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Prelims info from newspaper articles will be posted here as summary McQ : @Quizhighlights Contact : @vikas_kanukollu between 9:30Pm and 10:00 PM daily for prep related queries
You could write PYQs on your own, but:
• Without structuring templates, you risk repeating bad habits.
• Without self-evaluation metrics, you won’t know why your answer isn’t rank-worthy.
• Without time-bound discipline, you’ll end up reading PYQs, not writing them.
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✅Gs-2 : IR- International Law (1933 Montevideo Convention)
🅾️A state must have:
⚜️Permanent population
⚜️Defined territory
⚜️Government
⚜️Capacity to enter relations with others
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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE-- Basics for UPSC Prelims
https://youtu.be/1HwVa-7Mtwk
✅Census 2027 Highlights
⚜️ First digital census; enumerators (34 lakh) will use smartphones.
⚜️ First self-enumeration option via online form.
⚜️ First time caste enumeration since 1931.
⚜️ Budget request: ₹14,618.95 crore.
⚜️ Population Census conducted since 1872 → 16th edition; 8th since Independence.
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#Environment
✅ Blue dragons = sea slugs, not fish/dragons.
🅾️Float upside down using air bubble.
🅾️ Sting comes from stolen jellyfish cells (more powerful than jellyfish).
🅾️ Painful but not deadly.
🅾️ Rare in Mediterranean → now linked to rising sea temperatures.
Note : “Blue dragon is NOT a fish/reptile endemic to Mediterranean” → ❌ . It’s a sea slug normally in tropical oceans, rare in Mediterranean.
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#Economy #Agriculture
✅National policy framework on agri and marketing - NPFAM
🅾️Agriculture Produce Market Committees (APMCs) – set up by States as per local needs (Agricultural marketing is a state subject).
🅾️National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) – Launched in 2016 to integrate mandis, improve price discovery, reduce transaction costs, promote transparency, and enable online payments
🅾️Schemes & Programmes- Minimum Support Price (MSP) and Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay Sanrakshan Abhiyan (PM-AASHA)
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✅Gs-3 : Money Laundering- Everything you need to know about this topic in 20 odd minutes- Explained.
https://youtu.be/VGVk0qHhZOA
#Environment
✅India’s first-ever grassland bird census, conducted in Kaziranga National Park, Assam.
🅾️Census conducted March–May 2024 across 29 locations using: Grassland birds are “indicators of ecosystem health” (like BMI for humans).
⚜️Passive acoustic recorders (not cameras or visual survey)
⚜️Machine learning tools (e.g. BirdNet) to identify species by song
⚜️Sound files were recorded for 3 days, non-identifiable ones discarded- 3 of 10 priority species are endemic to Northeast India grasslands – extinction risk is high if habitat is lost
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#Art_and_Culture #History
🔴GS1- Art and culture
🔴GS1- History
✅Gaden Phodrang
🅾️Trust set up by Dalai Lama
⚠️@historyhighlights for high value history snippets from news
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#SnT
✅DNA profiling Microsatellite DNA or Short Tandem Repeats
🅾️What are STRs?- genetic markers- crucial for identity verification-A barcode that’s slightly different for every person (used in forensics).
🅾️STRs in Forensics- Used in DNA fingerprinting to match remains with relatives ( Context : Recent AIR INDIA flight crash)
🅾️Key Tool Used- PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) – amplifies STR regions
⚠️Note : Make sure- that you are not Confusing Polymerease Chain Reaction with CRISPR or gene sequencing — remember that PCR = amplification, not editing.
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#Environment #Species_in_news
✅ Jumping spider species discovery in southern India
🅾️What?- Spider-Spartaeus karigiri, recently discovered in southern India
🅾️Know the behavioural traits: mimicry, sharp vision, no web-building-Spotted hiding in rocky crevices, egg clutch guarding – specific behaviour insights
🅾️This is a first-ever discovery of Spartaeinae genera in India – new data, likely testable
🅾️UPSC can Could test via confusing options: These spiders are “known for web-building” (false), “found in Himalayas” (false).
⚠️Just like Gooty tarantula question- which we covered 6 years ago- this question can also be asked- Click here and see
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This video is not your generic gyan please do watch this video
https://youtu.be/KYtFzIQjIYA
#Environment
✅India's first E waste park to be built in Delhi.
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Mentorship vs Self Study – Which is Better for UPSC | Sidaq Singh – UPSC AIR 157 | VK IAS
https://youtu.be/j4R6IbsOIZU
#IR
✅ICAO – Prelims Points
🅾️ Established: 1944 via the Chicago Convention
🅾️ HQ: Montreal, Canada
🅾️ Parent Body: It is a specialized agency of the United Nations
✅Mandate / Functions:
⚜️Regulates international civil aviation standards (air navigation, airport codes, flight safety).
⚜️Frames SARPs (Standards and Recommended Practices) that member states follow.
⚜️Promotes safe, efficient, secure, economically sustainable international air transport.
⚠️Note : ICAO has no enforcement powers. It cannot compel a country to reopen its airspace or reverse national decisions.ICAO deals only with civil aviation, not military aviation. ICAO cannot intervene in sovereign airspace closures unless they breach civil aviation norms
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⚠️VK IAS mains answer writing program - Lekahana 2.0- For those who wanted to be a part of VK IAS Mentorship cohorts but were late .. this is for you🙂 - Thank you for all the love shown - you have a surprise from my end-Pl fill the form below:)
https://forms.gle/qXRbjGCAQhzQcQkN6
#SnT
✅Photon-based computing
⚜️Electrons = material carriers of charge (matter).
⚜️Photons = immaterial carriers of energy (light).
🅾️Electrons make today’s computers possible, photons might make tomorrow’s computers unstoppable.
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#Geography #Placesinnews
✅scarborough shoal
🅾️Conflicted region in south china sea- It is a triangular atoll, located 200 km from the Philippines coast, and within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) under UNCLOS(1982).
🔰Other places of south china sea in news
⚜️1. Gulf of Tonkin- Click here
⚜️2. Paracel Islands- Click here
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#Polity
✅Vice president Election- Polity
🅾️Radhakrishnan Elected VP
🔰Process of VP election - The Vice-President is elected by an Electoral College, which consists of the members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha (both elected and nominated members).
⚜️Article 66 lays down the process of the election of the Vice-President.
⚠️The Electoral College consists of 233 elected members of the Rajya Sabha (currently, five seats are vacant), 12 nominated members of the Rajya Sabha, and 543 elected members of the Lok Sabha (currently, one seat is vacant), adding up to 788 members (currently, 782 members). In the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote, the elector has to mark preferences against the names of the candidates.
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#SnT
✅Microbes that digest plastic may fuel antibiotic resistance
🅾️Unlike natural materials, plastic does not decompose easily → it breaks into microplastics (<5 mm) and nanoplastics. Plastic surfaces host antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). These ARGs can spread among microbes, leading to antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
🅾️Some microbes possess enzymes (e.g., PETase) that break down plastics like polyethylene terephthalate (PET). But microbes capable of digesting plastics may simultaneously carry antibiotic and metal resistance gene
🅾️Sundarbans Study (ISER Kolkata)- World’s largest mangrove ecosystem, nutrient-rich and microbe-diverse.Water samples from the Hooghly estuary revealed 838 plastic-degrading enzyme (PDE) genes across 315 targeted synthetic plastics. Genes most abundant: Polyethylene glycol (PEG)-degrading enzymes.
⚠️RISK : Climate change & pollution → accelerate ARGs and resistance spread.
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#Environment
✅BIOCHAR
⚠️When organic biomass is pyrolysed (heated in the absence of oxygen), it produces:
⚜️Biochar (solid) — stable carbon residue
⚜️Syngas (gas) — CO, H₂, CH₄
⚜️Bio-oil (liquid) — hydrocarbons
🅾️For carbon removal, biochar must remain unburnt and be stored or used in non-combustive applications
🅾️For energy generation, you're recovering energy from waste — but it’s a mitigation strategy, not carbon removal.
🅾️Both pathways must be accounted separately in carbon markets to avoid overclaiming climate benefits.
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#Environment #Species_in_news
✅Red-eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans)
🅾️Category: Invasive Alien Species- Native to-Southern United States and northern Mexico- YES — Outcompetes native turtles for food, basking spots, and habitat- Impacts native species like Indian flapshell and Indian roofed turtles
🅾️Type: Semi-aquatic freshwater turtle- Habitat- Freshwater bodies — ponds, lakes, and slow rivers
🅾️Diet-Omnivorous: plants, insects, fish, amphibians
⚠️UPSC has asked about invasive alien species (e.g., African catfish, Lantana, Parthenium).
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#Economy
✅Constitutional Basis for Removal of Judges
🅾️Article 124(4) – Removal of Supreme Court Judges and Article 217(1)(b) – Removal of High Court Judges- both SC and HC judges are removed through a Parliamentary process, not by executive will.
🅾️The Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968
✅This Act operationalizes Article 124(4) and lays down the procedure for removal:
⚜️Step 1: A motion signed by 100 Lok Sabha MPs or 50 Rajya Sabha MPs is submitted to the Speaker or Chairman.
⚜️Step 2: If admitted, an in-house inquiry committee is constituted (usually comprising judges).
⚜️Step 3: If the committee finds “proved misbehaviour or incapacity”, the motion for removal can be taken up in both Houses.
⚜️Step 4: If both Houses pass the motion with a special majority, the President can issue the order of removal.
⚠️ Executive has no role in initiating, conducting, or deciding the motion.
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✅Gs-3 : Science and Technology- Space- Axiom-4
✅Also read : ISRO -PSLV C60/SpaDeX mission- docking mission.
🅾️Despite its powerful rocket and high speed (27,000 km/hr), Dragon took 28 hours (~18 orbits) to dock.So the question is: Why not just go straight up and reach faster?- Because To reach the ISS “lane,” Dragon had to: 1. Raise its orbit and 2. Match its speed and direction (velocity vector)- This takes careful timing + gradual adjustment
⚜️Why 28 Hours Specifically?-Axiom and NASA chose a slow, deliberate rendezvous profile:If anything went wrong at any point → automatic retreat path- Just like merging onto a highway — better to time your merge than steer wildly across lanes.
⚠️Note : Low Earth Orbit (LEO) = ~200–2,000 km; ISS is in LEO at ~400 km
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#Placesinnews #Geography
✅Gs-1 : Geography- Strait of Hormuz
✅Gs-2 : IR- India- Gulf Relations- Energy Security
🔰India’s Oil & Gas Dependency on the Region (2023 data):
⚜️~60% of India’s crude oil imports come from West Asia (Iraq, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Iran).
⚜️~40% of global seaborne oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz.
⚠️A sustained disruption in the Strait of Hormuz could lead to:
🅾️Oil prices doubling= India’s fiscal and current account balance deteriorating by 1–2% of GDP->Inflationary pressures worsening by ~2 percentage points->Rupee weakening by ~5–7%
🔰Join : @Geohighlights- for Geography news
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#IR
🔰IAEA
🅾️The IAEA is the world’s nuclear watchdog that works to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and prevent its military misuse.Monitors nuclear programs to ensure non-diversion to weapons. It Verifies compliance with Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) obligations. It assists nations in applying nuclear science to health, agriculture, water management, etc.
✅ Established: 1957, under the UN system
✅ Headquarters: Vienna, Austria
✅ Motto: “Atoms for Peace and Development”
✅ Membership: 178 countries (as of 2024)
Other relevant mentions of IAEA in recent past
🅾️IAEA- Additional protocol- Click here
🅾️Negative Ion Technology- Click here
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✅UPSC CSE Prelims- 2025 Result
- @hinduhighlights
#Geography
✅Sources of Water on earth surface
⚜️Taken from NCERT- important in the context of knowing how to manage our water resources in the country
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✅How Relevant was VK IAS in prelims 2025?- ☝️i dont intend to claim any number of questions- but you can Check this document and decide based on your own understanding🙂
This is also the official key from my end
- VK ( @hinduhighlights and @upschighlights)
There will be an open skill development webinar for ALL the candidates writing mains 2025. If you want to know how vk ias programs can help you learn those skills, contact @vk_ias for that webinar link
Time - 4:45 PM -31.05.2025
✅Cost - webinar is free of cost.