Current Context : Rajasthan cabinet approved 33% reservation for women in the police force by deciding to amend the State Police Subordinate Service Rules, 1989.

• Earlier states like Bihar, Gujrat, Odisha, and Maharashtra have also provided for women quotas in the police force.
• In 2022, women made up about 12% of the state police. Chandigarh had the highest at 22%, while Jammu and Kashmir had the lowest at 3.3% (India Justice Report, 2022).

Current Context : Star javelin thrower Sumit Antil from Sonipat, Haryana became the first Indian man and second from the country for winning gold in Javelin Throw.

• He won the F64 category gold with Paralympics record of59m at the Paris Games.
• Sumit Antil has also won gold medals at the World Para Athletics Championships in both 2023 and 2024.

WHAT IS F64 CATEGORY?

• The F64 category includes athletes with lower limb disabilities, such as those who use prosthetics or have leg length discrepancies.

Current Context : Harvinder Singh, a 33-year-old para-archer from Haryana, India, won the country’s first Paralympic medal in archery at the Paris Paralympics 2024 Games.

• He clinched a gold in the men’s individual recurve event.

ABOUT HARVINDER SINGH

• Born on 25 February 1991, in Kaithal, Haryana is an Indian para archer.
• Achievements: He has won several medals, including a gold medal at the 2018 Asian Para Games and bronze medal in the individual category at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.

Current Context : India and Singapore signed four Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in the fields of digital technologies, semiconductors, health cooperation and skill development.

• It will facilitate closer cooperation between India and Singapore in the areas of digital technologies, such as DPI, cyber-security, 5G and emerging technologies such as Super-computing, Quantum Computing and Artificial Intelligence.

ABOUT SEMICONDUCTORS

• It is a material that has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as copper, and an insulator, such as glass.
• Its resistivity generally falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way.
• Silicon (Si) is the most commonly used semiconductor material due to its abundance, stability, and well-understood properties. Other semiconductor materials include germanium (Ge), gallium arsenide (GaAs), and silicon carbide (SiC).

Current Context : Recently, Chhari Yatra begin from Chamba to reach Manimahesh lake on Sept 11.

ABOUT CHHARI YATRA :

• The Yatra is associated with the Manimahesh Lake and the Manimahesh Temple, which are important religious sites for devotees of Shiva.
• It starts from Chamba with pilgrims carrying sacred symbols of Lord Shiva.
• Every year, the Chhari Yatra is organised by the Panch Juna Dashnam Akhada from Chamba for the royal bath at the sacred Manimahesh lake situated at an altitude of about 3,950 meters (12,960 feet) in the Himalayas, is the final destination.
• For over 1,000 years, the akhada has upheld the tradition of carrying the Chhari to Manimahesh.

ABOUT MANIMAHESH TEMPLE

• Location: Located near Manimahesh Lake, the temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva.
• Religious Importance: The temple and lake are important pilgrimage sites for devotees of Lord Shiva. It is believed that taking a holy dip in the lake purifies one’s soul and brings divine blessings.
• Festival: The Manimahesh Yatra or Chhari Yatra, a pilgrimage festival, culminates in a visit to this lake. Devotees trek to the lake carrying sacred symbols of Lord Shiva.

Current Context : The HP High Court restrained an adventure sports operator from carrying water sports and allied activities in the Kol Dam Project Reservoir.

ABOUT KOL DAM

• Located in the Bilaspur District of Himachal Pradesh, India.
• Built on the Satluj River
• Operated by National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC)
• Capacity: 800 MW (4×200 MW)

Current Context : The WHO South-East Asia Region accounted for 3,30,223 of the 1.19 million estimated global road traffic deaths, representing 28% of the global burden.

The Region has 11 Member States: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste.

DATA RELATED TO INDIA:

• Road Traffic Deaths (2021): Estimated 216 618 (+2.1 % change since 2010) while reported road traffic deaths were 153 972.
• Deaths of Two-three wheelers Drivers/riders constitute the highest (45.1%)
• Road traffic deaths per 100,000 populations: It is 15.4 for India (2021), higher than global rate of 15.

Current Context : A comprehensive mock drill ‘Vishanu Yuddh Abhyas’ (Virus War Exercise) was conducted in Rajasthan’s Ajmer district to assess pandemic preparedness, under the aegis of the  NATIONAL ONE HEALTH MISSION (NOHM)

• Objective : to evaluate the readiness and response of the National Joint Outbreak Response Team (NJORT), composed of experts from human health, animal husbandry, and wildlife sectors.
• A mock zoonotic disease outbreak scenario was created to simulate a real-world outbreak.

The drill was structured around two key components:

• Investigation and identification of the virus responsible for the mock outbreak
• Actions initiated to control the spread of illness across human and animal populations.

Current Context : The port city of Volos in central Greece has declared a state of emergency for a month due to a massive influx of dead fish in the city.

• Objective : to speed up the cleanup of the Pagasetic Gulf port where tons of dead fish have piled up along the coast and in rivers.

ABOUT GREECE

• Located in southeastern Europe, at the southern tip of the Balkan Peninsula.
• Boundaries: It shares land borders with Albania, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Turkey. It has extensive coastlines along the Aegean Sea, Ionian Sea, and Mediterranean Sea.
• Islands: the Cyclades, Dodecanese, and Ionian Islands.
• Agriculture: Known for olives, olive oil, grapes, and wine.

Shipping: Greece has one of the largest merchant fleets in the world.

Current Context : The Indian Navy’s P-8I aircraft participated in the 22nd edition of Exercise Varuna with the French Navy.

• The India-France bilateral naval Exercise Varuna was conducted in the Mediterranean Sea from September 2-4.
• It include advanced tactical exercises underscoring the deepening synergy and interoperability between the navies of India and France.
• The Indian and French Navy bilateral naval exercise was initiated in 1993.
• It was later christened as ‘Varuna’ in 2001 and has since become a hallmark of the robust India-France strategic bilateral relationship.