15th August 2025

Explanation - APAAR stands for Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry. It was envisioned under the New Education Policy, 2020. It is an identification number which is linked to enrollment, and a student's journey from pre-primary to higher education can be tracked through it. APAAR assigns a unique and permanent 12-digit ID to every student, offering a comprehensive record of their academic achievements, including degrees, scholarships, awards, and other credits. The APAAR ID will be unique and remain the same through one's education journey. It is linked to Aadhaar and stored in DigiLocker for easy access. The APAAR ID embodies the vision of "One Nation, One Student ID", ensuring a unified and accessible academic experience for students across India. It serves as a lifelong academic passport, consolidating all achievements and credentials of a student in one place. APAAR is generated through Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+). Objectives of APAAR — To accumulate and store students' academic achievements in a central database To facilitate seamless transfer between institutions To provide standardised digital records for mark sheets and institutional affiliations. To help in educational policymaking and analysis. 

Explanation - They are massive megalithic stone-carved human-shaped statues found at Easter Island. The Easter Island statues are monolithic human figures carved from volcanic rock by the first Polynesian settlers on the island, the Rapa Nui people. They were built in approximately 1400 – 1650 A.D. by the natives of this island known as Rapa Nui. There are around 1000 Moai statues which are made up of volcanic tuff, the tallest of them being 33 feet. They carved them in the likeness of their ancestors. What do moais represent? They were built to honor chieftains or other important people who had passed away. They were placed on rectangular stone platforms called ahu, which are tombs for the people that the statues represented. The moais were intentionally made with different characteristics since they were intended to keep the appearance of the person they represented. 

Explanation – 

• L-band (1–2 GHz) is mainly used for GPS and mobile satellite services, not primarily for weather radar and air traffic control (S-band is used for those). 

• The ITU coordinates and allocates global satellite frequencies. 

• Ku-band and Ka-band are widely used for satellite TV, internet and high-throughput data transmission.

Explanation – 

• The UNDP Equator Initiative Award is biennial and recognizes local/nature-based initiatives for poverty reduction via biodiversity conservation. 

• Considered as the "Nobel Prize for Biodiversity Conservation." 

• Eligibility requires the initiative to be operational for at least three years, not five. 

• The 2023 theme focused on “Women and Youth Leadership for Nature-Based Climate Action.”