About:

• Mikhail Gorbachev (1931 – 2022) was a Russian and Soviet politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union.
• As the country's head of state from 1988 to 1991, he served as Chairman of the Supreme Soviet from 1989 to 1990 and President of the Soviet Union from 1990 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
• Ideologically, Gorbachev initially adhered to Marxism–Leninism, but he moved towards social democracy by the early 1990s.
• Gorbachev believed significant reform was necessary, particularly after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
• He withdrew from the Soviet–Afghan War and embarked on summits with United States president Ronald Reagan to limit nuclear weapons and end the Cold War.
• Domestically, his policy of glasnost ("openness") allowed for enhanced freedom of speech and press, while his perestroika ("restructuring") sought to decentralize economic decision-making to improve efficiency.
• The recipient of a wide range of awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize, he was widely praised for his pivotal role in ending the Cold War.

About:

• Professor Sen had been a faculty at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning (CESP) at Jawaharlal Nehru University from 1985 to his superannuation in 2015.
• Politicians, academics, students, farmers’ leaders and activists remembered him for his contributions in areas such as minimum support price, rural economy and rural employment.
• Professor Sen is survived by his wife, eminent economist Jayati Ghosh, and daughter, Jahnavi Sen, a journalist. 

About:

• Of the fake Indian currency notes with a face value of ₹20.39 crore seized in 2021, ₹12.18 crore was in the denomination of ₹2,000.
• The new ₹2,000 and ₹500 currency notes were introduced in 2016 after the old ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes were scrapped by the Union government. The government had said that curbing of fake notes was one of the primary objectives of the 2016 demonetisation exercise.
• Post-2016, there has been an increase in seizure of fake money, the NCRB data reveal.
• The highest recovery of fake ₹2,000 notes was made in Tamil Nadu (₹5 crore), followed by Kerala (₹1.8 crore) and Andhra Pradesh (₹1 crore).

About:

• Lumpi-ProVac has been developed by the National Research Centre on Equines, Hisar, Haryana, in collaboration with the Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar (Bareilly). The vaccine was launched earlier this month by Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar.
• Lumpy skin disease is an infectious viral disease of cattle, which often occurs in epizootic form. The disease is characterised by the eruption of nodules in the skin, which may cover the whole of the animal’s body.

About:

• The decision comes amid concerns over the Solomons’ growing ties with China in recent years, switching diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 2019 and signing a security pact with the Asian power in April.
• Western governments are wary that the islands could provide China with a military foothold in a strategically important region.
• Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and northwest of Vanuatu. Its capital, Honiara, is located on the largest island, Guadalcanal.

About:

• The Supreme Court also issued notice in a separate petition in the batch, which said the personal law practices violated Section 494 of the Indian Penal Code.
• The section makes “marrying again during lifetime of husband or wife” an offence punishable with imprisonment up to seven years and fine. The case will be listed after the Dasara holidays.
• Petitioners argue that polygamy and nikah halala (bar against remarriage with divorced husband without an intervening marriage with another man) are unconstitutional. 

About:

• The order was issued hours after Union Home Minister Amit Shah visited the Police Headquarters here. Since Delhi is a Union Territory, its police force is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
• The order comes following a push by Mr. Shah who had said the government was going to overhaul the British-era Indian Penal Code and one of the changes being considered was making collection of forensic evidence compulsory in criminal cases punishable by more than six years.
• “The era of third degree torture is over. Custodial torture has roots in colonial India. Conviction of criminals can be achieved based on forensic evidence that is irrefutable,” Mr. Shah had said.

About:

• Headline inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index has averaged 6.8% in the first seven months of 2022, well above the 6% upper tolerance threshold set by policy makers.
• However, consumers in Telangana, West Bengal and Sikkim faced the steepest spike in prices, with their combined retail inflation for rural and urban areas averaging 8.32%, 8.06%, and 8.01%, respectively.
• Smaller States such as Manipur, Goa and Meghalaya have had an average inflation of less than 4% through this period, at 1.07%, 3.66%, and 3.84%, respectively.

About:

• Till February 2014, Chennai airport held onto being the third busiest in the country and post March, Bengaluru airport overtook and continues to retain that position. Hyderabad and Kolkata airports too recorded sharp growth, relegating Chennai to the sixth spot.
• Interestingly, if one looks at the international passenger traffic data for July, Chennai airport stood third behind Delhi and Mumbai; it overtook Bengaluru and Hyderabad, recording 4.29 lakh passengers.
• But Chennai lags behind other metro cities in terms of domestic passenger traffic. In July, the Chennai airport had only 10.2 lakh domestic air passengers, far behind Delhi (36.5 lakh passengers), Mumbai (21.5 lakh passengers), Bengaluru (19.1 lakh passengers), Hyderabad (13.1 lakh passengers) and Kolkata (11.99 lakh passengers).

What is the proposed UN High Seas treaty?

• Also referred to as the ‘Paris Agreement for the Ocean’, the treaty to deal with Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction has been under discussion for several years.
• The proposed treaty concerns the ocean existing beyond the Exclusive Economic Zones that lie from the coast of a country to about 200 nautical miles or 370 km into the sea, till where it has special rights for exploration. Waters beyond that are known as open seas or high seas.
• The treaty was to be negotiated under the United Nations Convention on Laws of the Sea (UNCLOS) of 1982 which governs the rights of countries regarding marine resources.
• As there is no treaty for conserving the health of vast swathes of the earth’s oceans, a UN resolution in 2017 had decided to rectify this while setting 2022 as the deadline.

About:

• The company said it will launch its 5G services on a “standalone” 5G architecture, against the “non-standalone” approach that other operators are betting on.
• 5G networks are deployed mainly on two modes: standalone and non-standalone.
• In the standalone mode, which Jio has chosen, the 5G network operates with dedicated equipment, and runs parallel to the existing 4G network, while in the non-standalone mode, the 5G network is supported by the 4G core infrastructure.
• The standalone mode provides access to full 5G capabilities and new network functionalities such as slicing that provides greater flexibility to operators to efficiently use their spectrum holdings.
• Non-standalone networks are generally considered to be a stepping stone, and global precedent suggests operators that have launched non-standalone 5G networks eventually transition to standalone networks. The non-standalone mode, however, lets operators maximise the utilisation of their existing network infrastructure with relatively lower investment.

About:

• During the discussion, the two leaders discussed the universal financial inclusion initiatives. Queen Máxima appreciated the progress made in India in this direction in the last few years.
• President Droupadi Murmu noted that the ‘Strategic Partnership on Water’ launched during the India-Netherlands virtual Summit in last year and other dimensions of bilateral relations have witnessed improvement in recent years. Queen Máxima is on a three day visit to India.
• The Netherlands is a country located in Northwestern Europe with overseas territories in the Caribbean.
• It is the largest of four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
• The Netherlands borders Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, with a North Sea coastline to the north and west. It shares maritime borders with the United Kingdom, Germany and Belgium in the North Sea.

About:

• India, being a signatory to Convention on International Road Traffic of 1949 (Geneva Convention), is required to issue IDP as provided under this Convention, for the acceptance of the same on reciprocal basis with other countries.
• Currently, the format, size, pattern, colour etc. of the IDP being issued was differing across States in India. Due to this, many citizens were facing difficulties with their respective IDP in foreign countries.
• Now, through this amendment, the format, size, colour etc. for IDP has been standardized for issuance across India, and in adherence to the Geneva Convention.
• A comparison of vehicle categories across various Conventions and Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989 has also been added for facilitation of regulatory authorities. Helpline numbers and email have also been provided.

About:

• The government plans to facilitate easier financing norms to activities pertaining to the manufacturing and services hubs envisaged under the proposed revamped law for Special Economic Zones (SEZs), also known as Development (Enterprise and Services) Hub Bill, 2022.
• This will be done by giving them infrastructure status, at par with sectors such as road, rail waterways, airports, to improve access to finance and enable long-term borrowing from lenders at easier terms.

About:

• While Europe, China and some other regions of the world are experiencing a severe drought, Pakistan is facing one of the worst floods in its recent history.
• Reports say about 110 of the 150 districts in the country are affected by the flooding. Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said on Sunday that over 1,000 people were confirmed dead in the floods so far.
• The flooding, the result of an unusually wet monsoon season in Pakistan this year, started in July, but has worsened over the last couple of weeks.
• The same southwest monsoon that brings the bulk of India’s annual rainfall causes rain in Pakistan as well.
• The monsoon season in Pakistan, however, is a little shorter than in India. That is because the rain-bearing monsoon winds take time to travel northward from India into Pakistan. 

About:

• Murders, which did not come down even in 2020, continued to increase in 2021 too, according to data from National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)’s 2021 report.
• The number of registered rape cases increased from 28,046 in 2020 to 31,677 in 2021, closer to the 2019 figure of 32,032. Cases related to kidnapping and abduction fell to 84,805 in 2020 from 1,05,036 cases in 2019, but again rose to 1,01,707 in 2021.
• On the other hand, murder cases continued their consistent increase with 29,272 cases in 2021, up from 29,193 in 2020 and 28,915 in 2019.
• However, the number of overall registered cognisable crimes decreased from 66 lakh in 2020 to 60.9 lakh in 2021, a 7.6% fall.
• The crime rate (crimes per 1 lakh people) also decreased from 487.8 in 2020 to 445.9 in 2021.
• The decline in overall crimes in 2021 can be attributed to a sharp decrease in cases registered under ‘disobedience to order duly promulgated by a public servant (Section 188 of the IPC). 

About:

• Ten LCHs will be inducted in the first batch completing one unit.
• The IAF is still working out the total number of LCHs to be acquired, the official stated.
• The IAF operates the older Russian Mi-25 and Mi-35 attack helicopters, of which one squadron has been phased out following the induction of 22 Boeing AH-64E Apache attack helicopters.
• The existing Mi-35 squadron is in the process of being sent for overhaul which will extend its life by many years.
• The Army had already raised its first LCH squadron on June 1 in Bengaluru. The unit will move to the Eastern Command along the Line of Actual Control (LCH) on completion of the raising next year.
• The Army plans to acquire 95 LCHs of which seven units, each having 10 helicopters, are planned to be deployed for combat role in the mountains.
• The LCH is the first dedicated attack helicopter of the Army, which otherwise operates 75 Rudra helicopters, the weaponised variant of the indigenous Advanced Light Helicopter. 

About:

• More than 10 crore Indians from 1,400 communities belong to these groups, show the latest estimates available with the government.
• The scheme aims to provide free competitive exam coaching to students, health insurance and financial assistance for housing and uplift clusters of these communities through livelihood initiatives.
• The Ministry has been allocated ₹200 crore for this scheme to be spent over five financial years from 2021-22 to 2025-26.
• At the time of the launch, the Ministry announced that the scheme would be implemented through an online portal that would issue a unique ID to each applicant to apply and track the status of the application online. 

About:

• Such a database would help prevent fraudsters from repeating the offence as the websites or phone numbers would be blacklisted, RBI executive director Anil Kumar Sharma said on Monday.
• There is no definite timeline for setting up of the fraud registry.
• Payment system participants would be provided access to this registry for near-real time fraud monitoring. The aggregated fraud data would be published to educate customers on emerging risks.
• Sharma also said that the customers of the Credit Investment Company (CIC) would come under the Reserve Bank — Integrated Ombudsman Scheme (RB-IOS), 2021. 

About:

• Pelosi’s Taiwan trip in early August infuriated China which saw it as a U.S. attempt to interfere in its internal affairs.
• China subsequently launched military drills near the island which have since continued. China has never ruled out using force to bring Taiwan under its control.
• The Taiwan Strait is a 180-kilometer-wide strait separating the island of Taiwan and continental Asia. The narrowest part is 130 km wide.
• The strait is part of the South China Sea and connects to the East China Sea to the north.
• Former names of the Taiwan Strait include the Formosa Strait or Strait of Formosa, from a dated name for Taiwan; and the Strait of Fokien or Fujian, from the Chinese province forming the strait's western shore.

About:

• Small cells are needed for deploying 5G as opposed to earlier generations such as 4G, because of the frequency. The higher the frequency, the lower the wavelength, which means that the distance they travel is less.
• Small cells are low-powered radio access nodes or base stations that have a coverage range from a few metres up to a few hundred metres. They are portable, easy to deploy and help provide localised coverage.
• As per the TRAI paper, small cells provide coverage for very short distances and therefore they are installed in a large number — even more than 200 per square kilometre — for good geographical coverage to provide highly reliable and high-capacity broadband.

About:

• According to a 2020 Statista survey across 25 States in India, two-third respondents said they had a smartphone.
• Of these, half said they sent and received money digitally, and about 31% said they had a mobile app for banking. Nearly 14% said they used their mobile phones for banking-related purposes.
• Global cybersecurity firm Kaspersky warns of an increase in cyberattacks on Android and iOS devices in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region.
• One mobile banking trojan, called Anubis, has been targeting Android users since 2017. Roaming Mantis is another prolific malware targeting mobile banking users.
• There is push from regulators to make payment platforms interoperable at a time when the demand for technical experts is a serious concern in the banking industry.

About:

• This is different from the three PILs announced for the armed forces.
• This was done in line with the effort to promote self-reliance in defence manufacturing, and minimising imports by the defence public sector undertakings (DPSUs).
• This list is in continuation to the two PILs of LRUs, sub-systems, assemblies, sub-assemblies and components that were published in December 2021 and March 2022.
• These lists contain 2,500 items which are already indigenised and 458 (351+107) items which will be indigenised within the given timelines.
• Out of the 458 items, 167 items (163 from the first PIL, and four from the second PIL) have been indigenised, so far.
• The Ministry explained that indigenisation of these items will be taken up through different routes under the ‘Make’ category of procurement procedure.

About Kenya:

• Kenya is a country in Eastern Africa. Kenya's capital and largest city is Nairobi, while its oldest, currently second largest city, and first capital is the coastal city of Mombasa.
• Kenya is bordered by South Sudan to the northwest, Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the east, Uganda to the west, Tanzania to the south, and the Indian Ocean to the southeast.
• Mount Kenya is the highest mountain in Kenya and the second-highest in Africa, after Kilimanjaro. 

About:

• The 2013 Balaji judgment states that election manifesto promises do not amount to ‘corrupt practice’ under Section 123 of the Representation of People Act.
• This revisit by the Supreme Court on its earlier judgment is unique as the court is exploring whether judicial parameters can be set on a purely political act of promising freebies.
• In its order, the court foresees that “freebies may create a situation wherein the State government cannot provide basic amenities due to lack of funds and the State is pushed towards imminent bankruptcy”.
• The court said it wants a transparent debate before the three-judge Bench on whether an “enforceable” judicial order can stop political parties from promising and distributing ‘irrational freebies’.
• The case is unique as the Supreme Court is exploring whether judicial parameters can be set on a purely political act of promising freebies. 

About:

• Built at the cost of Rs 6493 crore, Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd (SSNNL) officials acclaim KBC as the “longest branch canal in the world”.
• The project began around 2008 and passes over Dudhai village which was the epicentre of the 2001 earthquake.
• While the construction of the branch canal was completed in May, about 1200 km of a total of 5000 km network of minor canals for laying the distribution network is yet to be completed. 

About:

• A full court meeting literally means one which is attended by all the judges of the court.
• When is it held? There are no written rules dealing with this.
• As per convention, full-court meetings are called by the Chief Justice of India to discuss issues of importance to the judiciary. The senior designations of practising advocates in the Supreme Court and high courts are also decided during the full court meetings.
• As a full court meeting is convened at the discretion of the Chief Justice of India, it does not follow any particular calendar. 

About:

• PM Modi said that a silent revolution is taking shape in India with rising demand for electric vehicles (EV). Prime Minister was addressing a function at Gandhinagar to mark on the completion of 40 years of Suzuki Motor Corp in India.
• Meanwhile, Suzuki Motor Corporation president Toshihiro Suzuki has announced the setting up of a new company, Suzuki R&D Centre India, a wholly-owned arm of Suzuki Japan. He said the Japanese company aims to strengthen its R&D competitiveness and capabilities in new fields of technologies not only for India but also for the global markets. 

About:

• On the occasion, Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya launched Integrated Pharmaceutical Database Management System 2.0, an integrated responsive cloud-based application. It will provide a single window for submissions of various forms as mandated under Drug Price Control Order, 2013.
• The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) is a government regulatory agency that controls the prices of pharmaceutical drugs in India.
• It was constituted vide Government of India Resolution dated 29th August 1997 as an attached office of the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP). 

About:

• Retired CJIs would also get secretarial assistants. The staff would be paid the salary and allowances of regular employees of the Supreme Court.
• The first series of amendments in the Rules on August 23 had allowed retired Chief Justices of India and Supreme Court judges chauffeurs, secretarial assistants and security cover only for a year. There was no mention of “domestic help”, who would be an employee in the level of junior court assistant.
• The benefit of 24-hour security cover has been extended to five years for retired Chief Justices and three years for retired judges of the Supreme Court. The judiciary had recently raised concerns about attacks on judges.
• Besides, former CJIs and retired judges of the top court can get their monthly mobile phone and Internet bills reimbursed to the extent of ₹4,200.
• A retired CJI is also entitled to a rent-free Type VII accommodation, other than the designated official residence, in New Delhi for six months immediately after retirement.
• The notification issued by the Law Ministry however said these post-retirement benefits would be available only if the retirees were not getting similar facilities from any High Court or government body.

About:

• The decision to postpone these rallies has been taken by the Nepalese government as it is of the opinion that this new form of entry into the Indian military is not covered under the Tripartite Agreement signed between Nepal, Indian and UK governments in 1947, soon after Indian independence.
• As per the terms of this agreement four regiments of Gorkha soldiers – 2nd, 6th, 7th and 10th – were transferred to the British Army while the rest – 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 8th and 9th – remained with the Indian Army.
• A new Gorkha Regiment, the 11th Gorkha Rifles, was raised by India soon after Independence.
• The agreement also provides for the terms and conditions of the Nepal-domiciled Gorkha soldiers in the Indian Army and for their post-retirement benefits and pensions.

About:

• Just a decade old, Moderna, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, had been an innovator in the messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine technology that enabled unprecedented speed in developing the COVID-19 vaccine.
• The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines use the same technology, based on messenger RNA, or mRNA. Such vaccines make use of the messenger RNA molecules that tell the body’s cells what proteins to build.
• mRNA enters cells shortly after vaccination and instructs them to create a SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, prompting the immune response. 

About:

• While the Chhattisgarh government has described these areas as non-forest land that were earlier given “by mistake” to the Forest Department, the Environment Ministry has warned that the land in question is “undemarcated protected forests”, which cannot be used for non-forest purposes without clearance under the Forest Conservation (FC) Act, 1980.
• Broadly, state Forest Departments have jurisdiction over two types of forests notified under the Indian Forest (IF) Act, 1927: Reserve Forests (RF), where no rights are allowed unless specified; and Protected Forests (PF), where no rights are barred unless specified. Certain forests, such as village or nagarpalika forests, are managed by state Revenue Departments.
• The FC Act, 1980, applies to all kinds of forests, whether under the control of the Forest or the Revenue Department, and it requires statutory clearance before forests can be used for any non-forest purpose such as industry, mining, or construction. In 1976, forests were included in List III (Concurrent List) under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution.

About:

• The rule would kick in with a 35 per cent limit on new passenger vehicle sales to be “zero emission” (or Battery Electric Vehicles) by 2026, which then goes up to 68 percent by 2030, and 100 per cent in 2035.
• California, besides being the biggest US state, is one of the largest markets for car sales in the world. So, California’s position on new car sales is extremely important.

What is India’s stance?

• India has a target of meeting at least 65 per cent of all new vehicle sales to be electric by 2030.
• Progress has been patchy though, with 6.38 lakh EVs registered in India since 2012 – less than 1 per cent of the total vehicle count.
• What is encouraging is that over 15 states have issued or adopted EV policies so far. 

About:

• She said, International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have projected India's growth to be the fastest for the next two fiscal years, and their estimates are in sync with that of the Reserve Bank of India.
• On the issue of freebies, Ms Sitharaman said there is a need for a rigorous debate on the freebies side.
• She stressed that political parties making pre-poll promises should make budgetary provisions for taking care of the expenditures and not push the burden on other entities.

About:

• "Swachh Sagar, Surakshit Sagar/Clean Coast, Safe Sea" Campaign, is a 75-day citizen-led initiative, aimed at improving the coastal and ocean health via community action.
• The campaign began on July 5, 2022, and will culminate on 17th September 2022 - International Coastal Clean-up Day.
• The three strategic underlying objective of the Campaign is to alter and save the environment through behaviour change. The campaign's three overarching goals are:
  • Consume Responsibly,
  • Separate waste at home, and
  • Dispose of waste responsibly.
• The campaign is spearheaded by Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) in partnership of Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Indian Coast Guard, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), other central ministries/organisation and other social organizations and educational institutions.
• The coastal clean-up campaign is being taken at 75 beaches along the coast line of with average 75 volunteers for every kilometre of coastline.