WHY IN THE NEWS?

• 4 Indian institutes have made it to the Times Higher Education (THE)’s World Reputation Rankings 2021, the annual ranking of THE that features the top 200 universities based on the votes from leading academics across the globe.
• Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru ranked among the top 100 (91-100) has topped the Indian Institutes. The other 3 Indian institutes are the IIT Bombay, the IIT Delhi, and the IIT Madras.
• Harvard University of the United States of America (USA) has topped the 2021 ranking. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA and University of Oxford from the United Kingdom (UK) has secured the 2nd and 3rd rank respectively.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• Uttarakhand gets India’s largest aromatic garden in the Nainital district. The research wing of the Uttarakhand forest department inaugurated the biggest aromatic garden of India in Lalkuan of Nainital district.
• Established in an area of over 3 acres, the garden has 140 different species of aromatic species from across India. The project was initiated in the year 2018-19 after approval of the Research Advisory Committee in June 2018.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy of South Korea held that the ‘Shinincheon Bitdream Fuel Cell Power Plant’ at the Shinincheon Bitdream headquarters of Korea Southern Power in Seo-gu, Incheon has been completed and inaugurated.
• The power plant is operated by South Korea’s independent power production company, POSCO Energy and Doosan Fuel Cell. It has a capacity of 78 MW constructed in four stages from 2017. The project cost about 340 billion won ($292 million).

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• Road Transport and Highways Minister, Nitin Gadkari has launched a knowledge App and platform CUNSULT. Emphasizing innovation, entrepreneurship, science technology, research and skill for knowledge transformation.
• The app is the first such global facility by which people who need information, advice, counsel, guidance can contact and call up experts in multiple sectors.
• The app will be a forum for mentors to share their life experiences. The app will allow people to learn from the wisdom which has been acquired over a lifetime.
• Each expert also gets a unique, exclusive page reflecting their contributions by way of articles and video blogs and this serves as their intellectual legacy and helps to promote interest in them.
• CUNSULT uses the framework of context and convergence to instantly connect knowledge seekers and knowledge givers.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

The seventh frigate of P1135.6 class was launched on October 28, 2021 for the Indian Navy.

About:

• Frigate was launched at Yantar Shipyard in Russia’s Kaliningrad.
• Indian Ambassador to Russia, D Bala Venkatesh Varma as well as senior dignitaries of the Russian Federation were present on the occasion.

Background

Government of India and Russia had signed an agreement in October 2016 to construct four additional P1135.6 class ships, two in Russia while two in India.

About the ships

Frigate ships feature “stealth technology” with respect to low radar and underwater noise signatures. Both the ships will be delivered from Russia by 2023. During the inaugural ceremony, this ship was named as “Tushil”. It means protector shield in Sanskrit.

How ship was constructed?

The ship was constructed on the basis of specific requirements by Indian Navy to meet the entire spectrum of naval warfare across all the three dimensions of surface, sub-surface and air.

Features of the ships

These ships are the example of potent combination of state-of-art Indian and Russian weapons and sensors. They are equipped to operate as a single unit as well as consort of naval task force in Littoral and Blue waters. They feature stealth technology with respect to low radar and underwater noise signatures. Ships are also being equipped with major Indian-supplied equipment like surface-to-surface missiles, surface surveillance radar, sonar system, communication suite and anti-submarine warfare system.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• The Union Minister of Power & New and Renewable Energy, R K Singh has launched a new market segment, “Green Day Ahead Market (GDAM)”. This makes India the only large electricity market in the world to implement a GDAM exclusively for renewable energy.
• The launch of the green day-ahead market will deepen the green market and will provide competitive price signals, besides offering an opportunity to market participants to trade in green energy, in the most transparent, flexible, competitive, and efficient manner.
• The new initiative will open the renewable energy sector to enable anyone to set up the capacity and sell it to distribution companies and industries.
• Meanwhile, the electricity generation and distribution companies will be able to buy or sell renewable energy through open access.
• The market-based competitive prices will provide another option to renewable generators to sell power as well as accelerate the renewable capacity addition towards the government’s vision of building India as a sustainable and efficient energy economy.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• Facebook is now called Meta, in a rebrand that focuses on building the “metaverse,” a shared virtual environment that it bets will be the successor to the mobile internet.
• The name change, the plan for which was first reported by the Verge, is a significant rebrand for Facebook, but not its first. In 2019 it launched a new logo to create a distinction between the company and its social app.
• The name change comes as the world’s largest social media company battles criticisms from lawmakers and regulators over its market power, algorithmic decisions and the policing of abuses on its services.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi has attended the 18th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-India Summit virtually. This was the 9th ASEAN-India Summit attended by PM Modi. The Summit was held under the chairmanship of the Sultan of Brunei.
• The Heads of State/Government of the ASEAN Countries participated in the Summit to review the status of the ASEAN-India Strategic Partnership and progress made in key areas of Covid-19 & Health, Trade & Commerce, Connectivity, and Education & Culture.
• The year 2022 will mark 30 years of ASEAN-India relations partnership, and will be celebrated as ‘ASEAN-India Friendship Year’.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• The government of India has appointed K V Kamath as chairperson of the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID). He is a well-known banker in India and is the first head of the New Development Bank (NDB).
• NaBFID is a newly set up development financial institution (DFIs) in India. It has been set up for infrastructure financing as per the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID) Act 2021. The authorized share capital of the NaBFID is Rs one lakh crore. The initial paid-up capital of NaBFID is Rs 20,000 crore.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• During the 17th meeting of the State Board for Wildlife (SBWL), the government of Maharashtra approved its own Wildlife Action Plan (2021-2030), which will be implemented over the next 10 years.
• Maharashtra became India’s first state to pass its own Wildlife Action Plan. The board has also approved the extension of the boundary of Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, in the Chandrapur district of the Vidarbha region, by around 79 sq km.
• The plan has suggested integrating climate change adaption in wildlife conservation. “To develop a Climate Action Plan for the Coastal Region of the state in sync with the ‘State Climate Change Action Plan’ with special emphasis on ‘Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) and ‘Disaster Risk Reduction (DDR)’,” the plan states.