Meghalaya has recently become India’s first state to operationalize a law that makes social audit of government programmes a part of government practice.
The legislation is applicable to 11 departments and 26 schemes in the north eastern state.
A social audit facilitator will be appointed to conduct the audit directly with the people.
So far, social audits of government programmes have been done at the initiative of civil society organisations.
By this new law social audits will have an official sanction and becomes the mandate of the government.
Global conference on functional materials
Global conference on functional materials was recently held at Telangana, which was attended by delegates from 10 different countries.
The conference was aimed to address the application aspect of the functional materials in areas of societal relevance.
The term functional materials cover different material classes ranging from semiconductors over polymers and molecular crystals to nanoparticles.
It is their special electrical, optical and magnetic properties which make functional materials so important.
Technologies such has Computation, Communication, Sensors, storage and displaying of information uses the functional materials.
Guru Gobind Singh
350th Prakash Parv (birthday anniversary) of Guru Gobind Singh was celebrated recently.
He is the tenth Sikh Guru who formally installed as the leader of the Sikhs at age nine.
He was the son of ninth Sikh guru Tegh Bahadur.
He founded the Sikh warrior community called Khalsa in 1699, changing the Sikhs into a saint-soldier order for protecting themselves.
He introduced the Five Ks, the five articles of faith that Khalsa Sikhs wear at all times.
He enshrined the scripture the Guru Granth Sahib as Sikhism's eternal Guru,which made him the last guru of Sikhs.
New frog species - Odorrana arunachalensis
Scientists have discovered a new frog species in Arunachal Pradesh.
The new species has been named Odorrana arunachalensis.
It is a medium-sized green frog adapted for a life in torrential waters.
The frog inhabits fern-covered rocky areas along hill streams in mixed wet tropical forests.
The presence of a black band-like mark between the eyes is a distinguishing character that separates it from all the other frog species.
UN Ocean conference
The UN Ocean Conference was held at UN headquarters in New York.
It is a high-level United Nations Conference to Support the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14.
SDG 14 emphasises to conserve and sustainably use the oceans.
Many voluntary commitments for concrete action to advance implementation were made by governments during the conference.
To follow-up on the implementation of these voluntary commitments United Nations recently have launched nine thematic multi-stakeholder Communities of Ocean Action.
Anti- Smog gun
Delhi government to tackle its air pollution problem has tested an Anti-Smog gun in Northern areas of Delhi.
It is simply a Water mist cannon, which is connected to a water tank and mounted on a flatbed truck.
It sprays atomized water in which liquid is broken up into smaller droplets up to 230 feet into the air.
The droplets merge with dust particlesreplicating the effect of rain, as rain lowers levels of air pollution by bringing particulates in pollution down to the ground.
Source: The Hindu, PIB, Economic times, Indian Express
