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Daily UPSC Practice MCQ’S

A 16-year-long assessment of trends in turtle populations in India says the numbers of the Olive Ridley species suggest a “steady or growing” population. However, rising sand temperatures due to climate change are causing a large proportion of these turtles to be females “raising questions” on the long-term viability of the population.
The report, spanning studies from 2008 to 2024, has been prepared by the Dakshin Foundation and is a long-term monitoring project carried out in partnership with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, and several State forest departments. It provides important information about population trends, threats, and conservation along India’s mainland and island coasts. Along with the Olive Ridley, the most populous of marine turtles, the study encompasses other species of sea turtles found in the Indian territory such as the leatherback turtles of Andaman and Nicobar islands and the Green Turtles of the Lakshadweep islands.

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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) informed a New York court on February 18, 2025, that it has sought assistance from the Indian government under the Hague Service Convention—formally known as the Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters, 1965—to serve summons on billionaire Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani in a securities and wire fraud case. The Adanis were recently charged by the U.S. Department of Justice and the SEC in criminal and civil cases for allegedly bribing Indian government officials over $250 million to advance the Adani Group’s solar projects. The SEC informed the court that it had invoked Article 5(a) of the Convention to request India’s Ministry of Law and Justice to facilitate the service of summons on the defendants. It further stated that it is exploring alternative service methods permitted under Rule 4(f) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which governs civil litigation in U.S. federal courts.
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National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is tentatively scheduled to launch its new megaphone-shaped space telescope on Friday (February 28) aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. During its short two-year mission, the observatory will help better understand things about the formation of the universe, the growth of all galaxies across cosmic history, and the location of water and life-forming molecules in the Milky Way galaxy.

Here are three things that you need to know about the new space telescope, called Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx)

Will make the “most colourful” map of cosmos ever

SPHEREx will map the universe while detecting two kinds of cosmic light, optical and infrared. While the human eye can see optical light, infrared light is invisible to it. That is an issue when it comes to studying the cosmos as it is the infrared light that contains information about the farthest reaches of space, the stars being born, and the details of galactic structures. To overcome this problem, scientists use specialised cameras and telescopes to study infrared which has a heat signature. One such instrument is the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) whose speciality is infrared and it helps show things in the universe that have remained hidden so far. Notably, the Hubble Space Telescope’s speciality is optical, not infrared light.

With the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) looking to wrap up public consultations on the draft Rules for the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 by March 5, disability rights activists are trying to get a key provision of the Act amended or dropped, pointing out that it infantilises Persons with Disabilities (PwDs), negates their decision-making capabilities, and comes from a misunderstood notion of how guardianship works for PwDs.

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Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav last week released 10 gharials, a critically endangered species, into the Chambal river at the National Chambal Gharial Sanctuary in Morena.

Madhya Pradesh’s decades-long conservation efforts have earned it the title of a “gharial state,” hosting over 80 per cent of India’s gharials.

What are gharials, and why are they important? What threats do they face, and what is MP doing to protect them? What are gharials?
The gharial is a species of Gavialis gangeticus—long-snouted, fish-eating crocodilians. The name ‘gharial’ comes from the Hindi word ghara, meaning pot or vessel, referring to the bulbous snout tip of adult males, which resembles an inverted pot. In Indian mythology, gharials hold sacred significance, often depicted as the divine mount of the goddess Ganga. Their slender snouts, lined with numerous sharp, interlocking teeth, are adapted to trap fish, the mainstay of their diet. Males grow from 3-6 meters, and females 2.6–4.5 meters. Gharials mate during November, December, and January. Sandbanks, sandbars, and islands are critical to their ecology, serving as preferred sites for basking and nesting. From March to May, as river levels recede, female gharials climb onto exposed sandbanks and islands to nest communally, with many laying eggs in the same area. Females provide parental care for the first few days after hatching.

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The story so far: There has been a tussle between the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government over the three-language formula in schools under the New Education Policy (NEP), 2020. The Union government has indicated that it needs to be complied with for release of funds tied to the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan. However, the Tamil Nadu government views it as a ‘smokescreen’ for Hindi imposition and insists that it would continue with its two-language policy.

The Constitution provides that Hindi is the official language of the Union. English was originally meant to continue as the official language for 15 years from the commencement of the Constitution (till 1965). However, the Official Languages Act, 1963 provides for the continued use of English, in addition to Hindi, for all official purposes of the Union without any time limit. The legislature of a State may adopt any one or more of the languages in use in the State or Hindi as the official language(s) for official purposes of that State.
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General relativity and quantum mechanics are two highly successful theories. The former explains gravity and the latter teams up with special relativity to describe the other three forces of nature: electromagnetic, strong nuclear, and weak nuclear forces.

However, scientists don’t know how gravity fits into quantum mechanics. In fact, they have been proposing experiments that can test the quantumness of gravity. On October 29, 2024, one such proposal appeared in the journalPhysical Review Letters.

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India’s textile industry is among the largest in the world, spanning a vast value chain from cotton cultivation to high-end apparel manufacturing. However, despite its scale, India lags behind countries like China, Vietnam, and Bangladesh in textile exports, which benefit from vertically integrated supply chains, lower production costs, and simpler regulations.

Despite being a global leader in cotton and synthetic fibre production, India’s textile and apparel industry has recorded sluggish growth in recent years. Now, with rising sustainability and compliance requirements, costs are expected to rise further, especially for smaller firms.

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