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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 28 January 2022

::NATIONAL::

Almost 250 members of two extremist organisations in Assam laid down their arms before Chief Minister HimantaBiswaSarma at a formal programme in Guwahati.

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The organisations are the Tiwa Liberation Army (TLA) and the United Gorkha People’s Organisation (UGPO).
Formed in 2014 to cater to the aspirations of the Tiwa community, the TLA was active in the Morigaon, Nagaon and West Karbi Anglong districts of central Assam.
The UGPO, formed in 2007, was mostly active in the Bodoland Territorial Region and the Biswanath district.
The two outfits had 246 members. Together, they deposited 277 assorted firearms, grenades and 720 rounds of ammunition.
During the function, the Chief Minister also distributed a financial grant of ₹1.5 lakh each to 462 members of five other extremist groups who had surrendered earlier.
These disbanded groups are Rabha National Liberation Front, Adivasi Dragon Fighters, National Santhal Liberation Army, National Liberation Front of Bengalis and United People’s Revolutionary Front.

A nematode infestation has led to mass mortality of spot-billed pelicans (Pelicanusphilippensis) at Telineelapuram Important Bird Area (IBA) in Naupada swamp of Srikakulam district in Andhra Pradesh.

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Over 150 spot-billed pelicans have succumbed to the infestation since December. Only adult birds have succumbed to the infestation till date.
Until now, in South India, the Telineelapuram IBA is the prime winter sojourn for the spot-billed pelican for breeding. The same IBA is also a breeding habitat for the painted stork (Mycteria leucocephala).
The nematode infestation would not spread from one species to another species as per the studies carried out by the experts in Karnataka State.
The spot-billed pelican is capable of hunting huge fish from the water bodies and swamps and thus, it is vulnerable to infestation.
Thousands of spot-billed pelicans and a few hundred painted storks migrate from the Siberian region to breed in the Telineelapuram IBA and a majority of them prefer to stay here instead of going back home.

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi hosted the first India-Central Asia Summit in virtual format on 27 January 2022.
The event was attended by Presidents of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Republic of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Republic of Uzbekistan.

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This first India-Central Asia coincided with the 30th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between India and Central Asian countries.
The Leaders agreed to institutionalize the Summit mechanism by deciding to hold it every 2 years.
They also agreed on regular meetings of Foreign Ministers, Trade Ministers, Culture Ministers and Secretaries of the Security Council to prepare the groundwork for the Summit meetings.
An India-Central Asia Secretariat in New Delhi would be set up to support the new mechanism.
A comprehensive Joint Declaration was adopted by the leaders that enumerates their common vision for an enduring and comprehensive India-Central Asia partnership.

An MoU was signed betweenCSIR of India and Institut Pasteurof France on S&T Cooperation.
Both institutes would be jointly researching and focusing on emerging and remerging infectious diseases and inherited disorders and enable delivery of effective and affordable healthcare solutions not only for the people of India and France but for the global good.

Key highlights:

The MoU provides for developing
potential scientific and technological cooperation and
networking in advanced and emerging areas of Human Health between scientists and
institutes/laboratories of CSIR and Institut Pasteur and its international network.

Union Agriculture Minister inaugurated the 4th National Conference on Agriculture for Summer Campaign 2021-22.

Key highlights:

The Union Agriculture Minister has said that the summer crops not only provide extra income but also create employment opportunities in between Rabi and Kharif for the farmers thereby increasing crop intensity.
The Government has taken new initiatives through various programmes for cultivation of summer crops such as pulses, coarse cereals, nutri-cereals, and oilseeds.
Though more than half of cultivated area in summer season is under pulses, oilseeds and nutri-cereals, the farmers with irrigation source are growing rice and vegetables during the summer season.
The area under cultivation of zaid crops including rice has increased progressively 2.7 times from 29.71 lakh hectares in 2017-18 to 80.46 lakh hectares in 2020-21.

Scientists from IIT Kharagpur have developed a portable, user-friendly, and non-invasive device for detecting oral cancer in resource-constrained clinical settings.

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Experts from the Guru Nanak Institute of Dental Sciences and Research in West Bengal supervised the clinical trials, and have established the efficacy of the new method in differentiating cancerous and precancerous stages of suspected oral abnormalities, as verified by high-standard biopsy reports.
The research has been published recently in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), USA.
This is a low-cost, handheld imaging device to screen oral cancer and precancer based on measured change in blood flow rate of the tissue from thermal imaging and analytics.
The handheld unit combines various sensors and controllers that feed the measured data to a computer simulation engine to classify normal, precancer and cancer cases in the oral cavity without needing referral to specialised medical centres for resource-intensive diagnostic procedures.