🔆 Ocean Pollution: A Global Environmental Threat

📍 What is Ocean Pollution?
Ocean pollution refers to the introduction of plastics, toxic metals, chemicals, and agricultural runoff into marine ecosystems, leading to ecological imbalance and human health risks.

📍 Key Impacts

✅ Microplastics Menace
• Account for 80% of ocean debris
• Ingested by marine animals, reaching humans via seafood
• Detected at 100m depth, disrupting the carbon cycle
📖 Source: Nature (2023)

✅ Harmed Marine Life
• Ingestion leads to reduced feeding and poor health
• Pollutants destroy habitats, threaten biodiversity

✅ Oxygen Depletion
• Decomposing waste consumes oxygen, suffocating marine life

✅ Risks to Human Health
• Contaminated seafood
• Toxic aerosols from sea spray may affect coastal populations

📍 Mitigation Measures

✅ Climate Change Action
• Cut greenhouse gas emissions to ease ocean stress

✅ Enhanced Monitoring
• Invest in data, satellite tech to track oxygen levels & pollution sources

✅ Awareness & Behaviour Change
• Public education to reduce plastic use & marine dumping

📍 Global Action & Treaties

✅ MARPOL – Regulates pollution from ships
✅ UNCLOS – Ensures sustainable ocean governance
✅ High Seas Treaty (BBNJ Agreement, 2023)
• Adopted under UNCLOS
• Focus: Conserve marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction
• Targets: Reduce pollution, support sustainable use of high seas resources

📍 Fact Sheet

✅ Plastic = 80% of all marine pollution
✅ 8–10 million metric tons/year plastic enters oceans
✅ By 2050, plastic could outweigh all fish
📖 Source: UNESCO, Environmental Studies

#environment

Uttarakhand PCS Pre Admit Card Released.

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🔆 Agriculture Sector: Key Facts

✅ Share of agriculture sector in GVA = 18%
(World avg 6.4%, China 8-9%, developed countries 1%)
📊 Source: Agri Stats at a Glance 2023 (MoA)

✅ Composition of Agri GVA = Crops 55%, Livestock 30%, Forestry & Logging 8%, Fishing & Aquaculture 7%
📊 Source: Agri Stats at a Glance 2023 (MoA)

✅ Gross capital formation in agriculture = ~19% of agri GDP
(Public = 3%, Private = 97%)
📊 Source: Economic Survey

✅ Share of workforce in agriculture = 45%
(Industry 25%, Services 30%)
📊 Source: NSO

✅ Agri exports of India = 2.5% of global agri trade
💰 All-time high of $50 bn in 2022
📊 Source: APEDA

#Data #GS3 #GS1 #mains #agriculture


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🔆 Key Takeaways: Flue Gas Desulphurisation (FGD) Units in India

📍 🧪 What Are FGD Units?
✅ FGD units remove SO₂ from flue gas—SO₂ is acidic, and FGDs neutralise it using basic compounds.
✅ Three main types:
 • Dry sorbent injection – powdered limestone reacts with SO₂; residue filtered.
 • Wet limestone treatment – limestone slurry used; highly efficient and widely used.
 • Seawater scrubbing – used in coastal plants, seawater absorbs SO₂, treated before discharge.

📍 🇮🇳 India’s Current Status
✅ 2015: Environment Ministry mandated FGDs in all 537 coal-fired TPPs.
✅ As of August 2024, only 39 units had FGDs installed.
✅ By April 2025, India’s coal-based power capacity was 2,19,338 MW—46% of total electricity capacity.

📍 💰 Cost & Policy Implications
✅ Installation cost: approx. ₹1.2 crore/MW.
✅ Estimated cost for 97,000 MW: ₹97,000 crore.
✅ Tariffs may increase by ₹0.72/kWh, largely due to fixed costs (over 80%).
✅ Variable cost rise remains under ₹0.1/kWh.

📍 🌱 Environmental & Health Impact
✅ SO₂ contributes to global warming and respiratory issues.
✅ Leads to secondary particulate matter (PM) formation—80% of PM linked to SO₂ from coal burning.

📍 ⚠️ No Viable Alternatives
✅ Experts affirm: no substitute for FGDs to remove SO₂ from coal emissions.
✅ Urgent compliance needed to avoid further delays and health costs.

#environment

🔆 Land Use & Ownership in Indian Agriculture

✅ Land use pattern –
Net Sown Area 45%, Forest area 24%, Pastures & Groves 4%,
Cultivable Wasteland 4%, Fallow Land 9%, Barren Land 5%,
Non-Agriculture Land 8%
📊 Source: Ministry of Agriculture

✅ Average size of operational landholding = 0.9 hectares
(Consistently declining since 1970)
📊 Source: Agriculture Census 2021-22

✅ Female land holders = Only 15%
(Despite feminisation of agriculture)
📊 Source: Agriculture Census

🔆 Crop Statistics – India

✅ Area under cultivation:
Cereals = 40% (Rice 25%, Wheat 15%)
Coarse grains 10%, Pulses 15%, Oilseeds 13%,
Cotton 7%, Sugarcane 3%
📊 Source: Ministry of Agriculture

✅ Millets in India:
Largest producer – 60 mn tonnes (20% of global output)
5th largest exporter
Yield – 1240 kg/ha vs world average 1230 kg/ha
📊 Source: Ministry of Agriculture

✅ Total food grain production (2023–24):
332 million tonnes
Wheat & rice = 75% of total production
📊 Source: Ministry of Agriculture

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UPSC has given the following details for the service preference changes and cadre preference filling for the UPSC CSE 2025.

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🔆 Need for Uniform Civil Code (UCC)

📍 Key Points
✅ Secularism: Aligns with India’s secular principles, applicable to all citizens.
✅ Freedom of Choice: Based on civil law principles, promotes freedom to choose partners without religious/caste restrictions.
✅ Equality for All: Eliminates discriminatory practices, ensuring equal rights for all citizens.
✅ Gender Equity: Removes gender biases, promoting a just society.
✅ Protecting Vulnerable Groups: Provides safeguards for minorities, women, and others disadvantaged by personal laws.
✅ 2018 Law Commission Recommendation: Codify personal laws to create a fair, just UCC.

📍 Implementation
✅ Uttarakhand: First state to implement UCC post-independence, focusing on gender equality and secularism.
✅ Gujarat: Following suit with a committee to draft UCC, indicating growing state-level momentum.

#polity #prelims #mains

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🔆 Understanding Types of Communalism

📍 Assimilationist
✅ Dominant religious groups demand minorities follow their culture. (Example: Viewing Buddha as an incarnation of Vishnu)

📍 Welfarist
✅ Focuses on uplifting a community socially and economically. (Example: Jiyo Parsi initiative)

📍 Retreatist
✅ A community isolates itself to preserve its identity, often avoiding political engagement. (Example: Bahá’i religion’s practices)

📍 Retaliatory
✅ Tensions between conflicting groups lead to violence. (Example: Hindu-Muslim riots)

📍 Separatist
✅ Pushes for self-governance within India based on religious identity. (Example: Greater Nagaland, Bodoland)

📍 Secessionist
✅ The extreme form, aiming for a separate nation based on religion. (Example: Khalistan, Azad Kashmir)

#gs1 #society #mains

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🔆 Vulnerable Sections – Key Data from India

📍 Persons with Disabilities (PwDs)
✅ The number of Persons with Disabilities in the country are 2.68 crore, which is 2.21% of the total population of the country.
✅ 19.30% persons with disability (15 years and above) completed at least secondary education
✅ Among persons with disabilities of age 7 years and above, 52.2% are literates
✅ Among PwDs, 62% have care giver, 37.7% don’t require a caregiver, and for 0.3% caregiver was required but not available
✅ Among PwDs (age 15 years and above), Labour Force Participation Rate was 23.8%, Worker Population Ratio was 22.8%, Unemployment Rate was 4.2%

📍 Elderly
✅ There were nearly 138 mn elderly persons in India in 2021 (67 mn males and 71 mn females), an increase of 34 mn from 2011, expected to reach ~ 190 mn in 2031
✅ The Elderly Dependency Ratio has increased from 10.9% in 1961 to 14.2% in 2011 and further projected to increase to 15.7% in 2021 and 20.1% in 2031
✅ The sex ratio of the elderly – 1028 in 1951, 938 in 1971 , 1033 in 2011 and projected to increase to 1,060 by 2026.
✅ The literacy rate among elderly females (28%) is less than half of the literacy rate among elderly males (59%)
✅ 40–50% of the elderly are economically vulnerable, and 25% are in the lowest wealth quintile
✅ Only 29% elderly in India have access to social security schemes, such as old-age pensions or provident funds
✅ Only 15% of elderly population are aware of geriatric healthcare options
✅ The elder care economy in India is estimated to be worth around $7 billion

📍 Children
✅ India is a home to almost 19% of the world’s children, more than one-third of the country’s population (around 436 million) is below 18 years as of 2023
✅ Child Sex ratio in India = 929/1000
✅ 48% of Indian children aged 0–14 are female
✅ 74% of Indian children aged 0–6 live in rural areas
✅ India is the only large country where more female infants die than male infants, the gender differential in child survival is currently 11 per cent
✅ Working children in India: 10.1 million (3.9% of the total child population) as ‘main workers’ or ‘marginal workers’
✅ Child Labour decreased in India by 2.6 million from ~ 13.7 million in 2001 to 10.1 million in 2011
✅ 1 in every 8 children (aged 5–14 years) work for their own household or someone else
✅ On average around 2600 child victims of trafficking were rescued annually from 2018–2022

📍 Transgenders
✅ Total population of transgenders in India is around 4.88 lakh
✅ Literacy rate among transgenders was 56.10% (overall population literacy rate = 74%), Mizoram had the highest transgender literacy rate (87%) while Bihar had the lowest transgender literacy rate (44%).
✅ 92% of transgender population is economically marginalised
✅ Around 48,000 transgender people were registered as voters and were eligible to vote in the LS elections 2024

#data

🔆 Irrigation in Indian Agriculture

✅ Rainfed agriculture: 55% of area under cultivation
📊 Ministry of Agriculture

✅ Irrigated area: 45%
• Wells & tubewells: 60%
• Canals: 30%
• Tanks: 5%
📊 Ministry of Agriculture

✅ Water use efficiency in agriculture: ~40%
• (Developed nations: 50–60%)
📊 Ministry of Jal Shakti

#Data #GS3 #GS1 #mains #agriculture


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