• The Spanish region of Catalonia has declared a state of emergency as it faces its worst drought on record.
• More than six million Catalans will be affected across 200 towns and cities, including the capital Barcelona.
• Catalonia is one of Spain’s richest and most highly industrialised regions.
• It is located in north east of Iberian peninsula.

• Every year, International Day of Human Fraternity is observed on February 4^th.
• History
  • On February 4, 2019, the historic document – Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together – was signed by the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, and Pope Francis.
  • On December 21, 2020, International Day of Human Fraternity was established by the United Nations General Assembly.
  • Since then, International Day of Human Fraternity is observed on February 4 every year.

• The AYUSH Minister recently laid the foundation of the first yoga and naturopathy hospital in the northeast.
• About ₹100 crore would be invested in the Central Research Institute of Yoga and Naturopathy (CRIYN) at Dihing Khamtighat in eastern Assam’s Dibrugarh district.
• The institute, along with a 100-bed hospital, would be spread across 15 acres.
• The institute is being built to bring a scientifically valid and useful synergy between traditional knowledge of yoga and naturopathy and modern tools of technology.
• It will establish benchmark standards in education, preventive healthcare and research in yoga and naturopathy.

• On the 4^th of February every year, the world observes World Cancer Day and unites to raise awareness on fundamental cancer issues.
• It is the global uniting initiative led by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC).
• Between 2022 and 2024, the theme/focus of World Cancer Day is to help “Close the cancer gap.”
• Created in 2000, World Cancer Day has grown into a positive movement for everyone, everywhere to unite under one voice to face one of the greatest challenges in history.

• The five-member committee constituted for drafting the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in Uttarakhand handed over its final report to the State’s Chief Minister.

ABOUT THE RECOMMENDATIONS

• The UCC draft, spanning around 750 pages and spread across four volumes, is written in ‘full’ Hindi and does not have a single word of ‘Urdu’ or any other language.
• The committee has recommended strict punishment for triple talaq and nikahhalala practices, pertaining to Muslim personal laws and also suggested keeping the tribal community out of the UCC ambit.
  • The tribal population of Uttarakhand constitutes around 2.9 per cent of the total population.
• The final UCC draft has focused on all sections, be it gender equality or elimination of arbitrariness and discrimination, from uniform laws on property rights to adoption rules.
• The Bill has recommended that no tampering should be done with the Schedule Tribes (STs), transgender rights, religious matters, and traditions.
• The draft has also advised ban on polygamy and polyandry.
• It has recommended to make live-in relationships legal but ensure mandatory registration of such couples.
• It also recommended the minimum age of marriage for women to be 21 years and women will have equal rights in inheritance as men.
• The committee has also recommended for uniform use of the existing laws under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act to ensure same adoption laws for all communities.

About the committee

• The Uttarakhand government in June 2022 had formed a committee to examine ways for the implementation of UCC.
• The committee, headed by retired Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, also has retired Justice Pramod Kohli, social worker Manu Gaur (heading Taxpayers Association of Bharat), retired IAS officer Shatrughan Singh and Vice Chancellor of Doon University Surekha Dangwal as members.
• The committee had convened 72 meetings to interact with about 10,000 people in Uttarakhand and those from the State living outside, to finally prepare the report.
• The State has given four extensions to this committee in the span of around 20 months.

• The Ministry of Women and Child Development has developed the “Track Child Portal”, which enables tracking of the missing and found children in all States/UTs.
• The Track Child portal is implemented with support and involvement of various stakeholders namely Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Railways, State Governments/ UT Administrations, Child Welfare Committees, Juvenile Justice Boards, National Legal Services Authority, etc.
• The TrackChild portal is also integrated with the CCTNS or Crime and Criminal Tracking & Network Systems of the Ministry of Home Affairs, which allows interoperability in terms of matching of F.I.Rs of missing children with database of TrackChild to trace and match missing children by the concerned State/UT police.
• One component of Track Child Portal has “Khoya-Paya” where any citizen can report for any missing or sighted children.

GHAR PORTAL

• GHAR – GO Home and Re-Unite (Portal for Restoration and Repatriation of Child) has been developed and launched by National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) to digitally monitor and track the restoration and repatriation of children as per the protocols under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 and Rules thereof.
• The following are the salient features of the portal-
  • Digital tracking and monitoring of children who are in the Juvenile Justice system.
  • Digital transfer of cases of children to the concerned Juvenile Justice Board/Child Welfare Committee of the State for speedy repatriation of children.
  • Where there is a requirement of a translator/interpreter/expert, request to be made to the concerned State Government.
  • Child Welfare Committees and District Child Protection Officers can ensure proper restoration and rehabilitation of children by digitally monitoring the progress of the case of the child.
  • List of Government implemented schemes is also provided
• As informed by NCPCR, a total 5175 children have been registered on the Go Home and Re-Unite (GHAR) Portal for repatriation.

ABOUT NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR PROTECTION OF CHILD RIGHTS (NCPCR)

• NCPCR is a statutory body set up in March 2007 under the Commissions for Protection of Child Rights (CPCR) Act, 2005.
• The Commission is further mandated to monitor the proper and effective implementation of-
  • Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.
  • Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.
  • Right to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009.
• It is the apex body for safeguarding children’s rights.
• Works under the purview of Ministry of Women & Child Development.
• Members include- 1 chairperson and 6 members, at least two of the members should be women.

• INS Sandhayak, the first Survey Vessel Large (SVL) ship, was commissioned into the Indian Navy recently .
• The primary role of the ship is to carry out full scale hydrographic surveys of ports, harbours, navigational channels/routes, coastal areas and deep seas, towards enabling safe marine navigation.
• In its secondary role, the ship w vcill be capable of undertaking a range of naval operations.
• The commissioning ceremony marked the formal induction of the first of the four ships of the SVL Project under construction at Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE), Kolkata.
• The project has been steered by the Warship Design Bureau of the Indian Navy.
• Features
  • ‘Sandhayak’ means the one who carries out a special search.
  • It has a displacement of 3,400 tons and an overall length of 110 meters.
  • INS Sandhayak is equipped with state-of-the-art hydrographic equipment including Deep & Shallow Water Multi-Beam Echo-Sounders, Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, Remotely Operated Vehicle, Side scan sonars, Data Acquisition and Processing System, satellite-based positioning systems and terrestrial survey equipment.
  • The ship is propelled by two Diesel Engines and is capable of achieving speeds in excess of 18 knots.
  • It has an indigenous content of over 80% by cost.

• Two organic compounds essential for living organisms have been detected in the sample of the asteroid Ryugu.
• The samples were brought back on Japan’s Hayabusa 2 space craft.
• A study of samples claims to have discovered evidence that points to organic matter from comets being transported from space to regions near Earth.
• The sample surfaces contain “melt splashes” ranging from 5 to 20 micrometers.
• These splashes could have been created when Ryugu got bombarded by micrometeoroids of cometary dust.

ABOUT ASTEROID RYUGU

• It is a diamond-shaped carbonaceous or C-type asteroid (meaning it contains a lot of carbon and water).
• The name means “dragon palace” in Japanese and refers to a magical underwater castle in a Japanese folktale.
• It was discovered in 1999 by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) project, a collaborative, U.S.-based project to catalogue and track space rocks.
• It is about 900m in diameter.
• It is orbiting the sun between Earth and Mars and occasionally crosses Earth’s orbit
• It has been classified as “potentially hazardous”.
• Ryugu does not have a protective atmosphere and its surface is directly exposed to space.
  • This means that small interplanetary dust in space can hit the surface of the asteroid, making changes to its composition and even depositing surface materials.

ABOUT HAYABUSA 2 MISSION

• Hayabusa2 is a Japanese spacecraft that explored asteroid Ryugu from June 2018 to November 2019.
• It dispatched a series of landers and a penetrator, and it collected multiple samples from the asteroid.
• Timeline- Launched in 2014, arrived on Ryugu in 2018 and brought back samples on earth in 2020.
• Hayabusa2 deployed the first rovers to operate on an asteroid.
• The spacecraft is now on an extended mission to the asteroid 1998KY26.

• The Khelo India Winter Games 2024, a debut for Ladakh, started at the Nawang Dorjay Stobdan Stadium.
• Fifteen states and two public institutions are taking part in ice hockey and ice-skating events over five days.

A Khelo India CoE

• Union Territory of Ladakh will now have a Khelo India Centre of Excellence.
• A MoU was signed between the Sports Authority of India and the sports department, Union Territory of Ladakh.
• The centre will serve three sports – athletics, archery and boxing.

About Khelo India Winter Games 2024

• The Khelo India Winter Games 2024 is the fourth edition of the annual event in the Khelo India calendar.
  • The Union Territory of Ladakh is making its debut as hosts this year alongside the UT of Jammu & Kashmir, which has organised the Games from 2020.
• Leh will be the venue for the first part of the Games from February 2-6.
• The Games are scheduled to move to Gulmarg between February 21-25.
• While Ladakh will be conducting games — ice hockey and speed skating — Jammu and Kashmir will conduct ski mountaineering, Alpine skiing, snowboarding, Nordic ski and gandola.
• A total of 705 athletes from 24 States & UTs will showcase their prowess across 6 sporting disciplines in Leh and Gulmarg starting from February 2nd, 2024.
• The mascot of the Khelo India Winter Games 2024 is the ‘Sheen-e She’ or Shan— the snow leopard that is native to the Ladakh region.
• The Games’ logo, resembling the Indian tricolour, captures the essence of the picturesque land and the diverse sports scheduled for the event.
  • The emblem features a Dharmachakra, the turning wheel of Dharma, positioned atop a hill in Chanspa, Leh, the chosen venue for the Games.

• Rewalsar in Mandi and Khajjiar in Chamba have been declared ‘National Importance Wetlands’ by the environment ministry for promoting their conservation.
• Himachal Pradesh State Wetlands Authority (HPSWA) said the state currently has three Ramsar sites (wetlands of international importance) –
  • Pong Dam in Kangra,
  • Renuka in Sirmaur and
  • Chandrataal in Lahaul and Spiti.