UPSC Current Affairs 23 October 2026

• Etymology: The word "Nuakhai" originates from two Odia words—"Nua" meaning new and "Khai" meaning food/eat.
• Harvest Celebration: It is the primary agricultural harvest festival of Western Odisha, southern Chhattisgarh, and adjoining areas of Jharkhand. It celebrates the welcome, storage, and first consumption of the newly harvested rice crop.
• Socio-Cultural Identity: Beyond agriculture, it symbolises the deep bond between humans, nature, and the environment, forming the core cultural identity of Western Odisha.

• Lunar Schedule: The festival is observed annually on the Panchami tithi (fifth day) of the lunar fortnight of the Hindu month of Bhadrapada (August–September).
• Alignment: It occurs exactly the day after Ganesh Chaturthi.
• Lagan: The exact hour for rituals is determined astrologically by royal priests and temple trusts, known as the Lagan.

• Vedic Foundations: Traces its ancient roots back to the Pralambana yajna, a Vedic ritual dedicated to offering the earth's bounty back to nature.
• Chauhan Dynasty Formalisation: While it existed as a tribal tradition, it was formally institutionalised in the 12th century by Raja Ramai Deo, the Chauhan ruler of Patna (modern-day Balangir, Odisha), who integrated royal rituals and state patronage.
• Official Holiday: In 1991, the Odisha state government officially declared it a state holiday.

• The Nine Ritual Colors: The celebration conventionally involves nine sequential preliminary steps/colours (ranging from Beherana—the initial meeting announcement—to cleaning, collecting the crop, and gifting).
• Nabanna Offering: The first crop harvested (Nabanna) is ceremonially cooked and offered to presiding deities. In Sambalpur, the main offering goes to Goddess Samaleswari at the Samaleswari Temple, followed by 115 other regional deities.
• Deities in Focus: Other regional forms of the Mother Goddess include Pateneswari (Balangir), Sureshwari (Sonepur), and Manikeswari (Kalahandi).
• Nuakhai Juhar: Following the family meal, a major social custom occurs where younger family and community members touch the feet of their elders to seek blessings for the new year.
• Nuakhai Bhetghat: A community gathering where people exchange greetings, share traditional foods (like Pitha, Manda, and Ambila), and reconcile past disputes or grievances to start fresh.
• Folk Heritage: The festival culminates in lively community performances featuring traditional Western Odia folk dances like Rasarkeli and Dalkhai.

• The Pradhan Mantri Samajik Sahayata Yojana (PMSSY) is the new name for India's National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP).

• NSAP was launched on 15 August 1995 by the Ministry of Rural Development to provide social assistance to poor households.
• It operationalises Article 41 of the Constitution, a Directive Principle directing the State to secure public assistance in cases of old age, sickness, disablement and unemployment.
• It is a centrally sponsored scheme with 100% central assistance, intended to ensure a minimum social-security floor nationwide.
• It covers both rural and urban areas; the common eligibility condition is that the applicant’s household is below the poverty line (BPL).
• States and UTs implement it mainly through social welfare departments, with Gram Panchayats and municipalities assisting in beneficiary identification; payments are largely made through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT).

• Pradhan Mantri Vridhavastha Pension Yojana (replacing the old age pension)
• Pradhan Mantri Vidhawa Pension Yojana (replacing the widow pension)
• Pradhan Mantri Divyangjan Pension Yojana (restructuring disability pensions)
• Pradhan Mantri Parivar Labh Yojana (replacing the family benefit scheme)
• Annapurna Scheme (providing free food grains to eligible seniors)

• Disability Threshold & Age Limits: The eligibility threshold for disability pensions was lowered from 80% to 40% benchmark disability, and the minimum age limit of 18 was removed to support eligible individuals from birth. Beneficiaries are projected to increase from 8.33 lakhs to 27.48 lakhs.
• Financial Assistance: Central assistance for the disability pension increased by 25% (₹375/month for ages 0–79 and ₹625/month for 80+), while old-age and widow central contributions remain at ₹200/month. The family benefit scheme continues a lump sum of ₹20,000 for BPL families upon the death of a primary breadwinner.
• Coverage: Overall caps expand to 3.20 crore beneficiaries, with states often providing financial top-ups.

• Carbon Allotrope: It is a new pure structural form of carbon, joining the family of well-known carbon allotropes like diamond, graphite, graphene, fullerenes, and carbon nanotubes.
• "Porous Diamond": It is conceptually described as an expanded, hollower "cousin" of the traditional diamond.

• Hybrid Structural Lattice: Unlike diamond's dense network consisting solely of single bonds (sp³ hybridised carbon), diamondiyne incorporates both single bonds and triple bonds (sp³ and sp hybridised carbon centers).
• Tetrahedral Geometry: Its carbon atoms are arranged as tetrahedra connected corner-to-corner in all three dimensions.
• The "Y" Factor: The 'y' in the name diamondiyne signifies the specific incorporation of diyne units (carbon-carbon triple bonds) between the diamond-like carbon nodes. These triple bonds act as linkers that expand the network, generating distinct inner voids or pores.

• Liquid-Liquid Interface: The material is generated as an ultra-thin carbon film right where two specific chemical liquids meet (a liquid-liquid interface).
• Chemical Trait: It forms through a cascade coupling reaction at room pressure using a tetrahedral alkyne precursor and a reusable copper fluoride (CuF₂) catalyst.
• Microscopic Success: Scientists confirmed its repeating crystalline lattice pattern via advanced electron microscopy at Stockholm University, observing verified patches measuring about 10 nanometers on each side.

• Interwoven Materials: Because of its porous 3D architecture, scientists believe multiple diamondiyne frameworks could potentially be interwoven or threaded through one another's voids.
• Advanced Technology: Its unique properties open up potential applications in next-generation materials science, electronics, molecular storage systems, and advanced mechanical engineering.

• Location: Stretches across a 1,000 to 1,100 km strip of land along the Pacific coast of South America, situated between the Andes Mountains to the east and the Chilean Coast Range to the west.
• Hyper-Aridity: The desert averages a mere 15 mm of rainfall per year, with its central core being virtually lifeless and entirely devoid of precipitation for centuries.
• The "Three-Way" Dryness Mechanism: The desert's extreme dryness is caused by three primary factors:
  • Rain Shadow Effect: The high Andes Mountains completely block moist air coming from the Amazon basin.
  • Humboldt Current: The cold ocean current flowing along the coast creates a thermal inversion, generating dense fog (camanchaca) but preventing rain-cloud formation.
  • High Atmospheric Pressure: Descending dry air prevents condensation from converting into rainfall.

• Astronomy Capital of the World: Boasting over 300 clear nights a year, high elevation, low light pollution, and exceptionally dry air, it hosts major global telescopes like the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).
• Mars Analogue for NASA: Due to its extreme, hyper-arid soil chemistry, the core of the Atacama is considered the most Mars-like environment on Earth. NASA uses the desert as a testing ground for drilling and life-detection instruments bound for the Red Planet.
• Mineral Wealth: The region holds the world's largest natural supply of sodium nitrate and is incredibly rich in key technology minerals like lithium, copper, gold, and iodine.
• Unique Ecosystems: Despite the harsh environment, highly adapted flora and fauna—such as the spiny tamarugo tree, cacti, and specialized rodents like the chinchilla—thrive along the fog-fed coastal edges.

• Name: Desierto Florido, or “flowering desert.”
• Trigger: Unusually heavy rainfall, especially during El Niño years.
• Mechanism: Seeds and bulbs remain dormant beneath the soil for years or decades; rainfall stimulates germination and flowering.
• Biodiversity: Around 200 flowering plant species can bloom, including the añañuca, an iconic red wildflower.
• Ecological importance: The bloom supports pollinators, insects, birds, reptiles and mammals, and adds nutrients to the soil through biological activity. 

• The word "Badr" means "full moon" in Arabic.
• It symbolises the goal of combining the distinct, complementary strengths of all four participating nations into a singular, well-rounded force.

• Joint Production: Co-manufacturing advanced military hardware, weapons, and platforms.
• Technology Transfer & R&D: Jointly funding and sharing research to design futuristic defence systems and technical capabilities.
• Integrated Supply Chains: Establishing reliable cross-border military industrial pipelines that are resistant to external sanctions or disruptions.
• Technical Military Training: Setting up institutionalized programs for personnel training and technical logistics.

• Turkey (Türkiye): Serves as the primary technological and industrial hub, offering advanced aerospace engineering, drone technology, and systems integration capabilities.
• Qatar: Acts as the primary financial driver, providing significant investment capital to bankroll large-scale defence projects.
• Pakistan and Indonesia: Contribute massive manufacturing infrastructure, highly skilled technical workforces, and established domestic military markets.

• Executive Board: Oversees immediate procurement targets and manufacturing strategies.
• Strategic Board: Directs budgets, financial flows, and approves production site locations.

• Unlike the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement (signed in August 2026 by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey) which contains a NATO-like collective defence clause, the Badr MoU is purely an industrial-defence cooperation pact.
• It does not create a legally binding mutual defence obligation requiring the nations to go to war to defend one another if attacked.

• Next-Gen Tech: The LLLR-I is a multi-mission Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar system that incorporates Solid State and Gallium Nitride (GaN) amplifiers.
• Zero Moving Parts: Unlike traditional rotating radars, the LLLR-I uses four flat, fixed antenna panels mounted on a heavy-duty tripod. This design eliminates mechanical motors and gears that wear out or freeze in harsh environments.
• Passive Cooling: The radar completely bypasses the need for complex, leak-prone liquid cooling pumps, relying entirely on passive air cooling via metal heat sinks.
• Digital Beam Forming: It features advanced Track-While-Scan automatic tracking and Digital Beam Forming technology, allowing agile multiple beams in elevation.

• 360-Degree Dome Surveillance: Each of the four fixed panels covers a 90-degree azimuth, combining to establish a seamless, continuous 360-degree dome of sky monitoring.
• Anti-Drone Warfare: Specifically engineered to counter the modern threat of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), it tracks and identifies fighter-sized targets as well as minuscule mini and micro drones that feature an extremely low Radar Cross-Section (RCS).
• Threat Prioritization: It possesses smart, automated capabilities to rank and prioritise aerial threats based on risk level, quickly communicating target indications to weapon command systems.
• Extreme Terrain Deployment: Its lightweight, compact, and man-portable design makes it easy to transport via standard load-carrying vehicles. It is resilient enough to bake in deserts or operate perfectly at freezing high-altitude mountain peaks up to 6,000 metres.
• Electronic Counter-Countermeasures (ECCM): Built with extensive ECCM capability to operate fluidly even when subjected to intense hostile electronic jamming or military warfare environments.

• Combating Soil Degradation: The primary objective is to improve soil health and reverse land degradation across the country.
• Reducing Chemical Dependency: It targets the excessive and unbalanced use of chemical fertilizers (especially urea) and synthetic pesticides.
• Enhancing Resource Efficiency: Focuses on boosting water-use efficiency and implementing climate-resilient farming techniques.
• Economic Relief for Farmers: Aims to reduce input costs for farmers and lower the government's massive fertilizer subsidy bill (which stands at roughly ₹2 lakh crore annually).

• Soil Testing & Nutrient Management: Encourages systematic soil testing and reliance on the Soil Health Card Scheme for judicious input usage.
• Natural and Organic Farming: Promotes organic practices such as Zero-Budget Natural Farming and bio-fertilizers, including traditional mixtures like Beejamrit and Ghanjeevamrit.
• Crop Diversification & Anti-Stubble Burning: Urges the integration of pulses and oilseeds to restore soil fertility while discouraging crop residue burning to protect microorganisms.
• Green Ammonia Innovation: Highlights the transition toward carbon-free green ammonia for domestic fertilizer self-reliance.

• Collaborative Execution: Driven by ICAR, DARE, local Panchayats, KVKs, and agricultural universities through grassroots methods like Kisan Chaupals.
• Scheme Integration & Outreach: Connects farmers with schemes like PM-KISAN, KCC, and PM-PRANAM. Reports from ICAR show outreach has engaged over 2.71 crore people via media platforms.

• Project Authority: The initiative is fully supported by the Department of Fisheries, Government of India, as part of a broader Blue Growth Project titled 'Development of pilot-scale open-sea eco-mussel farms in India'.
• Financial Backing: The project operates with a sanctioned fund of ₹152 lakhs.
• Local Collaboration: The deployment is being executed hand-in-hand with the traditional diving community and a local cooperative, the 'Vizhinjam Mungal Thozhilali Kshema Sangom'.
• Technical Infrastructure: The setup utilizes structural engineering built for deep water, incorporating 20 custom-designed 300-litre HDPE floats, parallel mainlines, an anchoring system, and suspended mussel culture ropes.
• Hatchery Innovation: Rather than harvesting wild seed—which frequently causes friction among local fishing communities—the project relies on advanced hatchery and micro-nursery technologies standardized by the ICAR-CMFRI Vizhinjam Regional Centre to generate seeds sustainably on a large scale.

• The Biology: Mussels are bivalve molluscs (possessing a two-part hinged shell). They naturally aggregate in dense clusters by anchoring themselves to solid objects via sticky protein strands called byssus threads.
• The Longline Technique: Floats hold a long mainline stable on the sea surface, from which long ropes wrapped with juvenile mussel seeds hang directly down into the water column.
• Open-Sea Benefits: Moving the farms from shallow estuaries out into the open sea places them in deeper water with lower pollution levels, higher water circulation, and less spatial conflict with standard coastal activities.

• Eco-Friendly Farming: Mussels are filter feeders that naturally clean the surrounding water. Because they feed entirely on wild microscopic plankton, they require zero artificial feed, making them exceptionally eco-friendly and cost-effective.
• Nutritional Superfood: Cultured mussels supply a clean, highly accessible source of animal protein, rich in essential micronutrients like omega-3 fatty acids, zinc, iodine, and calcium.
• Livelihood Diversification: The project creates highly stable, climate-resilient alternative employment streams for coastal fishing groups.
• Conservation: Shifting toward aquaculture helps reduce overfishing pressure on natural, wild marine mollusc habitats.

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