• To prevent Aadhaar-enabled Payment System (AePS) frauds by the use of spoofed fingerprints during Aadhaar authentication, the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) has rolled out an in-house Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning technology-based Finger Minutiae Record – Finger Image Record (FMR-FIR) modality which is able to check the liveness of a fingerprint to detect the use of cloned fingerprint during the authentication process.
• It uses a combination of both finger minutiae and finger image to check the liveness of the fingerprint captured.
  • In the field of biometrics, minutiae refer to certain small features of a fingerprint image.
• This ensures that only real fingerprints are used for verification, thus enhancing security and preventing fraud.

• The Iberian wolf (Canis lupus signatus), the species of gray wolf native to the Iberian Peninsula, has been extinct in the historic region of Andalusia in the extreme south of Iberia since 2020, according to the regional government.
  • Iberian peninsula comprises Spain and Portugal.
  • Andalusia is an ‘autonomous territory’ of Spain and consists of eight provinces: Almería, Cádiz, Córdoba, Granada, Huelva, Jaén, Málaga, and Seville.
• The Iberian wolf, like other types of gray wolf, lives in packs that are territorial and hierarchical and led by a dominant breeding pair.
• IUCN Red list status- Vulnerable

• Union Minister of Cooperation recently listed several initiatives undertaken by the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) under its Sahakar 22 initiative.
  • NCDC had launched Sahakar– 22 in FY 2017-18 to achieve the Mission of New India through Cooperatives.
• Under SAHAKAAR 22, NCDC launched-
  • FOCUS 222 aimed at assisting Cooperatives in 222 Districts including 117 Aspirational Districts (identified by NITI Aayog).
  • PACS HUB – Transformation of PACS and other Coops as Apna Kisan Resource Centers
  • AENEC – Act East and North East Cooperatives
  • CEMtC – Centres of Excellence to Market through Cooperatives and
  • SAHAKAR PRAGYA – Capacity Development through Laxmanrao Inamdar National Academy for Cooperative Research Development (LINAC).

• Driven by stable macroeconomic fundamentals, investment in the Indian capital markets through participatory notes rose to Rs 1.13 lakh crore in June-end, making it the highest level in five-and-half years.

About Participatory notes

• P-notes are offshore derivative instruments with Indian shares as the underlying assets.

• Participatory notes (P-notes) are issued by registered Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) to overseas investors who wish to be part of the Indian stock market without registering themselves directly.
  • They, however, need to go through a due diligence process by SEBI.
• The anonymity provided by the P- Notes makes it lucrative for entities that try to use this route to round trip funds.

• Seven products from across India, including four from Rajasthan, were given the Geographical Indication (GI) tag by the Geographical Indications Registry in Chennai (under Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999).
• The GI tags were secured by –

• Researchers from South Korea have declared creation of a material known as LK-99 that can conduct superconductivity at room temperatures.
• The lead-based compound, which could conduct electricity without any resistance under normal conditions, could have long-term advantages.
• LK-99, the new superconductor, can be synthesised through a baking process that involves combining the minerals lanarkite Pb2(SO4)O and copper phosphide Cu 3P.
• The resulting material exhibits two essential characteristics of superconductivity even at normal air pressure and temperatures as high as 127 degrees Celsius: zero resistance to electric current and the ability to levitate in the presence of magnetic fields.

About Superconductors

• Superconductors are a class of materials that exhibit near-zero electrical resistance and expel magnetic fields while allowing electric charges (usually electrons) to move freely through them.
• Superconductors are a critical component of modern-day transportation systems, medicine, energy transmission, and scientific research.
• In superconductors, a quantum phenomenon causes electrons to pair up allowing them to move through the structure of the material with remarkable ease and near-zero electrical resistance and no loss of energy.
  • However, that happens only at very low temperatures, typically near absolute zero or minus 273.15 degrees Celsius, and extremely high pressure.
  • Attaining these conditions requires costly and complex cooling systems like liquid helium for superconductivity to happen.
  • This limitation has restricted their widespread practical applications.
    • The new discovery is therefore exciting.

• Following recent incidents of several countries reporting deaths allegedly linked to “contaminated” India-manufactured drugs, the government has set a deadline for mandatory implementation of the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) which were revised in 2018, bringing them on par with World Health Organisation (WHO) standards.
  • GMP are mandatory standards which build and bring quality into product by way of control on materials, methods, machines, processes, personnel and facility or environment etc.
  • GMP were first incorporated in Schedule M in 1988. The norms were last amended in 2018.
• Schedule M of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, deals with GMP for pharmaceutical manufacturing units, including specific requirements pertaining to premises, plant and equipment.
• Timeline (for completion of GMP norms begins August 1 2023)-
  • Companies with a turnover of over Rs 250 crore will have to implement the revised GMP within six months,

• Medium and small-scale enterprises with turnover of less than Rs 250 crore will have to implement it within a year.
• Companies that do not comply with the direction will face suspension of licence and/ or penalty.

• This will lead to at least 11 specific changes in the manufacturing process on the ground, including introduction of a pharmaceutical quality system, quality risk management, product quality review, and validation of equipment.

• It has been pointed out that illegal mining is ongoing in Saurabh Van Vihar, which is dream project of former Chief Minister Shanta Kumar set up in the memory of Captain Saurabh Kalia who sacrificed his life in Kargil war.
• Saurabh Van Vihar is situated in Palampur town of District Kangra.
• It is located on the right bank of Neugal river which is prone to flash floods.
  • Neugal river is a tributary of Beas

• The Paleo Proxy Technique is a method used by scientists to reconstruct past climates and temperature variations by analyzing indirect indicators or “proxies” found in natural materials.
• Proxies are biological, chemical, or physical indicators that respond to temperature changes or other environmental conditions, preserving a record of past climate in their properties.
  • These measures are called “proxies” because they do not directly measure temperatures. Instead, they are simply the responses of physical, biological, and chemical processes to temperatures at that time having been warmer or colder than the baseline value.
  • Such a baseline is typically from the modern times, when thermometer records have existed.
• Scientists derive estimates of temperature anomalies over shorter time scales from tree rings, corals, and the shells of marine and terrestrial organisms.

• India and the US will hold ‘Yudh Abhyas’ exercise which scheduled to take place in Alaska from September 25 to October 8.
• It is a joint military exercise conducted annually between the armies of India and USA.
• This marks the 19^th edition of the Indo-US joint training exercise Yudh Abhyas.
• Focus will be on operations related to peacekeeping and peace enforcement. The joint exercise will also focus on Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations.