Daily Current affairs: 01 Nov2020

Tables of contents

1. Feni Bridge

2.Agreement for Electronic Exchange of Customs Data

3.IndiGen Project

4.Indo-US Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA)

5.Baba Banda Singh Bahadur Ji

6.Limit on Purchase of Fertilisers by Farmers

7.MACS 6478

8.SILAM and ENFUSER

1. Feni Bridge

Recently, the Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways has laid the foundation stone of nine National Highway projects in Tripura and has called for the completion of Feni Bridge by December 2020.

About Feni Bridge

• It is a 1.8-kilometer-long bridge connecting Sabrum in Tripura (India) with Ramgarh in Bangladesh.

• It is an RCC bridge over the Feni River which will improve connectivity to the international border with Bangladesh.

• The distance between Sabroom and Chattogram is 75km and the bridge will ease the transportation of goods from Chattogram and Kolkata ports.

Feni River

It originates in the South Tripura district, passes through Sabroom town on the Indian side, and meets the Bay of Bengal after it flows into Bangladesh.

It forms part of the India-Bangladesh border.

Source: All India Radio

2. Agreement for Electronic Exchange of Customs Data

Recently, the Department of Posts, Government of India (India Post) and United States Postal Service (USPS) have entered into an agreement for Electronic Exchange of Customs data.

Background

• USA is the top export destination for India (~17%) which is also reflected in exchange of goods through postal channel.

• In 2019, around 20% of outbound Express Mail Service (EMS) and 30% of Letters & Small Packets transmitted by India Post were destined to USA whereas 60% of the Parcels received by India Post were originated from USA.

About Agreement for Electronic Exchange of Customs Data

• The agreement between India and US is the sharing of data related to postal shipments exchanged between the two countries.

• It will make it possible to transmit and receive electronic data of international postal items prior to their physical arrival at the destination.

• It would enable customs clearance of postal items in advance in line with the evolving global postal framework.

• It will improve the performance of postal services in terms of reliability, visibility and security.

• The Exchange of Electronic Advance Data (EAD) as per the agreement will be a key driver towards promoting mutual trade with emphasis on the exports from different parts of India to USA through postal channel.

  • The US is a major destination of MSME products, gems and jewellery, pharmaceuticals and other local products from India.

• Its primary objective is to facilitate ‘ease of exports’ for small and large exporters through postal channels from different parts of the country.

Source: PIB

3.IndiGen Project

Recently, the results of the IndiGen Project were published in the scientific journal Nucleic Acid Research and the scientists have now analyzed genomes (complete DNA set) of 1,029 healthy Indians.

Key Highlights

• The analysis was carried out by CSIR constituent labs i.e. CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi, and CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad.

• The analysis has led to the identification of over 55 million single nucleotide variants in the Indian genome dataset.

• The comparisons with the global genome datasets revealed that 32.23 per cent variants were unique and found only in samples sequenced from India which emphasises the need for an India-centric population genomic initiative.

• India is the second largest country in terms of population density, with more than 1.3 billion people, encompassing 17 per cent of the world’s population.

• India has been under-represented in global genome studies, and population-specific variants are not adequately captured and catalogued in global medical literature.

About IndiGen Project

• It is an initiative of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) launched in 2019.

• The programme completed the entire genome sequencing of the 1,029 self-declared health Indians.

• The current IndiGenomes data resource provides a compendium of genetic variants.

• It represents the contemporary Indian population with an objective of classifying variants involved in mendelian disorders and improving precision medicine outcomes.

• The objective is to create a pilot dataset to enable genetic epidemiology of carrier genetic diseases towards enabling affordable carrier screening approaches in India.

Significance of IndiGen Project

• The resource can also enable identification of markers for carrier screening, variations causing genetic diseases, prevention of adverse events, and provide better diagnosis and optimal therapy through mining data of clinically actionable pharmacogenetic variants.

• The phased data will allow researchers to build an India-specific reference genome dataset, and efficiently impute haplotype information.

• The resource can provide useful insights for clinicians and researchers in comprehending genetics, not only at the population level, but also at individual levels.

• The resource is widely accessible to researchers and clinicians in the country, as well as abroad.

• IndiGen programme aims to undertake whole genome sequencing of a thousand Indian individuals representing diverse ethnic groups from India.

Source: The Indian Express

4.Indo-US Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA)

Recently, India and US have signed the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) at the third annual US-India 2+2 ministerial dialogue.

Background to BECA

• The Indo-US dialogue will coincide with the Chinese Communist Party’s plenary session where President Xi Jinping will review critical policy decisions.

• India and the US have already signed three key foundational agreements i.e. General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) in 2002, the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) in 2016 and Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) in 2018.

• BECA has been under negotiations for over a decade as the previous government was concerned about whether it would impact India’s national security.

About Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA)

• The Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement largely pertain to geospatial intelligence, and sharing information on maps and satellite images for defence.

• The signing of BECA will allow India to use the US’s advanced geospatial intelligence and enhance the accuracy of automated systems and weapons like missiles and armed drones.

• BECA will give access to topographical and aeronautical data and products that will aid navigation and targeting.

• BECA will provide Indian military systems with a high-quality GPS to navigate missiles with real-time intelligence to precisely target the adversary.

• It allows Air Force-to-Air Force cooperation which includes sharing of high-end satellite images, telephone intercepts, and data exchange on Chinese troops and weapons deployment along the 3,488-km India-China LAC.

Source: The Indian Express

5.Baba Banda Singh Bahadur Ji

Recently, the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has paid tributes to the brave Baba Banda Singh Bahadur Ji on his 350th Jayanti.

About Baba Banda Singh Bahadur Ji

• He was also known as Lachman Das, Lachman Dev, or Madho Das.

• He was the first Sikh military leader to wage an offensive war against the Mughal rulers of India.

• He established a monastery at Nanded, on the bank of the river Godavari.

  • In September 1708, he was visited by and became a disciple of, Guru Gobind Singh, who gave him his new name of Banda Bahadur.

• He undertook the mission of Guru Sahib ‘Dharam Chlavan Sant Ubaran, Duust Saban ko Mool Uparon’ (Take forward Dharma. give sanctity to Saints, destroy all evil).

• The Battle of Chappar Chiri in 1710 was fought between Baba Banda Singh Bahadur and Wazir Khan, and the latter fell to the sword of Fateh Singh and Sikhs raised a victory cry.

• The fort at village Mirza Jaan, built by Baba Banda Singh Bahadur is a prized heritage of the Sikh community since its foundation is the foundation of the Sikh Empire.

Source: PIB

6.Limit on Purchase of Fertilisers by Farmers

Recently, the Union is working on a plan to cap the number of subsidised fertiliser bags that individual farmers can buy in any cropping season.

Reasons for Limit on Purchase of Fertilisers by Farmers

• The disbursal of fertiliser subsidy to companies has been made conditional upon actual sales to farmers and these getting registered on point-of-sale (POS) machines.

• The companies are now being paid only after farmers have purchased, as compared to the earlier system, the bagged material dispatched from the factory/port had to merely be received at a district’s railhead point or approved godown.

• The objective of limiting the purchase of fertilizers is to eliminate retail diversion by ensuring only genuine farmers are buying.

Current scenario on purchase of fertilizers

• The government is currently following a “no-denial” policy i.e. anybody, non-farmers included, can buy any quantity of fertiliser through POS machines.

• The quantities purchased, along with the person’s name and biometric authentication, are then registered on the POS device that is linked to the ‘e-Urvarak’ online platform of the Department of Fertilisers.

• The government has put restriction that nobody can buy more than 100 bags of all fertilisers at one time as compared to earlier limit of 200 bags.

e-Urvarak platform

 

It is an online platform of fertilizer requirement, sales and stock at national, state and district levels.

 

The e-Urvarak platform has helped generate a database with considerable granularity that allows for weeding out of non-deserving beneficiaries.

 

Source: The Indian Express

7.MACS 6478

Recently, the farmers now have a wheat variety i.e. MACS 6478, developed by Indian scientists with significantly high yield.

About MACS 6478

• It is developed by the scientists from Agharkar Research Institute (ARI), Pune.

• It has doubled the crop yield for farmers in Karanjkhop, a village in Maharashtra.

  • The farmers of the village in Koregaon tehsil of Satara district in Maharashtra are now getting a yield of 45-60 quintal per hectare with the new variety as against earlier average yield ranging 25-30 quintal per hectare when they cultivated Lok 1, HD 2189 and other old varieties.

• The newly developed common wheat or bread wheat, also called high yielding Aestivum, matures in 110 days and is resistant to most races of leaf and stem rust.

• The amber colored medium sized grain contains 14% protein, 44.1 ppm zinc and 42.8 ppm iron which is higher than other cultivated varieties.

• The Maharashtra State seed agency for seed multiplication, ‘Mahabeej’ is carrying out certified seed production of MACS 6478 for use by farmers.

Source: The Indian Express

8.SILAM and ENFUSER

Recently, the Ministry of Earth Sciences has operationalised the Air Quality forecast model i.e. SILAM and ENFUSER.

• SILAM and ENFUSER have been developed in technical collaboration with Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI).

About SILAM

• It is the System for Integrated modelling of Atmospheric composition (SILAM) for India.

• It has been improved by implementing global emission inventories CAMS-GLOB v2.1 supplemented with EDGAR v4.3.2 for coarse and mineral-fine anthropogenic particulate matter at 10km resolution.

• The SILAM models have been extensively validated against observations over Indian region.

About ENFUSER

• It is the ENvironmental information FUsion SERvice (ENFUSER) for Delhi.

• The specialty of the ENFUSER is the high utilization of measurement data such as air quality observations, a detailed description of the road network, buildings, land-use information, high resolution satellite images, ground elevation and population data.

• The ENFUSER natively taps into the operative IMD’s regional SILAM access point.

• The ENFUSER results are being evaluated with the satellite measurements and observations, model is found to capture the hotspots over Delhi very well.

WRF-Chem

 

It is the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model coupled with Chemistry.

 

The model simulates the emission, transport, mixing, and chemical transformation of trace gases and aerosols simultaneously with the meteorology.

 

The model is used for investigation of regional-scale air quality, field program analysis, and cloud-scale interactions between clouds and chemistry.

 

Source: PIB

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