1. Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP)

Topic: Economy

In News: The Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) has recommended higher support prices for 17 summer-sown, or kharif, crops. The cabinet will consider the proposed new rates

More on the Topic:

• Rice is a major kharif crop, accounting for 40% of the planting in the season. CACP’s recommended price for paddy is Rs 53 per quintal more than last year.
• As per the proposal, the highest increment has been proposed for nigerseed, an important oil crop.
• The government has been promoting cultivation of pulses and oilseeds over foodgrains for the past few years.
• There has been record production of foodgrains with each successive year, leaving the government granaries overflowing.
• With over 71 MT foodgrains in stock, the government aims to augment the production of edible oil to reduce the import bill, which has swelled to around Rs 80,000 crore.
• A significant rise is proposed in nigerseed, soya bean to encourage farmers to shift from food grains to oilseeds. Among coarse cereals, bajra too got a boost.
• The proposals are under consultation with related ministries like food before being sent to the cabinet for approval. Normally, CACP’s recommendations are accepted fully.

Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP): ·        It is a statutory panel under the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India. The CACP is an expert body that recommends the MSPs of the notified Kharif and Rabi crops to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).

Source: India Today

Human challenge Trials

Topic: Health

In News: As laboratories around the world race to develop a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, many people have volunteered to take part in a controversial testing method called human challenge trials.

More on the Topic:

• The method, which involves intentionally infecting volunteers with the novel coronavirus, is being promoted in order to “speed up” the process of preparing a vaccine.
• In most regulatory regimes, vaccines take several years to develop, and their development typically proceeds through three phases of clinical trials.
• In Phase 1, small groups of people receive the trial vaccine. During Phase 2, the clinical study is expanded and the vaccine is given to people who have characteristics (such as age and physical health) similar to those for whom the new vaccine is intended
• In Phase 3, the vaccine is given to several thousand people and tested for efficacy and safety. During this phase, participants either receive the vaccine or a placebo. The efficacy of the vaccine is determined by comparing the prevalence of infection in the group that was administered the vaccine with the one which received a placebo. The hypothesis that those in the vaccine group will be infected significantly less is thus tested.

What are human challenge trials?

• Under human challenge trials, participants of both the vaccine group and placebo group upon consent are deliberately exposed to the infection – thus are “challenged” by the disease organism.
• Proponents of the method believe that such trials could save valuable time in developing a Covid-19 vaccine, as researchers would not have to wait for participants to contract the infection under real-world conditions.

Human challenge trials: The ethical concerns

• While human challenge trials are not new, they are usually carried out in developing medications for diseases which are considered less lethal and have been better understood by scientists over the years, such as malaria.
• Critics have questioned undertaking such trials for Covid-19, a potentially deadly disease for even those who are less at risk, and which researchers are still in the early stages of studying.
• When conducted, human challenge studies should be undertaken with abundant forethought, caution, and oversight. The value of the information to be gained should clearly justify the risks to human subjects. Information to be gained should clearly justify the risks to human subjects.

 Source: Indian Express

Consolidated Sinking Fund

Topic: Economy

In News: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) after reviewing states Consolidated Sinking Fund (CSF) scheme, on Friday, decided to release additional Rs13,300cr.

More on the Topic:

• Currently, states maintain a CSF account with the central bank as a buffer for repayment of their liabilities.
• With new allocation, RBI believes it will enable States to meet a larger proportion of their redemption of market borrowings falling due in the current financial year from the CSF.
• CSF is a fund through which some financial discipline is being insured. The fund should be maintained outside the consolidated fund of the States and the public account and should not be used for any other purpose, except for redemption of loans.
• As per the scheme, State governments could contribute 1-3 per cent of the outstanding market loans each year to the Fund. The Fund is administered by the Central Accounts Section of RBI Nagpur.
• As on December 31, 2019 , barring Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajashthan, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir (now a UT), all States have CSF.

 

Source: Indian Today

Renewable Energy Certificates

Topic: Economy

In News: Sales of renewable energy certificates tumbled over 35 per cent to 2.37 lakh units in April compared to 3.68 lakh in the same month a year ago.

More on the topic:

• Renewable energy certificate (REC) is a type of market-based instrument. One REC is created when one megawatt hour of electricity is generated from an eligible renewable energy source.
• Under the renewable purchase obligation (RPO), bulk purchasers like discoms, open access consumers and capacitive users are required to buy certain proportion of RECs. They can buy RECs from renewable energy producers to meet the RPO norms.
• The proportion of renewable energy for utilities is fixed by the central and state electricity regulatory commissions.
• The REC mechanism intends to promote renewable sources of energy and development of market in electricity.
• It provides an alternative voluntary route to a generator to sell its electricity from renewable sources just like conventional electricity and offer the green attribute (RECs) separately to obligated entities to fulfil their RPO.

Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) mandates that all electricity distribution licensees should purchase or produce a minimum specified quantity of their requirements from Renewable Energy Sources. This is as per the Indian Electricity Act, 2003.

Source: Hindu Business Line

Blue Throated Macaw

Topic: Environment and Ecology

In News: Blue Throated Macaw’s recent population and range estimates suggest that only about 350–400 individuals remain in the wild. This species is one of the rarest in the world.

More on the Topic:

• Macaws are monogamous, remaining bonded for life. The species is listed on the IUCN Red List as critically endangered.
• They are endemic to a small area of north-central Bolivia, known as Los Llanos de Moxos.
• It is a large parrot and plumage on its upper parts and long tail is turquoise. Its under parts are bright yellow. Until 2010, it was hunted by natives to make feathered “Moxeño” headdresses for “machetero” ritual dances.
• The dancer dedicate their movements and attire to the colours of nature. Their headdresses are made of macaw tail feathers from four different species, including the Blue-throated Macaw.
• An educational campaign that began in 2010 promoted the use of artificial feathers which has made a big difference in saving the macaws.

Source: India Today

Chardham Pariyojana

Topic: Infra Structure Development

In News: Union Minister for Road Transport inaugurated the 440 metre-long tunnel, constructed below the busy town of Chamba(Himachal Pradhesh) as part of the Chardham Connectivity Project.

More on the Topic:

• The tunnel will significantly reduce the time taken by travellers on the Rishikesh-Dharasu and Gangotri stretch of the Chardham Highway.
• It will also avoid congestion in the city of Chamba and open up avenues of socio-economic development in the region.
• Under the Chardham Project costing around 12 thousand crore rupees approximately 889 Kilometres of Highway Construction is to be done.
• BRO has been entrusted for construction of 250 Kilometre-stretch leading to holy shrine Gangotri and Badrinath.

 

Source: Indian Express

7. South Atlantic Anomaly

Topic: Science and Technology

 

In News: New satellite data from the European Space Agency (ESA) reveal that the mysterious anomaly weakening Earth’s magnetic field continues to evolve, with the most recent observations showing we could soon be dealing with more than one of these strange phenomena.

More on the Topic:

• The South Atlantic Anomaly is a vast expanse of reduced magnetic intensity in Earth’s magnetic field, extending all the way from South America to southwest Africa.
• Since our planet’s magnetic field acts as a kind of shield – protecting Earth from solar winds and cosmic radiation, in addition to determining the location of the magnetic poles – any reduction in its strength is an important event we need to monitor closely, as these changes could ultimately have significant implications for our planet.
• Implications: At present, there’s nothing to be alarmed about. The ESA notes that the most significant effects right now are largely limited to technical malfunctions on board satellites and spacecraft, which can be exposed to a greater amount of charged particles in low-Earth orbit as they pass through the South Atlantic Anomaly in the skies above South America and the South Atlantic Ocean.
• Not that the magnitude of the anomaly should be diminished, though. In the last two centuries, Earth’s magnetic field has lost about 9 percent of its strength on average.
• Why It is Happening? Exactly why this is happening remains a mystery. Earth’s magnetic field is generated by electrical currents produced by a swirling mass of liquid iron within the outer core of our planet, but while this phenomenon appears stable at any given moment, over vast timescales, it’s never really still.
• Research has shown that Earth’s magnetic field is constantly in a state of flux, and every few hundred thousand years (give or take), Earth’s magnetic field flips, with the north and south magnetic poles swapping places.
• That process could actually occur more frequently than people think, but while scientists continually debate when we might next witness such an event, even the regular, wandering movements of Earth’s magnetic poles keep geophysicists guessing.
• In any case, it’s not fully clear how those reversals might be tied to what’s currently going on with the South Atlantic Anomaly – which some have suggested could be caused by a vast reservoir of dense rock underneath Africa called the African Large Low Shear Velocity Province.
• What is certain, though, is that the South Atlantic Anomaly is not sitting still. Since 1970, the anomaly has been growing in size, as well as moving westward at a pace of approximately 20 kilometres (12 miles) per year. But that’s not all.
• This suggests the whole thing could even be in the process of splitting up into two separate cells – with the original centred above the middle of South America, and the new, emerging cell appearing to the east, hovering off the coast of southwest Africa.
• Just how the anomaly will develop from here is unknown, but previous research has suggested disruptions in the magnetic field like this one might be recurrent events that take place every few hundred years.
• Whether that’s what we’re witnessing now isn’t fully clear or how a split anomaly might end up playing out.

 Source: Science Alert