What is the news : Karnataka Vikas Grameen Bank (KVGB), a regional rural bank headquartered in Dharwad, has bagged five awards (Lead to Leap, APY Makers of Excellence, Game Changers, Leadership Capital and Amazing Achievers) under various campaigns held for enrolment of Atal Pension Yojana (APY) from the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA).
About the bank : The Karnataka Vikas Grameena Bank, an Indian government owned Regional Rural Bank sponsored by Canara Bank. The bank provides retail banking services to rural users and has 628 branches in areas of Karnataka, around North and Western Karnataka.
What : Also called as Chang Zheng 5, it is a Chinese heavy-lift launch system
Developed by: The China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT)
Features :
First Chinese launch vehicle designed from the ground up to focus on non-hypergolic liquid rocket propellants.
The maximum payload capacities of the base variant are 25,000 kilograms to Low Earth Orbit and 14,000 kilograms to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit.
The spaceship is expected to transport astronauts to a space station that China plans to complete by 2022 — and eventually to the Moon.
It will have a capacity for a crew of six.
Recent News : Long March 5B rocket, which last week launched the core module of the country's space station, is set to re-enter the earth’s atmosphere this weekend, amid concerns that it could cause damage if it crashes in civilian areas.
Background : The Reserve Bank of India recently opened an on-tap liquidity window of Rs 50,000 crores.
COVID LOAN BOOK : It is an account of loans provided by the banks under this new window
How it works :
COVID loan book is operated by banks
Banks park their surplus liquidity to the size of COVID Loan Book with the RBI at reverse repo rate
Banks can provide lending support to vaccine manufacturers, importers of vaccines, pathology labs, hospitals and dispensaries, suppliers of vaccines, logistics firms, etc.
What : Researchers have genetically engineered Aedes aegypti mosquito
By : Oxitech Biotech firm, USA
Additional information :
The researchers of Oxitech had placed the boxes containing the bioengineered mosquito eggs at six locations.
Eventually engineered genes will be transmitted
What is the need of these musquitoes :
Only the females bite and spread diseases.
The researchers have now bioengineered the male Aedes aegypti mosquitos.
The bioengineered male Aedes aegypti carries a gene that passes to their offsprings and kills the female progeny alone in early larval stages.
The male offspring will not die and will become the carriers of the gene and will pass on to the future generations.
As more and more female offspring dies, the population should dwindle
By : Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
Why : To increase the production of pulses in and make India self sufficient
Focussed Crops : Moong, Tur, and Urad.
About the strategy :
High-yielding variety of seeds that are available with Central Seed Agencies to be used
The area under intercropping (Intercropping is the cultivation of two or more crops simultaneously on the same fields)is to be increased.
Implementation of the Strategy
A massive outreach programme with the concerned districts where the programme is launched is to be held through webinars.
The District Agriculture Offices will organise district level training programmes during crop season
The Krishi Vigyan Kendras and Agricultural Technology Application Research Institutes are to be roped in for effective implementation of the programme.
Additional facts:
The tur intercropping is to be covered in eleven states. They are Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Haryana, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh.
Moong intercropping is to be covered in nine states. They are Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana.
The Urad intercropping is to be covered in six states. They are Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
What : UDID is Unique ID for Persons with Disabilities Project. The project aims to provide a Universal ID And disability certificates for persons with disabilities. It is implemented since 2016
By : Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Ministry of Social Justice.
Recent news : the ID is to be issued online only.
About UDID Project
The Project aims to create a National Database for the Persons with Disabilities. Also, it aims to issue a UDID, that is, Unique Disability Identity Card to each person with disabilities.
Key Features of the Project
The project aims to achieve the following:
A centralised web application for online availability of data of person with disabilities across the country.
Online filling and submission of application form for disability certificate
Fast tracking the process of calculating the percentage of disability by the hospitals
Online updating and renewal of information about the persons with disabilities
Disabilities included in the project
The persons with disabilities included in the project are based on Disabilities Act, 1995. The following disabilities are included in the project:
Cerebral Palsy
Blindness
Low Vision
Locomotor Disability
Leprosy-cured
Mental retardation
Mental Illness
Hearing Impairment
Benefits of UDID project
The project will remove the need to make multiple copies of documents. The UDID card will capture all the required details.
It will be the single document of verification and identification required to avail various benefits in the future.
It will help to track financial progress of beneficiaries at all levels starting from village, block, district, state and national level.
What is the news : A recent study by Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology has found that only western Hoolock Gibbon is found in India, and not two.
Hoolock Gibbons
There are three Hoolock Gibbon speocies. They are Western Hoolock Gibbon, Skywalker Hoolock Gibbon and Eastern Hoolock Gibbon
The Western Hoolock Gibbons are distributed all over Northeast India, east and south Brahmaputra river and also along Myanmar and Bangladesh. The Eastern Hoolock Gibbons are distributed between Lohit and Dibang rivers in Arunachal Pradesh.
IUCN on Gibbons
According to IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), the presence of Eastern Hoolock Gibbons in India is uncertain.
The IUCN has put the different species of Hoolock Gibbons under the following categories:
Western Hoolock Gibbon: Endangered
Eastern Hoolock Gibbon: Vulnerable
Skywalker Gibbons: Threatened
What is the news : The Ministry of Labour and Employment recently notified Section 142 of the Social Security Code, 2020, making it mandatory of collecting Aadhaar details from the beneficiaries of various social security schemes. This includes migrant workers as well.
Section 142
It says that Aadhaar details are compulsory for an employee or unorganised person or any other person to get benefits of government schemes. The benefits can be in kind of cash for medical sickness, availing services of career centre, maternity benefits, receiving payment as insured person, etc.
Social Security Code
The Social Security Code was introduced in 2019. The main objectives of the code was to club the existing laws. It introduced universal social security for unorganised workers and also health and insurance benefits for gig workers.
It merged eights existing laws.
What is the news : The GSI has said that the Lineament is the main reason for the recent earthquake in Assam.
What is Lineament?
It is linear feature in a landscape (like a visible line or a long crack or a long visible dent). It is basically an expression of an underlying fault. Even ridges, troughs represent lineaments. A ridge is a long narrow elevated strip. Trough is a flat valley.
Lineaments are found in other planets and their moons as well.
Mineral resources are usually concentrated in areas of high-density lineaments.
What is Mega lineament?
The Mega Lineament is the term used to describe lineament on continental scale. San Andreas fault, Trans Brazilian Lineament are the mega lineament on the earth. They extend to thousands of kilometres.
Ranchi Mega Lineament
The data from IRS-1A and Landsat 5 were used to analyse the Chotanagapur plateau. It says that the Ranchi Mega Lineament is a potential site for base metal mineralisation. Also, it acts as good ground water conduit. However, Ranchi Mega Lineament is in Zone II in the Seismic Zone map of India. It means that it is in a low-risk zone.
Though it is a mega lineament, it is put in low-risk zone as compared to that of Assam, a very High-Risk Zone (Zone V). This is because, the fractures of Ranchi Mega Lineament are at great depths.
The researchers in the Geological Survey of India recently found fossil bone fragments of Sauropod dinosaurs. They were 100 million years old. These dinosaur bones were found in West Khasi hills in the district of Meghalaya.
An international team of Palaeontologists (who studies fossils) has identified a new genus and species of hadrosaur. Hadrosaur is also called duck-billed dinosaur. The species has been named as Yamatosaurus izanagii
The Union Cabinet recently approved the Strategic Disinvestment and transfer of management control in IDBI bank.
The scientists have found the oldest human burial in Africa. The site is 78,000 years old. The cave site was discovered near Kenyan coast. The site is called “Panga ya Saidi”.
Former union minsiter Chaudary Ajith singh recently passed away
Ethnology an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology).