About:

• A top BIS official said that India is the fourth country after the US, UK and Germany to have its own national standard on bulletproof jacket which provides 360-degree protection.
  
  
• In December 2018, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) framed a national standard for bulletproof jacket following a direction from the Prime Minister's Office and the Niti Aayog.
  
  
• Two PSUs Medani and Ordnance factory at Avadi, Chennai and private firms SNPP (Palwal), Starwire (Faridabad) in Haryana and MKU (Kanpur) in Uttar Pradesh are manufacturing bulletproof jackets as per the BIS norms.
  
  
• Tough quality norms are set to ensure jackets can be manufactured in various sizes to suite requirement of soldiers and provide 360-degree protection, including from AK-47 hard steel core bullets approaching at 700 metres per second. J
  
  

About: 

• PM-KMY is an old age pension scheme for all land holding Small and Marginal Farmers (SMFs) in the country.
  
  
• It is voluntary and contributory for farmers in the entry age group of 18 to 40 years and a monthly pension of Rs. 3000/- will be provided to them on attaining the age of 60 years.
  
  
• The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) shall be the Pension Fund Manager and responsible for Pension pay out.
  
  
• If the farmer dies after the retirement date, the spouse will receive 50% of the pension as Family Pension. After the death of both the farmer and the spouse, the accumulated corpus shall be credited back to the Pension Fund.
  
  
• Eligibility:
  • Small and Marginal Farmer (SMF) - a farmer who owns cultivable land upto 2 hectare as per land records of the concerned State/UT.
    
    
  • Age of 18- 40 years.
    
    
  
  
  
• The following categories of farmers have been brought under the exclusion criteria:
  • SMFs covered under any other statuary social security schemes such as National Pension Scheme (NPS), Employees’ State Insurance Corporation scheme, Employees’ Fund Organization Scheme etc.
    
    
  • Farmers who have opted for Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan Dhan Yojana (PM-SYM) and Pradhan Mantri Laghu Vyapari Maan-dhan Yojana (PM-LVM).
    
    
  • All Institutional Land holders; and
    
    
  • Former and present holders of constitutional posts.
    
    
  
  
  

About: 

• It is a voluntary and contributory pension scheme for the Vyaparis (shopkeepers/retail traders and self-employed persons) with annual turnover not exceeding Rs 1.5 crore.
  
  
• It is a scheme for entry age of 18 to 40 years with a provision for minimum assured pension of Rs 3,000/- monthly on attaining the age of 60 years.
  
  
• Contribution: The Central Government shall give 50 % share of the monthly contribution and remaining 50% contribution shall be made by the beneficiary.
  
  
• Process of enrolment: With this nation-wide launch, people can enrol through 3.50 lakh Common Service Center (CSCs) across the country. In addition people can also self-enroll by visiting the portal www.maandhan.in/vyapari.
  
  
• Criteria for enrolment:
  • At the time of enrollment, the beneficiary is required to have an Aadhaar card and a saving bank/ Jan-dhan Account passbook only.
    
    
  • He/ She should be within 18 to 40 years of age group.
    
    
  • GSTIN is required only for those with turnover above Rs. 40 lakhs.
    
    
  • The beneficiary should not be income tax payer and also not a member of EPFO/ESIC/NPS (Govt.)/PM-SYM.
    
    
  
  
  
• Target: this scheme will target enrolling 25 lakh subscribers in 2019-20 and 2 crore subscribers by 2023-2024. An estimated 3 crore Vyaparis in the country are expected to be benefitted under the pension scheme.
  
  

About: 

• Implementing ministry: Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
  
  
• Background: The scheme of EMRSs was introduced in the year 1997-98 to ensure tribal students get access to quality education in the remote tribal areas.
  
  
• Features:
  • The schools would focus to provide quality upper primary, secondary and senior secondary level education to ST Students in these areas.
    
    
  • Apart from school building including hostels and staff quarters, provision for a playground, students' computer lab, teacher resource room etc. are also included in the EMRSs.
    
    
  
  
  
• Revamp of scheme: In December 2018, Union Cabinet revamped the scheme with following features –
  • EMRSs will be setup in every block with more than 50% ST population and at least 20,000 tribal persons. Thereby around 462 schools will be set up in addition to the 288 EMRSs already sanctioned.
    
    
  • There will be an Autonomous Society under the Ministry of Tribal Affairs similar to Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti to run the EMRSs.
    
    
  
  
  

About:

• What is it?
  • NATGRID is an online database for collating scattered pieces of information from more than 20 organisations in the field of telecom, tax records, bank, immigration, etc. to enable the generation of intelligence inputs.
    
    
  • At least 10 central agencies like IB, R&AW and others will have access to the data on a secured platform for counter-terror investigations.
    
    
  
  
  
• Background: The project was started in 2009 in the aftermath of 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
  
  
• Management: NATGRID is now headed by IAS officer Ashish Gupta.
  
  

About: 

• Hans Christian Joachim Gram was born in 1853, in Denmark’s Copenhagen.
  
  
• The Danish microbiologist is best known for pioneering the method of the Gram stain to identify bacteria, which is still widely used.
  
  

Gram staining method:

• Staining is an auxiliary technique used in microscopic techniques to enhance the clarity of the microscopic image. The most widely used staining procedure is the Gram stain.
  
  
• Gram staining is a differential staining technique that differentiates bacteria into two groups: gram-positives and gram-negatives. The procedure is based on the ability of microorganisms to retain colour of the stains.
  
  
• Gram-negative bacteria are decolorized by the alcohol, losing the colour of the primary stain, purple. Gram-positive bacteria are not decolorized by alcohol and will remain as purple.
  
  
• Importance: The Gram stain is a very important preliminary step in the initial characterization and classification of bacteria. It also enables the bacteria to be examined using a light microscope.
  
  

About:

• Astronomers at the University College London used data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to make the discovery. They published their findings in the journal Nature Astronomy.
  
  
• It is the first time that they have detected water on a planet in the habitable zone around a star where the temperature is potentially compatible with the presence of life.
  
  
• K2-18b has an atmosphere and it has water in it, thus making it the only exoplanet known to have both water and temperatures that could support life. 
  
  

About:

• Background: The Global AMR R&D Hub was launched in May 2018 in the margins of the 71st session of the World Health Assembly, following a call from G20 Leaders in 2017.
  
  
• Function: The Global AMR R&D Hub supports global priority setting and decision-making on the allocation of resources for AMR R&D, potential for cross-sectoral collaboration and leveraging in AMR R&D.
  
  
• Secretariat: Berlin, Germany.
  
  
• Funding: It’s operations are currently financed through grants from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG).
  
  
• Membership: Inclusion of India has expanded collaboration in global AMR R&D to 16 countries, the European Commission, two philanthropic foundations and four international organisations (as observers).
  
  

About:

• Exercise MAITREE is an annual training event which is being conducted alternatively in Thailand and India since 2006.
  
  
• The scope of this exercise covers company level joint training on counter terrorism operations in jungle and urban scenario.
  
  
• The joint military exercise will enhance the level of defence co-operation between Indian Army (IA) and Royal Thailand Army (RTA) which in turn will further foster defence cooperation and bilateral relations between the two nations.
  
  

About:

• The Drought Toolbox can be used by countries to assess drought risks in their regions much in advance. It can accurately evaluate the vulnerability of different geographic regions to drought.
  
  
• It will also suggest means to mitigate the adverse impact of acute water scarcity.
  
  
• The toolbox uses 30 parameters, including soil moisture, rainfall data and temperature data of the present and past.
  
  
• The framework for the toolkit includes three key aspects: (1) ‘Monitoring and Early Warning’ system, (2) ‘Vulnerability and Risk Assessment’ and (3) ‘Risk Mitigation Measures’.
  
  

Background:

• Few years ago, many countries suggested that the UNCCD come up with a tool to forecast droughts and minimise their socio-economic impact.
  
  
• Subsequently, UNCCD experts began working on the drought toolbox together with other UN organisations such as the FAO and World Meteorological Organization (WMO), as well as from the University of Nebraska in the US. 
  
  

Existing scenario:

• The UK had the post-study work visa scheme till 2012 when the then home secretary Theresa May scrapped it.
  
  
• Currently, most international students pursuing bachelor's and master's degrees can stay and work for only four months and those at 27 universities on a pilot scheme get six months.
  
  

UK's new post-study work visa route:

• Under the new graduate visa route, students from anywhere including India would be able to work or even look for work at any skill level.
  
  
• The visa will be two years long and will be a separate visa, requiring a new application.
  
  
• This route is non-extendable and does not count towards settlement. However, graduates who find an appropriate job and meet the requirements will be able to switch into skilled work, which is a route to settlement.
  
  
• The new visa is open to international students who hold valid student visas and have successfully completed a course at undergraduate level or above at a British institution of higher education which has a track record of compliance with the U.K. Home Office’s immigration rules. 
  
  

About: 

• Union HRD Minister attended the First Annual Innovation Festival of the MHRD’s Innovation Cell (MIC). MIC organized the first Annual Innovation Festival in coordination with AICTE.
  
  
• In 2018, the MHRD, initiated the separate Innovation cell with support from AICTE to foster the culture of innovation in all educational institutions of India.
  
  
• During the evet he launched the following initiatives.
  
  

Initiatives Launched:

• Launch of Institution’s Innovation Council (IIC) 2.0 from July 2019 – June 2020: MHRD’s Innovation Cell has envisioned establishing a strong network of Institution’s Innovation Council (IICs) in Higher Educational Institutes to promote innovation and start-up in academia.
  
  
• Launch of Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) 2020: ARIIA is an initiative of Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to systematically rank all major educational institutions and universities on indicators related to promotion of “Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development” amongst their students and faculties.
  
  
• Release of guidelines on ‘National Innovation and Start-up Policy 2019’ for students and faculty of all higher education institutions in India who are keen to become entrepreneurs.
  
  
• Launch of Smart India Hackathon 2020 (SIH2020): Smart India Hackathon is a flagship program and nationwide initiative by MHRD’s Innovation Cell (MIC) and AICTE to provide students a platform to solve some of the pressing problems we face in our daily lives.
  
  
• Announcement of new ATAL ACADEMIES: It is proposed to set up 10 (ten) more AICTE Training And Learning (ATAL) Academies/Centres (apart from existing 4).
  
  
• Launch of Protsahan Mudra Scheme: Protsahan Mudra is real time rewards Engine to give rewards to Students and teachers daily or as close to the action that qualifies for the reward.
  
  
• Announcement of AICTE – VISHWAKARMA AWARDS’ 2019: AICTE has introduced Vishwakarma Awards from 2017 to encourage and motivate young students and institutions to raise their performance in their specific domains. Theme of Vishwakarma Award 2019 is “How to enhance the income of Village”.
  
  

About:

• The Curriculum for Life Skills (JeevanKaushal) for Under Graduate Programme is designed to impart and strengthen the knowledge, skills and dispositions believed to be the best requisites of the current Industry and thereby empower the talent inherent in each learner.
  
  
• Life Skills like communication skill, interpersonal skill, time management, problem solving ability, decision making capacity, leadership ability and integrity play a crucial role in boosting the employability of the students. 
  
  

Background:

• The Union Cabinet had given its nod to set up Indian Institute of Skills (IISs) in three cities — Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Kanpur — to give boost to the Skill India Mission.
  
  
• These institutes will be constructed and operated on a PPP (Public-Private Partnership) model and on a not-for-profit basis.
  
  

Indian Institute Of Skills, Mumbai:

• The IIS will be a tertiary care institute in the skills ecosystem to offer courses in emerging and high demand areas. This institute will be on the lines of the Institutes of Eminence including IITs and IIMs.
  
  
• The objective of the institute is to provide skill training in highly-specialised areas such as deep technology, aerospace, among others to students who want to pursue technical education after completing Class X and XII.
  
  
• Tata Education Development Trust (TEDT) was selected as the private partner for setting up IIS at NSTI campus in Mumbai through a competitive bidding process. The aim of the Institute is to ensure that 5000 trainees will be passing out every year with 70% placement opportunities. 
  
  

Oil Market Report (August 2019): Key Highlights

• World oil demand in 2019 is expected to grow by 1.02 mb/d, which is 0.08 mb/d lower than the previous projection. In 2020, world oil demand is projected to increase by 1.08 mb/d.
  
  
• India’s oil demand will rise at the fastest pace globally this year and the next, even as its economic expansion has slowed down.
  • India’s oil demand is projected to rise by 3.21% to 4.88 million barrels per day (mb/d) in 2019 from 4.73 mb/d in the previous year.
    
    
  • In 2020, it will further rise by 3.36% to 5.05 mb/d.
    
    
  
  
  
• This outpaces China’s oil demand growth of 2.73% in 2019 and 2.37% in 2020.
  
  
• China, however, is the world’s second-biggest oil consumer at 13.06 mb/d in 2019, behind only the U.S. whose consumption is projected at 20.94 mb/d.
  
  
• India’s economy grew at slower than expected 5% in April-June, compared with 8% in the same quarter of 2018, and 5.8% in January-March. 
  
  

Key findings:

1. No pecuniary interest: Among the 213 MPs who did submit declarations, 124 (58%) declared NA or “nil” for five pecuniary Interests.
   
   
2. Remunerative directorship: 24 MPs declared that they have some financial interest in this form.
   
   
3. Regular remunerated activity: 30 (14.1%) MPs declared that they have a financial interest in this form.
   
   
4. Shareholding of controlling nature: Forty-four (20.7%) MPs declared such interests.
   
   
5. Paid consultancy: Only two MPs declared they have financial interests in the form of paid consultancy.
   
   
6. Professional engagements: 40 (18.8%) MPs declared financial interests in the form of professional engagement.
   
   

About:

• Arguments in favour of its inclusion:
  • Ladakh is predominantly a tribal region inhabited by various Scheduled Tribes, namely: Balti, Beda, Bot, Boto, Brokpa, Drokpa, Dard, Shin, Changpa, Garra, Mon and Purigpa.
    
    
  • The Scheduled Tribe population represent 66.8 percent in Leh, 73.35 percent in Nubra, 97.05 percent in Khalsti, 83.49 per cent in Kargil, 89.96 per cent in Sanku and 99.16 per cent in Zanskar areas of the Ladakh region.
    
    
  • Prior to creation of UT, people in Ladakh region had certain agrarian rights which restricted people from other parts of the country to purchase or acquire land in Ladakh.
    
    
  
  
  
• Benefits expected: Bringing Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule will help in:
  • Democratic devolution of powers;
    
    
  • Preserve and promote distinct culture of the region.
    
    
  • Protect agrarian rights including rights on land
    
    
  • Enhance transfer of funds for speedy development of Ladakh region. 
    
    
  
  
  

About:

• Swachhata Hi Seva” (“cleanliness is service”) campaign has been launched to push for greater public participation in Swachh Bharat Abhiyan which was launched on October 2, 2015.
  
  
• SHS 2019 has put special focus on ‘plastic waste awareness and management.’ This year’s Swachhata Hi Seva will see
  • mass awareness generation activities on plastic waste management between 11th September to 1st October,
    
    
  • nationwide Shramdaan for plastic waste collection and segregation on 2nd October, and
    
    
  • recycling and effective disposal of the collected plastic waste from 3rd October to Diwali, 27th October 2019. 
    
    
  
  
  

About: 

• ACC has approved the appointment of K. Mishra, currently functioning as Additional Principal Secretary to PM, as Principal Secretary to PM.
  
  
• ACC has also approved the appointment of K. Sinha, currently functioning as OSD in the Prime Minister's Office, as Principal Advisor to Pm.
  
  
• Their appointment, with effect from 11th September, 2019, will be co-terminus with the term of the PM or until further orders, whichever is earlier.
  
  

About:

• The National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) is slated to complete the process by December 15 through state agencies under the Centre’s Special Market Intervention Price Scheme.
  
  
• Government will ensure payments to the bank accounts of the apple growers through direct benefit transfer (DBT).
  
  
• Since the August 5 move of the Centre to read down Article 370, the Kashmir Valley has been in a state of lockdown. Because the harvest began in mid-August during the government-enforced security clampdown, growers have been unable to transport their produce to markets. 
  
  

National Animal Disease Control Programme (NADCP):

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the National Animal Disease Control Programme (NADCP) for eradicating the Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and Brucellosis amongst the livestock in the country.
  
  
• With 100 Percent funding from the Central Government, of Rs 12,652 Crores for a period of five years till 2024, the programme aims at vaccinating over 500 Million Livestock including cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats and pigs against the FMD.
  
  
• The programme also aims at vaccinating 36 Million Female Bovine Calves annually in its fight against the Brucellosis disease.
  
  
• The Programme has two components – to control the diseases by 2025 and eradication by 2030.
  
  

National Artificial Insemination Programme?

• He also launched the National Artificial Insemination Programme and a country wide workshop in all the Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) in all the 687 Districts of the country on vaccination and disease management, Artificial Insemination and Productivity. 
  
  

About:

• The India Urban Data Exchange set up by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) for its Smart Cities would be expanded, eventually leading to a “marketplace”.
  
  
• MoHUA said that the open data platform for the 100 cities would be expanded to cover 500 cities by 2022 and all urban centres in the country by 2024.
  
  

India Urban Data Exchange (IUDX)?

• IUDX is a research project under smart cities mission being implemented by Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) in collaboration with Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru.
  
  
• IUDX will be an open source software platform for cities, industry and researchers to share Smart City data with each other that could be monetised in the future, similar to the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for bank accounts and digital payments.
  
  
• It will facilitate secure, authenticated and managed exchange of data amongst various data platforms, third-party authenticated and authorized applications and other data sources, data producers and consumers, both within a city to begin with and scaled up across cities eventually at a national level, in a uniform and seamless way. 
  
  

Key highlights of 16^th AEM-India Consultations:

• During the meeting, India and ASEAN agreed to review their Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in goods to make it more business-friendly and boost economic ties. The two sides also decided to constitute a joint committee for this purpose.
  
  
• The Ministers noted that the two-way merchandise trade between ASEAN and India grew by 9.8 per cent from USD 73.6 billion in 2017 to USD 80.8 billion in 2018. There is also recovery of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows from India in 2018, amounting to USD 1.7 billion.
  
  
• This placed India as ASEAN’s sixth largest trading partner and sixth largest source of FDI among ASEAN Dialogue Partners. 
  
  

Zingiber perenense: 

• Zingiber perenense: It has been discovered from the Peren district of Nagaland. In this, the lip of the flower is white with purplish-red streaks throughout, and the pollen is ellipsoidal.
  
  
• Zingiber dimapurense: It was found in the Dimapur district of Nagaland. In this, the lip of the flower is white in colour, with dense dark- purplish red blotches.
  
  
• Of the two species, Zingiber dimapurense is taller in size, with leafy shoots measuring 90-120 cm high, whereas the leafy shoots of Zingiber perenense reach up to 70 cm in height.
  
  

Do you know?

• The genus Zingiber has 141 species distributed throughout Asia, Australia and the South Pacific, with its centre of diversity in Southeast Asia.
  
  
• More than 20 species have been found in northeastern India. Recent discoveries of Zingiber include Hedychium chingmeianum from Nagaland, Caulokaempferia dinabandhuensis from Manipur in 2017, and Zingiber bipinianum from Meghalaya in 2015.
  
  

Background:

• The squadron was formed at Ambala in 1951 under the command of Flight Lieutenant D L Springett and was then equipped with Harvard-II B aircraft.
  
  
• The Squadron converted to the Mig-21 M in 1975.
  
  
• In 1988, the Squadron was presented colours by then President of India R Venkataraman.
  
  
• Under the command of then Wing Commander BS Dhanoa, Golden Arrows participated actively in Operation Safed Sagar during the Kargil conflict in 1999.
  
  
• The squadron was disbanded in 2016, but now has been resurrected. 
  
  

Way ahead:

• In the near future, 17 Squadron will be the first Squadron to be equipped with the State of the art Rafale aircraft, which is an extremely capable, fourth generation, multirole aircraft with advanced weapons.
  
  
• The first batch of Rafale jets are scheduled to be formally handed over to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on October 8 in France. The jets are set to arrive in India in May 2020.
  
  

Key findings of report:

• The Delhi-NCR region has more startups and unicorns than Bengaluru and Mumbai.
  
  
• Number of Startups: A total of 7,039 startups were founded in Delhi-NCR since 2009. Bengaluru had 5,234 startups in the same period, followed by Mumbai with 3,829. Within Delhi-NCR, Delhi accounted for 4,491 start-ups, Gurugram 1,544 and Noida 1,004.
  
  
• Unicorns: Delhi-NCR is home to 10 unicorns, or those with a valuation of at least $1 billion. In comparison, Bengaluru has 9 and Mumbai has 2. Some of the unicorns in the Delhi-NCR region are MakeMyTrip, Info Edge and Indiamart.
  
  
• Valuation of startups: With 10 unicorns, the cumulative private market valuation of startups in the Delhi-NCR region is currently $46-56 billion, followed by Bengaluru at $32-37 billion followed by Mumbai at $10-12 billion.
  
  
• Projections: With suitable government and private sector interventions, Delhi-NCR could become one of the top 5 global startup hubs, with 12,000 startups, 30 unicorns and a cumulative valuation of about $150 billion by 2025.
  
  
• Challenges: The pace of founding new startups has, however, slowed over the past two years across India due to lack of affordable co-working spaces, less number and quality of accelerators and incubators, shortage of technical talent, lack of seed and early-stage funding and low corporate participation. 
  
  

Key Findings of WHO publication: 

• Close to 8 lakh people die due to suicide every year. In other words, suicides account for one death every 40 seconds.
  
  
• The global age-standardized suicide rate for 2016 was 10.5 per 100 000.
  
  
• While 79% of the world’s suicides occurred in low- and middle-income countries, high-income countries had the highest rate, at 11.5 per 100 000. Europe (12.85) tends to register the maximum deaths due to suicide while Eastern Mediterranean (4.3) reports the lowest average.
  
  
• Nearly three times as many men as women die by suicide in high-income countries, in contrast to low- and middle-income countries, where the rate is more equal.
  
  
• Suicide was the second leading cause of death among young people aged 15-29 years, after road injury.
  
  
• The most common methods of suicide are hanging, pesticide self-poisoning, and firearms.
  
  
• The number of countries with national suicide prevention strategies has increased in the five years since the publication of WHO’s first global report on suicide.
  
  
• Key interventions that have shown success in reducing suicides are restricting access to means; educating the media on responsible reporting of suicide; implementing programmes among young people to build life skills that enable them to cope with life stresses; and early identification, management and follow-up of people at risk of suicide.
  
  

About: 

• Names: H/H blood group is also known as Oh or the Bombay blood group.
  
  
• Background: The rare, Bombay blood group was first discovered in Mumbai (then Bombay) in 1952 by Dr Y M Bhende.
  
  
• What is it?
  • The Bombay blood group, also called hh, is deficient in expressing antigen H, meaning the RBC has no antigen H. For instance, in the AB blood group, both antigens A and B are found. A will have A antigens; B will have B antigens. In hh, there are no A or B antigens.
    
    
  • Often the hh blood group is confused with the O group. The difference is that the O group has Antigen H, while the hh group does not.
    
    
  
  
  
• Transfusion limitations: The individuals with Bombay blood group can only be transfused autologous blood or blood from individuals of Bombay hh phenotype only which is very rare.
  
  
• How rare is it?
  • Globally, the hh blood type has an incidence of one in four million. It has a higher incidence in South Asia; in India, one in 7,600 to 10,000 are born with this type.
    
    
  • This blood type is more common in South Asia than anywhere else because of inbreeding and close community marriages.
    
    
  
  
  

About:

• Cryodrakon ("cold dragon") is a genus of azhdarchid pterosaur that lived over 77 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period in what is now Canada.
  
  
• It contains a single species, Cryodrakon boreas, recovered from the Dinosaur Park Formation (in Alberta, Canada).
  
  
• With a wingspan of over 10 metres, it is believed to have flown over the heads of dinosaurs.
  
  
• The study by researchers from the Queen Mary University of London has concluded that the remains belong to a new species, which is also the first pterosaur to be discovered in Canada. 
  
  

About:

• Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant (1887 – 1961) was a lawyer, an Indian freedom fighter and one of the architects of modern India.
  
  
• In 1921, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh.
  
  
• He was an untiring participant in both the Non-Cooperation Movement and the Civil Disobedience Movement.
  
  
• He was also a member of the Central Legislative Assembly and the Constituent Assembly.
  
  
• He served as the 2nd Chief Minister of United Provinces from 1937 to 1939.
  
  
• After independence, he served as the 1st Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh from 1950 to 1954.
  
  
• He served as Union Home Minister from 1955–1961.
  
  
• As Home Minister, his chief achievement was the re-organisation of States along linguistic lines.
  
  
• He was also responsible for the establishment of Hindi as an official language of the central government and a few states.
  
  
• To honour his exemplary services to the nation, he received Bharat Ratna, in 1957. 
  
  

About:

• Onam is the biggest and the most important festival of the state of Kerala.
  
  
• Time and Duration:
  • It is a harvest festival, celebrated in the beginning of the month of Chingam, the first month of Malayalam Calendar (Kollavarsham). This corresponds with the month of August-September according to Gregorian Calendar.
    
    
  • Carnival of Onam lasts from four to ten days. First day, Atham and tenth day, Thiruonam are most important of all.
    
    
  
  
  
• Background: According to a popular legend, the festival is celebrated to welcome King Mahabali, whose spirit is said to visit Kerala at the time of Onam. 
  
  

About: 

• Mandate: The committee will look into the distribution of assets and liabilities of Jammu and Kashmir between two successor Union territories, which will come into existence on 31st of October this year.
  
  
• Composition: The committee will be headed by Former Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra. It will have Retired IAS officer Arun Goyal and Retired Indian Civil Accounts Service officer Giriraj Prasad Gupta as members.
  
  
• Background: On 5th of last month, the Centre had announced the abrogation of the special status given to J&K under Article 370 and bifurcation of the state into the two UTs.
  
  

About: 

• The Motihari-Amlekhganj petroleum product pipeline is the first ever cross-border petroleum products pipeline in South Asia.
  
  
• Route: The 69-km pipeline will transport fuel from Barauni refinery in Bihar's Begusarai district to Amalekhgunj in southeastern Nepal, situated across the border from Raxaul in East Champaran district.
  
  
• Timeline:
  • The project was first proposed in 1996, but progress was slow.
    
    
  • In 2017, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) signed a petroleum trade agreement to supply about 1.3 million tonnes of fuel annually to Nepal with a promise to double the volume by 2020.
    
    
  
  
  
• Significance:
  • The pipeline will help in tackling the oil storage problem in Nepal. The Amalekhgunj fuel depot will have the capacity to store up to 16,000 kilolitres of petroleum products.
    
    
  • It will drastically reduce the cost of transporting fuel to landlocked Nepal from India by doing away with transportation of petroleum products through tankers (as part of an arrangement which is in place since 1973).
    
    
  
  
  

About: 

• JPMorgan’s “Volfefe Index," named after Trump’s mysterious covfefe tweet from May 2017, suggests that the President’s tweets have increasingly moved the US rates markets immediately after they were published.
  
  
• Analysts also found that the number of market-moving tweets from Trump’s handle rose in the past month, with those including words such as ‘China,’ ‘billion,’ ‘products,’ ‘democrats,’ and ‘great,’ most likely to affect prices.
  
  
• JPMorgan isn’t alone in attempting to calculate the impact of the president’s Twitter activity on markets. Analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch published a note last week concluding that days where President Trump tweets relatively frequently tend to see negative returns of 9 basis points on average.
  
  

About:

• The Five Star Movement (M5S) is a political party in Italy.
  
  
• It was founded in 2009 by Beppe Grillo and quickly grew. It was borne out of apparent frustration with the political establishment in a country with a stagnant economy and widespread corruption at the highest echelons.
  
  
• The "five stars" are a reference to five key issues for the party: (1) public water, (2) sustainable transport, (3) sustainable development, (4) right to Internet access, and (5) environmentalism.
  
  
• The M5S is variously considered populist, anti-establishment, environmentalist, anti-globalist and Eurosceptic.
  
  
• Since its inception in 2009, the M5S has risen to become one of the most voted-for parties in Italy. In the 2018 general election, the M5S became the largest individual party in the Italian Parliament and entered government.
  
  

About:

• Nomenclature: Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Temple is also known as Yadadri and Yadagirigutta temple.
  
  
• Location: It is situated on a hillock in Yadagirigutta of Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district, Telangana.
  
  
• Features: It is a Hindu temple dedicated to Narasimha, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. The sanctum sanctorum or Garbhagriha of the temple is located in a cave, under a huge slating rock, which covers half the abode.
  
  

Renovation:

• A new temple is being built at the old temple site. The Chief Minister of Telangana, K. Chandrashekhar Rao initiated the renovation of the temple. The work started in 2016 and the entire temple project is expected to be completed by the end of 2019.
  
  
• The temple was renamed as Yadadri by Vaishnavaite ascetic Chinna Jeeyar Swamy, who is overseeing its construction.
  
  
• Key features:
  • The temple is built entirely in stone (by sculpting a hill of granite into a temple), probably the first one after the monolithic Kailasa Temple in the Ellora caves that was built in 8^th
    
    
  • The centuries-old practice of using lime mortar to join different stone parts is being used. The architecture of the temple is based on Agama Shashtra.
    
    
  
  
  

About:

• The survey was conducted by Nutrition International in collaboration with the AIIMS, Delhi and the Indian Coalition for the Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorders (ICCIDD).
  
  
• The survey tested the iodine content in samples of cooking salt from households to estimate the coverage of iodised salt in 29 States and 7 Union Territories in India.
  
  

Key findings of survey:

• The national average for household coverage is 76.3% i.e. 76.3% of Indian households consumed adequately iodised salt, which is salt with at least 15 parts per million of iodine.
  
  
• The five worst performers were Tamil Nadu (61.9%), Andhra Pradesh (63.9%), Rajasthan (65.5%), Odisha (65.8%) and Jharkhand (68.8%).
  
  
• The north-eastern States are doing very well with respect to iodised salt consumption at the household level because of the distance they have from the three salt producing states.
  
  
• Gujarat produces 71% of salt in the country, followed by Rajasthan at 17% and Tamil Nadu at 11%. The rest of the country accounts for a mere 1% of salt produced.
  
  
• 13 out of 36 States have already achieved Universal Salt Iodisation.
  
  

About: 

• Analyses indicate that socioeconomic and environmental trends, together with improved coverage of malaria interventions, will create a world in 2050 with malaria persisting in pockets of low-level transmission in equatorial Africa.
  
  
• To achieve eradication by 2050, the report identifies three ways:
  • First, the world must improve implementation of malaria control programmes.
    
    
  • Second, they must develop innovative tools to overcome the biological challenges to eradication.
    
    
  • Third, malaria-endemic countries and donors must provide the financial investment needed.