Current Affairs: 18th October 2025

• AI-based facial recognition tech to record staff attendance at govt. schools, colleges

Context: FRA has already been implemented as a pilot project for three months in schools and PU colleges in Mandya, Haveri, and Bengaluru South districts

• The State government has decided to implement the Artificial Intelligence Powered Facial Recognition Attendance (FRA) system to record the accurate attendance of teachers, lecturers, and other staff in government, aided schools and Pre-university colleges in the State.
• FRA has already been implemented as a pilot project for three months in schools and PU Colleges in Mandya, Haveri, and Bengaluru South Districts, after which steps have been taken to extend it to teachers, lecturers, and staff of all schools and colleges across the State.
• The government has already developed a separate app to record the attendance of government and aided school children, and has decided to use the same app for the attendance of teachers and lecturers, and other staffs.
• Through FRA, teachers, lecturers, and staff must check-in and check-out twice a day, once when school starts and after school ends.
• “The attendance of teachers and lecturers is important for the future of students and quality education. In this context, steps have been taken to implement the ‘AI-Powered Facial Recognition Attendance’ system,” said V. Rashmi Mahesh, Principal Secretary of DSEL.
• There was a discrepancy between the number of students in the Student Achievement Tracking System (SATS) and the number of students attending classes.
• Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had announced the implementation of the FRA in the State Budget for 2025-26.
• Initially, a pilot project was conducted in the Uttara Kannada district, and after its success, steps have been taken to implement the FRA in all schools across the State.
• Absenteeism of teachers and lecturers is also common in most government schools and PU colleges. There have also been allegations that many teachers and lecturers used to sign the attendance register and then engage in their personal work. Sources said that, this affected the results of SSLC and II PUC students.
• The School Development and Monitoring State Committee (SDMC) had urged for the FRA for teachers in all government and aided schools.

• “The mobile app developed by the government for FRA can be easily installed on any smartphone. Steps have already been taken to include the information of all teachers, lecturers and staff in this app. Instead of individual photos of each staff member, photos of all teachers, lecturers and staff of the respective schools and colleges will be taken ​simultaneously and uploaded through the app.

• Resolution of Palestinian question necessary for IMEC: Egyptian FM

Context: In Delhi for the first India-Egypt Strategic Dialogue, Abdelatty urges India to join the Egyptian Suez Canal Economic Zone; meets Jaishankar, calls on PM Modi; IMEC project, unveiled at the G-20 Summit in 2023, stalled soon after due to Gaza war.

• Plans for the India-Middle East-Europe-Economic Corridor (IMEC) cannot proceed without some progress on the Palestinian question, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said on Friday, adding that Egypt would be interested to join all such connectivity projects once the situation is “conducive”.
• Mr. Abdelatty told a group of presspersons that he had discussed the IMEC project with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar during the first India-Egypt Strategic Dialogue on Friday, and also proposed that India join the Egyptian Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZONE), where Russia, China, and a few other countries already have separate industrial complexes.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who praised Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi for the Gaza Peace Plan signed with U.S. President Donald Trump this week.

Derailed by attacks

• The IMEC was launched during the G-20 in New Delhi in September 2023 by a number of countries including India, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, the U.S., and the European Union, and is meant to be routed via Israel’s Haifa port.
• The project floundered within a month, however, after the October 7 terror attacks in Israel and the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.

• While welcoming all connectivity projects “between the east and west”, Mr. Abdelatty said that the aspirations of the Palestinian people for their own State was necessary for peace and security in the region, and it would not be possible to run a cross-regional connectivity project like the IMEC without it.
• “If we are serious about having final peace and security, a comprehensive deal and the security for Israel and the whole region, the only solution is to respond positively to the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people to have their own statehood, to have their own independent state,” Mr. Abdelatty said in response to a question from The Hindu.

Indian industrial zone

• Turning to bilateral matters, Mr. Abdelatty said that India and Egypt have committed to doubling bilateral trade from the present level of $5 billion, with particular potential in the areas of chemicals, minerals, pharmaceuticals, phosphates, digital technology, artificial intelligence, and renewable energy.
• “We have a special industrial zone for China and for Russia in the SCZONE and we are encouraging an Indian industrial zone where we would provide all facilitation and incentives to Indian companies,” he said, adding that India would be able to export goods beyond Egypt, with its population of 120 million, to a market of more than “two billion inhabitants” across Africa, South America, Europe, and Arab countries that are connected to Egyptian ports through free trade agreements.

• Nashik unit open; HAL can roll out 24 Tejas jets a year

Context: Rajnath Singh flags off the first light combat aircraft Mk1A produced at the facility; Minister opens the third production line for the fighter and the second of Hindustan Turbo Trainer-40 aircraft.

• The production lines of the light combat aircraft Tejas Mk1A and the training aircraft HTT-40 are proof of the synergy among government, industry and academia, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said here on Friday, asserting that no challenge was too big if faced together.
• He was speaking after inaugurating the third production line of Tejas Mk1A and the second of the Hindustan Turbo Trainer-40 at the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. facility.
• The Defence Minister flagged off the first LCA Mk1A aircraft produced at the facility, describing it as a symbol of India’s growing self-reliance in defence.
• Highlighting the transformation of India’s defence sector in the past decade under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, Mr. Singh said the country, which once imported 65-70% of its military hardware, now manufactured nearly 65% of it domestically. “Our goal is to increase this to 100% in the near future,” he said.
• He recalled that when the government under Mr. Modi came to power in 2014, it faced numerous challenges such as limited defence preparedness, import dependence, and a lack of private sector participation.
• “Earlier, defence production was largely confined to government enterprises. There was insufficient focus on planning, advanced technology, and innovation, which made us dependent on other nations and created strategic vulnerabilities,” he said. “These challenges pushed us to adopt new thinking and reforms. Today, we are manufacturing domestically what we used to import — fighter jets, missiles, engines, and electronic warfare systems.”
• Mr. Singh reaffirmed the government’s commitment to inducting indigenous technologies into the armed forces and hailed HAL as the backbone of India’s defence manufacturing ecosystem. He commended HAL for supporting the recently decommissioned MiG-21 fleet and its pivotal role during Operation Sindoor.
• “In our security history, few instances have tested our system as much as Operation Sindoor. HAL provided round-the-clock support to the Indian Air Force, ensuring operational readiness. The Nashik team carried out crucial integration of the BrahMos missile on Su-30 aircraft, which destroyed terrorist hideouts during the operation,” he said.
• “This proved that India can design, produce, and deploy its own systems effectively,” he added.

HAL plans

• The first two production lines of the LCA and the first production line of the HTT-40 are in Bengaluru. The company initiated establishment of the third production line to fast-track delivery of Tejas to the IAF. The production line in Nashik has a capacity of eight aircraft a year.
• The company said that with the third production line, HAL would achieve a total production capacity of 24 aircraft per year for LCA Mk1A.
• The third Line had resulted in creation of approximately 1,000 jobs, and development of more than 40 industry partners in and around Nashik, including in cities of Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh.
• In two years, the company plans to expand capacity in Nashik up to 10 aircraft a year by way of establishing an additional Assembly Jig Line, Tooling and Pre-installation Check facilities for Line Replaceable Units.

• Rotavirus vaccine effective against gastroenteritis in children: study

Context: A recent study on the impact of the indigenous rotavirus vaccine in India found marked reductions in rotavirus-based gastroenteritis in sites across the country.

• Published in the recent edition of The Nature Medicine, the study ‘Impact of the indigenous rotavirus vaccine Rotavac in the Universal Immunization Program in India during 2016–2020’, is an observational, multi-centre analysis by Nayana P. Nair and Samarasimha N. Reddy, on behalf of the collaborators of the rotavirus vaccine effectiveness and impact assessment network.
• The study looked at 31 hospitals in nine States between 2016 and 2020, to compare proportions and trends before and after the introduction of Rotavac in the Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP).
• In 2016, India introduced Rotavac, an indigenous oral rotavirus vaccine, administered at 6, 10 and 14 weeks of age, in its UIP. When a vaccine is introduced in the UIP, it is provided free to all eligible beneficiaries.
• The authors said, “Evaluating its effectiveness under routine programmatic conditions is critical, given the variable performance of rotavirus vaccines in low- and middle-income countries.”
• They noted, “The effectiveness of the routine use of indigenous Rotavac vaccine in the national immunisation program was 54%. This was reassuringly similar to the efficacy of 54%, reported during the phase 3 vaccine trial.” Further, the effectiveness was sustained in the first two years of life, when the burden of rotavirus is at its greatest.
• They found that the proportion of paediatric rotavirus hospitalisations also declined substantially.
• Rotavac was developed as part of a public-private partnership with the Department of Biotechnology, Bharat Biotech, the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Stanford University, and PATH, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, among others.

• Gagandeep Kang, Indian virologist and microbiologist who played a key role in Rotavac’s development, stressed the importance of the study in a post on social media. “Rotavirus vaccine effectiveness is similar to efficacy in India! In other words, vaccines work in the real world and not in just controlled clinical trials. [This is] The first data from India from one of the largest- ever rotavirus vaccine effectiveness studies, contributed by collaborators across many States and organisations. It took a really long time to generate the data and publish it, but it was important to conduct this study for the first indigenous oral rotavirus vaccine.”

• ‘For India, Agentic AI is huge opportunity, potential liability’

Context: For India, where digital public infrastructure and AI-driven innovation are becoming central to economic growth, agentic AI is a massive opportunity as well as a potential liability, said Saugat Sindhu, global head, advisory services, cybersecurity & risk services, Wipro Ltd.

• However, he added, “Security, privacy, and ethical oversight must evolve as fast as AI itself.”
• The future of AI in India would be defined by the intelligence of its systems, their strength and responsibility the country takes to deploy and secure them.
• According to Mr. Sindhu, agentic AI technologies are reshaping productivity, governance, and national security in an era where machines no longer just assist but act.
• Listing out some of the most critical cyber risks of agentic AI, he said India’s digital economy was booming — from UPI payments to Aadhaar-enabled services. But as AI evolves from passive large language models (LLMs) into autonomous, decision-making agents, the cyber threat landscape is shifting dramatically.