🔆Karam Festival

Recently, tribal populations in many states of India celebrated the harvest festival of Karma or Karam Parv.

📍Karam Festival:

✅Karma Puja, one of the most popular festivals, is related to the harvest and a tribute to the Karam tree. This tree symbolises fertility, prosperity and everything that is auspicious.
✅Origin: The origin of the festival can be traced to the beginning of agriculture by tribal communities.

📍How is it celebrated?
✅About a week before the festival commences, young women bring clear sand from the river, in which they sow seven types of grains. 
✅On the day of the festival, a branch of the Karam tree is planted in the courtyard or ‘akhra’.
✅Devotees come with jawa (hibiscus) flowers, and the pahan (priest) worships the Karam Raja. Dancing and singing of traditional Karam songs follow. 
✅The festival concludes with the immersion of the Karam branch in a river or pond, and the jawa is distributed among the devotees. 
✅Towards the end of the Karam festival, branches from sal or bhelua trees are often planted in the fields with the hope that the Karam Raja/ Devta will protect their crops.
✅It is traditionally celebrated on the Ekadashi tithi (eleventh day) of the lunar fortnight in the month of Bhado/ Bhadra, which corresponds to August-September in the Gregorian calendar. 
✅The festival is popular especially among the Munda, Ho, Oraon, Baiga, Kharia, and Santhal peoples. 
✅It is mainly celebrated in Jharkhand, West Bengal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Assam, and Odisha.

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19 September 2024 Current Affairs in Hindi

➼ हर वर्ष 18 सितंबर को दुनियाभर में ‘विश्व बांस दिवस’ मनाया जाता है।

➼ भारत एशियाई चैंपियंस ट्रॉफी हॉकी 2024 के फाइनल मुकाबले में चीन को 1-0 से हराकर रिकॉर्ड पांचवीं बार चैंपियन बना है।

➼ राष्‍ट्रीय आपदा प्रबंधन प्राधिकरण और सेना की दक्षिणी कमान की दो दिन की राष्‍ट्रीय संगोष्ठी-ऐक्‍य 18 सितंबर को चेन्‍नई में आयोजित की जाएगी।

➼ भारत ने ‘ऑपरेशन सद्भाव’(Operation Sadbhav) के तहत म्यांमार को आपात मदद के तहत दस लाख डॉलर मूल्य की 53 टन बाढ़ राहत सामग्री भेजी है।

➼ पुर्तगाल सरकार ने मशहूर फुटबाल खिलाड़ी ‘क्रिस्टियानो रोनाल्डो’ के सम्मान में एक विशेष सिक्का जारी किया है। बता दें कि पुर्तगाल सरकार ने सिक्के का मूल्य 7 यूरो रखा है, जो रोनाल्डो की जर्सी का नंबर है।

➼ प्रधानमंत्री ‘नरेंद्र मोदी’ क्‍वाड नेताओं के चौथे शिखर सम्‍मेलन में भाग लेने के लिए 21 सितंबर को अमरीका जाएंगे।

ESSAY Mains 2024

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🔆Exercise AIKYA

✅Recently, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), in collaboration with the Southern Command of the Indian Army organised a two-day national symposium, ‘Exercise AIKYA’, on disaster management in Chennai.
✅Aikya, meaning "Oneness" in Tamil, reflects the exercise's aim to integrate India's Disaster Management community.
✅It brought together key stakeholders from across Peninsular India to enhance disaster preparedness and response capabilities.
✅The exercise witnessed participation from six southern states/UTs: Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Puducherry

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🔆 Falkland Islands

✅Researchers have found evidence that the treeless, rugged, grassland landscape of the Falkland Islands was home to a lush, diverse rainforest up to 30 million years ago

✅Also known as the Malvinas Islands, the Falkland Islands is an internally self-governing overseas territory of the United Kingdom.
✅It is an archipelago located in the South Atlantic Ocean, some 500 km from mainland South America
✅It comprises of two large islands (East Falkland and West Falkland) and several hundred smaller ones.
✅The two large islands are separated by Falkland Sound (strait). 
✅The islands are positioned both in the southern and western hemispheres of the Earth. 
✅Climate: A cool temperate oceanic climate that is characterised by its lack of extremes.
✅Capital: Located on the island of East Falkland, is Stanley (also, Port Stanley) is the capital of the Falkland Islands. 
✅Economy:  depends on sheep farming.
✅Currency: The official currency is the Falkland pound, which is on par with the British pound.

🔆Goa Maritime Symposium 2024

✅The Indian Navy is hosting the fifth edition of the Goa Maritime Symposium at Naval War College, Goa.

✅It is a forum for fostering collaborative thinking, cooperation, and mutual understanding between India and key maritime nations of the Indian Ocean Region.

✅Theme: The theme for the event is Common Maritime Security Challenges in the Indian Ocean Region: Progressing Lines of Efforts to Mitigate Dynamic Threats such as illegal and unregulated fishing and other illegal maritime activities.

✅It will be participated by the representatives from 12 Indian Ocean Littoral countries- Bangladesh, Comoros, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Myanmar, Seychelles, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Observers from Kenya and Tanzania

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🔆 India Post Payment Banks (IPPB) :
✅ Financial Service Provider that will operate Under the country's Postal Department.
✅ Established - 2018, with 100% equity owned by the Government of India.
✅ Under - The Ministry of Communications
✅ Headquarters: New Delhi
✅ Vision: To create an accessible, affordable, and trusted bank for all citizens
✅ IPPB is committed to providing a fillip to a less cash economy and contribute to the vision of Digital India.
✅ Benefits :
◽️Expansion of Rural Banking
◽️Access to Diversified Services
◽️ Employment
◽️ Credibility

Senior Odisha cadre IPS officer Amrit Mohan Prasad took charge as the Director General of Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) on Saturday.

He succeeded Daljit Singh Chaudhary.
Currently serving as Special DG of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Prasad will assume his new role effective from the date of charge until his superannuation on August 31, 2025, or until further orders.

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🔆India sugar and bio-energy conference

✅India is now the world’s third largest producer and consumer of Ethanol due to the policy changes made by our government

✅In last 10 years, from ethanol sale, sugar mills have earned higher revenue, use of ethanol blended petrol reduced emission of Green House Gases (GHGs), greater investment opportunities emerged, leading to the establishment of new distilleries in rural areas , and generating employments.

✅In last 10 years, area of sugarcane cultivation increased by about 18% while the sugarcane production has increased by 40%. He said Minimum Selling Price (MSP) of sugar was introduced in 2018 to protect the interests of farmers and the sugar industry by the Centre.

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India has named a peak in Arunachal Pradesh 'Tsangyang Gyatso Peak', honoring the 6th Dalai Lama 🏔️🇮🇳. A 15-member NIMAS team scaled the peak, celebrating India's cultural heritage.

China, claiming the area as "South Tibet," opposes the move, but India’s act reaffirms its sovereignty and ties to the region. 🇮🇳