• Bhopal recently became first Indian city to track progress in attaining SDGs.
• The launch of ‘Agenda for Action: Sustainable Urban Transformation in Bhopal’ has marked the India’s first city-level Voluntary Local Review (VLR) of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
  • New York City became the first city to present its VLR to UN’s High Level Political Forum (HLPF) in 2018.
  • VLR enables cities and regions to localize SDGs and report their progress. It also helps cities in identifying challenges, opportunities and needs and offers a practical way towards sustainable development.
  • Localisation of SDGs (LSDGs) refers to the process of defining, implementing, and monitoring strategies at local level to achieve global, national, and subnational SDGs and targets.
  • It focuses on achievement of SDGs through action from a bottom-up approach.

• RBI has opened the application window for all India based firms and innovators to participate in GFIN’s first ever Greenwashing TechSprint.
• The TechSprint will bring together 13 international regulators (including RBI) alongside firms and innovators to address GFIN’s priority on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and mitigate risks of greenwashing in financial services.
• The objective of the Greenwashing TechSprint is to develop a tool that can help regulators and the market more effectively tackle or mitigate the risks of greenwashing in financial services.
• India is gradually moving towards ESG regulations with introduction of Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) framework by SEBI.
  • BRSR aims to establish links between financial results of a business with its ESG performance.
  • It was made mandatory for top 1,000 listed entities (by market capitalisation) from 2022–23.

ABOUT GLOBAL FINANCIAL INNOVATION NETWORK (GFIN)

• It was formally launched in 2019 by an international group of financial regulators and related organisations.
• It seeks to provide a more efficient way for innovative firms to interact with regulators, helping them navigate between countries as they look to scale new ideas.
• This includes the ability to apply to join a pilot for firms wishing to test innovative products, services, or business models across more than one jurisdiction.

• Allahabad HC ordered carbon dating of a structure at Gyanvapi mosque complex in Varanasi.
• Carbon dating is a widely-used method to establish the age of organic materials, things that were once living.
• Carbon-14 (C-14), an isotope of carbon, is radioactive, and decays at a well-known rate (Half-life of 5,730 years).
• Most abundant isotope of carbon in atmosphere is C-12.
• Ratio of C-12 to C-14 in atmosphere is almost static, and is known.
• Also, age of things that are more than 40,000-50,000 years cannot be arrived at through carbon dating.
• This is because after 8-10 cycles of half-lives, the amount of C-14 becomes very small and is almost undetectable.

OTHER RADIOMETRIC DATING METHODS

• Two commonly employed methods for dating rocks are potassium-argon dating and uranium-thorium-lead dating.
• The radioactive isotope of potassium decays into argon, and their ratios can give a clue about the age of rocks.
• Uranium and thorium have several radioactive isotopes, and all of them decay into the stable lead
• The ratios of these elements present in the material can be measured and used to make estimates about age.

• The need of the hour is that all state government agencies should collaborate, connect, and respond to the needs of the public more efficiently by accessing accurate and real-time data, the CM said.
• The Chief Minister also launched the ‘Him Data Portal’ a common digital platform to integrate data of all organisations for the deliverance of welfare schemes and to serve the public better.
• From July 2023, the state government would start the Him Parivar project, which would give a special digital identity to the people of the state.

• World Migratory Bird Day is a global event held twice a year on the second Saturday of May and October.
• World Migratory Bird Day 2023 will be officially held on 13 May and 14 October.
• In 2023, the focus is on water and its importance for these birds.

• International Nurses Day is observed on the 12^th May every year to commemorate the birth of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, who was born on May 12, 1820.
• The theme for International Nurses Day 2023 is ‘Our Nurses. Our Future.’
• International Nurses Day dates back to 1974 when the International Council of Nurses officially declared May 12 as a day to celebrate nurses worldwide.

• PM has conveyed his heartfelt congratulations to Deepak Bhoria, Hussamuddin, and Nishant Dev for their remarkable achievement in the Men’s World Boxing Championship.
• They have created history by ensuring India’s best-ever haul of three medals at the prestigious tournament.
• Deepak Bhoria (51kg) won silver, Hussamuddin (57kg) and Nishant Dev (71kg) won bronze medals in the semifinals.
• The Men’s World Boxing Championship is being held in Tashkent,

• A constitution bench ruled that the elected government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCTD) has legislative and executive power over “Services” under Entry 41, List II of the 7th schedule except for public order, police and land.
• The Delhi government had challenged the constitutional validity of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Act 2021, which provided that the term “government” referred to in any law made by the LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF DELHI WILL IMPLY THE LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR (L-G).

SUPREME COURT VERDICT

• The Lieutenant Governor is bound by the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers of NCTD in relation to matters within the legislative scope of NCTD.
• SC affirmed that the Centre had exclusive legislative and executive control over ‘services’ relating to public order, land and police as envisaged under Article 239AA.
• A constitutionally entrenched and democratically elected government needs to have control over its administration.
• The SC stated that Article 239AA establishes a legislative assembly for NCT of Delhi. Members of the legislative assembly are elected by the Delhi electorate.
• If a democratically elected government is not given the power to control the officers, the principle of triple chain of accountability will be redundant.
  • This three-cornered command included civil service officers being accountable to Ministers, who are in turn accountable to the Parliament/Legislature, which is ultimately answerable to the electorate.

ARTICLE 239AA OF THE CONSTITUTION

• The 69^th Amendment of Constitution in 1991 inserted Article 239AA to give National Capital of Delhi special status with its own democratically elected government and legislative assembly.
• Legislative Assembly shall have power to enumerate anything in State List or in Concurrent List in so far as any such matter is applicable to Union territories except on the subject of police, public order, and land.
• Article 239AA, empowers the L-G to refer a difference of opinion on ‘any matter’ with the Council of Ministers to the President.

• PM inaugurated National Hadron Beam Therapy Facility in Navi Mumbai.
• Hadron Beam Therapy is an advanced and highly precise radiation treatment for tumors.

• In this, the irradiating beams are made of charged particles (protons and other ions, such as carbon).
• Charged particles can penetrate the tissues with little diffusion and deposit the maximum energy just before stopping allowing specific regions to be irradiated.
• With the use of hadrons, the tumor can be irradiated while the damage to healthy tissues is less than X-rays.
• The peaked shape of the hadron energy deposition is called Bragg peak.

• PM dedicated the Molybdenum-99 production facility located in Trombay Campus of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre to nation.

ABOUT MOLYBDENUM-99

• Molybdenum-99 is the parent isotope of technetium-99m (Tc-99m), a short-lived, gamma-emitting isotope.
• Tc-99m is used in more than 85% of imaging procedures for the early detection of cancer, heart disease etc and for the study of organ structure and function.
• Tc-99m is especially useful for nuclear medicine procedures because it can be chemically incorporated into small molecule ligands and proteins.
• Tc-99m is currently produced through a multistep process that begins with the neutron irradiation of fissile U-235 contained in highly enriched uranium.