WHY IN NEWS

Recently, 30 people were killed in separate incidents of lightning in various parts of the country.

➢ “when the differences in charges becomes too great, insulating capacity of the air breaks down and there is a rapid
discharge of electricity” – Called lightning.
➢ It is a very rapid and massive discharge of electricity in the atmosphere, some of which is directed towards the Earth’s
surface.
➢ It is a giant spark of electricity in the atmosphere or between the atmosphere and the ground.
➢ It can occur between opposite charges within the thunderstorm cloud (Intra Cloud Lightning) or between opposite
charges in the cloud and on the ground (Cloud-To-Ground Lightning).
➢ There is a greater probability of lightning striking tall objects such as trees, towers or buildings.
➢ It rarely hits people directly — but such strikes are almost always fatal.

➢ It is the biggest contributor to accidental deaths due to natural causes.

➢ As a whole, India sees 2,000-2,500 lightning deaths every year on average.
➢ According to India’s second annual report on lightning, as many as 18.5 million lightning strikes were recorded in India
between April 2020 and March 2021.
➢ This report is released by Lightning Resilient India Campaign (LRIC).
WHY IN NEWS
Recently, India’s first cryptogamic garden was inaugurated in Chakrata town of the Dehradun, Uttarakhand.

➢ This garden will be housing nearly 50 species of lichens, ferns and fungi.
➢ The garden is at Deoban in Chakrata at a height of 9,000 ft.
➢ Location is chosen because of its low pollution levels and moist conditions which are conducive for the growth of
these species.
✓ Deoban has also pristine majestic forests of Deodar and Oak which create a natural habitat for cryptogamic
species.

➢ Cryptogamae means "hidden reproduction", referring to the fact that no seed is produced, thus cryptogams represent
the non-seed bearing plants.
➢ They comprise plants like algae, mosses, and ferns and they do not produce fruits.
➢ These are non-flowering plants, which mainly reproduce by the production of spores.
✓ Spores – It is a unit of sexual or asexual reproduction that certain fungi, plants (moss, ferns), and bacteria
produce.
WHY IN NEWS
Recently, In an official statement, the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) confirmed that it received reports that 100
people who received the Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) COVID-19
vaccine jab developed Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS).

➢ It is an autoimmune disorder that causes muscle weakness that

may lead to paralysis.
➢ It is a rare disorder in which body's immune system attacks your
nerves.
✓ Patients may experience lingering effects from it, such as
weakness, numbness or fatigue.
➢ It is not contagious or inherited.
➢ There's no known cure for Guillain-Barre syndrome.
✓ However, some therapies can lessen the severity of the
illness and shorten recovery time.
➢ It can strike at any age (although it is more frequent in adults
and older people) and both sexes are equally prone to the
disorder.
➢ It is estimated to affect about one person in 100,000 each year.
WHY IN NEWS
Recently, the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) released the Standard Operating Procedure
(SOP) to deal with environmental violations.
✓ This SOP is a result of orders from the National Green Tribunal, which earlier this year directed the ministry to put
in place penalties and an SOP for green violations.

➢ Two categories of green violations, as per the SOP.

✓ ‘Violations’ involving cases where construction work, including expansion of an existing project, has begun
without the project proponent having acquired environmental clearance.
✓ ‘Non-Compliance’ in which prior environmental clearance has been accorded to the project, but it is in violation of
norms prescribed in the approval.
➢ According to the SOPs –
✓ Projects that are not permissible for environmental clearance (EC) are to be demolished.
✓ Projects which are permissible according to environmental law but which have not acquired the requisite
clearance are to be shut down.
➢ The permissibility of the project shall be examined from the perspective of whether such activity/project was at all
eligible for grant of prior EC.
✓ If a Red Industry is functioning in a Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ)-I area, which means that the activity was, in the
first place, not permitted at the time of commencement of the project. Therefore, the activity is not permissible
and therefore it shall be closed and demolished.
WHY IN NEWS
Recently, The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced the
‘RBI Retail Direct’ scheme.
✓ It will be a one-stop solution to facilitate
investment in government securities (G-secs) by
individual investors.
➢ Under this scheme, retail investors (individuals) will
have the facility to open and maintain the ‘Retail Direct
Gilt Account’ (RDG Account) with the RBI.
✓ Retail/Indivisual Investors - These are non-
professional market participants who generally
invest smaller amounts than larger, institutional
investors.
➢ The online portal will give registered users access to
primary issuance of G-secs and access to NDS-OM.
➢ It means an account (like a bank account) opened and
maintained for holding Government securities, by an
entity or a person including ‘a person resident outside
India’.
➢ It was introduced in August 2005 by RBI.
➢ It is an electronic, screen-based, anonymous, order-
driven trading system for dealing in government
securities.
➢ These are debt/tradable instruments issued by the
Central or State govt.
➢ G-Sec are considered to be risk-free.
➢ Govt. sell these products to finance day-to-day
governmental operations and provide funding for
special infrastructure and military projects.
WHY IN NEWS
Recently, The Khadi and Village Industries Commission
(KVIC) has secured trademark registrations in three more
➢ It is an easily recognizable symbol, phrase, or word that
countries – Bhutan, UAE and Mexico.
denotes a specific product.
✓ KVIC’s trademark applications are pending in 40
countries across the world. ➢ It legally differentiates a product or service from all
others of its kind and recognizes the source company's
✓ The number of such countries has gone up to nine
ownership of the brand.
including Germany, UK, Australia, Russia, China
and EU. ➢ It generally considered a form of intellectual property
and may or may not be registered.
➢ It is a statutory body formed in April 1957, under the
Khadi and Village Industries Commission Act of 1956. ➢ Although trademarks do not expire, the owner must
make regular use of it in order to receive the protections
➢ HQ - Mumbai, India
associated with them.
➢ It is an apex organisation under the Ministry of MSME,
with regard to khadi and village industries within India.
➢ It seeks to plan, promote, facilitate, organise and assist
in the establishment and development of khadi and
village industries in the rural areas in coordination with
other agencies engaged in rural development wherever
necessary.
WHY IN NEWS
Green energy projects in Rajasthan are emerging as a threat for the endangered
great Indian bustard.

➢ It is a large bird with a horizontal body and long bare legs.

➢ This bird is among the heaviest of the flying birds.
➢ It can easily be distinguished by its black crown on the forehead contrasting with
the pale neck and head.
➢ Males have larger black crowns and a black band across the breast.
➢ Bustards generally favour flat open landscapes with minimal visual obstruction
and disturbance
➢ Historically, the great Indian bustard was distributed throughout Western India,
spanning 11 states, as well as parts of Pakistan.
➢ Today, its population is confined mostly to Rajasthan and Gujarat.
➢ Small population occur in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
WHY IN NEWS
Recently, External Affairs Minister handed over the relics of Queen Ketevan to
Georgia.
✓ Portuguese missionaries were said to have carried the relics to Goa in
1627.
✓ In 2005, after years of research and study of medieval Portuguese
records, the relics were found at the St. Augustine Church in Old Goa.
➢ Georgia (Capital - Tbilisi) located at the eastern end of the Black Sea.
➢ After a long period of Turkish and Persian domination, Georgia was annexed
by the Russian Empire in the 19th century.
➢ An independent Georgian state existed from 1918 to 1921, when it was
incorporated into the Soviet Union.
➢ In 1936 Georgia became a constituent (union) republic and continued as
such until the collapse of the Soviet Union.
➢ Georgia declared sovereignty on November 19, 1989, and independence on
April 9, 1991.
WHY IN NEWS
Recently, China’s military said that it drove away a US warship
that illegally entered Chinese waters near the Paracel Islands.

➢ It also known as the Xisha Islands and the Hoang Sa

Archipelago.
➢ This archipelago is a disputed archipelago in the South China
Sea.
➢ The archipelago includes about 130 small coral islands and
reefs.
➢ The archipelago is claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam.
➢ The archipelago is being administered by China.
➢
✓ Recently, the new list of Union Cabinet ministers has mentioned the name of “Kongu Nadu”.
✓ It is neither a place with a PIN code nor a name given formally to any region.
▪ It is a commonly used or informal name for part of western Tamil Nadu.
✓ There were mentions of ‘Kongu Nadu’ in Sangam literature as a separate territory.
✓ In Tamil literature, it was referred to as one of the five regions of ancient Tamil Nadu.
✓ Presently, this region includes the districts of Nilgiris, Coimbatore, Tirupur, Erode, Karur, Namakkal and Salem, as
well as Oddanchatram and Vedasandur in Dindgul district, and Pappireddipatti in Dharmapuri district.

➢
✓ These rules are part of Basel III regulations designed to make banks more stable and prevent a repeat of the
financial crisis of 2008-09.
✓ It is a liquidity standard requiring banks to hold enough stable funding to cover the duration of their long-term
(> 1 year) assets.
✓ The NSFR is defined as the amount of available stable funding relative to the amount of required stable funding.
✓ The rules treat physically traded gold like any other commodity, requiring banks to hold more cash to match
their gold exposure as a buffer against adverse price moves.
➢
✓ China harvested its first batch of “space rice” from seeds that returned from a lunar voyage last year.
✓ The country has been taking seeds of rice and other crops to space since 1987.
✓ After being exposed to cosmic radiation and zero gravity, some seeds can mutate and produce higher yields when
planted back on Earth.
✓ In 2018, the total plantation area for space crops approved in China reached more than 2.4 million hectares.
✓ More than 200 space plant varieties including cotton and tomatoes have been approved for planting.