• The Madras Music Academy has announced the winner of the Sangita Kalanidhi and Nritya Kalanidhi for the year 2023.

Sangita Kalanidhi award

• Carnatic vocalist Bombay Jayashri, who is known for her melodic and meditative style of singing and is recognised by a Padma Shri from the Indian government has been selected for the Sangita Kalanidhi award of the Music Academy for 2023.
• Sangita Kalanidhi award is considered the highest accolade in the field of Carnatic music.
• The award comprises a gold medal and a birudu patra (citation).

Nritya Kalanidhi award

• Vasanthalakshmi Narasimhachari has been selected for The Nritiya Kalanidhi award for dance.
• She excels both in Bharathanatyam and Kuchipudi.

About Madras Music Academy

• It is a landmark institution in the history of the fine arts.
• It emerged as an offshoot of the All India Congress Session held in Madras in December 1927.
• It was conceived to be the institution that would set the standard for Carnatic music.
• It also confers the various awards such as the Sangita Kalanidhi, Nritya Kalanidhi, Sangita Kala Acharya, TTK, and Musicologist awards for the year.

• Recently, under Namami Gange Program, the development of river front on Gandak River in the district of Gopalganj, Bihar has been undertaken and two Ghats have been constructed.
• River Gandak was declared as National Waterway (NW)-37 from Bhaisalotan Barrage to Gandak and Ganga River confluence at Hajipur, Bihar along with 111 NWs in the country vide National Waterways Act, 2016.

About Gandak

• The river Gandak, is also known as the Gandaki and Narayani River in Nepal.
• Valmiki National Park and Tiger Reserve in Bihar is located on the banks of Gandak.
• The river Gandak originates at an altitude of 7620 m above main sea level in the north of Dhaulagisi in Tibet near Nepal border.
• The river stretches over a length of 630 kilometers, with 445 kilometers running through India and 185 kilometers in Nepal.
• The Gandak River has a total drainage basin area of 29,705 square kilometers.
• The river flows through the Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, and joins the Ganges near Patna just downstream of Hajipur.
• The major tributaries of the Gandak River include the Mayangadi, Bari, Trisuli, Panchand, Sarhad, Budhi Gandak.

• World Sparrow Day is observed every year on March 20^th.
• It is designated to raise awareness about sparrow conservation and protection, as their numbers are declining globally.
• The theme of World Sparrow Day 2023 is “I Love Sparrows”.
• A sparrow is a member of the genus Passer. They are small passerine birds which belong to the family Passeridae.
• The genus has about 30 species around the world.
  • The best known of these is the house sparrow, Passer domesticus.
• World Sparrow Day is a joint initiative by the Nature Forever Society, India, an NGO by Mohammed Dilawar (internationally acclaimed conservationist) along with other global organisations.
  • The main purpose of the Nature Forever Society is to save common flora and fauna including sparrows by involving citizens.
• First World Sparrow Day was celebrated on March 20, 2010.

• An enzyme called laccase generated by a group of fungi has been found capable of degrading a variety of hazardous organic dye molecules that are regularly drained into water bodies after dying clothes in the textile industry.
• This observed characteristic which the scientists termed substrate promiscuity can have deep implication in designing enzyme-coated cassettes for treating heavily dye-polluted water through a natural solution to make the environment greener.
• It belongs enzyme family of multicopper oxidases (MCOs).
  • They are classified as benzenediol oxygen reductases and are also known as urushiol oxidases and p-diphenol oxidases.
• Laccase was known for its capacity to degrade various organic molecules.
• They are capable of oxidizing a large number of phenolic and non-phenolic molecules due to their low substrate specificity, using oxygen as electron acceptor and generating water as a by-product.
• Hence the scientists saw a scope in using it to develop a technology to treat/degrade the dye effluents emanated from textile industries.

• The Synthesis Report is the culmination of a cycle of reports of the IPCC’s 6th Assessment Cycle that have been published over the past five years.
• Its aim is to provide policymakers up-to-date understanding of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and highlight solutions to address it.

Findings

• Excess emissions from human activities have raised global temperature by 1.1°C above 1850-1900.
• Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) announced by countries make it likely that warming will exceed 1.5°C during the 21st century.
• For every 1000 Gt CO₂ emitted by human activity, global surface temperature rises by 0.45°C (best estimate, with a likely range from 0.27 to 0.63°C).
• Losses and damages will disproportionately affect the poorest and most vulnerable populations, particularly those in Africa and least-developed countries, creating more poverty.

Recommendations

• The world must rapidly shift away from burning fossil fuels.
• A mix of strategies can help avoid locking in the carbon emissions, including retiring existing fossil fuel infrastructure, canceling new projects, retrofitting fossil-fueled power plants with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies and scaling up renewable energy sources like solar and wind.
• There is a need for urgent, system wide transformations to secure a net-zero, climate-resilient future.
• Deep emission cuts are necessary across all of society to combat the climate crisis

About Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

• An intergovernmental organization created in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
• Headquarters- Geneva, Switzerland
• Aim-To provide governments at all levels with scientific information that they can use to develop climate policies.
• IPCC is the UN body for assessing the science related to climate change.
• Membership: 195 members including India.
• Other Key information:
  • Prepares Assessment Reports, special reports, and methodology reports assessing the state of knowledge of climate change.
  • However, it does not itself engage in scientific research.
  • In 2007, the IPCC was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

• It is released by UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
• Report evaluates levels of happiness by taking into account 6 key variables –Healthy life expectancy, GDP per capita, Social support,  Low corruption,  Generosity in a community and Freedom to make key life decisions.
• The goal of the report is to identify key determinants of well-being.
• It is based on people’s own assessment of their happiness, as well as economic and social data.
• Ranking of happiness based on a 3-year-average 2020-22.
• Report highlights
  • Top three countries are Finland, Denmark and Iceland
  • Afghanistan, Lebanon, Sierra Leone were in the bottom of the chart.
  • India has been ranked at the 126^th place among 146 countries.
  • India ranked below neighbours China, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
  • Bhutan is not listed in the WHR 2023.

About UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN)

• It was launched in 2012 under UN Secretary General, it mobilizes global scientific and technological expertise to promote practical solutions for sustainable development, including implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Paris Climate Agreement.
• It publishes annual reports like Sustainable development Report and World Happiness Report.

• The International Day of Forests, also known as World Forests Day, is celebrated each year on March 21 to raise awareness about the importance of forests and trees for the survival of humanity and the planet.
• The theme for 2023 is ‘Forests and Health.’
• Initially in 1971 the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) established World Forestry Day. The day was established to create and raise awareness of the importance of forests for people and the planet.
• In 2011, the United Nations declared the years 2011 to 2020 as the International Decade of Forests.
  • Its objective was to promote sustainable management, conservation, and development of all types of forests.
• In 2012, the International Day of Forests was established.

Status of Forests in India

• India’s total forest and tree cover was 80.9 million hectares, which accounted for 62% of the geographical area of the country.
• As per the India State of Forest Report-2021, forest and tree cover in the country increased by 2,261 square kilometres since the last assessment in 2019.

• A team led by Forest Range Officer has taken an initiative to research and conserve butterfly species found in Bhattiyat area, which falls under the Dalhousie forest division of Chamba district.
• There are around 120 species of butterflies in the Bhattiyat forest range, including ‘Danaid eggfly’, which is included in Schedule-I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
• Photographs of 57 of these species have been displayed in the recently set up forest museum at Sihunta in Bhattiyat.
• The museum has become a popular centre of attraction among researchers and tourists.
• The main purpose of documenting butterflies is to demonstrate the quality of environment and highlight need for forest conservation.
• Butterflies are an important part of our ecosystem, helping in pollination and complementing biodiversity.

• World Oral Health Day is observed globally every year on March 20, with the primary objective of increasing awareness about the significance of oral health.
• The Oral Health day aims to encourage individuals to adopt good oral hygiene practices, take care of their teeth, and learn ways to prevent dental problems.
• According to a report by the WHO Global Oral Health, approximately 75% of the world’s population suffer from permanent teeth caries, while 514 million children experience caries in primary teeth.
• The theme for 2023 is ‘Be Proud of Your Mouth,’ which is the same theme used for the past three years

• Rohan Bopanna, a 43-year-old Indian tennis player, and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden have become the oldest duo to win an ATP Masters 1000 title.
• They won the men’s doubles final at the Indian Wells Masters 2023 tournament in California by defeating the top-seeded team of Wesley Koolhof and Neil Skupski.