Current Affairs

India re-elected to UN body on economic, social issues; Pakistan loses out

India has been re-elected to the UN’s principal organ on economic, social and environmental issues for another three-year term.

India was among 18 nations to win election to the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). India obtained 183 votes, the second highest after Japan in the Asia Pacific category.

HL Dattu the new chairperson of National Human Rights Commission

H L Dattu took charge as the Chairperson of National Human Rights Commission.
He is the Former Chief Justice of India. He is the seventh Chairperson of the human rights commission.

The chairperson and members of the commission are appointed by the President on the recommendation of the high-powered committee headed by the Prime Minister.

The committee had cleared the name of Justice Dattu for the post last week.
The post was lying vacant for the last eight months after the retirement of Justice K G Balakrishnan.

Justice Dattu had retired as Chief Justice of India on 2nd December last year. He will have a tenure of five years.

NASA - India to jointly explore Mars

After the success of Mars Orbiter Mission(MOM), India and US are likely to collaborate on the mission to the Red planet.
In future, India and the U.S. could jointly explore Mars and who knows an Indian astronaut could also head to the Red planet on a joint mission.

India’s maiden mission to the Red Planet, Mangalyaan, has opened the eyes of the world on ISRO’s capabilities at undertaking low cost, high value inter-planetary mission.

Charles Elachi, director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory or JPL, a part of NASA and an institution better known for piloting most of the American planetary exploration efforts with rovers like Curiosity, says India and the U.S. could jointly explore Mars and even invited India to send astronauts to the Red Planet.