- Security council resolution 2462 relates to terrorism financing. Resolution 2462 on terrorism financing highlights the obligation states have that prohibit them from making financing available for the benefit of terror organizations “even in the absence of a link to a specific terrorist act.”
- Aves Island, Smith Island and Long Island are islands of Andaman and Nicobar.
- Uses of Potassium Nitrate – Potassium Nitrate is used in the manufacture of Fertilizers, Preservatives and gunpowder.
- The Centre has approved a state-of-the-art passenger terminal building, spread over 50 acres and estimated at Rs. 190 crore, for the Kartarpur Corridor. The design of the complex has been inspired by the symbol ‘Khanda,’ which represents the values of oneness and humanity. The Khanda is the symbol of the Sikh faith, that attained its current form around the first decade of the 20th century. It is an amalgam of three symbols: A double-edged khanda in the centre A chakkar Two single-edged swords, or kirpan, crossed at the bottom, which sit on either side of the khanda and chakkar.
- In January 2019, the Indian Sundarban was accorded the status of ‘Wetland of International Importance’ under the Ramsar Convention. The Sundarbans comprises hundreds of islands and a network of rivers, tributaries and creeks in the delta of the Ganga and the Brahmaputra at the mouth of the Bay of Bengal in India and Bangladesh. Located on the southwestern part of the delta, the Indian Sundarban constitutes over 60% of the country’s total mangrove forest area. It is the 27th Ramsar Site in India, and with an area of 4,23,000 hectares is now the largest protected wetland in the country. The Indian Sundarban, also a UNESCO world heritage site, is home to the Royal Bengal Tiger. The Ramsar website points out that the Indian Sundarban is also home to a large number of “rare and globally threatened species, such as the critically endangered northern river terrapin (Batagur baska), the endangered Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris), and the vulnerable fishing cat (Prionailurus viverrinus).” Two of the world’s four horseshoe crab species, and eight of India’s 12 species of kingfisher are also found here. Recent studies claim that the Indian Sundarban is home to 2,626 faunal species and 90% of the country’s mangrove varieties.
- About Ramsar Convention – The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, better known as the Ramsar Convention, is an international agreement promoting the conservation and wise use of wetlands. It is the only global treaty to focus on a single ecosystem. The convention was adopted in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971 and came into force in 1975.
- Belle II is a particle accelerator experiment located in Tsukuba, Japan. Here, electrons and positrons (anti-electrons) collide to produce B mesons in order to study the breakdown of symmetry in these decays. The focus at Belle II is on B-mesons — particles that contain the B-quark, also known as the beauty or bottom quark. In particular, the experiment focuses on the differences between the decay of the B-mesons and that of their antiparticles, the anti B-mesons. The focus is on the breakdown in the symmetry between matter and antimatter. The broken symmetry between matter and antimatter is one of the most fundamental questions in particle physics. At the time of the Big Bang some 13.7 billion years ago, the universe was in a fully symmetric state with equal quantities of matter and antimatter. Today we are in an extremely antisymmetric state.
- Large Hadron Collider beauty experiment of CERN (European Organisation of Nuclear Research) – In this experiment, two proton beams are collided at high energies and the results are observed.
- Electoral bonds have been introduced to promote transparency in funding and donation received by political parties. Thebonds can be encashed by an eligible political party only through their accounts with authorised banks. The bonds do not have the name of the donor or the receiving political party and only carry unique hidden alphanumeric serial numbers as an in-built security feature. The electoral bond, a bearer instrument, can be bought for any value and has a life of only 15 days. Bonds will be available for purchase only for 10 days in designated months.
- The sixth edition of the Global Environment Outlook from the UN Environment Programme (GEO-6) has been conducted on the theme “Healthy Planet, Healthy People.
Categories: POINT IAS
POINT IAS 