• Dr.Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare has released the India Report on Longitudinal Ageing Study of India (LASI) Wave-1 recently.

Longitudinal Ageing Study of India (LASI)

• It is a full–scale national survey of scientific investigation of the health, economic, and social determinants and consequences of population ageing in India.
• The National Programme for Health Care of Elderly, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has undertaken the Longitudinal Ageing Study of India, through International Institute for Population Sciences, (IIPS), Mumbai.
• The study was conducted in collaboration with Harvard School of Public Health, University of Southern California, USA, Dte.GHS, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and National Institute on Ageing.
• The LASI, Wave 1 covered a baseline sample of individuals aged 45 and above and their spouses including elderly persons aged 60 and above and oldest-old persons aged 75 and above from all States and Union Territories (UTs) of India (excluding Sikkim).
• It is India’s first and the world’s largest ever survey that provides a longitudinal database for designing policies and programmes for the older population in the broad domains of social, health, and economic well-being.
• The evidence from LASI will be used to further strengthen and broaden the scope of National Programme for Health Care of the Elderly and also help in establishing a range of preventive and health care programmes for older population and most vulnerable among them.

• In 2011 census, the 60+ population accounted for 8.6% of India’s population, accounting for 103 million elderly people.
• Growing at around 3% annually, the number of elderly age population will rise to 319 million in 2050.
• 75% of the elderly people suffer from one or the other chronic disease.
• 40% of the elderly people have one or the other disability and 20% have issues related to mental health.

• Astronomers running the world’s largest initiative to look for alien life have recently picked up an “intriguing” radio wave emission from the direction of Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our Sun.

Proxima Centauri

• It is 4.2 light-years away from the Sun – considered a close distance in cosmic terms.
• Its mass is about an eighth of the Sun’s, and it is too dim to be seen with the naked eye from Earth.
• Proxima b, one of the two planets that revolve around the star, is the subject of significant curiosity.
• Sized 1.2 times larger than Earth, and orbiting its star every 11 days, Proxima b lies in Proxima Centauri’s “Goldilocks zone”.

Goldilocks Zone

• A habitable zone, also called the “Goldilocks zone”, is the area around a star where it is not too hot and not too cold for liquid water to exist on the surface of surrounding planets.
• Our Earth is in the Sun’s Goldilocks zone.
• If Earth were where the dwarf planet Pluto is, all its water would freeze; on the other hand, if Earth were where Mercury is, all its water would boil off.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has remembered Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on 75th Anniversary of tricolor hoisting at Port Blair.
• 1943, a day etched in the memory of every Indian, when the brave Netaji Subhas Bose hoisted the Tricolour at Port Blair.
• On July 22, 1947, the Constituent Assembly adopted it as independent India’s National Flag.

• The Standing Committee of National Board of Wildlife (SC-NBWL) in its 60th meeting held recently has approved the advisory for management of Human-Wildlife Conflict (HWC) in the country.
• During the meeting, SC-NBWL has approved the inclusion of Caracal into the list of critically endangered species.

Caracal

• It is a medium size wild cat found in some parts of Rajasthan and Gujarat.
• It will help in taking up conservation efforts with financial support under Centrally Sponsored Scheme-Development of Wildlife Habitat.
• Now, there are 22 wildlife species under recovery programme for critically endangered species.

Whale Shark

• It is an ‘endangered’ species under IUCN, and are protected under the Wildlife Protection Act.
• It was also a slow-moving, and the largest known extant fish species.
• The whale shark is a filter-feeder shark, which means it does not eat meat like other sharks.
• In India largest whale shark aggregation is in Gujarat and the only aggregation along east coast is in Andhra Pradesh.

Community Forest Rights

• Gram Sabhas will have more power in the management of community forest rights (CFR) and habitat rights.
• FRA give Gram Sabhas “right to protect, regenerate or conserve or manage any community forest resource which they have been traditionally protecting and conserving for sustainable use.
• Recent guidelines on CFR by Tribal affairs ministry, is aimed at creating community forests resource management committee as an executive arm of the Gram Sabha in managing CFR areas.
• According to the draft, the Gram Sabhas will be empowered to carry out the powers and authority as laid down under section 5 of FRA, 2006 and also make rules or issue directions for management of fund generated from various sources.

Awards for Excellence in Drug Research

• Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI), instituted the award in 2004 to promote the discovery, development and research of drugs and scientific excellence in India.
• The annual awards are for Indian citizens below 45 who have carried out outstanding research in areas with a direct bearing on drug research and development.
• There are two separate individual awards each in the area of Chemical and Life Sciences.
• They carry a cash prize of Rs 20,000 and a citation.

Vertical and Horizontal Reservations

• Reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes is referred to as vertical reservation.
• It applies separately for each of the groups specified under the law.
• Horizontal reservation refers to the equal opportunity provided to other categories of beneficiaries such as women, veterans, the transgender community, and individuals with disabilities, cutting through the vertical categories.
• The horizontal quota is applied separately to each vertical category, and not across the board.
• For example, if women have 50% horizontal quota, then half of the selected candidates will have to necessarily be women in each vertical quota category — i.e., half of all selected SC candidates will have to be women, half of the unreserved or general category will have to be women, and so on.

Magneto-Telluric (MT)

• Magneto-telluric (MT) is a geophysical method which uses natural time variation of the Earth’s magnetic and electric fields to understand geological (underground) structure and processes.
• It uses measurements of natural geomagnetic and geoelectric field variation at the Earth's surface.
• Recently MT measurements are conducted across three major seismic sources, namely

1. Mahendragarh-Dehradun Fault (MDF),
2. Sohna Fault (SF),
3. Mathura Fault (MF),

• The results of MT survey will be useful in accurate assessment of seismic hazard.