• This year marks the 20^th anniversary of Maputo Protocol.
• It was adopted by the African Union in Maputo, Mozambique in 2003 in the form of a Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights.
  • It came into effect in 2005.
• It covers a wide range of issues, including political, economic, social, and cultural rights of women.
• It guarantees women’s rights to dignity, equality, and non-discrimination, as well as emphasizes their right to participate in decision-making processes at all level.
• Of the 55 AU member states, 44 have ratified the protocol.
• Full domestication of the Protocol provisions into the national legislature has, in many cases, been slow or ineffective.
• The Protocol guarantees extensive rights to African women and girls and includes progressive provisions on-
  • Harmful traditional practices, e.g. child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM).
  • Reproductive health and rights.
  • Roles in political processes.
  • Economic empowerment.
  • Ending violence against women.

• Google has unveiled NFT policy for Play Store to incorporate tokens into games.

ABOUT NON-FUNGIBLE TOKENS (NFTS)

• NFTs are cryptographic assets which work on a block-chain technologye., a distributed public ledger that records transaction and cannot be replicated.
• They can represent digital or real-world items like artwork, photograph, song, video, real estate, individuals’ identities, property rights, and more.
• They are assigned unique identification codes and metadata that distinguish them from other tokens.
• The term ‘non-fungible’ simply means that each token is different as opposed to a fungible currency such as money.
  • Fungibility is the ability of an asset to be interchanged with other individual assets of the same type.
• Examples
  • Fungible Assets: Currencies, Bitcoin, Stocks, Mutual Funds
  • Non Fungible Assets: Paintings, Real Estate, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)
• NFTs can be traded and exchanged for money, cryptocurrencies, or other NFTs—it all depends on the value the market and owners have placed on them.
• NFT transactions are recorded on blockchains, which is a digital public ledger
• Most NFTs being a part of the Ethereum blockchain.

• PM Modi attended National Day of France.
• France celebrates its national day on July 14^th, also known as Bastille Day which is popularly associated with storming of Bastille in 1789.
  • The Commander of the Bastille was killed and the prisoners were released by mob.
• It is also the anniversary of Fête de la Fédération, an event held in 1790 to celebrate the unity of French people.
• Bastille was a 14^th century fortress prison in Paris that was used to incarcerate prisoners on King orders without trial and publicly stating the causes.
• PM Modi was conferred upon with France’s highest honour, the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour.

ABOUT LEGION OF HONOUR

• The Legion of Honour is the highest French decoration, both civil and military.
• The Legion of Honour has five degrees of increasing distinction: three ranks — Chevalier (Knight), Officier (Officer), and Commandeur (Commander) — and two titles — Grand Officier (Grand Officer) and Grand-croix (Grand Cross).
• The Prime Minister has been honoured with the highest French honour, akin to the Bharat Ratna in India.
• The Order was established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802, and has been presented for more than the past two centuries on behalf of the French Head of State to its most deserving citizens in all fields of activity.
• Foreigners may be decorated with the Legion of Honour “if they have rendered services (e.g. cultural or economic) to France or supported causes defended by France, such as human rights, freedom of the press, or humanitarian action”.
• The motto of the Order is: Honneur et Patrie, which in French means ‘Honour and Fatherland’.

• The All-India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA) organized a three days seminar called “Shalyacon” on the auspicious occasion of Sushruta Jayanti-2023.
• Sushruta Jayanti is celebrated every year on 15^th July to honour the legendary Sushruta, hailed as the father of surgery.
• He created and developed surgical procedures, documented in the Sushruta Samhita, an ancient text on plastic surgery.
  • Medical knowledge is found in the Charak Samhita and Ashtanga Samhita.
  • Sushruta, Charaka, and Vagbhata together are considered to be “The Trinity” of Ayurvedic knowledge.
• Sushruta Samhita is divided into two parts-
  • Purva Tantra gives the signs and symptoms of important surgical diseases, obstetrics, geriatrics, anatomy
  • Uttara tantra gives account of various diseases of ear, eye, head and nose and solutions to complications that may arise out of surgery.
• He also trained students, known as the Saushrutas, in surgical techniques and emphasized anatomical studies and the use of surgical instruments.
• He described upakarmas (treatments for wounds), surgical instruments, and procedures.

• The upcoming International Minjar Fair will be organised with grandeur, highlighting the rich folk art, culture and history of Chamba district.
• The eight-day fair will be organised from July 23 to 30.

• Archaeologists working in Peru have uncovered a 3,000-year-old sealed corridor dubbed “the condor’s passageway” that likely leads to other chambers inside what was once a massive temple complex pertaining to the ancient Chavin culture.
• The temple complex features terraces as well as a network of passageways.
• The Chavin de Huantar archeological site is among the culture’s most important centers, thriving from around 1,500-550 B.C.
• The Chavin are well-known for their advanced art, often featuring depictions of birds and felines.
  • The condor, one of the largest birds in the world, was associated with power and prosperity in ancient Andean cultures.
• They date back to the first sedentary farming communities in the northern highlands of the Peruvian Andes, more than 2,000 years before the Inca Empire rose to power.

• North Korea tested its latest Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)
• It is the core of its nuclear strike force and a warning to the United States and other adversaries.
• It is the North Korea’s first ICBM to use solid propellants, which can allow faster deployment of missiles during a war.

• It is an annual multinational exercise (India, USA, Italy, UK, Seychelles) conducted by Combined Maritime Forces.
• It was hosted by Seychelles.
• INS Sunayna participated in the exercise from India. It is the second Saryu-class patrol vessel of the Indian Navy.

• The reason for declining reproduction rates of Osprey, a raptor species, is said to be the overfishing of Menhaden, a tiny fish of Atlantic system.

ABOUT ATLANTIC MENHADEN (BREVOORTIA TYRANNUS)

• It is also known as Fatback, Bunker, Pogie, Mossback.
• It is found in coastal and estuarine waters from Nova Scotia to northern Florida.
• They are large in numbers by volume, along the Atlantic Coast of the United States.
• Primarily consume phytoplankton and zooplankton.
• It can feed variety of organisms like –
  • Fish – striped bass and weakfish.
  • Other marine animals – whales and dolphins.
  • Birds – Bald eagles, Great blue herons & brown pelicans.
• They are a major source of omega-3 fatty acids, so they are used to develop human and animal supplements.
• Menhaden isn’t usually sold for food as it has a pungent flavor and is very bony.
• Threats
  • Overfishing by commercial fishing industry for their use in Food products like fish oil, fish meal etc.
  • They are also caught for their use as bait for crabs and lobsters.
• IUCN Status – Least Concern.

• Google’s parent company Alphabet is rolling out its artificial intelligence chatbot Bard in Europe and Brazil.
• It is the product’s biggest expansion since its March launch in the US and the UK and heats up the rivalry with Microsoft’s ChatGPT.

ABOUT BARD

• It is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by Alphabet.
• It is an example of generative AI that can respond to questions in a human-like way.
• The Users can interact with the Bard chatbot in 40 languages, including nine Indian languages.
• Users can also change the tone and style of Bard’s responses to either simple, long, short, professional or casual.
• They can pin or rename conversations, export code to more places and use images in prompts.
• New feature include the ability for the chatbot to speak its answers back to user.