About Levees:

• A levee is a structure, either natural or artificial, built along the edges of a stream or river channel to prevent flooding of the adjacent land.
• It can also be used to divert the river to increase land for construction.
• In some countries, levees are used to prevent water from flowing inland from the sea or diverting the river's course, revealing fertile soil.
• They can also be used to prevent rivers from overflowing into cities during storms.
• They are very important features, but if they break, the consequences are disastrous.

How Do Levees Occur?

• A majority of levees form from earth material.
• The flow of a water body pushes river sediments to the sides, thus creating a levee.
• The riverbank forms a levee made of silk, sediment, and other material such as dead plants to the side as the water flows.
• They stretch parallel to the river and control the flow.
• Natural levees can be reinforced using artificial material.
• In cases where levees do not exist, then artificial ones are constructed. They are made by piling rocks, sand, and soil along the riverbank.
• When the river flow is too strong, they can be made of metal, wood, or plastic material. In some places, they are made of concrete.
• Levees are constructed to a variety of heights and widths and with a variety of materials. The height or width of a levee often depends upon possible rain and storm events.
• One of the largest modern systems of levees is that built along the Mississippi River In the central United States.

Sea Levees:

• A majority of the leaves are used to control the flow of the river, but others are built along the coast.
• The Netherlands is a prime example of how dams, levees, and dikes can be used to control tides.
• The reclaimed land is then used for agricultural or residential use.
• A levee was also constructed along the coast of the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in Canada to prevent high tides from flowing inland.

About Gooty Fort:

• Gooty Fort, also known as Ravadurg and Gutti Kota, is an ancient hilltop fortress located in the town of Gooty in the Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh.
• History:
  • Inscriptions found here appear to be from the reign of the Western Chalukya king Vikramaditya VI Tribhuvanamalla (1076 CE - 1126 CE).
  • It was also the site of a major battle between the Western Chalukyas and the Cholas under Vira Rajendra (1063 CE - 1070 CE) when the latter laid siege to the fort.
  • The defenders fought well and hard and beat back the Cholas.
  • The area later was taken over by the Vijayanagar empire and once was the abode of one of the most powerful Hindu rulers of all time,
  • The Qutb Shahi dynasty succeeded the Vijayanagar empire and subsequently fell into the hands of the Mughals when their capital of Golconda was annexed.
  • In the 18th century, the Maratha general Murari Rao captured the fort area and revamped the structure to strengthen it.
  • Hyder Ali, the then ruler of the Mysore kingdom and father of Tipu Sultan, forced Murari Rao to surrender when he ran out of water supplies.
  • With the onset of the British invasion of India, the important fort fell into the hands of the British East India Company.
• Architecture:
  • It is a blend of Hindu-Islamic architecture.
  • It was made of granite rocks, and the domes were constructed with fine stone, mortar, and lime, ensuring sustainability.
  • Built in the shape of a shell, this fort actually comprises 15 small forts with different gateways.
  • The outer wall with bastions connects all the gateways of smaller forts.
  • The fort also features two imposing buildings, one of which is a gymnasium, while other is a barrack.
  • On the edge of the cliff, there is a pavilion of polished limestone called Morari Rao’s seat.
  • Various wells were created at the top of the hill.
  • There are several temples within the fort, like the Lakshmi Narasimha Temple, Nageswara Swami Temple, Hanuman Temple, Jyothimma Temple, and the Ramaswamy Temple.
  • There is also a Dargah inside the fortification.
  • There are several ruined structures on the upper level of the fort.

About Mocha Port:

• Mokha, or Mocha, is a historic town located in southwestern Yemen, on the Red Sea.
• It was long famous as Arabia’s chief coffee-exporting center and the source of the term mocha.
• It is the chief port on the northern approach to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
• History:
  • Tradition holds that Mokha was founded in the 14th century by Sheikh ʿAlī ibn ʿUmar al-Shādhilī, the leader of a Sufi order (tariqa) who is supposed to have brought coffee drinking to Arabia from Ethiopia across the strait.
  • An important trade center through the 17th century, it was regularly visited by Indian traders, who traded finished metal products for Yemeni coffee and myrrh.
  • It also dealt with Egyptian merchants, who sailed to Mokha on the summer northwesterly Red Sea winds.
  • Coffee for the European and Middle East markets was Mokha’s chief export from the 15th century.
  • Trading establishments were maintained there by the British East India Company, the Dutch East India Company, and, briefly, the Danes and the French.
  • Long under Ottoman suzerainty, Mokha was surrendered to the imam of the Zaydī Shiʿah, Muḥammad al-Muʾayyad I, in 1636.
  • It prospered in the 17th and early 18th centuries; even the port of Zeila (in present Somalia, across the Gulf of Aden) became tributary to Mokha and its rulers until 1884.
  • The Ottomans held the town again from 1849 to 1918.
• Decline:
  • The conflicts between the European powers and the Ottoman Empire, and those between the Ottoman Empire and the Zaydī imams, contributed to the port’s decline.
  • The decline was hastened by the development of coffee plantations on the island of Java (now in Indonesia) by the Dutch and by the rise of the South American coffee industry (early 18th century).
• The modern port was established in 1955 and came to serve as a minor logistics and military hub between the major commercial ports of Aden and Hodeidah.

About Nandankanan Zoological Park:

• Nandankanan, literally meaning “The Garden of Heaven”, is located on the banks of Kanjia Lake in Odisha.
• Unlike other zoos in the country, it has been built inside a natural forest (Chandaka Forest), which is moist deciduous in nature and remains semi-evergreen.
• It also contains a botanical garden, and part of it has been declared a sanctuary.
• It is the first zoo in India to gain membership in the World Association of Zoos & Aquariums (WAZA).
• It is the sole zoo in India to inspire an express train named after it—the Nandankanan Express, as recognised by the Indian Railways.
• Since its inception, the zoo has been successful in breeding several endangered species, including Leopard, Tiger, Lion-tailed macaque, Asiatic lion, Nilgiri langur, Mouse deer, Indian pangolin, Indian crocodiles, Ratel, Brow-antlered deer, and many other water and land birds.
• Nandankanan has the distinction of being the first zoo in the world to breed Melanistic and White tigers and the sole conservation breeding center for Indian Pangolins across the globe.
• It is the first zoo in the country to feature an open-top enclosure for leopards and also the first where endangered Ratels were born in captivity.
• It is also known for being the first one to begin captive breeding of Gharials.

About Exercise Yudh Abhyas:

• It is the annual bilateral military exercise between the Indian Army and the United States Army.
• It focuses on enhancing interoperability, joint operational capabilities, and military cooperation between the two countries.
• 2026 Edition:
  • It is the 22nd edition of the exercise.
  • The first phase is scheduled at the Mahajan Field Firing Range in Rajasthan, near the Pakistan border.
  • The forces will then move to the high-altitude terrain of Auli in Uttarakhand, close to the Line of Actual Control with China.
  • It focuses on high-altitude warfare, long-range precision fires, counter-drone capabilities, and greater operational interoperability.
  • It features the deployment of Arctic-trained soldiers from the US Army’s 11th Airborne Division, based at Fort Wainwright, Alaska, to the high altitudes of India.
  • The exercise is bolstered by the participation of the 3rd Multi-Domain Task Force, introducing advanced long-range precision fires and integrated command-and-control systems to the bilateral framework.
  • The drills consist of a command post exercise and a field training exercise, culminating in a combined live-fire demonstration involving U.S. and Indian long-range precision fires and rocket systems.
  • Operating under the strategic framework of Operation Pathways, this year’s exercise marks a historic milestone with the first-of-its-kind deployment of advanced counterdrone systems to India.
  • The integration of the mobile low, slow, small unmanned aircraft integrated defeat system (MLIDS) allows both nations to adapt together to emerging battlefield threats and reinforce regional readiness.

Other Exercises between India and USA:

• Vajra Prahar: Indian Army Special Forces + U.S. Army Special Forces
• Cope India: Indian Air Force + U.S. Air Force
• Malabar: Indian Navy + U.S. Navy, Japan, and Australia
• Tiger Triumph: India–U.S. tri-service exercise with a focus including amphibious and HADR operations.

About UNESCO International Literacy Prize:

• It has been awarded since 1967.
• The Prizes aim to promote literacy as a foundation for lifelong learning, equity and sustainable development, especially in light of ongoing global challenges.
• Eligibility: Individuals, non-governmental organisations and government bodies involved in literacy promotion can apply when their programmes demonstrate measurable impact and align with that year’s theme.
  • International Literacy Day 2026 theme was “Literacy for people, the planet, and prosperity”.
• The prizes include six annual awards:
• UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize(3 awards)
  • It is supported by the Government of the Republic of Korea since 1989, the Prize highlights mother-tongue and multilingual literacy
  • Each laureate receives a medal, a diploma and US$ 30,000.
• UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy (3 awards):
  • It is supported by the Government of the People’s Republic of China since 2005.
  • It recognizes programmes supporting functional literacy in rural areas and among out-of-school youth, particularly through technology.
  • Each laureate receives a medal, a diploma, and US$ 30,000.

About AlphaGenome Atlas:

• It is an extensive, high-resolution digital directory designed to predict how genetic alterations impact molecular biology.
• It is an AI-powered interactive resource, mapping the predicted impact of all 9 billion DNA variants.
• It works in a regular web browser, without any coding required, and is free for academic researchers.
• Capacity: It is a 1 petabyte (PB) dataset containing every single possible nucleotide variant alongside an AlphaGenome Variant Impact (AVI) score.
• It is available to researchers around the world, with coding and non-coding variations available.
• It provides several powerful, interconnected resources, allowing researchers to link variants directly to the functional DNA sequences they disrupt.
• Key Technical Features
  • Molecular effect predictions: Atlas contains thousands of molecular effect predictions for each variant, across multiple important aspects of gene regulation, spanning hundreds of human and mouse cell types and tissues.
  • AVI score: A single number describing the impact for each genetic variant.
  • AVI feature attributions: Each AVI score is also linked to distinct biological features driving it, such as the aspects of gene regulation predicted by AlphaGenome or the protein impact score from AlphaMissense.
  • DNA sequence motifs: A comprehensive collection of over 2,500 recurrent DNA sequences — the "words" of the genome — and their locations.

About Digital Bharat Nidhi:

• It was formerly known as the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF).
• It now operates under the Telecommunication Act, 2023.
• Mandate: It has mandate to support universal service through promoting access and delivery of telecommunication service in underserved rural, remote and urban areas.
• It is an attached office of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Ministry of Communications.
• Objectives of Digital Bharat Nidhi:
  • Support universal service through promoting access to and delivery of telecommunication services in underserved rural, remote and urban areas
  • Support research and development of telecommunication services, technologies, and products
  • Support pilot projects, consultancy assistance and advisory support towards provision of service under clause (a) above
  • Support introduction of telecommunication services, technologies, and products
• Funding: The contributions made by telecom companies towards the Digital Bharat Nidhi will first be credited to the Consolidated Fund of India (CFI).
• The balance to the credit of the DBN is not lapsed at the end of the financial year.
• Utilization of Funds: Funds collected under the DBN will be used to support promoting access to and delivery of telecommunication services in underserved rural, remote and urban areas; fund research and development of telecommunication services, technologies, and product.
• Administration: Administration of DBN is managed by the Administrator appointed by Central Government of India.
• The administrator selects “DBN implementers” through “bidding” or invitation of applications from eligible persons.