ANSWER: D

 ANSWER: A

 ANSWER: A

 ANSWER: B

• Considered one of the largest women’s gatherings in the world, around 15 lakh women participated in the annual Attukal Pongala festival of Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
• The festival includes offering Pongala, a sweet delicacy made of rice to the deity of Attukal Bhagavathy Temple in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram.
• The highlight of the ten-day festival is the mass offering that takes place on the ninth day. Women from across the state make it to the capital in huge numbers.
• In 2009, the ritual had made it to the Guinness Book of World Records for being the largest religious gathering of women on a single day when over 2.5 million people took part in it.
• Attukal Temple is called the “Women’s Sabarimala” as only women perform rituals, while it is predominantly men who undertake the pilgrimage to the hill shrine of Lord Ayyappa at Sabarimala.

 ANSWER: A

• Recently, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully carried out the controlled Re-Entry experiment for the decommissioned Megha-Tropiques-1 (MT-1) Satellite.
• An uninhabited area in the Pacific Ocean between 5°S to 14°S latitude and 119°W to 100°W longitude was identified as the targeted re-entry zone for MT1.

Controlled Re-entry

• Controlled re-entries involve de-orbiting to very low altitudes to ensure the impact occurs within a targeted safe zone.
• Usually, large satellites or rocket bodies, which are likely to survive aero-thermal fragmentation upon re-entry, are made to undergo controlled re-entry to limit ground casualty risk.
  • Aero-Thermal Fragmentation is a process in which an object traveling through the Earth’s atmosphere at high-speed experiences extreme heat and pressure, causing it to break apart or fragment.

About MT-1 Satellite

• It is an Indo-French Earth Observation Satellite, which was launched in October 2011 for carrying out tropical weather and climate studies
• The main objective of this mission is to understand the life cycle of convective systems that influence the tropical weather and climate and their role in the associated energy and moisture budget of the atmosphere in tropical regions.
• With its circular orbit inclined 20° to the equator, it is a unique satellite for climate research that aided scientists seeking to refine prediction models.
• Payloads: Microwave Analysis and Detection of Rain and Atmospheric Structures (MADRAS), an Imaging Radiometer developed jointly by CNES (Centre National d’études Spatiales), France and ISRO; Sounder for Probing Vertical Profiles of Humidity (SAPHIR), from CNES; Scanner for Radiation Budget (ScaRaB), from CNES; Radio Occultation Sensor for Vertical Profiling of Temperature and Humidity (ROSA), procured from Italy.

 ANSWER: C

• Special Window for Affordable and Mid-Income Housing (SWAMIH) Fund has so far provided final approval to about 130 projects with sanctions worth over Rs 12,000 crore.
• In three years since its inception in 2019, the Fund has already completed 20,557 homes and aims to complete over 81,000 homes in the next three years across 30 tier 1 and 2 cities.

About SWAMIH Fund

• The Special Window for Affordable and Mid-Income Housing (SWAMIH) Investment Fund I is a social impact fund specifically formed for completing stressed and stalled residential projects.
• The Fund is sponsored by the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, and is managed by SBICAP Ventures Ltd., a State Bank Group company.
• The fund considers first-time developers, established developers with troubled projects, developers with a poor track record of stalled projects, customer complaints and NPA accounts, and even projects where there are litigation issues
• It is considered the lender of last resort for distressed projects.
• It is India’s largest social impact fund specifically formed for completing stressed and stalled residential projects.
• Eligibility Criteria:
  • The real estate projects must be Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA)-registered which have been stalled due to a lack of adequate funds.
  • Each of these projects must be very close to completion.
  • They must also fall under the ‘Affordable and Middle-Income Project’ category (any housing projects wherein housing units do not exceed 200 sq.m.).
  • Net-worth positive projects are also eligible for SWAMIH funding.
    • Net-worth positive projects are those projects for which the value of their receivables (debts owed to them by buyers), plus the value of their unsold inventories is greater than their completion costs and outstanding liabilities.
  • Objective:
    • It aims to provide financing to enable completion of stalled housing projects and ensure delivery of apartments to homebuyers.
    • To unlock liquidity in the real estate sector and provide a boost to core industries such as cement and steel.

 ANSWER: B

• The final full moon of the winter season, called the Worm Moon, was visible on March 6 and 7.
• Each year, the timing varies between late February to late March.
• The name of this full moon is derived from the time it appears in the year when winter subsides in the Northern hemisphere, leading to the earthworms emerging from the ground as the soil softens.
• Various tribes have named each full moon after the weather events occurring during that time. March’s full moon is also referred to as the Sap Moon since it is when the sap of sugar maples starts flowing, and as the crow, crust, and sugar moon.
• Festivals associated with worm moon
  • In India, Holi is celebrated during the worm moon (Falgun Purnima).
  • Jews celebrate the Purim festival during the worm moon period. The festival is celebrated to mark the salvation of the Jews who escaped the plot of killing in Persia.
  • In Europe, the fasting period before easter begins on worm moon and they call it the LENTEN MOON.
  • Buddhists in Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Thailand celebrate Magha Puja on worm moons. It is celebrated to mark a gathering of Lord Buddha and his disciples.

 ANSWER: C

• A local court in North Carolina stopped the construction of a new barrel warehouse for Jack Daniel’s – the biggest-selling brand of American whiskey in the world. This order came after a resident sued the company due to the uncontrollable spread of the whiskey fungus.

About Whiskey Fungus

• Whiskey fungus, also known as Baudoinia compniacensis, is a black, sooty fungus that grows in the vicinity of bakeries and distilleries around the globe.
• The fungus is a sac fungus. The sac is the reproductive feature of the fungus.
• This fungus thrives on the alcoholic vapours that evaporate from whiskey casks during maturation.
• Usually, a small portion (up to 2%/ year) of the spirit evaporates into the atmosphere and this is called the ‘angel’s share’.
  • It is on this angel’s share that these fungi thrive.
• It tends to cover outdoor surfaces, including cars, homes, and trees, which can adversely affect the value of properties.
• Although research has not shown any health risks from exposure to the fungus, it can damage trees and properties.
• Cleaning the fungus from affected surfaces can be a difficult and costly task as they form thick coatings.

 ANSWER: B

• In the first command appointment for a woman officer in the Indian Air Force (IAF), Group Captain Shaliza Dhami has been selected to take over the command of a frontline combat unit in the Western sector.
• For the first time ever in the IAF’s history, a woman officer has been given command of a frontline combat unit – in this case, a missile squadron in the Western sector.
• The IAF’s move comes just two months after Captain Shiva Chauhan of the Indian Army’s Fire and Fury Corps became the first woman officer to be operationally deployed at the world’s highest battlefield in Siachen.

 ANSWER: A

• Civic architect, urban planner and activist, Sir David Alan Chipperfield has been selected as the 2023 Laureate of The Pritzker Architecture Prize, the award that is regarded internationally as architecture’s highest honor.
• Chipperfield’s career spans more than 40 years and includes 100-plus projects, ranging from civic, cultural, and academic buildings to residences and urban master planning throughout Asia, Europe, and North America.

 ANSWER: B

• Every year on the second Wednesday of March, No Smoking Day is observed. It falls on March 8 this year.
• This year’s theme is: “Stopping smoking improves your brain health”.

 ANSWER: B

• Holi was celebrated with religious fervour at the historical Brijraj Swami temple of Lord Krishna in Nurpur. The temple management committee organised two-day celebrations on March 7 and 8 on the temple premises.On the first day, Holi was played with flowers whereas on Wednesday, the devotees played with ‘gulal’ on the next day. Thousands of devotees participated in the religious event.
• Nurpur formerly known as Dhameri in the ancient times is located in the scenic Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh.
• The beautiful fort of Dhameri was built by Raja Basu Dev, the then ruler of Pathankot of the Pathania clan in the late 16th century.
• The historic fort offers a mesmerizing view of Jabhar Khud, a tributary of a rivulet called Chakki