WHY IN THE NEWS?

• Avani Lekhara won the bronze medal in the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions SH1 event with a score of 445.9 to become the first Indian woman to win two medals at the Paralympics.
• Lekhara had also won gold in the 10m air rifle standing SH1 event. India’s medal tally now stands at 12 at these Paralympics. It has now won two golds, six silvers and four bronze medals.
• This is India’s best tally at a single edition of the Para Games. It had won four medals at Rio 2016 and four at the 1984 Paralympics.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• Mexican photographer Alejandro Prieto has emerged as the winner of the Bird Photographer of the Year (BPOTY) 2021. He has won for capturing a photograph of a greater roadrunner staring up at the barbed-wire-clad border wall between the USA and Mexico, with what almost looks like a sense of bewilderment. The image has been given the title as ‘Blocked’.
• The Bird Photographer of the Year comes with a cash prize of £5,000. He was chosen from among 22,000 entries from 73 countries.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will set up a committee to scrutinize applications and give recommendations on New Umbrella Entity (NUE) licenses. The 5 member committee will be headed by Shri. P. Vasudevan.
• The committee will be responsible for looking into several aspects of NUE, from the macroeconomic impact of such a step to the security risks. The committee’s recommendations will be taken into consideration before doling out the licences.
• NUEs will establish their own payment infrastructure to compete with the National Payments Corp. of India (NPCI). The government hopes to build a settlement system similar to the unified payments interface (UPI) with the NUEs.
• The system will be focused on small and medium enterprises, merchants and consumers. The RBI had in August 2020 issued guidelines for creating “for-profit NUEs”

WHY IN THE NEWS?                                               

• Rajya Sabha Chairman, M Venkaiah Naidu has appointed Dr PPK Ramacharyulu, who is the secretary in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat since 2018, as the secretary-general. He succeeds Desh Dipak Verma, who demitted office as secretary-general after serving the top post for four years.
• Ramacharyulu is the first insider to have risen from the ranks of the secretariat to the top post in the about 70 years of the Rajya Sabha.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• Atul Bhatt has been appointed as chairman and managing director (CMD) of disinvestment-owned steel company Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL).
• He was the CMD of state-owned consultancy firm MECON, which offers a full range of services required to set up a project from concept to commissioning including turnkey execution.
• PK Rath retired as CMD RINL on May 31, after serving the company for 38 years. RINL is a special steel-making player based in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. The company, without any captive iron ore mines, owns and operates a 7.3-million tonne (MT) steel plant in the state

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• Pankaj Kumar Singh, a 1988-batch IPS officer from the Rajasthan cadre, has taken charge as the new Director General (DG) of the Border Security Force (BSF). Prior to this, he was serving as the special DG at the BSF headquarters in Delhi.
• The 58-year-old Pankaj Singh replaces IPS officer and Indo-Tibetan Border Police Director General (DG) SS Deswal who was holding the additional charge of BSF DG since July 2021.
• Apart from this, Sanjay Arora, a 1988-batch IPS officers from Tamil Nadu cadre, has taken over as the new DG of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has decided to form a committee to review the existing guidelines of the Journalist Welfare Scheme (JWS).
• The 12-member committee, with Ashok Kumar Tandon, Member, Prasar Bharati Board, as its chairperson, will revise the quantum of ex-gratia payment in case of death as well as in other cases under the scheme.
• The terms of reference (ToR) of the committee include examining the need for such a revision of the quantum of ex-gratia payment. The committee will look into the aspect of differentiation or parity between accredited and non-accredited journalists for availing benefits under the scheme.
• The committee shall give its recommendations within two months and all secretarial assistance for convening its meetings will be provided by the Press Information Bureau (PIB).

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• The Union Minister for Women and Child Development, Smriti Zubin Irani inaugurated NUTRI GARDEN to mark the beginning of Poshan Maah – 2021 at All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA).
• Plantation of Shigru (Sahijan) and Amla saplings were also carried out. AIIA, New Delhi under the direction of the Ministry of Ayush initiated the celebration of Poshan Maah – 2021.
• Nutri kitchen garden/Nutri garden is a method of planting and harvesting nutrient-rich crops in residential houses or in their vicinity to meet the requirements of the family all year round.
• In urban areas, Nutri kitchen gardening can be promoted in the form of rooftop gardening, terrace gardening, vertical gardening and container gardening.
• In rural areas, Nutri kitchen gardens can be promoted in the backyard of the houses.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

Recently, a mystery fever was reported from parts of Uttar Pradesh. It claimed about 40 lives, mostly children in one week. This viral fever was identified as Scrub typhus.

About:

• Scrub typhus was reported mainly from Firozabad, Agra, Mainpuri, Etah and Kasganj districts of Uttar Pradesh.
• Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath visited the affected region and said a team of experts from King George’s Medical University of Lucknow would probe the deaths of children.
• A team from Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) was also called to look after the situation.

What is scrub typhus?

Scrub typhus is a re-emerging Rickettsial infection. This vector-borne disease has been earlier reported in India and other South Asian countries. This disease is marked by fever and rashes. It also affects the central nervous system, cardiovascular system, respiratory system, renal system and gastrointestinal systems. In complicated cases, it could lead to pneumonia, meningo-encephalitis, gastro-intestinal bleeding, acute renal failure, and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

Background

This disease has been named “scrub” after the type of vegetation that harbours the vector. Typhus is a Greek word with meaning “fever with stupor” or smoke. This disease took the form of an epidemic during World War II in some countries while during the Second World War, it emerged as the most dreaded disease among soldiers of the Far East. In India, this fever out in an epidemic form during Second World War in Assam and West Bengal.

How does it cause?

Scrub typhus fever is caused by a bacterium called Orientia tsutsugamushi. The name of the bacterium is of Japanese origin. The word “tsutsuga” means illness and “mushi” means insect. This disease spreads through bites of infected chiggers or larval mites. Bite marks are found on the armpit, genitalia or neck.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

New Development Bank (NDB) by BRICS group of nations has added United Arab Emirates, Uruguay and Bangladesh as the new members on September 2, 2021.

About:

This first batch of new members was added to the bank as part of its expansion drive.

New Development Bank

New Development Bank was launched in 2015 by the BRICS Members- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. It was formerly referred as “BRICS development bank”. It is headquartered in Shanghai. The first regional office of the NDB was set up in Johannesburg, South Africa while second regional office was established in 2019 in Brazil, followed by in Russia.

Function of the Bank

The bank mobilises resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in the member countries as well as in other developing nations. It complements the existing efforts made by multilateral and regional financial institutions towards global growth and development.

Membership expansion

NDB started it membership expansion and started formal negotiations with prospective members in 2020. Admission of the UAE, Uruguay and Bangladesh as Bank’s first new member countries, was approved after a round of successful negotiations.

NDB’s capital and projects

The Bank has an authorised capital of USD 100 billion. It is open for subscription by members of the United Nations. NDB has approved about 80 projects in all of its member countries which amount to portfolio of USD 30 billion. Projects in areas of transport, water & sanitation, digital infrastructure, clean energy, social infrastructure and urban development are within the scope of NDB.