Explnation:

Interstate River Water Disputes
River waters use/harnessing is included in states jurisdiction. However, article 262 of the Constitution provides for the adjudication of inter-state water disputes.
Under this, Parliament may by law provide for the adjudication of any dispute or complaint with respect to the use, distribution and control of waters of any inter-state river and river valley.
The President of India may also establish an interstate council as per Article 263 to inquire and recommend on the dispute that has arisen between the states
The Parliament has enacted the two laws, the River Boards Act (1956) and the Inter-State Water Disputes Act (1956).
Under this, Parliament may by law provide for the adjudication of any dispute or complaint with respect to the use, distribution and control of waters of any inter-state river and river valley.
The Inter-State Water Disputes Act empowers the Central government to set up an ad hoc tribunal for the adjudication of a dispute between two or more states in relation to the waters of an inter-state river or river valley.
The award of the tribunal is final and binding on the parties to the dispute.
Neither the Supreme Court nor any other court is to have jurisdiction in respect of any water dispute which may be referred to such a tribunal under this Act.

Explanation:

Genetically Modified (GM) seeds

Conventional plant breeding involves crossing species of the same genus to provide the offspring with the desired traits of both parents.
Genetic engineering aims to transcend the genus barrier by introducing an alien gene in the seeds to get the desired effects.
The alien gene could be from a plant, an animal or even a soil bacterium.
What is the legal position of GM crops in India?

In India, the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) is the apex body that allows for the commercial release of GM crops.
In 2002, the GEAC had allowed the commercial release of Bt cotton.
More than 95 per cent of the country’s cotton area has since then come under Bt cotton.
Use of the unapproved GM variant can attract a jail term of 5 years and a fine of Rs 1 lakh under the Environmental Protection Act,1989.

Daulat Beg Oldie
DBO is the northernmost corner of Indian Territory in Ladakh, in the area better known in Army parlance as Sub-Sector North.
DBO has the world’s highest airstrip, originally built during the 1962 war but abandoned until 2008 when the Indian Air Force (IAF) revived it as one of its many Advanced Landing Grounds (ALGs) along the LAC.
Between Shyok and Karakoram Pass lies Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO), a plateau at an altitude of over 16,000 feet and the location of an Advanced Landing Ground (ALG) used by the air force to drop supplies.

The DSDBO Road
DSDBO is an all-weather 255-km long road 255-km long built by India over nearly 20 years.
Running almost parallel to the LAC, the DSDBO road, meandering through elevations ranging between 13,000 ft and 16,000 ft, took India’s Border Roads Organisation (BRO) almost two decades to construct.
Its strategic importance is that it connects Leh to DBO, virtually at the base of the Karakoram Pass that separates China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region from Ladakh.
A trigger for PLA incursions
Of the possible triggers cited for the PLA targeting of Indian Territory along the LAC in eastern Ladakh, the construction of DSDBO all-weather road is possibly the most consequential.
The Chinese build-up along the Galwan River valley region overlooks and hence poses a direct threat to the DSDBO road.

Significance of DSDBO Road
The DSDBO highway provides the Indian military access to the section of the Tibet-Xinjaing highway that passes through Aksai Chin.
The road runs almost parallel to the LAC at Aksai Chin, the eastern ear of erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state that China occupied in the 1950s, leading to the 1962 war in which India came off worse.
The DSDBO’s emergence seemingly panicked China, evidenced by the 2013 intrusion by the PLA into the nearby Depsang Plains, lasting nearly three weeks.
DBO itself is less than 10 km west of the LAC at Aksai Chin. A military outpost was created in DBO in reaction to China’s occupation of Aksai Chin.
It is at present manned by a combination of the Army’s Ladakh Scouts and the paramilitary Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).

Other strategic considerations
To the west of DBO is the region where China abuts Pakistan in the Gilgit-Baltistan area, once a part of the erstwhile Kashmir principality.
This is also the critical region where China is currently constructing the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK), to which India has objected.
As well, this is the region where Pakistan ceded over 5,180 sq km of PoK to China in 1963 under a Sino-Pakistan Boundary Agreement, contested by India.

Explanation: Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (1605 – 1689) was a 17th-century French gem merchant and traveler. Tavernier, a private individual and merchant traveling at his own expense, covered, by his own account, 60,000 leagues (120,000 miles) in making six voyages to Persia and India between the years 1630 and 1668.

Tavernier was born in Paris of a French or Flemish Huguenot family that had emigrated to Antwerp, to escape persecution, and which subsequently returned to Paris after the publication of the Edict of Nantes, which promised protection for French Protestants. Both his father Gabriel and his uncle Melchior were cartographers.

In a book written by Ball, Valentine (tr. from the 1676 French Ed.) (1899). Travels in India by Jean Baptiste Tavernier, he clearly states that Tavernier identified the diamond mining sites in India very clearly.

Explanation:

Leaf modifications of Desert Plant to inhibit water loss for adaptations and survival of Desert Plant-

1. Wax coatings on leaves prevent water loss through evaporation, which in the hot desert can cause loss of water from both the surface and the inside of leaves. Leaves are also smaller on desert plants, further reducing the possibility for water loss.

2. Deciduous plants in desert ecosystems have adapted through the activity of their leaves. Leaves on these plants are typically smaller and coated with wax to prevent evaporation.

3. Plants such as aloes are equipped with fleshy leaves that contain much of their water supply. Because of their moist inner bodies, these plants are called succulents. They typically feel spongy and when cut open are filled with a pulpy flesh, protected by a waxy outer layer.

4. Many plants in the desert conserve water by not having any leaves at all. Cacti are the most prolific of this plant type. Many cacti have spines in place of leaves, which conduct photosynthesis and catch dew when the climate is right. These small structures also reflect light, further reducing water loss. During heavy rains, cacti will grow temporary root systems and absorb water. They will then shed the roots when the ground has dried.