CURRENT AFFAIRS
TOPICS :
-
NTPC Girl Empowerment Mission
-
Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bhima Yojana
-
Green Hydrogen:
-
Pig hearts to human
-
Dhammacakka Day
NTPC Girl Empowerment Mission
Context:
National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC) has launched Girl empowerment Mission (GEM) in Assam.
NTPC GEM:
- Girl Empowerment Mission (GEM) was started by NTPC back in 2018.
- It has been conducted by the Power major since then.
- Contribution of GEM: It has contributed to the empowerment of 4,500 underprivileged girls across the country.
- It is a CSR ( Corporate Social Responsibility) initiative which ensures the growing up of girl child into a well-rounded adult with ample curiosity, quality communication skills and social skills.
- Aim: to help the girls break the social norms and prevent female foeticide in rural areas.
- Under the GEM programme the girls will be empowered by making them aware of basic education, health and self defence.
NTPC GEM in Assam:
- Girl empowerment Mission has been rolled out in assam by NTPC.
- As per the programme 40 girls were shortlisted of age group 10-12 years.
- In these four weeks, the selected girls will be provided training on different subjects, life skills.
- They will also be engaged in extracurricular activities like puppetry, outdoor games and yoga at NTPC’s plant in Salakati, Kokarajhar.
Corporate Social Responsibility:
- Corporate Social Responsibility is a management concept.
- It means managing their business processes while taking account of their social, economic and environmental impact, and considering human rights.
- Or, it refers to a moral obligation on company to assess and take responsibility for the actions taken by company, in the favour of the society and environment.
Importance of CSR:
- It ensures the sustainability of life and business in the future.
- It promotes the better brand recognition of company.
- Positive business reputation.
- It ensures the societal development in the vicinity of the company.
- It ensures the risk management.
- It also contributes to the poverty alleviation.
Corporate social Responsibility in India:
- In India, the CSR has been made legally mandate on 1st April, 2014.
- India is the first country to regulate and legally mandate the CSR (for some select categories of companies registered under the Companies Act, 2013).
Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bhima Yojana
Context:
The Agriculture Ministry has announced that Andhra Pradesh has decided to re-join the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bhima Yojana (PMFBY).
Background:
Andhra Pradesh had initially implemented the PMFBY programme but opted out in 2019-20. Citing the following reasons
- The scheme should be voluntary,
- States should be given options to choose risk,
- The scheme should be universal and cut-off date for enrolment should be flexible and,
- The states should be given option to use their own database of E-crop.
E-crop is an application used by AP to collect information about crops.
All these are resolved now.
- Bihar is the first state to opt out of the PMFBY in 2018-19. Andhra Pradesh along with West Bengal opted out in 2019-20.
- Other states that opted out of PMFBY are, Telangana, Jharkhand, and Gujarat, each state citing various reasons.
Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bhima Yojana:
PMFBY had launched by the government on 13th January 2016.
It is a flagship crop insurance scheme.
Aim:
- To provide financial assistance to farmers suffering crop loss/damage due to natural calamities,
- Stabilizing farmers income to ensure farming continuance.
- Encouraging farmers to adopt new innovative and modern agricultural practices.
- Coverage of crops: All types of food crops, oilseeds and annual commercial/ annual horticultural crops.
- The scheme was revamped in February 2020, it enabled the voluntary participation of farmers.
- Land records were integrated with the PMFBY National crop Insurance Portal (NCIP), crop insurance mobile app for easy enrolment of farmers.
- Coverage of farmers:
The scheme has been able to provide the assistance to the most vulnerable farmers, 85% of the registered farmers are small and marginal.
Multiple Sclerosis
Context:
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) launched a national registry of Multipl sclerosis (MS) and Indian Multiple Sclerosis and allied Demyelinating Disorders Registry and Research Network (IMSRN).
Multiple Sclerosis:
- MS is a disease that affects the central nervous system, which is the brain and spinal cord.
- It occurs when the immune system attacks the nerve fibres and myelin sheathing (a fatty substance which surrounds/insulates healthy nerve fibres) in the brain and spinal cord.
Symptoms:
- The effect of MS is not uniform in people as it can be asymptomatic in some people
- While it shows many symptoms like vision loss, pain fatigue and impaired coordination in some people.
- And can also cause some chronic symptoms in people that never go away.
- Affected age group: It is a neurological disorder that occurs in age group of 20-40, may also occur in children and adolescents as well.
- Females are more affected than males.
- Rate of affect: about 20 persons in one lakh population are affected by MS, while Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorders (NMOSD) affects 2.7 per 1 lakh population.
- Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is a central nervous system disorder, primarily affects the eye nerves (optic neuritis) And spinal cord (myelitis).
- NMO is also known as devic’s disease or Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorders (NMOSD).
National Registry of MS and IMRSN:
- Indian Multiple Sclerosis and allied Demyelinating Disorders Registry and Research Network (IMSRN) was initially started in October 2021 with AIIMS New Delhi as national coordinating centre, and 24 participating centres across country.
- Aim: To create an organised system for data collection, storage, retrieval, analysis, management and outcomes registry was launched.
- For this, more than 1000 patients were recruited.
Significance:
The registry will help in understanding the disease burden, disease phenotypes, disease behaviour, drug efficacy, adverse effects, pregnancy outcomes and long-term disease outcomes.
Green Hydrogen:
Context:
IISC researchers has developed a new technology to produce green hydrogen from biomass.
Hydrogen in India:
- India uses nearly 50 lakhs tonnes of hydrogen in different sectors.
- Hydrogen market is expected to grow in the near future.
- Mostly the hydrogen we currently use is coming from the fossil fuels through the steam methane reforming process.
Green Hydrogen:
Green Hydrogen is the hydrogen generated from renewable energy or from low carbon power.
Green Hydrogen from Biomass:
This project was supported by Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MoNRE) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
The extraction of green hydrogen from biomass process consists of 2 steps,
- Conversion of Biomass into syngas, in a novel reactor using oxygen and steam.
- Generation of pure hydrogen from syngas using indigenous low pressure gas separation plant.
- It is a highly efficient process as the process extracts a 100g of hydrogen from 1kg of biomass.
- e., 60g of hydrogen from biomass plus remaining hydrogen from the steam (only 60g Hydrogen is present in 1 kg of biomass).
- This process gives two carbon-based by products, which are solid carbon (serves as carbon sink), and carbon dioxide, which can be used in other value-added products, hence it is carbon negative and it is eco-friendly.
- This indigenous technology is a step towards Atmanirbhar Bharat.
- It also dovetails nicely with the National Hydrogen Energy Roadmap, an initiative of Government of India.
Use of this green Hydrogen:
- The green hydrogen thus created can be used in various other industries such as, in steel industry to decarbonise steel,
- In agriculture to manufacture green fertilisers, and many sectors that are using fossil-based hydrogen.
Pig hearts to human
Context:
Two genetically modified pig hearts were successully transplanted to brain dead men at New York University (NYU).
Pig hearts in human:
- It is a step closer to a long term goal of using pig hearts for addressing human organs shortage for transplant.
- The first pig heart transplant had happened earlier this year which was followed by the death of the receiver with terminal heart disease. The reason of new heart failure is still unclear.
- The present two hearts from pigs were engineered and screened for viruses.
- The hearts showed no evidence of pig virus called porcine cytomegalovirus, which was detected in blood of first transplant receiver.
- The pigs had 4 genetic modifications to prevent rejection and abnormal organ growth.
- And six modifications to help prevent incompatibilities between pigs and humans.
Why pig hearts?
Pig hearts are very similar to human hearts in size, anatomy and function, so pig hearts are being experimented with.
Dhammacakka Day
Context:
The President of india, Shri Ram Nath Kovind addressed the Dhammacakka Day 2022 celebrations at sarnath, UP.
Dhammacakka Day:
- Dhammacakka day is one of the sacred for Buddhists.
- It marks the day of buddha’s first teachings (first sermon) or first turning of the wheel.
- After the enlightenment buddha gave his first teachings on this day i.e. ashada Purnima.
- This was believed to be happened at deer park, sarnath.
- It is during this speech that buddha taught four noble truths.
- This is also represented as Dhammacakkappavattana sutta i.e. setting in motion of the Wheel of Dhamma.
UPSC Civil Services Daily Current Affairs 14th July 2022
Our Courses
Watch Our Videos on YouTube