GATE 2025

🔆Government Initiatives to Promote E-commerce in India:

✅Since 2014, initiatives like Digital India, Make in India, Start-up India, Skill India, and Innovation Fund have supported the growth of E-commerce in the country.

✅Government e-Marketplace (GeM): It is an online platform for public procurement in India that was launched in 2016 by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
✅Its objective is to create an inclusive, efficient, and transparent platform for the buyers and sellers to carry out procurement activities in a fair and competitive manner.

✅National Retail Policy: In order to administer offline retail and e-commerce in an integral manner, the government had identified five areas in its proposed national retail policy -
🔰Ease of doing business,
🔰Rationalisation of the licence process,
🔰Digitisation of retail,
🔰Focus on reforms and
🔰An open network for digital commerce (ONDC).

ONDC:
✅It has been built to promote open networks for all aspects of the exchange of goods and services over digital or electronic networks.
✅It uses open specifications and open network protocols independent of any specific platform.

✅The Consumer Protection (e-commerce) Rules 2020: It directed e-commerce companies to display the country of origin alongside the product listings.
✅In addition, the companies will also have to reveal parameters that go behind determining product listings on their platforms.
✅5G: Heavy investment made by the Government in rolling out a fibre network for 5G will help boost E-commerce in India.

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TSAT-1A Satellite

✅TSAT-1A Satellite India's first private sub-metre resolution earth observation satellite,
✅TSAT-1A is launched by SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket in the U.S
✅TSAT-1A is a sub-metre
high-resolution earth observation satellite carried into space as part of the Bandwagon-1 rideshare mission
✅Launched by Tata Advanced Systems Ltd (TASL), India, in collaboration with Satellogic
✅ It will provide high-resolution satellite images, boasting increased collection capacity, dynamic range, and low-latency delivery through its multispectral and hyperspectral capabilities
✅ (Bandwagon-1 Mission = It is a rideshare mission organized by SpaceX to launch multiple small satellites into orbit
✅ The mission is named Bandwagon-1 as it allows smaller satellite operators to jump on the bandwagon and
share a ride to space, reducing costs and increasing access to space)

Exercise Tarang Shakti

✅India will host its first multinational air exercise, ‘Tarang Shakti 2024’, in two phases starting on the 6th of next month in Sular, Tamil Nadu

✅ It is the IAF’s largest multilateral exercise. It aims to showcase India’s defence capabilities and enhance cooperation among the participating militaries.
✅ Participants: In this exercise, nearly 30 countries will participate, and out of 30, ten countries will join the exercise with their fighter aircraft.
✅ The ten countries bringing their aircraft include Australia, Bangladesh, France, Germany, Greece, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the USA, and Singapore. Eighteen other countries will attend as observers.
✅Features : It will feature flying and ground training, defence exhibitions, and cultural exchange programs. Defence personnel from the participating countries will also visit Indian tech companies.
✅India will display its indigenous fighter aircraft and equipment, including the Tejas, Rafale, Mirage 2000, Jaguar, and MIG 29.

🔆Virupaksha Temple

✅The Virupaksha Temple in Hampi, Karnataka, has been in the news due to concerns over the conservation efforts at this UNESCO World Heritage Site, particularly after a temple pavilion, saalu mantapa, collapsed during heavy rains in 2024.

📍Historical significance:

✅Dedication: The temple is dedicated to Lord Virupaksha, a form of Lord Shiva.

✅Location: It is situated in Hampi, within the Vijayanagara district of Karnataka, the temple is part of the larger Group of Monuments at Hampi, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986.

✅Inception: The temple has been in continuous operation since its inception in the 7th century AD, making it one of India's oldest functioning temples.
Development: Originally a modest shrine, the temple was expanded to its current grandeur during the reign of the Vijayanagara kings, with further additions from the Chalukyan and Hoysala eras.

📍Architectural features:

✅Style: The temple is built in the South Indian architectural style, showcasing intricate craftsmanship and advanced engineering.

✅Main structure: The temple complex includes a sanctum sanctorum, multiple pillared halls (the most elaborate being a hall with 100 pillars), antechambers, and grand gopurams (gateway towers).

Gopurams:
✅The temple has three prominent gopurams, with the eastern gopuram being the largest, standing nine storeys tall and 50 meters high.

✅The other two are smaller gopurams located on the inner east and inner northern sides of the complex.

✅Sculptural details: The gopurams are adorned with beautiful sculptures of various Hindu deities.

📍Innovative construction:
✅The temple's design incorporates principles of physics, such as the Rectilinear Light Theory and the pinhole camera effect.

✅Mathematical concepts like fractals, geometry, complex mathematics, and the Fibonacci sequence were also utilized in the construction.

✅Notably, the temple features an inverted pinhole image of its tower on the inner wall, a remarkable example of ancient engineering.

✅Cultural importance: The Virupaksha Temple remains a focal point of religious and cultural activities in Hampi, continuing to attract pilgrims and tourists alike. Its uninterrupted history of worship highlights its enduring significance in India's spiritual landscape.

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🔆 Vigyan Dhara Scheme

✅The Union Cabinet recently approved the continuation of three umbrella schemes merged into a unified central sector scheme called “Vigyan Dhara” under the Department of Science and Technology (DST).

📍Vigyan Dhara Scheme:

✅It is a new central sector scheme unifying three umbrella schemes of the Department of Science and Technology (DST).

✅The scheme has three broad components:
🔰Science and Technology (S&T) Institutional and Human Capacity Building,
🔰Research and Development and
🔰Innovation, Technology Development and Deployment.

✅These three schemes have been merged into the unified scheme ‘Vigyan Dhara’

✅This initiative, managed by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), is designed to enhance India's S&T capabilities through a streamlined approach. 

✅The proposed outlay for the implementation of the unified scheme ‘Vigyan Dhara’ is 10,579.84 crore during the 15th Finance Commission period from 2021-22 to 2025-26.

✅The merger of the schemes into a single scheme would enhance efficiency in fund utilization and establish synchronization among the sub-schemes/programs.

✅The primary objective of the 'Vigyan Dhara' scheme is to promote S&T capacity building as well as research, innovation, and technology development towards strengthening the Science, Technology and Innovation ecosystem in the country.

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IFS Daf out

🔆What is Alpkarakush kyrgyzicus?

✅A new dinosaur species named Alpkarakush kyrgyzicus has been recently discovered, which walked the region of Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia around 165 million years ago.

📍Alpkarakush kyrgyzicus:

✅It is a new species of large theropod dinosaur discovered in the Middle Jurassic Balabansai formation in the northern part of the Fergana Depression, Kyrgyzstan.

✅It roamed our planet during the Callovian age of the Jurassic period between 165 and 161 million years ago.

✅The ancient predator was 7 to 8 m in body length, and had an extremely protruding ‘eyebrow’ on the so-called postorbital bone, a skull bone behind the eye opening, which indicates the presence of a horn at this point.

✅It belongs toMetriacanthosauridae, a group of medium-to large-sized allosauroid theropod dinosaurs that are characterized by high arched skulls, plate-like elongate neural spines, and slender hindlimbs.

✅Theropod dinosaurs are one of the most important large groups of dinosaurs, including well-known predators such as Tyrannosaurus and Allosaurus, as well as modern birds.

✅Alpkarakush kyrgyzicus is also the first large Jurassic predatory dinosaur ever unearthed between central Europe and East Asia.

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BIMSTEC :

✅BIMSTEC is a regional organization established in 1997, comprising seven member countries located in the Bay of Bengal region i.e. Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.
✅The BIMSTEC region hosts 22% of the world population or 1.68 billion people; and the member states have a combined GDP of US$3.697 trillion/per year.

✅Principles Of BIMSTEC : Based on respect for the principle of sovereign equality, territorial integrity, political independence, non-interference
in internal affairs, non-aggression, peaceful co-existence, mutual respect and mutual benefit.

Importance Of Bimstec For INDIA :
✅ In Align with ‘Act East’ Policy
✅ Environment and Disaster Management via link between BIMSTEC countries through Tsunami Early Warning Centre.
✅ Strategic Location as India's north eastern states share borders with BIMSTEC member countries.
✅ Connectivity and Infrastructure Development: Examples:
🔸 Kaladan Multimodal Project – links India and Myanmar,
🔸Asian Trilateral Highway - connecting India and Thailand through Myanmar,
🔸Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-
Nepal (BBIN) Motor Vehicles Agreement - for seamless flow of passenger and cargo traffic.
✅ Counterterrorism and Security Cooperation
✅ Maritime Security and Blue Economy
✅ Regional Integration and Influence

ISSUES :

✅A lack of efficiency and “sluggish” pace of BIMSTEC’s progress.
✅ Inadequate Funds and manpower assistance for its operational works.
✅ No Coastal Shipment
✅ India’s percentage of annual trade with it as a percentage of its total foreign trade was just 4%(2020).PRAHAAR
✅ Lack of Mutual Cooperation and Trust
✅ Inconsistency In Summits

✅ Finalizing the BIMSTEC Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which has been under negotiation since 2004.
✅ Implementing the BIMSTEC Master Plan on Transport Connectivity (BMPTC), which was adopted in 2020.
✅ Strengthening the cooperation in the energy sector, especially in the field of renewable energy and natural gas.
✅ Enhancing the cooperation in the security sector, especially in combating terrorism, extremism, drug trafficking and cybercrime.
✅ Promoting the people-to-people exchanges and cultural ties among BIMSTEC countries.

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