UniFocus IAS ( UNIFOCUS UNIVERSAL )

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), under the Ministry of Labour & Employment, Government of India, has launched "VISHWAS, 2026", a one-time dispute resolution initiative to facilitate amicable settlement of disputes relating to levy of damages /penalty under Section 14B of the Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 and Section 128 of the Code on Social Security, 2020. The Scheme has been notified vide G.S.R. 525(E) dated 29 June 2026 as part of the EPF Scheme, 2026 and has come into force with effect from 29 June 2026. It will remain operational for a period of six months from the date of notification. VISHWAS, 2026 has been introduced with the objective of promoting voluntary compliance, reducing litigation, and enabling speedy resolution of long-pending disputes relating to penalty/damages while safeguarding the interests of employees. The Scheme provides employers with an opportunity to settle eligible cases through a transpar...

 The U.S. FCC recently cleared Hawthorne-based startup Reflect Orbital to launch " Eärendil-1 ," an 18-meter-wide orbital mirror designed to reflect sunlight back to specific locations on Earth at night . The company aims to sell on-demand artificial twilight for solar farms, disaster relief, and round-the-clock construction. [ 1 , 2 , 3 ] How it Works The concept relies on large, ultra-lightweight deployable reflectors (made of materials like mylar) that fold up during launch and expand once in low Earth orbit. [ 1 , 2 , 3 ] Targeted Beams: By precisely angling the mirror, it can direct a beam of sunlight onto dark, predetermined coordinates. [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ] Brightness: The beam is adjustable and at its maximum can appear brighter than the full Moon, casting up to 36,000 lux (daylight brightness) if fully concentrated, though commercial setups will likely aim for softer, moonlight-level illumination. [ 1 , 2 , 3 ] Control: The mirrors can be rotated out of position, ...

Vikram-I is a four-stage, expendable orbital small-lift launch vehicle developed by Skyroot Aerospace. Its first three stages are solid stages, while the fourth stage is a liquid stage. Skyroot Aerospace unveiled the Vikram-I launch vehicle in October 2023 at its MAX-Q headquarters in Hyderabad. The company stated that the rocket was developed to serve the growing global small satellite launch market. The vehicle's development followed the successful launch of the suborbital demonstrator Vikram-S in November 2022, which made Skyroot the first Indian private company to launch a rocket from the ISRO's launch facilities. In May 2022, Skyroot completed a full-duration static test of the Kalam-100 solid rocket stage, a component of Vikram-I. Additional qualification tests, including stage separation tests and avionics validation, were carried out through 2024 and 2025. In November 2025, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the flight-ready configuration of Vikram-I during the inau...

It was developed at CERN to provide sub-nanosecond accuracy and picoseconds precision of synchronisation for the LHC accelerators chain. It was developped as an open-source hardware, with primary adoption by other research infrastructures with similar challenges in highly accurate synchronization of distributed electronic devices.  It was first developped in 2012. It is an ethernet based technology. Sub-nanosecond synchronization, deterministic data transfer, timestamping***, trigger distribution are its important features.  It has potential to be incorporated into different sectors including  telecommunications, financial markets, smart grids, space industry and quantum computing . ( *** Time stamping is the process of securely recording the exact date and time when a digital event—such as a file creation, data transaction, or signature—occurs . ) PIB CERN