1. INDIA AND SRI LANKA ECTA (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 - Economy)

Context: India and Sri Lanka on Friday agreed to start discussions on an Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement (ECTA) and unveiled plans to cooperate on power, digital payments, connectivity and green energy. 

Key Points

• The ECTA with Sri Lanka will focus on tariff and non-tariff barriers as well as investment rules.
• The agreement seeks to boost cooperation in scientific expertise, technical areas and research amongst institutions between India and Sri Lanka. 
• It also seeks to boost standards of goods and services to compete on global market and improve opportunities for manpower training and human resource development. 

• Objectives of ETCA: 

• Strengthen and advance the economic, trade, investment and technology cooperation. 
• Promote further liberalization of trade in goods, trade in services and gradually establish transparent, fair and facilitative trading, investment and investment protection mechanisms 
• Establish a cooperation mechanism and expand areas of economic cooperation.

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2. LOGISTICS DATA BANK PROJECT (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 - Economy)

Context: The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) held a Logistics Data Bank Project (LDB) Meeting to review the measures taken by Port Authorities to improve port performance. 

• Development of infrastructure on PM GatiShakti principles for adequate last and first mile connectivity, improvement of logistics services and enhancing port capacities to handle requisite trade volumes, etc. to be focus areas for port-level strategic planning and future development.

Logistics Data Bank Project

• About: On July 1, 2016, the LDB project was launched at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port, Mumbai. 
• Nodal Ministry: Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
• Objectives: The project launched to make India’s logistics sector more efficient through the use of Information Technology.
• Implementation: The LDB is being implemented through a Special Purpose Vehicle called Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation Logistics Data Services Ltd. (DLDSL) - that is jointly (50:50) owned by the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) Trust and Japanese IT services major NEC Corporation.
• Key features: The facility - where every container is attached to a Radio Frequency Identification Tag (RFID) tag and then tracked through RFID readers - aids importers and exporters in tracking their goods in transit. 
• This has, in turn, cut the overall lead time of container movement as well as reduced transaction costs that consignees and shippers incur.
• It is billed as a major ‘ease of doing business’ initiative aimed at boosting India’s foreign trade and ensuring greater transparency.
• The project covers “the entire movement (of containers) through rail or road till the Inland Container Depot and Container Freight Station,” the shipping ministry had said, adding that the service integrates information available with the agencies across the supply chain to provide detailed, real-time information within a single window.

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3. NORD STREAM PIPELINES (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 - Infrastructure)

Context: Russia demanded that a para on Ukraine´s involvement in the attack of the Nord Stream pipelines be included in the draft communique of the Energy Transition track, which has led to an impasse in the ongoing discussions at the 4th Energy Transition Working Group meeting.

Nord Stream pipelines

• Nord Stream 1 subsea pipeline: Nord Stream 1 was completed in 2011 and runs from Vyborg in Leningrad (Russia) to Lubmin near Greifswald, Germany.
• Majority ownership: The Russian state-owned gas company Gazprom has a majority ownership in the pipeline
• According to Bloomberg: 40% of Europe’s pipeline gas came from Russia before the war( now 9%).
• Nord Stream 2: This is a 1,200-km pipeline that runs from Ust-Luga in Russia to Greifswald in Germany through the Baltic Sea.
• It will carry 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
• The Nord Stream crosses the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of several countries including: Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Germany.
• Territorial waters of: Russia, Denmark and Germany.

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4. PRIMARY AGRICULTURAL CREDIT SOCIETIES (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 - Agriculture)

Context:  Union cooperation minister said that 17,176 primary agricultural credit societies (PACS) have been registered to function as common service centres (CSC) for helping the rural population with services including banking, insurance and Aadhaar enrolment.

• The PACS will offer more than 300 services such as health services, legal services and Pradhan Mantri Welfare Schemes to the rural citizens, including 130 million farmers in India, said Shah. He also emphasised that out of 100,000 existing PACS, 17,000 have already registered themselves as CSCs.

Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS)

• PACS is a basic unit and smallest co-operative credit institutions in India.
• It provide short-term, and medium-term agricultural loans to the farmers for the various agricultural and farming activities.
• It works at the grassroots gram Panchayat and village level.
• The first Primary Agricultural Credit Society (PACS) was formed in the year 1904.
• The PACS functioning at the base of the co-operative banking system constitute the major retail outlets of short term and medium term credit to the rural sector.
• PACS are registered under the Co-operative Societies Act and also regulated by the RBI.
• They are governed by the “Banking regulation Act-1949” and Banking Laws (Co-operative societies) Act 1965.
• PACS is the final link between the ultimate borrowers, i.e., rural people, on the one hand, and the higher agencies, i.e., Central cooperative bank, state cooperative bank, and Reserve Bank of India, on the other.

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5. TECHNOLOGICAL INITIATIVES UNDER PMFBY (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 - Agriculture)

Context:  The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare launched several new technological initiatives under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana to empower farmers and streamlining the operations.

• The Ministry launched several new initiatives under PMFBY and Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS), such as Yield Estimation System, based on Technology (YES-TECH) Manual, Weather Information Network Data Systems (WINDS) portal and door to door enrollment app AIDE/Sahayak, marking a turning point in India's crop insurance landscape.

Key Points

• YES-TECH Manual: It is a comprehensive guide developed after extensive testing and piloting in 100 districts of India.
• It facilitates the implementation of YES-TECH, a technology-driven yield estimation system, offering methodologies, best practices, and integration insights for accurate yield assessments at the Gram Panchayat level. 
• WINDS Portal: It is a centralized platform that hosts, manages, and processes hyper-local weather data collected by Automatic Weather Stations and Rain Gauges at Taluk/Block and Gram Panchayat levels. 
• The portal enhances risk assessment and decision-making in crop insurance, agriculture advisories, and disaster mitigation, supporting the agricultural sector and rural economy.
• AIDE/Sahayak app: The AIDE app's introduction on Android platform aims to revolutionize the enrolment process, bringing it directly to the doorstep of farmers. 
• This door-to-door enrolment ensures a seamless and transparent process, making crop insurance more accessible and convenient for farmers.

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6. OFFICIAL LANGUAGE IN 8TH SCHEDULE (Syllabus: GS Paper 2 - Polity)

Context: The Supreme Court said it cannot direct the Centre to include Rajasthani as an official language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.

• The court referred to a 1997 reported decision of the Supreme Court in the Kanhaiya Lal Sethia case to note that “to include or not to include a particular language in the VIIIth Schedule is a policy matter of the Union. 
• The Bench noted that the court need not oblige a petitioner merely because the latter thinks the cause he or she represents is a genuine one.

Criteria to include Eighth Schedule

• There is no fixed criteria for any language to be considered for inclusion in the Eighth Schedule.
• The problem is that as the evolution of dialects and languages is dynamic, influenced by socio-eco-political developments, it is difficult to fix any criterion for languages, whether to distinguish them from dialects.
• Both attempts through the Pahwa (1996) and Sitakant Mohapatra (2003) Committees to decide the criteria yielded no result.  

Official languages 

• The Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India lists the official languages of the Republic of India.
• Part XVII of the Indian Constitution deals with the official languages in Articles 343 to 351.
• The Constitutional provisions relating to the Eighth Schedule occur in articles 344(1) and 351 of the Constitution.
• The eighth schedule includes the recognition of the 22 languages.

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7. PRI UTILISATION CERTIFICATES (Syllabus: GS Paper 2 - Governance)

Context: During the financial years 2007-08 to 2020-21, Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) in Bihar submitted utilisation certificates (UC) for only 42 per cent of the funds received from the State Panchayati Raj Department (PRD), an audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has found.

• Social audit of schemes in PRIs, other than the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), had not been conducted till March 2022.
• Under Section 17 of the MGNREGA, all works executed under the program must undergo a social audit.
• Every Social Audit Unit is entitled to funds equivalent to 0.5% of the MNREGA expenditure incurred by the State in the previous year.

Panchayati Raj Institutions utilisation certificates

• A certificate of the utilization of funds at the Gram Panchayat level is to be issued by Janpad Panchayat.
• Panchayat Samiti is the other name of Janpad Panchayat.
• Panchayat Samiti has many Gram Sabha under it.
• Gram Sabha approves the work of the Gram Panchayat.
• The Zila Panchayat or District Council or Zila Parishad or District Panchayat is the third tier of the Panchayati Raj system.
• Zila Parishad is an elected body.
• Block Pramukh of Block Panchayat is also represented in Zila Parishad.
• The members of the State Legislature and the members of the Parliament of India are members of the Zila Parishad.
• Zila Parishad has a minimum of 50 and a maximum of 75 members.

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8. GYANVAPI MOSQUE (Syllabus: GS Paper 1 - Indian Art & Heritage)

Context: A local court directed the ASI to conduct a scientific investigation of the Gyanvapi complex, adjacent to the Kashi Vishwanath temple, to determine whether it was constructed over a pre-existing structure of a Hindu temple. 

• But the survey will not cover the “wuzukhana (ablution pond)” area of the complex, which has been sealed following a Supreme Court order in May 2022.
• The Supreme Court has refused to put a stay on the videographic survey of the Maa Shringar Gauri Sthal at the Kashi Vishwanath temple-Gyanvapi mosque complex, ordered by a Varanasi civil court.

Gyanvapi Mosque

• The Gyanvapi Mosque is located in Banaras, Uttar Pradesh, India.
• It is a popular belief that the Gyanvapi Mosque was built in 1669 by the Mughal ruler Aurangzeb by demolishing the ancient Vishweshwar temple.
• In Saqib Khan’s book ‘Yasir Alamgiri’, it is also mentioned that Aurangzeb had demolished the temple in 1669 by ordering Governor Abul Hassan.
• Then about a century later, Ahilya Holkar, the queen of Indore built a new Kashi Vishwanath temple next to the mosque in 1780.
• It is considered the most significant shrine of Lord Shiva by many. 
• It is one of the more prominent of the 12 Jyotirlingas of Shiva, Vishveshvara or Vishvanath, that is also mentioned in the Skanda Purana.

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9. VAIBHAV FELLOWSHIP SCHEME (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 - Sci & Tech)

Context: Addressing the International Ministerial meet of Joint 8th Mission Innovation Ministerial (MI-8) and 14th Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM-14), Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space urged the Indian diaspora abroad to engage with India.

Key Points

• The 8th Mission Innovation Ministerial and 14th Clean Energy Ministerial, hosted by the Government of India, took place alongside the G20 in Goa, India. 
• The Vaishvik Bhartiya Vaigyanik (VAIBHAV) Fellowship programme, introduced recently by Prime Minister is a step in this direction. 
• The Fellowship would be awarded to outstanding scientists/technologists of Indian origin (NRI/OCI/PIO) who are engaged in research activities in their respective countries. 
• The 75 selected fellows would be invited to work in 18 identified knowledge verticals including quantum technology, energy and material sciences amongst others.

VAIBHAV Fellowship scheme

• About: The fellowship offers NRI researchers an opportunity to work for a minimum of one month to a maximum of two months a year with a research institution or an academic institution in India.
• Duration: Three years with the government offering the researchers an amount of up to Rs 37 lakh for the entire period.
• Objectives: Improving the research ecosystem of India’s Higher Educational Institutions by facilitating academic and research collaborations between Indian Institutions and the best institutions in the world.
• This is done through the mobility of faculty/researchers from overseas institutions to India.
• Eligibility: Researchers from institutions featuring in the top 500 QS World University Rankings will be eligible for the fellowship.
• The applicant should be a Non-Resident Indian (NRI), Person of Indian Origin (PIO) or Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) and she or he must have obtained Ph.D/M.D/M.S degree from a recognized University.
• Significance: The best of Diaspora minds will collaborate with domestic Minds to deliver world-class projects and products.

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10. PEPTIDES (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 - Sci & Tech

Context: The immune systems of fruit flies develop certain genes that can combat common bacteria found in food, a new study has found.

Key Points

• Bacteria such as acetobacter found in fruits can harm flies once they exit the gut and reach the bloodstream. 
• However, various fly species have developed a specific peptide (strings of compounds that combine to form proteins) that can fight acetobacter.
• The findings are critical as fruit flies’ evolutionary process might help explain human susceptibility to certain diseases.
• The bacteria in their food and environment mould the immune systems of fruit flies. 
• These flies have developed two peptides to defend a single bacterial species that affects them.
• Some of these peptides are common in certain species.
• Various fly species have developed a particular peptide (diptericin B) to control acetobacter.
• Glial cells and neurons in the fly brain communicate, dampening olfaction and shielding the animals from consuming the pathogen again after an intestinal bacterial infection.

Peptides 

• Peptides are short chains of amino acids linked tide bonds.
• A polypeptide is a longer, continuous, unbranched peptide chain.
• Polypeptides which have a molecular mass of 10,000 Da or more are called proteins.
• Chains of fewer than twenty amino acids are called oligopeptides, and include dipeptides, tripeptides, and tetrapeptides.
• Peptides can perform interactions with proteins and other macromolecules. 
• They are responsible for several important function in human cells, such as cell signaling and act as immune modulators

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