• Union government has recently launched a scheme for 100% solarisation of Konark sun temple and Konark town in Odisha.
• The scheme will meet all energy requirements of Konark town with solar energy, which is made under PM-vision to develop the historical Sun temple town of Konark in Odisha as ‘Surya Nagri’.
• This aims to convey a message of synergy between the modern use of solar energy and the ancient Sun Temple and the importance of promoting solar energy.
• It envisages setting up of the 10-MW grid connected solar project and various solar off-grid applications such as solar trees, solar drinking water kiosks and off-grid solar power plants with battery storage.
• It will receive 100% Central Financial assistance (CFA) support of around Rs. 25 crore through the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.
• Odisha Renewable Energy Development Agency will be the Implementation Agency of the project (and not union Ministry of Renewable energy or Ministry of culture)

• The United Nations dedicated May 22 of every year as International Day for Biological Diversity to develop awareness about biodiversity issues.
• The first International Day for Biological Diversity, also known as World Biodiversity day, was created in a UN General Assembly in 1993.
• Since 2001, it is celebrated every year.
• This year’s celebration is special as it will be the first ever online only campaign increasing awareness during a pandemic.
• The theme for this year is “Our Solutions are in nature” – which shows people are a part of nature.

• The United Nations Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth has recently listed Manipur’s ‘khudol’ (gift) among the top 10 global initiatives for an inclusive fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Khudol

• It is a crowdfunded initiative of Ya_All, an Imphal-based NGO.
• The initiative entails ensuring food supplies and health services for the LGBTQI+ community, people living with HIV, daily-wage earners, children and adolescents.

• The US will withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty, a major accord that permits unarmed aerial surveillance flights over 34 participating countries, citing repeated Russian violations of its terms.
• President Donald Trump blamed Russia’s non-compliance with the treaty for such a decision by the United States.
• Effective six months from tomorrow, the United States will no longer be a party to the Treaty.

Open Skies Treaty

• The treaty allows each state-party to carry out short-notice, unarmed, reconnaissance flights over the others’ territories to collect data on military forces and activities.
• India is not a member of this treaty that came into force on 2002.
• Most of the participating countries are in North America and Europe and Central Asia.

• The U.S.’s exit last year from arms deal it had signed with Russia — the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty — as well as its imminent departure from the Open Skies Treaty has raised the strong possibility that the Trump administration may not renew the New Start Treaty which is due to expire next February.

New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START)

• It was signed on April 8, 2010, in Prague by the United States and Russia and entered into force on Feb. 5, 2011.
• The agreement caps Russian and U.S. nuclear arsenal.
• New START replaced the 1991 START I treaty, which expired December 2009, and superseded the 2002 Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT), which terminated when New START entered into force.
• New START continues the bipartisan process of verifiably reducing U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear arsenals begun by former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
• New START is the first verifiable U.S.-Russian nuclear arms control treaty to take effect since START I in 1994.

Recent Developments

• The Trump administration has been worried that extending New Start would negatively impact an arms deal with China and Russia.
• The State Department told the U.S. Congress earlier this year that it is concerned that China’s nuclear stockpile could be doubled if the New Start Treaty continued as is, without including China.