Current Affairs Apr 28 – GES Reporter

Certified Organic Production Hubs

Why in News?

Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare (DAC&FW) is working to identify Traditional Organic Areas to transform them into certified organic production hubs. The Government of India has certified 14,491 ha of such area under Car Nicobar and Nancowry group of islands in UT of A&N Islands.
This area becomes the first large contiguous territory to be conferred with organic certification under the ‘Large Area Certification’ (LAC) scheme of the PGS-India (Participatory Guarantee System) certification programme.
Car Nicobar and Nancowry group of Islands have been traditionally organic for ages. The administration has also banned the sale, purchase and usage of any chemical inputs of GMO seeds in these islands.
Besides these islands, agriculture areas in States like Himachal, Uttarakhand, North Eastern states and tribal belts of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, desert districts of Rajasthan which are essentially free from the use of chemical inputs can be transformed to certified organic.
To bring isolated individual farmers to the certified organic fold, DAC&FW has also launched an organic certification support scheme under PKVY (Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana).
Under the scheme, individual farmers can avail financial assistance for certification under any of the prevailing certification systems of NPOP or PGS-India.
Assistance will be available as reimbursement of certification cost directly to certification agencies through the states.

PIB

Integrated Solar Dryer and Pyrolysis pilot plant

Why in News?

A Solar Dryer and Pyrolysis pilot plant at Chennai will soon offer an innovative approach for smart cities to transform urban organic waste into biochar and energy.

About

The pilot is part of the Indo-German project ‘Pyrasol’ launched to transform urban organic waste into biochar and energy in smart cities.
It was awarded to CSIR-CLRI by the Indo-German Science & Technology Centre.
The project will ultimately lead to technology development for the joint processing of Fibrous Organic Waste (FOW) and Sewage Sludge (SS) of Indian smart cities into hygienic and highly valuable biochar associated with energy recovery, carbon sequestration and environmental improvement.
Indo-German Science & Technology Centre (IGSTC) was established by the Department of Science & Technology (DST) & Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Govt. of Germany to facilitate Indo-German R&D networking with emphasis on industry participation, applied research and technology development.
IGSTC through its flagship program ‘2+2 Projects’, catalyses innovation centric R&D projects by synergising the strength of research and academic institutions and public/private industries from India and Germany.
Under this program, the project titled ‘Pyrasol: Smart Cities integrated energy supply, carbon sequestration and urban organic waste treatment through combined solar sludge drying and pyrolysis’ was awarded by IGSTC to CSIR-CLRI, Chennai.

About Project

The project focuses on managing and organising collection, treatment, and disposal systems of urban wastes in Indian Smart Cities as well as in other urban centres with an integrated and interactive approach.
Through this Pyrasol project, simple and robust processing technologies for urban organic waste will be combined in a synergetic manner and further developed to improve sanitation and welfare, supply regenerative energy, convert waste into products and reduce the carbon footprint of smart cities by an innovative organic waste drying system using the solar natural chimney effect followed by a high efficient single-chamber pyrolysis.

PIB

India’s first solar space mission

Why in News?

A community service centre has been set up to bring all data on board India’s first dedicated solar space mission to a single web-based interface enabling the users to quickly look at the data and identify the interesting science cases.
The service centre called Aditya-L1 Support Cell (AL1SC), a joint effort of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) will be used by the guest observers in analyzing science data and preparing science observing proposals.
AL1SC set up at the transit campus of ARIES at Haldwani, Uttarakhand, will jointly work with ISRO to maximize utilization of science data from Aditya-L1 and facilitate India’s first dedicated solar space mission- Aditya-L1.
The centre will also provide the co-aligned data from other observatories around the world that can complement the data obtained from Aditya-L1 allowing users to accomplish the science goals beyond the capabilities of the Aditya-L1.
The centre will expand reach of Aditya-L1 not only within India, but also increase the visibility of the mission at the international level. It will allow every interested individual to be able to perform scientific analysis of the data.

PIB

‘VINCOV-19’

Why in News?

‘VINCOV-19’ — a novel therapeutic antibody engineered product, which is a collaborative effort of the University of Hyderabad (UoH), CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CSIR-CCMB) and Vins Bioproducts Ltd, has got approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI) for clinical trials to test against the COVID-19 pandemic.

About

VINCOV-19 is an antibody product obtained after immunisation of horses with inactivated SARS-CoV-2 virus in combination with adjuvants.
The development of antibodies triggered in the horses are purified and further processed to generate highly pure antibody fragment-based product — Fab2.
Results have indicated that this product has a high neutralising capacity against SARS-CoV-2.
Since neutralising antibodies could block the internalisation of SARS-CoV-2 to lung cells, it is postulated that their passive administration should render maximum clinical benefits if they are applied at the early stages of the disease.

THE HINDU

ADB sees India grow by 11%

The Asian Development Bank has raised its forecast for India’s growth in 2021-22 to 11%, from 8% earlier, even as it warned that failure to control the resurgence of COVID-19 cases including April’s exponential jump poses a “considerable downside risk to the recovery”.
A stimulus-fuelled surge in the U.S., India’s largest export market, will support the revival, but a severe second COVID-19 wave is threatening the recovery,” the lender said in its Asian Development Outlook report, projecting growth to moderate to 7% in 2022-23, after a 11% expansion this year.
Government capex and accommodative financial policies, along with the vaccine roll-out programme this year, would also help.
India’s average inflation rate slowing to 5.2% this year from 6.2% last fiscal, and reverting to 4.8% (recorded in 2019-20), over the succeeding 12 months.
Inflation is projected to moderate as good harvests and supply chain recovery contain domestic food inflation even as global food prices rise, though oil prices… may exert some inflationary pressure.

The Hindu

SEBI tightens rules for provisional debt rating

Markets regulator SEBIcame out with a new framework to strengthen policies on provisional rating by credit rating agencies (CRAs) for debt instruments.
Under the framework, all provisional ratings (‘long term’ or ‘short term’) for debt instruments need to be prefixed as ‘provisional’ before the rating symbol in all communications — rating letter, press release and rating rationale.
Further, a rating will be considered provisional in cases where certain compliances that are crucial to the assignment of credit rating are yet to be complied with or certain documentations remain to be executed at the time of rating.
In no case shall a rating, including provisional rating, be assigned by a credit rating agency for an issuer or client evaluating strategic decisions such as funding mix for a project, acquisition, debt restructuring, scenario-analysis in loan refinancing.
On validity period, SEBI said provisional rating will be converted into a final rating within 90 days from the date of issuance of the instrument.

THE HINDU

RBI sets norms for appointing bank auditors

Why in News?

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued guidelines for appointment of statutory central auditors (SCAs) and statutory auditors (SAs) of commercial banks (excluding regional rural banks), urban co-operative banks (UCBs) and NBFCs (including Housing Finance Companies) with a view to improve the quality of financial reporting of supervised entities and to harmonise guidelines on appointment of their SAs.
The guidelines shall become applicable from FY 2021-22 and onwards.
However, UCBs and NBFCs shall have the flexibility to adopt these guidelines from [the second half] of FY 2021-22 so that there is no disruption.
The revised guidelines will ensure that statutory auditors are appointed in a timely, transparent and effective manner. This is expected to improve the quality of financial reporting by the entities and also improve the audit quality.

THE HINDU

At least 1 in 10 women experience miscarriage

One in seven pregnancies worldwide ends in miscarriage, and eleven percent of women endure a failed pregnancy at least once in their lifetime.
Some 23 million miscarriages occur every year, according to data pieced together from around the globe by an international team of 31 researchers.
Two percent of women — one in 50 — have experienced two miscarriages, while less that one percent have been through three or more.
Levels of care for women suffering miscarriage is highly uneven across countries, and even within many wealthy nations.
A new system is needed to ensure miscarriages are better recognised and women are given the physical and mental health care they need.
Misconceptions about miscarriage are widespread. Many women believe they occur only rarely, for example, or that they can be caused by lifting heavy objects or previous contraceptive use.
They may also think that there’s no effective treatments to prevent a miscarriage, especially in women at high risk.
Miscarriage can also lead to isolation, since many women might not tell their family, close friends, or even their partner about the loss of a pregnancy.
A miscarriage is widely defined as the loss of a pregnancy before 20 to 24 weeks of gestation, with the exact time period varying from country to country.
A review of published academic literature up to mid-May 2020 identified many causes for miscarriages, including a more advanced maternal age, previous miscarriages, and a father older than 40.
Other risk factors correlating with pregnancies that end spontaneously are being extremely under- or over-weight, smoking, alcohol consumption, persistent stress, working night shifts, and constant exposure to air pollution or pesticides.
Health consequences can be severe, especially for women who experience a second or multiple miscarriages.

THE HINDU

GNCT Act

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued a gazette notification stating that the provisions of the Government of National Capital Territory (GNCT) of Delhi (Amendment) Act, 2021, would be deemed to have come into effect from April 27.
The Act, which gives the Lieutenant Governor (L-G) of Delhi more teeth and significantly waters down the powers of both the elected government and the Legislative Assembly, will clarify the expression “Government” and address “ambiguities” in legislative provisions to promote “harmonious relations between the legislature and the executive.”
The Act defines the responsibilities of the elected government and the L-G along with the “constitutional scheme of governance of the NCT” interpreted by the Supreme Court in recent judgements regarding the division of powers between the two entities.
It will also seek to ensure that the L-G is “necessarily granted an opportunity” to exercise powers entrusted to him under proviso to clause (4) of Article 239AA of the Constitution.
This particular clause provides for a Council of Ministers headed by a Chief Minister for the NCT to “aid and advise the Lieutenant Governor” in the exercise of his functions for matters in which the Legislative Assembly has the power to make laws.
It will also provide for rules made by the Legislative Assembly of Delhi to be “consistent with the rules of the House of the People” or the Lok Sabha.

THE HINDU

Damselfly species

Why in News?

Researchers from Thiruvananthapuram and Mumbai have collaborated to discover two damselfly species from Satara district in Maharashtra, which forms part of northern Western Ghats.
The new endemic damsels, Euphaea thosegharensis and Euphaea pseudodispar, belonging to the genus Euphaea, were discovered by a team.
Prior to the findings, only three endemic species of Euphaea were known from Western Ghats.
These include Euphaea fraseri, a very common species in the forested foothills of Western Ghats and is found from Kanyakumari to Maharashtra;
Euphaea dispar, which is restricted to the north of the Palakkad Gap from South Kanara and Coorg to Nilgiris; and
Euphaea cardinalis, a montane species found south of the Palakkad Gap in Anamalais, Palnis and Agasthyamalai Hills.
Euphaea thosegharensis is similar to Euphaea cardinalis, while Euphaea pseudodispar is similar to Euphaea dispar but can be easily separated by its colouration and morphology.
They are restricted to the high elevation streams and riparian patches of Satara district around Thoseghar and Kaas lake in Maharashtra.

THE HINDU

The Ct value in a Covid-19 test

Among various scientific terms that the Covid-19 pandemic has made part of the public vocabulary, one is the ‘Ct value’ in RT-PCR tests for determining whether a patient is positive for Covid-19.
Maharashtra state sought clarity whether it was advisable to treat a person as Covid-negative if the Ct value is more than 24 and the person is asymptomatic.
Various ICMR documents had mentioned different Ct values and there were divergent views even among Niti Aayog and the National Centre for Disease Control.
Various ICMR documents had mentioned different Ct values and there were divergent views even among Niti Aayog and the National Centre for Disease Control.
All patients with a Ct value less than 35 may be considered as positive while those with a Ct value above 35 may be considered as negative.

But what is Ct value?

Short for cycle threshold, Ct is a value that emerges during RT-PCR tests, the gold standard for detection of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
In an RT-PCR test, RNA is extracted from the swab collected from the patient.
It is then converted into DNA, which is then amplified. Amplification refers to the process of creating multiple copies of the genetic material — in this case, DNA.
This improves the ability of the test to detect the presence of virus. Amplification takes place through a series of cycles — one copy becomes two, two becomes four, and so on — and it is after multiple cycles that a detectable amount of virus is produced.
According to the ICMR advisory, the Ct value of an RT-PCR reaction is the number of cycles at which fluorescence of the PCR product is detectable over and above the background signal.
Put simply, the Ct value refers to the number of cycles after which the virus can be detected. If a higher number of cycles is required, it implies that the virus went undetected when the number of cycles was lower.
The lower the Ct value, the higher the viral load — because the virus has been spotted after fewer cycles.

World’s Top Military Spenders

In its report on trends in global military expenditure in 2020, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has found that the world’s top military spenders — the US, China and India — saw their military spending go up compared to 2019, even during a pandemic year.
Last year, the US spent a total of $778 billion, China spent $252 billion and India’s military expenditure was $72.9 billion. While India’s spending since 2019 grew by 2.1 per cent, the increase for China was more moderate, at 1.9 per cent. The US saw a 4.4 per cent growth over its 2019 expenditure.
In total, the global military expenditure rose to $1981 billion last year, an increase of 2.6 per cent in real terms from 2019.
The “2.6 per cent increase in world military spending came in a year” when the global GDP shrank by 4.4 per cent (October 2020 projection by the International Monetary Fund).

What SIPRI does

The Sweden-based SIPRI is an independent international institute dedicated to research into conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament.
It was established on the basis of a decision by the Swedish Parliament and receives a substantial part of its funding in the form of an annual grant from the Swedish Government.
Established in 1966, SIPRI provides data, analysis and recommendations, based on open sources, to policymakers, researchers, media and the interested public.
From 2011 to 2020, American military expenditure dropped by 10 per cent, but China saw a 76 per cent growth while India’s military spending grew by 34 per cent.
SIPRI said that military spending in Asia and Oceania “was 2.5 per cent higher in 2020 than in 2019 and 47 per cent higher than in 2011, continuing an uninterrupted upward trend since at least 1989” and attributed the rise “primarily to increases in spending by China and India, which together accounted for 62 per cent of total military expenditure in the region in 2020”.
The other top spenders included Russia with $61.7 billion, the UK at $59.2 billion, Saudi Arabia at $57.5 billion, followed by Germany and France at just under $53 billion each.

What SIPRI has said about India in the past

Earlier in March, a SIPRI report found that India’s arms imports came down by a third between 2011-2015 and 2016-2020, at a time when the government has been trying to reduce the import dependence when it comes to defence platforms and weapons.
However, India remained the second highest importer, only behind Saudi Arabia. The top five global arms exporters were the US, Russia, France, Germany and China in 2016-2020.
In the study, SIPRI stated, “Arms imports by India decreased by 33 per cent between 2011–15 and 2016–20. Russia was the most affected supplier, although India’s imports of US arms also fell, by 46 per cent.”