• ICICI Bank has launched a fully digital overdraft facility for its Salary Account customers to get approval for overdraft (OD) instantaneously and in a paperless manner.
• The facility called, ‘Insta Flexicash’, will provide end-to-end fully digital experience to the customers using the Bank’s internet banking platform.
• The customers can apply for the OD from their home, without visiting a bank branch.
• The Bank will offer a credit limit worth up to three times of a customer’s net salary.
• The facility can be sanctioned immediately while customers can start using the approved OD limit within 48 hours.
• The interest payable on the OD is calculated on the basis of the actual amount availed by the customer, not on the full amount of the OD sanctioned.

How to avail the facility

• Log in to your ICICI Bank internet banking account
• Navigate to the ‘Offers’ section
• Check your pre-approved OD offer and apply

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has constituted a five-member Internal Working Group (IWG) to review the extant guidelines related to ownership, governance and corporate structure of private sector banks.
• The committee will be headed by Dr. Prasanna Kumar Mohanty, Director, Central Board of RBI. It will submit its report by 30 September, 2020.

Other members of the committee are:

• Prof. Sachin Chaturvedi, Director Central Board of RBI
• Smt. Lily Vadera, Executive Director, RBI
• Shri S. C. Murmu, Executive Director, RBI
• Shri Shrimohan Yadav, Chief General Manager, RBI – Convenor

• India has been elected as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for a two-year term during the 2020 UNSC elections.
• India’s two year term for the 2021-22 will begin on January 1, 2021.
• The country won 184 votes out of 192 valid votes polled in 193 member UN General Assembly.
• India was the sole candidate from the Asia-Pacific category.
• This is the eighth time that India has been elected as a non-permanent member of the Council. Its previous terms are 1950—1951, 1967—1968, 1972—1973, 1977—1978, 1984—1985, 1991—1992 and 2011—2012.
• Along with India, Ireland, Mexico and Norway were the other countries that also won the 2020 Security Council election.

• The Swedish think tank, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) released its 51st edition of the SIPRI Yearbook 2020 on 15 June 2020, which assesses the current state of armaments, disarmament and international security.
• As per the report, the number of nuclear arsenal in India has increased compared to the previous year.
• India added 10 more weapons by January 2020 to the stockpile to touch 150, compared to an estimated 130-140 in January 2019.
• This places India at seventh place globally in the list.
• However, the country is still behind the number of warheads possessed by China and Pakistan.
• The report also states that the nine nuclear-armed states namely United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), together possessed an estimated 13 400 nuclear weapons in January 2020.
• This is a decrease from the 13 865 nuclear weapons that these states possessed at the beginning of 2019.
  • As per SIPRI, despite an overall decrease in the number of nuclear warheads, nuclear powers continue to modernise their arsenals.

     

• Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) has extended a Line of Credit (LoC) of USD 20.10 million to the government of Nicaragua for the reconstruction of Aldo Chavarria Hospital.
• Exim Bank so far has extended 4 LoCs to Nicaragua on behalf of Indian govt.
• Exim Bank has now in place 261 LOCs, covering 62 countries.

• Saudi Arabia’s PIF, one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, will invest Rs 11,367 crore for 2.32 percent of Jio Platforms, a historic eleventh investment in the Reliance Industries (RIL) digital unit in nine weeks.
• Now shed 24.7 percent stake in Jio and raised Rs 115,693.95 crore from some of the world’s top technology investors.
• Facebook, General Atlantic, Silver Lake (twice), Vista Equity Partners, KKR, Mubadala Investment Company and ADIA, TPG and L Catterton have queued up for investments in Jio.
   

• India became the world’s 9th largest recipient of the foreign direct investment in 2019 scoring deals worth $51 billion, according to a report by the United Nations' trade body, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
• Earlier, the inflows stood at $42 billion when India ranked 12th worldwide in 2018. The country witnessed an increase in the inflows by $9 billion in 2019.
• India was among the top five host economies for FDI in the developing Asia region.
• Global FDI flows are speculated to see a plunge by up to 40 per cent in 2020, from $1.54 trillion in 2019, the report said. This would be for the first time since 2005 that global FDI falls below the $1 trillion mark.
• The report mentioned that investors sealed deals worth $650 million in the first quarter of 2020. This is mostly due to the growing digital sector in India.
• Large deals in energy were also concluded, such as the acquisition by Total (France) of Adani Gas (India), valued at $800 million.
• FDI flows to South Asia increased by 10 per cent to $57 billion in 2019, the growth accelerated particularly by a rise in investment in India, which further relaxed investment barriers in mid-2019 (including in retail, insurance and downstream coal processing).

• Maharashtra signed 12 Memorandum of Understanding(MoUs) with 12 domestic and foreign companies for Foreign Direct Investment(FDI) worth over Rs 16,000 crores.
• It is a part of the Magnetic Maharashtra 2.0 initiative.  The MoU was signed by the global companies in the field of engineering, car and spare parts manufacturing, information technology, logistics, chemicals, and food processing.

• Sebi panel suggests measures to strengthen enforcement, recovery mechanism.
• A Sebi panel on 16th June suggested measures to strengthen markets watchdog’s enforcement mechanism and improve the system of recovery of siphoned off money.
• The committee headed by former Supreme Court Judge Anil Dave has proposed a method of quantification of profit made by the defaulter and loss caused to investors.
• Purpose: The committee has examined the insolvency, recovery and securities laws jurisprudence of India and abroad and suggested suitable changes in the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code to ensure that insolvency law is not used as a refuge by defaulters, thereby protecting the interest of investors.

• With the objective to support and empower women against domestic violence and abuse, the Hyderabad City Security Council (HCSC) in association with Hyderabad City Police has launched an initiative named ‘STREE’.
• The name STREE denotes: “She Triumphs through Respect, Equality, and Empowerment”.
• The main purpose of STREE programme is to create a platform for women from various walks of the community to come together and be part of joint forum for women and Police to work together on issues of safety and security of women and girls.
• It will create awareness among the women on their rights, entitlements, laws and support systems available, and help to build a network of partners to ensure women’s safety, equality and empowerment.

• The first solar eclipse of 2020 is to take place on the summer solstice, which is the longest day in the Northern Hemisphere. It will be a rare celestial event, annular solar eclipse, popularly called the ring of fire eclipse will be visible on 21 June 2020. 
• In India, people living along the path annular eclipse passing through Anupgarh, Suratgarh, Sirsa, Jakhal, Kurukshetra, Yamunanagar, Dehradun, Tapowan and Joshimath will be able to see the annular phase, while the people in rest of India will witness a partial eclipse.

Solar Eclipse:

• When Moon comes between the Sun and Earth, the shadow falls on the surface of the Earth. The Sun is entirely covered by the Moon for a brief period. Those places that are engulfed by the dark, dense umbral shadow of the Moon experience the total solar eclipse. In the regions that plunge into the soft diffused penumbral shadow of the Moon experience the partial eclipse. In all solar eclipse the Sun, Moon, and Earth may not be perfectly aligned, and then we only have a partial eclipse. When the three celestial bodies happen to be in a straight line, Total solar eclipse happens.

• India’s economy is forecast to contract by 4 percent in 2020-21, due to the adverse effect of the coronavirus pandemic ,as per the latest Asian Development Outlook (ADO) report of the Asian Development Bank.
• For FY2021, ending March 2022, India’s GDP is projected to grow at 5%.
• GDP for 2020-21 : -4%
• GDP for 2021-22 : 5%

• Fitch Ratings has revised India’s long-term outlook to negative from stable, citing risks due to continued acceleration in the number of new Covid-19 cases as the lockdown is eased gradually in the country.
• The global credit rating agency has affirmed the country’s sovereign rating at ‘BBB-’, the lowest investment grade.
• Fitch expects Indian economic to contract by 5% (-5 percent) in the fiscal year ending March 2021 (FY21).
• For the fiscal FY22, ending march 2022, GDP is expected to grow by 9.5%.

• The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) organises the World Refugee Day on June 20 each year to raise awareness of the situation of refugees throughout the world.
• 2020 Theme: Every Action Counts.
• The United Nations General Assembly recognised the day on 4 December 2020.

• Each year June 19 is observed as the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict.
• The day was proclaimed by United Nations General Assembly on 19 June 2015.
• 2020 marks the sixth year of celebration of the day.
• The day aims to raise awareness of the need to put an end to conflict-related sexual violence, honour the victims and survivors of sexual violence around the world and pay tribute to all those who have courageously devoted their lives to and lost their lives in standing up for the eradication of these crimes.

• Karnataka has observed ‘Mask Day’On 18 June 2020 to create awareness about the importance of wearing a mask as a preventive measure against Covid-19.
• As a part of the event, the state also organised a mask rally from Vidhana Soudha to Cubbon Park.
• Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, along with ministers, celebrities and a host of officials took part in the mask rally.
• Wearing a mask is mandatory in Karnataka. A fine of Rs 200 will be imposed for not wearing a mask in public places.

• Sustainable Gastronomy Day is observed on 18 June. The day focuses on the world's attention on the role that sustainable gastronomy can play. The day also aims to reaffirm that all cultures and civilizations are contributors and crucial enablers of sustainable development.
• Gastronomy is sometimes referred to as the art of food. It refers to a style of cooking from a particular region or local food and cuisine. Sustainability is the idea that something like agriculture, fishing, or even preparation of food is done in a way that is not wasteful of our natural resources and can be continued into the future without being detrimental to our environment or health.
• Sustainable gastronomy means cuisine that considers where the ingredients are from, how the food is grown and how it gets to markets every day, and how it lands on the plates.
• On 21 December 2016, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) adopted its resolution A/RES/71/246 and designated 18 June as an international observance, Sustainable Gastronomy Day. 

• World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought is observed on 17 June. The day is aimed to promote public awareness of international efforts to combat desertification. 
• Theme- "Food. Feed.Fibre. - the links between consumption and land". The theme is focuses to change public attitudes which are the leading driver of desertification and land degradation.
• During the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, challenges like desertification, along with climate change and the loss of biodiversity, were identified to achieve sustainable development. In 1994, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) established the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). UNGA declared 17 June as World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought by passing the resolution A/RES/49/115.
• In the year 2007, the UNGA declared 2010-2020 as the UN Decade for Deserts and the fight against Desertification to mobilize global action to fight land degradation.

• International Day of Family Remittances  (IDFR) is observed on 16 June every year. The international day aims to recognize the contribution of over 200 million migrant workers, who work hard to improve the lives of their 800 million family members back home. It also aims to create a future of hope for their children.  
• The day will be observed under unprecedented conditions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Millions of migrant workers have lost their jobs, and many remittance families are suddenly pushed below the poverty line due to the pandemic. This has brought to a halt efforts to reach their own individual SDGs.

• World Elder Abuse Awareness Day is observed globally on 15th June every year. The day aims to provide an opportunity for communities around the globe to promote a better understanding of abuse and neglect of older persons.
• It also aims to create awareness of the cultural, social, economic, and demographic processes affecting elder abuse and neglect.
• The World Elder Abuse Awareness Day was initiated by the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (INPEA) in 2006. In 2011, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) passed its resolution A/RES/66/127 and designated the observation of the World Elder Abuse Awareness Day.

• World wind day is observed on 15 June every year. The day aims to spread awareness and encourage the use of wind as a form of green and renewable sources of energy. The day focuses on how wind energy can be utilized more aggressively.
• The day is organized every year by the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) and Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC). EWEA & GWEC coordinate with various networks of partners to celebrate this day.
• The observation of the Global Wind Day began in Europe in the year 2007 and globally in the year 2009. Global Wind Day is observed in more than 75 countries.
• Wind energy is one of the fastest-growing in the energy sectors of India.
• The government of India has set an ambitious target of producing 500 GW of renewable energy by 2030.
• India is currently working to meet the target of producing 175 GW of renewable energy by 2022. The states that produce and utilize most of the wind energy in India include Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Odisha, and Andhra Pradesh.

• World Blood Donor Day is marked by the World Health Organization (WHO) all around the world on every 14 June to create awareness about the need for safe blood and blood products and to thank blood donors for their voluntary, life-saving gifts of blood.
• The theme for the Blood donor day 2020 is ‘Safe Blood Saves Lives’.
• It would be promoted with the slogan ‘Give blood and make the world a healthier place.’

• Reliance Industries (RIL) chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani, has entered into the list of world’s top 10 richest persons, according to the Forbes Real-Time Billionaire list.
• Ambani’s net worth rose to $64.6 billion, making him the 9th richest person in the world.
• RIL’s shares soared 6.2% to hit a new all-time high of Rs 1,788.60 on the BSE on 19 June before ending at Rs 1,759.50 (up over 6 percent), helping the company’s market capitalisation to cross Rs 11-trillion mark.
• He is the richest Asian in the list.
• In March 2020, Ambani was ranked 21st on Forbes’ annual billionaire list
• Amazon founder Jeff Bezos tops the list with a net worth of $160.4 billion followed by Bill Gates with $109.9 billion.
• Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires rankings is a wealth-tracking platform that tracks the daily ups and downs of the world’s richest people and provides the ongoing updates on the net worth and ranking of each individual confirmed by Forbes to be a billionaire.

• India ranked 43rd on the Institute for Management Development's (IMD) 2020 World Competitiveness Index ranks. It stated that the continued low ranking of India is due to the traditional weaknesses such as insufficient education investment and poor infrastructure.
• Singapore topped the Index followed by Denmark ranked 2nd. It secured 8th rank in 2019.
• Among the BRICS Nations, China topped and India has ranked second followed by Russia at 50th rank, Brazil 56th, and South Africa 59th rank.
• Top 5 countries in the list are:
  
  Singapore
  Denmark
  Switzerland
  Netherland
  Hong Kong

• The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has set up a Project Development Cell (PDC) to attract more investments into the sector and particularly solar energy sector.
• The PDC will be headed by joint secretary of MNRE, Mr. Amitesh Kumar Sinha.
• The main purpose of PDC will be to create projects that have all prior approvals for investors to adopt them such as detailed reports and readily available land for allocation and investment by investors for these projects.
• This initiative is also a step forward to help the ministry meet its 175 GW target for green energy.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan on 20 June 2020 from Beldaur of Khagaria District of Bihar. 

Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan:

• Under Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan, a campaign of 125 days will work in mission mode. 
• The campaign will focus to implement 25 different types of works to provide employment to migrant workers. It will also create infrastructure in the rural regions of the country on the other hand, with a resource envelope of Rs.50,000 crore.
• The mission is a coordinated effort between 12 different Ministries/Departments, including Panchayati Raj, Road Transport & Highways, Mines, Rural Development, Drinking Water & Sanitation, Environment, Railways, Petroleum & Natural Gas, New & Renewable Energy, Border Roads, Telecom and Agriculture.
• The move aims to provide employment for everyone who needs it and the money allotted to all these works will be pooled together and frontloaded for completion of asset creation within 125 days.

• The Trustees of the Prime Minister’s Citizens Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) Fund have appointed SARC & Associates, Chartered Accountants, New Delhi as auditor of the fund for three years.
• The firm, SARC & Associates, is headed by Sunil Kumar Gupta.
• It was also appointed auditors of the PM’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) in 2019.

• Karnataka pegged its annual priority sector credit requirement at Rs 2,55,940 Cr for FY 2020-21, up 20%, as compared to previous year’s Rs 2,12,517 Cr.
• As of March 2020, Karnataka has secured 3rd position in India with respect to Mudra loan disbursement.
• Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh secured the first & 2nd spots.

• Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL) has decided to terminate the contract with Beijing National Railway Research and Design Institute of Signal and Communication Group limited. In a statement, DFCCIL said, the contract has been terminated due to poor performance of the company.
• In 2016, the Chinese company had won the contract to install signalling system and telecommunications work in over 400 kilometre of rail lines of kanpur Deendayal Upadhyaya section.
• DFCCIL said, despite the passage of four years there is only 20 per cent progress in the work. Non availability of their engineer and authorised personnels at site was serious constraint. The physical work also could not progress as they have no tie up with local agencies.

• The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) launched a unique project at Dahanu in Palghar district of Maharashtra, a state with more than 50 lakh palm trees. Under the project, Neera and Palmgur will be produced in India. Neera and Palmgur have huge potential to create employment in the country. 
• The project aims to promote Neera as a substitute to soft drinks. It is aimed to generate self-employment to Adivasis and traditional trappers. 
• KVIC has distributed tool kits for extraction of Neera and making palmgur to 200 local artisans who were given 7 days of training by KVIC. 
• A tool kit of cost Rs.15,000 that comprises perforated moulds, canteen burners, food-grade stainless steel Kadhai, and other equipment like knives, rope, and axes for extraction of Neera will be provided. 
• The project aims to provide direct employment to 400 local traditional trappers.
• India has abundant palm fields in many states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar.
• In India, there are approximately 10 crore palm trees. Also, a wide range of products like candies, milk chocolates, palm cola, ice-cream and traditional sweets can be produced from Neera, provided it is marketed properly. Currently, Palmgur Neera worth Rs.500 crore is traded in the country. The turnover is expected to increase manifold with commercial production of Neera.

• The insolvency regulator ‘Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India’ (IBBI) has reconstituted the Advisory Committee on Corporate Insolvency Resolution and Liquidation process.
• The 14 member reconstituted panel would be chaired by Uday Kotak, Executive Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Kotak Mahindra Bank.
• IBBI had earlier constituted the Advisory Committee on Corporate Insolvency and Liquidation in August 2017. Uday Kotak was the Chairman of this panel too. However, at that time the panel had 12 members.
• IBBI has inducted three new members in the reconstituted panel.
• The committee shall advise and provide professional support on any matter relating to the corporate insolvency resolution and liquidation dealt with by the board under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.

• The Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Steel Dharmendra Pradhan launched the Indian Gas Exchange (IGX) in an e-ceremony . It will be the first nationwide online delivery-based gas trading platform.  
• Indian Gas Exchange (IGX) will act as a delivery-based trading platform to deliver natural gas.  
• The launch of IGX aims to help the nation move towards free-market pricing of natural gas.
• It is incorporated as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX), India’s energy market platform.
• IGX will enable market participants to trade in standardized gas contracts. 
• The fully automated platform is a web-based interface and it provides seamless trading experience to the customers.
• IGX is expected to play a bigger role in realizing a free market for gas.
• IGX, India's vision on mega investments on Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminals, gas pipelines, City-gas distribution (CGD) infrastructure, and permission for market-driven price mechanism will be materialized.

• Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) declared itself net debt-free after a fund-raising spree that saw it garner Rs. 1.75 trillion- most of it within a span of less than two months- fro marquee investors and a sale of shares to existing stockholders.
• The company had a net debt of Rs.1.61 trillion as on 31 March.
  

• HIL (India) Limited, a PSU under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, has supplied 25MT Malathion 95% Ultra-low volume (ULV) to Iran under Government-to-Government initiative for Locust Control Programme.
• HIL (India) Limited is supplying Malathion 95% ULV to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare Locust Control Programme in India. From the year 2019 to date, the HIL company has supplied more than 600 MT of Malathion 95% ULV for this programme.
• As per the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the hopper stage population of the locust is building up in the Sistan-Baluchistan region of Iran and might migrate to India in the coming months leading to further crop devastation. 
• Also, the Government of India has taken an initiative to counter the locust menace at its breeding ground itself and approached Iran for coordinated efforts. 
• Desert Locust has devastated in Horn of Africa, East Africa, and the Arabian Peninsula has entered India in March/April 2020. It has affected the field crop, horticulture crops, and other plantations in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh. Also, India is experiencing the worst locust invasion, which was last observed more than 25 years back.

• The Government of France has committed 200 million euros for India to optimize and scale up the Indian Government’s existing social protection measures against COVID-19 and further increase the state and central governments’ capacities to support the country’s most vulnerable people in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.
• For this, a credit financing agreement has been signed by Dr C.S. Mohapatra, Additional Secretary – DEA, and Bruno Bosle, Director – AFD (French Development Agency).
• The World Bank is the lead funder on this programme, which is supported by AFD and other multilateral and bilateral development banks.

• Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has approved USD 750 million as a loan to India to help government to strengthen its response to the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on millions of poor households.
• AIIB is co-financing the loan with the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
• This is the second loan for India under AIIB’s Covid-19 Crisis Recovery Facility (CRF).
• Earlier, the bank had provided USD 500 million COVID-19 emergency response to India.
• With this, AIIB’s total sovereign loans to India that have already been approved amount to USD 3.06 billion.
• AIIB does not have a regular instrument for policy-based financing. It is extending such financing on an exceptional basis under the CRF to support its members through projects co-financed with the World Bank or the Asian Development Bank.

• India will serve as the President of the powerful 15-nation UN Security Council for the month of August, 2021.
• The presidency of the Council is held by each of the members in turn for one month, following the English alphabetical order of the member states’ names.
• India will get to preside over the Council again for a month in 2022.

• HDFC ERGO, India’s third-largest non-life insurance provider in the private sector, has launched a first-of-its-kind ‘Pay As You Fly’ Third-Party Liability policy for drone-owners in India.
• For this, HDFC ERGO has partnered with TropoGo, a Deep Tech start-up, working on Real-time Risk Management platform to cater to every need of the Indian Smart Tech ecosystem.
• HDFC ERGO’s new policy provides commercial drone owners/operators Third Party Liability claims cover for property damage and bodily injuries.
• This cover will be offered to registered drone owners and operators holding a commercial drone pilot’s certificate or a license issued by certified training schools in India.
• The policy cover will be offered on-demand to customers on ‘Pay as you Fly’ concept. Members may opt for 4 hours, one-day, or a one-month cover to insure themselves against third-party liabilities.
• For more information about the policy cover, drone users can log on to www.tropogo.com or download the TropoGo app.

• Former Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel has been appointed as the Chairman of the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP).
• His four-year term will begin from June 22, 2020.
• The National Institute of Public Finance and Policy is an autonomous research institute under the Ministry of Finance, based in New Delhi.
• It conducts research on public finance and contributes to the process of policy-making relating to public finance.

• Noted playback singer A.L. Raghavan passed away.
• Born in Thanjavur to Lakshmana Bhagavathar, Raghavan entered the film world as a child artiste in the film Krishna Vijayam.
• His song ‘Engirunthalum Vaazhga’ has found a lasting place in many hearts.
• Thanjavur, where he was born is located in Tamil Nadu.

• Volkan Bozkir, a veteran Turkish diplomat and parliamentarian was elected as the President of the 75th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. He was the sole candidate for the post.
• Bozkir is the first Turkish national who has become the President of the General Assembly.
• He will take over the Presidency from the incumbent Tijjani Muhammad-Bande in September 2020, for a duration of one year, when the 75th session will resume.

• The current Attorney General of India, K. K. Venugopal, is all set to get one-year extension, after he accepted the government’s request to serve as the top law officer of the country for one more year.
• His three-year tenure comes to an end on June 30, 2020.
• The 89-year-old K. K. Venugopal was appointed as the 15th Attorney General of India  on 30 June 2017 following AG Mukul Rohatgi.

• Mukhammedkalyi Abylgaziev, the Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan, has announced his resignation.
• He resigned in connection with allegations against the government in a criminal case on the extension and renewal of radio frequency resources.
• Abylgaziev was appointed as the 20th Prime Minister of the country by President Sooronbai Jeenbekov in April 2018.
• Kyrgyzstan Capital: Bishkek
• Currency: Kyrgyzstani som

• Former Goa minister Achyut Kashinath Sinai Usgaonkar has passed away following age-related ailments. He was 92.
• Usgaonkar was a leader of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), the first and oldest ruling party in Goa.
• He served as a cabinet minister from August 13, 1977 to April 27, 1979 in the then Shashikala Kakodkar government of Goa, Daman and Diu.
• He was the father of the Bollywood and Marathi film actress Varsha Usgaonkar.

• Former NASA astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan, who became the first American woman to walk in space, has now created another record to become the first woman to reach the deepest point in the ocean.
• The 68-year-old became the first woman to reach the deepest point on Earth’s surface, after she reached 10.984 meters deep Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean.
• Marina Trench is the deepest oceanic trench on Earth and its floor is known as the Challenger Deep
• Only eight people till date have ever reached Challenger Deep.
• On October 11, 1984, geologist Kathryn D. Sullivan became the first U.S. woman to take a walk in space, spending more than three hours outside the Challenger shuttle in Earth’s orbit.

• Well known Bollywood actor Pankaj Tripathi has been chosen by the Bihar government to promote the Khadi of Bihar.
• He has been appointed as the brand ambassador of India’s first and largest Khadi Mall, set up in Patna, Bihar.

• Anmol Narang has made history by becoming the first observant Sikh to graduate from the prestigious United States Military Academy at West Point, and the Second Lieutenant is hopeful that her efforts to represent her religion and community will encourage Americans to learn more about Sikhism.
• A second-generation immigrant born and raised in Roswell, Georgia, Narang had an early appreciation for military service due to her maternal grandfather's career in the Indian Army.
• After she developed an interest in military service during high school, she began the process to apply for the West Point after her family visited Pearl Harbor National Memorial in Honolulu, Hawaii.

• UTI Asset Management Company (AMC) has appointed Imtaiyazur Rahman as its chief executive officer (CEO).
• The post was lying vacant since Leo Puri completed his five-year term as CEO of UTI AMC in August 2018.
• Rahman has been the acting CEO of the company for nearly two years. He was appointed interim CEO in 2018 after Leo Puri’s term came to an end.

• Vasant Raiji, the oldest first-class cricketer of India has recently passed away. He was 100-year-old.
• The legendary cricketer Vasant Raiji celebrated his 100th birthday on 26 January 2020.
• Raiji, a right-handed batsman, played in 9 first-class matches from 1939 to 1950, scoring 277 runs with 68 being his highest score.

• Former Lt. Gen. C.N. Somanna passed away at his residence at Virajpet in Kodagu district , Karnataka. He was 93.
• Lt. Gen. Somanna was Adjutant in the Gurkhas in the same battalion as Gen. Bipin Rawat, who is now the Chief of Defence Staff.

• Noted Bollywood actor and television star Sushant Singh Rajput, has passed away, after he commited suicide at his home in Mumbai. He was only 34. Reasons for suicide is yet to be known.
• Rajput came to fame after portraying the role of Indian cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the legendary cricketer’s biopic, M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story.
• Sushant made his film debut with Kai Po Che in 2014 and had starred in a number of films such as PK, Kedarnath, Shudh Desi Romance.
• He made his acting debut with Zee TV serial Pavitra Rishta.

• Two Indian firms namely ZestMoney and Stellapps have figured in the 2020 Technology Pioneers list released by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
• 2020 Technology Pioneers is the 20th edition of the annual list and comprises the names of companies from around the world that are poised to have a significant impact on business and society by addresing global issues with cutting-edge technology.
• Of the 100 companies in the 2020 class, one-fourth are led by female founders.

• India was second biggest growth driver of primary energy consumption in the world, according to the 69th annual edition of the BP Statistical Review of World Energy, released by BP, one of the world’s largest energy companies.
• The report highlights the global energy trends emerging prior to the current COVID-19 pandemic.
• China was the biggest driver of energy, accounting for more than three quarters of net global growth.
• The energy consumption is made up of oil, natural gas, coal, electricity and renewables.

Some key features in the report includes:

• The Global primary energy consumption growth slowed to 1.3 percent in 2019 (583.90 Exajoules (EJ)), less than half the rate of growth in 2018 (2.8 per cent).
• India’s consumption rose 2.3 percent to 34.06 EJ. The growth was lower than 5.2 per cent in 2018.
• India’s energy consumption was only behind that of China (141.70 EJ)
• The increase in energy consumption was driven by renewables and natural gas. All fuels grew at a slower rate than their 10-year averages, apart from nuclear.
• Carbon emissions from energy use grew by 0.5 percent in 2019.

• Coal India Limited (CIL) has agreed to partner with Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog to support proactively the flagship mission's innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives across the country.
• A strategic Statement of Intent (SoI) partnership between AIM and Coal India Limited was signed and exchanged in a virtual e-summit for the 19 June.
• AIM has various innovation programs and entrepreneurial ecosystem building initiatives such as:
  Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL) at a school level
  Atal Incubation Centres (AIC) at institutional levels
  Atal Community Innovation Centres (ACIC) for Tier-2, Tier3 cities, and rural India
  Atal New India Challenges (ANIC) at an industry level
• Applied Research and Innovation (ARISE) for stimulating innovations in the MSME industry.
• The partnership intends to conduct various activities/programs to support greater awareness and promotion of the innovation ecosystem through the above-mentioned AIM programmes and newer initiatives.

• Facebook Inc. has acquired Mapillary AB, a Swedish mapping technology startup that crowdsources street-level imagery to build immersive and up-to-date maps.
• Mapillary’s technology would be used to power products like Facebook Marketplace and supply data to humanitarian organisations all over the world.
• Mapillary keeps its maps updated with street-level data, by collecting images from tens of thousands of contributors about signs, addresses and other information that can be observed from the road.

• Union Minister for Science & Technology Dr. Harsh Vardhan inaugurated and flagged off India’s first Infectious disease diagnostic lab (I-Lab) for COVID-19 testing in rural and inaccessible areas of India.

I-Lab:

• The infectious disease diagnostic laboratory is a mobile testing facility that was dedicated to providing COVID-19 testing access to rural India. 
• India’s first I-lab has been built at AMTZ in the record time of 8 days from the date of receipt of Automotive Chassis, from Bharat Benz.
• This mobile testing facility will be deployed through the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) testing hubs to remote regions of the country for COVID-19 testing. 
• The I-lab is a BSL-2 facility with on-site ELISA, RT-PCR, Biochemistry analyzers.
• It can run 50 RT-PCR reactions and about 200 ELISA in a day. Double set of Machines can help increase the capacity to about 500 per day in 8 hours shift.
• The BSL-2 Lab is as per NABL specifications and is being attached to DBT’s certified Testing centres.
• The I-lab will be deployed through the DBT-AMTZ COMManD [COVID Medtech Manufacturing Development] Consortia. DBT-AMTZ COMManD aims to address the shortage of critical healthcare technologies in India and move progressively towards a stage of self-sufficiency.
• Around 20 hubs with 100 testing laboratories are there in India. These have tested more than 2,60,000 samples.

• Indian intelligence agencies have asked the government to block or advise people to stop use of 52 mobile applications linked to China over concerns that these weren’t safe and ended up extracting a large amount of data outside India, people familiar with the development.
• The list of applications sent by the security establishment to the government include video conferencing app Zoom, short-video app TikTok, and other utility and content apps such as UC browser, Xender, SHAREit and Clean-master.

List of 52 Mobile Apps

• TikTok, Vault-Hide, Vigo Video, Bigo Live, Weibo
• WeChat, SHAREit, UC News, UC Browser
• BeautyPlus, Xender, ClubFactory, Helo, LIKE
• Kwai, ROMWE, SHEIN, NewsDog, Photo Wonder
• APUS Browser, VivaVideo- QU Video Inc
• Perfect Corp, CM Browser, Virus Cleaner (Hi Security Lab)
• Mi Community, DU recorder, YouCam Makeup
• Mi Store, 360 Security, DU Battery Saver, DU Browser
• DU Cleaner, DU Privacy, Clean Master – Cheetah
• CacheClear DU apps studio, Baidu Translate, Baidu Map
• Wonder Camera, ES File Explorer, QQ International
• QQ Launcher, QQ Security Centre, QQ Player, QQ Music
• QQ Mail, QQ NewsFeed, WeSync, SelfieCity, Clash of Kings
• Mail Master, Mi Video call-Xiaomi, Parallel Space

• The West Bengal government under Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has launched a job portal for IT professionals who have returned to the state amid the COVID-19 pandemic and looking for job.
• IT professionals can use the portal ”Karmo Bhumi” to connect with companies based in the state.
• The portal can be accessed at: karmabhumi.nltr.org.

• India joined the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI or Gee-Pay) as a founding member to support responsible and human-centric development and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
• With this, India has joined the group of leading nations and economies like USA, the UK, EU, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, and Singapore for launch of GPAI.
• GPAI will be supported by a Secretariat, to be hosted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, as well as by two Centers of Expertise — one each in Montreal and Paris.
• GPAI is an international and multi-stakeholder initiative to guide the responsible development and use of AI, with focus on human rights, inclusion, diversity, innovation, and economic growth.
• It is a first of its type initiative for better understanding of the challenges and opportunities around AI using the experience and diversity of participating countries.

• Union Minister of State (MoS) for Personnel, PG and Pensions Dr. Jitendra Singh launched the Feedback Call Centres on Public Grievances on 15 June. Recently, the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) reached the milestone of redressing one lakh COVID-19 Public Grievances.
• DARPG collaborated with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to operationalize Feed Back Call Centers in Bhubaneshwar, Guwahati, Jamshedpur, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Ajmer, Guntur, Coimbatore and Guntakal with 1406 call centre operators.
• The Feedback Call Centres will get feedback from individual citizens on citizen satisfaction on 1.28 lakh COVID-19 Public Grievances that were filed on Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) for the period 30 March to 30 May 2020. 
• Training on the feedback questionnaires that are necessary to call centre operators has been completed on 9-10 June 2020. 
• Feedback call-centres will operate in many Indian languages including Hindi, English, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Kannada, Konkani, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Oriya, Bengali, Assamese and Rajasthani.

• The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has launched a healthcare supply chain portal named ”Aarogyapath”, to provide real-time availability of critical healthcare supplies to manufacturers, suppliers and customers.
• The portal AarogyaPath can be accessed at https://www.aarogyapath.in.
• The initiative aims at filling a critical gap in last-mile delivery of patient care within India through improved availability and affordability of healthcare supplies.

• The Central Railway zone of the Indian Railways has launched a body-screening facility “FebriEye thermal cameras” at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus and Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Mumbai, Maharashtra, to scan passengers for COVID-19 symptoms and ensure contactless entry.
• FebriEye is an Artificial Intelligence-based thermal screening system for real-time and automated, non-intrusive monitoring of the passengers at the entry point, to ensure that a person entering does not have a high fever.
• When passengers pass before the cameras, anyone with temperature above the set range will be shown in a different colour pattern than the rest, on the computer screen connected to the cameras.
• FebriEye thermal cameras can cover large areas which means it can detect the temperature of multiple people entering at once at a premise and record temperature automatically while passengers keep on moving.

• A 23-year old engineer, Pratik Tirodkar, from Maharashtra’s Thane has developed a first-of-its kind ‘Internet-controlled’ robot specifically to address the needs of hospitals treating COVID-19 patients.
• Pratik Tirodkar is the founder of a start-up PNT Solutions, Dombivali.
• The robot, called ‘Coro-bot’ can independently dispenses food, water, beverages, medicines and even give some good advice to Corona patients without the needs for nurses, ward staff or other care-givers.
• Coro-bot can be operated from any location in the world using Internet of Things (IoT) technology. For this a special app has also been created by the company, through which the robot will be controlled.
• This unique Coro-bot is currently deployed successfully at the Holy Cross Hospital in Kalyan.

• The Union Minister for Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare Shri Narendra Singh Tomar launched Sahakar Mitra: Scheme on Internship Programme (SIP) to provide paid internship to youth and ensure availability of assured project loans to young cooperators.
• This scheme is an initiative by the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), under the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare.
• Sahakar Mitra: SIP scheme will provide an opportunity to the young professionals to get practical exposure and learning from the working of NCDC and cooperatives as a paid intern.
• Under the scheme, each intern will get financial support over a 4 months internship period.

• Railway Protection Force of Central Railway, Pune division, has launched a unique robot named ”CAPTAIN ARJUN”, for the screening of passengers for COVID-19 infection while they board trains as well as keep a watch on anti-social elements. With this, the Central Railway has added another feather in its cap.
• ‘CAPTAIN ARJUN’ stands for Always be Responsible and Just Use to be Nice.
• Some of the other features of the robot include:
  It has a sensor-based sanitizer and mask dispenser and can move.
  The robot has a floor sanitization facility with good battery backup.
  It has rugged wheels that support all kinds of surfaces.

• The Chief Minister of Punjab, Captain Amarinder Singh has launched a mobile based app named ‘Ghar Ghar Nigrani’, to undertake house to house surveillance in the state, in an effort to check the community spread of COVID-19. This is a first-of-its-kind initiative in the country.
• The user-friendly app had been developed and designed in-house by the Health Department of the state, as a tool for early detection and testing of the people for Covid19, and preventing its community spread.
• The state government, with the help of ASHA (accredited social health activist) workers and community volunteers, will conduct house to house survey, in which the entire rural and urban population above 30 years of age shall be surveyed.
• This would not be a one-time activity but an ongoing process till the containment of COVID.
• The survey would help the state to develop an extremely important database and further plan its COVID containment strategy and make targeted interventions for the community.

• The Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, Dr. Thaawarchand Gehlot is to inaugurate Composite Regional Centre (CRC) through video conferencing amid COVID-19 pandemic. The Centre is located inside Namkum Block Office, Khijri, Ranchi. 
• CRC-Ranchi will provide rehabilitation services including Physical medicine, Physiotherapy, Occupational therapy, Audiology and Speech Therapy, Psychology, Prosthetics & Orthotics, Special Education, Early intervention & treatment, etc.,  to persons with disabilities in Jharkhand and adjoining areas. 
• CRC will implement various schemes of the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities including skill development programme for PwDs.
• The Centre aims to contribute towards the vision of “Sabkaa Saath, Sabkaa Vikaas, Sabkaa Vishwaas” of GoI.
• CWC is to distribute 46 numbers of wheelchairs, 80 nos. of tricycles, 64 nos. of crutches, 40 nos. of smartphones, 2 nos. of sewing machines, 2 nos. of laptops and 2 nos. of mobile repairing kits amongst Divyangjan following social distancing norms and provide necessary rehabilitation services to needy Divyangjan.
• The centre will operate as an extended arm of Swami Vivekanand National Institute of Rehabilitation Training & Research, Cuttack, Odisha.

• Government of India has taken special measures to benefit the welfare scheme for Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan) amidst the prevailing unprecedented situation faced by the society due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• A Virtual Assistance to Disabled Persons (ADIP) Scheme for free distribution of assistive aids and devices at Block level for Divyangjans under the ADIP scheme was organized at Talwandi Bhai Block of Firozpur district in Punjab. 
• Such camp was organized by the ALIMCO under DEPwD, M/o Social Justice and Empowerment for the first time after the opening of lockdown with the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) approved by the Government of India.
• Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has announced that the Virtual ADIP Camps will be organized nationwide for distribution of aids & assistive devices to Divyangjan during the pandemic.
• Under the Ministry, several schemes have been initiated to provide financial assistance and scholarships to Divyangjan students to pursue their education to become self-reliant. 
• Centre also invited Divyangjan and their family members to get enrolled for Unique ID Cards for Divyangjan which are valid all over India. 
• 31 Lakhs Unique ID Cards have been delivered to Divyangjan so far in India.
• The following Aids and appliance were distributed in the series of Blockwise distribution camps in Firozpur district. The details are as under:
  • Braille Kit - 03
  • Motorised Tricycle - 200
  • Tricycle - 239
  • Wheel Chair - 194
  • C.P Chair - 23
  • Crutches - 394
  • Walking Sticks - 108
  • Smart Cane - 76
  • Smart Phone - 51
  • Daisy Player -17
  • Rollator -21
  • Hearing Aid - 226
  • MSIED KIT - 98
  • Artificial Limbs & Callipers – 17

• The World Stars Sharjah Online Chess Championship 2020 was organized by the Sharjah Cultural & Chess Club.
• Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan became the winner of $10,000 chess tournament with a score of 7.5 in 10 rounds.
• India’s Pentala Harikrishna finished second with 6.5 out of 10.
• The event was held online on a popular platform Internet Chess Club (ICC) in double round-robin format with 10 min +3 sec time control.

• The Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju announced that Aizawl’s Rajiv Gandhi Stadium will be upgraded as Khelo India State Centre of Excellence under the Khelo India Scheme.
• The Ministry plans to establish one KISCE in each state and union territory, with an effort to create a robust sporting ecosystem in the entire country.

• The football club Napoli has won the 2019-20 Coppa Italia cup after defeating Juventus with 4–2 on shootout penalties in the final after a goalless draw on 17 June 2020.
• This is the sixth time that Napoli has won the title. The last time it won was in 2014.

• Bahrain has been chosen by the Asian Paralympic Committee (APC) as the host country for the fourth edition of the Asian Youth Para Games to be held from December 1 to 10 in 2021.
• The tournament will witness participation of an estimated 800 athletes under 20 years of age.
• The competition will be held in nine sports including : athletics, badminton, boccia, goalball, taekwondo, powerlifting, swimming, table tennis and wheelchair basketball.

• The Sports Ministry is all set to establish Khelo India State Centres of Excellence under the Khelo India Scheme. One such centre will be identified in each State and Union Territory with an aim to create a robust sporting ecosystem in the entire country.
• In the first leg, the Ministry has identified state-owned sports facilities in eight states including Karnataka, Odisha, Kerala, Telengana, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland which will be upgraded into Khelo India State Centre of Excellence.
   

• The Punjab Government has notified a voluntary disclosure scheme (VDS) for consumers having unapproved water connections in the rural areas.
• Under this scheme, the Water Supply and Sanitation Department offers an opportunity to consumers for voluntary disclosure and free of cost regularisation of their unapproved connection.
• As per the policy, no charges will be taken from the consumers for the previous usage of water, if any.
• The last date to apply under the voluntary disclosure scheme would be July 15.
• The details of the scheme can be obtained from the department website, pbdwss.gov.in.
• The consumers can also apply by calling on toll free no. 1800-103-6999 and the representative of the department shall get the form filled from the applicant.
• Water Supply and Sanitation Minister of Punjab - Razia Sultana

• The 45th annual meeting of the United States India Business Council (USIBC) will be marked with the 2020 India Ideas Summit. India will virtually host the event on 21st and 22nd July. 

USIBC:

• Different sessions will be organized, with each session focusing on a particular issue related to India.
• The summit will showcase the importance of the positive outcome of the India-US economic partnership and the overall bilateral relationship between the two nations.
• USIBC summit is an outcome of the joint efforts of the United States Chambers of Commerce and USIBC.

• The Ministry of Earth Sciences’ (MoES) has released the report titled ‘Assessment of Climate Change over the Indian Region’, which is the first ever climate change assessment report for different paarts of India.
• The report is edited by scientists of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune.
• The assessment report looks at regional climate change projections based on the IITM Earth System Model and Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment datasets.
• Some of the key points highlighted in the report includes:
• India’s average temperature has risen by around 0.7°C during 1901–2018, this is purely due to the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG).
• The frequency of summer (April–June) heat waves over India will be 3 to 4 times higher (approximately 4.4°C) by the end of the 21st century as compared to the 1976–2005 baseline period.
• Precipitation over north India has decreased by 6% (1951-2015) due to the polluting aerosol “brown cloud”.

Context: Recently, the Khadi and Village Industries Commission has rolled out a unique project to produce Neera and Palmgur which has huge potential to create employment in the country.
Key Points

• The initiative was launched at Dahanu in Palghar district of Maharashtra, a state with more than 50 lakh palm trees.
• The project has been rolled out on the initiative of Union Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
• KVIC distributed tool kits for extraction of Neera and making Palmgur to 200 local artisans who were given 7 days training by KVIC.
• The initiative will provide direct employment to 400 local traditional trappers.
• KVIC is proposed to start standardized collection, processing and packing of Neera under controlled conditions so as to prevent it from fermentation.
• It aim to promote Neera as a substitute to soft drinks while also creating self-employment to Adivasis and traditional trappers.

About Neera

• Neera is a nutrient-rich health drink extracted from the palm trees before sunrise.
• It is consumed in many Indian states.
• Due to lack of institutionalized market technique, the commercial production and large scale marketing of Neera has not commenced yet.

Significance:

• There are approximately 10 crore palm trees across the country.
• A wide range of products can be produced from Neera if properly marketed.
• At present Palmgur and Neera worth Rs 500 crore is traded in the country.
• The turnover is likely to increase manifold with commercial production of Neera.

Context: Recently, the Government of India has decided to launch a rural public works scheme ‘Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan’ through video-conferencing from village Telihar in Khagaria district of Bihar on 20th June 2020.
About the Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan

• The Abhiyaan will be launched from Village – Telihar, Block- Beldaur of Khagaria District of Bihar. 
• A total of 116 Districts, together accounting for more than 6.7 million migrant workers across six States, namely Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha have been chosen for the campaign which includes 27 Aspirational Districts. 
• These districts are estimated to cover about 2/3 of such migrant workers.
• The villages will join this programme through the Common Service Centres and Krishi Vigyan Kendras, maintaining the norms of social distancing in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
• The Rs50,000 crore programme is to include MGNREGS that allows for 100 days of work for members of rural households. 
• This campaign of 125 days, which will work in mission mode, will involve intensified and focused implementation of 25 different types of works to provide employment to the migrant workers on one hand and create infrastructure in the rural regions of the country on the other hand.
• The schemes for providing drinking water, road building, and house construction will be expedited in these districts for which the migrant workers who come back from the cities will be employed.
• The Abhiyaan will be a coordinated effort between 12 different Ministries/Departments, namely, Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Road Transport & Highways, Mines, Drinking Water & Sanitation, Environment, Railways, Petroleum & Natural Gas, New & Renewable Energy, Border Roads, Telecom and Agriculture.

Context: Recently, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has approved a $750 million loan to India to strengthen the country’s battle against the adverse impact of Covid-19 pandemic on poor and vulnerable households.

• Earlier, it had approved $500 million for ‘Covid-19 Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness Project’ initiated by India.
• Key Points
• $750 million loan: It is co-financed by the AIIB and the Asian Development Bank.

Aim:

• It aims to ensure economic resilience to prevent long-term damage to productive capacity, including human capital.
• The support will go towards bolstering economic aid for businesses, including for the informal sector, expanding social safety nets for the needy, and strengthening the country’s health care systems.

Loan by AIIB to India:

• AIIB’s sovereign loans to India amounts to $3.06 billion.
• The current loan will be the second for India under AIIB’s Covid-19 Crisis Recovery Facility.
• The Crisis Recovery Facility has been formed in response to urgent economic, financial and public health pressures and to support a quick recovery after the current crisis (Covid-19).
• It will offer $5-10 billion of financing to public and private entities over 18 months i.e. from April 2020 to October 2021.
• The funding is done either with the World Bank or ADB.

Loan by ADB to India:

• It has assured Indian government of $2.2 billion support to fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Earlier, it had provided a $1.5 billion loan to India.

About Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

• It is a multilateral development bank with a mission to improve social and economic outcomes in Asia and beyond.
• It is headquartered in Beijing.
• It commenced operations in January 2016.
• By investing in sustainable infrastructure and other productive sectors today, it aims to connect people, services and markets that over time will impact the lives of billions and build a better future.

Various organs of AIIB:

• Board of Governors: The Board of Governors consists of one Governor and one Alternate Governor appointed by each member country. Governors and Alternate Governors serve at the pleasure of the appointing member.
• Board of Directors: Non-resident Board of Directors is responsible for the direction of the Bank’s general operations, exercising all powers delegated to it by the Board of Governors. This includes approving the Bank’s strategy, annual plan and budget; establishing policies; taking decisions concerning Bank operations; and supervising management and operation of the Bank and establishing an oversight mechanism.
• International Advisory Panel: The Bank has established an International Advisory Panel (IAP) to support the President and Senior Management on the Bank’s strategies and policies as well as on general operational issues. The Panel meets in tandem with the Bank’s Annual Meeting, or as requested by the President. The President selects and appoints members of the IAP to two-year terms. Panelists receive a small honorarium and do not receive a salary. The Bank pays the costs associated with Panel meetings.

Significance of AIIB:

• The United Nations has addressed the launch of AIIB as having potential for “scaling up financing for sustainable development” for the concern of global economic governance.
• The capital of the bank is $100 billion, equivalent to 2⁄3 of the capital of the Asian Development Bank and about half that of the World Bank.

Context: Recently, the Union Minister for Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare launched Sahakar Mitra a Scheme on Internship Programme (SIP).  This scheme is an initiative of National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) and aims to bolster the AtmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan. 
Key Points

• Bodies involved: The scheme is an initiative by National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), the cooperative sector development finance organization.
• This SIP will help cooperative institutions access innovative ideas of young professionals/interns by providing them with an opportunity for practical exposure and learning from the working of NCDC and cooperatives as a paid intern. 
• It aims to provide an opportunity for professionals from academic institutions to develop leadership and entrepreneurial roles through cooperatives as Farmers Producers Organizations (FPO). 
• It will assist cooperative institutions to access new and innovative ideas of young professionals while the interns gain experience of working in the field giving the confidence to be self-reliant.
• NCDC has also introduced a complementary scheme to promote start-up cooperative ventures.
• This scheme will prove to be a win-win situation both for cooperatives as well as for the young professionals.

Eligibility and remuneration

• Professional graduates in disciplines such as Agriculture and allied areas, IT etc. will be eligible for an internship under the SIP. 
• Professionals who are pursuing or have completed their MBA degrees in Agri-business, Cooperation, Finance, International Trade, Forestry, Rural Development, Project Management etc. will also be eligible for an internship under the SIP.
• Funds will be provided by NCDC for Sahakar Mitra paid internship program under which each intern will get financial support over a 4 months internship period.

About NCDC

• The National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) was established by an Act of Parliament in 1963 as a statutory Corporation under the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare.

Its Function

• Planning, promoting and financing programmes for production, processing, marketing, storage, export and import of agricultural produce.
• Supply of consumer goods and collection, processing, marketing, storage and export of minor forest produce through cooperatives.
• NCDC will now be able to finance projects in the rural industrial cooperative sectors and for certain notified services in rural areas like water conservation, irrigation and micro irrigation, agri-insurance, agro-credit, rural sanitation, animal health, etc.
• Loans and grants are advanced to State Governments for financing primary and secondary level cooperative societies.

Road Ahead

• NCDC should develop some techniques to evaluate the performance of cooperatives and encourage them to perform better.
• The scheme will provide a boost to government-academia-industry-civil society linkages.
• Further, India needs to learn from technical and vocational training/education models in China, Germany, Japan, Brazil, and Singapore, and adopt a comprehensive model that can bridge the skill gaps and ensure employability of youths.

Context: As per a gazette notification, SEBI has allowed companies to make two qualified institutional placements (QIPs) with a gap of just two weeks between them.
Key Points

• It is a part of SEBI’s attempts to make it easier for listed companies to raise funds in the current volatile scenario.
• This allows listed companies to raise funds at shorter intervals while also giving promoters the go-ahead to increase their stakes by a higher quantum without triggering an open offer.
• This is a significant move as the earlier regulations mandated a minimum gap of six months between two such issuances.
• In another important amendment, the regulator has said that promoters can increase their stakes in their companies through preferential allotments by up to 10% without triggering an open offer.
• The cap was earlier set at 5% and the relaxation is only for the current financial year.
• In April 2020, SEBI had relaxed certain regulatory requirements related to rights issues and initial public offerings (IPOs) to make it easier for companies to raise funds at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic had made the secondary markets increasingly volatile.
• It had said that any listed entity with a market capitalisation of at least Rs 100 crore could use the fast- track route for a rights issue. (Earlier, the norm was Rs 250 crore for such offerings.)
• Further, any company that had been listed for 18 months was permitted to raise funds through a fast- track rights issue. (The eligibility had earlier been set at three years.)
• Also, the minimum subscription requirement to make an issue successful was lowered from the earlier 90% of the offer size to 75%.

Significance of this move

• The recently announced measures along with the relaxation on rights issues, permitted earlier, are aimed at increasing liquidity for Indian companies.
• Analysts opine that the twin moves would help in enhancing liquidity in the market.
• The companies would be able to time fund-raising in a better manner.
• Promoters can also acquire shares at a time when valuations were quite low compared with the historic highs.

What is preferential issue?

• A preferential issue is a primary market issuance of shares by listed companies to selected institutions or institutional buyers.
• It is a sale of shares or convertible securities by listed or unlisted companies to a select group of investors and considered to be the fastest way of raising capital.

About SEBI

• The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is the regulator of the securities and commodity market in India owned by the Government of India.
• SEBI was established in 1988 and given Statutory Powers on 30 January 1992 through the SEBI Act, 1992.

For the discharge of its functions efficiently, SEBI has been vested with the following powers:

• to approve by−laws of Securities exchanges.
• to require the Securities exchange to amend their by−laws.
• inspect the books of accounts and call for periodical returns from recognised Securities exchanges.
• inspect the books of accounts of financial intermediaries.
• compel certain companies to list their shares in one or more Securities exchanges.
• registration of Brokers and sub-brokers

SEBI has three functions rolled into one body: quasi-legislative, quasi-judicial and quasi-executive.

• It drafts regulations in its legislative capacity.
• It conducts investigation and enforcement action in its executive function.
• It passes rulings and orders in its judicial capacity.

Context: India might have a window abroad for raising funds to tackle its COVID-19 crisis. An open economy with low external debt can possibly bear the extra burden.

Key Points

• India could do with a stimulus shot against the ravages of coronavirus pandemic that is both sharper and bigger, and central finances can be stretched a bit considering the nature of the threat.
• The worst of this CoVID-19 crisis is still ahead of us. That means we are at a critical juncture in our response, and no window of funds should be left out of the reckoning, especially not a capital market abroad that could snap up Indian corona bonds issued in dollars.

Background of India’s capital inflows

• Servicing debt in US currency has not been detrimental to India since 1991.
• During 1991 India was on the verge of an external default. However, India opened its economy to the world, gave market forces some freedom, and achieved a turnaround. 

Cushion of Foreign Exchange reserve

• If the scare of 1991 left us looking at our foreign exchange reserves as a capital cushion on the global front.
• The Asian Crisis of 1997 positioned this buffer as a war-chest against the potential chaos of capital flight and a rupee crash.

Financial inflows

• Financial inflows over the years have been robust in India. 
• Currently, our central bank has over half a trillion dollars piled up.
• RBI has recently mopped up billions more in an effort to reduce rupee volatility under a greenback insurge brought about by equity sales by companies such as Reliance.

Does the global market have an appetite for government bonds? 

• With global demand for low-risk paper soaring and yields dipping below zero, safe bonds that pay well could attract investors. 
• External debt of India:
• India’s external debt so far has been modest. The country began 2020 with only about $564 billion of it, a little more than one-fifth of gross domestic product. 
• Of this external debt, the government owed just $110 billion, with corporate loans and non-resident deposits making up the bulk. 
• Given its spotless payback record, India just have to price these bonds appropriately, and maybe our diaspora alone could stump up $20 billion.

Suggestion

• India’s exports have been weak, capital inflows could prove unreliable, and if the rupee happens to slide, the plan could turn out costlier than bargained for. 
• However, a go-ahead for it should go by what exactly is envisaged as a self-reliant India. 
• A reversal of our economy’s integration with the rest of the globe’s, if trade barriers or capital controls are imposed, would turn forecasts of our external balances worrisome. 
• As we learned that before 1991, imports restricted to essentials are hard to pay for with the earnings of exports that are price-sensitive, and money that cannot exit easily tends not to come in. 
• Ultimately as far as India does not plan to close itself off, the country can safely borrow in dollars. At the very least, India can keep this option open.

Context: Recently, Axone or fermented soya bean has become popular, which is eaten by many tribal communities in different parts of Northeast India especially in Nagaland.
Background 

• Axone is cooked, eaten and loved in Nagaland, and many tribal communities in different parts of Northeast India and beyond. It has a major role in preserving tribal identity and culture.

About it

• Axone — also spelt akhuni — is a fermented soya bean of Nagaland, known for its distinctive flavour and smell.
• As much an ingredient as it is a condiment, Axone used to make pickles and chutneys, or curries of pork, fish, chicken, beef etc.
• While it is called ‘axone’ in parts of Nagaland, fermented soya bean is cooked with, eaten and known by different names in different parts of Northeast India, including Meghalaya and Mizoram, Sikkim, Manipur as well in other South, Southeast and East Asian countries.
• Axone is prepared and eaten across Nagaland but is particularly popular among the Sumi (also Sema) tribe. They use it in every meal.
• It belongs to the broader phenomena of fermentation necessary for food preservation in certain ecological contexts.
• Fermentation gives it a distinct smell and taste.
• It is the one food that connects the Eastern Himalayas as a culturally cross-cutting cuisine.

About Sumi Tribe

• The 'Sumi Naga' is one of the major ethnic groups in Nagaland.
• Sumi Nagas mostly inhabit the central and southern regions of Nagaland.
• There are also seven Sumi villages in Tinsukia District of Assam.
• Tuluni and Ahuna are the major festivals.

Context: Recently, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) released the World Investment Report 2020.
About the Background

• According to the latest World Investment Report 2020 by UNCTAD, India jumped from 12th position in 2018 to 9th position in 2019 among the world’s largest FDI recipients.
• “In South Asia, FDI is also expected to contract sharply. 
• In India, the biggest FDI host in the sub-region, with more than 70% of inward stock, the number of greenfield investment announcements declined by 4% in the first quarter, and M&As contracted by 58%," the UNCTAD report said.

India’s Investment Scenario:

• India jumped from 12th position in 2018 to 9th position in 2019 among the world’s largest FDI recipients.
• In 2019, the FDI inflows into India jumped over 20% to $51 billion.
• The report also observed that FDI into India may decline sharply in 2020 because of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the consequent lockdown measures, supply chain disruptions and economic slowdown.
• In India the number of greenfield investment announcements declined by 4% in the first quarter of financial year 2020-21. The Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) also contracted by 58%.
• A greenfield investment is a type of FDI in which a parent company creates a subsidiary in a different country, building its operations from the ground up.
• However, the report mentioned that India’s large market will continue to attract market-seeking investments to the country.
• India’s professional services and the digital economy could see a faster rebound as global venture capital firms and technology companies continue to show interest in India’s market through acquisitions.
• Investors concluded deals worth over $650 million in the first quarter of 2020, mostly in the digital sector.

Global Scenario:

• According to the report, global FDI flows are forecast to decrease by up to 40% in 2020, from their 2019 value of $1.54 trillion.
• This would bring global FDI below $1 trillion for the first time since 2005. The FDI is projected to decrease by a further 5% to 10% in 2021.
• Developing economies are expected to see the biggest fall in FDI because they rely more on investment in Global Value Chain (GVC) based industries, which have been severely hit due to Covid-19 pandemic.
• They have also not been able to put in place the same economic support measures as developed economies.
• However, the investment flows are expected to slowly recover by the start of 2022.
• Global FDI flows rose modestly in 2019, following the sizable declines registered in 2017 and 2018.
• The rise in FDI was due to the waning of impact of the 2017 tax reforms in the United States.

About World Investment Report

• The World Investment Report focuses on trends in foreign direct investment (FDI) worldwide, at the regional and country levels and emerging measures to improve its contribution to development. 

Every issue of the Report has:

• Analysis of the trends in FDI during the previous year, with especial emphasis on the development implications.
• Ranking of the largest transnational corporations in the world.
• In-depth analysis of a selected topic related to FDI.
• Policy analysis and recommendations.
• Statistical annex with data on FDI flows and stocks at the country level.

About United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

• It is the principal organ of the United Nations General Assembly dealing with trade, investment, and development issues.
• HQ – Geneva
• Aims to “maximize the trade, investment and development opportunities of developing countries.”
• It organizes: World Investment Forum

It publishes reports like:

• World Investment Report
• Technology and Innovation Report
• The Least Developed Countries Report
• Information and Economy Report
• Technology and Innovation Report
• Commodities and Development Report

UNCTAD is a permanent intergovernmental body established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1964.

Context: The border clashes with China and the COVID-19 pandemic have again raised questions about India’s dependence on Chinese manufacturing.
India’s Dependence on Chinese Manufacturing- Brief Overview

• India’s imports from China in 2019-2020 reached $65 billion, out of $81 billion two-way trade. China accounts for about 14% of India’s total imports
• India’s main dependence on Chinese imports is regarding capital goods. These include machineries, including electrical machinery, semiconductor driven machinery etc.
• 20% of the auto components and 70% of electronic components come from China. Similarly, 45% of consumer durables, 70% of APIs and 40% of leather goods imported are from China.

Why is China the manufacturing hub of the World? 

• China offers the capacity to businesses to develop the supply chains by considerable lengths within itself. This is because of its geography which offers agglomeration advantages and wide broad basing that it has developed over different sectors and in most products.
• Further, along with being the largest exporter of assembled final products, China has also over the years become a major consumer for final products

Where does India lack?

• Skill sets:Skill sets in the manufacturing sector in India remain low which hinders businesses to invest in the sector.
• Infrastructure: Sub-standard infrastructure is a major obstacle in attracting investment in India. Due to low infrastructure development, India offers less locational advantages than China.
• Red tapism: Bureaucracy, red tapism and unpredictable policies deter investments in India’s manufacturing sector.
• Low Productivity: Productivity in India remains low which hinders investments despite low wage rates.

What should be India’s policy priorities to attract investment amid geo-economic shift post Covid pandemic?

• Skill reform and Labour reform to encash demographic dividend and attract investors
• Infrastructural development to provide locational and agglomeration advantages
• Development of industrial parks to attract FDI
• Favourable policies to promote ease of doing business

Road Ahead

• The commerce ministry has also identified 12 sectors — food processing, organic farming, iron, aluminium and copper, agrochemicals, electronics, industrial machinery, sanitisers and masks, auto parts, textiles etc to make India global supplier and cut import bill.
• India should not only focus on reducing dependency on China but also on other countries to march towards economic nationalization and self-sufficiency.
• Estimates indicate that a third of the Chinese imports constitute low-tech goods that were either made earlier by Indians, or are still being made but in smaller quantities.
• These can surely be discouraged, and re-replaced by local products and brands.
• In addition, such attempts will prove to be a fillip for the hundreds of small and medium firms, which have languished due to the lack of demand.
• If the MSME segment kicks off, the overall manufacturing sector will get a boost, which will benefit the ‘Make in India’ scheme.
• As local sales grow, Indians will become competitive. They can emerge as exporters of these products, and battle globally with China.

Context: Recently,India rejected China’s demand to grant it market economy status, amid the ongoing face-off between the two armies along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
Background

• World Trade Organization (WTO) members are allowed to apply anti-dumping measures on any company if it exports a product at a lower price than its home market, and if the product threatens to impact the local industry.
• China joined the WTO after years of negotiations on the condition that it will be treated as a non-market economy by other member countries for anti-dumping proceedings.
• While the 15-year period ended the European Union and the US have held back from granting market economy status to China, citing wide-ranging price control on export commodities by China.
• India initiated 18 anti-dumping proceedings in 2019, most of them against China, however, China remains one of India’s largest trading partners and a major source for intermediate products for its industry.

What is a non-market economy?

• A non-market economy refers to a country which has a complete or substantially complete monopoly of its trade and where all domestic prices are fixed by the state.

Key Points

• Chinese companies are demanding to Directorate General Of Anti-Dumping And Allied Duties (DGTR), that India must recognize China PR as a market economy status, and after the expiry of China’s accession to WTO, it must be treated in same way as any other WTO member and, regardless of the domestic law of a particular member, imports from China PR must be demonstrated on the basis of Chinese prices and costs
• China’s demands come in response to anti-dumping investigations involving imports of organic chemical compound Aniline and anti-biotic Ciprofloxacin Hydrochloride.
• India said that since Chinese producers failed to file relevant information to prove the market economy status, India will continue to treat China as a non-market economy, which allows it to impose steep anti-dumping duties on imports from China.

Road Ahead

• China has to take positive actions, remove distortions from its market and provide evidence for other countries to take an informed decision about its market economy status.
• As 80% of Chinese companies are directly or indirectly controlled by the state and the banks are controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, then China’s claim that its trade partners should give it market economy status is not correct.

Context: As one of the biggest reforms, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has gone Fully Digital.
How has this happened ?

• The authority has launched a unique cloud based and Artificial Intelligence powered Big Data Analytics platform – Data Lake and Project Management Software.  
• The entire project management work flow of NHAI is transformed from manual to online portal based, wherein the complete project execution operations including ‘workflow with time lines’ and ‘alert mechanism’ have been configured. 
• All project documentation, contractual decisions and approvals are now being done through portal only. 

Utility of the move

• Flexibility in Storage and Restoration: The complete project documents and correspondences will be stored in Digital format in the cloud-based ‘Data Lake’ linked with GIS tagging and Unique Project ID.
• This will ensure that the project data can be easily retrieved as and when required from any location. 
• Augment Transparency: As all officers and stakeholders connected with the project can see what is going on a real time basis which will amount to concurrent performance audit by the seniors and ensure transparency.
• Reducing Disputes: Majority of the disputes are generic in nature like delay in handing over of encumbrance free site, shifting of utilities, idling charges of plant, machinery, equipment, manpower and delay in decisions etc. 
• These disputes can be minimized as the Data Lake software has provisions to keep track and check on all these constraints so as to ensure work is carried out within the deadlines in a transparent manner. 
• This will eventually diminish chances of litigation in future.
• Better Coordination: NHAI’s e-Office module is also integrated in the system so that all correspondences can flow digitally in a secured manner from field units to HQ seamlessly.
• The lockdown period was used by NHAI to train its employees about using Data Lake which will bring revolutionary changes to NHAI with benefits like No delays, Quick decision making, No question of missing records, Work from anywhere/anytime.

About National Highways Authority of India (NHAI)

• It is an autonomous agency of the Government of India, set up under the provisions of National Highway Authority of India Act, 1988.
• It is responsible for management of a network of over 50,000 km of National Highways out of 1,15,000 km in India.
• It is a nodal agency of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. 
• It has been entrusted with the National Highways Development Project, along with other minor projects for development, maintenance and management.
• Vision: To meet the nation’s need for the provision and maintenance of National Highways network to global standards and to meet user’s expectations in the most time bound and cost effective manner and promote economic well being and quality of life of the people.

Context: Recently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has proposed stringent norms for housing finance companies by mandating 75% of their home loans to individual borrowers by 2024.
What is Housing Finance Companies?

• A housing finance company is considered a non-banking financial company (NBFC) under the RBI’s regulations.
• A company is treated as an NBFC if its financial assets are more than 50% of its total assets and income from financial assets is more than 50% of the gross income.

Proposed norms include

• In the draft norms issued, the RBI proposed the definition of qualifying assets for housing finance companies (HFCs).
• It said at least 50% of net assets should be in the nature of ‘qualifying assets’ for HFCs, of which at least 75% should be towards individual housing loans.
• The RBI defined ‘qualifying assets’ as loans to individuals or a group of individuals, including co-operative societies, for construction/purchase of new dwelling units, loans to individuals for renovation of existing dwelling units, lending to builders for construction of residential dwelling units.
• All other loans, including those given for furnishing dwelling units, loans given against mortgage of property for any purpose other than buying/construction of a new dwelling unit/s or renovation of the existing dwelling unit/s, will be treated as non-housing loans.
• RBI said that an HFC could either undertake an exposure on a group company in real estate business or lend to retail individual homebuyers in the projects of group entities, but could not do both.
• The central bank also proposed a minimum net-owned fund (NOF) of Rs 20 crore as compared to Rs 10 crore now.
• Existing HFCs would have to reach Rs 15 crore within a year and Rs 20 crore within two years.

Context: Looking to ease compliance burden on businesses, the Goods and Services Tax Council decided provide relief to taxpayers on late fee and interest payable on delayed tax payments.
Key Points

• The Council reduced late fee and interest for those businesses with tax liabilities and waived off late fee completely for those with no tax liabilities.
• GST collections had fallen to about 45%, aggravating the problem of compensation to states, even as states have demanded they be funded through market borrowing.
• Under GST law, the Centre must pay the States full compensation for any shortfall in revenue collections until 2022.

Compensation for the states

• Recently, the Centre has paid pending compensation dues for December 2019 to February 2020 period. However, with revenues crashing since the lockdown, alternative options may need to be explored for the payment of remaining compensation to states.
• The council will meet again in July to discuss the issue of compensation cess and dues to the States, and the possibility of borrowing money from the market to meet these dues.

Relief measures

• The Council approved a slew of measures to ease tax compliance, including a reduction in late fees for past returns, and COVID-19 related relief for small tax payers for the period between February and July 2020 provided returns are filed by September.
• The late fee waivers and an additional moratorium for smaller businesses is a welcome move since with the current financial situation, smaller businesses have been aggressively seeking stimulus.
• A one-time extension is also being granted to those seeking to revoke cancelled GST registrations.

Inversion of duties

• The GST Council also agreed that there is a need to correct the inversion of duties, but postponed a decision on when to do so.
• Inverted duty structure refers to the taxation of inputs at higher rates than finished products which result in a build-up of credits and cascading costs for the producers.

About GST Council

• It is an constitutional bodyfor making recommendations to the Union and State Government on issues related to Goods and Service Tax.
• As per Article 279A (1) of the amended Constitution, the GST Council has to be constituted by the President within 60 days of the commencement of Article 279A.
• The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Second Amendment) Bill, 2016, for introduction of Goods and Services tax in the country was introduced in the Parliament and passed by Rajya Sabha on 3rd August, 2016 and by Lok Sabha on 8th August, 2016.
• GST Council is an apex member committee to modify, reconcile or to procure any law or regulation based on the context of goods and services tax in India.
• The GST council is responsible for any revision or enactment of rule or any rate changes of the goods and services in India.

The council contains the following members-

• Union Finance Minister (as chairperson)
• Union Minister of States in charge of revenue or finance (as member)
• The ministers of states in charge of finance or taxation or other ministers as nominated by each states government (as member).

GST Council makes recommendations on

• Taxes, cesses, and surcharges levied by the Centre, States and local bodies which may be subsumed in the GST;
• Goods and services which may be subjected to or exempted from GST;
• Model GST laws, principles of levy, apportionment of IGST and principles that govern the place of supply;
• Threshold limit of turnover below which goods and services may be exempted from GST;
• Rates including floor rates with bands of GST;
• Special rates to raise additional resources during any natural calamity;
• Special provision with respect to Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand; and
• Any other matter relating to the goods and services tax, as the Council may decide.

Context: Recently, The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has constituted a five-member internal working group headed by RBI executive director P.K. Mohanty to review the existing guidelines on ownership and corporate structure of private sector banks.
Key Points

• The need to examine the current guidelines on ownership comes after large shareholders of private sector banks sought RBI’s permission to raise their stakes beyond the permitted range.
• Hindujas, promoters of IndusInd Bank, wanted to increase their stakes beyond 15% in the bank.
• The Hindujas’ move followed the RBI’s decision to bring down the private stake to 26% by August in Kotak Mahindra Bank, and further reduce this stake over a period of time.

Rationale for constituting a new group

• Currently, the large shareholders of private sector banks are permitted to hold up to 15% of the shareholding.
• The bank licensing rules mandated that a private bank’s promoter will need to cut away holding to 40% within three years, 20% in 10 years, and 15% in 15 years. 
• There is a need that ownership and control of private sector banks should be well-diversified and that the major shareholders are ‘fit and proper’
• The specific contours have evolved over the years with specific prescriptions being given as part of licensing guidelines issued at various points in the past.
• To comprehensively review the extant guidelines on ownership, governance, and corporate structure in private sector banks, taking into account key developments that have a bearing on the issue.

Tasks allocated to the group

• The internal working group will examine the existing licensing guidelines and regulations on ownership and control of private sector banks. 
• It will also suggest appropriate norms, keeping in mind the issue of excessive concentration of ownership and control. 
• Also, it will examine and review the eligibility criteria for individuals or entities to apply for a banking license, and review the promoter shareholding norms at the initial licensing stage.
• The group will also study the current regulations on holding of financial subsidiaries through a non-operative financial holding company (NOFHC) and suggest steps to migrate all banks to a uniform regulation.
• According to RBI, the review will help harmonize norms applicable to banks set up at different time periods, irrespective of the date of commencement of business.

Context: Every year World Crocodile Day is celebrated on 17th June. The day is a global awareness campaign to highlight the plight of endangered crocodiles and alligators around the world.
Crocodilian Species in India
1) Mugger or Marsh Crocodile:

• The mugger is an egg-laying and hole-nesting species.
• The mugger is also known to be dangerous.
• Habitat: It is mainly restricted to the Indian subcontinent where it may be found in a number of freshwater habitat types including rivers, lakes and marshes. However, it can even be found in coastal saltwater lagoons and estuaries.It is already extinct in Bhutan and Myanmar.
• Threats: Habitat destruction, fragmentation, and transformation, fishing activities and use of crocodile parts for medicinal purposes.

Protection Status:

• IUCN List of Threatened Species: Vulnerable
• CITES : Appendix I
• Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 : Schedule I

2) Estuarine or Saltwater Crocodile:

• It is considered as the Earth’s largest living crocodile species.
• The estuarine crocodile is infamous globally as a known maneater.
• Habitat: It is found in Odisha’s Bhitarkanika National Park, the Sundarbans in West Bengal and the Andamans and Nicobar Islands.
• It is also found across Southeast Asia and northern Australia.
• Threats: Illegal hunting, habitat loss, and antipathy toward the species because of its reputation as a man-eater continue to put pressure on the population.

Protection Status:

• IUCN List of Threatened Species: Least Concern
• CITES : Appendix I (except the populations of Australia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, which are included in Appendix II).
• Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 : Schedule I

3) Gharial

• Gharials, sometimes called gavials, are a type of Asian crocodilian distinguished by their long, thin snouts which resembles a pot (ghara in Hindi).
• Gharials are a type of Crocodilians that also includes crocodiles, alligators, caimans, etc.
• The population of Gharials are a good indicator of clean river water.
• The gharial is known to be a relatively harmless, fish-eating species.

Habitat:

• The gharials are mostly found in fresh waters of the himalayan rivers.
• The chambal river in the northern slopes of the Vindhya mountains ( Madhya Pradesh) is known as the primary habitat of gharials.
• Other himalayan rivers like ghagra, gandak river, Girwa river, Ramganga river and the Sone river are secondary habitats for gharials.

Threats: Illegal sand mining, poaching, increased river pollution, dam construction, massive-scale fishing operations and floods.
Protection Status:

• IUCN List of Threatened Species: Critically Endangered
• CITES : Appendix I
• Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 : Schedule I

Human-Crocodile Conflict

• Reasons: An encroachment of humans on the river banks and marshy areas with an increased urbanisation is one of the foremost reasons for increasing human-crocodile conflict in these areas.
• Hotspots: Vadodara in Gujarat, Kota in Rajasthan, Bhitarkanika in Odisha and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are considered as the human-crocodile conflict hotspots in India.
• Possible Solutions: Considering the importance of crocodiles in maintaining the balance in the ecosystem, raising awareness among local people with the possible relocation of crocodiles are some of the feasible options for the protection of the species.

Indian Crocodile Conservation Project

• The Crocodile Conservation Project was launched in 1975 in different States.
• The Gharial and Saltwater crocodile conservation programme was first implemented in Odisha in early 1975 and subsequently the Mugger conservation programme was initiated.
• As a result of the programme, the estimated number of the saltwater crocodiles increased from 96 in 1976 to 1,640 in 2012 in India.

Road Ahead

• There is a need to utilise manpower, modern technology and funds to conduct a proper survey to find the real time status of the crocodile population in the country.
• It can be done through geo-tagging the animals so that their movements can be monitored to prevent human-crocodile conflicts.

Context: Recently, a Wildlife activists have expressed their concern over the Forest department’s construction activities in Hachcholli-Raravi area in Siruguppa taluk Karnataka, a breeding centre of the Great Indian Bustard. 

About GIB

• The unscientific works in the region, they said, was posing a grave threat to the critically endangered GIB, India’s heaviest flying bird. 
• Scientific Name: Ardeotis nigriceps 
• Habitat: Dry grasslands and scrublands on the Indian subcontinent; its largest populations are found in the Indian state of Rajasthan. 
• The Great Indian Bustard, one of the heaviest flying birds, can weigh up to 15 kg and grow up to one metre in height. 
• It is considered the flagship grassland species, representing the health of the grassland ecology. 
• For long, conservationists have been demanding to secure this population, warning that the bird might get extinct in the coming decades. 
• It would become the first mega species to disappear from India after Cheetah in recent times. 
• Till 1980s, about 1,500-2,000 Great Indian Bustards were spread throughout the western half of India, spanning eleven states. 
• However, with rampant hunting and declining grasslands, their population dwindled. 
• In July 2011, the bird was categorised as “critically endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). 

Various threats to GIBs 

• General threats to GIB: Habitat loss & fragmentation, change of land use pattern, desertification, ill-thought plantation of exotic & invasive species in grassland ecosystems are some of the generic causes. 
• Neglect of state institutions due to classification of ‘grasslands’ as ‘wastelands’, conversion of grasslands to agriculture lands due to increasing irrigation potential and decline of nature/GIB-friendly agrarian practices, are all commonly and correctly blamed for the steady decline in India’s GIB population. 

Role of Noise Pollution 

• Noise pollution affects the mating and courtship practices of the GIB. 
• The male GIB inflates his ‘gular’ pouch (near the neck) which almost touches the ground, in order to produce a large booming sound which reverberates across the grassland. 
• The male GIB does this to attract GIB females and to inform them of his exact location in the vast expanse of the grassland. 
• Thus, the sound of the male GIB should be loud enough to transcend the walls of the sanctuary and be audible to female GIBs in the fields nearby. 
• The noise generated by human activities, whether be it by vehicles, tractors, music during processions, firecrackers, may interfere with the GIB’s mating call and drown it out. 

Other threats 

• The rate of reproduction amongst GIBs is very low; the female GIB lays only one egg per year. 
• This solitary egg is under threat from natural predators of the grasslands such as jackals, hyenas or foxes or invasive species such as crows or feral dogs. 
• In such a scenario, every opportunity the GIBs lose to mate pushes the species closer to extinction. 

Protection Measures 

• Birdlife International uplisted this species from Endangered to Critically Endangered (2011) 
• Protection under CITES Appendix I 
• Protection under Schedule I Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Act 2002 
• Project Great Indian Bustard (Rajasthan): aims at identifying and fencing off bustard breeding grounds in existing protected areas as well as provide secure breeding enclosures in areas outside protected areas

Context: With a view to double India’s refining capacity for crude oil to 450-500 million tonnes per annum by 2030, the construction of a new refinery in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra with a refining capacity of 60 million tonnes per annum is set to start soon.
Why is this boost in capacity needed?

• India’s current refining capacity of 249.9 million tonnes per annum.
• It exceeds domestic consumption of petroleum products which was 213.7 million tonnes in the previous fiscal.
• However, India’s consumption of petroleum products is estimated to rise to 335 million tonnes per annum by 2030 and to 472 million tonnes by 2040.
• Hence, India needs to boost refining capacity to meet growing demand.

How will this be achieved?

• The new refinery project in Ratnagiri is one of the key projects in the planned expansion of oil refinery.
• It has received investment from Saudi Arabia and the UAE’s national oil companies — Saudi Aramco and ADNOC respectively.
• The companies together own 50 per cent of the project while the remaining 50 per cent is owned by Indian PSUs, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.
• A key project includes a joint venture between HPCL and the Rajasthan government for a new refinery in Barmer Rajasthan with a refining capacity of 9 million tonnes per annum.
• Other includes major expansion projects in existing refineries in Panipat, Paradip and Koyali.

Roadblock: Many of the projects by the state-run oil refiners have delayed in the past because of issues in acquiring the required land as well as in obtaining environmental clearances.

Context: Addressing the launching of auction of 41 coal mines for commercial mining via video conference, the Prime Minister said a major step has been taken today to make India self-reliant in the energy sector.
Background 

• India’s Coal Sector: The nationalisation of the coal sector in 1973 meant that domestic coal could be mined only by public sector companies. 
• India has the world’s largest coal miner, Coal India Limited (CIL), which has registered an unprecedented increase in production of 140 MT in the last six years. 
• Import dependency: India has the fourth largest coal reserve in the world, is the second largest producer in the world, but is also the second largest coal importer. 
• Production: Today, India is the second largest producer of coal with its record production at 729 million tonnes (MT) in 2019-20.
• Consumption: India ranks 2nd in the world for Coal consumption, accounting for about 84.8% of the world's total consumption of 1,139,471,430 tons. 
• India's consumption of non-coking coal is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.4 per cent to reach 1,076 million tonne (MT) in 2022-23 from 826 MT last financial year, driven by a 6.5 per cent growth in coal-based power generation.
• Domestic coal prices were forecast to increase 10-12 per cent in 2018-19 led by hike in prices of non-coking coal for both power and non-power sectors by CIL.

Key Points

• The Prime Minister also said the government has set a target to gasify around 100 million tonnes of coal by 2030. 
• India has opened up the coal sector completely for commercial mining for all local and global firms after easing restrictions on end-use and prior experience in auctions via an ordinance.

Govt. initiatives for coals sector reforms:

• A transparent mechanism was set in place through a legislation, the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015, to return the cancelled  blocks to industry, via auctions. 
• Similarly, in 2014, two-thirds of the major power plants had critical coal stocks of less than seven days. Now, coal stocks at thermal power plants have risen to its highest-ever level, and is enough for 30 days.
• On the process side, the coal ministry has simplified the process of the mining plan approval process from 90 days to 30 days.
• A more equitable system of sharing revenues, which moved away from fixed rates to an ad-valorem system. So when the prices go up, the miner shares more with the government and if they decrease, he shares less. 
• CIL has been given a target of producing one billion tonnes of coal by FY 2023-24. For this necessary capital, coal blocks and an expeditious approval giving mechanism have already been put in place.
• The Mineral Laws (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 allows any India-registered company to bid and develop coal blocks. 

Salient features of the ordinance

• The Ordinance amends the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 (MMDR Act) and the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015 (CMSP Act).  
• The CMSP Act provides for the auction and allocation of mines whose allocation was cancelled by the Supreme Court in 2014 as illegal.
• Schedule I of the Act provides a list of all such mines; 
• Schedule II and III are sub-classes of the mines listed in the Schedule I.  
• Schedule II mines are those where production had already started then, and Schedule III mines are ones that had been earmarked for a specified end-use.
• Removal of restriction on end-use of coal: Earlier, companies acquiring Schedule II and Schedule III coal mines through auctions can use the coal produced only for specified end-uses such as power generation and steel production.  
• Now, companies will be allowed to carry on coal mining operation for own consumption, sale or for any other purposes, as may be specified by the central government.  
• Eligibility for auction of coal and lignite blocks: The Ordinance clarifies that the companies need not possess any prior coal mining experience in India in order to participate in the auction of coal and lignite blocks. 
• Composite license for prospecting and mining: Earlier, separate licenses were provided for prospecting and mining of coal and lignite, called prospecting license, and mining lease, respectively.  Prospecting includes exploring, locating, or finding mineral deposit.  
• The Ordinance adds a new type of license, called prospecting license-cum-mining lease.  This will be a composite license providing for both prospecting and mining activities.
• Non-exclusive reconnaissance permit holders to get other licenses: Earlier, the holders of non-exclusive reconnaissance permit for exploration of certain specified minerals are not entitled to obtain a prospecting license or mining lease.  
• The Ordinance provides that the holders of such permits may apply for a prospecting license-cum-mining lease or mining lease.  
• Transfer of statutory clearances to new bidders: Earlier, mining leases for specified minerals (minerals other than coal, lignite, and atomic minerals) can be transferred to new persons through auction upon expiry.  
• The Ordinance provides that the various approvals, licenses, and clearances given to the previous lessee will be extended to the successful bidder for a period of two years.  
• Reallocation after termination of the allocations: The CMSP Act provides for termination of allotment orders of coal mines in certain cases.  
• The Ordinance adds that such mines may be reallocated through auction or allotment as may be determined by the central government.  The central government will appoint a designated custodian to manage these mines until they are reallocated.
• Prior approval from the central government: Under the MMDR Act, state governments require prior approval of the central government for granting reconnaissance permit, prospecting license, or mining lease for coal and lignite.  
• The Ordinance provides that prior approval of the central government will not be required in granting these licenses for coal and lignite, in certain cases. 
• These include cases where: (i) the allocation has been done by the central government, and (ii) the mining block has been reserved by the central or state governments to conserve a mineral.
• Advance action for auction: Under the MMDR Act, mining leases for specified minerals (minerals other than coal, lignite, and atomic minerals) are auctioned on the expiry of the lease period.  
• The Ordinance provides that state governments can take advance action for auction of a mining lease before its expiry.

Benefits of coal sector reforms

• Augment production capacity: Coal India has been tasked to produce one billion tonnes by 2023-24 but production will still fall short of demand and there is a need to introduce private players in coal mining.
• Attracting FDI: The government expects to attract investments from Indian and global corporates, besides mining majors such as Peabody, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.
• It has the innate potential to usher in immense job opportunities and provide a boost to the government’s Make in India programme, since coal mining operations require large machines and manpower. 
• Local development: Besides, it will lead to the induction of new technology and competition in the sector. Consequently, the economies of coal-bearing states like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Odisha will also grow since all the revenue from these auctions will accrue exclusively to them.
• With the unlocking of the sector now, companies using coal will be free to focus on their core business while procuring coal from professional miners. 
• Mines will no longer be allotted on the basis of a ‘match’ with the needs of the single captive user. Rather, it will be auctioned based on economic efficiency.

Concerns

• Environmental hazard: The list of 41 mines showed several are located in biodiversity-rich forest areas in central India, including a few in one of the largest contiguous stretches of dense forest called Hasdeo Arand that spans 170,000 hectares.
• Tribal regions: Coal and iron ore are found in districts that have significant forest cover and host a large population of scheduled tribe and backward community.
• With no end use and pricing restrictions, the government is also giving up its important responsibility of safeguarding public interest, protecting the environment and upholding the prevailing constitutional safeguards for the areas in question.
• India will have rise to energy challenge and increasingly get into clean coal technology. CIL will invest thousands of crores of rupees on mechanizing coal movement to mine coal technologically and more efficiently, reducing pollution and improving efficiency.

Context: Recently, the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change in May 2020 has dropped the mandatory coal washing for supply to thermal power plants.
Background

• In 2014, as part of its climate change commitments, the government had made coal washing mandatory for supply to all thermal units beyond 500 kms from the coal mine.
• This was done in line with India’s stand in climate change negotiations – not to reduce coal consumption and rather focus on emission control.
• MoEFCC, in its guidelines (2014) said that Power stations located between 500-750, 750-1000 km would be supplied coal with ash content not exceeding 34 per cent on quarterly average basis from January 01, 2016.
• Hence, the Ministry directed the coal companies to supply washed/blended or beneficiated coal.

What is coal washing?

• Depending on its quality, coal needs to be washed with water and chemicals to remove sulfur and impurities before it can be burned in a power plant.
• Coal washing or coal beneficiation, is widely seen as an efficient method for getting the most from run-of-mine coal.
• It is a water-intensive process: typically, washing one ton of coal consumes about 45 m3 liters of water.
• As India’s coal is high in fly ash content, coal beneficiation is done to improve the quality of raw coal by either reducing the extraneous matter that gets extracted along with the mined coal or reducing the associated ash or both.

Why the present government decided to do away with this?

• MoEFCC has dropped the mandatory requirement of coal washing for supply to thermal power plants beyond 500 kms from the coal mine.
• The ministry said that in the overall scheme of coal, mine, washery and power plant, the extent of ash content in mined coal remains the same.
• As per the ministry coal washing does not help reduce emissions, and the coal rejected from washery find its way into the market for use by industries and create pollution.
• Thus, washing of coal is unable to meet its intended objective as it merely localizes the pollution around coal mines which otherwise would have been distributed over larger areas.
• Further, the process of coal washing is cumbersome, costly and leads to reduction in the calorific value of the coal as well.

Road Ahead

• The power ministry has instead batted for pollution control technologies at power generation units.
• Under the guidelines of the Central Pollution Control Board, plants with close to 50 gigawatt of thermal power capacity need to install emission control systems.
• It would also be beneficial to use raw coal instead of washed coal.
• With the use of supercritical technology in power plants, technological improvement to arrest emissions, unwashed coal can be used efficiently and economically using washed coal which makes power generation costlier.

Context: Recently, India’s first gas exchange — the Indian Gas Exchange (IGX) — was launched by the Ministry of Petroleum. The exchange is expected to facilitate transparent price discovery in natural gas, and facilitate the growth of the share of natural gas in India’s energy basket.
About IGX

• The IGX is a digital trading platform that will allow buyers and sellers of natural gas to trade both in the spot market and in the forward market for imported natural gas across three hubs —Dahej and Hazira in Gujarat, and Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh.
• The spot market is a public financial market in which financial instruments or commodities are traded for immediate delivery.
• A forward market is an over-the-counter marketplace that sets the price of a financial instrument or asset for future delivery.
• However, domestically produced natural gas will not be sold on the exchange.
• The price of domestically produced natural gas is decided by the government.

Will domestically produced natural gas also be bought and sold on the exchange?

• The price of domestically produced natural gas is decided by the government. It will not be sold on the gas exchange.
• However, following appeals by domestic producers that the prices set by the government are not viable given the cost of exploration and production in India.
• A new gas policy will include reforms in domestic gas pricing and will move towards more market-oriented pricing.

Will this make India more import-dependent?

• Domestic production of gas has been falling over the past two fiscals as current sources of natural gas have become less productive.
• Domestically produced natural gas currently accounts for less than half the country’s natural gas consumption; imported LNG accounts for the other half.
• LNG imports are set to become a larger proportion of domestic gas consumption as India moves to increase the proportion of natural gas in the energy basket from 6.2% in 2018 to 15% by 2030.

What regulatory change is required?

• Currently, the pipeline infrastructure necessary for the transportation of natural gas is controlled by the companies that own the network.
• State-owned GAIL owns and operates India’s largest gas pipeline network, spanning over 12,000 km.
• An independent system operator for natural gas pipelines would help ensure transparent allocation of pipeline usage, and build confidence in the minds of buyers and sellers about neutrality in the allocation of pipeline capacity.
• Experts have also called for natural gas to be included in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime to avoid buyers having to deal with different levies such as VAT across states when purchasing natural gas from the exchange.

Government of India Initiatives

• The Indian gas market has multiple price bands for assets including pre-NELP, NELP, High Temperature and High pressure (HTHP) and Deepwater and Ultra Deep Water blocks.
• India has long-term gas contracts with many countries like Qatar, Australia, Russia and the US, and has made investments abroad in strategic assets in Mozambique, Russia and other countries.
• India has taken various ongoing projects to strengthen the gas infrastructure in the country like Urja Ganga, Eastern India grid, Indradhanush project in the North-east, Dhamra-Dahej pipeline, coal gasification and CBM policy.

Context: Recently, the first Assessment of Climate Change over the Indian Region has been published by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES).
Key Highlights of the report

• Average surface air temperatures over India could rise by up to 4.4 degrees Celsius by the end of the century as compared to the period between 1976 and 2005, according to the MoES report.
• The rise in temperatures will be even more pronounced in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region where the average could reach 5.2°C.
• The region is already highly vulnerable to climate-related variability in temperatures, rainfall and snowfall.
• By 2100, the frequency of warm days and warm nights might also increase by 55 per cent and 70 per cent respectively, as compared to the period 1976-2005 under the RCP 8.5 scenario.
• The incidences of heat waves over the country could also increase by three to four times. Their duration of occurrence might also increase which was already witnessed by the country in 2019.

A 100-year record

• Between 1900 and 2018, the average temperatures of India rose by 0.7°C.
• This rise in temperatures has been largely attributed to global warming due to GHG emissions and land use and land cover changes.
• But it has also been slightly reduced by the rising aerosol emissions in the atmosphere that have an overall cooling characteristic.
• The report predicts that monsoon rainfall could change by an average of 14 per cent by 2100 that could go as high as 22.5 per cent.
• The report does not mention if this change will be an increase or a decrease but still represents variability.
• It further says that the overall rainfall during the monsoon season has decreased by six per cent between 1950 and 2015.

Data on dry spells

• The assessment also says that in the past few decades, there has been an increased frequency of dry spells during the monsoon season that has increased by 27 per cent between 1981-2011, as compared to 1951-1980.
• The intensity of wet spells has also increased over the country, with central India receiving 75 per cent more extreme rainfall events between 1950 and 2015. This means that it either rains too little or too much.
• One of the primary examples of this was the monsoon seasons of 2018 and 2019 where dry spells were broken by extremely heavy rainfall spells, creating a flood and drought cycle in many regions in India.

What is Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP)?

• A Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) is a greenhouse gas concentration (not emissions) trajectory adopted by the IPCC.
• It is defined as a radiative force in watt per square metre due to the rising greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the atmosphere.
• Four pathways were used for climate modelling and research for the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) in 2014.
• The pathways describe different climate futures, all of which are considered possible depending on the volume of greenhouse gases (GHG) emitted in the years to come.
• The RCPs – originally RCP2.6, RCP4.5, RCP6, and RCP8.5 – are labelled after a possible range of radiative forcing values in the year 2100 (2.6, 4.5, 6, and 8.5 W/m2, respectively).
• Since AR5 the original pathways are being considered together with Shared Socioeconomic Pathways: as are new RCPs such as RCP1.9, RCP3.4 and RCP7.

Context: Earth will bear witness to an annular solar eclipse on Sunday, 21 June. India will be able to witness this celestial event as well. A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the sun and the earth. When this happens, the moon blocks the light of the sun from reaching the earth. The shadow of the moon is then cast on the earth.
Key Points

• The annular phase will be visible from some places of northern parts of the country (parts of Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttarakhand) and it will be seen as partial solar eclipse from the rest part of the country.
• The annular phase will also be visible in Congo, Sudan, Ethiopia, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Pakistan, and China.

About Solar eclipse

• A solar eclipse occurs on a new moon day when the Moon comes in between the Earth and the Sun and when all the three objects are aligned.
• A solar eclipse can only take place at the phase of new moon, when the moon passes directly between the sun and Earth and its shadows fall upon Earth’s surface.
• An annular solar eclipse will occur when the angular diameter of the Moon falls short of that of the Sun so that it cannot cover up the latter completely.
• As a result, a ring of the Sun’s disk remains visible around the Moon.

Types of Solar eclipses

• Partial solar eclipses occur when the Moon only partially obscures the Sun’s disk and casts only its penumbra on Earth.
• Annular solar eclipses take place when the Moon’s disk is not big enough to cover the entire disk of the Sun.
• Total solar eclipses happen when the Moon completely covers the Sun, and it can only take place when the Moon is near perigee, the point of the Moon’s orbit closest to Earth.
• Hybrid Solar Eclipses, also known as annular-total eclipses, are the rarest type. They occur when the same eclipse changes from an annular to a total solar eclipse, and/or vice versa, along the eclipse’s path.

Why isn’t a solar eclipse every New Moon night?

• Eclipses do not happen at every new moon because the moon’s orbit is tilted just over 5 degrees relative to Earth’s orbit around the sun.
• For this reason, the moon’s shadow usually passes either above or below Earth, so a solar eclipse doesn’t occur.
• But as a rule, at least twice each year (and sometimes as many as five times in a year), a new moon will align itself in just such a way to eclipse the sun. That alignment point is called a node.
• Depending on how closely the new moon approaches a node will determine whether a particular eclipse is central or partial.
• The moon’s distance from the Earth will ultimately determine whether a central eclipse is total, annular or a hybrid.

Precautions

• Eclipsed Sun should not be viewed with the naked eye, even for a very short time.
• It will cause permanent damage of the eyes leading to blindness even when the moon covers most portion of the Sun.
• Safe technique to observe the solar eclipse is either by using proper filter like aluminized Mylar, black polymer, welding glass of shade number 14 or by making projection of Sun’s image on a white board by telescope. 

Context: Recently, the Supreme Court issued notices to the Centre and the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India on a plea seeking directions to insurance companies to provide coverage for treatment of mental health illnesses.
Key Points

• The plea contended that under the Section 21(4) of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017, insurers are bound to provide medical insurance for mental health illnesses on the same basis as they do for treatment of physical illness.
• However, despite the existence of the provision, there has been no follow-up by the insurance regulatory body regarding its compliance nor has any action been taken against companies who failed to follow the order.
• The inclusion of mental illnesses under the insurance coverage is a result of the Centre’s ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Mental Healthcare Act, 2017

• The new act defines mental illness as a substantial disorder of thinking, mood, perception, orientation, or memory that grossly impairs judgment or ability to meet the ordinary demands of life, mental conditions associated with the abuse of alcohol and drugs.

Rights of persons with mental illness:

• The Act that ensures every person shall have a right to access mental health care and treatment from mental health services run or funded by the appropriate government.
• It assures free treatment for such persons if they are homeless or belong to Below Poverty Line, even if they do not possess a BPL card.
• Every person with mental illness shall have a right to live with dignity and there shall be no discrimination on any basis including gender, sex, sexual orientation, religion, culture, caste, social or political beliefs, class or disability.
• A person with mental illness shall have the right to confidentiality in respect of his mental health, mental healthcare, treatment and physical healthcare.
• The photograph or any other information pertaining to the person cannot be released to the media without the consent of the person with mental illness.

About Mental Health Authority

• The Act empowers the government to set-up Central Mental Health Authority at national-level and State Mental Health Authority in every State.
• Every mental health institute and mental health practitioners including clinical psychologists, mental health nurses and psychiatric social workers will have to be registered with this Authority.

Functions:
These bodies will-

• register, supervise and maintain a register of all mental health establishments.
• develop quality and service provision norms for such establishments.
• maintain a register of mental health professionals.
• train law enforcement officials and mental health professionals on the provisions of the Act.
• receive complaints about deficiencies in provision of services.
• advise the government on matters relating to mental health.

A Mental Health Review Board is constituted to protect the rights of persons with mental illness and manage advance directives.
Suicide is decriminalized

• A person who attempts suicide shall be presumed to be suffering from mental illness at that time and will not be punished under the Indian Penal Code.
• The government shall have a duty to provide care, treatment and rehabilitation to a person, having severe stress and who attempted to commit suicide, to reduce the risk of recurrence of attempt to commit suicide.

Context: Recently, a Hindu body has moved the Supreme Court challenging a provision of a 1991 law that provides for maintaining “religious character” of holy structures as it existed on August 15, 1947, in a bid to open the litigation route to reclaim disputed religious sites other than the Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya.
Issue

• A Lucknow-based trust and some followers of Sanatan Vedic Religion have contended the Act bars power of remedy of judicial review and violates the principle of secularism.
• The plea said the Parliament by way of the Act retrospectively created a cut-off date of August 15, 1947 for its implementation.
• The Hindu devotees cannot file any suit in Civil Court or High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India and will not be able to restore back the religious character of Hindu Endowments, Temples, Mutts etc. from hoodlums if they had encroached upon such property before 15th August 1947.
• The Ayodhya dispute was kept out of its purview of the Act.
• Any restriction on right to approach Civil or High Court is against the basic principle of rule of law.

Key Points

• The provision of the 1991 law permits the maintenance of “religious character” of holy structures as it existed when India was partitioned on 15 August 1947
• The law furthermore prohibits conversion of any temple into a mosque, and vice versa
• It is a significant move as the petition puts the spotlight on Hindu pilgrimage sites of Kashi and Mathura where two mosques stand

About the Act

• Significance of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991
• The Act was passed in September 1991, over a year before the demolition of the Babri Masjid (1992).

Purpose

• Section 3 of the Act bans the conversion of a place of worship or even a section of it into a place of worship of a different religious denomination or of a different segment of the same religious denomination.
• The Act also imposes a positive obligation on the State to maintain the religious character of every place of worship as it existed at the time of Independence.
• This legislative obligation on the State to preserve and protect the equality of all faiths is an essential secular feature and one of the basic features of the Indian Constitution.
• The Act seeks to maintain the religious character of holy structures as it was at Independence i.e. it prohibits the conversion of a temple into a mosque and vice versa.
• The Act declares that the character of a place of worship as was on August 15, 1947 shall be maintained and no suit or any proceeding shall lie in any court in respect of any dispute against encroachment of any religious properties at any point of time before this date.
• Section 4 also says that any such pending proceeding shall stand abated and that if any proceeding filed on the ground that conversion of religious place has taken place after that date and before September 18, 1991 when the Act was made, shall be disposed off to maintain the status as was existing on August 15, 1947.

Exemption:

• The disputed site at Ayodhya is exempted from the Act. Due to this exemption, the trial in the Ayodhya case proceeded even after the enforcement of this law.
• The Act also does not apply to any place of worship which is an ancient and historical monument or an archaeological site covered by the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958.
• Penalty: Section 6 of the Act prescribes a punishment of maximum three-years imprisonment along with a fine for contravening the provisions of the Act.

Context: Recently, the Ministry of External Affairs has confirmed that India will participate in the virtual meeting of the Russia-India-China (RIC) grouping.
Key Points

• The Russian reiteration of support for dialogue between China and India came even though Moscow’s Foreign Minister had said bilateral issues were usually not taken up at RIC.
• The situation in Afghanistan and regional connectivity projects such as the International North South Transport Corridor involving India, Russia and Iran are expected to figure in the agenda.

Significance:

• The Indian decision to go ahead with the ministerial level exchange has created an opening for de-escalation of tension along the Line of Actual Control with the Russian diplomatic sources indicating that they support constructive dialogue over the tension in eastern Ladakh. 
• Russia can act as a bridge in the strained relations between India and China.
• It can act as a platform to discuss and address the areas of cooperation and understand mutual differences.

Russia-India-China trilateral grouping:

• During the 2019 G-20 Summit in Osaka, Russia, India, and China (RIC) held the latest iteration of a trilateral meeting between them.
• RIC as a strategic grouping first took shape in the late 1990s under the leadership of Yevgeny Primakov as a counterbalance to the Western alliance.
• Primakov, a Russian politician and diplomat who was also the Prime Minister of Russia from 1998 to 1999, is credited with the idea for RIC.
• The group was founded on the basis of “end[ing] its subservient foreign policy guided by the U.S.,” and “renewing old ties with India and fostering the newly discovered friendship with China.”
• But the idea of meeting at the leader’s level on a more sustained basis has only surfaced over the past couple of years.

Potential of the grouping:

• Together, the RIC countries occupy over 19 percent of the global landmass and contribute to over 33 percent of global GDP.
• All three are nuclear powers and two, Russia and China, are permanent members of the UN Security Council, while India aspires to be one.
• The trio could also contribute to creating a new economic structure for the world.
• They could work together on disaster relief and humanitarian assistance.

Importance of RIC:

• RIC brings together three largest Eurasian countries.
• It is a significant trilateral grouping as all three countries are nuclear powers.
• Russia and China are permanent members of the UN Security Council, India aspires to be one.
• In the period of geopolitical transition, it is an effort to renew and rebuild some of these old initiatives as a way to counter the U.S.-led world order.
• RIC can complement India’s continental ambitions and bring about more balance in its strategic autonomy.

Challenges faced by RIC:

• Pakistan axis: China is Pakistan’s ‘all-weather friend' and its CPEC undermines India’s sovereignty, whereas Russia has drawn closer to Pakistan of lately to expand its defence markets. These events present a major challenge in evolving confidence among RIC members.
• China’s aggressive Indian Ocean diplomacy: Efforts by China to dominate the Indian Ocean through its naval installations primarily to encircle India may hamper RIC synergy.
• India China bilateral concerns: Doklam crisis, China’s disapproval for India’s NSG and UNSC membership and opposition towards declaring Masood Azhar as a terrorist in UN act as a hindrance in developing long-term trust in RIC.
• India’s dependence on US and Japan: India shares close relationship with US and Japan on certain issues like technology transfer, membership in global institutions, connectivity between Asia and Africa, Indo-Pacific security and navigation etc. which make it impossible to abdicate this grouping.

Road Ahead

• India is committed to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity in the border areas and RIC would give the platform for resolution of differences (along the Indo-China Border) through dialogue.
• Moreover, the RIC forms the core of both the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and the BRICS as greater cooperation between China, India and Russia would lead to strengthening of both SCO and BRICS.
• The RIC is a significant multilateral grouping, because it brings together the three largest Eurasian countries which are also incidentally geographically contiguous. RIC, hence provides a worthwhile platform to discuss issues like West Asia, Afghanistan, climate change, terrorism, regional connectivity, tensions on Korean Peninsula, etc.

Context: Recently, the USA has authorised sanctions against International Criminal Court (ICC) officials involved in investigations into possible war crimes by USA troops and its allies.
Background

• The turbulent relationship between the US and the International Criminal Court (ICC) further exacerbated this week, after President Donald Trump authorised sanctions against ICC officials involved in investigations into possible war crimes by US troops or those of its allies.
• The Trump administration, which has long considered the international law forum a threat to US sovereignty, announced the strict punitive measures that Washington generally reserves for use against terror groups and those accused of abusing human rights.

Key Points

• Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the country’s top diplomat, called the 123 nations-strong tribunal a “kangaroo court”. US officials have also blamed Russia for manipulating the ICC in its favour. 
• In 2019, the ICC’s chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda asked for a formal probe into alleged atrocities committed during the Afghanistan War between 2003 and 2014– leading to possible indictments of US military and CIA officials. The Trump administration reacted by revoking the Gambian lawyer’s US visa. 
• Washington has broadened the visa restrictions on ICC officials directly involved in probes against its nationals or those of its allies. The restrictions also extend to the officials’ family members. 

About International Criminal Court (ICC)?

• The ICC, a permanent judicial body based at The Hague in the Netherlands, was created by the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (its founding and governing document), and began functioning on 1 July 2002 when the Statute came into force.
• The forum was established as a court of last resort to prosecute offences that would otherwise go unpunished, and has jurisdiction over four main crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. 
• 123 nations are States Parties to the Rome Statute and recognise the ICC’s authority; the notable exceptions being the US, China, Russia, and India.
• Unlike the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the ICC is not part of the United Nations system, with the UN-ICC relationship being governed by a separate agreement. 
• The ICJ, which is among the UN’s 6 principal organs, mainly hears disputes between nations. 
• The ICC, on the other hand, prosecutes individuals– its authority extending to offences committed in a member state or by a national of such a state.
• The ICC has been criticised for not pursuing investigations in Western countries (all 4 of its guilty verdicts pronounced so far are in trials from Africa), as well as for working inefficiently. 
• Last year, the court ordered an independent expert review of its own functioning to address these concerns.
• The International Criminal Court (ICC) was established as a court of last resort to prosecute offences that would otherwise go unpunished.
• It relies on cooperation with countries for support, especially for making arrests, transferring arrested persons to the ICC detention centre, and placing certain restrictions such as freezing the assets of suspects, enforcing sentences, etc.
• State cooperation is necessary for ICC to function effectively. This factor renders its efficacy low as perpetrators of crimes can take over governments and avoid facing justice through the ICC.
• It has been accused of being a tool for western imperialism.

India and ICC
India did not sign the Rome Statute because of the following reasons:

• National interests
• State sovereignty
• Problem to find impartial prosecutors
• Difficulty in collection of evidences
• Crime definition

Context: The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in its latest report mentions that physical distance between animals and humans has reduced due to land degradation. 

• This has resulted in frequent interactions between both, which is a probable cause for a zoonotic disease like COVID-19. 
• The June 17 is observed as the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought globally. This year’s ‘global observance event’ is being hosted by the Korea Forest Service virtually in the wake of COVID crisis. 

Key Highlights of the report

• About 70 per cent of all-natural, ice-free land in the world is affected by human use and report emphasis on an urgent need for the land use pattern to check land degradation. 
• The global economy is heading for a recession and social relations are changing which creates the urgency at the policy and practical levels to slow down and reverse land-use change. 
• Land degradation affects some 3.2 billion people worldwide and This could further rise to 90 per cent by 2050, if not checked. 
• The major cause for land-use change is agricultural land for food, animal feed and fibre and By 2050, over 500 Mha of new agricultural land will be needed to meet the global food demand which may worsen the scenario. 
• It mentions that in the largest-ever global restoration initiative, in the last five years, close to 100 countries have earmarked areas for repair and restoration by 2030 which is around 400 Mha. 

About United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)

• Established in 1994, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is the sole legally binding international agreement linking environment and development to sustainable land management. 
• The Convention addresses specifically the arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas, known as the drylands, where some of the most vulnerable ecosystems and peoples can be found.
• India became a signatory to UNCCD on October 14, 1994, and ratified it on December 17, 1996.
• Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change is the nodal Ministry for the Convention.

What is Desertification?

• Desertification is the process by which the biological productivity of drylands (arid and semiarid lands) is reduced due to natural or manmade factors. It does not mean the expansion of existing deserts.
• Causes- The major factors responsible for desertification are over-cultivation, overgrazing, deforestation, and poor irrigation practices etc. 

Desertification in India:

• India faces a severe problem of land degradation. About 29.32% of the Total Geographical Area of the country is undergoing the process of desertification/land degradation.
• A 2016 report by the ISRO found that about 29% of India’s land (in 2011-13) was degraded, this being a 0.57% increase from 2003-05.
• At the COP-13, India had committed to restoring 13 million hectares of degraded and deforested land by the year 2020 and an additional 8 million hectares by 2030.
• In eight states—Rajasthan, Delhi, Goa, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Nagaland, Tripura and Himachal Pradesh—around 40 to 70 per cent of land has undergone desertification. 
• Loss of soil cover, mainly due to rainfall and surface runoff, is one of the biggest reasons for desertification. It is responsible for 98 per cent of desertification in the country.

Steps taken so far to curb desertification

• Initiatives- “National Afforestation Programme (NAP)” for ecological restoration of degraded forest areas is being implemented by the National Afforestation & Eco-Development Board (NAEB) Division of the MoEFCC.
• There are multiple schemes like Green India Mission, fund accumulated under Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA), Nagar Van Yojana etc which are helping in land conservation.
• MoEF&CC also promotes tree outside forests realizing that the country has a huge potential for increasing its Trees Outside Forest (TOF).
• Improved fire management and improved grazing land can help in land restoration.

Born and brought up in Patiala, Dr Karminder Singh has become the second Sikh medical specialist to be commissioned as a Captain in the US army. The 36-year-old doctor, who completed MD (Internal Medicine) in June 2020, is also one of the few senior officers in the US armed force who will don a turban along with other articles of Sikh faith.

Dr Karminder shifted to the US in 2013 after completing post-graduation from Dayanand Medical College, Ludhiana. In 2017, he did MBA in Health and Business Administration with distinction from California. He has also been selected as a fellow, Doctorate of Medicine, Pulmonary Medicine, at Eisenhower Medical Center, California, and has become a commissioned officer in the US army.

Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the 19th century ruler of the Sikh Empire in India, has beaten competition from around the world to be named the "Greatest Leader of All Time" in a poll conducted by ‘BBC World Histories Magazine'.

He was the only child of Maha Singh, on whose death in 1792 he became chief of the Shukerchakias, a Sikh group. His inheritance included Gujranwala town and the surrounding villages, now in Pakistan.
At 15 he married the daughter of a chieftain of the Kanhayas, and for many years his affairs were directed by his ambitious mother-in-law, the widow Sada Kaur. A second marriage, to a girl of the Nakkais, made Ranjit Singh preeminent among the clans of the Sikh confederacy.

The procurement of wheat by government agencies reached an “all-time high” of 382 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) this year with Madhya Pradesh emerging as the largest contributor to the Central pool with 129 LMT, surpassing Punjab with 127 LMT.

The record was achieved on June 16, when wheat procurement surpassed the earlier record of 381.48 LMT during 2012-13, with Haryana contributing 74 LMT, Uttar Pradesh 32 LMT and Rajasthan 19 LMT, according to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs.

Punjab will not be importing any coal to run its thermal power generation plants to optimum capacity as the power demand in the state peaks during the ongoing paddy season. Instead, the state is getting an enhanced supply of domestically produced coal from Coal India Limited.

HOW PSPCL IS SAVING MONEY:-

No imported coal for the state's thermal plants to help save Rs100 crore. Around 18.89 LMT was imported last year.
Cheaper power is being bought (1956.79 LU on June 14) instead of generating electricity from own sources (506.49 LU). Electricity is bought at Rs4.05 per unit, while the cost of own power generation is Rs6 per unit.

The decision will help the cash-strapped state government save a whopping Rs 100 crore as it will use the cheaper coal from Coal India. The latter has agreed in principle to give additional coal to the government as well as private thermal power plants in the state under the import substitution policy.

Punjab’s reliance on imported coal for running its power plants during the paddy season is huge. Over 15 per cent of the coal used during this time is imported from Indonesia. Last year, 18.89 lakh metric tonnes of coal was imported while 14.74 lakh metric tonnes of coal was imported in 2018-19 to meet the surge in power demand during the paddy season. 

NABARD has increased refinance to the Punjab State Cooperative Bank from Rs,800 cr to Rs4,200 cr. In the wake of the rising input costs for crops to be sown in the just started kharif marketing season, state farmers will have access to higher institutional finance from the Punjab State Cooperative Bank.

The bank will be lending an additional Rs 400 crore to farmers as term loans, extending the facility of cooperative liquidity. Loans will be extended through the primary agriculture credit societies (PACS). This has been possible after the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) increased refinance to the state cooperative bank from Rs 3,800 crore in 2019 to Rs 4,200 crore this year. The higher recovery rate of the previously advanced loans (recovery is higher by 7 per cent) has also helped in getting additional finance for the state cooperative bank.

This year, the cost of labour for paddy transplantation has increased by 60-70 per cent and the cost of insecticides and pesticides has increased by 15 per cent. Against this high input cost, the increase in price realisation (minimum support price) is just 2.9 per cent. As a result, financially stretched farmers will be looking at the credit from institutional and non-institutional sources.

The Punjab State Cooperative Bank was established on 31st August, 1949 at Shimla has a principle financing institution of the cooperative movement in Punjab. In 1951 its Head Office was shifted to Jalandhar from where it moved in 1963 to its present building at Chandigarh. In the cooperative Banking structure, the position of the Punjab State Cooperative Bank is extremely important as the whole credit system revolves around it.

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development is an Apex Development Financial Institution in India. The Bank has been entrusted with "matters concerning Policy Planning and Operations in the field of credit for Agriculture and other Economic activities in Rural areas in India"

The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has constructed and opened a new Class 70 permanent bridge by replacing the pontoon bridge (floating bridge) of limited load capacity on the Ravi river that connects the 35 square kilometre Kasowal enclave in Punjab with the rest of the country.
• The newly-constructed 484-meter-long bridge was built by 141 Drain Maintenance Coy of 49 Border Roads Task Force (BRTF) of Project Chetak with an outlay of Rs 17.89 crore.
• The bridge consists of 16 cells of 30.25-metre length each.

Need for Permanent Bridge:
The pontoon bridge used to be dismantled every year prior to the Monsoon and also has certainties of getting damaged because of the heavy discharge of water. Also farmers use this bridge to market their harvest. To ensure locals do not suffer during the harvest season and also to ensure the bridge does not get damaged, the pontoon bridge has replaced with permanent the bridge

The Punjab Government has notified a voluntary disclosure scheme (VDS) for consumers having unapproved water connections in the rural areas. Under this scheme, the Water Supply and Sanitation Department offers an opportunity to consumers for voluntary disclosure and free of cost regularisation of their unapproved connection.

As per the policy, no charges will be taken from the consumers for the previous usage of water, if any.

Razia Sultana, Water Supply and Sanitation Minister, said this scheme would be formally launched on Monday and the last date to apply under the voluntary disclosure scheme would be July 15.

The minister said the department had planned to conduct third-party comprehensive household survey of all rural households in Punjab from July onwards.

During the survey, if any consumer was found with unapproved connection after the closure of the voluntary disclosure scheme, the connection would be snapped and charges would be collected from the guilty for unapproved usage of water.

World Food Prize 2020: An alumnus of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) and a renowned agricultural soil scientist from Ohio State University (OSU), Dr Rattan Lal, has been declared the winner of the World Food Prize 2020.

Indian-American soil scientist Dr Rattan Lal has won the prestigious World Food Prize, considered to be equivalent to a Nobel Prize in agriculture, in recognition of his contribution to increase the global food supply by helping small farmers improve their soil's health. A native of India and citizen of the United States, Lal has in his career of over 50 years and across four continents promoted innovative soil-saving techniques that benefited the livelihoods of more than 500 million smallholder farmers, improved the food and nutritional security of more than two billion people.

Contribution:
Dr Lal’s research in the 1990s revealed that restoring degraded soils through increasing soil carbon and organic matter not only improved soil health, but helped combat rising carbon dioxide levels in the air by sequestering atmospheric carbon.

About Award:
The World Food Prize was created by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Norman Borlaug in 1986 to recognise scientists and others who have improved the quality and availability of food. The foundation that awards the $250,000 prize is based in Des Moines. This award is considered to be the Nobel Prize in Agriculture.

This notification providing for fixed tenure of IAS officers has left some leaders in the state upset. It is because they feel appointment and transfer of IAS officers are a prerogative of the state.They say, If their term is fixed, it will not only create functional and administrative problems, but also overstep the authority and jurisdiction of the state government.With the fixed tenure rule and Chief Secretary’s board having all power to examine a recommendation for a transfer, the leaders feel their influence has been reduced to a naught and all power handed to the CS.

What is the government’s argument in its favour:-

It says if the officials have a fixed tenure they will be able to provide better administration.
They will also feel safe and try to stick to the rules instead of pleasing political bosses.
It says every official requires 3-6 months to get into the groove at his new place of posting. If he stays there for two years, it would mean better delivery and stable tenure to people.

What is a Civil Services Board? What are its functions:-

To insulate the bureaucracy from political interference and to put an end to frequent transfers of civil servants by political bosses, the Supreme Court had in 2013 directed the Centre and the states to set up a civil services board to consider transfers and postings of bureaucrats among others. As per rules, all states should have a civil services board to decide on transfers and postings of the bureaucrats.

Functions:

The board is mandated to decide on the transfer of a civil servant before completion of his or her fixed tenure.
The rules mandate the civil services board to submit an annual report on January 1 to the central government about the date of the meetings held by them.

Composition:

The civil services board is headed by chief secretary of a state.

It has senior most additional chief secretary or chairman, Board of Revenue, Financial Commissioner or an officer of equivalent rank and status as member.
In addition, it will have Principal Secretary or Secretary, Department of Personnel in the state government as member secretary.

PADHO PUNJAB PADHAO PUNJAB is a mission to spread literacy in Punjab.

There is a play-way method being used for children.The children who earlier feel studies a burden. They are now curious about learning new things.To raise the standard in the government schools especially in rural areas,Training is being given to teachers and BMT/CMT under 'PADHO PUNJAB PADHAO PUNJAB Project'.

At the  site of  PADHO PUNJAB PADHAO PUNJAB  we can see Daily Slide, E Books, Testing Tools , Free Study Material , Informational Videos. 

The main purpose of this mission is to make study interesting among students.

Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a request to to extend the benefits offered under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana for another six months to ensure continuity of the provision of means of sustenance for the poor in the view of Covid-19 crisis

PM Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana:
Under this scheme, 80 crore poor people, covering about two-thirds of the country’s population, will get 5 kg rice or wheat each month for the next three months free of charge, in addition to the 5 kg they already get. Each household will get 1 kg of dal of their choice, for next three months, also free of charge. Besides, to ensure adequate availability of protein to all the above mentioned individuals, 1 kg per family, would be provided pulses according to regional preferences for next three months.

The National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) is an umbrella programme for prevention and control of Vector Borne Diseases. Earlier different Vector Borne Diseases were covered under separate National Health Programmes, presently 6 Vector Borne Diseases are being covered under NVBDCP.

Malaria
Dengue
Chikungunya
Japanese Encephalitis
Lymphatic Filariasis
Kala Azar

Context: With the coronavirus pandemic acquiring alarming proportions, governments over the world are trying different ways of dealing with the issue.

• Government of Punjab, meanwhile, has come out with a novel initiative in the shape of a mobile app.
• The mobile app is called Ghar ghar nigrani.
• It’s a first of its kind initiative.
• Is aimed at checking community spread of coronavirus.
• It is being touted as a tool for early detection and testing of coronavirus.
• It will involve house to house surveillance to contain the spread of COVID-19

 About :

• It has been developed by Health Department .
• Recently, the app was field tested in Patiala and Mansa.
• In the field test, about 20,628 persons were surveyed.
• Among the surveyed persons, 9045 found asymptomatic.
• 1583 were found having symptoms of cough, fever, sore throat, breathlessness etc.

• The testing will not be a one-time activity.
• Rather, it will be an ongoing process till the disease is contained.
• Entire rural and urban population of Punjab above 30 years of age shall be surveyed.
• It will also cover persons below the age of 30 having co-morbidities, influenza-like illness or acute respiratory illness.

  What will be collected

• Full medical details
• Details about co-morbidities, if any

• The groundwork will be done by ASHA workers and community volunteers.
• Will be paid incentive @ Rs. 4 for every person surveyed.

Community spread:

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), community transmission is evidenced by the inability to relate confirmed cases through chains of transmission for a large number of cases.

In other words, community transmission or spread is said to be taking place when the source of the contagion is not known, i.e. when one is unable to trace an infection back to a carrier who has travelled in an affected area, or through contact with a person who has the disease.

A state of community spread implies that the virus is now circulating in the community, and can infect people with no history — either of travel to or contact with affected people and areas. At this stage, it is theoretically possible for everyone to catch the infection.

Faridkot hospital has conducted state’s maiden convalescent plasma therapy.
In a significant development to fight Covid-19, Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital, Faridkot, has conducted the state’s maiden convalescent plasma therapy as part of novel treatment modality.
Punjab Medical Education and Research Minister OP Soni said the therapy was given to a critically ill Covid-19 patient by a team of doctors at the hospital in Faridkot district.
The hospital has become one of the pioneer institutes in the country to initiate this therapy as a part of the National Clinical Trial under the ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research).

The state government has stepped up its efforts to encourage farmers to switch over to direct seeding of rice (DSR) instead of the traditional transplantation of paddy this year.

Steps taken for promotion:

• The State Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department sanctioned 4,000 DSR machines and 800 paddy transplanting machines to farmers on subsidy ranging from 40 to 50 per cent.

Direct seeding has several advantages

• Areas can be revegetated quickly and cheaply
• Seeds cost less than seedlings
• Seed is easier and cheaper to transport and store than seedlings
• Seeding requires less time and labour than seedlings.
• Direct seeded plants tend to have better root growth and are therefore more prepared for climatic extremes.
• It will help to slash cultivation cost in terms of both labour.
• It will be instrumental in saving about 30 per cent of water besides cutting the cost of paddy cultivation by nearly Rs 6,000 per acre.

Disadvantages of direct seeding include

• Less reliable establishment than for seedlings on some sites and across seasons. Not as suited as seedlings to deep, non-wetting sands or heavy textured soils
• There is a requirement of some species for a special seed treatment before sowing
• There is a low survival rate of viable seed
• When a mixture of species are sown, there are limits to the number of herbicides that can be used for weed control.

Role of weedicide in DSR

• Critical element in new technology is the control of weeds and as such, farmers must be careful that prior to undertaking DSR, they must procure weedicide and spray the same within 24 hours of sowing the crop.
• It often takes 9 to 12 months to properly see the results of a direct seeding project, with additional plants sometimes geminating in the second season.

First ever distribution of assistive aids & devices to divyangjan through virtual platform under ADIP Scheme of M/O Social Justice & Empowerment in Firozpur, Punjab.

This is the first camp being organized by the ALIMCO under DEPwD after opening of lockdown with the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) approved by the Government of India.

About the ADIP Scheme- the Assistance to Disabled persons for purchasing/fitting of aids/appliances (ADIP) scheme:

Being implemented by the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment.

Objective: to assist the needy disabled persons in procuring durable, sophisticated and scientifically manufactured, modern, standard aids and appliances that can promote their physical, social and psychological rehabilitation, by reducing the effects of disabilities and enhance their economic potential.

Implementation: The scheme is implemented through implementing agencies such as NGOs, National Institutes under the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment and ALIMCO (a PSU that manufactures artificial limbs).

Eligibility: A person satisfying all the following conditions are eligible:

Indian citizen of any age
Has 40% disability or more (must have the requisite certificate)
Monthly income, not more than Rs.20000.
In the case of dependents, income of parents/guardians should not exceed Rs.20000 per month.
Must not have received assistance during the last 3 years for the same purpose from any source. However, for children below 12years of age, this limit would be one year.

Appreciating Punjab’s COVID micro-containment and house-to-house surveillance strategy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Tuesday, asked all other states to adopt the model, which was helping Punjab successfully in controlling the spread of the pandemic.

Captain Amarinder Singh suggested to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to set up a group which should include a few Chief Ministers to discuss and formulate a coordinated Centre-State response to the devastating impact of the pandemic on the economy and governments across the country.

Even though Punjab’s contribution to the all-India cases was less than 1 per cent (at 3,140 cases) at present, with a mortality rate of 2.1 per cent and recovery rate of 75 per cent, the curve was rising as a result of the inbound travellers and the easing of restrictions and more mixing of people.

Mission Fateh launched by Punjab Govt to generate public awareness and the focus on facilitating a behavioural change through celebrity endorsements, videos, on-ground activities and through fines.

Context: Recently an Indian pharma company has been granted a USFDA approval for Insulin Glargine, a biosimilar. 
About Biosimilar

• It is a biological product that is developed to be similar to an already FDA-approved biologic, known as the reference product. It can be tempting to think of a biosimilar as a “generic” version of the reference product.
• Biosimilars may have minor differences in clinically inactive components. However, a biosimilar is not considered a “generic” in the same way that a traditional drug is determined to be a generic.
• But biosimilar is not an exact duplicate of another biologic. There is a degree of natural variability in all biological products; it is not possible to generate a precise copy of a product that comes from living cells. All biologics—including reference products—show some batch-to-batch variation.

Biosimilars vs. Generics

• Generic medicines are chemically synthesized while biosimilars are grown in complex living systems.
• Biologic medicines are large, complex molecules or mixtures of molecules that may be composed of living material — as such, biosimilars are unlikely to be exact copies of their reference products.
• Unlike generic medicines, the FDA requires a biosimilar to be highly similar, but not identical to the existing biologic medicine, or “reference product”
• A biosimilar also must demonstrate no clinically meaningful differences in efficacy, safety, and potency with its reference product.
• Biosimilars are reviewed and approved under the abbreviated FDA review process known as the 351(k) pathway.
• Per FDA guidance, the Agency reviews the totality of evidence and does not necessarily focus on one type of study to evaluate a manufacturer's application for demonstration of biosimilarity.
• Most evidence submitted for FDA review of a reference product is derived from the clinical studies to establish the products efficacy and safety profiles
• The manufacturer of a biosimilar demonstrates biosimilarity primarily from nonclinical analyses in a stepwise approach that includes examining the structure and functional nature of the biosimilar molecule. 
• Non-clinical and clinical studies are both designed to resolve any uncertainty that the biosimilar is highly similar to the reference product.

Context: Recently, India joins Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) as a founding member to support the responsible and human-centric development and use of AI.
Background

• Born out of the Canadian and French G7 Presidencies in 2018 and 2019, GPAI was officially proposed by France and Canada at the Biarritz Summit in August 2019. 
• G7 Leaders then officially welcomed the OECD’s willingness to support their work to advance AI. 

About Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI)

• It is an international and multi-stakeholder initiative including USA, UK, EU, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Singapore.
• It guides the responsible development and use of AI, grounded in human rights, inclusion, diversity, innovation, and economic growth. 
• This is also a first initiative of its type for evolving better understanding of the challenges and opportunities around AI using the experience and diversity of participating countries. 
• In order to achieve this goal, the initiative will look to bridge the gap between theory and practice on AI by supporting cutting-edge research and applied activities on AI-related priorities.
• In collaboration with partners and international organizations, GPAI will bring together leading experts from industry, civil society, governments, and academia to collaborate to promote responsible evolution of AI and will also evolve methodologies to show how 
• AI can be leveraged to better respond to the present global crisis around COVID-19.
• It is pertinent to note that India has recently launched National AI Strategy and National AI Portal and have also started leveraging AI across various sectors such as education, agriculture, healthcare, e-commerce, finance, telecommunications, etc. with inclusion and empowerment of human beings by supplementing growth and development. 
• By joining GPAI as a founding member, India will actively participate in the global development of Artificial Intelligence, leveraging its experience around use of digital technologies for inclusive growth.
• GPAI will be supported by a Secretariat, to be hosted by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, as well as by two Centers of Expertise- one each in Montreal and Paris

India’s developments in the AI field

• India has recently launched National AI Strategy and National AI Portal and have also started leveraging AI across various sectors such as education, agriculture, healthcare, e-commerce, finance, telecommunications, etc. with inclusion and empowerment of human beings by supplementing growth and development. 
• By joining GPAI as a founding member, India will actively participate in the global development of Artificial Intelligence, leveraging its experience around use of digital technologies for inclusive growth.

National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence (AI)

• NITI Aayog had published the National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence in 2019, wherein it identified five core areas for application of artificial intelligence.
• Healthcare: for increased access and affordability of quality healthcare.
• Agriculture: for enhanced farmers’ income, increased farm productivity and reduction of wastage.
• Education: For improved access and quality of education.
• Smart Cities and Infrastructure: For efficient and connectivity for the burgeoning urban population.
• Smart Mobility and Transportation: For smarter and safer modes of transportation and better traffic and congestion problems.

Context: Recently, the Minister for Science & Technology, Earth Sciences and Health & Family Welfare inaugurated and flagged off India’s first I-Lab (Infecfor Covid tesrural and inaccessible areas of India.
Key Points

• Expressing his happiness to launch the I-Lab, infeca mobile tes, Union Minister dedicated this facility to provide Covid tesrural India.
• This mobile testing facility will be deployed through DBT testing hubs to remote regions of the country for Covid testing.
• DBT is scaling-up testing for Covid by reorienting premiere laboratories as Covid testing centres in a hub and spoke model.
• There are now over 20 hubs in the country with 100 testing laboratories and these have tested more than 2,60,000 samples.
• This has been possible through the DBT-AMTZ COVID Command Consortia.
• The I-lab will be deployed through these hubs into remote and interior place.

About DBT-AMTZ COMManD

• The Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science & Technology along with Andhra Pradesh Med-tech Zone (AMTZ) has initiated the DBT-AMTZ COMManD [COVID Medtech Manufacturing Development] Consortia to address the shortage of critical healthcare technologies in India and move progressively towards a stage of self-sufficiency.
• Under this Consortia, India’s first I- lab (infectious disease diagnostic lab) has been built at AMTZ in record time of 8 days from the date of receipt of Automotive Chassis, from Bharat Benz. 
• This is a mobile diagnostic unit with biosafety facility. The I- lab is a BSL-2 facility with on-site ELISA, RT-PCR, Bio chemistry analysers. It can run 50 RT-PCR reactions and about 200 ELISA in a day.
• Double set of Machines can help increase the capacity to about 500 per day in 8 hours shift
• It can be deployed in remote areas and can be lifted from Automotive Chassis and can be put on goods train for sending to any location in the country.
• The BSL -2 Lab is as per NABL specifications and is being attached to DBT’s certified Testing centres.
• The Department of Biotechnology (DBT), under the Ministry of Science & Technology, promotes and accelerates the development of biotechnology in India, including growth and application of biotechnology in the areas of agriculture, healthcare, animal sciences, environment and industry.
• AMTZ is Asia's first medical equipment manufacturing ecosystem, uniquely dedicated for Medtech and supported by various Ministries.

INFECTIOUS DISEASE DIAGNOSTIC LABORATORY (I-LAB)

• To promote last mile access of testing to rural India, DBT under the Covid-Command strategy has supported building of mobile testing labs through AMTZ.
• The unique feature of these mobile testing labs is their utility in diagnosing other infectious diseases beyond the Covid period

Specifications

• Automotive Chassis, Diagnostic Equipment, Clean Room, BSL-2 lab, bio-safety cabinets
• 25 Tests (RT-PCR) per I-Lab per Day
• 300 ELISA tests/day
• Additional test for other diseases for TB, HIV etc. tol be costed as per CGHS rates.

Context: Recently, the Indian Council of Medical Research(ICMR) recommended the use of Rapid Antigen test kits along with RT-PCR in containment zones. 
About the new test protocol

• The Antigen test kits will allow faster diagnosis and will reduce laboratory examination time. The maximum time taken by the Rapid antigen test to interpret positive or negative is 30 minutes. 
• The individuals who test negative to COVID-19 in rapid antigen test should be tested with RT-PCR  to make sure no threat of virus remains and the individuals testing positive under the rapid antigen test will be considered to be positive.

The Antigen Test is to be used in three categories:-

• Persons showing influenza-like symptoms.
• Asymptomatic patients hospitalized for the treatment of malignant disease, immunosuppressed patients, transplant patients, etc.
• Asymptomatic patients undergoing aerosol and surgical interventions such as surgical procedures, dialysis and bronchoscopy.
• Very few reliable antigen detection kits for Covid-19 diagnosis are available worldwide and the kits to be used in India are developed by a South Korea based company SD Biosensor. 

What is Antigen test?

• Just like the RT-PCR test of COVID-19, this test also detects the virus rather than the antibodies. Antigens are foreign substances that induce an immune system in the body. It uses blood and detects the body’s response to the virus.  

What are the limitations of an antigen test’s results?

• These tests are very specific for the virus, but are not as sensitive as molecular PCR tests. This means that positive results from antigen tests are highly accurate, but there is a higher chance of false negatives, so negative results do not rule out infection.
• Negative results from an antigen test may need to be confirmed with a PCR test prior to making treatment decisions or to prevent the possible spread of the virus due to a false negative.
• Once the sample is collected in the extraction buffer, it is stable only for one hour. Therefore, the antigen test needs to be conducted at the site of sample collection in the healthcare setting.

About Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)

• It is the apex body in India for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research.  
• It works under the aegis of the Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. 
• It is assisted in scientific and technical matters by Scientific Advisory Board comprising eminent experts in different biomedical disciplines.
• Its mandate is to conduct, coordinate and implement medical research for the benefit of the Society; translating medical innovations into products/processes and introducing them into the public health system.

Context: International Albinism Awareness Day is celebrated annually on June 13 to celebrate the human rights of persons with albinism worldwide.
Key Points

• The UN General Assembly proclaimed June 13 to be International Albinism Awareness Day on December 2014, with it being observed for the first time in 2015.
• The day is celebrated to highlight the rights of those born with albinism and increase awareness of the genetic condition.
• Made To Shine is the chosen theme for this year’s International Albinism Awareness Day.
• It celebrates the achievements and successes of individuals with albinism worldwide.
• It is also a call for solidarity with those who have albinism and the challenges they face.

Its Effect

• One out of every 17,000 people across the world have albinism.
• Africa and Europe have the greatest number of those with albinism.
• In India, there are around 200,000 people who have albinism.
• In 2013, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution that called for the prevention of discrimination against individuals with albinism. 

About Albinism 

• It is a rare disease which is characterised by a lack of melanin pigment in skin, hair and eyes.
• It is a genetically inherited, non-contagious disease.
• Those with albinism are vulnerable to sun exposure, that increases chances of skin cancer and severe visual impairment.
• Both parents must carry the gene for their child to have the condition.
• The condition is still not fully understood, socially or medically and has no cure at present.
• Albinism is widespread among animals as well and is caused by the absence of melanin in their bodies.

Context: Recently, a team of researchers from the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has developed new drug molecules against the protozoa that causes amoebiasis.
About Entamoeba histolytica

• It is an anaerobic parasitic amoebozoa, part of the genus Entamoeba.
• The protozoa can’t survive high concentrations of oxygen. 
• However, during infection, it faces a high surge of oxygen inside the human body.
• The organism synthesizes large amounts of cysteine to counter oxidative stress.
• This pathogen deploys cysteine as one of the essential molecules in its defence mechanism against high oxygen levels. 

Key Points

• Entamoeba expresses two crucial enzymes for synthesizing cysteine. 
• According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Entamoeba histolytica is the third-leading cause of morbidity and mortality due to parasitic disease in humans.
• It causes amoebiasis or amoebic dysentery, which is highly prevalent in developing countries.
• It is anaerobic or micro-aerophilic in nature such that it cannot survive high concentrations of oxygen.
• It deploys cysteine as one of the essential molecules in its defence mechanism against high oxygen levels.
• Cysteine biosynthesis is crucial for the survival of E. histolytica and for similar protozoan parasites.
• This protozoan is anaerobic or micro-aerophilic in nature such that it cannot survive high concentrations of oxygen.
• However, during infection, it faces a high surge of oxygen inside the human body. The organism synthesizes large amounts of cysteine to counter oxidative stress.

Spread of the disease: It spreads through drinking or eating uncooked food, such as fruit, that may have been washed in contaminated local water.
Symptoms

• Pain areas: in the abdomen
• Gastrointestinal: blood in stool, diarrhoea, or flatulence
• Whole body: fatigue, fever, or loss of appetite
• Also common: weight loss

Treatment of Amoebiasis

• Consult the Medical Letter or Pediatric Red Book for specific drugs and dosages.
• Only E. histolytica requires treatment, but since most laboratories do not perform the test to distinguish it from E. dispar, treatment is commonly given to all persons with cysts or trophozoites of E. histolytica/dispar complex.
• Symptomatic amoebiasis should be treated with a systemically-active compound such as metronidazole, followed by a luminal amoebicide to eliminate any surviving organisms in the colon. Metronidazole is not recommended for use during the first trimester of pregnancy.
• Asymptomatic carriers should be treated with a luminal amebicide in order to reduce the risk of transmission and protect the patient from symptomatic amebiasis.

Additional Facts

About Amoeba

• It is a type of cell or unicellular organism which has the ability to alter its shape, primarily by extending and retracting pseudopods.
• It is a protozoa and not a bacteria. 
• It is a genus of single-celled amoeboids in the family Amoebidae.

Protozoa

• They are the single-celled eukaryotes, either free-living or parasitic, which feed on organic matter such as other microorganisms or organic tissues and debris where Eukaryotes are organisms whose cells have a nucleus enclosed within membranes, unlike prokaryotes, which have no membrane-bound organelles.

Context: Recently, the Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP) has announced a photography competition on medicinal and aromatic plants to convey the message of conservation of these medicinal plants.
The theme of the competition is ‘Know your Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (MAPs)’.
Key Points

• Established: Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, popularly known as CIMAP, was established originally as Central Indian Medicinal Plants Organisation (CIMPO) in 1959. It was rechristened as the Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP) in 1978.
• Objectives: It is a frontier plant research laboratory of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). It focuses on high-quality research in biological and chemical sciences and extending technologies and services to the farmers and entrepreneurs of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (MAPs).
• Headquarters: Lucknow, U.P.
• CIMAP, Lucknow houses the National Gene Bank of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, in addition to seed gene bank, tissue, and DNA bank.
• Research Centres: Bangalore (Karnataka), Hyderabad (Telangana), Pantnagar (Uttarakhand) and Purara (Uttarakhand).
• CIPAM is presently accredited by International Centre for Science and High Technology- United Nations Industrial Development Organization (ICS-UNIDO) and Indian-Ocean Rim Association (IORA) as a focal point for research and training on Medicinal Plants among participating member countries.

International Centre for Science and High Technology

• ICS was established in 1988 and operates under the legal framework of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). It focuses on the transfer of know-how and technology from industrialized to developing countries.

The Centre focuses its activities on four core scientific programs

• Rational drug design and development
• Next-generation biofuels and bio-based chemicals
• Geothermal energy
• Nanotechnologies
• Headquarters: Trieste, Italy.

Context: Recently, Scientists have observed the fifth state of matter in space for the first time, offering unprecedented insight that could help solve some of the quantum universe's most intractable problems.
Background 

• Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) are formed when atoms of certain elements are cooled to near absolute zero. They were predicted by Albert Einstein and Indian mathematician Satyendra Nath Bose almost a century ago. 
• A Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) is known as the fifth state of matter, after solid, liquid, gas and plasma.
• The existence of BEC was predicted by Indian mathematician Satyendra Nath Bose and Albert Einstein in mid 1920s.

Recent developments

• BECs in terrestrial labs typically last a handful of milliseconds before dissipating.
• The Scientists at International Space Station (ISS) have recently observed the fifth state of matter in space for the first time.
• The BECs lasted more than a second, in ISS due to microgravity, as these particles can manipulated here free from Earthly constraints (limitations due to Earth’s gravity).
• This offered the team an unprecedented chance to study their properties.

Significance: Scientists believe BECs contain vital clues to mysterious phenomena such as dark energy– the unknown energy thought to be behind the Universe’s accelerating expansion.

Formation

• They are formed when atoms of certain elements are cooled to near absolute zero (0 Kelvin, minus 273.15 Celsius).
• The fifth state of matter is produced when the atoms in a gas become ionised.
• When bosonic atoms are cooled to form a condensate, they can lose their individuality.
• They behave like one big collective super atom, similar to how photons become indistinguishable in a laser beam.
• The first BEC was shown experimentally in June 1995 by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder in the US, by cooling a gas of around 2,000 Rubidium atoms.

Properties

• BECs straddle (belong) between the macroscopic world governed by forces such as gravity and the microscopic world ruled by quantum mechanics.
• BECs are extremely fragile and the slightest interaction with the external world is enough to warm them past their condensation threshold.

Context: In the middle of the night, invisible to anyone but special telescopes in two Chinese observatories, satellite Micius sends particles of light to Earth to establish the world’s most secure communication link.
What is QUESS?

• QUESS stands for Quantum Experiments at space scale.
• It is an international research project in the quantum physics jointly developed under Chinese-Austrian Satellite Mission
• The satellite is nicknamed “Mozi” or "Micius," after a Chinese scientist who conducted ground-breaking optical experiments in the 5th century B.C.
• QUESS is the first spacecraft launched capable of generating entangled photons in space.

What is the Mission of QUESS?

• It is a proof-of-concept mission designed to facilitate quantum optics experiments over long distances to allow the development of quantum encryption and quantum teleportation technology.

Its Working

• The satellite serves as the source of pairs of entangled photons.
• Entangled photons are twinned light particles whose properties remain intertwined no matter how far apart they are.
• If one of the photons is manipulated, the other will be similarly affected at the very same moment.
• It is this property that lies in the heart of the most secure forms of quantum cryptography (the study of concepts like encryption and decryption).
• If one of the entangled particles is used to create a key for encoding messages, only the person with the other particle can decode them.

Recent Developments

• Micius has successfully brought entanglement-based quantum cryptography to its original ground stations 1,200 km apart by sending simultaneous streams of entangled photons to the ground stations to establish a direct link between the two of them.
• The satellite provided entangled photons as a convenient resource for the quantum cryptography and the two ground stations then used them according to their agreed protocol.
• None of the communication went through Micius (i.e behaved like a blind transmitter) providing the ground stations a robust and unbreakable cryptographic protection without the need to trust the satellite.
• Until now, this had never been done via satellite or at such great distances.
• It has not been specified how the messages were transmitted in this instance but in theory it could be done by optical fibre, another communications satellite, radio or any other agreed method.
• Scientists have started using quantum encryption for securing long-range communication and Micius has been at the forefront of quantum encryption for several years.

About Quantum race

• Secure long-distance links such as this one will be the foundation of the quantum internet, the future global network with added security powered by laws of quantum mechanics, unmatched by classical cryptographic methods.
• The launch of Micius and the records set by the scientists and engineers building quantum communication systems with its help have been compared to the effect Sputnik had on the space race in the 20th century. In a similar way, the quantum race has political and military implications that are hard to ignore.
• Pan Jian-Wei credited Edward Snowden’s 2013 disclosures of internet surveillance by western governments with prompting China to boost quantum cryptography research in order to create more secure means of communication. As a result, Micius has been dubbed Sputnik for the ultra-paranoid.
• Any country could theoretically trust Micius to provide entangled photons to secure its communications. But the satellite is a strategic resource that other countries are likely to want to replicate, just as Europe, Russia and China now have their own versions of the US-controlled GPS. However, the news of a successful long distance quantum communications link is a sign that we are already living in a new era of communication security.

Context: Recently, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has finalised the contract to design the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) for its Gateway Lunar Orbiting Outpost.
Key Points

• The contract worth $187 million has been awarded to Orbital Science Corporation of Dulles, Virginia, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Northrop Grumman Space.
• One of the most unique features of the Gateway is that it can be moved to other orbits around the Moon to conduct more research.
• The Gateway is being built by both international and commercial partners and will support exploration on and near the Moon and later to Mars as well.

What is the contract for?

• NASA has issued this contract to design the habitation and logistics (HALO) support for the Gateway, which is a part of NASA’s Artemis program that aims to send the first woman and the next man to the Moon by 2024.
• The HALO refers to the pressurised living quarters where astronauts will spend their time while visiting the Gateway.

What is NASA’s Gateway Lunar Orbit outpost?

• The Gateway is a small spaceship that will orbit the Moon, meant for astronaut missions to the Moon and later, for expeditions to Mars.
• It will act as a temporary office and living quarters for astronauts, distanced at about 250,000 miles from Earth.
• The spaceship will have living quarters, laboratories for science and research and docking ports for visiting spacecraft.
• The Gateway will act as an airport, where spacecraft bound for the lunar surface of Mars can refuel or replace parts and resupply things like food and oxygen.
• This will allow astronauts to take multiple trips to the Lunar surface and exploration of new locations across the Moon.
• NASA has targeted the completion of the Gateway for 2026, while work on the spaceship is already underway.