Current Affairs 23 December 2025

National Current Affairs

Punjab Declares Three “Holy Cities”

The Punjab government issued a notification granting ‘holy city’ status to Amritsar Walled City, Talwandi Sabo, and Sri Anandpur Sahib. Following the notification, the sale of meat, tobacco, alcohol, and other intoxicants has been prohibited in these three locations.

Southern Ocean carbon anomaly

• The Southern Ocean plays a major role in climate regulation by absorbing large amounts of heat and atmospheric CO₂.
• For years, climate models predicted that stronger southern hemisphere westerly winds would increase upwelling of carbon-rich deep waters, weakening the ocean’s CO₂ sink (and potentially increasing CO₂ release).
• New long-term ocean-chemistry observations show the opposite trend since the early 2000s: the Southern Ocean has absorbed more carbon.
• The key explanation is surface freshening (more rainfall + Antarctic meltwater), which strengthened stratification (layering) and kept carbon-rich deep water trapped below the surface (roughly 100–200 m), limiting CO₂ outgassing.

India New Zealand Free Trade Agreement

• India and New Zealand concluded a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
• The FTA provides duty-free access for all Indian exports by eliminating tariffs on 100% of New Zealand’s tariff lines, boosting labour-intensive sectors like textiles, apparel, leather, marine products, gems & jewellery, handicrafts, engineering goods and automobiles.
• It strengthens agri-cooperation (kiwifruit, apples, honey action plans), investment facilitation (New Zealand intent to facilitate USD 20 billion into India over 15 years).

‘Anjadip’ ASW Shallow Water Craft Delivered to Indian Navy

• Indian Navy received ‘Anjadip’ on 22 December 2025 at Chennai.
• It is the third vessel in a series of eight ASW SWC (Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Craft).
• The platform is indigenously designed and built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE), Kolkata, strengthening India’s indigenous naval shipbuilding capability.

Disclaimer: This article is prepared for competitive exam preparation using publicly available information.