Yaoshang festival begins in Manipur

• The festival is celebrated every year on the full moon of Lamta month (February-March) of the Meitei lunar calendar.
• The festival is celebrated by the Meitei people who are predominantly Hindu.
• It is celebrated at the same time as Holi and is known as ‘Manipur’s version of Holi’.
• The five-day-long celebration begins with the burning of ‘yaoshang’ (a small thatch hut/straw hut) which is constructed with bamboo and straws on the first day
• The highlight of the festival is the ThabalChongba, a traditional Manipuri folk dance where boys and girls hold hands and sing and dance in a circle.
• The festival marks the rejuvenation of the spirit of life and commemorates the birthday of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
• Children visit neighbours to ask for a monetary donation which is called

Meitei people

• Meiteis are the dominant population of Manipur in northeastern India.
• A majority follow Hinduism while more than 8% are Muslims, locally known as
• The Marup system (literally, "friendship association"), a type of cooperative saving and credit institution, is an intriguing aspect of Meitei village''s socio-economic organisation.
• They speak a Tibeto-Burman language, they differ culturally from the surrounding hill tribes by following Hindu customs.

Indian navy successfully tests brahmos missile

Medium Range Surface-to-Air Missile:

• This weapon system also called the ‘Abhra’ Weapon Systemis a state-of-the-art medium-range air defence weapon system.
• It is a joint venture of DRDO and Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI) and is produced at Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL).
• It is designed to destroy hostile aircraft, helicopters cruise missiles and drones at a 70km range.

BrahMos missile

• It is a joint venture of India and Russia which makes supersonic cruise missiles
• It has a speed of 2.8 Mach or about three times the speed of sound.
• The missiles can be launched from a range of platforms such as submarines, ships, aircraft, or land.
• BrahMos Aerospace is also developing the BrahMos NG, a compact version of the missile.

63 species of birds spotted at Guindy national park

• Guindy is India’s eighth-smallest national park and one of the very few national parks located inside a city.
• It is located in the heart of Chennai’s metropolitan area of Tamil Nadu.
• It is one of the last remnants of the tropical dry evergreen forests of the Coromandel Coast.
• Flora: Tropical dry evergreen forest, Scrub and thorn forests.
• Fauna: Blackbuck, Toddy cat, Civet cat, Jungle cat, Pangolin, Hedgehog, Shrew and black-naped hare etc.

Tropical dry evergreen forests of India

• The Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest is a unique forest found only in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
• Its distribution is restricted to the narrow coastal strip from Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh in the north to Ramanathapuram in Tamil Nadu in the south.
• The dissymmetric climatic condition of this region, where rainfall occurs both during summer and winter monsoons and extended the dry season from March to September, favours the development and sustenance of the Tropical Dry Evergreen forest in this narrow strip.
• The TDEF has a mixture of trees, shrubs, lianas, and herbs and forms a complete canopy in pristine condition and provides habitat to a wide variety of animals including insects, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals.

NASA’s IBEX spacecraft back to studying edge of solar system after glitch

• NASA''s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) was launched in October 2008 to study the outer edge of the heliosphere.
• The spacecraft is designed to map the boundary where winds from the Sun interact with winds from other stars.
• The solar system''s boundary is studied by observing energetic neutral atoms or ENAs.
• ENAs are high-energy particles produced at the very edge of our solar system.
• Major discoveries of IBEX
  • This spacecraft fully mapped the heliosphere within a year after its launch.
  • Its most famous discovery is uncovering a dense region of particles, the ‘IBEX ribbon

Heliosphere

• Heliosphere is the region where the constant flow of particles from our Sun, called the solar wind, collides with material from the rest of the galaxy.

The Ministry of Tourism inaugurates a pavilion at ITB, Berlin 2023, under its “Incredible India” brand line on 7th March

Incredible India Campaign:

• The ITB is a prestigious platform and is among the top international travel shows, where travel professionals come together to connect and showcase destinations and tourism products.
• In view of promoting Incredible India holistically, the Ministry of Tourism has developed five thematic television commercials on different themes which are Adventure Tourism, Heritage Tourism, MICE Tourism, Art & Craft and Wellness Tourism.
• Encouraging inbound travel and particularly in the backdrop of India’s G20 Presidency as well as grand celebrations of India@75 ‘AzadikaAmritMahotsav’, the Ministry of Tourism has declared “Incredible India! Visit India Year 2023”.

Incredible India Campaign

• Incredible India is the name of an international tourism campaign maintained by the Government of India since 2002, to promote tourism in India.
• Incredible India 2.0 Campaign: It aims to shift from generic promotions to promotional plans specific to the market and content creation with thematic creatives depending on different niche products such as spiritual, medical, and wellness tourism.
• The Incredible India 2.0 campaign focuses on promoting niche tourism products, including yoga, wellness, luxury, and cuisine wildlife.
• Incredible India 2.0 represents the post-pandemic plan for Indians in the sector.
• Nodal Ministry:Ministry of Tourism.

Incredible India 2.0 Campaign:

• The Holistic Island Development plan focuses on the Andaman & Nicobar (A&N) and Lakshadweep Islands.