DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS

By admin: Nov. 17, 2021

ICMR(INDIAN COUNCIL OF MEDICAL RESEARCH) moots change in cattle rearing practices:

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Why in the news?

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has suggested India to 'urgently wean away from coal as its main source of energy' and 'shift from traditional animal husbandry practices' to combat the challenges of climate change.

Key highlights:

The ICMR’s policy brief accompanies the 2021 Global Lancet Countdown Report focusing on,

• Premature mortality due to ambient air pollution by sector-
• Emissions from agricultural production and consumption; and
• Detection, preparedness and response to health emergencies.
• The combustion of coal, mainly in power plants followed by
• industrial and household settings have increased premature mortality.
• Therefore, India needs to urgently wean away from coal as its main source of energy and needs to invest more on renewable, cleaner and sustainable sources such as solar, wind or hydro energy.
• Since 46% of all agricultural emissions in India are contributed by ruminants such as goats, sheep and cattle, India needs to move away from the traditional animal husbandry practices.

India must invest in newer technologies that will improve:

• Animal breeding and rearing practices,
• Use of good livestock feeds and
• Implement proper manure management.
• All of these practices will contribute to the reduction of the GHG (GREENHOUSE GAS) emissions.

What is Livestock Rearing?

• Animal rearing is considered an associate business with agricultural activities in rural India. Animal husbandry is an integral component of Indian agriculture, supporting the livelihood of almost 55% of the rural population.
• India is the highest livestock owner of the world.
• Livestock has been an important source of livelihood for small farmers.

Significances:

• The distribution patterns of income and employment show that small farm households hold more opportunities in livestock production. 
• The growth in livestock sector is demand-driven, inclusive and pro-poor. Incidence of rural poverty is less in states like Punjab, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Gujarat, and Rajasthan where livestock accounts for a sizable share of agricultural income as well as employment. 
• Empirical evidence from India as well as from many other developing countries suggests that livestock development has been an important route for the poor households to escape poverty.

Policies Launched for Livestock Sector by the Government:

Rashtriya Gokul Mission:

• The Mission aims to conserve and develop indigenous breeds in a focused and scientific manner and for that breeding facilities will be set up for varieties with high-genetic pedigree”. 
• The aim of the mission is to protect Indigenous cows from being cross-bred into different varieties.
• Focus will be largely to give a push to local breeding programmes on the line of elite local breeds like Gir, Sahiwal, Rathi to enhance milk production.

National Livestock Mission:

•  This Mission is formulated with the objective of sustainable development of livestock sector, focusing on improving availability of quality feed and fodder. NLM  is implemented in all States including Sikkim.

National Cattle and Buffalo Breeding Project:

• To genetically upgrade important indigenous breeds on a priority basis with a focus on development and conservation.

SITMEX-2021:

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Why in the news?

The 3rd edition of the Trilateral Maritime Exercise named SITMEX–21 was held from 15 to 16 Nov 21 in the Andaman Sea. The Navies of India, Singapore and Thailand participated in the event.

Objectives:

• It aims to enhance the cooperation between the participating navies towards augmenting the overall maritime security in the region.

Key highlights:

• The Navies of India, Singapore and Thailand will participate in the event.
•   Indian Naval Ship (INS) Karmuk is participating in the 3rd edition from India.
• Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) was represented by RSS Tenacious,a Formidable Class Frigate and Royal Thai Navy (RTN) by His Majesty's Thailand Ship (HTMS) Thayanchon, a Khamrosin Class Anti-submarine Patrol Craft.

About SITMEX:

• The Prime Minister of India, during his keynote address at Shangri-La Dialogue in June 2018 announced the conduct of a trilateral naval exercise between India, Singapore and Thailand.
• The first edition of Singapore-India-Thailand Maritime Exercise (SITMEX), hosted by the Indian Navy, was conducted off Port Blair in September 2019. SITMEX is conducted annually.
• It aims to strengthen mutual confidence and develop common understanding and procedures towards enhancing the overall maritime security in the Indo-Pacific region.
• The exercise is in line with India’s SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region) vision.

Additional Information:

What is SAGAR?

• SAGAR, which stands for ‘Security and Growth for All in the Region’, was unveiled in 2015 on the occasion of the commissioning of the Indian built Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) Barracuda in the service of the National Coast Guard of Mauritius.
• According to this vision, India would do everything to safeguard its mainland and islands and defend its interests. 
• The Indian interests in this region are safety and security of Indian shipping, fishing, seaborne trade, energy supply, assets, and resources in the maritime domain and Indian citizens who are working overseas.
• India will also work to ensure a safe, secure, and stable Indian Ocean region (IOR).
• Through SAGAR, India seeks to deepen economic and security cooperation with its maritime neighbors and assist in building their maritime security capabilities.
•   For this, India would cooperate on the exchange of information, coastal surveillance, building of infrastructure and strengthening their capabilities.

“Kaiser-i-Hind” butterfly:

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Why in the news?

Recently, Arunachal Pradesh, govt. approved “Kaiser-i-Hind” as the state butterfly.

Key highlights:

•  Kaiser-i-Hind is scientifically known as Teinopalpus imperialis. In literal terms, it means Emperor of India. 
• Kaiser-i-Hind' is a large and brightly colored butterfly.
• It is an elusive swallowtail butterfly, which carries 'India' in its name.
• They are also found in Bhutan, Nepal, Laos, Myanmar, southern China and Vietnam.
• This butterfly with a 90-120 mm wingspan is found in (West Bengal, Meghalaya, Assam, Sikkim and Manipur) along the Eastern Himalayas.
• It flies high in the canopy of broad leaved temperate evergreen forests.
• The Kaiser-i-Hind is protected under Schedule II of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. 
• The International Union for Conservation of Nature has red-listed the Kaiser-i-Hind.

Butterfly:

• Butterflies are insects from the order Lepidoptera of phylum Arthropoda which also includes moths.

Significance:

Rich Biodiversity:

• Abundance of butterflies in any area represents the rich biodiversity.

Indicator Species:

• The butterfly acts as an indicator species.
• An indicator species provides information on the overall condition of the ecosystem and of other species in that ecosystem. They reflect the quality and changes in environmental conditions as well as aspects of community composition.

Pollinator:

• It acts as a pollinator by helping in pollination and conserving several species of plants.

India's Largest Butterfly: 

• A Himalayan butterfly known as Golden Birdwing (Troides aeacus) has been discovered as India’s largest butterfly after 88 years.
• The female butterfly was recorded from Didihat in Uttarakhand, the male was from the Wankhar Butterfly Museum in Shillong, Meghalaya.
• With a wingspan of 194 mm, the female of the species is marginally larger than the Southern Birdwing (190 mm). 

Other butterflies in news:

• The Malabar Banded Peacock or the Buddha Mayoori which was recently declared the ‘State Butterfly’ of Kerala will have a dedicated butterfly park in Kochi.

Other states to have state butterflies are: 

• Maharashtra:  Blue Mormon. 
• Uttarakhand: Common peacock.
•  Karnataka: Southern birdwings.

Regulating cryptocurrency:

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Why in the news?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting on cryptocurrency at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Citing the unregulated nature of the crypto market, he called for taking progressive and forward-looking steps.

• China has declared all cryptocurrency transactions illegal, effectively imposing a complete ban.
• El Salvador has permitted Bitcoin as a legal tender.

Key highlights:

• The Union government has not yet enacted any law on cryptocurrencies. 
•  After several rounds of discussion, the government largely wants to set limits on cryptocurrencies trading in India.

What is cryptocurrency?

• A cryptocurrency is a virtual currency used for financial transactions. It uses blockchain technology for various transactions. Earlier, the RBI has issued a circular prohibiting use of these virtual currencies.
• Cryptocurrencies typically use decentralized control as opposed to centralized digital currency and central banking systems.
• Bitcoin is the first decentralized cryptocurrency.

Various concerns related to cryptocurrencies:

Privacy Concerns:

•  The privacy of users’ data is at stake. There is concern regarding privacy of users .Thus Hackers can easily observe how the money flows.

Cybersecurity Concerns:

•  Cryptocurrencies are prone to cybersecurity breaches and hacks. Various attacks are common, even companies and governments are not full proof of them.

Dark activities:

•  The possibility that the new money will nurture illicit activities and markets like drug selling, weapons etc. through Darknet is always high using cryptocurrency anonymously.

Sovereign guarantee:

•  Cryptocurrencies pose risks to consumers. They do not have any sovereign guarantee and hence are not legal tender.

Bitcoin:

• Bitcoin is a type of digital currency that enables instant payments to anyone.
•  Bitcoin was introduced in 2009. 
• Bitcoin is based on an open-source protocol and is not issued by any central authority.
•  Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer currency. Peer-to-peer means that no central authority issues new money or tracks transactions.
• The Bitcoin software is completely open-source and anybody can review the code.
• 
  

How does Bitcoin work?

• Bitcoins are generated all over the Internet by anybody running a free application called a Bitcoin miner. 
• When you transfer Bitcoins, an electronic signature is added.
• After a few minutes, the transaction is verified by a miner and permanently and anonymously stored in the network.

India's first Grass Conservatory in Uttarakhand:

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Why in the news?
India’s first Grass Conservatory was launched by the research wing of the Uttarakhand forest department in Ranikhet of Almora district.

Key highlights:

• This conservatory is funded under the Central Government’s CAMPA (Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority) scheme and is developed by the research wing of the Uttarakhand Forest Department. 
• The research wing of the Uttarakhand forest department took 3 years to develop the conservation area of the Grass Conservatory project.
• The first Grass Conservatory project in India has been established in an area of 2 acres. 
• The conservation area houses around 90 different grass species while displaying important ecological, scientific, medicinal, and cultural information related to grass species ‘All Flesh is Grass’.
• There are seven different sections of grasses in the conservation area namely medicinal, aromatic, fodder, ornamental, agricultural grasses, and religious importance.

India’s first Grass Conservatory:

Significance:

• India’s first Grass Conservatory project aims at creating awareness about the importance of grass species, promoting conservation.
•  Grasses play a key role in Carbon Sequestration during which grasses store most of the absorbed carbon underground. 
•  During a forest fire, carbon stored in trees' information cells of biomass gets released into the atmosphere. Whereas, during a fire in grasslands, the grass species store the carbon underground. 

Additional information:

• Tiger grass or Broom grass (scientific name Thysanolaena Maxima) is an important fodder grass. 
• It is found in ravines, steep hills, and sandy banks of rivers upto an altitude of 2,000 m in Uttarakhand.
• Elephant or Napier grass (Pennisetum Purpureum) is an excellent pasture fodder.
•  It is a good contour hedgerow. 
• It is used for firebreaks, windbreaks in paper pulps production and charcoal, biogas, and bio-oil.