22 JUNE 2021 CURRENT AFFAIRS

1.VIDARBHA TIGER CORRIDORS

In a first-of-its-kind project, radio telemetry has been deployed to identify corridors used by tigers in the Vidarbha landscape, tracking their actual movement.

About:

• The study indicates that the animals are moving in a much wider swathe of area outside the protected areas than previously known.
• The investigators belonged the Maharashtra Forest Department and Wildlife Institute of India (WII),
• Vidarbha has 331 tigers in a forest area of around 26,775 sq km, dissected by 84,202 km of roads, apart from irrigation canals and other projects. There have been growing instances of man-tiger conflict in the region.
• The project, carried out between 2017 and 2020 using radio signals, identified 37,067 sq km, in all, of tiger corridors.
• They tracked the epic journey of Walker (as the tiger was dubbed) over 3,000 km from Tipeshwar Sanctuary in Yavatmal district to Dnyanganga Sanctuary in Buldhana district. 

Source : Indian Express

2.PAKISTAN MAKES PROGRESS ON TERROR FINANCE RATINGS

Pakistan improved its ratings with the Asia Pacific Group (APG) on Money Laundering ahead of a decision on its grey listing status later this month.

About:

• Of the 40 parameters on anti-money laundering/combating financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) measures, Pakistan has made progress in about 21 and been downgraded on 1, the APG’s Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) published on June 4 said, adding that this meant Pakistan moves ‘up’ one category in its evaluation at the APG. 

Important Info :

• Asia-Pacific Group (APG) On Money Laundering
• What is it? The Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering is an inter-governmental organisation.
• Membership: It currently consists of 41 member jurisdictions in the Asia-Pacific region.
• Purpose: To ensure that its members effectively implement the international standards against money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing related to weapons of mass destruction.
• Type: It is a part of global network of similar bodies, referred to as Financial Action Task Force-Style Regional Bodies (FSRBs) and is the largest in terms of membership numbers and geographical size.
• Secretariat: Sydney, Australia.
• Established in: APG was founded in 1997 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Source : The Hindu

3.INDIAN NAVY – BLUE WATER OPERATIONS WITH A GREEN FOOTPRINT

Indian Navy has adopted a comprehensive ‘Indian Navy Environment Conservation Roadmap (INECR)’ for synergising the aim of ‘Blue Water Operations with a Green Footprint’.

Some of the noteworthy initiatives towards ‘Clean and Green Navy’ are

• Indian Navy commissioned one of its largest solar plant with a capacity of 3MW at Indian Naval Academy (INA), Ezhimala in July 2020. Another 2MW solar power plant was installed at Naval Station Karanja, Mumbai in July 2020. With this, the overall installed solar plant capacity at Naval Stations is 11 MW.
• The installation of SPVs are in line with Navy’s objective of fulfilling Govt of India’s ‘Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM)’ mission.
• Further, viability of setting up urban forests concepts such as Miyawaki forests is being emphasised to match the theme of World Environment Day 2021- ‘Ecosystem Restoration’ 

Important Info :

• Miyawaki method of forest creation?
• Miyawaki is a technique pioneered by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki (born 1928), that helps build dense, native forests. The approach is supposed to ensure that plant growth is 10 times faster and the resulting plantation is 30 times denser than usual.
• It involves planting dozens of native species in the same area, and making them maintenance-free after the first three years.
• In July 2020, Union Environment Minister inaugurated a unique urban forest at the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in New Delhi. This would be a dense urban forest with multiple tree layers including 12000 saplings of 59 indigenous species in another year or so. The Miyawaki method of forest creation is employed.

Source : PIB

4.FIRST CHIMERIC ANTIGEN RECEPTOR T-CELL (CAR-T) THERAPY

The first CAR-T cell therapy (a type of gene therapy) in India was done at the Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai.

About:

• The CAR-T cells were designed and manufactured at Bioscience and Bioengineering (BSBE) department of IIT Bombay with support from DBT/BIRAC, through National Biopharma Mission.
• Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) is a not-for-profit Section 8, Schedule B, Public Sector Enterprise, set up by Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science & Technology.

Important Info :

Significance

• The Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy has emerged as a breakthrough in cancer treatment especially in patients suffering from Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia.
• But, till now this technology was not available in India. Each patient's CAR-T cell therapy costs 3-4 crore (INR).

Source : PIB

5.NATIONAL FINANCIAL REPORTING AUTHORITY (NFRA)

NFRA has invited suggestions from public on consultation paper on NFRA’s engagement with its stakeholders.

About:

What is it? NFRA is an independent regulatory body set up under Section 132 of the Companies Act.

History:

• It was established by the Central Government in October 2018.
• After the Satyam scandal took place in 2009, the Standing Committee on Finance proposed the concept of the National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) for the first time in its 21st report.
• mandate
• It oversee compliance with Accounting and Auditing Standards by companies that can be described as Public Interest Entities (PIEs). This group includes all listed companies, and large unlisted companies.
• To discharge this mandate, NFRA is in the process of creating a verified and accurate database of companies and auditors that come under the regulatory ambit of NFRA.

HQ: New Delhi

Composition: NFRA consists of one chairman, three full-time members and one secretary. Former IAS officer Rangachari Sridharan was appointed as the first chairman of the body in October 2018.

Source : PIB

6.T478K

An analysis of more than one million SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences has led to the identification of a new variant that, over the past weeks, has been spreading mostly in Mexico but has also been found in Europe.

About:

• The scientific name of new variant is T478K.
• Like other strains, this presents a mutation in the spike protein.
• This variant has been increasingly spreading among people in North America, particularly in Mexico.

Source : Indian Express

7.NATIONAL POPULATION REGISTER (NPR)

Migrants belonging to six non-Muslim minority communities from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, while applying for long-term visas (LTVs), can also produce National Population Register (NPR) enrolment slips as proof of the duration of their stay in India, according to a Union Home Ministry manual.

About:

• The NPR number is part of an illustrative list of more than 10 documents that could be provided to apply for an LTV, which is a precursor to acquiring Indian citizenship either by naturalisation or registration under Section 5 and 6 of the Citizenship Act, 1955, for the six communities — Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Christians and Buddhists — from the three countries.
• The special provision of LTVs for Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan and Afghanistan was first made in 2011.
• Ministry officials assert that the awareness drive is not related to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA), which is intended to benefit undocumented migrants from the six groups who entered India before the 2014 cut-off date. The CAA is yet to implemented.

Important Info :

• NPR
• The NPR was first compiled in 2010 simultaneously with the decadal Census exercise and later updated in 2015.
• It already has a database of 119 crore residents.
• The NPR is a register of usual residents linked with location particulars down to the village level and is updated periodically “to incorporate the changes due to birth, death and migration”.
• The next phase of the NPR, expected to include contentious questions on date and place of birth of father and mother, last place of residence and mother tongue, was to be simultaneously updated with the 2021 House Listing and Housing Census that has been indefinitely postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Source : The Hindu

8.ILLEGAL ADOPTION

The Supreme Court agreed to intervene after the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) sounded the alarm on a spate of complaints about illegal adoption of COVID orphans through private individuals and organisations.

About:

• Social media posts are circulating that children are up for adoption. This is plainly illegal and violates the Juvenile Justice Act.
• The adoption of orphaned/abandoned/ surrendered children is lawful only after the adoption procedure as given under the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 is followed and the final adoption order is passed by the prescribed authority.
• Section 74 of the Juvenile Justice Act prohibits the disclosure of identity of children with regard to the name, school, age, address or any information which would reveal the essential details of the child.
• Placing any confidential information about children in the public domain which would make them susceptible to trafficking,
• NCPCR statistics shows that 3,621 children were orphaned, 26,176 children lost either parent and 274 children were abandoned between April 1, 2021 to June 5, 2021.

Source : The Hindu

9.FARMER PROTESTS

According to the State of Environment in Figures 2021 report released by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), there was a fivefold increase in major farmers’ protests since 2017.

About:

• In 2017, there were 34 major protests across 15 States. The number has now shot up to 165 protests across 22 States and Union Territories.
• This was due to the three contentious Central farm laws, apart from procurement and agricultural market price-related failures.
• 12 of these are pan-India protests, including 11 agitations against the three farm reform laws introduced last year.
• Battles against acquisition of farm land for development projects, including highway and airport construction, are the prime cause of 17 agitations.
• At least seven agitations have been to demand loan waivers or to protest poor insurance coverage and delayed compensation.
• Although Punjab and Haryana farmers have caught the limelight for the recent protests outside Delhi, data shows that the largest number of recent protests have taken place in Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. 

Important Info :

• Other statistics
• The report notes that India now has more farm labourers than landowning farmers and cultivators. This is true in 52% of the country’s districts, as well as in all districts of Bihar and Kerala.
• More than 28 agricultural workers and cultivators end their lives every day. The latest data available shows that 5,957 farmers and an additional 4,324 farm labourers died by suicide in 2019.

Source : The Hindu

10.COVISHIELD vs COVAXIN

Two doses of Covishield vaccine produced more antibodies than Covaxin doses, but there were relatively fewer instances of ‘breakthrough infections’ after the latter, reports a study of healthcare workers (HCW) in India.

COVISHIELD

• On 1 January 2021, the Drug Controller General of India, approved the emergency or conditional use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine AZD1222 (marketed as Covishield).
• It is manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.
• It’s a viral vector vaccine based on replication-deficient Adenovirus that causes cold in Chimpanzees. 

Important Info :

COVAXIN

• On 2 January 2021, BBV152 (marketed as COVAXIN), received approval from the Drug Controller General of India for its emergency or conditional usage.
• COVAXIN has been developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology (NIV).
• COVAXIN is a whole-Virion Inactivated Corona Virus Vaccine (which is also used to manufacture vaccines like Influenza, Rabies and Hepatitis-A), created from a strain of the infectious SARS-CoV-2 virus.
• The vaccine has been formulated with ‘Algel-IMDG’, which contains chemically absorbed TLR7/8 as an agonist or an adjuvant onto aluminium hydroxide gel to generate the requisite type of immune responses without damaging the body.
• Composition of Covaxin includes inactivated Corona Virus, Aluminium Hydroxide Gel, TLR 7/8 agonist, 2-Phenoxyethanol and Phosphate Buffered Saline[NKA1]. 

Source : The Hindu