About:

• The first batch of 15 participants was trained from March to May this year.
  
  
• Understanding Tibetan traditions, cultural peculiarities, democracy and political influence and so on empowers our men and officers to understand where we are going and where we are operating,” said a senior Army officer.
  
  
• The Army’s Training Command, ARTRAC, has identified seven institutes for Tibetology across the country, two of which are in the northeast. The other one is the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology in Sikkim.
  
  
• During the 42 days of the preliminary course, Tibetan history, geopolitics and current political dynamics were covered in the form of lectures and case studies, the officer added. Lamas who were proficient in Tibetan issues were hired from the Bomdila Monastery to teach the course.
  
  

About:

• A Bench of Justices M.R. Shah and A.S. Bopanna clarified in a recent judgment that there cannot be any permanent continuance of part-time temporary employees.
  
  
• It is further observed that mere continuance every year of seasonal work during the period when work was available does not constitute a permanent status.
  
  
• It was a settled proposition of law, that regularisation could be only as per the policy declared by the State/Government and “nobody can claim the regularisation as a matter of right”.
  
  

About:

• It concludes that the city witnessed a 2-degree Celsius average temperature rise across 27 years.
  
  
• With this pace of urbanisation and landscape transformation, it is expected that the Urban Heat Island intensity will further increase in the city.
  
  
• The extreme heat that one experiences while strolling through any urban landscape is caused by the Urban Heat Island effect, a micro-climatic phenomenon. This is due to a number of causes, the most prominent being the usage of materials such as concrete
  
  
• This will not only deteriorate the urban thermal environment but also increase the serious risks to health for city dwellers. This rise in heat intensity in Mumbai is linked to the declining green cover in the city, which is the result of the large-scale transformation of the green cover into built-up land for the infrastructural development in the city.
  
  

About:

• Young leaders below the age of 35 from the ruling party, opposition party and other key parties are being invited and the first batch will include leaders from Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Japan, Indonesia, Chile and Zambia.
  
  
• He said, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will inaugurate the event on 25th November.
  
  
• The objective behind the event is to give the young leaders a comprehensive idea about India's rich democratic culture.
  
  

About:

• The inaugural edition remains special for India as Vidyut Mohan’s technology that recycles agricultural waste to create fuel was named among the winners of the coveted prize.
  
  
• Established in 2020, 2021 was the first year when awards were handed out to finalists for their contributions towards the five UN Sustainable Development Goals — restoration and protection of nature, air cleanliness, ocean revival, waste-free living and climate action.
  
  
• Inspired by former US President John F Kennedy’s Moonshot — when the president had set a goal of reaching the Moon in less than a decade — the Earthshot Prize hopes to encourage and support the development of solutions for Earth’s environmental problems.
  
  
• Five individuals or organisations that have come up with impactful solutions to problems plaguing the planet will be awarded one million euros. Each year five winners will be selected, one for each of the UN SDG goal categories, with a total of 50 million euros being awarded by 2030.
  
  
• The winners will be chosen by the Earthshot Prize Council which comprises global spokespersons who are striving to bring impactful action in various capabilities.
  
  

About:

• In 2019, Dr Anjula Pandey, Principal Scientist at ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources in New Delhi, together with scientists Drs K Madhav Rai, Pavan Kumar Malav and S Rajkumar, came across plants of this onion species, which they have named Allium negianum, in the border area of Malari village, in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand.
  
  
• It grows at 3,000 to 4,800 m above sea level and can be found along open grassy meadows, sandy soils along rivers, and streams forming in snow pasture lands along alpine meadows, where the melting snow helps carry its seeds to more favourable areas.
  
  
• With a narrow distribution, this newly described species is restricted to the region of western Himalayas and hasn’t yet been reported from anywhere else in the world.
  
  
• The scientific name Allium negianum honours the late Dr Kuldeep Singh Negi, an explorer and Allium collector.
  
  
• Although new to science, this species has long been known under domestic cultivation to local communities. So far only known from the western Himalaya region, Allium negianum might be under pressure from people looking to taste it.
  
  

About:

• In winter, most of the Arctic Ocean surface freezes, and scientists expect this to continue for the foreseeable future, even as climate warms.
  
  
• In summer, when some of the ice melts, winds and currents carry it for great distances — some of it into the North Atlantic, but much of it into the Arctic’s farthest-north coasts, along Greenland and the Canadian islands.
  
  
• This results in a rich marine ecosystem. On the Arctic ice, algae bloom. These feed tiny animals, which in turn feed fish, which in turn feed seals, which feed polar bears at the top of the chain.
  
  
• The irregular topography also helps create lairs for seals, and ice caves for polar bears during the winter.
  
  
• But with a warming climate, summer sea ice has been shrinking fast, and now consistently spans less than half the area it did in the early 1980s.
  
  

About:

• The ISA Secretariat has planned a series of technical sessions on various strategic initiatives of the ISA on October 18th, 2021, and technical sessions on various emergent issues in the solar and clean energy sector in partnership with partner and other organizations on October 20th and 21st, 2021.
  
  
• The Fourth Assembly of the ISA will deliberate on the key initiatives around the operationalisation of the OSOWOG initiative, the $1 trillion Solar Investment Roadmap for 2030, and approval of a Blended Financial Risk Mitigation Facility.
  
  
• World leaders of ISA member countries will also discuss the strategic plan of the ISA for the next five years encompassing a Country Partnership Framework, Strategy for Private Sector Engagement, and initiatives such as Viability Gap Financing scheme to facilitate affordable finance for solar energy projects across ISA’s membership.
  
  
• The ISA will also discuss the partnership with Global Energy Alliance (GEA) to scale up technical and financial support to LDCs and SIDS.
  
  
• The Assembly is the apex decision-making body of ISA, in which each member country is represented.