New $15 Million Fund to Support Ending Female Genital Mutilation Launched

Context: The Wallace Global Fund, along with an anonymous donor, launched the Her Horizon Fund at the Justice for Girls convening in Kenya, committing $15.5 million to frontline FGM/C efforts and targeting $100 million to help end the practice within a generation. 

About Female Genital Mutilation and its Impacts

• Definition: FGM refers to the partial or total removal of external female genitalia or other injury to female genital organs for non-medical reasons. It has no health benefits and is recognised as a violation of human rights. 

• Four WHO types:

Type I – partial/total removal of the clitoris and/or prepuce;
Type II – removal of the clitoris and labia minora, with or without labia majora;
Type III (infibulation) – narrowing of the vaginal opening by creating a covering seal;
Type IV – other harmful procedures such as pricking, piercing, incising or cauterisation. 

• Who is affected: It is mostly performed on girls from infancy to age 15 and has been experienced by more than 230 million women and girls alive today across 31 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. 

• Health consequences: Immediate complications include severe pain, bleeding and infection, while long-term consequences can include chronic pain, psychological trauma, sexual and reproductive-health complications and increased risks during childbirth. 

Status in India 

• In India, FGM/C is reported particularly among sections of the Dawoodi Bohra community, where it is commonly referred to as khatna or khafd. The practice has generated debate involving gender equality, bodily integrity, dignity, child rights and freedom of religion. 

• India does not have a specific central law exclusively criminalising FGM, although provisions under laws such as the POCSO Act, 2012 and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita may become relevant depending on the nature and circumstances of the act. The Supreme Court has also considered petitions seeking prohibition of the practice. 

Global Efforts to Eliminate FGM

• SDG Target 5.3 calls for eliminating all harmful practices, including FGM, by 2030. However, progress remains uneven, and funding shortages threaten community-level interventions. 

• The WHO, UNICEF and UNFPA support prevention, survivor-centred healthcare, community engagement, legal reform and social-norm change. Increasing attention is also being given to the medicalisation of FGM, with WHO urging health workers not to perform or facilitate the practice. 

• International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM is observed annually on 6 February to strengthen global efforts towards elimination.

NASA’s Roman Space Telescope

Context: NASA launched the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope on August 30, 2026, to investigate dark energy, dark matter, exoplanets and cosmic evolution.

About the Roman Space Telescope

• The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, formerly called the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), is NASA’s next-generation flagship astrophysics mission. 

• It is named after Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first Chief of Astronomy, known as the “mother of the Hubble Space Telescope.” 

• Launched aboard a SpaceX rocket, Roman is travelling to the Sun–Earth L2 Lagrange point, the same region where the James Webb Space Telescope operates. Its primary mission is planned for five years, with a potential five-year extension. 

• Wide Field Instrument (WFI): A 300-megapixel visible-to-near-infrared imaging camera and slitless spectrometer. Its field of view is at least 100 times larger than Hubble’s, enabling large-scale surveys of the sky. 

• Coronagraph Instrument (CGI): A technology demonstrator for high-contrast imaging and spectroscopy of nearby exoplanets. By suppressing the glare of stars, it can enable direct observation of faint light from orbiting planets and planet-forming disks. 

Major Objectives & Significance

• Dark Energy: Study the expansion history of the Universe and improve understanding of the phenomenon associated with its accelerating expansion. 

• Dark Matter: Map the distribution of matter through observations including gravitational lensing, helping scientists understand the formation and evolution of cosmic structures. 

• Exoplanets: Conduct a gravitational microlensing survey of the inner Milky Way and undertake high-contrast observations of nearby exoplanets. NASA expects Roman to find more than 1,000 exoplanets through its microlensing survey. 

• Wider significance: Roman combines Hubble-like resolution with a dramatically wider field of view, allowing it to survey large portions of the Universe rapidly and potentially measure light from about one billion galaxies over its mission.

Baby Orangutans Found in Odisha Forest Spark Trafficking Investigation

Context: Five baby orangutans rescued from a forest in Balasore, Odisha, have triggered an investigation into suspected international wildlife trafficking.

Orangutans: Great Apes of Asia

• Taxonomy: Orangutans belong to the genus Pongo and family Hominidae, the family of great apes. It also includes humans, gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos.

• Great vs Lesser Apes: Great apes are generally larger and lack an external tail. Lesser apes comprise gibbons, which are smaller and adapted for rapid movement through forest canopies.

• Species: Three species are recognised: Bornean (Pongo pygmaeus), Sumatran (Pongo abelii) and Tapanuli (Pongo tapanuliensis) orangutans.

• Distribution: Orangutans occur naturally only on Borneo and Sumatra. Bornean orangutans occur in Indonesia and Malaysia; Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutans occur only in Indonesia.

• Conservation: All three species are Critically Endangered. Major threats include habitat loss and fragmentation, hunting and illegal wildlife trade.

• Ecological role: Primarily arboreal, orangutans are important seed dispersers in tropical forests.

Apes in India: Hoolock Gibbon

• India’s only ape: The Hoolock gibbon is the only ape found naturally in India, with its Indian range restricted to the Northeast.

• Species: India has the Western hoolock gibbon (Hoolock hoolock) and Eastern hoolock gibbon (Hoolock leuconedys). The Western species is Endangered, while the Eastern species is Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.

• Habitat & threats: They depend on continuous forest canopy and face threats from habitat loss, fragmentation and hunting.

About Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)

• CITES is an international agreement regulating international trade in wild animals, plants and their specimens.

• It classifies species into Appendices I, II and III, according to the level of trade controls required.

• Appendix I provides the highest level of protection and generally prohibits international commercial trade in listed species.