• Flipkart, e-commerce marketplace, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP), Telangana to enable market access for Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and Self-Help Groups (SHGs) in the state.
• Flipkart aims to empower local farming communities and SHGs of Telangana by providing pan-India market access to more than 400 million customers on its platform.
• As part of this collaboration, Flipkart will directly source premium quality pulses, millets, staples, and spices from the local farmers, contributing to improve income and business growth.
• Flipkart will further engage with these communities through virtual and on-ground training and capacity-building initiatives to provide them with an understanding of quality, pricing, and licenses required to be a part of FPO ecosystem.
• Flipkart is currently working with multiple FPOs, small and marginal farmers across the country to build sustainable and scalable partnerships.
• It has trained over 10,000 farmers across the country, on product quality and food safety to enable market access and empower and prosper the farmer community in India.

• Kerala will soon have its own red list of birds. The Kerala Bird Monitoring Collective led by Kerala Agricultural University and the Bird Count India will conduct the regional red list assessment.
• Kerala will become the first State to have a region-specific red list of birds. Assessment will be done on the basis of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) guidelines.
• But there are limitations for the global assessment as it is a process prepared in a global context. A species seen common at the global level may be a threatened species at the regional level.
• The IUCN guidelines for preparing the red list have five main criteria. The population size reduction measured over 10 years or three generations is one of the major guidelines. Geographic range on the basis of extent of occurrence or area of occupancy is another. Small population size and decline, very small or restricted population, and quantitative analysis indicating the probability of extinction in the wild are the other criteria.
• According to the global IUCN red list, Kerala has 35 threatened species of birds. In that, Red¬headed vulture and White¬rumped vulture are critically endangered. Steppe Eagle, Banasura Chilappan and Nilgiri Chilappan are endangered and 11 species are vulnerable.
• The Kerala Bird Atlas accounts for nearly three lakh records of 361 species, including 94 very rare species, 103 rare species, 110 common species, 44 very common species, and 10 most abundant species.
• According to the atlas, most of the endemics are concentrated in the Western Ghats while the threatened species are cited mostly.

• A National Green Tribunal (NGT) monitoring committee announced recently that Punjab’s groundwater will drop below 300 metres by the year 2039.
• Punjab’s central and southern districts, such as Barnala, Bathinda, Fatehgarh Sahib, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Moga, SAS Nagar, Pathankot, Patiala and Sangrur, are among the most affected as the average yearly rate of fall of groundwater levels works out to be approximately 0.49 metre per year.
• Punjab’s area under paddy, that includes all varieties, is close to 25-27 lakh hectares. Punjab’s water resources can only tolerate paddy’s area to the tune of 10-12 lakh hectares.
• While agriculture experts and environmentalists suggest phasing out the paddy crop, as one of the main solutions for the groundwater crisis, farmers expect assured purchase of the alternative crops planted as a replacement for paddy.

• South Korea launched its first satellite successfully using a homegrown rocket, boosting the nation’s expanding aerospace ambitions and proving it has the necessary technologies to build larger missiles and launch spy satellites in the midst of tensions with rival North Korea.
• The three-stage Nuri rocket successfully launched a working “performance verification” satellite to a target altitude of 435 miles from South Korea’s space launch facility on a southern island.

Key Points:

• An unmanned South Korean station in Antarctica received signals from the satellite informing it of its condition.
• It is carrying four smaller satellites that will be launched for Earth observation and other missions in the following days.
• With the launch, South Korea became the tenth country in the world to successfully launch a satellite using homegrown technology.
• It was the second Nuri rocket launch by South Korea.
• When the first attempt was made in October of last year, the third stage rocket’s engine prematurely burned out, preventing the fake payload from entering orbit after reaching the appropriate height.

• The government appointed Tapan Kumar Deka, a 1988-batch Himachal Pradesh-cadre IPS officer, as the Director, Intelligence Bureau, and extended the tenure of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) chief Samant Goel, a 1984-batch Punjab-cadre IPS officer, till June 30 next year.
• As per an order issued by the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT), Deka will have a tenure of two years. He will replace Arvinda Kumar, a 1984-batch IPS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre, whose tenure ends on June 30.
• Deka is currently the head of the IB’s operations wing. He has a vast experience in dealing with issues like terrorism and religious radicalisation. He had led operations against Indian Mujahideen and credited with breaking its back.

• IIT, Mandi is located in Kamand valley of Mandi District.
• IIT Mandi and the Embassy of the Republic of Korea have announced plans to explore potential collaborations on academic and research programmes.
• Y J Park, director, Indo-Korean Center for Research and Innovation (IKCRI), New Delhi, and Shri Hyo Hee Lee, the Science and Technology attaché at the embassy of the Republic of Korea, recently visited IIT Mandi.
• The two-day trip includes discussions on potential collaborations between IIT Mandi and the Korean Universities.

• The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) organised a virtual event to celebrate 7 years of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U), which was launched by Prime Minister on 25^thJune 2015.
• The seventh anniversary celebrations highlighted the important initiatives implemented under PMAY-U Mission, which is one of the largest urban housing programmes in the world.
• An e-Book encapsulating achievements of the Mission was then released by Secretary, MoHUA. The book takes the readers through the initiatives and reforms that have been undertaken by the Mission to transform the urban landscape of India and more importantly, the impact it has had on the lakhs of beneficiaries of PMAY-U, who are proud owners of a pucca house with all basic amenities.
• At the event, winners of Khushiyon Ka Aashiyana Short Film Contest were also declared. The contest was launched by MoHUA as part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations.
• PMAY-U field inspection module in dashboard was also launched on the occasion. The purpose is to assist visitors to inspect PMAY-U project sites/houses construction by beneficiaries with the help of just a mobile phone.
• With a total investment of ₹ 8.31 Lakh Crore PMAY-U has so far sanctioned 122.69 lakh, out of which more than 1 crore houses have been grounded and over 61 lakh houses have been completed and delivered to the beneficiaries.

• Electric vehicles are vehicles that operate on electric motor and rechargeable batteries.
• Safety and performance are two critical aspects of electronic devices.
• Most of the EVs use Lithium-ion batteries because of its high power to weight ratio.

KEY POINTS:

• This standard is formulated considering real life scenarios for an electric vehicle such as vehicle is in parking (battery is not used for extended period of time), battery system is being shipped (stored), operating battery at low and high temperature etc., accordingly various tests are incorporated in this standard.
• Further, keeping view on safety aspect of batteries for EV, Bureau of Indian Standard is in the process of publishing 2 more standard related to batteries for various passenger and goods carrying vehicles.

KEY POINTS

• This agreement will be in furtherance of objective of creating a multi-partner indigenous 5G ecosystem through Startups.
• Collaborative framework aims at accelerating indigenous development of 5G in line with the vision of “Atmanirbhar Bharat” and “Start-up India”.

About (C-DOT) and Galore Networks:

• Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) is the premier R&D centre of the Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications, Government of India. C-DOT has indigenously designed and developed various cutting-edge Telecom technologies spanning Optical, Switching & Routing, Wireless, Security and host of Telecom Software applications. C-DOT has developed its indigenous 4G solution and is keenly working in the area of 5G.
• Galore Networks, established in 2013 and headquartered in Bengaluru, is developing carrier grade products and services for global communication service providers, enterprises and critical infrastructure and vertical market segments. Galore Networks offers end-to-end solutions that are centred on complex cutting edge technology platforms like 5G, IoT, Cloud/NFV -SDN and legacy network products ranging from 2G-3G & 4G.

• The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC)appointed former Punjab Director General of Police (DGP), Dinkar Gupta as the Director General of the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
• He is the 1987 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of Punjab cadre.
• According to the order, Gupta will hold the post of NIA chief till March 31, 2024, that is the date of his retirement or till further orders, whichever comes earlier.
• Gupta has held the post of Director General of Police, Intelligence, Punjab, which involved the direct supervision of Punjab State Intelligence Wing, State Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and Organized Crime Control Unit (OCCU).