With respect to administration during Gupta Empire, ‘Udranga’ was used to describe land revenue of the State. The land revenue was also the primary source of income in the state, and the taxes were calculated as 1/6^th of the total produce which could be paid in cash or kind.

The Sansthana and Sanchari terms were related to Espionage Service.

• The Sansthana was referred to Stationary spies.

• The Sanchari was referred to spies who moved from place to place and collects information.

• Gudhapurushas were the detectives or secret agents.

• There were also female agents called as Vishakanyas.

• During the seventh century, there were big landlords in different regions of the Indian subcontinent. They were identified as Samantas. They used to bring gifts for their kings, used to present at their courts and provide them with military support.

• Generally, Samanta used to build a fortified palace in or near these towns. They levied taxes on traders, artisans and articles of trade and sometimes gave the right to collect these taxes to local temples, which were built by them or by rich merchants.

• As samantas gained power and wealth, they declared themselves to be maha-samanta and sometimes, they asserted their independence from their overlords.

Laitlum Canyon is located in Meghalaya.

• Laitlum literally means ‘End of the World’ and is located in the east of Khasi Hills.

• Gangani Grand Canyon is located in West Bengal.

• Spiti Valley is located in Himachal Pradesh.

• Papi Hills Canyon is located in Andhra Pradesh.

• Sandhan Valley is located in Maharashtra.

Named after the trident of Lord Shiva, Trishul is a group of three imposing peaks of western Kumaon near the Bageshwar district of Uttarakhand. The main peak, Trishul I, is notable for being the first peak over 7,122 metres to have ever been climbed way back in 1907. Trishul II and Trishul III were first climbed in 1960 by a Yugoslav team from the Bidalgwar Glacier.

Odisha alone accounts for 51% of country's resources of bauxite followed by Andhra Pradesh (16%), Gujarat (9%), Jharkhand (6%), Maharashtra (5%) and Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh (4% each).

Major bauxite mines are concentrated in the East Coast of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.

The Government of India Act of 1919 introduced, for the first time, bicameralism, and direct elections in the country. It further required that the three of the six members of the Viceroy’s Executive Council (other than the Commander-in-Chief) were to be Indian. It also provided for the establishment of a public service commission.

Article 21: Right to life and personal liberty is available to both citizens and non-citizens.

Its ambit has been expanded by the SC from time to time. The Article has undergone interpretations in various cases like Gopalan Case (1950), Menaka Case (1978), etc.

As formally enshrined in the Article 21 of the Constitution, no person shall be deprived of his life and personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.

The Article has undergone various interpretations in this regard.

In Menaka Case (1978), the SC ruled that that the right to life and personal liberty of a person can be deprived by a law, provided the procedure prescribed by that law is reasonable, fair and just.

In other words, it has introduced the American expression "due process of law". In effect, the protection under Article 21 should be available not only against arbitrary executive action but also against arbitrary legislative action.

Rajbala v. Haryana (2015), a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India strongly rejected the doctrine of substantive due process in India.

In cases like Ramlila Maidan Incident (2012) and Selvi v. State of Karnataka (2010), SC has repeatedly held that substantive due process and due process generally are a part of the Indian Constitutional Law under Article 21 of the Constitution.

Article 122 of the constitution provides for the courts not to investigate the proceedings of Parliament. Article 121 prohibits the discussion of the Supreme Court or any Judge of a High Court in Parliament concerning the conduct done in the discharge of its duties. Article 126 deals with the appointment of the acting Chief Justice.

● Disguised unemployment is generally found in the agricultural sector of India.

● Disguised unemployment is the situation in which people work at a place where there are no more people required.

● It is also known as hidden unemployment.

• Upthrust is nothing but buoyant force.

• When a rigid object is submerged in a fluid (completely or partially), there exists an upward force on the object that is equal to the weight of the fluid that is displaced by the object.

• And therefore, Its S.I unit is equal to that of force (since buoyant force is a kind of force), which is N.

• Newton (N) is the S.I. unit of upthrust.

Indravati National Park is a national park located in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh state of India. It derives its name from the nearby Indravati River. Spread over 240 sq km in the Western Ghats, Mollem National Park is located in Sanguem taluk in Goa close to the border with Karnataka. The national park is located near the town of Mollem, 60 km south-east from Panaji, the capital city of Goa. Kalesar National Park and adjacent Kalesar Wildlife Sanctuary are protected areas in Yamunanagar district of Haryana. Betla National Park is a national park located on the Chota Nagpur Plateau in the Latehar and Palamu district of Jharkhand, India.

* Cheetah and Golden Lion Tamarin are not found naturally in India.

* Cheetah is found naturally in two places

a) African Cheetah- IUCN status-Vulnerable-Natural habitat is African continent

b) Asiatic Cheetah- IUCN status – Critically Endangered-Natural habitat is Iran.

* Golden Lion Tamarin, also known as Golden Marmoset, is an endangered species endemic to Amazon Rain Forests.

* Flying Squirrel is found naturally in Namdapha National Park and is a critically endangered IUCN status species.

* Snow leopard is found naturally in Himachal Pradesh, Uttrakhand and Kanchendzonga Tawang in Sikkim.

Deepor Beel is located in Assam. Hence, option D is correct. It’s a permanent fresh water lake in a former channel of Brahmaputra river.

Chilika lake is located in Odisha.

Keoladeo National Park is located in Rajasthan. It is in Montreaux Record since 1990 due to water shortage and unbalanced grazing regime.

Sambhar Lake is located in Rajasthan. A large lake fed by 4 streams set in a shallow wetland and subject to seasonal fluctuations.

Ramsar Convention-The Convention on Wetlands is called the Ramsar Convention. It is an intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources. The Convention was adopted in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971. It came into force in 1975.

• A lymphocyte is a type of white blood cell.

• These are the human body's main types of immune cells.

• They are made in the bone marrow.

• Lymphocytes are found in lymph tissue & blood.

• Mainly, there are two types of lymphocytes which are B lymphocytes and T lymphocytes.

Lactic acid is formed in the muscle during excessive workouts.

* During exercise, body taps into anaerobic metabolism, it uses the body’s supply of stored sugars, known as glycogen, without the need for oxygen and one of the byproducts of this process is lactic acid.

* Lactic acid is produced industrially by bacterial fermentation of carbohydrates, or by chemical synthesis from acetaldehyde.

* Swedish chemist K W Scheele was the first person to isolate lactic acid in 1780 from sour milk.

* It is an acid present in milk; hence, it is also named as ‘Milk Acid’.

• Electric current is produced by electric generator.

• An electric generator is a device that converts mechanical energy obtained from an external source into electrical energy as the output.

Badminton Association of India president Himanta Biswa Sarma was elected to the BWF Council member for a four-year period till 2025

Himanta Biswa Sarma is an Indian politician and the current Chief Minister of Assam.

Sarma is also the Vice President of Badminton Asia.

BWF President Paul-Erik Hoyer was also re-elected.

Subodh Kumar Jaiswal took charge as the Director of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

He has been appointed as Director for a period of two years.

Subodh Kumar Jaiswal, a 1985 batch IPS officer of Maharashtra cadre, was selected by a high-powered committee led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and comprising Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and Congress Lok Sabha leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.

Mr Jaiswal also worked as director general of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).

The Director of the CBI is appointed as per section 4A of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act of 1946.

A book titled ‘India and Asian Geopolitics: The Past, Present’, authored by Shivshankar Menon, has been released.

Shivshankar Menon is an Indian diplomat, who served as National Security Adviser of India under Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh. He had previously served as the Foreign Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs.

In the book, he addresses the changes in India’s foreign policy: since independence to the present day, and the many challenges faced as the nation seeks to find its way in the increasingly complex world of Asian geopolitics.

The book is published by Penguin Random House India.