🔆 Brass Work in India – Key Crafts & Centres

📍 Pembarthi Crafts (Telangana)
✅ Centre: Warangal district, Telangana
✅ Feature: Exquisite sheet metal (brass) art
✅ Used to adorn temple chariots and shrines

📍 Dhokra Casting
✅ Centres: Odisha and West Bengal
✅ Technique: Traditional Lost Wax Method
✅ Material: Alloy of nickel, brass, and zinc
✅ One of the oldest surviving metal casting traditions in India

📍 Gaja Tandava
✅ Centre: Kerala
✅ Theme: Lord Shiva depicted in Tandava posture
✅ Represents cosmic dance and dynamic energy

📍 Rare Jain Imagery & Icons
✅ Centre: Karnataka
✅ Reflects the presence of ancient Jain pilgrimage centres
✅ Features finely crafted Jain Tirthankara images

📍 Pahaldar Lamps
✅ Centres: Jaipur and parts of Uttar Pradesh
✅ Made from copper and brass
✅ Produced in varied styles and shapes, used in rituals & decor

#prelims
#art_and_culture

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🔆 Major Space Telescopes & Observatories

📍 Hubble Space Telescope (HST)

✅ Wavelength Range:
• Visible light
• Ultraviolet light

✅ Purpose:
• Imaging distant galaxies, stars, and nebulae

✅ Key Discoveries:
• Age of the universe
• Evidence for dark energy
• Understanding formation of stars and galaxies

📍 Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO)

✅ Wavelength Range:
• Gamma rays

✅ Purpose:
• Study of high-energy astronomical phenomena

✅ Key Discoveries:
• Identification of new gamma-ray sources
• Gamma-ray bursts
• Active galactic nuclei

📍 Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO)

✅ Wavelength Range:
• X-rays

✅ Purpose:
• Observation of hot, high-energy objects in space

✅ Key Discoveries:
• Detailed images of hot gas around
• Galaxies
• Galaxy clusters

📍 Spitzer Space Telescope (SST)

✅ Wavelength Range:
• Infrared

✅ Purpose:
• Observing cool and dusty objects

✅ Key Discoveries:
• Detection of exoplanets
• Insights into galaxy formation
• Study of star-forming regions

📌 Quick Prelims Takeaways

✅ Visible/UV → Hubble
✅ Gamma rays → Compton Observatory
✅ X-rays → Chandra
✅ Infrared → Spitzer

#GS3
#prelims
#science_technology
#science_and_technology

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🔆 CURRENT AFFAIRS — 29 JANUARY 2026

🔆 BANKING & FINANCE

📍 Insurance Sector
✅ Boards of Axis Max Life Insurance & Max Financial Services approve in-principle amalgamation
📍 Structure:
➡ MFSL (holding company) to merge into AMLI
➡ MFSL shareholders to receive AMLI shares
➡ Share ratio to be finalised

📍 Legal Basis
✅ Enabled by Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha (Amendment) of Insurance Laws Act, 2025
📍 Regulatory approval pending from IRDAI

📍 Industrial Growth
✅ IIP growth (Dec 2025): 7.8%
📍 25-month high – MoSPI

📍 Sector-wise:
✅ Manufacturing: 8.1%
✅ Mining: 6.8%
✅ Electricity: 6.3%

📍 Upcoming Data Revisions:
✅ GDP base year → 2022–23 (27 Feb 2026)
✅ CPI base year → 2024 (12 Feb 2026)
✅ IIP base year → 2022–23 (28 May 2026)

🔆 INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

📍 Climate Change
✅ USA exits Paris Climate Agreement for the second time

📍 Paris Agreement
✅ Adopted: COP-21, 2015 (Paris)
✅ In force since: 2016
✅ Parties: 195 (194 countries + EU)
✅ Objective:
➡ Keep temperature rise well below 2°C
➡ Pursue efforts to limit to 1.5°C

📍 Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)
✅ First Council of National Coordinators (CNC) meeting for 2026 held in Beijing
📍 Chairmanship: Kyrgyz Republic

📍 About CNC
✅ Core coordination & management body of SCO
✅ Prepares groundwork for:
➡ Council of Heads of State (CHS)
➡ Council of Heads of Government (CHG)

📍 SCO Basics
✅ Established: 2001 | HQ: Beijing
✅ Official languages: Chinese & Russian
✅ Members: 10 countries
➡ India (2017), Pakistan (2017), Iran (2023), Belarus (2024)

🔆 NATIONAL AFFAIRS

📍 Film & Culture
✅ 12th Smile International Film Festival for Children & Youth (SIFFCY) begins
📍 Venue: New Delhi | Duration: 7 days

📍 Organisers:
✅ Smile Foundation
✅ Dept. of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities

📍 Theme:
✅ Diversity
✅ Equity
✅ Inclusion

📍 Prison Reforms
✅ 9th National Conference of Correctional Administrators held in Visakhapatnam
📍 Organised by:
➡ BPRD
➡ Andhra Pradesh Prisons Dept.

📍 Financial Support:
✅ ₹160 crore for prisoner safety & welfare
✅ ₹20 crore/year for Support to Poor Prisoners Scheme

📍 Environment Governance
✅ GoI amends Uniform Consent Guidelines under:
➡ Air Act, 1981
➡ Water Act, 1974

📍 Key Changes:
✅ One-time Consent to Operate (CTO) fee
✅ Validity: 5–25 years
✅ Reduced procedural delays
✅ Strengthened SPCB & PCC functioning

🔆 CULTURE & HERITAGE

📍 Film Festival
✅ 11th Ajanta–Ellora International Film Festival held in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (MH)

📍 Highlights:
✅ Padmapani Award conferred on Ilaiyaraaja
✅ Opening film: Siret (Spain)

📍 Buddhist Heritage
✅ Odisha’s Buddhist Diamond Triangle added to UNESCO Tentative List

📍 Sites:
➡ Lalitgiri
➡ Udayagiri
➡ Ratnagiri

📍 Significance:
✅ 1,500 years of Buddhist history
✅ Covers Hinayana, Mahayana & Vajrayana phases

🔆 AGRICULTURE & FISHERIES

📍 Fishing Infrastructure
✅ GoI approves ₹200 crore Smart Fishing Harbour at Mayabunder (A&N Islands)
📍 Scheme: PM Matsya Sampada Yojana

📍 Capacity:
✅ 430 vessels
✅ 10,000 tonnes fish/year

📍 Goal:
✅ Sustainable fishing
✅ ₹1 lakh crore seafood export target by 2030–31

🔆 PANCHAYATI RAJ / GOVERNANCE

📍 MoPR Initiatives
✅ Felicitation of 240 Panchayat representatives (Republic Day invitees)

📍 Key Launches:
✅ PANCHAM Chatbot (with UNICEF)
✅ PESA State Rankings 2024–25
➡ Maharashtra – 1st
➡ Madhya Pradesh – 2nd
➡ Himachal Pradesh – 3rd

🔆 ENERGY

📍 India Energy Week 2026
✅ OPEC projects India as largest driver of global oil demand growth till 2050

📍 Key Projections:
✅ Additional demand: +8.2 mbpd by 2050
✅ Main drivers:
➡ Transport
➡ Petrochemicals
➡ Industry

🔆 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

📍 Digital Identity
✅ New Aadhaar App dedicated to the nation

📍 Key Features:
✅ Selective data sharing
✅ QR-based verification
✅ Face authentication
✅ Biometric lock/unlock
✅ “One Family – One App” concept

📍 Education & AI
✅ CCSU Meerut becomes India’s first AI-enabled State University (pilot)
📍 Partners:
➡ MSDE
➡ Google Cloud
➡ CCSU

🔆 ENVIRONMENT

📍 Waste Management
✅ New Solid Waste Management Rules, 2026 notified
📍 Effective from: 1 April 2026

📍 Key Changes:
✅ Four-stream waste segregation:
➡ Wet
➡ Dry
➡ Sanitary
➡ Special Care waste

✅ Bulk Waste Generators defined (≥100 kg/day or ≥20,000 sq m)

🔆 STATES

📍 Jammu & Kashmir
✅ Tawi Boating Festival begins in Jammu
📍 Artificial lake created on River Tawi

📍 Maharashtra
✅ Launch of India’s first menopause clinics in public hospitals

📍 Kerala
✅ Declares Bacillus subtilis as State Microbe
📍 First Indian state to do so

📍 Uttarakhand
✅ New mushroom species Hemileccinum indicum discovered in oak forests

📍 Gujarat
✅ Namo Laxmi Scheme – ₹1,250 crore for girls’ education (Classes 9–12)

📍 Rajasthan
✅ Launch of RAJ-UNNATI digital governance platform
📍 Inspired by PRAGATI model

🔆 IMPORTANT DAYS

📍 28 January
✅ Birth Anniversary of Lala Lajpat Rai (Punjab Kesari)

🔆 APPOINTMENTS

📍 Sports Administration
✅ Randhir Singh steps down as President of Olympic Council of Asia (OCA)
📍 New President: Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al Thani

🔆 AWARDS

📍 National Model Youth Gram Sabha Awards
✅ Conferred by MoPR at Bharat Mandapam
📍 Objective:
✅ Promote civic engagement & grassroots democracy

🔆 SCIENCE & TECH (CLIMATE)

📍 Glacier Hazards
✅ IIT Guwahati identifies 492 potential glacial lake sites in Eastern Himalayas
📍 Risk:
✅ Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs)

#CurrentAffairs

Cash management bill CMB

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HCS 2026 NOTIFICATION OUT

Total Post- 102
Prelims Exam- 26th April (86 days Left)
Application open- 6th Feb
Last Date- 26th February

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FREE !!! FREE !!! FREE !!!
LBSNAA EXPRESS 40-Page Monthly Magazine For Prelims 2026

“Read Smart, Not Bulky — 15 Direct Hits in UPSC Prelims 2025.”

❇️ Sources Covered : The Hindu, Indian Express, PIB, Yojana, Down to Earth, Important Magazine Gist.

⬇️ Download All Magazines : click here

📲 For January 2026 magazine join here : https://t.me/DelhiUpscSecrets_official

UPPSC Exam Calendar 2026
UPPSC mains25 29 March

UPPSC Prelims 6 December

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🔆 PANCHAM Chatbot Launched

📍 What’s the News?
✅ PANCHAM Chatbot was launched by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj on the occasion of the 77th Republic Day.

📍 About PANCHAM
✅ Full Form: Panchayat Assistance & Messaging CHatbot
✅ Nature: AI-based digital chatbot
✅ Purpose: Easy access to government schemes, official data, and updates for grassroots institutions

📍 Objectives
✅ Strengthen responsive, transparent, and accountable grassroots governance

📍 Target Users
✅ Elected representatives (Sarpanches, Ward Members)
✅ Panchayat staff across rural India
✅ Separate interface available for Citizens

📍 Registration & Access
✅ User’s mobile number must be linked with e-Gram Swaraj Portal
✅ Activation via QR code scanning + simple registration

📍 Key Features
✅ Operates through WhatsApp — no advanced technical skills required
✅ Works on basic smartphones with internet
✅ Two Interfaces:
▪ Panchayat Functionaries & Elected Representatives
▪ Citizens
✅ Multilingual support: 22 Indian languages

📍 Services Offered
✅ Direct Communication: Circulars, guidelines, directives via WhatsApp
✅ Two-Way Communication:
▪ Users can ask queries directly
▪ Officials can receive feedback & local issue reports
✅ Real-Time Information: FAQs & updates on MoPR schemes
✅ Training Support:
▪ Short video-based modules
▪ Pre-training communication & post-training feedback

📍 UPSC Relevance
✅ GS2 – Governance | Decentralisation | E-Governance
✅ GS3 – Digital Public Infrastructure

📌 Prelims Pointer:
➡️ PANCHAM is a WhatsApp-based AI chatbot linked with e-Gram Swaraj for Panchayati Raj institutions.

#goverment_schemes

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🔆 PM pays tribute to Punjab Kesari Lala Lajpat Rai on his Birth Anniversary

📍 About Lala Lajpat Rai (1865–1928)
✅ Born in Punjab
✅ Popularly known as “Punjab Kesari”

📍 Key Contributions

📌 Indian Freedom Movement
✅ Leading figure of the Extremist faction of Congress
✅ One of the legendary triumvirates — Lal–Bal–Pal
  (Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal)
✅ President, Indian National Congress — Calcutta Session (1920)
✅ President, All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) — 1920

📌 Institutions & Movements
✅ Hindu Relief Movement
✅ Indian Home Rule League of America
✅ Servants of the People Society
✅ Played a key role in establishing Punjab National Bank (PNB)

📌 Literary Contributions
✅ Founded ‘The People’ journal
✅ Regular contributor to ‘The Tribune’
✅ Major works:
▪ Unhappy India
▪ Young India: An Interpretation
▪ History of Arya Samaj
▪ England’s Debt to India
▪ Biographies on Mazzini, Garibaldi, Swami Dayanand

📌 Simon Commission Protest (1928)
✅ Led a non-violent march in Lahore against the Simon Commission
✅ Sustained severe head injuries due to police lathi charge
✅ Later succumbed to injuries, becoming a martyr of the freedom struggle

📍 Core Values Associated
✅ Courage
✅ Self-sacrifice
✅ Perseverance
✅ Nationalism

📍 UPSC Relevance
✅ GS1 – Modern Indian History
✅ GS4 – Ethics: Courage, Sacrifice, Leadership

📌 Prelims Pointer:
➡️ Lala Lajpat Rai died due to injuries from lathi charge during Simon Commission protests (1928) — a landmark episode in India’s freedom movement.

#history #prelims #mains

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APPSC GROUP 1 RESULTS

Economic survey 2025-26

https://youtu.be/F4RFHOsfn6Q?si=EAwU0aleYnZ6WHtN

Day 44: 31 January target:

Modern History
Topics:
Backlogs
PYQs


Current Affairs:
No current affairs for today

#UpscRevisionProgram

After completion of target post 'DONE'
In comment section. Targets are decided as per practical approach. In remaining time, you can study whatever you want.
Thank you.

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🔆 CURRENT AFFAIRS — 30 JANUARY 2026

🔆 ECONOMY & SURVEY

📍 Economic Survey 2025–26
✅ GDP growth (FY26): 7.4% | GVA: 7.3%
✅ Potential growth: ~7% | FY27 outlook: 6.8–7.2%
✅ Avg inflation (Apr–Dec 2025): 1.7%
✅ Gross NPAs: 2.2% (Sept 2025 – multi-decadal low)

📍 Financial Inclusion
✅ PMJDY accounts: 55.02 crore (36.63 crore rural/semi-urban)
✅ Investors: 12 crore+ (25% women)

📍 External Sector
✅ Services exports: $387.6 bn (FY25, +13.6%)
✅ Remittances: $135.4 bn (world’s highest)
✅ Forex reserves: $701.4 bn (11 months import cover)

📍 Power Gap Index (New)
✅ From Asia Power Index
✅ India: strong resources, influence below potential

🔆 AGRICULTURE & RURAL

📍 Foodgrain Output
✅ 3577.3 LMT (AY 2024–25) | +254.3 LMT

📍 PM-KISAN
✅ ₹4.09 lakh crore+ transferred since launch

📍 MGNREGS Reform
✅ Viksit Bharat–GramG aligned with Viksit Bharat 2047

🔆 INDUSTRY & INFRASTRUCTURE

📍 Manufacturing
✅ GVA growth: Q1 7.72% | Q2 9.13%

📍 PLI Scheme
✅ 14 sectors | Investment ₹2 lakh cr+
✅ Output ₹18.7 lakh cr+ | Jobs 12.6 lakh+

📍 Semiconductors
✅ 10 projects | Investment ₹1.60 lakh cr

📍 Infrastructure Push
✅ High-speed corridors: 550 km (2014) → 5,364 km (2026)
✅ Airports: 74 → 164 | Rail lines added (FY26): 3,500 km
✅ India: 3rd largest domestic aviation market

🔆 BANKING & FINANCE

📍 Insurance Innovation
✅ Digit Insurance pays parametric crop claims
📍 Location: Tonk, Rajasthan | ~500 farmers
✅ Based on Water Balance Index (no field survey)

🔆 INTERNATIONAL

📍 Health & Environment
✅ Lancet: Health impact of plastics may double by 2040

📍 Gold Market
✅ Global demand 2025: 5,002 tonnes (record high)

🔆 NATIONAL

📍 Culture & Heritage
✅ Living Root Bridges (Meghalaya) submitted to UNESCO
📍 Evaluation cycle: 2026–27

📍 Maritime Manufacturing
✅ NSHIP-TN mega shipbuilding cluster
📍 Location: Thoothukudi, TN | Outlay: ₹19,989 cr

📍 AI Ecosystem
✅ India ranks 8th globally in AI investment intensity (WEF)

📍 Agriculture Governance
✅ High-level committee to strengthen FPOs in Tamil Nadu

🔆 DEFENCE

📍 Aviation Manufacturing
✅ HAL + Russia (UAC) to produce SJ-100 aircraft in India

📍 Drones
✅ Indian Army selects V-BAT autonomous VTOL drones
📍 Indian manufacturing: JSW Defence (Hyderabad)

🔆 ENVIRONMENT & LIVELIHOODS

📍 Namami Gange
✅ 25 JALAJ livelihood centres inaugurated
✅ Focus: women-led, community river economy

🔆 STATES

📍 Tamil Nadu
✅ Knowledge City Project foundation laid

📍 Assam
✅ Eti Koli Duti Paat Scheme
✅ ₹5,000 to tea workers | ₹15,000 to pregnant workers

📍 Meghalaya
✅ First State-led Spice Festival (Mumbai)

📍 Karnataka
✅ Gig Workers Welfare Development Board notified

🔆 AWARDS & OBITUARY

📍 Republic Day Parade 2026
✅ Best Service Contingent: Indian Navy
✅ Best State Tableau: Maharashtra

📍 Aviation
✅ Delhi IGI Airport — Best Airport (Wings India 2026)

📍 Literature
✅ Arundhati Roy — Mathrubhumi Book of the Year

📍 Obituary
✅ Former India hockey coach Michael Nobbs passes away

#CurrentAffairs

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🔆 Supercapacitors

📍 What’s the News?
✅ Indian researchers have developed a high-voltage supercapacitor using a dual-functional porous graphene carbon nanocomposite (PGCN) electrode.
✅ The innovation can significantly boost electric vehicle (EV) performance and renewable energy storage.

📍 Why is it Important?
✅ Faster acceleration and extended driving range for EVs
✅ Improved solar and grid-scale energy storage efficiency
✅ Supports clean energy transition

📍 About Supercapacitors
✅ Electrochemical devices that store charge via electrostatic action (not chemical reactions like batteries)
✅ Key components: Anode, Cathode, Electrolyte, Separator
✅ Use high specific surface area electrodes and thin dielectrics → very high capacitance

📍 Key Advantages
✅ Long cycle life (millions of charge–discharge cycles)
✅ High power density (rapid charging & discharging)
✅ Environment-friendly and durable

📍 UPSC Relevance
✅ GS3 – Science & Technology | Energy Storage | EVs | Climate Tech

📌 Prelims Pointer:
➡️ Supercapacitors ≠ Batteries → High power delivery but lower energy density than batteries.

#GS3
#prelims
#science_technology
#science_and_technology

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