Arundhati Roy Wins PEN Pinter Prize 2024

• Arundhati Roy is an eminent Indian author who is best known for the Booker Prize winning novel The God of Small Things (1997).
• She is also a political activist who is involved in environmental and human rights causes.

About PEN Pinter Prize

• Established in 2009 by the charity English PEN, the Pen Pinter Prize serves as a beacon for:
  • Defending freedom of expression
  • Celebrating impactful literature
  • Honouring the legacy of Nobel Laureate playwright Harold Pinter
• Set up in memory of playwright Harold Pinter, the award is for writers of "outstanding literary merit" who take an "unflinching" look at the world.

Launch of Satellite Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-U

Why in News?

• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and SpaceX launches weather satellite GOES-U.
• SpaceX achieved a successful launch of the fourth and final satellite for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) program.

About NASA

• Establishment: October 1, 1958, as a part of the United States (US) government.
• Purpose: Explores the unknown in air and space, innovates for the benefit of humanity, and inspires the world through discovery.
• Headquarter: Washington, D.C. 

About GOES-U

• The launch took place at NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.
• It had deployed its solar arrays upon reaching a geostationary orbit about 22,200 miles above Earth.

Purpose

• GOES-U will provide continuous monitoring of weather conditions over extensive regions including North America, Central and South America, the Caribbean, the Atlantic Ocean, and the west coast of Africa. 

Mainland Serow Spotted in Assam

Why in News?

• A team of scientists have recorded a lone mainland serow in western Assam’s Raimona National Park.

About Searow

• It is a mammal that appears somewhere between a goat and an antelope.
• Distribution: Across the India-Bhutan border in Phibsoo Wildlife Sanctuary and the Royal Manas National Park of Bhutan.
• Scientific Name: Capricornis suma-traensis thar
• Conservation Status
  • IUCN: Vulnerable
  • CITES : Appendix I

About Raimona National Park

• Location: Situated in Assam along the Indo-Bhutan border.
• Boundaries
  • North: Shares the Indo-Bhutan international border with Phibsoo Wildlife Sanctuary in Bhutan.
  • West: It is marked by the Sankosh River along with the inter-state boundary of West Bengal and Assam from the Indo-Bhutan border.
  • East: The Saralbhanga River (also called Swrmanga) flows southward from Sarphang district of Bhutan.
• Vegetation: Different types and sub-types of forests ranging from very moist sal forests, sub-Himalayan high alluvial semi-evergreen forests, savannah forests, moist-mixed deciduous forests, riparian fringing forests to khoir-sissoo forests.
• Flora:  Myriads of orchid species, other tropical rainforest species, and riverine grasslands.
• Fauna: Golden Langur, Asian Elephants, Royal Bengal Tiger, Clouded Leopard, Indian Gaur etc.

Plastic Waste Road

• Jaipur Military Station has become the second military station in India to have a road made from plastic waste.
• The station became the second military station to construct the plastic waste road and first to make it part of its maintenance programme.
• The first military station to have a plastic waste road was Narangi Military Station in Guwahati, Assam, built in 2019.