• Pyarelal Sharma, the one-half of the iconic music composer duo Laxmikant-Pyarelal, has been honoured with the Lakshminarayana International Award for his contribution to art.
• Pyarelal, 83, was also announced as a recipient of the Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian honour, on the eve of Republic Day.
• The Lakshminarayana International Award was presented to the industry veteran by musicians L

Subramaniam and Kavita Krishnamurti Subramaniam as part of the Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival, which they have been conducting for 33 years.

• World Pulses Day is celebrated on 10 February every year.
• The UN General Assembly recognised the value of pulses in 2013 and initiated the process of adopting the year 2016 as the International Year of Pulses (IYP).
• In 2018, the United Nations General Assembly declared February 10 as World Pulses Day.
• This year, the theme for World Pulses Day is ‘#Pulses: nourishing soils and people’.
• The theme emphasises the importance of pulses in improving soil health and nutrient cycling, which can lead to increased crop productivity and food security.

• In an attempt to hit a target in Kyiv, Russian forces launched a 3M22 Zircon missile, according to a report published in Ukrainian media.
• The report noted that one of the images specifically depicts a piece of debris bearing the “3M22” designation, which, along with the Kh-47 Kinzhal, is associated with the so-called “Putin’s wunderwaffe,” or the Russian military’s most popular “hypersonic” long-range strike weapons.
• If the use of Zircon is confirmed, it will be the first combat use of Russia’s newest hypersonic missile.

ABOUT ZIRCON MISSILE

• The missile is reportedly capable of flying with speeds up to Mach 9 and a range of 1000 km.
• It’s a two-stage missile that uses solid fuel in the first stage and a scramjet motor in the second stage.
• Zircon cruise missiles use cooled supersonic combustion ramjet engines, which power combustion by compressing air flowing at supersonic speeds due to the missile’s forward motion.

• The Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT Kanpur), has successfully developed and tested India’s first hypervelocity expansion tunnel test facility.
  • An expansion tunnel is an aerodynamic (relating to the properties of moving air, and the interaction between the air and solid bodies moving through it) facility capable of generating high-energy test conditions with negligible or no ionisation.
  • In these aerodynamic testing facilities, achieving high speeds for an aircraft is the goal.
• Hypervelocity means very high velocity, say, over 3,000 metres per second.
• India now joins the small group of nations that have this advanced hypersonic (speed more than five times than that of sound) testing capability.
• The facility, called S2, will help the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) perform missions.
• There are four major sections in the facility: a free piston driver, a compression tube, a shock or acceleration tube, and a test section with a vacuum system to generate hypersonic speeds.

• The Asian Development Bank (ADB) which started operations in India in 1986 has appointed Japanese national Mio Oka as its new Country Director for India.

ABOUT ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

• ADB assists its members, and partners, by providing loans, technical assistance, grants, and equity investments to promote social and economic development.
• ADB maximizes the development impact of its assistance by facilitating policy dialogues, providing advisory services, and mobilizing financial resources through co-financing operations that tap official, commercial, and export credit sources.
• Established on 19 December 1966, with 31 members
• Takeshi Watanabe was ADB’s first President.
• From 31 members at its establishment in 1966, ADB has grown to encompass 68 members—of which 49 are from within Asia and the Pacific and 19 outside.
• Headquarters- Manila, Philippines.
• ADB’s five largest shareholders are Japan and the United States (each with 15.6% of total shares), the People’s Republic of China (6.4%), India (6.3%), and Australia (5.8%).

• NASA’s PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) satellite was recently launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

ABOUT PACE

• PACE, NASA’s newest Earth-observing satellite, will help scientists better understand how climate change is affecting blooms of ocean phytoplankton.
  • Phytoplankton, also known as microalgae, is the foundation of the ocean’s food web.
  • They are the primary producers of energy, feeding everything from tiny zooplankton to whales that weigh multiple tons.
  • The smaller fish and ocean creatures that feed on phytoplankton are then eaten by bigger fish.
• PACE will also help understand the influence of particles in the air, like dust and smoke, on cloud formation as well as the warming and cooling of the planet.
• PACE was injected directed into its final orbit.
• PACE was placed in a sun-synchronous orbit, which means that it will always be synced to the same position relative to the Sun.
  • This also means that it will cross the planet’s equator at the same local time for each orbit.
  • This will be useful because the angle at which the sun illuminates the planet will remain constant throughout each image it takes.
• PACE has two fundamental science goals-
  • To extend key systematic ocean colour, aerosol, and cloud data records for Earth system and climate studies.
  • To address new and emerging science questions using its advanced instruments, surpassing the capabilities of previous and current missions.

• President Droupadi Murmu inaugurated the Aadi Mahotsav 2024 on 10^TH February at Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium in New Delhi.
• It is an annual National Tribal Festival.
• The event, organized by TRIFED under the aegis of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, will showcase the rich diversity of India’s tribal heritage till the 18th of February.
• The festival will feature over 300 stalls, offering a varied display of Tribal art, handicrafts, natural produce, and delectable tribal cuisine.
• About 1000 artisans from across the country will also participate and showcase their performances.
• A separate Food Court showcasing Tribal cuisines from different parts of the country has also been set up.
• The entry to the festival is free of cost.

ABOUT TRIFED

• TRIFED was established in August 1987 under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 1984 as a National level Cooperative body under the administrative control of the then Ministry of Welfare of India.
• It is under the purview of Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
• Mandate- bringing about socio-economic development of tribals of the country by institutionalizing the trade of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) & Surplus Agricultural Produce (SAP) collected/ cultivated by them.
• Headquarters- New Delhi
• TRIFED’s MSP for MFP & VanDhan program is in line with the “The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers ( Forest Rights Act, 2006 )”.

• The Centre recently approved the “Pradhan Mantri Matsya Kisan Samridhi Sah-Yojana (PM-MKSSY)”.
• The Cabinet also approved extension of Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF) for another three years up to 2025-26.

ABOUT PRADHAN MANTRI MATSYA KISAN SAMRIDHI SAH YOJANA

• The PM-MKSSY is a central sector sub-scheme under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada for formalisation of the fisheries sector and supporting fisheries micro and small enterprises.
• Under PM-MKSSY, an investment of over Rs 6,000 crore will be done over a period of next four years from financial year 2023-24 to 2026-27 in all States/Union Territories.
• Under this initiative, a National Fisheries Digital Platform will be created to provide 40 lakh small and micro-enterprises work-based identities.
• Aims and objectives of PM-MKSSY
  • Gradual Formalization of the unorganized fisheries sector through self registration of fishers, fish farmers and supportive workers under a National Fisheries Sector Digital Platform including creation of work based digital identifies of fish workers for improved service delivery.
  • Facilitating access to institutional financing fisheries sector micro and small enterprises.
  • Providing one-time incentive to beneficiaries for purchasing aquaculture insurance.
  • lncentivizing fisheries and aquaculture microenterprises through performance grants for improving fisheries sector value-chain efficiencies including creation and maintenance of jobs.
  • Incentivising micro and small enterprises through performance grants for adoption and expansion of fish and fishery product safety and quality assurance systems including creation and maintenance of jobs.

• Bovin Kumar, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Cube Highways and Transportation Assets Advisors, a subsidiary of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), has been awarded prestigious ‘National Highway Excellence Awards 2022’.
• Bovin Kumar hails from Dhauladhar Colony in Palampur.
• The award was presented by Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road Transport & Highways.
• This special recognition is a testament to Kumar’s exceptional leadership role in Ghaziabad Aligarh Expressway Private Limited (GAEPL), which achieved a groundbreaking feat and created a World Record.
• Under his guidance, GAEPL successfully laid an astounding 112.5 lane km of bituminous concrete road within an unprecedented time frame of 100 hours.

• Shimla Jal Prabandhan Nigam Limited (SJPNL) has decided to rejuvenate the 150-year-old Seog water supply scheme before monsoon winds hit the region this year.
• It’s the first water scheme of the city, laid by the British around 1875.
• A line from this scheme supplied water to the residence of the Viceroy of India.
• In view of the scheme’s historical and heritage value, the SJNPL has roped in the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH).