KERALA
the art of Tholpavakkoothu
- The Tholpavakkoothu team comprising RamachandraPulavar, Rahul Pulavar, Rajalakshmi, Manoj and Vishnu represented India in the Thai mela, which delved deep into the vistas of global puppetry.
- Tholpavakoothu or shadow puppetry is a temple art form which is prevalent in the Bhagavathy temples (mother Goddess) in Palakkad district and nearby regions in Kerala.
- Tholppava (Thol means leather, Pava means puppet) are moved with the help of strings, and their shadows are depicted on a screen with the help of a row of oil lamps in the background. The story of Tholppavakoothu performance is from the Indian epic, Ramayana. In the olden days it was performed elaborately over a period of forty-one days. The narrative used for the performance is a mixture of prose and poetry called Adalpattu.
INTERNATIONAL
- India, France to hold anti-submarine drills off Djibouti
- India and France will hold anti-submarine warfare games off Djibouti coast near the Horn of Africa, as part of the 17th edition of the bilateral Varuna exercise series.
- Under the Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA) signed as part of its foreign cooperation initiatives, the Indian Navy has sought access to the French base in Djibouti for refit and refuelling.
NATIONAL
- Tuberculosis : India’s deadliest infectious diseases
- Tuberculosis claimed close to three lakh lives between 2012 and 2016, making it one of India’s deadliest infectious diseases. Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh registered a high number of deaths per one lakh of the population.
- Sikkim recorded the highest deaths per lakh of the population (66 per 1 lakh population) due to TB.
- The National Strategic Plan (NSP) 2017 – 2025 is the plan produced by the government of India (GoI) which sets out what the government believes is needed to eliminate TB in India by 2025.
- India’s military spending up by 3.1% in 2018
- The five biggest spenders were the U.S., China, Saudi Arabia, India and France.
- India’s military spending as a percentage of GDP is slightly above average (2.4%) while its per capita spending is below average ($49). On average, world military spending in 2018 represented 2.1% of GDP and $239 per person.
- Registration of all motor vehicles stopped
- The issuing of certificate of registration (RC) for all classes of motor vehicles has been blocked from Thursday in the country for not integrating high security registration plate (HSRP) with the ‘Vahan’ database.
- Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are using their own software instead of ‘Vahan’ and, therefore, can issue RC to newly registered vehicles.
- VAHAN – The Integrated Solution for Vehicle Registration. VAHAN is a highly flexible and comprehensive system that takes care of all the burdensome activities of Vehicle Registration, leaving the Transport Department to deal with more important business issues. The software enables the processes at RTO/DTO/MLO/SDM involving Vehicle Registration, Fitness, Taxes, Permits& Enforcement to get computerized.
- India likely to land on Moon on September 6
- Chandrayaan-2 is expected to launch during the window of July 09, to July 16, 2019, with an expected Moon landing on September 06, 2019.
- Chandrayaan-2 has three modules: the orbiter, lander (Vikram) & rover (Pragyan).
- The orbiter and lander modules will be interfaced mechanically and stacked together as an integrated module and accommodated inside the GSLV MK-III launch vehicle. The rover is housed inside the lander.
- It will spend 14 earth days on the moon for carrying out different scientific experiments. Altogether, there will be 13 payloads in the spacecraft.
- Chandrayaan-2’s moon-landing on September 6, if successful, will make India the fourth country in the world to land on the moon.
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