Kalamandalam opens doors for boys to learn Mohiniyattam
Time to Read :🕑 5 Mins
Why in news?
Recently, the Kerala Kalamandalam, a deemed university for arts and culture, has lifted gender restrictions to learn Mohiniyattam.
About Mohiniyattam
Mohiniyattam (Mohiniattam) is a classical dance form of Kerala in South India.
The origin and popularity of this dance form is closely tagged to the great Tamil dance master Vadivelu, one of the Thanjavur quartets.
The delicate body movements and subtle facial expressions are more feminine in nature and therefore are ideally suited for performance by women.
References of Mohiniyattam can be found in the texts Vyavaharamala written in 1709 by Mazhamagalam Narayanan Namputiri and in Ghoshayatra, written later by great poet Kunjan Nambiar.
This dance form of Kerala was structured into the present day classical format by the Travancore Kings, Maharaja KartikaTirunal and his successor Maharaja Swati Tirunal (18th -19th century C.E.).
MGNREGA wage hike for 2024-25
Time to Read :🕑 5 Mins
Why in news?
The Centre has notified a 3-10 per cent increase in the wage rates for MGNREGA workers for the financial year 2024-25.
About
Currently, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) wages are decided based on changes in the CPI-AL (Consumer Price Index- Agriculture Labor), which reflects inflation in rural areas.
The Union Budget 2024-25, allocated ₹86,000 crore for MGNREGA. This was at par with the revised estimate for MGNREGA in the ongoing financial year 2023-24.
Besides the Centre’s notified wage rates, States can also provide a wage rate over and above such level for the beneficiaries.
The new wage rates will come into effect from April 1,2024.
T+0 settlement cycle
Time to Read :🕑 5 Mins
Why in news?
BSE and NSE began optional T+0 settlement for equities today.
About T+0
Under the T+0 trade cycle, the settlement of trades will happen on the same day after the closure of the T+0 market.
If investors sell a share, they will get the money credited to their account the same day, and the buyer will also get the shares in their demat account on the very day of the transaction.
The benefits of T+0 trade settlement
A shortened settlement cycle will bring cost and time efficiency, transparency in charges to investors, and strengthen risk management at clearing corporations and the overall securities market ecosystem.
The T+0 trade cycle is expected to provide flexibility in terms of faster pay-out of the funds against the securities to the sellers and faster pay-out of securities against the funds to the buyers. It will allow better control over funds and securities by the investors.
For the securities market ecosystem, a shorter settlement cycle will further free up capital in the securities market, thereby enhancing the overall market efficiency. It will enhance the overall risk management of Clearing Corporations (CCs) as the trades are backed by upfront funds and securities.
Who can Participate in T+0
All investors are eligible to participate in the segment for the T+0 trade settlement cycle if they are able to meet the timelines, process and risk requirements as prescribed by the Market Infrastructure Institutions (MIIs).
ICMR set to bring in evidence-based norms for prevention, screening, diagnosis, and management of lung cancer
Time to Read :🕑 7 Mins
Why in news?
The ICMR is poised to launch a systematic review and meta-analyses, which will play a crucial role in synthesizing existing evidence to inform decision-making in lung cancer management.
About
Currently, evidence-based guidelines do not exist with respect to prevention, screening, diagnosis, management, and palliation of lung cancer in India, despite the fact that lung cancer is one of the commonest cancers in India accounting for 10% of total cancer deaths in the country.
The Council has launched an expression of interest (EoI) from researchers who are interested in conducting systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
Prospective applicants will be tasked to conduct systematic reviews/meta-analysis pertaining to the identified review questions (PICOs) and assessing the quality of evidence using Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) tool.
The process of generating such evidence would entail the compilation of systematic reviews from the existing literature, focusing on well-defined review questions.
Lung cancer
According to the World Health Organisation, lung cancer is a significant public health concern, causing a considerable number of deaths globally.
Smoking tobacco (including cigarettes, cigars, and pipes) is the primary risk factor for lung cancer, but it can also affect non-smokers.
Other risk factors include exposure to second-hand smoke, occupational hazards (such as asbestos, radon and certain chemicals), air pollution, hereditary cancer syndromes, and previous chronic lung diseases.
India TB Report-2024
Time to Read :🕑 11 Mins
Why in news?
India's 2024 TB Report, released by the Union Health Ministry, sets a target of eliminating tuberculosis by 2025.
More details about news
The gap between the estimated number and actual cases of tuberculosis (TB) is closing, according to the India TB Report 2024. This is an important marker as the “missing cases” are assumed to not have received treatment, continuing to spread the infection to others.
There were only 2.3 lakh missing cases in 2023, as compared to 3.2 lakh the year before, the report states.
This gap has been reducing over the years, especially with the government’s Ni-kshay portal tracking all TB patients.
Key highlight
According to the report, the majority of the TB cases are still reported by the government health centres, even as there has been an uptick in notifications by the private sector.
Nearly 33% or 8.4 lakh of the 25.5 lakh cases reported in 2023 came from the private sector.
To compare, only 1.9 lakh cases were reported by the private sector in 2015, the year considered to be the baseline by the programme that is geared towards the elimination of the disease.
The estimated incidence of TB in 2023 increased slightly to 27.8 lakh from the previous year’s estimate of 27.4 lakh.
The mortality due to the infection remained the same at 3.2 lakh as per the data.
These estimates are based on a new methodology that India developed and has since been accepted by the World Health Organisation.
The report shows that India reached its 2023 target of initiating treatment in 95% of patients diagnosed with the infection.
It says 58% of those diagnosed were offered a test to check whether their infection was resistant to the first line drugs, an increase from 25% in 2015.
The programme recommends drug susceptibility treatment to ensure that people who may have drug resistant TB are able to access e therapies from the get go instead of being treated with the first-line therapy initially.
Data
Last year, when the in-country model was used to estimate the number of cases and deaths due to tuberculosis, there was a sudden drop in the mortality figures seen in the global report released by the WHO.
India’s TB mortality dropped from 4.94 lakhs in 2021 to 3.31 lakhs in 2022. The number of cases reported in a year also went down from 29.4 lakh in 2021 as per the previous method to 27.4 lakh in 2022, according to the data.
RBI modifies norms for lenders having exposure into AIFs
Time to Read :🕑 Mins
Why in news?
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has modified norms for regulated entities (REs) concerning their investments in Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs).
About News
As per the fresh directive, REs need to only set aside provisions to the extent of their investment in the AIF scheme which is further invested by the AIFs in a debtor’s company and not the entire investment in the AIF scheme.
Provisioning shall be required only to the extent of investment by the RE in the AIF scheme which is further invested by the AIF in the debtor company, and not on the entire investment of the RE in the AIF scheme.
Investments by REs in AIFs through intermediaries such as fund of funds or mutual funds are not included in the scope of the circular.
The RBI had in December 2023 prevented REs from making investments in the units of AIFs having downstream investments either directly or indirectly in any debtor’s company of REs. This was to stop the practice of evergreening of loans.
Gyps vultures
Time to Read :🕑 7 Mins
Why in news?
The Moyar Valley is home to the biggest nesting colony of critically endangered Gyps vultures in the wild.
About news
Moyar valley or Maayar (invisible river) valley extends from Gudalur through the core area of Mudumalai Tiger Reserve.
This entire stretch of nearly 85 km is a wildlife haven and important biome in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, sheltering several vital species like tiger and elephant and the critically endangered Gyps vulture.
None of the other southern states can boast of being such a good breeding ground for these birds.
Being rich in wildlife and having a viable prey-predator population, the entire stretch of Moyar has plenty of wild kills and natural deaths of wildlife from Moyar village to Bhavanisagar.
This provides a stable food-chain to nature’s scavengers, simply because these carcasses are mostly free from NSAIDs and other poisonous chemicals.
Another reason for very little traces of NSAIDs in the carcasses is that only a few tribal hamlets dot this wilderness area with fewer domesticated cattle since the late 1990’s.
Cattle carcasses are the main source of food for vultures in the northern parts of India and use of NSAIDs among those who raise cattle heads has affected the population of the scavengers in that region unlike here.
There have also been a few isolated cases of tribals and villagers in Moyar valley poisoning wildlife owing to intrusions near dwellings. But, these hardly pose any serious threat to the vultures.
Vulture Population
The recently concluded Synchronised Vulture Survey 2024 (on Dec 30 & 31, 2023) in the valley indicates a rise in number of birds against the earlier figures in February 2023.
The number of White Rumped vultures rose from 80 to 93.
Long Billed vultures from 12 to 28.
Red Headed vultures from 5 to 15.
Only, Egyptian vultures went to 0 from 2, but four birds were sighted in Tirunelveli division (outside the Moyar valley).
These are the resident vultures of the Moyar valley.
Migrants such as Himalayan and Cinereous vultures were not seen in December (last survey). However, my regular surveys from 2014 till 2019, when the Moyar valley was under Coimbatore division, indicated that the number of vultures constantly hovered around 225.
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The Civil Services Exam is conducted every year by the UPSC to select suitable candidates for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), IFS (Indian Foreign Service), IPS (Indian Police Service), IRS (Indian Revenue Service) and other Central Services like the Audits and Accounts, Railway Technical Services etc.
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