• Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare has recently chaired an event to mark the World No Tobacco Day and led the pledge by everyone present to abstain from Tobacco.
• “Commit to Quit” is the theme of the World No Tobacco Day for the year 2021.

Background

• In India, over 1.3 million deaths are attributable to tobacco use every year amounting to 3500 deaths per day, imposing a lot of avoidable socio-economic burden. 
• Smokers face a 40-50% higher risk of developing severe disease deaths from COVID-19.
• As per the WHO study titled “Economic Costs of Diseases and Deaths Attributable to Tobacco Use in India” it has been estimated that the economic burden of diseases and deaths attributable to tobacco use of tobacco in India was as high as Rs. 1.77 lakh crores, amounting to approx 1% of GDP.
• Also, the National Health Policy, 2017 have set an ambitious target of reducing tobacco use by 30% by 2025. 

• To ensure holistic growth of horticulture, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Shri Narendra Singh Tomar has virtually launched the Horticulture Cluster Development Programme (CDP) recently.

Horticulture Cluster Development Programme (CDP)

• The CDP aims at growing and developing identified horticulture clusters to make them globally competitive.
• It is a central sector programme implemented by the National Horticulture Board (NHB) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.
• In a pilot phase, the programme will be implemented in 12 horticulture clusters out of the total 53 clusters selected for the programme.
• These clusters will be implemented through Cluster Development Agencies (CDAs) which are appointed on the recommendations of the respective State/UT Government.
• The programme will address all major issues related to the Indian horticulture sector including pre-production, production, post-harvest management, logistics, marketing and branding.

Background

• The programme is designed to leverage geographical specialisation and promote integrated and market-led development of horticulture clusters.
• Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (MoA&FW) has identified 53 horticulture clusters, of which 12 have been selected for the pilot launch of the programme.
• Based on the learnings from the pilot project, the programme will be scaled up to cover all the identified clusters.

• Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar (IIT Ropar) in Punjab has recently developed a first-of-its-kind IoT device – AmbiTag.

AmbiTag

• It is an Internet of Things (IoT) device which records real-time ambient temperature during the transportation of perishable products, vaccines and even body organs and blood. 
• That recorded temperature further helps to know whether that particular item transported from anywhere in the world is still usable or perished because of temperature variation. 
• This information is particularly critical for vaccines including Covid-19 vaccine, organs and blood transportation. 
• Besides perishable items including vegetables, meat and dairy products it can also monitor the temperature of animal semen during transit.
• The device has been developed under Technology Innovation Hub – AWaDH (Agriculture and Water Technology Development Hub), a Govt of India project and it’s Startup ScratchNest.

Working

• Shaped as USB device, AmbiTag continuously records the temperature of its immediate surroundings from -40 to +80 degrees in any time zone for a full 90 days on a single charge.
• Most of the similar devices available in the international market record data only for duration of 30- 60 days.
• It generates an alert when the temperature goes beyond a pre-set limit.
• The recorded data can be retrieved by connecting the USB with any computer.

• The Republic of China for the first time allowed the couples to have a third child.
• This comes as a further relaxation of family planning rules, five years after a “two-child policy” largely failed to boost birth rates.
• The Three Child Policy aims to actively address the ageing of population.
• The change comes after the recent release of China’s once-in-a-decade population census that painted an alarming picture of declining births.
• Forecasts say the population could peak in the next couple of years and most likely by 2025, when India will become the world’s most populous country.

• The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recently recommended a set of names to label emerging coronavirus variants that are deemed to be of global concern.
• The variant first identified in India, technically known as B.1.617.2, can now be described as 'Delta' and the so called 'UK variant' as 'Alpha' according to a note from the organization.
• India's health ministry had earlier objected to Delta being called the Indian variant.
• The existing scientific nomenclature system will continue and the new names would only be to aid public discussion using labels that were “non stigmatizing” to the countries where they were first identified.

Variants of Concern    – Country of Origin

1. Alpha                   – United Kingdom
2. Beta                     – South Africa
3. Gamma                – Brazil
4. Delta                    – India

• Other variants that too are known to be on the radar but less globally widespread and transmissible, or Variants of Interest, too had Greek names.
• A sublineage of the B.1.617 family is B.1.617.1 that was identified in India and now bears the popular label 'Kappa.'

Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG)

• UR Rao Satellite centre (URSC) of ISRO invited Proposals for the three phase development of a 100 Watt Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG).
• URSC is ISRO’s lead centre for design, development, fabrication, and testing of all Indian made satellites.
• Gaganyaan crew module is a fully autonomous 5.3 t (12,000 lb) space craft designed to carry a 3-member crew to orbit and safely return to the Earth after a mission duration of up to seven days.
• It will use GSLV Mark III launcher which is powered by liquid propellant engines.

Arabian Sea Cyclones

• Annually, five cyclones on average form in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea combined.
• Of these, four develop in the Bay of Bengal, which is warmer than the Arabian Sea, but in recent times this trend is changing.
• In recent years, meteorologists have observed that the Arabian Sea, too, has been warming, this is a phenomenon associated with global warming.
• It has been observed that the sea surface temperature in the Arabian Sea has been rising for about 40 years.
• The increase in temperature is in the zone of 1.2-1.4 degree Celsius.

Open Skies Treaty Arms Control Pact

• It went into effect in 2002 and had 35 signatories, including key players US and Russia, along with one non-ratifying member (Kyrgyzstan).
• The OST aims at building confidence among members through mutual openness and thus reducing the chances of accidental war.
• The information gathered, such as on troop movements, military exercises and missile deployments, has to be shared with all member states.
• Under the treaty, only approved imaging equipment is permitted on the surveillance flights, and officials from the host state can also stay on board throughout the planned journey.
• Recently USA and Russia withdrew from the treaty and India is not a member of the treaty.

Hallmarking of Gold

• The BIS has been running a hallmarking scheme for gold jewellery since April 2000.
• Hallmarked gold jewellery will be only in three grades – 14-carat, 18-carat and 22-carat instead of current availability of ten grades.
• It will contain four marks: BIS mark, purity in carat, assay centre’s name and jewellers’ identification mark.
• The rule is applicable only on sales by retailers and not to consumers.
• However, it is available for consumers who want to get their old jewellery hallmarked.
• In November 2019, the government had announced that hallmarking of gold jewellery and artefacts would be made mandatory across the country from January 15, 2021.
• However, the deadline was extended for four months till June 1 after jewellers sought more time in view of the pandemic.
• Recently union government further extended the deadline for mandatory hallmarking of gold jewellery and artefacts by a fortnight till June 15 in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, after which jewellers will be allowed to sell only 14, 18 and 22 carats of gold jewellery.

Van Gujjars

• They are a nomadic tribe of pastoralists who dwell in the Himalayan region.
• Van Gujjars pursue seasonal migration from the Terai-Bhabar and Siwalik region of Uttarakhand to the higher bugyals in the Western Himalayas in summer and vice versa in winter.
• The Forest Rights Act (FRA) has ensured that even pastoralists possess rights to access grazing pastures in lieu of the Community Forest Resource right they are eligible for, which applies for Van Gujjars.