UPSC Current Affairs 29 October 2026

• Evaluation Core: Startups are evaluated based on four primary pillars: Innovation, Scalability, Sustainability, and Socio-economic impact.
• Nodal Ministry: It is administered by DPIIT under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
• Ecosystem Inclusivity: Special focus is being given to accelerating and onboarding entrepreneurial talent from emerging Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities.

• Biomanufacturing
• Consumer Industries
• Defence & Security
• Rural Economy, Traditional Industries & Livelihoods
• Education & Skilling
• Electronics, Semiconductors & Advanced Manufacturing
• Sports, Fitness & Sports-Tech
• Future Mobility & Automotive
• Ocean & Blue Economy
• Space-Tech, Drones & Aerospace
• Telecom, Connectivity & Digital Infrastructure
• Travel, Tourism & Hospitality

• Women-Led Startup of the Year — recognises startups led by women.
• North-East Startup Excellence — recognises outstanding startups from the North-East region.
• Student Innovator / Aspiring Entrepreneur Award — newly introduced to promote innovation among school and college students across all 36 States and Union Territories.

• Cash Rewards: Winners across the sectoral and primary special categories receive a financial grant of ₹25 lakh per category. The new student innovation segment shares a dedicated ₹25 lakh prize pool divided across four sub-categories.
• Non-Monetary Benefits: Beyond cash prizes, recognized entities secure strategic mentorship, investor matchmaking, government procurement access, and heightened ecosystem visibility.

• Scientific Name & Family: Known scientifically as Kallima inachus, it belongs to the Nymphalidae (brush-footed) family of butterflies.
• Dual Identity Camouflage:
  • Wings Closed: It displays a flawless example of protective "masquerade," perfectly mimicking a dry, withered brown leaf complete with dark fake veins, midribs, and realistic decay spots.
  • Wings Open: When it takes flight, it exposes a striking contrast of brilliant, shimmering iridescent blue, jet-black borders, and a bright, deep orange band.

• Global & National Range: Found across Tropical Asia ranging from Pakistan and India all the way to Japan. In India, it is distributed along the low-elevation Himalayas, the Northeast, and specific central forest patches.
• Preferred Environment: It thrives in wet, subtropical, and temperate dense forest zones, particularly choosing areas with heavy undergrowth, forest streams, and high dampness.
• Local Hotspots: In central India, it is heavily localized around dense biodiversity havens like the Satpura National Park.

• Unusual Diet: Unlike most butterflies, the Orange Oakleaf is completely indifferent to flower nectar. It is instead strongly attracted to tree sap, mud-puddles, and fermenting or overripe fruit.
• Flight Patterns: It is a remarkably rapid and erratic flyer, which—combined with its ability to suddenly drop onto the forest floor and "turn into a leaf"—makes it incredibly difficult for predators or researchers to track.

• Health Indicator: Because it relies heavily on natural leaf litter, dense undisturbed canopy coverage, and pristine freshwater streams, its presence serves as an indicator of a healthy, intact forest ecosystem.
• Conservation Impact: The state-level declaration aims to legally safeguard its dwindling habitats, trigger comprehensive biological research, and fuel local community-driven butterfly tourism initiatives across Central India.

• Measured Superiority: Using laboratory-simulated human digestion, scientists measured the portion of protein that the body can actually absorb (bioavailability) rather than just looking at the total protein stated on raw labels.
• The Comparative Data:
  • Seekh Kebabs: Plant-based variants scored 81% to 86.1% in absorbable protein, compared to just 38.8% for conventional chicken.
  • Nuggets: Plant-based variants yielded 61.2% absorbable protein against 43.4% for chicken.
  • Burger Patties: Plant-based patties scored 57% to 58%, whereas traditional chicken patties yielded only 21.2%.
• Crucial Distinction: While conventional chicken contains a higher raw level of crude protein, its structural degradation during cooking makes its protein less absorbable than that of modern plant-based analogues.

• Key Raw Materials: The high-yield alternative meats are primarily formulated from plant proteins like soy, pea, or wheat gluten.
• Texturization Process: The distinct, fibrous texture that mimics muscle tissue is achieved through high-moisture extrusion (HME), where plant proteins are shaped under intense pressure and heat without the use of toxic chemicals.
• Nutritional Co-Benefits: Unlike animal tissues, plant-based options naturally yield dietary fibre and contain negligible cholesterol, though their saturated fat and sodium footprints remain structurally similar to real meat.

• Beyond Meat Analogues: The study also mapped out ways to drastically improve the nutrient yields of native pulses and millets through basic domestic processing.
• The Processing Effects:
  • Pressure Cooking: Nearly quadrupled the bioavailable protein in cowpeas (lobia) and heavily optimized it in chickpeas.
  • Fermentation: More than tripled the usable protein yield in mung beans, while biological sprouting maximized the nutrition indices of native Indian millets.

• Strategic Self-Reliance: Proving the high yield of native crops allows the Indian food-processing sector to lean into domestic sourcing, avoiding reliance on imported alternative protein isolates.
• Addressing Malnutrition: In countries like India where up to half of dietary protein is derived from staple cereals lacking complete amino acids, high-yield plant meat serves as a calorie-efficient vehicle to battle hidden hunger.
• Agricultural Efficiency: Because up to 67% of global crop calories are conventionally lost by being cycled through livestock as animal feed, creating meat directly from high-yield crops drastically reduces land degradation and greenhouse gases.

• Temperate Japonica Roots: The study found that Kashmir's indigenous landraces belong primarily to the Temperate Japonica lineage, making them genetically closer to rice found in Northeast China and the Korean Peninsula than subtropical Indian varieties.
• Rewriting Agricultural History: Traditional migration models assumed rice travelled exclusively northward from the Indo-Gangetic plains. This discovery suggests prehistoric rice exchange occurred directly across the Silk Road or trans-Himalayan trade routes after 1500 BCE.
• Archaeological Alignment: These genetic patterns heavily mirror ancient Neolithic and Megalithic findings excavated at historical Kashmiri sites like Burzahom and Gufkral.

• Natural Selection Pressure: The evolution of these landraces is tied to severe climate fluctuations during the mid-to-late Holocene epoch. The onset of freezing alpine conditions naturally selected genetic variants capable of enduring harsh cold.
• Five Shielding Genes: Researchers identified five critical cold-adapted genes—HAN1, CTB4a, COLD1, bZIP73, and COLD6—consistently present in local landraces.
• Early Stage Survival: These genes allow the crops to survive and germinate at freezing temperatures during early alpine sowing seasons, a trait modern high-yielding varieties (HYVs) lack.

• Mushk Budji: The crown jewel of Kashmir’s heritage rice, known for its short-bold grains and intense fragrance. Grown primarily in high-altitude pockets like Sagam (Anantnag), it received a Geographical Indication (GI) tag to protect it from extinction.
• Kamad: Another traditional short-grain aromatic landrace specifically adapted to high elevations.
• Zag Rice: A highly prized traditional red rice variant tailored to niche, sub-temperate valley microclimates.

• Countering Modern Vulnerability: While modern introduced lines (like SR3 and SR4) double short-term yields, their lack of genetic cold adaptability makes them vulnerable to sudden climate anomalies.
• A Genetic Reservoir: Preserving these landraces provides global breeders with a vital gene bank to cross-breed next-generation crops that combine high yield with absolute climate resilience.

• Super-Earth Metrics: TOI-561 b is an ancient super-Earth with roughly 1.4 times the radius and 2.2 times the mass of Earth.
• Ultra-Short Period: The planet is located exceptionally close to its host star—just one-fortieth of the distance between Mercury and our Sun. Consequently, it whips around its star to complete a full year in just 10.56 hours.
• Tidal Locking: It is tidally locked, meaning one side is trapped in eternal daylight facing the blistering star, while the other side remains in permanent darkness.

• Heat Redistribution: Rather than absorbing the extreme heat on its sunlit side, the thick atmosphere actively transports and redistributes thermal energy from the day side to the night side, cooling down the star-facing hemisphere.
• Temperature Anomaly: A bare, dark rock in this orbit would bake at roughly 4,900°F (2,700°C). Thanks to its mineral sunscreen, JWST measured a significantly dampened temperature of around 3,200°F (1,800°C) on the dayside.
• Low Density Puzzle: The presence of this thick gas envelope also explains why the planet features a lower density than expected for a typical Earth-like iron-and-rock composition.

• Planet-Wide Engine: Because stellar winds continuously erode gases into space, scientists hypothesize that the planet's global ocean of molten lava acts as a continuous, planet-wide volcanic engine.
• Outgassing System: The liquid magma ocean continuously vents volatile gases (such as carbon dioxide or sulfur dioxide) into the upper atmosphere, replenishing the blanket of air just as fast as the star destroys it.

• Ancient Systems Insight: TOI-561 is one of the oldest, metal-poor planetary systems discovered in the Milky Way, estimated to be around 10 billion years old.
• The Venus vs. Io Debate: Moving forward, astronomers are looking to determine the exact chemical composition of the atmosphere. Learning whether it is highly dense like a super-heated Venus or highly sulfurous like Jupiter's volcanic moon, Io, will rewrite theories on how rocky worlds retain their volatile elements.

• THINK (Shape the Cyber Future): Focuses on drafting advanced cyber policies, running public awareness initiatives, and training industry professionals via a dedicated cyber academy.
• INNOVATE (Create What's Next): Concentrates on cutting-edge research, cybersecurity prototyping, and global maturity benchmarking to measure defences against evolving worldwide practices.
• DEFEND (Protect What Matters): Executes proactive threat detection, early warning analytics, and robust incident response protocols.

• Quantum-Safe Advances: Developing cryptographic and system defences ready for the upcoming era of quantum computing.
• AI Security & Fraud Analytics: Deploying machine learning matrices to secure automated banking apps and analyze fraudulent patterns instantly.
• Deep Cyber Operations: Housing advanced facilities for digital forensics, ethical hacking, and structural malware analysis.

• Boundary-Less Defence: Recognizing that modern breaches cross organizational lines, CyRIS functions as a hub to exchange real-time threat data.
• Key Partners: It connects SBI with technology partners, financial institutions, academic bodies, fintech firms, and central government regulatory authorities.

• Large-Scale Training: The creation of CyRIS supplements SBI's aggressive internal security benchmarks, where nearly 1.81 lakh employees completed mandatory cybersecurity e-learning courses in FY26.
• Public Ecosystem Safeguard: By strengthening the core digital network of India's largest bank, the centre acts as a digital shield for millions of daily retail and corporate banking consumers.

• Location: Situated in the Sironcha taluka of the Gadchiroli district in the Eastern Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. It lies close to the Indravati Tiger Reserve in neighbouring Chhattisgarh.
• Primary Flagship Species: It is a critical habitat for the Asiatic Wild Water Buffalo (Bubalus arnee), an endangered state animal species isolated in Central India.
• Ecosystem & Rivers: Dominated by tropical dry deciduous forests and dense bamboo thickets. It is located along the Pranhita and Indravati river basins.
• Core Objective: The elevation from a "Conservation Reserve" to a "Wildlife Sanctuary" ensures a higher level of legal protection under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. This creates inviolate core zones to combat habitat degradation, control poaching, and prevent genetic bottlenecks caused by interbreeding with domestic cattle.

• Location: Located along the foothills of the Western Ghats, spanning the Shahapur and Bhiwandi talukas in the Thane district and the Wada taluka in the Palghar district.
• Boundary Expansion: The board approved the inclusion of 588.767 hectares of revenue and private land across six villages (Ogda, Khodde, Tirmal, Pachghar, Phanasad, and Amle). This expansion is designed to make core parts of the sanctuary free from human habitation pressures.
• Rich Biodiversity: Features tropical moist deciduous forests that house over 54 mammal species and 250 bird species. Key species include the Leopard, Sloth Bear, and the highly endangered Forest Owlet (Athene blewitti).
• Watershed Significance: The sanctuary protects vital forest canopies that feed the catchments of the Tansa, Vaitarna, and Modak Sagar reservoirs. These reservoirs are critical for securing the freshwater supply of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).

• Governing Framework: Both actions are executed under the provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 (amended in 2022).
• The Declaration Process:
  • Section 18: The state government first issues an initial notification declaring its intent to establish a sanctuary.
  • Settlement of Rights: The local District Collector investigates, alters, or settles traditional community rights over the designated land within a set timeframe.
  • Section 26A: Once claims are resolved, the state issues the final notification formally designating the Wildlife Sanctuary.
• Protection Status Upgrade: In a Conservation Reserve (Section 36A), local communities actively participate in management alongside the state on uninhabited government land. Upgrading to a Wildlife Sanctuary means commercial exploitation is strictly prohibited, and traditional human activities like grazing or collecting non-timber forest produce are strictly regulated by the Chief Wildlife Warden.

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