National
Chief Justice of India
⇒ In exercise of the power conferred by clause (2) of Article 124 of the Constitution of India, the President has appointed Shri Justice Uday Umesh Lalit, Judge of the Supreme Court as the Chief Justice of India.
- Justice Uday Umesh Lalit took over as the 49th Chief Justice of India on 27th August 2022.
Career of Justice Lalit:
- Justice Uday Umesh Lalit was appointed as Judge of the Supreme Court of India on August 2014 from the Bar.
- Justice Lalit will become the second Chief Justice of India to be directly elevated to the Supreme Court from the Bar, after Justice S.M. Sikri, who served as the 13 th CJI in 1971.
- Justice Lalit has served as a Member of Supreme Court Legal Services Committee for two terms.
- Born on 9th November, 1957 at Solapur, Maharashtra, Justice Lalit was enrolled as an Advocate by the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa in June, 1983.
Indigenous Vaccine Lumpi-ProVacInd
⇒ The Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar on 10 August 2022 launched the indigenous vaccine Lumpi-ProVacInd to protect livestock from Lumpy Skin disease.
Developed by:
The vaccine has been developed by the National Equine Research Center, Hisar (Haryana) in collaboration with the Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izzatnagar (Bareilly).
Lumpy skin disease:
- Lumpy skin disease is a viral disease and is transmitted by blood-feeding insects, such as certain species of flies and mosquitoes, or ticks. It causes fever and nodules on the skin and can lead to the death of the cattle. The virus has been found only in cows and buffaloes.
- Lumpy skin disease is a contagious viral disease that spreads among cattle through mosquitoes, flies, lice and wasps by direct contact, as also through contaminated food and water. It does not transmit from cattle to humans.
- The symptoms include high fever, reduced milk production, skin nodules, loss of appetite, increased nasal discharge and watery eyes, among others.
- The disease was first reported in India in 2019.
Continuation of PMAY-U-“Housing for All” Mission up to 2024
⇒ The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, on 10 August 2022 has approved the proposal of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs for continuation of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U) up to 31st December 2024; wherein financial assistance is to be provided for the completion of already sanctioned 122.69 lakh houses till 31stMarch 2022.
Key Points:
PMAY-U: Housing for All is one of the major flagship programmes being implemented by Government of India to provide all weather pucca houses to all eligible beneficiaries in the urban areas of the country through States/UTs/Central Nodal Agencies.
During the period of 2004-2014, 8.04 lakh houses were completed under Urban Housing Scheme.
» Central Assistance approved since 2015 is Rs 2.03 lakh crore against Rs 20,000 crore in 2004-2014. Upto 31st March 2022, Central Assistance/subsidy of ₹1,18,020.46 crore has already been released and ₹85,406 crore will be released as Central Assistance/subsidy till 31st December 2024.
The continuation of the scheme based on the request of States/UTs upto 31st December 2024 will help in completion of already sanctioned houses under BLC, AHP & ISSR verticals.
International
3-day International Conference on “Systems Analysis for Enabling Integrated Policy Making”
⇒ Union Minister of State (I/C) Science & Technology; Minister of State (I/C) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh inaugurated the 3-day International Conference on “Systems Analysis for Enabling Integrated Policy Making” on 10 August 2022.
Dr Jitendra Singh pointed out that India is committed to reducing its aggregate greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) by one billion tonnes by 2030, decreasing its dependency on fossil fuels by 50 per cent of the total consumption in 2030; reducing carbon to GDP intensity by 45 per cent from the 2005 levels and making entire country carbon neutral by 2070.
Organized by:
The conference was organised by the Technology Information, Forecasting & Assessment Council (TIFAC), an Autonomous Body under the Department of Science and Technology (DST)) in collaboration with International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA).
Discussion:
The conference was attended by around 1000 academicians. During the event, Researchers, practitioners, government officials, IIASA representatives, policy planners from diverse disciplines were formulating ideas and identifying complex issues of climate change, pollution, clean energy, livelihood, and digitalization widely shared by countries across Asia.
Participants from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Austria, USA, China, Iran, Philippines, Japan and Jordan were designing solutions using the multilateral application of systems analysis tools with a focus on extensive interaction among various stakeholders.
Representatives from Ministry of Earth Sciences, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Jal Shakti and others as well as delegates from premier institutes like Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH, from United Nations Development Programme, World Resources Institute and Asian And Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology were also providing insights into various themes of the conference.
Important Day
World Lion Day
⇒ World Lion Day is celebrated globally every year on 10 August.
The day aims to spread awareness of lions and the urgent need to strive toward their conservation. Lions are silently in danger of going extinct worldwide.
Lions supposedly wandered amiably through Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East some three million years ago. Over the course of five decades, the global lion population has decreased by about 95%, necessitating a need to work towards its conservation, which World Lion Day emphasises on.
History:
- In 2013, the first World Lion Day was observed. Dereck and Beverly Joubert, from the Big Cat Initiative and National Geographic, founded it.
- Their objective was to safeguard lions in their natural environment. Additionally, they aimed to collaborate on safety measures with localities that are close to wild cats.
Lion Population in India:
- With the exception of Africa, the number of wild lions has drastically decreased worldwide, but the big animals have settled naturally in India.
- The population of Asiatic lions has steadily increased in Gujarat’s Gir forest and the larger Saurashtra protected area after experiencing a long period of decline. Between 2015 and 2020, their population increased from 523 to 674.