🔆 Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban)
📍 Launched: 2015
📍 Nodal Ministry: Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA)
📍 Objective: Provide all-weather pucca houses for EWS, LIG, and MIG in urban areas of India.

✅ Beneficiaries: Economically weaker sections (EWS), Low-income groups (LIG), Middle-income groups (MIG), including slum dwellers.
✅ Coverage: Applicable across all statutory towns (Census 2011) and subsequently notified towns.
✅ Components:

* Beneficiary Led Construction/Enhancement (BLC)
* Affordable Housing in Partnership (AHP)
* In-situ Slum Redevelopment (ISSR)
* Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS)

📍 Initiatives:

* Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHCs) for migrant workers and urban poor.
* CLSS Awas Portal (CLAP): Real-time platform for application processing and subsidy tracking.

📍 Significance:

* Women Empowerment: Ownership of houses in the name of female members.
* Special Preferences: Focus on differently-abled, senior citizens, SC/ST, OBCs, minorities, and vulnerable groups.
* Basic Amenities: Houses equipped with toilets, water, electricity, and kitchen.

कैबिनेट बैठक में महत्वपूर्ण निर्णय
पचमढ़ी नगर की नजूल भूमि को अभयारण्य की सीमा से पृथक किए जाने का निर्णय
- साडा के प्रशासनिक नियंत्रण वाला नजूल क्षेत्र जिसका रकबा 395.931 हेक्टेयर है, इस क्षेत्र को पचमढ़ी अभयारण्य की सीमा से बाहर करने का निर्णय लिया गया।

UPSC CALENDAR- 2026
Prelims - 24 May
Mains - 21 Aug.

🔆 Grasslands of South America

📍 Pampas
✅ Located in Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil
✅ Temperate Grassland
✅ Fertile plains known for extensive agriculture (wheat, corn, soybeans) and cattle ranching; home to the gaucho culture

📍 Llanos
✅ Located in Venezuela, Colombia
✅ Tropical Grassland
✅ Seasonally flooded grasslands; rich in biodiversity; major source of cattle grazing and oil reserves

📍 Campos
✅ Located in Southern Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay
✅ Subtropical Grassland
✅ Includes regions like Campos Gerais; used for livestock grazing and agriculture

📍 Gran Chaco
✅ Located in Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil
✅ Woodland Savanna
✅ A semi-arid region with grasslands interspersed with thorny shrubs; rich in wildlife and a critical ecological zone

🔆 ARCTIC CIRCLE

📍 Water Bodies

✅ Chukchi Sea: Connected to the Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean via the Bering Strait at its southernmost end.

✅ East Siberian Sea: One of the least studied water bodies in the area, experiencing an extremely harsh climate.

✅ Laptev Sea: Surrounded on three sides by land.

✅ Kara Sea: Located north of Siberia, between the Barents Sea and the Laptev Sea.

✅ Barents Sea: Off the northern coasts of Russia and Norway; relatively shallower than other parts of the Arctic Ocean.
▪️ The sea is important for the exploration of hydrocarbon resources.
▪️ It is a productive fishing area.
▪️ The Pechora Sea and the White Sea are parts of the Barents Sea.

✅ Wandel Sea: Stretches from Greenland’s northeast to Svalbard.

📍 Note:
HIMADRI – India’s research laboratory in Svalbard, Norway; near the North Pole.