29th December #Edufacts: Important Facts of the Day for UPSC IAS Current Affair
1) In 2021, non-profit Pesticide Action Network (PAN) International released a list of highly hazardous pesticides, of which over 100 pesticides are currently approved for use in India
2) India has close to 50-100 million people affected by rare diseases or disorders.
3) The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) recently got a new logo ahead of the commencement of its 150th year of providing weather and climate services to the country. IMD was established in 1875
28th December #Edufacts: Important Facts of the Day for UPSC IAS Current Affair
1) Roughly 68% of the universe is dark energy and dark matter makes up about 27%. The rest of everything on Earth, everything ever observed with all of our instruments, all normal matter adds up to less than 5% of the universe
2) Cyber risks are cited as the biggest threat faced by Indian organizations, with 38% of respondents feeling highly or extremely exposed to it.
3) Biofertilizer can be defined as biological products containing living microorganisms that, when applied to seed, plant surfaces, or soil, promote growth by several mechanisms such as increasing the supply of nutrients, increasing root biomass or root area and increasing nutrient uptake capacity of the plant
27th December #Edufacts: Important Facts of the Day for UPSC IAS Current Affair
1) Girl child marriages declined from 49% in 1993 to 22% in 2021
2) While rudimentary sanitation was introduced by ancient civilisations around 4000 BC, the modern sanitation system was built in London around the 1800s
3) The Strait of Hormuz is situated between Qeshm Island and the Iranian coast in the north and the Musandam Peninsula of the Arabian Peninsula in the south.
26th December #Edufacts: Important Facts of the Day for UPSC IAS Current Affair
1) The Sone River, a perennial river in central India, is the Ganges’ 2nd-largest southern tributary.
2) The Ministry of Heavy Industries is implementing the FAME India Phase-II scheme for five years, starting April 1, 2019, with a total budget of Rs. 10,000 crore
3) India has a 60%-73% demand-supply gap in key roles such as ML engineer, data scientist, DevOps engineer, and data architect
25th December #Edufacts: Important Facts of the Day for UPSC IAS Current Affair
1) Iceland is home to 33 active volcanoes, the highest in Europe. This unique landscape has given Iceland the epithet, ‘Land of Fire and Ice’.
2) The Rare Earth (RE) resources in India are reported to be the fifth largest in the world
3) The longest river in Bhutan is the Manas River. The Manas River is a transboundary river in the Himalayan foothills between southern Bhutan and India
24th December #Edufacts: Important Facts of the Day for UPSC IAS Current Affair
1) Recently introduced, the Post Office Bill, 2023 aims to repeal the Indian Post Office Act, 1898, which has been in existence for 125 years. The Act regulates India Post, a departmental undertaking of the central government.
2) Nearly 267 million adults (15 years and above) in India (29% of all adults) are users of tobacco, according to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey India, 2016-17
3) The R21/Matrix-M vaccine became the second malaria vaccine to achieve WHO prequalification, the first one was the RTS, S/AS01 vaccine.
23rd December #Edufacts: Important Facts of the Day for UPSC IAS Current Affair
1) Rudra is an indigenous server platform built by the C-DAC which has two expansion slots for graphic cards. Param Utkarsh is a high-performance computing system setup at C-DAC that offers AI over machine learning and deep learning frameworks, computing and storage as a cloud service.
2) On average, 22 CAG reports were tabled in Parliament each year between 2019 and 2023, compared to the 40 reports tabled between 2014 and 2018
3) Mithila Makhana or Makhan (botanical name: Euryale ferox Salisb.) is a special variety of aquatic fox nut cultivated in Mithila region of Bihar and Nepal. It is also recognised with the GI (geographical indication) tag.
22nd December #Edufacts: Important Facts of the Day for UPSC IAS Current Affair
1) NTDs (Neglected Tropical Diseases) affect more than a billion people globally. They are preventable and treatable. There are 20 NTDs that impact over 1.7 billion people worldwide
2) Disproportionate assets is a term used in India to describe an individual’s net economic assets that significantly exceed the assets they should possess. This is after accounting for the assets they previously held and all legal sources of income.
3) An AIF (Alternative Investment Fund) refers to a fund established or formed in India, serving as a privately pooled investment mechanism. As of December, 2023, 1,220 AIFs were registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
21st December #Edufacts: Important Facts of the Day for UPSC IAS Current Affair
1) China, India, and Indonesia, the three largest coal producers globally, are expected to break output records in 2023, pushing global production to a new high in 2023. These three countries now account for more than 70% of the world’s coal production
2) The Volkswagen scandal, in which the German car company was found to have been cheating in emissions testing of its supposedly green diesel vehicles, was a case of greenwashing.
3) The idea of the Social stock exchanges (SSEs) as a platform for listing social enterprise, voluntary and welfare organizations so that they can raise capital was mooted in the Union Budget 2019-20. It works under the market regulator Security and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)
20th December #Edufacts: Important Facts of the Day for UPSC IAS Current Affair
1) The Logistics Performance Index (LPI), developed by the World Bank Group, is an interactive benchmarking tool created to help countries identify the challenges and opportunities they face in their performance on trade logistics and what they can do to improve their performance. India ranked 38th out of 139 countries in LPI 2023.
2) Recently, a seven-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court (SC) held that arbitration agreements embedded in unstamped or insufficiently-stamped substantive commercial contracts or instruments are not invalid, unenforceable or even non-existent.
3) The United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) is the only legally binding multilateral international anti-corruption treaty.
19th December #Edufacts: Important Facts of the Day for UPSC IAS Current Affair
1) In India, the possession of e-cigarettes and similar devices is a violation of the Prohibition of Electronic Cigarette Act (PECA) 2019.
2) Recently, the Advocates Amendment Bill, 2023, was passed in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Its purpose was to weed out ‘touts’ from the legal system.
3) Established in 1975 through the Lagos Treaty, the ECOWAS (CEDEAO in French) is a regional intergovernmental organization promoting economic integration and cooperation among West African nations. It is headquartered in Abuja, Nigeria
18th December #Edufacts: Important Facts of the Day for UPSC IAS Current Affair
1) As per the survey carried out by the National Sample Survey Organization in the year 2011-12, the total employment in both organized and unorganized sectors in the country was of the order of 47 crore. Out of this, about 39 crore are in the unorganized sector.
2) There’s been a 18% increase in Opium cultivation in Myanmar, reaching 47,100 hectares. This surge has made Myanmar the world’s largest source of opium, particularly due to disruptions following the Military Takeover in 2021.
3) India was one of the first in Asia to recognize the effectiveness of the Export Processing Zone model in promoting exports, with Asia’s first EPZ set up in Kandla, Gujarat in 1965.
16th December #Edufacts: Important Facts of the Day for UPSC IAS Current Affair
1) According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), India identified over 6,500 human trafficking victims in 2022, with 60% of them being women and girls
2) The all-India average blending of ethanol with petrol has risen from 1.6% in 2013-14 to 11.8% in 2022-23.
3) Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) under Ministry of Commerce & Industry, is the single national authority for administering all trade remedial measures including anti-dumping, countervailing duties and safeguard measures.
15th December #Edufacts: Important Facts of the Day for UPSC IAS Current Affair
1) According to a 2019 Greenpeace study, India is the largest emitter of SO2 in the world
2) India is the second largest producer of onion after China
3) The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List has recently reclassified the status of the Saiga Antelope (Saiga tatarica) from Critically Endangered to Near Threatened
14th December #Edufacts: Important Facts of the Day for UPSC IAS Current Affair
1) Lakshadweep has a whopping 100% reservations for Scheduled Tribes
2) In the nascent days of the internet, browsing was a text-based venture until Tim Berners-Lee introduced the World Wide Web in 1990, alongside the inaugural web browser, ‘WorldWideWeb’.
3) Anarcho-capitalism is a political philosophy and political-economic theory that advocates the voluntary exchange of goods and services in a society broadly regulated by the market rather than by the state. Anarcho-capitalists assert that private companies in a free market can efficiently provide policing and legal services.
13th December #Edufacts: Important Facts of the Day for UPSC IAS Current Affair
1) The River Cities Alliance (RCA) is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Jal Shakti (MoJS) & the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), with a vision to connect river cities and focus on sustainable river centric development.
2) Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) was founded in 1861 by Alexander Cunningham- the first Director-General of ASI. Alexander Cunningham is also known as the “Father of Indian Archaeology”.
3) India documented 530 cases and four deaths from Visceral leishmaniasis (Kala-Azar) in 2023, a decline from previous years
12th December #Edufacts: Important Facts of the Day for UPSC IAS Current Affair
1) Heliophysics is the study of the effects of the Sun on the Solar System
2) India’s initial national AI strategy, #AIFORALL, aimed at inclusivity, debuted in 2018
3) Geographic Information System is a technology that captures, manages, analyses, and presents geographical or spatial data. Geotagging is the process of adding geographical identification to various media such as photos, videos, websites, or other documents
11th December #Edufacts: Important Facts of the Day for UPSC IAS Current Affair
1) India heavily relies on imports for critical minerals like lithium and nickel, with 100% import reliance for lithium and nickel, and 93% for copper.
2) In RMD Chamarbaugawala v. Union of India, the Supreme Court relied on the ‘skill test’ to decide whether an activity is gambling or not.
3) Lake Turkana, the world’s largest desert lake, is part of the Omo-Turkana basin, which stretches into four countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda.
9th December #Edufacts: Important Facts of the Day for UPSC IAS Current Affair
1) Approximately 36.5% of India’s soil is deficient in zinc. About 12.8% of the country’s soil is deficient in iron
2) National Medical Commission (NMC) was established in 2020 by the National Medical Commission Act, 2019, replacing the Medical Council of India (MCI)
3) CHEOPS is ESA’s first space mission dedicated to studying bright, nearby stars that are already known to host exoplanets, in order to make high-precision observations of the planet’s size as it passes in front of its host star
8th December #Edufacts: Important Facts of the Day for UPSC IAS Current Affair
1) The initial four general elections in India synchronized Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections. Presently, Lok Sabha elections align with Assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh, and Sikkim.
2) In India, cities contribute 66% to the national GDP, a number expected to rise to 80% by 2050
3) The power to frame policy and legislation relating to minor minerals is entirely delegated to the State Governments while policy and legislation relating to the major minerals are dealt by the Ministry of Mines under the Union Government.
7th December #Edufacts: Important Facts of the Day for UPSC IAS Current Affair
1) The decade 2011-2020 emerged as the warmest on record for both land and ocean
2) As per the Union Budget announcement for Financial Year 2022-23, the 12 DTH Channels have been expanded to 200 PM e-VIDYA DTH TV Channels to enable all States to provide supplementary education in various Indian languages for classes 1-12
3) India has the biggest burden of deaths due to Snake Bites in the world, with most of the cases in rural India
6th December #Edufacts: Important Facts of the Day for UPSC IAS Current Affair
1) IK Gujral can be remembered for two significant contributions to Indian foreign policy: He propounded the ‘Gujral doctrine’ when he was the Union minister of External Affairs from 1996 to 1997. And, despite international pressure, Gujral firmly refused to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) in October 1996
2) For a nuanced analysis of quarterly economic trends, GVA numbers are often considered more reliable, while GDP (expenditure data) is preferred for assessing annual trends
3) GIAN is a flagship initiative by the Ministry of Education (MoE) which aims to bring in distinguished scholars worldwide to teach at Indian universities. Of the delivered courses, 39% took place in IIT campuses, with the second-largest share occurring in National Institute of Technology (NIT) campuses
5th December #Edufacts: Important Facts of the Day for UPSC IAS Current Affair
1) The BSF was raised in 1965, after the India-Pakistan war. It is one of the seven Central Armed Police Forces of the Union of India under the administrative control of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA)
2) The IMO (International Maritime Organisation) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that is responsible for regulating shipping and preventing marine pollution from ships. IMO celebrates World Maritime Day every last Thursday of September, to highlight the importance of shipping and maritime activities.
3) It is estimated that globally 39 million persons are living with HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus). In India the figure is 2.4 million
3rd December #Edufacts: Important Facts of the Day for UPSC IAS Current Affair
1) Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are powerful and brief bursts of radio frequency emissions originating from deep space. These mysterious and intense signals last only milliseconds but release an amount of energy comparable to hundreds of millions of suns
2) Sri Lanka’s debt to China is 52% of its bilateral debt, 19.5% to Japan, and 12% to India
3) Recently, The Government of India and Government of Manipur signed a Peace Agreement with United National Liberation Front (UNLF) , which is oldest valley-based insurgent group of Manipur. This marks the first instance where a Manipuri armed group from the valley has chosen to abandon violence, returning to mainstream society while committing to respect the Constitution of India and abide by the country’s laws.
2nd December #Edufacts: Important Facts of the Day for UPSC IAS Current Affair
1) Through an amendment to the Finance Act 2017, the Union government has exempted political parties from disclosing donations received through electoral bonds. This means the voters will not know which individual, company, or organization has funded which party, and to what extent.
2) According to data from the Ministry of Law and Justice till May 2023, Delhi’s Fast Track Special Courts (FTSCs) have a disposal rate of only 19%, which is one of the lowest in the country.
3) There is a significant drop of over 8.5% in enrollment of Muslim students (age group 18-23) in higher education in 2020-21.
1st December #Edufacts: Important Facts of the Day for UPSC IAS Current Affair
1) Climate change is causing a marine phenomenon known as tropicalisation, where tropical species expand their range while temperate species retract. Temperate species are receding as it gets too warm, they face increased competition for habitat, and new predators arrive on the scene.
2) Postal ballots serve as a voting option for service voters, absentee voters (such as those above 80 years, individuals with benchmark disabilities, or those affected by Covid-19), voters on election duty, and electors under preventive detention.
3) One of the ways that plants communicate is by releasing and sensing airborne chemicals called Green leaf volatiles (GLVs). GLVs, emitted by plants when injured, create the pleasant smell of fresh cut grass for humans. However, to neighboring plants, this scent functions as a warning signal, indicating potential danger.
