• The European Commission recently listed six tech giants — Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft and ByteDance — as gatekeepers under its new Digital Markets Act.
• The term ‘gatekeepers’ refers to massive internet platforms which the EU views are restricting access to core platform services, such as online search, advertising, and messaging and communications.
• The Digital Markets Act is a groundbreaking piece of legislation that aims to encourage greater competition in digital markets and ensure greater choice for consumers.
  • It aims to clamp down on anti-competitive practices from big tech players.
• The rules could lead to some big changes for the platforms of Big Tech companies.

• The Union Cabinet has approved the Scheme for Viability Gap Funding (VGF) for development of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS).
• The approved scheme envisages development of 4,000 MWh of BESS projects by 2030-31, with a financial support of up to 40% of the capital cost as budgetary support in the form of Viability Gap Funding (VGF).
• The move is expected to bring down the cost of battery storage systems increasing their viability.
• Designed to harness the potential of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power, the scheme aims to provide clean, reliable, and affordable electricity to the citizens.
• The VGF for development of BESS Scheme, with an initial outlay of Rs.9,400 crore, including a budgetary support of Rs.3,760 crore, signifies the government’s commitment to sustainable energy solutions.
• By offering VGF support, the scheme targets achieving a Levelized Cost of Storage (LCoS) ranging from Rs. 5.50-6.60 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), making stored renewable energy a viable option for managing peak power demand across the country.
• The VGF shall be disbursed in five tranches linked with the various stages of implementation of BESS projects.
• A minimum of 85% of the BESS project capacity will be made available to Distribution Companies (Discoms).
• The selection of BESS developers for VGF grants will be carried out through a transparent competitive bidding process.

• The summoning of Parliament is specified in Article 85 of the Constitution which it is based on a provision of The Government of India Act, 1935, which specifies that the central legislature be summoned at least once a year, and that not more than 12 months elapsed between two sessions.
• Dr B R Ambedkar, however, said that the purpose of that provision had been to summon the legislature only to collect revenue, and that the once-a-year meeting was designed to avoid scrutiny of the government by the legislature.
  • His drafting of the provision reduced the gap between sessions to six months, and specified that Parliament should meet at least twice a year.

Sessions

• India does not have a fixed parliamentary calendar.
• By convention, Parliament meets for three sessions in a year.
• The longest, the Budget Session, starts towards the end of January, and concludes by the end of April or first week of May.
  • The session has a recess so that Parliamentary Committees can discuss the budgetary proposals.
• The second session is the three-week Monsoon Session, which usually begins in July and finishes in August.
• The parliamentary year ends with a three week-long Winter Session, which is held from November to December.
• The power to convene a session of Parliament rests with the government.
  • The decision is taken by the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, and formalised by the President, in whose name MPs are summoned to meet for a session.

• The efficacy of immunization vaccination for Japanese Encephalitis is around 86.7%, according to a new study by the ICMR-National Institute of Virology, Pune.
• The government uses Chinese-made live-attenuated SA 14-14-2 vaccines

ABOUT JAPANESE ENCEPHALITIS

• In 1871, the first case of Japanese Encephalitis was recorded in Japan.
• Japanese encephalitis is the main cause of acute encephalitis syndrome in South Asia, including India.
• It is caused by a flavivirus that belongs to the same genus as dengue, yellow fever and West Nile viruses.
• It is spread by Culex mosquitoes.
• There are 68,000 cases globally per year.
• Initial symptoms include fever, chills, headache, fatigue, nausea and vomiting which can progress to inflammation of the brain (encephalitis) accompanied by seizures, coma and paralysis.
• In India, Japanese encephalitis cases are reported to be high in the north-central and north-eastern regions, medium to high endemic in the south and low in the north-west region.
  • Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh are the high-burden states.
• The disease does not transmit from one person to another.
• There is no cure for the disease.

• The Chamba Welfare Association, a local NGO, has urged the CM to introduce direct helicopter service from Chamba district to the Manimahesh shrine.
• Currently a helicopter service is available from Bharmour to Gaurikund helipad, 2-3 km below the sacred Manimahesh lake.

ABOUT MANIMAHESH YATRA

• The Manimahesh Lake is situated 26 kilometers from Bharmour in the Budhil valley, one of the chief pilgrimage spots in Himachal Pradesh.
• The lake is situated at an altitude of 13,000 feet at the foot of the Kailash peak (18,564 ft).
• Every year, on the eighth day of the light half of the moon in the month of Bhadon, a fair is held at this lake, which attracts thousands of pilgrims who assemble here to take a dip in the holy water.
• Lord Shiva is the presiding deity of this fair / jatra.
• He is believed to reside in Kailash.
• A rock formation in the shape of a Shivling on Kailash is considered to be the manifestation of Lord Shiva.
• The snowfield at the base of the mountain is called Shiva’s Chaugan by the local people.

• The International Day of Clean Air for blue skies is annually observed on 7^th of September.
• The theme for this year is ‘Together for Clean Air’. It aims to highlight the urgent need for stronger partnerships, increased investment, and shared responsibility for overcoming air pollution.

• The World Heritage Site Sanchi in Madhya Pradesh’s Raisen district has become India’s first solar city.
• It has a capacity of 3 megawatts in Nagauri near Sanchi, which will reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by 13,747 tonnes.
• This is equivalent to more than 2,38,000 trees.

• The Malaviya Mission – Teachers Training Programme was launched by the University Grants Commission at Kaushal Bhawan, New Delhi recently.
• The Portal of the Programme was also launched and its information brochure was released.
• Human Resource Development Centres (HRDCs) have also been renamed as Madan Mohan Malaviya Teachers’ Training Centre.

ABOUT THE MALAVIYA MISSION – TEACHERS TRAINING PROGRAMME

• Organised by the University Grants Commission, in association with the Ministry of Education, the MMTTP aims to provide tailored training programmes for teachers.
• This programme will work for the capacity building of faculty members in higher educational institutions.
• Programme will ensure continuous professional development and help in building capacities of 15 lakh teachers of HEIs through 111 Malaviya Mission centres across India in a time-bound manner.
• Capacity building under the Malaviya Mission will be mapped to the credit framework to ensure career progression pathways for educators.

• The country’s first UPI ATM was launched

• Hitachi Payment Services has introduced ‘the country’s first-ever UPI-ATM as a White Label ATM (WLA) in association with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
• The UPI-ATM offers a seamless and secure cash withdrawal process without the need for a physical card.
• UPI-ATM operates through QR-based UPI cash withdrawals.
• UPI-ATM is accessible to UPI users who have a UPI application installed on their Android or iOS devices.

• Mexico’s Maya train project has been described as a “megaproject of death” — it imperils the Yucatán peninsula’s rich wilderness, ancient cave systems and indigenous communities.
• The Tribunal for the Rights of Nature said the project caused “crimes of ecocide and ethnocide”.

ABOUT ECOCIDE

• Ecocide, derived from Greek and Latin, translates to ‘killing one’s home’ or ‘environment’.
• There is no accepted legal definition of ecocide, but Ecocide as defined by the Stop Ecocide Foundation.
  • Ecocide is the “unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts.”

• Biologist Arthur Galston in 1970 is credited be the first to link environmental destruction with genocide, which is recognised as an international crime, when referring to the S. military’s use of Agent Orange (a herbicide) during the Vietnam War.
• British Lawyer Polly Higgins proposed that the Rome Statute should be amended to treat crimes against nature on par with crimes against people.
• Ecocide is a crime in 11 countries, with 27 other nations mulling laws around criminalising environmental damage that is wilfully caused and harms humans, animals and plant species.