Ten relevant news updates from across the world, useful for examinations
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Headlines - 23 - 06 - 2021
- Agriculture - Nutrient loss in wheat and rice - Researchers from various institutes under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya found depleting trends in grain density of zinc and iron in rice and wheat cultivated in India. Zinc and iron deficiency affects billions of people globally and the countries with this deficiency have diets composed mainly of rice, wheat, corn, and barley. Findings of the study - Zinc Concentrations in Rice and Wheat: For rice:Zinc concentrations in grains of rice cultivars depleted to 20.6 mg/kg (2000s) from 27.1 mg/kg (1960s) For wheat: The concentrations of zinc dropped to 23.5 mg/kg during the 2010s from 33.3 mg/kg (1960s). Iron Concentrations in Rice and Wheat: For rice: Iron concentrations in grains of rice cultivars depleted to 43.1 mg/kg within the 2000s from 59.8 mg/kg (1960s). For wheat: The concentrations of iron dropped to 46.4 mg/kg (2010s) from 57.6 mg/kg (1960s). A cultivar is a plant variety that has been produced in cultivation by selective breeding. Reason - the ‘Dilution effect’ which is caused by decreased nutrient concentration in response to higher grain yield. So the rate of yield increase is not compensated by the rate of nutrient take-up by the plants. The soils supporting plants could be low in plant-available nutrients, too.
- Agriculture - Biotech-KISAN programme for North East region - The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) issued a Special Call for North East Region as a part of its Mission Programme “Biotech-Krishi Innovation Science Application Network (Biotech-KISAN)”. The goal is to understand the local problems of the NER farmers and provide scientific solutions to those problems. Reason for the special call is that the present call specifically focuses on the North East Region as it is predominantly agrarian with 70% of its workforce engaged in agriculture and allied sector for livelihood. The region produces merely 1.5% of India’s foodgrain output and is a net importer of foodgrains even for its domestic consumption. The NE region has untapped potential to enhance the income of the farming population by promotion of location specific crops, horticultural and plantation crops, fisheries and livestock production.
- Energy - Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS) - A 50 kWp Solar rooftop was inaugurated in Solan, Himachal Pradesh under the IPDS of Ministry of Power, Government of India. The ceremony was part of the ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’ celebrations, marking 75 years of India’s independence. The IPDS was launched in the year 2014 by the Ministry of Power, and all Discoms will be eligible for financial assistance under the scheme. Components of IPDS include (i) strengthening of sub-transmission and distribution networks in the urban areas, (ii) metering of distribution transformers in the urban areas, (iii) IT enablement of the distribution sector and strengthening of distribution network, (iv) schemes for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and IT enablement of balance urban towns, (v) underground cabling to include additional demand of States and (vi) smart metering solution for performing UDAY States and Solar panels on Govt. buildings with net-metering are also permissible under the scheme. [Solar electricity systems are rated in kilowatts peak (kWp), the rate at which it generates energy at peak performance (for example at noon on a sunny day). The total amount of electricity the system actually generates in a year is measured in kilowatt hours (kWh). A typical domestic system is between 1.5 to 3kWp. Each kWp should generate around 800 to 850kWh per year if unshaded and perfectly south facing with a tilt of around 30-50°.]
- Governance and Institutions - Amendment to Food security (Assistance to State Government Rules) 2015 - The Department of Food & Public Distribution has notified amendments in the said rules. This is to ensure right quantity to beneficiaries in distribution of subsidized foodgrains as per their entitlement under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013. This will incentivise States operating their ePoS devices in a judicious manner and are generating savings from the additional margin of Rs.17.00 per quintal provided to them. Distribution through ePoS devices ensures that subsidised foodgrains are provided to the rightful beneficiary through biometric authentication. Any savings accrued by State/UT fro m the additional margin provided towards the cost of purchase, operation and maintenance of the ePOS can be utilised for purchase, operations and maintenance of electronic weighing scales and their integration with the ePOS devices. Integration of ePoS devices with electronic weighing scales would ensures fairness in distribution. The food security Rules 2015 provides for additional margin to Fair Price Shop (FPS) Dealers for sale through ePoS devices as an incentive to ensure transparent recording of transactions at all levels.
- Polity and Constitution - Delimitation in Jammu and Kashmir - The Union government has invited political leaders from Jammu and Kashmir for a meeting with the Prime Minister in Delhi. This may be related to the delimitation process that needs to be held in J&K. Delimitation is the act of redrawing boundaries of an Assembly or Lok Sabha seat to represent changes in population over time. This exercise is carried out by a Delimitation Commission, whose orders has the force of law and cannot be questioned before any court. The objective is to redraw boundaries (based on the data of the last Census) in a way so that the population of all seats be the same throughout the State. Aside from changing the limits of a constituency, the process may result in change in the number of seats in a state. Delimitation exercises in J&K in the past have been slightly different from those in the rest of the country because of the region’s special status, scrapped by the Centre in 2019. In March 2020, the government set up the Delimitation Commission, headed by retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai. As per the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill, the number of Assembly seats in J&K would increase from 107 to 114, which is expected to benefit the Jammu region.
- Science and Technology - T478K - An analysis of more than one million SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences has led to the identification of a new variant that, over the past weeks, has been spreading mostly in Mexico but has also been found in Europe. The scientific name of new variant is T478K. Like other strains, this presents a mutation in the spike protein. This variant has been increasingly spreading among people in North America, particularly in Mexico. Viruses mutate all the time. Variants are declared as ‘variants of concern’ when there is real world evidence that there is an increase in transmissibility and there is a measurable reduction in neutralising antibodies. This T478K isn't a VOC yet. However, researchers are also contemplating whether the rapid vaccination drives will put an end to the virus's "fitness evolution" quickly.
- Environment and Ecology - Tiger corridors in Vidharba - In a first-of-its-kind project, radio telemetry has been deployed to identify corridors used by tigers in the Vidarbha landscape, tracking their actual movement. The study indicates that the animals are moving in a much wider swathe of area outside the protected areas than previously known. The investigators belonged the Maharashtra Forest Department and Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Vidarbha has 331 tigers in a forest area of around 26,775 sq km, dissected by 84,202 km of roads, apart from irrigation canals and other projects. There have been growing instances of man-tiger conflict in the region. The project, carried out between 2017 and 2020 using radio signals, identified 37,067 sq km, in all, of tiger corridors. They tracked the epic journey of Walker (as the tiger was dubbed) over 3,000 km from Tipeshwar Sanctuary in Yavatmal district to Dnyanganga Sanctuary in Buldhana district.
- History - Juneteenth - US President Joe Biden will sign a law making June 19, or “Juneteenth”, a national holiday recognised by the federal government, commemorating the end of slavery after the American Civil War (1861-65). Juneteenth is the portmanteau of June and nineteenth and is recognised as a state holiday in 47 US states. The day is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the US and is observed on June 19. It is also known as Emancipation Day or Juneteenth Independence Day. Juneteenth will be the first new federal holiday created in almost four decades, and will now enjoy the same status as the 10 existing annual holidays, which include Memorial Day, Veterans Day and Thanksgiving. The last such holiday – Martin Luther King Jr. Day – was created in 1983, in honour of the civil rights hero. [On June 19, 1865, Union Army Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger stepped onto a balcony in Galveston, Tex. — two months after the Civil War had ended — and announced that more than 2,50,000 enslaved black people in Texas were free. President Abraham Lincoln had freed them two and a half years earlier in his Emancipation Proclamation, but since Texas never fell to Union troops in battle, they’d remained in bondage.]
- Indian Politics - Covid Update - (a) India reported a higher 50,848 new COVID-19 cases and 1,358 deaths in 24 hours, taking the total number of COVID-19 cases to 3,00,28,709, while the death toll surged to 3,90,660. This comes after India reported 42,640 cases and 1,167 deaths on Tuesday. The country's active cases have dropped to 6,43,194, the lowest in the last 82 days. (b) Yoga proponent Ramdev moves SC seeking stay of proceedings in multiple FIRs lodged against him in various states for his alleged remarks against allopathy terming it to be ineffective against Covid. He seeks stay of proceedings in FIRs lodged by Indian Medical Associations Patna and Raipur branches and transfer the FIRs to Delhi. (c) Madhya Pradesh, which administered an all-time high of 16.9 lakh vaccine doses on 21-June, managed not even 5,000 (barely 0.3% of the peak) on 22 June, an indication of it having used up almost all its stocks on the big day. The state’s numbers for the three days preceding June 21 also were in thousands or even hundreds. Haryana, another state in the top 5 on the record-breaking, saw vaccination levels drop by almost 85% from the peak of nearly 5 lakh to just about 76,000.
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