22 June 2016

Maharashtra Government grants minority status to Jews

Maharashtra Government has accorded minority status to Jews in the state as per the provisions of the Maharashtra State Minorities Commission Act, 2004. Decision in this regard was taken at the state cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in Mumbai. With this, Maharashtra becomes second state in the country to accord minority status to Jews after West Bengal.

 Key Facts

•  As per the 2001 population census, there are 4,650 Jews in the country of whom 2,466 are based in Maharashtra. 
• With minority status, the Jews in the state can be counted independently as a religious minority along with Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs, Parsis and Jains. 
• The status will now make the community eligible to avail various development schemes that the state launches for the minority community.
•  The community will now get benefits of merit-cum-means scholarship, post-matric scholarship, pre-matric scholarship, coaching and allied schemes and multi-sectoral development programme that the government runs for minorities. 
• Educational institutes run by Jews now will be eligible to get benefit of minority status including reserving seats for members of their own community.

NASA discovers K2-33b, youngest exoplanet around a young star

Astronomers using NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope (KST) have discovered a newborn fully-formed exoplanet dubbed as K2-33b. 

K2-33b is only five to 10 million years old which makes it one of a very few newborn planets found so far.

 Key Facts 

• K2-33b is just 5 to 10 million years old compared to Earth which is about 4.5 billion years old. 
• It is little larger than Neptune and is about 10 times closer than Mercury is to the sun.
•  It is locked into a tight orbit around its star and only takes about five days to complete a lap around its host star.
•  Significance of Discovery: The newborn planet K2-33b will help astronomers to better understand how planets form. 
• It will also help in better understanding the processes that led to the formation of Earth. 
• So far astronomers have discovered and confirmed roughly 3,000 exoplanets. However, nearly all of them are hosted by middle-aged stars, with ages of a billion years or more.

Aadhaar to be linked with caste, domicile certificates

Union Government has asked all state governments to link Aadhaar with caste and domicile certificates to be issued to school students. It is the first-of-its-kind initiative to be undertaken by Union Government to issue these certificates to the students within 60 days when they are studying in Class V or VIII. 

Key facts

 Union Government is seeking support of state governments to link Aadhaar with caste and domicile certificates to curb harassment faced by citizens to obtain these certificates. It will also help to timely grant of scholarship to students belonging to the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) without any delays. State government may also try to get the information of students if feasible to fed it into the meta data to be made online that may be further linked to Aadhaar enabled data.

Russia signs deal to build Hyperloop in Moscow

·   This makes Moscow Hyperloop's fourth engineering site after Finland, the UK and the US.

·   Hyperloop One is making vacuum pods that can travel upto 1,200 km/h

· Hyperloop One signed a deal with Russia's investment firm Summa Group to build a 70-kilometre high-speed transportation system in Moscow at a cost of $450 million to $607 million.

A Life in Diplomacy authored by MK Rasgotra

·        The book titled A Life in Diplomacy was in news in the third week of June 2016. The book was written by former Indian diplomat MaharajakrishnaRasgotra.

·        It is an insider's account of the personalities and policies that shaped Indian diplomacy.

·        The book provides a ringside view of the beginnings of ethnic violence in Sri Lanka, the last years of the Cold War, the negotiations on the formation of SAARC, Indira Gandhi's assassination and the Bhopal gas disaster.

ISRO launches record 20 satellites in a mission

·        The Indian Space Research Organisation launched a record 20 satellites in a single mission from the SatishDhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.


·        The satellites included Cartosat-2 series satellite for earth observation and 19 co-passenger satellites from US, Canada, Germany, Indonesia and two Indian academic institutions.



·        The launch was made using ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.