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History

Ramanujacharya Jayanti

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.

History

Adi Shankaracharya Jayanti

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

Art & Culture

Kamakhya Temple corridor

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.

International Relations

Exercise INIOCHOS-23

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

International Relations

Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM)

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.

Polity & Governance

Malaria to become a notifiable disease

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.

Polity & Governance
India's First Metro

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.

Polity & Governance

Hakki Pikki in Sudan Conflict

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. 

Polity & Governance

Sangathan Se Samriddhi campaign

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.

Environment

West Bengal adds four new biodiversity heritage sites

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.

Science & Technology

Government launches SUPREME

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.

Science & Technology

UAE’s Hope probe uncovers secrets of Deimos

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.