DAILY NEWS ANALYSIS

ASI assures to send note to UNESCO over inclusion of Srimukhalingam temple in Andhra Pradesh in world heritage structures’ list.

Avatar - Sri Mukha Lingam Shiva temple is very old temple where Shiva lingam is appeared as Mukha (Face) Avatar.

• Generally, Shiva lingams do not have the facial carving and hence the temple at Sri Mukhalingam is different from the other Shiva temples.
• Construction - This temple is said to have been constructed during the 8th century by Kamarnava-II when the region was under the control of the East Ganga Dynasty.

Trinity - Srimukhalingam temple houses three ancient temples at one location.

• The Trinity of Madhukeswara, Someswara and Bheemeswara Temples are a testimony to the Magnificent Architectural skills of Kalinga Kings.
• The temple is popularly known as Dakshina Kaasi (Varanasi of South India).

Architecture - Architecture of the temple is similar to Lingaraja temple located in Bhubaneswar of Odisha.

Location - The temple is located on the banks of River Vamsadhara, which was the capital of Kalinga Ganga Kings for over 600 years.There has been a long-standing request to add the temple to the UNESCO Heritage List.

UNESCO World Heritage Site

• World Heritage Site (WHS) - These are the sites are designated as having outstanding universal value under the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.
• It was adopted by UNESCO in 1972 and formally took effect in 1975.
• The list of WHS is maintained by the International World Heritage Programme, administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.
• The three types of site are Cultural, Natural, and Mixed.

A stone deity worshipped by the Bhils in Madhya Pradesh’s Bagh was recently proved to be a fossilized dinosaur egg.

• Just like their ancestors worshipped ancient stones as deities, generations of Bhils had worshipped this sunbaked, reddish-brown Kakad Bhairav or Bhilat Baba.
• Sacrifices of chickens and sheep marked their whispered pleas to the roughly oval-shaped deity.
• The deity, whose weathered face is adorned with a black tilak and a handlebar moustache, for bountiful harvests and healthy livestock.

India has the largest-of-its-kind dinosaur hatchery on Earth that stretches 10,000 sq. km across Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

• Tribes that resided in the Narmada Valley worshipped fossilized Titanosaurus eggs.
• Kuladevata - The word kuladevata is derived from two words: kula, meaning clan, and devata, meaning deity, referring to the ancestral deities that are worshipped by particular clans.

Bhil Tribes

• Bhils are popularly known as the bow men of Rajasthan. Their name is derived from the word villu or billu.
• They are the most widely distributed and the largest tribe of the South Asia.
• Bhils comprise 39% of Rajasthan's total population.
• Bhils are classified as
  • Central or pure bills
  • Eastern or Rajput Bhils.
• The central Bhils are found in the mountain regions in the Indian states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujrat and Rajasthan.
• Bhils are also found in the north eastern parts of Tripura.
• The name Bhil is also finds mentioned in the great epic called Mahabharata and Ramayana in context of Eklavya.
• The endogamous tribe speak Bhili, an Indo Aryan language.
• Earlier they were the great hunters but they now practice agriculture as the source of livelihood.
• They are also demanding a separate state of Bhil Pradesh.

Dinosaur Fossils National Park

• The Dinosaur Fossils National Park is a protected area located in Madhya Pradesh, India.
• The park is renowned for its rich fossil deposits, which provide valuable insights into the prehistoric world and the existence of dinosaurs.
• Approximately 6.5 crore-year-old rare dinosaur fossils are found in this park.

UNESCO Global Geopark tag

• The latest discovery, scientists hope, will give a fillip to their nomination for India’s first UNESCO Global Geopark tag.
• Awarded by the United Nations’ body since 2015, the Geopark tag is given to territories for sites with global relevance to geology, geomorphology or paleontology.
• If selected, the Bagh site will join a select club of 195 UNESCO Geoparks in 48 countries.

Mount Everest-sized Devil comet hurtling in Earth’s direction could explode today.

• Pons-Brooks Comet - Comet 13P/Pons-Brooks, also called the Devil Comet, is about the size of Mount Everest and it is hurtling towards Earth.
• After an outburst in July, scientists believe that the comet could explode once again today.
• Ice volcanoes on the comet have erupted at least six times in 2023.
• That eruption caused the comet to distort into a horseshoe or horned shape.

• Near Earth - When the comet reaches the closest point to the Sun in its orbit, it will be at a distance of 0.8 astronomical units.
• One astronomical unit is the approximate distance between the Earth and the Sun.

The Devil Comet might come relatively close to the Earth, but it will be further away than Venus, which is about 0.7 astronomical units away from the Sun.

• Volcanism - The Devil Comet has its explosion due to a phenomenon, volcanism.
• Cryovolcanic - The comet is cryovolcanic, meaning that it has volcanoes that erupt material into the extremely cold environment of space.

Checkout portals of many e-commerce websites, mobile applications and even banks now offer an option of paying later.

• BNPL is a short-term credit facility extended by banks directly or retailers (through their tie-ups with banks and NBFCs), that allow consumers to defer payment on their purchases for 15 to 365 days.
• Depending on the service provider, the interest-free period may vary from 15-30 days, beyond which the customer can repay in a single shot or in EMIs spread over 1-12 months.

EMI stands for equated monthly instalment, which relates to payments made regularly to repay an outstanding loan within a certain period.

• Unlike the paperwork for traditional loans, customers can enroll for this credit facility almost instantly using their mobile phones, by finishing basic e-KYC procedures.
• In most cases, the e-KYC procedure does not involve a video authentication.
• Hence, the RBI has mandated that the loans disbursed shall be term loans, for a maximum tenure of 12 months, capped at ?60,000 a year, unless the customer upgrades to full KYC.

OLA’s Postpaid, or Amazon’s Pay Later, or HDFC Bank’s Flexi Pay, are all examples of a now in vogue short-term financing facility called Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL).

• BNPL also helps lenders explore new borrowers who would not ordinarily come to them for a loan.
• Besides the digital only enrolment, BNPL also varies from a regular credit card purchase or a regular personal loan, on the low-ticket size and comparatively lower interest rate charged.
• BNPL loans do not entail any processing fee or other on-boarding charges.
• However, BNPL providers do levy additional charges such as late payment fee and pre-closure charges.

Kilonova explosions from neutron star collisions could explain how Earth got gold.

• When some type of massive stars die, the nuclear fusion process that fuels them stops.
• This forms an ultra-dense and neutron rich star.

A neutron star is the remnant of a collapsed supergiant star that was between 10 and 25 times the mass of our Sun.

• When such stars collide with each other, these free neutrons are released into space and taken up by atoms to form very heavy elements beyond the scope of the periodic table.

• The collision of these ultra-dense, dead stars causes ripples in the very fabric of space-time, called gravitational waves.

In physics, space-time is any mathematical model that fuses the three dimensions of space and the one dimension of time into a single four-dimensional continuum.

• The collision also causes high-energy gamma-ray bursts and a flash of light (Kilonova) which can be detected across large distances in space.

Gold and other metals heavier than iron are formed in space when two neutron stars collide.

Among the natural elements, boron, cadmium, and gadolinium are the best absorbers of slow neutrons by the capture process.

Experts have termed the zombie deer disease a slow-moving disaster and have urged governments to prepare for the possibility of it spreading to humans.

• The deadly and infectious chronic wasting disease (CWD), also known as zombie deer disease, affects cervids, which are deer, elk, caribou, reindeer, and moose.
• The neurological symptoms of the disease, which include weight loss, lack of coordination, lethargic behavior, listlessness, and drooling.
• It is brought on by a protein called a prion that is flawed and builds up in the brain and other tissues, leading to emaciation, behavioral and physiological abnormalities, and finally death.

The US Geological Survey claims that CWD was first detected in Colorado in 1967 and has since spread to several other states and nations.

• Transmission - The condition may take more than a year to incubate, and symptoms may take time to appear.
• Animals can contract it directly from one another or indirectly by coming into contact with infected particles that linger in the environment, such as soil, plants, or excrement.
• They can also become infected if prions carrying the infection contaminate an animal's feed or pasture.
• Treatment - There is currently no vaccination or cure for the zombie deer disease.
• In humans - There has never been a reported case of zombie deer disease in a human.

Mad Cow Disease

• It is also know by the name Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE).

• BSE is a progressive neurological disorder of cattle that results from infection by an unusual transmissible agent called a prion.
• The normal prion protein changes into a pathogenic (harmful) form that then damages the central nervous system of cattle.
• The disease is incurable.
• It is related to a disease in humans called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD).

IT service provider HCL Technologies has shared that it was hit by a ransomware incident within a restricted cloud environment.

What is a ransomware?

• Ransomware – It is an extortion software designed to lock or encrypt a device or data on a system and then demand a ransom (money) for its release.
• Attackers usually leave behind a message with instructions on the ransom amount, mode of transfer, or instructions on how to contact them for further guidance.
• Working
  • Originates from a malicious link, email attachment, exploited vulnerability, attack campaign, or worm.
  • Installs in victim’s machine.
  • Spreads to other devices on a network and connects to a command-and-control server controlled by the attacker.

• Impact - It can lead to data loss, productivity losses, and reputational damage.

Ransomware-as-a-service business models promote new generation of smaller and smarter gangs are likely to become more prevalent

How does it differ from malware?

Current status of ransomware attacks in India?

• Indian Ransomware Report – It is released by India’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In).
  • A 51% increase in ransomware incidents was reported in first half of 2022 as compared to 2021.
  • A majority of these attacks target data centres, IT, and TeS sectors in the country.
• State of Ransomware 2023 Report -It is a 2023 study by Sophos, a cybersecurity company.
  • Increase in ransomware attack – Attack on organisations is up from 57% the previous year to 73%.
  • Drop in successful encryption of data – It is 77% of reported organisation, a drop from 78% the previous year.
  • Ransom Paid – 44% of organisations payed the ransom to retrieve their data.
  • Highest Impact – It is in education sector, where 79% of higher education organizations surveyed and 80% of lower education organizations surveyed reported such incidents.

Why do attackers target IT organisations?

• Repository of valuable data – They hold sensitive information like personally identifiable data of users, intellectual property, access credentials, and even financial information.
• Higher the value for data, higher the chances that the ransom will be paid.
• Higher vulnerability of the target – If the data is leaked, it could lead to a drop in their value and replication of software, devaluing the company thus threatening its revenue streams.
• Successful attacks could potentially open the channel to target supply chains, adding pressure on companies to pay the ransom.
• Easy target – They are among the 1^st to adopt new technologies and use open architecture, which may not have the highest levels of protection against cyberattacks, making them an easy target.

'Police’ and ‘Public Order’ are State subjects as per the 7th Schedule of the Constitution of India. Hence States and UTs are responsible for cybercrime prevention, detection etc.

How to protect against ransomware?

• Cyber awareness training and education
• Continuous data backups
• Patching – Apply recent security updates on system or software.
• User authentication
• Reduce the attack surface – By addressing phishing messages, unpatched vulnerabilities, remote access solutions and mobile malware.
• Deploy anti-ransomware solution.

No human probe has travelled much beyond the Solar System, yet we are able to measure distances across billions of light-years.

• The space beyond Earth is so incredibly vast that units of measure, which are convenient in everyday lives, can become gigantic.
• Distances between the planets, and especially between the stars, become so big when expressed in miles and kilometers.
• Hence, for cosmic distances other types of units such as astronomical units, light years and parsecs are used.

All these methods are collectively known as the cosmic distance ladder.

Astronomical units (AU)

• They are a useful unit of measure within our solar system.

• One AU is the distance from the Sun to Earth's orbit, which is about 93 million miles.

When measured in astronomical units, the distance from the Sun to Saturn's orbit, is 9.5 AU.

• Therefore, astronomical units are a great way to compress truly astronomical numbers to a more manageable size.

Light year

• A light year is the distance a photon of light travels in one year, which is about 6 trillion miles.

A light year is how far one can travel in a year if they could travel at the speed of light, which is 186,000 miles per second.

• The nearest star system to ours is the triple star system of Alpha Centauri, at about 4.3 light years away.
• Light years also provide some helpful perspective on solar system distances: the Sun is about eight light minutes from Earth.

Parsecs

• This is the unit used when the number of light years between objects climbs into the high thousands or millions.
• One parsec is 3.26 light years.

• Astronomers use megaparsecs, a megaparsec is 1 million parsecs, for intergalactic distances, or the scale of distances between the galaxies.
• When distances between galaxies become so epic that even megaparsecs get unwieldy, redshift is used to measure the distance.

Astronomers talk about distances in terms of how much a galaxy's light has been shifted toward longer, redder wavelengths by the expansion of the universe, a measure known as redshift.

RBI’s move to consolidate the scattered laws on connected lending is welcome.

• CL refers to persons who are in the position to control the decision of the lender.
• CL is the extension of credit to individuals or firms connected through ownership or the ability to exert control, whether direct or indirect.
• CL refers to cases where the director of a bank borrows from the same bank and can have some influence.

Examples of connected parties include a firm’s parent, major shareholders, subsidiaries, affiliated companies, directors, and executive officers.

• Firms are also connected where they are controlled by the same family or group.
• CL means loans extended by a bank to its owners or managers and to their related businesses on terms softer than the market-determined terms.
• CL or lending to persons who are in a position to control or influence the decision of a lender can be of concern.

• The Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) is a highway network that connects India's 4 largest cities - Delhi(north), Mumbai(west), Kolkata(east), and Chennai (south).
• It is India's longest highway project and the 5^th longest in the world that also passes through 13 states.
• It is managed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) under the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways.

It is intended to establish faster transport networks between major cities and ports.

• The Union government recently issued an order for Persons with Disabilities to be considered for reservation in promotions up to the lowest rung of Group A posts in the Central government.

The reservation is in retrospective effect from June 30, 2016.

• China has emerged the highest buyer of iron ore from India for April-November period (8 months), a 400% year-on-year rise.

Data shows that nearly 95% of India’s iron ore shipments have gone to China while small stocks went to Indonesia, Malaysia and South Korea.

• Cumulative Roof Top Solar (RTS) in India has crossed 10 GW and Gujarat has emerged as the leader in the segment with a contribution of 30% to the total capacity.
• Gujarat’s share was 3.2 GW, followed by Maharashtra at 1.9 GW and Rajasthan at 1.1 GW capacity.

According to Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) the Compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of RTS installations during Mar, 2019 to Nov, 2023 is about 46%.

• A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launched with the X-37B experimental spacecraft in U.S. recently.
• The X-37B is a re-entry spacecraft designed to operate in low-Earth orbit.
• The X-37B has been used to carry out research on
  • Relaying solar energy from space for use back on Earth

Studying the effects of radiation on seeds used to grow food

• MANF is to provide 5- year fellowships in the form of financial assistance to students from 6 notified minority communities to pursue M. Phil and Ph.D.
• 6 notified communities - Buddhist, Christian, Jain, Muslim, Parsi and Sikh, notified by the Central Government.

The program is funded and formulated by the Ministry of Minority Affairs.

• Argentina formally rejects BRICS membership recently.
• BRICS made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa announced it was admitting 6 new members in a bid to counter the Western-led global order.

The membership of Argentina, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates was due to take effect from January 1, 2024.

• Birdwatchers across India were able to document rare ‘pelagic’ (who spend a large portion of their lives on the open ocean) birds throughout 2023 just off the Karnataka coast.

• Brown Skua was sighted for the 1^st time in Karnataka.
• Significant sightings - Sooty Shearwater, Brown Skua, Brown Booby, Streaked Shearwater and Masked Booby.

Pomarine Skua, Arctic skua, Long-tailed skua, Swinhoes storm-petrel, Wilson’s storm-petrel, Flesh-footed shearwater, Persian shearwater, (greater, lesser, crested & Bridled (tern)).

• The Ministry of Home Affairs has designated Lakhbir Singh Landa, a Canada-based member of Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), as an “individual terrorist” recently.

He has been designated as an individual terrorist under Section 35 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

• The Indian Navy recently unveiled the new design of the Admirals' Epaulettes, an ornamental shoulder piece worn to show the rank of an officer.

The Admirals’ epaulettes consist of a golden navy button, an Octagon, a sword and a telescope.

• The Supreme Court (SC) recently held that a plain assertion of innocence or a promise to co-operate in the trial by an accused is no ground to grant bail in a case of a serious nature.

The SC also said the completion of investigation in a serious offence was not a default ground for bail.

• ‘Chameleon Trojan’ is a malware that can disable biometric authentication methods like fingerprint and face unlock to steal the phone’s PIN in Android operating systems.

The malware collects information on app usage habits to determine when the user is using their device and launch attacks when they are least likely to use it.

• The Indian Navy participated in the Beypore International Water Fest 2023 organised by Kerala recently.
• INS Kabra, high-speed offshore patrol vessel of the Southern Naval Command was deployed at Beypore as part of this event.

The festival is considered India's largest water festival and highlights Kozhikode as the country's main center for adventure water sports.

The Qatar Court of Appeals recently set aside the death sentences of 8 former Indian Navy personnel in the Dahra Global case.