Khan Prahari

• It is a Mobile Application ‘Khan Prahari’ developed by CMPDI, Ranchi a Subsidiary of CIL and Bhaskarcharya Institute of Space Application and Geo-informatics (BISAG).
• Khan Prahari is a tool for reporting any activity taking place related to illegal coal mining like rat hole mining, pilferage etc. One can upload geo-tagged photographs of the incident along with textual information directly to the system.

A ketogenic diet

• A ketogenic diet, which is low in carbohydrates and high in fat, may improve the effectiveness of an emerging class of cancer drugs, scientists.
• Researchers found a strategy to boost the tumour-killing potential of therapies targeted on the insulin-activated enzyme, phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3K).
• Phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3K)- a family of enzymes involved in cellular functions such as cell growth, proliferation and differentiation.

Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA)

• The cabinet has approved the proposal for expanding the scope of Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) by enhancing its capital base to Rs. 10,000 crore and tasking it to mobilise Rs. 1,00,000 crore for Revitalizing Infrastructure and Systems in Education (RISE) by 2022.
• The Union Cabinet had approved HEFA in September 2016 as a Special Purpose Vehicle with a public sector bank (Canara Bank). It would be jointly funded by the promoter/bank and the MHRD with an authorised capital of ₹2,000 crore. The government equity would be ₹1,000 crore.
• HEFA will leverage the equity to raise up to ₹20,000 crore for the funding of world-class infrastructure at the IITs, IIMs, the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and such other institutions.
• The agency will also mobilise Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds from public sector units (PSUs) and corporates. These would be released as grants to eligible institutions for promoting research and innovation.
• Funding from HEFA is expected to boost infrastructure, especially state-of-the-art laboratories, in key institutions such as the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), and the Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs).

Regional Rural Banks

• RRBs are jointly owned by Government of India, the concerned State Government and Sponsor Banks with the issued capital shared in the proportion of 50%, 15% and 35% respectively.
• RRBs were set up with the objective to provide credit and other facilities, especially to the small and marginal farmers, agricultural labourers, artisans and small entrepreneurs in rural areas for development of agriculture, trade, commerce, industry and other productive activities.
• Recent;y Cabinet approves extension of Scheme of Recapitalization of Regional Rural Banks upto 2019-20 which will enable the RRBs to maintain the minimum prescribed Capital to Risk Weighted Assets Ratio (CRAR) of 9%. A strong capital structure and minimum required level of CRAR will ensure financial stability of RRBs which will enable them to play a greater role in financial inclusion and meeting the credit requirements of rural areas.

Maharaja Bir Bikram Manikya Kishore

• Maharaja Bir Bikram Manikya Kishore, ascended the throne of the erstwhile Tripura Princely State in 1923, was an enlightened and benevolent ruler.
• Agartala Airport was constructed in 1942 on the land donated by Maharaja Bir Bikram Manikya Kishore.

Koala

• The koala is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia.
• The koala is found in coastal areas of the mainland’s eastern and southern regions, inhabiting Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia.
• The International Union for Conservation of Nature qualifies the koala’s protection status as “vulnerable”.

MOVE: Global Mobility Summit

• NITI Aayog, in collaboration with various ministries and industry partners, is organising ‘MOVE: Global Mobility Summit’ in New Delhi on 7th and 8th September 2018.
• This Summit will help drive Government’s goals for vehicle electrification, renewable energy integration and job growth and also speed up India’s transition to a clean energy economy.
• The Summit will constitute three designated components – The Conclave, the Expo and the Featured Events.

International Criminal Police Organization

• Interpol is the shorter and better-known name of the International Criminal Police Organization, a network comprising 192-member nations, including India.
• The agency, with its headquarters in Lyon, France, was established in 1923.
• The Interpol basically connects police across the world even if these individual member nations do not have diplomatic relations.
• India has been a member since 1956.
• India maintains a National Central Bureau which serves as the national platform for cooperation between domestic law enforcement units and the international police community.
• India has collaborated with the Interpol in tackling a myriad of organised crimes such as poaching, wildlife trafficking, spurious drugs and fake medicine rackets, among others.
• The Interpol facilitates information exchange, knowledge sharing and research between nations.
• The Interpol doesn’t have law enforcement powers such as arrest.
• When a member nation approaches it with a specific request backed with court orders, the Interpol sends it out to other countries. The information received is sent back to the country.
• Some of notices issues by this organisation includes: Red Notice, Yellow Notice, Blue Notice, Black Notice, Green Notice, Orange Notice, Purple Notice.

Nutrify India Now

• The Indian Council of Medical Research’s Hyderabad-based National Institute of Nutrition has launched a mobile App “Nutrify India Now” that offers comprehensive nutrition related information on a wide range of Indian food articles.
• The app is based on authentic and well-researched India-specific databases and uses guidelines prescribed by ICMR, the apex medical research body of the country.
• It also provides information on several parameters such as protein, vitamin and mineral content of the food items, besides their calorific value.
• One can search in as many as 17 languages and six food groups are covered.

PARAS (PRL Advance Radial-velocity Abu-sky Search)

• The spectrograph is the first of its kind in the country which can measure the mass of a planet going around a star.
• They measured the mass of the planet using the indigenously designed PARAS spectrograph integrated with the 1.2-metre telescope located at PRL’s Gurushikhar Observatory in Mount Abu, Rajasthan.
• Recently Indian scientists at Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, found a sub-Saturn or super-Neptune size planet about 600 light years away from the Earth.
• The discovery was made by measuring the mass of the planet using the indigenously designed “PRL Advance Radial-velocity Abu-sky Search” (PARAS) spectrograph.
• The discovery is important for understanding the formation mechanism of sub-Saturn and super-Neptune like planets that are too close to host star.

Pandharichi Wari

• “Pandharichi Wari” is Maharashtra’s 700 years old tradition in which devotees of Lord Vitthala called Varkari trace the route to Pandharpur.
• For this holy function Devotees from all over state gathers in Dehu and Alandi, the native places of Sant Tukaram Maharaj and sant Dnyaneshvar Maharaj in Pune district and the procession starts for its final destination, Pandharpur.

Parker Solar Probe mission

• NASA’s historic Parker Solar Probe mission will revolutionize our understanding of the sun, where changing conditions can propagate out into the solar system, affecting Earth and other worlds.
• Parker Solar Probe will travel through the sun’s atmosphere, closer to the surface than any spacecraft before it, facing brutal heat and radiation conditions — and ultimately providing humanity with the closest-ever observations of a star.
• In order to unlock the mysteries of the sun’s atmosphere, Parker Solar Probe will use Venus’ gravity during seven flybys over nearly seven years to gradually bring its orbit closer to the sun.
• The spacecraft will fly through the sun’s atmosphere as close as 3.9 million miles to our star’s surface, well within the orbit of Mercury and more than seven times closer than any spacecraft has come before.
• The primary science goals for the mission are to trace how energy and heat move through the solar corona and to explore what accelerates the solar wind as well as solar energetic particles.