Current Context : Chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu laid the foundation stone of 10-Megawatt solar power project at Aghlor in Kutlehar assembly constituency of Una district.

ABOUT

• The solar plant will be constructed in an area of 19 hectares, and would be completed within three months.
• Electricity generation 73 million unit power annually and an annual income of ₹8 crore.
• This project will also help in reducing 791 tonnes of carbon emissions.
• It is the second solar power project in Una district after 32 MW Pekhubela project.
• The state government has signed an agreement with the Oil India Company for production green hydrogen and emphasis was being laid on harnessing solar energy.

Current Context : Booker prize winner Arundhati Roy wins PEN Pinter Prize 2024.

• Arundhati Roy will receive the award in a ceremony co-hosted by the British Library on October 10.

ABOUT AWARD

• The PEN (Poet, Playwright, Editors Essayist, Novelist) Pinter is an annual award set up in 2009 by English PEN in the memory of Nobel laureate playwright Harold Pinter.
• It is awarded annually to a writer of outstanding literary merit resident in the United Kingdom.
• The award is given to writers in the English language who have produced outstanding literary work in plays, poetry, essays, or fiction.

ABOUT ARUNDHATI

Arundhati Roy is the first Indian to win the prestigious Booker Prize in 1997 for her fiction ‘The God of Small Things’.

Current Context : India participated at CLGF Annual Board meeting in Sri Lanka.

Theme of the meeting was “Reinforcing Social Resilience through Women’s Political Representation.”

ABOUT COMMONWEALTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT FORUM

• Established in 1995
• Headquartes : London, UK
• CLGF has actively worked in Asia to support decentralization and reforms that empower local governments, improving governance and service delivery.
• It is a organisation that unites Local Government, Ministries of Local Government, national associations of local government, and individual councils from 56 Commonwealth countries (including India).
• It is dedicated to support women’s full and active participation in public life, especially in achieving equal representation in local governance, aligning with SDG 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

Current Context : DRDO has successfully completed the trials of  High Speed Expendable Aerial Target (HEAT) ‘ABHYAS’ in Chandipur, Odisha.

• With the final successful testing of 10 developmental flights of ABHYAS system, it is now ready for production and induction in the Indian armed forces.

ABOUT ABHYAS

• It is a High-speed Expendable Aerial Target (HEAT).
• Designed by DRDO’s Aeronautical Development Establishment, Bengaluru.
• It is designed for autonomous flying with the help of an auto pilot, a laptop-based Ground Control System for aircraft integration, pre-flight checks, and autonomous flight.
• It offers a realistic threat scenario for practice of weapon systems.
• It has a feature to record data during flight for post-flight analysis.

Current Context : UN-backed network Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) has launched “Spring”, a new initiative to halt or reverse nature loss by 2030.

ABOUT SPRING INITIATIVE

• It is supported by a coalition of 200 investors managing a combined $15trn in assets.
• It will focus on companies to drive better corporate practices and political engagement on nature-related risks.
• Objective: To address systemic risk of nature loss to societies and long-term portfolio value creation by enhancing corporate practices on forest loss and land degradation.

Current Context : Union Minister of State for Science and Technology will launch two Geoportals namely Bhuvan Panchayat 4.0 and National Database for Emergency Management (NDEM 5.0).

• National level geospatial databases for these two portals are created by

ABOUT BHUVAN PANCHAYAT 4.0

• It is an online geospatial data and services dissemination platform.
• Objective: Integrate and use space-based information in governance and research initiatives for spatial planning at Gram Panchayat level.
• Developed by: NRSC, ISRO.

ABOUT NDEM 5.0

• It provides a comprehensive geospatial database for entire country for situational assessment and effective decisionmaking during disasters/ emergency situations.
• It acts as a Disaster Recovery and Data Provider node for the Integrated Control Room for Emergency Response (ICR-ER).

Current Context : Deputy National Security Advisor Vikram Misri will be the next foreign secretary.

ABOUT

• He was born in Srinagar in 1964, holds a Bachelor’s degree in History from the Delhi University’s Hindu College and an MBA from XLRI.
• He is a 1989-batch Indian Foreign Service officer and will take charge as Foreign Secretary on July 15.
• He was India’s ambassador to China between 2019 and 2021 and is known to have a good network in the Chinese establishment.
• He also served as India’s ambassador to Spain (2014-2016) and Myanmar (2016-2018).

Current Context : Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mr. Mark Rutte, has been announced as the new Secretary General of NATO .

Mark Rutte will assume his office on 1 October 2024 after the retirement of Jens Stoltenberg.

ABOUT NATO

• North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is a Western military alliance founded during the Cold War between the United States-led Western countries and the Soviet Union-led East European Communist countries.
• Aim : to stop the Soviet Union and its communist ideology from spreading in Europe.
• Member Countries : 32 members.
• Sweden is the 32nd member of NATO, joined on 7 March 2024.
• Headquarters: Initially, London was NATO’s headquarters, but in 1967, it was shifted to Brussels, Belgium.

Observed annually on June 30.

• Aim : to raise awareness about asteroids and the potential hazards they pose to our planet.
• This event is held on the anniversary of the Siberian Tunguska event that took place on 30 June 1908.
• It is the most harmful known asteroid-related event on Earth in recent history.
• Resolution for celebrating June 30 as Asteroid Day was passed by United Nations.

Current Context : President Droupadi Murmu addressed the joint sitting of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

About

Article 87 in Constitution of India deals with Special address by the President.

1. At the commencement of the first session after each general election to the House of the People and at the commencement of the first session of each year the President shall address both Houses of Parliament assembled together and inform Parliament of the causes of its summons.
2. Provision shall be made by rules regulating the procedure of either House for the allotment of time for discussion of the matters referred to in such address.