UPSC Daily Current Affairs| One Liners 21-02-2026

One Liners 21-02-2026

Geography

Nigerian Mine Tragedy

37 miners were killed and 26 others hospitalized after the toxic gas leak.

• Occurred at – A lead and zinc mine in North-Central Nigeria.

• Cause (Preliminary Findings):

  • Sudden discharge of lead oxide.

  • Associated gases – Sulphur and carbon monoxide.

  • Poor ventilation likely worsened the buildup underground.

Social Issues

Mobile Bidi Pustaka Hidi Campaign – Karnataka

• Led by – School Education Department.

• Collaboration with – Women & Child Welfare, Library, Health, and Police Departments.

• Campaign slogan – “Put down your mobile and pick up a book.”

• Objective

  • To encourage schoolchildren to reduce screen time and develop a habit of reading books.

  • To shape them into responsible citizens with rational and high-level thinking skills.

Environment

Bela Gram – India’s First Net-Zero Panchayat

• Recognition of – Bela Gram in Bhandara district, Vidarbha (Maharashtra), at Mumbai Climate Week 2026.

• Awards – Rashtriya Panchayat Puraskar 2024 for its pioneering climate action.

• Key Initiatives –

  • Planted 90,000+ trees during weddings and festivals.

  • Transitioned households from smoky chulhas to LPG.

  • Installed solar panels in homes, anganwadis, and Panchayat offices.

  • Promoted waste segregation at doorsteps and eliminated single-use plastics.

  • Advocated “waste to wealth” practices.

Murshidabad Wetlands – “Kidneys of South Bengal”

• Shrinking rate at – 2.1% per year, triple the global average and 1.5 times India’s national average.

• Area reduced from – 5,524.7 ha (1990) to 1,700.2 ha (2025).

• Proof – Based on satellite imagery (1990–2025) and field surveys (2019–2025).

• Causes –

  • Over half severely degraded due to invasive weeds, siltation, and pollution.

  • Collapse of river-wetland connectivity – Only 4 of 14 wetlands retain functional links.

• Current status –

  • Many wetlands (e.g., Chaltia Beel, Bishnupur Beel, Bil Belun, Bilpatan) rated “poor” to “very poor.”

Red Sandres (Pterocarpus santalinus)

• Endemic to – India, with a restricted range in the Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh.

  • Seshachalam Biosphere Reserve, the world’s largest natural reserve of Red Sanders.

• Thrives in – Rocky, degraded, red-soil lands under hot and dry climates.

• Value & demand –

  • Highly prized for its deep red wood, used in luxury furniture, musical instruments, and traditional medicine.

  • Strong international demand, especially in East Asia, drives illegal trade.

• Protection Status –

  • IUCN Red List – Endangered.

  • CITES – Appendix II (regulated trade).

  • Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 – Schedule II (legal protection in India).

Europe Push Circular Economy in Textiles

• The European Commission banned the destruction of unsold textiles under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR).

• Objective – To cut textile waste, reduce CO₂ emissions, and promote resale, reuse, and remanufacturing.

India – Revision of Solid Waste Management Rules, 2026

•  Mandate – Four-stream waste segregation and embedding circular economy principles into national policy.

• Objective – To reshape textile waste management, aligning India with global sustainability efforts.

India’s January 2026 Air Quality Snapshot (CREA Report)

• Overall findings –

  • Nearly half (123 of 248) Indian cities exceeded India’s PM2.5 NAAQS limit of 60 μg/m³.

  • No city met the WHO safe guideline of 15 μg/m³.

• Worst Performers –

  • Ghaziabad (U.P.) – Most polluted, monthly average PM2.5 = 184 μg/m³; breached NAAQS daily.

  • Delhi – Second most polluted, monthly average = 169 μg/m³.

  • Other top 10 – Noida, Gurgaon, Greater Noida, Dharuhera, Gangtok, Singrauli, Bhiwadi, Narnaul.

• States with widespread exceedances – Rajasthan (23/34 cities), Haryana (19/25), Bihar (15/24), Odisha (13/15), Uttar Pradesh (13/20).

• Cleanest Cities –

  • Damoh (M.P.) – Cleanest, monthly average = 17 μg/m³.

  • Other clean cities included five from Karnataka, and one each from J&K, Bihar, Nagaland, Punjab.

Science

WAVES Creators’ Corner

• Held as a part of – India AI Impact Summit 2026.

• Objective – To showcase AI’s role in the AVGC-XR (Animation, VFX, Gaming, Comics, Extended Reality) ecosystem.

• Startup Showcase –

  • 51 AVGC-XR and Media Tech startups presented AI-driven solutions.

  • Included winners of Bhasha Setu and Kalaa Setu challenges.

• Technological highlights –

  • Real-time game development and prompt-to-cinema studios.

  • Agentic AI newsroom by AWS & BharatGen.

  • Sarvam’s real-time voice cloning.

  • Indus Chat App for multilingual interaction.

  • 270° AI film screenings (NFDC).

  • Sony Research India’s face/voice re-aging.

  • Whistling Woods’ marker-less motion capture using DSLR/iPhone.

“Invisible Shield” AI Security Framework

• A next-generation AI-enabled biometric deduplication and document verification platform.

• Launched by – UIDAI.

• Objective – To ensures one unique identity per resident by performing population-scale biometric deduplication across fingerprints, face, and iris data.

• Features –

  • AI-based metadata extraction and verification against source documents.

  • Integrated with Digilocker APIs for authenticity checks.

  • Uses NVIDIA AI inferencing for semantic analysis.

  • Reduces fraud, speeds up enrolment/update processes, and improves service quality.