About Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary:

• Location: It is located in Assam.
• This wildlife sanctuary was established in 1998.
• The sanctuary consists of the Rajamayong Reserve Forest and Pobitora Reserve Forest.
• The region was once part of the vast floodplains of the Brahmaputra River and was known for its rich flora and fauna. 
• The Government of India included Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary with the association of a rhino breeding program named “Indian Rhino Vision 2020”.
• Vegetation: The landscape is dominated by alluvial grasslands and dense patches of tall elephant grass.
• Flora: 
  • 72% of Pabitora consists of the wet savannah of Arundo donax, Erianthus ravennae, Phragmites karka, Imperata cylindrica, and Saccharum spp.
  • Water hyacinth (Eichornia crassipes) is a major problem, especially to waterfowl, as it forms thick mats on the water surface.
• Fauna: 
  • It is known for holding the highest density of Greater One Horned Rhinoceros in the country.
  • The other animals are leopard, wild boar, Barking deer, wild buffalo, etc. 

About Navroz:

• Navroz is an Iranian and Persian New year.
• The word ‘nov’ means ‘new’ and roz means ‘day’. Therefore, the word translates to a new day.’ 
• It marks the beginning of the spring season and is celebrated with great fervour by members of the Parsi community across the globe.
• Historical Background:
  • Nowruz’s origins can be traced back to the ancient Persian empire and the Zoroastrian calendar, where it marked one of the holiest days of the year.
  • The festival of Nowruz is named after the Persian king, Jamshed, who is credited for creating the Persian or the Shahenshahi calendar. 
  • It is said that the festival came to India courtesy of an 18th-century wealthy tradesman from Surat, Nusservanji Kohyaji, who often travelled to Iran and began celebrating Nowruz in India.
• It is listed in the list of UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of India.

About Diego Garcia:

• Location: It is a coral atoll located in the central Indian Ocean.
• It is the largest and southernmost member of the Chagos Archipelago.
• It is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) and accounts for more than half the land area.
• It was discovered by the Portuguese in the early 16th century, it was for most of its history a dependency of Mauritius. 
• In 1965 it was separated from Mauritius as part of the newly created BIOT. 
• In 1966, the UK leased Diego Garcia to the US to create an air and naval base. For constructing the defence installation, the inhabitants of the island were forcibly removed.
• Diego Garcia is the United States’ major geostrategic and logistics support base in the Indian Ocean. 
• A non-binding 2019 UN General Assembly vote demanded that Britain end its “colonial administration” of the Chagos Archipelago and that it be returned to Mauritius.

About National Productivity Council:

• It was established in 1958 as an autonomous organization.
• It works under the Department for Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
• It is a multipartite, non-profit organization with equal representation from employers’ & workers’ organizations and the Government, apart from technical & professional institutions and other interests. 
• Headquarters: New Delhi
• National Productivity Council Objectives:
  • Increase awareness of productivity concepts and techniques
  • Strengthen microeconomic foundations of economic development
  • Function as a think tank for the Government
  • Provide premier productivity consultancy and training services
  • Enhance focus on productivity
• National Productivity Council Functions:
  • Consultancy to organizations on productivity improvement
  • Training of personnel at different levels
  • Dissemination of productivity information through seminars, workshops, conferences, etc
  • Productivity Research and Database
  • Productivity Publications
• NPC has professionals from diverse fields to provide Consultancy, Capacity Building, and Project Monitoring Unit (PMU) services to various organisations, including Central Government Ministries and State Governments.
• It is a constituent of the Tokyo-based Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an Inter-Governmental Body of which the Government of India is a founding member.

About Caspian Sea:

• It is the world’s largest water body that is enclosed or bordered by land on all sides. 
• It is located between Asia and Europe.
  • The sea’s name derives from the ancient Kaspi peoples, who once lived in Transcaucasia to the west.
• It is an endorheic basin (drainage basin without an outflow).
• Bordering countries: It is bordered by Russia and Azerbaijan on the west, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan on the north and east, and Iran on the south. 
• The composition of the water of the Caspian Sea also varies from almost fresh in the northern parts of the lake to saltier southwards. 
• Three major rivers—the Volga, the Ural, and the Terek—empty into the Caspian from the north. 
• Cities on Caspian: Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, is the largest city on the Caspian. Another important city along the Caspian is Iran’s Nowshahr.
• Islands: The largest are Chechen, Tyuleny, Morskoy, Kulaly, Zhiloy, and Ogurchin.
• Resources: It is also known for its abundance of energy resources (oil and natural gas reserves in offshore fields and onshore on the coast of the sea).

About Neodymium-Iron-Boron Magnet:

• The NdFeB magnet is the strongest permanent magnet in the world.
• It is a tetragonal crystal formed of neodymium, iron, and boron.
• It is made mainly from a combination of Neodymium, Iron, Boron, Cobalt and varying levels of Dysprosium and Praseodymium.
• Neodymium Magnets can be divided into three types:
  • Sintered NdFeB magnets: It has the largest output and the most widely used in the NdFeB family.
  • Bonded NdFeB magnets: This has the advantages of low cost, high dimensional accuracy, a large degree of freedom of shape, good mechanical strength, and has been widely used in the market. 
  • Hot-pressed NdFeB magnets: They can achieve magnetic properties similar to sintered NdFeB without adding heavy rare earth elements. 
    • They have the advantages of high density, , and high coercivity, but the mechanical properties are not good. high orientation, good corrosion resistance.
  • Due to different production processes, they have big differences in product magnetic properties, post-processing, and applications.
  • Applications: It is widely used in electronic products, such as hard drives, mobile phones, earphones, and battery-powered tools.

About Prosopis Juliflora:

• It is a shrub or small tree in the family Fabaceae, a kind of mesquite.
• It is native to Mexico, South America and the Caribbean.
• It is one of the most invasive species in arid and semi-arid areas. 
• It was brought to Delhi by the British in the 1920s, when the national capital was being built.
• Other names: In India it is known locally by many names such as Bellary jaali, seemai karuvelam, seemai jaali, gando baval, vilayati kikar.
• Characteristics of Prosopis Juliflora:
  • Adaptability: It has a very wide ecological adaptability which can grow on soils from sand dune to clay soil, and from saline to alkaline soil type.
  • It is considered an Invasive plant.
  • It is characterized by vigorous growth which helps them to out compete indigenous plant species.
• Impacts of Prosopis Juliflora on Environment:
  • This tree absorbs more than four litres of water to obtain one kilogram of biomass.
  • It cannot even shelter birds as it produces less oxygen and more carbon dioxide.
  • It can also turn the groundwater poisonous.
  • It causes land erosion due to the loss of the grasslands that are habitats for native plants and animals.

About Chapchar Kut:

• It is a spring festival celebrated in the state of Mizoram.
• Background: It is estimated to have started in 1450–1700 A.D. in a village called Suaipui.
• It is celebrated during March after completion of their most arduous task of jhum operation i.e., jungle-clearing (clearing of the remnants of burning).
• During this festival, both the men and women get dressed in their traditional attire with distinguished headgears and traditional jewelry 
• All the people gather for a huge community fest to sing and dance to the tune of flute, cymbals, drums and gongs.
• One of the greatest highlights of Chapchar Kut is the popular bamboo dance called Cheraw.
  • Bamboo dance features men tapping the bamboo sticks according to the rhythm of the dance and women adjust their dance moves with moving sticks.
  • Various movements made by the Cheraw dancers are inspired by the nature.
• Other Festivals of Mizoram: Pawl Kut, Lyuva Khutla and Anthurium Festival