UniFocus IAS ( UNIFOCUS UNIVERSAL )

Relevance: The Hindu The Committee on Public Accounts was first set up in 1921 in the wake of theMontague Chelmsford Reforms. The Finance Member of the Executive Council used to be the Chairman of the Committee. This position continued right up to 1949. The Committee on Public Accounts underwent a radical change with the coming into force of the Constitution of India on 26 January, 1950. The Minister of Finance ceased to be a Member of the Committee vide Rule 309(i) of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha.   The Public Accounts Committee is constituted every year under Rule 308 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha.  The Public Accounts Committee consists of not more than 22 members comprising of 15 members elected by Lok Sabha every year from amongst its members according to the principle of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote and not more than 7 members of Rajya Sabha elected by that ...

By 164 votes to one, Member States of UN on Friday endorsed a resolution promoting map projections that more accurately reflect the true size of continents. The United States cast the sole vote against, dismissing the initiative as part of a “radical ideological project.”  Six countries – Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine – abstained. The resolution does not ban the Mercator projection or impose a replacement. Instead, it encourages governments, schools, international organizations and technology companies to use the Equal Earth projection. The Mercator projection ( / m ər ˈ k eɪ t ər / ) is a conformal cylindrical map projection first presented by Flemish geographer and mapmaker Gerardus Mercator in 1569. In the 18th century, it became the standard map projection for navigation due to its property of representing rhumb lines as straight lines. When applied to world maps, the Mercator projection inflates the size of lands the farther they are from the equat...

Relevance: The Guardian Anak Krakatoa , or Anak Krakatau ( Indonesian for ' child of Krakatoa ' ) , is a volcanic island and an active volcano in Indonesia .  Geography: Brown and almost barren, Anak Krakatau rises out of the Sunda Strait, the narrow band of the Indian Ocean that separates the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Java.  Anak Krakatau emerged from the sea less than 80 years ago, and is a natural laboratory to watch the development of an ecosystem. Since the soil is new, it was uncontaminated with seeds. All of the plants seen growing on the island came from seeds that drifted in on the sea or blew across the ocean on the wind. As a result, the plants are clumped on the shallowly sloped eastern shores of the volcano where loose ash and volcanic sand cover the ground. In contrast to the solid rock seen elsewhere on the island, these loose soils allow plants to take root easily. Like most of the approximately 130 active volcanoes in Indonesia, Krakatau was formed...

The World Health Organization (WHO) has validated Bhutan’s elimination of dog-transmitted rabies as a public health problem in the country. Bhutan is the first country in the WHO South-East Asia Region to achieve this success. Rabies is a viral disease that is almost always fatal once clinical symptoms appear. However, rabies deaths are preventable. On one hand, vaccinating dogs curbs the disease at its source; on the other, prompt use of post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) stops the virus from reaching the central nervous system after a bite. PEP consists of thorough wound washing, administration of a course of human rabies vaccine and, when indicated, rabies immunoglobulins (RIG) injection. Rabies is one of 21 neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), which affect one billion people globally. As of September 2026, 65 countries had eliminated at least one NTD. Public education targeting both children and adults on dog behaviours, bite prevention, appropriate actions following a bite or scratch ...