The solar system was hit with a gamma-ray burst so bright, it blinded scientists'' equipment in space

• GRBs are short-lived bursts of gamma-ray light, the most energetic form of light.
• GRB emits more energy in a few seconds than our Sun will emit in its lifetime and has two distinct emission phases:
  • The short-lived prompt emission (the initial burst phase that emits gamma-rays), followed by a long-lived multi-wavelength afterglow phase.
• The shortest GRBs likely mark the collision of two compact stellar remnants called neutron stars, and the longest bursts are thought to arise when a massive, rapidly spinning star collapses to form a black hole.
• When a GRB erupts, it is briefly the brightest source of cosmic gamma-ray photons in the observable Universe.

Gamma Rays

• Gamma rays have the smallest wavelengths and the most energy of any wave in the electromagnetic spectrum.
• They are produced by the hottest and most energetic objects in the universe, such as neutron stars and pulsars, supernova explosions, and regions around black holes.
• On Earth, gamma waves are generated by nuclear explosions, lightning, and the less dramatic activity of radioactive decay.

PM Modi invited to France for Bastille Day parade

• The Bastille Day military parade, also known as the 14 July military parade, is a French military parade that has been held on the morning of 14 July each year in Paris since 1880.
• It is also one of the oldest regular military parades in the world.
• July 14 is the anniversary of the storming of the infamous Bastille prison in 1789 - a turning point for the success of the French Revolution.
• This day is marked as the National Day of France.

Bandipur Tiger Reserve recently completed 50 years as a Project Tiger Reserve.

• It was established in the 1930s as a wildlife sanctuary, which became a tiger reserve in 1973 under Project tiger.
• It is situated in two contiguous districts (Mysore and Chamarajanagar) of Karnataka and located at the tri-junction area of the States of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
• Bandipur Tiger Reserve is surrounded by:
  • Nagarahole Tiger Reserve (Tamil Nadu) in the North West (Kabini Reservoir separates the two).
  • Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (Tamil Nadu) in the South.
  • Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (Kerala) in the South West.
• This area has the River Kabini in its north and River Moyar in its south.
• Flora: It comprises diverse vegetation of dry deciduous to tropical mixed deciduous. It includes rosewood, Indian kino tree, sandalwood, Indian laurel, clumping bamboo and giant clumping bamboo etc.
• Fauna: It is a shelter for the largest population of wild Asian elephants in South Asia. It comprises other mammals such as Bengal tiger, gaur, sloth bear, golden jackal, dhole and four-horned antelope etc.

Odisha CM disburses Rs 877 crore KALIA assistance to 43 lakh farmers in state

KALIA Scheme:

• It was launched by the Odisha Government in December 2018, to reduce poverty and accelerate agricultural prosperity.
• The KALIA scheme supports cultivators, small farmers and landless agricultural labourers.
• It provides payments to farmers to encourage cultivation and associated activities.
• Benefits:

➢ Assistance for cultivation:

• It gives financial assistance of Rs.25,000 for a farm family (small and marginal farmers) over five seasons to purchase inputs like fertilisers, seeds and pesticides.
• The farm family can also use the financial assistance towards labour and other investments.

➢ Assistance for livelihood:

• The assistance for livelihood provides financial assistance of Rs.12,500 to all landless agricultural households for allied agricultural activities like mini-layer units, small goat rearing units, duckery units, mushroom cultivation, fishery kits for fisherman and bee-keeping, etc.

➢ Assistance for vulnerable agricultural household:

• The vulnerable cultivators or landless agricultural labourers will get financial assistance of Rs.10,000 per family every year to enable them to take care of their sustenance.

➢ Life insurance for cultivators and landless agricultural labourers:

• It provides a life insurance cover of Rs.2 lakh to cultivators and landless agricultural labourers between 18-50 years.
• It also provides a personal accident cover of Rs.2 lakh.

➢ Interest-free crop loan:

• The KALIA scheme will provide crop loans up to Rs.50,000 at 0% interest for the vulnerable landless labourers, sharecroppers, cultivators, and agricultural families identified by Gram Panchayats.

Kolkata Man Infected By Killer Plant Fungus Chondrostereum Purpureum, In World''s First Such Case

Chondrostereum Purpureum:

• It is a plant fungus that causes silver leaf disease in plants, particularly those in the rose family.
• It is commonly found in temperate regions of the northern and southern hemispheres.
• It attacks most species of the rose family Rosaceae, particularly the genus Prunus.
• It is often found on old stumps and dead wood, but can also be a serious parasite of living trees.
• The disease is progressive and often fatal.
• It is spread by airborne spores landing on freshly exposed sapwood.

Curious case of ''missing'' areas in Pobitora sanctuary in Assam

Pobitora wildlife sanctuary:

• Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary is situated in the flood plains of River Brahmaputra in the district of Morigaon in the state of Assam.
• It harbors the highest density of Rhino in the world and the second highest concentration of Rhino in Assam after Kaziranga National Park.
• It is often called ‘Mini Kaziranga’ because of the similar landscape and the sizeable population of the one-horned rhino.
• Fauna: Leopard, Leopard cat, Fishing cat, Jungle cat, Feral Buffalo, Wild pigs, Chinese pangolins, etc.
• Flora: Its maximum consists of the wet savannah of Arundo donax and Saccharum. The remaining area is covered by water bodies.

New genus and species of bagworm moth discovered in Kerala

Capulopsyche keralensis:

• The newly found bagworm moth species was named Capulopsyche keralensis. Capulo means coffee and psyche means moth or butterfly.
• The name, therefore, translates as ‘Coffee moth of Kerala’ as it was found in coffee plantations.
• Features
  • Capulopsyche keralensis belongs to the moth family psychidae, which consists of very small moths.
  • It is characterized by the case-building behavior of larvae and a high degree of sexual dimorphism.
  • Females of many psychid species never develop into a moth and retain larval appearance.
  • This is the first genus and species of the subfamily Taleporiinae reported from India.
  • The subfamily Taleporiinae is characterized by extreme sexual dimorphism.
  • The females are pale yellowish, wingless, with short legs and antennae.
  • The larvae of this species were found scraping on the bark of trees, they seem to feed on the bark tissues and depositions (algae) on the bark.
  • The pupal cases are attached by a thread to the branches and underside of the leaves. The life span of an emerged male adult is up to 4 to 5 days.

Sexual dimorphism

• It is the differences in appearance between males and females of the same species, such as in color, shape, size, and structure, that are caused by the inheritance of one or the other sexual pattern in the genetic material.

Powerful ‘X-class’ solar flare slams Earth, causes radio blackouts. There could be more.

• The X1.2 flare erupted from sunspot AR3256 near the southwestern limb of the star in our Solar System.
• It led to a strong shortwave radio blackout in south-east Asia, Australia, and New Zealand

Solar Flare

• What is it? Solar storms are magnetic plasma ejected at great speed from the solar surface.
• They occur during the release of magnetic energy associated with sunspots (‘dark’ regions on the Sun that are cooler than the surrounding photosphere), and can last for a few minutes or hours.
• There are 4 classes of solar flares B, C, M, and X and these are classified on a logarithmic scalesimilar to the Richter scale.
• The class denotes the strength of the flare and the number that comes after it signifies their strength at a finer scale.
• Each class is therefore divided into 9 subdivisions. For example, X1 to X9.

Impacts of Solar Flares

• Solar flares can impact radio communications, electric power grids, and navigation signals, and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts.
• X-class flares can trigger planet-wide radio blackouts and long-lasting radiation storms.

IISc Bangalore device can help power streetlights

• The researchers from IISc''s Department of Instrumentation and Applied Physics (IAP), fabricated their supercapacitor using ''Field Effect Transistors'' or FETs as the charge collectors, instead of the metallic electrodes that are used in existing capacitors.
• Current capacitors typically use metal oxide-based electrodes, but they are limited by poor electron mobility.
• The team built hybrid FETs consisting of alternating few-atoms-thick layers of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) and graphene – to increase electron mobility – which are then connected to gold contacts.
• This news device can potentially be used in many appliances ranging from streetlights to consumer electronics, electric cars, etc.

Supercapacitors

• A supercapacitor is a next-generation energy storage device which is also known as an ultracapacitor.
• It has advantages such as high-power density, long durability, and ultrafast charging characteristics as compared to conventional capacitors and Lithium-Ion batteries (LIB).
• The main components of supercapacitors include an electrode, electrolyte, separator, and current collector.
• The fabrication cost of electrode materials, as well as electrolytes, should be reduced because these two components account for a major portion of the device manufacturing cost.
• An electrode is a solid electric conductor that carries electric current into non-metallic solids, liquids, gases, plasmas, or vacuums.
• An electrolyte is a substance that produces an electrically conducting solution when dissolved in a polar solvent, such as water.

Rail tracks may be shifted out of tiger reserve to protect wildlife in Palamu

• The Palamau Tiger Reserve is in the western side of Latehar district on the Chhota Nagpur plateau in
• This tiger reserve is surrounded by the Auranga River in the North.
• It is one of the first 9 tiger reserves created in the country at the inception of ‘Project Tiger’.
• It is the first reserve in the world in which a tiger census was carried out as a pugmark count, as early as 1932 under the supervision of J.W. Nicholson
• This Tiger reserve zone is the watershed area for 3 important rivers Koel, Burha, and Auranga.
• Many aquifers locally called ‘Chuan’ are also present inside the reserve. A sulfur hot spring ‘Tatha’ is present near Barwadih.
• Flora: The project area is constituted mainly of Sal forests, mixed deciduous forests, and bamboo groves.
• Fauna: The keystone species are Tigers, Elephants, Leopards, Grey Wolf, Gaur, Sloth Bear, etc.

Project Tiger

• The Government of India has taken a pioneering initiative for conserving its national animal, the tiger, by launching “Project Tiger” in 1973.
• Project Tiger is an ongoing Centrally Sponsored Scheme of the Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change providing central assistance to the tiger States for tiger conservation in designated tiger reserves.
• The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) is a statutory body of the Ministry, of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change with an overarching supervisory / coordination role, performing functions as provided in the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.