1. THWAITES GLACIER

Researchers at Sweden’s University of Gothenburg are now saying that fears related to the melting of Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier are worse than previously thought, owing to the supply of warm water flowing underneath at a rate underestimated in the past.

About:

• The Thwaites Glacier is 120 km wide at its broadest, fast-moving, and melting fast over the years.
• Because of its size (1.9 lakh square km), it contains enough water to raise the world sea level by more than half a metre. Studies have found the amount of ice flowing out of it has nearly doubled over the past 30 years.
• Today, Thwaites’s melting already contributes 4% to global sea level rise each year. It is estimated that it would collapse into the sea in 200-900 years.
• Thwaites is important for Antarctica as it slows the ice behind it from freely flowing into the ocean. Because of the risk it faces — and poses — Thwaites is often called the Doomsday Glacier.
• The grounding line is the place below a glacier at which the ice transitions between resting fully on bedrock and floating on the ocean as an ice shelf. The location of the line is a pointer to the rate of retreat of a glacier.

Source : Indian Express

2. ‘LOST GOLDEN CITY’ IN EGYPT

Egypt announced the discovery of what is being touted as the most important find since the unearthing of King Tutankhamun’s tomb almost 100 years ago.

About:

• A three-millennia-old “lost golden city” from the era of 18th-dynasty king Amenhotep III, who ruled ancient Egypt from 1391 to 1353 B.C., was found in the southern province of Luxor, near some of the country’s best-known monuments.
• The newly discovered city is located on the west bank of the Nile river, close to the Colossi of Memnon, Medinet Habu and the Ramesseum, or mortuary temple of King Ramses II, all of which are popular tourist destinations.
• With mud-brick houses, artefacts, and tools discovered from the reign of the Pharaohs, some are even calling the find an “ancient Egyptian Pompeii”.

Source : Indian Express

3. NOURA AL-MATROUSHI

The United Arab Emirates named the next two astronauts for its space programme, including the country’s first woman astronaut.

About:

• Noura al-Matroushi has been identified as the UAE’s first woman astronaut, with her male counterpart as Mohammed al-Mulla.
• The two will undergo training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
• If al-Matroushi ends up going on a mission, she could become the first Arab woman in space.

UAE space programme

• In February 2021, the UAE put its Amal, or Hope, satellite in orbit around Mars, a first for the Arab world.
• In 2024, the country hopes to put an unmanned spacecraft on the moon.
• The UAE also has set the ambitious goal of building a human colony on Mars by 2117.

Another notable Personalities

• Anousheh Raissyan, an Iranian-American telecommunications entrepreneur and millionaire from Dallas, became the first Muslim woman and first Iranian in space when she travelled as a self-funded civilian to the International Space Station in 2006.
• The first Muslim in space was Saudi Prince Sultan bin Salman, who joined the crew of the shuttle Discovery in 1985.
• In 2019, Maj. Hazzaa al-Mansoori became the UAE’s first astronaut in space, spending an eight-day mission aboard the International Space Station.

Source : Indian Express

4. LILAVATI AWARDS

Union Minister of Education Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' presented the AICTE Lilavati Awards 2020 on women empowerment to the winners.

About:

• With women empowerment as the theme, the objective of the award is to create awareness about issues like sanitation, hygiene, health, nutrition, literacy, employment, technology, credit, marketing, innovation, skill development, natural resources and rights among women.
• All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has established the Lilavati Award.
• The award covers multidisciplinary areas such as women's health, self-defence, sanitation, literacy, entrepreneurship and legal awareness.
• The program will ensure the participation of women and enable them to hold higher positions in educational institutions.

Background

• It is named after the 12th-century mathematical treatise "Lilavati" devoted to arithmetic and algebra written by the Indian mathematician Bhāskara II.
• In the book the author posed, in verse form, a series of problems in (elementary) arithmetic to Lilavati (perhaps his daughter) and followed them up with hints to solutions.

Source : PIB

5. UMNGOT RIVER

Stiff resistance from at least 12 villages in Meghalaya has cast a cloud on a 210 MW hydroelectric project on Umngot, considered India’s clearest river.

About:

• Umngot flows through Dawki, a town in West Jaintia Hills district, Meghalaya.
• The river is the natural boundary between Ri Pnar (of Jaintia Hills) with Hima Khyrim (of Khasi Hills).
• Dawki Bridge, is a suspension bridge over the Umngot River.

Recent protests

• The villages are near the border with Bangladesh in East Khasi Hills district but the dam is proposed upstream in the adjoining West Jaintia Hills district.
• The project is to be executed by the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited. People of 13 villages along the Umngot are likely to lose 296 hectares of land due to submergence if the dam comes up.

Source : The Hindu

6. IRAN NUCLEAR PROGRAMME

Iran has started up advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges in a breach of its undertakings under a troubled 2015 nuclear deal, days after the start of talks on rescuing the accord.

About:

• President Hassan Rouhani inaugurated the three cascades of 164 IR-6 centrifuges, 30 IR-5 and another 30 IR-6 devices at Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment plant.
• Iran’s latest move to step up uranium enrichment follows an opening round of talks in Vienna (Austria’s capital) with representatives of the remaining parties to the nuclear deal on bringing the U.S. back into it.
• Former President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018 but his successor Joe Biden has said he is ready to return, arguing the deal had been successful in dramatically scaling back Iran’s nuclear activities.

Vienna Talks

• The Vienna talks are focused not only on lifting crippling economic sanctions Trump reimposed, but also on bringing Iran back into compliance after it responded by suspending several of its own commitments.
• Iran has demanded that the U.S. first lift all sanctions imposed by Trump, which include a sweeping unilateral ban on its oil exports, before it falls back in line with obligations it suspended. USA has demanded movement from Tehran in return.

Source : The Hindu

7. INDUS AND GANGES RIVER DOLPHINS

Detailed analysis of South Asian river dolphins has revealed in a recent research that the Indus and Ganges River dolphins are not one, but two separate species.

About:

• Currently, Indus and Ganges River dolphins are classified as two subspecies under Platanista gangetica.
• But according to a new study, this classification needs a revision. The study estimates that Indus and Ganges river dolphins may have diverged around 550,000 years ago.

Conservation status

• The Indus and Ganges River dolphins are both classified as ‘Endangered’ species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
• The Ganges dolphin is a Schedule I animal under the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972, and has been included in Annexure – I of Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

Source : The Hindu

8. NATIONAL ENVIRONMENT ENGINEERING AND RESEARCH INSTITUTE (NEERI)

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has divested Rakesh Kumar, Director, National Environment Engineering and Research Institute (NEERI) in Nagpur of his post and transferred him to its headquarters in Delhi after allegations of corruption surfaced against him.

About:

• Established in: 1958.
• Headquarters: Nagpur.
• Parent body: NEERI is a part of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and falls under the Union Ministry of Science and Technology.

Functions:

• NEERI is a pioneer laboratory in the field of environmental science and engineering with special focus on water supply, sewage disposal, communicable diseases and to some extent on industrial pollution.
• The NEERI is an important partner organisation in India's POPs national implementation plan (NIP).
• The Institute is operating a nation-wide air quality monitoring network since 1978. The programme sponsored by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
• It also works in technology developments such as making “green firecrackers”, under the directives of the Supreme Court to improve Delhi’s air quality, and specialised air purifiers.

Source : The Hindu

9. TERROR FINANCING

Extortion money paid to a terrorist organisation to protect one’s business is not terror funding, the Supreme Court has said in a judgment.

About:

• With this, Supreme Court granted bail to a Jharkhand coal transporter who had paid huge amounts to the Tritiya Prastuti Committee (TPC), a breakaway faction of the CPI (Maoist).
• The Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) has made recommendations to members relating to counter terrorism financing (CTF). It has created a Blacklist and Greylist of countries that have not taken adequate CTF action.
• FATF is an intergovernmental organisation founded in 1989 on the initiative of the G7 to develop policies to combat money laundering. In 2001, its mandate was expanded to include terrorism financing.

Source : Times of India