National Milk Day (NMD) 2025

Context: National Milk Day (NMD) is celebrated annually on November 26 in India to commemorate the birth anniversary of Dr. Verghese Kurien, the "Father of the White Revolution". 

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• The Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying organised the National Milk Day celebrations on 26 November 2025 in New Delhi.
• The Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying conferred the National Gopal Ratna Awards in three categories, along with special awards for participants from the North Eastern Region and Himalayan States.
• The National Gopal Ratna Awards honour the best dairy farmer, the best artificial insemination technician and the best dairy cooperative or producer organisation.
• The government launched multiple initiatives, including Breed Multiplication Farms, Guidelines for Minimum Requirements of Veterinary Infrastructure in India and the Basic Animal Husbandry Statistics 2025 publication.

National Milk Day

• The Day was first observed on November 26, 2014, as a joint initiative by the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), the Indian Dairy Association (IDA), and 22 state-level milk federations.
• The event honoured the immense contribution of Verghese Kurien to the dairy sector, which transformed India from a milk-deficient nation into the world's largest milk producer.

76^th Constitution Day

Context: Constitution Day is observed every year in India to mark the adoption of the Indian Constitution by the Constituent Assembly on November 26, 1949.

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• Constitution Day 2025 theme: “Hamara Samvidhan–Hamara Swabhiman”.
• The President of India released the translated version of the Constitution in nine languages, including Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Punjabi, Bodo, Kashmiri, Telugu, Odia and Assamese. 
• The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, on 19th November 2015, notified the decision of the Government of India to celebrate the 26th day of November every year as ‘Constitution Day’ to promote constitutional values among citizens.

Constitution of India

• The Constitution of India was framed by a Constituent Assembly set up under the Cabinet Mission Plan of 1946.
• The Constituent Assembly set up 13 committees for framing the constitution including a Drafting Committee under the Chairmanship of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. On the basis of the reports of these committees, a draft of the Constitution was prepared by a seven-member Drafting Committee.
• It is the longest written Constitution in the world, containing 395 Articles, 22 Parts and 12 Schedules.

Sentinel-6B

Context: Recently, the Sentinel-6B satellite mission was launched aboard with a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California to provide crucial data on global sea levels and changing ocean conditions.

Sentinel-6B

• The satellite carries six scientific instruments that will measure sea level rise and related ocean conditions.
• Sentinel-6B (also known as Jason-CS B) will orbit Earth at a speed of 7.2 kilometres per second and complete one revolution in about 112 minutes.
• Data from the satellite will support improved weather and storm forecasts and strengthen coastal infrastructure planning.
• Sentinel-6B, an Earth-observing satellite, is jointly developed by NASA, ESA (European Space Agency), EUMETSAT (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
• Sentinel-6B joins its twin satellite Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, which has been in orbit since November 2020.

HAMMER Weapon System

Context: India is advancing defence indigenisation as Bharat Electronics Limited and Safran Electronics and Defence form a joint venture to locally manufacture HAMMER weapons.

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• Bharat Electronics Limited signed a Joint Venture Cooperation Agreement with Safran Electronics and Defence on 24 November 2025 in New Delhi.
• The agreement builds on a memorandum of understanding signed during the Aero India show held in February 2025.
• BEL and Safran Electronics and Defence will establish a joint venture company in India with equal shareholding.
• The new company will manage the localisation of manufacturing supply and maintenance of HAMMER weapon systems for the Indian Air Force and the Indian Navy.
• The Ministry of Defence stated that indigenisation will gradually reach up to sixty percent of the system.
• BEL will handle final assembly testing and quality assurance as part of a phased transfer of production activities.

HAMMER Weapon System

• The Highly Agile Modular Munition Extended Range (HAMMER), is a French-developed, precision-guided, air-to-ground weapon system designed to strike fortified targets with high accuracy from a safe stand-off range.
• It has an operational range of up to 70 kilometers when launched from high altitude.

Uranium found in Breastmilk Samples Across Bihar

Context: Recently, a scientific study revealed the presence of uranium in breastmilk samples from several districts in Bihar, raising concerns about infants’ health.

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• A multi-institutional research study published in the journal Nature, detected uranium (U-238) in breastmilk samples from lactating mothers across six districts of Bihar.
• All forty samples collected between 2021 and 2024 contained measurable levels of uranium.
• The highest individual concentration was recorded in Katihar, and the highest mean concentration in Khagaria.
• The study found that seventy percent of the infants showed a hazard quotient above one, indicating possible non-carcinogenic health risks.
• Researchers stated that breastfeeding should continue because the observed uranium levels remain below global permissible limits for drinking water, and the element is mostly excreted through urine by mothers.
• The team announced plans to conduct similar studies in other States to evaluate heavy metal exposure in breastmilk.

Impacts of Uranium on Infants

• It causes serious health hazards to the infants in the vital parts of the body, especially the kidneys, neuro-development risks such as delayed cognitive development, impaired motor skills, and reduced IQ levels.
• Uranium also accumulates in bones and interferes with normal bone development and growth.

Quantum Fabrication Facilities

Context: Recently, the Union Minister for Science and Technology announced new quantum fabrication and central facilities under the National Quantum Mission to strengthen India’s hardware capability.

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• The Union Minister announced the establishment of four state-of-the-art quantum fabrication and central facilities worth ₹720 crore under the National Quantum Mission.
• The facilities will be created at IIT Bombay, IISc Bengaluru, IIT Delhi and IIT Kanpur to strengthen quantum sensing, quantum computing and quantum materials research.
• The new infrastructure will be accessible to academia, industry, start-ups and strategic sectors across India.

About New Quantum Facilities

• The government will set up two major fabrication centres at IIT Bombay and IISc Bengaluru to develop quantum computing chips and quantum sensors.
• The government will also set up two additional small-scale facilities at IIT Delhi and IIT Kanpur to support device development and materials research.
• The quantum sensing and metrology facility at IIT Bombay will accelerate research in advanced sensor platforms with societal and strategic applications.
• The quantum computing facility at IISc Bengaluru will focus on superconducting, photonic and spin qubit technologies for scalable quantum architectures.