Tampara Lake 

 Syllabus: GS Paper-1-Geography 

 Why in News? 

NGT has directed the Odisha government to stop the illegal construction near Tampara Lake 

 Tampara Lake: 

 · It is among the most prominent freshwater lakes. · It is located in the Ganjam district of Odisha state. 

 · The depression on the land was filled with rainwater from the catchment flow.

 · Then it was called as Tamp by the Britishers. · It was gradually termed as Tampara by the locals.

 · It is an important habitat for the vulnerable species such as Cyprinus carpio, river tern etc. 

 · It is one of the Ramsar sites in India. 

 Ramsar Site:

· It is a wetland of International importance under the Ramsar Convention. 

 · This convention is also known as the convention on wetlands.

 · This treaty was established by UNESCO in the year 1971. 

 · It is named after the city of Ramsar in Iran, the place where the convention took place. 

 · Its recognition indicates the importance of the wetland, especially if they provide habitat to the waterfowl

 · The largest Ramsar site in India is located in the state of West Bengal.

· There are 75 Ramsar Sites in India as of February 2023.

Cauvery Water Management Authority 

 Syllabus: GS Paper-2-Polity 

 Why in News?

Tamil Nadu has walked out of Cauvery Water Management Authority after Karnataka has refused to agree to the release of 37.9 thousand million cubic feet. 

 Cauvery water dispute: 

 · Cauvery River water dispute involves 3 states and 1 UT. 

 · They are: 1. Tamil Nadu 2. Kerala 3. Karnataka 4. Puducherry 

 Cauvery Water Management Authority:

 · It was formed in the year 2018 by conferring its power from Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956.

 · Composition:

 · Chairman 

 · Secretary 

 · Eight Members 

 · Among the eight members, two will be full time and two will be part time members from the centre’s side.

 · The remaining four members will be part time members from the state. 

 · Functions: 

 · To implement and compliance of the Supreme Court order for the storage, appointment, regulation and the control of Cauvery waters. 

 · It will advise the states to take suitable measures.

 · It will prepare the annual report covering its activities during the preceding year. Cauvery River: 

 · It is the fourth largest river in South India 

 · It is known by the name Ponni in Tamil 

 · It rises on Brahmagiri Hills of the western Ghats

 Tributaries: 1. Arkavathi 2. Hemavathi 3. Shimsa 4. Amaravathi etc.

National Human Rights Commission 

 Syllabus: GS Paper-2-Polity 

 Why in News?

The Supreme Court has said that the National Human Rights Commission has acted like Super Election Commission of India by appointing a special human rights observer during the West Bengal Elections. 

National Human Rights Commission: 

 · It is a statutory body which was established in the year 1993. 

 · It was formed under the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993.

· It is a watchdog of human rights in the country.

 · It deals with the rights relating to life, liberty, equality and dignity of the constitution. 

 · Its main objective is to strengthen the institutional arrangements through which the human rights issues could be addresses. 

 Composition:

 · It consists of a chairperson and five members.

 · The chairperson should be retired Chief Justice of India or judge of a Supreme Court. 

 · The members should be serving or retired judge of the Supreme Court, a serving or retired chief justice of High Court. 

 Appointment:

 · The chairperson and the members are appointed by the President on the recommendations of a six-member committee.

 1. The Committee includes: 2. Prime Minister as the head 3. Speaker of Lok Sabha 4. Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha 5. Leaders of the Opposition in both the houses of Parliament 6. The Central Home Minister 

 Term: 

 · They hold office for a term of 3 years or until they attain the age of 70 whichever is earlier 

 Functions: 

 · The commission inquire into any violation of human rights and intervene in the proceeding involving allegation of violation of human rights. 

 · It visits jails and detention places to study about the living conditions of the inmates 

 · It reviews the constitutional and other legal safeguards.

Digi Yatra 

 Syllabus: GS Paper-2-Policies 

 Why in News? 

 · Digi Yatra facility will be launched at 6 more airports which includes:

 1. Mumbai 2. Ahmedabad 3. Kochi 4. Lucknow 5. Jaipur 6. Guwahati

 Digi Yatra: 

 · It was set up in the year 2022.

· It was formed as a Joint Venture under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013. 

 · It was introduced to achieve contactless, seamless processing of passengers at Airports. 

 · It uses Facial Recognition Technology. 

 · Under this scheme, any traveller can pass through various checkpoints at the airport through a paperless and contactless processing. 

 · It uses facial features to establish identity which is linked to the boarding pass.

 · It provides a decentralised mobile wallet-based identity management platform. 

 · It is cost effective and addresses privacy/ data protection. 

 · It is currently implementing in seven states. They are: 

1. New Delhi 2. Varanasi 3. Bengaluru 4. Vijayawada 5. Pune 6. Hyderabad 7. Kolkata Objective: 

 · Its main objective is to provide simple and easy experiences to all air travellers.

 · It wants to enhance the security standards and improve the current system performance.

Interpol Global Academy Network 

Syllabus: GS Paper-2-Important Organizations 

Why in News? 

· The CBI Academy has joined the Interpol Global Academy Network 

 · It became the 10^th member to join the network 

 Interpol Global Academy Network: 

 · It was launched by the Interpol in the year 2019.

· It was introduced to support Interpol in leading a global approach to law enforcement training. 

 · It aims to foster the academic collaborations among the law enforcement training institutions.

 · It develops joint training projects and research projects.

 · It shares best practices and resources among the member countries. 

 · It promotes the academic excellence and innovation in law enforcement training by establishing quality standards and recognition systems.

 CBI Academy: 

· It is a training institution for the CBI.

 · This academy was established in the year 1996. 

 · It is located at Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh. 

 · It was introduced to attain higher levels of professionalism, impartiality and dedication to the service of our nation.

 · It conducts many training programs which includes: 

 a) Cybercrime b) Financial crime c) Counter-Terrorism d) Human Rights etc.

 · It has three Regional Training Centres. They are: a) Kolkata b) Chennai c) Mumbai

Luna-25

Syllabus: GS Paper-3-Science & Technology

Why in News?

Russian space agency, Roscosmos has informed that Luna-25 will not hamper the function of Chandrayaan-3 

 Overview:

 · Luna-25 has launched from the Russia’s Vostochny spaceport in Russia. 

 · Its lunar lander will reach the moon on August 23, the same day on which Chandrayaan-3 is also expected to land on the lunar surface. 

 Luna-25:

 · It is also known as the Luna-Global lander. 

 · It will land on the south polar region of the moon.

 · Its main objective is to study the composition of the polar regolith. 

 · It also aims to study the plasma and dust components of the lunar polar exosphere. 

 · The lander of Luna-25 has a four-legged base housing landing rockets and propellent tanks. 

 · Luna-25 carries eight science instruments which includes gamma-ray and neutron spectrometers, imaging systems etc. 

 · It will operate on the lunar surface for approximately one year. 

 Chandrayaan-3:

 · It is the India’s third moon mission.

 · It is the successor of Chandrayaan-2. 

 · This mission is scheduled to launch by the end of 2023. 

 · It will be launched by the Launch Vehicle Mark 3 (LVM3) 

 · It will be launched from the Satish Dhawan Space centre at Sriharikota. 

 · The mission will have three major modules. They are: 1) Propulsion Module 2) Lander Module 3) Rover 

 · The Propulsion Module will carry the lander and rover till the 100 km lunar orbit.

 · The name of the Lander is Vikram named after the father of the Indian Space Programme 

 · It has the capability to soft land at a specified lunar site and deploy the Rover.

 · The name of the Rover is Pragyan which mean Wisdom. 

 · It will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface.

Zayed Talwar 

 Syllabus: GS Paper-3-Defence 

 Why in News?

· Indian Navy will conduct the bilateral exercise Zayed Talwar with UAE 

 · Two Indian Navy ships, INS Visakhapatnam and INS Trikand will participate in this exercise 

 Zayed Talwar: 

 · It is a bilateral exercise between India and UAE Navy. 

 · Its aim is to enhance the interoperability and synergy between the two navies. 

 · The two countries will share the best practices to enhance the cooperation.

 · It strengthens ties between the two navies.

 · It is expected to boost partnership between these countries. 

 Important exercises between India and UAE: 

 · Exercise Desert Flag-Air Force

· In-UAE BILAT- Naval exercise 

 · Desert Eagle-Air Force 

 INS Visakhapatnam: 

 · It is the lead ship of the P15B class of guided missile stealth destroyer.

 · It was commissioned on 21^st November, 2021.

 · It symbolises India’s shipbuilding capability. 

 · The crew of the ship has a motto known as Yasho Labhasva.

 · Yasho Labhasva is a Sanskrit phrase which means to Attain Glory 

 INS Trikand: 

 · It is a frontline frigate which is equipped with a versatile range of weapons and sensors. 

 · It is part of the Indian Navy’s Western Fleet, based in Mumbai. 

 · It was constructed by the Yantar shipyard in Kalinigrad, Russia