News In Short

Guam Island

Syllabus: GS1/Geography

Context

• INS Shivalik reached Guam, for an Operational Turnaround on successful completion of the recently concluded world’s largest Multinational Maritime Exercise RIMPAC 2024.

Guam Island

• Location: It is an island territory of the United States of America, in the North Pacific Ocean.
  • The Island is the largest, most populous, and southernmost of the Mariana Islands. 
• Capital: Hagåtña (Agana) 
• History: Guam remained under Spanish possession until 1898. However in the course of the Spanish-American War, the island was ceded to the United States.
• Native population: Ethnically called Chamorros, they are of Malayo-Indonesian descent with a considerable admixture of Spanish, Filipino, Mexican, and other European and Asian ancestries.

Exercise RIMPAC 2024

• It is a biennial event, hosted by the United States, that brings together naval forces from various countries to foster cooperative relationships and enhance maritime security in the Indo-Pacific region.
  • It is the 29th exercise in the series that began in 1971.
• Theme: ‘Partners: Integrated and Prepared’
• It provides a unique platform for joint training, interoperability, strategic maritime partnerships, and trust-building among friendly foreign navies.

Source: TH

Revised Model Foster Care Guidelines

Syllabus: GS2/Governance

Context

• The Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry has released the revised model foster care guidelines.

Revised Guidelines

• It has broadened the scope of foster care in India by permitting single individuals — regardless of their marital status — to foster children, with the option of adoption after two years.
  • This change represents a significant departure from the previous regulations, which restricted foster care to married couples.
• Individuals aged between 25 and 60 can now foster children, regardless of their marital status.
  • This includes those who are unmarried, widowed, divorced, or legally separated. 
  • Single women can foster and adopt children of any gender, while single men are restricted to fostering and adopting male children.
• For married couples, a stable marital relationship of at least two years is now required before they can foster a child

Foster Care

• Foster care involves placing a child with either extended family members or unrelated individuals temporarily. 
• Eligible children for foster care in India are typically over the age of six, residing in childcare institutions, and without suitable guardians.

Source: IE

Super Blue Moon

Syllabus GS3/Space 

In News 

• Raksha Bandhan (Rakhi) coincided with a “super blue moon”.

About 

• Super Blue Moon: It is a rare event where the full moon is both a “blue moon” and a “super moon.”
• Super blue moons are rare, occurring roughly every 10 to 20 years.
  • Super Moon: Occurs when the moon is closest to Earth in its elliptical orbit (perigee) and is also a full moon. It appears about 14% larger and 30% brighter than a full moon at apogee (farthest point)
    • The term “supermoon” was coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979.
  • Blue Moon:Though the expression “once in a blue moon” implies a rare or unusual occurrence, a blue moon is not that rare an astronomical phenomenon. There are a couple of definitions of a blue moon.
  • It is a second full moon in a single calendar month.
    • Or The third full moon in a season with four full moons.
  • The first recorded use of “Blue Moon” in English dates from 1528. 
  • Visibility: The moon won’t actually appear blue; the term “blue” refers to rarity, not color.
    • The moon might appear more yellow or orange when closer to the horizon due to atmospheric scattering.

Source: TH

Snowball Earth

Syllabus: GS1/Geography

Context

• Scientists have discovered rocks marking the Snowball Earth moment on The Garvellach islands off the west coast of Scotland.

About

• These rocks likely formed during the Sturtian glaciation, one of the planet’s most severe ice ages, which occurred between 662 and 720 million years ago. 
• This period is thought to have been crucial for the evolution of complex, multicellular life.
• Researchers believe these ancient rocks could signal the beginning of the Cryogenian Period. 
  • In geology, this important marker is known as a Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP), often symbolized by a “golden spike” embedded in the rock.
• The big freeze, which covered nearly all the globe in two phases for 80 million years, is known as “Snowball Earth”, after which the first animal life emerged.
• Significance: Clues hidden in rocks about the freeze have been wiped out everywhere – except in the Garvellachs.
  • Researchers hope the islands will tell us why Earth went into such an extreme icy state for so long and why it was necessary for complex life to emerge.

Source: TH

Namdhari Sect

Syllabus :GS 1/History 

In News

• Hundreds of followers of two rival groups of the Namdhari religious sect clashed violently in Rania in Haryana’s Sirsa district.

About the Namdharis

• The sect was founded by Satguru Ram Singh of Baisakhi in 1857.
•  He challenged the status quo, advocated social reform, and resisted the Raj in various ways.
• The British inflicted terrible punishments on the Namdharis and deported Ram Singh to Rangoon, from where he never returned.
• The Namdharis believe Ram Singh is still alive, and will return one day.
  •  Until then, they mourn his absence by wearing white.
• Believe system: Namdhari Sikhs consider the Guru Granth Sahib as the Supreme Gurbani, but they also believe in a living human Guru.
  • The Namdharis consider the cow to be sacred, they are teetotallers, and avoid even tea and coffee. 
  • The sect’s sprawling headquarters is located in Ludhiana’s Bhaini Sahib near village Raiyaan, where Ram Singh was born.
  •  The sect has its deras across Punjab and Haryana, and has a presence in a few other countries, too.

Source :IE

Restoration of Banni Grasslands

Syllabus: GS3/Conservation

Context

• Researchers evaluated different areas within Banni for sustainable grassland restoration for ecological value.

Restoration of Banni Grassland

• Researchers grouped Banni’s prospective restoration zones into five categories based on suitability:
  • Highly Suitable: About 937 sq. km (or 36%) of existing grassland falls into this category.
  • Suitable: Another 728 sq. km (28%) qualifies here.
  • Moderately Suitable: Covering 714 sq. km (27%).
  • Marginally Suitable: A smaller area of 182 sq. km (7%).
  • Not Suitable: Only 61 sq. km (2%) falls into this category.
• The first two categories—those “highly suitable” and “suitable” zones—make up nearly two-thirds of the entire Banni grassland.

Banni Grassland – It is nestled in Kachchh district in Gujarat, which is home to one of the largest tracts of grasslands in the country. – It is a mixture of two ecosystems, arid grassland and wetland. – This region is home to a nomadic pastoralist community, the Maldharis. – This community has to maintain their community forest rights. Conservation – Declared as Protected Forest in 1955 under Indian Forest Act, 1927. – Wildlife Institute of India (WII) has declared Banni grassland and Narayan Sarovar Sanctuary (both in Kutch) as the last remaining habitats of the cheetah in India.

Source: TH

Waggle Dance & Circle Dance

Syllabus: GS3/ Environment

Context

• Recently scientists have flagged evidence of “problematic behavior” in scientific papers concerned with the honeybee waggle dance and co-authored by Mandyam Srinivasan.

About

• Bees use two kinds of dances to communicate information: the waggle dance and the circle dance. 
• The purpose of either dance is for some honey bees to communicate to others the location of a flower patch with more nectar or pollen.
  • One bee dances while the others watch it to figure out the directions.

Waggle dance

• During a waggle dance, the bees move in a figure of eight formation. The dance indicates both the distance and the direction to the patch. 
• In this the straight line in the roughly figure of eight formation is called the waggle run.

Circle dance

• In a circle dance, the bees move in a circle. 
• The dance indicates only the distance to the hive.

Source: TH

Operation Parakram

Syllabus: GS3/Defense

Context

• Recently, Former Chief General S Padmanabhan, who led the Indian Army in the ‘Operation Parakram’ against Pakistan, passed away.

About the Operation Parakram

• It was the second major military confrontation between India and Pakistan after both countries conducted nuclear tests in 1998.
  • The first such conflict was the Kargil War in 1999.
• The trigger for Operation Parakram was a terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament in New Delhi on December 13, 2001, and subsequent attack on the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly.
• India attributed these attacks to two Pakistan-based terror groups: Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad.
  • These groups were believed to be backed by Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Military Buildup

• In response to these attacks, India initiated a massive military buildup, deploying troops along the Indo-Pakistani border and the Line of Control (LoC) in the disputed region of Kashmir, with codename Operation Parakram.
• The operation aimed to demonstrate India’s resolve and readiness for a potential conflict with Pakistan. Troops were positioned for an “eyeball to eyeball confrontation” with the Pakistani forces.

Legacy

• Operation Parakram remains a significant chapter in India-Pakistan relations. It highlighted the delicate balance between deterrence and the risk of escalation in a nuclear-armed region.
• Despite the military buildup, diplomatic channels ultimately prevailed, preventing a full-scale war.

Source: TH