About:

• The samples of drinking water were tested as per Indian Standard 10500:2012 (Specification for Drinking Water) as set by the Bureau of India Standards (BIS).
  
  
• Tests were conducted on various parameters such as Organoleptic and Physical Tests, Chemical test, Toxic substances and Bacteriological tests.
  
  

Findings:

• A vast majority of the samples have failed to comply with the requirements of IS 10500:2012 in one or more parameters.
  
  
• In Delhi, all the 11 samples drawn from various places did not comply with the requirements of the Indian Standard & failed on several parameters.
  
  
• All the 10 samples drawn from Mumbai were found to comply with the requirements.
  
  
• In the cities of Hyderabad, Bhubaneshwar, Ranchi, Raipur, Amravati and Shimla, one or more samples did not comply with the requirements of the Standard.
  
  
• None of the samples drawn from 13 of the State Capitals i.e. Chandigarh, Thiruvananthapuram, Patna, Bhopal, Guwahati, Bengaluru, Gandhinagar, Lucknow, Jammu, Jaipur, Dehradun, Chennai, Kolkata complied with the requirements of the Indian Standard.
  
  

About:

• 'Agni-II', an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) has already been inducted into the armed forces.
  
  
• It is a versatile surface-to-surface medium-range nuclear-capable missile that can carry a nuclear payload of one thousand kilograms.
  
  
• The missile has a strike range of 2000 km. The range of the 21-metre long missile weighing 17 tonnes can also be increased to three thousand kilometres by reducing the payload.
  
  
• This was the first time that this missile was test-fired at night. 
  
  

About:

• This will be Germany’s first climate action law.
  
  
• Last week, New Zealand passed the Zero-Carbon Law in a bid to comply with it’s Paris climate accord commitments and become a carbon-neutral nation by the year 2050.
  
  

Salient features:

• With this bill, a price on carbon emissions in the transport and heating sectors will be imposed along with some other measures to combat climate change.
  
  
• The bill consists of emissions targets for different sectors of the economy such as transport, energy and housing.
  
  
• From 2021, companies that market diesel and petrol, heating oil and natural gas in the country will need to obtain pollution rights for the amount of greenhouse gases they emit. This will be regulated through a national emissions trading mechanism.
  
  
• Additionally, flying domestically and within Europe will be made more expensive. The aviation tax will be increased by more than 5 euros to 13.03 euros per ticket.
  
  
• Significantly, renovations will also be taxed for three years from 2020 onwards. 
  
  

About:

• The rules have been notified to provide a generic framework for insolvency and liquidation proceedings of systemically important Financial Service Providers (FSPs) other than banks.
  
  
• The rules were issued under Section 227 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, which allows the Central government to notify FSPs or categories of FSPs for the purpose of insolvency and liquidation proceedings.
  
  
• The Rules provide that the provisions of the Code relating to the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP), Liquidation Process and Voluntary Liquidation Process for a corporate debtor shall, mutatis mutandis, apply to a process for an FSP, subject to modifications.
  
  
• The move to include FSPs comes against the backdrop of the crisis confronting the non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) sector.  
  
  

About:

• It has been launched with a composition of 10 leading liquid contracts on the NCDEX platform at present. Leading commodities such as guar seed, guar gum, soybean, chana, mustard seed, and jeera, etc, will be the index's constituents.
  
  
• The index is now available as ‘indicative’. It will be made tradable after being approved from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
  
  
• For indices, the NCDEX has partnered with NSE Indices, a leading index service provider, as a third party, to maintain and disseminate real-time NCDEX Agridex values.
  
  
• Futures trading on Agridex will enhance overall liquidity on the exchange platform. 
  
  

About:

• The OCSAE Prevention/Investigation Unit will function under the agency's Special Crime Zone in Delhi.
  
  
• The newly specialized Unit will collect and disseminate information on online child sexual abuse and exploitation.
  
  
• It will also probe such offences covered under the IPC, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and the Information Technology Act, apart from other relevant laws.
  
  
• The territorial jurisdiction of the Unit of CBI will be throughout India.