Business and Climate Summit
- The Business & Climate Summit (BCS) is the leading annual forum for businesses, investors and policymakers on climate action.
- The summit focuses on creating a roadmap for reaching net zero emissions over the next half century.
- It demonstrates how low carbon strategies are good for business and good for growth.
- 3 editions have been organized so far in Paris (2015) and London (2016) and New Delhi (2017).
- The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), India's apex business organisation, is the host of BCS 2017.
Kinome
- It is the complete set of protein kinases that make up the genome of an organism.
- A protein kinase is an enzyme that modifies other proteins by chemically adding phosphate groups to them.
- It constitutes 2% of all human genes and 30% of all human proteins are modified by kinase activity.
UNHCR
- The UNHCR has issued refugee identity cards to the Rohingyas in India so as to shield them from harassment and arbitrary arrests.
- United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a UN programme mandated to protect and support refugees at the request of a government or the UN itself.
- It assists refugees in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement to a third country.
- It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
- It is a member of the United Nations Development Group (UNDG).
- UNDG is a consortium of many United Nations agencies created in 1997 to improve the effectiveness of UN development activities at the country level.
- Some of the members of UNDG are UNDP, UNICEF, WHO, FAO, ILO etc.
NITI Aayog
- Economist Rajiv Kumar took over as the vice-chairman of Niti Aayog replacing Arvind Panagariya.
- National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) is a government’s think tank formed via a cabinet resolution in 2015 replacing planning commission.
- The Prime Minister serves as the Ex-officio chairman.
- The governing council consists of all state Chief Ministers, chief ministers of Delhi and Puducherry, Lieutenant Governor of Andaman and Nicobar.
- Vice chairman is nominated by the Prime Minister.
- In addition to full members, there are two part-time members and four ex-officio members and a chief executive officer.
- They are selected from the leading universities and research institutions.
- It has two hubs such as Team India Hub and the Knowledge and Innovation Hub.
- The Team India Hub leads the engagement of states with the Central government, while the Knowledge and Innovation Hub builds NITI’s think-tank capabilities.
Water on Exoplanets
- Recent evidence from NASA’s Hubble space telescope revealed that earth sized exoplanets in the Trappist-1 system may contain water.
- TRAPPIST-1 is a system of seven Earth-size planets orbiting an ultra-cool dwarf star about 40 light-years away.
- This is by far the largest collection of Earth-like planets in the habitable ‘Goldilocks’ zone of a star.
- Goldilocks represents a zone which is neither too close nor too far from a star, which raises the possibility of liquid water being present on the surface.
- Three of the planets in the system are within the habitable zone, which strengthens the possibility that they may be habitable.
Mukundra Hills Tiger Reserve
- NTCA has given nod for shifting tigers from Ranthambhore National Park to Mukundara Hills tiger reserve.
- The Mukundara Hills, located in the south-eastern Rajasthan, is the third notified tiger habitat in the State, after Ranthambhore and Sariska.
- It was established in 2013 to cater to the spill over tiger population from Ranthambhore.
- The reserve covers the existing darrah, Chambal and jawahar sagar wildlife sanctuary.
Source: PIB, The Hindu, Business Standard
