WHY IN THE NEWS?

Recently, a newly discovered plant Allium negianum, in Uttarakhand has been confirmed to belong to the genus that includes many staple foods such as onion and garlic.

• A staple food makes up the dominant part of a population’s diet. They are eaten regularly—even daily—and supply a major proportion of a person’s energy and nutritional needs.

 About:

• Allium is one of the largest genera in Amaryllidaceae.
  • Amaryllidaceae is a family of herbaceous (connected with plants that have soft stems), mainly perennial and bulbous flowering plants.
• The genus Allium contains about 1,100 species worldwide, including many staple foods like onion, garlic, scallion, shallot and chives.
• The genus naturally occurs in dry seasons in the northern hemisphere and South Africa but the newly-identified species is restricted to the region of the western Himalayas.
• The scientific name Allium negianum honours the late Dr. Kuldeep Singh Negi, an eminent explorer and Allium collector from India.
  • They are useful for various medicinal purposes.

Distribution in India:

• The Indian Allium is distributed in different eco-geographical areas of the temperate and alpine regions of Himalayas.
• The Indian Himalayan region has two distinct centers of Allium diversity, the Western Himalaya (over 85% of total diversity) and the Eastern Himalaya (6%), covering the alpine-sub temperate region.

Condition of Growth:

• It grows at 3,000 to 4,800 m above sea level and can be found along open grassy meadows, sandy soils along rivers, and streams forming in snow pasture lands along alpine meadows.

Threat:

• Indiscriminate harvesting of its leaves and bulbs for seasoning may pose a threat to its wild populations.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

Under the new initiative called the “Gen-Next Democratic Network” initiative, India is set to host young leaders aged fewer than 35.

About:                        

• This event will be organised in November 2021.
• It has been planned by Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).
• ICCR is an autonomous body working under the Ministry of External Affairs. It deals with the policies related to India’s external cultural relations.
• Young leaders would be invited from 75 different democracies.
• These young leaders will be invited from the ruling party, opposition party and other key parties.
• 5-7 leaders will be invited in different groups, to attend the event.

Inaugural Batch

The inaugural batch will comprise leaders from countries like Bangladesh, Bangladesh, Chile, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Japan and Zambia. The structure comprises of countries representing regions and continents such as South East Asia and Africa.

Who will inaugurate the event?

This event will be inaugurated by the speaker of Lok Sabha, Om Birla. The event will take place from November 25.

Purpose of the meeting

Through this event, organisers are approaching and trying to build relations with Gen-next of 75 democracies. These people will become future leader of their respective countries. This, through this event, they will get a comprehensive idea of rich democratic culture in India. They will also go to at least one state with ICCR.

Background

This initiative has been launched by in the light that, India has been taking a lead role in the area of geo politics of democracies.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is set to host the ‘Aadhaar Hackathon 2021’ from October 28, 2021.

About Aadhaar Hackathon

• The Aadhaar Hackathon is set to identify young innovators in the area of information technology.
• The event will start on October 28 and end on October 31, 2021.
• Hackathon will be organised for young innovators who are still at various engineering institutes and seek to step into the real world.
• It will be the first-ever event being conducted by the Aadhaar team.

The theme of the event                            

Aadhaar Hackathon 2021 has been themed on two topics:

Enrolment and Update: This topic primarily covers some of the real-life challenges which are faced by the residents while they update their addresses.

Identity and Authentication:Under this theme, the UIDAI is soliciting innovative solutions for proving the identity without sharing Aadhaar number or any demographic information. It is also looking for innovative applications related to face authentication API, which is the newly launched authentication modality of the UIDAI. Its objective is to popularise existing as well as new APIs for solving the needs of residents.

To solve these challenges, UIDAI is reaching out to all engineering colleges through innovative technological solutions.

How to register

One can register for the hackathon by visiting “hackathon.uidai.gov.in” website.

Prize money and other benefits

UIDAI will also reward winners under each theme through prize money and other lucrative benefits.

Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)

UIDAI is a statutory authority which was established under the provisions of the Aadhaar Act 2016 on July 12, 2016. It was established under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). It was created to issue Unique Identification numbers (UID), dubbed as “Aadhaar”, to all the residents of India.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

India, Israel, United States and United Arab Emirates (UAE) are ready to build on the momentum created by the “Abraham Accords” by holding the first meeting of their foreign ministers on October 18, 2021.

About:

• The meeting is being described in some quarters as a “new Quad”.
• It was joined by:

1. External affairs minister S Jaishankar,
2. US secretary of state Antony Blinken from Washington
3. Israeli foreign minister Yair Lapid from Jerusalem
4. UAE foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan from Abu Dhabi.

• This meeting is the first to bring four countries together on a single platform.
• The meeting will also be linked with India’s efforts of building new plurilateral and multilateral partnerships which focuses on cooperation in areas including security, connectivity and energy.

Trilateral Cooperation

India, Israel and the UAE have also stepped-up a trilateral cooperation, especially in trade and investment, after US negotiated for Abraham Accords in August 2020 between two West Asian countries. Under this partnership, an Israel-based company will produce a robotic solar cleaning technology in India which will be used for a project in the UAE.

Abraham Accords

Abraham Accords are a joint statement between Israel, the US and the UAE. It was signed on August 13, 2020. The term was also used to refer to normalisation agreements between Israel & UAE and Israel & Bahrain collectively. It is the first public normalization of relations between any Arab country and Israel since 1994. The accords have been named after Abraham, emphasizing the shared belief between Judaism and Islam. Both of them are Abrahamic religions which strictly support monotheistic worship of the God of Abraham.

WHY IN NEWS?

An Indian Project, Takachar’s Innovation, that recycles agricultural waste into fuel has won the “Prince William’s inaugural Earthshot Prize”, which is also called as “Eco Oscars.

About:

• Eco Oscars honour people who are trying to save the planet Earth.
• This award is presented with the aim of providing assistance to and inspire innovative local solutions as the climate crisis is growing globally.

Takachar’s Innovation

Takachar’s Innovation is led by Vidyut Mohan. This technology was recognised for its affordable technology in order to convert crop residues into sellable bio-products. It reduced smoke emissions by 98 per cent. Thus, it calls for improving air quality. Vidyut Mohan was awarded for this technology in “clean our air category”. This award was among five other winners of the prize worldwide.

Significance of the technology

World generate around USD 120 billion of agricultural waste per year. When farmers fail to sell, they often burn the waste. Burning of waste have catastrophic consequences for human health as well as environment. Burning causes air pollution, which has reduced life expectancy in some areas by a decade. Thus, this technology is significant in mitigating this challenge.

Background

For the next 10 years, the Earthshot will be awarding £1m each year to each of five projects that are working for findings solutions to the environmental problems on the planet.

About Earthshot Prize

This prize is awarded to five winners each year, whose projects help the environment. It will be awarded annually from 2021 to 2030. It is given by the Royal Foundation, which is headquartered in London, England. The prize is distributed in five separate categories that are supported by UN Sustainable Development Goals. This prize was launched in the year 2020 by Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and David Attenborough.

WHY IN NEWS?

• Indian American Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella has won the prestigious C K Prahlad award for Global Business Sustainability Leadership for the year 2021, along with three other top leaders of Microsoft.
• The four top Microsoft leaders have received the Award for their collaborative leadership to transform Microsoft into a carbon negative company by 2030 and remove all its historical emissions by 2050.
• Apart from Nadella, Microsoft’s President and Vice-Chair Brad Smith, Chief financial officer Amy Hood and chief environment officer Lucas Joppa have shared the award for Global Business Sustainability Leadership.

• A K Goel, managing director and chief executive (MD & CEO) of UCO Bank has been elected as the chairman of Indian Bank’s Association (IBA) for 2021-22.
• He has replaced Rajkiran Rai G, MD & CEO, Union Bank of India. IBA is a representative body of management of banking in India operating in India and is headquartered in Mumbai.

WHY IN NEWS?

• Senior bureaucrat Ritesh Chauhan has been appointed as the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) and Joint Secretary, Agriculture under the Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.
• Chauhan will have a combined tenure of seven years up to September 22, 2023. He is a 2005-batch IAS officer of the Himachal Pradesh cadre. He will succeed Ashish Kumar Bhutani, who was appointed in 2018.

WHY IN NEWS?

• Varanasi of Uttar Pradesh will become the first city in India to use ropeway services in public transportation.
• Overall, Varanasi will be the third city in the world after Bolivia and Mexico City to use ropeway in public transportation. The total cost of the ropeway project is Rs 424 crore. The total distance of 4.2 km will be covered in just 15 minutes.
• The project will be executed on a public-private partnership model. The cost of the project will be divided between the Centre and the state government at 80:20. Four stations of the ropeway services pilot phase will be at the height of above 11 meters.

WHY IN NEWS?

Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Prerna Sthal was inaugurated on October 15, 2021 at Naval Science & Technological Laboratory (NSTL), Visakhapatnam.

About:

• Prerna Sthal was inaugurated to commemorate 90^th birth anniversary of Bharat Ratna Dr APJ Abdul Kalam as well as to commemorate ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’.
• On the occasion, a statue of Dr Kalam was also unveiled by director general (Naval Systems & Materials) of DRDO, Dr Samir V Kamat.
• NSTL products like Varunastra, Torpedo Advanced Light (TAL) and Maareech decoy are also being displayed on the occasion at NSTL.

About NSTL

NSTL is the premier naval research laboratory working under the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO). It is located in Visakhapatnam. The main function of NSTL is the research & development of underwater weapons & associated systems. It is organized under the Directorate of Naval R&D of DRDO. Current director of NSTL is Dr Y. Sreenivas Rao.

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen (APJ) Abdul Kalam

He was an Indian aerospace scientist and also served as 11th president of India from 2002 to 2007. He was born and brought up in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu. He studied physics and aerospace engineering. He dedicated his four years as a scientist and science administrator, at the DRDO and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). He was involved in the military missile development efforts and civilian space programme in India.  This, he is known as Missile Man of India. He also played significant organisational, technical, and political role the Pokhran-II nuclear tests by India in 1998.