Current Affairs 21 November 2025

PIB Current Affairs

GeM & UN Women Sign MoU to Empower Women Entrepreneurs

The Government e-Marketplace (GeM) and UN Women have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen the participation of women entrepreneurs especially from the informal sector in India’s public procurement system.

The partnership focuses on gender-responsive procurement, expanding market access for women-led businesses through GeM’s Womaniya initiative.
UN Women will help design training modules, bring global best practices, and support onboarding, while GeM will conduct training sessions, create vernacular content, and mobilize women entrepreneurs.

The collaboration aims to promote women’s economic empowerment, strengthen local market linkages, and advance SDG 5 (Gender Equality).

SARAL SIMS

• To ease the burden on MSMEs and small importers involved in steel imports, the Government has introduced a simplified registration process called SARAL SIMS under the Steel Import Monitoring System (SIMS).
• This new facility is designed for small consignments (≤10 MT) and imports under Advance Authorization, SEZ, and EOU meant for export production.
• Importers only need to declare the total intended quantity of imports for the year, after which a single SARAL SIMS number will be issued. With this one number, they can import multiple consignments without needing separate SIMS registrations each time.

World Fisheries Day 2025

World Fisheries Day is observed globally on 21st November every year to highlight the importance of fisheries and aquaculture in ensuring food security, nutrition, livelihood opportunities, and environmental sustainability.

World Fisheries Day theme 2025: “India’s Blue Transformation: Strengthening Value Addition in Seafood Exports.”

India continues to make remarkable progress in the fisheries sector:

• India is the second-largest fish-producing country in the world.
• It is also one of the top shrimp producers globally.
• India’s fish production has doubled from 96 lakh tonnes (2013–14) to 195 lakh tonnes (2024–25), reflecting strong growth under the Blue Economy mission.

Hindu Current Affairs

Supreme Court on Presidential Reference & Governor’s Powers

The Supreme Court of India, in its opinion on the 16th Presidential Reference, clarified important constitutional principles regarding the powers of the President and Governors in dealing with State Bills. A five judge Constitution Bench led by CJI B.R. Gavai held the following:

Key Points

• Courts cannot impose fixed timelines on the President or Governors to approve or act on State Bills.
• Courts cannot say that a Bill is automatically approved (deemed consent) just because a deadline has passed. Doing so would take away the powers of the President or Governor, which goes against the basic rule that each branch of government must do its own job separately.
• However, Presidents and Governors cannot delay Bills indefinitely through “prolonged and evasive inaction”.
• In extreme cases of unexplained and indefinite delay, the Supreme Court can issue a limited mandamus directing them to act “within a reasonable time”, but cannot review or question the merits of the decision.
• Governors have three options under Article 200:
  1. Give assent
  2. Withhold and return the Bill (if not a Money Bill)
  3. Reserve the Bill for the President
• A Governor cannot stall a Bill without returning it with reasons.
• The Governor enjoys immunity from personal judicial proceedings under Article 361.

U.S.A Approves Sale of Javelin Missiles & Excalibur Projectiles to India

The United States has approved a major defence sale to India. The USA State Department has cleared the possible sale of Javelin anti-tank missiles and Excalibur precision artillery projectiles worth $92.8 million.

Key Details

• India will buy:
  • 216 M982A1 Excalibur tactical projectiles
  • 100 FGM-148 Javelin missiles
  • 1 Javelin missile system
  • 25 Command Launch Units (CLU)
• Excalibur deal value: $47.1 million
• Javelin deal value: $45.7 million

Pharmacogenomics

Pharmacogenomics, the study of how genetic variations affect individual responses to medications, is gaining prominence as healthcare shifts from a one-size-fits-all model to personalised treatment. Research shows that nearly 90% of people carry at least one actionable pharmacogenetic variant, influencing whether a drug will work effectively or cause adverse reactions.

Digantara Shines at CII Partnership Summit-2025

Anirudh Sharma, co-founder of Digantara, gained national attention at the CII Partnership Summit 2025 in Visakhapatnam for the company’s breakthroughs in Space Domain Awareness (SDA). Digantara develops advanced orbital intelligence technology that helps satellites navigate safely through space debris. Some of its systems are already deployed in strategic Himalayan locations for the Indian Armed Forces.

Highlights:

• Digantara’s first major project came from the U.S. Air Force.
• Digantara tracks space debris to protect over 16,000 active satellites from nearly one million pieces of space junk.
• The startup has launched three communication satellites and also operates from Colorado, USA.
• Digantara is setting up a satellite production facility near Lepakshi (Sri Sathya Sai district) with an investment of ₹150 crore.

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