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National

India climbs eight places in global gender index

• India has ranked at 127 out of 146 countries in terms of gender parity — an improvement of eight places from last year.
• The World Economic Forum (WEF) ranked India at 135 out of 146 countries in the Global Gender Gap Index in the report’s 2022 edition.
• The Global Gender Gap Report, now in its 17th edition, benchmarks the evolution of gender-based gaps in four areas: economic participation and opportunity; educational attainment; health and survival; and political empowerment.

Right to change one’s name is part of the right to life

• The right to change one’s name or surname is a part of the right to life under Article 21, the High Courts of Allahabad said.
• Allowing a man called Shahnawaz to change his name to Md. Sameer Rao, the Allahabad HC said the fundamental right to keep or change one’s name is vested in every citizen under Articles 19(1)(a), 21, and 14 of the Constitution.

Assam Rifles is the unique force

• Assam Rifles is one of the six central armed police forces (CAPFs) under the administrative control of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
• Its uniqueness lies in the fact that it is the only paramilitary force with a dual control structure.
• The administrative control of the force is with the MHA, its operational control is with the Indian Army, which is under the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

Law Commission seeks views on UCC

• A UCC would provide for one law for the entire country, applicable to all religious communities, in their personal matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, adoption
• Currently, Indian personal law is fairly complex, with each religion adhering to its own specific laws.

PM-PRANAM scheme gets CCEA approval

• The Union Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved PM-PRANAM, which is aimed at incentivising states to use alternative, non-chemical fertilisers, and also decided to continue the current urea subsidy for three years starting FY23.
• PM-PRANAM stands for Prime Minister’s Programme for Restoration, Awareness, Generation, Nourishment and Amelioration of Mother Earth.

International

UN adopts 'historic' high seas treaty

• The world's first international treaty to protect the high seas was adopted at the United Nations.
• The treaty is seen as crucial to countries protecting 30 percent of the world's oceans and lands by 2030, as agreed by world governments in a separate historic accord reached in Montreal in December.
• The treaty, officially known as the treaty on "Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction" or BBNJ, also introduces requirements to carry out environmental impact studies for proposed activities to be carried out in international waters.

Bonn climate meet

• The countries did manage to wrap up, however, was the third and final round of technical discussions on global stocktake, or GST.
• GST Mandated by the 2015 Paris Agreement, GST is an exercise aimed at assessing the progress in the fight against climate change, and deciding ways and means to enhance global action to bridge the adequacy gap. The Paris Agreement says GST must be conducted every five years, starting in 2023.
• The actual meat in GST would come in at COP28, the year-ending climate conference, this time being held in Dubai.

Russia’s problem with the Black Sea grain deal

• Black Sea grain deal is the United Nations and Turkey brokered the Black Sea Grain Initiative to help tackle a global food crisis worsened by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and blockade of its Black Sea ports.
• It allows food and fertilizer to be exported from three Ukrainian ports – Chornomorsk, Odesa and Pivdennyi (Yuzhny). The deal has been extended three times, most recently until 17 July 2023.

Japan increased the age of consent

• As part of revamping its laws relating to sex crimes, Japan has raised the age of sexual consent from 13 to 16 years.
• In India, the age of consent used to be 16 years originally, but it was later increased to 18 years in 2013 after the passage of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, to ensure conformity with the Act.

UN drops India from its report on children & conflict

• The United Nations Secretary-General has taken India off a list of countries mentioned in a report on children and armed conflict over the alleged recruitment and use of boys by armed groups in J&K and their detention, killing and maiming by security forces.
• This is the first time since 2010 that India has not been named in the report alongside countries like Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Lake Chad basin, Nigeria, Pakistan and the Philippines.

Economy

Finfluencers are under SEBI’s scrutiny

• Finfluencers are people with public social media platforms offering advice and sharing personal experiences about money and investment in stocks.
• Their videos cover budgeting, investing, property buying, cryptocurrency advice and financial trend tracking.

India’s workforce increases male-dominated

• According to the data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), India’s labour force participation rate (LFPR) fell to 5% in the last financial year (2022-23) that ended in March.
• This is the lowest LFPR reading since 2016-17. The LFPR for men stood at a seven-year low of 66% while that of women was pegged at a mere 8.8%.
• The LFPR is the share of the working-age population (aged 15 years and above) that is employed or unemployed, willing and looking for employment.

Science And Technology

Cassini finds phosphorous on Enceladus

• Phosphorus, a key chemical element for many biological processes, has been found in icy grains emitted by Enceladus, the small moon of Saturn, into space and is likely abundant in its subsurface ocean.

Face Authentication in PM Kisan app

• In a first for any central welfare scheme, the government rolled out a face authentification feature in the PM-Kisan app, which will enable beneficiary farmers to complete their e-KYC process by just scanning their face on mobile phones instead of using one-time password or fingerprints.
• The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi or PM-Kisan scheme gives beneficiaries financial assistance of Rs 6,000 per year in three equal instalments every four months.

BepiColombo spacecraft flew close to Mercury

• BepiColombo, a joint mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), flew about 236 kilometres above the planet Mercury’s surface on 19 June 2023, according to ESA.

Sale of cell-cultured chicken approved

• The S. Department of Agriculture has approved the sale of cell-cultured chicken in a landmark decision that clears the path for consumers to try it out themselves.
• Cultured meat, also known as cultivated, cell-based or lab-grown protein, is made by putting stem cells from the fat or muscle of an animal into a culture medium that feeds the cells, allowing them to grow.
• The medium is then put into a bioreactor to support the cells’ growth, creating an end product that looks and tastes like traditional meat.

India’s ranking in Energy Transition Index

• The World Economic Forum on 28 June 2023 ranked India at the 67th place globally on its Energy Transition Index and said it is the only major economy with energy transition momentum accelerating across all dimensions.
• Sweden topped the list and was followed by Denmark, Norway, Finland and Switzerland in the top five on the list of 120 countries.
• The WEF said that out of 120 countries, 113 have made progress over the last decade but only 55, including India, have improved their scores by more than 10 percentage points.

World Asteroid Day 2023

• World Asteroid Day is an annual global event which is held on 30 June, the anniversary of the Tunguska event in 1908 when a meteor air burst decimated about 2,000 square km (500,000 acres) of pine forest in central Siberia, Russia.

The Tunguska asteroid event was the Earth's largest asteroid impact in recorded history.

Miscellaneous

‘Landfall’ of a cyclone

• The landfall process of Cyclone Biparjoy started near Jakhau port in the state’s Kutch district.
• Landfall is the event of a tropical cyclone coming onto land after being over water. As per the IMD, a tropical cyclone is said to have made a landfall when the center of the storm – or its eye – moves over the coast.