Daily Current Affairs Quiz: February 28, 2025

Notes:
The Indian Navy and DRDO successfully tested the Naval Anti-Ship Missile – Short Range (NASM-SR) on 25 February 2025. The missile was launched from the Indian Navy’s Sea King Mk 42B helicopter at the Integrated Test Range in Chandipur, Odisha. NASM-SR is India’s first indigenously developed air-launched anti-ship missile with a sea-skimming capability. DRDO confirmed the successful validation of the missile’s Man-in-Loop feature, allowing real-time target selection and in-flight retargeting.

Notes:
Rajasthan government launched Shiksha Sanjeevani Bima Yojana to provide accidental insurance to schoolchildren. It offers personal accident insurance coverage of Rs 1 lakh to 1.3 lakh for children and parents in state government schools. Initially, the scheme covers schools in the Udaipur Division. State Education and Panchayati Raj Minister Madan Dilawar launched the scheme on 26th February 2025 at Residency School, Udaipur. The scheme will be gradually expanded to all schools in Rajasthan, benefiting around 1 crore students.

Notes:
NASA plans to launch the SPHEREx telescope aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) is a megaphone-shaped space telescope with a 2-year mission. It will map the universe using optical and infrared cosmic light. It will study cosmic inflation, which occurred 14 billion years ago when the universe expanded faster than light. It will analyze galaxy formation, cosmic evolution, and life-forming molecules in the Milky Way. It will use spectroscopic imaging to map 450 million galaxies in 3D. It will complement the work of the James Webb and Hubble telescopes.

Notes:
Samagra Shiksha Kerala created 30 audio-visual texts in the Cholanaikkan language to educate a bed-ridden girl from the tribe. Cholanaikkan tribe is a diminishing and isolated community with less than 400 members. They live in the Karulai and Chungathara forest ranges of the Western Ghats in Nilambur, Malappuram district, Kerala. They are classified as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG). They prefer isolation from agrarian and urban life.

Notes:
Geologists and forest officials discovered a rare petrified fossil at Rajmahal Hills near Barmasia village, Pakur district, Jharkhand. Petrification happens when organic matter is replaced by minerals, turning it into stone. The process fills tissue pores with minerals, replacing organic material while keeping the original structure intact. It can preserve both hard and soft tissues over long periods. Petrification usually occurs under sediment with exposure to mineral-rich water. Petrified wood is a common example of this fossilization process.