1. World Red Cross Day
Tags: Important Days
World Red Cross Day also known as Red Crescent Day is celebrated on May 8 every year.
The day marks the birth anniversary of Henry Dunant, the founder of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
He is also a Nobel Peace Prize winner. He was born on May 8, 1828.
This day is celebrated by the Red Cross Society in all countries.
It works for the welfare of people.
The World Red Cross Society provides food and other aid to people in natural disasters, wars, as well as diseases and epidemics.
Theme : 2022 - ‘BeHumanKind’
History of the day
The first Red Cross Day was celebrated on 8 May 1948.
In 1946, during the Second World War, the Tokyo Resolution was implemented.
The resolution to celebrate World Red Cross Day annually was adopted on 8 May 1948, the birth anniversary of Henry Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross.
In 1984 it was officially named "World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day".
Principles of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
To stop and end suffering for every human being
Impartiality
Neutrality
Independence
Voluntary Service
Unity and Universality
2. NASA Climate Research Scientist Cynthia Rosenzweig Wins World Food Prize 2022
Recently the World Food Prize Foundation announced the name of Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig from the United States of America as the winner of the World Food Prize 2022.
Rosenzweig was awarded this prize for his research 'Understanding the relationship between climate and food systems and how both will change and forecast in the future'.
The purpose of the World Food Prize is to recognize the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world.
In the year 2021, the award was won by Dr. Shakuntala Harak Singh Thilstad, a leading nutritionist and in the year 2020, the award was won by Dr. Ratan Lal, an Indian American soil scientist.
About World Food Prize
The World Food Prize Prize was conceived in 1970 by Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Norman E. Borlaug for his work in global agriculture.
The World Food Prize was instituted in 1986.
It is also known as the "Nobel Prize for Food and Agriculture".
Dr. M.S. Swaminathan who is known as the father of Green Revolution in India was the first person to receive this award in the year 1987.
The award is presented each year in October on or around United Nations World Food Day (16 October).
The prize winner is presented with a sculpture designed by renowned artist and designer, Saul Bass, in addition to a cash prize of US$ 250,000.
The World Food Prize Foundation is located in Des Moines, USA.
3. Myanmar court sentences Suu Kyi to 5 years in jail for corruption
Tags: Popular International News
A court in military-ruled Myanmar found deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi guilty of corruption and sentenced her to five years in jail.
The case was the first of 11 corruption charges against the Nobel laureate, each carrying a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.
A Myanmar junta court accused the 76-year-old leader of accepting a bribe of $600,000 cash and gold bars.
He has already been sentenced to six years in prison in other cases and is facing 10 more corruption charges.
Suu Kyi has been under house arrest since February 2021, when a military coup toppled her elected government.
About Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi born on June 19, 1945, Rangoon, Burma is politician and opposition leader of Myanmar.
She was the winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1991.
She has held several government positions since 2016, including that of state counsellor, which essentially made her the de facto leader of the country.
She was sidelined when the military seized power in February 2021.
4. Pritzker Architecture Prize 2022
Tags: Awards
Diebedo Francis Kere of Burkina Faso has become the first African and the first black person to be awarded architecture’s highest international honour, the 2022 Pritzker Architecture Prize.
The Pritzker Architecture prize is considered the Nobel Prize of architecture.
The award consists of $100,000 (US) and a bronze medallion.
In 2018, Indian architect Balkrishna Vithaldas won this award.
About the Pritzker Prize
Founded in 1979 by Jay A. Pritzker and his wife Cindy, the award is funded by the Pritzker family and sponsored by the Hyatt Foundation.
It is given every year.
5. American Mathematician Dennis Parnell Sullivan wins Abel Prize 2022
Tags: Awards Person in news
American Mathematician Dennis Parnell Sullivan is awarded the Abel Prize for the year 2022, by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.
Mr Sullivan is affiliated with the Graduate School and University Centre of the City University of New York and the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
He is awarded for his groundbreaking contributions to topology in its broadest sense, and in particular its algebraic, geometric and dynamical aspect.
Topology is a field of mathematics which was born in the 19th century and has to do with properties of surfaces that do not change when they are deformed.
His another key breakthrough is in developing a new way of understanding rational homotopy theory
About Abel Prize
The Abel Prize is a prize awarded annually by the King of Norway to one or more outstanding mathematicians. It is named after Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel (1802–1829) and directly modelled after the Nobel Prizes. It comes with a monetary award of 7.5 million Norwegian kroner (NOK).
First Awarded - 2003
Indian American mathematician SR Srinivasa Varadhan, who is known for his fundamental contributions to probability theory and in particular for creating a unified theory of large deviations, was awarded the Abel Prize in 2007.
6. International Days of Forest
Tags: Important Days
Every year 21 March is celebrated as the International Days of Forest. It has been observed since 2012. The International Day of Forests was established in 2012 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
The Theme of the International Forest Days 2022: “Forests and sustainable production and consumption”.
For details about forests in India see 13 January 2022 Post.
Important for Exam
Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO)
- It is a specialised agency of the United Nations .
- It was set up on 16 October 1945.
- Its Headquarters : Rome,Italy
- It was conferred with the Nobel Peace Prize 2020
7. IPCC warns of irreversible impact of global climate change
Tags: Popular Science and Technology
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned of a grim future for earth if global warming continues and the global temperatures continue to increase beyond 1.5% .
The latest warnings have come in the second part of IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report which talks about climate change impacts, risks and vulnerabilities, and adaptation options. The first part of the report was released in August last year.
The Assessment Reports, the first of which had come out in 1990, are the most comprehensive evaluations of the state of the earth’s climate. Later reports were released in 1995,2001,2007 and 2015.
The report highlights the increasing impacts that are expected as the rise in global temperatures, currently around 1.1C, heads to 1.5Cabove the 1850s level.
Highlights of the report
South Asia is the most vulnerable to severe climate change impacts due to its inequality and poverty .
The Ganga, Indus, Amu Darya river basins in Asia will face severe water scarcity by 2050.It will adversely affect agriculture and drinking water scarcity in the region .
Ahmedabad city faces a risk of urban heat island effect . It means that the average temperature in the city will be higher than the surrounding areas.
Mumbai is at a high risk of rising sea level and consequent flooding
If the temperature increases by 1-4 degree centigrade then rice production in the world can fall by 10-30% and maize production can fall by 25-70%.
If temperatures rise to between 1.7 and 1.8C above the 1850s level, then the report states that half the human population could be exposed to periods of life-threatening climatic conditions arising from heat and humidity.
Rising Sea Level
According to the IPCC report, global sea levels will likely rise 44-76 cm this century if governments meet their current emission-cutting pledges. With faster emission cuts, the increase could be limited to 28-55 cm.
But with higher emissions, and if ice sheets collapse more quickly than expected, sea levels could rise as much as 2 m this century and 5 m by 2150.
Wet Bulb Temperature
Lucknow and Patna ,Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Mumbai, Indore, and Ahmedabad , are among the cities predicted to reach wet-bulb temperature of 35°C if emissions continue to rise.
Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab will be the most severely affected, but if emissions keep rising, all States will have regions that experience wet-bulb temperature of 30°C or more by the end of the century.
IPCC
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was set up by the World Meteorological Organisation and the United Nation Environment Programme in 1988.
Aim of IPCC
It was set up to prepare a comprehensive review and recommendations with respect to
- the state of knowledge of the science of climate change;
- social and economic impact of climate change,
- potential response strategies and elements for inclusion in a possible future international convention on climate.
Its Headquarters : Geneva, Switzerland
Current Chairman : Hoesung Lee
It shared Nobel Peace Prize with the former American Vice-President Al Gore in 2007
Concept Clearing
What is Wet Bulb Temperature
Human body regulates our body temperature depending upon the external environment of heat and humidity. If the temperature is high then our body tries to lower down our body temperature by sweating. The more we sweat the faster the cooling. However if humidity (water vapour in air ) is high then the ability of our body to cool also reduces . That’s why dry heat feels more tolerable than extreme humidity.
Wet-bulb temperature accounts for both heat and humidity, and reflects what that combination means for the human body’s ability to cool down.
The term wet bulb comes from a way the measurement can be taken, by wrapping a piece of wet cloth around the end of a thermometer to see how much evaporation can decrease the temperature.
35 degree centigrade is considered to be the maximum limit for a wet bulb temperature.
If the wet bulb temperature reaches 35 degree centigrade then a normal healthy human being cannot lose its body heat by sweating and will suffer heat stroke leading to death if they remain outdoors for a considerable period of time.
With the continuous rise in earth temperature the risk of wet bulb temperature phenomena is expected to become common.
8. National Science Day
Tags: Important Days
Every year February 28 is celebrated as National Science Day in India .
- On this day, in 1928, Indian Physicist Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman made an important discovery in the field of spectroscopy, which was later named after him – the Raman Effect.
- For his work, CV Raman was awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930.
- Theme of this year's National Science Day : 'Integrated Approach in Science and Technology for Sustainable Future'.
9. World Radio Days
Tags: Important Days
13 February is celebrated around the world as “World Radio Days”.
The United Nation General Assembly declared 13 February as “World Radio Days” in 2012.
The theme of the 2022 edition of World Radio Day is "Radio and Trust".
Facts
In the 1860s ,Scottish Physicist James Clerk Maxwell predicted the existence of radio waves.
In 1886, German Physicist Heinrich Hertz demonstrated the existence of electromagnetic waves as predicted by Maxwell.
American dentist and inventor Mahlon Loomis in 1866 successfully demonstrated wireless telegraphy .
- Guglielmo Marconi: An Italian inventor who proved radio communication. He sent and received the first radio signal in Italy in 1895. He is credited as the inventor of Radio in the world . He received the Nobel prize of Physics in 1909 with Karl Braun "in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy".
10. WFP will handle Indian wheats in Afghanistan
Tags: International News
The Indian Government has signed an agreement with the United Nations World Food Programme((WFP)) for the distribution of 50,000 tonnes of wheat ,which will be supplied by India to Afghanistan as a humanitarian assistance .
India has committed to supply 50,000 tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan free of cost through Pakistan’s land route.
Last year on October 7, India proposed to supply wheat to Afghanistan through the Pakistan road route and Pakistan agreed to it .
India has also committed to provide Rs 200 crore for development assistance to Afghanistan.
Earlier, India has also supplied six tonnes of medicine and 5 lakh doses of Covid vaccine out of the total 10 lakh vaccines promised by India to Afghanistan.
India does not recognise the Taliban government in Afghanistan which came to power after the Ashraf Ghani government fled from Kabul on 5 August 2020. Whatever assistance is provided by the Indian government to Afghanistan is through a neutral partylike the UN or its agencies.
WFP
The World Food Programme(WFP) is the largest humanitarian agency of the United Nation.
It provides food to people displaced by conflicts and made destitute by disasters.
It provides food to children in poor countries through school feeding programmes
It helps countries and communities to prepare and cope with climate related changes.
It helps the small farmers in improving productivity.
WFP headquarters : Rome
It was founded in 1961
It won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020.
Chairman : David Beasley
