Social 

Legal issues in Sambhal  - Indian Express

Nearly a week after a district court in Sambhal ordered a survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid, the town in western Uttar Pradesh has been rocked with violence that has left at least four dead and several others injured.

Court Order and Resulting Protests

• Ruling: Allowed a plea by advocate Hari Shankar Jain and others to access the mosque, claiming it was built in 1526 by Babur after demolishing a Hindu temple.
• Survey Orders:
  • Advocate commissioner appointed to conduct a survey.
  • Initial survey conducted the same day.
  • Second survey conducted on November 24; report to be submitted by November 29.
• Protests and Controversy:
  • Protests broke out during the second survey, leading to police firing.
  • Mosque’s managing committee was consulted, but the survey order was ex-parte, without hearing both parties.
• Significance of the Mosque:
  • Sambhal’s Jama Masjid is a protected monument under the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act, 1904.
  • Declared a Monument of National Importance and listed by the Archaeological Survey of India.

Places of Worship Act, 1991

• Religious Character: Mandates maintaining the religious character of places of worship as they existed on August 15, 1947.

• Conversion Prohibition:
  • Section 3: Bars conversion, wholly or partially, of a place of worship from one religious denomination to another, or even within different segments of the same denomination.

• Objective

• Aimed to resolve disputes arising from historical “conversions” of places of worship.
• Intended to promote communal harmony and goodwill (as stated by then Home Minister S B Chavan).

• Exemption: Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi dispute was excluded from its purview as the case was already sub judice when the Act was passed.

World Affairs 

As India inaugurates global co-operatives alliance, Bhutan pitches Gelephu as biggest co-operative project - The Hindu 

Pitching the upcoming Gelephu Mindfulness City as the biggest “co-operative project” in Bhutan, Bhutanese Prime Minister recently said in New Delhi that he was grateful for India’s support on the 2,500 square kilometre “Zero Carbon” city being developed.

Science and Technology 

MACE in Ladakh opens its one-of-a-kind eye to cosmic gamma rays - The Hindu

The Major Atmospheric Cherenkov Experiment (MACE) telescope is a state-of-the-art ground-based gamma-ray telescope inaugurated in Hanle, Ladakh, on October 4. Located at around 4.3 km above sea level, it is the highest imaging Cherenkov telescope in the world. It boasts of a 21-metre-wide dish, the largest of its kind in Asia and second-largest in the world.

Gamma Rays and Cherenkov Radiation

• Gamma Rays
  • Produced by energetic cosmic phenomena like pulsars, supernovae, black holes, and gamma-ray bursts.
  • Pose health hazards, potentially damaging living cells and DNA.
  • Earth's atmosphere blocks gamma rays from reaching the ground.
• Detection:
  • Astronomers use space observatories or indirect techniques for studying high-energy gamma rays from the ground.
  • Gamma rays entering the atmosphere interact with air molecules, creating showers of electron-positron pairs.
• Cherenkov Radiation:
• Emitted when charged particles travel faster than light in air.
• Appears as faint blue-violet light or ultraviolet radiation, lasting fractions of a second.

• Covers a vast surface area, suitable for locating detectors.

• Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs):
  • Used to detect Cherenkov radiation and study gamma rays indirectly.
  • Example: The MACE telescope.

Significance of European solar mission, which ISRO will launch - Indian Express

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch the European Space Agency’s Proba-3 mission on its PSLV rocket to study the solar corona, the outermost and hottest part of the Sun’s atmosphere, from Sriharikota recently. The mission will also attempt the first-ever “precision formation flying”, where two satellites will fly together and maintain a fixed configuration in space.

Proba-3

Potential Benefits of Proba-3 for India

• Showcasing Space Capabilities
  • Launching Proba-3 highlights India’s reliable and cost-effective space launch capabilities.
  • Demonstrates ISRO’s growing expertise in international missions.
• Access to Data and Collaboration
  • Indian solar physicists likely to gain exclusive access to Proba-3 data.
  • Indian researchers contributed to the mission's scientific goals in collaboration with Belgian counterparts.
• Collaborative Research Opportunities
  • Plans to host a meeting with ESA’s Proba-3 team to explore joint use of data from Proba-3 and Aditya L1 (India’s solar mission).
  • Facilitates collaborative advancements in solar research.

HOW SCIENTISTS DEVELOPED PILLS THAT CAN REPLACE INJECTIONS - Indian Express

A team of researchers has developed ingestible capsules that release a burst of drugs directly inside the stomach or other parts of the digestive system. These capsules can offer an alternative method to deliver drugs such as insulin that, thus far, are typically administered via injections. To develop them, the researchers took inspiration from the way cephalopods like squids and cuttlefish use jet propulsion mechanisms to move underwater, and shoot ink.