“Muslim Women Rights Day” will be observed across the country on 1st August 2021, to celebrate the enactment of the law against Triple Talaq.
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Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog successfully completed two month long and a first of its kind, digital skills and an exclusive entrepreneurship ATL Tinkerpreneur summer bootcamp held across the country.
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Union Minister of Science & Technology released “Biotech-PRIDE (Promotion of Research and Innovation through Data Exchange) Guidelines developed by Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science and Technology.
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* Initially, these Guidelines will be implemented through Indian Biological Data Centre (IBDC) at Regional Centre for Biotechnology supported by Department of Biotechnology.
* Other existing datasets/ data centres will be bridged to this IBDC which will be called Bio-Grid.
* This Bio-Grid will be a National Repository for biological knowledge, information and data and will be responsible for enabling its exchange, developing measures for safety, standards and quality for datasets and establishing detailed modalities for accessing data.
* The Biotech PRIDE Guidelines will facilitate this and enable exchange of information to promote research and innovation in different research groups across the country.
The Minister of Railways informed Rajya Sabha about the Clone Train Scheme.
About:
* To contain spread of COVID-19 pandemic, Indian Railways have discontinued all regular passenger trains w.e.f 23rd March, 2020.
* Presently, only special trains, keeping in view the suggestions and concerns of the State Governments and health advisories issued, are being operated.
* Indian Railways is keeping a close watch on the occupancy and waitlist position of these special trains and is operating “Clone trains”, on routes where traffic demand is high.
As on 26.07.2021, 22 Clone trains are being operated.
On July 28, 2021, during the Tokyo Olympics, Simone Arianne Biles withdrew from the finals of the individual all-around competition, again citing mental health concerns. Biles said that she experienced "the twisties", a psychological phenomenon causing a gymnast to lose air awareness while performing twisting elements.
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* In sports, the yips are a sudden and unexplained loss of skills in experienced athletes.
* Symptoms of the yips are losing fine motor skills and psychological issues that impact on the muscle memory and decision-making of athletes, leaving them unable to perform basic skills of their sport.
* In gymnastics, the "twisties" are a sudden loss of a gymnast's ability to maintain body control during aerial maneuvers, with the gymnast feeling something akin to an out-of-body experience in mid-air.
* This increases the chance of a serious or critical injury occurring if the gymnast forgets in the moment how to land the maneuver safely.
On May 27, a preprint titled “The complete sequence of the human genome” was posted in the online repository bioRxiv.
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* In this preprint, scientists from the Telomere-to-Telomere (T2T) Consortium, an international collaboration of around 30 institutions, reported the most complete sequencing of the human genome until now.
* They have, in the process, discovered over a hundred new genes that code for proteins. The total size of the genome they have sequenced is close to 3.05 billion base pairs.
* This adds 200 million base pairs to the last draft of the human genome that was published in 2013. The results come with the caveat that about 0.3% may still have errors, and that among the sex chromosomes, only the X chromosome has been sequenced.
What is special about protein-coding genes?
* There are long stretches that do not seem to have a particular function. On the other hand, protein-coding sequences or protein-coding genes are DNA sequences that get transcribed on ribonucleic acid (RNA) as an intermediate step.
* These in turn make the proteins responsible for various functions such as keeping the body healthy or determining the colour of the eye — proteins carry out the instructions encoded in the genes.
Stars like our Sun can go through a mid-life crisis, according to new research carried out by scientists from IISER Kolkata. This can lead to dramatic changes in their activity and rotation rates.
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* At about 4.6 billion years of age, the sun is middle aged, that is, it will continue to live for roughly the same period. There are accurate methods for estimating the age of the Sun, such as by using radioactive dating of very old meteorites that have fallen on the Earth.
* However, for more distant stars which are similar in mass and age to the Sun, such methods are not possible.
* One of the methods used is called gyrochronology. There is a relationship between rotation rate and age, that is the rotation rate of a star slows down with age.
* However, there is a breakdown of the gyrochronology relationship, because after midlife, a star's rate of spin does not slow down with age as fast as it was slowing down earlier.
* Another intriguing fact is that the Sun’s activity level has been observed to be much lower than other stars of similar age.
* A third observation that is part of the puzzle is that there have also been periods in the past when extremely few sunspots were observed on the Sun for several years at a stretch. For instance, during the Maunder minimum which lasted from 1645 to 1715.
Union Minister of Coal & Mines has urged the officials of the Ministry of Mines to bring about further momentum in restructuring the National Mineral Exploration Trust (NMET) as an autonomous body. He was addressing the third Governing Body meeting of the Trust.
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* The Mines and Mineral (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 as amended in 2015, has introduced transparent & competitive auction process for grant of mineral concessions.
* It also provided for establishment of National Mineral Exploration Trust (NMET) to give impetus to the mineral exploration activities.
* The holders of Mining Lease and Prospecting Licence-cum-Mining Lease make payments equivalent to 2% of royalty, for minerals under second schedule of the Act, as NMET contribution simultaneously with payments of the royalty.
* The NMET fund is being utilized to undertaking studies for mineral development; regional and detailed exploration with special emphasis to strategic and critical minerals.
Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has restored connectivity at Yarlung-Lamang road in Shi Yomi district of Arunachal Pradesh. On July 26-27, 2021, the road was breached at multiple locations due to incessant rain and cloud burst.
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* Project Brahmank of BRO had mobilised its Engineer Task Force and Quick Response Team comprising skilled manpower and equipment like JCB, Dozers and Excavators.
* The road under Project Brahmank of BRO was inaugurated on June 17, 2021. The strategically important road is crucial for the Armed Forces personnel posted in forward areas as well as the villages.
PM Modi will launch e-RUPI, a person and purpose specific digital payment solution on 2nd August 2021.
About:
* e-RUPI is a cashless and contactless instrument for digital payment.
* It is a QR code or SMS string-based e-Voucher, which is delivered to the mobile of the beneficiaries.
* The users of this seamless one-time payment mechanism will be able to redeem the voucher without a card, digital payments app or internet banking access, at the service provider.
* It has been developed by National Payments Corporation of India on its UPI platform, in collaboration with the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and National Health Authority.
* e-RUPI connects the sponsors of the services with the beneficiaries and service providers in a digital manner without any physical interface.