• A webinar was organized by the Ministry of Environment,Forest and Climate Change on the occasion of first ever International Day of Clean Air For Blue Skies was attended by the Environment Ministry and Environment Department of 28 states and 8 Union Territories.
• Commissioner of 122 cities as identified in NCAP programme also participated and put forth their experiences and best practices.

• The General Assembly of United Nations on 19 December 2019 adopted a resolution to observe the International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies on 07th September every year starting from 2020.
• The very first International Day of Clean Air for blue skies held on September 7th, 2020.
• The United Nations General Assembly invited the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to facilitate the observance of the International Day, in collaboration with other relevant organizations.
• The Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) worked with UNEP and the Republic of Korea to advocate for the day in the lead up to the decision.
• WHO is working with BreatheLife partners to coordinate activities for the day.
• The first celebration will set a precedent for an important and exciting new international day for clean air to be celebrated annually.

• The day intends to emphasize on the ill-effects of air population and is a call to action against the environmental evil.
• The International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies was introduced to acknowledge the threats posed by air pollution and to encourage every country in the world to take preventive measures.
• The day emphasises the need to improve air quality for long-term benefits for humankind.
• Countries pledged to promote and support sustainable development in "The future we want", an outcome document of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.
• The UN also came up with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which is a resolution comprising 17 goals and 169 targets for countries.

• In 2014, the government launched the Air Quality Index (AQI) monitoring and tracking the levels of Pollution on eight parameters.
• In January last year, the Environment Ministry had launched National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) to tackle the problem of air pollution in a comprehensive manner with a target to achieve 20 to 30 percent reduction in PM 10 and PM 2.5 concentrations by 2024 keeping 2017 as base year.
• The plan identified earlier 102 non-attainment cities, across 23 States and Union Territories.
• 20 more non-attainment cities have been included under NCAP based on latest data trend on air quality.

• The AQI is an index for reporting daily air quality.
• It tells you how clean or polluted your air is, and what associated health effects might be a concern for you.
• The objective of an AQI is to quickly disseminate air quality information (almost in real-time) that entails the system to account for pollutants which have short-term impacts.
• Eight parameters (PM10, PM2.5, NO2, SO2, CO, O3, NH3, and Pb) having short-term standards have been considered for near real-time dissemination of AQI.
• It is recognized that air concentrations of Pb are not known in real-time and cannot contribute to AQI.
• The index has six categories with elegant colour scheme,
  

India joins US, Russia, China hypersonic Missile club
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle + about Scramjet engine) + Mains ( GSIII awareness in the field of space + indigenisation of technology)
What's the NEWS

• DRDO has successfully flight tested the Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle using the indigenously developed scramjet propulsion system
• India became the fourth country after the United States, Russia and China to develop and successfully test hypersonic technology from APJ Abdul Kalam testing range (Wheeler Island) in Balasore, Odisha.

• This indigenous technology will pave the way towards development of missiles travelling at six times the speed of sound (Mach 6).
• The test of Hypersonic Test Demonstrator Vehicle (HSTDV), developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) was conducted using the Agni missile booster and lasted for five minutes.
• DRDO will now have the capacity to develop a hypersonic missile with scramjet engine in next five years, which will have the capacity to travel at more than two kilometres per second.
• The Agni missile booster took the hypersonic vehicle to height of 30 km after which the latter separated.
  
• Thereafter, the vehicle's air intake opened and that led to successfully firing of the test scramjet engine.
• The combustion lasted for more than 20 seconds with the vehicle achieving a speed of Mach 6.

• The HSTDV is an unmanned scramjet demonstration aircraft for hypersonic speed flight.
• Besides its utility for long-range cruise missiles of the future, the technology has multiple civilian applications also.
• It can be used for launching satellites at low cost too
• The HSTDV cruise vehicle is mounted on a solid rocket motor, which will take it to a required altitude, and once it attains certain mach numbers for speed, the cruise vehicle will be ejected out of the launch vehicle.
• Subsequently, the scramjet engine will be ignited automatically.
• The scramjets are a variant of a category of jet engines called the air breathing engines.
• • Hypersonic speeds are those which are five times or more than the speed of sound.
• • In this test the hypersonic combustion sustained and the cruise vehicle continued on its desired flight path at a velocity of Mach 6 for a period of 20 seconds.

Know! about Scramjet Engine

• A scramjet is a supersonic combusting ramjet.
• This is a variant of a ramjet jet engine in which combustion takes place in supersonic airflow.
• Rocket engine - It carries its own supply of oxygen for combustion (less energy efficient)
• Jet engine - It utilizes oxygen from the atmosphere for combustion. (high energy efficient)
• A ramjet operates by combustion of fuel in a stream of air compressed by the forward speed of the aircraft itself, as opposed to a normal jet engine, in which the compressor section (the fan blades) compresses the air.
• The air flow through a ramjet engine is subsonic, or less than the speed of sound. Ramjet-propelled vehicles operate from about Mach 3 to Mach 6.
• A scramjet (supersonic-combustion ramjet) is a ramjet engine in which the airflow through the engine remains supersonic, or greater than the speed of sound.
• Scramjet powered vehicles are envisioned to operate at speeds up to at least Mach 15.

Environment
Understanding Kalasa-Banduri dam project

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Kalasa-Banduri Project + Mandovi / Mahadayi river )
What's the NEWS

• The conflict on the Mandovi / Mahadayi river - flowing through Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra
• The Kalasa-Banduri Project undertaken by the Karnataka government proposes to divert Mandovi river water from Kalasa and Banduri canals into the Malaprabha river in the state to facilitate drinking water to 13 towns of karnataka

Know! about the dispute - the Kalasa-Banduri canal

• The diversion of water from Kalasa and Banduri nullahs, however, has been the point of contention between Karnataka and Goa
• The Kalasa-Banduri canal - part of the 11-dam project on the river Mandovi.- aims to improve drinking water supply to the districts of Belagavi, Bagalkot, Dharwad and Gadag.
• It involves building across Kalasa and Banduri, two tributaries of the Mahadayi river, to initially divert 7.56 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) of water to the Malaprabha river, which supplies drinking water needs of the said four districts.

Know! about Mandovi river

• The Mandovi originates from Karnataka's Belagaum district. The Mandovi river basin falls into the states of Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra.
• The river is 81 kilometres (km) in length; 35 km of which flows in Karnataka, 1 km in Maharashtra and 45 km in Goa.

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Global Innovation Index (GII) 2020 highlights)
What's the NEWS

• India has joined the group of top 50 countries in the Global Innovation Index for the first time in history.
• India moves up four places to the 48th rank.

GII (World Highlights)

• The Global Innovation Index (GII) 2020, released jointly by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Cornell University and INSEAD Business School, ranks 131 economies.
• The index reveals that Asian economies like China, India, Philippines and Vietnam have advanced considerably in the innovation ranking over the years.
• Leading the innovation ranking Switzerland stands first followed by Sweden, US, UK and Netherlands.
• The top 10 positions in the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2020 are dominated by the high-income countries in the world.

GII (India highlights)

• It has become the third most innovative lower-middle-income economy in the world
• India ranks in the top 15 in indicators such as ICT (Information and Communication Technology) services exports, government online services, graduates in science and engineering, and R&D-intensive global companies.
• India increased the most in three segments that are: Institutions, business sophistication and creative outputs
• India owes its consistent improvement in the global innovation index rankings to the immense knowledge capital and the vibrant startup ecosystem it has.
• The India Innovation Index, which was released last year by NITI Aayog, has been widely accepted as a major step in the direction of decentralisation of innovation across all states of the country

World Intellectual Property Organization

• WIPO is one of the 15 specialized agencies of the United Nations (UN)
• WIPO was created to promote and protect intellectual property (IP) across the world by cooperating with countries as well as international organizations.
• It began operations on 26 April 1970 when the convention entered into force.
• WIPO's activities including hosting forums to discuss and shape international IP rules and policies, providing global services that register and protect IP in different countries and resolving transboundary IP disputes

Defence
All about Special Frontier Force, the secretive Indian unit in news after Ladakh clash
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Establishment 22: A special frontier force) + Mains ( GS III Security challenges and their management in border areas
What's the NEWS

• Establishment 22: A special frontier force trained in mountain warfare
• Recent operation on the south bank of Pangong Tso has brought into limelight the possible role of ‘Establishment 22'

Know! all about Special Frontier Force (SFF)

• A secret force also known as the Special Frontier Force (SFF) under the administrative control of the Cabinet secretariat and the PMO.
• Raised towards the end of the 1962 war, SFF's commandos are drawn from Tibetan refugees settled in India.
• They were initially trained by the Intelligence Bureau, RAW and CIA for covert operations behind enemy lines.
• In the first few decades after it was raised, the force was used to keep an eye on Chinese plans to deploy nuclear warheads
• The SFF has played an important role in multiple military operations - from the 1971 India-Pakistan war to the 1999 Kargil battle - but has largely functioned under the shadows.
• SFF units, also known as Vikas battalions, come under the direct purview of the Cabinet Secretariat, and is operationally involved with the Army.
• The force and is headed by a Major General rank Army officer, who serves as Inspector General of the SFF.

• The SFF is based in Chakrata, Uttarakhand, and its insignia is a snow lion. The exact strength of the force

• right now could not be determined.
• The Vikas battalions also played a critical role in the 1984 Operation Blue Star and the capture of Siachen Glacier in 1984, besides the Kargil battle of 1999.
• The first public acknowledgement of its existence reportedly came after SFF personnel participated in an abortive operation with the CIA in 1965 to place a nuclear-powered device on Mount Nanda Devi to monitor China's nuclear weapons tests.

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