Blue Deal and Green New Deal

• A “Blue Deal” is being promoted at the 2022 United Nations Ocean Conference to enable the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth.
• It includes global trade, investment and innovation to create a sustainable and resilient ocean economy, according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
• Some of the recommendations include expanding digitization efforts to lower costs for business in developing countries, setting up a blue bank for investments, and improving regulations of blue finance.
• The Global Green New Deal (GGND) calls on governments to allocate a significant share of stimulus funding to green sectors and sets out three objectives: economic recovery, poverty eradication, and reduced carbon emissions and ecosystem degradation.

Lyophilization

• The first two vaccines that were made available for use in the US were based on mRNA technology.
• But these vaccines have to be stored at sub-zero temperatures as mRNA is fragile and breaks down easily.
• the challenge in India was to be able to store the vaccine between 2-8 degrees Celsius.
• The conversion from liquid to powder form of the vaccine takes place via Lyophilisation.
• This is freeze-drying, a process where the water is removed from the product after it is frozen and placed under a vacuum allowing the ice to change directly from solid to vapor without passing through a liquid phase.
• However, just removing water by Lyophilisation of the mRNA vaccine does not work.
• So, the surrounding pressure has to be tweaked and then kept stable to ensure the characteristics of the vaccine are the same as before Lyophilisation.
• For this to be achieved, the key was to add an external agent which at a certain critical concentration keeps it stable under lyophilized conditions.
• The Lyophilisation technology is not new, but a lyophilized mRNA vaccine is unique.

PM MITRA Scheme

• The Ministry of Textiles (MoT) has launched PM Mega Integrated Textile Regions and Apparel Parks (MITRAs) Scheme to strengthen the Indian textile industry.
• It enables the scale of operations, reduces logistics cost by housing the entire value chain at one location, attracts investment, generates employment, and augment export potential.
• The scheme will develop integrated large-scale and modern industrial infrastructure facilities for the total value-chain of the textile industry, for example, spinning, weaving, processing, garments, textile manufacturing, processing & printing machinery industry.
• PM MITRA Parks will be set up on the basis of proposals received from State Governments having ready availability of contiguous and encumbrance-free land parcels of minimum1000 acres.
• The State Government will transfer land to the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) at a notional price.
• The land asset will be used to leverage/attract investment in the PM MITRA parks for the development and maintenance of the parks with high standard specifications.

Primary Agriculture Credit Society (PACS)

• It is a basic unit and the smallest cooperative credit institution in India.
• It works on the grassroots level (gram panchayat and village level).
• PACS are outside the purview of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 and hence not regulated by the Reserve Bank of India.

Kaliningrad

• Kaliningrad is an exclave of Russia, completely separated from the country’s mainland.
• It is situated between EU and NATO members Lithuania and Poland.
• It is also the headquarters of Russia’s Baltic Sea fleet and the country’s only ice-free European port.