Current Affairs May 6 – GES Reporter

Global Innovation Partnership

Why in News?

The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister gives ex-post facto approval to the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Ministry of External Affairs of the Government of Republic of India and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) of the United Kingdom on Global Innovation Partnership (GIP).

Objectives:

Through this MoU, India and UK agree to launch the Global Innovation Partnership.
GIP will support Indian innovators to scale up their innovations in third countries thereby helping them explore new markets and become self-sustainable.
It will also foster the innovative ecosystem in India.
GIP innovations will focus on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) related sectors thereby assisting recipient countries achieve their SDGs.
Through seed funding, grants, investments and technical assistance, the Partnership will support Indian entrepreneurs and innovators to test, scale up and take their innovative development solutions to select developing countries.
The innovations selected under GIP would accelerate the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals and benefit the base of the pyramid populations thus promoting equity and inclusivity in recipient countries.
GIP will also develop an open and inclusive e-market place (E-BAAZAR) for cross border innovation transfer and will focus on results based impact assessment thereby promoting transparency and accountability.

PIB

Migration and Mobility Partnership

Why in News?

The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister has approved the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Migration and Mobility Partnership between the Government of the Republic of India and Her Majesty’s Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Objectives:

The MoU is aimed at Liberalising issuance of visas promoting mobility of students, researchers and skilled professionals and strengthen cooperation on issues related to irregular migration and human trafficking between the two sides.
The MoU would benefit Indian students, academics, and researchers, migrants for professional and economic reasons and those willing to contribute through various projects to the economic development of both countries without consideration of caste, creed, religion or gender.
This MoU can support the innovation ecosystem in both countries by facilitating free flow of talent.
Ministry of External Affairs would closely monitor the effective implementation of the MoU through Joint Working Group mechanism.

PIB

Experimental flights of drones

Why in News?

Ministry of Civil Aviation has granted conditional exemption from Unmanned Aircraft System {UAS) Rules, 2021 to 20 entities to conduct Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) experimental flights of drones.
The preliminary permission grant is envisioned to assist the supplementary framework development of subsequent UAV rules pertaining to Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone operations.
BVLOS trials will help create framework for future drone deliveries and other major applications using drones.
The Central Government had constituted the ‘BVLOS Experiment Assessment and Monitoring (BEAM) Committee’ to invite Expression of Interest (EOI) to undertake BVLOS experimental flights of drones.

PIB

Exports of organic millets grown in Himalayas to Denmark

Why in News?

In a major boost to organic products exports from the country, first consignment of millets grown in Himalayas from snow-melt water of Ganges in Dev Bhoomi (Land of the God), Uttarakhand would be exported to Denmark.
APEDA, in collaboration with Uttarakhand Agriculture Produce Marketing Board (UKAPMB) & Just Organik, an exporter, has sourced & processed ragi (finger millet), and jhingora(barnyard millet) from farmers in Uttarakhand for exports, which meets the organic certification standards of the European Union.

About

UKAPMB, through a unique initiative has been supporting thousands of farmers for organic certification. These farmers produce mainly millets such as ragi, barnyard millet, amaranthus etc.
Millets are gaining a lot of popularity globally because of high nutritive values and being gluten free also.
India’s export of organic food products rose by more than 51% to Rs 7078 crore ($ 1040 million) during April-February (2020-21) compared to the same period in the previous fiscal (2019-20).
Oil cake meal is a major commodity of the organic product exports from the country followed by oil seeds, fruit pulps and purees, cereals & millets, spices, tea, medicinal plant products, dry fruits, sugar, pulses, coffee, essential oil etc.
India’s organic products have been exported to 58 countries including USA, European Union, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, Switzerland, Israel and South Korea.

NPOP

At present, organic products are exported provided they are produced, processed, packed and labelled as per the requirements of the National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP).
The NPOP has been implemented by APEDA since its inception in 2001 as notified under the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulations) Act, 1992.
The NPOP certification has been recognized by the European Union and Switzerland which enables India to export unprocessed plant products to these countries without the requirement of additional certification.
NPOP also facilitates export of Indian organic products to the United Kingdom even in the post Brexit phase.
In order to facilitate the trade between major importing countries, negotiations are underway with Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Australia, UAE, New Zealand for achieving Mutual Recognition Agreements for exports of organic products from India.
NPOP has also been recognized by the Food Safety Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) for trade of organic products in the domestic market.
Organic products covered under the bilateral agreement with NPOP need not to be recertified for import in India.

PIB

Section 142 of the Social Security Code – 2020 Notified

Why in News?

Section 142 of the Social Security Code, 2020 has been notified by Ministry of Labour & Employment covering applicability of Aaadhar.
The notification of section will enable Ministry of Labour and Employment to collect Aaadhar details for the database of beneficiaries under various social security schemes.
National Data Base for unorganised workers (NDUW) is at an advanced stage of development by National Informatics Centre.
The portal is aimed at collection of data for unorganised workers including migrant workers for the purpose of giving benefits of the various schemes of the Government.
An inter-state migrant worker can register himself on the portal on the basis of submission of Aaadhar alone.

PIB

Martian climate

About four billion years ago, Mars had a water-rich environment.
Despite receiving just 30% of the Earth’s present-day sunshine, how did Mars have flowing rivers?
A new study that used a computer model shows that Mars could have had a thin layer of icy, high-altitude clouds that caused a greenhouse effect.

THE HINDU

Global glacier retreat

An international team that studied all the world’s glaciers – around 2,20,000 in total – found that over the past two decades glaciers have rapidly lost thickness and mass.
The situation in the Himalayas is particularly worrying.
During the dry season, glacial meltwater is an important source that feeds major waterways such as the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Indus rivers.
Right now, this increased melting acts as a buffer for people living in the region, but if Himalayan glacier shrinkage keeps accelerating, populous countries like India and Bangladesh could face water or food shortages in a few decades.

THE HINDU

Lightning cleanser

Lightning bolts increase the atmosphere’s ability to cleanse itself or breakdown greenhouse gases, a team of researchers found.
The team noted that extreme amounts of hydroxyl radical (OH) and hydroperoxyl radical (HO2) were discharged during lightning events.
This OH initiates chemical reactions and breaks down molecules like the greenhouse gas methane.

The Hindu

How red corals survive heat stress

The corals in the Gulf of Aqaba, at the northern tip of the Red Sea, have been known to be resistant to higher temperatures.
By studying them at the laboratory researchers have now decoded the full molecular mechanism behind this resistance.
The coral Stylophora pistillata has a rapid gene expression response and recovery pattern when exposed to heat stress.
The algae and bacteria they live in symbiosis with the coral can also withstand average temperatures 5°C higher than what they typically experience.

THE HINDU

Key-hole mining

A team of international researchers has developed a new method to extract metals directly from the parent ore deep inside earth.
In the new technique, electrodes are drilled into an ore body and an electric current is applied.
This can transport the electrically charged metal ions, such as copper, through the rock via a process called electromigration.

THE HINDU

Crop residue to create bio-batteries

Odisha-born sisters Nikita and Nishita Baliarsingh create an electric vehicle (EV) battery from crop residue.
There was a statement that read, ‘Proteins may have potential benefits in electrolytes’. That was the turning point.
According to a report by The Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) in November 2020, a total of 5,30,560 EVs (two-wheelers, three-wheelers, cars, and buses) were sold in India.
The Baliarsingh sisters aim to take EVs across vehicle segments.
The current market caters mainly to low-speed electric two wheelers that use lithium.
The biodegradable batteries are fashioned from crop residue.
A cell consists of three structural elements – the cathode, anode and electrolyte. Their process of manufacturing plays with the chemistry of the cell and builds all these elements with nanodot proteins derived from crop residue. Their batteries are lithium ion-free. They procure the crop remains from local farmer
s, and by applying a unique extraction and filtration process, manufacture rechargeable energy storing EV cells out of it.
Procurement of crop waste helps the farmers in earning an additional income of ₹25,000 for every 100 batteries. The manufacturing process has been designed to ensure no element of the environment is exploited.
The production of batteries creates bio-fertiliser as by-products, which is to return to the market to facilitate a favourable agricultural yield.
The batteries charge eight to 10 times faster than conventional ones and last 20% to 30% longer. “Most importantly, once the batteries die, they can be recycled at no extra cost, which is not the case with the regular EV offerings.
Made out of bio-degradable material, the cells rule out toxicity hazards and using crop residue ensures that some of it is not burnt, which in turn protects from deterioraton of air quality.

THE HINDU

IDBI Bank strategic disinvestment

Why in News?

The Union Cabinet gave in-principle approval for strategic disinvestment along with transfer of management control in IDBI Bank in line with the Budget announcement earlier this year.
The central government and LIC together own more than 94% equity of IDBI Bank. LIC, currently the promoter of IDBI Bank with management control, has a 49.2% stake.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while presenting the Budget 2021-22 had announced the privatisation of public sector banks (PSBs) as part of a disinvestment drive to garner ₹1.75 lakh crore.
The Centre expects the strategic buyer will infuse funds and new technology for development of the bank’s business potential.

THE HINDU

Average monthly income for workers

The COVID-19 pandemic has substantially increased informality in employment, leading to a decline in earnings for the majority of workers, and consequent increase in poverty in the country, according to ‘State of Working India 2021: One Year of Covid-19’, a report brought out annually by Azim Premji University’s Centre for Sustainable Employment, Bengaluru.
This year’s report, which covers the period March 2020 to December 2020, dwells on the impact of one year of COVID-19 on employment, incomes, inequality and poverty.
Regarding employment, the report notes that 100 million jobs were lost nationwide during the April-May 2020 lockdown. Though most of these workers had found employment by June 2020, about 15 million remained out of work. As for income, “for an average household of four members, the monthly per capita income in Oct 2020 (₹4,979) was still below its level in Jan 2020 (₹5,989)”.
The study found that post-lockdown, nearly half of salaried workers had moved into informal work, either as self-employed (30%), casual wage (10%) or informal salaried (9%).
The fallback option varied by caste and religion. “General category workers and Hindus were more likely to move into self-employment while marginalised caste workers and Muslims moved into daily wage work,” noted the report.
Education, health and professional services saw the highest exodus of workers into other sectors, with agriculture, construction and petty trade emerging as the top fallback options. For Hindus, agriculture was the major fallback sector, absorbing 10-20% of workers from other sectors, while for Muslims, it was trade, absorbing 20-35% of workers from other sectors.
Due to the employment and income losses, the labour share of the GDP fell by 5 percentage points, from 32.5% in the second quarter of 2019-20 to 27% in the second quarter of 2020-21.
Of the decline in income, 90% was due to reduction in earnings, while 10% was due to loss of employment. This means that even though most workers were able to go back to work, they had to settle for lower earnings.
Monthly earnings of workers fell on an average by 17% during the pandemic, with self-employed and informal salaried workers facing the highest loss of earnings.
There was also a correlation between lockdown-related mobility restrictions and losses in earnings. A 10% decline in mobility was associated with 7.5% decline in income.
During the lockdown and in the post-lockdown months, 61% of working men remained employed while 7% lost their job and did not return to work. But in the case of women, only 19% remained employed while 47% suffered a permanent job loss, “not returning to work even by the end of 2020”.
About 33% of workers in the 15-24 years age group had failed to regain some form of employment even by December 2020. The corresponding figure for those in the 25-44 years category was 6%.

THE HINDU

Pfizer vaccine

Two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine provide more than 95% protection against infection, hospitalisation, severe illness, and death, including among the elderly, according to the first national-level observational assessment of its effectiveness in Israel.
A single dose was associated with 58% protection against infection, 76% against hospitalisation, and 77% against death, emphasising the importance of fully vaccinating adults.
The duration of immunity – both from infection and immunisation – remains unknown, and it is possible that new, vaccine-resistant variants could emerge in the future. In addition, achieving herd immunity will require a continued increase of vaccination coverage worldwide.

RBI’s Rs 50,000 crore fund support to healthcare

Why in News?

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) unveiled a host of measures to boost fund flow to the healthcare sector and ease the pain of small borrowers and units.
The RBI has opened an on-tap liquidity window of Rs 50,000 crore with tenors of up to three years at the repo rate – four per cent — till March 31, 2022 to boost provision of immediate liquidity for ramping up Covid-related healthcare infrastructure and services in the country.
Under the scheme, banks can provide fresh lending support to a wide range of entities including vaccine manufacturers, importers and suppliers of vaccines and priority medical devices, hospitals and dispensaries, pathology labs, manufactures and suppliers of oxygen and ventilators, importers of vaccines and Covid-related drugs, logistics firms and also patients for treatment.
hese loans will continue to be classified under priority sector till repayment or maturity, whichever is earlier. Banks may deliver these loans to borrowers directly or through intermediary financial entities regulated by the RBI.
By way of an additional incentive, such banks will be eligible to park their surplus liquidity up to the size of the Covid loan book with the RBI under the reverse repo window at a rate which is 25 bps lower than the repo rate or, termed in a different way, 40 bps higher than the reverse repo rate.

RBI’s Rs 10,000 crore liquidity support for small finance banks

The RBI has decided to conduct special three-year long-term repo operations (SLTRO) of Rs 10,000 crore at repo rate for small finance banks, to be deployed for fresh lending of up to 10 lakh per borrower.
This is to provide further support to small business units, micro and small industries, and other unorganised sector entities adversely affected during the current wave of the pandemic.

Overdraft (OD) facility for states

The RBI also announced certain relaxations in Overdraft (OD) facilities of State Governments so that they can better manage their fiscal situation in terms of their cash-flows and market borrowings.
Accordingly, the maximum number of days of OD in a quarter is being increased from 36 to 50 days and the number of consecutive days of OD from 14 to 21 days.
This facility will be available up to September 11 30, 2021. The Ways and Means Advance (WMA) limits of states have already been enhanced on April 23, 2021.

Archaeologists uncover oldest human burial in Africa

Archaeologists have identified the oldest known human burial in Africa during field work that uncovered the remains of a child laid carefully to rest in a grave nearly 80,000 years ago.
The arrangement of the bones shows the three-year-old – named Mtoto after the Swahili word for child – was placed with legs tucked to chest, and perhaps wrapped in a shroud with their head on a pillow, before being gently covered in soil.
Researchers discovered the delicate and degraded bones while excavating the floor beneath a sheltered overhang at the mouth of the Panga ya Saidi cave in the tropical uplands of Kenya’s coastal plain about 10 miles from the shore.
Archaeologists have found older human burial sites outside Africa. Human remains recovered from burials in the Skhul cave on the slopes of Mount Carmel in Israel and Qafzeh cave near Nazareth are between 90,000 and 130,000 years old.

THE GUARDIAN