Relevance (UPSC): GS-III Science & Technology & Economy | GS-II Governance (Innovation Policy) India has launched big missions—Semicon India, IndiaAI Mission, National Quantum Mission, Anusandhan National Research Foundation—to secure technological self-reliance. But the country spends only about 0.65% of GDP on R&D, and the private sector’s share is far below innovation leaders….

Relevance (UPSC): GS-II Governance (Food regulation, Consumer protection) | GS-III Health A string of paediatric emergencies—children given tetra-pack “ORS drinks” yet arriving in shock—has pushed regulators to act. India’s food authority has banned all beverages from using the term ORS in brand names and withdrawn an earlier leeway that allowed the term…

Relevance (UPSC): GS-II Polity & Governance (Judiciary, Cybercrime) | GS-III Internal Security Calling it a matter of “grave concern”, the Supreme Court has taken suo motu note of organised digital arrest scams—frauds where criminals impersonate police, probe agencies, or courts using forged judicial orders to extort money. Acting on a letter from…

Relevance (UPSC): GS-III Science & Technology (Space & Particle Physics) Astronomers have long known that stars in galaxies spin too fast to be held by visible matter alone. Something unseen—dark matter—must supply extra gravity. New results from sky surveys and ultra-sensitive underground detectors are narrowing what this mysterious substance can be, bringing…

Relevance (UPSC): GS-I Geography (Hydrology) | GS-III Environment & Agriculture Recent research on river–aquifer interactions shows that the lean-season flow of the Ganga is driven mainly by groundwater baseflow, not glacier melt. Glaciers feed the headwaters, but from the Himalayan foothills to the plains, the river largely stays alive in winter because…

Relevance (UPSC): GS-II International Relations (Borders, Treaties), GS-I Geography (Political boundaries) The Durand Line is a 2,640-km frontier running from the Wakhan Corridor in the north to Balochistan in the south, dividing today’s Pakistan from Afghanistan and bisecting Pashtun and Baloch homelands. It was created in 1893 when Sir Mortimer Durand and…

Relevance (UPSC): GS-II Polity & Governance (Education, Federalism), GS-III Economy & S&T (Innovation, R&D, Digital Public Infrastructure) Introduction Small acts like an engineer tuning a motor via an app on India’s open digital rails, or a nurse uploading anonymised health data for TB models, show what knowledge power looks like: a country…

Relevance (UPSC): GS-III – Environment & Ecology (Climate change, Mitigation), GS-II – International Relations (Paris Agreement) Introduction In 2024, the global mean carbon-dioxide (CO₂) concentration reached ~423.9 parts per million (ppm)—about 3.5 ppm higher than 2023, the steepest year-on-year jump in the instrumental record since 1957. It also made 2024 the warmest…

Relevance (UPSC): GS-III Economy (Industry, External Sector) | GS-II International Relations Introduction A small late-season wobble in India’s factory mood coincided with a brighter headline from China—and markets instantly asked: is Asia’s manufacturing centre of gravity shifting? Fresh readings of the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) show India still in solid expansion but…

Relevance (UPSC): GS-III Economy (Financial Inclusion, NBFCs) | GS-II Governance (Regulation, Consumer Protection) Introduction On a market day in rural Odisha, a vegetable seller fingers her passbook and wonders why the weekly instalment just went up again. Around her, the self-help group circle is thinner than last year; two women stopped coming…