Cauvery River

• It is one of the major rivers of the peninsular India.
• It rises at an elevation of 1,341 m at Talakaveri on the Brahmagiri range near Cherangala village of Kodagu district of Karnataka and drains into the Bay of Bengal.
• The total length of the river from origin to outfall is around 800 km.
• In size, it is smaller than the Godavari, the Mahanadi and the Krishna.
• Its important tributaries joining from left are the Harangi, the Hemavati, the Shimsha and the Arkavati whereas the Lakshmantirtha, the Kabbani, the Suvarnavati, the Bhavani, the Noyil and the Amaravati join from right.

• International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) has recently issued a framework for Setting up and operating International Trade Finance Services Platform (ITFS).

International Trade Finance Services Platform (ITFS)

• It refers to an electronic platform for facilitating the trade finance requirements of Exporters and Importers, through multiple Financiers.
• It provides Trade Finance Services at International Financial   Services Centres (IFSCs).
• The framework will enable Exporters and Importers to avail various types of trade finance facilities at competitive terms, for their international trade transactions through a dedicated electronic platform viz, ITFS.
• This will help in their ability to convert their trade receivables into liquid funds and to obtain short term funding.
• This framework will provide an opportunity to the participants to avail trade finance facilities for trade transactions such as Export Invoice Trade Financing, Reverse Trade Financing, Bill discounting under Letter of Credit, Supply Chain Finance for Exporters, Export Credit (Packing Credit), Insurance/ Credit Guarantee, Factoring and any other eligible product, on the ITFS platform.

International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA)

• It has been set up vide IFSCA Act, 2019 to develop and regulate the financial products, financial services and financial institutions in the International Financial Services Centres (IFSCs).

• As countries start lifting curbs imposed on societies due to the COVID-19 pandemic, news reports have indicated higher rates of respiratory infections, even unseasonal diseases such as influenza and the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV).
• Doctors have called this the “immunity debt” brought on by non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) put in place to reduce the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Immunity Debt

• It is a situation where people avoided each other during the pandemic lockdowns, they failed to build up the immunity against viruses that comes from normal contact.
• The phenomenon occurs because measures like lockdowns, hand-washing, social distancing and masks are not only effective at controlling Covid-19, but it also suppress the spread of other illnesses that transmit in a similar way, including the flu, common cold, and lesser-known respiratory illnesses like RSV.

• New Zealand hospitals are experiencing the payoff of “Immunity Debt” created by Covid-19 lockdowns, with wards flooded by babies with a potentially-deadly respiratory virus Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV)

Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV)

• It is a common respiratory illness.
• It causes symptoms such as trouble breathing.
• It’s the most common cause of inflammation of the small airways in the lungs (bronchiolitis) and pneumonia.
• It is spread when a child comes into contact with fluid from an infected person’s nose or mouth.
• This can happen if a child touches a contaminated surface and touches his or her eyes, mouth, or nose.
• It may also happen when inhaling droplets from an infected person’s sneeze or cough.
• In adults, it generally only produces very mild symptoms, but it can make young children extremely ill, or even be fatal.

• The Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar has recently addressed the 40th foundation day of NABARD.

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD)

• It was established on 12 July 1982 by an Act of the Parliament.
• NABARD is wholly owned by the Government of India.
• NABARD, as a Development Bank, is mandated for providing and regulating credit and other facilities for the promotion and development of agriculture, small scale industries, cottage and village industries, handicrafts and other rural crafts and other allied economic activities in rural areas with a view to promoting integrated rural development and securing prosperity of rural areas, and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
• It aims to promote sustainable and equitable agriculture and rural development through participative financial and non-financial interventions, innovations, technology and institutional development for securing prosperity.

Flexible Fuel Vehicles (FFVs)

• Union govt will issue new guidelines for use of flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs) using flex engines by October.
• The guidelines will specify engine configuration and other changes required in vehicles to conform to stipulated changes in fuel mix.
• FFVs have compatible engines to run on more than 84 per cent ethanol blended petrol.
• FFVs are aimed at reducing the use of polluting fossil fuels and cutting down harmful emissions.
• For India, FFVs will present a different advantage as they will allow vehicles to use different blends of ethanol mixed petrol available in different parts of the country.

Speaker of the house

• The Speaker holds Office from the date of his/her election till immediately before the first meeting of the next Lok Sabha.
• The Constitution of India requires the Speaker to be a member of the House.
• Although there are no specific qualifications prescribed for being elected the Speaker, an understanding of the Constitution and the laws of the country is considered a major asset for the holder of the Office of the Speaker.
• Usually, a member belonging to the ruling party is elected Speaker.
• The Speaker (along with the Deputy Speaker) is elected from among the Lok Sabha members by a simple majority of members present and voting in the House.

NASA’s VIPER Mission

• NASA has announced that it will launch its Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, in 2023.
• NASA is undertaking the mission to understand if it is possible for human life to sustain there, by using locally available resources.
• VIPER is a mobile robot, it is the first resource mapping mission on any other celestial body.
• VIPER’s findings will inform “future landing sites under the Artemis program by helping to determine locations where water and other resources can be harvested” to sustain humans over extended stays.

Kesaria Buddha Stupa

• The world-famous Kesaria Buddha stupa in located in east Champaran district of Bihar.
• The ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) has declared it a protected monument of national importance.
• The stupa is said to be the tallest and the largest Buddhist stupa in the world.
• The first construction of the Stupa is dated to the 3rd century BCE.
• The original Kesaria stupa probably dates to the time of Ashoka (circa 250 BCE), as the remains of a capital of a Pillar of Ashoka were discovered there.
• The current stupa dates to the Gupta Dynasty between 200 AD and 750 AD and may have been associated with the 4th century ruler Raja Chakravarti.

Mahananda River

• The Mahananda River is a trans-boundary river that flows through the Indian states of Bihar and West Bengal, and Bangladesh.
• The river flows through Bihar, West Bengal, and then continues south-eastward to join the Ganga at Godagari in Bangladesh.