Asia-Europe Meeting
- Republic of Korea is organising 3rd Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) conference on ‘Global Ageing and Human Rights of Older Persons’.
- It will be attended by international institutions including the UN, regional institutions such as UNESCAP, UNECE, European Union, ASEAN and international NGOs.
- India is also taking part in this conference. Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment will represent India.
- ASEM) is an exclusively Asian–European forum, established in 1996 at the firstsummit in Bangkok, Thailand.
- It currently has 51 nations from the European Union and South Asia and 2 regional organisations (ASEAN,EU) as partners.
- The 3 pillars of ASEM are Political, Economic, Socio Cultural and Educational.
- In 2016, it adopted Ulaanbaatar declaration to resolve fight against terrorism was signed in the ASEM summit.
Chagos Island
- There is a dispute between Mauritius and UK over the sovereignty of Chagos islands in the Indian Ocean.
- Itis home to Diego Garcia, the key military base of the U.K. and the U.S. in the Indian Ocean.
- The island was taken by UK before the Mauritius decolonisation.
- After the Independence in 1968, most of the islanders were deported to give the island in lease to US for its airbase.
- The evicted islanders have been campaigning for their right to return home.
- A resolution by Mauritius was passed in UN general assembly asking the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to offer a legal opinion in the issue.
- Twenty-two countries and the African Union are going to appear before ICJ to give their statements.
- India has backed Mauritius over its claim on the disputed Chagos islands.
- Australia and the United States are expected to back Britain’s position.
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Mid-Air Refuelling
- Tejas is an indigenously developedlight combat aircraft.
- It is a single-seat, single-jet engine, multirole light fighter.
- It is the smallest and lightest multi-role supersonic fighter aircraft in its class.
- It can fire Air to Air Missiles, carry bombs and Precision Guided ammunition.
- The Indian Air Force has successfully carried out the first ever mid-air refuelling ofTejas.
- A Russian-built IL-78 MKI tanker transferred fuel to a Tejas MK I aircraft.
- It is considered as a major milestone in its development cycle.
- The ability to carry out air-to-air refuelling is one of the critical requirements for Tejas to achieve final operational clearance.
- Earlier, Tejas has successfully fired an air-to-air beyond visual (BVR) range missile.
FOXSI Mission
- Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager (FOXSI) is a sounding rocket mission by NASA.
- It aims at directly focus at Sun and search for nanoflares using its X-ray vision.
- The mission’s third flight is going to be launched soon.
- FOXSI rockets travel above the Earth’s atmosphere for a peek at space before falling back to the ground.
- It is the first instrument built specially to image high-energy X-rays from the Sun by directly focusing them.
Nanoflares
- Nanoflares are miniature explosions invisible to the naked eye.
- They are born when magnetic field lines in the Sun’s atmosphere tangle up and stretch until they break like a rubber band.
- Consequence - The energy they release accelerates particles to near light speed and heats the solar atmosphere to its searing million-degree Fahrenheit temperature.
Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats (IDWH)
- The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairshas recently approved continuation of the IDWH beyond the 12thPlan period from 2017-18 to 2019-20.
- It is a centrally sponsored umbrella scheme consists of Project Tiger, Development of Wildlife Habitats and Project Elephant.
- The schemes would result in overall strengthening/ consolidation of tiger, elephant and wildlife conservation in the country.
- Besides, it would also address the Man-Animal conflict effectively and benefit the communities relocating from core protected areas.
- The implementation of the schemes would be done through the respective States in designated Tiger Reserves, Protected Areas and Elephant Reserves.
World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Director
- In the ongoing WHO’s South-East Asia regional meeting , Indian member Dr. Poonam Khetrapal was unanimously re-elected as Regional director.
- She has already served as the regional director for south-east Asia since 2014.
- She is the first Indian National and the first woman to hold this post.
- The WHO’s south-east Asia region covers Bangladesh, Bhutan, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste.
Source: PIB, The Hindu, Business Standard