Why in news?

• World Liver Day is observed on 19 April annually to spread awareness about the causes of liver disease and tips for its prevention so as to take holistic care of the liver.
• The liver is the second largest and the second most complex organ in the body, after the brain.
• It performs crucial body functions and is associated with a person’s digestion, immunity, metabolism, and nutrition storage.
• The liver regulates blood sugar, removes toxic substances from the body, helps blood clot, and controls cholesterol levels.

Why in news?

• India’s first-ever radio channel for the visually impaired, named ‘Radio Aksh’has been launched in Nagpur, Maharashtra. Nagpur’s 96-year-old institution, The Blind Relief Association Nagpur (TBRAN) and Samdrushti Kshamata Vikas Avam Anusandhan Mandal (Saksham) are the organisations behind this idea. The channel will be available on various internet radio platforms for free.
• A dedicated team of trained volunteers, mostly women, help in the creation of content for the radio channel, which can be streamed to the visually impaired across India and the world.
• The complex, carefully-performed processes of going through large amounts of content, recording, sound editing and making corrections do not dampen the productivity and the sense of servitude guides the entire team.

Why in news?

• Egypt, one of the world’s biggest importers of wheat which has been importing wheat from Russia and Ukraine, has agreed to source wheat from India.
• India is second largest producer of wheat after China.

Current Status of global food security

• Between 2019 and 2022, number of people at the brink of famine rose from 27 million to 44 million.
• 5 million people in 17 countries faced acute food insecurity.
• Global food prices rose by over 20% in February 2022.

Reasons for global food crisis includes

• Increasing prices of food, fertilizer, oil, gas and even metals like aluminium, nickel and palladium.
• Supply chain constraints and coronavirus pandemic has caused prices to spike.
• High energy costs.
• Climate change- droughts, floods and fires.

Suggestions to address food insecurity

• Integrating humanitarian, development and peace-building policies in conflict-affected areas.
• Scaling up climate resilience across food systems.
• Social protection policies.
• Strengthening resilience of the most vulnerable to economic adversity.
• Intervening along food supply chains to lower the cost of nutritious foods.

Why in news?

• As per Minister of State for Fishing, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, for the first time in country, a seaweed park will be set up in Tamil Nadu to improve the livelihood of fishermen.
• It will be implemented under the Prime Minister’s Matsya Sampada Yojana.
• Seaweeds, the primitive, marine non-flowering marine algae without root, stem and leaves, plays a major role in marine ecosystems.
• Range in colours from red, green, brown and black and also vary in size, from microscopic to large underwater forests.
• Large seaweeds form dense underwater forests known as kelp forests, which act as underwater nurseries for fish, snails and sea urchins.
• Found mostly in intertidal region (Southern Gulf of Mannar), shallow and deep waters of the sea and estuaries and backwaters.

Significance of seaweeds

• Storehouse of nutrients like iron, zinc, magnesium, riboflavin, thiamine, vitamin A, B, C & K etc.
• Act as a bio-indicator and balance out the ecosystem.
• Mitigating climate change.
• Used as fertilizers and to increase fish production.
• Can be buried in beach dunes to combat beach erosion.
• Used as an ingredient in preparing toothpaste, cosmetics and paints.
• Govt also runs a Seaweed Mission, launched by Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC), for commercial farming of seaweeds and its processing.

Why in news?

• The US Navy has created a new task force with allied countries to patrol the Red Sea amid the Yemen War.
• Red Sea is the world’s northernmost tropical sea between Asia and Africa- connecting the Gulf of Suez and Gulf of Aqaba in the North with the Strait of Bab el-Mandeb in South.
• Part of the Great Rift Valley, Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti lies on its Western Shore, and Yemen and Saudi Arabia lies on the Eastern Shore.
• Due to high heat and lack of precipitation, it has high salinity.
• It is part of Global 200 ecoregions from World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

Why in news?

• Constituted as a statutory body under the Rubber Act of 1947, the Rubber Board completed 75 years.
• Rubber Board [HQ: Kottayam (Kerala)] functions under the Ministry of Commerce & Industry.
• Functions: Development of Rubber Industry; Conduct of Scientific, technological and economic research, Welfare of labour employed in plantations; Render advice to government on all matters related to rubber etc.
• Rubber production is dominated by Kerala, followed by Tripura.

Why in news?

• The Chief Minister (CM) of Odisha, Naveen Patnaik revealed the logo of 15^th edition of International Hockey Federation (FIH) Senior Men’s Hockey World Cup 2023 at Kalinga Stadium.
• Odisha will organise the tournament both in Bhubaneswar and Rourkela. The CM has unveiled the logo of the world cup for the second consecutive time.
• Odisha becomes the first State to host back-to-back hockey men’s world cups. The tournament is scheduled from 13 January 2023 to 29 January 2023.
• The cup will be unveiled in India’s biggest hockey arena, the New Birsa Munda International Hockey Stadium, in Rourkela, Odisha.

Why in news?

• Israel has successfully test fired a first of its kind laser missile defence system called as “Iron Beam”, the world’s first energy-based weapons system.
• The Iron Beam is developed by the Rafael Advanced Defence Systems. It uses a directed-energy weapon system and can travel a long way to provide aerial defence. The tests took place in the Negev Desert, Israel.

About Iron Beam 

• Iron Beam works on a fibre laser system to destroy any airborne object. It ranges up to 7 km, which is often considered too close for the Iron Dome system to intercept projectiles effectively.
• The Iron Beam is the world’s first energy-based weapons system that uses a laser to shoot down incoming aerial objects such as missiles, rockets, mortars, anti-tank missiles, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and drones.
• It cost around 3.50 United States Dollar (USD) or Rs.250 per laser shot.
• The Israel forces have planned to deploy Iron Beam on land, in the air and at sea.
• Iron Beam is executed in the defence of Israel as it is cost effective when compared to Iron Dome defence system. But still the Iron Dome defence system has the interception of 90% against incoming rocket fire.
• The Iron Beam is Israel’s fifth element of the integrated air defence system, consisting of Arrow 2, Arrow 3, David’s Sling, and Iron Dome.

Why in news?

• Twitter has decided to adopt “poison pill strategy” after Tesla Chief Executive Officer offered to buy the social media platform.

About poison pill strategy:

• Officially known as the shareholder rights plan, it allows existing shareholders to purchase additional shares in a company at a discount.

Why in news?

• It is a web portal from the Ministry of Roads, Transport and Highways (MoRTH) in consultation with insurance companies for integrated data and instant information on road accidents.
• The portal will bring relief to victims’ families; check fake claims etc. through Digitalised Detailed Accident Reports (DAR).
• It will be linked with Vahaan and the Integrated Road Accident Database (iRAD)- to act as an e-version of IRAD.
• Also, it will alert PWD/Local Body to examine and record details, helping in identifying the accident hotspots for necessary solutions to avoid future accidents.