25th October: Ayurveda Day
Why in news?
- Ministry of AYUSH, Govt. of India celebrated Ayurveda Day on 25th October, 2019 on the day of Dhanvantari Jayanti (Dhanteras).
- On this occasion, Ministry also facilitated Ayurveda experts with “National Dhanwantari Ayurveda Award.”
Objectives of the Day:
- Create a sense of awareness about Ayurvedic principles of healing in society in today’s generation.
Purpose of Celebration:
- It is celebrated every year on the occasion of Dhanwantari Jayanti (Dhanteras) since 2016.
- Lord Dhanvantari is considered as divine propagator of Ayurveda.
- He is conferred with the virtues of granting health and wealth. Therefore, Dhanvantari Jayanti was preferred for celebration of Ayurveda Day.
National Dhanwantari Ayurveda Award:
- The award instituted by Ministry of AYUSH is conferred every year on the Ayurveda Day.
- It is conferred on Ayurveda experts possessing qualifications included in II, III, IV schedule of IMCC Act, 1970 and having profound contribution to the field of Ayurveda.
- A cash prize of Rs. 5 lacs along with citation are given to the awardees.
National Panchayat Awards 2019
Why in news?
- Union Minister for Panchayati Raj conferred the National Panchayat Awards 2019 on the 240 panchayats. He also launched Spatial Planning Application ‘Gram Manchitra.’
Details about the following categories:
- Deen Dayal Upadhyay Panchayat Sashaktikaran Puraskar (DDUPSP): given to best performing Panchayats (District, Intermediate and Gram) in recognition of the good work done for improving delivery of services and public goods such as Sanitation, Social Sector Performance, Disaster Management, Innovation in revenue generation, e-Governance etc.
- Nanaji Deshmukh Rashtriya Gaurav Gram Sabha Puraskar (NDRGGSP): Given to Gram Panchayats (GPs) for their outstanding contribution to the socio-economic development by involving Gram Sabhas.
- Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP) Award: It is conferred to best performing Gram Panchayats (GPs) across the country which have developed their GPDPs according to the State/UT specific guidelines.
- Child-friendly Gram Panchayat Award: This award is given for best performing GPs/Village Councils (VCs) (one in each State/UT) for adopting child-friendly practices.
- e-Panchayat Puraskar: The main aim of this award is to incentivize those States/UTs, which have made dedicated efforts in adopting and implementing the e-Panchayat Applications and enabling electronic delivery of services through Panchayats & equivalent rural bodies.
Gram Manchitra:
- The Minister also launched a Spatial Planning Application called ‘Gram Manchitra’ which is a Geo Spatial based decision support system for the panchayats.
- The panchayats can utilize this App to plan, develop and monitor developmental activities on real time basis.
Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index (MMGPI) 2019
- According to the Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index (MMGPI) 2019, India has marginally improved its ranking to 32nd position in terms of providing pension and retirement benefits to citizens compared to last year.
About:
- The MMGPI, which covers 37 countries, is based on how they fare on providing pension and retirement benefits to citizens across different income groups.
- India stood at 32nd position in 2019 out of 37 countries, while it was ranked at 33rd place in 2018 out of 34 countries in the list. The country’s score in the MMGPI 2019 rose to 45.8 from 44.6 last year. India’s index value increased largely due to the improvement in all three sub-indices of adequacy, sustainability and integrity.
- In the overall list, the Netherlands had the highest index value (81.0), while Thailand had the lowest value (39.4).
- Sub-index wise, Ireland had the highest score for adequacy (81.5), Denmark for sustainability (82.0) and Finland for integrity (92.3). Thailand scored the lowest for adequacy (35.8), Italy for sustainability (19.0) and Philippines for integrity (34.7).
Gill-Oxygen Limitation Theory: GOLT
- In a new research paper, Scientists have explained the biological reasons why fish species will shift towards the poles due to impact of climate change. Scientists have described this with the Gill-Oxygen Limitation Theory (GOLT).
About:
- According to Gill-Oxygen Limitation Theory (GOLT), warming waters have less oxygen. Therefore, fish have difficulties breathing in such environments. Additionally, such warming, low-oxygen waters also increase fish’s oxygen demands because their metabolism speeds up.
- This is because, as fish grow, their demand for oxygen increases. However, the surface area of the gills (two-dimensional) does not grow at the same pace as the rest of the body (three-dimensional). The larger the fish,
the smaller its surface area relative to the volume of its body. - So, the fish move to waters whose temperatures resemble those of their original habitats and that satisfy their oxygen needs.
- As the global sea surface temperature has increased by approximately 0.13°C per decade over the past 100 years, “suitable” waters are more and more found towards the poles and at greater depths.
Organoids
Why in news?
- Two neuroscientists have warned that fellow scientists are “perilously close” to crossing the ethical red line of growing mini-brains or organoids in the laboratory that can perceive or feel things.
What is all about?
Organoids:
- Organoids are a group of cells grown in laboratories into three-dimensional, miniature structures that mimic the cell arrangement of a fully-grown organ.
- They are tiny (typically the size of a pea) organ-like structures that do not achieve all the functional maturity of human organs but often resemble the early stages of a developing tissue.
- Organoids are grown in the laboratory using stem cells or induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC). Stem cells are provided with nutrients and other specific molecules to grow and become cells resembling a specific organ.
- Organoids of the brain, small intestine, kidney, heart, stomach, eyes, liver, pancreas, prostate, salivary glands, and inner ear to name a few have already been developed in the laboratory.
- Since the organoids closely resemble mature tissues, they can be used for studying the complex arrangements of cells in three-dimension and their function in detail, and understanding how cells assemble into organs. Organoids can be used to study the safety and efficacy of new drugs
- Organoids do not have sensory inputs and sensory connections from the brain are limited. Isolated regions of the brain cannot communicate with other brain regions or generate motor signals. Thus, the possibility of consciousness or other higher-order perceptive properties emerging seems extremely remote.
Wildfires
- Citing data from its Sentinel-3 World Fire Atlas, the European Space Agency (ESA) has announced that compared to August 2018, there were almost five times as many wildfires across the world in August 2019.
About the prototype
- Sentinel-3 is an Earth observation satellite constellation developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) as part of the Copernicus Programme.
- The Sentinel-3 World Fires Atlas Prototype product has been developed by ESA over the southern countries of the ESA member states.
- it aims to provide continuity to ESA ATSR World Fire Atlas (operating from June 1995 to March 2012) taking on board all the improvements of Sentinel-3 SLSTR instrument.
Key findings:
- The ESA’s Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission recorded 79,000 fires in August this year, compared to just over 16,000 fires detected during the same period last year.
- The data revealed that 49% of the fires were detected in Asia, around 28% were detected in South America, 16% in Africa, and the remaining were recorded in North America, Europe and Oceania.