most of the seafloor—remain largely ignored.
- The deep ocean begins below 200 meters, where sunlight rapidly fades.
- It is characterized by frigid temperatures averaging 4°C and intense pressures up to 110 times atmospheric levels. The mesopelagic zone (200–1000 m) teems with biodiversity, including squid, krill, and jellyfish, comprising around 90% of the world's fish biomass. Deep-sea hydrothermal vents, which release mineral-rich water, support unique life forms through chemosynthesis.
- Deep-sea exploration holds immense potential—from energy resources and drug discovery to climate change research.
- At a high-level ministerial summit held in Berlin, 74 UN Member States committed to strengthening peacekeeping by pledging enhanced capabilities such as rapid deployment assets, airlift support, advanced training, technological upgrades, and efforts to promote the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda.
- The event marked the 10th anniversary of the 2015 New York Summit on Peacekeeping. India reaffirmed its strong commitment by pledging a Quick Reaction Force (QRF) Company, a women-led Formed Police Unit, a SWAT unit, and expanded peacekeeping training and partnership initiatives.
- The summit underlined the urgent need to modernize UN peacekeeping, ensure faster deployment, improve mission performance, and promote regional cooperation. India remains one of the largest contributors to UN peacekeeping, with over 290,000 personnel having served in more than 50 missions.
- Currently the fourth-largest troop-contributing country, India has led historic deployments, including the first all-women police unit in Liberia (2007), and received the Dag Hammarskjöld Medal in 2023.