• The World Health Organization (WHO) has added the R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine to its list of prequalified vaccines.
• It has been developed by Oxford University and manufactured by Serum Institute of India.
• The R21 vaccine is the second malaria vaccine prequalified by WHO, following the RTS,S/AS01 vaccine which had obtained prequalification status in July 2022.
• As per WHO, both vaccines have been shown to be safe and effective in clinical trials, for preventing malaria in children.

WHAT IS PREQUALIFICATION?

• The prequalification means larger access to vaccines as a key tool to prevent malaria in children, with it being a prerequisite for vaccine procurement by UNICEF and funding support for deployment by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
• As part of the prequalification process, WHO applies international standards to comprehensively evaluate and determine whether vaccines are safe, effective, and manufactured to international standards.
• WHO also ensures the continued safety and efficacy of prequalified vaccines through regular re-evaluation, site inspection, and targeted testing.

ABOUT

• Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease.
• It is a life-threatening disease caused by the Plasmodium parasite which is transmitted to humans through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes.
• Spread– Malaria is most common in tropical and subtropical regions of the world, including sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America.
• While Plasmodium falciparum is responsible for more deaths, Plasmodium vivax is the most widespread of all of the malaria species.
• Symptoms-
  • Fever, fatigue, chills, vomiting, and headaches
  • Diarrhoea, anaemia and muscle pain
  • Profuse sweating and convulsions
  • Bloody stools.
  • In severe cases, malaria can be devastating; it can lead to seizures, coma and eventually, death.

• Indian hockey team midfielder Hardik Singh was named the men’s FIH Player of the Year at the FIH Hockey Star Awards 2023.
• Hardik Singh was part of India’s Tokyo 2020 bronze medal-winning team.
• He was part of the gold medal-winning Indian team at the Asian Games and Asian Champions Trophy.
• Indian women’s hockey team captain Savita Punia won the best goalkeeper of the year award.
• Dutch player Xan de Waard, meanwhile, won the FIH Women’s Player of the Year honour.

ABOUT FIH

• The Fédération Internationale de Hockey, commonly known by the acronym FIH, is the international governing body of field hockey and indoor field hockey.
• Its headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland.
• FIH is responsible for field hockey’s major international tournaments, notably the Hockey World Cup.

• Weather watchers have captured images of rare iridescent clouds over Scotland, northern England and the West Midlands.

ABOUT THE PSC

• The Polar stratospheric clouds, also known as nacreous clouds, are among the rarest and most stunning atmospheric phenomena.
• These resemble mother of pearl, and usually develop in extremely cold air above the polar regions.
• Nacreous clouds are an indicator of especially cold air high in the atmosphere.
• They are best known for the beautiful pastel light they reflect after sunset and before sunrise.
• These clouds form over the polar regions and are made of smaller ice particles than those that form more common clouds.
• The effect, reminiscent of a thin layer of oil on top of water, is produced as the sunlight diffracts around the tiny ice crystals inside them.
• PSCs provide a surface for chemical reactions where benign forms of chlorine are converted into reactive, ozone-destroying forms.
  • They also remove nitrogen compounds that would otherwise moderate the destructive impact of chlorine on the ozone layer.

• Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for 2023 has been jointly awarded to Daniel Barenboim and Ali Abu Awwad for their efforts in bringing together the youth and peoples of Israel and the Arab World for a non-violent resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
• Barenboim is a distinguished classical pianist, and Awwad is an eminent peace activist who has been working for a peaceful resolution of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

ABOUT THE PRIZE

• It has been conferred since 1986 by Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust.
• The prize is awarded annually.
• It is considered one of the highest honors in the field of peace and development.
• It consists of a monetary award of Rs. 25 lakh along with a citation.
• The award recognizes individuals or organizations for their exceptional contributions to international peace, disarmament, and development.

• The National Mathematics Day (NMD) is observed on December 22 each year to commemorate the birth anniversary of the great Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan.
• December 22 was designated as the National Mathematics Day by the government in 2012.
• The year 2012 was also termed and celebrated as the National Mathematics Year.

 ABOUT S RAMANUJAN

• Srinivasa Ramanujan was born on December 22, 1887 in Erode, Tamil Nadu.
• Ramanujan, one of the greatest Indian mathematicians of all time, is known for his work in the areas of Riemann series, hypergeometric series, elliptic integrals, continued fractions, and functional equations of the zeta function.
• In 1911, he got his first paper published in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society.
• In 1916, he was awarded the B.A. degree by research at the Cambridge University.
• He died on April 26, 1920 at age of 32.
• He has left behind around 4,000 original theorems.

• 1467 projects of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) have been brought under the Bhoomi Rashi Portal.

ABOUT BHOOMI RASHI PORTAL

• The objective of Bhoomi Rashi portal is to provide a single point platform for online processing of land acquisition notifications to accelerate highway infrastructure development projects in India and payment of compensation for land acquisition.
• The portal has been made mandatory for processing all the Land Acquisition (LA) proposals w.e.f. 01.04.2018.
• All the Land Acquisition notifications are submitted online by the concerned revenue official of the State Government, duly designated as Competent Authority for Land Acquisition (CALA).
• Once approved by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, these notifications are electronically transmitted to the Government of India Press via the e-Gazette.
• Compensation for land acquisition is also being paid through Bhoomi Rashi portal.
• The portal has greatly reduced the time period for publication of notifications and brought in efficiency as well as transparency in the whole process.

• Union Ministry for MSME has launched three sub-schemes under the aegis of the RAMP programme.
• These are-
  • The first scheme – The MSME Green Investment and Financing for Transformation Scheme (MSME GIFT Scheme) intends to help MSMEs adopt green technology with interest subvention and credit guarantee support.
  • The MSE Scheme for Promotion and Investment in Circular Economy (MSE SPICE Scheme) is the first ever scheme in the Government to support circular economy projects which will be done through credit subsidy and will lead to realising the dream of MSME sector towards zero emissions by 2070.
  • The MSE Scheme on Online Dispute Resolution for Delayed Payments is a first of its kind scheme to synergise legal support with modern IT tools and Artificial Intelligence to address the incidences of delayed payments for Micro and Small Enterprises.
• implementing agencies-
  • SIDBI (for MSME GIFT and MSME SPICE schemes) and
  • National Informatics Centre Services Inc. (for NICSI) for MSE ODR scheme.

ABOUT RAMP PROGRAMME

• Raising & Accelerating MSME Performance (RAMP) program is a World Bank supported Central Sector Scheme for MSMEs.
• It aims at
  • improving access to market and credit,
  • strengthening institutions and governance at the Centre and State,
  • improving Centre-State linkages and partnerships,
  • addressing issues of delayed payments and greening of MSMEs.

• Sahitya Akademi has announced its annual Sahitya Akademi Awards.
• 9 books of poetry, 6 of novel, 5 of short stories, 3 Essays and 1 Literary Study have won the Sahitya Akademi Awards 2023.

 ABOUT SAHITYA AKADEMI AWARDS

• The awards are given in 24 languages which include-
  • 22 languages enumerated in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution and
  • English and Rajasthani.
• The Award carries a casket containing an engraved copper-plaque, a shawl and an amount of Rs. 1,00,000/- towards cash content

ABOUT THE AKADEMI

• The Sahitya Akademi was founded on March 12, 1954.
• It is an autonomous body under the Ministry of
• It is dedicated to the promotion of literature in Indian languages.

• The Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) has commercialised the patent-protected technologies of two seaweed-based nutraceutical products — one to boost anti-viral immunity and the other to combat high cholesterol or dyslipidemia.
• The nutraceuticals are a 100% natural blend of highly nutritious bioactive ingredients extracted with eco-friendly ‘green’ technology.
• The nutraceutical products contain 100% natural marine bioactive ingredients from selected seaweeds, which are commonly available in the Indian coastal waters

ABOUT SEAWEEDS

• Seaweed is the common name for countless species of marine plants and algae that grow in the ocean as well as in rivers, lakes, and other water bodies.
• They are the primitive, marine non-flowering marine algae without root, stem and leaves.
• They range in colours from red, green, brown and black.
• Size also varies, from microscopic to large underwater forests (called Kelp forests).
• They contain nutrients like iron, zinc, magnesium, riboflavin, thiamin, vitamins A, B, C & K.
• Many seaweeds contain anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial agents.

ABOUT CMFRI

• The ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute was established by Government of India on February 3rd 1947 under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
• It later joined the ICAR family in 1967.
• Headquarter- Kochi, Kerala.

• Ministry of Mines has launched the National Geoscience Data Repository (NGDR) Portal
• NGDR is a comprehensive online platform for accessing, sharing, and analyzing geospatial information across the nation.
• The NGDR initiative is spearheaded by the Geological Survey of India (GSI) and Bhaskarachaya Institute of Space Applications and Geoinformatics (BISAG-N).
• It represents a significant leap forward in democratizing critical geoscience data, empowering stakeholders across industries and academia with unprecedented access to invaluable resources.

 ABOUT GSI

• The Geological Survey of India (GSI) was set up in 1851 primarily to find coal deposits for the Railways.
• Its main functions relate to creating and updating of national geoscientific information and mineral resource assessment.
• These objectives are achieved through ground surveys, air-borne and marine surveys, mineral prospecting and investigations, multi-disciplinary geoscientific, geo-technical, geo-environmental and natural hazards studies, glaciology, seismo-tectonic study and carrying out fundamental research.
• It functions as a ‘Repository’ for the purpose and uses the latest computer-based technologies for dissemination of geoscientific information and spatial data, through cooperation and collaboration with other stakeholders in the Geo-informatics sector.
• GSI, headquartered in Kolkata, has six regional offices located in Lucknow, Jaipur, Nagpur, Hyderabad, Shillong and Kolkata.
• GSI is an attached office of the Ministry of Mines.

ABOUT BISAG-N

• Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics [BISAG (N)] is an Autonomous Scientific Society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 under the
• Function- to undertake technology development & management, research & development, facilitate National & International cooperation, capacity building and support technology transfer & entrepreneurship development in area of geo-spatial technology.
• At present, BISAG is a state agency of Department of Science and Technology Government of Gujarat, located at Gandhinagar, Gujarat.