• World Hindi Day, also called the Vishwa Hindi Diwas, is observed on January 10.
• It is marked to promote the language.
• On this day in 1949, Hindi was spoken for the first time at the United Nations General Assembly.
• With around 600 million speakers globally, Hindi is one of the most widely spoken languages across the world.
• Vishwa Hindi Diwas was marked for the first time on January 10, 2006, on the instructions of the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
• In 1950, Hindi was declared the official language of the Union of India.
• It is designated as Hindi in Devanagari script in Article 343 of the Constitution of India.

• French President Emmanuel Macron has made a significant political move by appointing Gabriel Attal as the new prime minister of France.
• At 34 years old, Attal is the the youngest prime minister in the country’s history
• He is also the first openly gay official to hold this prestigious position.
• Under the French political system, the prime minister is appointed by the president and is held accountable to the parliament.

• The Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE), Pune, with the help of Hyderabad-based Dvipa Armour India Private Limited (DAIPL), has developed an indigenous assault rifle named ‘Ugram’ aka the fierce one.
  • The ARDE is one of the laboratories of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) that is primarily concerned with research, design, and development in the field of conventional armaments for defence services.

ABOUT UGRAM RIFLE

• It is a completely indigenous rifle.
• The rifle is a 7 to 15 mm assault rifle that was developed within 100 days for both the Indian Army and paramilitary forces.
• This rifle has a 20-round magazine that fires robust and full auto mode.
• The rifle is effective for 500 metres and the weight of the rifle including the magazine is less than 4 kg.

• The Israeli airforce has revived a massive radar blimp, now set to patrol the Israel-Lebanon border amid rising tensions.
• The “Tal Shamayim,” or “Sky Dew” is one of the largest high-altitude observation balloons of its kind.
  • It acts as a detection radar blip for small unmanned aircraft and cruise missiles.
• The High Availability Aerostat System is a collaborative project of the US and Israel, developed by the Israel Ministry of Defense and the US Missile Defense Agency.
• Manufactured by the US company TCOM, the reconnaissance balloon can carry 7,000 pounds and operates at an altitude of about 10,000ft.
• The radar on the balloon is capable of observing at 250 km and tracking multiple targets, including low-altitude ones and those in valleys.

• Researchers at the Indian Institutes of Technology Madras and Mandi have metabolically engineered plant cells to increase production of anti-cancer drug camptothecin (CPT).
  • It is an important anti-cancer drug lead molecule for high-value drugs like Topotecan and Irinotecan.
  • Camptothecin is a molecule procured from nature and then (in a) one-step derivative it is produced as drug.
• The allopathic medicine is produced using Nathapodytes nimmoniana, a native, endangered plant.
• It requires nearly 1,000 tonnes of plant material to extract 1 tonne of CPT.
• Camptothecin is majorly produced in southeast Asian region, with the plant being largely found only in China and India.
  • The Chinese variety (Camptotheca acuminata) of the plant used to extract the cell is listed as critically endangered. There are only 4,000 of the species left.
  • In India the plant (Nothapodytes nimmoniana) is a native of western ghats (also found in Assam and Jammu and Kashmir) and in the last decade there was a 20% decline in population.

• The UAE is set to contribute a critical piece of infrastructure — an airlock module — to the Artemis Lunar Gateway.
• The UAE is the fifth partner in this project after USA, Japan, Canada and the European Union.
• The Artemis Lunar Gateway is designed to be a pivotal outpost for long-term lunar exploration and research, providing a habitat for astronauts and serving as a staging point for missions to the Moon’s surface.
• It is humanity’s first lunar-orbiting space station.
• The station will double as a space laboratory, enabling a range of scientific and technical experiments, and will have a minimum lifespan of 15 years, which is subject to extension.
• The Artemis program, underpinned by the Artemis Accords — a set of principles guiding cooperative lunar exploration — aims to return humans to the Moon, landing the first woman and the first person of colour on its surface.

• Assam recently hosted the famous Chandubi Festival in .

ABOUT CHANDUBI FESTIVAL

• The Chandubi Festival is a vibrant event that takes place near the picturesque Chandubi Lake in Assam’s Kamrup district.
• It is organised every year for five days starting from the first day of the New Year.
• The Chandubi Festival is organized by the people of Rajapara village in the Kamrup district, under the Rabha Hasong Autonomous Council (RHAC).
  • They have been organizing this festival for the past 14 years.
• It is a colourful display of Assamese culture and traditions featuring a diverse range of activities, including folk music performances, traditional dance shows, local handicraft exhibitions, and delicious Assamese cuisine stalls.

ABOUT CHANDUBI LAKE

• Chandubi Lake is a natural lake located in Kamrup district of Assam.
• Situated at the foothills of Garo hills, it is one of the beautiful lakes in Assam.
• Chandubi Lake was formed in 1897 during the devastating earthquake in Assam.
• Chandubi is derived from two words where Chand means five and Dubi means sinking in Khasi language.
• According to the locals, Chandubi was a hilly area with five mountains before 1897. The five mountains had sunken into the ground during the earthquake and form the lake.

• In a historic milestone, India is set to take the reins as the chair of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee for the very first time.
• New Delhi will be the epicenter of global discussions on heritage preservation, as the prestigious World Heritage Committee’s 46^th session in July 2024.

ABOUT WORLD HERITAGE COMMITTEE

• The Committee is responsible for the implementation of the World Heritage Convention, defines the use of the World Heritage Fund and allocates financial assistance upon requests from States Parties.
• The World Heritage Committee plays a crucial role in evaluating potential new additions to the prestigious list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
• It also oversees the implementation of conservation measures for existing sites facing challenges.
• It has the final say on whether a property is inscribed on the World Heritage List.
• It also decides on the inscription or deletion of properties on the List of World Heritage in Danger.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

• The World Heritage Committee meets once a year.
• It consists of representatives from 21 of the States Parties to the Convention elected by their General Assembly.
• According to the World Heritage Convention, a Committee member’s term of office is for six years, but most States Parties choose voluntarily to be Members of the Committee for only four years, in order to give other States Parties an opportunity to be on the Committee.
• Bureau of the World Heritage Committee
  • The Bureau consists of seven States Parties elected annually by the Committee: a Chairperson, five Vice-Chairpersons, and a Rapporteur.

• The death anniversary of Bharatendu Harishchandra was observed recently.

ABOUT BHARATENDU HARISHCHANDRA (9 SEPTEMBER 1850- 6 JANUARY 1885)

• He was an Indian poet, writer and playwright.
• He is considered the father of modern Hindi literature as well as Hindi theatre.
• Writing under the pen name “Rasa”, Harishchandra represented the agonies of the people, the country’s poverty, dependency, inhuman exploitation, the unrest of the middle class and the urge for the progress of the country
• He authored several dramas, life sketches and travel accounts, using new media such as reports, publications, letters to editors of publications, translations, and literary works to shape public opinion.
• At the age of 18, he wrote the Hindi translation of the Bengali play ‘Vidyasundar’.
• Bharatendu Harishchandra is known as father of ‘Khadi Boli and one of the era of Hindi literature in ‘Khadi Boli’ is also known as ‘Bharatendu Yuga’ after him.
• Major works
  • Journals: HarishChandra chandrika, Kavivachan Sudha etc.
  • Drama: Andher Nagari, Bharat Durdasha, Vaidik Hinsa Hinsa Na Bhavati etc.
  • Poetry: Bhakta Sarvagya, Prem Tarang, Madhumukul, Uttarardha Bhaktamal, Varsha Vinod, etc.

OTHER FACTS

• The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of India confers Bharatendu Harishchandra Awards to encourage original and creative writing in Hindi since1983.

• Clean Core Thorium Energy, the Chicago-based company has developed (and patented) a fuel, which is a mix of Thorium and Uranium of a certain level of enrichment, called HALEU (High Assay Low Enriched Uranium).
  • HALEU is Uranium enriched to more than 5 per cent but less than 20 per cent.
• It is being called ANEEL (Advanced Nuclear Energy for Enriched Life) — named in honor of India’s foremost nuclear scientists, Dr Anil Kakodkar.

ADVANTAGE FOR INDIA

• India has the world’s largest reserves of Thorium, estimated at 07 million tones.
  • Thorium is derived from minerals like monazite (containing 10% thoria and 0.3% urania) and thorianite.
• If India uses this Thorium, it can then produce enough green energy and easily turn net-zero by its target date of 2070.
  • But, Thorium is a fertile material and not a fissile material.
  • This means, it must be paired with Uranium-235 or Plutonium-239 to be used as fuel in a reactor.
  • As neutrons from these fissile materials bombard Thorium, it mutates into Uranium-233, which is also a fissile material. So, to use the Thorium in India, you need sufficient stocks of Uranium-235 (which India has very little of), or Plutonium-239 (which is produced using Uranium-235).
• This is where ANEEL fuel can be a game changer for india

ABOUT ANEEL FUEL

• ANEEL can be used in the existing Pressurized Heavy-Water Reactors (PHWRs), an indigenous reactor system that is the workhorse of India’s nuclear fleet.
• India has 18 PHWR reactors of a total capacity of 4,460 MW and is building ten more of 700 MW each.
• The ANEEL fuel bundle lasts much longer and burns more efficiently.
  • Its burn-up is 60,000 MW-days per tonne, compared with the 7,000 MW-days per tonne of the conventional natural uranium fuel in PHWRs.
• It also leads to significant reduction in waste generation and cost savings.
• Due to the inherent benefits of using thorium, the spent ANEEL fuel cannot be used for weapons.