Researchers discover new freshwater fish species in Odisha''s Mahanadi river

Awaous Motla

• It is a fish with a vibrant yellow-coloured body and a fleshy upper lip.
• It was collected from the Mahanadi River.
• The discovery was made during the ongoing research project funded by the Department of Science and Technology of the Odisha government.
• The species belongs to the family ''Awaous'' (Oxudercidae) and is thus named ''Awaous motla.

Mahanadi River

• It is one of the major east-flowing peninsular rivers in India.
• Origin: The river originates from the Sihawa range of hills in the Dhamtari district of Chhattisgarh state.
• Course:
  • It flows in a southeastern direction through Chhattisgarh and Odisha.
  • The catchment area of the basin extends over major parts of Chhattisgarh and Odisha and comparatively smaller portions of Jharkhand, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh.
• It is bounded in the north by Central India hills, in the south and east by the Eastern Ghats, and in the west by Maikal hill range.
• Tributaries: The main tributaries of Mahanadi are Seonath River, Jonk River, Hasdeo River, Mand River, Ib River, Ong River, and Telen River.

Rise in intimidation, settler violence in the West Bank, warns OCHA

UN-OHCA

• It was established by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1991.
• It is responsible for bringing together humanitarian actors to ensure a coherent response to emergencies.
• It also ensures there is a framework within which each actor can contribute to the overall response effort.
• It replaced the Office of the United Nations Disaster Relief Coordinator(UNDRO).
• On-Site Operations Coordination Centres (OSOCC), an OCHA tool, provide a platform for the coordination of international response activities immediately following a sudden-onset emergency or a rapid change in a complex emergency.
• Funds: There are two types of pooled funds:
  • Central Emergency Response Fund(CERF), which can fund an emergency anywhere in the world.
  • Country-Based Pooled Funds(CBPFs), which are country-specific.
• It has two headquarters locations, Geneva and New York, which act as centres of global operations.

In FSSAI index, nearly all major states slip on food safety compared to 2019

State Food Safety Index

• The Index is an annual assessment released by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
• It was started in 2018-19 to create a competitive and positive change in the food safety ecosystem in the country.
• The index will help in providing safe and nutritious food to our citizens.
• This index is based on the performance of the State/ UT on five significant parameters, namely,
  • Human Resources and Institutional Data, Compliance, Food Testing, Infrastructure and Surveillance, Training and Capacity Building and Consumer Empowerment
  • In the 2023 index, a new parameter called ‘Improvement in SFSI Rank’ was added.
• The Index is a dynamic quantitative and qualitative benchmarking model that provides an objective framework for evaluating food safety across all States/UTs.
• The States/UTs are classified into 3 categories, namely large states, small states, and UTs, for evaluation and assessment.

Key findings of the report

• After adjusting for a new parameter included in the 2023 index, 15 out of 20 states recorded lower 2023 scores compared to 2019.
• The steepest fall in scores over five years was seen in Maharashtra, Bihar, Gujarat,
• The worst drop has been recorded in the ‘Food Testing Infrastructure’ parameter.
• States including Maharashtra, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh all recorded lower scores for this parameter.
• Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Jharkhand, meanwhile, recorded lower scores for the ‘Compliance’ parameter.
• The ‘Human Resources and Institutional Data’ parameter, was given the third highest weightage of 18 per cent in 2023 (20 per cent in previous years).
• The only parameter that recorded significant improvement was ‘Training and Capacity Building’, which was given the least weightage of 8 per cent in 2023 (10 per cent in previous years).

Scientists Have Discovered ''White Hydrogen'' Beneath France. How It Can Help Save the Earth

White Hydrogen

• White hydrogen is also referred to as “natural,” “gold” or “geologic” hydrogen.
• It is naturally produced in the Earth’s crust and is considered a potential source of clean energy.
• It generally exists combined with other molecules.
• White hydrogen has several advantages over other types of hydrogen
  • It causes no CO2 emissions when used as a fuel.
  • It is compatible with existing infrastructure and technologies for hydrogen production and utilisation.
  • It is cheaper and more efficient than steam reforming or electrolysis.
  • It is abundant and renewable.
• Its deposits have been found across the world, including in the US, Eastern Europe, Russia, Australia, France, and other countries.
• It is estimated that globally, there could be tens of billions of tonnes of white hydrogen.

Types of Hydrogen:

• Grey Hydrogen: It is produced via coal or lignite gasification(black or brown), or via a process called steam methane reformation (SMR) of natural gas or methane (grey). These tend to be mostly carbon-intensive processes.
• Blue Hydrogen: It is produced via natural gas or coal gasification combined with carbon capture storage (CCS) or carbon capture use (CCU) technologies to reduce carbon emissions.
• Green Hydrogen: It is produced using electrolysis of water with electricity generated by renewable energy.

BPCL, GAIL ink 15-year, ₹63000-cr propane supply pact

Propane

• It is a colourless, easily liquefied, gaseous hydrocarbon(compound of carbon and hydrogen).
• It is an alkane, which means it consists of only single covalent bonds between carbon and hydrogen atoms.
• It is the third member of the paraffin series, following methane and ethane.
• The chemical formula for propane is C3H8.
• Source:
  • It is a byproduct of natural gas processing and petroleum refining.
  • It is also produced during the fractional distillation of crude oil.
• It is commercially available as liquefied propane or as a major constituent of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
• It has a high octane rating, making it an excellent choice for spark-ignited internal combustion engines.
• Application of Propane
  • Its main uses include home and water heating, cooking and refrigerating food, drying clothes, and powering farm and industrial equipment.
  • The chemical industry also uses propane as a raw material for making plastics and other compounds.

Imperial College London launches ‘biggest ever’ scholarship programme for Indians

Future Leaders Scholarship Programme

• The scholarship programme will support 30 of the country’s most talented Master’s scholars over the next three years.
• The scholarship will cover the full cost of tuition and living expenses.
• It will be for students studying Master''s programmes in engineering, natural sciences, business, and medical research.
• In this programme, half of the scholarships are reserved for female scholars.
• It will build a pathway for the most talented students in India to deepen their studies and expand their experiences at one of the world''s top universities.
• Alongside the new scholarship programme, the university also signed a new partnership with the UK government''s Chevening Scholarships programme.
• It will provide funding for an additional three Master''s scholars from India over the next three years.

India-born author Nandini Das wins 2023 British Academy Book Prize

British Academy Book Prize

• This was formerly known as the Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize.
• It was established in 2013.
• It was established to reward and celebrate the best works of non-fiction that demonstrate rigour and originality and have contributed to public understanding of other world cultures and their interactions.
• The British Academy is the UK’s national academy for humanities and social sciences.
• The eligible books come from the subjects that fall within those disciplines, from archaeology, history, and psychology to philosophy, languages, and cultural studies.
• Nandini Das who is a Professor in the English faculty at the University of Oxford, won the award for her book ‘Courting India: England, Mughal India and the Origins of Empire’
• The winner gets the £25,000 prize cash award, and each of the shortlisted works will receive £1,000 each.

Kozhikode, Gwalior added to UNESCO creative cities list

UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network

• The UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) was created in 2004.
• To promote cooperation with and among cities that have identified creativity as a strategic factor for sustainable urban development.
• Almost 300 cities around the world currently make up this network.
• Objective: Placing creativity and cultural industries at the heart of their development plans at the local level and cooperating actively at the international level.
• UNESCO designates the creative cities in seven fields: craft, folk art, media arts, film design, gastronomy, literature, and music.
• Every year, UNESCO seeks applications from various cities across the globe to put them under its UCCN project.
• The applications in India are routed through the Ministry of Culture.
• Kozhikode is a permanent venue for the annual Kerala Literature Festival and hosts several other book festivals.
• Gwalior has a rich and diverse musical heritage encompassing classical Hindustani music, folk music, and devotional music. The city also has some prestigious music institutes and hosts popular festivals.
• Other Indian cities which are added to this network
  • Srinagar and Jaipur: in the field of crafts and folk arts
  • Mumbai: Film category
  • Chennai and Varanasi: Music category
  • Hyderabad: Gastronomy category.

NASA Rocket to See Sizzling Edge of Star-Forming Supernova

INFUSE Misssion

• The Integral Field Ultraviolet Spectroscope Experiment (INFUSE) was launched from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
• It was launched to study the Cygnus Loop, a supernova remnant.

INFUSE mission

• The INFUSE mission is expected to collect information about the remnant for a few minutes from a height of 150 miles (240 km).
• Specifically, the instrument will gather light streaming from the Cygnus Loop in far-ultraviolet wavelengths.
• It will observe how the supernova dumps energy into the Milky Way by catching light given off just as the blast wave crashes into pockets of cold gas floating around the galaxy.
• It will study the Cygnus Loop and try to understand the life cycle of stars.

Cygnus Loop

• It is the remnant of a star that was once 20 times the size of our Sun.
• Some 20,000 years ago, that star collapsed under its own gravity and erupted into a supernova.
• Even from 2,600 light-years away, astronomers estimate the flash of light would have been bright enough to see from Earth during the day.

NMC to launch ‘one nation, one registration platform’ for doctors

One Nation, One Registration Platform

• The NMC will unveil a patch pilot of the National Medical Register (NMR) in the next six months, where doctors will be allotted a unique identification number.
• Doctors can also apply for their licence to work in any State depending on where they are.
• The commission had earlier this year issued a gazette notification titled “Registration of Medical Practitioners and Licence to Practice Medicine Regulations, ”
• The idea is to provide a masked ID to undergraduate students on the NMR, and depending on when they complete their course, the ID will be unmasked and allotted.
• This ID can be used to update any further qualifications, and all State registers for licences to work in any part of the country will be linked here.
• Aim: To eliminate duplication and red tape and allow the public to access information on any physician working in India.

National Medical Commission

• It has been constituted by an act of Parliament known as the National Medical Commission Act, 2019.
• It has replaced the Medical Council of India (MCI), which was constituted under the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956.
• Functions:
  • It regulates medical education and medical professionals.
  • It grants recognition of medical qualifications, gives accreditation to medical schools, grants registration to medical practitioners, monitors medical practice, and assesses the medical infrastructure in India.
• Organisational structure
  • It consists of 33 members, including the Chairman (medical professionals only), 10 ex-officio members and 22 part-time members.
  • Medical Advisory Council: It provides the platform through which the states or UTs can put forth their views and concerns before the NMC and advises the NMC on measures to determine and maintain minimum standards of medical education.
• Headquarters: New Delhi