📝 M-CADWM Scheme[1]
🚀 Modernisation of Command Area Development and Water Management (M-CADWM) ⇒ Recently approved by the Union Cabinet as a sub-scheme of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) ⇒ Set to run from 2025-26 ⇒ Initial outlay is ₹1,600 crore.
👉🏽 Aim: To enhance irrigation infrastructure, modernise the irrigation water supply network, improve water use efficiency, and build sustainable farming practices.
📝 Trends in Maternal Mortality 2000-2023[2][3]
🚀 Recently released by the United Nations Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group (UN MMEIG)
👉🏽 19,000 maternal deaths in India in 2023 ⇒ nearly 7.2% of global mortality.
👉🏽 Max maternal deaths in Nigeria (28.7%), followed by India, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Pakistan.
💡 Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR): Number of maternal deaths during a given time period per 100,000 live births during the same time period.
📝 Physics of Splashing[4]
🚀 Three key steps: (1) Momentum Transfer: When a drop hits a solid surface, its downward momentum is converted into horizontal momentum. (2) Formation of Lamella: A thin sheet of liquid, called a lamella, peels off from the drop due to this momentum change. (3) Lift and Splash Formation: Lift caused by a thin gas layer and pressure differences raises the lamella, which breaks into droplets, resulting in a splash.
💧🔋If a charged water droplet hits an insulating surface, it won’t splash or create smaller splash ⇒ Electric charge pulls the water down and keeps it from jumping up ⇒ An electrically conducting surface would take away the charge, leaving the drop to make a splash.
🚀 Significance: Applications in inkjet printing, combustion engines, surface coating, coal power plants (To degasify feedwater).
📝 Wildfires and the Collapse of the Arctic Carbon Sink[5]
🚀 Wildfires are becoming more frequent, intense, and widespread across the globe ⇒ Destroy ecosystems and infrastructure, as well as disrupt the global carbon cycle by turning major carbon sinks into carbon sources.
🚀 Recent Wildfires: Japan’s Ofunato fire (Feb 2025), California fires (Jan 2025).
🚀 Indian states with max wildfires in 2023-24: Uttarakhand > Odisha > Chhattisgarh [ISFR 2023]
🚀 The Arctic Boreal Zone (ABZ): Traditionally a carbon sink, 30% of ABZ is now a net carbon emitter ⇒ accelerated by Timmins wildfire, Canada (2012) and Eastern Siberia fire (2003).
👉🏽 Regional Contributions to ABZ Carbon Emissions: Alaska > Northern Europe > Siberia.
🚀 Permafrost thawing due to Arctic warming: Dries soil → Alters vegetation → Accelerates decomposition → CO₂ release
👉🏽 Dangerous feedback loop: Wildfires → CO₂ release → warming → permafrost thaw → more fires.
📝 Pratyush Sinha Committee[6]
🚀 A six-member high-level committee constituted by SEBI to review its board members’ conflicts of interest, investment and liabilities.
👉🏽 Headed by Pratyush Sinha ⇒ Injeti Srinivas is the vice chairperson.
📝 New Co-Lending Arrangement (CLA)[7]
🚀 CLA: Loans issued by 2 financial institutions, based on a pre-determined proportion of lending ⇒ Current regulation allows co-lending only between banks and NBFCs, and restricted to Priority Sector Lending (PSL).
👉🏽 RBI has proposed a draft framework for CLA between all regulated entities and for all kinds of loans ⇒ Will include all commercial banks and NBFCs and exclude RRBs, SFBs, and Local Area Banks.