Troponin I

• Troponin I, a cardiac and skeletal muscle protein useful in the laboratory diagnosis of heart attack is a cardiac biomarker.
• A biomarker is a measure or physical sign that can be used to determine how a biological system is functioning.

Remdesivir

• Remdesivir is an antiviral drug developed as a treatment for Ebola virus disease.
• Remdesivir was able to treat four African green monkeys which were given a lethal dose of Nipah virus.

Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite Mission

• It is a space telescope for NASA’s Explorers program.
• The mission is led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology(with seed funding from Google).
• The mission is for an all-sky survey for transiting exoplanets.
• Transiting planets are those that go in front of the star as seen from the telescope and, to date, is the most successful discovery technique for finding small exoplanets.

Jute

• It grows well on well-drained fertile soils in the flood plains where soils are renewed every year.
• High temperature is required during the time of growth.
• Varieties : Tossa Jute and White Jute
• Due to its high cost, it is losing market to synthetic fibres and packing materials, particularly the nylon.
• West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Meghalaya are the major jute producing states.

INSTEX

• INSTEX stands “Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges“.
• It is a payment channel set up by Germany, France and the UK with Iran to help continue trade and circumvent US sanctions.
• It will be affected following the breaching event.

UNNATI

• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced officially the introduction of UNNATI at Bangalore.
• The second batch of UNNATI to be conducted during October 15 to December 15, 2019 in coordination with UNOOSA at Bengaluru, India.
• ISRO has been actively associated with United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) as member of COPUOS (Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space) since its inception.
• As part of its UNISPACE (United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space) initiative, UNOOSA is working on a system of ‘UN led international constellation of satellites’ for disaster risk reduction, GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems), telecommunication and other services for benefit of its member countries across the world.
• UNOOSA is offering countries a simplified and enhanced access to satellite technologies as part of the UNISPACE initiative.
• It is a capacity building programme on Nanosatellite development.
• UNNATI stands for Unispace Nano satellite Assembly & Training programme of ISRO.
• UNNATI is an initiative by ISRO to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first United Nations conference on the exploration and peaceful uses of outer space (UNISPACE-50 in India held on June 2018.
• The programme provides opportunities to the participating developing countries to strengthen in assembling, integrating and testing of Nano satellite.
• UNNATI programme is planned to be conducted for 3 years by U.R. Rao Satellite Centre of ISRO in 3 batches and will target to benefit officials of 45 countries.

Rudrasagar Lake

• Rudrasagar Lake, also known as Rudijala, is a lake located in Melaghar, Tripura, India
• Rudrasagar Lake is a natural sedimentation reservoir, which receives flow from three perennial streams namely, Noacherra, Durlavnaraya cherra and Kemtali cherra. After settling the sediment from the received flow, clear water discharges into the river Gumati through a connective channel namely Kachigang.

GIAN

• Global Initiative on Academic Network (GIAN) in Higher Education is a scheme to boost quality of the country’s higher education through international collaboration.
• It began in 2005 as a scheme of Ministry of Human Resources Development.
• It facilitates participation of high quality international academicians for delivering short-term courses and programs in Indian institutions.
• Its objective is to increase footfalls of reputed international faculty to Indian academic institutes and thereby bring in international academic excellence India’s higher education institutions.
• The National Coordinating Institute of the programme is Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur.

SFURTI

• Scheme of Fund for Upgradation and Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI) aims to set up more Common Facility Centres for generating sustained employment opportunities.
• SFURTI envisions 100 new clusters in 2019-20 to help 50,000 artisans economically.
• SFURTI is Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries.
• Ministry of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), Govt. of India has launched this scheme in the year 2005 with the view to promote Cluster development.
• Under the Scheme, financial assistance is provided for development of Khadi, coir and village Industries clusters.
• For major clusters with more than 500 artisans the budget limit is Rs. 5.00 crore and for Regular Clusters with upto 500 artisans, the budget limit is 2.5 crore rupees.
• The following schemes are being merged into SFURTI:
• The Scheme for Enhancing Productivity and Competitiveness of Khadi Industry and Artisans
• The Scheme for Product Development, Design Intervention and Packaging (PRODIP)
• The Scheme for Rural Industries Service Center (RISC)
• Other small interventions like Ready Warp Units, Ready to Wear Mission, etc.
• To organize the traditional industries and artisans into clusters to make them competitive and provide support for their long term sustainability and economy of scale.
• To provide sustained employment for traditional industry artisans and rural entrepreneurs.
• To enhance marketability of products of such clusters.

Chiru Goat

• Chiru goat also known as the Tibetan antelope is a ‘near threatened’ species whose underfur is used for making the famous Shahtoosh shawls.
• It is a migratory species of the cold desert, moving seasonally between lower and higher altitudes, and can be found between 3,700m and 5,500m.
• It requires large expanse of land for its movement and ranging patterns to fulfil its feeding and breeding requirements.
• Chiru is a protected species in India, China and Nepal.
• Its geographical range extends from Ladakh in the west to Ngoring Hu (China) in the east.
• In India, the species were recorded at two places, Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO) in the Karakoram Range and the Chang Chenmo Valley in Ladakh.
• The selling or owning of shahtoosh was made illegal in all countries that signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) on March 3, 1975.
• India endorsed the ban in 1976 and it was extended to Jammu and Kashmir in 2002.
• Shahtoosh shawls are prepared from the fur in the undercoat of Chiru goats.
• 3-5 chiru goats are to be killed to collect the fur for a single shawl as the wool cannot be sheared or combed from the goat.
• It is woven by highly skilled Kashmiri artisans.
• Shahtoosh shawls are a status symbol in India and Pakistan and one of the most valuable dowry gifts a person can give.
• Shatoosh should not be confused with pashmina shawls which are combed out of the live pashmina goat.

Sugarcane

• Sugarcane is grown at the southern tip of India, in the midwestern and northwestern sections of the country.
• It is a tropical as well as a subtropical crop ,which grows well in hot and humid climate with a temperature of 21°C to 27°C
• and an annual rainfall between 75cm. and 100cm.
• Soil Type : Clayey Loamy Soil, and Red Loamy Soil
• India is the second largest producer of sugarcane only after Brazil.
• The major sugarcane-producing states are Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Bihar, Punjab and Haryana.

Pharmexcil

• Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) is the authorized agency of the government of India for promotion of pharmaceutical exports from India.
• It was set up under the provisions of Foreign Trade Policy by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in May 2004.
• Its mandate is to promote Pharmaceuticals exports and to play the role of a facilitator in promoting exports of pharmaceutical products.
• Various pharmaceutical products, namely, bulk drugs, formulations, Biotech Products, Indian Systems of medicines, herbal products, diagnostics, clinical research, etc. are covered under its purview.
• Pharmexcil takes up several external trade promotion activities by organizing trade delegations outside India, arranging buyer-seller meetings, international seminars, etc.
• The agency’s headquarters is located in Hyderabad.
• The Indian pharmaceutical industry has become the third largest producer in the world.

ASRAAM

• IAF to adopt ASRAAM missile across its fighter fleet
• The Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missile (ASRAAM) is an imaging infrared homing (“heat seeking”) air-to-air missile, that is designed to dominate the within visual range combat mission.
• It is produced by European Missile Maker, MBDA.
• ASRAAM is designed to outrange and outrun any other IR missile in service, allowing the pilot to fire and then turn away long before the opposing aircraft can close for a shot.
• ASRAAM is widely used as a Within Visual Range (WVR) air dominance missile with a range of over 25 km.
• The missile gathers target positional data from aircraft sensors including radar or helmet-mounted sight during close-in combat missions when the target is located outside the off-bore sight and visual limits of the seeker.
• This ensures the aircraft’s crew to perform over-the-shoulder firing in ‘lock after launch’ mode.

Bhitarkanika Mangroves

• The Bhitarkanika Mangroves were zamindari forests until 1952, when the government of Odisha abolished the zamindari system, and put the zamindari forests in the control of the state forest department.
• The Gahirmatha Marine Wildlife Sanctuary, which bounds the Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary to the east, was created in September 1997, and encompasses Gahirmatha Beach and an adjacent portion of the Bay of Bengal.
•  Bhitarkanika Mangroves were designated a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance in 2002