News in Short

• Former National Security Guard (NSG) director general JK Dutt, who headed the force during the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks counter operation, passed away due to Covid-19. He was 72.
• Jyoti Krishan Dutt was a 1971-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the West Bengal cadre. He served as the DG of the NSG from August 2006 to February 2009.
• Dutt had served the CBI and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF). He along with “black cat” commandos, had boarded an IL-76 aircraftto fly the first batch of the counter-terrorist strike force to Mumbai.

• The Rajasthan government has declared Mucormycosis an epidemic and a notifiable disease. It will be mandatory for the health facilities to report every case of the disease in the State.
• Mucormycosis appears as a side effect among COVID-19 patients who are put on oxygen support through liquid medical oxygen cylinders or oxygen concentrators.
• The State government has also given instructions for procurement of oxygen concentrators of good quality and ensure strict compliance with safety measures while using them.

• After severe cyclonic storm Tauktae in the west coast, another cyclone named Yaas is likely to hit the east coast on May 26, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
• A low pressure area is very likely to form over north Andaman Sea and adjoining east-central Bay of Bengal around May 22. It is likely to intensify gradually into a cyclonic storm in the subsequent 72 hours.
• Under the influence of the system, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Odisha, West Bengal, Assam and Meghalaya are likely to receive light to moderate rainfall at most places with heavy falls at isolated places.

• Six sites, including the Ganga ghats in Varanasi, temples of Kancheepuram in Tamil Nadu and the Satpura Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh, have been added to India’s tentative list of UNESCO world heritage sites.
• The Archaeological Survey of India had nominated nine sites out of which six were accepted by UNESCO for inclusion in the tentative list.
• The recently-included proposals are the Maratha military architecture in Maharashtra, the Hire Bengal megalithic site in Karnataka and Bhedaghat-Lametaghat of Narmada Valley in Madhya Pradesh. The total number of proposals have now reached 48.

• Darwin's Arch, a famed natural rock formation in the Galapagos Islands that is popular with divers, photographers and cruise-ship tourists, has collapsed from erosion.
• The arch, named after British naturalist Charles Darwin, stands at the northernmost tip of the Galapagos Islands, a volcanic archipelago in the Pacific Ocean 965 km west of Ecuador.
• Once a part of Darwin's Island, the arch is famed for the variety of underwater life teeming nearby, including schools of hammerhead sharks. Tourists are not allowed to set foot on the arch or island.