Space Mission

 Juice mission

• European Space Agency (ESA)
• Jupiter Icy  Moons Explorer mission in April 2023
• Moons: Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.

Russia’s Luna 25 mission

• Moon 
• July 2023

Ispace’s Hakuto R mission, Rashid Rover

• ispace
• Japanese Space Technology
• the Hakuto lander launched in December 2022, it is only expected to reach the Moon by April 2023

Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis)

• found only in the Brahmaputra valley, parts of North Bengal, and parts of southern Nepal.

IUCN  Status

• Indian rhino is listed as vulnerable.
• It was earlier placed in the endangered category

 September 22, World Rhino Day, in 2021

Green Bonds

• issue Sovereign Green Bonds (SgrBs) worth Rs 16,000 crore.
• issued by any sovereign entity, inter-governmental groups or alliances and corporates with the aim that the proceeds of the bonds are utilised for projects classified as environmentally sustainable.
• Framework issued by the government on November 9, 2022.

COP15 biodiversity summit

• Delegates committed to protecting 30% of land and 30% of coastal and marine areas by 2030, fulfilling the deal’s highest-profile goal, known as 30-by-30.

INS Mormugao

• The second of the Project 15B stealth guided missile destroyers built by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDSL).
• The ship, named after a key port in Goa

Project 15B

• INS Visakhapatanam (November 2021)
• Mormugao, (Dec 2022)
• Imphal, and 
• Surat

Project 15A: built by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDSL), Mumbai

• The Indian Navy has commissioned three guided missile destroyers of the Kolkata class — INS Kolkata, INS Kochi, and INS Chennai — under the project codenamed 15A.
• Their precursor Delhi class of ships — INS Delhi, INS Mysore, and INS Mumbai.

Link

• The Indian Express
  

Indus Water Treaty

 

MGNREGA

• It provides a legal guarantee for 100 days of unskilled manual employment in every financial year of any rural household.
• Funded by the Central government
• Social Audit has to be done by the Gram Sabha

The Competition Act, 2002

• It should be noted that on the recommendations of the Raghavan committee, the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1969 (MRTP Act) was repealed and replaced by the Competition Act, 2002.
• The Competition Act, 2002, as amended by the Competition (Amendment) Act, 2007
• In accordance with the provisions of the Amendment Act, the Competition Commission of India and the Competition Appellate Tribunal have been established
• he government of India replaced Competition Appellate Tribunal (COMPAT) with the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) in 2017.
• The provisions of the Competition Act relating to anti-competitive agreements and abuse of dominant position were notified on May 20, 2009

Source: The Indian Express

Competition Commission of India

• It is a quasi-judicial body.
• within the Ministry of Corporate Affairs
• established to enforce the competition law under the Competition Act, 2002
• recommendations of the Raghavan committee, the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1969 (MRTP Act) was repealed and replaced by the Competition Act, 2002.

Commission consists of a Chairperson and not more than 6 Members appointed by the Central Government.

VISION 

To promote and sustain an enabling competition culture through engagement and enforcement that would inspire businesses to be fair, competitive, and innovative; enhance consumer welfare, and support economic growth.

MISSION

 The Competition Commission of India aims to establish a robust competitive environment through:

• Proactive engagement with all stakeholders, including consumers, industry, government, and international jurisdictions.
• Being a knowledge-intensive organization with high competence level.
• Professionalism, transparency, resolve, and wisdom in enforcement.

Source: The Indian Express

ChatGPT: The AI Chatbot

• Developed by OpenAI 
• ChatGPT is based on GPT-3.5, a language model that uses deep learning to produce human-like text

Great Indian Bustard

• Found mainly in Rajasthan and Gujarat
• Critically endangered by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

Why Critically Endangered??

• Transmission Lines

Conservation Efforts

• The SC in April 2021 ordered: Underground Transmission Line

United Nations Climate Change Framework Convention (UNFCCC)

• The Conference of Parties (COP) is the apex decision-making body

• UNFCCC was formed in 1994

• To stabilize greenhouse gas emissions and to protect the earth from the threat of climate change

• COP Presidency rotates among the five recognized UN regions

COP27

• Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt

Air Quality Index (AQI)

• The color-coded AQI index was launched in India in 2014.
• Launched by the central government in 2014 as part of the Swachh Bharat campaign.
• a technical study was awarded to IIT Kanpur. 
• IIT Kanpur and the Expert Group recommended an AQI scheme.
• The pollutants measured include PM 10, PM 2.5, Nitrogen Dioxide, Ozone, Carbon, etc.

There are six categories of AQI, namely 

1. ‘Good’ (0-50), 
2. ‘Satisfactory’ (50-100),
3.  ‘Moderately polluted’ (100-200),
4.  ‘Poor’ (200-300), 
5. ‘Very Poor’ (300-400), and 
6. ‘Severe’ (400-500).

Source: Indian Express

Carbon Dating

• Carbon-14 (C-14) isotopes of carbon with an atomic mass of 14
• Ratio of C-12 to C-14
• C-12 is stable

Not Applicable 

• Non-living things

Kamikaze drones

• Iran
• Used in Ukraine  

 Countries have such drones

• US
• Russia, 
• China, 
• Israel, 
• Iran and 
• Turkey

Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM)

• Ministry of Defence
• INS Arihant: 1st indigenous Strategic Strike Nuclear Submarine
• Test: Bay of Bengal

Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM)

• K family of missiles
• Developed by DRDO
• Code named after Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam

Draft Telecommunication Bill 2022

• India: 2nd largest telecom market
• 100% FDI in the sector
• Department of Telecom

An asteroid sample

• NASA OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft, 
• Asteroid Bennu

Add on

• https://iassaheb.blogspot.com/2022/08/hayabusa-2-mission.html

Sonification Project

• NASA
• James Webb Space Telescope
• Carina Nebula

Sonification

• Non-speech audio to convey information or perceptualize data

Rice

• Temperature: 22-32 C
• Rainfall: 150-300  cm
• Soil: Deep clayey and loamy

Recent News

For Addition

• Fortified Rice
• System Of Rice intensification (SRI)

Among the following crops, which one is the most important anthropogenic source of both methane and nitrous oxide? 

(a) Cotton 

(b) Rice 

(c) Sugarcane

(d) Wheat