• World Class State of Art Honey Testing Laboratory was recently established by the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in Anand, Gujarat with the support of  National Bee Board (NBB).
• Government has taken up several activities to promote bee keeping under ‘Mission on Integrated Development of Horticulture’ and ‘National Mission for Beekeeping’

National Beekeeping & Honey Mission (NBHM)

• It is a Central Sector Scheme that aims for overall promotion & development of scientific beekeeping and production of quality honey & other beehive products.
• The scheme will be implemented through National Bee Board as a Central Sector Scheme (100% funded by Central Govt.).
• The NBHM will have following sub-schemes/ three Mini Missions:

Mini Mission-I

• Under this Mission, thrust will be given on production & productivity improvement of various crops through pollination assisted by adoption of scientific beekeeping;

Mini Mission-II

• This Mission will concentrate on post harvest management of beekeeping/ beehive products including collection, processing, storage, marketing, value addition, etc. with a thrust to develop requisite infrastructural facilities for these activities.

Mini Mission-III

• This Mission will concentrate on Research & Technology generation for different Regions/ States/ Agro-Climatic and Socio-Economic conditions.

Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH)

• It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme for the holistic growth of the horticulture sector covering fruits, vegetables, root & tuber crops, mushrooms, spices, flowers, aromatic plants, coconut, cashew, cocoa and bamboo.
• While Government of India (GOI) contributes 85% of total outlay for developmental programmes in all the states except the states in North East and Himalayas, 15% share is contributed by State Governments.
• In the case of North Eastern States and Himalayan States, GOI contribution is 100%.
• Similarly, for development of bamboo and programmes of National Horticulture Board (NHB), Coconut Development Board (CDB), Central Institute for Horticulture (CIH), Nagaland and the National Level Agencies (NLA), GOI contribution will be 100%.
• The Mission will have a General Council (GC) at National level under Chairmanship of Union Agriculture Minister.
• General Council will be the formulation body giving overall direction and guidance to Mission, monitor and review its progress and performance.

• In a major relief for Tata Education and Development Trust, the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) bench consisting of Justices PP Bhatt has recently ruled in favour of the trust in their appeal against commissioner income tax (CIT) appeal order wherein a demand of more than Rs.220 crore was levied by the tax department.
• ITAT also stayed the matter of that demand without any minimum pay.

Background

• The case pertains to assessment years 2011-12 and 2012-13 on money spent by the Trust for creating an endowment fund at Cornell University, US, to provide scholarships to Indian students, and granting financial assistance to the Harvard Business School for constructing an executive building to be named Tata Hall.
• It donated Rs.197.79 crore in 2011-12 and Rs.25.37 crore in 2012-13.
• The controversy began after the Public Account Committee (PAC) of the Lok Sabha in 2018 sought an enquiry in the matter as it believed that exemption granted by the direct tax body was in violation of the I-T Act.
• Concluding the matter, the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) stated that all other grounds of appeals will be “rendered, academic and infructuous” and decided this issue in favour of the assessee and thus allowed this ground of appeal.
• Thus, the tribunal uphold the plea of the assessee and delete the resultant disallowance of claim of exemption.

Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) 

• ITAT is a quasi judicial institution set up in January, 1941 and specializes in dealing with appeals under the Direct Taxes Acts.
• Starting in 1941 with six Members constituting three Benches - one each at Delhi, Kolkata (Calcutta) and Mumbai (Bombay), the numbers of Benches have progressively increased and presently ITAT has 63 Benches at 27 different stations covering almost all the cities having a seat of the High Court.
• The orders passed by the ITAT are final, an appeal lies to the High Court only if a substantial question of law arises for determination.

• TRIFED has recently entered into a partnership with IIT Delhi for the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA).
• To cement and formalise this partnership, a tripartite MOU was signed between TRIFED, IIT Delhi(on behalf of the UBA, as the National Coordinating Institute) and Vijnana Bharati (VIBHA, a Swadeshi Science Movement) at IIT, Delhi.
• Tribal entrepreneurs under TRIFED’s Van Dhan programme will now be able to get access to the expertise of the entire network of 2600+ academic and research institutions under Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA).
• With the partnership with IIT Delhi and Unnat Bharat Abhyan, these tribal forest dwellers engaged in Minor Forest Produces will get an exposure to newer processing technologies, product innovation, mentorship, transformational digital systems and handholding. 
• The MoU opens gates for the best of brains in the country to attend to the problems of sustainable tribal livelihoods.

Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA)

• It is a flagship national programme of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India.
• The programme envisions the transformational change in rural development processes by leveraging knowledge institutions to help build the architecture of an Inclusive India.

• Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports and Haryana Chief Minister has recently announced Haryana as the host state for the fourth edition of Khelo India Youth Games.
• The 4th edition, which is currently scheduled to take place after Tokyo Olympics will be held in Panchkula in Haryana.
• Khelo India Youth Games is a part of the revamped national programme for development of sports, Khelo India.

• About 200 investment proposals from China are awaiting security clearance from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) after Revised FDI Policy were notified.
• The Revised FDI Policy makes prior government approval mandatory for Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) from countries which share a land border with India.
• The earlier FDI policy was limited only to Bangladesh and Pakistan via the government route in all sectors.
• The revised FDI rule has brought companies countries which shares land border with India.
• India shares land borders with Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar. 
• Investors from countries that are not covered by revised FDI policy only have to inform the RBI after the completion of a transaction and no need to seek prior clearance form Ministry.     

• World In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) day is celebrated on 25th July.
• When fertilization happens outside of the body, it is called IVF.
• IVF is a type of Assistive Reproductive Technology (ART).
• It is a surgical method of fertilization.  
• When fertilization happens inside the body, it is called In-Vivo Fertilization.
• It is a natural/normal method of reproduction.   

• The Kashmir Saffron gets Geographical Indication (GI) Tag.
• It is the only one spice in the world grown at an altitude of 1,600 metres,
• It’s one-of-a-kind variant that is known for its unique characteristics such as longer and thicket stigma, natural deep-red colour, high aroma, bitter flavour, etc.
• It is cultivated in the Karewa highlands of Jammu and Kashmir.

• Prime Minister to inaugurate the Dobra-Chanti bridge.
• It is the country’s longest motorable single-lane bridge in Tehri district, Uttarkhand. 
• The construction of this bridge would enable people of Pratapnagar to commute to Tehri.   

• Recently, the U.S tweaks the MTCR rules for  Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS).
• This has opened doors for India to acquire the armed drones as well as systems to counter them.
• So, India eyes acquisition of Predator-B drones from US.
• It is capable of collecting intelligence through surveillance and reconnaissance.
• It also locates and destroys the target with missiles or laser-guided bombs.
• MTCR is a voluntary arrangement which restricts the exports of all Weapons Of Mass Destruction (WMD - nuclear, chemical, and biological).
•  The MTCR considers Missiles to include, ballistic missiles, space launch vehicles (SLVs) and sounding rockets, Unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) include cruise missiles, drones, UAVs, and remotely piloted vehicles (RPVs).
• India has officially joined the MTCR as a full member in 2016.
• India is now a member of three of the four international export control groups.