UniFocus IAS ( UNIFOCUS UNIVERSAL )

The manufacturing process involves covalent attachment of a nucleophile on cotton fabric, which is stitched as “Kisan Kavach®”. This Kisan Kavach fabric can deactivate pesticides upon contact through nucleophilic mediated hydrolysis, thereby preventing pesticide-induced toxicity and lethality. These findings are reported in the journal Nature Communications,  ( https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-49167-3 ) It is jointly developped by  Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and BRIC-inStem. PIB

  An Umbrella Organization named National Urban Co-operative Finance and Development Corporation (NUCFDC) has been established  to address the difficulties of Urban Cooperative Banks (UCBs). NUCFDC is envisaged to provide following types of fund-based support and non fund-based services to urban cooperative banks (UCBs) which are its shareholder-members.   (I) Fund based support: Capital support to UCBs as per regulations and guidelines & terms and conditions Secured credit lines on merits to UCBs to help tide over temporary liquidity mismatches Re-financing UCBs against their loans Window for emergency liquidity support to help UCBs in difficult times. Deposits and borrowings from UCBs and financial institutions Market borrowings Investments (II) Non fund based services: A shared IT (Information Technology) platform and support to the sector and an array of IT products and services Treasury management services Payment and settlement services and credit card services ...

As climate change triggers more frequent and longer-lasting droughts, water scarcity concerns are escalating. Only about 3% of the world's water is freshwater, and much of that is frozen in ice or otherwise unavailable for use. Agriculture is the biggest freshwater consumer worldwide, which emphasizes the need for hardier plants that can withstand drier conditions. Desert plants use a form of photosynthesis known as crassulacean acid metabolism, or CAM, to hold carbon dioxide in their cells overnight to be turned into sugars in the daylight hours. To survive extreme desert temperatures, CAM plants open their stomata, or leaf pores, to capture carbon dioxide only during the night and keep them closed during the heat of day to avoid water loss. National Science Foundation, USA

IRIS² at a glance The  IRIS² Satellite Constellation  is the European Union’s third flagship, addressing   long-term challenges of EU’s security, safety and resilience by offering enhanced connectivity services to  governmental users. The new multi-orbital constellation of 290 satellites will combine the benefits offered by Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) and Low Earth (LEO) satellites. It is set to provide secure connectivity services to the EU and its Member States as well as broadband connectivity for governmental authorities, private companies and European citizens, while ensuring high-speed internet broadband to cope with connectivity dead zones . The system will support a large variety of governmental applications, mainly in the domains of surveillance (e.g. border and maritime surveillance), crisis management (e.g. humanitarian aid), connection and protection of key infrastructures (e.g. secure communications for EU embassies) as well as security and d...

The Government of India has enacted ‘the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013’ (SH Act) with the aim to provide safe and secure work environment to women. The Act is applicable to all women irrespective of their age or employment status, working in organised or unorganised sector. The Act casts an obligation upon all States to constitute Local Committees (LCs) in every district to receive complaints from organizations having less than 10 workers or if the complaint is against employer himself, for receiving complaints of sexual harassment at workplace. The responsibility of implementation of the Act at State and District levels rests with the appropriate Government i.e. the respective State Governments in respect of all workplaces, which are established, owned, controlled or wholly or substantially financed by funds provided directly or indirectly by the State and any other workplace falling within its territory. They are responsible...