Committee to oversee transfer and import of captive wild animals in India: Supreme Court

• It was initially constituted to oversee the transfer of captive wild elephants from the northeastern States. The ambit of the committee was earlier restricted to Tripura and Gujarat.
• It will now have a wider responsibility and will cater to all wild animalsin need of rehabilitation or rescue anywhere in India

High-Powered Committee on Wild Animals:

• It is set up under the chairmanship of former judge Justice Deepak Verma.
• Mandate: To consider approval, dispute, or grievance concerning the transfer or import of wild animals into India or their procurement or welfare by any rescue or rehabilitation center or zoo.
• Other Members of the Committee:
  • Director General of Forest
  • Head of Project Elephant Division (MoEF)
  • Member Secretary (Central Zoo Authority of India)
  • Chief Wild Life Warden(s) of the State(s) to which the issue relates will be co-opted as Members.
• Powers and Functions:
  • All State and Central authorities shall report the seizure of wild animals or abandonment of captive wild animals to the Committee.
  • The Committee shall be at liberty to recommend the transfer of ownership of captive animals or of seized wild animals to any willing rescue center or zoo for their immediate welfare, care, and rehabilitation.
  • The Committee is free to conduct necessary checks and to undertake fact-finding exercises in any pending or future complaint.

PM pays tributes to Sri Ayya Vaikunda Swamikal on his birth anniversary

• He was the pioneer of the social revolutionaries of south India and Kerala.
• Research scholars regard Vaikundar as a teacher, healer and also miracle worker.
• His teachings also affected many social changes in southern India.
• It resulted in the emergence of a series of social and self-respect movements such as Upper cloth agitation, Temple entry movement and other movements including those of Narayana Guru, Chattampi Swamikal, Vallalar and Ayyankali.

Narayan Guru

• Narayana Guru was a philosopher, spiritual leader and social reformer in India.
• He was born into a family that belonged to the Ezhava caste.
• He led a reform movement against injustice in the caste-ridden society of Kerala to promote spiritual enlightenment and social equality.
• Shri Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (also known as SNDP Yogam)**is an Indian spiritual organization that was formally founded by Dr Padmanabhan Palpu in 1903, with the guidance of Shri Narayana Guru. The main aim of SNDP Yogam was to spiritually uplift the people of the Ezhava/Tiyyar communities.
• Vaikom Satyagraha (1924–25) was a social protest in erstwhile Travancore against untouchability and caste discrimination in the Hindu society of Kerala. Sree Narayana Guru involved himself with the Vaikom Satyagraha and extended much cooperation.
• He published 45 works in Malayalam, Sanskrit and Tamil languages which include Atmopadesa Śatakam, a hundred-verse spiritual poem and Daiva Dasakam, a universal prayer in ten verses.

INS Sahyadri joins maritime exercise with French Navy

• The INS Sahyadri is a Shivalik class multi-role stealth frigate.
• It is equipped with cutting-edge weapons and sensors, enabling her to identify and eliminate threats from the air, the surface, and the subsurface.
• The vessel is a member of the Eastern Fleet of the Indian Navy, which is located in Visakhapatnam.
• The maritime partnership exercise witnessed a wide spectrum of evolutions at sea which included cross-deck landings, boarding exercises and seamanship evolutions.
• The seamless conduct of the exercise reaffirmed the interoperability and high level of cooperation between the two navies.
• Stealth Frigates under the Shivalik class series namely INS Shivalik, INS Sahyadri, and INS Satpura are the first stealth warships built in India (by Mazagon Dock Limited).

National Youth Conclave 2023 begins today - eGov Magazine

• The event is organized under the aegis of India’s G20 presidency in 2023, aligning with the Urban20 and Youth20 engagement groups.
• The National Youth Conclave, which brings together the country’s youth and government leadership, is an opportunity for cross-learning.

Urban 20

• It is a city diplomacy initiative launched on December 12, 2017, at the One Planet Summit in Paris.
• Urban-20 (U20) provides a platform for cities from G20 countries to facilitate discussions on various important issues of urban development including climate change, social inclusion, sustainable mobility, and affordable housing, and propose collective solutions.
• C40 Cities (C40) and United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) convene the U20 under the leadership of a Chair city that rotates annually, based in the G20 host country.
• The U20 2023 Cycle was chaired by the City of Ahmedabad.
• Ahmedabad will showcase its unique urban development and climate change initiatives and rich culture and heritage to the participants.

Youth20 (Y20)

• The Y20 is the official youth engagement group for the G20 (Group of 20), the forum for the world’s largest and most advanced economies.
• The Y20 is a process which brings together young leaders from across the globe, to discuss and debate global challenges and agree policy recommendations they would like to see G20 leaders take forward.
• The list of policy recommendations is known as a communiqué, which is announced publicly at the Y20 Summit and presented to world leaders as part of the official G20 summit.
• India hosted the Y20 summit for the first time.
• In Youth 20 Engagement Group, India’s key focus is to bring young leaders from all across the globe together and discuss ideas for a better tomorrow and draft an agenda for action.
• The activities to be undertaken by Y20 during India’s presidency will focus on global youth leadership and partnership.
• In a run-up to the final Youth-20 Summit, for the next eight months, there will be Pre summits on the five Y20 themes along with various discussions and seminars at different Universities across the country.

DTR hosts 2-day workshop on species recovery of endangered cats

Dudhwa Tiger Reserve:

• It is located on the Indo-Nepal border in the district Lakhimpur-Kheri in Uttar Pradesh.
• Rivers:The Sharda River flows by the Kishanpur WL Sanctuary, the Geruwa River flows through the Katerniaghat WL Sanctuary and the Suheli and Mohana streams flow in the Dudhwa National Park, all of which are tributaries of the mighty Ghagra River.
• Dudhwa Tiger Reserve (DTR) comprises Dudhwa National Park (DNP) and Kishanpur and Katarniaghat wildlife sanctuaries.
• The Dudhwa National Park is a typical Tarai-Bhabar habitat of the upper Gangetic plains Biogeographic province.
• Flora: The vegetation is of the North Indian Moist Deciduous type, containing some of the finest examples of Sal forests (Shorea robusta) in India.
• Fauna: Tiger, Langu, Smooth Indian Otter, Hog Deer, Mugger, Ghariyal, Python, Sandboa, Banded krait, Russel’s viper, Rat snake etc.

Penguin paradise and geological freak: Why Macquarie Island deserves a bigger marine park

• Macquarie Island is located around 1,500km southeast of Tasmania.
• It is the exposed crest of the 1,600 km-long undersea Macquarie Ridge.
• This is the only piece of land in the world formed entirely of oceanic crust.
• Macquarie Ridge is one of only 3 such ridges that impede the Antarctic Circumpolar Circulation.
• This results in distinct differences between the west and east sides of the ridge, which are used in different ways by different species.
• Fauna: It is home to 4 species of penguins and 4 species of albatross, the island recorded 57 seabird species.
• This Island and its surrounding seas are already protected as a Tasmanian reserve.
• The area is also designated as a World Heritage Area.

Launch of world''s first 3D-printed rocket canceled at last second

Terran 1 Rocket:

• It is the world’s first 3D-printed rocket.
• It is built by California aerospace startup Relativity Space.
• Features:
  • The rocket is 110 feet (33.5 meters) tall with a diameter of 7.5 feet (2.2 meters) .
  • Eighty-five percent of its mass is 3D printed with metal alloys, including the engines.
  • It is powered by Aeon engines using liquid oxygen and liquid natural gas as propellants.
  • It has nine 3D-printed Aeon 1 engines in its first stage and one 3D-printed Aeon Vacuum engine in its second stage.
  • The rocket will eventually be capable of putting up to 2,755 pounds (1,250 kilograms) into low Earth orbit.

3D Printing

• The creation of a 3D printed object is achieved using additive processes.
• In an additive process, an object is created by laying down successive layers of material until the object is created. Each of these layers can be seen as a thinly sliced cross-section of the object.
• 3D printing enables you to produce complex shapes using less material than traditional manufacturing methods.

Scientists devise ‘Glowscope’ to bring fluorescent microscopy to schools

• A fluorescence microscope views an object by studying how it re¬emits light that it has absorbed, i.e., how it fluoresces. This is its basic principle.
• How it works?
  • The object is illuminated with light of a specific wavelength.
  • Particles in the object absorb this light and re¬emit it at a higher wavelength (i.e., different color). These particles are called fluorophores.
  • The object is infused with fluorophores before being placed under the microscope.
  • When the fluorophores fluoresce, a fluorescent microscope can track them as they move inside the object, revealing the object’s internal shape and other characteristics.
• Scientists have developed different fluorophores to identify and study different entities, from specific parts of the DNA to protein complexes.
• Applications:
  • It is used to image specific features of small specimens such as microbes.
  • It is also used to visually enhance 3-D features at small scales.
  • It allows the use of multicolor staining, labeling of structures within cells, and the measurement of the physiological state of a cell.
  • It is the most popular method for studying the dynamic behavior exhibited in live-cell imaging.
  • Different molecules can now be stained with different colors, allowing multiple types of molecules to be tracked simultaneously.

Optical Microscopy

• An optical microscope, also known as a light microscope, views an object by studying how it absorbs, reflects, or scatters visible light.
• It uses one or a series of lenses to magnify images of small samples with visible light.
• The lenses are placed between the sample and the viewer’s eye to magnify the image so that it can be examined in greater detail.

Study discovers insulin deficiency associated with Type 1 diabetes leads to smaller pancreas

Diabetes

• Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs when the pancreas can no longer make insulin, or the body cannot make good use of the insulin it produces.
• Insulin is a hormone that regulates blood glucose.
• Not being able to produce or use insulin effectively leads to raised glucose levels in the blood, known as hyperglycaemia.
• Over the long-term high glucose levels are associated with damage to the body and failure of various organs and tissues.
• Diabetes is a major cause of blindness, kidney failure, heart attacks, stroke, and lower limb amputation.

Types of Diabetes:

• Type 1 diabetes:
  • It is a condition in which your immune system destroys insulin-making cells in your pancreas. These are called beta cells.
  • When you have type 1 diabetes, your body produces very little or no insulin.
  • It requires daily administration of insulin to maintain blood glucose levels under control.
  • It is usually diagnosed in children and young people, so it used to be called juvenile diabetes.
  • Symptoms include excessive excretion of urine (polyuria), thirst (polydipsia), constant hunger, weight loss, vision changes, and fatigue.
• Type 2 diabetes:
  • It results from the body’s ineffective use of insulin that it produces.
  • More than 95% of people with diabetes have type 2 diabetes.
  • This type of diabetes is largely the result of excess body weight and physical inactivity.
  • Symptoms may be similar to those of type 1 diabetes but are often less marked. As a result, the disease may be diagnosed several years after onset.
• Gestational diabetes (GDM):
  • It is a type of diabetes that consists of high blood glucose during pregnancy and is associated with complications for both mother and child.
  • GDM usually disappears after pregnancy, but women affected, and their children are at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life.

Bobbili Veena likely to be presented to G-20 delegates

• Bobbili veena, also known as ''Saraswati veena,'' is a large plucked string instrument used in Carnatic classical music.
• The home of the Bobbili veena is the town of Bobbili, about 120km from Vishakapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
• It is famed for its fine tune and distinctive notes.
• It earned a Geographical Indication (GI) tag in 2012 for its unique design and high-quality craftsmanship.
• Features:
  • It is made from a single piece of jackwood tree, unlike other veena which are made by joining two pieces of wood. This is why it is also referred to as ''ekanda veena''.
  • The central part has a lion''s head carved at the tapering end.
  • The frets of this veena are made of bell metal.
  • These Veenas are also remarkable for the exquisite designs etched on the body, making each piece exclusive.
  • The decorative inlay work, which used to be done on elephant tusks, is now replaced by plastic.