• The Centre has extended for another six months the application of the “disturbed area” under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act – AFSPA in 12 districts of Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh and some parts of five other districts of the two states to facilitate anti-insurgency operations.
• In a notification issued by Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), it is said that the AFSPA will be extended for six months beginning October 1 in nine districts — Dimapur, Niuland, Chumoukedima, Mon, Kiphire, Noklak, Phek, Peren and Zunheboto — and 16 police stations in four other districts — Kohima, Mokokchung, Longleng and Wokha — of Nagaland.
• In another notification, the MHA said the application of the “disturbed area” under the AFSPA will continue for six more months from Saturday in Tirap, Changlang and Longding districts and the areas falling within the jurisdiction of Namsai and Mahadevpur police stations in Namsai district of Arunachal Pradesh, bordering Assam.
• While Nagaland has a total 16 districts, Arunachal Pradesh has 26.
• The AFSPA-1958 empowers security forces to conduct operations and arrest anyone without any prior warrant besides giving immunity from arrest and prosecution to the security forces if they shoot someone dead.
• The reduction of jurisdiction of AFSPA came in April this year following the recommendation of a high-level committee constituted to examine the possibility of lifting of the AFSPA after the killing of 14 civilians by the Army in Nagaland’s Mon district in December 2021 in a case of “mistaken identity”.

• The 18th meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP) Review Committee (POPRC-18) to the Stockholm Convention has included five more chemicals in its agenda.
• Stockholm Convention is an international environmental treaty that aims to eliminate or restrict the production and use of POPs or the substances that persist in the environment and pose risk to our health.
• The listed chemicals include a pesticide, a flame retardant and some plastic stabilising substances.
• Three of the listed chemicals — chlorpyrifos, chlorinated paraffin beyond prescribed standards and long-chain perfluoro carboxylic acids — were already nominated at the 17th meeting (POPRC-17) in January this year.
• Draft risk profiles of these chemicals are being discussed at the POPRC-18 meeting held in Rome, from 26-30 September, 2022.
• Experts will determine if these chemicals are POPs which demand global action due to their adverse effects on human health and the environment.
• Their draft risk profiles will be adopted and global action will be warranted if they fall into the hazardous chemicals category.
• These chemicals will then be elevated for the third review stage (Annex-F) or risk management evaluation.
• Socio-economic considerations associated with possible control measures are evaluated at this stage. Thereafter, they will be considered for recommendation to the Conference of the Parties to list them under the Stockholm Convention.
• Two chemicals — dechlorane plus, a flame retardant and UV-328, a stabiliser used in some personal care products — which qualified for risk management evaluation at POPRC-17 will be evaluated at this session.
• POPRC-18 aims to list each of these chemicals in Annex A (elimination), B (restriction) and/or C (unintended release) of the Stockholm Convention

India’s resistance

• The UNEP’s proposal to list chlorpyrifos as POP was resisted by India. Still, chlorpyrifos got nominated as Persistent organic pollutants.
• Ved Prakash Mishra, a member of POPRC, raised doubts on evidence showing adverse effects of chlorpyrifos at POPRC-17.
• “Chlorpyrifos is not a carcinogen and its concentrations are low. Some of the studies in the POPRC proposal were not peer reviewed,” he said at POPRC-17. He had also demanded more research into the same.
• The Pesticides Manufacturers and Formulators Association of India (PMFAI) had obstructed listing chlorpyrifos under the Stockholm Convention.
• “Chlorpyrifos in vapour phase is carried to distant locations, is a hypothesis and needs to be proved,” said KN Singh of Gharda Chemicals ltd, on behalf of PMFAI.
• India had also opposed the decision to list flame retardant dechlorane plus. Mishra sought more information on the socio-economic implications of global action on it. He cited concerns on behalf of developing countries at POPRC-17.
• Chlorpyrifos was registered under the Insecticide Act of 1968 since 1977 and Anupam Verma Committee recommended its review for continued use in 2015.
• China and India are among the largest producers of chlorpyrifos. Nearly 48 per cent of chlorpyrifos or 24,000 tonnes was produced in India. Globally, some 50,000 tonnes of chlorpyrifos is being used annually, according to estimates by the China Crop Protection Industry Association.
• Nearly 48 per cent of chlorpyrifos, or 24,000 tonnes, was produced in India. Some 11,000 tonnes were used within the country and 12,000 tonnes were exported. Around 1,000 tonnes were kept as stockpiles, estimated PMFAI.
• Chlorpyrifos was approved for agricultural use in 2021, which includes its use as a pesticide against pests affecting Bengal gram, rice and cotton.
• It is one of the ten pesticides banned by Punjab and Haryana governments in August 2022.
• “Chlorpyrifos is approved for 18 crops in India, while it was being used for 23 crops,” claimed Pesticide Action Network, in an August report.
• India’s views against the listing of chlorpyrifos may not find much acceptance by the expert committee consisting of 31 experts — from Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean.
• The Stockholm Convention has listed 31 chemicals as of December 2020. This list is likely to expand further amid evidence pointing towards the health burden of hazardous chemicals and pesticides.
• Acute pesticide poisoning is an ongoing major global public health challenge, with about 385 million cases of unintentional acute pesticide poisoning and 11,000 deaths every year, according to a global study.

• The Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) recently raised the policy repo rate by 50 basis points (bps) to 5.9%.
• It raised the repo rate (or the rate at which it lends money to the banking system) by 50 basis points (or 0.5 percentage points).
• It has cut India’s GDP growth rate for the current financial year (2022-23) from 7.2% to 7%.
• The MPC retained the retail inflation projection for the current fiscal year at 6.7%.

Monetary Policy Committee

• The Monetary Policy Committee of India is responsible for fixing the policy interest rate, to achieve the objectives of monetary policy.

Composition:

• Three officials of the Reserve Bank of India, with Governor of RBI as Chairperson, ex officio
• Three external members appointed by the Government of India
• The external members hold office for a period of four years.
• Decisions of the MPC are taken on the basis of majority, with Governor having the casting vote in case of a tie.
• The MPC meets least 4 times a year and it publishes its decisions after each such meeting.

• The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has received felicitation for its remarkable contribution towards achieving 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) during last couple of years.
• Secretary, Mining Department, Amit Sharma, received the honour on behalf of J&K government during a felicitation ceremony held in this regard.
• He also participated in a power-packed panel discussion, along with Secretaries of States like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Goa and Maharashtra, on achieving carbon neutrality and sharing perspectives towards eco sensitivities in respective states and UTs for saving planet earth. Goa Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh were also felicitated on the occasion.
• Amit Sharma shared significant achievements of J&K towards the goal of Carbon Neutrality wherein Panchayat Palli has been fully powered with solar energy with a 500 KW solar plant.
• Several works are being carried out in Palli Panchayat only through power supplied by this solar plant. He said, the unique initiative was inaugurated by the Prime Minister in April this year as a follow-up of UN Climate Change Glasgow Conference.
• The Secretary also talked about public awareness and mass campaigns reaching the grassroots level in J&K in multiple sectors like Health, Jal Shakti and Urban Development through Swacch Bharat Mission.
• He further disclosed that there has been significant achievement in improving J&K ranking in UN Sustainable Development Goals over the last couple of years.
• He also mentioned that recently J&K government approved Rooftop Solar Scheme for residential households towards reducing over 5 million tonnes of carbon emission.
• He said, it reflects the administration’s resolve of contributing substantially towards UN SDGs well within the target year 2030.
• The felicitation ceremony was followed by panel discussion which was led by Union Ministers, Smriti Irani and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.
• It was inspired by NITI Aayog and organized by the Times Group vertical Economic Times who acknowledged the contribution of J&K towards obtaining success in achieving UN SDG and improving its ranking by leaps and bounds in the last couple of years.

• The Department of Posts J&K Circle starts a dedicated Road Network Transport (RTN) Service on daily basis which will connect Jammu and Srinagar for transmission of Parcels/Speed Post Parcels.
• This is the first RTN service connecting Jammu City to the Kashmir Valley which will cater the long pending needs of transmission of parcel mails between these two cities of J&K and this will serve as a bridge for all businessmen, manufacturer, factory owners to transmit their items/parcels to Kashmir Valley and vice versa.
• Postmaster General, Jammu Region, Col Vinod Kumar has flagged off the well-decorated Vehicle of Postal Department carrying Parcel Mails meant for Srinagar.
• At the same time an RTN Vehicle is flagged off by Chief Postmaster General J&K Circle from Srinagar also which is carrying parcels, logistic consignments and speed post parcels meant to be delivered in Jammu city.
• Worth to mention, with this historical start of RTN service, J&K has got connected to the rest of India for the fastest transmission of all kinds of parcel items, Logistic consignments as well as Speed Post Parcels.
• The RTN vehicles are fitted with GPS devices and each moment will be tracked during their run on road.
• Customers can also track their consignments on India Post website and come to know the whereabouts of their parcels.

• India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant led an official delegation to the third G20 Sherpa meeting held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia from 26th to 29th of September.
• During the deliberations, Mr Kant reaffirmed India’s commitment and active support to Indonesian Presidency’s efforts to finalize meaningful outcomes for the forthcoming G20 Bali Summit in November.
• He also emphasized the need for G20 to bring enhanced global focus on and strengthen international cooperation and efforts in key priority areas such as sustainable growth, accelerated progress on SDGs, and addressing climate change.
• On the sidelines of the G20 Sherpa meeting, Mr. Amitabh Kant also held bilateral interactions with his visiting Sherpa counterparts from Brazil, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, UK and US.

About:

• This is the slowest pace seen since November 2021, with crude oil and natural gas continuing to report contractions while electricity and steel production clocked sharply lower expansions than in the previous month.
• Overall output levels in the eight sectors were 1.5% lower than in July 2022, marking the third successive month of sequential contraction.

Core Industries                        

• The core sector is an aggregate of 8 core sectors that are fundamental to the Indian economy.
• These are Coal, Crude oil, Natural gas, Refinery products, Fertilisers, Steel, Cement and Electricity.
• These 8 sectors constituting the core sector are important because they account for nearly 40.27% of the overall IIP and hence have long term repercussions for corporate profit growth as well as for the overall GDP growth.
• The growth of the country’s eight core sectors is a lead indicator of the monthly industrial performance.
• The Office of Economic Adviser, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) in the Commerce and Industry Ministry releases the Index of Eight Core Industries.

• National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur, and Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for collective academic and scientific research.
• Laxmidhar Behera, Director of IIT Mandi, and Hiralal Murlidhar Suryawanshi, Director of NIT Hamirpur, signed the MoU.
• The NIT director said that the MoU would enable undergraduate and postgraduate students to carry out their studies and research work in joint consultation with the faculty of both the institutions.
• He said that the faculty would also share academic knowledge and jointly publish research papers. The agreement would also enhance the quality of technical education in the institutions. The IIT director apprised students about the ongoing research in the field of robotics and drone technologies at his institution.

• Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mandi, in collaboration with the PGIMER, Chandigarh, claim to have developed a simple, portable and cost-effective device to detect and diagnose strokes caused by impaired blood flow to the brain.
• According to medical experts, an ischemic stroke caused by insufficient or interrupted blood supply to part of the brain, which affects one out of 500 Indians every year.
• Surveys have shown that around 10 to 15 per cent of all strokes affect people below 40 years of age.
• Dr Shubhajit Roy Chowdhury, Associate Professor, IIT-Mandi, said, “The efficient management and treatment of stroke depend upon early identification and diagnosis. Currently, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computer tomography (CT) techniques are considered the gold standard for ischemic stroke detection.
• While these are indeed reliable methods, they require considerable infrastructure and high cost, and are inaccessible to many communities in India. There is only one MRI service for every 1 million people in the country.”
• “We are working towards finding a low-cost diagnostic technique to precisely detect ischemic stroke at the point of care so that such tests can be used in rural, poor and remote areas. Our team has designed and developed a small wearable device that makes use of Near Infrared Spectroscopy to detect an ischemic stroke. In this device, a near-infrared light emitting diode (NIRS LED) emits light in the range of 650 nm to 950 nm,” he said.
• “This light interacts with the coloured components of the blood like haemoglobin and provides information on blood characteristics such as regional oxygen saturation, regional oxygen consumption and regional blood volume index,”
• “The IIT-Mandi team performed studies measuring the bio-markers under ischemic conditions at the forearm and at the frontal lobe of the brain. The researchers also validated their detector prototype through experimental occlusion of the forearm and evoked ischemic stroke at the frontal lobe, and found excellent diagnostic potential,” he remarked.
• Dalchand Ahirwar, research scholar, IIT-Mandi, said, “A combined matrix of this information reflects the temporal dynamics of blood haemoglobin, which can help in identifying impaired or abnormal blood flow conditions at a local tissue.
• The biomarkers that we have used to study ischemic conditions are oxygen saturation, regional oxygen consumption and regional blood volume index that could better predict ischemic conditions than other techniques.”

• Prime Minister laid the foundation stone for the “world’s first CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) terminal” at Bhavnagar in Gujarat on September 29, 2022
• This is a three-year-old project that is expected to infuse Rs 4,000 crore in developing the existing port infrastructure at Bhavnagar.

The seeds for the CNG terminal

• The idea for the project materialised during the January 2019 Vibrant Gujarat summit when a consortium of London-based Foresight Group, Mumbai-based Padmanabh Mafatlal Group and Rotterdam-based Boskalis signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) for development of the CNG terminal.
• In December 2019, a project proposal for the development of the north side of Bhavnagar port and allied infrastructure, which includes a CNG terminal, was submitted. This was accepted and GMB issued a Letter of Intent (LoI) in September 2020 in the name of Bhavnagar Port Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, a special purpose vehicle formed by the consortium.
• While the consortium will invest Rs 4,000 crore in developing the north side of the Bhavnagar port under the BOOT (Build, Own, Operate and Transfer) policy of the state government, state-run GMB will continue to operate the berths on the south side of the port.

Why is the Bhavnagar port important?

• The Bhavnagar port is in close vicinity to the Dholera Special Investment Region (SIR) and is expected to serve the industries that set up base in the region. It is already connected to the northern hinterland through a railway line that extends to the existing berths at the port.

When is the CNG terminal expected to commence operations?

• The construction is expected to commence in the first quarter of 2023 after GMB approves the Detailed Project Report. It is expected to be made operational by 2026. The proposed port terminal’s capacity is 4.65 million Tonnes Per Annum (MTPA), of which the capacity of the CNG terminal will be 0.3 MTPA