1.K4 Missile

Why in News?

• India to test-fire 3,500 km range K-4 nuclear missile developed by DRDO for Arihant Class Submarines.

K4 Missile:

• K4 is an Intermediate range Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM).
• The series is named after former president and scientist A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.
• It is powered by solid rocket propellants and is considered to be highly accurate with a strike range of 3500 km.

2.Guardianship Act Prefers Father as Natural Guardian

Why in News?

• The Supreme Court sought the Centre’s response to a PIL which challenged the constitutional validity of the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act (HMGA), 1956. The family laws lacked a child-centric approach based on the idea of shared parenting.

Issue in Contention:

• Sections 6(a) and 7 of the Hindu Minorities and Guardianship Act, 1956 have been questioned on the grounds that they give primacy to the man and the secondary status to the woman, violating the Right to Equality.
• This allows exclusive custody of children to one parent(the father) after a marital separation. The PIL sought reforms to these laws and raised concerns about children going without the benefits of shared parenting.

3.ICC Judges approve an investigation into crimes against Myanmar’s Rohingya:

Why in News?

• International Criminal Court Judges have approved a request to open an investigation into crimes committed against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority.
• The Hague court said that it has jurisdiction over crimes partially committed in Bangladesh, which is a member state of the court.

International Criminal Court:

• It is an Intergovernmental Organization and International Tribunal that sits in The Hague, Netherlands.
• The ICC has Jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the International Crimes of Genocide, Crimes against Humanity, War Crimes, and Crimes of aggression.
• The ICC began functioning on 1 July 2002, the date that the Rome Statute entered into force. As of March 2019, there are 122 ICC member states. 42 states are non-party, non-signatory states.
• India has Not signed Rome Statute.
• The ICC has jurisdiction to prosecute individuals and is independent of United Nations (UN). But it may also receive case referrals from UN Security Council and can initiate prosecutions without UN action or referral.

4.Atal Tinkering Lab Marathon-2018:

Why in News?

• A group of selected student innovators of the Atal Tinkering Lab Marathon-2018, called on President Ram Nath Kovind.

About Atal Innovation Mission:

• Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) is aimed to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in the country.
• AIM’s objective is to develop new programmes and policies for fostering innovation in different sectors of the economy, provide platform and collaboration opportunities for different stakeholders, create awareness
• AIM also strives to create an umbrella structure to oversee innovation ecosystem of the country.
• Major initiatives of AIM: Atal Tinkering Labs, Atal Incubation Centres, Atal New India Challenges, Mentor India Campaign, Atal Community Innovation Centre and Atal Tinkering Lab Marathon.

5.China’s Economy shows Further Signs of Strain:

Why in News?

• A sharp slowdown in consumer spending, factory production and poor investment growth following the trade war with the US, showed signs of strain in Chinese economy.

Crisis face by China:

• Beijing is battling a tariffs row with the United States, as well as a weak global outlook. And it is also trying to control a high level of debt at home.
• China was facing a “complex international economic situation” with downward pressure on the domestic economy. Analysts also warned of more headwinds for the world’s number two economy.

6.Japanese Spacecraft starts Year-Long Journey home from Asteroid

Why in News?

• Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft started its year-long journey home after successfully completing its mission to bring back soil samples and data from the asteroid Ryugu.

Highlights:

• The asteroid Ryugu is about 300 million kilometres from Earth.
• The soil samples and data collected is believed to provide clues to the origins of the solar system.

7. Global Cooling Prize

Why in News?

• The Union Minister for Science & Technology, Earth Sciences and Health & Family Welfare to announce the Global Cooling Prize.

Global Cooling Prize (GCP):

• In 2018, the Ministry of Science & Technology instituted a new prize for innovative cooling technologies that could reduce the climate impact of Residential Air Conditioning (RAC) at least by five times, called the Global Cooling Prize, under the Mission Innovation (MI) programme.
• The award carries a total prize money of $3 million.
• The GCP was launched by the Department of Science & Technology (DST – Under the S&T Ministry), in partnership with the Bureau of Energy Efficiency and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, jointly with Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI).
• The RMI is an independent non-profit research institute and think tank founded in 1982 in the US.
• GCP aims to spur development of a residential cooling solution that has at least five times less climate impact than today’s standard products.
• India has proposed to support this innovation prize with a grant up to $2 million, which would fund the India-based teams in developing working prototypes of their innovative cooling technology designs including model energy efficient building.
• GCP received 139 applications from 31 countries around the globe from innovators, start-ups, research institutes, universities, and key AC industry manufacturers, out of which the maximum (45) are from India.
• Mission Innovation (MI) is a global initiative of 24 countries and the European Union to accelerate global clean energy innovation.
• MI identified “Affordable Heating and Cooling of Building Innovation Challenge” as one of the seven innovation challenges.

8. National Agrochemicals Congress

Why in News?

• The Union Agriculture Minister inaugurated the first-ever National Agrochemicals Congress in New Delhi.

National Agrochemicals Congress:

• The Congress is conducted in view of the relevance chemical pesticides still continue to play in pest management as more and more target specific and environment-friendly products are being introduced.
• It is being held in New Delhi in November 2019.
• The benefits of pesticide use are high relative to their risks.
• New concepts in crops, human health, resource management, nanotechnology, smart formulations and related sciences are likely to boost agricultural productivity.
• With this background, current status of agrochemicals on various fronts will be collated for researchers and policymakers in order to ensure agriculture grow in a sustainable manner.

9. Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure

Why in News?

• At the Leaders’ Dialogue with BRICS Business Council and New Development Bank (NDB), the Prime Minister requests the BRICS countries and the NDB to join the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure.

Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI):

• In September 2019, PM Modi launched the CDRI at the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Action Summit in New York, US.
• The fledgling partnership has a secretariat in Delhi, supported by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), to enable knowledge exchange, technical support and capacity building.
• CDRI’s mission is to rapidly expand the development of resilient infrastructure and retrofit existing infrastructure for resilience, and to enable a measurable reduction in infrastructure losses.
• The partnership will be working in the areas of governance and policy, emerging technology, risk identification and estimation, recovery and reconstruction, resilience standards and certification, finance, and capacity development.
• CDRI is bringing together developed and developing countries to build synergies to reach the goal of disaster-resilient infrastructure.
• The World Bank and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) expressed support for CDRI and committed to working closely with its secretariat in Delhi.
• The formation of the Coalition is the result of efforts by India and UNDRR.
• Other Founding Members of CDRI:
• Australia
• Bhutan
• Fiji
• Indonesia
• Italy
• Japan
• Maldives
• Mexico
• Mongolia
• Rwanda
• Sri Lanka
• The UK

New Development Bank:

• The New Development Bank (NDB), formerly referred to as the BRICS Development Bank, is a multilateral development bank operated by the BRICS states.
• It is based in Shanghai.
• The bank’s primary focus of lending will be infrastructure projects with authorized lending of up to $34 billion annually.
• South Africa will be the African Headquarters of the Bank named the “New Development Bank Africa Regional Centre”.