QUICK REVISION BOOKLET -2024

Mission Aspides

• The European Union recently launched Mission Aspides to protect commercial vessels in the Red Sea from attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

GROW Portal

• “Greening and Restoration of Wasteland with Agroforestry (GROW)-Suitability Mapping” portal hosted on Bhuvan. Initiative by NITI Aayog. Utilising thematic datasets, the project resulted in the creation of an Agroforestry Suitability Index (ASI).

Tribes in News- Bullet points summary

• Kui Language – Kondh Tribe (Odisha):
  • Proposed inclusion of Kui language in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution by the Odisha Cabinet.
  • Part of the Dravidian Family, spoken primarily by the Kondh/Kandha Tribe, Odisha’s largest tribe, utilizing Odia Script.
• Muthuvan Tribe and Nilgiri Tahr Conservation:
  • Muthuvan tribe included in Tamil Nadu Forest Department’s Nilgiri Tahr conservation project.
  • Residing in border hill forests of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, known for coexistence with wildlife and traditional ecological knowledge.
• Koya Tribes:
  • Koya Tribe conserves Indian Bison by halting the use of horns for traditional flutes.
  • Located in Papikonda, Andhra Pradesh, practicing settled cultivation and known for the Kommu Koya dance.
• Sammakka Sarakka Jatra:
  • Commemorates the battle of Sammakka and Sarakka against tax imposition, led by the Koya tribals.
  • Mulugu hosts the biennial festival, known as the Kumbh Mela of tribals.
• Hakki Pikki:
  • Hakki-Pikki tribe in Karnataka, traditionally bird catchers, primarily located in Shivamogga, Davanagere, Mysuru districts.
  • Known for traditional medical knowledge, especially plant and herb-based medicines, listed as an endangered language by UNESCO.
• Pahadi Korvas:
  • PVTGs group in Chhattisgarh.
• Kokborok Language:
  • Spoken by Borok people in Tripura, belonging to the Tibeto-Burman language group.
  • Dates back to the 1st century AD, notable in the Rajratnakar book.
• Toto Language:
  • Spoken by Toto tribe in West Bengal near Bhutan, efforts to prevent extinction include the creation of a script in 2015.
  • Around 1,600 people speak the language, using the Bengali script.
• Zo tribes:
  • Comprise various tribes like Chin, Kuki, Mizo, Lushei, Zomi, with shared history and Christian faith across Myanmar, India, and Bangladesh.
  • The movement for Zo reunification faces political challenges despite emotional appeal.
• Shompen Tribe:
  • Among the world’s most isolated tribes, located in Great Nicobar Island, Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
  • Classified as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG), relying on hunting, gathering, and fishing for sustenance.
• Dhokra Shilpkala:
  • Chhattisgarh’s Ocher Studio preserving the 4,000-year-old Dhokra Shilpkala, originated among tribal communities in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Odisha.
  • Noted for its unique lost wax casting method, practiced by Dhokra Damar tribes.
• Bru (Reang) Refugees:
  • Tripura government allocates land for the rehabilitation of the last batch of Mizoram Bru refugees.
  • Originating from northeast India, particularly in Mizoram, Tripura, and Assam, Brus have faced internal displacement due to ethnic persecution.
• Soligas and Yeravas: Indigenous Communities of Peninsular India:
  • Soligas, located primarily in Karnataka, recognized for forest rights, known for honey and nutritious food from the Ghats.
  • Yeravas, migrated from Kerala to Karnataka, face challenges such as land use changes impacting traditional food sources.

Hattee Tribes

• Himachal Pradesh government grants Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to the Hattee community of Trans-Giri area, Sirmaur district.
• Hattee community: Named after their tradition of selling goods at local markets called ‘haat’.
• Located along the Himachal-Uttarakhand border, in the basin of the Giri and Tons rivers.

Warli Tribes

• Warli Tribe: Indigenous group in Gujarat and Maharashtra, living near Sanjay Gandhi National Park, showing peaceful coexistence with leopards.
• ‘Warli’: Derived from ‘Warla’, meaning ‘piece of land’.

INDRA RV25: 240N

• Hyderabad-based Raghu Vamsi Machine Tools Private Limited recently launched its fully indigenous Micro Turbojet Engine “INDRA RV25: 240N”.

Roen olmi :

• Species: Termitomyces, locally known as ‘roen olmi’ in Goa, associated with termite hills.
• Edibility: Popular edible wild mushroom in Goa, consumed during monsoons.
• Habitat: Endemic to the Western Ghats, thriving in humid forest conditions.

Tricholime 

• The Indian Institute of Spices Research (IISR) Kozhikode have successfully developed a new granular lime-based Trichoderma formulation, ‘Tricholime’. It is developed by integrating Trichoderma- a fungal biocontrol agent used for controlling a variety of soil-borne pathogens and Lime into a single product, making the application easier for the farmers.

Einstein Probe 

• China has recently launched an astronomical satellite named Einstein Probe, designed to observe unique transient phenomena in the universe that flicker like fireworks.

ANEEL (Advanced Nuclear Energy for Enriched Life) 

• Clean Core Thorium Energy (a US-based company) developed a new type of nuclear fuel named Advanced Nuclear Energy for Enriched Life (ANEEL)
• ANEEL is named after India’s scientist, Dr Anil Kakodkar (an Indian nuclear scientist who served as the

Amaterasu 

• A cosmic ray ‘Amaterasu’ appears to have reached the earth from an empty part of the universe.
• Amaterasu is named after the sun goddess in Japanese mythology.It is the second highest-energy cosmic ray ever detected (surpassed only by the “Oh My God” particle discovered in 1991), with energy levels of 240 exa-electron-volts (EeV).

SHAKTI

• Electronic Warfare (EW) System ‘Shakti’ has been designed and developed by DRDO for Capital Warships of the Indian Navy for the interception, detection, classification, identification and jamming of conventional and modern Radars.

SAMVAD APP

• C-DOT has developed an easy-to-use app in the form of ‘SAMVAD’ .an Android and iOS app to provide secure call and chat for sharing of text, image, audio, and video files.The users will benefit from the availability of data on their mobiles anytime, anywhere, while still enjoying the privileges of a secure and self-hosted network.

Garbhini-GA2

• It is the first India-specific artificial intelligence (AI) model to precisely determine the age of a foetus in a pregnant woman in the second and third trimesters.
• It has been designed by researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI), Faridabad.

Flue-Cured Tobacco

• Curing is a process by which the harvested tobacco leaf is made ready for the market.
• There are three types of tobacco curing methods traditionally used: Air-Cured, Fire-Cured, and Flue-Cured.
• In India Flue Cured Virginia (FCV) Tobacco is mainly produced in India in 2 states, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

T V Somanathan Committee

• The government of India has formed an expert committee headed by Finance Secretary T V Somanathan to make its recommendations to bring out uniform Know Your Customer (KYC) norms.

SAMAR Assessment Certificates:

• System for Advance Manufacturing Assessment and Rating (SAMAR) certificateis a benchmark to measure the competency of defence manufacturing enterprises.
• It is an outcome of the collaboration between DRDO and the Quality Council of India (QCI) to strengthen the defence manufacturing ecosystem in the country to further the vision of making India self-reliant in defence manufacturing.

Exercise Dharma Guardian 2024

• India and Japan kicked off a two-week military exercise ‘Dharma Guardian’ in Rajasthan’s Mahajan field firing range to foster deeper cooperation in confronting common security challenges.

Island On The Air (IOTA) Programme

• A dedicated team of amateur radio operators (HAMs) embarked on a significant journey from the cyclone shelters of Nachugunta Island, Andhra Pradesh, to participate in the Island on the Air (IOTA) expedition Programme.
• It is a pioneering programme that connects radio amateurs worldwide with stations on islands.

‘Sudarshan Setu’ Bridge:

• It is India’s longest cable-stayed bridge, at 2.32 km, on the Arabian Sea, connecting Beyt Dwarka island to mainland Okha in Gujarat’s Devbhumi Dwarka district.
• It boasts a unique design, featuring a footpath adorned with verses from the Bhagavad Gita and images of Lord Krishna on both sides.
• It also has solar panels installed on the upper portions of the footpath, generating one megawatt of electricity.

Ribosomes:

• Ribosomes are non-membrane-bound cell organelles made of RNA and proteins.
• They are found in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells.
• In eukaryotic organisms, ribosomes are found in the cytoplasm, mitochondria, and chloroplast.
• All prokaryotic ribosomes are found free in the cytoplasm of the cell.

mRNA

• mRNA is a type of single-stranded RNA involved in protein synthesis.
• mRNA is made from a DNA template during the process of transcription.
• The role of mRNA is to carry protein information from the DNA in a cell’s nucleus to the cell’s cytoplasm(watery interior), where the protein-making machinery reads the mRNA sequence and translates each three-base codon into its corresponding amino acid in a growing protein chain.

Permafrost:

• Permafrost is any ground—from soil to sediment to rock—that has been frozen continuously for a minimum of two years and as many as hundreds of thousands of years.
• It can extend down beneath the earth’s surface from a few feet to more than a mile, covering entire regions, such as the Arctic tundra, or a single, isolated spot, such as a mountaintop of alpine permafrost.
• Although the ground is frozen, permafrost regions are not always covered in snow.

PSiFI System

• In a significant technological breakthrough, scientists recently unveiled a pioneering technology, named PSiFI, capable of recognizing human emotions in real-time.
• The system, known as the personalized skin-integrated facial interface (PSiFI), features a first-of-its-kind bidirectional triboelectric strain and vibration sensor that enables the simultaneous sensing and integration of verbal and non-verbal expression data.
• The technology is based on the phenomenon of “friction charging,” where objects separate into positive and negative charges upon friction.
• Notably, the system is self-generating, requiring no external power source or complex measuring devices for data recognition.

Hanooman

• In collaboration with the BharatGPT ecosystem led by IIT Bombay, Seetha Mahalaxmi Healthcare (SML) has introduced ‘Hanooman,’ a suite of Indic large language models trained across 22 Indian languages.

Sub-national Climate Fund:

• It is a global blended finance initiative to develop mid-size climate-resilient infrastructure & nature-based solutions.
• Mission: To invest in subnational climate-smart infrastructure and nature-based solutions delivering measurable and certified climate and sustainable development impact at the local level.
• The model is designed to attract public and private investment and to deliver certified climate and Sustainable Development impacts and Nature-based Solutions.

Anti-hydrogen Experiment: Gravity, Interferometry, Spectroscopy (AEgIS):

• It is an experiment approved by CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) with the goal of studying antihydrogen physics.
• The primary goal of AEgIS is the direct measurement of the Earth’s gravitational acceleration, g, on antihydrogen.
• Once performed this could be the first direct test of the gravitational interaction between matter and antimatter.
• AEgIS is a collaboration of physicists from a number of countries in Europe and from India.

Antimatter

• Antimatter is the same as ordinary matter except that it has the opposite electric charge.
• It is also known as “mirror” matter.
• The antimatter particles corresponding to electrons, protons, and neutrons are called positrons, antiprotons, and antineutrons; collectively they are referred to as antiparticles.

Tupolev Tu-160M:

• The Tu-160M, is a modernised version of a Cold War-era bomber that the former Soviet Union would have deployed in the event of nuclear war to deliver weapons at long distances.
• It is a Russian supersonic variable-sweep wing strategic missile-carrying bomber.
• It is called “White Swan” in Russia and is code-named “Blackjacks” by NATO.

Exercise Dosti:

• It is a trilateral coast guard exercise between India, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives.
• It is a biennial exercise.

Smishing:

• It is a form of phishing that targets individuals through text messages or SMS.
• It is just like phishing emails, smishing messages aim to trick you into divulging personal information or downloading malware onto your device.

Paruveta Festival:

• The festival, also known as the ‘mock hunting festival’, is celebrated at the Sri Narasimha Swamy temple in the town of Ahobilam, Andhra Pradesh.
• It is celebrated by all sections of people, irrespective of their caste.

Solar Maximum:

• A phase in the Sun’s 11-year natural cycle marked by the flipping of its magnetic fields.
• Characteristics: Coincides with an increased number of sunspots on the Sun’s surface.
• Contrast: Opposes the Solar Minimum phase, which features fewer sunspots and marks the start and end of the cycle.

Global Initiative on Digital Health (GIDH):

• It is a WHO-managed network aiming to amplify and align resources toward country-led digital health transformation through strengthened collaboration and knowledge exchange.
• It is a platform for sharing knowledge and digital products among countries.

BharatNet Project:

• It is one of the biggest rural telecom projects in the world.
• It is implemented in a phased manner to all Gram Panchayats in the country to provide non-discriminatory access to broadband connectivity to all the telecom service providers.

Innovations for Defense Excellence (iDEX)

• It is the flagship scheme of the Ministry of Defence, Govt of India, launched in 2018.
• The objective of the scheme is to cultivate an innovation ecosystem in the Defence and Aerospace sector by collaborating with startups, innovators, MSMEs, incubators, and academia.

Morodharo

• Archaeologists recently discovered a Harappan-era fortified settlement named Morodharo.

Quasar named J0529-4351

• An international team of astronomers said the recently discovered quasar named J0529-4351 was the brightest and fastest-growing quasar discovered so far and had a supermassive black hole about 17 billion times the mass of the Sun.
• A quasar is an extremely active and luminous type of active galactic nucleus (AGN).

Disinflation:

• Disinflation is a decrease in inflation rates.
• In simple terms, a decline in the rate of increase in the general price level of goods and services in the gross domestic product (GDP) of a country over time is called disinflation.
• Unlike inflation and deflation, which refer to the direction of prices, disinflation refers to the rate of change in the rate of inflation.

Char Area:

• The riverine areas (island) of the river Brahmaputra, locally known as “Char/ Chapori”.

Ponmudi hills

• A team of researchers have discovered a new species of damselfly at the Ponmudi hills in Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala.
• The hills are a part of the Agasthyamalai landscape, at the southernmost tip of the Western Ghats.

Rip Currents:

• These are a strong flow of water running from a beach back to the Open Ocean, sea, or lake.
• These are one of the most well-known coastal hazards on beaches around the world.

India Stack:

• It is a set of Application Programming Interface (APIs) that allows governments, businesses, startups and developers to utilise a unique digital Infrastructure.
• India Stack consists of three layers of open APIs: identity, payments, and data.

SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy)

• Scientists recently detected water molecules on the surface of two asteroids for the first time ever, using the data from NASA’s now-retired SOFIA airborne observatory.

PM SVANidhi Scheme:

• The PM Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) was launched on June 01, 2020, for providing affordable Working Capital loans to street vendors to resume their livelihoods that have been adversely affected due to the Covid-19 lockdown.
• Implementation agency: Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI).
• Ministry: Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

Gulf Stream:

• It is a swift and warm ocean current that flows along the eastern coast of North America and crosses the Atlantic Ocean towards Europe.
• This extension towards Europe is known as the North Atlantic drift.

Kaji Nemu

• Assam government declared the GI-tagged ‘Kaji Nemu’ (Citrus Limon) as the State Fruit.

Micellar water:

• Micellar water products contain something called micelles – clusters of molecules that are very effective at removing oily substances.
• The micelles in micellar water are formed by special molecules known as surfactants.

UN World Restoration Flagships:

• The World Restoration Flagship are part of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration – led by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization.
• It aims to prevent, halt, and reverse the degradation of ecosystems on every continent and in every ocean.

Cassini Spacecraft:

• Cassini-Huygens was a joint NASA/European Space Agency (ESA)/Italian Space Agency (ASI) space mission to Saturn.

Baltic Sea

• A Stone Age wall has been discovered beneath the Baltic Sea in Germany, believed to be the oldest megastructure built by humans in Europe.

Swachhata Green Leaf Rating:

• A government-initiated rating system for the hospitality sector which aims to ensure world-class hygiene and sanitation in hotels, resorts and homestays has become a non-starter with no State opting for it as of now.
• The objective is to prevent pollution in water bodies and keep the environment clean.

Sangam: Digital Twin Initiative

• Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has unveiled the ‘Sangam: Digital Twin’ initiative,  a venture inviting Expressions of Interest (EoI) from industry pioneers, startups, MSMEs, academia, innovators and forward-thinkers.
  

e-Jagriti Portal:

• It is an initiative of the Department of Consumer Affairs, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution.
• It provides a simple, fast, and cost-effective consumer dispute redressal software solution at all levels.

Brumation:

• It is the name to describe a period of dormancy or slowed activity in reptiles, much like hibernation in mammals.
• It typically occurs during colder months, when temperatures drop and food becomes scarce.

SWATI Portal:

• It is aimed at creating a single online portal representing Indian Women and Girls in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics & Medicine).
• The database of the SWATI Portal will serve in policy-making to address the challenges of Gender-gap.
• The Portal is a complete interactive database; and the first of its kind in India which is developed, hosted and maintained by the National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR), New Delhi.

Nazool Land:

• Nazool land is owned by the government but is most often not directly administered as state property.
• The state generally allots such land to any entity on lease for a fixed period, generally between 15 and 99 years.

Adverse Possession:

• It is a legal concept that allows a person who has unlawfully occupied someone else’s land for a certain period of time to claim legal ownership of that land.
• The claimant must demonstrate that several criteria have been met before the court will allow their claim.

High-Altitude Pseudo Satellite Vehicle:

• It is a new-age unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that can significantly increase India’s surveillance and monitoring capabilities in the border areas.

FAST Telescope:

• The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), is located in a karst depression in Guizhou, China.
• It is the world’s largest single-dish radio telescope, with a receiving area equivalent to 30 football fields.

PRITHvi VIgyan (PRITHVI)

• The Union Cabinet recently approved the comprehensive scheme “PRITHvi VIgyan (PRITHVI)” by the Ministry of Earth Sciences.
• This initiative spans five sub-schemes, aiming to enhance Earth System Sciences and provide crucial services for societal, environmental, and economic well-being.

Earth System Model:

• It is open-source software that is designed to integrate the interactions of atmosphere, ocean, land, ice, and biosphere to estimate the state of regional and global climate under a wide variety of conditions.

Aadi Mahotsav:

• It is organised by Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India Limited (TRIFED) under the aegis of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, and will showcase the rich diversity of India’s tribal heritage.

Nematodes:

• These are any worm of the phylum Nematoda.
• Nematodes are among the most abundant animals on Earth.
• They occur as parasites in animals and plants or as free-living forms in soil, fresh water, marine environments, and even such unusual places as vinegar, beer malts, and water-filled cracks deep within Earth’s crust.

DigiReady Certification:

• In this initiative, Quality Council of India (QCI), in conjunction with Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), aims to assess and certify digital readiness of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME) entities.

SARTHI Portal

• Union Agriculture minister unveiled the ‘Sarathi’ platform, which seeks to provide a full suite of insurance products, including PMFBY, geared specifically for farmers and rural populations in India.

Forever Chemicals (PFAS):

• PFAS, a vast family of over 4,700 highly persistent synthetic chemicals, developed initially in the 1940s.Common in consumer goods like nonstick cookware, water-resistant textiles, and fire foams for their grease and water-repellent properties. Known for their environmental indestructibility, they hardly degrade and have been detected globally in human and animal blood, as well as various foods. Their durability is attributed to the strong carbon-fluorine bonds, the most robust in organic chemistry.

Zircon Missile:

• The 3M22 Zircon, or SS-N-33, is a scramjet-powered manoeuvring anti-ship hypersonic cruise missile developed in Russia.

Kilkari programme:

• ‘Kilkari’ (meaning ‘a baby’s gurgle’), is a centralised interactive voice response (IVR) based mobile health service.
• It delivers free, weekly, time-appropriate 72 audio messages about pregnancy, childbirth, and childcare directly to families’ mobile phones from the second trimester of pregnancy until the child is one year old. It is centrally hosted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW)

PLI scheme for White Goods:

• It is designed to create a complete component ecosystem for the Air Conditioners and LED Lights industry in India and make India an integral part of the global supply chains.
• The scheme was notified by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) in 2021.

Rights Issue:

• A rights issue is an offering of rights to the existing shareholders of a company that gives them an opportunity to buy additional shares directly from the company at a discounted price rather than buying them in the secondary market.

Vidyanjali Scholarship Programme:

• The Union Minister of Education and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship recently launched the EdCIL Vidyanjali Scholarship Programme. This initiative guarantees access to high-quality learning systems by facilitating a seamless transition from secondary to higher education and extending financial support for the meritorious Navodaya Vidyalaya students who lack means.

India’s First Hypervelocity Expansion Tunnel Test Facility (S2 ‘Jigarthanda’) Summary:

• Location: IIT Kanpur’s Hypersonic Experimental Aerodynamics Laboratory (HEAL), Department of Aerospace Engineering.
• Designation: First of its kind in India, aimed at hypervelocity aerodynamic testing.
• Development: Indigenously designed and built over three years, supported by ARDB, DST, and IIT Kanpur.

Altermagnets:

• Altermagnets exhibit a unique blend of magnetic characteristics, setting them apart from conventional magnetic materials like ferromagnets and antiferromagnets.
• These materials exhibit properties observed in both ferromagnets and antiferromagnets, making their study enticing.
• Altermagnets defy conventional norms by embodying a dual nature—resembling antiferromagnets with zero net magnetization and ferromagnets with non-relativistic spin splitting.

ABHYAS:

• It is a high-speed expendable aerial target (HEAT).
• It is designed by the DRDO’s Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE).
• ABHYAS offers a realistic threat scenario for the practice of weapon systems.

Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs):

• CMEs are large expulsions of plasma and magnetic field from the sun’s atmosphere—the corona, that propagate outward into interplanetary space.
• During a CME, the sun releases a colossal amount of material, including electrons, protons, and heavier ions, as well as magnetic fields.

Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS):

• It is a NASA mission that’s searching for planets orbiting the brightest stars in Earth’s sky.
• The satellite is a follow-up to NASA’s highly successful Kepler space telescope, which found thousands of exoplanets during a decade of work after its launch in 2009
• Using TESS, astronomers have recently discovered and characterised a habitable zone planet named TOI-715b.

GRAPES-3 experiment:

• Gamma Ray Astronomy PeV EnergieS phase-3 (GRAPES-3) is designed to study cosmic rays with an array of air shower detectors and a large area muon detector.
• Location: It is located in Ooty, India.
• It is operated by the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.

Dusted Apollo

• Dusted Apollo (Parnassius stenosemus), a rare high-altitude butterfly, has been sighted and photographed for the first time in Himachal Pradesh.

Candida auris (C. auris)

• A deadly fungal infection called Candida auris has been spreading rapidly in the United States recently.

Aldabra rail

• The flightless Aldabra rail went extinct over 130,000 years ago, but the species then reappeared via iterative evolution.
• Iterative evolution- Iterative evolution can be defined as “the repeated evolution of a specific trait or body plan from the same ancestral lineage at different points in time.”

NS Sandhayak:

• It is the first in a series of four Survey Vessel (Large) ships being constructed at Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE), Kolkata
• The primary purpose of the ship is to conduct comprehensive coastal and deep-water Hydrographic Surveys for Port and Harbour approaches, as well as determining navigational channels and routes.

Trichoglossum

• Researchers recently discovered a new fungus species in Kerala named Trichoglossum syamviswanathii, commonly known as “hairy earth tongues” fungus due to their numerous filaments resembling mushrooms.
• They exhibit saprotrophic behavior but can also be found as endophytes in plant roots.

Atmospheric Rivers:

• Atmospheric rivers are long, concentrated regions in the atmosphere that transport moist air from the tropics to higher latitudes.
• They are responsible for 90 percent of the movement of moisture from the tropics toward the poles. 
• They are the largest transport mechanisms of freshwater on Earth. 

GHAR Portal:

• It is a portal to digitally monitor and track the restoration and repatriation of children according to the protocols under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, and Rules thereof.
• It has been developed and launched by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR).

Wheat Blast:

• Wheat blast, caused by the plant fungus Magnaporthe oryzae, is a fast-acting, severe disease of wheat that causes bleaching of the heads.

Cygnus X-1

• Astro Sat, India’s first, dedicated multi-wavelength astronomy mission, accomplished the difficult task of measuring the X-ray polarisation of the Cygnus X-1 black hole system. It is one of the first confirmed black hole systems in our galaxy.

Exercise Vayu Shakti-24:

• The Indian Air Force is slated to carry out three large scale war games on February 17, namely, Vayu Shakti, Gagan Shakti and Tarang Shakti.
• It will be a riveting demonstration of the offensive and defensive capabilities of the IAF, spanning across day and night.

C- CARES Portal:

• It is developed and designed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC).
• The portal, will allow CMPF subscribers and coal companies to login and perform various functions tailored to their needs.

MagSafe:

• MagSafe charger is a wireless charger/power bank that connects to the back of your wireless-compatible mobile phone to charge your phone in the easiest of ways.
• This type of charger uses the magnetic current present at the back of your mobile phone and the magnets on the MagSafe charger.
• Launched recently by  Apple.

Subika Paintings:

• It is a style of painting which is intricately linked to the Meitei community’s cultural history.
• It is surviving through its six manuscripts — Subika, Subika Achouba, Subika Laishaba, Subika Choudit, Subika Cheithil and Thengrakhel Subika.

Tax Buoyancy:

• Tax buoyancy explains the relationship between the changes in the government’s tax revenue growth and the changes in Gross domestic product (GDP).
• There is a strong connection between the government’s tax revenue earnings and economic growth.
• As the economy achieves faster growth, the tax revenue of the government also goes up. Tax buoyancy explains this relationship.

Tidal Disruption Event (TDE):

• TDEs are astronomical phenomena that occur when a star passes close enough to a supermassive black hole and is pulled apart by the black hole’s tidal forces, causing the process of disruption. Such tidally disrupted stellar debris starts raining down on the black hole and radiation emerges from the innermost region of accreting debris, which is an indicator of the presence of a TDE.

Volt Typhoon

• The United States government recently shut down a major China-backed hacking group dubbed “Volt Typhoon” that attacked hundreds of routers and had been working to compromise U.S. cyber infrastructure.

Green Roofs

• According to recent research, green roofs treated with mycorrhizal fungi foster a more diverse soil community that is more likely to support long-term green roof sustainability. Green roofs, also known as ‘vegetated roofs’ or ‘living roofs’ — are ballasted roofs consisting of a waterproofing membrane, growing medium (soil), and vegetation (plants) overlying a traditional roof.