Twitter bans ads which deny climate change

• Twitter’s announcement on Earth Day is part of an attempt to curb climate change disinformation campaigns on its network.
• Twitter has said that climate denialism shouldn’t be monetised on the platform and that “misrepresentative ads shouldn’t detract from important conversations about the climate crisis”.
• In 2019, Twitter shared plans to achieve 100 percent carbon-neutral power sourcing in their data centres by the end of 2022.

Google’s announcement of similar policy

• In October 2021, tech giant Google had done something similar when it announced a new monetisation policy for Google advertisers, publishers and YouTube creators.
• Google’s policy prohibits ads for, and monetization of, content that contradicts “well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change”.

IPS officer Rashmi Shukla is facing an FIR in Mumbai and is being probed for allegedly tapping the phones of Rajya Sabha MP Raut

• Section 5(2) says that “on the occurrence of any public emergency, or in the interest of the public safety”, phone tapping can be done by the Centre or states if they are satisfied it is necessary in the interest of “public safety”, “sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State.
• There is an exception for the press: “press messages intended to be published in India of correspondents accredited to the Central Government or a State Government shall not be intercepted or detained, unless their transmission has been prohibited under this sub-section”.

Who can tap phones?

• In the states, police have the powers to tap phones.
• At the Centre, 10 agencies are authorised to do so: Intelligence Bureau, CBI, Enforcement Directorate, Narcotics Control Bureau, Central Board of Direct Taxes, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, National Investigation Agency, R&AW, Directorate of Signal Intelligence, and the Delhi Police Commissioner.
• Tapping by any other agency would be considered illegal.
• Rule 419A of the Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Rules, 2007, says phone tapping orders “shall not be issued except by an order made by the Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of Home Affairs in the case of Government of India and by the Secretary to the State Government in-charge of the Home Department in the case of a State Government”.
• The order has to conveyed to the service provider in writing; only then can the tapping begin.

Indomethacin drugs show efficacy in the treatment of mild and moderate COVID-19 patients

• The drug, indomethacin, is widely used to treat various types of inflammation-related conditions.
• Indomethacin is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug available as capsules and a liquid suspension, to be taken orally.
• Indomethacin works by stopping the body’s production of a substance that causes pain, fever, and inflammation. It is used to relieve moderate to severe pain, tenderness, swelling, and stiffness caused by various kinds of arthritis, and pain in the shoulder caused by inflammation.

What makes blue straggler stars tick

• For this, the researchers also made use of the observations by the UVIT instrument (Ultra Violet Imaging Telescope) of ASTROSAT, India’s first science observatory in space.
• A blue straggler is a main-sequence star in an open or globular cluster that is more luminous and bluer than stars at the main sequence turnoff point for the cluster.
• Blue stragglers were first discovered by Allan Sandage in 1953 while performing photometry of the stars in the globular cluster M3.

why a blue straggler is more massive, and energetic, than expected may be resolved in several ways:

• One, that these do not belong to the family of stars in the cluster, and hence are not expected to have the group properties. But if they actually belong, the evasive behaviour is due to these stars gaining mass from a binary companion.
• Second, the straggler draws matter from the giant companion and grows more massive, hot and blue, and the red giant ends up as a normal or smaller white dwarf.
• The third possibility is that the straggler draws matter from a companion star, but that there is a third star that facilitates this process.
• The IIAP researchers have shown evidence that supports the second of the hypotheses listed above.

Govt to raise number of Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Kendras to ten thousand by March 2024

• The government has invited applications to open Janaushadhi Kendras in three thousand five hundred 79 Blocks of four hundred six districts of 26 States and Union Territories.
• It highlighted that under the scheme, seven hundred 39 districts of the country have been covered and eight thousand six hundred ten stores have been opened till the last month.
• The Ministry said that about fifteen thousand crore rupees have been saved of the general public under this scheme.
• The Ministry said that new applications have been invited to cover five hundred 79 blocks of 406 districts. It said that any Individuals, Unemployed Pharmacist, Government nominated agencies, NGO’s, Trust and Societies can apply for PMBJK.

GO 111, the order to protect Hyderabad’s Osman Sagar and Himayat Sagar

• On March 8, 1996, the government of erstwhile (undivided) Andhra Pradesh had issued ‘Government Order (GO) 111’ prohibiting development or construction works in the catchment area of the Osman Sagar and Himayat Sagar lakes up to a radius of 10 km.
• The GO prohibited the setting up of industries, residential colonies, hotels, etc. which cause pollution. The aim of the restrictions was to protect the catchment area, and to keep the reservoirs pollution-free.
• The reservoirs were created by building dams on the Musi (also known as Moosa or Muchkunda) river, a major tributary of the Krishna, to protect Hyderabad from floods.
• Osman Sagar was completed in 1921, and Himayat Sagar in 1927.