Current Affairs 6-7-8-2 PDF

## CURRENT AFFAIRS **Class: 6, 7 & 8** ### **National** India celebrated 75th Republic Day on 26th January 2024. A grand parade took place on Kartavya Path, at New Delhi. The President of India, Draupadi Murmu unfurled the National Flag. The French President Emmanuel Macron was the chief guest on...

## CURRENT AFFAIRS **Class: 6, 7 & 8** ### **National** India celebrated 75th Republic Day on 26th January 2024. A grand parade took place on Kartavya Path, at New Delhi. The President of India, Draupadi Murmu unfurled the National Flag. The French President Emmanuel Macron was the chief guest on this Republic Day. This year's Republic Day theme is was 'Viksit Bharat' and 'Loktatantra ki Matruka'. Different types of tableaus were displayed during the parade. These showed rich cultural history, culture, and tradition of the country. The cultural pageantry of the Republic Day included vibrant fold dance performances and patriotic songs. **This year's top attractions included:** - A women's tri-service group parade. - A French contingent to join the R-Day parade. - Six Indians to join the French military team in the Republic Day parade. - Al to take space in the parade. - ISRO's Chandrayaan-3 to be highlighted. The Indian Space Research Organization's (ISRO) tableau showcased the achievements of the Chandrayaan-3 mission. The tableau prominently featured the launch and successful landing of Chandrayaan-3, on Moon's South Pole and the Aditya L-1 mission dedicated to studying the Sun. Republic Day celebrations last for three days, and they end with the Beating Retreat ceremony on January 29. The first Republic Day was celebrated on 26th January 1950. It was the day when the Constitution of India was adopted. ### **Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar** Eighteen children were given Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar on the occasion of the Republic Day. Aaditya Vijay Bramhane was given the Puraskar posthumously. **Arijeet Banerjee**, the 13-year-old from West Bengal was awarded for his exceptional skills in playing the traditional Pakhawaj. He also received the Bharat Ratna M.S. Subbulakshmi Fellowship and has been included in the Asia Book of Records. **Hetvi Kantibhai Khimsuriya**, the 13-year-old with cerebral palsy from Gujarat was awarded for displaying extraordinary artistic abilities. She created 250 works of free-hand painting and selflessly donates her monthly disability pension to support children with disabilities. ### **Elections** The Lok Sabha elections 2024 are being conducted across seven phases from April 19 to June 1. Elections are being conducted for 543 seats. The Lok Sabha elections 2024 are mainly being contested between BJP led NDA and INDI Alliance. First Lok Sabha elections were held in India between October 25 to February 21, 1952. Voters elected 489 members for the first Lok Sabha. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from Surat, Mukesh Dalal, was declared elected unopposed after Congress candidate Nilesh Kumbhani's nomination was rejected, while all other candidates withdrew from the fray. ### **Events** **Matabari Pera Prasad** and **Rignai Pachara** textiles of Tripura have recently won Geographical Indication(GI) tag. With this, Tripura now has 4 GI Protected products. The 'Matabari Pera Prasad' is a sweet offering at the renowned Tripureswari temple in Tripura. Made from milk and sugar, this sweet is famous for its unique taste. 'Rignaipachara' is a traditional hand-woven attire meticulously crafted by skilled artisans using indigenous materials and techniques. This garment holds symbolic value within Tripura's cultural tapestry and reflects the rich legacy of the region's textile heritage. India got its New Parliament building on 28th May, 2023. The new Parliament building is a triangular-shaped house located next to the old Parliament House in New Delhi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated this parliament building in Delhi On 28th May 2023. It is a part of the revamped Central Vista project. The construction of the new building, designed by architect Bimal Patel, began in 2019. The Central Vista is India's administrative capital and a famous tourist site for locals and foreigners alike. Modernising parliament's facilities and improving productivity and efficiency are the main reasons for a new Parliament. Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri. Bhupender Yadav announced on 10th March, 2024 that South African cheetah 'Gamini' has given birth to 5 cubs at Kuno National Park in Sheopur district of Madhya Pradesh. This new litter brings the total number of Indian-born cheetah cubs to 13, and the overall cheetah population in the park to 26. It is also the first litter born to cheetahs brought from South Africa. The Chandrayaan-3 mission makes India the first country to reach the lunar south polar region. It is a big achievement for India. India became the first country to reach the south pole of the moon. It is big development for India's space programme. Many school children of India watched this landing live. The spacecraft launched to the moon on July 14, 2023, at 5:05 a.m from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota. Chandrayaan-3 successfully landed near the moon's south pole on Aug. 23, 2023, at 6:03 p.m. Indian Standard Time. Chandrayaan-3 consists of an indigenous Lander module (LM), Propulsion module (PM) and a Rover with an objective of developing and demonstrating new technologies required for Inter planetary missions. **The mission objectives of Chandrayaan-3 are:** 1. To demonstrate Safe and Soft Landing on Lunar Surface 2. To demonstrate Rover roving on the moon and 3. To conduct in-situ scientific experiments. India has launched its first observation mission to the Sun, just days after the country made history by becoming the first to land near the Moon's south pole. Aditya-L1 lifted off from the launch pad at Sriharikota on Saturday at 11:50 Indian time. It will travel 932,000 miles from the Earth-1% of the Earth-Sun distance. India has placed so far more than 50 satellites in space and they provide many crucial services to the country, including communication links, data on weather, and help predict pest infestations, droughts and impending disasters. **The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is set to achieve another milestone in its prestigious Gaganyaan mission, India's first human spaceflight program.** - The second uncrewed test flight is planned. - Two more uncrewed missions will take place in 2025. - On its success, the manned mission will be conducted by the end of 2025. (Human Space Flight Centre) HSFC, the lead center for human spaceflight activities, will spearhead the Gaganyaan program. It will coordinate efforts and focus activities carried out in other ISRO centers, research labs, Indian academia, and industries to accomplish the mission. The project aims to demonstrate human spaceflight capability by launching a crew of three members to an orbit of 400 km for a 3-day mission. The crew will be brought back safely to Earth, landing in Indian sea waters. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is developing a new spaceport at Kulasekharapatnam in Tamil Nadu. A key objective of the new spaceport is increasing India's satellite launch capabilities. Currently, ISRO has only one single operational spaceport at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh established in 1960s. This project will cost Rs. 950 crore and will complement the existing spaceport Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. The Andhra Pradesh government unveils the world's tallest statue of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian Constitution, in a grand ceremony in Vijayawada. The Supreme Court of India on 6th March 2024 imposed a ban on tiger safaris in the core areas of the Jim Corbett National Park while allowing the establishment of tiger safaris in the peripheral and buffer zones. The Supreme Court of India has imposed strict and rigorous conditions to ensure the protection of wildlife and the environment with least interference of human population as tourist. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated India's first underwater metro section named the Howrah Maidan Esplanade in Kolkata, West Bengal on 6th March, 2024. The Prime Minister also took an underwater metro ride with school students. The Howrah Maidan-Esplanade section is the country's first underwater transportation tunnel, situated below the Hooghly River that divides Kolkata and Howrah. The Howrah metro station on the West Side of the Hoogly River at the depth of 30 meters, is the deepest metro station in India. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is considering establishing a Digital India Trust Agency (DIGITA) to combat the proliferation of illegal lending apps and curb growing cyber fraud. This proposed agency aims to verify digital lending apps, maintain a public register of verified apps, and promote transparency and accountability within the digital lending sector. In recent years, India has witnessed a surge in fraudulent activities and unethical practices in the digital lending sector. The RBI has taken various measures to address this issue, including collaborating with the IT Ministry and Google to whitelist legitimate digital lending apps and remove unauthorised ones from the Google Play Store. There was much hue and cry over the use of EVM in Indian elections. The opposition went to the Supreme Court of India to stop the use of EVMs. But on 26/04/2024, the Supreme Court rejected pleas for reviving paper ballots and also 100 percent cross-verification of votes cast on electronic voting machines with a voter verifiable paper audit trail or VVPAT, holding that suspicions regarding tampering of the voting machines were "unfounded". Weighing in on the intensely debated EVM issue that has long divided political parties, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta said the plea for return to the ballot paper system was "foible and unsound", noting that the weakness of this system was well known and documented. Indian men's team, was named the Player of the Year. **Salima Tete**, an Olympian, was awarded the Player of the Year for her role in the Indian women's team that won the bronze medal at the Asian Games in Hangzhou last year. ### **Sports and Games** The Hockey India Awards 2023 were held in New Delhi on March 31, 2024 to celebrate the outstanding Indian hockey players from the previous calendar year. The event saw several players being recognized for their exceptional performances and contributions to the sport. **Hardik Singh**, the vice-captain of the Indian men's team, was named the Player of the Year. The 6th edition of the Khelo India Youth Games was inaugurated by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in Chennai. He also participated in a vibrant cultural program. The highlight of the ceremony was the lighting of the Games' torch, symbolizing the official inauguration of Khelo India Youth Games. The torch was handed over by two athletes and placed on the cauldron, marking the beginning of sporting event. ### **International** The fourth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-4) to develop an international legally binding treaty on plastic pollution commenced recently in Ottawa, Canada. The objective of this penultimate round of negotiations is to refine the text of the draft. Indian and Sri Lankan coast guard ships joined the Dosti 16 exercise held in the Maldives from February 22-25. This year marked a significant development with Bangladesh participating as an observer, indicating a widening scope for the maritime exercise. By increasing mutual cooperation between the countries, the maritime exercises solves traditional security concerns while collectively preparing for non-traditional threats like piracy, smuggling, and environmental disasters. Saudi Arabia is preparing to introduce its first luxury train, named the 'Dream of the Desert' in the Middle East, offering travellers a journey through Saudi Arabia. The 1287 km journey will begin in Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia, and end its journey northwest toward the border with Jordan. Reservations for the train's first ride will open by late 2024, before its planned launch in 2025. Researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have developed a high-energy, high-power hybrid sodium-ion battery capable of charging in seconds. This breakthrough could potentially revolutionize the energy storage industry. ICC T20 world cup is going to begin in the month of June. India will begin its World Cup campaign in June 5 against Ireland at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York. The members clubbed with India in Group A are Pakistan, Canada and co-hosts USA. The Olympic Games Paris 2024 will take place in France from 26 July to 11 August. In 2024, Paris will become the second city to host the Olympics for a third time after London. The Games will mark the 100th anniversary of the last time that Paris hosted, back in 1924. The framework for the 2024 Games has already been set, from venues to the sports, on the program to competition schedules and how athletes and teams qualify. The last Olympic games were held in Japan in 2021 popularly known as Tokyo Olympic and officially branded as Tokyo 2020. Abhinav Bindra, India's first individual Olympic gold medalist and an IOC Athletes'Commission member, has been selected as torchbearer for the 2024 Paris Olympics. India's 43rd Antarctic expedition, led by the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research, welcomed scientists from Mauritius and Bangladesh to join international polar research collaboration. Researchers at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom have commenced the first-in-human vaccine trials for the deadly Nipah virus in solving the severe impact of the virus on various Asian countries, including India. Japan has marked a significant achievement in space exploration by becoming the fifth country to successfully soft-land a spacecraft on the Moon near the Shioli crater, south of the Moon's equator. India, France, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) conducted a major air exercise, named 'Desert Knight', over the Arabian Sea strengthening military cooperation and solving regional security concerns over Houthi militants targeting commercial vessels in strategic waterways. Indian table tennis player Sreeja Akula achieved a significant milestone in her career by securing her maiden international title at the WTT Feeder Corpus Christi 2024 in Texas, USA. India's Gukesh Dommaraju became, at 17, the youngest ever Candidate winner and world championship challenger on Sunday night after a marathon six-hour final round in Toronto. Gukesh will now meet the holder, China's Ding Liren, in a 14-game series for the world crown later this year. The world No1, Norway's Magnus Carlsen, abdicated his title in 2023 after a 10-year reign. China launched three astronauts into space on April 25 night, bound for the country's homemade space station where they will live and work for half a year. The Shenzhou-18 launch is the latest in a series rotating taikonauts, as China calls its space explorers (the Chinese word for "space" is taikong), through multi-month missions in orbit to conduct experiments and amass experience for eventual trips to the Moon and beyond. The crewed missions are just one facet of an ambitious and fast-moving space program. European Union has recently introduced a revamped visa system specifically for Indian nationals. This change, effective from April 2024, fundamentally alters the dynamics of how Indians can approach travel within the Schengen area. Traditionally, Schengen visas were provided typically with shorter validity periods, placing restrictions on frequent travelers in any of the 25 countries that constitute the Schengen Area. These include major European nations like France, Germany, and Italy, along with non-EU members such as Norway and Switzerland. The visa's flexibility in terms of single or multiple entries accommodates various types of travel, from tourism to business trips. The government of Israel has launched a new fund called Yozma 2.0 to encourage institutional investors, such as insurance companies and pension funds, to increase their investments in high-tech companies. The fund aims to diversify the sources of funding for Israel's tech sector, which plays a crucial role in the country's economy. Tech sector accounts for nearly 20% of Israel's output, 12% of jobs, over 50% of exports, and 25% of tax income Traditionally, most investments in Israel's tech companies have come from venture capital funds. Yozma 2.0 will offer institutional investors a mechanism to enhance returns on their investments in tech-focused Israeli venture capital funds. ### **Important Days** - **February 2:** World Wetland Day: Wetlands are a very important part of our biodiversity and it is essential to see that they are well protected. - **February 4:** World Cancer Day: It helps to raise awareness among people about cancer and its prevention, detection and treatment. - **February 21:** International Mother Language Day: It encourages people to maintain their knowledge of mother language while learning and using more than one language. - **February 28:** National Science Day: It aims to popularise benefits of Science and Technology to strengthen scientific temper. - **March 8:** International Women Day is celebrated on March 8 every year. - **March 20:** It is celebrated as international Day of Happiness. - **April 7:** World Health Day: It marks the anniversary of the founding of WHO in 1948. - **April 13:** Jallianwallah Bagh Massacre Day: It is remembered as the atrocious day of Indian history on which the brutal massacre happened in Jallianwala Bagh. - **April 18:** World Heritage Day: It raises public awareness about the efforts that are required to protect the diversified cultural heritage. - **April 22:** World Earth Day: It strengthens the collective fight against human exploitation of the planet. - **April 23:** World Books Day: It is organized by UNESCO to promote reading, publishing and copyright. ### **Quiz Time** **Answer the following questions.** 1. Which day is celebrated as UN Day? 2. When was the Reserve Bank of India established? 3. Statue of Liberty is in which country? 4. Which Vitamin is also known as ascorbic acid? 5. Which is the longest bone in human body? 6. Who said the famous quotation, 'The child is the father of the man'? 7. How many Fundamental Rights are guaranteed to Indian citizens? 8. Who designed the New Parliament of India? 9. Which was the first newspaper of India? 10. Who was the chairman of the drafting committee of the Indian Constitution? **Answers:** 1. 24th October 2. 1st April 1935 3. USA 4. Vitamin C 5. Femur 6. William Wordsworth 7. 6 8. Bimal Patel 9. Bengal Gazette 10. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.