Sindhu Darshan Mela observed in Ladakh.

Recently, Indian PM Modi has performed Sindhu Darshan puja at Nimu, the forward brigade place in Ladakh.

Sindu Darshan festival is celebrated along the banks of the River Indus (River Sindhu) in Ladakh.

·         It is celebrated every year on the day of Guru Purnima (full moon day), the festivities continue for three days.

·          It consists of features such cultural events as musical shows, dance performances and art exhibitions, organised by artistes from around India.

·          It also called as the Singhe Kabaab Festival, it draws focus to the Sindhu river and promotes the waterbody as a symbol of the communal unity and harmony.

·          The Nimu in Ladakh is surrounded by the Zanskar range and is on the banks of river Indus

 

Indian cabinet clears rental housing scheme for migrants.

A scheme for providing affordable rental housing to about 3 lakh urban migrants was approved by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday.

The creation of affordable rental housing complexes was announced by Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman on May 14 as a part of the package to address the COVID-19 crisis.
At a meeting chaired by Prime Minister NarendraModi, the Cabinet approved the scheme, which will be a sub-scheme of the PradhanMantriAwasYojana-Urban that is implemented by the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry.

Rajya Sabha officials claim quorum required only during

deliberations.

Contradicting the Opposition’s argument for virtual meetings of standing committees to ensure quorum during deliberations, officials at the RajyaSabha Secretariat have said that quorum is essential only when the committees take decisions or adopt reports and not during routine deliberations.
Sources said this issue came up at a meeting on Wednesday chaired by RajyaSabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu. Congress leader and Chairman of the Standing Committee on Science and Technology Jairam Ramesh had written to Mr. Naidu demanding a virtual meeting citing lack of quorum. Quorum for these meetings is generally 11 out of 30 members.
The officials, sources said, told Mr. Naidu that out of 281 meetings of the eight department-related Standing Committees that are headed by RajyaSabha members, 16% were held without quorum.

Sri lanka and Maldives eliminate Measles, Rubella ahead of target.

Maldives and Sri Lanka have become the first two countries in the South-East Asia region to eliminate both measles and rubella ahead of the 2023 target. The announcement was made by WHO South-East Asia's Regional Director, Dr PoonamKhetrapal Singh after the fifth meeting of the regional verification commission for measles and rubella elimination, held virtually.
Dr. Singh said protecting all children against these killer and debilitating diseases is an important step in endeavour to achieve healthier population and health for all. The Regional Director commended Member countries’ efforts to deliver life-saving vaccines to children even while battling the COVID pandemic.

A country is verified as having eliminated measles and rubella when there is no evidence of endemic transmission for over three years by a well-performing surveillance system.
Maldives reported its last endemic case of measles in 2009 and of rubella in October 2015, while Sri Lanka reported last endemic case of measles in May 2016 and of rubella in March 2017.

US announces visa restrictions on Chinese officials related to Tibet.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has announced visa restrictions for a certain group of Chinese officials under the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act.

He said, Beijing has continued systematically to obstruct travel to the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) and other Tibetan areas by US diplomats and other officials, journalists, and tourists, while Chinese officials and other citizens enjoy far greater access to the United States.
Mr Pompeo announced visa restrictions on Chinese government and Chinese Communist Party officials involved in the formulation or execution of policies related to access for foreigners to Tibetan areas.

Compulsory Licensing of Remdesivir.

Some of the opposition parties had asked the Government to issue compulsory licences for the manufacture of a generic version of Remdesivir, an anti-viral drug being used to treat COVID-19 Patients.

What is Compulsory Licensing?

A compulsory licence is a licence or authorisation issued by the government to an applicant for making, using and selling a patented product or employing a patented process without the consent of the patentee.

Chapter XVI of the Indian Patents Act 1970 and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights discuss compulsory licensing.

The application for compulsory license can be made any time after 3 years from date of sealing of a patent.

When Compulsory License is Issued?

The Following Conditions should be fulfilled by the applicant:

Reasonable requirements of the public with respect to the patented invention have not been satisfied;

 Patented invention is not available to the public at a reasonably affordable price.

 Patented invention is not used in India.

 Additionally, according to Section 92 of the Act, compulsory licenses can also be issued suo motu by the Controller of Patents pursuant to a notification issued by the Central Government if there is either a “national emergency” or “extreme urgency” or in cases of“public non-commercial use”.

When was the First License Issued?

·         India’s first ever compulsory license was granted by the Patent Office on March 9, 2012, to Hyderabad-based Natco Pharma for the production of generic version of Bayer’s Nexavar, an anti-cancer agent used in the treatment of liver and kidney Cancer.

Global Perspective on Compulsory Licensing:

·   This phenomenon of compulsory licensing is a hugely debated issue. Many developing countries are giving importance to the compulsory licensing because of the unavailability and unaffordability of the medicines, and they are continuously granting more and more compulsory licenses. The developed countries of Europe, USA are opposing this view as it would make innovation difficult for the pharmaceutical companies.
Need of the Hour:

·          Gilead Sciences’ anti-viral drug Remdesivir has shown efficacy in treating COVID-19
patients.

·    Media reports indicate that the U.S., which is hoarding all drugs found to be useful in combating the pandemic, has bought the entire stock of Remdesivir from Gilead for the next three months.

·         It will therefore not be available for the rest of the world.

·     Besides, while the cost of manufacturing Remdesivir for a full course — as worked out by experts — is less than $10 or Rs. 750 in the U.S. And about Rs.100 in India. Gilead, by virtue of its patent monopoly, is holding the world to ransom by asking a price that is hundreds of times its cost.

 

Scientists discover cause of production of Lithium in stars.

A forty-year-old puzzle regarding the production of lithium in stars has been solved by Indian researchers.Stars, as per known mechanisms of evolution, actually destroy lithium as they evolve

into red giants. Planets were known to have more lithium than their stars — as is the case with the Earth-Sun pair. However, leading to a contradiction, some stars were found that were lithium-rich.

The Sun, for instance, has about a factor of 100 lower amount of lithium than the Earth. About 40 years ago, a few large stars were spotted that were lithium-rich. This was followed by further discoveries of lithium-rich stars, and that posed a puzzle — if stars do not produce lithium, how do some stars develop to become lithium-rich?

For the present study, the group studied over 200,000 stars using the Galactic Archaeology survey of the Anglo-Australian Telescope.

 

Plastic Waste Management in Pandemic

The threat posed by plastic waste to the environment is well established. The corona pandemic has led to an increase in Plastic Waste.

Highlights:

·         In 2018, a report by McKinsey estimated that, globally, we generate 350 million tonnes of plastic waste. Only 16 per cent of it is recycled.

·         Today, due to pandemic the amount of plastic waste we are generating is much higher than that estimated in the McKinsey report.

·         The Guardian recently reported that there are possibly more masks than jellyfish in the oceans today. Management of plastic in India

·          We have the Plastic Waste Management Rules of 2016, which were updated and amended in 2018. In fact, India saw incredible momentum in its fight for effective management of
plastic waste in the last year.

·          The Prime Minister made clarion calls for a jan andolan (people’s movement) to curb the use of single-use plastic (SUP).

·          Jan andolan was also to ensure proper disposal of all plastic waste.

·          Also, the entire country rallied together under the banner of the Swachhata Hi Seva campaign.

Why single-use plastic is different:

·         Plastic is not the problem, our handling of it is.

·        We need plastic, but not SUP, which is difficult to dispose of effectively, and that is where the problem lies. It is important to understand this distinction.

·        By understanding this distinction we may change our behaviour and our lifestyles, to balance our need for plastic with effectively managing its waste.

Way Forward:

·      One way to approach the issue is to treat it not just as an environmental problem but as an Economic Opportunity.

·         We require new business models which are designed for sustainability.

·        In Uganda, they are melting plastic waste to make face shields which are being sold for just a dollar each.

·          But, most of all, we need a tectonic shift in the behaviour of consumers.

·         We need consumers to care about their role in the plastic waste value chain.

·        Under phase 2 of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) village communities are now starting to plan for setting up waste collection and segregation systems, with material recovery facilities at the block- level.

·     Change is possible when we take necessary steps to Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and, when all else fails, Remove, or dispose of plastic waste safely and effectively.

New agricultural infrastructure fund formed with 1 lakh

Crore budget.

The Union Cabinet today gave its approval to a new pan India Central Sector Scheme- Agriculture Infrastructure Fund. The scheme will provide a medium and long term debt financing facility for investment in viable projects for post-harvest management Infrastructure and community farming assets through interest subvention and financial support.

Under the scheme, one lakh crore rupees will be provided by banks and financial institutions as loans to Primary Agricultural Credit Societies, Marketing Cooperative Societies, Farmer Producers Organizations, Self Help Group, Farmers, Startups and Centre and State agency among others.
All loans under this financing facility will have interest subvention of 3 per cent per annum up to a limit of two crore. rupees and this subvention will be available for a maximum period of seven years.

CBDT signs MoU with SEBI for data exchange.

A  Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed today between the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for data exchange between the two organizations.

Ministry of Finance in a statement said,  theMoU will facilitate the sharing of data and information between SEBI and CBDT on an automatic and regular basis.

In addition to regular exchange of data, the two organizations will also exchange with each other, on request and suomoto basis, any information available in their databases for the purpose of carrying out their functions under various laws.

The MoU comes into force from the date it was signed and is an ongoing initiative of CBDT and SEBI, who are already collaborating through various existing mechanisms.

 

Tropical Cyclones.

Introduction.
Tropical cyclone Amphan intensified rapidly in the Bay of Bengal to become a “Super Cyclonic Storm” – the equivalent of a strong Category 4/weak Category 5 on the Saffir Simpson scale. It weakened ahead of landfall on Wednesday 20 May as a very severe cyclonic storm (strong Category 2 equivalent), bringing dangerous winds, storm surge and flooding to coastal areas of West Bengal in India and Bangladesh.

Amphan (pronounced Um-Pun) impacted densely populated areas, including the Indian city of Kolkata (Calcutta) at a time when restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic is complicating disaster management – and making it more necessary than ever before.
Tropical Cyclone Naming:

Tropical cyclones can last for a week or more; therefore there can be more than one cyclone at a time. Weather forecasters give each tropical cyclone a name to avoid confusion. Each year, tropical cyclones receive names in alphabetical order.

Women and men’s names are alternated. The name list is proposed by the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) of WMO Members of a specific region, and approved by the respective tropical cyclone regional bodies at their annual/bi-annual sessions. Nations in the western North Pacific began using a new system for naming tropical cyclones in 2000.
There is a strict procedure to determine a list of tropical cyclone names in an ocean basin by the Tropical Cyclone Regional Body responsible for that basin at its annual/biennial meeting. There are five tropical cyclone regional bodies, i.e. ESCAP/WMO Typhoon Committee, WMO/ESCAP Panel on Tropical Cyclones, RA I Tropical Cyclone Committee, RA IV Hurricane Committee, and RA V Tropical Cyclone Committee.

Hurricane Committee determines a pre-designated list of hurricane names for six years separately at its annual session. The pre-designated list of hurricane names are proposed by its Members that include National Meteorological and Hydrological Services in the North/Central America and the Caribbean. Naming procedures in other regions are almost the same as in the Caribbean. In some of the regions, the lists are established by alphabetical order of the names. In other regions, the lists are established following the alphabetical order of the country names. In general, tropical cyclones are named according to the rules at a regional level.

World Meteorological Organization maintains rotating lists of names which are appropriate for each Tropical Cyclone basin. If a cyclone is particularly deadly or costly, then its name is retired and replaced by another one.

Objective:
It is important to note that tropical cyclones/hurricanes/typhoons are not named after any particular person. The tropical cyclone/hurricane/typhoon names selected are those that are familiar to the people in each region.

Obviously, the main purpose of naming a tropical cyclone/hurricane is basically for people easily to understand and remember the tropical cyclone/hurricane/typhoon in a region, thus to facilitate tropical cyclone/hurricane/typhoon disaster risk awareness, preparedness, management and reduction.