ANSWER: B

ANSWER: A

ANSWER: D

ANSWER: C

• The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) recently launched a revamped version of the ‘Adopt a Heritage’ programme apart from an Indian Heritage app and an e-permission portal.
• ‘Adopt a Heritage 2.0’, is the upgraded version of ‘Adopt a Heritage’ programme.
  • Initially launched in 2017 under the Ministry of Tourism, in collaboration with the ASI it invited corporate stakeholders to adopt from over 3,000 protected monuments spread across the country.
• The programme encourages corporate stakeholders to utilise their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds to enhance facilities at historically-important monuments.
• The Adopt a Heritage 2.0 has incorporated a host of changes to the programme after a leaner management and supervision structure for the partner agencies, clear guidelines for semi-commercial activities and detailed scope of work and amenities required for monuments was proposed in the earlier version. 1,000 additional monuments have also been added to the list for adoption.
• In the updated programme, more freedom has been given to companies such as the option to either adopt a monument in whole and develop its tourism infrastructure, or provide a particular amenity such as drinking water facility or cleaning services for one or several sites.

ABOUT THE APP AND PORTAL

• The app, on the other hand, provides a comprehensive guide to monuments under ASI’s ambit.
• It lists historical structures along with pictures, public facilities available on site and geo-tagged locations.
• The e-permission portal has been designed to simplify and speed up the process for acquiring approvals for photography, filming, and developmental initiatives concerning heritage monuments, with the goal of expediting the permission-granting process.

ANSWER: D

• According to one of the confidential quarterly reports to member states, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran’s stockpile of uranium enriched to up to 60% purity, closer to the roughly 90% of weapons grade, continued to increase albeit at a slower pace, despite some of it having been diluted.
• Natural uranium consists of two different isotopes – nearly 99% U-238 and only around 0.7% of U-235.
  • U-235 is a fissile material that can sustain a chain reaction in a nuclear reactor.
• Enrichment process increases the proportion of U-235 through the process of isotope separation (U-238 is separated from U-235).

USE OF ENRICHED URANIUM

• For nuclear reactors, enrichment is required upto 3-4% which is known as Low Enriched Uranium/reactor-grade uranium.
• Highly enriched uranium has a purity of 20% or more and is used in research reactors.
• For nuclear weapons, enrichment is required upto 90% or more which is known as weapons-grade uranium.

ANSWER: B

• The French government announced that the practice of wearing abaya would be banned in state-run schools as it violated the principle of Laïcité, which is the French idea of secularism.

THE MEANING OF LAÏCITÉ

• Coined in the 19th century, Laïcité is a complicated and politically charged term.
• It is understood as a formal separation of the State and Church.
• It involves the complete removal of religious values from the public sphere and their replacement with secular values such as liberty, equality, and fraternity.
• The underlying goal of Laïcité is to implant tolerance and assimilate people.
• As per the principle, religion is to be confined to the private sphere.

ANSWER: A

• Researchers have investigated a nearly 520 million year old fossil of Kylinxia zhangi with a CT scanner and redescribed the animal.
• The fossil, which was uncovered near the town of Chengjiang in the Yunan Province of southern China, has the entire animal preserved.
• Kylinxia is among the 250 or so extremely well preserved fossil animals described from the region, which are together known as Cambrian Chengjiang biota.
• Kylinxia is related to the arthropods, whose bodies are divided into segments each bearing a pair of jointed limbs, including crabs, lobsters, insects and spiders.
• New findings revealed that Kylinxia sported three eyes on its head, along with a pair of claws that was possibly used to catch prey.

ANSWER: D

• Vanuatu’s parliament has elected Sato Kilman as the nation’s new prime minister.
• This follows as a court upheld a vote of no-confidence in his predecessor, who had sought closer ties with US allies amid China-US rivalry in the Pacific Islands.

ANSWER: C

• Danielle McGahey, 29, is set to become the first transgender woman player to play in international cricket.
• She has fulfilled the eligibility criteria for male-to-female (MTF) transition, per ICC.
• She was named in Canada’s squad for the Women’s T20 Americas Qualifier, the pathway tournament to the T20 World Cup 2024.
  • Originally she is from Australia.

ANSWER: D

• Iran and Afghanistan have again locked horns against the sharing of river waters of River Helmand.
• The Helmand River is the longest river in Afghanistan.
• Iran and Afghanistan signed a treaty on sharing Helmand’s water resources in 1973.
• It flows southwest form Hindu Kush mountains in east-central Afghanistan and across more than half the length of the country.
• Iran depends heavily on this water for farmland irrigation and has recently alleged that Afghanistan was limiting the supply.