NITI Aayog's 2020 SDG Index
According to the index - India saw significant improvement in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to clean energy, urban development and health in 2020.
Kerala retained its position at the top of the rankings in the third edition of the index followed by Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh. At the other end of the scale, Bihar, Jharkhand and Assam were the worst performing States.
Read More: Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Gov. Schemes
Black carbon (BC)
"Glaciers of the Himalayas, Climate Change, Black Carbon and Regional Resilience" is released by by World Bank (WB).
According to the report Black carbon (BC) deposits produced by human activity which accelerate the pace of glacier and snow melt in the Himalayan region can be sharply reduced through new, currently feasible policies by an additional 50 percent from current levels.
The report also found that - in addition to changing temperatures and precipitation patterns, anthropogenic black carbon (BC) deposits are further accelerating glacier and snow melt in these mountain ranges.
Black carbon (BC) is a short-lived pollutant that is the second-largest contributor to warming the planet behind carbon dioxide (CO2).
Unlike other greenhouse gas emissions, BC is quickly washed out and can be eliminated from the atmosphere if emissions stop.
Science & Tech
What is CIBER-2 ?
In order to roughly estimate the number of stars in the Universe, scientists have estimated that on average each galaxy consists of about 100 million stars.
To put this into perspective, there are a total of one hundred quintillion stars or 1 with 21 zeroes after it. If this figure is accurate it would mean that for every grain of sand on Earth, there are more than ten stars.
But this calculation assumes that all stars are inside galaxies, which might not be true and this is what the CIBER-2 instrument will try to find out.
Cosmic Infrared Background Experiment-2, also known as CIBER-2, is the instrument-carrying rocket, part of an ongoing series of projects that aims to observe integrated lights across the universe.
Science & Tech
Cooperative banks under direct supervision of RBI
Cooperative banks have long been under dual regulation by the state Registrar of Societies and the RBI. As a result, these banks have escaped scrutiny despite failures and frauds.
The changes to The Banking Regulation Act approved by Parliament in September 2020, brought cooperative banks under the direct supervision of the RBI.
Also, urban cooperative banks will now be treated on a par with commercial banks.
Now a cooperative bank can, with prior approval of the RBI, issue equity shares, preference shares, or special shares to its members or to any other person residing within its area of operation, by way of public issue or private placements.
Economy