Vigyan Jyoti Scheme

• Vigyan Jyoti Scheme is launched by the Department of Science & Technology (DST).
• It is intended to create a level-playing field for the meritorious girls in high school to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) in their higher education.
• This program started at the school level for meritorious girls of Class IX to Class XII.
• It also offers exposure for girl students from rural backgrounds to help to plan their journey from school to a job of their choice in the field of science.

Activities under the scheme

• The activities under the program include student-parent counseling, visit to labs, and knowledge centers, partner’s role model interactions, science camps, academic support classes, resource material distribution, and tinkering activities.
• It also provides online academic support to students.
• It includes streaming of video classes, study materials, daily practice problems, and doubt clearing sessions.

Indian Army Implements Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) of Ammunition Stock.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Tags

• A technology whereby digital data encoded in RFID tags or smart labels are captured by a reader via radio waves.
• RFID is similar to barcoding in that data from a tag or label are captured by a device that stores the data in a database.
• RFID, however, has several advantages over systems that use barcode asset tracking software.
• The most notable is that RFID tag data can be read outside the line-of-sight, whereas barcodes must be aligned with an optical scanner.
• RFID tag consists of an integrated circuit and an antenna.
• The tag is also composed of a protective material that holds the pieces together and shields them from various environmental conditions.

How it Works?

• RFID belongs to a group of technologies referred to as Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC).
• AIDC methods automatically identify objects, collect data about them, and enter those data directly into computer systems with little or no human intervention.
• At a simple level, RFID systems consist of three components: an RFID tag or smart label, an RFID reader, and an antenna.
• RFID tags contain an integrated circuit and an antenna, which are used to transmit data to the RFID reader (also called an interrogator).
• The reader then converts the radio waves to a more usable form of data.
• Information collected from the tags is then transferred through a communications interface to a host computer system, where the data can be stored in a database and analyzed at a later time.

As tensions exacerbate between Washington and Moscow over Ukraine, political commentators say that the United States could, as a last resort, exclude Russia from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), an international network for banks worldwide to facilitate smooth money transactions globally.

Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT)

• SWIFT is a messaging network used by banks and financial institutions globally for quick and faultless exchange of information pertaining to financial transactions.
• SWIFT has its headquarters at Belgium.
• Each participant on the platform is assigned a unique eight-digit SWIFT code or a bank identification code (BIC).

How SWIFT Works?

• If a person, say, in New York with a Citibank account, wants to send money to someone with an HSBC account in London, the payee would have to submit to his bank the London-based beneficiary’s account number along with the eight-digit SWIFT code of the latter's bank.
• Citibank would then send a SWIFT message to HSBC.
• Once that is received and approved, the money would be credited to the required account.
• SWIFT is merely a platform that sends messages and does not hold any securities or money.
• It facilitates standardized and reliable communication to facilitate the transaction.

A powerful geomagnetic storm has doomed 40 Starlink satellites launched by SpaceX last week, the company has announced.

Geomagnetic Storm

• Geomagnetic storms occur when a surge of solar wind — charged particles from the sun — smashes into Earth's magnetic field and generates charged particles and currents in Earth's upper atmosphere.
• The surge warms the upper atmosphere and increases its atmospheric density such that the drag experienced by satellites in low Earth orbit can be enough to send them tumbling back to Earth.
• During the main phase of a geomagnetic storm, an electric current in the magnetosphere creates a magnetic force that pushes out the boundary between the magnetosphere and the solar wind.
• Several space weather phenomena tend to be associated with or are caused by a geomagnetic storm.

The Budget has an interesting announcement in the area of sovereign green bonds.

Sovereign Green Bonds

• Green bonds are issued by companies, countries, and multilateral organizations to exclusively fund projects that have positive environmental or climate benefits and provide investors with fixed-income payments.
• The projects can include renewable energy, clean transportation, and green buildings, among others.
• Proceeds from these bonds are earmarked for green projects.
• This is unlike standard bonds, the proceeds of which can be utilized for various purposes at the discretion of the issuer.
• The proceeds will be deployed in public sector projects which help in reducing the carbon intensity of the economy.
• These bonds help with India’s commitment to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2070.