28 Mar 2022: PIB Summary for UPSC

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Matua Dharma Maha Mela
2. Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA)
3. Programme on Seagrasses
4. Petascale Supercomputer Param Shakti
5. Sahi Fasal Campaign
6. Polyherbal eco-friendly technology can combat tick infestation among dairy animals

1. Matua Dharma Maha Mela

Context: On the occasion of the 211th birth anniversary of Shree Shree Harichand Thakur Ji, Prime Minister will address Matua Dharma Maha Mela 2022.

• Matua Dharma Maha Mela
  • Matua Dharma Maha Mela 2022 is being organized by the All India Matua Mahasangha in West Bengal.
• Shree Shree Harichand Thakur Ji:
  • He devoted his life to the cause of betterment of the oppressed, downtrodden and deprived persons in undivided Bengal during the pre-independence era. 
  • The social and religious movement started by him originated in Orakandi (now in Bangladesh) in 1860 and led to the formation of the Matua Dharma.

2. Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA)

Context: 

The Central Consumer Protection Authority has directed the discontinuation of ‘Sure Vision’ advertisements and imposed a penalty of Rs 10 Lakh over false and misleading claims.

About Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA):

• Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) is the authority being constituted under Section 10(1) of The Consumer Protection Act, 2019. 
• The CCPA aims to regulate the matters related to violations of the rights of consumers, unfair trade practices and false or misleading advertisements prejudicial to the interest of the public and to safeguard the rights of consumers as a class.

Know more about the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.

3. Programme on Seagrasses

Context: 

The government aims to strengthen the climate resilience of coastal communities by protecting and restoring India’s natural ecosystems such as mangroves and seagrasses.

What are Seagrasses?

• Seagrasses are flowering plants that are found in our sea beds and ocean floors. 
• Distribution of Seagrasses: The major seagrass beds exist along our coastline of 
  • Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay regions on the east coast,
  • Gulf of Kachchh region on the west coast,
  • the lagoons of islands in Lakshadweep in the Arabian Sea,
  • Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal.
• Seagrass ecosystems are recognized globally for their ability to sequester carbon, nurture fish communities and support marine mammals such as sea cows or dugongs.

4. Petascale Supercomputer Param Shakti

Context: 

Petascale Supercomputer Param Shakti was inaugurated at IIT Kharagpur under the National Supercomputing Mission.

Param Shakti:

• PARAM Shakti is a Petascale Supercomputer that has been dedicated to the nation under the National Supercomputing Mission (NSM).
  • NSM is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)  and the Department of Science and Technology (DST). 
• Benefits of PARAM Shakti supercomputing facility are:
  • accelerating the research and development activities in multidisciplinary domains of computational and data sciences 
  • provides large-scale computing power to the user community 
  • would aid researchers to solve large-scale problems in different fields of Science and Engineering
  • major boost to the research and development initiatives in Indian academia and industries to reach a position of global esteem

5. Sahi Fasal Campaign

Context: This article discusses the features of the Sahi Fasal Campaign.

Sahi Fasal Campaign

• ‘Sahi Fasal’ campaign was launched by the National Water Mission, Ministry of Jal Shakti in 2019.
• It aims to nudge the farmers in the water-stressed areas to grow less water-intensive, economically remunerative and environmentally friendly crops. 
• ‘Sahi Fasal’ is an awareness generation campaign implemented with the objective of weaning away the farmers from growing water-intensive crops and using micro-irrigation techniques with a view to increasing water use efficiency in agriculture.
• Since this is an awareness generation campaign, no separate allocation of funds has been made by this Ministry for the ‘Sahi Fasal’ campaign. 

6. Polyherbal eco-friendly technology can combat tick infestation among dairy animals

Context: 

The National Innovation Foundation (NIF) – India has developed and standardized a formulation polyherbal for dairy animals.

What is Polyherbal?

• The use of more than one herb in a medicinal preparation is known as polyherbal formulation. 
• The concept can be found in Ayurvedic and other traditional medicinal systems, which use multiple herbs in a specific ratio to treat illness.

Polyherbal for dairy animals:

• The National Innovation Foundation (NIF) – India has developed and standardized a formulation comprising common herbal ingredients like Neem (Azadirachta indica) and Nagod (Vitex negundo). 
  • National Innovation Foundation (NIF) – India is an autonomous body of the Department of Science & Technology, 
• This formulation has been found to be effective in combating tick infestation among dairy animals. 
• The formulation is easy to prepare and effective against hard tick infestation and Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) Sp. the etiological parasite in cattle.

Read previous PIB here.

March 28th, 2022, PIB:- Download PDF Here