National Perspective Plan (NPP)

• It was formulated in 1980 by the then Ministry of Irrigation (now Ministry of Jal Shakti).
• It envisages inter-basin transfer of water from surplus basins to deficit ones with a view to minimize the regional imbalances and optimally utilize the available water resources.
• National Perspective Plan comprises of two components viz. Himalayan Rivers Development and Peninsular Rivers Development.
• Under the NPP, the National Water Development Agency (NWDA) has identified 30 links (16 under Peninsular Component and 14 under Himalayan Component) for preparation of Feasibility Reports (FRs). 
• The Government has also taken up the inter-linking of rivers (ILR) program in a consultative manner for relief to the people suffering from floods and droughts. 

• The Gandhi Peace Prize for the year 2020 is being conferred on Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Gandhi Peace Prize

• It is an annual award instituted by Government of India since 1995, the 125th Birth Anniversary commemoration year of Mahatma Gandhi.
• The award is open to all persons regardless of nationality, race, language, caste, creed or sex.
• The Jury for Gandhi Peace Prize is chaired by Hon’ble Prime Minister, Sh Narendra Modi ,and comprises  of two ex-officio members, namely the Chief Justice of India and  Leader of the single largest Opposition Party in Lok Sabha.
• Two eminent members are also part of the Jury, namely Shri Om Birla, Speaker of the Lok Sabha, and Shri Bindeshwar Pathak, Founder of Sulabh International Social Service Organization.
• The award carries an amount of Rs. 1 crore, a citation, a plaque and an exquisite traditional handicraft/ handloom item.

Sperm Whales

• They are the largest of the toothed whales and have one of the widest global distributions of any marine mammal species.
• They are found in all deep oceans, from the equator to the edge of the pack ice in the Arctic and Antarctic.
• They are named after the waxy substance, spermaceti, found in their heads. Spermaceti was used in oil lamps, lubricants, and candles. 
• They have the largest brain of any creature known to have lived on Earth.
• It has been listed as Vulnerable under the IUCN Red List.

• Every year, India imports helium worth Rs.55,000 crores from the U.S. to meet its needs.
• The United States of America (USA) is planning to switch off export of helium from 2021.
• Qatar is a possible exporter but acute political and diplomatic wrangles have made Qatar unreliable.

Helium

• Helium is colourless, odourless, tasteless, inert and a noble gas.
• Yet, it finds many applications, mainly in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, in rockets and in nuclear reactors.
• The U.S. became the most important exporter of helium across the world and also the biggest store house of helium.
• India imports helium for its needs, and with the U.S. appearing set to cut off exports of helium since 2021, Indian industry stands to lose out heavily. 
• India’s Rajmahal volcanic basin is the store house of helium trapped for billions years, since the very birth of our Earth from the Sun.
• At present, we are mapping the Rajmahal basin extensively for future exploration and harnessing of helium.

• United Nations World Water Development Report was recently published by UNESCO on behalf of UN Water on March 22, 2021 observed as World Water Day.
• According to the report, built water reservoir capacity per person is decreasing globally as reservoir expansion has not been able to keep pace with population growth.

International Pulsar Timing Array (IPTA)

• IPTA’s goal is to detect and characterize the low-frequency gravitational wave universe through timing a global array of approximately 100 millisecond pulsars using the largest radio telescopes in the world.
• IPTA comprises European Pulsar Timing Array (EPTA), North American Nano hertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) and Parkes Pulsar Timing Array (PPTA) from Australia.
• Recently, India has become the first Asian country to be a full member of IPTA consortium.
• By this The Indian Pulsar Timing Array (InPTA) and the Giant Metre wave Radio Telescope (uGMRT) are likely to play significant roles in the detection of Nano-hertz GWs and gravitational astronomy with gravitational ways in the future.

Right to Counsel in Custody

• In India, the safeguards available to a person in such circumstances are enshrined in the Constitution.
• Article 20 (3) states that no person accused of any offence shall be compelled to be a witness against himself.
• Article 22 states that a person cannot be denied the right to consult and to be defended by a legal practitioner of his choice.
• It includes provisions that grant an accused the “right to consult” a lawyer.
• Unlike in some countries, the lawyers in India are not allowed to be with an accused throughout their investigation.

Police v/s judicial custody

• Police custody means that the person is confined at a lock up or remains in the custody of the officer.
• The magistrate may remand an accused person to custody of police for a period not more than 15 days as a whole
• After lapse of 15 days or the police custody period granted by the magistrate, the person may be further remanded to judicial custody.
• In police custody, the person has the right to legal counsel, right to be informed of the grounds which the police have to ensure.
• Judicial custody means that the person is detained under the purview of the judicial magistrate is lodged in central or state prison.
• In judicial custody, the person can apply for a bail as per the CrPC chapter 33 pertaining to the bails and bonds.
• The judicial custody can extend up to 60 or 90 days as a whole, depending upon the maximum punishment prescribed for the offence.
• In the judicial custody in jails, while the person under responsibility of the magistrate, the Prison Manual comes into picture for routine conduct of the person.
• Thus in police custody, the investigating authority can interrogate a person while in judicial custody, officials need permission of the court for questioning.

Candida Auris

• Candida Auris belongs to the Superbug Candida Auris of the Metschnikowiaceae family of the order Saccharomycetales.
• It was first identified in 2009 in a patient in Japan.
• The C.auris’ thermal and salinity tolerance is because of its adaptation to global warming, which makes the human body more susceptible as a host.
• For the first time the fungus has been found in tropical marshes and marine environments, outside hospital environments.
• The fungus is deadly when it enters the bloodstream, or inhabits the body of a patient suffering from a serious disease such as cancer.

Quantum Key Distribution (QKD)

• Quantum key distribution (QKD) is a secure communication method which implements a cryptographic protocol involving components of quantum mechanics.
• It enables two parties to produce a shared random secret key known only to them, which can then be used to encrypt and decrypt messages.
• Quantum computing uses qubits as basic resources, similar to how bits are used as basic resources in classical computing.
• The QKD is designed in a way that if an illegitimate entity tries to read the transmission, it will disturb the qubits which are encoded on photons.
• This will generate transmission errors, leading to legitimate end-users being immediately informed.
• Recently Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) demonstrated quantum key sharing in free space over a distance of 300 metres for the first time in the country.
• The demonstration included a live video-conferencing with quantum key encrypted signals between two line-of-sight buildings at Space Application Centre in Ahmedabad.
• This experiment can form the basis for a future quantum key encrypted data transmission between satellites and ground stations.
• India is not the first Asia nation to establish QKD based space transmission, in 2020 Chinese satellite Micius became world’s first quantum communications satellite.

India’s Imported Weapons

• According to data from SIPRI for the period 2015-19, India acquired military hardware from other countries, such as

1. Scanter-6000 radars from Denmark,
2. Embraer ERJ-145 jets from Brazil,
3. ACTAS sonar systems from Germany,
4. Super Rapid 76mm naval guns from Italy
5. K-9 Thunder 155mm artillery guns from South Korea.
6. Milan-2T Warhead Anti-Tank Guided Missile of MBDA Missile Systems, France.
7. SPICE 2000 Bombs are manufactured by the Israeli defence technology company Rafael.