Comprehensive Current affairs 2 December 2020

 Mission COVID Suraksha.

The Government of India (GOI) has announced the third stimulus package of Rs. 900 Crore for the Mission COVID Suraksha- The Indian COVID-19 Vaccine Development Mission.

This grant will be provided to the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) for Research & Development of Indian COVID-19 vaccines.

About:

The COVID-19 Vaccine development Mission with end-to-end focus from preclinical development through clinical development and manufacturing and regulatory facilitation for deployment, would consolidate all available and funded resources towards an accelerated product development.

This will help accelerate development of approx. 5-6 vaccine candidates and ensure that these are brought closer to licensure and introduction in market for consideration of regulatory authorities for introduction in public health systems, to combat further spread of COVID infection.

Key objectives of the fund:

It will be accelerating pre-clinical and clinical development;

To licensure of COVID-19 vaccine candidates that are currently in clinical stages or ready to enter clinical stage of development,

To establishing clinical trial sites, and to strengthening the existing immunoassay laboratories, central laboratories and suitable facilities for animal studies, production facilities and other testing facilities to support COVID-19 vaccine development.

Way ahead:

It will be supporting development of common harmonized protocols, trainings, data management systems, regulatory submissions, internal and external quality management systems and accreditations.

Capabilities for process development, cell line development and manufacturing of GMP batches for animal toxicology studies and clinical trials will also be supported under the Mission.

A key element will be development of suitable Target Product Profile so that vaccines being introduced through the mission have preferred characteristics applicable for India.

Hoysala Temple Architecture.

Recently, an Idol of Goddess Kali was found damaged at the historic Hoysala temple.

Hoysala Temple Architecture:

• Hoysala architecture is the building style in Hindu Temple Architecture.

• It was developed under the rule of Hoysala Empire between 11th and 14th centuries in the modern state of Karnataka.

• Hoysala architecture reveals a negligible Indo-Aryan style influence while the impact of

Southern Indian style is more distinct.

• Over a hundred surviving temples are spread across the state of Karnataka.

• The Hoysalas usually dedicated their temples to Shiva or to Vishnu. They occasionally built some temples dedicated to the Jain faith as well.

•Three of the most well-known temples are the Kesava Temple at Somanathapura, the Chennakesava temple at Belur and the Hoysaleswara temple at Halebidu.

Hoysala Empire:

• The Hoysala Empire was a Kannadiga power originating from the Indian Subcontinent that ruled most of what is now Karnataka, between 10th and 14th centuries.

 • The Hoysala Empire was founded by the King Nripa Kama II.

• The capital of Hoysalas was initially located at Belur but was later moved to Halebidu.

• The Hoysala era was an important period in the development of art, architecture, and religion in South India.

India’s Shukrayaan Mission.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) short listed 20 space based experiment proposals for its proposed Venus orbiter mission ‘Shukrayaan’ to study the planet.

Highlights:

• ISRO is looking forward to launch country’s first Venus mission in 2014 or 2016.

• The optimal launch window (when Venus is closest to the Earth) comes about every 19 months.

• The 20 payloads (scientific instruments) proposals, including collaborative contributions are from Russia, France, Sweden and Germany.

• The one payload from France - VIRAL Instrument has been already selected for the upcoming mission.

• VIRAL (Venus Infrared Atmospheric Gas Linker) instrument is co-developed with the Russian space agency Roscosmos, and the LATMOS atmospheres, environments and space observations laboratory attached to the French national scientific research centre CNRS.

Venus Mission:

• The payload capability of the proposed 2500-kg satellite.

• Planned to be launched onboard GSLV Mk II rocket.

• It is likely to be 175 kg with 500W of power.

 • The proposed orbit is expected to be around 500 x 60,000 km around Venus. This orbit is likely to be reduced gradually, over several months to a lower apoapsis (Farthest Point).

Objectives of Venus Mission:

• Investigation of the Surface Processes and shallow subsurface stratigraphy.

• Solar wind interaction with Venusian Ionosphere.

• Studying the Structure, Composition and Dynamics of the Atmosphere.

Venus:

• It is described as the "twin sister" of the Earth because of the similarities in size, mass, density, bulk composition and gravity. Both planets share a common origin, forming at the same time out of a condensing nebulosity around 4.5 billion years ago, ISRO had noted in its announcement of opportunity. Venus is around 30 per cent closer to the Sun as compared to Earth resulting in much higher solar flux.

Model Tenancy Act, 2020.

The Model Tenancy Act, 2020 aims to bridge the trust deficit between tenants and landlords by clearly delineating their obligations. To ensure speedy redressal of disputes, it also proposes to establish Rent Court and Rent Tribunal to hear appeals for matters connected to rental housing.

Ultimately, the creation of rental housing stock will help students, working professionals and the migrant population (especially in COVID-19-like exigencies) to find accommodation. Once implemented in all fairness, will benefit one and all.

Why India Needs Rental Legislation?

Paradoxically, even while there is acute housing shortage in India, the vacancy levels of homes have been on the rise.

According to the National Census, vacant houses comprised around 12% of the total share of the urban housing stock.

These vacant homes in urban areas could clearly feed the rental market across the country, but various factors have created roadblocks. These include:

1. Lack of a sound rental policy

2. Low rental yield accrued from residential properties – averaging not more than 3% in major cities

3. Lack of demand in far-flung areas due to connectivity and physical infrastructure issues.

4. COVID-19 saw lakhs of migrant workers return to their hometowns. The key reason for their return was the non-availability of affordable accommodation in cities amidst almost zero income.

Salient Features of the Model Tenancy Act, 2020:

The government has proposed guidelines that enforce rental contracts and protect the rights of landlords as well as tenants. As per the draft Model Tenancy Act, 2020, the government has laid down various proposals. Some notable features include:

After commencement of the Act, all premises (residential or commercial) shall be rented only after a written agreement on mutually agreed terms.

The Act will provide for a fast-track quasi-judicial mechanism for adjudication of disputes.

Security deposit has been capped to a maximum of two months’ rent in case of residential property, and in the case of non-residential property it shall be as per the terms of tenancy agreement subject to a maximum of six-months’ rent.

Security deposit to be refunded by the landlord at the time of taking over vacant possession of the premises, after making due deductions, if any.

The landlord is entitled to get a compensation of double of the monthly rent for two months and four times of the monthly rent thereafter if a tenant does not vacate the premises after tenancy has been terminated by order, notice or as per agreement.

If the term of the tenancy ends at the time when locality (where rented premises is situated) experiences any force majeure event, the landlord shall allow the tenant to continue possession of premises for one month from the cessation of such force majeure event on the same terms of prevailing tenancy agreement.

The tenant cannot sublet a part of or the whole property or carry out any structural change without execution of supplementary agreement between landlord and tenant.

The proposed rent authority must be informed about the rental agreement within two months of its signing.

An officer of the rank of deputy collector or higher will act as rent authority to adjudicate any issue arising out of a rental disagreement.

Additional Collector or Additional District Magistrate or an officer of equivalent rank shall be the Rent Court for the purposes of this Act, within his jurisdiction. District Judge or Additional District Judge to be appointed as Rent Tribunal in each district.

BrahMos Missile .

Recently, India has successfully test-fired a land-attack version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile. The test by the Army comes over a month after the naval version of BrahMos was successfully test fired from Indian Navy’s Indigenously-built stealth destroyer INS Chennai.

Highlights:

• The range of the missile has been extended to 400 km from the original 290 km but its speed has been maintained at 2.8 Mach or almost three times the speed of sound.

 • The test was done in a “top-attack” configuration. Most modern missiles, including BrahMos, can be fired in both top-attack and direct attack modes.

• The missile is required to climb sharply after launch, travel at a certain altitude and then fall on top of the target.

• The Missile travels at a lower altitude, directly striking the target, in direct attack mode.

About BrahMos Missile:

• An amalgamation of the names of Brahmaputra river and Moskva river (Russia), BrahMos missiles are designed, developed and produced by BrahMos Aerospace.

• BrahMos Aerospace is a joint venture company set up by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Mashinostroyenia of Russia.

• It is a medium-range supersonic cruise missile which can be launched from submarines, ships, aircraft or land.

• Cruise missiles are defined as “an unmanned self-propelled guided vehicle that sustains flight through aerodynamic lift for most of its flight path and whose primary mission is to place an ordnance or special payload on a target.”

• Depending upon the speed, such missiles are classified as Subsonic (around 0.8 Mach), Supersonic (2-3 Mach) and Hypersonic cruise missiles (more than 5 Mach).

• It is the world’s fastest supersonic cruise missile, as well as the fastest anti-ship cruise missile in operation.

• It operates on the "Fire and Forget" principle, i.e it does not require further guidance after launch.

• The missile has a flight range upto 290-km. However, India's entry into the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) has extended the range of the BrahMos missile to reach 450-600 km.

• Various versions of BrahMos, including those that can be fired from land, warships, submarines and Sukhoi-30 fighter jets, have already been developed and successfully tested in the past.

• A hypersonic version of the missile, capable of reaching a speed of 5 Mach, is under development.

Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS).

Recently, the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has recognised the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System

(IRNSS) as a component of the World Wide Radio Navigation System (WWRNS) during its 102nd session held virtually.

Highlights:

• The IMO is the United Nations specialised agency responsible for the safety and security of shipping and the prevention of marine and atmospheric pollution by ships.

• India has become the fourth country in the world to have its independent regional navigation satellite system recognised by the IMO as a part of the World Wide Radio

Navigation System (WWRNS).

• The other three countries that have its navigation systems recognised by the IMO are the USA, Russia and China.

About Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS)

• It is an independent regional navigation satellite system developed by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

• The main objective is to provide reliable position, navigation and timing services over India and its neighbourhood.

• Its constellation was named as “NavIC” (Navigation with Indian Constellation) by the Prime Minister.

NavIC provides two types of services are Standard Positioning Service (SPS) is meant for the general public and Restricted Service (RS) is an encrypted service meant for authorised users and agencies.

 • Unlike the widely used GPS which includes 24 satellites, NavIC has 8 satellites and their range is within India and its adjoining regions extending up to 1,500 km from the country's border.

• Technically satellite systems with more satellites provide more accurate positioning information. However, compared to GPS which has a position accuracy of 20-30 metres, the NavIC is able to pinpoint location to an estimated accuracy of under 20 metres.

Other Important Navigation Systems:

• The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based navigation system that consists of 24 orbiting satellites.

• Glonass is Russian Satellite Navigation System considered as a counterpart to GPS of the USA.

• BeiDou Navigation Satellite System of China: A hybrid constellation consisting of around 30 satellites in three kinds of orbits.

• Galileo is Europe's Global Navigation Satellite System.

World AIDS Day.

The theme of World AIDS Day, to be observed on December 1 is ‘ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic: resilience and impact.’

The method to achieve this by 2030 is to ensure life-saving anti-retroviral therapy reaches all those who are infected and that all persons living with HIV know their status.

It aims to ensure that those on ART are viral suppressed so that infection is negligible. The aim is to make U=U or undetectable = Untransmittable a reality.

Experts treating HIV/AIDS are worried that the COVID-19 pandemic has delayed the World Health Organization’s target to improve the life of people living with HIV (PLHIV).

The target date to ensure that 90% of the PLHIV are reached by 2020 has been delayed.

The aim of the WHO was to ensure that 90% of PLHIV know their status, 90% of them are on life-saving anti-retroviral therapy (ART) and 90% of those on ART are virally suppressed, before the end of 2020.

By 2030, it aimed to make accessible ART to every PLHIV, which in turn reduces the viral load in their blood to undetectable levels. This would result in making negligible their risk of transmitting the HIV.

ARTPARK.

Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Technologies Park (ARTPARK) was recently set up in Bengaluru.

It is a unique not-for-profit foundation established by Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru with support from Al Foundry in a public-private model.

It aims to leverage Al and Robotics to bring a better quality of life by lowering the cost of living with Al andro botics, and improving access to Al awareness, education and enablement.

It receives seed funding from the Department of Science and Technology under the National Mission on Inter-disciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems.

Focus on Mains.

Desalination.

Recently, Maharashtra announced the setting up of a desalination plant in Mumbai. The plant will process 200 million litres of water daily (MLD), and will help in overcoming the water Shortage Faced by Mumbai in the months of May and June.

About Desalination Plants:

• A desalination plant turns salt water into water that is fit to drink. Maharashtra will be the fourth state to experiment with Desalination Plants.

• It is the process of removing salts from water to produce water that meets the quality (salinity) requirements of different human uses. Most commonly used technology for the process is reverse osmosis.

• An external pressure is applied to push solvents from an area of high-solute concentration to an area of low-solute concentration through a semi-permeable membrane.

• The microscopic pores in the membranes allow water molecules through but leave salt and most other impurities behind, releasing clean water from the other side.

• These plants are mostly set up in areas that have access to sea water.

Significance:

• It can extend water supplies beyond what is available from the hydrological cycle, providing an “unlimited”, climate-independent and steady supply of high-quality water.

• It can provide drinking water in areas where no natural supply of potable water exists.

• As it generally meets or exceeds standards for water quality, water desalination plants can also reduce pressure on freshwater supplies that come from areas (over exploited water resources) that Need Protecting.

Disadvantage:

• The Cost to build and operate desalination plants as the plants require huge amounts of energy.

• The Energy costs account for one-third to one-half of the total cost of producing desalinated water.

• Because energy is such a large portion of the total cost, the cost is also greatly affected by changes in the price of energy.

• The environmental impact is another disadvantage to water desalination plants. Disposal of the salt removed from the water is a major issue.

 • This discharge is known as brine, can change the salinity and lower the amount of oxygen (Hypoxia) in the water at the disposal site, stressing or killing animals not used to the higher levels of salt.

• This process uses or produces numerous chemicals including chlorine, carbon dioxide, hydrochloric acid and anti-scalents that can be harmful in high concentrations.

• The environmental problem can be changed into an economic opportunity as the discharge (brine) can also contain precious elements like uranium, strontium as well as sodium and magnesium which have the potential to be mined.

• Brine has been used for aquaculture, with increases in fish biomass of 300%. It has also been successfully used to cultivate the dietary supplement Spirulina, and to irrigate forage shrubs and crops.

Use of Desalination Plants:

• It has largely been limited to countries in the Middle East and has recently started being used in parts of the United States and Australia.

• Tamil Nadu has been the pioneer in using this technology, setting up two desalination plants near Chennai in 2010 and then 2013.

• The other states that have proposed these plants are Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.

Way Ahead:

• This technological refinement for low environmental impacts and economic costs, along with innovative financial mechanisms to support the sustainability of desalination schemes, will likely be required. There is a need to make desalination technologies more affordable, i.e. increasing the viability of desalination for addressing Sustainable

Development Goal 6 to Ensure Access to water and Sanitation for All.

Comprehensive Current affairs 3 December 2020

Government constitutes national panel to drive Paris Agreement goals.

Through a gazette notification the Government of India has constituted the Apex Committee for the Implementation of the Paris Agreement (AIPA) November 27, 2020.

AIPA has been constituted with the purpose of “ensuring a coordinated response on climate change matters that protects the country’s interests and ensures that India is on track towards meeting its climate change obligations under the Paris Agreement including its submitted Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)”.

Key highlights:

NDCs are the accounts of the voluntary efforts to be made by countries that are a part of the Paris Agreement, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the impacts of anthropogenic climate change.The three quantitative goals in the Indian NDCs are:

 

A 33-35 per cent reduction in the gross domestic product emissions intensity by 2030 from 2005 levels.

A 40 per cent share of non-fossil fuel-based electricity by 2030.

Creating a carbon sink of 2.5-3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide through afforestation programmes.

Apart from these, there are five other non-quantitive goals in the Indian NDCs.

The NDCs are to be implemented in the post-2020 period. India had submitted its NDCs in 2015. Now, the AIPA, with its 17 members, has the responsibility of formulating policies and programmes for implementing them.

The committee will have the secretary, Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) as the chairperson and the additional secretary, MoEFCC as the vice chairperson, according to the notification.

The AIPA also has the responsibility of regularly communicating and reporting the NDCs to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

It will also define the responsibilities of the government ministries that would be crucial in achieving the country’s climate change mitigation and adaptation goals and submit a report every six months.

The AIPA will also act as a national authority for the regulation of carbon markets in India under the Article 6.2, Article 6.4 and Article 6.8 of the Paris Agreement.

Election Commission proposes extending postal ballot facility for eligible overseas Indians.

The Election Commission has proposed to the government to extend the Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS) facility, so far available to service voters, to eligible overseas Indian voters.

 The Commission said with the successful execution of ETPBS in case of service voters, it is now "confident" that the facility can also be extended to the overseas electors.

The poll panel has observed, the Commission is technically and administratively ready to extend this facility in general elections to legislative assemblies of Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. Elections in these states are due sometime in April-June next year.

The Commission observed that Section 62 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 envisages right to vote for every citizen registered in the electoral roll who is not subject to disqualification for voting.

Bru Tribal.

The North Tripura have recently witnessed violent protests over the proposed resettlement of Bru tribal.

Highlights:

• They are also called as Reang. It is a community indigenous to Northeast India, living mostly in Tripura, Mizoram and Assam.

• They are recognised as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group, in Tripura. In Mizoram, they have been targeted by groups that do not consider them indigenous to the state.

• In 1997 ethnic clashes, nearly 37,000 Brus fled Mamit, Kolasib and Lunglei districts of Mizoram and were accommodated in relief camps in Tripura.

• Since then, 5,000 have returned to Mizoram in eight phases of repatriation, while 32,000 still live in six relief camps in North Tripura.

• They alleged that 650 Bengali families from around Kanchanpur and 81 Mizo families from Jampui Hill range, who fled due to “atrocities” by Brus, were yet to be resettled two decades on.

• They are in fear and uncertainty as they suffer an economic blockade due to these protests.

 • They haven’t received foodgrains as per their relief package this month and if the protest continues, their condition will deteriorate further.

• A quadrilateral agreement was signed by the Centre, the two state governments and Bru representatives to allow the remaining 32,000 to permanently settle in Tripura, in January 2020.

About 2020 Agreement:

• After the agreement was made in January 2020, the state has planned 12 resettlement spots across six districts with 300 families each.

• The Centre has announced a special development project with funding of Rs. 600 crore.

• Each resettled family will get an estimated 0.03 acres of land for building a home, Rs. 1.5 lakh as housing assistance, and Rs. 4 lakh as a one-time cash benefit for sustenance, a monthly allowance of Rs. 5,000 and free rations for two years from the date of resettlement.

• It led to protests from Bengali and Mizo groups in Tripura. They claim that settling thousands of migrants permanently in Kanchanpur sub-division of North Tripura district would lead to demographic imbalance, exert pressure on local resources and potentially lead to law and order problems.

UN agency faces corruption, fraud allegations at climate projects.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is facing several allegations of fraud and corruption linked to the multibillion-dollar Global Environment Facility.

Report identified financial misstatements worth millions of dollars across UNDP's portfolio of Global Environment Facility (GEF)-funded projects around the world.

GEF was set up in 1991 by World Bank, UNDP and UN Environment Program to help fight environmental challenges such as deforestation, species conservation and pollution.

UNDP works to eradicate poverty, reduce inequalities and exclusion, and build resilience so countries can sustain progress.

 As UN's development agency, UNDP plays a critical role in helping countries achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Indian Energy Exchange.

Recently, traded volumes in electricity at IEX has grown by a strong 25% in 2020 in the first ten months.

IEX is the first and largest energy exchange in India providing a nationwide, automated trading platform for physical delivery of electricity, Renewable Energy Certificates and Energy Saving Certificates.

It is regulated by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission.

Other power exchange in India is Power Exchange India Ltd (PXIL).

Cryogenic propellant tank.

HAL has delivered the biggest cryogenic propellant tank (C32 LH2) ever fabricated by the company to ISRO much ahead of the contractual schedule at a programme recently.

The C32-LH2 tank is a developmental cryogenic propellant tank of aluminium alloy designed for improving the payload capability of GSLV MK-III launching vehicle, said a press release from HAL.

The total length of weld carried out in the tank was 115 metres at different stages to the quality requirement of 100% tests on radiography, die penetrant check and leak-proof.

HAL has mastered the skills and technologies required for fabricating welded propellant tank of aluminium ally to such stringent quality requirement, added the release.

Mount Ile Lewotolok.

It is a volcanic mountain of Indonesia,located on lembatia island, that has been erupting frequently since 2017.

 It is one of three currently erupting in Indonesia along with Merapi on Java island and Sinabung on Sumatra island.

They are among more than 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, which is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanoes and fault lines around the Pacific Ocean.

Comprehensive Current affairs 1 December 2020

OBC status to Lingayat community.

Karnataka government, has deferred plan to provide OBC status to Lingayat community in the Central OBC List.

Lingayats are member of a Hindu sect with a wide following in southern India that worships Shiva as the only deity.

They are followers of 12th-century social reformer, Basaveshwara who was against caste system and Vedic rituals.

They have been classified as a Hindu subcaste calledVeerashaiva Lingayats.

Lingayats had distanced itself from Hindu Veerashaivas because latter followed Vedas and supported castesystem, to which Basaveshwara was against.

Comparison of pardoning power of the President .

With less than two months of his tenure remaining, US President Donald Trump exercised his powers under the Constitution to pardon Michael Flynn, his former National Security Advisor, who had twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

Status in USA:

The President of the US has the constitutional right to pardon or commute sentences related to federal crimes. The US Supreme Court has held that this power is “granted without limit” and cannot be restricted by Congress.

Clemency is a broad executive power, and is discretionary — meaning the President is not answerable for his pardons, and does not have to provide a reason for issuing one.

 Status in India:

Unlike the US President, whose powers to grant pardons are almost unfettered, the President of India has to act on the advice of the Cabinet.

Under Article 72 of the Constitution, “the President shall have the power to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence of any person convicted of any offence where the sentence is a sentence of death”.

In several cases, the SC has ruled that the President has to act on the advice of the Council of Ministers while deciding mercy pleas. These include Maru Ram vs Union of India in 1980, and Dhananjoy Chatterjee vs State of West Bengal in 1994.

China to build a super dam on its part of Brahmaputra river.

China will build a “super” dam on the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo river close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Tibet, in a move that could have a far-reaching impact on northeast India’s water security.

It originating in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), the trans-border Yarlung Zangbo flows into Arunachal Pradesh where it is called Siang and then to Assam as Brahmaputra before flowing into Bangladesh.

The dam could come up in the Medog county of TAR, which is close to Arunachal Pradesh.China has already built several smaller dams on the Yarlung Zangbo river.

The new dam’s ability to generate hydropower could be three times that of central China’s Three Gorges Dam, which has the largest installed hydropower capacity in the world.

The new dam will be built with focus on maintaining China’s national security.

The project will play a significant role in realising China’s goal of reaching a carbon emissions peak before 2030 and carbon neutrality in 2060.

 Covering green energy to Andaman and Nicobar, Lakshadweep islands.

Union government has notified the Andaman & Nicobar, and Lakshadweep Islands will be using renewable energy to meet their total requirement under the goals.

India has installed about 1,36,000 megawatts (MW) of Renewable Energy capacity with capacity addition of another 57,000 MW under implementation.

The target is now to achieve 450 gigawatts of Renewable Energy capacity by 2030.

India is in the midst of a major transformative shift in its energy sector, to end energy poverty in India.

It aims to enhance availability and affordability of clean fossil fuels and green fuels, and to reduce the carbon footprint through a healthy mix of all commercially-viable energy sources.

In earlier government has launched the National Biofuel Policy (NBP) in 2018 to promote biofuels in mass scale with a target of 20 per cent ethanol blending in petrol and 5 per cent of bio-diesel by 2030. Also, government is planning for setting up twelve 2G Ethanol Bio-Refineries in 11 States with an overall capacity of 1100 Kilo Litre per Day (KLPD).

The SATAT (Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation) initiative targets to setup 5,000 compressed biogas plants with a target of 15 million metric tonnes per year with an investment potential for $ 20 billion. Indian oil marketing companies are offering to private entrepreneurs assured price and offtake guarantee.

Kalpakkam Atomic Power Plant.

Kalpakkam Atomic Power Plantalso known as Madras Atomic Power Station recently activated the cyclone protection machineryagainst Cyclone Nivar.

KAPP is one of the operational nuclear plant in the country situated in Tamil Nadu.

It was the first indigenously built nuclear power station in India.

 It has two Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors of 170MWe each.

Inter-ministerial panel for FRA: A giant step backwards.

Forest experts raise concern over the Union environment ministry assuming central role in matters originally meant for the tribal ministry.

An inter-ministerial committee comprising officials from the Union environment and tribal affairs ministries — formed recently to monitor implementation of the Schedule Tribes and Other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) [FRA] Act, 2006 — have raised concerns over the tribal ministry being pushed to the backseat.

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) is the nodal agency that specifically looked into the implementation of FRA, 2006 and minimise bureaucracy in matters related to it.

Officials of both ministries blamed the poor implementation of the Act on the reluctance of the state forest departments. They also claimed there was no conflict in terms of legal framework for the implementation of the act.

Experts working on FRA, however, raised red flags over decisions taken in the meeting, including the officials’ silence on seeking consent of forest dwellers in cases of land diversion.

They also expressed concern over MoEF&CC assuming central role in matters originally handled by MoTA alone.

Brain fingerprinting.

The accused in Hathras rape case will undergo brain fingerprinting.

Brain Electrical Oscillation Signature Profiling (BEOSP) is also recognised as brain fingerprinting.

It is a neuro psychological method of interrogation in which the accused’s participation in the crime is investigated by studying their brain’s response.

 The BEOSP test is executed via a process known as electroencephalogram, conducted to study the electrical behaviour of the human brain.

Under this test, the consent of the accused is first taken and they are then made to wear caps with dozens of electrodes attached to them.

The accused are then shown visuals or played audio clips related to the crime to check if there is any triggering of neurons in their brains which then generate brainwaves. The test results are then studied to determine the participation of the accused in a crime.

India Climate Change Knowledge Portal.

Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has recently launched India Climate Change Knowledge Portal.

It will be a single point Information resource on different climate initiatives taken by various Line Ministries.

It will help in disseminating knowledge among citizens about all the major steps Government is taking at both national and international levels to address climate change issues.

Major components of portal:India's Climate Profile, National Policy Framework, Bilateral and Multilateral Cooperation, International Climate Negotiations etc.

Target Olympic Podium Scheme.

According to the Sport Ministry the Olympics-bound duo of race walker K.T. Irfan and javelin thrower Shivpal Singh along with sprinter Dutee Chand have been included in the core group of the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS).

The Target Olympic Podium Scheme is a flagship program of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.It is an attempt to provide assistance to India’s top athletes.

The Scheme looks to add a premium to the preparations of these athletes so that they can win Olympic medals in 2020 and 2024 Olympics.

 Under the Scheme, the Department of Sports shall identify athletes who are potential medal winners in 2020 / 2024 Olympics.

The idea of the Scheme is to also keep an eye in the future and fund a Developmental Group of Athletes who are medal prospects for the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024 and Los Angeles Games in 2028.

The Mission Olympic Cell is a dedicated body created to assist the athletes who are selected under the TOP Scheme.