News in Shorts: 05 September 2024

Rajaji Tiger Reserve

About Rajaji Tiger Reserve

• Location: It is an Indian national park and tiger reserve spread over three districts of Uttarakhand: Haridwar, Dehradun and Pauri Garhwal.
  • It is situated along the hills and foothills of the Shiwalik ranges 
• Background: In the year 1983,  Rajaji Wildlife Sanctuary was merged with Motichur and Chilla wildlife sanctuaries and made into Rajaji National Park.
  • It was named after the famous freedom fighter C. Rajgopalachari who’s popularly known as “Rajaji”
• Tiger Reserve Declaration: It was declared a Tiger Reserve in 2015 as the 48th tiger reserve of the country.
• Flora: Diverse forest types ranging from semi-evergreen to deciduous and from mixed broad-leaved to Terai grassland
  • Sal (Shorea robusta) is the characteristic dominant tree species.
• Fauna: It is known for its population of Tigers, Elephants, Leopards, and other wildlife species such as Spotted Deer, Barking Deer , Sloth bears etc.
• Rivers: The Ganga and Song rivers flow through this.

Complex Brains Evolution to Adapt to Challenging Habitats

Key Highlights of the Study: 

• Traditionally, brain complexity was thought to be related to brain size, but the research on lizards from Puerto Rico suggests habitat plays a key role.
• The researchers  studied six species of anoles, lizards known for their adaptive abilities, from different habitats ranging from tree trunks to the canopy. 
• They found that lizards living in more complex environments, like tree canopies, had denser neurons in their brains. 
• This suggests that navigating diverse habitats may drive the evolution of more complex brains.

About Anoles

• Anoles are a specific type of lizard
  • Lizards are a broad group of reptiles
• Scientific name: Anolis carolinensis (green)
• Conservation status: Least concern
• Classification: common green anole and “Cuban brown anole
• Physical traits: Anoles are known for their ability to change skin color, dewlaps, and adhesive toe pads.

Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME)

About Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME)-III

• Continuation of Efforts: It has been launched to address the issues faced in the first two phases of the FAME scheme.
• Replacement of EMPS: It will replace the temporary Electric Mobility Promotion Scheme (EMPS) 2024, expiring in September.
• Follow-up to FAME-II: FAME III builds up on FAME-II, which began in 2019. FAME II had an initial outlay of ₹10,000 crore and was extended to March 2024 with an additional ₹1,500 crore.
• Target Support: The initial target of the scheme was to support 10 lakh electric two-wheelers, 5 lakh electric three-wheelers, 55,000 electric passenger cars, and 7,000 electric buses.

About FAME Scheme:

FAME-I: 

• FAME India, part of the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan, aims to promote electric and hybrid vehicle adoption by providing upfront purchase incentives.
• The scheme began in 2015 and was completed on 31st March 2019, with an outlay of Rs 895 crore.
• This phase of FAME India Scheme had four focus areas i.e. technological development, demand generation, pilot project and charging infrastructure components.

FAME-II

• FAME was rolled out in 2019 with an initial outlay of ₹10,000 crore for three years. It was later extended till 2024.
• This phase mainly focuses on supporting the electrification of public & shared transportation through demand incentives for eBuses, e-3 Wheelers, e-4 Wheeler Passenger Cars and e-2 Wheelers.

Project Strawberry

About Project Strawberry:

• It is being developed by OpenAI to enhance autonomous Internet research and dramatically improve AI reasoning capabilities.
• Key Feature:
  • Better math, programming and puzzle solving skills
  • Advanced levels of thinking
• Potential Applications:
  • Autonomously conduct experiments, analyze data, and come up with new hypotheses.
  • Personalized education, creating educational content and interactive lessons.
  • Generation of high-quality training data for OpenAI’s next-frontier model, codenamed Orion.

Bird Dung Crab Spider (Phrynarachne decipiens)

Key Features of Phrynarachne Decipiens:

• Distribution: The Phrynarachne decipiens, also known as the bird dung or bird-dropping crab spider, was known to be distributed in Malaysia and Indonesia’s Java and Sumatra.
• Discovery in India: It has been recorded for the first time in India from Assam’s Sonapur in the Kamrup district and the Chirang Reserve Forest in the Kokrajhar district.
• Physical Features:
• • Camouflage: The chalky white color of the spider and whitish deposition (its web) on the leaves, looking like bird excreta, make it very difficult to be sighted.
  • Length: The eight-eyed bird dung crab spider was measured at 13.14 mm long.
  • Behavior: The spider is usually seen lying motionless 1-2 ft above the ground on the upper side of broad leaves.

Exercise Varuna

About Varuna Exercise: 

• It is the bilateral Naval Exercise between India and France which was initiated in 1993.
• It was named ‘VARUNA’ in 2001 and has become a hallmark of India France strategic bilateral relationship.
• The 2024 edition of Exercise Varuna, is scheduled in the Mediterranean Sea.
• It will include advanced tactical exercises underscoring the deepening synergy and interoperability between the two navies.
• Other Indo-French Joint Exercises:
  • Desert Knight-21 and Garuda (Air exercise)
  • Shakti (Army exercise)