🔆 Bioplastics from Cassava

📍 Context
✅ Smallholder farmers in Nagaland are producing compostable bioplastic bags using cassava starch, offering an eco-friendly alternative to petroleum-based plastics.
✅ Initiative led by Eco Starch (local MSME) and supported by NECTAR.
✅ Promotes ‘Cassava Village’, boosting local economy, alternative livelihoods, and employment for youth & women’s self-help groups.

📍 About Cassava
✅ Grown in: South India & Northeast (Tamil Nadu, Nagaland).
✅ Uses: Produces cassava flour, bread, tapioca, laundry starch, and alcoholic beverages.
✅ Climatic Conditions:
🔸Soil: Well-drained, preferably red lateritic loamy soil.
🔸Climate: Tropical, warm, humid conditions.
🔸Rainfall: Over 100 cm per year.
🔸Elevation: Can grow up to 1000 m.
✅ Toxicity: Contains Cyanogenic Glucosides (CNGs), which can be toxic if consumed raw.

📍 Properties & Advantages of Cassava-Based Bioplastics
✅ Eco-Friendly: Fully biodegradable into water, CO₂, and biomass.
✅ Reduces Plastic Waste: Suitable for single-use items like bags, cutlery, and straws.
✅ Water Sensitivity: Moisture-sensitive but useful for disposable medical products (gloves, masks, syringes).

#Environment #prelims

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🔆 Clouded Leopard

📍 General Information
✅ Clouded leopard is a wild cat inhabiting dense forests.
✅ It is the state animal of Meghalaya.

📍 Key Facts
✅ Dampa Tiger Reserve (Mizoram) has the highest population density of clouded leopards.
✅ Distribution:
• Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, and SE Asia.
• In India, it occurs up to Valmiki TR in Bihar.

📍 Conservation Status
✅ IUCN: Vulnerable
✅ CITES: Appendix I
✅ Wildlife Protection Act: Schedule I

#Goodmorning

⏳11 days only left CSP25 [ 25-05-25]
⏳100 days left CSM25 [ 22-08-25]

⏳26 days left ESE Prelims
⏳27 days Mppsc mains 2025, 9 June
⏳34 days left RAS mains 17 june
⏳46 days left UPPSC mains 29 June
⏳74 days UPPSC RO ARO 27 July
⏳151 days left UPPSC prelims 12 Oct

#Target
#TargetOnlyone
#Accountability

🔆 Important Trenches

📍 Mariana Trench
• Location: Western Pacific (Near Guam)
• Plates Involved: Pacific Plate subducting under Philippine Plate. Includes the Challenger Deep (10,971m)

📍 Tonga Trench
• Location: South Pacific (Near Tonga)
• Plates Involved: Pacific Plate subducting under Indo-Australian Plate

📍 Kuril-Kamchatka Trench
• Location: Northwest Pacific (Near Russia, Japan)
• Plates Involved: Pacific Plate subducting under Eurasian Plate

📍 Peru-Chile Trench (Atacama Trench)
• Location: Eastern Pacific (Off South America)
• Plates Involved: Nazca Plate subducting under South American Plate

📍 Philippine Trench
• Location: West Pacific (Near Philippines)
• Plates Involved: Philippine Plate subducting under Eurasian Plate

🔆 Oceans (Pacific & Atlantic Oceans)

📍 Japan Trench
• Location: Northwest Pacific (Off Japan)
• Plates Involved: Pacific Plate subducting under Eurasian Plate

📍 Kermadec Trench
• Location: South Pacific (Near New Zealand)
• Plates Involved: Pacific Plate subducting under Indo-Australian Plate

📍 Aleutian Trench
• Location: North Pacific (Near Alaska)
• Plates Involved: Pacific Plate subducting under North American Plate

📍 Middle America Trench
• Location: Eastern Pacific (Off Central America)
• Plates Involved: Cocos Plate subducting under North American & Caribbean Plates

🔆 Chapter 6 - Devotional Paths to the Divine

📍 Bhakti Movement of South India
✅ Nayanars (63): Appar, Sambandar, Sundarar, Manickavasagar.
• Compilation: Tevaram and Tiruvacakam
✅ Alvars (12): Andel, Tondaradippodi, Nammalvar.
• Compilation: Divya Prabandha

📍 Key Philosophical Figures
✅ Shankaracharya: Advaita Philosophy
✅ Ramanujacharya: Vishisht Advaita
✅ Basavannas: Virashaiva Movement of Karnataka

📍 Maharashtra Bhakti Movement
✅ Pandharpur Bhakti Movement
• Focused on God Vitthala

📍 Kashmir
✅ Rishi Silsilah of Sufism flourished.
• Key figures: Muindin Chisti of Ajmer & Qutubdin Bakhtiyar Kaki of Delhi, Baba Farid of Delhi, Khwaja Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi.

📍 Tulsidas’ Composition
✅ Ramcharitmanas
• Written in Awadhi

PressNote-CSP-25-Engl-130525.pdf
(For PRE-2025)

🔆 Buddhist Sangha (Monastic Order)

📍 Community Structure
✅ Organized group of monks (bhikkhus) & nuns (bhikkhunis)

📍 Notable Figure
✅ Mahapajapati Gotami – First woman to join the Sangha

📍 Textual Source
✅ Vinaya Pitaka – Contains monastic rules

🔆 Ajivika Philosophy – Key Idea Only

📍 Founder
✅ Makkhali Gosala

📍 Core Belief System
✅ Strict determinism — belief in destiny (Niyati)
✅ Rejects karma — everything is preordained, no role of karma in liberation

📍 Path to Salvation
✅ Liberation is automatic through cycles of rebirth, no conscious effort required

🔆 UK Top Court's Ruling on Gender Definition

📍 Issue:
✅ The UK’s highest court decided that only biological women, not trans women, are legally considered women under equality laws.
✅ The ruling was supported by the government but opposed by trans rights activists.

📍 Key Takeaways:
✅ The case was about whether a trans woman with a gender recognition certificate can legally be considered a woman.
✅ This decision could limit trans women’s access to services meant only for women, like hospitals and sports clubs.
✅ It might also discriminate against trans women in jobs and public services.

📍 Impact:
✅ Transgender rights remain a controversial topic, with some arguing that it violates women’s rights, while others say it discriminates against trans people.
✅ This ruling has led to calls for changes in laws about gender recognition.
#society

🔆Brahmani River:
✅It is one of the major rivers in eastern India, primarily flowing through
✅The river is known as Dhamra in its lower reaches.
Course:
✅It is formed by the confluence of the Sankh and South Koel rivers near the major industrial town of Rourkela in Odisha.
✅Both the sources of the Brahmani River are on the Chota Nagpur Plateau.
✅The Sankh River has its origins near the Jharkhand-Chhattisgarh border, along with the South Koel River, which also rises in Jharkhand.
✅The basin flows through Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha, draining a total area of 39,033 sq.km. before it outfalls into the Bay of Bengal.
✅Together with the rivers Mahanadi and Baitarani, it forms a large delta before emptying into the Bay of Bengal at Palmyras Point, Odisha.
✅The Brahmani delta is the site of the Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary, famous for its estuarine crocodiles.
Length: The total length of its run is about 799 km, of which 541 km are in Odisha itself.
✅It is one of the few rivers that cut across the Eastern Ghats and has formed a minor gorge at Rengali in Odisha, where a dam has been built.
✅Tributaries: The principal tributaries of this river are Sankh, Tikra, and Karo.

#River_Series
#Places_in_news

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UPSC Annual Calendar 2026
Prelims - 24 May
Mains - 21 August

🔆 Grasslands of South America

📍 Pampas
✅ Located in Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil
✅ Temperate Grassland
✅ Fertile plains known for extensive agriculture (wheat, corn, soybeans) and cattle ranching; home to the gaucho culture

📍 Llanos
✅ Located in Venezuela, Colombia
✅ Tropical Grassland
✅ Seasonally flooded grasslands; rich in biodiversity; major source of cattle grazing and oil reserves

📍 Campos
✅ Located in Southern Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay
✅ Subtropical Grassland
✅ Includes regions like Campos Gerais; used for livestock grazing and agriculture

📍 Gran Chaco
✅ Located in Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil
✅ Woodland Savanna
✅ A semi-arid region with grasslands interspersed with thorny shrubs; rich in wildlife and a critical ecological zone

🔆 Valabhi Style

📍 Architecture Features
✅ Rectangular buildings with wagon-vaulted roofs
✅ Inspired by wooden wagons pulled by bullocks

📍 Examples
✅ Cave temples and some early shrines

Morag Axis

✅It cuts across Gaza between the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Yunis. 
✅This move effectively links the Philadelphi Route along the Egyptian border to Morag, creating a wider Israeli-controlled “security zone.”
✅The Morag corridor joins other key zones under Israeli control, including the Philadelphi and Netzarim corridors. 
✅The Philadelphi Corridor refers to a narrow strip of land along Gaza’s border with Egypt that has been under Israeli control since 2024.
✅Together with expanded buffer zones, these give Israel control of over 50% of Gaza’s territory

#prelims
#Places_in_news

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