• The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently formed a high-level expert panel ‘One Health’ to study the emergence and spread of zoonotic diseases like H5N1, avian influenza, MERS, Ebola, Zika and possibly the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
• The panel will advise global agencies such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on how future outbreaks, especially due to zoonotic diseases, can be averted.
• It will also develop a surveillance framework and global action plan for the same.

Zoonotic diseases

• It is a pathogenic infections that transmit from animals to humans.
• Three of every four infectious diseases are caused by zoonosis.
• Scientists across the world suspect COVID-19 is also a zoonosis.

• In a major boost to export of GI certified products, season’s first consignment of Shahi Litchi from Bihar was recently exported to United Kingdom by air route.

Shahi Litchi

• India is the second largest producer of litchi (Litchi chin) in the world, after China.
• The translucent, flavoured aril or edible flesh of the litchi is popular as a table fruit in India, while in China and Japan it is preferred in dried or canned form.
• Bihar tops in terms of production of litchi.
• Because of short-shelf life of litchi, there is need to explore exports opportunities for the processed and value-added products.
• It was the fourth agricultural products to get GI certification from Bihar in 2018, after Jardalu mango, Katarni Rice and Magahi Paan. 
• GI registration for Shahi Litchi is held with the Muzaffarpur-based Litchi Growers Association of Bihar.
• Muzzafarpur, Vaishali, Samastipur, Champaran, Begusarai districts and adjoining areas of Bihar have favorable climate for growing Shahi Litchi.

• The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has recently ordered all encroachments to be removed from Gujarat's Banni grasslands within six months and directed a joint committe to prepare an action plan in a month.
• The region's nomadic pastoralist community, the Maldharis, whose livelihoods are depend on this protected shrub-savanna has welcomed the move. 
• The court also said the Maldharis will continue to hold the right to conserve the community forests in the area, granted to them as per the provisions in Section 3 of Forest Rights Act, 2006.

Maldharis

• They are nomadic pastoralists of Banni Grasslands.

• They breed Banni Buffaloes, a species endemic to the region.
• This buffalo breed survives by feeding on the grassland. 
• The buffaloes are adaptive to Kutch’s hot weather condition and yields 12-18 litres milk a day.

Banni grassland

• It spread over 2,618 km and account for almost 45% of the pastures in Gujarat.
• It comprises 48 hamlets / villages organised into 19 panchayats, with a population of about 40,000.
• Two ecosystems, wetlands and grasslands, are juxtaposed in Banni.
• The area is rich in flora and fauna, with 192 species of plants, 262 species of birds, several species of mammals, reptiles and amphibians.
• Banni grasslands, traditionally, were managed following a system of rotational grazing.  
• In 1955, the court notified that the grassland will be a reserve forest.
• In 2019, the NGT ordered to demarcate the boundaries of the Banni grassland and restricted non-forest activities.

• According to Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), a total eclipse of the Moon will occur on May 26, 2021.
• The next lunar eclipse will be visible from India on November 19, 2021.
• It will be a partial lunar eclipse.

Lunar Eclipse

• Lunar eclipse occurs on a full moon day when the Earth comes in between the Sunand the Moon and when all the three objects are aligned.
• A total lunar eclipse will occur when the whole Moon comes under the umbral shadow of the Earth.
• The partial lunar eclipse occurs when only a part of the Moon comes under the umbral shadow of the Earth.

• India has recently launched the first phase of Ministry of Corporate Affairs’ (MCA) MCA21 Version 3.0 (V3.0) comprising of revamped website, new email services for MCA Officers and two new modules, namely, e. Book and e. Consultation during a virtual event recently.

MCA21 V3.0

• This in its entirety will not only improve the existing services and modules, but will also create new functionalities like e-adjudication, compliance management system, advanced helpdesk, feedback services, user dashboards , self-reporting tools and  revamped master data services. 

The e-consultation module will facilitate:

• virtual public consultation of proposed amendments and new legislations to be introduced by MCA from time to time.
• leverage Artificial intelligence for compiling, grouping and categorizing comments/inputs received from stakeholders and create analytical reports for quick policy decision making.
• new email service for officers of MCA will provide them with advanced features and capabilities for organised and managed communication with internal as well as external stakeholders. 

MCA-21

• It is an e-governance initiative of the Ministry of Company Affairs (MCA) that was launched in 2006.
• MCA21 has been part of Mission Mode projects of the Government of India. 
• It allows firms to electronically file their financial results and advance filing of corporate accounts to calculate national accounts.

Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index (RECAI)

• Recently, the London-based Ernst & Young (EY) has released the 57th edition of the Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index (RECAI).
• It looks at individual categories such as solar PV, concentrated solar power, onshore wind, offshore wind, biomass, geothermal, and hydro.
• The 57th edition estimated that future development to achieve net zero will require a further investment of $5.2 trillion and highlighted the role of institutional investors in financing the energy transition.
• The United States remained the most attractive market, followed by China for overall renewables.
• The index has once again ranked India as the most attractive destination for solar PV investment and deployment.
• India scored 62.7 in solar attractiveness, with the sector expected to grow significantly and with generation from solar PV set to surpass coal before 2040.
• India rose one place to rank third in the overall renewables rankings.
• India’s position in the RECAI has fluctuated many times, including the slip from the 2nd position in 2017 to the 4th position in 2018.
• India moved up from the 7th to the 4th position in the 56th EY RECAI as a result of installed solar PV capacity skyrocketing, reaching more than 35GW.

Cis- Sutlej States

• The Cis-Sutlej states were a group of small states in Punjab region in the 19th century, lying between the Sutlej River on the north, the Himalayas on the east, the Yamuna River and Delhi District on the south, and Sirsa District on the west.
• The states were called Cis- Sutlej by the British because they were on the British, or southern, side of the Sutlej River.
• The Cis-Sutlej states included Kaithal, Patiala, Jind, Thanesar, Malerkotla and Faridkot.
• Under the threat of absorption into Sikh Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s kingdom, they appealed to the British, who established dominance over them by the Treaty of Amritsar with Ranjit Singh (1809).
• The states survived until the independence of India (1947), at which time they were organized into the Patiala and East Punjab States Union (PEPSU).
• They subsequently were absorbed into the Indian states of Punjab and Haryana.
• In 19th century, Malerkotla became one among the cis-Sutlej states.
• Malerkotla continued under the British protection and the alliance with the neighbouring Sikh states till 1947 when it became the only Muslim majority Sikh state in East Punjab.

White Fungus Infections

• It is a fungal infection where there is formation of whitish membranes or discharge caused by candida group of organisms.
• It is a fungal infection called candidiasis, it can be caused by the unsterile use of oxygen cylinders or the overuse of steroids.
• The symptoms are whitish patches in the oral cavity, white discharge, skin lesions and symptoms of pneumonia of cough, chest pain and low oxygen level.
• The Anti-fungal drugs can be used to treat patients infected with White Fungus.
• Candidiasis can be treated with fluconazole or itraconazole orally.
• The tropical applications will be required for infections in the oral cavity or genitourinary regions.
• It can be prevented by proper sanitisation of ventilators/oxygen cylinders and also, by taking accurate care of the medical types of equipment that are used on the patients.
• It is more likely to infect people with low immunity, it can also be caused if people come in contact with water or unsanitary environment containing the moulds.
• The disease isn’t contagious but a person is said to be vulnerable to the infection since these moulds can be easily inhaled by a patient.
• The fungus can further spread to vital organs and cause complications.
• White fungus is curable with commonly available medicines and does not need expensive injections unlike in the case of mucormycosis.
• The people with low immunity, comorbidities, diabetes, cancer or those using steroids regularly are at a higher risk of getting infected with the white fungus.

Black Fungus

• It is caused by a group of moulds known as mucormycetes present naturally in the environment.
• It mainly affects people who are on medication for health problems that reduces their ability to fight environmental pathogens.
• It is treated with antifungals and mucormycosis may eventually require surgery.

Boa-Dhan Rice

• Iron rich ‘Bao-Dhan’ is grown without the use of chemical fertilizers in the Brahmaputra valley of Assam.
• It is an integral part of Assamese food.
• It is red in color due to the presence of Anthocyanin, therefore, also called 'Red Rice'.
• To boost India's rice export capacity, its first batch has been sent to America.
• The increase in its exports will increase the income of farmers residing in the drainage area of Brahmaputra.

Rice Export Promotion Forum

• The government had established a 'Rice Export Promotion Forum' under the 'Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority'.
• It represents the rice industry, exporters and officials as well as directors of major rice producing states including West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh and Odisha.

Global Health Summit

• It is organized by European Commission (EC) the executive branch of the European Union and Italy as chair of the G20
• The summit is one of the most notable global gatherings to date to address the pandemic.
• At the summit g20 countries agreed to the Rome declaration which sets out principles and guiding commitments to overcome the challenges posed by COVID-19
• These principle will help in promoting sustained financing with creation of an effective health system capabilities and capacities for universal health coverage
• Improve preparedness through early waring and coordinated response with resilience against current pandemic and future potential public health emergencies
• Key highlights of Rome Declaration are as follows

1. It Support and enhance the existing multilateral health architecture for better preparedness prevention, detection and response.
2. Appropriate and sustainable funding for collaborative global response efforts, especially the access to covid-19 tools (ACT) accelerator.
3. Invest in the worldwide health and care workforce
4. Promote the multilateral trading systems and open resilient diversifies secure efficient and reliable global supply chains related to health emergencies
5. Increase the effectiveness of preparedness and response measures by supporting and promoting meaningful and inclusive dialogue.