History
Ramanujacharya Jayanti
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi remembered Ramanujacharya (1017-1037) on his birth anniversary.
- Born in 1017, Ramanujacharya also known as Ilaiya Perumal was born to Kanthimathi and Asuri Kesava Somayaji in Sriperumbadur, Chennai.
- He is known for his influential thinking towards devotional Hinduism.
- The great poet-saint Ramanuja was an eminent teacher and the founder of Vishishtadwaita.
- He is an expert in Vedic scriptures.
- A community of Vaishnavites has been following his path called
- Sri Ramanujacharya was also known for his social reforms.
- He had a vision towards Lord Vishnu and his consort Shri and instituted a daily worship ritual for them. He later moved to Kanchipuram.
- Shri Ramanujacharya wrote nine scriptures called Navaratnas and composed numerous commentaries on Vedic scriptures.
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History
Adi Shankaracharya Jayanti
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Adi Shankaracharya Jayanti has been recently observed on April 25.
- Also known as Adi Shankara, he is one of the most important figures in Hindu philosophy who played a major role in the revival of Hinduism.
- He attained the knowledge of all the Vedas at the age of 8.
- Later on, he travelled across the country and established four peeths in four directions;
- Jagannath Puri temple in the East
- Shringeri Peeth in Rameshwaram in the South
- Sharda Math in the West
- Jyotirmath or the Badrinath Dham in the North
- A perfect example of his teachings is “Brahma Satyam Jagan Mithya Jivo Brahmaiva Na Aparah” This translates to Brahman (the Absolute) is alone real; this world is unreal; and the Jiva or the individual soul is non-different from Brahman.”
- He preached his Advaita philosophy. He preached that the supreme Brahman is Nirguna (without any Guna), Nirakara (formless), Nirvisesha (without any attribute), and Akarta (without any agent).
- Upadesa Sahasri: A Thousand Teachings, written by Adi Shankaracharya is a book of his teachings
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Art & Culture
Kamakhya Temple corridor
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Assam is planning to construct a corridor at the Kamakhya Temple in Guwahati on the lines of the Kashi-Vishwanath Temple Corridor in Varanasi.
- Located on Nilachal Hill in Guwahati, Kamakhya Temple is considered most sacred and oldest of the 51 Shakti Peethas on earth.
- It is the centrepiece of widely practiced, powerful Tantrik Shaktism cult in India.
- The presiding deity in the temple is Goddess Kamakhya and her other forms as the Tripura Sundari, Kamala and Matangi.
- The mighty Brahmaputra river flows through the northern banks of the temple.
- The Kamakhya temple dates back to the first millennium during the time of Kamarupa. The Allahabad rock inscriptions of Samudragupta mention the existence of the temple.
- Ambubachi Mela: The annual festival of Ambubachi Mela celebrates the menstruation of the Goddess. The three-day mela is when the temple is closed off, as a period of rest for the Goddess.
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International Relations
Exercise INIOCHOS-23
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Exercise INIOCHOS-23 is a multi-national air exercise hosted by the Hellenic Air Force (Greece).
About 2023 Exercise
- The exercise will be conducted at the Andravida Air Base in Greece from April 24, 2023, until May 4, 2023.
- The aim of the exercise is to enhance international cooperation, synergy and interoperability among the participating Air Forces.
India’s participation
- The Indian Air Force will participate with four Su-30 MKI and two C-17 aircraft.
- The Sukhoi Su-30MKI is a twinjet multirole air superiority fighter developed by Russia's Sukhoi and built under license by India's Hindustan Aeronautics.
- C-17 Globemaster III is a strategic transport aircraft, able to airlift cargo close to a battle area.
- Other nations are also expected to take part. It will include
- Cyprus with an AW139 Helicopter
- France with Rafales
- Italy with Tornados
- Jordan with F-16s
- Saudi Arabia with F-15s
- Slovenia with PC-9s
- Spain with EF-18s
- The USA with F-16s and MQ-9s
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International Relations
Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM)
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External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar co-chaired the 4th India-CARICOM Ministerial Meeting with his Jamaican counterpart Kamina J Smith at the CARICOM Secretariat in Guyana.
- The Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) is a regional group of nations that encourage common policy and economic goals.
- The CARICOM was formed in 1973 and consists of 20 nations, including 15 full-time members and five associate members.
- The CARICOM was formed after the founders had enacted the Treaty of Chaguaramas.
- It was established to replace the Caribbean Free Trade Area, which had failed in its mission to develop policies in the region pertaining to labor and capital.
- The treaty was revised in 2002 to allow for the eventual establishment of a single market and a single economy.
The single market and economy is known as the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME), which is meant to integrate all of the member states of CARICOM.
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Polity & Governance
Malaria to become a notifiable disease
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Malaria is all set to become a notifiable disease across India, with Bihar, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Meghalaya too in the process of putting this vector-borne disease in the category.
- Currently malaria is a notifiable disease in 33 States and Union Territories in India.
- Malaria is a potentially life-threatening disease caused by parasites (plasmodium vivax, plasmodium falciparum, plasmodium malariae and plasmodium ovale) that are transmitted through the bite of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes.
- This is part of India's vision to be malaria-free by 2027 and to eliminate the disease by 2030.
“India was the only high-burden, high-impact country in the South- East Asia region to report a decline in malaria cases in 2020 as compared to 2019. India witnessed 85.1% decline in malaria cases and 83.36% decline in deaths during 2015-2022.”
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Polity & Governance India's First Metro
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India's first water metro has been unveiled in Kochi, Kerala.
- It connects 10 islands around Kochi through battery-operated electric hybrid boats for seamless connectivity with the city.
- The train will cover 11 districts namely Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Palakkad, Pathanamthitta, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Kannur and Kasargod.
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Polity & Governance
Hakki Pikki in Sudan Conflict
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More than 181 members of the Hakki Pikki tribal community from Karnataka are stuck in violence-hit Sudan.
Who are the Hakki Pikki?
- The Hakki Pikki is a tribe that lives in several states in west and south India, especially near forest areas.
- Hakki Pikkis (Hakki in Kannada means ‘bird’ and Pikki means ‘catchers’) are a semi-nomadic tribe, traditionally of bird catchers and hunters.
- In different regions, they are known by different names, such as Mel-Shikari in northern Karnataka and Maharashtra.
- They are divided into four clans, called Gujaratia, Panwar, Kaliwala and Mewaras.
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Polity & Governance
Sangathan Se Samriddhi campaign
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The government launched the ‘Sangathan Se Samriddhi’ campaign.
About
- The campaigns aim to empower marginalized rural households by bringing all eligible rural women into the fold of Self Help Groups (SHGs).
- What are SHGs?
- Self-help groups are informal groups of people who come together to address their common problems.
- India has around 12 million SHGs, 88 per cent of which have only women members, according to the Economic Survey 2022-23.
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Environment
West Bengal adds four new biodiversity heritage sites
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Bengal has added four new biodiversity heritage sites (BHS) in West Bengal, taking the total tally to eight.
The new sites
- Char Balidanga comprises two islands on the Hooghly with tropical riverine vegetation of tall grasses and swampy flat lands that are periodically inundated with tidal ebbs.
- State Horticulture Research and Development Station campus in Deypara, in Nadia
- Namthing Pokhari is a Himalayan natural wetland
- The Amkhoi Fossil Park has unique geological and paleo-botanical features. It is the first wood fossil park in West Bengal.
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Science & Technology
Government launches SUPREME
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The government launched an initiative to provide financial support for the upgradation and maintenance of analytical instrumentation facilities (AIFs) created under the ministry’s support.
About
- The Support for Up-gradation Preventive Repair and Maintenance of Equipment (SUPREME), a first-of-its-kind programme by the government, extends financial support for repair, upgradation, maintenance, retrofitting, or acquiring additional attachments to increase functional capabilities of existing analytical instrumentation facilities.
- Such facilities at institutions recognised by the University Grants Commission (UGC) are eligible to apply for grants under SUPREME.
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Science & Technology
UAE’s Hope probe uncovers secrets of Deimos
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The UAE’s Hope probe has revealed striking details of Mars’s tiny moon Deimos, helping to indicate that the celestial body may not actually be a captured asteroid as previously thought.
Key-highlights of the finding
- The spacecraft flew as close as 100km to the moon’s surface, capturing data of its composition that challenges a long-standing theory that Mars’ moons are captured asteroids — space rocks trapped in a planet’s orbit.
- Findings point to a planetary origin, meaning that the rock may have come from Mars itself.
What is Hope?
- The Hope Mars Mission, also called the Emirates Mars Mission, is the first uncrewed, interplanetary satellitespearheaded by the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
- In fact, the Hope satellite is the first planetary science mission led by an Arab-Islamic country.
- The Hope spacecraft was launched to space in July 2020 and entered the orbit of Mars in February 2021.
- Since then, it has been sending back crucial data on the planet's upper atmospheric conditions and space weather.
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