History, Indian Art & Culture-GS Paper I

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Geography-GS Paper-1

1. Cyclone Biparjoy may hinder monsoon
2. World Ocean Day

1. Cyclone Biparjoy in the Arabian Sea intensified into a ‘very severe cyclone’
   • ‘Biparjoy’ was suggested by Bangladesh and the word means ‘disaster’ or ‘calamity’ in Bengali. The naming of cyclones is done by countries on a rotational basis, following certain existing guidelines.
2. World Ocean Day is observed every year on June 8.
   • Agulhas Current, surface oceanic current that forms the western boundary current of the southern Indian Ocean. It flows southward along the southeast coast of Mozambique and the coast of South Africa before turning eastward to join the flow from Africa to Australia.
   • The Yellow Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula, and can be considered the northwestern part of the East China Sea.
   • The Sargasso Sea is a region of the Atlantic Ocean bounded by four currents forming an ocean gyre. Unlike all other regions called seas, it has no land boundaries. It is distinguished from other parts of the Atlantic Ocean by its characteristic brown Sargassum seaweed and often calm blue water.
   • Prochlorococcus has achieved fame as perhaps the most abundant photosynthetic organism on the planet. Prochlorococcus provides the oxygen for one in every five breaths we take.
   • The Angel Falls is the world’s highest waterfall where water drops from the height of 979 meters. The fall is 150 meters wide at the base. The fall is situated in Venezuela which borders Colombia and Guyana near the Atlantic Ocean.
   • The Ring of Fire is a string of volcanoes and sites of seismic activity, or earthquakes, around the edges of the Pacific Ocean.

Social Issues-GS Paper 1

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Constitution, Polity and Governance- GS Paper II

1. Sedition — illogical equation of government with state
2. How KFON aims to bridge the digital divide in Kerala

1. In its 279th Report, the Law Commission of India has recommended the retention of Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code which contains the Law of Sedition.
   • Section 124A was incorporated in the Indian Penal Code in 1870.
   • The purpose was to suppress the voice of Indians who spoke against the British Raj, as the government did not want any voice of dissent or protest.
   • The wording of Section 124A clearly reveals the intention of the colonial government.
   • Sedition is an offence against the government and not against the country, as many think.
   • The law of sedition was defined and applied in two different ways during the British period.
     • The first major case was Queen Empress vs Bal Gangadhar Tilak 1897 in which the Bombay Court found Bal Gangadhar Tilak guilty of sedition for writing a couple of articles in Kesari, a Marathi weekly, invoking Shivaji, which was interpreted as exciting disaffection towards the British government.
     • The second case was Niharendu Dutt Majumdar And Ors. vs Emperor which was decided by the Federal Court.
   • The brief journey into the British era is necessary to better understand the judgment in Kedarnath vs State of Bihar (1962) by the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court and the Law Commission’s recommendations for incorporating the essence of that judgment.
     • The Court held that it is constitutionally valid for two reasons. One, sedition, though an offence against the government, is against the state because the government is a visible symbol of state and the existence of the state will be in jeopardy if the government is subverted.
     • Second, Article 19(2) imposes restrictions in the interest of the security of the state which has wider amplitude and which includes the law on sedition.
   • The Supreme Court had, in an attempt to declare sedition constitutionally valid, admittedly adopted the Federal Court’s approach and held that Section 124A is valid but can be invoked only when the words or gestures have a tendency to incite violence.
     • The Court was aware that sedition, as it is worded in Section 124A in IPC and interpreted by the Privy Council, could not have remained in the statute book after the Constitution came into force in 1950.
2. Kerala Fibre Optic Network (KFON), through which Internet connections would be provided free of cost to 20 lakh below-poverty-line (BPL) families. The project is aimed at ensuring universal Internet access and narrowing the digital divide, which has become especially acute after the COVID-19 outbreak.
   • The panchayats and the urban local bodies were given the responsibility of choosing the beneficiaries.
   • The government has also begun a digital literacy campaign at the grassroot level through various local bodies to ensure that everyone is equipped to access basic services through the Internet.

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

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International Relations-GS Paper II

1. ‘One in every 5 U.S. student visas last year was for India’
2. India, U.S. review export control regulations
3. Nigeria’s new President faces old problems

1. One in every five student visas issued by the United States in 2022 was for an Indian student
   • Student exchange is at the heart of U.S.-India relations, with world-class education in the U.S. and access to a global network of knowledge
   • This year, more than 2 lakh Indian students are studying at various institutions in the U.S.
   • They represent more than 20% of international students currently in the U.S.
2. India and the U.S. pledged to streamline their export control regimes for critical technologies at the inaugural India-U.S. Strategic Trade Dialogue (IUSSTD)
   • GE-414 jet engine sales to India
   • semiconductors, space, telecom, quantum, AI, defence, bio-tech and others
   • India had not joined the sanctions but the U.S.-India partnership has “never been stronger” in terms of technology, defence cooperation and people-to-people ties
3. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and largest economy.
   • Bola Ahmed Tinubu, 70, being sworn in in Abuja as Nigeria’s 16th Executive President
   • Nigeria’s population is expected to double by 2050 to cross 400 million, then the world’s fourth largest.
   • A friendly Commonwealth country is also a large economic partner.
   • Over 50,000 people of Indian origin live in Nigeria, its largest non-African community.
   • Nigeria has over 135 Indian-owned companies; collectively, these are the second-largest employer in the country.
   • India has traditionally been Nigeria’s largest trading partner, its position has slid down as the bilateral trade shrunk by 21% in 2022-23 to $11.852 billion.
   • Six of Nigeria’s past 15 Presidents were India-trained defence officers.

Indian Economic Development-GS Paper III

1. Govt. hikes kharif MSP; farmers demand more
2. Govt. to spend ₹2,980 cr. on coal, lignite exploration
3. ‘Crop shortages could exacerbate inflation following MSP increases’

1. Govt. fixing MSP from time to time based on the recommendations of Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP).
   • Apart from paddy, new MSPs have been set for major pulses.
2. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the continuation of a central-sector scheme for “Exploration of Coal and Lignite”
   • The geological reports generated under the scheme are used for auctioning new coal blocks.
   • About 1,300 sq. km will be covered under the regional-exploration component of the scheme.
3. The inflationary impact of the 5%-11% increase in the minimum support price (MSP) for farm produce will be an additional factor for the RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to consider at its bimonthly policy review

Science and Technology- GS Paper III

1. Can you spot the quantum physics around your house?

1. Quantum physics
   • Fermi energy of electrons in copper
   • When electrons have such small wavelengths that they have high energies – a few eV – it translates to an effective temperature of tens of thousands of degrees celsius. This highest energy that the electrons are at is called the Fermi energy.
   • All metals around us have exorbitant Fermi energies. Copper has a Fermi energy of 80,000º C; aluminium, 130,000º C; and silver – the beautiful chaandi used in auspicious objects and jewellery – about 60,000º C.
   • The Fermi energy and the fermionic behaviour of electrons (i.e. due to the exclusion principle) follows from a basic quantum mechanical principle and is at the heart of all the properties of metals we see around us and take for granted.

Biodiversity and Environment, Disaster Management- GS Paper III

1. Kaziranga mahouts arrested for consuming rare turtles
2. How can we transition to a low-carbon city?

1. Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve
   • Capturing and consuming a rare species of freshwater turtle inside the habitat and sections of the Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972
2. An energy-system transition could reduce urban carbon dioxide emissions by around 74%.
   • Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies
   • Carbon-dioxide removal (CDR) technologies
   • energy-efficient services and infrastructure, and a people-centric urban design
   • implement building codes that mandate net-zero energy use and retrofit existing buildings
   • the energy supply needs to be balanced against fast-growing energy demand (due to urbanisation), the needs of energy security, and exports.
   • adopt a comprehensive approach to address the root causes of energy and environmental injustices.
   • mitigation and adaptation responses that engage multiple stakeholders in energy governance and decision-making, promoting energy-efficiency, scaling up climate investments, and capturing alternate knowledge streams (including indigenous and local lived experiences).

Security: Internal and External- GS Paper III

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Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude-GS Paper IV

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