Functional foods and smart proteins were recently mentioned in the news in the context of India’s nutritional security.

What are Functional Foods?

• They are foods that provide health benefits beyond basic nutrition, either naturally or leveraged through technologies such as nutrigenomics, bio-fortification, 3D food printing, and bioprocessing.
• Examples: Vitamin-enriched rice, omega-3-fortified milk, probiotic yoghurt. 

What are Smart Proteins?

• These are proteins sourced using biotechnology that aims to reduce reliance on conventional production. 
• It includes:plant-based proteins (to mimic animal meat and dairy), fermentation-derived proteins, cultivated meat, etc.

INS Sahyadri participates in the 29th edition of Malabar naval exercise taking place in Guam, a strategic US military base, in the western Pacific Ocean.

About Malabar Exercise

• Aim: To strengthen cooperation and security in the Indo-Pacific region.
• Participating countries: India, Australia, Japan, and the United States of America.

Indian researchers have identified biochemical markers in the blood that could help detect kidney complications in diabetic patients.

About Biochemical Markers

• Meaning: They are small molecules (like sugars, amino acids, lipids) produced during metabolic processes in the body and are used by doctors for ascertaining disease risks. 
  • For e.g., cholesterol tests are used to assess heart disease risk. 
• Components for identifying kidney complication: arabitol, myo-inositol, ribothymidine, and a toxin-like compound called 2PY, etc.

Union Government has decided to remove 50% export duty on molasses.

About the Molasses 

• Molasse is a byproduct of the sugar beet and sugar cane refinement processes.
• It is a dense, viscous liquid of dark brown tint, rich in sugars, and containing a small percentage of water. 
• It has different names according to the region, such as exhausted honey, poor honey, etc.
• Molasses contains more nutrients such as calcium, iron, magnesium and potassium and similar amounts of calories than other liquid sugars like honey.
• Key Applications: Beverage production, Ethanol production, fertilizers etc.

Government is going to announce a sustainable aviation fuel policy. 

About Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)

• Meaning: It is an alternative fuel made from non-petroleum feedstocks that reduces emissions from air transportation. 
  • It can help reduce carbon emissions by up to 80 per cent compared to conventional fuels.
• Sources: Waste fats, oils and greases, municipal solid waste, agricultural and forestry residues, etc.
• Benefits: Engine and infrastructure compatibility; Lesser emissions compared with conventional jet fuel, etc.

The Nobel laureate James Watson co-credited with the pivotal discovery of DNA's double-helix structure died recently.

About double helix structure

• Double helix is the term used to describe the shape of our hereditary molecule, DNA.  
• It consists of two strands of DNA twisted around one another and connected in the center by hydrogen bonding. 
• Hydrogen bonds form specifically between the nitrogenous bases (adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine) of complementary nucleotides on opposite DNA strands.

Thirty-Seventh Meeting of the parties to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (MOP37) has recently concluded.

• It highlighted discrepancies in HFCs emissions between reported and measured data, lack of atmospheric monitoring stations in many regions, etc.

About Montreal Protocol

• Signed: in 1987
• It is a global legally binding treaty to eliminate production and use of Ozone depleting Substances (ODS). 
• Implemented under the Vienna Convention (adopted in 1985).
• Kigali Amendment to Montreal Protocol: Adopted in 2016 to phase-down production and consumption of HFCs (non-ODS but potent greenhouse gases).