ANSWER: D

ANSWER: C

ANSWER: B

ANSWER: B

• One of the largest flocks of Painted Storks, almost 4000 birds, has been spotted in Andhra Pradesh.

About Painted Storks

• Scientific name- Mycteria leucocephala
• They belong to Ciconiidae family.
• These birds are widely distributed over plains of Asia.
• These are usually seen in freshwater wetlands and occasionally in coastal regions.
• The painted stork is a large bird, measuring 90 to 100 cm in length and weighing 2,000 to 3,500 grams.
• They have a wingspan of about 150 to 160 cm.
• They have a long heavy yellow beak with a down curved tip.
• Bare head is reddish or orange in colour.
• Found in Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.
• IUCN Status: ‘Near Threatened’.
• Its breeding season extends from July to October in North India and November to March in South India.

ANSWER: C

• As per reports patients suffering from Fabry disease have not received any financial help for treatment despite availability of ₹50 lakh of financial support for treatment of all rare disease patients in National Policy for Rare Diseases 2021.

About Fabry disease

• Fabry Disease is a rare inherited neurological disorder that occurs when enzyme alpha-galactosidase-A cannot efficiently break down fatty materials known as lipids into smaller components that provide energy to body.
• It belongs to a group of diseases known as lysosomal storage disorders. Lysosomes function as the primary digestive tract of cells.
• Symptoms: Heart enlargement, Progressive kidney impairment leading to renal failure, Gastrointestinal difficulties, Numbness, tingling, burning or pain in the hands or feet etc.
• Types of Fabry disease
  • Classic type: Symptoms of this type appears during childhood or the teenage years. It may be noticeable as early as age two.
  • Late-onset/atypical type: People with late-onset Fabry disease don’t have symptoms until they’re in their 30s or older.
• The first indication of a problem may be kidney failure or heart disease.
• Treatment: The patients are treated by intravenously administered enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) or Oral Chaperone Therapy.

ANSWER: B

• Group of Seven advanced nations agreed on adopting “risk-based” regulation on artificial intelligence, as European lawmakers hurry to introduce an AI Act to enforce rules on emerging tools such as ChatGPT.

About G7

• The G-7 or ‘Group of Seven’ are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
• The G-7 nations meet at annual summits that are presided over by leaders of member countries on a rotational basis.
• The summit is an informal gathering that lasts two days, in which leaders of member countries discuss a wide range of global issues.
• The G-7 does not have a formal constitution or fixed headquarters.
• The decisions taken by leaders during annual summits are non-binding.

Brief History

• It was formed in 1975 by the top economies of the time as an informal forum to discuss pressing world issues.
• Canada joined the group in 1976, and the European Union began attending in 1977.
• The G-7 was known as the ‘G-8’ for several years after the original seven were joined by Russia in 1997.
• The Group returned to being called G-7 after Russia was expelled as a member in 2014 following the latter’s annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine.

ANSWER: B

• The members of the Kondh tribe in Odisha’s Nayagarh district have added Bihan Mela as their festival.

About Bihan Mela

• It is known as the seed festival and the event is celebrated by the farmers.
• Preparations begin as soon as farmers have harvested Kharif crops, which include both hybrid and indigenous varieties of paddy, millets, maize and sorghum.
• Women are at the helm of this festival and carefully collect seeds of the indigenous varieties and store them in earthen pots.
• On a designated day in December, they decorate the pots with red and white motifs, place them in a bamboo basket and carry it on their head to the village where the fair is being organised.
• The seed festival was initiated by Nirman, a non-profit organization working with the tribe on forest rights and agro-ecological farming.
• This was introduced to help farmers return to their traditional ways of farming like mixed cropping.

ANSWER: C

• Maharashtra Day and Gujarat Day is celebrated on May 1 every year to mark the foundation day of the Indian states.
• The states ware established on May 1, 1960, after the State Reorganization Act was passed by the Indian government.
• A larger bilingual Bombay state, was divided into Gujarat and Maharashtra.

ANSWER: D

• Concerned over an increase in instances of cybercrime, police in Andhra Pradesh has asked the people to be wary of “”

About Bluebugging

• It is a form of hacking that lets attackers access a device through its discoverable Bluetooth connection.
• Once a device or phone is bluebugged, a hacker can listen to the calls, read and send messages and steal and modify contacts.
• It started out as a threat for laptops with Bluetooth capability.
  • Later hackers used the technique to target mobile phones and other devices.
• Once a connection is established through Bluetooth , hackers can use brute force attacks to bypass authentication. They can install malware in the compromised device to gain unauthorised access to it.
• This attack is often limited due to the range of Bluetooth connections, which goes up to only 10 meters.

About Malware

• Malware, or malicious software, is any program or file that is intentionally harmful to a computer, network or server.
• Types of malware include computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, ransomware and spyware.

ANSWER: A

• Companies like Coca Cola and Pepsico, have stockpiled gum arabic due to Sudan conflict.

About Gum arabic

• Gum arabic is a natural gum originally consisting of the hardened sap of two species of the Acacia tree.
• The term “gum arabic” does not legally indicate a particular botanical source.
• The gum is harvested commercially from wild trees, mostly in Sudan (80%) and throughout the Sahel region, from Senegal to Somalia.
• Uses
  • It is soluble in water, edible, and used primarily in the food industry and soft-drink industry as a stabilizer (which helps bind together food and drink ingredients)
  • It is a key ingredient in traditional lithography and is used in printing, paints, glues, cosmetics, and various industrial applications, including viscosity control in inks and in textile industries.

ANSWER: D

• The picturesque Yol in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh has shed its tag as a cantonment town with the defence ministry effecting the change and making provisions for the merger of civil areas with the local municipality.
• The military area within the cantonment will be converted into a military station and the civil area will be merged with the municipality.
• The move will prove beneficial to all stakeholders and that civilians, who until now were not getting access to welfare schemes of the state government through the municipality, will now be able to avail them.