• Union Defence Minister has recently launched the Naval Innovation and Indigenisation Organisation (NIIO) through an online webinar.
• The NIIO puts in place dedicated structures for the end users to interact with academia and industry towards fostering innovation and indigenisation for self-reliance in defence in keeping with the vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat.
• The NIIO is a three-tiered organisation.

1. Naval Technology Acceleration Council (N-TAC) will bring together the twin aspects of innovation and indigenisation and provide apex level directives.
2. A working group under the N-TAC will implement the projects.
3. A Technology Development Acceleration Cell (TDAC) has also been created for induction of emerging disruptive technology in an accelerated time frame.

• The Draft Defence Acquisition Policy 2020 (DAP 20) envisages Service Headquarters establishing an Innovation & Indigenisation Organisation within existing resources.
• Indian Navy already has a functional Directorate of Indigenisation (DoI) and the new structures created will build upon the ongoing indigenisation initiatives, as well as focus on innovation.
• A compendium of Indian Navy’s Indigenisation perspective plans titled ‘SWAVLAMBAN’ was also released on the occasion.

• Union Tribal Affairs Minister e-launch “Swasthya”, a first of its kind Tribal Health & Nutrition Portal: One-stop solution for the health & nutrition status of the tribal population of India recently.
• The Ministry of Tribal Affairs in collaboration with Piramal Swasthya, the Centre of Excellence has developed this Tribal Health and Nutrition Portal.

SWASTHYA PORTAL

• It is the first of its kind comprehensive platform for health and nutrition related information of the tribal population of India.
• It has a dashboard, knowledge repository, partner segment, Sickle Cell Diseases (SCD) support corner.
• The dashboard presents data curated from multiple sources for the 177 identified high priority tribal districts.
• In addition, the Portal also has research studies, innovations and best practices on tribal community curated from multiple sources related to tribal health and nutrition.
• In addition, the SCD Support Corner available in the Portal encourages people with Sickle Cell disease or trait to register themselves.
• It is hoped that this Portal will bridge the existing knowledge, drive evidence-based policy making and catalyze a series of actions which will ultimately lead to overall improvements in the health and nutrition status of the tribal population in India.
• The Portal will be managed by the Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Knowledge Management in Health and Nutrition, established by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs in collaboration with Piramal Swasthya Management and Research Institute.

• Globular clusters are the stellar systems with millions of stars formed from the same gaseous cloud. 
• Hence, usually, the stars formed will be homogeneous in their chemical composition of elemental abundances.
• But, there are clusters which deviate from this norm. One is being Omega Centauri.

Omega Centauri

• It is the brightest and the largest globular cluster in our Galaxy, the Milky Way.
• The different stars of Omega Centauri do not show the same metal content, a parameter that indicates its age, but a large range in it.
• Due to the anomalous elemental abundances, the formation scenario may be different from normal.
• Normally, the abundances are derived using the assumption that He is one-tenth of the H-abundance.
• A team of scientists from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), an autonomous institute under the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India studied numerous stars of this cluster and discovered He-enhanced cool bright stars among the metal-rich sample of Omega Centauri.
• This work, a result of the spectroscopic survey conducted of this cluster, determines the He-abundance of these stars for the first time and has been published in ‘The Astrophysical Journal’.

• The Vainu Bappu Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics.
• It is located at Kavalur in the Javadi Hills, near Vaniyambadi in Tirupattur district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

• Pune based Defence Institute of Advanced Technology, DIAT (DU) developed a Nanofibres of Ayurvedic based Biodegradable Face Mask which acts a virus neutraliser to resist against the bacteria / virus, and has named “Pavitrapati”.
• Accordingly the Transfer of Technology [ToT] of this product signed in June 2020 between DIAT and Kolhapur based Textile Company M/s. Siddheshwar Techtessile Pvt. Ltd., Maharashtra, for actual development to this product on mass level to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus
• Another Transfer of Technology (ToT) has been transferred to M/s. Siddheshwar Techtessile Pvt. Ltd., Maharashtra by DIAT for development of anti-microbial body suit in the name of “Aushada tara”.
• This suit has superhydrophobic, breathing, anti-microbial, comfort feeling properties.
• The fabric material of the suit has the approval for fighting against the COVID-19.
• The suit had cleared the splash resistant tests and it has got good repellent property of any fluids.
• The above two products are the Trademarked products of DIAT (DU).

• Recently,  Kingdom of  Tonga, a Polynesian kingdom ratified the Convention No. 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour.
• So, the ILO Convention No. 182 is the first ILO Convention to achieve universal ratification.
• This fundamental convention defines as a "child" a person under 18 years of age.
• It requires ratifying states to eliminate the worst forms of child labour, including all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery.

• Recently, Prime Minsiter announced the National Health ID.
• According to the National Health Authority (NHA), every patient who wishes to have their health records available digitally must start by creating a Health ID.
• Each Health ID will be linked to a health data consent manager such as National Digital Health Mission (NDHM).
• NHA is an apex body responsible for implementing the flagship public health insurance schemes like Pradhan Mantri - Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY).
• It is an attached office to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare with full functional autonomy.   
• The NHA’s governing board will be chaired by the Minister for Health and Family Welfare, while its members will include NITI Aayog CEO and NHA CEO.  

• Recently, the PM has announced an expansion of the NCC.
• The major expansion of NCC is to cover 173 border and coastal districts.
• National Cadet Corps (NCC) is a youth development movement.
• It is a tri-service organization that comprises of army, navy and air force falls under the purview of Ministry of Defence. 
• The NCC is open to all regular students of schools and colleges on a voluntary basis.
• The students have no liability for active military service.  

• Belarus has been shaken for days by widespread mass protests, triggered by an election which was widely thought to be rigged.
• Europe's longest-serving ruler, President Lukashenko has been in charge of Belarus for 26 years.
• It is a landlocked country located in Eastern Europe.
• It is bordered by Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, Ukraine and Poland.
• India and Belarus maintain comprehensive partnership and have established mechanisms for exchanging views on bilateral, regional and multilateral issues.

• The RBI to transfer Rs 57,128 crore surplus to Centre for FY20.
• It is called transfers to the government, and not dividends.
• It is because the RBI is not a commercial organisation like banks and other companies owned or controlled by the government to pay a dividend to the owner out of the profit generated.
• The government nationalised it in January 1949, making the sovereign the “owner”.
• Under Section 47 of the RBI Act, “after making provision for bad and doubtful debts, depreciation in assets, contributions to staff and superannuation funds and for all other matters for which provision is to be made by or under this Act or which are usually provided for by bankers, the balance of the profits shall be paid to the Central government”.
• This is done in early August by the Central Board.
• The RBI’s financial year runs from July-June at present.
• It is scheduled to be harmonised with the government’s April-March fiscal starting FY22.