Rajiv Bahl, M Srinivas appointed heads of ICMR, AIIMS

• Rajiv Bahl, currently at the World Health Organisation, Geneva, was appointed Director-General, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
• M. Srinivas, Dean, ESIC Medical College and Hospital, Sanathnagar, Hyderabad was appointed Director, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi.
• All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, also known as AIIMS Delhi, is a globally acclaimed public medical research university and hospital based in New Delhi, India. The institute is governed by the AIIMS Act, 1956 and operates autonomously under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
• The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the apex body in India for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research, is one of the oldest and largest medical research bodies in the world. The ICMR is funded by the Government of India through the Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

In Odisha''s Nayagarh, a data-driven solution to child marriage

• From birth registration date to Aadhaar number, from family details to skill training, information of 48,642 adolescent girls can be found in registers named Aliva.
• Nayagarh, with a population of 9,62,789, has a skewed sex ratio at 855. Child marriages the district are still considered a part of their social life.
• Observing that child marriages are solemnised in the age group of 14-19 and dropouts among girls’ students continued to be high, the district administration launched the Aliva programme in January this year.
• Anganwadi workers had been asked to identify every adolescent girl in their jurisdiction and keep tabs on them. There are 1,584 registers available in 1,584 Anganwadi centres of the district.

Quad foreign ministers meet on the sidelines of UNGA

• Foreign Ministers of the Quad group of countries – India, the U.S., Australia, and Japan – met on the fringes of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to sign a Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) partnership into effect.
• The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QSD), commonly known as the Quad, is a strategic security dialogue between Australia, India, Japan, and the United States that is maintained by talks between member countries.
• In a joint statement in March 2021, "The Spirit of the Quad," the Quad members described "a shared vision for a Free and Open Indo-Pacific."

Dogra monarch Maharaja Hari Singh’s birthday celebrated with fervour in Jammu

• The Lieutenant-Governor’s (L-G) administration earlier this week announced a holiday on the birth anniversary of the Maharaja, who signed the Instrument of Accession with India in 1947, and later shifted outside J&K in 1949.
• Maharaja Sir Hari Singh (1895 – 1961) was the last ruling Maharaja of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir.
• He signed the Instrument of Accession on 26 October 1947, joining the whole of his princely state to the Dominion of India.
• Pressure from Nehru and Sardar Patel Hari compelled Singh to appoint his son and heir, Yuvraj (Crown Prince) Karan Singh, as Prince Regent of Jammu and Kashmir in 1949, although he remained the titular Maharaja of the state until 1952 when the monarchy was abolished by Nehru''s government.

Sign Language Day celebration at 3200 places across India

• International Day of Sign Languages (IDSL) is celebrated annually across the world on 23 September. This year''s theme was “Sign Language Unite Us.”
• Objective of this day is to protect the linguistic identity and cultural diversity of all deaf people and other sign language users.
• ISLRTC launched the Indian Sign Language Dictionary (ISL Dictionary) in 2021 which is being used by deaf people, special teachers, parents of deaf children, linguists etc.
• To make this ISL dictionary easily accessible, ISLRTC along with Federal Institute of Science and Technology (FISAT), Kerala has developed an Indian Sign Language Dictionary APP known as ''Sign Learn''.

The case to decide on excommunication within Dawoodi Bohras

• The Dawoodi Bohras are members of the Muslim community’s Shia sect.
• Their leader is known as the Al-Dai-Al-Mutlaq. For over 400 years, the leader has been based out of India, including the current and the 53rd leader, His Holiness Dr Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin.
• Around 1 million members of the community are spread across the world.
• The leader of the community is recognised by the members as having the right to excommunicate its members. In practice, being excommunicated includes not being allowed to access a mosque belonging to the community or a burial dedicated to the community.

Bombay Prevention of Excommunication Act, 1949

• It was enacted to stop the practice of excommunication prevalent in certain communities, as it led to the deprivation of legitimate rights and privileges of its members and in “keeping with the spirit of changing times and in public interest”.
• The 51st leader of the community challenged the constitutional validity of the act in 1962, stating it violated fundamental rights guaranteed in Constitution under Article 25 and Article 26.
• The SC held in 1962 held that the power to excommunicate is is an essential part of the community. It''s objective is to enforce discipline and preserve the denomination, not to punish.

Carbon dating, allowed by court in the Gyanvapi case, explained

• Carbon dating is a widely-used method applied to establish the age of organic material, things that were once living. Living things have carbon in them in various forms. The dating method makes use of the fact that a particular isotope of carbon called C-14, with an atomic mass of 14, is radioactive, and decays at a rate that is well known.
• Carbon-14 is radioactive and reduces to one-half of itself in about 5,730 years. This is what is known as its ‘half-life’.
• Because plants and animals get their carbon from the atmosphere, they too acquire carbon-12 and carbon-14 isotopes in roughly the same proportion as is available in the atmosphere.
• So, after a plant or animal dies, the ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-14 in the body, or its remains, begins to change. This change can be measured and can be used to deduce the approximate time when the organism died.

What banking system liquidity going into ''deficit mode'' means

• Liquidity in the banking system refers to readily available cash that banks need to meet short-term business and financial needs.
• On a given day, if the banking system is a net borrower from the RBI under Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF), the system liquidity can be said to be in deficit and if the banking system is a net lender to the RBI, the system liquidity can be said to be in surplus.
• The LAF refers to the RBI’s operations through which it injects or absorbs liquidity into or from the banking system.
• Economists say that there are various factors over the last few months that have led to the current situation. If an improvement in demand for credit has led to the same, the recent advance tax outflow, which is a quarterly phenomenon, has further aggravated the situation.
• Besides, there is the continuous intervention of the RBI to stem the fall in the rupee against the US dollar.