Why in news?

• The renowned Indian physicist and Emeritus Professor at the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, Prof Deepak Dhar will be conferred the prestigious Boltzmann Medal 2022 for contribution in the field of statistical physics.
• He became the first Indian to be awarded the Boltzmann Medal. He will share the medal with John J Hopfield of Princeton University.
• The medal presentation ceremony will be held during the StatPhys28 conference in August 2022 in Tokyo, Japan.

About the prize

• The Boltzmann Medal (or Boltzmann Award) is named after the physicist Ludwig Boltzmann and awarded to physicists for contributing new results in statistical mechanics and it was instituted in 1975.
• The Boltzmann Medal is given every three years by the C3 Commission on Statistical Physics of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP).
• John J Hopfield is an American scientist, who is known for his invention of an associative neural network in 1982

About Prof Deepak Dhar:

• He is known for his research on statistical physics and stochastic processes.
• He is an elected fellow of – the Indian Academy of Sciences, the Indian National Science Academy, and the National Academy of Sciences and also The World Academy of Sciences.
• Award – ‘Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize’ (1991) by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

Why in news?

• The lawsuit demands that Russia be held accountable for distorting the concept of genocide to justify aggression.
• International Court of Justice is principal judicial organ of United Nations established in June 1945 by Charter of UN.
• Seat of the Court is at the Peace Palace in The Hague (Netherlands).
• It is composed of 15 judges, who are elected for terms of office of nine years by United Nations General Assembly and Security Council.
• Judge Dalveer Bhandari from India is among present members.
• Its official languages are English and French.

Why in news?

• United States and European nations recently agreed to block select Russian banks from SWIFT.
• Founded in 1973, SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication), a non-listed Belgium-based firm, is actually a cooperative of banks.
• It doesn’t handle any transfers of funds itself but its messaging system provides banks the means to communicate rapidly, securely and inexpensively.
• Banks use the SWIFT system to send standardised messages about transfers of sums between themselves, transfers of sums for clients, and buy and sell orders for assets.
• This measure will ensure that Russian financial institutions are disconnected from the international financial system and harm their ability to operate globally.

Why in news?

• It is a data-wiper malware that has been detected in computers in Ukraine.
• When downloaded, it can erase all the data on a device it targets, in a manner that data becomes irretrievable.
• Malware is collective name for a number of malicious software variants, including viruses, ransomware and spyware.

Why in news?

• In tennis, Rafael Nadal (Spain)beat British number one Cameron Norrie 6-4 6-4 to win the singles title of Mexican Open 2022 (also known as Acapulco title).
• This is the 91st ATP title of his career and the third title of the season.
• This is the fourth time that Rafael Nadal has won the Mexican Open title, after winning the previous ones in 2005, 2013 and 2020. Men’s double title winners are Feliciano Lopez (Spain) and Stefanos Tsitsipas (Greece).

Why in news?

• Canada became the first country in the world that has authorized the use of a plant-based COVID-19 vaccine.
• The two-dose vaccine of Medicago Inc. (a biopharma company owned by Mitsubishi Chemical and Philip Morris), can be given to adults who are aged between 18 to 64, but little data is available on the shots received by people aged 65 and above.
• The decision to authorize the vaccine was based on a study conducted on 24,000 adults that showed the efficacy rate of the vaccine is 71% at preventing COVID-19 – although the tests were conducted before the omicron variant emerged. Covifenz is the name given to this vaccine.
• Canada agreed to buy 20 million doses of this plant-based vaccine, with an option to purchase 56 million additional doses.

Why in news?

• The Zero Discrimination Day is held every year on the 1st of March. The day aims to ensure right to equality, inclusion and protection of all people without any discrimination in their law and policies to live a full life with dignity regardless of any barriers.
• Zero Discrimination Day highlights how people can become informed about and promote inclusion, compassion, peace and, above all, a movement for change. Zero Discrimination Day is helping to create a global movement of solidarity to end all forms of discrimination.
• The theme of Zero Discrimination Day 2022: “Remove laws that harm, create laws that empower”, UNAIDS is highlighting the urgent need to take action against discriminatory laws.
• Zero Discrimination Day was first celebrated on March 1, 2014,and was launched by UNAIDS Executive Director at Beijing after UNAIDS launched its Zero Discrimination Campaign on World AIDS Day in December 2013.

Why in news?

• Tamil Nadu government has begun work to set up the first Dugong Conservation Reserve of India in the Palk Bay region.
• Dugongs are endangered species and are protected under the Wildlife Protection Act’s, 1972 Schedule 1.
• The size of the reserve will be spread over around 500 sq km and will be located in Palk Bay’s northern part from Adiramapattinam to Amapattinam.
• For the first 5 years, Rs 5 crore would be the initial cost for the reserve’s establishment.
• There are plans to build enhanced seagrass beds and an international conservation centre under the Climate Change Mission.

About Dugong

• The dugong is a sirenian species found along the Indian coast.
• Dugongs are related to manatees and have a similar plump appearance to them, but they have a tail that looks like a dolphin’s fluke.
• Unlike manatees, which live in freshwater, dugongs are purely marine mammals. Dugongs are also known as Sea Cows. They graze, on seagrass, in shallow coastal waters of the Indian and western Pacific Oceans.

The population of Dugong in India

• The Wildlife Institute of India (WII) states that only 200-250 dugongs are left, of which 150 are found in the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay.
• The dugong is on the verge of becoming extinct. The Dugong population of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands is less than 100. In the Gulf of Mannar, there are only a few left.
• There are only a few sporadic records in the Gulf of Kutch. They were once common in Lakshadweep but are now extinct locally.

Why in news?

• The ministry of external affairs set up 24×7 control centres in order to assist the evacuation of Indian nationals from Ukraine.
• India also launched a multi-prong evacuation plan titled ‘Operation Ganga’.
• Indian nationals will be evacuated through border crossing points with Poland, Hungary, Romania, and Slovak Republic. Ministry has activated a dedicated Twitter handle, ‘OpGanga’.
• India started the evacuation of stranded citizens on February 26, under Operation Ganga, as Russia intensified its offensive against Ukraine.
• Evacuation operation started after Ukrainian airspace was shut for civil aircraft operations from February 24. So far, Indian government has managed to fly three special flights of Air India to bring back stranded citizens.
• The India Government is bearing the cost of evacuation, amid prevailing emergency situation. Under Operation Ganga, around 15,000 stranded Indians will be evacuated from Ukraine.

Why in news?

• New Development Bank (NDB) will become the 1^st multilateral agency to open an office in the Gujarat International Finance Tec (Gift) City, Gujarat which will start its operation by the mid of May 2022.
• NDB also expects to partner with the newly launched National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NBFID) to support crucial infrastructure projects in India.

About New Development Bank

• NDB was set up in 2014 by the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa)
• It started operations in 2015 at Shanghai, China (headquarters) with the objective of mobilising resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in the BRICS as well as other emerging markets.