• Indian Navy’s INS Sumedha reached at Port Alexandria, Egypt, to take part in ‘Exercise Bright Star-23.’
  • India is participating in this exercise for the first time.
• This multinational Tri-Services military exercise marks a historic occasion, with 34 countries participating, making it the largest joint military exercise ever held in the Middle East and North Africa region.
• It comprises of 2 phases– harbor phase and sea phase.

• Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Virology scientists, have for the first time in the country, found the presence of Clade 9 variant of varicella zoster virus (VZV).
• So far the clade 9 is the most common strain in circulation in countries such as Germany, UK and USA.

ABOUT VARICELLA ZOSTER VIRUS (VZV)

• According to the World Health Organisation, Varicella-zoster is a herpes virus that causes chickenpox, a common childhood illness.
  • Herpes zoster (HZ), commonly known as shingles, is caused by the reactivation of the varicella zoster virus (VZV).

ABOUT CHICKENPOX

• Chickenpox is also known as varicella.
• It is an infectious, viral disease characterized by itchy red blisters that appear all over the body.
• It is a highly contagious infectious disease, mainly caused by the varicella-zoster virus, which spreads in a similar way to cold and other flu–
  • Coming in contact with someone who has chickenpox.
  • Breathing air from an infected person who sneezes or coughs.
  • Coming in contact with fluids from an infected child’s eyes, nose or mouth.
• The incubation period is 10 to 21 days.

• Indian Railways’ Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya and Airbus inked a pact to collaborate in the fields of research, teaching, and training of students to deepen understanding of scientific, technological, and management topics pertaining to the aerospace sector.

ABOUT GATI SHAKTI VISHWAVIDYALAYA

• Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya (GSV) is a Central University, located in Vadodara, Gujarat and established through an Act of Parliament in 2022.
• It is India’s first University in the Transportation and Logistics sectors.
• It subsumes the previously-existing National Rail and Transportation Institute (NRTI).
• Mandate: To create best in class manpower and talent for the entire transportation and logistics sectors.
• Sponsored by: Ministry of Railways, Govt. of India.
• Union Minister of Railways is the Chancellor.

• India’s plans to procure General Atomics MQ-9B High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) Unmanned Aerial vehicles (UAV).
• 31 of armed UAVs will be acquired, among which 15 SeaGuardians will be for the Indian Navy and 16 SkyGuardians (eight each) will be for the Indian Army and Air Force.

ABOUT REAPER DRONE

• The Reaper drone is deployed mainly as an intelligence-collection asset and secondarily against dynamic execution targets.
• Decoding the MQ-9 Reaper, the ‘M’ is the DoD designation for multi-role, the ‘Q’ stands for remotely piloted aircraft system, and the ‘9’ suggests that it is the ninth in the series.
• The drone provides capability to launch strike and reconnaissance against time-sensitive targets.
• The MQ-9 can perform numerous missions including surveillance, combat search and rescue, intelligence, precision strike and terminal air guidance.
• The baseline system of the drone has the Multi-Spectral Targeting System (MTS-B) which harbours an infrared sensor, shortwave infrared camera, laser designator, visual sensors for aiming, and laser illuminator.
• The high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) drones are capable of remaining airborne for over 35 hours and can carry four Hellfire missiles and around 450 kg of bombs.
• The drone can carry up to eight laser-guided missiles, Air-to-Ground Missile-114 Hellfire which gives low-collateral damage, anti-armour, and anti-personnel engagement capabilities.
• The drone can be disassembled and fit into a single container for deployment.

• Three gift items, representing the rich traditional art culture of the country, will be presented to the spouses of the G20 leaders in a specially curated goodie bag.
• These include-
  • A Cheriyal scroll painting from Telangana,
  • a handwoven Tussar silk stole,
  • and a handcrafted bell metal figurine of a woman made by artisans from Chhattisgarh.

DETAILS

1. The Cheriyal scroll painting depicts myths and legends in narrative scrolls.

• Rooted in local and artful motifs, these paintings are one of the oldest art forms of the region, embodying its rich storytelling traditions.
• It is a modernized and stylized version of Nakashi art.
• A rich scheme of colours is used to depict the scrolls of narrative format from mythology and folklore.
• It is an indispensable and inseparable part of the profession of Kaki Padagollu, a story telling community.
• Cheriyal scrolls have geographical indication (GI) tag from Telangana

2. The handwoven heritage stoles have been meticulously crafted from Tussar silk sourced from the Sal forests of Chhattisgarh.
3. The handcrafted bell metal figurine of a woman preparing food has been prepared by artisans from Chattisgarh taking inspiration from their surroundings using ancient lost-wax technique.

• The Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan 2023 (Clean Air Survey) report was released in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.
• The survey was conducted by the Central Pollution Control Board.
• This year, the 4th International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies (Swachh Vayu Diwas 2023) is to create stronger partnerships, increase investment, and share responsibility to overcome air pollution, with the global theme “Together for Clean Air.”
• Swachh Vayu Survekshan is an initiative by the ministry of environment, forests and climate change (MoEF&CC) to rank cities on the basis of implementation of activities approved under city action plan and air quality in 131 non-attainment cities under National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).
  • The union government had launched NCAP in 2019 with a target of reducing particulate pollution by up to 30% by 2024, with the reference base year of 2017.
• 131 cities are categorized into three groups based on population.
  • more than 10 lakh.
  • between 3 to 10 lakh.
  • less than 3 lakh.
• It is based on the actions taken by the cities to improve the air quality in different domains and not on the measurement of the air quality parameters.

MAJOR FINDINGS

• In cities with over one million population, Indore secured the first rank followed by Agra and Thane. Madurai, Howah and Jamshedpur ranked 46, 45 and 44, respectively.
• In the second category, with a population between 300,000 to one million, Amravati secured the first rank followed by Moradabad and Guntur. Jammu, Guwahati and Jalandhar ranked 38, 37 and 36, respectively.
• Similarly, for the third category, with a population of less than 300,000, Parwanoo in Himachal Pradesh secured the first rank followed by Kala Amb and Angul, while Kohima was ranked last – 39.

• The industrial towns of Parwanoo and Kala Amb have made it to the top two ranks nationally under the National Clean Air Programme among category 3 states having less than 3 lakh population.
• Parwanoo received the top rank by scoring 193.6 points out of 200 while Kala Amb scored 193 points.

• International Literacy Day is celebrated annually on September 8^th.
• The day is celebrated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) at the global, regional, country, and local levels across the world.
• International Literacy Day was first celebrated in 1967.
• This year’s International Literacy Day will be celebrated worldwide under the theme, ‘Promoting literacy for a world in transition: Building the foundation for sustainable and peaceful societies’.

• Famous Hindustani classical vocalist Malini Rajurkar passed away recently.
• She is noted for her command over the Tappa and the Tarana genre.
• She was an exponent of Gwalior gharana and one of the foremost proponents of ‘khayal’ and ‘tappa’ genre.

• The presence of a leucistic sambar has been documented in the Sangama range of Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary in Karnataka.
• This is the first recorded photographic record of a white form of sambar from this landscape though a white form of sambar deer was previously recorded in Bandipur Tiger Reserve in 2014.

ABOUT SAMBAR DEER

• Scientific name- Rusa unicolor.
• The sambar is a large deer species that is native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.
• Characteristics–
  • The sambar is known for its large and rugged antlers, shaggy coat, and a small but dense mane.
  • Sambar are nocturnal or crepuscular animals.
  • The males live alone for much of the year, while the females live in small herds of up to 16 individuals.
• Distribution- South Asia as far north as the south-facing slopes of the Himalayas in Nepal, Bhutan, and India, and in mainland Southeast Asia including Burma, Thailand, Indochina, the Malay Peninsula, Indonesia (Sumatra and Borneo), Taiwan, and South China.
• Threats- hunting, local insurgency, and industrial exploitation of habitat.
• The sambar is listed as a vulnerable species as per the IUCN Red List.

WHAT IS LEUCISM?

• Leucism is a condition in which the pigmentation of an animal’s skin is missing, causing white or pale skin.
• This condition can occur naturally from birth due to a phenotype (a trait of any living being) that may have formed from a defect in the animal’s development.
• It is different from albinism which is a condition that arises due to a lack of melatonin in the animal’s skin, but the animal has pink or reddish eyes. But in leucism the animal lacks the pink eyes.