Why in news?

• NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL), an International arm of National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) has announced that BHIM UPI is now available at NEOPAY terminals, across the UAE.
  • Globally, UPI is accepted in Bhutan and Nepal, and is likely to go live in Singapore in 2022.
• UPI is an instant real-time payment system developed by NPCI facilitating inter-bank transactions.
  • It is the most successful real-time payments systems globally, providing simplicity, safety, and security in person to person (P2P) and person to merchant (P2M) transactions.
  • BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money), pioneered and developed by NPCI, enables fast, secure, reliable cashless payments through mobile phone.
  • UPI is one of the most prominent forms of digital payments worth $1 trillion in FY 2022.
  • BHIM, launched in 2016, brings in Financial Inclusion to the nation and a digitally empowered society.
• NPCI is an initiative of RBI and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) under provisions of Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, for creating a robust Payment and Settlement Infrastructure in India.
  • It aims to create a robust Payment & Settlement Infrastructure in India and operates RuPay (Indigenously developed Payment System), IMPS, NACH (National Automated Clearing House), ABPS (Aadhaar Payment Bridge System), NFS (National Financial Switch), Bharat Bill Payment System

Why in news?

• Authorities in Bihar are working on strategies to prevent AES as rising temperature and humidity reignite fears of an outbreak.
• AES is characterized as acute-onset of fever and a change in mental status and/or new-onset of seizures in a person of any age at any time of the year.
• It most commonly affects children and young adults and can lead to considerable morbidity and mortality.
• Viruses are the main causative agents in AES cases, although other sources such as bacteria, fungus, parasites, spirochetes, chemicals, toxins and non-infectious agents have also been reported.

Why in news?

• It has captured the solar eclipse on Mars featuring Phobos, one of Mars’ two moons (other is Deimos ).
• It was launched in 2020 under Mars 2020 Mission and landed at Jezero crater, Mars in 2021.
• The rover is on an astrobiology mission to-
  • Better understand the Mars geology and seek signs of ancient life,
  • Collect and store a set of rock and soil samples for possible return to Earth, and
  • Test new technology to benefit future robotic and human exploration of Mars.

Why in news?

• Recently, North and South Korea leaders exchanged letters with the hope to make the Korean Peninsula peaceful.
• It is located in East Asia, connected with mainland Asia and contains North Korea and South Korea (with 38th Parallel as a separation line).
• It lies in the Pacific Ocean and is surrounded by Yellow Sea in West and Sea of Japan in East with Korean Strait joining the two seas.
• From the mainland, the Amnok River separates it from China and the Duman River from Russia and China.
• Other Geographical Features:
  • Tallest mountain: Mount Paektu.
  • Longest River: Amnok River.

Why in news?

• As per Japan, the disputed islands are illegally occupied by Russia.
• Japan has called these islands – the Northern Territories – while Russia calls them the southern Kurils.
• Japan claims the Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai islands in Kuril Island chain.
• Location: Chain of volcanic island archipelago stretches north across the Pacific Ocean from the Japan’s Hokkaido to the southernmost tip of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula.
• It separates the Sea of Okhotsk from the Pacific Ocean.
• Other features
• Vegetation: Ranges from tundra on the northern islands to dense forest on the larger southern islands
• Kuril Islands form part of the ring of tectonic instability encircling the Pacific Ocean referred to as the Pacific Ring of Fire.

Why in news?

• Biliti Electric Inc (Biliti),based in California, United States of America, has announced its intention to establish the world’s largest electric three-wheeler manufacturing facility in
• The plant will be built in 2 phases over an area of 200 acres.
• Phase I of 13.5 acres with a capacity to produce 18000 Electric Vehicles (EV)per year will become operational in 2023 and the larger facility of 200 acres with a production capacity of 240000 EV per year will become operational in 2024.
• The facility will produce all the products of Biliti including the cargo model TaskmanTM and the passenger version UrbanTM. The facility is estimated to drive private investment of USD 150 million (around Rs 1,144 crore) and is expected to create more than 3000 jobs in Telangana.

Why in news?

• World Earth Day, also known as International Mother Earth Day, is celebrated every year on April 22. The Day will be celebrated all over the world to spread awareness for Earth’s wellbeing and to encourage people to support environmental protection.
• The day focuses on the global climate crisis that is worsening with each passing day. World Earth Day 2022 will mark the 52nd Anniversary of the day since it started being observed in 1970. Earth Day was renamed officially by the UN in 2009 as International Mother Earth Day.
• The theme of Earth Day 2022 is to ‘Invest in our planet’.
• Earth Day was first celebrated on April 22, 1970.This was when the peace activist John Mc Connell proposed to honour Mother Earth and the concept of peace during a UNESCO conference in San Francisco.

Why in news?

• On April 20, 2022, Russia had test-launched a new nuclear-capable Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) namely ‘RS-28 Sarmat’ for the 1st time from Plesetsk in northwest Russia and hit targets in the Kamchatka peninsula, nearly 6,000 km (3,700 miles) away.
• It is also called ‘Satan 2’. • It will replace the R-36M ICBM (55-18 ‘Satan’) in Russia’s arsenal.
• The Sarmat ICBM has been developed at the Makeyev State Rocket Center (part of Roscosmos) and is manufactured at the Krasmash enterprise.
• It is the most powerful missile with the longest range of destruction of targets in the world.
• Weighing over 200 tonnes and able to transport multiple warheads, it can hit any target on Earth.
• It is designed to elude anti-missile defence systems with a short initial boost phase.
• Sarmat is a three-stage, liquid-fueled missile with a range of 18,000 km and a launch weight of 208.1 metric tons, to be exact. The missile is 35.3 meters long and 3 meters in diameter.

Why in news?

• The Appointment Committee of the Cabinet(ACC) has approved the appointment of Eminent Physicist, Padma Shri, Prof. Ajay Kumar Sood (AK Sood) as the Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) to the Government of India(GoI) for a period of 3 years with effect from the date he assumes charge of the post, or until further orders.
• He will succeed renowned biologist K Vijay Raghavan, who retired on 2nd April 2022.
• Ajay Kumar Sood, the Honorary Professor of the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science(IISc), Bengaluru, is well known for his research findings on Graphene and nanotechnology.
• He is also a member of the Prime Minister’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC).
• He was honoured with the Padma Shri in 2013 for science and Engineering.
• He holds 7 patents: 2 United States (US) and 5 Indian patents.

Roles of PSA

• Science & Technology (S&T) fundamentals with applied research in collaboration with multiple stakeholders, both in central and state governments
• Enabling future preparedness in emerging domains of science and technology
• Formulating and coordinating major inter-ministerial S&T missions
• Providing an enabling ecosystem for technology-led innovations and techno-entrepreneurship
• Driving innovation and technology delivery towards solving socio-economic challenges for sustainable growth
• Fostering effective public-private linkages for driving research and innovation

Office of PSA:

• Cabinet Secretariat established the Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor(PSA) to the Government of India in November 1999.
• The office of PSA coordinates with several Ministries and advises the government on science and technology policies and interventions that are of strategic socio-economic importance.
• PM-STIAC is one of the catalysts for such tasks and also oversees the implementation of the tasks.
• It has 9 major missions, Natural Language Translation, Quantum Frontier, Artificial Intelligence, National Biodiversity Mission, Electric Vehicles, Bioscience for Human Health, Waste to Wealth, Deep Ocean Exploration, Accelerating Growth of New India’s Innovations (AGNIi).
• PSA’s office aims to provide pragmatic and objective advice to the Prime Minister and cabinet.

Why in news?

• Recently, RBI has extended the guidelines on LEI to large borrowers of NBFCs and Primary (Urban) Co-operative Banks (UCBs).
• LEI is a 20-character alpha-numeric code which is used to create a global reference data system that uniquely identifies every legal entity in any jurisdiction that is party to a financial transaction.
• LEI improves the quality and accuracy of financial data reporting systems for better risk management.