26th July, 2023 Current Affairs

26th July, 2023 Current Affairs

NATIONAL
Parliamentary panel recommends setting up dedicated cultural heritage squad to recover stolen antiquities from India

• A parliamentary panel has recommended setting up a “dedicated cultural heritage squad” for the recovery of stolen antiquities, with a team of officers who can be trained on various aspects of retrieval, as followed by various countries.
• The department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism, and Culture said this in a report tabled in both Houses of Parliament.
• The team may be trained on various aspects as per the requirement of set procedures of retrieval, followed by different countries.
•  The committee also recommended exploring the possibility of involving state governments and relevant bodies such as the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), National Culture Fund (NCF) and the French Institute of Pondicherry, among others, in the process of documentation of India’s antiquities,

 Lok Sabha passes Multi-State Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022

• Lok Sabha passed the Multi-State Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022. The Bill seeks to amend the Multi-State Co-operative Societies Act, 2002. It has been brought with an aim to strengthen governance, enhance transparency, increase accountability and reform electoral processes in the Multi-State Cooperative Societies.
• In the coming 25 years, the Cooperative movement will touch new heights and contribute to the development of the nation.

Lok Sabha passes Biological Diversity (Amendment) Bill 2022

• Lok Sabha passed the Biological Diversity (Amendment) Bill 2022 amidst uproar by the opposition parties over the issue of Manipur violence.
• The bill seeks to promote research on medicinal plants, encourage the production of plant-based medicines and benefit the local persons involved in use of forest produce.
•  The Bill amends the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 to simplify compliance requirements for domestic companies. As per the provision of the Bill, users of codified traditional knowledge and AYUSH practitioners will be exempted from sharing benefits with local communities.
• The Bill will promote research in the field of biodiversity and also benefit those states having rich bio-diversity.
• This legislation will encourage cultivation of medicinal plants, research and overall development of Ayush sector.

Parliament passes Constitution (STs) Order (5th Amendment) Bill to include some communities in STs category in Chhattisgarh

• Parliament has passed the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Fifth Amendment) Bill, 2022 with the Rajya Sabha approving it today. The Lok Sabha has already passed the Bill. The Bill seeks to amend the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order 1950. The Bill includes the Dhanuhar, Dhanuwar, Kisan, Saunra, Saonra, and Binjhia communities in the list of Scheduled Tribes in Chhattisgarh. The Bill seeks to include Bhuinya, Bhuiyan, and Bhuyan communities as synonyms of the Bharia Bhumia community.  It also includes three Devanagari versions of the name of the Pando community.
• Earlier, initiating the discussion, Niranjan Bishi of BJD supported the Bill saying that this is in the interest of tribal people of Chhattisgarh. He said, development of tribal communities is directly linked with the progress of the nation. Samir Oraon of BJP said, the Central government has taken several initiatives for the welfare of the tribals by focussing on education, health and employment.

National Programme for Dairy Development

• Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying (DAHD) is implementing National Programme for Dairy Development (NPDD) scheme across the country since Feb-2014.
• The scheme has been restructured/ realigned in July 2021 for implementation from 2021-22 to 2025-26 with the following two components and their respective objectives:
• The Component ''A'' of NPDD focuses on creating/strengthening of infrastructure for quality milk testing equipment as well as primary chilling facilities for State Cooperative Dairy Federations/ District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union/SHGs/Milk Producer Companies/Farmer Producer Organizations throughout the country.
• The Component ‘B’ of the NPDD scheme "Dairying through Cooperatives” aims to increase sale of milk and dairy products by increasing farmer’s access to organized market, upgrading dairy processing facilities and marketing infrastructure and enhancing the capacity of producer owned institutions.
• Component B of NPDD scheme is implemented in 9 states namely Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Uttarakhand and West Bengal with the total outlay of Rs. 1568.28 Crore including Rs. 924.56 Crore as an Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Rs. 475.54 Crore as Government of India’s (GoI) contribution and Rs. 168.18 Crore as State/Participating Institution’s (PI) contribution.

Development of National Cooperative Database

• Ministry of Cooperation is developing a comprehensive National Cooperative Database in a phased manner. Mapping of about 2.64 lakh primary cooperative societies of three sectors i.e. Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS), Dairy and Fisheries has been completed in February, 2023 under Phase-I.
• Under Phase-II, Mapping of National Cooperative Societies/Federations has been completed. Under Phase-III, the Database is being extended to the remaining cooperative societies working in all other sectors. The National Cooperative Database will be released upon completion of data collection under Phase-III.

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INTERNATIONAL
China replaces its foreign minister Qin Gang with predecessor Wang Yi

• The Chinese government has removed Qin Gang from the post of Foreign Minister and replaced him with Wang Yi. China's Xinhua news agency reported that the country's top legislature voted to appoint Wang Yi as Foreign Minister, as it convened a session today. The announcement came a month after Qin’s last public appearance.
• The report did not give a reason for Qin's removal but said President Xi Jinping signed a presidential order to enact the decision.

• China's Foreign Ministry had said, the 57-year-old was off work for unspecified health reasons, but the lack of detailed information on his whereabouts fuelled a swirl of speculation.
• Qin Gang had replaced Wang as foreign minister in December last year.

ECONOMY
White Label ATMs (WLAs) to drive ATM penetration in India with a greater focus on Tier III to VI centres.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has apprised that in order to drive ATM penetration in the country with a greater focus on Tier III to VI centres, non-bank companies have been permitted to set up, own and operate White Label ATMs (WLAs) in the country. This was stated by Union Minister of State for Finance Dr Bhagwat Kisanrao Karad in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.
• The Minister stated that WLAs provide banking services to the customers of banks in India, based on the cards (debit/credit/prepaid) issued by banks. In addition to dispensing cash, WLAs may offer many other services / facilities which inter-alia include:
  1. Account Information
  2. Cash Deposit
  3. Regular Bill Payment
  4. Mini / Short Statement Generation
  5. PIN Change
  6. Request for Cheque Book

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
NASA’s Webb Space Telescope Detects Water Vapor in Rocky Planet-Forming Zone

• Water is essential for life as we know it. However, how water reached Earth and whether the same processes could seed rocky exoplanets orbiting distant stars remain topics of scientific debate. These debates might benefit from new insights from the planetary system PDS 70, situated 370 light-years away. This star system includes both an inner and outer disk of gas and dust, separated by a gap that spans 5 billion miles (or 8 billion kilometers). Two known gas-giant planets reside within this gap.
• New data gathered by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) have detected water vapor in the system’s inner disk, at distances of less than 100 million miles (160 million kilometers) from the star – the region where rocky, terrestrial planets may be forming. (The Earth orbits 93 million miles from our Sun.) Notably, this is the first time water has been detected in the terrestrial region of a disk already confirmed to host two or more protoplanets.

SPORTS
India finish 2nd on medals tally at ISSF World Championship in South Korea

• India finished 2nd on the medals tally at the recently concluded ISSF Junior Shooting World Championships 2023 in Changwon, South Korea. Indian shooters bagged 17 medals, which include 6 Gold, 6 Silver, and 5 Bronze.
• The championships saw 90 Indian shooters vie for medals in pistol, rifle, and shotgun competitions in the under-21 age category. The majority of the medalists were Khelo India athletes. Seven Indians managed to bag more than one medal.
• Abhinav Shaw and Kamaljeet won two golds each. Sainyam won three medals -- gold in the 10m air pistol women, and a bronze each in the 10m air pistol mixed team and women's team events.

Published date : 26 Jul 2023 05:01PM