• China recorded the world’s first human death caused by H3N8.
• H3N₈ is a subtype of the influenza A virus.
• It primarily affects birds, particularly wild waterfowl and shorebirds.
• It can also infect other mammals.
• It is not commonly found in humans, but rare cases of human infections have been reported.
• There is no evidence of easy human-to-human transmission of H3N8 bird flu.
• Symptoms in humans are similar to other types of flu, including fever, cough, sore throat, muscle aches, and fatigue.

• The Shiveluch volcano erupted recently on Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, spewing clouds of dust 20 kilometers (12 miles) into the sky and covering broad areas with ash.

About Kamchatka Peninsula

• It lies in far eastern Russia, between the Sea of Okhotsk on the west and the Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea on the east.
• It is a part of ‘Ring of Fire’.
• It is one of the world’s most concentrated areas of geothermal activity.
• It is about 1,200 km long north-south and about 480 km across at its widest.
• About the size of New Zealand, it is one of the largest peninsulas in the world.
• About 300,000 people live on the peninsula with area of approximately 370,000 square km.
• Population density-At less than a person per square kilometre, one of the lowest in the world.
• Climate: Severe, with prolonged, cold, and snowy winters and wet, cool summers.
• The Kuril island chain runs from the southern tip of the peninsula to a short distance from Japan’s northern Hokkaido Island.

• Around 7 lakh vacancies have been reported by employers on the National Career Service portal during the year 2022-23 compared to around 13 lakh vacancies in 2021- 22.

About the National Career Service portal

• National Career Service is one of the mission-mode projects under the umbrella of the E-Governance Plan.
• It was launched in the year 2015.
• Objectives:
  • Bridging the gap between job-seekers and employers
  • Provides a host of career-related services such as dynamic job matching, career counselling, job notifications, vocational guidance, and information on skill development courses, internships and alike.
• Focus areas:
  • Enhancing Career and employment opportunities
  • Counselling and guidance for career development
  • Enhancing female labour force participation
• The NCS project has three pillars:
  • a well-designed ICT-based portal, the NCS portal,
  • a country-wide network of Model Career Centers, and
  • interlinkage with all states through employment exchanges.
• NCS does not charge any fees for registration on the portal and its services.
• Nodal Agency: The project is being implemented by the Directorate General of Employment, Ministry of Labour & Employment.

• A recent study in Andhra Pradesh on Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) highlighted significantly higher crop yield and unaffected nutrient availability compared to organic or conventional farming.
• The state has been pushing towards chemical-free agriculture under Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming (APCNF)

About ZBNF

• It is a natural farming technique in which farming is done without use of chemicals and without using any credits or spending any money on purchased inputs.
• It is a method of chemical-free agriculture drawing from traditional Indian practises based on 4 pillars–
  • Jeevamrutha: It is a mixture of fresh cow dung and aged cow urine (both from India’s indigenous cow breed), jaggery, pulse flour, water and soil; to be applied on farmland.
  • Bijamrita: It is a concoction of neem leaves & pulp, tobacco and green chilies prepared for insect and pest management, that can be used to treat seeds.
  • Acchadana (Mulching): It protects topsoil during cultivation and does not destroy it by tilling.
  • Whapasa: It is the condition where there are both air molecules and water molecules present in the soil. Thereby helping in reducing irrigation requirement.
• ZBNF reduces the cost of production down to zero due to utilisation of all the natural resources available in and around the crops.
• It was originally promoted by Maharashtrian agriculturist Subhash Palekar.
• ZBNF was introduced in Union Budget 2019- 20.

• Recently, the European Space Agency is set to launch the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) mission to explore Jupiter and its icy moons, namely Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa.
• To be launched from French Guiana on an Ariane 5 launcher.
• The mission is set to reach Jupiter in 2031.

Objecitve

• To create detailed maps of the moons’ surfaces and look beneath them to probe the potential habitable environments by analyzing the water bodies underneath.
• To create a comprehensive picture of Jupiter by trying to understand its origin, history, and evolution.
• The focus will be on Ganymede (the largest moon in the Solar System, which generates its magnetic field).
• The three moons, Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa, are believed to hold immense amounts of water, potentially making them habitable.

About Jupiter

• Fifth planet from the Sun, Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system.
• Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are called Jovian or Gas Giant Planets.
• Jupiter’s iconic Great Red Spot is a giant storm bigger than Earth that has raged for hundreds of years.
• Jupiter rotates once about every 10 hours (a Jovian day), but takes about 12 Earth years to complete one orbit of the Sun.
• Jupiter has more than 75 moons.
• The planet Jupiter’s four largest moons are called the Galilean satellites after Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, who first observed them in 1610.
  • These are named Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.

• Himachal Pradesh’s economy is largely banking on agriculture and animal husbandry. With a livestock population of about 4.41 million, their care is an essential part of every rural household.
• The state government has initiated a project named Sanjeevani in this regard.
• The project aims to enhance the lives of farmers by providing them with convenient and high-quality livestock care services at their doorstep, utilizing telemedicine and technology.
• This will aid in reducing the turnaround time for services and potentially prevent outbreaks.
• The Animal Husbandry Department of Himachal Pradesh has collaborated with Bharat Financial Inclusion Ltd. (BFIL), a subsidiary of IndusInd Bank, for the National Animal Disease Control Programme-Mobile Veterinary Van (NADCP-AHD-MVU) project.
• The collaboration aims to provide doorstep livestock care through a toll-free telephone number that will be operational soon.
• The project intends to ensure the timely delivery of quality treatment to livestock, saving farmers the additional expenses of traveling for availing veterinary services like artificial insemination, medicines, vaccination, surgery, and infertility testing.

• Hikikomori is a widespread issue in Japan, with an estimated 1.5 million working-age people living in isolation.
• The term hikikomori was coined in Japan in the 1990s to describe young adults who had withdrawn from society and remained isolated in their homes for extended durations.
• Hikikomori is not a clinical diagnosis but rather a social issue that affects individuals who choose to isolate themselves from society due to various reasons, including social anxiety, depression, academic pressure, and bullying.

• France is hosting the multinational wargame codenamed Orion, which is expected to be held from the third week of April to May 5. This exercise will involve various countries, including India, and will test their combat capabilities in a simulated war scenario.
• The aim of the exercise is to test the preparedness of the participating countries’ air forces and their ability to operate in a multi-national environment.
• The Indian Air Force (IAF) will participate in Orion with its Rafale fighter jets from the Western Air Command’s Golden Arrows squadron.
• Some 7,000 NATO troops have reportedly participated in the drill involving the land forces of their NATO allies.

• Iran recently tested a homemade long-range, high-precision kamikaze drone named Meraj-532, equipped with a 50-kg warhead.

About Meraj-532:

• It is a kamikaze drone equipped with a piston engine having a range of 450 km.
• It is capable of flying at a maximum altitude of 12,000 feet for three straight hours.
• It has a 50-kg warhead and can be assembled and prepared for flight easily, making it suitable for rapid reaction operations.

About Kamikaze drones

• These are also called suicide drone or, more formally, a loitering munition,
• It is an unmanned aerial vehicle that is designed to self-destruct after serving its purpose.
• They can hover around the target area for some time (much longer than a cruise missile) and attack only once a target is located.

It may also feature a built-in warhead or payload, which is intended to detonate during the engagement.

• US President is visiting Northern Ireland to mark 25^th anniversary of Good Friday Agreement.
• GFA was signed in 1998, between factions of Northern Ireland, and governments of Britain and Ireland, to end 30 years of violence known as ‘The Troubles’.
• The agreement is hailed as a model deal to end long-standing conflicts, and fetched a joint Nobel peace prize for David Trimble and John Hume, then leaders of the two opposing parties in Northern Ireland.
• Northern Ireland, created in 1921 by partitioning Ireland, remained with United Kingdom after Ireland’s independence from UK.
• This resulted in violence between those who wished to remain with UK and those who wanted to join Ireland.