Manipur forest authority is gearing up for the seventh edition of the Amur Falcon Festival in Tamenglong district headquarters, 150 km west of Imphal on Monday(14th Nov 2022).

 

With an objective to spread awareness about protection and conservation of Amur falcon, the world’s longest flying migratory bird.

 

The day-long festival is generally celebrated in the first or second week of November to strengthen human-nature relationship and acknowledge the importance of this small raptor in the lives of people in the region . It was organised in 2015.

 

Forest, environment and climate change minister, Thongam Biswajit Singh, water resources minister, Awangbow Newmai and principal chief conservator of forest & head of forest force, Dr AK Joshi will attend the festival.

 

“The festival is not just a place to celebrate but also a place where people from different backgrounds come together and share their ideas,” said divisional forest officer (DFO), Amandeep of Tamenglong district. “I’m sure during the festival we will get a lot of new ideas for protection and conservation of the Amur falcon.”

Deputy commissioners (DCs) of Tamenglong and Senapati districts have separately issued orders to monitor and control hunting of wildlife in their respective districts during the sojourn of Amur falcon which are protected under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 and included under Scheduled IV..

Source : Hindustan Times

World Kindness Day is celebrated on November 13 every year. The day inspires people to appreciate the kindness and positive power in society. Kindness has no constraints and goes far beyond the feelings of race, religion, politics, and gender. This day help us to move forward in a helpful and kind spirit toward the people. There are many ways in which a person can show kindness toward the other person.

 

One can be kind to their parents who are providing for you or your teachers who are making you a better human being. People these days celebrate this day by sending messages through social media platforms. It’s an international holiday that is observed in many countries including but not limited to the U.S., Canada, Australia, Italy, and India.

 

World Kindness Day 2022 Theme : This year, the theme for World Kindness Day 2022 is "Be kind whenever possible." This theme is inspired by a quote of Dalai Lama.

 

World Kindness Day 2022 Significance : World Kindness Day is celebrated worldwide on November 13. The motive behind the celebration of this day is to highlight the importance of kindness all over the world. This day promotes every kind of act that is done with kindness.

 

If you are one of those who feel good after performing any act of kindness, then you understand what kindness actually is!

 

World Kindness Day History : The history of the World Kindness Day begin in 1997 when the first conference was hosted by World Kindness Movement in Tokyo, Japan to bring organizations with the same though process together from across the world. It is observed in many countries including Canada, Australia, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates.

 

It was in 1998, when the day was announced to be celebrated annually. The movement started spreading across the globe every year.  In 2005, the UK kindness movement began and in 2009 Singapore too became an active member of the group.

The World Kindness Movement gradually reached 27 countries and was finally recognized as an official NGO in Switzerland few years back..

Source : Zee News

Cochin Shipyard has signed an MoU with Inland Waterways Authority of India(IWAI) to build the country's first "hydrogen fuel cell catamaran vessel" for Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.

The Shipyard also signed another MoU for the construction of six electric catamaran vessels for Uttar Pradesh and two such vessels for Guwahati.

 

The MoU was signed at Varanasi in the presence of Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal, Union Minister for Heavy Industry "Mahendra Nath Pandey", Chief Minister "Yogi Adityanath" and a host of other dignitaries.

 

A statement issued by the Cochin Shipyard said the air-conditioned hydrogen fuel cell catamaran vessel will have a seating capacity for 100 passengers. It will be deployed at Varanasi after test and trial in Kochi.

 

The air-conditioned electric hybrid vessels, designed for short-distance commute in riverine waters, will have seating capacity for 50 passengers. The vessels will provide onboard accommodation for the crew, besides toilet and washroom facilities for the passengers.

 

The vessels will significantly contribute to the reduction in pollution levels in the National Waterways.

Source : AIR

New Zealand’s "Greg Barclay" unanimously re-elected as the International Cricket Council (ICC) chairman for another two-year term after his rival, Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) chairman Tavengwa Mukuhlani, pulled out of the contest late.

Barclay, who served his first stint as ICC chair between 2022 and this November, will now be in the position until 2024. Barclay, an Auckland-based commercial lawyer, was originally appointed as the ICC Chair in November 2020.

He was previously the Chair of New Zealand Cricket (NZC) and was a director of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2015. In July, Barclay publicly expressed his desire to continue for a second term.

 

* Besides Barclay’s re-election, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Jay Shah was elected as the head of ICC’s all powerful Finance and Commercial Affairs (F&CA) committee at the board meeting. Shah will have the responsibility of heading ICC’s most important committee. Al the major financial policy decisions are taken by the F&CA committee before it is ratified by the ICC board.

* It includes the revenue sharing among the member nations and also the various major sponsorship deals that the global body inks through the year.

* The F&CA committee is always headed by an ICC Board member and Shah’s election makes it clear that he will represent the BCCI on the ICC Board.

* The F&CA head’s position used to be India’s during the N Srinivasan era but during Shashank Manohar’s tenure as ICC chairman, the BCCI’s power and might had significantly reduced.

* In fact during the Committee of Administrators’ tenure, there was a point when BCCI didn’t even have any representation in the Finance and Commercial Affairs (F&CA) committee. Former BCCI president Sourav Ganguly was a member of the F&CA committee till last year..

Source : Hindustan Times

According to the Global Dashboard for Vaccine Equity recent data only one in four people has been vaccinated with at least one dose in low and middle income countries as of November 9, 2022. In comparison, in high income countries, three in four people have got at least one dose of the vaccine.

 

* The Global Dashboard for Vaccine Equity is a joint effort by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the University of Oxford with cooperation across the UN system.

* It combines the latest data on the global roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines with the “most recent socio-economic information to illustrate why accelerating vaccine equity is not only critical to saving lives but also to driving a faster and fairer recovery from the pandemic with benefits for all”.

Vaccine equity : It means everyone in the world has the same access to vaccines.

 

* The COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery Partnership (COVAX), a collective international effort with ‘One Country Team’, ‘One Plan’, and ‘One Budget’.

* It was launched by WHO, UNICEF, and Gavi and the World Bank, to intensify country readiness and delivery support.

* It aimed at accelerating COVID-19 vaccination coverage in 34 low coverage countries, along with their governments..

Source : The Hindu

The US Department of Treasury on Friday(12th Nov 2022) removed India along with Italy, Mexico, Thailand and Vietnam from its Currency Monitoring List of major trading partners that merit close attention to their currency practices and macroeconomic policies.

 

India had been on the list for the last two years.

 

The move came on a day when Secretary of the Treasury "Janet Yellen" visited New Delhi and held talks with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

 

China, Japan, Korea, Germany, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan are the seven economies that are a part of the current monitoring list, the Department of Treasury said in its biannual report to the Congress.

 

The countries that have been removed from the list have met only one out of three criteria for two consecutive reports, it said.

 

“China’s failure to publish foreign exchange intervention and broader lack of transparency around key features of its exchange rate mechanism makes it an outlier among major economies and warrants Treasury’s close monitoring,” said the report.

 

Notably, Switzerland once again exceeded the thresholds for all three criteria, which is a parameter for being labelled as a “Currency Manipulator”.

 

But the term was not used by the Report and the Treasury Department maintained that there is not enough evidence to use the label for Switzerland...

Source : Indian Express

DigiLocker, the authentic documents exchange platform under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has completed its second-level of integration with Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), the National Health Authority (NHA) said.

 

What Are The Advantages Of It : The secure cloud-based storage platform of DigiLocker can be used now as a health locker for storing and accessing health records such as vaccination records, doctor prescriptions, lab reports, hospital discharge summaries etc, stated NHA.

 

In addition to this, ABHA holders can also link their health records from different ABDM registered health facilities like hospitals and labs and access them via DigiLocker. Users can also scan and upload their old health records on the app. Further, they can share selected records with ABDM registered healthcare professionals.

 

What Has Been Said : CEO, National Health Authority (NHA) said, “Under the ABDM, we are building an inter-operable health ecosystem. The different applications from both the public and private sectors partners integrating with ABDM are helping expand the reach of the scheme to more users and adding more functionalities.

DigiLocker is a trusted and popular app to access authentic documents. Therefore, it is a significant development as users would now get to use it as a PHR app and get the benefits of paperless record keeping.”

 

MD & CEO, Digital India Corporation said, “We are proud to extend the benefits of ABDM to our 130 million registered users. The platform has already helped generate close to 85 thousand ABHA numbers. With the health locker integration, we’re positive that more people would be able to easily link and manage their health records digitally. DigiLocker aims to be the preferred health locker for ABHA users.”

 

About The DigiLocker : DigiLocker, It is an authentic documents exchange platform under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. DigiLocker had earlier completed level 1 integration with ABDM wherein the platform had added ABHA or Ayushman Bharat Health Account creation facility for its 13 crore users..

Source : PIB

Tirupati district is dotted with anthropomorphic burial sites, said to be the largest as a collection in Andhra Pradesh.

 

* Anthropomorphic sites are those marked by a representation of human form above the megalithic burials.

* The most prominent one is the ‘pillared dolmen’ of the megalithic era, found at Mallayyagaripalle, nestling on a hillock between Chandragiri and Dornakambala, in Tirupati.

* The structure locally referred to as ‘Pandava Gullu’ or ‘Pandavula Banda’ in memory of the Pandavas, is estimated to be 2,500 years old.

* There is another endangered megalith monument in Palem village near Kallur, which resembles a bull’s horn. It is called locally as ‘Devara Yeddhu’.

* Another megalithic burial site in Venkatapuram is the ‘stone circle’, where the tomb is surrounded by round stones arranged in a circle.

 

* A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones.

* The word megalithic describes structures made of such large stones without the use of mortar or concrete, representing periods of prehistory characterised by such constructions.

* The construction of these structures took place mainly in the Neolithic period and continued into the Chalcolithic period and the Bronze Age..

Source : The Hindu

According to State Bank of India, current account deficit likely to be lower at 3% for this fiscal as against the minimum consensus of 3.5%, citing rising software exports, remittances and a likely $5-billion jump in forex reserves via swap deals.

 

* The Balance of payments (BoP) records the transactions in goods, services and assets between residents of a country with the rest of the world.

* There are two main accounts in the BoP –

* the current account and

* the capital account.

* The current account records exports and imports in goods and services and transfer payments.

* Trade in services denoted as invisible trade (because they are not seen to cross national borders) includes both

* factor income (payment for inputs-investment income, that is, the interest, profits and dividends on our assets abroad minus the income foreigners earn on assets they own in India) and

* non-factor income (shipping, banking, insurance, tourism, software services, etc.).

* Transfer payments are receipts which the residents of a country receive ‘for free’, without having to make any present or future payments in return. They consist of remittances, gifts and grants. They could be official or private.

* The balance of exports and imports of goods is referred to as the trade balance.

* Adding trade in services and net transfers to the trade balance, we get the current account balance..

Source : The Hindu

According to a research published in the journal Nature, Scientists have, for the first time, used the CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) technology to insert genes that allow immune cells to attack cancer cells, potentially leaving normal cells unharmed and increasing the effectiveness of immunotherapy.

 

CRISPR is short for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, which is a reference to the clustered and repetitive sequences of DNA found in bacteria, whose natural mechanism to fight some viral diseases is replicated in this gene-editing tool.

Its mechanism is often compared to the ‘cut-copy-paste’, or ‘find-replace’ functionalities in common computer programmes.

A bad stretch in the DNA sequence, which is the cause of disease or disorder, is located, cut, and removed — and then replaced with a ‘correct’ sequence.

And the tools used to achieve this are not mechanical, but biochemical — specific protein and RNA molecules.

The technology replicates a natural defence mechanism in some bacteria that uses a similar method to protect itself from virus attacks.

Source : The Hindu