The Eravikulam National Park (ENP) in Kerala has a new attraction — a fernarium set up inside the park. This is the first time such a fern collection is being set up in the hill station. Key details: That ferns are the ecological indicator of healthy forests. The climatic condition inside the ENP is …

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has greeted the people on Utkal Dibasa. Utkala Diwas, also known as the Odisha Diwas, is the foundation day of Odisha. Every year, the state celebrates April 1 as the day of its origin. On this day, the state of Odisha was declared an independent province when divided by Bihar. The state …

Nothing lasts forever, neither the good times nor the bad times. Therefore, over centuries, numerous ancient texts and philosophers have advised people to prepare for the inevitable downturn, while enjoying the present upturn. For instance, Christine Lagarde, the former chief and managing director of the IMF and current president of the European Central …

Context: The Indian Space Research Organisation and its partners successfully demonstrated a precise landing experiment for a Reusable Launch Vehicle at the Aeronautical Test Range (ATR), Chitradurga, Karnataka. Key details: The Reusable Launch Vehicle Autonomous Landing Mission (RLV LEX) test was the second of five tests that are a part of ISRO’s efforts …

Context: Experimental work undertaken in mice has shown a novel quinoline derivative to be effective in sharply reducing the load of Leishmania donovaniin, also called kala-azar (black fever) both the spleen and liver of lab-grown mice. Key details: The quinoline derivative is a potent inhibitor of an enzyme called topoisomerase 1 (LdTop1), which is essential for …

The UN asked the International Court of Justice to give an ‘advisory opinion’ on whether countries have legal obligations to protect people from climate extremities. The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution that asked the International Court of Justice at The Hague to provide an opinion on what kind of obligations countries have towards climate change reduction, based on …

An estimated 170 trillion plastic particles weighing about 2 million metric tons are currently afloat in the oceans across the world, according to a new study. What are microplastics? Microplastics are fragments of any type of plastic less than 5 mm in length. They cause pollution by entering natural ecosystems from a variety of sources, including cosmetics, clothing, food packaging, …

ISRO releases images of Earth captured by its EOS-06 satellite EOS-6 is the third-generation satellite in the Oceansat series. This is to provide continuity services of Oceansat-2 spacecraft with enhanced payload specifications as well as application areas. Payloads Ocean Color Monitor (OCM-3) Sea Surface Temperature Monitor (SSTM) Ku-Band Scatterometer (SCAT-3) ARGOS Mission Objectives To ensure the data continuity of Ocean colour …

Rapidly melting Antarctic ice is dramatically slowing down the flow of water through the world’s oceans, and could have a disastrous impact on global climate, the marine food chain and even the stability of ice shelves, new research has found. Key findings of the study: The “overturning circulation” of the …

India is responsible for 0.08 degrees Celsius of warming from the 1850s through 2021, a new study estimated. India’s emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) from 1851-2021 have resulted in 0.04°C, 0.03°C and 0.006°C of global warming over pre-industrial levels, respectively. Overall, the country ranks fifth among the top 10 contributors to warming. Since 2005, India climbed to the …