• The Indian Navy has recently dispatched its deep submergence rescue vessel (DSRV) from Visakhapatnam to support the Indonesian Navy in the search and rescue efforts for its submarine KRI Nanggala that went missing recently with 53 personnel aboard.
• An alert was received by the Navy through the International Submarine Escape and Rescue Liaison Office (ISMERLO), regarding the missing Indonesian submarine.

International Submarine Escape and Rescue Liaison Office (ISMERLO) 

• It is an organisation that aims to facilitate an international response for a distressed submarine (DISSUB) and to improve the ability to respond to a call for assistance through its coordination role.
• Although established by NATO, ISMERLO supports all nations and pursues the involvement of global submarine-operating nations.
• ISMERLO is a military organisation operating in an international environment focused on the humanitarian objective of saving lives at sea.

National Green Tribunal (NGT)

• It was established in 2010, as per the National Green Tribunal Act.
• It is a specialised judicial body equipped with expertise solely for the purpose of adjudicating environmental cases in the country.
• The Tribunal has a presence in five zones- North, Central, East, South and West. The Principal Bench is situated in the North Zone, headquartered in Delhi.
• The Central zone bench is situated in Bhopal, East zone in Kolkata, South zone in Chennai and West zone in Pune.
• The Tribunal is headed by the Chairperson who sits in the Principal Bench and has at least ten but not more than twenty judicial members and at least ten but not more than twenty expert members.

1. Taikonaut – China
2. Spationaut – French
3. Vyomanauts – India
4. Cosmonauts – Russia

Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary

• The Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary s located in Uttara Kannada, Karnataka and is located on the banks of River Kali.
• It is part of the Kali Tiger Reserve (earlier called the Dandeli Anshi Tiger Reserve).
• [The Kali Tiger Reserve has two protected areas - Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary and Anshi National Park]
• Species found - Crocodiles, barking deer, bison, Indian Mongolian, black panther, sambhar, tiger, leopard, elephant, flying squirrel and the Malabar giant squirrel, king cobra, or giant iguana.

Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC)

• It is an intergovernmental body established in 1963.
• It is constituted jointly by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), within the framework of the Joint Food Standards Programme.
• It is the body responsible for all matters regarding the implementation of the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme.
• The Commission meets in regular session once a year alternating between Geneva and Rome.
• Codex Committee on Spices and Culinary Herbs (CCSCH) was formed in 2013 with support of more than a hundred countries under Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC).
• It has been successful in developing harmonised global Codex standards for spices and herbs.
• It has developed and finalized standards for four spices, viz. dried or dehydrated forms of  black/ white/ green pepper, cumin, thyme, and garlic.

Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice

• It was established by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) resolution 1992/1, upon request of General Assembly (GA) resolution 46/152.
• It acts as the principal policymaking body of the United Nations in the field of crime prevention and criminal justice.
• It offers Member States a forum for exchanging expertise, experience and information in order to develop national and international strategies, and to identify priorities for combating crime.
• It is the preparatory body to the United Nations Crime Congresses.
• India was elected by acclamation to the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice for a three-year term beginning January 1, 2022.

UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)

• The UN Charter established ECOSOC in 1945 as one of the six main organs of the United Nations.
• It is at the heart of the United Nations system to advance the three dimensions of sustainable development – economic, social and environmental.
• It is the central platform for fostering debate and innovative thinking, forging consensus on ways forward, and coordinating efforts to achieve internationally agreed goals.
• ECOSOC links a diverse family of UN entities dedicated to sustainable development, providing overall guidance and coordination.

US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)

• It is a quasi-judicial body constituted by US-Congress, established by the US Government in 1998 after the inaction of the International Religious Freedom Act.
• The recommendations of USCIRF are non-binding to the State Department.
• It monitors international religious freedom.
• It is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission created by the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA).
• Recently, USCIRF has recommended India for ‘countries of particular concern’ tag along with other three countries are Russia, Syria and Vietnam.
• The USCIRF report has alleged that religious freedom conditions in 2020 in these countries continued their negative trajectory.
• USCIRF urges to impose targeted sanctions on individuals and entities responsible for severe violations of religious freedom by freezing those individuals' or entities' assets and barring their entry into the US.

Harlequin ichthyosis

• The disease is an extremely rare genetic disorder that resulted in thickened skin forming over nearly the entire body at birth.
• The disease affected one in three million births and is caused due to a mutated gene inherited from the parents.
• The disease sees the skin form large diamond-shaped plates across the body that are separated by deep cracks (fissures).
• The skin is dry and scaly, almost like fish skin, Mutations in the ABCA 12 gene are stated to cause harlequin ichthyosis.
• The ABCA12 protein plays a major role in transporting fats in cells which make up the outermost layer of skin.
• Severe mutations in the gene lead to the absence or partial production of the ABCA12 protein.
• This results in lack of lipid transport and as a result, the skin development is affected by varying degrees according to the severity of the mutation.
• Recently Odisha reported it’s first-ever case of a baby born with harlequin ichthyosis.

Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE)

• NASA’s Perseverance mission was able to produce oxygen from the thin Martian atmosphere for the first time.
• In its first operation since arriving on the Red Planet, the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) produced 5 grams of oxygen from carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere, enough for an astronaut to breathe for 10 minutes.
• On Mars, carbon dioxide makes up ~96% of the gas in the planet’s atmosphere.
• Oxygen is only 0.13%, compared to 21% in Earth’s atmosphere, like a tree on Earth, MOXIE inhales carbon dioxide and exhales oxygen.
• It does so by using heat at a temperature of around 800 degrees Celsius, and in the process also produces carbon monoxide as a waste product, which it releases in the Martian atmosphere.
• MOXIE is designed to generate up to 10 grams of oxygen per hour, and is placed inside the Perseverance rover.
• It is the size of a car battery, weighing 37.7 pounds (17.1 kg) on Earth, but just 14.14 pounds (6.41 kg) on Mars.
• MOXIE is only a test model, Future oxygen generators that descend from its technology need to be about 100 times larger to support human missions on Mars.
• A substantial amount of oxygen supply on Mars is essential for crewed missions that plan to go there, not just for astronauts to breathe but for rockets to use as fuel while coming back to Earth.