• The Virtual Court (traffic) and e-Challan project have been recently inaugurated in Assam by Shri SarbanandaSonowal, the chief minister of Assam.
• The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Committee of Gauhati High Court in association with Government of Assam and Assam Police, under the aegis of e-Committee of Supreme Court of India, are spearheading the project in the State.
• Maharashtra's 2nd virtual court called “NyayKaushal” was recently inaugurated by Shri Arvind Bobde, the Chief Justice of India and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud of the Supreme Court at Judicial Officers Training Institute in Nagpur.

E-challan solution

• It is an initiative of the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) whereas the software has been developed by National Informatics Centre (NIC).
• It will replace the present concept of manual challan with an electronically generated digital challan.

Virtual court

• Virtual Court is an online court being managed by Virtual Judge (which is not a person but an algorithm) whose jurisdiction can be extended to entire state and working hours may be 24X7.
• It is an initiative of E-Commitee of Supreme Court along with Department of Justice, Ministry of Law& Justice, Government of India.
• There is no brick& mortar building of the court.
• In a trial by Virtual Court, neither litigant shall come to the court nor will Judge have to sit physically in the court to adjudicate the case.
• The communication may only be in electronic form and the sentencing and further payment of fine or compensation will also be online.
• Only single process is allowed and there can be no argument.
• It may be proactive admission of guilt by the accused or proactive compliance of the cause by defendant on receipt of the summons in electronic form.
• On payment of Fine, such matters may be treated as disposed off.
• Citizen neither  have to wait in lines in courts nor have to confront Traffic Police man.
• It will increase productivity of citizen as well as judicial officers.
• It will promote greater accountability and less corruption in Traffic Police Department thus bettering life of people.
• In Assam due to Virtual Court work of 10 judges will be done by only single judge thus sparing 9 Judges for judicial work.

Virtual Courts in India

Currently there are 9 Virtual courts functioning in India

• Delhi (2 Courts)
• Haryana (Faridabad)
• Maharashtra (Pune)
• Madras
• Karnataka (Bengaluru)
• Maharashtra (Nagpur)
• Kerala (Kochi)
• Assam (Gauhati)
• They are all dealing with Traffic Challan cases only.

• A mushroom documentation project in the forests of Northeast India has revealed not only 600 varieties of fungi, but also led to a new discovery: a bioluminescent — or light emitting — variety of mushroom.
• The new species — named Roridomyces phyllostachydis — was first sighted on a wet August night near a stream in Meghalaya’s Mawlynnong in East Khasi Hills district and later at Krang Shuri in West Jaintia Hills district.
• It is now one among the 97 known species of bioluminescent fungi in the world.

Bioluminescent Fungi 

• Bioluminescence is the property of a living organism to produce and emit light.
• Animals, plants, fungi and bacteria show bioluminescence.
• Bioluminescent organisms are usually found in the ocean environments, but they are also found on terrestrial environments.
• The colour of the light emitted by the organism depends on their chemical properties.
• In this case of fungi, the luminescence comes from the enzyme, luciferase.
• The [green] light emits when luciferans is catalysed by the enzyme luciferase, in the presence of oxygen.
• During the chemical reaction, several unstable intermediate products are released as excess energy that makes them visible as light.
• Such mushrooms may glow for a number of reasons, the simplest explanation could be that bioluminescence attracts insects, which helps in dispersing spores.
• It may also be a mechanism for the organism to protect itself from frugivorous (or fruit-eating) animals.

• Recently, the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare digitally addressed the Ministerial meeting of the Global Prevention Coalition (GPC) for Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) Prevention.
• It was hosted by Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on behalf of the Global HIV Prevention Coalition (GPC).
• The conference this year holds significance in achieving the 2016 UNGA commitment to end AIDS by 2030.
• Member States of GPC had also agreed to reduce new adult HIV infections by 75% at the end of 2020 from 2010 levels.

Global Prevention Coalition

• Global Prevention Coalition (GPC) is a global coalition of United Nations Member States, donors, civil society organizations which was established in the year 2017 to support global efforts to accelerate HIV prevention.
• It includes the 25 highest HIV burden countries, UNAIDS Cosponsors, donors, civil society and private sector organizations.
• It aims to strengthen and sustain political commitment for primary prevention by setting a common agenda among key policy-makers, funders and programme implementers.
• With countries and communities at the centre, it seeks to ensure accountability for delivering prevention services at scale in order to achieve the targets of the 2016 Political Declaration on Ending AIDS, including a 75% reduction in HIV infections towards fewer than 500 000 infections by 2020, and to ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030.

• Symbiosis is a close relationship between two species.

There are three basic types of symbiosis: mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism.

• Mutualism is a symbiotic relationship in which both species benefit. 
• Commensalism is a symbiotic relationship in which one species benefits while the other species is not affected. 
• Parasitism is a symbiotic relationship in which one species (the parasite) benefits while the other species (the host) is harmed. 
• Amensalism, association between organisms of two different species in which one is inhibited or destroyed and the other is unaffected.

• Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare recently chaired an event to mark the National Newborn Week 2020, being observed from 15th through 21st November to reinforce the importance of newborn health as a key priority area of the health sector and to reiterate the commitment at the highest level.
• The theme of National Newborn Week this year is ‘Quality, Equity, Dignity for every newborn at every health facility and everywhere’.