About Rudra Raptors Exercise:

• It is a high-intensity joint military exercise conducted by the Konark Corps of the Indian Army.
• It was conducted in the forward areas of the desert sector in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.
• Theme: “One team, one purpose, absolute battlefield dominance”
• The exercise witnessed joint integrated training and active participation from the elite helicopters of ‘Thar Raptors’ such as AH-64E Apaches, and tanks of the ‘Black Mace’ Brigade.
• Black Mace Brigade is the Rudra all-arms formation under Konark Corps, which the Army validated during Exercise Akhand Prahar in 2025 as a combined-arms unit grouping armour, mechanised infantry, artillery, air defence, and support elements under one headquarters.
• The exercise was aimed at establishing seamless synergy between aerial and ground combat capabilities, as well as validating integrated battle strategies for realistic battlefield conditions.
• During the joint training, attack helicopters and tanks executed operational activities in tandem to demonstrate coordinated actions between aerial and ground military assets.

About Alexander Disease:

• It is a rare genetic disorder that progressively damages the nervous system.
• It is a type of leukodystrophy, a group of conditions that affect the white matter of the brain.
• These diseases damage the myelin sheath, which surrounds and protects the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord and speeds transmission of messages between cell
• In Alexander disease, the myelin insulating the nerve fibers in the brain deteriorates over time, and abnormal clumps of protein, called Rosenthal fibers, accumulate in the brain.
• This causes the nervous system to stop working properly.
• Cause:
  • Most cases of Alexander disease are caused by a mutation in the GFAP gene, which directs the body’s production of a glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP).
  • At normal levels, GFAP supports the brain’s white matter (the myelin sheath).
  • The mutation of this gene in Alexander disease causes this protein to accumulate.
  • Instead of helping maintain the brain’s white matter, the extra GFAP does the opposite, killing other cells and damaging the myelin.
  • In most cases, the gene mutation associated with Alexander disease is not inherited from a parent.
  • It is simply a random mutation and is new in the person who develops the syndrome.
  • In some cases, Alexander disease is inherited from a similarly affected parent.
• Symptoms:
  • Most cases of Alexander disease begin before age 2 and are described as the infantile form.
    • Signs and symptoms of the infantile form typically include an enlarged brain and head size (megalencephaly), seizures, stiffness in the arms and/or legs (spasticity), intellectual disability, and developmental delay.
  • Less frequently, onset occurs later in childhood (the juvenile form) or in adulthood.
    • Common problems in juvenile and adult forms of Alexander disease include speech abnormalities, swallowing difficulties, seizures, and poor coordination (ataxia).
  • Rarely, a neonatal form of Alexander disease occurs within the first month of life and is associated with severe intellectual disability and developmental delay, a buildup of fluid in the brain (hydrocephalus), and seizures.
• Treatment:
  • There is no complete cure for Alexander disease, but the U.S. FDA recently approved Zanvastro (zilganersen), which is the first disease-modifying therapy that directly targets the underlying protein buildup driving the condition.
  • The disease is often fatal.

About Sukhna Lake:

• It is an artificial lake located in the city of Chandigarh at the foothills of the Shivalik hills.
• It came into existence in 1958 when the Sukhna Choe, a seasonal stream originating from the Shivalik Hills, was dammed.
• Initially spanning 230 hectares, the lake’s area diminished to approximately 154 hectares by 2007 due to siltation, leading to the creation of the Sukhna Lake Reserve Forest.
• Over time, the water level dropped from 5 meters in 1958 to 2 meters by 2004, exacerbated by significant soil erosion from the 4,200-hectare catchment area.
• The water flowing into the lake is heavily loaded with silt. Due to higher run-off, there is an accelerated pace of erosion in the catchment areas, resulting in the higher rate of sedimentation in the reservoir of Sukhna Lake and streambeds.
• The lake is fringed by a golf course to the south, and the famous Nek Chand Rock Garden of Chandigarh to its west.
• The lake is declared a National Wetland by the Government of India.
• During winter, Sukhna Lake transforms into a haven for diverse migratory birds such as Siberian ducks, storks, and cranes, hosting around 30 resident and migratory species.
• The lake is also a part of the Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary.
• Sukhna Lake has the longest channel for rowing and yachting events in Asia.

About Alpheus vembanadi and Alpheus hari:

• They are two new species of pistol shrimp.
• They were discovered in the Kochi backwaters of Kerala. The specimens were collected from gillnets, a traditional fishing method used in the backwaters.
• The first species, Alpheus vembanadi, has been named after the Vembanad backwaters.
  • It is found in the Kochi backwaters throughout the year and can survive in waters with salinity levels of up to 31 parts per thousand (ppt).
• The second species, Alpheus hari, was named in honour of Dr. M. Harikrishnan, Senior Professor at CUSAT’s School of Industrial Fisheries.
  • The species has a notable ability to tolerate changes in salinity.
  • Researchers found it in waters with very low salinity, while laboratory studies showed that it can also survive in freshwater.

Key Facts about Pistol Shrimp:

• Pistol shrimp, also known as snapping shrimp, are a crustacean in the family Alpheidae.
• There are hundreds of species found all over the world, but most species are found in reefs and seagrass beds in temperate and tropical regions.
• They have one small claw called a pincer and a much larger claw-like snapper.
• Some shrimps have snappers that are bigger than half its body.
• The snapper is the shrimp’s weapon for killing or stunning prey.
• However, they don’t grab or choke prey the way a crab does. Instead, the snapper has a complex mechanism that gives it much more power.
• By rapidly snapping the snapper shut, the shrimp creates a cavitation bubble that collapses with a loud snapping sound.
• This snap can stun or even kill small prey, which the shrimp then consumes.

About Stegodyphus sarasinorum:

• It is a colonial spider species.
• It is also called an Indian cooperative spider or an Indian social spider.
• Distribution: It is found across the Indian subcontinent.
• Habitat: It inhabits the semi-arid areas of the central and southern states.
• Characteristics:
  • It lives in permanent colonies, constructs communal silk nests and captures prey cooperatively.
  • The colony composition of S. sarasinorum is dominated by females.
  • It is among only a small number of permanently social spider species known worldwide.
  • They hunt and feed communally, and live in cooperatively built nests of silk and other matter.  These nocturnal spiders feed together.
  • Sexual dimorphism is observed among sarasinorum where males are smaller than females and darker in colour.

About Seychelles:

• Location: It is an archipelagic island country located in the western Indian Ocean.
• It is located to the northeast of Madagascar and east of mainland Africa.
• Other major islands near Seychelles include Comoros and Mauritius to the south, and the Maldives to the east.
• It consists of an archipelago of 115 islands (only 8 are permanently inhabited).
• Capital City:
• Geographical Features of Seychelles
  • Climate: The climate is tropical oceanic, with little temperature variation during the year.
  • It is composed of two main island groups: the Mahé group, which are mountainous granitic islands, and a second group are coralline islands.
    • Mahé Group is volcanic with a narrow coastal strip and rocky, hilly interior; others are relatively flat coral atolls, or elevated reefs; sits atop the submarine Mascarene Plateau.
  • Highest Point: The highest point in Seychelles is Morne Seychellois.

About Food and Agriculture Organization:

• It is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that leads international efforts to defeat hunger.
• It is the oldest permanent specialized agency of the UN, established in October 1945.
• Mandate: To improve nutrition, increase agricultural productivity, raise the standard of living in rural populations, and contribute to global economic growth.
• Functions:
  • The FAO coordinates the efforts of governments and technical agencies in programs for developing agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and land and water resources.
  • It leads international efforts to fight hunger.
  • It is both a forum for negotiating agreements between developing and developed countries and a source of technical knowledge and information to aid development.
• Members: It currently has 195 members – 194 countries and the European Union. (India is a founding member of FAO)
• Funding: FAO receives its funding from its member countries.
• Reports published by the FAO: The State of the World’s Forests (SOFO), The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA), The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets (SOCO), The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI).
• Headquarters: Rome, Italy.

About Astra AI Model:

• It is a new frontier artificial intelligence (AI) model released by the OpenAI.
• Functions of Astra AI Model:
  • It is a model built for end-to-end work, rather than only answering prompts.
  • It is closer to more autonomous AI agents than models.
  • It can operate computers and browsers, fill online forms, update customer records, organise calendars, conduct web research, draft material inside documents and emails, analyse scientific data, generate plots, build websites, install and test software, and troubleshoot problems visible on a screen.
  • It has a 1.05-million-token context window and supports a maximum output of 128,000 tokens.
• It is the first OpenAI model classified at the critical level for cybersecurity under its Preparedness Framework.
• It is better at retaining the original objective of a task when a user changes instructions midway.

About Agentic AI Skilling Program:

• It is aimed at expanding access to industry-aligned Agentic AI learning opportunities and contributing to the development of a future-ready AI talent ecosystem in the country.
• It was launched by the National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), in collaboration with Intel India.
• Under the initiative, two programmes have been introduced:
  • Agentic AI for Everyone
    • It introduces learners to workflow automation, AI agents and multi-agent systems, with a focus on improving productivity, enabling business transformation and supporting intelligent decision-making.
    • The programme provides hands-on exposure to designing and governing AI-powered workflows and agentic systems using no-code platforms.
  • Engineering Agentic AI Systems
    • It focuses on designing, building and deploying AI-powered agentic systems.
    • Learners will gain practical exposure to no-code/low-code platforms and code-based frameworks, covering areas including agent architecture, tool integration, orchestration, memory and deployment to develop scalable and production-ready solutions.

What is Agentic AI?

• It is an advanced form of artificial intelligence focused on autonomous decision-making and action. 
• It consists of AI agents—machine learning models that mimic human decision-making to solve problems in real time.
• Unlike traditional AI, which primarily responds to commands or analyzes data, agentic AI can set goals, plan, and execute tasks with minimal human intervention.
• “Agentic” indicates agency — the ability of these systems to act independently, but in a goal-driven manner.
• At its core, this technology is built on several key components:
  • Perception: Agentic AI starts by gathering information from its surroundings and different sources, such as sensors, databases, and user interfaces. 
  • Reasoning: Using a large language model (LLM), agentic AI analyzes the gathered data to understand the context, identify relevant information, and formulate potential solutions. 
  • Planning: The AI then uses the information it gathered to develop a plan. This involves setting goals, breaking them down into smaller steps, and figuring out the best way to achieve them.
  • Action: Based on its plan, the AI takes action. This could involve performing tasks, making decisions, or interacting with other systems.
  • Reflection: After taking action, the AI learns from the results. It evaluates whether its actions were successful and uses this feedback to adjust its plans and actions in the future.