Retired district judge among 12 picked by SC collegium for post of HC judge

• Constitutional Provisions: The appointment of ad-hoc judges has been provided in the Constitution under Article 224A (appointment of retired Judges at sittings of High Courts).
• Under this Article, the Chief Justice of a High Court for any State can request a person to act as a judge of the High Court.
• For this, the prior consent of the president is required.
• The person should have held the office of judge of that court or of any other High Court.
• Such a judge is entitled to allowances as determined by the President.
• He will also enjoy all the jurisdiction, powers and privileges of a judge of that high court.

Chief Justice of a High Court may start the procedure of recommending a name if

• The number of vacancies is more than 20% of the sanctioned strength.
• Cases in a particular class are pending for over five years.
• More than 10 % of pending cases are over five years old.
• Percentage of the rate of disposal is beneath the institution of the cases either in a particular subject matter or in the court.

What is magnetoresistance? It’s one more thing graphene does differently

• It is the result of the electrical resistance of a conductor affected by magnetic fields in adjacent materials.
• It is used in hard disk drives and magneto resistive RAM in computers, biosensors, automotive sensors, microelectromechanical systems, and medical imagers etc.

Graphene

• It is composed of monolayer of closely packed carbon atoms that form a hexagonal honeycomb lattice.
• It is the building-block of Graphite.
• It is the thinnest, most electrically and thermally conductive material in the world.
• It is also tremendously strong—about 200 times stronger than steel and flexible, as well as transparent.
• It is also known as a wonder material due to its vast potential in the energy and medical world.

Here’s why Visakhapatnam beaches are glowing a shimmering blue

Bioluminescence

• Bioluminescence occurs due to the presence of some marine planktons called dinoflagellates that produce light when the water is disturbed.
• These planktons emit light on the ocean surface at night.
• Bioluminescent is widespread among deep sea animals in general.
• Many marine creatures like sponges, jellyfish, worms, species of fish, anthropods, echinoderms and unicellular alga exhibit bioluminescence to either evade predators, attract prey or during mating.
• In Visakhapanam, this phenomenon is most likely the result of an algal bloom of the dinoflagellate species of noctiluca and ceratium.
• This occurs when the luciferase enzyme reacts with luciferin compound in the presence of oxygen to produce a cold light.
• This is widespread in lagoons and sometimes breakwaters and is particularly visible during warm weather conditions.
• The dinoflagellates follow a circadian cycle (24-hour cycle) and as a result this phenomenon occurs during the night which is visible in low light conditions.
• This unique phenomenon has been visible in some other beaches in India including Havelock Island in the Andamans, Thiruvanmiyur beach in Chennai, Mattu beach in Karnataka and Bangaram Island in Lakshadweep.

Planktons

• Plankton are a group of marine and freshwater organisms that drift along ocean currents because they are too small or weak to swim against them.
• Their name comes from the Greek word planktos which means “wandering.”
• The range in size from 2 micrometers to more than 20 centimeters.
• There are two types of plankton: phytoplankton, which are tiny plants, and zooplankton, which are tiny animals.

FAHD Minister , Shri Parshottam Rupala to launch “Animal Pandemic Preparedness Initiative (APPI)” under National One Health Mission

Animal Health System Support for One Health

• It is a collaborative project between the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying and the World Bank.
• It is aiming to create an ecosystem for a better animal health management system using the One Health approach.
• It will be implemented in five States and it envisages improving capacity building of stakeholders involved in animal health and disease management.
• Duration of the project: It will be implemented over a five-year period as Central sector scheme with a financial provision of Rs. 1228.70 Cr.
• The project calls for participation by Human Health, Forest and Environment Department at the national, regional as well as local for creating and strengthening the One Health architecture including community engagement.

Animal Pandemic Preparedness Initiative (APPI)

• The Department Animal Husbandry has conceived a focused framework of the for future animal pandemic and epidemics.
• Few key activities under APPI which are at different stages of execution are as follows:
• Defined joint investigation and outbreak response teams (National & state)
• Design an overall integrated disease surveillance system (built on National Digital Livestock Mission)
• Strengthening the Regulatory system (e.g., Nandi online portal and Field trial guidelines)

Gond painting from Madhya Pradesh receives GI tag

• It is a famous folk art of the Gond tribal community of central India.
• It is done to preserve and communicate the culture of the Gond tribal community.
• Themes: Gond tribes are highly interlinked with nature and this appears in their paintings too they include animals, mahua tree, mythological stories, Hindu gods, Local deities and folktales etc.
• Each Gond artist uses his distinctive pattern and style to fill the images these style signatures are used in collage to make a complete picture such as Dots, fine Lines, Curved Lines, Dashes Fish Scales etc.

Gond Tribe

• The Gonds are the largest tribal Community in India and can be traced to the pre-Aryan era.
• The word Gond comes from Kond, which means green mountains.
• They are a heterogeneous group spreading over large areas from the Godavari gorges in the south to the Vindhya Mountains in the north.
• They live in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, and Odisha.
• The majority speak various mutually unintelligible dialects of Gondi.

Denmark latest EU country to plan Energy Charter Treaty exit

• It provides a multilateral framework for energy cooperation that is unique under international law.
• It is designed to promote energy security through the operation of more open and competitive energy markets while respecting the principles of sustainable development and sovereignty over energy resources.
• It was signed in December 1994 and entered into legal force in April 1998.
• It also established the Energy Charter Conference, an inter-governmental organisation which meets on a regular basis to discuss issues affecting energy cooperation.
• There are currently 53 signatories and contracting parties to the ECT, including both the European Union and Euratom.
• The Treaty''s provisions focus on four broad areas:
  • the protection of foreign investments, based on the extension of national treatment, or most-favoured-nation treatment (whichever is more favourable) and protection against key non-commercial risks;
  • non-discriminatory conditions for trade in energy materials, products and energy-related equipment based on WTO rules and provisions to ensure reliable cross-border energy transit flows through pipelines, grids and other means of transportation;
  • the resolution of disputes between participating states, and - in the case of investments - between investors and host states;
  • the promotion of energy efficiency and attempts to minimise the environmental impact of energy production and use;

India’s tallest Ambedkar statue set for inauguration today

• Location: On the banks of Hussainsagar near the new Secretariat complex in Hyderabad.
• It is claimed to be the tallest statue in the country ever built for Dr B R Ambedkar.
• Height: It has an overall height of 175 feet, including a 50 feet high circular base resembling the edifice of the Parliament of India.
• The statue weighs 474 tonnes.
• Materials used:
  • 360 tonnes of stainless steel was used for building the armature structure of the statue.
  • 114 tonnes of bronze was used for the casting of the statue.
• Designers: It was designed by renowned sculptors Ram Vanji Sutar and his son Anil Ram Sutar of Ram Sutar Art Creations in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, who also designed several monumental sculptures, including the world’s tallest statue — the Statue of Unity (597 feet) of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in Gujarat.

Dr B R Ambedkar:

• He was an Indian jurist, economist, politician and social reformer.
• Name: Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar is popularly known as Babasaheb, meaning "respected father" in Marathi and Hindi.
• Ambedkar was born into a poor low Mahar (dalit) caste, who were treated as untouchables and subjected to socio-economic discrimination.
• He campaigned against social discrimination towards the untouchables.
• In 1930, Ambedkar launched the Kalaram Temple movement to enter Kalaram Temple.
• Poona Pact: It was an agreement made in 1932 between Ambedkar and Mahatma Gandhi on the reservation of electoral seats for the depressed classes.
• Architect of Constitution:
  • He was the architect of the Constitution of India by serving as the Chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee.
  • He was independent India''s first law and justice minister.
• In 1956, he converted to Buddhism initiating mass conversions of Dalits.
• In 1990, the Bharat Ratna was posthumously conferred upon Ambedkar.
• In honour of Ambedkar, Indian Constitution Day (National Law Day) is celebrated on 26 November.
• Political parties/groups formed by him:
  • Depressed Classes Federation (DCF) in 1930
  • Independent Labour Party (ILP) in 1936
  • Scheduled Castes Federation (SCF) in 1942
• Key Literary works:
  • Annihilation of Caste
  • Rande, Gandhi and Jinnah
  • Castes in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development
  • The Buddha and His Dhamma
  • Waiting for a Visa

Four Rafale jets for multilateral exercise Orion in France

Exercise Orion

• It is a multinational exercise hosted by the French government.
• It is reportedly the largest ever multinational exercise being carried out by the French defence forces which have involved their Army, Navy and Air Force.
• It includes ground troops, warships, aircraft carriers and combat aircraft and is meant to boost military cooperation and interoperability among participating nations.
• Besides the IAF and the FASF, Air Forces from Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, U.K. and U.S. would also be flying in this multilateral exercise.
• The IAF contingent will include four Rafale aircraft, two C-17, two IL-78 aircraft and 165 air warriors.
• This would be the first overseas exercise for the IAF''s Rafale aircraft.

DST Institute to partner Indian Navy in developing secure maritime communications using Quantum Technology

Raman Research Institute (RRI):

• It is an autonomous research institute engaged in research in basic sciences.
• Location: Bangalore
• The institute was founded in 1948 by the Indian physicist and Nobel Laureate Sir C V Raman, with funds from private sources.
• It was restructured in 1972 to become an aided autonomous institute receiving funds from the Department of Science and Technology of the Government of India.
• The institute is administered by a Governing Council.
• Today, the main areas of research at the Institute are Astronomy & Astrophysics, Light & Matter Physics, Soft Condensed Matter, and Theoretical Physics.

Quantum Technology

• It is based on the principles of Quantum mechanics (including quantum entanglement and quantum superposition) developed in the early 20th century to describe nature at the scale of atoms and elementary particles.
• Quantum entanglement is known to be the exchange of quantum information between two particles at a distance, while quantum superposition is known to be the uncertainty of a particle (or particles) being in several states at once (which could also involve the exchange of quantum information for a particle that is known to be in several locations simultaneously).

Amit Shah urges people to visit India''s ''first village'' Kibithoo in Arunachal Pradesh

• During his trip, the home minister had said that Kibithoo should not be termed as India''s last village but first village as the Sun''s rays fall first in this village in the country.

Kibithoo Village:

• Location: It is located in Anjaw district of Arunachal Pradesh.
• It lies on the right bank of the Lohit River.
• Elevation: 1305 meters.
• The Meyors tribe form bulk of its population.
• It is one of the most remote Circle Headquarters in Arunachal Pradesh and the only Circle Headquarters facing the border of India and China.
• It has also been the witness of the war between India and China in the year 1962.

Lohit River:

• It is the farthest east tributary of Brahmaputra River.
• Origin: Tirap Phasi Ranges located in the Eastern Tibet.
• It enters India via Kibithoo village lying at the border post in Arunachal Pradesh.
• The river after entering the country travels through Mishmi Hills of Anjaw and then move towards Lohit district.
• The river travels all along from Tibet to Arunachal Pradesh for about two hundred kilometers, before merging in Brahmaputra River, Assam.