• Arab league members have readmitted Syria whose membership was suspended in 2011.

About Arab League

• Arab League, also called League of Arab States (LAS) is a regional organization of Arab states in the Middle East and parts of Africa.
• It is an intergovernmental pan-Arab organisation of Arab states in Middle East and North Africa.
• It was established in Cairo on 22^nd March 1945, following adoption of Alexandria Protocol in 1944.
• The founding member states were Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen.
  • Currently it has 22 Arab countries as members including Palestine, which the League regards as an independent state.
• It was established in response to concerns about post-war colonial divisions of territory and also strong opposition to emergence of a Jewish state on Palestinian territory.
• HQ- Cairo, Egypt.
• Aim– To strengthen ties among member states, coordinate their policies and direct them towards a common good.
• The highest body of the league is the Council, composed of representatives of member states, usually foreign ministers, their representatives or permanent delegates.
• The League makes decisions on a majority basis, but there is no mechanism to compel members to comply with resolutions.
• Each member has one vote on the Council, decisions being binding only on those states that have voted for them.

• Many artists and craftsmen specialising in Chamba “rumal”, “thal”, “chappal”, miniature painting, sculpture, wood and stone art continue to earn their livelihood through traditional crafts, thereby preserving the glorious traditions of the region.
• To preserve and promote the rich art and culture of Chamba, the district administration has started the “Chambyal” project.
• Art and craft societies have been registered to give practical shape to the project.
• Famous art products of the district like Chamba “rumal” and Chamba “chappal” have received the Geographical Indication (GI) tag under the GI Act, 1999.
• On the initiative of the district administration, the Himachal Pradesh Patent Information Centre, Shimla, has completed the process under the GI tag for Chamba metal craft as well.

• A new BSS under Project Sanjay is in the process of being deployed.
• Under BSS, the aim is to have surveillance centres for all field formations by December 2025.
• It will integrate thousands of sensors which will enable provision of an integrated surveillance picture to commanders and staff at all levels, besides completing sensor-shooter grid by integrating with Artillery Combat Command and Control System (ACCCS).
• Complementing the BSS is the Army Information and Decision Support System, an upgraded and redesigned version of erstwhile Combat Information Decision Support System, which will integrate inputs from all operational and managerial information systems.
• Bharat Electronics Limited is the system integrator of this ambitious project.

About Project Sanjay

• Indian Army’s BSS, named ‘SANJAY’, was conceived to develop an automated system with dedicated intra-communication.
• It involves integration of surveillance sensors at Division and Corps level on a customized Geographical Information System (GIS) platform with multi sensor data fusion undertaken at the Surveillance Centre for providing inputs to the CIDSS.

• The Prime Minister recently praised the initiative Project Dantak to commemorate the 64th Raising Day.
• Project Dantak was established in 1961.
• Project Dantak is an overseas project of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) under the Ministry of Defence.
• It was tasked to construct the pioneering motorable roads in Bhutan.
• Some notable projects executed by the project include construction of Paro Airport, Thimphu – Trashigang Highway, Telecommunication & Hydro Power Infrastructure, Sherubtse College, and India House Estate.
• The project recruits local workers from Bhutan as well as Indian workers from adjoining districts along the India-Bhutan border.

• World Athletics Day, established by the International Amateur Athletic Federation, is celebrated on May 7^th every year.
• Aim-to promote sports and exercise as a means of preventing diseases and maintaining good health.
• Theme for World Athletics Day 2023 is “Athletics for All – A New Beginning.”
• The International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) created World Athletics Day in 1996 to promote the importance of sports for physical and mental well-being.

• To facilitate transparency and informed decision-making among the investors, markets regulator SEBI recently mandated additional requirements for the issuance and listing of transition bonds.
  • The issuer of transition bonds will have to use a denotation ‘GB-T’.
  • The transition plan should contain the details of interim targets, along with an indicative timeline for achieving the targets.
  • The interim targets should also reflect the indicative figure regarding how much emissions the issuer is envisaging to reduce.

About Transition Bonds

• Transition bond is a class of debt instruments, the proceeds of which are used to fund a firm’s transition towards a reduced environmental impact or to reduce their carbon emissions.
• Unlike green bonds that are earmarked to raise money for climate and environmental projects solely , transition bonds can be issued by firms aspiring to reduce their GHG emissions.
• The money can be used for activities that reduce the environmental impact of the business, such as carbon capture and storage, decommissioning coal plants, waste-to-energy, or exclusively financing new and/or existing eligible transition projects.

• The construction of India’s first International Multimodal Logistics Park in Jogighopa, Assam, is underway.
• The park will provide direct connectivity to waterways, road, rail, and air, and is expected to be completed in 2023.
• The project aims to revamp the transportation network in the Northeastern region of India, including neighbouring countries like Bhutan and Bangladesh.
• The International Multimodal Logistics Park is being developed under the ambitious Bharatmala Pariyojana of the Government, and is the first such project of its kind.
• The park is being constructed by National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL)
• The park will have all the necessary facilities such as a warehouse, railway siding, cold storage, custom clearance house, yard facility, workshops, petrol pumps, truck parking, administrative building, boarding lodging, eating joints, and water treatment plant.

• The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) recently written to the Chief Wildlife Warden of Karnataka to furnish a status report on an illegal resort in the Castle Rock Wildlife Range of the Kali Tiger Reserve (KTR).

About Kali Tiger Reserve

• Kali Tiger Reserve, also known as Dandeli-Anshi Tiger Reserve is located in Uttara Kannada District of Karnataka.
• It is a part of the Western Ghats.
• The Tiger Reserve comprises of two important protected areas of the region viz.,
  • Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary and Anshi National Park are contiguous to each other and form a single tract of protected area located in biologically sensitive Western Ghats.
• Kali River flows through the tiger reserve.
• Vegetation: Forests are primarily moist deciduous and semi-evergreen, with excellent patches of evergreen forests in the westernmost parts as well as in deep valleys.
• Flora- bintangur, Malabar tamarind, Garcinia morella, more than 80 species of Orchids
• Fauna– tigers, black panthers, elephants, Indian bison, sloth bear, Indian wild boar, bonnet macaque, northern plains gray langur, gray slender loris, barking deer, sambar deer and spotted deer.

• Reserve Bank of India and BIS have launched G20 TechSprint, a global technology competition.

About Bank for International Settlements

• BIS was created in 1930 at Hague Conference.
• HQ: Basel, Switzerland.
• Aim- Support central banks’ pursuit of monetary and financial stability through international cooperation, and to act as a bank for central banks.
• BIS Governance is exercised at three levels –
  • Board of Directors,
  • General Meetings of member central banks and
  • BIS Management – as determined by its Statutes.
• BIS is owned by 63 central banks including Indian Central Bank(RBI), representing countries from around world that together account for about 95% of world GDP.
• It has two representative offices- in Hong Kong SAR and in Mexico City.

• Thickly knitted fishing gill nets have recently caused the death of river dolphin.

About Gangetic Dolphin(Platanista gangetica gangetica),

• It is a river Dolphin, and the national aquatic animal of India.
• Common name -Susu.
• They are generally blind and catch their prey using ultrasonic sound which reaches the prey.
• Females are larger than males.
• Found in deep waters, in and around the confluence of rivers.
• States- Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
• Threats include Direct killing, habitat fragmentation by dams and barrages and indiscriminate fishing.
• IUCN status: Endangered.