Current Affairs | National | International | SSC | UPSC 7th April 2025

 State News

 1. New daily train to link Rameswaram to Chennai 

•  The pilgrimage town of Ra-meswaram will be connected to various parts of the country by 15 pairs of trains, a spokesperson of the Railway Ministry said after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the new Pamban Bridge on Sunday. 
•  A new daily train, the Tambaram-Rameswaram-Tambaram Express, covers a distance of 617 km from Tambaram in Chennai to Rameswaram in under 12 hours, with an average speed of about 53 kmph. 
•  The Tambaram-Rames-waram Express (train no. 16103) will depart from Tambaram at 6.05 p.m., and reach Rameswaram the following day at 5.45 a.m. The return train (16104) will start at 3.35 p.m. and reach Tambaram the next day at 3.10 a.m. 
•  Tiruvarur, Thiruthurai-poondi, Pattukottai, and Aranthangi are among the train's stops. "For the first time, it is covering the districts of Tiruvarur and Pattukottai," the spokesperson said. The other 14 pairs of trains are extensions from Mandapam to Rameswaram: two mail express trains from Chennai Egmore; three passenger trains from Madurai; one mail express from Tiruchi-rappalli; two tri weekly trains (one each from Tirupati and Kanyakumari); and six weekly trains (one each from Ayodhya, Coimbatore, Okha, Varanasi, Firozpur, and Bhubaneswar). 

Appointment and Resignation News

 2. Baby elected CPI(M) general secretary

•  Mr. Baby said the party would aim at building its independent strength besides seeking to achieve a coming together of Leftist forces. "We don't want to conceal the fact that there has been a decline in our strength. Unless we find out why this has happened, we will not be able to do a course correction," he said. With the aim of defeating the "neofascist BJP", the party would build a political opposition based on the circumstances prevailing in each State. In Kerala, where the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front is in power, the goal would be to retain power for a third term after the 2026 Assembly election, for which Mr. Vijayan would lead the party, he added. 

Infrastructure and Energy News 

3. Delhi Metro gears up to roll out three-coach train corridor by 2028

•   The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on Sunday announced plans to introduce the country's first metro corridor designed to operate with three-coach trains. The trains will operate on the Lajpat Nagar to Saket G Block metro corridor, part of the Phase-IV of the metro project, aiming to boost last mile connectivity and facilitate smooth interchanges with existing metro corridors.
•  "Unlike most metro lines that use four-, six-, or eight-coach trains, this in-novative three-coach system has been developed to cater specifically to short-distance urban travel. The smaller train configuration will provide a cost-effective and agile solution, ensuring better frequency, operational efficiency, and accommodating a substantial number of daily commuters," a Delhi Metro spokesperson said.
•  The DMRC said the new corridor is being developed based on a realistic assessment of passenger flow, prioritising frequent and efficient metro services over short distances. 
•  Access to key areas
•   The new corridor will consist of eight stations - Lajpat Nagar (interchange with Pink and Violet lines), Andrews Ganj, GK-1, Chirag Delhi, Pushpa Bhawan, Saket Court, Pushpa Vihar, and Saket G Block (interchange with the Golden line) improving accessibility to key residential and commercial hubs in the city.
•   The corridor will span eight kilometres and be the second-smallest in the network, the DMRC said.
•  "In March 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the project. The construction work has now begun, and the corridor is expected to be completed by 2028," a DMRC official said.

 Science and Technology News 

4. Semaglutide reduces cardiovascular event risk in diabetes patients: study 

•  Diabetes management should not be focused narrowly on blood sugar levels, but must concurrently work at protecting cardiac and renal health too, says a recent study that found daily oral sema-glutide (an anti-diabetic medication used for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and an anti obesity medication used for long-term weight management) could cut the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and cardiovascular death by 14%. 
•  In a Phase 3 trial of people with diabetes, the study, called SOUL, tested Rybelsus Novo Nordisk's diabetes drug administered in oral form against a placebo, in trial partici-pants already receiving standard medications. 
• Semaglutide was approved in June 2021 for chronic weight management in those with obesity and at least one weight-related condition, in addition to diet and exercise. 
• The SOUL trial was initiated in 2019, with the key objective to demonstrate that oral semaglutide lowers the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (a composite end-point consisting of cardiovascular death, non-fatal myocardial infarction and non-fatal stroke) compared with placebo, both added to standard of care in pa-tients with type 2 diabetes and established Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) and Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). 
•  "The SOUL trial demon-strates statistically significant reductions in the primary composite end-point of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), encompassing myocardial infarction, stroke, or cardiovascular death, in adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and established CVD and/or CKD. The data reinforce oral semaglutide's role as the first and only approved oral glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA) to achieve a significant reduction in cardiovascular risk within this high-risk population," V. Mohan, chairman, Dr. Mohan's Diabetes Specialities Centre, said. 
• A.G. Unnikrishnan, CEO and chief of endocrinology at the Chellaram Diabetes Institute, Pune, said the SOUL trial has shown that it can reduce the risk of major cardiovascular events, regardless of whether participants were already using sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitor (SGLT2i).