10 PM Current Affairs Quiz: March 14, 2020

India is one of the better-performing countries in the global Animal Protection Index 2020, created by international animal welfare charity, World Animal Protection. The Animal Protection Index (API) aims to showcase where countries are doing well, and where they fall short on animal welfare policy and legislation, so they can take steps to improve. The index ranks countries from A (being the highest score) to G (being the weakest score) according to their policy and legislation. India has attained a C ranking in the index, along with countries like New Zealand, Mexico, France, and Spain.

Scientists at Agharkar Research Institute (ARI), Pune, an autonomous institute under the Department of Science & Technology, have isolated 45 different strains of methanotrophic bacteria which have been found to be capable of reducing methane emissions from rice plants. Methanotrophs metabolise and convert methane into carbon-di-oxide. They can effectively reduce the emission of methane, which is the second most important greenhouse gas (GHG) and 26 times more potent as compared to carbon-di-oxide.  In rice fields, methanotrophs are active near the roots or soil-water interfaces. Rice fields are human-made wetlands and are waterlogged for a considerable period. Anaerobic degradation of organic matter results in the generation of methane. Rice fields contribute to nearly 10% of global methane emissions. Very few studies in the world have focused on methanotrophs from tropical wetlands or tropical rice fields. Before scientists at ARI started their studies, practically no cultures of indigenously isolated methanotrophs from India were available. Native and relevant methanotrophs isolated from rice fields can be excellent models to understand the effect of various factors on methane mitigation. Ammonium fertilizers, increasing temperatures (due to global warming) are some of the important factors which the team plans to study in the future.  Besides methane mitigation studies, methanotrophs can also be used in methane value addition (valorization) studies. Bio-methane generated from waste can be used by the methanotrophs and can be converted to value-added products such as single-cell proteins, carotenoids, biodiesel, and so on. The team is further working on methane valorization studies from the isolated methanotrophs. Such studies help reduce GHG emissions, especially anthropogenic or man-made emissions, which a pressing need in the age of global warming.

Under the Central Sector Scheme Silk Samagra an Integrated Scheme for Development of Silk Industry (ISDSI) implemented by Government of India through Central Silk Board (CSB) with a total outlay of Rs. 2161.68 crore for three years (2017-18 to 2019-20) for the overall development of silk industry in the Country with an objective to scale up production by improving the quality and productivity.  The scheme comprises four major components viz. (i) Research & Development, Training, Transfer of Technology and Information Technology Initiatives, (ii) Seed Organizations, (iii) Coordination and Market Development and (iv) Quality Certification Systems (QCS) / Export Brand Promotion and Technology Up-gradation.

Recently, the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) has conducted the National level Search and Rescue Exercise (SAREX-2020) in Goa. The exercise has been conducted biennially since 2003 by Indian Coast Guard under the aegis of National Maritime Search and Rescue Board (NMSARB). Further, the exercise witnessed the participation of around 24 overseas observers from 19 countries.

UNICEF along with Plan International and United Nations Women has released a report titled “A New era for girls: Taking stock on 25 years of progress”. The report is issued in the context of the Generation Equality campaign and to mark the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. According to the report the number of out-of-school girls worldwide dropped by 79 million between 1998 and 2018. The number of female youth aged 15-24 years who are illiterate declined from 100 million to 56 million between 1995 and 2018, but 1 in 10 female youth remain illiterate today. Since 1995, the proportion of young women who were married as children has declined globally from 1 in 4 to approximately 1 in 5. Over the past 25 years, the adolescent birth rate has declined from 60 births per 1,000 girls aged 15-19 years to 44 births worldwide.