TOP 5 TAKKAR NEWS OF THE DAY (1st JULY 2023)

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1. THE NATIONAL RESEARCH FOUNDATION (NRF) BILL, 2023

TAG: GS 3: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

THE CONTEXT: Recently, the Union Cabinet approved the National Research Foundation (NRF) Bill, 2023, in the Parliament. The bill will establish NRF which will be as an apex body to provide “high-level strategic direction” to scientific research in the country as per recommendations of the National Education Policy (NEP).

EXPLANATION:

• The DST would be an administrative department of NRF that would be governed by a Governing Board consisting of eminent researchers and professionals across disciplines.
• The Prime Minister will be the ex-officio President of the Board and the Union Minister of Science & Technology and Union Minister of Education will be the ex-officio Vice-Presidents.
• NRF’s functioning will be governed by an Executive Council chaired by the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, the statement added.
• The proposed Bill also repeals the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB). established by Parliament in 2008 and subsumes it into the NRF.
• NRF is meant to ensure that scientific research was conducted and funded equitably and greater participation from the private sector.
• The NRF will prioritise research funding and the Executive Council will decide on what areas need support.
• The government will contribute ₹10,000 crore over five years.
• The DST, the main source of funds for several autonomous research bodies, will continue to get the budget it annually receives. The DST also funds several scholarships and capacity building programmes. The DST this year was allotted Rs 6,000 crore.
• NRF will forge collaborations among the industry, academia, and government departments and research institutions, and create an interface mechanism for participation and contribution of industries and State governments in addition to the scientific and line Ministries.
• It will focus on creating a policy framework and putting in place regulatory processes that can encourage collaboration and increased spending by the industry on R&D.
• NRF will provide an excellent opportunity for academia, industry, and research institutions to work together on the most pressing challenges of our country to make India the frontrunner in research and innovation.

Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB):

• The Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) is a statutory body with primary and distinctive mandate to support basic research in emerging areas of Science & Engineering.
• As the premier national research funding agency, raise the quality and footprint of Indian science and engineering to the highest global levels in an accelerated mode, through calibrated support for research and development.
• The SERB stimulates the search for new knowledge and encouraging invention, discovery, innovation and development by supporting bottom-up research competitively at all levels of research ecosystem.

Initiatives taken by SERB:

• SERB-SUPRA (Scientific and Useful Profound Research Advancement): It seeks to explore new scientific breakthroughs, with long-term impact on our fundamental scientific understanding, and offer disruptive technologies at the cutting edge.
  Most important measures of this scheme are:
• Quantum of advances (incremental and short terms gains are strongly discouraged).
• Extent of disruption in fundamental understanding or impact on outstanding research grand challenges: new areas, new concepts, new products, new disruptive technologies.
• Ability of research outcomes in enhancing scientific knowledge of the cutting-edge at the international level and/or emergence of critical technologies.
• Global impact, outstanding publications, advancement of science.
• SERB Science and Technology Award for Research (SERB-STAR): It is a prestigious award instituted by SERB to recognize and reward outstanding performance of Principal Investigators (PIs) of SERB Projects. It is an initiative to acknowledge exemplary contributions in research and also to motivate the PIs of ongoing projects for outstanding performance.
• SERB – POWER (Promoting Opportunities for Women in Exploratory Research): It is a scheme to mitigate gender disparity in science and engineering research funding in various S&T programs in Indian academic institutions and R&D laboratories. It endeavor to create a funding framework for empowering women researchers in Science, Technology and Innovation(STI) under the following two categories:

1. SERB – POWER Research Grants : This scheme aims to encourage emerging and eminent women researchers for individual-centric and competitive mode of research funding to undertake R&D activities in frontier areas of science and engineering.
2. SERB-POWER Fellowship: This Fellowship will identify and reward outstanding women researchers and innovators working in Indian academic institutions and R&D laboratories, holding Ph.D.degree in in any branch of science and engineering.

2. FINANCIAL STABILITY REPORT

TAG: GS 3: ECONOMY

THE CONTEXT: Recently, RBI has released the financial stability report that paints a picture of a relatively robust Indian financial system whose principal challenge is now external.

EXPLANATION:

Key findings:

• Scheduled commercial banks’ net non-performing assets (NPA) ratio fell to a 10-year low of 3.9 per cent in March 2023.
• Macro stress tests for credit risk reveal that SCBs are well-capitalised and all banks would be able to comply with the minimum capital requirements even under adverse stress scenarios.
• Tightening of global financial conditions, global growth slowdown and volatility in capital flows were cited as major

Highlights from the banking sector in India :

1. Deposit growth crossed 10 per cent

• The aggregate deposit picked up pace to reach 11.8 per cent as on June 02, 2023. RBI pointed out in its report that this growth was mainly driven by private-sector banks.
• In the rising interest rate cycle, term deposits have garnered healthy accretions at the cost of current account and savings account (CASA) deposits.

2. Credit growth surpassed 15 per cent

• RBI highlighted that there has been remarkable credit growth in the banking sector, equally driven by the public sector banks and the private ones.
• Credit growth reached 15.4 per cent, with considerable contribution from the personal loan segment.

3. Improved asset quality: GNPA touched a decadal low

• As per the reports, the asset quality of SCBs continued to improve and their GNPA ratio declined to 3.9 per cent in March 2023, a 10 year low.
• The net NPA ratio of the scheduled commercial banks also improved to 1.0 per cent, a level last observed in June 2011.

4. Fall in the number of large borrowers

• The share of large borrowers in gross advances of SCBs declined successively over the past three years as it came down from 51.1 per cent in March 2020 to 46.4 per cent in March 2023 as retail loans grew faster than borrowings by corporates.
• The share of large borrowers in the GNPAs of SCBs also came down substantially.

5. Higher profit margins

• During 2022-23, the net interest margin or NIM improved by 30 bps as the transmission of monetary policy tightening to deposit rates lagged the passthrough to lending.
• Bank’s profit after tax (PAT) recorded a healthy growth of 38.4 per cent (y-o-y) during 2022-23, led by a strong increase in net interest income (NII) and a lowering of provisions.
• Net interest margin (NIM) is a measurement comparing the net interest income a financial firm generates from credit products like loans and mortgages, with the outgoing interest it pays holders of savings accounts and certificates of deposit (CDs).
• NII or net interest income is the difference between the income a bank earns from its lending activities and the interest it pays to depositors whereas NIM or net interest margin is calculated by dividing NII by the average earning assets.

The Financial Stability Report (FSR)

• It is a biannual or half-yearly publication with contributions from all the financial sector regulators and released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
• The FSR reflects the collective assessment of the Sub-Committee of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) on risks to financial stability, as also the resilience of the financial system.

Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC):

• The Council is chaired by the Union Finance Minister.
• Its members are Governor, Reserve Bank of India; Finance Secretary and/or Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs; Secretary, Department of Financial Services; Chief Economic Adviser, Ministry of Finance; Chairman, Securities and Exchange Board of India; Chairman, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority and Chairman, Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority.
• The Council deal with issues relating to financial stability, financial sector development, inter–regulatory coordination, financial literacy, financial inclusion and macro prudential supervision of the economy including the functioning of large financial conglomerates.
• A sub-committee of FSDC has also been set up under the chairmanship of Governor RBI. The Sub-Committee discusses and decides on a range of issues relating to financial sector development and stability including substantive issues relating to inter-regulatory coordination.

Sri Krishna Committee Recommendations:

• Aiming to reform financial sector regulations for the longer term in keeping with systemic risks involved in financial management, the government-appointed Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC) headed by Justice B. N. Srikrishna has proposed an Indian Financial Code Bill to enable creation of a unified financial regulator while limiting the role of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to monetary management.
• As per the proposed regulatory architecture recommended by the Commission, the unified financial agency (UFA) and not a unified financial regulator, the commission has asserted will comprise four existing agencies which will be merged into one.
• These are the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the Forward Markets Commission (FMC), the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) and the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA).
• Apart from the RBI along with the UFA, the Commission has suggested Financial Sector Appellate Tribunal (FSAT), Resolution Corporation, Financial Redressal Agency, Public Debt Management Agency and FSDC (Financial Stability and Development Council).
• The existing Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT), it said, will be subsumed into FSAT and the existing Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation of India (DICGC) will be subsumed into the Resolution Corporation.
• While the existing FSDC will continue to exist though with modified functions and a statutory framework, the Commission has recommended two new creations – a Financial Redressal Agency (FRA) and a new Debt Management Office.

3. COOLING OF OCEAN BY SHORT-LIVED HALOGENS

TAG: PRELIMS PERSPECTIVE

THE CONTEXT: According to recent study, the oceans cool the planet by releasing short-lived halogens which has not been accounted yet by climate models.

EXPLANATION:

• Apart from absorbing Carbon dioxide and moderating the climate, oceans also cool the planet by releasing short-lived halogens such as chlorine, bromine and iodine.
• Different models were used to quantify how short-lived halogen impact the global radiative balance, which includes solar radiation emitted by the sun and terrestrial radiation released by the Earth’s surface and atmosphere.
• Human activities cause pollutants such as ozone to deposit on the ocean, which then convert the soluble short-lived halogens into insoluble ones, forcing them out of the sea water and into the atmosphere.

Short-lived halogens

• They have a lifetime of less than six months in the atmosphere, are naturally produced by the oceans. Currently, these halogens contribute 8-10 per cent of cooling. This could increase to 18-31 per cent by 2100.
• They can cause a depletion of ozone in the troposphere. Ozone is a greenhouse gas that traps outgoing radiation, leading to warming. They reduce the formation of cooling aerosols, which are minute particles suspended in the atmosphere that reflect sunlight.
• They have increased global methane burden by 14 per cent and 9 per cent for pre-industrial and present-day conditions, respectively and have increased the levels of water vapour, a greenhouse gas, in the atmosphere.
• Their effect on methane is opposite. Short-lived halogens increase methane’s lifetime in the atmosphere by destroying hydroxyl radicals (OH). OH is a sink as it is known to break down this greenhouse gas.
• Though these halogens drive an increase in warming by influencing methane, water vapour and aerosols, they compensate this by destroying ozone, which exerts a cooling effect.
• However, Halogen emissions from the ocean are not the same across the world. Over continents, the emissions are small while it is bigger in polar regions and some places with higher ozone levels.

4. KHARCHI PUJA 2023

TAG: GS 1: ART AND CULTURE

THE CONTEXT: India is known for its rich cultural heritage with each Indian state having its distinct traditions and festivals. One such fascinating festival is Kharchi Puja, which is celebrated in the Northeastern state of Tripura. This year, the auspicious festival began on June 26 and will go on till July 2.

EXPLANATION:

• It is also called the ‘Festival of 14 Gods’, and is observed on the eighth day of the new moon in July or August every year.
• Kharchi Puja is observed annually on the Shukla Ashtami day, which falls on the eighth day of the lunar month of Ashadha. Depending on the lunar calendar, the festival’s exact dates change every year. The festival is carried out for seven days in a row.
• The festival is centred around the worship of Chaturdasa Devata, the ancestral deity of the Tripuri people. It holds immense religious and cultural importance and showcases the rich history and traditions of the community.
• During the festival, the people of Tripura also worship the earth along with their 14 deities. Although the festival has tribal origins, it is celebrated by both tribal and non-tribal people of Tripura.
• It is believed that the Mother Goddess or Tripura Sundari, the presiding deity of the land who protects the people of Tripura, menstruates during the time of Ambubachi, which is observed in June.
• There is a popular belief that the Earth becomes impure during the menstruation period of the Goddess. Hence, Kharchi Puja is observed to ritualistically clean the Earth after her menstruation is over and wash away the sins of the people in the land.

• An important ritual of the festival is the construction of the Chaturdasha Mandapa, which symbolises the royal palace of the Tripuri kings and is constructed by traditional artisans who craft the structure out of bamboo and thatched roofs.
• On the day of the main puja, the idols of all the 14 deities from the ancient Ujjayanta Palace are carried by the royal priest Chantai from the temple premises in Agartala to the holy Saidra river where they are dipped in the holy waters of the river and carried back to the temple.

Saidra or Haora river

• It streams through Agartala in India and is one of the largest rivers of India. Its chief tributaries are the Tripura and the Padma.
• It comes from the hills called Boromura in the central part of Tripura and streaming through the foothills passing through significant towns such as Champaknagar, Jirania, Khumulwng, Khayerpur and the main capital Agartala, it goes to come together with the well-known Padma river of Bangladesh.

5. ASPARTAME, THE ARTIFICIAL SWEETENER

TAG: PRELIMS PERSPECTIVE

THE CONTEXT: Aspartame, a popular artificial sweetener found in Diet Coke, chewing gum, yoghurt and other food products, is set to be declared a possible carcinogen by World Health Organization.

EXPLANATION:

What is aspartame?

• It is discovered in 1965 by American chemist James Schlatter
• Aspartame is about 200 times sweeter than the regular table sugar.
• It was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 1974 for use as a tabletop sweetener and as an additive in chewing gum, breakfast cereals and dry bases for foods.
• Despite its intense sweetness, aspartame has an almost zero calorific value and no bitter aftertaste like saccharin and grew in popularity as a more diet-conscious consumer emerged.

What products contain aspartame?

• The low-calorie sugar substitute can be found in soft drinks, gelatin, confectionery, desserts, and sugar-free cough drops. It is also used to enhance flavoring of baked and canned foods, powdered drink mixes, candy and puddings.

Other artificial sweeteners:

• Saccharin, sucralose and neotame are among five other artificial sweeteners alongside aspartame authorized by a WHO expert committee on food additives.
• The FDA has also approved usage of three types of plant- and fruit-based sweeteners, including extracts obtained from the stevia plant, swingle fruit extracts and a group of proteins called Thaumatin.

Uses around the world:

• More than ninety countries, including the UK, Spain, France, Italy, Denmark, Germany, Australia and New Zealand have reviewed aspartame and found it to be safe for human consumption and allow its use.
• While the FDA pins the acceptable daily intake (ADI) for aspartame at 50 milligrams per kilogram of body weight per day, the European regulatory body recommends a slightly lower ADI at 40 mg/kg/day.

India’s stand on artificial sweeteners:

• Non-sugar sweeteners are used extensively by large Indian brands of soft drinks, breakfast cereals, ice-creams and juices as “healthy” alternatives to sugar.
• The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has approved six artificial sweeteners, namely saccharin sodium, aspartame, acesulfame potassium, sucralose, neotame, and isomaltulose for use in food.
• So far, the FSSAI has not placed much restrictions on the use of sweeteners in India. Now, regulator is proposing to implement front-of-pack labelling on all packaged foods for salt, sugar and fat content.

Thaumatin

• Thaumatin is a group of intensely sweet proteins, which serves as a low-calorie sweetener and flavor modifier.
• It is obtained from the arils of the fruits of Thaumatococcus daniellii. Some proteins in the thaumatin family are 2000–3000 times sweeter than sucrose.
• The sweetness of thaumatin builds slowly but the perception remains for a long time offering a licorice-like after taste.
• It has good water solubility and stability during heating even in an acidic condition
• The uses of thaumatin are in milk, egg, fish, and poultry products mainly as a flavor enhancer. It is a permitted additive in several countries.
• It can also be used to mask the bitterness offered by the addition of saccharin in food products.