• The Supreme Court of India has upheld the constitutional validity of the Constitution 102nd Amendment Act, 2018.

About 102nd Amendment Act, 2018:

• The 102nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 2018 gave constitutional status to the National Backward Classes Commission.
• The Amendment also gives the President Powers to notify backward classes.
• The 102nd Constitutional Amendment Act inserted the articles 338 B and 342 A.
• It has brought about changes in Article 366.
• Article 338B deals with the structure, duties and powers of the National Commission of Backward Class.
• Article 342A (1): Empowers the President to notify, in consultation with the governor, for each state and Union Territory, the list of socially and educationally backward classes.
• Article 342A (2): Vests in Parliament the authority to include groups in the Central list or exclude them from it.

• Current Context: US launched 4 astronauts to the International Space Station(ISS) as part of collaboration between NASA and SpaceX under the Commercial Crew Program. The mission is called Crew-2 Mission.

Crew-2 Mission:

• Crew-2 Mission is the second crew rotation of the SpaceX Crew Dragon and the first with international partners.
• The mission carried four astronauts to ISS. Among them, two are from NASA and two are from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the European Space Agency (ESA).
• The central focus of the mission will be to continue research on a series of Tissue Chips in Space studies.

Tissue Chips:

• Tissue Chips are small models of human organs that contain multiple cell types that behave similarly to the human body organs.
• According to NASA, these chips can potentially speed up the process of identifying safe and effective drugs and vaccines.
• Scientists can use these tissue chips in space to study diseases that affect specific human organs, which would take months or years to develop on Earth.

• Recently, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj has released the new framework for implementation of the SVAMITVA Scheme.
• SVAMITVA stands for Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas.
• Launch: It is a centre sector scheme which was launched nationally on the occasion of National Panchayati Raj Day on 24th April 2021.
• Aim: To provide an integrated property validation solution for rural India.

Features:

• The demarcation of rural inhabited areas would be done using Drone survey and CORS (Continuously Operating Reference Stations) Networks which provides mapping accuracy of 5 cms.
• This would provide the ‘record of rights’ to village household owners possessing houses in inhabited rural areas in villages.
• It will cover around 6.62 Lakh villages of the entire country during 2021-2025.

Objectives:

• To bring financial stability to the citizens in rural India by enabling them to use their property as a financial asset for taking loans and other financial benefits.

Nodal Ministry: Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR)

• Every year, the World Migratory Day is celebrated biannually on second Saturday of May and October. This year, it is celebrated on May 8th.
• The previous World Migratory Bird Day was celebrated on October 10th(Theme- Birds connect our world)
• The main objective of celebrating the World Migratory Day is to increase awareness of migratory birds and their importance in international cooperation to conserve them. It also creates awareness for conserving the habitats of the migratory birds, especially the wetlands.
• This year, the World Migratory Bird Day (that falls in the month of May) is celebrated under the Theme: Sing, fly, Soar – Like a Bird. 

• The NASA Spacecraft Parker Solar Probe has discovered a natural radio signal from Venus. These signals were detected when the space probe flew over the upper atmosphere of Venus.

Parker Solar Probe:

It was launched in 2018 to study about the outer corona of the sun. It is to reach to 9.86 solar radii, that is, 6.9 million kilometers from the centre of the sun by 2025. The three main objectives of Parker Solar Probe are as follows:

• To trace the flow of energy that heats and accelerates the solar wind and solar corona.
• To determine the structure of magnetic field and plasma at the sources of solar winds.
• To explore about the mechanisms that accelerate energetic particles

• Mayflower 400 is the world’s first Artificial Intelligence ship.

About Mayflower 400

• It is 15m long and weighs 9 tonnes. It is basically a trimaran that navigates with complete autonomy. The ship is covered with solar panels.
• The ship is to study marine pollution and analyze plastics in water. The voyage is important because more than 80% of the underwater world remains unexplored.
• It has been taught on how to avoid collisions. Thus, the ship can correct itself. It has been trained with hundred hours of audio data. The training will help the ship to detect the presence of marine animals and thereby provide information about the population distribution of these animals in the ocean.
• Sophisticated cameras and radars will act as the eyes and ears of the ship. There are six cameras in the ship.
• The research team is to monitor the ship twenty-four hours from England.
• It is capable of self-activating a hydrophone that can listen to whales.
• After the launch, Mayflower will become the first unmanned vehicle to cross the Atlantic Ocean

• A tiny snake “Xylophis deepaki” has been named in honour of Indian herpetologist Deepak Veerappan for his contribution in erecting a new subfamily Xylophiinae to accommodate wood snakes.
• The common name suggested for the species is ‘Deepak’s wood snake’.

About Xylophis deepaki:

• It is a tiny snake of just 20 cm length with iridescent scales.
• It was first found on a coconut plantation in Kanyakumari.
• It is now reported to be an endemic species of Tamil Nadu and also been sighted in some parts of the southern Western Ghats.
• It is found in the drier regions and in lower altitudes around Agasthyamalai hills.

• The eight core sectors grew by 6.8% in March 2021 (the highest in 32 months).

About Eight Core Sectors:

• These comprise 40.27% of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).
• The eight core sector industries in decreasing order of their weightage: Refinery Products> Electricity> Steel> Coal> Crude Oil> Natural Gas> Cement> Fertilizers.

Index of Industrial Production:

• IIP is an indicator that measures the changes in the volume of production of industrial products during a given period.
• It is compiled and published monthly by the National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
• It is a composite indicator that measures the growth rate of industry groups classified under:
• Broad sectors, namely, Mining, Manufacturing, and Electricity.
• Use-based sectors, namely Basic Goods, Capital Goods, and Intermediate Goods.
• Base Year for IIP is 2011-2012.

• The World Press Freedom Day (WPFD) is an annual celebration of press freedom, observed on 3rd May every year.
• Main Aim: The main celebration is organized by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
• Theme: “Information as a Public Good”.

• Recently, eight Asiatic lions at Hyderabad’s Nehru Zoological Park have tested positive for the deadly coronavirus.

About Asiatic Lion:

• The Asiatic Lion (Indian Lion) is a member of the Panthera Leo Leo subspecies that is restricted to India.

Distribution:

• At present Gir National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary (GUJARAT)is the only abode of the Asiatic lion.

Protection Status:

• IUCN Red List: Endangered
• CITES: Appendix I
• Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972: Schedule I