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For well over a century, the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory (KoSO) has been observing the Sun, capturing images of sunspots, and recording changes in its behaviour. KoSO is owned and operated by Indian Institute of Astrophysics. It is one of the world’s oldest observatories studying the Sun. The idea was first proposed by the astronomer Norman Pogson, …

Last December, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan spoke of the need “to repopulate vast unoccupied areas, located even far away from the last villages of the state towards the border” and emphasised the importance of promoting border tourism in such areas. The Government of India has made unprecedented …

AI is the digital distillation of a technological revolution that is facilitating the long-overdue evolution of the human mind. AI, as fear-inducing as anything disruptive and new is, can trigger new avenues of intelligence in human minds. These new avenues enable us to understand and attack society’s greatest challenges today. …

The allocation made for education in the Union Budget 2023 reminds a person of these lines from the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem, “Work without Hope”: “Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve, And Hope without an object cannot live. ” However, the news headlines shouted out a different story: …

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has received the NASA-ISRO SAR (NISAR) satellite from the U.S. space agency. NISAR is a Low Earth Orbit observatory jointly developed by NASA and ISRO. According to ISRO, NISAR will map the entire globe in 12 days and provide spatially and temporally consistent data …

India’s money laundering laws will apply to trade in cryptocurrencies, the Finance Ministry said in a notification dated March 7. The exchange between virtual digital assets and fiat currencies, the exchange between one or more forms of virtual digital assets and the transfer of digital assets will be covered under …

Change in debris cover plays a critical role in the glacier surface lowering, shrinkage, retreat, and mass balance, according to a recent study. Therefore, these factors need to be accounted for in future studies for a complete understanding of the observed glacier changes and responses. Despite the importance of the …

Last week, the UN member states agreed on a historic treaty for protecting marine life in international waters that lie outside the jurisdiction of any country. The ‘breakthrough’ followed talks led by the UN during the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) where negotiations …

The theme for International Women’s Day 2023 is ‘DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality.’ The transformational and all-encompassing role of digital technology is growing even faster in the post-pandemic world. But sadly, the digital revolution also poses the challenge of perpetuating gender inequality, which is increasingly noticeable in the …

That OpenAI’s ChatGPT has received a lot of attention is well known by now. Recently, two journalists from the United States polling company, FiveThirtyEight, asked the artificial intelligence chatbot to create an 800-word piece regarding public perception of AI chatbots. “A 2021 survey by the Pew Research Center,” the chatbot …

Scientists at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) recently outlined a plan for a potentially revolutionary new area of research called organoid intelligence, which aims to create “bio-computers”. Organoid intelligence is an emerging interdisciplinary scientific field aiming to establish a new type of biological computing system. These next-generation biocomputers will harness the computational power of the …

The Indian Railways is harnessing the power of data analytics for integrated transportation. It has commenced a project which will now enable real time tracking of train movements with the assistance of satellite imagery under the Real Time Train Information System (RTIS) project. K. Singh, Managing Director, Centre for Railway …

Nearly 6.37 lakh Olive Ridley turtles have arrived for mass nesting on the Rushikulya coast this year, setting a new record for the beach in Ganjam district of Odisha. The arrival of the turtles for laying eggs from February 23 to March 2 — which is treated as the mass …

India has committed to 50% electricity capacity from non-fossil sources by 2030. But an energy transition in industry is needed at the same time. Most industrial greenhouse gas emissions in India come from steel, cement, fertilizers and petrochemicals. Green hydrogen holds the promise of fuelling industrial growth while simultaneously reducing …

Recent investigation by International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) revealed that India has become the second largest importer of “conflict wood” from Myanmar, after China. India hasn’t banned the import of teak from Myanmar, which is being exported to the US & EU. These supplies of teak not only chip away at the Myanmar’s …

The sale of gold jewellery will not be allowed without a Hallmark Unique Identification (HUID) number. HUID number is a six-digit alphanumeric code. It is given to every piece of jewellery at the time of hallmarking. It is a unique identifier for each gold item. The jewellery is stamped with the unique number manually at the Assaying & Hallmarking centre. Features: …

Global index providers are reviewing some of the stocks’ inclusion in its indices that are replicated by many foreign portfolio managers after the Hindenburg report. Index funds An index fund is a portfolio of stocks or bonds designed to mimic the composition and performance of a financial market index. Index funds have lower expenses and fees than …

They are women from rural India who have adopted clean energy-based livelihood technologies to catalyse their businesses. From solar refrigerators to silk-reeling machines and biomass-based cold storage to bulk milk chillers, distributed renewable energy (DRE) is transforming women’s livelihoods at the grassroots. A recent Council on Energy, Environment and Water …

This is a series of post-budget webinars being organized by the Government with an aim to brainstorm ideas for effective implementation of the initiatives announced in the Union Budget-2023. In his address, the Prime Minister, Shri Narender Modi  said that tourism has always been a part of our social and …

Samarth is a demand driven and placement-oriented umbrella skilling programme of Ministry of Textiles. The implementation period of the scheme is up to March 2024. The scheme was formulated under the broad skilling policy framework adopted by M/o Skill Development & Entrepreneurship. Samarth aims to incentivize and supplement the efforts …