Economy 1. 7th Meeting of FSDC held under its chairman Union Finance Minister Matters Discussed : a.

It reviewed the asset quality and capital adequacy of the banks, assessed the capital requirement by banks as per BASEL III. b. Financial sector legislative reforms commissions report(FSLRC) which was completed in 2013 was reviewed , Measures taken by the RBI for Financial inclusion was appraised. Backgrounders a. FSDC Financial stability & Development council Apex Super regulatory body. b. Composition of FSDC Union.Fin.Min + Gov of RBI + Chief Economic advisor + Chairman(IRDA,PFRDA,SEBI )+ Or any other person invited by Minister. c. Roles- Financial (stability, Inclusion, literacy. etc.) , Regulatory co ordination d. Asset quality of the bank Interest/Profits through loans , Bonds etc.. e. FSLRC Set up by GOI under former supreme court judge B.N. Srikrishna in 2011 to review, rewrite legislations related to financial market and making those legislations simpler and consistent with each other.

Agriculture Biosecurity Bill Salient Features a. Establishment of authority for pest, pest infestation controland disease control. Integration of plant and quarantine services b. To meet international standards for export, import of plant, plant products, animal, animal products and aquatic organisms. c. Regulation of agriculturally important microorganisms. d. Declaration of an area as pest control area for the purpose of pest control. e. To ensure Phytosanitary and sanitary measures Provision to search premises, seize, treat disposal of plants, animals to prevent spread of pest by designated officers. f. Declaration of biosecurity Emergency in case of outbreak. g. Removal of plants, animal and other imported objects which violates any provision of the bill.

Arts and Culture UNESCO has approved to enlist 6 forts of Rajasthan in its World heritage list, following are the 6 forts a. b. c. d. e. f. Chittaurgarh Kumbhalgarh Ranthambore Jaislamer Amber Gagron

Backgrounders a. World heritage list is covered under World heritage convention, 1972 (India ratified this in 1977) b. Another site Great Himalayan national park (HP) is in pipeline to get approval from UNESCO.

Vaccine derived polio virus (VDPV) detected in Maharashtra. What is VDPV? Oral polio vaccine (OPV) is an attenuated (Weak) virus When a child is immunized with OPV, the weakened vaccine-virus replicates in the intestine for a limited period, thereby developing immunity by building up antibodies . When a child is immunized with OPV, the weakened vaccine-virus replicates in the intestine for a limited period, thereby developing immunity by building up antibodies. During this time, the vaccine-virus is also excreted. In areas of inadequate sanitation (read open defecation), this excreted vaccine-virus can spread in the immediate community- Very rarely, vaccine-derived poliovirus can cause paralysis, if the community around is seriously under immunized.

VDVP

(OPV) VDPV - 3 types A. Circulated VDPV VDPV will be getting circulated in a community where immunization is very low Lower the immunization, longer the virus thrives and exchanges its genetic variation with other enterovirus B. Immunodeficiency VDPV - These occur through some people who have much lesser immunity than the others these are the persons who are unable to get rid of the intestinal vaccine virus for long time (Usually they are cleared with 6 8 weeks). C. Ambiguous VDPV Very little know about them. Solution for the all the above cases is to immunize the child several times. WHO removed India from the list of polio endemic countries in 2012 following one year without any case due to wild poliovirus in the country. ****************************************************************************** 29t June be celebrated as statistics day in recognition of the economist Prof P.C. Mahalanobis, Theme for the this years statistics day is Labor and employment statistics P C mahaloanobis Noted economist, Held position in GOI as statistical advisor and he was member in the planning commission as well. The formulation of the D-Statistics, derivation of its properties and its application are some of his contributions. he setup National Sample Survey (NSS) entrusted with key responsibilities for the design, collection and analysis of sample survey data.

1. Weather satellite INSAT 3D launched from Kourou, French Guyana It is placed in geosynchronous transfer orbit by Ariane5 - Used in weather reporting , Meteorological observation, maritime, land rescue operations 2. INSAT 3D is equipped with Atmospheric sounding system which provides vertical profiles of temperature/humidity from surface to top of the atmosphere. Imager to take pictures. Data relay transponder relays weather accurately from collecting it from remote locations. Satellite aided search and rescue collect signals from place of distress and send it to control center.

National Teeka Express launched What is it? It is launched to protect children from life threatening diseases. Itll distribute vaccines from cold chain points to vaccination centers. It also brings back unused, open vaccines to cold chain back for subsequent usage so that costly vaccines can be better utilized. Itll bring back the immunization related biomedical waste to storage points for safe disposal. Itll also collect immunization performance reports. Itll act as a mobile health care delivery unit in areas which lack health care facility or worker. Why it is launched? 1. Vaccine delivery to remote areas is becoming difficult and time consuming. 2. Under Routine immunization program, Often ANMs have to collect vaccines a day before the immunization which may compromise the cold chain maintenance and its vaccines efficacy will be lost or even improper storage could lead to adverse effects.

Recently there was news on CIC ruling which included political parties as public authority and subsequent to that Union cabinet has approved a legislation to exclude political parties from the ambit of RTI. The new proposal by the Cabinet argues that enough facilities are provided within the Representation of peoples act to check political parties accountability like below Under Rep. of Peoples Act, 1951. 1. The act provides for the registration of political parties with election commission 2. Political parties can accept donations but have to declare it along with assets and liabilities. 3. Account of election expenses is to be maintained and submitted to the dist. Election officer. failure to do so will attract 3yr disqualification of the particular candidate 4. Penalty for filing false affidavit

Minor Forest produce or Non timber Forest produces now to get Minimum support price (MSP) which will improve the livelihood of the tribal people in heavily Naxal infested area .

India has so far signed civil nuclear cooperation agreement with 9 following countries USA, Russia, Canada, Argentina, Namibia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Korea (south of course) Talks are in progress with Japan, UK, Australia and Srilanka.

Yuva Saathi Program launched by Ministry of culture The Programme envisages the deployment of Volunteer guides, Yuva Saathi, to provided guided tours to school children in National museum.

Science and Tech : Defence Research Lab (DRDO) has developed a Chilly spray called CAPSISPRAY , an ecofriendly non-lethal spray for personal protection and self-defense. It is extracted from Worlds hottest chilli, Bhut Jolokia (cultivated in Assas and other NE states). The prototype is developed and in pipeline for testing.

Shri Zubin Mehta to be the second recipient of the Tagore Award, 2013 in recognition of his outstanding contribution to cultural harmony. The annual award was instituted by the Govt. of India during the commemoration of 150th Birth Anniversary of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. The first Tagore Award was conferred on Pt. Ravi Shankar, the Indian Sitar Maestro in 2012. The award is open to all persons regardless of nationality, race, language, caste, creed or sex.

Pir Panjal Railway Tunnel (The Longest Transportation Tunnel of India) - 17.7 Km)

Ircon International Ltd oversaw the project from Dharam to Qazigund (including banihal to Quazikund)

The Kashmir Valley railway is a long (119 Km) modern railway line. It is an island railway, not yet connected to the Indian Railway network. It connects Baramula in the western part of Kashmir to Qazigund at the other end of the Valley, via Srinagar The 17.7 km long rail link paves way for the future railway connectivity of Kashmir region with the national railway network.

Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) Lab setup by Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC), technical arm of Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications & IT, has earned a unique distinction of being approved by the IPv6 Ready Logo Committee under IPv6 Forum, an International body. This achievement is significant for TEC and the country as only five other labs in the world have achieved this milestone. (Europe, USA, Japan, China and Taiwan)

The internet and the internet facing devices are moving to new addressing scheme IPv6 since IPv4 addresses are no longer available. So Government had set up lab so that the service providers, content providers and the customer premises equipment vendors are encouraged to move to IPv6 address implementation. It is one of the objectives of National telecom policy2012. Backgrounder Normally to access internet we use a device and these devices are numbered. Earlier we used IPV4 version for numbering devices, presently we have about 4.3 billion which will be exceeded soon ( Or is it exceeded ?) , so we need a new versioning of numbering here comes IPV6, it has 3.8 * 10^38 possibilities. IPV4 uses 32 bits , ITV6 uses 128 bits