Category: Environment and Ecology

Context:

• The Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary is set to host the second edition of the two-day ‘Indian Bison Fest’.

About Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary:

• • Location: It is situated in the Bargarh district of Odisha.
  • Other names: It is also known as the “Land of Bisons” due to its significant population of Indian Gaur. 
  • Lifeline: It is bounded on the east and north by the Hirakud Reservoir (Mahanadi River), the world’s longest earthen dam.

• Terrain: It is characterised as an amphi-terrestrial habitat, an integrated landscape of forests, grasslands, and wetlands.

• • Status: It was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1985. It is also a designated Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ). 
  • Historical significance: It finds a special mention because of noted freedom fighter Veer Surendra Sai. During his rebellion against the British, his base at Barapathara was located within the sanctuary.

• Vegetation: Most of the plant sanctuary is covered with mixed and dry deciduous forest. 

• • Flora: Major trees found here are Sal, Asana, Bija, Aanla, Dhaura, etc.
  • Fauna: These include Indian leopards, sloth bears, chousingha (four-horned antelope), sambar deer, gaurs (Indian bison), wild boars, and Indian wild dogs (dholes) are among the notable animal residents.

• Birds: It is one of the most flocked wintering grounds of migratory birds that visit the sanctuary from far-off places. Some of the most prominent among them are the crested serpent eagle, Flower Peckers, red-vented bulbul, tree pie, drongo, and white eye oriental.

• Eco-Tourism: It is managed through a community-driven model involving local Gond tribal women, providing sustainable livelihoods through safaris and eco-cottages

Source:

• The New Indian Express

Category: Government Schemes

Context:

• Recently, CBIC has issued detailed eligibility conditions, application process and operational guidelines for the Eligible Manufacturer Importers (EMIs) scheme.

About Eligible Manufacturer Importers (EMIs) Scheme:

• • Nature: It is designed as a trust-based facilitation measure, encouraging compliant manufacturers to benefit from simplified procedures.
  • Objective: Under this initiative, Eligible Manufacturer Importers (EMI) will be able to clear imported goods without paying Customs duty at the time of clearance.

• Duration: EMI facility will be available from 1st April, 2026 and will remain in force till 31st March, 2028.

• • Deferred payment facility: Approved EMIs can clear imported goods from ports without immediate payment of Customs duty.

• Monthly cycle: Instead of transaction-based payments, duties are paid on a monthly basis as per the Deferred Payment of Import Duty Rules, 2016.

• • Liquidity boost: The primary goal is to improve cash flow and working capital for manufacturers, allowing them to reinvest funds into production instead of tying them up in upfront taxes.
  • Trust-based model: It operates on a “trust-but-verify” principle, rewarding highly compliant businesses with simplified procedures. 
  • Significance: It is expected to improve ease of doing business, strengthen compliance culture, and boost domestic manufacturing.

• Eligibility criteria:

• • Manufacturing Status: Must be a registered manufacturer under the CGST Act or an importer sending goods to a job worker.
  • Track record: Must have a clean record of Customs and GST compliance, sound financial standing, and a minimum turnover.
  • Customs footprint: A minimum requirement of filing at least 25 EXIM documents (Bills of Entry/Shipping Bills) in the preceding financial year.
  • AEO framework: Existing Authorised Economic Operator (AEO-T1) entities, including MSMEs, are eligible to apply. Participants are expected to eventually upgrade to AEO-T2 or AEO-T3 status.

Source:

• PIB

Category: Science and Technology

Context:

• Recently, astronomers have captured the central region of our Milky Way in unprecedented detail with the help of the ALMA telescope.

About ALMA Telescope:

• Full form: ALMA stands for Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array.

• • Location: It is a radio telescope located in the Atacama Desert in Chile.

• Objective: It is a state-of-the-art radio-telescope that studies celestial objects at millimetre and submillimetre wavelengths.

• Development: It was designed, planned and constructed by the US’s National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) and the European Southern Observatory (ESO).

• Launch: It has been fully functional since 2013.

• • Expanse: It consists of 66 high-precision antennas, spread over a distance of up to 16 km in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. These antennas can be moved closer together or farther apart for different perspectives – like the zoom lens of a camera.

• Sensitivity: It also has extraordinary sensitivity, which allows it to detect even extremely faint radio signals.

• Why Atacama Desert:

• Low Humidity: Millimetre waves are highly susceptible to absorption by atmospheric water vapour. The Atacama is the driest place on Earth, minimizing signal loss.

• High Altitude: At 5,000+ metres, the atmosphere is thin, providing a clearer “window” to the universe.

• • International Partnership: ALMA is not an Indian project; it is a global collaboration involving: 

• Europe: European Southern Observatory (ESO).

• North America: U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Research Council of Canada.

• East Asia: National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.

• Host Country: Republic of Chile

• Major discoveries:

• • Black Hole Imaging: Part of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project that captured the first image of the supermassive black hole (Sagittarius A*) at the center of the Milky Way.
  • Protoplanetary Disks: Captured detailed images of the disk around the star HL Tauri, revolutionizing theories on how planets form.
  • Einstein Ring: Observed the bending of light from distant galaxies in unprecedented detail.

Source:

• Phys.Org

Category: Polity and Governance

Context:

• Recently, the 25th Foundation Day of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), Ministry of Power, Government of India, was celebrated in New Delhi.

About Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE):

• Nature: It is a statutory body which was established in 2002 under the provisions of the Energy Conservation Act, 2001.

• Objective: The primary objective of BEE is to reduce energy intensity in the Indian economy.

• Nodal ministry: It comes under Ministry of Power.

• • Coordination: It coordinates with designated consumers, designated agencies and other organizations; recognizes, identifies and utilizes the existing resources and infrastructure, in performing the functions assigned to it under the Energy Conservation Act.
  • Indian Carbon Market (ICM): BEE is the lead implementing agency for the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS). In early 2026, BEE launched 12 offset methodologies to streamline carbon credit projects across energy, waste, and transport sectors.

• Regulatory functions:

• Develop minimum energy performance standards for equipment and appliances under Standards and Labelling

• • • Develop minimum energy performance standards for Commercial Buildings

• Develop Energy Consumption Norms for Designated Consumers

• Schemes of Bureau of Energy Efficiency: These include National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency (NMEEE), Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC), Standards and Labeling Scheme, Municipal Demand Side Management (MuDSM) Scheme, Agricultural Demand Side Management (AgDSM) Scheme.

Source:

• PIB

Category: Geography

Context:

• Over the past 200 years, the Kosi River has shifted its path westward by over 100 kilometres.

About Kosi River:

• • Nature: It is a transboundary river which flows through China, Nepal, and India. It is a prominent tributary of the Ganges.
  • Tributaries: It is known as “Saptakoshi” in Nepal because it eventually comprises seven upper tributaries: Sun Kosi, Tama Kosi, Dudh Koshi, Indravati, Likhu, Arun, and Tamur. 
  • Other names: People often call it the “Sorrow of Bihar” because of the big floods it can cause, especially in the Indian state of Bihar.

• Course: The river Kosi is formed by the confluence of three streams, namely the Sun Kosi, the Arun Kosi, and the Tamur Kosi. About 48 km north of the Indian-Nepalese frontier, the Kosi is joined by several major tributaries and breaks southward through the Siwalik Hills at the narrow Chatra Gorge.

• Confluence: It enters India near Hanuman Nagar (Bihar) and joins the Ganges near Kursela in the Katihar district.

• Area: The Kosi drains an area of 74,500 sq.km, of which only 11,070 sq.km lie within Indian Territory. 
• Major crop: Corn (maize) is extensively cultivated on the sandy soils of the Kosi’s basin.
• Shifting course: Over the last 250 years, the Kosi has shifted its course over 100 kilometres from East to West and the unstable nature of the river is attributed to the heavy silt it carries during the monsoon season.
• Sediment load: It carries one of the highest sediment loads in the world (second only to the Brahmaputra in India), leading to riverbed aggradation and frequent breaches of embankments.
• Kosi megafan: It has built one of the world’s largest alluvial fans (mega-fan) in North Bihar.

Source:

• India Today