CURRENT-AFFAIRS

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• A U.S. Navy warship swiftly answered a distress signal from a commercial tanker in the Gulf of Aden, where it had recently been seized by armed individuals.
• The Gulf of Aden is a vital maritime region nestled between the Arabian Peninsula to the north and the African continent to the south. Named after the Yemeni port city of Aden, this gulf spans approximately 900 kilometers in length and 500 kilometers in width, covering about 410,000 square kilometers. It boasts an average depth of 500 meters, plunging to a maximum of 2,700 meters in its deepest parts.
• Key geographical features include the Sheba Ridge, an extension of the Indian Ocean ridge system that runs along the gulf's center. Strategically, it connects the Red Sea to the west via the Bab el Mandeb Strait and the Arabian Sea to the east, making it a crucial part of the Suez Canal shipping route.
• Major cities in proximity to the Gulf of Aden include Aden itself, Mukalla, Ahnwar, Balhaf, Berbera, Bosaso, and Djibouti City, highlighting its importance as a hub of regional commerce and maritime activity.

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• At 11,650 feet near the Zojila Pass, the Indian Army simulated thunderstorms to maintain combat readiness as winter descended upon Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
• Zojila Pass, famously dubbed 'The Mountain Pass of Blizzards', is a high-altitude passage situated in Ladakh's Kargil district. It forms a critical juncture on the Srinagar-Kargil-Leh highway (NH-1), navigating through the formidable Greater Himalayan Range.
• Due to heavy snowfall, the pass is impassable for nearly half the year, a testament to its challenging terrain. Historically significant, Zojila Pass was a theater of conflict during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1947-48. Initially seized by militias supported by the Pakistan Army in 1848, it was later recaptured by the Indian Army on November 1, 1948, in a daring operation known as Operation Bison.

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• India's pioneering multi-wavelength space telescope, AstroSat, has achieved a significant milestone by detecting its 600th Gamma-ray Burst (GRB), designated as GRB 231122B.
• AstroSat stands as India’s premier dedicated space observatory designed to observe celestial sources across X-ray, optical, and UV spectral bands simultaneously. Launched aboard an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on September 28, 2015, AstroSat orbits at an altitude of 650 km with an inclination of 6 degrees to the equator. Its operations are overseen from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX) at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru.
• With a minimum operational lifespan of 5 years, AstroSat carries five scientific payloads enabling detailed imaging and analysis of galactic and extragalactic cosmic phenomena across a broad spectrum of wavelengths. Its scientific goals encompass understanding high-energy processes within binary star systems containing neutron stars and black holes, estimating magnetic fields around neutron stars, studying star formation regions, probing high-energy processes in distant star systems, identifying new transient X-ray sources, and conducting deep-field surveys of the Universe in the ultraviolet range.

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• A tragic incident unfolded at the Indira Gandhi Zoological Park (IGZP) when an animal keeper lost their life after being attacked by a Himalayan black bear within its enclosure.
• The Himalayan black bear, scientifically known as Ursus thibetanus laniger, is a subspecies of the Asian black bear found predominantly in the Himalayan region spanning Tibet, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and China. In India, they inhabit the entire stretch of the Himalayas from Jammu & Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh, as well as hilly areas in other northeastern states.
• This bear species thrives in heavily forested areas with a mix of broadleaved and coniferous trees, often using orchards, agricultural fields, and human settlements to navigate between forest patches.
• Characterized by soft, shiny fur and a distinctive white V-shaped patch on their chest, Himalayan black bears typically measure between 1.4 to 1.7 meters in length and weigh from 90 to 200 kg, with larger individuals reaching the upper end of the scale just before hibernation. They have a lifespan of 25 to 30 years in the wild and sustain themselves through an omnivorous diet comprising acorns, nuts, fruits, honey, roots, and various insects like termites and beetle larvae.
• While naturally diurnal, many of these bears have adapted nocturnal habits to minimize encounters with humans. Despite their adaptability, they are classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List due to habitat loss, poaching, and human-wildlife conflict, underscoring the challenges faced in their conservation efforts.

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• Authorities in China have recently noted a rise in respiratory illnesses, attributing the increase to the presence of various pathogens such as mycoplasma pneumonia.
• Mycoplasma pneumonia is a bacterial organism that behaves similar to a virus, spreading quickly from person to person. It primarily affects the respiratory system, infiltrating both lungs and causing heightened coughing and breathing difficulties. The bacteria can damage the lining of the throat, windpipe, and lungs.
• Symptoms of mycoplasma pneumonia include respiratory issues such as a persistent cough and difficulty breathing, although it spreads less rapidly than viruses. Other signs may include hemolysis (the breakdown of red blood cells), skin rashes, and joint pain. In children, symptoms can also manifest as a stuffy or runny nose, sore throat, watery eyes, wheezing, vomiting, and diarrhea.
• Individuals at higher risk for severe complications include children, the elderly, and those with pre-existing respiratory conditions. Effective treatment options include various antibiotics that effectively combat this bacterial infection.

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• Recently, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has delivered a breathtaking image of the densely packed center of the Milky Way galaxy, offering unprecedented clarity.
• This star-forming region resides approximately 300 light-years from Sagittarius A*, the Milky Way's central supermassive black hole. The JWST image unveils a bustling cluster of protostars nestled within an infrared-dark cloud. These young stars are actively gathering mass, with their outflows radiating brightly in the infrared spectrum, resembling glowing embers in a celestial bonfire.
• The dark cloud surrounding these protostars is exceptionally dense, blocking the light from stars beyond it, which underscores its opacity to Webb's observations. Scattered amidst this scene are smaller infrared-dark clouds, appearing as cosmic voids against the backdrop of starry space, marking future nurseries of stellar birth.
• Webb's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) has captured extensive emissions from ionized hydrogen on the fringes of the dark cloud, depicted in a striking cyan hue, highlighting the dynamic processes at play within this stellar nursery.

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• The Supplementary Demands for Grants (SDG) are expected to include increased allocations for fertilizer, food, and fuel subsidies, as well as for the Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
• These supplementary grants are authorized under Article 115 of the Indian Constitution, which allows for additional allocations when the funds authorized by the regular Appropriation Bills (under Article 114) prove insufficient for government expenditures. Presented before both Houses of Parliament before the end of the financial year, these grants follow the same procedural scrutiny as the regular budget.
• Supplementary grants can be categorized as token, technical, or substantive/cash. Token grants involve nominal sums allocated symbolically, while technical grants reallocate savings within ministries or departments. Substantive or cash grants denote fresh allocations beyond the initial budget, necessitating new withdrawals from the Consolidated Fund of India.
• Conversely, Excess Grants arise when actual expenditures exceed approved parliamentary grants, which are then reviewed by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) and scrutinized by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) before Parliament. Additional Grants are sought when new services not previously budgeted for require funding, a process initiated by the President and laid before Parliament for approval.

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• Recently, Irish author Paul Lynch achieved acclaim by winning the Booker Prize for fiction with his novel Prophet Song.
• The Booker Prize stands as one of the most prestigious literary awards globally, recognizing outstanding achievement in fiction writing. Established in the UK in 1969, the prize originally focused on Commonwealth authors but now embraces writers worldwide, celebrating the best novel of the year written in English.
• Eligibility for the Booker Prize extends to any novel originally written in English and published in the UK or Ireland during the prize year, regardless of the author's nationality. The novel must be an original work in English and published by a registered imprint in the UK or Ireland; self-published works are not eligible.
• The winner of the Booker Prize receives a significant award of £50,000, while each shortlisted author is granted £2,500 in recognition of their literary achievements.
• Administered by the Booker Prize Foundation, established as a charitable entity in 2002, the foundation oversees the Man Booker Prize for Fiction and the Man Booker International Prize, promoting exceptional literature and authors on an international stage.