1) Laïcité: Laïcité is the French idea of secularism.
- Freedom and Rights guaranteed by Laïcité
- Freedom of conscience for everyone like freedom to believe or not to believe, practice a religion, to be atheist, agnostic, etc.
- Neutrality of State, local authorities and public services, thereby ensuring their impartiality towards all citizens, regardless of their beliefs and convictions.
- Prohibition guaranteed by Laïcité
- In primary and secondary schools, it is forbidden for pupils to manifest ostensibly their religious affiliation by signs or clothes.
- In administration, public services etc., employees and agents are not allowed to manifest their religious, political or philosophical beliefs by signs, clothes or proselytism
2) Uranium enrichment: According to the IAEA report Iran has expanded stock of near-weapons grade uranium.
- Weapon-grade uranium is commonly considered to have been enriched above 90% U-235
- Uranium enrichment is a process to create an effective nuclear fuel out of mined uranium by increasing the percentage of uranium-235 (U-235).
- Uranium found in nature contains only 0.7% of the chain-reacting isotope U-235.
- Most nuclear reactors that produce electricity only require fuel that is enriched to between 3-5% U-235.
- Highly enriched uranium (HEU) is anything enriched above 20% U-235
3) Enhanced scope of UPI: RBI said the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) System will also include pre-sanctioned credit lines issued by banks for transactions.
- Pre-sanctioned credit line refers to a pre-approved borrowing limit that a borrower can obtain at any time.
- So far, only the deposited amount could be transacted through the UPI System.
- UPI facilitates immediate money transfer through mobile devices round the clock.
- Presently it handles 75% of the retail digital payments volume in India.
- Recently, RuPay credit cards were permitted to be linked to UPI.
4) Gujarat Declaration: WHO has released the outcome document of first WHO Traditional Medicine Global Summit 2023 in form of Gujarat Declaration.
- It reaffirmed global commitments towards indigenous knowledge, biodiversity and Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine.
- It serves as a catalyst to harness the potential of traditional medicine and focus on their integration in national health systems.
Places in News:
1) Vanuatu (Capital: Port-Vila)
- Political crisis has been witnessed in Vanuatu
- Political Boundaries
- Located in southwestern Pacific Ocean.
- It has a chain of 13 principal and many smaller islands located west of Fiji and east of Australia.
- Major Islands: Vanua Lava, Santa Maria (Gaua) in the Banks Islands group etc.
- Geographical features
- Physical features: Rugged mountains, high and low plateaus, rolling hills, coastal terraces and offshore coral reefs.
- Highest point: Tabwémasana.
- Major Rivers: Jordan and Sarakata
