15 May 2024,The Indian EXPRESS
Solar flares behind aurora were captured by Chandrayaan-2 orbiter, Aditya-L1: ISRO
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GS3- Awareness in the fields of Space
- While most of India did not get to see the Aurora lights visible in many parts of the world recently, the solar flares that caused it were seen by Indian ground stations, the spacecraft Aditya-L1 studying the Sun from a point 1.5 million km away, and the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter circling the moon.
- The colourful lights in the night sky are a result of the charged particles ejected by the Sun hitting the gases in Earth’s upper atmosphere. Usually, these particles travel along the Earth’s magnetic fields, reaching the poles where the vibrant colours are seen.
- But, during a geomagnetic storm, like the one witnessed recently, the magnetic fields may break and allow the particles to reach the upper atmosphere.
Home Ministry extends ban on LTTE by 5 years: ‘Threat to India’
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GS3- Role of External State and Non-state Actors in creating challenges to Internal Security
- The Union Home Ministry on Tuesday extended the ban on the LTTE by five more years for fostering a separatist tendency among the masses and enhancing the support base for it in the country, particularly in Tamil Nadu, besides threatening the territorial integrity of India.
- The Centre has imposed the ban invoking the sub-sections (1) and (3) of section 3 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
Advocates can’t be held liable for deficiency under consumer Act: SC
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GS2- Statutory, Regulatory and various Quasi-judicial Bodies
- The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that advocates cannot be held liable for deficiency of service under the Consumer Protection Act and opined that the top court’s 1995 ruling which held that doctors and other medical professionals can be held liable under the 1986 Act should be revisited.
- A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal said the legislature never intended to bring the services rendered by lawyers under the purview of the Consumer Protection Act, as re-enacted in 2019, overruling a 2007 judgment of the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission which held that the services provided by lawyers are covered under section 2 (o) of the Consumer Protection Act 1986.
Looking West
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GS2- Effect of Policies and Politics of Developed and Developing Countries on India’s interests
- The 2003 visit to Delhi by the then-president Syed Mohammad Khatami was hailed as a landmark moment for India-Iran ties.
- The centrepiece of the slew of agreements was cooperation on the development of Chabahar Port, which could open up access to the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, Central Asia and Europe.
- In the 21 years since, as animosity deepened between Washington and Tehran, and Delhi grew closer to the former, the development of the port slowed down.
- Since 2015 — to the credit of the current government — there has been consistent forward movement.
- While the coordination between Iran, India and Afghanistan may have been dampened by the Taliban’s return in Kabul, the strategic importance of Chabahar is intact.
New FLiRT variant of the Covid virus- should you worry?
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GS3- Awareness in the fields of Bio-technology
- The new coronavirus variant called KP.2 — nicknamed FLiRT — that has been linked to rising cases of Covid-19 in the United States, United Kingdom, and South Korea, has been in circulation in India since November 2023, genomic surveillance data show.
- About 250 KP.2 sequences have been reported so far by INSACOG, the country’s genome sequencing consortium.
What is GPT-4o, OpenAI’s latest, most powerful AI model yet
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GS3- Awareness in the fields of IT
- OpenAI introduced its latest large language model (LLM) called GPT-4o on Monday (May 13), billing it as their fastest and most powerful AI model so far.
- The company claims that the new model will make ChatGPT smarter and easier to use.
- Until now, OpenAI’s most advanced LLM was the GPT-4, which was only available to paid users.
- However, the GPT-4o will be freely available.
Heatwaves and climate change
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GS3- Disaster and Disaster Management
- The extreme heat in parts of eastern and southern India this April has been attributed to climate change.
- A new study has said that the abnormally high temperatures were made about 45 times more likely by climate change.
- In other words, if there was no climate change, it would be extremely unlikely that such abnormally high temperatures would be recorded at that time.
India volatility index rallies: what does it mean for investors?
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GS3- Indian Economy and issues relating to Planning, Mobilization of Resources, Growth, Development
- India VIX, which is an indicator of the market’s expectation of volatility over the near term, surged past the 21 mark on Tuesday (May 14).
- The rise shows that fear among traders or market participants on the expected volatility is more now, as compared to 15 days earlier.
- Currently, the fear among the market players is coming from the outcome of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
AI breathes new life to Google’s platforms
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GS3-Awareness in the fields of IT
- Google kicked off its annual developer conference Tuesday in Mountain View, California, with a more aggressive artificial intelligence strategy incorporated into its most popular products.
- Alphabet’s Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai had a strong message for the thousands of developers and coders he addressed at a packed Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California, just down the road from Google’s headquarters, assuring them that the company is still innovating at breakneck speed by putting AI at the forefront of nearly every service and product it ships.
