Wagner Group Chief Is Criticizing Russian Forces Using Soledar: ISW

• What is it? The Wagner Group also known as PMC Wagner is a Russian paramilitary organization.
• Origin: The group is believed to have been founded in 2014 by a Russian veteran of the Chechen war who so admired Hitler he named the group after Richard Wagner, the führer''s favorite composer.
• The skull is the symbol of the Wagner Group.
• The organization first came to the world''s attention in 2014, fighting alongside Russian-backed separatists in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
• The organization has also been active across Africa in recent years — Libya, Sudan, Mozambique, Mali and the Central African Republic.
• Today there are thought to be some 10,000 Wagner Group members.
• The U.S. government has called Wagner a "proxy force" of Russia''s defense ministry.

‘führer’

• Führer, also spelled Fuehrer means leader.
• It is a title used by Adolf Hitler to define his role of absolute authority.
• As early as July 1921 he had declared the Führerprinzip (“leader principle”) to be the law of the Nazi Party.

Centre earmarks ₹2,000 crore to encourage States to scrap old vehicles

• Under this Scheme, financial assistance is provided to the States Governments in the form of a 50-year interest free loan for capital investment projects.
• To avail the benefit for investments made this fiscal, states will have to submit details like name of the project, capital outlay, completion period and its economic justification to the expenditure department of the Union finance ministry.
• The loan provided under the scheme will be over and above the normal borrowing ceiling allowed to the States.
• Scheme allocation will be used for PM Gati Shakti related and other productive capital investmentof the States.
• Besides, allocation would be made for digitisation of the economy, including digital payments and completion of optical fiber cable network, and reforms related to building bye-laws, town planning schemes, transit-oriented development, and transferable development rights.
• The scheme also includes Rs 5,000 crore interest-free loans which would be provided to incentivise states to undertake privatization or disinvestment of state public sector enterprises and asset monetisation.
• Such incentives to a particular state would be limited to Rs 1,000 crore.

Forest dept, NABARD to give skill-development training to Tharu people

• Forest officials of the Katarniaghat division say a plan is in the works for the financial inclusion of the Tharu groups that live near the Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary (KWS) and are much affected by human-wildlife conflicts.

Tharu people

• They are an ethnic group indigenous to the Terai region of the Himalayan foothills, located in southern Nepal and in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India.
• Tharu in Nepal officially numbered about 1.5 million and those in India about 170,000.
• They speak various dialects of Tharu, a language of the Indo-Aryan subgroup of the Indo-Iranian group of the Indo-European family, and they are largely Indian in culture.
• Most Tharu practice agriculture, raise cattle, hunt, fish, and collect forest products.
• Although they are Hindu, the Tharu use their own traditional ritual specialists in addition to the Hindu Brahman priests.
• Each Tahru village is governed by a council and a headman.

Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary (KWS):

• Location: It is situated in the Upper Gangetic plain falling in the Terai of Bahraich district of Uttar Pradesh.
• It is part of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve Lakhimpur kheri.
• The Katarniya Ghat Forest provides strategic connectivity between tiger habitats of India and Nepal.
• Flora: The sanctuary has a mosaic of Sal and Teak forests, lush grasslands, numerous swamps and wetlands.
• Fauna: It is home to a number of endangered species including gharial, tiger, rhino, Gangetic dolphin, Swamp deer, Hispid hare, Bengal florican, the White-backed and Long-billed vultures.

Text of opening remarks of Union Minister of Education

• The UGC Chairman recently revealed the framework of India’s first-ever National Digital University(NDU) as envisioned under the National Education Policy, 2020.

National Digital University(NDU):

• What is it? The Central Government in its Budget 2022-23 announced the establishment of a digital university that provides access to students for world-class quality universal education with personalized learning experiences at their doorsteps.
• Structure of NDU:
  • The institution will function under a hub-and-spoke model, which is where one product is delivered to various stakeholders from a central location.
  • The digital content for various courses will be hosted on the Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM) platform.
  • The IT and administrative services will be provided through the government''s Samarth portal.
• Facilities offered:
  • The university will offer exclusively online courses from its partner institutes, which could be both private and public universities, so far as they follow the NDU’s model.
  • The students can opt for certificate, diploma, or degree courses.
  • NDU will allow students to pursue multiple courses at a time from the various partner institutes of NDU.
  • Students will be able to register for programmes of individual universities through this Digital University.
  • NDU aims to give students the liberty to design their own courses.
• How are academic credits granted?
  • Students will have the option of earning credits from multiple institutions and will have multiple exit points throughout the course.
  • Courses will hold a certain number of credits, and students will be eligible for a degree from a particular institute when they have accumulated 50% of the credits of a programme from the institute concerned.
  • In case the student earns credits from multiple institutions and crosses the credit threshold, the degree awarded will be by NDU.

Army Day Today, Parade Outside Delhi For The First Time Since 1949

• The 75th Army Day will be a first-of-its-kind event, taking place outside Delhi ever since the celebrations started in 1949.

Army Day:

• India celebrates Army Day on January 15 every year to commemorate the achievements of the first Indian Commander in Chief of the Indian Army — General (later Field Marshal) K.M. Cariappa.
• The Army Day is celebrated every year to honor Cariappa and the defence forces.
• Until last year, the main Army Day parade was held at the Cariappa Parade ground in Delhi where Service Chiefs paid homage to the Indian Army.
• The Army Day Parade showcases the evolution of various weapon systems held in the Indian Army’s inventory.
• Soldiers are also awarded with Gallantry awards and Sena medals on the day.

Army Day 2023:

• This year marks the 75th anniversary of Indian Army Day.
• As part of an initiative to take major events to other parts of the country, away from the national capital region, the 75th Army Day was held in Bengaluru this year.

Field Marshal KM Cariappa

• He was the First Indian Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army and led the Indian forces on the Western Front during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1947.
• He is one of the two Indian Army officers to hold the highest rank of Field Marshal (the other being Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw).
• He was appointed as the first Commander-in-Chief of an independent Indian Army on 15 January 1949 which is celebrated as Indian Army Day.
• He took over the command of the Indian Army from General Sir FRR Bucher, the last British Commander-in-Chief.
• In 1947, Cariappa was the first Indian who was selected to undergo a training course at Imperial Defence College, Camberley, UK on the higher directions of war.
• He was awarded the ‘Order of the Chief Commander of the Legion of Merit’ by American President, Harry S. Truman.
• The Government of India conferred the rank of Field Marshal on Cariappa in 1983.

Bubble of secrets: Here’s what the new 3D map of a gigantic cosmic cavity tells us about the universe

• The Local Bubble is a 1,000-light-year-wide cavity or a super bubble. Which exist in the Milky Way.
• It is thought to have originated from supernovae roughly 14 million years ago.

supernova

• It is a class of violently exploding stars whose luminosity after eruption suddenly increases many millions of times its normal level.
• Supernovae explosions release tremendous amounts of radio waves and X-rays and also cosmic rays.

Union Minister Rane participates in first Infra Working Group meeting of G20 under India''s Presidency

• The meeting will be joined by the IWG member countries, guest countries and international organizations.
• The Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, and Government of India will host the two-day IWG meetings, along with Australia and Brazil as the co-chairs.
• The first IWG meeting in Pune would be attended by 65 delegates across the G20 membership, invitee countries and International Organizations.
• Theme: Financing Cities of Tomorrow: Inclusive, Resilient and Sustainable.
• The theme will focus on various facets of making cities economic centres of growth, financing urban infrastructure, building future-ready urban infrastructure, directing fiscal investments for unlocking private financing for energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable infrastructure and mitigating social imbalances.

1200-yr-old Miniature Stupas Found In Nalanda District

• These are forms of the stupas, with their distinctive domelike drum, originating in eight cylindrical structures in which the Buddha''s relics were placed after his death.
• The stupa shape has become associated with the Buddhist goal of release from the cycles of suffering and rebirth.
• In addition to the drum, this stupa has a tiered base and is crowned with a series of stylized umbrellas that symbolize royalty and divine status.
• The larger ones at Bodhgaya were probably given by visiting kings, while smaller stupas such as this one were offered by monks and lay pilgrims.
• Beginning in the 7th century CE in India, small miniature terracotta stupas became popular as votive offerings.

Stupa

• It is a Buddhist commemorative monument usually housing sacred relics associated with the Buddha or other saintly persons.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Discovers New Exoplanet Named LHS 475b

• Researchers have labelled the new exoplanet as LHS 475 b, and it’s roughly the same size as Earth, the agency added.
• It is located just 41 light-years away, the planet orbits very close to a red dwarf star and completes a full orbit in just two days.

Exoplanets

• These are planets that orbit other stars and are beyond our solar system.
• Exoplanets come in a host of different sizes. They can be gas giants bigger than Jupiter or as small and rocky as Earth.
• They are also known to have different kinds of temperatures; boiling to cold.
• Scientists rely on indirect methods to discover exoplanets such as the transit method, which is “measuring the dimming of a star that happens to have a planet pass in front of it”
• Scientists believe that there are more planets than stars as each star has at least one planet orbiting it.
• Studying exoplanets not only broadens our understanding of other solar systems but also helps us piece together information about our planetary system and origin.

Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh says, Entire Country will

• The Union Minister dedicated 4 Doppler Weather Radar Systems to the Western Himalayan States of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. He also dedicated 200 Agro Automated Weather Stations to the Nation.

Radar working

• Radars is a beam of energy, called radio waves, emitted from an antenna. As they strike objects in the atmosphere, the energy is scattered in all directions with some of the energy reflected directly back to the radar.

Doppler Radar

• A Doppler radar is a specialized radar that uses the Doppler effect to produce velocity data about objects at a distance.
• These radar systems can provide information regarding the movement of targets as well as their position.
• Doppler radars help forecasters to observe rainfall, and the advance of cloud formations over a region and subsequently monitor thunderstorms and lightning in real time.

Doppler Effect

• It was first described (1842) by Austrian physicist Christian Doppler.
• It is the apparent difference between the frequencyat which sound or light waves leave a source and that at which they reach an observer, caused by the relative motion of the observer and the wave source.