Facts in News

                               Facts in News

Pasteurella multocida

• Recently, 7 elephants in Karlapat Wildlife Sanctuary, Odisha have died of haemorrhagic septicaemia caused by bacteria Pasteurella multocida.
• Pasteurella multocida is a Gram-negative, nonmotile, penicillin-sensitive coccobacillus of the family Pasteurellaceae.
  • Gram-negative are the bacteria that do not retain the crystal violet stain used in the gram-staining method of bacterial differentiation.
  • Non-Motile means not capable of movement.
  • Coccobacillus (plural coccobacilli), or bacilluscocco, is bacterium with shape intermediate between cocci (spherical bacteria) and bacilli (rod-shaped bacteria).
  • Penicillin is an antibiotic originally obtained from Penicillium moulds.
    • It was the first antibiotic in the world, discovered by Alexander Fleming.
• P. multocida is the cause of a range of diseases in mammals and birds, including fowl cholera in poultry, atrophic rhinitis in pigs, and bovine hemorrhagic septicemia in cattle and buffalo.
  • It can also cause a zoonotic infection in humans, which typically is a result of bites or scratches from domestic pets.
  • Many mammals (including domestic cats and dogs) and birds harbour it as part of their normal respiratory microbiota.

Nidhi Companies

• Nidhi Company is a type of Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC).
  • It is formed to borrow and lend money to its members.
  • It inculcates the habit of saving among its members and works on the principle of mutual benefit.
  • These companies typically operate in the southern part of the country.
  • The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) keeps regulatory oversight.
  • RBI has relaxed norms for Nidhi Companies as compared to other NBFCs and exempted them from the core provisions of the RBI Act because they deal with their shareholder-members only.
• “Sabanayagam Committee” suggested changes in the policies and regulatory framework of Nidhi companies.
• The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has notified new regulations to curb the frauds in Nidhi Companies by amending the Companies Act, 2013 and the Nidhi Rules, 2014.
  • NDH-4 form is to be submitted by firms to get enrolled as Nidhi Companies.
  • Investor advisories regarding verification of the antecedents/status of a Nidhi company before investing have also been issued by MCA.
    • Several firms have already been declared unfit as they were non-compliant with the required standard.
• A firm is notified as a Nidhi company by the government under Section 620A of the Companies Act, 1956.

Coffee Cultivation

• Second most important beverage of India after tea.
• Indigenous to Abyssinia Plateau (Ethiopia).
• It was brought to India by Baba Budan in the 17th century from Arabia and was raised in the Baba Budan Hills of Karnataka.
• British planters established large coffee estates near
  • Chikmagalur (Karnataka) in 1826.
  • Manantody (Wayanad) and Shevoroys in 1830.
  • Nilgiris in 1839.
• At present, more than 52,000 coffee gardens giving employment to 2.5 million persons exist in India.
• ‘Coffee Board of India’ was established through a constitutional act ‘Coffee Act VII of 1942’ under the administrative control of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
  • It comprises 6 Statutory Committees as per Coffee Act.
  • The Board comprises 33 members including the Chairman and the Secretary & Chief Executive Officer.
  • The remaining 31 members represent various interests such as
    • Coffee growing industry.
    • Coffee trade interests.
    • Curing establishments.
    • Interests of labour and consumers.
    • Representatives of governments of the principal coffee-growing states.
    • Members of Parliament.

• Conditions of Growth
  • Hot and humid climate
  • Temperature between 15°C and 28 °C.
  • Rainfall from 150 to 250 cm.
  • Well-drained, rich friable loams containing a good deal of humus and minerals like iron and calcium are ideal for coffee cultivation.
  • Dry weather is necessary at the time of ripening of the berries.
  • The crop is not tolerant to
    • Frost and snowfall.
    • High temperature above 30°C and strong sunshine (Hence, generally grown under shady trees on Northern and Eastern aspects of Hill).
    • Prolonged drought.
    • Stagnant water (Hence, grown on hill slopes at elevations from 600 to 1,600 metres above sea level).
  • Coffee cultivation requires plenty of cheap and skilled labour for various operations including sowing, transplanting, pruning, plucking, drying, grading and packing of coffee.

                 Source: Coffee Board of India

• Production Statistics
  • Coffee Arabica (49% of the area) and Coffee Robusta (51% of the area) are the two main varieties of coffee grown in India.
  • Karnataka is the largest producer (about 70% of total coffee production and 60% of the area under coffee in India).

Saras Aajeevika Mela

• The Saras Aajeevika Mela 2021 is underway at Noida Haat.
  • More than 300 rural self-help groups and craftsmen from 27 states are participating in the Mela.
• It is an initiative by the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM), Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD).
• Objective
  • To bring the rural women Self Help Groups (SHGs) formed with the support of DAY-NRLM, under one platform to showcase their skills, sell their products and help them build linkages with bulk buyers.
• Through participation in the Mela, these rural SHG women get vital national level exposure to understand the demand and taste of urban customers.

City Innovation Exchange (CIX) Platform

• It was launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
• It will connect cities to innovators across the national ecosystem to design innovative solutions for their pressing challenges.
• The platform will ease the discovery, design and validation of solutions through a robust, transparent and user-centric process that will reduce barriers for innovators and cities to discover fitting solutions.
• The platform will help Indian cities in adopting solutions that will enhance the quality of life for residents and significantly improve the Ease of Doing Business.
• It will be a significant addition to the growing innovation ecosystem of India and focuses on fostering innovative practices in cities.

Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) Test

• Under the test, copies of a segment of Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) are created using an enzyme called ‘Polymerase’.
• The ‘Chain Reaction’ implies how the DNA fragments are copied significantly, where one is copied into two, which are then copied into four, and so on.
• The ‘Probe’ (fluorescent DNA Binding Dye) is added to DNA, which shows the presence of the virus on a fluorometer.
• Covid-19 is made of Ribonucleic Acid (RNA). To detect it by PCR, it is converted into DNA using a technique called ‘Reverse Transcription’. These copies of the DNA are then made and amplified.
• Kary Mullis, an American biochemist, invented the PCR technique for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1993.