MAD Doctrine
- Mutually Assured Destruction is a military doctrine, which states that when two adversaries possess nuclear weapons, neither of them is likely to use them.
- This doctrine is considered an application of Nash equilibrium, wherein the threat of a strong retaliatory attack prevents both sides from initiating a conflict.
- And also both sides are likely to suffer severe losses from a nuclear attack, irrespective of who attacks first. Thus the result is lasting prevention of a nuclear attack.
- The doctrine has been criticised for assuming that the victim of the first attack will possess sufficient capabilities after the attack to retaliate strongly.
Cooperative Societies’ polls
- Rajasthan has become the first state in the country to lay down the minimum educational qualifications for contesting elections to village cooperative societies and various other cooperative bodies.
- The educational qualifications will range from Class V to Class VIII for members of governing boards of diary societies and various other cooperative societies.
- A co-operative society shall be formed under the Co-operative Societies Act, 1912 or under the relevant state co-operative society’s law.
- The elections to various posts in the societies after a certain level would be conducted through the state cooperative election authority.
Mission Parivar Vikas
- Ministry of Health and Family Welfare launches this mission on the occasion of World Population Day.
- The mission focuses on family planning initiatives and targeted approaches for population stabilisation through better services delivery approach.
- It will focus on 146 high fertility districts in 7 states with high TFR.
- A new program “Antara” was launched under this mission. Under this program, a new injection will be used which will acts as an alternative to the current birth control methods.
Juno Spacecraft
- Recently, NASA's Juno mission completed a close flyby of Jupiter and its Great Red Spot.
- The spacecraft was launched as part of New Frontiers Program in 2011.
- Its mission is to measure Jupiter's composition, gravity field, magnetic field, and polar magnetosphere.
- Jupiter’s Great Spot is a 16,000-km wide storm monitored since 1830 and possibly existing for more than 350 years.
- Recently, the spacecraft reached “Perijove”, the point at which an orbit comes closest to Jupiter’s centre.
Falun Gong
- Falun Gong is the ancient Chinese holistic system. It is banned in China.
- It is spiritual practice that combines meditation and exercises with a moral philosophy centered on Truth, Compassion and Tolerance.
- The Falun Dafa Association of India has been campaigning for months to familiarise the challenges faced by the followers in china.
- The association decided for a peace parade this month, to spread the message of Falun Gong and focus on persecution against practitioners in Beijing.
Removal of Oil Spill
- Scientists have developed a simple, cheap and environment-friendly system that can effectively remove crude oil from sea that can pollute and even destroy marine ecosystems.
- The method is based on absorption by cellulose with porous carrier and impregnated with oleogelator, a cheap organic compound.
- Oleogelator congeal oils selectively from a biphasic mixture of oil and water and form a 3D fibre network through hydrogen bonding.
- Thus the oil trapped in the gelator form a rigid gel, turns the liquid oil into a solid one, which can be simply scooped out.
- The gelator renders the cellulose matrix hydrophobic. It did not suck in water as naked cellulose does.
Sixth Mass Extinction
- Scientists have warned that the Earth is undergoing its sixth mass extinction.
- The last extinction was happened about 66 million years ago which wiped out non-avian dinosaurs.
- The current extinction is considered as the worst since 3 quarters of life on earth.
- More than 30% of vertebrate animals are declining in the range and population.
- Tropical regions have seen the highest number of declining species and while fewer species are disappearing in temperate zones, the percentage is more or less same as tropical regions.
