• The National Sports Day in India is celebrated every year on 29^th August.
• It is celebrated to commemorate the birth anniversary of hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand Singh.
• The first National Sports Day was celebrated on August 29, 2012 and hence 2023 marks the 12th anniversary of Rashtriya Khel Divas.
• The theme for the National sports day 2023 is “Sports are an enabler to an inclusive and fit society”.

• Indian government has warned against a new scam called ‘Smishing’, which is a portmanteau of SMS and Phishing.
• It uses misleading texts to trick you into revealing confidential information.
• In phishing attacks, a fraudulent e-mail is sent.
  • Smishing uses text messages instead of email.
• Smishing scams often masquerade as legitimate communication from trusted sources, such as banks, government agencies, or well-known brands.
• These messages often create a sense of urgency, compelling recipients to take immediate action.
• They might request personal information like credit card numbers, social security details, or login credentials, under the guise of security verification or account updates.

• Israel’s Defense Ministry and the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) announced recently that they completed two years of outfitting an aircraft with advanced intelligence gathering technology, and that test flights have already begun.
• The spy plane, known as the ORON, is a Gulfstream G550 Aerospace equipped with state-of-the-art sensors, cameras, artificial intelligence, and advanced Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence (C4I) systems.
• It operates at an altitude of up to 40,000-50,000 feet with a flight range of 1,000 km.
• ORON’s real-time monitoring capabilities will provide larger amounts of intelligence than unmanned aerial vehicles.
• The ORON will be operated by the Israeli Air Force’s “Nachshon” 122nd squadron out of the Nevatim Air Base near Beer Sheva.
• The system’s ability to accurately track multiple targets over vast distances and challenging conditions will enable a prompt and precise response to threats.

• The National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) will soon issue a circular outlining the frequently observed deviations in the preparation of financial statements and statutory audits to give guidance to managements and auditors on practices they should strictly avoid.

ABOUT NFRA

• It is the country’s sole independent audit regulator.
• NFRA was constituted in 2018 by the Government of India under section 132 (1) of the Companies Act, 2013.
• HQ- New Delhi
• It replaced the National Advisory Committee on Accounting Standards (“NACAS”).
• Objective- To continuously improve the quality of all corporate financial reporting in India.
• It comes under the purview of Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
• Composition includes a Chairperson, who is a Chartered Accountant and a person of eminence having expertise in accountancy, auditing, finance or law (appointed by the Central Government) and a maximum of 15 members.
• Functions and Duties
  • Recommend accounting and auditing policies and standards to be adopted by companies for approval by the Central Government;
  • Monitor and enforce compliance with accounting standards and auditing standards;
  • Oversee the quality of service of the professions associated with ensuring compliance with such standards and suggest measures for improvement in the quality of service;
  • Perform such other functions and duties as may be necessary or incidental to the aforesaid functions and duties.
• Its account is monitored by the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India.

• C-DOT’s TRINETRA security system was launched recently.
• It is aimed at providing end-to-end security solution to the organizations for detection, analysis and mitigation of cyber security threats.
• TRINETRA is a combination of multiple Security systems like Security information and Event Management (SIEM), Security Orchestration and Automated Response (SOAR), Data Loss Prevention (DLP), User Entity and Behaviour Analytics (UEBA), Multi-Source Threat Intelligence and others.
• The solution provides 24×7 near real-time actionable cyber-security status and detection and resolution of cyber-threats.
• It also performs security evaluation of organization’s IT assets by protecting endpoints including PC, Laptop, Servers and VMs by detection, analyses and mitigation of vulnerabilities and giving AI enabled automated responses to the cyber threats ensuring protection of sensitive data.
• The solution is capable of protecting critical digital infrastructure of various Government departments from ever-evolving cyber threat landscape.

ABOUT C-DOT

• Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) is the premier Telecom R&D centre of the Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications.
• It was established in 1984 and is a registered society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.
• It is a registered ‘public funded research institution’ with the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Ministry of Science & Technology.
• HQ-New Delhi.
• Chairman-Minister of Communication and IT

• Union Home Minister chaired the 26^th meeting of the Western Zonal Council at Gandhinagar
• The composition of Zonal Councils is as under:
  • Northern Zonal Council– Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, National Capital Territory of Delhi and Union Territory of Chandigarh; HQ- New Delhi
  • Western Zonal Council – Gujarat, Goa, and Maharashtra and the Union Territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. HQ- Mumbai
  • Central Zonal Council– Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh; HQ- Prayagraj
  • Eastern Zonal Council– Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal; HQ- Kolkata
  • Southern Zonal Council– Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry. HQ-Chennai

ABOUT ZONAL COUNCILS

• The idea of the creation of Zonal Councils was mooted by the first Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, in 1956.
• Five Zonal Councils (Northern, Central, Eastern, Western and Southern) were established in the year 1957 under Section 15-22 of the States Reorganization Act, 1956.
• Objectives of setting up of Zonal Councils are as under :
  • Bringing out national integration;
  • Arresting the growth of acute State consciousness, regionalism, linguism and particularistic tendencies;
  • Enabling the Centre and the States to co-operate and exchange ideas and experiences;
  • Establishing a climate of co-operation amongst the States for successful and speedy execution of development projects.
• Composition
  • The Union Home Minister is the Chairman of these five Zonal Councils, while the Chief Ministers of the States included in the respective Zonal Council and the administrator and lieutenant governor of the union territories are its members.
  • Two more ministers from each state are nominated by the Governor as members of the council.
  • Each Zonal Council has also constituted a standing committee at the level of chief secretaries.
• The Chief Ministers of the States included in each zone act as Vice-Chairman of the Zonal Council for that zone by rotation, each holding office for a period of one year at a time.

Note

• The North Eastern Council, set up under the North Eastern Council Act, 1972, includes Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Sikkim(added by amendment).
• HQ- Shillong

• The age-old vernacular architecture of the hills — created out of local materials with simple, sustainable building techniques — has endured against the incessant rainfall the state has faced this season.
• Vernacular architecture is “spontaneous, uncultivated, anonymous, indigenous and popular”.
• It is a built environment that is based on local needs; defined by the availability of materials indigenous to the particular region; and it reflects local traditions and cultural practices.

ABOUT KATH-KUNI TECHNIQUE

• For bigger buildings like palaces or temple complexes, an ingenious structural system called kath-kuni — that had an alternate layering of wood and stone — was employed.
• This indigenous style of construction evolved in the western Himalayas.
• In the kath-kuni style, a mesh of interlocking horizontal deodar sleepers is created into which dressed or raw stones are packed without any mortar.
• Examples–
  • The iconic ancient structures like the Bhimakali temple complex in Sarahan are prime examples of the kath-kuni technique.
  • It was constructed by the rulers of the Bushahr dynasty.
  • Around 800 years old, the temple is dedicated to the great female power, Bhimakali, and has survived numerous earthquakes owing to its structural resilience.
  • Also, Raja Sidh Singh got the Naggar Castle built near Kullu about five centuries ago in the same kath-kuni technique. It withstood the massive earthquake in 1905. The resilience lies in the flexibility of dry masonry and alternate layers of wood beams without any cementing material.

• Lt Gen Kanwal Jeet Singh Dhillon (retd) has been appointed as the chairperson of the Board of Governors (BoG) of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, for a period of three years commencing August 25.
• Lt Gen Dhillon commanded the 15 Corps during the period when the Balakote air strikes took place in February 2019 and at the time of abrogation of Article 370 and 35A in August 2019.

• Gujarat State Board for Wildlife (GSBWL) recently deferred a decision on a proposal of the Gujarat State Minerals Development Corporation (GSDMA) seeking more land for “removing manganese dump” from the eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) of Jambughoda Wildlife Sanctuary.
• Spread over 38 square kilometres, the Jambughoda Wildlife Sanctuary is a protected dry, deciduous forest.
• Flora– Teak, mahua and bamboo
• Faunal species- wild boars, nilgais (blue bull), jackals, hyenas, barking deer, sloth bears, and chausinghas (four-horned antelope) and leopards.
• It was established in 1989, but the status of a wildlife sanctuary was given only in May 1990.

• The Prime minister of India was recently conferred with the Grand Cross of the Order of Honour by Greek President Katerina N. Sakellaropoulou in Athens.
• The Grand Cross of the Order of Honour is conferred by the president of Greece to prime ministers and eminent personalities who by reason of their distinguished position, have contributed to enhancing the stature of Greece.
• The Order of Honour was established in 1975.
• This is the second-highest civilian honour in Greece.
• The head of goddess Athena is depicted on the front side of the Star with the inscription “ONLY THE RIGHTEOUS SHOULD BE HONOURED”.