UPSC Current Affairs 20 May 2026

• Core Purpose: Digitalises the submission, processing, validation, and real-time monitoring of funding proposals.
• NITI Aayog Integration: Seamlessly syncs with the national NGO Darpan Portal to authenticate and verify applicant organisations.
• Eligibility Rule: Only Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) registered with a valid unique ID on the NGO Darpan portal can apply for grants.
• Financial Integration: Connects with the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) to securely automate and manage the release of funds.
• Paperless Governance: Eliminates physical paperwork and manual file submissions to significantly reduce administrative delays.
• Scheme-Specific Categorisation: Organises and reviews applications according to the distinct guidelines of individual Central Sector Schemes.
• Unified Accessibility: Available directly via the official Ayush Anudan website or through the My Ayush Integrated Services Portal (MAISP).

• AYURGYAN: Scheme focused on research, capacity building, and academic publication in Ayush systems.
• AYURSWASTHYA: Focuses on community health interventions and public health deployment.
• Information, Education, and Communication (IEC): Supports Ayush exhibitions, fairs, and awareness campaigns.
• Medicinal Plants Conservation: Handles proposals for the development, sustainable management, and farming of medicinal herbs.
• International Co-operation (IC): Backs global research partnerships and standardisation.

• Core Objective: Promotes holistic agricultural development, strengthens Centre-State policy coordination, and actively works to double farmers' incomes across Eastern India.
• Alignment with Vision: Integrates regional agricultural planning with the Prime Minister's national “Purvodaya Mission” to turn Eastern India into a primary driver of agricultural growth.
• Participating Stakeholders: Brought together state ministers, agricultural scientists, Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), progressive farmers, banking experts, and local agritech startups.
• National 'Khet Bachao Abhiyan': Announced a nationwide "Save the Farm" awareness campaign starting June 1 to educate farmers on modern tech and balanced fertiliser use.
• Focus on Crop Diversification: Urged a strategic shift away from standard paddy and wheat monoculture toward self-reliance in high-value pulses, oilseeds, fruits, and vegetables.
• Soil Protection & Natural Farming: Emphasised eco-friendly natural farming techniques to safeguard soil health and heavily reduce structural reliance on chemical fertilisers.
• Crackdown on Counterfeit Inputs: Introduced a forthcoming New Pesticide Act to strictly curb the illegal black-marketing of fake fertilisers and poor-quality pesticides.
• Flagship Scheme Monitoring: Provided a rigorous review platform for ongoing central programs including PM-AASHA, the National Mission on Edible Oils, and the Digital Farmer Registry.

• Odisha: Showcased modern agricultural extension initiatives and its Samruddha Krushak Yojana ensuring fair pricing for local farmers.
• West Bengal: Shared regional best practices and scientific insights regarding high-yield seed production.
• Jharkhand: Presented scalable models for FPO-based value chains and structural blueprints for growing its agri-startup ecosystem.
• Bihar: Discussed policy achievements, market setups, and record yields specifically concerning maize production and marketing.

• Weapon Classification: An indigenous, lightweight, fire-and-forget precision-guided missile specifically engineered to be launched from tactical combat drones or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).
• Weight Profile: Weighs exactly 12.5 kg, an ultra-lightweight build that allows seamless integration onto small and medium-sized surveillance and combat drones.
• Extended Range (ULM-ER): Features an extended operational range of approximately 10 kilometres during daytime operations.
• All-Weather Seeker: Equipped with a passive homing system and a high-definition dual-channel imaging infrared (IIR) seeker supporting precise tracking in day, night, and low-visibility conditions.
• Two-Way Data Link: Supports mid-flight target or aim-point updates, allowing operators to change or refine targets after the drone releases the missile.
• Automated Ground Control: Operated via an integrated Ground Control System (GCS) that uses automated technologies to manage pre-launch readiness and firing sequences.

• Tandem Anti-Armour: Designed to penetrate modern main battle tanks protected by Explosive Reactive Armour (ERA).
• Penetration-cum-Blast: Engineered for anti-bunker operations to breach fortified structures.
• Pre-Fragmentation: Designed to create a high-lethality zone against soft-skinned vehicles and enemy infantry.

• Nodal Laboratory: Developed by the Hyderabad-based Research Centre Imarat (RCI), with collaborative support from DRDL (Hyderabad), TBRL (Chandigarh), and HEMRL (Pune).
• UAV Integration: The flight trials were conducted using advanced drone platforms developed by Bengaluru-based private agritech/aerospace firm new space Research and Technologies.
• Production Agencies: DRDO has formally partnered with public-sector enterprise Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) and private entity Adani Defence Systems & Technologies Limited for serial production.

• Mandatory Admission: The Act eliminates judicial discretion regarding the entry of petitions. The NCLT is now required to admit a Section 7 application strictly once debt and default are proven through Information Utilities.
• Overturning Precedent: This statutory change effectively reverses the expansive reading of the Vidarbha Industries case and restores the strict rule of the Innoventive Industries ruling.
• Strict 14-Day Buffer: Tribunals must admit or reject applications within 14 days. If delayed, judges must formally record reasons in writing.

• Creditor-Initiated Insolvency (CIIRP): A completely new Chapter IV-A introduces an out-of-court settlement mechanism for specified corporate debtors. Select financial institutions can trigger this process directly.
• Debtor-in-Possession Model: Unlike a standard Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) where a resolution professional takes complete charge, the debtor stays in possession of the business operations during CIIRP.
• Group Insolvency: A formal statutory framework is introduced to consolidate the insolvency proceedings of multiple interconnected or holding companies, eliminating conflicting orders.
• Cross-Border Insolvency: The Act incorporates principles from the UNCITRAL Model Law, allowing Indian authorities to cooperate with foreign courts to track and access offshore assets.

• Rejection of Statutory Liens: The definition of "security interest" is narrowed down strictly to consensual agreements (like mortgages or pledges). This legislatively overturns the Rainbow Papers judgment.
• Government Dues Priority: Involuntary statutory liens or government tax claims are not treated on par with secured financial creditors. They are capped at the preceding 2 years' value and placed lower down the waterfall distribution mechanism.
• Workmen Protection: Dues owed to workers are kept at the highest priority level, sitting equal to secured financial lenders.
• Personal Guarantors: Personal guarantor assets can now be integrated or transferred directly as a part of the corporate resolution plan to resolve interlinked assets (e.g., when a factory sits on land owned by a promoter).

• Committee of Creditors (CoC) Control: The CoC is given expanded statutory power to supervise the entire liquidation process, including appointing, replacing, or removing a liquidator with a 66% majority vote.
• Claims Updates: Liquidators are no longer forced to verify claims from scratch and can instead utilize and update the claims record established during the initial CIRP.
• Clean-Slate Doctrine Codified: Claims not explicitly made part of an approved resolution plan stand completely extinguished, preventing subsequent surprise liabilities for new buyers.

• Stiff Frivolous Penalties: To deter stalling tactics, tribunals can now slap vexatious or malicious litigants with fines ranging from ₹1 lakh up to ₹2 crore.
• Decriminalisation: Procedural violations of a moratorium or an approved plan have been decriminalised, moving away from imprisonment to severe civil and monetary fines under Section 235A.

• NEP 2020 Laboratories: PM-SHRI serves as a flagship showcase to demonstrate and physically execute the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 guidelines at the grassroots level.
• Target Scale: The scheme upgrades over 14,500 existing schools managed by Central, State, Union Territory, and local government bodies (including Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas).
• Budgetary Outlay: It is backed by a total project cost of ₹27,360 crore, with a central financial share of ₹18,128 crore.
• Timeline Capping: Implemented from 2022–23 to 2026–27, after which the financial responsibility for maintenance transfers entirely to the respective states.

• General States: Shared on a 60:40 ratio between the Centre and State Governments.
• Special Regions: Shared on a 90:10 ratio for North-Eastern states, Himalayan states, and Jammu & Kashmir.
• Union Territories: Funded 100% by the Central Government for UTs without a legislature.

• Challenge-Based Competition: Selection does not follow state quotas; instead, schools must autonomously compete via an online challenge portal.
• Score Benchmarks: Urban schools must score a minimum of 70%, and rural schools must hit a minimum of 60% on baseline evaluations to qualify.
• Geographic Limit: A maximum of two schools (one elementary and one secondary) can be selected per block or Urban Local Body (ULB).
• Tech Verification: All selected institutions undergo mandatory geo-tagging managed by the Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics (BISAG-N) to track infrastructure development.

• Green School Standards: Upgraded schools integrate sustainable components like solar panels, rainwater harvesting, plastic-free zones, and natural farming nutrition gardens.
• Modernized Labs: Schools are equipped with advanced smart classrooms, ICT digital tools, and specialized Atal Tinkering Labs.
• New Pedagogy: Shifts the learning process away from rote learning toward experiential, inquiry-driven, and toy-based foundational education.
• Mentorship Role: PM-SHRI schools function as localized hubs to mentor and guide adjacent conventional government schools in their respective clusters.

• The "Toothpaste" Mechanism: It is a space weather phenomenon where solar winds squeeze charged plasma along magnetic structures (known as flux tubes) like toothpaste being compressed out of a tube.
• Plasma Depletion: As plasma is forced out and redistributed along the magnetic lines, it creates a localized depletion layer where the density of charged particles drops significantly (by roughly 50% during the Martian event).
• Earth’s Deflection Shield: At Earth, this effect plays a highly beneficial role by helping to divert and deflect harsh solar winds around our planet's strong global magnetic shield.

• Atmospheric Intrusion: On Mars, the effect was discovered below an altitude of 200 kilometers inside the ionosphere—a region densely packed with electrically charged particles.
• No Global Shield: Unlike Earth, Mars lacks an intrinsic, strong dipole magnetic field. Instead, it relies on a weak induced magnetosphere created when solar winds pile up directly against its upper atmosphere.
• Downward Propagation: During the 2023 solar storm, intense magnetic structures compressed the Martian ionosphere's plasma tailward toward the planet's unlit nightside.

• Data "Wiggles": Lead author Dr. Christopher Fowler from West Virginia University noticed unusual fluctuations and "wiggles" in MAVEN's magnetic field and plasma data.
• Constant but Invisible: The research team concluded that the Zwan-Wolf effect is likely continuously active on Mars but remains too weak to be picked up by scientific sensors during quiet space weather periods.
• The Storm Factor: The sheer pressure of the December 2023 solar storm amplified the magnetic force by roughly 40 times its normal quiet-time baseline, pushing the effect past instrument detection thresholds.

• Explaining Atmospheric Loss: This discovery provides a vital new mechanism to explain how space weather dynamically reshapes, strips, and drains the Martian atmosphere into deep space. It helps unpack how Mars evolved from a wet, potentially habitable world into a cold desert.
• Universal Blueprint: The rules observed here will help astronomers model atmospheric interactions on other unmagnetized celestial bodies in our solar system, such as Venus and Saturn’s massive moon Titan.
• Asset Protection: Understanding these sudden atmospheric compressions is crucial for safeguarding active and future satellites orbiting Mars.

• Definition: Hypertension occurs when the physical force of blood pushing against the walls of the body's major arteries remains consistently higher than normal standard baselines.
• The Benchmarks: A healthy baseline reading sits at 120/80 mmHg. Medical guidelines classify clinical hypertension when blood pressure readings repeatedly hit or exceed 140 mmHg systolic or 90 mmHg diastolic.
• Asymptomatic Nature: It is dubbed a "silent condition" because it rarely produces early physical warning signs. Severe cases may cause transient headaches, dizziness, or blurred vision, but the vast majority of people feel perfectly healthy while internal organ damage occurs.

• Modifiable Lifestyle Factors: High intake of processed salt (exceeding the recommended 5 grams per day), sedentary routines, obesity, tobacco smoking, vaping, and heavy alcohol usage.
• Non-Modifiable Factors: Advanced aging (which naturally stiffens arterial walls) and a direct genetic family history of cardiovascular disease.
• Secondary Medical Catalysts: Chronic underlying issues like diabetes, structural kidney diseases, thyroid disorders, and obstructive sleep apnea drastically exacerbate blood pressure spikes.

• Heart Attack & Failure: Pumping against high pressure forces the heart muscle to thicken, harden, and weaken, severely increasing the probability of coronary heart disease.
• Brain & Stroke: Consistently high pressure can cause the fragile blood vessels in the brain to either burst or clog, inducing life-threatening strokes.
• Kidney & Eye Damage: It destroys the microscopic filtering units within the kidneys, accelerating chronic kidney failure, and ruptures vessels behind the retina, causing vision loss.

• The DASH Diet: Transitioning to nutritional patterns low in sodium and rich in whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and lean potassium-rich foods.
• Routine Screenings: Undergoing a simple, automated blood pressure check at least once a year, regardless of age or physical fitness level.
• Sustained Medication: For diagnosed individuals, adhering strictly to long-term antihypertensive drug regimens. Doctors warn that stopping medications abruptly simply because blood pressure readings have normalized is a dangerous, common mistake.

• Scientific Profile: Scientifically classified as Eryx johnii, it is a completely non-venomous, sluggish, and docile burrowing snake belonging to the Boidae family.
• Habitat Preferences: It is a fossorial creature, meaning it spends the vast majority of its life cycle underground in loose, dry, sandy, or semi-arid soil environments.
• Geographic Range: The species is endemic broadly to India, Pakistan, and Iran. Within India, it is distributed widely across almost all states, except for the humid North-Eastern states and deep island territories.

• Morphological Illusion: It is commonly referred to as the "Do-Muha Saanp" (two-headed snake) due to its exceptionally thick, blunt, and rounded tail that closely mimics the actual shape of its head. This is a natural defensive camouflage feature to confuse predators.
• Superstition-Driven Demand: This physical curiosity has birthed deep-rooted, pseudo-scientific superstitions. It is heavily trafficked for use in black magic, occult tantric rituals, and false claims of medicinal properties bringing immense wealth or curing chronic diseases.
• Extreme Cruelty: Black-market valuation is determined entirely by the snake's physical weight. To artificially inflate prices, poachers routinely subject the snakes to horrific abuse, including force-feeding them lead balls, steel bullets, or heavy metallic filings before sale.

• Wildlife Protection Act: In India, it is shielded under Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. This places it under the highest tier of domestic legal protection, making possession, transport, or trade a severe, non-bailable criminal offense.
• IUCN Red List: It is officially categorized as Near Threatened (NT) due to rapid habitat fragmentation and unabated poaching pressure.
• CITES Status: Listed under Appendix II, which strictly regulates any international commercial trade of the species across global borders.

• Prey-Predator Equilibrium: As a highly efficient carnivore, it forms a vital ecological link by preying heavily on crop-damaging rodents, small lizards, and even other snake species.
• Natural Pest Control: By naturally managing and checking burrowing rodent populations, it acts as an invaluable biological asset to agricultural ecosystems and local farmers.

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