• The heritage Byculla Railway station which has been restored to its original glory, received the UNESCO Asia Pacific Cultural Heritage award.
• The 169-year-old Byculla railway station in Mumbai is one of the oldest railway stations in India still in use.
• It was originally built in 1853.
• It has been restored to its original Gothic, heritage, architectural glory.

• The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently confirmed a case of the potentially fatal Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in Abu Dhabi.

ABOUT MERS-COV

• The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) was first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012.
• Since its detection, 27 countries reported MERS cases.
• According to the WHO, a total of 2,605 cases of the virus have been reported so far, with 936 associated deaths.
• MERS is a zoonotic virus that can transmit between animals and people.
• Common symptoms of MERS infection are: Fever, Shortness of breath, Cough, Sore throat,Muscle and stomach pain and soreness, Vomiting, Diarrhea.
• According to WHO information, people in Saudi Arabia mostly got infected through unprotected contact with infected dromedary camels.

• Silvopasture is an ancient and proven practice that harmoniously integrates trees, forage and livestock on the same land. By combining these elements, silvopasture brings numerous environmental advantages, including improved local climate resilience.
• Moreover, the trees on silvopasture lands act as natural carbon sinks, sequestering significantly 5-10 times more carbon then pastures without trees, all while maintaining or enhancing productivity.
• Silvopasture systems also regulate local climatic conditions, buffering against temperature and wind extremes, providing a favourable living environment for livestock.
• Moreover, the extensive root systems of trees within silvopasture plots contribute to nutrient cycling, improved soil stability and quality, while effectively combating erosion.
• Soil infiltration rates in silvopasture systems surpass those of open pastures, enhancing water storage potential.
• A study revealed that more than 70 % of deforestation in South America was driven by an increased demand for pasture. Thus Silvopasture provides a sustainable alternative

• As per Ministry of Finance, White Label ATMs (WLAs) are expected to drive ATM spread across India with a greater focus on tier III to VI centres.
• To expand ATM access in the country, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has granted permission to non-bank entities to establish, own, and operate White Label ATMs (WLAs) nationwide.

• This move is aimed at enhancing banking services‘ reach, especially in smaller towns and rural areas, and promoting financial inclusion.
• WLAs offer banking services to customers through cards issued by various banks, such as debit, credit, or prepaid cards.
• Apart from cash withdrawals, these ATMs provide an array of services, including account information, cash deposits, bill payments, mini/short statement generation, PIN changes, and requests for cheque books.
• At present, India has four authorized non-bank entities operating White Label ATMs.

• Scientists at Raman Research Institute (RRI), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology, have developed an algorithm called STARFIRE which can estimate the Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) emitted by FM radio stations, WiFi networks, mobile towers, radar, satellites, and communication devices, and use this calculation for designing and fine-tuning the antennas and other instrument components of missions like India’s Probing ReionizATion of the Universe using Signal from Hydrogen (PRATUSH).
  • PRATUSH is one of the several mission opportunities in space contemplated to address the growing RFI on land, to study the birth of the first stars and galaxies in the Universe using the 21-cm hydrogen line obtained from the far side of the moon.
• The scientists used information on the FM transmitter stations from six countries in the world.
• Data from Canada, USA, Japan, Australia, Germany and South Africa were used as inputs for developing the model and testing STARFIRE – Simulation of TerrestriAl Radio Frequency Interference in oRbits around Earth.
• These RFI effects were studied at altitudes 400 kms, 3,795 kms, and 36,000 kms from the Earth’s surface, which correspond to the Low Earth Orbit, Medium Earth Orbit, and Geo-stationary orbit.
• Advantages
  • This algorithm can be handy in orbit selection for future missions.
  • Another advantage of STARFIRE would be the flexibility for users to change properties of the antennas that transmit and receive RFI along with including the astrophysical radio signals from our own galaxy and the cosmos to derive meaningful conclusions about experiment sensitivity.

• An ongoing nationwide survey by the Pune-based Indian Council of Medical Research’s National Institute of Virology (ICMR-NIV) has found evidence of the Nipah virus circulation in the bat population across nine states (Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam and Meghalaya) and one Union Territory (Puducherry).
• India reported its first outbreak in West Bengal’s Siliguri in January-February 2001 with 45 deaths among 66 cases.
• Nipah Virus (NiV), a zoonotic virus, is a type of RNA virus transmitted in humans through its natural hosts or through direct contact with infected people or contaminated food.
• Nipah virus causes a highly fatal respiratory and encephalitic infection in humans.
• Symptoms such as fever, headache, myalgia (pain in the muscles), vomiting, altered sensorium, acute respiratory distress, and convulsions.
• The Pteropus species of fruit bats, commonly called flying foxes, are the known carriers of the virus.
• There is no treatment or vaccine available for either people or animals.

• Full-reserve banking, also known as 100% reserve banking, refers to a system of banking where banks are not allowed to lend out money that they receive from customers in the form of demand deposits.
  • Demand deposits are deposits that customers can withdraw from the bank at any point in time without any prior notice.
• So, under full-reserve banking, banks are mandated to hold all money that they receive as demand deposits from customers in their vaults at all times.
• In this case, banks simply act as custodians to depositors’ money and may charge a fee from depositors for the service of safekeeping that they offer to the depositors.
• This is in contrast to today’s banking system in which banks pay interest to customers on their demand deposits.
• Thus, under full-reserve banking, banks are expected to hold reserves backing 100% of their liabilities in the form of demand deposits.
• This is to ensure that banks can successfully meet redemption demands from depositors, and thus avoid a run on the bank even if all depositors someday decide to come asking for their money at the same time.
• Under a full-reserve banking system, banks can only lend money that they receive as time deposits from their customers.
  • Time deposits are deposits that customers can withdraw from the bank only after a certain period of time that is agreed upon between the bank and its customers.
• This arrangement gives banks the time to lend these deposits to borrowers at a certain interest rate, collect repayments from the borrowers, and finally repay depositors their money along with a certain amount of interest.

FRACTIONAL RESERVE BANKING

• In the banking system that exists today, also known as the fractional-reserve banking system, banks predominantly do not lend money in the form of physical cash.
• Banks lend more money than the cash they have in their vaults.
• This is made possible because most lending to various borrowers happens in the form of electronic money.

BENEFITS

• It is the only natural form of banking and that it can prevent the various crises that affect today’s fractional-reserve banking system.
• Since banks will be allowed to make loans to borrowers only out of their time deposits and since they will be legally forced to keep demand deposits in their vaults to meet depositor demands for cash, the chances of a bank run would be negligible under a full-reserve banking system.
• Since banks will not be able to create money out of thin air in a full-reserve banking system, their influence on the economy’s money supply will become severely restricted.
• This will prevent artificial economic booms and busts that are said to be the consequence of changes in money supply.

HOWEVER

• Full-reserve banking unnecessarily restricts bank lending.
• Supporters of fractional-reserve banking believe that such banking frees the economy from having to rely on real savings from depositors to finance the huge investments required to fuel growth.

• The state government today appointed Amitabh Awasthi, Secretary, Jal Shakti Department, as Chairman of the State Commission for Water Cess on Hydropower Generation.
• The three members, who had been appointed, are HM Dhareula, an engineer with the HP State Electricity Board, Arun Sharma and Joginder Singh.
• Awasthi and the three members shall hold office for three years or up to the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier.

• India and Argentina have agreed for bilateral exchange of young researchers and Start-ups, particularly in Biotechnology and Agriculture field.
• The two countries also decided to hold comprehensive talks between delegations comprising academia, R&D Institutes and Industry in the field of Science & Technology and Biotechnology.
• India and Argentina have an Inter-governmental Agreement to promote technical and scientific cooperation signed in 1985.

• It is celebrated annually on July 26^th.
• This International Day was adopted by the General Conference of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2015.
• The day commemorates the Greenpeace activist Hayhow Daniel Nonoto.
• On July 26, 1998, the activist died of a heart attack while protesting for re-establishment of mangrove wetlands in Muisne, Ecuador.
• It aims to raise awareness of the importance of mangrove ecosystems as “a unique, special and vulnerable ecosystem” and to promote solutions for their sustainable management, conservation and uses.