• Simon Harris has been elected the youngest prime minister of the Republic of Ireland.
• In Ireland, the prime minister is called
• He will succeed Leo Varadkar, who resigned in March 2024.
• At the age of 37, he is the youngest prime minister in Ireland.

• Every year April 9 is celebrated as Bravery Day (Valour Day) to pay tribute to the brave soldiers of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). This year (2024), CRPF is celebrating its 59th Bravery Day.
• CRPF Bravery Day remembers the bravery and sacrifice of CRPF personnel fighting against the Pakistani invaders in 1965.
• The day is significant as it honors the courage, dedication and sacrifice of CRPF personnel in protecting the security and integrity of the country.

HISTORY OF THE DAY:

• In 1965, a group of Pakistani soldiers attacked some other Indian soldiers near the Rann of Kutch. The Indian soldiers were unaware of this sudden attack, as they did not know that the attack was going to happen.
• During this attack, a CRPF officer named Bhavana Ram had saved a place called Sardar Post from infiltrators in a fight.
• This was the first time that a special group of police fought directly with Pakistani soldiers and they won. Six police officers died in this fight. To remember their bravery, every year we celebrate CRPF Bravery Day on 9th April.
• The Pakistani army wanted to capture the area protected by Indian troops at Sardar Post. Whereas there were only 150 CRPF soldiers. At the time of the attack, the Pakistani army could not achieve its target despite being larger in numbers and stronger.
• The Pakistani army tried to capture Sardar Post at this place thrice. But the CRPF jawans, acting with indomitable courage and cleverness, forced them to return.
• In this retaliatory action by CRPF, 34 Pakistani soldiers were killed and four others were captured. Unfortunately, six CRPF soldiers were also martyred in this battle.
• CRPF fought the terrorists who attacked the Indian Parliament in 2001 and succeeded in foiling their plans.

ABOUT CENTRAL RESERVE POLICE FORCE (CRPF):

• The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) is a prominent paramilitary force in India, established with the primary objective of maintaining internal security and peace within the country. Formed on July 27, 1939, as the Crown Representative Police during British rule, it underwent several transformations before being officially renamed the Central Reserve Police Force on December 28, 1949.

• Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) has announced the successful deployment in space of its sub-metre resolution optical satellite, TSAT-1A, by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
• The satellite was placed in space as part of the Bandwagon-1 mission and was launched from Kennedy Space centre, Florida, U.S.

ABOUT TSAT-1A:

• It is an optical sub-metre-resolution Earth observation satellite.
• It was built by Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) in collaboration with Latin American company Satellogic Inc, following a collaboration agreement between the two companies in late 2023.
• TSAT-1A was assembled in TASL’s Assembly, Integration, and Testing (AIT) plant at its Vemagal facility in
• It was launched by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, in the US.
• TSAT-1A’s core strength lies in its ability to capture military grade imagery of Earth’s surface with sub-meter resolution.
• It is equipped with both multispectral and hyperspectral imaging capabilities. This technology allows TSAT-1A to collect data across a wide range of wavelengths within the electromagnetic spectrum, providing a deeper and more nuanced understanding of land, water, and various natural resources.
• TSAT-1A boasts greater collection capacity, a wider dynamic range (the ability to capture detail in both very bright and very dark areas), and low-latency delivery of data.

• World Homeopathy Day is celebrated annually on April 10.
• The primary goal of World Homeopathy Day is to raise awareness about homeopathy by bringing practitioners, and supporters together from all around the world.
• The theme of World Homeopathy Day 2024 is “Homeoparivar: One Health, One Family.
• World Homeopathy Day traces its roots back to the birth of Dr Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy. He was born on April 10, 1755.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS:

• President of India Smt Droupadi Murmu inaugurated a two-day Scientific Convention at Yashobhoomi Conventional Centre Dwarka, New Delhi organized by Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy (CCRH).
• The theme of the convention will be “Empowering Research, Enhancing Proficiency: A Homoeopathic Symposium”.

• The Election Commission recently said its Suvidha portal has received over 73,379 applications since the Lok Sabha polls were announced.
• Maximum requests were received from Tamil Nadu (23,239) followed by West Bengal (11,976) and Madhya Pradesh (10,636). Minimum requests received from Chandigarh (17), Lakshadweep (18) and Manipur (20).

ABOUT PORTAL:

• The Suvidha portal is a technological solution developed by ECI to ensure a level playing-field upholding the democratic principles of free, fair and transparent elections.
• The Suvidha Portal streamlined the process of obtaining and acting upon requests for permissions and facilities from political parties and candidates during the election period.
• The Suvidha Portal caters to a diverse range of permission requests transparently on the First in First Out principle.
• It caters to permissions for organising rallies, opening temporary party offices, door-to-door canvassing, video vans, helicopters, obtaining vehicle permits, distributing pamphlets.
• It is supported by a robust IT platform, managed by nodal officers across various state departments. It also has a companion app that enables applicants to track the status of their requests in real time.

• The sitars and tanpuras of Miraj, a small town in Maharashtra’s Sangli district known for its craftsmanship in making musical instruments, have been awarded the coveted Geographical Indication (GI) tags.
• The tradition of making sitars and tanpuras in Miraj goes back more than 300 years, with over seven generations of craftsmen having worked towards making these string instruments.
• On March 30, the government of India’s intellectual property office issued GI tag to the Miraj Musical Instruments Cluster for its sitars and to the Soultune Musical Instrument Producer firm for tanpuras.
• The wood for making the sitars and tanpuras is procured from forests in Karnataka, while pumpkin gourds are sourced from Mangalvedha region of Maharashtra’s Solapur district.
• The cluster manufactures 60 to 70 sitars and around 100 tanpuras in a month.

• The HP government had proposed a tunnel project to improve the connectivity between Chowari town and district headquarters Chamba.
• A feasibility report for the project, expected to cost Rs 1,500 crore, was being prepared for the 7-km tunnel for which Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu had approved an amount of Rs 4 crore.

• Kinnaur Deputy Commissioner Amit Kumar Sharma has launched a two-day pulse polio campaign for children below the age of five in the district at Regional Hospital, Reckong Peo.
• Under the pulse polio campaign, a target had been set to administer polio vaccine to 4,600 children below the age of five in the district, for which 101 booths have been established in the entire district.
• The Chief Medical Officer Dr Sonam Negi provided detailed information about the campaign to locals present on the occasion.

• Anupama Upadhyaya and Tharun clinched the women’s and men’s singles titles, respectively at the Kazakhstan International Challenge tournament in Astana.
• The Kazakhstan International Challenge Tournament was organised by the Kazakhstan National Badminton Federation in Uralsk, Kazakhstan, from 2-6 April 2024.
• In the mixed doubles final, the Indian pair of Sanjai Srivatsa Dhanraj and Maneesha K lost to Malaysia’s Wong Tien Ci and Lim Chiew Sien to sign off with a runner-up finish.

• Former Indian hockey player and Dronacharya awardee coach Harendra Singh has been appointed the new head coach of the Indian women’s hockey team.
• He replaced Dutch coach Janneke Schopman.
• Harendra Singh started his career as a Hockey coach with French club HC Lyon’s junior team in 1995.
• Currently, He is the Coach of United States men’s national hockey team.