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- Scientists have designed a metal frame that increases the amount of sunlight captured by a solar cell, enhancing its energy production by almost one-third.
- The simple, inexpensive and ingenious method could increase solar energy captured for people in developing countries, as well as remote regions that are off the grid, researchers said.
- "In Uganda, between 20 to 25 per cent of people have no access to electricity," said Beth Parks, an associate professor at Colgate University in the US.
- "One solar cell supplies enough energy to power lights and charge cell phones and radios. This is a huge quality-of-life improvement," said Parks.
- While solar panels offer a clean source of renewable energy, they are typically mounted on a fixed frame and only optimally oriented towards the sun during specific hours of the day.
- Parks previously saw a design for a frame that would allow the solar panel to track the sun using hanging weights.
- However, the design had not been tested to see how it actually performed. Nor had it been optimised for affordability to ensure commercial viability and adoption. Parks worked with students at the Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Uganda to design a frame using metal tubing that a local welder could easily obtain and assemble.
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- In a significant development, the United Nations has rejected an appeal of JuD chief Hafiz Saeed, the 2008 Mumbai terror attack mastermind, to remove his name from its list of banned terrorists.
- Notably, the decision comes at a time when UN's 1267 Sanctions Committee has received a new request to ban Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar after the Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were martyred.
- The UN decision to reject appeal of Saeed, also a co-founder of terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, came after India provided detailed evidence including highly confidential information about his activities adding that the verdict of the global body was conveyed to his lawyer Haider Rasul Mirza earlier this week.
- Saeed, chief of UN-designated terrorist organisation Jammat--ud-Dawa was banned on December 10, 2008 by the United Nations Security Council after the horrific Mumbai attacks in which 166 people were killed.
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- The Ministry of Women and Child Development confers the Nari Shakti Puraskar on women and institutions to recognise their relentless service towards the cause of women empowerment and social welfare.
- President Ram Nath Kovind will present the Nari Shakti Puraskar, the highest civilian honour for women in India, at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on 8th march.
- The awards for 2018 will be presented by the president at a special ceremony on the occasion of International Women's Day.
- The Ministry of Women and Child Development confers the Nari Shakti Puraskar on women and institutions to recognise their relentless service towards the cause of women empowerment and social welfare.
- This year, around 1,000 nominations were received by the ministry and 44 were selected for the award, according to an official statement.
- Scientists, entrepreneurs, environmentalists, social workers, farmers, artists, masons, a woman marine pilot, a woman commando trainer, journalists and film-makers are among the recipients of the award, it said.
- "No field has been left untouched, where women have not left their indelible mark, making women the leading force of our development trajectory.
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- Priyanka Dubey, a bilingual correspondent with the BBC at its Delhi bureau, has been named for the Chameli Devi Jain Award for an Outstanding Woman Journalist for the year 2018.
- Dubey was chosen for her multi-faceted, investigative and interrogative reportage, according to a statement.
- "Her news reports take up the burning and complex social and political issues of our times, helping uncover the reality underlying them showing them to be layered, complex, and variegated," it added.
- This year's jury comprised Bharat Bhushan, former editor, Sheela Bhatt, National Editor (News) NewsX, and Vandita Mishra, National Opinion Editor, The Indian Express, the statement said.
- The Chameli Devi Jain Award has been awarded to women journalists for the past 37 years for upholding standards of excellence through a sustained body of work. The award will be presented on March 9 at a function in Delhi.
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- Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan has been chosen for the ‘Yashwantrao Chavan National Award 2018’ for his contribution to economic development.
- Rajan will be presented the award at a function here on March 12 on the occasion of the 106th birth anniversary of Yashwantrao Chavan, who was the first chief minister of Maharashtra, a release issued here said.
- NCP chief Sharad Pawar, the president of Yashwantrao Chavan Prathisthan, will preside over the function, it added.
- The award is given every year by the Yashwantrao Chavan Prathisthan to individuals and institutions in recognition of their outstanding contribution to national integration, and social and economic development, among others
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- Indore was adjudged India’s cleanest city for the third straight year in the central government’s cleanliness survey announced on Wednesday. The second and third positions in the category were grabbed by Ambikapur in Chhattisgarh and Mysore in Karnataka.
- The Swachh Survekshan awards 2019 were conferred by President Ram Nath Kovind at a ceremony here.
- While the New Delhi Municipal Council area was given the ‘Cleanest Small City’ award, Uttarakhand’s Gauchar was adjudged the ‘Best Ganga Town’ in the central government survey.
- The ‘Cleanest Big City’ award has been bagged by Ahmedabad, while Raipur is the ‘Fastest Moving Big City’. Ujjain has been the adjudged the ‘Cleanest Medium City’ and Mathura-Vrindavan bagged the tag of the ‘Fastest Moving Medium Cities’
- Top-ranked cities received a statue of Mahatma Gandhi as a memento for their work towards cleanliness. Swachh Survekshan 2019 covered all urban local bodies in the country, making it the largest such cleanliness survey in the world.
- “Mahatma Gandhi had played a pivotal role in spearheading the movement of cleanliness. I hope people will take inspiration from the just concluded Kumbh Mela and the level of cleanliness in it,” Kovind said.
- “There is a need to change the mindset of the people towards cleanliness as many people pay a lot of attention to personal hygiene and cleanliness at home but not to public cleanliness
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