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Current Affairs-14.01.2021

14.01.2021

Pongal

Pongal is also referred to as Thai Pongal, is a multi-day Hindu harvest festival of South India, particularly in the Tamil community.
It is observed at the start of the month Tai according to Tamil solar calendar, and this is typically about January 14.
It is dedicated to the Hindu sun god, the Surya, and corresponds to Makar Sankranti, the harvest festival under many regional names celebrated throughout India.
The three days of the Pongal festival are called Bhogi Pongal, Surya Pongal and Maattu Pongal. Some Tamils celebrate a fourth day of Pongal as Kanum Pongal.

Agreement of Ambassador to India by Afghanistan

Afghanistan has not had a full-rank Ambassador in Delhi since September 2018, when Ambassador Shaida Abdali’s resigned unexpectedly in order to stand for elections.
Since then, diplomat Tahir Qadiry assumed charge as Charge d’Affaires, but is ending his tenure this month for another foreign assignment.

National Guards Troops

The United States National Guard is part of the reserve components of the United States Army and the United States Air Force.
It is a military reserve force composed of National Guard military members or units of each state and the territories of Guam, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia, for a total of 54 separate organizations.
All members of the National Guard of the United States are also members of the Organized Militia of the United States.
National Guard units are under the dual control of the state governments and the federal government.

Anganwadis

Anganwadi is a type of rural child care centre in India.
They were started by the Indian government in 1975 as part of the Integrated Child Development Services program to combat child hunger and malnutrition.
Anganwadi means "courtyard shelter" in Hindi.
It is a part of the Indian public health care system. Basic health care activities include contraceptive counseling and supply, nutrition education and supplementation, as well as pre-school activities.The centers may be used as depots for oral rehydration salts, basic medicines and contraceptives.

National Basketball Association

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America.
The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada.
It is the premier men's professional basketball league in the world.
The league was founded in New York City on June 6, 1946, as the Basketball Association of America (BAA). It changed its name to the National Basketball Association on August 3, 1949, after merging with the competing National Basketball League (NBL).
The NBA is the third wealthiest professional sport league after the National Football League (NFL) and Major League Baseball (MLB) by revenue.

Major E-Commerce giants in India and their nationalities

Fatimid bridge

The Fatimid architecture that developed in the Fatimid Caliphate (909–1167 CE) of North Africa combined elements of eastern and western architecture, drawing on Abbasid architecture, Byzantine, Ancient Egyptian, Coptic architecture and North African traditions; it bridged early Islamic styles and the medieval architecture of the Mamluks of Egypt, introducing many innovations.
Although heavily influenced by architecture from Mesopotamia and Byzantium, the Fatimids introduced or developed unique features such as the four-centered keel arch and the squinch, connecting square interior volumes to the dome.

USAID

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance.
With a budget of over $27 billion, USAID is one of the largest official aid agencies in the world, and accounts for more than half of all U.S. foreign assistance—the highest in the world in absolute dollar terms.

SANA News agency

Law of Adultery – Section 497 of IPC

It mandates that whoever has sexual intercourse with the wife of another man, without the consent or connivance of that man, such sexual intercourse not amounting the offence of rape is guilty of the offence of adultery and shall be punished.
The law does not punish his wife, since it presumes that only a man can seduce a woman into a sexual act, and that it is the husband who has suffered due to the sexual relationship of his wife, carried out without his consent. At the same time, the wife is not protected from similar behaviour committed by her husband.
SC has struck down this law as unconstitutional and said that the 158-year-old is violative of Article 21 (Right to life and personal liberty) and Article 14 (Right to equality).

Heritage Conservation Committee of Indian Parliament

The Heritage Conservation Committee was set up in 1983 in the national capital, under the Delhi Development Act (DDA), by incorporating a new clause in the Delhi Building Byelaws for the protection of heritage buildings, precincts and natural features in Delhi.
The committee is headed by the additional secretary in the Union Ministry for Housing and Urban Affairs, and Kamran Rizvi is the present chairman of the HCC.
Besides Rizvi, the committee has 13 other members including representatives from the Central Public Works Department (CPWD), MCD, DDA, NDMC, Archaeological Survey of India, Delhi Urban Arts Commission and other government agencies.
The committee also has members from the School of Planning and Architecture, an associate professor of history from Hindu College, Delhi University, and the director of the National Museum.
The term of every committee is a period of three years, after which a new HCC is constituted.

Sub Judice

In law, sub judice, Latin for "under a judge", means that a particular case or matter is under trial or being considered by a judge or court.
The term may be used synonymously with "the present case" or "the case at bar" by some lawyers.

OTT Platforms

OTT (over-the-top) is a means of providing television and film content over the internet at the request and to suit the requirements of the individual consumer.
The term itself stands for “over-the-top”, which implies that a content provider is going over the top of existing internet services.
The first dependent Indian OTT platform was BIGFlix, launched by Reliance Entertainment in 2008.
There are currently about 40 providers of over–the–top media services (OTT) in India, which distribute streaming media over the Internet.

Makaravilakku Festival

Makaravilakku is an annual festival held on Makara Sankranti in Kerala, India at the shrine of Sabarimala.
The festival includes the Thiruvabharanam (sacred ornaments of Lord Ayyappan) procession and a congregation at the hill shrine of Sabarimala.
Makara vilakku is a light lit at Ponnambalamedu, a plateau across the Sabarimala shrine.
This ritual is done after the Sirius star appears in the sky.
This ritual had been done by Malaya arayatribals in the past.
When the Travancore Devaswom Board took over the administration of the temple in the early 1950s, the tribal community lost that right.