New Evidence That Giant Asteroid Impacts Created the Continents

• The paper, ‘Giant impacts and the origin and evolution of continents’, was published in Nature on August 10.
• By examining tiny crystals of the mineral zircon in rocks from the Pilbara Craton in Western Australia, which represents Earth’s best-preserved remnant of ancient crust, experts found evidence of these giant meteorite impacts.
• These impacts were prevalent during the first billion years or so of the planet’s history.

PM lauds the efforts of Elephant conservationists on World Elephant Day

• It was conceived in 2011 by Canadian filmmakers Patricia Sims and Michael Clark of Canazwest Pictures, and Sivaporn Dardarananda, Secretary-General of the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation in Thailand.
• It was officially founded, supported and launched by Patricia Sims and the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation on August 12, 2012.
• There are three species of elephants — African Forest, African Savanna (bush), and Asian. The animals can be differentiated by their ears and trunks. African elephants are larger. Their ears are also larger and shaped like Africa.

Digitalisation of AYUSH sector: Ministry of AYUSH signs MoU with Ministry of Electronics and Information...

• The Ayush Grid project was initiated by the Ministry in 2018 for creating a comprehensive IT backbone for the entire sector.
• Digitalization of the entire Ayush Sector will lead to its transformation in fields of health care delivery at all levels, including research, education, various health programmes and drug regulations.

Government commences Basmati crop survey to estimate acreage, assess crop health, expected yield of Basmati rice during 2022-2023 crop year

• The survey is being executed under the Basmati Export Development Foundation (BEDF), which is an arm of APEDA. The final survey report is to be finalized by December this year.
• India has exported Basmati to the tune of close to USD 12 billion in the last three years.
• Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, United Arab Emirates, United States of America, Kuwait, United Kingdom, Qatar and Oman have a share of close to 80 per cent in total shipments of aromatic long grained rice from India in 2021-22.

Retail inflation in India eases to 6.71% in July

• This is the seventh month in a row that the pace of price rise has been over the upper tolerance limit of 6% pursued by the central bank’s monetary policy committee.
• While inflation in edible oils, meat and fish, and vegetables relented in July, price rise in fruits and eggs accelerated, and cereals inflation hit a multi-year high of 6.9%. Rural inflation eased from 7.09% in June to 6.8% in July, while urban consumers faced 6.49% inflation, from 6.86% in June.

Bengaluru woman goes to Delhi HC to stop friend’s euthanasia trip to Europe

• Also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS), Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, is a serious and debilitating disease that affects the nervous system, the immune system and the body’s production of energy.
• Experts have suggested that the term can trivialize the severity of the illness. In a 2015 report, the US Institute of Medicine proposed the term systemic exertion intolerance disease (SEID).
• Its causes are still unknown. However, the potential triggers would include viral or bacterial infection, hormonal imbalances and genetic predispositions. There is no specific test for the disease, and doctors have to rely on medical examinations, blood and urine tests.
• ME/CFS can affect anyone, from children to adults of all ages. According to the CDC, it’s more common in women and people between 40 and 60 years old.
• As of yet, there is no specific cure or approved treatment.

India''s NATO Engagement

• Attended by senior officials, including from the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Defence, the idea was to ensure the dialogue was primarily political in character, and to avoid making any commitment on military or other bilateral cooperation.
• The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, or NATO, is a political and military alliance of 28 European countries and two countries in North America (United States and Canada).
• It was set up in 1949 by the US, Canada, and several western European nations to ensure their collective security against the Soviet Union. It was the US’s first peacetime military alliance outside the western hemisphere.
• Thirty countries are currently members of NATO, which is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. The headquarters of the Allied Command Operations is near Mons, also in Belgium.

Union Home and Cooperation Minister Shri Amit Shah addressed the National Conference of Rural Co-operative Banks in New Delhi

• Shri Amit Shah also presented awards to outstanding State Co-operative Banks, District Central Co-operative Banks and Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS).
• The Union Home and Cooperation Minister said there are about 8.5 lakh cooperative societies in the country, out of which there are 1.78 lakh different types of credit societies.
• In the field of agricultural credit, there are 34 state cooperative banks with more than 2,000 branches, 351 district cooperative banks with 14,000 branches and about 95,000 PACS.