GI logo

• Commerce and Industry Minister launched a logo and tagline for Geographical Indications (GI) to increase awareness about intellectual property rights (IPRs) in the country.
• A GI product is primarily an agricultural, natural or a manufactured product (handicraft and industrial goods) originating from a definite geographical territory.

• Darjeeling Tea, Tirupati Laddu, Kangra Paintings, Nagpur Orange and Kashmir Pashmina are among the registered GIs in India.
• It ensures exclusivity.
• It covered as the element of intellectual property rights (IPRs) under the Paris Convention for Protection of Industrial Property.
• GI is governed by WTO’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).
• GI tag in India is governed by Geographical Indications of Goods Registration and Protection Act), 1999.
• This Act is administered by Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks.

Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR)

• The IACHR is an independent, multinational court that handles the human rights cases of people affected by the laws of countries that are members of the Organisation of American States (OAS).
• It has recently given its advisory opinion on the issue of institution of asylum and its recognition as a Human Right.
• It has ruled that all nations have an obligation to ensure safe passage for asylum seekers to their final territory of asylum.
• This assumes significance in the light of asylum of Julian Assange, Editor-in-chief of Wiki Leaks, in Eucadorian embassy in U.K.
• He has been granted political asylum and citizenship by Eucador in 2012.
• But he is unable to come out of the embassy in U.K because of the arrest warrant issued by U.K court in the charges of sexual assault and rape allegations.
• In this scenario, the advisory opinion by IACHR gives him the moral victory.
• The ruling would meant that, U.K. has an obligation to allow safe passage for Mr. Assange to Ecuador, where he has been granted political asylum as well as citizenship.

Organisation of American States (OAS)

• OAS is the world’s oldest regional organization, which came into being in 1948.
• OAS brings together all 35 independent states of the Americas.
• It constitutes the main political, juridical, and social governmental forum in the Hemisphere.
• In addition, it has granted permanent observer status to 69 states, as well as to the European Union (EU).
• The Organization’s four main pillars are democracy, human rights, security, and development.

Innocenti Declaration

• August 1-7 is celebrated every year as World Breastfeeding week to encourage breastfeeding and improve the health of babies around the world.
• It commemorates the Innocenti Declaration signed in August 1990 by government policymakers, WHO, UNICEF and other organisations.
• This year, WHO is working with UNICEF and partners to promote the importance of helping mothers breastfeed their babies within that crucial first hour of life.
• As per UNICEF, Ireland, France and USA ranked lowest among all countries in the breastfeeding rates.
• Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Madagascar and Peru have the highest breastfeeding rates.

Seva Bhoj Yojna

• The Ministry of Culture, Government of India has launched the new scheme “Seva Bhoj Yojna”.
• The scheme envisages to reimburse the Central Government share of Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) and Integrated Goods and Service Tax (IGST) so as to lessen the financial burden of such as Religious/ Charitable Institutions who provide Food/Prasad/Langar free of cost without any discrimination to Public/Devotees.
• Religious/ Charitable Institution shall first register with Darpan Portal of NITI Aayog and get Unique ID generated by Darpan Portal.

Gaofen-11 

• China successfully launched an optical remote sensing satellite, as part of its high-resolution Earth observation project which will also provide data for the Belt and Road Initiative.
• Gaofen-11, a sub-meter resolution optical satellite, will become part of the China High-resolution Earth Observation System (CHEOS), initiated in 2010 to provide all-weather, all-day coverage by 2020 with optical and synthetic aperture radar satellites.
• Gaofen-11 was developed by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), a spacecraft and satellite maker under CASC.
• The satellite can be used for land survey, urban planning, road network design, agriculture, and disaster relief. 

Scutoid

• Scientists have discovered a new shape called scutoid while studying nature’s way of moulding tissue to form the skin, cavity linings and the building blocks of organs.
• The shape has five sides on one end and six on the other and a triangular surface on one of its longer edges.
• Scientists have referred to it as a twisted prism kind of shape that allows the tissue to mould around organs.

State Energy Efficiency Preparedness Index

• The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) and Ministry of Power (MOP)launched the 1^st edition of State Energy Efficiency Preparedness Index (SEEPI) wherein five states came in the topmost category of ‘front-runner’ states: Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab and Rajasthan.
• The composition of the index has been developed considering each state’s energy consumption, its energy saving potential and its influence in implementing energy efficiency in buildings, industry, municipalities, transport, agriculture and distribution companies.
• It has classified states into four categories – front-runner, achiever, contender and aspirant, based upon their efforts towards energy efficiency.
• Front runners states are:
  (a) Kerala
  (b) Rajasthan
  (c) Andhra Pradesh
• The second best category of ‘achiever’ states is Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Haryana.

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE)

• The Bureau of Energy Efficiency is an agency of the Government of India, under the Ministry of Power created in March 2002 under the provisions of the nation’s 2001 Energy Conservation Act.
• The mission of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency is to assist in developing policies and strategies with a thrust on self-regulation and market principles, with the primary objective of reducing the energy intensity of the Indian economy.

Ujjwala Yojana

• Ujjwala scheme of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas for providing LPG connections to women from Below Poverty Line (BPL) households.
• It aims at bringing clean cooking fuel to poor households, identified according to the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC). More than 44 per cent of Ujjwala beneficiaries is currently are from SC/ST communities.
• The scheme was launched by the Prime Minister on May 1, 2016, in Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh with a target to provide free LPG connections to five crore poor households by March 31, 2019, with a budgetary allocation of 8,000 crore rupees.

Kadaknath chicken

• The famous Kadaknath chicken meat from Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh has now got a Geographical Indication (GI) tag. The tag denotes that the product comes from a particular geographical area, and often enhances its commercial value. A Chhattisgarh-based organisation too had sought similar recognition for the Kadaknath chickens bred in Dantewada district, but Jhabua’s claim seems to have prevailed.
• The Gramin Vikas Trust of Krishak Bharati Cooperative (KRIBHCO) had sought GI tag for the protein-rich and black coloured meat of Kadaknath variety of chicken, which is mainly reared in Jhabua. 
• As per the information available on the Geographical Indications Registry, India, the application, made in the category of “Meat Product, Poultry & Poultry Meat”, was approved on July 30.
• The trust had applied for GI tag in 2012 on behalf of tribals of Jhabua district who breed the variety. Chhattisgarh-based Global Business Incubator Private Limited (GBIPL) had also sought GI tag for the chicken breed, claiming that the birds are bred uniquely in the state’s Dantewada district.

India ranks 56th in early initiation of breastfeeding

• A new report released by UNICEF and the World Health Organisation (WHO) has ranked Sri Lanka at the top of the list of countries with early initiation of breastfeeding.
• India ranks 56th among the 76 countries that were analysed.
• The report says that only two in five newborns are breastfed within the first hour of life across the world.
• Putting newborns to the breast within the first hour after birth gives them the best chance to survive, grow and develop to their full potential says the report, which emphasises on exclusive breastfeeding.
• Countries like Kazakhstan, Rwanda, Bhutan and Uruguay have fared much better than India, making it into the top 10. Azerbaijan, Pakistan and Montenegro are at the bottom.

Oxytocin

• The Union Health Ministry’s ban on the retail sale and private manufacture of oxytocin, expected to kick off on September 1.
• The drug, a synthetic version of a human hormone, is a life-saver for women.
• Doctors use it to induce labour in pregnant women and to stem the postpartum bleeding.
• So critical is its role in maternal health that the World Health Organization recommends it as the drug of choice in postpartum haemorrhage.
• It is being banned because oxytocin stimulates lactation in cattle, dairy farmers inject the drug indiscriminately to increase milk production. This has spawned several unlicensed facilities that manufacture the drug for veterinary use.

West Nile Virus

• Kerala Health department has suspected a viral infection similar to West Nile in a woman from Kozhikode district.
• West Nile Virus (WNV), typically spread by mosquitoes, can cause neurological disease and death in people.
• It is a member of the flavivirus genus and belongs to the same family of Japanese encephalitis – Flaviviridae.
• Its transmission cycle, by nature, revolves between birds and mosquitoes. Humans, horses and other mammals can be infected.
• Mosquitoes become infected when they feed on infected birds, which circulate the virus in their blood for a few days.
• Human infection is most often the result of bites from infected mosquitoes.
• To date, no human-to-human transmission of WNV through casual contact has been documented.
• It may be transmitted through contact with other infected animals, their blood or other tissues.
• No vaccine is available for humans.
• It is commonly found in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, North America and West Asia.
• It was first isolated in a woman in the West Nile district of Uganda in 1937. In India, it was first noticed in 1956 and it had its presence in Kerala in 1973.

Bandipur National Park

• Bandipur National Park was formed from the forest areas of the then Venugopala wildlife park in 1941.
• Subsequently some adjacent reserve forest areas were added to the Bandipur reserve.
• This reserve was brought under Project Tiger in 1973.
• The Bandipur, Nagarahole, Wayanad, Mudumalai and Sathyamangalam Tiger Landscape is spread across the states of Karnataka (Bandipur-Nagarahole), Tamil Nadu (Mudumalai-Sathyamangalam) and Kerala (Wayanad).
• It is a fine example of managing inter-state Tiger Reserves for the long term Conservation of Tiger Source Population.

Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development

• AIBD, established in 1977 under the auspices of UNESCO, is a unique regional inter-governmental organisation and is mandated to achieve a vibrant and cohesive electronic media environment in the Asia-Pacific region through policy and resource development
• Full membership of the AIBD is confined to sovereign states and they are invited to designate the broadcasting authority of the country to be the beneficiary.
• The Institute enjoys a membership of 26 countries, 94 affiliates and 58 partners in Asia, Pacific, Europe and North America 
• Recently India has been elected as the President of the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD) for a period of two years. 
• India got elected against Iran during voting which took place at the 44th annual gathering of AIBD.

e-pashu Haat portal

• The government has launched e-Pashu Haat portal for connecting breeders and farmers of indigenous breeds.
• Through the portal, farmers can obtain information on the location of quality indigenous germplasm in the form live animals, semen doses and embryos.
• This portal will play crucial role in the development and conservation of indigenous breeds.
• It is launched under the National Mission on Bovine Productivity for connecting breeders and farmers of indigenous breeds.
• National Mission on Bovine Productivity has been launched in November 2016 with the aim of enhancing milk production and productivity and thereby making dairying more remunerative to the farmers.

Article 35A

• Article 35A of the Indian Constitution is an article that empowers the Jammu and Kashmir state’s legislature to define “permanent residents” of the state and provide special rights and privileges to those permanent residents.
• It prohibits non-permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) from the permanent settlement in the state, and from acquiring immovable property, government jobs, scholarships and aid there.
• It was added to the Constitution through a Presidential Order, i.e., The Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 1954.

Exercise Maitree

• Exercise Maitree is a joint military exercise between the Indian Army and Royal Thai Army which will be conducted from 06 to 19 August 2018 in Thailand.
• It is a platoon level exercise which comprises of infantry component. The opening ceremony started with the familiarization of organisation and display of weapons & equipment of both armies.
• The exercise will emphasize to hone the tactical and technical skills in joint counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations in the rural and urban scenario under UN mandate.