Antarctica's Ross Sea declared as world’s largest Marine Protected Area

• The world’s largest marine protected area (MPA) has been established in Antarctica’s Ross Sea.

• A 1.55 million km area of the Ross Sea will have special protection from human activities such as commercial fishing.

Electroactive Bandage

• The NASA has developed a new high-tech electroactive bandage that uses electricity to significantly promote healing of injured wounds. 
• The high-tech bandage creates an electric charge to promote the healing process of wounds in space especially in conditions of non-Earth gravity. Need In conditions of non-Earth gravity, human blood displays quite different behaviour from that on Earth. 

Nuclear Suppliers Group

• The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) is a group of nuclear supplier countries that seeks to contribute to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons through the implementation of two sets of Guidelines for nuclear exports and nuclear-related exports.

The Wassenaar Arrangement

• The Wassenaar Arrangement has been established in order to contribute to regional and international security and stability, by promoting transparency and greater responsibility in transfers of conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies, thus preventing destabilising accumulations. The aim is also to prevent the acquisition of these items by terrorists.

• Participating States seek, through their national policies, to ensure that transfers of these items do not contribute to the development or enhancement of military capabilities which undermine these goals, and are not diverted to support such capabilities.

Tropical Cyclone Naming

Historical Background

• The practice of naming storms (tropical cyclones) began years ago in order to help in the quick identification of storms in warning messages because names are presumed to be far easier to remember than numbers and technical terms. Many agree that appending names to storms makes it easier for the media to report on tropical cyclones, heightens interest in warnings and increases community preparedness.

• Experience shows that the use of short, distinctive given names in written as well as spoken communications is quicker and less subject to error than the older more cumbersome latitude-longitude identification methods. These advantages are especially important in exchanging detailed storm information between hundreds of widely scattered stations, coastal bases, and ships at sea.

UDAY

• Min. of Power has launched Ujwal Discom Assurance Scheme (UDAY)
• India generates surplus power but the practical experience of Indians is that scheduled and unscheduled power cuts are the norm in cities, and the situation in most rural areas is worse.India lags far behind other countries in per capita consumption of power

• The explanation for this situation lies in the state of the state-owned power distribution companies, or discoms, which are responsible for buying electricity from the generation companies and selling them to consumers. The discoms suffer massive transmission and distribution (T&D) losses. Almost 25 per cent of the power is lost, and never gets billed for — double the global average of about 12 per cent.

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2015

Highlights of the Code

• The Code creates time-bound processes for insolvency resolution of companies and individuals. These processes will be completed within 180 days. If insolvency cannot be resolved, the assets of the borrowers may be sold to repay creditors.

• The resolution processes will be conducted by licensed insolvency professionals (IPs). These IPs will be members of insolvency professional agencies (IPAs). IPAs will also furnish performance bonds equal to the assets of a company under insolvency resolution.

• Information utilities (IUs) will be established to collect, collate and disseminate financial information to facilitate insolvency resolution.