• Matti banana, a native variety of Kanyakumari district, Tamil Nadu, was recently granted the Geographical Indication (GI) tag.
• It is also known as Baby banana.
• Matti banana has six types that differ in colour, aroma, taste, and texture, and are suitable for baby food and medicinal use.

• World Humanitarian Day is observed annually on August 19^th.
• WHD is a campaign by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
• The theme for World Humanitarian Day 2023 is ‘No matter what’.
• Brief History
  • On 19 August 2003, a bomb attack on the Canal Hotel in Baghdad, Iraq, killed 22 humanitarian aid workers, including the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
  • In 2008, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution designating 19 August as World Humanitarian Day (WHD).

• The Central Water Commission launched an app, called ‘Floodwatch’, which can forecast the chances of floods a day in advance.
• It also provides a seven-day advisory on the chances of floods at various stations in the country where the CWC maintains its measurement gauges.
• The app has a map of India with coloured circles at water stations across the country indicating the current risk of flooding.

• Clicking on a circle shows the current water level at the station, the highest level historically attained, the danger level and warning level.
• The warnings are in English or Hindi with an option for a voice-enabled prompt.
• The app will also provide State-wise/basin-wide flood forecast up to 24 hours or flood advisory, up to seven days, that can be accessed via selecting specific stations.
• Flood watch uses advance technologies such as satellite data analysis, mathematical modelling and real-time monitoring to deliver accurate and timely flood forecasts.

• ALS is a neurodegenerative disease in which special nerve cells called motor neurons in the brain and spine – which control an individual’s voluntary functions like walking, chewing, talking, moving their arms- are affected.
• As these nerve cells progressively die, the muscles dependent on them are unable to function or move, due to which they begin to atrophy or waste away.
• ALS is a progressive disease.
• Once it involves the motor neurons that regulate respiratory muscles, breathing gets affected.
• Currently, there is no effective cure for ALS and the best therapies are drugs and other interventions that could lengthen the life of the person with ALS (or PALS).
• The average survival time is between 20 to 48 months on an average.

• President Droupadi Murmu launched the sixth vessel of the Project 17 Alpha Frigates, Vindhyagiri’, a stealth guided missile frigate of the Indian Navy.
  • Previous five were INS Nilgiri, Udaygiri, Himgiri, Taragiri, and Dunagiri.

PROJECT 17A

• These warships are follow-ons of the Project 17 Class Frigates.
• The Project 17A ships have been designed in-house by the Indian Navy’s Warship Design Bureau, a pioneer organisation for all warship design activities.
• Ships under Project 17A are constructed by two companies – Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders (MDL) and Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE).
  • The new Vindhyagiri was unveiled at the Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited in Kolkata.
• These guided-missile frigates have been constructed with a specific stealth design, which has radar-absorbent coatings and is low-observable which can make its approach undetectable for the enemies. The new technology also reduces the infrared signals of the ship.
• A substantial 75% of the orders for equipment and systems of Project 17A ships are from indigenous firms, including Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

• Chennai-based start-up AgniKul Cosmos has commenced the process of integrating its cutting-edge Agnibaan SubOrbital Technological Demonstrator (SOrTeD) at its private launchpad located at the iconic Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR in Sriharikota off the coast of Andhra Pradesh.
• A successful launch would make AgniKul the second Indian spacetech start-up to send its launch vehicle into space after Skyroot Aerospace (with Vikram-S rocket) .
• Agnibaan SOrTeD is a single-stage launch vehicle powered by AgniKul’s patented Agnilet engine, which is an entirely 3D-printed, single-piece, 6 kilonewton (kN) semi-cryogenic engine.
  • It uses a mixture of liquid kerosene at room temperature and supercold liquid oxygen as propellant.
  • The Agnilet engine is the world’s sole single-piece 3D-printed engine.
• However, unlike traditional sounding rockets that launch from guide rails, Agnibaan SOrTeD will lift-off vertically and follow a predetermined trajectory to perform a precisely orchestrated set of manoeuvres during flight.
• The flight events have been configured to validate key technologies integral to the success of the company’s upcoming orbital flights.
• It is equipped to haul payloads of up to 100 kilos to a 700 km distance in the LEO.
• The vehicle is 18 m in height, 1.3 m in diameter, and has a liftoff mass of 14,000 kg.
• The payload envelope measures 2m x 1.5m and can carry one or more satellites.

ABOUT AGNIKUL COSMOS

• Established in 2017 by aerospace engineers Srinath Ravichandran and Moin SPM, along with IIT-Madras faculty member Prof. Sathyanarayan R Chakravarthy, Agnikul emerged as the first Indian company to sign an agreement with ISRO in December 2020.
• This landmark partnership allowed the start-up access to ISRO’s knowledge base and resources.

• The cabinet approved expansion of the Digital India programme with a total outlay is Rs 14,903 crores.

• Among a number of other key initiatives, it also proposes nine more supercomputers to be added under the National Super Computer Mission. This is in addition to 18 supercomputers already deployed.

ABOUT NATIONAL SUPERCOMPUTING MISSION

• National Supercomputing Mission (NSM) has been set up to provide the country with supercomputing infrastructure to meet the increasing computational demands of academia, researchers, MSMEs, and startups.
• It was launched in 2015 and is a first of its kind attempt to boost the country’s computing power.
• The Mission is steered jointly by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) and implemented by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Pune and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru.
  • India’s first supercomputer was PARAM 8000 (rolled out in 1991).
• These supercomputers will also be networked on the National Supercomputing grid over the National Knowledge Network (NKN).
  • The NKN is another programme of the government which connects academic institutions and R&D labs over a high speed network.

Some Major supercomputers of India

• The AI Supercomputer ‘AIRAWAT’, installed at C-DAC, Pune was ranked 75^th in the world.
  • Airawat PSAI, stands as India’s largest and fastest AI supercomputing system, with a remarkable speed of 13,170 teraflops.
• PARAM Siddhi-AI supercomputer ranked at 131^st position.
• Pratyush supercomputer at 169^th position.
• Mihir Supercomputer at 316^th position.

• The World Health Organisation (WHO) South-East Asia Region committed to further accelerate efforts to end tuberculosis by 2030 with member countries adopting the Gandhinagar Declaration.
  • The region bears a disproportionate burden of nearly half of the global TB cases and deaths.
• The Gandhinagar Declaration was adopted to follow-up on the progress made to end TB, a flagship priority in the Region, and in the run up to the UN High Level Meeting (UNHLM) on TB on 22 September in New York.
• The Declaration calls for establishing high-level multisectoral commission reporting to the highest political level in each country for synergy of efforts among various stakeholders, and to monitor progress towards ending TB and other priority diseases.
• The declaration calls for ensuring appropriate adoption and use of science and technology for equitable and human rights-based TB services that are accessible to all, irrespective of any social, cultural, or demographic divide, through an integrated, primary health care approach.
• It calls upon all partners to enhance their support to end TB and priority diseases in the Region as per the UN Sustainable Development Goals target 3.3 – End the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases and combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases, and other communicable diseases.

ABOUT TUBERCULOSIS

• TB is caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis, belonging to the Mycobacteriaceae family consisting of about 200 members.
• In humans, TB most commonly affects the lungs (pulmonary TB), but it can also affect other organs (extra-pulmonary TB).
• TB is an ancient disease and documented in Egypt as early as 3000 BC.
• TB is a curable disease.
• It can spread from person to person through air.
• Symptoms include cough with sputum and blood at times, chest pains, weakness, weight loss, fever and night sweats.

• Lake Titicaca’s water levels have fallen to historic lows in recent times.
• The massive body of water is at a breath-sapping altitude of 3800m above sea level in the Andes mountain range on the border between Bolivia and Peru.
• It is the world’s highest navigable body of water and largest freshwater lake in South America.

• Goa has become the first Indian state to offer free in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment.
• The funding is set to be supplied by approved corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes.
  • Depending on the hospital and the kind of IVF treatment, the cost of IVF in India comes between Rs 70,000 to Rs 3 lakh per cycle.