It belongs to “flavivirus” family along with tick-borne encephalitis, West Nile, and Dengue virus.
The virus is an African origin and it was first detected in Austria in 2001.
It caused a severe bird die-off, mainly of blackbirds and songbirds.
Besides wild birds, humans can also be infected with the virus through mosquito bites.
This year, already the virus is detected in songbirds in Austrian region.
INS Kiltan
It is the indigenously-built anti-submarine warfare stealth corvette.
It has been recently inducted into the Indian Navy.
It is the latest indigenous warship after Shivalik Class, Kolkata Class and sister ships INS Kamorta and INS Kadmatt.
It is India's first major warship to have a superstructure of carbon fibre composite material resulting in improved stealth features.
The ship derives its name from one of the islands in Aminidivi group of the Lakshadweep and Minicoy group of islands.
Melting ice in Greenland
For the first time, ocean data from Northeast Greenland reveals the long-term impact of the melting of the Greenland ice sheet.
The increased melting of Greenland ice causes coastal waters to become less saline.
The less saline water is expected to affect marine life as well as global ocean currents that keep Europe warm.
The ‘Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring Program’ shows that the fresh water from the ice sheet accumulates in the surface layer of the surrounding sea and flows into the Greenland fjords.
Meltdown of the Greenland ice sheet has more than doubled compared with the period 1983-2003.
Fjords are a long, narrow, deep inlet of the sea between high cliffs typically formed by submergence of a glaciated valley.
Pro bono legal services
Ministry of Law and Justice introduced the pro bono legal services scheme aiming to connect those in need of legal aid with lawyers through use of technology.
‘Pro-bono legal services’ – It is a web based platform through which the interested lawyers can register themselves to volunteer services for litigants who are unable to afford it.
Supreme Court has recently released the guidelines, which says that a lawyer should have fought a certain number of cases pro bono (free of cost) in order to be designated as a senior lawyer.
The government wants the same principle to be followed in the appointment of judges.
No Development Zone
The National Green Tribunal has passed a judgment declaring an area of 100 meters from the edge of the river between Haridwar and Unnao as “No Development Zone”.
It also prohibited dumping of waste within 500 metres from the river.
No-development zones are zones where no construction, including commercial or residential buildings, can come up.
Atal Pension Yojana
The Centre and the pension regulator PFRDA are hopeful of bringing at least one crore subscribers by March 2018 under the Atal Pension Yojana platform.
APY will be focussed on all citizens in the unorganised sector, who join the National Pension System (NPS) administered by PFRDA.
It is open to all bank account holders who are not members of any statutory social security scheme.
It mainly targets on unorganised sector workers.
Under the APY, the subscribers would receive the fixed pension ranging from Rs. 1000 - Rs. 5000 per month, at the age of 60 years, depending on their contributions.
The age of joining APY is 18 years to 40 years. Therefore, minimum period of contribution by the subscriber under APY would be 20 years or more.
The Central Government would also co-contribute 50% of the subscriber’s contribution or Rs. 1000 per annum, whichever is lower for a period of 5 years upto 2020.
