Union Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman attends the 7th Annual Meeting of Board of Governors of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

• The theme of this year’s Annual Meeting was “Sustainable Infrastructure Toward a Connected World”.
• What is AIIB? AIIB is a multilateral development bank that aims to improve economic and social outcomes in Asia.
• Headquarters: Beijing, China.
• Board of Governors: All powers of the Bank are vested in our Board of Governors, which is the highest decision-making body under our Articles of Agreement.
• Membership: AIIB has 105 members. China is the AIIB’s largest shareholder with a 26.5% voting share. India is the second-largest, with 7.5%, followed by Russia, which has a 5.97% voting share.
  • India is a Founding Member of AIIB. India also has the largest project portfolio within AIIB.

Last date to submit applications for means-cum-merit scholarship is 31 October

• Under the Scheme, scholarships are awarded to meritorious students of economically weaker sections to arrest their drop out at class VIII and encourage them to continue their education at secondary stage.
  • This is a 100% centrally sponsored scheme.
• NMMSS is boarded on the National Scholarship Portal (NSP) a one stop platform for scholarship schemes given to students.
• The scholarships are disbursed directly into the bank accounts of selected students by electronic transfer through Public Financial Management System (PFMS) following DBT mode.
• One lakh fresh scholarships are awarded to selected students from class IX every year and their continuation / renewal in classes X to XII for students studying in State Government, Government-aided and local body schools. The amount of scholarship is Rs. 12000/- per annum
• Students whose parental income from all sources is not more than Rs. 3,50,000/- per annum.
• The students must have minimum of 55% marks or equivalent grade in Class VII examination for appearing in the selection test for award of scholarship (relaxable by 5% for SC/ST students).

Include photos of Lakshmi and Ganesha on currency notes

• Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal recently appealed to the Union government to print images of Goddess Lakshmi and Lord Ganesh on new currency notes for the country’s “economic prosperity.

Role of RBI in issuing notes

• Section 22 of The Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, gives RBI the “sole right” to issue banknotes in India.
• Section 25 states that “the design, form, and material of bank notes shall be such as may be approved by the Central Government after consideration of the recommendations made by the [RBI’s] Central Board”.
• The RBI’s Department of Currency Management has the responsibility of administering the core function of currency management. If the design of a currency note has to change, the Department works on the design and submits it to RBI, which recommends it to the central government. The government gives the final approval.

Minting of coins

• The Coinage Act, 2011 gives the central government the power to design and mint coins in various denominations. In the case of coins, the role of the RBI is limited to the distribution of coins that are supplied by the central government.
• The government decides on the quantity of coins to be minted on the basis of indents received from the RBI on a yearly basis. Coins are minted in four mints owned by the Government of India in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Noida.

Types of notes issued so far

• Ashoka Pillar Banknotes: The first banknote issued in independent India was the Re 1 note issued in 1949. It replaced the portrait of King George with the symbol of the Lion Capital of the Ashoka Pillar at Sarnath in the watermark window.
• Mahatma Gandhi (MG) Series, 1996
• Mahatma Gandhi series, 2005
• Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series, 2016

Two more Indian beaches accorded the coveted ''Blue Flag'' tag

• With the new additions, the number of beaches certified under the Blue Flag Certification is twelve.
• The other Indian beaches in the blue list are Shivrajpur-Gujarat, Ghoghla-Diu, Kasarkod and Padubidri-Karnataka, Kappad-Kerala, Rushikonda- Andhra Pradesh, Golden-Odisha, Radhanagar- Andaman and Nicobar, Kovalam in Tamil Nadu and Eden in Puducherry beaches.
• The Blue Flag programme was started in France in 1985 and in areas out of Europe in 2001. It promotes sustainable development in freshwater and marine areas through four main criteria: water quality, environmental management, environmental education and safety.
• It can be obtained by a beach, marina, or sustainable boating tourism operator, and serves as an eco-label.
• The certification is awarded by the Denmark-based non-profit Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE). It is awarded annually to beaches and marinas in FEE member countries.
• Forty-eight countries currently participate in the program, and 5042 beaches, marinas, and boats have this certification.

Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar visits Golden Temple

• Guru Ramdas Sahib, the 4th of 10 Sikh gurus, started the construction of the temple and its pool in the 1500s as a place of worship for all.
• The temple has been renovated many times, adding features such as the marble inlays along the floor.
• Maharaja Ranjit Singh, founder of the Sikh Empire of India (1799-1849) had the temple''s upper floors covered in 750 kilos of pure gold.
• The Sikh scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, is housed within the golden temple of Harmandir Sahib.

Saudi Aramco executive spent week in Chamoli jail for carrying satellite phone

• He was arrested under sections of the Indian Telegraph Act and the Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act.
• It’s not legal to carry satellite phone in India unless you have permission.Visitors to the country are specifically advised not to carry a satellite phone without permission.
• Restrictions on the possession and use of these phones were tightened after the Pakistani terrorists who attacked Mumbai in November 2008 used these devices to keep in touch with their Lashkar-e-Taiba handlers.
• A notification on the website of the Department of Telecommunications says: “Satellite phones are permitted:
  • (i) With specific permission/ NOC from Department of Telecommunications, Government of India; or
  • (ii) As provisioned by M/s BSNL in accordance with license granted to M/s BSNL for provision and operation of satellite based service using Gateway installed in India".

India to expand NaVIC use to civilian sectors, make signals more secure: ISRO

• NaVIC or the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) uses seven satellites to provide real-time positioning and timing services in India and an area extending up to 1,500 km from the country''s borders.
• Of the seven satellites used by NaVIC at present, three are in the geostationary orbit and four in the geosynchronous orbit.
• Its use is currently restricted and is now utilised for tracking and delivering information about natural disasters, providing emergency warning alerts to fishermen travelling into the deep sea, and monitoring public traffic in India.
• Currently, NavIC is only compatible with the L5 and S bands and hasn’t easily penetrated into the civilian sector. A major forthcoming change is to add the L1 band into NavIC. This bandwidth is part of the GPS and is the most used for civilian navigational use.

Years after Bt cotton, GEAC clears environmental release of GM mustard

• The approval will make GM mustard only the second approved transgenic crop in India after Bt cotton, and the first such food crop that can be commercially cultivated by farmers. The GEAC approval is valid for the next four years.
• Though the GEAC had cleared the proposal in 2017, the Ministry had vetoed it and suggested that the GEAC hold more studies on the GM crop. The recommendation will now again go for the approval of the Environment Ministry.

Hybrid mustard

• Hybridisation involves crossing two genetically dissimilar plant varieties that can even be from the same species. The first-generation (F1) offspring from such crosses tend to have higher yields than what either parent can individually give.
• Scientists at Delhi University’s Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants (CGMCP) have developed the hybrid mustard DMH-11 containing two alien genes isolated from a soil bacterium called Bacillus amyloliquefaciens.
• The CGMCP scientists have deployed the barnase-barstar GM technology to create a robust and viable hybridisation system in mustard. This system was used to develop DMH-11 by crossing a popular Indian mustard variety ‘Varuna’ (the barnase line) with an East European ‘Early Heera-2’ mutant (barstar).
• DMH-11 is claimed to have shown an average 28% yield increase over Varuna.
• The move is seen as giving a boost to cultivation of mustard and eventually reducing the country’s edible oils import bills.
• India had to import edible oil worth nearly $19 billion in 2021-22. Though mustard is cultivated in India in around seven million hectares of land, the per hectare yield of current variety is very low at 1-1.2 tonnes per hectare compared to the global average of around 2.3-3 tonnes.

7th ASEAN-India Ministerial Meeting held on Agro-Forestry under the co-chairmanship of Union Agriculture Minister

• In the meeting, the progress in implementation of various programs and activities under the Medium Term Action Plan of ASEAN-India Cooperation (Year 2021-2025) was reviewed.
• The meeting also welcomed the 30th anniversary of ASEAN-India relations.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)

• It was established on 8 August 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand, with the signing of the ASEAN Declaration (Bangkok Declaration) by the Founding Fathers of ASEAN: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
• Brunei Darussalam joined ASEAN in 1984, followed by Viet Nam in 1995, Lao PDR and Myanmar in 1997, and Cambodia in 1999, making up what is today the ten Member States of ASEAN.
• India''s relationship with ASEAN has emerged as a key cornerstone of our foreign policy. The relationship has evolved from the ''Look East Policy'' enunciated in early 1990s which led India to become a Sectoral Partner of ASEAN in 1992, a Dialogue Partner in 1996 and a Summit-level Partner in 2002.

New technology for retrofitting non-earthquake-resistant buildings can prevent major damage in old settlements

• Most buildings, technically called unreinforced masonry (URM), were not built using modern building codes. Thus they are much more likely to experience damage or collapse during an earthquake.
• SC-URBM can resolve the problem of spread of settlements in earthquake-prone areas with constructions that have been built without following earthquake-preventive building codes.
• SC-URBM can significantly enhance the energy dissipation capacity and ductility of the retrofitted building without compromising its strength. Hence such buildings would have resulting superior performance in comparison to URBM buildings during earthquakes.
• It involves embedding of reinforced concrete (RC) bands through the partial thickness of the wall and can be implemented or retrofitted in old buildings.