About:

• The U.N. General Assembly recently adopted a resolution, sponsored by India and supported by more than 70 countries, declaring 2023 as the International Year of Millets.
• The resolution is intended to increase public awareness on the health benefits of millets and their suitability for cultivation under tough conditions marked by climate change.

What are millets?

• Millet is a cereal that belongs to the grass family.
• Majorly cultivated in the semiarid tropical regions of Africa and Asia, around 97 percent of world’s overall millet production happens in these regions.
• Types of millets: Jowar (Sorghum), Ragi, Bajra (Pearl millet).

• India will export missiles, rockets, and ammunition to Armenia after the recent clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
• The missiles will also include Indigenous Pinaka Multi-Barrel Rocket Launcher. India has signed this deal with Armenia to help them to depend on the country against their neighbouring country Azerbaijan.
• India signed an order for arms export through a government-to-Government route through which the two nations inked contracts.
• The government has not revealed the exact value of the contract; however, it is estimated that India will supply weapons worth more than Rs 2,000 crore.
• India will also export Indigenous Pinaka Multi-Barrel Rocket Launcher.
• Pinaka has been developed by the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and manufactured by indigenous private sector firms.
• India will also provide anti-tank rockets as well as a wide range of ammunition to Armenia under the bundled deal.
• The center has also set a target to sell weapon systems worth Rs 35,000 crore abroad by 2025.

• The Centre has approved amendments to the FM Radio Phase-III Policy, which will help the private FM radio industry to fully leverage economies of scale and pave the way for further expansion of FM radio and entertainment to Tier-III cities in the country.
• The government has approved the amendments of certain provisions contained in the Policy Guidelines on Expansion of FM Radio Broadcasting Services through Private Agencies (Phase-III) referred to as Private FM Phase-III Policy Guidelines. The decision was taken in the last Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said the Union Ministry of Information & Broadcasting.
• The government has decided to remove the 3-year window period for restructuring of FM radio permissions within the same management group during the license period of 15 years. The government has also accepted the long pending demand of the radio industry to remove the 15 percent national cap on channel holding, said the Ministry.
• Further with the simplification of financial eligibility norms in FM radio policy, an applicant company can now participate in bidding for ‘C’ and ‘D’ category cities with a net worth of just Rs 1 crore in place of Rs 1.5 crore earlier, said an official press communiqué.
• The Ministry said, “These three amendments together will help the private FM radio industry to fully leverage the economies of scale and pave the way for further expansion of FM radio and entertainment to Tier-III cities in the country. This will not only create new employment opportunities but also ensure that music and entertainment over the FTA (Free to Air) radio media is available to the common man in the remotest corners of the country.”

• Over 69% of houses constructed under the Prime Ministers’ special housing scheme are either wholly or jointly owned by women in rural areas.
• According to the data shared by the government, as on September 29, 2022, a total of two crore houses had been constructed out of the 2.46 crore houses that were sanctioned. Of this, 69% are owned partly or completely by women.
• The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Gramin) was launched by the Prime Minister in 2016 with the aim of constructing 2.95 crore houses.
• A senior official in the Ministry of Women and Child Development said that it had been the government’s endeavour to ensure women get a fair share of government schemes under Nari Shakti initiative.
• The idea behind the initiative is to have “women-led” development instead of “development of women”.
• “By providing houses under the PMAY–G, the government has fulfilled the aspirations of women of owning a pucca house and strengthened their participation in the financial decision making of the household. Living in a pucca house with basic amenities gives security, dignity and basic amenities economic power and uplifts their social inclusion,” he said.
• According to the government, another initiative which has helped safeguard the health of women and children was ensuring supply of clean cooking fuel under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana.
• Over 9.4 crore LPG connections have been released under the Ujjwala Yojana. This scheme also received global recognition from International Energy Agency, which has described it as a major achievement in improving the environment and health of women, it said.
• Another scheme that has helped women gain dignity and security is the Swachh Bharat Mission under which 11.5 crore toilets were constructed in the rural areas and 70 lakh were built in the urban areas.
• The government quoted a report, “Access to toilets and the safety, convenience and self-respect of women in rural India”, to claim that after the construction of toilets, 93% of women reported that they were no longer afraid of being hurt by someone or harmed by animals while defecating; 93% of women reported they are no longer afraid of contracting health infections; 92% of women said they were no longer afraid of going to the toilet in the dark of night.

• The disbursal of small business loans under Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) logged a record 30 per cent growth in the first half of the current financial year ended September compared to the same period last year.
• As on September 2022, banks and other institutions disbursed over ₹1,37,785 crore under PMMY, while in the year-ago period, the same was at about ₹1.06 lakh crore.
• The disbursement in the first half of the current fiscal is the highest growth in the last three years and indicates not only complete normalisation of economic activity but also a higher appetite for small business loans.
• The data on the performance of PMMY showed a decline in total disbursals to ₹3.11 lakh crore in 2020-21 (from ₹3.29 lakh crore) largely due to the impact of Covid-19. However, the growth returned back during 2021-22 with total disbursals reaching ₹3.31 lakh crore. The bankers are expecting to close the current fiscal with disbursals higher than the previous year given the current run rate.

About Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY):

• It is a flagship scheme of the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, launched on 8th April, 2015.
• It is a Financial Inclusion (FI) programme in the country based on three pillars – Banking the Unbanked, Securing the Unsecured and Funding the Unfunded.

Types of loans:

• Shishu – Covering loans up to Rs 50,000;
• Kishor – Covering loans above Rs 50,000 and up to Rs 5 lakh;
• Tarun – Covering loans above Rs 5 lakh and up to Rs 10 lakh.

Eligibility:

• Any Indian Citizen who has a business plan for a non-farm sector income generating activities such as manufacturing, processing, trading or service sector.
• They can avail from all Public Sector Banks, Regional Rural Banks and Cooperative Banks, Private Sector Banks, Foreign Banks, Micro Finance Institutions (MFI) and Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFC) up to Rs 10 lakhs Micro Units Development & Refinance Agency Ltd. (MUDRA) loans under PMMY.

About:

• Yunqing Tang is an Assistant Professor with the University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A.
• According to SASTRA Ramanujan Prize Committee Ms. Yunqing’s works display a remarkable combination of sophisticated techniques, in which the arithmetic and geometry of modular curves and of Shimura varieties play a central role, and her results and methods are bound to have major impact on future research in this area.
• The award, instituted by the Shanmugha Arts, Science, Technology & Research Academy (SASTRA) in 2005 with a cash prize of $10,000, is presented annually to individuals aged 32 and below, who made outstanding contributions in the field of mathematics, influenced by Srinivasa Ramanjuan in a broad sense.

• Three scientists jointly won this year’s Nobel Prize in physics for their work on quantum information science that has significant applications, for example in the field of encryption.
• Frenchman Alain Aspect, American John F Clauser and Austrian Anton Zeilinger were cited by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for discovering the way that particles known as photons can be linked, or “entangled,” with each other even when they are separated by large distances.
• “Quantum information science is a vibrant and rapidly developing field,” said Eva Olsson, a member of the Nobel committee. “It has broad and potential implications in areas such as secure information transfer, quantum computing and sensing technology.”
• “Its origin can be traced to that of quantum mechanics. Its predictions have opened doors to another world, and it has also shaken the very foundations of how we interpret measurements,” she said.Speaking by phone to a news conference after the announcement, Zeilinger said he was “still kind of shocked” at hearing he had received the award. “But it’s a very positive shock,” said Zeilinger, 77, who is based at the University of Vienna.
• Clauser, Aspect, and Zeilinger have figured in Nobel speculation for more than a decade. In 2010 they won the Wolf Prize in Israel, seen as a possible precursor to the Nobel.
• While physicists often tackle problems that appear at first glance to be far removed from everyday concerns — tiny particles and the vast mysteries of space and time — their research provides the foundations for many practical applications of science.
• The Nobel committee said Clauser, 79, developed quantum theories first put forward in the 1960s to a practical experiment. — Agencies

• The Solan Municipal Corporation (MC) has bagged the top rank in the state Swachh Survekshan 2022 ranking while attaining the 31st rank at the zonal ranking among the northern states.
• The rankings, released last week, have added a feather in the cap of the city, which falls in the 25,000-50,000-population band.
• The MC consists of 17 wards with a population of 39,256 spread over 6.2 sq/km area.
• In a bid to attain the status, 100 per cent door-to-door garbage collection as well as segregation of solid waste has been ensured by the civic body staff. It has set up a waste-to-energy plant having two dumping sites with one material recovery facility.
• The solid waste collected from the MC area is segregated into dry and wet at the Salogra plant and then the executing company transports it to its facility at Panchkula for scientific disposal.
• The door-to-door collection has also been extended to the merged areas.
• A sewage treatment plant is also functional in the city to ensure scientific disposal of the sewage waste. The city also enjoys a triple plus open-defecation free (ODF) status.
• A loss of about 800 points was, however, suffered on account of some toilets at the bus stand failing to adhere to cleanliness standards.
• The government had also granted five stars to the MC for garbage free cities. The rating, awarded under the Swachh Bharat Mission, had taken into account the working of the solid waste management plant at Salogra. It was accorded earlier this year.
• A Central team had inspected the Salogra-based processing plant of the solid waste management and, based on its functioning, five-star rating was recommended for the MC.
• About 20 tonnes of solid waste are generated on a daily basis in the MC area.

• About 25 per cent of 18,711 villages are not connected with roads while 20 per cent of the villages do not have all-weather road connectivity, said Om Prakash Bhuraita, Director, HP State Resource Centre, Shimla.
• He said this at a special lecture-cum-interaction on ‘Rural Roads in Himachal Pradesh: Challenges and way forward’. The Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, Himachal Pradesh University, organised the event.
• Bhuraita said the road connectivity had increased from 39 per cent in 1983 to 75 per cent in 2021 with funds under the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana’.
• However, 3,484 habitations with less than 250 population in the 2011 Census could not be covered under the scheme.
• Poor road connectivity and low quality of roads were major causes of accidents.
• Baldev Singh Negi, faculty, Rural Development at the HPU, said it was identified in the discussion that the state needs a rural link road policy, simplified forest clearance process, more funds, roads suitable for Himalayan terrain and greater focus on quality and maintenance to improve the quality of rural roads and better connectivity.

• A new Hindu temple constructed in Jebel Ali in Dubai is set to open on 4th October 2022, one day ahead of the Dussehra festival.
• The temple is an extension of the Sindhi Guru Darbar Temple, one of the oldest Hindu temples in the UAE.
• The temple’s foundation was laid in February 2020 and the inauguration fulfils a decades-long Indian dream of having a place of worship in the area.
• The temple, which will be officially open to the public from October 5 — the day of the Dussehra festival, welcomes people of all faiths and has allowed entry to worshippers and other visitors to view the 16 deities and other interior works.
• Welcoming people from all faiths, the temple has already had its soft opening on September 1, 2022, where thousands of visitors were allowed to get a glimpse of the interiors of the temple built with white marble.
• It has ornate pillars, Arabic and Hindu geometric designs on the facade, and bells on the ceiling.
• The temple management activated the QR-code-based appointment booking system via its website on its soft opening.
• From day one, the temple has received many visitors, especially over the weekends. The restricted entry has been regulated through QR-coded appointments for crowd management and to ensure social distancing, the report said.
• Most of the deities are installed in the main prayer hall with a large 3D-printed pink lotus unfurling across the central dome.
• According to the official temple website, Dubai’s new Hindu temple will be open from 6:30 am to 8 pm.
• Visitors who have booked their appointments to visit the temple from Dubai’s official website for October 5, will be allowed entry without being subject to the hourly number restrictions which are currently in place.
• Moreover, the temple in Dubai has a whooping capacity to easily accommodate around 1000 to 1200 worshippers on a daily basis.
• Located in what is described as the ‘Worship Village’ in Jebel Ali which houses several churches and the Guru Nanak Darbar Gurudwara, the temple has also installed the Guru Granth Sahib, the Holy Book of the Sikhs, in August.