The 25th anniversary of International Mother Language Day celebrated on February 21. 

About International Mother Language Day

•  It is observed on February 21 each year since 2000.
• The idea to celebrate International Mother Language Day was the initiative of Bangladesh. It was approved at the 1999 UNESCO General Conference.
• Purpose: Promotes inclusion, multilingual education, and preservation of minority and indigenous languages. 
  • Globally 40% of the population does not have access to an education in a language they speak or understand.

SWAYATT initiative on Government e Marketplace (GeM) celebrates 6 years of transformative impact.

• GeM is an online platform offering end-to-end solutions for procurement of common use goods and services by government buyers.

About SWAYATT Initiative

• It stands for Startups, Women & Youth Advantage through eTransactions Initiative
• Genesis: Launched in 2019 on GeM.
• Objective: To invigorating participation of women-led enterprises and youth in public procurement.
• Initiatives: Startup Runway and Womaniya storefronts ensure wider visibility of startups, women entrepreneurs and youth among lakhs of pan-India government buyers. 

The recent study warns that climate change is set to increase algal blooms in England's Thames river. 

About Algal bloom

• Definition: An algal bloom is the overgrowth of microscopic algae or algae-like bacteria in fresh, salt, or brackish waters.
  • Algal blooms can be many colors, including blue-green, yellow, brown, pink, and red.
• Types
  • Cyanobacteria (Blue-Green Algae): The most common type of harmful algal bloom appears in freshwater lakes, ponds, & rivers.
  • Golden Algae (Prymnesium parvum): Primarily found in oceans but increasingly affecting freshwater bodies.
    • Unlike cyanobacteria, not known to harm humans.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault also known as Arctic doomsday seed vault gets more than 14,000 new samples.

About Svalbard Global Seed Vault

• Location: Arctic Island, Norway
• Ownership and Management: owned by Norway and managed in partnership between the Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture and Food, the regional genebank NordGen and the Crop Trust. 
• Significance: safe, free and long-term storage of seed duplicates from all genebanks, serve as a back up in case of nuclear war, human conflict, climate change etc.
• Working: low temperature(−18°C), permafrost and thick rock ensures that the seed samples will remain frozen even without power. 
• Key Contribution: Restored seed collections lost in the Syrian war.

NASA is set to launch SPHEREx Space Telescope using the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

About SPHEREx Space Telescope (Observatory)

• It stands for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer.
• Objective: Survey the sky in optical & near-infrared light. 
• Tenure: 2 years.
• Aim:
  • Look for the origin of the universe while mapping the distribution of galaxies.
    • It will collect data from 450 million galaxies & 100 million stars in Milky Way.
  • create a 3-D map of the cosmos in 102 colors (individual wavelengths of light)
  • Gain insight about cosmic inflation, a phenomenon marked with rapid and exponential expansion of the universe from a single point in a fraction of a second after the Big Bang.

Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) organized 1st international conference on Carbon Markets – PRAKRITI (Promoting Resilience, Awareness, Knowledge, and Resources for Integrating Transformational Initiatives) 2025.

• It aims to provide an understanding of Indian Carbon Market, insights into the global carbon market’s dynamics etc.

About Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE)

• Genesis: Energy Conservation (EC) Act, 2001.
• Objective: Reducing energy intensity of the Indian economy. 
• Vision: To improve Energy Intensity of Indian Economy thereby contributing towards sustainable development of country.
• Misison: To develop policies & strategies with a thrust on self-regulation & market principles, within overall framework of EC Act, 2001.

Recent study finds that Conservation efforts in wealthy nations may worsen biodiversity loss in other countries. 

About Biodiversity Leak

• Biodiversity leak refers to the unintended loss of biodiversity in one region due to conservation or environmental policies that shift environmental harm elsewhere.
• Impacts of Biodiversity Leak: Loss of Global Biodiversity, Threats to Endangered Species, Climate Change Acceleration etc. 

Recently, National Statistics Office (NSO) released the 2nd Time Use Survey (TUS) for the year 2024.

About Time Use Survey (TUS)

• Purpose: It provides a framework for measuring time dispositions by the population on different activities.
• Objective: To measure the participation of men and women in paid and unpaid activities.
• Key findings
  • Increase in women participation in employment related activities (paid activities).
  • There is increased acknowledgement of caregiving activities regardless of gender within Indian families.
  • Time spent in Culture, leisure, mass-media and sports practices has increased in both men and women.