• The Department of Science and Technology has recently launched the India-Russia Joint Technology Assessment and Accelerated Commercialization Programme in partnership with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Foundation for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises (FASIE) of the Russian Federation.
• The programme will connect Indian, and Russian Science & Technology (S&T) led SMEs and Start-ups for joint R&D for technology development and for cross-country technology adaptation.

About the Programme

• The programme will run through two annual cycles with up to five projects to be funded under each cycle.
• Projects are being sought on leading S&T focus areas, including but not limited to, IT & ICT (including AI, AR, VR), Medicine & Pharmaceuticals, Renewable Energy, Aerospace, Alternative Technologies, Environment, New Materials, Biotechnologies, Robotics and Drones.
• On behalf of DST, FICCI will implement the program in India.
• Over a period of two years, the Department of Science and Technology will fund up to INR 15 Crores to ten Indian SMEs/Start-ups and FASIE will provide similar funding to the Russian projects.
• The programme will provide access to partial public funding for jointly selected projects with the participation of at least one start-up/SME from India and one SME from Russia.
• The selected projects will be required to bear partial funding as well, either through own funds or alternate sources of funding.
• In addition to the financial support, the teams will also be supported through capacity building, mentorship and business development.

• Ministry of Human Resources Development had constituted a committee recently for preparing guidelines and measures to ensure more and more students stay in India and study in India.
• Prof. D P Singh, Chairman of University Grant Commission (UGC) will be the head of the committee.
• The committee is also supposed to recommend a mechanism to increase the intake in well-performing universities.
• The Committee will submit the report in a fortnight.

• A Vaccine Discovery Programme supported by the Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India under Ind CEPI, implemented by BIRAC will soon move into clinical trials.
• DBT-BIRAC has facilitated the establishment of ‘first-of-its-kind’ mRNA-based vaccine manufacturing platform in India.
• DBT has provided seed funding for the development of Gennova’s novel self-amplifying mRNA-based vaccine candidate for COVID19 – HGCO19.

Ind-CEPI

• The Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India is supporting the implementation of the Ind-CEPI, which is “Epidemic preparedness through rapid vaccine development: Support of Indian vaccine development aligned with the global initiative of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI)”, at Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) and the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI).
• Ind-CEPI aims to and associated competencies/technologies developing countries and diseases that can potentially be a threat to populations build coordinated preparedness in the Indian public health system and vaccine industry to address existing and emergent infectious threats in India, and support the global initiative of CEPI through a dedicated Program Management Unit (PMU) at BIRAC.
• Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), a Public Sector Undertaking of the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology has been entrusted the responsibility of implementing this Program.
• It will house the Program Management Unit (PMU) that would work as an operational and functional arm to oversee and monitor program implementation.

• Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare digitally participated in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Health Minister's Digital Meet at Nirman Bhawan recently.
• The meet was chaired by Mr. Mikhail Murashko, Minister of Health of the Russian Federation.
• The ongoing COVID crisis was the key topic of discussion.
• During the meeting, India pointed out that “there is currently no institutional mechanism within SCO to discuss cooperation in Traditional Medicine that has the potential to fulfil the WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy 2014-2023 and also reinforce the effective implementation of the Joint Statement on cooperation in combating epidemics signed at the Qingdao Summit in 2018.
• Finally, India proposes to set up a Sub-Group on Traditional Medicine under the existing Institutional Meetings of the SCO Health Ministers to fulfil the WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy 2014-2023.

Traditional medicine (TM)

• It is an important and often underestimated part of health services.
• In some countries, traditional medicine or non-conventional medicine may be termed complementary medicine (CM).
• TM has a long history of use in health maintenance and in disease prevention and treatment, particularly for chronic disease.

WHO Traditional Medicine (TM) Strategy 2014–2023

• It was developed in response to the World Health Assembly resolution on traditional medicine (WHA62.13).
• The main goals of the strategy are to support Member States in:

1. Harnessing the potential contribution of TM to health, wellness and peoplecentred health care
2. Promoting the safe and effective use of TM by regulating, researching and integrating TM products, practitioners and practice into health systems, where appropriate.

• The strategy aims to support Member States in developing proactive policies and implementing action plans that will strengthen the role TM plays in keeping populations healthy.
• The strategy seeks to build upon the WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy 2002–2005, which reviewed the status of TM globally and in Member States.

• The Union Home Minister had recently distributed 100 electric potter wheels to 100 trained artisans under the Kumhar Sashaktikaran Yojana.

Kumbhar Sashaktikaran Program

• It is an initiative of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) for empowerment of potters community in the remotest of locations in the country.

• Ministry of Environment has launched piloting of the National Transit Pass System.
• It is a pan India pass system to enhances seamless movement of forest produce across India.
• The passes can be applied from mobile phones as well as it can be received as e-passes in mobile phones.      

• The colour of Lonar lake water turned pink due to a large presence of the salt-loving ‘Haloarchaea’ microbes.
• Haloarchaea or Halophilic Archaea is a bacteria culture which produces pink pigment and is found in water saturated with salt.
• The oval-shaped Lonar lake, formed after a meteorite hit the earth some 50,000 years ago.
• The lake is located in the world's only high velocity impact formed in basaltic rock. 
• The water in the lake is both saline and alkaline.
• There is an absence of any kind of vegetation in the mud belt, which is due to the alkaline content of the area.   

• A severe flood warning was issued for Assam and Arunachal Pradesh after the water in the Brahmaputra River started flowing above danger mark.
• Brahmaputra River, Bengali Jamuna, Tibetan Tsangpo, Chinese Yarlung Zangbo Jiang, is a major river of Central and South Asia.
• The Brahmaputra’s source is the Chemayungdung Glacier, which covers the slopes of the Himalayas. 
• It flows through the Tibet Autonomous Region, the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, and Bangladesh.
• Majuli, the world’s largest river island is located in the Brahmaputra River.

• The National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is mandated to collect data about diseases from each village of the country as the spread of COVID-19 continues unabated. 
• It carries out disease surveillance through its Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP).
• The institute was established to function as a national centre of excellence for control of communicable diseases.
• It takes leading role in undertaking investigations of disease outbreaks all over the country employing epidemiological and diagnostic tools.
• It does the outbreak investigations and recommendations on control measures for the out-break of various diseases in the States/UTs all over the country.  

• The Rajasthan MLAs have challenged the Constitutional validity of para 2(1)(a) of the Tenth Schedule, which is the anti-defection law. 
• The Tenth Schedule has the provisions as to disqualification on ground of defection.
• When a political party merge with or into another party with at least two-thirds of its legislators, then neither the members who decide to merge, nor the ones who stay with the original party will face disqualification.
• The law does not specify a time-period for the Presiding Officer to decide on a disqualification plea.