- Centre plans to create a national digital database of organ donors for smooth transplants.
- As per the NOTTO data, India witnessed 16,041 organ transplants in 2022, as against the wait list of nearly 500,000 organ failure recipients.
- About NOTTO
- National level organization set up under Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
- Functions:
- All India activities of coordination and networking for procurement and distribution of Organs and Tissues.
- Registry of Organs and Tissues Donation and Transplantation.
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- NATO marked 75 years of conception.
- About NATO
- Founded in 1949
- Headquarters: Brussels, Belgium
- Currently has 32 countries from Europe and North America.
- Sweden is the latest to join.
- Founded on the principle of collective defense, meaning that if one NATO ally is attacked, then all NATO allies are attacked.
- Largest peacetime military alliance in the world.
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- In Phey village in Ladakh, farmers use mulching to grow organic watermelon.
- It is significant because Ladakh is a cold desert and watermelon is a hot climate plant.
- About Mulching
- It is the process of covering the topsoil with plant material such as leaves, grass, twigs, crop residues, straw, etc.
- Helps create a soil structure with smaller and larger pores through which rainwater can easily infiltrate into soil, reducing surface runoff.
- Benefits: Prevents soil erosion, increases organic matter in the soil, etc.
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- The red color of Promenade beach in Puducherry last year was connected to plankton crash, an expert panel told National Green Tribunal (NGT).
- Noctiluca scintillans, a type of phytoplankton, turn a red color when in large numbers experienced a crash, leading to the release of colored pigment from their cells.
- These pigments then stick to rocks and the sea floor, forming a biofilm-like layer and causing ‘red tides’.
- Plankton crashes happen due to a lack of nutrients or lack of CO2 in the earlier part of the production cycle.
- Plankton may also die later in the cycle due to sudden change in water quality.
- Hydroponics has emerged as a linchpin in the expansion of India’s sustainable food sector.
- About Hydroponics
- It is a soil-less farming technique where plants are grown using a water-based nutrients.
- Can include an aggregate substrate, or growing media, such as vermiculite, coconut coir, perlite, etc.
- Significance: Can save water, land, and other resources, enhanced plant yields, etc.
- Challenges: Lack of technical knowledge, higher initial set-up cost, need to constant human intervention, etc.
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- NASA to create Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC) for the moon and other celestial bodies.
- Coordinated Lunar Time
- It aims to provide a consistent time-keeping benchmark for lunar missions and space activities.
- An Earth-based clock on the moon would lose an average of 58.7 microseconds per Earth-day due to time dilation.
- Time Dilation refers to the fact that time passes at different rates for different observers, depending on their relative motion or positions in a gravitational field.
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- OpenAI has introduced a new AI model known as Voice Engine that can replicate any voice in any language.
- It lets users upload brief audio samples and generate audio in the same voice and manner of speaking.
- It is yet to be released for public use.
- Application: Providing reading assistance, Translating content, helping patients recover their voice, etc.
- Disadvantages: Misuse like cloning public figures’ voices, privacy-related issues, lack of regulations, etc.
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- Miscreants have damaged rock art paintings at the cave at Kumittipathi, Tamil Nadu.
- About Kumittipathi rock painting:
- Believed to be 3000 years old, the artists have used an inorganic white pigment, along with natural gum, to paint the figures.
- They depict an elephant, ther (a chariot, some say it is a peacock), and the lives of early dwellers.
- While most of the rock painting sites in Tamil Nadu are found on rock shelters, those at Kumittipathi are drawn inside a cave.
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