History, Indian Art & Culture-GS Paper I

1. Ahmednagar will now be renamed ‘Ahilya Nagar’
2. Protests over ‘derogatory’ articles on Savitribai Phule

1. 18th century Maratha queen Ahilyabai Holkar
   • Establishment of Holkar dynasty
   • Renaming of Aurangabad as ‘Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar’ and Osmanabad as ‘Dharashiv’
2. 19th century educationist Savitribai Phule

Geography-GS Paper-1

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Social Issues-GS Paper 1

1. Case against WFI chief

1. Wrestling Federation of India (WFI)

Constitution, Polity and Governance- GS Paper II

1. Centre is in no hurry to go ahead with delimitation of constituencies
2. OTT platforms mandated to show anti-tobacco warnings
3. A parliamentary democracy or an executive democracy

1. Delimitation of constituencies
2. Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA), 2004
   • World No Tobacco Day (May 31)
3. Various safeguards that parliamentary democracies generally tend to put in place against executive dominance or abuse
   • Tenth Schedule to the Constitution, popularly known as the “anti-defection law”. Introduced through a constitutional amendment in 1985, the Tenth Schedule penalises disobedience of the party whip with disqualification from the House altogether
   • Indian Constitution did not carve out any specific space for the political Opposition in the House.
   • The Speaker, in our system, is not independent. The Speaker is not required to give up membership of their political party, and is not constitutionally obligated to act impartially.
   • The role of the Upper House is undercut not only by the Speaker’s misclassification of Bills but also by the constitutionally-sanctioned ordinance making power.

Social Justice: Education, Health and Human Resource-GS Paper II

1. Treatment worth ₹61,501 cr. provided under PM-JAY scheme
2. India joins global laboratory network for vaccine tests
3. World Milk Day

1. Cancer treatment, emergency care, orthopaedic and urology (kidney-related ailments) top the tertiary care specialities treatment availed by beneficiaries under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY)
   • The flagship scheme being implemented by the National Health Authority (NHA) provides health cover of ₹5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation to 12 crore beneficiary families
   • The AB PM-JAY is being implemented in 33 States and Union Territories except Delhi, Odisha, and West Bengal
   • The PM-JAY empanelled hospital network consists of 28,351 hospitals, including 12,824 private hospitals, across the country.
   • Approximately 49% of Ayushman card recipients are women
   • Over 48% of total authorised hospital admissions under the AB PM-JAY scheme have been availed by women
2. India has joined the Centralised Laboratory Network (CLN)
   • 15 partner facilities in 13 countries that works to test vaccines which can be used during pandemics and epidemic disease outbreak.
   • Part of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the Network is the largest global group which has standardised methods and materials for testing.
   • CEPI-funded network also aims to identify the most promising vaccine candidates rapidly and accurately against emerging infectious diseases and the expanded network is working at supporting sustainable regional outbreak preparedness infrastructure.
3. World Milk Day, June 1
   • A cow’s milk is slightly yellowish in coloUr, when compared to buffalo’s milk, due to the presence of carotene
   • An udder is an organ formed of two or four mammary glands on the females of dairy animals and ruminants such as cattle, goats, and sheep.
   • Casein, the main protein in milk, forms ‘micelles’.

International Relations-GS Paper II

1. Nepal’s PM to hold talks with Modi today, likely to sign pacts on energy, trade
2. Jaishankar to meet Lavrov, Qin during BRICS summit
3. China’s military diplomacy in Southeast Asia
4. North Korea spy satellite
5. UAE withdraws from U.S.-led maritime coalition in the Gulf
6. NATO-led peacekeepers step up security after Kosovo clashes

1. Agreements that will be signed during the visit between India and Nepal
   • Private energy producers in India had taken a keen interest in developing hydropower projects in Nepal.
   • India served as the “country partner” in the April Power Summit held in Nepal.
   • India pushing several large projects like the Arun III hydropower project and the Gorakhpur-Butwal 400 kV cross-border line.
   • Employment and investment will be my focus of Nepal
2. BRICS summit in August, 2023 to be held in Durban
   • BRICS is mainly an economic engagement
   • BRICS currency initiative
   • The “Friends of BRICS” or “BRICS Plus” conference will include 15 Foreign Ministers from Africa and the Global South.
   • India’s priorities for the Global South, including mitigating the economic impact of the Ukraine war, as well as the importance of territorial sovereignty and cooperation against terrorism
3. Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has become a priority target for the People’s Liberation Army’s military diplomacy
   • PLA and the Laotian People’s Armed Forces (LPAF) have recently concluded their bilateral military exercise, Friendship Shield 2023
   • PLA Southern Theatre Command (PLA STC) conducted the ‘Golden Dragon’ drills with Cambodia
   • PLA STC conducted a joint exercise with the Singaporean Navy
   • Joint military endeavours @ Laos, Vietnam and Brunei
   • China has put excessive emphasis on defence diplomacy under his flagship Global Security Initiative (GSI)
   • China’s threat perception of expanding the United States military engagement with countries in the Asia-Pacific region, especially those countries that China has disputes with in the South and East China Seas region
   • China’s heavy Belt and Road investments have been welcomed by Indonesia
   • Vietnam’s mistrust of the GSI, analysts suggest that it maintains a relatively neutral stance in its relations with China
   • Myanmar, despite a majority of observers placing little to no confidence in the GSI, China is making political, military and economic inroads
     • China-Myanmar Economic Corridor
     • China building a surveillance military base on Great Coco Islands in Myanmar
     • Great Coco Islands lie just 55 km north of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and their militarisation by China poses a strategic threat to India’s national security.
   • The increasing proximity of the U.S. with the Philippines, with whom China shares a disputed maritime border in the Luzon Strait in the South China Sea, is worrisome for China.
     • Philippines’ decision to provide the U.S. with access to four military bases in addition to the five bases the U.S. already had access to, under the 2014 Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement
   • China preparing a new naval base in the Ream region of Cambodia
   • Global Security Initiative (GSI)
4. North Korea’s attempt to put its first spy satellite
   • Chollima-1 rocket
5. UAE “withdrew its participation” in the 38-nation Combined Maritime Forces
   • The Bahrain-headquartered CMF was established in 2001, initially as a partnership between 12 nations.
   • U.S. said it was sending reinforcements to the Gulf, which carries at least a third of the world’s sea-borne oil, after what it called increasing harassment by Iran.
6. NATO-led peacekeepers stepped up security around a town hall in northern Kosovo, where hundreds of ethnic Serbs gathered

Indian Economic Development-GS Paper III

1. GDP expanded 6.1% in 2022-23’s last quarter
2. World’s largest grain storage plan: Centre to implement pilot project in 10 districts
3. Cabinet nod for second phase of CITIIS programme
4. Uncertain showers
5. Fiscal deficit narrows to 6.4%, meets target
6. Allow nations to draw plans for sustainable aviation fuel

1. India’s GDP growth accelerated to 6.1% in the January to March 2023 quarter, lifting the economy’s expansion in 2022-23 to 7.2% from 7% estimated earlier
   • Provisional national income data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO)
   • Gross Value Added (GVA) in the economy is reckoned to have risen 7% in 2022-23, compared with 8.8% in 2021-22
   • The agricultural GVA grew 4%, up from 3.5% in the previous year.
   • The financial, real estate and professional services sectors saw their GVA grow 7.1%, compared with 4.7% in 2021-22.
   • The GVA of the trade, hotels, transport, and communication sectors, as well as services related to broadcasting grew 14%, marginally faster than in the previous year.
   • The NSO also revised GDP and GVA numbers lower for the first half of last year but bumped up the third quarter figures slightly.
2. World’s largest grain storage plan in cooperative sector” by convergence of various schemes of the Ministries of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Food Processing Industries.
   • Ministry of Cooperation would implement a pilot project in at least 10 selected districts of different States.
   • Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS)
3. City Investments to Innovate, Integrate and Sustain (CITIIS) project
   • Programme under the ambit of the Smart Cities Mission
   • Aims to support competitively selected projects promoting circular economy with a focus on integrated waste management at the city level, climate-oriented reform actions at the State level, and institutional strengthening and knowledge dissemination at the national level.
   • Implemented in partnership with the French Development Agency (AFD), Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), the European Union (EU), and National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA).
   • Three major components which are financial and technical support for developing projects focused on building climate resilience, adaptation and mitigation in up to 18 smart cities, and interventions at centre, State and city levels to further climate governance.
4. Development of an El Niño, a cyclical phenomenon of warming in the Central Pacific that six in 10 years is linked to diminished rainfall in the west, northwest and western parts of central India
   • Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) — a temperature swing between the western and eastern Indian Ocean
5. Centre’s fiscal deficit narrowed to 6.4% of the GDP in 2022-23 from 6.71% in FY22
   • In the Union Budget, the government had said it aimed to further bring down the fiscal deficit — a key indicator of borrowing — during the financial year 2023-24 to 5.9% of gross domestic product (GDP).
6. 41st International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Assembly adopted a long-term global aspirational goal (LTAG) for international aviationof net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 in support of the UNFCCC Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degree celsius and reach net zero by 2050.
   • India has pledged net zero by 2070 and to cut the carbon intensity ofits economy by 45% by 2030.

Science and Technology- GS Paper III

1. Is India missing the graphene bus?
2. Neuralink human trials: have all concerns been addressed?

1. What Artificial Intelligence (AI) is to software and quantum computing is to computers, graphene is to materials.
   • Graphene is the world’s thinnest, strongest, and most conductive material of both electricity and heat.
   • It conducts electricity better than copper.
   • It is 200 times stronger than steel but six times lighter.
   • It is almost perfectly transparent as it absorbs only 2% of light.
   • It is impermeable to gases, even those as light as hydrogen and helium.
   • It has the potential to revolutionise electricity, conductivity, energy generation, batteries, sensors and more.
   • Also, when added to other materials, graphene even in small quantities produces composite materials with dramatically transformed qualities. Graphene composites are used in aerospace, automotive, sports equipment and construction.
   • It is used for high-performance batteries and super-capacitors, touchscreens, and conductive inks.
   • Graphene-based sensors are used for environmental monitoring, healthcare and wearable devices.
   • Graphene oxide membranes are used for water purification and desalination.
   • Graphene-based masks were made during COVID.
   • Graphene is important for defence and aerospace as well. Its exceptional strength makes it promising material for armour and ballistic protection.
   • Graphene has the potential to absorb and dissipate electromagnetic waves, making it valuable for developing stealth coatings and materials that reduce radar signatures and electromagnetic interference.
   • Graphene is highly sensitive to environmental changes, which makes it an excellent candidate for sensing chemical and biological agents, explosives, radiation, and other hazardous substances.
   • Besides, graphene-based materials can also protect us against chemical and biological attacks.
   • Better energy storage and electronics properties make graphene attractive in defence and aerospace as well as in civil and commercial applications.
   • China and Brazil are global leaders in the commercial production of graphene.
   • India produces about one-twentieth compared to China and one-third compared to Brazil.
   • India Innovation Centre for Graphene in Kerala

Biodiversity and Environment, Disaster Management- GS Paper III

1. Biodiversity is us and we are biodiversity

1. International Biodiversity Day (May 22)
   • In many ways, biodiversity is us and we are biodiversity.
   • National Mission on Biodiversity and Human Wellbeing
   • The theme for International Day for Biological Diversity 2023 is “From Agreement to Action: Build Back Biodiversity.”

Security: Internal and External- GS Paper III

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Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude-GS Paper IV

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