TOPIC 1 : Elephant Ambassadors [ Prelims, GS 3 ]
- Animals captured in one part of the country are helping protect forests in other areas.
- Dudhwa National Park, Uttar Pradesh, recently imported 10 from Karnataka. Similarly, three more elephants will join a proposed elephant camp in Jharkhand’s Palamu Tiger Reserve.
- Karnataka, which has the largest elephant population in the country, captures and confines elephants in conflict with humans.
- Called Kumki elephants, they are tamed and trained in forest camps, and are now in demand in other States, for patrolling duties in forest reserves.
TOPIC 2 : Artificial Intelligence [ Prelims ]
- Norman: also known as the first psychopathic Artificial Intelligence, has just been unveiled by U.S. researchers.
- The goal is to explain in layman’s terms how algorithms are made, and to make people aware of AI’s potential dangers.
TOPIC 3 : Biogas Plants [ Prelims, GS 3 ]
- Biogas plants with the capacity of over 100 cubic metres will be set up shortly at 25 gaushalas in Rajasthan.
- Rajasthan will be the first State to produce manure from biogas plants at the cow shelters.
TOPIC 4 : Oil Buyers Club [ Prelims, GS 3 ]
- With oil producers’ cartel OPEC playing havoc with prices, India discussed with China the possibility of forming an ‘oil buyers club’ that can negotiate better terms with sellers as well as getting more U.S. crude oil to Asia to cut dominance of the oil block.
- Production cuts by OPEC have led to high international oil prices.
- Govt wants to form an oil buyers’ club with China, Japan and South Korea to take up issues like premium being charged from Asian buyers.
- So far, India has not been able to bargain better rates from the Gulf-based producers of the oil cartel, OPEC.
- Instead of getting a discount for bulk purchases, West Asian producers such as Saudi Arabia, charge a so-called ‘Asian Premium’ for shipments to Asian buyers, including India and Japan, as opposed to Europe.
TOPIC 5 : Climate Change [ Prelims, GS 3 ]
- Climate change may be changing the growth patterns of local wild edible mushrooms called ‘roen alami.
- These mushrooms grow on termite hills.
- Termites in Goa consume 50% of dry dead litter and convert it into soil using this fungus which generally fruits in the last week of June. But this year, it fruited two weeks early.
- This could be evidence of the impact of global warming on wild mushrooms in the coastal State of Goa with possible implications for similar species in other Western Ghat States.
TOPIC 6 : North Eastern Council [ Prelims, GS 2 ]
- The Union Cabinet has approved the the nomination of the Union Home Minister as ex-officio Chairman of North Eastern Council (NEC)
- NEC is a statutory body with Governors and Chief Ministers of all the eight North Eastern States as its Member.
- NEC implements various projects through the State and Central agencies.
- Under the new arrangement with Home Minister as Chairman and Minister of DoNER as Vice Chairman, NEC and all the Governors and Chief Ministers of North Eastern States as Member would provide a forum for discussing inter-state matters more comprehensively and also consider common approaches to be taken in future.
- NEC can now also perform the tasks undertaken by the various Zonal Councils to discuss such inter-State issues as drug trafficking, smuggling of arms and ammunition, boundary disputes etc.
- This repositioning of NEC will help it to become a more effective body for the North Eastern Region.
- NEC was established under the North Eastern Council Act, 1971 as an apex level body for securing balanced and coordinated development and facilitating coordination with the States.
- Subsequent to the Amendment of 2002, NEC has been mandated to function as a regional planning body for the North Eastern Area and while formulating a regional plan for this area, shall give priority to the schemes and projects benefiting two or more states provided that in the case of Sikkim, the Council shall formulate specific projects and schemes for that State.
TOPIC 7 : Solar Charkha Mission [ Prelims, GS 2]
- The Solar Charkha Mission of the Ministry of Micro Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME), will be launched on June 27.
- The Mission will cover 50 clusters and every cluster will employ 400 to 2000 artisans.
