CIVIL SERVICE INFO

 ELECTORAL BOND AND DECISION OF SUPREME COURT In a momentous ruling, the Supreme Court unanimously declared the electoral bonds scheme unconstitutional. The five-judge panel, headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, concluded that the scheme's allowance of anonymous funding to political parties violated both Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution and citizens' right to information. As part of its decision, the court issued three directives: all political parties must return any electoral bonds within their 15-day validity period; donations made through electoral bonds must be made public within one week of receipt by the Election Commission of India (ECI); and finally, State Bank of India (SBI) should immediately cease issuing electoral bonds and provide all relevant details to ECI by March 6th.  WHAT IS THIS SCHEME? The electoral bond scheme was initially proposed during former finance minister Arun Jaitley's announcement in the 2017 Budget Session. Later in January

 CLIMATE-SMART AGRICULTURE (CSA) Poor adoption of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) in south asia: nature climate change journal CSA is a set of agricultural practices and technologies which aims to  boosts productivity (E.g. precision farming, smart crops etc.) enhances resilence (E.g. zero budget natural farming , agroforestry etc.) and reduces greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions (E.g. zero tillage , permaculture , organic farming etc.) Reasons for low adoption:  Weak organisational capacities : lack of access to extension services, limited integration to rural markets etc. inadequate targeted incentives : less incentives is given to CSA techniques in comparison to chemical fertilisers, pesticides etc. limited post- adoption follow-up -: less priority is given to evaluation and monitoring of the CSA  technique. inequities in information dissemination: farmers with more wealth and greater social networks are often prioritised for CSA demonstrations and provisioning. Ways to promote CSA

  THE MYSTERY OF THE INDUS SCRIPT : SOURCE THE INDIAN EXPRESS   DRAVIDIAN, SANSKRIT OR NOT A LANGUAGE AT ALL ? Bahata ansumali mukhopadhyay , who has been researching the indus script since 2014 , contends that each indus sign represented a specific meaning, and the script was used mainly for commercial purposes  She argues that contrary to popular beliefs, the script was not used for religious purpose, nor did it phonetically spell out words to encode names of ancient vedic or tamil deities  Example of indus signs compiled by bahata mukhopadhyay  commodity based tax names ? ancient taxes were often named after the taxed commodities or the commodities uesd as tax-paying modes (e.g., tax names based on food grains, such as sanskrit dhanya-varga or tamil puravu - nel ) animal - based emblems of the issuers of the seals such as trade / merchant guilds and region -based rulers /ruling bodies who collaboratively controlled the commerce of indus settlements? did this plant -like sign encode

  सिंधु लिपि का रहस्य : द्रविड़, संस्कृत या कोई भाषा ही नहीं ? the indian express  बहता अंशुमाली मुखोपाध्याय, जो 2014 से सिंधु लिपि पर शोध कर रहे हैं, का तर्क है कि प्रत्येक सिंधु चिन्ह एक विशिष्ट अर्थ का प्रतिनिधित्व करता है, और लिपि का उपयोग मुख्य रूप से व्यावसायिक उद्देश्यों के लिए किया जाता था।  उनका तर्क है कि लोकप्रिय मान्यताओं के विपरीत, लिपि का उपयोग धार्मिक उदेश्यों के लिए नहीं किया गया था , न ही इसमें प्राचीन वैदिक या तमिल देवताओं के नामों को कुटबंध करने के लिए शब्दों का उच्चारण किया गया था।  बहता मुखोपाध्याय द्वारा संकलित सिंधु  चिन्हों के उदाहरण :- वस्तु आधारित कर नाम ? प्राचीन करों का नाम अक्सर कर लगाने वाली वस्तुओं या कर - भुगतान के तरीके के रूप में उपयोग की जाने वाली वस्तुओं के नाम पर रखा जाता था ( उदाहरण के लिए, खाधयन्न पर आधारित कर नाम, जैसे कि संस्कृत धान्य - वर्ग या तमिल पुरवु - नेल ) मुहरों को जारी करने वालों के पशु - आधारित प्रतीक जैसे कि व्यापार /व्यापारी संघ और क्षेत्र - आधारित शासक / शासकीय निकाय जो सहयोगात्मक रूप से सिंधू बस्तियों के वाणिज्य को नियंत्रित करते थ

  INDIA'S CHANGING MONSOON PATTERNS  source vision-ias  'Decoding india's changing monsoon patterns: A tehsil level assessment '' report released by CEEW The report by council on energy, environment and water (CEEW) analyses meteorological data from 1982 to 2022, recorded by india meteorological department. Key findings:- climate change projections indicate a 10-14% surge in southwest monsoon rainfall in india by the end of the 21 st century. trends over past decade (2012-22): southwest monsoon  more than half tehsil experienced a rise in frequency of heavy rainfall, partcularly in high GDP states like maharashtra, tamil nadu, gujarat, and karnataka. indo -gangetic plains and northeast reported an increase in dry days. Northeast monsoon:- there were no significant changes in the frequency and intensity of very heavy rainfall events, dry days,or moderate rainfall days. Recommendations:- to enhance resilience against shifting monsoon patterns prioritize localised d

    THE HIMALAYAN WOLF  SOURCE DRISHTI IAS ENGLISH The  himalayan wolf (canis lupus chanco ),  a prominent lupine predator , found across the himalayans, taxonomic status has been assessed for the first time in the international union for conservation of nature (UCN)'s red list. The animal has been categorised as  'vulnerable'  on the IUCN red list according to a data assessment done in june 2023. The IUCN red list assessment has also  flagged a  'continuing decline in area, extent and/or quality of habitat'  of himalayan wolves. Reasons for the decline  Habitat modification , encroachment and depletion of wild prey  populations are important drivers of this conflitct. the wolf is also  illegally hunted for trade  in its fur and body parts. it highlighted that  hybridisation with dogs  was an emerging threat to the himalayan wolf population in ladakh and spiti. Measures to enhance the protection of himalayan wolves  securing and resting healthy wild prey populations

  BHISM CUBE SOURCE -DRISHTI IAS WHY IN NEWS ? it played a pivotal role in saving lives during  the pran pratistha event at ayodhya. ABOUT BHISM CUBE  It is the world's first portable disaster hospital. Developed under project BHISHMA (bharat health initiative for sahyog hita and maitri). It consists of a fully equipped operation theatre , mini-ICUs, ventilators, blood- testing equipment , an X-ray  machine, and a cooking station. It also includes a shelter facility and power generator , making it entirely self - sufficient during emergencies. The unit can handle bullets, burns,head,spinal, and chest injuries , fractures and major bleeding . It is part of project arogya maitri. WHAT IS PROJECT AROGYA MAITRI ? It emphasises the efficiency and capability of the mobile hospital in handling such critical situations effectively. Under this project, india will provide essential medical supplies to any developing country affected by natural disasters or humanitarian crises.