• ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute(ICAR-SBI) got its first-ever woman director in over a century of the Institution’s existence.  G Hemaprabha was appointed as the Director of the ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute up to 2024 on the recommendation of the Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board, New Delhi under the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.

About Dr. G Hemaprabha

• G Hemaprabha is the first woman director of the 111-year-old ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute. With over 34 years of research experience in sugarcane genetic improvement.
• She has more research experience of over 34 years in Sugarcane genetic improvement and so far, she has developed 27 sugarcane varieties and registered 15 cane genetic stock.

About ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute

• The ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore is the premier and one the oldest agriculture research institutes under the Indian Council of Agriculture Research.
• It was established in 1912, the institute has been largely responsible for meeting the sugarcane varietal requirements of the country for the past ten decades with the dual mandate of developing improved sugarcane varieties and also supporting the sugarcane breeding program of over 23 Sugarcane Research Stations in India.

• The World Health Orgnisation (WHO) and World Meteorological Organization (WMO) alongwith Wellcome Trust has launched a global knowledge platform dedicated to climate and health – climahealth.info.
• According to WHO, this is in response to growing calls for actionable information to protect people from the health risks of climate change and other environmental hazards.
• WHO and WMO have designed this new global open-access platform to become the go-to technical reference point for users of interdisciplinary health, environmental, and climate science.
• Climate and health are inextricably linked. Climate change, extreme weather events and environmental degradation have fundamental impact on human health and well-being.
• Site users will be able to connect with global experts; find upcoming events, news, opportunities, technical resources and data, applied decision and learning tools, case studies, and curated guidance and research documents; explore country, hazard- and theme-focused entry points and a growing number of climate service provider profiles and resources.
• According to WHO, this living platform will be enhanced with new content and dynamic features in the coming months and years, with a view towards expanding its offerings to meet the needs of users on all sides of the climate – environment – health interface.

• Exports of agricultural and processed food products rose by 25 per cent within six months of the current financial year 2022-23 (April-September) in comparison to the corresponding period of 2021-22.
• According to the provisional data released by the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCI&S), the overall export of agricultural and processed food products has witnessed a growth of 25 per cent in dollars during April-September 2022.
• The overall export of Agricultural and Processed Food Export Development Authority (APEDA) products increased to $13771 million in April-September 2022 from $11056 million over the same period of the last fiscal year.
• The initiatives taken by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry through APEDA have helped the country achieve 58 per cent of its total export target for the year 2022-23 within six months of the current fiscal.
• For the year 2022-23, an export target of $23.56 billion has been fixed by APEDA for the agricultural and processed food products basket and an export of $13.77 billion has already been achieved in these six months of the current fiscal.
• As per the DGCI&S provisional data, processed fruits and vegetables recorded a significant growth of 42.42 per cent (April-September 2022), while fresh fruits registered 4 per cent growth as opposed to corresponding months of the previous year.
• Also, processed food products like cereals and miscellaneous processed items reported a growth of 29.36 per cent compared to the first six months of the previous year.
• In April-September, 2021, fresh fruits were exported to the tune of $301 million which increased to $313 million in the corresponding months of the current fiscal. Exports of processed F&V jumped to $1024 million in six months of the current fiscal from $719 million in the corresponding months of the previous year.
• The export of pulses has witnessed an increase of 144 per cent in Q2 of the current fiscal in comparison to the corresponding months of the last fiscal as the export of lentils increased from $135 million (April-September 2021-22) to $330 million (April-September 2022-23).
• Basmati Rice exports witnessed a growth of 37.36 per cent in six months of FY 2022-23 as its export increased from $1660 million (April-September 2021) to $2280 million (April-September 2022), while the export of non-Basmati rice registered a growth of 8 per cent in Q2 of current fiscal. Its export increased to $3207 million in six months of the current fiscal from $2969 million in the corresponding months of the previous year.
• The export of meat, dairy & poultry products increased by 10.29 per cent and the export of other cereals recorded a growth of 12.29 per cent in six months of the current fiscal. The poultry products alone registered a growth of 83 per cent as its export rose to $57 million within the half-year bracket of the current fiscal from $31 million recorded for the corresponding months of the previous year.
• Similarly, dairy products recorded a growth of 58 per cent as its export rose to $342 million in Q2 of the current fiscal from $216 million in Q2 of the previous year.
• Wheat export registered an increase of 136 per cent in Q2 of the current fiscal. Wheat export rose to $1487 million in April-September 2022 from $630 million in April-September 2021.
• Other cereals’ export increased from $467 million in April-September 2021 to $525 million in April-September 2022 and the export of livestock products increased from $1903 million in April-September 2021 to $2099 million in April-September 2022.

About:

• The name reflect the people’s reverence of the Sun as Donyi and the Moon as Polo to symbolize the traditions and rich cultural heritage of the State.
• In January,2019, the Central government granted in-principle’ approval for development of Hollongi Greenfield Airport.
• The project is being developed by Airports Authority of India with the help of Central Government and the State Government of at a cost of ₹646 crore.
• With a 2,300metre runway, the greenfield airport is the first in Arunachal Pradesh to have the capacity to land big aircraft.
• The Hollongi airport is the state’s third after Pasighat and Tezu airports and only airport in the capital city.
• The central government had earlier accorded its approval for setting up of the “greenfield airport” under the `Capital Connectivity Scheme` to build up fixed wing air connectivity facility to the state capital.
• The Donyi Polo airport in Itanagar is northeast India`s 16th airport.

• The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has proposed a single income tax return (ITR) form for all taxpayers.

About:

• According to the proposal, all taxpayers, barring trusts and non-profit organisations, can use the common ITR form, which also includes a separate head for disclosure of income from virtual digital assets.
• The draft ITR form aims to bring ease of filing returns and reduce the time for filing the ITR by individuals and non-business-type taxpayers considerably.
• It proposes to introduce a common ITR by merging all the existing returns of income except ITR-7. However, the current ITR-1 and ITR-4 will continue.
• This will give an option to such taxpayers to file the return either in the existing form (ITR-1 or ITR-4), or the proposed common ITR, at their convenience.

Current Scenario:

• There are seven kinds of ITR forms, which are used by different categories of taxpayers. They are as follows:
• ITR Form 1, called ‘Sahaj’, is for small and medium taxpayers. Sahaj forms can be filed by individuals who have an income up to Rs 50 lakh, with earnings from salary, one house property/ other sources (interest etc).
• ITR-2 is filed by people with income from residential property.
• ITR-3 is intended for people who have income as profits from business/ profession
• ITR-4 (Sugam) is, like ITR-1 (Sahaj), a simple forms, and can be filed by individuals, Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs) and firms with total income up to Rs 50 lakh from business and profession.
• ITR-5 and 6 are for limited liability partnerships (LLPs) and businesses respectively.
• ITR-7 is filed by trusts and non-profit organisations.

• In Meghalaya, the “Citizen Engagement and Communication Programme” was launched by Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma at Tura, West Garo Hills district.
• Launching the programme, the Chief Minister said that the Government has initiated various welfare programmes and the information should be disseminated for the larger benefit of the public.
• This programme aims for grassroots penetration of all schemes so that governance is improved in all aspects.
• The programme will also aim to create much-needed awareness amongst the masses so that people will have the right information to avail benefits of the schemes being launched by the Government.
• He further encouraged the team to sensitize themselves so that they can in turn sensitize the public regarding all the available schemes.

• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, CCEA approved mechanism for ethanol procurement by public sector oil marketing companies under Ethanol Blended Petrol programme.
• It approved higher Ethanol price derived from diffrent sugarcane based raw materials under the programme for the forthcoming sugar season.
• Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri informed that the government has advanced the target for 20 per cent ethanol blending in petrol by Five years to 2025.
• The target was previously to be met by 2030. He said the target of 10 per cent ethanol blending has already been achieved in May this year.

• Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) has conducted a successful maiden flight-test of Phase-II Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) interceptor AD-1 missile from APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the coast of Odisha.
• The flight-test was carried out with the participation of all BMD weapon system elements located at different geographical locations.
• The AD-1 is a long-range interceptor missile designed for both low exo-atmospheric and endo-atmospheric interception of long-range ballistic missiles as well as aircraft.
• It is propelled by a two-stage solid motor and equipped with indigenously-developed advanced control system, navigation and guidance algorithm to precisely guide the vehicle to the target.
• It as a unique type of interceptor with advanced technologies available with a very few nations in the world.
• He exuded confidence that it will further strengthen the country’s BMD capability to the next level.
• Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and Chairman, DRDO Dr Samir V Kamat also congratulated his team on the successful trial.

• Dr Neelam Kaur, advisor, Healthcare and Education, Akal Academy, Baru Sahib, has been conferred with the prestigious ‘Excellence in School Education Award’ by the Republic of Mauritius for her contribution and dedicated services in the field of education and women empowerment in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
• Dr Kaur has contributed to the formal education of girls from economically-challenged families for the past 25 years.

• Following coordinated efforts of the Forest Department, a herd of eight elephants successfully reached Colonel Sher Jung National Park, Simbalbara, in Paonta Sahib.
• Divisional Forest Officer Kunal Angrish said historically, solitary elephants have been found on western side of Paonta-Nahan National Highway (NH).
• However, this new group of eight elephants had crossed the NH and travelled about 20 km east toward Paonta Sahib, exploring the new forest areas of Girinagar, Byas and Khara on their way.
• The department had constituted block-level teams to safely drive the herd as their presence might have caused commotion among the residents of the area, which have hitherto remained unexposed to elephant movement.
• “The teams tracked the daily movement of the heard and drove them in a planned direction by co-ordinated blockading and use of firing sound gun.
• Finally, covering a distance of approximately 60 km in nine days, the herd reached Simbalbara national park.
• Thirty officials of the department were involved in the operation, which also met support and collaboration from the locals.