14th JUNE, 2022

NEWS TT DAY
NEWS DAY
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CENTRE CONFIDENT OF FORTIFIED RICE STOCKS, BENEFITS OUTWEIGH HARMS: FOOD SECRETARY

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In the second phase of fortified rice distribution, the Government has undertaken a comprehensive awareness programme across
several states to dispel myths around fortified rice.

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Fortified rice distribution started in October 2021, which supplies fortified rice to beneficiaries under Integrated Child
Development Services (ICDS) and Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman-PM POSHAN schemes etc.
About Rice Fortification and its Benefits Rice fortification in India
Fortification is ‘the practice of deliberately increasing the content of an In India, rice is fortified using extrusion
essential micronutrient, i.e. vitamins and minerals (including trace technology in which milled rice is pulverized

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elements) in food’ (WHO). and mixed with a premix containing vitamins
Under rice fortification, micronutrients such as iron, Vitamin B12 and folic and minerals.
acid are added for nutritional boost. Fortified rice kernels (FRK) are produced from
this mixture using an extruder machine.
It helps in combating malnutrition and anaemia in a cost-effective
manner as Malnutrition costs India at least ₹77,000 crore annually in terms FRK is added to traditional rice in ratio

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of lost productivity, illness and death. ranging from 1:50 to 1: 200 resulting in
fortified rice nearly identical to traditional rice in

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Fortified rice helps in preventing cretinism, goiter, thyrotoxicosis, brain aroma, taste, and texture.
damage and improves foetal and neonatal health.
As per recent report,
People with Thalassemia, Sickle-cell anaemia and Malaria, with high incidence in tribal regions, live in conditions of excess iron in
the body, while TB patients are unable to absorb iron.

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Consumption of iron-fortified foods by them can lead to reduced immunity and dysfunctionality of organs.

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MINISTRY OF INFORMATION & BROADCASTING ASKS PRINT, DIGITAL & ELECTRONIC
MEDIA TO REFRAIN FROM ADS PROMOTING ONLINE BETTING
It mentioned that ads of online betting are misleading, and do not appear to be in strict conformity with the:

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Consumer Protection Act, 2019.
Advertising Code under the Cable Television Networks Regulation Act, 1995,
Advertisement norms under the Norms of Journalistic Conduct laid down
by the Press Council of India.
About regulation of Online gaming in India
Betting and gambling are mentioned in List II of the Seventh Schedule of
the Constitution giving States exclusive power over their regulation.
Every state in India, except Goa, Sikkim, and Daman explicitly prohibits
any sort of gambling & betting.
However, regulations of ‘online’ betting and gambling falls under grey
zone.
Related information
Lotteries organised by the Government of India
or the Government of a State falls under union
list of the 7th schedule of the Constitution.
However, the Supreme Court in March 2022,
ruled that State legislature has the right to
impose tax on lotteries conducted by other
States within its jurisdiction since ‘lotteries’ is
a “species of gambling activity”.

Sikkim was the first state to legalise and Telangana was the first one to ban it.

Recently, the Centre set up a committee to regulate online gaming and to identify a ministry to oversee it.

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) council has found merit in imposing 28% GST on online gaming.

At present they don’t attract any tax resulting in huge loss to public exchequer.

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RAJYA SABHA (RS) ELECTIONS HELD FOR SEVERAL STATES
RS is a permanent House and cannot be dissolved.
Maximum strength of RS is fixed at 250 (presently 245), out of which, 238 (Presently 233 )are representatives of states and UTs
(elected indirectly) and 12 are nominated by president.
Other facts about Rajya Sabha

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Term of a member is 6 years.
Under Article 80(3), the 12 nominated
Rajya Sabha Elections
members should have special knowledge or
To ensure continuity, one-third of its members retire after every second practical experience in matters like literature,
year. science, art etc.
Representatives of states in RS are elected (under Article 80) by elected

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members of state legislative assemblies. 4th Schedule to the Constitution provides for
allocation of Rajya Sabha seats to the states and
Election is held in accordance with system of proportional representation

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Union Territories, on the basis of the population
by means of single transferable vote.
of each state.
A single transferable vote means electors can vote for any number of
candidates in order of their preference. A candidate requires a specified number of first preference votes to win.
RS polls have a system of open ballot, but it is a limited form of openness.
To check cross-voting, each party MLA shows his or her marked ballots to party’s authorised agent, before they are put into the

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ballot box.
Showing a marked ballot to anyone other than one’s own party’s authorised agent will render vote invalid.
‘None of the above (NOTA)’ option is not applicable in RS polls. Also, not
voting for the party candidate will not attract disqualification under the MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS LAUNCHES
INDIAN RAILWAY INNOVATION POLICY
anti-defection law.

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WEB 5.0 – THE BLOCKCHAIN-POWERED DIGITAL
- “STARTUPS FOR RAILWAYS”

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NETWORK THAT TWITTER’S EX-CEO IS BUILDING Policy aims to leverage innovative
Former Twitter CEO recently announced his vision for Web 5.0 that is aimed at technologies developed by Indian Startups/
“building an extra decentralized web that puts you in control of your data MSMEs/ Innovators/ Entrepreneurs to
and identity”. improve operational efficiency and Safety of

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Web 5.0 will see applications able to interpret information on more complex Indian Railways.
levels, emotionally as well as logically. Salient Features of Indian Railway

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Innovation Policy
World Wide Web is the primary tool used by billions of people to share, read,
and write information to interact with other people via internet. Grant up to Rs. 1.5 Crore to innovators on
equal sharing basis with provision of
About different Web versions
milestone-wise payment.
Web 1.0 is often referred to as the “read-only” Internet made of static Complete process including selection of

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web-pages that only allowed for passive engagement. startup is online with defined time line to
Web 2.0 (or read and write internet) made the internet a lot more interactive. make it transparent and objective.
Users were now able to communicate with servers and other users leading to Trials of prototypes will be done in
the creation of the social web. Railways. Enhanced funding will be
Web 3.0 (a “read-write-execute” web) , built leveraging the blockchain provided to scale up deployment on
technology, will be driven by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning successful performance of prototypes.
where machines will be able to interpret information like humans. Developed Intellectual property rights
Web 4.0 services will be autonomous, proactive, self-learning, collaborative, (IPRs) will remain with innovators only.
and content-generating agents. Fully mature semantic (logical) and Significance of Innovation in Railways
reasoning technologies, as well as AI are the foundation. It is the 4th largest railway network in the
world, moving almost 23 millions people
and nearly 3.8 million tonnes of freight
every day.
But it suffers from multiple constraints such as-
Congested networks with overstretched
infrastructure; High Operating Ratio with
low internal revenue generation; Safety
and Quality of Service Issues; Technical
issues; etc.
Connection between startups and railways
can help in overcoming some of them by
promoting R&D for modernization of
the rail network and encourage
entrepreneurship & innovation.
ZOOS CAN NOW BE SET UP IN FORESTS SANS GREEN NOD
The Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change approved consideration of Central Zoo Authority approved Zoos on forest
land as forestry activity under the Forest Conservation Act (FCA), 1980.
FCA considers zoos, rescue centres etc as a non-forestry activity and makes forest clearance from Centre mandatory.
Now, zoos will be exempted from taking multiple permissions under FCA.
About Central Zoo Authority (CZA)
About FCA
It was introduced after the 42nd Constitutional Amendment- moving Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 provides for
Forests from the State List to Concurrent List. establishment of CZA (1992) to complement

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It came into force to address deforestation and made it necessary for and strengthen the national effort in
states to get Centre’s permission for using forest land for “non forestry conservation of the rich biodiversity of the
purposes” and also created a Forest Advisory Committee to recommend country.
such re-classification. CZA consists of a Chairman, ten members and
Non-forestry purpose means clearing of any forest land or portion for any a Member Secretary.

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purpose other than reafforestation.
Every Zoo in India needs CZA recognition for
Cultivation of tea, coffee, spices, rubber, palms, oil-bearing plants,

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its operation.
horticultural crops or medicinal plants are also non-forestry purpose.
However, any work relating to conservation, development and management of forests and wildlife is not considered as
non-forest purpose.

ALSO IN NEWS

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Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has asked states to grant remission to prisoners convicted for
certain crimes.
Remission implies reducing the period of sentence without changing its character.
Other relief measures for prisoners
Commutation: It denotes the substitution of one form of punishment for a lighter form.

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Respite: It denotes awarding a lesser sentence in place of one originally awarded due to some
Special remission to special fact, such as pregnancy of a woman offender.

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prisoners to mark 75th year
Reprieve: It implies a stay of the execution of a sentence (especially that of death) for a temporary
of Independence period.
Since August 2017, many Rohingyas from Myanmar are living in refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar at
Kutupalong hills of Bangladesh.

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In 2017, Myanmar's army launched a crackdown on Rohingya Muslims which was preceded by
deadly attacks on Myanmar’s more than 30 police posts by Rohingya Arsa militants.

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Most of them belong to Rakhine state. However, Myanmar sees them as illegal immigrants from
Bangladesh and has denied them citizenship.
5 years on Rohingya waiting
for repatriation Some of the refugees are accused of smuggling Yaba, (a combination of methamphetamine and
caffeine, produces powerful effects ) in Bangladesh.

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Recently, the cabinet approved a Memorandum of Understanding between India (Ministry of
Housing and Urban Affairs) and Australia for Technical Cooperation for AIWASI.
AIWIS was launched in 2020 at the 4th World Water Summit in New Delhi where Australian announced
$10 million to support cooperation between Australia and India on urban water security.
It would strengthen institutional capacities at all levels for urban water management; improve
Australia-India water
accessibility, affordability & quality of water and sanitation services, etc.
security initiative (AIWASI)
The RRA 2.0, set up by the RBI in 2021, has submitted its report containing the final set of
recommendations.
RRA 1.0 was set up in 1999 to streamline RBI procedures and simplify regulatory prescriptions.
Objective of RRA 2.0:
Reduce the compliance burden on Regulated Entities (REs) like SCBs/ RRBs/ UCBs /NBFCs, etc
by streamlining the regulatory instructions and rationalizing reporting requirements.
Regulations Review
REs are the entities regulated by RBI under the RBI Act (1934), The Banking Regulation Act
Authority (RRA 2.0) (1949), The Payment & Settlement Systems Act (2007) etc.
Russia has overtaken Saudi Arabia to become India's second-biggest supplier (for May 2022) of oil
behind Iraq.
India has taken advantage of discounted Russian crude oil prices (following Ukraine war) to ramp
up oil imports.
After U.S. and China, India is the world’s third-largest consumer of oil, over 80% of which is
Russia becomes India’s imported.
second biggest oil supplier India’s top oil supplier in 2021: Iraq, Saudi Arabia, UAE, U.S., Nigeria.

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 SIPRI (established in 1966) is an independent international institute dedicated to research into
conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament.
Since 1969 it has been releasing the SIPRI Yearbook for an overview of developments in international
security, weapons and technology, military expenditure etc.
Major Observations of SIPRI Yearbook 2022 (53rd edition):
SIPRI (Stockholm Signs of post-cold war decline in nuclear arsenal ending as all nine nuclear-armed states
International Peace continue to modernize them.
9 countries that have nuclear weapons – US, Russia, UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and
Research Institute)
North Korea
Yearbook 2022 Mixed signals from nuclear diplomacy with Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
(TPNW) entering into force in 2021.

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Recently, Iraq's 'pearl of the south' Lake Sawa has run dry amid water crisis that experts say is
induced by climate change, including record low rainfall and back-to-back drought.
It was formed over limestone rock and studded with gypsum formations and has no inlet or
outlet.
The lake rises 5 meters above sea level and is about 4.5 kilometers long and 1.8 kilometers wide.

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Lake Sawa appears in some old Islamic texts. It is said the lake miraculously formed on the day the
Iraq's Lake Sawa runs dry
Prophet Muhammad was born in 570 A.D.

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A study has thrown light on how Maya people fortified their maize with chemical process known as
‘nixtamalisation.
Nixtamalisation is a method by which the ancient peoples of Mesoamerica (a term used to describe
Mexico and Central America) like the Maya used to soak and cook their maize in an alkaline solution
and make it more palatable, nutritious and non-toxic.

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Process ensures that maize contains amino acids, calcium and Vitamin B2, which can be utilised
Nixtamalisation by the human body.
It also eliminates certain mycotoxins present in maize.
Sudan (Capital: Khartoum)
As per UN, the tribal clashes in Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur region killed around 100 people.

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Sudan is a Northeast African Country sharing borders with 7 countries (Egypt, Libya, Chad, Central
African Republic, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea).

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South Sudan was separated from it in 2011.
Dominated by massive Desert Plains (e.g. Nubian Desert) and
Darfur Plateau, the Red Sea gives it maritime access.
Geographical Features

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Highest Peak: Deriba Caldera (Jabel marra Mountain).
Main River: Nile River with Khartoum as the merging point of its

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tributaries White Nile and Blue Nile.
Strait of Malacca
India-Indonesia Coordinated Patrol (IND-INDO CORPAT)
between Indian and Indonesian Navy is being conducted in
Andaman Sea and Straits of Malacca.

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Places in News Strait of Malacca is a waterway connecting Andaman Sea (Indian Ocean) and South China Sea
(Pacific Ocean).
It runs between the Indonesian island
of Sumatra to the west and Malaysia
and extreme southern Thailand to the
east.
Importance
It is crucial to flow of global trade as
it provides shortest sea route
between Indian Ocean and Pacific
Ocean.
Roughly a quarter of all oil
transported by sea passes through
the straits.

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