Mission Raksha Gyan Shakti’

• The Department of Defence Production has instituted a new framework titled ‘Mission Raksha Gyan Shakti’ which aims to provide a boost to the IPR culture in the indigenous defence industry.
• This will help in the successful filing of Intellectual Property Right (IPR) applications.

G20

• Group of Twenty (G20) is the central forum for international cooperation on financial and economic issues.
• The G20 countries account for more than four-fifths of gross world product and three-quarters of global trade and are home to almost two-thirds of the world’s population.
• Its decisions are influential and help to bring about reform at national and multinational levels.
• The G20 comprises 19 countries plus the EU.
• These countries are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America

International Labour Organization

• The International Labour Organization is a United Nations agency that sets international labour standards and promotes social protection and work opportunities for all.
• The ILO has 187 member states: 186 of the 193 UN member states plus the Cook Islands are members of the ILO.
• The International Labour Office is the permanent secretariat of the International Labour Organization.
• In 1969, the organization received the Nobel Peace Prize for improving fraternity and peace among nations, pursuing decent work and justice for workers, and providing technical assistance to other developing nations.
• Its headquarter is in Geneva, Switzerland.

Air Quality Life Index (AQLI)

• Recently, AQLI has been produced by the Energy Policy Institute at the University Of Chicago (EPIC).
• The new index adds ‘L’ – that stands for ‘Life’ – to the standard Air Quality Index (AQI), naming the new index as the Air Quality Life Index (AQLI).
• The index is based on the study that quantifies the causal relationship between long-term human exposure to particulate pollution and life expectancy.
• This index has found that fossil fuel-driven particulate air pollution reduces global average life expectancy by 1.8 years.
• The index shows that particulate pollution’s effect on life expectancy exceeds that of communicable diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, behavioural killers like cigarette smoking, and even war.
• The studies on which AQLI is quantified the causal relationship between long-term human exposure to particulate pollution and life expectancy.
• The results obtained from these studies are combined with hyper-localised, global particulate matter measurements to reach the final results.

BASIC Countries

• BASIC countries are bloc (geopolitical alliance) of four large newly industrialized countries – Brazil, South Africa, India and China.
• It was formed by agreement in November 2009.
• They were committed to acting jointly at Copenhagen climate summit 2009, including possible united walk-out if their common minimum position was not met by developed nations during climate talks.
• They also gave the commitment to implement UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) its Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement.
• The countries also urged the developed countries to realize their climate finance commitment of mobilizing USD 100 billion per year by 2020.

Indira Gandhi Peace Prize 2018

• Recently Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has won 2018 Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development.
• The Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development is the prestigious award accorded annually by Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust.
• The awards are given to individuals or organisations in recognition of creative efforts toward promoting international peace, development and a new international economic order, ensuring that scientific discoveries are used for the larger good of humanity, and enlarging the scope of freedom.

Virtual Climate Summit

• World leaders will participate in an innovative climate change summit that will begin in the Marshalls’ capital Majuro.
• This summit will take place entirely online so it is carbon neutral.
• The eco-friendly event stands in stark contrast to many other international political summits, which involve thousands of delegates jetting across the world to a venue where they stay in air-conditioned comfort.
• The Virtual Climate Summit is the brainchild of Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine.
• The virtual summit’s main aim is to encourage the international community to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
• A UN report warned last month that threshold could be reached as early as 2030 unless there was unprecedented global action to rein in emissions.

Matibabu Device

• It is a non-invasive test kit used to detect malaria.
• It is a low cost and reusable device that could be used to test for malaria instantly.
• It was developed in Uganda.
• Unlike current testing methods that require blood to be drawn for testing, ‘Matibabu’ is “bloodless”.
• ‘Matibabu’ can provide an easy diagnosis of malaria in low-income areas such as Uganda.
• The device and application won the first prize at ‘Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation’ 2018 — an award dedicated to engineering innovation on the continent.

Global Education Monitoring Report

• The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) have released the ‘Global Education Monitoring Report 2019’.
• The Report highlights countries achievements and shortcomings in ensuring the right of migrant and refugee children to benefit from quality education.
• The report shows that the number of migrant and refugee school-age children around the world today has grown by 26% since 2000 and could fill half a million classrooms.
• It observes that the literacy levels in rural households of India dip with seasonal migration.
• It says that 80% of seasonal migrant children lack the access to education and 40% likely to end up in work.
• The report says that the construction sector absorbs the majority of short-term migrants.
• However, the report acknowledges the steps taken by India to address the issues associated with children who engaged in seasonal migration.

Nova and Supernova

• Nova and supernova are two features of the universe.
• A nova is defined as “A star that suddenly becomes much brighter and then gradually returns to its original brightness over a period of weeks to years
• Supernova is “a rare celestial phenomenon involving the explosion of most of the material in a star, resulting in an extremely bright, short-lived object that emits vast amounts of energy”
• The major difference between a nova and a supernova is that in a supernova a lot of the object’s mass is ejected with the explosion.

Sri Lankan Frogmouth

• Recently a rare bird species ‘Sri Lankan Frogmouth’ was seen in the Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary, Kerala.
• It has sparked much interest among ornithologists since its presence was noticed on the eastern side of the Western Ghats for the first time.
• It is usually found on the western side of the Western Ghats.
• It is a relative of Nightjar, a crepuscular and nocturnal bird breeding in Europe and temperate Asia.
• Its preferred habitat is a dry and open area with some small trees or bushes.
• The main feature of this species is that it lays only one egg a year after the mating season in April-May.
• The male bird destroys the nest and flies away with the newborn bird.
• It has a unique habitat in Sri Lanka and is also believed to be present in the in Karnataka, Goa, and Maharashtra.
• Least Concern as per IUCN Status.