Mannan Community
Syllabus :GS 1/Society
In News
- The head of the Mannan community will participate in the Republic Day parade in Delhi as a guest of the Scheduled Tribes (SC) Development Department.
- He is the only tribal king in Kerala,
- This marks the first time a tribal king will attend the parade.
About Mannan community
- It is mainly settled in the buffer zone area of the Idukki Wildlife Sanctuary at Kozhimala, the hub of the tribe with 48 settlements ruled by a king.
- The king is an integral part of the traditional functions and festivities of the community.
- He wears a turban or headgear and special dress on such occasions and will be assisted by two Ministers and soldiers during the functions.
- They maintain their unique customs, rituals, and a strong reverence for their traditional kingship.
- To sustain themselves, they cultivate basic crops, collect forest produce, and engage in manual labor or cattle breeding.
- Mannankoothu is a unique tribal art form performed by the Mannan community.
- It narrates the story from the classic tamil poem Chilapathikaaram.
Source :TH
Mt Everest
Syllabus :GS 1/Geography
In News
- The government of Nepal is increasing the permit fees for climbing Mount Everest from USD 11000 to USD 15000, making it more expensive for mountaineers.
Mount Everest
- It is located between Nepal and Tibet.
- It is the highest mountain in the world at 8,849 m, and has many names.
- Tibetans call it ‘Chomolungma’, which means ‘Mother Goddess of the World’ and worship the mountain as such.
- Nepalis call it ‘Sagarmatha’, meaning ‘Goddess of the Sky.
- Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first people to stand atop the mountain .
- Bachendri Pal was the first Indian woman to climb Mount Everest.
Source: AIR
Enemy Property Act
Syllabus: GS2/ Polity and Governance
Context
- The Madhya Pradesh High Court dismissed Saif Ali Khan’s petition against the government notice designating the property of the Pataudi family as ‘enemy property.’
What is the Enemy Property?
- Enemy Property refers to the assets, properties, or holdings in India that were owned by individuals or entities from countries that were declared as enemies of India during times of war.
- The legal framework governing such properties was established to prevent the transfer, use, or exploitation of these assets by hostile nations.
- Enemy properties in India primarily relate to the Indo-Pak wars (1947, 1965, and 1971) and the Indo-China war (1962).
Enemy Property Act, 1968
- The Enemy Property Act, 1968, provides the legal basis for the management and administration of enemy properties.
- It declares that enemy properties are vested in the Custodian for management and cannot be reclaimed by the original owners or their successors unless approved by the Central Government.
Source: IT
Crosspathy
Syllabus: GS2/ Health
In News
- The Maharashtra Food & Drugs Administration (FDA) issued a directive allowing homeopathic practitioners who have completed a certificate course in modern pharmacology to prescribe allopathic medications.
Crosspathy
- Cross pathy is a practice in which homeopathic and ayurvedic drugs are prescribed along with allopathic medicines.
- The recent directive ensures chemists accept allopathic prescriptions from these qualified homeopaths.
- Challenges to the Directive: The Indian Medical Association (IMA) challenges the directive, citing concerns over patient safety and the legality of allowing homeopaths to prescribe allopathic medications.
- A 2017 notification allowing homeopaths to practice modern medicine was stayed by the Bombay High Court, questioning the risk to patient safety.
- View of Judiciary : The Supreme Court has historically ruled that ‘crosspathy’—the practice of prescribing medications from another system of medicine—constitutes medical negligence unless authorized by the government.
- Government’s Stand : The central government is promoting AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy) practitioners to address doctor shortages, especially in rural areas.
- But a careful, evidence-based approach is needed to integrate alternative medicine practitioners into mainstream healthcare.
Source :TH
Stargate Project
Syllabus: GS3/ Science and Technology
Context
- The United States has launched a significant initiative under the “Stargate Project” to strengthen its artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.
What is Stargate?
- Stargate is a $500 billion initiative designed to establish a comprehensive artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in the United States over the next four years.
- It is a collaborative effort between OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle, with an initial $100 billion investment.
- The project involves constructing massive data centers and campuses across the country to support the development and deployment of AI technologies at scale.
- Stargate is envisioned as a critical step toward re-industrializing the United States and enhancing its technological capabilities.
Source: IE
Black Hole
Syllabus: GS3/Science and Technology, Space
Context
- A team of researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Chandra X-ray observatory has discovered a bizarre black hole.
About
- The newfound black hole, designated LID-568, is a low-mass supermassive black hole that existed just 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang.
- The black hole was feeding on a surrounding cloud of matter at almost 40-times greater than what astrophysicists thought was the upper limit.
What is a Black Hole?
- A black hole is an extremely dense object whose gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape it.
- Characteristics: A black hole does not have a surface, like a planet or star. Instead, it is a region of space where matter has collapsed in on itself.
- This catastrophic collapse results in a huge amount of mass being concentrated in an incredibly small area.
- Formation: A black hole is formed when a really massive star runs out of fuel to fuse, blows up, leaving its core to implode under its weight to form a black hole.
- The center of a black hole is a gravitational singularity, a point where the general theory of relativity breaks down, i.e. where its predictions don’t apply.
- A black hole’s great gravitational pull emerges as if from the singularity.

Source: TH
Arctic Boreal Zone
Syllabus: GS3/Environment
Context
- As per a new research the Arctic Boreal Zone is releasing more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than it absorbs.
About
- The findings align with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA’s) 2024 Arctic Report Card.
- It also highlighted that the Arctic tundra, a treeless region, is becoming a net carbon source, largely due to warming temperatures and escalating wildfire activity in the Northern polar region.
- The arctic boreal zone encompasses treeless tundra, boreal forests, and wetlands spread over 26 million square kilometres.

- Findings:
- The carbon source areas were distributed across Alaska (44%), northern Europe (25%), Canada (19%), and Siberia (13%).
- Emissions from the prolonged non-summer season (September to May) in the tundra outweighed the carbon dioxide absorbed during the short summer months (June to August).
- 40% of this region has become a carbon source.
- A carbon sink absorbs more carbon from the atmosphere than it releases.
- A carbon source, on the other hand, releases more carbon than it absorbs.
- Reason: Longer growing seasons, increased microbial activity and an uptick in the frequency and intensity of wildfires.
- Concerns: The Arctic boreal region is known for being soil organic carbon reservoirs.
- There is this concern that part of the soil stock will be released as carbon dioxide.
- This limited carbon absorption is accelerating permafrost thawing.
Source: DTE
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