Union Minister of Science and Technology Dr Jitendra Singh has recently provided financial aid to around 53,000 students under the INSPIRE Scheme.

• The Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) scheme has been implemented by Indian Government’s Department of Science and Technology (DST) to encourage people aging 10 to 32 years to pursue science and a career in research.
• Its purpose is to attract talent to science at an early age and create the required resource pool for strengthening the science and technology system and research and development base in the country.
• It has three components – Scheme for Early Attraction of Talent (SEATS), Scholarship for Higher Education (SHE) and Assured Opportunity for Research Careers (AORC).

Union Social Justice and Empowerment minister Dr. Virendra Kumar virtually inaugurated 9 model District Disability Rehabilitation centres(DDRC). The minister was inaugurating 9 DDRCs which had been upgrading to model DDRCs. 

• The upgraded model DDRCs are situated in Badaun, Pilibhit, Bareilly, Balaghat, Golaghat, Ahmedabad, Amravati, Kullu and Rampur.
• They were virtually inaugurated by the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment.
• In these model DDRCs, services like hearing aids testing lab, speech therapy room, visual therapy room, psychologist room, physiotherapist room, gait practice parallel bar and telemedicine/tele-therapy facilities are provided.
• They will also assist persons with disabilities to register in the Unique Disability ID portal.

Poland has opened a new sea waterway to enable ships to sail from the Baltic Sea and the Bay of Gdansk to ports of Vistula lagoon without relying on Strait of Pilawa in Russia.

• The new canal was opened on the 83^rd anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland during the Second World War. 
• This was done to symbolically demonstrate the end of Russia’s influence on the country’s economy and development.
• The new canal cuts across the Vistula Spit, east of Gdansk, enabling ships sailing to travel from the Baltic Sea and the Bay of Gdansk to Elblag and other ports of the lagoon without getting authorization to travel through Russia’s Strait of Pilawa. 
• It also reduces the Baltic-to-Elblag route by some 100 km. 
• Currently, while the smaller ships and yachts can use this route, cargo ships cannot sail through until the approach to the Port of Elblag is deepened to 5 meters. This is expected to cost 21 million USD. The overall cost of this project is 2 billion USD.

The Foreign Trade Policy of India was amended , as the government announced the insertion of a new Para under the same. Under the new rules, international trade invoicing, payment and settlement will be allowed to be settled in the Indian Rupee.

• The move has thus activated the Reserve Bank of India’s mechanism to facilitate trade in the Indian currency.
• The move has come into effect on an immediate basis, as per the order of the DGFT.
• The RBI has put in place an arrangement for invoicing, payment, and settlement of exports/ imports, allowing invoicing and payments for international trade in the rupee.

The new canal was opened on the 83^rd anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland during the Second World War.

• This was done to symbolically demonstrate the end of Russia’s influence on the country’s economy and development.
• The new canal cuts across the Vistula Spit, east of Gdansk, enabling ships sailing to travel from the Baltic Sea and the Bay of Gdansk to Elblag and other ports of the lagoon without getting authorization to travel through Russia’s Strait of Pilawa.
• It also reduces the Baltic-to-Elblag route by some 100 km.
• Currently, while the smaller ships and yachts can use this route, cargo ships cannot sail through until the approach to the Port of Elblag is deepened to 5 meters. This is expected to cost 21 million USD.
• The overall cost of this project is 2 billion USD. 

The UAE is expected to launch the Rashid rover in November this year aboard a Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket.

Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar recently inaugurated the 9th Session of Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, which is being held in New Delhi from September 19 to 24 this year.

• The Governing Body convened as per Article 19 of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA)
• It focuses on aspects concerning general policy and implementation of the international treaty and the administrative and budgetary matters.

Global Registry of Fossil Fuels is the world’s first public database on fossil fuel reserves, production and emissions. 

• The Global Registry of Fossil Fuels is the “first-ever fully transparent” public database that tracks fossil fuels across the world.
• It was launched by the Carbon Tracker and Global Energy Monitor.
• It was released to coincide with the two important international climate talks – the UNGA, which is set to commence in New York on September 13 and COP27, which will be organized in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt in November.
• This inventory has data from more than 50,000 oil, gas and coal fields in 89 countries.
• This accounts for 75 per cent of global production.

The Central Government will constitute a national commission to study the social, economic and educational status of members of Scheduled Castes or Dalits who have converted to religions other than Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism. 

• This proposed commission is significant as several petitions are currently pending before the Supreme Court seeking SC reservation benefits for Dalits who have converted to Christianity or Islam.
• The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 under Article 341 states that no individual belonging to religion other than Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism can be recognized as a member of the Scheduled Caste.
• The proposed commission would have 3 to 4 members with its chairman being a Union Cabinet Minister.

The Union Ministry of Power is currently calling for the Market-Based Economic Dispatch (MBED) mechanism – a radical shift from the current decentralized, voluntary pool-based electricity market.

• The MBED mechanism envisages a centralized scheduling for dispatching the entire yearly consumption of electricity of around 1,400 billion units.
• It proposes a centralized scheduling of power dispatches both at the inter-state and intra-state levels.
• This will interfere in the autonomy of states in managing their electricity sector, including their own generating stations.

A wild Arctic wolf was successfully cloned for the first time in the world by a Beijing-based gene firm. The cloning of the Arctic wolf, also known as the white wolf or polar wolf, which is native to the High Arctic tundra of Canada’s Queen Elizabeth Islands, is considered a milestone achievement in conserving rare and endangered species through cloning technology.

• The wolf named Maya is in good health. The donor cell of the wolf came from the skin sample of a wild female Arctic wolf and its oocyte was taken from a female dog.
• According to the Global Times report, Maya’s surrogate mother was a beagle, a dog breed.
• The dog was selected as the surrogate as it shares genetic ancestry with ancient wolves and hence, ensures success in cloning.