• LIGO stands for Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory. LIGO at present consist of two interferometers set up at Hanford in Washing State and Livingston in Louisiana State of the USA.
• The cabinet has given approval for construction of LIGO India at Hingoli in Maharashtra.

Gravitational Waves: They are the waves that do not require the material medium to travel. They expand space in one dimension and contract the space in the other dimension. They were first predicted by Sir Albert Einstein in his General Theory of Relativity. The Gravitational Waves were first time experimental and directly measured at the LIGO apparatus established it the United States. 
CERN: CERN is European Organisation for Nuclear Research. This is the largest particle physics laboratory based in Geneva occupying space on France-Switzerland border. CERN is also the birthplace of World Wide Web.

• It was in news as India has been made the associate member of CERN
• . The 6 Associate members are: India, Pakistan, Cyprus, Ukraine, Serbia and Turkey. It has 22 members and Israel is the only non-European member of CERN.