4 poachers, 2 timber smugglers arrested in Similipal Tiger Reserve(STR).

• Location: STR is located within the Mayurbhanj District, in the northernmost part of Odisha.
• It was declared a ''Tiger Reserve'' in 1956 and included under the national conservation programme ''Project Tiger'' in 1973.
• It is surrounded by high plateaus and hills, the highest peak being the twin peaks of Khairiburu and Meghashini (1515m above mean sea level).
• The STR, along with a ''transitional area'' of 2250 sq. km, was included as a part of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves by UNESCO in 2009.
• Terrain: The terrain is mostly undulating and hilly, interspersed with open grasslands and wooded areas.The inclined plateau has risen abruptly from the low coastal plains. The steep side faces the Bay of Bengal and runs northwards to finally merge with Chhota Nagpur.
• The water level is high, and the tract is woven with perennial water sources converging into rivers like Budhabalanga, Salandi, and many tributaries of the Baitarani River flowing from the Reserve.
• Vegetation: It is a mix of different forest types and habitats, with Northern tropical moist deciduous dominating some semi-evergreen patches.
• It is the only landscape in the world that is home to melanistic tigers.
• The region around STR is home to a variety of tribes, including Kolha, Santhala, Bhumija, Bhatudi, Gondas, Khadia, Mankadia, and Sahara.
• Flora: An astounding 1078 species of plants, including 94 species of orchids, are found here. Sal is the dominant tree species here.
• Fauna: Leopard, Gaur, Elephant, Langur, Barking and Spotted Deer, Sloth Bear Mongoose, Flying Squirrel, Porcupine, Turtle, Monitor Lizard, Python, Sambar, Pangolin etc.

The Prime Minister of India will participate in the Veer Bal Diwas function at Bharat Mandapam.

• Veer Bal Diwas is commemorated to honour the martyrdom of Baba Fateh Singh and Zorawar Singh, the Sahibzade of 10th Guru Govind Singh Ji on 26th December every year.

History:

• Guru Gobind Singh, the leader of the Sikhs in Punjab during the Mughal reign, had four sons. They were referred to as the four Sahibzade Khalsa.
• In 1699, Gobind Singh established the Khalsa.
• This elite warrior band had devout Sikhs with the aim to protect the innocent from religious persecution.
• While two of Guru Gobind Singh’s sons were killed fighting the Mughals, two other sons were bricked alive on the orders of Aurangzeb’s governor of Sirhind.
• The two younger sons, Sahibzada Zorawar Singh ji and Sahibzada Fateh Singh ji, attained martyrdom after being sealed alive in a wall.

         Key facts about Guru Gobind Singh:

• He was the 10th Sikh guru.
• He became the Sikh guru at the age of nine, following the demise of his father, Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Sikh Guru.

         Contribution to Sikh religion:

• He is known for his significant contributions to the Sikh religion, including the introduction of the turban to cover hair.
• He is renowned for founding the principles of Khalsa or the Five ‘K’s i.e. kesh(uncut hair), kanga (wooden comb), kara (iron or steel bracelet), kirpan (dagger) and kachera (short breeches).
• He fought against the Mughals later in the battle of Muktsar in 1705.

Milli-second burst detected by AstroSat in new high magnetic field neutron star can help understand such stellar entities.

• India’s first multi-wavelength space-based observatory AstroSat has detected bright sub-second X-ray bursts from a new and unique neutron star with ultrahigh magnetic field (magnetar).
• X-Ray bursts occurs in low-mass X-ray binary systems where a neutron star and low-mass main sequence star are in orbit around one another.
• Due to their close proximity and the extreme gravity of the neutron star, the companion star overflows its roche-lobe and hydrogen is drawn into an accretion disk around the neutron star.
• This hydrogen is eventually deposited on the surface of the neutron star and immediately is converted into helium due to the extreme temperatures and pressures that exist there.
• A thin surface layer of helium is built up, and once a critical mass of helium is reached, it ignites explosively, heating the entire surface of the neutron star to several tens of millions of degrees releasing a sudden burst of X-rays.
• Once the outburst is over, the binary system temporarily returns to its quiescent state while the neutron star begins to re-accumulate the helium surface layer.
• The process repeats resulting in recurrent X-ray bursts.
• It generally occurs at regular intervals separated by several hours or days.

          What is a Magnetar?

• It is an exotic type of neutron star, its defining feature that it has an ultra-powerful magnetic field.
• The field is about 1,000 times stronger than a normal neutron star and about a trillion times stronger than the Earth’s.
• Apart from ultra-powerful magnetic fields, magnetars also release vast amounts of energy in the form of flares, X-rays, and gamma-ray bursts.
• They are therefore associated with extreme events in the universe, making them perhaps the most bizarre objects in the cosmos next to black holes.
• The magnetic field of a magnetar may be caused by a neutron star’s interior – thought to be made up of neutrons, quarks and exotic states of matter such as Bose-Einstein Condensates – becoming a superconducting fluid.

On the occasion of Good Governance Day, Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh launches the Extended Version of Mission Karmayogi.

• Mission Karmayogi - National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building (NPCSCB) aims to prepare Civil Servants for the future by making them more creative, constructive & innovative through transparency and technology.
• This unique programme will help to lay the foundation for civil servants in the country.
• There will be more focus on ''on-site learning'' in complementing "off-site learning".
• On 2nd September 2020, Government approved the National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building (NPCSCB) with six key pillars including Policy Framework, Institutional Framework, Competency Framework, Digital Learning Framework (iGOT-Karmayogi), the electronic Human Resource Management System (e-HRMS) and the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework.
• The Programme will cover all civil servants (including contractual employees) across different ministries, departments, organisations and agencies of the Union Government.

          Three new features launched on the iGOT Karmayogi platform are:

• My iGOT: It delivers targeted training courses on home page of individual officer that directly address the unique capacity building needs of the officer as identified in the Capacity-Building Plan for their Ministries/Departments.
• Blended Programs: This programme will facilitate equitable access to training methodologies across all levels to meet dynamic training needs of the officials.
• Blended Programs integrate traditional offline (in person) classroom courses with online learning components.
• It enables officers and faculty to leverage the flexibility and convenience of online courses while retaining the invaluable benefits of face-to-face classroom interactions.
• Curated Programs: These are designed to cater to diverse learning needs of the Ministries/Departments and Training Institutions.

Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare launched the MedTech Mitra portal.

• It is an online portal that aims to assist medtech innovators in clinical evaluation, regulatory facilitation, and uptake of new products.
• The portal will be coordinated collaboratively by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), under the guidance of NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission.
• The MedTech Mitra platform, along with the recent medical devices policy and the production-linked incentive scheme, will together provide a boost to the medical devices sector and encourage domestic manufacturing of these devices.

        Significance:

• The new initiatives would facilitate indigenous development of affordable, quality MedTech devices and diagnostics, leading to a considerable reduction in the import dependence of this sector.
• It will ensure ease of innovation and doing R&D for emerging start-ups.
• It would provide end-to-end guidance to startups, making their journey from idea to product smooth. The platform will also help them bridge gaps and help in animal as well as clinical trials.
• It would also foster partnerships between engineers, scientists and clinicians, which was lacking in the sector.

Chandra River in Lahaul and Spiti district

• Chandra River is one of the two rivers (other being the Bhaga River) that merge to form the Chenab River in the Lahaul region of Himachal Pradesh.

         Course:

• Origin: It rises in the snows lying at the base of the main Himalayan range in the Lahaul and Spiti districts, Himachal Pradesh.
• It flows for a considerable distance along the base of this range in a southeasterly direction before turning completely and taking a south-westerly course in the Spiti Valley.
• It flows on to merge with the Bhaga River downstream of Keylong.
• The beautiful Chandra Tal Lake has formed at its source.
• The upper and middle catchments of this river are made up of a topography that has been carved out by glacial action.
• The entire area is a vast, cold desert that receives little or no rain as it lies in the rain shadow of the Pir Panjal range of the Himalayas.
• Throughout its course, the river is fed by a number of glaciers, the biggest being the Shigri on its left bank, and the Samundari on its right.
• Many small snow-fed tributaries join the Chandra at different places.
• Koksar is the only important human settlement along this river.