ANSWER: D

• Rural Development Ministry has developed JALDOOT App to capture the water level of selected wells in a village across the country.
• The App will be launched in New Delhi.
• The Jaldoot app will enable Gram Rojgar Sahayak to measure the water level of selected wells twice a year (pre-monsoon and post-monsoon).
• The app will facilitate panchayats with robust data, which can be further used for better planning of works.
• The ground water data could be utilised as part of the Gram Panchayat Development Plan and Mahatma Gandhi planning exercises.
• The country has taken several steps for improvement of water management both in the rural and urban areas. This includes watershed development, afforestation, water body development and renovation, and rainwater harvesting.

ANSWER: C

• The 200-year-old Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute in Maharashtra’s Pune city is hosting an Open Day for the general public to witness its ongoing encyclopedia of Sanskrit dictionary project.
• The Open Day is aimed at introducing the huge and distinct encyclopedia of Sanskrit to the visitors, demonstrating and promoting India’s intellectual heritage hidden in Sanskrit literature.
• Led by researchers from the Department of Sanskrit and Lexicography at the college, the encyclopaedic dictionary of Sanskrit will be the world’s biggest dictionary.
• Thirty-five volumes have been published as part of this project, which began in 1948. This dictionary consists of references from 62 knowledge disciplines restored in Sanskrit language and traces the language’s linguistic developments right from Rigveda to Hasyarnava (1850 AD).
• The Sanskrit scholars have been tracing phonetic changes, semantic development of words since inception of the mighty project.
• Over ten million references have been collected from more than 1,500 Sanskrit books in disciplines like vedas, vedant, darshana, polity, mathematics, agriculture, chemistry, architecture, dramaturgy and others.
• These have been collected and stored in the form of slips safely preserved in the college’s scriptorium, one-of-its-kind in the world.
• Each slip — in either pink or green colours and in different sizes — holds information about exact vocable, grammatical category, citation to attest the vocable.

ANSWER: A

• Rosh Hashanah or the Jewish New Year has begun, marking the start of the year 5783 in the Hebrew Calendar.
• The day is marked with Simanim – a special feast meant for Rosh Hashanah. Simanim literally means “signs” or “indicators” and is meant to herald better tidings.
• This is followed by the blowing of a traditional horn called ‘shofar’ considered to be one of the most anticipated features in these festivities. While it is typically blown in the morning, it is considered to be as old as the time of Abraham and Isaac.

What is Rosh Hashanah

• Considered to be one of the holiest days in Judaism, Rosh Hashanah literally means ‘start of the year.’ It begins in the seventh month of the Hebrew Calendar; this day mostly falls in either September or October (as per the Gregorian calendar) and starts on the first day of Tishrei month in the Hebrew calendar.
• Legend has Rosh Hashanah’s roots in the Talmud — the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law and Jewish theology — which believes that the world was created on the first day of the Tishrei. While it is not completely clear when Jewish people first celebrated this day, the Book of Leviticus includes a passage (without specifically naming Rosh Hashanah) in which God tells Moses that the first day of the seventh month is a day for rest, marked with the blowing of a horn.
• Jews view this two-day holiday as a time to reflect in anticipation of better tidings in the coming year. Also called the ‘day of judgment,’ this time also gives people an opportunity to reflect and come up with ways to grow and prosper in the coming year.
• The nature of celebrations varies across the globe. While some believe in going to the synagogue and not working, others light candles in their homes. However, the most interesting tradition is celebrating the day with ‘taschlich’ — a customary Jewish atonement ritual performed during the High Holy Days. The ritual is performed at a large, natural body of flowing water — a river, lake, sea or ocean, usually on the afternoon of Rosh Hashanah. The penitent believers recite a Biblical passage and prayers. During the Tashlikh prayer, the worshipers symbolically throw their sins into a source of water. While some throw pieces of bread into the water, many rabbis consider this to be forbidden by halakha — the collective body of Jewish religious laws.
• Food is synonymous with Rosh Hashanah celebrations. The Simanim platter typically includes apples dipped in honey, Challah bread baked in round loaves, ram, leeks, pomegranate, gourds, dates, black-eyed peas or green beans, beets, carrots and Pri Chadash (“New Fruit”).

ANSWER: B

• SymphoNE is the start of a series of dialogues on North Eastern Region’s Development Conference comprised of a broad range of Policy Thinkers, Stakeholders & Influencers with the aim to boost Tourism Sector in North Eastern Region.
• The Virtual Conference ‘SymphoNE’ being organized on 24th & 27th September 2022 by Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region on the occasion of World Tourism Day.
• This two-day conference will aim to create a roadmap to showcase the unexplored beauty of North East India & boost the tourism Sector in North Eastern Region.
• SymphoNE aims to develop one-stop solution to eliminate all obstacles that are being faced by the tourists, and the tour operators while carrying out the operations for the visitors.

ANSWER: C

• IGIA energy management: The Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport, managed by Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), has received the prestigious National Award for Excellence in Energy Management by CII-Green Business Centre (GBC) along with National Energy Leader Award for the year 2021 for its consistent performance at the highest level in the last four years (from 2018 to 2021).
• CII-GBC made the announcement during the Energy Efficiency Summit-2022.
• The event was attended by R K Rai, Secretary, Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), Government of India, Freddy Svane, Ambassador at the Royal Danish Embassy in New Delhi, and Ravi Chandran Purushothaman, Chairman, Energy Efficiency Council, CII-GBC and President Danfoss India.
• The award recognizes “Excellence” in Energy Management in industries and aims to instill a sense of competition to motivate Indian industries to achieve energy excellence and promote sustainable development.
• DIAL, a GMR Airports Infrastructure Limited-led consortium, presented the “Net Zero Carbon Emission Airport by 2030” roadmap and its progress update, along with the key energy saving and emission reduction initiatives, innovative projects, and other environmental aspects such as waste management, water management, climate change adaptation strategies etc.

ANSWER: B

• The United Nations observes 26th September every year as the International Day for the Total Elimination of nuclear weapons.
• The aim of the day is to enhance public awareness about the threat posed to humanity by nuclear weapons and the necessity for their total elimination.
• It provides an opportunity to educate the public and their leaders about the real benefits of eliminating such weapons, and the social and economic costs of perpetuating them.
• In 1946, the General Assembly’s first resolution established that the Atomic Energy Commission has the mandate to make specific proposals for the control of nuclear energy and the elimination of not only atomic weapons but also all other major weapons adaptable to mass destruction.
• The General Assembly endorsed the objective of general and complete disarmament in 1959. The first Special Session of the General Assembly Devoted to Disarmament, held in 1978, further recognized that nuclear disarmament should be the priority objective in the field of disarmament.
• The international arms-control framework contributed to international security since the Cold War. It also acted as a brake on the use of nuclear weapons.
• On July 7, 2017, the Treaty on the Prohibition of nuclear weapons was adopted. This Treaty is so important since it is the first multilateral legally-binding instrument for nuclear disarmament to have been negotiated in 20 years.
• On August 2, 2019, the United States’ withdrawal spelt the end of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, though the United States and the Russian Federation had previously committed to eliminating an entire class of nuclear missiles.

ANSWER: C

• INS Sunayna has reached Seychelles, an island off the coast of East Africa, to participate in the annual training exercise “Operation Southern Readiness” of Combined Maritime Forces (CMF).
• According to the Ministry of Defence, “This not only reinforces Indian Navy’s commitment to maritime security in the Indian Ocean region, but also marks the maiden participation of an Indian Navy ship in the CMF exercise.”
• The US, Italy, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, Spain and India are among the participants.
• The Seychelles People’s Defence Force, European Union Naval Force and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime are part of the exercise. Forces of multiple nations will conduct training on boarding a ship, search and seizure techniques, search and rescue operations, maritime law and information-sharing.

Commissioned in 2013

• INS Sunayna, the second of the NOPV (Naval Offshore Patrol Vessel) class of ship was commissioned at Kochi on October 15 in 2013 by Vice Admiral Satish Soni, Flag Officer Commanding in Chief Southern Naval Command.

ANSWER: A

• Pradesh has been awarded Ayushmann Utkrishta award 2022 for adding various health facilities to health facility register.
• The State was conferred this award by the Chief Executive officer (CEO) of the National Health Authority R.S Sharma at the closing ceremony of theAarogya Manthan organised by the National Health Authority in New Delhi on 26 September 2022.
• Uttar Pradesh is the best performing state in the country with 28728 Health facilities added to National health facility register.
• Also, the state is the second-best State in creating Ayushmann Bharat health account (ABHA) with almost 2 crores ABH Accounts.

ANSWER: A

• After a gap of nearly two-and-a-half years, the state capital finally got air connectivity with the Alliance Air aircraft from Delhi landing at the Jubbarhatti airport.
• Though the flights were to resume on September 6, inclement weather conditions hampered the restoration of the flights.
• The flight will not just connect the state capital to Delhi but also with Dharamsala and Kullu. Air Alliance has acquired a new fixed-wing aircraft ATR-42 (600). The resumption of flights will give a major impetus to tourism, especially during the festive season.
• Resumption of flights from Shimla has been a long-pending demand of the hoteliers. While the flight between Shimla and Delhi will operate on all days of the week, the flight linking Shimla-Kullu will be operational four days a week while the one between Shimla and Dharamsala will operate thrice a week.
• While the two airports at Bhuntar in Kullu and Gaggal in Dharamsala have regular and reliable air connectivity, the tourism sector in Shimla has suffered due to the absence of regular and dependable flights from Jubbarhatti airport.

ANSWER: C

• Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar called upon industrialists to contribute towards making Himachal Pradesh a tuberculosis (TB) free state.
• The Governor, while addressing industrialists at Nalagarh, said, “Though tuberculosis has been eradicated from most of the countries, India still has a large number of TB patients. The Prime Minister has set a target of making the country TB-free by 2024.”
• The Governor said that the state government had decided to achieve the target by 2023. He added that the target could be easily achieved if TB patients were adopted for treatment.
• He said, “We need to work as a social organisation. The Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh Industries Association (BBNIA) has always discharged its social responsibility and I hope it will contribute to achieving the target.”
• As per the data, 12.30 lakh TB cases were reported in India in 2021. The total TB notification rate in the state was 191 cases per lakh population.
• The total TB cases in the state last year was 14,492, out of which 2.6 per cent were in tribal areas, 74 per cent in rural and 23.4 per cent in urban areas.
• Rajesh Sharma, Secretary to the Governor, urged the investors to help the 9,000 TB patients in the state, who had given their consent to register themselves on the Nikshay portal.
• Gopal Beri, Deputy Managing Director, National Health Mission, said that Himachal was adjudged the best state in effectively implementing the TB eradication programme.
• Subodh Gupta, president, CII Himachal Pradesh; Gagan Kapoor, vice-president, CII; and Rajender Guleria, president, BBNIA; were also present on the occasion.