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Daily Current Capsules - 24th June 2020

Human Resource Development
YUKTI 2.0

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about YUKTI and YUKTI 2.O ) + Mains ( GS II Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources
What's the NEWS
  • The HRD Ministry has launched an initiative ‘YUKTI 2.0 to help systematically assimilate technologies having commercial potential and information related to incubated startups in our higher education institutions.
  • It is an initiative of MHRD's Innovation Cell for Higher Education Institutes and AICTE
Know! about YUKTI 2.0
  • YUKTI 2.0' is a systematic attempt to collate the technologies and innovations developed by students, faculty, startups in HEIs and to ensure that innovators from our education institutes get suitable opportunities and support for commercialization of their innovations.
  • YUKTI 2.0 is logical extension of earlier version of ‘YUKTI', an initiative of MHRD, to identify ideas relevant in COVID pandemic.
Know about YUKTI (launched in April 2020)
  • Earlier, the Minister had launched the YUKTI (Young India combating COVID with Knowledge, Technology and Innovation) web portal on 11 April, 2020.
  • The portal intends to cover the different dimensions of COVID-19 challenges in a very holistic and comprehensive way.
  • Through this portal, the Ministry of Human Resource Development will endeavor to ensure that students, teachers and researchers in higher educational institutions are getting appropriate support to meet the requirements needed to advance their technologies and innovations.
  • It is a unique portal with a dashboard to monitor and record the efforts and initiatives of MHRD.
  • The database will provide a clear picture of the state of the innovation ecosystem of our higher educational institutions
  • The portal will cover various initiatives and efforts of the institutions in academics, research especially related to COVID-19, social initiatives by institutions and the measures taken for the betterment of the well-being of the students.
Prelims Factoids
Play little, Study little scheme
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the scheme)
What's the NEWS
  • The Tripura government has decided to start a scheme called ‘Ektu Khelo, Ektu Padho' which means ‘Play little, Study little', from June 25.
Know! more about the Scheme
  • As per the scheme, the students would be getting audio and video contents on learning activities , projects alongwith fun and gaming activities via SMS or WhatsApp services.
  • The students can access the scheme through smartphones of their parents.
  • If any children can't access through smartphone, they will get learning activities via SMS services.
Prelims Factoids/Culture
No Ambubachi Mela in Kamakhya Temple for the first time in history
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about ambubachi mela + about Kamakhya temple) + Mains ( GS I Indian heritage and culture)
What's the NEWS
  • For the first time in recorded history, the annual Ambubachi rituals at the sacred Kamakhya temple in Guwahati are wearing a deserted look.
  • The biggest religious congregation of eastern India, the Ambubachi Mela, has been cancelled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown.
Know! all about Ambubachi Mela
  • Located atop the Nilachal Hills, Kamakhya temple is one of the 51 Shakti Peeths in the country.
  • The Ambubachi Mela is an annual fair which is held at the temple premises is the celebration of the annual mensuration course of the goddess Maa Kamakhya.
  • The temple's sanctum sanctorum houses the yoni (female genital) symbolised by a rock.
  • This celebration attracts lakhs of devotees and pilgrims from all the corners of the globe.
  • The Kamakhya temple is one of 51 Shakti Peethas, important shrines in the Hindu tradition of Shaktism (followers of the Shakti cult) that are spread across India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, China and Sri Lanka.
  • There are 51 shakti peethas and each represents a body part of the Sati, Lord Shiva's companion.
  • The festival is celebrated around mid-June to mark the annual menstruation cycle of the temple's presiding deity, Goddess Kamakhya.
  • It was built by the demon king Narakasura but records are available only from 1565 when Koch king Naranarayana rebuilt the temple.
  • The ritualistic fair celebrates the Goddess' period due to which taboo associated with menstruation is less in Assam compared to other parts of India.
  • The attainment of womanhood of girls in Assam is celebrated with a ritual called Tuloni Biya, meaning small wedding.
  • The fair is also an occasion to promote menstrual hygiene among the visitors through the use of sanitary pads.
Know! about Kamakhya temple
  • The current structural temple, built and renovated many times in the period 8th-17th century, gave rise to a hybrid indigenous style that is sometimes called the Nilachal type a temple with a hemispherical dome on a cruciform base.
  • The current structure has been built during the Ahom times, with remnants of the earlier Koch temple carefully preserved.

  • Nilachal is a style of Hindu temple architecture in Assam, India, that is characterized by a bulbous polygonal dome over a cruciform ratha type bada.
  • This hybrid style developed first in the Kamakhya temple on the Nilachal hills under the Koch kingdom and became popular as a style later under the Ahom kingdom.
Health/International
Favipiravir is now the first oral COVID-19 treatment approved in India
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about drug favipiravir )
What's the NEWS
  • The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has approved a new treatment for COVID-19 as of 19 June, in India.
  • The drug favipiravir has been okayed for emergency medical use under the fast-tracked approval process.
  • Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, the drug's manufacturer, was given the permission to make and market favipiravir (200 mg) in a tablet form.
  • Favipiravir is now the first oral approved medication in India for the treatment of COVID-19 and will be sold under the name FabiFlu.
Know! about Favipiravir
  • Favipiravir is an antiviral medication that was developed in Japan and got approval for treating people with influenza.
  • It reportedly showed anti-viral activity against all subtypes of influenza virus strains.
  • Favipiravir is among the many drugs currently being trialled to treat COVID-19 (alongside Ebola drug Remdesivir, the HIV drug combination lopinavir/ritonavir, and a combination of lopinavir/ritonavir with Interferon beta, and others).
  • Favipiravir was given approval for the treatment of COVID-19 in hospital settings in Russia
  • Favipiravir can be used in COVID-19 patients with co-morbid conditions such as diabetes and heart disease with mild to moderate COVID-19 symptoms
Prelims Factoids
Ashadhi Bij
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about about Ashadhi Beej Kutchi New Year)
What's the NEWS
  • The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has greeted the Kutchi community people on the special occasion of Ashadhi Bij, the Kutchi New Year.
Know! all about Ashadhi Beej Kutchi New Year
  • As for people of Kutch, this day is associated with beginning of rains in Kutch, Gujarat. Kutch is largely a desert area therefore people living valuate rain very much.
  • Ashadhi-beej is celebrated mainly at two places in India - VishvaNath temple in Varanasi, UP and Mulesh Mahadev in Umreth, Gujarat.
  • Other then these Kutchi people all around the world celebrate this day at their level best.
  • The Kutchi people celebrate their Kutchi New Year on Ashadi Beej. It is the 2nd day of Shukla paksha of Aashaadha month of Hindu calendar (June - July).
  • Spring season to predict the weather, during the pre-monsoon, there is a small festival called Ashadhi-beej to predict the monsoon.
  • During Ashadhi-beej, they check the moisture in the atmosphere to help predict which crop would do best in coming monsoon.
  • Moisture in the air makes the seed and soil gain weight. If the pre-monsoon air has a lot of moisture in it, that is a fairly good indication that the season will be well.
  • Coincidentally on Ashadi Beej the famous Jagannath Rath Yatra takes place in Ahmedabad and Puri.
  • As for people of Kutch, this day is associated with the beginning of rains in Kutch, Gujarat.
International Relations
Senkaku Islands
Relevance IN - Prelims ( all about Senkaku Island) + Mains ( GS II Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India's interests)
What's the NEWS
  • Japan's Ishigaki city assembly passed a bill to rename an administrative area covering a group of islands in the East China Sea, immediately triggering backlash from China and Taiwan, both of which also claim the uninhabited islets as their own.
  • The assembly changed the name of the southern Japan area containing the Senkaku Islands from "Tonoshiro" to "Tonoshiro Senkaku
  • The renaming takes effect on Oct. 1 and it is aimed at resolving administrative confusion between a locale in downtown Ishigaki, which shares the name "Tonoshiro" with the isles.
Know! about Senkaku Islands

  • These are a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea. Japan administers and controls the Senkaku islands.
  • The islands are known as Diaoyu Islands in China and the Diaoyutai Islands in Taiwan.
  • Territorial sovereignty over the islands and the maritime boundaries around them are disputed between the People's Republic of China, the Republic of China (Taiwan), and Japan.
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