• Status of Leopards report was released recently in New Delhi.

Highlights of the report

• India now has 12,852 leopards as compared to the previous estimate of 7910 conducted 2014.
• More than 60% increase in population has been recorded.
• The States of Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra recorded the highest leopard estimates at 3,421, 1,783 and 1,690 respectively.
• The leopard was estimated across forested habitats in tiger range areas of the country but other leopard occupied areas such as non-forested habitats (coffee and tea plantations and other land uses from where leopards are known to occur), higher elevations in the Himalayas, arid landscapes and majority of North East landscape were not sampled and, therefore, the population estimation should be considered as minimum number of leopards in each of the landscapes.

• The Government of India has decided to constitute a High Level Committee to commemorate the 125th Birth Anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.  
• This High Level Committee will decide on the activities for a one year long commemoration starting 23rd January, 2021.  
• The High Level Committee will be headed by the Union Home Minister, Shri Amit Shah.  
• The Commemoration is being held as a tribute and as a mark of gratitude to the colossal contribution Netaji made to India’s freedom struggle.

• Tribes India is an outlet focusses on sourcing new, natural, attractive as well as immunity-boosting tribal products and bringing them to the customer.
• Exquisite Dhokra products from different tribes of India were among the main items added in its 7th edition of “From Our Home to your Home” campaign on Tribes India.
• 35 new products were included in the Tribes India catalogue over the past week.
• Key among them are the dhokra style metal work.

• Exquisite Dhokra products from different tribes of India were among the main items added in its 7th edition of “From Our Home to your Home” campaign on Tribes India.
• Among the dhokra products being introduced on Tribes India campaign are attractive statues of fish, elephants and hangers in the boat jail design from the Lohra tribes of Jharkhand.
• From the Sadeibaraini tribals from Odisha, Ganesha statues, including a dancing Ganesha, a mask of Goddess Durga and Lord Jagannath, a Buddha Jaali and beautiful diyas in different shapes have been sourced.
• Other products include products from the Kattunayakan tribes of Tamil Nadu.
• These include different variants of pure, unadulterated honey, tasty pickles such as amla, vadu mango, ragiand types of rice.
• From the tribes of Assam, pure ghee, organic poha, pickles, raw honey have been sourced.

• National Water Mission (NWM), Ministry of Jal Shakti in collaboration with Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS), Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports launched the “JSA II: Catch the Rain” Awareness Generation Campaign recently.
• NWM has launched a campaign Catch the rain” with tag line “catch the rain, where it falls, when it falls” in order to nudge all stake-holders to create Rain Water Harvesting Structures (RWHS) suitable to the climatic conditions and sub-soil strata to store rain water as rains falling in the four/five months of monsoon are the only source of water for most parts of the country.  
• Some of the activities suggested to be taken up with peoples’ active participation under this campaign are:

1. To make water harvesting pits
2. Rooftop RWHS and check dams
3. Removal of encroachments and de-silting of tanks to increase their storage capacity
4. Removal of obstructions in the channels which bring water to them from the catchment areas
5. Repairs to traditional water harvesting structures like step-wells and using defunct bore-wells and old wells to put the water back to aquifers

• The collaboration with NYKS is a step to engage people at the grassroots through effective campaigning & IEC activities for implementation of the campaign.

Guru Tegh Bahadur

• Guru Tegh Bahadur was the ninth of ten Gurus of the Sikh religion, he was the youngest son of Guru Hargobind.
• He stood up for the rights of Kashmiri Pandits who approached him against religious persecution by Aurangzeb.
• He was publicly killed in 1675 on the orders of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in Delhi for himself refusing Mughal rulers and defying them.
• His martyrdom helped all Sikh Panths consolidate to make the protection of human rights central to its Sikh identity.
• Inspired by him, the 10th guru, Guru Gobind Singh organized the Sikh group into a distinct, formal, symbol-patterned community came to be known as Khalsa (Martial) identity.

E-20 Fuel

• E20 fuel, i.e. blend of 20% of ethanol with gasoline (petrol), as an automotive fuel and for the adoption of mass emission standards for this fuel.
• Ethanol is a biofuel and a common by-product of biomass left by agricultural feedstock such as corn, sugarcane, hemp, potato, etc.
• E20 is an automobile fuel which is capable of reducing vehicular emissions such as carbon dioxide, hydrocarbons, etc.
• It will help reduce the oil import bill, thereby saving foreign exchange and boosting energy security.
• It added the compatibility of vehicles with the percentage of ethanol in the blend would be defined by the vehicle manufacturer, which would have to be displayed on the vehicle with a sticker.

Shigellosis

• Shigella is a Gram-negative, non-motile bacillus belonging to the Enterobacteriaceae family, it causes an infection called shigellosis.
• The infected will have diarrhoea, stomach cramps and fever.
• Diarrhoea, often containing blood or mucus in stool, stomach pain, cramps, fever and vomiting are the main symptoms of the infection.
• Infants, non-breast fed children, children recovering from measles, malnourished children, and adults older than 50 years have a more severe illness and a greater risk of death.
• It is highly contagious and can be transmitted after using a common toilet also.
• The transmission occurs via the faecal-oral route, person-to-person contact, household flies, infected water, and inanimate objects.
• Pivmecillinam and Ceftriaxone were the only antimicrobials that are usually effective for treatment of multi-resistant strains of Shigella in all age groups.

Positive Pay System

• Recently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced that it will introduce the ‘Positive Pay System’ for cheques transactions above Rs 50,000 in a bid to enhance safety and eliminate frauds.
• Under this process, the issuer of the cheque submits electronically (through channels like SMS, mobile app, Internet banking and ATM) certain minimum details of that cheque to the drawee bank, details of which are cross-checked with the presented cheque by Cheque Truncation System (CTS).
• The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) will develop the facility of Positive Pay in CTS, and make it available to participant banks.
• The Positive Pay System will be implemented from January 1, 2021.
• While availing of this facility is at the discretion of the account holder, banks may consider making it mandatory in case of cheques for amounts of Rs 5,00,000 and above.

Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2)

• An enzyme called ACE alters a chemical, Angiotensin I, and converts it into Angiotensin II, which causes blood vessels to constrict.
• The tightening of the blood vessels leads to an increase in blood pressure.
• The ACE2 molecule comes in to counteract the effects of ACE, causing blood vessels to dilate and lowering blood pressure.
• The spikes that make up the ‘crown’ of coronavirus bind to ACE2 enzymes to get into our cells.
• These spikes on the surface of virus are called S1 proteins, and they are what binds to the ACE2 molecule on our cells.
• The virus is then able to invade the cell by a process called endocytosis, where the cell membrane engulfs the virus and internalises it within a bubble called an endosome.
• SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID-19, has a high binding capacity for ACE2 between 10 and 20 times more that of the original SARS virus.
• Men have higher levels of the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), which is a protein in the blood that Sars-CoV2, the virus that causes Covid-19, uses to enter human cells.