Aravalli Definition Issue & High-Powered Committee

• HPC (High-Powered Committee): Constituted by the Supreme Court under Kanchan Devi (DG, ICFRE) to review the October 2025 report on the definition of the Aravalli Hills.

• 100-metre Controversy: The earlier panel proposed that only hills with elevation ≥100 m qualify as Aravalli hills. As per Forest Survey of India (FSI), this would leave only 1,048 out of Rajasthan’s 12,081 hills (~8.7%) under protection, excluding about 91% of hills.

• 500-metre Gap Controversy: The report also proposed that Aravalli hills separated by more than 500 m should not be treated as a continuous range, potentially creating gaps where mining and other activities could be permitted.

• Why Important? The dispute is essentially over whether Aravalli should be defined by height (100 m criterion) or by ecological continuity of the mountain system, which affects the extent of environmental protection.

• Past SC-appointed Expert Panels:
• Madhav Gadgil Committee – Western Ghats
• Ravi Chopra Committee – Char Dham Project
• M.G.K. Menon Committee – Hazardous Waste Management

• Aravalli Fact: One of the oldest fold mountain ranges in the world, extending about 700 km from Delhi–Haryana–Rajasthan to Gujarat.

#CA2026
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UPSC 2001

#PYQ

The Voice of Hind Rajab - Docu-drama by Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania on Palestinian child Hind Rajab (killed during the 2024 Gaza conflict); recently cleared by CBFC with an ‘A’ certificate after certification delays.

#CA2026

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Australian Deputy Prime Minister & Defence Minister Richard Marles co-chaired the 2nd India–Australia Defence Ministers' Dialogue in New Delhi.

👇🏻👇🏻

Interlink:

https://t.me/civils_web/9862

https://t.me/civils_web/6899

https://t.me/bpscweb/37052

INDIA–AUSTRALIA DEFENCE MINISTERS' DIALOGUE 2026
• Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Australian Deputy Prime Minister & Defence Minister Richard Marles co-chaired the 2nd India–Australia Defence Ministers' Dialogue in New Delhi.

MARITIME SECURITY
• Agreed to advance Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) through cooperation between maritime patrol aircraft.
• Agreed to explore opportunities for enhancing Underwater Domain Awareness (UDA).
• Cooperation to be strengthened between the Indian Coast Guard and Australia's Maritime Border Command.
• Reaffirmed commitment to freedom of navigation, overflight and lawful use of seas under UNCLOS, 1982.

INDIAN OCEAN COOPERATION
• India and Australia are co-leads of the IORA Working Group on Maritime Safety and Security.
• Both countries will jointly host a Search and Rescue (SAR) tabletop exercise at the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC), Chennai.

DEFENCE & MILITARY COOPERATION
• Agreed to improve interoperability under the Mutual Logistics Support Arrangement (MLSA), 2020.

MILITARY EXERCISES
• Exercise Milan – Multilateral naval exercise hosted by India.
• Exercise Kakadu – Multinational maritime exercise hosted by Australia.
• Exercise Pitch Black – Australia's premier multinational air combat exercise.
• Exercise Talisman Sabre – Large-scale Australia–US military exercise.
• Exercise Austrahind – Bilateral India–Australia army exercise; 2026 edition focused on amphibious and littoral operations.
• Exercise Black Carillon – Multinational submarine rescue exercise.
• Operation Render Safe 2026 – Australia-led mission to remove unexploded wartime ordnance in Pacific Island countries; India participated for the first time.

FACT FILE
• Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP): India–Australia relations elevated to CSP in 2020.
• MLSA (2020): Allows reciprocal access to military bases, fuel, logistics and maintenance facilities.
• UNCLOS (1982): Known as the "Constitution of the Oceans"; entered into force in 1994.

• IORA Headquarters: Ebene, Mauritius.

#CA2026
👇👇

• Naib Subedar Sujit Kumar Pradhan (UNMISS–South Sudan) and Lance Havildar Harbhajan Singh (MONUSCO–DR Congo) were posthumously awarded the Dag Hammarskjöld Medal in 2026 by UN Secretary-General António Guterres for sacrifice in UN peacekeeping operations.

About:
• UNMISS —> South Sudan (established in 2011 under UNSC Resolution 1996).
• MONUSCO —> Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• Dag Hammarskjöld Medal —> UN’s posthumous honour for peacekeepers killed while serving under the UN flag; established by UNSC Resolution 1121 (1997).
• International day of UN Peacekeepers(Blue Helmets)—> 29 May

• Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) = Doctors Without Borders; international humanitarian medical NGO founded in 1971, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland; awarded the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize.

Add-on (2026):
• Major Abhilasha Barak (India) received the 2026 Military Gender Advocate Award from the UN.

UN-Habitat:

• UN-Habitat = United Nations Human Settlements Programme; headquarters: Nairobi, Kenya.

• World Urban Forum (WUF) is the premier global conference on sustainable urbanization convened by UN-Habitat.

• WUF-13 (2026) was held in Baku, Azerbaijan.

• A household spending more than 30% of its income on housing is generally considered housing-cost burdened.

• Price-to-Income Ratio is a key measure of housing affordability; ≤3 is generally considered affordable, while >5 indicates severe unaffordability.

• Financialisation of housing = treating houses as investment/financial assets rather than primarily as places to live.

• Central and South Asia, including India, recorded one of the sharpest increases in housing price-to-income ratios (2010–2023).

• Slums/Informal settlements remain a major urban challenge; over 1 billion people globally live in such settlements according to UN estimates.

#CA2026
#REPORT
#UN

Interlink:
https://t.me/civils_web/711
https://t.me/civils_web/8116
https://t.me/civils_web/2097


What to focus ?
1. CPU vs GPU vs TPU
2. FLOPS ?
3. Global race for advanced semiconductor chips
4. Nvidia : New chip RTX Spark , Nvidia partnered with Microsoft to launch the new chip Nvidia RTX Spark, and it will power computers made by Dell Asus and HP.
5. Nvidia is the biggest chipmaker in the world with a market cap of over $5tn.
6. Generative AI ?
7. LLM ?
8. India' indigenous processors ? India semiconductor mission ?
9. Race for high end Semiconductor chips
- Apple : m series chips
- Intel earlier dominant player now struggling
- Qualcomm: Snapdragon chips

--> Novel antibiotic Zaynich brings relief to the drought in antibiotic innovation

--> The drug for treating complicated urinary tract infections is the first fully indigenously developed Indian new chemical entity to secure US FDA approval.

—> Zaynich is injectable, comprising of cefepime and zidebactam, and indicated to work against E coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus mirabilis, Enterobacter cloacae complex and Pseudomonas aeruginosa

—> The drug is the first fully indigenously developed Indian new chemical entity to secure US FDA approval.

—> It offers a potent option against multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacteria amid a thinning global antibiotic pipeline

—> Developed by Wockhardt : Novel antibiotic aimed at treatment of complicated urinary tract infection (cUTI), including pyelonephritis, in adults. 

—> Mechanism of action of Beta-lactam enhancer, targeting gram-negative pathogens,”


Link : https://t.me/civils_web/5771

Seabuckthorn

UPSC PYQs sequel —> Himalayan nettle —> Gucchi mushroom —> Moringa and tamarind for biofuel —> NEXT PROBABLE QUESTION on seabuckthorn

PESA , FRA : important area for BPSC

Asked in latest AEDO Exam

To be focussed

1. What is DNA finger printing : DNA Fingerprinting is a well-known method of personal identification. It is a technique to find out the variations in individuals at the DNA level. Although over 99% of the DNA sequences are the same across all humans, there are highly variable regions known as short tandem repeats (STRs) that differ between individuals.


VALUE ADDITION : DNA fingerprinting and FR

1. DNA Fingerprinting and fundamental rigjts : DNA fingerprinting and its application intersect with Fundamental Rights under the Indian Constitution, primarily raising conflicts with the Right to Privacy (Article 21) and the Right against Self-Incrimination (Article 20(3))

2. Judiciary Stand : In The State of Bombay versus Kathi Kalu Oghad case, SC ruled that obtaining photographs, fingerprints, signatures, and thumb impressions would not violate the right against self-incrimination of an accused.  The court distinguished “to be a witness” from “furnishing evidence”.