• Noted Odia poet, Nityananda Nayak will be conferred the prestigious Sarala Puraskar for his poetry work ‘Setebelaku Nathiba’, published in 2017.
• The poet will be felicitated with a cash award of `5 lakh and a citation.
• Two other persons will be honoured for their valuable contribution in the field of music and art.
• Ranjit Kumar Nag will be awarded ''Ila Panda Sangeet Samman'' and Shyamsundar Pattanaik will get ''Ila Panda Chitrakala Samman''.
• They will receive a cash award of Rs. 1,50,000 each along with citations, an official release issued by the Indian Metals Public Charitable Trust (IMPaCT).
• The annual Sarala Puraskar, instituted by eminent Odia industrialist Bansidhar Panda and Ila Panda in 1979, has been continuously awarded by IMPaCT.
• IMPaCT is the charitable wing of IMFA Ltd, the leading and the only fully integrated producer of ferro alloys in the country. 

• The Nobel Peace Prize 2020 was awarded to World Food Programme (WFP) "for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict."
• The World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organisation addressing hunger and promoting food security.
• In 2019, the WFP provided assistance to close to 100 million people in 88 countries who are victims of acute food insecurity and hunger. In 2015, eradicating hunger was adopted as one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. 
• The World Food Programme contributes daily to advancing the fraternity of nations referred to in Alfred Nobel’s will. As the UN’s largest specialised agency, World Food Programme is a modern version of the peace congresses that the Nobel Peace Prize is intended to promote.
• The work of the World Food Programme to the benefit of humankind is an endeavour that all the nations of the world should be able to endorse and support.

• The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2020 is awarded to the American poet Louise Glück “for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal”.
• Louise Glück made her debut in 1968 with Firstborn, and was soon acclaimed as one of the most prominent poets in American contemporary literature.
• She is a professor of English at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.
• She has received several prestigious awards, among them the Pulitzer Prize (1993) and the National Book Award (2014).

• The 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna “for the development of a method for genome editing.”
• Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna have discovered one of gene technology’s sharpest tools: the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors. 
• Using these, researchers can change the DNA of animals, plants and microorganisms with extremely high precision. 
• This technology has had a revolutionary impact on the life sciences, is contributing to new cancer therapies and may make the dream of curing inherited diseases come true.
• Emmanuelle Charpentier, born 1968 in Juvisy-sur-Orge, France. Ph.D. 1995 from Institut Pasteur, Paris, France. Director of the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens, Berlin, Germany.
• Jennifer A. Doudna, born 1964 in Washington, D.C, USA. Ph.D. 1989 from Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA. Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, USA and Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

• The Nobel Prize in Physics 2020 was divided, one half awarded to Roger Penrose "for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity", the other half jointly to Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez "for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy."
• Roger Penrose invented ingenious mathematical methods to explore Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity. He showed that the theory leads to the formation of black holes, those monsters in time and space that capture everything that enters them.
• Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez discovered that an invisible and extremely heavy object governs the orbits of stars at the centre of our galaxy. A supermassive black hole is the only currently known explanation.
• Roger Penrose was born in 1931 in Colchester, UK. He is Professor at University of Oxford, UK.
• Reinhard Genzel was born in 1952 in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe, Germany. Director at Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, Germany and Professor at University of California, Berkeley, USA.
• Andrea Ghez was born in 1965 in City of New York, USA.She is a Professor at University of California, Los Angeles, USA.

• Nasrin Sotoudeh of Iran, Bryan Stevenson of the United States(US), Lottie Cunningham Wren of Nicaragua and Ales Bialiatski of Belarus, have won the Right Livelihood Award 2020.
• Imprisoned human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh – for her fearless activism, at great personal risk, to promote political freedoms and human rights in Iran.
• Civil rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson – for his inspiring endeavour to reform the US criminal justice system and advance racial reconciliation in the face of historic trauma.
• Indigenous rights and environmental activist Lottie Cunningham Wren of Nicaragua – for her ceaseless dedication to the protection of indigenous lands and communities from exploitation and plunder.
• Human rights activist Ales Bialiatski – “for his resolute struggle for the realisation of democracy and human rights in Belarus.
• The Right Livelihood Award is an international award, also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize,.
• The Award was established in 1980 by German-Swedish philanthropist Jakob von Uexkull to “honour and support those who offer practical and exemplary contribution in such fields as environmental protection, human rights, sustainable development, health, education, which are not included in Nobel Prize list.
• Each winner will receive a cash prize of one million Swedish kronor (approximately $110,000) during a virtual Award Presentation on December 3, 2020.

• The 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded jointly to Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice “for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus.”
• Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice made seminal discoveries that led to the identification of a novel virus, Hepatitis C virus. Prior to their work, the discovery of the Hepatitis A and B viruses had been critical steps forward, but the majority of blood-borne hepatitis cases remained unexplained.
• The discovery of Hepatitis C virus revealed the cause of the remaining cases of chronic hepatitis and made possible blood tests and new medicines that have saved millions of lives.
• There are two main forms of hepatitis. One form is an acute disease caused by Hepatitis A virus that is transmitted by contaminated water or food. The other form is caused by Hepatitis B virus or Hepatitis C virus (this year’s Nobel prize). This form of blood-borne hepatitis is often a chronic disease that may progress to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.
• Harvey J. Alter was born in 1935 in New York.The methodical studies of transfusion-associated hepatitis by 2020 Medicine Laureate Harvey J. Alter demonstrated that an unknown virus was a common cause of chronic hepatitis.
• Michael Houghton was born in the United Kingdom. Michael Houghton – awarded the 2020 #NobelPrize in Physiology or Medicine – used an untested strategy to isolate the genome of the new virus that was named Hepatitis C virus.
• Charles M. Rice was born in 1952 in Sacramento. This year’s Medicine Laureate Charles M. Rice provided the final evidence showing that Hepatitis C virus alone could cause hepatitis.

• Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh Selected for Gandhi Award of MGNF Raja sabha MP sanjay singh chosen for gandhi award by Mahahtma Ghandhi National Foundation.
• He was instrumental in India”s Diplomatic intervation to remove Mahatma Ghandhi’s Image on beer bottles of Private company in Isreal. Sanjay singh raised the issue in the Parliament.

• Public sector lender Indian Bank has launched ‘MSME Prerana’, an online Business Mentoring Programme for MSMEs.
• It is the first-of-its-kind initiative by any bank in the country for the (MSME) sector. 
• MSME Prerana will empower entrepreneurs through skill development and capacity building workshops in the local language. 
• The programme has been launched in collaboration with Poornatha & Co, a firm that designs Entrepreneurial Development Programmes in vernacular using online web-based interactive sessions and case studies.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has approved a three-member interim committee of directors (CoD), to run the private sector lender, Dhanlaxmi Bank, in the capacity of the Managing Director & CEO till a new MD & CEO takes charge.
• This decision was taken after the shareholders voted out the bank’s MD and CEO Sunil Gurbaxani on 30 September 2020.
• The committee of directors (CoD) has G Subramonia Iyer as its Chairman, while G Rajagopalan Nair and P K Vijayakumar are its other two members.
• However, RBI has approved this interim arrangement for only four months, within which the bank will have to complete the process of identification and appointment of a new Managing Director & CEO.

• The DRDO has successfully flight tested a new generation Anti-Radiation Missile (RUDRAM-1) on 9 October 2020 at the Wheeler Island off the coast of Odisha.
• The missile was launched from SU-30 Mk1 fighter aircraft. 
• The RUDRAM is first indigenous anti-radiation missile of the country for Indian Air Force (IAF), being developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). 
• With this, the country has established indigenous capability to develop long range air launched anti-radiation missiles for neutralising enemy Radars, communication sites and other RF emitting targets.

• India is in advanced talks with Russia to acquire a newly developed light tank that could be useful in high altitude areas like the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.
• The need to buy Sprut Light Tanks has come after border hostilities with China increased in the Line of Actual Control. The new tank is under trial in Russia.
• India is to acquire two dozen Sprut light weight tanks in the first tranche.
• The cost of one tank is less Rs 500 crores.
• This falls within the emergency financial powers provided to the chiefs after Galwan clash.
• Sprut Light Tank is a self-propelled tank destroyer and a light tank.
• These tanks shall be air dropped from an aircraft with three operating men sitting inside. It weighs 18 tonnes and can reach a speed of 71 kilometres per hour.

• The Reserve Bank of India recently said that companies cannot set up Foreign Direct Investment from Mauritius. 
• The apex bank has also banned FDI from jurisdictions similar to Mauritius as they do not comply with the norms set by Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
• Mauritius was recently listed in grey list of the FATF.
• RBI banned the FDI from Mauritius to prevent round tripping. 
• Round tripping is common in countries that enjoys tax havens (such as Mauritius). Here, the companies from home country take the route of foreign investment to enjoy tax havens. In other words, shell companies are created in foreign lands.

• Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has introduced a new “very high risk” category on its Mutual Funds (MF) riskometer tool, to warn investors, investing in mutual fund schemes.
• Currently the mutual fund (MF) risk-o-meter has five categories – low, moderately low, moderate, moderately high and high. It indicates the scheme’s risk level.
• The revamped 6 categories Risk-o-meter will come into effect from 01 January 2021.
• It will be evaluated on a monthly basis and the mutual fund houses will have to disclose the risk-o-meter along with portfolio disclosure for all their schemes on their respective website and on the industry body Amfi website within 10 days from the close of each month.

• The World Bank has announced that India’s GDP is expected to contract by 9.6 per cent this fiscal which is reflective of the national lockdown and the income shock experienced by households and firms due to the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that the country's economic situation is “much worse” than ever seen before.
• World Bank in its latest South Asia Economic Focus report ahead of the annual meeting of the World bank and International Monetary Fund, forecasts a sharper than expected economic slump across the region, with regional growth expected to contract by 7.7 per cent in 2020, after topping six per cent annually in the past five years.
• Regional growth is projected to rebound to 4.5 per cent in 2021.

• The Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Dr. Harsh Vardhan and Yogi Adityanath, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh inaugurated the Super Speciality Block (SSB) at Motilal Nehru Medical College, Prayagraj on 5 October 2020 via video conferencing.
• The Super Speciality Block (SSB) is a 220-bedded facility, dedicated as a COVID Hospital (DCH) to the nation.
• It has been built with an investment of Rs 150 crores under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY).
• Apart from this, the Union Health Minister also digitally inaugurated first high throughput COBAS 6800 machine.
• It is the first such machine in Uttar Pradesh, installed by ICMR.
• The COBAS 6800 is a fully automated, high end machine for performing real time PCR testing for COVID-19 to provide quality, high-volume testing with a high throughput of around 1200 samples in 24 hours. 

• In India, the National Postal Day is celebrated annually on 10 October, as an extension of World Post Day, which is celebrated on 9 October. 
• National Post Day aims to commemorate the role played by the Indian postal department for the past 150 years, which was founded in 1854 by Lord Dalhousie.
• Also ,The Department of Posts is celebrating National Postal Week from 9-15 October, 2020, to mark the occasion of the World Postal Day.

• World Mental Health Day is observed every year on 10 October globally for global mental health education, awareness and advocacy against social stigma.
• It was first celebrated in 1992 at the initiative of the World Federation for Mental Health, a global mental health organization.
• The theme for World Mental Health Day 2020 is ‘Mental Health for All’.

• The World Day Against the Death Penalty is observed every year on 10 October.
• It is a day to advocate for the abolition of the death penalty and to raise awareness of the conditions and the circumstances which affect prisoners with death sentences.
• The day was first organised by the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty in 2003.
• The theme for 2020 is “Access to counsel – A matter of life or death.”

• World Post Day is celebrated each year on October 9 globally.
• The purpose of World Post Day is to create awareness of the role of the postal sector in everyday lives and businesses of the people and its contribution to the social and economic development of countries. 
• October 9 was chosen as it marks the anniversary of the Universal Postal Union (UPU), which was created in 1874 in Switzerland.
• The first World Post Day was celebrated in 1969.

• Air Force Day is observed every year on 8 October.
• The Air Force Day 2020 celebrates the 88th anniversary of the official foundation day of the force on October 8. 
• Indian Air Force was officially established on 8 October 1932 by the British Empire as the Royal Indian Air Force. The name was changed to Indian Air Force in 1950.

• The World Cotton Day (WCD) is observed on 7th October since 2019 to celebrate the international cotton industry and its contribution to communities and the global economy.
• The day was inaugurated by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva on October 7, 2019.
• WCD Day was initiated by the Group of Cotton-4 countries namely Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali to the reflect the importance of cotton as a global commodity.

• World Teachers’ Day, also known as International Teachers Day is held annually on October 5 since 1994.
• World Teachers’ Day aims to focus on appreciating, assessing and improving the educators of the world and to provide an opportunity to consider issues related to teachers and teaching.
• The Theme for 2020 International Teachers Day is “Teachers: Leading in crisis, reimagining the future”.
• The day was established in 1994, to commemorate the signing of the 1966 UNESCO/ILO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers, which is a standard-setting instrument that addresses the status and situations of teachers around the world.

• The United Nations designated the first Monday of October of every year as World Habitat Day to reflect on the state of our towns and cities, and on the basic right of all to adequate shelter.
• The Day is also intended to remind the world that we all have the power and the responsibility to shape the future of our cities and towns.
• This year, the World Habitat Day is celebrated on October 5.
• 2020 Theme: Housing For All — A Better Urban Future.
• World Habitat Day was first celebrated in 1986.
• The United Nations provides “Scroll of Honour” award every year under its United Nations Human Settlements Programme. It was launched in 1989. The award is currently the most prestigious award of human settlement in the world.

• The World Animal Day is observed annually on October 4 since 1929.
• The day aims to raise the status of animals in order to improve welfare standards around the globe.
• It was originated by Heinrich Zimmermann and he organized the first World Animal Day on 24 March 1925 at the Sport Palace in Berlin, Germany.
• The event was moved to 4 October for the first time in 1929.

• The Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) Chairman Mukesh Ambani, has topped the Forbes India Rich list for 2020, released on 8th October 2020.
• He has retained his position as the wealthiest Indian for the 13th consecutive year on Forbes India list.
• The tycoon added $37.3 billion to his net worth, to bring his total fortune to $88.7 billion, a rise of 73% over previous year.
• The second spot has been retained by Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani, with a net worth of $25.2 billion.
• Tech tycoon Shiv Nadar acquired the third spot with net worth of $20.4 billion.

Top 10 richest Indians in the Forbes India list 2020 :

1. Mukesh Ambani ($88.7 billion)
2. Gautam Adani ($25.2 billion)
3. Shiv Nadar ($20.4 billion)
4. Radhakishan Damani ($15.4 billion)
5. Hinduja brothers ($12.8 billion)
6. Cyrus Poonawalla ($11.5 billion)
7. Pallonji Mistry ($11.4 billion)
8. Uday Kotak ($11.3 billion)
9. Godrej Family ($11 billion)
10. Lakshmi Mittal ($10.3 billion)

• Tamil Nadu’s guidance, nodal investment promotion and facilitation agency has partnered with the World Economic Forum (WEF) to establish India’s first advanced manufacturing hub (AMHUB) in the state.
• AMHUB is one of the 19 platforms designed by WEF. This platform focuses on engaging entire regional production ecosystems to identify and address regional opportunities and challenges brought by the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) by amplifying regional success stories, sharing best practices and incubating new partnerships.
• AMHUB will engage directly with other AMHUBs through WEF’s network to share best practices globally.
• Tamil Nadu will utilise AMHUB to adopt IoT and other emerging technologies for advanced manufacturing to sustain and create new avenues of manufacturing growth.
• Advanced manufacturing will boost end-to-end manufacturing of high-tech and high-value products in Tamil Nadu and shape the future of advanced manufacturing and production.

• On the occasion of the 2nd World Cotton Day, the Union Minister of Textiles and Women & Child Development, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani, launched the first ever Brand & Logo for Indian Cotton on  7th October, 2020 through Video Conferencing.
• It means that from now on, the premium Cotton of India would be known as ‘Kasturi Cotton’ in the world cotton Trade.
• The Kasturi Cotton brand will represent Whiteness, Brightness, Softness, Purity, Luster, Uniqueness and Indianness. 

• India and Myanmar are working towards the operationalization of the Sittwe port in the Rakhine state of Myanmar in the first quarter of 2021.
• Sittwe Port is a deep water port constructed by India in 2016 at Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State in Myanmar, on the Bay of Bengal. 
• The port is part of the Kaladan multi-modal transit transport project which is being viewed as India’s gateway to Southeast Asia.
• The port will connect India’s landlocked northeastern region with the Bay of Bengal through Mizoram.

• India and France have collaborated to jointly launch the constellation of maritime surveillance satellites for the Indian Ocean Region, to trace illegal spillage of oil by ships.
• The satellite will be the first space-based system in the world capable of tracking ships continuously.
• In August 2019, the French Space Agency, CNES and ISRO committed to developing and building a constellation of satellites carrying telecommunications and radar and optical remote-sensing instruments.
• The monitoring centre of the satellite will be based in India and will be operated jointly by France and India to monitor ships in the Indian Ocean.

• The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has signed an agreement to invest $15 million in INR equivalent in Avaada Energy Private Limited (AEPL) to help the company to scale up photovoltaic solar energy generation capacity in India.
• This is ADB’s second investment in AEPL after a first round of $50 million invested in April 2019.
• The latest investment will come from ADB’s Ordinary Capital Resources and from Leading Asia’s Private Infrastructure Fund (LEAP), each of which will invest $7.5 million. LEAP was established in 2016 by the Japan International Cooperation Agency to finance high quality and sustainable private sector infrastructure projects.
• AEPL is a leading developer of solar energy projects in India through utility scale, rooftop, and off-grid solar facilities. The company has almost 1 gigawatts (GW) of operational capacity, and with the second round of equity investment will be well placed to expand capacity to more than 3.5 GW.
• ADB has supported the development of renewable energy in India since 2007, when it financed initial wind projects under the independent power producer (IPP) model. ADB has subsequently financed solar IPPs through projects under the National Solar Mission and various state policies.

• The newly formed Monetary Policy Committee held its meeting between October 7, 2020 and October 9, 2020. 
• The repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) has been kept unchanged at 4.00%.
• The reverse repo rate under the LAF has been kept unchanged at 3.35%.
• The marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate have been kept unchanged at 4.25%.
• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will introduce on-tap targeted long-term repo operations (TLTRO) for banks to borrow up to Rs 1 trillion from the window and invest in corporate bonds and other debt instruments of certain sectors. The on-tap TLTROs will have tenors of up to three years at a floating rate linked to the policy repo rate and the scheme will be available up to 31 March 2021. 
• Real GDP growth is expected to be negative. The RBI’s MPC has pegged the real GDP growth for FY21 to contract by 9.5%.

Members of Monetary Policy Committee :

1. Governor of the Reserve Bank of India – Chairperson, ex officio: Shri Shaktikanta Das
2. Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, in charge of Monetary Policy– Member, ex officio: Dr Michael Debabrata Patra
3. One officer of the Reserve Bank of India to be nominated by the Central Board – Member, ex officio: Dr Mridul K. Saggar.
4. A professor at the Mumbai-based Indira Gandhi Institute of Developmental Research: Prof. Ashima Goyal.
5. A professor of finance at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad: Prof. Jayanth R Varma
6. An agricultural economist and a senior adviser with the National Council of Applied Economic Research in New Delhi: Dr Shashanka Bhide.

• The Union Minister Piyush Goyal has been assigned the additional charge of Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution in addition to his existing portfolios, following the death of union minister Ram Vilas Paswan.
• Goyal is currently serving as the Union Minister of Railways and Minister of Commerce and Industry.

• Mexican scientist Mario Molina, who won Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1995, has passed away. He was 77.
• Molina was the first Mexican to win the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
• In 1995, Molina, Frank Sherwood Rowland and Paul Crutzen were awarded the Nobel Prize for their work showing how chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) used in spray cans were destroying the ozone layer.
• In 2008, he was appointed a scientific adviser to the then U.S. President Barack Obama.

• The Reserve Bank (RBI) has extended the term of RK Chhibber as the Chairman and Managing Director of Srinagar-headquartered Jammu and Kashmir Bank for a period of six months.
• His extended term will be into effect from 10th October, 2020, for the 6 months or till the appointment of MD & CEO, whichever is earlier.
• Earlier in July 2020, RBI extended the tenure of Chhibber as interim CMD of J&K Bank till the appointment of a new MD & CEO.

• J Venkatramu has been appointed the managing director and chief executive officer of India Post Payments Bank (IPPB). 
• He will succeed Suresh Sethi, who served the post till March 2020. 
• Venkatramu is presently working as the chief digital officer in Equitas Small Finance Bank. 
• He has been appointed to the post of MD and CEO of IPPB for a period of three years.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched IPPB in 2018.
• India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) was incorporated as Payments Banking Company under Section 22 (1) of Banking Regulation Act, 1949.
• India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) Headquarters: New Delhi.

• The Union Minister for Food and Consumer Affairs, Ram Vilas Paswan has passed away due to prolonged heart ailment. He recently underwent heart surgery in a Delhi hospital. 
• The veteran politician was 74.
• Paswan has served as a Union minister under several prime ministers, during his over five-decade long political career.
• He was an eighth time Member of Parliament in Lok Sabha.
• The veteran Dalit leader formed Lok Janshakti Party in 2000.

• The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has appointed M Rajeshwar Rao as the new deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India. 
• He is currently an executive director at the RBI.
• The position fell vacant in March after Vishwanathan resigned before the completion of his term in June, citing health reasons.
• Rao, a career central banker, has spent 36 years at the RBI across various departments including regulation and supervision and different regional offices of the regulator.
• He is in charge of the internal debt management, financial markets operations, international and secretarial departments at the central bank.
• The Central Bank has four Deputy Governors.
• Other three deputy Governors of RBI are: M. D. Patra, B.P. Kanungo and M. K. Jain.

• Former Governor of Manipur and Nagaland, and ex-CBI Director, Ashwani Kumar passed away.
• He was born at Nahan in Sirmaur district and joined the Indian Police Force in 1973.
• He was allotted the Himachal Pradesh cadre and while working as the District Superintendent of Police at Shimla in 1985, he was inducted in the newly created Special Protection Group (SPG), where he worked till 1990.
• In August 2006, he was appointed the DGP of Himachal and in July 2008, he became the first police officer from the state to become the director of CBI.
• He retired in 2010, after which he started teaching MBA students as a visiting faculty at several institutions.
• From March 2013 to July 2014, he served as the Governor of Nagaland and also held the additional charge of Governor of Manipur for some time.

• Government of India has appointed Dinesh Kumar Khara as chairman of State Bank of India for three years effective from 7 October.
• Khara will replace SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar, whose three year term comes to an end on October 7.
• Khara was appointed as managing director of SBI in August 2016 for a three-year term. He got a two-year extension in 2019 after review of his performance.

• The Government of India has appointed the senior IPS officer M A Ganapathy as the Director General of Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS).
• Ganapathy, a 1986 batch IPS officer of Uttarakhand cadre has been appointed until his superannuation on February 29, 2024.
• The post of BCAS chief was lying vacant after Rakesh Asthana was appointed as the Director General of Border Security Force in August 2020.

• Three-time member of Legislative Council and veteran Samajwadi Party leader from Auraiya, Mulayam Singh Yadav has passed away after a prolonged illness. He was 92.
• He had been the block chief of Auraiya’s block, Bhagya Nagar for more than a decade and the member of the Legislative Council for three consecutive terms.

• Former Acting Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court Justice Anant kumar Surendraray Dave passed away at the age of 62.
• Justice Dave was appointed as a Gujarat High Court Judge in 2004 and was made permanent in 2006. 
• He was appointed as an Acting Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court on November 14, 2018 and served until the present Chief Justice Vikram Nath took over the helm in September 2019.

• The Government of India has appointed three new economists as members of the six-member rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee(MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India(RBI).
• As per the RBI Act, the three new external members would have four-year terms.

The new members are:

• Prof. Ashima Goyal, a professor at the Mumbai-based Indira Gandhi Institute of Developmental Research
• Prof. Jayanth R Varma, a professor of finance at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad
• Dr. Shashanka Bhide, an agricultural economist and a senior adviser with the National Council of Applied Economic Research in New Delhi
• They replaces the three previous external MPC candidates, Chetan Ghate, Ravindra Dholakia and Pami Dua, whose terms expired with the last policy meeting in August 2020.
• It must be noted that the MPC committee of RBI comprises six members which includes three officials of the Reserve Bank of India and three external members nominated by the Government of India. 
• The three members from RBI Side are Dr. Mridul K. Saggar, Dr. Michael Debabrata Patra and Shri Shaktikanta Das.
• Governor of RBI is the exofficio Chairman of MPC.

• Veteran Bollywood actor Vishal Anand, who came to fame with 1976 super-hit song and film ‘Chalte Chalte’ has passed away, due to prolonged illness. He was 82.
• His real name was Bhishmam Kohli. He has appeared in 11 Hindi films during his acting career like Hindustan Ki Kasam and Taxi Driver.
• Apart from acting, Anand had also directed and produced a few films, including Chalte Chalte.

• The Colombia-born American actress Sofia Vergara, who came to fame with an American TV Show ‘Modern Family’ is the highest paid actresses in the annual list of Forbes’ Highest-Paid Actresses 2020.
• The 48-year-old actress has topped the list with an earning of $43 million (equivalent of Rs 315 crore). Most of her earnings came from Modern Family and America’s Got Talent, wherein she is one of the judges.
• Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie secured the second position ($35 million) while Gal Gadot ($31 million) stood third.
• None of the Indian actresses have featured on the list for the year 2020.

List of Top 10 Actress

1. Sofia Vergara (US$43 million)
2. Angelina Jolie (US$35.5 million)
3. Gal Gadot (US$31.5 million)
4. Melissa McCarthy (US$25 million)
5. Meryl Streep (US$24 million)
6. Emily Blunt (US$22.5 million)
7. Nicole Kidman (US$22 million)
8. Ellen Pompeo (US$19 million)
9. Elisabeth Moss (US$16 million)
10. Viola Davis (US$15.5 million)

• Veteran social activist Prof Pushpa Bhave, also known as the Iron Lady of Mumbai, has passed away following a prolonged illness. She was 81.
• Bhave has been associated with the Rashtra Seva Dal and democratic movements since her student days.
• She was also an academician and an intellectual, who fought for the rights of common citizens.
• She had taken part in the Samyukta Maharashtra movement and the Goa liberation movement.

• Bollywood actress Mishti Mukherjee, who has featured in many Hindi,Bengali and Telugu films, and music videos has passed away due to kidney failure. He was only 27 years old.
• Besides featuring in major Bengali projects, Mishti made her debut in Bollywood with the film Life Ki Toh lag Gayi in 2012 and worked as the lead actress in Subhash Ghai’s 2014 film “Kaanchi: The Unbreakable”.

• Haji Hussain Ansari, the Minister of Minority Welfare and Registration Department in the Government of Jharkhand, has passed away. 
• He was 73.
• Ansari was the chairman of Hajj committee Jharkhand.
• He was the first and only Muslim to become minister in the state.
• Mr Ansari was a four-time MLA from the Madhupur assembly constituency in Deoghar.

• Former Odisha Minister and senior BJD MLA Pradeep Maharathy has passed away due to COVID-19 infection. Maharathy was 65-years-old.
• Maharathy was elected as a MLA seven times from Pipili constituency, out of which five times were on Biju Janata Dal (2000-2019) ticket and once each on Janata Party (1985) and Janata Dal (1990) tickets.
• He had served as Minister of Panchayati Raj & Drinking Water Supply, Agriculture and Fisheries during his terms in Odisha.
• Maharathy was honored with the Global Agriculture Leadership Award in 2016 and Krishi Karman Award 2014-15 for his excellent work in the field of agriculture.

• Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has inaugurated the renaming of Naugarh railway station to Siddharthnagar railway station situated at Siddharthnagar district in Uttar Pradesh.
• “Naugarh railway station was named Siddharthanagar in view of public aspirations due to the birth of Mahatma Buddha in Lumbini near Naugarh and being associated with his life events from this region.

• Russia successfully test-fired a Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile in the Arctic. 
• The Missile was fired from the Admiral Gorshkov frigate in the White Sea, Russian Arctic. 
• The missile covered a distance of 450 km with the maximum altitude of its trajectory at 28 km. 
• The flight lasted 4.5 minutes and the missile reached a hypersonic speed of over Mach 8. 
• The Missile is a scramjet-powered manoeuvring anti-ship hypersonic cruise missile.

• The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) will be commissioning India’s largest HPC-AI supercomputer ‘PARAM Siddhi – AI.’
• This initiative will place India among the top countries in global AI supercomputing research and innovation.
• This high-performance computing-Artificial Intelligence (HPC-AI) supercomputer is a machine with 210 AI Petaflops (6.5 Petaflops Peak DP).
• It is built on the NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD reference architecture comprising of 42 NVIDIA DGX A100 systems, connected with NVIDIA Mellanox HDR InfiniBand networking along with C-DAC’s indigenously developed HPC-AI engine, Software Frameworks, Cloud Platform.

• The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully flight tested the Supersonic Missile Assisted Release of Torpedo (SMART) from Wheeler Island off the coast of Odisha.
• SMART is a missile assisted release of lightweight Anti-Submarine Torpedo System for anti-submarine warfare (ASW) operations for far beyond torpedo range.
• The technologies required for SMART have been developed by a number of DRDO laboratories, including DRDL, RCI Hyderabad, ADRDE Agra, NSTL Visakhapatnam.

• NASA launched a commercial spacecraft named after Indian Origin deceased NASA Astronaut “Kalpana Chawla”.
• The spacecraft carried 4 tonnes of cargo including refined radishes for the International Space Station.
• The spacecraft was built by a Virginia based company Northrop Grunman. It currently holds space station resupply contract with NASA. It is an aerospace and defence technology company. The company has named the space craft after Indian born astronaut Kalpana Chawla who died along with six other astronauts in 2003 Columbia Space Shuttle tragedy.
• The spacecraft carried a new space toilet called the Universal Waste Management System. The 23 million USD commode is to be tested for future use in the International Space Station. It is 65% smaller and 40% lighter than the current toilet at the International Space Station. It also carried a radish-growing experiment to learn about survival and feasibility of growing plants in space.
• The space craft has also carried cancer treatment technique requisites to test cancer drugs in micro gravity conditions.
• Kalpana Chawla was the first India-born woman to enter space. 

• In Shooting, India’s Visnu Shivaraj Pandian has won the 10m air rifle event at the fifth edition of the International Online Shooting Championship.
• The 16-year-old Visnu shot 251.4 to win the title by a clear margin of two points.
• The world No. 27 Etienne Germond of France came second followed by Martin Strempfl of Austria at third place.

• The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has launched Jagan Anna Vidya kanuka scheme. 
• The state government has allocated Rs 650 crores for the scheme. 
• Under the scheme the state government will provide school kits to 43.32 to lakh government school students.
• The kits to be provided have been named Vidya Kanuka kits. 
• The kit comprises of one pair of shoes, three pairs of uniform, two pairs of socks, textbooks, notebooks, school bag and belt.
• The stitching charges of the uniform are to be credited to the Mother’s accounts.

• Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat launched the Mukhya Mantri Saur Swarojgar Yojana for self-employment by solar energy farming at the Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali auditorium in Dehradun.
• The aim of the scheme is to promote the production of green energy and to provide self-employment opportunities to the youth of the State and returning migrants. 
• Each beneficiary of this scheme will be allocated solar plants of 25 kilowatts and 10,000 people will get self-employment under this scheme.
• It is estimated that these power plants will generate 38,000 units of electricity per year. The generated electricity is to be bought by Uttarakhand Power Corporation for 25 years.
• Under the scheme, the private banks and cooperative banks are to provide loans for 15 years. The loans are to be provided at an interest rate of 8% per annum to set up solar power plants. The plants are to be constructed on private land or lands that are taken on lease.
• The district wise targets of the programme are being discussed with the Ministry of micro small and medium enterprises.

• The state government of Gujarat has announced a ‘Digital Seva Setu’ programme to ensure optimum utilisation of technology for public welfare in rural areas.
• The program has been initiated under the Centre’s Bharat Net Project.
• Under the ‘Digital Seva Setu’ program, public welfare services will be made available in all the 14,000 gram panchayats in the state by connecting village panchayats through optical fiber network.
• Each village panchayat will get e-gram office so that villagers will not have to go all the way to taluka or district-level offices.
• All the gram panchayats will be connected to the state data center at Gandhinagar.
• Initially, 20 services will be offered to villagers under the programme like ration cards, affidavits and certificates for widows, residence, caste, senior citizen, language-based minority, a religious minority, nomad-denotified, and income certificates at their doorstep.

• West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has launched a new scheme called the Pathashree Abhijan.
• Pathashree Abhijan is a road repair scheme, under which more than 7,000 stretches of roads comprising 12,000 kilometers across the state will be repaired in a mission mode and in a time-bound manner.
• The list of repairs has been prepared on the basis of all the road related complaints received by the Chief Minister from different parts of the state through the ‘Didi Ke Bolo’ initiative of the state government.

• Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated RAISE 2020, a Mega Virtual Summit on Artificial Intelligence (AI) on 5th October 2020.
• RAISE (Responsible AI for Social Empowerment) 2020 Summit has been organised by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and NITI Aayog from October 5-9, 2020.
• RAISE 2020 is a platform where delegates and experts in research, policy and innovation on Artificial Intelligence will join from across the globe to exchange ideas and chart a course for using AI for social transformation, inclusion and empowerment in areas like Healthcare, Agriculture, Education and Smart Mobility, among other sectors.

• The Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal has launched a mega anti-air pollution campaign titled “Yudh Pradushan ke Virudh”, in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Under the campaign, separate plans have been prepared for each of the 13 pollution hotspots in the city.
• The state is setting up a “war room” to monitor all anti-pollution measures being taken by his government.
• The government is also preparing a mobile app named “Green Delhi” using which, the people can bring pollution causing activities, such as garbage burning or industrial pollution, to the notice of the state government.

• The Puducherry airport has become the first airport of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) which is entirely solar-powered.
• The 500KWp ground-mounted solar power plant was commissioned on 2nd October 2020. The approx cost of the plant is Rs 2.8 crore.
• With becoming absolutely power-neutral, the Puducherry airport will be able to meet its entire power requirement through the solar power plant.

Context: Recently, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by the Prime Minister of India has approved ‘Natural Gas Marketing Reforms’, taking another significant step to move towards gas based economy.
Background

• Earlier Government has taken transformative reforms in the upstream sector with a view to make investment easier focusing on ease of doing business. 
• The Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) which is investor driven acreage auction process, has increased substantial acreages in the country. 
• However, no blocks were allocated between 2010 and 2017 which has impacted the long term viability of the domestic production. 
• Since 2017 more than 1.6 lakh sq.km area under 105 exploration blocks have been allocated. This will ensure sustainability of the domestic production in long run.
• Although government between 2016 and 2019 gave pricing freedom for all fields except those given to state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) on a nomination basis. But, there were restrictions on marketing including a ban on affiliates of producers buying the fuel and in some cases, a state nominee being mandated to offtake the gas. This restricted competition kept prices artificially low.
• Government brought a series of reforms in Gas sector and as a result investment of more than Rs. 70,000 crore is being made in the East coast. 
• Gas production from East coast will contribute to Atmanirbhar Bharat by meeting increasing energy needs of the country.
• In February 2019, Government implemented major reforms in upstream sector and brought paradigm shift by focusing on production maximization. Acreages under OALP rounds are being allocated based on work programme only in Cat II and Cat III basins.
• The domestic gas production has complete marketing and pricing freedom. All discoveries and field development plans approved after 28 Feb, 2019 have complete market and pricing freedom.

Aim of Poilicy

To provide standard procedure for sale of natural gas in a transparent and competitive manner to discover market price by issuing guidelines for sale by contractor through e-bidding. 

• This will bring uniformity in the bidding process across the various contractual regimes and policies to avoid ambiguity and contribute towards ease of doing business.

The policy has also permitted Affiliate companies to participate in the bidding process in view of the open, transparent and electronic bidding. 

• This will facilitate and promote more competition in marketing of gas. However, rebidding will have to be done in case only affiliates participate, and there are no other bidders.

The policy will also grant marketing freedom to the Field Development Plans (FDPs) of those Blocks in which Production Sharing Contracts already provide pricing freedom.
Objective of the policy 

• To prescribe standard procedure to discover market price of gas to be sold in the market by gas producers, through a transparent and competitive process, permit Affiliates to participate in bidding process for sale of gas and allow marketing freedom to certain Field Development Plans (FDPs) where Production Sharing Contracts already provide pricing freedom.

Key Reforms activities in the following areas

• The whole eco-system of policies relating to production, infrastructure and marketing of natural gas has been made more transparent with a focus on ease of doing business.
• These reforms will prove very significant for Atmanirbhar Bharat by encouraging investments in the domestic production of natural gas and reducing import dependence.
• These reforms will prove to be another milestone in moving towards a gas based economy by encouraging investments.
• The increased gas production consumption will help in improvement of environment.
• These reforms will also help in creating employment opportunities in the gas consuming sectors including MSMEs.
• The domestic production will further help in increasing investment in the downstream industries such as City Gas Distribution and related industries.

About Open Acreage Licensing Policy

• The OLAP was declared by the union government in June 2017.
• Under it, the potential investors choose the exact areas they are interested in, convey their interest to the government, which then places just those blocks up for bidding.
• Companies are allowed to choose the areas in which they want to explore oil and gas, under OALP. After choosing the area, companies put in an expression of interest which are then put on auction by the government.
• The process offers attractive and liberal terms like reduced royalty rates, no oil cess, marketing and pricing freedom, round the year bidding, freedom to investors for carving out blocks of their interest, a single licence to cover both conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon resources, exploration permission during the entire contract period, and an easy, transparent and swift bidding and awarding process.

Context: India's economy is expected to contract by 9.6% in the current fiscal year (2020-21) because of Covid-19 pandemic, as per World Bank recent projection. India's economy is the largest in South Asia. 

• The World Bank in its biannual regional update stated that South Asia is set to plunge into its worst-ever recession as the devastating impacts of COVID-19 on the region's economies linger on. 
• This would take a toll on the informal workers and push millions into extreme poverty in South Asia.
• The World Bank's report titled 'Beaten or Broken? Informality and Covid-19' forecasts a sharper than expected economic slump across the South Asia region.

Key highlights

• As per the World Bank report, the regional growth of South Asia is expected to contract by 7.7 per cent in 2020 after topping 6 per cent annually in the past five years.  However, the regional growth is projected to rebound to 4.5 per cent in 2021. 
• The income-per-capita in the region will remain 6 per cent below 2019 estimates, factoring growth in population. This indicates that the expected rebound will not offset the lasting economic damage caused by the pandemic.
• The WB report further stated that in case of previous recessions, falling investment and exports led the downturn but this time it is different as private consumption, which is traditionally the backbone of demand in south Asia and a core indicator of economic welfare, will decline by more than 10 per cent, further spiking poverty rates.
• Besides this, a decline in remittances is also expected to accelerate loss of livelihoods for the poorest in some countries.
• According to World Bank Vice President for the south Asia region, Hartwig Schafer, the collapse of south Asian economies during Covid-19 has been more brutal than anticipated, worst of all for small businesses and informal workers who suffer sudden job losses and vanishing wages.
• Schafer stated that though immediate relief has dulled the impacts of the pandemic, but governments still need to address the deep-seated vulnerabilities of their informal sectors through smart policies and allocate their scarce resources wisely."

Significance

• Almost three-quarters of all workers in south Asia depend on informal employment, especially in sectors such as hospitality, retail trade and transport and these sectors are most affected by COVID-19 containment measures.
• The World Bank report warns that informal workers and firms have very less space to cope with the unexpected magnitude of COVID-19. 
• While the poor suffered severely due to rising food prices, Covid-19 crisis has dealt a further blow to many informal workers in the middle of the income distribution who experienced sharp drops in earnings. 
• Only a few informal workers are covered by social insurance or have savings or access to finance, the report reveals.

Suggestions

• The World Bank report urges governments to design universal social protection as well as policies that support greater productivity, skills development and human capital. 
• As per the report, securing international and domestic financing will help governments fund crucial programs to speed up recovery.
• Further, in the long-term, digital technologies may play an essential role in creating new opportunities for informal workers, making south Asia more competitive and better integrated into markets if countries improve digital access for all and enable workers to take advantage of such digital platforms.

Context: Recently, Ministry of Electronics and Information and Technology (MeitY) has approved 16 eligible applicants under the PLI Scheme.
What is PLI Scheme?

• Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI) for Large Scale Electronics Manufacturing notified on 1st April, 2020, extends an incentive of 4% to 6% on incremental sales (over base year) of goods under target segments that are manufactured in India to eligible companies, for a period of five years subsequent to the base year (FY2019-20).

Significance 

• Over the next 5 years, the approved companies under the PLI Scheme are expected to lead to total production of more than INR 10,50,000 crore (INR 10.5 lakh crore).
• Out of the total production, the approved companies under Mobile Phone (Invoice Value INR 15,000 and above) segment have proposed a production of over INR 9,00,000 crore, The approved companies under Mobile Phone (Domestic Companies) segment have proposed a production of about INR 1,25,000 crore and those under Specified Electronic Components segment have proposed a production of over INR 15,000 crore.
• The companies approved under the scheme are expected to promote exports significantly. Out of the total production of INR 10,50,000 crore in the next 5 years, around 60% will be contributed by exports of the order of INR 6,50,000 crore.
• The companies approved under the scheme will bring additional investment in electronics manufacturing to the tune of INR 11,000 crore.
• The companies approved under the scheme will generate more than 2 lakh direct employment opportunities in next 5 years along with creation of additional indirect employment of nearly 3 times the direct employment.
• Domestic Value Addition is expected to grow from the current 15-20% to 35-40% in case of Mobile Phones and 45-50% for electronic components.
• With the demand for electronics in India expected to grow manifold by 2025, the PLI scheme and other initiatives to promote electronics manufacturing will help in making India a competitive destination for electronics manufacturing and give boost to AtmaNirbhar Bharat.
• Creation of domestic champion companies in electronics manufacturing under the Scheme will give fillip to vocal for local while aiming for global scale.

Context: Inflation targeting and the decisions of  Monetary Policy Committee (MPC).
What causes inflation?

• The primary cause of inflation is the mismatch between demand and supply. The mismatch can be in following context-
• Excess money supply that raises aggregate demand
• Supply deficiency (A shortfall in the production of a commodity fails to meet even the basic needs of the citizens and thus prices raise causing inflation).

What is the new monetary framework?

• The agreement between the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the central government signed in February 2015. The agreement explicitly made inflation targeting the objective of the MPC while using the repo rate as the instrument for it.
• Rate steady: The Reserve Bank’s MPC was given the target of keeping inflation at 4% with a tolerance limit of 2%. This meant that inflation should be between 2% and 6%.
• Contrasting target: The target was in contrast with the multiple indicator approach that predated this framework where the central bank focused on both growth and price stability.
• Thus, RBI was finally free to do its core job as guardian of the rupee’s value and granting currency the stability needed to serve as a credible unit for long-range forecasts.

What is inflation targeting? What are the views of critics?

• Inflation targeting refers to keeping inflation rate within the permissible band so that business houses can plan their investment activities.

Procedure

• Review meeting– (every two months): Where MPC discuss the likely inflation and growth estimates over the coming months.
• Targeting inflation: Based on this review, the MPC targets inflation using the policy rate, or the repo rate.

Critics’ view

• Inflation targeting was ill-suited to an emerging economy like India.
• Flexible regime with a wide inflation band was far too rigid to foster growth.
• Inflation in India has been subdued since the new monetary policy framework was brought in. Many view this as a sign of its success in India while others point at the tight policy and its adverse impact on India’s growth rate as a sign of problems with the framework, which has come at the cost of growth.

Road Ahead

• Centre must not act in haste to abandon inflation targeting. Price stability is a goal too worthy to give up on. For the sake of fairness, if not the rupee, government should resist the temptation to use the “money illusion” of inflation for short-term ends.

Context: Union Minister of Textiles and Women & Child Development launched the 1st ever Brand and Logo for Indian Cotton on 2nd World Cotton Day on 7th October, 2020.

Kasturi Cotton

• It is the first-ever Brand and Logo for Indian Cotton on Second World Cotton Day.
• The Kasturi Cotton brand will represent Whiteness, Brightness, Softness, Purity, Luster, Uniqueness and Indianness.

Do you know?

• Cotton is one of the principal commercial crops of India and it provides livelihood to about 6.00 million cotton farmers.
• India is the 2nd largest cotton producer and the largest consumer of cotton in the world.
• India produces about 6.00 Million tons of cotton every year which is about 23% of the world cotton.
• India produces about 51% of the total organic cotton production of the world, which demonstrates India’s effort towards sustainability.

Government’s efforts towards cotton trade

• To ensure sustainability, integrity and end-to-end traceability of the organic products, a certification system based on comparable international standards.
• Ministry of Textiles through APEDA under Ministry of Commerce and Industry has prescribed a certification system for organic Cotton which will be introduced in phases in the entire textile value chain.
• Similarly, prescribing a certification system for non-organic Cotton has also been taken up with APEDA.
• The Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) made ever highest Minimum Support Price (MSP) operation of cotton.
• CCI has opened 430 procurement centres in all cotton growing states and payments are being made digitally to farmers’ account within 72 hours.
• A mobile app, “Cott-Ally” has been developed by CCI for providing latest news regarding weather condition, Crop situation and best farm practices.
• Discount of Rs.300/- per candy is being offered in its regular sale to MSME mills, Khadi and Village industry, Cooperative sector mills.

Production and Consumption

• India is the country to grow all four species of cultivated cotton: Gossypiumarboreum and herbaceum (Asian cotton), G.barbadense (Egyptian cotton) and G. hirsutum (American Upland cotton).
• Gossypiumhirsutum represents 88% of the hybrid cotton production in India and all the current Bt cotton hybrids are G.hirsutuim.

In India, majority of the cotton production comes from nine major cotton growing states, which are grouped into three diverse agro-ecological zones:

• Northern Zone – Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan
• Central Zone – Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh
• Southern Zone – Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Import/Export

• Cotton is a freely exportable commodity from India. India exports cotton mainly to Bangladesh, China, Vietnam, Pakistan, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand etc.
• Although India is a major producer and exporter of cotton fibre, a small quantity of extra-long fibre variety of cotton which is not available in the country, is imported.

Scheme to promote cotton cultivation in the country

• Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare is implementing Cotton Development Programme with a focus on cropping system approach under National Food Security Mission (NFSM) in 15 major cotton growing states.
• Under the scheme, thrust is given for transfer of latest technology to cotton growers through Front Line Demonstration (FLD) on Integrated Crop Management (ICM), Intercropping & Desi/Extra Long Staple Cotton and trials on High Density Planting System.
• From 2015-16, NFSM is being implemented on sharing basis between Government of India and States on 60:40 basis for general category states and 90:10 basis for North East & Hilly states.
• Central Agencies are funded 100% by Government of India.
• States can support cotton development programme under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) with the approval of State Level Sanctioning Committee (SLSC).

Context: Recently, World Bank in its biennial report namely "Poverty and Shared Prosperity Report" mentions that Covid-19 can add around 27-40 million new poor in Sub-Saharan Africa and around 49-57 million in South Asia region.
Key findings of the report
Overall scenario

• Global extreme poverty is expected to rise for the first time in 20 years because of the disruption caused by COVID-19.
• This will exacerbate the impact of conflict and climate change, which were already slowing down poverty reduction.
• The pandemic may push another 88 million to 115 million into extreme poverty or having to live on less than $1.50 per day, resulting in a total of 150 million such individuals.

Worst affected regions

• Many of the newly poor individuals will be from countries that already have high poverty rates while many in middle income countries (MICs) will slip below the poverty line.
• Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, will be badly hit as per the Bank’s projections.

What needs to be done now?

• In order to reverse this serious setback to development progress and poverty reduction, countries will need to:
• Prepare for a different economy post-COVID, by allowing capital, labour, skills, and innovation to move into new businesses and sectors.

Proposed Strategy to address the issue by the World Bank

• The World Bank mentions that In order to reverse this serious setback to development progress and poverty reduction, countries will need to prepare for a different economy post-COVID, by allowing capital, labour, skills, and innovation to move into new businesses and sectors.
• Without policy actions, the Covid-19 crisis may lead to an increase in income inequality, resulting in a world that is less inclusive.
• Countries need to prepare for a different economy post-COVID, by allowing capital, labour, skills, and innovation to move into new businesses and sectors.
• To focus on foundational development problems, including conflict and climate change as the key areas.
• The Bank mentioned that it will help developing countries resume growth and respond to the health, social, and economic impacts of COVID-19. 

About World Bank

• It traces its origin to the  Bretton Woods Conference, officially known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was a gathering of delegates from 44 nations that met from July 1 to 22, 1944 in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire (USA), to agree upon a series of new rules for international financial and monetary order after the conclusion of World War II.
• The two major accomplishments of the conference were the creation of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
• The World Bank Group is an international partnership comprising 189 countries and five constituent institutions that works towards eradicating poverty and creating prosperity. 

The five development institutions under the World Bank Group are

• International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD)
• International Development Association (IDA)
• International Finance Corporation (IFC)
• Multilateral Guarantee Agency (MIGA)
• International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)

Context: In a historic move set to transform rural India and empower millions of Indians, Prime Minister of India will launch the physical distribution of Property Cards under the SVAMITVA Scheme.
Key Points

• The launch will enable around one lakh property holders to download their Property Cards through the SMS link delivered on their mobile phones. This would be followed by physical distribution of the Property Cards by the respective State governments.
• The move will pave the way for using property as a financial asset by villagers for taking loans and other financial benefits.
• Also, this is the first time ever that such a large-scale exercise involving the most modern means of technology is being carried out to benefit millions of rural property owners.

About SVAMITVA Scheme 

• SVAMITVA is a Central Sector Scheme of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, which was launched by the Prime Minister on National Panchayati Raj Day, 24th April 2020.The scheme aims to provide the ‘record of rights’ to village household owners in rural areas and issue Property Cards.
• The Scheme is being implemented across the country in a phased manner over a period of four years (2020-2024) and would eventually cover around 6.62 lakh villages of the country.
• About 1 lakh villages in the States of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Karnataka, and few border villages of Punjab & Rajasthan, along with establishment of Continuous Operating System (CORS) stations’ network across Punjab & Rajasthan, are being covered in the Pilot phase (2020-21).
• All these six States have signed MoU with Survey of India for drone survey of rural areas and implementation of the scheme. These States have finalised the digital property card format and the villages to be covered for drone-based survey.
• States of Punjab and Rajasthan have signed MoU with Survey of India for establishment of CORS network to assist in future drone flying activities.
• Different States have different nomenclature for the Property Cards viz. ‘Title deed’ in Haryana, ‘Rural Property Ownership Records (RPOR)’ in Karnataka, ‘Adhikar Abhilekh’ in Madhya Pradesh, ‘Sannad’ in Maharashtra, ‘Svamitva Abhilekh’ in Uttarakhand, ‘Gharauni’ in Uttar Pradesh.

Context: In a business friendly move, the Reserve Bank of India said that Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS), used for large value transactions, will be made available round-the-clock from December.
Background

• In December 2019, the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) system was made available on a 24x7x365 basis.
• From July 2019, RBI stopped levying charges on transactions through NEFT and RTGS, with an aim to promote digital transactions in the country.

About RTGS

• It enables real-time transfer of funds to a beneficiary’s account and is primarily meant for large-value transactions.
• Real time means the processing of instructions at the time they are received and gross settlement implies that settlement of funds transfer instructions occurs individually.

Significance

• This will facilitate innovations in the large value payments ecosystem and promote ease of doing business.
• This will help in global integration of Indian financial markets and will facilitate India’s efforts to develop international financial centres.
• With this, India will be one of the very few countries globally with a 24x7x365 large value real time payment system.

Difference Between NEFT and RTGS

• When it comes to online banking, two terms are often used extensively: NEFT and RTGS 
• National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) is an online system used for transferring small to large amounts of money from one financial entity to another within India.
• RTGS is meant for large-value instantaneous fund transfers while NEFT is generally used for fund transfers of up to Rs. 2 lakh.
• NEFT is an electronic fund transfer system in which the transactions received up to a particular time are processed in batches.
• Contrary to this, in RTGS, the transactions are processed continuously on a transaction by transaction basis throughout the RTGS business hours.

Context: Recently, the Supreme Court has directed Delhi and neighbouring States to implement air pollution control measures under “very poor” and “severe” category air quality of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP).
Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP)

• In 2014, when a study by the WHO found that Delhi was the most polluted city in the world, panic spread in the Centre and the state government.
• Approved by the Supreme Court in 2016, the plan was formulated after several meetings that the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) held with state government and experts.
• The result was a plan that institutionalized measures to be taken when air quality deteriorates.
• GRAP works only as an emergency measure.

How does it work?

• As such, the plan does not include action by various state governments to be taken throughout the year to tackle industrial, vehicular and combustion emissions.
• When the air quality shifts from poor to very poor, the measures listed under both sections have to be followed since the plan is incremental in nature.
• If air quality reaches the severe+ stage, GRAP talks about shutting down schools and implementing the odd-even road-space rationing scheme.

Measures taken under GRAP

Has GRAP helped?

• The biggest success of GRAP has been in fixing accountability and deadlines.
• For each action to be taken under a particular air quality category, executing agencies are clearly marked.
• In a territory like Delhi, where a multiplicity of authorities has been a long-standing impediment to effective governance, this step made a crucial difference.

About Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA)

• It is a Supreme Court-mandated body tasked with taking various measures to tackle air pollution in the Delhi-NCR (National Capital Region).
• The body is constituted under the provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
• It is mandated to enforce the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) in the Delhi-NCR (National Capital Region).

Context: Recently, President Xi Jinping has promised China would be carbon net-zero by 2060, and apparently advanced the deadline for reaching emissions peak
What has China announced?

• Xi announced that China would be carbon net-zero by 2060.
• Net-zero is a state in which a country’s emissions are compensated by absorptions and removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
• Absorption can be increased by creating more carbon sinks such as forests.
• Removal involves the application of technologies such as carbon capture and storage.

Why is net-zero an important target?

• Scientists say that the only way to achieve the Paris Agreement target of keeping global temperatures from rising beyond 2°C compared to pre-industrial times is achieving global carbon neutrality by 2050.
• For a long time, there have been campaigns and efforts to get countries (especially the big emitters) to commit themselves to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.
• Sometimes referred to as the state of net-zero emissions, it would require countries to significantly reduce their emissions while increasing land or forest sinks that would absorb the emissions that take place.
• If the sinks are not adequate, countries can commit themselves to deploying (expensive) technologies that physically remove carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

How significant is China’s commitment?

• China is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases.
• It accounts for almost 30% of global emissions, more than the combined emissions in the United States, the European Union and India, the three next biggest emitters.
• The climate actions of China, the US, the European Union and India are crucial to achieving the Paris Agreement targets, who together account for more than half the global emissions, followed by countries such as Russia, Brazil, South Africa, Japan and Australia.
• Getting China to commit itself to a net-zero target is a big breakthrough, since countries have been reluctant to pledge themselves to such long term commitments.
• The United States has walked out of the Paris Agreement.
• The Chinese goal, if realised, would lower global warming projections for 2100 by about 0.2° to 0.3°C, the most impactful single action ever taken by any country.

What are the implications of China’s commitment for India?

• India has resisted pressure to make a long-term commitment, citing the fact that developed countries had utterly failed in keeping their past promises.
• India has also been arguing that the climate change actions it has been taking are, in relative terms, far more robust than those of the developed countries.
• Climate Action Tracker puts India’s actions as “2°C compatible”, while the US, China and even the European Union’s current efforts are classified as “insufficient”.
• Of the pledges that have been made in the Paris Agreement, India is the only G20 country whose actions are on track to meet the 2° goal.
• The Chinese announcement is naturally expected to increase pressure on India to follow suit.
• Another side-effect of the Chinese decision could be an increased divergence in the positions of India and China at the climate negotiations. China would now have fewer grounds to align itself with India as a developing country.

Context: Megadiverse Countries is a term used to refer to the world’s top biodiversity-rich countries. 
About Megadiverse Countries

• This country-focused method raises national awareness for biodiversity conservation in nations with high biological diversity, with many species unique to a specific country. 
• This concept was first proposed in 1988 by Russell Mittermeier.

The Megadiversity Country concept is based on four premises:

• The biodiversity of each and every nation is critically important to that nation’s survival.
• Biodiversity is by no means evenly distributed on our planet, and some countries, especially in the tropics, harbour far greater concentrations of biodiversity than others.
• Some of the most species rich and biodiverse nations also have ecosystems that are under the most severe threat.
• To achieve maximum impact with limited resources, conservation efforts must concentrate heavily (but not exclusively) on those countries richest in diversity and endemism and most severely threatened. 

The identified Megadiverse Countries are: United States of America; Mexico; Colombia; Ecuador; Peru; Venezuela; Brazil; Democratic Republic of Congo; South Africa; Madagascar; India; Malaysia; Indonesia; Philippines; Papua New Guinea; China and Australia.

Criteria for Classification

• The principle criterion is endemism, first at the species level and then at higher taxonomic levels such as genus and family. 

To qualify as a Megadiverse Country, a country must:

• Have at least 5000 of the world’s plants as endemics
• Have marine ecosystems within its borders

The focus on endemism is in line with the IUCN’s “doctrine of ultimate responsibility”, which holds that a country with the only populations of an endangered species has ultimate responsibility for ensuring the survival of that particular species. The classification was brought by Conservation International.

• While there is no specific management associated with this concept, 17 countries rich in biological diversity and associated traditional knowledge have formed a group known as the Like Minded Megadiverse Countries.
• These include 12 of the above identified Megadiverse Countries. This group was formed in 2002 under the Cancun Declaration to act as a mechanism of cooperation on the conservation of biological diversity and traditional knowledge.

Context: Recently, the Rajasthan government has decided to build temporary shelters for migratory birds near the Sambhar Lake (near Jaipur) before 2020’s winter season.

Issue

• Every year, a large number of birds from the cold northern regions of Central Asia come to Sambhar Lake.
• In 2019, more than 20,000 migratory birds died due to avian botulism in the lake.
• Rajasthan High Court took suo motu cognisance of the mass death and asked the expert committee to carry out an investigation and make recommendations.
• The Court has constituted a seven-member expert committee to study the impact of salt-forming and identify any illegal salt mining in the lake.
• It has suggested the state government seek the centre’s support for more funds for creating an infrastructure for the safety and security of birds.

About Avian Botulism

• Botulinum is a natural toxin produced by bacteria known as Clostridium botulinum.
• It produces the toxin when it starts reproducing.
• The bacteria are commonly found in the soil, river, and sea water.
• There are around eight types of botulinum toxins – A, B, C1, C2, D, E, F, and G.
• All types of toxins attack the neurons, which leads to muscle paralysis.
• It reproduces through spores and these spores remain dormant for years.
• They are resistant to temperature changes and drying.
• Under favorable conditions, the spores are activated.
• Botulinum affects both humans and animals but botulinum C affects birds and A, B and E affects humans.

Case in Sambhar Lake:

• The avian botulism that caused the mass die-off at Sambhar was caused by the climate.
• Due to a good monsoon, the water level reached the lake bed after a gap of 20 years which provided a favorable environment for the bacteria to spread.
• The temperature of the water was about 25 degree Celsius and its pH ranged between 7.4- 9.84, thus providing anaerobic conditions for bacteria to grow.
• The monsoon brought with it a large population of crustaceans (like shrimps, crabs, and prawns), invertebrates (snails) and plankton (like algae) which are capable of hosting the bacteria for a long period of time.
• After the monsoon, when the water levels receded, due to increase in salinity levels these living organisms would have died and the spores could have been activated.
• According to another theory, ‘a bird-to-bird cycle’ has led to the tragedy. In this case, maggots feeding on dead birds can concentrate the toxin. Birds feeding on dead birds can get affected. This was observed in Sambhar too as researchers found only insectivorous and omnivorous birds affected and not herbivores.
• However external factors like water pollution and eutrophication have been rejected.

Other instances of botulism

• Sambhar lake is not the first instance where deaths due to botulism have been recorded. According to reports 7,000 water birds died in Lake Michigan in 2007 and 2008, followed by another 4,000 in 2012. In Hawaii, the toxin killed around 183 Laysan Ducks in 2008.

About Sambhar lake

• Also known as Shakambari Jheel, is India’s largest inland Salt Lake, which is bowl shaped.
• It is not part of the Ganga river basin area and is geographically a separate landlocked river basin.
• It is surrounded on all sides by the Aravalli hills.
• It is a Ramsar site because the wetland is a key wintering area for tens of thousands of flamingos and other birds that migrate from northern Asia.
• The specialized algae and bacteria growing in the lake provide striking water colors and support the lake ecology that, in turn, sustains the migrating waterfowl.
• The other wildlife in the nearby forests includes Nilgai move freely along with deer and foxes.

Context: According to a report in the media outlet of Siberian Times, an ‘ecological disaster’ unfolding on a black volcanic beach of the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East.

• The cause is unknown, but the water samples recorded an increased content of petroleum products. Surfers have vision problems after contact with water, and animals die.

Key Points

• Three weeks ago, surfers on the Khalaktyrsky beach outside Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the largest town in Kamchatka, had reported of burning eyes, throat ache, headache, fever and a fear of losing eyesight on emerging from the water, according to the outlet.
• Then, sea animals begin to die in large numbers, their bodies littering the beach. These included octopuses, seals, sea urchins, stars, crabs and fish.
• Examination of the sea water by the administration has shown that levels of phenols and oil compounds have spiked.

About Kamchatka Peninsula

• The Kamchatka Peninsula is a 1,250-kilometre-long peninsula in the Russian Far East.
• The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula’s eastern and western coastlines, respectively.
• Immediately offshore along the Pacific coast of the peninsula runs the 10,500-metre-deep Kuril–Kamchatka Trench.
• The Kamchatka Peninsula, the Commander Islands, and Karaginsky Island constitute the Kamchatka Krai of the Russian Federation.
• The vast majority of the 322,079 inhabitants are ethnic Russians, although about 13,000 are Koryaks (2014).
• The Kamchatka peninsula contains the volcanoes of Kamchatka, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Additional Information
About Ecological Disaster

• An environmental disaster or ecological disaster is a catastrophic event regarding the environment due to human activity. This distinguishes it from the concept of a natural disaster. 
• It is also distinct from intentional acts of war such as nuclear bombings.
• In this case, the impact of humans' alteration of the ecosystem has led to widespread and/or long-lasting consequences.
• It can include the deaths of animals (including humans) and plants, or severe disruption of human life, possibly requiring migration.

Context: Recently, Chilika Development Authority (CDA) designated the fishing cat as ambassador of the Chilika Lake as an important step towards conservation of the vulnerable species.
Fishing Cat

• The fishing cat is the only wild cat species in India that is a wetland specialist, and it’s found all around Chilika.
• Fishing cats are mostly found in marshlands fringing the north and north-eastern sections of the lake.
• The fishing cat is a Schedule I species and deserves conservation measures of the highest order in India, as with the tiger and elephant.
• The conservation of the species is a concern as the marshland and mangrove ecosystems, which are fishing cat habitat are on decline.
• IUCN status: Vulnerable

Chilika Lake

• Chilika Lake is a brackish water lake in the Odisha state on the east coast of India.
• It is the largest brackish water lagoon in Asia and India’s oldest Ramsar Site.
• It has one of the country’s largest extensive marsh-ecosystems spanning around 100 sq. km.
• Chilika’s marshes receive the maximum freshwater flow from the tributaries of Mahanadi and seasonal rivulets.
• Fishes are the lifeline of Chilika, sustaining 2 lakh fishermen families and globally threatened piscivorous mammals like fishing cats, smooth-coated otters and Eurasian otters.
• It is the largest wintering ground for migratory birds in the Indian subcontinent.
• The lagoon hosts over 160 species of birds in the peak migratory season.
• Birds from as far as the Caspian Sea, Lake Baikal, Aral Sea and other remote parts of Russia, Kirghiz steppes of Mongolia, Central and southeast Asia, Ladakh and Himalayas migrate here.

Efforts by Chilika Development Authority (CDA)

• CDA plans to manage the marshes with a socio-ecological approach involving local stakeholders and ecologists.
• It is working towards the estimation of fishing cat population which will be done through camera traps in the near future.
• The CDA has also decided to have a rescue and rehabilitation centre for birds, Irrawaddy dolphins, fishing cat and otters with the help of the Wildlife Trust of India inside the Chilika lagoon.
• The centre will cater to a long-standing need for rescue and rehabilitation of migratory birds and other flagship species of the lagoon.

Context: Marking the celebration of Wildlife Week 2020 Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, congratulated the country for the diverse wildlife.
The announcement

• Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change said that the government is working towards the upgradation and development of 160 Zoos in Public Private Partnership (PPP) across the country to encourage interaction between wildlife and humans, and help people observe and understand wildlife behaviour more closely.
• He informed that policy for up gradation and development of all the zoos in the country is underway and will be taken up during the upcoming budget.
• The state governments, corporations, businesses and people will all be key elements of the plan.
• It will help give enhanced experience to the visitors especially the students and children and the future generation in order to nurture the connect between wildlife, nature and humans.

Other announcements

• The Minister also launched a report (e-report) of the CZA-TERI titled “Economic valuation of ecosystem services, National Zoological Park, New Delhi ‘.
• The report highlights the importance of habitats such as zoos to human wellbeing and the need of replication across India.
• The study first of its kind in India and perhaps the entire World, pegs the total annual economic value of the ecosystem services (biodiversity conservation, employment generation, carbon sequestration, education and research, recreational and cultural) at around 423 crores (2019-20).
• The total value of the one-time cost of services such as carbon storage and land value provided by the zoo is estimated to be around 55,000 crores.
• The Minister also gave away the CZA-Prani Mitra awards to encourage the zoo officers and staff towards working for captive animal management and welfare.
• The awards were given in four categories viz. the Outstanding Director / Curator, Outstanding Veterinarian, Outstanding Biologist /Educationist, Outstanding Biologist /Educationist and Outstanding Animal keeper.
• The Minister, during the virtual interaction, also addressed questions of school children from across the country, concerning wildlife protection and human-wildlife interaction.
• He stated that we must all work together to protect the valuable wildlife of the country.

Central Zoo Authority (CZA)

• CZA which was established to oversee the functioning of Indian zoos and complement the wildlife conservation strategies through ex-situ measures.
• Today, it recognizes around 160 zoo and rescue centers that enforce global standards in animal housing and welfare.
• Over 567 captive animal species (with 114 species under endangered category) with overall 56481 individual animals are currently housed in Indian zoos.
• Every Zoo in the country is required to obtain recognition from the Authority for its operation.
• Its role is more of a facilitator than a regulator. It provides technical and financial assistance to zoos which have the potential to attain the desired standard in animal management.
• CZA also regulates the exchange of animals of endangered category list under Schedule – I and II of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

Context: Recently, National Mission for Clean Ganga(NMCG), the Wildlife Institute of India and the Forest Department has launched the My Ganga My Dolphin campaign on the occasion of Ganga River Dolphin Day.
Key Facts

• Aim: To promote and boost Dolphin based ecotourism in the country and to conduct Dolphin census.
• The programme also includes dolphin safari in six sites across the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal.
• On the occasion of Gangetic Dolphin Day, National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) launched the Dolphin Jalaj Safari at six locations i.e. Bijnor, Brijghat, Prayagraj and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, Kahalgaon (Bihar) and Bandel (West Bengal).
• The aim is to integrate Gangetic dolphin and Ganga conservation with local livelihoods.

Other initiatives

• My Ganga My Dolphin campaign was also launched to conduct a dolphin census in a 250 km- stretch from Bijnor to Narora.
• The Ganga Praharis – trained volunteers will take tourists at these sites on boat rides to view dolphins in the Ganga.

Ganga River Dolphin Day

• Celebrated annually on October 5.
• On this day Ganga Dolphins were declared National Aquatic Animals in 2010.

About Gangetic Dolphin

• The Gangetic dolphin is a mammal and is one of five species of river dolphin. The animal is popularly referred to as the Susu.
• It is found mainly in the Indian subcontinent, particularly in Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna and Karnaphuli-Sangu river systems. The Gangetic Dolphins found in the Indian territory account for 80 per cent of the total dolphin count.
• It has been spotted in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Assam.
• The dolphin relies on a bio-sonar method to move around and catch their prey. It feeds on several species of fishes, invertebrates etc.
• Being one of the apex predators of the ecosystem, the Gangetic dolphin is considered to be an indicator of the river health.

Threats

• Depletion of prey base, Construction of dams and barrages along with increasing pollution are major causes for the declining population of the dolphins.

Conservation Status

• Listed under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
• IUCN Status: Endangered
• The Government initiated a Conservation Action Plan for the Ganges River Dolphin 2010-2020 health of river ecosystems.

Context: In a major push for Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India), chemicals major Gujarat State Fertilizers & Chemicals Limited (GSFC) on Thursday started selling locally made calcium nitrate — a 100-per cent imported water-soluble fertilizer.
Key Points

• For the first time in India, Calcium Nitrate and boronated Calcium Nitrate is being manufactured locally.
• Earlier, India used to import it from other countries.
• These two products were launched in the retail market from Solan, Himachal Pradesh and Bhavnagar, Gujarat.
• These launches are the decisive step towards “AatmaNirbhar Bharat and AatmaNirbhar Krishi”
• Indigenous variety of calcium nitrate and boronated calcium nitrate will provide a quality product at a cheaper rate to the farmer community.

Calcium Nitrate

• Calcium nitrate is also called as Norgessalpeter. It is an inorganic compound having chemical formula Ca(NO3)2. 
• It is a colorless salt that absorbs moisture from the air. Calcium nitrate is  a water-soluble fertilizer. 
• Though, it is mainly used as a component in fertilizers but has other applications such as in agriculture, wastewater treatment and to increase the strength of cement concrete. 
• Its tetrahydrate is sometimes used in regenerable cold packs.

Boronated Calcium Nitrate

• Boronated Calcium Nitrate means Calcium Nitrate with Boron. Both the nutrients are important for fruits and vegetables. 
• The compound is important for the growth, physical strength, fruit set and flowering fertilization of the plants. These are highly water soluble and are ideal for both soil and foliar applications. It improves the overall soil health.

Context: Recently, the scientists from the Centre for Plant Molecular Biology disclose the mechanism by which a bacterium called Xoo interacts with rice plants through wounds.
About Xoo

• It is a bacterium that causes a serious bacterial leaf blight disease in rice plant.
• Xanthomonas oryzaepv. oryzae, or commonly known as Xoo infection, causes huge yield losses to rice cultivation throughout the world.
• Appropriate methods for inoculation of Xoo and disease scoring are necessary to investigate the nature of the disease and the mechanism of plant resistance to the pathogen.
• As the most widely grown crop in the worldwide, rice yield plays an important role in food security. Uncovering mechanisms of plant-pathogen interaction of rice and Xoo will help develop rice plants that are more resistant to disease caused by Xoo.

Symptoms

Some of the symptoms that appear on the leaves of young plants include:

• pale-green to grey-green color of leaves,
• water-soaked streaks around the leaf tip and margins.
• yellowish-white with wavy edges on the leaves.
• The whole leaf eventually become whitish or greyish and then dye.
• In older plants, the leaves turns yellow and then die.

Recent developments

• A recipient of the DST-Inspire Faculty Fellowship has discovered the mechanism by which Xoo interacts with rice plant and causes disease.
• The team is currently developing new disease control strategies which can be used as vaccines. 
• The vaccine will activate the rice immune system and provide resistance from subsequent infections by pathogens to the rice plants.
• The group has zeroed in on some molecules that they derived from the Xoo bacterium and from infected rice cell walls. They hope that these molecules would help them to develop vaccines.
• The group is working on a cellulase protein secreted by Xoo.

Cellulase Protein

• It is an enzyme that converts the cellulose into glucose or a disaccharide. The cellulase protein that the group has obtained is secreted by Xoo.
• It has the features of a typical vaccine since it is a potent elicitor of rice immune responses. 
• If the rice plants are pre-treated with this protein, It provides resistance to rice against subsequent Xoo infection.

Conclusion

• Rice is the most widely grown crop in the worldwide and it plays an important role in food security. So, developing mechanisms of plant-pathogen interaction of rice and Xoo will  be helping to develop rice plants that are more resistant to disease which is caused by Xoo.

Context: A recent study on variability in the Mascarene High (MH) during global warming hiatus (GWH) revealed that the Indian subcontinent experienced significantly increased sea surface temperature (SST) during the period (1998-2016).
Mascarene High

• The Mascarene High (MH) is a semi-permanent subtropical high-pressure zone in the South Indian Ocean.
• Apart from its large influence on African and Australian weather patterns, it also helps in driving the inter-hemispheric circulation between the Indian Ocean in the south and subcontinental landmass in the north.

Global warming hiatus

• A global warming hiatus is referred to a global warming pause, or a global warming slowdown.
• It is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures.
• The hiatus can result in an increase in the sea surface temperature (SST).

Major Highlights of the study

• The warming in SST resulted in a decrease in the pressure gradient between the MH and the Indian landmass.
• This in turn suppressed the intensity of low-level cross-equatorial winds over the western Indian Ocean.
• It affected the onset of the monsoon over the Indian subcontinent and rainfall over East Asia.

Mascarene Islands

• The Mascarene Islands is a group of islands in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar from where the cross-equatorial winds blow to India.
• It is also called the Indian Ocean subtropical high, which is a high-pressure area located between 20° to 35° South latitude and 40° to 90° East longitude.
• The southwest monsoon caused by this high-pressure area is the strongest component of the Indian subcontinent monsoon that contributes about more than 80 per cent of the annual rainfall in entire East Asia.

Concerns

• The findings are alarming for a country whose food production and economy depend heavily on monsoon rainfall.
• The weakening of the MH in the southern Indian Ocean during GWH may affect the strength of the upwelling along the coast of Somalia and Oman and thus, influence the Arabian Sea ecosystem.

Context: Recently, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has enhanced the allocation of funds for expenditure under Special Accelerated Road Development Programme in North Eastern Areas (SARDP-NE) related works during the 2020 financial year.
Key Points

• Under the revised allocation, almost double the amount originally allocated has been allowed.
• Additionally, the allocations to National Highways in NE Region under 10% mandatory Pool Fund has been on an upward route in the last five years.
• Government of India has undertaken massive road development programme under SARDP-NE Scheme in NE Region.

About SARDP-NE

• Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has taken up an ambitious Special Accelerated Road Development Programme (SARDP-NE) for development of road network in the north eastern States of the Country.
• This programme envisages providing road connectivity to all the district headquarters in the north eastern region by minimum 2 lane highway standards apart from providing road connectivity to backward and remote areas, areas of strategic importance and neighbouring countries.
• Programme planned in two phases (A & B) including Arunachal Package, Phase-A is under progress and Phase-B is in conceptual stage.

The objective of this scheme is three-fold:

• Development of Interstate Connectivity
• Development of access/connectivity to international border
• Development of connectivity to District Headquarters from the nearest National highways.

Context: The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister has approved the revised cost estimates for construction of Kolkata East West Corridor project as per realigned route.
Background

• It is a crucial infrastructure project for sustainable development of Kolkata City and adjoining urban localities.
• The project will ease traffic congestion and provide a cleaner mobility solution to lakhs of daily commuters. 
• It will provide seamless connectivity to Kolkata, Howrah and Salt Lake through Rail-based mass rapid Transit system. 
• It will also integrate all other modes of transport like Metro, Railways and bus transport by constructing efficient and seamless transport interchange hubs. 
• The project envisages construction of 16.6 Km long Metro Railway Corridor including tunnel below river Hooghly which is the 1st transportation tunnel in India under any major river as well as Howrah Station which is one of the deepest Metro stations in India.

Major Impact

• The mega project envisions creation of an efficient transit connectivity between business district of Kolkata with industrial city of Howrah in west and Salt Lake City in east through a safe, accessible and comfortable mode of public transport. 
• The project will ease traffic congestion and provide a cleaner mobility solution for city dwellers. 
• It will provide an economic, efficient and eco-friendly transit solution to the city of Kolkata. It will alleviate the massive transport problem of Kolkata area which will boost productivity and growth by reducing commuting time.

Benefit to people by providing a safe, efficient and environment friendly transport system by:-

• Reduction in commuting time.
• Reduced fuel consumption.
• Reduction in capex on road infrastructure
• Reduction in pollution and accident

Enhanced Transit Oriented Development (TOD)

• By Increase in value of land bank in the corridor and generate additional revenue

Creation of jobs: By Incorporates the spirit of "Atmanirbhar Bharat"  and  "Vocal for Local".

• It will integrate multiple modes of transport like the Metro, Sub-urban Railways, ferry and bus transport by constructing interchange hubs. 
• This will ensure smooth and seamless mode of transport to lakhs of daily commuters.

Context: Recently, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan “launched” a tunnel road project that would connect Kozhikode with Wayanad. 
About Kozhikode-Wayanad tunnel road

• The 7-km tunnel is part of an 8-km road cutting through sensitive forests and hills of the Western Ghats.
• The tunnel is being described as the third-longest in the country.
• Its endpoints are at Maripuzha in Thiruvambady village (Kozhikode) and Kalladi in Meppadi (Wayanad).
• At present, Wayanad plateau is linked to the rest of Kerala via four roads, all with hilly sections, the longest being the 13-km Thamarassery Ghat Road along the Kozhikode-Mysuru NH 766.
• The tunnel road is an outcome of a decades-long campaign for an alternative road as the Thamarassery Ghat Road is congested and gets blocked by landslides during heavy monsoon.

Ecological impact

• The proposed route has identified as a highly sensitive patch comprising evergreen and semi-evergreen forests, marsh lands and shola tracts.
• This region is part of an elephant corridor spread between Wayanad and Nilgiri Hills in Tamil Nadu.
• Two major rivers, Chaliyar and Kabani that flows to Karnataka, originate from these hills in Wayanad.
• Eruvazhanjipuzha, a tributary of Chaliyar and the lifeline of settlements in Malappuram and Kozhikode, begins in the other side of the hills.
• The region, known for torrential rain during monsoon, has witnessed several landslides.

Environmental clearance issues

• Proponents of the project have been stressing that the tunnel will not destroy forest (trees).
• The MoEFCC guidelines state that the Forest Act would apply not only to surface area but the entire underground area beneath the trees.
• For tunnel projects, conditions relating to underground mining would be applicable.
• As the proposed tunnel is 7 km long, it will require emergency exit points and air ventilation wells among other measures, which would impact the forest further.

Context: Recently, India and Myanmar have agreed to work towards the operationalization of the Sittwe port in the Rakhine state in the first quarter of 2021.
Key highlights

• It was announced after the conclusion of the two-day visit of Indian Army Chief and Indian Foreign Secretary to Myanmar. 
• The progress in the ongoing Indian-assisted infrastructure projects was also discussed.
• India also announced a grant of $2 million Dollars for the construction of the border haat bridge at Byanyu/Sarsichauk in Chin State. 
• The haat will provide increased economic connectivity between Mizoram and Myanmar.

Sittwe port 

• It is situated at the mouth of the Kaladan River.
• It is being financed by India as a part of the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project.
• The Project is collaboration between India and Myanmar.

Significance

• Being a key connectivity project, commencement of operations at Sittwe port would offer new infrastructure for tradeby opening up the sea route between India and Myanmar.
• It will contribute to the economic development in the whole region, North-Eastern States of India and Rakhine and Chin States of Myanmar.
• It also provides a strategic link to the North-East, thereby reducing pressure on the Siliguri Corridor.
• The project is vital for India’s Act East Policy as it provides India access to Southeast Asian economies.

Context: Recently, Goa becomes first to provide tap water connection in rural areas under Jal Jeevan Mission.
Key Points

• The country’s bellwether tourism state of Goa becomes the first ‘Har Ghar Jal’ state by providing tap water connection to every rural household under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) ahead of its national dead-line.
• “Goa has earned itself the unique distinction of becoming first ‘Har Ghar Jal’ state in the country as it successfully provides 100 per cent Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTCs) in the rural areas covering 2.30 lakh rural households.”
• The state government of Goa has utilised the immense benefits of the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM).
• Goa comprises of two districts, namely North Goa with 1.65 lakh rural households, and South Goa with 98,000 rural households encompassing 191 Gram Panchayats.
• The State is in process of getting 14 water quality testing laboratories NABL accredited in order to strengthen the water testing facilities.
• Having achieved the universal access, the state now plans for sensor-based service delivery monitoring system so as to monitor the functionality of water supply i.e. potable water in adequate quantity and of prescribed quality being provided to every rural household on regular and sustainable basis.

About Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM)

• The Government of India has restructured and subsumed the ongoing National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) into Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM).
• JJM aims to provide Functional Household Tap Connection (FHTC) to every rural household i.e. Har Ghar Nal Se Jal (HGNSJ) by 2024.
• Its objective is to supply 55 litres of water per person per day to every rural household through Functional Household Tap Connections by 2024.
• Under this mission, the creation of local infrastructure for source sustainability measures as mandatory elements, like rainwater harvesting, groundwater recharge and management of household wastewater for reuse, would be undertaken.
• Jal Jeevan Mission is based on a community approach and includes extensive Information, Education and Communication as a key component.
• The fund sharing pattern between the Centre and states is 90:10 for Himalayan and North-Eastern States, 50:50 for other states, and 100% for Union Territories.

For the implementation of JJM, following institutional arrangement has been proposed:

• National Jal Jeevan Mission at the Central level;
• State Water and Sanitation Mission (SWSM) at State level;
• District Water and Sanitation Mission (DWSM) at the district level; and
• Gram Panchayat and/ or its sub-committees i.e. Village Water Sanitation Committee (VWSC)/ Paani Samiti at village Level.

Context: With the nation spending substantial resources to manage the pandemic; the role of the supreme audit institution of India, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has assumed the significance.
Karnataka Case – How emergency situation is misused for corrupt practices?

• Emergency calls for attention on outcomes rather than rules
• In the expediency of saving lives and alleviating suffering, there can be reasonable exceptions to compliance with established rules and standard operating procedures. As a result, questions of inconsistencies are likely to be overlooked.
• In Karnataka, there was political allegation that funds (to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore) were siphoned off to purchase inferior quality of PPEs, sanitisers, ventilators, masks and other equipment at prices higher than those prevailing in the market
• In August 2020, the Karnataka State Legislature’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) directed the CAG to conduct a special audit into the purchase of COVID-19 equipment
• The panel also asked the CAG to ‘conduct an audit of expenditure incurred by the State government under the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF). The government had used the SDRF amount for purchase of equipment in various districts’

About CAG

• Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India is the head of the Indian audit and account department, ensuring the financial accountability of the government and other public authorities to parliament and state authorities.
• CAG audits the accounts related to expenditure from the consolidated fund of India, the consolidated fund of each state and UTs having a legislative assembly.
• CAG audits all expenditures from the contingency fund of India and the public account of India as well as those of the states.
• The CAG also audits the accounts of any other authority when requested by the President or Governor and also audits the receipts and expenditure of all bodies and authorities substantially financed from the central or state revenues.
• The CAG has the constitutional and statutory mandate and responsibility to ensure public accountability, transparency, effective service delivery and good governance.
• Article 148 of the Indian Constitution provides for the office of CAG in India.
• Neither the Indian Constitution nor the CAG’s (Duties, Powers and conditions of service) Act, 1971 provide any qualification criteria for the CAG.
• The CAG is appointed by the President for a period of 6 years or up to the age of 65, whichever is earlier.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) examines the audit reports submitted by the CAG.

• The Public Accounts Committee is one of the three important parliamentary standing committees dealing with financial affairs.
• This committee was set up first in 1921 under the provisions of the Government of India Act of 1919.
• It consists of 22 elected members (15 from Lok Sabha and 7 from Rajya Sabha) from amongst the members of the Parliament for a term of one year. A minister cannot be elected as a member of the committee.
• The Chairman of the committee is appointed from amongst its members by the Speaker. He/she is usually from the opposition party.

Significance of CAG Auditing during COVID-19 times

• Helps Prevent Spread of Pandemic: Auditing of hospitals, dispensaries and labs is expected to provide the assured health-care services including infection control and hygiene.
• Disaster Management: If all the major purchases by government entities at all levels are audited by the CAG, there can be substantial improvement in disaster management. 
• Good Governance: CAG audit will usher in better transparency, integrity, honesty, effective service delivery and compliance with rules and procedures and governance.
• Long term benefits: Audit recommendations can contribute improvements in various aspects of disaster preparedness, management and mitigation.

Context: The Supreme Court has said that occupying public places for protests is not acceptable and such a space cannot be occupied indefinitely.
Key highlights

• The verdict came on a plea against the Anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests which had led to blocking of a road in Shaheen Bagh in the national capital last December.
• It said that public places cannot be occupied indefinitely like during the Shaheen Bagh protests.
• The judgment upheld the right to peaceful protest against a law but made it unequivocally clear that public ways and public spaces cannot be occupied, and that too indefinitely.
• In a democracy, the rights of free speech and peaceful protest were indeed “treasured”. They were to be encouraged and respected.
• But these rights were also subject to reasonable restrictions imposed in the interest of sovereignty, integrity and public order. Police regulations also weighed in.
• Fundamental rights do not live in isolation. The right of the protester has to be balanced with the right of the commuter. They have to co-exist in mutual respect.
• The bench also said that Delhi Police ought to have taken action to clear Shaheen Bagh area from the protesters. It was entirely the responsibility of the administration to prevent encroachments in public spaces.

Key Basics
Right to Protest peacefully

• The right to protest peacefully is guaranteed by the Constitution of India.
• Articles 19(1)(a) and 19(1)(b) give to all citizens the right to freedom of speech and expression, and to assemble peaceably and without arms.
• However, under Articles 19(2) and 19(3), the right to freedom of speech is subject to “reasonable restrictions”.
• These include the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence.

Powers of state

• The legal provisions and avenue available to police for handling agitations, protests, and unlawful assemblies are covered by the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973, the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860, and The Police Act, 1861.

Context: A Three judge bench of  Supreme Court has held that the length of a prison sentence or the gravity of the crime cannot be the sole basis for denying a convict premature release from jail.
Background

• The judgment came in a plea made by two prisoners who gave been incarcerated for a botched kidnapping for ransom case in Uttar Pradesh.
• They are in their early middle age with a record of good conduct in jail.
• The court, ordering their release, said – “action of kidnapping was nothing but a fanciful attempt to procure easy money, for which they have learnt a painful life lesson”.

ISSUE

• The length of a prison sentence or the gravity of the crime cannot be the sole basis for denying a convict premature release from jail

THE JUDGEMENT

• The verdict was by three-judge Bench of Justices N.V. Ramana, Surya Kant and Hrishikesh Roy.

VERDICT

• The proclivity to commit a crime upon release “must be based on antecedents as well as the conduct of the prisoner while in jail.
• This is not merely on his age or apprehensions of the victims and witnesses.

Key Points

• Society has a right to lead a peaceful and fearless life, without free-roaming criminals creating havoc in the lives of ordinary peace-loving citizens.
• But equally strong is the foundation of reformative theory, which propounds that a civilised society cannot be achieved only through punitive attitudes and vindictiveness.”
• The court said reformative justice should not merely focus on public harmony, but should foster brotherhood and mutual acceptability.
• First-time offenders should especially be given a second chance at life.
• First-time offenders ought to be liberally accorded a chance to repent their past and look forward to a bright future.

Context: Recently, People in the French overseas territory of New Caledonia have narrowly rejected independence from France in a referendum.
Background

• The referendum was part of a series of votes agreed two decades ago, following bouts of violence in the 1980s over the issue of independence between the islands' indigenous Kanak people and descendants of European settlers.
• Several agreements were signed including the 1998 Noumea Accord, which set out a roadmap for greater autonomy for the territory.
• Under this agreement, New Caledonia is allowed up to three referendums on independence. A third referendum can take place by 2022, if requested by a third of the local assembly.
• New Caledonia has large deposits of nickel, a vital component in manufacturing electronics, and is seen by France as a strategic political and economic asset in the region.
• It enjoys a large degree of autonomy but depends heavily on France for matters like defence and education and still receives large subsidies from Paris.
• It is one of the UN's 17 "non-self governing territories" - where the process of decolonisation has not been completed.
• France first claimed the islands, home to some 270,000 people, in 1853.

Ethnicity

• Kanaks represent around 39% of the population, while Europeans, most of whom were born in the territory, make up about 27%.
• Most of the remainder come from other Pacific islands, are of mixed heritage, or prefer simply to identify as "Caledonian".
• According to Australian Trade and Investment Commission, beesides having one of the region's highest average incomes per capita, New Caledonia is rich in resources and accounts for around 10% of the world's nickel reserve.

Key Points

• New Caledonia, a South-Pacific archipelago, has its own government but matters of defence, justice and foreign affairs are still managed by Paris. 
• The recent independence referendum came in line with the several similar votes cast by the islanders in the past. 
• A decade after the 1988 peace deal between the factions, the Noumea Agreement had granted New Caledonia the political authority, broad autonomy and even planned the organisation of up to three successive referendums.
• As per reports, the latest independence referendum is New Caledonia's second with the first one in 2018. 
• Similar to the results of the most recent referendum, 56.4 percent of the voters during the 2018 referendum did not wish for independence.

Rs 1.5 cr tourist centre to come up at Saragarhi Memorial

A tourist facilitation centre (TFC) will come up at the cost of Rs 1.5 crore at the Saragarhi Memorial, depicting the bravado of 22 Sikh soldiers, under centrally sponsored “Swadesh Darshan” scheme mooted for the integrated development of Heritage Circuit in the state.

the artwork depicting the cultural heritage of Punjab would be displayed at the TFC. “The centre will provide information about the Battle of Saragarhi, besides offering various facilities for the comfort of tourists.

A light and sound show would be started at the memorial and a leisure valley would come up in the ground adjacent to the site.

The memorial was constructed to pay tribute to the 22 soldiers of the 36 Sikh Regiment of the British Indian Army who died fighting over 10,000 Afridis during the Battle of Saragarhi on September 12, 1897, in North-West Frontier Province, now in Pakistan.

The Battle of Saragarhi was a last-stand battle fought before the Tirah Campaign on 12 September 1897 between the British Raj Sikh Soldiers and Afghan tribesmen.

On 12 September 1897, an estimated 12,000 - 24,000 Orakzai and Afridi tribesmen were seen near Gogra, at Samana Suk, and around Saragarhi, cutting off Fort Gulistan from Fort Lockhart. The Afghans attacked the outpost of Saragarhi where thousands of them swarmed and surrounded the fort, preparing to assault it.

Led by Havildar Ishar Singh, the soldiers in the fort—all of whom were Sikhs—chose to fight to the death, in what is considered by some military historians as one of the greatest last stands in history.The post was recaptured two days later by another British Indian contingent.

The British Army commemorates the battle every year on 12 September, as Saragarhi Day; the Indian Army's 4th battalion of the Sikh Regiment also observes the same.

About Swadesh Darshan Scheme:

Tourism Ministry launched the scheme.

Objective: to develop theme-based tourist circuits in the country. These tourist circuits will be developed on the principles of high tourist value, competitiveness and sustainability in an integrated manner.

Features of Swadesh Darshan Scheme:

100% centrally funded for the project components undertaken for public funding.
To leverage the voluntary funding available for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives of Central Public Sector Undertakings and corporate sector.
Funding of individual project will vary from state to state and will be finalised on the basis of detailed project reports prepared by PMC (Programme Management Consultant). PMC will be a national level consultant to be appointed by the Mission Directorate.
A National Steering Committee (NSC) will be constituted with Minister in charge of M/O Tourism as Chairman, to steer the mission objectives and vision of the scheme.
A Mission Directorate headed by the Member Secretary, NSC as a nodal officer will help in identification of projects in consultation with the States/ UTs governments and other stake holders.

45% water samples fail potability test in Muktsar

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, getting potable water has become a major problem for residents of Muktsar district. In the past nine months, over 45 per cent water samples have failed the potability test in the district.

A perusal of the records procured from the Health Department revealed that 42 of the total 93 samples collected this year had failed the potability test. 

When the test report comes negative, the officials concerned are asked to take corrective measures or change the source of water. The re-sampling is done after some time to check the water quality.
Muktsar is one of the worst-affected districts with cancer and hepatitis-C. Though residents have time and again demanded a detailed survey of the underground water, it has not been conducted to date.

For water mission, woman sarpanch from Bathinda district gets Centre’s pat

The Union Government has applauded sarpanch Kulwinder Kaur Brar for her effective leadership in the ‘Water to All’ movement under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) in Mehma Bhagwana village of Bathinda district.

Besides the Union Jal Shakti Ministry, her role has drawn attention of the authorities in the Punjab Government as well.

The JJM is the Centre’s flagship programme which aims to provide piped water connection to every rural household in the country by 2024.

Mehma Bhagwana village is a perfect example of community participation and mobilisation under the JJM. The village has 100 per cent functional household water connections and they are running successfully for a population of 1,484 people. This can be emulated by other villages.

Experts issue advisory on early sowing of wheat

Wheat experts of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, have advised farmers to avoid early sowing of wheat as paddy fields were severely infested with pink stem borer.

According to a recent survey conducted by PAU scientists, infestation of paddy crop by pink stem borer in isolated fields of Sangrur and Barnala districts was noticed by the experts.

The attack of pink stem borer is generally observed in September-October on paddy crop. Its larva bores into the stem of young plant and kills the central shoot.

Therefore, the farmers were advised to remain vigilant and regularly monitor their paddy crop, especially, the fields where long duration varieties of paddy — Pusa 44, Peeli Pusa, etc. were grown, said the experts. The pink stem borer could be carried to next wheat crop in heavily infested paddy fields, they warned.

Pink stem borer attack is generally observed on 35 to 45 day-old wheat crop. Its larva bores into the stem of young plant and kills the central shoot causing ‘dead heart’. The infested tillers initially appear pale brown and ultimately dry up.

WHEAT:-

Temperature: Between 10-15°C (Sowing time) and 21-26°C (Ripening & Harvesting) with bright sunlight.
Rainfall: Around 75-100 cm.
Soil Type: Well-drained fertile loamy and clayey loamy (Ganga-Satluj plains and black soil region of the Deccan)
Top Wheat Producing States: Uttar Pradesh > Punjab > Madhya Pradesh > Haryana > Rajasthan.
India is the second largest producer after China.
This is the second most important cereal crop and the main food crop, in north and north-western India.
Success of Green Revolution contributed to the growth of Rabi crops especially wheat.
Macro Management Mode of Agriculture, National Food Security Mission and Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana are few government initiatives to support wheat cultivation.

IIT Ropar Developed “UVSAFE”, UVGI Based Room Disinfection Device
Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar(IIT-R) in collaboration with Momentum India Private Limited developed “UVSAFE”, a state of the art room disinfection device based on Singular Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation(UVGI). The efficiency of the device was tested by FICCI Research and Analysis Centre(FRAC)(NABL Accredited Laboratory, New
Delhi).
It was designed by Khushboo Rakha, Assistant Professor, Division of Metallurgical and Supplies Engineering and Naresh Rakha, Senior Scientific Officer of IIT- R with technical support from Shahriar Reza (Design Marketing consultant).
 

About UVSAFE:
i.The device uses the germicidal effects of the UV-C radiation and the Prismatic Physique with foldable wings provides a 360-degree disinfection on the frequently used surfaces.
ii.This mathematical model based on the 60 years’ research on viruses and bacteria to determine the precise dose of UV-C to inactivate the microbes in and on air, liquid and surface.
iii.The trapezoid base has the management panel of the gear.
iv.The device takes 6 minutes to achieve 99.9% disinfection in an area of 14 square foot.
v.The remote controlled device enables the operator to stay at a safe distance.

New scholarship scheme to cost Rs 500 crore a year

 The new scheme would allow students of the weaker sections to pursue higher learning in various streams, which they had been deprived of due to the withdrawal of the central scholarship scheme.

A scholarship scheme for Scheduled Caste (SC) students studying in government and private educational institutions. The decision came after the Central Government discontinued the funding of the SC Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme.

It has been estimated that the scheme will cost the state government over Rs 500 crore annually.

In 2019-20 fiscal, a total of two lakh SC students had got themselves registered to seek benefits under the scheme. Of these, 1.40 lakh were from government and government-aided educational institutions and nearly 65,000 from private institutions. Accordingly, it cost around Rs 165 crore to fund the education of government school students, and Rs 260 crore for students of private schools.

There are pending arrears of the past three years, i.e. from 2017 to 2020. It was earlier a central scheme, but from April 2017 onwards, the entire financial liability of the scheme was put on the states.

A total of Rs 1,550 crore was sought under the scheme for the period from 2017 to 2020. Prior to 2017, over 3 lakh students used to benefit under the scheme. However, now, the number has come down to 2 lakh.

Context: The 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna “for the development of a method for genome editing”.

• First time a Nobel science prize has gone to a women-only team.
• The first time a woman was honoured with the chemistry prize was in 1911 when Marie Curie, who also took the physics prize in 1903, won after discovering the elements radium and polonium.

Background

• Since Charpentier and Doudna discovered the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors in 2012 their use has exploded. The genetic scissors have taken the life sciences into a new epoch and, in many ways, are bringing the greatest benefit to humankind.

Their Contribution

• Emmanuelle Charpentier, born 1968 in Juvisy-sur-Orge, France. Ph.D. 1995 from Institut Pasteur, Paris, France. Director of the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens, Berlin, Germany.
• Jennifer A. Doudna, born 1964 in Washington, D.C, USA. Ph.D. 1989 from Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA. Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, USA and Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
• Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna have discovered one of gene technology’s sharpest tools: the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors. 
• Using these, researchers can change the DNA of animals, plants and microorganisms with extremely high precision. 
• This technology has had a revolutionary impact on the life sciences, is contributing to new cancer therapies and may make the dream of curing inherited diseases come true.

Watch: https://youtu.be/P2GkC_y-ulA

What is CRISPR-Cas9?

• The clustered, regularly interspaced, short palindromic repeats, or CRISPR/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9) (CRISPR-Cas9) system has revolutionised genetic manipulations and made gene editing simpler, faster and easily accessible to most laboratories.
• CRISPR technology is basically a gene-editing technology that can be used for the purpose of altering genetic expression or changing the genome of an organism.
• The technology can be used for targeting specific stretches of an entire genetic code or editing the DNA at particular locations.
• CRISPR technology is a simple yet powerful tool for editing genomes. It allows researchers to easily alter DNA sequences and modify gene function.
• Its many potential applications include correcting genetic defects, treating and preventing the spread of diseases and improving crops. However, its promise also raises ethical concerns.

How it works?

• CRISPR-Cas9 technology behaves like a cut-and-paste mechanism on DNA strands that contain genetic information.
• The specific location of the genetic codes that need to be changed, or “edited”, is identified on the DNA strand, and then, using the Cas9 protein, which acts like a pair of scissors, that location is cut off from the strand. A DNA strand, when broken, has a natural tendency to repair itself.
• Scientists intervene during this auto-repair process, supplying the desired sequence of genetic codes that binds itself with the broken DNA strand.

Concerns

• Tampering with the genetic code in human beings is more contentious. Leading scientists in the field have for long been calling for a “global pause” on clinical applications of the technology in human beings, until internationally accepted protocols are developed.

Issues

• Study by Stanford University, U.S., found that the CRISPR-Cas9 system introduces unexpected off-target (outside of the intended editing sites) effects in mice. The fear that the CRISPR system is being prematurely rushed for clinical use lingers. Three recent reports have exacerbated this fear even further.
• In 2018 in China, scientist He Jiankui triggered an international scandal — and his excommunication from the scientific community — when he used CRISPR to create what he called the first gene-edited humans. Ethical concerns: In addition, there are concerns with manipulating human embryos for own interest.
• Studies highlighted that CRISPR-Cas9-edited cells might trigger cancer.
• May increase the risk of mutations elsewhere in the genome in those cells.
• Although, CRISPR-Cas9 technology has been successfully used to cure several diseases however, it remains many things are not clear like how we should determine which disease or traits are appropriate for gene editing.

Additional Information

What are Genes and what is gene- editing?

• Genes contain the bio-information that defines any individual. Physical attributes like height, skin or hair colour, more subtle features and even behavioural traits can be attributed to information encoded in the genetic material.
• An ability to alter this information gives scientists the power to control some of these features. Gene “editing” — sometimes expressed in related, but not always equivalent, terms like genetic modification, genetic manipulation or genetic engineering — is not new.

Road Ahead

• This CRISPR technology is indeed a path-breaking technology, to alter genes in order to tackle a number of conventional and unconventional problems, especially in the health sector. However, experiments and tests to validate its use must be subjected to appropriate scrutiny by the regulators, and their use must be controlled to prevent commercial misuse.

Context: Recently, Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister, has approved the Ratification of seven (7) chemicals listed under Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs).
Key Points

• The Cabinet further delegated its powers to ratify chemicals under the Stockholm Convention to Union Ministers of External Affairs (MEA) and Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MEFCC) in respect of POPs.
• The ratification process would enable India to access Global Environment Facility (GEF) financial resources in updating the National Implementation Plan (NIP).

About Persistent Organic Pollutants

• Persistent organic pollutants (POPs), sometimes known as “forever chemicals” are organic compounds that are resistant to environmental degradation through chemical, biological, and photolytic processes.
• Because of their persistence, POPs bioaccumulate with potential adverse impacts on human health and the environment.
• Many POPs are currently or were in the past used as pesticides, solvents, pharmaceuticals, and industrial chemicals.
• Although some POPs arise naturally (e.g from volcanoes), most are man-made via total synthesis.

Threats of POPs

• Exposure to POPs can lead to cancer, damage to central & peripheral nervous systems, diseases of the immune system, reproductive disorders and interference with normal infant and child development.

What is the ‘Stockholm Convention’?

• Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants is an international environmental treaty, signed in 2001 and effective from May 2004, that aims to eliminate or restrict the production and use of persistent organic pollutants.
• It is a global treaty to protect human health and environment from POPs, which are identified chemical substances that persist in the environment, bio-accumulate in living organisms, adversely affect human health/ environment and have the property of long-range environmental transport (LRET).
• Exposure to POPs can lead to cancer, damage to central & peripheral nervous systems, diseases of immune system, reproductive disorders and interference with normal infant and child development.
• POPs are listed in various Annexes to the Stockholm Convention after thorough scientific research, deliberations and negotiations among member countries.
• The Global Environmental Facility (GEF) is the designated interim financial mechanism for the Stockholm Convention.

India and the Stockholm Convention 

• India had ratified the Stockholm Convention on January 13, 2006 as per Article 25(4), which enabled it to keep itself in a default “opt-out” position such that amendments in various Annexes of the convention cannot be enforced on it unless an instrument of ratification/ acceptance/ approval or accession is explicitly deposited with UN depositary.
• The regulation inter alia prohibited the manufacture, trade, use, import and export seven chemicals namely (i) Chlordecone, (ii) Hexabromobiphenyl, (iii) Hexabromodiphenyl ether and Heptabromodiphenylether (Commercial octa-BDE), (iv) Tetrabromodiphenyl ether and Pentabromodiphenyl ether (Commercial penta-BDE), (v) Pentachlorobenzene, (vi) Hexabromocyclododecane, and (vii) Hexachlorobutadiene, which were already listed as POPs under Stockholm Convention.

• Three scientists - Americans Harvey J Alter and Charles M Rice, and British scientist Michael Houghton - won the 2020 Nobel Price for Medicine or Physiology on Monday for the discovery of the Hepatitis C virus.
• This landmark achievement in the ongoing battle against viral diseases are now available and these have essentially eliminated post-transfusion hepatitis in many parts of the world, greatly improving global health. 
• Their discovery also allowed the rapid development of antiviral drugs directed at hepatitis C. For the first time in history, the disease can now be cured, raising hopes of eradicating the Hepatitis C virus from the world population. 
• To achieve this goal, international efforts facilitating blood testing and making antiviral drugs available across the globe will be required.

• Liver inflammation, or hepatitis, a combination of the Greek words for liver and inflammation, is mainly caused by viral infections, although alcohol abuse, environmental toxins and autoimmune disease are also important causes. 
• In the 1940’s, it became clear that there are two main types of infectious hepatitis. The first, named hepatitis A, is transmitted by polluted water or food and generally has little long-term impact on the patient. 
• The second type is transmitted through blood and bodily fluids and represents a much more serious threat since it can lead to a chronic condition, with the development of cirrhosis and liver cancer.
• This form of hepatitis is insidious, as otherwise healthy individuals can be silently infected for many years before serious complications arise. 
• Blood-borne hepatitis is associated with significant morbidity and mortality, and causes more than a million deaths per year world-wide, thus making it a global health concern on a scale comparable to HIV-infection and tuberculosis.

• While the discovery of hepatitis viruses, including hepatitis A and B had been critical steps forward, the majority of blood-borne hepatitis cases remained unexplained. 
• The identification of the hepatitis C virus was significant as it revealed the cause of the remaining cases of chronic hepatitis. 
• The discovery of the HCV also led to the development of diagnostic tests such as blood tests and new effective medicines, saving millions of lives.

There are 5 main hepatitis viruses

• Hepatitis A virus (HAV): It is present in the faeces of infected persons and is most often transmitted through consumption of contaminated water or food. Certain sex practices can also spread HAV. 
• Hepatitis B virus (HBV): It is a viral infection that causes both acute and chronic disease. The virus is transmitted through exposure to infective blood, semen, and other body fluids. It can be transmitted from infected mothers to infants at the time of birth or from family member to infant in early childhood. 
• Hepatitis C virus (HCV): It is mostly transmitted through exposure to infective blood. The virus can cause both acute and chronic hepatitis infection. Sexual transmission of the virus is possible.
• Hepatitis D virus (HDV): Infections occur only in those who are infected with HBV. Hepatitis B vaccines provide protection from HDV infection. It is passed on through contact with infected blood. 
• Hepatitis E virus (HEV): It is mostly transmitted through consumption of contaminated water or food. It is caused by the hepatitis E virus: a non-enveloped, positive-sense, single-stranded ribonucleic acid (RNA) virus.

India and Hepatitis

• Viral hepatitis is increasingly being recognized as a public health problem in India.
• HAV and HEV are important causes of acute viral hepatitis and Acute Liver Failure (ALF).

National Viral Hepatitis Control Program (NVHCP)

• Launched by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in 2018 under National Health Mission.

Aim:

• Combat hepatitis and achieve country wide elimination of Hepatitis C by 2030;
• Achieve significant reduction in the infected population, morbidity and mortality associated with Hepatitis B and C viz. Cirrhosis and Hepato-cellular carcinoma (liver cancer);
• Reduce the risk, morbidity and mortality due to Hepatitis A and E.

Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology 
Some of the important points pertaining to the Nobel Prize in Medicine are listed below.

• It is awarded every year by the Nobel Foundation for discoveries done in the field of medicine.
• The award is presented by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute, located in Stockholm, Sweden.
• The Nobel Prize consists of a certificate for a monetary award of 9 million SEK (Swedish Krona), a medal along with a diploma.
• As of 2019, 110 Nobel prizes have been awarded. It was won by 207 men and 12 women.
• The 1st Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded in 1901.
• The 1st Nobel Prize in Medicine was won by German Physiologist Emil Von Behring, for his exemplary contribution for serum therapy thereby developing a vaccine against diphtheria. 
• Gerty Cori was the 1st woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1947.

Nobel Prize in Medicine – 2020 Winners: Three scientists - Americans Harvey J Alter and Charles M Rice, and British scientist Michael Houghton - won the 2020 Nobel Price for Medicine or Physiology on Monday for the discovery of the Hepatitis C virus.

Context: Recently, the Mumbai Police said that they are looking into a scam about the manipulation of TRPs by rigging the devices used by the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India, which has the mandate to measure television audience in India.
What is TRP?

• TRP stands for Television Rating Points. It represents how many people, from which socio-economic categories, watched which channels for how much time during a particular period.
• This could be for an hour, a day, or even a week; India follows the international standard of one minute. The data is usually made public every week.
• According to the  Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)  TRPS is defined as: “On the basis of audience measurement data, ratings are assigned to various programmes on television. Television ratings in turn influence programmes produced for the viewers.
• Better ratings would promote a programme while poor ratings will discourage a programme. Incorrect ratings will lead to the production of programmes which may not be really popular while good programmes may be left out.”

How TRP is calculated?

• BARC has installed “BAR-O-meters” in over 45,000 empanelled households. These households are classified into 12 categories under the New Consumer Classification System (NCCS), the so-called “new SEC” adopted by BARC in 2015, based on the education level of the main wage earner and the ownership of consumer durables from a list of 11 items ranging from an electrical connection to a car. 
• While watching a show, members of the household register their presence by pressing their viewer ID button — every person in household has a separate ID — thus capturing the duration for which the channel was watched and by whom, and providing data on viewership habits across age and socio-economic groups. The panel chosen to capture TRPs must be representative of the country’s population, and the methodology must be economically viable for the industry.

What is BARC?

• It is an industry body jointly owned by advertisers, ad agencies, and broadcasting companies, represented by The Indian Society of Advertisers, the Indian Broadcasting Foundation and the Advertising Agencies Association of India.
• It was created in 2010 but the I&B Ministry notified the Policy Guidelines for Television Rating Agencies in India on January 10, 2014 and registered BARC in July 2015 under these guidelines, to carry out television ratings in India.

How can TRP data be rigged?

• If broadcasters can find the households where devices are installed, they can either bribe them to watch their channels, or ask cable operators or multi-system operators to ensure their channel is available as the “landing page” when the TV is switched on.
• For TRPs, it does not matter what the entire country is watching, but essentially what the 45,000-odd households supposed to represent TV viewership of the country have watched. Broadcasters can target these households to fudge actual viewership data.
• In the 2018 consultation paper, TRAI has mentioned “One of the biggest challenges has been the absence of any specific law through which the agents/ suspects involved in panel tampering/infiltration could be penalised”. It noted that BARC “has filed FIRs in various police stations against the agents/ suspects involved in panel tampering/infiltration” but its efforts “to mitigate panel tampering/ infiltration have been hampered due to absence of any legal framework”.

Panel Tampering and TRP

• TRAI mentioned “panel infiltration has a significant impact when the panel size is smaller” and “with the increase in panel size, infiltration of panel homes becomes challenging”.
• Each channel tries to project itself as a market leader in a particular segment, it slices the data into socio-economic brackets on the basis of NCCS, age, gender, time slots (primetime) etc to find the perfect data slice. This too increases relative error in the data, because of the small sample size.
• In the example of English TV news, which has a small share of the national viewership pie at around 1.5%, which means that for around 45,000 panel households, around 700 households will contribute to the viewership. “What actually happens is that while your sample is around 700, not all of them are watching English TV news every day. Actual watching will be around 350 homes”. In such a scenario, if one manages to rig 10 among the heavy viewing homes, then you can swing the needle big time. 

Allegations so far

• For over a decade, questions have been raised by people from within the industry. In a letter to the BARC chairman in July, News Broadcasters Association president complained against the ratings of TV9 Bharatvarsh, and said “several news broadcasters have written to BARC drawing their attention that every week’s ratings are not in correlation to the basics of television” and “the manipulated data is being released week after week without taking any remedial action”. Sharma had said that “these are corrupt practices, which are being done with complete connivance with BARC and the broadcaster”.
• Two years ago, the I&B Ministry had raised concerns that BARC was under-reporting viewership of Doordarshan, and floated the idea of chip-based activity logs through all set-top boxes. The idea was finally rejected.
• In 2017, the editor of one of the top five English news channels had written to BARC about how a few households from Gujarat were contributing heavily to a rival channel’s overall viewership.

Context: The 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded with one half to Roger Penrose and the other half jointly to Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez for furthering the understanding of black holes, the most “enigmatic” objects in the universe.

Their contribution
Roger Penrose

• Roger Penrose is a British mathematical physicist at the University of Oxford. The scientist has been rewarded for the discovery that the black hole formation is a robust prediction for the general theory of Relativity.
• He invented ingenious mathematical methods to explore Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Penrose showed that the theory leads to the formation of black holes that capture everything that enters them.

Andrea Ghez and Reinhard Genzel

• German astrophysicist Reinhard Genzel and American astronomer Andrea Ghez, who have been jointly awarded the Nobel Prize discovered that an invisible and extremely heavy object governs the orbits of stars at the centre of our galaxy and a supermassive black hole is the only currently known explanation.
• Andrea Ghez has also now become the fourth woman to ever win the Nobel Prize in Physics.

About Black hole 

• It is an object in space that is so dense and has such strong gravity that no matter or light can escape its pull. Because no light can escape, it is black and invisible.
• There’s a boundary at the edge of a black hole called the event horizon, which is the point of no return — any light or matter that crosses that boundary is sucked into the black hole. It would need to travel faster than the speed of light to escape, which is impossible.
• Anything that crosses the event horizon is destined to fall to the very centre of the black hole and be squished into a single point with infinite density, called the singularity.

Watch : https://youtu.be/oLeKFDfCrTg
Where are black holes found?

• Supermassive black holes are found at the centre of most galaxies, including our own Milky Way. The one in our galaxy is called Sagittarius A* and is one of those the Event Horizon Telescope has been attempting to photograph.
• Sagittarius A* isn’t the only black hole in our galaxy, though. Earlier this year, astronomers discovered another 12 within three light-years of it, suggesting there could be upwards of 10,000 black holes around the galactic centre.

Where do black holes come from?

• Supermassive black holes are believed to form at the same time as the galaxy that surrounds them, but astronomers aren’t sure exactly how.
• Stellar mass black holes form when a star with a mass greater than three times that of our sun runs out of fuel. It explodes into a supernova and collapses into an extremely dense core that we know as a black hole — something predicted by Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity.