Current Affair 1:

GM poplars Tree

 

 

 

The GM poplars may be the first genetically modified trees planted in the United States outside of a research trial or a commercial fruit orchard.

 

The poplars may be the first genetically modified trees planted in the United States outside of a research trial or a commercial fruit orchard. Just as the introduction of the Flavr Savr tomato in 1994 introduced a new industry of genetically modified food crops, the tree planters hope to transform forestry.

 

Living Carbon, a biotechnology company, hopes its seedlings can help manage climate change. Populus is a genus of 25–30 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere.

 

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) are living organisms whose genetic material has been artificially manipulated in a laboratory through genetic engineering.

India approved GM cotton in 2002 & Genetically Modified (GM) Mustard hybrid DMH-11 (2022). The name Russian poplar is a misnomer and has nothing to do with Russia. The tree is a Western American species known as Eastern Cottonwood.

Current Affair 2:

Election Symbols

 

 

Almost 7 months after Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde petitioned the Election Commission(EC) to recognise his faction of the Shiv Sena as the ‘real’ Shiv Sena, the EC ruled in his favour

The EC relied on the “test of majority” to determine which faction would get to use the name ‘Shiv Sena’ and election symbol ‘Bow and Arrow ’.

 

What is Election Symbol?

 

An election symbol is a standardized symbol allocated to a political party.

The Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968 empowers the Election Commission to recognise political parties and allot symbols. As per the Order, The EC is the only authority to decide issues on a dispute or a merger under the order. The Supreme Court (SC) upheld its validity in Sadiq Ali and another vs. ECI, 1971.

 

Allotment of symbols
 

Registration & Recognition: The Election Commission registers political parties for the purpose of elections and grants them the status of recognised national or state parties on the basis of their poll performance in the last election.

Reserved Symbols: Every national party and every state party is allotted a symbol exclusively reserved for its use throughout the country and the states respectively. Free Symbols: Symbols other than the reserved symbols, which Election Commission enables the party to choose are Free Symbols.

Current Affair 3:

Standard Model of Physics

 

 

In an astonishing feat of metrology, physicists recently reported measuring the electron’s magnetic moment with a precision of 0.13 parts per trillion (ppt). This, however, has raised some questions about one of physics’s most successful theories — the Standard Model of particle physics signaling beyond-SM forces acting on the particle.

 

This, however, has raised some questions about one of physics’s most successful theories — the Standard Model of particle physics signaling beyond-SM forces acting on the particle.

 

The Standard Model (SM) is the theory that describes the properties of all subatomic particles, classifies them into different groups, and determines how they’re affected by three of the four fundamental forces of nature: strongnuclear force, weaknuclear force, and electromagnetic force (it can’t explain gravity). In the 1960s, physicists used SM to predict the existence of a particle called the Higgs boson, which was finally discovered in 2012.

 

What are the limitations of SM theory?

SM Theory still can’t explain why the universe has more matter than antimatter, what dark matter is, or what dark energy is.

 

What is an Electron magnetic moment?

Electron magnetic moment is the magnetic moment (strength of magnet or other objects that produces a magnetic field ) of an electron resulting from its intrinsic properties of spin and electric charge.

 

Current Affair 4:

Uroosi

 

 

A Mughal-era architectural feature called Uroosi is one of Kashmir’s answers to the seismic threat it faces

 

Uroosi, a Mughal-era home architectural element are wooden shutters used as partition walls within homes, instead of concrete walls. Uroosi's work includes octagonal and decagonal ornamental pillars too. Jalali House is a landmark in Srinagar that has this architectural element. Uroosi is believed to be a Persian term meaning ‘hidden bride’.

 

Current Affair 5:

REAIM 2023

 

 

 

 

Recently, the world’s First International Summit on the Responsible Use of Artificial intelligence in the Military (REAIM 2023) took place in the Hague, Netherlands.

India was not a participant in the summit. The conference, co-hosted by South Korea, hosted 80 government delegations (including those from the US and China), and over 100s of researchers and defence contractors. It appealed to the multi-stakeholder community to build common standards to mitigate risks arising from the use of AI.

 

Highlighting the fast pace of development in technology, Mr. Hoekstra appealed to the multi-stakeholder community to build common standards to mitigate risks arising from the use of AI. The maiden conference, co-hosted by South Korea, hosted 80 government delegations, and over hundreds of researchers and defence contractors.

 

The two-day summit is designed to explore advances in AI and machine learning models, understand their limitations, and the possibilities of building a human-machine team. At the heart of these topics is the element of decision-making: Who will be tasked to decide? Humans or the algorithm.

 

 

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