• A huge Pulikali dance fest was held in Thrissur, Kerala to finish to the Onam celebrations.

ABOUT PULIKALI DANCE

• Pulikali, or dance of the leopards, has a history dating back to over 200 years, as per local people.
• It was originally started as a form of entertainment for the local population, particularly farmers and labourers, during the Onam festivities.
• The art form has evolved over time, incorporating new themes and designs, while still preserving its cultural significance
• Preparation
  • The performers paint intricate detailed designs on their bodies using vibrant colours to resemble tigers, which may take several hours or even an entire night.
  • The costumes typically include masks and accessories that complete the animal’s appearance.
• The choreography is essentially miming a tiger that moves on its hind legs.
• The influence of Kalaripayattu, Kerala’s martial art, can be clearly seen.
• All movements of the hands and the body are in perfect unison to the rhythmic accompaniment.
• The performances are accompanied by traditional percussion instruments such as chenda(a cylindrical drum) and thakil (a pair of cymbals).
• The rhythmic beats of these instruments add to the energy of the performance.

• The Law Ministry issued a notification on the ‘One Nation One Election’ committee.
• The committee has former President of India Ram Nath Kovind as chairman and seven other members – Home Minister Amit Shah, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury (although rejected to be a part later), Ghulam Nabi Azad, NK Singh, Subhash C. Kashyap, Harish Salve and Sanjay Kothari.
• The panel will commence functioning immediately and make recommendations at the earliest.
• Mandate
  • The committee will examine and recommend specific amendments to the Constitution, the Representation of the People Act and any other laws and rules which would require amendments for the purpose of holding simultaneous elections.
  • It will also examine and recommend, if the amendments to the Constitution would require ratification by the States.
  • The committee will also analyse and recommend possible solutions to scenarios such as hung House, adoption of no-confidence motion, or defection or any such other event in case of simultaneous elections.
  • The committee will hear and entertain all persons, representations and communications which in its opinion can facilitate its work and enable it to finalise its recommendations.

BRIEF HISTORY

• Simultaneous elections were the norm until 1967.
• However after the dissolution of a few Legislative Assemblies in 1968-1969 and that of Lok Sabha in 1970, elections to State Assemblies and Parliament have been held separately.

PRIOR EFFORTS

• The Election Commission had suggested about simultaneous elections back in 1983.
• The Law Commission headed by Justice B P Jeevan Reddy, in its 170^th Report in May 1999, stated, “We must go back to the situation where the elections to Lok Sabha and all the Legislative Assemblies are held at once”.

PROS

• Making polls simultaneous would address concerns, such as reducing the cost of holding elections and limiting all elections to a single season.
• Model Code of Conduct gets in the way of the government announcing projects or policy plans.

CONS

• Complexity of such an exercise.
• Simultaneous polls would benefit the nationally dominant party at the cost of regional players, and
• The complications that would arise if any of the governments were to collapse before completing its term.
• Logistical issues-Availability of EVMs and

• After Chandrayaan and Aditya L1, the next big thing happening in India to reveal deep mysteries of space is the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory project or LIGO-India.
• Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of space-time, caused by moving celestial objects.
• A spherical body like Earth, when squeezed from one side tends to elongate in the other side, just like a rubber ball would behave when squeezed. It is this behaviour that LIGO uses to detect gravitational waves.

ABOUT LIGO-INDIA

• It is coming up in Maharashtra’s Hingoli district.
  • The area is part of the underdeveloped Marathwada region of Maharashtra.
• LIGO-India will be the third node of the LIGO Laboratory in the US, which has observatories in Hanford (Washington) and Livingston (Louisiana).
• The design is exactly the same as that of the two existing LIGO facilities in the United States.
  • The observatory will have a Corner Station and two 4-km long arms, essentially vacuum chambers, each with a diameter of 1.2 metres and in a piped casing that stretch out in an L-formation.
• Once completed, LIGO-India will join a global network of gravitational-wave observatories that includes Virgo in Italy and KAGRA in Japan.
• The LIGO observatory is expected to commence operations by 2030 with an expected life of 30 years.
• It will be built by Department of Atomic Energy and Department of Science and Technology.

THEORY

• Albert Einstein predicted gravitational waves , in 1915, in his General Theory of Relativity.
• He proposed that open space, or rather space-time, wasn’t something that was fixed, inert or transparent, but was affected by the presence, and movement, of celestial bodies like planets and stars.

DETECTION

• At the end of the two vacuum chambers are placed highly-reflective mirrors. Light rays released into both the vacuum chambers hit the mirrors, get reflected and are captured back.
  • In normal circumstances, the light rays in both the chambers would return simultaneously.
  • But when a gravitational wave arrives, one of the chambers gets a little elongated, while the other one gets squished a bit.
  • In this case, light rays do not return simultaneously and there is a phase difference. The presence of a phase difference marks the detection of a gravitational wave.

APPLICATION

• A large part of the universe is known to be completely ‘dark’, with no electromagnetic radiation coming from these areas. These areas remain invisible to human beings.
• Gravitational waves offer scientists a completely new window for looking at the universe.

• As many as 732 persons tested positive for scrub typhus while five deaths due to disease have been reported in Himachal Pradesh so far this year.

ABOUT SCRUB TYPHUS

• Scrub typhus is a seasonal zoonotic (animal borne disease).
• It is caused by a bacteria- Orientia tsutsugamushi.
• It spreads through bites of infected chiggers (flea larval mites).
• The most common symptoms of scrub typhus are fever, headache, body aches and sometimes rash.
• Being curable, its early detection can help cure the disease.

• The government has recently appointed Jaya Verma Sinha as the Chairperson of the Railway Board.
  • The Board is the top decision-making body for the Ministry of Railways.
• Sinha is the first ever woman to head the Board in its 118-year-old history.

• Nagaland has become the first state in North Eastern region to launch the Aadhaar-Linked Birth Registration (ALBR) system.
• It focuses on simplifying the procedures of birth registration and Aadhaar enrolment for children aged 0 to 5 years.

• Bhaderwah Rajmah and Sulai honey, both hailing from the districts of Doda and Ramban in Jammu and Kashmir, have been granted Geographical Indication (GI) tags.
• Bhaderwah Rajmash, a variety of red kidney beans characterised by its smaller size and distinct texture, boasts a sweet and nutty flavor that adds a delightful touch to various culinary creations.
• Sulai honey stands out as a premium and exotic honey variety originating from the enchanting landscapes of Ramban.
  • Revered for its exceptional taste worldwide, this honey is meticulously extracted from Sulai plants thriving in the Himalayan terrain of Ramban and Doda.

• Indian Space Research Organisation’s Liquid Propulsion Research Centre (IPRC) in Mahendragiri, has successfully tested the CE-20 cryogenic rocket engine.
• It will be used in ISRO’s ‘Mission Gaganyaan’.
• The cryogenic engine CE – 20 is to be used in the upper stage of the Launch Vehicle Mark – 3.
• It is the first Indian cryogenic engine to feature a gas-generator cycle.
• It uses liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen for producing thrust.

ABOUT MISSION GAGANYAAN

• It envisages demonstration of human spaceflight capability by launching crew of 3 members to an orbit of 400 km for a 3 days mission and bring them back safely to earth, by landing in Indian sea waters.

• To safeguard the kakapo – a unique New Zealand parrot – the genomes of nearly all remaining individuals have been sequenced, providing vital information for conservation management.

ABOUT KAKAPO

• Scientific name– Strigops habroptila
• It is the heaviest parrot in the world, with some males exceeding 3 kilograms, and is thought to have the longest lifespan, up to 90 years.
• It is the only parrot species that can’t fly, instead climbing trees or foraging on the ground to find food like nuts and seeds.

• It is the only lek-breeding parrot species in the world.
• The green-coloured birds were once widespread throughout New Zealand, but now only 250- odd individuals are left that are managed by New Zealand’s Department of Conservation in partnership with Maori groups on five predator-free islands.
  • Predators include cats and dogs
• They only breed when rimu trees put out masses of fruit (rimu mast years) – every two to four years.
• Threats: Predators, disease, genetic inbreeding, infertility
• IUCN red list status – ‘critically endangered’

• The International Solar Alliance (ISA) hosted its 5th regional meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, supported by the Government of Rwanda, with 36 countries and Ministers of 15 countries participating.
• A total of nine solar power demonstration projects were inaugurated in the Republic of Uganda, the Union of Comoros and the Republic of Mali.
  • Four of these projects are in Uganda, two in Comoros and three in Mali.

About

• The International Solar Alliance (ISA) is an action-oriented, member-driven, collaborative platform for increased deployment of solar energy technologies as a means for bringing energy access, ensuring energy security, and driving energy transition in its member countries.
• The ISA was conceived as a joint effort by India and France to mobilize efforts against climate change through deployment of solar energy solutions.
• HQ- Gurugram
• It was conceptualized on the sidelines of the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held in Paris in 2015.
• At present, 116 countries are signatories to the ISA Framework Agreement, of which 94 countries have submitted the necessary instruments of ratification to become full members of the ISA.
• All member states of the United Nations are now eligible to join the ISA.
• The ISA is guided by its ‘Towards 1000’ strategy which aims to mobilise USD 1,000 billion of investments in solar energy solutions by 2030, while delivering energy access to 1,000 million people using clean energy solutions and resulting in installation of 1,000 GW of solar energy capacity.
  • This would help mitigate global solar emissions to the tune of 1,000 million tonnes of CO2 every year.
• Currently, the ISA has 9 comprehensive programmes, each focusing on a distinct application that could help scale deployment of solar energy solutions.
• Activities under the programmes focuses on 3 priority areas – Analytics & Advocacy, Capacity Building, and Programmatic Support