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Gandhi Peace Prize Context The Ministry of Culture invites nominations for awarding Gandhi Peace Prize every year. The nominations are to be made in accordance with the provisions of the Code of Procedure for the Gandhi Peace Prize which is available in the Ministry of Culture. About the Gandhi Peace Prize The Gandhi Peace Prize was instituted in the year 1995 on the occasion of the 125th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. This annual award is given to individuals and institut

12 May, 2020
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MERIT Portal

MERIT Portal ‘MERIT’ - Merit Order Despatch of Electricity for Rejuvenation of Income and Transparency. The portal has been developed by Ministry of Power in association with POSOCO and Central Electricity Authority. It displays extensive array of information regarding the merit order of Electricity procured by States such as daily source-wise power purchases of respective states/UTs. Information available in the Portal shall help State Discoms to optimize their power pro

12 May, 2020
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City Liveability Index

City Liveability Index The index was launched by the Ministry of Urban Development. The index is for measuring the quality of life in 116 major cities including smart cities, capital cities and cities with a population of above one million each. It accesses cities on a comprehensive set of 79 parameters to capture the extent and quality of infrastructure including the availability of roads, education and health care, mobility, employment opportunities, emergency response, grievance red

SwasthVayu ventilator

SwasthVayu ventilator Context CSIR - National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) Bangalore, a constituent of the lab of CSIR has developed a Non-Invasive BiPAP Ventilator in a record time of 36 days to treat COVID-19 patients. About BiPAP Non-Invasive ventilator BiPAP Non-Invasive ventilator is a microcontroller-based precise closed-loop adaptive control system with a built-in biocompatible “3D printed manifold & coupler” with HEPA filter (Highly Efficient Particulat

12 May, 2020
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Bright nights

Bright nights It is a phenomenon in which the night sky is bright enough to read a book even in the absence of moonlight. A new theory says it is due to slow-moving, high-altitude atmospheric waves merging together and amplifying the light from the naturally occurring airglow. The theory says that for every seven nights out of 100 there is a bright night somewhere on the earth.

VAJRA scheme

VAJRA scheme Recently, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) launched a scheme named 'Visiting Advanced Joint Research Faculty (VAJRA). Under this scheme, scientists or senior researchers abroad of Indian origin or otherwise can collaborate with Indian faculties for conducting joint research in India. The foreign researchers would receive endowments at par with those in their own countries. The broad areas of research like energy, health, advance material and others woul

12 May, 2020
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NISAR

NISAR NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite (NISAR) is the world’s most expensive earth imaging satellite. NISAR is dual frequency RADAR, it is an L-band and S-band RADAR. It is the first such satellite using dual frequency RADAR. The S-band is being built by ISRO and L-band by NASA. It is expected that the NISAR satellite will be launched in 2021 from India using the Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). One of the main purposes of the mission is to observe

12 May, 2020
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Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI)

Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) MSCI is the world’s biggest index compiler, with more than $10 trillion in assets benchmarked to its products. Recently it said, China’s local currency shares referred to as China ‘A’ shares would be added to the index. MSCI is closely tracked by global investors and the inclusion of china’s shares will open up investment interest from foreign investors and adds financial credibility. If china continues to gain

CHESS rocket

CHESS rocket NASA is launching a new CHESS-sounding rocket which will study vast interstellar clouds to understand the earliest stages of star formation. Deep in space between distant stars, vast clouds of neutral atoms and molecules, as well as charged plasma particles called the interstellar medium that may evolve into new stars and even planets. It will measure light filtering through the interstellar medium to study the atoms and molecules within, which provides crucial information