🔆 Women’s Organizations

📍 The Ladies Society in Calcutta
- Year: 1882
- Founder: Swarnakumari Devi (sister of Rabindranath Tagore)
- Focus Area: Educating and imparting livelihood skills to widows.
- Activities & Achievements:
✅ She was the editor of the women's journal *Bharati* making her the first Indian woman editor.
✅ Educated widows and empowered them through skill development.

📍 Arya Mahila Samaj (Pune)
- Year: 1882
- Founder: Ramabai Saraswati
- Focus Area: Welfare & social work.
- Activities & Achievements:
✅ Provided education to women and fought against child marriage.
✅ Opened Sharada Sadan in Mumbai in 1889 for the education of child widows.

📍 Young Women’s Christian Association
- Year: 1896
- Founder: Ms. Alice M. Bethune
- Focus Area: Education, welfare, moral development.
- Activities & Achievements:
✅ Helped young Christian women.
✅ Taught them good values and leadership skills.

📍 Bengal Women’s Education League
- Year: 1902
- Founder: Abala Bose
- Focus Area: Women’s education, social welfare.
- Activities & Achievements:
✅ Started schools and colleges for girls.
✅ Helped women who were in need.

📍 Bharat Mahila Parishad
- Year: 1905
- Founder: Ramabai Ranade
- Focus Area: Child, Women.
- Activities & Achievements:
✅ The women’s wing of the National Conference (part of Indian National Congress).
✅ Focused on child marriage, widow conditions, dowry, and other social customs.

📍 Bharat Stri Mandal; Calcutta
- Year: 1910
- Founder: Saralabala Devi Chaudhurani
- Focus Area: Women’s education and Emancipation.
- Activities & Achievements:
✅ One of the first major women's organizations in India.
✅ Focused on women’s education and empowerment.

📍 All India Muslim Women’s Conference
- Year: 1914
- Founder: Begum Jahanara Shahnawaz
- Focus Area: Women’s rights, education, welfare.
- Activities & Achievements:
✅ Focused on educating Muslim women and ensuring a better life for them.

📍 Women’s Volunteer Corps
- Year: 1916
- Founder: -
- Focus Area: Voluntary service, social welfare.
- Activities & Achievements:
✅ Focused on helping women in distress.
✅ Worked in emergencies and taught important life skills.

📍 Indian Women’s Association (IWA)
- Year: 1917
- Founder: Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, Annie Besant, Muthulakshmi Reddy
- Focus Area: Women’s rights, social welfare.
- Activities & Achievements:
✅ Worked to help women and make society better.
✅ Focused on skill-building and financial independence for women.

📍 Madras Women’s Indian Association
- Year: 1917
- Founder: Anandibai Joshee, B. Ramachandra Rao
- Focus Area: Women’s education, welfare.
- Activities & Achievements:
✅ Aimed to improve women’s education and provide them with more rights.

📍 Women’s Indian Association (WIA)
- Year: 1917
- Founder: Annie Besant, Margaret Cousins
- Focus Area: Education, social reform.
- Activities & Achievements:
✅ Worked to help women gain equal rights.
✅ Started schools and fought against child marriage.

📍 National Council For Women
- Year: 1925
- Founder: Lady Aberdeen and Lady Meherbai Tata
- Focus Area: Religion, education, politics, philanthropy.
- Activities & Achievements:
✅ Formed under the International Council of Women.
✅ Focused on improving the rights and social status of women.

📍 All India Women’s Conference (AIWC)
- Year: 1927
- Founder: Margaret Cousins
- Focus Area: Women’s rights, education, welfare.
- Activities & Achievements:
✅ Worked for improving women’s health, education, and social status.
✅ Set up schools, colleges, and hostels for women.

📍 The Desh Sevika Sangh (National Women’s Volunteer Organisation)
- Year: 1930
- Founder: -
- Focus Area: Self-rule for Women.
- Activities & Achievements:
✅ Focused on eradicating liquor drinking and promoting Khaddar (hand-spun cloth).
✅ Helped women take part in the freedom movement.

🔆National biopharma Mission and bio-agriculture

✅The National Biopharma Mission (NBM)-Innovate in India (i3), is a government-approved initiative led by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and implemented by BIRAC.

✅It aims to boost India’s capabilities in biopharmaceuticals, vaccines, biosimilars, medical devices, and diagnostics by fostering collaboration between industry and academia

#prelims

🔆 Key Takeaways: Menhirs and Mudumal Menhirs in Telangana

📍 What are Menhirs?
✅ Large, upright stones sculpted and placed by early humans, often tapered at the top
✅ Term derived from Brittonic words: maen (stone) + hir (long)

📍 Mudumal Menhirs in Telangana
✅ Located in Narayanpet district, the oldest known menhirs in India, dated 3,500–4,000 BP
✅ Called a “megalithic astronomical observatory” by UNESCO for their alignment with solstices

📍 Purpose of Menhirs
✅ Likely ceremonial, funerary, or astronomical
✅ Linked to local legends; one Mudumal menhir worshipped as Goddess Yellamma

📍 UNESCO Recognition
✅ Highlights early human ingenuity in sculpting and precise placement of heavy stones
✅ Provides insights into prehistoric cultures without written records

📍 Global Context
✅ Largest surviving menhir: Grand Menhir Brisé in France (20.6 m tall)
✅ European menhirs date back as early as 7,000 BP

🔆 CHAPTER 8: VILLAGES, TOWNS AND TRADE

📍 In Tamil Region
✅ Large landowners known as Vellalar, ordinary ploughmen as Uzhavar, and landless labourers—including slaves—were known as Kadaisiyar and Adimai

📍 In Northern Part
✅ Village headmen known as Gram Bhojaka
✅ Independent farmers called Grihapati, most were smaller landowners

📍 Earliest Coins
✅ Punch Marked Coins

📍 Capital of Kushanas
✅ Peshawar and Mathura

📍 Shrenis
✅ Association of merchants who also served as banks

📍 Arretine Ware
✅ Stamped red glazed pottery from Italy found in Arikamedu port (present-day Puducherry)

📍 Pepper
✅ Known as Black Gold - YavanaPriya

📍 Sangam Poems
✅ Mention Muvendar—chief of three ruling families of Cholas, Cheras and Pandya

🔆 Key Takeaways: Illicit Liquor Tragedies in India

📍 Context and Background
✅ Recurring tragedies from illicit liquor (hooch) across India, latest in Amritsar, Punjab (23 deaths)
✅ Tied to poverty, systemic corruption, and regulatory failures

📍 Core Issues Identified

1️⃣ Socio-Economic Vulnerability
◦ Victims mostly poor, daily wage earners drawn to cheap alcohol
◦ Exploited by bootleggers, especially in areas lacking access to safe, regulated liquor

2️⃣ Composition and Danger of Illicit Liquor
◦ Toxic ingredients like dead scorpions, industrial methanol
◦ Methanol is highly poisonous despite industrial uses
◦ Cheap and similar to ethanol, making it a common adulterant

3️⃣ Corruption Nexus
◦ Nexus between bootleggers, police, local politicians
◦ Methanol theft organized; bootleggers are last-mile agents
◦ Law enforcement failures and corruption enable the trade

📍 Legal and Regulatory Shortcomings
✅ Legal action includes murder or prohibition charges, but convictions are rare (e.g., Malvani case: 10 of 14 acquitted after 9 years)
✅ Poison Act underused or ineffective
✅ Methanol production and transport lack central regulatory framework due to interstate nature

📍 Need for Reform
✅ Central policy to regulate methanol transport and sale to prevent diversion
✅ Stringent state-level regulation and inter-state coordination

📍 Long-Term Solutions
✅ Address structural factors: poverty, inequality, lack of education, poor governance
✅ Ensure transparent governance, accountable law enforcement, and public awareness

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🔆 Key Takeaways: Pahalgam Terror Attack & Call for Bipartisanship in National Security

📍 Crisis Context – Pahalgam Terror Attack (April 22, 2025)
✅ The attack shook our collective conscience, highlighting the fragility of peace in a historically burdened region.

📍 Call for Bipartisanship in Security Matters
✅ National security must transcend party politics and ideological divides.
✅ Terrorism demands a decisive, coordinated response, not knee-jerk, partisan reactions.
✅ Decisions on counter-terrorism, diplomacy, and intelligence reforms must be collective and strategic.
✅ Weaponizing grief for electoral gains weakens long-term defence and diplomatic strategies.

📍 Examples of Effective Bipartisanship (Global & National)
✅ Post-9/11 US saw unified bipartisan national security response.
✅ New Zealand’s Christchurch mosque attack led to bipartisan gun law reforms.
✅ Western Europe showed bipartisan support for Ukraine against Russia.
✅ India’s Kargil War (1999) and Surgical Strikes (2016) were rare bipartisan foreign policy moments.

📍 Challenges in India’s Political Culture
✅ Security discourse often devolves into blame games, avoiding strategic needs.
✅ Political mobilisation driven by resentment and vengeance (Overton’s Window).
✅ Social media fuels divisive discourse for political gain.
✅ Democratic politics requires mutual recognition of commitment to national interest despite disagreements.

📍 Need for Non-Partisan Security Doctrine
✅ India requires a national security doctrine insulated from electoral cycles.
✅ Defence, counter-terrorism, regional strategy, and diplomacy policies must have bipartisan consensus.
✅ Political leadership should prioritize statesmanship over populism.
✅ Such doctrine ensures policy continuity regardless of ruling party.

#security

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CSAT

State wise insider-outsider vacancies for IAS-2024 Batch.

IFoS Mains Marksheet - https://upsconline.gov.in/marksheet/exam/marksheet_system/index.php?examname=IFS&examyear=2024

🔆e-Zero FIR Initiative

✅The Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) has launched the e-Zero FIR initiative, which automatically converts financial cybercrime complaints over ₹10 lakh into First Information Reports (FIRs).

✅The e-Zero FIR initiative is a new mechanism where financial cybercrime complaints involving fraud above ₹10 lakh are automatically converted into FIRs if reported via the 1930 helpline or the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP).
✅This system has been launched on a pilot basis in Delhi by the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
✅Objective: The initiative aims to speed up investigations into large-scale cyber frauds and ensure swift action against cybercriminals.
✅Rationale: It addresses the longstanding grievance of victims who face delays in FIR registration and difficulty recovering stolen money.
✅Legal framework: The system is aligned with the provisions of Sections 173(1) and 1(ii) of the newly enacted Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).
✅The e-Crime Police Station of Delhi has been officially notified for e-FIR registration and case transfer under these legal provisions.
✅Integrated Digital Infrastructure
The system integrates:
🔰I4C’s NCRP system
🔰Delhi Police’s e-FIR system
🔰NCRB’s Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS)
✅These platforms collectively ensure the immediate registration of Zero FIRs at Delhi’s e-Crime Police Station, which are then routed to the concerned jurisdiction.


#gs2
#polity_governance

@upsc_polity_governance

🔆 Glaciers and Their Associated Rivers
1. Batura – Hunza
2. Hispar – Hispar
3. Biafo – Braldu
4. Kedar Bamak – Mandakini
5. Godwin Austen – Tributary of Baltoro Glacier
6. Siachen – Nubra
7. Baltoro – Braldu
8. Bandarpunch – Hanuman Ganga
9. Gangotri – Bhagirathi
10. Yamunotri – Yamuna
11. Satopanth – Alaknanda
12. Milam – Saryu
13. Pindari – Pindar (tributary of Alaknanda)
14. Zemu – Lanchen (tributary of Teesta)
15. Kunchenjunga – Kanchen (very small river)

Marks of Recommended candidates IFS-24

🚩 Foreign Invasions Before Mauryan Empire

🛡️ Iranian (Persian) Invasion (550 - 330 BCE)
• Cyrus the Great (558 - 530 BCE): First foreign invader, captured Gandhara.
• Darius I (522 - 486 BCE): Annexed Sind, Punjab, NWFP (516 BCE), making Gandhara a Persian satrapy.
• Xerxes (486 - 465 BCE): Recruited Indian troops but failed to expand further.
• Decline (330 BCE): Darius III lost control of Indian territories after Alexander’s invasion.

🌐 Impact of Persian Invasion
• Political: Exposed India’s military weakness, influenced administrative structures.
• Trade & Economy: Opened Indus-Arabian Sea trade routes and introduced Persian coinage techniques.
• Culture: Kharoshthi script evolved from Persian Aramaic; Persian masonry influenced Mauryan art.

🔆 Key Takeaways: Misinformation During India-Pakistan Crisis

📍 Prevalence of Misinformation
✅ During the India-Pakistan crisis, unverified and misleading content spread rapidly on social media.
✅ False claims about military actions and casualties circulated widely, often without media verification.
✅ Lokniti-CSDS data shows misinformation on social media significantly impacts public perception, trust, and behavior.

📍 Public Concern and Trust Deficit
✅ 21% of active Internet users and 20% of social media users were “highly concerned” about fake news.
✅ 31% of Internet users and 32% of social media users were “somewhat concerned.”
✅ 88% of social media users who unknowingly shared fake news expressed concern about receiving it.
✅ Even those who never shared (44%) or were never misled (39%) showed concern.

📍 Experience with Fake News
✅ Nearly half of active Internet and social media users encountered false information online.
✅ Around 40% admitted to sharing/forwarding misinformation unknowingly and later realizing it was fake.

📍 Trust in Information Sources
✅ 21% of X users expressed very little trust; 12% indicated complete distrust.

📍 Importance of Media Literacy
✅ Reuters Institute 2024 Digital News Report: over 70% of Indians prefer online news; nearly half rely on social media (YouTube 54%, WhatsApp 48%).
✅ Highlights urgent need for media literacy, critical thinking, and accountability to identify reliable information.

🔆What is PBAT?

✅Kamalpur Nagar Panchayat in Tripura has introduced compostable bags made from PBAT as a sustainable alternative to single-use plastic (SUP).

📍What is PBAT?

✅PBAT (Polybutylene Adipate Terephthalate) is a biodegradable thermoplastic polymer used as an eco-friendly substitute for traditional plastics.
✅It is a copolymer of adipic acid, 1,4-butanediol, and terephthalic acid and can be processed using conventional plastic manufacturing methods.
✅PBAT is often blended with other biopolymers to enhance its mechanical and barrier properties

📍Properties of PBAT
✅100% compostable – breaks down into water, CO₂, and biomass under industrial composting conditions within 180 days.
✅Flexible and tough, making it ideal for bags, films, and packaging.
✅It is moisture-resistant, chemically inert, and offers good barrier properties.

#gs3
#environment

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🔆Green Hydrogen Certification Scheme of India (GHCI)

✅The Government of India has recently initiated a green hydrogen certification scheme to promote transparency and credibility in production.

✅It was launched by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India, under the National Green Hydrogen Mission, aiming to establish India as a global hub for green hydrogen production and export.
✅The scheme emphasizes accuracy in emissions data, strict monitoring, and international compatibility, aiming to boost investor confidence and support the growth of a credible green hydrogen market in India.

📍Features of GHCI:

✅Hydrogen can be officially recognized as “green” only if its non-biogenic greenhouse gas emissions do not exceed 2 kg of CO₂ equivalent (CO₂e)/kg of hydrogen, averaged over 12 months, under the
The scheme outlines a comprehensive certification process for producers to verify that the hydrogen is produced using renewable energy and that the greenhouse gas emissions do not exceed 2 kg of CO₂ equivalent (CO₂e)/kg of hydrogen.
✅This threshold is measured across the production stages within a defined system boundary.
✅The certification framework includes clear definitions, objectives, roles of stakeholders, eligible production pathways (electrolysis and biomass conversion) and emissions quantification methods.
✅Producers must appoint Accredited Carbon Verification (ACV) agencies, recognized by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, for independent verification.
✅The GHCI operates with four types of certificates: Concept Certificate, Facility-Level Certificate, Provisional Certificate and Final Certificate.