1) Idu Mishmi Tribe: they are a sub-tribe of the larger animists Mishmi group (the other two Mishmi groups are Digaru and Miju) in Arunachal Pradesh and neighbouring Tibet.
- They are known for their weaving, craftsmanship skill and typical hairstyle, distinctive customs and artistic pattern embedded on their clothes.
- The tribe is estimated to comprise around 12,000 people (as per the census 2011).
- Language: Their language, called ‘Idu Mishmi’, is considered endangered by UNESCO.
- Tigers are especially important to the Idu Mishmis — according to Idu mythology, they were born to the same mother, and thus, tigers are their “elder brothers”.
- While hunting has traditionally been a way of life, the Idu Mishmis also follow a strict belief system of myths and taboos — ‘iyu-ena’ — that restrict them from hunting many animals, including a complete prohibition on killing tigers.
2) National Mission for Cultural Mapping: launched in 2017 for 3 years, by the Union Ministry of Culture, it aims to develop a comprehensive database of art forms, artists and other resources across the country.
- The government has identified and documented distinctive features of more than one lakh villages across the country.
- In this cultural asset mapping, villages have been broadly divided into seven-eight categories based on mythological ecological, developmental and scholastic importance.
- Detailed field surveys were carried out by joint teams of the Culture Ministry and the Common Services Centres (CSC), under Meity.
3) Artemis II Mission: It will be the first mission to carry humans to the moon’s vicinity since 1972.
- It is the second scheduled flight of the Artemis program and the first crewed Artemis mission. In this, four astronauts will fly around the moon before returning to Earth.
- It will use the huge Space Launch System (SLS) mega-rocket and Orion spacecraft to launch the crew on the lunar flyby mission.
4) 5th cycle of the All India Tiger Estimation: India’s tiger population rose by 200 in the past four years to reach 3,167 in 2022. The number of tigers has almost doubled in the last two decades in the country. 75 per cent of the world’s tiger population can now be found in India
- The tiger population has grown the most in the Shivalik hills and Gangetic flood plains, followed by central India, the north eastern hills, the Brahmaputra flood plains, and the Sundarbans.
- The Western Ghats, which are home to the largest tiger population in the world, have shown a significant fall in the occupancy of tigers.
- The north-western states such as Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh now have more tigers outside reserves, requiring officials to step up habitat conservation.
5) Pramana: Pramana is a valid means of knowledge. Knowledge can be valid or invalid, valid knowledge is called praman and non-valid knowledge is known as aprama.
- There are six types of Pramana: Pratyaksha (Perception); Anumana (Inference); Upamana (Comparison and Analogy); Arthapatti (Postulation); Anupalabdhi (Non-apprehension); Sabda (Verbal Testimony)
