1. IPCC REPORT
The world faces unavoidable multiple climate hazards over the next two decades with global warming of 1.5°C, and even temporarily exceeding this warming level would mean additional, severe impacts, some of which will be irreversible, according to a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
About:
- Human-induced climate change, including more frequent and intense extreme events, has caused widespread adverse impacts and damage to nature and people. Some development and adaptation efforts have reduced vulnerability.
- Lucknow and Patna, according to one of several studies cited in the IPCC report, are among the cities predicted to reach wet-bulb temperature (a metric of humidity) of 35°C if emissions continued to rise.
- Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Mumbai, Indore, and Ahmedabad are identified as at risk of reaching wet-bulb temperatures of 32-34°C with continued emissions.
- Overall, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab will be the most severely affected, but if emissions keep rising, all States will have regions that experience wet-bulb temperature of 30°C or more by the end of the century.
- According to the IPCC report, global sea levels will likely rise 44-76 cm this century if governments meet their current emission-cutting pledges. With faster emission cuts, the increase could be limited to 28-55 cm.
- But with higher emissions, and if ice sheets collapse more quickly than expected, sea levels could rise as much as 2 m this century and 5 m by 2150.
2. INDIAN ECONOMIC GROWTH
India’s gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated to grow at 8.9% in 2021-22 instead of the 9.2% estimated earlier, with year-on-year growth during October-December 2021 slipping to 5.4% from 8.5% in the previous quarter, as per the second advance national income estimates released.
About:
- Gross Value-Added (GVA) in the economy is expected to grow by 8.3% this financial year, from a 4.8% contraction in 2020-21, the National Statistical Office (NSO) said.
- Barring the contact-intensive segment of trade, hotels, transport, communication & services related to broadcasting, all sectors are expected to surpass pre-pandemic GVA levels this year.
- India’s GDP shrunk 6.6% in 2020-21, with the first half of the year recording a sharp contraction before GDP resurfaced to clock 0.7% growth in the October-December 2020 quarter.
- Economists expect the full year growth hopes for this year to be pared further from the 8.9% projected by the NSO, especially in light of the high oil prices as well as inflation trajectories.
- The GDP growth rates for the first and second quarters of 2021-22 were revised upwards marginally by the NSO from 20.1% to 20.3% and 8.4% to 8.5%, respectively.
3. INS VISAKHAPATNAM
Jagan Mohan Reddy, CM of Andhra Pradesh dedicated INS Visakhapatnam, the indigenously designed and constructed guided-missile stealth destroyer named after the City of Destiny – Visakhapatnam, in a formal ceremony held at Naval Dockyard on 27 Feb 2022.
About:
- The ship is on her maiden visit to the port for participating in the PFR and MILAN 2022.
- INS Visakhapatnam is the lead ship of P15B class of guided missile stealth destroyers and was commissioned on 21 Nov 2021.
- The crew of the ship abides by her motto 'Yasho Labhasva' - a sanskrit phrase that translates to 'Attain Glory'.
4. MRIYA
The world’s largest cargo aircraft, the Antonov An-225, has been “destroyed” in an attack on its base at Hostomel/Gostomel airport in Ukraine.
About:
- Known formally as the “Cossack”, its North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) operating code, the world knew the “super-heavy transport plane” better by its Ukrainian name, “Mriya”, or “the Dream”.
- The six-engine 84-metre-long behemoth, with its 32-wheel landing gear, had its first flight on December 21, 1988, built mainly for the transportation of the Buran shuttle orbiter and components of the Energiya carrier rocket.
- It made its maiden landing in India, in May 2016, at Hyderabad’s Shamshabad airport while en route to Perth to deliver a 117-tonne power generator (from Prague, the Czech Republic) to a mine in Australia.
- It played an important role too in the COVID-19 fight, ferrying nearly 100 tonnes of medicines, laboratory kits, medical masks and personal protective equipment in various missions across Europe, Canada and to Africa.
5. MADHABI PURI BUCH
Former banker Madhabi Puri Buch has been appointed as the new chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) — the first-ever woman to head the capital markets regulator.
About:
- Buch (57), who was not only the first woman whole-time member of SEBI but also the first person from the private sector working at the regulator, has been appointed for a three-year term.
- She replaces Ajay Tyagi whose tenure as SEBI chairman ended recently.
6. SANJAY PANDEY
The Maharashtra government appointed IPS officer Sanjay Pandey as the new Police Commissioner of Mumbai.
About:
- Pandey, a 1986 batch officer, was the former acting Director General of Police (DGP) of Maharashtra. He has replaced Hemant Nagrale who has been appointed as the MD of Maharashtra State Security Corporation.
- Pandey is an alumnus of IIT Kanpur and worked with Tata Consultancy Service when he left the police force.
7. INTERNATIONAL MONSOONS PROJECT OFFICE
Union Minister of Earth Sciences Dr. Jitendra Singh launched the International Monsoons Project Office (IMPO) on the occasion of National Science Day 2022.
About:
- The International Monsoons Project Office (IMPO) will be hosted at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, an institution under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt of India, initially for five years.
- It would encompass activities and connections related to international monsoon research that would be identified and fostered under the leadership of the World Climate Research Programme and the World Weather Research Programme.
- Both the World Climate Research Programme and World Weather Research Programme are international programmes coordinated by the United Nations World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).
- The IMPO would support activities of the Monsoons Panel, jointly established by the World Climate Research Programme's CLIVAR (Climate and Ocean Variability, Predictability, and Change) and GEWEX (Global Energy and Water Exchanges) projects.
8. NATIONAL SCIENCE DAY
National Science Day is being celebrated on February 28, 2022.
About:
- The day is celebrated every year on 28th February to commemorate the discovery of the ‘Raman Effect’. On this day, Indian Physicist Sir C.V. Raman announced the discovery of the 'Raman Effect' for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1930.
- In 1986, Government of India designated 28 February as National Science Day. The day is aimed at spreading the message of importance of science and its application in human life.
- This year the theme of the National Science Day is- Integrated Approach in Science and Technology for Sustainable Future.
- On the occasion, National Science Communication Awards to this year’s awardees, and prizes to the winners of various contests held as part of the Mahotsav would be presented.
Source : All India Radio
9. OPERATION GANGA
Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high level meeting to review the ongoing efforts under Operation Ganga to bring back Indians stranded in Ukraine.
About:
- As Russian invasion into Ukraine has left its major cities, including its capital Kyiv, under siege, India is making efforts to evacuate its citizens stuck in the war-torn country.
- ‘Operation Ganga’ is the initiative launched by the government of India to bring back Indians stranded in Ukraine.
- Under this, India has already successfully brought back more than a 1,000 of its nationals from the country. It has also set up 24×7 control centres to assist in the evacuation of Indians through the border crossing points with Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovak Republic.
- A Twitter handle, ‘OpGanga Helpline’, has also been dedicated to the mission, where all information regarding evacuation process and advisories of embassies are shared to keep everyone up-to-date.
- Thousands of Indians, especially students studying medicine in Ukraine, have been stuck in the country since it closed its airspace as a security measure after Russia launched “special military operations”.
10. INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE (ICJ)
Ukraine has filed an application before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), instituting proceedings against the Russia concerning “a dispute relating to the interpretation of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide” (the “Genocide Convention”).
About:
- Ukraine has accused Russia of falsely claiming that “acts of genocide have occurred in the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts of Ukraine”, and of using that as a pretext to recognise the independence of these regions and of going to war against Ukraine.
- The ICJ is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN).
- Like the PCIJ, the ICJ is based at the Peace Palace in The Hague. It is the only one of the six principal organs of the UN that is not located in New York City.
- The ICJ has 15 judges who are elected to nine-year terms by the UN General Assembly and Security Council, which vote simultaneously but separately.
Timeline
- It was established in June 1945 by the Charter of the United Nations and began work in April 1946.
- The court is the successor to the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ). The PCIJ was formally dissolved in April 1946, and its last president, Judge José Gustavo Guerrero of El Salvador, became the first president of the ICJ.
- The first case, which was brought by the UK against Albania and concerned incidents in the Corfu channel — the narrow strait of the Ionian Sea between the Greek island of Corfu and Albania on the European mainland — was submitted in May 1947.