Daily Current Capsules
13th July 2022

International Organisations
International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)

What's the NEWS

• A Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) was signed between the Department of Agriculture & Farmer Welfare (DA&FW) and International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) on commencement of Phase -2 activities of IRRI South Asia Regional Centre (ISARC) to scale up the existing partnership for food and nutrition security in the South Asian region.

• The ISARC was established following the Union Cabinet approval five years ago.
• ISARC also set up a Centre of Excellence in Rice Value Addition (CERVA) that includes a modern and sophisticated laboratory with capacity to determine quality and status of heavy metals in grain and straw.
• One of the critical achievements of CERVA is the development of one low and one intermediate glycaemic index (GI) rice varieties: IRRI 147 (GI 55) and IRRI 162 (GI 57), respectively, through the joint efforts of the CERVA team and IRRI HQ.
• Low GI rice varieties will reduce or even reverse India's increasing trend of diabetes.

• The facility is devoted to expedite the plant growth cycle of crops and enable advancing rice plants for five generations per year against only one to two under normal conditions.
• This plays a crucial role in transferring important traits (e.g., low GI, biotic and abiotic stresses) to popular Indian rice varieties in a shorter time.

• It is an international agricultural research and training organization with its headquarters in Los Baños, Laguna in the Philippines
• The Institute, established in 1960 aims to reduce poverty and hunger, improve the health of rice farmers and consumers, and ensure environmental sustainability of rice farming.
• IRRI is one of 15 agricultural research centers in the world that form the CGIAR Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers, a global partnership of organizations engaged in research on food security.
• It is also the largest non-profit agricultural research center in Asia.

• International Rice Research Institute South Asia Regional Centre (ISARC), Varanasi has been established at the campus of the National Seed Research and Training Centre (NSRTC) located in Varanasi through a Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of Agriculture Cooperation and Farmers Welfare (DoACFW, Government of India) and IRRI, Philippines.
• ISARC is the first and biggest research Centre of the IRRI across the world outside Philippines.
• The IRRI South Asia Regional Centre is a regional facility that supports research collaboration, training, and service provision to institutions, scientists, and other stakeholders from India and other South Asian and African nations.
• The Government of India vide its Gazette notification dated October 4, 2017 recognises IRRI as an international organisation
• In 2017, the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi approved the establishment of ISARC
• The Memorandum of Agreement was signed on August 2, 2017 between the DA&FW and IRRI.
• The agreement was for 5 years from 2017-22 with a provision to extend for another 5 years subject to both sides mutually agreeing for the same.

• It will be carried out through a trans disciplinary approach and leveraging cutting-edge technologies in three thematic areas over 5 years viz.,

• development, dissemination, and popularization of high-yielding stress-tolerant and bio-fortified rice, particularly high zinc and low glycemic index rice

• ISARC also provides training on grain quality, nutritional quality and food safety.
• Broader Programme for Research and Partnership (BPRP) was launched for undertaking breeding for climate resilience, bio-fortification, improvement of traditional landraces, seed systems to enhance varietal replacement, natural resource management, organic agriculture, digitalization, and mechanization of agriculture for small/holder farmers, use of geo-spatial technology in agriculture and women and youth empowerment.

Factoids
Centenary celebrations of the Bihar Legislative Assembly

What's the NEWS

• The Prime Minister of India addressed the closing ceremony of the Centenary celebrations of the Bihar Legislative Assembly in Patna

• first Prime Minister ( Narendra Modi) of the country to visit the Bihar Vidhan Sabha Complex.
• Before independence, Governor Satyendra Prasanna Sinha had appealed from this assembly to encourage indigenous industries and the adoption of Swadeshi Charkha.
• After independence, the Zamindari Abolition Act was passed in this assembly.
• Taking this tradition forward, Nitish government passed an act like Bihar Panchayati Raj making Bihar the first state where women were given 50 per cent reservation in Panchayats

• When large parts of the world were taking their first steps towards civilization and culture, a sophisticated democracy was operating in Vaishali.
• When the understanding of democratic rights was beginning to develop in other regions of the world, republics like Lichchavi and Vajjisangh were at their peak.

• Construction completed in the month of March 1920.
• Newly constructed building after Bihar and Orissa provinces got full statehood in 1920.
• The first meeting of the Legislative Assembly was held on 7 February 1921
• The first meeting was attended by Lord Satyendra Prasad Sinha as governor.
• After the introduction of the Government of India Act, 1919, Bihar and Orissa got full state status.
• Satyendra Prasad Sinha became the first governor of Bihar.
• This building of the Bihar Legislative Assembly has been constructed in the Italian Renaissance style.
• It is an extension of the Indo-Saracenic style.
• Architect A.M. Millwood designed the Bihar Legislative Assembly building.
• The building of the Legislature was divided into two parts after the Act of 1935. The Legislative Assembly was formed in the first part and the Legislative Council in the second.
• Shri Krishna Singh was the first Chief Minister of Bihar.
• During his chief ministership, the Zamindari Abolition Bill was introduced in the Legislative Assembly on September 18, 1947 and the Land Reform Act was passed in 1950.

Factoids
World Population Report

What's the NEWS

• India is set to surpass China as the world's most populous country in 2023, with each counting more than 1.4 billion residents this year, a United Nations report said, warning that high fertility would challenge economic growth.

• The world's population, estimated to reach 8 billion by November 15 this year, could grow to 8.5 billion in 2030, and 10.4 billion in 2100, as the pace of mortality slows, said the report released on World Population Day.
• India's population was 1.21 billion in 2011, according to the domestic census, which is conducted once a decade. The government had deferred the 2021 census due to the pandemic.
• The world's population was growing at its slowest pace since 1950, having fallen below 1% in 2020, UN estimates showed.
• In 2021, the average fertility of the world's population stood at 2.3 births per woman over a lifetime, having fallen from about 5 births in 1950.
• The UN said more than half of the projected increase in the global population up to 2050 will be concentrated in eight countries - Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and the United Republic of Tanzania.

Factoids
National Emblem Of India

What's the NEWS

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a 6.5-metre-tall National Emblem on the roof of the under-construction Parliament building
• The emblem, which is made of bronze, weighs 9,500 kg.
• A steel structure of 6,500 kg was made to support the weight of the emblem.

• The National emblem of India is an adaptation of the Lion Capital of Ashoka at Sarnath, an ancient sculpture dating back to 280 BCE during the reign of the Maurya Empire.
• The statue is a three dimensional emblem showing four lions.
• Following the end of British rule on 15 August 1947, the newly independent Dominion of India adopted an official state emblem on 30 December 1947. It later became the emblem of the Republic of India.
• On 26 January 1950, a representation of the Lion Capital of Ashoka placed above the motto, Satyameva Jayate, was adopted as the State Emblem of India.

Factoids
B. CHAUKULENSIS

What's the NEWS

• Dragonfly enthusiasts have recorded the presence of a rare dragonfly that was hitherto unseen in Kerala.

• They spotted the Spiny Horntail, Burmagomphus chaukulensis Joshi, Ogale & Sawant, 2022 (or B. chaukulensis), during a recent expedition to the Kottiyoor forests of Kannur.
• The species that is known to be endemic to the Western Ghats was discovered in Maharashtra earlier this year.
• Prior to their finding, the dragonfly genus Burmagomphus was represented by three species - B. cauvericus, B. pyramidalis and B. laidlawi.
• While B. laidlawi is found throughout the Western Ghats, B. cauvericus is more restricted in its distribution. B. pyramidalis is found in the Western Ghats as well as in Peninsular India.
• All other species of the genus are found in the Western and Eastern Himalayas.
• The new species can be separated from its congeners by the markings on the lateral thorax and peculiar shape of anal appendages, said Mr. Nair.