Definitions - By Sunya IAS

(MAINS BATCH 2024)

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 Contents

1. Economy ................................................................................................................ 3

2. Science and Technology......................................................................................... 7

3. Environment ........................................................................................................... 9

4. Security ................................................................................................................ 12

5. Polity .................................................................................................................... 13

6. Social Issues ......................................................................................................... 16

7. Geography ............................................................................................................ 18

8. World History....................................................................................................... 19

9. Ethics .................................................................................................................... 20
 DEFINITIONS | (MAINS BATCH 2024)

1. Economy

1. Gig Economy: It is an economic model wherein the firms hire workers on a part-time flexible basis
rather than as full time employees. The workers work as freelancers andgenerally have flexible and
adaptable working hours based on individual preferences.

2. Informal Economy: It represents enterprises that are not registered, where employers do not provide
social security to employees.

3. E-Agriculture: It refers to designing, developing and applying innovative ways to ICT withfocus on
agriculture and food including fisheries, forestry and livestock.

4. Monetization of deficit: It refers to monetary support by RBI extending to centre as part of

government’s borrowing programme i.e. central bank directly purchasing government bondsin primary
market providing the government with money which will then fund the deficit.

5. Social mobility: It refers to transition of people, including families and other social units, between
the socio-economic strata within their lifetime.

6. Public finance: Public finance is the management of a country's revenue, expenditures, and debt
through various Government, quasi-government institutions, policies, and tools.

7. GM Crops: Plants in which DNA is modified using genetic engineering methods. Currently,Bt cotton
is the only GM crop legally permissible to be grown in India.

8. Bilateral netting: Bilateral netting is the process of consolidating all swap agreements between two
parties into one single, or master, agreement.

9. Social stock exchange: It is a platform that helps organizations working for social welfareto raise
capital via debt, equity and mutual funds. The idea of SSE was mooted in the Union Budget 2019-20.

10. Contract Farming: Agreement between farmers and processing/marketing firms for production and
supply of agricultural products under forward agreements, frequently at predetermined prices.

11. Priority sector lending (PSL): Priority Sector refers to those sectors which are consideras important
for the development of the basic needs of the country and they may notget timelyand adequate credit
and priority lending to those sectors is called PSL.

12. Global Value chain: It is the international production sharing, where production is broken into
functional activities carried out in different countries.

13. Financial Inclusion: It means that individuals and businesses have access to useful and affordable
financial products and services that meet their needs – transactions, payments, savings, credit and
insurance – delivered in a responsible and sustainable way.

14. Inclusive Growth: As per OECD, inclusive growth is economic growth that is distributedfairly across
society and creates opportunities for all. It includes providing equality ofopportunity, empowering
people through education and skill development.

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15. Irrigation: It is the artificial process of applying controlled amounts of water to land to assist in
production of crops.

16. Agriculture Subsidies: It is an incentive paid to agribusinesses and farms to supplement their income
and influence cost and supply of such commodities.

17. Public Distribution System: PDS evolved as a system of management of scarcity through distribution
of foodgrains at affordable prices. It is the public rationing system of Indiawhich is administered by the
Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution.

18. Agricultural Marketing: It comprises all operations involved in the movement of farm produce from
the producer to the ultimate consumer. It includes operations such as collecting,grading, processing,
preserving, transportation and financing.

19. Food Processing: It is mainly defined as a process of value addition to the agricultural or horticultural
produce by various methods such as grading, sorting and packaging.
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20. Organic Farming: It is a system of farm design and management to create an ecosystem of agriculture
production without the use of synthetic external inputs such as chemical fertilisers, pesticides and
synthetic hormones or genetically modified organisms.
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21. Minimum Support Price: It is the rate at which the government purchases crops from farmers, and
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is based on a calculation of at least one-and-a-half times the cost of production incurred by the farmers.
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22. Buffer Stock: Buffer stocks refer to a pool of certain commodities like Rice, Wheat, etc which are
maintained to provide food security and tackle unforeseen emergencies like drought,famine, wars, etc.
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23. Gender Budgeting: It means preparing budgets from gender perspective. It aims at dealing with
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budgetary gender issues including gender hierarchies and gender pay gap.

24. Disinvestment: The process of dilution of a government’s stake in a Public Sector Undertaking is
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disinvestment. It allows the transferring of the government’s enormous publicdebt of PSU to the
private sector.
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25. Universal Basic Income: UBI is a sum of money provided by the State to all citizens to take care of
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the bare necessities of life. This provides a “safety net preventing any citizen” from sinking below a
basic minimum standard of living
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26. Corporate Social Responsibility: It is referred as a corporate initiative to assess and take
responsibility for the company's effects on the environment and impact on social welfare and to
promote positive social and environmental change.

27. Demographic Dividend: Demographic dividend means, the economic growth potential that can result
from shifts in a population’s age structure. India has one of the youngest populations (62.5% of its
population in the age group 15-59) in an aging world.

28. Digital Divide: It is the gap that exists between individuals who have access to modern ICTand those
who lack access. It also means discrepancy between those who have the skills, knowledge and abilities
to use the technologies and those who do not.

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29. Globalisation: Globalization is a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies,
and governments of different nations, driven by international trade and investment and aided by
information technology.

30. Zero Based Budgeting: It refers to planning and preparing the Budget right from the basic(zero base).
The process involves review of the expenditures incurred by every department eachyear. It considers
current expectations. On the basis of this, expenditures are allocated and revenues are estimated for
the next period.

31. Capitalism: A system of generalized commodity production in which wealth is owned privately and
economic life is organized according to market principles.

32. Free trade: Free trade occurs when goods and services can be bought and sold between countries or
sub-national regions without tariffs, quotas or other restrictions being applied.

33. Deflation: A reduction in the general level of prices, linked to a reduction in the level of economic activity in
the economy. Deflation slows down economic growth. It normally takes place during times of economic
uncertainty when the demand for goods and services is lower, along with higher levels of unemployment.

34. Devaluation: A reduction in the value of a currency relative to other currencies.

35. Information society: A society in which the crucial resource is knowledge/information, its primary
dynamic force being the process of technological development and diffusion.

36. Resource curse/Paradox of Plenty: It is the phenomenon of countries with an abundance of natural
resources having less economic growth, less democracy, or worse development outcomes than
countries with fewer natural resources.

37. Microfinance: It is a form of financial service which provides small loans and other financial services to poor
and low-income households. In India, all loans that are below Rs. 1 lakh can be considered as microloans.

38. Protectionism: The use of tariffs, quotas and other measures to restrict imports, supposedlyto protect
domestic industries.

39. Balance of payments: It is a systematic record of economic transactions made by residentsof a country
with other country in a specific time frame. Its objective is to assess internationaleconomic position
of a country to help government make decisions on monetary and fiscal policies on one hand, and
trade policies on the other.

40. Non-tariff barriers: Rules, regulations or practices that hinder imports through, for instance, the
procurement policies of governments, systematic border delays, or complex health and national standards.

41. Most favoured nation (MFN): It is a treatment accorded to a trade partner to ensure non-discriminatory
trade between two countries vis-a-vis other trade partners. Under WTO rules, if a country grants
someone a special favour such as lower customs duty rate for one of their products, it must do the
same for all other WTO members.

42. Trickle down: The theory that the introduction of free-market policies will, in time, benefitthe poor
and not only the rich through an increase in economic growth and a general rise in living standards.

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43. Import substitution: It is a strategy under trade policy that abolishes the import of foreignproducts and
encourages production in the domestic market. Its purpose is to change the economic structure of the
country by replacing foreign goods with domestic goods.

44. Debt crisis: A situation in which a country is unable to service its debts because economic surpluses
are insufficient to meet interest repayments.

45. Fair trade: Trade that satisfies moral, and not merely economic, criteria, related to alleviating
poverty and respecting the interests of sellers and producers in poorer areas.

46. Corruption: A failure to carry out ‘proper’ or public responsibilities because of the pursuitof private
gain, usually involving bribery or misappropriation.

47. Free trade agreement: It is an agreement between two or more countries to lower importand export
tariffs. It allows products and services to be bought and sold across international borders with little or
no restrictions from the government in the form of taxes, subsidies, quotas, or prohibitions.

48. Customs union: An arrangement whereby a number of states establish a common external tariff
against the rest of the world, usually whilst abolishing internal tariffs.

49. Common market: An area, comprising a number of states, within which there is a free movement of
labour and capital, and a high level of economic harmonization; sometimes calleda single market.

50. Spillover: A process through which the creation and deepening of integration in one economic area
creates pressure for further economic integration, and, potentially, for politicalintegration.

51. NPA: NPA means interest or principal is not repaid by the borrower during a specified time period
(‘overdue’ for a period of 90 days).

52. Restructured loans: Assets which got an extended repayment period, reduced interest rate,converting
a part of the loan into equity, providing additional financing, or some combinationof these measures.

53. Non-Personal Data: Any set of data which does not contain personally identifiableinformation, in
essence means that no individual or living person can be identified by lookingat such data.

54. Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT): These are reciprocal agreements between two countries to
promote and protect foreign private investments in each other's territories. They encourage foreign
investors to invest in a State and there by contributing towards overall developments and
advancements of the economy.

55. Soft power: The ability to influence other actors by persuading them to follow or agree to norms and
aspirations that produce the desired behaviour.

56. Diplomacy: A process of negotiation and communication between states that seeks toresolve
conflict without recourse to war; an instrument of foreign policy.

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 DEFINITIONS | (MAINS BATCH 2024)

2. Science and Technology

1. Gene Editing: It is a type of genetic engineering in which DNA is inserted, deleted, modified or
replaced in the genome of a living organism. CRISPR is widely considered the most precise, most
cost-effective and quickest way to edit genes.
2. Biopiracy: Biopiracy happens when researchers or research organisations take biological resources
without official sanction, largely from less affluent countries or marginalised people.
3. Genome Sequencing: The process of determining the genetic information that is carried in a
particular DNA segment.
4. Bioremediation: It is the use of microorganisms (bacteria and fungi) to degrade the environmental
contaminants into less toxic forms.
5. Gene Therapy: Gene therapy is a technique that uses a gene(s) to treat, prevent or cure a disease or
medical disorder.
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6. Stem Cell Therapy: A medical process which utilizes the stem cells for preventing or treating a disease.
7. Traditional Medicine: The WHO describes traditional medicine as the total sum of the “knowledge,
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skills and practices indigenous and different cultures have used over time to maintain health and
prevent, diagnose and treat physical and mental illness”.
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8. Biofortification: The technique of improving nutritional content of crops using modern

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biotechnology or conventional agronomic practices.

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9. Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART): A technology to address infertility and assist the couple
to conceive using techniques like vitro fertilization- embryo transfer (IVF - ET), gamete intra-
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fallopian transfer (GIFT), etc.

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10. Internet of Things (IoT): IoT is the interlinking of digital devices, people, machines, appliances, and
other objects with one another through wireless networks. It allows machines and people to be
connected to each other and communicate as well.
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11. Transfats: Trans fatty acids (TFAs) are unsaturated type of fats which have adverse effectson our
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body. These fats are largely produced artificially but a small amount also occurs naturally.
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12. Antimicrobial Resistance: It occurs when a microorganism changes over time and no longer
responds to medicines making infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of disease spread,
severe illness and death.
13. Genetically Modified Crops: The crop plants in which genetic material (DNA) has beenaltered using
modern biotechnology to insert non-naturally occurring traits in plants like disease resistance, stress
tolerance, insect resistance, etc.
14. Nanotechnology: A technology that involves the manipulation of matter on atomic, molecular and
supramolecular scales. This includes particles of a scale of 1 to 100 nanometers.
15. Edge Computing: A technique where data is processed by the device itself or by a local server rather
than being transmitted to a centralized data processing warehouse.

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16. Deep Web: Part of the internet that is unidentified or that cannot be readily accessed through
conventional search engines.
17. Big Data: Big data is a term for data sets that are so large or complex that traditional data processing
application software is inadequate to deal with them. It refers to the use of predictive analytics, user
behaviour analytics, or certain other advanced data analytics methodsthat extract value from data.
18. Quantum Supremacy: It describes the point where quantum computers can do things thatclassical
computers cannot. Superposition and entanglement are what give quantum computers the ability to
process so much more information so much faster.
19. Intellectual Property Rights: IPR is the right given to persons over the creations of their minds:
inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names and images used in commerce. They
usually give the creator an exclusive right over the use of his/her creation fora certain period of time.
20. Cyber-Physical System (CPS): An interdisciplinary system that deals with the use of computer-based
systems that do things in the physical world.
Examples: Smart Grid, Robotic Systems, Medical Monitoring, Industrial Control Systems,etc.
21. Hypersonic Technology: Technology used in aircrafts, missiles, rockets and spacecrafts that aids
them to reach a very high speed (nearly 4000 miles per hour).
Example: Computational Fluid Dynamics, Using high temperature structures and materials.
22. Dark Web: The concealed portion of deep web that is often linked to criminal or illegal content.
Example: trading sites where users can purchase illicit or banned good and services.
23. Patent Pool: Two or more patent holders transfer their intellectual property into a joint venture known
as patent pool for the purpose of cross-licensing.
24. Biotechnology: Biotechnology is technology that utilizes biological systems, living organisms or
parts of this to develop or create different products.
25. Herd immunity: Resistance to the spread of an infectious disease within a population thatis based on
pre-existing immunity of a high proportion of individuals as a result of previous infection or
vaccination.
26. Rare Diseases: Rare diseases, also called “Orphan” diseases, are broadly defined as diseases that
infrequently occur in a population. The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines a rare disease as
having a frequency of less than 6.5-10 per 10,000 people.
27. Artificial intelligence: AI refers to the ability of machines to perform cognitive tasks likethinking,
perceiving, learning, problem solving and decision making. It includes technologies like machine
learning, pattern recognition, big data, neural networks, self-algorithms etc.
28. Blockchain technology: Blockchain technology is a decentralized, distributed ledger thatstores the
record of ownership of digital assets. Any data stored on blockchain is unable to bemodified, making
the technology a legitimate disruptor for industries like payments, cybersecurity and healthcare.

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3. Environment

1. Climate Change: ‘Climate change’ represents a change in the long-term weather patterns.The World
Economic Forum ranked climate change as the biggest risk to the economy and society.

2. Global Warming: Global Warming is a gradual heating of the earth’s surface, oceans andatmosphere.
The increase in temperature is often a result of the Greenhouse Effect caused byincreased levels of
gases like Carbon Dioxide, CFCs and other pollutants.

3. Cryosphere: Frozen waters (snow and ice cover over land and sea, glaciersand ice caps, permafrost
and seasonally frozen ground and solid water precipitation) are together termed ascryosphere.

4. Energy Security: The International Energy Agency defines energy security as the uninterrupted
availability of energy sources at an affordable price.

5. Environmental Migration: Environmental migrants are people who are forced to migrate their
home/region/country due to sudden environmental disasters like earthquakes, floods, droughts, etc.

6. Carbon price: It is a cost applied to carbon pollution to encourage polluters to reducethe amount
of greenhouse gases they emit into the atmosphere.

7. Carbon finance: Carbon financing is an innovative funding tool that places a financial value on
carbon emissions and allows companies wishing to offset their own emissions to buycarbon credits
earned from sustainable projects.

8. Climate Finance: Climate finance refers to local, national or transnational financing— drawn from
public, private and alternative sources of financing—that seeks to support mitigation and adaptation
actions that will address climate change.

9. Air pollution: It refers to contamination of air by harmful gases, dust and smoke which affects the
environment and ecosystem in negative way.

10. Marine Plastic pollution: It is the accumulation of plastic objects and particles in the Marine
environment that adversely affects aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem.

11. Water pollution: It is the contamination of water bodies by the pollutants that are harmfulto the health
of humans and other living beings.

12. Groundwater pollution: Groundwater Pollution occurs when man-made products suchas gasoline,
oil, road salts and chemicals get into the groundwater and cause it to become unsafe and unfit for
human use.

13. E-waste pollution: Electronic pollution is the form of pollution caused by the discarded electrical or
electronic devices.

14. Plastic pollution: Plastic pollution is the accumulation of plastic objects and particles in the Earth's
environment that adversely affects wildlife, wildlife habitat, and humans.

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15. Decarbonization: Decarbonisation is the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions through the use of
low carbon power sources, achieving a lower output of greenhouse gasses into theatmosphere.

16. Biodiversity Hotspots: Biodiversity hotspots are defined as regions “where exceptional
concentrations of endemic species are undergoing an exceptional loss of habitat”. These are regions
with high species richness and a high degree of endemism.

17. Invasive Species: Invasive species are species that are not local or native to a specific area but keep
spreading quickly in an aggressive manner in the new habitat they arrive in. They are harmful and can
cause huge economic and environmental harm to the new area.

18. Environment Impact Assessment (EIA): It is the assessment of the environmental and social
outcomes of a plan or program prior to the decision to start implementation and development of the
project. Its objective is to promote environmentally sound and sustainable development through
identification of appropriate alternatives and mitigation measures.

19. Sustainable development: Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the
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present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their ownneeds.

20. Desertification: Desertification is a form of land degradation by which fertile land becomes desert. It
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leads to the advancement of sand from the desert to the adjoining regions.
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21. Carbon Capture, Utilization and storage (CCUS): It is a process that captures carbon dioxide
emissions from sources like coal-fired power plants and either reuses or storesit so it will not enter the
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atmosphere.
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22. Virtual Water Trade: It is the hidden flow of water if food or other commodities are traded from one
place to another.
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23. Extended Producers Responsibility (EPR): Extended Producer Responsibility or EPR is the
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commitment made by a producer to facilitate a reverse collection mechanism andrecycling of end of

life, post-consumer waste. The objective is to circle it back into the system to recover resources
embedded in the waste.
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24. Carrying capacity: The carrying capacity of an environment is the maximum populationsize of a
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biological species that can be sustained by that specific environment, given the food,habitat, water, and
other resources available.
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25. Acid rain: Rain that is contaminated by Sulphur, nitric and other acids that are released into the
atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels.

26. Ozone depletion: A decline in the total amount of ozone in the Earth’s stratosphere, particularly the
development of a so-called ‘ozone hole’ over the Antarctic.

27. Global warming: Global warming is the long-term heating of Earth's atmosphere gradually due to
the accumulation of greenhouse gases that disturb the Earth's heat budget.

28. Green taxes: Taxes that penalize individuals or businesses for, for instance, the waste theygenerate,
the pollution they cause, the emissions they generate or the finite resources they consume.

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29. Ecological footprint: A measure of ecological capacity based on the hectares of biologically
productive land that are needed to supply a given person’s consumption of naturalresources and absorb
their waste.

30. Biocentric equality: The principle that all organisms and entities in the ecosphere are ofequal moral
worth, each being part of an interrelated whole.

31. Emissions trading: A mechanism that allows parties to the Kyoto Protocol to buy or sell emissions
from or to other parties, while keeping within overall emissions targets.

32. Mitigation: Moderating or reducing the impact of something; in particular, reducing greenhouse gas
emissions in order to limit climate change.

33. Adaptation: Changing in the light of new circumstances; in particular, learning to live withclimate
change.

34. Indoor air pollution: refers to the degradation in physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of
air in the indoor environment within a home, building, or an institution or commercial facility.

35. Fly ash: Fly ash is a fine grey powder consisting mostly of spherical, glassy particles that are produced
as a by-product in coal-fired power stations. It is a by-product from burning pulverizedcoal in electric
power generating plants.

36. Land Degradation Neutrality: A state whereby the amount and quality of land resources, necessary
to support ecosystem functions and services and enhance food security,remains stable or increases
within specified temporal and spatial scales and ecosystems.

37. Eco Sensitive Zones: ESZs are ecologically important areas notified under the Environment
Protection Act to be protected from industrial pollution and unregulated development.

38. Epidemic: It is the rapid spread of a disease within a community over a given area.

39. Pandemic: An epidemic disease that has spread over multiple countries and continents.

40. Contagious Disease: A disease that is transmitted from person to person either through physical
contact or through exchange of bodily secretions

41. Hazard: It is a threat (natural or human) that has the potential to cause loss of life, injury, property
damage, socio-economic disruption or environmental degradation.

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4. Security
1. Cyber security: Cyber security is the practice of defending computers, servers, mobile devices,
electronic systems, networks and data from malicious attacks. It is also known as information
technology security or electronic information security.

2. Money laundering: Money laundering is concealing or disguising the identity of illegally obtained
proceeds so that they appear to have originated from legitimate sources (INTERPOL).

3. Left Wing Extremism: Left Wing Extremism is the official name for the insurrection in Indian states.
It is also popularly called as Naxalism or Maoism. FormerPM Manmohan Singh described the problem
as the single biggest internal security challenge of the country.

4. Over Ground Workers: Over ground workers are people who help militants or terrorists with
logistical support, cash, shelter and other infrastructure with which armed groups and insurgency
movements such as can operate.

5. Organized Crime: Organized crime is a continuing criminal enterprise that rationally works to profit
from illicit activities that are often in great public demand.

6. Hybrid Warfare: Hybrid warfare is an emerging, but ill-defined notion in conflictstudies. It refers to
the use of unconventional methods as part of a multi-domain warfighting approach.

7. Bioterrorism: Biological weapons are microorganisms like virus, bacteria, fungi or other toxins that
are produced and released deliberately to cause disease and death in humans, animals or plants
(WHO).

8. Integrated Theatre command: It is a unified command under which all the resources of the Army,
Navy and Air Force are pooled, depending on the threat perception.

9. Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD): A condition in which a nuclear attack by either state would
only ensure its own destruction, as both possess an invulnerable second- strike capacity.

10. Ethnic cleansing: A euphemism that refers to the forcible expulsion of an ethnic group orgroups in the
cause of racial purity, often involving genocidal violence.

11. Peace dividend: The opportunity afforded by the end of superpower rivalry to reduce military
spending and increase economic and social expenditure, often described as turning ‘guns’ into
‘butter’.

12. Terrorism: Terrorism, in its broadest sense, refers to attempts to further political ends byusing
violence to create a climate of fear, apprehension and uncertainty.

13. National interest: Foreign policy goals, objectives or policy preferences that supposedlybenefit a
society as a whole (the foreign policy equivalent of the ‘public interest’)

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5. Polity

1. Delegated Legislation: The Delegated legislation refers to the executive government assuming vast
legislative powers through a wide legislation and framing rules which endow itwith wide powers.

2. Pressure Groups: Pressure groups are forms of organisations, which exert pressure on the political or
administrative system of a country to extract benefits out of it and to advance their own interests.

3. Domestic Violence: It is violence and abuse within the household often in a marital relationship. It
can also be non-physical and includes attempts to gain power over wife/husband.

4. Inner Line Permit: A document required for purposes of visit and staying in areas declared under the
Inner line permit owing to its unique demography or security situation

5. Cooperative Federalism: Cooperative federalism implies the centre and states share a horizontal
relationship, where they “cooperate” in larger public interest.
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6. Competitive Federalism: It refers to promoting healthy competition between the states to keep them
motivated in pursuit of economic development.
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7. Asymmetric Federation: In this federation, Centre and the States do not have matching powers in all
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matters, there are some differences in the way some States and other constituentunits of the Indian
Union relate to the Centre.
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8. Multinational federations: A multinational state is a sovereign state that comprises two or more
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nations or states.
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9. Doctrine Proportionality: Proportionality means that the administrative action should not be more
drastic than it ought to be for obtaining the desired result. In India, the doctrine ofproportionality was
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adopted by the Supreme Court in Om Kumar v. Union of India.

10. Constitutional Morality: Constitutional morality means adherence to the core principles of the constitutional
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democracy. It means an effective coordination between conflicting interests of different people and the
administrative cooperation to resolve the issues without any confrontation amongst the various groups.
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11. Doctrine of Essentiality: It the judicial doctrine where a practice or process within religion is justified
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to be essential and thus judicial pronouncement asking for its removal is tantamount to violation of
the religion itself

12. Judicial Overreach: It is the extreme form of judicial activism which involves frequent and
unnecessary judicial interventions in legislation as well and executive functions of the government

13. Consequential Seniority: If a reserved category candidate is promoted before a general category
candidate because of reservation in promotion, then for subsequent promotion the reserved candidate
retains seniority.

14. Financial Prudence: The careful and economic management of financial resources for effective and
productive use

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15. Political Morality: The use of moral and ethical judgements in making political decisionsand general
polity

16. Political Victimization: Treating political opponents poorly and unfairly and made to feelas if he/she
is in a bad position.

17. Principle of Natural Justice: They are those rules laid down by the Courts as being theminimum
protection of the rights of the individual against the arbitrary procedure.

18. Tribunals: A judicial or quasi-judicial institution which deals with more specialisedmattersand are
less formal than courts.

19. Public Service: It is a service provided by the government to people living within its jurisdiction,
either directly (through the public sector) or by financing provision of services.

20. Public Authority: It is any authority or body or institution of self-government established or

constituted by or under the Constitution; or by any other law.

21. Custodial Violence: It refers to violence in police custody and judicial custody. Besides death, rape
and torture are two other forms of custodial violence.

22. Capital Punishment: It is a legal penalty ordered by the Court against the person who hascommitted
a certain crime that is prohibited by the law. In India, it is only given in the rarest of the rare cases as
per the Indian Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure.

23. Uniform Civil Code: It provides for one law for the entire country, applicable to all religious
communities in their personal matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance etc.

24. Public Interest Litigation: Public Interest Litigation (PIL) means a legal tool to protect the interest
of the general public. It is the use of the law to promote human rights and equality,and to raise matters
of widespread public concern.

25. Judicial Activism: It is an approach to the exercise of judicial review, or a description of a particular
judicial decision, in which a judge is generally considered more willing to decide constitutional issues
and to invalidate legislative or executive actions.

26. Criminalization of Politics: It means there is increase in criminals entering the politics and contesting
elections and get elected to the Parliament and state legislature.

27. Self Help Groups: Self-help groups are informal groups of people who come together to address their
common problems, usually financial.

28. Governance: Governance is commonly defined as the exercise of power or authority by political
leaders for the well-being of their country’s citizens or subjects.

29. Good Governance: Good Governance is the process of providing services to the citizen by inducting
their participation, to meet their aspiration, to resolve their conflict and hold government accountable.

30. E-Governance: E-Governance is the delivery of service through ICT (WAN, Mobile Computing,
Internet) in an E3 (Equitable, Efficient and Effective) manner

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31. Citizen Charter: A citizen charter is basically a set of commitments made by an organisation
regarding the standards and service which it delivers. It’s objective is to inform citizens about the
standard of services which the government is going to provide and hold thegovernment accountable

32. Social democracy: A moderate or reformist brand of socialism that favours a balance between the
market and the state, rather than the abolition of capitalism.

33. Communitarianism: The belief that the self or person is constituted through the community, in the
sense that individuals are shaped by the communities to which they belongand thus owe them a debt
or respect and consideration

34. Rule of law : The principle that law should ‘rule’ in the sense that it establishes a frameworkwithin
which all conduct and behaviour takes place.

35. Procedure Established by Law: The “Procedure Established by Law” means that a lawis duly enacted
by the legislature or the concerned body is valid only if the correct procedure has been followed to the
letter.

36. Due process of Law: “Due Process of Law” is a doctrine that not only checks if there isa law to
deprive the life and personal liberty of a person but also ensures that the law is made fair and just.

37. Sovereignty: The principle of absolute and unlimited power; the absence of a higher authority in
either domestic or external affairs

38. Secularism: Secularism is an ideology, which implies that the public sphere should remainfree from
religious influence. Though it does not bar individual from its individual sphere.

39. Decentralization: The expansion of local autonomy through the transfer of powers and
responsibilities away from national bodies.

40. Devolution: The transfer of power from central government to subordinate regional or provincial
institutions that have no share in sovereignty; their responsibilities and powers beingderived entirely
from the centre.

41. Custodial violence: Custodial violence is the violence which takes place in the judicial and police
custody where an individual who has done a crime is tortured mentally as well as physically.

42. Social Audit: It is a process in which citizens assess and monitor government operations onthe ground,
then utilize the findings to demand accountability from the government via a publichearing system.

43. M-governance: M-Governance is the use of mobile or wireless to improve Governance service and
information "anytime, anywhere". It takes electronic services and makes them available via mobile
technologies using devices such as mobile phones.

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6. Social Issues
1. Health: According to World Health Organization (WHO), Health is a state of complete physical,
mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

2. Gender Budgeting: Gender budgeting is a strategy to achieve equality between women and men by
focusing on how public resources are collected and spent to address gender inequality.

3. Income Inequality: Income inequality is how unevenly income is distributed throughout a population.
The less equal the distribution, the higher income inequality is. Income inequalityis often accompanied
by wealth inequality, which is the uneven distribution if wealth.

4. Malnutrition: Malnutrition refers to deficiencies or excesses in nutrient intake, imbalanceof essential

nutrients or impaired nutrient utilization.

5. Learning Poverty: It is defined as the percentage of 10-year olds who cannot read and understand a
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simple story- World Bank.

6. Surrogacy: Surrogacy is an arrangement in which a woman carries and delivers a child foranother
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couple or person.

7. Altruistic surrogacy: It generally refers only to those arrangements in which the surrogatedoes not
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receive compensation for her services beyond reimbursement for medical costs and other reasonable
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expenses.

8. Digital Literacy: Digital literacy are the individual’s capabilities to be able to effectively and
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responsibly function and perform work in a digital society.

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9. Social capital: Social capital is a set of shared values or resources that allows individuals to work
together in a group to effectively achieve a common purpose.
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10. Social reflexivity: The tendency of individuals and other social actors to reflect, more or less
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continuously, on the conditions of their own actions, implying higher levels of self- awareness, self-
knowledge and contemplation.
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11. Informal economy: The informal economy is the diversified set of economic activities, enterprises,
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jobs, and workers that are not regulated or protected by the state.

12. Social Exclusion: Social Exclusion is the process through which individuals or groups areexcluded
from facilities, benefits and opportunities that the others(their “betters”) enjoy.

13. Bonded Labor: A practice in which employers give high-interest loans to workers whose entire
families then labor at low wages to pay off the debt

14. Child Labour: Work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and
that is harmful to physical and mental development

15. Family planning: It is a program to regulate number, timing, and spacing of children in family
through contraception or other birth control methods

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16. Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients: The API is the substance or substances that are biologically
active within the drug and is the specific component responsible for the desired effect it has on the
individual taking it.

17. ASHAs: They are community health workers and also activists instituted by government aspart of
National Rural Health Mission to look into basic health issues and to create awarenesson health

18. Anganwadi Workers: Anganwadi is a government sponsored child-care and mother- care center in India.

19. Digital Health: Digital health refers to the use of information technology/electroniccommunication
tools, services and processes to deliver health care services or to facilitate better health.

20. Vaccine Hesitancy: Refers to delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite availability of vaccine
services due to lack of confidence and complacency and convenience

21. Gender Discrimination: Gender discrimination means discrimination based on a person'sgender or

sex, which more often affects girls and women.

22. Hidden Hunger: Deficiencies in essential micronutrients (vitamins & minerals) in individuals or
populations which negatively impact on health, cognition, function, survival, and economic
development.

23. Gender Divide: The disparity between different genders in society in the fields of social, politics and
economics.

24. SDGS: They are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure all people
enjoy peace and prosperity.

25. Poverty: Social definition -Poverty is a state of deprivation where a person is not able to get two
complete square meals in a day.

Economic definition – Poverty is the state where a person is not able to earn $1.90 a day.

26. Absolute poverty: A standard of poverty that is based on an income level or access to resources,
especially food, clothing and shelter, which are insufficient to ‘keep body and soultogether’.

27. Relative poverty: A standard of poverty in which people are deprived of the living conditions and
amenities which are customary in the society to which they belong.

28. Poverty cycle: A set of circumstances that tend to make poverty self-perpetuating through its wider
impact on health, civic order, political and economic performance and so on.

29. Food Security: Food Security means access to food by every strata of society socially, physically,
and economically. Means it should be in a physical reach, affordable and without any discrimination.

30. Welfare state: A state that takes prime responsibility for the social welfare of its citizens, discharged
through a range of social security, health, education and other services

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7. Geography

1. Waves: Waves are a disturbance on the surface of the sea or ocean, in the upside down form.
2. Tides: The periodical rise and fall of the sea level mainly due to the attraction of the sun andthe moon
is called a tide
3. Currents: Ocean currents are like river flow in oceans which represents a regular volumeofwater in a
definite path and direction.
4. Volcano: A volcano is an opening in Earth's crust that allows molten rock from beneath thecrust to
reach the surface.
5. Volcanism: It is the phenomenon of eruption of molten rock (magma) onto the surface of the Earth.
6. Soil: The unconsolidated mineral or organic material on the surface of the Earth that serves as a natural
medium for the growth of land plants.
7. Tropical cyclones: Tropical cyclones are intense water-rotating systems formed by strong winds
around low-pressure areas.
8. Polar vortex: It is a large area of low pressure and cold air surrounding the Earth’s North and South Pole.
9. El Nino/La Nina: El Nino is the abnormal warming of sea surface temperature (SST) of the Pacific Ocean
off the coast of Peru in South America, while La Nina is the opposite, an abnormal cooling of SST.
10. Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD): It is a condition when the Sea Surface Temperature of thewestern region
of Indian Ocean alternately becomes abnormally colder and then abnormally hotter than the eastern
region.
11. Indo- Pacific: he Indo-Pacific is a geopolitical construct which represents an integrated theatre that
combines the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, and the land masses that surround them.
12. Permafrost: Permafrost is a ground that remains completely frozen at 0°C or below for at least two
years. It is composed of rock, soil and sediments held together by ice and are believedto have formed
during glacial periods dating several millennia.
13. Zero Budget Natural Farming: It is a natural farming technique in which farming is done without
use of chemicals and without using any credits or spending any money on purchased inputs.
14. Heat Budget of Earth: Heat Budget of the Earth is the balance between incoming solar insolation
and outgoing terrestrial radiation.
15. Cryosphere: The cryosphere is the part of the Earth's climate system that includes solid precipitation,
snow, sea ice, lake and river ice, icebergs, glaciers and ice caps, ice sheets, ice shelves, permafrost,
and seasonally frozen ground.
16. Ocean Currents: Ocean Current is a horizontal movements of seawater that is produced by gravity,
wind and water density.

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8. World History
1. Colonization: Colonialism is the establishment, exploitation, maintenance, acquisition andexpansion
of colonies in one territory by people from another country. It is a set of unequal relationships between
colonial power and colony.

2. Industrial revolution: It was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Europe andUnited States
in the period between 1760 to 1820 and 1840. This transition included going from hand production
methods to machines and iron production processes.

3. Neo-colonialism: It is the policy whereby industrialized country dominates the policies of

underdeveloped nation with purpose of economic profiteering in disregard to the economic and social
interests of under-developed country.

4. Communism: It is a political and economic doctrine that aims to replace private property and a profit-
based economy with public ownership and communal control on the means of production.
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5. Socialism: A system of social organization that advocates the ownership and control of the means of
production by the community as a whole.
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6. Imperialism: It is the practice of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial
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acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas.

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7. Glocalisation: It is intermixing of both globalization and localization tendencies in contemporary

social, political, and economic systems.
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8. Renaissance: From the French, literally meaning ‘rebirth’; a cultural movement inspired byrevived
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interest in classical Greece and Rome that saw major developments in learning and the arts.
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9. Enlightenment: An intellectual movement that challenged traditional beliefs in religion, politics and
learning in general in the name of reason and progress.
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10. De-Colonization: Decolonization is undoing of colonialism. In aftermath of second world war, the
imperial nations began transferring power to indigenous people in their respective colonies. This
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process is termed as Decolonization.

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9. Ethics
1. Ethics: Ethics is a set of standards that a society places on itself, which helps to guide
behavior, choices and actions. It allows an individual to differentiate between right and
wrong action and to choose the path of dharma in every condition.

2. Values: Values are basic and fundamental beliefs that guide or motivate attitudes or actions. They
help us to determine what is important to us. They help guide judgement and behavior ofa person or a
group and help one decide what is right and wrong.

3. Morality: Morality is set of standards that an individual considers to be right and which are shaped by his
own belief system. It deals with individuals’ values, preferences which they considered as right or wrong.

4. Integrity: It means the ability of an individual to remain consistent and committed to his/herpersonal
and professional values. It is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.

5. Responsibility: Moral obligation of an individual to behave with essence of commitment and duty. It
comes from within.

6. Accountability: It is a formal responsibility based on possession, power, hierarchy, laws, specially

applied in context of government and administration

7. Probity: Means being upright, active, disciplined, vision in adherence civil service values. It
encompasses integrity and honesty

8. Aptitude: Related to future potential of a person. It deals with ability, capability of a personwhich is
inborn, innate based on nature not nurture.

9. Attitude: Its about orientation, feeling, pre-disposition of a person towards all those objects
living/non-living which he/she faces and reacts. It is about reaction in favour or against objectswe face.

10. Impartiality: It is the principle of justice holding that decision should be based on objectivecriteria
rather than on the basis of bias or prejudice.

11. Non-partisanship: Non-partisanship means non-disposition towards any political party, i.e., to
exhibit political neutrality. It is the process of not being involved in any political partyeven if the
person has strong faith in any political thought.

12. Emotional Intelligence: Emotional Intelligence is the ability to sense, understand and effectively
apply the power and acumen of emotions as a source of human energy, information,connection and
influence.

13. Character: Character is quality of human values which is cultivated through its life experiences.
When values are practiced, they build character.

14. Behavior: Outer refection of human character and conduct may also be influenced by manyother
factors such as situation, consequence, uncertainty etc. Therefore, behavior may not always reflection
of true character and conduct.

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15. Cognition: Cognition means knowledge. Knowledge about objects helps in formation of attitude.

16. Socialization: Socialization is a process of learning human behavior from social institutions both
formally and informally.

17. Leadership: Act of influence i.e. when a person influences behavior of other person throughwhich
personality, views, values, its is an act of leadership.

18. Empathy: Empathy is the ability to place oneself in another position and understand their feelings
and experience their emotions.

19. Tolerance: It is having permissive attitude/considerate attitude towards others’ feeling, views, values,
culture, tradition etc. called tolerance

20. Objectivity: It is the quality of being truthful, unbiased, impartial and sticking to the facts beyond the
influence of one’s feelings and prejudices.

21. Social Influence: Social influence occurs when emotions, opinions or behavior of a personare affected
by others in the society.

22. Persuasion: Persuasion is a form of social influence. It refers to process of changing the attitudes and
beliefs of target group in the intended direction. The process involves use of different methods of a
verbal and non-verbal communication to convey information.

23. Conflict of interest: It involves a conflict between the public duty and private interests ofa public
official, in which the public official has private-capacity interests which could improperly influence
the performance of their official duties and responsibilities.

24. Ethical Dilemma: A situation before decision that a person faces and there may or may not be extreme
level of guilt feeling because dilemma may be moderate, general and extremelevel.

25. Moral realism: It follows philosophy that power alone can establish peace and harmony in the world

26. Moral idealism: Value should dominate rather money in relations

27. Transparency: When citizens have accessibility to decisions of government that how, for what and
why decision have been made and what is the outcome of decision, then it result intotransparency.

28. Responsibility: Responsibility is the quality of an individual to satisfactorily perform his/her own
duty as a part of particular group or organization.

29. Courage of Conviction: The state or quality of mind or spirit that enables one to face danger or fear
with self-possession, confidence and resolution.

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