GEMINI system
- GEMINI (GAGAN Enabled Mariner’s Instrument for Navigation and Information) is a new marine information dissemination system.
- It is to provide disaster warnings to fishermen by utilizing GAGAN (GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation) satellite systems of the AAI and ISRO.
- It is a portable device which receives data from the GAGAN satellites and sends it to the user’s cell phone App, which decode the alerts.
- It is developed by INCOIS under Ministry of Earth Sciences and Airport Authority of India.
DHRUV Programme
- Pradhan Mantri Innovation Learning Programme – DHRUV is a 14-day learning programme launched by Ministry of HRD in ISRO HQ in Bengaluru.
- 60 brightest and talented students from Science, Mathematics and Performing Arts have been chosen for the programme.
- It aims to further sharpen innovative imagination, skills and knowledge of the students to bring solutions to socio-economic, political and environmental issues in the country.
Green belt
The Centre is mulling an ambitious plan to create a 1,400km long and 5km wide green belt from Gujarat to the Delhi-Haryana border.
- The plan is inspired by Africa’s ‘Great Green Wall’ project, running from Senegal (West) to Djibouti (East), which came into effect in 2007.
- The overarching objective of India’s Green Wall will be to address the rising rates of land degradation and the eastward expansion of the Thar desert.
- The green belt being planned from Porbandar to Panipat will help in restoring degraded land through afforestation along the Aravali hill range. It will also act as a barrier for dust coming from the deserts in western India and Pakistan.
Global Competitiveness Index
By the World Economic Forum (WEF).
- It maps the competitiveness landscape of 141 economies through 103 indicators organised into 12 pillars.
- In 2019, Singapore has become the world’s most competitive economy followed by the US.
- India has moved down 10 places to rank 68th, largely due to improvements witnessed by several other economies.
Chemistry Nobel Prize
- John B Goodenough, M Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino share the Chemistry Nobel Prize for their work on The foundation of the lithium-ion battery rechargeable devices, which are used for portable electronics.
- The crisis led to development of energy technologies that did not rely on fossil fuels.
World Mental Health Day
- The Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) under the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment observed the ‘World Mental Health Day’ on 10th October 2019.
- According to the National Mental Health Survey of India, 2016, the prevalence of mental disorders was 7.3% among 13-17 years old.
Malware Smominru
Malware Smominru, whose incidence was first reported in 2017, continues to infect computers in a big way.
- In its post-infection phase, it steals victim credentials, installs a Trojan module and a cryptominer and propagates inside the network.
- The malware seems to have the ability to come back to hit the old victims if they fail to tackle the problem completely. About one-fourth of the affected machines were infected again after Smominru was removed from them.
Exercise Ekuverin
The tenth edition of the Joint Military Exercise Ekuverin, between the Indian Army and the Maldives National Defence Force, is being held from 7th-20th October, 2019 in Pune, Maharashtra.
- India and Maldives have been conducting Exercise Ekuverin meaning ‘Friends’ in the Maldivian language since 2009.
- It focuses on enhancing interoperability between the two forces for carrying out counter insurgency and counter-terrorism operations in a semi-urban environment under the United Nations mandate.
LCROSS
A decade after National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) sent a Lunar CARater Observations and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) to the moon’s south pole, the space agency is about to start the same project again.
- LCROSS was launched with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) in 2009.
- It aimed to determine if water-ice exists in a permanently shadowed crater at the Moon’s south pole.
- LCROSS and LRO found evidence of the lunar soil in shadowy craters.
- It also revealed that the Moon is chemically active and has a water cycle.
- LCROSS also confirmed the water was in the form of mostly pure ice crystals in some places.