GS3

Recently, the Union Minister of State Science & Technology launched a major futuristic PPP (Public Private Participation) mode initiative for ‘Clean Energy’ with the full launch of “Mission Integrated Bio-refineries”. Material Acceleration Platforms (MAP) set up by the Department of Science and Technology (DST)were also launched which will leverage emerging capabilities in next-generation computing, Artificial Intelligence …

Google Pay has recently launched a new feature in India, ‘Tap to pay for UPI’, in collaboration with Pine Labs. The feature makes use of Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. The functionality will allow users with NFC-enabled Android smartphones and UPI (Unified Payments Interface) accounts linked to Google Pay to carry out transactions …

Recently, the United Nations’ climate science body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published the third part of its Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). This second part of the report was published in March 2022 which was about climate change impacts, risks and vulnerabilities, and adaptation options. The first part of this report, on the physical science of climate change was …

Recently, Railway Protection Force (RPF) conducted a Pan India Drive against the alleged black marketeers under Operation Upalabdh. Earlier in February 2022, the RPF had launched a nationwide operation to curb human trafficking named Operation AAHT. Operation Upalabdh The month-long drive under Operation Upalabdh has been able to curb the activities of touts substantially and make railway tickets available …

Recently, the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare in a written reply in Rajya Sabha informed about the various initiatives taken by the government for adopting technology in Agriculture. In 2021, a consultation paper on the India Digital Ecosystem of Agriculture (IDEA) from the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (MoA&FW) was released, which talks about a …

Recently released United Nations Environment Programme report titled Annual Frontiers Report 2022 became controversial on account of the mention of a single city, Moradabad of Uttar Pradesh. The Frontiers report identifies and offers solutions to three environmental issues: urban noise pollution, wildfires and phenological shifts that merit attention and action from governments and the public at large to address …

Scientists had published the map of the human genome for the first time nearly two decades ago which was hailed as a breakthrough. In 2003, scientists got the breakthrough, but it was incomplete as about 8% of the human DNA was left unsequenced. Now for the first time, a large team has accounted for …

Recently, a massive fire broke out inside the Sariska Tiger Reserve (Rajasthan). The fire spread and destroyed around 10 sq km of forests despite timely satellite warnings and the availability of a real-time mobile application-based fire response system. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) warned in its annual Frontiers report released in February …

The maiden edition of Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) Maritime Exercise 2022 (IMEX-22) was conducted at Goa and in the Arabian Sea. The exercise witnessed participation of 15 out of the 25 member nations of IONS. The aim of the exercise was to enhance interoperability in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations among …

Recently, the Prime Minister inaugurated 5.21 lakh houses of beneficiaries of Pradhan MantriAwasYojna (PMAY)-Gramin in Madhya Pradesh. It was launched by the Ministry of Rural development to achieve the objective of “Housing for All” by 2022, the erstwhile rural housing scheme Indira AwaasYojana (IAY) was restructured to PMAY-G w.e.f 1st April, 2016. Objectives: To provide a pucca …