India’s first social audit law
- Meghalaya has recently become India’s first state to operationalize a law that makes social audit of government programmes a part of government practice.
- The legislation is applicable to 11 departments and 26 schemes in the north eastern state.
- A social audit facilitator will be appointed to conduct the audit directly with the people.
- So far, social audits of government programmes have been done at the initiative of civil society organisations.
- By this new law social audits will have an official sanction and becomes the mandate of the government.
Global conference on functional materials
- Global conference on functional materials was recently held at Telangana, which was attended by delegates from 10 different countries.
- The conference was aimed to address the application aspect of the functional materials in areas of societal relevance.
- The term functional materials cover different material classes ranging from semiconductors over polymers and molecular crystals to nanoparticles.
- It is their special electrical, optical and magnetic properties which make functional materials so important.
- Technologies such has Computation, Communication, Sensors, storage and displaying of information uses the functional materials.
Guru Gobind Singh
- 350th Prakash Parv (birthday anniversary) of Guru Gobind Singh was celebrated recently.
- He is the tenth Sikh Guru who formally installed as the leader of the Sikhs at age nine.
- He was the son of ninth Sikh guru Tegh Bahadur.
- He founded the Sikh warrior community called Khalsa in 1699, changing the Sikhs into a saint-soldier order for protecting themselves.
- He introduced the Five Ks, the five articles of faith that Khalsa Sikhs wear at all times.
- He enshrined the scripture the Guru Granth Sahib as Sikhism's eternal Guru,which made him the last guru of Sikhs.
New frog species - Odorrana arunachalensis
- Scientists have discovered a new frog species in Arunachal Pradesh.
- The new species has been named Odorrana arunachalensis.
- It is a medium-sized green frog adapted for a life in torrential waters.
- The frog inhabits fern-covered rocky areas along hill streams in mixed wet tropical forests.
- The presence of a black band-like mark between the eyes is a distinguishing character that separates it from all the other frog species.
UN Ocean conference
- The UN Ocean Conference was held at UN headquarters in New York.
- It is a high-level United Nations Conference to Support the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14.
- SDG 14 emphasises to conserve and sustainably use the oceans.
- Many voluntary commitments for concrete action to advance implementation were made by governments during the conference.
- To follow-up on the implementation of these voluntary commitments United Nations recently have launched nine thematic multi-stakeholder Communities of Ocean Action.
Anti- Smog gun
- Delhi government to tackle its air pollution problem has tested an Anti-Smog gun in Northern areas of Delhi.
- It is simply a Water mist cannon, which is connected to a water tank and mounted on a flatbed truck.
- It sprays atomized water in which liquid is broken up into smaller droplets up to 230 feet into the air.
- The droplets merge with dust particlesreplicating the effect of rain, as rain lowers levels of air pollution by bringing particulates in pollution down to the ground.
Source: The Hindu, PIB, Economic times, Indian Express
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