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History

125th Anniversary of Sri Ramakrishna Math

The Prime Minister has participated in the 125th Anniversary celebrations of Sri Ramakrishna Math at Vivekananda House in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

About:

• The Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission are twin organizations which form the core of a worldwide spiritual movement known as the Ramakrishna Movement or the Vedanta Movement. 
• Headquartered at Belur Math on the bank of river Ganga in West Bengal.
• The movement aims at the harmony of religions, of the East and the West and of the ancient and the modern, as also at the all-round development of human faculties, social equality, peace, and above all, spiritual fulfilment for all of humanity without any distinctions of creed, caste, race or nationality.
• Ramakrishna Math is an Order of sannyasins having Sri Ramakrishna (1836-1886), regarded as the prophet of the modern age, as the ideal.
• Ramakrishna Mission is a registered society engaged in the service of mankind in the spirit of ‘service of God in man’.
• It was founded by Sri Ramakrishna’s chief disciple, Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), who is regarded as one of the main moulders of the modern world.
• Ramakrishna Math was registered as a Trust in 1901 by Swami Vivekananda himself.

Economy

Consumer inflation

India’s retail inflation slid below the 6% mark for the first time in 2023, to touch 5.66% in March 2023.

• The drop was aided by base effects, as the same month had recorded an almost 7% price rise last year.

About Inflation:

• It is the rate at which the general level of prices for goods and services is rising and, consequently, the purchasing power of currency is falling.
• The most commonly used inflation indexes are the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the Wholesale Price Index (WPI).
• India’s retail inflation is measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

About Consumer Price Index (CPI):

• It is an index measuring retail inflation in the economy by collecting the change in prices of most common goods and services used by consumers.
• The CPI is used to calculate the inflation levels in an economy.
• In India, there are four consumer price index numbers, which are calculated, and these are as follows:
  • CPI for Industrial Workers (IW)
  • CPI for Agricultural Labourers (AL)
  • CPI for Rural Labourers (RL) and
  • CPI for Urban Non-Manual Employees (UNME).
• While the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation collects CPI (UNME) data and compiles it, the remaining three are collected by the Labour Bureau in the Ministry of Labour.
• The base year for CPI is 2012.

Science and Technology

Who was Dr. Zafrullah Chowdhury

Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury passed away on April 11, 2023 at the Gonoshasthaya Nagar Hospital in Dhaka.

About Zafrullah Chowdhury:

• He was a Bangladeshi public health activist.
• He was the founder of Gonoshasthaya Kendra (meaning the People's Health Center in Bengali), a rural healthcare organisation.
• He was known more for his work in formulating the Bangladesh National Drug Policy in 1982.
• His work in population control earned him the inaugural Independence Day Award in 1977.
• Among other awards, he was given Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1985 and the Right Livelihood Award in 1992 for his work in the public health sector.

Science and Technology

Cope India23

The Air Forces of India and the U.S. are set to conduct the Cope India exercise from April 10 to 21, 2023.

About COPE INDIA 2023:

• It is bilateral Air Exercise between the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the United States Air Force (USAF).
• It is being held at Air Force Stations Arjan Singh (Panagarh), Kalaikunda and Agra.
• The exercise aims to enhance mutual understanding between the two Air Forces and share their best practices.

Science and Technology

Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice)

The European Space Agency (ESA) is going to launch the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, or Juice, mission from its spaceport in French Guiana.

About:

• The Juice “will make detailed observations of the Jupiter and its three large ocean-bearing moons — Ganymede, Callisto and Europa”.
• It uses technologies like remote sensing, geophysical and other in situ instruments.
• Three moons of Jupiter possess icy crusts, which scientists believe contain oceans of liquid water underneath, making them potentially habitable.
• Juice will help probe these water bodies by creating detailed maps of the moons’ surfaces and enable the scientists, for the first time, to look beneath them.
• Although the mission will examine all three moons, the main focus will be on Ganymede, as it is the largest moon in the Solar System.
• Ganymede is larger than Pluto and Mercury. It is the only one to generate its own magnetic field.
•  Juice, which will move into Ganymede’s orbit after approximately four of arriving at Jupiter, will “use its suite of ten sophisticated instruments to understand Ganymede.
• Juice will also analyse the chemistry, structure, dynamics, weather, and climate of Jupiter and its ever-changing atmosphere.

Miscellaous

Bathinda military station

Four Army personnel of an artillery unit were killed in a firing incident at the Bathinda military station in Punjab, with the state police terming it a case of "fratricide”.

About Bathinda Military station:

• It is one of the largest military stations in the country.
• It is spread over more than 50 acres and straddling the national highway which connects Bathinda to the rest of the country.
• The military station is a vital operational as well as logistics base for the Army units responsible for the defence of southern Punjab and adjoining Rajasthan.
• The military station has a number of units from infantry, armoured, artillery, army aviation, engineers, signals and other divisions located across its vast area.
• An Army Sub Area, a logistical Headquarters, is located here.
• A vital ammunition dump is also part of the Bathinda military station, whose location was originally picked as it was far from the city.