Transnistria: The nextfront of the Ukraine war

• The de facto state lies between Moldova to its west and Ukraine towards its east.
• Often described as a “remnant of the Soviet Union”, Transnistria declared independence like Moldova did soon after the break-up of the Soviet Union.
• When Moldovan troops attempted to take over the territory in 1990-1992, Transnistria was able to resist them because of Russian soldiers based in Transnistria.
• Since then, it has remained free of Moldovan control. However, most countries continue to see Transnistria as part of Moldova.
• Transnistria is not recognised as independent even by Russia and its economy is dependent on Russia for subsidies and free gas. Most Transnistrians have dual citizenship of Russia and Transnistria or triple citizenship of Moldova, Transnistria, and Russia.
• Unlike the rest of Moldova, which speaks Romanian, the majority of people in Transnistria speak Russian and use the cyrillic script like Russians.

IIT Bombay collaborates with IMD to develop climate solutions to combat climate crisis

• This collaboration is likely to work on the development of Sensors and Drone-based Smart Monitoring systems, Climate-smart agriculture technology for water and food security, Intelligent and automated early warning systems, and Smart power grid management.
• Talking about the Interdisciplinary Program in Climate Studies at IIT Bombay, Secretary of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Dr. M. Ravichandran said just like science, multiple disciplines like mathematics, engineering, and social sciences are required to understand the discipline of climate studies as well.
• IIT Bombay''s mission is to be a thought-leader in Climate Studies.

Newly identified drug can be used as oral treatment for diabetes: IIT Mandi study

• The molecule, called PK2, is able to trigger the release of insulin by the pancreas, and can potentially be used as an orally administered medicine for diabetes.
• The findings of the research have been published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
• The researchers found that PK2 was rapidly absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract, which means that it can be used as an oral medication rather than an injection.
• After two hours of administration, PK2 was found distributed in the liver, kidney, and pancreas of the mice, but there were no traces of it in the heart, lungs, and spleen.
• There was a small amount present in the brain, which shows that the molecule may be able to cross the blood-brain barrier. It was cleared from circulation in about 10 hours.
• Beyond increasing insulin release, PK2 was also able to prevent and even reverse beta cell loss, a cell essential for insulin production, making it effective for both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.

Govt to provide 50% subsidy to SC-ST, small and marginal, women and farmers of northeastern states

• Mr Tomar said this while addressing the conference on Promoting Kisan Drones organized as part of ''Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav'' in New Delhi. The government is promoting the use of Kisan Drone for crop assessment, digitization of land records, and spraying of pesticides and nutrients.
• He said, for other farmers, financial assistance will be given up to 40 percent or a maximum of four lakh rupees to buy drones.
• Financial assistance @ 100 % cost of drone is extended under Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM) to the Farm Machinery Training & Testing Institutes, Institutions of Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) and State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) for its demonstration on the farmer’s fields.
• Farmers Producers Organizations (FPOs) are provided grants @ 75% for purchase of drones for its demonstration on the farmers’ fields.

Bangladesh discovers huge natural gas hydrate deposits in Bay of Bengal

• Bangladesh has discovered a new gas field with the capacity to produce 20 million cubic feet of gas per day (MMCFD) at the Koilastila Gas field.
• Koilastila Gas Field is one of the five gas fields purchased from the Shell Oil company by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975
• So far 7 wells have been drilled in the Koilastila gas field of Sylhet Gas Fields Limited (SGFL).
• The first gas field in Bangladesh was made in Sylhet in 1955. Bangladesh currently produces 2370 MMCFD from its 26 commercial gas fields out of which 85 percent comes from the top 4 gas fields. Bibiyana Gas Field and Titas Gas field are its major locations for production of gas. It is estimated that Bangladesh has a remaining gas reserve of 11 trillion cubic feet.

Joint Statement: 6th India-Germany Inter-Governmental Consultations

• The biennial IGC is a unique dialogue format that also sees participation of several Ministers from both sides.
• This was the Prime Minister’s first IGC with Chancellor Scholz and also the first such Government-to-Government consultations of the new German Government, which assumed office in December last year.
• Mr Modi expressed happiness that his first foregn visit this year was to Germany.
• He informed that Germany has committed to support Green Goal Plans of India. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz invited Prime Minister Modi for G-7 summit to be held in Germany.
• Prime Minister Modi and Chancellor Scholz signed the Joint Declaration of Intent establishing the Green and Sustainable Development Partnership.
• This Partnership envisages a whole-of-government approach to India-Germany cooperation on SDGs and climate action, under which Germany has agreed to make an advance commitment of 10 billion Euros of new and additional development assistance until 2030.
• This JDI will also create a Ministerial mechanism within the framework of the IGC to provide high-level coordination and political direction to the Partnership. A number of agreements were concluded during the Ministerial bilateral meetings.

List of agreements signed on the occasion of 6th India-Germany Inter-Governmental Consultations.

• Joint Declaration of Intent (JDI) on Green and Sustainable Development Partnership
• JDI on the implementation of Triangular Development Cooperation projects in Third Countries
• JDI on the establishment of an agreement on the exchange and mutual protection of classified information and on the establishment of an agreement to establish a direct encrypted connection between MEA and German Foreign Office
• Indo-German Development Cooperation Regarding Renewable Energy Partnership
• Joint Declaration on the Initialing of the Agreement on a Comprehensive Migration and Mobility Partnership
• JDI on continuation of cooperation in the field of advanced training of corporate executives and junior executives from India
• Indo-German Green Hydrogen Task Force
• JDI on Agroecology
• JDI on Forest Landscape Restoration

National Open Access Registry(NOAR) goes live successfully

• NOAR is an integrated single window electronic platform accessible to all stakeholders including open access participants, traders, power exchanges, national/regional/state load despatch centres for electronic processing of short-term open access application thereby automating the administration of the short-term open access in inter-state transmission system.
• The NOAR platform shall act as a repository of information related to short term open access in inter-state transmission including standing clearance issued by RLDCs or SLDCs and short-term open access granted to the open access customers etc. and make such information available to the stakeholders online.
• National Load Despatch Centre (NLDC) operated by Power System Operation Corporation Limited (POSOCO) has been designated as the nodal agency for implementation and operation of NOAR.
• NOAR would be the key to facilitate faster electricity markets and enable integration of Renewable Energy (RE) resources into the grid.
• NOAR is part of the Ministry of Power, Government of India’s initiative and the required regulatory framework has been notified by the CERC through operationalization of the 5th Amendment Regulation of Open Access in inter- State Transmission.