KARNATAKA

Kyasanur Forest Disease Discovered

A new point-of-care test for Kyasanur Forest Disease has been discovered to be highly sensitive in the rapid diagnosis of the disease.

Highlights:
Point-of-care Test:
♦ It was created by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology.
♦ It includes a battery-powered Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) analyzer, which is a portable, lightweight, and universal cartridge-based sample pre-treatment kit, as well as a nucleic acid extraction device that helps in sample processing at the point of care.
Kyasanur Forest Disease:
♦ It’s caused by the Kyasanur Forest Disease Virus (KFDV), which mostly affects humans and monkeys.
♦ It was discovered in 1957 in a sick monkey from Karnataka’s Kyasanur Forest. Since then, 400-500 human cases have been reported per year.
♦ Eventually, KFD became a serious public health issue that spread throughout the entire Western Ghats.
♦ A tick bite or contact with an infected animal, particularly a sick or recently deceased monkey, can result in transmission to humans.
♦ Symptoms include chills, a frontal headache, body aches, and a high fever lasting five to twelve days, with a case fatality rate of 3 to 5%.
♦ Monkey fever has no specific treatment. For KFD, there is a vaccine (Formalin inactivated KFDV vaccine) that is used in endemic areas of India. However, it has been discovered that vaccines are ineffective once a person is infected with fever.

INTERNATIONAL

SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Launched 60 Starlink Satellites

Sixty Starlink Internet Satellites were recently launched by SpaceX. The Falcon 9 rocket was used to launch the satellites. It was launched from the Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The SpaceX corporation has already completed twelve launches in 2021. Its own Starlink satellites have been launched in the bulk of those missions.

SpaceX has been granted permission to launch up to 30,000 satellites.

SpaceX plans to create a constellation of 12,000 satellites as part of the Starlink project.

The project’s main goal is to provide space-based internet services at a reasonable cost.

There are currently over four billion people on the world who do not have access to the internet. This is mostly due to inept internet delivery methods.

The majority of countries use fibre optic cables or cellular networks to deliver internet. These techniques are extremely difficult to implement in areas with difficult terrain where towers or cables are not feasible.

Satellite signals, on the other hand, can quickly clear these obstacles.

NATO Military Exercises launched

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization recently launched a joint military exercise in Albania, called ” DEFENDER-Europe 21″. Thousands of military personnel from the United States participated in the exercise.

The DEFENDER-Europe Exercise is an annual US-led transnational exercise. It is defensive in nature. It focuses on containing aggression.

NATIONAL

Converting Nitrogen Plants to Oxygen Plants

In light of the need for medical oxygen in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indian government investigated the feasibility of converting existing nitrogen plants to produce oxygen.

Potential industries for converting existing nitrogen plants to produce oxygen have been established.

Carbon Molecular Sieve (CMS) is used in nitrogen plants, while Zeolite Molecular Sieve (ZMS) is used for oxygen production.

Therefore, replace CMS with ZMS and make some other changes, such as oxygen analyzer, control panel system, flow valve, etc. The existing nitrogen-making equipment can be modified to produce oxygen.

A nitrogen plant that has been updated to provide oxygen may be relocated to a nearby hospital.

Review on Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana

It was established by the government in 2015 to provide non-corporate, non-farm small/micro-enterprises with loans of up to Rs. 10 lakh.

MUDRA stands for Micro Units Development & Refinance Agency Ltd., and it is a government-run financial institution.

MUDRA offers financing to non-corporate small businesses through a network of last-mile financial institutions, including Banks, Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) and Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs).

MUDRA does not make direct loans to micro-entrepreneurs or individuals.

According to the stage of growth and funding needs of the beneficiary micro unit, MUDRA has developed three products: ‘Shishu,’ ‘Kishore,’ and ‘Tarun.’

Shishu: Covering loans up to Rs. 50,000.

Kishore: Covering loans above Rs. 50,000 and up to Rs. 5 lakh.

Tarun: Covering loans above Rs. 5 lakh and up to Rs. 10 lakh.

Production Linked Incentive scheme (PLI) for IT Hardware

Recently, the Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI) for IT Hardware was announced.

The PLI Scheme provides participating companies with a four-year incentive ranging from 4% to 2% / 1% on net incremental sales (over the base year of FY 2019-20) of products in target segments that are produced in India (FY 2021-22 to FY 2024-25).

The proposed Scheme’s target IT hardware segments are laptops, tablets, all-in-one personal computers (PCs), and servers.

The scheme implements production-related incentives in order to boost domestic manufacturing and encourage significant investments in the IT Hardware supply chain.

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