June 22nd Current Affairs

1.WHO M-Yoga.

IN NEWS:

The Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi launched ‘WHO M-Yoga’ App while addressing on the occasion of 7thInternational Day of Yoga.

KEY POINTS:

• M-Yoga app will provide many videos of Yoga training and practice based on common Yoga protocol in many languages.
• Terming this as a great example of fusion of modern technology and ancient science, the Prime Minister expressed the hope that M-Yoga app will help in spreading Yoga world over and will contribute to the efforts of ‘One World,One Health’.
• This mobile app will be immensely helpful in the promotion of Yoga and wellness among people around the world, especially during the ongoing pandemic.
• It will play an instrumental role in re-rehabilitation of the health of the Covid patients who have recovered from Covid-19.

Important Information:

• The Ministry of AYUSH and the World Health Organization (WHO) had jointly undertaken a project in mid 2019, focussingon mobile-Yoga.
• It envisaged the concept of the ‘Be Healthy, Be Mobile’ (BHBM) under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to achieve Universal Health Coverage by 2030.
• Be Healthy, Be Mobile (BHBM) initiative is a global partnership led by WHO which supports the scale up of mobile health (m-Health) technology within the scope of the National Health system to combat non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
• In order to achieve the above objectives, a memorandum of understanding was signed in July, 2019 between WHO and the Ministry of AYUSH.
• The m-Yoga project focused on four areas:
• Common Yoga Protocol for GeneralWellness;
• Yoga for mental health and resilience;
• Yoga for Adolescents; and
• Yoga for pre – Diabetics.

SOURCE:PIB

2. Biotech-KISAN Programme for North East region.

IN NEWS:

The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has issued a Special Call for North East Region as a part of its Mission Programme “Biotech-Krishi Innovation Science Application Network (Biotech-KISAN)”.

KEY POINTS:

• Aim: To understand the local problems of the NER farmers and provide scientific solutions to those problems.
• The present call specifically focuses on the North East Region as it is predominantly agrarian with70% of its workforce engaged in agriculture and allied sector for livelihood.
• The region produces merely 1.5% of India’s food grain and continues to be a net importer of food grains even for its domestic consumption.
• The NE region has untapped potential to enhance the income of the farming population by promotion of location specific crops, horticultural and plantation crops, fisheries and livestock production.

About the Special Call:

• Objective: Linking available innovative agriculture technologies to the farm with the small and marginal farmers, specially women farmers of the region.
• The Hubs in NER will collaborate with the top scientific institutions across the country as well as State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) and other Farmers’ organizations in the NER for demonstrations of technologies and training of farmers.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

About Biotech-KISAN

• It is a scientist-farmer partnership scheme launched in 2017 for agriculture innovation.
• Objective: To connect science laboratories with the farmers to find out innovative solutions and technologies to be applied at farm level.
• So far 146 Biotech-KISAN Hubs have been established covering all 15 agroclimatic zones and 110 Aspirational Districts
• The scheme has benefitted over two lakhs farmers so far by increasing their agriculture output and income.
• Over 200 entrepreneurships have also been developed in rural areas.
• Ministry: Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology.

SOURCE:TH

3.Black Softshell Turtle.

IN NEWS:

Recently, the Assam forest department has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with two NGOs and adopted a Vision Document to raise at least 1,000 black softshell turtles by 2030.

KEY POINTS:

About Black Softshell Turtle

• Scientific Name: Nilssonia nigricans
• They are found in ponds of temples in northeastern India and Bangladesh.
• Its distribution range also includes the Brahmaputra River and its tributaries.
• IUCN Red List: Critically Endangered
• CITES: Appendix I
• Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972: No legal protection

Threats:

• Consumption of turtle meat and eggs,
• Silt mining
• Encroachment of wetlands
• Change in flooding pattern.
• Turtle Conservation

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

Indian Ocean Sea Turtle Agreement (IOSEA)

• India is a signatory to the Indian Ocean Sea Turtle Agreement (IOSEA) of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS).
• It puts in place a framework through which States of the Indian Ocean and South-East Asian region and other concerned States can work together to conserve and replenish depleted marine turtle populations for which they share responsibility.

KURMA App:

• It has a built-in digital field guide covering 29 species of freshwater turtles and tortoises of India.
• Developed by: Indian Turtle Conservation Action Network (ITCAN) in collaboration with the Turtle Survival Alliance-India and Wildlife Conservation Society-India.

SOURCE:TH

4. UN: India is 5th largest FDI recipient in 2020

IN NEWS:

• As per UN report, India received USD 64 billion in foreign direct investments (FDI) in 2020.
• It has emerged the fifth largest recipient of FDI inflows across the world.

KEY POINTS:

World Investment Report 2021

• “World Investment Report 2021” was released by UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
• As per the report, global FDI flows have been severely hit by covid-19 pandemic.
• FDI flow have decreased by 35 per cent in 2020 to USD 1 trillion from USD 1.5 trillion in 2019.
• Lockdowns across the world have slowed down existing investment projects, and prospects of multinational enterprises (MNEs) to start new projects.
• According to report, FDI has increased by 27 per cent to USD 64 billion in 2020.
• FDI was increased up by acquisitions in information and communication technology (ICT) industry.
• Pandemic has also increased demand of digital infrastructure and services globally. It has led to higher values of greenfield FDI project in ICT industry and has increased by more than 22 per cent. 
• Report highlights, second wave of COVID-19 India have impacted country’s overall economic activities.
• India has been ranked 18 among world’s top 20 economies for FDI outflows.
• Report further highlights, Investments from India will stabilise in 2021, with the support of country’s resumption of free trade agreement (FTA) talks with European Union (EU) and its strong investment in Africa.

SOURCE:IE

5. Monoclonal antibodies

IN NEWS:

Recently, scientists conducted experiments on monoclonal antibody cocktail named REGEN-COV2. Antibody has been found to be life-saving treatment for severely affected Covid-19 patients.

KEY POINTS:

• Monoclonal antibodies are artificial antibodies that perform the activity of our immune systems.
• They are produced by extracting specific antibodies from human blood and then cloning them.
• They are designed to target a virus or specific part of one the virus.
• For example, REGEN-COV2 is a cocktail of two monoclonal antibodies that targets SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.
• Monoclonal antibodies bind to specific parts of spike protein and block its ability to infect healthy cells.
• Monoclonal antibodies are used to treat cancers, Ebola and HIV, besides covid-19.
• Research, amid the covid-19 pandemic, are optimistic about abilities of monoclonal antibodies in reducing the risk of hospitalisation.
• Monoclonal antibodies have also shown ability to retain activity against multiple variants of covid-19 virus.

Limitation:

• Monoclonal therapies have shown results in high-risk groups with mild to moderate Covid-19 infections.
• However, they are not approved for use in severe Covid-19 cases that require oxygen. Further, emerging variants like Delta Plus have also displayed ability to nullify the use of monoclonal antibodies.

SOURCE:IE