Latest News
14th April 2021
e-SANTA Web Portal
Recently, the Ministry of Commerce & Industry has virtually inaugurated e-SANTA Web Portal.
e-SANTA Web Portal
Recently, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science & Technology has announced that it has approved additional funding towards clinical studies of HGCO19 Vaccine.
- It is an electronic marketplace providing a platform to connect aqua farmers and the buyers.
- The term e-SANTA was coined for the web portal, meaning Electronic Solution for Augmenting NaCSA farmers' Trade in Aquaculture.
- National Centre for Sustainable Aquaculture (NaCSA) is an extension arm of Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA).
- It is a Digital Bridge to end the market divide and will act as an alternative marketing tool between farmers & buyers by eliminating middlemen.
- The e-SANTA platform is available in many languages, which will help the local population.
- It is a completely paperless and end-to-end electronic trade platform between Farmers and exporters.
- The platform provides detailed specification of each product listing and it is backed by an end to end electronic payment system with NaCSA as an Escrow agent.
- It will enable the farmers to get a better price and the exporters to directly purchase quality products from the farmers enhancing traceability.
- It will raise income, lifestyle, self-reliance, quality levels, traceability, and provide new options for our aqua farmers.
- It will change the traditional way of carrying out business from a word of mouth basis to become more formalised & legally binding.
- The e-SANTA will RAISE the lives & income of farmers by:
- Reducing Risk
- Awareness of Products & Markets
- Increase in Income
- Shielding Against Wrong Practice
- Ease of Processes
- It will revolutionize traditional aquafarming by providing cashless, contactless and paperless electronic trade platform between farmers and exporters.
- The farmers are facing monopoly and exploitation.
- The exporters are facing inconsistency and quality gaps in the products purchased.
- The traceability is a big issue in international trade.
- It is a national digital repository on health and nutrition.
- It is joint initiative of NITI Aayog, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Centre for Social and Behaviour Change, Ashoka University.
- It was conceptualized as a resource, enabling search of communication materials on 14 thematic areas of health and nutrition across diverse languages, media types, target audiences and sources.
- The content for the repository was sourced from the Ministries of Health and Family Welfare and Women and Child Development and developmental organizations.
- The website provides an intuitive interface such as multi-parametric search, multiple downloads at a point in time, easy sharing of materials via social media and easy viewing on any type of smartphone.
- The repository introduces a unique crowdsourcing feature that allows anyone to submit communication material for inclusion on the website, followed by a review by a designated committee.
- It is a collection of effective communication materials created by government agencies and other development organizations to tackle the challenges of knowledge awareness and behaviour change.
- It contains materials targeted towards different audiences using a variety of media types, such as interpersonal communication, mass media, outdoor advertising etc.
- The high malnutrition persists despite India being a food-surplus nation, which points towards a clear need for behavioural change.
- It is needed to address the nutritional challenge by targeting those especially vulnerable, such as pregnant women, lactating mothers and children below the age of 6 years.
Recently, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science & Technology has announced that it has approved additional funding towards clinical studies of HGCO19 Vaccine.
- It is India's ‘first of its kind' mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine.
- It is developed by Pune-based biotechnology company Gennova Biopharmaceuticals Ltd.
- It is being funded under the 'Mission COVID Suraksha- The Indian COVID-19 Vaccine Development Mission’.
- Gennova, in collaboration with HDT Biotech Corporation USA, has developed theCOVID-19 mRNA vaccine HGCO19.
- The coronavirus vaccine based on mRNA, once injected into the body, will instruct the body’s cells to create copies of the spike protein.
- The mRNA is coded to tell the cells to recreate the spike protein of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19.
- It is the spike protein which appears as spikes on the surface of the coronavirus that initiates the process of infection and it allows the virus to penetrate cells, after which it goes on to replicate.
- The mRNA vaccines work by using mRNA or messenger RNA, which is the molecule that essentially puts DNA instructions into action.
- The mRNA vaccines have the advantage that scientists are not growing the virus in the lab, which has been a hindrance sometimes to create enough virus or viral particles to give in a vaccine.
- It is India’s annual premier conference on geopolitics and geo-economics committed to addressing the most challenging issues facing the global community.
- It is structured as a multi-stakeholder, cross sectoral discussion, involving heads of state, cabinet ministers and local government officials.
- It is hosted by the Observer Research Foundation in partnership with the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India.
- The theme of Raisina Dialogue 2021 is ‘#Viral World: Outbreaks, Outliers, and Out of Control’.
- The event will be seeing the presence of Former PM of Sweden, Former Prime Minister of Australia, and Former Prime Minister of New Zealand.
- The 6th edition of the dialogue will have 50 sessions with the participation of 150 speakers from 50 different countries as well as multilateral organisations.
- The Foreign Ministers of Slovenia, Portugal, Singapore, Romania, Nigeria, Italy, Sweden, Japan, Kenya, Australia, Chile, Iran, Maldives, Bhutan, and Qatar will also be participating in the event.
- It is India’s contribution to the global efforts for discovering solutions, providing stability, and identifying opportunities to a century.
- It has attracted leading minds from the global strategic and policy-making community for discussing broader foreign policy as well as strategic issues facing the world.
- It invites leaders from politics, business, media and the civil society to hold discussions on the state of the world and explore opportunities for cooperation on several contemporary matters.
- On April 13, which was Baisakhi, a large crowd of people from Amritsar and neighbouring areas gathered at Jallianwala Bagh for a public meeting in defiance of orders banning public assemblies.
- A furious General Dyer ordered his troops to fire into the innocent, unarmed crowd, without even issuing a warning.
- The ground was surrounded on all sides by high walls that made escape impossible, and as the soldiers kept shooting.
- The Rowlatt Act (Black Act) was passed on March 10, 1919, authorizing the government to imprison or confine, without a trial, any person associated with seditious activities.
- It led to nationwide unrest and Mahatma Gandhi initiated Satyagraha to protest against the Rowlatt Act.
- On April 7, 1919, Gandhi published an article called Satyagrahi, describing ways to oppose the Rowlatt Act.
- On October 14, 1919, the Disorders Inquiry Committee was formed to inquire about the massacre.
- It later came to be known as the Hunter Commission.
- The Hunter Commission was directed to announce their verdict on the justifiability, or otherwise, of the steps taken by the government.
- All the British officials involved in the administration during the disturbances in Amritsar were interrogated including General Dyer and Mr. Irving.
- The members of the Hunter Commission were:
- Chairman: Lord William Hunter, ex- Solicitor-General
- W.F. Rice, Additional Secretary to the Government of India (Home Department)
- Justice G.C. Rankin, Judge of the High Court, Calcutta
- Major General Sir George Barrow, Commandant of the Peshawar Division
- Sir Chimanlal Setalvad
- Pandit Jagat Narayan
- Sardar Sultan Ahmed Khan
- The currency chest is a place where the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) stocks the moneymeant for banks and ATMs.
- These chests are usually situated on the premises of different banks.
- The money present in the currency chest belongs to the RBI and the money, kept in the strong room outside the currency chest belongs to the bank.
- The currency chest is administrated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
- The representatives of the RBI inspect currency chests time-to-time, and update their senior officers about it.
- A bank official has said that as per the set guidelines, the bank, in which the currency chest is situated, is liable to fulfill the loss of the currency chest.
- In the cases of thefts, robberies and fraud from the currency chests situated within the bank premises, the bank is considered to be responsible.
- The security of currency chests is the subject of the bank in which chests are situated.
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) reimburses the security expenses to the bank as per the set norms.
- The expenses include the cost of transportation of cash from one bank to another.
- A bank may stock in the currency chest as per its Cash Balance Limit (CBL), which differs in every bank.
- It is now the third coronavirus vaccine to get emergency use approval, after Covishield (Serum Institute of India) and Covaxin (Bharat Biotech).
- It is developed by Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology in Moscow.
- Sputnik V is to be stored at -18°C in its liquid form.
- It has demonstrated an efficacy rate of 91.6 per cent in the interim analysis of phase 3 clinical trial, which included data on 19,866 volunteers in Russia.
- It uses two different viruses that cause the common cold (adenovirus) in humans.
- The adenoviruses are weakened so they cannot replicate in humans and cannot cause disease.
- They are also modified so that the vaccine delivers a code for making the coronavirus spike protein.
- It aims to ensure that when the real virus tries to infect the body, it can mount an immune response in the form of antibodies.
- Sputnik uses a different vector for each of the two shots in a course of vaccination.
- It provides immunity with a longer duration than vaccines using the same delivery mechanism for both shots.
- It was constituted in 2019 with an aim of preventing fake indigenous inhabitants certificates.
- The RIIN will be the master list of all indigenous inhabitants of the state.
- The RIIN list will be based on “an extensive survey”.
- It will involve official records of indigenous residents from rural and (urban) wards and would be prepared under the supervision of the district administration.
- The designated teams comprising Sub-Divisional Officers (SDO), Block Development Officers (BDO), Headmasters and other nominated members, will make a list of indigenous inhabitants in the state.
- The database will note each family’s original residence, current residence as well as the concerned Aadhaar numbers.
- A list of indigenous inhabitants will be finalised and each person will be given a unique ID, based on the adjudication and verification.
- The final list or the RIIN will be created and its copies will be placed in all villages and ward.
- All indigenous inhabitants of the state would be issued a barcoded and numbered Indigenous Inhabitant Certificate.
- The process will be conducted across Nagaland and will be done as part of the online system of Inner Line Permit (ILP), which is already in force in Nagaland.
- The entire exercise will be monitored by the Commissioner of Nagaland.
- The state government will designate nodal officers of the rank of a Secretary to the state government.
- Their role will be to monitor the implementation.
- They will have no say in the adjudication process.
- The nodal officers will submit monthly reports of their visits and their assessments to a permanent committee set up under the Home Department to monitor the whole exercise.
- Once the RIIN is finalised, no fresh indigenous inhabitant certificates will be issued except to newborn babies born to the indigenous inhabitants of Nagaland.
- In case anyone who is left out of the RIIN, he/she will need to file an application before Home Commissioner who will get the matter verified and take necessary action for updating the RIIN if needed.
POSTED ON 14-04-2021 BY ADMIN
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