• Odisha Chief Minister recently unveiled a sprawling heritage corridor around the Jagannath Temple in Puri.
• The heritage corridor is one of the two major temple projects the State government has undertaken in recent years, the other being the renovation of the Maa Samalai Temple at a cost of ₹200 crore in western Odisha town of Sambalpur.

ABOUT JAGANNATH TEMPLE

• The Jagannath temple located in Puri, Odisha is a sacred temple devoted to Lord Jagannath (a form of Vishnu) along with his brother Lord Balabhadra and sister Devi Subhadra.
• Constructed by- Ananta Varman Chodaganga Deva of Eastern Ganga Dynasty dating back to 12th century.
• It is known as the “White Pagoda” and one of the four pilgrimage sites of Char Dham Pilgrimage.
• It is also called as ‘Yamanika Tirtha’ where, according to the Hindu beliefs, the power of ‘Yama’, the god of death, has been nullified in Puri due to the presence of Lord Jagannath.
• Famous for its Annual Ratha yatra, or chariot festival, in which the three principal deities are pulled on huge and elaborately decorated temple cars.
• The temple is built in the Kalinga style of architecture, with the Pancharatha (Five chariots) type consisting of two anurathas, two konakas and one ratha.
• Jagannath temple is a pancharatha with well-developed pagas.
• It is enclosed by a high wall with four gates, each facing a cardinal direction.
• This is the first temple in the history of Kalinga temple architecture where all the chambers like Jagamohana, Bhogamandapa and Natyamandapa were built along with the main temple.

• The Future of Growth Report was released by the World Economic Forum at Annual Meeting 2024.
• The report took a holistic look at GDP alongside the quality of growth across 107 economies in four dimensions- Innovativeness, Inclusiveness, Sustainability, Resilience.
• High-income economies score high on innovation and inclusion, while lower-income economies on sustainability.
• Among the lower middle-income economies, India and Kenya scored high on sustainability, Jordan on innovativeness; Vietnam on inclusiveness; and the Philippines on resilience.
  • Common challenges preventing a stronger balanced growth performance of this group included technology absorption, lack of social safety nets, insufficient investment in renewable energy, and insufficient healthcare system capacity.
• The report highlighted a significant economic slowdown, estimated to fall to the lowest rate in three decades by 2030.
• At an individual level, none of the 107 economies covered by the report attained a score higher than 80 on any of the framework’s four dimensions.
• It has called for a new approach to economic growth that balances efficiency with long-term sustainability and equity, examining speed and quality together.

• Betavolt, a Chinese startup, has announced that it has developed a revolutionary battery capable of powering smartphones for an impressive 50 years without requiring recharging.
• Termed as the world’s first miniaturized atomic energy system, this nuclear battery utilizes Nickel-63 nuclear isotopes compactly arranged within a module smaller than a coin.
• The technology operates by converting the energy released from decaying isotopes into electricity.
• The startup has commenced pilot testing and intends to mass-produce the battery for various commercial applications, including smartphones and drones.
• The initial nuclear battery developed by Betavolt delivers 100 microwatts of power and has a voltage of 3V, while measuring a tiny 15x15x5 cubic millimeters.
• The company plans to produce a battery with 1 watt of power by 2025.
• The small size of these batteries allows for multiple units to be connected, increasing the power output.
• Additionally, the battery can operate in a wide temperature range, from -60 degrees Celsius to 120 degrees Celsius.
• The team developed a thin single crystal diamond semiconductor, only 10 microns thick, and placed a 2-micronthick nickel-63 sheet between two diamond semiconductor converters.
• The decay energy of the radioactive source is then converted into electrical current.

• The death anniversary of Surya Sen, the legendary revolutionary leader was observed recently on January 12^th.

ABOUT SURYA SEN (22^ND MARCH 1894 – 12^TH JANUARY 1934)

• Also known as Surya Kumar Sen, he was an Indian revolutionary who was influential in the independence movement against British rule in India.
• In 1918, he was selected as president of the Indian National Congress’s Chittagong branch.
• He actively participated in the Non-Cooperation Movement before being detained and held in prison for about two years (1926-1928) due to his revolutionary activities.
• Sen, a talented and motivating organizer, was known for remarking that “Humanism is a distinctive virtue of a revolutionary”.
• Surya Sen was popularly known as ‘master da’.
• An armed force named Indian Republican Army was established in 1930 under his leadership and joined by the likes of Kalpana Dutt, Pritilata Waddedar etc.
• He is best known for leading the 1930 Chittagong armoury raid.
  • The complex strategy involved stealing weapons from the armoury and destroying the city’s communications infrastructure in order to cut off Chittagong from the rest of the British Raj.
  • Although, they were unable to seize the munitions.
• Masterda was detained on 16 February 1933, put on trial, and executed on 12 January 1934.

• Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has developed an improvised Distress Alert Transmitter (DAT) with advanced capabilities and features for the fishermen at sea to send emergency messages from fishing boats.

WORKING

• The first version of DAT has been operational since 2010, using which messages were sent through a communication satellite and received at a central control station (INMCC: Indian Mission Control Centre), where the alert signals are decoded for the identity and location of the fishing boat.
• The extracted information is then forwarded to Maritime Rescue Coordination Centres (MRCCs) under the Indian Coast Guard (ICG).
• Using this information, the MRCC coordinates to undertake search and rescue operations to save the fishermen in distress.
• Till now, more than 20,000 DATs are being used.

IMPROVEMENTS

• Taking advantage of technological developments in satellite communication and satellite navigation, ISRO has improvised DAT with advanced capabilities and features evolving to Second Generation DAT (DAT-SG)
• The DAT-SG has the facility to send back acknowledgement to the fishermen who activate the distress alert from sea.
• DAT-SG has the capability to receive messages from control centres.
  • Using this, advance alert messages can be sent to the fishermen at sea whenever there are events of bad weather, cyclone tsunami or any other emergencies.
• The information about potential fishing zones are also transmitted to fishermen using DAT-SG on regular intervals.
• The central control centre (INMCC) has a web based network management system called Sagarmitra which maintains a database of registered DAT-SGs and helps MRCCs to access the information about boat, coordinate the boat in distress in real time.
• DAT-SG can be connected to mobile phones using Bluetooth interface and the messages can be read in native language using an App in the mobile.
• The services of DAT-SG has been declared operational on a 24 x 7 basis.

• The largest event in the Civil Aviation sector in Asia, the four-day “Wings India 2024” extravaganza, kickstarted at Begumpet Airport in Hyderabad.
• Spanning across commercial, general, and business aviation, the theme for the show is “Connecting India to the World in Amrit Kaal: Setting the Stage for India Civil Aviation @2047”.

• India’s first Graphene Centre “India Innovation Centre for Graphene (IICG) has been established at Makers Village Kochi by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), and Govt. of Kerala alongwith Tata Steel Limited.
• It aims to foster R&D, product innovation and capacity building in the area of Graphene and 2D material systems.
• It will also support MeitY ‘s Graphene-Aurora program which aims to fill the gap between R&D and commercialization by providing a complete facility to startup and industry.

• An Indian vulture was spotted in the skyline of Thane recently.
• A vulture has not been spotted over two decades in the city.

About Indian vulture

• Scientific name- Gyps indicus
• The Indian vulture or long-billed vulture is a bird of prey native to the Indian subcontinent.
  • Countries include- India, Pakistan and Nepal
• It is an Old World vulture belonging to the family of Accipitridae.
• It is a medium-sized vulture with a small, semi-bald head with little feathers, long beak, and wide dark colored wings.
• Females of this species are smaller than males.
• Threat –Poisioning by feeding on carcasses of cattle administered Diclofenac (a veterinary drug)
• Protection status
  • IUCN red list- Critically Endangered

• At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, a panel of health industry leaders discussed the importance of preplanning for the outbreak of a hypothetical “Disease X”.

About Disease X

• Disease X is not a specific disease but is the name given to a potential novel infectious agent.
• It represents an illness which is currently unknown but could pose a serious microbial threat to humans in the future.
• It is necessary to be prepared because there is a vast reservoir of viruses circulating among wildlife which could become a source of a new infectious disease to which humans do not have immunity.
• In 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) added Disease X to a list of pathogens that are a top priority for research, alongside known killers like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Ebola.
• The WHO has warned that Disease X could result in 20 times more fatalities than COVID-19.

• The 9th edition of the Pakke Paga Hornbill Festival (PPHF) commenced in the town of Seijosa in Arunachal Pradesh’s Pakke Kessang district recently.
• This year’s theme, Domutoh Domutoh, Paga hum Domutoh, translates to ‘Let Our Hornbills Remain’ in Nyishi, emphasising the critical need to preserve the iconic birds.
• Seijosa is located near the Pakke Tiger Reserve (PTR), which is home to four species of hornbills: Wreathed, Great Indian, Oriental Pied and the endangered Rufous-necked.
• The area is the traditional homeland of the Nyishi people, the largest tribal group in Arunachal Pradesh.
• The first-ever PPHF was held on January 16-18, 2015.
• PPHF was declared a ‘state festival’ by then-Arunachal Chief Minister Pema Khandu in 2019.
• The aim was to recognise the role played by the Nyishi in conserving hornbills in PTR.
  • The Nyishi had formerly hunted hornbills and used their bills to craft traditional headgear.
  • They had later turned hornbill conservationists.