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National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT)

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) dismissed an insolvency petition filed by SNJ Synthetics against PepsiCo India Holdings, asserting that the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) cannot be used as a tool for debt recovery where only disputed interest claims are involved.

About the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT)

The NCLAT is a quasi-judicial body constituted under Section 410 of the Companies Act, 2013. It was established to hear appeals against the decisions of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), functioning since 1st June 2016.
Its main objective is to promote timely corporate dispute resolution, ensure transparency, and improve efficiency in insolvency and corporate governance matters.

Functions of NCLAT include:

Hearing appeals against orders of NCLT under Section 61 of IBC.
Hearing appeals against orders of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) under Sections 202 and 211 of IBC.
Hearing appeals against orders of the Competition Commission of India (CCI).
Hearing appeals related to the National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA).
Giving advisory opinions when legal issues are referred by the President of India.
Headquarters: Located in New Delhi.
Composition: It includes a Chairperson, along with Judicial and Technical Members, all appointed by the Central Government based on expertise in law, finance, accountancy, and administration.

Powers and Procedure:

NCLAT can regulate its own procedure and possesses powers equivalent to a civil court under the Civil Procedure Code, 1908.
It can summon witnesses, receive affidavits, enforce production of documents, and issue commissions.
Orders passed by NCLAT are enforceable like civil court decrees.
Appeals against NCLAT orders can be filed in the Supreme Court of India.
Civil courts have no jurisdiction over matters within the purview of NCLAT.
No court or authority can grant injunctions against any action taken by NCLAT under its legal authority.

Vizhinjam Port

The Prime Minister of India will formally open the Vizhinjam International Seaport in Kerala, marking a major step in putting the southern state on the global maritime map.

About Vizhinjam Port:

Location: It is located at Vizhinjam, a coastal town in Thiruvananthapuram District, Kerala.
It is India's first dedicated transshipment port and also the country's first semi-automated port.
Built at a cost of around Rs 8,900 crore under public-private partnership (PPP) mode, the transshipment port is operated by the Adani Group, with the Kerala government holding the majority stake.

Features:

The breakwater at Vizhinjam is the deepest in India and stretches nearly three kilometres. It has a natural draft of around 20 metres.
It also features India's first home-built, AI-powered Vessel Traffic Management System, developed with IIT Madras.
It is equipped with fully automated yard cranes and remotely operated ship-to-shore cranes for faster and safer operations.
Unlike most Indian ports, Vizhinjam experiences minimal sand movement along the coast (littoral drift), which reduces maintenance costs.

Importance:

Vizhinjam’s strategic location—just 10 nautical miles from a key international shipping route—and naturally deep waters make it ideal for accommodating large container vessels.
Until now, 75% of India’s transshipment traffic was handled abroad, leading to foreign exchange losses. Vizhinjam aims to change that by reclaiming a substantial share of this traffic.
The port now shares routes with global hubs like Shanghai, Singapore, and Busan (South Korea).
Plans are also underway to turn Vizhinjam into a multi-modal logistics hub, with direct highway connectivity via NH-66, Kerala’s first cloverleaf interchange, and an upcoming railway link to the national network.

Know Your DIGIPIN’ and ‘Know Your PIN Code Web Portals

Recently, the Department of Posts, Ministry of Communications launched two transformative digital platforms: ‘Know Your DIGIPIN’ and ‘Know Your PIN Code’.

About Know Your DIGIPIN’:

The DIGIPIN (Digital Postal Index Number) is an open-source, interoperable, geo-coded, grid-based digital address system developed by the Department of Posts in collaboration with IIT Hyderabad and NRSC, ISRO.
Vision: To offer Address-as-a-Service (AaaS) — an array of services associated with address data management to support secure and efficient interactions between users, government entities, and private sector organisations.
The ‘Know Your DIGIPIN’ portal enables users to:
Retrieve their DIGIPIN based on precise geolocation.
Input latitude and longitude coordinates to fetch corresponding DIGIPINs and vice versa.

Advantages:

This initiative simplifies location mapping, enhances logistics and emergency response, and ensures last-mile delivery, especially in rural and underserved areas.
Incorporating DIGIPIN as an additional address attribute enables the leveraging of GIS capabilities, laying the foundation for future GIS-based digitalisation of service delivery across various organisations in a cost-effective manner.
DIGIPIN will enhance location accuracy across multiple sectors by providing precise geographic coordinates, ensuring accurate service delivery and reducing emergency response times.
A complete repository of the DIGIPIN technical documentation and source code has been made available on GitHub, promoting open collaboration and nationwide adoption.
It is now available to all Ministries, State Governments, institutions for integration into their workflows, and users for their own use.

About Know Your PIN Code Web Application

It is the six-digit PIN Code system, introduced in 1972.
The Department undertook a national geofencing exercise across all postal jurisdictions to geo-reference all the pin code boundaries of the country.

INSV Kaundinya

The Indian Navy has inducted the INSV Kaundinya, a reconstructed 5th-century stitched ship based on depictions found in the Ajanta Cave paintings.

About INSV Kaundinya

This initiative was launched in July 2023 under a tripartite agreement involving the Ministry of Culture, the Indian Navy, and Hodi Innovations.
The Ministry of Culture funded the ship as a symbol of India’s ancient shipbuilding tradition and to promote maritime heritage awareness.
INSV Kaundinya is scheduled to sail along the ancient maritime trade route from Gujarat to Oman later in 2025.

Traditional Shipbuilding Techniques

The ship was constructed using ancient “stitched ship” techniques, where wooden planks are joined using coir ropes, coconut fibres, and natural resin, without metal nails.
The design was based on a 5th-century maritime scene depicted in the Ajanta mural paintings.
As there are no surviving blueprints, the design process involved interpreting 2D artistic representations through archaeological, naval architectural, and hydrodynamic analysis.

Symbolism and Cultural Integration

The sails feature motifs such as the ‘Gandabherunda’ (mythical two-headed eagle) and the Sun, symbolizing strength and vitality.
The bow is adorned with a ‘Simha Yali’ (mythical lion-like figure), reflecting traditional South Indian maritime iconography.
A Harappan-style stone anchor on the deck connects the ship to India’s Indus Valley maritime legacy.
Named after Kaundinya, a legendary Indian sailor who reached Southeast Asia, the ship highlights India’s role in ancient transoceanic trade and cultural exchange.

Jarosite

A recent study by a team of researchers from India has explored jarosite samples from Kachchh, Gujarat, a region with terrain conditions similar to Mars.

About Jarosite

Jarosite is a yellow-brown mineral composed of potassium, iron, and sulphate, commonly found in arid, saline environments.
The study aimed to assess whether jarosite can act as a “natural clock” on Mars by tracking geological events through radiation-induced luminescence.

Scientific Methodology and Luminescence Testing

The researchers collected six jarosite vein samples from Kachchh and examined them in a lab using a process based on luminescence dating.
Luminescence refers to the light emitted by minerals when they release energy stored from natural radiation over time.
The process involved:
Washing grains with weak acid to enhance brightness.
Irradiating, heating, cooling, and repeating the cycle to analyze luminescent properties.
The team observed four distinct luminescent emissions at 100°C, 150°C, 300°C, and 350°C, even after heating the samples up to 450°C, indicating thermal stability.

Why Kachchh, Gujarat Was Chosen

The Kachchh region in Gujarat was selected due to its extreme aridity and salinity, resembling Martian terrain conditions.
This made it an ideal analog site to test the behavior of jarosite under extraterrestrial-like environments.

Germany's Electoral System

Recently, the Prime Minister of India held a telephonic conversation with Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany, congratulating him on assuming office.

Germany's Electoral System – Key Features

Germany follows a Mixed-Member Proportional Representation system, combining both majoritarian and proportional representation
Every voter casts two votes:
First vote (Erststimme): For an individual candidate under the first-past-the-post system in 299 constituencies.
Second vote (Zweitstimme): For a political party list in each Länder (state) under proportional representation.
Bundestag (Lower House) members are elected based on these two votes; 299 by first vote and the rest by second vote.
Overhang seats arise when a party wins more seats through first votes than it deserves by proportional representation.
To ensure fairness, balance seats are allocated to other parties so that the final distribution reflects proportional vote share

Selection of the Chancellor in Germany

German citizens do not directly elect the Chancellor; they vote for representatives who then form the Bundestag, which elects the Chancellor.
Post-election, the Federal President nominates a candidate for the Chancellorship.
The Bundestag votes in a secret ballot; an absolute majority is required to elect the Chancellor in the first round.

If no candidate secures a majority in the first attempt:

A second round is held.
If still unresolved, a third round takes place, and the candidate with the highest number of votes is elected.

NASA–Webb–Keck Observation of Titan

In November 2022 and July 2023, NASA scientists observed Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, using both the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Keck Observatory.

About Titan

Titan is the largest moon of Saturn and the second-largest moon in the solar system, after Jupiter's Ganymede.
It is the only known moon with a thick atmosphere and surface liquid bodies, including lakes and seas of methane and ethane.
Titan exhibits Earth-like weather patterns, including clouds, rainfall, and seasonal variations.

Key Findings

These observations revealed the presence of clouds in the mid- and high northern latitudes of Titan that rose to higher altitudes over time, indicating convection-driven weather patterns.
This marks the first-ever confirmed evidence of convective cloud activity in Titan’s northern hemisphere, where most of Titan’s hydrocarbon seas (like Kraken Mare and Ligeia Mare) are located.
The findings offer fresh insights into Titan's active methane cycle, which is analogous in complexity to Earth’s hydrological cycle, but with methane and ethane instead of water.
Understanding Titan's weather helps scientists better comprehend prebiotic chemistry and climate dynamics on icy moons with thick atmospheres.

About Keck Observatory

The M. Keck Observatory is located near the summit of Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano in Hawaii, at an altitude of 4,200 metres. This high elevation provides evident atmospheric conditions for astronomical observations.
The observatory consists of two 10-metre telescopes, Keck I (operational since 1992) and Keck II (since 1996), making it the largest optical/infrared telescope system in the world.
Each telescope has a 10-metre primary mirror composed of 36 hexagonal segments made of zero-expansion glass ceramic, which ensures thermal stability and precision imaging.
These segments are adjusted in real-time by computer-controlled actuators to maintain the mirror's hyperboloid shape, enabling ultra-precise focus and light collection.
A technique called stressed mirror polishing was used to shape the asymmetric off-axis segments, a breakthrough innovation in modern telescope engineering.