ANSWER: D

ANSWER: C

ANSWER: C

ANSWER: A

• A Minister in the cabinet recently stated that ‘Mission Karmayogi’ institutionalised the process of capacity building, particularly for the benefit of civil servants, with the aim to shape the Century India of 2047.

About Mission Karmyogi or National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building (NPCSCB)

• Mission Karmayogi aims to prepare Civil Servants for the future by making them more creative, constructive & innovative through transparency and technology.
• There will be more focus on ‘on-site learning’ in complementing “off-site learning”.
• Karmayogi seeks to shift the focus from rule-specific to role-specific.
• The Mission will help training the officers to meet the challenges of the society.
• It aims “comprehensive reform of the capacity building apparatus at individual, institutional and process levels for efficient public service delivery”.
• It will improve the Human Resource management practices in the Government and will use scale & state of the art infrastructure to augment the capacity of Civil Servants.
• Mission Karmayogi has the following six pillars:
  • Policy Framework,
  • Institutional Framework,
  • Competency Framework,
  • Digital Learning Framework (Integrated Government Online Training Karmayogi Platform (iGOT-Karmayogi),
  • electronic Human Resource Management System (e-HRMS), and
  • Monitoring and Evaluation Framework.
• Executing Bodies: It will be steered by four new bodies-
  • Prime Minister’s Public Human Resources Council,
  • Capacity Building Commission,
  • Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) that will own and operate the digital assets and technological platform for online training, and
  • Coordination Unit, which will be headed by the Cabinet Secretary.

ANSWER: B

• The suitable habitat for hijol tree to grow in the India-Bangladesh landscape may shrink by 50.5% due to erratic rainfall and temperature changes.

About Hijol

• Hijol, or Indian oak, is a medium-sized evergreen tree.
• Scientific Name: Barringtonia acutangula
• It is native to coastal wetlands in southern Asia and northern Australasia. This species grows on the banks of freshwater rivers, the edges of freshwater swamps and lagoons and on seasonally flooded lowland plains, commonly on heavy soils from the sea level up to about 400 m of altitude.
  • It is commonly found in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna basin.
• Tree grows to about 8–15 m high with thick, smooth and oval in shape leaves.
• Flowers are small, pink to red, sub-sessile, and purple-red with numerous stamens.
• Its bark has tannin, which is useful for heart diseases. Also Tonic is prepared from leaves and roots.

Fish poison is prepared from its roots.

ANSWER: A

• According to World Press Freedom Index 2023, by global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF), India has slipped to the 161^st position out of 180 countries from 150^th rank last year.
• Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bhutan and Sri Lanka have better ranking than India.
• There are more than 100,000 newspapers (including 36,000 weeklies) and 380 TV news channels currently operating in the country.
• The World Press Freedom Index is based on five different factors that are used to calculate scores and rank countries- Political, Economic, Legislative, Social, and Security indicator.
• Scores are calculated for each of these indicators and used to determine the overall ranking of countries in terms of press freedom.

ANSWER: C

• Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) recently launched a low-cost star sensor called StarBerrySense, mounted on the PSLV Orbital Experimental Module (POEM), which has performed well during its first-ever space test.
• StarBerrySense is a low-cost sensor designed to quickly calculate the orientation of a spacecraft by identifying stars in its field of view.
• Developed by the Space Payloads Group at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), StarBerrySense is built around the Raspberry Pi minicomputer and is cost-effective and simple to build.
• POEM is a unique initiative by ISRO that utilizes the spent 4th stage of the PSLV as an orbital platform for carrying out scientific experiments.

ANSWER: D

• Luca Brecel, the 28-year-old Belgian snooker player, claimed his first world title after defeating Mark Selby (England) in a thrilling final at the Crucible in Sheffield.

ANSWER: C

• World Press Freedom Day is observed every year on May 3^rd.
• The occasion emphasizes the importance of unrestricted journalism and advocates for the fundamental right of freedom of speech.
• World Press Freedom Day 2023 focuses on the theme of “Shaping a Future of Rights: Freedom of Expression as a Driver for All Other Human Rights,” which emphasizes the critical role of freedom of expression in safeguarding and promoting other human rights.

ANSWER: A

• For the first time in the history of Ladakh the Australian High Commission in India has announced its Government Grant for a Project in Kargil.
• The project “Return to Roots” aims to integrate traditional knowledge with the current school science curriculum in alignment with the goals of the National Education Policy which includes increasing scientific engagement among school children of the tribal background.

ANSWER: C

• University Grants Commission (UGC) has launched CU– Chayan, a unified faculty recruitment portal for Central universities.
• The portal would cater to the needs of all the stakeholders in the teachers’ recruitment process.
• The portal will provide a common platform for listing of vacancies, advertisements and jobs across all Central Universities.
• The portal makes the recruitment process completely online starting from application to screening, with alerts to all the users of the portal.

ANSWER: B

• Reserve Bank of India’s total gold reserves has reached a new high to around 800 tonnes.
  • RBI has consistently increased its gold holdings for past five fiscal years through February 2023.
• Objective-to bolster and diversify its reserves amid rising global economic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions, which threaten to diminish the value of world’s reserve currency, the dollar.
• Global forex reserves held by Central Banks comprise currencies like dollar, euro, pound, other currencies, gold and IMF’s currency quotas called Special Drawing Rights (SDR).

ANSWER: A

• The government has proposed to construct a heliport at Darla village in Sujanpur constituency of Hamirpur.
• It is learnt that the state Tourism Department has released a sum of Rs 2 crore to begin construction of the heliport on a hill on the banks of the Beas.
• Sources revealed that the Public Works Department had submitted a proposal of Rs 5 crore for the construction of the helipad.