Also in News

• Recently, the Prime Minister-led panel cleared names for chairperson of Lokpal.
  • Lokpal and Lokayukt ACt,2013 provide for establishment of Lokpal for Union and Lokayukta for States to inquire into allegations of corruption against certain public functionaries. 
  • Jurisdiction of Lokpal includes Prime Minister, Ministers, members of Parliament, Groups A, B, C and D officers and officials of Central Government. 

• Other members in selection committee of Lokpal (for chairperson and members) include: 
  • Speaker of Lok Sabha
  • Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha
  • CJI or a Judge of the Supreme Court nominated by him.
  • Eminent jurist (nominated by the President) 

•  Such appointment remains valid despite any vacancy in Selection Committee.

• Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution launched a pilot to on-board the Fair Price Shops (FPSs) on the Open Network Digital Commerce (ONDC).
  • FPSs have been licensed to distribute essential commodities to the ration card holders under the Targeted Public Distribution System. 
• ONDC is an open network that enables location-aware, local digital commerce stores across industries to be discovered and engaged by any network-enabled applications. 
  • It enables large-scale democratization of digital commerce in India by providing a level playing field for large and small digital commerce platforms. 

• Juspay, Zoho, and Decentro have received final authorisation from Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for Payment Aggregator (PA) licences.
  • PAs are entities that facilitate e-commerce sites and merchants to accept various payment instruments from the customers without the need for merchants to create a separate payment integration system of their own.
  • In the process, they receive payments from customers, pool and transfer them on to the merchants.
• PAs are different from Payment Gateways as latter only provide technology infrastructure to facilitate payment transaction without any involvement in fund handling.

• Due to heavy snowfall, Himalayan Black Bears are provided a special diet to aid them during hibernation period at rehabilitation centre of DNP. 

• About DNP 
  • Located in Jammu and Kashmir and spread in Zabarwan mountain ranges of great Himalayas.
  • Occupies almost half of catchment zone of world famous Dal Lake. 
  • Dagwan is the major river in the park
  • Holds the last viable population of Hangul or Kashmir stag (IUCN status: critically endangered) in world. 
    • Poaching by Gujjars, Bakarwals is the main cause for Hangul decline. 
  • Also, inhabits largest population of Asiatic black bear in Asia.

• UN Women will provide technical assistance to Kerala for the Safe City project and gender data hub. 
  • Established in 2010, UN Women is the UN organization dedicated to gender equality and empowerment of women.

• Safe City Projects
  • It is an initiative of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) under Nirbhaya Funds Scheme.
  • It aims to create a safe, secure and empowering environment for women in public places.
  • MHA has approved Safe City projects in 8 selected cities - Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Lucknow.

• IIT-Kanpur has successfully built and tested India’s first HETTF (named as S2 as well as Jigarthand).     
  • It puts India amongst only a handful of countries with this advanced hypersonic testing capability.
  • This project was supported by Fund for Improvement in S&T Infrastructure (FIST) of Department of Science & Technology. 
• It is capable of generating flight speeds between 3-10 km/s, simulating the hypersonic conditions encountered during atmospheric entry of vehicles, asteroid entry, scramjet flights, and ballistic missiles. 
  • This makes it a valuable test facility for ongoing missions of ISRO and DRDO including Gaganyaan, RLV, and hypersonic cruise missiles.

• Russia blamed the use of U.S.-supplied Patriot missiles for downing the plane carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war.

• PATRIOT (Phased Array Tracking Radar for Intercept on Target) 
  • It is a theater-wide surface-to-air missile defense system.
  • It is considered one of the most advanced air defense systems in the U.S. arsenal. 
    • It was also used in 1991 Gulf War and during the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. 
  • It is usually equipped with powerful radar, a control station, a power generator, a launch station, etc.

• Tripura Board of Secondary Education (TBSE) has allowed both Roman and Bengali scripts for the Kokborok  examination in Tripura.

• About Kokborok language
  • It is mother tongue of Borok people who are geographically known as Tripuris.
    • Borok inhabits Tripura and other North-Eastern States along with Uttarakhand. 
  • Belonging to Tibeto-Burman family, it is the lingua franca (common language between speakers of different native languages) of most of Tripura’s tribal communities.
  • It is recognized as one of the official state languages of Tripura.

Iran (Capital: Tehran)

• Iran announced 15-day visa-free policy for Indian tourists. 

• Political features:
  • Location: Iran is a country in the Middle East or West Asia.
  • Bordering nations: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey, Iraq.
  • Bordering water bodies: Caspian Sea, Gulf of Oman and Persian Gulf.

• Geographical features:
  • Major mountain ranges: Zagros, Elburz, etc.
  • Highest Point: Mount Damavand (It is a dormant volcano and also the highest volcano in the Middle East)
  • Major deserts: Dasht-e-Kavir and Dasht-e- Lut