·       These are advanced Air Defence Control and Reporting Systems (ADCRS) which will serve as a critical asset in safeguarding the country from aerial threats, including missile and rocket attacks.

·       It is a sophisticated, integrated control and reporting system designed to neutralize enemy threats swiftly.

·       The system is capable of managing all aspects of air defence for the Army, integrating multiple radar systems, sensors, and communication technologies into a single operational framework.

·       It provides a real-time battlefield view, allowing military personnel to detect, track, and engage aerial threats such as incoming missiles or enemy aircraft.

·       It is suitable for a wide range of operational environments.

·       It is developed by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL).

·       Significance: This enhances the Indian Army’s ability to monitor airspace and deliver timely responses to any imminent threats.

·       The Rio Negro is one of the largest tributaries of the Amazon River.

·       It is also one of the world’s largest rivers in terms of discharge.

Course:

·       Origin: It originates in several headstreams, including the Vaupés (Mapés) and the Guainía, which rise in the rain forest of eastern Colombia.

·       It flows along the Colombian and Venezuelan border before crossing into Brazil, where it becomes the Rio Negro.

·       The Negro meanders generally east-southeastward, picking up the Branco River and other tributaries, to Manaus, Brazil (the largest city in the Amazon Rainforest).

·       There it joins the Solimões River to form the Amazon.

·       It passes through Colombia, Venezuela, and Brazil.

·       Its length is about 1,400 miles (2,250 km), of which 850 miles (1,370 km) are in Brazil.

·       The river was named the Negro, which means black in Portuguese because of the water’s dark coloration.

·       It is caused by the decomposition of organic matter and the presence of tannins leached from surrounding vegetation, giving the river its distinctively rich coloration.

·       The Rio Negro is the largest blackwater river in the world, and despite the coloration, the water contains little sediment and ranks as one of the cleanest rivers on Earth.

·       The reserves and national parks along the Rio Negro form a giant protected area called the Central Amazon Ecological Corridor, which is the largest section of protected Amazon Rainforest.

·       It is a dwarf planet and the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

·       It’s the only dwarf planet located in the inner solar system.

·       It was the first member of the asteroid belt to be discovered when Giuseppe Piazzi spotted it in 1801.

·       Ceres is named for the Roman goddess of corn and harvests. The word cereal comes from the same name.

·       Called an asteroid for many years, Ceres is so much bigger and so different from its rocky neighbors that scientists classified it as a dwarf planet in 2006.

·       When NASA’s Dawn arrived in 2015, Ceres became the first dwarf planet to be explored by a spacecraft.

Features:

·       With a radius of 296 miles (476 kilometers), Ceres is 1/13 the radius of Earth.

·       Ceres is 2.8 astronomical units (AU) away from the Sun. One AU is the distance from the Sun to Earth.

·       Ceres takes 1,682 Earth days to make one trip around the Sun.

·       As Ceres orbits the Sun, it completes one rotation every 9 hours, making its day length one of the shortest in the solar system.

·       Ceres formed along with the rest of the solar system about 4.5 billion years ago when gravity pulled swirling gas and dust in to become a small dwarf planet.

·       Ceres is more similar to the terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars) than its asteroid neighbors, but it is much less dense.

·       Ceres probably has a solid core and a mantle made of water ice. Ceres’ crust is rocky and dusty with large salt deposits.

·       System of Environmental- Economic Accounting

·       It is an agreed international statistical standard for describing the interaction between the economy and the environment, as well as the stocks and changes in stocks of environmental assets

·       It aims to integrate perspectives from other disciplines and, where relevant, provide an improved body of information for environmental economic accounts.

·       There are two sides of SEEA–the SEEA-Central Framework (SEEA-CF) and the SEEA-Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EA)

·       There has been around 72% increase in the number and around 16% increase in area for the Total Protected Area during the period 2000 to 2023.

·       The coverage of Mangroves, which is an important sub ecosystem of the ocean ecosystem, has increased around 8% over the years 2013 to 2021.

·       Unique varieties of rice beer

·       ‘Bodo Jou Gwran’: It has the highest percentage of alcohol (about 16.11%) when compared with other varieties of rice beer made by the Bodo community.

·       ‘Maibra Jou Bidwi’: It is known locally as ‘Maibra Jwu Bidwi’ or ‘Maibra Zwu Bidwi’, is revered and served as a welcome drink by most Bodo tribes. It’s prepared by fermenting half-cooked rice (mairong) with less water, and adding a little ‘amao’ (a potential source of yeast) to it.

·       ‘Bodo Jou Gishi’: It is also a traditionally fermented rice-based alcoholic beverage.

Traditional Food Products

·       Bodo Napham’: It is an important and favourite dish of fermented fish prepared anaerobically in a tightly sealed container in a process that requires about two-three months.

·       Bodo Ondla’: A rice powder curry flavoured with garlic, ginger, salt, and alkali.

·       Bodo Gwkha’: It is locally also known as ‘Gwka Gwkhi’, it’s prepared during the Bwisagu festival.

·       ‘Bodo Narzi’: It isa semi-fermented food prepared with jute leaves (Corchorus capsularis), a rich source of Omega 3 fatty acids, vitamins and essential minerals, including calcium and magnesium.

·       Bodo Aronai’: It is a small, beautiful cloth (1.5-2.5 meters long and 0.5 meter wide)