Manipur’s heimang is a versatile ingredient in Asian cuisines and packs a nutritional punch

• The Heimang tree grows widely in Manipur and other north-eastern regions
• Its fruit have a citrus-like tartness and, it is packed with nutrients such as polyphenols, flavonoids, and antioxidants.
• Traditional healers of Manipur called Maibas or maibis, prescribe heimang for common gastrointestinal problems like diarrhoea and dysentery.
• It is also recommended to eat water-soaked fruit for indigestion and stomach ulcer.
• The research found that compounds isolated from the stem of the heimang tree can significantly suppress HIV-1 activity in vitro.
• Local communities in the state also use heimang leaves to prepare a herbal shampoo called chinghi by boiling them with rice water.

PM CARES Fund is a public charitable trust, not controlled by government of India: Centre to Delhi HC

• The Prime Ministers Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund) was created on 28 March 2020, following the COVID-19 pandemic in India.
• It was created for combating, and containment and relief efforts against the coronavirus outbreak and similar pandemic like situations in the future.
• It has been registered as a Public Charitable Trust.
• Objectives:
• To provide assistance and relief to all the affected persons in the event of any calamity, disaster, public health emergency or any other emergency of any kind that may be either natural or man-made.
• Creation as well as upgradation of any pharmaceutical facilities, funding a research, creation or upgradation of any necessary infrastructure, healthcare support or any other kind of support.
• Composition of the Trust:
• Prime Minister is the ex-officio Chairman of the PM CARES Fund.
• Minister of Defence, Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Finance, Government of India are ex-officio Trustees of the Fund.
• The Trust Deed of the Fund gives the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, i.e. the Prime Minister, the power to nominate three Trustees to the Board of Trustees.
• Contributions:
  • The fund consists entirely of voluntary contributions from individuals/organizations and does not get any budgetary support.
  • The contributions to the Fund can be from any individuals or any organizations including companies, other charitable institutions, associations, etc.
• Donations to PM CARES Fund would qualify for 80G benefits for 100% exemption under the Income Tax Act,
• Donations to PM CARES Fund will also qualify to be counted as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) expenditure under the Companies Act, 2013.
• It has also got exemption under the FCRA. This enables PM CARES Fund to accept donations and contributions from individuals and organizations based in foreign countries.

Newly-discovered ancient ‘marine crocodile’ fossil could be the oldest of its kind ever found

• The fossils uncovered on the Jurassic Coast in the United Kingdom include part of the head, backbone, and limbs of Turnersuchus hingleyae.
• Its age dates back to the early Jurassic, Pliensbachian period, which was about 185 million years ago.
• Due to their relatively long, slender snouts, they would likely have looked similar to the currently living Gharial crocodiles.

Pliensbachian period

• It occurred between 190.8 million and 182.7 million years ago during the Early Jurassic Period.
• The stage’s name is derived from the village of Pliensbach, Germany.

Red-headed vulture seen at Delhi''s Bhatti mines, first since 2017

• This is one of the 9 species of Vulture which are found in India
• It is also called the Asian King vulture or Pondicherry Vulture was extensively found in India but its numbers drastically reduced after diclofenac poisoning.
• Conservation status
  • IUCN Red List: Critically Endangered
  • Wildlife Protection Act, 1972: Schedule 1

Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary

• It is located on the Southern Delhi Ridge of the Aravalli hill range on the Delhi-Haryana border and in Southern Delhi as well as northern parts of the Faridabad and Gurugram districts of Haryana.
• It is at the end of an important wildlife corridor that starts from Sariska National Park in Alwar, Rajasthan.
• Flora: Wide variety of trees, shrubs, herbs and grasses.
• Fauna: A large number of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, butterflies and dragonflies

Yaya Tso to become Ladakh''s first biodiversity heritage site

• The Biodiversity Management Committee, the panchayat of Chumathang village, along with the SECURE Himalaya Project recently resolved the issue and declared Yaya Tso Lake a biodiversity heritage site.

Yaya Tso Lake

• Lake Yaya Tso is known as a bird''s paradise for its beautiful lake located at an altitude of 4,820 metres in Ladakh.
• It is a nesting habitat for a large number of birds and animals, such as the bar-headed goose, black-necked crane and brahminy duck
• It is also one of the highest breeding sites of the black-necked crane in India.

Secure Himalaya project

• It is funded by the Global Environment Facility.
• It supports the government’s efforts for the conservation of snow leopard and its habitat by developing and implementing a landscape-based approach for Himalayan ecosystems, and addresses key issues of habitat degradation, threatened livelihoods and illegal trade in wildlife.
• It was launched in 2017.

Project Landscapes:

• Changthang, Ladakh Landscape, Jammu & Kashmir
• Lahaul-Pangi and Kinnaur Landscapes,
• Gangotri-Govind and Darma-Byans Landscapes,
• Khangchendzonga-upper Teesta Valley.

Nirmala Sitharaman tables Economic Survey 2022-23 in Lok Sabha

• It is the flagship annual document of the finance ministry that contains a detailed analysis of the economic development of the country.
• It reviews the economic development in India over the past financial year by giving detailed statistical data of all the sectorsindustrial, agricultural, manufacturing among others.
• It analyses the whole macroeconomics of the country in the past year and provides an outline for the next financial year.
• The Survey has two parts--one, one consists of the economic challenges that the country is facing and the second is the review of the year gone by.
• When was the first Economic Survey of India presented?
  • The first Economic Survey in India was presented in the year 1950-51.
  • Up to 1964, it was presented along with the Union Budget. From 1964 onwards, it has been delinked from the Budget.
• When and who present it? It is presented normally a day before the presentation of the Union Budget in the Parliament by the Finance Minister.
• Who prepares it? It is prepared by the Economics Division of the Department of Economic Affairs in the Finance Ministry under the overall guidance of the Chief Economic Adviser and is released after it is approved by the finance minister.

Current GST buoyancy seen better than pre-GST levels

• Tax buoyancy explains the relationship between the changes in government’s tax revenue growth and the changes in GDP.
• It refers to the responsiveness of tax revenue growth to changes in GDP.
• When a tax is buoyant, its revenue increases without increasing the tax rate.
• It depends upon:
• the size of the tax base;
• the friendliness of the tax administration;
• the rationality and simplicity of tax rates;

Tax Elasticity

• It refers to changes in tax revenue in response to changes in tax rate.
• For example, how tax revenue changes if the government reduces corporate income tax from 30 per cent to 25 per cent indicate tax elasticity.

Elasticity vs buoyancy:

• Tax elasticity considers the automatic response of revenues to the change in income given that tax structure is unchanged.
• On the other hand, tax buoyancy reflects both the impacts of income and discretionary changes on revenue earnings.

Laffer Curve

• It is an economic theory pioneered by economist Arthur Laffer suggesting that tax rates above a certain threshold reduce tax revenue since they incentivize people not to work. As such, it suggests that lowering tax rates motivates people to earn more money, resulting in greater tax revenue.

NASA’s Perseverance rover completes ‘sample depot’ on Mars: Here’s how they will reach Earth

• The tube will be part of a depot that will be considered for the return to Earth as part of the Mars Sample Return Campaign.

Perseverance rover:

• It is robotic explorer to land on Mars as part of NASA’s ongoing Mars 2020 Mission.
• Main Job:Seek signs of ancient life and collect samples of rock and regolith (broken rock and soil) for possible return to Earth.
• The rover will collect samples of rock and soil, encase them in tubes, and leave them on the planet''s surface to be returned to Earth at a future date.
• Launch: It was launched on July 30, 2020 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
• Landing: Successfully landed on the surface of Mar''s Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021.
• Feautures:
• It is about 3 metres long, 2.7 metres wide, and 2.2 metres tall.
• It is about the size of a car, but weighs only about 1,025 kilograms with all instruments on board.
• **Power source:**Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG). Converts heat from the radioactive decay of plutonium into electricity.

Ingenuity  Helicopter:

• It is a small, autonomous aircraft.
• Main Job: Technology demonstration to test the first powered flight on Mars.
• The helicopter rode to Mars attached to the belly of the Perseverance rover.
• It became the first aircraft in history to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet.

Adani Group Acquires Strategic Haifa Port In Israel For $1.2 Billion

• Location: It is located in northern Israel, adjacent to the city of Haifa along the Mediterranean sea.
• It is also located on the busy Suez Canal shipping route.
• The Haifa port is one of the two biggest commercial ports in Israel.
• It handles nearly half of the country''s container cargo and is also the nation''s principal port for passenger traffic and cruise ships.
• It has a natural deep-water harbor, which operates all year long.
• The facility features two container terminals and two multi-cargo terminals.
• The Port of Haifa was constructed in 1933 by the British. Since 1948, it has been rebuilt and developed by the Israeli government.

The National Gallery of Modern Art in association with Liszt Institute, Hungarian Cultural Centre, celebrates the 110th birth anniversary of Amrita Sher-Gil.

• Amrita was an Indian-Hungarian painter and one of the avant-garde women artists.
• Though her art education was from Paris, she has discovered the artistic traditions of India.
• She travelled widely in India during 1939 which brought a robust impact on the style of expression, figuration and composition in her artwork.
• Her famous works are
  • A group of three girls.
  • Brahmacharis, Bride’s toilet.
  • Lady Daljit Singh of Kapurthala, Musicians, women on Charpoy, Camels and Village girls.