About Betwa River:

• It is a significant river in central and northern India.
• It is an important right-bank tributary of the Yamuna River.
• Course:
  • It originates from Jhirri village in Raisen District, near Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.
  • It begins in the Vindhya Hills.
  • It flows generally northeast through Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh states and empties into the Yamuna River near Hamirpur town in Uttar Pradesh.
  • Nearly half of its course, which is not navigable, runs over the Malwa Plateau before it breaks into the upland of Bundelkhand.
• The river flows in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
• In the active monsoon season, the Betwa River discharges exceptionally high levels, while in the summer; it discharges extremely low levels
• Tributaries: The Jamni and Dhasan rivers are its major tributaries.
• Dams: The Betwa is dammed at Dukwan and Deogarh for irrigation and water management.
• Significance:
  • It has been mentioned in the Mahabharata and once supported the Chedi Kingdom, whose capital Suktimati stood on its banks.
  • It is part of the Ken-Betwa Link Project, a major interlinking initiative designed to transfer surplus water from the Ken River to the Betwa River for irrigation and drinking purposes.
  • The Indian Navy named one of its frigates INS Betwa in honour of the river.
  • The historical little town of Orchha is famous for its architectural glory and graceful Betwa River.
    • The town is landlocked and primarily fed by the Betwa River.
    • Orchha Wildlife Sanctuary lies within the area through which the Betwa River flows.

About Permanent Pictorial Cancellation (PPC):

• It is a postmark, which shows a replica/photo/design or a picture highlighting a tourist, religious, historical, or an important place or a living/non-living thing.
• PPCs give wide publicity to many places of historical, cultural, and tourist interest.
• It is one of the accepted methods of cancellation at post offices.
• They are provided at the post offices, which are located near such significant places.
• In PPC, the replica/photo/design or a picture is used as the cancellation seal.
• However, the regular features of the cancellation, the zip code, and date will be included in the seal.
• Unlike an ordinary cancellation used to cancel postage stamps on a particular day, a PPC is available for use on a permanent basis at a designated post office.
• The sender can have his mail sealed pictorially by postal staff by placing an oral request, provided a proper number of stamps are affixed on the mail.
• The pictorial cancellation can also be imprinted on postcards and inland letters. Once the pictorial cancellation is made, no normal cancellation is needed.
• It is of particular interest to philatelists (stamp collectors) because it provides a distinctive and lasting postal marking associated with a specific subject or location.

Key Facts about Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple:

• It is a Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu located in Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), Kerala.
• The name of the city of Thiruvananthapuram in Malayalam translates to “The City of Lord Ananta, ”referring to the deity of Padmanabhaswamy Temple.
• The earliest recorded mention of the temple is from the 8th or 9th century CE, although the temple is likely older.
• The temple was built and rebuilt over the centuries, most recently by Martanda Varma, king of Travancore, who in 1750 donated the kingdom to the deity.
• Architecture:
  • It is a blend of Kerala and Dravidian styles of architecture.
  • The idol of Vishnu is in the Anantha shayanam posture, the eternal yogic rest posture on his serpent Adisheshan.
  • It has a seven-tier-high gopuram, which is decorated with delicate designs and carvings.
  • Along with exquisite and intricate works on stone and bronze, the interior of the temple is adorned by exquisite paintings and murals, most of which are life-sized depictions of Lord Vishnu in the reclining posture, Lord Ganapati, Gaja Lakshmi, and Narasimha Swamy (half-lion, half-man incarnation of Lord Vishnu).
  • The flag post of the temple (dhwaja stamba) is covered with gold-plated copper sheets and is about 80 ft high.
• The temple has around 3 million palm leaf manuscripts dating back to the 14th century
  • Known as Mathilakam records, they contain the administrative and financial details of the temple town and Travancore kingdom spread over six centuries.
• In 2011 the temple was the subject of international news when an exploration of its vaults revealed a wealth of jewels, precious metals, and other treasures.
  • It is also widely believed to be the world’s richest temple.

About Merchant Discount Rate (MDR):

• It is the fee charged to a merchant for accepting a digital payment.
• When a customer pays a business digitally, multiple parties may be involved in completing that transaction.
• Depending on the payment mode, these may include the merchant, payment gateway or payment aggregator, acquiring bank, issuing bank, card network or payment network, and other payment infrastructure participants.
• MDR is part of the commercial structure that supports this payment acceptance chain.
• For a merchant, MDR is best understood as a cost of accepting a particular type of payment.
• When a customer makes a payment, the merchant usually receives the transaction amount after deduction of MDR.
• The MDR fees cover a variety of costs, including:
  • Payment processor fee: These fees are charged by payment processors (companies that handle transactions between merchants and banks like Razorpay) for their services.
  • Interchange fee: These are fees charged by card issuers (banks) to merchants for processing transactions.
  • Assessment fee: These are fees charged by card networks (like Visa, RuPay and Mastercard) to merchants for using their payment processing services.
  • Markup fee: These are fees that are divided among the different entities involved in the transaction.
  • Additional fees: Some payment processors may charge additional fees for services like fraud prevention, chargeback handling, and customer support.
• MDR is not a single fixed rate that applies to every business or every payment.
• It may apply differently across cards, net banking, wallets, UPI, EMI, BNPL, QR, and other payment modes, depending on the provider and the applicable arrangement.
• The MDR typically comes in the form of a percentage of the transaction amount. It is typically between 1% and 3%.
• Merchants must consider these fees as part of managing their business costs and setting their prices.
• MDR charges are automatically deducted from the merchant’s account at the time of settling the transaction batch.

MDR on UPI:

• When UPI was launched in 2016, MDR was applicable.
• But in January 2020, the government removed MDR on UPI and RuPay debit cards to push mass adoption of digital payments.
• But zero MDR also meant banks, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and fintech startups got nothing from the transaction.
• The government has compensated the industry through subsidies.

Recent Changes Introduced in the Taxation and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026:

• It empowers the government to levy an MDR on select electronic payment modes, with a potential MDR of 0.25 percent to 0.4 percent on business-directed UPI transactions.
• The finance ministry said consumers will face no transaction charges and that all person-to-person (P2P) transfers will continue to be free.
• The government says it will apply only to a limited set of merchant transactions above a certain value threshold, at a nominal rate, which will be far lower than existing debit or credit card MDRs.
• Small merchants and person-to-merchant payments below that threshold are expected to remain free, to protect the digital-payments push among small businesses.

About Kalaburagi Fort:

• Kalaburagi Fort, also known as Gulbarga Fort, is a historic fort located in Kalaburagi (Gulbarga), Karnataka.
• It was initially constructed by Raja Gulchand, a feudatory of the Kakatiya dynasty of Warangal, in the 12th century.
• It was later strengthened by Alauddin Hasan Bahman Shah, the ruler of the Bahmani dynasty.
• Bahmani Sultans had the longest rule in Kalaburagi between the 14th and 16th century.
• It served as the capital of the Bahmani Sultanate, one of the most powerful Muslim kingdoms in the Deccan region during the mediaeval period.
• Architecture:
  • The architecture showcases a blend of Hindu and Islamic styles, reflecting the diverse cultural influences of its builders and occupants over the centuries.
  • Being positioned atop a hill, the fort provided a strategic advantage for defence.
  • The fort's structures include mosques, palaces, tombs, and other buildings, built using materials like granite and limestone.
  • Notable features include massive walls, bastions, ornate gateways, and intricate carvings, showcasing the craftsmanship of the artisans of that era.
  • The fort's layout reflects its strategic importance, with a series of concentric walls and defensive structures designed to withstand sieges.
  • The fort is a monumental structure highly fortified with 15 towers mounted with 26 guns; each gun located inside the fort is 8 metres (26 ft) long and is still well preserved.

About Pteris madhusoodananii:

• It is a new species of fern.
• It was discovered within the misty Kolli hills of the Eastern Ghats in Tamil Nadu.
• It has been immediately classified as ‘Critically Endangered’ due to its extremely small habitat and the threat of human encroachment.
• While it looks similar to other ferns in the Pteris family, Pteris madhusoodananii is characterised by stiff, leathery leaves with a lustrous, deep green colour.
• Unlike its closest relatives, it features a very prominent lobe at the base of its lower segments and a unique pinna-pinnule architecture, in which its smaller leaflets are arranged along the stem.
• At a microscopic level, its spores possess a narrow, wavy-edged belt called a cingulum, a feature distinct from the smooth, wider belts found on similar species.

About Philippines:

• Location: It is an island country of Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean.
• Water Bodies: It is surrounded by the South China (north and west); Philippine Sea (east); Celebes Sea (south); and by the Sulu Sea to the (southwest). 
• Capital city:
• Geographical Features of Philippines:
  • Climate: It majorly consists of tropical and monsoonal types of climate.
  • Highest Point: Mount Apo.
  • Major Rivers: Cagayan River (Philippines’ longest river), Mindanao, Agusan etc.
  • Major Lake: Laguna de Bay
  • Volcano: Mayon Volcano, one of the most active in the country. Other volcanoes are Bulusan and Kanlaon.
  • Natural resources: It mainly consists of Timber, petroleum, nickel, cobalt, silver, gold, salt, copper
    • The Philippines is the third-largest producer of geothermal energy globally, after the United States and Indonesia.