NATIONAL

Prime Minister innaugurates Indian Space Association

• Prime Minister launched Indian Space Association through video conferencing and interacted with the Space Industries.

About Indian Space Association

1. It is the Premier Industry Association of Space and Satellite companies, which aspires to be the collective voice of the Indian Space industry.
2. Its founding members include Larson & Toubro, Nelco (Tata Group), OneWeb, Bharti Airtel, Mapmyindia, Walchandnagar Industries and Ananth Technology Limited, Other core members include Godrej, Hughes India, Azista-BST Aerospace Private Limited, BEL, Centum Electronics, Maxar India.
3. It will undertake policy advocacy and engage with all stakeholders in the Indian Space domain, including the Government and its agencies.

Indian Railways operated two Long Haul freight trains

• Indian Railways has successfully operated two long haul freight trains “Trishul" and “Garuda" for the first time over South Central Railway(SCR). Long haul trains, which are twice or multiple times longer than the normal composition of freight trains, provide a very effective solution to the problem of capacity constraints in critical sections.
• Trishul is SCR’s first long haul comprising of three freight trains, i.e., 177 wagons. This train was started on 07.10.2021 from Kondapalli station of Vijayawada division to Khurda division of East Coast Railway.
• Another SCR Garuda was started on 08.10.2021 from Raichur of Guntakal division to Manuguru of Secunderabad division. In both the cases the long haul trains comprised of empty open wagons for loading of coal meant for predominantly thermal power stations.

National Green Tribunal empowered to take suo-moto

• The Supreme Court declared that the National Green Tribunal is vested with suo-moto powers to take cognizance on the basis of letters, representations and media reports.
• A bench comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar, Hrishikesh Roy and CT Ravikumar delivered the judgment on a batch of petitions which raised the issue whethher NGT has suo motu jurisdiction.
• The judgement described NGT as complimentary, competent, specialised forum to deal with all environmental multidisciplinary issues both as original and also an appellate authority.

INTERNATIONAL

World’s biggest polluter opens a Key Summit tasked in protecting biodiversity

• A key UN summit tasked with protecting biodiversity opened in China and online on Monday, as countries meet to protect ecosystems and prevent mass extinction weeks before the COP26 climate conference.
• The online summit — setting the stage for a face-to-face meeting in April — will see parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) discuss new targets for protecting ecosystems by 2030.
• Up for debate are the “30 by 30” plan to give 30% of land and oceans protected status by 2030 — a measure supported by a broad coalition of nations, as well as a goal to halve the use of chemicals in agriculture and stop creating plastic waste.

Noble Prize awarded for economists

• U.S based economist David Card was awarded with Noble prize for economics, he pioneered research that showed increase in minimum wage and does not lead to less hiring.
• The prize was shared with Joshua Angrist from U.S and Guido Imbens for their work studying issues that cannot rely on traditional scientific methods.

MISCELLANEOUS

Oct 12 is observed as National Savings day.

Oct 12 is observed as World Arthritis day to raise awarness.