💥UPSC 2026, 2027, 2028 UAP Mentorship (March Batch) + Access XFactor Notes & Microthemes PDF
Talk to mentor

Civilsdaily

Login

Type: Prelims Only

  • Aadhaar Card Issues

    PAN, Aadhaar made mandatory for high-value cash deposits & withdrawals

    Prelims Only | Economics | Mains Paper 3: Indian Economy

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Cap on cash withdrawal

    Mains level: Tax evasion

    The government has made requirement of a Permanent Account Number (PAN) or Aadhaar number for depositing or withdrawing Rs 20 lakh or more in a financial year or for opening a current account mandatory.

    Regulating high-value transactions

    • The Central Board of Direct Taxes, in a notification, said furnishing PAN or biometric Aadhaar will be mandatory for such high-value cash deposits or withdrawals from banks in a financial year.
    • The same will be applied for opening of a current account or cash credit account with a bank or post office.
    • Banks, post offices and co-operative societies would be required to report the transactions of deposits and withdrawals aggregating to Rs 20 lakh or more in a financial year.
    • As of now, PAN is required to be furnished for cash deposits of Rs 50,000 or more in a day.
    • With these rules, a threshold of Rs 20 lakh has been defined for the full financial year.

    How will this help tax department?

    • This move will help the government in tracing the movement of cash in the financial system.
    • It is expected to help the income tax department monitor deposits/withdrawals where tax would not be getting paid by the individual otherwise on his or her income.

    Why PAN-Aadhaar interoperability?

    • The PAN-Aadhaar interoperability will help banks to record details for those who don’t have PAN.
    • The interchangeable provision in the rules would allow a bank or financial institution to ask for Aadhaar in case an individual states that he or she doesn’t have PAN.
    • The Finance Act, 2019, has provided for the interchangeability of PAN with Aadhaar.
    • It has been provided that every person who is required to furnish or intimate or quote his PAN under the Income-tax Act.
    • Those who, has not been allotted a PAN but possesses the Aadhaar number, may furnish or intimate or quote his Aadhaar in lieu of PAN.

     

    UPSC 2023 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

    Attend Now

  • Soil Health Management – NMSA, Soil Health Card, etc.

    Green Manure and its productivity benefits

    Prelims Only | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution & Degradation, Eia

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Green Manure

    Mains level: Soil Health Management

    The Punjab agriculture department is promoting the cultivation of green manure these days.

    What is the news?

    • Punjab Agro is providing subsidy on the seed at the rate of Rs 2,000 per quintal, which costs Rs 6,300 per quintal without subsidy
    • The farmers can avail its seed from the block level offices of the agriculture department as limited stock is available.

    What is Green Manure?

    • Green manures are crops grown specifically for maintaining soil fertility and structure.
    • It is done by leaving uprooted or sown crops parts, allowing them to wither onto the field and serve as mulch and soil fertilizers.
    • They are normally incorporated back into the soil, either directly, or after removal and composting.
    • There are three main varieties of green manure, including
    1. Dhaincha
    2. Cowpea
    3. Sunhemp
    • Also some crops such as summer moong, mash pulses and guar act as green manure.
    • They can be sown after wheat cultivation

    Characteristics of green manure

    • Green manure must be leguminous in nature
    • They must bear maximum nodules on its roots to fix large amount of atmospheric nitrogen in the soil.

    Various policy initiatives

    • Under Sub- Mission on Seed and Planting Material (SMSP), the govt. provides 50% cost assistance for the distribution of green manure required for a one-acre area per farmer.
    • The Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) promotes cluster-based organic farming with PGS (Participatory Guarantee System) certification.

     

     

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

    Attend Now

  • Wildlife Conservation Efforts

    Highlights of State of the World’s Birds Report

    Prelims Only | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution & Degradation, Eia

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Highlights of State of the World’s Birds Report

    Mains level: Not Much

    The State of the World’s Birds, an annual review of environmental resources has revealed that the population of 48% of the 10,994 surviving species of birds is declining.

    State of the World’s Birds

    • The report is published by the Manchester Metropolitan University.
    • It gives an overview of the changes in the knowledge of avian biodiversity and the extent to which it is imperilled.
    • The study draws from BirdLife International’s latest assessment of all birds for the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List.

    What are the key findings of the study?

    • The study found that 5,245 or about 48% of the existing bird species worldwide are known or suspected to be undergoing population declines.
    • While 4,295 or 39% of the species have stable trends, about 7% or 778 species have increasing population trends.
    • It shows 1,481 or 13.5% species are currently threatened with global extinction.

    Where the birds are threatened the most?

    • The more threatened bird species (86.4%) are found in tropical than in temperate latitudes (31.7%).
    • Such hotspots are concentrated in the tropical Andes, southeast Brazil, eastern Himalayas, eastern Madagascar, and Southeast Asian islands.

    What is the importance of birds to ecosystems and culture?

    • Birds contribute toward many ecosystem services that either directly or indirectly benefit humanity.
    • These include provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting services.
    • The functional role of birds within ecosystems as pollinators, seed-dispersers, ecosystem engineers, scavengers and predators.
    • They not only facilitate accrual and maintenance of biodiversity but also support human endeavours such as sustainable agriculture via pest control besides aiding other animals to multiply.
    • For instance, coral reef fish productivity has been shown to increase as seabird colonies recovered following rat eradication in the Chagos archipelago.
    • Wild birds and products derived from them are also economically important as food (meat, eggs).

    What are the threats contributing to avian biodiversity loss?

    • The study lists eight factors, topped by land cover and land-use change.
    • The continued growth of human populations and of per capita rates of consumption lead directly to conversion and degradation of primary natural habitats.
    • Deforestation has been driven by afforestation with plantations (often of non-native species) plus land abandonment in parts of the global North, with net loss in the tropics.
    • The other factors are habitat fragmentation, degradation, hunting and trapping.

    Try this PYQ from CSP 2020:

    Q.With reference to India’s Biodiversity, Ceylon frogmouth, Coppersmith barbet, Gray-chinned minivet and White-throated redstart are

    (a) Birds

    (b) Primates

    (c) Reptiles

    (d) Amphibians

     

    Post your answers here.

     

    UPSC 2023 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

    Attend Now

  • Modern Indian History-Events and Personalities

    Places in news: Martand Sun Temple

    Prelims Only | History | Mains Paper 1: Arts & Culture

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Martand Sun Temple

    Mains level: Not Much

    After Prayers held at the ruins of the eighth-century Martand Sun Temple in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag is deemed to be a violation of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) rules.

    About Martand Sun Temple

    • The Martand Sun Temple is a Hindu temple located near the city of Anantnag in the Kashmir Valley.
    • It dates back to the eighth century AD and was dedicated to Surya, the chief solar deity.
    • The temple was destroyed by Sikandar Shah Miri in a bid to undertake mass conversion and execution of Hindus in the valley.
    • According to Kalhana, the Temple was commissioned by Lalitaditya Muktapida in the eighth century AD.
    • The temple is built on top of a plateau from where one can view whole of the Kashmir Valley.
    • From the ruins the visible architecture seems to be blended with the Gandharan, Gupta and Chinese forms of architecture.

    Why in news now?

    • According to ASI, prayers are allowed at its protected sites only if they were “functioning places of worship” at the time it took charge of them.
    • No religious rituals can be conducted at non-living monuments where there has been no continuity of worship when it became an ASI-protected site.

    What are the living/non-living monument?

    • If some activity, like any kind of worship, has been going on for years in the structure, then it is taken over as a living monument.
    • But where no activity has taken place, say an abandoned building, then it is declared a dead monument.
    • The latter is difficult to restore because it is generally covered by a lot of overgrowths.
    • The best-known example of a living ASI monument is the Taj Mahal in Agra, where namaz is held every Friday.

     

    UPSC 2023 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

    Attend Now

  • Nobel and other Prizes

    Pulitzer Prize and the Indians who have won it

    Prelims Only | Trivia | :

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Pulitzer Prize

    Mains level: NA

    A team of four Indian photographers have won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography for their coverage of the Covid-19 crisis in India.

    About Pulitzer Prize

    • The Pulitzer is the most coveted award for journalists from across the world.
    • It is announced by America’s Columbia University and bestowed on the recommendation of the Pulitzer Prize Board.

    Who was Joseph Pulitzer, after whom the awards are named?

    • Born to a wealthy family of Magyar-Jewish origin in Mako, Hungary, in 1847, Joseph Pulitzer had a stint in the military before he built a reputation of being a “tireless journalist”.
    • In the late 1860s he joined the German-language daily newspaper Westliche Post, and by 25 he had become a publisher.
    • In 1884, he was elected to the US House of Representatives from New York’s ninth district as a Democrat.

    When were the Pulitzer awards instituted?

    • The awards were instituted according to Pulitzer’s will, framed in 1904, where he made a provision for the establishment of the Pulitzer Prizes as an incentive to excellence.
    • Pulitzer specified solely four awards in journalism, four in letters and drama, one for education, and five travelling scholarships.
    • After his death in 1911, the first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded in June, 1917.

    Indians who have won the Pulitzer

    • A member of the Ghadar Party in America, journalist Gobind Behari Lal, was the first from India to win the Prize in 1937.
    • In 2000, London-born Indian-American writer Jhumpa Lahiri won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for her debut short story collection Interpreter of Maladies.
    • In 2003, Mumbai-born Geeta Anand was part of the team at Wall Street Journal that won a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on corporate corruption.
    • In 2016, Indian-American Sanghamitra Kalita, then managing editor of Los Angeles Times, won the Pulitzer.

    The list goes on to date ….

     

    UPSC 2023 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

    Attend Now

  • Global Geological And Climatic Events

    In news: Tropical Cyclone Asani

    Prelims Only | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 1: Geographical Features & Their Location

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Tropical cyclones

    Mains level: Frequent recurrence of Cyclones in India

    Severe cyclonic storm ‘Asani’, packing winds above 105 kmph and setting off heavy rain, is likely to make landfall on the eastern coast of India.

    What are tropical Cyclones?

    • A tropical cyclone is an intense circular storm that originates over warm tropical oceans and is characterized by low atmospheric pressure, high winds, and heavy rain.
    • Cyclones are formed over slightly warm ocean waters. The temperature of the top layer of the sea, up to a depth of about 60 meters, need to be at least 28°C to support the formation of a cyclone.
    • This explains why the April-May and October-December periods are conducive for cyclones.
    • Then, the low level of air above the waters needs to have an ‘anticlockwise’ rotation (in the northern hemisphere; clockwise in the southern hemisphere).
    • During these periods, there is an ITCZ in the Bay of Bengal whose southern boundary experiences winds from west to east, while the northern boundary has winds flowing east to west.
    • Once formed, cyclones in this area usually move northwest. As it travels over the sea, the cyclone gathers more moist air from the warm sea which adds to its heft.

    Requirements for a Cyclone to form

    There are six main requirements for tropical cyclogenesis:

    • Sufficiently warm sea surface temperatures
    • Atmospheric instability
    • High humidity in the lower to middle levels of the troposphere
    • Enough Coriolis force to develop a low-pressure centre
    • A pre-existing low-level focus or disturbance
    • Low vertical wind shear

    How are the cyclones named?

    • In 2000, a group of nations called WMO/ESCAP (World Meteorological Organisation/United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific) decided to name cyclones.
    • It comprised Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand, decided to start naming cyclones in the region.
    • After each country sent in suggestions, the WMO/ESCAP Panel on Tropical Cyclones (PTC) finalised the list.
    • The WMO/ESCAP expanded to include five more countries in 2018 — Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

    Why is it important to name cyclones?

    • Adopting names for cyclones makes it easier for people to remember, as opposed to numbers and technical terms.
    • It’s easier and less confusing to say “Cyclone Titli” than remember the storm’s number or its longitude and latitude.
    • Apart from the general public, it also helps the scientific community, the media, disaster managers etc.
    • With a name, it is also easy to identify individual cyclones, create awareness of its development, rapidly disseminate warnings to increase community preparedness etc.

     

    UPSC 2023 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

    Attend Now

  • Health Sector – UHC, National Health Policy, Family Planning, Health Insurance, etc.

    What is Monkeypox?

    Prelims Only | Science Tech | Mains Paper 3: Awareness in various sc and tech fields

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Monkey Pox

    Mains level: Zoonotic Diseases

    The UK health authorities have confirmed a case of Monkeypox, which is a virus passed from infected animals such as rodents to humans, in someone with a recent travel history to Nigeria where they are believed to have caught it.

    What is Monkeypox?

    • The monkeypox virus is an orthopoxvirus, which is a genus of viruses that also includes the variola virus, which causes smallpox, and vaccinia virus, which was used in the smallpox vaccine.
    • It causes symptoms similar to smallpox, although they are less severe.
    • While vaccination eradicated smallpox worldwide in 1980, monkeypox continues to occur in a swathe of countries in Central and West Africa, and has on occasion showed up elsewhere.
    • According to the WHO, two distinct clade are identified: the West African clade and the Congo Basin clade, also known as the Central African clade.

    Its origin

    • Monkeypox is a zoonosis, that is, a disease that is transmitted from infected animals to humans.
    • Monkeypox virus infection has been detected in squirrels, Gambian poached rats, dormice, and some species of monkeys.
    • According to the WHO, cases occur close to tropical rainforests inhabited by animals that carry the virus.

    Symptoms and treatment

    • Monkeypox begins with a fever, headache, muscle aches, back ache, and exhaustion.
    • It also causes the lymph nodes to swell (lymphadenopathy), which smallpox does not.
    • The WHO underlines that it is important to not confuse monkeypox with chickenpox, measles, bacterial skin infections, scabies, syphilis and medication-associated allergies.
    • The incubation period (time from infection to symptoms) for monkeypox is usually 7-14 days but can range from 5-21 days.
    • There is no safe, proven treatment for monkeypox yet.

     

    UPSC 2023 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

    Attend Now

  • Climate Change Impact on India and World – International Reports, Key Observations, etc.

    Is La Nina a fair weather friend of our country?

    Prelims Only | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 1: Important Geophysical Phenomena

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: El-Nino, La-Nina

    Mains level: ENSO impact on Indian Monsson

    This year the La Nina is being blamed for worsening the longest spell of heatwaves from March to April in north, west and Central India.

    In most years, meteorologists considered the La Nina to be a friend of India.

    What is El Nino and La Nina?

    • While El Niño (Spanish for ‘little boy’), the more common expression, is the abnormal surface warming observed along the eastern and central regions of the Pacific Ocean (the region between Peru and Papua New Guinea).
    • The La Niña (Spanish for ‘little girl’) is an abnormal cooling of these surface waters.
    • Together, the El Niño (Warm Phase) and La Niña (Cool Phase) phenomena are termed as El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO).
    • These are large-scale ocean phenomena which influence the global weather — winds, temperature and rainfall. They have the ability to trigger extreme weather events like droughts, floods, hot and cold conditions, globally.
    • Each cycle can last anywhere between 9 to 12 months, at times extendable to 18 months — and re-occur after every three to five years.
    • Meteorologists record the sea surface temperatures for four different regions, known as Niño regions, along this equatorial belt.
    • Depending on the temperatures, they forecast either as an El Niño, an ENSO neutral phase, or a La Niña.

    Impact on India

    • El Nino during winter causes warm conditions over the Indian subcontinent and during summer, it leads to dry conditions and deficient monsoon.
    • Whereas La Nina results in better than normal monsoon in India.
    • It has been established that Indian summer monsoon is a fully coupled land-atmosphere-ocean system and that it is linked to ocean temperature variability.
    • In an agricultural country like India, the extreme departure from normal seasonal rainfall seriously affects the agricultural output and thus the economy of the country.

    Try this PYQ:

    La Nina is suspected to have caused recent floods in Australia. How is La Nina different from El Nino?

    1. La Nina is characterized by unusually cold ocean temperature in equatorial Indian Ocean whereas El Nino is characterized by unusually warm ocean temperature in the equatorial Pacific Ocean.
    2. El Nino has an adverse effect on south-west monsoon of India, but La Nina has no effect on monsoon climate.

    Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

    (a) Only 1

    (b) Only 2

    (c) Both 1 and 2

    (d) Neither 1 nor 2

     

    Post your answers here.

     

     

    UPSC 2023 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

    Attend Now

  • Historical and Archaeological Findings in News

    Rakhigarhi skeletons’ DNA samples sent for analysis

    Prelims Only | History | Mains Paper 1: Arts & Culture

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Indus valley civilization and its decline

    Mains level: Not Much

    DNA samples collected from two human skeletons unearthed at a necropolis of a Harappan-era city site in Rakhigarhi, Haryana have been sent for scientific examination.

    Why in news?

    • DNA analysis might tell about the ancestry and food habits of people who lived in the Rakhigarhi region thousands of years ago.

    About Rakhi Garhi

    • The ancient site of Rakhi-Khas and Rakhi-Shahpur are collectively known as Rakhigarhi, located on the right bank of the now dried up Palaeo-channel of Drishadvati.
    • It is located in the Ghaggar-Hakra river plain in the Hissar district of Haryana.
    • Seven mounds are located here.
    • The site has yielded various stages of Harappan culture and is by far one of the largest Harappan sites in India.
    • The site shows the sequential development of the Indus culture in the now dried up Saraswati basin.

    Major findings at Rakhi Garhi

    • Findings confirm both early and mature Harappan phases and include 4,600-year-old human skeletons, fortification and bricks.
    • Digging so far reveals a well-planned city with 1.92 m wide roads, a bit wider than in Kalibangan.
    • The pottery is similar to Kalibangan and Banawali.
    • Pits surrounded by walls have been found, which are thought to be for sacrificial or some religious ceremonies.
    • There are brick-lined drains to handle sewage from the houses.
    • Terracotta statues, weights, bronze artefacts, comb, copper fish hooks, needles and terracotta seals have also been found.
    • A bronze vessel has been found which is decorated with gold and silver.
    • A granary belonging to the mature Harappan phase has been found here.
    • Fire altars structures were revealed in Rakhigarhi.

     

    UPSC 2023 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

    Attend Now

  • ISRO Missions and Discoveries

    ISRO’s goal for Venus Mission

    Prelims Only | Science Tech | Mains Paper 3: Achievements Of Indians In S&T

    Note4Students

    From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

    Prelims level: Shukrayan Mission

    Mains level: Interplanetary missions

    India’s Venus mission has been conceived. The project report for ‘Shukrayaan-I’ – the name given to ISRO’s Venus mission

    About Venus

    • Venus is the second planet from the Sun and is Earth’s closest planetary neighbor.
    • It’s one of the four inner, terrestrial (or rocky) planets, and it’s often called Earth’s twin because it’s similar in size and density.
    • Venus has a thick, toxic atmosphere filled with carbon dioxide and it’s perpetually shrouded in thick, yellowish clouds of sulphuric acid that trap heat, causing a runaway greenhouse effect.
    • It’s the hottest planet in our solar system, even though Mercury is closer to the Sun.
    • Surface temperatures on Venus are about 900 degrees Fahrenheit (475 degrees Celsius) – hot enough to melt lead.
    • Venus has crushing air pressure at its surface – more than 90 times that of Earth – similar to the pressure you’d encounter a mile below the ocean on Earth.

    Do you know?

    Venus rotates on its axis backward, compared to most of the other planets in the solar system. This means that, on Venus, the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east, opposite to what we experience on Earth. (It’s not the only planet in our solar system with such an oddball rotation – Uranus spins on its side.)

    What is Shukrayaan-I Mission?

    • Shukrayaan will be India’s first orbiter mission to Venus after sending similar missions to the Moon and Mars.
    • The mission aims to study the surface of the hottest planet in our solar system and unravel the mysteries under the Sulphuric Acid clouds enveloping it.
    • The orbiter is the third mission announced to the inferno world of Venus after NASA announced two probes followed by a spacecraft by the European Space Agency.
    • The probes will investigate the world looking for clues to understand the destructive past of Earth’s mysterious twin, which scientists believe once had vast reserves of water similar to our planet.

    Stated objectives

    • Investigation of the surface processes and shallow sub-surface stratigraphy, including active volcanic hotspots and lava flows
    • Studying the structure, composition, and dynamics of the atmosphere
    • Investigation of solar wind interaction with the Venusian Ionosphere

    Delay with the launch

    • The ISRO is eyeing the December 2024 window for launch with orbital maneuvers planned for the following year.
    • This is when earth and Venus would be so aligned that the spacecraft could be put in the neighboring planet’s orbit using a minimum amount of propellant.
    • The next similar window would be available in 2031.

     

    UPSC 2023 countdown has begun! Get your personal guidance plan now! (Click here)

    Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

    Attend Now