Why in News

• Recently, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in its order directed Ministry of Home Affairs and Arunachal Pradesh Government to submit action taken report within six weeks against alledged racial profiling and relocation of the Chakmas and Hajongs from the State.
• Members of the two communities have allegedly been victims of hate crime, police atrocities and denial of rights and beneficiary programmes.

Background

• In a judgment in 1996, the Court had stated that the “life and personal liberty of every Chakma residing within the State shall be protected”.
• In 2015, the Supreme Court directed the State to grant them citizenship, but this had not yet been implemented.
• In light of these orders and given that most of the Chakma/Hajong community members were born in the State and have been living peacefully, the Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister’s announcement, in August 2021, that they would be relocated outside the State and that steps would be taken for a “census” of the communities was clearly unwarranted.
• After that Chakma Development Foundation of India (CDFI) requested urgent intervention of the NHRC against racial profiling of 65,000 Chakma and Hajong tribals of Arunachal Pradesh through illegal census which was scheduled to commence from 31st December, 2021 for their deportation / expulsion/ relocation from the State.

Other key Facts

• Mizoram and Tripura have a sizeable population of the Buddhist Chakmas while the Hindu Hajongs mostly inhabit the Garo Hills of Meghalaya and adjoining areas of Assam.
• The Chakmas and Hajongs of Arunachal Pradesh are migrants from the Chittagong Hill Tracts of erstwhile East Pakistan, now Bangladesh.

Why In News

• On the Birth Anniversary of legendary classical vocalist Late Pandit Jasraj, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Pandit Jasraj Cultural Foundation.

About Pandit jasraj

• Pandit Jasraj was born on January 28, 1930, in a village Pili Mandori in Haryana to a notable classical singer Pandit Motiram.
• Pandit Jasraj was associated with Mewati gharana of music.
• He is known for his unconventional mixing of khayal with elements of bhakti rasa, employing harkats and murkis that were traditionally used in light classical music.
• He also performed semi-classical old musical forms such as the Haveli sangeet.
• Haveli Sangeet are performances are held in temples and the compositions are sung in praise of Lord Krishna.
• He created a unique form of jugalbandi called Jasrangi,in which a male and a female singer sing different ragas in their respective scales to merge their individual displays into one unified performance.
• The International Astronomical Union (IAU) named an asteroid after him, formally known as 2006 VP32, as
• Pandit Jasraj died on August 17, 2020, at his home in New Jersy, USA, due to cardiac arrest.

Pandit Jasraj: Awards and Recognitions

• In 1975, he received Padma Shri, fourth highest civilian award in India.
• In 1987, Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, highest Indian recognition to the practising artists.
• In 1990, he received Padma Bhushan, third-highest civilian award in India.

In 2000, he was conferred Padma Vibhushan, second highest civilian award in India

Why In News?

• According to the list released by the Union Home Ministry, among the states, Union Territories (UTs), and the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), J&K has bagged the maximum 115 police medals.
• Jammu and Kashmir Police has bagged 115 Police Medals for Gallantry (PMG), out of a total of 189 awarded this year. They more than doubled their last year’s tally of 52 PMGs.
• J&K Police won awards for conducting several counter-insurgency operations in 2019-20. Police personnel from Jammu and Kashmir have been awarded 115 Police Medals for Gallantry, the highest number from any police force this year, followed by CRPF with 30, Chhattisgarh Police with 10, Odisha Police with nine, and Maharashtra Police with seven.

Why In News?

• INS Khukri, the lead ship of the Indian Navy’s Khukri class missile corvettes which was decommissioned in December 2021, was handed over to the Diu administration to be converted into a museum.
• NS Khukri (P49), was the first indigenously built missile corvette of the Indian Navy.
• The ship is planned to be developed as a full-scale museum.

Why In News

• The appointment comes two days before the presentation of the Economic Survey on January 31. The Union Budget for 2022-23 will be presented on February 1.
• Economist Nageswaran has been an author, teacher and consultant and has taught at several business schools and institutes of management.
• Former CEA KV Subramanian’s three-year term ended in December 2021, several names were shortlisted for the position, including Pami Dua, Professor, Delhi School of Economics; Poonam Gupta, Director General, National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER); and, Principal Economic Adviser Sanjeev Sanyal.

Function of Chief Economic Advisor

• The Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) advises the Government of India on matters related to finance, commerce, trade, economy. The CEA reports directly to the Minister of Finance. The CEA heads the Economic Division under the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA).
• The Economic Division examines domestic and international economic trends. It undertakes research studies focusing on economic policies and management of the economy. Based on the research it provides advice to the Government of India.
• The Office of the Economic Advisor (OEA) is an attached office of the Ministry of Commerce & Industry.

Why in News?

• The India Innovation Centre for Graphene (IICG) will be established in Thrissur, Kerala, as part of a joint venture between Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology (Pune), Digital University Kerala (DUK), Tata Steel Limited and other industries.
• A first-of-its-kind centre for studying graphene and developing its newer applications as suitable for industries has recently been approved by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

Why Graphene Research?

• The newest centre aims at promoting and performing R&D on graphene as per the industry requirements.
• Being a good conductor of electricity and highly flexible, this two-dimensional form of crystalline carbon has enormous number of applications ranging from electronic wearable devices, biomedical devices, sensors, fuel cells, semiconductors, field emission displays, nanoelectrodes for inexpensive organic electronic devices such as organic photovoltaics (OPVs), liquid-crystal devices (LCDs), organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), supercapacitors, fuel cells and batteries.
• Nicknamed as wonder material, graphene coatings prevent corrosion in factories and industries, which face annual losses up to worth Rs 50,000 crore, a study on uses of graphene coatings by IIT-Bombay.

About Kerala Bird Atlas (KBA)

• The KBA has been prepared based on systematic surveys held twice over 60 days a year during the wet (July to September) and dry (January to March) seasons between 2015 and 2020.
• It was conducted as a citizen science-driven exercise with the participation of over 1,000 volunteers of the birdwatching community.
• The KBA accounts for nearly three lakh records of 361 species, including 94 very rare species, 103 rare species, 110 common species, 44 very common species, and 10 most abundant species.
• It was found that the species count was higher during the dry season than in the wet season while species richness and evenness were higher in the northern and central districts than in the southern districts.

Why In News

• The country’s first woman Rafale fighter jet pilot Shivangi Singh was part of the Indian Air Force tableau at the Republic Day parade recently. She is only the second woman fighter jet pilot to be part of the IAF tableau.
• Last year, Flight Lieutenant Bhawna Kanth became the first female fighter jet pilot to be part of the IAF tableau.

About Indian Air Force Tableau

• The IAF tableau was based on the theme — ‘Indian Air Force transforming for the future’.
• Scaled down models of Rafale fighter jet, indigenously developed light combat helicopter (LCH) and 3D surveillance radar Aslesha MK-1 were part of the Tableau.
• It also featured a scaled down model of MiG-21 aircraft that played a major role in the 1971 war in which India defeated Pakistan, leading to the creation of Bangladesh, as well as a model of India’s first indigenously developed aircraft Gnat.

Why in News

• The Russian, Chinese and Iranian navies conduct naval exercises CHIRU-2Q22 in the Gulf of Oman.

About Exercise

• The purpose of this drill is to strengthen security and its foundations in the region, and to expand multilateral cooperation between the three countries to jointly support world peace, maritime security and create a maritime community with a common future
• The maritime drills conducted in the northern parts of the Indian Ocean aimed at deepening practical cooperation among the navies of the three countries.
• The drills will include various tactical exercises such as rescuing a burning vessel, releasing a hijacked vessel, and shooting at air targets at night.

Why In News

• Apple has retained its position as the most valuable brand in 2022 as well, according to the Brand Finance 2022 Global 500 report. Following Apple, Amazon and Google have been named among the top-three most valuable brands in the year.
• The brand valuation of Apple was recorded at $355.1 billion in 2022, which is an increase of 35% from last year.
• This is the highest brand value ever recorded in the Brand Finance Global 500 ranking history.

Other key facts

• The Indian conglomerate Tata Group has emerged as the most valuable brand from India and also in South Asia.
• It is the only brand from the country in the top 100. The Global Rank of Tata Group 78. The brand value of Tata Group is US$23.9 billion.
• TikTok (18th) has been named the world’s fastest-growing brand in the list. Its brand value increased from US$18.7 billion in 2021 to US$59.0 billion in 2022.
• Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has become the second most valuable brand in the IT services sector globally, While Infosys got third spot, Wipro (7th), HCL (8th), Tech Mahindra (15th) and LTI (22nd).
• Tech remained the most valuable industry in the list in terms of sector. This was followed by Retail, Banking, Media and Telecoms in top 5 respectively.