Current Affairs

FIRST WOMAN CHIEF JUSTICE OF LAHORE HIGH COURT

Why in the News?

Justice Aalia Neelum became the first woman Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court (LHC).

Do You Know?

• Leila Seth was the first woman Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court in 1991 in India.
• Justice M. Fathima Beevi was the first female judge appointed to the Supreme Court of India.

UNITED NATIONS (U.N.) CLIMATE FUND BOARD

Why in the News?

• The Philippines has been chosen to host the board of the Loss and Damage fund created by U.N.
• This step will provide financial help to countries to recover and rebuild from the impact of global warming.

Loss and Damage Fund

• It was set up at the COP27 UN Climate Change Conference in 2022.
• It is a financial mechanism designed to address the irreversible consequences of climate change that cannot be avoided or mitigated through adaptation efforts.
• This fund recognizes and aims to compensate for the real losses incurred by communities, countries and ecosystems due to the impacts of climate change.

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

• It was signed in 1992 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development also known as the Earth Summit, the Rio Summit or the Rio Conference.
• It came into force on March 21, 1994.
• The original secretariat was in Geneva.
• Since 1996, the secretariat has been located in Bonn, Germany.
• Its objective is to assess global progress in dealing with climate change and negotiate the Kyoto Protocol to establish legally binding obligations for developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

EINSTEIN RING

Why in the News?

• National Aeronautics and Space Administration's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has captured an image of a bejeweled halo of light known as an Einstein ring.
• It was generated by a quasar RX J1131-1231which was located approximately 6 billion light- years from Earth in the constellation Crater.

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)

• About
  • The telescope is a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency which was launched in December 2021.
  • It is currently at a point in space known as the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point, approximately 1.5 million km beyond Earth’s orbit around the Sun.
  • The Lagrange Point 2 is one of the five points in the orbital plane of the Earth-Sun system.
  • It is the largest and most powerful infrared space telescope ever built.
  • It is the successor of Hubble Telescope.
• Objectives
  • It will examine every phase of cosmic history from the Big Bang to the formation of galaxies, stars and planets to the evolution of our own Solar System.
  • The goals for the Webb can be grouped into four themes.
  • The first is to look back around 13.5 billion years to see the first stars and galaxies forming out of the darkness of the early universe.
  • Second, to compare the faintest, earliest galaxies to today’s grand spirals and understand how galaxies assemble over billions of years.
  • Third, to see where stars and planetary systems are being born.
  • Fourth, to observe the atmospheres of extrasolar planets (beyond our solar system), and perhaps find the building blocks of life elsewhere in the universe.

APPOINTMENT OF PRIME MINISTER OF NEPAL

Why in the News?

Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli was appointed as new Prime Minister of Nepal.

About

• He swore for the fourth time and succeeded Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’.
• He was appointed by President Ram Chandra Paudel as the new Prime Minister of the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML)-Nepali Congress (NC) coalition.

WORLD YOUTH SKILL DAY 2024

• It is annually observed on 15th July and was first observed in 2015.
• The day aims to spread awareness and develop an understanding of the importance of youth skills to counter the challenges of unemployment and underemployment faced by young people globally.
• The theme for the day 2024 is Youth Skills for Peace and Development.

General Knowledge

ALMATTI DAM

• The Almatti Dam, also known as the Lal Bahadur Shastri Dam, stands tall on the Krishna River in North Karnataka.
• The dam is situated on the edge of Vijayapura and Bagalkot districts.
• The annual electric output of the dam is 713,000,000 kilowatts (KW) and is the main reservoir of the Upper Krishna Irrigation Project.

Krishna River

• Source: It originates near Mahabaleshwar (Satara) in Maharashtra. It is the second biggest river in peninsular India after the Godavari River.
• Drainage: It runs from four states Maharashtra (303 km), North Karnataka (480 km) and the rest of its 1300 km journey in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh before it empties into the Bay of Bengal.
• Tributaries
  • Right Bank Tributaries: The Ghatprabha, the Malprabha and the Tungabhadra.
  • Left Bank Tributaries: The Bhima, the Musi and the Munneru