Philippines urged India to Join ‘Squad’ Alliance.

About Squad alliance

• An informal minilateral alliance involving the US, Japan, Australia, and the Philippines. 
• Aim: Address aggression and maintain stability in the Indo-Pacific Ocean Region, etc. 
• It is different from Quad which consists of India, USA, Japan and Australia 

The Ministry of Defence inked a capital acquisition contract with Bharat Electronics Limited for Low Level Transportable Radar (LLTR) ‘Ashwini’ for the Indian Air Force.

About Ashwini

• An active electronically scanned phased array radar based on state-of-the-art solid state technology. 
• Indigenously developed by Electronics & Radar Development Establishment, DRDO.
• Key Features: 
  • Capable of tracking aerial targets from high-speed fighter aircraft to slow moving targets such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and helicopters. 
  • Having an instrumented range of 200 Km

A study highlighted that ‘microlightning’ may have sparked life on Earth, challenging Miller-Urey Hypothesis. 

• Microlightning is the tiny electric sparks (imitates how lightning forms in clouds) that form when oppositely charged water droplets come close together after splitting.

About Miller-Urey Hypothesis 

• It claimed that lightning strikes triggered chemical reactions in Earth's early atmosphere. 
  • It successfully demonstrated that the organic compounds (such as amino acids) needed for life could form with the application of electricity to a mixture of water and inorganic gases.
  • Recent study has demonstrated formation of organic compounds using microlightning. 
• Limitation: Critics argue that lightning strikes were rare and mostly occurred over the open ocean, where organic compounds would have quickly dispersed. 

Centre for Development of Telematics launches ‘Samarth’ a cutting-edge Incubation Program for telecommunications and IT sectors.

About Samarth

• Aim: Encourage the development of sustainable and scalable business models, offer access to cutting-edge resources, and help Startups Bridge the gap from ideation to commercialization.
• Implementation Partner: Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), premier S&T organization under Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

UpLink initiative under World Economic Forum’s (WEF) cut carbon emissions by 142,400 tonnes in 2023-2024.

About UpLink Initiative

• It is an initiative focused on impactful early-stage innovation.
• It was founded in 2020 by WEF in collaboration with Deloitte and Salesforce. 
• It builds ecosystems that enable purpose-driven, early-stage entrepreneurs to scale their businesses for the markets that are essential to a net-zero, nature-positive and equitable future.
• Objectives: Accelerate impact of early-stage innovators, Enable Innovation Ecosystems and Influence perception.

Indian and US firms signed an MoU to co-develop Wave Glider, an Autonomous Surface Vessels (ASVs) for Anti-Submarine Warfare.

 About Autonomous Surface Vessels (ASVs)

• These are robotic vehicles that operate on the sea surface, recording oceanographic data.
• They use wave power or propeller-driven propulsion systems.
• Advantages: 
  • Larger payloads and higher battery capacity compared to Autonomous Underwater Vehicles.
  • Utilize renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power for prolonged operations.
• Challenges: Navigational risks in congested waters.

Serbia denied using a banned 'sonic weapon’ to disperse protesters in Belgrade.

About Sonic Weapon

• Also known as Acoustic weapons are devices that deliver very loud sounds over long distances. 
  • They can also be used to act like voice amplifiers to deliver voice messages/other sounds.
• Working: Usually comprise hundreds of modern transducers, an electronic device that converts energy from one form to another to create highly concentrated and amplified sound, narrowing beams to focus on specific targeted areas. 
• Impact: Tinnitus (perception of ringing, buzzing, or other sounds in ears without an external source); hearing loss etc.

Lok Sabha and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) agreed to develop the Sansad Bhashini initiative for AI-powered multilingual Parliamentary operations. 

About Sansad Bhashini initiative

• Aim: To leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance multilingual support (through Bhashini) and streamline parliamentary operations.
  • Bhashini is an AI-powered language translation platform by MeitY.
• The key AI initiatives under Sansad Bhashini include AI-based translation, AI-Powered Chatbot for the Parliament website etc.

The State of Climate 2024 report published by World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

Key Highlights

• Global Warming causes greenhouse gas levels highest in the past 8, 00,000 years as per WMO.
• The report states that each of the last 10 years is among the 10 warmest years on record since 1850.
• Frozen parts of Earth’s surface, known as the cryosphere, are melting at an alarming rate.
• Extreme weather events caused the greatest number of displacements in 2024 since 2008.