International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) launched ISSCA.

• RIS is a New Delhi-based autonomous policy research institute.

About ISSCA

• Premier platform dedicated to accelerating agricultural innovation, collaboration, and knowledge exchange among countries of Global South.
• It is also aligned with India’s DAKSHIN initiative (A government-backed program for development and knowledge sharing among Global South countries).

About ICRISAT

• Established in 1972,it is a pioneering International Organization committed to developing and improving dryland farming and agri-food systems.
• HQ: Hyderabad (Telangana).

India has proposed to conduct a joint feasibility study for operationalising the Northern Sea Route (NSR) with Norwegian agencies.

About NSR or Northeast Passage (NEP)

• Location: Maritime route along northern coast of Russia, connecting Atlantic Ocean to Pacific Ocean via Arctic waters.

• Geography: NSR begins at the border between Barents Sea (near Norway) and Kara Sea and ends in the Bering Strait (between Russia and Alaska).
• Shortest route: NSR has a distance of 13,000 kilometres between Europe and Asia. (Suez Canal route- 21,000 kilometres)
  • It will reduce distance between Asia and Europe by 10-14 days compared to the Suez Canal route. 
• Ports: Five main ports (Sabetta, Dudinka, Khatanga, Tiksi, and Pevek).

India won presidency of International Institute of Administrative Sciences (IIAS).

About IIAS

• Genesis: It was established in 1930 and is headquartered in Brussels.
• Objective: International non-profit organization, collaborating for scientific research on public administration. 
• Key member countries include - India, Japan, China, Germany, Italy, Korea, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Switzerland, Mexico, Spain, Qatar, Morocco, Indonesia etc.
• Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances has represented India as a Member State of IIAS since 1998.

Election Commission of India launched ECINET App for timely voter turnout reporting.

• Under Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961, Presiding Officers (PROs) are still required to submit Form 17C, which contains account of votes recorded, to the polling agents nominated by candidates at the close of polling.

About ECINET app

• It is a one-stop platform that will integrate and reorient over 40 of ECI’s existing mobile and web applications.
• Under this new initiative, the presiding officer of each polling station will now be directly entering voter turnout on the ECINET App every two hours on polling day to reduce the time lag in the updation of the approximate polling trends.
• To ensure that data is as accurate as possible, the data on ECINET will be entered solely by the authorized EC official.

India opposed Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) $800mn loan to Pakistan under its Resource Mobilisation Reform Programme.

Resource Mobilisation Reform Programme

• Aim: To support Pakistan to implement reforms that will help ensure fiscal sustainability.
• About ADB
  • Multilateral organization: ADB is a leading multilateral development bank supporting sustainable growth across Asia and the Pacific.
  • Establishment: 1966.
  • HQ: Manila, Philippines.
  • Members: From 31 members in the beginning, now 69 members of which 50 are from within Asia and the Pacific and 19 outside. (India is a Founding Member).
• It launched a Nature Solutions Finance Hub for Asia and the Pacific at COP28.

Study in exposomics can help get a better picture of disease causes and prevention strategies.

About Exposomics

• Definition: Exposomics is the study of the exposome and relies on the application of internal and external exposure assessment of an individual. 
  • Internal exposure relies on fields of study such as genomics, metabonomics etc.
  • External exposure assessment relies on measuring environmental stressors.
• The exposome can be defined as the measure of all the exposures of an individual in a lifetime and how those exposures relate to health. 
• Exposomics aims to understand how external exposures from physical, psycho-social environments interact with internal individual characteristics such as genetics, to create health or disease.

Pakistan will chair Taliban Sanctions Committee and vice chair the Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) of United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

About Taliban Sanctions Committee

• It was established by Resolution 1988 (2011).
• Imposes an assets freeze, a travel ban and an arms embargo on individuals, groups, undertakings and entities associated with the Taliban in constituting a threat to the peace, stability and security of Afghanistan.        

About Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC)

• It was adopted using resolution 1373 after the 9/11 attack in 2001.
• Objective: According to Resolution 1373, 
  • States must deny all forms of financial support for terrorist groups, Prevent the terrorists from acquiring safe havens or subsistence, Create domestic laws that criminalize terrorism etc.
• It consists of all fifteen members of UNSC and is responsible for ensuring that all States follow the resolution.

Recent U.S. experiment results show muons behaving unusually, providing intriguing insights into fundamental laws of physics laws.

About Muons

• Concept: The muon is one of the fundamental subatomic particles, the most basic building blocks of the universe as described in the Standard Model of particle physics. 
• Muons are similar to electrons but weigh more than 207 times as much. 
• The muon is part of the lepton group. Leptons are a type of fundamental particle. This means they are not made of even smaller pieces of matter. 
  • Like other leptons, the muon is affected by only three (not affected by strong nuclear force) of the four fundamental forces (gravity, electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force, and the weak nuclear force) in the universe.

Union government has launched ‘Clean Plant Programme’ for grapes, oranges and pomegranates from Maharashtra.

About CPP

• Launched by: Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
• Purpose: To revolutionize horticulture sector by providing farmers with access to virus-free, high-quality planting material.
• Components:
  • Clean Plant Centers (CPCs): Equipped with high-tech labs to produce virus-free planting material.
  • Certification and Legal Framework: Certification system under Seeds Act, 1966 will ensure accountability in production and sale of planting material.
  • Enhanced Infrastructure: Support for large-scale nurseries to develop infrastructure for efficient multiplication of clean planting material.
• Implementation: By National Horticulture Board (NHB) in association with Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).