Cabinet approves Strategic Partnership Agreement between the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), India and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)

• The aim of the Agreement is to drive ambition, leadership and knowledge on green energy transitions based on renewable energy in India. The Agreement will help India’s energy transition efforts and will also help the world in combating climate change.
• The areas of cooperation as envisaged in the Strategic Partnership Agreement will support India in achieving its ambitious target of 500 GW of installed non-fossil fuel electricity capacity by 2030.
• The salient features of the Agreement include enhanced cooperation in the following areas:
  • Facilitating knowledge sharing from India on scaling-up renewable energy and clean energy technologies
  • Supporting India’s efforts on long term energy planning
  • Collaborating to strengthen the innovation climate in India
  • Moving towards cost-effective decarbonisation through catalysing development and deployment of green hydrogen.
• Thus, the Strategic Partnership Agreement will help India’s energy transition efforts and will also help the world in combating climate change.

NIUA’s C-Cube and WRI India launch the India Forum for Nature-Based Solutions

• The India Forum for Nature-based Solutions aims to create a collective of NbS entrepreneurs, government entities and like-minded organisations, to help scale urban nature-based solutions by
  • Defining a shared language and by communicating benefits that inform actions at the local level including scaling up of existing NbS interventions.
  • Driving investment and strengthening delivery mechanisms through multi-stakeholder coordination.
  • Mainstreaming urban ecosystem-based services and nature-based solutions in India through informing policy, plans and project interventions
• ‘India Forum for Nature-based Solutions’ is led by the National Institute of Urban Affairs’ Climate Centre for Cities (NIUA C-Cube) and anchored by World Resources Institute India (WRI Indija) under the Cities4Forests initiative.
• It is supported by Caterpillar Foundation, Department of Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA), Govt. of United Kingdom and Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI).

Cabinet approves Deregulation of Sale of Domestically Produced Crude Oil

• This will ensure marketing freedom for all Exploration and Production (E&P) operators.
• The condition in the Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) to sell crude oil to Government or its Nominee or Government Companies shall accordingly be waived off. All E&P companies will now be free to sell crude oil from their fields in domestic market.
• Government revenues like Royalty, cess, etc. will continue to be calculated on uniform basis across all Contracts. As earlier, exports will not be permissible.
• This decision will further spur economic activities, incentivize making investments in upstream oil and gas sector and builds on a series of targeted transformative reforms rolled out since 2014.

Coal Ministry Approaches Environment Ministry for Inclusion of Five Coal Mine Pit Lakes in Ramsar List

• The suitability of coal mine pit lakes for inclusion in Ramsar List was discussed with MoEFCC, the nodal Ministry for identification of wet lands for placing on the Ramsar List.
• As per the guidance of MoEFCC, CIL has identified five pit lakes in the States of West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh for consideration of including in Ramsar list. CIL is in process of preparing Ramsar Information Sheet (RIS).
• These mine pit water bodies are regularly visited by different species of birds and also has avifauna population. The environment around these water bodies has ameliorated due to the efforts of CIL through large scale plantation and other soil moisture conservation activities.

Cabinet approves computerisation of primary agricultural credit societies

• This project proposes computerization of about 63,000 functional PACS over a period of 5 years with a total budget outlay of Rs. 2516 crore with Government of India share of Rs. 1528 crore.
• The Primary Agricultural Cooperative credit societies (PACS) constitute the lowest tier of the three-tier Short-term cooperative credit (STCC) in the country comprising of approx.13 Cr. farmers as its members, which is crucial for the development of the rural economy.
• PACS account for 41 % (3.01 Cr. farmers) of the KCC loans given by all entities in the Country and 95 % of these KCC loans (2.95 Cr. farmers) through PACS are to the Small and Marginal farmers.
• The other two tiers viz. State Cooperative Banks (StCBs) and District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) have already been automated by the NABARD and brought on Common Banking Software (CBS).

GEMCOVAC-19: India''s own mRNA Covid vaccine

• Most vaccines contain a weakened or dead bacteria or virus. However, scientists have developed a new type of vaccine that uses a molecule called messenger RNA (mRNA) rather than part of an actual bacteria or virus.
• Messenger RNA is a type of RNA that is necessary for protein production.
• In cells, mRNA uses the information in genes to create a blueprint for making proteins. Once cells finish making a protein, they quickly break down the mRNA. mRNA from vaccines does not enter the nucleus and does not alter DNA.
• mRNA vaccines work by introducing a piece of mRNA that corresponds to a viral protein, usually a small piece of a protein found on the virus’s outer membrane. (Individuals who get an mRNA vaccine are not exposed to the virus, nor can they become infected by the vaccine.)
• Using this mRNA blueprint, cells produce the viral protein. As part of a normal immune response, the immune system recognizes that the protein is foreign and produces specialized proteins called antibodies.

Maharashtra government renamed Aurangabad city as Sambhajinagar

• Aurangabad was founded in 1610 by Malik Ambar, the Siddi general of the Nizamshahi dynasty of Ahmadnagar. The city was named Khirki or Khadki at the time, and its name was changed to Fatehpur by Malik Ambar’s son Fateh Khan following Malik Ambar’s death in 1626.
• In 1653, the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb invaded the Deccan and set up his capital in the city, which he renamed Aurangabad. The city has borne the association of its name with Aurangzeb ever since.
• Chhattrapati Sambhaji Maharaj, the son and successor of Chhattrapati Shivaji Maharaj, was tortured and killed in brutal fashion on Aurangzeb’s orders in 1689.

NASA''s CAPSTONE mission launches to the Moon

• The satellite, launched on Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from the Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, is heading toward an orbit intended in the future for Gateway, a Moon-orbiting outpost that is part of NASA’s Artemis program.
• As a pathfinder for Gateway, CAPSTONE aims to help reduce risk for future spacecraft by validating innovative navigation technologies, and by verifying the dynamics of the halo-shaped orbit.
• The orbit is known as a near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO). It is significantly elongated, and is located at a precise balance point in the gravities of Earth and the Moon. This offers stability for long-term missions like Gateway, NASA said on its website.