Certain portions of speech from opposition leaders were expunged from the record of parliament. 

• Expunction means deletion of words, phrases or expressions from the proceedings or records for being defamatory or indecent or unparliamentary or undignified.

About Expunction

• Presiding officer of the house (Speaker in Lok Sabha and Chairman in Rajya Sabha) has the authority to decide which portion will be expunged. 
• Rule 380 and 381 of the Rules of Procedure in Lok Sabha and Rule 261 and 262 of the Rules of Procedure in Rajya Sabha details provisions related to expunction to prevent misuse of freedom of speech guaranteed inside Parliament.
• Article 105(2) of the Constitution protects Members of Parliament from any court proceeding for anything said in parliament.

Minister of mines inaugurated the DMF Gallery at Shastri Bhawan in New Delhi.

About DMF

• Ministry of Mines, through amendment in Mines & Minerals (Development & Regulation) (MMDR) Act, in 2015, has made a provision for establishment of DMF in all districts affected by mining.
• DMF’s objective is to work for the interest and benefit of persons and areas affected by mining related operations.
• Composition and functions of DMF shall be such as may be prescribed by State Government.
• DMF also given responsibility to implement Pradhan Mantri Khanij Kshetra Kalyan Yojana.

17th session of the Conference of State Parties to UN-CRPD took place in New York with the theme “Rethinking disability inclusion in the current international juncture and ahead of the Summit of the Future ''.

About CRPD

• Adopted in New York in 2006 and entered into force in 2008.
• Objective: To promote, protect, and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity.
• Persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments. 
• Members: It has 164 Signatories (including India).

Nomadic Elephant

• Joint Military Exercise between armies of India and Mongolia will be conducted in Meghalaya.

Exercise MAITREE

• Joint military Exercise between India-Thailand was conducted in Thailand.

Odisha will plant palm tree to combat lightning deaths.

About Palm Tree

• Belongs to Tropical Forest Ecosystem.
• Varieties of Palm Trees: Coconut, Oil Palm, Arecanut, Palmyrah etc. 
  • Palmyrah is declared as State Tree of Tamil Nadu.
• Characteristics of Palm trees:
  • Act as natural conductors during lightning strikes and prevent loss of lives.
  • Male palm tree produces only flowers, while female tree produces fruits as well.
• Benefits:
  • Palm leaf is common writing medium extensively used in Southeast Asian countries.
  • Palm leaves used as construction materials for fences, walls, and roofs. 
  • Provide edible and non- edible products.

India successfully test-fires first indigenous anti-radiation missile ‘Rudram-1’.

About Rudram-1

• Air-to-Surface missile developed by DRDO for Indian Air Force (IAF).
• Features:
  • Launch platform: Sukhoi-30MKI fighter jets.
  • It has Inertial Navigation Systems (INS)-GPS navigation and Passive Homing Head for final attack, allowing it to accurately hit radiation-emitting targets. 
  • Range: Height ranging from 500 meters to 15 km, and can hit radiation-emitting targets within 250 km
• Significance: Allows IAF to conduct Suppression of Enemy Air Defence (SEAD) operations deep within enemy territory, neutralizing critical air defense installations.

IEEE 2061-2024 wireless network standard for affordable broadband access in rural areas has been approved by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) last month.

• It is based on solutions developed by a research group at IIT-Bombay.

About  IEEE 2061-2024

• IEEE-2061 network includes the Access Network (AN) and Core Network (CN) similar to cellular networks.
  • CN connects continents, countries,connects and major national network nodes whereas AN links end-users' equipment to the core network via a local exchange or local radio node.
• However, IEEE-2061 AN is heterogenous wherein different types of base stations coexist as against 5G network, where the AN is homogeneous comprising base stations of the same type.

Physicists have reported the most precise estimate yet of the Top Quarks’ mass. 

About Quarks

• It is one of the two (other being lepton) basic types of fundamental particles described under Standard Model of Physics. 
• There are 6 quarks paired in three generations (increasing order of their weight and instability): 
  • up quark and down quark, 
  • charm quark and strange quark, 
  • top quark and bottom quark 

About Top Quarks

• It is the most massive elementary particle that exists, outweighing even the Higgs boson.
• It is difficult to measure its mass due to its unstable nature, where it breaks into lighter, more stable particles in less than 10⁻²⁵ seconds. 

Scientists have found a desert moss - Syntrichia Caninervis - which is able to withstand Mars-like environment conditions.

• Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta.
• Mosses are commonly found in moist-shady locations and are distributed throughout the world except in salt water.

About Syntrichia Caninervis

• It is widespread in some of Earth’s harshest locations including Antarctica and the Mojave Desert. 
• It could be the first possible pioneer species for the colonization of Mars.

Recently, NASA’s Mars Odyssey Orbiter captured the view of largest volcano in our solar system, Olympus Mons, located on Mars. 

About Mars Odyssey

• Launched in 2001, it is the longest continually active orbital mission.
• It was the first spacecraft to make a global map of chemical elements and minerals that make up Martian surface.

Objective of Mars Odyssey

• Determine abundance of hydrogen in shallow subsurface.
• Acquire high spatial and spectral resolution images of surface mineralogy.
• Characterize Martian near-space radiation environment as related to radiation-induced risk to human explorers.