Current Affair 1:

World Intellectual Property Indicators 2022.

 

The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) recently released the World Intellectual Property Indicators 2022.

This year's World Intellectual Property Indicators (WIPI) report reveals strong growth in intellectual property (IP) filings in 2021, as entrepreneurship, technology, innovation and digitalization continue to drive forward national and global growth.

 

Trademark

Industrial Design

Plant Varieties

(b) This office is not a member of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV)

 

Current Affair 2:

PSLV-C54/EOS-06 Mission

 

News:

ISRO’s work horse PSLV-C54 has successfully launched EOS-06 satellite along with Eight Nano-satellites into two different SSPOs. The mission was accomplished from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR on 26th November 2022.

EOS-06 is third generation satellite in the Oceansat series, which provides continued services of Oceansat-2 with enhanced payload capability. The satellite onboard carries four important payloads viz. Ocean Color Monitor (OCM-3), Sea Surface Temperature Monitor (SSTM), Ku-Band Scatterometer (SCAT-3), ARGOS.

The Oceansat-2 which was a launched during Sept-2009 configured to cover global oceans and provide continuity of ocean colour data with global wind vector and characterization of lower atmosphere and ionosphere. The mission resulted in many research collaborations nationally and internationally on various areas global chlorophyll distribution, Kd 490 distribution, ocean color images, oil spillages, wind vector products.

The EOS-06 is envisaged to observe ocean color data, sea surface temperature and wind vector data to use in Oceanography, climatic and meteorological applications. The satellite also supports value added products such as potential fishing zone using chlorophyll, SST and wind speed and land based geophysical parameters.

This is the 56th flight of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and the 24th Flight of the PSLV-XL version with 6 PSOM-XLs.

Current Affair 3:

Leith’s Softshell Turtle

 

News:

India’s proposal for transferring Leith’s Softshell Turtle (Nilssonia leithi) from Appendix II to Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild fauna and flora (CITES) has been adopted by the Conference of Parties (CoP) to CITES in its 19th Meeting at Panama.

Leith’s Softshell Turtle is a large fresh water soft-shelled turtle which is endemic to peninsular India and it inhabits rivers and reservoirs.

The species has been subject to intensive exploitation over the past 30 years. It has been poached and illegally consumed within India. It has also been illegally traded abroad for meat and for its calipee. The population of this turtle species is estimated to have declined by 90% over the past 30 years such that the species is now difficult to find.

It is classified as ‘Critically Endangered’ by the IUCN.

The species is listed on Schedule IV of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, which gives it protection from hunting as well as trade. However, poaching and illegal trade of protected turtle species is a major challenge in India with seizures of thousands of specimens reported every year..

The CITES Appendix I listing of this Turtle species would ensure that legal international trade in the species does not take place for commercial purposes. It would also ensure that international trade in captive-bred specimens only takes place from registered facilities and further that higher and more proportionate penalties are provided for illegal trade of the species.

The listing of the Leith’s soft-shell turtle, thereby, strengthens its CITES protection status so as to ensure better survival of the species.

 

Current Affair 4:

Ambition on Melting Ice on Sea-level Rise and Mountain Water Resources’ group.

 

News:

Meeting at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt on November 16 2022, a broad coalition of 18 governments — led by the two polar and mountain nations of Chile and Iceland — joined together to create a new high-level group ‘Ambition on Melting Ice on Sea-level Rise and Mountain Water Resources’. The “AMI” group aims to ensure impacts of cryosphere loss are understood by political leaders and the public, and not only within mountain and polar regions, but throughout the planet.

The melting of the cryosphere — areas on the planet with frozen water — due to climate change, is a global threat whose impact will not be restricted to mountain and polar countries, according to the newly formed ‘Ambition on Melting Ice on Sea-level Rise and Mountain Water Resources’ group.

The founding governments of the group include Chile (co-chair), Iceland (co-chair), Peru, Czech Republic, Nepal, Finland, Senegal, Kyrgyz Republic, Samoa, Georgia, Switzerland, New Zealand, Monaco, Vanuatu, Sweden, Tanzania, Liberia, Norway and Mexico. NO INDIA IN THE LIST.

Most importantly, nearly all of these damaging global impacts from the Cryosphere are essentially irreversible and permanent on human timescales: they will remain for decades, centuries and even millennia. This is especially true with emissions scenarios that contain an overshoot of the maximum global temperature rise set in the Paris Agreement (well below 2°C/1.5°C, with regard to pre-industrial levels).

 

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