Current Affairs 08 July 2025

Content:

1. Women MSMEs still struggle for credit despite schemes
2. Deadly Trail: Tiger Attacks and Shifting Behaviour
3. Myanmar ethnic crisis drives 4,000 Chin people to Mizoram
4. The free fall of moral leadership
5. Record-breaking Heat in Kashmir

Women MSMEs still struggle for credit despite schemes

Context: Persistent Credit Gaps for Women Entrepreneurs

• Despite growth in women-led enterprises, access to formal credit remains limited.
• Women face a ~35% credit gap (SIDBI), higher than the ~20% faced by men.
• This undermines India’s goal of inclusive and sustainable MSME development.

Relevance : GS 2(Social Issues) ,GS 3( Banking ,Entrepreneurship )

Disparities in Financial Access

• In 2024, women held 64% of all PMMY loan accounts, but received only 41% of the sanctioned amount.
• Reflects a stark disparity between loan access and actual fund disbursement.
• Women are seen as risky borrowers due to lack of:
  • Collateral/property ownership
  • Credit history
  • Formal business registration

Credit Gap & Its Impacts

• Credit gap = difference between credit sought and credit received.
• Women entrepreneurs face:
  • 26% affected by inadequate funds
  • High competition
  • Perception bias from formal lenders
• Leads many to depend on informal sources (riskier, costly).

Women in the MSME Sector: Contribution vs Returns

• Women-led MSMEs = 20% of all MSMEs in India.
• But:
  • Contribute only 10% of sectoral turnover
  • Receive 11–15% of total investment
• Reveals low financial efficiency and underutilisation of women’s entrepreneurial potential.

Policy Interventions – Mixed Outcomes

Successes:

• PM MUDRA Yojana:
  • Collateral-free loans
  • 4.2 crore+ women accounts in 2024
• Udyam Assist Portal:
  • Helped formalise 1.86 crore IMEs, 70.5% women-owned
  • Empowers informal enterprises for priority sector lending

Gaps:

• Women need 4+ bank visits on average vs 2 for men to get a loan.
• Most schemes fail at implementation stage due to:
  • Lack of awareness
  • Weak support from banks/local agencies
  • Low financial literacy among first-gen rural women entrepreneurs

Systemic & Structural Barriers

• Lack of legal documents, land titles, and credit history locks women out of formal finance.
• Traditional institutions don’t invest enough in outreach or handholding.
• Formal lenders prefer asset-backed lending, which women often can’t fulfil.

Monetary Policy Leverage

• RBI’s repo rate cut to 5.50% and CRR reduction infused greater liquidity into the system.
• Aimed to stimulate credit flow to under-served sectors, but trickle-down to women-led businesses remains weak.

IMEs as an Opportunity

• Informal Micro Enterprises (IMEs), often excluded from formal credit, are women-dominated.
• Recent formalisation push via Udyam Assist Portal is promising — a gateway to credit inclusion.
• Needs follow-up with training, awareness, and lender engagement.

Policy Recommendations

• Digitally streamline loan processing for women MSMEs.
• Incentivise banks to meet gender-specific lending targets.
• Mandatory reporting on credit disbursed to women-led units under schemes like PMMY.
• Expand credit guarantee mechanisms specifically for women entrepreneurs.
• Financial literacy & credit readiness training in Tier 2–3 towns and rural belts.

Deadly Trail: Tiger Attacks and Shifting Behaviour

Source : Down to Earth

Context: Rising Tiger-Human Conflict in India

• 43 human deaths due to tiger attacks in Jan–June 2025 alone — consistent with 2024 trends.
• Notable clusters:
  • Chandrapur (Maharashtra): 22 deaths (11 in 17 days in May)
  • Pilibhit (UP): 5 deaths
  • Uttarakhand: 9 deaths
  • Ranthambore (Rajasthan): 3 deaths, incl. forest staff
• Pattern: Most attacks occurred within 100–500m of forest fringes, often in tiger corridors and buffer zones.

Relevance : GS 3(Environment and Ecology-Man animal conflict)

Are Tigers Turning into Human Predators?

• In at least 4 cases, partial consumption of human remains observed.
• Not indicative of tigers becoming habitual human-eaters:
  • Occasional scavenging occurs when carcasses are left unattended.
  • Some old/injured tigers attack humans due to inability to hunt regular prey.
  • Cubs that are orphaned or exposed to human feeding may associate humans with food.

Expert Perspectives

• Anish Andheria (Wildlife Conservation Trust): Habitual human-eating is extremely rare.
• Krishnendu Basak (Biologist):
  • A tiger needs ~50 kills/year → needs 500 prey animals to survive.
  • If tigers preferred humans, deaths would be in thousands, not dozens.
• Ullas Karanth: Issue is not “taste for flesh”, but loss of fear due to increased human interaction.

Ecological & Behavioural Shifts

1. Reduced Prey Base

• In some reserves, depleted natural prey due to habitat fragmentation or competition from livestock.

2. Habituation to Humans

• Live baiting practices (e.g., Ranthambore’s Arrowhead tigress and cubs) can condition tigers to associate humans with food.

3. Orphaned/Impaired Tigers

• Example: Arrowhead had bone cancer, couldn’t hunt, leading to unnatural feeding behaviour in her cubs.

4. Expansion of Tiger Habitat into Human Settlements

• Study in Science (2025):
  • 45% of tiger-occupied areas overlap with 60 million people.
  • Tiger range in India expanded by ~138,200 sq km in last 2 decades.

Human Factors

• Encroachment: Expanding agriculture (e.g., sugarcane fields near reserves) brings humans closer to tiger zones.
• Forest-based livelihoods: People entering forests for firewood, grazing, etc., increases risk.
• Delayed rescue/search: Allows tigers to scavenge or revisit kills, raising concern about cannibalistic behaviour.

Conservation Policy Challenges

• Conservation paradox: Success in increasing tiger population is leading to increased human conflict.
• Poor enforcement of buffer zone management.
• Lack of awareness among locals about tiger behaviour and safe zones.

Policy Recommendations

1. Scientific Prey Base Management:
   1. Ensure adequate herbivore populations inside reserves.
   1. Discourage dependence on cattle grazing in buffer zones.
2. Ban/Regulate Live Baiting:
   1. Such practices can distort natural predatory behaviour in cubs.
3. Improved Surveillance & Early Warning:
   1. Use camera traps, drones, AI models to detect tiger presence near villages.
4. Community-Based Tiger Conflict Management:
   1. Involve local communities (Van Rakshaks, SHGs) in mitigation, compensation, and awareness drives.
5. Create Safe Livelihood Alternatives:
   1. Reduce people’s dependence on forests for fuel/fodder.
   1. Promote eco-tourism, agro-forestry, clean energy in fringe villages.

Myanmar ethnic crisis drives 4,000 Chin people to Mizoram

Context: Fresh Refugee Influx from Myanmar

• Since July 3, 2025, a new wave of violence between ethnic armed groups in Myanmar’s Chin State has led to ~4,000 refugees crossing into Mizoram.
• Champhai district, especially Zokhawthar and Vaphai villages, are primary entry and shelter points.
• Refugees are mostly women and children, sheltering in homes, schools, and community halls.

Relevance : GS 3(Internal Security-Refugee Crisis), GS 2(International Relations)

Trigger: Armed Clash Between Chin Factions

• Conflict erupted between:
  • Chin National Defence Force (CNDF) and
  • Chinland Defence Force-Hualngoram (CDF-H)
• Fighting over strategic border zones critical for cross-border trade with India.
• The CNDF reportedly seized all 8 CDF-H camps after intense gunfire.

Broader Conflict Background

• Both groups are part of the People’s Defence Force (PDF) resisting Myanmar’s military junta that took power in a 2021 coup.
• Reflects growing fragmentation within Myanmar’s anti-junta resistance, complicating the regional security landscape.

Ethnic and Cross-Border Solidarity

• Chins (Myanmar) and Mizos (India) belong to the wider Zo ethnic community, which also includes Kukis, Zomis, Hmars, Kuki-Chins.
• Shared ancestry means many refugees have relatives in Mizoram, explaining high local acceptance.
• Young Mizo Association (YMA) and local residents are providing basic aid, highlighting civil society’s role in humanitarian support.

India’s Humanitarian Response

• Mizoram administration has not forced refugees to return, citing safety concerns.
• CM Lalduhoma’s political adviser visited the border and reportedly engaged in peace talks with armed group leaders — a rare local-level diplomatic initiative.

Existing Refugee Load in Mizoram

• Over 30,000 refugees (from Myanmar and Bangladesh) are already residing in Mizoram before this new influx.
  • Includes:
    • ~2,000 Kuki-Chins from Bangladesh (since 2022)
    • ~5,000 Kuki-Zo displaced from Manipur (since 2023 ethnic violence)
• This places immense pressure on local resources, infrastructure, and humanitarian mechanisms.

Strategic & Security Implications

• 510-km India-Myanmar border remains porous, with intermittent armed clashes and transnational ethnic networks.
• Potential risks:
  • Militant spillover
  • Cross-border arms/drug trade
  • Complications in India’s Act East Policy and border trade
• Highlights need for a robust Indo-Myanmar border management policy balancing security and humanitarian concerns.

Broader Geopolitical Relevance

• Reflects Myanmar’s failing state capacity post-2021 coup.
• India’s approach showcases:
  • Soft-border humanitarianism (especially in Northeast)
  • Decentralised refugee response by state governments
  • The delicate balance between strategic autonomy and ethnic solidarity.

Policy & Governance Takeaways

• Need for a formal refugee policy in India (India is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention).
• Importance of empowering local governance and civil society in border humanitarian crises.
• Urgent requirement to:
  • Enhance border surveillance
  • Launch livelihood and relief programmes
  • Facilitate inter-governmental coordination (Centre–Mizoram–Myanmar).

The free fall of moral leadership

Contextual Backdrop

• Article examines the crisis of moral and democratic leadership amid rising global conflicts (Ukraine war, Gaza crisis, Israel-Iran tensions).
• Highlights the erosion of principle-based politics, replaced by hegemonic expediency and military coercion.
• Asserts that the failure of democracies to produce inspiring, accountable leadership has amplified geopolitical instability.

Relevance : GS 2(International Relations) , GS 4(Ethics – Leadership)

Global Leadership Crisis

• World leaders have prioritized expediency over justice, leading to ambiguity in moral positions.
• Injustice in West Asia (Gaza, Iran-Israel) continues due to power imbalance, with no global accountability framework.
• UN Charter and international law have failed to restrain aggressive state behaviour — exemplified by Iraq, Ukraine invasions.

Impotence of the Rules-Based Order

• The illusion of a rules-based global order is shattered by frequent violations of sovereignty and human rights.
• International law is increasingly sidelined, reduced to a “footnote” by the unchecked ambitions of major powers.
• Ceasefires brokered by military superpowers, like Trump’s initiative, lack moral legitimacy and sustainability.

Call for Justice-Driven Leadership

• Moral leadership must:
  • Value justice over raw power
  • Uphold international law
  • Protect human dignity
  • Champion the weak and voiceless
• Leadership should transcend military logic, focusing instead on building global consensus and ending inequalities.

Democracy and Leadership: A Normative Model

• True democratic leadership is:
  • Willing to walk alone for principle
  • Driven by truth, integrity, and inclusiveness
  • About inspiring people and optimizing human potential
  • Firm yet empathetic; decisive yet consultative
• Moral vacuums breed authoritarianism and loss of public trust in institutions.

Philosophical Anchors

• Karl Marx: Leaders make history under inherited socio-political constraints, not in a vacuum.
• Chateaubriand: The leader must reflect the spirit of the times, embedding public aspiration in political vision.
• Highlights the need to restore moral purpose to politics, beyond personal ambition or strategic dominance.

India’s Unique Leadership Responsibility

• India’s Gandhian legacy provides a blueprint for transformative, non-violent, and moral leadership.
• Guided by “VasudhaivaKutumbakam” (The World is One Family), India must:
  • Assert moral authority in international forums
  • Promote justice-based diplomacy
  • Balance strategic autonomy with ethical responsibility
• India’s economic, nuclear, and regional strength should serve not just self-interest, but global harmony.

 Lessons from Mahatma Gandhi

• Gandhi’s leadership:
  • Rooted in ethical imagination, not political calculation
  • Aligned personal conduct with national aspiration
  • Embodied the ‘will of the age’ — a moral compass for the oppressed
• Today’s leaders must emulate Gandhi in mobilising conscience and compassion, not just electoral arithmetic.

Needed: Democratic Rejuvenation

• Current democratic fatigue and social fractures demand:
  • Leaders as symbols of hope and dignity
  • A return to collegiality, modesty, and ethical restraint
  • Political processes that prioritize justice over power play
• Indian democracy must reclaim moral centrality both internally and globally, especially amidst shifting geopolitical poles.

Record-breaking Heat in Kashmir

Context :

• Srinagar recorded a maximum temperature of 37.8°C on June 29, 1978; July 10, 1946 remains the hottest ever at 38.3°C.
• Pahalgam saw its highest temperature ever recorded on July 6, 2025 at 31.6°C.
• June 2025 was the hottest in Kashmir in almost five decades.

Relevance : GS 3(Environment and Ecology – Climate Change)

Kashmir’s Climate Profile

• Temperate climate with four distinct seasons.
• Summer (June–August): Used to be mild due to western disturbances.
• Winter (Dec–Feb): Heavy snowfall in mountains, rains in plains.
• Now: June temperatures have breached 36°C, which is abnormal.

Emerging Climate Trends

• Increase in dry spells; rainfall patterns have changed.
• Summer temperatures rising ~3°C above normal.
• Maximum summer temperature hit 37.4°C in 2023, third-highest ever.
• Days above 35°C are more frequent and prolonged.

Hydrological Impact

• Jhelum river drying in places—significant concern for drinking water, irrigation.
• Reduced availability of snow-fed water, especially due to:
  • Low winter snowfall
  • Early melting of snow in March

Urbanisation as a Driver of Heat

• Urban heat islands (UHIs) in Jammu and Srinagar: cities are hotter than nearby rural areas.
• Causes:
  • Loss of vegetation
  • Rapid concretisation
  • Increased vehicular and industrial activity
  • Shrinking green cover and wetlands

Feedback Loop of Warming

• Rising temperatures → more evaporation → drier soils → reduced cooling effect.
• Both maximum and minimum temperatures consistently high.

Hottest Days in Srinagar (IMD Data)

Key Reasons Behind Abnormal Heat

1. Climate change—global warming raising baseline temperatures.
2. Urban sprawl—trapping heat, reducing moisture, altering microclimates.
3. Reduced snowfall—early melt reduces water availability and summer cooling.
4. Fewer western disturbances—less summer rainfall, more heat accumulation.

Expert Views (Faizan Arif, Mukhtar Ahmad)

• This is not a one-off event; pattern of consistently high temps.
• Reduced snow has left mountains “bare” even by March.
• Urban areas lack green infrastructure and thermal regulation capacity.

Concerns and Implications

• Water stress: Early melting & reduced snow mean less water for summer.
• Agriculture: Higher temperatures and dry spells may reduce yield.
• Health: Rise in heatstroke and respiratory distress.
• Ecosystem disruption: Biodiversity loss due to shifting climate zones.
• Tourism hit: Unbearable heat affects Kashmir’s “cool retreat” appeal.

 Policy Takeaways & Recommendations

• Urban redesign: Green buildings, reflective surfaces, increased vegetation.
• Water conservation: Snow capture systems, rainwater harvesting.
• Climate-resilient agriculture: Crop diversification, drought-resistant varieties.
• Monitoring: Real-time climate sensors, early warning systems.
• Legal zoning: Curb unregulated urbanisation in ecologically fragile zones.