NSE gets Sebi approval to launch Social Stock Exchange as separate segment

• SSE is a novel idea in India, and a stock exchange of this kind is intended to benefit the private and non-profit sectors by directing more capital to them.
• The SSE will function as a distinct division of the current stock exchanges under the new regulations.

list on SSE

• Not-for-profit organisations (NPOs) and for-profit social enterprises with social intent and impact as their primary goal will be eligible to participate in the SSE.
• The social enterprises will have to engage in a social activity out of 16 broad activities listed by the regulator. The eligible activities include-
• Eradicating hunger poverty, malnutrition and inequality
• Promoting healthcare, supporting education, employability and livelihoods
• Gender equality empowerment of women LGBTQIA communities.
• Supporting incubators of social enterprise.
• Corporate foundations, political or religious organisations or activities, professional or trade associations, infrastructure companies, and housing companies, except affordable housing, will not be eligible to be identified as social enterprises.
• According to Sebi''s framework, a minimum issue size of ₹1 crore and a minimum application size for the subscription of ₹2 lakh are currently required for SSE.

Construction Work On Rishikesh-Karnprayag Rail Line Continues In Rudraprayag

• It is an under-construction railway line, which will run from Yog Nagari Rishikesh railway station in Rishikesh to Karnaprayag in Uttarakhand.
• It is Indian Railways’ proposed route for the Char Dham Railway to connect the Char Dham pilgrimage of Uttarakhand.
• It will help improve connectivity to the Char Dham shrines of Yamunotri, Gangotri, Badrinath, and Kedarnath in the Garhwal region of the Himalayas in Uttarakhand.
• The rail line is about 20 km long and will have 12 stations, 35 bridges, and 17 tunnels along with 105.47 km (84.24%) of the track.
• It includes a 1 km tunnel between Devprayag and Lachmoli.
• The rail line is also part of an Indian geostrategic initiative to build infrastructure along the India-China border.
• The project is being monitored on the Government of India’s PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation) portal.

Track laying work begins on world''s highest railway bridge in J-K''s Reasi

• The Chenab Rail Bridge, also known as the Chenab Arch Bridge, is a concrete arch bridge being built over the Chenab River in the Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir.
• It will be the highest railway bridge in the world, with a height of 359 meters above the riverbed.
• The length of the Chenab bridge will be 1,315 meters with 17 spans, of which the span of the main arch across the Chenab river will be 467m.
• The bridge will have a design speed of 100 Km/hr and a lifespan of 120 years.
• It is designed to withstand Zone-V earthquakes, 266 Km/hr wind speed, and high-intensity blasts.
• It forms a crucial link on the 111km stretch from Katra to Banihal, which is part of the ₹21,653 crores Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Railway Link (USBRL) project intended to provide all-weather rail connectivity to the Kashmir Valley.

Indian Army Orders 100 Additional K9 Vajra Self Propelled Howitzers

• It is a 155 mm, 52-caliber tracked self-propelled artillery system.
• It is built by Larsen & Toubro with technology transferred from South Korean defence major Hanwha Defense based on its K9 Thunder.
• Features:
• It has all-welded steel armour up to 19mm thick.
• The main weapon is the 155mm / 52 calibre gun.
• It has a burst rate of fire of three rounds per 15 seconds and a maximum rate of fire of six to eight rounds a minute for three minutes.
• Range: 40 km
• The K9 uses a digital fire control system, by which it can fire multiple rounds that can impact a given area at the same time.

Medicinal plant commonly called Borthekera in Assamese found to have cardioprotective potential

• Garcinia pedunculata, popularly known as Bor Thekera in Assamese, is an evergreen tree related to the more familiar purple mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana).
• The tree is endemic to the south-eastern regions of Asia such as parts of Bangladesh and north-eastern parts of India.
• The sun-dried slices of the ripe fruit are used for culinary and medicinal purposes and are known to have therapeutic properties like anti-inflammatory, anthelmintic, antibacterial, antifungal, antidiabetic, hypolipidemic, nephroprotective, and even neuroprotective activity.
• With scientific interventions seeking proof of these claims, multiple studies have reported that G. pedunculata is a rich source of antioxidants.
• Uses: The ripe fruit is eaten cooked or raw. Sun-dried slices are much valued and used for preparing delicacies like "tenga diya masor jol" meaning Assamese sour fish curry.

James Webb telescope spots 6 monster galaxies harbouring tens to hundreds of billions of sun-sized stars'' mass

• This telescope was built in collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency and was launched in December 2021.
• It is presently at a point in space known as the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point, approximately 1.5 million km beyond Earth’s orbit.
• Lagrange Point 2 is one of the five points in the orbital plane of the Earth-Sun system.
• It''s the largest, most powerful infrared space telescope ever built.
• Objectives: It will examine every phase of cosmic history; from the Big Bang to the formation of galaxies, stars, and planets to the evolution of our Solar System.

Environment Ministry seeks report on Kaziranga rhino estimation

• Location: It is located in the Golaghat and Nagaon districts of Assam.
• It was declared a national park in 1974.
• It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site and houses two-thirds of the total world population of greater one-horned rhinoceros.
• It is the largest undisturbed area in the Brahmaputra Valley floodplains.
• Vegetation: It is a mix of eastern wet alluvial grasslands, semi evergreen forests and tropical moist deciduous forests.
• Flora:
• It is primarily famous for its dense and tall elephant grasses intermixed with small swamplands.
• It also includes an abundant cover of water lilies, water hyacinths and lotus.
• Rattan Cane, a type of climbing palm, is also found here.
• Fauna:
• Important wildlife found are One-horned rhinoceros, Leopard, Fishing Cat, other Lesser cats, royal Bengal tiger, Large Indian Civet, Small Indian Civet, Sambar, Barking deer, Hog deer, Gaur, Hog Badger, Capped Langur, etc.
• It is also one of the last remaining homes of the endangered and endemic western hoolock gibbon, the only species of apes found in India.
• It is home to approximately 478 species of both resident and migratory birds.
• It is one of the last homes of the critically endangered Bengal florican.

FSSAI notifies comprehensive group standards for millets

• The Authority has now framed a comprehensive group standard for 15 types of millets specifying eight quality parameters to ensure the availability of good quality millets in domestic and global markets.
• The group standard applies to the millets including Buckwheat (Kuttu), Kodo Millet (Kodo), Little Millet (Kutki), Brown top (Korale) and Job''s tears (Adlay).

Millets

• Millets are a group of small-grained cereal food crops that are highly tolerant to drought and other extreme weather conditions and require low chemical inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides.
• Most of the millet crops are native to India and provide most of the nutrients required for the normal functioning of the human body.

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India

• It is a statutory body established under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 (FSS Act).
• FSS Act, of 2006 consolidated various acts & orders that had earlier handled food-related issues in various Ministries and Departments.
• Nodal ministry: Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.

HIV ''Dusseldorf Patient'' Cured After Bone Marrow Transplant

• What is it? Cysteine-cysteine chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5) is a protein on the surface of white blood cells that are involved in the immune system as it acts as a receptor for chemokines.
• CCR5 is found in the cell membranes of many types of mammalian cells, including nerve cells and white blood cells.
• In humans, the CCR5 gene that encodes the CCR5 protein is located on the short (p) arm at position 21 on chromosome 3.
• Role of CCR5: The role of CCR5 is to allow entry of chemokines into the cell—chemokines are involved in signalling the body’s inflammation response to injuries.

Mutation working in HIV patients

• Various mutations of the CCR5 gene are known that result in damage to the expressed receptor.
• One of the mutant forms of the gene is CCR5-delta 32, which results from the deletion of a particular sequence of 32 base pairs.
• HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) mainly attacks the CD4 immune cells in the human body, thereby reducing a person’s ability to fight off secondary infections.
• The CCR5 receptors on the surface of the CD4 immune cells act as a doorway for HIV. However, the CCR5-delta 32 mutation prevents these receptors used by the HIV from forming on the surface, effectively removing the doorway.

James Webb Space Telescope reveals packed stars in Milky Way''s oldest cluster (photos)

• It is a bright and large globular cluster in the constellation of Hercules.
• It is located at a distance of 26,700 light-years from Earth.
• It was first discovered by the German astronomer Johann Elert Bode in 1777.
• The predominant elements within Messier 92 are hydrogen and helium.
• Messier 92 has an estimated mass of up to 330,000 solar masses.
• The cluster is approaching the Milky Way galaxy at a speed of about 112 km/s (403,200 km/h; 250,500 mph).

Globular Cluster

• Globular clusters are spherical aggregates of several thousand to millions of stars bound by gravity.
• They orbit mostly in the extended stellar halossurrounding most spiral galaxies.
• They contain some of the oldest stars in a galaxy.
• These systems are thought to have formed early on in the Universe and can serve as perfect astrophysical laboratories for astronomers to understand how stars evolve through various phases.

Solar Mass

• It is the mass of the sun, which is 1.989 x 10^30 kilograms — about 333,000 Earths