- International Coral Reef Initiative: It was launched in 1994 by Australia, France, Japan, Jamaica, the Philippines, Sweden, Britain and the United States. Its members now include 45 countries that represent three quarters of the world’s coral reefs. India is also a member country of this initiative. It is a global partnership between Nations and organizations which strives to preserve coral reefs and related ecosystems around the world. Its decisions are not binding on its members. The work of ICRI is regularly acknowledged in United Nations documents, highlighting the Initiative’s important cooperation, collaboration and advocacy role within the international arena.
- United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime: It is a multinational treaty against transnational organized crime that was established by the United Nations in 2000. It is often known as the Palermo Convention. The UNTOC has a total of 147 signatories and 190 parties to the convention. The Convention is further supplemented by three Protocols: The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children; The Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air; and The Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, their Parts and Components and Ammunition. India signed the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) and its three Protocols on December 12, 2002.The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is the nodal agency for all dealings with UNTOC.
- Exercise SAMPRITI: India and Bangladesh commenced the 11th edition of exercise SAMPRITI in Umroi, Meghalaya.It is an annual joint military exercise between India and Bangladesh. It was started in Jorhat, Assam in 2009, the exercise has witnessed ten successful editions till 2022.This exercise, alternatingly organised by both countries, signifies strong bilateral defence cooperation initiatives. SAMPRITI-XI, scheduled for 14 days, will engage approximately 350 personnel from both sides.
- Attosecond: This year’s Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to three physicists for their research into attosecond pulses of light. An attosecond is an astonishingly short unit of time, equivalent to one quintillionth of a second (1×10−18 of a second) or one-billionth of a nanosecond. To put this into perspective, if a second were stretched to cover the entire age of the universe, which is approximately 13.8 billion years, an attosecond would be just a fraction of a second. The fundamental significance of attoseconds in physics lies in their ability to shed light on phenomena that were previously hidden from our view. These extremely short time intervals are relevant in the fields of ultrafast optics and laser physics, particularly when studying the behavior of electrons within atoms and molecules. Attosecond physics allows scientists to look at the very smallest particles at the very shortest timescales. At this timescale, researchers can now capture the dynamics of electrons within atoms and molecules, allowing them to witness the incredibly fast processes that govern chemical reactions and electronic behavior.
One of the most groundbreaking applications of attosecond science is the ability to create and manipulate extreme ultraviolet (XUV) and X-ray pulses, which are vital for imaging ultrafast processes at the atomic and molecular scale.
These pulses are produced using high-intensity laser systems that generate attosecond bursts of light.
