• All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) New Delhi has launched a dashboard on its website to provide real-time data on the status of the availability of emergency beds and the number of patients awaiting admission for treatment.
• The dashboard named AIIMS Main Hospital Casualty Dashboard was launched by the Director of the Institute Dr. M Srinivas.
• The new initiative will enhance transparency in the Hospital.
• Srinivas also held a meeting with Directors and Medical Superintendents of Central and Delhi government hospitals of the National capital.
• During the meeting, he stressed the need for real-time emergency bed availability in the hospitals, integrated a unified dashboard of bed status and created two-way referrals of critical and non-critical cases.
• AIIMS Medical Superintendent Dr. DK Sharma said, during the meeting, the discussion was held to create an emergency service network and develop a cross-referral system for patients in hospitals.

• The central government has extended the restriction on the export of sugar for one more year starting from the 31st of this month to raise its availability in domestic markets and control prices.
• The Directorate General of Foreign Trade’s (DGFT) order of October 28 to extend the ban on sugar exports for one more year has been followed by another order issued by the Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD) on the same date that has extended the deadline for implementing the export release orders (ERO) of sugar issued for the 2021-22 season for another month till November 30, 2022.
• An ERO is a kind of permit that mills are issued to export sugar based on certain parameters and criteria.
• India’s sugar production in 2022-23 season is estimated to be around 41 million tonnes without accounting for 4.5 million tonnes diverted towards making ethanol which would be almost 1.8 million tonnes or 4.6 per cent more the estimated production of the current season.
• According to Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), diversion of sugar for producing ethanol is estimated to be around 4.5 million tonnes in 2022-23 season, as against 3.4 million tonnes in 2021-22 season.
• After accounting for diversion towards ethanol, sugar production in the 2022-23 season is expected to be around 36.5 million tonnes, while the consumption is projected to be around 27.5 million tonnes next season.
• As per the notification, the restriction is not applicable to Sugar being exported to European Union and the USA.

• United Nations Security Council’s Counter Terrorism Committee has adopted the Delhi Declaration on ‘Countering the use of new and emerging technologies for terrorist purposes’.
• The Delhi Declaration was adopted in the special meeting of the Committee held in New Delhi .
• In the Delhi Declaration, the Committee has urged all Member States to ensure zero tolerance towards terrorism, consistent with their obligations under international laws, including human rights law, international humanitarian law and international refugees law.
• It has called for taking urgent action to prevent and counter terrorism in all its forms and manifestations through the full and effective implementation of Security Council resolutions and other relevant international instruments relating to terrorism.
• The Declaration reaffirms that terrorism should not be associated with any religion, nationality, civilization or ethnic group.
• It has also called upon Member States to fulfill their obligations enshrined in relevant international counter-terrorism conventions and protocols to which they are a party.
• It has also underscored the obligation of Member States to prevent and suppress the financing of terrorist acts and to refrain from providing any form of support, active or passive, to entities or persons involved in terrorist acts.
• In the Delhi Declaration, the committee has reaffirmed that terrorism in all forms constitutes ”one of the most serious threats” to international peace and security and vowed to contribute further to enhancing the effectiveness of the overall effort to fight the scourge on a global level.

• Nalagarh-based Doon Valley Public School has bagged the top rank in the state in the best co-educational day ranking by Educational World.
• The school has topped for the third consecutive time.
• It has also been ranked fourth rank in the Best School to Work within India category.
• The school management comprising chairperson Anoop Sharma, managing director (MD) Rajiv Sharma and principal Devendera Mahal received the award at a ceremony held in Delhi recently.
• Education World ranks the schools after conducting a survey on 14 parameters of excellence like academic reputation, co-curricular activities, sports, infrastructure, leadership and value for money among others.

About:

• The Hattis are a close-knit community who take their name from their traditional occupation of selling home-grown crops, vegetables, meat, and wool at small-town markets known as ‘haats’.
• Hatti men traditionally don a distinctive white headgear on ceremonial occasions.
• The Hatti homeland straddles the Himachal-Uttarakhand border in the basin of the Giri and Tons rivers, both tributaries of the Yamuna.
• The Tons marks the border between the two states, and the Hattis living in the Trans-Giri area in today’s Himachal Pradesh and Jaunsar Bawar in Uttarakhand were once part of the royal estate of Sirmaur. Jaunsar Bawar was conquered by the British in 1814.
• Parts of the Trans-Giri region, where most of the Hatti community lives, also come under the Assembly Constituencies of Renukaji, Shillai, and Pachhad.
• The two Hatti clans, in Trans-Giri and Jaunsar Bawar, have similar traditions, and inter-marriages are common.

SC & ST Population of Himachal Pradesh:

• As per the most recent Census (2011), 5.71% of the State’s population is ST and 25.19% of the population is classified as SC.

• Recently, New Zealand has passed the Plain Language Bill, which requires bureaucrats to use simple, easily understood language while communicating with the public.

About:

• With the law, which banishes jargon and complicated English words, New Zealand is aiming to become a more inclusive democracy and help people who speak English as their second language, those with disabilities, and the less educated.
• According to the Bill, plain language is defined as “appropriate to the intended audience” and “clear, concise, and well organised”.
• Though the Plain Language Act does not specify which language constitutes a “plain language”, the Act is intended for the use of “plain English”.

Implementation and challenges:

• Under the Plain Language Act, a public service agency must annually report its compliance with the plain language use requirement to the Commissioner.
• The Commissioner, in turn, must annually report the compliance of agencies to the Minister of Public Service.
• The Act further instructs the Minister of Public Service to present a copy of the report to the House of Representatives within 20 business days of receiving it.
• Although the Act is legally binding once it receives royal assent, the Plain Language Act does not confer a legal right or impose a legal obligation that is enforceable in a court of law, on any person.

• According to Official Airline Guide (OAG) report, the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi is the 10th busiest airport in the world in terms of seat capacity and frequency of domestic and international flights as of October 2022.
• According to OAG, there were 34,13,855 seats at the Delhi airport, popularly known as the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA).
• In its research, aviation analytics company OAG said the Delhi airport improved from its 14th position in October 2019, before the pandemic struck.
• The Indian aviation sector is recovering after being significantly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic that also saw scheduled international flight services remaining suspended for more than two years starting from March 2020.

Key points in the reports:

• The busiest airport in the world as of October 2022 is Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport having serviced 47,47,367 seats.
• Dubai Internationalis second with 41,27,704 seats, followed by Tokyo International Airport with 38,77,164 seats and Dallas Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport with 37,53,858 seats.
• In fifth place is the Denver airport with 37,09,394 seats, followed by London Heathrow Airport, Chicago O’Hare International Airport at the 7th spot and Los Angeles International Airport at the 9th position, the OAG report said.

• BSE, or the Bombay Stock Exchange, launched Electronic Gold Receipt (EGR)on its platform on  24 October 2022. It introduced two new products of 995 and 999 purity during the Muhurat trading on Diwali.

How The Trading Will Happen:

• Trading will be in multiples of 1 gram and deliveries in multiples of 10 gram and 100 gram. The EGR market will remain open from 9:00 am to 9.30 pm. It will have T+1 settlement. EGR allows efficient price discovery and standardization of gold, transparency in gold transactions, promotion of India Good Delivery Standard and settlement guarantee to the Investors.

India & The Gold:

• India is the second largest consumer of gold globally, with annual gold demand of approximately 800-900 tones, and holds an important position in the global markets.
• Despite being second only to China, in consumption of gold, India has remained only as a price-taker in the global markets. To address the issue, Government of India have authorized the introduction of a gold exchange where the metal will be traded in Electronic Gold Receipts (EGR) form on Indian exchanges (BSE, NSE etc.).

How The BSE Functions:

• BSE (formerly Bombay Stock Exchange) is India’s leading exchange group. BSE provides an efficient and transparent market for trading in equity, debt instruments, equity derivatives, currency derivatives, commodity derivatives, interest rate derivatives, mutual funds and stock lending and borrowing.

• Odisha Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik has launched a common credit portal SAFAL’ (Simplified Application for Agricultural Loans) for the welfare of farmers.
• SAFAL is an abridged application for agricultural loans that will enable farmers and agri-entrepreneurs to access over 300 term loan products from more than 40 partner banks.
• It has also been integrated with Krushak Odisha and will have access to 70-plus model project reports.
• The application can revolutionise credit provisions for farmers and agri-entrepreneurs.

About the SAFAL:

• The application is a one-stop solution for farmers and agri-entrepreneurs to avail formal sector credit from public and private sector banks, Regional Rural Banks, State Cooperative Banks, and Small Finance Banks.
• The portal will ease the loan application process benefiting both the farmers and banks significantly, the chief minister said. It will also reduce information asymmetry by sending farmers real-time notifications at every stage of their loan application.
• SAFAL will also provide the government with complete visibility of demand and disbursal of formal credit across states and ensure schemes are designed in a data-backed manner. He hoped that SAFAL would be a facilitator of credit to spur the agriculture and allied sectors in Odisha and increase the economic prowess of farmers in the long run.

• In Kerala, African Swine Flu has been confirmed at a pig farm at Meenachil panchayat in Kottayam district.
• The district authorities said the virus infection was confirmed after samples taken from the farm were tested at the National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases in Bhopal.
• A one-kilometer stretch around the farm has been declared infected where 48 pigs have been culled as a preventive measure.
• A ten-kilometer radius around the farm is being closely monitored.
• The authorities have shut down shops selling pig meat and steps have been taken to ensure that no pigs are being transported from the infected zone.