• It is celebrated on July 26^th every year.
• The day commemorates the victory of the Indian armed forces in the Kargil War fought against Pakistan.
• The day is observed to pay tribute and honour the bravery and sacrifice of the soldiers in the war of 1999.
• The year 2023 marks the 24^th anniversary of Kargil Vijay Diwas.

• The Union government has launched the Meri Maati, Mera Desh campaign.
• It is envisaged as a culminating event of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebration.
• Under the campaign, soil collected from different parts of the country will be used to develop a garden along the Kartavya Path in Delhi.
• Events have been planned at the panchayat, village, block, urban local body, and State and national levels, respectively.
• The five-point agenda includes the installation of a shilaphalakam (memorial plaque), bearing the names of those who have made the supreme sacrifice.
• For this purpose, veers (bravehearts) include freedom fighters, defence personnel, CAPF personnel, and State Police.

• India is taking its first step towards introducing Controlled Human Infection Studies (CHIS), a research model used in other countries for vaccine and treatment development.
• Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) Bioethics Unit has introduced a consensus policy statement on ethical conduct of CHIS in India.
• It aims to address ethical issues of CHIS so that research can be conducted without compromising on ethical principles while ensuring protection of human participants.
• CHIS refers to the research methodology that involves intentionally exposing healthy human volunteers to a specific pathogen or infectious agent under controlled conditions.
• This is done for developing models of infection, understanding host-pathogen interactions and/or testing vaccines and therapeutics.
• ICMR has cautioned that CHIS is a highly complex area and may require collaborations at different levels between researchers, institutions, organisations and/or between different countries.

• The IT day is celebrated every year on 24^th July to spread awareness around the importance of taxes and encourage more and more people to pay taxes for the development of the nation.
• In 1860, on July 24^th, Sir James Wilson introduced the concept of income tax for the first time ever in India. This initiative was taken to compensate the loss during the first war of Independence (1857) in the British rule.
• In 2010, Aaykar Diwas was celebrated for the first time on July 2010 to acknowledge 150 years of income tax in India.

• CSIR-IIIM Jammu is set to lead India’s first Cannabis Medicine Project, exploring a diverse array of medicinal uses for cannabis.
• It has been initiated under the leadership of Ministry of Science & Technology in Private Public Partnership with a Canadian firm.
• Cannabis has a great potential to put substance of abuse for the good of mankind especially for patients suffering from neuropathies, cancer and epilepsy, malignancies.
• This project of CSIR-IIIM is also important from the perspective of Atma- Nirbhar Bharat as it will be able to produce export quality drugs meant for different kinds of neuropathies, diabetic pains etc.

• Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have successfully developed a new technology called Hygroelectricity that can generate electricity from humid air.
• The discovery of hygroelectricity marks a significant step forward in the pursuit of clean and renewable energy sources.

WORKING

• The key to harvesting electricity from humid air lies in a tiny device comprising two electrodes and a thin layer of material filled with nanopores.
• These nanopores, each less than 100 nanometers in diameter, allow water molecules from the air to pass through the device.
• As these molecules move from an upper chamber to a lower chamber, they interact with the edges of the nanopores, leading to a buildup of electric charge imbalances between the chambers.
• This process effectively transforms the device into a miniature battery, generating continuous electricity.

APPLICATIONS

• The potential applications are vast, ranging from powering miniature computers and sensors to providing sustainable energy sources for remote locations.
• This technology can be applied to a wide range of materials, including wood and silicon, as long as they possess the required nanopores.

ISSUES

• Currently, the fingernail-sized device can only produce electricity equivalent to a fraction of a volt.

Scaling up the technology to meet practical energy demands is a significant hurdle

• Scientists from the University of Oxford have come up with a new way to obtain fluorine atoms, in a much safer and less energy-intensive way.

TRADITIONAL METHOD

• Fluorine is a highly reactive element used to make fluorochemicals, which in turn are used to produce plastics, agrochemicals, lithium-ion batteries, and drugs.
• Fluorine comes from a calcium salt called calcium fluoride, or fluorspar.
• Fluorspar is mined and then treated with sulphuric acid at a high temperature to release hydrogen fluoride (HF).
• HF is then made to react with other compounds to create fluorochemicals.

DISADVANTAGES

• HF is an extremely poisonous and corrosive liquid that irritates the eyes and respiratory tract even at low concentrations.
• It also requires special transportation and storage requirements.

NEW METHOD

• Researchers ground the fluorspar in a ball-mill with potassium phosphate.
• While fluorine is very reactive, calcium atoms prefer phosphorus even more, so the milling created calcium phosphate and another compound with fluorine atoms. They called the latter Fluoromix.
• When Fluoromix was reacted with organic compounds, it could create around 50 fluorochemicals with up to 98% yield.
• The researchers took inspiration from how the human body makes bones and teeth: through calcium phosphate biomineralisation.

• The Government of India recently appointed a panel under the chairmanship of Pronab Sen, former Chief Statistician of India to review the methodology of the National Statistical Organisation (NSO).

ABOUT NATIONAL STATISTICAL ORGANISATION (NSO)

• NSO acts as the nodal agency under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation for planned development of the statistical system in the country, lays down and maintains norms and standards in the field of statistics, involving concepts and definitions, methodology of data collection, processing of data and dissemination of results.
• The National Statistical Office(NSO) consists of the
  • Central Statistical Office (CSO),
  • Computer center and
  • National Sample Survey Office (NSSO).
• On 23^rd May 2019, the Indian government passed the order to merge the National Sample Survey Offic (NSSO) with the Central Statistics Office (CSO) to form the National Statistical Office (NSO).
• Functions–
  • Acts as the nodal agency for planned development of the statistical system in the country.
  • Prepares national accounts as well as publishes annual estimates of national product.
  • It compiles and releases the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) every month in the form of ‘quick estimates’;
  • conducts the Annual Survey of Industries (ASI);
  • Conducts periodic all-India Economic Censuses.
  • Maintains liaison with international statistical organizations, such as, the United Nations Statistical Division, the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)

ABOUT INDEX OF INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION (IIP)

• It is a composite indicator that measures the growth rate of industry groups classified under:
  • Broad sectors, namely, Mining, Manufacturing, and Electricity.
  • Use-based sectors like capital goods, basic goods, intermediate goods, infrastructure goods, consumer durables, and consumer non-durables.
• Base Year for IIP is 2011-2012.
• The eight core industries of India represent about 40% of the weight of items that are included in the IIP.
• In decreasing order of their weightage, these include: Refinery Products> Electricity> Steel> Coal> Crude Oil> Natural Gas> Cement> Fertilizers.

• Naveen Patnaik of Odisha has become the second longest serving chief minister of a state in India with a tenure of 23 years and 139 days.
• Patnaik, the five-time Chief Minister of Odisha, took charge on March 5, 2000, and has been holding the post since.
• He surpassed the record of former West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu.
• Patnaik is now second only to Pawan Kumar Chamling of Sikkim, who holds the record of being a state CM for the longest time of 24 years and 166 days between December 1994 and May 2019.

• Sri Lankan batsman Lahiru Thirimanne has announced his retirement from international cricket after a 13-year career.
• The 33-year-old top-order batter made his international debut in 2010 and went on to represent Sri Lanka in 44 Tests, 127 ODIs, and 26 T20Is.