• The profit after tax (PAT) of Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) Limited has increased by 42 per cent to Rs 1,058.86 crore from Rs 745.61 crore in the first half of the current fiscal year.
• “In the first half of the current fiscal year, the revenue from operations has surged by about 22 per cent to Rs 1,886.99 crore from Rs 1,547.44 crore during the corresponding period of previous fiscal year,” said SJVN chairman Nand Lal Sharma.
• He said the SJVN had upped its earning per share (EPS) to Rs 2.70 in the first half of the fiscal as compared to Rs 1.90 of the previous fiscal. Besides, the company’s net worth has increased to Rs 13,970.52 crore from Rs 13,349.21 crore as on September 30 last year.
• Apprising about recent developments, Sharma said during the second quarter of the current fiscal year, SJVN had added two more floating solar projects of 105 MW and 83 MW capacity in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, respectively, to its kitty.
• The 1500 MW Nathpa Jhakri Hydro Power Station achieved the highest ever daily generation of 39.526 MU on August 30, and the 412 MW Rampur Hydro Power Station generated the highest ever monthly power generation of 290.409 MU in September this year,” he said.
• Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) Limited has secured an 83 MW floating solar project in Madhya Pradesh.
• “This project has been secured at Rs 3.70/unit on build, own and operate basis in an e-reverse auction organised by REWA Ultra Mega Solar Limited (RUMSL),” said SJVN chairman Nand Lal Sharma.
• Sharma said the SJVN would develop the project in India’s largest floating solar park at Omkareshwar in Khandwa district of Madhya Pradesh. “The cost of developing the project will be approximately Rs 585 crore. After commissioning, the project will generate 187 million units in the first year and 4,410 million units over a period of 25 years. The commissioning of the project is expected to reduce approximately 2,16,074 tonnes of carbon emission in 25 years,” he added.
• The power purchase agreement will be signed between the RUMSL and the SJVN for 25 years. The project shall be commissioned within a period of 21 months from the date of the signing of the PPA.
• “This is our second floating solar project bagged through the tariff-based competitive bidding process from the RUMSL. We are already developing a 90 MW floating solar project in Madhya Pradesh,” Sharma added.
• The SJVN is implementing the project along with other renewable ones of 4,090.5 MW capacity through its wholly owned subsidiary SJVN Green Energy Limited.

• Prof Janardan Singh, Head of Department of Organic Agriculture and Natural Farming, CSK Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University (HPAU), here, was recently conferred with the Best Teacher Award.
• The former Deputy Director General (DDG) (Education) of the ICAR, Dr NS Rathore, presented him the award during the national conference on ‘Natural Farming for Sustainable Agriculture and National Prosperity’ held at Sardarkrushinagar Dantiwada Agricultural University (SDAU), Sardarkrushinagar, Gujarat.
• Singh was awarded for his significant contribution to the field of teaching and research conducted in various national and international institutions during his service career of more than 30 years.
• He also presented an invited lead paper on natural farming in the conference. He has bagged a number of national and international awards, besides professional visits to various countries.

• Youth Affairs and Sports Ministry announced the National Sports Awards 2022. The awardees will receive their awards from the President of India at Rashtrapati Bhavan on the 30th of this month. Table Tennis player Sharath Kamal Achanta has been chosen for Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award.
• Arjuna Awards will be given to 25 sportspersons including Seema Punia, Lakshya Sen, Nikhat Zareen, R Praggnanandhaa, Deep Grace Ekka, Sushila Devi, Sagar Kailas Ovhalkar, Omprakash Mitharval, Vikas Thakur, Manasi Girishchandra Joshi among others. Five coaches have been chosen for Dronacharya Award in the regular category and three coaches in the lifetime category. Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sports and Games will be given to four sportspersons including Ashwini Akkunji C, Dharamvir Singh, B.C Suresh and Nir Bahadur Gurung.
• Three entities including TransStadia Enterprises Private Limited, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology and Ladakh Ski and Snowboard Association have been recommended for Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy 2022 will be given to Guru Nanak Dev University of Amritsar.
• National Sports Awards are given every year to recognize and reward excellence in sports. Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award is given for the spectacular and most outstanding performance in the field of sports by a sportsperson.
• Arjuna Award for outstanding performance in Sports and Games is given for good performance over a period of the previous four years and for showing qualities of leadership, sportsmanship and a sense of discipline. Dronacharya Award for outstanding coaches in Sports and Games is given to coaches for doing outstanding and meritorious work.
• Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sports and Games is given to honour sportspersons who have contributed to sports. Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar is given to corporate entities in the private and public sectors, Sports Control Boards, NGOs, including sports bodies at the State and National levels, who have played a visible role in the area of sports promotion and development.

• The report is a compilation of the ‘rule of law’ status across 140 countries worldwide.

About:

• It was released by an international civil society organisation, World Justice Project (WJP).
• According to the report, the rule of law has declined globally for the fifth consecutive year.
• It says that the checks on executive power are weakening, and respect for human rights is falling.

 Top and bottom performers:

• Thetop-ranked country in the WJP Rule of Law Index 2022 is Denmark, followed by Norway (2), Finland (3), Sweden (4), and the Netherlands (5).
• The bottom ranked countries are Venezuela (140), Cambodia (139), Afghanistan (138), the Democratic Republic of Congo (137), and Haiti (136).

 India:

• India has been ranked 77 out of 140 countries with a score of50 on the ‘rule of law index’.
• Globally, India ranks 94 out of 140 as far as adherence to fundamental rights are concerned, 111 out of 140 in civil justice, 89 out of 140 in criminal justice and 93 out of 140 in absence of corruption.

 Neighbouring countries:

• Bangladesh scored 0.39 in the 127th rank, Pakistan settled with a 0.39 score at the 129th rank, and China scored 0.47 in the 95th rank.
• Notably, Nepal has performed better than its neighbours, with a 0.52 score and 69th rank.

 Factors:

• The index is prepared by examining these four principles through eight factors- constraints on government powers, absence of corruption, open government, fundamental rights, order and security, regulatory enforcement, civil justice, and criminal justice.

 Rule of Law:

• The World Justice Project defines the rule of law as a durable system of laws, institutions, norms, and community commitment that delivers: accountability, just laws, open government, and accessible justice.

 World Justice Project (WJP):

• The World Justice Project (WJP) is an independent, multidisciplinary organization working create knowledge, build awareness, and stimulate action to advance the rule of law worldwide.
• It was founded by William H. Neukom in 2006 as a presidential initiative of the American Bar Association (ABA).

 Law and Order Index of 2022:

• The survey was conducted by a global analytics firm called Gallup.
• India has scored 80 points and has secured the 60th rank on the index that ranges from one to 100, a higher score indicating that more people feel secure in a country.
• It has declared East Asia as the most secure region in the world and Taliban-occupied Afghanistan as the least secured country for the third year.
• The first survey conducted by the firm was in 1938 in the United Kingdom.
• The survey evaluated around 120 countries based on the safety and security of the country’s citizens.

• The 75 Creative Minds of Tomorrow initiative is the brainchild of Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting and Youth Affairs and Sports, Anurag Singh Thakur.
• The initiative aims to identify, encourage and nurture young creative talent in filmmaking, from the entire length and breadth of the country.
• The segment is an annual platform at the International Film Festival of India held in Goa, to identify, encourage and nurture young creative talents from across various aspects of filmmaking.
• The initiative is in its second year, having been launched in 2021 to mark the 75th year of India’s independence as part of the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ celebrations.
• The 75 creative minds will be shortlisted and selected on the basis of their submissions by an eminent jury, under the aegis of the National Film Development Corporation ahead of the 53rd edition of International Film Festival of India.

• It is organised by Union Ministry of Home Affairs.
• It aims to progress the discussions on combating terrorist financing held by the international community in the previous two Conferences in Paris (2018) and Melbourne (2019).
• It also intends to include discussions on technical, legal, regulatory and cooperation aspects of all facets of terrorism financing.
• It attempts to also set the pace for other high level official and political deliberations, focused on countering terrorist financing.
• The Conference intends to bring together representatives of 75 countries and international bodies for extended deliberations over two days.

Focus areas:

• Discussions at the 3rd ‘No Money For Terror’ Conference will be focussed on global trends in terrorism and terrorist financing, use of formal and informal channels of funds for terrorism, emerging technologies and terrorist financing and requisite international co-operation to address related challenges.

Other global events:

• India was host to two global events in October, 2022 – the annual General Assembly of the Interpol in Delhi and a special session of the UN Counter Terrorism Committee in Mumbai and Delhi.

Life Science data: 

• Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh on November 10, 2022, unveiled India’s first national repository for life science data, generated from publicly-funded research in the country.
• The Indian Biological Data Centre (IBDC) which is established at the Regional Centre of Biotechnology has a data storage capacity of four petabytes.
• It is also home to the ‘Brahm’- High-Performance Computing Facility. As per Union Minister Jitendra Singh, the Indian Biological Data Centre (IBDC) is committed to the spirit of data sharing as per FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) principles.

Indian Biological Data Centre (IBDC): Why it is significant for India?

• The Executive Director of IBDC, Prof Sudhanshu Vrati while talking about the significance of the Centre said that the life sciences data was till now stored in data repositories in the United States and Europe and a need was felt to house the data within the country.

Indian Biological Data Centre: Key Points

• India’s first national repository for life science data, the Indian Biological Data Centre (IBDC) has been established in Faridabad, Haryana.
• As per the BIOTECH-PRIDE guidelines of the Government of India, IBDC is mandated to archive all life science data generated from publicly-funded research in India.
• The Centre, supported by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), has been established at the Regional Centre of Biotechnology, Faridabad with a data disaster recovery site at the National Informatics Centre (NIC), Bhubaneshwar, Odisha.
• The Centre also hosts an online Dashboard for the genomic surveillance data generated by the INSACOG labs that provide customized data submission, access, data analysis services, and real-time SARS-CoV-2 variant monitoring across India.
• The data submission and access portals for other data types are under development and will be launched shortly.

Indian Biological Data Centre (IBDC): Functions

• The Union Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh informed that the Indian Biological Data Centre (IBDC) has started nucleotide data submission services via two data portals- the ‘Indian Nucleotide Data Archive (INDA)’ and ‘Indian Nucleotide Data Archive- Controlled Access (INDA-CA)’. It has accumulated over 200 billion bases from 2,08,055 submissions from more than 50 research labs across India.
• The computational infrastructure at IBDC has also been made available for researchers interested in performing computational-intensive analysis.

What is life sciences data?

• Life Science refers to the study of living organisms, including humans, microbes, plants, animals, and fungi.
• Life Sciences generates massive amounts of data, which can be extracted and analyzed.

• The increasing relevance of the Icelandic Model (IM) of intervention in bringing teenagers affected by drug use disorders back to normal life through alternative pursuits will be a key topic of deliberations at the three-day International Forum on ‘Right to Drug-free Childhood’.
• The UN-backed conclave, opening here on November 16, featuring prominent voices against drug abuse from India and abroad, is organised by Fourth Wave Foundation (FWF) in partnership with United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and World Federation Against Drugs (WFAD). ‘Children Matter-Right to a Drug-Free Childhood’ is the central theme of the meet.
• Harvey Milkman, Emeritus Professor, Metropolitan State University of Denver, U.S., who has been actively campaigning for the implementation of IM in communities across the world; and Margaret Lilja, chief knowledge officer, Planet Youth, will speak at different sessions at the meet. IM seeks to give a new lease of life to drug-addicted children by channelising their energy to creative pursuits like sports and other avenues through a collaboration of numerous stakeholders like parents, teachers and sports clubs.
• Around 30 years ago, Iceland was the hotspot of teenage drug consumption in Europe. Today, the country stands first on the European list of de-addicted teenagers.
• Fourth Wave Foundation’s initiative against substance abuse named ‘VENDA’ (No to Drugs), strongly advocates the ‘alternative pursuit’ model in Kerala on the lines of IM. Major activities of ‘VENDA’ include empowerment programmes for children, football training, summer camp, football tourney ‘Venda Cup’ and awareness classes for parents, teachers, counsellors, police and excise officers.
• ‘VENDA’ is active in districts that have a very high number of drug-addicted teens found by the National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction (NAPDDR) survey conducted by the Narcotic Control Bureau. Currently, it is focused on Ernakulam, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Kollam, Thiruvananthapuram, Idukki and Thrissur districts.

What is Methane Alert and Response System (MARS)?

• The Methane Alert and Response System (MARS) is a satellite-based system that enables governments to detect methane emissions and take measures to address them.
• This data-to-action platform is part of the global endeavour to tackle climate change by curbing greenhouse emissions.
• It was set up as part of the United Nations Environment Programme’s International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO) strategy to gain policy-relevant data required for mitigating emissions.
• This will be the first publicly available global system connecting methane detection with the notification processes transparently.
• It will use state-of-the-art satellite data to detect and identify notable greenhouse emission events and notify concerned stakeholders. This data will also be used for supporting and tracking the progress of the mitigation efforts.
• If requested, MARS partners will provide technical or advisory services like assessing mitigation opportunities available in specific regions.

About methane and its role in climate change

• Methane accounts for only a minuscule portion of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions. However, it is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in trapping atmospheric heat.
• According to the study by the United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), there are 50 “super-emitters” of methane gas in central Asia, west Asia and the southwestern United States.
• The Global Methane Pledge aims to bring down methane emissions by at least 30 per cent by 2030 to maintain the 1.5°C temperature limit.
• Participants of this pledge have set a global emissions target to voluntarily take actions to minimise methane emissions by at least 30 per cent from 2020 levels by the end of this decade. This could eliminate some 0.2°C warming by 2050.

• The Kerala Tourism has bagged the prestigious Responsible Tourism Global award at the World Travel Mart held in London.State Tourism Minister PA Mohammed Riyas received the award on behalf of the department at London.
• The award was given for the STREET project implemented by the Responsible Tourism Mission under the Kerala Government. The Jury made special remarks about the water street project implemented at Maravanthuruthu in Kottayam district.

About the STREET project:

• STREET is an acronym for Sustainable, Tangible, Responsible, Experiential, Ethnic, and Tourism hubs, which was implemented by the Responsible Tourism Mission under the Government of Kerala on March 31, 2022. The STREET Project is an initiative that promotes water conservation and protection with public participation.
• Under the project, the deepening and cleaning of canals and other water bodies take place to promote tourism, as Kerala is famous for its backwaters and also preserve the water bodies to be maintained in good condition.
• The ‘street’ initiative is a water protection and conservation project in Tourism sector implemented with public participation. The project aims to deepen the canals and various waterbodies and clean them for the purpose of tourism activities, the tourism department.
• As part of it, eco-friendly coir cloth is draped over the banks of waterbodies. The ‘Coir Bhoovastra’, as it is called, is a natural earth cover made from coconut fiber and will stop erosion during monsoon season.