1) Paris Club: It is an informal group of creditor nations whose objective is to find workable solutions to payment problems faced by debtor nations. It has 22 permanent members, including most of the western European and Scandinavian nations, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan. The group is organized around the principles that each debtor nation be treated case by case, with consensus, conditionality, solidarity, and comparability of treatment.
- The Paris Club stresses the informal nature of its existence. As an informal group, it has no official statutes and no formal inception date, although its first meeting with a debtor nation was in 1956, with Argentina.
2) Norovirus: also called “winter vomiting bug”, it is a group of viruses that leads to gastrointestinal illness. It causes inflammation of the lining of the stomach and intestines, in addition to severe vomiting and diarrhoea.
- Norovirus is resistant to many disinfectants and can heat up to 60°C. Therefore, merely steaming food or chlorinating water does not kill the virus. The most common infective agent is contaminated water or food. The virus spreads via faeces to the mouth. It affects particularly children, the elderly, and people suffering from other illnesses.
3) Olive Ridley turtle: they are the smallest and most abundant of all sea turtles found in the world.
- They are best known for their unique mass nesting called Arribada, where thousands of females come together on the same beach to lay eggs. They are carnivores
- They are mainly found in the warm waters of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans.
- Odisha’s Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary is known as the world’s largest rookery.
- IUCN Red List: Vulnerable, Wildlife Protection Act, 1972: Schedule 1, CITES Appendix I
- Recently, Hundreds of Olive Ridley turtles were found dead in their breeding grounds in the Godavari region due to effluents being released from the aqua ponds along the coastline and the discharges from the pipelines of the onshore oil exploration facilities .
4) Tethered Drones: it is an unmanned aerial vehicle tethered to the ground consisting of a base station on the ground and the drone, which is connected to the station through the tether (cable).
- Tethered drones dramatically reduce technical and human error crashes in flight.
- It also does not require GPS navigation. Many tethered drones have longer flight times compared to free-flying, battery-operated drones. Due to the restricted movement of a tethered drone, the operator does not need piloting skills and can mainly focus on their tasks.
5) Charaideo Moidams: Central government has decided to put forth the name of Assam’s Charaideo moidams burial sites in addition to UNESCO World Heritage Sites list for 2023-24.
- If selected it will be the only cultural heritage site in the North East to get the coveted status
- It is also known as the ‘Pyramids of Assam’ and was the original capital of the Ahom Kings. It contains sacred burial grounds of Ahom kings and queens and is also the place of the ancestral Gods of the Ahoms.
- “Che” means city or town, “Rai” means “to shine” and “Doi” means hill. In short, Charaideo means, “a shining town situated on a hilltop.” A moidam is a tumulus – a mound of earth raised over a grave Built by: Chaolung Sukhapa (founder of the Ahom dynasty in 1253 CE)
- It comprises a massive underground vault with one or more chambers having domical superstructure and covered by a heap of earthen mounds and externally it appears a hemispherical mound.
