1) Tungnath Temple: Tungnath Temple, the 3rd of the five Panchkedars of Uttarakhand, will be declared a national monument by the Archaeological Survey of India
- The temple is thought to be >1000 years old
- It is situated at an altitude of 12800 ft
- It is connected to the root of the Panch Kedar Circuit (Lord Shiva Temples) which were built by the Pandavas
- Located in Rudraprayag district, it is the only ‘Shivalaya’ of its kind located at the highest point above sea level in Asia
2) Arab League Readmits Syria: Recently, the Arab League voted to reinstate Syria’s membership after its suspension more than 10 years ago, underlining the thawing relations between Damascus and other Arab countries
- Syria was ousted from the Arab League in 2011 following President Bashar al-Assad’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests, which led to the ongoing civil war in the country
- The ruling, which allows Syria’s President to attend the upcoming Arab League Summit in Saudi Arabia on May 19, has also called for a resolution of the country’s civil war and the resulting refugee and drug smuggling crises
- A committee involving Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq will soon be created to ensure Syria achieves these goals
- However, the League’s Secretary-General, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, stressed that the move does not equal normalization of relations and that sovereign countries can make their own decisions
The Arab League/League of Arab States:
- Established Year: 1945
- Members: From 6 members initially viz., Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Syria, there are 22 members at present
- Decision-making: decisions are made on a majority basis, but there is no mechanism to compel members to comply with resolutions
3) Rabindranath Tagore Birth Anniversary: Rabindranath Jayanti is celebrated across the country on the 25th day of the Bengali month Boisakh
- Tagore was the youngest son of Debendranath Tagore, a leader of the Brahmo Samaj
- He was educated at home, and although at 17 he was sent to England for formal schooling, he did not finish his studies there
- He published several books of poetry in the 1880s and completed Manasi (1890), a collection that marks the maturing of his genius
- In 1901, Tagore founded an experimental school in rural West Bengal at Shantiniketan (Abode of Peace)
- In 1913, he became the first non-European to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature
- Tagore was knighted by the ruling British Government in 1915, but within a few years he resigned the honour as a protest against British policies in India
- He is the author of several volumes of short stories and a number of novels, among them Gora (1910), Ghare-Baire (1916), and Yogayog (1929)
4) Mercy Petition: Recently, President Droupadi Murmu has rejected the mercy petition of a man convicted for raping and stoning to death a four-year old girl in 2008.
- Mercy Petition is a formal request made by someone who has been sentenced to death or imprisonment seeking mercy from the President or the Governor as a last constitutional resort
- Under Article 72, the President shall have the power to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence of any person convicted of any offense:
-In all cases where the punishment or sentence is by a Court Martial
-In all cases where the punishment or sentence is for an offence against any law relating to a matter to which the executive power of the Union extends
-In all cases where the sentence is a sentence of death
- Similarly, the power to grant pardon is conferred upon the Governors of States under Article 161 of the Constitution of India
- The SC in 2021 held that the Governor of a State can pardon prisoners, including death row ones –
-Even before they served a minimum 14 years of prison sentence
- The act of mercy is not the right of the prisoner. He cannot claim it
- The mercy is granted on the grounds based on his health, physical or mental fitness or
-His family financial conditions whether he is the sole breadwinner or not
- The SC, in Epuru Sudhakar case 2006 held that the clemency power of the President and Governor under Article 72 and Article 161 is subject to judicial review. The court laid down certain grounds for judicial review:
-If the order is passed without any application of mind
-If the order passed in malafide
-If the order is passed on completely irrelevant considerations
-If the order suffers from arbitrariness
- In Maru Ram Case 1981, the SC held that the power to grant pardon under Article 72 is to be exercised on the advice of the Council of Ministers
5) Poshan Bhi Padhai Bhi: Launched by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, it is a pathbreaking Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) program to ensure that India has the world’s largest, universal, high-quality, pre-school network
- Government will target children’s development in every domain mentioned in the National Curriculum Framework (NCF):
-Physical and motor development
-Cognitive development
-Socio-emotional-ethical development
-Cultural/artistic development
-Development of communication and early language, literacy, and numeracy
- It will target 0-3 year olds as well as 3-6 year olds specifically and include special support for Divyang children
- Every school will be provided with at least two hours of high-quality pre-school instruction on daily basis
- Anganwadi centres will be strengthened with high-quality infrastructure, play equipment, and well-trained Anganwadi workers/teachers
