🔆 Scramjet Propulsion System

✅ DRDO successfully tested its Actively Cooled Full Scale Scramjet Combustor with a record run-time of 1,200+ seconds (earlier 700 seconds).

📍 About Scramjet Propulsion System
✅ Scramjet stands for Supersonic Combustion Ramjet

✅ It is an advanced air-breathing hypersonic jet engine designed to operate at speeds greater than Mach 5.

📍 Operating Mechanism
✅ Uses the vehicle’s high-speed forward motion to:
◦ Compress incoming air into the combustor
◦ Enable supersonic combustion of fuel

✅ Unlike conventional rockets, it uses atmospheric oxygen as oxidizer during flight.

📍 Fuel Used
✅ Common fuels include:
◦ Hydrogen fuel
◦ Advanced liquid hydrocarbon endothermic fuels

📍 Key Advantages
✅ Reduces overall vehicle weight by eliminating onboard oxidizer
✅ Enables low-cost and reusable access to space
✅ Provides foundation for hypersonic cruise missiles
✅ Highly efficient at hypersonic speeds

📍 Significance
✅ Strengthens India’s capabilities in:
◦ Hypersonic technology
◦ Advanced missile systems
◦ Future reusable launch vehicles
◦ Strategic defence preparedness

#GS3
#prelims
#science_technology
#science_and_technology

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🔆 Endangered Languages in India & Government Efforts

📍 Context
✅ India is one of the world’s most linguistically diverse countries
✅ UNESCO lists 197 endangered languages in India
✅ Languages fall into categories: vulnerable, endangered, severely endangered, or extinct

📍 Examples of Critically Endangered Languages
✅ Great Andamanese – Andaman Islands
✅ Toda – Nilgiri Hills (Tamil Nadu)
✅ Asur – Jharkhand
✅ Koro – Arunachal Pradesh

🔆 Government Initiatives for Language Preservation

📍 Scheme for Protection and Preservation of Endangered Languages (SPPEL)
✅ Focus: Languages spoken by fewer than 10,000 people
✅ Aim: Documentation, research, and promotion
✅ 117 languages prioritised in the first phase

📍 UGC-supported Measures
✅ Funding for academic research on indigenous languages
✅ Establishment of Centres for Endangered Languages in Central Universities
✅ Promotion of interdisciplinary linguistic studies

📍 Training & Documentation Efforts
✅ Regular training programmes for linguists and researchers
✅ Preparation of:
 • Dictionaries
 • Grammar books
 • Audio-visual recordings
✅ Focus on long-term language survival and revival

🔆 Why It Matters
✅ Language loss = loss of oral history, folklore, ecological knowledge
✅ Preserving languages strengthens cultural diversity and identity
✅ Aligns with constitutional values of pluralism and inclusiveness

#goverment_schemes

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🔆 Iranian Invasion of India

📍 Background
✅ The Achaemenian rulers of Iran invaded India in the 6th century BCE during the reign of King Darius I.
✅ In 516 BCE, Darius conquered regions of the North-West Frontier Province, Sindh, and Punjab.
✅ These territories remained under Persian control until the invasion of Alexander.

📍 Condition of India at that Time
✅ North-East India: Gradually unified under the rising Magadhan Empire.
✅ North-West India: Politically fragmented with small kingdoms like:
◦ Kambojas
◦ Gandharas
◦ Madras

✅ Lack of a strong central power made the region vulnerable.
✅ Fertile land, rich resources, and easy access through Hindu Kush passes attracted foreign invaders.

📍 The Invasion
✅ Darius I annexed Punjab (west of Indus) and Sindh in 516 BCE.
✅ The conquered region became the 20th Satrapy (province) of the Persian Empire.
✅ Indian soldiers were recruited into the Persian army.
✅ Xerxes, successor of Darius, used Indian troops in wars against Greece.

📍 Impact of Iranian Invasion

✅ Political Impact
◦ Exposed weaknesses of North-West Indian defence
◦ Paved the way for Alexander’s invasion
◦ Introduced the Satrap system, later adopted by Sakas and Kushanas
◦ Highlighted the need for a strong unified empire

✅ Trade & Economic Impact
◦ Increased Indo-Persian trade relations
◦ Indian merchants gained access to the vast Persian markets
◦ Persian goods entered India more smoothly

✅ Cultural Exchange
◦ Intellectual interaction between Indian and Persian scholars
◦ Greater cultural integration and exchange of ideas

✅ Impact on Art & Architecture
◦ Persian influence visible in Mauryan art and architecture
◦ Ashoka adopted the Persian tradition of issuing inscriptions on stone pillars
◦ Indians learnt advanced stone polishing techniques

✅ Kharosthi Script
◦ Aramaic script introduced by Persians evolved into Kharosthi script
◦ Written from right to left
◦ Used in Ashokan inscriptions of North-West India

✅ Influence on Coinage
◦ Persian silver coins inspired Indian minting techniques
◦ Improved refinement and aesthetics of Indian coinage

🔆 Conclusion
✅ The Iranian invasion had limited direct political impact but deeply influenced Indian administration, trade, script, coinage, and art.
✅ It also indirectly opened the route for later foreign invasions, especially that of Alexander the Great.

#history #prelims #mains

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Air pollution

Wildlife protection act 1972

Green revolution

🔆 CURRENT AFFAIRS – 11 MAY 2026

🔆 BANKING & FINANCE

📍 11 Years of Jan Suraksha Schemes
✅ PMJJBY, PMSBY & APY completed 11 years since launch in 2015
✅ Total claims settled under PMJJBY & PMSBY: ₹25,160 crore
✅ PMJJBY offers ₹2 lakh life cover at ₹436 premium
✅ PMSBY offers accident cover up to ₹2 lakh at ₹20 premium

🔆 STATES

📍 IALFS 2.0 Held at GIFT City
✅ Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel inaugurated India Aircraft Leasing and Financing Summit 2.0
✅ India aims to become world’s 3rd-largest civil aviation market by 2035
✅ KPMG released report on India’s aircraft leasing ecosystem

📍 Maharashtra CBG Policy 2026
✅ Maharashtra approved Compressed Biogas Policy 2026
✅ Aim: convert waste & agri residue into clean fuel
✅ ₹500 crore allocated for FY27
✅ Supports India’s Net-Zero 2070 target

📍 Jharkhand Achieves Zero Primary Dropout Rate
✅ Primary dropout rate reduced to 0% in 2024–25
✅ Secondary dropout rate declined from 23.2% to 3.5%

📍 Odisha Leads PMAY-U 2.0 Housing Completions
✅ Odisha ranked top in PMAY-U 2.0 house completions
✅ 2,008 houses completed by May 2026

🔆 NATIONAL

📍 India’s First Functional PM MITRA Park
✅ PM Narendra Modi inaugurated PM MITRA Park at Warangal, Telangana
✅ Developed at cost of ₹1,695 crore
✅ Based on 5F Vision: Farm → Fibre → Factory → Fashion → Foreign

📍 Global Meet on Space System Standards
✅ BIS hosted ISO/TC 20/SC 14 meeting in Delhi
✅ Focus on global standards for space systems & operations
✅ Highlights India’s growing role in space sector

📍 GSTAT Principal Bench Empowered as NAAAR
✅ Finance Ministry empowered GSTAT Principal Bench as National Appellate Authority for Advance Rulings
✅ Effective from 1 April 2026

📍 QR-Code Verification for Census 2027
✅ QR-enabled identity cards introduced for Census enumerators
✅ Citizens can verify enumerator details through mobile scanning
✅ Improves transparency & security in census operations

🔆 INTERNATIONAL

📍 World Yogasana Championship 2026
✅ India to host inaugural World Yogasana Championship in Ahmedabad
✅ Participation from 40+ countries
✅ Aim: promote Yogasana globally & push for Olympic inclusion

📍 UN-Habitat Catalogue of Solutions 2026–29
✅ UN-Habitat launched global catalogue containing 81 tested urban solutions
✅ Focus areas: housing, inequality & urban services

🔆 INDIA & THE WORLD

📍 India–Vietnam Target $25 Billion Trade by 2030
✅ Multiple MoUs signed in rare earths, digital payments, IT & tourism
✅ Vietnam joins Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI)
✅ Cross-border QR payment linkage announced between India & Vietnam

🔆 AGREEMENTS & MoUs

📍 NIScPR–RIS MoU
✅ Signed to strengthen Science, Technology & Innovation policy research
✅ Focus on science diplomacy & Global South cooperation

🔆 APPOINTMENTS & RESIGNATIONS

📍 New CDS & Navy Chief Appointed
✅ Lt Gen NS Raja Subramani appointed next CDS
✅ Vice Admiral Krishna Swaminathan appointed next Navy Chief

📍 Tamil Nadu & West Bengal Political Developments
✅ C. Joseph Vijay sworn in as Tamil Nadu CM
✅ Suvendu Adhikari became West Bengal’s first BJP CM

🔆 AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS

📍 National Panchayat Awards 2025
✅ 42 Panchayats selected across India
✅ Karnataka emerged top-performing state with 6 awards
✅ Awards linked with Panchayat Advancement Index (PAI) 2.0

🔆 BOOKS & AUTHORS

📍 Book Released by Amit Shah
✅ Book: The Bench, the Bar, and the Bizarre and The Lawful and the Awful
✅ Author: Tushar Mehta

🔆 SPORTS

📍 Asian Weightlifting Championships 2026
✅ India to host event in Gandhinagar after 44 years
✅ Around 180 athletes from 28 countries to participate

🔆 RANKS & REPORTS

📍 India Tops Global Remittance Inflows
✅ India remained world’s largest remittance recipient
✅ Remittances rose from $83.15 billion (2020) to $137.67 billion (2024)
✅ Report released by International Organization for Migration

🔆 IMPORTANT DAYS

📍 World Thalassaemia Day – 8 May
✅ Theme 2026: “Hidden No More: Finding the Undiagnosed. Supporting the Unseen”

📍 World Lupus Day – 10 May
✅ Theme 2026: “Make Lupus Visible”

#CurrentAffairs

🔆 SEHAT Initiative Launched

📍 Context
✅ SEHAT (Science Excellence for Health through Agricultural Transformation) launched as a joint initiative of:
◦ ICMR – Indian Council of Medical Research
◦ ICAR – Indian Council of Agricultural Research

📍 Vision of SEHAT
✅ Transform agriculture from merely a food production system into a driver of:
◦ Nutrition
◦ Health
◦ Well-being

📍 Five Priority Areas of National Significance

✅ Biofortified & Nutrient-Dense Crops
◦ Focus on improving nutritional value of crops through biofortification.
◦ Targets deficiencies of nutrients like zinc and iron.
◦ Helps combat malnutrition and hidden hunger.

✅ Strengthening Integrated Farming Systems
◦ Promotes dietary diversification.
◦ Enhances farm incomes and agricultural resilience.

✅ Addressing Occupational Health Risks
◦ Focus on evidence-based interventions for agricultural workers exposed to health hazards.

✅ Prevention of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs)
◦ Encourages functional foods and nutritionally superior crops to tackle:
▪ Diabetes
▪ Hypertension
▪ Cancer

✅ One Health Preparedness
◦ Integrated surveillance and research at the human–animal–environment interface.

📍 What is Biofortification?
✅ Process of increasing nutrient density in food crops through:
◦ Conventional breeding
◦ Agronomic practices
◦ Biotechnology

📍 Significance of SEHAT
✅ Promotes a proactive, preventive, and holistic healthcare approach.
✅ Addresses the dual burden of:
◦ Undernutrition
◦ Overnutrition & lifestyle diseases

✅ Encourages a “Whole of Government” and “Whole of Systems” approach integrating science, policy, and implementation.

#goverment_schemes

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🔆 India & IFAD Launch Eight-Year COSOP (2026–2033)

📍 What is COSOP?
✅ Country Strategic Opportunities Programme (COSOP) is an IFAD-led framework aimed at reducing rural poverty and strengthening sustainable livelihoods in India.
✅ Implementation Period: 2026–2033

📍 Key Aim
✅ Strengthen:
◦ Rural incomes
◦ Climate resilience
◦ Sustainable livelihood opportunities

✅ Supports India’s vision of Viksit Bharat@2047 and poverty-free villages.

📍 Important Data
✅ Extreme poverty in India declined from 40% (2004) to 2.3% (2022).
✅ However, around 11% population remains multidimensionally poor.

📍 Strategic Objectives
✅ Objective 1:
◦ Enhance social, economic, and climate resilience of rural communities.

✅ Objective 2:
◦ Improve performance, scalability, and visibility of interventions through stronger knowledge systems.

📍 Target Groups
✅ Geographical Focus:
◦ Climate-vulnerable Himalayan states
◦ 10 poorest states
◦ 112 Aspirational Districts

✅ Beneficiaries:
◦ Small & marginal farmers
◦ Landless labourers
◦ Fishers
◦ Women-headed households
◦ Youth
◦ Persons with disabilities

✅ Social Groups Covered:
◦ SCs
◦ STs
◦ Pastoralists
◦ Forest-dependent communities

🔆 About IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development)
✅ Specialized United Nations agency and international financial institution.
✅ Focus: Tackling hunger and rural poverty globally.
✅ Established in 1977.

#goverment_schemes

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Ancient history shorts notes

Prelims accelerator CLICK HERE

🔆 CURRENT AFFAIRS – 12 MAY 2026

🔆 ECONOMY

📍 MoSPI Labour Force Data
✅ Urban unemployment rate: 6.6%
✅ Rural unemployment rate: 4.3%
✅ Overall Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR): 55.5%
✅ Female LFPR: 34.7%

🔆 STATES

📍 Two Botswana Cheetahs Released in Kuno
✅ MP CM Mohan Yadav released two female cheetahs into wild at Kuno National Park
✅ Botswana phase added 9 cheetahs to Project Cheetah
✅ Total cheetah population in India reached 57

🔆 NATIONAL

📍 India Becomes 3rd Largest Renewable Energy Producer
✅ India ranked 3rd globally in installed renewable energy capacity
✅ Total non-fossil fuel capacity crossed 262.7 GW
✅ Solar & wind energy are leading contributors

📍 MLFF Barrier-less Toll System Launched
✅ Union Minister Nitin Gadkari launched MLFF toll system in Delhi
✅ Uses FASTag, ANPR & AI-based cameras
✅ Vehicles can pass toll plazas without stopping

📍 Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act Data
✅ NCRB compiled national-level crime data under Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 for first time
✅ Highest cases reported from Maharashtra, MP & UP

📍 ICMR–ICAR Launch SEHAT Initiative
✅ SEHAT = Science Excellence for Health through Agricultural Transformation
✅ Links agriculture, nutrition & public health
✅ Focus on preventive healthcare through biofortified crops

📍 ‘One Case One Data’ Initiative
✅ CJI Surya Kant launched judicial data integration framework
✅ AI chatbot “Su Sahay” also launched for Supreme Court services

🔆 INTERNATIONAL

📍 Maldives Repays Indian Treasury Bill
✅ Maldives repaid second USD 50 million Treasury Bill to India
✅ Assistance was provided through SBI subscriptions

📍 India–South Africa Astronomy Cooperation
✅ India handed over IUCAA banner to South African Astronomical Observatory
✅ Joint camera detector project being developed for SALT telescope

🔆 AGREEMENTS & MoUs

📍 India–Trinidad & Tobago Agreements
✅ 8 agreements signed during EAM S. Jaishankar’s visit
✅ Covers tourism, Ayurveda, healthcare, agriculture & renewable energy

🔆 AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS

📍 Archibald Prize 2026
✅ Richard Lewer won Archibald Prize 2026
✅ Awarded for portrait of Pitjantjatjara Elder Iluwanti Ken

🔆 SPORTs

📍 India Retains No.1 ODI Ranking
✅ India continued at No.1 in ICC Men’s ODI Team Rankings
✅ Current rating: 118 points

📍 Archery World Cup Stage 2
✅ India women’s recurve team won gold in Shanghai
✅ Team included Deepika Kumari, Ankita Bhakat & Kumkum Mohod

📍 Who is ‘Messi of Chess’?
✅ Faustino Oro became second youngest Grandmaster in history
✅ Nicknamed “Messi of Chess”

🔆 SCHEMES

📍 VB-G RAM G Act from July 1
✅ New Viksit Bharat — Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act to replace MGNREGA
✅ Will come into force from 1 July 2026

🔆 IMPORTANT DAYS

📍 National Technology Day – 11 May
✅ Commemorates Pokhran nuclear tests of 1998

📍 World Lupus Day – 10 May
✅ Theme 2026: “Make Lupus Visible”

📍 International Day of Plant Health – 12 May
✅ Theme 2026: “Plant Biosecurity for Food Security”

🔆 SUMMITS & CONFERENCES

📍 MATE Counselors’ Conclave
✅ CBSE & AIIMS organised MATE Conclave in New Delhi
✅ Focus on emotional & psychological well-being of students

🔆 DEFENCE

📍 DRDO Scramjet Combustor Test
✅ DRDO conducted long-duration scramjet combustor test in Hyderabad
✅ Test duration exceeded 1,200 seconds
✅ Major boost for India’s hypersonic missile programme

📍 Advanced Agni Missile Test
✅ India successfully tested advanced Agni missile with MIRV technology
✅ MIRV = Multiple Independently Targeted Re-Entry Vehicle
✅ Test conducted from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island, Odisha

#CurrentAffairs