Short News

• Sugar millers have laid down a road map to achieve 50 per cent average ethanol blending with petrol by 2030.
• The roadmap has been prepared by the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA).
  • ISMA is an apex body of private sugar industries in India.
• The plan involves the extensive launch of E-100 flex fuel vehicles (FFVs) which can run on 10-100 percent ethanol-blended petrol.

• The government prohibited the export of Basmati rice priced below $1,200 per metric tonne (MT).
  • To provide additional safeguards for the existing ban on exporting non-Basmati white rice(by misclassifying it as Basmati rice).
• The Union Commerce Ministry directed the Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) to issue Registration-cum-Allocation Certificate (RCAC) for contracts with the value of $1,200 per metric tonne and above only.

About RCAC:

• RCAC registration is a specialized certification provided by the APEDA.
• The RCAC certificate serves as proof that the exporter meets the regulatory requirements and quality standards set by APEDA.

• Apple has endorsed California’s Senate Bill 244 commonly referred to as the “Right to Repair” bill. 

About Right to Repair Bill: 

• It requires companies to provide consumers and third-party providers the repair diagnostics as well as the parts needed to repair their products.

Right to repair in India:

• The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution introduced the Right to repair portal in order to provide customers with a platform to offer self-repair manuals.
• Using this platform, customers can get their laptops, appliances and other items repaired from local shops without losing warranty and they won’t need to wait for days to get that fixed from an authorized workshop.

• The Prime Minister announced August 23 as the National Space Day as Chandrayaan-3 made a successful soft landing on the south pole of the Moon on this day.
• Moreover,  the point on the moon where Chandrayaan-3 landed will be called Shivshakti recognising the efforts of the woman scientists for the successful space mission and the landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the moon. 

• Dengue fever has emerged as a significant global health concern. 
  • The disease in India has spread from just eight states and union territories in 2001 to all states by 2022.
• About Dengue fever: Dengue fever is caused by a virus transmitted primarily by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. 
  • These mosquitoes bite during the day, usually just after sunrise and around sunset.
• Symptoms:  Fever, rash, nausea and aches and pains, lasting up to a week
• Dengue Serotypes: Four closely related viruses named DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3, and DEN-4. 
  • These four viruses are called serotypes because each has different interactions with the antibodies in human blood serum.
• Vaccine: At present, there are three vaccine candidates that are being tested in humans in India.

• ISRO released a graph of the temperature variation on lunar surface with increase in depth measured by the Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) payload onboard Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram lander module.

About ChaSTE Payload:

• It measured the temperature profile of the lunar topsoil around the south pole to understand the thermal behaviour of the Moon’s surface.
• The payload has a temperature probe equipped with a controlled penetration mechanism capable of reaching a depth of 10 cm beneath the surface.

• He was the first Indian poet to win the Sahitya Akademi award for English poetry, Jayanta Mahapatra passed away at the age of 95 in Odisha’s Cuttack.
• He was conferred with the Padma Shri award in 2009 which he returned in 2015 to protest against rising intolerance in India.
• Prominent Works: Indian Summer, Hunger, Relationship, Bare Face, Shadow Space and Green Gardener.