The Elongated Tortoise has on its nostril a pink ring, which appears in the breeding season. UPSC Current Affairs Pointers is an initiative of UPSC Essentials to consolidate your prelims exam prep. Every Monday, take a quick look at last week’s current affairs tidbits curated specially for those preparing for UPSC, State PSC, and various other competitive examinations.
If you missed the UPSC Current Affairs Pointers of the past week | September 2 to September 8, 2024, from the Indian Express, read it here.
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— The Prime Minister chaired the first meeting of the Governing Board of the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) on 10th September 2024.
— ANRF was established with the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) 2023 Act.
— The ANRF was created to serve two main purposes — substantially increase the financial resources available for scientific research, from public as well as private sources, and expand the research base in the country.
Union Minister Shivraj Chouhan announced that the Centre has relaxed the exclusion criteria under PMAY.
— The automatic exclusion criteria under PMAY- Grameen has been relaxed by the government on September 26 allowing families owning “two-wheelers, motorised fishing boats, refrigerators, landline phones” and earning “up to Rs 15,000 per month” to now avail the rural housing scheme.
— The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) Mission was launched on June 25, 2015.
— PMAY-G was launched on 20th November 2016 by the Prime Minister from Agra, Uttar Pradesh.
— PMAY is a flagship housing credit-linked subsidy scheme launched to provide affordable housing to the economically weaker sections and lower-income groups of the country.
— The Union cabinet approved “Mission Mausam” to enhance India’s ability to predict and respond to extreme weather events and the impacts of climate change.
— The mission, with a budget of Rs 2,000 crores over two years, will be primarily implemented by three key institutions under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) — the India Meteorological Department, the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology and the National Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting.
— The Union Cabinet has approved a new scheme called PM Electric Drive Revolution in Innovative Vehicle Enhancement (PM E-DRIVE) for the promotion of electric vehicles (EV) in India.
— The total outlay for the scheme is Rs 10,900 crore, which will be spent over two years.
— The PM E-DRIVE will replace Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles in India Phase II (FAME India Phase II). It will be administered by the Ministry of Heavy Industries.
— Under the scheme, the fiscal incentives have been extended to electric two- and three-wheelers, buses, trucks, and even ambulances. Under the scheme, there is no provision for electronic cars.
— The government has approved the expansion of the AB PM-JAY health cover to all Indians of age 70 years and older irrespective of their income.
— AB PM-JAY is the world’s largest public health insurance scheme which provides free coverage up to Rs 5 lakh annually to all members of eligible families.
— The PM-JAY scheme was launched on 23rd September 2018 in Ranchi, Jharkhand by the Prime Minister of India.
S. Jaishankar with Abdulmajeed Al Smari, Deputy Minister for Protocol Affairs, Saudi Arabia after his arrival in Riyadh. (Photo from X /@DrSJaishankar)
— External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar attended the first India–Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from September 8-9.
— The GCC is an influential grouping founded in 1981. It comprises the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait.
— The total volume of India’s trade with GCC countries stood at USD 184.46 billion in the financial year 2022-23.
— The USA will host the QUAD Leaders Summit of 2024 on September 21.
— Originally, India was supposed to host this year’s Leaders Summit; however, it didn’t materialize, and Joe Biden wants to host it as a parting gift.
— India will host the 2025 Leaders Summit.
— Hindi Diwas is observed on September 14 to mark the anniversary of Hindi’s recognition as an official language in 1949.
— Hindi is the most widely spoken language in India and the third most spoken language in the world after Mandarin Chinese and English.
— To commemorate the occasion a postage stamp was unveiled by Union Home Minister & Minister of Cooperation, Shri Amit Shah, at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, in a grand ceremony marking 75 years of Hindi as the official language.
— World Hindi Day or Vishwa Hindi Diwas, is celebrated on January 10 every year to mark the importance and celebrate Hindi as a language.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses SEMICON India 2024, in Greater Noida on Wednesday. (PTI Photo)
— SEMICON India 2024 is organised in India from 11 to 13th September 2024 in partnership with SEMI and industry associations in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh.
— The theme is ‘Shaping the Semiconductor Future’.
— The Semiconductor Executives’ Summit was also held on the 10th of September, 2024 at Bharat Mandapam.
Cybercrimes see “no boundary” and common people should be made aware of these offences, the Union home minister said. (Express photo by Amit Mehra)
— Union Home Minister Amit Shah addressed the first foundation day celebrations of the I4C or Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre.
— He inaugurated four I4C platforms — Cyber Fraud Mitigation Centre (CFMC), the ‘Samanvaya’ platform, a Cyber Commandos programme and a Suspect Registry.
— The I4C, established in 2018, is a department under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) tasked with establishing a national-level coordination centre to address cybercrime-related issues.
— September 12 marks the 127th anniversary of the Battle of Saragarhi.
— On this day in 1897, 21 soldiers were pitted against over 8,000 Afridi and Orakzai tribal militants and managed to hold the fort for seven hours.
— In 2017, the Punjab government decided to observe Saragarhi Day as a holiday on September 12.
— UNESCO has listed it as one of the top eight battles of bravery.
— The government has dissolved the SCoS which was formed on July 13, 2023, to oversee all statistical surveys by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).
— It was formed after renaming and expanding the scope of coverage of the Standing Committee on Economic Statistics (SCES) formed in December 2019.
— In its first post-election meeting the standing committee of the National Board for Wildlife (SC-NBWL) has cleared several infrastructure projects.
— The National Board for Wildlife came into existence with the Gazette Notification dated 22nd September 2003.
— It has 47 members with the Prime Minister in the Chair. The Minister in charge of the Ministry of Environment & Forests in the Central Government is the Vice-Chairperson.
— Like the NBWL, the State Board for Wildlife is headed by a Chief Minister.
— The standing committee for NBWL is headed by the union environment minister and at the state level the SBWL will be headed by its environment minister.
— The elongated tortoise (Indotestudo elongata) was spotted in Haryana’s Damdama area during a research survey in the Aravallis.
— Distinctive feature: The tortoise has a pink ring on its nostril, which appears during the breeding season. Mature individuals of both sexes develop a distinct pinkish colouration surrounding the nostrils and eyes during the season.
— It is listed as critically endangered under the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
— It is found in the Sal deciduous and hilly evergreen forests and is distributed across Southeast Asia. It is not native to the Aravallis.
— Recently a transmission line project in the Mollem National Park was cleared by the standing committee of the National Board for Wildlife (SC-NBWL).
— The Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary is located in the Goan town of Mollem in the heart of the western ghats. This is the largest of Goa’s four protected wildlife areas which contains the Molem National Park.
— The forest is predominantly semi-evergreen and evergreen type. The notable large mammals are Tiger, Leopard, Sloth Bear, Gaur, Sambar, and Barking Deer.
The five-day mission, known as Polaris Dawn, is the first of three testing and development missions under the Polaris Program. (SpaceX)
— A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Florida on 10th September carrying American billionaire Jared Isaacman and three others into orbit to attempt the world’s first private spacewalk.
— The other three crew members are Scott Poteet, a retired US Air Force lieutenant colonel; and two SpaceX employees, Anna Menon, a lead space operations engineer, and Sarah Gillis, an engineer who oversees astronaut training.
— It is a five-day mission and this is the first of three testing and development missions under the Polaris Program, which will be jointly executed by Isaacman and Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
— The first-ever spacewalk was carried out on March 18, 1965, by the Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov at the height of the Space Race.
(Just FYI: UPSC has consistently included questions on health and diseases in its examinations over the years. For instance, in 2014, a question about the Ebola virus appeared in the Prelims, and in 2017, a question about the Zika virus was featured. Therefore, it is crucial to stay updated on diseases that are currently in the news.)
— Eye Drop PresVu, developed by Mumbai-based Entod Pharmaceuticals, claims to ‘reduce dependency on reading glasses for individuals affected by presbyopia.
— Presbyopia is an age-related condition in which the eyes gradually lose the ability to focus on nearby objects. People usually start to develop presbyopia at around the age of 40.
— The active ingredient used in the eye drop is Pilocarpine Hydrochloride which is not a new drug.
— The company falsely claimed to be the first to offer an eye drop that could replace reading glasses. Days after its approval, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) suspended the manufacturing and marketing license for PresVu eye drops.
A nurse tends to a child suspected of having contracted mpox in DRC. (Reuters)
— One suspected case of Mpox was reported from Delhi this week causing concern among the health authorities.
— Mpox, previously referred to as monkeypox, is a self-limiting viral infection caused by mpox virus (MPXV).
— According to WHO, there are two broad clades of the Mpox virus: clade I and II. Clade I leads to more severe disease and death than clade II in the populations where it is endemic.
— Mpox is classified as a zoonosis, meaning it transmits from infected animals to humans.
— The symptoms of Mpox are fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, and fatigue. It is a self-limiting disease but can lead to death, especially among children and those with weak immune systems.
— Three mpox vaccines are available currently. These are most commonly used modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA), LC16m8, and ACAM2000. All are weakened versions of vaccinia, a live virus that also served as the basis for the smallpox vaccine.
— WHO has published its first-ever guidance on antibiotic pollution from manufacturing, ahead of the September 26 UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on antimicrobial resistance.
— AMR is a condition in which a pathogen acquires the ability to survive and cause infection even in the presence of an antimicrobial drug.
— AMR is the result of the evolution of microbes in a situation where there is a misuse or overuse of antibiotics.
— Overuse of antimicrobial drugs can lead to the development of resistant or highly resistant superbugs, which can spread in hospitals, drinking water, or sewage systems.
(FYI: Noting important personalities is crucial for UPSC preparation, as it helps refresh your static syllabus and can be used to substantiate Ethics and Essay answers.)
Sitaram could connect with people and therefore, was a catalyst for the formation of many alliances and coalitions. (PTI Photo)
— Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) died at the age of 72 on 12th September.
— He was a Rajya Sabha MP from 2005 to 2017.
— The statue of Sakthan Thampuran was knocked by a state transport bus in June. On September 7, the Minister of State for Tourism pledged to replace it with a new bronze statue if the Kerala government did not do so within 14 days.
— Sakthan Thampuran also known as Raja Rama Varma Kunjipillai or Rama Varma IX ruled over the Cochin kingdom from 1790 to 1805.
— The Cochin kingdom, which was part of the Late Chera Empire, covered the regions between Ponnani in Malappuram and Thottappally in Alappuzha in today’s Kerala.
— He put an end to the institution of the Yogiatirippads — the erstwhile spiritual heads of the Vadakkumnathan and Perumanam temples.
— He transferred the seat of the Cochin kingdom from Thrippunithura to modern-day Thrissur.
— He started the Thrissur Pooram in 1797 as an alternative to the Arattupuzha Pooram, then the largest temple festival in the state.
Renowned filmmaker and conservationist Mike Pandey (Image source: Wikipedia)
— Mike Pandey, a renowned filmmaker and conservationist has been awarded the 2024 Jackson Wild Legacy Award.
— The Jackson Wild Legacy Award is one of the most prestigious global honours in wildlife and environmental filmmaking.
— Mike is also a three-time Green Oscar winner who is celebrated for his powerful and hard-hitting films that have led to five legislative changes in India, including the protection of whale sharks globally, vultures, horseshoe crabs, and elephants.
(Just FYI: The location of the place is important, considering that UPSC has asked several questions about places that were in the news, such as Aleppo and Kirkuk, in the 2018 UPSC Prelims. Plotting them on a world map is the best way to remember them.)
— External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar visited the replica of the East Gate of the Sanchi Great Stupa, located outside the Humboldt Forum Museum in Berlin.
— It was commissioned in the third century BCE by Emperor Ashoka and was overseen by Ashoka’s wife Devi.
— The Sanchi Complex was discovered by British officer Henry Taylor in 1818. The formal survey and excavations were carried out by Alexander Cunningham. ASI director-general John Marshall restored the site to its present condition in the 1910s with funding from the begums of nearby Bhopal.
— Mahuapani village in the Jashpur district of Chhattisgarh has got electricity connection for the first time since Independence.
— The village is home to over 100 families from the Pahadi Korwa tribe, a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG).
— The project is part of the PM-JANMAN, a scheme launched by PM Modi on Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas (November 15, 2023), from the Khunti District of Jharkhand.
Port Blair, the capital city of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. (Express Archive)
— The Centre has renamed Port Blair, the capital of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, as Sri Vijaya Puram.
— Port Blair was named after Archibald Blair, a British naval surveyor who conducted the first thorough survey of the Andaman Islands in the late 1770s.
(Just FYI: With the unpredictability of the UPSC examinations and questions like the ICC World Test Championship question 2021, you can’t be sure of anything. It is wise to know what it is and not go into too much detail.)
Neeraj Chopra during the Diamond League 2024 Final on Saturday. (REUTERS)
— Neeraj Chopra finished 2nd in the Diamond League final for the second year in a row, having won the trophy in the 2022 season finale.
— The winner was Grenada’s Anderson Peters with an 87.87-metre throw, while Neeraj’s throw was 87.86 metres.
— The final was held in Brussels, Belgium.
— The 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad is organised in Budapest, Hungry from 10th to 23rd September.
— The Indian team won gold at the 2020 Online Chess Olympiad which was shared with Russia. India also has bronze medals from their campaigns in 2014 and 2022.
Jannik Sinner, of Italy, holds up the championship trophy after defeating Taylor Fritz, of the United States, in the men’s singles final of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo)
| U.S. Open Tennis Championship | ||
| Category | Winner | Runner-up |
| Men’s Single | Jannik Sinner (Italy) | Taylor Fritz (USA) |
| Women’s Single | Aryna Sabalenka (Belarus) | Jessica Pegula (USA) |
| Men’s Double | Max Purcell (Australia)
Jordan Thompson (Australia) |
Kevin Krawietz (Germany)
Tim Puetz (Germany) |
| Women’s Double | Lyudmyla Kichenok (Ukraine)
Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia) |
Kristina Mladenovic (France)
Shuai Zhang (China) |
| Mixed Double | Sara Errani (Italy)
Andrea Vavassori (Italy) |
Taylor Townsend (USA)
Donald Young (USA) |
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Sushilkumar Shinde, Digvijaya Singh and Rasheed Kidwai in New Delhi, Monday. (Express photo by Anil Sharma)
— Five Decades of Politics (Book): It is a memoir of political leader Sushilkumar Shinde which is co-authored by Rasheed Kidwai and Digvijaya Singh.
— Salt Pan Lands: These comprise parcels of low-lying lands where seawater flows in at certain times and leaves behind salt and other minerals. It falls under the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ)- 1B category, where no economic activity is allowed except salt extraction and natural gas exploration. Andhra Pradesh (20,716 acres) boasts the largest expanse of such land, followed by Tamil Nadu (17,095 acres) and Maharashtra (12,662 acres).
(Note: The best way to remember facts for UPSC and other competitive exams is to recall them through MCQs. Try to solve the following questions on your own.)
A. Consider the following statements about elongated tortoise:
1. It is listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List.
2. It is native to Aravali hills.
Which of the following statements is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
B. Which of the following places has been renamed as Vijaya Puram?
(a) Port Blair
(b) Neil Island
(c) Pamban Island
(d) Mayabunder
C. Consider the following statements about the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY):
1. It provides free health cover up to Rs. 5 lakh annually.
2. It has been implemented by all the states of India.
3. The elderly who are more than 70 years old and income of more than 8 lakhs are not eligible for the scheme.
How many of the above statements are correct?
(a) Only one
(b) Only two
(c) All three
(d) None
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