current affairs 01 December 2022

Australia's Great Barrier Reef be put on in danger list: UN panel.

• A UN panel has suggested that Australia's Great Barrier Reef should be listed as a world heritage site that is in danger.
• Reason: It was significantly impacted by climate change and warming of oceans.
• Frequent bleaching events are threatening the reef, which include the first during La Nina phenomenon, which typically brings cooler temperatures.
• Bleaching: When the water warms too much, causing corals to expel the colourful algae living in their tissues and turn white.

NASA's Artemis 1 Orion capsule sets new flight record.

• NASA's Artemis 1 Orion capsule has set a new space flight record for spacecraft designed to carry humans by travelling 401,798 km from Earth.
• The previous record was held by Apollo 13 on April 14, 1970 by travelling 400,171 km.
• Apollo 13 was not designed to travel that far and the spacecraft was only made to complete a moon landing.
• Since the Orion was not staffed, the Apollo 13 crew still holds the record for the farthest distance from Earth reached by humans.

Vistara airlines to be merged with Air India by March 2024.

• Vistara airlines (Singapore Airlines) has agreed to merge with Tata-owned Air India by March 2024, subject to regulatory approvals.
• Singapore Airlines will invest 250 million Dollars (Rs 2,000 crore) into Air India, as soon as this integration is completed.
• After the merger, Singapore Airlines shall hold 25.1 per cent shareholding in Air India.
• Vistara is a 51:49 joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines Limited.

GroupM South Asia CEO, Prasanth Kumar elected president of AAAI.

• Prasanth Kumar (CEO, South Asia of GroupM Media (India) Pvt Ltd) has been elected as the President of the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) for 2022-23.
• While, Rana Barua (Group CEO of Havas Group India) has been elected as the Vice-President of the Association.
• Immediate Past President, Anupriya Acharya has been appointed as the ex-officio member of the AAAI Board for 2022-23.
• AAAI is a national advertising agencies, which was formed in 1945.

Karnataka developing app-based networking platform for IPRs.

• Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology (KSCST) is developing an app-based networking platform called "Patentkart".
• Aim: For commercialisation of Intellectual Property Rights.
• It will benefit patent holders and their clients in commercialising their IP.
• In the past three years, more than 700 patents have been filed by KSCST-assisted IP cells.
• Patent Facilitation Centre has supported setting up of a Patent Information Centre at KSCST, IISc.