• Gujarat has been declared as a 100 percent ‘Har Ghar Jal’ state. It means all households in rural areas have access to safe drinking water through taps in the state.
• As per the government data, all 91,73,378 houses in the state now have water connections.
• Gujarat is now the third big state, after Haryana and Telangana that has now declared completion of the Jal Jeevan Mission.
• Jal Jeevan Mission focuses on water service delivery and not just building water supply infrastructure.
• The motto of the Jal Jeevan Mission is ‘no one is left out’, thus ensuring every household irrespective of its socio-economic status, gets tap water supply.
• Under the scheme, the government plans to provide potable tap water to all the villages in the country by 2024.

• Health and Family Welfare Ministry has decided to depute a high-level team to Kerala to take stock of the Avian Influenza outbreak in the state.
• The team will investigate the outbreak in detail and submit a report with recommendations.
• The Ministry said, a seven-member team comprises experts from the National Institute of Tuberculosis & Respiratory Diseases, National Centre for Disease Control, National Institute of Epidemiology and All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
• The team is headed by Dr. Rajesh Kedamani. The team will also assist the State Health Departments in terms of public health measures, management guidelines and protocols to manage the increasing cases of Avian Influenza.

About Institutes:

• The National Institute of Tuberculosis & Respiratory Diseases located in Delhi.
• National Centre for Disease Control located in New Delhi.
• The National Institute of Epidemiology(NIE) is a medical research organisation located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

• Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone of a C-295MW transport aircraft manufacturing project for the Indian Air Force (IAF) at Vadodara in Gujarat on the 30th of this month.
• Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia and Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendrabhai Patel and other dignitaries will attend the function.
• Defence Secretary Dr Ajay Kumar said, this transport aircraft manufacturing project will create an entirely new ecosystem for the aviation sector in the country.
• He said, this facility will enhance India’s overall position in transport aircraft manufacturing. Terming this a big step towards ease of doing business to promote Make in India, he said, several steps have been taken in the direction of self-reliance in the defence sector.
• He said, this state-of-the-art transport aircraft of 5 to 10 tons capacity is going to be manufactured for the first time in the country.
• This is the first project of its kind in which a military aircraft will be manufactured in India by a private company. The aircraft will strengthen the logistic capabilities of the IAF.
• 16 aircraft will be delivered in flyaway condition and 40 will be manufactured in India by the Indian Aircraft Contractor, TATA Consortium of Tata Advanced Systems Limited and Tata Consultancy Services.
• In September 2021, Cabinet Committee on Security had approved the procurement of 56 C-295MW transport aircraft from Airbus Defence and Space S.A. The first 16 fly-away aircraft are scheduled to be received between September 2023 and August 2025.
• The first Made in India aircraft is expected in September 2026. The total cost of the project will be 21 thousand 935 crore rupees. The aircraft can be used for civilian purposes also.
• All 56 aircraft will be fitted with an Electronic Warfare suite supplied by Bharat Electronics Limited and Bharat Dynamics Limited,
• The transport facility will generate several skilled and indirect jobs.
• It is estimated that 600 highly skilled jobs and more than three thousand indirect jobs will be generated with this initiative. Nearly 240 engineers will be trained at the Airbus facility in Spain.

• Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr Mansukh Mandaviya has said that the central government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership attached the topmost importance to the health sector.
• He stressed that India is committed to protecting global health and making sure to leave behind for the coming generations a better and healthier planet. This was stated by Dr Mandaviya while addressing the second G20 Health Ministers Meeting in Bali, Indonesia.
• The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the progress and way forward on priorities in the healthcare sector.
• He also elaborated on building global health resilience wherein the proposal of a Financial Intermediary Fund was discussed.
• Mandaviya highlighted the need to acknowledge existing fault lines in the Global Health Architecture and the importance of building an inclusive, agile and responsive framework for health emergency management.
• The Health Minister encouraged all G20 members to contribute their public keys to the proposed Global Federated Public Trust Directory for ensuring seamless worldwide mobility of people and goods.

• The ambitious Kufri re-development project to revive ski slopes of this tourist destination and make it stink free from piles of horse dung has hit a roadblock as there has been no response from Central Potato Research Institute (CPRI) in regard to no objection certificate (NOC) for the proposed land.
• The Shimla district administration had identified one hectare land near Chini Bangla to est ablish a horse stable, parking, biomethanation plant and an integrated complex with rural ‘haat’ and parking.
• The project estimated to come up at around Rs 50 crores envisages setting up a stable to accommodate 1,500 horses and a biomethanation plant adjacent to the stable to produce methane gas from horse dung besides construction of parking spaces to decongest the area, beautification with installation of street sitting, fountain and light and sound show, pedestrian paths, toilets, rain shelters and a rural ‘haat’ (food and craft bazaar).
• “The said land is under the ownership of Himachal government but the possession is with the CPRI and we have written several times to the agriculture department and CPRI but there is no response yet,” said Deputy Commissioner Shimla Aditya Negi, when contacted.
• As per the proposal, the biomethanation plant funded by the state Pollution Control Board in collaboration with the Science and Technology Department would go a long way in providing a clean and serene environment, as horse dung that creates unhygienic conditions would be treated there.
• The possibility of reviving skiing and associated activities to increase the footfall was also being explored. Moreover, the Detailed Project report (DPR) to upgrade the Kufri-Chail road and increase its width from 5 – 7 metres to 7 -9 metres at a cost of Rs 39 crores have been also prepared for overall development of the area.
• A large number of resorts have come up in the area and ‘Chini Bangla’ is located on the Kufri-Chail road. Hundreds of vehicles heading to Chail pass through this stretch and the beautification and creation of more facilities would improve tourist experience.
• At present, the tourist attractions in Kufri include Kufri Fun Worlds, Hip Hip Hurray adventure park, Himalayan Nature Park, Indira Tourist Park, Tobogganing, horse riding in Mahasu peak, trekking, cycling, Kufri main Bazaar, nature and culture photography and yak Ride and another mega private project coming up at Kufri is India’s first indoor ski park.
• Skiing was a major winter attraction in Shimla and Kufri where hill slopes covered with a thick blanket of snow provided thrill and excitement to skiers and tourists. The last ski carnival at Kufri was held in February 1968 but over the years, the snowline had shifted upwards and barring a few sessions in 1982 and 1991, skiing in Kufri had been a fond memory of the past.

• The SJVN has started commissioning of its 75 MW solar power project in Parasan Solar Park near Kanpur, UP.
• The process of commissioning will finish by month end.
• “The project will be third commissioned solar project of the SJVN. With commissioning of this project, the installed capacity of the SJVN will now be 2091.5 MW,” said SJVN chairman Nand Lal Sharma.
• Sharma also said that SJVN bagged the 75 MW Parasan Solar Power Project at a tariff of Rs 2.68 per unit on Build, Own, and Operate basis under the competitive tariff bidding held by Uttar Pradesh New and Renewable Development Agency (UPNEDA).
• The cost of Construction Development of the project is Rs 392.3 crore.

About:

• The approval will make GM mustard only the second approved transgenic crop in India after Bt cotton, and the first such food crop that can be commercially cultivated by farmers. The GEAC approval is valid for the next four years.
• Though the GEAC had cleared the proposal in 2017, the Ministry had vetoed it and suggested that the GEAC hold more studies on the GM crop. The recommendation will now again go for the approval of the Environment Ministry.

Hybrid mustard

• Hybridisation involves crossing two genetically dissimilar plant varieties that can even be from the same species. The first-generation (F1) offspring from such crosses tend to have higher yields than what either parent can individually give.
• Scientists at Delhi University’s Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants (CGMCP) have developed the hybrid mustard DMH-11 containing two alien genes isolated from a soil bacterium called Bacillus amyloliquefaciens.
• The CGMCP scientists have deployed the barnase-barstar GM technology to create a robust and viable hybridisation system in mustard. This system was used to develop DMH-11 by crossing a popular Indian mustard variety ‘Varuna’ (the barnase line) with an East European ‘Early Heera-2’ mutant (barstar).
• DMH-11 is claimed to have shown an average 28% yield increase over Varuna.

Significance

• The move is seen as giving a boost to cultivation of mustard and eventually reducing the country’s edible oils import bills.
• India had to import edible oil worth nearly $19 billion in 2021-22. Though mustard is cultivated in India in around seven million hectares of land, the per hectare yield of current variety is very low at 1-1.2 tonnes per hectare compared to the global average of around 2.3-3 tonnes.

• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is working on a series of improvements to the NavIC, or India’s equivalent of the Global Positioning System (GPS), so that more people are motivated to install it and use it. Plans are also afoot to make its reach global rather than circumscribe it to India and a limited territory around it, said S. Somanath, Chairman, ISRO on the sidelines of the India Space Congress.
• NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation), or the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), is a constellation of seven satellites that is akin to the American GPS, the European Galileo and the Russian GLONASS, and can be used to track location. The first of these satellites (IRNSS-1A) were launched in 2013 and the latest in 2018.
• Though available for use in mainland India as well as a range of 1,500 km around it, it isn’t in wide regular use in India primarily because mobile phones haven’t been made compatible to process its signals. The Indian government has been pressing manufacturers to add compatibility and has set a deadline of January 2023 but media reports suggest this is unlikely before 2025.
• According to Mr. Somanath, a major forthcoming change, is to add the L1 band into NavIC. This bandwidth is part of the GPS and is the most used for civilian navigational use. “Currently NavIC is only compatible with the L5 and S bands and hasn’t easily penetrated into the civilian sector. We are therefore getting ready with L1 band satellites now.
• The other major step would be to increase the “safety” of the signals. “There’s Long Code and Short Code. Currently (NavIC) only provides short code. This has to become Long Code for the use of the strategic sector. This prevents the signal from being breached. This had been part of the original scheme for NavIC but less work has gone into it so far. We are now asking the government to allow us to do all this,” he added. “Unless we do this, the user base will not widen.”
• There are five more satellites in the offing to replace defunct NavIC satellites that would be launched in the coming months. However, to make NavIC truly “global” like GPS, more satellites would need to be placed in an orbit closer to earth than the current constellation, said Mr. Somanath. “Right now, NavIC’s reach is only 1,500 km beyond Indian territory. But for our ships and airplanes travelling beyond that we’d need satellites in Medium Earth Orbit. To make this global at some point, we can keep adding MEO satellites.”
• Currently, NavIC satellites orbit earth in a geostationary or geosynchronous (GEO) orbit, or about 36,000 km from earth. MEO orbits occupy a space between GEO and Low Earth Orbit (LEO), or about 250-2,000 km from earth.

• The Chinese city of Shanghai started administering an inhalable Covid vaccine in what appears to be a world first.
• The vaccine, a mist that is sucked in through the mouth, is being offered for free as a booster dose for previously vaccinated individuals, according to an announcement posted on an official city social media account.
• Needle-free vaccines may persuade people who don’t like getting a shot to get vaccinated, as well as help expand vaccination in poor countries because they are easier to administer.
• China doesn’t have vaccine mandates but wants more people to get booster shots before it relaxes strict pandemic restrictions that are holding back the economy and increasingly out of sync with the rest of the world.
• A video posted by an online Chinese state media outlet showed people at a community health centre sticking the short nozzle of a translucent white cup into their mouths. A vaccine taken in the mouth could also fend off the virus before it reaches the rest of the respiratory system, though that would depend in part on the size of the droplets, one expert said.
• Larger droplets would train defences in parts of the mouth and throat, while smaller ones would travel further into the body, said Dr Vineeta Bal, an immunologist in India.
• Chinese regulators approved the vaccine for use as a booster in September. It was developed by Chinese biopharmaceutical company Cansino Biologics Inc. as an aerosol version of the same company’s one-shot adenovirus vaccine, which uses a relatively harmless cold virus.
• Cansino has said the inhaled vaccine has completed clinical trials in China, Hungary, Pakistan, Malaysia, Argentina and Mexico.

Inhalable drug

• The vaccine, which appears to be world’s first, is a mist that is sucked in through the mouth
• It is being offered for free as a booster dose for previously vaccinated individuals

• Shefali Juneja, India’s representative to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), has been elected as the chairperson of United Nations’ specialized aviation agency’s Air Transport Committee (ATC). Juneja, a 1992 batch officer of the Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax cadre), served as a Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) before joining the ICAO.
• India secured this position in ICAO after 28 years when Juneja was unanimously elected to the post. She is the first woman to represent India in the ICAO. ATC is a standing committee of the ICAO created by the Chicago Convention in 1944.
• “It is the most important committee (of ICAO), as it decides on standards in air transport policies,” India in ICAO, tweeted, adding “India wins the coveted position in ICAO to become – Chairperson of Air Transport Committee, after 28 years. Representative of India, Dr Shefali Juneja gets unanimously elected in Council.
• MoCA officials said that India will be chairing the important committee after 28 years and has had the opportunity of chairing the ATC only twice so far.
• “This committee handles a big component of ICAO work relating to air transport as nine technical panels report to it. It is therefore a tremendous opportunity to steer issues in the policy arena and deal with new emerging challenges to carve out a better future for international air transport,” Dr Juneja said.
• According to Article 54 d) of the Chicago Convention, the Council appoints and defines the duties of an ATC, which is chosen from among the representatives of the members of the Council.
• India is set to emerge as the third largest aviation market globally by 2025. The country’s representative has held this position twice in the 78 years of ICAO’s existence, in 1987 and 1994.
• In September last year, Juneja was elected as the chairperson of the ICAO’S Aviation Security Committee (ASC) and made an Indian taking charge of the position after a gap of 12 years.
• Juneja has been serving as India’s representative in the council of the ICAO since 2019.