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By admin: April 16, 2022

Egypt approves India as wheat supplier

Tags: Economics/Business International News

Egypt, which is one of the largest importers of wheat from Ukraine and Russia, has approved India as a wheat supplier.

• Egypt is likely to lift about one million tonnes of wheat from India, of which 240,000 tonnes will be shipped in April itself.

• Export was approved after a rigorous process of field visits and checks in quarantine facilities in India by Egyptian authorities.

• The teams visited wheat fields in Madhya Pradesh, UP and Punjab to check for themselves the quality of wheat produced in India.

• India aims to export 10-11 million tonnes of wheat in FY23 due to the surge in global demand following the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

India’s wheat export

• India's wheat exports rose to $1.74 billion in April-January 2021-22 as against $340.17 million in the same period last year.

• In 2019-20, wheat exports were worth USD 61.84 million, which rose to USD 549.67 million in 2020-21.

• India's wheat exports are mainly to neighbouring countries with Bangladesh having the largest share of more than 54 percent.

India-made ‘warm’ vaccine to fight COVID-19

Tags: Science and Technology

A vaccine against SarsCov2 being developed in India, that doesn’t need to be stored in refrigerators or a cold-chain storage, generated a significant number of antibodies in mou se trials against prevalent variants of the virus.

• The ‘warm’ vaccine developed by the Bengaluru-based Mynvax laboratories which is a company incubated at the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore.

• The ‘warm’ vaccine can be stored at 37 degree Celsius for four weeks and at 100 degree Celsius for upto 90 minutes.

• Most other vaccines require to be stored in refrigerators and can be kept at room temperature for no more than a few hours.

• Scientists around the world are working on developing heat-tolerant vaccines.

• A new ‘warm’ vaccine that does not require refrigeration.

• Results have shown a strong immune response in mice to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. 

e-DAR portal - speed up accident compensation claims

Tags: Government Schemes

The Ministry of Roads, Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has developed the portal named ‘e-DAR’ (e-Detailed Accident Report).

• The portal will provide instant information on road accidents with a few clicks and help accelerate accident compensation claims, bringing relief to victims’ families.

• Digitalised Detailed Accident Reports (DAR) will be uploaded on the portal for easy access.

• The web portal will be linked to the Integrated Road Accident Database (iRAD).

• From iRAD, applications to more than 90% of the datasets would be pushed directly to the e-DAR. 

• Stakeholders like the police, road authorities, hospitals, etc., are required to enter very minimal information for the e-DAR forms. 

• Therefore, e-DAR would be an extension and e-version of iRAD.

• The portal would be linked to other government portals like Vaahan.

• For the benefit of investigating officers, the portal would provide geo tagging of the exact accident spot along with the site map. 

• Details like photos, video of the accident spot, damaged vehicles, injured victims, eye-witnesses, etc., would be uploaded immediately on the portal.

PM Modi unveiled 108-feet statue of Lord Hanuman at Morbi in Gujarat

Tags: State News

On the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a 108-feet statue of Lord Hanuman in Morbi, Gujarat.

• It has been set up in the west, at the Ashram of Bapu Keshvanand ji in Morbi. 

• The statue is the second of the four statues being built in the four directions across the country, as part of the ‘Hanumanji Char Dham’ project. 

• The first statue of the series was set up in north India in Shimla in 2010. 

• The work on the third statue, in the south at Rameswaram has started.

• The festival of Hanuman Jayanti is celebrated to mark the birth anniversary of the Hindu god Hanuman  by the devotees.

• This year the festival has been celebrated on 16 april.