Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 30 October 2021

::NATIONAL::

National Formulary of India

• Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya today launched the Sixth Edition of National Formulary of India (NFI). 
• NFI has been published by Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) to promote rational use of medicines in the country.

The salient feature of this edition includes:

• 34 therapeutic categories chapters including 591 drug monographs and 23 appendices are included in this edition.
• The NFI is aligned with National Health Programmes and National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM).Special note on “How to use NFI?” and Salient Features of NFI are added in this edition.
• Only indications approved by the Indian drug regulator (CDSCO), clinically relevant and as per standard care are included the term ‘availability’ is now replaced with ‘dosage forms and usual strength’
• Only the clinically relevant precautions and contraindications are included the common or the serious and clinically relevant adverse effects are included.
• Storage conditions for medicines are included for special cases only.

Agni 5 missile

• India’s foremost Agni 5 ballistic missile was tested for the first time by the user agency, the Strategic Forces Command.
• The nuclear-capable missile is India’s contender for the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) with a range of 5,000 km

About:

• Agni 5 is India’s long-range surface-to-surface ballistic missile, which can hit a target with a precision that is 5,000 km away. This range puts almost the entire China within the missile’s target range. 
• Though officially an ICBM needs a missile to have a range of at least 5,500 km, the Agni 5 is India’s closest contender for an ICBM, as it can reach countries across other continents, including parts of Africa and Europe.
• Though the government has claimed that it has a maximum range of around 5,000 km, several reports suggest that it can hit targets as distant as 8,000 km.
• The nuclear capable missile can carry a warhead of around 1,500 kg and has a launch weight of 50,000 kg, making it one of the most potent missiles in the country.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

International Year of Fruits and Vegetables 2021

• Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare addressed a National Conference on “International Year of Fruits and Vegetables” organised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.

About:

• The conference was organised as part of the celebration of the “International Year of Fruits and Vegetables, 2021” declared by United Nations Organisation.
• The theme for this year is “Awareness about the nutritional benefits of fruits and vegetables for balanced and healthy diet and life style.”
• To promote Globally popular Exotic and important Indigenous fruit crops in the country, the Ministry has identified 10 globally popular Exotic fruit crops of commercial importance and 10 important Indigenous fruit crops with high nutritional and nutraceutical properties.
• India is the second-largest producer of horticulture, producing about 12% of the global fruit and vegetable production.

Sustainable Recovery Plan

• International Energy Agency (IEA), in its latest report, has observed that carbon emissions are set to rebound as countries focus on economic recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic.

About Sustainable Recovery Plan:

• Launched in 2020, plan estimates that if governments mobilised $1 trillion in clean energy investments each year from 2021-2023, it would boost global economic growth on an average by 1.1 percentage point a year.
• IEA believes a full and timely implementation of the plan would save or create roughly 9 million jobs and would also help in meeting Paris Agreement goals.

::ECONOMY::

Investment Charter

• Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) will soon notify an Investor Charter with an aim of protecting investors from the misselling of financial products.

About:

• Budget 2021-22 had proposed setting up an investor charter on all financial products, including mutual funds and insurance.
• Charter will have the mission and vision of SEBI for investors. It will also include rights and responsibilities of investors.
• Through these charters, investors will get information on services provided to the investors by entities, expected timelines on these services, as well as investor grievance redressal mechanism.

::SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY::

Meta

• Facebook is now called ‘Meta’, a change, the company announced at its Connect 2021 conference.

What does the new name ‘Meta’ mean? Is the Facebook app also called ‘Meta’ now?

• ‘Meta’ in Greek means ‘after’ or ‘beyond’. The overall Facebook company will now simply be called Meta. However, the Facebook app will retain its name and there’s no change for other apps.
• But Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger are now all under the company ‘Meta’— like Google has all its products under the umbrella company Alphabet.
• Meta has a new logo as well, which is sort of like the symbol for infinity.

What exactly will it mean to live in the metaverse?

• The way Zuckerberg is envisioning the ‘metaverse’, it will go beyond the internet as we know it, with interoperability, avataars, natural interfaces, teleporting, Home Space, presence, digital goods being some of the key features of this metaverse.

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