Ministry of Health and Family Welfare launched Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan (SUMAN) initiative.
It was launched during the 13th Conference of Central Council of Health and Family Welfare along with State Health Ministries.
It aims to end all preventable maternal and newborn deaths by assuring dignified, respectful & quality health care at no cost.
It focuses on zero tolerance for denial of services for every woman and newborn visiting the public health facility.
It also provides a positive birth experience to both mother and infant.
Amitabh Kant Panel
Ministry of Railways has constituted Amitabh Kant Panel to oversee the entry of private operators for 150 trains and development of 50 railway stations as per global standards.
Other members of the panel are,
Railway board Chairman,
Economic Affairs secretary,
Housing and urban affairs secretary and
Railways financial commissioner
The tenure of the Panel is 1 year.
The panel will approve and monitor the bidding process and also take decisions to ensure the projects are awarded in a time-bound manner.
Operation Peace Spring
It is a military operation launched by Turkey against the Syrian Democratic Forces in Northeast Syria.
The Turkish Armed Forces together with the Syrian National Army launched this after U.S. troops pulled back from the border area last week.
It is to prevent the creation of a terror corridor across border, and to bring peace to the area.
It is to create a safe zone to ensure that Syrian refugees return to their home countries.
UNICEF Cryptocurrency Fund
UNICEF becomes first UN organisation to hold and make transactions in cryptocurrencies ether and bitcoin.
UNICEF will use cryptocurrencies to fund open source technology benefiting children and young people around the world.
Under the structure of the fund, contributions will be held in their cryptocurrency of contribution, and granted out in the same cryptocurrency.
The first contributions to the Fund will benefit UNICEF Innovation Fund and GIGA initiative to connect schools across the world to the internet.
Planet Saturn
Scientists at International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Centre have identified 20 new moons around Saturn.
With this discovery, Saturn has become the planet with the highest number of moons (82) surpassing Jupiter with 79 moons.
17 of the new moons orbit the planet in the opposite, or retrograde, direction and 3 moons have prograde orbits, circling in the same direction.
ICON Satellite
NASA has recently launched Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) spacecraft from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
It is designed to probe Earth's upper atmosphere (Ionosphere), a massive layer that overlaps with the boundary of space.
Its measurements will help scientists better understand the link between space weather and terrestrial weather, and how the two interact in the ionosphere.
It is the region where strange and unique phenomena, such as the auroras and geomagnetic storms are created.
