Scientists characterise a natural pathogenic fungi to help save eucalyptus forests from devastating pest.

• Scientists have found a natural remedy to protect eucalyptus forest plantations from a pest, eucalyptus snout beetle, which is known to cause serious damage to eucalypts.
• Eucalyptus Snout Beetle is a leaf-feeding beetle that is a major defoliator of eucalypts.
• It is also known as eucalyptus weevil.
• The pest is indigenous to Australia but occurs in many countries throughout the world where eucalypts are grown.
• The beetle feeds on leaves, buds and shoots, resulting in stunted growth and deflation and causing heavy losses.
• It can cause damage over vast areas as it has a great flight capability and gets transferred with transport of forest products.
• The pest is mainly controlled with the help of micro-waspsAnaphes spp — an expensive solution.
• This led a team of scientists to look for naturally occurring pathogenic fungi to tackle the problem.

New research

• The scientists collected the fungi from naturally infected beetles, the pathogen can better adapt to the environmental conditions, making it efficient to control beetles in forest populations.
• The findings of the study showed that Beauveria bassiana was highly effective both by contact and ingestion, with a mortality rate of 100 per cent.
• The fungi could be used to develop a bio-pesticide for sustainable forestry using integrated pest management.
• The fungi could also be used in other countries where the insect is causing severe damage.

Justice Gavai nominated as SC Legal Services Committee Chairman: What law says on free legal aid in India.

• Supreme Court Legal Services Committee was constituted under Section 3A of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987.
• It was to provide “free and competent legal services to the weaker sections of society”, in cases falling under the top court’s jurisdiction.
• Section 3A of the Act states that the Central Authority (the National Legal Services Authority or NALSA) shall constitute the committee.

Composition:

• It consists of a sitting SC judge, who is the chairman, along with other members possessing the experience and qualifications prescribed by the Centre.
• Both the Chairman and other members will be nominated by the Chief Justice of India (CJI). Further, the CJI can appoint the Secretary to the Committee.
• The Committee, in turn, can appoint officers and other employees as prescribed by the Centre, in consultation with the CJI.
• Rule 10 of the NALSA Rules, 1995, entails the numbers, experience, and qualifications of the SCLSC members.
• Under Section 27 of the 1987 Act, the Centre is empowered to make rules in consultation with the CJI, by notification, to carry out the provisions of the Act.

Key facts about Legal Service Authorities Act

• It was enacted to give a statutory base to legal aid programmes.
• It aims to provide free and competent legal services to eligible groups, including women, children, SC/ST and EWS categories, industrial workers, disabled persons, and others.
• NALSA: Under the Act, NALSA was constituted in 1995 to monitor and evaluate the implementation of legal aid programmes and to lay down policies for making legal services available.
• State Legal Services Authorities (SLSA) were established to implement NALSA’s policies and directions, give free legal services to people, and conduct Lok Adalats.
• An SLSA is headed by the Chief Justice of the respective High Court and includes the senior HC judge as its Executive Chairman.
• District Legal Services Authorities (DLSAs) and Taluk Legal Services Committees were established in districts and most taluks. Situated in the District Courts Complex in every district, each DLSA is chaired by the District Judge of the respective district.
• The Taluka or Sub-Divisional Legal Services Committees are headed by a senior civil judge.

Launch of the Traditional Medicine Morbidity codes of Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani Chapter in International Classification of Diseases (ICD) 11 as Module 2.

• World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD) 11 TM Module 2, Morbidity Codes launch event will be held in New Delhi on 10th January, 2024.
• International Classification of Diseases is developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to classify diseases internationally.
• The global data on diseases currently available is mainly based on healthcare practices to be diagnosed through modern biomedicine.
• It serves a broad range of uses globally and provides critical knowledge on the extent, causes and consequences of human disease and death worldwide via data that is reported and coded with the ICD.
• Clinical terms coded with ICD are the main basis for health recording and statistics on disease in primary, secondary and tertiary care, as well as on cause of death certificates.
• These data and statistics support payment systems, service planning, and administration of quality and safety, and health services research.
• Diagnostic guidance linked to categories of ICD also standardised data collection and enables large scale research.
• The classification of data and terminology relating to diseases based on Ayush systems such as Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani etc. is not yet included in the WHO ICD series.
• Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (CBHI) is an agency under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare that serves as the WHO Collaboration Centre for ICD-related activities.
• It facilitates the collection and dissemination of data on various diseases and mortality.

TM2 module of ICD11

• The Ministry of Ayush has developed the Code for Ayurveda, Siddha, and Unani Medicine through the National Ayush Morbidity and Standardised Electronic Portal (NAMASTE).
• The Ministry of Ayush in collaboration with WHO has prepared a categorization of data and terminology related to diseases based on Ayush - Ayurveda, Siddha, and Unani systems under TM2 module of ICD11 series.
• The Ministry of AYUSH has also signed a Donor Agreement with the World Health Organization for the same.

Prime Minister greets on the occasion of Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas.

• Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas is also known as Non-Resident Indian (NRI) Day, is celebrated on January 9 to mark the contribution and achievements of the overseas Indian community to the development of India.
• It is the flagship event of the Ministry of External Affairs.
• The day also commemorates the return of Mahatma Gandhi, the greatest Pravasi, from South Africa to India in 1915, who led India''s freedom struggle and changed the lives of Indians forever.
• It was first celebrated in 2003. It was an annual event earlier, but in 2015, the government revised its format to celebrate PBD once every two years.
• It has become a platform to connect the Indian diaspora with their roots and encourage their continued engagement with India’s progress.
• It is held in different cities, to showcase the diversity and progress of different regions of India.
• Till date, 17 conventions have been held. The last Pravasi Bharatiya Divas was celebrated in the Indore of Madhya Pradesh in 2023.

INS Kabra docks in Colombo, move aimed at boosting maritime cooperation.

• Indian warship, INS Kabra, an indigenous fast attack craft, docked at the Colombo port in a move aimed at fostering bilateral ties between India and Sri Lanka.
• INS Kabra is a naval vessel named after an island of the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago.
• It belongs to the Car Nicobar class of high-speed offshore patrol vessels built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) for the Indian Navy.
• It was the eighth in a series of 10 Fast Attack Crafts.
• The vessels are designed as a cost-effective platform for patrol, anti-piracy and rescue operations in India''s Exclusive Economic Zone.
• The class and its vessels are named after Indian islands. They are the first water jet propelled vessels of the Indian Navy.
• With a top speed of over 35 knots, and excellent manoeuvrability offered by her water-jet propulsion, the ship is ideally suited for high-speed interdiction of fast-moving targets.

BR Hills-bound vehicles to pay token green tax.

• The Karnataka Forest Department started collecting green tax, Rs 10 from two-wheelers and Rs 20 from four-wheelers, entering BR Hills through Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple (BRT) Tiger Reserve.
• Location: It is located in the Chamarajanagar district of Karnataka State.
• The tiger reserve derives its name from ''BILIGIRI '', the white rocky cliff which has a temple of Lord ''VISHNU'', locally known as ‘Rangaswamy’.
• This unique bio-geographical entity, situated in the middle of the bridge between the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats in South India, was constituted as a Wildlife Sanctuary in 1974. BRT Wildlife Sanctuary was declared a Tiger Reserve in 2011.
• Vegetation: The forests of BRT Tiger Reserve are principally of dry deciduous type and are interspersed with moist deciduous, semi-evergreen, evergreen, and shola patches occurring at varying altitudes.
• Flora: The major species include Anogeissus latifolia, Dalbergia paniculata, Grewia teliaefolia, Terminalia alata, Terminalia bellirica, Terminalia paniculata, etc.
• Fauna: Animals including tiger, elephant, leopard, wild dog, bison, sambar, spotted deer, barking deer, four-horned antelope, sloth bear, wild boar, common langur, bonnet macaque, varieties of reptiles, birds, etc., are found in the Tiger Reserve.

REC sets ₹1 lakh crore sanction target for infrastructure space including roads.

• REC Ltd. announced its ambitious plan to increase its financial sanctioning in the infrastructure space, including roads and highways, to ₹1 lakh crore in the current financial year.
• REC Limited (formerly Rural Electrification Corporation Limited) is a Central Public Sector Undertaking under the Ministry of Power involved in financing projects in the complete power sector value chain from generation to distribution.
• It is registered with the RBI as a Non-Banking Finance Company (NBFC), a Public Financial Institution (PFI) and an Infrastructure Financing Company (IFC).
• History:It was incorporated in 1969, in the backdrop of severe drought and famine in the country, to energise agricultural pump-sets for irrigation purposes, thereby reducing the dependency of agriculture on monsoons.
• REC has evolved and expanded its financing mandate to cover the entire Power-Infrastructure sector, comprising Generation, Transmission, Distribution, Renewable Energy and new technologies like Electric Vehicles, Battery Storage, Green Hydrogen etc.
• More recently REC has also diversified into the Non-Power Infrastructure sector comprising Roads & Expressways, Metro Rail, Airports, IT Communication, Social and Commercial Infrastructure (Educational Institution, Hospitals), Ports and Electro-Mechanical (E&M) works in respect of various other sectors like Steel, Refinery, etc.
• Financing: REC provides long-term loans and other financing products to State, Centre, and Private Companies for creation of infrastructure assets in the country.
• REC funds its business with market borrowings of various maturities, including bonds and term loans, apart from foreign borrowings.
• ECPDCL (REC Power Development and Consultancy Limited), the wholly owned subsidiary of REC, provides a range of value-added consultancy services in the power sector.

DRDO launches indigenous assault rifle ''Ugram'' for armed forces.

• ‘Ugram’ is a state-of-the-art indigenous assault rifle.
• It has been developed by the Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE), a unit of DRDO, in collaboration with a private industry partner.
• It was developed in less than 100 days.
• It has been developed as per the General Staff Qualitative Requirements (GSQR) of the army into consideration.
• Features:
• The rifle will deploy rounds of 7.62 mm calibre, making it more ferocious than rifles that use 5.62 mm calibre rounds, like the INSAS rifle, which is popularly used by the armed forces in India, including paramilitary forces.
• It has an effective range of 500 metres.
• It weighs less than four kilograms.
• The rifle has a 20-round magazine that fires robustly and in full auto mode.

Adani Group Unveils India''s First Medium Altitude, Long Endurance Drone.

• Chief of Naval Staff flagged off the first indigenously manufactured Drishti 10 ''Starliner'' Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) for the Navy.
• Drishti 10 ‘Starliner’ is an indigenously manufactured Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV).
• It was developed by Adani Defence and Aerospace.
• It is an advanced intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) platform with 36 hours endurance and a 450 kg payload capacity.
• It is an all-weather military platform which has clearance to fly in both segregated and unsegregated airspace.
• It is designed to possess high endurance, combat-proven capabilities, and advanced features, providing a significant boost to India’s naval capabilities.
• The UAV’s autonomous nature, coupled with its mission effectiveness and payload configuration options, makes it an invaluable asset for strategic operations.
• One of the distinguishing features of the Drishti 10 ‘Starliner’ is its minimal maintenance requirements, making it cost-effective and operationally efficient.
• This characteristic ensures increased operational readiness, reducing downtime, and maximising deployment opportunities.
• It is equipped with advanced communication systems, including satellite communication and Line-of-Sight (LOS) data links, ensuring reliable and secure data transmission.

India’s first healthy & hygienic food street ‘Prasadam’ inaugurated in Ujjain.

• Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare recently inaugurated the country’s first healthy & hygienic food street, ‘Prasadam’, at Neelkanth Van, Mahakal Lok, in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh.
• Prasadam is the country’s first “Healthy and Hygienic Food Street”.
• It has been opened at Neelkanth Van, Mahakal Lok, in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh.
• It will connect people in every corner of the country with pure and safe local and traditional food.
• Spread over 939 square metres with 19 shops, Prasadam offers convenient and culturally rich dining options for the 1-1.5 lakh devotees who visit the Mahakaleshwar Temple daily.
• The food street is designed to provide various facilities, including a kids’ play area, drinking water facility, CCTV surveillance, parking, public conveniences, and seating spaces.

Key Facts about Mahakaleshwar Temple:

• It is a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva.

Location:

• It is located in the ancient city of Ujjain, in the state of Madhya Pradesh.
• The temple is situated beside the Rudra Sagar Lake.
• It is one of the twelve Jyotirlingas of Lord Shiva.
• Mahakaleshwar idol is Dakshina Mukhi, facing south, unlike all the other Jyotirlingas.
• The temple, which is spread over five levels, sees a huge throng of devotees during the Maha Shivaratri festival.

Architecture:

• The temple complex comes with a spacious courtyard that is adorned with the finest sculptures that are believed to be influenced by the Chalukya, Maratha, and Bhumija styles of structural design.
• The foundation and platform are built of stones. Most of the upper structure rests on the strong and well-designed pillars and plasters.
• It is complete with impressive lingam sculptures of Mahakaleshwar.
• The images of Ganesh, Parvati, and Kartikeya are installed in the west, north, and east of the sanctum sanctorum.
• The temple also houses a tank constructed in the sarvatobhadra style.