Nelco, a Tata Group company, has partnered with Eutelsat to provide OneWeb LEO satellite connectivity across India.

About Eutelsat One Web

• It is a subsidiary of the French group Eutelsat providing broadband satellite Internet services using a network of low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites.
  • LEO encompasses Earth-centered orbits with altitudes of 2,000 km or less.
• India’s Bharti Enterprises serves as a major investor and shareholder in OneWeb.
• Significance: Strengthen India's digital infrastructure, national security, reliable connectivity in underserved areas.

Scientists find possible artefacts of oldest known Wallacean hominids in Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island.

About Wallacean hominids

• These earliest Wallacean humans( Pre-historic persons known as Homo Erectus), thought to have only settled in Indonesia’s Flores island and Philippines’ Luzon island around 1.02 million years ago and thought to be incapable of distant sea travel.
  • Wallacea (named after naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace) is a region in Eastern Indonesia including several islands such as Sulawesi, Lombok, Flores, Timor, Sumbawa that lie between Borneo and Java and Australia and New Guinea.

Anubhav Awards celebrating 10 years of contribution (2015–2025).

About National Anubhav Awards

• By: Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare
• Aim: To document India’s administrative history through memoirs of retired employees via Anubhav Portal.
• Eligibility: Employees retiring within next 8 months or retired within last 3 years can submit write-ups.

Bibi Fatima Women’s self-help group (SHG) from a small village in Dharwad district has bagged the ‘Equator Initiative Award’.

About UNDP Equator Initiative Award

• Presented biennially under the Equator Initiative of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
• The Equator Initiative provides opportunities for Indigenous Peoples and local communities to address land degradation, biodiversity conservation and livelihood improvement.
• It is also referred to as the Nobel Prize for Biodiversity Conservation.

About Bibi Fatima SHG

• The group introduced millet-based mixed cropping on rainfed farms, promoted climate-resilient farming systems, practised livestock rearing and horticulture and popularised millets.

An expert panel of the Union Environment Ministry has recommended environmental clearance for the Etalin hydroelectric project.

About Etalin hydroelectric project

• Location: in Arunachal Pradesh’s Dibang valley, part of the Eastern Himalaya Global Biodiversity Hotspot.
• Rivers: Concrete gravity dams on the Dri and Tangon rivers.
  • The Dri River joins the Tangon near Etalin village to form the Dibang River downstream.
• Capacity: 3,097 MW
• Concerns: The project will divert about 1,175 hectares of diverse forest types, including sub-tropical pine, wet evergreen, semi-evergreen, montane wet temperate, and moist alpine scrub forests.

The Union minister has clarified that National Medical Register ID registration is voluntary.

About National Medical Register

• Section 31(1) of the The National Medical Commission Act, 2019 provides that the Ethics and Medical Registration Board (EMRB) shall maintain a National Register.
• It contains the name, address, and all recognized qualifications possessed by a licensed medical practitioner.
• It aims to avoid duplication and provide public access to doctor information.
• This will be a dynamic database for all allopathic registered doctors in India.
  • Some data made public while sensitive information is restricted to specified individuals and institutions.

Centre extended the tenure of Mahadayi water tribunal for one year under Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956.

• Tribunal was constituted in Nov. 2010 for adjudicating the dispute over river water sharing among Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka,

About Mahadayi River or Mandovi River

• Origin: Western Ghats (At Khanpur: Belgaum-Karnataka)
• Flows into: Arabian Sea (at Panji)- west flowing river.
• Known as: Mahadayi in Karnataka and Mhadei in Goa.
• Important tributaries of Mandovi River: Sarang, Mahainada, Udel, Lohi, Velvota Bicholim, Mapuce, Nanoda and Khandepar.
• Basin area: Goa (78%), Karnataka (18%), Maharashtra (4%).

Election Commission of India (ECI) has identified another 476 RUPP for possible de-listing as part of its process to clean up the electoral system.

About Registered Unrecognized Political Parties (RUPP)

• RUPPs are political parties registered with the ECI but lack recognition as State or National parties.
• Legal Provisions & Guidelines
  • Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (RPA, 1951) specifies the criteria that a political party must register itself with the ECI.
  • ECI lacks the authority to de-register any political party under RPA as established in the case of Indian National Congress versus Institute of Social Welfare (2002).
  • However as per Guidelines for registration of Political Parties, parties not contesting elections for 6 consecutive years can be removed from the register.