About Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve:

• Location: It is spread across Sagar, Damoh, and Narsinghpur districts of Madhya Pradesh.
• Covering an expansive area of 2,339 square kilometres, it encompasses areas within the Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary and Durgavati Wildlife Sanctuary.
• It is the seventh tiger reserve in Madhya Pradesh.
• It is named for Rani Durgavati, the queen of the Gondi people.
• The reserve also boasts a diverse landscape, with hills, valleys, rivers, streams, waterfalls, and grasslands. 
• Rivers: It straddles parts of the Narmada and Yamuna River basins. 
• The Singorgarh Fort is located within the reserve.
• Vegetation: Dry deciduous type
• Flora: The chief floral elements include Teak, Saja, Dhaora, Ber, Amla, etc.
• Fauna:
  • Tiger, leopard, wolf, jackal, Indian fox, striped hyena, Nilgai, Chinkara, Chital, Sambhar, Black Buck, Barking deer, Commom Langur, Rhesus Macaque, etc.
  • It is one of the few remaining strongholds for the White-Rumped and the Indian Vultures, critically endangered raptors of India. 

A green corridor linking Panna Tiger Reserve (PTR) with Durgavati will be developed for the natural movement of the tiger to the new reserve.

Q1: Where is Panna Tiger Reserve (PTR)?

Panna Tiger Reserve (PTR) is a critical tiger habitat located in the Vindhya mountain range in the northern part of Madhya Pradesh. It was declared a Project Tiger Reserve by the Government of India in 1994. It is characterized by a 'Table Top' topography. It consists of extensive plateaus and gorges. Ken River flows from south to north through the reserve.

Source: Madhya Pradesh launches probe into alleged irregularities poaching in new tiger reserve

What are Pit Vipers?

• Pit viper is any species of viper (a family of venomous snakes) that has, in addition to two movable fangs, a heat-sensitive pit organ between each eye and nostril.
• The pit organ is what allows them to sense the infrared thermal radiation (heat) emitted by their prey in the dark.
• Habitat: They are found in a variety of habitats, including deserts, forests, grasslands, and wetlands. They may be terrestrial, arboreal, or aquatic.
• Distribution:
  • They are most commonly found in tropical and subtropical regions, but some species can also be found in temperate regions. 
  • They are found on every continent except Antarctica, with the majority of species found in Asia and the Americas.
• Some species lay eggs; others produce live young.

Key Facts about Salazar Pit Viper:

• It is a species of pit viper first identified in Arunachal Pradesh in 2019.
• The snake, which is nocturnal, demonstrates a unique orange-to-reddish stripe, present on the head and body in males.
• Scientific Name: Trimeresurus salazar
  • Members of the genus Trimeresurus are charismatic venomous snakes, with morphologically as well as ecologically diverse species.
  • They are distributed across east and southeast Asia. At least 48 nominate species are known, of which at least 15 occur in India.
  • Most species are typically green in color, but some also have yellow, black, orange, red, or gold markings.
  • Their diet includes a variety of animals, including lizards, amphibians, birds, rodents, and other small mammals.
  • Trimeresurus snakes are morphologically cryptic, which makes it difficult to distinguish them in the field.

Q1: What is infrared radiation?

Infrared radiation (IR), or infrared light, is a type of radiant energy that's invisible to human eyes but that we can feel as heat. All objects in the universe emit some level of IR radiation, but two of the most obvious sources are the sun and fire.Infrared waves are longer than visible light waves but shorter than radio waves.

Source: Salazar Pit Viper, the real-life Harry Potter snake, found in Assam's Kaziranga National Park

About Equity Mutual Funds:

• It is a type of investment fund that pools money from investors to trade primarily a portfolio of stocks, also known as equity securities.
• They are also known as Growth Funds.
• Equity Funds are either Active or Passive. 
  • In an Active Fund, a fund manager scans the market, conducts research on companies, examines performance, and looks for the best stocks to invest.
  • In a Passive Fund, the fund manager builds a portfolio that mirrors a popular market index, say Sensex or Nifty Fifty.
• The fund manager has a passive role in stock selection.
• Buy, hold, or sell decisionsaredriven by the benchmark index, and the fund manager merely needs to replicate the same with minimal tracking error.
• Equity Funds can also be divided as per Market Capitalisation, i.e., how much the capital market values an entire company’s equity.
  • There can be Large Cap, Mid Cap, Small or Micro Cap Funds.
• There can be a further classification as Diversified or Sectoral / Thematic.
  • In the former, the scheme invests in stocks across the entire market spectrum, while in the latter, it is restricted to only a particular sector or theme, say, Infotech or Infrastructure.

Q1: What are Mutual funds?

Mutual funds are investment vehicles that pool money from multiple investors to invest in a diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds, or other securities. They're managed by professional fund managers or management teams who make investment decisions based on the fund's objectives.

Source: Inflows to equity MFs hit record high in June

About Anand Marriage Act:

• It provides statutory recognition to marriage rituals of Sikh community in India.
• The emergence of the Anand Marriage Act dates back to 1909 when the British Imperial Legislative Council passed a legislation for the recognition of the Sikh wedding ceremony Anand Karaj.
• The Act aimed to acknowledge and respect the customs and practices of the community.
• In 2012, the Parliament passed the Anand Marriage (Amendment) Bill, bringing Sikh traditional marriages under the purview of legal recognition.
• While the central government approved the amendments, it was left for individual states and Union territories to frame respective rules for the registration of Anand marriages.
• Significance of the Act: It provides statutory recognition to marriage rituals of Sikhs, fulfilling their long-standing demand to not have to solemnise their marriages under the Hindu Marriage Act.

Recent implementation: Jammu and Kashmir Anand Marriage Registration Rules, 2023' has been framed for the registration of "Anand marriages", under which tehsildars concerned shall be the registrar of such marriages within their respective territorial jurisdiction, as per a government notification issued.

Q1. What is Adi Granth?

It is the sacred scripture of Sikhism, a religion of India. It is a collection of nearly 6,000 hymns of the Sikh Gurus (religious leaders).The Adi Granth is the central object of worship in all gurdwaras (Sikh temples) and is accorded the reverence paid to a living Guru.

Source: National Commission of Minorities Holds Meeting with States/UTs to Discuss Implementation of Anand Marriage Act

About Denisovans:

• Denisovans are an extinct species of hominid and a close relative to modern humans.
• They’re a recent addition to the human family tree—scientists first identified Denisovan remains from a cave in Siberia in 2010.
• Denisovans lived across a wide range of areas and conditions, from the cold mountains of Siberia and Tibet to the jungles of Southeast Asia during the last Ice Age. 
• Time Period: 500,000 to 30,000 years ago
• DNA evidence suggests Denisovans are related to both Neanderthals and modern humans, and may have interbred with both.
• Denisovans share a common ancestor with both modern humans and Neanderthals.
• This common ancestor, called Homo heidelbergensis, most likely lived in Africa.
• Denisovans may have had dark skin, dark hair, and dark eyes.

The Denisovan genome appears to have low genetic diversity, which means their population may never have been very large.

Q1: Who were the Neanderthals?

Neanderthals are our closest extinct human relative. They lived throughout Europe and parts of Asia from about 400,000 until about 40,000 years ago. Neanderthals co-existed with modern humans for long periods of time before eventually becoming extinct. Some defining features of their skulls include the large middle part of the face, angled cheek bones, and a huge nose for humidifying and warming cold, dry air. Their bodies were shorter and stockier than modern humans, another adaptation to living in cold environments.

Source: Denisovans were living on the Tibetan plateau surprisingly recently, scientists say

About Regional Analysis of Indian Ocean System: 

• It is a data assimilation system developed in Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS).
• The previous version used only salinity and sea surface temperature, this upgraded version factors in sea surface height. The system has been under development since 2023 and was implemented in recent months.
• The new version has been incorporated with the Sea surface height anomaly (SSHA).
• In the new system, for running ocean models, observations are taken at the ocean’s surface and below the water at depths ranging from 3 metres to 2,000 metres, depending on the requirement.
• As a result, the ocean current analysis from the additional information obtained has improved the ocean current analysis.

Key facts about Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services

• It was established as an autonomous body in 1999 under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) and is a unit of the Earth System Science Organization (ESSO).
• Mandate: To provide the best possible ocean information and advisory services to society, industry, government agencies, and the scientific community through sustained ocean observations and constant improvements through systematic and focused research.
• Activities:
  • It provides round-the-clock monitoring and warning services for the coastal population on tsunamis, storm surges, high waves, etc. through the in-house Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre (ITEWC).
  • The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO designated ITEWC as a Regional Tsunami Service Provider (RTSP) to provide tsunami warnings to countries on the Indian Ocean Rim.
  • It povides daily advisories to fisher folk to help them easily locate areas of abundant fish in the ocean while saving on both fuel and time used to search for the same.

Q1: What is Salinity?

It is the dissolved salt content of a body of water. It is a strong contributor to conductivity and helps determine many aspects of the chemistry of natural waters and the biological processes within them.

Source: For better tracking of Indian Ocean’s health, INCOIS upgrades data assimilation system

About Power of Attorney (POA):

• It is a legal authorization that gives the agent or attorney-in-fact the authority to act on behalf of an individual referred to as the principal. 
• It is just a delegation of power by one person to another, who in turn, acts as his agent. There is a principal-agent relationship between them.
• The agent may be given broad or limited authority to make decisions about the principal's property, finances, investments, or medical care, depending on the terms of the POA.
• A POA comes into play in the event that the principal is incapacitated by an illness or disability.
• The agent may also act on behalf of the principal in case the person is not readily available to sign off on financial or legal transactions.
• Types of POA include conventional, also known as a limited power of attorney, durable, which lasts for a lifetime unless you cancel it, springing, which only comes into play for specific events, and medical, also known as a durable power of attorney for healthcare.
• The POA lapses when the creator dies, revokes it, or when it is invalidated by a court of law.
• A POA also ends when the creator divorces a spouse charged with a POA or when an agent is not able to continue carrying out the outlined duties.

Q1: What is a Financial Power of Attorney (POA)?

A financial POA allows an agent to manage the business and financial affairs of the principal, such as signing checks, filing tax returns, depositing Social Security checks, and managing investment accounts when and if the principal becomes unable to understand or make decisions.

Source: Power Of Attorney Impliedly Revoked When Principal Acts Independent Of Agency With Knowledge To Agent & Third Parties : Supreme Court

About Naavu Manujaru’ Programme: 

• Objective: To improve the capacity of the students to think independently, rationality and understand the pros and cons of every issue. It will also helpful for the overall development of the students.
• It is implemented in all government, aided, and unaided primary and high schools of the State.
• Implementation of this programme would involve discussions and dialogues for two hours per week (with three periods of 40 minutes).
• It involves discussion on social harmony and its significance, based on local and national festivals, folk games, sports etc.
• The discussion also includes thoughts of social reformers, visiting and sharing information on outbound/local famous places, cottage industries, discussion on nuclear and non-nuclear families, discussion on elimination of inequality and dialogue on constitutional values like equality, liberty and fraternity etc.
• Implementing agency: The Department of State Educational Research and Training (DSERT) is the implementation authority of this programme.

Q1: What is The Department of State Educational Research and Training?

It is popularly known as DSERT is the academic wing of the Department of Public Instruction. It aims at providing academic leadership in school education as well as improving the quality of education provided in primary and secondary schools in the state.

Source: Karnataka government set to begin ‘Naavu Manujaru’ programme in schools to inculcate social harmony and Constitutional values among children

About CubeSat Radio Interferometry Experiment (CURIE): 

• It aims to investigate the enigmatic origins of radio waves emanating from the Sun, a phenomenon first observed decades ago.
• The mission employs an innovative technique called low frequency radio interferometry, marking its first use in space.
  • CURIE consists of two miniature spacecraft, collectively no larger than a shoebox, which will orbit Earth approximately two miles apart.
  • This separation enables the instruments to detect minute differences in radio wave arrival times, pinpointing their exact solar origin.
• Working
  • This spacecraft will measure radio waves in the 0.1 to 19 megahertz range, frequencies blocked by Earth's upper atmosphere, necessitating space-based observations.
  • CURIE will orbit 360 miles above Earth's surface to obtain an unobstructed view of the Sun's radio emissions.
  • Once in orbit, the two CURIE spacecraft will separate, deploy their eight-foot antennas, and begin collecting data.
  • This mission not only promises to advance our understanding of solar phenomena but also paves the way for future space-based radio astronomy endeavors
• It is sponsored by NASA’s Heliophysics Flight Opportunities for Research and Technology (H-FORT) Program.

Q1. What are the features of Radio waves?

They have the longest wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum, ranging from about 1 millimetre to 100 kilometres. Their frequencies are the lowest among electromagnetic waves, spanning from about 3 kHz to 300 GHz.

Source: Nasa's Curie to investigate the origin of Sun's radio waves