PRELIMS

2025 HIT LIST

ONE LINER NOTES ON
PREDICTED TOPICS

DEEPUK SUKUMAR
(IITian, Faculty - Officers IAS Academy)
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You may get a sense of what this initiative is about by going

through the reviews below, however to understand it in my own
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Thank you for your patience, the hit-list will begin below. Best wishes!
 Geography

1. Highest production of EV related raw material

● Lithium – Chile
● Cobalt - Congo correction Production Australia is the highest
● Graphite - China
● Nickel – Indonesia Reserves Chile is the highest
2. In the context of African Countries in crisis, note that
● Burkina Faso, Niger (not Nigeria) and Mali are neighbours.
● All 3 are members of ECOWAS - Economic Community of West African Nations.
● Part of the Sahel region - a transition zone between arid Sahara to the north and humid
savanna to the south.
LEER ● River Niger does not flow through Burkina Faso.

3. Phosphorus (non-metallic)
● Usage: fertiliser, weapon (white phosphorus used in Israel - Palestine conflict), LED,
animal feed etc.
● Morocco has the largest reserves
● Sewage is a great source

4. Earthquake in Morocco and Turkey

● Collision of Eurasian Plate with African Plate (reverse fault)
● Marrakesh is in Morocco
● Marrakesh Treaty is related to Intellectual Property Rights (access for differently abled).
● Also important because 10th Anniversary was celebrated in 2023.

5. Atlas Mountains (epicentre of the earthquake) bordered by

● Atlantic Ocean
● Mediterranean Sea
● Sahara Desert

6. Free Movement Regime’ - context is Myanmar

● Indian states that share a border with Myanmar - Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland,
Manipur and Mizoram.

7. Maghreb Region

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 ● Berber Tribe
● Libya: Tripoli (capital) and Derna River. Was in the news in 2023 for very serious
flooding.

8. Pay attention to just western and eastern rivers mentioned in this image. Also note that
Baghilar is on Chenab.

9. Yamuna (in the news due to flooding)

● Yamunotri glacier: Uttarakhand
● Sindh is a tributary of Yamuna (Don’t get confused with Indus - Sindhu connection)
● Ken-Betwa: Panna National Park

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 ● Chambal: Gharial

10. Ken-Betwa interlinking project

● Excess water from Ken to Betwa
● Irrigation of Bundelkhand region
● Dhaudhan Dam
● Panna Reserve is in the Vindhya range
● Khajuraho nearby
● Clearance from National Board of Wildlife

11. Sikkim (in the news due to GLOF)

● Lhonak lake (not to be confused with Lohtak lake, Manipur)
● Chungthang Dam
● Teesta flows through both Sikkim and WB before entering Bangladesh
● Zemu glacier
● Kanchendzonga National Park (India’s only UNESCO mixed heritage site)
● Lepcha community

12.
● Kilimanjaro peak - Tanzania
● Matterhorn - Switzerland
● Ural Mountains - Russia, Kazakhstan
● Great dividing range - Australia
● Southern Alps - Newzealand
● Mt. Aconcagua - Andes (South America)

13. In the context of Turkey Earthquake

● Sea of Marmara (Turkey) connects Black Sea with Aegean Sea

● Bosporus strait connects Sea of Marmara with Black Sea
● Dardanelles strait connects Sea of Marmara with Aegean Sea

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14. Unlikely that Ukraine will be tested for the third time in a row, however

● Sea of Azov is between Ukraine and Russia

● Kerch Strait connects Black Sea and Sea of Azov

15. Context of India-Tanzania Strategic Partnership

● Lake Victoria
● Border with Kenya and Mozambique (notable)
● Part of Indian Ocean Rim Association
● Zanzibar Island (IIT M)

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 ● Serengeti National Park

16.
● Kampala Declaration - the context is climate change induced human migration in Africa.
Also note, Kampala is in Uganda.
● Nile drains into the Mediterranean Sea

17. Sudan (Humanitarian conflict)

● Darfur
● Khartoum

18. Indian Border with Bangladesh (Election)

● West Bengal, Assam, Tripura, Mizoram and Meghalaya. (Code: WAT MiMe)
● Feni River (a part of Indo-Bangladesh border)
● Some might think ‘Feni River’ flows in Goa, no it doesn’t.

19. Countries bordering Afghanistan

● Uzbekistan, China, Turkmenistan, Iran and Tajikistan
● Can remember as: U C Turk IN Taj
● Safe to assume India or Pak will not feature in the options

20. Dead Sea location: Tri-junction of Israel, West Bank and Jordan.

● It’s essentially a salt lake.

● Very high saline density (which is why people float on it)
● Halite found all around it is a type of salt.

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21.
● 8 Degree Channel: Minicoy and Maldives
● 9 Degree Channel: Minicoy and Lakshadweep (Nine Dash Line is South China Sea)
● 10 Degree Channel: Andaman and Nicobar

22. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

● Outcome of North Pacific Subtropical Gyre.

● Note the currents in the main gyre too along with the fact that Hawaii is right in the
middle of it.

23. In Geological units of time

● Eon (largest) > Era > Period > Epoch > Age
● Anthropocene is an Epoch

24.
● Kra Isthumus located in the Malay peninsula in Thailand connects Andaman sea with the
gulf of Thailand.
● Has strategic significance as an alternative to the strait of Malacca

25. In total solar capacity Rajasthan is the highest, in roof-top solar capacity Gujarat is the
highest.

26.
● CARPathian Mountains are spread over - Czech Republic, Austria, Romania, Poland,
Slovakia, Ukraine, Serbia and Hungary.
● Code to remember - CARP SUSH

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 ● Further codified, CARP is the name of a fish, Sushi is usually made of fish.
Carpathian? remember fish

27. Note - Standing Crop is the amount of living biomass / organic matter present in an
ecosystem in a specific area at a specific time.
Easy to set distractors in the options since it’s called a crop.

28. Coal gasification and liquefaction would reduce the dependence on imports of natural gas,
methanol and ammonia.
Output from coal gasification is Syngas. The challenge is water intensity.

29. Mining of polymetallic nodules

● International Seabed Authority (ISA) gives license
● ISA under UNCLOS
● India has ‘pioneer investor’ status
● India’s Deep Ocean Mission
● Predominantly Manganese

30. Zinc is commonly found together with Lead (Galena) as an ore.

Rajasthan has nearly 90% of India’s lead-zinc reserves.

31.
● Fertiliser sector is the largest consumer of natural gas in India
● Orinoco belt - Venezuela
● Largest reserves of Thorium (Monazite) - India
● Largest reserves of Uranium - Australia
● Highest potential for hydropower in India - Arunachal Pradesh
● Highest wind energy potential in India - Gujarat
● Largest resources of Gold ore in India - Bihar (Don’t get tricked into thinking from the
KGF angle)

32. Please prepare short notes on the following topics

● Gondwana and Tertiary coal distribution in India
● Difference between sweet crude and sour crude
● Ranking of coal varieties on the basis of carbon content
● Advantages of lithium-ion batteries over other batteries
● Uses for Vanadium
● Geothermal potential in India - regions
● Rare earths - what do they include, uses, reserves in different countries (pay attention to
the highest)
● Hafnium (note that it has a very high melting point)
● Basics of PVTG classification. Benefit of being classified as PVTG.
● What is conurbation
● Trends in Total Fertility Rate

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 ● Basic understanding of India’s Demographic Dividend and how to compares to other
major economies
● What is reverse migration
● Is causing global warming, how does water vapour compare with GHGs
● Significance of the different spheres. Like for Example - Low Earth Orbit satellites in
Ionosphere, Ozone - stratosphere etc.

33. Albedo effect. Note that sand is between snow and water

34. Geography 2nd set - notes assignment

1 What is lapse rate

2 Cause and effect of ocean acidification
3 Jet streams, their role, in what direction they move and where they move.

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4 P waves and S waves (and what they tell about the inner earth)
5 Try to watch some visuals of how coriolis force works and its role.
6 How is ITCZ formed, role in Indian monsoon
7 Significance of Polar stratospheric clouds and polar vortex
8 Be thorough with El Niño and La Niña (you may refer to Keith Meldahl’s playlist I had shared
earlier)
9 What is temperature inversion, implications
10 Cyclone causation (also in the context Arabian sea Vs. Bay of Bengal)
11 Difference between tropical cyclone and extra tropical cyclone
12 What is a storm surge
13 Link between locust invasion and wind patterns
14 What is Madden Julian Oscillation
15 What is El Niño modoki
16 What is El Niño southern oscillation
17 What is Indian Ocean dipole
18 Read the basics of Air Masses
19 What is sudden stratospheric warming, what’s the impact on global climate
20 Read up on Mediterranean climate (as the region has been in the news extensively

35 Try to get the basics of this

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 36. Thwaites Glacier - Antarctica
● The context for ‘Grounding Line’ is glacial melt / glaciers

37. Sweet crude Vs. Sour crude

● Sweet has low levels of sulphur while sour crude has moderate to high levels.
● Sulphur in shipping fuel was in the news for IMO reducing the cap on sulphur % from 3.5
to 0.5
● Note - West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Brent are benchmarks for Crude. Both are
sweet. WTI is sweeter. OPEC - sour.

38. Note the importance of Bering strait in the context of The Northern Sea Route.
Antarctica is a part of the global commons. Arctic is not.

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39. Ice caps and glaciers > ground water > lakes > rivers

40.Heat domes: High pressure acts as a lid, trapped by jet streams, warm air forced to the
ground, compressed warm air releases more heat, the heat causes the ground to lose even
more moisture making things much worse.

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41. Salinity of Arabian Sea > Bay of Bengal

42. Cauvery basin of TN > Karnataka > Kerala > Pondicherry

43. Bio-fuel rankings, just note the top 3

44. IFLOWS is a flood warning system

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45. Coriolis Force
● Deflects to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern
hemisphere.
● Remember as N-R (North)
● zero at equator, max at poles

46. The Brandt Line separates Global North and Global South on the basis of per capita
income.

47. Temperature inversion - clear skies, still air and long winter nights.
Why it’s called inversion? Normally temperature falls with height

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48.
● Perihelion - closest to Sun
● Aphelion - farthest from Sun
Ignore the numbers

49. Highest forest cover area-wise

1. Madhya Pradesh
2. Arunachal Pradesh
3. Chattisgarh

In % of total geographical area

1. Mizoram

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2. Arunachal Pradesh
3. Meghalaya

50. Discontinuities
● Inner core and outer core: Lehmann
● Core and mantle: Gutenberg
● Inner mantle and outer mantle: Repti
● Mantle and crust: Mohorovicic
● Lower crust and upper crust: Conrad
● Code: LGRMC (the sequence is inner most to outermost)

51. Strategic Petroleum Reserves in India are under the ownership of Oil Industry Development
Board.
Operational ones: Vishakapatnam, Mangalore and Padur

52. The 6 beach sand minerals (Also a PYQ - 2023)

53. Indigenous communities

● Inuit: Arctic region
● Apache: North America
● Maori: New Zealand (were trending on social media for Haka)
● Yanomani: South America (Amazon)

54.
● Largest producer of Uranium: Kazakhstan

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 ● Largest reserves of Uranium: Australia

55. Gentrification - transformation of a locality through the influx of more affluent residents

56.Given how much gold prices have gone up in the recent times, I’m expecting a question
related to Gold. Could be global, domestic, import, current account deficit or SGB related.

57. Please be thorough with trends in India’s Total Fertility Rate, North vs. south states, what is
replacement rate, how India’s TFR compares with the West, what is reversible spacing etc.

Btw why is the replacement rate 2.1 and not 2?

58. State-wise highest mountain peaks. We’ve seen this theme in PYQs. Closer to the exam
take a look a few times.

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59.
● Equinoxes - 2 in a year, 21st March and 21st September, equal days and nights.
● Summer Solstice - 21st June, Sun over Tropic of Cancer, longest day in NH
● Winter Solstice - 21st December, Sun over Tropic of Capricorn, longest day in SH
● Was a PYQ long ago, so just in case.

60.
Richter Scale - magnitude of earthquakes
Mercalli Scale - intensity of earthquakes

61. Barren Island Volcano - Andaman Islands

● composite / stratovolcano (they have side vents)
● edge of Indian and Burmese tectonic plates

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62. Just note that shallow focus earthquakes are more dangerous than deep focus earthquakes.
63.

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Notable warm currents - Gulf Stream, Alaskan, Norwegian and Kuroshio
Notable cold currents - California, Labrador and canary

64. Mizoram - Molasses Basin

65. Please read up on the basics of how cold ocean currents, trade winds etc. influence the
formation of deserts.

66. Effective literacy rate is calculated on those aged 7 and above.

67.
● Nagarjuna sagar - Krishna,
● Krishnaraja sagar - Cauvery (not Krishna as its name may suggest)
● Mettur dam - Cauvery
● Tehri dam - Bhagirathi

68. Population of continents and land area

Asia > Africa > Europe > Latin America and Caribbean > North America > Oceania

69. India’s age-sex pyramid. Note how the shape changes near the bottom. We’ve had PYQs
on demographic trends.

70. Madden Julian Oscillation

The MJO is characterized by an eastward progression of clouds, rainfall, winds, and pressure
that traverses the planet in the tropics and returns to its initial starting point in 30 to 60 days, on
average.

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Just note what I’ve highlighted in bold

71. Tidal Disruption Event is related to stars and black holes. Not tides as one might imagine.

72. West Bank is on the west bank of? Jordan River (Too easy, but however)
Gaza Strip is on the eastern coast of Mediterranean Sea.

73. Wadati Benioff Zone

- Zone of subduction along which earthquakes are common

74. World Population Report - United Nations Population Fund but International Migration
Outlook - OECD.

75. Polar vortex - both poles, low pressure.

76. Can you do some cursory google searching on geoglyphs? Till you get a sense of what they
are. Look at the Telangana and Nazca lines examples?

77. Thermokarst
● Relates to thawing permafrost, not the actual karst topography (dissolution of limestone)

78. Humboldt current (Peru) is a cold current. Why should you know this? El Niño disrupts it and
turns the water on the coasts of Chile and Peru warm.
Hope you all know that 2023 was technically an El Niño year.

79. Please note the direction of flow of jet steams. Same in the southern hemisphere as well.

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80. Natural gas trapped in ice - methane hydrate

81. Rafa crossing - between Gaza Strip and Egypt

82. Layers of the atmosphere. We’ve had PYQs in the past. What to note?
● Coldest and hottest
● Satellite, ozone, plane, meteors burning up etc.

83. Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy

● Revenue sharing (NELP was profit sharing)
● Open Acreage
● Longer exploration period as compared to NELP

84. Within Solar in India

Ground mounted solar > rooftop solar > off-grid solar

85. Energy Transition Index - World Economic Forum

86. Chenchu tribes - Nallamala range (eastern ghats)

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87. Solar PV - Direct Current

88. Polar Amplification

● Temperature change will be higher in the poles than the planetary average. Applies to
both global warming and cooling.

89. Fujiwhara

90. Sarna Faith - Chota nagpur region - Jal (water), Jungle and Zameen (land)

91. Almora fault: Western Nepal - Uttarakhand, Indian plate subducts under the Eurasian plate.
Reason behind most earthquakes in the region.

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92. North to South in sequence
1. Palk Strait
2. Palk Bay
3. Adam’s Bridge
4. Gulf of Mannar

93.Please read up on the characteristics of Mediterranean Climate (Just like how we got a
question on climate characteristics in 2024)

94. Seas in and around Turkey

● Black sea (north)
● Mediterranean Sea (south)
● Sea of Marmara
● Aegean Sea

95. Lake Sawa - Iraq

96.The ‘stans’ that border Iran

● Turkmenistan
● Afghanistan
● Pakistan
(TAP)

97.Hungary has been in the news lately. Bordering countries

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 ● Romania
● Ukraine
● Slovakia
● Slovenia
● Serbia
● Croatia
● Austria
Code? RUSSS C A (But not Russia)

98. The Mekong river passes through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and
Vietnam.
Context - Act East Policy, Mekong Ganga Cooperation etc.

99. Aral Sea - Between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan

100.

Note which of these are convergent and divergent. Just like how we earlier noted which ocean
currents are cool / warm and got a question this year.

101. Assumtion Island - Seychelles,

Agalega Island - Mauritius.

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102.Katchatheevu - North of Palk Strait - Palk Bay

103. Gulf of Tonkin - China and Vietnam

104. Afar Triangle - Horn of Africa

105. Strait of Hormuz - Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman

106.Ken-Betwa : Bundelkhand Region

107. Radiative Forcing - measures the difference between energy entering the atmosphere and
leaving it.

108. LIGO - Interferometry - Gravitational Waves - Black Holes.

109. Highest Bamboo bearing state - Madhya Pradesh.

One might be tempted to think of a North Eastern state.

110. Third Pole : Hindu Kush - Karakoram - Himalayan System.

111. Tidal Locking

● Time taken for rotation and revolution being the same. Example: Moon.
● The reason why same side of the moon always faces the Earth.

112. Supermoon can either be a full moon or a new moon. Closest to Earth.

113.
● Spices Board, Coffee Board, Tea Board, Rubber Board, Tobacco Board - Ministry of
Commerce and Industry
● Coir Board - Ministry of MSMEs
● Jute Board - Ministry of Textiles

114. An issue with Direct Seeding of Rice - greater weed pressure.

115.

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116.Cyclone Vs. Anticyclone

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117. Earth’s core rotates at a different rate as compared to the surface.

118. Amhara region - Ethiopia.

119. We’ve seen a question on ports with unique attributes in the past.
It may be important to note that Paradip Port has the highest ‘cargo throughput’ in India.
(Highest cargo volume)

120. Total Fertility Rate (obvious ones but didn’t want to risk)
● Expressed as per woman (not per couple)
● Replacement level is 2.1 and not 2.0

121. In the context of PM’s visit, Brunei shares a border with Malaysia.

122. Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao are the three island groups of Philippines.

123. UAE shares borders with Saudi Arabia and Oman.

124. Duqm port - Oman.

125. Brazil shares a border with both Guyana and French Guiana.
(Easy to set a trap here)

126. Argentina has access to the Pacific Ocean through the Strait of Magellan.

127. The Capital of Trinidad and Tobago is Port of Spain.

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(Capital based questions seldom appear, but the sheer trap potential was so inviting)

128. Wool production in India

1. Rajasthan (hard to believe?)
2. Jammu and Kashmir

129.
● Chungthang Dam - Sikkim (News - GLOF)
● Changthangi goat - Pashmina - Changpa community - Ladakh.

130. Vanadium - Gulf of Kambhat

Please read up on the basic properties and uses of Vanadium.

131. Adiabatic Lapse Rate

● Context: change of temperature and movement airmass
● 0.98 degrees per 100 metres
(It’s fine if you don’t really understand this, note these two points alone)

132. Aphelion
● Point in the earth’s orbit farthest from the Sun (July)
● Perihelion
● Closest to the Sun (January)

133. Batholith - Igneous rock - mantle magma.

134. Simple one - Epicentre Vs. Focus. Know that epicentre is on the surface.

135. Geostrophic winds

● Horizontal wind
● Parallel to isobars (perpendicular is a trap)

136. Neap tide - sun and moon are perpendicular, spring tide - sun and moon are in a straight
line.

137. Occluded front

● Warm airmass sandwiched between two cold airmasses.

138. Singularity is a term associated with ‘The Big Bang’ theory

A single ‘Tiny ball’ with extremely small volume but with infinite temperature and density
(NCERT explanation)

139. Light year is a measure of distance not time.

140. Earthquake waves

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 ● Denser the material they pass through, higher is the velocity
● P Waves are faster than S Waves
● S Waves can travel only through solid materials (P waves - all forms)
● P Waves vibrate parallel to the direction of the waves
● S Waves vibrate perpendicular to the direction of the waves
● Both P Waves and S Waves have shadow zones
● S Wave shadow zone is larger than the P Wave shadow zone
● (These points are a feast for trap setters)

141. Core - Nickel and Iron. Outer core - liquid, inner core - solid.

142. Volcano types

● Deccan Traps: ‘Flood Basalt Provinces’
● Hawaii: Shield volcano
● Barren Island and Mount Fuji: Stratovolcano

143. Igneous rocks

● Volcanic rocks: cooling at the surface
● Plutonic rocks: cooling in the crust

144.
● Cocos plate - Between Central America and Pacific plate
● Nazca plate - Between South America and Pacific plate
● Caroline plate - Between the Philippine and Indian plate.

145. Rotation of the earth influences plate movement.

146.
● Levelling of land: Gradation
● By erosion: Degradation
● By deposition: Aggradation

147. Cropping intensity is a factor of how many times crops are sown on a piece of land.
(Total cropped area / Net sown area)
One might tend to think it’s about density, it’s not.

148. Playa
● Depression in a desert that could turn into a pond / lake when there are rains.

149. Tidal Disruption Events (TDEs) pertain to black holes. Not oceanic tides.

150. Lophelia - deep water corals

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151. Polar vortex
● Counterclockwise
● Low pressure

152. Buffering capacity of the soil

● Resisting change in pH / hydrogen ion concentration

153. Umngot river / Dawki river

● Between Jaintia and Khasi hills
● India Bangladesh border

154. Gandikota Canyon - River Pennar

155. Marine Snow

● The movement of particles from upper ocean to the sea floor
(Easy to set a trap here)

156. While the meridians of longitude are of equal length, the parallels of latitude are not.

157. Oligotrophic Lakes X Eutrophic Lakes

158. There’s likely to be a map question on islands in the Indian Ocean. Unable to guess of
what type though.
Probabilities
● North to south arrangement
● Which country controls which island

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159. Why is the sky blue? (Basic but some don’t seem to know)
● Scattering of blue light by particles in the atmosphere.
(Shorter the wavelength, stronger is the scattering. Blue has a shorter wavelength than red)

160. Strait of Gibraltar - Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean.

161. Chemosynthesis has nothing to do with cancer related therapy. Just enough if you know
this, no need for further understanding.

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162. Duncan Passage: Little Andaman and Rutland Island

163. Drainage of river flows into Bay of Bengal is more than that of Arabian Sea.
NCERT says approx 77% of river drainage goes into Bay of Bengal.

164. Manipur bordering states - Assam, Mizoram and Nagaland. International border with
Myanmar.

165.
Ports of Haifa, Ashdod, Eilat - Israel.
Port of Odessa - Ukraine.

166. Soil nailing technique - landslide prevention.

167. Context for ‘artesian condition’ - trapped groundwater.

168. Donyi Polo - Sun & Moon - Tani tribe - Arunachal Pradesh

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169. Bayesian Convolutional Neural Network (BCNN) - El Niño and La Niña forecast.

170. Koyna Warna region

- Maharashtra
- Seismic activity due to reservoir plus fault zone.

171. Nagorno - Karabakh region: Azerbaijan. (Dispute with Armenia)

172. Gulf of Aden links Red Sea and Arabian Sea.

173. Thailand bordering countries

● Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Malaysia. (LCMM)

174.Just know that Togo borders Ghana.

175. Countries bordering Mexico (Trump favourite)

● USA, Guatemala and Belize.

176. Panama
● Gargi Sugdub (climate refugees)
● Bordering Costa Rica and Colombia

177. Cook strait separates the north and south islands of New Zealand.

178. Sittwe port (Kaladan) - Myanmar.

179. Saint Martin’s Island - Bangladesh.

180. Seine River - Paris. Discharges into the English Channel.

181. Uhuru peak - Kilimanjaro - Tanzania.

182. Lipulekh pass - Uttarakhand.

(China, Nepal)

183. States bordering Nepal

● West Bengal, UP, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Bihar
● WUSUBi (Think Wasabi if you like Sushi)

184. States bordering Bhutan

● West Bengal, Assam, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh
WASA

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185. South East Asia
● There is scope for a west to east question. Probably on Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam,
Brunei and Philippines.

186.
● Ural River: Russia and Kazakhstan.
● Aral Sea (lake): Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

187. Antarctica
● Mount Erebus: gold emitting volcano
● Ross Ice Shelf: ‘ice jumps’

188. Mashco Piro Tribe (Amazon / Peru / South America)

189. Context for Dark Oxygen - Sea Floor - Polymetalic Nodules.

190. Rice and State

● Karen Musley: Andaman and Nicobar
● Pokkali: Kerala
● Chak Hao: Manipur (black rice)

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 ● Kalanamak: UP
● Boka Saul: Assam

191. Makran Coast: Iran - Pakistan.

192. Thwaites Glacier - Antarctica - ‘Doomsday Glacier’

193.
● Reunion Island - France
● Guam - USA
● Canary - Spain
● Bermuda - UK

194. Taiwan strait links South China Sea with East China Sea.

195. Arctic sea ice has an impact on the Indian monsoon.

(The fact presented here is secondary. In geography, any statement with ‘can / might have an
impact’ tends to be right)

196. Philadelphi Corridor - Gaza Strip and Egypt

(Posting merely because of the trap potential in the name)

197. Lebanon borders

- Syria, Israel and Mediterranean Sea
(Code: Think of ‘SIM’ card in Lebanon)

198. Galathea Bay - Great Nicobar

199. The context for Brandt Line - Global North and South.

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200. To remember the countries that border the Baltic Sea - SR. DGP FELL

Sweden, Russia, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
(I don’t even think Baltic Sea neighbouring counties are that important, but sharing for the sheer
mnemonic potential)
Saw the mnemonic somewhere and incidentally also this news, so put them together.

Deepuk Sukumar [email protected] https://t.me/deepuksukumar

201. Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam
● Conflict between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan
● Blue Nile

202.
● Lake Kariba - Zimbabwe and Zambia
● Lake Naivasha - Kenya
● Lake Natron - Tanzania and Kenya (redness: sodium, alkaline, calcification)
● Lake Retba - Senegal (pinkness: algae)

203. Gulf of Guinea - West Africa (scope for confusion with Papua New Guinea)

204.

205. Gelephu - Bhutan.

206. Afar Triangle - Horn of Africa - Lake Assal.

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207. Darien Gap - Panama (migration route to the US)

Much like the movie ‘dunki’

208.
● Fulani - Sahel region
● Tutsi - African Great Lakes Region
● Karen - Myanmar/ Thailand

International Relation

1. In the context of African Union (AU) joining G20 as full member,

● Agenda 2063 is an initiative of AU.
● Morocco is a part of AU

2. Japan (2024 Sea of Japan earthquake)

● Kuril islands dispute (Japan and Russia)
● Senakaku islands dispute (Japan and China)
● Liancourt Rocks dispute (Japan and Korea - S&N)

3.
● Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) ironically does not have a permanent bench of
judges. Members of the court are appointed by the contracting parties. It is also not a
part of the UN.
● Context: India-Pakistan dispute pertaining to Kishenganga and Ratle hydro-power
project taken to PCA by Pakistan.

4. International Court of Justice Vs. International Criminal Court

● ICJ settles legal disputes between countries. All UN members.
● ICC tries individuals charged with genocide, war crimes etc.
Note:

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 ● Kulbhushan Jadhav case was at ICJ, not ICC. Don’t get confused since it involves an
individual.
● India, US, China and Russia are not members of ICC

5. Indo-Nepal
● Treaty of Sugauli
● Rivers: Gandak, Kosi, Mahakali
● Kalapani, Lipulekh issues

6. ICJ (context of South Africa taking Israel to ICJ for Genocide)

● Decisions are binding. No appeals.
● UNSC is authorised to enforce the decisions
● However, it’s subject to politics as the enforcement can be vetoed by a permanent
member.
● 15 judges, 9 year terms.

8. In the context of Red Sea crisis, it’s important to note which countries are the largest
suppliers of crude oil to India (most recent)
1. Russia

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2. Iraq
3. Saudi Arabia
4. UAE

9. It’s important to note why Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) are important
They help with investor protection through national treatment, MFN etc.
Tax matters are kept out of BITs

10. India is a member of the Mineral Security Partnership. A US led initiative to secure access to
Rare earths and reduce dependence on China.
Above is India’s critical mineral list. Please note the curious ones alone. Example - Platinum
(one wouldn’t think)

11.Gujarat Declaration - WHO - Traditional Medicine

12. Abraham Accords on Arab-Israeli normalisation

Israel - UAE and Israel - Bahrain.
Mediator - USA

13. Article 99 of UN Charter

The Secretary-General may bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his
opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.
(Context: Israel - Palestine)

14. Turkmenistan is not a member of SCO. Members I’m hoping you know.

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15.

IMEC - Just note the top cities on route

16. ILO - Treaty of Versailles

17. G4 - Brazil, India, Japan and Germany

Countries supporting each other for permanent seats in the UNSC.

18. Australia group - chemical and biological weapons.

● India is a member of MTCR, Australia Group and Wassenar Arrangement but not
Nuclear Suppliers Group.

19. NATO Plus 5

Which are the 5? Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Israel and South Korea.

20. Operation prosperity guardian - Red Sea safety

21. World Bank Group Organizations

● IBRD, IDA, IFC, MIGA and International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes.
● MIGA? Protection of cross border investments and lending against political and non-
commercial risks.

22.BRICS new additions - too bad there are some million versions of which countries got added.

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-May be skip the topic.

23. Note the scope of UNCLOS and International Seabed Authority

24.

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25. Taiwan is not a part of ASEAN

26. Context for silkworm eating strategy / salami slicing: China - Taiwan

27. Note that Arab League membership includes some African countries too. Egypt, Sudan etc.

28. International Labour Organisation

● League of Nations
● Treaty of Versailles

29. HSN Code - World Customs Organization

30. Katchatheevu - Indo Srilankan Maritime Agreement, 1974.

31. Minerals Security Finance Network

● India is a member
● To reduce dependence on China (So China isn’t a member)

32. Bucharest Nine (B9) countries

● Hungary
● Romania
● Estonia
● Bulgaria
● Latvia
● Czech Republic
● Poland
● Lithuania
● Slovakia
Remember as - HUNGARY (hungry) REBL (rebel) CPLS (couples)?
All are NATO members. Read a little bit on the significance of this grouping.

33. India Middle East Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC)

Note that Haifa port of Israel is a part of it.

34. Article 5 of NATO

“Attack against one shall be considered an attack against all”

35. Peace Clause and De Minimus are terms associated with WTO in the context of agriculture.

36. De-hyphenation (foreign policy)

● Pursuing independent relationships with two or more countries with conflicting interests.
● Example: India towards Israel-Palestine

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37. Wakhan Corridor: India - Afghanistan

38. FATF - established by G7

(some tend to fall for G20)

39. Rules of Origin - WTO

40. Manama Declaration - Arab League.

41. Abu Musa Island disputed between UAE and Iran.

42. A part of the context for ‘Blue Line’ is Lebanon.

43. Sequence of events in the context of Israel - Palestine

1. Six day war
2. Camp David Accords (Egypt)
3. Oslo Accords
4. Abraham Accords

44. Houthis - Yemen, Hezbollah - Lebanon.

45. Security of Supply Agreement (SOSA) - India and US (defence)

46. In addition to the smaller nations, Australia and New Zealand too are a part of the Pacific
Islands Forum.

47. Iran, Iraq and Yemen are not a part of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

48. India-Middle East Europe Economic Corridor (Try to memorise this as an image) Plus, note
the absence of Chabahar.

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49. Kazan Declaration - BRICS.

50. Finland (2023) and Sweden (2024) too are a part of NATO. Norway - founding member.

51. Port of Odesa and Transnistria - Ukraine.

52. China is not a partner in the International Space Station, while Russia is.

Environment

1. Great Green Wall (Trees) - An initiative of African Union to curb desertification. UNCCD and
European Commission are partners

India Equivalent :

Please read up on Innocent Passage and Freedom of Navigation as per UNCLOS.

2. The major Ammonia gas pollution sources

● Agriculture (maximum)
● fertiliser industry (Ennore leak)
● Livestock
● Note - In comparison, diesel engines emit less ammonia but more NOx, petrol engines
emit more ammonia but less NOx.
● Note - Ammonia can be used as a fuel source. Has the advantage of not emitting CO2.
● Suitable for use with hydrogen powered systems.

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 ● Issues - needs high ignition temperature, has low flame velocity.
● Green Ammonia - Produced using renewable energy instead of natural gas.

3. Pollutants
● Lead Pollution sources include batteries (obvious), jewellery and cosmetics.
● Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs): Found in flame retardants, waterproofing.
Polychlorinated Biphenyls are POPs used commonly as coolants and lubricants.
● POPs: Stockholm Convention

4.
● Lead Pollution sources include batteries (obvious), jewellery and cosmetics.
● Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs): Found in flame retardants, waterproofing.
● Polychlorinated Biphenyls are POPs used commonly as coolants and lubricants.
● POPs: Stockholm Convention

5. Extended Producer Responsibility in India applies not just to E-waste but also plastic waste.
-It is based on ‘Polluter Pays Principle’

6. Photochemical Smog
● Sunlights plus NOx plus VOCs
● Contributes to ground level Ozone

7.

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8. Common artificial fruit ripening agents:
● Calcium Carbide, Acetylene gas and Ethephon (the hazardous ones)
● Ethylene gas (safer alternative according to FSSAI)

9. Torrefaction (in the context of stubble burning)

● Waste to energy technology
● Output is ‘Bio-coal’
● Can be mixed along with coal in thermal power plants

10. Biosparging
● An in-situ bio-remediation technique to inject air / oxygen / microbes into the water table
/ soil to stimulate natural degradation of contaminants.
● Mostly used for treating petroleum contaminants.

11. Please note:

● Tropospheric (ground level) ozone is a secondary pollutant. An outcome of
photochemical smog.
● Naturally occurring ozone is otherwise present in the stratosphere.

12. Polylactic Acid (PLA) and Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) are the most commonly used bio-
plastics (bio-degradable plastics)
They breakdown into CO2 and water

13. Note: sulphur dioxide is a major emission from Volcanoes.

SAFAL, SWAS and STAR are names of ‘green crackers’ developed by CSIR.

14. Aspartame, Saccharin and Sorbitol are commonly used artificial sweeteners.

15. Planktons as a bio-indicator (Not just in lakes but also seas)

● Plankton growth (algal bloom) is a result of high concentration of phosphorus and
nitrogen.
● Eutrophication (nutrient overload) could result in oxygen depletion in a water body and
‘Dead Zones’
Note: CyanoBACTERIA is commonly referred to as Blue Green ALGAE.

16. Nuclear waste (spent fuel)

● Uranium 238 (95%)
● Uranium 235 (1%)
● Plutonium (1%)
Note: ‘half-life’ is a term associated with nuclear decay.

17. Note: Global Warming potential (GWP) of N2O > Methane > CO2

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 ● HFC being an alternative to CFC, while it does not deplete ozone is highly potent in
causing global warming, as can be seen in the comparison table.

18. Ozone depletion, why more in Antarctic than the Arctic

● Colder conditions more conducive for Polar Stratospheric Clouds
● Stronger and more stable Polar Vortex

19. Blue Carbon

● CO2 stored in coastal and marine ecosystems. Example: Mangroves.
● Coastal ecosystems: only 2% of ocean surface but account for 50% of ocean carbon
sequestration. It also has lot more capacity than the terrestrial forests in this regard.
● % not important to remember
● Note: Bio-mass burning results in Brown Carbon.

20. Pyrolysis of Bio-mass results in Biochar

● A method of carbon sequestration

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 ● In agriculture, can improve soil fertility, reduce acidity, improve water retention and
nutrition availability.
● Can be used in steel-making

21.
● Bioaccumulation: Increase in pollutant concentration in one organism over a life-time.
● Biomagnification: Increase in pollutant concentration throughout the food chain.
● Please note: Bisphenol A (BPA) is related to plastic pollution.

22. Landfill capping (Context - Kochi landfill fire)

● It’s about covering aged municipal waste with soil
● Alternative is ‘Bio-mining’
● Biomining is the process of excavation, treatment, segregation and gainful utilisation of
aged municipal solid waste lying in dumpsites typically referred to as legacy waste.

23. Note: Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is under Environmental Protection Act.
● Public hearing is mandatory.
● EIA to be done by agencies accredited by the Quality Council of India / National
Accreditation Board of Education and Training.

24. Net present value (NPV) of a forest

● Monetary approximation of the value that is lost when a piece of forest land is cleared.
● Compensation for diverting forest land to non-forest use is on the basis of NPV
● These funds go into CAMPA (held under Public Account of India / State)
● There are exemptions for creation of Public Utilities
● Under Forest Conservation Act

25. Note: CO2 is not considered a pollutant under National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

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 ● Pollutants include also Ozone, ammonia, lead, benzene, benzopyrene, arsenic and
nickel (students usually make mistakes here)

26. For comparison. Note the difference in pollutants alone. NAAQS > AQI

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27. Note: while Gangetic dolphins are found in fresh-water systems, Irrawaddy dolphins are
euryhaline.

28.

Understand 4th Gen simplistically as Bio-engineered Algae

29. Indigenous communities and conservation / sustainability

● Olive Ridley - Yanadi community - Andhra
● Blackbuck - Bishnoi community - Rajasthan
● Wet rice cultivation and ‘dapo’ - Apatami tribes - Ziro valley (Arunachal)
● Traditional millets - Adi tribe - Arunachal
● Utera cropping (6-7 crops simultaneously sown) - Gond, Pradhan and Baiga of MP
● Badi cropping - fruit crops and trees on peripheries as a barricade
● Bheta and Lipum - sustainable fishing techniques

30.

Picture - Lantana Elephants

● Lantana, an invasive weed species widely found in the Nilgiris.
● Removal through MGNREGA

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 ● Soliga community make furniture / sculptures from them
● Gasification of Lantana yields Bio-char
● Native to South America

31

.
Productivity of eco-systems
Note the top ones and the overall comparison between terrestrial and aquatic.

32. Red Sanders (forever in the news)

● Tropical Dry deciduous
● Endemic to eastern ghats (Seshachalam and Palkonda among others)
● IUCN status: Endangered
Note: Wildlife Protection Act covers plant species too (including Red Sanders)

33. Bioleaching is the process of extracting metals from their ores using micro-organisms.
● Possible with both bacteria and fungi.
● Can be used in the extraction of heavy metals from sewage waste too.
● Would you get tricked if it was described as the process of ‘filtering’ pollutants from
ground water? (If yes, that’s how distractors work)

34. Note - Basel convention on control of transboundary movement of hazardous waste does
not include radio-active waste.
● Includes plastic waste (From 2019)
● US not a member.

35. MoEFCC categorises industries into red, orange, green and white on the basis of pollution.
(High to low)
● Note that Paper, Sugar and E-waste recycling fall under the red category.

36. Central Pollution Control Board was established under the Water Act. Entrusted with powers
under the Air Act later.

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 ● To enforce ‘Precautionary Principle’ and ‘Polluter Pays Principle

37. Global Stocktake (GST) was seen in the news in the context of COP28 of UNFCCC (Dubai)
● COP28 focused on methane emission cuts too.

38. India, US and Brazil are founders of the Global Bio-fuel alliance
● E20? Petrol blended with 20% ethanol
● Note that distillers and farmers too are beneficiaries of ethanol blending

39. Pressure Impression Pads

● Patches of loose soil created manually for getting better pug mark impressions.

40. The 5 Bears found in India

● Himalayan black bear
● Himalayan Brown Bear
● Sloth Bear
● Sun bear
● Tibetan Brown Bear
Source - Parveen Kaswan, IFS

41.

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42.

Characteristics of the male may be noted as Hornbills are a very important species.

43. Interesting to note that few of the questions from environment in the past appear to be
‘inspired’ by the tweets of Ms. Supriya Sahu, IAS
https://x.com/supriyasahuias?s=21
So here is a list of topics covered by her tweets in the last one year.
• Nilgiri Gaur
• Nilgiri Tahr
• Ban of Diclofenac and vultures
• Lion tailed Macaque
• Olive Ridley turtles
• Meerkats
• Pakke Paga hornbill festival - Nyishi tribes
• Cigaritis butterfly (Meghamalai, Western Ghats)
• Blue flag beaches
• Blue carbon

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 • Lantana
• Annamalai Tiger Reserve
• Ammonia leak
• Pangolins
• Mugger crocodiles
• Circular economy
• Dugong conservation
• Dholes (wild dogs)
• Project Dolphin - Gulf of Mannar
• Agasthyamalai bio-sphere reserve, Kani tribe (KL and TN)
• Circular fashion / ecospin
• Hornbills in the Western Ghats
• Great Hornbill (Schedule 1) - they do not build nests, use cavities in large trees.
• Green Revolution (MS Swaminathan’s demise)
• Star Tortoise
• Slender Loris
• Great pacific garbage patch
• Senna spectabilis weed
• Fish bone technique - planting mangroves

Regards,
Deepuk Sukumar

44. Today’s tweet. She had posted this few years ago too.

Deepuk Sukumar [email protected] https://t.me/deepuksukumar

Now look at this 2022 Prelims PYQ
"If rainforests and tropical forests are the lungs of the Earth, then surely wetlands function as its
kidneys." Which one of the following functions of wetlands best reflects the above statement?

45. States / UT with highest mangrove cover

1. West Bengal
2. Gujarat
3. A and N
4. Andhra Pradesh
5. Maharashtra

46. Bio-manufacturing and Bio-foundry: environment friendly alternatives such as biodegradable

polymers, bio-plastics, bio-pharmaceuticals and bio-agri-inputs.

47.
● Karaivetti bird sanctuary - TN
● Longwood Shola Forest - TN
● Ankasamudra Bird Conservation Reserve - KA
● Aganashini - KA
● Magadi Conservation Reserve - KA
Note - TN has the highest number of Ramsar Wetland sites in India

48. Mission Sahbhagita: Community-centric, participatory conservation of wetlands.

49. Renuka in Himachal is the smallest Ramsar site in India.

50. Keshopur-Miani Community Reserve is a Ramsar Site in Punjab. It is the first-ever notified
Community Reserve under the Wildlife Protection Act.

51. Fruit from Cullenia.

● Evergreen green tree species endemic to the western ghats.
● Lion tailed macaques feed on these fruits and make these trees their home.

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52. Distribution of Bengal tigers.
A student I know assumed Bengal tigers are found only in Bengal.

53. Fairly confident about a question from wetlands. So putting together some content from
MoEFC.
● Hokera wetland - River Jhelum
● Renuka wetland - Parashuram Tal
● Chilika lake - sole Ramsar site to be removed from the Montreux Record of Ramsar.
Irrawady dolphin.
● Rudrasagar - Tripura
● Sundarbans - 60% of India’s mangroves
● Tso Kar wetland in Ladakh connects a salt water wetland and fresh water wetland
● Sambhar Lake - India’s largest inland salt water lake

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 ● Bhitarkanika mangroves - saltwater crocodile and Olive Ridleys.
● Kolleru wetland - Krishna and Godavari deltas
● Lohtak lake in Manipur. Keibul Lamjao, phumdis, Sangai deer.
● 70% of India’s rice cultivated in wetlands.

Technical definition of wetlands

An area of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary,
with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water the
depth of which at low tide does not exceed six metres.

54.

Don’t get confused between Nilgai and Nilgiri Tahr. Nilgai is not specific to the Nilgiris (as the
name may suggest) or western ghats. It’s noteworthy that Nilgai has association to culture since
the Vedic times.

55. Purple frog

● ‘living fossil’
● Peculiar sucker-like mouth which helps them stick onto rocks, bloated body
● endemic to western ghats
● EDGE species (read up on the concept)

56.

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Question possibility - 4 names could be given and they might ask for the context. Remembering
which technique in which state, not necessary.

57. Definition of wetlands as per Ramsar includes marshes, floodplains, rivers, lakes,
mangroves, coral reefs and other marine areas no deeper than 6 metres at low tide, as well as
human-made wetlands such a waste treatment ponds and reservoirs.
Note:
As per Indian regulations, backwaters, lagoon, creeks and estuaries are not included in the
definition of wetlands.

58. Biological Oxygen Demand Vs. Chemical Oxygen Demand

● BOD measures the amount of oxygen needed to breakdown only organic /
biodegradable matter
● COD measures oxygen needed to breakdown both organic / biodegradable and
inorganic / non-biodegradable matter
● Therefore, COD > BOD at all times
Context - lake pollution

59. Note: Leather tanneries give out chrome waste

60. Red / pink snow is caused by algae

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61.

Miyawaki is a technique of urban forestry

Easy one but didn’t want to take the risk as PM mentioned Miyawaki in one of the Mann Ki Baat
episodes

62.

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Charru Mussel, an invasive species affecting wetlands in TN and Kerala. Native to Central and
South America.

63.

● Birdwings are butterfly species (the largest in India, seen in the picture)
● Other noteworthy butterfly names that have appeared in The Hindu over the last few
years: Quaker, windmill, common peacock (Yes!), cigaritis, dusted apollo, paintbrush
swift (Yes!), noble’s helen and milkweed.

UPSC likes butterflies and aspirants hate them (particularly in their stomachs )

64. Bio-efficacy is a term used in the context of agro-chemicals like pesticides.

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65.Bureau of Energy Efficiency - Coverage under the labelling programme (Star Rating)

(Giving only the non-obvious points where distractors can be set)

1. Under mandatory category - Distribution transformers, colour TVs, UHD TVs, electric water
heaters among others.
2. Under voluntary category - Tyres, solar water heaters, LPG stoves, solar PVs, Li Battery
among others.

66. The Energy Conservation (Amendment) Act, 2022

● Creation of a Carbon Trading Scheme by the central Govt.
● Minimum share of non-fossil fuel consumption by certain consumers
● Expands coverage to vehicles and vessels

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(Note - the Act covers energy efficiency in buildings too)

67. Pusa Decomposer

● Uses fungi to quicken the decomposition of stubble (instead of slash and burn)
● Jongue’s method is associated with it

68. Sea sparkle

● Bio-luminescence: chemical energy into light energy

● Planktons
● Produce ammonia
● Leads to fish mortality but an increase in jellyfish population
● Low oxygen
(Been in the news for its appearance in the west coast of India)

69.

Prelims 2023 Q

Deepuk Sukumar [email protected] https://t.me/deepuksukumar

The answer to this question can be found in this Indian Express article from 3rd Dec, 2020
https://indianexpress.com/article/india/first-ever-study-has-grim-prognosis-native-squirrel-could-
vanish-from-ne-after-2050-7089169/lite/
Copy-paste from the article above
“Unlike the nocturnal flying squirrels, giant (Indian) squirrels are diurnal, but arboreal (tree-
dwelling) and herbivorous like flying squirrels”
It’s for this reason I’ve been trying to look at news from also 2021 and 2022 for this hit-list. You
don’t need to do it though.

70. The shola grasslands in the western Ghats are technically referred to as Tropical Montane
Grasslands (TMG)

71. National parks, wildlife sanctuaries, conservation reserves and community reserves are
covered under Wildlife (Protection) Act.

72. The centre permits the use of sugarcane, molasses, sugar, maize, damaged food grains
and surplus rice lying with the FCI for ethanol production.

73. Carbon Intensity

● Usually seen in the context of net-zero
● It refers to how many grams of carbon dioxide (CO2) are released to produce a kilowatt
hour (kWh) of electricity

74. Kunming Declaration

● Under CBD
● Tackling bio-diversity loss

75. Fly Ash Utilisation. Agriculture one might miss.

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76.Note this about Bamboo

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77

78. Stotting: Gazelles, Deer and antelopes jump to signal to the predator that they are very
difficult catch.

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We’ve seen questions in recent times on peculiar characteristics of species.

79. Koala finger prints are closest in similarity to humans

80.

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Deepuk Sukumar [email protected] https://t.me/deepuksukumar
81.

82.

83. Ethylene Oxide as a pollutant

● Masala industry, pesticide, carcinogen
● Ethylene glycol: used as an anti-freeze and coolant

84. Geotextiles (Geotech): These materials have been designed for uses such as soil
reinforcement, separation, filtration, drainage and erosion control in roads, railway tracks,
embankments, waterworks etc.

85. Environment Protection Textiles (Oekotech): Textile products that are used for applications
related to environmental protection are categorised as Oekotech products. Oekotech products
are used in erosion control, air and water purification, waste recycling and treatment.

86. Heard of environmental rescue?

It’s about a population escaping extinction through adaptation

87. Clydebank declaration - related to green shipping corridors

88. Great Oxidation Event

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 ● Associated with Cyanobacteria (commonly called Blue Green Algae due to its colour, but
it’s not an algae)
● Can photosynthesise and release oxygen

89. Global Environment Facility is the financial mechanism for Minamata, Stockholm (POPs),
UNCBD, UNCCD and UNFCCC.

90.Noise pollution - provisions are under Environment Protection Act and Air Act

91. Soil Respiration - release of carbon dioxide from the soil

92. Context for Codex Alimentarius - food safety standards, FAO.

93.Pyramid of biomass in the marine ecosystem is inverted.

94. Dodo
● Flightless bird
● Endemic to Mauritius
Important because it has become a symbol of extinction / conservation (seen The Dodo page on
Instagram?)

95. Nematocysts - prey capture and defence mechanism in cnidarians like jelly fish.
Heard of jelly fish stings?

96. Seen the PYQ on Pangolins?

● Probably the only mammal wholly covered in scales
● The scales are made of keratin
● They feed on insects
● The burrows they build help with moisture conservation and aeration of soil.

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97. Hope Spots - Ocean health - IUCN + Mission Blue

98. International Big Cat Alliance

● Indian initiative
● Covers 7 big cats: Tiger, lion, snow leopard, leopard, jaguar, puma and cheetah
● jaguar and puma are not found in India.

99. Central Ground Water Authority

Under Water Act? No, its Environment Protection Act

100. Animal Welfare Board of India - statutory body

101. Carbon leakage

● If for reasons of costs related to climate policies, businesses were to transfer production
to other countries with laxer emission constraints, there’s carbon leakage.

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 ● Total global emissions tend to go up as a result of this.

102. Kigali amendment - Montreal protocol - Hydrofluorocarbons - legally binding.

103.
● Rotterdam convention - hazardous chemicals and pesticides
● Basel convention - hazardous wastes

104. Hoolock Gibbon - India’s only ape species.

105. Hangul - Dachigam - Kashmir

I’m sure all of you know but however.

106. Please do UV - A, B and C from a standard reference book. Focus on - wavelength, impact
and absorption.

107. Arboreal - living in trees.

108. Bioaccumulation (in an organism), Biomagnification (in the food chain)

109. Lighting and UV rays can fix nitrogen (nitrogen fixation)

110.
● Largest tiger reserve - Nagarjunasagar Srisailam
● Smallest tiger reserve - Bor
● Most number of tiger reserves in a state - Madhya Pradesh

111. Kazinag national park - J and K

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(Some tend to get it confused with Kaziranga)

112. MISHTI initiative - Mangroves

113. Kharai camels - Salt marshes of Gujarat - can swim - padded hooves - feed on mangroves.

114. Atmospheric Lifetime

● Context - Green House Gases.
● It’s the amount of time taken for them to be broken down or removed naturally.
● Mostly longer atmospheric lifetime would mean higher Global Warming Potential. But not
always.
● Example - Methane.

115. Sea Butterflies - A type of sea snails

116. ‘Farmers of the Forest’ - Hornbills for their role in seed dispersion.

117. Towards 1000 strategy - context is International Solar Alliance.

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118. Jurisdiction of National Green Tribunal
Note - Wildlife Protection Act and Forest Rights Act (not the same as 3) are not covered.

119. Montreux Record Wetlands in India (sites at higher risk)

● Keoldeo National Park, RJ
● Lohtak Lake, MN

120. Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)

● EU initiative
● related to ‘carbon leakage’ (already covered)
● Trade restrictions on carbon intensive imports from non-EU countries

121. The context for ‘Loss and Damage Fund’ is climate change.

122. In the context of bees

● Propolis : used in building hives.
● Invertase : a secretion used in the conversion of sucrose into fructose and glucose.
● Drone : male bees that don’t have a stinger.
Waggle was already asked in a PYQ.

123. Dry bulb and wet bulb temperatures are related to humidity and human survival.
Often seen in the news in the context of heat waves and climate change.

124. Brumation - Period of inactivity during winters to conserve energy. Seen among snakes,
turtles, frogs and other cold blooded creatures.
Important since we’ve seen terms like arboreal, nocturnal etc. in Prelims in the recent years.

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125. Grasses are monocots.
Just read up a little on how monocots are different from dicots.
In 2020 we had a question on plant cells and animal cells. Once in a while we get questions on
such basics.

126. Vechur cow

● Dwarf cattle breed
● Kerala

127. Melanistic Tigers

● Simlipal, Orissa
● Inbreeding related genetic mutation

128. Neelakurinji
● Some sub species found in the eastern ghats too (one might assume it’s only the
western ghats)
● On the IUCN red list
Note - IUCN red list covers plants and coral reefs as well.

129. Gajani Kagga - saline tolerant paddy - Aghanashini estuary - Karnataka.

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130. One Water Approach
● All water has value, regardless of its source.

131. Note - Seabuckthorn is not from the seas. (Trap)

In India, found in the Himalayas. The Berries are high in Vitamin C.

132. GEAC is constituted under the Environment Protection Act. Chairperson is the secretary of
MoEF and not the minister.

133. Ecological Efficiency - Percentage of energy transferred from one trophic level to another

134. Keeling curve - Concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere

135. Biodiversity Heritage Sites

● Biological Diversity Act
● Can be aquatic or terrestrial

136. Wildlife Protection Act Schedules (updated) lend themselves easily to a ‘match’ question.
Please go through it a couple of times and make a note of the curious elements. For example,
we might not think of plants when we think of wildlife (but schedule III)

137. National Ganga Council is under Environment Protection Act

(Water Act would be a cool trap)

138
● Inland Waterways: Concurrent List
● National Waterways: Central Government, rest under State purview.

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139. Sacred Groves - Wildlife Protection Act

140. ‘Triple Planetary Crisis’ under the UN system refers to climate change, pollution and
biodiversity loss.
(Might seem obvious, but traps like land degradation, ozone depletion etc. could get one
confused)

141. MARPOL convention - marine pollution

142. Cheetah
● Belongs to the Acinonyx Genus (Panthera is a trap)
(Note: Tiger and Lion belong to Panthera)

143. PFAS - ‘forever chemicals’

144. The context for Aus, Aman and Boro is rice.

145. Penguins are found in Africa too.

(I don’t really expect a question on Penguins, but it would be such a fantastic trap)

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146. Depository for International Big Cat Alliance - Ministry of External Affairs (Ministry of
Environment and Forests is a possible trap)

147. Carbon Farming - Regenerative agriculture + carbon sequestration

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148. Practices that favour ‘carbon farming’ (typed out from the article above)
● Agroforestry - silvopasture and alley cropping
● Conservation Agriculture - zero tillage, crop rotation, cover cropping, stubble retention
and composting
● Agro-ecological approaches - crop diversification and intercropping
● Rotational grazing
(Hope you have a one-line understanding of these terms)

149. Increase is the temperature of water can result in reduced dissolved oxygen levels.

150. Kemp’s Ridley and Olive Ridley turtles - mass nesting - ‘Arribada’

151. The context for ‘sere’ is ecological succession.

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152.

153. Wolf Sanctuary - Bankpur, Karnataka.

154. All endemic species are native species, but not all native species are endemic species.

155. Golden rice’ - Vitamin A deficiency

156. Banni grasslands - Kutch.

157. The inflammability of chir pine trees is primarily attributable to resin content.

158. Critical Wildlife Habitat - Forest Rights Act.

(good trap potential)

159. Red list of Mangrove ecosystems - IUCN

160. Milye-amiley: fermented bamboo shoot (Tripura)

161. Just get yourself familiarised with some of the names. To the extent that you know they are
traditional water conservation techniques. Locations too if you have more appetite.

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162. ‘Heat Dome’ - High pressure system.

163. The context for ‘Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction’ is UNCLOS (Sea)

164. Charles Darwin frog - Andaman - Upside down spawning.

165. Rhino species peculiarities

● White Rhino - 2 horn - Africa (largest)
● Sumatran Rhino - 2 horn (smallest)
● Indian and Javan Rhino - single horn
● Black Rhino - 2 horn - Africa

166. Note that these are Tree Borne Oilseeds

167. ‘Common crow’ and ‘Blue tiger’ are butterflies.

168. GHG emissions

Power > transport > agriculture
Source: UNEP Emission Gap Report

169. India’s only vulture sanctuary - Ramadevarabetta, Karnataka.

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170. The context for UNEP INC-5 is plastic pollution.

171. No Development Zone / Coastal Regulation Zones are notified under the Environment
Protection Act.

172. Caterpillars can sense electric charges through small bristles on their body called setae.
(electroreception)

173. Review of Significant Trade (RST) is associated with CITES.

174. Asiatic Cheetah - only(?) in Iran.

Project Cheetah is implemented by National Tiger Conservation Authority.

175. Red Sanders - deciduous, red soil, endemic to eastern ghats.

Science and Technology

1. Space Missions
● Europa Clipper: Jupiter’s Moon
● Artemis 2: humans to the moon
● VIPER: Moon’s South Pole
● JAXA: Mars’ Moons (Phobos and Deimos)

2. Note - Perovskite is associated with Solar cells.

3. Application of Hydrogel, aside from water-use efficiency in agriculture

● passive coolant in electronics
● Contacts lenses, diapers
● tissue engineering
● drug delivery etc.
(Safe to go with ‘all of the above’ option in a prospective question)

4. Ad Blue (used in diesel vehicles)

● Selective Catalytic Reduction system
● For reducing NOX emissions
● The Ammonia from it converts NOX into harmless nitrogen and water vapour
● It’s made of urea and water

5. Note: Airbags are considered “passive” safety restrains.

● Accelerometer is one of the many sensors used.
● A chemical reaction mostly involving Sodium Azide triggers the inflation of the airbag by
releasing nitrogen. (Pyrotechnic)

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6. Things to know about Graphene
● Allotrope of carbon
● One atom thick
● Giant Magnetoresistance at room temperature (can sense magnetic fields)
● Hexagonal honeycomb pattern
● Alternative to silicon in the semiconductor industry
● Better heat management in the application
● Can aid supercomputing
● graphene (2D) when stacked becomes Graphite (3D)
● Van der waals force

Application, safe to go with ‘all of the above’ option as it’s super wide.

7.

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Significance of L1 in Aditya L1
● The Lagrange point at which gravitational force due to earth and sun, and the centrifugal
force cancel each other.
● Aditya will remain at L1 position while it moves along with earth around the sun.
● Note - Spacecrafts in orbit around the earth are attracted by earth’s gravitational force,
still they don’t fall to into the earth due to centrifugal force.

8.

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Strange facts about the Sun’s temperature that are a bit counter-intuitive
● Photosphere is cooler than the core (obvious)
● But surprisingly, Photosphere is cooler than the chromosphere and corona as well.
● So both the inner layers and outer layers of the photosphere are hotter than the
photosphere.
● Note - both visible light and infrared red rays are emitted by the photosphere.
● Corona emits UV, ultra UV and X rays

9.

● Note that Aurorae, are found both in north and south poles of Earth (Also in Jupiter and
Saturn)
● As the northern lights are more popular, one might assume it’s a North Pole only
phenomenon.

10. Please try and understand the difference between Solar flares, Solar winds and Coronal
Mass Ejections.
● Impacts: communication networks, power cuts, corrosion and satellites.
● This video can help
https://youtu.be/TWjtYSRlOUI?si=mP2W6nYxi_3HK4v_

11. On fibre optic cables

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 ● Principle of Total Internal Reflection of Light
● Lower the refractive index of the cable, faster is the transmission of data
● Note - Core of the fibre has a higher refractive index than the cladding

12. Lithium-ion battery is both a voltaic and electrolytic cell

● Voltaic cell converts chemical energy into electrical energy (usage)
● Electrolytic cell converts electrical energy into chemical energy (charging)

13. Just note the sequence of the radiation types.

● Shorter the wavelength, higher the energy.

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14.
● C-bot is an autonomous underwater vehicle used in mapping the sea floor, surveillance
over coral reefs, finding hydrothermal vents etc.
● Different from
CBOT, which is a reference rate used in global grains market. Stands for Chicago
Board of Trade.
● Neither 1 nor 2, have anything to do with ‘online bots’ the way we commonly understand.
(Distractor)

15. Silver Iodide is the chemical used in cloud seeding

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16. About the BHASHINI platform that uses AI to translate, note the following features
● Crowd sourcing (Bhasha Daan)
● Open source data sets
Make a note of also what you see in this image

17. Context for flu-gas desulphurization technology: removal of Sulphur dioxide emissions from
fossil based power plants.

18. In the context of RO

● Reverse Osmosis used in water purification, it’s possible to frame a question on
osmosis.
● In a solution, Osmosis is the movement through a semi-permeable membrane from

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 ● higher solvent to lower solvent
● lower solute to higher solute
Easily 4 options can be crafted to confuse the candidates by turning the statements around.

19.
● Green hydrogen - Electrolysis using renewable energy
● Grey hydrogen - using natural gas / methane
● Brown hydrogen - coal, coke
● Blue hydrogen - carbon capture and storage
● White hydrogen - naturally occurring underground deposits
Note - hydrogen can be used in both fuel cells and Internal Combustion Engines.

20. India’s renewable energy mix as per 2022 Govt Data. Just note the order from highest.

21. Terms associated with Green Crackers

● safe water releaser (SWAS), safe minimal aluminium (SAFAL) and safe thermite
cracker (STAR)
● They try to eliminate the use of Potassium Nitrate and Sulphur in regular crackers.

22.
● Antimony: by-product in lead-zinc-silver smelting
● Gallium: by-product while producing Alumina
● Zircon: by-product during the benefaction of heavy mineral sands

23. Solar cells : cadmium, copper, gallium, germanium, selenium, tellurium and Nickel

24. EVs : Lithium, graphite, cobalt, nickel and Vanadium

I’ve picked these critical minerals with respect to solar and EVs from one of the ministry of
mines reports.

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25. With respect to Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2023, I think it’s very important to note
meaning of the following terms.
We usually don’t get Bill based questions but in this case possible..
● Data Fiduciary: decides the purpose and means of processing personal data
● Data Principal: the individual to whom the personal data relates (includes parents and
lawful guardians too)
● Data Processor: person who processes personal data on behalf of a data fiduciary
● Data includes facts, concepts, instructions, information and opinions
● Digital non personal data: data which cannot be used to identify an individual

26. Both sickle cell disease and thalassaemia are caused by errors in the gene for haemoglobin
● Casgevy is the name of the treatment in this regard which uses Crispr-cas9
● Crispr-cas9, genetic scissors used for gene editing
● Apheresis: process of collecting stem cells from bone marrow
● Sickle cell disease: RBC in crescent shape instead of disc shape

27.NexCar19 is a type of Car-T and gene therapy.

Easy to set a distractor using the name and hence the addition here.

28.LLM, the tech behind Chat GPT

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29. Who else to ask but Chat GPT

30.Xenobots are robots made of living cells. Has potential application in treating cancer and
repairing damaged tissues

31. In the context of Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence, I think one should know what
CAPTCHA (I’m not a robot) as we all know it stands for
CAPTCHA: Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart

32. Differences between DNA and RNA

● DNA - Adenine, Guanine, Cytosine and Thymine (A pairs with T)
Storage of genetic information, double helix.
● RNA - Adenine, Guanine, Cytosine and Uracil (A pairs with U)
Transmission of genetic information, single helix.

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33. Mars facts (Mangalyaan, Elon Musk etc.)
● Atmosphere is predominantly carbon dioxide
● gravity is approx. 40% of earth
● day length: 24.6 hours
● Year length: 687 days
● 2 natural satellites: Phobos and Deimos
● Temperature: much cooler than earth (-125C to 20C)

34. AlphaFold
● A machine learning system to predict the 3D structure of a protein using only its amino
acid building blocks.
● This is a critical input for developing new medicines.

35. RTS,S and Matrix-M are the names of WHO recommended malaria vaccines

36. Iron Dome Missile System - Israel

37. Yarkovsky Effect is associated with asteroids

38. In carbon content and thereby quality

Anthracite > Bituminous > Lignite

39. Bose Einstein Condensates - 5th state of matter - application in quantum computing, atomic
clocks etc.

40. Please learn the concept and principle behind brake energy regeneration. Plays a huge role
in EV efficiency.

41.Traditional radiation therapy for cancers uses X-Rays. Proton therapy is more precise, higher
in energy and causes lesser damage to nearby tissues.

42. Juice Mission

Space mission to Jupiter’s moons by European Space Agency

43. India’s Kalvari class submarine uses a fuel cell air-independent propulsion system.
What fuel cell? Phosphoric acid fuel cell. Provides extended under water endurance.

44.
1. Mild hybrid vehicles - electric motor only assists the ICE, cannot run independently on
electric.
No external charging needed.
2. Strong hybrid vehicles - can run independently on electric alone (but for very short distances)
No external charging needed.
3. Plug in hybrid (PHEV) - can run independent on electric alone (for much longer distances)

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As the name suggests, external charging needed.

45. Digital Public Infrastructure - sure shot question area!

-ONDC: Open protocol, open source inclusive system for e-commerce
-Key elements of India Stack: Aadhar, Aadhar Payments Bridge, Aadhar Enabled Payment
System, eKYC, eSign, DigiLocker, UPI and Account Aggregator Framework.

46.

● Deep learning - computers processing information like the human brain

● Natural Language Processing - a computer’s ability to understand language the way we
speak instead of code (the key is understanding)
● Large Language Model - a computer’s ability to generate content like the way we speak
(the key is generation)
I’m deliberately over-simplifying.

41. Nano-structured hard carbon florets

● used in solar thermal applications (not photovoltaic)
● Much more efficient than chromium and nickel that’s commonly used.

42. Pet coke is derived from petroleum refining. Pet coke is nothing but petroleum coke.
● This is different from regular coke, which is made my heating coal in the absence of air.
Coke is an essential input in the steel industry.

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43. Superposition and entanglement are terms associated with quantum mechanics.
Don’t go into the details.

44. Cloud seeding

● Silver iodide, potassium iodide, and sodium chloride are commonly used.
● They basically cause more condensation in the clouds to artificially induce rainfall

45. Super conductivity - resistance drops to zero when cooled to below a temperature.
Point to note here is cooled, not heated.

46. Neutrinos have no electric charge.

Three types of neutrinos: electron, muan and tau.

47. Antimatter
● Same mass as matter but opposite in electric charge.
● Experiments on antimatter are conducted at particle accelerators like the Large Hadron
Collider.

48. Mpemba effect - observation that hot water can freeze faster than cold water in similar
conditions.

49. Fast Breeder Reactors

● Breeder because they produce more nuclear fuel than they consume.
● Fits into India’s 2nd stage
(Kalpakkam plant was in the news for this reason)

50. Proof of stake and distributed ledger are terms associated with blockchain technologies.

51. Regulatory sandbox - Trials of emerging technologies to understand the implications for
regulation.

52. Karyotyping - Appearance of chromosomes

53. Phytoremediation - Use of plants and soil microbes in dealing with toxic contaminants.

54. Tyndall Effect

● Scattering of light by particles in a suspension or colloid.
● Example: turning on a headlight in foggy conditions.

55. Homeostasis - a living system maintaining equilibrium through regulation.

56. Radiocarbon dating to determine age - C14 - works only with organic material - half life is an
associated term.

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57. Pyramid of biomass
● Upright in terrestrial ecosystems
● Inverted in aquatic ecosystems

58. Rubidium - atomic clocks. Application, anyway all of the above tends to be the right option.
-UPSC’s view of science is very optimistic. Science can do anything and everything.

59. Artemis Accords - outer space - humans to the moon - India is a signatory.

60. Venus is hotter than mercury. Reason? Thick atmosphere.

-Easy to set an assertion and reasoning question.

61. Urea Gold - sulphur coated urea. Improves nitrogen use efficiency

62. Quantum dots are nanoparticles made of semiconducting materials.

● Have application in solar cells, displays (QLEDs), medical imaging, computing etc.
● Their optical properties are size dependent. Smaller dots - shorter wavelength (bluer),
larger dots - larger wavelength (redder)

63.
● GPS - USA
● Glonass - Russia
● Galileo - EU
● Beidou - China

64. Methane hydrates - note the two types.

65.

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66. Apatite - Phosphorus - Superconductor (unusual application)

67. Disease X
● WHO
● To be prepared for the unknown

68. Ambergris - ‘whale vomit’ - Fragrance industry

69. PSLV Vs. SSLV

Just note that the turn around time is shorter for SSLV and the number of stages in both.

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70. Zika Virus - Aedes Aegypti mosquito. Sexual and foetal transmission is possible too.

71. Project NETRA - tracking space objects for risk

72. Type 1 diabetes - insulin production. Type 2 diabetes - insulin utilisation.

73. Rhodamine B

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 ● colouring agent. Cotton candy, manchurian etc.

74. NISAR satellite

● Earth observation / environmental change
● ISRO and NASA
● Synthetic Aperture Radar

75. International Space Station - Lower Earth Orbit, collaboration of 5 space agencies.

76. KAVACH - Automatic Train Protection System.

One could be tricked into thinking it’s an indigenous bullet proof vest or even a social security
scheme.

77. MRI does not use ionizing radiation unlike a CT scan.

78. Astronomical Telescopes

● Primary objective is to enhance brightness of celestial objects, not magnify
● Higher altitudes and Larger apertures help with light / brightness
● Mirrors and Lenses

79. AM Vs. FM
● AM - More coverage
● FM - More quality
(PM? Phase modulation. Example - WiFi)

80. Context for BPaL - treatment for drug resistant TB.

81. Space Situational Assessment Report - ISRO.

Context - space debris.

82. Bletchley Declaration and Asilomar Principles are related to AI.

83. Doping / Dopant is also associated with semi-conductor fabrication.

84. In the context of building materials, lower RETV value is better for energy efficiency.
● RETV measures heat coming in through the walls.
● Note that RETV value of Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) is lower than that of red
bricks.
● (AAC is not the same as usual concrete bricks)

85. Note than iron deficiency is not the only cause for Anaemia.
Also, venous blood is said to be a better indicator of anaemia than capillary blood. (Don’t get
into the details)

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86. Pushpak - ISRO’s reusable launch vehicle.

87. MIRV in the context of Agni 5

● Single missile carrying multiple warheads which can hit different locations.
● MIRV: Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicle.

88. AMCA
India’s 5th Gen. fighter aircraft under development.

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(Note - while F22 and Sukhoi Su 57 are 5th Gen, Rafale isn’t)

89. Dark matter

● No charge
● Does not emit light
● Possesses mass and interacts through gravity
● Context for LUX ZEPLIN is dark matter and distance scales (further reading not
required)

90. White hydrogen - naturally occurring hydrogen found in sub-surface geological formations.

91. Note that Asthenosphere exhibits a plastic-like property.

92. Genomic Surveillance’ is a phrase used in the context of infectious diseases.

93. In developmental potential, Totipotency is more than Pluripotency.

In the case of Totipotency, development of complete organism is possible.

94. Self-attention mechanism’ is a phrase used in the context of GPTs / machine learning.

95. e-fuels
● Fuels based on green hydrogen and CO2.
● A carbon neutral alternative to petrol or diesel for use in internal combustion engines.
(Easy to set a trap here because the name is ambiguous)

96. The context for ‘Standard Model’ is particle physics. Neutrinos, Higgs boson etc.
Sounds a bit ambiguous otherwise.

97. Schwarzschild Radius and Ergosphere are terms associated with black holes.

98. ‘Blue bugging’ - hacking devices through Bluetooth.

99. ‘Molecular Motors’ are proteins that convert energy into movement.
(Nanotechnology is a good trap for this one)

100. Technical Textiles could be from natural as well as synthetic fibre.

101. Flex Fuel Vehicles

Note - can be ethanol blended fuel, regular gasoline and electric in combination.

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102. SpaceDex
● Space docking: joining of two satellites in space

103. Just understand the context for the term ‘quasar’ and ‘gravitational lens’ from the image
attached. Don’t get into the technicals.

104. Jumping genes

(No they are not genes that skip one generation and get inherited by the next. Would be a great
trap)

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 ● DNA sequences that move from one location to another with the same human genome.

105. Biofloc Technology - aquaculture / waste water treatment. How it works - need not bother.

106. Tissue Chips

● The context is nanotechnology in the field of medicine

107. Sacrifice Zones

● Areas that have suffered severe environmental damage

108. 4D printing uses the same 3D printing tech. The 4th dimension comes from material’s
ability to change form in response to stimuli.

109. The context for Worm Holes is Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.

110.
● Speed: Li-Fi > Wi-Fi
● Range: Wi-Fi > Li-Fi

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111. Beamforming technique is related to wireless signals. Focusing the signal on a specific
device.
(Not related to construction as one might imagine)

112. Lab grown diamonds - Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD)

113. Pharmaceutical Excipients

● Substances other than active pharmaceutical ingredients in drugs.

114. IPRs - Nodal Authority - Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion

115. Bacteriophages are Viruses (a neat trap can be laid out here)
● They infect bacteria.
● Used in the treatment of Multi-drug Resistance.

116. Hyperspectral Imaging (the application is so wide you might want to go for ‘All of the
above’)
● Food industry, ocean pollution, oil discovery, diagnostics, deforestation etc.

117. Base Editing

● An improvement over CRISPR (PYQ) More precise.
● No double strand breaks (don’t bother understanding this further)

118. Escape Velocity

● Velocity needed for a Satellite’s escape from gravity
● Depends on the mass and radius of Earth and not the satellite (so it’s the same for all
satellites)

119. Hydrogen Fuel Cell

● Does not store energy (one might think so because it’s called a cell)
● Can run on hydrogen plus (pure oxygen or atmospheric oxygen)
● DC current
● Can work alongside a battery

120. Please get clarity on the differences between B-Cells and T-Cells from your reference
material.

121. Trans fats are unsaturated fats but behave like saturated fats in the body.
● Created through hydrogenation.

122. The context for Kessler Syndrome is space debris collisions. Debris creating more debris.
(Easy to trick one into thinking it’s a health related condition)

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123. Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell
● India’s CAR T-Cell Therapy is NexCAR19 (to destroy B-Cell cancers)
● T Cells are found in WBCs and not RBCs

124. Scramjet engine

● Allows for combustion at supersonic speeds (Like keeping a candle lit in a cyclone)
● Supports missile speeds greater than Mach 5
(Unlike Scramjets, Ramjets slow the airflow to subsonic speeds to facilitate combustion)

125. ‘Jammer’ technology

● Working principle: transmitting signals of the same frequency to cancel out.
(News context - prisons, PM security, drone attacks, exams)

126. Agni - Prime

● Two stage
● Canisterised solid propellant
● Higher mobility (road and rail)
● 1000 to 2000 Km range

127. Sentient AI - AI with ‘consciousness

128. Improvements in Solid State Lithium Battery over regular Lithium-Ion battery
● Less flammable, faster charging, more range
(Liquid electrolyte is flammable)

129. Kilonova - merger of stars, Supernova - death of stars.

(This is an oversimplification, but think it is enough if you know this)

130.Cytokine storm - dangerously excess immune response from the body.

(Was often in the news during Covid)

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131. Sun spots - darker areas on the Sun’s surface. They have strong magnetic fields. It’s these
fields that cause solar flares.

132. Chandrasekhar Limit - mass of a white dwarf star.

● 1.4M is the limit (need not bother understanding this)

133. Very very likely to get a question on cybersecurity, digital frauds etc.
Yet to identify specific prospective question possibilities.
Meanwhile if you come across anything in this regard, give it extra attention.

134. Irradiated food - ‘Radura’ logo

135. Goldene - 1 atom thick - 2D.

136. Silicon Shield - Taiwan

(Strategic deterrence built around its domination in the semiconductor industry)

137. Milgronian Dynamics / MOND theory

● Context: forces in galaxies.
● Rival theory to Dark Matter
● Differs from Newton’s laws on gravity

138. TRISHNA Mission (Space)

● India and France
● Thermal infrared
● Main focus is on Earth’s surface temperature

139. Rooftop Solar installed capacity

1. Gujarat
2. Maharashtra
3. Rajasthan

140. Artificial Intelligence Preparedness Index - IMF.

141. HbA1C Test - Diabetes.

142. Casgevy and Lyfgenia - treatment for Sickle Cell Disease.

143. International Astronomical Union’s definition of a planet

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144. Transposons - ‘jumping genes’. They are DNA sequences that can move from one location
to another within a genome.

145. Bimetallic NiFe system - Water splitting - O2 and H2.

146. HRMN-99: Apple.

147. For a possible question on ‘Artificial General Intelligence’, the keyword to watch out for like
‘human-like’

148. Context for TnpB - plant genome editing

149. The use of semi-conductors in chips over conductors

● The ability to control electrical signals precisely
● Fast switching
● Moore’s law (smaller size)
Note: Lithography is a term used in this context.
(This might be basic, but given that there’s so much news world over around chips and
processors, one must anticipate a question on this topic)

150. Context for BPaLM - MDR Tuberculosis.

(Ambiguity in name creates a trap potential)

151. The context for Haber Bosch Process is Ammonia / fertilisers.

152. Brominated Vegetable Oil - used in Soft drinks / soda as an emulsifier (to prevent
separation)

153. GQ-RCP: HIV detection.

154. While Type 1 Diabetes is an auto-immune disease, Type 2 isn’t.

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155. ‘Dutch disease’ - negative consequences from currency appreciation for a country.

156. Psilocybin - hallucinogen associated with ‘magic mushrooms’

157. Space Omics / SOMA

● Studies the impact of living in space (context - Sunita Williams)
● Note - RBCs in the blood get damaged while in space.

158. Helium is used in creating and maintaining pressure in rockets.

159. IceCube - Neutrino observatory (South Pole).

● Neutrinos as referred to as ghost particles. Light wight and rarely interact with matter.

160. SpaDeX Mission - docking.

161. Malaria is not classified as a Neglected Tropical Disease by WHO, but Dengue is.

162. International Space Station orbits at approx. 400 KMs altitude. Takes Approx 90 minutes to
orbit. (You can do the math of how many orbits in a day)

Art and Culture

1. Terms associated with Nagara temple architecture

● Valabhi, phamsana, Latina, Shekhari and Bhumija.
● Note: Dravida equivalent of Shikhara is Vimama. In Dravida, typically the vimanas are
smaller than the gopurams.

2. Please do Theyyam properly from your basic reference material

3. We might get a question on the basic teachings of Adi Shankara and the tenets of Advaita
Vedanta

4. Hoysala Temples (important as it’s now on UNESCO World Heritage List)

Focus mainly on the 3 temples which were included and note
● Temple architectural style
● rivers nearby
● dedicated to which Gods

5. In the context of Ayodhya, it might be important to note the authorship of some of the regional
versions of the Ramayana.
● Kambar in Tamil, Kritibas Ojha in Bengali, Nagachandra in Kannada, Saint Eknath in
Marathi and Madhava Kandali in Assamese are some of the significant ones.

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6. Please read up on the basic essence of the following (can use chat GPT)
● Advaita Vedanta
● Mimamsa
● Nyaya
● Vyakarna
● Samkhya
● Vaisheshika

7. ‘Saptamatrika’
● A group of seven female deities worshipped in Hinduism as personifying the energy of
their respective consorts.
● Satavahanas

8.Read up on the significance of a language getting added to the 8th Schedule

9. Boustrophedon - is a style of writing in which alternate lines of writing are reversed (left to
right and then right to left), with letters also written in reverse, mirror-style.
Don’t twist your head over it.

10. Moirang Phee - Manipur - motif of teeth (pythonic god)

11. UNESCO Creative Cities Network

● Kozhikode is India’s first and only City of Literature
● SK Pottekkatt is one of the city’s literary greats (the other greats are identifiable by their
names as belonging to Kerala, so skipping them)

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12. Medaram Jatara - Telangana - Koya Tribe - Pays tribute to sacrifices of warriors

13. Bewar, Dahiya, Podu, Penda, Kumari, Valre, Khil, Kuruwa, Jhum etc. are systems of
subsistence / slash and burn agriculture from different parts of India.

14. Lingaraja Temple of Bhubaneshwar

● Kalinga architecture
● Somvanshi dynasty

15. Sports you wouldn’t suspect are in the Khelo India Youth Games
● Yoga, Mallakhamb, Thang tha (Manipur) and Silambam (TN)

16. Aandal, one of the 12 alvars - Tiruppaavai, Nachiyar Tirumoli - Sri Vaishnava tradition.
● Bhakti saints are a UPSC favourite.
● The book you see above on Andal was released earlier this year by the FM. Jeysundhar,
the author is in the foreign service.

17. Krishisukti - treatise on agriculture - Kashyapa

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18. Amravati school of art - Satavahanas

19. Silsila - Sufism - spiritual genealogy

20. Bhakhshali manuscript - mathematics - use of zero - Sharada script.

21. Animals in the Lion Capital aside from lion - horse, bull and elephant.
-Imagine getting a question on this wrong.

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22. Saint Ravidas - Sikh connection - Begampura: his vision for a casteless society.

23. Tankai - ancient stitched shipbuilding method.

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24. Upanishads - easy to frame a pairs based question.

25. Criteria for PVTGs

1. Pre-agriculture level of technology
2. Stagnant or declining population
3. Low literacy
4. Subsistence economy
● Highlight - categorisation by Ministry of Home Affairs

27. Char Dham

● Badrinath
● Dwarka
● Puri (Kaliyuga)
● Rameshwaram

28. Kalbelia dance - Rajasthan - Snake

29. Modhera Sun Temple - Solanki / Chalukya - Gujarat.

30. Jayadeva
● Gita Govinda
● Jagannath Temple, Puri
● In his version of Dasavatara, Buddha is an incarnation of Vishnu
● Translation of Gita Govinda into English was by William Jones (original was in Sanskrit,
not Odia)

31.
● Chaitya - prayer hall
● Vihara - monastic residence
● Stupa - buddhist relics

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32. Please prepare for the topic ‘Stupa’ particularly the Sanchi Stupa a little more carefully from
your standard reference material.
What to look for (just indicative)
● Associated terminologies and dynasties
● Notable sculptures and inscriptions
● Ashokan significance
● Relics
● Materials used

33. Charaideo Moidams - burial mounds - Ahom Dynasty - Assam

34. Kuttu varisai and Marma / Varma Adi are ancient Indian martial art forms that focus on
striking certain vital pressure points.
(Was wondering if the movie ‘Indian’ would inspire a question)

35. Chalcolithic age - copper. Harappans that came later used copper but not iron.

36. ‘Satyameva Jayate’ - Mundaka Upanishad.

37.
● Vinaya Pitaka - rules and regulations for those who join the monastic order. (Discipline)
● Sutta Pitaka - teachings of Buddha including the Dhammapada. (Discourse)
● Abhidhamma Pitaka - philosophy. (Doctrine)
(Dhammapada - Abhidhamma could be set as a trap)

38. Buddhist Councils - it’s worth memorising. Everything except the year.

39. Gommateshwara at Sravanabelagola

● Bahubali (Jaina)
● Chamundraya (Ganga dynasty)

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40. Piprahwa
● Buddhist site
● Kapilavastu
● Stupa over the remains of Buddha

41. Vajrayana is a sect of Mahayana and Theravada is a sect of Hinayana.

42. Manjusha Art - Anga Pradesh (Not Andhra Pradesh) - Story of Bihula & Bihashri - Snake
theme.

43. Suttavibhanga, Khandhaka and Parivara are associated with Buddhism.

44. Gandhara Art - Mahayana Buddhism

45. Yogacara and Madhyamaka: Mahayana Buddhism

46. Chintz, cossaes, bandanna, jamdani - printed fabrics

(NCERT)

47. Sittanavasal
● Jain
● Pandya
● paintings in fresco secco technique
● lotus motifs
● inscriptions in Vattaezhuthu

48. Thinking if the movie Pushpa 2 would inspire a question on Jataras. You can probably read
a little bit further into Medaram Jatara and Gangamma Jatara.
(These events as such get covered by The Hindu)

49. Chavittu Natakam

● Kerala

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 ● Latin Christian
● Portuguese influence
● ‘stamping’
(Hindu and Express have covered it many times)

50.
● Aham Brahmasmi - oneness of Atman and Brahman - Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.
● Satyameva Jayate - Mundaka Upanishad.

51. Etikoppaka toys - Andhra Pradesh, Channapatna toys - Karnataka.

52. Gobekli Tepe - oldest Calendar - Turkey

(Don’t have to research further, just memorise)

53. Classical languages

● Tamil
● Sanskrit
● Telugu and Kannada
● Malayalam
● Odia
(In chronological sequence of recognition)

54. 1st musical instrument in India with a GI tag - Thanjavur Veena

55. Vattezhuthu - rounded script - Tamil Brahmi

56. Abhaya mudra - gesture of fearlessness

(Given the involvement of a politician in why it was in the news, question is unlikely. But
however..)

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57. Sandbox technique (construction)
● Kakatiyas
● Earth quake resistant
● Foundation is filled with sand lime, Jaggery and Black Myrobalan fruit
● Ramappa temple

History
1. On Babar (unlikely, but why risk)

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 ● First Battle of Panipat (Ibrahim Lodhi), Battle of Khanwa (Rana Sanga) and Battle of
Chanderi (Medini Rai)
● Baburnama was written in the Chagatai language (Turki). It was later translated into
Persian during the reign of Akbar.

2. Nitisara is attributed to Kamandaki

● Gupta empire
● Comparable to Kautilya’s Arthashastra (Mauryan Empire) as it deals with similar themes
● Relevant in the context of Project Udbhav, that intends to tap into indigenous military
knowledge.

3.Karez’
● An ancient underground water system of the Deccan Plateau
● Suranga Bawadi
● Adil Shah

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Likely to get a history question on Marathas this year. Inspired by this news plus reservation.

4. Fairly confident about a question on Subhash Chandra Bose and Birsa Munda. Prepare well
on the surrounding topics too

5. Apostles in India
● St. Thomas was first, second was Bartholomew

6. Yom Kippur war

● Israel Vs. Egypt and Syria
● Camp David Accords

7. Gond Queen Rani Durgavati

● Context - PM, HM participated in Durgavati Gaurav Yatra

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 ● Said to have been born in 1524, in Mahoba's Chandela dynasty, known for building the
famous Khajuraho temples.
● Was married to Dalpat Shah, the son of the Gond King Sangram Shah of the kingdom of
Garha-Katanga.
● This kingdom included the Narmada Valley and parts of northern MP.
● Took over the kingdom after getting widowed.
● Historian Satish Chandra, in his book Medieval India, describes her as a good
marksman, skilled at using guns, bows, and arrows.
● Fought against the Mughals and won.
● Her rule finds mention in Abul Fazl’s Akbarnama. He notes, prosperity of the kingdom
was such that people paid their taxes in gold coins and elephants.

8. 17th century Bhakti poet / Saint Tukaram

● Warkari Sampradaya (Place - Dehu)
● known for Abhangas and kirtans

9. Read up a bit on the 18th century Maratha queen Ahilyabai Holkar and the Holkar dynasty.
-The reason is, Ahmednagar in MH is now renamed Ahilya Nagar.

10. Given this backdrop, there’s likely to be a question on Nataraja (Kuththan, Sabesan,
Ambalavanan)

Possibilities
● Significance of tandava
● Bharatanatyam
● Chidambaram (place that means sky of consciousness)
● Tirumurai, Tevaram and Tiruvasagam

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 ● Shaivism
● Which leg is lifted up
● Appar, Sundarar, Sambandar and Manickavasagar
● Note - Chidambaram Nataraja Temple is dedicated to both Shiva and Vishnu. Thillai is a
tree variety.
● Significance of ananda tandava
● The demon under Nataraja's feet signifies that ignorance is under his feet
● The Fire in this hand (power of destruction) means destroyer of evil
● The raised hand signifies that he is the savior of all life.
● The Ring at the back signifies the cosmos.
● The drum in his hand signifies the origin of Life.

11. ‘Karez’
● An ancient underground water system of the Deccan Plateau
● Suranga Bawadi
● Adil Shah

12. Please do Quit India Movement very thoroughly. All the relevant facts on related events,
personalities and policies.
Inspiration?
The recently released movie Ae Watan Mere Watan which is based on Usha Mehta and the
Secret congress Radio.
It may sound silly but in last year’s prediction class we focussed on Cholas (specifically the
ports) given the release of Ponniyin Selvan movie and we got a question on it.

13. Modern India (One-liners)

1. Bargadars - sharecroppers
2. Gomasthas - Indian agents of the English EIC who mediated with weavers
3. Misls - Sikh confederacies, democratic functioning, equality in voting.
4. Cartaz system - Naval trade license system introduced by the Portuguese
5. Policy of Paramountcy - Hastings
6. Dual Government - introduced by Robert Clive, ended by Hastings
7. Pindaris - mercenaries of the Maratha army
8. Treaty of Sagauli - Nepal, Hastings
9. Treaty of Yandabo - Burma
10. Treaty of Lhasa - Tibet, Curzon
11. Forward Policy - Auckland
12. Proud reserve policy - Lytton
13. Golden Farman - Golconda, factory at Masulipatnam
14. 14. Permanent settlement in Bihar and Bengal - Cornwallis
15. Doctrine of Lapse - Dalhousie
16. Durand Line - NWFP / Afghanistan
17. Treaty of Gandamak - Afghanistan
18. Railway Minute - Dalhousie

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19. Bhima Koregaon - Third Anglo Maratha war
20. Policy of patronage and intrusive surveillance - Lord Curzon
21. Sunset law - permanent settlement
22. Treaty of Bassein - Gujarat and Portuguese
23. Treaty of Tordesillas - between Portugal and Spain dividing the non-Christian world by an
imaginary line in the Atlantic
24. Rani Laxmibai - Sir Hugh Rose
25. General Service Enlistment Act - Lord Caning, “crossing the sea, losing caste”
26. Peel Commission - Aftermath of revolt of 1857 to look into military affairs
27. Azamgarh Proclamation - Revolt of 1857
28. Moamaria rebellion - Assam, against Ahom, followers of Aniruddhadeva
29. Kattabomman - Poligar rebellion, kaval / watch fees, Carnatic treaty (Nawab of Arcot and
EIC)
30. Anand Math - Sannyasi rebellion, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee
31. Ramosi Peasant force - Vasudev Balwant Phadke
32. Kundara proclamation - Velu Thampi
33. The Namdharis / Kukas - Non cooperation movement, Baba Ramsingh, Bhagat Jawaharmal

A Note from PIB - The Namdharis were also known as “Kukas” because of their trademark style
of reciting the “Gurbani” (Sayings/Teachings of the Guru)

34. Nil Darpan - Indigo, Dinbandhu Mitra, Dadan system

35. Bardoli Satyagraha - Vallabhai Patel, taxes, Maxwell-Broomfield commission
36. Ramosi uprising - Marathas, western ghats, Poona, against annexation
37. Kol rebellion - Chhotanagpur, Buddho Bhagat
38. Koya revolt - East Godavari District (Andhra)
39. Narkelberia uprising - against beard-tax on Faraizis (Question unlikely though)
40. Tebhaga movement - Floud commission, 2/3rd to share croppers
41. All India Kisan Sabha - NG Ranga, Sahjanand Saraswati
42. Paika rebellion - Bakshi Jagabandhu, Odisha
43. Tana Bhagat movement - against Dikus (outsiders), Jatra Oraon
44. Sripurushtulna - Tarabhai Shinde, on gender parity
45. DK Karve - widow remarriage association, Nishkamakarma Math, Stree Shikshan Samstha
46. Young Bengal Movement - Vivian Derozio
47. Rahnumai Sabha - Parsis
48. Servants of India society - GK Gokhale and MG Ranade
49. Prathana Samaj - Atmaram Pandurang
50. Abolition of Sati - William Bentinck
51. Age of consent Act - Landowne
51. Widow Remarriage Act - Dalhousie
52. The Limitation Act - to check the exploitation of Ryots by moneylenders
53. Illbert Bill - power to Indian judges to try British offenders in criminal cases, Ripon
54. Inland Emigration Act - labourers can’t leave tea plantation without the permission of the
owner

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55. East India Association - Dadabhai Naoroji
56. Indian League - Sisir Kumar Ghosh
57. Famine commission - Richard Strachey
58. Hunter commission - education
59. Vernacular Press Act - Lord Lytton
60. Drain of wealth - ‘Poverty and un-British rule,’ Dadabhai Naoroji
61. Home charges - expenditure incurred in England by Secretary of State on behalf of India
62. Sir Andrew Frazer - Police Commission, setting up of CID
63. National council of education - Swadeshi movement, vernacular education
64. Ghadr Party - Canada - Punjab connection, secular in outlook
65. Ashwini Kumar Dutt - Swadesh Bandhab Samiti
66. Annie Besant - President, Calcutta session
67. Sarojini Naidu - President, Kanpur session
68. Abhinav Bharat - VD Sarvarkar
69. Simon commission - to review GOI Act 1919,
70. Lilinthgow - viceroy during Quit India Movement
71. Chelmsford - viceroy during the Non-cooperation movement
72. Irwin - viceroy during the Civil Disobedience movement
73. Hali system - Hereditary bonded labour

(For the Gandhian phase in Modern India, one liners will not work. The ‘why aspect’ becomes
more important here. So we’ll do it through some highlighted notes like I mentioned during the
mentorship session.
Meanwhile, we’ll do ancient and medieval India through one-liners.

14. Ancient Indian (one-liners)

1. Spasa - Spy
2. Vrajapati - management of pastoral land
3. Gramani - village headman
4. Pani - community of tradesmen / merchants
5. Yava, ikshu, vrihi - cereals mentioned in Vedic texts
6. Suktagendor and Kuntasi - Ports
7. Sabha and Samiti - Popular assemblies to which the king was accountable
8. Banawali - Harappan, Haryana, township in radial pattern
9. Lothal - trade centre
10. River Jhelum - Vitasta (Rig Veda)
11. River Ravi - Purushni
13. Tax collector - Sanghrihitri, Bhagadugha
14. Kulapa - head of family
15. Story of Lopamudra - Hermit Vs. Householder
16. Story of Apala - Rejection by husband on the basis of beauty
17. Story of Urvashi - Rejection by wife for celestial pursuits

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(Above 3 are women who find mention in the Rig Vedas)

18. karshapna, Pana - coins (PYQ - Fanam)

19. Kalibangan - Ploughed agricultural field
20. Lothal - only port town in IVC
21. Bricks of IVC - 4:2:1
22. Adhaka - Unit of weight
23. Northern Black Polished ware - Iron Age

15.

The continued relevance of Kautilya’s Arthashastra in strategic affairs and governance makes it
important for one to know some basic terminologies from the text.
I’ve picked the must-know terms in my opinion

Deepuk Sukumar [email protected] https://t.me/deepuksukumar

 ● Vinaya-adhikarika : Training
● Adhyaksa-pracara : Duties of the executive
● Sadgunya / Mandala system : Foreign Policy
● Samgramika: War

Peace politics
● Sama : Conciliation / Diplomacy
● Dana : gifting
● Dhanda : punishment
● Bheda : divide and rule

Saptanga theory elements

● Swami : The Ruler
● Amatya : The Minister
● Janapada : The Population
● Durga : The Fortified Capital
● Kosha : The Treasury
● Danda : The Army
● Mitra : Ally and Friend

16. Let me give you some statistics on previous year questions from Ancient and Medieval India
(2015-2023)
1. Terminology based : 12
2. Buddhism : 8
3. Jainism : 4
4. Temples / Monuments : 7
5. Personalities / Scholars : 4
6. Ports : 2
7. Paintings : 2
8. Music + Dance + Festivals : 2
Now you probably know why there’s so much emphasis on terms in my one-liners. They are the
easiest to cover as they fall within a predictable area.
To cover temples and monuments : focus on current affairs inspired ones + UNESCO World
Heritage sites.

Buddhism and Jainism : please do really well!

Areas which in my opinion have the LOWEST yield on effort

- chronology of Kingdoms (this is garbage!), music, festivals, dance and paintings. Only
exception? Current affairs inspired topics.

Regards,
Deepuk Sukumar

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17. More terminologies from Ancient and Medieval
1. Apabhramsha - a variation of the Prakrit language
2. Aranyakas - forests, secret, rituals
3. Amil - revenue official
4. Araghatta - water lifting wheel
5. Brahmadeya - land gifted to Brahmins by kings / Agrahara
6. Banjaras - traders
7. Bataidari system - share cropping
8. Bodhisattva - one on the path towards ‘bodhi’ / enlightenment
9. Charvaka / lokayata - pursuit of materialism, worldly pleasures
10. Chauth - one fourth revenue demand, Marathas
11. Sardeshmukhi - one tenth revenue demand, Marathas
12. Charai - cattle / pasture tax
13. Dagh system - branding horses
14. Subha (province) > Sarkar (District) > Pargana (village)
15. The 4 Asramas : Brahmacharya (student) -> Grihasta (householder) -> Vanaprastha (forest
dweller) -> Sannyasa
16. Grantha script - Malayalam script is a descendent
17. Hamam - Public bathing facility (yes, you guessed it right)
18. Hundi - bill of exchange
19. Iqta- land grant system
20. Jatakas - literature on the previous births of Buddha
21. Jatra - Bengali theatre form, associated with Sri Chaitanya’s Bhakti movement
22. Jizya - tax on non-Muslims, fixed amount
23. Kharaj - land tax
24. Jama - assessment, hasil - actual collection
25. Zabti and Dahsala system - land revenue system, Akbar, Todar Mal
26. Mamluk - slave soldiers
27. Madhyamaka - Buddhist school, Nagarjuna
28. Manigramam - merchant guild, medieval south India
29. Misl- Sikh confederacy
30. Divyaprabandham - Alwars, compiled by Nathamuni
31. Paramita - virtues of perfection in Buddhism
32. Pramana - proof of knowledge / epistemology
33. Qanungo - keeper of revenue records
34. Samanta - feudal lord (don’t be led by other assumptions)
35. Shruti - oral tradition
36. Smriti - written tradition
37. Read up on the difference between svetambar and digambar
38. Sahukar - moneylender (sowcarpet in chennai, comes from here)
39. Samkhya - dualism (purusha and prakriti)
40. Vaisheshika - atomism, naturalism

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18. Portfolio system - Lord Canning - Indian Councils Act 1861

19. Government of India Act, 1935 -> RBI, Federal Court, Federal Public Service Commission &
Provincial Public Service Commissions.

20. Travellers - reign / kingdom / empire

1. Deimachus - Bindusara
2. Megasthenes - Chandragupta Maurya
3. Fa Hien - Chandragupta II
4. Hiuen Tsang - Harshavardhana
5. Al Masudi - Mahipala
6. Al Biruni - Ghazni - Indology
7. Marco Polo - kakatiyas
8. Ibn Battuta - Muhammad Bin Tughlaq
9. Nicolo Conti - Deva Raya I (Vijaynagara )
10. Abd al Razak Samarqandi - Devaraya II (Vijayanagara)
11. Duarte Barbosa - Vijayanagara
12. Nuniz - Vijayanagara
13. William Hawkins - Jahangir
14. Thomas Roe - Jahangir
15. Francois Bernier - Dara Shikoh / Aurangazeb
16. Jean Baptiste Tavernier - Shahjahan / Aurangazeb
Their major works are very important too. See if you can pick them up from somewhere else.

21. Archaeological discoveries of significance in recent times

● Keeladi - Tamil Nadu - Crystal quartz weighing unit
● Mudichu thalapalli - Telangana - geoglyph
● Phanigiri - Buddhist heritage site - coin hoard from ishvaku period - elephant on one
side, ujjain symbol on the other.
Ujjain symbol is what you see in the image attached

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22. Raleigh commission - Indian universities (some beginners get it confused with Radcliffe)

23.
● Forward Policy - Lord Auckland,
● Policy of Proud Reserve - Lord Lytton,
● Policy of withdrawal and concentration - Lord Curzon
(Not that they are worthy of any lordship)

24.Birsa Munda - Ulgulan movement - Chhota Nagpur Tenancy Act

25. Mudrarakshasa - Vishakhadatta - on the rise of Chandragupta Maurya (and of course the
role of Kautilya)

26. Matangini Hazra’s sacrifice - Quit India Movement

27. The first factories

● British and Dutch - Masulipatnam
● Portuguese - Calicut
● French - Surat

28. Pattadakal - Virupaksha - Chalukya dynasty - Hindu and Jain - Queen Lokamahadevi

29. Sarla Devi Chaudhurani

● Bharat Stree Mahamandal
● Also the name of a novel written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee
(She was Tagore’s niece btw)

30. All India Kisan Sabha / Kisan Sabha movement - Sahajanand Saraswati

31.
● Butler committee - princely states
● Floud commission - land revenue system (Tebhaga)
● Lee commission - composition of civil services

31. Kalidasa - Chandragupta II

Seen the PYQ on Mian Tansen?

32. Pampa (Adikavi) - Kannada - Jain - Vikramarjuna Vijaya

33. Karachi session - 1931

● Vallabhai Patel
● Resolution on fundamental rights and the National Economic Programme
● Universal Adult Franchise
● Free and compulsory primary education

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 ● Labour rights

34.
● Diarchy at the centre - GoI Act, 1935
● Diarchy in the provinces - GoI Act, 1919

35. Miller Report of 1919

● Maharaja of Mysore
● Reservation for non-Brahmins

36. Ring fence policy - Warren Hastings

37. Iqta system - Iltutmish

38. The 5 landscapes associated with Sangam literature in Tamil.

You don’t need to know what each of them mean.

39. Narayana Pandita - Ganitakaumudi - mathematics

40. Muddiman Committee - On the functioning of Dyarchy

41. Royal Commission on Agriculture - Lord Lilinthgow - APMCs have a historical connection
with this commission.

42. Trading centres - just scan. Ignore the overlaps between the colonisers.

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43. Mihir Bhoja - Pratiharas

44.
● Dholavira and Lothal - Gujarat
● Kalibangan - Rajasthan
● Rakhigarhi and Banawali - Haryana
● Ropar - Punjab

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45. Alluri Sitarama Raju - Rampa Rebellion

46. Guru Gobind Singh - Khalsa

47. Golconda - Qutub Shah

48. Bengal Gazette - Augustus Hicky.

49. Amritsar - Guru Ramdass (Founder)

50. Rani Chennamma - Kittur - Karnataka.

(200th year anniversary of her rebellion against the British)

51. Alexander Cunningham - Archaeological Survey of India.

52. Shamans - ones with magical and healing powers as well as the ability to communicate with
the other world.
(Ancient India - NCERT)

53.
● Lothal - port town / dockyard
● Kalibangan - ploughed field
● Dolavira - 10 lettered signboard
● Banawali - clay plough
(PYQ)
Please collect similar facts specific to sites from your standard reference book.

54. Alexander’s invasion - Nanda Dynasty.

55. The river most mentioned in early Vedic literature is Sindhu.

(Not Saraswati as one could be led to believe)

56. Ashoka’s Southern and Sangam connection. Note the highlighted portion alone.

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57. Regulating Act of 1773
● Supreme Court at Calcutta (Not the Supreme Court we know of today)
● GG, executive council members and servants of the company + revenue matters
exempted from the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court (1781 amendment)

58. Pitt’s Act, 1784

● Distinguished between commercial and political functions
● ‘Dual Control’

59. Charter Act, 1793

● Extension of trade monopoly by 20 years
● Powers to issue licenses for trade to individuals and company employees (Opium to
China)

60. Charter Act, 1813

● Abolished Trade monopoly of EIC (except on tea and trade with China)
● Entry to Christian Missionaries and English education

61. Charter Act, 1833

● Governor General of Bengal to Governor General of India

62. Charter Act, 1853

● Separation of legislative and executive functions
● Open competition into the civil services
● Macaulay committee in 1854

63. Government of India Act, 1858

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 ● Ends Company rule and transfers power to the British Crown

64. Indian Councils Act, 1861

● Portfolio system

65. Indian Councils Act, 1892

● Electoral system was introduced by this Act (However, it was termed ‘Nomination’)

66. Indian Councils Act, 1909

● Morley-Minto Reforms
● Separate electorate for Muslims
Note: Satyendra Prasad Sinha was the first Indian to join the Viceroy’s Executive Council

67. Government of India Act, 1919

● Consequent to August Declaration
● Montagu Chelmsford Reforms
● Central subjects and provincial subjects
● Provincial subjects: ‘transferred’ and ‘reserved’ subjects (Diarchy at Provinces)
● Bicameralism at the centre and Direct Elections (not the same as 1892 you see above)
● Limited franchise
● Separate electorates for Sikhs, Indian Christians, Anglo-Indians and Europeans
● Central Public Service Commission
● (Note - Irrigation, law and order, land revenue were ‘reserved’ subjects)

68. Government of India Act, 1935

● Background - Simon Commission and Ramsay McDonald’s Communal Award
● Communal Award: Separate electorate extended to depressed classes
● But after Poona Pact, common electorate for all Hindus with reservation for depressed
classes.
Features
● All India Federation
● Three lists: Federal, Provincial and Concurrent (F>P>C)
● Diarchy at the centre
● Bicameralism in provinces
● Reserve Bank
● Federal Court of India (Note the difference wrt Supreme Court at Calcutta - 1773)
● Provincial Public Service Commission

69. Abhidhana - Dictionary

70. Megasthenes - Chandragupta Maurya - Indica - makes observations regarding local

governance institutions - City Council (Pataliputra)

71. Sarda Act, 1929

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 ● On child marriages
● Did not apply to princely states

72. Gargi
● Brahmavadini
● King Janaka
● Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
● Challenges sage Yagnavalkya
(A question could get inspired by the movie name Gargi)

73. Sekkizhar - Periyapuranam - Shaivaite literature.

74. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu - Gaudiya Vaishnavism - Sikastakam.

75. Ahom Revolt - Gomdhar Konwar.

76. Abolition of slavery - Charter Act 1833 - however the system of indentured labour emerged
as an alternative.

77. Karachi Session (1931) - Fundamental Rights Resolution (primary education too was a part
of it)

78. Dual Government System in Bengal

● Introduced by Robert Clive
● Abolished by Warren Hastings

79. Khud-kashta and pahi-kashta: peasants

80. Nagarjuna
● contemporary of Kanishka
● philosophy of ‘madhyamaka’ - the middle path
● theorised on cause and effect

81. There have been as many questions on Ashoka as there have been on Buddha / Buddhism
in the past
Ashoka focus areas
● Title/name related (Like Piyadasi in which edicts, Ranyo Ashoka in which sculpture etc.)
● Stone pillars
● Rock edicts (most important)
● Lion Capital
● James Prinsep and Kharosthi script
● Policy of Dhamma

82.

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 ● Zamindari - Cornwallis
● Ryotwari - Munro
● Mahalwari - Bentick

83. Hiranya Garbh - Kshatriya status

84. Shreni - guild of merchants / artisans

85. Deoband Movement

● Sunni Islam
● Revivalist
(Looking at these 3 posts, you might assume I’m trying something secular. It’s just a
coincidence)

86. Carlyle Circular - Against student participation in the Swadeshi Movement

87. Dadabhai Naroji

● Poverty and un-British Rule in India (Drain of Wealth)
● Presented the above as a member of Welby Commission (on wasteful expenditure in
India)

88. Stri Purush Tulana - Tarabhai Shinde

(Significant as a feminist text)

89. Yukti kalpataru - King Bhoja - Ship Building

90. Mirat ul Akbar - Raja Ram Mohan Roy

(Just for the trap possibility due to the Persian name)

91. First Law Commission - Lord Macaulay

92. Revolt of 1857 - Lord Canning

93. Vital Vidhvansak - Gopal Baba Wallangkar

94. Newspaper ‘Deenbandhu’ - Krishnarao Bhalekar.

● Title ‘Deenbandhu’ - CF Andrews.
● No direct connection between the both.

95.
● Non cooperation movement: Lord Reading
● Civil Disobedience Movement: Lord Irwin and Lord Willingdon
● Quit India Movement: Lord Lilinthgow
(Can remember as RIWL - Reveal)

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96. Blue Water Policy - Francisco De Almeida - Portuguese.

97. Subsidiary Alliance

● Originator of the concept: Dupleix
● Introduction: Lord Wellesley
● First to sign: Nizam of Hyderabad (Asaf Jah II)

98. Rani Gaidinliu (Naga) - Heraka Movement

99. ‘Deshbandhu’ - CR Das

(‘Deenbandhu’ is a trap)

100. Bhikaji Cama

● Tricolour abroad
● Paris India Association
(‘Parsi India Association’ because she was a Parsi might work as a poor joke at best, not a trap
)

101.
● Partition of Bengal - Lord Curzon
● Annulment of Partition of Bengal - Lord Hardinge II
(Hardinge Bomb Case was a different Hardinge)

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102. Archaeological sites and river
● Adichanallur: Thamirabarani
● Keezhadi: Vaigai
● Kodumanal: Noyyal
(More for TNPSC Group 1 than UPSC, others can probably ignore)

Polity
1.

News Context - Competition Amendment Act, 2023

● Statutory Body

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 ● Associated to Ministry of Corporate Affairs
● Value of transaction basis for the evaluation of digital market deals
● Appeal against CCI goes to NCLAT

2. In the context of ED being in the news PMLA is important and in the context of PMLA, FATF
is important.
● Established by G7, focus on terror financing and money laundering.
● Membership is crucial for exchange of information and capital flows.
● It must be noted that while India, China and USA are members. Pakistan is not a
member and -Russia has been suspended.
● Grey list - safe havens
● Black list - non cooperative countries

3. Been seeing this provision in the news quite often

● Article 142 of the constitution confers unique power on the Supreme Court to do
'complete justice' between the parties where the law may not provide a remedy.

4. In the context of 75th anniversary of Universal Declaration of human rights, make a note of
the non-obvious provisions from the 30 articles.
https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights

5. Read up on the significance of a language getting added to the 8th Schedule.

6. Applicability of Model Code in a By-election

● Normally enforced in the entire district where the constituency in located
● But if it’s a state capital / metropolitan city / municipal corporation it would be applicable
only in the specific constituency

7. Under Article 19 (1)(a)

Noteworthy ones
● Right to Information
● Right to silence
● Right against tapping telephonic conversations
● Freedom of commercial advertisements
● Right to demonstration and picketing but not right to strike
The SC held Electoral Bond Scheme to be unconstitutional for violating Right to Information
under Article 19(1)(a)

8. Note -
Right to Education is available to both Indian Citizens and Foreign Nationals.
Article 14 too (equality before law and equal protection of laws)

9. On Fake/ false information

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 ● Fact Check Unit is under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting

10. India’s launch of ‘Alliance for Global Good’ at WEF pertains to Gender Equity and Equality.
● It’s important to have a clear understanding as to how equity is different from equality.

11. Given that there was a recent PYQ on Mitakshara and Dayabagha laws, it might be
important to understand the ‘Sapinda’ marriage which is banned. (Was also in the news)

Under the Hindu Marriage Act, on the mother's side, a Hindu individual cannot marry anyone
who is within three generations of them in the "line of ascent". On the father's side, this
prohibition applies to five generations.

Just note down what I’ve highlighted in bold. You don’t even need to care for what it means.

12. If not for a question on PMLA, we might at least get a question on Vienna Convention. So
please do some readings on the basics of the Vienna convention.

13. Constitutional provisions related to legal aid

● Article 39A, 14 and 22(1)
● More than the article numbers it’s important to know there are supportive provisions in
both FRs and DPSPs
● Also, heard of Supreme Court Legal Services Committee? It was in the news.
● It’s set up under the Legal Services Authorities Act and NALSA Rules
● Note - CJI is not the chairperson, but nominates the chairperson, members and
secretary.

14. Without worrying about the constitutionality of the Katchatheevu issue, let’s just note the
following
● Indian territory can be ceded to a foreign state only by amending the constitution under
Article 368.
● Settlement of a boundary dispute between Indian and another country does not require a
constitutional amendment. Can be done through executive action.

15. The 5th Schedule confers powers exclusively on the President to declare any area to be a
scheduled area. The constitution does not provide any criteria to identify scheduled areas.

16. In the Lok Sabha, MPs can be suspended by the speaker without a motion.
● In the case of Rajya Sabha, a motion is required.
● Suspension related provisions are found in the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of
Business.

17. The Constitution under Article 101 lists down the grounds for vacation of a seat by an MP. It
includes voluntary resignation, disqualification and continuous absence from the House for 60
sittings. Expulsion is not mentioned explicitly in the Constitution.

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18. The Prevention of Sexual Harassment Act defines sexual harassment to include unwelcome
acts of a verbal nature too.

19. Given that Kesavananda Bharati case has completed 50 years, please note the following
● Under Article 13, ‘law’ includes ordinances, rules and regulations too. (mentioning only
the non-obvious ones)
● Article 13 does not apply to constitutional amendment under Article 368

20.In the context of Kesavananda Bharati,

Articles 31B and 31C are also very important
● 31B is about the Ninth Schedule
● 31C is about socialistic measures > Article 14 and 19
Please also note the substance of Articles 39B and 39C - measures to equitably distribute
resources and prevent concentration of economic power (socialistic measures)

21.In Delhi - the subjects Land, Public Order and Police are under the central government.

22. Lawmaking powers with respect to preventive detention

● Centre: "preventive detention for reasons connected with Defence, Foreign Affairs, or
the security of India"
● Centre and States (concurrent): "preventive detention for reasons connected with the
security of a State, the maintenance of public order, or the maintenance of supplies and
services essential to the community"

23. Right to Silence is under Article 20(3)

24. CAA
● Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian
● Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan
● Provisions don’t apply to Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram or Tripura and The Inner Line

25. In the context of Uniform Civil Code, note that Personal laws are a part of the concurrent list.
● That’s how Uttarakhand passed the bill on UCC.
● Plus remember the Article number 44.

26. President’s address

● Govt. of India Act 1919
● After general election, only Lok Sabha
● 1st session of every year, both houses assembled together

27. Gram Sabha membership

● All persons whose names are included in the electoral rolls of a village

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28. Subjects under 11th Schedule (Rural, 29) > Subjects under 12th Schedule (Urban, 18)

29.
● District Planning Committee - 4/5th elected
● Metropolitan Planning Committee - 2/3rd elected

30. Panchayat Development Index

● Released by Ministry of Panchayati Raj (Not NITI as one might assume)
● To measure progress made in achieving SDGs
● Positive competition among panchayats

31.
● Gram Manchitra: Geo-tagging panchayat assets using GIS
● GS Nirnay: App for documenting gram sabha proceedings

32. Anti-defection
● For stable Govt.
● Whip system: no mention in the constitution
● 52nd CAA, 10th schedule
● Speaker may refer matter to Privilege committee
● No time limit on the presiding officer to act

33.Delimitation
● one vote, one value
● 3 focus areas:
1. number of seats (1971 census)
2. territories of constituencies (2001 census)
3. determining seats to be reserved (2001 census)
● Delimitation Commission: CEC, Retd. SC judge and State EC

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34. CEC Vs. ECs
● The CEC may be removed in the same manner and on the same grounds as a Supreme
Court Judge.
● ECs may be removed only upon the recommendation of the CEC.

35. Although this may seem very important, the return on effort in my opinion is very low. Can
skip, except for the 3rd point to the left. 4 or more states.

36. Grievance Redressal Assessment Index is released by the Ministry of Personnel.

37. Article 145 says that to decide a 'substantial question of law related to the interpretation of
the Constitution' or requiring the Supreme Court's advice under Article 143, where the President
seeks clarification on a matter, a Bench must have a minimum of five judges.

38. 69th Constitutional Amendment Act pertains to special status for Delhi as National Capital
Territory
On the basis of Balakrishnan committee recommendations

39. The context for Leniency Plus is Competition Commission of India on cartels

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40.
● Negative rights - liberty, positive rights - entitlement.
● Rights restricting the authority of the State? Negative

41.
● 3rd Schedule - Oaths.
● 4th Schedule - allocation of Rajya Sabha seats to each state.

I often find students being familiar with every other schedule except 3 and 4.

42. Constitutional Amendment Bill

● No prior record of President
● No joint sitting
● President must give assent
● Private member can introduce

43.
● Equality before law : Rule of law, nobody is above the law, no special treatment
● Equal protection of law: treat equals equally, unequals unequally (Equity)

44. State Human Rights Commissions cannot inquire into matters that come under the Union
List.

45. Committees of the Constituent Assembly under Sardar Patel

● Provincial constitution committee, Advisory committee on Fundamental Rights,
Minorities, Tribal and Excluded areas.
● Note:- States committee was under Nehru. Don’t get confused.

46. FSSAI is a statutory body under the supervision of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
One might think it’s Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution as it has to do
with food.

47. DPSP - ‘Instrument of Instructions’ - Government of India Act, 1935.

48. Doctrine of Promissory Estoppel. Was in the news with respect to Agnipath case in
Supreme Court, it’s related to contracts.
Kindly don’t get into the details, like the different kind of estoppels etc.

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49.6th Schedule states - Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya and Mizoram
Remember as ATM Money without Mani (Manipur)

50. Doctrine of Pith and Substance

Has application in deciding which list (state or centre) would cover a law.

51. Doctrine of colourable legislation

● what cannot be done directly should not be done indirectly
● Intent is to prevent abuse of authority

52. Earlier I had shared that 3rd schedule was on oaths. What’s important to note is, President
and Governor oaths are NOT a part of it.
● Oath for SC and HC Judges? Yes, 3rd Schedule.
● Easy to set a trap in this area.

53. The parliament can extend or exclude a high court’s jurisdiction over a union territory.

54. Objectives Resolution - Preamble - Jawaharlal Nehru.

Also please be clear, the Nehru of Nehru Report was Motilal. And Jinnah’s 14 points were a
response to this report.

55. Constitution recognises linguistic and religious minorities but does not define ‘Minority’

56. Article 371C (one of the question possibilities from Manipur being in the news)
● Special provision with respect to Manipur
● President -> Committee of hill area members of SLA
● Governor shall make a report to President on administration of hill areas.
● what is a hill area? Declared by the President

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57.

58. Article 50 - separation of judiciary form the executive.

59. Asymmetrical federalism

● Principle of equity > equality

60. Zero FIR

● FIR irrespective of the area where the offence was committed
● later transferred to the police station that has the actual jurisdiction
● Justice Verma Committed report

61. Commission of Railway Safety is under the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

Yes, you read that correctly.

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62. Census is under Ministry of Home Affairs

63. Leader of opposition is a statutory post

64. Law Commission of India - Non statutory body, constituted by a notification from
Government of India.

65. Creation of North eastern states in chronological order

1. Assam (1950)
2. Nagaland (1963)
3. Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura (1972)
4. Sikkim (1975)
5. Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram (1987)
Code - AN MMT SAM
MMT - Make my trip?

66. A note on Delegated legislation

● If the laws made by the legislature are the skeleton, delegated legislations are like the
flesh.
● Legislatures don’t have the time or expertise to go into the finer aspects and details of
laws, therefore they delegate powers to the executive to come up with rules and
regulations under the parent law.
● The committee on subordinate legislation keeps a check on the executive in this regard.

67. Right against adverse impacts of climate change - under Right to Life and Right to Equality.
● Most recent Supreme Court observation.
● Note: protection of environment, has references in right, duties and also DPSPs.
● 48A, 51A, 21 and 14 (just for your reference)

68.Public Accounts Committee - Government of India Act 1919

69. Right to Legal Aid - Articles 21 and 39A

-So it’s under both FRs and DPSPs

70. Doctors and advocates are not covered under the Consumer Protection Act.

71. PVTG / Primitive Tribal Group - Dhebar Commission - 4th FYP

72. Election Commission of India Apps / softwares you should know about
● ENCORE
● Suvidha
● C Vigil
● Saksham
Easy to set a ‘correctly matched’ question with this.

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73.
9th Schedule - 1st CAA
10th Schedule - 52nd CAA
11th Schedule - 73rd CAA

74. The 5 subjects transferred from state list to concurrent list through the 42nd CAA
● Weights and measures
● Forests
● Education
● Protection of wildlife
● organization of subordinate courts

75. States with 5th Schedule areas. Easier to remember through this map.

76. Water - State List

(Don’t get confused because of Jal Jeevan Mission)

77. Documents issued on DigiLocker are at par with original physical documents.

78. Mentioned in the constitution but not defined

● Office of profit
● Socialist
● Secular

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 ● Minority
● Untouchability
● Domicile
● Martial Law
● Uniform civil code
● Proved misbehaviour or incapacity
● contempt of court
● Public interest
● Uniform civil code
● Reasonable restriction

79. Right to Privacy under Article 21

80. Just know that the Padma awards have had some interruptions after they were instituted in
the year 1954.
● Interruptions - 1978 and 1979, 1993 to 1997.
● You just need to know that there were interruptions. No need to remember the years.

81. For the Principle of non-refoulement, context is Refugees

82. Prisons - State List

83. Parole Vs. Furlough

● Furlough doesn’t require a stated reason, but Parole does
● Furlough period is counted as time spent in prison, not the case with Parole
Note - Furlough is not an absolute right and can be denied.

84. Precedents are binding on lower courts. However, it is not absolute, there are a few
exceptions.

85. Vertical Vs. Horizontal reservation

Pay attention to the table alone. Here in this example: Women - horizontal, community - vertical.

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86. Retirement of judges
● District Courts: 60
● High Courts: 62
● Supreme Court: 65

87. Article 253

Power of the Parliament to make laws for the implementation of any international treaty /
convention. Example - Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

88. Just know that we’ve had two-member constituencies in the past. Abolished in 1961.
Was to provide reservation for SCs and STs.

89. In the context of the recent documentary released on the 75th Anniversary of the Supreme
Court of India, it’s important to note the above.
● Are you wondering how 75th when the Federal Court was established in 1935? 
● It’s in the name.
https://youtu.be/p2PLwewjh5Y?si=vEdLQbtHR5k6G-ts

90. Constituent Assembly

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 ● Cabinet Mission Plan formula
● In the provinces, seats were divided as General, Muslims and Sikhs in proportion to their
population

91. Committees of the Constituent Assembly

● States committee : Jawaharlal Nehru
● Advisory committee on FR, Minorities, Tribal and excluded areas : Vallabhai Patel
(One might think it’s the other way)

92. Preamble amended by the 42nd CAA

● Socialist, Secular and Integrity were the additions
● Date of adoption of the Preamble - 26th November, 1949.
● Preamble is a part of the constitution but has no legal effect independently of other parts.

(The correct statement describing its status from UPSC CSE Prelims 2020)

93.
● The term Federation is not mentioned anywhere in the constitution.
● Indian Federal system is based on Devolution / Disaggregation (Not Integration)

94. Independence of Judiciary - an essential feature of federalism.

(UPSC CSE Prelims 2021)

95. Parliament’s power to reorganise a state

● Simple Majority in the Parliament
● Only with prior recommendation of the President
● President ‘shall’ refer the bill to the state legislature for its views
● Views not binding
● Not considered an amendment to the Constitution under Article 368

96. Basis for Reorganisation of States

1. SK Dhar - administrative convenience
2. Fazl Ali - language plus other criteria
(First linguistic state - Andhra Pradesh)

97. Ceding of Indian territory or acquisition of new territory requires constitutional amendment
under Article 368.

98. Skipping the citizenship chapter altogether. Yield to effort is too little in my opinion. Too
many details which even if one tries to remember, still carries the risk of getting it wrong. UPSC
is too good with setting distractors.

99. Election of the President

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 ● Inclusion of a legislative assembly into the electoral college requires a constitutional
amendment. Example - NCT and Puducherry in the past, Jammu and Kashmir today.

100. Value of votes (President’s election)

● Value of a vote for each MLA could differ from state to state
● Value of an MP’s vote is more than the value of any MLA’s vote
● The value of a Rajya Sabha MP’s vote is the same as a Lok Sabha MP’s vote

101. Office of Profit

● We all know it’s not defined in the constitution
● But to understand the meaning
● Office - employment in a post of a permanent nature in the Government.
● Profit - monetary benefit from holding the post.
● Why is it problematic? - Scope for undue influence, conflict of interest and would affect
separation of powers.

102. President, Vice President election related disputes

● To be inquired into and decided by the Supreme Court (ECI is a trap)

103. In the context of aid and advice (Article 74)

● 42nd CAA: shall
● 44th CAA: reconsider + shall

104. ‘Private members’

● MPs who are not ministers (even if they are ruling party MPs)

105. Circumstances under which the President enjoys discretionary powers

● Reconsideration of the advice of CoM
● Sending back a Bill for reconsideration (except Money Bill)
● Appointing the PM when no single party enjoys a majority
● Dissolving the Lok Sabha when CoM loses majority

106. Note this with respect to Bills passed by a State Legislature reserved for the President:
● If a bill is sent back by the State Legislature after the President has returned it, the
President may still choose to withhold assent. (Unlike how it is with the Union Bills)

107. President Vs. Governor with respect to Pardoning powers

● Court Martial, Pardon of Death Penalty and Union List (only President)
● State List (only Governor)
(Note - Governor can commute a death sentence but not pardon. In other cases where
jurisdiction is applicable, the Governor can pardon)

108. President Vs. Vice President with respect to qualification

● President: Lok Sabha

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 ● Vice President: Rajya Sabha

109. First Tribunal in India was the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, 1941.
(One might be tempted to think CAT)

110. Empowerment of the Parliament to constitute Tribunals was through the 42nd
Constitutional Amendment Act.

111. Origin of Writs in India - Regulating Act, 1773.

112. Writ jurisdiction of the High Courts is broader than the Supreme Court.

113. Deputy Chief Minister

● A state can have more than one
● Not a constitutional office

(Note - number of ministers in a state including the CM shall not be less than 12)

114. It is compulsory for Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa to have a
minister of tribal welfare.

115. District Planning Committees

● 4/5th of members shall be elected by and from amongst elected members of panchayats
and municipalities at the district level.
● Ratio of rural to urban population will be considered in determining the split.

116. Constitution Bench

● Minimum 5 judges
● A constitution bench is necessary even when the President consults the Supreme Court
under Article 143

117. Muddiman Committee - Dyarchy in provinces.

118. States in India cannot issue Treasury Bills (T-Bills) only the Centre can.

119. Census Towns are governed by Rural Local Bodies.

Making you think urban because it’s a town is a trap.

120.
● Doctrine of Severability - declaring only a part of the statute void and not the entire
statute.
● Doctrine of Harmonius construction - see a provision as a part of the whole and not in
isolation.

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 ● Doctrine of Pith and Substance - used in determining legislative competence (Seventh
Schedule)
● Doctrine of Colourable Legislation - A law that cannot be made directly by a legislature
cannot be made indirectly.

121. Court of Record

● Both the Supreme Court and High Courts
● Contempt powers are instrinsic to being Courts of Record

123. UIDAI is under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Electronics and IT.

(Some tend to think Home Affairs)

124. Oceanic circle of power’ - Gandhi (local governance)

125.
● Hunter Commission - Education
● Whitley Commission - Labour
● Frazer Commission - Police reforms
● Floud Commission - Land Revenue System
(Senior Pub Ad students - Whitley Council? Yes, the same Whitley)

126.
● Kadambari - Banabhatta
● Vikramadevacharita - Bilhana

127. Tax Expenditure - revenue foregone on account of exemptions / incentives given to

taxpayers.
(PYQ but just in case)

128. Locus Standi - only the affected party can approach the court.
(Note - PILs are based on the relaxation of locus standi)

129. Secretariat of Parliament - Constitutional body

130. Assam Rifles - Dual Control Structure

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131. The context for ‘harm principle’ is restrictions on human liberty.

132. Minimum age to get married under the Special Marriage Act is different for males and
females.
Male - 21, Female - 18
(Found the information curious)

133. The context for ‘Principled Distance’ is Indian secularism.

134. Minimum area of non-interference: Negative Liberty

(NCERT)

135. Lex Loci report - uniform laws

(Usually in the context of Uniform Civil Code, we see a mention of this)

136. Article 47 covers health, nutrition, living standards and prohibition of intoxicants.

137. Triple Test’ - Right to Privacy

● existence of a law
● legitimate State aim
● test of proportionality (most important)

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138. Centrally Sponsored Schemes
● Designed by the centre and implemented by the State Governments or UTs (funding
varies)
● State and concurrent list subjects

Central Sector Schemes

● Designed, implemented and funded by the centre
● Union list subjects

139. Social Contract Theory

The idea that individuals consent to surrender some freedoms to the State in exchange for
protection and social order.

140. Constitutional Morality

● Focus is on values and principles enshrined in the constitution (beyond mere legal
compliance)

Constitutionalism
● Focus is on a ‘limited Government’ with appropriate checks and balances

141. Recess in the Parliament

● Time period between prorogation and reassembly

142. Context for Doctrine of Eminent Domain - State acquiring private property for public
Purpose.

143. Areas of highest importance in Indian Polity (2011-24)

1. Parliament
2. Fundamental Rights
3. Directive Principles of State Policy
4. Supreme Court
Note - the yield from Parliament is double of Fundamental Rights.
(Source: PYQ data from IAS PCS Paathshala)

144.
● Right to be forgotten - Article 21
● Right to be free from climate change - Article 14 and 21

145. Police Commissionerate system

● Unified command structure. Commissioner has magisterial powers too. Example:
Section 144
● Introduced in 1856

Dual System

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 ● Both the SP and Collector have control over policing. But magisterial powers are with the
Collector.

146. Off budget borrowings / extra budgetary resources

● Not counted in fiscal deficit calculations
● Example: Railways raising money through IRFC

147. Gram Nyayalayas

● Both civil and criminal cases
● Responsibility to establish: State Governments
● Appeal: District Court (Civil), Sessions Court (criminal)

148. Ex post facto laws - only in criminal cases.

149. INTERPOL Notices

150. Edward Law Committee - on cooperative societies.

(Law is a part of his name. Would make for a silly trap)

151. ‘Income distance’ in the context Finance Commission - distance of a state’s per capita
income from the richest state’s per capita income.
● Higher is the income distance, more is the allocation.

152. Under certain exceptional circumstances the Election Commission of India has the power
to de-register a political party. Example - registration obtained fraudulently.

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-The usual understanding is that it has the power to register but not de-register.

153.
● National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority - Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers.
(Context for Materiovigilance - Medical Devices)
● Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission - Ministry of Health.

154. Right to die with dignity - Article 21.

155. Context for ‘living will’ - Euthanasia.

156. Context for ‘doctrine of merger’ - finality of a higher court’s order.

157. Special Category Status’ - introduced by 5th Finance Commission.

158. Minor Forest Produce under FRA

● Non timber forest produce of plant origin
● Includes Bamboo

159. Peacetime gallantry awards

● Ashok Chakra (highest)
● Kirti Chakra
● Shaurya Chakra
(Questions on awards are uncommon, however for a certain reason I’m putting this out)

160. Census is a Union List subject (There is scope for confusion here, given the news around
Karnataka’s caste based census)

161. District Mineral Foundation - applicable to both Minor and Major Minerals.

162. PIL
● Extension of writ jurisdiction
● Only in High Courts or Supreme Court
● Dilution of ‘locus standi’

163. Legislation providing for Social Impact Assessment - Land Acquisition Act.

164. Nominated members of the Rajya Sabha vote in the election of the Vice President.

165. Removal of Vice President

● Effective majority in the Rajya Sabha, followed by
● Simple majority in the Lok Sabha
● Effective Majority = Majority of (total membership minus vacancies)

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166. Just know that there has been an instance in the past when the CJI has acted as the
President. (Justice Hidayatullah)

167. 5 Zonal councils - State Reorganisation Act, 1956.

The later addition of the North Eastern Council was under the North Eastern Council Act, 1971.

168. Total number of council of ministers at the union / state level shall not exceed 15% of the
total membership of Lok Sabha / State Legislative Assembly.

State level - subject to a minimum of 12 minsters.

169.Cabinet Committees are not mentioned in the constitution

170. Under certain circumstances the Governor can promulgate an ordinance only with the prior
instruction of the President.

171. Reserving a state bill for the consideration of the President in certain cases is mandatory.

172. Number of seats for each state in the Rajya Sabha is based only on population.

173. NOTA is not applicable in Rajya Sabha and Legislative Council elections.

174. MLA vote in the Rajya Sabha election against the instruction of the party is not a ground for
disqualification under the 10th schedule.
(Not considered a vote within the assembly)

175.
● Summoning, Prorogation and Dissolution: President.
● Adjournment, Adjournment Sine Die: Speaker / chairperson.
(Prorogation - session, adjournment - sitting)

176. No domicile requirement in both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha Elections.

177. If an MLA / MLC gets elected as an MP and does not resign as an MLA / MLC, MP seat
becomes vacant.

178. With regard to disqualification of a member of RS or LS by the President under Article

102(1), opinion of the Election Commission is binding on the President.
Example - Office of Profit.

179. Quorum in either House is 1/10th of the total membership. (Provided in the constitution
itself)

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180. Leader of the Opposition or the requirement of party in opposition needing to have 1/10th
of total membership of LS: neither are mentioned in the constitution.

181.Bills do not lapse when houses are prorogued.

182. Joint sitting cannot be held for a money bill or constitutional amendment bill.
-Joint sitting is summoned by the President and presided over by the Speaker.

183. Money Bill, be thorough with every single line. Curious mention - audit of accounts of a
state.

184. Compensation of Election Commissioners is not charged on the consolidated fund of India.

185. The President cannot return a money bill for reconsideration. However, pocket veto is
possible.
Certification as a money bill - Speaker (subject to judicial review)

186.
1. Finance Bill (A): Money bill content plus ‘ordinary’ content.
Prior recommendation of the President. Introduced only in the Loksabha. Rajya Sabha has
powers like in the case of an ordinary bill. Joint sitting possible.

2. Finance Bill (B): Involves expenditure but not any of the money bill matters.
Like an ordinary bill. President’s recommendation not needed for introduction, but needed for
consideration by either house.

187. Bills. Another high-yield table one must be thorough with

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188. Adjournment motion can be introduced only in the Lok Sabha.

189. Ordinances were provided for through the Indian Councils Act, 1861 (section 23 to be
precise)
I’m deleting my previous message on ordinances attributing it to GoI Act, 1935.

190. Rajya Sabha has no representation in the estimates committee

191. Lok Sabha Vs. Rajya Sabha

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192. No provision for a joint sitting in a state legislature with legislative council. The legislative
council can at maximum delay the passage of a bill by 4 months.

193. State Legislative Council creation / abolition

● 2/3rd majority resolution in the state assembly + Simple majority in the parliament

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 ● Maximum size: 1/3rd of assembly. Minimum of 40.

194. Dispute between central government and a union territory government (Delhi, Puducherry
and J&k) will be heard by the respective High Court first.

195. Supreme Court’s special leave to appeal does not apply to a court or tribunal related to the
armed forces.

196. It is not mandatory for the Supreme Court to provide its opinion on a Presidential
reference. If it does give its opinion, it is also not binding on the government.
Exception: for a reference relating to a treaty signed before the commencement of the
constitution, the Supreme Court must mandatorily give its opinion.

197. Judge of a High Court, retired Supreme Court or High Court judge can sit and act as a
judge of the Supreme Court under certain circumstances.
(Ad hoc arrangement. We’ve also had a PYQ on it)

198. Given the debate around NJAC yet again, let’s look at the provisions it had (99th CAA)
● 6 members
● CJI
● Two other senior Supreme Court judges next to the CJI
● Union Minister of Law and Justice
● Two eminent persons to be nominated by a committee comprising CJI, PM and Leader
of Opposition.
● Would take care of both appointments and transfers.

199. With regard to Justice DK Sharma’s transfer, we can expect a question on transfer of HC
judges. Note the role of President and CJI.

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200. High Court Judges are appointed by the President (some tend to think Governor) and the
impeachment is through the Parliament.
● However, the expenses, salaries etc. are charged upon the consolidated fund of the
state.

201. Unlike the Supreme Court having its original jurisdiction defined by the constitution under
Article 131, there is no such equivalent provision in the constitution for the High Courts.

202. Writ jurisdiction of the High Courts is wider (FRs + legal rights) than that of the Supreme
Court (FRs).

203. Those entitled for free legal aid (PYQ theme)

● Ones to note: Industrial workmen and women.
● The DPSP connection is Article 39A.

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Deepuk Sukumar [email protected] https://t.me/deepuksukumar
204. In the context of Lok Adalats, if you see the statement: “Any case pending before any
court,” don’t assume it is extreme and eliminate it.

It is correct.

205. Constitutional Right: A Right provided in the constitution but outside of Part 3.

206. Equality before the law - equality, Equal protection of the law - equity.

207. Amendment related to omission of right to property from fundamental rights - 44th CAA.

208. Right to form cooperative societies - 97th CAA.

209. A civil law can have retrospective effect but not a criminal law.

210. Comparison of preventive detention related provisions in the 7th Schedule

● Union list - Preventive detention for reasons connected with Defence, Foreign Affairs, or
the security of India;
● Concurrent list - Preventive detention for reasons connected with the security of a State,
the maintenance of public order, or the maintenance of supplies and services essential
to the community;

211. Writ jurisdiction of the Supreme Court under Article 32 is itself a fundamental right (unlike
the writ jurisdiction of the High Courts)

212. With respect to which fundamental rights are applicable only to citizens Vs. all persons, try
and remember only the ones that are applicable to citizens exclusively. They are fewer to
remember

● Articles 15, 16, 19, 29 and 30 (broadly)

213.
● Movement of subjects in the 7th schedule
● President’s election process
● NJAC
● changes to Article 368 process itself
Would require special majority + ratification by not less than half the states.
(There are a few more, but I’ve typed out only the noteworthy ones)

214. Article 368

● Private member can introduce
● No provision for joint sitting
● President must give assent, prior recommendation not required

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215. ‘Cohabitation’ in the context of France - the President and the PM are from different
political parties.

Economics

1. Note - Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code distinguishes between financial creditors and
operational creditors.

2. In the context of Adani-Hinderburg, it’s essential to understand the concept of ‘shorting’

● In super simple terms it’s to sell high first and buy low later, in anticipation of fall
(Opposite of Long)
● Can be done through futures, forwards or options.
● Covered short selling (with the borrowing of shares) - lower risk.
● Naked short selling (without the borrowing of shares) - higher risk.
Note:
● Naked short selling is banned in the Indian securities market.
● Institutional investors are not allowed to do day-trading

3. Prepare for Digital Public Infrastructure and India Stack really well. I’ll share one-liners
eventually, but you needn’t wait

4. In the context of Circular economy, note the use of Steel slag in cement manufacturing and
plastic in road construction.

5. Organic Certification
● APEDA / NPOP under Ministry of Commerce and Industry (covers exports and domestic
market)
● PGS - Organic under Ministry of Agriculture (covers only domestic market)

6. GVA is at basic prices (base year 2011-12)

GDP is at market prices
GDP = GVA + Net taxes on products - net subsidies on products
Please memorise this equation so that you know under what circumstances GVA will be more
than GDP and vice versa.

7. Please make very short notes on the following Economy related topics.
Duration - Max 2 days
Keep in mind PYQs, while deciding what information to pick.
● Relationship between bond price and bond yield
● Sectors covered under Priority Sector Lending (pay attention to the curious ones)
● Small Finance Banks Vs. Payments Banks
● Real GDP Vs. Nominal GDP
● Current prices Vs. Constant Prices
● Bond yield, Bond Price, Coupon rate

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 ● Incremental Capital Output Ratio
● WPI Vs. CPI
● Core inflation Vs. Headline inflation
● GDP deflator
● Terms of Trade
● Share in merchandise exports (note highest)
● Seigniorage
● Purchasing Power Parity
● NEER vs. REER
● Internationalisation of Rupee
● E-Kuber
● SLR Vs. CRR
● Ways and means advance
● Legal tender money
● Bank Boards Bureau
● Lender of last resort
● Bank Run
● Notice money
● Commercial papers
● Certificate of deposits
● Financial Services Institutions Bureau
● DICGC
● India Post Payments Bank
● Regulation of financial institutions (who regulates what)
● Digital Banking Units (DBUs)
● REITs
● Angel investors and anchor investors
● ETFs, Bharat 22
● SGBs, why is it important for the economy
● Impact bonds
● Economic Capital Framework of the RBI
● Money multiplier
● Market Stabilisation Bonds
● Operation Twist
● Long-term repo operation
● Inflation Premium
● Liquidity Trap
● Stagflation
● Demand pull inflation, cost push inflation
● Deflation, Disinflation, Reflation
● Sovereign Gold Bonds
● Sovereign Green Bonds
● Enhanced Access and Service Excellence
● Integrated Ombudsman Scheme

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 ● Tokenisation of card services
● DAKSH
● Criteria for Domestic Systematically Important Banks
● FDI vs. FII vs. FPI
● What constitutes ECB
● Fully Accessible Route (what context)
● Phantom Capital
● Strategic Disinvestment Policy
● Items in capital account vs. current account
● Transfer Pricing, Advance Pricing Agreements
● Highest remittances into India from which country
● Deleveraging
● National Financial Reporting Authority
● Effective Capital Expenditure
● Capital receipts Vs. Revenue receipts
● Capital expenditure Vs. Revenue expenditure
● National Infrastructure Pipeline, National Asset Monetisation Pipeline
● Tax Buoyancy
● Items that go into the Public Account of India
● Counter-cyclical Fiscal Policy
● E-way Bill
● Crowding out effect
● Consolidated Sinking Fund
● 15th FC vs. 14th FC
● Income distance
● What’s included under Public Debt
● Components of India’s Forex reserves
● Net International Investment Position
● Off-budget borrowings / extra budgetary resources
● Which are the resources in which India is the largest producer
● MSP for minor forest produce
● Model Land Leasing Act, 2016
● E-NAM
● FPO structure
● Economic Threshold Limit
● Urea imports, neem coated urea, subsidies
● Liquid nano urea
● One nation, one fertiliser
● Which subsidy is the highest. Fert, food, petroleum
● Minimum Export Price and Minimum Import Price, how they work
● Operation Greens
● Technical Textiles
● Palm, palm oil
● TFR related stats, replacement rate

Deepuk Sukumar [email protected] https://t.me/deepuksukumar

 ● ASEEM
● MGNREGA - which CPI
● Context for Totalisation Agreement
● Open Acreage Licensing Policy
● Graded Surveillance Measure
● Core industries, sector with highest weightage
● Social Stock Exchange
● India’s energy mix, what contributes how much. Know the order.
● Who regulates credit rating agencies
● Information Risk Reduction Access
● NPA, stressed assets
● Prompt Corrective Action

Regards,
Deepuk Sukumar

8. Please read up on the concept of Negative Interest Rate

Aspects to focus on
- When / why is it used? (context - Japan)
- Whether it is short term policy rate or long term policy rate?
- What is yield curve control scheme?
- Do depositors need to pay the bank for holding a deposit?
- Do borrowers ‘earn’ an interest on their loan?
- What’s the impact on profitability of banks?
- Would people prefer to hold cash instead of depositing money in banks?

Don’t go very deep into the technical aspects.

9. We might get a question on Social Stock Exchange

Points I would like you to note
● Regulation by SEBI
● Both non-profit and for profit social enterprises can get listed
● Political and religious orgs, corporate foundations can’t get listed, those into affordable
housing can.
● Zero Coupon Zero Principal Instrument: Only Non-profits can use this to raise money

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10.

Please note this trend in direct and indirect taxes.

11. Foreign Tourist Arrivals in India (Top)

1. USA
2. Bangladesh
3. Australia
Source: Ministry data

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12.

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Deepuk Sukumar [email protected] https://t.me/deepuksukumar
Deepuk Sukumar [email protected] https://t.me/deepuksukumar
Just try to grasp which of them are major and minor

13. Circuit breakers

● A limit on how much a stock can go up or down in a day
● trigger limits - 10, 15 and 20%
● Based on SEBI guidelines

14. Reverse flipping - shifting the domicile of companies back to India. Examples in the news:
Groww, Meesho, Zepto etc.

15.
● Blue Bonds - sustainable marine sector
● Yellow Bonds - solar every generation
● SEBI

16.
● Quaternary sector - knowledge based intellectual work
● Quinary sector - decision makers of the highest order Ex: CXOs
AI, Big Data, robotics etc. will fall under quaternary sector

17. Domestic Systematically Important Banks list is released by RBI (ICICI, HDFC and SBI are
the only banks in the list)
● Globally Systematically Important Banks list is released by Financial Stability Board,
criteria given by Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. No Indian bank on this list.
● Concept behind both: “Too big to fail”
● Government support likely in the case of stress but stricter safeguards.

18. Geographical Indications

● Under Controller General of patents Designs and Trademarks under DPIIT under
Ministry of Commerce and Industry
● Not given to an individual person
● Valid for 10 years

19. The context for Arm’s length principle is transfer pricing (taxation with respect to
transactions between two divisions of the same company)

20. Sovereign Green Bonds

● Managed by Public Debt Management Cell, MoF
● Proceeds go to consolidated fund of India
● Subject to CAG audit

21. Credit Card Tokenisation

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 ● A card security measure in which an alternative card number (token) is created in place
of a card’s actual 16 digit code.

22.

23. To become a member of the World Bank (IBRD), a country must first join the IMF.

24. Labour Force Participation Rate

● 15 years and older
● Includes: employed and those also willing to work and looking for a job

25. Digital Rupee

● Reduction in operational costs involved in physical cash management
● Offline feature (for last mile reach)
● Cross border payments

Don’t delve too much into it, just the points you see here and in the image are enough.

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26. National Monetisation Pipeline - Brownfield Infrastructure assets (Not green)

27. IMF SDR

● USD, Yen, Euro, Pound Sterling and Renmimbi
There were a few newspaper articles on why rupee should be added to the SDR.
● Addition of rupee in the SDR can increase rupee value and also reduce its exchange
rate volatility.

28. India VIX - Volatility index - stock market

29. Given that there was a lot of debate around freebies last year, please get clarity on what
falls under revenue expenditure and capital expenditure.

30
● World’s top recipient of remittances: India
● Top source of remittances in India: USA

31. Legal tender

● Coin or a banknote legally recognised as a means to settle a debt or financial obligation.
● Crypto currencies, cheque, DD etc. are NOT legal tender.

32. Swiss challenge method is associated with contracting / Public Private Partnerships

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33. Terms of trade - ratio between the index of export prices and the index of import prices

34. Cost push inflation - supply side factors - limited effectiveness of monetary policy

35. Often in the context of Indian Railways, the metric operating-ratio is used.
● It’s nothing but Operating Expenses / Operating Revenue
● It’s an indicator of financial efficiency. Clearly, a lower ratio is better.

36. In the economics, the difference between Real and Nominal is inflation. Real is adjusted for
inflation.

37. Gresham’s law (context: economic crisis in Sri Lanka)

● ‘Bad money drives out good money’
● Comes into play when the government fixes the exchange rate at a rate different from
the market exchange rate
● So if the exchange rate fixed by the government is lower than the market rate, the
undervalued currency will go out of circulation.
● It’s like how gold would go out of circulation in India if it was sold at a discount from
international rates.

38. Export preparedness index - NITI

39. One of the earliest estimates of poverty line in India was done by Dadabhai Naoroji -
‘Poverty and Unbritish Rule in India’

40. Suresh Tendulkar committee was the first to recommend a shift from the calorie based
estimation of poverty line in post-independence India.

41. Autarky - closed economy, no external trade

42. Statements under FRBM

● Macro economic framework statement
● Medium term fiscal policy cum fiscal policy strategy statements

43. What’s the source of income for dividends paid by RBI?

● Yields on treasury bills
● interest earned on REPO
● profit from the sale of foreign exchange
● profits from printing currency (seignorage)
These are some of the prominent sources.

44.With respect to the WTO subsidy boxes, MSP and FRP come under Amber box.

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45. Debt Monetisation - involves the creation of fresh money.

46. Familiar with E-Way bill under GST?

It’s applicable on both inter-state and intra-state transportation of goods. But what’s important to
note is
● For Inter state, value is fixed at 50k and above
● For intra state, the states have some freedom in deciding the limit and goods on which
they apply.

47. Bond yields and bond prices have an inverse relationship.

Bond yields and interest rates have a direct relationship.

48. Central Counterparties - they do clearing and settlement as financial intermediaries.

Example: Clearing Corporation of India Limited.

49. DICGC coverage is 5L including principal and interest. Just take a look at what it doesn’t
cover from this image.

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50. Kavach - Automatic Train Protection system

51. Top recipients of remittances in the world

1. India
2. Mexico
3. China

52. Tobacco is Rabi and cotton is Kharif

53. Vostro accounts - would help reduce net demand for foreign exchange, by facilitating rupee
based international transactions.
Here the ‘why’ is more important than the ‘what’ in my opinion.

54. Dark patterns - deceptive practices on the Internet to trick people into doing things they
wouldn’t otherwise do.
Examples - bait and switch, confirm shaming, basket sneaking etc.
(Some tend to get it confused with the dark web)

55. Force Majeure

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- protection from liability in an unforeseen event.

56. Incremental Capital Output Ratio - Lower is more efficient

57. There is no interest paid on CRR

58. Production taxes - volume independent,

Product taxes - volume dependent.

59. RBI’s PCA framework now applies to Urban Cooperative Banks

60. Money Mule is a person who transfers or moves illegally acquired money or behalf of
someone else.
(From today’s RBI Ad in public interest)

61. Government E Marketplace does not allow private sector buyers.

62. Universal Service Obligation Fund - Telecom.

63. Only corporatised port Major port in India - Kamarajar Port (Ennore)

64. NaBFID regulator - RBI

65. For MSME classification we look at both investment and turnover.

66. Minimum Export Price - Not to incentivise exports but to restrict exports and augment
domestic supply.

67.

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While both cryptocurrencies and NFTs are based on blockchain technologies, cryptocurrencies
are fungible while NFTs are non-fungible.

Fungible - interchangeable / replaceable.

68. FOREX reserves held by RBI

● Foreign Currency Assets
● Gold

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 ● Special Drawing Rights (IMF)
● Reserve Tranche Position (IMF)

SDR vs. RTP

● RTP: Country’s own official reserve / quota with the IMF.
● SDR: IMF’s International reserve to supplement RTP.

69. Please read up thoroughly on ‘Participatory Notes’ from a good reference book.

70. UPS Vs. NPS (Pension)

● UPS is inflation indexed (CPI - Industrial Worker)
● Plus assured minimum pension
● Plus lumpsum payment at retirement

71. Bonded Manufacturing and Bonded Warehouses

● Customs duties / GST concessions
● Supports better supply chain management, Make in India and Ease of Doing Business.
Need not go into other details

72. Egmont Group - Financial Intelligence Units.

73. Effective Revenue Deficit = Revenue Deficit - Grants for creation of capital assets.

74. Round Tripping

Context - Disguised fund flows

75. Bancassurance - selling insurance policies through banks

76. Banking services are covered under the Consumer Protection Act.

77. ‘Front Running’

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78. The context for ‘Circular Trading’ is GST input tax credit fraud.

79. When is GDP more than GVA?

Taxes earned by the government is more than what it has spent on subsidies.

80. Registration is only optional for copyrights, unlike how it is mandatory for patents.
Also, software code is covered under copyrights in India as a ‘literary work’
Note - IPRs are territorial in nature (valid only in India)

81. Priority Sector Lending norms apply to Regional Rural Banks and Small Finance Banks too.
(Some tend to get this wrong)

82. Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework of RBI is NOT applicable to Regional Rural
Banks, Small Finance Banks and Payment Banks.
(With NBFCs it’s a bit complicated, can avoid cramming the details)

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83. Financial Services Institution Bureau (FSIB)
● To recommend persons for appointment as whole-time directors and non-executive
chairpersons on the boards of public sector financial services institutions
● This includes insurers too not just banks (possible question area)
● Has replaced BBB (On BBB we’ve had a PYQ)

84. ‘Spread’ in the context of securities markets - the difference between the buying price and
selling price of a share.
I think we will see more questions from the securities market topic given the surge of interest in
stock markets post-Covid.

85. All blockchains are distributed ledgers, but all distributed ledgers are not blockchains.
Blockchains are always encrypted, distributed ledgers - not always.

86. Serious Frauds Investigation Office

● Ministry of Corporate Affairs
● Companies Act

87. The Coinage Act empowers the Central Government (not RBI) to design and mint coins.

88. Tax Buoyancy

● Change in tax growth to change in GDP

89. Nidhi companies - regulated by Ministry of Corporate Affairs

90. Fiscal drag

● Higher income pushing tax payers into higher tax brackets. Since this affects aggregate
demand and consumer spending, it creates a ‘drag’ on the economy.

91. GI Tag
● Validity: 10 years (can be renewed)
● Needs registration to make use of it. Not automatically open to all producers.

92. Please be thorough with the causes and impacts of currency depreciation. Its connection
with inflation, monetary policy, impact on exports etc.
(I’ll give my one-liners but do it properly from your reference book)

93. LFPR Vs. WPR Vs. UR

● Labour Force Participation Rate is defined as the percentage of population in the labour
force. Labour force comprises of persons who were either working (employed) or
seeking work (unemployed).
● Worker Population Ratio is defined as the percentage of employed persons in the total
population.

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 ● Unemployment Rate is defined as the percentage of unemployed persons in the labour
force
(This is extremely important. One way to remember it is by thinking of the category under which
you will be counted in as an aspirant )

94. Employment elasticity

● change in employment rate with respect to change in economic growth
(Wondering is someone would fall for ‘job flexibility’ as a trap. Unlikely)

95. International Financial Services Centres Authority

● A statutory regulatory body under IFSCA Act (SEZ Act is a trap)
● Regulates all financial institutions, products and services in the International Financial
Services Centre (GIFT is the only such centre in India at the moment)
● It’s an ‘unified regulator’ unlike SEBI, IRDAI etc. that are specialised
● Has regulatory overlap with RBI, IRDAI, SEBI and PFRDA
(Pub Ad students, please add this to your content on regulatory bodies)

96. REITs and InvITs

● The key-word here is ‘fractional ownership’
● It’s a way for people / institutions to invest in projects without buying or managing the
properties themselves.

97. Hilton Young Commission - RBI

98. GDP deflator is a measure of inflation. Covers the entire range of goods and services
produced in an economy (unlike CPI or WPI)

99. CPI Vs. WPI

● Food articles have a higher weightage in CPI
● Fuel and power have a higher weightage in WPI
● Services are a part of CPI but not a part of WPI
● WPI is released by the Min of Commerce and Industry (Office of the Economic Advisor)
● CPI is released by the Min of statistics and programme implementation

100. SWIFT - Interbank Financial Telecommunication

101. The difference between market price and factor cost lies in taxes and subsidies.

102. The context for ‘positive pay system’ is cheques.

103. The context for ‘Most Favoured Nation’ and ‘National Treatment’ is WTO

104. Bond yields and bond prices have an inverse relationship.

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Bond yields and interest rates have a direct relationship. (Move in the same direction)
Bond prices and interest rates have an inverse relationship.
(A question on interest rates is highly highly probable)

105.
● Hawkish monetary policy - contractionary
● Dovish monetary policy - expansionary
● Fed Tapering - gradual reduction of asset purchases by the Federal Reserve
(contractionary)

106. Increase in interest rates will reduce exchange rate depreciation

(Mundell-Fleming model)
There are those who criticise it too, because it didn’t work during the East Asian Currency
Crisis.

107. Zero Coupon Bonds - Issued at a discount from face value. No interest payment.

108. Liquidity trap

● When easy money monetary policy fails to create demand and investment in the
economy.
● People prefer to hold cash instead

109. Cess and Surcharge are not a part of the divisible pool of tax revenue which the centre
needs to share with the States.

110. The context for Extended Fund Facility (EFF) is IMF.

(SriLankan bailout)

111.
● Global Supply Chain Pressure Index - Federal Reserve Bank of New York
● Purchasing Manager’s Index - S&P Global
(Economic Survey)

112. Headline Inflation (minus) Food, Fuel and Power = Core Inflation.

113. Net private transfers (remittances) are a part of the current account, whereas NRI deposits
are a part of the capital account.

114. Money Multiplier is the ratio of M3 (Broad money) to M0 (Base money)

115. ‘Deterrent effect’ in the context of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code

● Borrowers rushing to resolve distress in the early stages to avoid the consequences of
resolution process.
(Economic Survey observation)

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116. Unified Lending Interface
(Aggregation of data from diverse sources to enable lenders to provide credit faster)
● RBI initiative
● Financial and non financial data
● Standardised APIs
● Frictionless credit
● Plug and play
Note - Data includes satellite, dairy, land, GSTN, transliterated documents among others (I’ve
given the curious ones alone)

117.
● Near-shoring: moving the supply chain to a nearby country. Example: US moving supply
chain to Mexico from China.
● Friend-shoring: moving the supply chain to a country that shares similar geopolitical
interests. Example: US sourcing semi-conductor chips from India rather than China.
(UNCTAD discusses both of them. Finds mention in the Economic Survey too)

118. Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs)

● Sanitary and phytosanitary
● Minimum Import Price
● Investigations (related to anti-dumping or countervailing duties)
● Technical barriers to trade (maximum use)

119.
● Countervailing duties: to counter foreign government subsidies.
● Anti-dumping duties: to prevent undercutting at below market prices by foreign
companies.
(Note: both are tariff measures. Only Investigation in this regard are non-tariff)

120. Cap on gold loans - 75% of market value of gold. (RBI)

121.
● RBI initiative
● Mule: transfers illegal money on behalf of someone else

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122. Context for VIX - market volatility

123. ‘Sticky’ inflation - prices do not adjust quickly to changes in demand and supply.

124. Project Nexus

● Connecting UPI type systems globally
● Initiative of Bank for International Settlements

125. Producer Price Index Vs. Whole Sale Price Index

● The proposed PPI will cover services too unlike WPI.

126. Context for ‘SCOMET’ - dual use items. (Civil and military, trade related)

127. India’s Forex Reserves - note what’s in the descending order.

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128. Given the growing interest in the derivatives segment, these basics could get tested on.
● Buying call options, selling put options: bullish.
● Buying put options, selling call options: bearish.
● Option buying: limited downside, unlimited upside.
● Option selling: limited upside, unlimited downside.

129. Equity inflows are a part of FDI calculations.

130. In the context of Foreign Portfolio Investments

● Primary market would mean IPOs or FPOs
● Secondary market / cash market would mean buying or selling stocks on an exchange.

131. FIIs can own G-Secs in India.

132. The excess of FPI in a company above the limit of 10% equity can be classified as FDI.

133. BRICS Pay as an alternative to SWIFT.

Note - SWIFT is just a messaging service to initiate international financial transactions.

Agriculture

1. In the context of area under irrigation, note that Tube Wells > Canals > Tanks

2.

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Please note the special characteristics of Pusa Basmati rice as compared to traditional basmati

3.Tur Dal (context of the new portal)

● MSP applicable
● India is not self sufficient
● Imports from Mozambique
● Chana and Moong, India is self sufficient. (Both have MSP)

4. Millet facts
● India is the world’s largest producer of millets
● Within India, Rajasthan is the largest producer
● Among millet crops, Bajra (pearl millet) is the highest in production in India.

5. Cotton
● While India is first in the world in area under cultivation. It is second to China in
production and consumption.
● Yield per hectare in China is 4X of India.
● White fly and pink bollworm are noteworthy pests.
(Question unlikely as it paints India in a negative light, however it’s important to know)

6. In the context of Area under cultivation

Rice > Wheat > Pulses > Oilseeds > Fruits and Vegetables > Cotton > Sugar Cane
Source: Annual Report of MoA (latest)

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7. In terms of weight, it’s interesting to note that the production of Sugarcane is more than all of
food grains combined!
● Sugarcane - 450 Million tonnes
● Food grains - 310 Million tonnes
(Numbers only for the effect, no need to remember)

8.

In addition to knowing which are the crops covered under MSP, it’s also important to note which
of them are Kharif and Rabi.

9.

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A curious point to note under Doubling Farmers’ Income

10.
● Highest producer of Sugarcane - Uttar Pradesh
● Highest producer of Cotton - Gujarat
● Highest producer of Groundnuts – Gujarat

11. Please make short notes on the following agriculture related topics
Time to be taken - Max 1 day

Keep in mind the PYQs while deciding what information to pick

● Significance of Seed replacement rate and related challenges
● Benefits of Neem Coated Urea
● Green Revolution - Basics and the concept of evergreen revolution (MS Swaminathan
passed away in Sept. 2023)
● In which fertilisers India is a net importer / exporter
● Basics of Nutrient Based Subsidy scheme
● Fertiliser over-use / under-use
● Definition of fallow land
● Ground water - highest use case
● Types of micro-irrigation including recent techniques and suitability
● What is Warabandi system
● What is Terminator Seed Technology
● Descriptions of traditional irrigation systems in India like Phads and Pynes
● Benefits of direct seeding of rice
● What is Kaipad Farming technique
● What is Jiwamrita, Bijamrita, Mulching and Waaphasa (ZBNF)
● Negatives of monoculture

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 ● Techniques of precision farming
● Techniques of climate smart agriculture
● What is aeroponics
● What is integrated farming, sequence cropping and ratoon cropping
● What are the major bio-energy crops
● Benefits of zero tillage farming
● Green manuring - what and why
● What are bio-pesticides
● Fertigation and herbigation
● Oil palm cultivation in india
● Basic features of One Nation One Ration Card
● Price Stabilisation Fund, what it covers
● Utility of commodities trading platform (NCDEX)
● Basics of Model Contract Farming Act
● Basics of Model APMC Act and e-NAM
● Difference between e-NAM and e-Kisan Mandi
● Costing calculation formula for MSP (If it’s getting too difficult, skip)
● A glance of what’s covered under Essential Commodities Act. Petrol? Diesel?
● What’s the Shaphari scheme about
● How are FPOs different from cooperatives
● Use of Negotiable Warehouse Receipts and e-National Warehouse Receipts
● The different boxes of subsidies under WTO
● What is the Open Market Scheme and purpose
● Basics of Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India
● Purpose of PM PRANAM
● Policy framework for GM crops, which authority gives approval
● Role CACP in the context of MSP
● Announcements / recommendations on FRP
● Basics of National Mission on Natural Farming and Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana
● Basics of PM KUSUM, PM KISAN and PM AASHA

Regards,
Deepuk Sukumar

12. Sugar cane (Global)

1. Brazil
2. India
3. China

Sugar Cane (India)

1. UP
2. Maharashtra
3. Karnataka

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13. Surprising but Virginia flu cured tobacco is covered under MSP
Read up a little bit on the conducive soil and climatic conditions necessary

14. Highest fish producing states in India

1. Andhra Pradesh
2. West Bengal
● Inland fisheries contribution to total production has increased from approx 30% to approx
70% in the last 40 years.
● Inland top - Andhra
● Marine top - Gujarat

15. Largest producer

● - Rice: West Bengal
● - Wheat: UP
● - Sugar Cane: UP
● - Groundnut: Gujarat
● - Cotton: Gujarat
● - Soyabean: Madhya Pradesh

16. UP has the most livestock among all states

17. India is world’s biggest importer of Palm Oil. Within India, Andhra Pradesh is the biggest
producer.

18. MSP
● does not have statutory backing
● recommended by CACP

19. Tomato, Onion and Potato (the famous TOP)

- In production, Potato > Onion > Tomato, so it’s POT.

20. Make a mental note of the trends in share of agriculture. What has increased / decreased

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21. Green Revolution was technically
● Intensive Agriculture Area Programme
● Intensive Agriculture District Programme

22. Production of rice > production of wheat in India

23. Sugarcane - FRP, Sugar - MSP.

24. Glyphosate - herbicide

(Could easily get mistaken for a fertiliser or pesticide)

25. APMC and eNAM

● APMC / Agriculture Marketing: State List
● eNAM (by the centre) integrates APMCs across the country
● If agriculture marketing is a State Subject, how come the Centre could come up with
eNAM?
● Inter-state trade: Union List
● Note - it’s not compulsory for States to join eNAM)

26. Agrivoltaics: Solar PV + Agriculture.

27. The context for ‘One Scientist, One Product’ Scheme is Agriculture (ICAR)

28. Saffron
● Largest producer: Iran
● Name is associated with the smell and not colour (Crocin)

29. Damselfish - ‘algae farmer’

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Government Schemes

1. Micro Hit-list on the basis of 2024 Republic Day Speech of the President
-While preparing, keep in mind the question dimension possibilities based on PYQs
● Agricultural Export Policy
● World’s largest Grain Storage Plan
● Shantiniketan
● Hoysala
● Birsa Munda
● Pandit Gopal Bandhu Das
● Subhash Chandra Bose
● G20
● Atal Setu
● Viksit Bharat @ 2047
● Digital Personal Data Protection Act
● Anusandhan National Research Foundation Act
● Bankruptcy Code
● NPA status
● India is now second largest manufacturer of mobile phones
● INS Vikrant
● C-295 transport carrier
● Defence corridors
● MSME related developments
● UPI
● Digital Health IDs
● Jan Aushadi Kendras
● Maternity Leave
● PM Kisan
● PMFBY
● PM JANMAN Yojana
● PM Vishwakarma Yojana
● PM SVANidhi Yojana
● Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan
● Vibrant Village Programme
● Zero Effect, Zero Defect
● India 5th in wind power capacity, 4th in solar power capacity
● Vehicle Scrappage Policy
● National Quantum Mission
● National Education Policy
● PM Shri Vidyalayas
● Atal Tinkering Labs
● Lakshadweep, A and N
● Global Bio-fuel alliance
● African Union

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Regards,
Deepuk Sukumar

2. Jal Jeevan Mission (Lesser known aspects)

These were highlighted by the Minister in-charge
● Region specific approach
● Insulated pipes in hilly and cold regions
● Water quality surveillance with real time data updation
● Community water purification
● Bulk water transfer
● Equipping villagers to carry out repairs (Nal Jal Mitra)
● Employment generation potential

3. Bharat SHRI
Bharat Shared Repository of Inscription. Archaeological Survey of India. Digitisation of 1L+
inscriptions. Hyderabad.

4. SWAMITVA
● Panchayati Raj
● Land ownership

5. Project TAMARA
● Intelligent Water Body Management System. Uses IoT

6. Jan Aushadhi - generic medicines

● Ministry?
It’s Chemicals and Fertilizers
How many of you thought health?

7. Vishwakarma scheme - traditional crafts artisans

Coverage (pay attention to the curious ones alone, ones which you might not suspect)
(i) Carpenter; (ii) Boat Maker; (iii) Armourer; (iv) Blacksmith ; (v) Hammer and Tool Kit Maker;
(vi) Locksmith; (vii) Goldsmith; (viii) Potter; (ix) Sculptor, Stone breaker; (x) Cobbler
(Shoesmith/
Footwear artisan); (xi) Mason (Rajmistri); (xii) Basket/Mat/Broom Maker/Coir Weaver; (xiii)
Doll & Toy Maker (Traditional); (xiv) Barber; (xv) Garland maker; (xvi) Washerman; (xvii) Tailor;
and (xviii) Fishing Net Maker.

8. Context for Public Data Offices - PM WANI (Wi Fi)

9. Poshan Abhiyaan - Ministry of Women and Child Development.

PM POSHAN - Ministry of Education

Deepuk Sukumar [email protected] https://t.me/deepuksukumar

10. SVAMITVA - Drones for mapping villages - Ministry of Panchayati Raj

11. Under Aspirational Districts Programme, Financial Inclusion and Skill Development are also
components.

12. Shabd Platform

● Standardisation of technical terms in Indian languages
● Initiative of CSTT (Under Ministry of Education)

13. ULLAS
● Educational opportunities to those aged 15 and above who have missed formal
schooling.
(Since the name appears a bit ambiguous)

Others

● Topics to make notes on from the President’s Independence Day Address

1. Tilka Manjhi, Birsa Munda, Laxman Naik and Phulo-Jhano
2. Political democracy Vs. Social democracy
3. PM Suraj, PM Janman and Namaste scheme(for whom and what)
4. Gaganyaan
5. Climate justice (more relevant for mains though)

I’ve only mentioned what in my lens is important.

● Topics to make notes on from the PM’s Independence Day Address

1. Ease of living
2. Green hydrogen mission

● A note on questions with sweeping statements

Words to look for: never, impossible, any, largest, enormously, drastically, entirely, all, none,
always, anywhere etc.

Statements that carry these words tend to be wrong approx 70% of the time.

This we all know.

But exceptions -

Be careful when all of the statements have these extreme words. In which case, this rule may
not work.

Deepuk Sukumar [email protected] https://t.me/deepuksukumar

Also, the constitution often carries statements with only, none, cannot etc. Such statements may
not be wrong. So with polity extra caution is needed while applying this rule.

● Please apply these rules to the PYQs of the last 5 years to see for yourselves whether
they work. Depending on the success rate of these techniques, make a decision as to
which of them you want to use in the actual exam and when. Approx success rate
should be around 70%. But they are unlikely to work in the mock exams.

Statements that tend to be wrong

1. Extreme statements (most obvious)

2. Statements with continuously / steadily increasing or decreasing for a certain number
of years
3. Statements with numbers / data (recent years not working well though)
4. Statements with names of institutions / ministries / international organizations
5. Statements with - According to the constitution, constitution of India defines /
prescribes / classifies
6. The all of the above option (exception - science and tech questions)
7. None of the above option
8. Statements with ‘but’, ‘whereas’ and ‘while’ in the middle.
9. Schemes, programmes where beneficiaries are too wide
10. Statements with because / due to
11. Statements which are not objective. Ex- Office of Profit is ‘well defined’ in the
constitution.
12. For a statement to be true it must be verifiable, if it’s not verifiable it’s wrong. Ex-
Chausath Yogini temple is the only circular temple in India. (This is not verifiable, so it’s
wrong)

Statements that tend to be right

1. Statements with ‘can’

2. Statements with some / might / may / more than / less than / more often / less often /
sometimes
3. In questions with matching pairs - two of the pairs
4. Application of any technology - all of the above
5. Statements with aim / objective of the scheme
6. Among the 4 options if two are very similar, the correct answer tends to be one of the
two similar statements
7. Among the 4 options if two are opposites of each other, then one of them is correct
8. Among the options, the one with a topic you’ve often seen in the news tends to be
correct
9. Sources of pollution - all of the above

Deepuk Sukumar [email protected] https://t.me/deepuksukumar

 10. In Ancient / Medieval India questions, terms related to administrative or economic
activity tend to be correct. Ex - ports, coins, measurement of land etc.
11. Statements that are impossible to prove wrong will be right. Ex - The women in
Vijayanagara Empire were experts in Wrestling, Astrology, Accounting and Soothsaying.
(There is no way you can prove it wrong, so its got to be right)

Regards,
Deepuk Sukumar

Point 11 explained in a video I made long ago

https://youtu.be/rtB6O77lh5c?si=t3NB7nzU-I6xhV9r

Point 12 explained in a video I made long ago

https://youtu.be/JNnTqRM9Kqc?si=uYbVIIQ6PUez0X_k

● These are facts which I think you should take to your memory. The series will continue,
covering Modern, Medieval and Ancient as well. I’m picking facts keeping in mind the
recent trends. With history as you all know, prediction is very difficult, except for the
current affairs inspired ones. But let’s try anyway..

How to memorise? Try the quiz approach

1. Try to cram the facts (10-20 at a time)

2. Get your friend / room-mate / parent / whoever to quiz you on it. Let this
person give you the answer immediately if you get it wrong or don’t remember.
3. The quizzer can mark the ones you’ve missed and re-quiz in the next round
until it gets cemented to your mind.

● Wanted to share this observation. Ones who do very intense study in combination with
very deep rest tend to do SO MUCH better than those who do light preparation over the
day for longer hours and getting fewer hours of sleep at night.

By intense study I mean the kind of effort one would put a week before prelims
and by deep rest I mean something like 9 hours of sleep at night.

Just my observation over the years from IIT days to more than 10 years in this
field.

Deepuk Sukumar [email protected] https://t.me/deepuksukumar

 ● https://youtu.be/cDgKMNf8dNY?si=mJkNjdmIlOOk1EvV
With a lot of hesitation made this video last year about questions in the pattern of
one only, two only etc. having the right option between either B or C. There were
only 8 such questions in 2022.

A-0
B-4
C-4
D-0

Was curious how it turned out for the 2023 prelims. So here are the stats
according to a good key

43 questions were in the same format

A-6
B - 15
C - 14
D-8

Draw whatever conclusion you like from this. Not suggesting anything 

● On a side note - those feeling tired and exhausted, try meditating for 30 minutes straight.

It’s like putting a mobile phone with low battery on charge.

● For 2023’s Prelims, I did 5 prediction classes for my Pub Ad optional students as value
addition. Outcome was, around 40 topics got reflected in the actual exam, which all the
students who attended know.

I’m wondering if I must release those 5 lectures here, as they will still be relevant. Videos
are kept private at the moment.

Why wondering then? It’s nearly 3 hours each and some hesitation about making them
public. Let me send just one video as a sample first, depending on the reception I get will
decide what to do with the rest.

So here you go

Watch at 1.5X

Lecture 1

Deepuk Sukumar [email protected] https://t.me/deepuksukumar

 https://www.youtube.com/live/ZHpkNKVXvs0?si=tCgvOxx4-XGLKqMx

● Highest Yield Topics in CSAT Quants (hottest in trend in the order of importance)

1. Numbers (13 in 2023)

2. Probability, permutations and combinations (8)
3. Linear equations (7)
4. Data sufficiency (5) (maybe you can call this logical reasoning)

So what to do about this?

If you can figure out how to solve just the PYQs from these topics in the last 10 years,
your quants headache will be over.

Of course you will encounter super difficult questions that go above your head. But do
what you should do when you get a bouncer.

Duck your head!

● 2nd Lecture

Please watch in 1.5X

Use comments box to communicate. The base for coverage are some topper notes.

https://www.youtube.com/live/bMM_NSYBGUc?si=kxx3QjGCJHWIdrbQ

Unlike how I verify everything and post on this group, the same doesn’t apply to the
topper notes I’ve referred to in the video above. I’ve taken it all in face value.

● Lecture 3

Video starts only at 34:00 for Prelims

It covers the entire polity hit list

Please watch at 1.5X

https://www.youtube.com/live/pfZ7XkoQxAI?si=vWgz_Zz1vDserw7m

● Lecture 4

Polity remaining portions plus dumping of predicted topics related facts

Deepuk Sukumar [email protected] https://t.me/deepuksukumar

 Please watch at 1.5X

https://www.youtube.com/live/GTWCVDVHasQ?si=X8R6gJns6dIr35Rw

● Lecture 5

https://m.youtube.com/live/yn27qEmynVA?si=OTtPKDA6baoMLfMo

Lecture 6

https://m.youtube.com/live/pDmgOa2d7Es?si=R7sp1vVBHVCZ1SSw

Lecture 6 - pay attention to 17:46

● Experienced this in school or college?

Exam day, found a maths problem really difficult to solve but next day casually you look
at it and it appears so easy?

Tiredness induced stress is the reason. Please go for the exam very well rested.

Even if you truly believe you have not done enough the previous night, JUST SLEEP.

Aim for 9 hours of sleep.

Also, 20 minutes of meditation once before session 1 and once before session 2, can
make an enormous difference. It’s restful and also builds concentration and awareness.

● You may consider carrying two copies of the hall ticket along with the instructions sheet
for the CSAT paper (Single side prints)

You can use the non-printed sides for doing the calculations.

A regular eraser may come in handy if there is a cube / dice based problem.

Analog watch also, if there is a clock based problem.

● Mark all your final answers on the question paper using a pencil, for a
proper estimate of your score. Examiners wouldn’t bother you with it. In case they do,
you can make up some excuse like you will erase it later.

Deepuk Sukumar [email protected] https://t.me/deepuksukumar

Deepuk Sukumar [email protected] https://t.me/deepuksukumar