World Investment Report 2025:
Global FDI Decline: FDI fell 11% in 2024, reaching $1.5 trillion—second consecutive year of decline.
Digital Economy Outpaces: Digital sectors saw a doubling in project values, becoming the primary FDI growth engine.
SDG Investment Crisis: Investment in SDG sectors (renewable energy, water, sanitation) fell by 25–33%.
Developing Countries Uneven Gains: Africa (+75%), ASEAN (+10%) saw FDI growth; China (-29%), South America (-18%) experienced declines.
Infrastructure Finance Collapse: International Project Finance (IPF) fell 26%, worsening the infrastructure investment gap.
Rise in Geopolitical Risks: Trade tensions and tariff wars are reshaping global FDI flows.
Shift to Near-shoring: MNEs increasingly favour domestic and regional investments due to supply chain disruptions.
Positive Digital Trends: FDI in AI, data centres, and semiconductor sectors continues to surge

#mains

https://www.tg-me.com/CSE_EXAM

🔆 LIGO–India

📍 Context
✅ India has started working on construction of LIGO-India detector, a giant gravitational wave observatory that comprises two 4-km-long vacuum chambers, built perpendicular to each other, at Hingoli in Maharashtra.

🔆 Potential Benefits of LIGO–India
✅ Universe Evolution Understanding: By detecting gravitational waves from a variety of sources, including merging neutron stars and black holes.
✅ Development of new technologies that can be used in other fields, such as medical imaging and seismology.
✅ Inspiration of a new generation of scientists and engineers by providing them with the opportunity to work.
✅ Global Collaboration: LIGO-India’s inclusion in the network would promote international collaboration, fostering knowledge exchange, shared resources, and joint research efforts in the field of gravitational wave astronomy.

🔬 Gravitational Waves
✅ Ripples in space-time predicted by Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity (1915)
✅ Travel at the speed of light, carry information about their origins and gravity

📍 First Detection of Gravitational Waves
✅ Landmark Event: Detected by LIGO (USA) in 2015, led to Nobel Prize in Physics (2017)
✅ Source: From the merger of two massive black holes (29 and 36 times the mass of the Sun), 1.3 billion years ago
✅ Strength: Black hole mergers produce strongest gravitational waves.

#science_and_technology

🔆 Key Findings: Early Settlement in Kachchh

✅ Mangrove-based Life: Early settlers lived in mangrove areas, relying on shellfish (oysters, gastropods) for food.

✅ Stone Tools Evidence: Cutting and scraping tools suggest semi-permanent settlements.

✅ Pre-Harappan Linkages: Cultural ties found with Las Bela, Makran (Pakistan) and Oman Peninsula, indicating shared coastal survival strategies.

✅ Challenges Old View: Counters the belief that Kachchh urbanisation was only Harappan-driven; shows an indigenous development path.

📍 Dating Technique

✅ AMS Carbon-14 Dating: Shell remains were dated using Accelerator Mass Spectrometry.

✅ Tree-Ring Calibration: Used tree rings to correct for changing C-14 levels and build a reliable timeline.

🔆 Initiatives to Tackle Stubble Burning

📍 Technological & Policy Measures
✅ PUSA Decomposers: Recently, scientists have developed a bio-decomposer technique called ‘PUSA Decomposers’ for converting crop stubble into compost.
✅ Combine Harvester: Improvement should be made in the technology used in such machines so that minimal residue is left behind.
✅ Centralized Control Room: It must be set up to issue directions both for ensuring that appropriate technology to tackle this issue is within the reach of farmers and also ensure enforcement of non-compliance.

📍 Farmer-Centric Solutions
✅ Encourage And Incentivise The Farmers: To go for early paddy, so as to give them enough time to harvest and thereafter prepare their fields for the next Rabi crop.
✅ Sow alternate crops: Encourage farmers to sow alternate crops and shift them away in the long run from paddy to maize, fruits, vegetables, and cotton.

🔆 Distribution of Mineral Oil & Its Global Implications
(UPSC Mains GS1 – 2015 Topic Revisited)

📍 Uneven Global Distribution
✅ Major reserves in Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran), North America (USA, Canada), Russia, Venezuela
✅ Significant offshore deposits in Arctic, North Sea, and West Africa

📍 Geopolitical Tensions
✅ Oil-rich nations wield strategic influence
✅ Oil-importing nations face energy security risks

📍 Economic Impact
✅ Drives industrialization and trade
✅ Prone to market volatility due to demand-supply mismatch

📍 Environmental Costs
✅ Extraction leads to pollution, habitat destruction, climate change
✅ Combustion worsens global warming

📍 Energy Transition & Future Outlook
✅ Renewables rising, but oil remains indispensable
✅ Emphasizes need for sustainable management & equitable resource policies

#GS1 #EnergySecurity