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.
