BPSC Bihar Special • Current Affairs21 September 2026
Bihar Current Affairs: Large Language Models, Sarvam AI, BharatGen & Biosphere Reserves
Source: Information & Public Relations Department (IPRD Bihar) / Official Gazettes•Exam Target: BPSC 71st & 72nd CCE Prelims
BPSC 72nd Special Dossier — Track A, Day 12
1. Large Language Models (LLMs), BharatGen & Sovereign Generative AI
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BharatGen Initiative:
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Spearheaded under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS) by IIT Bombay with funding from the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
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Recognized as the world's first government-funded multimodal Large Language Model (LLM) initiative specifically engineered for Indian languages, dialects, and cultural context.
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Delivered as an open-source platform enabling developers, startups, and academic researchers to build inclusive, voice-enabled, multimodal AI applications.
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Sarvam AI & Indigenous Frontier Models:
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Foundational Roots: Founded in 2023 by Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar, headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka, dedicated to building sovereign AI infrastructure for India.
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Sarvam-30B & Sarvam-105B:
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Sarvam-30B: Frontier model optimized for ultra-low latency, real-time voice, and conversational understanding across Indian languages.
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Sarvam-105B: Flagship 105-billion parameter model architected for high-level multi-step mathematical reasoning, complex coding, and structured enterprise analytics.
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Bulbul V3: State-of-the-art multilingual Text-to-Speech (TTS) and expressive voice synthesis model natively supporting 11+ Indian languages with diverse regional accents and prosody.
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Sarvam Vision: Vision-language model tailored for optical character recognition (OCR) and document intelligence, drastically outperforming global benchmarks on noisy Indian government gazettes, land records, and multilingual forms.
2. Cybersecurity: Combating the 'Digital Arrest' Scourge
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Modus Operandi of 'Digital Arrest':
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Organized cyber syndicates impersonate high-ranking law enforcement officials (CBI, ED, Police, Narcotics Control Bureau, Customs) via encrypted video calls (Skype, WhatsApp).
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Fraudsters generate fake arrest warrants, create staged police station backdrops, and intimidate victims into staying confined in their homes ("digital arrest") while coercing them into liquidating bank accounts into fraudulent "safe custody" accounts.
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National Institutional Response:
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Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C): Under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), serves as the apex agency coordinating action against interstate and transnational cybercrime syndicates.
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Emergency Helpline & Portal: National Cyber Crime Helpline 1930 and central grievance portal cybercrime.gov.in for immediate financial freeze of stolen funds via the Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System (CFCFRMS).
3. Ecology & Conservation: Biosphere Reserves of India
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Zonational Architecture (UNESCO MAB Programme):
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Core Area: Legally strictly protected ecosystem; completely free from human habitation, resource exploitation, or tourism. Exclusively dedicated to non-destructive ecological monitoring and baseline research.
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Buffer Area: Surrounds the core area; permitted activities include eco-tourism, environmental education, traditional sustainable grazing/fishing, and scientific experimentation.
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Transition Area (Area of Cooperation): Outermost zone containing human settlements, sustainable agriculture, commercial enterprises, and managed forests managed collaboratively with local communities.
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National Statistics & Milestones:
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India has 18 officially notified Biosphere Reserves, of which 12 (and recently 13 with Cold Desert) are recognized under UNESCO's World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR).
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First Biosphere Reserve: Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (1986), spanning Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka.
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Largest Biosphere Reserve: Great Rann of Kutch (Gujarat, ~12,454 sq. km).
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Smallest Biosphere Reserve: Dibru-Saikhowa (Assam, ~765 sq. km).
4. Cultural Geography & Heritage Engineering
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Majuli River Island (Assam):
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World's largest inhabited river island situated on the Brahmaputra River; declared India's first island district in 2016.
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Epitome of Neo-Vaishnavite culture and monastic institutions (Satras) established in the 15th-16th century by the saint-reformer Srimanta Sankardev.
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Salkhan Fossil Park (Sonbhadra, UP):
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Located in the Vindhyan supergroup of Sonbhadra district, containing 1.4-billion-year-old fossilized stromatolites (algal structures); inscribed on UNESCO's Tentative World Heritage List.
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New Pamban Sea Bridge (Tamil Nadu):
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India's first vertical lift sea railway bridge spanning the Palk Strait, connecting mainland Mandapam to Rameswaram Island, replacing the historic 1914 Scherzer rolling bridge.
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