June 5th Current Affairs

1. Planet Venus.

IN NEWS:

NASA has selected two missions to the planet Venus.

Details about the missions

• The missions are called DAVINCI+ and VERITAS
• These will be launched between 2028 and 2030.
• DAVINCI+ is ‘Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging’
• It is the first US-led mission to the planet’s atmosphere since 1978.
• It will try to understand Venus’ composition to see how the planet formed and evolved.
• It also consists of a descent sphere that will pass through the planet’s thick atmosphere and make observations and take measurements of noble gases and other elements.
• It will also try to return the first high resolution photographs of a geological feature, tesserae, that is unique to Venus. The presence of tesseraes may suggest that Venus has tectonic plates like Earth.
• The second mission called VERITAS is ‘Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy’
• It will map the planet’s surface to determine its geologic history and understand the reasons why it developed so differently from Earth.

SOURCE:IE

2. World Environment Day 2021

IN NEWS:

The World Environment Day is observed on the 5th of June annually to encourage awareness and environmental protection.

KEY POINTS:

• The United Nations Assembly established World Environment Day in 1972, which was the first day of the Stockholm Conference on the human environment.
• Theme for 2021:’Ecosystem Restoration’.
• It will kick off the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030) – a global mission to revive billions of hectares, from forests to farmlands, from the top of mountains to the depth of the sea.
• The theme for this year’s in India is ‘promotion of biofuels for a better environment’.
• Pakistan will be the global host for 2021.
• Initiatives Taken by India:
• E-100 pilot project has been launched in Pune for the production and distribution of ethanol across the country.
• The government is releasing the E-20 notification that will allow oil companies to sell 20% ethanol blended petrol from 1st April, 2023, and BIS specifications for ethanol blends E12 and E15.

Important Information:

Ecosystem:

• It is a community of plants and animals interacting with each other in a given area, and also with their non-living environments. The non-living environments include weather, earth, sun, soil, climate and atmosphere.
• The ecosystem relates to the way that all these different organisms live in close proximity to each other and how they interact with each other.

Ecosystem Restoration:

• Ecosystem restoration means assisting in the recovery of ecosystems that have been degraded or destroyed, as well as conserving the ecosystems that are still intact.
• It involves reviving old water bodies, building natural forests, providing space to wildlife and reducing water pollution to restore aquatic life.
• Healthier ecosystems, with richer biodiversity, yield greater benefits such as more fertile soil, bigger yields of timber and fish, and larger stores of greenhouse gases.

Need of Restoration:

• Ecosystem loss is depriving the world of carbon sinks, like forests and wetlands, at a time when humanity can least afford it.
• Global greenhouse gas emissions have grown for three consecutive years and the planet is one place for potentially catastrophic climate change.

SOURCE:IE

3.SPAG9

IN NEWS:

DBT-NII Receives Trademark for India’s First Indigenous Tumour Antigen SPAG9.

KEY POINTS:

• India’s first indigenous tumour antigen SPAG9 was discovered by Dr Anil Suri in 1998who is heading the Cancer Research Program at NII.
• In a recentdevelopment,  theSPAG9 antigen has received the trademark ASPAGNIITM. Currently, ASPAGNIITM is being used in dendritic cell (DC) based immunotherapy in cervical, ovarian cancer and will also be used in breast cancer.
• ASPAGNIITM may revolutionise cancer treatment.
• Immunotherapy is a new approach that exploits the body’s inner capability to put up a fight against cancer.
• With this approach, either the immune system is given a boost, or the T cells are “trained’’ to identify recalcitrant cancer cells and kill them. In this personalised intervention,those patients expressing SPAG9 protein can be treated with DC-based vaccine approach.
• In DC-based vaccine, patient’s cells called monocytes from their blood are collected and modified into what are called dendritic cells.
• These dendritic cells are primed with ASPAGNIITM and are injected back to the patient to help the ‘fighter’ cells, or T-cells, in the body to kill the cancer cells.
• DC-based immunotherapy is safe, affordable and can promote antitumor immune responses and prolonged survival of cancer patients.
• The ASPAGNIITM is a true example of translational cancer research and the Atmanirbhar Bharat spirit.
• It will eventually be helpful to patientsin India and the world. This will be a real morale boost in affordable, personalised,and indigenous products for cancer treatment.

SOURCE:PIB

4. Delta variant

IN NEWS:

Delta variant led to most post-vaccine infections in Delhi.

KEY POINTS:

• Variant Delta (B.1.617.2), the most pervasive variant of the coronavirus in India, constituted nearly three in four breakthrough infections in Delhi, according to a research study by scientists in Delhi.
• The variant was also characterised by high transmissibility, an accelerated surge in infections and, the scientists say, “…prior infections, high seropositivity and partial vaccination were insufficient impediments to its spread.”
• Breakthrough infections are instances of people testing positive for the virus after getting vaccinated.

SOURCE:TH

5. Push for citizenship to minority migrants

IN NEWS:

 Migrants belonging to six non-Muslim minority communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who came to India on valid documents before 2014 are eligible to apply online for citizenship from any part of the country.

KEY POINTS:

Legal migrants citizenship

• The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) wrote to all States, including Assam, sensitising them of the relevant provisions under the Citizenship Act, 1955 that could help the six communities- Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists and Parsis, who entered India before 2014 and are here on long term visa (LTV), expedite their citizenship application.
• The official asserted that this particular awareness drive was not related to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) that is intended to benefit undocumented (illegal migrants) from the six persecuted communities who entered India before December 31, 2014.
• The CAA is yet to come into force as the rules that govern the law have not been notified by the Ministry yet.

Spread across the country:

• A survey was done and it was found that such migrants live in many parts of the country. The States have been made aware that provisions exist that could help the migrants in acquiring citizenship if they fulfil the criteria.
• This is to help the applicants who have applied online from any part of the country, as the verification is also done by the local police who have to send the report to the Home Ministry.

Assam NRC

• Assam is the only state where a National Register of Citizens (NRC) has been compiled. More than 19 lakh of the 3.29 crore applicants in the State have been excluded from the final register.
• The State government has demanded re-verification of the process as a large number of Hindus were left out. The excluded persons from the six communities, who are yet to be declared illegal migrants, will benefit from the CAA as and when it is implemented as legislation benefits such migrants from the three neighbouring countries who entered India illegally before 2014.

Citizenship

• Citizenship is a Home Ministry subject but it can delegate powers to States for a specific objective.
• Though the precise number of such migrants who availed of the LTV and are eligible for citizenship is not known, officials estimate the number to be around two lakh.

SOURCE:TH