Facts in News
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Navroz
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Recently, the Parsi New Year “Navroz” was celebrated.
Key Points
- In Persian, the word ‘Nav’ means ‘new’ and ‘Roz’ means ‘day’. This translates to ‘New Day.
- Parsi New Year has been observed by Iranians and Zorastians for the past 3,000 years.
- It is also known as Jamshed-i-Nouroz, after the Persian king Jamshed, who introduced the Parsi calendar.
- It is said emperor Jamshed began the celebrations when the North and South poles had an equal duration of day and night or the Spring Equinox.
- The celebrations begin on the eve of the New Year and are known as ‘Pateti’.
- It is also the day of remittance of sins and repentance.
- Zoroastrians dedicate it to cleaning their minds and souls from evil deeds and thoughts, so as to make space for peace and love.
- Historical Background
- In more modern times, in A.D. 1079, a king of Iran named Jalaluddin Malekshah started observing it on March 21.
- In the 18th century, a rich tradesman from Surat, Nusservanji Kohyaji, who often travelled to Iran, came to know about Navroz and brought the festival to India.
- In the 19th century, another Parsi, Merwanji Panday, started celebrating the day in Bombay after his wife who was from Iran told him about it.
- Over a period of time, the festival was introduced in India on a wide scale by members of the Parsi community who eventually connected it to Jamshed, the illustrious king of Iran.
- Thus, the day came to be known as Jamshedi Navroz
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National Gene Bank
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- The Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare inaugurated the world’s second-largest refurbished state-of-the-art National Gene Bank at the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), Pusa, New Delhi.
- Agri-farmers would be greatly benefited by the new gene bank with state-of-the-art facilities for germplasm.
National Gene Bank
- It was established in 1996 to preserve the seeds of Plant Genetic Resources (PGR) for future generations.
- It has the capacity to preserve about one million germplasm in the form of seeds.
- Presently it is protecting 4.52 lakh accessions, of which 2.7 lakh are Indian germplasm and the rest have been imported from other countries.
- National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources is meeting the need of in-situ and ex-situ germplasm conservation through Delhi Headquarters and 10 regional stations in the country.
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Cave lion
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Recently, the Cave lion cub found in Siberian permafrost is 28,000 years old and may even still have traces of its mother’s milk in it.
- Cave lions have been extinct for thousands of years.
About
- The female cub, named Sparta, was found at the Semyuelyakh River in Russia’s Yakutia region in 2018.
Image Courtesy: The guardian
[A cave lion cub named Sparta, which was found preserved in Siberia’s permafrost. ]
- A second lion cub called Boris was found the year before.
Image Courtesy:The guardian
[Boris, a male cave lion cub, lived and died about 15,000 years before Sparta]
- The cubs were found 15 metres apart.
- They were from different litters and were also born thousands of years apart.
- Boris, a male cub, lived around 43,448 years ago.
- Sparta was so well preserved that it still had its fur, internal organs and skeleton.
Other findings
- Climate change, warming of the Arctic has led to several similar finds in Russia’s vast Siberian region
- The two cubs aged 1-2 months were found by mammoth tusk collectors.
What is Permafrost?
- It is any type of ground—from soil to sediment to rock—that has been frozen continuously for a minimum of two years and as many as hundreds of thousands of years.
- It is mainly found near the polar zones and regions with high mountains covering parts of Greenland, Alaska, Russia, Northern Canada, Siberia and Scandinavia. These are found in mountains as well as high latitude tundra and taiga regions.
- Its thickness reduces progressively towards the south and is affected by a number of other factors, including the Earth’s interior heat, snow and vegetation cover, presence of water bodies, and topography.
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Defence Testing Infrastructure Scheme (DTIS)
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- Launched in May 2020.
- Objective:
- To boost domestic defence & aerospace manufacturing.
- It envisages the setting up of 6-8 Greenfield Defence Testing Infrastructure facilities that are required for defence and aerospace-related production.
- Launched by: the Ministry of Defence (MoD)
- Duration: The scheme would run for the duration of five years.
- Outlay: Rs 400 crore to create state-of-the-art testing infrastructure in partnership with industry.
- Funding: The projects under the scheme will be provided with:
- Up to 75 per cent of Government funding in the form of ‘Grant-in-Aid’.
- The remaining 25 per cent of the project cost by the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) constituents of which will be the Indian private entities and state governments.
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Exercise ‘Zair-Al-Bahr’
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- Recently, the second edition of exercise Zair-Al-Bahr was conducted in the Persian Gulf.
About
- It is the joint naval exercise between the Indian Navy and Qatar Emiri Naval Force (QENF).
- The present edition of the exercise included:
- a three-day harbour phase and
- a two-day sea phase.
- The sea phase consisted of tactical maritime exercises involving Surface Action, Anti-Piracy exercises, Air Defence, Maritime surveillance, Boarding operations and SAR exercises.
- In the sea phase of the exercise, Indian Navy Stealth Frigate INS Trikand, QENF Missile Boats of Barzan and Damsah class, Fast-Attack Crafts of MRTP 34 class and Rafale Fighter Aircraft participated.
- Significance:
- It will contribute towards the Indian Navy’s efforts to consolidate Interoperability with the Qatari Navy.
- It would further strengthen the maritime exchanges between the two countries.
- It will enhance peace, stability and maritime security in the region.
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International Baccalaureate
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- Recently, The Delhi Board of School Education (DBSE) signed an MoU with International Baccalaureate (IB) to implement IB programmes in 30 government schools this year.
About
- The IB programme will be introduced from class IX to XII in 20 of its new Schools of Specialised Excellence (SOSE) and from nursery to class VIII in 10 Sarvodaya Vidyalayas in East Delhi.
- International level experts will come to the schools and train the teachers.
- IB and the government will get the opportunity to together groom the poorest students to international standards.
About International Baccalaureate (IB)
- It was founded in 1968.
- It is a private international education board.
- Its mission has been built on a cornerstone of creating a better world through education.
- It offers a continuum of international education through four challenging, high-quality educational programmes to students aged 3 to 19.
- Primary Years Programme (for students aged 3 to 12)
- Middle Years Programme (for students aged 11 to 16)
- Diploma Programme (for students aged 16 to 19)
- Career-related Programme (for students aged 16 to 19)
- The IB has a presence in over 150 countries throughout the world.
- It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
- It has around 5,000 schools globally.
- There are currently 193 IB schools in India, all of which are top-end elite private schools.
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