1) Sangita Kalanidhi Awards: It is considered the highest accolade in the field of Carnatic music since 1942. Prior to that, a senior musician/expert was invited to preside over the Music Academy’s annual conference.
- In 1942, it was decided that the musician so invited would be conferred the title of Sangita Kalanidhi, the award comprising a gold medal and a birudu patra (citation).
- Since 2005, the Sangita Kalanidhi has also received the MS Subbulakshmi Award instituted by The Hindu.
- Nritya Kalanidhi award is presented in the field of dance every year by the Madras Music Academy
2) V-Dem Democracy Report 2023: Data of V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy) Institute at Sweden’s University shows that democratic values in India have eroded significantly in recent years.
- The report classifies countries into four regime types based on their score in the Liberal Democratic Index (LDI): Liberal Democracy, Electoral Democracy, Electoral Autocracy, and Closed Autocracy. In all these indexes, 0 is the lowest value and 1 the highest.
- The values of these indexes have been declining since 2014 in India.
- India has been among the top 10 autocratizing countries in the last 10 years and ranked at 108th spot globally for electoral democracy
3) SCO International Conference on ‘Shared Buddhist Heritage:
- International conference on “Shared Buddhist Heritage” 2023 is first of Its kind event that is being organized under India’s SCO Leadership.
- he Conference aims to re-establish trans-cultural links, seek out commonalities, between Buddhist art of Central Asia, art styles, archaeological sites and antiquity in various museums’ collections of the SCO countries.
- It is being organized by the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of External Affairs and the International Buddhist Confederation (IBC-as a grantee body of the Ministry of Culture).
4) GAGANYAAN: It is an Indian crewed orbital spacecraft that is intended to send 3 astronauts to space for a minimum of seven days by 2023, as part of the Indian Human Spaceflight Programme.
- The spacecraft, which is being developed by ISRO consists of a service module and a crew module, collectively known as the Orbital Module.
- It will be for the first time that India will launch its manned mission to space, making the country fourth in line to have sent a human to space after US, Russia and China.
- GSLV Mk-lll (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) the three-stage heavy-lift launch vehicle will be used for carrying the orbital module.
- The first trial (uncrewed flight) for Gaganyaan is being planned by the end of 2023 or early 2024. This will be followed by sending Vyom Mitra, a humanoid and then with the crew onboard.
5) LVM3: LVM3 (erstwhile GSLV) is an expendable space launch vehicle designed, developed, and operated by the ISRO to launch satellites and other space objects into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbits. It is a three-stage vehicle: Solid, Liquid and cryogenic
- It is the heaviest rocket. LVM3 can carry weight up to 5,000 kg and reach up to 36,000 km.
