ANSWER: C

About Ramsar Convention:

• The Ramsar convention was established by UNESCO on February 2, 1971. It is an intergovernmental environmental treaty, named after Ramsar city in Iran because it was signed there. The convention came into effect on 1975.
• It encourages the international cooperation and national action to conserve the wetlands and sustainably use their resources. Under it, wetlands of international importance are identified worldwide.

KEY POINTS

• India has designated five (5) new wetlands of international importance, which include three wetlands (Karikili Bird Sanctuary, Pallikaranai Marsh Reserve Forest & Pichavaram Mangrove) in Tamil Nadu, one (Pala wetland) in Mizoram and one wetland (Sakhya Sagar) in Madhya Pradesh, making a total of 54 Ramsar sites in the country.
• The Ramsar sites have been increased from 49 to 54 Ramsar sites.

ANSWER: C

• BIS is the National Standard Body of India established under the BIS Act 2016 for the harmonious development of the activities of standardization, marking and quality certification of goods and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
• Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the National Standards Body is mandated by Government of India to create a robust quality Eco System in the Country through its core activities of Standardization and Certification.
• Towards this mandate, BIS had started off with the concept of creating Standards Club in Schools and Colleges, wherein the concepts of Standardization and Quality are introduced to the students at an early age.
• BIS in its first year of 2021-22 established 1037 Standards Clubs across India and upon realizing the potential and success of the novel endeavour, the target is ambitiously enhanced to creating 10,000 clubs by the end of 2022-23.
• Through Standards Clubs, BIS aims to expose science students of class 9th and above classes to the concept of Quality and Standardization with the help of student centric activities.
• In pursuance to the current target in 2022-23 of opening 10,000 Standards Clubs, BIS is aggressively following up with Schools and Colleges on pan India basis and has already created over 1755 and many more are in its advance stage of approvals. As on date over 43,000 students are members of these Standards clubs.

ANSWER: A

• Energy major Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with M/s Greenko ZeroC Private Limited (Greenko), to jointly pursue opportunities in Renewables, Green Hydrogen, Green Ammonia and other derivatives of green hydrogen.
• The MoU, valid for two years, was inked in New Delhi by ONGC Director Onshore Shri Anurag Sharma and Greenko CEO & Managing Director Shri Anil Kumar Chalamalasetty.
• Greenko is one of India’s leading renewable energy Companies.
• This MoU is in line with the National Hydrogen Mission launched by Hon’ble Prime Minister in making India a global green hydrogen hub.
• The activities envisaged under this MoU will contribute towards India’s target of producing of 5 million tonnes of green hydrogen per annum by 2030.
• This MoU will also act as a stepping stone for ONGC to achieve renewable energy targets as per its Energy Strategy 2040.

ANSWER: C

• Ministry of Defence (MoD) has fast-tracked the indigenisation of Software Defined Radios (SDRs) with country’s premier R&D institutions Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur to fulfill the increasing demand by the Armed Forces across a broad spectrum of operations.
• The complete product life cycle management framework is necessary for security sensitive SDR technology and products. It involves indigenous self-sustainable design, development, manufacturing, testing/certification and maintenance ecosystem.
• Two key elements of indigenous SDR technology are the standardised operating software environment (OE) and applications (also known as waveforms) with associated waveforms repository and test/certification facility. Standard OE enables waveform portability and interoperability among SDRs of multiple vendors. Towards this, the Ministry of Defence has taken a decision to define and develop reference implementation of India specific operating environment called India Software Communication Architecture (SCA) profile or Indian Radio Software Architecture.
• Director, IIT Kanpur Dr Abhay Karandikar, who is the Chairman of SCA Committee constituted by MoD, has pioneered the idea of having ‘India SCA Profile’.
• A Draft Project Report (DPR) has been formulated by DEAL/DRDO towards indigenous development of SDR with a roadmap and timelines.
• The three institutions involved in the development namely, DEAL/DRDO, IIT-Kanpur and DoS have already started the work as per DPR. Defence Secretary Dr Ajay Kumar exuded confidence on all organisations and said that it will create a new benchmark towards indigenisation of critical equipment which, so far, has been imported.
• This would give a boost to the endeavour to achieve ‘Aatmanirbharta’, reduce import budget and create secured radio network for the Armed Forces.

ANSWER: C

• The WHO-GCTM Centre aims to provide support for all traditional medicines in the world. No proposal is under consideration for setting up another such type of centre elsewhere in India.
• Recently, this information was given by Minister of Ayush Shri Sarbananda Sonowal in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.
• The Ministry of Ayush and WHO signed a Host Country Agreement on 25th March 2022 for the establishment of the first WHO’s Global Centre for Traditional Medicine in India.

The salient aspects of this agreement are as follows:

• That WHO will set up GCTM Centre in Jamnagar (Gujarat).
• That it aims to support nations in developing policies & action plans to strengthen the role of traditional medicine as part of their journey to universal health coverage.
• The Government shall respect the functional independence of WHO in carrying out its activities and in assigning to the Centre such WHO officials or other WHO personnel as it deems necessary for carrying out the particular functions assigned to the Centre.
• The Government shall provide to WHO, free of charge, appropriate and adequate office premises for the Centre and its installations.
• The Government shall also be responsible for the maintenance and security of the workplace premises for the Centre, its installations and technical plants, together with storage and archive space, meeting space, equipment and other facilities.
• The Ground breaking ceremony of main office of WHO GCTM has been carried out by the Prime Minister and DG WHO in Jamnagar, Gujarat.  The construction of Interim office of WHO GCTM is under progress.
• All expenditure involved for operational, programmatic, infrastructure and construction costs of the Interim Office and the Main Office of WHO GCTM will be borne by the Ministry of Ayush.
• The financial implications of Rs. 130.00 Cr (approx.) have been approved by the Ministry of Ayush towards the functional cost of the Interim Office of WHO-GCTM and Funds of Rs. 63.26 Cr have been released till date.

ANSWER: B

• World Bank has appointed Indian national Indermit Gill as its Chief Economist and Senior Vice President for Development Economics.
• Gill will succeed American economist Carmen Reinhart in the role and his appointment will be effective 1 September 2022.
• Gill is currently Vice President for Equitable Growth, Finance, and Institutions, where he led work on macroeconomics, debt, trade, poverty, and governance. Between 2016 and 2021, he was a professor of public policy at Duke University and non-resident senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution.
• Gill has also taught at Georgetown University and the University of Chicago. A student of Nobel Laureates Gary Becker and Robert E.Lucas Jr., Gill holds a Ph. D. in economics from the University of Chicago.
• Gill will be only the second Indian to serve as chief economist at the international financial institution after Kaushik Basu, who was Chief Economist of the World Bank from 2012 to 2016.

ANSWER: A

• A Maritime Partnership Exercise (MPX) was conducted between Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and the Indian Navy in the Andaman Sea.
• According to the Ministry of Defence, INS Sukanya, an offshore patrol vessel and JS Samidare, a Murasame class destroyer, undertook various exercises including seamanship activities, aircraft operations and tactical manoeuvres as part of the operational interaction.
• The two countries have been carrying out regular exercises in Indian Ocean Region towards reinforcing maritime association.
• The exercise was aimed at enhancing interoperability and streamlining seamanship and communication procedures.
• According to the Defence Ministry, this exercise is part of the ongoing efforts between the two navies towards ensuring safe and secure international shipping and trade in Indian Ocean Region.

ANSWER: B

• Haryana and Israel to work on various water conservation and management projects.
• CM Addressed a meeting with a delegation of Israel regarding water conservation and management in Chandigarh.
• Haryana and Israel to work together to seek out the issue of depleting water table and water scarcity.
• Water level is depleting in some areas of the state and the Haryana government is constantly working to improve the water table.
• For this, the Haryana government has constituted the Haryana Water Resources (Conservation, Regulation and Management) Authority, under which the state government is working to renovate 18,000 ponds of the state.
• Besides cleaning these ponds, the ponds are also being desilted so that maximum recharging of water can be done. Along with this, Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) are being set up across the state.
• Emphasis is being given to use the water of these STPs for agriculture, construction works and gardening purposes. Along with this, drip irrigation is being promoted in Agriculture. The government is taking every possible step to conserve water in the state.
• Israel is already cooperating with Haryana in the field of Agriculture and Horticulture.
• Four Centres of Excellence for Indo-Israel Cooperation are running in Haryana and the fifth centre is being built in Bhiwani. Similarly, some private companies of India are working in Israel in drip irrigation.

ANSWER: D

• The government has approved two solar parks in Himachal Pradesh with capacities of 880 MW and 400 MW each at Lahaul & Spiti and Kinnaur districts.
• This was stated by Minister of State of New and Renewable Energy and Chemicals and Fertilizers Bhagwant Khuba in his written reply to the Rajya Sabha in response to a question asked by BJP member Indu Bala Goswami.

ANSWER: D

• To promote cold water fisheries, a three-day trout fair was organised by the State Fisheries Department, which concluded in Manali.
• According to, Satpal Mehta, Director of Fisheries Department, eight districts of the state were suitable for cold water fisheries.
• Besides Kullu, trout are found in Mandi, Kangra, Chamba, Shimla, Kinnaur, Lahaul Spiti and Sirmaur districts and these are conducive for cold water fisheries.