Why in news?

• Haryana Chief Minister, Manohar Lal Khattar, while presenting the state budget, has announced a ‘Sushma Swaraj Award’ for women for their significant achievements or contribution in different walks of life in the international and national spheres.
• The Sushma Swaraj Award will carry an award money of Rs 5 lakh along with a commendation.

About the Sushma Swaraj:

• Sushma Swaraj was a lawyer of the Supreme Court as well as an Indian politician.
• She was a senior member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, served as India’s Minister of External Affairs during the first Narendra Modi government (2014–2019). After Indira Gandhi, she was the second woman to occupy this position.

Why in news?

• Debasish Panda has been appointed as the chairman of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI).
• He is a former financial services secretary. The post of Chairman of IRDAI was lying vacant since May 2021 when Subhash Chandra Khuntia completed his term.
• Panda, a 1987-batch IAS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre, retired as financial services secretary in January this year after a two-year stint.
• The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved Panda’s appointment as chairperson of the insurance regulator initially for a period of three years from the assumption of charge.

Why in news?

• Government has appointed Ajay Bhushan Pandey, former Finance & Revenue secretary of India, Ministry of Finance, as new Chairperson of the National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA).
• The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved his appointment for a period of three years from the date of assumption of charge or till he attains the age of 65 years.
• The ACC has also appointed 2 full-time members for NFRA,
• Praveen Kumar Tiwari, former Deputy Comptroller and Auditor General, a retired Indian Audit and Accounts Service official.
• Smita Jhingran, Principal Director General at Central Board of Direct Taxes, an Indian Revenue Service officer.

About the National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA):

• An independent regulatory body set up by the Government of India as envisaged under the provisions of Section 132, Companies Ad, 2013 to oversee the quality of accounting and auditing standards in India.
• Establishment – 01st October, 2018

Why in news?

• A special programme for school students “YUva Vlgyani KAryakram” (YUVIKA) or “Young Scientist Programme” is organized by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
• It will provide basic knowledge related to space technology, space science and space applications to young students, especially rural areas students.
• Objective-To create awareness about the emerging trends in science and technology amongst the young minds.
• Under the YUVIKA-2022 residential programme, 150 students who are studying in Class IX as on March 1, 2022 will get selected across India from different schools. ISRO outlined the programme to “catch them young”.
• lt will start from May 16 2022 to May 28 2022 (two weeks) and the program include talks, experience-sharing by eminent scientists, experimental demonstration, facility and lab visits etc.
• It will also encourage more students to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) based research /career.
• The programme will be held at five ISRO centres —
• Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram
• U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC), Bengaluru •
• Space Application Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad
• National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), Hyderabad
• North-East Space Application Centre (NE-SAC), Shillong.

Why in news?

• Under the Prime Minister’s GatiShakti initiative,and the Ministry of Railways policy on ‘Gati Shakti Multi-Modal Cargo Terminal’ (GCT) , the Asansol Division of Eastern Railway commissioned private siding of Maithan Power at Thaparnagar, Jharkhand.
• This is the first such GCT commissioned by Indian Railways since publication of GCT policy in December 2021.
• In 2009 the Maithan Power Project was started in Jharkhand and the power generation was started in 2011.
• Till now the requirement of coal to the power project was being made through a road which is expected to convert into 120 inward coal rakes per month.
• The new power project will increase the earnings of Indian Railways upto Rs 11 crore per month.

About Prime Minister’s Gati Shakti-

• Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi launched the GatiShakti initiative in 2021.
• It is Rs. 100 lakh crore ‘National Master Plan for Multi-Modal Connectivity’ project.
• Gati Shakti is a digital platform collaborating 16 Central Ministries and Departments to implement infrastructure connectivity projects.

Why in news?

• As per the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (AMASR) Act, any new construction within 100 meters of a temple is prohibited.
• But for PHCP, National Monument Authority (NMA) reportedly issued a No Objection Certificate to the state government for some construction work within the prohibited zone.
• NMA, under Ministry of Culture, has been set up under AMASR provisions for considering grant of permissions for construction related activity in prohibited and regulated area.
• PHCP was unveiled in December 2019 to transform the holy town of Puri into an international Place of heritage.

About Puri Jagannath Temple

• It was constructed by Ganga Dynasty king Ananta Varman Chodaganga Deva dating back to 12th century at the seashore Puri.
• Lord Jagannath, Devi Subhadra and elder brother Balabhadra (the holy trinity) are being worshipped in Puri.
• It is designated as one of the Char Dhams (Dwarika, Badrinath & Rameswaram are other three) for pilgrimages in India.
• Various festivals of Sri Jagannath observed during the year are Snana Yatra, Netrotsava, Ratha Yatra (car festival), Sayan Ekadasi, Chitalagi Amabasya, Srikrushna Janma, Dussehra etc.

Architectural features

• Main temple is constructed in Kalinga architecture, in such a way that no shadow of the temple falls on the ground at any time of the day.
• Idols of the holy trinity are carved out of wood rather than stone or metal idols.
• Unlike other temples of the region, the carvings on the temples are predominantly of gods and goddesses.

Why in news?

• The scheme is a holistic approach that combines innovation in incubation, design intervention and protect IPR to create awareness amongst MSMEs about India’s innovation and motivate them to become MSME Champions.
• CHAMPIONS (Creation and Harmonious Application of Modern Processes for Increasing the Output and National Strength) is basically for making the smaller units big by helping and handholding, in particular, by solving their problems and grievances.
• Details of MSME Innovative Scheme
• Incubation
• Objective: To promote and support untapped creativity and to promote adoption of latest technologies in MSMEs.
• Financial assistance: Up to Rs. 15 lakh per idea and up to Rs. 1 crore for relevant plant and machines.
• Design
• Aim: To provide expert advice and cost-effective solution on real time design problems for new product development, its continuous improvement and value addition.
• Financial assistance: Up to Rs. 40 lakh for design project and up to Rs. 2.5 lakh for student project.
• IPR (Intellectual Property Rights)
• Objective: To improve the IP culture in India with a view to enhance the awareness of IPRs amongst the MSMEs.
• Also aims to take suitable measures for the protection of ideas, technological innovation and knowledge-driven business strategies developed by MSMEs.
• Financial assistance will be provided for Foreign Patent, Domestic Patent, GI Registration etc.

Why in news?

• Chandra’s Atmospheric Composition Explorer-2 (CHACE-2), a mass spectrometer onboard Chandrayaan-2 mission, has made the first-of-its-kind observations of the global distribution of Argon-40 in the lunar exosphere.
• Earlier, NASA’s Apollo-17 had detected presence of Ar-40 in the lunar exosphere confined only to near-equatorial region of Moon.
• Exosphere’ is outermost region of upper atmosphere where the constituent atoms and molecules rarely collide with each other and can escape into space.
• Significance – observations provide details on the spatial variations in Ar-40 through the lunar day covering the equatorial and mid latitude regions of the Moon.
• Observations are also indicative of unknown or additional loss processes, Moon quakes or regions with lower activation energies.

Chandrayaan-2 mission

• It is an Indian lunar mission to explore the unchartered south pole of Moon by landing a rover. Its lander is ‘Vikram’ and rover is ‘Pragyan’.
• Launched by Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk-III in 2019.
• Though mission spacecraft failed its soft landing on the Moon’s surface, its Orbiter continues to successfully collect insights about the Moon.
• About Chandrayaan-1
• It was the first lunar space probe of ISRO and found water on the Moon.
• It mapped Moon in infrared, visible, and X-ray light from lunar orbit and used reflected radiation to prospect for various elements, minerals, and ice.
• About Argon
• It is an inert, colorless and odorless element, and a noble gas.
• Argon-40 is isotope of Argon that originates from the radioactive disintegration of Potassium-40 (K-40) present below the lunar surface.

Why in news?

• Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) organised a webinar on ‘Indian standards on soy products to create awareness about soy products.
• The use of soya bean is getting increased acceptance in the form of textured vegetable protein (popularly known as soy badi or soy nuggets), Soy milk, Tofu, soy dahi, etc.
• To maintain the quality and safety of these products, BIS has published seven Indian standards for soy products like fat soy flour, soy milk, soy nuts, soy butter etc.
• Certification will aid in integrating soy products into the Indian diet. It will also benefit the producer by commanding better prices.
• The ISI mark is a standards-compliance mark for industrial products in India since 1955.
• It certifies that a product conforms to an Indian standard (IS) developed by BIS.

About Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)

• BIS is the National Standard Body of India established under the BIS Act 2016 for the harmonious development of the activities of standardization, marking and quality certification of goods and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
• BIS Certification enables the certificate holder to offer third party guarantee of quality, safety and reliability of products to the customers and is mainly required for import of items.
• While product certification is otherwise voluntary, there is, however, a list of items which for reasons of public health, safety or mass nature of consumption are mandatorily certified by BIS.
• It is headquartered in New Delhi and has 5 regional offices.

Why in news?

• In Chess, Indian Grandmaster, S L Narayanan was declared the winner in the Grandiscacchi Cattolica International Open, held in Italy.
• Meanwhile, his compatriot R Praggnanandhaa came second.
• Though Narayanan and six others, including Praggnanandhaa, finished equal first with 6.5 points after nine rounds. But, Narayanan took the top spot on the basis of a better tie-break score.
• The 24-year old S L Narayanan from Thiruvananthapuram earned the title of Grandmaster in 2015 and is the 41st Grandmaster from India.