Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT)
- India's City Union Bank suffered a cyber attack via the SWIFT financial platform.
- It is a messaging network that financial institutions use to securely transmit information and instructions through a standardized system of codes.
- SWIFT is headquartered in Belgium.
- It also brings the financial community together – at global, regional and local levels – to shape market practice, define standards and debate issues of mutual interest or concern.
- For money transfers, SWIFT assigns each participating financial organization a unique code with either eight or eleven characters
Swami Ramakrishna Pramahamsa’s Birth Anniversary
- Ramakrishna Pramahamsa’s birth anniversary was on February 18th.
- His spiritual movement indirectly aided nationalism, as it rejected caste distinctions and religious prejudices.
- Ramakrishna’s religious and spiritual philosophy was centered on Shakto, Advaita Vedanta and universal tolerance.
- Foremost among his innumerable disciples was Swami Vivekananda, who was instrumental in establishing the philosophy of Ramakrishna at a global stage.
- Vivekananda established the Ramakrishna Mission in 1897 to carry out the visions of his Guru Ramakrishna.
Assam- Wildlife Protection
- In a major initiative for wildlife protection, the forest guards in Assam were given modern weapons to check poaching of rhinos, tigers and other wild animals.
- Also for the first time wildlife fast-track courts have been set up to exclusively deal with poaching and wildlife crimes.
- Assam has five national parks and 19 wildlife sanctuaries and is home to 91% of Indian rhinos.
- The five national parks in Assam are
- Kaziranga
- Manasa
- Nameri
- Rajiv Gandhi Orang
- Dibru Saikhowa
- Manas and Dibru saikhowa are the Biosphere reserve in the state.
Global Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System (GLASS)
- GLASS was developed by WHO to foster standardized AMR surveillance globally.
- It released the first set of surveillance data on anti-microbial resistance recently.
- Key Findings of GLASS are
- AMR is widespread in both high and low income countries.
- The most commonly reported resistant bacteria were Escherichia coli (E. coli), Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumonia, and Salmonella spp.
- There is an alarming spike in the cases resistant to penicillin and ciprofloxacin.
Sambandh Initiative
- Western Naval Command hosted the Sambandh exercise last year.
- Participants were from the 10 Indian Ocean Littoral countries Maldives, Myanmar, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and Mauritius.
- Naval officers and cadets from smaller countries that do not have big navies were welcomed aboard INS Vikramaditya -India's aircraft carrier as a part of the initiative.
- Apart from the Sambandh initiate, the Indian Navy sent its Mobile Training Team (MTT) to these countries.
- Training teams of the Indian Navy were sent to neighboring countries to train other countries cadets at their home base.
Map: Myanmar-Manipur border
- A dam being constructed by Myanmar across river close to the boundary with India has stoked fears of submergence and water scarcity in Manipur’s Chandel district.
- The Indian states that border Myanmar are:
Arunachel Pradesh,Nagaland,Manipur,Mizoram
- Tip to remember easily: Myanmar MMAN.
Source: PIB, The Hindu, Livemint, Down to earth.
