Also in News

• Ministry of Jal Shakti Launched 5th edition of the annual JSA: CTR 2024 Campaign.
   
• About JSA: CTR 2024
  • Background: It was first launched in 2019 as a “Jan Andolan” and since 2021, it has become an annual feature covering all blocks of all districts across country. 
  • Aim: To initiate and accelerate water conservation at the grassroots level through citizen participation. 
  • Launched under:  National Water Mission (NWM).
    • NWM is one of the eight National Missions under National Action Plan on Climate Change. 
  • 2024 Theme: Nari Shakti se Jal Shakti 
  • Focused interventions: Water conservation and rainwater harvesting, geo-tagging & making inventory of all water bodies, etc.

• Karnataka has banned the use of artificial colours In gobi manchurian and Cotton Candy.
   
• About Colour Chemicals
  • Tartrazine and Sunset Yellow can cause cause allergic or pseudo-allergic reaction
  • Carmoisine can cause skin rashes and respiratory allergies
  • Rhodamine B  is a chemical colouring agent used in textile dyeing and the paper industry and is considered carcinogenic in nature.

• Agreement for transfer of technology for TRCPT between CSIR and L&T Construction.
   
• About TRCPT
  • It is a non-conventional construction material consisting of fine grained cementitious binder and non-metallic textile reinforcement.
  • It is a precast technology and can help in economical mass production of TRC products.
    • Completely avoids the conventional way of concrete construction, which makes use of moulds ,
    • Less fabrication cost with increased production rate
    • It  is corrosion-free.
    • It has a minimum life of 50 years.
    • Uses: street furniture, canopy structure partition walls, noise barriers, etc.

• Through the 2024 regulation, SEBI has mandated registration of index providers managing “significant indices” based on securities listed in India.
  • ‘Index Provider’ means  a person  who  controls  the creation,  operation  and administration  of  a Benchmark or  an  Index
• This will foster transparency in the governance index in the securities market.
   
• About Index
  • An index measures the price performance of a basket of securities using a standardized metric and methodology.
  • Indexes in financial markets are often used as benchmarks to evaluate an investment's performance against.
  • Nifty 50 and the Nifty PSU Bank, etc. are some important indexes in Indian markets.

• Ministers of Health from African countries signed the Yaounde Declaration to end malaria deaths.
• Signed at the Yaoundé conference co-hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) & Cameroon. 
• 11 African nations, which account for the majority of global malaria infections and fatalities, signed it.
• It includes the commitment to allocate 15 percent of annual budgets for the health sector.
• It's aligned with the “High burden to high impact” WHO approach, founded on 4 pillars: 
  • The political will to reduce malaria deaths; 
  • Strategic information to drive impact; 
  • Better guidance, policies, and strategies; 
  • Coordinated national malaria response.

• Defence Ministry signs ₹200 crore contract for anti-drone (Vajra sentinel system) under Indian Defence Exhibition (iDEX) initiative.
   
• Vajra sentinel system
  • It is a modern solution designed to detect, track, and neutralize drones at extraordinary ranges.
  • It offers soft kills by jamming and hard kills by interceptor drones.
  • Operational range of 10 km and a hard-kill reach of 5-6 km.

• Indian navy participated in U.S. Naval Forces led multinational maritime Exercise Cutlass Expres in Seychelles. 
• It is a cornerstone of maritime security and cooperation in the strategic waters of the East African coast and the Western Indian Ocean. 

• The report is released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (an independent international institute)
   
• Key highlights 
  • Export 
    • USA is the largest arms exporter and its share of total global arms exports rose to 42%.
    • France, for the first time,  was the second biggest arms exporter, just ahead of Russia.
  • Import
    • India was the world’s top arms importer. 
      • Its arms imports increased by 4.7% between 2014–18 and 2019–23. 
      • Russia remained India’s main arms supplier (accounting for 36% of its arms imports).
    • Ukraine emerged as the largest European arms importer in 2019–23.

Haiti (Capital:  Port-au-Prince)

• Haiti is experiencing a surge in Gang violence as gangs demand for resignation of the Prime Minister.
   
•  Political features
  • Haiti is a Caribbean Island on the western part of the island of Hispaniola
  • Land Border: Dominican Republic (East)
  • Maritime Borders: Caribbean Sea (South and West) and Atlantic Ocean(North)
    • Gulf of Gonâve lies along the western coast of Haiti.
       
• Geographical Features
  • Longest River: Artibonite
  • 4 Mountain ranges: Cordillera Septentrional, Northern Massif, Matheux Mountains, Massif de la Selle 
  • Highest Peak: Pic la Selle
  • Climate: Warm, humid tropical climate